Full show notes for this episode can be found at https://jakehower.com/how-to-create-awesome-online-courses-with-david-siteman-garland/
You're listening to the Multimedia Marketing
Jake Hower:Show, and this is episode 25.
Jake Hower:Today's guest is David Sightman Garland from the rise to the top.
Jake Hower:David, how are you?
David Siteman Garland:Jake?
David Siteman Garland:I am fantastic.
David Siteman Garland:I love the accent.
David Siteman Garland:I'm ready to go.
David Siteman Garland:I'm fired up.
David Siteman Garland:Yes.
David Siteman Garland:Yes.
Jake Hower:It's certainly different.
Jake Hower:I guess to most of your guests that you bring on your own show.
Jake Hower:Now in today's episode, we're going to look at how David goes
Jake Hower:about creating some of his courses.
Jake Hower:So he's got a number of courses now that he's done as part of the rise to the top.
Jake Hower:And you could definitely say he's an expert in that.
Jake Hower:So we're going to look at that today.
Jake Hower:So David, for our listeners, why don't you give us a little bit
Jake Hower:of context as to who you are and where you've got to, to this point.
David Siteman Garland:Sure.
David Siteman Garland:In a nutshell, basically what I'm best known, online for is I have a site called
David Siteman Garland:the rise to the top which is what I call the number one resource for media preneur.
David Siteman Garland:So it's like for people that create content sites, whether it's, you
David Siteman Garland:do podcasts or, blogging or online videos or whatever it might be.
David Siteman Garland:We're basically a resource to help people out, whether it's, growing audience and
David Siteman Garland:making money or all that kind of stuff.
David Siteman Garland:And in 2008, I started online things have twisted and turned a
David Siteman Garland:lot since then to say the least.
David Siteman Garland:But, I had no idea what I was doing in 2008.
David Siteman Garland:I started an interview show called the rise of the top back then.
David Siteman Garland:That's how it all started as an interview show, right?
David Siteman Garland:Bring on kind of successful entrepreneurs now over 350 episodes and 7 million
David Siteman Garland:downloads and stuff like that.
David Siteman Garland:But when I started, I really, I had no clue what I was doing.
David Siteman Garland:I was like, okay, I'm gonna build this platform up online.
David Siteman Garland:I'm gonna, interview some people.
David Siteman Garland:I'm gonna make money by some magical fairy way that I don't know yet.
David Siteman Garland:There was like all this, I had no idea what was going on.
David Siteman Garland:I realized I didn't have a fan base or anything when I started.
David Siteman Garland:I didn't come from, celebrity background or anything like that.
David Siteman Garland:So I was really starting from scratch.
David Siteman Garland:So as the platform grew and why we're talking about this today, Jake is
David Siteman Garland:that really my entire business shifted when I discovered creating online
David Siteman Garland:courses, and then the idea that you can monetize an online platform blog,
David Siteman Garland:web show, podcast, et cetera, by taking something that you already know
David Siteman Garland:and turn it into an online course.
David Siteman Garland:And the way that kind of happened was really by accident is that,
David Siteman Garland:I was struggling to monetize for years was trying to figure it out.
David Siteman Garland:I wanted something that was, long term and scalable and didn't have a lot of overhead
David Siteman Garland:and something that I could put time into.
David Siteman Garland:But then I could basically turn it into autopilot.
David Siteman Garland:I had all these things that I was trying to do, and I was doing a really bad job
David Siteman Garland:of them because I didn't know what to do.
David Siteman Garland:So I was trying sponsorships and ads and All these different things
David Siteman Garland:and people kept telling me, David, you got to create your own course,
David Siteman Garland:your own product to sell to people.
David Siteman Garland:It's going to hit all that criteria that you want to do.
David Siteman Garland:Like it's going to, you're not going to have to trade dollars for hours.
David Siteman Garland:You're going to have huge leverage.
David Siteman Garland:You're going to be able to help people in a very specific way and get them
David Siteman Garland:results and you're going to make a lot of money from it and it's not
David Siteman Garland:going to require you to be there 24 7.
David Siteman Garland:And that's really how this kind of journey began was this sort of like awakening.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah.
David Siteman Garland:That of all the business models out there, I found courses and like digital products
David Siteman Garland:to be the best fit for me at the time.
Jake Hower:Yeah, cool.
Jake Hower:Cool.
Jake Hower:All right.
Jake Hower:I think that's fantastic.
Jake Hower:It's great to hear all of that.
Jake Hower:What I'd like to, speak to you about before we get stuck into it is, there are
Jake Hower:changes happening online all the time.
Jake Hower:It's constantly evolving.
Jake Hower:And I think one thing I've noticed that you have done very in a very
Jake Hower:recent past is that you've moved from interviews to creating more actionable.
Jake Hower:There's still an interview, but you're trying to get your
Jake Hower:interviews more actionable.
Jake Hower:Are you seeing a trend going to more, actionable training?
David Siteman Garland:Oh God, that's a tough, that's a great question.
David Siteman Garland:I see this kind of both ways.
