3 Tips for Creating Online Courses with Melody Johnson
Branding with Friends | Episode 9
Featuring Expert Guest: Founder of The Course Consultant, Melody Johnson
Watch or listen to the video interview below or scroll down to read the transcription.
Meet Melody Johnson, Founder of The Course Consultant
Annie: Today I'm excited to introduce you to one of my new friends in the business world. If you are curious about whether you should create an online course for your coaching or consulting practice, you are going to totally dig today's episode.
My guest today is the amazing and dynamic melody Johnson. Melody is the founder of The Course Consultant, an online learning agency that helps small business owners scale their business through online training and courses. She is also the podcast host of The Course Consultant’s Show, where she interviews course creators and talks about small business tips.
Melody has a master's degree in instructional design and has spent the last five years in education and the past five years in education and corporate training. After spending time helping large corporations develop training material, she now has a passion for helping service-based businesses scale with online training and courses.
Melanie, I'm so glad you're here. Thank you so much for joining us
Melody: Thank you so much for having me Annie.I'm so excited to be here.
Annie: I'm so glad that you're gonna be here to talk to our audience today about online courses. So this is something I get questions about all the time. I know you're going to be sharing your top three tips for service business owners. What can they do to grow their business right now? Are online courses a good fit.
As we're gearing up for this first tip, I think a great place for us to start would be to ask you, if you're a coach or consultant, what is the right time in your practice to be creating an online course?
#1 Action TIP
Identify your ideal client for your course
Melody: I find that a lot of the people that I work with are coaches and consultants, as you mentioned, what I find often is the case where coaches are really overbooked on their calendars. They're becoming really fatigued from all of the one on one work that they're completing. And maybe they even have a group coaching program or, pre-COVID, they're going to live sessions and training and having seminars, or they're coming up and they're gearing up for a book relaunch or a new book. A lot of the times I find that these coaches have a good base and an audience to launch to.
Of course, that being said, you don't need to have a huge email list of over 10,000 people to launch a course if you have a solid base to work from. And they're actively engaged with you on social media platforms, connecting through networking, conferences, etc. These are just great ways for you to see what those pain points are that your customers or clients have. And that way you can solve it through a solution, which I'll be talking about in just a few minutes.
Annie: Some people are going oh, yes, yes. And I'll just add from my branding perspective, a lot of people come to me and say, “oh, I want to do a course”. And I think you've just laid out some great things you want to be looking for, which is you're tired of one-to-one work, you are successful, you do have some of an audience. I think you make a great point that that audience doesn't mean to be thousands. I don't have a thousands of people in my audience right now. More like hundreds and that's just fine. It's about loyalty of audience and how engaged they are and what you're doing. But you know, you don't start at creating a course to create an audience. Right? You listen to your audience first.
I think that's a perfect place for us to start. As a reminder on Branding with Friends, if you've never watched an episode, we're going to share three tips today. And Melody is going to share two, and then we're going to save that third tip for the end. So make sure to listen all the way through or watch all the way through to make sure you get all the value you possibly can from Melody, and she's got a special gift for us as well.
That being said, thinking about our audience, what is the first thing you would tell a service business owner that they need to keep in mind for an online course
Start with the basics. Who are you serving?
Melody: I like to think in terms of the learning perspective, so as you have kind of mentioned, I have my master's degree in instructional design. So I like to think about learning from this perspective of your brain, right?
When your brain is trying to process information, there's only so much information that you can process at a time, right? So I actually really love to coach people through the process of creating a course because when you're first starting the first question that comes into people's minds is where do I even start?
I always say, let's start with the most basic question: Who is it that you are serving? And I know it sounds very elementary, but it is actually very fundamental to your success, because of the fact that you need to know not only from a marketing perspective, that's where Annie comes in with her amazing branding, but also from a learning perspective. What's the age range that you're trying to target? What's their previous knowledge about the subject? Also, is there an interest in the subject? What are their pain points about that? And so understanding your audience is really going to be key in creating not only the marketing assets that you need but of course, also the main curriculum and the content that you need to actually import into your course.
Annie: It's like a deceptively simple thing, right? Oh, I need to talk about my audience, but I want to talk about my course. You know, who is it for? Is the age-old question. I feel like it should be written on the cave somewhere - like for the caveman, “Who is your ideal client?”
It's an age-old question. And it's one that I know a lot of my business owners, a lot of people in my audience don't like to answer. It's uncomfortable. And it feels like oh, well, can I serve everyone. I can serve a wider audience.
I've been joking it as we've done more episodes, this is going to be episode nine, I believe, of Branding with Friends. And it comes up almost every single conversation that you can't serve everyone, you have to pick somebody, but you get some permission with that. Because when you pick someone you can thrive and I think that's what you're saying about an online course. Don't build online course for everyone, build it for one type of person - like Jenny, if Jenny was your favorite client and Jenny had specific pain points.
