September 19, 2023 • 25 mins
In this episode, Tara gives the 4 key sections in a digital experience (course or program) audit through the lens of the Learn Academy annual clean-up. Just like cleaning out the clutter of your house, it is best practice to take a critical look at your programs and products to ensure that they are serving your customers and providing the best experience possible.
Interested in the team providing your digital program with an audit, it may be time for The Course Edit™. Check out details here: https://tlslearning.com/step/the-course-edit
Want to watch this episode? Check it out on our YouTube channel.
About Me:
My name is Tara Bryan. I help business owners break into the next level of success by packaging their expertise into an online business. It's my passion to help you find the fastest path to results to create a greater impact and income for you and your tribe.
This podcast is 100% focused on support, tips and example sharing, and building a community of online business owners who are passionate about building awesome learning experiences.
We do that by building engaging, motivating, gamified, and learner-centered online experiences. We come up with ideas and strategies to ensure that our learners can thrive and succeed using our packaged products.
To learn more:
Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com
Here are two ways we can help you grow and scale your online course-powered business:
1. Want to package or pivot your business online? Download our free Step-by-Step guide to get the exact steps you need to create an online business.
2. ALREADY HAVE AN ONLINE BUSINESS & READY TO INFINITELY SCALE?
Download our free 50 Ways to Engage Your Customers guide or Schedule a 15 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.
Thanks for listening!
Thanks so much for listening to our podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and think that others could benefit from listening, please share it using the social media buttons on this page.
Do you have some feedback or questions about this episode? Leave a comment in the section below!
Subscribe to the podcast
If you would like to get automatic updates of new podcast episodes, you can subscribe to the podcast on Apple Podcasts or Stitcher. You can also subscribe in your favorite podcast app.
Leave us an Apple Podcasts review
Ratings and reviews from our listeners are extremely valuable to us and greatly appreciated. They help our podcast rank higher on Apple Podcasts, which exposes our show to more awesome listeners like you. If you have a minute, please leave an honest review on Apple Podcasts.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Tara Bryan (00:01):
Hey, everybody, welcome to today's episode of
the course building secretspodcast. I am thrilled that
you're joining us today. Hey,today, I want to talk a little
bit about kind of the behind thescenes of what happens in our
business in the fall. So as youcan imagine, because we do a
course, the course edit, whichis a course audit, or sort of a
course makeover, for our clientsthat we work with, we also do it
(00:27):
for ourselves. And so we're inthe middle of doing that right
now. So I want to just kind ofgive you some insights and
behind the scenes, sort of tipsand tricks that we're dealing
with, as we're going throughthis process. So when you think
about your online or digitalprogram Experience course,
again, whatever you want to callit, it doesn't really matter.
(00:49):
But however you're deliveringyour signature framework, to
your customers online, is whatI'm talking about, right? So
what happens, or what tends tohappen is you build your, your
digital program. And one or twothings happen. One is you build
(01:09):
it, and you put it out there andyou don't ever touch it again.
Or you continuously are addingadditional kind of new videos or
new content, new things that arecoming up or insights that you
have gotten over the year. Andso what what tends to happen is,
(01:31):
it becomes a little bit of amess, right. And so you know,
most of the time when we'regoing in and auditing courses or
auditing digital programs,that's what we find is it's not
a lack of content, it is toomuch content, right? Too many
assets, too many things goingon, and not enough of a
(01:51):
simplified action that someonecan use to actually get the
results that they're lookingfor. So our programs are no
different, we go through themevery single year to make sure
that we're not just adding inextra miscellaneous pieces, or
repetitive items. And that we'rereally staying focused on what
(02:12):
the message is how we can bestserve and show up for our
students in a digital way. And,and so again, we're going
through that right now it's abit of a slog. And as it should
be, right because we're you needto look at it with a critical
eye, when you're building abusiness when you're growing
your business. You don't justlike sort of set it and forget
(02:34):
it and hope that you know, it,it sustains itself, right? Like
your business is a is a livingand breathing. entity, right?
Sometimes it's a monster,sometimes it's a cranky baby,
sometimes it is a freedomcreator that allows you to serve
people in the best way and getthem results, right. So that's
(02:58):
where we always want to keep ourprograms is to not have it be
something that's sitting on theshelf, or, you know, something
that we're hiding. And I'll behonest, there's been a little
hiding for me this year. Becausethere are some things that I
know that I want to elevate inmy program, there are things
that I know that I want to addor things that are maybe not in
(03:20):
the right place based on someadditional, you know, teaching
or experience that we've hadaround helping people go through
this process. And so I knew thatit was time to sit down and and
really reevaluate what washappening. Alright, so a couple
(03:41):
of different things. Number one,it I just want to validate
perhaps your feelings aroundthis being overwhelming, right?
