← Young and Profiting with Hala Taha
Young and Profiting with Hala Taha
The Creator's Playbook: How to Launch Courses That Sell Out in Record Time | Sales | Presented by Teachable
00:30:11
Loading summary
Transcript25 lines
- [00:00]
A
Launching a great course isn't about complexity. It's about showing you can help, connecting on a human level and giving people a clear path to success. Welcome to the second and final episode in our special two part series on course creation. You're gonna hear from legends like Russell Brunson, Jason Fladline, Kat Norton and more as we break down how to launch your course like a pro. There's always just so much more you can teach and things in the courses, but niching down into one topic is.
- [00:27]
B
What we do if something is not working in the business. What are we not doing to give that customer enough value that they don't even hesitate to spend that?
- [00:36]
C
There's always three things in every page of a funnel. The hook, a story, the offer. And I always tell people like the.
- [00:41]
D
Setup and the payoff takes more time than the actual information that you're giving. And you've got to have space for that.
- [00:46]
A
You can kind of tell where somebody's at before you hard close them rather than just going in for the close. And you tell that based off of their responses so they can respond one of two ways. Number one is hello my young and profiters. In the last episode, we explored what it really means to be a creator entrepreneur, including how you can start building multiple revenue streams and priming your audience long before you ever launch a polished course or product. By the way, if the series has been inspiring you to create your own course or digital product, definitely check out Young and Profiting Co Teachable for an exclusive 30 day free trial of the platform. It has everything you need to start your course. Today, we're taking the next step. You're going to hear from legends like Russell Brunson, Jason Fladline, Kat Norton and more as we break down how to launch your course like a pro. We'll cover sales funnels, buyer psychology, and how tools like webinars can turn your ideas into real revenue. All right, guys, let's dive right in. Last episode we talked about testing your idea and making sure it resonates. Once you've found something that clicks, it's tempting to jump straight into monetizing, but the secret is to actually hold back to prove your value first. And that's exactly how I built young and profiting. For the first three years, I didn't make a single dollar. No sponsors, no big deals, just consistent content and a focus on serving my audience. I poured into the community and because of that, when I finally made offers, they were ready. They already trusted me. Adam Schaefer from Mind Pump Media Followed the same path. And his team had their product ready from day one, but they didn't sell it until their audience was practically begging for it. Why? Because when you lead with value, people don't just want what you're selling, they need it. Let's hear Adam explain how that all played out for him.
- [02:34]
B
It really comes down to providing value and practicing that and then always looking back at yourself. I mean, just like the other stuff that we talked about. People are so quick to point the fingers at the other people, right? The victim, like, oh, well, they can't afford. Oh, they're not the. The right customer. Oh, it's like, no, we. None of us ever look at that like that. Like, if. If something is not working in the business or we're not being successful, it's like, what are we doing? What are we not doing to give that customer enough value that they. They don't even hesitate to spend that? And that's how we. That's. When we started the podcast, we actually had the. The product ready to sell. So Maps Fitness products is the foundation of what scaled and built this business. Originally, that's what brought us into the millions of dollars, was the digital programs that we sell online. And we had that before the podcast even started. But we agreed not to sell it until people were begging for something from us. We didn't want to go in and already try and monetize. It was like, let's go first. Since we're not media guys, let's go first, prove that we can provide so much value on this podcast that it organically grows. We didn't want to spend any money on advertising. We weren't trying to do all the Instagram social media hacks. It was like, lean into the value thing. Let's go put out something that is so valuable that people are willing to share it and listen. If I can't prove that before I'm even trying to sell anything, I would be a fool to try and sell something first. This is what I give advice to coaches and trainers that are trying to duplicate what we've done. It's like you're already trying to think about the product or the thing you want to sell. You haven't even proven that people want to hear. Hear what you want to give them for free. Go prove to your audience first that you have something valuable enough that they'll listen or. And. Or share with other people. Go solve that equation before you figure out your price point of your product or your thing you want to sell and allow them to dictate what product or what service you come up with. But that's the first. That's the first problem in this equation that you need to solve is can I provide enough value to a specific audience that they're going to listen?
