Online Courses

Accessibility is the New Gold Standard for Course Creators
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About Erin Perkins

Erin Perkins is a deaf entrepreneur, disabled rights activist, and accessibility educator dedicated to making the business world more inclusive. Her fierce advocacy comes from her life experiences as a deaf woman and owner of a small online business, Mabely Q. Though she founded Mabely Q in 2018 as a graphic designer and online business manager, Erin’s true gift is working with CEOs who want to lead by example. Whether she’s teaching via a keynote speech, private workshop, or one-on-one consulting, Erin freely shares her experiences as a deaf woman with others to help make the world a more inclusive place for others with disabilities. She has captured audiences with her empathetic, patient style as a speaker to groups like The Rising Tide Society, Simply Profitable Designer Summit, The Creative Huddle, Blogger Breakthrough summit, and others. You can find Erin online at http://www.mabelyq.com.

How to Make Your Content Accessible

Erin shares that online accessibility is a subject that’s not readily discussed in online business owner communities. One main point that Erin drives home is that creating accessible content isn’t just right – it’s actually makes good business sense.

I think this is a really broad subject, but because like inclusivity, a lot of people when they think about inclusivity, you're thinking about race, gender, and you know, religion, but what really falls to the bottom of this, a people with disability. And that's like really interesting, because the statistics of people with disability owning their own business, is actually higher than people without disability.

Erin Perkins

Creating Captions

Captions and transcriptions are one of the easiest ways to create accessible content. Add captions to everything like videos on social media or your course platform. Create transcripts for your podcast (PERIOD). This is something that once you start doing – you can easily repurpose in your different content marketing efforts.

Creating a Workflow That Works

One challenge faced by many entrepreneurs is adding time to create more accessible content. Erin shares that it’s more important to focus on just starting than being perfect. She also says that you don’t have to have everything become accessible overnight. By adding in steps to your existing workflow, you have a better chance at making it stick rather than starting everything from scratch.

Don't feel like you have to start from when you're starting your business, say like this podcast is gonna be your first podcast that you started transcribing. And from this point on, you're going to start doing all of them at this point.

Erin Perkins

Best Tools for Accessibility
Erin shares some incredible resources for accessibility which she goes more in detail inside of her course: Accessibility Made Easy. Here are a few types of software that allows you to create transcripts and add captions to your videos easily for free or relatively low cost.
Otter.ai
Descript
Zubtitle
ContentFries
Screencastomatic for video editing + captions
MabelyQ Resources
You can learn more about Erin’s and MabelyQ right here.
https://www.instagram.com/mabely_q/
https://www.linkedin.com/company/mabely-q
The Course Consultant Resources

Are you looking to take the next step in your course creation and scale your services with a profitable online course? Book me for day rates, consulting, or other services right here. If you’re not quite ready for one on one support and services, take a look at my monthly subscription of promotional assets and course creation resources inside Clickworthy Courses.
The Simple Brand CHIPS™ You Need to Land Clients & Sell More Courses
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From Disney to 6 Figure Founder

Annie Franceschi is a bestselling author, former Disney storyteller, six-figure founder, and branding expert based in Durham, NC. In 2013, Annie quit a dream job telling stories at The Walt Disney Studios to start her own agency, Greatest Story Creative®. Since then, she’s branded 100+ businesses, spoken for thousands, and released a #1 self-development book (Permission to Try). Now, through her Brand Story Solution and business consulting, Annie guides coaches, consultants, and service business owners who want to use their story to confidently, clearly, and consistently market and grow their businesses. You can read about my interview with Annie on her workshop series: Branding with Friends in this episode: 3 Tips for Creating Online Courses.

The Brand CHIPS™ by Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative®

How to Use Brand CHIPS™ by Annie Franceschi of Greatest Story Creative®

And CHIPS™ is is an abbreviation, it's an acronym. So it stands for your category, your hook, your ideal client, the biggest problem you solve, and the most valuable solution you offer for that problem.

Annie Franceschi Tweet

Clearly Share What You Do

Annie says, “You want to be a card in somebody else’s deck, you want to be played at just the right moment. Melody, I’m looking for the person who does this and you go, ‘Oh, I know just the right person.’” Through this method, you clearly identify how you help people by giving referral partners the right information upfront. By clearly explaining to people your “category” such as a specific job title and how you can others- you can make organic referrals easy peasy. Now you can stay top of mind for referring new clients or courses. One great example I share in this episode is Angela Tan where we talk about Webinar Funnels.

Nail Your Elevator Pitch

Nailing your elevator pitch is key to grow your referral system of people who can refer you more clients and course sales. Make it easy and quick for your referral partners to refer you by sending them an email with important information such as your biography and your contact information so others can easily get in touch with you.

I also recommend putting it in the body of the email because I know that when I am thinking about somebody, I go back to that email and what what one of the templates will do is actually gives you a little script so that, you know I can equip melody to easily refer me she can just copy the bottom of that email and say, Hey, you might want to meet my friend Annie. Here's what she does. Here's how to get in touch with her. So you never have to spend your precious mental bandwidth to introduce me and that making it easy is what it's all about.

Annie Franceschi

Don't Overthink Your Hook

Are you confusing people with trying to be too unique? Yes- it’s a good strategy to find out how you stand out from the crowd- but honestly – it’s much better to tie your unique approach to a bigger bucket of interests. Annie says the “hook” is really important but it’s not as important as tying it back to what matters most to your customers and referral partners. This closely ties back to understanding who your “ideal client” is and what they need and want to achieve in their business and life.

Everybody who wants to brand themselves is so worried about the hook. How do I stand out? What makes me special? How am I a special snowflake, you know, all of those things, wonderful. The hook matters, that twist on whatever it is you do. But if you don't pair it with that larger category, people don't get that it's valuable to them.

Annie Franceschi

Bottom Line

By making it simple for other people to promote you- you can book out your services without having to rely on constantly posting on social media or investing heavily in paid advertisements. Make sure to check out how to brand yourself as an expert in your field with Annie’s great resources below!

Annie's Resources

Annie has a great resource for figuring out how to create a winning referral bio to land more clients and sell more courses. So if you’re still figuring out how to pitch your brand –these elevator pitch templates are perfect for you!

Annie has other great free resources and training on her website and social media channels!
You can find out about Annie’s trainings: Branding with Friends right here.
Follow Annie on social media here:
linkedin.com/in/anniefranceschi
facebook.com/greateststorycreative
instagram.com/annie.franceschi
From Clients to Courses

Learn how to attract the right students, grow your list, and promote your course all with one winning strategy!

The Course Consultant Resources

Are you a service based and creative business owner that wants to make an impact in your students life and grow your income with courses, without adding more clients to your to-do list? I love to help my clients grow their course income through creating clear marketing messaging with live webinars. If you’re looking for some support, why not check out Course Impact Mastermind? Course Impact Mastermind is my group coaching program where I offer both group and 1:1 support to help you create and sell an impactful signature course or group program. Have a question? Pop your question inside my chatbox and I’ll get back to you!

Learn more about Course Impact Mastermind

Need other help creating a referral program for your courses?
Check out this episode about affiliate marketing with Zoe Linda.
Four Student Examples of How to Grow Your List & Course Sales

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What You Need For a Profitable Course Launch

Launching a profitable online course requires having a strategy. The truth is that what most aspiring course creators don’t realize is that there are four very important things to consider when creating your course or program so you actually see course sales instead of hearing crickets.

Profitable Offer Design

Creating a course just isn’t about what you know (sorry to say), but rather identifying what exactly it is that your ideal course students “wants to learn” Read that statement again. By choosing a topic that you are knowledgeable in, and also providing students what they want to learn will create the right type of course buying attention from your audience. I know lots about many different topics, but not all of these topics make a profitable course. That being said, if people are currently paying you for your knowledge in the form of a service, I believe you can turn that concept into a course that actually sells.

High Converting Content

Ever thought to yourself, “How did So-and-so read my mind?!!” Well it all starts with identifying and capturing your clients painpoints and providing a clear relationship with your audience through content marketing. Having content that is both engaging, educational, and entertaining can help you get the right eyeballs on your business so you attract. the right students so they come back for more. Research and social media experts agree that video marketing is a big piece of what drives people from being casual consumers to active and engaged customers.

