If you're a creative soul looking for a way to take your photography or event business to the next level without adding more hours to your schedule, you're going to love this inspiring story. Catalina was a wedding photographer working her tail off to make a thousand dollars for weeks of work, but when she added a photo booth to her business, everything changed. She started charging the same amount for just three hours of work, since then she scaled her business to seven figures. Now, if you're thinking, "That sounds like the dream," you need to check out this free masterclass from Photobooth Supply Co. It's called Capture Success, how to turn your creative passion into a six-figure photobooth business. Catalina is going to show you how you can take what you're already passionate about and turn it into a massive profit. You'll learn how you can earn a thousand dollars or more per event with a photobooth rental business. If you're someone who loves creating memories or maybe you've been looking for a fun side hustle, you've got to check this out. Head to photoboothsupplyco.com/goldicker to get your free access and my special promo code. This is your chance to work smarter, create more freedom, and build something truly amazing. That's photoboothsupplyco.com/goldicker. We've talked about all these different methods that we do inside of our business like lazy launches and what that looks like in live launches and all these different things, but I think you always want to keep your pulse on the promotional piece of it because you want people to experience all the incredible things that you put inside of the program itself. I'm Jenna Kutcher, your host of the Gold Digger Podcast. I escaped the corporate world at the age of 23 with nothing more than a $300 camera from Craigslist and a dream. Now I'm running a seven-figure online business that feels even better than it looks all from my house in small town, Minnesota with my family. Here, we value time as our currency. We mix the woo and the work and we are in the pursuit of building businesses that give us the freedom to live lives that we love. I've always loved turning big goals into reality and I'm here to help you do the same. This isn't just a peek behind the curtain. Come along with me and my guests as we tear the whole curtain down. Every week we tackle practical, no-fluff marketing strategies and host honest discussions on what works and what doesn't. Join me and my expert guests for actionable insights to help you grow your dream business with confidence. Pull up a seat and get ready to be challenged, inspired, and empowered. This is the Gold Digger Podcast. Have you ever thought about creating a digital course but you're not sure where to start, what you really need and how to actually make money with it? Or maybe you're sitting on a great idea but feeling totally overwhelmed by the tech, the launch, or the marketing? Well, if that sounds like you, then you're in the right place because today's episode is all about cutting through the noise and giving you the exact steps to create, launch, and profit from your very own online course. You'll get answers to all the big questions you've been asking, like what tools do you really need, how do you know if your idea is going to sell, and most importantly, how do you turn your knowledge into a product that people actually want to buy? I know firsthand how powerful online courses can be, not only for growing your business but for creating more freedom in your life, and that's why I'm so excited to dive into this topic today. This episode was such a hit the first time my previous podcast producer Kylie and I aired it and I knew we had to bring it back, especially since my best friend and mentor Amy Porterfield is hosting a live course creation bootcamp this month that will help you nail down your digital course topic, type, price, and audience growth plan in just a matter of days. Plus, when you join her bootcamp, I'm also giving you free access to Insta Essentials that's two months of done for you Instagram strategy, expert insights, and a toolkit to help you show up and convert, all valued at $49, absolutely free. If you head to jennacuture.com/bootcamp, you can learn more about Amy's bootcamp and save your seat. That's jennacuture.com/bootcamp, which will be linked in the show notes too. Now let's dive into this throwback episode with Kylie Lowe on what you really need to create, launch, and make money with an online course. Super quick question, how many tabs do you have open right now, like actually go to your browser and check. If you have ADHD like me, it's a lot. And when you throw a business into the mix, it's even more. You might have a tab for your email marketing system, one for your payment software, one for your CRM content tools, email tools, and with all those tabs, you're spending more time searching through data and less time, you know, growing your business. But with HubSpot's customer platform, you can close all those tabs and access all your tools in one convenient place. With HubSpot, you'll get everyone's eyes on the same work, boost data analysis with AI, optimize workflows for marketing, improve pipeline management for sales, and keep track of every customer question big or small. So close those tabs, it's business growing time. Visit HubSpot.com to get started today. That's HubSpot.com. Hey, Jenna. I just sounded like Amy Porterfield when I said that. I talk to her all the time. And so whenever she talks, she's like, hey, there, I feel like I just sounded like my friend. Well, that's perfect. Since we're kind of talking about, well, I remember the story, the origin story of your whole course creator journey started with Amy Porterfield, which is kind of wild. And now you guys are on voice texting terms. You're