Episode 179
Overcoming Common Challenges Faced by Course Creators
In this episode of the Course Wizards podcast, Amit and Chris discuss the most common challenges course creators face--and how you can beat them in 2023!
Links:
- Apps for Authors - https://writing.fyi/apps
- New Zenler - https://www.newzenler.com/invite/zmnfZZ
- 5K Course Launch Blueprint - https://getnzlr.com/5k-launch-blueprint
- Course Launch Secrets Facebook Group - facebook.com/courselaunchsecrets
Transcript
What's up?
Amit:Course Wizards.
Amit:Welcome to yet another episode of the Course Wizards.
Amit:I am your host, Amit, and I'm here with the one, the only Christopher Maselli.
Amit:What's up Chris?
Amit:Hey.
Amit:Hey Amit.
Christopher:Oh, it's a good night.
Christopher:We're doing course creators.
Christopher:We're doing course creations.
Christopher:I don't know what I'm talking about,
Christopher:It's a good night.
Amit:We're talking, we are talking about some of these challenges.
Amit:Like Chris is facing.
Christopher:Like I'm facing right now, just opening the show.
Amit:Yes.
Amit:Yes.
Amit:And that's one of the challenges.
Amit:But today's episode is very special.
Amit:We're gonna talk about how can course creators overcome some of the common
Amit:challenges that we face, right, as we get into course creation, or even
Amit:if we are seasoned course creators.
Amit:These are some challenges that we continue to face and what
Amit:are our tips to overcome it?
Amit:So Chris, why don't you open us up since you're having some challenges.
Christopher:All right.
Christopher:Yeah.
Christopher:We've been doing this a long time, haven't we?
Christopher:I Between the two of us, it's been probably a good decade or more that we
Christopher:have been recording online courses of all kinds and over those over the time.
Christopher:Technology may change in that, but there are still some common challenges.
Christopher:That we find if come up time and again that people ask us about.
Christopher:And so we just thought we'd talk about some of those.
Christopher:And so yeah, the first one is really just coming up with your course idea.
Christopher:It can be so hard sometimes to figure out what exact angle, what thing am I
Christopher:gonna talk about what do I know about?
Christopher:And the truth is, what are you passionate about?
Christopher:What do you love?
Christopher:What could you talk about forever or what do you know about that you
Christopher:can offer a unique perspective on?
Christopher:Anything like that you can create a course on, really, there's almost
Christopher:nothing that is off limits as far as course creation ideas go.
Christopher:If you can think it, you can probably teach it, and if you can
Christopher:teach it, you can teach it online.
Christopher:So yeah, just come up with your idea.
Christopher:And you know what, sometimes it just takes practice.
Christopher:It's okay to go ahead and record one and then realize you're gonna
Christopher:end up scrapping that course because it just didn't work out.
Christopher:That's okay.
Christopher:I've got courses I've recorded that no one's ever bought, right?
Christopher:And that comes with the territory.
Christopher:But every once in a while you'll come up with one.
Christopher:It'll just sell like hot cakes and it'll be the kind of thing that, you
Christopher:know, that just resonates with people
Amit:And I am yet to find.
Amit:That sell like hot cakes one.
Amit:Yeah.
Amit:And I can tell you, Chris, this is my challenge too.
Amit:So even after been doing this since 2015, I am still struggling on what's the one
Amit:stake I wanna put in the ground that's me.
Christopher:Yeah.
Amit:What am I, what do I wanna be known for?
Amit:I can't do New Zenler because that's too niche down.
Amit:Like I can be the new Zenler guy, but I don't think I can do courses
Amit:on it because it's so niche.
Amit:And if it is that niche down, then it's going to be hard for me to
Amit:sustain and quit my job and become a full-time course creator, right?
Amit:Yeah it does take a while and you just have to really dig deep and figure
Amit:out what are you passionate about?
Amit:Because I'm passionate about so many things and I jump, if I see a new
Amit:topic, I'm like, let's capitalize.
Amit:Chat, g p t, perfect example.
Amit:Let's capitalize.
Amit:, am I going to be the ChatGPT guy?
Amit:No.
