The Online Course Show

Sometimes the journey is the destination, and that’s especially true for our guest today. Leah Gervais is founder of Urban 20 Something and an online course creator who’s learned firsthand what it means to turn life experience into teaching tools that can help others. "Having happy customers is better than a good funnel." - Leah Gervais Leah provided some great food for thought about how simple online course setup can possibly be and much, much more. I was super-impressed by how she handles certain aspects of her business, and I think you will be too. In This Episode, We Talked About: (1:41) An update and a funny story from David (5:08) A shoutout to one of my course students who hit an important milestone recently (6:43) What I’ve been working on recently and how I’m expanding my team (9:47) Today’s core content - my interview with Leah Gervais (10:46) How Leah got into the world of online courses (16:39) A look at how she has her courses set up (20:13) An example of courses that don’t need a coaching component (21:07) Why Leah offers separate coaching services (23:15) Talking revenue, messaging, and more (25:56) Does Leah do her own discovery calls? (26:55) Getting in front of the right people (29:54) Automations and options (32:10) Leah’s team (33:20) Her advice for new and aspiring course creators (35:23) Where to find Leah online (36:08) Takeaways from how Leah got started compared with our own experiences (38:05) My top-ranking blog post, plus thoughts on content repurposing (41:26) The unusual way that Leah has set up her courses (43:09) Something that jumped out at me during the interview (45:10) Wrapping up Thanks for listening and learning along with us today. Stay tuned for another great episode coming soon! Links Bonjoro Free Trial Expert Secrets plus Free Access to my Online Course Accelerator Leah’s Website Loom Lead Pages Pro Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

We’re back with another episode of The Online Course Show! Today I shared an interview with Drew Badger, an online course creator who’s found amazing success online with his English course. He’s got some fantastic insights into how to differentiate your course from others, what takes to build something that really meets students’ needs, and much more.. "I knew that I needed to specialize in something. I needed to be first." - Drew Badger David and I enjoyed listening to and discussing what Drew shared on this episode! In This Episode, We Talked About: (1:39) A launch update from David (3:31) Some things I’ve been working on recently (5:01) A mistake that I’m currently learning from (7:56) SEO and ads - what’s worked for me, what I’ve moved on from (11:02) Is TrustPilot a good investment? (13:00) How did Drew Badger end up in a small town in Japan? (15:55) Drew’s first product that turned a profit (17:35) The steps that led to making it with his online English course (23:42) Drilling down into what differentiates one course from another (25:44) Drew’s amazing YouTube numbers and how his videos factor into his funnel (33:47) What he would do differently if he was starting over now (36:50) Is it harder to start with or without more input from potential students? (41:41) Top tools Drew relies on (43:47) What has having a successful online course meant for Drew? (45:20) The app that he’s been working on and why he’s so passionate about sharing it with the world (48:16) Wrapping up with today’s guest and where to find Drew online (50:09) How I typically find guests like Drew for this podcast (52:23) Some big takeaways from my chat with Drew (55:04) Thoughts on the Frederick app (55:58) Testimonials and the “why” (58:31) David’s 5-million dollar ad concept (1:03:11) Something I want to do more of in the future (1:04:12) Wrapping up the episode Whew! That about does it for today – don’t forget to join us for the next episode of The Online Course Guy! And Happy Thanksgiving to those who are listening from the U.S.A.. ???? Links ClickFunnels Trial Drew’s Website Drew’s App Trustpilot Kajabi Stripe PayPal April Fools Air Guitar Ad Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

