As an entrepreneur, you start with massive amounts of passion and drive at the beginning, it’s all SO exciting! In fact, it’s likely you have or plan to, watch every single program online and podcast on how to build your business.
You know what you want! A flexible lifestyle, a business that has an impact on other humans, all with your unique talent. But then reality kicks in… you begin to work, hard, and you may no longer have vacations worry-free as you are still taking projects and dealing with client temper tantrums, even on a plane, or a beach no less. (Where’s the fun in that?)
This is where passive income comes into play.
You may be thinking that you can’t possibly build a course online to get passive income while you are enjoying a margarita during your beach vacation! You have too much work to do.
Not to mention the layers of doubt in your head like:
- I could never make time to build my course. With all these projects! No way.
- Will my clients buy that course? I am an imposter! I don’t actually know that much…
- Or, courses are already over. It’s too late for me.
Don’t let that critical inner voice bring you down, the time to build a course online is now! Now is the new later.
And, I’m going to teach you each step you need to create YOUR amazing course.
Create your foundation – Organize, research and implement
Lack of ideas and resources is not the problem to finish creating an online course for your business, but...lack of strategy and drive is.
Here is what you need to stay focused, and create excellent content:
- Course Prep: Set a time when you can finish your online course, 60 days is a good amount of time for preparation. Create an evidence-based plan and stick to it.
- Audience: Get clarity on who your perfect course student is, or who your ideal customer is and go specifically into what problems you are solving for her/him with your course and how.
- Course Type: Not all courses are the same, and not all of them are right for your audience. It is key to use the information you have about your niche, audience, expertise and business model to figure out what problem you can solve – success comes by designing the right course for those who desperately need it.
Validate!
The best entrepreneurs trip on the same step in the road if they don’t have market validation of the course offering they are putting together.
Be sure to pre-test and post-test your audience:
- Validate: There are different ways to validate your idea from beta testing in small groups, seeing what is out there in the market to solve the same problem, etc..
- Survey your audience: Knowing who your audience will land you in the right spot, but testing them will keep you from impostor syndrome, after you’ve had a beta group test your product or idea – survey them! What did they enjoy, learn and appreciate? This is also a fabulous time to collect testimonials.
Design and Refine
What makes your course special in a crowded market with infinite options?
You will need more than a catchy course name, you need to deliver in solving your client’s problem effectively.
Here’s what you’ll need:
- A Unique Selling Proposition: You have a superpower and your clients want some of that! Showcase what you can do for them and what makes you a unique solution to their problems.
- The Best Name Ever: Your course name shouts the value you have in it. The name needs some thought behind it so you can show the amazing value you provide through a few powerful words that will haunt them until they enroll.
- The Offer: Pricing is key but being able to deliver the promises you made to your client is even more important. Build out a plan so you can charge the right price for the promises you will deliver on.
Creating Your Masterpiece
You have mapped out the course, your masterpiece, this is it! This is the moment to shout it out loud!
- Crushing the outline: This is not a thesis, This is your way of showing an amazing idea into a streamlined plan.
- Create your content: You want to provide the best learning experience for your students. Learn how to shoot videos, what graphics you will need and balance the right amount of info, no one wants to be overwhelmed.
- Speechless branding: The information on your course is important but you need the shiny object to be in a silver lining package for your client to purchase it.
- Recording: Let’s be honest, this is going to be the hardest part, but with some research and a nice mic or video equipment – you can do it!
Delivering like a Boss
Get familiar with the platforms that are right for you and will allow you to deliver your beautiful content like a boss to your eager to learn students.
- Organize your deliverables: Once you have your videos all done, assemble the perfect slide decks and your award-winning worksheets
- Get the tech right: Choose wisely on the platforms that serve you best. Here is a link with all of your course platform options.
Optimize, Optimize. Did I say optimize?
The art of creating your course is a never-ending job but you can still sell your course while you refine what is out there, as Marie Forleo says, “Done is better than Perfect.”
Your goal is to provide your course students with the best experience, but they can’t have an experience if your course isn’t uploaded. Of course, you want your course to be the perfect solution to their problems, but don’t be afraid to refine and upgrade your content in real time.
Need more help? Feeling overwhelmed? Click here to see my course… on courses, yes, it’s a thing – and it may just be the thing you need to FINALLY put your work out there with confidence.
About Irina Pichura: I spent 10 years in corporate recruiting working with Fortune 500 companies like Goldman Sachs, Investopedia, The Daily Beast, and some of NYC’s hottest startups. Grew my coaching business from zero figures to 6 of ’em (figures that is) in just ONE YEAR. Packaged my genius into a course that’s bringing me buckets of passive income & helping hundreds of people (all while I catch up on my beauty sleep).
