The Online Course Show

What a week it has been! I literally recorded this episode standing in the middle of Yellowstone National Park while my kids were napping. My family is on week three of a summer roadtrip, and while that’s leading me to do some unconventional podcast episodes, it’s also reminding me just how much I enjoy being my own boss. ;) "This is not a magic pill… but every day that passes I get better and better at this stuff." - Jacques Hopkins I hope you enjoy catching a glimpse of the freedom that having a successful online course can provide! In This Episode, We Talked About: (0:58) Recording on the road and introducing the show to new listeners (2:39) A road trip update (bison and elk and nerve-wracking Arizona roads, oh my!) (6:09) How my business is going while I’m away (6:41) An exciting guest appearance I got to make recently (7:36) Why and how I started my podcast (10:24) Recommending key episodes for new listeners, plus a disclaimer (12:16) Why you belong here and what’s coming up on my agenda for next week (13:26) An invitation if you found your way here via Smart Passive Income That’s all for now, folks! See you on the next episode of The Online Course Guy. Links Bonjoro Free Trial Smart Passive Income interview Episode 89: Start Here Episode 107: How Should an Online Course Fit with Your Other Content? Episode 100: The Online Course Girl Episode 96: Evergreen Funnels 101 Episode 121: About to Give Up and This One Thing Changed Everything Free Training for Smart Passive Income Listeners The Online Course Guy Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days

One of the big reasons I always wanted to start my own online business was to allow my family more freedom to travel and see the world. Right now we’re on the road for a 5-week trip, but that doesn’t mean that things aren’t still humming along for my business! I’m still checking in with my team, sales are still coming in, and I still have a whole lot of thoughts that may be helpful no matter where you are on your online course journey. ;) "The allure of passive income is great… but it’s very rare where you’ve got that situation and don’t have to do some regular maintenance." - Jacques Hopkins I’m excited to share my thoughts on this short-and-sweet solo episode, so I hope you like what you hear! In This Episode, We Talked About: (0:42) Why this episode is different (and an audio quality disclaimer) (1:22) The reason I always wanted to have my own online business (2:31) How I engage with new students on a personal level - and why (7:17) Staying on top of things while traveling across multiple states (8:39) Thoughts on “courses about courses” vs courses in other niches (12:29) A potential disadvantage to the way I do things (14:38) Thinking about being proactive both in life and in business (23:02) The importance of regularly checking in with your system (24:32) Wrapping up That’s all for now, folks! See you on the next episode of the “out of office” version of my The Online Course Show. Links ">Bonjoro Free Trial ">Deadline Funnel Free Trial ">The 4-Hour Workweek ">Episode 138 ">The Online Course Guy ">Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days ">David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert

I’m on the road with my family and chronicling how I run my online course business at the very same time! This and the next few episodes is going to be short and sweet, because as much as I love my Online Course Show audience, I love my family more. ;) But that doesn’t mean we can’t dive into how my business and my work process functions while I’m away from home. "Being able to do something like this and still be able to run my business and serve others is one of the main reasons I got into this." - Jacques Hopkins I hope you enjoy catching a glimpse of the freedom that having a successful online course can provide! In This Episode, We Talked About: (0:44) Why this episode is different (and an audio quality disclaimer) (1:35) My plan for upcoming episode content (2:50) The very first thing I do when I get ready for working away from home (3:29) My most essential daily tasks (5:13) Am I still livestreaming during my trip? (5:59) Website updates and segmentation (7:36) New training I’m making available on my site (8:34) A recent funnel fire I had to put out - while on a walk with my family (13;03) A realization regarding online courses about online courses That’s all for now, folks! See you on the next episode of The Online Course Guy. Links Bonjoro Free Trial The 4-Hour Workweek The Online Course Guy Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert

