Speaker 1: Hey, lovely people. This is Natalie Sisson, and I'm super excited for you to go from your side hustle to self-employed. And that's why today I want to teach you one really awesome way to do that, which is all about the four steps to launch your online course and get paid to be you. So here's what you're going to learn in the next 30 minutes. Why now more than ever is the best possible time to launch your online course. The number one reason most first-time launches fail and how you can avoid this from the get-go and my four step methodology to pre-sell your course, before you've even created it, which might sound a little crazy, but hold on to your horses, we're going to show you how so, who the heck am I? Well, hi, I'm Natalie Sisson. I'm an online business strategist and coach an author, a speaker, a podcaster, a teacher, a student, and a lover of handstands, and I've designed and created and sold my first course, back in 2010, I had 30 people turn up to a webinar.

Speaker 1: I made one sale at $297 for the social media bootcamp and I was over the moon. And since then I've launched over 30 online courses to the tune of 600,000 in sales and even better 80% profit margin. So I'd like to think I know a thing or two about launching and have continued to evolve as times have changed. And as people have become savvier and has online learning has absolutely blossomed. So for many launches through to the full shebang, I've done it all. And along the way, I've learned so many things that you really need to do to rock a launch, as well as some awesome screw ups and failures. Um, so there's a lot you don't need to do during launch. And I feel like I've done them all. If you're wondering where the accent's from, it's New Zealand, where I'm currently based one of the best places in the world to be based right now in the world.

Speaker 1: I have over 800 students from all of these courses. Actually, I think that's gone up even more and it's their amazing feedback that honestly keeps me designing and teaching more. My first freedom plan course launched in 2014, maybe more in 48 hours than I used to earn. And my first job in a year, which was pretty crazy. Um, and what's more, the profit from these courses has allowed me to grow my team, expand my business. And by three investment properties, one of which was in Portugal. I actually just sold that last year, which was brilliant timing, got all the profit for it before all the Airbnb income disappeared, thanks to COVID. Um, and it's really, really set me up super well. So I'm a huge fan of courses because it has allowed me so much more financial freedom and also a lot of joy in teaching that's me outside my house in Portugal, by the way, when I just bought it.

Speaker 1: So online courses can give you the opportunity to dream big, the purpose to show up and change lives, impetus to create what you want to see in the world and confidence to teach what, you know, as well as the ability to earn an extra income stream, the potential to build a digital course business or even, and the ability to achieve financial freedom. So, yeah. Why is now more than ever the best possible time to launch your online course? I think it's a little bit like that saying of when's the best time to plant a tree was a hundred years ago and the second best time is now. So even though you may think that every single person on their horse I've got a thing on horses today is launching their course. There is still room for more, and I'll tell you why learning is at an all time.

Speaker 1: High people are hungry to learn. They want to learn how to up-skill re-skill and stay relevant. And you probably do it too. With all education going online during the pandemic, people are way more confident with e-learning versus when I started out, it wasn't actually that common internet connectivity is improving all the time, making it just way easier to access and learning online has been proven to be 40 to 60% more effective than in classrooms as you can go through it faster. Right? So these are the part of the reasons why people want to learn online. And here's this an example of global education going online. This is schools obviously, but the amount of people who suddenly were able to learn online in 2019 and 2020 was just crazy. So this is something that is common to people. Now there's so much more useful and useful online courses are more profitable.

Speaker 1: So in short, this means that there's more revenue for you. Research it's forecast show that online Bern learning will grow to 350 billion by 2025, 350 billion. I want a piece of that, and that is triple the growth by the way, since 2015, triple the growth. So this is a huge market to be in. Um, one of my favorite course platforms, protea, which I use to host all my courses, um, stated that the online course market alone is worth $50 billion and growing. So this may seem quite astounding to you, but it's happening right before our eyes. And I would love for you to get in on that yet. The average cost of content creation and delivering is declining. I actually worked briefly for a learning company in New Zealand and the cost of creating modules and resources and video animations, et cetera, was so astoundingly expensive, um, compared to what I could put together a really good looking course with. So that's the beauty of being able to do this. You can do this just like I am right now using loom and a podcast mic and record courses this way from your computer with internet. I mean, it can't get any simpler and there are more platforms to choose from with better options and prices. When I started out again, there were quite a few. Now there's just a plethora of online course platforms, all with pros and cons, but every single range within your budget. It's amazing.

