Shownotes
In this episode, Tara gives actionable tips for running your BETA program, including how to remember to stay in MVP mode and the 4 phases of the Beta process. Come behind the scenes in a customer example to learn how to successfully navigate through this phase.
About Me:
My name is Tara Bryan. I help business owners break into the next level of success by packaging their expertise into an online course experience. It's my passion to help to find the fastest path to results to create a greater impact and income for you and your tribe.
This podcast is 100% focused on support, knowledge and example sharing, and building a community of online course builders who are passionate about building awesome learning experiences.
We do that by building engaging, motivating, gamified, and learner-centered online course experiences. We come up with ideas and strategies to ensure that our learners can thrive and succeed using our packaged products.
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Find us at https://www.tlslearning.com
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Mentioned in this episode:
Gamify My Course Camp
https://bit.ly/2023_Gamify
Transcripts
Hey, everybody, it's Tara, Brian, and you are listening to
Speaker:the course building secrets podcast. Whether you're a coach
Speaker:or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based on
Speaker:your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide
Speaker:them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give
Speaker:you practical real life tips that you can use today to build
Speaker:your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.
Speaker:Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people
Speaker:without adding more time for team to your business. If you're
Speaker:looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and
Speaker:use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker:everybody, welcome to today's episode. In this episode, I want
Speaker:to talk about your MVP or your beta program. So often, when I'm
Speaker:working with people, this is the part that gets people tripped
Speaker:up. Because in order to take the step forward to say that you're
Speaker:going to package your expertise into an online program, or a
Speaker:business or service, or whatever it is that you're doing, you
Speaker:have to have the confidence that you're able to solve a problem
Speaker:for your ideal avatar. So because of that, we tend to sort
Speaker:of over engineer or, or over commit, if you will, to our
Speaker:idea, to our framework to, you know, really what we're
Speaker:providing as a solution. And the more we do that, the more we're
Speaker:at risk, to not have a product or a service that are really
Speaker:going to help our customers get the results that we're
Speaker:promising. So let me just break it down just a little bit.
Speaker:Because, as usual, so I'm working with some folks right
Speaker:now. And as usual, I'm sharing some of the stories that we're
Speaker:kind of uncovering and dealing with as we're helping them
Speaker:through their process of creating and launching their
Speaker:online experiences. So, so in this particular situation, and
Speaker:working with a customer and they're very married to the
Speaker:solution that they are providing, which again, is very
Speaker:common, and happens to all of us in different ways and in
Speaker:different places within our business is that it's really
Speaker:hard to sort of on, on bundle yourself from the solution from
Speaker:what you're providing, because it is your expertise, it is
Speaker:something that you know very intimately. And in a lot of
Speaker:times, you can sort of see the path. But what's happening in
Speaker:this particular situation is this client is very focused on
Speaker:what they want to teach not so much what the their learners or
Speaker:their customers need in order to get success. And and so the the
Speaker:piece of this, it's really important, in the reason I'm
Speaker:sharing this on today's podcast, is to really just give you a
Speaker:sort of that reminder that at the end of the day, what you're
Speaker:doing is you're helping somebody achieve an outcome that you are
Speaker:qualified to help them with, right? And so you always have to
Speaker:go back to that outcome. Everything that you produce,
Speaker:every every asset, every document, every framework, every
Speaker:everything goes back to how are you helping them get to that
Speaker:result in the fastest way possible. I'm gonna say that,
Speaker:again, everything that you do is to help them get to that outcome
Speaker:in the fastest way possible. It's not about what you want to
Speaker:teach. It's not about this, you know, cool technique that you
Speaker:learned that helped you do this other random thing. It's not
Speaker:adding an extra material to give them more value to give them
Speaker:more quantity. It's about how do you give them the fastest path
Speaker:to that result that they're looking for? Now in online
Speaker:education in in any education, really, there's a couple of
Speaker:fundamental core things that we need to think about. When you
Speaker:are helping someone you're typically helping them increase
Speaker:their skill set, right? So adopt or practice a skill that they
Speaker:don't have yet, right? You're helping them change behavior or
Speaker:change the way that they think in order to make a
Speaker:transformation.