When you’re starting an online course business, you probably have a lot of questions about what it will take to keep that course running smoothly every month. My business has evolved a lot over time, and that means my expenses have evolved too. And that’s what we’re here to talk about today! "You have to be your own CFO" - David Krohse No matter what stage your business is in, you probably have expenses! In this episode we’re taking a look at all the essential tools and services I pay for - and why I think they’re worth it. In This Episode, We Talked About: (0:47) Dave’s story about being in an online course mindset and cost/benefit analysis (3:52) My latest launch (5:25) Learning from imperfect leaders and thinking about success (8:39) A life update made possible by my online course business (10:04) Setting the stage for discussion of my monthly expenses (14:10) My credit card rewards recommendation (14:46) Spending on tools, ads, and cloud storage (21:46) What I’m doing for Instagram content so far (24:08) Physical pack components and how I handle shipping (28:04) More expenses and outsourcing costs (29:28) Why I love StreamYard (32:31) Staying organized, handling ads, and customizing communications (34:51) Thoughts on Wistia, Canva, and Zoom (37:07) Payments I handle outside of my credit account (37:25) How much did I spend on advertising, course supplies, and processing fees in April? (39:13) Contractors’ fees and handling business while away (39:56) My experience with Evolved Finance so far (41:27) My business wishlist and what I’m enjoying being able to afford for my business (43:22) Pitfalls new business owners should be aware of (46:34) Three key tools and why I didn’t include them in my monthly expenses (47:37) Wrapping up Thank you for listening in – I hope you enjoyed what you learned! We’ll be back with another episode soon of The Online Course Show soon. Links Deadline Funnel Free Trial ClickFunnels Free Trial Active Campaign Free Trial Bonjoro Free Trial Episode 28 Next Level Courses Evolved Finance Chase Business Backupify Auphonic GSuite Stunning WP Engine TrustPilot Later Custom Ink Lightning Press Moo Flashbay Sticker Mule Typeform Upwork StreamYard Ulku Logistics Calendly Conversion Owl PicSnippets Free Trial Wistia Vimeo Canva Zoom Zapier Sony A63400 camera Piano In 21 Days Instagram Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert

Stacks and secrets and sales - oh my! We’re talking all about webinar content today, because I firmly believe that your webinar can be a huge driver of sales if you set it up right. If they check certain boxes for the audience and are structured in a certain way, they can really help your audience break their false beliefs about your niche. "You’ve got to help people break through objections." - Jacques Hopkins David and I had a lot of fun discussing the ins and outs of my webinar and what I’ve learned over the years of working on it. Once you understand the basic structure of how to do an effective webinar presentation, you can apply this knowledge to just about any niche! In This Episode, We Talked About: (1:44) Life updates and recent events (4:03) Facebook communities and why I’ve been going live more often (9:24) A book recommendation and update from David (13:29) The Win of the Week (16:58) My top 4 favorite tools (17:35) Do webinars work? (20:53) Webinar icebreakers and presentation openers (22:12) Incentivizing attendees to watch the whole webinar (24:14) How to use an epiphany bridge (26:46) The importance of stories (27:20) Creating “The 3 Secrets” from false beliefs, with examples from my niche (31:24) How to deal with skepticism (32:20) The 3 types of false beliefs, with more examples (37:29) Transitioning into selling (39:11) “The Stack” for webinars (42:54) How to do a price reveal (44:45) Storytelling to combat false beliefs (47:45) Ending your webinar + thoughts on webinar length (49:24) Wrapping up Thank you for listening in – I hope you enjoyed what you learned! We’ll be back with another episode soon of The Online Course Show soon. Links Deadline Funnel Free Trial Bonjoro Free Trial Share Your Win of the Week How to Stop Worrying and Start Living Expert Secrets Episode 18 CopyWriting Secrets Jacques’ Course - Next Level Courses Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert

When I first started my online course business, I didn’t even really know what a “funnel” was. Sales funnels can be confusing, even for people who are a bit savvier than I was back then! And that’s why David and I are doing a deep-dive into the why and what of funnels – plus how I’ve set mine up to drive sales for my online piano course. "The importance of a funnel is really building a rapport and a relationship with your prospective customer." - Jacques Hopkins Wherever you’re at on your online course journey, you can benefit from taking a close look at your sales funnel (or lack thereof)! And you just may want to break out the notepad and pen for this one. ???? In This Episode, We Talked About: (2:27) My update on affiliate promotions for my piano course plus more exciting milestones (8:05) Thoughts on creating moments of celebration (10:36) Tips and tricks for better posture with Doctor David (15:40) The Win of the Week (19:56) Funnels: how I started mine and how I hope to help in this episode (22:25) The psychology of my website homepage and opt-in (24:54) Surveying and segmenting my potential students (27:00) Creating a two-pronged enrollment window (28:42) Hot leads and evergreen webinars (29:36) How I provide value to potential students and build rapport (30:54) Why I don’t constantly promote my webinar to people in my funnel (31:57) Staying out of the Spam folder (32:33) Opening enrollment (33:31) Closing cart and ending the funnel (34:07) Offering incentives + how I plan to tweak this process (38:43) The value of my funnel and why funnels alone don’t equal sales (40:59) Thinking about relaunching and future webinars (43:45) How you can see my funnel emails firsthand (44:29) An exciting update for course creators who want to take their course business to the next level (45:41) Wrapping up Thank you for listening in – I hope you enjoyed what you learned! We’ll be back with another episode soon of The Online Course Show soon. Links Deadline Funnel Free Trial ClickFunnels Free Trial Share Your Win of the Week Episode 125 Expert Secrets Jacques’ Course – Piano in 21 Days David’s Course – Wellness Program Expert

