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How To Create Awesome Online Courses with David Siteman Garland
Episode 2530th August 2023 • The Online Hustle with Jake Hower • Jake Hower
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Jake Hower:

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.

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