There's a common pitfall many budding entrepreneurs face: the allure of quick success through digital courses.

Hey, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and money mindset coach, and this is my podcast "The Weeniecast!"

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Now, back to this episode...

You know how tempting it can be when gurus paint this picture of creating a digital course and then magically earning thousands in passive income?

It sounds too good to be true, but is it?

If you've tried and failed, got lost in the process, or felt disheartened, trust me, you're not alone.

Patience and a step-by-step approach—think tortoise, not hare—is crucial for turning your dream into a sustainable business.

Throughout this episode, I'm tackling the myth around these get-rich-quick digital courses head-on, exploring why jumping straight into building a digital course without a solid foundation is often a recipe for disappointment.

Timestamped Summary:

00:00 Digital course doesn't bring value or profit.

03:23 Frustration of failure, especially for neurodivergent individuals.

09:05 Develop group program based on client needs.

11:13 Iterated small group program evolves into community.

16:18 Personalized client work helps, not courses.

18:04 Clients should guide strategy, not idealized vision.

00:21:52 - Perspective changes so you'll see opportunities instead of obstacles.

00:25:52 - Ensuring your beliefs align with your business dreams.

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In this episode, I'm going to tell you why

your digital course needs to follow the tortoise and not the

hare. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and

money mindset coach, and welcome to the Weeniecast.

Tell me if you've been sold this

dream. And now that I've said tell me, I realize that this is a one

way platform and I'm just talking at you and you can't really tell me back,

but if you want to email me, you can. There are so many

business coaches and business gurus out there who are selling a program on how

you can develop and sell a digital course or some kind

of digital product. And they paint this picture of you

creating this thing once, launching it, and then raking in

millions of dollars, and they make it sound so

easy. And for the low price of

$999, you can do it, too.

You can make $100,000 in two months. And like

most people, including myself, I'm sure you've bought one of these

programs before thinking, oh, yeah, that sounds really nice. I would love to do

that. Yeah, you know, I would love to make more money while

spending less time doing work. That is the dream. So you bought the

course and you started it and you probably dropped

off beyond having ADHD and losing interest

or, you know, just not feeling like the right fit for you energetically and

work wise. There was something off. There was

something that just didn't click for you about how this was going to

work and if this happened to you. I

just want to give your intuition a big nod.

Spot on. There are very few programs out there that can

actually help you build a digital product that will

actually sell. And those programs, if you were to sign up for them,

they are tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars because that's a

ton of work that someone has to do on your behalf.

Like so many of my clients before they started working with me, maybe you

actually did create a digital course. Maybe you created a whole

curriculum and you outlined it and you made the PDF's and you filmed the videos

and you found a place to host them and you put it all together and

launched it to hear crickets and you frantically

scrambled to try to figure out what the went wrong. Was it your

marketing? Was it the course? Was it too long? Was it too

short? Was the pricing right? On and on and on. You probably freaked out

about every single little detail. And now this digital

course is probably sitting on a very dusty theoretical shelf in your

brain and on your hard drive, not helping anyone

and not making you any money. And it's really easy to do

that and have it flop and start making up a story about yourself,

that no one wants to hire you, that you must not be that

good at what you do, that this could be wrong with you and that could

be wrong with you. And there are so many other people out there who are

doing the same thing as you, and they're probably just better at it than you.

