vickioneill

Show Notes:

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About Diana

Diana Wilson is a online course specialist. She works with small businesses owners, coaches and entrepreneurs to help them get their online course out into the world. She is tech savvy and highly organized. Her YouTube channel is proof of how much she loves technology and creating How-To tutorials to demonstrate her skills and knowledge as well as providing guidance to first-time online course creators. She is all about being a guide and serving her clients on a personal level. She values the relationships she builds with her clients and her connections. Connect with Diana via the below links.

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'Because your time is precious.' ~ Diana's motto

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Diana's mission is to help you create and launch your course - and that's what we discuss on this episode of Connect the Dots.

 

As an online course specialist, Diana helps people create an online course, get past all the technical aspects and roadblocks as well as coaches them to launch their course into the world (and celebrating the success afterwards!)

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To set the right expectations for someone who wants to build an online course, Diana has a library of "Online Course How-To" videos that she recommends people watch before taking any steps into online course creation.  

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What's the first thing Diana does when she talks with a client?

They get on a call and figure out the goals, where they want to go with their course, why they are building a course then create a roadmap, deadlines and a strategy so the goals can be met. 

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Setting expectations up front is key! 

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How she helps businesses with course creation:

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1. Initial call/meeting

2. Outline strategy and deadlines 

3. Build a custom workflow - because all courses and people are different the programs are custom. 

4. Determine what's needed:  everyone needs different levels of support so Diana offers accountability, tech, video editing, distribution, LMS, helps with deciphering which camera to use, how to find audio equipment. She helps with anything from Point A to Launch - she helps them make their course a reality.

5. She uses Slack and is available for questions and help whenever needed

6. Guides them throughout the process based on what they need - if they need hand holding, she provides it!

7. At the end she celebrates their launch success (virtual sideline cheerleader!)

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Learning Management Systems (LMS):

How to decide which one to use?

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Choosing the best LMS depends on:  clients needs, their audience, and where they are in the course building journey. Budget is a huge factor!

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If small audience, or just starting out, and want a hands off solution:  Udemy or Skillshare better choice (down side: they control the pricing, they get student's emails since they aren't your students, emails belong to that marketplace). There are also limitations in how often you can promote - and what to promote. You can promote other courses on the platform but you can't promote your other products, for example your YouTube channel or social media.

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If you already have an audience, want more control, slide pricing: she recommends having at least 1,000 people on your email list due to the ratio to sales being ~3%. Keep that in mind when building the online course - the costs associated with time and hiring someone need to be factored in to the pricing. 

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Thinkific and Teachable - set prices higher to offset those expenses - you can also do presales, webinars, they handle payment processing for you, you need to market it (they don't have a ready made audience) to market to for you; you can promote other courses, i.e. sign up for coaching classes - you can market your other systems

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Kajabi - for large course creators, flagship courses, it's all inclusive, landing pages, email sequences, all the bells and whistles - it has the price to go along with it though (Lewis Howes, James Wedmore, Amy Porterfield are examples of people who use this platform). Unless you're doing a $5,000 flagship course, back it up to Thinkific or Teachable.

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On Diana's Discovery call you can expect Diana to go through all the details to help determine where you are in the course creation process and make recommendation based on individual needs.

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What types of businesses do you work with?

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Diana works with all kinds of businesses and has done courses like "How to shoot video from your phone" for a pet photographer, Bitcoin training, and "How to start a house cleaning business". 

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The Rule though: if your email is below 1,000 subscribers - you don't have an audience (yet) that's going to respond but YOU CAN hire Diana for 1:1 tech consulting that leads to increasing your list of subscribers.

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Diana recommends:

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If you are thinking of creating an online course, reach out to someone like her who has created a course before so you can think through all the details. 

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You need to be thinking of marketing, driving sales page traffic, hiring a copywriter, a video and audio editor, etc. - you need to think full picture before jumping into it. Having a well-thought out plan is what will set you up for a successful launch. 

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Know your budget! This is a top priority to know before diving into course creation.

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Diana has a checklist (FAQ section) on what someone needs before contacting Diana for a productive initial conversation. Different things to ask:  How much raw video you have, Do you need lower thirds made, Are you going to require graphics, Will you need promo videos - if so, what size and for what use, i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook or YouTube? Any and all those things - plus others - can change the price. That's why budget is IMPORTANT and having the information before contacting someone for help.

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Before you start asking for pricing: Go through the list and see what you need and don't need then Diana can give you a custom quote based on your particular needs. This helps with budget and avoids scope creep. 

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3 Resources that help Diana with her business: 

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1. G Suite - main thing she's in every day including Google calendar, Google Drive and Gmail

2. Trello - workflows, editorial calendars, networking tracking

3. LinkedIn - where she is every day
    

One thing people don't know about Diana but she wishes they did:

She values the relationships she builds with her clients. She's been in service industry all her life and values the connection, caring and 1:1 of relationships. 

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Building a relationship is not just about doing a project and moving on - it's about building rapport, learning about each other. Got a photo of your dog you want to send her? She'd love to see it! Just got your highest engagement on a post? She's love to hear about it and celebrate it with you!

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How an Online Course Connects the Dots between Marketing and Sales:  

Online courses are one of many tools that connects marketing to sales. You need marketing to create awareness and drive traffic to the registration page. During or after the course, most course creators create up-sell or sales opportunities at the end of or after the course is complete. Having an online course can be the main revenue source of a business. If you have a separate sales team, they need to be involved in the course creation process as well if Sales are going to be part of the end result. 

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Are you currently creating courses or thinking about it? Have any big wins you want to share? Diana and I would love to hear from you!

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Start a conversation on LinkedIn, tag both of us and we'll engage in the conversation and celebrate with you. Diana's LinkedIn URL is below and mine is in the footer of this page. 

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Connect with Diana online: 

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1. LinkedIn Best place to find her daily!

2. Youtube channel - includes a Video Intro 

3. Visit Diana's Online Course Creator website to connect with her