Speaker 1: And again, this is just an example of those, um, e-learning global sales and just the growth in the last, uh, five years and what they're also predicting, which is nuts and it's only going to increase. And the other thing is that people are prepared to undress, right? Free doesn't mean better. You may think that every single person is giving away stuff for free, but people are actually prepared to pay for specific skills and their niche. They want to customize courses. The more customized, the better they're willing to invest more if this access to community coaching or advanced options as well, and lifelong learners are keen to keep upskilling and buy from you. So you don't just get them in one course, you can keep creating courses that help them to learn and advance and then want to learn from real people, not gurus that's you and that's me, which is pretty awesome.

Speaker 1: Look at how excited she is about that. Okay. So do you have an idea for your course, as I'm talking, if you're listening into the session, if you're watching it, then hopefully you want to create a course. So can you let me know in the chat? Um, I'd really, really love to know. And so would Shannon, I'm always curious to see, and the range of courses out there is in credible. One of the largest grossing courses to sales in 2020 was sourdough bread. How to make sourdough bread, because I guess everybody was in lockdown or at home, um, sales around courses that helped you do things at home. DIY cooking, renovating, um, would just massive. So there's always opportunities. And I'm talking about somebody who was making 80 to $90,000, teaching people how to make bread, don't underestimate what people are prepared to pay for and learn.

Speaker 1: Okay. Number two. And what I'm teaching you today is the number one reason most first time, not just fail and how you can avoid this from the get-go hint. I did this to myself. Um, most people are guilty of it it's that they're created in an ivory tower. I don't know if you know what an ivory tower is, but essentially, um, you're really disconnected from what you'll learn is really, really want. You're sitting up there in your ivory tower a bit like maybe the King used to do. And you're saying, this is what the people want. I just know it. I know what they want, and this is what they shall receive without actually asking people, what is your number one challenge? What are you struggling with? What can I teach you? You think your course idea is really great. Maybe you've come up with something already on this call.

Speaker 1: Maybe had it before you came into it. And you're like, yeah, this is awesome. Um, but you have maybe not run it by anyone at all. So you don't know if it's that awesome, this and you're headed it, which is great because most of the time your intuition is pretty bang on, but if you can't test it and validate it, you don't know. And then what you do is you spend hours and hours creating it. This is what I do with my face goals. I took workshop that I'd done in person and it had gone really well. And then I decided, of course, that would translate really well to an online course. And I spent 40 hours over a couple of weeks recording every single slide in that workshop and redoing a two day bootcamp into an online course. And it was painful. That was the one that I made one sale of on that webinar.

Speaker 1: I went on to sell more, but I don't think if you would actually look at the numbers that it was worth my time at the time. And then you go and launch this thing that you've spent hours and hours creating in your ivory tower and you get crickets. Does this sound familiar again? Let me know in the chat, if you've, if you've ever tried to launch anything, actually, but specifically an online course or a workshop maybe, and there's just been like a zero interest or so little engagement that is really, really massively disappointing. So the thing is that you don't include enough of you. These are the mistakes that a lot of people, Hey, most people buy courses from you because you resonate with them. You are relatable, you share your story, you show them how you've done this. People always like to see where you've come from and how you've done it yourself.

Speaker 1: You make it possible for them. You're a leading learners. One of my favorite sayings and ways and beings of showing up, which is you don't have to be a guru or an expert. You just need to be a couple of steps ahead of the person behind you. So you are leading as you learn, and then you're teaching people as you go, and you simply need to be you the unique unicorn that you are just like that. So those are a couple of the mistakes that I see people making with their courses. So if you want to avoid a launch flop, tell me in the chat, because it actually is, this is one of my favorite things in the world to do as launch courses. I love the thrill of it. I love the strategy behind it. I love all the moving parts. I love the action you get to take.

