Cassandra 6 years, 3 months ago-
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Thanks <span class=”handle-sign”>@</span>bradleytmorris I have updated my ideas in the Course Ideas and Development campfire today. I also listened to your 30-minute visioning for 2018 audio earlier, thanks! I realised I put so much pressure on myself all of last year for being stuck in the germination phase… I now realise that was all part of the process and am looking forward to pushing up into the light. 🙂
I have been really confused the last two days about my niche and whether I should focus my attunement course within a specific context (how to use them to activate your soul’s purpose), or whether to teach them in the overall context of spiritual awakening/inner transformation.
I started off contextualising them within the soul’s purpose niche and I was going really well with this, plus it is the area I have gotten the best results with them in myself. It is also the area of my coaching work that I enjoy the most. But then I realised that some of the attunements don’t immediately seem to apply or seem that relevant to this context. So I have spent the whole day re-contextualising my course, which has also affected the overall mission and outcome and taglines etc.
But now I have just started reading through the niching nest book that you recommend @bradleytmorris and I am thinking I should go back to my first idea and teach them in the context of activating your soul’s purpose. Please can I get your take on what I should do? I am so close to this work and have over-analysed myself into a corner. :/
I had an idea pop into my head about your course today that I wanted to share. If it doesn’t resonate, then just leave it.
Because each module/checkpoint/chapter of your course is an activation, I am wondering if each one could be a mini course in itself. The vision for 12 activations is a big project. I could definitely see you stringing them all together once they’re done. But to fund the journey and make it easier on you, I’m wondering if it’s possible to do each as its’ own mini course that you sell for a lower price point?
If we were to do the Great eCourse adventure over again, we would have done mini courses instead of this giant one. It took over a year of hard work to get’er done and with the size of your vision, I just wanted to share that wisdom and possibility with you. Take it or leave it. I trust you’ll do what feels like the biggest yes!
@bradleytmorris I totally see what you mean. I did think about releasing each one as a mini-course, but the whole idea is that people can read the book and then go on the same journey of transformation as the character, so it doesn’t really seem to work if you can only do one at a time.
I am thinking that the way to make the development quicker is to keep both the site and theme expression really simple. Do it without me presenting visually and just have a narrative audio with an accompanying video that is made up of slides, illustrations, and b-roll that goes with the content of each teaching. I can still do an intro video and maybe another for the end of the course. Plus weekly coaching calls.
All of the content is already created inc. the guided audios, and I have beta tested them with individual clients. Mid Feb I am beta testing with 10 ppl for 12 weeks online. I am thinking if I just keep the theme expression really simple with illustrations in the site then it might be more doable. And just use a facebook group for the community for the time being (sorry, I know how much you hate fbk!!).
What do you think? Would all of that still take me a long time to do? I have a wordpress website developer who can put it all together for me. The only thing I’m not sure about is how to do the site-currency/gamification tech and the overall payment/membership-access stuff.
Thanks heaps for your help.
TBC!
That sounds doable.
I don’t think you’ll understand just how much work it is until you create your first module and lesson series. Once you do that, you can expect that every module will be approximately the same, but perhaps a bit quicker due to “figuring things out as you go.”
@cassandra – you and I have different concepts for our courses yet I think we are sharing the same path. In my mind I pictured a 10-module course, each module fairly comprehensive with multiple lessons.
Over the past week, I decided that was too big. I decided to start with the first module and streamline it to one main lesson and practice experience. If I want to engage people and give them a positive and motivating experience, simplification is going to do that far better than throwing everything and the kitchen sink at them.
The first module will be a free mini-course that will give participants a taste for the course and the community. It will be much less complicated than my earlier vision and I’m confident this will leave participants in a positive frame of mind and primed for more.
So then I ask for feedback and I offer the presale for the next set of 3 modules. I find out how many people are interested and find out how many people are willing to commit. With enough commitment, I have the confidence and financial backing to continue.
what if you tried something similar? Build the first module as best you can, then ask for feedback and an interest survey or presale page?
That could enable you to sell the book and entice people to the first module of the course. Determine interest before you’ve invested too much time, effort, and money. See how things go.
Just a thought. It’s taken me months to arrive at this point. For me, though, it’s a way to share something freely and observe the response – without committing myself to finishing the whole thing first.
Best wishes on your learning adventure!
@laurakoller that sounds like a great strategy! Especially if you want to test the waters first.
I have been designing my course curriculum since 2012 and have been running some one-on-one betas for the whole program, which have gone well. For me now it is more a case of presenting what I have created through tech and visual/audio, rather than creating the course from scratch. Anyway I am going to have a crack at it and see what happens! Best of luck to you, too. 🙂
@bradleytmorris please can I get your guidance on how best to proceed?
