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Creating Online Courses with Chris Badgett

Creating Online Courses with Chris Badgett

Podcast published: July 10, 2020

As businesses look to diversify their revenue streams, many are considering selling online courses and training materials. We spoke with Chris Badgett, the Co-Founder and CEO of LifterLMS, a learning management system for WordPress websites. We spoke with Chris about how businesses in Chester County can begin to sell their knowledge and expertise online.

Links

Notes

What is a Learning Management System (LMS)?

  • Three primary buckets of LMS users:
    • Expert industry;
    • Traditional schools; and
    • Companies and their training portals
  • Imposter syndrome is real, but it is a addressable challenge
  • Businesses can use a LMS to educate prospects about the industry or current customers about products or services
  • An LMS can be very flexible

Pivot to Digital Case Study: Balloon Artist Training

  • Ziv Raviv, owner of Kivi Media, took a love of balloon art and earned over $200,000 in a year serving a tiny niche, teaching customers balloon art

What goes into creating an online course?

  • A COVID-19 idea: restaurant owners could teach customers to cook their signature dishes at home
  • The training could cover putting together a shopping list and actually preparing the entire meal
  • Simple is better for getting started
  • Microsoft PowerPoint allows for recording screencasts and Zoom can be used to record talking-head videos; even entire courses can be recorded on a phone, but get a tripod or self-stick
  • Get the fundamentals of online training right:
    • Focus on a clear customer
    • Address a very specific problem
    • Aim for a clear result or resolution
    • Follow a clear mechanism or method (“the secret sauce”)

Teachers and Schools

  • Teachers are learning to flip the classroom using tools like Zoom and LMS
  • Training videos are recorded in advance, where online video calls become more like coaching or Q&A sessions

Get in the Beginner’s Mindset

  • Training is easier to produce when it’s super focused – don’t try to boil the ocean
  • Be sure to keep the customer in mind – get back to a beginner’s mindset

What does an online course or training look like?

  • Different course frameworks:
    • Learn a process – e.g., learn a recipe
    • Behavior change – getting in shape, adjusting diet, etc.
    • Case Study – learn by deconstructing what others have done
    • Resource Course – create a library of very useful tools and materials
    • Hybrid – mixing the other four frameworks

Focus on the Customer

  • Make everything about the customer, and not about money
  • Put the customer first: focus on the customer’s success and profits will flow in due course
  • Offer support for customers: provide weekly Zoom calls, create an online communities (i.e., a Facebook group)
  • Coaching at a group or individual level can deliver more value for those customers, and provide additional revenue for the business
  • Consider the 1,000 True Fans approach
  • Read: Building a Story Brand by Donald Miller

What is technically involved with adding an LMS to a website?

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