Visibility & Traffic

Visibility is the spark that sets off a big boom in your business. Whether you get this visibility through networking with others such as Podcasting, guest blogging, speaking at a summit, or using paid advertising – you need more people finding out about how awesome you are and what value you have to share to others. Like I’ve said before, Facebook ads really aren’t the only way to sell your course or program – especially if you’re on a tight budget. I recommend trying to promote your content organically first then slowly investing in other aspects of your course marketing like affiliate marketing or social media Instagram growth. Long term success can’t be built overnight,, so remember this when you get frustrated trying something new for the first time. Visibility and traffic will drive the right people to your neck of the digital interwebs and grow your email list so you speak to the right people.

A Winning Course Sales Strategy

You need a winning strategy to sell your course and a powerful marketing message. What people often miss is the strategy leading up to the sale. Besides, how many times have you purchased something and read many reviews online or researched a product by using Google? A sales strategy that I highly recommend using for larger and higher priced programs is the sales webinar. I talk more about gaining confidence as a course creator to promote your course with a webinar. Sales webinars are amazing because they can both grow your email list (making it even easier to have the right people in your world) and then showcase both free and paid resources including your courses. I’m going to share with you exactly how some of my students are scaling their online business through webinars. And the great thing is, you don’t have to be a business coach or someone with a large following. In fact webinars work for those even with a small email list because the entire purpose is to get more visible with the right audience! Take a look and read about these student examples!

Sam is one of my coaching students inside of Course Impact Mastermind

Sam Hawrylack

Sam Hawrylack is the owner and founder of Fire Up Freelance and co-founder of How To Fire. She now helps aspiring freelancers grow their income full-time through freelancing. In Sam’s upcoming training, she shares about exactly how she started freelancing after quitting her job in corporate and starting making consistent 5 figure months and replaced her monthly income under 2 months! In this training you’ll learn how to accelerate your side hustle into a profitable freelancing business even if you’re an introvert, don’t have a huge following, or just plain hate selling. Sam is going to share some awesome resources when it comes to navigating the numbers so you can become zen about making the big leap into freelancing full-time.

What I love about Sam is how passionate she is about helping her coaching clients feel good about their freelancing business, even if they're just starting out.

Sign-up here for the free training!

Sam’s Fire-up Freelance coaching program focuses on three main pillars of support. In the first stage, she helps her clients fine-tune their exit plan from corporate by reviewing what numbers they’ll need to transition to full-time freelancing, creating a profitable freelancing business roadmap including choosing their service and pricing, and lastly she works with clients to land and support consistent clients so they don’t have to publish frequently on Instagram or cold-pitch to strangers. Doors aren’t open yet for Fireup Freelance coaching program, but you’ll definitely want to signup for the free training once the doors are open!

Sign-up here for the free training!

Kendra Courtney

Kendra helps overwhelmed photographers and coaches stuck in admin create clear and simple workflows using Dubsado so they can get back to running their business. Inside of Kendra’s training, she will be teaching her 4 part workflow framework that she uses for all of her 1:1 Dubsado set ups. Photographers will leave with a foundation on how to set started with their time and energy saving workflows!

Sign-up here for the free training!

What I love about Kendra is her ambitious and hard-working nature. Not only is Kendra very knowledgeable when it comes to helping her clients and course customers with Dubsado workflows, but she's an absolutely sweetheart to work with!

Kendra also has a complete program perfect for photographers that want to get back to supporting their clients called, Dubsado Set Up In a Box For Photographers: A live group program teaching you everything you need to set up your Dubsado to take care client admin. The program isn’t live yet, but I highly recommend you check out her free training in order to level up your photography business without getting stuck in your inbox!

Sign-up here for the free training!

Michelle Stevens

Michelle Stevens helps women redefine healthy living through an energy-first approach to fitness, nutrition, and self-care. In her training, attendees will learn the benefits of fitness (especially for your business), how to sneak little bursts of fitness into your busy day, how to build awareness around your energy and honor it, plus the key differences between setting fitness and business goals.

What I love about Michelle is her straight-forward approach to nutrition, fitness, and self-care that makes it feel easy and doable. Not everyone can make fitness fun, but Michelle does this effortlessly!

Sign-up here for the free training!

Michelle Stevens helps women redefine healthy living through an energy-first approach to fitness, nutrition, and self-care. In her training, attendees will learn the benefits of fitness (especially for your business), how to sneak little bursts of fitness into your busy day, how to build awareness around your energy and honor it, plus the key differences between setting fitness and business goals. If you’re a busy business owner and want to take out time for self-care and a workout routine that doesn’t involve burpees at the beach, Michelle’s training is an absolute must!

Sign-up here for the free training!

Claudia Orengo

Claudia was one of my first students inside of Wondrous Webinars and her webinar has evolved over time as she’s grown her business. You can read the full feature breakdown I did of Claudia’s course and free training. I must say I’m actually pretty proud of my students! Claudia helps artists and creatives grow their passive income through creating and selling digital designs. Not only as Claudia’s training been featured in Skillshare, but she has some amazing beautiful watercolor designs that she provides to her clients. Inside her free training, How to Make More Money as a Creative Online Without Working Harder or Being Famous, she explains what she’s found to be the perfect way to increase your income without having to get more clients or increase your rates; through selling digital products as instant downloads to grow your passive income. She also explains how to decide which product to start with, where and how to sell them and an in-depth report of her revenue in Creative Market to show it’s possible even if you don’t have a big audience.

Sign-up here for the free training!

Inside of Claudia’s Course Beginner’s Guide to Passive Income, she shares exactly how to make money with your art selling them as digital products on creative marketplaces like Creative Market, Redcircle, and so much more! If you’re a creative who wants to make more money without adding clients to your to-do list, I highly recommend Claudia’s training!

Sign-up here for the free training!

The Course Consultant Resources

Leave us a comment below and let us know your biggest takeaway from this episode!
5 Ways to Boost Course Engagement
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Interactive Videos

One of the first lessons you’ll most likely have in your course is an introduction video about who you are and some basic information about the course. The easiest way to actually create engagement in the first lesson is to make it interactive! I love using a special tool for free that helps me embed a HTML code in the first lesson and allows my students to immediately respond via video and also text. You’d be surprised how many personal video messages I get and how much easier it is to communicate and get to know my students on a personal level. If you’re at all curious about this, you have to check out my free video training about how I tripled my course engagement with the first lesson without hopping onto a Zoom call!

Featuring Past Clients and Students

At times, I’ll run my courses with a live support component and let students know that those that complete and apply the tutorials will get featured in some way. Towards the end of the course, I will place a form for students to submit their final end product or result. I use a survey form called Paperform. Full Disclaimer, this is totally an idea I learned inside my current business mentor’s program Lizzy Goddard’s Profitable Playground. I definitely reccommend checking out all of her programs since I’ve learned so much about email marketing, course creation, and in general running an online business.
I’ve featured many of my students in past podcast, blog posts, and social media posts as a special incentive for completing the course!
Student & Client Examples:
How Claudia Makes Passive Income Selling Digital Products
Digital Product Toolkit January Featured Students
Transformational Learning with Adam Kol
Leading on Purpose with Julianna Hynes
How Andrea Made her first course on Social Media Marketing

Social Media Features on Instagram

Silent Co-working Calls

One thing I experimented with during the last live round of my course is conducting silent co-working calls to implement on each module. One thing I’ve kept in mind during silent co-working calls is how to sustainably deliver co-working calls so that they make the most use out of everyone’s time, provides structured support, and also delivers an amazing experience! Many times coaches might feel obligated to add in extra coaching during co-working, but since courses should be contained within the topics at hand, it’s much better to explain and set the ground rules for how your silent co-working calls should be conducted and what is or isn’t the best place for these conversations.

