"Passive" means "passed." Making Online Courses Requires Active Involvement
Most service-based enterprises that generate income through leveraged and passive products can be a wonderful idea. However, there's an array of psychological and mental problems that could arise from making the leap into this area. First, there's the misguided belief that it's the only source of income. You can earn money from your bed and get to the beach. It's true, you don't have to sell it to me.
What if you actually care about the people who are purchasing your program? What if heaven forbid, you didn't WANT to go off to the beach, but rather, you'd prefer to stay around, clasp some hands, answer some questions and truly support your clients through the program?
Do you think that makes you an unprofessional businessperson?
Does that mean you're justleveraging however you're making no passive income, so you've failed?
Not at ALL.
I'm here to tell you that leveraged is the new black.
In addition, passive income is soooo 2014.
Successful online course creators keep in touch with their students
Beautiful, heart-centered entrepreneurs are putting together BRILLIANT leveraged programs and remaining connected to their community - and people are LOVING the way they do it.
In a world where your prospective clients have ALREADY registered for numerous online courses and have never completed them, another self-study program will be merely white noise.
We live in a time where we are fed up with being forced through automated channels, lead generators and in essence, forced to go through hoops to determine how much money you want and then how much you can pay it to you, online buyers are pushing back. They are refusing. Delaying the decision until they are able to work together one-onone or as part of an intensive group that requires lots of face-to-face interaction.
For connected course creators for connected course creators, this could be GREAT news.
Personally, I do not think it's in my DNA to make true passive income. The first real passive income product was a yearly planner for entrepreneurs and was just $19.98. The first time I launched it, I sold 170 copies, which was absolutely gorgeous. I then proceeded to start emailing and messaging the customers who purchased it to check if that they had filled it out and to see whether they were satisfied with it and to offer ideas on how I could maintain it throughout the year.
It was by no means an investment product with a passive income. In fact, I probably had a long time chasing the people who bought it, to learn what they thought about it and then assist them in using it!
Fast forward one year and I launched the Heart and Soul planner again in the latter half of 2015. The second time around, the planner included two workshops for groups: One where I walked everyone through the planner page each page by page, answering their questions and providing recommendations, as well as a third workshop in which I assisted participants create their own strategy for implementation to ensure the planner didn't turn into a dust-catcher.
Through transforming my non-profit product into leveraged product I realized a variety of benefits to both sellers and buyers alike:
- I was more connected to those who bought and I could make sure that people got great value - felt good for me and great for them.
- I made a TRIBE, We were on the live chat together. participants were interacting with one other, cheering each other up and sharing suggestions and ideas. There was no divide and conquer - instead, it was about uniting and make connections.
- People were able to KNOW me, and consequently, my KLT (know that, love, and trust) score skyrocketed.
- The CONVERSION into higher products was phenomenal - out from the women that purchased this time around three of them are now VIP clients fourteen of them have enrolled in one of my signature courses, and at the very least 20 have joined my business academy, within just six weeks. This conversion is expected to continue all through the year, I am sure.
So the next time you're brainstorming ideas for your next program, course or product, think about giving consideration of designing something that's more connected and more active. It's possible that you'll need be more consistent in your perform your work more regularly.
You never know that you may discover that you enjoy the idea.
Tash Corbin is a mentor and business coach for soul-centered, heart-centered entrepreneurs. She is a lean startup expert and assists women in establishing their own businesses to build passive and leveraged income. Her Facebook community, Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs has a membership of over 10,000 active members and it is growing fast.