
Hey friend! In today’s episode, I’m thrilled to have my dear friend, Amy Porterfield, back on the show to deep dive into all things course creation. We’re unpacking whether a course is the right move for your business—especially if you’re a...
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A
Welcome to the Epic Success podcast. I AM your host, Dr. Shannon Irvin. All right. Have you ever, as an entrepreneur, thought, dreamed, considered a digital course? Is that something that has been floating in, around in your mind or an idea that you've had but you weren't sure how to get it started? Well, I've got a treat for you today. My dear friend Amy Porterfield is back on the podcast and I've asked her to come back just specifically to talk about courses and course creation. Is it right for you and your business? What about if you're a coach? Does a course work as a coach as well? We answer all those questions and deep dive into what does it take to create it? Create the title, price it, all, the whole thing. This is such a juicy episode. So if you've ever thought about adding a course as an income stream to your business, or you're just getting started and you want to start that way, or you're a coach or consultant and you want to add more passive revenue to your business, then this episode is for you. All right, let's dive over to my friend Amy. Let's go. Amy. Welcome to the podcast. I'm so excited that you're here again.
B
Well, thanks so much for having me, my friend. I'm glad to be here.
A
I love Amy. You and I have been friends for quite a while now and I tell all my folks, like right in the beginning when I brought my offline business online, as I was listening to different people, really, I so connected with you because the marketing out there is so loud. But here you came through with like, do you want to know the actual steps to do the thing? And I'm like, yes, yes, I do. And so those of you who don't know, I actually created our very first program following the recipes that Amy set out in her program or course at the time. And so that's crazy. Isn't that crazy? We've, I think that particular course has passed two and a half million dollars in sales.
B
Shannon. That is that crazy fans deal. I love to hear stories like that. So cool.
A
So that's what I want to talk about today. Like what got you just tell a little bit of your backstory. I know my listeners are fans of your, of your podcast and, and so they know, like your experience with Tony Robbins. But what made you go the course route versus all the options that were out there at the time?
B
That's such a great question. I dabbled with some one on one kind of service work in the very beginning while I was creating my course and so I did social media for small businesses and I did a little coaching consulting and I just realized two things. One, it just wasn't right for my personality and so I teach a lot of people that do one on one to add a course to their business because they love one on one so it's extra stream of revenue. But for me I wanted to move away from it. It I deal with some low level depression and anxiety and for some reason it really sparked more of that I think anxiousness in me working one on one. I don't know what it was but it just didn't work for me. So I knew I wanted to move away from that. Also I knew that I wanted to teach in a big way. I just felt like I love to teach, I love to share what I knew and I wanted to do it one to many. And so those were some two of the reasons. One, I wanted to get out in a bigger way and two, I knew that the one on one in the service based business just wasn't for me. I'd always hit the ceiling. I could only take so many clients, there's only so many hours in a day and it just wasn't right for my personality.
A
I love that. And Amy knows this like I am the first generation where I said anxiety stops with me. So my mom had agoraphobia, couldn't leave the house and so crazy, right? So we're trying to always like do better but definitely mine is high functioning anxiety. So I've got to really guard myself. So I know being able to teach at a level of excellence that everyone gets that same piece of me like that, that teaching so that I'm not on one day and off the next day just really nailed for me like it was just such a perfect marriage. But tell me, tell me about. I'm sure you just crushed it the first time like you came out of the.
B
I'd like to think so, but that is absolutely not what happened.
A
Me neither.
B
Back in the day, this is like 15 years ago, there weren't a lot of trainings on how to create course but people were definitely doing them. So I would watch other people do them and I just assumed everyone was making like $100,000 or more with each launch and so. And then I came from a big corporate company where they were making millions. So I thought I can do this. I had a really weird sense of confidence I guess and so I put it out there and My course was 297 and I @ the end of the day I made a profit of 2,67. So I didn't even make enough to cover one unit. And I was crushed. I literally instantly made it mean I'm not set out to be a business person, I'm not an entrepreneur, and I am terrible at marketing. That's what I made it mean instantly. And then. And I cried for about a week. And then my husband kind of nudged me, like, okay, we need to try this again. Thank God. And I'll tell you why that didn't work the first time. And I learned so much that I teach my students now the lessons I learned back then. Number one, I chose a topic that I was not an expert in, meaning I didn't have results in. I was teaching how to launch a book with social media. I was an expert with social media, and I use the word expert lightly. I was good at it, but I didn't know how to launch a book. I had never launched a book. It wouldn't be too 14 years later that I would launch a book. And so I stepped out of my wheelhouse. And so what I teach my students now is you need to find your 10% edge means, meaning you've gotten results for yourself or for somebody else, a family member, a friend, a client or customer, and you're willing to teach how you got those results. So you just need to be 10 steps ahead of those you serve. But you need to have gotten results in that area and everyone listening. You have two or three courses in you already with that criteria. You do not need more time, more certification, more education. You already have it. It's just believing that you can teach someone what you already know. So that was the first thing. And the second thing is I had a small audience and you could absolutely launch a course with the small audience. But I didn't engage with that audience. Like, I had an email list of a few hundred. They hadn't heard from me in months. My social media, I hardly posted, so I didn't have any engagement going before leading up to it.
