Remember Janelle from my first blog in this series about 3 reasons to launch an online course in 2021? My intrepid course-creating warrior woman. We’re on a path to getting her course launched, sold, and making her money! One of the things I realised after our first interaction, though, was that she didn’t know a few things. And that means, you probably don’t know a few things either. What don’t you know? You don’t know what nobody is telling you about launching your online course.
This is the BIG question I asked Janelle when we first spoke:
“Janelle, I love the idea of your course. I’m curious to know how you fit into it.”
And she was like, “What? Huh? I don’t get it. I’m the one teaching the course.”
And I was like, “Uh-oh. Janelle, we gotta talk, girlfriend.”
See, that’s all well and good She built the course. She teaches the course. But where does SHE fit in? Like…the essence of her. How has she built that into her course?
She had no idea what I was talking about. And then I realised…Janelle didn’t know the most important things about launching her course.
So, I had to tell her. And I have to tell you. Because I’m pretty sure you have the same questions, and I want to share everything I know about this topic. It means a lot to me.
This is my love letter to her and to all you soon-to-be course creators out there.
Here’s what nobody is telling you about launching your online course:
VALUES MATTER. They matter a lot. And I’m wondering how much you’ve weaved your values into the course you’ve created.
YOU are your unique selling point, remember? Well, your values are part of that, lovely. They gotta be in your damn course!
Now, you may be asking how you do that? Imma tell you right now. What’s delish about what I’m about to tell you? It’ll basically help you come up with your whole course idea.
Thing Number 1 that nobody is telling you:
HELLO SWEET SPOT
Maybe you have a ton of ideas for a course. Maybe you have none. It’s all good.
What nobody is telling you about launching your online course is that you need to find your sweet spot.
I have a juicy formula you can use, and it is GOLD for coming up with the online course that you are going to create and launch.
Before we dive into this it’s important that you remember what I wrote in my previous blog. Go and check that out if you haven’t read it yet.
In a nutshell:
You have a unique set of skills, knowledge and talent. When you combine these with your personality and life experiences, you have an unfair advantage.
That’s the advantage of being YOU – you’re already awesome.
What would make you even more unique and more awesome?
Leveraging all of the above and putting it into a valuable offer that people can’t get enough of.
My formula is never going to give everyone the same answer. It’ll lead you straight to your unique sweet spot. What is this magic formula? Here you go:
- Stuff you’re good at
- Stuff you love to do
- Stuff that is meaningful to you
- Stuff people will pay you for
When these four things intersect with one another, BOOM. That’s your sweet-spot.
Before you go dreaming up a course you need to understand how to leverage your sweet spot! This is the intersection between your skills, knowledge, passion, and experience that people will actually pay you for. It’s at the heart of any course you will create in your lifetime so it is crucial that you know what yours is.
This is what will bring you and all of your authentic, beautiful self into the heart of your course. And THAT is what people will be drawn to.
Thing Number 2 that nobody is telling you:
VALIDATE VALIDATE VALIDATE
So you’ve found your sweet spot. Amaze! Now, you have to validate it.
Who out there wants what you have? Why do they want it? What are their pain points? And how can you turn their pain into pleasure?
What nobody is telling you about launching your online course? You can only Launch Your Damn Course when you know the deep answers to these questions.
It’s not enough for you and only you to be excited about your course idea. Essentially, you need to really KNOW that your course idea is actually needed and that it will solve a problem for your soon-to-be customers.
That involves time and research. You have to take time to really understand if this topic is one people need and want. You want to access the people who are talking about the problem that you’re aiming to solve. You want to be in with the people who want more knowledge, skills or solutions around it, right? Right!
So how do you go about doing this? Luckily it’s easier than ever.
Here are three key ways:
#1. Search Strategically Online
Where are these people hanging out? Go and find them. Join their communities. Introduce yourself. Have a peek around to see if your topic is coming up. There are thousands and thousands of social media sites, community forums, and course hosting platforms where you can go and do some digging. In fact, here’s an in-depth blog I wrote recently about the Top 10 Community Platforms you can use if you’re done with Facebook.
Are there books and podcasts being created about your topic of interest? Get on them, immediately. This is important information.
#2. Listen Carefully
In those online groups that you’ve found and joined, what questions are being asked most frequently? What pain points do these people have around the topic? What comments are they making? What discussions are they having?
