Three Types of Online Courses Consultants and Coaches Use [Behind-the-Scenes Tutorial]

Are you thinking about creating an online course but aren't sure if they are profitable for consultants and coaches?

More than likely, my answer to you will be yes.

Courses are a fantastic way to expand your reach, sweeten the value that you offer your clients, reduce your labor intensity, and provide passive revenue. 

Watch this tutorial video and learn about the 3 types of profitable consulting courses and how they can amplify your client impact and profits.

Transcript

Betsy Jordyn: Hey, are you a consultant or coach? And are you thinking that now is the time  that you want to add a course to what you offer? This is a really great time. I think one of the things that us working at home a lot have clarified for us is that we've got to get creative about how we deliver our consulting and coaching. And we've got to figure out how to do it virtually and courses are great way to go about doing it.

But one thing I want to warn you about is that if you want to have a course and you think all of a sudden, it's just going to fly off the shelves, like you're going to create it. And all of a sudden they're going to buy it. And then all of a sudden, you're just going to grow your passive revenue. I want to be really clear that that creating that kind of monetize of course, takes a lot of work. And there's a lot of strategies that go along with it, but I'm going to use the backend of my system to show you a little bit about different ways that you can use courses, and that eventually you can start making more money off of it.

I'm going to go ahead and share my screen and I'm going to walk you through the different options. Here we go. I have several different courses and if you have been a client of mine in any form or fashion, you will know that I do have a lot of different things and you've seen the backend of my system and the library. I have different kinds of courses.

The Introductory Course (1:16)

I want to share with the first one is I have my Contacts to Contracts program.

This is an entry-level program where people can start to work with me and get to know how I roll and how I operate.  This is a low-cost program, and this is an easy way for people to begin their relationship with me. It's a part of my secret sauce.  In this particular course, what people get is a video that you could see here, and then they get information. Then obviously there are opportunities to connect and upgrade if you want to as well. But this is a lower cost offer, and it's a way for people to begin the relationship with me.

The Consulting Delivery Enhancement Course (1:59)

Then I have my Business by Design. That's one use is you might have a low-cost offer, and that would be away from people getting a door. My Business by Design is a very different course. This is what I use to guide my mentoring process.

What this does for me is so many different things, but it really expands my capacity and allows me to scale. Anybody who does some of my business build programs of any kind, either, if I'm going to do their messaging and positioning support, or if we're going to go through the website set up, or we're going to go through their launch strategy.  However far I'm going to take them, they get this particular course.

What's awesome about what I can do here is I can get them to download like a project planner. Then when we get on our mentoring calls, what is awesome is that there's an opportunity where they can watch a video and then we can get on the call.  That makes it easier.   But let's say there's something that really stuck out to them and they wanted to reference it again, they have the program.

The other benefit of having a course like this is that with my mentees is if they decide, you know what, this was great. We went through the whole process. They got their website launch, but then in a year or so, they decide they want to go in a different direction. They have the course that's available, so that's another way that you can use a course

The Signature Course (3:17)

A third one, this is what I would call like my labor of love as my Consultant's Toolbox. This is a very comprehensive course, but it's not intended to be a learning experience where somebody has to go start to finish. It's really has a learning component, but then it has a repository component.  Where there's different kinds of strategies that people can learn about and different kinds of tools. I have all kinds of tools that are uploaded in here.

How this benefits me in my work with my clients is some people just want to get this and they want to have the repository on their own. Let's say I'm working with somebody and I'm helping them with say their contracting process. I can tell them, instead of having the conversation where I'm teaching them and teaching them, teaching them, I could say, "Hey, listen. Say you have an opportunity with a future client. Why don't you head on over to lesson two in module two? And why don't you go ahead and download the cheat sheets, download the frameworks, go through it, and then give me a call if you have questions." Now, if I didn't have the course, I would have had to talk to my clients through this whole process.  I had to do the teaching and the application simultaneously. That's really where a huge benefit for courses are going to be, especially if you're going to do more of your work virtually.

Client Example - Ogilvie Consulting (4:36)

I'm working with Christy right now, and she did a lot of her training and a lot of her development live with our clients. But now with the pandemic, she decided, “You know what? I think I want to shift everything and do a lot more of this online.”  This is such a great idea for her because not only is she able to move her business model from live to virtual, and it allows her to totally expand her market because she'll have a course as a foundation, she can guide people and coach people all around the world. She's not limited to where she can get to from a drive standpoint or how she can travel.

Getting Started on Your Course (5:10)

Those are the benefits for courses. What I would encourage you to do is before you jump in and say, "I want a course or I don't want a course", I would be thinking about your workflow, if you will.  Say, “All right now, based on how I approach my clients and what I do is there a way, first and foremost, can I use a course to expand my capacity and expand my reach?” If so, then definitely get started on a course.

Then another thing that you can think about is after you do that for a while, and you start getting some success from it and you tweak it, adjust it, then you can really look at the strategies that you need to monetize a course.

Now people do make a ton of money off of courses. The one thing that's really important though, is there's a lot of marketing that goes into it. A lot of research and testing and adjusting as I just mentioned, but also a lot of the courses that sell on their own are really more tactical, more specific, a very specific skill-building.

If what you're doing with your consulting is you could really transfer a very specific skill, that would be a great opportunity for our course. If you're looking for a more personal transformation, then think about a course as it relates to how it supports what you do, your mentoring, your coaching, your consulting, and all that kind of stuff.

You want to make sure that you match the learning modality to the transformation that you're trying to create for your clients. Hopefully, that answers some questions around courses. If you definitely want to go forward with the course, I love creating courses well, you know, I love creating content because you have seen my website. If you're here and you're watching this video either you found me on YouTube and you see how much content I love to create, or you've seen my blog, or you've seen something.

Content is like my happy little space. I would love to draw out of you your content and package it in my partner. Jen is awesome in terms of the technical support. We can definitely get you a course quickly up and going on Kajabi and you'll love it.

But either way, just start thinking about really the reason why you would want a course and how it could truly accelerate your consulting as well as your own capacity. Because remember a big thing of what we want to do is we want control over our career for sure, but also our time. This is something that you could consider that will buy you some time. Hopefully this helps. I'll talk to you soon.

Next Steps:

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