In this post you’ll understand what really holds you back:
- What you need to do first
- What to avoid
- Why procrastination will kill you
Great! So you’ve made that big decision that 2020 is the year you’re going to build your online course!
This is a big investment of your time (and potentially money), so my advice here is to spend your time wisely and focus on the most important tasks first.
Let’s do this in small steps. Important not to be overwhelmed.
OK, let’s look at how to do this:
What you need to do first.
The very first thing you need to do, above everything else is to build your followers and build your audience.
Wait… but that’s not building my course!
No, it’s not. But think about it, what good is building a course if you don’t have anyone to sell it to.
Always make sure to pre-sell it first.
This is the biggest area where courses fail. Too many people focus on creating the content first, then wonder why it becomes such a big flop, as they haven’t focused on the marketing. It’s too easy to get caught up with the videos and the glamour of it all but this just ends up being a complete waste of time.
Only create the content AFTER you’ve pre-sold the course, that way you know it’s got a much higher chance of being successful. You need to give the programme a good long runway first to give it its best chance.
What you need to avoid
Now you’re working hard on building your audience, and all the while this is happening, you can and should plan out your programme.
Notice I said “plan” out your programme (not create).
OK, good.
The planning is important because there are a LOT of tasks to be done, and as such here’s what you really need to avoid thinking – let alone doing!
Thinking you can do it all yourself!
This is just plain crazy.
You may well be multi skilled, but just to give you an idea of the tasks at hand, you will need to:
- Create your offer
- Graphic designer to design all your assets
- Copywriter for Sales pages
- Tech skills to build landing pages (well designed)
- Write engaging emails
- Integrate email service provider with your landing page software
- Segment your list
- Schedule social media posts
- Content and Tech Distributor for the Membership area.
How ever skilled you are, it’s rare to find a unicorn that can handle all these tasks.
My best advice is to look at where your skillset is strongest and outsource the other tasks. This is often why people who start building out courses get overwhelmed and rarely get off the starting block because they get stuck trying to do it all themselves!
Look to maximise your time, and find and work with other people who have the skills you don’t have.
Don’t Procrastinate
Now you know what to do first, and what to avoid… what’s stopping you from moving forward?
Let me guess. You can’t find the right people (or don’t want to) because you’ve not got the budget, so everything now will take twice as long – and more than that, you’re not accountable to anyone. So it doesn’t matter if you don’t move forward immediately, or next week or next month.
So actually, your “other” work has taken over, and your course gets left behind and put on the back-burner.
Hmmm.
And so that big plan, that big dream doesn’t happen, mostly because it’s hard, it’s difficult and it’s doing stuff you’re not used to doing – so you go back to your comfort area.
You see how things go round in a circle??
By avoiding the pitfalls and finding a great skilled team of people to work with you will avoid falling down this procrastination hole.
You’re an expert – let the world know and share your skills with people who need you.
Just. Do. It.