David Siteman Garland:What you're referring to is, of course, like when I made this announcement
David Siteman Garland:that we're switching more to training videos and stuff like that.
David Siteman Garland:It's funny because I actually see a value in both.
David Siteman Garland:I think that sometimes people want, in terms of an interview or a conversation
David Siteman Garland:with someone they want to take away, like they want like very action,
David Siteman Garland:like step by step type stuff, but then they also sometimes just want
David Siteman Garland:to hear behind the scenes stuff and have a cool conversation and have
David Siteman Garland:something a little bit more relaxed.
David Siteman Garland:So I've seen it as a mix.
David Siteman Garland:And that's what I'm trying to do on the show.
David Siteman Garland:I think on my show, again, after you've done like 300 plus episodes,
David Siteman Garland:you got to do some stuff to spice it up too, and so for me.
David Siteman Garland:Moving forward, what I'm trying to do is mix it up a little bit.
David Siteman Garland:Some kind of traditional more where it's just us having a conversation with
David Siteman Garland:a good friend or a marketer or someone interesting, and then other ones that
David Siteman Garland:it's going to be more training based and we're going to see what happens, but I
David Siteman Garland:think, people really do love training.
David Siteman Garland:But it really just depends on kind of the audience.
David Siteman Garland:I wouldn't make a big blanket statement across the entire internet,
Jake Hower:yeah, no, absolutely.
Jake Hower:And I guess the other thing to consider is that there are so many
Jake Hower:new podcasts coming on the scene and they're all following a similar format.
Jake Hower:So I see what you're doing is differentiating
David Siteman Garland:a little bit.
David Siteman Garland:Meaning, meaning like most are just coming on and doing like
David Siteman Garland:a conversation, if you will.
David Siteman Garland:Is that what you're saying?
David Siteman Garland:Yeah.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah.
David Siteman Garland:I think, I think it's a testament now.
David Siteman Garland:It's what's funny about this whole kind of trend or whatever you want to call it
David Siteman Garland:is that, there's really I call, I, the word I used earlier, mediapreneurs, right?
David Siteman Garland:Is like this middle ground between these two very different groups of
David Siteman Garland:people out there, like one that's like the bloggers, if you will I don't mean
David Siteman Garland:that in a derogatory term, but like the bloggers who are the people that.
David Siteman Garland:Have this great content, these great communities, this great
David Siteman Garland:stuff going on, but often don't know how to monetize very well.
David Siteman Garland:And then you have another community, which was known as the internet marketing
David Siteman Garland:community, who is very good at monetizing, sometimes in somewhat sketchy ways
David Siteman Garland:but they don't really have a platform.
David Siteman Garland:And it's interesting to watch now how people are more evolving to
David Siteman Garland:that middle ground, and also a lot of the kind of traditional people
David Siteman Garland:are moving towards you know what, I do need something consistently.
David Siteman Garland:Free and awesome to send out to people, not just doing like pitch after pitch.
David Siteman Garland:And I think that's a good thing for everyone, but we'll see how
David Siteman Garland:the shows end up for everyone.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah,
Jake Hower:cool.
Jake Hower:Cool.
Jake Hower:All right.
Jake Hower:Let's get stuck into it.
Jake Hower:So lay it out for us, David, who should be creating online
David Siteman Garland:courses?
David Siteman Garland:Yeah.
David Siteman Garland:So great question, and I'm not going to give the answer like that, like
David Siteman Garland:everyone, cause nothing's for everyone.
David Siteman Garland:In my opinion, the people that are most.
David Siteman Garland:Are most correctly positioned to create an online course now, right?
David Siteman Garland:Are people that have a platform and some kind of audience, okay?
David Siteman Garland:So what I mean by platform, it could be anything.
David Siteman Garland:It could be a blog, web show, podcast.
David Siteman Garland:It could be funny cat drawings.
David Siteman Garland:It could be an awesome YouTube channel.
David Siteman Garland:Whatever it might be, some kind of platform, some kind of audience.
David Siteman Garland:I don't, you don't need to have a hundred thousand people, nothing like that.
David Siteman Garland:Because the way we'll talk about it in a few minutes.
David Siteman Garland:Is that, to have success with an online course, you don't need that many buyers
David Siteman Garland:because to have it be successful.
David Siteman Garland:So you do have to have some kind of audience and some kind of platform.
David Siteman Garland:That's pretty much my criteria for creating a course.
David Siteman Garland:I didn't like a great one, but I'm saying for it to be successful.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah,
Jake Hower:definitely.
Jake Hower:I guess most of our listeners are probably the person listening to this right now.
Jake Hower:They're generally early stage entrepreneurs, but they've certainly
Jake Hower:started building a platform and they're looking at, ways to
Jake Hower:bring in more traffic and how to convert that traffic to dollars.
Jake Hower:So I think this will really benefit our
David Siteman Garland:listener today.
David Siteman Garland:It's very scalable too.
David Siteman Garland:So meaning what's cool about this, like when I, when my first course, I
David Siteman Garland:should have done two or three years before I did it, like I know my
David Siteman Garland:first one I should have done earlier.
