WHY YOU SHOULD STOP BUILDING COURSES AND START BUILDING COMMUNITY!

I can’t tell you when it started, but I feel like the ‘self-education is the new norm’ movement has been a literal gold rush over the past few decades. Someone has a skill, and they create a course and sell their ability to teach that skill to other people. It’s like taking a college class but with an actual promised result. The emergence of platforms like UDEMY (on the low end) or Tony Robbins and Dean Graziosi’s WWW.MASTERMIND.COM (on the high end) prove this. That was actually their slogan, “Self-Education is the new norm,” as they teach experts, coaches, and consultants how to build, package, and sell their knowledge for money.

What’s great about a course is that it gives you a TON of leverage. When I say leverage, I’m talking about your ability to scale and use your time to the best of your ability. By recording modules and creating a program that someone can follow, you can create a product that you can sell for money without it taking any more of your time. But there is a huge problem with this…

I’ve bought a decent number of courses that I never went through, and because I didn’t go through the course (it was long and clunky), I didn’t get the value the course promised me, and I ended up having a negative experience (even if it was my own lack of execution) with the brand, leading me to not buy again. How many courses have you bought just to let them sit in a to-do list and not get watched, listened to, read, or executed on? If not courses, then books? It can be a big time commitment.

In this blog, I want to talk to you about Community As A Service, which is a much easier and faster path to create a course built on the back of community and your ability to learn from your customers. I’m also going to introduce you to my favorite community-building app called WWW.CIRCLE.SO and tell you why I love it.

GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO SPEAK TO YOUR COMMUNITY ONE TO MANY IN A PRIVATE FORMAT

When creating content and courses, one principle to focus on is that you give the WHY and the WHAT away for free and sell the HOW (or the implementation). You can tell people all day long that they need to create courses, or create content, or create a coaching program, and how great of an opportunity it is. Or teach them why they should launch a podcast to grow their Authority, Audience, and make more offers, but how to actually go about doing that is the offer. (P.S. I can help you create a course or launch a podcast, SCHEDULE A BREAKTHROUGH CALL with me to learn how ;)) – See what I did there?

You must have gated content: some that you give away for free, some that you charge a low dollar amount for, and some that are high ticket based on the level of implementation and the amount of time it will take you. For example, 1-on-1 coaching or Done For You is the most expensive, but they take the most time. Done With You (group) is the next level, and Do It Yourself (large group) is the next level.

You have certain things you include at each level in a private format based on the clients’/students’ experience level and the value of what you teach.

ALLOWS YOU TO LEARN FROM YOUR CUSTOMERS AND SERVE THEM EVEN BETTER

This is probably my favorite part. A lot of people I work with know what their mission is and who they want to serve but don’t have any clue what they actually need or want. They end up either creating content or courses that nobody wants (wasting time and money) or trying to create a product or service that is really hard to sell. That’s because they try to make up what that person wants in a vacuum all by themselves and bring it to the market without product testing or market research. They’re just winging it.

First of all, it’s OK to wing it, as long as you’re honest about it. If you create a community and start with it FREE with the mission to help YOUR CUSTOMER AVATAR, then all you need to do is create a community of those people and ask them what their problems are. If it’s something you can help solve, then go and solve it for them. Rinse and repeat. Do this until you’ve done it enough times to get really good at solving that problem, and then you can create a course (and have the money to do it because eventually, you charge people).

“START SERVING THEM, AND THEY WILL TEACH YOU WHAT TO TEACH THEM.”

I always say the teacher usually learns more than the students. It doesn’t mean that what the students are learning is bad or invaluable, but they will keep giving you info on how you can help them by talking about their problems and what keeps them up at night.

GIVES YOUR COMMUNITY ACCESS TO OTHER MEMBERS TO BOUNCE IDEAS OFF

What’s crazy is that when you create a community, one of the most valuable aspects of your future offer is actually your community. Let’s say you serve home services professionals and you do it by helping them with their marketing. Well, there is a good chance there are other people in that same group who have dealt with the same problems your other customers have. Your audience ends up helping each other (creating even more leverage for you).

Entrepreneurship can be a lonely game, and many of us are longing for people to hang out with who understand us. Give people the community.

CREATES SOCIAL PROOF OF THE RESULTS THAT PEOPLE CAN ACHIEVE

This one piggybacks on the previous idea, but when people in your group see other people succeed and win with your thing, their perceived ability to achieve that thing goes up. “Because Johnny could do it, I must be able to do it too.” People want to see other people do something because it gives them permission to do it too. Roger Bannister was the first to break the 4-minute mile, a feat that everyone thought was impossible until it wasn’t. Once people saw that it could be done, thousands have followed in his footsteps.