Email Examples sent during a round of my live support in January
Co-working Call Structure

5-10 minutes Introduction and explanation of curriculum and task.
20-30 minutes silent co-working time with a 5 minute reminder before silent coworking is completed. I conduct all my meetings via Zoom and did not record them. All of the notes from the meeting we added to the course. Students could ask questions inside the chat, but they were specifically on the curriculum we covered inside of the tutorial discussed.
10-15 minutes wrap-up – During this time we were able to wrap up any remaining questions.
Triple Your Course Engagement

With One Free Tech Tool

Triple your course engagement with one free tech tool without hopping on Facebook Live or Zoom and done in less than 5 minutes!

Fill In The Blank Templates

There are many times that I will create a curriculum with fill-in-the-blank areas for students to complete, yet sometimes students don’t always find the time to complete these. What I do instead to increase student engagement is send emails to students a week before the assignment is due and then ask that they complete the lesson during our co-working call. Many of my students really loved this structure! I find that if you can afford the extra time commitment to show up for your students during a higher level support round for your course, your students will see better and faster results.

Student Onboarding Emails

Once you have gone through creating your course and provided support for your students, you can re-use and repurpose these emails and create an email automation. Some people feel that they aren’t really necessary, but I definitely believe there are some major benefits to them!

Benefits of Course Student Email Onboarding

I’ve not only seen students go back and work on lessons, but also will see that students have less likelihood of refunds. After onboarding 1,000 students in multiple courses, I’ve found that onboarding emails can serve multiple purposes.
I do have to mention that I think longer courses or programs may lend itself best to student onboarding emails. Smaller courses or instantly downloadable products I don’t believe require long onboarding email sequences.

Specific Directions

Students should really always receive an email with instructions on how to access their lessons. This decreases confusion and diminishes students from having to email you where they should access their curriculum.

Nurture Related Resources

One other thing I’ve done in my courses is created multiple different links to lessons that refer people to products or programs I’ve liked to use. I’ve found this both supports my students as well as helps me support my business. As long as you add your affiliate disclaimer, you can ethically do both!

The Course Consultant Resources

Are you looking for step by step guidance to engage with your students and grow your online coaching business with a signature course or coaching program? Join me for a free consultation to see if we’re. a good fit.
15 Things to Sell with Thrivecart

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My ThriveCart Review

This post may contain affiliate links. To learn more read my full disclaimer.

I’ve used Thrivecart over the last few months selling courses and I think it’s my favorite when it comes to creating a seamless checkout experience for my course customers. I wrote another article comparing Thrivecart vs. Samcart and why I ultimately chose Thrivecart. After doing a lot of research and trial and error with many digital product cart checkout softwares, I decided to use Thrivecart and I’ve been really surprised about the many different things you can sell using this software.

Having a great cart checkout experience for your customers can mean the difference between someone clicking away or actually getting a digital course sale, so investing in a software, especially one that’s a lifetime fee (yay! no recurring fees) is definitely a worthy investment. Thrivecart does come with a standard account and a pro account (which include affiliate marketing, sales tax calculations, and JV partnership features). I currently have the Thrivecart Pro account.

1. Courses

You could probably guess that courses would be number one on the list. My favorite feature about Thrivecart is their powerful affiliate marketing tool which allows me to create unique affiliate links for everyone that promotes my products that result in a qualifying sale. To create your course cart checkout platform you’ll need to integrate your course platform with Thrivecart. Some platforms like Teachable have an integration built within Thrivecart. Other course platforms, however rely on a third party software like Zapier to connect up Thrivecart to allow the cart checkout software automatically enroll your students into the course platform. Think of it this way, your course platform is Pam Beasley (she gets all the admin stuff done with a smile), your cart checkout software is Jim Halpert (Jim is on the phone making sales), and Zapier is like Ryan (he is kinda pretentious but checks to make sure everyone is doing their job…kinda).
If your course platform isn’t inherently integrated with Thrivecart, whenever your cart checkout software makes a sale (Jim), Zapier (Ryan) will need to send tasks to the course platform (Pam) to make sure that the enrollment gets processed automatically. This makes your enrollments less manual tasks for you to complete.

Here are just a few examples of the course platforms integrated in Thrivecart

2. Memberships

Memberships are yet another way for people to purchase a subscription from your business. The great thing about Thrivecart is that you can set up a membership one time annual fee or even monthly fees. This makes it easier to help people make a financial commitment dependent on their budget and how they prefer to make payments. Thrivecart integrates directly with payment processors like Stripe, Paypal, Google Pay, Applepay, and even Authorize.net (good for international payments). Although I don’t currently have a membership. I have actually purchased or enrolled in memberships where the course creator developed their cart checkout software directly through Thrivecart. I chatted with Danielle Corbett about her membership setup using Thinkific on my podcast.

You can even limit a number or enrollments for a specific price based on quantity limit

I invested in the SOP Success Lab to learn how to optimize your Standard Operating Procedures to level up your team

3. Group Coaching Programs

If you’re a consultant or coach, you may currently offer or want to offer group coaching program. One easy way to enroll your students is through using Thrivecart. I suggest that once your students enroll into your program, that they be provided an onboarding workflow or email sequence. For example, if your coaching clients need to attend an orientation session, an onboarding call with you, or identify the information regarding their group coaching or live Q & A sessions, you can integrate Thrivecart with most major email marketing platforms to deliver the important information via email. Although some “all-in-one” platforms like Kajabi and Katra offer email marketing sequence automations, I believe that it’s best to give your students a simple customized welcome or “orientation-type” email that let’s people know how to find out the most important FAQ about the program. I talked more on my podcast about high impact group programs with Kelsa Dickey

Group coaching programs are a great way to support your clients in an ongoing and structured format. One of my mentors, Theresa Baretta had an amazing group coaching program called Consultant to CEO Accelerator that helped me better understand how to optimize my standard operating procedures, have a clear onboarding and offboarding process for my clients, and strategically hire my team members, a skill that I’ll be able to carry out throughout my business. During my time in her program, I made over 5 figures in under 6 months. I was amazed at how professional and supportive Theresa was during my mentorship with her.

I took Theresa's Group Coaching Program and made over 5 figures under 6 months

4. Ebooks

Ebooks are another great example of sharing the step by step tips and strategies and perfect for content creators like bloggers or podcasters that don’t want to step in front of the camera. Simply add images, content, and a nice cover image and viola! You have an ebook that can be sold on repeat to potential clients or course content. You can easily repurpose content from your blog posts and identify some frequently asked questions and compile an ultimate resource. Canva is my ultimate favorite resource to design and create my lead magnet and social media assets. It’s free, but there are some definitive advantages to have the pro account. I talk more with Michelle about how to create an ebook.

A previous ebook that I created about personal finances

A great ebook by Passive Income Superstars about List Monetization

5. Canva Templates

Canva templates are my all-time favorite type of resource to sell. I actually created an entire product called Profitable Presentation Pack based off of Canva and it is one of my favorite resources! You’ll want to preferably use Canva templates which will allow you to share a link directly from your Canva assets to create a template. Make sure that you remove all the custom information and your branding so others can benefit from your template! I also like to use “Cupcake Ipsum” to create fun template type of wording instead of bland “Lorem Ipsum” for my templates.
My good friend Leanne Scott over at Passive Income Superstars actually has an amazing 30 page ebook template pack that’s perfect for just starting out on a new ebook.

You can copy a direct link to share a template via Canva

6. Audio Files

Audio files like .mp3 files are another interesting asset that you can sell directly from Thrivecart. So if you’re a podcasters, Youtuber, or social media influencer repurposing content you already have is going to be a great way to make money using videos or content you may already have on hand. One way to host an audio file without a course platform is to use Google Drive or Dropbox and send purchasers directly to the thank you page which links back to Dropbox file.

7. Photoshop Files or Graphic Assets

If you’re a Graphic Designer you can use your design skills to create graphic assets using Photoshop. You’ll want to make sure that you package up your file and provide specific directions on how to use your file for their needs. If you have many different digital assets to sell, you can apply to open a digital shop on Creative Market. One of my student’s Claudia Orengo actually has an entire training on the Beginner’s guide to Passive Income which shows you step by step how she creates digital products to sell on many different creative marketplaces.

Claudia's training shows you how to paint and sell digital clipart

Claudia's training shares how you can create digital assets to sell on creative online marketplaces.