It’s time to talk tools! What works best for online course creation? What are the apps and software I can’t live without? And do other successful course creators use the same tools I do? We are about to find out, because today’s episode is jam-packed with tool reviews, tips on how to integrate different tools, and plenty of insight into what it takes to keep an online course running smoothly. "I only promote things that I actually use." - Jacques Hopkins With the help of my co-host David and guests Abbey Ashley and Nate Dodson, we covered a lot of ground in this episode. Have fun listening, and don’t forget to check out the numerous links down below! In This Episode, We Talked About: (0:49) A fun update on David’s most recent launch (3:19) Some little insights into the world of Jacques, and a recent trip I was able to take while continuing to sell online courses (5:13) Why we love this week’s sponsor (6:51) Introducing today’s topic - top tools for online course creators (8:22) A course update from Abbey Ashley (10:24) An update from Nate Dodson and thoughts on dealing with changes in your team (12:54) ClickFunnels vs other platforms and add-ons (20:00) Email auto-responders - does it matter what you choose? (23:22) How Abbey and I use Bonjoro (27:52) Does Zapier make our lives easier? (31:42) An interesting new tool Abbey’s using (35:00) If not Deadline Funnels, what? (37:51) Sending the Right Message (39:40) What PicSnippets does and why I use it (41:07) Handling bookkeeping (45:20) Video and screen capture tools we love (48:33) Backup tools (49:31) Sending thank you’s to new students (50:50) Abbey’s go-to tool for content planning (52:33) How to ask people for information and feedback (54:12) How to show social proof for your online course (55:17) Managing emails (57:19) Nate’s new video editing tool (57:54) How I’ve set up a remote workstation for a new member of my team (58:44) Getting third-party reviews (1:00:00) How Abbey handles internal communications (1:01:51) To EverWebinar or not to EverWebinar? (1:02:59) How to address issues with late payments from students (1:05:05) Abbey’s upcoming transition from Trello to ClickUp (1:07:54) Two more tools Nate recommends (1:09:11) Something new I’m excited to try (1:10:44) Wrapping up with our guests (1:12:44) Discussing top tools David’s excited about (1:16:11) An offer I’m sharing to help people get started with ClickFunnels (1:18:15) Nate’s update after implementing a tool he learned about during the recording of this interview (1:20:24) A few tool mentions we missed earlier Whew! That about does it for today. Stay tuned for another great episode coming soon! Links Bonjoro Free Trial Abbey’s Website Nate’s Website  ClickFunnels Teachable LeadPages SamCart ConvertKit ActiveCampaign Zapier Stripe Freshbooks GroupFunnels Deadline Funnels Right Message PicSnippets Quickbooks Evolved Finance Screencast-O-Matic Loom Skitch Backupify The Online Course Guy GSuite Thanks.io Team Up Google Forms TypeForm Proof HelpScout DaVinci Resolve Shadow.Tech TrustPilot Slack EverWebinar Stunning.co Trello ClickUp Procss Doodle Vanguard Pocket Dateless Planner Members Pro Canva Premiere Pro Piano in 21 Days

It’s I’m here with an all-new interview on today’s episode, (and as promised, joining me is my new co-host David)! Christina Rice of Christina Rice Wellness is keeping busy with many fingers in many pots, not the least of which is her online course on paleo nutrition for women. It was great to chat with her and hear what’s been working for her, how she’s grown her audience, and advice for new course creators no matter your niche. "It’s not about the size of your audience, it’s about what you do with the audience you have." - Christina Rice In This Episode, We Talked About: (1:03) Course updates from David and me (2:47) A cool new sponsor for the show - and why I think their product goes together with online courses like PB&J (3:49) My ClickFunnels fanboy moment (4:16) David’s favorite OCG episodes and thoughts on who could be candidates for online course creation (8:54) Co-hosting and discussing guest interviews (9:38) Why Christina decided to create her course (10:44) Christina’s process for course creation and launching (12:02) Do you have to have a lot of followers to have a successful course? (13:24) How to grow your audience (15:00) Where to draw the line between free and paid content (17:00) How Christina creates new content and stays motivated (19:10) Her recommendations on where to start (21:22) What she would do differently if she was starting over now plus what she’s changing now (24:28) Her favorite tools and tech (25:33) Christina’s top health tips (26:14) Advice for brand new course creators (26:57) Where to find Christina online (28:41) Thoughts and observations on Christina’s story (31:20) Would I go to college again if I could go back in time? (34:01) The importance of providing free, authentic content (34:46) Facebook groups and logistics (36:49) DIY versus interactive course structure (39:10) Final takeaways We covered a lot of ground today, so I hope you’ll drop me a line and let me know your favorite part of the conversation! Links Deadline Funnel Free Trial Christina’s Podcast Christina’s Website Teachable Canva Zoom Group Funnels Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

