ENCORE: If I Were Launching An Online Course Soon, I'd Do This...

I know that many of us, as we approach the end of this year and are looking into next year, are considering launching an online course, whether it's to supplement, uh, clinical income or if you want to pull back on clinical work and then figure out another alternative income stream.

Whatever that reason is, I know that many of us are thinking about it.

I've been a course creator for nine years, and next year will actually be year ten.

And my podcasting course, the HealthCasters podcasting course, we just passed our two hundred and forty-fourth student.

Um, we've also, uh, generated a, a little over three hundred and twenty-eight thousand dollars in revenue from that online course.

But I am not an overnight success by any stretch of the imagination, and I wanted to, like, openly and honestly share that with you because I think sometimes in the online space, we see these, like, folks that launch courses, and they have, like, over... like, very quick success, or it seems like overnight success.

And this guy right here is not one of those people.

But I think developing and growing this course over the past nine years, um, has given me such more of a rich, like, tapestry in terms of how to think about stuff.

Uh, we've also had the incredible privilege now to support over fifty of our colleagues launch their online course through our STC Elite program, uh, our mastermind program.

And so I've learned a ton.

In today's session, honestly, I just wanted to share some of the things that I've learned, uh, along the way.

Now, the very first, and I focus this on, like, kind of five things that I would share, and the very first thing is focus on what you already know and love to teach.

Now, I know you might be listening to this or you're watching this on YouTube, and you're like, "Mel, that is the lamest piece of advice I've ever heard.

It seems so obvious." And I am completely with you.

It is...

It does seem completely, uh, like, logical, and yet I have seen so many colleagues launch courses that are completely unrelated to niches and specialties they've already had success with.

But before we share a little bit more on that, my recommendation generally, um, has been, I'm sure there are some exceptions, but my general recommendation is only to launch an online course once you have a successful practice and you've have a clearly defined niche.

Or if you're doing coaching or con- you know, or an online business or something like that, once you are...

You don't have to get like, "I'm a hundred percent sure on, on, clear on what my niche is," because the thing I've realized with finding a niche is it's kind of an evolving thing, uh, as markets and trends and all that stuff evolve.

But if you have some clarity, like this is the general ballpark of the folks that I love to work with.

And the main reason that I recommend doing it in this way is, um, it's much easier to have folks pay you for an online course if they've already paid you for therapy or if you've done paid workshops or anything like that.

In other words, there's already market demand for the topic that you're gonna create your online course over, about.

Now, I know that this seems really obvious, but I just cannot tell you the number of colleagues that I have found or that reach out to me, and they're like, "Mel, I'm gonna create a course on insert whatever topic." And then what I usually will then ask them is, you know, "Is that a niche that you've already have some thought leadership in, you've already established in?" Th-there's a segment of our colleagues that will say, "Oh, I didn't think about that.

No, it's kind of related, but not really.

Uh, but you know, I just feel like I wanna go into that." And there are definitely, I think, times where you can go into a niche and capture a niche, but I don't think...