Because it is it's overwhelming.It's overwhelming for us. And we
do this every single day withour clients. Because here's the
reality is that it's really hardto audit and look critically at
(04:02):
your own program, because youare looking at it from the lens
of an expert, and not the lensof a student. And so when you do
that, you want to put in all thethings you want to make it this
amazing experience where yougive them everything. And the
reality is is they don't needeverything yet they need what
(04:22):
they need to solve the problemthat you have sold them. And so
we just have a tendency to tryand put too many things in. It
was the analogy of like, it'sreally hard to see the label
when you're inside the bottle,right? You're too close to it.
You can't look at it critically,you can't look at it outside of
your own expertise. So when wecome in and we do an audit, and
(04:46):
we provide sort of a newroadmap. It provides that
clarity for people that allowsthem to just sort of peel away
all of the things and so ifyou're in that position, just
know that like this is a normalpart of the park. CES. And
that's why you hire someone tocome in and in kind of, you
know, cut through some of that.And again, we are no exception,
(05:07):
we have people who come in andkind of give us the insights
that we need to be able to seethe label. Because we know we
can't see it, we're too close toit. When I was running the
agency, we would, we would haveoutside people come in and do
the quality control, do reviewsof things. Because once you get
immersed in something, it's sohard to see outside of it. So
(05:31):
again, totally normal. The otherthing I want to validate is, if
you are sort of hiding, like Imentioned earlier, you know,
it's okay, and the reason thatyou're doing that is because it
feels so overwhelming. I alwaysthink about when I asked my
children, my teenagers to cleantheir room, and they're like,
oh, you know, so hard, so hard.There's so many things. And, and
(05:55):
so, so often, that's what itfeels like, right? And so I go
in to check the room, and itlooks beautiful, and everything
is great on the surface. Andthen I open their closet and
like everything tumbles out, youhave, right, like, that's sort
of how it feels, sometimes whenyou have your program is it's
like when nobody actually goesthrough it. Or if nobody
notices, how much stuff is inthere. Or if they, you know, if
(06:20):
they like going through allthose things, then you know,
it's okay. Right? Nobody willactually notice. And, and so
that's when you know that it'stime to purge, it's time to go
through all of those clothes inthe closet and pick out the ones
that you need to either toss orkeep or donate, right. And so I
love this time of the year.Because just like with your
(06:42):
house, you have to go throughthis process of, you know, kind
of putting it into the differentcategories in terms of what
you're going to keep, what areyou going to toss, what are you
going to donate, donate or getrid of, or give away for free or
add to your content and YouTubeor whatever you want to do with
it. But it doesn't belong in inyour program anymore. And again,
(07:05):
just to reiterate, what your jobis when you're creating any type
of program is to provide peoplewith a fastest path to results.
You are they're trusting youwith your experience and your
experience, maybe you went downa windy path, it doesn't mean
that you're giving them thatsame windy path, you're giving
(07:26):
them the life lessons, the youknow, competencies, skill
lessons that you've learned, sothat you can help them go
faster, so that you can helpthem achieve success in the most
efficient way possible. And sowe look at four different
categories when we're doing anaudit. And again, this is in the
(07:47):
course edit. And so we we divedeep into someone's business
through these four categories,and then provide a roadmap. So
let me just give you the fourcategories. So you can go and do
this yourself and look at lookat your program, like do an
honest assessment. So the firstone is your platform. So let's
(08:10):
talk about your platform thatyou have all of your digital
assets in. Is it serving you?Are you able to see what people
are doing and how they'reprogressing through your
program? So when we talk aboutyour platform, we're really
looking at kind of whereeverything is sitting? How are
(08:32):
you delivering the experience?How does somebody log in? How do
they go through? What what kindsof data are you getting around
each of your students? And howdo you use that then to ensure
that you're hitting the mark,and you're able to keep them
moving? So that's one piece ofit is we look at the platform?
(08:54):
Is it serving you? Is it is it acohesive experience that helps
people actually get in andnavigate? Or are you selling
something and nobody's loggingin, nobody is participating. And
when they do participate, orthey do try and log in, it's so
confusing that they don't knowwhat to do, or you have things
(09:15):
on like four or five differentplatforms, and so people aren't
sure where to log in, or how tohow to find this or find that or
is this the same as this? Or isthat the same as you know,
right? It's
just too confusing. And so doyou have a comprehensive
strategy for how you'redelivering all of the content?