8. Stock Photos

I’ve spent a lot of money on stock photos while working on client projects or updating my website. Quality stock photos can be time consuming to search, especially if you’re looking for stock photography that’s specific to a certain niche for your website or social media like Instagram. I like using IvoryMix for my stock photography for my website and I like they they offer Canva graphics for my different social media posts on Instagram.

I use IvoryMix for stock photos for my website

9. Books

If you’re an author, you can sell digital versions of your book or you can sell physical copies as well. Thrivecart allows you to obtain full mailing address information to mail your book.

10. Services

Most business owners aren’t aware that you can sell services in Thrivecart! If you’re a freelancer or an agency, you can even sell packaged services that streamline your onboarding process so that you can send someone a one-time payment or recurring payment instead of an invoice and having to follow-up if something doesn’t get paid. I learned so much from my time in Theresa’s Consultant to CEO Accelerator Program, that I created a workshop on how I landed high ticket clients called Sweet Service Success.

My winning workshop for landing high ticket clients

11. Consultation Calls

Consultation calls are another thing you can sell using Thrivecart. I’ve used Thrivecart to sell one hour consultation calls in the past using Zoom and Calendly. For example, if you send someone to book a consultation call using Thrivecart, you can send your customers immediately to the booking link to schedule a time with you rather than going back and forth trying to confirm a time to speak. What I like about this is that I don’t have to schedule discovery calls and I use my service page to share with people exactly how they can book a session with me.
I currently offer consultation sessions via Voxer through my Course Coach for a Day package which allow me to customize my training reccommendations to my students and clients. Below are some nice things that my clients have said about working with me.

12. Google Documents

Outside of Canva templates, Google Documents are my favorite resources to sell. I’ve sold different templates over time and personally I feel that Google Documents are the easiest to create as well as the simplest to implement. Templates make it easier for the student to take action because there is a step by step system to follow so that you can clearly follow a framework or plan.
In December 2020, I made the Podcast Planner to help you plan and organize and streamline your podcast production process. In January 2021, I decided to run a live round of the Digital Product Toolkit teaching students how to follow my step by step strategies to create templates and featured some amazing alumni.

I made the Podcast Planner templates and resources with Danielle in December 2021

Here's an example of my Digital Product Toolkit Template made with Google Documents

The Email Closer by Dani Paige is a great resource for sales email templates

13. Physical Products

Although I primarily work with selling digital products, it’s important to note that you can also sell physical products like books, makeup, clothing, and anything that you want to sell online!

14. Bumpsell

Upsells or bumpsells are a really great way to showcase other complementary products that will help your customers achieve their learning goals.

15. Website Assets

If you are already designing websites for your customers, why not sell website templates? I currently like to use Elementor Pro to design my website landing pages. You can actually save files and then your customers can import the designs and customize them as needed to fit their website needs. Below is an example of a Holiday Salespage template created by Kimi Kinsey. Her designs are easy and simple to import and customize using Elementor. She also has other amazing resources including her Tools and Resources page tutorial to design and create a helpful page for other entrepreneurs.

The Course Consultant Resources

I hope that this blog post will give you an idea of how to create and sell a digital product and how Thrivecart has helped me make money in my online business. If you decide to invest and purchase Thrivecart through my affiliate link, I offer a complimentary one hour session to help you customize your Thrivecart workflow so that you can get any questions answered on how to use this powerful software.
My 2020 Year in Review
This post may contain affiliate links. I only recommend products or services I have personally use or are passionate about. For more information, review my disclaimer.
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January 2020
I’m going to try to review the entire year and process everything that happened both good and bad. Over the past year, I’ve transitioned from a freelancer, to an agency, and then into a course creator which was incredibly challenging for many different reasons. I increased my rates over 3-4 times over the course of three months, but I hope this blog post serves as a reminder that I’m still learning and although I’ve seen many wins I’ve also had my share of lessons of what not to do.
In January 2020, I was fully invested in Pete McPherson’s Online Impact Community and began to pivot my already thriving one person freelancing company into a bigger online brand. I met Pete Mcpherson back in 2019 when I used to have an entirely different business in the FinCon community. I first learned how to develop and design my website and pretty much understand a lot about blogging thanks to his course: Elementor for Bloggers. I still refer back to that course to understand little tweaks that I need to understand about the tech side of Elementor and designing my web pages. I’m still really close friends with people I’ve met in that group.
At the end of January/ beginning of February, launched my new podcast “The Online Course Consultant Show” and shared about 7 Course Creation Tips You Need to Know . This remains to be one of my top downloaded episodes. A majority of income was still coming from Upwork, I also launched an entirely new website and created entirely new social media handles.
My income was primarily coming from freelancing services:
Freelancing Blog Post Writing
Freelance Course Creation Services
Blog Posts Created:
How to Create an Online Course 2020

Best Online Course Platforms 2020

5 Simple Steps to a Successful Digital Product Launch

How to Build an engaging email list without a big following

Moving and renovating

In January, my husband and I finally put our home on the market. We had lived in metro Detroit area in Michigan for over 6 years and were about 2 miles away from my husband’s parents. During our time in Michigan, my husband and I held a total of three jobs each! You can obviously see we change things up frequently! This was our first home that we lived in together after we got married. Below is a picture of the kitchen and dining area. I was a bummed we couldn’t stay there and “enjoy” the renovations we did to the house which included adding granite countertops to the kitchen, new kitchen sink, and an entirely brand new kitchen cabinet set.
Our house was on the market for 5 days and we had three offers and it was under contract by the end of the week which closed about a month later! We had been commuting for months in 2019 renovating the house and driving to my husband’s job in northern Michigan in the middle of winter. Needless to say, I was happy when it sold!
February 2020

In February, I had a serious dip in revenue which made me really nervous about how I was going to handle making more income in a way that was sustainable financially for my family. I instinctively thought that each month I would be making more money from the previous month as a freelancer. But some of my freelancing gigs were much less frequent and though I was paid retroactively for some projects completed in January, there were less active projects this month. At the end of February, I only had $200 in my business bank account.
I still managed to stay consistent though with SEO and creating fresh content, because I knew creating more revenue was going to really be a long game instead of only focusing on shortcomings. I published my second podcast episode and blog post: What is a Salesfunnel and How to Make One.
I also published a blog post and podcast episode with Michelle Jackson called How to Create and ebook and sell it.
I also realized that at the time my friend Pete Mcpherson lived closer to my new home. So we had a nice chat in a coffeehouse and I showed him my coworking spot and I interviewed him my my third episode of my podcast: Website Design Tips for Course Creators.
Pete also created a fun Youtube video which I was featured in. I still actively get people messaging me or emailing me that they found me from this video. You should check out his channel. I actually landed a client later in 2020 thanks to this video which resulted in about a 5 figure deal.
Blog Posts Created:
7 Course Creation Tips You Need to Know
What is a Salesfunnel and How to Create One
Website Design tips for Course Creators
How to Make and Ebook and Sell it

March 2020

In March, I went to Social Media Marketing World and met some amazing friends. I still follow and am friends with many of the lovely people there. I volunteered as a speaker concierge helping organize and ensure that all of the speakers on stage and emcees had their mics and their slide decks available to the AV tech crew. It was so much fun.
I was featured on a Youtube Video with Mike Damazo where I talked about courses. Funny story, I never actually launched the course I was promoting that time of the year! This was my second solo business trip without my husband. I normally prefer to travel with him. I ended up staying in a really fun hostel downtown San Diego. I really enjoyed the ambience. Sadly, this was my last really big social networking event for the year (at least in person). I was also bummed because I was supposed to attend an in-person graduation for completing my Master’s degree in Instructional Design but it was later cancelled due to Covid.