like, business besties. So I think it's only appropriate that you kind of mimic her voice. They're not even really mimicked. You just kind of sounded like her naturally. Okay. Can I tell you this story really quick? I literally texted this to her yesterday. I found this email that I sent to her. I think it was like maybe like 2016. Can I read it to you? Yeah. Yeah, please. So I sent this to Amy before she even knew I existed. And here's what this email said. I'm actually very proud of myself that this is what I sent to like my hero. Okay. So that's hi, Amy. My name is Jenna Kutcher and I am a wedding photographer based in Wisconsin. I started listening to your podcast and I'm a student of both of your paid programs. I want to take my education to the next level and in order to do so, I know I need to invest in knowledge. I would love to work with you, but I know you're a busy gal. So if you don't offer one-on-one business coaching, would you please recommend someone who you trust? You are the best. Jenna Kutcher. Wow. Isn't that wild? That's like out on a limb, big time, totally out on a limb. And you know, it's so funny as I sent this to Amy because I love to like just remind her once a year of like where we started. She inspired me to start my podcast because, you know, even looking at how I worded that, like I was a listener of her podcast, then I bought her a program. I just really like, I consumed every bit of content she put out. And so I was like, I love how bold I was. And you know what's wild is that she wasn't doing one-on-one coaching, which I knew because I listened to her show, but she like connected me to other people who helped me enter into the digital course creation world, which then she pivoted into, which thank God she did because she's the best at it. But I just like love that reminder of like one, just how you never know who you're impacting through the content you're creating. But it's never too late to like reach out to someone that inspires you and asks for help, which I love. Yeah. No, I love that. Thanks for reading that email. It also makes me think a little bit. Guys, I'm like a little bit. And sometimes I want to hug her because I'm like, you are gutsy. Right. Right. So that on the topic, of course, is I know it's something we've talked about on the show a lot because it is such a big foundational part of your business. And this, you know, the brand really has a huge foundation in digital course creation and you're an educator online. So I know at risk of being redundant, can you just give us a little back story of Jenna, the course creator, how that all started? Oh my gosh. Yeah. So when I was a wedding photographer, I started to hear more about the digital course space. And I was at a season of entrepreneurship where my wedding season was about six months of the year being in the Midwest, and then I would have six months of a slower season. And in that slower season, I started mentoring other photographers because I was getting so many questions. Like people would be like, how did you grow so fast or like, what is your pricing guide look like? Or how did you build your WordPress site, like all these different things? And so I remember actually Facebook memories reminded me the other day, I'd put up a post and I was like, Hey, I think I'm going to start mentoring other photographers. Would anyone want to come to our apartment? And I'll do like a half day or a full day session based off of what you need. And so I started doing these little mentor sessions. We lived in a tiny little village of 1200 people in our first apartment ever was right after we had gotten married. And I started realizing that people were asking me the same things like after doing five of these mentor sessions, I was answering the same things. I was giving the same templates, I was walking people through the same strategies. And I was like, okay, one, this is awesome, but it's not scalable. Two, I'm getting bored of saying the same thing over and over again. And three, clearly there are themes that people need help with. And so I actually ended up investing in my first online course and it was not cheap. The world was very different than it is today. I think it was like $5,000. Oh, wow. And I invested in it on the premise and the promise that the creator would actually teach me to do what he was doing. So like I didn't even necessarily want the course itself. I wanted to see how did he build it? How did he deliver it? What was he experienced like all of those things? Because I knew that like I have this tendency to overcomplicate like if I don't know what platform to use, I open up 8 million tabs and I get so overwhelmed that I just don't make a decision. And so I invested in it knowing, hey, I'm going to get the back end and that's what I really need help with because there wasn't things like digital course academy or things like that out there at the time. And so I ended up taking this online course and then building my first one. It was called the Jenna Kutcher course. What a name. It was a six week program and it was audio only, which really should have been my first hint at you're going to be a podcast. I remember really sitting in my bed and recording like each module and honestly, I listened to them and while my voice and delivery has significantly improved over the years, the content was actually really solid. And on top of delivering the six week program, I was doing these one on one calls with every single student who joined. And that was my first dip in the water of online courses. And that was years ago and I remember, and we'll talk about this in a little bit, but I remember my first launch, like matching my corporate salary of one year. And I was like, okay, a game over, I'm in, I get it, I see it. And I also get to witness