Speaker:And you're helping them actually move from where they are to
Speaker:where they want to go. So those are sort of the three key
Speaker:components of what you need to be thinking of. So when you're
Speaker:creating your your online program, and this becomes super
Speaker:important as you're creating a clear path for people to go from
Speaker:where they are today to the result, or the transformation
Speaker:that you're helping them get to Who is most of the time, it's
Speaker:hooked into very like a path, right? Various skills they need
Speaker:to adopt on a path or a journey to go from, you know, step one
Speaker:to step six or step seven, or whatever number of steps that
Speaker:they have, right? Usually within those steps is a core skill that
Speaker:they need to learn in order to get to the next step. Not
Speaker:always, but most of the time, it's, it's a step by step, sort
Speaker:of progression to go from one place to the other. Now, what
Speaker:happens is, is that the, the steps have all sorts of
Speaker:different things attached to them, right? There's different
Speaker:skills, there's different behaviors, there's different
Speaker:mindsets, there's different levels of detail within each of
Speaker:the steps. But as a core, you should be able to bring it up to
Speaker:kind of a big picture of the path to go from point A to point
Speaker:B. Right where they are today to where they want to go, either
Speaker:the the result, or the transformation. And so what,
Speaker:what tends to happen is, the more we get into the details,
Speaker:the more we get familiar, the more we get into creating our
Speaker:thing, the less we remember what that path is. And so that's why
Speaker:it's so critical, before you get started even doing anything is
Speaker:that you've got that path nailed down, because everything else is
Speaker:going to anchor back up to that path to make sure that you're
Speaker:taking them on the right journey from where they are today to
Speaker:where they want to go. Because what happens is, if you don't do
Speaker:that, the journey becomes muddled, the journey becomes
Speaker:confusing. And then your learners bounce, your customers
Speaker:bounced, they don't stay with you, they don't ascend, you
Speaker:know, become your raving fans, all the things right. And so
Speaker:that's why so often when I'm working with customers, that is
Speaker:the key foundational thing that we will spend as much time as
Speaker:needed on until somebody can articulate the steps that they
Speaker:that their person needs to take. So going back to my client, so
Speaker:so she's sort of, you know, in the weeds now of putting all the
Speaker:things together and making all the assets and figuring out what
Speaker:the details are of each module, or each week, she's teaching.
Speaker:And she's, she's lost sight of the overall pathway. And in some
Speaker:cases, she's changing the pathway, as she's creating her
Speaker:materials, which which happens, but you want to stay at the
Speaker:pathway. So here's what, here's how the MVP or the beta comes
Speaker:into play with the pathway. Because typically, what you want
Speaker:to do when you're first getting started with anything doesn't
Speaker:matter, what it is that you're doing is you want to do a
Speaker:minimum viable product, right, you want to do the smallest
Speaker:amount of work, to figure out whether or not it's a viable
Speaker:solution that's going to work, you figure out how to tweak it,
Speaker:how to make it better how to, you know, you know, change it,
Speaker:evolve it, whatever it is, right, you want to do that as
Speaker:fast and as and as easily as possible. When you have the
Speaker:pathway, you literally could just start teaching or you know,
Speaker:providing value to your people because you have the pathway,
Speaker:you don't have to over engineer, you don't have to build all your
Speaker:assets, you don't have to have your graphic designer do
Speaker:PowerPoint decks, you don't have to have a full of fully baked,
Speaker:produced and printed workbook. At this stage of the game, when
Speaker:you're doing your MVP, or your beta, your beta, because the
Speaker:whole goal is to get in the game and start to serve your people
Speaker:and then get the data that you need to take it to the next
Speaker:phase and take it to the next phase and the next phase. And
Speaker:then pretty soon you go from beta to having a finished
Speaker:product, then you can focus on just growing and scaling it
Speaker:terms of selling and serving your people instead of
Speaker:recreating it each time. But you have to foundationally start
Speaker:with that pathway or that framework that step by step. And
Speaker:then you can show up and teach it.
Speaker:So again, going back to kind of behind the scenes, is the
Speaker:customer I'm working with right now is really struggling with
Speaker:focusing on you know, perfection with how the how her assets
Speaker:look. And, and, you know, making sure that there are you know,
Speaker:specific things for each week and, and you know, gift boxes
Speaker:and all these things that are important to the experience.
