The Course Mentors Podcast
Hey there, future course creator!
Ever feel like turning your know-how into an online course is like trying to solve a Rubik's cube blindfolded? Well, grab your headphones because "The Course Mentors Podcast" is here to be your secret weapon!
Meet Aimee and Odette (that's us!), your new best friends in the course creation world. We've been in the trenches for over a decade, and for the last five years, we've been rocking the online course space. Now we're here to spill all our secrets in bite-sized, 15-20 minute episodes that'll fit perfectly in your coffee breaks.
No fluff, no filler - just real, actionable advice that'll take you from "um, what's a landing page?" to "holy moly, I just hit six figures!". We're talking everything from crafting your course to marketing it like a pro and building a business that'll have you pinching yourself.
Whether you're dreaming of ditching the 9-to-5 grind, adding a sweet extra income stream, or just want to trade demanding clients for students who think you're the bee's knees - we've got your back.
Think of us as your personal cheerleading squad, but instead of pom-poms, we're armed with proven strategies and a healthy dose of "you've got this!" energy. We're here to give you the straight-up truth (with a side of fun) to help you crush your goals and create that freedom-filled life you've been daydreaming about.
So, ready to turn your expertise into course gold? Tune in to The Course Mentors Podcast. And hey, once you're done implementing our awesome advice, swing by Instagram @thecoursementors and show us what you've created. We can't wait to celebrate your wins!
Let's make some course magic together, shall we? 🎉
The Course Mentors Podcast
The Lazy Genius Way to Launch Your Course
Are you stuck in the endless cycle of perfecting your course... that no one's buying? In this game-changing episode, Odette and Aimee reveal why creating your entire course before launching might be the biggest mistake you're making (and yes, we learned this the hard way - wait until you hear our landscaping story! 😅)
Get ready for a major perspective shift: what if we told you you only need 30% of your course to launch successfully? We're breaking down our "beta before perfect" strategy that gets you paid while you build AND ensures your course actually delivers what your audience wants.
In This Episode:
- Why creating your whole course first is killing your momentum
- The 30% rule that's changing the launch game
- How to get paid to create your course (yes, really!)
- Why confusion is your biggest sales killer
- Real examples of successful beta launches
Whether you're sitting on a complete course that's not selling or just starting your course creation journey, this episode will show you how to launch smarter, not harder. Because your brilliant ideas deserve to see the light of day!
Ready to stop overcomplicating and start launching? Hit play and let's flip your launch strategy! 🚀
#CourseCreator #LaunchStrategy #OnlineBusiness #DigitalProduct
Want to create your own 6-figure+ course? Apply to join Online Course School https://thecoursementors.com/application
Got questions or want more free content? Follow us at https://www.instagram.com/thecoursementors/
Catch us every Wednesday for your weekly dose of course creation wisdom. Got questions or loving the show? Let us know on IG @thecoursementors. For more on our courses and mentorship, check out Online Course School's website https://thecoursementors.com/application.
Welcome to the Course Mentors podcast. I'm Odette, I'm Amy. Today we're diving into something juicy why your amazing course might be sitting there collecting digital dust, and how to turn that around.
Speaker 2:Oh, that is juicy, that's juicy, juicy, juicy. Before we jump in, how's your week been?
Speaker 1:week's been good. We are doing a huge big landscaping of our back garden. We're doing it all ourselves because it's we just find that stuff fun. It looks amazing. Cam, my partner. He's been like paving, doing all these amazing giant tasks. He's been on diggers. It's been crazy. I've been planting because I'm a very keen gardener it's actually been so fun.
Speaker 2:I've been getting daily update photos that's been zooming me and showing me her back garden. I am so, so pumped. It's really fun. I feel like if you decide that course creation is not for you in the future, you have maybe a business in landscaping coming for you.
Speaker 1:Thank you, and it means a lot because it looks really good.
Speaker 2:It really does. I feel like maybe we'll have to post a photo to Instagram.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's gone from like a pit to a million bucks A pit is really funny.
Speaker 2:We used to call it our pit.
Speaker 1:It wasn't our backyard, it was our pit. Now it's a million bucks. I Now it's a million bucks, I'm so excited for it to be finished, we say because I'm pregnant. We say, oh, cam's nesting, he's doing giant construction in the backyard and he's nesting.