Keep a notebook, write it down. This stuff is GOLD for when you start really putting together your course idea.
#3. Ask Great Questions
This is NOT an opportunity to market or sell. This is really just about deep curiosity. It’s an opportunity to dig deeper and really make sure you know that your course idea is hot.
If you follow these three key tips, you do something really powerful. You begin to find your ideal client. So, not only are you at the heart of your online course, but they are too. And that is a match made in heaven.
What nobody is telling you about popular topics
If your topic is really popular…this is fantastic news for you. This means you have a market out there – you have an audience who wants to buy what you have to sell.
The key here is to stand out from the crowd.
Thing Number 3 that nobody is telling you:
Feel the fear, do it anyway
This is what I tell everyone I work with: You are a bright, shining light of awesomeness. Your awesomeness can be seen from space.
A lot of people don’t feel that way about themselves. They experience major self-doubt. What does that self-doubt look like? Well, it’s sneaky. And it’s tricksy. Because it masquerades as protection. It pretends it’s helping you.
Let me tell you something: It is not helping you.
Rather, it’s getting in the way of you jam-packing your values into your damn course.
There can be a lot of reasons you feel afraid.
Maybe you know you have to run an ad campaign on Facebook, and you’ve never done that before.
Maybe your email list isn’t as big as you’d like, and you don’t know how to go about growing it.
Maybe you’re not tech-savvy and the thought of putting this whole thing together makes you prefer the idea of sticking a needle in your eye.
Maybe you don’t think you have EXPERT status, so you’re not someone who should even be doing this in the first place.
It’s even possible that you’ve tried launching before and it’s failed.
None of that can stop you from being fully you when creating this course of yours.
Instead of running away from that stuff, you’ve got to use it. You’ve got to feel the fear and then do it anyway.
How? You take steps. You draw maps. You plan. Those tools, my friend, are what eliminate the fear. Because they’re real and concrete. You’ll see this process happening right before your very eyes.
Creating a course framework is powerful. It sets you on a path to naming your course; setting up a sales page; setting goals; structuring your course; pricing your course…the whole shebang.
What nobody is telling you about launching your online course: Fear doesn’t stand a chance in the face of all this.
Remember you are a ball of awesomeness, and you don’t get to take that away from the world. I believe in this so much, that there’s even a whole chapter about it in my new book, Suck it up Princess. Early sign-up is happening here!
Thing Number 4 that nobody is telling you:
You need an accountability buddy
Yup. True story.
Think about it. How many times have you started on a journey, and then stopped? What causes you to stop? Is it frustration? Is it fear? Is it simply the fact that other things get in the way?
Whatever it is, we’re all guilty of it.
So, think about what you really want to get out of this course-creating experience. Launching your course is a way of getting all the wisdom you have in your head into a format that allows you to earn money at scale and reach more people. You want more freedom in your business, so you can reduce your number of one-to-one coaching clients, cut back on trading time for money, and make a difference in the lives of other people.
It’ll also give you freedom. Freedom to spend more time with family. Freedom to work fewer hours. It could even be financial freedom. A lot of my clients are aiming to build their businesses into six-figures with the addition of courses.
In order for you to start this journey and then keep on going, regardless of frustration, and fear, and overwhelm you need someone who holds you accountable.
When you have a step-by-step guide, things become so much clearer. Someone who knows how to launch a course who can show you the way and hold your hand while you do it, is the best gift you could ever give yourself on this adventure.
Indeed, a course-making whizz will help you narrow your focus, refine your target audience, help you with the tech, help you create a clear message on your course offering about why your course is different, and will reflect your values back at you. Fear-busting imposter-syndrome-smashing overwhelm-shattering GOLD!
Download your free Ultime Course-Creation Starterkit here.
What I’m telling you about launching your damn course
Owning a digital course business is the single most powerful and exciting way to make an impact in the world while growing your income.
Just imagine this: you create something once. You put in the work. You invest. And then…it pays you for the rest of your life.
The beauty of starting with one course is that you have so much flexibility around what you can create, so long as it’s based on what your clients need.
And I find that fascinating. It’s like, the number of courses you could create over time is never-ending, and that means your potential for income is infinite!
And when you follow the steps above…you’re heading for the stratosphere.
Download the Ultimate Online Course Creation Starter Kit!
