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Creating Online Courses with Chris Badgett

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.

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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?

Black Owned Businesses in Chester County, PA

Online resources, websites, or apps that we should include on this list of Black owned and people of color owned businesses in Chester County, PA