people's lives change, like sign me up for the rest of my life and yeah, far for the rest of my life that has been a massive part of my business. She's that first lunch must have just been so confidence building and like proof of concept and everything you need to really go all in. Yeah, it was, it was so crazy and like, you know, when you walk into a restaurant and they have like their first dollar, they ever made framed, like I remember like the first person who bought my course and I was like, okay, if I can even find five people, just like that one person, this is literally life changing. And you know, it's just this beautiful thing where it's like a lot of times we're like so focused on the masses that we forget like the power of one. And so it was like that first person that was like, yep, I'm in. And then I was like, oh my gosh, there's more people just like them that's going to find value in this that I can help. Like it's just so incredible. I always love hearing the origin story of the Jenna Kutcher course and the whole timeline because now I'm on the other end of it, you know, 10 plus years later of your entrepreneurial journey. And I'm seeing the proof that digital courses really can transform businesses and lives and people. So I'm excited because we came up with this idea to ask our Facebook group the Gold Digger podcast insider's Facebook group. What questions do you have about digital courses? And these questions all come from people who are the Jenna Kutcher from 10 years ago before the Jenna Kutcher course existed, they're kind of standing at that point where maybe they have a spark of an idea, but the confidence isn't there or they're unsure of how to navigate it and go forward. So I'm excited to ask you these questions from day one people or like day zero people, really. Let's do it. Okay. Starting off strong with such a problem that I see, definitely a confidence issue for someone who's not sure if they should create a course. Gabriela Valdez wants to know, do I know enough? I love that question. I think that's a question we could ask ourselves for the rest of our lives, right? Even in writing my book, I had to keep reminding myself, like, here's what I know so far. Like that is like how I moved through the process because here's what I know so far about these certain things. I guess what that invites in this opportunity to evolve and change, but do you know enough? Have you gotten yourself a result? Have you gotten someone else a result? Like that's where you begin. And I think a lot of times when it comes to course creation or even like poison yourself as an educator, there is this massive identity crisis and imposter syndrome really rears its head. And I think that is so natural. And I think if you don't feel that I'd be shocked because that question is like, who am I to teach this, right? Like who am I to tell somebody how to do something? Do you know enough? Have you studied it? Have you learned from other people? Have you invested in learning this thing? What does that look like? And it doesn't mean like invested money. It means like investing time. I was recently walking through a loss, a pregnancy loss with somebody close to me and I would never ever pose myself as like an educator on that topic. But I realized like I devoted hours upon hours of learning and scouring the forums and reading medical journals and hundreds and hundreds of dollars on doctors visits and stuff. Well, I don't know everything. I know a lot to help somebody through it. And I'm saying this as in your knowledge does not have to be monetized, right? Your knowledge can literally just make a difference in someone else's life. And so if you need proof that you know enough, start for free. Start helping someone else transform. Start testing what has worked for you to see if it works for other people. Just like I did those mentor sessions in my living room and my apartment, that was helping me really find the confidence that one, this works for other people. It's not just reserved for me, but two, I can help other people. Okay, let's be real. 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So if you want to build meaningful relationships, start making smarter moves with your marketing and grow your business, it is time to get LinkedIn ads working for you. Make B2B marketing everything it can be and get $100 credit on your next campaign. Go to linkedin.com/goal to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com/g-o-a-l terms and conditions apply. So that kind of rolls into the next question then, because Esther Marani wants to know what do you do when you know how to do so many things, or you know how to figure out how to do so many things. But you don't feel like you're an expert, so you don't feel like you're in a place to teach others. That expert word is sometimes a hang up. I mean, what a beautiful problem. You know how to do so many things. That's like the coolest problem to have. Like, what a great human experience. One thing that Amy Porterfield teaches in this is that you just have to have the 10% edge. What that means is like, you do not need to be miles beyond the people that you're leading. You need to be steps ahead of them. And honestly, Kylie, I feel like this is sometimes where people go wrong, is that they are so proficient in what they teach, that they forget what it was like to start. Right? Like, have you ever had a teacher? I remember I had this teacher in high school who was teaching chemistry. And he was so immersed in the world of chemistry that he really struggled with explaining it to people that weren't obsessed with it or that didn't get it or that weren't natural at it. And it was so hard to be his student because he would just talk like everything was common sense. Like, surely everyone knows this when