A
I love that. That was literally worth millions what she just said. Because one of the things I see all the time is, well, people want this, so I'm going to go become that. But you've never gotten that result before. And there's a part of our brain that gets triggered. This is the thing you don't know. Like this part, not you. You do know this. But there's a part of the brain that gets triggered. We sense when people don't have authenticity. And so you're trying to sell something that you don't have authenticity, it's making it 10 times harder because that person's brain is actually firing a neurochemical at the same time saying that's dangerous to actually invest in. So it's fascinating. Right. And so I love that you just finally said, okay, now I'm going to teach what I know and then tell me a little bit more about how that.
B
Yes, I said, okay, I need to go back to what I know and where I do feel confidence in teaching. And it was social media in general. So I started out teaching social media, mainly Facebook. And instantly it clicked because you're right. When I would show up and I'd sell my course, my. My voice was stronger, I was more clear on what I was selling. And I felt really good about it because I knew this is what I know and where I can get people results. So I just showed up so differently. And also I started to focus on growing my email list a little bit more. I started focusing on engaging with people on social media, which helps because obviously you need an audience. But I always teach people, you can grow your audience while you're creating your course. And that's essentially what I started to do. So I made $10,000 on my next launch. That's a really big jump deal.
A
Yeah.
B
And here's the beautiful thing about courses and how I teach them. You need one course to be incredibly profitable because you launch that first course and let's say maybe you just sell five units, but five people wanted to pay for it. You get feedback after they go through the course. You make the course better. You make your launch better, because the first time you're, you know, you're learning. And so the second time you launch the same course, you're going to do better the third time, the fourth time. I've had students launch the same course 10 times and have millions of dollars behind it. Same. I've been launching the same course since 2019. Now, my 2024 version, way better than my 2019 version, but my 2019 version got great results for people. So we just get better over time. One course that you'll launch over and.
A
Over, and if it's one course that they launch over and over and over again, they start to gain a lot more confidence on how they're able to help people and get the testimonials. And, man, it just really becomes. I remember that very first time when I put it all out there, you know, it worked one on one. But is it going to work like this? And, you know, same thing. I didn't have any real email. I didn't have social. I was so awkward. Oh, my gosh, so awkward.
B
I love it.
A
But I had like two people by and I'm like, oh, this is amazing. Like, getting able. Being able to help more than just your one on one. Being able to help a larger group of people to get a result that they wouldn't have gotten if you didn't put the course together. I felt like, Amy, there's something so magical about the way that feels like feeling like you're really walking out your purpose. You know what I mean?
B
Absolutely. And I love your mindset. Your mindset is so perfect. You sold two and you're like, all right, let's go. I love when my students do that. I had one of my students, she sold five in her first launch. And she could have literally said, I'm. I'm terrible at this. Amy sells thousands. She could compare herself to her teacher. All of that stuff that we tend to do. But she didn't. She said, all right, five people wanted to give me money. What if I make this better? And it led to $213,000 with a few launches behind her. Like, it can happen. But be so careful. That's why I love that we're talking to your audience, Shannon. Be so careful with your mindset because you gotta find those small wins to get to where you want to go.
A
Talk a little bit about the simplicity that a course brings into your business. Because, you know, a lot of. I have a lot of coaches. We have a coaching certification, and so a lot of coaches. One of the things I really emphasize with them is after you've gotten past your one on one, in order to scale, we've got to go one to many. And having that hybrid of a course and coaching is like peanut butter and jelly, in my opinion. It's like, I love this. Right? Yeah.
