Where most coaches, consultants, freelancers and other specialists get it wrong when trying to grow their business… aka how to sell online courses, aka why selling online courses is usually not the solution….
In running my own consultancy business since 2003, I have worked with and met thousands of consultants, coaches, freelancers and other specialists.
I am always fascinated by their business story, why they started, how they started, how they have grown and where they are right now.
One thing that always shines from these conversations is a strong desire to grow their passive income side of the business, whether that be by offering group consulting or coaching, mastermind groups, membership sites or selling online courses or trainings.
All of these business owners follow successful people who have gone before them, whether that be Amy Porterfield, Daniel Priestley or Tony Robins.
They see these highly successful people talking from stage about how they have built a hugely successful business selling their ideas in a leveraged format (courses, memberships or groups) and think that they would like to do the same.
What they do not see, or do not consider, is that these people have spent decades building their following, and have email lists in the tens or hundreds of thousands of people, who have come into their world through their books or on stage speaking at numerous events.
Therefore, when they do a launch, the details of which they will share with you at one of their many webinars or on stage presentations, of course it is a huge success. The fact that they then have a huge success, brings more people into their world like you or I who would also LOVE to make a fortune doing a launch.
And that is the problem.
Most of the consultants, coaches, freelancers or other specialists I work with, do not have hundreds of thousands of people on their email list, so when they do a launch, even if they follow their favourite Gooroos traing method to the letter, only sell a handful of spaces.
And this is absolutely fine and normal.
If this has happened to you, you are not a minority, but one of the majority who I meet and speak with (and in which I include myself).
I have had launches, paid the Gooroos for the step by step training, and sold a dozen spots on my course or membership site.
I too liked the shiny bright lights and the dream of sipping cocktails on a beach whilst watching hundreds of ‘kerchings’ go off on my laptop as Debbie from Stockdale, James from Palm Beach, Andrea from Japan and Shirley from Los Angeles bought my courses, but I realised the folly of this chase stopped me from growing a very successful consulting business, that was until 2016 when several things happened at once.
My father died, I parted company with my business partner and I moved offices.
I re-evaluated everything in my business and life, mainly due to the first item on that list, my dad dying.
My business partnership had been treading water, if not going backwards, for some time, so that had to end.
But having had a business partner for eight years, I suddenly wondered if I could really do this all on my own.
What if I couldn’t and I lost everything, 13 years after starting everything from scratch?
I looked at all that I had done and analysed what worked and what didn’t.
What worked: working one on one with people and making their income grow double, treble or more consistently.
What didn’t work: trying to sell hundreds of courses or more on a launch.
I doubled down on what worked and guess what happened, soon my business income doubled and trebled as well.
I stopped chasing the shiny, ‘easy money’ launch method the Gooroos pushed, and focused on what I was really good at selling and delivering, and my business and my life changed.
And I want precisely the same for you too.
Most of use mere mortals with our unique expertise can make a very healthy six figure plus income, consistently, if we put the effort in and follow the processes and systems that make this possible.
Focus on your superpower and follow this process, and you can easily pass six figures and with automation and processes, even seven figures.
That, for most of us, is more than enough, whatever the Gooroos tell us.
- Sell what you are really good at on a one on one basis.
- Outsource, systemise and process as much of your service delivery as is humanly possible, so it doesn’t all fall on you.
- Go all in on delivering huge, measurable value for your clients.
- Document the value you have delivered in the form of case studies and success stories.
- As you gather more and more of these success stories, increase your prices (the proof of your results will make it easier and easier for you to sell your services).
- Rinse and repeat the above until you hit your desired income level. Then, by all means, play with passive income sources, but NEVER forget what pays your bills on a day to day basis. I have seen far too many people do this, nearly lose everything, then have to start all over again. Always remember that it is your one on one expertise that pays your bills (unless and until it doesn’t) so take good care of it.