David Siteman Garland:Because here's the thing.
David Siteman Garland:Once it's out there, once it's created, once it's launched to the world, and then
David Siteman Garland:it's for sale and ongoing, I suggest, having it for sale not just launching
David Siteman Garland:it and closing it, like having it for sale as your platform grows and your
David Siteman Garland:traffic grows, so will your sales.
David Siteman Garland:So it's a nice little scalable thing for you as you build up.
Jake Hower:Yeah, definitely.
Jake Hower:Now, what held you back from actually creating it earlier than?
David Siteman Garland:God, you know what it really was.
David Siteman Garland:What it really was, and this is funny, is just that I didn't here are the
David Siteman Garland:two things that really held me back.
David Siteman Garland:Number one was, and this was the major one until I developed a system for
David Siteman Garland:figuring it out was I didn't exactly know what to create a course on.
David Siteman Garland:That was my first problem.
David Siteman Garland:So that kind of held me back.
David Siteman Garland:Like I was like, Oh, what do I, what should I do a course on?
David Siteman Garland:No idea.
David Siteman Garland:The second thing that held me back was there wasn't really a roadmap
David Siteman Garland:out there to help put it together.
David Siteman Garland:Like I knew that there's gonna be like a lot of experimentation
David Siteman Garland:and trying to figure stuff out.
David Siteman Garland:And I was a little scared of that leap for a while of Oh my God, I'm have to
David Siteman Garland:do this from scratch because there's some products out there to help you with
David Siteman Garland:it, but there really weren't, wasn't anything as specific as I was looking for.
David Siteman Garland:So I, it was just yeah, those two things for sure.
Jake Hower:Yeah.
Jake Hower:Cool.
Jake Hower:Then let's look at that first point you made.
Jake Hower:Let's look at, how do you go about deciding what sort of course you're
David Siteman Garland:going to create?
David Siteman Garland:Yeah.
David Siteman Garland:So this is the fun part, right?
David Siteman Garland:And and the funny thing is, I appreciate you starting there because, A lot of
David Siteman Garland:people want to skip this foundation.
David Siteman Garland:They just want to like move into different areas and it's just like
David Siteman Garland:this is the critical moments, is the foundation because everything
David Siteman Garland:else is easy, quote unquote.
David Siteman Garland:It's really the foundation that's critical.
David Siteman Garland:So let me preface this.
David Siteman Garland:A lot of people come to me and they say, David, hey, I want to create a course.
David Siteman Garland:What should I go learn how to do to create a course on Okay, that's a question.
David Siteman Garland:And I'm like it's the wrong question because here's what here's
David Siteman Garland:why it's not what you go learn how to do to create a course on.
David Siteman Garland:It's what do you already know right now that you can
David Siteman Garland:package up and sell to people.
David Siteman Garland:Okay, so there is something that.
David Siteman Garland:Everyone that's listening to this has some kind of step by step knowledge that
David Siteman Garland:you have right now of something that you can teach people how to do that you can
David Siteman Garland:package up and turn it into a course.
David Siteman Garland:So what did I do?
David Siteman Garland:I had no idea.
David Siteman Garland:So I was thinking to myself what is it?
David Siteman Garland:Because oftentimes the answer to this question is right under your nose.
David Siteman Garland:So what ended up happening was, this is what I did first, and this is
David Siteman Garland:what I suggest you do first, if you have any kind of following at all.
David Siteman Garland:is start paying attention to the types of questions and emails
David Siteman Garland:that you get online or in person.
David Siteman Garland:So if you're getting a tweet or Facebook message or an email,
David Siteman Garland:anything that comes in from your site, is there something consistent
David Siteman Garland:that people are asking you about?
David Siteman Garland:Even if you think it's extremely basic, extremely basic, something
David Siteman Garland:so simple, you're like, Oh my God, how could people ask this?
David Siteman Garland:That's where some of the secret sauce comes in.
David Siteman Garland:So for me...
David Siteman Garland:I was always hearing questions like how do I create an interview show?
David Siteman Garland:How do I get a guest to say yes?
David Siteman Garland:How do I market the show?
David Siteman Garland:How do I make money from the show?
David Siteman Garland:All these questions were associated with doing an interview show and
David Siteman Garland:that's where, one of my flagship programs came from was basically
David Siteman Garland:people asking me those questions.
David Siteman Garland:Another kind of part of that process I call this the pay attention principle
David Siteman Garland:because once you start paying attention for this You're going to start
David Siteman Garland:uncovering clues all over the place as to what you should create a course on.
David Siteman Garland:The second step is, you either, if you already have something great, if not,
David Siteman Garland:you can go create something, is a how to post that you put up on your site.
David Siteman Garland:Whether it's on your blog, or your podcast, your web
David Siteman Garland:show, whatever it might be.
David Siteman Garland:And this again goes back to that importance of having a platform, right?
David Siteman Garland:So putting up a how to post on something, whatever it may be, how to swing a
David Siteman Garland:kettlebell, how to, lose five pounds in a week, how to redecorate your home
David Siteman Garland:for less than 500, how to whatever it might be coming up with a five steps
David Siteman Garland:or a 10 steps or a how to type post.