You know, there's so much out in the world. We live in a very saturated world. Lots of people are online now. What is it you're going to offer? And how's it going to stand out? And how are you going to build great marketing for it?
You're going to have to pick and that's why it's perfectly aligned with primary ideal client, I would say you have to PIC. So you know, we're going to rename the show. Instead of Branding with Friends, it’s going to be PIC, Pick a Primary Ideal Client.
If that is sort of where we start if we're thinking of creating an online course: who is it for? What are their pain points? What should we do next?
#2 ACTION TIP
Develop your unique selling point for that course
Melody: I think not only is this going to tie into the course creation process, but I think this is just a general tip. When we're creating a course we're creating, essentially a digital product. And so what you want to do just like any product, is actually find out what your unique selling point is.
For example, you have your competitors out there, and it's okay to have competitors. You don't have to be the next Zuckerberg and come out with Facebook or you don't have to create something from scratch that nobody has created before.
Oftentimes, I find that people are afraid to create a course because they feel that it's already been done. But the thing is that everyone has a unique selling point. Everyone has that proposition that makes them stand out from another person.
For example, I have several different financial coaches that I've created courses for. And I had somebody ask me, aren't you afraid that they're competing in some way? And I said, well, no, because they're actually very different because this person's talking about emotions and money, and this person is talking about budgeting. So it's completely different.
When you're thinking about your unique selling point, you really have to do market research. And so when we're talking about market research, we're going to look online, do a simple Google search, find out who your competitors are online, see if they have a similar product, and really research to say, what will make my product stand out? What is the solution that I have that will help me stand out from the crowd? And then, of course, there's a lot of other optimization you can do in terms of SEO work, social media strategy, etc. But specifically at the fundamental level, we're looking at trying to find is how is your story unique? Is it your experience, maybe it's your certification, or perhaps it's something else. Maybe you even have a trademark or you're thinking about creating a trademark, anything that's really going to help set you apart is really going to help you build out that program. So you're not actually thinking about that at the end. Because that's really going to help you when you're marketing.
Annie: Right? You want to bake it in, right? Like it means you can't add chocolate chips or chocolate chip cookies without putting them in the batter first in the dough. I tend to just eat the dough, but that's me. Not safe, not safe. But now I want cookie dough.
One of the ways I talk about this with clients that I think really connects to that is value. I think people think it's about what makes you special. But it's really about what makes you valuable to the person that needs your course, your ideal client, your ideal customer for your course, your ideal student. What is it's that’s making you valuable. That is what you need to lean into. And if you don't know that, then don't create a course yet. Right?
Also, find out who your competitors are. I hear a lot of pushback about competitors. Oh, I don't pay attention to that. It's important to be aware of what else is out there so that you can do this. It's not to kind of rip other people off or be this weird thing. It's really more about differentiating yourself to your point.
Melody: And again, as I mentioned, I know that there are other people that make courses out there. I know that there are other people who have a course about creating courses, so I'm not unique in that essence. And honestly, there's enough space out there for all of us. And so I'm not trying to steal somebody else's light. And I don't want coaches to feel that they're stealing somebody else's light. What you're doing is you're just presenting an option for the market to choose. And that I think is what makes having a small business so exciting because there is space for all of us.
Annie: I think that's really beautifully said and made me really excited, which is why I was like yes. And I think it's it's the difference of having in abundance versus this scarcity mindset. If you think that, “oh, I can't do this, because this other person has a course.”
You provided a great example, financial advisors having these courses. It's like, there's already a course on budgets. Of course, there's probably like 1000 courses on that, but not one that you've created for your audience. Right? No one has your story. And you are this kind of world of experiences and voices and the books you've read and the education that you have, and all of this beautiful credibility, it's never been done the way you're going to do it. And you don't need to sell a million courses. I know everyone would like to, but, at the end of the day, when you think about competitors, you also probably don't want to let that limit you in the sense that, even if it's a similar topic or a similar pain point, your audience may not be 10,000 people, you may only want or need to sell that course to 10 people. How many people do you need for the course to be worth your time and to help you grow your business?
Could you talk a little bit about that - the viability. How do people figure that out? People struggle with passive income and they don’t realize how much goes into creating a course, or selling it, or having financial goals of how many students, the info they need to price the course. Could you talk a little bit about that?
How do you make sure your online course is viable?
Melody: I always like to consider value tiers. And so I have clients, just to give you a reference, I have clients who pay $19 for something, and then I have clients that pay over $30,000 for something. I have different avatars. And so when it comes to really creating a digital product, you don't have to charge $497 for a course or $997.