B
Yeah. This is one of my most favorite topics when I get to talk to people who do coaching or consulting and adding a course to the mix. Because I'm sure you've already talked about this with so many of your certification students, and that is number one, that when you create a coaching. Excuse me. When you create a digital course off of coaching or consulting, you are then allowing yourself to either raise your prices as a coach, take less people if you want, or only the people you really want to work with. Because let's be honest, there's always a few people that were like, I'd rather them maybe go somewhere else. Well, the somewhere else could be your course. So you have A lot of options here. The simplicity is you could create a digital course based on what you do in your one on one sessions. And for those that can't afford you or, or the fact that you're going to be booked up, their next best option is this digital course which tends to be less expensive and more accessible. And a lot of people don't have the money or the means to hire a coach, but they could get into that digital course. So you're opening up to so many people. So that's one thing you could do. But another option is you could create a course on something you don't coach on per se, but it has a great alignment. And so think about something you've always wanted to teach but it kind of doesn't work in the coaching. But would it work for those who want to coach with you? But this is going to be an additional thing that they get into or people come in through your course, they love what you teach and now they want to go to the next step which is work one on one with you. So courses can get you more clients, courses can allow you to take less one on one clients. And also life happens. I want to tell you a quick story. Let's pretend I was a coach working one on one with clients when this happened to me. This has really happened to me. But I'm going to pretend I'm a one on one coach. So during my book launch, my mother in law, literally the week my book came out, my mother in law died unexpectedly. She was not sick. She played days before and she, we found out later she had a blood disease but she didn't know it and she died unexpectedly. Now imagine, it was horrific, but imagine if I was a one on one coach during that time. I literally stopped my business for at least a week and a half, almost two weeks to be there for my husband and their, our family. And so I wouldn't be able to do one on one coaching. And if I wanted to take even more time, it wouldn't even be an option. However, if you're a coach and you have a course and life gets in the way like that you can rely on your income from your course until you're ready to jump back in. So now you have a little bit more freedom and flexibility when life happens. And I think that's really important.
A
Wow, that is such a powerful story. Is something that we talk about a lot in my community is how do you grow a real business and know that life is going to happen. It's not if it will Happen. It's absolutely. It's happening. It's coming. Some of it great, some of it not so great, but being able to have a machine that is built in your business that is running with or without you.
B
Yes.
A
That is, to me, it's a big deal. Yeah. I mean, because what I know, Amy and I talk about this a lot. Like, the big. Our big driver for most of us is that freedom. It's that ability to have options. It's. We don't want another job. We had that. And. And we don't. We're not fairly unemployable.
B
Yeah, we're not looking to go back there.
A
Exactly. We're not looking to go back. All right, so I know what my audience is saying. Like, oh, my gosh, I've been thinking about this. I've been praying about this. This is the thought that never leaves. So if that's you and you're like, this has been rolling around in my mind for a while, let's dive into, like just a little bit of how they can start deciding what to create as a course. Okay.
B
I love this question. So the first thing you want to do exactly what you said is come up with your course topic. And some people have too many ideas and some people have zero ideas. So I kind of meet people wherever they're at, and there's this basically some content I created called the sweet spot, where there's four different quadrants that I take my students through and I'll do it quickly here. But usually when I do a bootcamp, I get into detail. So they have a lot of questions to ask to make sure they come up with the right answer. But basically the four quadrants to come up with your topic for your course, quadrant number one is where do you have that 10% edge? Where have you gotten results for yourself or for somebody else that you could teach, how you got those results in a step by step format. So that's the first question you want to ask. And those listening, I promise you actually have a few things that you could probably put in this quadrant. So you're looking for your 10% edge. The second quadrant is who do you want to serve? And more importantly, what is the challenge they have that your idea could solve? Because we need to make sure we have an audience for this. The third quadrant is, are people spending money in this area that you want to create a course in? So are there books about it, coaching certification programs around this topic? Are there other courses? That's actually a good thing. You don't need to Be first to market. You need a tiny sliver of the Internet to pay attention for you to be successful with your course. So if other people are doing it, it's a good sign there's a need in the market. And then the fourth one is, does it light you up? Now, I did not say, is this your life's work? Is this your major passion? It doesn't need to be. I teach people how to create digital courses. That is not my passion in life digital courses, but I do have a passion to teach people how to create more freedom to create a life by their own design. And courses just happens to be the way that I do that. So whatever you teach doesn't have to be your passion, but you have to enjoy it because you're going to talk about it morning, noon and night while you're creating and launching your course. So those are the four quadrants that I get into a lot more detail when I teach it in a bootcamp. But that's just a way to kind of get you started to think, what could I create? What might this look like?