- [04:38]
A
Once you've proven your value, that's when a sales funnel comes in. Funnels don't create trust, they channel it. They take your goodwill that you've built and they give your audience a clear next step. Let's start by breaking down how a strong sales funnel actually works. You can think of your sales funnel as three levels that guide your audience from curiosity to conversion. First, you've got the top of the sales funnel. This is where you attract attention with free value packed resources. Things like emails, podcasts, quizzes or a helpful PDF guide. It's the start of a relationship, a way of saying here's something useful, no strings attached. From there you move into the middle of the funnel, the trust building stage. That's where live streams, Q&As or webinars come into play. We'll dive into webinars more in a moment, but the key is this. Mid funnel activities are what transform casual followers into warm prospects who are ready to take the next step. Finally, at the bottom of the funnel, it's all about the close. This is where you bring it home with sales pages, irresistible bonuses, and a little urgency to move people from I'm interested to I'm in. So those are your three levels. But here's the challenge. Many funnels have the right structure, but the message just doesn't land. That's where the hook, story offer framework comes in. Think of this as the glue that holds your funnel together. Every page, every email, every ad should do three main things. Grab attention with the hook, build trust with the story, and deliver an irresistible offer. And nobody explains this better than Russell Brunson, the co founder of ClickFunnels and one of the top minds in digital marketing. Let's hear him break down. Why? Sometimes it's not about rebuilding the whole funnel, it's just about fixing one piece of your puzzle.
- [06:21]
C
There's always three things in every page of a funnel. So the hook a story they offer. And I always tell people like if you were to hire me, I do console days for a hundred grand a day and fly out here. Like I always tell them like the only thing I'm going to do is I'm going to look at every page in the funnel and it's either going to be a hook a story or they off like one of those things is always off, right? So, good example. I have someone that's in my inner circle, and they had a webinar that was teaching people how to, like, make money with local reviews or something like that, right? And they had this webinar, and they had a webinar that was really good. They had landing page registry. Everything was there, right? But it was costing them. I think on average, it cost them like, $25 per lead to get someone to register for a webinar. And then from that, it was like, I think they're like 12% of the people who registered actually showed up. So it's costing them like, $150 for every person to show up on this webinar. And then the webinars actually converted really good. Like, they're teaching the process. They sold a really good offer, and they did really well, but it was just the conversions were bad. And so they wanted me to help them rebuild the entire funnel and the webinar and everything. I was like, I don't think it's that big. I think you're just missing one thing. I said, when I look at the registration page, their headline was something like, learn how to make money with helping local businesses with local reviews. I was like, the problem with that is there's no curiosity. When I see that, I'm like, oh, this is a webinar. Teach people how to make. You know, they're going to teach me how to make money with local reviews. And if you think you know the answer already, then first off, you're not going to register. And if you do register, you may or may not show up, but you're like, I think I know this is if I'll register, and if I, you know, if I'm bored, maybe I'll show up. Right? And so all we did is we took that. I was like, let's just change the hook and make it more. Like, let's make more curiosity in the hook. And so we changed it from how to make money teaching people how to do local reviews or whatever to, like, something like, this is the loophole we found to help make extra money helping local businesses. And this is not. And we talked about all the things it wasn't. This is not doing Facebook ads. This is not doing Instagram. This is whatever. All the things that people might think it was, talk about what it was not. Instead, register to find out exactly what this new thing is, and then we'll show you how to use it inside your business. So we just made it more curiosity based that's all we changed on the registration page. And it went from like $25 per registrant to actually getting registrants at $5 a piece. So it dropped the cost down to 1/5. And then because people didn't know what it was unless they showed up, their show up rate went from like 12% to like 26%. And so between those two things, all of a sudden the metrics of the business change. And this funnel went on to make them millions of dollars just by changing a hook on a page.
