[Behind The Scenes] How A Workshop Launched My Business

Wondering how to get started online? I'm pulling back the curtain and showing you behind-the-scenes of how a workshop launched my online business.

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Transcript

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Welcome to the Little Miss Courserepreneur Podcast. I am your host, April Bradford. There is a big problem with the course Creation world. Course creators build a course, put it out there and either it doesn't sell or they're waiting between launches is wondering where the money is going to come from. Well, if you are ready to turn from a course crater to a Little Miss Entrepreneur, we are going to flip that model on its head. In this podcast, you are going to learn how to build a course business based on strategy from solo episodes with me where I will teach you everything I know about course creation and online marketing to interviews with industry experts where they will teach you how to build audiences, build your list, the tech and everything in between to make your coursepreneurship easier. This podcast will teach you the strategies to do that. You will also hear our stories about how we started and became online entrepreneurs. It's not always easy and it's not always pretty, but I promise you it is worth it. So dive in and start implementing the strategies that you care today and start building the business that you love. Hey there. Welcome to the podcast. If you are new, welcome. I'm so excited to have you. I hope you stay around, listen and take action on what you're learning. If you are returning, welcome. I'm so happy that you're back. Okay. As you know, if you're brand new, you are going to learn something that you can take action on today and today. What I am going to be teaching you is actually a behind the scenes look of how I got started online. So before we dive into that, I want you to know that the last episode is called Four Simple Steps to Getting Started Online. These are four steps that I didn't know when I did what you're going to learn today. I wish I would have known those steps. I wish I would have had that outlined for me so that I could have gone further with what I did. But I just did what I knew, right? So this episode is all about how I used a workshop to launch my online business. So this was back in 2018 that I was just about to graduate with my digital marketing design degree and I was like, okay, what am I going to do with this? I knew that I wanted to have my own online business and I knew that if you haven't heard my story before, when I was creating my Capstone project, my professor said to me, she said, you need to offer instructional design on your website. And I was like, okay. And that sparked this idea of, you know what, I know the tech part of things and I know the instructional design because I was a teacher for over ten years. So I knew how to plan lessons, planned curriculum, plan courses in a way that would get students results. So I went, okay, I am going to combine those two things, and I'm going to create a business. So I was like, what can I do? So the very first thing that I did was I decided to jump in Facebook groups where people were hanging out because what I originally thought that I would be doing was being a VA for course creators. So I would just help them do their thing and get their course created and launched, and that's what I would do. So I was in groups where they were, and I started researching if I could find posts that said, like, help or stuck or frustrated trigger words like that. I was looking for those kind of posts so that I could comment and provide value to them. And also, what I found was that there was this recurring theme that people were struggling with getting their course actually written. Like, outlined, written, feeling confident that what they're putting into their course was enough, that it wasn't overwhelming, that it was done in a way that would make sense to their students. These were the things that people were struggling with. And I was like, I know how to do that. I can totally help with this problem because, like I said, I had been a teacher. I had created curriculum. I had been a district trainer. I knew how to teach. I was confident in this. And I knew that I could help them break down this process in a way that was easier and easier to understand and in a way that would get their students results because that's what their fear was, that they were going to create a course that wasn't going to get results or that wouldn't make sense to their students. And maybe you're feeling those same things. And if you are, listen in and also go grab the guide. Three simple steps, creating a killer course. Blueprint, and I will walk you through the steps to create a course, literally the steps that I taught in this workshop. So go grab that at Littlemuscoursecrater Combinant. So I decided I can help with this. So then you've probably had this happen where you have a million ideas come to you. Like, you can't sleep at night because you get excited about these ideas, right? And I had this idea that I was going to host a live workshop where I could teach how to outline your course and also answer questions and make it interactive. And I was going to break them out into, like, groups, so then they could, like, work with people. And it's going to be this, like, 90 minutes, two hour workshop. Now, this was precova days when Zoom was around, but it wasn't like the thing that it is now, right? Like, everyone knows what Zoom is. Everyone knows how to use Zoom. This was a different time. This was not that. But I knew about Zoom and had used it for something. I can't even remember what. But I was like, okay, I'm going to use Zoom for this workshop, because then I can send out a link and people can join and we can interact. And I knew that I could put them in groups. I just remembered when I had used it, I used it in my College classes. We had done this. And so I was like, I can structure it the same way that my College professors were. Right? So I decided, okay, I'm going to create this workshop on how to outline your course and structure it in a way that makes sense and know what to put in and what to leave out of your course. So now I have the idea. I had to figure out how was I going to get people into this workshop, right? And literally this was the first thing that I had ever put out online. And so I had no idea if it would work. And I truly just wanted to test and see if this would work. And so I wasn't in the headspace of, let's see if I can make money out of this. It was literally, is this going to work? So I don't want to charge people in case it totally comes crumbling down, right? So this was going to be free. I was like, I'm going to create this workshop. It's going to be free. And I was in a Facebook group, and it was the Business boutique Facebook group. And it's unfortunately shut down now. But it was an amazing Facebook group with, like, tens of thousands of women who were trying to build businesses. And so it was okay. Like, this group was built to support each other. And you could say, hey, I'm doing this. Do people want to join? And, hey, what do you think about this idea? Like, literally it was like this collaborative group to get ideas and get help and support. And so it was okay in this group to do this. I am not saying go out and do this in any group, but in this particular group, it was okay. So I put into the group, hey, I'm thinking about doing a live workshop, a free, live workshop on how to write your online course. If you are interested in creating an online course, comment below and I'll let you know the details about the workshop. So the Business Boutique, it was ran by Christie Wright. It was Ramsay, Dave Ramsey, like, under the umbrella of Ramsey. And she was not teaching about courses or anything. Literally, it was business how to get your business running. So I wasn't, like, trying to compete with her