Online Courses Are Dead!
Read on to discover a new way to create and sell highly valuable high-ticket ‘Virtual Coaching Courses’ your prospects will line up to buy…
The “Signature Program” being offered included 50 videos, over 100 hours of content, and dozens of worksheets and checklists. It was enough to make my head spin.
It was impressive, but I knew from experience that I would never have time to go through all of that material being offered by the guru selling this monster course… let alone have time to implement it. It would just sit in my cloud storage forever, gathering virtual dust.
Offering huge online courses with dozens and dozens of videos and more hours of content than any of us has time to consume is still common in many expert courses sold today.
But they don’t do anybody any good. They take a ton of time to create and most people who buy information products packaged like this never complete them nor get results due to information overload.
I HATE wasted time and information that isn’t actionable.
As someone who offers training, education, and coaching myself… I want my students to be able to move forward in their lives and their businesses when they buy a product from me. And I’ve worked with dozens of information entrepreneurs who want the exact same thing.
So, I figured there had to be a better way to sell EXPERTISE in specific knowledge areas.
I knew I didn’t want to spend hours trading time for money on the phone doing one-on-one coaching, nor did I want to turn myself into a glorified telemarketer trying to sell my programs over the phone. And creating huge programs that would overwhelm my students and get them little results, not interested in that either.
(been there, done that, got the t-shirt)
What I wanted to do was figure out a way to deliver high quality, actionable content that people were lining up to buy.
Look, I’ve been online for 10+ years working from home making a full-time living and working part-time hours…
You name it I’ve done it. I’ve….
- Created huge “signature program” courses that have sold millions of dollars online
- Created ongoing (never-ending) membership programs with thousands of students
- Facilitated high-end group coaching calls and group masterminds
- Offered one-on-one coaching and consulting
- Worked with and for some of the biggest names in the industry
Because of all that experience, I know what works and what doesn’t – for both clients and creators.
Here’s the hard way of doing things…
- Selling low ticket offers for peanuts
- Doing soul-sucking “strategy” sessions
- Only trading time for money and giving up leverage
- Creating huge “signature courses” with massive bonus packages
- Creating never-ending “membership sites” that are content eating machines
- Creating complicated and technically difficult sales funnels
Don’t get me wrong, all these methods can make you money if you work really, really hard.
But I don’t particularly like working hard (I like to explore all the insanely yummy restaurants in the tri-state area instead).
And my customers (the people who buy my courses) are all extremely busy people – many of them are professionals with advanced degrees or leaders in business – and they don’t want to wade through hours and hours of fluff content.
HINT: Neither do YOUR customers.
Today, what people REALLY want are very specific solutions to very specific problems.
Here’s the best part, my customers are VERY willing to pay a premium for specific problem-solving information – and your customers are too.
And while my prospects don’t like to be “sold” – they absolutely love to buy.
That’s why my business partner and I have developed a specific, systematic based approach to creating courses that are both in demand and sell for high ticket prices.
We call this unique approach a “Micro Coaching Course™”. I’ve never seen this taught anywhere else, and I’ve never used anything quite as effective.
I’m going to show you EXACTLY how a Micro Coaching Course™ works so that you can decide if this is the RIGHT business model to give you both time and money freedom.
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NOTE: This is a LONG, detailed article with lots of actionable information, so you may want to go get a cup of coffee and a pad of paper to take notes before you read further.
OK… ready?
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Before we get into the details – let’s define what a Micro Coaching Course™ is:
A Micro Coaching Course™ is a time restricted, personally interactive, curriculum-driven course…on a specialized topic.
That’s a mouthful I know! But it’s the UNIQUE combination of attributes listed in that definition that makes a Micro Coaching Course™ so valuable to both you and your customers.
(these attributes didn’t happen by accident – they are the result of YEARS of painstakingly detailed testing and experience)
Let’s take a look at each of these in more detail.
4 Unique Characteristics of a Micro Coaching Course™
1. Time restricted.
Each Micro Coaching Course™ that you create begins and ends on a specific date. This is not an ongoing/never-ending program. A Micro Coaching Course™ is usually between 4 to 6 weeks in length – which is the perfect time frame for your customers to dig in and learn a new topic, without getting overwhelmed.
