How I Built an Online Course that Makes $5M/Yr

this is me in 2017 starting my online education business with a laptop and a dream and I went on to generate [Music] $457,900 effective way to increase your income and impact by bringing it online for Global reach and it's why I've committed almost a decade of my life to helping thousands of people implement this strategy and it's also why I wanted to share a very detailed breakdown and the core principles behind the scenes of how I've actually created an online business that consistently generates more than $5 million a year year over-year which is mindblowing to

me to this day so I wanted to remove the mystery make it accessible and allow you to really implement this for yourself so if you are tired of trading hours for dollars and you know you're ready to make a bigger impact I promise you you are in the right place so I really wanted to reflect on my own journey and I recognize that there really are four core principles that create a successful online course so we're going to start with principle number one the offer when I say offer I mean online program or online course

but a sea of digital products and online courses the hardest part is making something that one people actually want to buy and two can stand the test of time so how do you make a great online course well first and foremost a great online course at the very very core of it it needs to solve a problem and I had a very obvious problem staring straight at me but it took hitting complete and utter burnout ending up in the hospital 9 years old with all the symptoms of a stroke for me to realize just how

painful this problem actually was and exactly how I could Solve IT prior to starting my online course business I was working as a consultant and I had a basically one woman marketing agency and the issue wasn't that I wasn't getting clients the issue was that I was actually getting too many so I was really good at what I did but my business model was killing me my calendar would fill up with meetings I consultations all the time straty sessions oneoff questions with clients and it got to a point where I didn't have enough time in

the day to actually work with anybody else so this created a very common trap and it's really a vicious cycle so I couldn't take on more clients because I didn't have enough time and I couldn't make more money because I couldn't bring on more clients today what I recognize and what we call this is the income and impact ceiling so this is a massive Pitfall that keeps so many people stuck even if they're really great at what they do they're getting clients but they're completely capped and they're becoming more and more burnt out trying to

sustain the current model that they have so their business becomes this time sucking trap instead of a vehicle to Freedom which is why most people become entrepreneurs in the first place so this major problem once I realized it and after I hit burnout I was on a mission to solve it I knew there had to be a better way to do business and it was actually right under my nose and ironically it was something I was already doing and had been doing for a little while so now it was time to just optimize my method

to make it even stronger and even better so the very first question I have for you is what is a problem that you can solve or have solved now the closer you are to the problem the more experience you have with it the more you can actually teach other people because you can't teach what you don't know and you can't teach what you haven't experienced for yourself or at least helped other folks get over that same problem so this may seem obvious but the reason so many course creators fail is because they approach creating an

online course from a place of let's just provide a bunch of information rather than from a place of actually solving a problem so the most effective formula for creating an online course that actually is going to sell in perpetuity is your unique expertise and experience plus a problem that needs to be solved for more than just you and a structure that allows for what we call coaching at scale so before I created the program I'm referring to right now I actually created other online courses and they were pretty successful one of them actually had over

10,000 members but with time I recognized that there were some serious infrastructure problems so a great offer needs a very specific structure so I needed to find an alternative to just a self-paced curriculum which is what my other courses had so anyone could buy it and they had access to the curriculum and they could study it at any time and that sounds easy breezy right well as that program grew because it was a course that anyone could buy and it was priced in a way that was extremely accessible the community started to grow to a

point where there were the same questions over and over and over again and there were often questions that were answered inside of the actual CC ulum but the level of investment and the ability to buy it without any barriers created chaos eventually and it came to a point where there was so much customer support that it was requiring a lot of resources for myself and my team at the time for people that weren't even really taking it that seriously so I studied researched talked to peers tested and eventually changed the model and we called this

coaching at scale because I had done you know onetoone Consulting and coaching but it left me in that same time trap because there's only so many hours in the day so I had to figure out how to go from that one toone setting to working in a setting where anyone could access my program and Implement my method on their own time in oneto one work you can customize a plan for each person you work with and every person could be coming to you for completely different reasons so in my case people wanted to work with

me in my consultancy for things like marketing and another person would want to do a book launch and another person would want a corporate social media strategy those are all different clients so when you have an online course the biggest differentiator is that you have to take your client on what we call the ideal client Journey which I'll explain in detail in the next principle but the structure of how you deliver it in a coaching at scale model looks like this so you have the curriculum that is set that is what the client can study

on their own time that answers 100% of any question they have but you also have an exclusive community of the members of that program your founder and also any team members there that are there to support guide and provide accountability and then you have two weekly coaching calls on top of that where you can actually speak directly to an expert to get past any hurdles because the curriculum is fine but in reality everybody learns differently and some people just need more support and if that's not there it's not going to work super well in the