like in reality, none of us knew it. And I really struggled learning. And one of the things that I have loved in my career, and I think part of the reason why I've been able to find quote success, is that I have walked people through things as I'm moving through them, right? Like, even in the book writing process, like Amy Porterfield and I literally talk daily, daily. And she's writing a book, I wrote a book and like, I was sharing my experience as I was moving through it because I'm just months ahead of her, right? So I'm like, this is working. This isn't working. I would do this. I wouldn't do this. And at one point I was joking and I was like, please tell me you're taking notes on when I'm sending you because I'm no, I'm not going to remember all of this. And she's like, oh, no, I have a whole notebook of notes off of what you're telling me. Like, this is so helpful. And so the 10% edge is really, really crucial. And I hope that someday you do become an expert, that you feel like you're an expert. But remember, you don't have to wait for that to be your, you know, title before you begin. How can you be just further down the path and guiding someone along the journey with you? Well, so then to summarize, it's not about being the expert or knowing everything about one thing, it's a knowing enough about something to share it with somebody else and help them get a result. Yes. Exactly. Okay. Okay. I'm taking notes over here too. All right. So then the other thing that usually comes up when it comes to creating a course is, obviously, you want to create a course to sell, to make money, and you need people to sell too. And a lot of people are like, wait, I'm not sure my audience is big enough. So Katie Walsh wants to know, what are your tips for marketing a course when you're just getting started building your audience? Or really, what's the benchmark of a right time, quote, to start and launch to? Okay. So when I launched my first program, I had an email list of around 500. And I had been growing my email list while I was developing and building the course. So I, my one regret, because I don't have a lot of them. My one regret in business was that I waited so long to start my email list. And I even was way ahead of the time on that, but like still, when I think about all the years of being an entrepreneur without having an email list, an Amy agrees on this as well. Like we talk about this all the time, like my email list is the number one priority in my business. It is the number one indicator of my business's health. It is the number one results driver in everything that I do. And so if you do not have an email list, you want to start building one today. If you need help with that, I have a really good mini course. It is absolutely free. We've had over 53,000 people take this. So that's bananas. Isn't that insane? If you are like, if you're tip towing towards the starting line, there are 53,000 people that will pull you along the path that are investing and learning about starting an email list. It is a five day mini, mini program with tutorials called the zero to 250 challenge. You can go to listbuildchallenge.com it's listbuildchallenge. But regardless, when you think about it, like I always talk about you want to have a list to launch to, right? And a lot of people are so focused on social media, social media is incredible. It's awesome. If you have big numbers there, congratulations. But your email list is going to be people who have already seen the value that you can offer and exchange something of value and return, which is access to their inbox. And so Amy has taught over the years, you want to have between 250 to 500 people on your list before you launch a program. She's had students that have, you know, a hundred people on their list do $12,000 launches, but you want to be growing your list while you're building your course. And it's honestly a really cool thing to be doing because when you have an email list, you can test out ideas, you can ask questions, you can see what people are most interested in, you can test out ideas. And one thing I love that Amy does and teaches is she has this way so that you can get your first 10 sales before you even start building your course. And what that does is it validates your offer. It brings in cash flow before you start getting too deep on a topic or something that might not resonate. And it also just gives you the confidence of like, people are willing to invest in learning what I already know. So start growing your email list. If you need help, go to listbuildchallenge.com. It's a really great tool to get started. It walks you through how to create the signup form, how to send the email, like all these different things and grow your list while you are building out your course. It doesn't have to take you a lot of time, but your email list is going to be the biggest indicator of the success of your launch. So you don't want to leave that for last. Do you think people underestimate the size of the audience that they do have or like they just don't see the power in what they already have? Yeah. Oh, all the time. And it's really crazy too. And I've actually been thinking about this a lot in terms of my own business is like it is so much better to show up for the people that are already there and to serve them so well than to be always focused on getting more. What I mean by that is like when I did my first launch, I'm pretty sure I had around 500 people on my email list, but I was personally getting on one on one phone calls with every person who even thought that my program would be the right fit for them. And I wanted to just serve people so well and give them such an incredible experience and help them build up their own confidence in themselves. And so I think in a world that is so fixated