1 00:00:00,120 --> 00:00:04,000 I can almost guarantee that you are going to want to update the content after 2 00:00:04,080 --> 00:00:08,880 your first round of students go through it, and when you had it professionally 3 00:00:08,880 --> 00:00:13,359 filmed, it becomes a lot harder to edit that content because you can't just 4 00:00:13,519 --> 00:00:18,239 jump in and quickly edit the slides and quickly re record it. Welcome to 5 00:00:18,320 --> 00:00:22,280 Imperfect Action. I'm Steph Taylor. For years, I read all the books, 6 00:00:22,359 --> 00:00:26,480 downloaded all the freebies, and did all the courses, but it wasn't 7 00:00:26,519 --> 00:00:30,879 until I started taking imperfect action that my business had its first million dollars. 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:37,799 Here, imperfect action is about doing things before you're ready, prioritizing consistent action 9 00:00:38,039 --> 00:00:42,439 over perfect action, and moving forward even when you're not sure you're doing it 10 00:00:42,520 --> 00:00:47,320 right. On this show, you can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing tips 11 00:00:47,600 --> 00:00:51,759 and strategies to build a business that brings you more profit, more freedom, 12 00:00:51,799 --> 00:00:57,200 and even more joy. Are you on the list to get my daily businesses 13 00:00:57,640 --> 00:01:00,960 Every day, I'll send you a bite sized prompt design to help you grow 14 00:01:00,000 --> 00:01:04,000 your business in a more intentional way. Sign up at stephtaylor dot co, 15 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:11,680 forward slash DBB, or at the link in the show notes. Hey, 16 00:01:11,879 --> 00:01:15,519 welcome back to imperfect Action. This is episode six hundred and fifty six. 17 00:01:15,000 --> 00:01:23,760 Today I'm sharing six essential tools for creating and selling digital courses online. Now, 18 00:01:23,159 --> 00:01:27,920 this is one of the one of the most common questions that I get 19 00:01:27,959 --> 00:01:33,599 asked all the time is how do you create them? How do you sell 20 00:01:33,640 --> 00:01:37,200 them? What tech has involved? What is the best tech for all of 21 00:01:37,200 --> 00:01:40,920 this? So in today's episode, I'm sharing the one tool that I use 22 00:01:40,959 --> 00:01:44,719 for hosting and selling digital courses, the tool that I used to design workbooks 23 00:01:44,760 --> 00:01:49,439 and slides, how I record and edit my videos, the platform that I 24 00:01:49,560 --> 00:01:53,319 use to deliver live webinars when I launch, what I used to deliver live 25 00:01:53,400 --> 00:01:57,840 q and as and hot seat calls, and how I take submissions for Q 26 00:01:57,959 --> 00:02:00,159 and A calls, so question submissions for QUS calls, and how I keep 27 00:02:00,200 --> 00:02:04,840 track of the ones that I have answered in the past. Now, before 28 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:09,680 we jump into the full on tools and get into the techi stuff, I 29 00:02:09,759 --> 00:02:14,840 just want to remind you of this concept of putting the cart before the horse. 30 00:02:15,000 --> 00:02:19,960 Okay, the tools are the cart. They don't matter as much as 31 00:02:20,080 --> 00:02:23,639 the horse. So your tools don't matter as much as what the offer is. 32 00:02:23,360 --> 00:02:27,520 The tools that you are using to host the course don't matter as much 33 00:02:27,560 --> 00:02:30,719 as what problem the offer solves, who it's for, how you communicate it 34 00:02:30,719 --> 00:02:36,199 to the right people. You don't need to spend weeks researching which is the 35 00:02:36,199 --> 00:02:38,840 best platform to host your course or the best tool to record it and edit 36 00:02:38,879 --> 00:02:46,199 it. You're much better spent putting that time towards actually getting a really clear 37 00:02:46,240 --> 00:02:50,520 idea of who is this for? How am I communicating it to them in 38 00:02:50,560 --> 00:02:54,919 a way that makes them prioritize it. Okay. Those things are going to 39 00:02:54,919 --> 00:03:00,479 have a much bigger impact on how well it sells than whether you posted on 40 00:03:00,560 --> 00:03:05,000 Kajabi or teachable or think itfick. Okay, So now I've also turned this 41 00:03:05,159 --> 00:03:09,120 episode into a cheat sheet. If you dm me tools just the one word 42 00:03:09,240 --> 00:03:13,439 just tools on Instagram, I'm over there at Steph Taylor dot Co. I 43 00:03:13,479 --> 00:03:16,520 will send you the cheat sheet of this episode with my complete list of tools 44 00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:21,800 