Making Money From Online Courses - Andrew Barry

Andrew is the Program Director of The Course Creator Fellowship for On Deck and owner of Curious Lion. He has been a ghostwriter for some of the top corporate training programs and online courses for the past 15 years. He believes in a democratised future of online education that is built on transformational courses created by hands-on practitioners. He lives in NYC with his wife and young son.

What we will be discussing today

• How he got into online courses
• Why the ‘Time is Now’ for online courses and what is so important about them
• His work on Transformational Online Courses and what one entails
• How the fellowship for Course Creators fits into the On Deck Ecosystem
• His vision for On Deck Course Creators

Listen to the Full Episode

Robin Waite · #79 - Making Money From Online Courses - Andrew Barry

Making Money From Online Courses

Ever wondered what it takes to making money from an online course that sells? Episode 79 of the Fearless Business Podcast welcomes Andrew Barry, an online course expert, Program Director of The Course Creator Fellowship for On Deck and owner of Curious Lion.

Why now is the time for online courses

With the pandemic, there has been an acceleration not only in the online technology being used, but also for people to increase their ability to help people. Online education continues to grow and get better.

During lockdown, more people have flocked to online courses, and through that, you see incredible teachers arise who are able to release courses and sell them out potentially three, four, or five times a year.

What is stopping you from scaling?

If you’re a coach, consultant, or freelancer and are regularly helping individuals, online courses hold so much value and they provide a chance to reach thousands of people.

What is holding you back from scaling your impact?

Andrew believes it is an ability to teach, which is in itself a skill. Teaching is something that is worth learning. You can have all the knowledge which makes you an expert in your industry, but not know how to effectively transfer this knowledge to students. Learning to teach is a skill well worth spending time on to properly communicate with your students or clients.

If you do a lot of one on one work, rather than getting burnt out from trying to work with multiple clients at the same time, creating a one to many offering in the form of a transformational programme is a great way to share your expertise and coaching with multiple people.

Transform over transfer

Andrew is a big proponent for transforming students through online courses. The idea of an online course is not just to record some videos and transfer information, but rather bring about a transformation of the students. Simply transferring information does not bring about any real value, because what people want help with is how to implement the knowledge. You do need to provide some of the facts and background information, but the key part of an online course is on the implementation.

The ability to create a course which does this is not something which happens overnight. It takes time and energy to get it right, but it is worth it and there are methods which can help.

Planning your course

The starting point in creating an online course is identifying what your transformation is going to be. There is an overlap with the education side of your course and the marketing. To get people on your course, you have to get their attention. What sort of transformation can you promise them? It should be framed in terms of the student and the action involved. You want to show them what they will achieve at the end of the course.

A big part of this is identifying your ideal students. Where are they coming from and what level of prior knowledge do they have? You start to map out a journey and then fill in the gaps such as how do you connect the dots between the prior knowledge and the learning journey. You are creating the building blocks for your course.

Structuring your course

When your course mapped out, you really want to focus on the structure.

There is a framework called the 3Ps which stands for personal meaning, prompts to action, and peer-to-peer learning.

• Personal learning - No student is going to complete a course unless they have a personal reason for doing so. It needs to be something that really aligns with what they are trying to achieve in their life. It is important to connect what your students want with what they need. Including reflective questions is a good way to really get your audience thinking about why they are taking a course.
• Prompts to action - Prompts to action is getting your students to take action. It is the implementation side of your course. Your expertise comes into play here. What are your students’ next steps going to be? How should they apply them to their work? You then build reflection into this as well.
• Peer-to-peer learning - The surge of online courses recently has highlighted the communities which develop through course learning. From a structural design, there are various avenues to explore and maximise the community side of courses. Features such as accountability groups and journey groups can be really beneficial.

If you manage to hit these three areas, then your course has a strong foundation.

By spending time to really get your course structured effectively and relevant to your ideal students, then you can create this transformational programme full of value and do that at scale. This in itself can become an effective marketing strategy. Previous students can become alumni or ambassadors of your course, which brings in more referrals.

Getting some serious value from Andrew’s online course expertise? This is only a snapshot of the podcast episode. Have a listen to dive even deeper into creating a successful online course as well as hearing all about Andrew’s journey into the industry.

Giveaway

www.beondeck.com/course-creators
www.curiouslionlearning.com

How to Get Hold of Andrew

LinkedIn - www.linkedin.com/in/training-development-and-lead-generation/
Twitter -www.twitter.com/Bazzaruto
Website -www.curiouslionlearning.com

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