A
Oh, my gosh. The quadrant, by the way, is mind blowing. And we're going to talk about the bootcamp because it's coming up and I can't wait for my audience to participate. Even if the idea of a course is just like a little thing or it's like it's time. Either way, Amy takes you through. Her boot camps are just so incredible in terms of, like, you leave knowing what you want to create, how you create it, and you never have that wonder of what do I do next? And that's what I love about your boot camps. They're just so real. And step by step on how do you make this from a baby to a real live adult course out there on the Internet making money, you know?
B
Exactly.
A
So what do you think would be ideal for someone who's gone through the quadrant? They have some ideas. What are your thoughts on narrowing those things down? And I know you deep dive in this in a boot camp, but yeah, my audience tends to have the first problem where they have so many ideas and they don't want to leave anybody out, right?
B
Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes.
A
So what's some of your. Your thoughts or some of the things that you can help them think through to choose between this and that? They could do either one really, really well. It's been their life experience and they have history with it.
B
Yeah, this is a good question. One of the first things I would think about is let it be easy. So What I mean by that is, let's say you have three or four ideas. That's a quality problem. I mean, like you, I didn't have one idea and hope it works. But I love the people who have tons of ideas. And to let it be easy, the first question you ask yourself is, do I have access to an audience that I could promote this course to and I could serve them? Do I already have access to one of the audiences that would make sense for this idea I have? Or could I create that audience, pull them in? Do I know how to talk to them? Do I know how to find them? Can I add value to them, to pull them into my world so that I could then present my course to them so the audience is a big one? Again, you do not need a big audience, but you do need people to talk to and add value to and bring them into your world. So that would be the first question I'd ask if you have many ideas. The second question I would ask is, well, at what level am I going to serve my audience with this idea? There's actually four different types of courses you can create. Uh, again, in the bootcamp, I get them into detail, but I'm giving you some secrets here.
A
I love it.
B
One of the courses you can create is a workshop course. It's just an hour long course that you charge for and it's just one area that you're going to talk about for an hour. Let me give you an example. Let's say you are a career coach. You help people land their dream job. Your workshop course, that one hour course could be how to write the perfect resume. So you're just pulling people into your world with something like a mini course until you're ready to create the bigger one. Another type of course is a starter course where you just help people get started. Just the basics, just the foundation. And then the next one is a spotlight course where you take one area of your expertise and you go deep. So the resume probably wouldn't have enough content for a spotlight course, but maybe how to land the perfect interview and what questions to ask and how to follow up after an interview. You could go pretty deep with that, with the spotlight course, and then finally a signature course, the Mack Daddy. You're giving them total transformation. So when you start to think about, well, what type of course might I create? You start to think about the level of content you're going to add. And again, you start to even get more clear about who you would serve with this level of content. So these are some of the things you start to think about and make decisions around so you get more confident in starting your course.
A
I love how simple that is. How simple it is. And yeah, I was the one that went for the Mac Daddy right out of the gates. And that's my personality, though, so it makes sense. But now we do spotlight courses. Right now we like, okay, I can go deeper on money mindset, or I can go deeper on this. And so we do these spotlight kind of things. So love those. All right, how about you and you and I, like, really give them the inside scoop because we talked about we're scrappy girls, right? And we notice the things on the interwebs and there's a lot of promising the moon and, you know, their sixth child and you know all those things and you know. So let's, let's really, like, what does it take to actually get the course up? Like, what's a realistic expectation? We both shared our stories, but it seems to be happening a little bit faster now than it did certainly when I started. And I know when you started, but what are you seeing? Because you're the expert in this field. What, you know, what's a realistic. Once I get my course up and ready and going, what can I expect.
B
In terms of timeframe? Like, how long it takes to get it out into the world?
A
Yeah, exactly.
