In this episode, Tara discusses critical compentents for successful online courses, and why Facebook (and other social media platforms) miss the mark.

Mentioned in this episode:

https://taralbryan.com/step/15-learn-to-scale-call

Hey, everybody, it's Tara Bryan and you are listening

to the Course Building Secrets® Podcast. Whether you're a coach

or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based on

your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide

them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give

you practical real life tips that you can use today to build

your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.

Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people

without adding more time for team to your business? If you're

looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and

use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

Hey, everybody, welcome to today's episode. Today, I want

to dispel a huge myth that's out there in the industry, and

something that I think most people who are getting into the

online course or online program industry don't really

understand. Okay, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna reveal a secret. And

here's the thing. So it's all about the difference between one

way communication and two way communication. So let me

explain. So when you have an online program, or online

course, so often people say, Well, I just need to have a

place where I put my videos, and maybe have, you know, a place

for q&a or something else. But most of the time, it's just, I

just need some sort of location to put my videos and that will

be it, that will be my course, it's going to be great people

are gonna buy it, and go through my videos and learn all the

things and it's going to be super successful. But here's the

reality. And, and so, the reality is that 97% of people

don't actually finish courses. So why do you care about that,

and you care about that, because if you don't finish a course,

you don't actually get results, right. So if your students are

not actually completing your course, or doing the activities

you want them to do, regardless, if they completed it or not,

then they're not going to get results. And if they don't get

results, they're not going to stay, they're not going to

ascend to your higher level offers, they're not going to

become raving fans, they're not going to refer all their friends

and colleagues, right? So you run into this trap of always

getting people into your course and not having them actually

stay. And, you know, improve the lifetime value of your

customers, which as we know, is it's much more expensive to keep

acquiring customers than actually just keeping the ones

that you have. Okay, so how do you change that.

So again, as I mentioned, the biggest, I think, unknown or

thing that people don't think about when they are creating

their online course is that it's not just about throwing videos

out there and hoping that somebody takes them, you really

want to create a conversation, you want to create an a

relationship with your customer. So they keep going, right, they

get to that end state, they get to that result that you've

promised them that you're excited for them to get. And,

again, it gives you more street cred to say, hey, all these

people have gotten results from working with me. And you can't

do that with a one way relationship. So the all of

those sort of marketing platforms that have the ability

for you to host your courses, meaning you can host your

videos, and maybe there's, you know, a way to add a worksheet

or a workbook or something like that, or, you know, connect to a

Facebook group. The challenge is, is that you're not actually

getting information about the actions that they're taking. So

this last week, we did Gamify My Course Camp, and one of the

things we talked about was archery practice. So you want

them to hit the bullseye, not only the bullseye of the actual

result that you're promising them, but along the way, you

want them to actually do certain things to get to the place where

they can get the result. Because as we know, like, you know, you

can't passively do things.

So, but how do you know what action they're taking? How do

you know if they're on the right track? How do you know that

they're actually interacting with what you're putting out

there? And that's where a system that actually tracks the

behavior of your learners becomes important. That's where

it's a two way communication because here's the reality is,

if you can measure it, you can, you can, you know, make some

changes around it, right. So if your goal is for somebody to

watch this video and apply Get to their work, you want to know

that they're actually doing that. So you know, one where

they're dropping off and to what their challenge points are. And

learning management system allows you to track every

everything that's happening within your, your program. are

they interacting? Are they watching the videos? Are they

doing the activities? Are they? are they interacting with other

people? Are they asking questions, all of those things.

And if you can measure it, then you can create a system around

it, then you can automate it, then you can actually make some

decisions based on what they need to keep moving forward. And

so that's why a learning management system is important.

That's why a system that allows you to track what people are

doing throughout the process gives you the data that you need

to successfully keep them on the path and get them to results. So

the next time you're looking at, you know, where is your course

and what is important, you know, what you're sharing, yes, it's

important. If it's something that is going to drive Somebody,

help somebody get guide, somebody, whatever you want to

call it to a result, that's the whole purpose of what you're

creating is to actually help people do the thing that you

have sold them on. And so using the information that you get

around that two way communication allows you to come

in at the right times, provide feedback, see what they're

doing, provide them support when they're kind of falling off. But

you don't get that on Facebook, if you put your whole course on

Facebook, you don't get that tracking, you may see what they

viewed, but you don't see the the granular sort of activity

that they're doing. You put it on your marketing platform, same

thing, you're not getting that two way communication, you're

not able to see when they're completing and what that looks

like, and how they've done various things throughout your program.

And so that's why so often when you're working with somebody

who's talking about, you know, here's how you successfully

create an online program that gets results. They are using a

learning management system, they're using something, you

know, anywhere from Kajabi, to a WordPress site to Thinkific and

Teachable, and some of those other tools that are

specifically made for courses are specifically made for

courses because they track the activity that's happening in the

program. And so you can see and anticipate and automate the

various activities that you want them to do. Because the goal is

if they do this, then this happens. If they do this, then

this happens, right, your whole program is all about being able

to see that they're taking the action that allows them to get

closer to the goal.

Alright, so that is my tip for you today is really

understanding that there's a difference between something

that hosts your videos, and something that gives you

information about how people are interacting with your videos.

And that is where the power in the experience comes into play

that allows you to not only help your customers be successful,

but keep them moving down the path that allows them to get

what they need to be successful. All right, there you go.