Speaker 1: I love creating. I love engaging people. I love learning about them. Um, but I've had my fair share of flops. Not, not too many, fortunately, but actually the flops are the ones I learned the most from. Um, and I would love for you to avoid one, to be honest, having a blog, not that much fun, um, had a massive failure a couple of years ago, just totally misread what I thought people wanted, tried to change. One of my most successful courses ever. Didn't have my heart in it fully, which is a whole other story. And it was just a massive flop and failure. And it really set me back. But I have since learned the biggest and best lessons from that, which I applied to everything with great success. So in some ways it was the best failure to have, cause it taught me so much.

Speaker 1: So tell me in the chat, if you want to avoid a launch flop and we will hopefully help you do that. So how are we going to do that? My four step methodology to pre-sell your course, before you've even created it. And if this sounds like really random to you, trust me, this is the best way to validate a course before you go through the headache of trying to create this amazing thing. And so few people teach this because I think they think that, you know, like if you're busy creating this course, then surely it's going to sell and it just doesn't work like that. So I want to save you the pain and I want to make this a fun and awesome experience so that you become a course creator, Ninja and love every moment of it. So the first thing you got to do is validate your course idea and your ideal audience. Now often this is because you are going to look at your sweet spot, which is the intersection between what you're good at, what you love doing or good at doing. What's meaningful to you. And obviously what people will pay you for.

Speaker 2: So

Speaker 1: If you have no idea what you want to teach right now, or maybe you have a bit of an idea at the best way to go about this is look at your skills and experience and ask yourself, what can you teach? Like, what are you talking to people about all the time that comes naturally to you? Um, what do you know already and what would you just love to share? You also want to look at your audience's struggles, people in your community, your ideal clients, what are they need help with? That's usually the answer there. And then what is your profit potential? What are people already buying? Because if there's already a course out there that you want to create, and in fact, if there's several of them, then it's highly likely, this is an area that people need a lot of help with. And once again, it comes back to you and your unique way of teaching it, which is going to set you apart.

Speaker 1: So it doesn't matter if there are other courses on this, the way in which you show up and teach us is going to be the thing that sets you apart and allows people to go. I want that course and also what lights you up. So that's the, what is meaningful to you, right? So what actually lights you up? You don't want to be teaching something that seems like it's going to make you a lot of money, but actually bores the heck out of you. Then you want to go into step two, which is building your email list and early buzz. Now, this is the thing. When I teach my launch, it am course accelerator that people leave till the last minute. And even if people have zero people on their email list or a very tiny audience, it's incredible what you can actually sell. I've seen people with a hundred percent email lists make $10,000 on their first launch because they have so nailed down what it is that their clients are struggling with or their community are struggling with. And then they've come up with the ideal solution. So you don't need to have a big, big audience, but you do need to be building early buzz and letting people know about what you're doing.

Speaker 2: So

Speaker 1: If you already have an email list, one of the biggest things is to start engaging with them. If you've stopped, if you send a newsletter every month or every two, or are you already sporadic with it, this is the time to start getting disciplined and show up more and start communicating with them, showing your personality, sharing what's going on and offering a ton of value. Same goes through social media if you've been silent on there. Um, and you're really, you know, you haven't been on live for a while. You don't have a strategy, pick one platform and just show up on it consistently and commit to turning up and offering great value and teaching and just being you and being real. But don't be a stranger. Which groups are you part of where your ideal clients are that you can actually engage in their, go to where people already are, go to that watering hole, um, hang out with them and bring them back to your place for the nightcap.

Speaker 1: That's I always used to talk about it in blogs, as well as you want to go out to these big nightclubs or these big blogs or these big platforms, and you want to be the life of the party and bring them back to your place for a nightcap sounds so odd, but that is what will be attractive to people. That's what will attract people to you. And what about existing or past customers or clients that could be interested? You know, I know a lot of people who have credit courses who offered services and then those people had taken up their services and then they wanted more. They wanted to learn on the side. For example, website designers, courses for website designers are great. They're also a great thing to have your customers do before they start working with you so that they know how best to work with you and get the most out of it.

