Call me crazy, but I’m doing it!
I’m making a public declaration that I will create my latest e-course from scratch, in the next 30 days!
What’s that you say…ooooh she cray cray
Maybe. Probably. But I’m going for it, and I need your help! I need you to hold me accountable, keep me on my toes, and be my virtual cheerleader at every step of the way!
Here’s what’s going to happen…I’m heading over to Bali to be fully immersed in course creation (and hopefully distraction-free). Each day I’ll give you an update on my progress by shooting idyllic vids with the backdrop of rolling waves, rice paddies and blissful Sunsets.
At least, I’m hoping thats how its going to go, it may just be my in a crying, heaping, stressed-out mess…who knows?! All I can promise is that it will be an adventure and I would love for you to come on this crazy ride with me!
So if you want to get behind the scenes of my creative process, if you’ve dabbled with the idea of building your own course or if you just want to see some epic Bali scenes, then dive on here!
Plus I’ll be giving away mini-lessons directly from my new course each day, so you’ll definitely learn a thing or two!
If you wanna join me on this crazy adventure, leave me a hellsyeah in the comment box or sign up below to get a weekly inbox of my progress.
Wanna be a Beta Tester?
Or you can watch it all unfold on your fave channel here:
Instagram: Join the 48,000 strong Insta party here
As Winston Churchill famously put it, those who fail to plan, plan to fail. I am a huge planner, and believe that structure and strategic planning are critical to achieving maximising productivity and maintaining strict focus, especially when on such tight deadlines. (Maybe that’s the Engineer in me?)
So today, the first day of the 30 day challenge was spent planning out the next 4 weeks, and making a checklist that I’ll refer to on the daily, to hopefully keep me on track.
I’m thinking about making the 30day course creation checklist available to you, as a download. Let me know if you’d like that…just click here and I will send it out to you!
Idea Validation is probably the most critically important step in selecting a profitable idea. Firstly, I like to research exactly what’s currently on offer in the market:
– What courses/workshops are currenlty available and at what price points
– Who are the Influencers in the space and what is their reach/offering like
I use sites like Buzzsumo and Quora to validate interest in my topic and to discover discussions that people are having to find any recurrent themes.
Youtube comments are also an awesome source of discovery as people will often talk about the things they are struggling with – which you can then address in a teaching module
There are sooo many topics on any particular subject that you can potentially teach, but how do you know exactly what people need to learn? What are their pain points, what do they truly struggle with. Often what you, as the teacher find challenging, are not what the students have trouble with, so it’s hugely important to survey your audience to find out exactly what they need.
Develop a survey that covers subjects that you can potentially teach in your course, to understand the interest level on each topic, and define the pain points.
Send the survey out to your own audience, as well as post it in Facebook groups asking for Beta Testers.
Each survey participant should receive some sort of ‘thank you’ just for participating (CLICK HERE to see mine), as well as go in the running to become a Beta Tester.
The key to a successful learning environment is structure. Structuring content in a way so that your perfect customer avatar can gain the knowledge they need, to create the results you’ve promised in the shortest possible time. I like to use Trello to plan and layout the modules in my course, and reference the results from the survey to fine-tune content topics. In each lecture I add
– What you need to learn
– How to learn it
– Action item/Homework
It’s crazy how quickly the weeks go by when you’re really working to a deadline.
I structure my days with ninja precision to minimise distractions and maximise productivity.
Here’s how that looks:
– email provider closed (only checking once a day)
– turn off alerts on my mac (yes social alerts too)
– keep my phone on silent
I actually prefer to work this way as it makes for a much more enjoyable day without the constant distractions. And the best part is, at the end of the day you actually feel like you’ve achieved something, rather than just being pulled back and forth between other peoples agenda. #tryit
Ain’t that the truth!
Whilst I can summon some serious mojo most days of the week, by the time I hit Saturdays I’ve lost all steam.
I find it a legit struggle even replying to emails….so, in loving synergy with my bodies’ vibe, I give myself Saturday’s to recharge and repair.
Which in Bali time means….exploring!
If you have a dream, don’t just sit there. Gather courage to believe that you can succeed and leave no stone unturned to make it a reality. Little inspo for your Sunday
I like to spend Mondays planning my week ahead, doing any personal admin, planning and shooting my social media for the week, replying to any emails I didn’t get to on Friday, and generally just mapping out my calendar and week ahead.
I try to batch up all admin to be done in one day, which leaves the rest of the week for course creation.
