So often entrepreneurs choose tools out of convenience, by referral, because they are free or they are the shiny new trend. While this may be the 'easy' solution, in the long run, it usually does not serve your customers well and typically becomes a giant headache for you, the business owner.

In this episode, Tara gives actionable tips to choose your course tech solution that will support your course, your business, and your customer.

About Me:

Hey, it’s your host, Tara Bryan. And I am on a mission to help more business owners learn to infinitely scale their businesses by leveraging the power of online without sacrificing the customer experience or results. 

I like to geek out on all things business strategy, marketing, interactive digital and user experience. This podcast is all about what is working, lessons learned and actionable tips to create and grow a thriving online business. 

Join us each week as we dive into different strategies, tactics and tips you can apply immediately to your business.

To learn more:

Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

Here are two ways we can help you create, grow and scale your business:

1. Want to package or pivot your business? Download our free Step-by-Step guide to get the exact steps you need to create and grow an online business.

Step-By-Step Guide

2. ALREADY HAVE AN ONLINE BUSINESS & READY TO INFINITELY SCALE?

Download our free 50 Ways to Engage Your Customers guide or Schedule a 30 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.

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Mentioned in this episode:

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

Tara Bryan: 00:00:05

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

Tara Bryan: 00:00:07

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

Tara Bryan: 00:00:10

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

Tara Bryan: 00:00:15

on your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide

Tara Bryan: 00:00:19

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

Tara Bryan: 00:00:23

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

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your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.

Tara Bryan: 00:00:30

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

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

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looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and

Tara Bryan: 00:00:42

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

Tara Bryan: 00:00:54

Hey, everybody, in today's episode, I want to talk about

Tara Bryan: 00:00:57

taming the tech. So so often, the tech part of online

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programs, online courses, online business, businesses, whatever

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you want to call them, is the thing that stresses people out

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the most. And I want to tell you why that is today. And then how

Tara Bryan: 00:01:19

to change it. Alright, so here's the deal, is most people choose

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a tool based on what somebody else is telling them. Right? So

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you go out into the world, and you're like, 'Okay, what tool

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should I use?' And people say, 'Oh, I like this one, you should

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use this one, do this one, do that one.' And the problem is,

Tara Bryan: 00:01:44

is that when you approach it from that perspective, you

Tara Bryan: 00:01:49

actually are approaching it from the perspective of what do you

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need, right? What are your requirements for running your

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business. And so you end up most of the time, I would say, like,

Tara Bryan: 00:02:03

99% of the time starting with a tool, you get into it, and then

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you realize it doesn't do what you want it to do, or it's

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clunky, or there's another tool that may be better. And so then

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you switch to another tool, and then you switch to another tool,

Tara Bryan: 00:02:18

and then you switch to another tool. And hey, like I am guilty

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of this as well. However, I will tell you that the tech is

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actually the least important part of your online program. And

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because here's the reality is that most tools will do what you

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want them to do, regardless of which tool it is, right and so

Tara Bryan: 00:02:43

that the the place to start is actually mapping out the

Tara Bryan: 00:02:48

requirements you have for what you want to do not starting with

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a tool.

Tara Bryan: 00:02:55

So in in the in my many years of doing an online business, and

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creating online courses. The challenge has always been if you

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open it, open a tool, whatever one it is, and you start with a

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blank screen, you just sort of look at it and you stare at it.

Tara Bryan: 00:03:14

Just imagine, I know you can't see my screen, but just imagine

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like, just staring at a white screen and you're like, how am I

Tara Bryan: 00:03:21

going to fill this with stuff. And that becomes overwhelming.

Tara Bryan: 00:03:26

And then you start just like sort of filling it up. Because

Tara Bryan: 00:03:30

we're just uncomfortable with the white space. And then what

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happens is because you haven't planned what you what you want

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to do, it'd be it becomes unorganized very quickly. And so

Tara Bryan: 00:03:45

the biggest recommendation I have for you is like never start

Tara Bryan: 00:03:47

with a tool. I was looking at a post somebody put the other day

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and they were talking about how, you know, sort of clunky, this

Tara Bryan: 00:03:59

one learning management system was because you had to build out

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all of the things in a you know, an online builder and they're