When I think about these smaller priced offers, it's about value, right? Sometimes people just need a small win. And so often what I find is if somebody is asking me the same question about five times, I'm paying attention, right? I'm listening. Yeah, so I've got my ear to the ground, and I'm checking my emails. I'm like, you know what? This person is asking me this question 5 to 10 times. Other people are asking me this question, guess what, I have something in my toolkit, all I need to do is make it a template or make it a digital product.
I know that sounds oversimplified, but the truth is, create that product at the end to help that person who really just needs one step forward. You know, they're busy, they're time-strapped, they don't have a ton of cash. And as you said, how do you find out the viability of creating that product? Start small again, you don't have to start with the huge, massive course, create something that's an easy win for a client. And that's why I love templates so much. Yeah, I love purchasing email templates from other creators. And I love really seeing that because it's a huge win for me as well.
Annie: You’re getting me so excited. I was taking notes. That's really true. I’m in this season of growing my business, and it's really thriving, and I'm looking at the next stage, I'm kind of like where you were describing, like, okay, you are really busy, you don't have a lot of space in your schedule and all that stuff. So I'm thinking, oh yeah, I should create that. But it's hard to set priorities.
I think one of the big things I want anyone who's watching this, especially if you know me already because you're on my list, or we've met before, is just to tell you that like, you don't have to do all these things, you should do them when they're right for you. And they'll be better when you do that.
But I love your one way of getting into this, if you're intimidated, if you feel like you're ready to share some wisdom it’s an appealing option to consider starting small like Melody is telling you and to think about not only just be small about how you create it, but maybe small and how you market and launch it, because if you've been watching Branding with Friends, one of our guests experts is Maggie. She came on to talk about authentic marketing.
Maggie is great. She's teaching a new method called the micro launch method. And this is exactly the thing where she does something small, that's really necessary, that's coming from a pain point for her ideal client. And she's doing really well and it's driving her services and it's created a whole coaching program.
But who wouldn't want to micro launch something? It's really genius. It’s the right size and make it easier if you don't have a lot of time your schedule, guess what you don't have time to do develop a huge horse? So you can work on a longer-term project with Melody, I'm sure but you could also probably consult with her to figure out how to do this smaller option, right? I can talk about that, too, is in the context of your branding. But there is lots of opportunities for you to share your expertise. It doesn't have to fit in this one container, or you don't have to have all the horses and all the things overnight. It's not a good use of your time to try to do it all at once.
Melody: Absolutely. And you know, just find that small win. I'm a huge believer in outsourcing. And so if you don't have a project manager or a virtual assistant, I would say that those two positions for me have been really helpful and pivotal to creating time in your schedule because what I I've really loved to do and I've chatted with other people is to think about your return on investment.
When you're thinking about courses, it's actually very strategic because those can be scaled at size. One-on-one clientele work is great. And it definitely for me, it's still pays the bills. But you know, having that course it's going to help other people who may be can't pay for your one-on-one services yet. And they'll be able to still have that solution. And maybe one day, they'll have the ability to work with you, or they're so intrigued by the content that you provide that it's going to take them to that next step. And so there's a lot of opportunities there to even have small offers or workshops or masterclasses or trainings or webinars as kind of that intermediate solution or that first step for people to take into a larger commitment financially with you as a coach or a consultant.
Annie: I think that's beautiful. And I think one of the things you're really hitting home for me and that I've been thinking about a lot is Kate Gremillion, now Rosenow, se just got married. She's with Work Well with Kate and she talks a lot about that.
You can sort of have what you might call a pricing ladder or a value ladder but like you said some people may not be able to be ready for the whole solution, the white glove treatment of you doing the course, so here's this other option that's lower down on the ladder for to meet people where they are, but it's the same thing it's just packaged differently. It's I can't help you do it but here's the on-demand training so you can do it yourself. Righ? These sort of pieces there's a lot more strategy to that, that I'm sure we'll get into in future Branding with Friends episodes.
I'm so glad that Melody is here talking about all of this, Melody, I know you have something special for Branding with Friends listeners and watchers so what is it well how can they connect with you and what is it that you would love to share with them?
Don’t miss this special opportunity for “Branding with Friends” fans…
Grab Melody’s Course Creator’s Starter Outline at thecourseconsultant.com/course-creators-starter-outline
Melody: I actually have a free training and an outline called The Course Creators Starter Outline and I would love to share it with your community, Annie. it this is actually something that I create and I customize for my one-on-one clients. It's literally the same sheet. It's a Google Sheet template, there's also a quick training. It's a great resource, I find a lot of people just don't know how to get their ideas together. And this is a very simple way to structure your outline for modules, lessons, activities, you name it.. The outline’s really going to help you get the skeleton of your course, up and running. So the next step would be actually developing your content.