(09:36):
Okay, so that's number one.Number two, is the experience
that somebody's has as they areinteracting with your assets
with you as a coach with otherstudents. How are you leveraging
the platform to help that happenbecause the the way that
(09:58):
somebody's experience NCAA isthe digital version of your
business is very, veryimportant. Again, because are
they confused? When they comein? Do they not know where to
go? Is it just this disjointedkind of, you know, journey of
how do I get from point A topoint B? And we want to make
(10:19):
sure that that is as specific aspossible. So we look at the case
experience, how are you helpingincrease participation and
engagement and rewarding peoplefor taking action, providing
feedback, providing activities?All these different things are
things that we look at in withinyour program? To see like, how
is it coming to life? How areyou teaching this in a way that
(10:42):
helps people actually getresults, learning isn't a
passive activity, we have to putthem in action, which means that
there has to be some type ofcall to action for them, so that
they can apply what it is thatyou're teaching. Now, let me go
into the most important piece,which is the one I'm not doing
(11:05):
isn't necessarily in order. Butthe most important piece that we
look at is do you have asignature framework? Do you have
a consistent methodology thatyou're walking somebody through
that they see from thebeginning, in terms of a path,
like a very clear roadmap of Istart here, that I go here, then
I go here, and then I go here,I'm not talking about how
(11:26):
they're getting through theplatform, I'm talking about how
they progress from having aproblem to getting that solution
or that transformation thatthey're looking for. We call
that a signature framework,right? So you have a unique
methodology that's driving yourbusiness. And it is literally
(11:47):
the foundation to everythingthat you're creating, you could
do one on one services you coulddo. done done with you, you
could do do it yourself, youcould do a book, you could do
like all sorts of ways todeliver your framework, your
methodology. But do you haveone, and if you do not have one,
(12:07):
then anything that's in yourprogram is just a bunch of
topics and information kind ofcobbled together. Adults like to
see the big picture, right?They're not satisfied with just
getting little parts and piecesof things, they want to see the
big picture, the big picture foryou, in your foundation of your
business is your signatureframework. Do you have that? And
(12:29):
is it very obvious to someone asthey are beginning your program,
and then is it consistentlyapplied all the way through. So
if you have, say you have sevensteps, in your signature
framework, what should happen isthat you should have a visual
map for someone, right? So youhave like a treasure map, right?
(12:49):
Like you're starting here. Andthis is where the treasure is,
right? This is where the resultis. And and they can clearly see
each step along the path. Don'tbe afraid to give them the
steps. From a big pictureperspective, it doesn't mean
that they're not going to gothrough your program, they're
not going to buy, they're notgoing to do the things because
(13:11):
the what is different than thehow, right if they had the map,
that's, you know, that's a greatstart. But they need to know how
to implement the steps thatyou're giving them in order to
move forward. And sofoundationally create that map.
If there's no map in a program,we immediately will not go to
(13:33):
the other three, because that isthe piece that needs to be
worked on, before anything elseis tweaked. And so that
foundationally is the biggest isthe biggest thing. And and so
again, do you have a signatureframework? For me, when I'm
going through an auditing myprogram, I have a very clear
(13:54):
roadmap. But once a year, I lookat it and I'm like, is this
still the roadmap? Is thereanother step? Can I take out a
step? can I combine a step? Isthere some other sort of way I
want to help them solve theproblem in the fastest way
possible? Maybe there's there'ssome changing that needs to
happen. And most of the time Ido I change it up just a little
(14:18):
bit because I can get more clearand more succinct in terms of
how I'm teaching it, so that ithelps people even get results
faster and easier than my prioriteration. And so again, this is
the third thing that we look at,in terms of auditing, a digital
(14:39):
experience. And in fact, justeven auditing a business in
general. When you're firststarting out, this is the number
one mistake that people make isthey just say oh, I'm an expert.
I'm just going to teach peopleor I'm going to provide services
for people you know, as afreelancer or as a contractor,
or we're going to work for hire,and they're just going to pay me
(14:59):
to do do different things. Andwhat what happens so quickly is
that it morphs into this crazysort of transactional
relationship that you can't win,right? Because they're
constantly asking for something,you're not leading them down a
clear path. You're like, well, Idon't do that, or I don't do
(15:20):
this, or, you know, yes, I willdo that. But it's more in the
end, it's just like this weirdconversation that's happening
all the way through. So untilyou own your process, your
signature framework, you can'tactually provide consistent
results for people, which meansyou can't scale your business.
So again, critical foundationalpiece, this is the kind of the
(15:42):
first thing that we're lookingat as we go through and audit a
program because it's, it's,again, there should be visual
roadmap, either on the salespage, in your signature
presentation, that you'retalking about your program, or
immediately when someone comesin, and you're onboarding them
that you're like, Alright,here's the map, here's where
we're going, right, we're goingfrom Minneapolis to New York,
(16:03):
and we're going to follow theseroads, and we're not going to
end up in a dead end, we're notgoing to end up in you know,
wherever else, because I've gotyou covered, right, I've got the
path, you just need to get onthe path with me, and I'm going
to teach you how to get there.Okay, so that is the third one.