Speaker:Once you've you've kind of tested and dialed in the
Speaker:experience that you're creating. And so again, hopefully this
Speaker:serves you kind of sharing this example because it is very, very
Speaker:common is that when people get more into the details, tend to
Speaker:lose sight of some of the things that are more important because
Speaker:what's happening is it's delaying the start of her
Speaker:program is delaying her ability to get out and find customers
Speaker:who want to get the results that she's promising. And so she's
Speaker:losing sight of that and starting to, to get into sort of
Speaker:perfection land around activities that aren't as
Speaker:important at this point. So with an MVP with a beta, it helps you
Speaker:stay focused on, on looking at what you're doing as a draft,
Speaker:looking at it as a minimum viable product that you're just
Speaker:using right now to test, you're using it to come up with what
Speaker:will happen in the future, but it's not over designing things
Speaker:yet, at this place. Now, I'm not saying just go wing it and show
Speaker:up and just, you know, give your people a bunch of crap. It's not
Speaker:what I'm saying. But I'm saying there's a, there's a point in
Speaker:time where you flip from a minimum viable product, to
Speaker:focusing on perfection, and then you're gonna lose sight, because
Speaker:things are gonna have to change, it's gonna be a costly mistake
Speaker:when you get to that place. Okay? So let me give you a
Speaker:little bit of a framework for an MVP. And, and this will help you
Speaker:as you are thinking through, like, how much do I create? When
Speaker:do I stop? Where do I focus my time and attention to make sure
Speaker:that I'm serving my customers in the best way possible, but not
Speaker:wasting too much time making things perfect? Knowing that
Speaker:they're going to change? Okay, so the very first thing is, when
Speaker:you're looking at that MVP approach is looking at what is
Speaker:the smallest amount that you need to create in order to be
Speaker:effective at getting some new to the results? So again, we start
Speaker:with that pathway, and then we look at, okay, so what do they
Speaker:need to get to that result, and then that's what you're focused
Speaker:on, not all the bells and whistles and all the extras, but
Speaker:what do they need, most of the time, when you're teaching
Speaker:somebody in, in your framework, it's, it's about like the
Speaker:concept, putting them in action, having them do it, and then
Speaker:showing up to give them feedback or to help them along the path.
Speaker:If you do that, you're you know, 80% of the way there. And so
Speaker:it's really focusing on those pieces. And then you can turn
Speaker:that into a calculator, you can turn that into a tool, you can
Speaker:turn that into a workbook, you can turn you know all the
Speaker:things. After you've shown up, you've given them the concept,
Speaker:you've you've taught your framework, and then they've been
Speaker:able to take action. Okay, so it's built, right? Build the
Speaker:minimum, minimum viable product, what is that? What is the thing
Speaker:that you need to build? Again, I'm telling you build a pathway,
Speaker:and build what you need for each week to get you through that
Speaker:pathway, whatever that looks like for you. Okay, and then
Speaker:we're going to measure we're going to get real time feedback.
Speaker:How was that? Did that resonate with you? Is there anything else
Speaker:that you need to be successful in this week in this module,
Speaker:measure and test often in terms of what's you know, what
Speaker:feedback are you getting? what's working, what's not working,
Speaker:don't be so married to what you have that you're not able to
Speaker:take feedback, and make the changes that you need in order
Speaker:to to enhance it either from a coach that you've hired, and
Speaker:you're paying, or from your customers. So, so think about
Speaker:that, then you're gonna learn, obviously, from that feedback,
Speaker:and from what you've what you've done, what I recommend people do
Speaker:is they do their beta. And, you know, typically they're doing it
Speaker:live, so it's week by week, or you can think about it module by
Speaker:module, whichever way you want to do it. And each week, you're
Speaker:sitting down, and you're saying, Okay, what worked? Well, what
Speaker:didn't work? Well,
Speaker:what do I want to change? What do I want to adjust what's on my
Speaker:wish list of something that would make it easier for people
Speaker:to be able to consume this or to be successful? Write all that
Speaker:down and keep those notes because if you're doing 10 weeks
Speaker:of a beta, you may not remember what happened in week one,
Speaker:because you've evolved it so significantly, since? Since the
Speaker:time that you had that week one, right? You're answering a lot of
Speaker:questions, you're, you're pivoting, you're adding in more
Speaker:information as you need to. And so it tends to change quite a
Speaker:bit. So each week, write down your thoughts, and just document
Speaker:all of it. So you have it each week, you can go back at the
Speaker:end, and really look at evaluating what worked, what did
Speaker:it what do you need to change? What are the kind of core pieces