If people like you they’ll listen to you, but if they trust you they’ll do business with you. Creating a powerful brand involves understanding your positioning in the market, and packaging up that brand with powerful Brand ID and signature style.
Once you’ve done this, define your price in the market based on what other course are charging and whether you will be positioning above or below that level, depending on your offering
Design a Lead Magnet to entice people to sign up to your Course. This is a freebie that should take your audience one step closer to becoming a buyer
Click here to check out the one I used for my course!
Promote the lead magnet across your Website, Email Marketing and across all socials. The message for the next 30 days should be to sign up to the lead magnet
Identify exactly what your clients need
The goal of your course is to guide them through this transformation process as quickly and succinctly as possible
Commence content creation, fleshing out the ideas from your Trello board into a word doc, then inevitably into a Powerpoint or Keynote presentation
Commence presentation slide deck design – these will be used for the delivery of your course as well as the live webinar you do to promote the course
Commence membership platform design (I use Optimize Press for this)
Collate all Beta Tester applications and choose top 10-20 based on suitability of results they are likely to achieve from your course
Design and commence Facebook ads promoting the Lead Magnet, targeting Industry fan pages (I use AdEspresso for all my Facebook ads, it actually makes the process enjoyable! Check it out HERE.)
Put new list registrants onto an automation sequence to receive value each week until the course commences e.g. previous blogs and videos of relevance (I use Active Campaign for my CRM, check it out HERE)
Review and refine content
Select and notify Beta Testers, and create a Beta Testers Facebook group. Beta Testers start reviewing content presented via live webinars. Record all testing sessions (I use WebinarJam for this)
Refine and revise content based on feedback from these and the potential problems or confusion that testers are facing
As the incredible Maya Angelou said ” The idea is to write so that people hear it, and it slides through the brain and goes straight to the heart”
Commence design and copy for Sales page
Write launch plan strategy and commence copy for on-boarding emails
Publicity: Start promoting your e-course
Shoot headshots and action shots of you to include in the sale and promotion of your course
Create a list of newsworthy media angles about you and your course
Compile a list of potential blogs, podcasts, and media outlets and commence pitching your media angles
Find key influencers to gift the course too in return for a high-profile testimonial
Connect with key affiliate partners to promote joint-venture webinars
Commence Tech setup, there are a hundred different ways to set this up, but my preferred tech set-up is:
AdEspresso – Facebook ad creation software
LeadPages – Landing Page Software
Active Campaign – CRM
Samcart – Checkout page software
Stripe, Paypal – Payment processors
WebinarJam – Webinar software
Optimize Press – Membership platform
Rode Lavelier – Lapel Microphone
LG G4 – Camera for all stills and video
Mac and IMovie – Screen recording and editing
Do not claim you want to grow, then complain when you feel growing pains. Repeating this to myself on repeat today!
Performance and post-production
Create your final course presentation in Powerpoint or Keynote
Prepare for screen recording by checking microphone, doing vocal warm-ups (you’re gonna be talking all day!), and ensuring a quiet, sound-proofed room
Create screen recordings of the teachings in batches
Commence post-production: editing, creating titles and adding logo, sound enhancement, upload to hosting platform and set privacy to limit sharing
Shoot and edit video testimonials of Beta testers and load into a playlist on Youtube (here’s one I did for my other course)
Shoot and edit a Facebook video ad presenting to camera, encouraging people to join you on a live webinar
Create a Facebook ad campaign to promote your video ad (I use AdEspresso)
Launch your masterpiece
Write your launch plan ensuring a strict open and close date to your cart – I like to do a 14-day sales funnel, adding bonuses and increasing the price and scarcity as the funnel closes
Write copy for sales emails
Commence Launch plan onboarding sequence to any pre-sales buyers
Turn your Beta tester Facebook group into the private group for course participants
Design your webinar slide deck and presentation – your webinar should show people what they need to know, and the course should teach them how to go about doing what they need to know
Present, rehearse and time your webinar presentation to ensure you finish by the 60min markd
Finalise and test tech set-up
Finalize your membership portal and ensure your sales page speaks to your credit card processor and your email marketing system.
I use LeadPages > SamCart > Optimize Press > Active Campaign
So when a purchase is made the customer is tagged in your CRM and receives an auto responder email with directions and links on how to access the course
Test, test and re-test all software connections
Click play on your Facebook Ad campaign, roll out your first webinar, and watch the sales come rolling in!
Then book yourself a vacay, cause you’re going to need it after that 😉
This is absolutely amazing! So excited!!! Hope I get picked!
Hells yeah! Go for it! You can do it and you’ll do it amazingly too!