Speaker 2:It's cute. It's actually amazing, okay, amazing. Thank you so much for the update. That was really fun. Okay, our first truth bomb of the episode most course creators are doing their launches backwards Shock horror, shock horror. Episode. Most course creators are doing their launches backwards shock horror, shock horror. Tell me more. What most people are doing is they are creating their entire course. So they're sitting down filming all 50 videos, all 10 modules, all 12 weeks of it, and then going to the internet and waiting to hit publish without much of a plan as to who's going to buy it or when or how.
Speaker 1:So a much better use of your time is creating some of your course About 30% is what we generally say and then selling it in a beta round.
Speaker 2:Because then you're getting paid to continue to build your program.
Speaker 1:And there's a whole lot of other benefits, like the course becomes way better, way quicker. You're validating all your program and there's a whole lot of other benefits, like the course becomes way better, way quicker. You're validating all your ideas and making sure that it's actually what people want. That way it's not double handling. When you're doing the other 70% of your course, you're creating that along the way. Of course, you're always ahead of where your students are, but you're creating that other 70% whilst you're getting feedback and the ideas. It's like an idea generating machine, this beta round.
Speaker 2:You're also able to reiterate in real time, so you can hear what people are thinking and feeling and reacting to inside your course and you can continue to develop things as it's live.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It just takes so much double handling, so much wasted time, so much second guessing out. So it's not just about validating the fact that it will sell. It's also about refining your product as you go and saving so like I'm talking months worth of time do you know what else that gives you?
Speaker 2:as you are rolling your beta round out and you're developing your course as you go? Do you know what's happening? Bts you're filming all of bts. You are creating so much content, you are getting so much good footage for social media that you're then able to use to tell your story as you move forward. And then that means that when it comes time to actually sell the first official round of your course, you have a lot already. You have a course that has been validated, a course that has been reiterated along the way, so it's perfect and and coming out of the game, five stars. You have five star reviews from the students who took your beta round to prove that your course actually works. And you have endless content to be able to use to market your program in the future.
Speaker 1:So we get the ball rolling really early. It's not a completely unique concept either. It's like a soft launch. It's like for a restaurant. It's like a soft launch. It's like a like for a restaurant. It's like a soft launch, soft opening before you really get into business and say, okay, everything's good to go. Here we are, doors open. It's okay, we've got a great product going, but let's continue to do this together in a collaborative effort.
Speaker 2:Okay, the next truth bomb for why your course might not be selling and this one again might kind of hurt. But it's you probably don't understand your audience's real problem.
Speaker 1:Yeah, this is huge Like when, course, creators think people want to learn everything there is to know about Instagram marketing, when actually what they want to do is make more money on Instagram. Yeah, 100%. If you don't understand what they're actually needing, it's just a domino effect of problems. You can't communicate to them effectively, you can't create the offer that they actually need, so of course, no one's going to buy it.
Speaker 2:Absolutely, and I think that this comes back down to two main disconnects that happen really early on in the course creation journey that can kind of kind of carry you through your entire business and keep you stuck making very little money for a very long time. The first one is that you're not able to articulate how you help people very well. That's a big one, and it's when you maybe don't help them as much as you could, or you're maybe not sure exactly how you help them, or maybe you just can't articulate it. And if you cannot communicate to people what it is that you do to help them, they won't purchase it. Confused minds just don't buy and at the end of the day, if someone can't figure out what it is that they're going to get out of your course, I guarantee you they're not spending money on it.
Speaker 2:The second disconnect that can kind of happen really easily is that from the very beginning you don't nut out a really really straightforward outcome, so you create something that's more comprehensive but doesn't leave someone with a direct outcome. It's kind of like the catch-all programs. It's the kitchen sink courses, it's the everything you've ever heard about Instagram course or the everything there ever has to be known about marketing courses. Those courses don't really sell very well because people don't have again that really clear, communicable outcome and when they're missing that outcome they get confused and then they don't buy.
Speaker 1:That's it. They have specific problems. You need to solve them with specific solutions.
Speaker 2:And then the third and final thing that keeps a lot of people stuck and or means they are not making the sales that they want to be making is and this is a big one, it's kind of, it's kind of spicy, selling lots of offers all at one time.