David Siteman Garland:And judging the temperature of that response and seeing, everyone knows
David Siteman Garland:what their traffic is, what their subscribers are what that information is.
David Siteman Garland:If something goes well or doesn't go so well and, using your own platform to test
David Siteman Garland:is very inexpensive because it's free.
David Siteman Garland:He's come up with stuff that you can test on there and come up with different
David Siteman Garland:topics that you teach people and you don't ask them, you don't say, hey,
David Siteman Garland:I'm going to create a course on this.
David Siteman Garland:You don't need to do any of that kind of stuff.
David Siteman Garland:It's all about.
David Siteman Garland:How can you offer some value and test out to see what people respond to?
David Siteman Garland:And that's what I started with.
David Siteman Garland:I started doing one, like how to record interviews on Skype, how to how to get
David Siteman Garland:a list people to say yes to interviews.
David Siteman Garland:Those were like some of the posts that I did on my site.
David Siteman Garland:And I saw that it really resonated with people.
David Siteman Garland:And that's when these clues started to come together and turn into a course.
David Siteman Garland:And this is what anyone can do that has a platform.
Jake Hower:Absolutely.
Jake Hower:And I'll certainly have to reiterate that.
Jake Hower:I think that's probably the vital step is not just assuming that
Jake Hower:you've got the market to buy the product, but actually getting it
Jake Hower:on and making, having the stats to
David Siteman Garland:back it up.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah, exactly.
David Siteman Garland:And the thing is another way to look at this too, is that think about a.
David Siteman Garland:A personal just think about what you've done in your life that
David Siteman Garland:you could teach to other people.
David Siteman Garland:What have you done?
David Siteman Garland:Have you lost 20?
David Siteman Garland:Have whatever it may be, because here's the thing.
David Siteman Garland:At the end of the day, one of the struggling points I see with people
David Siteman Garland:as they come up with something is that a course is all about results, right?
David Siteman Garland:It's all about getting someone a very tangible result.
David Siteman Garland:Meaning I just, I use weight as an example, but it doesn't have to be that.
David Siteman Garland:But it, it could be losing 10 pounds or losing weight.
David Siteman Garland:It could be gaining muscle.
David Siteman Garland:It could be getting out of debt.
David Siteman Garland:It could be, whatever it is.
David Siteman Garland:It has to be something that's step by step and concrete.
David Siteman Garland:It, people may say, Oh, I want to do a course.
David Siteman Garland:And at the end of it, you'll feel good.
David Siteman Garland:What does that mean?
David Siteman Garland:You know what I mean?
David Siteman Garland:Like you, you want to have something that's very concrete and step by step,
David Siteman Garland:that's what sells online for sure.
David Siteman Garland:Cool.
Jake Hower:All right.
Jake Hower:Where do we go from here?
Jake Hower:We've got a topic.
Jake Hower:We think we actually know, cause we've tested it now.
Jake Hower:It's a, we popped it onto our platform.
Jake Hower:We've tested it.
Jake Hower:We know it resonates.
Jake Hower:What's the next
David Siteman Garland:step.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah.
David Siteman Garland:So this is one of my little simple secret sauce steps here is to do a survey.
David Siteman Garland:And there's some, I've tested this big time because you got to realize once I
David Siteman Garland:got into this world of course, grading, I became like an obsessed, crazy person.
David Siteman Garland:Because I realized that there wasn't anyone I just I needed help
David Siteman Garland:and I wanted to figure it out.
David Siteman Garland:So I interviewed.
David Siteman Garland:Hundreds of people about this that all the research that I possibly could have
David Siteman Garland:been implemented and experimented and, put in all these hours to figure out
David Siteman Garland:the stuff to break it down to these very simple things like the survey.
David Siteman Garland:So here's a survey that is works.
David Siteman Garland:And it's so pain painless.
David Siteman Garland:That's like shocking in a certain way.
David Siteman Garland:So what I would recommend doing is you create a survey that you post
David Siteman Garland:on your site, a link to the survey.
David Siteman Garland:I use Wufoo, doesn't really matter what you use, W U F O, but whatever, you
David Siteman Garland:can use Google Docs, doesn't matter what you use for the survey, something.
David Siteman Garland:But all you want to do is ask for people's name and their email, and you want to
David Siteman Garland:ask about their questions on that subject that you're thinking about for a course.
David Siteman Garland:Okay, so that's it.
David Siteman Garland:Name, email.
David Siteman Garland:What are your questions involving blank.
David Siteman Garland:For example, for me, it was name, email.
David Siteman Garland:I want to know what questions do you have about creating your own interview
David Siteman Garland:show and then an open box where they could ask as many questions as they want.
David Siteman Garland:And there's a few reasons to do this.
David Siteman Garland:Number one is, again, you're going to see now, do you get any responses?
David Siteman Garland:You're going to see some people now that are excited about
David Siteman Garland:this to start to respond to it.
David Siteman Garland:You're going to see if you got, some responses.
David Siteman Garland:And again, you don't need a million responses for this to be valid.