CREATES RECURRING REVENUE AND CONTINUITY

When we start our thing, we must begin with the end in mind. We all want to retire, exit, sell, partner, or do something that will allow us to one day not have to work anymore. That’s the entire point. If you work in a business where you have to sell a thing, and keep selling it over and over again, it creates a LOT of risk. The clock goes to 0 at midnight every night, and you have to wake up and do it again.

Let me give you an example. I was a mortgage banker for 5 years, and to make money in mortgages, you have to close loans. If you close loans, you make money. If you don’t close loans, you don’t make any money. So every single month, you’re dealing with whatever is happening in your life at that time and have actually created no long-term value for yourself (other than a book of business and customer list).

The inverse of that is the insurance industry. You sell one insurance policy now, and you get paid every single month after you sell that insurance policy whether you work or not. This makes insurance more attractive because you can build recurring revenue. It also makes it more valuable. I’ve heard of a ton of people selling their insurance book of business, but I’ve never heard of someone being able to sell their mortgage pipeline. (Company yes, pipeline as an individual LO, no.)

Having recurring revenue reduces risk and increases value. This is the reason SAAS (software as a service) can achieve anywhere from a 10-20x multiple on EBITDA, while a services business is lucky if they get 3-5x.

You have to begin with the end in mind. Are you trying to achieve financial freedom? Are you trying to sell your company? Create the business model that supports that.

SO HERE IS A LITTLE BIT OF THE HOW AND THE PROGRAM I USE

I USE WWW.CIRCLE.SO, AND THEY ARE DOING A 3-DAY SUMMIT (ABSOLUTELY FREE) STARTING NEXT TUESDAY. CLICK HERE TO SIGN UP. IT’S CALLED THE CREATOR CATALYST SUMMIT: HTTPS://TRY.CIRCLE.SO/VHIID2O05Z3E-CREATOR-CATALYST – AFFILIATE LINK.

So there are a few ways to get started. I’m going to make a few foundational assumptions that you are already a professional, a coach, a consultant, or an owner of some kind. Also, that you have an idea of the audience or community that you want to serve. (SEE MY BLOG ON CUSTOMER AVATAR WORK.) If you have those things, the only thing left is to pick a platform and a format.

EASIEST AND FREE – FACEBOOK GROUPS

Go to Facebook and create a group, and start inviting people. Easy peasy. This is the best FREE way to do it because people go to Facebook for groups. But the downside is that Facebook is noisy, and not everyone (especially the younger generations) is using it anymore.

CREATE A CHAT COMMUNITY (FACEBOOK CHAT)

You can create a community chat inside of WhatsApp, FB Messenger, Telegram, or wherever you like. The upside is that it’s just a chat where you can go to engage with your group. The downside is that it’s a chat, and the notifications can get out of hand. If someone turns off notifications, they might as well have left the group.

CREATE A CIRCLE COMMUNITY (RECOMMENDED)

Ok, so about Circle. There are a ton of different course and community platforms out there. The CRM that I use has one built-in now (Go High Level) – Contact me for more details. Alex Hormozi recently partnered with Skool by Sam Ovens to grow their community platform, but the one I like the most is WWW.CIRCLE.SO.

Here are a few of the reasons:

1. The biggest reason is the app. Your members can download an app on their phone and get all their content, messages, and stuff in one place.
2. Different types of spaces – you can create different spaces that allow people to post, chat, take a course, look at events, etc.
3. You can go live – You can go live in the community.
4. Built-in reminders and notifications – they will be notified anytime you post something. Say goodbye to email!
5. Built-in ascension – You can set up your ascension through your offers and ‘LOCK’ them so your customers can see that they could get more if they had access.
6. Built-in sales pages – if someone who is not a member goes there, you can set up a lock screen page to sell it to them so they can join.
7. Built-in payments – you can set up your own payments and products so you don’t have to connect any third-party apps.

There are quite a few more reasons I recommend it. If you want to create a community, I’d love to show you around. Just SCHEDULE A BREAKTHROUGH CALL with me, and either I or someone on my team will show you around.

Or you can sign up for the creator catalyst event next week HERE. 

Hope this post brought you some value. If it did, I’d love for you to connect with me on INSTAGRAM and let me know.