88. Why you're not ready for a digital course yet!

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In this episode, I'm going to tell you why

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your digital course needs to follow the tortoise and not the

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hare. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and

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money mindset coach, and welcome to the Weeniecast.

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Tell me if you've been sold this

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dream. And now that I've said tell me, I realize that this is a one

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way platform and I'm just talking at you and you can't really tell me back,

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but if you want to email me, you can. There are so many

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business coaches and business gurus out there who are selling a program on how

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you can develop and sell a digital course or some kind

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of digital product. And they paint this picture of you

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creating this thing once, launching it, and then raking in

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millions of dollars, and they make it sound so

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easy. And for the low price of

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$999, you can do it, too.

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You can make $100 in two months. And like

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most people, including myself, I'm sure you've bought one of these

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programs before thinking, oh, yeah, that sounds really nice. I would love to do

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that. Yeah, you know, I would love to make more money while

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spending less time doing work. That is the dream. So you bought the

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course and you started it and you probably dropped

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off beyond having ADHD and losing interest

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or, you know, just not feeling like the right fit for you energetically and

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work wise. There was something off. There was

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something that just didn't click for you about how this was going to

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work and if this happened to you. I

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just want to give your intuition a big nod.

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Spot on. There are very few programs out there that can

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actually help you build a digital product that will

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actually sell. And those programs, if you were to sign up for them,

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they are tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars because that's a

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ton of work that someone has to do on your behalf.

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Like so many of my clients before they started working with me, maybe you

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actually did create a digital course. Maybe you created a whole

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curriculum and you outlined it and you made the PDF's and you filmed the videos

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and you found a place to host them and you put it all together and

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launched it to hear crickets and you frantically

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scrambled to try to figure out what the went wrong. Was it your

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marketing? Was it the course? Was it too long? Was it too

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short? Was the pricing right? On and on and on. You probably freaked out

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about every single little detail. And now this digital

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course is probably sitting on a very dusty theoretical shelf in your

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brain and on your hard drive, not helping anyone

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and not making you any money. And it's really easy to do

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that and have it flop and start making up a story about yourself,

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that no one wants to hire you, that you must not be that

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good at what you do, that this could be wrong with you and that could

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be wrong with you. And there are so many other people out there who are

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doing the same thing as you, and they're probably just better at it than you.

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I have a no b's reality check for you right now, and it's that none

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of that is true. You just got sold a bill of goods like

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so many of us. You cannot start

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off selling a digital product that helps people. I

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get the desire. I understand how

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alluring the idea is that you could create this thing and it'll just generate

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money for you without you having to do a ton of work. That is the

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dream that most of us are working towards, but it isn't where you

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start. When I work with clients and what's extra

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frustrating for those of us with ADHD is that we're used to

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learning things really quickly. We're used to hearing how

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it's done, putting into action, being really good at it, if

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not perfect, and then moving on to the next thing, and then the next thing,

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and then the next thing. Failing is incredibly hard,

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specifically for neurodivergent folks. When we fail,

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it activates a whole bunch of rejection, sensitivity,

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dysphoria for us, especially when we failed at

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something that was public facing, like launching a product

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or a service. And it hurts that much more

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because not only did it not work out, and not only do you not have

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any money coming in, after you spent money on the program that was supposed to

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teach you how to do it, after you invested all that time, after you dealt

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with all the frustration and trying to figure out all the bits and how they

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would work for you, but the reason it didn't work out is

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because people saw it and they thought, nah,

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I'm good. And there's a whole bunch of meaning you can attach to

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that. You can make it all about how you're not smart enough, you're not pretty

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enough, you're not thin enough, you're not qualified enough,

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this isn't good enough. There are other people doing way better than you,

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and that's really hard to deal with. And if you're in that position right

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now, I want you to have a ton of grace for yourself because that's a

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very painful place to be, and it takes a lot of kindness and

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compassion to move you past that stage in your business.

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The mindset I want you to have when you're starting your business and as you're

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growing your business is to always remember the tortoise and the

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hare. That's right. We're getting, we're diving into some fables

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today. We all know the story of the tortoise and

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the hare. They start a race and the hare

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takes off because that's what rabbits do. They're really fast. And

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I think the rabbit gets confused or distracted along the way and then also gets

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tired and needs a nap and all the things. I think the hare actually had

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adhd, but the tortoise just kind of just keeps

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plodding along. Doesn't rush, just slow and

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steady. The tortoise finishes the race first.