David Siteman Garland:It's just, can you get some responses?
David Siteman Garland:Also, you're now getting people's email when they do the survey.
David Siteman Garland:And oftentimes these people become your very best customers.
David Siteman Garland:A lot of these early survey respondents for create awesome interviews, my course
David Siteman Garland:became some of our very best customers.
David Siteman Garland:Having those, that email address in there is vital.
David Siteman Garland:And also you get to pick up a lot of things here through the survey, how
David Siteman Garland:people talk the language that they use the questions that they have.
David Siteman Garland:And what's funny about it with the survey is that you're going to sit
David Siteman Garland:there and you're going to go, Oh my God.
David Siteman Garland:This is way too basic.
David Siteman Garland:I didn't think people needed to know this that you will be shocked about
David Siteman Garland:the questions that come in on your area of expertise and you'll realize how
David Siteman Garland:much you actually know because it's like that plight of the expert, if you
David Siteman Garland:will, that you know something and you assume everyone else knows it when no
David Siteman Garland:one knows it, very few people know it.
David Siteman Garland:So you put that survey out and you spend basically You know what?
David Siteman Garland:You can to market and promote that survey, meaning like not necessarily
David Siteman Garland:money, but I'm saying, putting it on your blog, putting on your site, putting
David Siteman Garland:it on social media, email blasting out to your current subscribers.
David Siteman Garland:Everything that you can do to get eyes on that survey are critical.
David Siteman Garland:And one more tip on that.
David Siteman Garland:Notice I didn't say anything about Mentioning that you have a course, you're
David Siteman Garland:thinking about doing a course, you have a course coming out, nothing like that.
David Siteman Garland:All you're basically asking is for questions because you want to
David Siteman Garland:help people and later on, you're going to turn that into a course.
David Siteman Garland:You'd be surprised about how much data you can actually get from this.
David Siteman Garland:And also it really starts to become the outline for your course.
David Siteman Garland:Cool.
Jake Hower:Yep.
Jake Hower:It's just making so much sense.
Jake Hower:And I guess with a lot of things in business, once you break
Jake Hower:it down, it's quite simple.
Jake Hower:And I really love that.
Jake Hower:Okay.
Jake Hower:So we've created this survey.
Jake Hower:We've got all the respondents, all the responses.
Jake Hower:What do you do with
David Siteman Garland:that?
David Siteman Garland:At that point, it's decision time, right?
David Siteman Garland:Like it's decision time.
David Siteman Garland:It's Am I going to go forward with this or not?
David Siteman Garland:It's if you're not feeling it, if you don't feel the temperature is
David Siteman Garland:hot enough, if you're not feeling it, go back to step one, right?
David Siteman Garland:It's go back to the beginning, down the chute and try it again.
David Siteman Garland:If you like where you're going with this and you're starting to feel like
David Siteman Garland:people are excited and you're excited about this and you got something going
David Siteman Garland:on really then it becomes time to Start to plan out the actual course and, what,
David Siteman Garland:the mistake that I see here is people start to just run and gun, they just
David Siteman Garland:say, okay, I'm just gonna, just start, creating modules or I figure out how
David Siteman Garland:to record it or whatever it might be.
David Siteman Garland:And, there's still more to do.
David Siteman Garland:On the foundation here.
David Siteman Garland:Foundation is so critical to a course.
David Siteman Garland:And so you really want to map out everything before you go forward.
David Siteman Garland:And one of the key things where people get hung up here, and
David Siteman Garland:this is the time to do this step.
David Siteman Garland:The next step is really to come up with a name for your course, right?
David Siteman Garland:And people get hung up on this name.
David Siteman Garland:It's unbelievable to me.
David Siteman Garland:The name does not matter of the course.
David Siteman Garland:Because the hook and the positioning and all that kind of stuff, that's going
David Siteman Garland:to matter a lot more than the name.
David Siteman Garland:The name could be something very simple.
David Siteman Garland:You can go with something functional, you can go with something
David Siteman Garland:clever, it doesn't really matter.
David Siteman Garland:The most important thing when you choose your name here, which is the
David Siteman Garland:next step, is to have a name where you can get the URL with the dot com.
David Siteman Garland:I don't care what it is, as long as it's something dot com, because that's the most
David Siteman Garland:important thing when it comes to a name.
David Siteman Garland:Gotcha.
Jake Hower:Gotcha.
Jake Hower:All right.
Jake Hower:Fantastic.
Jake Hower:So we've then got the name.
Jake Hower:I guess format would be potentially the
David Siteman Garland:next thing, is it?
David Siteman Garland:Actually, I don't even, I wouldn't even go to format yet.
David Siteman Garland:After you have the name of your course it's really about coming up with the hook.
David Siteman Garland:And this is the most important thing really of the entire course
David Siteman Garland:creating process, because a lot of this other stuff can be very simple.
David Siteman Garland:But the hook or the X factor is what separates your course
David Siteman Garland:from the market, right?
David Siteman Garland:Because, if you see that there's other courses out there on the market
David Siteman Garland:on a topic or similar topic, that's a good thing, that's a positive.
