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AMY PORTERFIELD: “I want you to answer this with all the honesty in your heart. Are your eyes closed? Just close them for a minute. If you keep waiting until you have everything figured out, where will you actually be in one year from now? Two years? Five years? When will you finally have it all figured out, and what's your plan for figuring it out if it isn't getting into action? What I'm trying to say is the longer you wait to have everything figured out, the less likely you'll ever be to even start. And that, my friend, is not an option.”
“So, of course, it is a myth to think you have to have it all figured out to get started with digital courses. You don't need to have all the answers. You just need to commit for yourself and your business. Just ask my students or any entrepreneur you know. In fact, I've learned in my eleven-plus years of being an entrepreneur is that once you get started, the path and journey become more clear.”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-million-dollar business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, money, and time to focus on growing my small–but–mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step–by–step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and helps you create a life you love, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
AMY: Well, hey, there, friend. I got a question for you. Have you created a digital course yet? I'm getting right to the point here. But listen, we are a few months into 2021, so I think I'm at liberty to say that if you're an entrepreneur or an aspiring entrepreneur, a digital course will change your life and the lives of those you serve. I've been around the online space and digital courses a long time, long enough to know that there might be a few factors holding you back from diving headfirst into the world of course creation. I get it. But after more than eleven years in business, I can truly say that a digital course is the number one thing that has catapulted me and my business to a level of success I could never, ever have imagined. And the same goes for so many of my students.
With that, I want to take a little bit of your precious time to share the five most–common myths about digital courses that I hear all the time. If you dream of being a successful entrepreneur and you want an online presence, more financial freedom, more location freedom, and you want to be in charge of your time, you want to be your own boss, then, my friend, today's podcast episode is going to get you fired up. Let me say it again. You're going to walk away from today's episode fired up and ready to get started creating a digital course, because guess what. Once you do, you'll never look back or wish you could just get ahead and make this whole entrepreneur thing really work. And I genuinely want that for you. So stick with me. Trust me, you don't want to miss this, as I debunk the five common myths about creating a digital course. And I have a sneaky feeling that you have fallen for one, two, or maybe all five of these myths. That's okay. We're going to dive into all of them, so let’s get started.
Let's kick this off with myth number one, creating a digital course takes too much time. I'm going to be up front about this one. You bet your behind creating a decent digital course takes time. But too much time? That I will fight you about any day of the week. Okay, maybe not fight you, but I feel very strongly about this one.
Here's the thing. If you want to create a digital course for your business, you are going to have to set aside some devoted time and effort. But as all good things take time, so does a digital course that will actually sell and make you revenue. Here's where this belief becomes a myth. Yes, it takes time up front. That's right. Up front. But once you put in the time and effort, you then have an asset in your business that you can create recurring revenue with and have a continued impact with time and time again.
For example, I created my first version of my signature course, Digital Course Academy, in the fall of 2018, and I launched it at the beginning of 2019. And I absolutely set aside time where I was devoted to creating the content for this course. But once the foundation was laid, I never had to start from scratch again. Do you know how powerful that is, as an entrepreneur who's building a business, not always starting from scratch? Since that first launch of Digital Course Academy, my team and I have revamped and improved the course. And because I showed up at the beginning to put in the time and effort and a lot of focus, it's never the same time investment as the start, meaning I can revamp, I can rework it, but never is it as much work as getting it off the ground the first time. And that is powerful. That means it's so worth it because your digital course will live on beyond that first launch. And if you ask me, that's not a lot of time commitment for something that could make you a lot of money and make a very big impact again and again and again. Once you create your course, you now have that as a revenue–generating asset for years to come.
Now, of course, something to keep in mind is whether you're creating a starter course, a spotlight course, or a signature course. The starter course and spotlight course will likely be much smaller than a signature course, which will vary in the amount of time you commit to the creation process. But when it's all said and done, you now have something that will pay you back time and time again with minimal effort or maintenance.