B
Okay, I love this question. So we definitely depends on the type of course you create. So I'm glad we went over the four. As you can see, you know, each one are a little bit more intense. If you're going to create a signature course, it's going to take you longer to create. However, let's back this up. This is where we go behind the scenes. The way I teach create, course creation and launching is that I encourage my students to come up with their topic. We get clear on the price, we get clear on the type of course, what kind of content we're going to put in there. We do a really fully fleshed out outline. We're not creating it yet. We do an outline so you're really clear about what you're offering and what results you're promising. Then you pre sell it. You go out to your audience, no matter how small, and you say, okay, I've got a course, it's 500, but for the first, let's say 10 people, I'm going to allow you to get in early and it's 2:50, so 50% off. You get in early and the course comes out in a few months from now, and they'll Know that. But they are the early birds. They get the first opportunity to get in and likely they're going to give you some feedback along the way if you want them to. But why do we do this? Two reasons. Number one, it's a huge validation. If people pay you for their course, let's say only five people out of the 10, you get five people. Still five people raise their hand and say, here's my hard earned money. I want this great validation. The other thing is it's a quick cash injection that you can take that cash and maybe put into Facebook ads or something that you want to put into creating and launching your course. So that quick cash injection never hurt anyone ever. So we, we love to pre launch or pre sell our course just to a few. I'm not saying a big launch here. Once you've done that and five or 10 people buy, now you go back and you start to create your bigger launch. Notice I didn't say you go back and create the whole course.
A
Right.
B
Still not doing that. We're going to work on a real launch. Now listen, a lot of people, they say, oh, I don't want to do webinars, Amy, or I don't want to do that on social media or write those emails. This is how you build a business. This is how you get in there and you learn how to be a good marketer. And so I teach my students how to do webinars, how to write the emails that get people to buy your course, what to post on social media during your launch time. So this is the period where you're going to create a real launch. You're going to be a real business owner with a real marketing plan. And it is very doable. I make it as easy as possible. And then after you launch your course, that is when you start to create and deliver it. So I teach my students, let's either deliver it live week by week so you're, you don't have to pre record anything, you don't have to edit anything, you're just delivering it week by week, module by module. Or if you want to pre record week by week and then put it out week by week, you can do that as well. But we don't actually create the whole course until we've sold it. Now you can if you want, you can create it, but I promise you, this is the way that you actually get it done and get it out into the world.
A
Oh, this is magic. This one formula, like changed possibility for me, potential. I mean, if you're sitting there Right now you were like me and, and you're. You're someone that I have a few one on one clients. I had 10 one on one clients. And I had kind of the perfect offline world where I didn't really have to sell a whole lot because this person told that person. And so it was a great little business. But I hit that dreaded problem of now. My time is not my own. And so this one thing inside your program allowed me to just see, oh my gosh, not only is it possible, but people want it. And boy, that nothing gets you more motivated to get it out there seeing like people really want it and you how fast you can really help people. So, so powerful. And I know you deep dive. I'd love for you to talk about this upcoming boot camp and then I'm going to share a little bit about some extra stuff that I'm going to be doing around it. But can you talk about the boot camp that's coming up? Because literally a version of that is what I went through when I just came online. And I'm like, I want to do this. And I looked around and I'm like, I need somebody who's going to tell me the steps and isn't going to be up. You know, just telling me theory. And you really did. You said like step one, step two. So talk about the bootcamp. What are can they expect? Why should they show up? And we're all going to be there though.
B
Yes, I'm excited about it. So I only do this once a year. I do a bootcamp called Course Confident once a year. And essentially the bootcamp is designed to get you started with your digital course, whether it be your first digital course or maybe you created a course and it really didn't do well and you kind of want to start over. You're welcome into the bootcamp as well. A lot of people do that. But the goal is to get you started with a solid foundation that will allow you to continue with success. So what does it look like to create a solid foundation to kickstart your digital course journey? Well, we've got to dive into that topic. We're going to get into it a lot more in detail, making sure you're choosing a topic that will actually make you money and is in your wheelhouse. So we'll create or come up with the topic. We'll talk about pricing. How do you price a course? And here's a hint. It's the price does not depend on how many modules or lessons or how long it takes Someone to get through your course. That doesn't matter. So we're going to get into pricing. Once you choose the price of your course, I'm going to show you some course math. What is possible over, let's say, a year time of launching your course. So you start to see what this could do for your business. And we're also going to talk about how do you find an audience to sell your course to. That course is dead in the water unless we actually have people that are paying attention. So I really focus on audience building and finding the right audience, not a huge audience, the right engaged audience. And also we talk a lot about the type of course you want to create, what kind of content you're going to put in it, just to kickstart. So it is a way to kickstart your digital course journey. I'm live the entire time. It's the cheapest thing I offer all year, and I only offer it once. And you'll be surrounded by other people who are getting started with their courses and sharing their ideas, which is great accountability to keep going.