If you’re like me, the legal side of an online course business can be intimidating. Privacy policies, trademarks, pirating… so many legal concerns to consider! Fortunately, lawyer and course creator Autumn Witt is here on today’s episode to break down some of the most important considerations in this topic for online course businesses. "I put a lot [of my audience's feedback] into packaging up what needed to be in my course." - Autumn Witt Autumn shared a wealth of insight on how new and old course creators alike can identify legal concerns and take action no matter what stage your business is in. I’m still mulling over what I learned in today’s episode, and I’m definitely going to be taking some of Autumn’s advice for my own online course business. In This Episode, We Talked About:  (3:32) Celebrating wins and sharing a fun giveaway I did for my piano students (6:16) What makes this podcast different (6:55) What percent of my students are in the US, and what does that have to do with my accent? (9:29) An idea I’m considering as a way to serve my students better (12:56) Affiliate updates for my course (17:02) Introducing Autumn and how she helps course creators (19:58) The biggest mistake course creators make when it comes to legal considerations (20:43) Privacy policies, disclaimers, and terms of use (23:33) Templates versus working with an attorney for custom legal advice (24:20) Big online course names that Autumn has worked with (24:54) Legal concerns to know when starting an online course (26:36) Dealing with refund requests and disputed charges (28:27) How scaling up affects your business legally (29:41) How much does registering a trademark cost? (30:53) Questions about pirating and plagiarism (34:50) Autumn’s own online course journey (37:04) Who can benefit from Autumn’s course (38:43) Favorite tools and platforms (40:22) Autumn’s advice for new course creators (42:25) Her team and where to find her online (43:32) David and I discuss how not to be an ostrich (45:23) Thoughts on handling disputes and choosing your battles (49:47) Reducing barriers to entry versus covering your legal bases (51:56) Trademark stories with David (53:33) Respect and dealing with unreasonable people (57:16) Wrapping up Whew, that about does it for today! Thanks so much for tuning in! Links Deadline Funnel Free Trial Bonjoro Free Trial ClickFunnels Free Trial Share Your Win of the Week Paul’s YouTube Channel Episode 80 Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert

One of my favorite types of interviews are the ones where we catch up with past guests and see where their online course journey has been taking them over time. Today we’ve got Gina Horkey back with us! Gina always has a lot of great insights and updates on her online course business, so it was great to have her back on The Online Course Show. "Invest in student success." - Gina Horkey It was great to get Gina’s perspective on the past year of her business and what she’s working on! I hope you enjoy the conversation. In This Episode, We Talked About:  (1:59) Consistency and growth (3:22) How to approach copywriting (6:45) My update on sales for this month and year so far (7:59) Affiliates and my process (10:29) The Win of the Week (13:29) A book recommendation (15:45) Catching up with Gina since our last conversation (19:04) How her online course business has given her more confidence (21:15) The magic of content repurposing (25:05) How Gina is restructuring her content and platforms (28:29) Setting up a course that may change hands in the future (29:17) Keyword research as SEO (30:29) Maintaining and separating multiple brands (32:48) Gina’s decisions on personal visibility on different brands (34:44) Outsourcing content and profit-sharing versus contracting (40:45) The importance of diverse income streams (45:41) How entrepreneurs are pivoting during the pandemic (47:06) Finding life-work balance (52:05) Gina’s advice for new course creators (55:47) David and I discuss Gina's strategy for multiple brands (58:05) The value of coaching and accountability (1:01:57) Thoughts on affiliates, profit-sharing, and other options (1:03:59) Finding work-life balance and why I love my online course business (1:06:05) Refunds and guarantees (1:08:34) Wrapping up That’s all for now, folks! See you on the next episode of The Online Course Guy. Links ClickFunnels Free Trial Share Your Win of the Week Gina’s Course - Horkey Handbook Episode 82 ThriveCart Fix This Next Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert

