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339: 3 Vital Questions To Ask Before Launching An Online Course

When I was a first-time course creator in 2015, I was excited and scared at the same time. The tension around building fast or building thoughtfully was difficult to navigate. In today’s session, I’m discussing three important questions that I wish I had asked myself back then. 

You’ll Learn:

3 questions to ask before launching your online course:

Do I want a “strip mall or a skyscraper”? (This concept comes from a session with Nathan Barry of ConvertKit and Jay Klaus of Creator Science.)

  • Both models require energy in different ways, and both have several benefits and challenges. 
  • The key question to ask: What do I want to optimize for?
  • Why I have gone from a strip mall to a skyscraper mode

Where should I focus my marketing?

  • Focus on one platform at a time.
  • Remember that it takes time to build trust and rapport. 

How can I validate my online course?

  • The secret is to validate with paying students each step of the way.
  • Take a long-term view and grow slowly with care, intention, and thoughtfulness.

Resources:

Want to launch your online course?

Please check out our free 7-Day Course Creator Starter Kit For Therapists: https://sellingthecouch.com/coursekit

Looking to launch a successful podcast?

Please check out our free "Using Podcasting To Grow Your Business" workshop for therapists:

https://sellingthecouch.com/podcastingworkshop

Mentioned in this episode:

Course Creator Starter Kit

I know that many of us are thinking and planning for the upcoming year. If an online course is on your radar, I want to encourage you to download our free online course starter kit. It's a seven-day email course that will help you validate your course idea. Now, it's going to be 10 years for me as a course creator next year, and the validation part is the most important part of an online course. You can download it over at coursecreatorstarterkit.com.

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About the Podcast

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Selling the Couch
Impact And Income Beyond The Therapy Room

About your host

Profile picture for Melvin Varghese, PhD

Melvin Varghese, PhD

Hi. I'm Melvin. I'm a psychologist, girl dad, and online creator living in Philadelphia, PA.

In 2014, I began to think about how to use our therapist skillset in different realms besides clinical work (e.g., podcasting, consulting, online course creation, writing, etc).

This allows us to serve others on larger scales while diversifying our income beyond 1 to 1 work.

I make podcasts and videos about business, tech, productivity, and lessons I'm learning from becoming the CEO of a lean, mean 5 person 100% remote team (we're not really mean..it just rhymed =P).