Transcription
How do you build and sell a course that generates more than a million dollars a year in sales? Well, in today's video, I'm going to walk you through the complete process of building an online course that's scalable and sells. We're going to cover all the steps from identifying your ideal client to validating your offer and getting results. And this isn't based on theory; it's based on a time-tested methodology that we've used to help thousands of people create their own successful online education business.
Like Rich and Lucy, who have built a million-dollar-a-year fat loss program; or Monica, who has generated over a million dollars teaching adults how to dance in social settings; Rosie, who helps calligraphers generate consistent brand opportunities; and Will, who helps amateur DJs create their professional sound. If hearing these examples inspired you, before we dive into the rest of the video, comment "online course" below, and we'll send you a link to apply to book a free course consultation call with our team, where we'll walk you through creating the roadmap to create your successful course. So, like I said, just drop that comment "online course" below; we'll send you the link. No pressure; we do vet the applications just to make sure that we make the most of our time together. Okay.
Building a course is not dissimilar to building a house. If you build it on a broken foundation, it will crumble. In order to build a sturdy foundation, we have to answer these three questions: Who are you serving? What are you serving them with? And how are you going to get them results? So, I'm going to take inspiration from our client who is a seamstress, and she wanted to teach people how to create their own wardrobe. But her initial idea was too broad. As we always say, broad equals broke; specific equals sales. So, if our client were to teach people how to make their own wardrobe, she would enter into a world of competition—of free information online, from YouTube videos to blogs to Instagram accounts and everything in between. This is where the first step to building a solid foundation comes into play. If you skip this step, your course will not survive. This step takes your course from blending into a sea of information to becoming a high-value program that people are excited to invest in and enroll in. So let's identify the three factors of her ideal client—to take this from teaching people how to make their own clothes to understanding why making your own clothes might be more important to some people than others—from a hobby to something they actually take very seriously. So it turns into one specific ideal client: a woman who deeply values sustainability, personal style, and financial prudence. She's eco-conscious, striving to minimize her environmental footprint and seeks fashion choices that align with her ethical standards. And the one specific place on her journey she feels trapped and frustrated by the fast fashion industry's dominance, which offers limited sustainable and affordable options. And she's reached a tipping point where she realizes that her wardrobe no longer resonates with her values, leaving her feeling disconnected and out of alignment, with a constant sense of dissatisfaction, ethical dilemmas, and truly a desire for authentic self-expression through fashion.
Now, the one specific outcome that she's after: she'll be able to make her own clothes, which allows her to craft her own wardrobe of stylish and sustainable clothing, which then allows her to express her individuality while adhering to her eco-friendly principles, leading to self-sufficiency, creative fulfillment, and aligning her external appearance with her internal values. Now, that's the difference right there between helping people make their own clothes and creating something that is truly aligned with a deeper "why," which makes people want to buy. And that brings us to the next step of creating the ideal client zero-to-hero journey. So this is the path your ideal client will take from their starting point—so their zero state is what we call it—to their outcome, which is their hero state. For this client, the zero state is feeling trapped and guilty over fast fashion and her wardrobe not aligning with her values. Her hero state: she's confidently crafting her own clothes, expressing her individuality while staying true to her principles. And why identifying this journey is so crucial to long-term success is the difference between building a business that will ultimately hit a plateau and then building a business that can scale to the moon. And that difference lies in the ability to deliver the desired outcome to your ideal client without your involvement. How? Because knowing the zero state and the hero state allows you to create a curriculum that bridges the gap between where the client is now and where they want to be. And when there is clarity on this—which is a massive part of what we teach inside the Authority Accelerator—so that you can do this for yourself. And by the way, if you comment below with "online course," we're going to send you that link to apply to be a part of the program so you can create a highly scalable online education business. You can then position your online program in a way that every client that enrolls will have the same zero state so that they can implement the curriculum from the moment they enroll to achieve their desired outcome as efficiently as possible. So efficiency in your curriculum is one of the biggest missed opportunities for course creators. Most people stuff their courses full of information, but the problem with that is that there isn't a clear path to achieve the desired outcome. And then people are investing into your program to achieve their goal faster than they could on their own, but it's not happening. So what happens when they don't? Because there's too much information in your course, they don't do the work, they don't get results, and you are left with a course that has no proof that it actually works, which makes it incredibly hard to market, sell, and ultimately scale. So doing this work on your ideal client first makes a massive difference to the long-term success of your program. And ideally, every client you enroll should match this journey.
So this brings us to the transformation statement or unique selling proposition, which ultimately is the basis of everything you're ever going to do in your business moving forward. No pressure. So from what to include in your program to how you market, to what kind of content to create, to how you sell and beyond—that's all based on this statement. So in our example, it would look something like this: "I help eco-conscious, stylish, and frugal women go from feeling trapped by unsustainable and expensive fashion choices to confidently creating their own personalized, sustainable wardrobes so that they can express their unique style, honor their commitment to the environment, and achieve financial wellbeing." This transformation statement sets the direction for your course by clearly defining the journey from zero to hero. Now we've checked off what we call internal validation, which simply means: Does your online course match your unique skill set, knowledge, and expertise? Because you cannot teach what you don't know or haven't experienced. Okay, okay.