We’re back, and catching up with a course creator who I interviewed all the way back in episode 80! Paul Lipsky is a successful drop-shipping business owner and course creator who teaches others how to run their own Ebay drop-shipping business. It was great to speak with Paul again and hear all his latest and greatest online course news. "Now that I’m focusing on less, we’re seeing better results… Focus down on what’s really working." - Paul Lipsky It was very cool to hear how Paul’s been doing with his course and recent changes. Make sure you check out the other episodes we mention during today’s interview! In This Episode, We Talked About:  (1:49) David’s funnel update (3:00) What NOT to do to go viral on YouTube and the importance of an “advisory board” (9:35) Some updates on my course during social distancing (11:37) Switching to 4K video (13:10) The Win of the Week and our thoughts (16:38) Recalling my past interview with Paul Lipsky and his story (18:03) Life changes since I last spoke with Paul (19:33) Benefits and challenges of living in a van (21:45) Recapping how Paul’s online business and course works (22:50) Thoughts on updating content in different niches (25:08) Tools Paul loves and is trying out (27:51) YouTube traffic and lessons learned about reducing regular posting (30:25) Thoughts on live streaming videos (32:11) Changes to Paul’s funnel setup with webinars (35:15) Communicating about pre-recorded webinar content (37:19) Our shared frustrations with EverWebinar (39:35) New webinar setups and tricks to make the viewing experience better (42:17) Split-testing sales pages (43:08) Paul’s advice for new and aspiring course creators (45:36) Where to find Paul online (46:24) David and I discuss ClickFunnels and course editing (48:21) Taking inspiration from Paul’s journey (49:55) Thoughts on social proof apps (52:38) Webinar changes and the reasoning behind certain tweaks (55:50) Wrapping up Thanks for listening and learning along with us today. Stay tuned for another great episode coming soon! Links Deadline Funnel Free Trial Bonjoro Free Trial ClickFunnels Free Trial Share Your Win of the Week Paul’s YouTube Channel Episode 80 Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert Episode 125 Teachable Proof ProveSource Zapier

If you are new to the online course world, you’ve probably been wondering if a platform like Udemy could be a good place to start. There’s probably no one-size-fits-all answer on, but my guest today had some great insights that are definitely worth considering. Tracy Goodwin is a successful course creator who specialized in helping people get their message across more effectively. It was great to hear her perspective on all things online course-related and to learn what has worked best for her. "Give yourself a little bit more credit than you might be giving yourself… someone out there is waiting for your message." - Tracy Goodwin I couldn’t have said it better myself! And I hope you enjoy listening in on our conversation! In This Episode, We Talked About:  (2:34) An update from David (4:27) Potential new course creators - in my own family! (6:28) How things are going for me and my business right now (9:19) The key components of a successful course (10:41) How my wife and I will be celebrating a new milestone (11:24) Shoutouts, the Win of the Week, and a cool story (15:50) Introducing Tracy Goodwin (16:24) Who Tracy helps and how she does it (20:39) Her online course journey and early wins (22:47) The differences in our stories (24:11) Price point considerations and leaving Udemy (27:20) How Tracy now sells her courses (28:56) Unusual ways Tracy gets her traffic (30:16) What gets her more excited: course sales or coaching? (32:14) Coaches, mentors, and the value of outside help (35:30) The opportunities that Tracy has created with her online course business (36:37) What Tracy would do differently if she was starting over (38:48) Her favorite tools (40:27) Tracy’s tips for new and aspiring course creators (42.35) Where to find Tracy online (43:06) My and David’s thoughts on Tracy’s experience with Udemy (47:01) Phone sales, impact on family, and other observations from the interview (48:58) The cautionary tale of Elizabeth Holmes (52:33) Wrapping up That’s all for now, folks! See you on the next episode of The Online Course Show. Links ClickFunnels Free Trial Bonjoro Free Trial Deadline Funnel Free Trial Share Your Win of the Week Video 4x Effect ConvertKit LearnDash Tracy’s Course - Captivate the Room Bad Blood Denise Hopkins Fine Art Jacques' Course - Piano in 21 Days David’s Course - Wellness Program Expert