on like more, more, more, more is incredible, but it's not. I was better. And I think the best way to get more is to serve the people who are already there. They are going to come back and they're going to bring friends. Hmm. So then this is a perfect segue because the next question is from Lisa Holloway and she wants to know what's the difference between what is needed to launch a course and what is a nice to have before you launch and I have a feeling the email list is on the needed side. But what else? What's on either side of that list? Okay. So needed side, absolutely email list. So you have a list to launch to because you don't want to just like throw it out there and like hear crickets, right? You have to have a way to get your offer in front of people. You need to have some sort of framework that will get people results. And you need to know how to lay things out in a way that will guide people on the path, right? Because one of the things that I think is a tendency when you think about the online course world is that you're just like, I just want to sell the course, but like you want the course to actually generate results or else no one's going to take it again or you're going to get refund requests or like all those different things. And so you have to have a framework that you feel confident in that is going to guide people on the path. Now nice to have is, you know, a video production team, a studio, like all of these different things that increase your production value to this day. I actually was just talking to Amy about this because she re reports her program every other year, like the full thing from start to finish. Wow. That is like pure devotion because I told her every single time she launches, it is such a good program. I take it every time I'm like, so how could you make this better? And she just has this really like utter devotion to the art of it, but also she listens so well to her students. And I said, for me, I never have done a video course. I love doing slides and voiceovers because I can go in and edit my program any day of the week. If there's anything that changes in the system or the platform or anything like that. And so you can have really big production value, but you don't need it. And I've never used that to teach my programs. The other thing that you need is like a place to host it. You need it. You need those things that I was willing to invest in learning all those years ago. When I signed up for that program and said, all I want to do is like experiences and see how I can take how you do it and do it for what I want to teach. And so I wanted to adopt all of those things that overwhelm me, that really paralyzed me and making decisions. And so those are things like a host, a way to record your program, the right framework, and then of course a list to launch to. You know, the production value thing and doing a video course and Amy re-recording her course every other year or whatever the schedule was, if that freaks you out in this moment, because the idea of doing a video course to me is like a hard pass thing, like if that's something that's going to disqualify you from creating this course that you have in your brain, then don't do a video course, but there's so many options, right? Amen. Well, and that's what we teach about, like even on this podcast of like figure out the method that you can show up for the easiest, like I always talk about like when I think about online courses, think of the lowest hanging fruit in multiple ways. Think of the lowest hanging fruit as in like, how can you literally just show up and start teaching, is it on Facebook Live, you could do a private community, is it just audio only, is it audio and slides, like how can you make it the most uncomplicated, easy to approach way of how you like to show up and serve, and that is where you need to start. And honestly, like I haven't changed my method, even though I know a lot of other people do it in different ways, because I just know I want to do it in a way that feels right for me, and in a way that doesn't allow me to be paralyzed and procrastinate, because everything isn't perfect. Yeah, exactly. Yeah. No, if I had to show up on camera, I wouldn't do it. I was actually going to text you this morning and be like, Hey, do you want to do a video podcast? And then I was like, no, oh my God, do that. If you turned the camera on right now, I would have to explain what the heck I'm wearing because the late stage pregnancy outfits are something else, man, there's something else. All right. I think another fear too for a first time course creator or an educator online is like, wait, what if somebody buys this course and they don't finish it or they don't learn anything. Like, what do I do? Lizzie Colombo asks, what's a way to ensure students make it through the entire course, like setting up the format of the content to support a student? And then the second part of that question is pricing. So another roadblock to actually acting on the course idea. Yeah. All right. So there are a lot of stats out there that are really sad about the percentage of students that actually complete their programs. And there are so many different incredible strategies to help you help your students. The first one, and I'm going to talk about this in depth in just a few minutes. But the first one is how can you simplify the content and have zero fluff? Have you ever got, like the other day, I was looking at like how to replace a battery in something? And I was like, youtubing videos and like they were like 20 minutes long and I literally just needed like a 10 second chunk to understand how to like get a certain piece off of something. Like, you know, it's 20 minutes of somebody droning on when I just need a 10 second chunk. And so it's like, how