Inspired by the great content I received from Social Media Marketing World, I went on to publish three blog post and podcast episodes in March.
Blog Posts created:
Social Media Strategy for Course Creators with special guest Andrea Jones
How to use social media to grow your business
How to Make and Sell Digital Printables with guest Chelsea Brennan
Behind the Scenes of 6 Digital Course Creator Launches

April 2020

By April, I was getting really burned out from all of the freelancing, staying up late and working solo at home during quarantine. I was starting to miss my family a lot since I normally visited them during this time, but due to COVID restrictions we weren’t able to visit. I invested heavily into coaching to create my “first digital product” or mini-course. My first digital product was actually a more in-depth course called The Course Designer’s Toolkit, which is actually retired!
Projects Completed:
During this month, I was working closely with a referral I received from Social Media Marketing World. I worked with several clients for smaller projects on upwork.
Resources Invested In:
I spent the better half of 2019 trying to research an affordable and high converting cart checkout software. I had tried many in the past, but I decided to invest in Thrivecart. I went on to create multiple digital products and consulting services and made over 5 figures using the platform. I really appreciated the fact that the product was a one time purchase. Since then, I haven’t really seen other cart checkout platforms that are one time payments. Most, if not all, are a monthly recurring payment. I also appreciated the fact that there is some really robust features for affiliate marketing. I have so much more to say on the subject, but I’ll just let you read on… 😊

Blog Posts created:
Facebook Chatbots for Facebook Ads
An Interview with Facebook ads Manager Latasha James

May 2020

During this month, I started to transition and look into hiring more team members specifically surrounding Instructional Design. I hired my first non-assistant hire in May. I really was concerned that I wouldn’t be able to scale my operations specifically because I had never hired anyone before. My first hire was amazing! He was a referral from my grad school director.
Resources invested in:
I hadn’t hired anyone else besides a virtual assistant previously, so I decided to invest in Theresa Baretta’s Optimized Outsourcing Manual. It was really helpful because there were job description templates for the main hires I was looking to hire. I went on to hire two paid interns, a new virtual assistant, a project manager, as well as three video editors, and a voiceover artist thanks to this template!
I loved Theresa’s templates so much, that I wanted to learn how to optimize my standard operating procedures that I decided to invest in her monthly membership – SOP Success Lab. I was able to really understand the process in which I was able to onboard my clients, outsource more admin tasks to my team, and become more of a CEO in my mindset. Overall I felt more confident delegating my tasks as well as really charging higher prices. In May, I decided to shift to an agency model. At the time, I was charging less than $2k for my done for you services. I increased my prices to $2k for done for you services as a direct result of the mindset shifts I received from Theresa’s help.
I wanted to really give my website a make-over and so I decided to invest in some templates by Amanda Genther. The framework inside of her templates Salespage in a Day helped me understand the key things needed to create compelling copywriting as well as use templates to sell my services and digital products. As a direct result of using these templates, I’ve landed high ticket clients ranging from $2k-$32k.
I also hired out help to create more customized salespages thanks to Bethany who I previously met at Fincon back in 2019. Bethany and I went on to work on several additional projects and we actually live fairly “close” to each other in Arizona! The work she did was really professional and quick.
I started to take more and more courses from Elizabeth Goddard about email marketing. I took Lizzy’s course (at the time included in her membership Convertkit Club which is now retired) called Email Rockstars. It reinforced the fact that I needed to automate and send out more emails to my email list. I also really loved more fundamental training inside of her course ConvertkitHer course really went into depth both from a technical standpoint as well as an instructional and strategy standpoint about building confidence nurturing and selling to your email list. At the time of this post, I’m now inside of Elizabeth Goddard’s group program, The Profitable Playground.
Blog Posts:
Work from Home Tips during Quarantine
How to Avoid Burnout while working from home
Digital Products Created:
I created the Profitable Presentation Canva Pack as a direct result of creating many different digital presentations for my clients. I wanted an affordable option for people that were already creating presentations but didn’t want to hire a designer.
I launched a mini-course on course creation called the 5 Day Course Creation Challenge. I started to automate my digital products and started seeing more evergreen sales thanks to Lizzy’s course!
Collaborations:
I spoke at my alma mater CSU Fullerton about creating a winning portfolio for starting freelancing as an Instructional Designer. I had a presentation developed about the key things to consider when developing a freelancing agency and getting started owning your business. It was a lot of fun!

June 2020

In June, I was scaling so quickly I decided to raise my prices dramatically and joined Theresa’s Consultant to CEO Accelerator Program.
I landed a $7k client the very next month that I started working with Theresa. I began to invest heavily in optimizing and creating professional videos. I started to use a program called Vyond which I had previously used in corporate training and development for professional animated videos.
This month was heavily spent creating systems, organizing my workflows, as well as understanding how to operate as an agency and really support my clients. It was also wrought with so much pain and turmoil in the United States. The Black Lives Matter movement and the murder of George Floyd really moved me to create a safe and supportive space for my audience members who were grieving and trying to understand how to cope with racial injustice. The conversation still is happening in the United States, but I think this was a really big wake-up call for everyone to have these very important conversations to create change.
During that month, I decided to give away 100 copies of The Profitable Presentation Canva Pack to Women of Color Podcasters. I also spoke at the Creatress Summit about creating online courses.
Blog Posts Created:
5 Steps Towards Diversity and Inclusion in the Workplace
How to Avoid Burnout While Working from Home
How I Motivate My Team

July 2020

During this month I was still working very closely with my clients as an online elearning agency. I created monthly power hour consultations which helped other new course creators to work with me without having to invest in my agency. I also saw some incredible results from working with my clients back from earlier in the year. My good friend Adam Kol started seeing some amazing growth from his group coaching program. I’m always really proud of my students when they see growth, make sales, and take their offers to scale their business!
I also spoke in July at Podthon Summit about creating Pitchdecks to help grow your sponsorships as a podcaster.
My husband actually received a new offer to move from northern Michigan to southern Arizona. And for the fourth time of the year, we started the process of moving – this time across the country. It was really challenging moving my business to an entirely new state. At the same time, I was grateful for the level of support that Theresa and her team provided because I was such a nervous wreck!
Resources Invested In:
I invested in a digital course bundle from Bundle.co. There were so many course creators that were involved with the bundle. One of the many courses that were included was Elizabeth Goddard’s Profitable Live Training Course. During that month I learned a lot about her methodology around creating and launching a course quickly. I found her sense of humor refreshing, her tutorials very instructional, as well as her Facebook group and community very supportive. I also really loved that she had a onesie on her website homepage (just saying).
I also invested in the Affiliate Program Toolkit a month or two previously and started learning so much about affiliate marketing for courses. I had never previously been interested in affiliate marketing. I had tried affiliate marketing for Amazon links, but never actually saw any progress. In fact I never made one sale. I really loved Zoe Linda’s fun and playful approach to internet marketing. I also appreciated that she was a Potterhead and Ravenclaw.
Blog Posts
How to Create an Online Membership Group
Transformational Learning with Adam Kol
Content Creation Tips by Pete Mcpherson

August 2020

In August, many of my projects were still in full swing. I was now completed moved in southern Arizona and it was incredibly hot! One day it was over 100 degrees Fahrenheight. I decided that after working as an agency, I wanted to start creating more digital courses. After applying the concepts from Lizzy’s Paid Live Trainings course, I created my workshop Systematic Funnels and launched it in about 10 days. You can check out the alumni blog post here.
I was so excited to be involved in the program because it had previously taken me months to create digital products. Her course and methodology really helped me to create content quickly without overthinking it.
This month was the highest amount of income I ever received roughly to the tune of $20k. I was so incredibly grateful for the lessons learned and the people I had worked with. During this month I had so much more clarity about the type of business I wanted to run, the lifestyle I wanted to lead, and I realized things weren’t exactly in alignment. I wanted to help clients and customers that might not be able to invest in the high ticket programs and services and so because of this mental shift I decided to invest in Lizzy’s Profitable Playground group coaching program to create a more digital product based business.
That month I also decided to create a free training called: How to Make a Magical Offer That Sells Like Hotcakes (now currently retired). During the training, I also showcased my bundle product which included several other digital products I had created previously called the Course Creator CEO Bundle.
Digital Products Created:
Systematic Funnels Workshop
Course Creator CEO Bundle
Blog Posts:
Leading on Purpose with Julianna Hynes

September 2020

In September, I started to shift my business model to creating more passive income products and reducing my 1:1 client work. I started to kick up more content creation and began to plan out different ideas for more growth using the digital product and course route. I became incredibly excited as I dug into the curriculum for Elizabeth’s program and started meeting more amazing friends in the group. I had a few people ask about how I started freelancing and booking high ticket clients. I knew that I wanted to create an on-demand offer that would help people learn more about the tools and processes I had in place to make more money through selling high ticket services. So, I created a masterclass and workshop and sold the Sweet Service Success workshop. Since then, I’ve been able to coach and share some tips on helping people start growing their income through services as well as selling courses.
Blog Posts Created:
Creating Effective Video Training
My Journey to Five Figure Months and Beyond
How to Design Creative Templates to Sell on Creative Market
5 Easy Way to Pivot into a High Ticket Service
Digital Product Created:
Sweet Service Success

October 2020

In October, I started actively saying no to new 1:1 client work because I wanted to focus my efforts to creating more digital products. This was probably the hardest decision to make. Knowing that someone would be willing to pay me $20k or more for my services and saying no helped me to focus on creating a lifestyle that aligned with my ideal work day instead of chasing down high ticket services. I was able I began to wind down on my 1:1 projects and begin the process of supporting them as the projects wrapped up.