Amit:I think what I've figured out, Chris, and you have known me for about three years
Amit:now, is I want to be the blogging guy.
Amit:I think I teaching people how to blog successfully.
Amit:And I think finally I'm coming to realize that's what I'm good at.
Amit:And I have ranked multiple blogs and I've showed you some of my hidden
Amit:blogs that are only in the affiliate world that I don't wanna disclose.
Amit:But now I have figured that out.
Amit:Chris, do you, does that resonate?
Amit:With like what I'm saying and how difficult it can be
Amit:and how to find this trend.
Christopher:Yeah.
Christopher:And sometimes it is, it's not just about finding the one thing, sometimes it's
Christopher:about finding the overall kind of ideas.
Christopher:So like what Amit is talking about, being the blog guy, it's not just
Christopher:how to create blogs, but it's how to drive traffic to blogs.
Christopher:It's how.
Christopher:Come up with new blog ideas, right?
Christopher:It's how to use the different platforms that blogs are on.
Christopher:There's a lot of things that surround that idea of blogs that he can branch into
Christopher:because he becomes the blog guy, right?
Christopher:And so you can do that same kind of thing with your topic.
Christopher:I know a guy who does a particular piece of writing software,
Christopher:kinda like you're talking about.
Christopher:New Zenler, that's a particular piece of particular app.
Christopher:I know someone who does a particular piece of writing software, but then he
Christopher:branches off of that into how to write your own book and how to do editing.
Amit:Okay.
Amit:Like a screen editing screen
Christopher:and then he'll go on to other ones.
Christopher:So you can definitely branch out.
Christopher:It's really just that overall idea.
Amit:Yep.
Amit:And talk about this all the time, I'm in the Facebook group with Daniel . He
Amit:started off as the Filmora guy.
Amit:Yes.
Amit:But now he's branching out into how to grow your YouTube channel.
Amit:But his catch, or the lead magnet for people to enter his
Amit:world was how to use Fil Mora.
Amit:And if someone's using Fil Mora, they likely are using it for YouTube.
Amit:Which feeds into how do you get better at YouTube?
Amit:Then you join his paid Facebook group and you can see how that
Amit:translates.
Christopher:Yeah, and some of that comes, I think, from getting to know
Christopher:your audience, because as you get to know your audience, they're going to
Christopher:start asking you questions, and certain questions will become very common.
Christopher:And so if you are normally doing videos on Fil Mora, and then you keep getting
Christopher:a bunch of questions on How do I grow my YouTube channel, it seems a natural
Christopher:extension to make that your next topic.
Amit:What's so Chris, the next one we have here is, we talked
Amit:about this in our previous episode.
Amit:, so this is a really good one, is feeling natural in front of camera.
Christopher:Yeah.
Christopher:This is a challenge.
Amit:And everyone has their own way, right?
Christopher:Yeah.
Christopher:A lot of people have a challenge with this.
Christopher:I don't feel comfortable being on video.
Christopher:A lot of people say that.
Christopher:And yeah.
Christopher:How do you feel natural?
Christopher:How did you get to feeling natural in front of a camera?
Amit:I never did not I never had the fear.
Amit:even though I have a severe fear of public speaking, I sweaty palms,
Amit:heads, everything gets sweaty.
Amit:I had done a digital, I had participated in within my work, like
Amit:my previous job, we had done like a digital talent show and I'm like,
Amit:sure, I'll put my name in the hat.
Amit:This was on Zoom, , was still so nervous.
Amit:I had taken, I remember three tequila shots before I even started,
Amit:so I'm not recommending that.
Christopher:So you don't remember it at all?
Amit:I was doing a comedy show.
Amit:Yeah.
Amit:And uh, yeah it turned out to be okay.
Amit:But to overcome that fear, I had a fear of having so many eyes on me.
Amit:But when I'm recording for a YouTube, no one's watching me
Amit:live, so I don't really care.
Amit:I think that's one thing to remind yourself is if you're just recording
Amit:your videos that no one is watching live, just speak to the camera like
Amit:you're speaking to your best friend.
Amit:Yeah.
Amit:And if liquid courage works for you, then that's great for you.
Amit:Try that whatever works.