- [08:38]
A
Yeah. Bam. That's the magic of funnels. It's not about reinventing the wheel, but tweaking the right piece until everything clicks. After all, a funnel isn't just a theory, it's math. Sales is part art, but it's also a numbers game. The best entrepreneurs don't cross their fingers and hope they reverse engineer success. They start at the bottom of the funnel with a sale and work backwards to figure out what is to happen. Every step of the way, say your goal is a hundred sales. How many checkout visits do you need to get that? How many signups to get those visits? How many clicks or impressions at the very top to fuel those signups? Once you know the ratios, the fog clears. You can see exactly how many actions, clicks, calls, conversions that you need to hit your targets. That's where tools like Teachable really can help. Teachable gives you data tracking and funnel features so you see what's working, what's not, and where you need to optimize. Instead of guessing, you get visibility into the numbers that drive your business and your course forward. All right, we've covered how to map out a funnel that guides your audience from curiosity to conversion. Now let's zoom in on what really makes people say yes. Buyer psychology. When it comes to selling your course, here's what most people get wrong. They think buyers will leap straight from never heard of you to dropping 500 or a thousand bucks on a program that almost never happens. You've got to prime your audience first. One of the best ways to do that is through something called a ladder technique. Think of it as a series of micro commitments. You're guiding people up step by step until saying yes to your course feels natural. Almost inevitable. It starts with small, low friction asks. Download a free guide, take a quiz, sign up for an email list, join our challenge. Every little yes builds up that momentum. And when you finally do make your offer, it's not a big leap. It's just the next logical step in a relationship you've been building all along that momentum matters because people don't just want to be consistent, they need to be. Each small consistent strengthens a person's self image as somebody who takes action, making them far more likely to enroll in your program and stay engaged. The godfather of influence, the psychologist Robert Cialdini, explains this principle of consistency better than anyone.
- [10:54]
B
People want to be consistent with what.
- [10:57]
D
They have already said or done.
- [10:58]
B
They also want to appear consistent to those around them, because people like those.
- [11:04]
C
Who are consistent, who are predictable, who.
- [11:06]
B
Say what they mean and mean what they say, who match what they say.
- [11:12]
D
To what they do, and so on.
- [11:14]
B
And so if we can simply point to what people have already done in a particular situation and then ask them to be consistent with it, they're much.
- [11:26]
D
More likely to do it.
- [11:27]
B
For example, we can increase the likelihood.
- [11:30]
D
That people will donate to a cause if we show them that in their.
- [11:34]
B
History they have donated to this type of cause.
- [11:38]
A
So that's the power of consistency. Every yes builds up momentum, but momentum alone won't close a sale. Even the most primed, engaged buyers still have doubts. And if you don't address those doubts early, they become roadblocks later on. That's why the best marketers don't wait until the close or the Q and A to handle objections. They weave the answers of objections into their website, into their social content, their sales presentations, their webinars. For example, think about the common concerns that people have around joining a course. I'm too busy. I can't afford it right now. I can't possibly learn all this information. When you think about these concerns and then speak to those worries before they actually bubble up for your customers, you're not just knocking down resistance, you're actually building trust with them. And this is where Jason Fladline, the webinar king and a master of marketing courses and information products, takes it to another level. Here's how he approaches some of the most common objections that he receives.
- [12:35]
D
Mostly, what it's all about is the objection. And here's how it always plays out. First, it's money, which it never really is, but that's the first smokescreen that they throw up. I'd really like this, but it's too expensive. It's too much money. I don't have the money for this right now. 99 times, that's a lie. So you learn that that's not truly the objection. But until you uproot that issue, you can't get past it. So we'll handle the the price objection. Five or Six or seven or eight or nine times in six or seven or eight or nine different ways. Now, we don't do it all at once because if you drill down on something, it gets too boring. So we first address price, and then the second issue is always time. Almost always time. I don't have the time to do this or how long will it take? And so we'll hammer that 1, 6, 7, 8, 9 different ways, right? And then the real one, the almost always. The real objection is neither time nor price. It's always belief. I don't think I can do this. I'm deficient in this way. I'm limited in that way. I'm going to fail. And that's where we really spend most of our time. But we recycle. We, like, do a price objection, then we do a time objection, and then we do two beliefs, and then we do another price objection, then we do another time one, and then we do two more beliefs, right? And then we can do that forever. I could go on forever doing that. I'll give you a great example of one. I just made up this new close two weeks ago. I think it was. Here's an issue that some consumers in some markets have. They will look at your offer, and then they will say, oh, my God, look at everything that's here. There's a ton of stuff here. And they're initially excited, and then they're like, but wait, I got to consume it all. Oh, my God, that's going to take a lot of effort. And they will feel very uncomfortable if they don't consume all of your information, even though they can't. It's going to be too much, and it's not a. It's not a good way of doing it. Right? And so it frustrates me because it's a limiting belief. The limiting belief is I have to consume all the information in order to be successful with this thing, which is not how real success works. Real success works is we consume only partial amounts of information and then we kind of go out there and figure it out, right? But they're thinking, I got to consume it all, and if I don't, then I suck. I'm not good. I failed. I didn't follow through. Or they do consume it all, God forbid, and now they're more confused than they were when they started. I love these customers. They're walking meat shield full of contradictions, right? And so I have to help them navigate through that mindset in order for them not to cheat themselves out of something that they should buy. And so I will say to them, this is what I said the other day. Just. And we freestyle these now on these clothes. Sometimes I'll say, tell me when you got a library card, you didn't feel guilty that you didn't read every book in the library. And that's one of the ways in which we deal with that objection. Specifically, if that's one that's coming up.
