Courses Vs. Programs: The Good, The Bad, & The Ugly
Everyone in the online world is telling you to create a course and you’ll make millions.
So…
It’s understandable when people come to us at the coaching company, obsessed with the idea of creating and launching their course.
And, it’s usually one of the first things I try to talk people out of.
The myth of courses is one that severely needs to be busted. Far too many people are paying THOUSANDS of dollars to learn how to build courses that will make them hundreds. Barely.
What’s the alternative to a “passive” course that “sells on autopilot” as all the gurus promise?
A transformative program that actually gets your people results.
Why Programs vs. Courses?
Building a course takes as much work, if not more, than building a program. The technology involved makes the process exhausting – which means you have less to give your clients. Pre-recorded content means you can’t change and adapt based on the needs of your client – without going back and reshooting everything.
As we sit in the middle of a pandemic and on the verge of a recession, I have never been more grateful to have a high-touch program. Had I turned The Unstoppable Entrepreneurs Program into a course, I would be spending all of my time now, re-recording what my clients need. However, since I have REAL accountability advisors working with clients daily, and scheduled calls every single day where we coach our clients, I didn’t need to make a single change to the structure of our offer. We simply shifted content to serve the needs of our clients.
Courses are Less Profitable.
In general, courses are far less profitable than high-touch programs. We did the math — on average, you’ll have to sell 15X more courses than online programs in order to net the same revenue and income.
People are willing to pay for ongoing support and a high level of touch, in order to achieve their desired outcome. In fact, when you provide a high touch offer, that is priced accordingly, you attract a higher level buyer, someone who understands the power of INVESTING.
Typically, courses are sold at a lower price point (You really can’t sell a course for more than $3-4K. Most are under $1500 ). The lower your price point, the harder it is to sell, because you’re typically selling to a lower demographic with less disposable income.
Creating Massive Transformations
Let’s be honest…
How many courses are sitting COMPLETELY untouched on your digital shelf right now?
I am going to guess more than a few.
Courses rarely provide transformation, because they rarely get done. And, when they do get done, there is no one to troubleshoot or help implement, so people are left on their own to figure out how to apply what they are learning in a course.
Programs, however, can provide MASSIVE transformation, because they are founded on content that is responsive to the needs of your clients, powered by human connection. When there is someone to guide you through a process and hold you accountable to implement, you get a much deeper level of transformation than would ever be possible with a course.
The Course Bubble Will Pop
There is a massive course bubble coming. Before we know it, there will be Amazon courses, cultivating digital content in one place, for an insanely low price. People will be able to buy into that and access pretty much any online course at a significantly reduced rate. We are already seeing these sites pop up all over the place.
Not to mention….
Everything we create digitally can be stolen, shared unwillingly, and most importantly, devalued.
As these digital products are no longer valued, you as a course creator will be in a whole lot of trouble. A program that is live, active and based on client need can’t be stolen, because it is ever evolving.
This is why we stopped selling courses last year, and went all-in on our high-touch, accountability driven program, The Unstoppable Entrepreneurs Program.
The Value of Human Connection
Human connection and intimacy are in high demand right now, and that demand is only going to increase over time. The more AI becomes a part of our everyday lives, the less accessible human connection will be… and the more valuable human connection will become.
Here’s the truth…
It’s harder to create and sell a course than it is to develop a high touch program that you can charge a premium amount. Your course will not get the same type of results that your high level program will get, which means it will become harder to sell over time.
But…
Building out a high-touch program will require you to show up in a different way. It will require you to build a team. It will require you to listen to what the market wants and figure out how to provide them with both what they want and what they need.
It’s a different level of work and probably won’t be done in 4-hours a week. But, neither will your course creation and launch.
So…
At the end of the day, you can keep swimming in a red ocean, killing yourself for barely there profits, getting minimal results for your clients or you can create a program they truly need to get results – and let the results do the selling for you.
It will take some time to get to that point, but it will be 100% worth it!
Need help turning your course idea into a killer program that people won’t be able to resist? Join us inside The Unstoppable Entrepreneurs Program, and we will spend the next year walking you through the process!
To book a call and find out more, click here!