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The hare comes in second. The hare is actually also really

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stressed out and has had too much caffeine and has called their mom crying

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several times because they don't know which direction they're going because it got turned around

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at some point on the race course. And they also spent money on a digital

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course that was supposed to help them finish the race quicker, and it didn't work

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out. Whereas the tortoise was just listening to a podcast the whole

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time and just spending time and its thoughts and just continuing

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the way it was going to continue. The tortoise probably also got one on one

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clients along the way, right? Because, I mean, the tortoise won a marathon.

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I'm actually making up that as a marathon. I don't think a tortoise could actually

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walk 26 miles. Anyway, if you know different, please

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dm me. We need some

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tortoise experts to get up in here to correct me on this. Also, I don't

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think that the fable is actually based on actual capabilities

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of actual animals. Anyway, you get the point of what I'm saying.

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Slow and steady wins the race every single

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time. I know it's really tempting to try to hack the system.

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We're all really into all the hacks these days and to

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find the fastest way to the biggest results where you have the most

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impact. But that's not usually how it works. I'm currently volunteering

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on a political campaign for a local Democrat. She's running for

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state representative, and this is her first time running for office.

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And literally, we're going door to door, knocking on doors,

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introducing her to the constituents and her district

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if she wins, covers seven towns. And let me tell you

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about this candidate. She's incredible. She's worked

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in homelessness prevention for decades. She's

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been super involved in her community. She gets on stage and

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she connects with each and every audience member. She's an incredible

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speaker. She has a really great head on her shoulders. She knows when to

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ask questions, when she doesn't know the answer to something. I personally

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could see her climbing the political ladder and becoming

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a much bigger figurehead than what she's going for, but it's

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not like she's jumping straight there. She's literally going door to door

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in each of these small towns, in these tiny, quaint little neighborhoods,

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saying, hi, my name is. But in a much less Eminem kind of

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way, more of like a, hi, I'm running for state representative. You know what

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I mean? It's

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not sexy, but you have to go slow.

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The number one goal we have when we start is let's make you

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money. Make money, money. Make money, money, money. Make

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money, money. Make money, money, money. And I

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always tell clients, our fastest path to cash is always

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going to be one on one clients. And the reason for this is

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because, a, you're not trying to enroll a ton of people

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into the same thing on a timeline. That's arbitrary to them.

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So, for instance, if you were to launch a group program that starts on

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September 1, you have to find the people who are willing to start on

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September 1 to sign up for it. Whereas when you're working with someone one on

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one, it's on their timeline. They can start when they're ready. And if they're

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ready now, they can start now. One on one clients know that they're going to

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get a higher level of service from you because they're going to get that one

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on one attention as well. And because they're going to get that one on one

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attention, they're going to get customization that they wouldn't be able to get in a

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digital course or in a group. After you've developed your one on

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one book of business and you have several one on one clients that are

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paying the bills every month, then you can move on to

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developing a group program. And you want to start with the group program

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first before you move to the digital product, because this is where you are going

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to trial and error, all the things that go into the digital

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product. Now, having worked with a whole bunch of one on one

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clients, you're going to look for, what is the common problem here? What is the

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thing that all of my clients seem to struggle with, and how do

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I train them out of it? And you're going to develop your whole group program

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around this one thing. And you're going to run that group program multiple

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times, you're going to relaunch it and you're going to iterate it and you're going

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to change it. And to give you some behind the scenes, this is exactly how

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I've grown my business. I built my business solely with one on

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one clients until I got to the point where I realized, oh, there are some

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parts of what I do with clients that everyone needs.

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And I could absolutely roll this out as a group program.

