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
From Free to Paid: Where to Draw the Line in Your Content
Giving away too much for free? Feeling like you have nothing left to sell? In this strategic episode, we're tackling one of the most common dilemmas course creators face - knowing exactly what content to give away and what to charge for!
We're breaking down the content hierarchy that successful course creators use to build awareness, generate interest, and convert followers into paying students. No more guesswork about what goes where!
In This Episode:
- Why your best content might be in the wrong place
- The Content Value Ladder that builds natural progression
- How to create free content that leads to sales (without giving away the whole farm)
- The perfect lead magnet formula
- Real examples of content that converts
Whether you're struggling with content boundaries or feeling like you're sharing too much for free, this episode will give you clarity on exactly where to draw the line. Because strategic content isn't just about what you create - it's about where you place it!
Hit play and let's structure your content for success! 💡
#CourseCreator #ContentStrategy #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 and today we're tackling something that so many course creators struggle with when to stop giving everything away for free.
Speaker 2:I think that this is one that I think 99.99% of people struggle with, which is what is free content, what is content that I give away in a freebie or a lead magnet, and then what is content that I reserve for my online course, and this is something that I think is a really big skill that has to be developed as an education or information-based business. If you are a course creator or planning to become a course creator, you probably now work within, maybe, your area of expertise in some sort of fashion. Maybe you do a service-based business, or maybe you already teach, or maybe you just work on the weekends or you take a couple of coaching clients. You probably do work within your area of expertise. So even just a couple of coaching clients, you probably do work within your area of expertise. So even just a little bit right.
Speaker 2:And when you work within your area of expertise, the gig is give everything away. You know you're helping people get to whatever it is that they need to get to, and you work with them in the moment. So you take clients on and you'll sit with a client and say, okay, great, what are you struggling with? And then you'll work. You work through usually a custom plan and then you'll get to the end and you'll have given them everything you know to get them to that point. But it'll be a lot of back and forth.
Speaker 2:You'll be sitting there with them, listening to their problems, giving them a solution, listening to their problems, giving them a solution, and repeat, and repeat, and repeat until they get to a point where they're very happy and don't need you anymore. That's generally the kind of flow that that kind of relationship goes under. But when you are an informational-based business, like a course creator, your job becomes to carefully meter out what is free, what belongs in a lead magnet and then what belongs in your paid program. And you have to be really, really, really hyper-aware of what, if your information is able to be given out, and what needs to be reserved so that you can charge for it later on. That's a skill that has to be developed.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. Let's start with a truth bomb. If you're giving away your best content for free, you're doing it backward. Yeah, Amy, let's go through. You've put it into like a hierarchy. Let's go through the content hierarchy. I love it.
Speaker 2:Okay. So the first thing that you really need to do is really be super aware of the breadth of your information. You really need to sit down and go through what is the really beginner information, what is the middle tier information, and then what is really advanced information that you know about. If this is dog training, you need to figure out what is it? What's all the beginner stuff that I know Like? What are all the really easy concepts to grasp, like and I don't know why I chose dog training because I know nothing about dog training Maybe sit, stay, that sort of thing, stay sure. And then the middle tier things could be walking your dog and taking them out of the house and leaving them alone in the house, all of those things. And then the end tier, advanced content should be working with dogs who have anxiety.
Speaker 2:advanced content should be working with dogs who have anxiety, or yeah, understanding dog anxiety, understanding dog like body language, yeah, and again, we're just riffing because we know nothing about dog training, but we're trying to give you something that maybe you can relate to. Okay, the first thing is to know the breadth of your content. It's to really know how deep your expertise goes, and then to really know your own parameters, because you can't work without knowing all of that stuff first, okay, okay, the second thing that you I want you to do is I want you to separate your knowledge into three tiers. The first one is your free content. This is your awareness type information.
Speaker 1:So, like the stuff that people really want to know, the sort of entry level first things they want to know about the topic, that sort of stuff, the quick wins, the A to.
Speaker 2:C If you know all the way from A to Z and you can clearly identify what A is and what Z is. A through C is your free content. This is the stuff that's going to allow people to have quick wins, to answer those really quick early questions that people have when they're starting their journey and get to know you and build a relationship with you, understand your style and what you teach.
Speaker 2:This is the kind of stuff that is going to land on your social media posts. It's going to be in your blog articles, maybe your podcast episodes, like this. So it's things that you can create really quick, easy content around, but you're not really going beyond that C level stuff. You're hinting towards it.
Speaker 1:You can say, hey, I know all the way to Z, but this is just A to C. Cool, all right. What's number two then?
Speaker 2:Number two is all of your lead magnets, and a lead magnet, put really, really simple, is something of value that you give to somebody in exchange for their email address, so it's a lead magnet. It's a magnet that I'm magnetizing you to become a lead so that I can then sell to you later on or at least develop a better relationship with you, so that I can build some more trust and then, potentially, you can become a client later on, other words, for lead magnets or types of lead magnets.
Speaker 1:is a freebie, something you give away for free, or LTO low ticket offer, like a low paid, little mini offer that will then get them into your funnel.