Amit:But yeah, just look right into the camera like I'm looking
Amit:right into the camera right now.
Amit:And you don't have to, if you don't feel comfortable thinking
Amit:that, this camera is looking at me.
Amit:Then just do it off camera and just do audio in the beginning and slowly
Amit:graduate to maybe enabling your camera.
Christopher:Yes.
Christopher:What really helped me with it was because I'm a perfectionist,
Christopher:so I would start recording and think, oh, it's not good enough.
Christopher:I gotta rerecord that take.
Christopher:And then I started watching others who were recording videos on training,
Christopher:watch 'em on YouTube or through other courses, and I would see them mess up.
Christopher:And it didn't bother me because I loved the content so much.
Christopher:And then I realized I could do that.
Christopher:I could do at least as good as they were doing, and knowing that was my
Christopher:standard made it a lot easier for me, and it just took away any of that.
Christopher:Yeah.
Christopher:Set the bar lower and it made it easier.
Amit:What's the next one, Chris?
Christopher:It also helped to have the right equipment, right
Christopher:when you get a good camera.
Christopher:And your face is nice and clear when you got a light, when
Christopher:you've got a good microphone.
Christopher:We talked about several of these things on our last episode if you
Christopher:wanna hear some of our recommendations.
Christopher:But just get some decent equipment.
Christopher:It doesn't have to cost a lot.
Christopher:It can be under a hundred dollars to give yourself a Blue Yeti microphone
Christopher:and a c 9 22 Logitech camera.
Christopher:And with those two things, you're pretty much ready to go.
Christopher:And the right equipment goes a long way.
Christopher:And it's so relaxing to be able to sit down and just know,
Christopher:okay, I got everything I need.
Christopher:I just gotta record now.
Christopher:It's just the content now.
Amit:And you have it down, right?
Amit:Because you have your stream deck.
Amit:You know when to press a button to cut from scene to scene.
Christopher:Yep yep.
Christopher:Every, you get it all set up.
Christopher:It takes a while to set it all up, but once you get it set up, you're good to go.
Amit:Yeah.
Amit:It does boost your confidence.
Amit:It's you like, okay, all I have to do is be in my element And that's
Amit:one of the challenges, right?
Amit:Just facing the camera, talking to your audience, being on camera.
Amit:That's one of the challenge, one of the many challenges that course creators face.
Amit:We are not going to cover the whole breadth of challenges, or we'll be
Amit:here forever, but we are going to try to cover some of the top ones.
Amit:One challenge that I have faced, Chris, is growing your community.
Amit:And that's always one of those catch 20 twos where you don't want to be too sleazy
Amit:to grow your community by dropping links to your community, but also provide value.
Amit:So what I found works best for me is just providing value.
Amit:Immense amounts of value.
Amit:And when people see what you're providing they will actually click on your profile,
Amit:find which area you will, or which platform you hang out on, whether that's
Amit:Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, wherever.
Amit:And if you have a community in your profile, they will come
Amit:join that community because they want direct access to you.
Christopher:That's good.
Christopher:Yeah.
Christopher:Building a community can always be a challenge.
Christopher:And another challenge that I've found that a lot of times people
Christopher:face is creating a second course.
Christopher:They put all their blood, sweat, and tears into their first course, work as
Christopher:hard as they can to get it just right, and then they feel like, okay, I'm done.
Christopher:And not realizing, you know what, that was just a warmup.
Christopher:You have so much more that you can teach and train and so don't forget
Christopher:that you can do that and the best thing you can do is just jump into the next
Christopher:one, just like you did your first one.
Amit:So I am going, I'm going to rebuttal you that one more thing that people
Amit:forget, including me, which is also my challenge is once the wave has died down,
Amit:how to keep riding that wave of sales.
Amit:For your first and your flagship course.
Christopher:Yes.
Christopher:Yes.
Christopher:That's absolutely, and that's a great point Amit because we, it is too easy
Christopher:to create a course and then just go on to the next thing and yeah, so yes,
Christopher:you want to, you wanna keep creating, and I guess that's what I'm saying
Christopher:when I say build yours second course.
Christopher:But that doesn't mean you just forsake the first course.