The fourth one is your actualassets, right? The the videos,
the worksheets, the activities,the Quizlet, like, whatever the
(16:28):
things are, that you're creatingto support the path. And so we
look at all of those. Andtypically what happens in this
sort of category is, this iswhere kind of the the, you know,
full closet comes out is youhave created a new video, for
(16:50):
example, on one of the steps.And instead of taking the time
to go through and sort of reconfigure where that video fits,
you just throw it in thatsection. And so what happens is
you have like a bulky sectionthat either is contradicting
itself, or there's you'rerepeating is not succinct. It's
(17:14):
not clear. And it's not. It'snot something that people can
consume without gettingconfused. Remember, I was
auditing a program, and I wasabout 17 or 18 hours in watching
videos before they actually evengot into sort of identifying the
path of how to do what it wasthey were teaching. And I was
(17:39):
like, why am I going through allof this stuff at the beginning.
And what had happened is theyjust put all their marketing
videos in, right. So I created avideo for this, I did a session
here, I did a webinar here. Andthey just started putting all of
that in. And and it's a reallycommon problem, because for
(18:01):
whatever reason, there's thisidea, and maybe, maybe we blame
it on McDonald's, right forsupersizing things, but there's
this idea that quantity isbetter than quality. And so if I
give them more they're gonnalook at and go, Oh, my gosh,
this is so great. It's got allthese things. And the challenge
(18:21):
is that it's not quantity, itsquality. And it's how little Can
you put in, that still will getpeople results, right? So think
about the fact that like,everyone is so overwhelmed with
information, everyone is sooverwhelmed with content,
everyone is so overwhelmed withall of the things when you're
trying to get a result, right.So you have a problem and you're
(18:43):
trying to get to a result of theproblem. Do you want to take a
meandering path to get there? Ordo you just want to solve the
damn problem? Yes, you just wantto solve the problem. And so
when you're, you're
working with a trusted advisor,right or a trusted guide, you
trust that they're going to giveyou the fastest plate way to get
(19:06):
from the problem to thesolution. And so, the biggest
challenge is like fighting thaturge to put all of the things in
that your signature program andand so, that is that is a
critical element to this. And Iwill say that I have seen very
(19:28):
few programs from a businessowners who do not have too many
things in there, right? Sothere's a huge difference
between marketing content, socontent that's out in the wild,
that helps to attract your idealcustomer to you and course or
program content to totallydifferent things. Once somebody
(19:51):
has purchased your program, theydon't need you to you know,
convince them or give themcontent around why It's
important to do the thing, or tosolve the problem, they need
their problem solved. So whenyou're working one on one with
someone, say they're in front ofyou like at your desk, or you're
in a live workshop, you're notgoing to be like, Okay, so we're
(20:15):
going to spend, you know, 20hours in this room, and I'm
going to give you every singlething I've ever I've ever spoken
on, I'm going to give you all ofthe things I've ever done in my
entire life. And you're going tosit here for 20 hours in this
room and in consume it, you'renot going to do that, right. And
(20:39):
so treat your online presence,your digital presence in terms
of your program, whatever it isthat you're fulfilling on, as
like, remember that they're inthe room with you, they are
experiencing you, and they'relooking for a solution, give
them the solution as quickly aspossible, and help them overcome
(21:02):
the hurdles and challenges thatthey're gonna have along the
way, right. So that'spracticing, that's looking at
like, Okay, here's where you mayhave a little bit of a
challenge, let's have someconversation around that. Let's
work through that particularproblem. If you're in, again, if
you're in a live room, andyou're like, Okay, here's a
challenge that you may have,right? Here's a problem, a
(21:24):
common problem that you may havearound this topic, you're going
to put people in groups, you'regoing to have them work through
something, you're going to havesome type of way that they are
going to try and solve asimulated version of that
problem. Do that in yourprogram, right? That is much
more valuable when you put themin the driver's seat, than it is
(21:44):
just giving them 20 hours of youknow, doing different
presentations and doingdifferent things, they can see
all of that out in the wild,they don't need it behind the
paywall. They need you to givethem the result. And so, so
again, those are the four bigthings that we look at when we
do a course or program audit.And, and we get deep, we get
(22:08):
deep in people's programs, whichis why I can tell you that these
are the four, kind of the fourbig things that people are
struggling with in order to keeptheir customers and ascend them
to their next offer. And toreally create a program that
they're proud of that can besomething that is is their
signature program, high ticketpremium experience that they're
(22:32):
providing for people so thatthey know that it's a consistent
experience, they know it'sgetting results, and it becomes
an amplifier for what they'redoing in their business, it
doesn't become that thing thatyou're sort of like, okay, I'm
just gonna sell it or whateverelse, it becomes the powerhouse
that helps you grow and scaleyour business. So hopefully this
(22:53):
served you today I it's justfunny because, again, like I
said, we do this every year. Andwe really look critically at all
of the different all thedifferent parts and pieces of
our program in in these fourcategories. And make sure that
we are not only you know thatit's cleaned up, and it's the
best experience for people, butthat we're using tools that
(23:18):
makes sense for what we'redoing, where you were looking
kind of out there in in thespace and making sure that where
we are is where we need to be.And so hopefully this serves you
gives you a little bit of asense, if you wanted to do that
course audit yourself. It givesyou a sense for how to start
looking critically at yourprograms. I will tell you, like
(23:39):
I said this is what we do everysingle day with our clients and
what we've been doing for many,many years. And so if you do
need help with this, just giveus a shout. Happy to have a
phone call just to talk throughkind of where you are. Maybe
there's one of the three or oneof the four that you feel like
is really where you need tofocus and you kind of know you
(23:59):
need to focus like you open thecloset door and all the clothes
are gonna come out. Yeah, so Sogive us a shout. Happy to have
that conversation. All right.There you go. Have a great day
and until next time to go outand serve your people.