can you remove all of the excess and just make it so simple, clear and easy to approach? So how can you make it really easy for somebody to move through? The second part of that is that a lot of people have signed up for courses in the past and not finished them. And a lot of people are walking around with guilt and shame that they thought they were going to follow through and they didn't. And so how can you relieve people of that guilt and shame, but explain why this time is going to be different. And you know why it's going to be different? Because you have the strategies to make it different. So how can you explain how you as a course creator or your course in and of itself is going to simplify the process so that people can actually complete it? There are different ways you can do this. You can gamify your course. I've seen courses where when you complete a certain section, you can unlock a bonus or things like that, where it's almost gamified, where you want to keep moving because you're collecting tokens on the path or things like that. There are also strategies where, you know, once somebody completes something, then they get a bonus. There are a lot of different ways that you can set it up to incentivize people to keep moving through it. Another way is adding additional support. So whether you are doing live Q&As, whether you have a team member following up, whether you have extra coaching available, whether you have, you know, live streams or Zoom calls that people can attend once they've completed a certain thing. I know for me, I've taken some different courses and like, to me, it is way more exciting to know like, I need to get through this material so that I can get the extra value being delivered. The other thing too is when you set up your course, I always like to reverse engineer it. So I ask myself, what is a finished product that somebody will get if they take this program and you want it to be literally like a smart goal, specific, measurable, attainable, realistic and timely. You want to be able to say, you know, after you take this course, you'll be able to use Pinterest to drive traffic to your already created content in under an hour a week, right? That's a smart goal. That's for our Pinterest lab. And then I ask myself, you know, what are the three to five steps that somebody has to take in order to achieve that goal? You don't want to have a 12-step process. You don't want to have it be too complicated. And so you want to very much simplify. And then lastly, strategies for pricing the course. So you have to look at a few different things. Like, what is the value that you are offering and how would somebody look at that value? A lot of times we tend to cheapen the price of what we're offering because we're nervous that somebody won't pay for it. But there are so many different ways where you can test the market or you can start at a lower ticket and move it up or you can start at a higher ticket with a higher touch point as the teacher and move down. Amy teaches a ton of pricing strategies that are actual gold and will earn you gold. But I love this because, you know, I've had programs like my first course was $2,500, but I did weekly calls with every single student. I remember that season of life, I had 25 students at $2,500. It matched my corporate salary in one launch. But then for six weeks, I was getting on 25 phone calls. That's a lot. It's a lot. And I learned my lesson then of like, okay, I'd actually rather sell a lower priced program and not be one-on-one coaching my way through it, right? And so you can kind of move through. I now have courses that are $97 all the way up to $4.99. And in this season of life, I would rather have a low price point, low touch point program than a high ticket offer where I am on the line, right? So you have to kind of evaluate how involved you want to be, how big are these results that you're going to get people and how much are people willing to pay to learn that thing? I think that's, again, a great reminder that if a strategy to a certain course format doesn't work for you or freaks you out or makes you want to not do it, then don't do it. Don't add the one-on-one calls if that's something that immediately is a no for you. I think... Let it go without college. Yeah, exactly. It's amazing. Honestly, I'm so glad I did that because I learned so much about here's how I can be clearer in explaining this or here's something that maybe I forgot. And so I do think that if there is some sort of way to be collecting feedback as you are building your curriculum or as you're guiding people through, I think it's beautiful because I think that feedback is so valuable. But the other side of the feedback was the feedback I was learning about myself, where I was like, "I'm not enjoying all of this one-on-one. How can I create a less high-touch program?" And that's exactly what I went on to do. If you feel like you're starting over, you're starting over something with experience. And that's totally different. And so I love testing things out and figuring out, "Oh, this worked." You're like, "Oh, I didn't like how this worked." And that's what's so beautiful about the online world. Yes. Okay. So, Louisa Ford wants to know, and I can't wait to hear your take on this as someone who I know is obsessed with automation. Yes. What parts of a course can you kind of set and forget so you don't have to work 24/7? And what parts of it can you not set and forget? Okay. So, there are so many things that I love about the online course world. And one of them is, is if you build your course correctly, a lot of times that content will stand the test of times. For example, we were just revisiting one of my programs that we built years ago. And we refresh our programs every six months. And I had a new