- [15:34]
A
There is another layer, however, to building trust and a momentum. Soft closing. Handling objections clears away resistance, but soft closing gently builds the agreement. Instead of holding out for one big yes at the end, you sprinkle in small, low pressure check ins along the way. A quick question here, an option there. Each one keeps the conversation moving forward and makes the final decision feel natural. By the time you get to a close, your audience isn't being asked to take a leap. They're already warmed up and halfway there. You can do this in a webinar. You can do this in a sales call. Shelby Hassapp, the founder of Shesales Academy and sales expert extraordinaire, told me how she uses this strategy in practice. Soft closing a deal multiple times throughout a sales pitch is the best way to go before you get to a hard close. So I always like to layer in. I do a couple different soft closes, a temperature gauge, and then a hard close. And this is for, this is for warmly. It's a lot different than if I were doing like cold calling door to door. But soft closing is essentially any sort of close that makes it a little bit soft, a little bit contingent. So I would say something like, if we were to even set something up, would you want to do this package or this package? Would you want to do the calls on this day or this day? What would be a priority for you if you were to be in the program? What would be your commitment level if you were to join the program? So it's, you can kind of tell where somebody's at before you hard close them, rather than just going in for the close. And you tell that based off of their responses so they can respond one of two ways. Number one is, yeah, I would definitely want to do, like the whole thing. Or they could say, like, if we were going to do it, then I would want to do this. And that's the contingent part. And so with that person, you would sit there, build a lot more value before you go in for the close. Because the worst thing you can do, my job is all preventing the objections. The worst thing you can do is not know where the customer stands go in for the hard clothes and then they just tell you some BS of like, yeah, for sure, but I would need to think about it. And then you're just digging yourself out of a hole. So it's the layering, the soft closes in, kind of getting that temperature gauge of where they're at. And then the clothes. Once you know that, this person's like, pretty good to go. Soft closing is powerful because it warms people up before the hard ask but it's not the only tool in your closing playbook. There are a few tactics rooted in psychology that can help you turn interest into real commitment. Here are three different approaches you can layer into your closing strategy. First, you can create urgency and scarcity, Limiting the number of seats, for example, in your program, or setting up a deadline for enrollment. These types of things push people to make a decision now instead of putting that decision off later. And you want people to make their decisions as quickly as possible. You don't want them to talk themselves out of the decision. Second, you can use permission based selling. By asking something as simple as can I share what I've built with you? You've shifted the dynamic. Instead of pushing an offer onto someone, you're inviting them into a conversation. And third, for higher ticket courses or programs, you can flip the script entirely. Rather than asking buyers to convince themselves to work with you, you can actually make people apply to work with you instead. This positions your offer as selective and exclusive, which not only elevates its perceived value, but also makes those who do get accepted feel like they've earned something special. People want what other people can't have. Finally, let's talk about one of the most effective strategies of all, stacking the offer. This is where you list out every component of your program, the core content, the bonuses, the extras, and assign each one a clear value. Maybe it's access to a private community, one on one coaching calls, or downloadable templates. By the time you reveal the total, your audience feels like they're getting a complete system worth thousands of dollars. Then, when you unveil your actual price much lower than that total value of all the things you're going to give them, it feels like an irresistible deal. That contrast creates excitement and urgency to buy. So you want to stack all the different things you're going to offer in the course, reveal that total of what the course is actually worth, and then give a lower price to your students. Tools like teachable make stacking your offer even easier. You can bundle multiple products, add upsells, or order bumps at Checkout and even create subscription models for recurring revenue. All right, guys, that's how you close with confidence. In our final section, we'll zoom in on one of the most powerful tools you can add to your funnel. Something that not only drives sales, but also deepens your connections with your customers. Hey, app fam. You know, when I first started creating content, I had nothing to sell for two years. I just poured into my audience. I was of service. I gave free advice and live Q&As on LinkedIn, live and clubhouse, and I loved every minute of it. But everybody kept asking, hala, when are you dropping your extended LinkedIn course? So I finally built one, a two day masterclass, and it sold out within hours. The feedback was absolutely amazing. So I launched it again and again, and before I knew it, I hit six figures in course revenue. But behind the scenes, it was total chaos. We were juggling so many different tools to run one course. Payment systems, emails, videos, student messages, everything was scattered all over the place. And that's why when I discovered Teachable, it was a breath of fresh