Hey, everybody, welcome to today's episode of
the course building secretspodcast. I am thrilled that
you're joining us today. Hey,today, I want to talk a little
bit about kind of the behind thescenes of what happens in our
business in the fall. So as youcan imagine, because we do a
course, the course edit, whichis a course audit, or sort of a
course makeover, for our clientsthat we work with, we also do it
(00:27):
for ourselves. And so we're inthe middle of doing that right
now. So I want to just kind ofgive you some insights and
behind the scenes, sort of tipsand tricks that we're dealing
with, as we're going throughthis process. So when you think
about your online or digitalprogram Experience course,
again, whatever you want to callit, it doesn't really matter.
(00:49):
But however you're deliveringyour signature framework, to
your customers online, is whatI'm talking about, right? So
what happens, or what tends tohappen is you build your, your
digital program. And one or twothings happen. One is you build
(01:09):
it, and you put it out there andyou don't ever touch it again.
Or you continuously are addingadditional kind of new videos or
new content, new things that arecoming up or insights that you
have gotten over the year. Andso what what tends to happen is,
(01:31):
it becomes a little bit of amess, right. And so you know,
most of the time when we'regoing in and auditing courses or
auditing digital programs,that's what we find is it's not
a lack of content, it is toomuch content, right? Too many
assets, too many things goingon, and not enough of a
(01:51):
simplified action that someonecan use to actually get the
results that they're lookingfor. So our programs are no
different, we go through themevery single year to make sure
that we're not just adding inextra miscellaneous pieces, or
repetitive items. And that we'rereally staying focused on what
(02:12):
the message is how we can bestserve and show up for our
students in a digital way. And,and so again, we're going
through that right now it's abit of a slog. And as it should
be, right because we're you needto look at it with a critical
eye, when you're building abusiness when you're growing
your business. You don't justlike sort of set it and forget
(02:34):
it and hope that you know, it,it sustains itself, right? Like
your business is a is a livingand breathing. entity, right?
Sometimes it's a monster,sometimes it's a cranky baby,
sometimes it is a freedomcreator that allows you to serve
people in the best way and getthem results, right. So that's
(02:58):
where we always want to keep ourprograms is to not have it be
something that's sitting on theshelf, or, you know, something
that we're hiding. And I'll behonest, there's been a little
hiding for me this year. Becausethere are some things that I
know that I want to elevate inmy program, there are things
that I know that I want to addor things that are maybe not in
(03:20):
the right place based on someadditional, you know, teaching
or experience that we've hadaround helping people go through
this process. And so I knew thatit was time to sit down and and
really reevaluate what washappening. Alright, so a couple
(03:41):
of different things. Number one,it I just want to validate
perhaps your feelings aroundthis being overwhelming, right?
Because it is it's overwhelming.It's overwhelming for us. And we
do this every single day withour clients. Because here's the
reality is that it's really hardto audit and look critically at
(04:02):
your own program, because youare looking at it from the lens
of an expert, and not the lensof a student. And so when you do
that, you want to put in all thethings you want to make it this
amazing experience where yougive them everything. And the
reality is is they don't needeverything yet they need what
(04:22):
they need to solve the problemthat you have sold them. And so
we just have a tendency to tryand put too many things in. It
was the analogy of like, it'sreally hard to see the label
when you're inside the bottle,right? You're too close to it.