David Siteman Garland:A lot of people get scared away by that.
David Siteman Garland:They say Oh my God, there's someone else who's doing what I want to do.
David Siteman Garland:That's a great thing because it shows that there's a market for it.
David Siteman Garland:And you want to have a mark.
David Siteman Garland:You want to have buyers for something like that.
David Siteman Garland:So if there's other courses out there, that's great.
David Siteman Garland:Like I saw some other courses on my topics.
David Siteman Garland:That's a great thing.
David Siteman Garland:But when you have other courses, you're gonna have to separate
David Siteman Garland:yourself from the market, right?
David Siteman Garland:So here's some of the key questions you could ask yourself
David Siteman Garland:as you develop your hook.
David Siteman Garland:What are my results with what I'm teaching?
David Siteman Garland:So meaning did you use the methods to make six figures yourself?
David Siteman Garland:Did you use the methods to lose weight?
David Siteman Garland:Did you use the methods to find a girlfriend or boyfriend?
David Siteman Garland:Nothing beats personal experience here when you start
David Siteman Garland:to separate from the pack, right?
David Siteman Garland:A key question to ask is, what are my results?
David Siteman Garland:Another key question to ask is, What else is out there in the market and
David Siteman Garland:in what areas do I feel like I'm doing things differently than them?
David Siteman Garland:This is what I call finding the gap.
David Siteman Garland:Okay, and this is so important when you're coming up with your hook, right?
David Siteman Garland:Because, what is the gap?
David Siteman Garland:So for example, I saw a product that was helping people create their
David Siteman Garland:own show online, but it was way too technical, wait, you'd be like the
David Siteman Garland:biggest tech nerd in the history of mankind to figure out this thing.
David Siteman Garland:And I was like, man, mine is not going to be designed for the tech nerd.
David Siteman Garland:It's going to be designed for non tech nerds, people that don't want to
David Siteman Garland:spend a zillion hours on technology.
David Siteman Garland:And I saw another one that was just like a It would focus on doing a web show,
David Siteman Garland:but not specifically an interview show.
David Siteman Garland:So I knew I could get more specific by doing an interview show.
David Siteman Garland:So by researching, that's why there's so many successful
David Siteman Garland:fitness products out there.
David Siteman Garland:They all have slightly different hooks, just to give you an example, and
David Siteman Garland:that's where I think is very important.
David Siteman Garland:Is.
David Siteman Garland:What else is on your market and how do I feel like I'm doing
David Siteman Garland:things differently from them?
David Siteman Garland:And the other thing to think about is To add that people love step by step and
David Siteman Garland:systems you know that is so so important people love phrases like step by step
David Siteman Garland:or systems Because remember systems sell here and people love to feel like
David Siteman Garland:they're being held, step By their hand as they go here to create their course.
David Siteman Garland:And I think that's a very important when it comes down to positioning your course.
David Siteman Garland:Would you
Jake Hower:say that the goal of any course or any paid training is
Jake Hower:to actually simplify it for your reader or your viewer in terms of
Jake Hower:there's so much information out there online, you can access everything.
Jake Hower:There is no doubt about that, but the issue is, I guess
Jake Hower:the excess of information can actually be quite confusing.
Jake Hower:Yeah,
Jake Hower:David Siteman Garland: that's what you're doing.
Jake Hower:Because then it was such a good point.
Jake Hower:Thank you for pointing that out, Jake because you see this happen all the time,
Jake Hower:like where people make that argument oh my God, there's so much information out
Jake Hower:there on my subject or, oh, are people going to be willing to pay for what they
Jake Hower:could go on Google or YouTube and find for free and, or something like that.
Jake Hower:And the answer is yes, because here's what people are paying for.
Jake Hower:Number one, they're paying for your perspective on this, right?
Jake Hower:Like you.
Jake Hower:That's one thing.
Jake Hower:Number two, they're basically paying you to be a curator of give me the
Jake Hower:very best stuff, the 80 20 rule.
Jake Hower:Give me the 20 so that I can go implement this and I don't have
Jake Hower:to deal with all the fluff and the BS and the rest of the stuff.
Jake Hower:Because people think when creating an online course, this is like a
Jake Hower:misconception that they have to throw in everything in the kitchen sink.
Jake Hower:That was like internet marketing 1.
Jake Hower:0 back in the day is people would like create these courses.
Jake Hower:They were like 400 modules, or something like that, like a 3000 page supplement.
Jake Hower:No one wants that kind of stuff.
Jake Hower:And people start to think Oh, if I need to justify the price I'm charging for this.
Jake Hower:I need to include everything.
Jake Hower:It's actually the opposite.
Jake Hower:You want to include just what are going to get people to that point, even if
Jake Hower:it's one sentence, your entire things, it's probably not more than that, If it's
Jake Hower:one sentence, but it could teach them something that could get them a result.
Jake Hower:People don't need everything, they just need the right things.
Jake Hower:And you're there as the curator and bringing this all together
Jake Hower:and packaging it up for them.