A
Oh, my gosh, if this is even on the radar for the next year. You got to get into the Spoocamp. Like Amy says, she only does it once a year. I do it every year, even though we're all these years in business now. And every time I leave, like, okay, we're going to do this now over here and we're going to. I didn't think about that. So she's always bringing forward, like, what's working now, too, to the room. And it's by far the most inexpensive way to really get the lift of what it is. And almost, I mean, people are walking out the door. Some of them, I've seen them. They've offered while they're in the boot camp and they're making money before they finish. Isn't that crazy?
B
Isn't it crazy? They're the ones that are a little bit like the rebels that they're like, I'm just going for it.
A
I'm doing it.
B
But real goal is just to kickstart, build the foundation, get started.
A
Yeah, get it started and get it from that idea to real life. And once you see it in real life, then it become. All of it becomes possible. So of course, we're going to put the boot camp link down below. And for those of you who go to the boot camp, I'm going to actually do a bonus training after Amy is done with her boot camp, where it's all going to be around now that You've kick started the idea and you know what you're doing. How do we integrate that as a coach into our coaching business? So and if you're a coach or somebody who wants to be and how do I use what I just did in the boot camp to really create this coaching business? How do I work it together? What kind of benefits do I enable my clients to do through the course versus the other modalities that I coach through? And how do I actually get my time back because of this course, creating that freedom. So we're going to do a workshop on the end of it when you register using the link down below. So I'm super excited about that. Going to help all our coaches get that course created so they can take the summer off with their kids if they want to. Right. All the things that we say that we want. And the reality is you got to put it into practice and you got to get to get the baby out to the world. So I love that you're doing this. All right, let's wrap up with just after all these years teaching people courses, what is one piece of advice for the person that really wants it but has a little bit of that self doubt going? Just, I would love to hear just your piece of advice for them. And of course, my biggest piece of advice is get registered for the bootcamp. But what's your piece of advice as we wrap up this conversation about courses?
B
You know, I have a lot of testimonials from my students who have created courses from scratch. First time they've ever done it, and they make five figures, six figures, and they're so excited. But I can promise you, every single one of my students who started from scratch had the thought, who am I to be teaching this? What if nobody buys? What if this is a waste of my energy and time? What if this doesn't work? Every single one of them. And the only difference between you right now, where you are and where they are with the successful digital course, the only difference is they got started, they did it messy. They said, I'm going to figure this out with all the doubts, all the imposter syndrome. They still had all of this, all of it. But they really wanted this to work so that they could have what they really want. The freedom, the extra time, the extra revenue, whatever it is you want, your digital course can lead to that. The only difference is they got started. And the bootcamp is the most perfect way to get started with some support along the way.
A
I love that. That is so, so powerful way to Wrap up this podcast. Amy, I love you to death. Thank you for coming back on the podcast.
B
Thank you for having me.
A
All right, let's go build those courses and we'll see you at the boot camp. Woo. Wow. Fact episode with so much now. I said it when we were live with Amy, but here's the deal. Make sure you get registered for the boot camp. She only does it once a year. There's not another option down the road. And if it's even a twinkling in your eye to do this in the next, say, year, then you're going to want to go to that bootcamp links down in the show notes. So make sure you, if you're watching on whatever podcast platform you're on, take a click down and read more. The link will be there. If you're watching this on YouTube, the link will be in the notes and I'll see you there. I'm going to be there. I'm going to bring a lot of my friends over to be in the bootcamp. We always are able to improve our course courses every time we. I go to this boot camp. So it's really, really powerful. And as you heard in the live, we're also adding an additional day with me where I'm going to help you if you're a coach or a consultant. Like, how do you marry those two, the course and your coaching to where you really have an outcome that builds a really strong, vibrant business. So click the link. I'll make sure that you get access to that bonus training. And let's go do this this year. All right, I'll see you next week on the Epic Success podcast. Bye for.
Epic Success with Dr. Shannon Irvine: Is a Digital Course Right for Your Business? (Featuring Amy Porterfield)
Release Date: September 4, 2024
Dr. Shannon Irvine opens the episode by presenting a tantalizing question for entrepreneurs and coaches: "Have you ever, as an entrepreneur, thought, dreamed, considered a digital course?" (00:05). She introduces her special guest, Amy Porterfield, renowned for her expertise in course creation and digital marketing, setting the stage for an in-depth discussion on whether digital courses are the right fit for your business.