2. Curriculum-driven course.
The way these courses are structured is important. There are weekly lessons that are delivered in the format that works best for your audience. We find that PDFs work great and are actually welcomed in a world full of long, drawn-out video, but you can also use videos, audios, and multi-media if you prefer.
Each weekly lesson will explain all the relevant concepts and key points. But the most important parts of every lesson are the action steps and homework assignments.
Most courses that are out there are a bunch of theory and case studies. They don’t tell you how to accomplish what you want to accomplish. For that to happen you must have a list of things to do. And that list of things to do is one of the things that makes a Micro Coaching Course™ so valuable.
3. Personally interactive.
I know earlier that I said I didn’t want a business model that involved a ton of one-on-one coaching. So, I had to find a way to provide the value of personalized coaching without the time-suck in my own life.
I know that when people get to ask questions, they get way more out of the course.
(and it’s important to me to provide MASSIVE value)
In a Micro Coaching Course™, clients are able to communicate directly one-on-one with the course instructor in order to get individually personalized coaching as they move through the weekly lessons.
I’ll go into more detail on this later, but for now, I will leave you with the idea that including one-on-one interaction with a subject matter expert allows you to sell your course for WAY more money.
4. Specialized topic.
People are BUSY! They work, have kids, and school to deal with. They may want to learn what you have to teach, but they probably don’t have a lot of time to learn it.
That’s why a Micro Coaching Course™ is focused on one very specific specialized topic. This is NOT a generalized course, or a course filled with “fluff” and nonsense.
Because the course has a very specific focus, it’s far easier to monetize your expertise.
And that focus makes your course far more valuable to your audience.
Now that you know what the components of the Micro Coaching Course™ entail, let’s take a look at how to put it all together.
While you can structure a Micro Coaching Course™ in several different ways – it is a fairly flexible design meant to be customized to the needs of your audience – I usually follow the same pattern each time, it’s easier and it works.
How to Structure Your Micro Coaching Course™
Delivering your lessons.
Normally I deliver lessons every single Monday during the 4 to 6-week period of the Micro Coaching Course™. Monday is the natural start of the work week, and it’s important to have a consistent experience for your clients.
Each lesson needs to be consumable. Meaning that if they take more than an hour or so to go through the lesson, then people will just let them sit on the hard drive.
At the end of each lesson, you will give your students assignments and action steps to complete over the following week. I like to have an instant evaluation system for the action steps – a quiz, survey, etc. Whether or not you evaluate the action step is up to you, but I do find it helps my students move through their course successfully.
Students are expected (and motivated) to complete each and every lesson – BEFORE the next week’s lesson starts. This works exceptionally well because lessons are short and actionable.
Note: When it comes to delivering your content you can do it via a WordPress website or one of the many online course and membership platforms. Thinkific (aff link) is my recommendation.
Interacting with your students.
This interaction is what builds huge amounts of value to the course allows you to sell the course for far more money than you could otherwise.
Students are allowed to contact you between the weekly lessons with questions. People like to be able to “ask an expert”. Just knowing you are available is often enough.
Questions can be asked through a membership site, Facebook group, or private forum.
Personally, I like to use a dedicated email address (usually I sign up for a free one through Gmail) just for students who enrolled in the specific Micro Coaching Course™ I’m delivering at the time.
Expert Hint: Most students will proceed to the lessons at their own pace and never ask you questions. The value that people get is from knowing that you are there if they need you.
Ensuring your students succeed.
The main goal of any Micro Coaching Course™ is that your students will have accomplished a very specific outcome by the time they finished taking your course.
You’ll be able to stand behind your product with pride because the success rate of your students will be much higher than average. They will experience NO information overload and the have a laser focus on a very specific outcome.
The students who do reach out to you for help will begin to trust you in a way that’s not possible with a mass-market course. They will become your brand ambassadors, your biggest fans, and often repeat customers who will buy ultra high-ticket items from you.
Laser focus and personal coaching work together to create extreme value in every Micro Coaching Course™ and let you sell it for higher prices.
Developing Micro Coaching Course™ isn’t just a great idea for your customers – it’s a great idea for you.