On a personal note I was a bit sad that the pandemic was still going on because I actually love dressing up for Halloween. I was a bit bummed so my husband ended up baking some halloween treats with me and we individually bagged prepackaged candy into ziploc bags and placed them outside on a table for any neighborhood kids to grab in a safe environment. I still wish I had worn something fun for Halloween. Oh well.

Resources invested in: Lizzy’s Rock your Day of Voxer course was delivered as part of the Group Coaching program. What I found really interesting about this service was that I didn’t have to feel stuck to having zoom calls. Instead I played around with my own version of having Voxer available for both students who previously purchased my bundle the previous month. I still prefer Voxer over Zoom calls for coaching my team members as well as my clients. I find it’s so much easier to run errands while also being productive. I also love that Voxer gives you a personalized connection with your customers rather than feeling restriced to one Zoom call. You can check out one of her trainings on the subject of Voxer sessions in her training: Magical Low Effort High Value 1:1 Offer.

*New Service Created*

Inspired by Lizzy Goddard’s Voxer 1:1 services, I created my version called “Course Launch Framework” where I help new course creators map out and discuss their ideas about launching their courses or digital products.
I also ran a quick sale on several products I had created for Halloween! It was such a fun holiday sale that I knew I wanted to run another one in December and the New Year.

Blog Posts Created:

My Anti-Approach to Launching

How to Convert Your Email List into a Cash-Flowing Party

Thrivecart Vs. Samcart Review

November 2020

It was November and things actually started cooling down in Arizona! I was shocked that the summer months of over 100 degres Fahrenheight were cooling down to 40-50 degree weather. I realized then that I was already accustomed to the climate and my thick skin from enduring cold sub zero tempature in Michigan was over. I had officially become an Arizonian. I was still feeling blue that I couldn’t see my family. My family is a large Mexican-Filipino family. Think “My Big Fat Greek Wedding” (movie) but a filipino and mexican version. Normally our family hosts a giant Thanksgiving with so many of my favorite dishes ranging from lumpia (Filipino “egg” rolls) and pancit (Filipino spaghetti) as well as empanadas (Mexican pastries filled with meat and vegetables.) Although I didn’t get to have a big family Thanksgiving meal, I did see my immediate family in an outdoor seating area and we had a nice meal together.
I started to see the momentum from all of the things that I had created from before and realized that I wanted to continue making more digital products.
Resources I invested in:
The Email Closer – I found that I had so many emails to write out to start bringing attention to my salespages and offerings. I wanted something quick and painless to help me craft the words to share about my products without feeling super salesy. Dani’s course was a great quick win for me. Since then, I’ve created so many additional emails and have been able to craft more unique messaging around what I have to say and share all without feeling guilty about it. I love her integrity and find that her emails are really something I look forward to in my inbox.
Tripwire Training – Although I had already created a tripwire in the past for my digital products, I wanted to see the unique take on tripwires that Lizzy had. So I decided to invest in the Tripwire Training. I found that I was able to quickly optimize my existing tripwire for my Digital Product Toolkit and was featured on Lizzy’s website and blog post. Several people signed up for my free resources and went on to buy a few other items from me.
Blog Posts Created:
My Easy Sales Webinar Checklist
5 Mindset Shifts to Sell Your Course with a Webinar
How to Prepare for Black Friday as a Course Creator

Digital Products Created:
Wondrous Webinars
Collaborations participated:
I spoke at Vidfest about Systematic Funnels and shared with people about how to create more digital product income using funnels. I met some amazing speakers there and the community that Chris has created is really quite amazing. I was so enthused about speaking there that I’ll definitely apply again to speak!
I participated in a Black Friday Bundle with Vanessa along with multiple other digital product creators. It was definitely a big learning experience for me since I was also simultaneously selling my Black Friday Boost for courses and templates. I wished that I had decided to only sell one thing during Black Friday instead of lots of different things. Oh well! Lesson learned.

December 2020
Oh my gosh, I’ve already rambled on so long. I’m not even sure if you’re still reading this blog post. December was the highest digital product income I had ever made in one month. In previous months nearly 80-95% of my income was actively selling services or some sort of consulting. In December, about 80% of my income came from digital product sales. I was so proud of the progress I made that I was finally headed on the path I wanted to create instead of charging on with a plan for a lifestyle I didn’t care about.
Collaborations:
I collaborated with Danielle Desir, founder of WOCPodcasters and we created the Podcast Planner. We also worked together on creating a masterclass, multiple templates and resources for the planner, as well as answering Q & A session live! We had so many people sign up in under a 24 hour period, my inbox was flooded was sales notifications. I honestly thought I would have made only a few hundred dollars when the product went crazy and I realized that having really clear directions was really important. Also I realized that having a low ticket product doens’t mean you won’t get paid big bucks for sales!
I also participated in Lizzy’s Christmas Goody Bag which was an entirely experimental bundle which included a free goody bag as well as a premium goody bag. I contributed to both bundles and I had over 1,000 people sign-up! People then went on to grab other digital products, courses, and items from me during that week and I realized quickly that I needed to tweak a few things so I could make my systems even better for new customers at scale.
Blog Posts Created:
How Claudia Makes Passive Income Selling Digital Templates
How to Make a High Impact Course with Kelsa Dickey
How to Plan your Course Launch in 2021

Lessons Learned:
Overall the lessons that I learned from 2020 helped me to see things differently about growth and having an online business.
Never plan on things being 100% immune to crap hitting the fan. Things won’t always go as you plan.
Your life, family, and mental health are so much more important than your business.
It’s okay to say no to things you don’t want in your life, even if it doesn’t fit the mainstream way of doing/running things in your business or persona life.
I think 2020 was a trying year for so many people. I’m fortunate that I’ve been able to learn alongside you and growth with you. Let’s take 2021 on with hope and a supportive community.
How to Plan Your Course Launch in 2021

In this episode, I talk about my course creation planning process. I discuss the ADDIE Method, SAM Method, and my own unique take on how to plan and launch digital products and courses. Over the past year my team and I have created over 25 courses and my own brand developed 7 digital products and courses. I share my unique strategy about how to analyze your offers, complete market research, and design your first beta program.

Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

Table of Contents

Online Course Creation Timeline

Coming from a corporate training and education background I’ve learned so much about different ways to handle planning and developing online courses. I’m going to share with you three different ways you could approach your course creation timeline based on my experience whether you are an experienced online business owner that leads a team or a solo based business owner. Your course creation timeline will increase in scope and length based on the complexity of your online course.

Using the ADDIE Method

In this method your focus is to analyze, design, develop, and implement on the course curriculum in a very linear fashion. Your timeline would be approached in steps. This works very well in a production line. Think of this as building a Model T Ford in a factory. If you want to create courses at scale that are complex and very in-depth, this method works well.

ADDIE Method

Using the SAM Method

In the SAM method, short for the “Successive Approximation Method”, the focus is about getting your minimum viable product out quickly. Feedback is implemented quickly based on swift development in direct response from subject matter experts as well as from your end user. In this process, the development is much more cyclical instead of linear. I find that I favor this approach for small business owners looking to develop their digital products quickly that don’t have a large team. There are generally three stages: Analyze, Design, and Develop. You’ll often create multiple iterations of a product based on feedback instead of waiting at the end of a project to get customer and subject matter expert feedback.