Amy Porterfield joins the conversation, greeted warmly by Shannon (01:20). Shannon shares a personal anecdote, revealing that she built her first program based on Amy's strategies, which astonishingly led to over two and a half million dollars in sales (01:23). Amy recounts her initial foray into course creation (02:37), explaining her transition from one-on-one services to digital courses. She emphasizes that her move was driven by personal challenges with anxiety and a desire to scale her teaching efforts beyond individual clients.
Amy delves into her early struggles with course creation. Her first attempt resulted in a disappointing profit of just $267, prompting self-doubt and questions about her entrepreneurial instincts (04:37). Reflecting on this setback, Amy outlines two critical lessons:
Shannon echoes Amy's sentiments, stressing the importance of authenticity and knowing your expertise to avoid triggering skepticism in potential customers (07:06).
The conversation shifts to the advantages digital courses offer to coaches and consultants. Amy explains that incorporating a course can:
Shannon adds that a well-integrated course model grants business resilience and freedom, enabling entrepreneurs to navigate inevitable life events without disrupting their income streams (14:28).
Amy introduces her proprietary "Sweet Spot" quadrants, a strategic framework to help course creators select the most viable and fulfilling topics. The four quadrants include:
Shannon praises the quadrant system, noting its effectiveness in clarifying course ideas and setting the stage for successful creation (17:47).
Amy elaborates on course types, categorizing them into:
She explains how selecting the appropriate course type aligns with your business goals and audience needs, enabling coaches to either scale their offerings or deepen their impact (19:08; 20:18).
Amy announces her annual "Course Confident" bootcamp, designed to help participants launch their digital courses successfully:
Shannon enthusiastically promotes the bootcamp, highlighting its affordability, once-a-year availability, and the supportive community it fosters (29:04).
As the episode winds down, Amy offers compelling advice for those hesitant to start creating courses:
"The only difference between you right now and where they are with the successful digital course, the only difference is they got started. And they did it messy." (31:39).
She emphasizes overcoming self-doubt and the importance of taking the first step, assuring listeners that imperfections are part of the journey to success.
Shannon reinforces this message, encouraging listeners to join the bootcamp and leverage the structured support to bring their course ideas to fruition (32:41).
Dr. Shannon Irvine and Amy Porterfield conclude the episode by reiterating the transformative potential of digital courses for business growth and personal freedom. They invite listeners to register for the "Course Confident" bootcamp, promising additional bonus training to integrate courses into coaching businesses effectively. Shannon closes with a heartfelt endorsement, urging entrepreneurs to take action and build the courses that can elevate their businesses to epic success (32:50).
Shannon Irvine (00:05): "If you've ever thought about adding a course as an income stream to your business, or you're just getting started... this episode is for you."
Amy Porterfield (04:37): "I put it out there and made just $267. I didn't even make enough to cover one unit. And I was crushed."
Amy Porterfield (07:56): "I started focusing on growing my email list and engaging with people on social media, which helped me make $10,000 on my next launch."
Shannon Irvine (07:06): "People want this, so I'm going to become that. But you've never gotten that result before... your brain is sensing authenticity."
Amy Porterfield (31:39): "The only difference is they got started. They did it messy... your digital course can lead to that freedom, the extra time, the extra revenue."
Authenticity is Crucial: Only teach what you truly know and can deliver results in to build trust with your audience.
Engage and Grow Your Audience: Active communication and engagement are essential for a successful course launch.
Start with a Solid Foundation: Utilize frameworks like the Sweet Spot quadrants to choose the right course topic.
Diversify Your Offerings: Incorporate various types of courses (workshop, starter, spotlight, signature) to meet different audience needs and scale your business.
Leverage Pre-Selling: Validate your course idea and secure initial funds through pre-selling to a targeted audience.
Join Supportive Communities: Participating in bootcamps like "Course Confident" can provide the structure and accountability needed to launch successfully.
Overcome Self-Doubt: Taking the first step, despite imperfections, is essential to achieving success in digital course creation.
Ready to take the leap?
Join Amy Porterfield's annual "Course Confident" bootcamp to kickstart your digital course journey. Register here and transform your business with a well-crafted, profitable course!
Note: Timestamps correspond to the moments in the transcript where key points and quotes occur.