long run so the way that I structured the sales process was also much more intentional and required more than just clicking a buy button which made a world of difference and this brings me to my next principle of how you actually sell an online course and sell it in a way that is consistent and can generate predictable Revenue year-over-year but before I dig into those details if you do have an expertise that you want to scale with an online course you can actually apply to book a free course consultation with my team so we're going

to work with you on creating a road map to create your successful course and just comment online course below and we'll drop the link for you to book that free consultation so no pressure we do vet applications because we do want to make sure that you're in the right place and you're right fit for us to be able to support you so bringing us to principle two sustainable selling I will not lie this is not an easy process and it's certainly not a quick fix but if you approach the process of sustainable selling in the

right way from the beginning you will actually create an online program that people want to buy for years to come I say this with my own experience of that so I would say that this has been the biggest key to having an online course that is wildly predictable and consistent in terms of how much revenue we generate every month so tactically I knew lots of people in my network who were struggling with the same kind of time trap that that I was struggling with Freelancers Consultants coaches Etc and they knew even more people that they

could then refer me to who also were having the same problem so it all started with a very simple text message and a DM and I just sent it out to a few of the people that I actually knew in my network and I said do you know anyone who's struggling with and fill in the blank and it's so powerful so before I even created my online course I listened to people who were struggling with the same thing that I was struggling with because I wanted to make sure that I wasn't having any black spots

and that I had full clarity on what was needed as a solution so I set up Zoom interviews I did over 50 of them with a few people that I knew but mostly I just wanted to talk to people that I didn't really have a relationship with because I wanted completely unbiased answers and that was crucial so I just asked really simple questions I asked things like what's the most painful part of your current business model or if you could wave magic wand and have a solution to this problem what would that look like for

you and describe it to me in detail and what makes getting out of the trading time for money trap urgent for you you know what about this makes you need to actually change so this process did three very crucial things for building a successful Foundation of my online course number one it created a really small like teeny tiny but targeted email list of potential clients everyone I spoke to I then added to what I would call an email list but it was actually just an Excel spreadsheet and that's how simple things were in the beginning

and I had all the information I needed to really create a curriculum that would truly impact them plus I actually understood on a very real very deep level how valuable this program would actually be for them so instead of undervaluing my expertise which I absolutely would have done I chose a price point based on what we call value-based pricing so it forces you to look at the cost to your ideal client of not having the solution you provide on a mental emotional Financial level and that creates a ton of clarity on a price point that's

actually reflective of your expertise and of the value of the program plus it really creates a lot of accountability for the ideal client to invest and take it seriously and do the work so I combined my own experience with that feedback that I got through those interviews and I created the most crucial piece to creating a successful online program and that is what I metion men earlier the ideal client Journey so it starts with what we call the zero state so this is where your client is in the most pain challenge frustrated when I was

in the hospital with that burnout and essentially it's what is the Tipping Point it's where they have to make a change and it takes them to their hero state which is where they ultimately desire to be it's really their end goal so your curriculum is what Bridges the gap between that zero and hero state so identifying this allowed me to get really clear on what we now call our transformation statement or it's also known as unique selling proposition and it looks like this so I help ideal client go from zero state to Hero state so

that they can achieve the feelings and desires associated with accomplishing that hero outcome so from there I went back to the folks that I spoke to originally in my interviews and told them I had created this solution that they were seeking and most of them were like you have read my mind this is exactly what I'm looking for so I I had eight people enroll in my first version of my online program even before it was created and I told them this would be the only time I was delivering the curriculum to such a small

group in a live setting and I was offering a discount to them for being one of my first clients so from there I delivered and tested the curriculum live as I built it out each week to see what was working what wasn't what pieces of the curriculum weren't necessary and if I needed to rearrange the order of it so once I had delivered the curriculum I asked my clients for feedback and testimonials which I had also been collecting through the entire delivery of the curriculum and I had my first pieces of proof and results that

what I was teaching was actually working it was the foundation of I have a great course here so from there my only job was to Market and sell and I was accumulating you know all of this data that I needed to hit these predictable income months and I'm going to talk more about that in a second because you really need to focus on data to be able to create consistent revenue and so from building other courses in the past as I mentioned before I knew that I wanted to vet people because I wanted to know

before they came into the program they were a great fit because the health of the community was so crucial to the long-term success because of mistakes that I made in the past so I Ed the same strategy I used to set up my research calls and found folks who were struggling with being great at what they did but being capped by a ceiling and got them onto free consultation calls and on those calls I would truly actually listen to them so that by the end of the call I'd really be like the doctor and I