So from here, we move on to external validation. This involves doing profitable market research to confirm there's a demand for what you're offering before you offer it. So in this case, I would look at the tipping point where the ideal client is most frustrated and in pain, and I would create a list of questions or concerns they would have and then type them into Google and YouTube—things like "how to sew sustainably" or "eco-friendly fabric sourcing." What this does is it allows you to find market demand, identify where your ideal client is hanging out so you can reach them, and get into their minds to know what kind of messaging and content will be most effective in reaching them. You want to do this same process for top channels, Instagram accounts, Facebook groups, and other places where your ideal client is hanging out—and that is hand-delivering messaging to you that will convert with your ideal client. Also, this is key: think beyond online spaces. Consider where your audience might gather in person—like in this case, fabric stores, sustainable living workshops, eco-fashion events. Might sound strange, but even putting up flyers at these locations can help you land your first few clients, who will then get results, which will then prove the program. So in the beginning stages, you want to test everything to see what works best for reaching your ideal client because ultimately what we're trying to do is create momentum for what we call the engine that runs an online course business and allows it to grow on autopilot. So it looks like this: it starts with that transformative course that has that zero-to-hero journey, enrolling your ideal clients that are ready to do the work and get results, providing them with the curriculum to achieve the transformation, and then happy clients who refer your course to others, which makes you the authority on the topic organically. This is why focusing on results above all else is the best marketing strategy you can ever have because word of mouth is worth its weight in gold, and it's completely free advertising, allowing you to keep your profit margins and quality of your clients high.
Next comes human validation. So you validated your course internally and through research, but now it's time to speak directly to your ideal clients. You're not selling yet; you're doing the final stage of research and development to make sure you're building the best possible course that can stand the test of time and actually deliver results and scale. So to do this, you do not need an audience on social media. You're going to use all of the insights you've gathered through your external validation to start building relationships with your potential ideal clients. You now know where they're hanging out, and you know how to talk to them. But before you even do that, you're going to leverage your existing network to start having these conversations with the least amount of friction, and this should get you your first 5 to 10 ideal client interviews. So this can include friends, family, colleagues, or peers; people you know who may have an audience of your ideal client or a network of your ideal client; past and existing clients if you've worked with folks in this realm before; if you have an email list or social media following, totally, you can start there. In this example, I would send a really simple message like this: "Hey, I'm working on a project to help eco-conscious women create their own wardrobes. Do you know anyone who I could interview for this? It's purely for research purposes, and I would really appreciate your help." And the key is then to ask these people to refer you to anyone else they know who may know of someone else who could help you with this research. So this takes you from a warm audience to then getting referred to a cold audience, which allows you to build your audience from zero, and it's going to build a highly targeted audience of potential leads from scratch. So each person you speak to, you're going to add them to a spreadsheet, which will be your initial email list. And if you do have social media or starting a social media account, add them there as well. This way, you can then start sharing content that these people will actually care about, and that starts to build your authority from scratch as well. So how well—this is how every single algorithm works; it starts like this: it needs to know who you're ultimately trying to reach, so we call that the ideal viewer or ideal client. Then you feed them with relevant content. From there, the algorithm learns how to categorize your content to make you the authority on that topic and uses its internal traffic sources to push more of those ideal viewers, consumers, and clients your way with you doing a lot less work. And from there, as you build this audience and start posting relevant content, you'll then start reaching more people and more potential clients through the algorithm. That's the magic of it.
So what are you going to ask these people on these interviews? Well, we use a list of questions that we call the "a-money questions," and they include things like: "What are your biggest frustrations with X right now?" In this case, it would be your current wardrobe. Or, "If you could wave a magic wand, what would you want out of a solution to this problem?" So, i.e., "If you could wave a magic wand, what would you want out of a solution that could help you make your own clothing?" And this gives you the final piece of the puzzle to knowing exactly how to create an online program that will sell and scale because you know exactly what your ideal clients want included in it, and you've actually started building relationships with them. So now we know: one, who are you serving? Two, what are you serving them with? And now it's time to tackle: how are you going to get them results? And we do this through your profitable offer prototype; we call it a POP, which is the most basic, bare-bones version of your course without any bells or whistles. And here's the best part: you're not building it all at once. Once you sell your course to your first clients—which we'll talk about in detail in a moment—you're going to deliver this version of the program live on a weekly basis over 6 to 8 weeks, and you will build the curriculum week by week. The reason for this is because if you build everything first without testing it with real human clients, you're inevitably going to need to go back and change a lot of what you've built, wasting so much time and energy. So if I were to draft a curriculum outline for this client, it would look something like this—and remember this curriculum takes them on that zero-to-hero journey: setting up your sewing space, tools, and equipment; then understanding fabrics, choosing eco-friendly materials; basic sewing techniques, so stitches and seams; reading and using sewing patterns; creating simple garments, skirts, and tops; upcycling old clothes into new creations; advanced sewing techniques, so zippers, buttons, and hems; and finally, personalizing designs and adding unique touches. I know nothing about sewing, okay, but that shows you that when you have a clear starting point and an ending point, it becomes