air. It became the home for my entire online education business. Now I can design courses, collect payments and updates, even host webinars all in one place on Teachable. It's simple and it just works. Teachable gave me my time back and the confidence to grow faster. Now I'm going to launch a podcast course and I get to focus on what I love, teaching and connecting, while Teachable handles the rest. So are you ready to turn your expertise into income too? You can start your exclusive 30 day free trial on Teachable just for the app community at YoungAndProfiting Co Teachable. Again, that's YoungAndProfiting Co Teachable. No credit card required. See how easy it is to create, sell and scale your digital products faster than you think? Yeah, fam. So far we've been talking about sales funnels and buyer psychology. But let's bring it all together with one of the most effective tools for selling a course or digital product. My favorite selling tool of all, which is webinars. Webinars are what I like to call mid funnel accelerators. Remember, at the top of your funnel, you've got freebies, things that attract attention and get people in the door. But at a certain point, you need more than curiosity. You need trust, authority, and connection. And that's where webinars shine. You can really provide a lot of value and therefore build a lot of trust. Think of a webinar as a bridge. You're not asking a stranger to Jump straight from a freebie to a thousand dollar course. Instead, you're giving them a live experience where they can hear you teach, they can ask you questions in real time and see your expertise in action. If you give something really valuable away for free, they're going to wonder what you're going to give away when they pay for something. But here's the catch. You can't just talk at people for an hour and then drop a pitch. The best webinars give attendees something they can use right away while still leaving them curious for more. That's exactly how Kat Norton, better known as Ms. XL, turned her expertise into a multi million dollar business. In her webinars, she focuses on clear, actionable lessons that build trust and spark demand for her full courses. So where's the line? How much do you teach without giving away the entire course? I asked Kat to share how she approaches that balance in this next clip. So one of the things that I know that can scare people with webinars is providing too much education. Like if you teach them too much, oftentimes they feel overwhelmed and then they're like, well, I learned so much. Like, why bother getting the course? I have so much to implement just with today. This is overwhelming. This is a lot of work. It could scare people away. So what is too much and too little education for your webinar? Like, how do you think about that? So for us, I look at our course and in a free webinar, I'll give away maybe like 5% of that course. So if you take a look at it right, like our courses are roughly about 12 hours long. Excel has so many different topics that I typically go to like a Core 3 because we realized we did have a lot of people just always coming to our free classes. Cause I was switching them up all the time. So now we kind of keep it into three different topics where you don't really get the other topics. So having that repetitive nature if you are doing tons of webinars does help. We do have tons of our existing course members who join our free webinars. And it's honestly, it is a really big blessing too. Cause they'll type in the chat like, yeah, I love my courses so much. You know. And then it definitely does help with sales too. But I think, you know, having one, I try not to be afraid of doing that because there's always just so much more you can teach and things in the courses. But niching down into one topic is what we do. I don't just teach. Like, here's a little pivot tables, here's a little lookup, here's a little, you know, all the different things. Because then someone might look at the course outline, be like, I just learned all that. But they don't realize you can go deeper. So I niche it down. So we just did, for example, a data cleaning one. You know, we have a lookup one coming up. So that's, that's something we niche it down. Kat makes such a great point. You don't need to overload your audience or give away your entire course in a webinar. You just need to deliver focused value that shows your expertise and keeps people leaning in for more. But here's the thing. Content alone can't carry a webinar. If people are zoning out, they won't stick around long enough to even hear your offer. That's why the best webinars mix education with entertainment. What you might call edutainment instead of a one way lecture, make your webinar feel like a live conversations. You want to use things like polls, quizzes, or open ended questions to get people engaged. Every time somebody types in the chat or raises their hand, their interest grows. Stories are another powerful tool for your webinars. Whether it's your own journey or customer success story, stories create emotional connection and help people picture themselves succeeding. I've often seen repeat attendees jump into the chat to share their own testimonials in real time. Those moments are gold for building trust and credibility. And don't underestimate the chat itself. Inviting people to type yes if something resonates or to share their biggest challenge keeps things buzzing with energy. Every time they participate, they're not just engaging, they're investing in the experience. And that's the real key. Webinars aren't just about dumping information, they're about creating an emotional shift. When you focus on transformation instead of overload, your audience walks away, seeing themselves and their possibilities differently. Here's the webinar king himself, Jason Fladline, explaining what it looks like in practice.