Speaker 1: And that's just one example. There's lots of other places where you can do this, where some of your customers might want the next step, or just want to keep learning with you. And what is your content strategy to seed interest? Again, I see people going all out and doing all the things and kind of throwing spaghetti at the wall instead of sticking with what they know and what they're comfortable with. So if you like writing, or if you prefer podcasts, or if you like videos, there's so many ways to get yourself out there to seed interest, get people excited, um, create buzz without going over the top. You just need to be strategic about it. And again, it's always about the people you're trying to teach, where are they? Where are they hanging out? How can you meet them there? The third step is launch market and pre-sell your course.

Speaker 1: Again, I know people get really scared about this. Pre-sell like, how can I sell something just off a sales page before I've even created it? And my answer is quite easily in my methodology. Um, but the point behind this is that you do not need to design your entire course, for sure you want the skeleton of what you would teach in it. You need a name for it and a value proposition and some understanding of what you're going to teach, but that is literally it. You don't need to create the whole curriculum. You just need an understanding of the steps or the courses and the modules or the lessons, and you don't need to record and produce the course before you sell it a hundred percent not needed. I know it's crazy, right? You need to pre sell it. That is get people signing up on the sales page that you've created lovingly.

Speaker 1: I have a, um, a method for a sales page that really, really works as 12 steps, but it's amazing. And you'll be surprised you put that out after you seeded all this interest and people buy at that point with your, like a beta launch, your course, that you haven't even created yet. Then you know, you're onto something. And if enough people buy to make it profitable for you and to make it worth doing, then you are off and running. And if they don't, you can offer an alternative like coaching or one-on-one something instead. But I can guarantee if you've gotten to this point and you've done all the things, all the research, all the validation, you know, you are going to pre-sell this course, and it feels amazing to start creating your course live with them. Even though you've already received money upfront, like it's one of the best feelings in the world.

Speaker 1: It makes you more motivated to do it and to deliver even more value. And it's proof that people want this course. And then you create and deliver your course. And I'm a huge fan of doing this live. And I know that this might freak some of you out who are watching, but I don't necessarily mean you have to turn up on video live, but you can do group calls live, or you can create it in the week that it's going out. For example, if you have a full week course, you can create each module each week as you go. And one of the beauties of doing this is that you actually get to understand how people are resonating with it. So you can teach it live on a zoom call for example, or you can just do the modules as you go. But also you can adjust to the learning styles of your students.

Speaker 1: You might, might have tried to include too much. And now you realize it's too complex and you want to, um, you know, bring that back to the basics and your students will actually be able to tell you what they think of the content as you create it. So you can adjust. You can also make sure that they need what you're teaching. So again, it's about listening to them, what's working for them. What can you deliver more of? And you get to change and create so long as you're still offering amazing value in the transformation that you promised. And when you're done, you have an online course that is now ready to continue selling either live or an evergreen or forever more that people can come and buy this course. So that's the beauty of it. So my question to you is why haven't you launched your course yet if you've been considering this for a year or two or more, or it's just an idea that you've had and watching this, just tell me in the check, cause I'm always so curious to know what it is that holds people back.

Speaker 1: I think I probably have all the excuses in the world just from myself and my own personal experience. Um, when I was wanting to start, although I did just dive in, to be honest, I'm a big fan of taking action, but I also know from my students, what holds them back. And sometimes it's the smallest things. Like I'm not great with tech. So therefore I could never do this, which is not a valid reason, by the way, I'll show you why, um, if you join the accelerator, but also just the platforms are so much easier to use these days. Um, a lot of other fears that people have is that I don't actually have anything to teach. Um, my knowledge isn't valuable, which again, I would a hundred percent disagree with. We are often the worst judges of what we actually know. We sometimes don't even realize how much depth of knowledge we have until we start teaching it. And we certainly, aren't usually our biggest advocates for what we actually can share with people. And it's when other people say, Oh my gosh, you're so good at teaching that or doing this that we actually start to realize, huh? I have some skills in that. So those are just some of the examples that people have along with, it's going to cost money. I don't have time. I'm worried. It will fail. You know, I a hundred percent here, but let me know in the chat, why haven't you launched your course yet?

