Course Creators Weekly #31
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January 25th, 2021
- Building an audience for a 5-figure launch
This week, Nat Eliason talks about building an audience for a successful launch, Andrew Barry talks about Transformational Online Courses, and Marie Poulin shares the behind-the-scenes of one of her earliest courses! 
If you're planning to create a course, you might be interested to know that On Deck is launching a Course Creator Fellowship. I really look forward to this!
How I Built an Audience for a 5-Figure Launch
Having an audience can be the key differentiator between success and failure
Start an email list—own your audience + control distribution
Give away a "Super Freebie"—something so good that makes signing up a no-brainer
Leverage other people's credibility through win-win deals—don't try to use them
Become active + helpful in your audience's communities—avoid hasty self-promotion
Encourage people to invite their friends—start by asking + reward them
Put your content on a blog, and learn about SEO to draw people in
Watch the video (it's only 10 minutes) for some great examples! 
The currency of education is transformation
Andrew Barry talks about Transformational Online Courses (TOCs) and why they're important. When people feel transformed, they tell others, new people join and experience their own transformation, starting a cycle! 
The key lessons below are based on 8 features of TOCs that Andrew shares in his article:
Prioritise the student learning experience—cater to their individual needs
Ensure students can trust in your skills and ability to teach—be a role model
Create communities for knowledge-sharing, feedback and accountability
Push for outcomes—encourage learning through practice with capstone projects
Mix self-paced content with live interactions and cohort-based learning sprints
Aim to stay platform-agnostic—meet your students where they already are
TOCs are invaluable, life-changing assets—don't overlook that
To create transformation, you must feel passionate about what you teach
This gets meta…
Andrew is joining On Deck to help course creators deliver Transformational Online Courses. If you're interested in joining their first cohort (I am), you can sign up here.
Behind the scenes of creating, launching and marketing an online program
Allow yourself to get started on fuzzy, imperfect ideas
Don't use "learning" as an excuse to procrastinate indefinitely
Launching a product is scary, but do it anyway—fear will not go away
You don't need content to sell an idea—you can start with coaching + community- Put yourself out there, ask for feedback and opinions to help validate your idea
Listen to and care for your audience regardless of how much they're paying you
See your first launch as an experiment and a learning experience, not your big break