I’ve got a huge update for you today over here at The Online Course Guy! I teased this on last week’s episode, and now I’m excited to announce (drumroll please) that a brand new co-host will be helping me host this show from now on. And he is none other than David Krohse, longtime listener of the show and budding course creator who also helps me run things over on my Facebook is going to be a great addition to these interviews and conversations on the online course world.I’m looking forward to being able to bounce things back and forth with him along with our guests, and for both of us to be able to share what we’re learning along the way. I also think it will be cool to discuss this from the perspective of course creators who are in different stages of our journeys. With that in mind, I’m interviewing David today so that you can get to know him and kick this new status quo off to a great start "That feeling of getting that first sale is unbelievable." - David Krohse In This Episode, We Talked About: (3:20) The story behind where David is today and the process of becoming debt-free (20:32) Learning some financial lessons the hard way (21:52) How David got into listening to this podcast - and a funny story about how his wife enrolled in my first co-host’s course  (26:24) Our first interaction and David’s growing interest in creating his own online course (28:22) What’s changed about my Online Course Accelerator course and why David committed to enrolling (30:03) The response I’ve seen so far to making the Online Course Accelerator practically free (30:26) David’s course creation process and launch (37:06) Adjusting launch strategies and early sales (38:02) What David envisions for his businesses online and offline (41:33) Thoughts on having David join the show as a co-host (42:52) My recent entry into the 2 Comma Club (43:55) Some random questions for David to close out the episode (Cake may or may not be involved) I hope you enjoy hearing our conversation and getting to know David a bit today. And I hope you’ll stay tuned for another great episode with our brand new format – coming soon! Links Get Into My Online Course Accelerator David’s Online Course Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

One thing I love about having a podcast is that interviewing other course creators lets me tap into a knowledge base that’s bigger than my own! Today is no exception, because until this episode I didn’t know much about the how’s and why’s of virtual summits. But interviewing Bailey Richert was a great crash course on the topic. Hearing her thoughts on virtual summits has me convinced that I may need to give them a shot. "The truth is that it’s really easy to [set the bar high] if you come in with an attitude of serving and wanting to genuinely help people… you will be revered as that expert." - Bailey Richert Bailey shared a wealth of insight with us during her interview, so I really enjoyed learning from her. How about you? In This Episode, We Talked About: (1:56) Why Bailey is posting high-value content for a Facebook group (6:04) The 30-Day Summit initiative (9:15) What’s in it for people who join a summit (14:18) Virtual summits from the perspective of relatively new course creators (18:27) An example of how not to approach someone to be a part of a summit (20:25) The difference between requiring sharing summits with others and having such great content that they want to do it anyway (21:16) Why host a virtual summit (24:16) Bailey’s strong opinions on whether new course creators should be doing virtual summits (26:24) Bailey’s course offerings (28:09) Her successful webinar strategies (29:49) Thoughts on upcoming changes to ClickFunnels (32:22) Favorite tools that Bailey uses for her online courses (36:38) Where to find Bailey online We covered a lot of ground today, so I hope you’ll drop me a line and let me know your favorite part of the conversation. And don’t forget to tune in next week for my exciting announcement about this podcast! Links Bonjoro Free Trial Register for Bailey’s Live Webinar on 11/05/2019 Bailey’s Website ClickFunnels Trial Deadline Funnel Camtasia Yeti Microphone Toonly Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

I love using my podcast platform to tap into the knowledge of other successful course creators, and that’s exactly what we’re doing today! Graham Cochrane has been involved in the world of course creation for a while now, and it was a pleasure to get to know him a bit – and hear his insights on the online courses. "A good online course gets people results." - Graham Cochrane Graham had a lot to share, from evergreen vs. launch models and personal branding to favorite tools and working while traveling! In This Episode, We Talked About: (2:02) How Graham first got into creating online courses (3:43) What course creation looked like a decade ago (4:46) Were Graham’s courses an instant success? (6:23) The secret to getting YouTube subscribers and building an email list (8:54) How to stay motivated to keep generating new videos (12:42) What Graham would do differently if he was starting over (14:30) An overview of his sales funnel setup (16:15) Handling evergreen sales with webinars (16:57) Graham’s favorite online course tools (17:32) The different facets of his business (20:39) Keeping up with work while traveling (21:36) Graham’s online course team (22:05) What a successful online course business has meant to Graham and his family (24:26) His best advice for new course creators (25:53) How to connect with Graham Thank you for listening in – I hope you enjoyed what you heard! I’ll be back with another interview episode soon. Links Bonjoro Free Trial Graham’s Website Graham’s Podcast: Spotify EverWebinar Kajabi ConvertKit Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