You can't look at it critically,you can't look at it outside of
your own expertise. So when wecome in and we do an audit, and
(04:46):
we provide sort of a newroadmap. It provides that
clarity for people that allowsthem to just sort of peel away
all of the things and so ifyou're in that position, just
know that like this is a normalpart of the park. CES. And
that's why you hire someone tocome in and in kind of, you
know, cut through some of that.And again, we are no exception,
(05:07):
we have people who come in andkind of give us the insights
that we need to be able to seethe label. Because we know we
can't see it, we're too close toit. When I was running the
agency, we would, we would haveoutside people come in and do
the quality control, do reviewsof things. Because once you get
immersed in something, it's sohard to see outside of it. So
(05:31):
again, totally normal. The otherthing I want to validate is, if
you are sort of hiding, like Imentioned earlier, you know,
it's okay, and the reason thatyou're doing that is because it
feels so overwhelming. I alwaysthink about when I asked my
children, my teenagers to cleantheir room, and they're like,
oh, you know, so hard, so hard.There's so many things. And, and
(05:55):
so, so often, that's what itfeels like, right? And so I go
in to check the room, and itlooks beautiful, and everything
is great on the surface. Andthen I open their closet and
like everything tumbles out, youhave, right, like, that's sort
of how it feels, sometimes whenyou have your program is it's
like when nobody actually goesthrough it. Or if nobody
notices, how much stuff is inthere. Or if they, you know, if
(06:20):
they like going through allthose things, then you know,
it's okay. Right? Nobody willactually notice. And, and so
that's when you know that it'stime to purge, it's time to go
through all of those clothes inthe closet and pick out the ones
that you need to either toss orkeep or donate, right. And so I
love this time of the year.Because just like with your
(06:42):
house, you have to go throughthis process of, you know, kind
of putting it into the differentcategories in terms of what
you're going to keep, what areyou going to toss, what are you
going to donate, donate or getrid of, or give away for free or
add to your content and YouTubeor whatever you want to do with
it. But it doesn't belong in inyour program anymore. And again,
(07:05):
just to reiterate, what your jobis when you're creating any type
of program is to provide peoplewith a fastest path to results.
You are they're trusting youwith your experience and your
experience, maybe you went downa windy path, it doesn't mean
that you're giving them thatsame windy path, you're giving
(07:26):
them the life lessons, the youknow, competencies, skill
lessons that you've learned, sothat you can help them go
faster, so that you can helpthem achieve success in the most
efficient way possible. And sowe look at four different
categories when we're doing anaudit. And again, this is in the
(07:47):
course edit. And so we we divedeep into someone's business
through these four categories,and then provide a roadmap. So
let me just give you the fourcategories. So you can go and do
this yourself and look at lookat your program, like do an
honest assessment. So the firstone is your platform. So let's
(08:10):
talk about your platform thatyou have all of your digital
assets in. Is it serving you?Are you able to see what people
are doing and how they'reprogressing through your
program? So when we talk aboutyour platform, we're really
looking at kind of whereeverything is sitting? How are
(08:32):
you delivering the experience?How does somebody log in? How do
they go through? What what kindsof data are you getting around
each of your students? And howdo you use that then to ensure
that you're hitting the mark,and you're able to keep them
moving? So that's one piece ofit is we look at the platform?
(08:54):
Is it serving you? Is it is it acohesive experience that helps
people actually get in andnavigate? Or are you selling
something and nobody's loggingin, nobody is participating. And
when they do participate, orthey do try and log in, it's so
confusing that they don't knowwhat to do, or you have things
(09:15):
on like four or five differentplatforms, and so people aren't
sure where to log in, or how tohow to find this or find that or
is this the same as this? Or isthat the same as you know,
right? It's
just too confusing. And so doyou have a comprehensive
strategy for how you'redelivering all of the content?
(09:36):
Okay, so that's number one.Number two, is the experience
that somebody's has as they areinteracting with your assets
with you as a coach with otherstudents. How are you leveraging
the platform to help that happenbecause the the way that
(09:58):
somebody's experience NCAA isthe digital version of your
business is very, veryimportant. Again, because are
they confused? When they comein? Do they not know where to
go? Is it just this disjointedkind of, you know, journey of
how do I get from point A topoint B? And we want to make
(10:19):
sure that that is as specific aspossible. So we look at the case
experience, how are you helpingincrease participation and
engagement and rewarding peoplefor taking action, providing
feedback, providing activities?All these different things are
things that we look at in withinyour program? To see like, how
is it coming to life? How areyou teaching this in a way that
(10:42):
helps people actually getresults, learning isn't a
passive activity, we have to putthem in action, which means that
there has to be some type ofcall to action for them, so that
they can apply what it is thatyou're teaching. Now, let me go
into the most important piece,which is the one I'm not doing
(11:05):
isn't necessarily in order. Butthe most important piece that we
look at is do you have asignature framework? Do you have
a consistent methodology thatyou're walking somebody through
that they see from thebeginning, in terms of a path,
like a very clear roadmap of Istart here, that I go here, then
I go here, and then I go here,I'm not talking about how
(11:26):
they're getting through theplatform, I'm talking about how
they progress from having aproblem to getting that solution
or that transformation thatthey're looking for. We call
that a signature framework,right? So you have a unique
methodology that's driving yourbusiness. And it is literally
(11:47):
the foundation to everythingthat you're creating, you could
do one on one services you coulddo. done done with you, you
could do do it yourself, youcould do a book, you could do
like all sorts of ways todeliver your framework, your
methodology. But do you haveone, and if you do not have one,
(12:07):
then anything that's in yourprogram is just a bunch of
topics and information kind ofcobbled together. Adults like to
see the big picture, right?They're not satisfied with just
getting little parts and piecesof things, they want to see the
big picture, the big picture foryou, in your foundation of your
business is your signatureframework. Do you have that? And
(12:29):
is it very obvious to someone asthey are beginning your program,
and then is it consistentlyapplied all the way through. So
if you have, say you have sevensteps, in your signature
framework, what should happen isthat you should have a visual
map for someone, right? So youhave like a treasure map, right?