Jake Hower:So they're not searching through YouTube with 3, 000 ads and Google and
Jake Hower:all these different confusing things.
Jake Hower:You're making it simple and step by step.
Jake Hower:Yeah
Jake Hower:i guess i need to come you really want is
David Siteman Garland:action right and that's at the end of the day
David Siteman Garland:what you're looking for i mean you're thinking about you know how can i simply
David Siteman Garland:guide them from step one to one to whatever to get them the result that
David Siteman Garland:they want and you know because that's.
David Siteman Garland:At the end of the day, anyone could go out there and create a course, right?
David Siteman Garland:You could go out there, anyone could technically create a course, but
David Siteman Garland:the longevity of doing this is, of course, getting, people to actually
David Siteman Garland:results and, that all comes down to, really execution with all this.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah,
Jake Hower:absolutely.
Jake Hower:And I guess I know that's the reason for all this pre planning.
Jake Hower:You could use the analogy of Olympic swimmer.
Jake Hower:They trained for two, three years to prepare for a race where they'll be
Jake Hower:potentially in the water for 40 seconds.
David Siteman Garland:Exactly.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah, exactly.
David Siteman Garland:Said.
David Siteman Garland:Said.
Jake Hower:What's the next step, David?
Jake Hower:Where do we go
David Siteman Garland:from here?
David Siteman Garland:I think the next step the next step for sure at that point is really that you want
David Siteman Garland:to price your course before you do it.
David Siteman Garland:And this is critical because, pricing can make a big difference to say the least.
David Siteman Garland:And here's my suggestion on pricing and this comes from a tip actually
David Siteman Garland:when I was working on one of my first courses, I talked to two good
David Siteman Garland:friends of mine, one's Ryan Lee.
David Siteman Garland:And the other one's Marie Forleo, both, great online entrepreneurs.
David Siteman Garland:And I said, I'm thinking about charging this.
David Siteman Garland:What do you think?
David Siteman Garland:They said, you're way too low.
David Siteman Garland:And I said, what do you mean?
David Siteman Garland:I'm way too low.
David Siteman Garland:That's not very low at all.
David Siteman Garland:And they say, think about this way and Ryan said that it's going to be difficult
David Siteman Garland:to, or not difficult, difficult or easy, depending on how you look at it.
David Siteman Garland:It's going to take effort to market and promote any course online, anything.
David Siteman Garland:And it's just as easy or difficult, depending on how you want to look at
David Siteman Garland:it, to promote a higher price course than it is a lower price course.
David Siteman Garland:From a marketing perspective.
David Siteman Garland:And I was like, Oh, that's interesting.
David Siteman Garland:And then Marie was saying that if you look at all the hours that you've
David Siteman Garland:spent learning this and curating it and all these different things, you can
David Siteman Garland:justify a higher value for your course.
David Siteman Garland:And so one of the biggest mistakes that I see people do is they
David Siteman Garland:price their courses way too low.
David Siteman Garland:Way too low.
David Siteman Garland:Because here's a few reasons why that doesn't work.
David Siteman Garland:Number one is that, the lower you go, the less quality
David Siteman Garland:customers you're going to get.
David Siteman Garland:It's just a fact of the matter.
David Siteman Garland:Number two is that it will require a lot of customers for
David Siteman Garland:it to be a successful course.
David Siteman Garland:So if you price that at, 67 or something like that, it's going to take a lot
David Siteman Garland:of customers to get to six figures.
David Siteman Garland:But if you price placed it at 497, okay, it only takes a few hundred
David Siteman Garland:customers to get to six figures.
David Siteman Garland:Actually, it takes exactly what?
David Siteman Garland:200, 200 customers to get to six figures.
David Siteman Garland:And one of the mistakes I see is where people price it too low.
David Siteman Garland:So my suggestion on pricing for folks is to go out and research and
David Siteman Garland:look at your market and where it's at and be at least equal to the
David Siteman Garland:top people in your market when it comes to creating an online product.
David Siteman Garland:So if you notice that the top people in your market are charging 297,
David Siteman Garland:that's at least where you need to be.
David Siteman Garland:If you see the top people are charging 1, 500.
David Siteman Garland:That's at least where you need to be because there's far more power
David Siteman Garland:and longevity being a premium brand being a sax, if you will, as opposed
David Siteman Garland:to down in the Walmart Kmart range.
David Siteman Garland:And that is one of the, the keys of why you see, and it's not, you're
David Siteman Garland:not doing this to quote unquote, rip people off or anything like that.
David Siteman Garland:Cause you're offering a huge amount of value to them, but you want to
David Siteman Garland:be a premium brand in your market.
David Siteman Garland:And one of the mistakes I see again is pricing stuff way, way too low.
David Siteman Garland:My first course was 497.
David Siteman Garland:So just to give you guys a scope.
David Siteman Garland:It's not about coming out with some super cheap thing and then maybe more expensive
David Siteman Garland:later, don't be afraid here to, because you're gonna be putting some effort
David Siteman Garland:and work into this, that, to not charge what you think it's going to be worth.
Jake Hower:And let's look at two things with that.