Now, inside of Digital Course Academy, I teach a step–by–step framework that gets my students up and running quickly with their digital course. So you also have to take that into context. If you're planning to create your digital course by hunting and pecking all over the Internet for guidance, well, then, my friend, you bet it's going to take you a very long time to get it done and maybe a lot of money because there's way more trial and error when you don't have a roadmap. However, if you follow the proven framework of someone who has successfully gone before you, you'll absolutely save time and energy.
Myth number two, you need a huge email list to sell a digital course. Well, my friend, let me introduce you to my student, Rob Green. He enrolled in Digital Course Academy in September 2020 and launched in November of 2020 with 100 people on his email list. If you're multitasking, come back to me right now, because when he launched with his list of 100 people in November, he enrolled twenty–nine people and generated around $12,000. Now you tell me: how would generating $12,000 in just under two weeks change your life? What would it do for your business, for you, for your family, for your loved ones, for your dreams? It's just the start. Can you only imagine?
So here's the magic in this. How can you launch with a small list and still see success? It's all about quality over quantity. Because here's the thing. If you have a highly engaged email list that you nurture and that actually wants to hear from you, the size of your email list doesn't necessarily matter. Now, will you have a higher chance of seeing bigger revenue with a bigger list? Yes, of course. But that doesn't mean you can't do something spectacular with a smaller list when you're first starting out.
I've said it once and I'll say it again. Launches, live launches specifically, are an excellent way to grow your email list, which means that each time you launch your digital course, the more you'll grow your email list and the more of an audience you'll have to launch to in the future. But, yeah, you got to start somewhere, and you can have success with a digital course even when you don't have a huge email list.
Next up, myth number three, you have to be a video or webinar expert. This myth, it couldn't be further from the truth. I can tell you from experience that the first time I launched, I was most definitely not an expert. Heck, no. In fact, I wasn't a video or webinar expert for a few launches, meaning I wasn't really good at those two things until years into my business. And guess what. I still survived, albeit I was terrified. But despite my lack of knowledge or fear of video, I was still able to generate significant revenue. And let me tell you, friend, even though I've built a multimillion–dollar business, I'm no special unicorn. It just takes practice and getting started.
In fact, I'm going to direct you to an episode number 291, “Master Live Video: How to Shift Your Mindset and Boost Your Confidence,” where I share all the strategies I've used throughout the years to become more comfortable with being on video. I didn't say I was ever an expert. I'm still not an expert at video eleven years in, but I'm sure a whole lot comfortable than I was before. So I'll link to that episode in the show notes, 291.
Now, because I know what it's like not to be an expert or a pro when it comes to these things, in Digital Course Academy, I walk you through slide by slide how to create your webinar. After all, I'd like to give my students the knowledge and the know–how to become proficient and then maybe even an expert in these areas, even if they're starting out as a beginner.
But let me leave you with this. The more you do it, no matter how nervous you are, the better you'll get. So give yourself permission to show up as you are and do the best you can right now. I promise you, the way you stand out from your competition is you do it even when you don't feel comfortable. You do it when you're not really “good at it.” You do it anyway, and you keep doing it and keep doing it. Do you know how many webinars I have done in my life? Believe me, I started out not so great. There definitely is room for you to ease into this, and you will find your own natural flow to video and to webinar. But my friend, you will never find it if you don't start.
All right. Moving on to myth number four, you have to have everything figured out before you get started. All right, my friend. I want to ask you a question. I want you to stop what you're doing. Unless you're driving, then, let's just keep going. But if not, put down the dishes, stop your multitasking, stop looking at Instagram, whatever you're doing, and close your eyes. I want you to answer this with all the honesty in your heart. Are your eyes closed? Just close them for a minute. If you keep waiting until you have everything figured out, where will you actually be in one year from now? Two years? Five years? When will you finally have it all figured out, and what's your plan for figuring it out if it isn't getting into action? What I'm trying to say is the longer you wait to have everything figured out, the less likely you'll ever be to even start. And that, my friend, is not an option.
So, of course, it is a myth to think you have to have it all figured out to get started with digital courses. You don't need to have all the answers. You just need to commit for yourself and your business. Just ask my students or any entrepreneur you know. In fact, I've learned in my eleven-plus years of being an entrepreneur is that once you get started, the path and journey become more clear.