member of our team go through that program. Like, as a student, I wanted to know, "Is this clear? Does this make sense?" And she was like, "Honestly, you don't really have to change anything. You built this so well." And so the content in and of itself, if you build it strategically and you do it thought fully, and it's on a topic that isn't ever changing, a lot of times you can set that up and not forget about it. You just revisit it, but you do so with the lens of like, "I did this so thoughtfully the first time." What I think you cannot set and forget are all of the supporting materials that get your program in front of people. Something that I always find so fascinating, especially in the online course world, is people spend so much time and energy on the inside of their course that they forget that if they don't spend the time and energy on how they are going to market the course, nobody is actually going to enjoy what they built inside of it, right? So it's like, a lot of times I'll see online course creators are spending months and months and months developing their course, and then they spend a week on how they're going to market it. And they're forgetting that no one's actually going to get to reap the rewards of all of your hard work in the course if you don't lead them to it and help them qualify themselves as a purchaser. And so you want to always be looking at all of the promotional assets. If you're running ads, are the ad graphics and the copy is that converting? Is the webinar good? Is the sales page up to date and current? Like all of those things and we've talked about all these different methods that we do inside of our business like lazy launches and what that looks like in live launches and all these different things. But I think you always want to keep your pulse on the promotional piece of it because you you want people to experience all the incredible things that you put inside of the program itself. If you're a creative soul looking for a way to take your photography or event business to the next level without adding more hours to your schedule, you're going to love this inspiring story. Catalina was a wedding photographer working her tail off to make a thousand dollars for weeks of work. But when she added a photo booth to her business, everything changed. She started charging the same amount for just three hours of work since then she scaled her business to seven figures. Now, if you're thinking that sounds like the dream, you need to check out this free masterclass from photo booth supply co it's called capture success, how to turn your creative passion into a six figure photo booth business. Catalina is going to show you how you can take what you're already passionate about and turn it into a massive profit. You'll learn how you can earn a thousand dollars or more per event with a photo booth rental business. If you're someone who loves creating memories or maybe you've been looking for a fun side hustle, you've got to check this out head to photo booth supply co dot com slash gold digger to get your free access and my special promo code. This is your chance to work smarter, create more freedom and build something truly amazing. That's photo booth supply co dot com slash gold digger. One thing that I learned because I've been a part of helping revamp some of the courses behind the scenes for for you, Jenna. I learned my first time around that if you put like a if you're teaching about a specific platform in a course like in the podcast lab, we were teaching about a specific hosting platform and we first included screenshots and screen flows of that platform. Well, wouldn't you know it that platform revamped and rebranded and suddenly all of our screenshots looked out of date. So in the next iteration, we instead opted for more of a step by step list that was very easy to follow, but also much easier to update in the future if the steps changed on that specific platform. So I've even learned from my own, not mistakes, but just like doing it one way the first time and realizing, oh, I just created way more work for us. Yes. So there's always ways to do it. Even looking at like, because we've recorded many different versions of my different programs and every time we get smarter about it, in terms of like, how are we doing this in a way that stands the test of times and anything that is super specific, how do we break that out into a separate piece, so that if anything changes or updates, we're just recording a small piece of the course and not an entire module, if that makes sense. And so I love that like magic creation mind because it'll save you a lot of time in the long run. Hmm. Absolutely. So I can't wait to hear your take on this. We've talked a lot about courses. We have a whole library of episodes of the Gold Digger podcast about course creation. We've attacked the topic every different way. You've been in it for a really long time. Has it been 10 years since your first course or? No, I didn't think my first course was like 2016. Okay. I'm still quite a solid chunk of time and courses have been around for a while. Amanda Rach wants to know where do you see the online course world headed in the future? And second part of that, should we be on the lookout for any new JK courses? Oh, I love this. Okay. So here's what I will say. I think that the online course world is shifting to more specific and niche courses that are shorter. Okay. And here's what I mean by that. When I gave the example earlier about like looking up the YouTube video and seeing a 20-minute thing when I really just needed 10 seconds of it, we don't have the patience anymore for that, right? Like I would rather pay and take a one-hour masterclass and know that I can learn how to do something in that one hour than take a 50-module, eight-week