Speaker 2:This is also things like mini trainings or checklists, templates, downloadable guides, anything that you can create, that someone you can give to somebody either for free or for a very, very small, easy price, that someone can then purchase from you or get for free and give you their email address and potentially, you can then go on to build a relationship with them and sell them into your paid information, your proper paid information later on. Now, your lead magnets, this middle tier of your information, should get a result from people, and I think this is really, really this is literally the most important thing. I think I'm probably saying this entire podcast. People create freebies because they say I can create a checklist whatever and I'll just throw it out. That'll get people really interested, I'll get a bunch of emails, I'll make a million dollars. Yeah, freebie creation tick, freebie creation tick.
Speaker 1:That Freebie creation tick. That's not what it's about. It's not about you ticking a task off.
Speaker 2:No, this should get somebody a result. So, in the scale of A through Z because A is you know everything, you know all the way to Z Z is the end of your expertise this should be getting people to about a, J, so it should be getting them a transformation, a result that they can get out of it and go oh damn, that was a really good result. I just want a little bit more. I want to go all the way to Z Now.
Speaker 1:I'm committed Usually on a really specific part of what you do, a to J, on this specific thing about what you teach.
Speaker 2:And then someone could say that was so good and easy and doable and I loved it. I got a really clear result out of it and now I want more. Something that I'm working on at the moment is I'm building out a five day mini course in Japanese that is going to give you the ability to speak travel appropriate Japanese in five days or less, and what that's going to do for people is it's going to give them something really achievable, really quick, a lot of quick wins, and they're going to feel like, yeah, I can really do this, empowered by it. Now they're going to come back later to buy the full program to speak Japanese to fluency.
Speaker 1:Tell us about your example debt for me I've got like a seasonal one. I do it pretty much every year. I might change it up sometimes, but I've got this freebie that goes out at Christmas time. It's a really quick win, super easy. It's a decoration based kind of sewing project that goes out every year. It's super easy for people to sew. They get an instant win because it's Christmas time. Often they'll get their friends together and do like a craft day in December and that gets them excited and ready to sew and purchase my course in January.
Speaker 2:So freebies shouldn't be something that you just kind of like tick and flick task. They're really important that you create something, either a free product or something small. Small ticket pricing should be something that gets them a mini transformation and says oh, I did something, I learnt Japanese for travel or I completed an entire sewing project. Neither of those things are really difficult, but they help people to feel really accomplished, really motivated, and then they can come back around for the full transformation later.
Speaker 1:Absolutely. I touch on things like different fabrics that they could use and get them really excited about different fabrics, but I don't go into what are all the different fabrics and what I would usually go to into my course. I touch on that, get them really excited about it so that they can develop that interest and get excited to sew.
Speaker 2:So just to recap so far on the scale level of your information, you've got A all the way through to z. You've got everything that you've ever learned and can do and are capable of a to c. So the first three letters of the alphabet, that's your free content. They're just the quick wins, the easy answers, the questions that people ask at the very beginning of their journey. Your lead magnets or your free courses or your mini trainings should be getting a transformation for people. They should be very sexy as well. They should be very like you know, complete a sewing project, learn, travel, japanese, very, very sexy in the middle. But they should be a to j, not the entire breadth of everything you know.
Speaker 1:Not like a small shortened crap version of your course.
Speaker 2:No, and then, finally, we have your paid programs. These are the things that people need to make an investment in. These are your entire online courses, your signature online courses. So, inside your online course, your full framework, a complete system, implementation, support and ways to access a community or support.
Speaker 1:Okay, so when it comes to free content, what should I stick to?
Speaker 2:Overview concepts, brilliant Single tips, inspiration, quick wins, success stories. What should paid content cover? Complete systems, step-by-step implementation, the entire journey from A to Z, taking them through the whole step. Templates and tools, personal support, some sort of community or access to help.
Speaker 1:Accountability and feedback. Personal support, some sort of community or access to help. Accountability and feedback 100% free content creates awareness. Paid content creates transformation. So as a real life example, someone from our course we have a lady who specializes in marketing. Her paid course is the complete real strategy with templates and weekly reviews. Her magnet five types of reels that convert. Super relevant. You know what you're getting out of it and it's a complete project. You're going to get five types of reels with the purpose of converting an audience Super specific, super sexy and it really leads into what she does.
Speaker 2:So that paid content has the complete system. It has the strategy, it has a support and it has the templates. It has the whole package. Her free content, though, is a quick win Five types of reels that convert. That gets you moving. It makes you feel like you've achieved something, or you have achieved something, you've done some work, you've made some progress. Now you want the full strategy and another shout out to Victoria.
Speaker 1:She's one of our amazing students from the Safe Kids Project. She teaches you all about body safety for children. She's created these amazing affirmation cards designed to make body autonomy education feel supernatural. It makes a really difficult subject really approachable.
Speaker 2:Absolutely. So people can download these affirmation cards and then feel like, okay, I get it, I can easily implement this into my life cards. And then feel like, okay, I get it, I can easily implement this into my life. And now I know that I've got the A to J because I can start the process of educating my little ones about body safety. I can use these affirmation cards. All of that felt really good and easy and natural for me. It's one task. It's one task and now I can come back for the full transformation.
Speaker 1:Yep. So two really good freebie examples.
Speaker 2:I'm obsessed yep, so two really good freebie examples. I'm obsessed, okay, guys. I hope this episode helped to lift the veil a little bit on what is free content and what is paid content, so that you can stop giving away all of your trainings for free. I hope this helped you, help you structure out what it is that should be reserved for your free, paid programs and what you can comfortably give away for free without giving away too much. We'll leave it it there. See you next week. That's about it from us guys. See you next week. Bye.