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And as you've probably listened to this podcast before and heard me talk

00:10:09
about BYOB, the build your own business group program, that was not its first

00:10:13
inception. Earlier on, I actually rolled out

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different portions of that program in a standalone

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fashion. So like holistic selling, which is my model for how to sell, it's very

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consultative, it's not manipulative, it's very based on helping the

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person in front of you. I actually ran that as a

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standalone group training multiple times before

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I dialed in what that training would be, empathetic

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marketing, another portion of BYOB. I did that multiple

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times, again with different groups, all on its own, so that I could

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really understand, like was the material helpful, who

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was the best client for it. And throughout this process,

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I realized that to do holistic selling well, you had to understand your

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ideal client. So that was a big part of what I needed to incorporate

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and build your own business through doing empathetic marketing. Again, I realized

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you have to have a deep understanding of your niche. And running

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these two independent programs, I realized how they needed to

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feed into each other. And I probably ran eight different

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short small group programs before I

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came up with the build your own business model that would help

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people start their businesses and start to scale them. And

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even then, my first iteration of BYOB

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no longer exists. It started off as a six month program

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and it has evolved into a two year support

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community. If people so choose where I've broken down

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exactly what you need to start with to start your business and start getting high

00:11:45
paying clients. And then you can graduate into an advanced version

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of it where you can learn how to do all of the fundamental things that

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will help your business kind of run in the background while you do the things

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that you love. And I've been at this for six and a half years now.

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And while yes, there is a digital format of BYOB,

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there are training videos and all that stuff, I'm nowhere near turning this into a

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digital course. I share this with you because I want you to really understand the

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amount of time that it takes to verify an

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idea, the amount of time it takes to understand

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what works in a group format, what works in a video training,

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and where you're going to have to augment your

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delivery. It doesn't happen overnight. And this is why you

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cannot start with a digital course. You have to trial it with your one on

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one clients, and then you have to trial it with a group program, and

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eventually you are going to evolve it into a digital course.

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But at that point, you have a verified

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idea, you have a verified audience, you've done the market check. You know

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that there are people out there buying what you're selling.

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So you're probably listening to this and thinking, but Katie, I've heard of so

00:13:03
and so who said that they quit their job and they started

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this course and they launched it and they made

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$200 in the first few months. And then they did this and they did

00:13:13
this and they're selling a course on how I

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can do the same thing. Why are you saying that that won't work for

00:13:21
me now? I'm not saying that it's 100% not going to.

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There are exceptions to every rule. But the chances

00:13:28
of you creating a digital course that is actually going

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to sell and make you hundreds of thousands of dollars without

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building it off of what one on one clients want from you, and what you're

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teaching in a group program is extremely low.

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And if you're independently wealthy and you don't have to worry about paying the bills

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and this is just something that you're doing for fun, then you know what? Knock

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your socks off. Go for it. Have fun. Try it and

00:13:54
see if it works. But if you're independently wealthy, it doesn't really matter if it

00:13:58
fails, which it likely will. But if you're like the rest of us

00:14:01
and have bills to pay and a dog to buy, really

00:14:05
expensive treats for, and maybe a small, small book

00:14:08
buying habits that you have to support, then that's not going to be

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the best course. And even for those of you who start a one on

00:14:16
one coaching business or consulting business or whatever, know

00:14:19
that when you launch a group program, 50% of them will fail.

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Even after you've done a market research check, even

00:14:27
after you have, like, gauged it with your audience.

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There's so many factors that go into you having a

00:14:34
successful launch of a group. You know how many followers you have

00:14:38
on social media and how engaged they are. That's a big factor. How

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big your email list is and how engaged they are, and

00:14:45
how honed in your email list is on your ideal client. That's

00:14:49
another massive factor. I think we've all been a part of one of those

00:14:53
groups. I think early on in my business, I had a business mentor

00:14:56
who pushed us all to grow our email list,

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but didn't give us any guidance on how to do it. And so they're like,

00:15:03
just ask your friends and family. Ask people in this group. Go

00:15:07
to Facebook, say, join my email list. And

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we all did it. And we all got a whole bunch of people on our

00:15:14
email list. And let me tell you, there's nothing more disheartening than getting an

00:15:18
email back from your newsletter, from your aunt who's telling you that you shouldn't swear

00:15:21
so much. Like, thank you so much. Great feedback. Not

00:15:25
listening to it. Also, would you like to buy my stuff? No. Okay, cool.

00:15:29
I'm just kidding. I would never ask a family member to join any of my

00:15:32
programs.

00:15:35
These are all things that take time to build. They either

00:15:39
take time or they take a ton of money to

00:15:43
establish quickly. And like I said, if you're a normal human

00:15:46
being who needs to pay the bills and needs to buy the

00:15:50
treats and is buying stuff for whatever hobby

00:15:54
you have, be it reading, woodworking, underwater, basket

00:15:58
weaving, you need to be making money from your business in the interim.

