Week 3! You guys LOVED the coaches formula and the service provider formula and so now I’m back with another one.
For reference, I’m working on a new idea. It’s this thought of easy-to-explain formulas for different online business models. Now, just because it’s easy to explain doesn’t mean it’s easy to do – but at least it creates a roadmap.
So today I wanted to introduce The Course* Creator Formula.
If you’re starting from scratch in the online space with no audience, it will take longer than if you have a following. But I want to start from ZERO.
*By the way, over at Funnel Gorgeous – Course Chemist – is launching February 22nd. It’s the final course in the Offer Cure, Funnel Rx trilogy! Offer Cure teaches offer, Funnel Rx teaches funnels, and Course Chemist teaches the art of instructional design. Making great courses people finish!
Here’s your checklist.
✅ Step #1 – Setup your online presence on social media. Do it under your name.
✅ Step #2 – Get a domain and professional email address. Use Google Workspace.
✅ Step #3 – Go through Offer Cure Workshop #1 to identify what problem you solve and for who. If you need MORE help than just that workshop, honestly get your butt in FG Society Phase 1. It helps people understand where and how to start with any kind of online info based offer. In step 3, you need to know WHAT problem you’re going to solve and for who. Course Chemist will also address this. If I were starting all over again, I’d try to sell something between $50-$150 on my first shot.
✅ Step #4 – Now we’re going to build a lead magnet that gives incredible value and attracts that WHO that we identified in Step 3. Once that lead magnet and funnel are built, you’re going to put that link EVERYWHERE and as a CTA for whenever you’re creating content. This is the foundation of building your audience. Use the FG Funnels free lead magnet funnel and you can buy a lead magnet template from our store.
✅ Step #5 – Time to publish. This is the most grueling step. It can be fast tracked with ads. You need to start showing the F up. Pick your platform, deliver content. The longer and better you are at this step, the bigger your audience will be. You need a minimum of 500 people on your email list. More is better. Here’s where people mess up. They have no idea how to publish content that is valuable and shareable. They just either talk TOO much about themselves, or some sliver of the niche their in, or they don’t publish enough. Both paid and organic efforts work well here. You can do this in 1 week or 1 year depending on how much time, effort, money. If you want to be a course creator, this is the step you have to dial in.*
**This is the HARDEST and MOST IMPORTANT step of them all. It’s the one people resist most. Do not skip this step.
✅ Step #6 – Next, it’s time to actually build the SALES assets for the course. It all starts with the copy. Write the copy using either Offer Cure workshop #2 and/or FG Society Phase 2. Get a logo done for your offer as well so by the end of this step you have copy/logo and the assets you need. Turn your intangible idea into a tangible one through copy + logo/graphics.
✅ Step #7 – Set a date for your launch and plan out your main ideas, hooks, angles that you will share with your audience leading up to the launch. We call it a pressure launch because it’s important to build buzz and anticipation prior to showing it to the world!
✅ Step #8 – Build the funnel. Take your copy/design and get it all set up with your members area. Yes, use FG Funnels :). In the members area, set up a welcome letter/video with information on the calendar dates of when the course material will be available. Yes, you will presell so we fill the members area with something for them since the content won’t all be there.
✅ Step #9 – Do the launch. Keep the cart open for 5 days and then close it. Use bonuses, early bird, and plot twist. Don’t lose your lunch. Make sure your expectations are set from the beginning. Don’t underestimate how hard it is to sell. Congratulate all the wins, even that you accomplished it! Once the launch is over, you will teach and build your content, aiming to get as much success for your students as possible since it will be the bedrock for your testimonials. Lots of help in Launch Gorgeous (when we run it) as well as FG Society Phase 1 for all this.
✅ Step #10 – Plan to either re-launch it, or turn it into an evergreen offer (one that’s open all the time). If it’s higher priced, a webinar funnel. If it’s lower priced, turn it into an SLO that can be driven with ads or sold cold without a launch or any pressure.
This can be done in 12 weeks. It’s hard. In fact that’s why we do Launch Gorgeous for our students since it’s really difficult. Most people will take longer than 12 weeks because of step 5. You could be stuck at step 5 for quite some time if you’re trying to build a big audience. Like Larry for example. He’s in DI and he was at Step 5 for a few years. By the time he got to me, we did steps 3, 6-10 and when he launched he made $1M dollars . That’s the power of Step 5. Your launch success is determined by how well you step 5. He spent so much time on Step 5, the money was there and waiting for when he launched.
What to Expect: With 500 qualified followers from an excellent lead magnet and a really solid $150 offer, assuming you show up and publish well, you can expect between 20 – 50 students in your first launch. $3000 – $7500. If I were your mentor, I’d be high-fiving you on this!
I struggled a bit with this formula because this is ONE type of course creator formula, and unlike the previous two I did which were more straightforward, I actually have SEVERAL course creator formulas that I could have written.
One modification would be if you want to do a low ticket offer with ads and no list. You could conveniently skip step 5 and just build an SLO (which is actually 9 products in one funnel). The downside is that you HAVE to build everything ahead of time (Course Chemist a must!) and so you’re risking that it’ll work and doing all that front end work.
A second modification would be if you wanted to do a live set-in-time deep dive paid workshop. You could technically skip step 5 and just do ads as well to a workshop page and then teach it live. You’re going to get very very small numbers to start, but some people like this.
A third modification would be to do a FREE live weekly webinar where you run ads each week and micro sell to a tiny audience and see how many people you get each week to say yes to your program. The program has to be built in this case. So while you can skip step 5, you have to prepare a webinar, build the content, and do a live event once a week.
As you can see, there are a lot of nuances here that trip people up, which is why support on this formula is so critical.
This formula gets you through ONE offer and one launch. The reality is that in order to build an infoproduct company you need more than just one offer. You need a minimum of three (in my opinion). Again, building out a value ladder is incredibly important but it does start with these first steps.
Also? Step 5 never stops. It’s the never ending step you keep doing until you decide to retire. You’re welcome.
Excellent teaching on creating a course and selling it. I loved the simple way it was taught and laid out in the lessons. Thank you for sharing, you are a great teacher and your content is first-class. I look forward to reading and learning a lot from you Julie. May God continue to inspire and bless you in your work and life dreams.
Respectfully Yours,
Larry