Christopher:Go ahead and realize you can reintroduce that to the world
Christopher:every few months if you want to.
Christopher:It is a continuous money maker for you if you get something out
Christopher:there that people really like.
Amit:Yep.
Amit:And I think the best way, cuz Chris, you and I are both
Amit:probably guilty of this, right?
Amit:You just had launched your course last year, we talked about . We went
Amit:through your sales page and I don't think you promoted it after a while
Amit:or are you still promoting that?
Christopher:No, that one, the one we went over was the one for Black Friday.
Christopher:And so I haven't recorded that.
Christopher:I haven't promoted that one since, cuz it was a special Black Friday deal.
Christopher:But yeah, I need to pull that one back out of the vault and try
Christopher:again with a whole new angle to it.
Christopher:Maybe we'll do a Christmas in July.
Amit:I like that.
Amit:Yeah, but that's too far out.
Amit:You gotta do something before that.
Amit:There's,
Christopher:I think you're right.
Christopher:Coming up.
Christopher:I've been working on one I'm working on some email training courses.
Christopher:Yeah, that's what I'm working on now.
Amit:Cause you're also promoting mailer lite, so that kind of ties into that.
Christopher:That's exactly right.
Christopher:Yep.
Amit:All right, awesome.
Amit:So creating your second course, but not forgetting about your first few courses
Amit:and continue to, I think a really good way to do that is to set up a lead
Amit:magnet funnel that sells that course as a backend offer and get people in with
Amit:the lead magnet, then sell them and keep that automation just on a loop.
Amit:So all you have to do is keep filling the bucket with leads and funnel
Amit:those leads into your paid course.
Amit:Easier said than done.
Amit:I haven't done it yet, but I, that's my next step with my Chat
Amit:GPT course, is to now create a lead magnet that I can promote for free.
Amit:People come in through that and then sell them the course.
Christopher:Yeah.
Christopher:That's good.
Christopher:That's good.
Christopher:What's the next?
Amit:So what are some of the other challenges?
Amit:Chris?
Amit:You tell me.
Christopher:I think setting your pricing is a challenge.
Christopher:I can't tell you how much I agonize over this.
Christopher:That, and that was when we were talking about the Black Friday deal that we put
Christopher:out there, that is something that we really struggled with was how much is too
Christopher:much to ask or how low is too low to where we're not making enough money, right?
Christopher:Is it a value piece?
Christopher:Is it a money making piece?
Christopher:You, it takes a lot to figure out exactly what the right price is for your
Christopher:audience that you're promoting it to.
Christopher:And a good thing to hi do is just know that you have to learn over time.
Christopher:You have to learn what your audience is willing to spend on courses,
Christopher:what kind of value you're bringing, depending on what the course is.
Christopher:And look at, see what other people are doing, do your
Christopher:research, but then also test test.
Christopher:And I know your latest course your Chat G P T course, you actually had
Christopher:multiple price points that you could test and see what was most efficient.
Christopher:So that then you could stick with the most the most promising one.
Amit:Yeah.
Amit:And I would say just, every few months, just raise it.
Amit:See how far you can raise it and where that bar is, where you are
Amit:gonna start seeing a drop off.
Amit:Where, okay.
Amit:That might be way too much, but I'll give you an example.
Amit:I'm in a Salesforce Facebook group with 16,000 professionals and it's,
Amit:this group is run by this guy who teaches a Salesforce course and
Amit:that's his core, like that's his job.
Amit:He does that for a living, he charges 2200 bucks.
Amit:He has a team of people on working with him because he's so successful with that.
Amit:Yes.
Amit:And I told him, Hey, can I promote my $200 course?
Amit:And his words were your course is too similar to my course and
Amit:you can see the price difference.
Amit:We are charging, I'm charging 200.
Amit:He's charging 2200, and he's scared that if he promotes my course,
Amit:we have almost the same content.
Amit:He said that people might start taking mine over his, so clearly I have a
Amit:price gap here that I need to bridge.
Christopher:Yeah, it sounds like you need to raise yours by about 2000 dollars.
Amit:But that's one of the problems and challenges that I face as a
Amit:course creator is one, just not having this be my full-time gig where
Amit:I can give it my a hundred percent.