or anything like that. So people commented, like, they commented on this post, and they're like, hey, I'm interested. Send me the details. And so then I'd be like, Is it okay if I message you and I sent them messages? And then I just sent them, I said, send me your email. And so that way I could email out the links and reminder emails to the workshop. And I don't even think at this time I'd have to go back in and look at my email service provider. But I don't even think at this time that I had an email service provider. I think I was literally just running it through my personal Gmail account because I had again, no idea what I was doing. So it was all brand new. So it actually turned out being really good. There was like ten or 15 people who are interested. I sent them the link and I had the date set, everything was ready to go. And now I had to actually create the workshop. I had the idea I knew what I was going to be teaching, but the slides weren't created. The content for the workshop wasn't created, so I created that. And then the day came to present the workshop. Obviously not everyone's going to sign up when you offer something free, but I did have a good turnout. I think I had like eight people show up and show up live and they got results. They got their course outlined. You were clear on what they needed to put into their course, what they needed to leave out. So it made sense for their students. They all were very kind and complimentary. And I told them right at the very beginning, like, I'm Super nervous. This is the first time I've ever done this. So bear with me. Things didn't work. The breakout rooms that I was going to do didn't work. But overall, the transformation that I was hoping for for them worked. And I sent them a follow up email saying, hey, will you just give me some testimonials and some feedback? Like, I didn't ask for the testimonial. I said, if you want to in the Google form, it had a place that they could give a testimonial, but I got feedback. And so that's how I originally got started. And what happened after that was a few of the people who were in the workshop were participants in the workshop actually reached out to me and they said, hey, do you work one on one with people helping them get their course graded? And I was like, sure, yes, I do. And I had nothing. Like literally I had no offer. So I came up with something. I was like, I do retainer. This is the minimum amount of hours and this is my hourly rate. And still to this day, I work with some of those people that I met doing that free workshop. So I got clients which was bringing in income, which made it so that I could continue to build my business. And I also got original testimonials, like, I had testimonials to move forward with. So that's how a free workshop literally launched my business and has made it so that four years later I am still in business because one of the simplest ways to start making money online. And I think I've mentioned this on the podcast before, but one of the simplest ways to get started online is to actually do done for you services. And it's actually the way to make the most money quickly because you can charge a lot for done for you services. And so it ended up being really good. It launched my one on one clients that workshop. I ended up turning it into a course, expanding it, turning it into a course that turned into my first course launch, which I've talked about on this podcast before. And so that was the literally like stem or the roots of how I got started. So don't minimize what a workshop, even a free workshop if you are scared to charge. I have talked about not doing things for free before, but sometimes when you're scared, like, I literally had no idea. I had no idea what I was doing and there's no way I was going to charge and be like, because that wasn't comfortable for me because I did not know if it would work. And so I didn't want to charge people something and then it just fell apart. I wanted to make sure that it worked. And then once I launched it into a course, then I did charge. A workshop can be a very powerful way to not only get started, get testimonials, get those first people transformations that therefore you can use their stories as case studies in the rest of your marketing. But it can also be a way to build your confidence in what you're doing. It can help you test your content and it will lead to things that you didn't realize that it was going to lead to. I had no idea. Like, I did not go in with the intention of getting one on one clients from that experience, but it did. It led to that. So the way that you I want to talk really quick just about a workshop, which I should do another episode just on a workshop. But the way that you create a workshop is the same way that you create an online course. It's the same process, the teaching process. No matter if you're teaching a ten minute lesson or a ten week course, the teaching process is the same. And this is what I feel makes me stand out from my competitors is because I know I understand this teaching process and I understand how to make learning so that your learners get those transformations and that you can create your content in a way that makes sense to them. I actually just sent an email to my list yesterday breaking down the three steps of the learning process to make sure that you're doing in your course. If you want tips like that, make sure you are on my email list. You can go grab the guide. The three steps to creating a killer course blueprint. Go grab that you'll get on my email list and that guide will walk you through the process that you need to take to build your workshop or your course. So go grab that@littlemuscoursecreator.com blueprint and then you won't miss out on these tips that I send my email list to help you in the process of creating your online course. I'm also going to start with my email list. If you're on my email list doing monthly Q and A's. So if you want in with the monthly Q and A, then you need to be on the email list. I'll send out a link tells you where to submit your questions. Then I'll send you a link to getting on the live of the Q and A session so you don't want to miss that. Get on the email list. Littlemisschorscrater.com blueprint. And the whole thing that I want you to learn from this is go try something. Go try something. Take action on something. If I would have stayed in my fear, literally, I was shaking. I still remember I was in my old house. I was upstairs. I was like, shaking. And I said to the people, I was like, I am so nervous to do this. I told them that I was like, I'm so nervous. I've never done this. And my voice was shaking and everything when I got started in the workshop. But if I would have stayed in that fear and not put myself out there, I would not be where I am today. I would not be home like I wanted to be having a flexible schedule, being able to go help with my daughter's dance class today, being able to take lunch to my son when he needs it. Those things that I wanted to do that I dreamed of when I was a teacher and didn't have that flexibility I am now able to do all because of this workshop that I stepped into the fear and I did. So my action step for you, the action step for you today is to choose something and go take action. And if you're stuck, you don't know where to start. Go listen to the last episode, four simple steps getting started online because go take action on those four simple steps. Go take action because that's the only way to get moving is to take action and step out into fear to get to where you want to go. All right, I will see you in the next episode, and hopefully I will see you on our first live Q and A, which will be next week. I'll send out details. If you're on the email list, go join that if you're not. And I'll send out details and then I hope to see you in the first live Q and A for the little Misch creator community. All right, you can grab the download at Littlemisscoursecreator Comb and I will see you next week.