(12:49):
Like you're starting here. Andthis is where the treasure is,
right? This is where the resultis. And and they can clearly see
each step along the path. Don'tbe afraid to give them the
steps. From a big pictureperspective, it doesn't mean
that they're not going to gothrough your program, they're
not going to buy, they're notgoing to do the things because
(13:11):
the what is different than thehow, right if they had the map,
that's, you know, that's a greatstart. But they need to know how
to implement the steps thatyou're giving them in order to
move forward. And sofoundationally create that map.
If there's no map in a program,we immediately will not go to
(13:33):
the other three, because that isthe piece that needs to be
worked on, before anything elseis tweaked. And so that
foundationally is the biggest isthe biggest thing. And and so
again, do you have a signatureframework? For me, when I'm
going through an auditing myprogram, I have a very clear
(13:54):
roadmap. But once a year, I lookat it and I'm like, is this
still the roadmap? Is thereanother step? Can I take out a
step? can I combine a step? Isthere some other sort of way I
want to help them solve theproblem in the fastest way
possible? Maybe there's there'ssome changing that needs to
happen. And most of the time Ido I change it up just a little
(14:18):
bit because I can get more clearand more succinct in terms of
how I'm teaching it, so that ithelps people even get results
faster and easier than my prioriteration. And so again, this is
the third thing that we look at,in terms of auditing, a digital
(14:39):
experience. And in fact, justeven auditing a business in
general. When you're firststarting out, this is the number
one mistake that people make isthey just say oh, I'm an expert.
I'm just going to teach peopleor I'm going to provide services
for people you know, as afreelancer or as a contractor,
or we're going to work for hire,and they're just going to pay me
(14:59):
to do do different things. Andwhat what happens so quickly is
that it morphs into this crazysort of transactional
relationship that you can't win,right? Because they're
constantly asking for something,you're not leading them down a
clear path. You're like, well, Idon't do that, or I don't do
(15:20):
this, or, you know, yes, I willdo that. But it's more in the
end, it's just like this weirdconversation that's happening
all the way through. So untilyou own your process, your
signature framework, you can'tactually provide consistent
results for people, which meansyou can't scale your business.
So again, critical foundationalpiece, this is the kind of the
(15:42):
first thing that we're lookingat as we go through and audit a
program because it's, it's,again, there should be visual
roadmap, either on the salespage, in your signature
presentation, that you'retalking about your program, or
immediately when someone comesin, and you're onboarding them
that you're like, Alright,here's the map, here's where
we're going, right, we're goingfrom Minneapolis to New York,
(16:03):
and we're going to follow theseroads, and we're not going to
end up in a dead end, we're notgoing to end up in you know,
wherever else, because I've gotyou covered, right, I've got the
path, you just need to get onthe path with me, and I'm going
to teach you how to get there.Okay, so that is the third one.
The fourth one is your actualassets, right? The the videos,
the worksheets, the activities,the Quizlet, like, whatever the
(16:28):
things are, that you're creatingto support the path. And so we
look at all of those. Andtypically what happens in this
sort of category is, this iswhere kind of the the, you know,
full closet comes out is youhave created a new video, for
(16:50):
example, on one of the steps.And instead of taking the time
to go through and sort of reconfigure where that video fits,
you just throw it in thatsection. And so what happens is
you have like a bulky sectionthat either is contradicting
itself, or there's you'rerepeating is not succinct. It's
(17:14):
not clear. And it's not. It'snot something that people can
consume without gettingconfused. Remember, I was
auditing a program, and I wasabout 17 or 18 hours in watching
videos before they actually evengot into sort of identifying the
path of how to do what it wasthey were teaching. And I was
(17:39):
like, why am I going through allof this stuff at the beginning.