for creating and selling digital products. I will also include a link to some 45 00:03:21,919 --> 00:03:25,759 Canva templates that you can buy work course slides and workbooks, because I've come 46 00:03:25,800 --> 00:03:30,280 across quite a few really awesome templates and I know that this is something that 47 00:03:30,520 --> 00:03:34,039 a lot of you ask, like, how can I find templates for workbooks 48 00:03:34,039 --> 00:03:37,560 and slides and all of that, so I will link those in there as 49 00:03:37,680 --> 00:03:40,199 well. Okay, so the very first tool I'm going to talk about, 50 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:45,319 the one that I use for hosting and selling my digital courses, is Kajabi. 51 00:03:45,759 --> 00:03:47,439 And honestly, if I had to pick just one tool to run my 52 00:03:47,599 --> 00:03:52,199 entire business, it would be this one. Yeah. It does checkouts, 53 00:03:52,280 --> 00:03:54,439 sales pages, It can do your email marketing. You can build your email 54 00:03:54,479 --> 00:03:59,520 list on here. It hosts your course videos. It makes them so that 55 00:03:59,560 --> 00:04:01,919 nobody, that random people can't just download them and share them and sell them 56 00:04:01,960 --> 00:04:05,439 to other people. It creates a course portal with a login, so your 57 00:04:05,439 --> 00:04:10,159 students can log in and access all of the courses that they've purchased from you. 58 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:14,639 It's really nice, it's neat. It's not the cheapest option out there. 59 00:04:15,080 --> 00:04:19,360 But I also believe that if you expect your audience to invest in you, 60 00:04:19,360 --> 00:04:25,439 you need to invest in delivering a great experience for them. Okay, 61 00:04:25,560 --> 00:04:28,920 you know, there's this whole concept that I A great thing I picked up 62 00:04:28,920 --> 00:04:32,920 from James Wedmore when I was at his event in Phoenix recently, was are 63 00:04:32,959 --> 00:04:36,680 you being the client that you wish to attract? So if you expect somebody 64 00:04:36,720 --> 00:04:40,959 to invest in you. If you want to attract people who invest in your 65 00:04:40,959 --> 00:04:46,879 offers, then you need to invest in your offers. Okay, So Kajabi 66 00:04:46,959 --> 00:04:53,319 is really good at creating that nice, smooth experience for your clients. And 67 00:04:53,399 --> 00:04:58,839 the layout of the course portal so the one that your students see when they 68 00:04:58,879 --> 00:05:01,879 log in. I think it's much more user friendly. It's easier to navigate 69 00:05:01,959 --> 00:05:05,759 than a lot of other platforms. I've been a student of many courses, 70 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:12,959 and I've been on the experiencing end of other hosting platforms, and I think 71 00:05:13,199 --> 00:05:17,959 keajabi is just always miles ahead right and it makes that means it makes your 72 00:05:17,959 --> 00:05:23,920 students experience so much better. The next tool on the list for designing slides 73 00:05:23,959 --> 00:05:28,399 and workbooks, I don't think you can beat camber if you unless you're a 74 00:05:28,480 --> 00:05:32,480 graphic designer and you're really well versed in using in design. I think Canber 75 00:05:32,839 --> 00:05:36,639 is going to be the simplest option. There are so many great templates that 76 00:05:36,680 --> 00:05:41,040 you can buy for Canber, and I've included some of those in the free 77 00:05:41,120 --> 00:05:45,199 cheat sheet which you can grab if you DM meet tools on Instagram at Steph 78 00:05:45,240 --> 00:05:47,199 Taylor dot Co. I will send you the cheat sheet with the list of 79 00:05:47,240 --> 00:05:50,519 all of these tools, as well as some links to templates that you can 80 00:05:50,560 --> 00:05:55,600 buy and you can edit really easily to suit your brand. The other great 81 00:05:55,600 --> 00:06:00,000 thing about canber is that many virtual assistants are now also so familiar with Camber, 82 00:06:00,079 --> 00:06:04,680 which means that if designing things isn't your cup of tea, if you 83 00:06:04,720 --> 00:06:09,920 don't like editing templates, you don't like doing anything design focused, you can 84 00:06:10,360 --> 00:06:14,879 get the workbook and slide creation task off your plate. Although I would pretty 85 00:06:14,959 --> 00:06:17,319 much always suggest that you give somebody a template to work with unless they are 86 00:06:17,360 --> 00:06:23,800 a professional designer who already knows how to design a really effective worksheet or slide 87 00:06:23,800 --> 00:06:27,560 deck for a course. Then the next one on the list, the next 88 00:06:27,639 --> 00:06:32,120 tool on the list for recording and editing videos, and that is descript. 