I always say just start somewhere. It doesn't have to be perfect. Lord knows how messy my journey looked to creating the digital courses that I have today. But if I would have never started, if I would have just waited to have the clarity, to find my passion, to get all the knowledge and skills I think I needed, I would still be on the sidelines waiting, not living out my dream, not making an impact, still struggling. And that is a very scary place to be. So get started one step at a time, one foot in front of the other, and just get into action creating your digital course.
Okay. I'm getting off my soapbox now so we can move onto the final myth. Here it is. Myth number five, it's really expensive to create and launch a digital course. Tell me, friend. If you create a $100 course and you sell twenty units, would you make a profit? The answer is yes. Unless you decided to use all the fanciest and most–expensive platforms, you would turn a profit. The beautiful thing is that you really don't need to spend very much of your money to do your first few launches. In fact, on my first couple of launches, after my first failed launch—so my first failed launch, I thought I needed all the tools, all the software—but after that, I really streamlined it. I've always kept my technology simple, my funnels simple, my ad spend simple, so I spent a few thousand dollars and was able to make a whole lot more money than that in my launches after that first failed one. So I am proof that you do not need a lot of money to make this work.
Now, not only can you choose from various free platforms way better now than what I had way back then, many of the platforms that you want to pay for, they don't require a long–term contract and only require that you pay them during the months you use them. Take advantage of that.
So this myth actually helped to guide a strategy that I’ve included in Digital Course Academy, which is the founding–members’ launch—and this is from Stu McLaren. He created this and then taught it inside of Digital Course Academy—which is how to sell your course before you've created anything to a few founding members, just to start generating some revenue and to validate your course idea. So not only does this strategy help, again, to validate your course idea, it gives you the tools and knowledge you need to pre–sell and make some money before you even kick start the launch. So, what I love about this strategy is that it offers the quick cash injection you need to know you're on the right track. So I teach that inside of Digital Course Academy.
All in all, what I'm trying to say is that you don't have to be wealthy to create a digital course. Your business doesn't have to be making tons of money for you to be able to do this. And you don't have to worry about it draining your bank account. Keep it simple. And I will always encourage you to do so, even when you're making a lot of money with your digital course.
You can put in as much or little money into the creation and launch of a digital course. That is up to you. And as you grow, you'll probably want to invest more and play around with some new strategies. But until you get things going, keep it simple.
Whoa, I don't know about you, but I am fired up right now. I think I get so fired up about these myths because I, too, used to believe them. And I know I was held back from moving forward with creating my digital course because they kind of stopped me in my tracks. And I just think, holy heck, what if I would have dismissed these myths long before and became a course creator even earlier? What would my business look like today? And even more important, how much easier would it have been for me if I created my courses earlier and made that the foundation of the revenue coming in? Because I think I'll always do maybe one or two other things beyond my course, like, I've got my membership, but I really do believe my courses are the foundation of my revenue, and I feel so much confidence that they're built on a strong foundation and I could sell them over and over again. That's what gives me confidence. And I know many of you are looking for more confidence in your business, so I wanted to share that. I don't want you to be asking yourself, you know, what if I just would have started earlier? I just want you to start right now.
So here's the deal. If you're listening to this episode when it goes live, on the day it goes live, the enrollment to my signature program, Digital Course Academy, is open. And in my program, I help you to overcome all the hurdles that are holding you back from creating a successful digital course and from leaving behind that nine–to–five job or corporate career or leaving behind the clients you no longer want to work with and building something that lights you up, something that you're ecstatic to wake up to and continue to work towards every single day. Let 2021 be the year that you stop saying yes to the things that don't light you up and instead start saying a big, bold yes to the things that you love and to building the life of your dreams. Digital Course Academy is the bridge that will take you from where you are right now to where you dream of going. I can promise you that, my sweet friend. So start by saying yes and going to amyporterfield.com/enroll to get a clear vision of what your future will look like as a digital–course creator. I can't wait to see what you do this year.
Thanks for joining me here today. I'll see you next week, same time, same place. Bye for now.