program with a 96-page workbook. And I think what's so cool about like more of like a micro course approach is that people will build up their confidence in themselves to follow through, to harness that power of knowledge, to get themselves results, which will make them want to take more courses, right? Like there is something so powerful. And when you follow through on something that you said you were going to do or that you invest in, that is addicting where you're like, now I want to learn something else. And so I foresee gone are the days of like everything in the kitchen sink inside of a program and like welcoming in and ushering in this idea of like shorter courses that teach you something very specific that allow you to get faster results in simultaneously build your belief in your confidence in yourself. So like I love that like our Pinterest program is two and a half hours. Like I love that people can literally take it in one day and start to get results. Like I don't want to delay anyone's success. And so that's what I think is coming. And I think that what's beautiful about that is that just about anyone could teach something that they're so good at. Like I feel like anyone listening today, I could say, okay, I'm going to give you one hour to just like share and answer questions about something that you are super passionate about and you have to do it unprepared, ready, set, go. And I bet an idea just popped in your head about like, what would I talk about or what could I teach about like, I think that is a way more approachable entry point for educators as well. But it's also so cool because you can get people results so much faster. And I think that also becomes addicting as an educator. Should you be on the lookout for any new JK courses? So I literally texted Amy Porterfield yesterday and I sent her a text. She is such a good friend. And I said, Hey, friend, would you I said, this is what I literally said in my text. I asked you a friend favor, I'd love to brainstorm something for me or with me. She goes, Absolutely. I'm on a call for 30 minutes. Do you want me to call you or voice text? I'm here for you. I was like, what a good friend. But I am going to be kind of changing up some of the ways that I am teaching. And we were just kind of talking about different ideas and I asked her because I'm so inspired by all the happening with Digital Course Academy and all these new ideas. And I just said to her, what is something that you wish you could learn from me? Like she knows me better than anyone in this business world. And so we were brewing up some different ideas on what that could look like in the future. And I just like, I love that. And maybe it'll be TBD to be determined, but I've got the best person in my back pocket to help me brainstorm. What's next? Okay. That's like an exclusive. I know you didn't really announce much or say anything so vague. But even me being on Team Jenna Kutcher, I'm like, okay, what does Jenna have in her back pocket? What's she thinking about? You have to wait and see? I guess I'll have to wait and see. Well, like I said, we have so many resources, so many episodes on the Gold Digger podcast about course creation. And it's a big topic for you, Jenna, and I always love learning from you. I always learn something. It's actually incredible that I haven't created my own course yet given how entrenched I am in the ecosystem with you, but this has just been, again, another fun learning experience for me. Well, I love this topic so much because it is unlocked so much of my life. And I feel like if you are listening to this and you're in this season where you're like, I want to make a bigger impact. I want to create something super intentionally and strategically once, but have it live on to impact more than just one person or if you're tired of trading your time for money. This might be your next step. And I'm so excited for you because I have just watched online courses not just transform my life and my family's life, but transform the lives of my students. And that is something I can get behind all day every day. So thanks for talking about this topic with me. Once again, Kylie, I am clearly obsessed. Thanks, Jenna. If you've been waiting for a sign to finally launch your digital course, consider this it. And I know just the gal to help you do it. In Amy Porterfield bootcamp, you'll nail down your digital course idea. Even if you don't currently have one, you'll learn how to price it and you'll learn how to build an audience that's ready to enroll when you're ready to launch. Sign up and join the bootcamp now at JennaCutcher.com/bootcamp. And don't forget that when you join through my link, I'll give you free access to Insta Essentials valued at $49 absolutely free. And to JennaCutcher.com/bootcamp to join Amy's bootcamp and create your online course today. Until next time, gold diggers, keep on digging your biggest course creation goals. Thanks for pulling up a seat for another episode of the Gold Digger Podcast. I hope today's episode fueled you with inspiration, gave you information that you can turn into action and realigned you with your true north in life and business. If you've enjoyed today's episode, head on over to golddiggerpodcast.com for today's show notes, discount codes for our sponsors, freebies to fuel your results, and so much more. And if you haven't yet, make sure you're subscribed so that you never miss a future show. We'll see you next time, gold diggers. Please note, this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements. And individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in the episode. Your support through affiliate links or sponsored content helps us continue to bring you valuable content. Thank you for being a part of the Gold Digger community.