I am currently doing another ‘how-to-create-an-e-course-course’ and they are pushing us to launch by mid-Feb and make $2K or more.
I have my course content ready (pretty much), so I can beta with that. HOWEVER, it doesn’t include any of my theme/narrative/gamification elements, and without that and the supporting tech I am really unsure about the quality of the beta and feel it would be boring and flat.
Should I do the boring beta? Or, should I wait until I’ve got my supporting theme and site up (i.e. throw the mid-Feb deadline out the window), and then beta once I’ve got more of a finished product? Or, is there some way of doing a themeified beta without the tech and decorations?
Any suggestions? Thanks heaps!!
Hi @Cassandra.
There is no harm in validating an idea by doing a more ‘beta version’ of it. You could offer it as a series of live webinar classes at a significantly reduced price and limited themeification.
Our validation for the Great eCourse Adventure was from the success of our eCourse Creation Blueprint program, which was very boring and dry. From there, we created this experience.
So the question is, how do YOU feel about doing this launch in February and trying to make $2000 from it?
Thanks heaps @bradleytmorris.
My concern was that delivering the content in a normal weekly webinar format might be boring for people and they could drop off towards the end (it is a 12-week program). Plus presenting the attunements like this doesn’t really appeal to me given the creative vision I now have for the theme.
BUT I am thinking I could produce “demo” versions of the attunements for the beta, and drip one out each week, and then do a live weekly group coaching Q&A call for that week’s attunement. This will give me production deadlines, and also help me to see how well people go with actually using the attunements by themselves, which is ultimately what I want to them to do. And it will give me a chance to try out the weekly coaching call format which is something I want to include on my finished site.
Each attunement consists of a video teaching (about 20 – 30 mins), plus a guided journey (5-10 mins), plus a preparation track (5 mins). I have created demos for the journeys before in Garageband and also know basic IMovie. Plus I’m thinking if I just find someone on Fiverr to put the video together for me with my audio presentation, then that will be quicker and probably better quality. At this stage, I am only going to do green screen for the welcome and mission accomplished videos. The rest will be b-roll… And for the demo I don’t even need to do that.
What do you think? Shall I proceed?
I got my first sale, woohoo! I even did a victory dance around my living room, much to my 3 y/o son’s amusement. I am now moving into full scripting and storyboarding mode so that I can get the first 4-5 modules produced (as suggested by @bradleytmorris) before launch, and can then add a definite launch date to my pre-sale marketing (which I also still need to load up on a sales page). All this might take me a bit of time. Plus there are also 2 modules I’m not 100% percent happy with. I need to refine those and retest with my one-on-one guinea pigs. SO, I am pitching my tent here on the mountain for the time being while I work on all this stuff. Seems like a nice spot with a good view. 🙂
THis is awesome @cassandra, congratulations on the first sale how exciting!!! (the first of many to come, I am sure 🙂 )
Congratulations @cassandra. That is soooo exciting that you got your first sale. Have anymore come in since?
That’s a huge step that will motivate you to complete the creation of the course. Now you are accountable to real students!
Not yet @bradleytmorris but then I haven’t actually attempted to get any more. I am currently producing the first module for the beta so I can accurately predict the best start date. Once I’ve done that I’ll load up the beta sales copy and get the remaining 14 participants locked in while I produce another 3-4 modules in the lead up to launching the beta.
The 1 sale I have so far is from a friend/ex-client who I sent the beta sales copy to for feedback. I have a rough idea of who will be in the beta group anyway though, as a few people have already expressed interest when I’ve been telling them about it. So, all is trekking along.
My biggest challenge at the moment is actually trying to find a balance between the right amount of deadline pressure and not stressing myself out too much…I have been doing the latter lately and it has backfired on me health-wise. :/
OMG this last phase of things feels like it has taken forever. Okay, so I have:- Niched my business and e-course (thanks Tad).
- Conducted a 1-1 in-person beta of the transformational content (only offered for free though, we finish up next week).
- Scripted and storyboarded the first 4 modules, the remaining 8 will take 1-2 days each.
- Designed the overall artwork/look and feel.
- Got a visionary artist and my book illustrator creating some stills and loops for each video. The rest I will make up with stock footage and stills. (Will add a q&a green screen video to each module down the track. For now, I am just running with a slide show/stock footage and voice-over style.)
- Got a rough draft of the overarching narrative prepped (although still needs more work).
- Got my sound guy ready to go for the soundtrack.
I * think* I am ready to finally get my pre-sale up and move into the production phase. Unless, @bradleytmorris do you think I should run a paid live-beta first?? It is a 12 module program though so that will add another 3 months. :/
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