Amit:So my attention is always divided, which is one of my biggest challenges.
Amit:As a course leader, is how do I stay focused and stick to that one
Amit:until I've completely exhausted.
Amit:Yes.
Amit:Like I'll create a course, I'll do a launch.
Amit:The launch goes great like we did with chat, G P T.
Amit:. Then the fire turns down to a simmer and then I move on instead of putting more
Amit:fuel on that fire that I already created.
Christopher:Yes.
Christopher:Yeah, that's good.
Amit:I don't know if that's a challenge that you face too, Chris, but
Amit:that's one of my biggest challenges.
Christopher:Oh, yeah.
Christopher:The biggest challenge I think, probably on this list is this last
Christopher:one, which is just getting sales and keeping sales keep getting sales.
Christopher:And that is something that we're all still figuring out.
Christopher:And sometimes it is like you, there's almost nothing to figure out, you'll.
Christopher:I know course creators that have created a course and it just took off.
Christopher:And sometimes you look at it and I think there's nothing special about it.
Christopher:Like, why did that one take off?
Christopher:And yet, I know there's maybe I've created another one that's even more in depth.
Christopher:Is even better video quality, right?
Christopher:It's got extra resources, but it's not selling as well.
Christopher:And why is that?
Christopher:And that's, it's that's something, that's the kind of thing
Christopher:that'll keep you up at night.
Christopher:Right?
Amit:Yeah.
Amit:I think it's a culmination of everything we talk about on this podcast, right?
Amit:It's the, your sales page, your lead magnets, like everything has to be in sync
Amit:and on brand, and you have to continue to deliver at each of those touchpoints
Amit:to then eventually ask for that money that they'd be happy to give you.
Amit:Cuz you just provided so much value.
Christopher:Yeah, that's right.
Christopher:All right, let me recap here.
Christopher:Some of the common challenges that are faced by course creators.
Christopher:First of all, coming up with that course idea.
Christopher:That's always a challenge, just go ahead and go for it.
Christopher:Find out what drives you.
Christopher:Feeling natural in front of a camera.
Christopher:Best thing you can do with that is just practice and watch what others do.
Christopher:Be yourself.
Christopher:Third, having the right equipment.
Christopher:Don't be afraid to invest in a good microphone and camera.
Christopher:Go ahead and create that second course don't let the first one
Christopher:stop you from keeping creating.
Christopher:We always tell you to keep creating.
Christopher:Next, grow your community.
Christopher:That's one of the best things you can do.
Christopher:As your community grows, so will your sales because they're the ones who
Christopher:like what you're doing, they've already raised their hand and said, yes, I want
Christopher:more, and you can sell more to them.
Christopher:Then of course, setting your pricing and getting sales, both
Christopher:those things are a big challenge.
Christopher:And I, face challenges with those all the time.
Christopher:But as you do this more and more, you start to see what works, what
Christopher:doesn't, and you can go on from there.
Amit:Thank you, Chris.
Amit:Now, I heard this on a different podcast and I wanna adopt this,
Amit:see if it moves the needle, Chris.
Amit:All right.
Amit:So I would like to challenge our listeners and our watchers to, if you
Amit:found value right from this episode.
Amit:From any episode before this, hit the subscribe button, leave us a review.
Amit:Let us know if we have helped you.
Amit:We are giving you all this for free.
Christopher:Yes.
Amit:So you are in debt, because now you have consumed
Amit:free content, the lead magnet.
Amit:Now you need to hit subscribe and let us know how we are
Amit:doing so we can get better.
Amit:So we'll continue to provide this for free.
Amit:Chris, do we need to put an urgency on this?
Amit:No.
Amit:Alright.
Amit:We are gonna continue to provide this for free, but what we ask for return
Amit:is subscribe on our YouTube channel or on the pod, wherever you're listening,
Amit:and let us know how we are doing by leaving a review with that, thank you
Amit:for listening to the Course Wizards podcast and for tuning in, and until
Amit:next time, what are they gonna do, Chris?
Christopher:They're gonna keep creating.
Christopher:Bye-bye.
Amit:Keep creating.