People all over the world are succeeding with online courses on a variety of topics, and today’s guest is a perfect example of that! Alison Ellis teaches “floral math” to florists worldwide, and it was great to have her on the show today and hear about her online course journey. "You don’t have an excuse to not do this… If you don’t put out your crappy version, you’ll never get your good version." - Alison Ellis It was awesome to chat with Alison and hear her open up about the why and how of her online course business. Her take on teaching online is inspirational and I think you’re going to love listening in to our conversation! In This Episode, We Talked About: (1:47) How Alison got into making online courses (4:10) Going from idea to actually creating a course (9:32) Did Alison start making sales right away? (11:16) An early realization she had that led to her development of new courses (13:44) Why Alison started with “flower math” (14:58) Her thoughts on figuring out sales and scarcity (18:39) Some of the benefits of creating an online course (21:14) What to do when customers fail to complete a payment (26:44) How having an online course enables to be flexible with her florist business (28:01) Where Alison’s traffic comes from (29:15) Does Alison have favorite tools or software? (31:18) How simple solutions can be game-changers for students (34:08) What Alison would tell herself if she was just getting started with online courses now (35:31) How her online course business affects her and her family That’s all for now, folks! See you on the next episode of The Online Course Show. Links Bonjoro Free Trial Alison’s Website Zippy plugin for Wordpress Stunning Stripe Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

If $3,000,000 in sales isn’t a success story, I don’t know what is! Jonathan Levi is my guest today, and he has some amazing anecdotes to share about his online course journey. "… think about the psychological state of the learner at every point." - Jonathan Levi We delved into some very important insights on how to ensure student success, why learning to learn matters, and much more. I’m going to go out on a limb and put this episode in the “must listen” category! In This Episode, We Talked About: (2:27) How Jonathan got into the online course world (4:48) The reasons each of us got and MBA, and our thoughts on whether it was worth it (8:57) Why Udemy? (11:25) How Jonathan generated sales early on (15:59) Why he’s sticking with Udemy even after building up his course library elsewhere (19:48) His recommendations for new course creators (23:29) Other elements needed to promote successful online learning, especially for adults (26:59) Jonathan’s take on refund policies (28:47) How he helps people build their own online courses (30:24) Some other things Jonathan is very excited about these days (32:36) His favorite tools for his business (34:45) How having online courses has impacted his life (36:37) Wrapping up Whew! That about does it for today – don’t forget to check out all the cool tools (listed below) that we mentioned in this episode! And if you haven’t already, drop me a line and let me know what you’re enjoying about the podcast and what kinds of topics you’d like to hear me cover in the future. Links Bonjoro Free Trial Jonathan’s Website Thinkific Zapier Stripe Slack Thanks.io Lemlist PicSnippets Acuity Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy

Pinterest: I’ve avoided this topic until now, because I honestly haven’t known how this platform could fit into how I market my online courses. But that’s about to change today! Monica Froese is here to clue me in on how to make the most of this platform, and fortunately she has a ton of experience and knowledge to draw from on this topic. "Listen to what people are asking you." - Monica Froese Monica shared a wealth of insight on how to leverage Pinterest in different ways and what has worked best for her own online courses. I’m still mulling over what I learned in today’s episode, and I think you’ll enjoy what you learn, too! In This Episode, We Talked About: (2:20) Monica’s online course history and course creation evolution (6:54) A story about validating personal knowledge and turning that into product (8:19) Why she’s such a fan of her favorite funnel (9:52) Where Monica’s traffic comes from (11:30) The reasons that Pinterest ads can be challenging for some (13:33) Monica gives me recommendations on how to get started with Pinterest for my business (19:27) Where Pinterest stacks up in terms of ROI (21:27) What stage of your course creation process you need to be in to use Pinterest successfully (24:01) Monica’s experience with Facebook groups (28:09) Setting boundaries as your online community grows (30:18) Advice on keeping course content updated (35:00) A favorite tool that Monica has used to improve conversion rates (39:26) Why she’s changed her opinion of Deadline Funnel (41:11) Monica’s advice for new course creators We covered a lot of ground today, so I hope you’ll drop me a line and let me know your favorite part of the conversation! Stay tuned for another great episode coming soon. Links Monica’s Website Proof Deadline Funnel Lead Pages Thinkific ThriveCart Piano in 21 Days The Online Course Guy