Speaker 1:It comes back again to confused minds don't buy. If they see a sales page and there's all these different offers, they have to work out what to buy. What's going to solve their problem? Most likely scenario they move to the next tab that's going to entertain them. They go back to Facebook.
Speaker 2:I know that this is an uncomfortable truth, but you're probably not helping 17 different people, all at different points in their journey. The same person that buys your introductory offer is probably not going to be the same person that buys the advanced course. Probably not going to be the same person that buys the advanced course, that also buys another related problem but not the same problem and then also buys your retreats and then also buys your coaching programs and then also buys your DIY courses yes, I'm trying to work out a solution from this one page.
Speaker 1:I know who I want to go to for, like pregnancy exercise. You know what I should be doing while I'm pregnant to exercise and do whatever it is that I need to do. There are so many offers on her page. I am like completely confused what did you do?
Speaker 2:did you?
Speaker 1:just I. For weeks I would go back and I would just try to understand what it was that I needed. But, like the pages, it was like a rabbit warren of different offers and like you'd click on an offer for more information. But then it was like, okay, now sign up to get that information. It's like, okay, yeah, I'll sign up. And then I was bombarded with 100 emails with more offers. What I eventually did, I did actually just book a workshop so I can like a three-hour workshop, instead of signing up to like I wanted a personal trainer, but and I'm like her but I couldn't just book what I wanted because there was just so much confusion.
Speaker 2:If she had just said to you scrap all of that, All I do is these one hour videos, would you have done it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, absolutely. If I had just been given an option, one good option to solve what's pretty simple. I need to work out while I'm pregnant, like, don't try to make a thousand different offers around that, there's pretty much one good solution. Give that to me.
Speaker 2:Exactly thousand different offers around that, there's pretty much one good solution. Give that to me exactly. I think that it's one of the biggest reasons that people don't make sales online today is because they have 1000 different offers that you could buy and what it does is it keeps people back in that overwhelm and they keep getting confused. They're already confused. They're already going through YouTube trying to find all the different solutions. They've already got 17 different people open on their Google tabs going. I don't know which one of these people is going to be right for me. The person who offers the most succinct path with the most clear, communicable journey is going to get the sale.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you do not need more courses. More courses do not equal more sales, Absolutely Especially like. Look at us with. We are the course mentors. We have one program and have had for years, because the program works.
Speaker 2:The online course school takes you from not having a course to having a course this is really, really, really important because I think that for so many of us, we think I'll create more ways to help people. Therefore, I'll be able to help more people. And what actually happens on your Instagram from a customer's perspective is one week you're talking about one thing, the next week you're talking about another thing, the next week you could talk about another thing, the next week you're talking about another thing, and in between there, people who were interested in the retreats have now lost interest, because now you're talking about a mastermind and the people who are interested in the mastermind have now completely missed out on that because they heard about the retreats and they're getting confused. And, ultimately, a huge reason why you are not making course sales right now is because people are confused.
Speaker 1:Yeah, 100 simplification. It might sound counterintuitive, but the more simple the better. Okay, let's wrap up by giving our listeners some immediate action steps okay, I I have two Ready.
Speaker 2:The first one use the beta round model, use a pilot round to really test out your course, see it in real time, listen to people's feedback, reiterate as you go and then make sure that the very first official round that you ever run has all of that amazing content and testimonials before you hit publish.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. It will sit on the shelf collecting dust if you don't have that to back it up.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. The second thing is to focus on clarity and simplicity over everything. Communication is everything in the course space, so make sure that you're able to clearly, clearly clearly define where people are getting and where they are right now. Show that you truly understand your customers as they're coming to you and you can clearly articulate where they're going to end up when they're leaving with you.
Speaker 2:With one banging offer With one banging offer Make sure that, whatever it is that you do, you do one thing really really really bloody well and can communicate that you do that one thing.
Speaker 1:Two things we say every single day confused minds don't buy. If you are a regular listener, you will have heard that before. And make sure you have one good course. That's your core. If down the track you want to make other things, fine, but you need to start with one good thing that you can communicate. None of this jack of all trades, master of none.
Speaker 2:We want masters, please but that is about it from us guys. I hope that you found this episode really, really helpful and we'll be seeing you next week. Bye, bye.