would go okay I now can diagnose this person and know if this is actually what they need or if it's not so I knew if the person was going to be a good fit if they're actually going to do the work and take it seriously and if I felt they were then I would actually invite them into the program and with more calls and more data you know that allowed me to start to see patterns so I knew that if I had a minimum of five consultation calls each month i' would close at least two

of them and from there I was so clear on who I did want to work with and who I didn't so I created an application process that people could go through in order to get onto a call with me so I wasn't just speaking with anybody because that obviously takes up a lot of time so this created much higher quality leads and a much higher conversion rate and clients who are actually taking the work seriously so listen as a little side note there will always be people who seem like a perfect fit and then get

in the program and decide to skip steps or do the bare minimum or complain about how hard it is that's unavoidable in this kind of business but the more you can vet people the higher quality your community will be and the better the results will be and it may sound bizarre because I could have sold a lot more people into the program especially in the beginning but if I got the wrong people in who weren't going to do the work that would kill the business truly truly truly that kills the business it's like short-term success

but long-term pain so that's what I want to get into detail in in the third principle so principle three is results so a golden Ru business that I have learned in the over a decade of doing this is that if you have a great offer that actually works you don't need to put nearly as much effort into marketing or selling which is really wonderful so as I mentioned from the beginning I focused on proof that the program actually worked by collecting feedback and testimonials and screenshots and videos and that has remained my main focus our

M main focus ever since to the point where a few years ago we actually created an entire YouTube channel as a test that only featured our client results and it's been a massive success so sharing that proof with prospective clients led to a higher level of trust to make the investment I know you don't have that from day one but the sooner you start collecting results the better so in terms of marketing our online course the process started mostly with like the onetoone conversations and interactions and referrals to build that base of our first clients

and to start really generating more and more proof by having clients follow theide ideal client Journey we laid out and that I spoke about in principle too so if you're thinking well where did you find your ideal clients it was actually really simple because I knew exactly how they thought and where they were hanging out and what their activities were based on my experience with the research calls that I did earlier in the process and I'm telling you without that process I would have had a very very hard time finding consistent clients and because I

focused on just having conversations not every person was ready or even at the right place where they were fit for the program at that time but if they were a good lead I continued to add them to my email list or my spreadsheet and nurture them and this allowed me to have this pipeline potential clients which also allowed me to not have to Market as hard because I didn't need to only focus on getting new new new new new leads and when I had a whole pipeline of folks who would eventually invest I was really

in a secure spot so it set me up for a pipeline New Leads and this security blanket of clients moving forward so from there I had even more confidence in our offer and that's when I set up our Evergreen marketing machine and there's no way not a chance I could have done this and have it actually work if I wasn't clear on that transformation statement we talked about earlier that is truly the basis of every marketing asset and piece of content you will ever create in the business if it isn't clear nothing will work so

the first machine looked like this it was very simple it was YouTube call to action free consultation and they would either become a client or not based on the conversation that we had and me deciding if they were fit or not from there as traffic started to build up I then implemented what we call the content scaling funnel so it looks like this so we have the top of the funnel which is really for more broad beginner topics that would appeal to people who are more so at the very beginning stages of their journey of

seeking out a solution they're not in that urgent pain and for them you just want to focus on nurturing them so we would offer them like a free guide or a free PDF and then the middle of the funnel that's for warmer leads so once I had these assets built out then I would offer them something like a webinar and then the bottom of the funnel for the hottest leads I would just send them directly to book a call and that was important because if they were in that pain in urgency and they're going on

to YouTube seeking out a solution and I'm saying hey I'm here to help they would be so apt and ready to actually speak to somebody who could really help them and my content on YouTube was warming them up and providing value to them to go oh I actually really can trust this person and they seem like they know what they're talking about so the biggest thing to remember though is if you don't have a webinar and you don't have a PDF or a guide or something that you can give to people at each level of

of the funnel just focus on getting people to book a consultation call with you because that's going to generate leads and even if they aren't you know the right fit now and they're more so in the colder bucket still are going to benefit from speaking to you and they can then get added to that pipeline of potential clients which again allows you to Market less because then you have this security blanket of folks who are going to want to eventually become a client because you've actually taken the time to listen to them nurture them provide

value to them and the whole Automated machine when you bring this all together and you have everything you kind of need it starts with YouTube because on YouTube it is search-based marketing people are seeking out the solution that you can provide so they land on your video you give them a call to action to let's say it's a lead magnet of some kind a webinar or a eBook then they get onto your email list you use email marketing to nurture them provide value to them get them to book a call eventually and then you can