- [26:11]
D
So transform, not inform. So seek to transform, not to merely inform. And so we are affected by two things what we know and how we feel about what we know. To quote Jim Rohn and 20% of it is what we know and 80% of it is how we feel about what we know. So I have to have this space in my webinars to set it up so when I give you the insight, you're in the best emotional state you can be to take it and feel the the most confident to use it or at least feel the least unconfident, right? Like I want you to feel like even if you do everything wrong, you'll be okay if you follow this advice. And so the setup and the payoff takes more time than the actual information that you're giving. And you've got to have space for that. The other, the other problem with doing this on a webinar is people need to know what the outcome is. They need to know the time of day, not how to build the watch. And so we need to step back and say, I really only need to teach one key insight. I gotta have one thing that at the end of the day when they hear it, they can't go back to the old way of being right, no matter even if they want to. They will reach for that lesser state of who they used to be and it will no longer be there for them. They have to be better after hearing what I say, right? And we've all had an experience of this, right? Like where there was something that happened or broke within us and we said never again, right? Usually through pain or through challenge, we said I will never operate that way again. And then you never did. Because whatever the pain is of doing something new is less than the pain of doing the same thing over and over again. So all of my webinars try to lead up to that key insight to where no matter what limiting belief or self doubt that they have, they can no longer reach for it by the time our webinar is over with.
- [28:01]
A
Jason's absolutely right about transformation. But transformation doesn't just end when the webinar ends. In fact, what happens after your webinar is just as critical as the event itself. The follow up via email is where curiosity turns into commitment and where the majority of your conversions will actually take place. That's why I always recommend having a post webinar strategy ready to go. Don't just send a single thanks for coming email. Create a thoughtful follow up sequence that keeps the momentum alive. You can start with a replay link for those who missed it or who want to go back to catch a key insight. Then layer in a special discount email or limited time bonuses to encourage fast action. Add in customer testimonials so your audience sees real proof of success. You can even surprise attendees with a thank you gift or sweeten the deal by offering small bonuses for those who purchase right away. These touches show that you value your audience while also nudging them closer to taking the leap. The bottom line, a webinar isn't just a one hour event, it's the centerpiece of a larger funnel. From the way that you engage in the chat, to the stories that you tell during the webinar, to the follow up sequence that you send, every step is part of the transformation you're guiding people through. And when you do it right, you're not just selling a course or program, you're opening the door to real, lasting change for your students. Well Yapgang, that wraps up today's episode as you think about launching your course or digital product. Keep it simple, lead with value, understand the psychology behind buying decisions, and use tools like webinars to build trust and guide your audience forward. At the end of the day, launching a great course isn't about complexity, it's about showing you can help, connecting on a human level and giving people a clear path to success. And remember, if you're ready to turn all that knowledge into real income by launching your course, head to youngandprofiting co teachable to grab your free 30 day trial. Thanks so much for joining me on this series presented by Teachable. Now go out and put these strategies into action by creating, launching and selling courses that make a real impact. This is your host Hala Taha, AKA the podcast Princess, signing off.