By Geraldine Headley
Imagine waking up in the morning, checking your phone and seeing a dollar figure of what you made overnight, while you were sleeping…
“How did this happen?” I hear you ask, but wait, there’s more. You log into your email and notice a couple of messages from happy people, thanking you for the information and guidance that has helped them to improve their health.
“So I’m not only making money in my sleep, but actually helping people as well!?” Yes. It’s the practitioner’s dream. To help with integrity and be financially rewarded for your time, knowledge and authenticity through online program creation!
If you feel like you are on the way towards burn out, trying to serve as many clients as possible in order to cover your clinic and personal expenses, it’s time to consider how you can package up your expertise into fun-size chunks and deliver them to a wider audience, for the benefit of everyone involved! Online programs allow exactly this.
Choosing your subject
You may already have a niche or an area of special interest in practice. That one topic that never fails to have you on your soap box, explaining it in detail to anyone that will listen. Imagine if you had a way to engage those who actually want to learn from you and be paid for it. It might be nutrition in pregnancy, managing cholesterol or high blood pressure through lifestyle or a common (yet often misunderstood) condition like PCOS. Good program subjects might also be those that you are often asked about in clinic – perhaps around how to choose the safest cleaning and personal care products for the home. Whatever you choose, it should be something that you are well-versed in already and that will benefit your target audience or ideal client!
Generating interest
As your program is likely to be facilitated online, make sure that your online community of clients (and potential clients) know that it exists. There are different strategies for marketing your online offerings. A good starting place is to share your course early, before it’s even created, to see the level of interest. This also allows you to start taking payments, which will afford you more time to get this show on the road! Another good formula is to not just share the details of your program such as the investment, time involved and resources included, but to share your vision of the outcome for the participant. Are they going to have more energy, clearer skin, a calmer mood and healthier home environment? Great! Share that. You may also want to share some secrets from your program, like a sample of what your participants will be privy to. Perhaps it’s a recipe, uncommon information or expert tip. This gives people a taste of what you are offering (for free) and leaves them wondering how much more amazing information they will get if they actually pay money! As with all social media or online marketing, be consistent, show up daily and build that ‘know-like-trust’ factor by being transparent with who you are and what you offer. The right people will find you and love you for it!
The nitty gritty of creating an online program
The actual course creation part of this project is of course going to take time. However, you only need to do it once! It can be a wonderful exercise in efficiency, trusting yourself and your abilities. You already know it, so share it!
Start by organising your ideas. Deposit a brain dump into a word document, a big piece of butcher’s paper or a pad of hot pink post-it notes. Once you start writing, you’ll have a flood of knowledge that you will want to share. Remember that the human attention span these days is spread pretty thin – make it your mission to be discerning and condense the knowledge you want to impart into digestible pieces. This might look like 3 x 25 minute video or audio recordings, each covering a facet of the program, in a logical sequence. For the natural cleaning and personal care products program, this might look like:
Module 1: Why it’s important to swap to natural and how to read labels
Module 2: Swaps for kitchen, laundry and bathroom cleaning
Module 3: Overhauling personal care products and cosmetics
You may like to present your program as a power-point presentation with voice recording using a tool like Loom. This way you can also provide your presentation as a work-book for those out there who love a hard-copy resource to take notes on and keep for future reference.
Tools for program creation
Loom is just one free tool for course creation, but there are others to explore such as Audacity which will allow you to voice record and create audio files (more like a podcast than a video lecture). If you intend to provide your participants with resources and activities, there are a plethora of options online for creating checklists, workbooks with DIY cleaning product recipes, journaling activities and quizzes for self-assessment.
Platforms for hosting your program
Actually delivering your program is quite simple once you have created it – the beauty of automation! Upload your masterpiece to one of the more popular platforms such as:
- Teachable
- Kartra
- Thinkific
If you have a SquareSpace or WordPress website, you can also host your program on your website. On WordPress you’ll need a plugin such as LearnDash, AccessAlly or Zippy Courses.
Taking payment
The fun part! You’ll want to automate your payments in order to make money overnight. Make it as easy as possible for people to purchase your program by offering either one up-front payment or a payment plan split over a couple of months. You probably already have a method for online payment, but accounts like Stripe, PayPal, EziDebit and WooCommerce are all options. Make sure that you review your terms and conditions to make sure that your hard work is protected and that your legals are up to scratch.
When setting a price you’ll need to consider the time you have spent in creating the course, but also the inevitable admin and communication involved when managing passive income streams. Your program might also include 1:1 consultation or guidance to best facilitate the transformation for your client – especially if you want to advise on specific products or remedies. Don’t forget to factor in this tailored value when marketing your program as well as when choosing a price!
Have an idea but not confident on the execution?
I know this article is a bit of a crash course in online program creation. If you are ready to spread your wisdom, cast a wider net and help more people than you can in a conventional clinic setting, prioritise creating your program.
If you are wondering whether there is a course on making a program, I’ve got you covered! Get your program right the first time around by investing in my Program Creation Project. Together we will settle on the right topic, structure and inclusions for you, as well as how to confidently create and market your program.
The Project includes either three group mentoring sessions, or a 1:1 mentoring session, so I am right there with you to hold your hand!
For more information on this, visit https://mentoring-with-geraldine.teachable.com/p/mastermind-series1 and in the meantime, happy programming!