Tara Bryan: 00:04:08

like, well how do I know where to put the various you know, the

Tara Bryan: 00:04:12

order to put things in and and how it's all structured and I

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have so many topics at this just seems overwhelming to put them

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all in there. And then I thought why? Why would you build it for

Tara Bryan: 00:04:27

the first time in the tool? And because again, like people are

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just uncomfortable with whitespace and so they go in and

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they start filling things in? Well then it becomes a hot mess,

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because you're just like throwing things in there and

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there's no sort of plan or strategy or even learning

Tara Bryan: 00:04:45

success path right like forget about just putting assets in and

Tara Bryan: 00:04:49

how to organize the assets. There's no path or plan whenever

Tara Bryan: 00:04:53

somebody says why 52 lessons and you know 100 videos I'm always

Tara Bryan: 00:04:58

like wait timeout like that. That's way too many for one

Tara Bryan: 00:05:01

course. And so that's the first red flag, the second red flag is

Tara Bryan: 00:05:07

you want to externalize all of that, right? Like, I would never

Tara Bryan: 00:05:10

recommend that somebody goes straight into a tool and starts

Tara Bryan: 00:05:13

building, make sure that you map it out and you have sort of your

Tara Bryan: 00:05:16

path and in the direction that you're going in outside of the

Tara Bryan: 00:05:19

tool, then the tool becomes secondary. And, so when when

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you're able to map it out and look at it, as, you know, the

Tara Bryan: 00:05:34

path of like, how are you solving someone's problem,

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right? How are you getting them from point A to point B, when

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you map that out outside the tool, then what what happens is

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you're able to see the pieces better, and it becomes less

Tara Bryan: 00:05:48

overwhelming.

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I had a client who was overwhelmed with emails. And

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then again, what we did was we structured the emails and looked

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at the emails that we needed, mapped those out before, she

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went into her email, email automation system, and it became

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manageable instead of going out there and trying to build emails

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as, as she went. And so if you take this approach, and

Tara Bryan: 00:06:19

honestly, like, you can use fancy pants, apps out there that

Tara Bryan: 00:06:23

map everything out and in, give you all the things you can use

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PowerPoint, you can use, you know, whatever, whatever tool

Tara Bryan: 00:06:31

you want to use to do that, or you can use paper, right, like,

Tara Bryan: 00:06:36

I have a sketch pad next to me. And so if I'm mapping something

Tara Bryan: 00:06:39

out, that's a little bit complex, and I want to look at

Tara Bryan: 00:06:43

how it's all going to come together. When I, I automate it,

Tara Bryan: 00:06:46

when I create, can kind of the path in the tech, I do that on a

Tara Bryan: 00:06:52

sketch pad with a marker. And so, you know, that's, that's a

Tara Bryan: 00:07:00

solid approach to take, because it takes away the overwhelm.

Tara Bryan: 00:07:03

Then you apply the tool that you need, based on the requirements

Tara Bryan: 00:07:07

that you have, right? Like you've mapped it out, and you

Tara Bryan: 00:07:08

need it to do xy and z, then, you know, you can choose the

Tara Bryan: 00:07:12

tool that's going to do XY and Z.

Tara Bryan: 00:07:14

And so my my lesson for you today in this is do not pick a

Tara Bryan: 00:07:19

tool based on somebody else's recommendation without looking

Tara Bryan: 00:07:23

at how it matches your requirements. And if you don't

Tara Bryan: 00:07:27

have requirements yet, think about what your requirements

Tara Bryan: 00:07:30

are, and then go out and ask the question based on what somebody

Tara Bryan: 00:07:35

says because just because some gurus tells you that this is the

Tara Bryan: 00:07:39

tool to use, just because your friend says this is a tool to

Tara Bryan: 00:07:42

use doesn't automatically mean it's going to match your needs.

Tara Bryan: 00:07:46

And so the next time you feel tempted to grab that, that tool,

Tara Bryan: 00:07:52

you know that that piece of tech that you feel like that you need

Tara Bryan: 00:07:55

before you grab it before you start paying for it monthly,

Tara Bryan: 00:07:58

really identify whether or not it's the the thing that's going

Tara Bryan: 00:08:03

to slide into your business and create that path, that

Tara Bryan: 00:08:07

experience that helps your customers move forward. Alright,

Tara Bryan: 00:08:10

there you go. That is my course building tip for today.