I have a no b's reality check for you right now, and it's that none

of that is true. You just got sold a bill of goods like

so many of us. You cannot start

off selling a digital product that helps people. I

get the desire. I understand how

alluring the idea is that you could create this thing and it'll just generate

money for you without you having to do a ton of work. That is the

dream that most of us are working towards, but it isn't where you

start. When I work with clients and what's extra

frustrating for those of us with ADHD is that we're used to

learning things really quickly. We're used to hearing how

it's done, putting into action, being really good at it, if

not perfect, and then moving on to the next thing, and then the next thing,

and then the next thing. Failing is incredibly hard,

specifically for neurodivergent folks. When we fail,

it activates a whole bunch of rejection, sensitivity,

dysphoria for us, especially when we failed at

something that was public facing, like launching a product

or a service. And it hurts that much more

because not only did it not work out, and not only do you not have

any money coming in, after you spent money on the program that was supposed to

teach you how to do it, after you invested all that time, after you dealt

with all the frustration and trying to figure out all the bits and how they

would work for you, but the reason it didn't work out is

because people saw it and they thought, nah,

I'm good. And there's a whole bunch of meaning you can attach to

that. You can make it all about how you're not smart enough, you're not pretty

enough, you're not thin enough, you're not qualified enough,

this isn't good enough. There are other people doing way better than you,

and that's really hard to deal with. And if you're in that position right

now, I want you to have a ton of grace for yourself because that's a

very painful place to be, and it takes a lot of kindness and

compassion to move you past that stage in your business.

The mindset I want you to have when you're starting your business and as you're

growing your business is to always remember the tortoise and the

hare. That's right. We're getting, we're diving into some fables

today. We all know the story of the tortoise and

the hare. They start a race and the hare

takes off because that's what rabbits do. They're really fast. And

I think the rabbit gets confused or distracted along the way and then also gets

tired and needs a nap and all the things. I think the hare actually had

adhd, but the tortoise just kind of just keeps

plodding along. Doesn't rush, just slow and

steady. The tortoise finishes the race first.

The hare comes in second. The hare is actually also really

stressed out and has had too much caffeine and has called their mom crying

several times because they don't know which direction they're going because it got turned around

at some point on the race course. And they also spent money on a digital

course that was supposed to help them finish the race quicker, and it didn't work

out. Whereas the tortoise was just listening to a podcast the whole

time and just spending time and its thoughts and just continuing

the way it was going to continue. The tortoise probably also got one on one

clients along the way, right? Because, I mean, the tortoise won a marathon.

I'm actually making up that as a marathon. I don't think a tortoise could actually

walk 26 miles. Anyway, if you know different, please

dm me. We need some

tortoise experts to get up in here to correct me on this. Also, I don't

think that the fable is actually based on actual capabilities

of actual animals. Anyway, you get the point of what I'm saying.

Slow and steady wins the race every single

time. I know it's really tempting to try to hack the system.

We're all really into all the hacks these days and to

find the fastest way to the biggest results where you have the most

impact. But that's not usually how it works. I'm currently volunteering

on a political campaign for a local Democrat. She's running for

state representative, and this is her first time running for office.

And literally, we're going door to door, knocking on doors,

introducing her to the constituents and her district

if she wins, covers seven towns. And let me tell you

about this candidate. She's incredible. She's worked

in homelessness prevention for decades. She's

been super involved in her community. She gets on stage and

she connects with each and every audience member. She's an incredible

speaker. She has a really great head on her shoulders. She knows when to

ask questions, when she doesn't know the answer to something. I personally

could see her climbing the political ladder and becoming

a much bigger figurehead than what she's going for, but it's

not like she's jumping straight there. She's literally going door to door

in each of these small towns, in these tiny, quaint little neighborhoods,

saying, hi, my name is. But in a much less Eminem kind of

way, more of like a, hi, I'm running for state representative. You know what

I mean? It's

not sexy, but you have to go slow.

The number one goal we have when we start is let's make you

money. Make money, money. Make money, money, money. Make

money, money. Make money, money, money. And I

always tell clients, our fastest path to cash is always

going to be one on one clients. And the reason for this is

because, a, you're not trying to enroll a ton of people

into the same thing on a timeline. That's arbitrary to them.

