The age of information that we live in has seen business owners and entrepreneurs from all over the world capitalise on their knowledge in many ways, online courses in particular. We’ve seen people who are experts in their fields turn to course creation to monetise their knowledge and help others learn in the process.
In this episode of The Course Creators Circle Podcast, we are joined by three of these course creation experts—Rob Galvin, Jean Pak, and Lucas Marino. They share with us their top tips and insights on course creation to help us on our own journey.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Expert Tips #1:
Rob: Don’t start by spending a lot of time creating your course. What you want to do is you want to start by connecting with your audience. To build an audience, you’re going to learn so much about what they really want as opposed to you imagining what they want and then spending a lot of time building it. Remember, connection creates conversions. You’re going to have an audience that wants exactly what you’re going to be able to provide them.
Jean: My number one tip is to add games or activities to your online course. The games can be built directly into your LMS, and you can encourage your students to play games or create games that are really interactive, engaging and fun to balance out all the material that the students are required to learn.
Lucas: Well, it is my belief that no matter what your course is about and no matter what type of business your course supports, Courses are essentially about the learner. It’s not about what you’re an expert in, it’s about designing your course to serve your students’ needs. Your course exists to help someone else learn. So design your courses to serve your students’ needs first.
Expert Tips # 2:
Rob: I highly suggest including some sort of live component to your launch like doing a live workshop that leads to selling your course. You’re going to answer questions and get them engaged before they even see your course sales page. Just putting up a sales page is not launching your course. There’s so much more that goes into it if you want to see some success right out of the gate.
Jean: Add quizzes like multiple choice, short answer, or fill-in-the-blank. Use tools such as Quizlet that can help you build exciting, fun, and interactive quizzes that are more challenging, more engaging, and more effective for your learners.
Lucas: Start thinking like a business owner, not just a creative expert. Being an expert is only part of the equation. Being a business owner means that you have to consistently speak and serve customers and clients, be proactive in strategy development, monitor your business functions, getting smart on marketing and sales.
There are plenty of experts out there that fail to actually get a business off the ground, even though they’re one of the best people in their field at whatever they do. So start learning how to think like a business owner, not just a creative expert.
Expert Tips # 3:
Rob: Remember this phrase: Done is better than perfect. You want to get something done as soon as possible because you’re going to learn from it. As you’re learning through these micro implementations, that is where the true power of being a successful course creator comes from because you’re going to realize things that you may not have until you get them out there in front of real people.
Don’t worry about being perfect and having everything all together. Sometimes it’s a mess and sometimes you may not need all the things you think you need, but just get something out there in front of your audience.
At the end of the day, it just boils down to simply three basic things: You need to connect with your audience, you need to convince them to buy something, and you need to convert them into a customer and lifetime member. So try to get something out there as quick as possible so that you can show your expertise, learn from the process, and set yourself up for continuous growth.
Jean: Add learning outcomes using Bloom’s Taxonomy will help you guide and structure your curriculum so that it’s more clear where your students are headed and where they are going to accomplish from the beginning to the end.
Lucas: Find a healthy network and invest your time, energy and money in building that network. It is almost always more desirable to have referrals for your business and courses than it is to try and invest in all these online paid ads and slowly build a network of social media followers. All of those things are fantastic, and all of those things are viable, but the strength of a good, healthy referral network is amazing for your business.
About our Guests
Rob Galvin is a fellow Thinkific expert. He’s had five-plus years in the seat and he’s the creator of Superpowerups. He’s an expert when it comes to making sure that you’ve got the best site and delivery experience for your students
Jean Pak is all about working on Thinkific opportunities and increasing student engagement. She teaches about using quizzes and learning outcomes to make sure that we are guiding our students through that process.
Lucas Marino helps entrepreneurs launch successful and sustainable training products for businesses. He’s a serial entrepreneur and a Thinkific expert as well. He has a doctorate in engineering and he’s a retired US Coast Guard with over 20 years of experience.
Highlights
[0:00] Welcome to The Course Creators Circle Podcast
[0:40] Thinkific-approve experts and their course creation tips
[1:00] Introducing Rob Galvin
[1:35] Introducing Jean Pak
[1:55] Introducing Lucas Marino
[2:40] First course creation tip
[2:55] Rob: Connection creates conversion
[3:50] Jean: Add games and activities to your online course
[4:35] Lucas: Design your course to meet your student’s needs
[5:20] Second course creation tip
[5:40] Rob: Really think about your launch process
[7:20] Jean: Add fun quizzes that challenge your students
[7:50] Lucas: Think like a business owner, not just a creative expert
[9:50] Final course creation tip
[10:05] Rob: Done is better than perfect
[11:40] Jean: Add learning outcomes to structure your curriculum
[12:00] Lucas: Find a healthy network
[14:12] Thank you to our guests Rob, Jean, and Lucas
[14:40] Please subscribe to The Course Creators Circle Podcast
Resources Mentioned in the Podcast
Superpowerups by Rob Galvin
Learn with Jean
East Partnership
Thinkific
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