89 00:06:32,480 --> 00:06:35,319 We love this tool in my team, like, this is what we use 90 00:06:35,399 --> 00:06:41,399 for everything that is recording audio and video. And you know, I don't 91 00:06:41,399 --> 00:06:46,199 believe that you need to spend thousands of dollars getting your digital course professionally filmed, 92 00:06:46,839 --> 00:06:48,759 especially if it's the very first time that you are teaching it, because 93 00:06:49,199 --> 00:06:54,160 I can almost guarantee that you are going to want to update the content after 94 00:06:54,240 --> 00:06:58,959 your first round of students go through it, and when you had it professionally 95 00:06:59,040 --> 00:07:02,519 filmed, it becomes a lot harder to edit that content because you can't just 96 00:07:02,680 --> 00:07:05,600 jump in and quickly edit the slides and quickly re record it. No, 97 00:07:05,720 --> 00:07:10,120 you have to rebook the person who filmed it and get it professionally edited again, 98 00:07:10,160 --> 00:07:14,360 and it becomes really expensive. So even though it might look nicer, 99 00:07:14,439 --> 00:07:19,199 it's actually compromising the student's experience because the content might not be the most up 100 00:07:19,199 --> 00:07:24,360 to date. So, like I said, we use the script to record 101 00:07:24,399 --> 00:07:29,959 podcast episodes, but I also use it for recording course videos. Okay, 102 00:07:30,040 --> 00:07:33,680 it's really good for basic basic video editing. My team can edit it easily. 103 00:07:33,759 --> 00:07:38,439 I can record myself speaking over slides. I can record a video of 104 00:07:38,439 --> 00:07:43,879 myself direct to camera and then edit it really easily because as I'm speaking, 105 00:07:43,959 --> 00:07:47,759 it transcribes the recording and my team can just highlight the bits that they want 106 00:07:47,800 --> 00:07:50,800 to delete like a text editor, and it deletes that out of the video. 107 00:07:51,120 --> 00:07:55,199 And you can honestly just use your webcam, or if you want to 108 00:07:55,199 --> 00:07:59,519 get a slightly better video quality, you can buy an external webcam. I 109 00:07:59,680 --> 00:08:03,480 use the Lumina Pro. I love that one. The Elgado facecam is also 110 00:08:03,600 --> 00:08:07,680 really good, and both of those will just give you a slightly better video 111 00:08:07,759 --> 00:08:11,959 quality than you're built in webcam, although saying that the new Macs they have 112 00:08:13,199 --> 00:08:16,160 really good built in webcams, so you might not even need an external one 113 00:08:16,199 --> 00:08:22,040 if you're using a new Mac laptop. Okay, the next tool for launching 114 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:24,720 with a live webinar. Now, if you've been listening to the show for 115 00:08:24,759 --> 00:08:28,759 a while, you know that I am a big fan of live webinars. 116 00:08:28,800 --> 00:08:33,039 I believe they are a really quick way to build no liken trust with your 117 00:08:33,039 --> 00:08:37,440 audience and a really quick way to nurture them to the point where they are 118 00:08:37,480 --> 00:08:41,559 ready to buy your offer. So where I run my live webinars, I 119 00:08:41,720 --> 00:08:46,039 use the tool Demio d Emio. It has been my favorite webinar platform so 120 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:50,559 far. I have tried a lot of them. I've tried pretty much all 121 00:08:50,600 --> 00:08:54,279 of them, all of the major ones, and Demo has been the easiest 122 00:08:54,320 --> 00:08:56,759 to use. It's been the most user friendly. It also delivers a great 123 00:08:56,799 --> 00:09:03,159 experience for my attendees. It's a really neat experience with a nice chat. 124 00:09:03,279 --> 00:09:07,360 It just all looks really nice for them. But I don't use Demo for 125 00:09:07,480 --> 00:09:11,879 delivering Q and AS inside my actual courses. Demo is if I'm doing a 126 00:09:11,960 --> 00:09:15,360 launch with a webinar and I know there's going to be a couple of hundred 127 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:18,480 people there, That's when I will use demo. But if I'm delivering the 128 00:09:18,559 --> 00:09:22,799 live Q and as and the hot seat calls inside my courses and programs, 129 00:09:24,240 --> 00:09:28,320 I will use Zoom. Now, we use Zoom a lot in this business, 130 00:09:28,320 --> 00:09:31,519 as I'm sure many of you do as well, and that's because