So, for instance, if you were to launch a group program that starts on

September 1, you have to find the people who are willing to start on

September 1 to sign up for it. Whereas when you're working with someone one on

one, it's on their timeline. They can start when they're ready. And if they're

ready now, they can start now. One on one clients know that they're going to

get a higher level of service from you because they're going to get that one

on one attention as well. And because they're going to get that one on one

attention, they're going to get customization that they wouldn't be able to get in a

digital course or in a group. After you've developed your one on

one book of business and you have several one on one clients that are

paying the bills every month, then you can move on to

developing a group program. And you want to start with the group program

first before you move to the digital product, because this is where you are going

to trial and error, all the things that go into the digital

product. Now, having worked with a whole bunch of one on one

clients, you're going to look for, what is the common problem here? What is the

thing that all of my clients seem to struggle with, and how do

I train them out of it? And you're going to develop your whole group program

around this one thing. And you're going to run that group program multiple

times, you're going to relaunch it and you're going to iterate it and you're going

to change it. And to give you some behind the scenes, this is exactly how

I've grown my business. I built my business solely with one on

one clients until I got to the point where I realized, oh, there are some

parts of what I do with clients that everyone needs.

And I could absolutely roll this out as a group program.

And as you've probably listened to this podcast before and heard me talk

about BYOB, the build your own business group program, that was not its first

inception. Earlier on, I actually rolled out

different portions of that program in a standalone

fashion. So like holistic selling, which is my model for how to sell, it's very

consultative, it's not manipulative, it's very based on helping the

person in front of you. I actually ran that as a

standalone group training multiple times before

I dialed in what that training would be, empathetic

marketing, another portion of BYOB. I did that multiple

times, again with different groups, all on its own, so that I could

really understand, like was the material helpful, who

was the best client for it. And throughout this process,

I realized that to do holistic selling well, you had to understand your

ideal client. So that was a big part of what I needed to incorporate

and build your own business through doing empathetic marketing. Again, I realized

you have to have a deep understanding of your niche. And running

these two independent programs, I realized how they needed to

feed into each other. And I probably ran eight different

short small group programs before I

came up with the build your own business model that would help

people start their businesses and start to scale them. And

even then, my first iteration of BYOB

no longer exists. It started off as a six month program

and it has evolved into a two year support

community. If people so choose where I've broken down

exactly what you need to start with to start your business and start getting high

paying clients. And then you can graduate into an advanced version

of it where you can learn how to do all of the fundamental things that

will help your business kind of run in the background while you do the things

that you love. And I've been at this for six and a half years now.

And while yes, there is a digital format of BYOB,

there are training videos and all that stuff, I'm nowhere near turning this into a

digital course. I share this with you because I want you to really understand the

amount of time that it takes to verify an

idea, the amount of time it takes to understand

what works in a group format, what works in a video training,

and where you're going to have to augment your

delivery. It doesn't happen overnight. And this is why you

cannot start with a digital course. You have to trial it with your one on

one clients, and then you have to trial it with a group program, and

eventually you are going to evolve it into a digital course.

But at that point, you have a verified

idea, you have a verified audience, you've done the market check. You know

that there are people out there buying what you're selling.

So you're probably listening to this and thinking, but Katie, I've heard of so

and so who said that they quit their job and they started

this course and they launched it and they made

$200,000 in the first few months. And then they did this and they did

this and they're selling a course on how I

can do the same thing. Why are you saying that that won't work for

me now? I'm not saying that it's 100% not going to.

There are exceptions to every rule. But the chances

of you creating a digital course that is actually going

to sell and make you hundreds of thousands of dollars without

building it off of what one on one clients want from you, and what you're

teaching in a group program is extremely low.

And if you're independently wealthy and you don't have to worry about paying the bills

and this is just something that you're doing for fun, then you know what? Knock

your socks off. Go for it. Have fun. Try it and

see if it works. But if you're independently wealthy, it doesn't really matter if it

fails, which it likely will. But if you're like the rest of us

and have bills to pay and a dog to buy, really

expensive treats for, and maybe a small, small book

buying habits that you have to support, then that's not going to be

the best course. And even for those of you who start a one on

one coaching business or consulting business or whatever, know

that when you launch a group program, 50% of them will fail.

Even after you've done a market research check, even

after you have, like, gauged it with your audience.