very simple to create a really effective curriculum. Your curriculum will evolve week by week as you teach it live, so don't worry about making everything perfect from the start. You'll be able to make real-time tweaks based on student feedback, ensuring that the curriculum flows smoothly and actually works. And to provide extra support, you're going to include one coaching call per week for the group of clients to ask you any questions and a private community to do the same and to support one another to create an accelerated environment of accountability so everyone can really see what everyone else is doing. You want to pick a start date for delivering your first lesson. And now let's talk about launching and getting paying clients in the door. So you'll reach back out to the people you've interviewed and let them know you've created the solution to the problem that they shared with you. It's important to note: you do not need a massive social media following or an email list to make this work. With just 50 interviews, we've seen clients generate six figures in their launch. In the case of this client that I'm talking about right now, she actually generated just shy of $40,000 with her initial launch before she even created her program. So how do you sell? You want to reach out to those most qualified people that you spoke to in your interviews, tell them you've created a program that you know will help solve that problem, and that you'd love to tell them about it and provide them with a link to book a call with you. You get on a Zoom call, share more about the program, invite them in as one of your POP clients at a reduced rate, exclusive to your first clients, in exchange for them sharing social proof and testimonials throughout their journey. You want to use a payment processor like Stripe to process their payments, and you're all set to go. Which brings me to an important point: pricing your program. You'll want to base your pricing on the cost of inaction for your clients. So in our client's case, the cost of her clients not aligning their wardrobe with their values is causing them mental and emotional stress, and the clothes are buying or costing them money that they'd rather not be spending. So for a program like this, the suggested preliminary POP price would be about $1,500—well below the cost of what that client would spend trying to learn this on her own. So once you deliver your POP and gather social proof, you'll then increase your price by a minimum of 25% and all the way up to 75% for your SOP price, which is your scalable offer prototype, which is the evergreen, pre-recorded, packaged version of your program.
So it's time to package your course. This means that we're going to pre-record the content and then automate the delivery, so you're not trading time for money. But you do want to keep the live coaching and community aspects because this is really helpful in making sure that the clients who need a little bit more support have a vehicle to actually get in touch with you. So at this point, you'll focus on scaling your course. Start by replicating the lead gen process that worked for your 50 ICA interviews—your ideal client interviews. These direct conversations build trust and are highly effective in converting clients. But in order to truly allow this business to make an income and an impact without your constant involvement, you need an evergreen lead source, and our choice is always YouTube because of what I mentioned earlier: it's a search engine, and your ideal clients are searching for the value you can provide all day, every day, which brings in leads and sales on autopilot. Then you have an evergreen program and an evergreen lead machine that doesn't require your constant attention. Plus, as you scale, you'll have a very clear understanding of the metrics required to grow things—like knowing your average conversion rate, which allows you to project growth. For example, if you close at 50%, and your first goal is to hit $20K months, you'll need 20 calls to enroll 10 clients. And let's say we increase the price to $2,000 for your SOP. Well, with 10 sales, that's $20K a month right there—that's 20 hours a month of work to generate over $200K a year. And of course, as you gather more social proof, you can always increase the price again. So that's how you start creating the path to scalability to achieve a $1 million a year program. And some of our clients are even doing $2 million, all the way up to $5 million a year, and it comes down to having a proven offer, client results, and knowing your key metrics inside and out. It's not fancy tech, funnels, all that stuff that you think it might be; it's simple: good messaging, good lead gen, good offer, great clients. The example I was sharing with you throughout this video, as I mentioned, is real, and within a few months of launching, Karen was generating $25 to $30K a month consistently with her program—well on her way to that $1 million mark.
So if you have a skill set or an expertise that you want to scale with an online education business, like I said, you can apply to book a free course consultation with my team, where we'll really help you work on creating that roadmap to your successful course. Comment "online course" below or click the link in the description. And like I said, we do vet the applications because we want to make sure that it's the best use of time for both parties. So to bring this all together and to help you remember all of this as you scale your program to that $1 million a year mark—which is completely doable, and I've watched many people do it in the most rare of niches—there are four key things that I recommend you focus on every single day: sales—without sales, you don't have a business; social proof—getting results for those clients; having a great product is the third thing, so making sure that that path from zero to hero is as efficient as possible; and then profitability—so making sure that you have security in the business financially to allow you to grow from a place of peace and also reinvest back into the business so that you can continue to alleviate and free up more and more of your time to really be that visionary to continue to create the best results for the people that are in your program. So by maintaining focus on these areas—which is what I do and what I have my clients do—you're ensuring that your program delivers real results. You're going to build that engine effect so that clients are getting results, they refer others, and your business starts to really grow on autopilot through word of mouth. And that's how you build a scalable and sellable online course. This process has helped our clients generate millions upon millions upon millions of dollars, and if you stick with it and really focus on what matters, you could be on track for that million-dollar course as well. So remember, it all comes down to keeping the main thing the main thing: focus on delivering a great product, getting client results, and everything else will follow. And if you want to see how I've scaled my business to $5 million a year, click here to watch this video next. Thank you so much for watching. I'll see you in the next one. Bye.