Speaker:that you need in order to enhance the experience? And and
Speaker:then continuously number four is to loop through that
Speaker:continuously loop through that maybe in the next time you do
Speaker:it, you're doing an enhanced beta where it's not your MVP,
Speaker:but you've added in some additional pieces. So now you're
Speaker:in like version 1.0. Right? Do the same thing. loop back and
Speaker:keep keep going? evolving in and, and moving to the next
Speaker:iteration of your program. And but don't over again, don't over
Speaker:engineered, you may not get to hire a graphic designer to build
Speaker:out your PowerPoint decks or make a whole branded experience
Speaker:until like version three, right. So don't stress over all of that
Speaker:your goal is to get people and give them a result. However, you
Speaker:can do that. So often, the other thing that I find that people
Speaker:are doing a lot of, in my experience is trying to move
Speaker:straight to automated, right, just gonna create the thing and
Speaker:put it out there. And, and that's just gonna be it. And
Speaker:here's the problem with that right is you do not have any
Speaker:proven case studies, you don't have any proven results saying
Speaker:that your framework, your course, your experience,
Speaker:whatever it is you're creating, has gotten people results. And
Speaker:so you have to back up, and you have to think about it as an
Speaker:iterative process, right. So very rarely do people knock out
Speaker:of the park and get their million dollar. I said that in
Speaker:air quotes million dollar payout on their online program. If
Speaker:they're not starting with an MVP, right? Very, very, I don't
Speaker:even know if I can think of one person who has literally like,
Speaker:created a program, launched it to the world, without doing any
Speaker:beta without doing any testing without actually working with
Speaker:live people put it out into the world and sold it and sold, you
Speaker:know, a million dollars worth of revenue from it. Because, well,
Speaker:there's lots of different reasons. But the big one is
Speaker:because you haven't done an MVP, you haven't tested it, you
Speaker:haven't seen where there's pitfalls, where people are
Speaker:struggling, where they're not able to, you know, get what the
Speaker:concept that you're teaching, or they don't have the right tools
Speaker:to move forward, or whatever it is, right. And so it is super
Speaker:important to do that, even if this is your expertise, even if
Speaker:you have been doing online courses for 30 years, right,
Speaker:it's still important to do that beta test. So when I'm working
Speaker:with customers, that's one of the things that we talk about
Speaker:the most is do a beta, and don't be married to the results, be
Speaker:prepared to make shifts and changes based on actually
Speaker:working with real humans. And, and so once you do that you have
Speaker:a much better product, you have a much better outcome, and it
Speaker:becomes so much easier to automate it. When you know that
Speaker:you have the right things in place, and people can still
Speaker:become successful. And it's an evolving process. It is not a
Speaker:one and done. sort of scenario. So when I'm working with my
Speaker:clients we talk a lot about that is that, you know, this is this
Speaker:is an investment that you're making either to package your
Speaker:expertise or to change your service based business into a
Speaker:digital business, or grow and scale your digital business and
Speaker:take it to the next level is it an investment that you are you
Speaker:are using and doing to enhance the experience that you have
Speaker:with your customers, enhance your business, grow your
Speaker:business, whatever it is you're trying to do, right. And, and so
Speaker:just like everything else you do, it's the same concept,
Speaker:right? You, you practice it first, and then you polish it.
Speaker:Alright, so hopefully this serves you I really I know I've
Speaker:talked about the MVP and the beta before.
Speaker:But as I start unpacking it more and more with customers, this is
Speaker:one of the biggest kind of pitfalls that I see them make is
Speaker:is just trying to over perfect it try and make it into a
Speaker:finished product before it's tested. And and so if I have one
Speaker:piece of advice for you, it is to build that pathway and then
Speaker:stay connected to that pathway more than you're connected to
Speaker:the polished finished outcome. And again, a lot of times that
Speaker:shows up in perfect PowerPoint decks or beautiful graphics. And
Speaker:the more the more you polish it the more you finish it the
Speaker:harder it is to change. So use stick figures don't use real
Speaker:graphics yet right there lots of tips and tricks and and
Speaker:techniques to help you sort of stay in MVP mindset which is you
Speaker:know, kind of get to that 80% And then don't stop there.
Speaker:Right? But test first and test often and then iterate and
Speaker:create your additional versions until you get to the place where
Speaker:you've got it dialed in. People are consistently getting
Speaker:results. And you know without a doubt that what you have We'll
Speaker:help people succeed if they go through it alright there you go
Speaker:that is my course building tip for today