Annie: Excellent. Well, we will make sure that that is in the show notes. So wherever you're reading this or watching this, it should be right below to be able to grab this from Melody. I'm so glad that you've been here. I think this has been a great conversation. We didn't touch on it too much. But I know that a big thing is also consistency. So I wanted to before we get to that third tip today, I want to just to touch on this idea of you know when people come to you and want to create a course that sometimes if they don't have their branding together, that can be a challenge and that can make it harder to make the course amazing. So could you tell us a little bit about why or how you feel like branding is part of creating a successful online course?
Melody: There is definitely a lot that goes into creating a brand overall, obviously, that's your specialty, Annie. But I think that when clients come to me, they often are trying to create this course. And so I can start at the fundamentals, you know, we need to get access to your logos, we need to get access to your color guide, your font, etc. And so sometimes I find that clients don't really have that. And so it's not something to be ashamed about. It's okay, we're all at different points in our careers and in our businesses. But having that, in the beginning, is really going to be fundamental to creating consistency across all of the board.
So for from a course perspective, having your worksheets being you know, really just reflect your personality and your values and the kind of feeling that you want your customers to kind of experience when they're seeing your document. I know that sounds very touchy-feely, but I really think it's true because when I see a bright, beautiful, colorful worksheet, I get excited. I know that sounds weird, but I love that.
Annie: Of course you love worksheets, but it's true, right? Like the more polished something looks, the more and the more it speaks to you, the more you're like feeling supported in that, right?
Melody: Exactly. And again, having that consistency and the colors, it really helps everything down the road. So video development, workbook creation, PowerPoints, branding, on your website, you name it, this is going to be so pivotal, and actually creating a successful, clear communication and a message to your audience to show people, “Hey, this is me. And this is what I have to offer.” And look, it's truly valuable. Take a look at it. So I think that branding is incredibly powerful and I'm so excited that you are able to help your customers so much because it is definitely needed.
Annie: It is and it's something that we all struggle with. And I have conversations daily with people who feel like, they're unclear on their message or unclear on their ideal client, they struggle with how to be consistent in their branding, like, I'm not surprised that sometimes you have to deal with the fact that people don't have this toolkit. And that's why I created the toolkit, which I call the Brand Story Solution. And that's the piece that I help with.
If you're thinking about creating an online course, and you're sort of fit in that paradigm, like Melody said where somebody comes to her without a toolkit, I'm happy to talk with you about that.
You can always find me at greateststory.com, just tap that red button for a free 20 minute consultation to take a look at where you are with your branding. You could be the very beginning or maybe thinking about rebranding, I got you covered in between.
And the amazing starter outline kit that Melody has put together, I think you're gonna be well on your way not just to creating courses, but to Melody's point, having a whole marketing toolkit, right? So that not just when you create your first course, but maybe you create a digital product, maybe you create a new service, making sure you have something to draw from to have that consistent, professional look so you can finally go out there and be successful.
Melody, I'm so glad that you were here with us today. We do have your last tip for us, of course. So if you want to go ahead and share what is the third of your best top three tips that we could tell another coach or consultant, “hey, this is what you need to do if you're thinking about an online course.”
#3 Action Tip
Create a digital solution to a problem your ideal client always has
Melody: The last one is, is probably just the most pivotal and that is the creation of a digital solution. And so, to me, when I think about my clients and my customers, I think I need to actually create a solution. I'm not creating a feature. So let me just let that sink in. Because often people feel like, Oh, I need to have this cool thing and that cool thing and the shiny object syndrome that we're talking about before. But it's truly about that solution. So it doesn't matter if you have 100 pages of a PowerPoint. If you're not speaking to the solution. It's just a PowerPoint. Just a worksheet.
Annie: And thank you for coming to my TED Talk, right?
Melody: Talk about that solution that you're offering to your clients and your customers. And when you do that, it will truly be transformational, and it's going to help your customers. Tthat's what I really want to drive home to your community, and also those people who are interested, just really think about that solution and that is what is going to drive sales. People don't buy courses, they buy solutions. So absolutely think about that when when you're trying to put your mind around everything is are you creating that solution?
Annie: I love it. And you've heard it here from the course creator and the person who teaches this. As she's saying, it's not about features. It's not about the benefits, it's not about what's included. It's the solution. Right? So what solution can you offer to your clients? That's what it's really going to be about today.
“Branding with Friends” Episode 9
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips to use Online Courses to grow your service business:
Identify your ideal client.
Develop your unique selling point.
Create a digital solution.
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To learn more about Online Courses or to seek Melody’s help:
• Visit her website: thecourseconsultant.com
• Grab a a free consultation: calendly.com/thecourseconsultant/freeconsultation
• To grab your free course creator’s starter outline, visit: https://greateststory--thecourseconsultant.thrivecart.com/digital-product-toolkit-special/6020d62a83193/
• Follow Melody on Facebook and LinkedIn