most 131 00:09:31,559 --> 00:09:35,360 of our audience is really familiar with Zoom, so it removes any of the 132 00:09:35,360 --> 00:09:37,759 friction that comes up when it comes to adding calls to calendar or finding the 133 00:09:37,799 --> 00:09:41,919 link to show up, or downloading the latest update, figuring out how to 134 00:09:41,960 --> 00:09:46,039 use the chat. Most people are familiar with it, so they already know 135 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:48,559 how to do these things. Now, that is where I will do the 136 00:09:48,639 --> 00:09:52,759 Q and A calls, and if I'm teaching any live lessons as part of 137 00:09:52,799 --> 00:09:56,200 a program, I will also teach those using Zoom. I will share my 138 00:09:56,240 --> 00:10:00,399 screen, share my slides and that way they can see me, can see 139 00:10:00,399 --> 00:10:05,080 my slides and they can ask me questions. And then the last tool is 140 00:10:05,159 --> 00:10:09,159 for collecting Q and A questions, so submissions of questions to answer in the 141 00:10:09,240 --> 00:10:13,240 Q and A and then keeping track of which questions I have answered and when, 142 00:10:13,440 --> 00:10:16,879 and we use air table for that. At the moment, we could 143 00:10:16,879 --> 00:10:20,720 probably also integrate it into clickup, which is where all of our task management 144 00:10:20,960 --> 00:10:24,559 lives. Now, we have this beautiful Q and a form for Launch Magic 145 00:10:24,600 --> 00:10:28,960 where students can submit their questions ahead of time for me to answer on the 146 00:10:28,960 --> 00:10:33,279 calls, and for Freedom fast Track where they can submit their challenges that they're 147 00:10:33,320 --> 00:10:35,919 experiencing in their business and they can workshop those in a hot seat with me. 148 00:10:37,039 --> 00:10:39,720 So how that works is where on that zoom call and I will have 149 00:10:39,759 --> 00:10:43,960 a list of who has challenges they want to workshop, and then we go 150 00:10:43,039 --> 00:10:46,440 through that list and I unmute them. We spent a couple of minutes workshopping 151 00:10:46,440 --> 00:10:50,559 their challenges like they're getting basically one on one coaching from me for you know, 152 00:10:50,600 --> 00:10:54,960 sometimes it takes five minutes, sometimes a little bit longer, just depending 153 00:10:54,000 --> 00:10:58,159 on how many we need to get through in that call and how in depth 154 00:10:58,360 --> 00:11:01,759 each question or each challenge is. And then what we do is we go 155 00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,960 through that list of questions or challenges and we tag them afterwards as answered so 156 00:11:07,000 --> 00:11:09,480 that I can see which questions have been answered and which ones haven't. And 157 00:11:09,519 --> 00:11:13,919 this really helps me to see where people are getting stuck with the actual curriculum 158 00:11:15,039 --> 00:11:18,679 or with the content in the courses. Where do they need more support? 159 00:11:18,799 --> 00:11:22,240 Where do I need to tweak the content? What do I need to change? 160 00:11:22,320 --> 00:11:26,919 And that's how That is how you create a course that delivers what your 161 00:11:26,919 --> 00:11:33,720 audience really needs by being flexible and by being open to tweaking things. So 162 00:11:33,960 --> 00:11:39,159 there you have it. The six tools that I use to create and sell 163 00:11:39,480 --> 00:11:43,840 my digital courses. I will put these together for you in a cheat sheet 164 00:11:43,960 --> 00:11:48,759 dm me tools on Instagram. I'm over there at Stefhtaylor dot com and I 165 00:11:48,759 --> 00:11:50,960 will send you this cheat sheet with my complete list of the tools for creating 166 00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:56,000 and selling digital courses, as well as a link to some handy templates that 167 00:11:56,039 --> 00:12:01,320 you can buy for course slides and workbooks. I've learned anything from this show 168 00:12:01,360 --> 00:12:03,840 so far? Please take thirty seconds to leave a quick rating and a review. 169 00:12:05,159 --> 00:12:07,120 I've been noticing a lot more coming through lately, which makes me really 170 00:12:07,159 --> 00:12:11,679 happy when that email arrives in my inbox every Tuesday morning showing me which new 171 00:12:11,679 --> 00:12:16,320 reviews I've got because I get to read them all, so take thirty seconds 172 00:12:16,320 --> 00:12:18,080 means a lot to me. Thank you so much for listening. Catch you 173 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:18,399 next time.