My Course Creation Timeline

When I create my course creation timeline, I have a slightly modified process of the ADDIE Method borrowing from the rapid prototyping process. This process involves aspects of analyzing, planning, designing, and development borrowing concepts of pre-selling your programs through a beta testing process. When you are first creating your online course you’ll need to analyze the market. Research your ideal clients and decide on which course platform and tech you’ll need to set everything up. Define and refine your course outline and then design and develop your minimum viable product by preselling your program using social media, email marketing, affiliate marketing and more. I personally recommend launching your offer organically to your audience first before investing in paid advertisements like Facebook ads. This method allows you to refine and hone in on making your courses better over time. Launching your offers through a second or third iteration, you can increase your prices since you’ve added additional curriculum that will support the overall student’s goals and experience.

Course Planning Timeline Example

If you are launching your first, second, or third course having a plan is important. I’m going to give you an example of what it looks like to have a plan in place for your course launch.

Create a Content Marketing Plan

In your content marketing plan, you can create easy bite-sized tips or strategies using social media and repurpose this content in emails, captions, videos, Facebook lives, Clubhouse rooms and so much more! Plan to have a variety of free resources related to your course content, group coaching program, or services.

Develop Affiliate Marketing Content

As a solo-based business owner or an organization affiliate marketing is still a viable way to grow your audience and income without having to invest in Facebook ads. Some important information that you’ll need will include payout dates, launch dates, pricing information, email marketing swipe files, course descriptions and easy access to social media graphics. Before you decide to launch with affiliates, you’ll need to create easy promotional materials for your affiliate to use.

Setting Deadlines for your Course Launch

To plan out your quarterly launches, you’ll need to identify the deadlines for your launch, then plan backwards for what content needs to be developed for your promotional materials. I recommend that you only offer one course or program at a time. If people are overwhelmed I find people will be less inclined to may a purchase due to decision overwhelm.

The Course Consultant Resources:

Do you need step by step support and help organizing your ideas and packaging courses and selling your online course?
Join the latest trainings and resources inside of The Business of Courses Membership!
How to Create a High Impact Course with Kelsa Dickey

This post may include affiliate links, read my disclaimer policy to learn more.
Listen on Apple Podcasts | Spotify | Anchor

Table of Contents

How to Create a High Impact Course

Kelsa is the Founder and Financial Coach behind Fiscal Fitness Phoenix. What began as a side hustle for Kelsa over a decade ago has grown into a business that helps hundreds of clients every year gain clarity, purpose and peace of mind with their money. Several years ago, she decided financial coaches are the key to solving the stress people feel with money so she launched the Financial Coach Academy – a robust training program and course that teaches future financial coaches how to get great results with their clients. Kelsa’s coaching style provides a high level of support for not only her 1:1 clients but also for her financial coaching course customers.

Identify Who You Want To Serve for your Course

Kelsa started to see clients that were struggling with everyday money challenges were the people that she wanted to show up and serve. This vision propelled her to create a unique financial coaching package to serve the people that weren’t getting the support they needed when it came to handling their everyday finances. After years growing her own financial coaching business, Kelsa wanted to make a greater impact and converted her knowledge of helping others with their finances into a high impact course for aspiring Financial Coaches. This ripple effect of helping financial coaches find their footing has literally helped thousands of individuals, couples and families have a better understanding and peace about handling their own finances.

For some reason money is seen as something you're good or bad at, when really it's a skill like any other skill. And that is the skill we help strengthen people.

Kelsa Dickey Tweet

Define The Painpoints for your Course

Kelsa says one of the major reasons that she created the Financial Coach Academy is because other money training programs focused soley on a “one-size-fits-all” approach leaving people feeling frustrated and that something is innately wrong with them. As a coach, Kelsa teaches her clients as well as her financial coaching students to help people think strategically about their finances through the lens of understanding unique goals and personality. The process of unique knowing and supporting the individual and unique goals of her customers has not only helped Kelsa create raving customers for Financial Fitness Phoenix but also with her Financial Coach Academy!

Personal finance is personal. There is no one way that will work for everybody.

Kelsa Dickey Tweet

Presell Your Course or Coaching Program

Kelsa says that there is no way that she could have forseen the growth and transformation of the Financial Coach Academy without using the preselling method. She started to outline the first and second lesson of the course and started to presell the program. During the first iteration of the Financial Coach Academy, Kelsa shared that any coach that enrolled in the program would receive lifetime access to any subsequent round of the academy. At the time, the Academy was instructed live and students received access to the recordings. Because the course was new and there weren’t any testimonials for the program- Kelsa wanted people to get excited about joining the program even because of having lifetime access. Kelsa also incorporated methods to request and actively request feedback from her students. By asking people how the program could be improved, the impact of the overall program increased and the amount of trainings improved.

Where I thought I was going to go with my course, was not what happened. What they were telling me that they needed was different from what I had originally anticipated.

Kelsa Dickey

Kelsa used the information she received from her “founding members” to provide feedback and give her insight about what people truly needed. This in turn, helped to provide robust information and trainings for future rounds of the Financial Coach Academy.

Free Course Starter Outline!

Grab this easy Course Starter Outline available via Google Sheets!

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Plan Your Quarterly Course Launches

Kelsa also shares about their planning process for their Mastermind, Financial Coach Academy or Financial Coach Symposium. Although planning can be challenging with so many different considerations, Kelsa shares that she and her husband Michael Dickey write out all of their ideas on post-it notes and slowly and methodically think through their quarterly launches and remove items off their priority list as they consider what to launch or promote.

Kelsa's Resource List

Follow Fiscal Fitness Phoenix to learn more tips about creating a plan for your money without having to follow a “one size fits all” approach.
Listen to the Fiscal Fitness Podcast with host Michael Dickey.
Join the free Facebook Group under Financial Coaches Unite with over 5K experienced and aspiring Financial Coaches to learn free trainings and support to help you lead a thriving financial coaching business.
Learn more about Financial Coaching through Kelsa’s book Financial Coaching Playbook now sold at Barnes& Noble, Amazon, Walmart, and more!
Learn more about Financial Coach Academy, a robust training program that teaches future financial coaches how to get great results with their clients. Financial Coach Academy provides over a decade’s worth of knowledge about the financial coaching industry inside over 382 lessons and an active and supportive engaging community of Financial Coaches and professionals.

The Course Consultant Resources

Are you looking for a way to launch your course or need help finding a way to sell a course or program with funnels? Reach out to get your strategic call to gain clarity on your ideas and finetune your course marketing strategy. Book a Strategic Course Framework call where we’ll discuss your ideas and come up with a plan to help you launch your profitable program. That’s it for today’s episode! Let us know what your biggest takeaway is!
How to Create an Affiliate Marketing Program

Table of Contents

This post may include affiliate links. For more information, please review our disclaimers and privacy policy.

How to Be an Authentic Affiliate Marketer

Attracting the right students into your courses and digital products and programs requires that you show up to be more of yourself. Zoe Linda, who worked professionally for large organizations and brands building parternship programs, wanted to create something magical with her course The Affiliate Program Toolkit. Zoe emphasizes the importance of being yourself on the interview and hints that relating to your audience’s personal interests is far more important when building a personal brand. Beside’s Zoe’s impressive resume working for some of the most well known digital marketers for brands like Systems Saved Me, Summit in a Box, Casey Legal, and so many more, Zoe’s love for Harry Potter gifs, Brooklyn 99, and relatable personality won me over to become one of her biggest raving fans. Her emphasis on human connection makes her easily stand out from a loud digital marketing space.

I help them in a way where it's really focused on the human connections, it's much more focused on the one on one relationships that you have with people and seeing your affiliates as, as individuals, rather than seeing your affiliate team as people that are going to bring you money.

Zoe Linda Tweet

How to Create an Affiliate Program for Your Digital Product
“No one is really teaching the knitty gritty of this for digital product creators,” says Zoe. So she set out to build an affiliate marketing program for beginner’s with the digital course creator in mind all the while infusing her magical personality. Zoe shares that one of the main benefits of having a strong affiliate marketing program for your digital products and templates is that you can create a program that will refer you sales without having to pay up front – making it ideal for both parties involved. After working closely with 1:1 clients, she started to see a recurring theme. People needed help creating the many moving parts of creating an affiliate marketing program – the outreach templates, the tech setup and tutorials, and the overall timing and strategy. Zoe says that this approach is much more accessible for many digital product creators in that you can make more evergreen digital product sales.