These types of courses can give you tremendous leverage, increase your income dramatically, and give you time freedom like all the gurus promise (but rarely deliver).
Let’s take a look at five reasons this is one of my favorite ways to create and deliver online training.
5 Reasons Online Course Creators Love the Micro Coaching Course™ Model
1. Micro Coaching Courses™ are easy to create.
We are not creating huge “signature courses” with 20 modules, 50 videos, 100 hours, and bonuses nobody ever looks at.
And we’re not creating never-ending memberships with content continually added.
The weekly lessons in a Micro Coaching Course™ are relatively short and laser-focused on the goal that your customer wants to accomplish.
That means you do the work once and the course is complete!
2. Micro Coaching Courses™ can be sold for GREAT money.
Even though a Micro Coaching Course™ isn’t a huge course with tons of modules or a coaching model with loads of group or one-on-one phone calls, you can absolutely charge premium prices for each Micro Coaching Course™ you create.
That’s because every Micro Coaching Course™ has a laser focus and personal interaction with YOU – the expert.
Most of our students charge between $497 and $997 for their Micro Coaching Courses™.
What you charge is up to you, of course, and we have seen people charge from $197 all the way up to $1997 successfully.
3. Micro Coaching Courses™ are repeatable.
This model is not a “one and done” kind of thing. You don’t just offer your Micro Coaching Course™ once, you can offer multiple times per year.
It’s a good idea to limit your enrollment to between 25 to 50 students each time you offer the course. The limited availability creates significant demand (and most of our students have waiting lists for when their course opens the next time).
You do the work once with the sales letter (or webinar, video sales letter, etc.) and curriculum and you offer it over and over again.
We recommend offering each Micro Coaching Course™ you sell once a quarter. This lets you get through each group of students individually and allows you to make a consistent and reliable income stream.
4. Micro Coaching Courses™ don’t take a lot of time.
Even though you’re offering personal interaction, your Micro Coaching Course™ won’t take a lot of your time because only a small percentage of your students will feel the need to reach out for help.
Most of the time the questions they ask will be repeat questions that other students have asked before. This allows you to create template-based answers.
I also recommend that you make updates to your course as questions appear because this reduces the need for support and emphasizes your role as the expert.
5. Micro Coaching Courses™ are duplicatable.
Most of our students create multiple Micro Coaching Courses™. You can create a new Micro Coaching Course™ for every single specialized topic that you can teach.
Many people find that a rotation of four or six courses works well for them.
And the best part is that once you created your first Micro Coaching Course™ and launched it, creating the new ones on new topics it’s even easier!
How Much Money Can You Make with a Micro Coaching Course™?
I am not legally allowed to give you any kind of income guarantees. A lot of what you can make is up to the kind of work you’re willing to put in, the market you’re in, and other factors. What I can show you is how the math works out.
Let’s say you sell one Micro Coaching Course™ to 20 students four times a year for the lowest recommended price of $197.
That works out to be $197 x 20 people or $3,940 EACH time you offer a Micro Coaching Course™. If you offer it 4 times a year (recommended) that’s an extra $15,760 a year.
But we recommend that you START your pricing at $497 and expect you to sell your Micro Coaching Course™ to around 50 people each cycle. If you do that then the numbers start to get good.
That turns out to be $497 x 50 people or $24,850 EACH time you offer a Micro Coaching Course™. If you offer it four times a year that’s an extra $99,400 per year!
And as you master developing and deploying Micro Coaching Courses™, you can offer three different courses which would allow you to launch a new course every single month – if 50 people bought a $497 course from you every month, that would be $497 x 50 or $24,850 MONTHLY – or $298,200 per year!
Though this isn’t 100% hands-off passive income, I don’t know many other ways you can have a very serious six-figure business working only a few hours a week.
Footnotes:
- If you want to know more about Micro Coaching Courses™, and exactly how they are laid out, and how they can make you money I’d like to invite you to my free online Micro Coaching Course™ Master Class where I dig deeper into the strategies and tactics we talked about here. You can register at https://www.internetincomecoach.com/mcc-webinar.
- If you’re looking for an online course platform, I like and recommend Thinkific. You can learn more about Thinkific and claim exclusive bonuses for my readers here.