00:16:01
And at the heart of it, you're in this to help actual human

00:16:05
beings. Yes. You want to make money. Yes. You want to make lots

00:16:09
of it. Yes. Like, maybe you want to have private jets and you want to

00:16:12
do all the stuff, but more than that, you genuinely

00:16:16
care about helping people. And if you actually

00:16:20
want to help people, creating a digital course that

00:16:24
no one's going to buy and no one's going to go through and really no

00:16:27
one's going to even ever know about, it's not going to help anyone.

00:16:31
It's actually just going to end up hurting you and your confidence. But working with

00:16:35
clients one on one and holding their hand and walking them

00:16:38
through whatever transformation it is that you help them through, that helps

00:16:42
people. Launching a group program that helps ten to 20

00:16:45
people who are all working on whatever transformation it is that you

00:16:49
help folks with, with, that actually helps people. And the best

00:16:53
part, besides helping people, is that it actually makes you money in the

00:16:56
interim. And depending on what your business is and what your

00:17:00
niche is, let me tell you from experience, you can quite

00:17:04
simply build a $100 to $300

00:17:08
a year business, helping people one on one. I've done

00:17:11
it and many of my clients have done it. Does it take work?

00:17:15
Absolutely. But is it fulfilling?

00:17:19
Yeah. Does it actually impact the world?

00:17:22
Yes. And what's cool is that if you do have a dream of

00:17:26
eventually rolling out a digital product, this is the best

00:17:29
place to start, because through your one on one clients, you're going to

00:17:33
verify that whatever problem you'll solve through your

00:17:36
digital course is actually a problem that your clients have.

00:17:40
And in fact, you could probably figure out what is the problem. They had two

00:17:44
steps before, before becoming my client, so that you can capture

00:17:47
people earlier on in the process. And then your digital

00:17:51
course isn't just something that you sell to make money. It's something that you sell

00:17:55
that is also a lead magnet. It attracts people in, and it helps

00:17:59
them with something that you do not work on in your group or your one

00:18:02
on one coaching or consulting. People buy that first,

00:18:06
and they work through it, and then the next logical step will be to

00:18:10
sign up with your group or doing one on one work with you. The key

00:18:13
here is that you have to make sure that your work actually works

00:18:17
for the people who matter, and that's your clients. And I know

00:18:21
it's so easy to build a strategy

00:18:25
around how you want it to work, around this idealized

00:18:29
vision of how other people seem to have done it. And it was so easy

00:18:33
for them, and it's going to be so easy for me, and so I'm going

00:18:35
to do all the same steps, and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's so tempting to

00:18:38
get sucked into that kind of thinking. But just because you want

00:18:41
something to work a certain way does not mean it will. You have to

00:18:45
build your strategy around a realistic

00:18:49
plan. You have to assess what actually works in the

00:18:53
world that we live in and follow that, rather than

00:18:57
how you want it all to look. And if you're ready to get real with

00:19:00
yourself and see, start running your business to

00:19:04
a realistic strategy that is designed

00:19:08
to get you making money as quickly as possible. Working with one on

00:19:12
one clients, evolving yourself into some kind of group

00:19:15
program, and then developing whatever digital course comes

00:19:19
out of that. Then I invite you to book a generate income strategy

00:19:23
call with me. If you're super attached to

00:19:27
how you want things to work and you're hoping that you're going to talk me

00:19:30
out of, oh, but like this, this one time, you're gonna help me with the

00:19:32
digital course first, right? Do not book a call. I don't wanna talk to you.

00:19:37
I know it hurts to. To realize that you've been following this

00:19:41
cult of, oh, it can be super easy, and I'm gonna roll

00:19:44
out a digital course, and it's gonna make me a ton of money. It's really

00:19:47
hard to let go of that thinking. But if you're willing to be brave

00:19:51
and you really want your business to work out, then

00:19:55
you're gonna need to invest in a more realistic way to do things, and

00:19:59
I'd love to help you with that.

00:20:05
Luna, no barking. Come on, please. Oh, no.

00:20:08
Oh, no. Luna, out. Okay. Excuse me while I evict my dog from

00:20:12
the room. Okay, out you go. See you later.

00:20:16
Bye. Anyway,

00:20:20
welcome to my ADHD show, everyone. I hope you're enjoying.

00:20:26
Squirrel. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.