And what had happened is theyjust put all their marketing
videos in, right. So I created avideo for this, I did a session
here, I did a webinar here. Andthey just started putting all of
that in. And and it's a reallycommon problem, because for
(18:01):
whatever reason, there's thisidea, and maybe, maybe we blame
it on McDonald's, right forsupersizing things, but there's
this idea that quantity isbetter than quality. And so if I
give them more they're gonnalook at and go, Oh, my gosh,
this is so great. It's got allthese things. And the challenge
(18:21):
is that it's not quantity, itsquality. And it's how little Can
you put in, that still will getpeople results, right? So think
about the fact that like,everyone is so overwhelmed with
information, everyone is sooverwhelmed with content,
everyone is so overwhelmed withall of the things when you're
trying to get a result, right.So you have a problem and you're
(18:43):
trying to get to a result of theproblem. Do you want to take a
meandering path to get there? Ordo you just want to solve the
damn problem? Yes, you just wantto solve the problem. And so
when you're, you're
working with a trusted advisor,right or a trusted guide, you
trust that they're going to giveyou the fastest plate way to get
(19:06):
from the problem to thesolution. And so, the biggest
challenge is like fighting thaturge to put all of the things in
that your signature program andand so, that is that is a
critical element to this. And Iwill say that I have seen very
(19:28):
few programs from a businessowners who do not have too many
things in there, right? Sothere's a huge difference
between marketing content, socontent that's out in the wild,
that helps to attract your idealcustomer to you and course or
program content to totallydifferent things. Once somebody
(19:51):
has purchased your program, theydon't need you to you know,
convince them or give themcontent around why It's
important to do the thing, or tosolve the problem, they need
their problem solved. So whenyou're working one on one with
someone, say they're in front ofyou like at your desk, or you're
in a live workshop, you're notgoing to be like, Okay, so we're
(20:15):
going to spend, you know, 20hours in this room, and I'm
going to give you every singlething I've ever I've ever spoken
on, I'm going to give you all ofthe things I've ever done in my
entire life. And you're going tosit here for 20 hours in this
room and in consume it, you'renot going to do that, right. And
(20:39):
so treat your online presence,your digital presence in terms
of your program, whatever it isthat you're fulfilling on, as
like, remember that they're inthe room with you, they are
experiencing you, and they'relooking for a solution, give
them the solution as quickly aspossible, and help them overcome
(21:02):
the hurdles and challenges thatthey're gonna have along the
way, right. So that'spracticing, that's looking at
like, Okay, here's where you mayhave a little bit of a
challenge, let's have someconversation around that. Let's
work through that particularproblem. If you're in, again, if
you're in a live room, andyou're like, Okay, here's a
challenge that you may have,right? Here's a problem, a
(21:24):
common problem that you may havearound this topic, you're going
to put people in groups, you'regoing to have them work through
something, you're going to havesome type of way that they are
going to try and solve asimulated version of that
problem. Do that in yourprogram, right? That is much
more valuable when you put themin the driver's seat, than it is
(21:44):
just giving them 20 hours of youknow, doing different
presentations and doingdifferent things, they can see
all of that out in the wild,they don't need it behind the
paywall. They need you to givethem the result. And so, so
again, those are the four bigthings that we look at when we
do a course or program audit.And, and we get deep, we get
(22:08):
deep in people's programs, whichis why I can tell you that these
are the four, kind of the fourbig things that people are
struggling with in order to keeptheir customers and ascend them
to their next offer. And toreally create a program that
they're proud of that can besomething that is is their
signature program, high ticketpremium experience that they're
(22:32):
providing for people so thatthey know that it's a consistent
experience, they know it'sgetting results, and it becomes
an amplifier for what they'redoing in their business, it
doesn't become that thing thatyou're sort of like, okay, I'm
just gonna sell it or whateverelse, it becomes the powerhouse
that helps you grow and scaleyour business. So hopefully this
(22:53):
served you today I it's justfunny because, again, like I
said, we do this every year. Andwe really look critically at all
of the different all thedifferent parts and pieces of
our program in in these fourcategories. And make sure that
we are not only you know thatit's cleaned up, and it's the
best experience for people, butthat we're using tools that
(23:18):
makes sense for what we'redoing, where you were looking
kind of out there in in thespace and making sure that where
we are is where we need to be.And so hopefully this serves you
gives you a little bit of asense, if you wanted to do that
course audit yourself. It givesyou a sense for how to start
looking critically at yourprograms. I will tell you, like
(23:39):
I said this is what we do everysingle day with our clients and
what we've been doing for many,many years. And so if you do
need help with this, just giveus a shout. Happy to have a
phone call just to talk throughkind of where you are. Maybe
there's one of the three or oneof the four that you feel like
is really where you need tofocus and you kind of know you
(23:59):
need to focus like you open thecloset door and all the clothes
are gonna come out. Yeah, so Sogive us a shout. Happy to have
that conversation. All right.There you go. Have a great day
and until next time to go outand serve your people.
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Nikki Glaser Podcast
Every week comedian and infamous roaster Nikki Glaser provides a fun, fast-paced, and brutally honest look into current pop-culture and her own personal life.