Jake Hower:I guess for me, the important part is about perception with your customer.
Jake Hower:It's going to be much easier to get someone to buy into the
Jake Hower:course and actually take action if they've paid a lot more
David Siteman Garland:for something.
David Siteman Garland:Oh, that's so true.
David Siteman Garland:It's so true.
David Siteman Garland:It's yeah, if you pay 50 bucks for something, you're gonna be like,
David Siteman Garland:or but it's all relative, but let's just say that's not a lot for you.
David Siteman Garland:And you're like, Oh, okay, I'll just put it on the back burner.
David Siteman Garland:But if you pay, yeah, it's a good point for paying 1000 bucks, you're gonna be
David Siteman Garland:like, you know what, I'm gonna get my darn money's worth in this, I'm gonna go do it.
David Siteman Garland:And I think that's there's something to be said there You get a lot,
David Siteman Garland:believe it or not, you get a lot less refunds or problems or issues
David Siteman Garland:with the higher prices, right?
David Siteman Garland:Because you're attracting more of a premium crowd that's
David Siteman Garland:actually going to do it.
David Siteman Garland:The lower price I can't tell you how many people come to me and I've
David Siteman Garland:talked to them, privately or whatever.
David Siteman Garland:Friends of mine at masterminds or events, they're just like, oh.
David Siteman Garland:God, the lower price people are driving me crazy, not that they're
David Siteman Garland:bad people, but you know what?
David Siteman Garland:They're crazy people sometimes.
David Siteman Garland:So you gotta be careful there.
Jake Hower:I think just, and again, if you can have people take action,
Jake Hower:then they're potentially, they're more likely to become raving fans and you're
Jake Hower:going to get much better testimonials and potentially lifelong customers.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah, exactly.
David Siteman Garland:Like you, once you get it's like the first one's the hardest.
David Siteman Garland:You know what I mean?
David Siteman Garland:Once you're Once you get that going, then you're, really off to the races.
David Siteman Garland:And I think, even today on the, on, on this conversation, we covered
David Siteman Garland:so many foundational things.
David Siteman Garland:And again, that's really the key to getting this stuff going in terms
David Siteman Garland:of where you can think about now.
David Siteman Garland:Cause I don't want to give you guys too much and you're like, Oh
David Siteman Garland:my God, I can't go do all this.
David Siteman Garland:I think there's plenty of information that you guys have now that, people
David Siteman Garland:can go out and say, okay, I can go now.
David Siteman Garland:And, start paying attention to this and send an email out to my list and
David Siteman Garland:send out a survey and think about the positioning and think about the
David Siteman Garland:pricing and think about these things.
David Siteman Garland:I think a lot of folks are gonna be off to a great start here for sure.
David Siteman Garland:Yeah, absolutely.
Jake Hower:And that's it.
Jake Hower:That's what I'd like to say as well is that if 90% of these interviews covered.
Jake Hower:The planning of creating online courses.
Jake Hower:The rest of it, as you've said a number of times already is simple.
Jake Hower:It's easy.
Jake Hower:Basically your course has a structure that you follow that is
Jake Hower:basically interchangeable depending on what course you're doing.
Jake Hower:It's the planning and ensuring you've got the right content for your
Jake Hower:customers, which is the important part.
David Siteman Garland:Exactly.
David Siteman Garland:Exactly.
Jake Hower:All right, David, thanks very much for coming on the show.
Jake Hower:I really appreciate it.
Jake Hower:I've got a lot out of it personally.
Jake Hower:I know our listener will as well.
Jake Hower:Where can we find out more information about you and also about your
Jake Hower:upcoming course that you'll be
David Siteman Garland:releasing?
David Siteman Garland:Yeah, really, the best place to go, honestly, for everyone and
David Siteman Garland:Jake, you might have a special link for folks too, but create awesome
David Siteman Garland:online courses you can send over.
David Siteman Garland:And I've got free training for everyone.
David Siteman Garland:So basically if you've been listening to this and you want
David Siteman Garland:to dive in a little bit deeper.
David Siteman Garland:I've got like super high quality.
David Siteman Garland:It's not like the BS free training that you see sometimes out there.
David Siteman Garland:This is like good stuff.
David Siteman Garland:And I've got a free multi video series for you and an opportunity to join my program
David Siteman Garland:at the end, if it's a fit for you as well.
David Siteman Garland:But either way, I hope you enjoy the free training over at
David Siteman Garland:create awesome online courses.
David Siteman Garland:com.
Jake Hower:Absolutely.
Jake Hower:And listen, if you've never listened to the rise to the top, make sure you do.
Jake Hower:David is one of the most entertaining interviewers out there.
Jake Hower:One of my favorites.
Jake Hower:David Siteman Garland: Oh, I appreciate that.
Jake Hower:And of course you can check that out at the rise to top.
Jake Hower:com and I appreciate the kind words, Jake, for sure.
Jake Hower:It was fun to that.
Jake Hower:All right,
Jake Hower:David, thanks very much for coming on the episode.
Jake Hower:I've loved it.
Jake Hower:And I know our listeners certainly has as well.