Keep Track of Frequently Asked Questions
Wordsmithing is no doubt one of Zoe’s unique talents. Writing down and keeping track of frequently asked questions is one of Zoe’s methods to creating copy that converts into a sale. She recommends that it’s essential to write down these questions and incorporate them into your sales copywriting for your own products and speak to these questions with your copywriting for your affiliates as well. A self proclaimed Ravenclaw, Zoe is incredibly organized and methodical with her tutorials inside of the Affiliate Program Toolkit. Her growing library of ongoing resources such as email marketing swipe copy, affiliate marketing launch calendar, and her helpful responses in her growing online customer Facebook group make this by far one of my favorite investments in my business this year.

Find Great Affiliate Partners
Other tips Zoe shared that finding great affiliate partners starts with supporting your current students. These students will then recommend your products and services. This is the most logical first step in creating an affiliate program. By creating a program that supports, nurtures, and develops your existing customers you can create an evergreen ecosystem of referrals and affiliate sales. Other helpful recommendations include finding similar podcasts that your audience listens to and seeing if they can become an affiliate, connecting with people that have a similar audience, and even following and reaching out to people through Instagram that your audiences follows.

When someone signs up to a program, they don't want to spend hours digging around trying to find their links [or] promotional materials. So the main overarching theme is easy access, and easy access to somebody to talk to.

Zoe Linda Tweet

Provide Easy Access to Promotional Materials
Easy access was a main theme in my chat with Zoe Linda. Providing your affiliate partner with easy access to you, their affiliate links, essential information about the program, and promotional materials is a big essential. As someone who has personally used email swipe files from Zoe’s program – I can tell you having access to these materials is such a time saver – especially if you are simultaneously providing services while also creating digital products like myself. Marketing your courses with the help of an established affiliate, especially in the B2B space, can be a powerful way to not only generate more sales but impact the ongoing relationships with an potential customers. The most important part of an affiliate marketing program includes social media graphics, email marketing material, essential dates and program descriptions, as well as easy access to affiliate links. For some brands, such as the beauty industry, this can also include DM swipe copy if your audience communicates through instant messenger.

Advanced Affiliate Marketing Strategies

Some other advanced affiliate marketing strategies include creating JV webinars or creating social communities on Facebook or Slack to support your affiliates. Zoe says that the key is typically a one time setup and doesn’t require all the bells at whistles at first. “The affiliate program toolkit was created with digital product creators in mind. The initial idea was everything done for you, everything that’s done for you that can be done for you is and everything that isn’t there’s ongoing support the facebook group video tutorials. And I really just wanted to like the main kind of vision was I want people to stop spending so much time just learning about affiliate programs and give them the tools to actually implement,” says Zoe.

Conclusion

Zoe has an incredible amount of resources inside her Affiliate Program Toolkit and I personally recommend her course for anyone that wants to build a profitable affiliate program for their digital products and templates. If you decide to invest in the Affiliate Program Toolkit by using my referral link, I’ll give you a $200 credit to use for any of digital products or consultation calls. Just send a quick email or message me through my chat on this page if you have any questions. Zoe also shared some free resources like the Affiliate Program Starter Guide and other helpful resources like the Affiliate Program Starter Kit. Was this a helpful blog post? I’d love to know your thoughts about affiliate marketing!
How To Prepare for Black Friday as a Course Creator
This post includes affiliate links in which I receive a small commission. I only promote products I’m genuinely passionate about or have used! For more information please see my disclaimer page.

Table of Contents

My Top Tech Tips for Selling Courses

When you cross the finish line as a course creator and finally hit publish, there is a big rush and sensation! But as you sit and wait for all the sales to come in, you might start to wonder. “Oh no! Is someone going to buy this course?” “How am I going to get people to purchase?” “Oh dear, did I just waste weeks/months of my time?” I know that selling your course might feel overwhelming. I know I did. I want to share with you my favorite ways to sell your course and prepare for Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and beyond.

Run a Flash Sale

A flash sale is a short period of time in which certain products have a discount either as a percentage or a dollar amount off. I’ve recently started experimenting with Flash Sales and I’ve had a lot of fun. Currently, I’m a big fan of Elizabeth’s Goddard’s Make A Flash for It. During Halloween 2020, I ran a flash sale which I entitled “Spooky Spectacular,” which ended up being incredibly fun. I created a shop page with multiple different products with a limited time discount. I ran the sale for about 5 days and shared about this offer with affiliates which resulted in several sales and piqued some interest in my other products.

I also created a pop-up using Elementor Pro that allowed people to click from the home page and throughout the site to go to the salespage. Besides being incredibly cute, this pop-up also reminded potential buyers that there was a limited time to purchase with the discount by using a discount code due to the timer.
Here are some of the tech tools which I used to run a flash sale.
Hellobar – I used Hellobar to create a way to get people to click over to my latest Spooky Spectacular salespage. This bar resided on the top of my home page and throughout my site.
Elementor Pro – I used a timer with a hard deadline for Halloween. Elementor Pro has a timer with both an evergreen option and a hard deadline. Evergreen refers to an option in which the timer is customized based on the first time a customer sees the timer.
ThriveCart – Thrivecart is my ultimate favorite tool for selling courses. I created a very simplistic salespage and the buttons went straight to the cart checkout. It was a ton of fun, and much easier to set up than directing each person to the individual salespages.
Thrivecart offers advanced customization for coupons and discount codes.

Create a Discount Code

I love using Thrivecart because creating coupons are just so easy. To prepare for Black Friday, you need a tool that will allow you to create discount code or you’ll have to reduce the price manually. Once you choose the name of your coupon and the percentage off, you can easily email your customers to let them know about the coupon during your Black Friday or other holiday sale. I really like Thrivecart’s approach to coupon’s because you can create a deadline for your coupon so it can’t be used past a certain date. I also like that I can track affiliate coupon codes, if I wanted. For instance, I have in the past created a coupon code for an affiliate to see how many purchases were created from that affiliate. I have also created a special email markeing tag for an affiliate to track who has come into my world from that affiliate whether or not they have purchased anything.

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Create an Affiliate Program

I’m a big fan of building networking relationships. As someone that doesn’t have an incredibly large audience, I rely on other’s to help me increase my visibility online. Besides making a new friend and acquaintance, building a solid affiliate program will also generate more sales. I have multiple affiliates for my program currently, and just earlier this year I purchased Zoe Linda’s Affiliate Program Toolkit which in my opinion is one of the most advanced and thorough trainings on the topic for course creators. You can grab the free Affiliate Program Starter Guide to learn more. I generally send my affiliates a brief description of what my sale is going to be about, email swipe files to send to their audience, as well as visual digital product mock-up graphics, and access to their unique affiliate link.

Create Your Holiday Salespage

Having a specific salespage for your holiday offers for Black Friday or Cyber Monday will make it so much easier for your audience to see what’s on sale in a visually appealing way. I recently came across Kimi Kinsey in my current group coaching program. She came up with this amazing Holiday Salespage Template for Black Friday and Christmas and I’m absolutely in love with it. I’m not a web designer, although I do know how to design website landing pages – it’s definitely not my favorite. I highly reccommend that you take a look at her salespage templates, especially if you are a WordPress and Elementor user. It’s not only beautifully designed, but can help you make more sales!

Other Resources

Black Friday sales don’t have to feel icky or overwhelming. People sometimes spend months planning them and trying to make a massive promotion. I think that’s awesome, but I’m less about this mega planning and launch and more about helping people see that it’s doable. Other courses I find particularly helpful on Black Friday include Elizabeth Goddard’s That Black Friday Feeling and Zoe Linda’s Black Friday Boost. I’m really excited about my Black Friday sale this month. I know that you’ll find it useful and helpful. How’s your planning going with your Black Friday and Holiday sale planning? Drop me a message in that pink box in the corner! I’d love to hear from you.