Speaker 1: So here's the truth. Launching your online course is the most rewarding thing you will do this year. If you choose to go on this journey, I can promise you that owning a digital course, prisoners is the single most powerful and exciting way to make an impact in the world while growing your income. Mainly because you just have so much flexibility in what you can create so long as it's based on what your clients need. And I just find that fascinating. It's like the number of courses you could create over time is never ending the reality. However, is that you're telling yourself stories that don't serve you right now. Who am I to launch a course? I'm no expert. I don't know enough about anything in particular to create a course. Let me know if these ringing true in the chat, why would someone pay me to teach them what I know I had the same question, my experience isn't unique.

Speaker 1: And besides there are heaps of others doing this, right? How can I market it? This one, I don't even have a big list. Hopefully I've debunked that. And I have no idea what to charge. I mean, how do I put a value on this? You, my friend can do this and succeed when you have constraints on your time with deadlines. So like you say, I'm going to watch us in the next two months, commitment to blocking calendar time to do the work. Otherwise it will never get done. And by the work, I mean the marketing and the validating and the building buzz. It's great. If you have somebody to hold you accountable, you know, pick a friend, a colleague, if you're part of a mastermind, if there's somebody, um, throughout the summit that you've connected with, ask them to check in on you and hold you accountable.

Speaker 1: Like-minded people who are on the journey with you always way more fun to do with people as you're going, because you could start to see their results. And it really, really builds confidence and motivation for you and strategic and personalized guidance from a leading learner. Somebody who knows what they're talking about and has done this before. And trust me, there are a lot of people online who are great at creating courses and teach this on one of them. There are many others and all of us have different styles and experiences. And you get to pick the person that resonates with you and a learning environment that encourages curiosity and a safe space to ask your questions. These are the things that I really wish I had when I started out. I just did it by myself. I read some blog posts. I just figured it out.

Speaker 1: I struggled with the tech. I struggled with everything, but I was so determined to turn this into a course and looking back I'm like now I wish I had just kind of like if there was a course back then on how to launch a course, I would have taken it, which is why I created the launch. Your course, 60 day accelerator, my baby, something I'm super proud of. I have run seven cohorts of this course. Um, and it's been incredible to see the students get results and to see them go from literally an idea to a fully launched course that they have been paid for before they've even created it. If you are curious, I am starting this, this match first, and it's going to be awesome. It's 60 days for you to turn up, show up and make this happen. So head across to Natalie system.com forward slash accelerator for the full details, I will just say that it is a live accelerator.

Speaker 1: So you will be going through this live with me, which is one of those things around constraints and a timeline. There's nothing that moves you more than actually knowing you've got a date to do this. And I promise you that you will have sold at least one spot on your course before you've even created it. If you follow my methodology, um, use the beautiful Facebook group and the momentum and the coaching calls that I offer. It's super exciting to see people do this, especially when they start. So what you'll learn is much more detail on how to validate your course idea and ideal audience. I've only just touched the surface on it today. Didn't even go into any of the tips for it all about how to build your email list and early buzz, the exact way in which to do that, how to launch market and pre-sell your course, and then actually getting you to create and deliver your course live before we finish up the accelerator and people make this happen.

Speaker 1: I kid you not. And you'll be doing this alongside your fellow friends who are part of this accelerator. And just as committed to making this as happen as you are, you also get online group coaching with me for calls and total co-working sessions to implement in between those goals, our core course community who was so supportive and lovely. It's a Facebook group and accountability and support by me. And this is something that I think I probably undersell is that I will answer your emails. I will shoot you short looms to give you answers to your questions. I will review sales pages. I am constantly in this group and pro your success. You also get a weekly accountability, email, a launch mindset, call and email promotion templates. And we've got even more templates this year, which is super exciting to make this a plug and play kind of course for you.

Speaker 1: Um, we've had some amazing results. I'll just whip through them. People making $1,500 in revenue. After two years of wanting to launch the course two and a half years, Roxanne smashing it with real estate course that she just was so surprised to make that money. Um, Emma getting 10 times her return on investment and she's just launched recently and already got 10 people and tripled her price. So it's super exciting. I would love, love, love for you to come and join my launch. Your course accelerator either way. I wish you so much success in launching your course hit me up. If you have any questions here's to your success. Thank you.