offer up that free consultation and they then become a client or not based on your conversation with them if you think they're a good fit you can invite them in if they're not then you simply don't or you invite them in at a later date so by making content that I knew addressed my ideal clients pain points I was attracting New Leads s all day every day through YouTube So Not only was I attracting leads because I was providing valuable content that was helpful for them but I was also attracting leads because I was featuring

things like social proof and results and testimonials from the very beginning in every aspect of the machine from my videos to my emails so if I haven't harped on this enough results are a key part of building a successful marketing machine which is obviously a more part of creating this Evergreen successful online course business but it isn't as easy as it might sound so if you want to know exactly how to do this and create this for yourself this is something that we teach in detail inside of our program and so click the link as

I mentioned earlier in the description for a free consultation call so we can provide the guidance that you need and really understand how we can best support you with your goals so you can either comment online course below or you can just click the link in the description so let's dig into principle 4 word of mouth so even though you could have the fanciest marketing machine in the world nothing beats the power of word of mouth and Word of Mouth doesn't happen if you don't have a great offer which is why when people skip over

that first principal their course might have this like teeny tiny short stint of success but it really won't last long results really are everything so the clients who were happy with our program they started to naturally refer strangers to the program and this created this self-sustaining and completely organic marketing process which was incredible for our growth and with time it became super clear okay we now know exactly how many leads we need per month to hit our targets and create this super predictable Revenue to then scale from and once we had an understanding of that

we could then invest back into the growth of the business so with more clients came more capital and after focusing entirely on organic marketing and that's still our main focus we started to invest into a little bit of paid advertising so we still don't do a ton like a ton ton of paid ads especially in comparison with most people in the industry but it does allow us another layer of lead gen on top of those organic efforts so as you scale the business having that added layer of I would call it security makes a lot

of sense but I would never not in a million years invest in paid ads for an offer that I didn't have a ton of results or proof for because if you do that it's like throwing money into a dumpster fire you need to have Clarity on your client on your messaging and of course you need to have results to do this properly so as the business grew and we continued to scale I of course I'm not doing it alone I'm investing back into the business so I was able to grow a team so that I

could focus on what I was best at and what I wanted to do versus what I had to do and that is the freedom that I was seeking total freedom of choice and how I spend my time and where I put my energy and effort I love what I do I like to work but it's really nice to have the choice on how I do it and to this day these four core principles are what keep our online course business running and it's what actually is the engine behind all of our clients course businesses as

well so we really call the engine or the flywheel that runs an online education business so it starts with the offer the transformational program then you have enrollments which is that sustainable selling then you have transformations once the client is inside the program and does the work which is results and then you have Word of Mouth and those referrals that bring in more people in a completely organic way and as I mentioned this is for one online course I truly treat our course as an entire business and from by experience trying to grow two three

five seven businesses at once is a losing battle so we focus on one courses are living entities and as much as people can study the curriculum on their own time you will inevitably need to make changes and do updates over time so having more than one in addition to the support that you're providing creates a lot of chaos and it eats up a lot of time which completely defeats the whole purpose of creating an online education business in the first place and getting into entrepreneurship in the first place so if you have a great offer

and a reliable way to get new leads you have what I mentioned at the beginning of this video number one one something people actually want to buy and number two a program that can stand the test of time and that leads to longevity and that is the purpose of this business model it's to truly create what we call a legacy business that can create an income and an impact even if you're not around it is this really fascinating ripple effect that happens and this is how we've gone from those first a clients to thousands of

clients in over 47 different countries all over the world which is mindblowing and I am not sitting here saying this has been easy but it is simple we have a very simple business model that works on repeat but of course it takes work and it takes dedication it takes Focus for me though the mission of what I'm creating fuels my excitement of continuing to do it so above all else I really do believe that your purpose has to outweigh getting paid because this is a super profitable business model you can run it in a very

lean way but you're if you're only in it for the money you're going to quit I promise you so like I said earlier if you have knowledge or expertise that you really want to scale with an online course there is a link below this video and you can apply to book a free consultation with my team where we're going to work with you on creating a road map to creating your successful online course and if you want to also just comment below with online course we'll drop the link for you to book that consultation call

uh no pressure uh but we do bet the application so I think it's important that you know as I mentioned earlier we want to make sure that you're in the right place for us to really be able to support you so we do bet those applications here's the thing you don't have to just take it from me cuz sometimes that's not enough so I want you to check out this video next to see how our strategy allowed this family to escape bankruptcy and travel the world while building their online course business it's really really incredible

so check that out next and I'll see you in the next video thanks by