There's so many factors that go into you having a

successful launch of a group. You know how many followers you have

on social media and how engaged they are. That's a big factor. How

big your email list is and how engaged they are, and

how honed in your email list is on your ideal client. That's

another massive factor. I think we've all been a part of one of those

groups. I think early on in my business, I had a business mentor

who pushed us all to grow our email list,

but didn't give us any guidance on how to do it. And so they're like,

just ask your friends and family. Ask people in this group. Go

to Facebook, say, join my email list. And

we all did it. And we all got a whole bunch of people on our

email list. And let me tell you, there's nothing more disheartening than getting an

email back from your newsletter, from your aunt who's telling you that you shouldn't swear

so much. Like, thank you so much. Great feedback. Not

listening to it. Also, would you like to buy my stuff? No. Okay, cool.

I'm just kidding. I would never ask a family member to join any of my

programs.

These are all things that take time to build. They either

take time or they take a ton of money to

establish quickly. And like I said, if you're a normal human

being who needs to pay the bills and needs to buy the

treats and is buying stuff for whatever hobby

you have, be it reading, woodworking, underwater, basket

weaving, you need to be making money from your business in the interim.

And at the heart of it, you're in this to help actual human

beings. Yes. You want to make money. Yes. You want to make lots

of it. Yes. Like, maybe you want to have private jets and you want to

do all the stuff, but more than that, you genuinely

care about helping people. And if you actually

want to help people, creating a digital course that

no one's going to buy and no one's going to go through and really no

one's going to even ever know about, it's not going to help anyone.

It's actually just going to end up hurting you and your confidence. But working with

clients one on one and holding their hand and walking them

through whatever transformation it is that you help them through, that helps

people. Launching a group program that helps ten to 20

people who are all working on whatever transformation it is that you

help folks with, with, that actually helps people. And the best

part, besides helping people, is that it actually makes you money in the

interim. And depending on what your business is and what your

niche is, let me tell you from experience, you can quite

simply build a $100 to $300,000

a year business, helping people one on one. I've done

it and many of my clients have done it. Does it take work?

Absolutely. But is it fulfilling?

Yeah. Does it actually impact the world?

Yes. And what's cool is that if you do have a dream of

eventually rolling out a digital product, this is the best

place to start, because through your one on one clients, you're going to

verify that whatever problem you'll solve through your

digital course is actually a problem that your clients have.

And in fact, you could probably figure out what is the problem. They had two

steps before, before becoming my client, so that you can capture

people earlier on in the process. And then your digital

course isn't just something that you sell to make money. It's something that you sell

that is also a lead magnet. It attracts people in, and it helps

them with something that you do not work on in your group or your one

on one coaching or consulting. People buy that first,

and they work through it, and then the next logical step will be to

sign up with your group or doing one on one work with you. The key

here is that you have to make sure that your work actually works

for the people who matter, and that's your clients. And I know

it's so easy to build a strategy

around how you want it to work, around this idealized

vision of how other people seem to have done it. And it was so easy

for them, and it's going to be so easy for me, and so I'm going

to do all the same steps, and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's so tempting to

get sucked into that kind of thinking. But just because you want

something to work a certain way does not mean it will. You have to

build your strategy around a realistic

plan. You have to assess what actually works in the

world that we live in and follow that, rather than

how you want it all to look. And if you're ready to get real with

yourself and see, start running your business to

a realistic strategy that is designed

to get you making money as quickly as possible. Working with one on

one clients, evolving yourself into some kind of group

program, and then developing whatever digital course comes

out of that. Then I invite you to book a generate income strategy

call with me. If you're super attached to

how you want things to work and you're hoping that you're going to talk me

out of, oh, but like this, this one time, you're gonna help me with the

digital course first, right? Do not book a call. I don't wanna talk to you.

I know it hurts to. To realize that you've been following this

cult of, oh, it can be super easy, and I'm gonna roll

out a digital course, and it's gonna make me a ton of money. It's really

hard to let go of that thinking. But if you're willing to be brave

and you really want your business to work out, then

you're gonna need to invest in a more realistic way to do things, and

I'd love to help you with that.

Luna, no barking. Come on, please. Oh, no.

Oh, no. Luna, out. Okay. Excuse me while I evict my dog from

the room. Okay, out you go. See you later.

Bye. Anyway,

welcome to my ADHD show, everyone. I hope you're enjoying.

Squirrel. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.