MHM#07 The truth about online course passive income

As a therapist, your business model typically involves trading time for money. This model obviously has limitations as there are only so many hours in a day and sessions you can provide to ensure you also look after your own emotional health and not get burnt out.

Creating an online course or offering that doesn't require trading time for money and makes you money while you sleep can be very appealing. 

It's also good business practice to diversify your revenue streams.

Generating "passive income" from online offers is thrown around a lot these days, but the truth is, there is nothing passive about creating a successful online offer.

There are several components to creating an online course or offering...

Course Structure and Curriculum Design

Content Creation 

Technology and Platform Selection and set-up

Marketing and Promotion

These are all essential components, but what often gets missed and underestimated is the importance of developing a trusting audience.

Online courses have exploded in recent years, flooding the online space and making it increasingly challenging to get in front of the right people and convince them that out of all these options being presented to them, your course is the right course for them.

If someone isn't familiar with you, it's a big ask for them to sign up for your course, especially if they're handing over money for it. 

People need to know and trust you to feel confident that by purchasing your offer, it will be a good use of their money and help them with their pain or the problem they're trying to solve.

When people think an offer is expensive, it's mainly because they don't understand the value. 

So, can an online course or offer be successful? Yes! It can absolutely be hugely successful. 

Here are the 3 steps to take

1) Grow your email list

To create an audience that knows and trusts you, you must keep demonstrating value over a long period. By growing your email list and sending regular value-packed newsletters (ideally weekly), over time, you're building trust and credibility. So, when you finally launch your offer, people are much more likely to purchase it.

Growing an email list takes time - get ready to settle in for a few years of list building and nurturing. To grow your email list, consider creating what we refer to in marketing as a lead magnet - a free, highly valuable resource people need to exchange their email address for.

2) Build your social audience

Creating a social media audience and providing them with value also builds credibility. Social media content, particularly videos, is critical in helping you connect with your audience and creating an audience who feels like they know and trust you. People loyally follow therapists on social media, looking forward to their next post or video because they feel a connection, you resonate with them, and your content is helpful and inspiring. Consistently create valuable social media content over several years, and your audience will jump at the chance to purchase your offer and get more of your amazing content. 

3) Test your ideas

Sometimes, what our audience wants differs greatly from what we believe they want. If you don't ask them what they want, you risk wasting significant time and resources developing an online offer that just sits there unsold. A way to test this is by creating a waitlist. Once you've built up your email list, you can say, "I'm developing an online course on X to help with X; join the waiting list to receive early access / a discount." If you get many people joining the waitlist, that indicates you're on the right track with your offer. If you get very few people joining the waitlist, then it's an indication you may need to change/refine the offer. 

Another thing to keep in mind

In the world of sales, we split offers into high-ticket offers and low-ticket offers. High ticket offers are typically above $1000, and low ticket offers are below $1000.

Depending on where your offer price sits, it will require a different sales approach. Typically, offers over $1000 will require a sales call, with offers sitting around $5000 or more requiring a two-step sales call process - one call/zoom meeting to learn about them, delve into the problem they're having, and then the second call presenting them with a proposal. In bigger companies, they will often have a team of Setters and a team of Closers. Setters manage the initial call and qualify leads, with closers managing the second call and completing the sale.

If you have any thoughts about creating an online offer one day, start growing your email and social media audience now. Settle into consistently doing the work to grow and nurture your audiences, then, in a few years, start testing offer ideas, and once you find one that seems to have a decent demand, start creating it.