Introduction
One of the most asked questions I receive when I’m coaching my digital course creator clients is how can I make money fast?
Often when we are at the beginning of a new piece of business or are flat out new to business there is a very real need to earn some money.
But how do we do that? The answer isn’t what you’d expect here on the Digital Course Creator Podcast, but it is the answer I give to 90% of my clients when we work together. I’ve seen it work time and again for not just adding to a bank account and creating a little buffer, but also creating so much clarity for where the business should go and where you want it to go in the future.
It will save you mis-steps and hopefully a lot of heartache as you realize what you thought you wanted and what you thought others needed wasn’t really the answer.
You have the added bonus of putting money in the bank to be able to invest in your business with subscriptions like Zoom and Canva as well as coaches who can help you build your email list so that you have someone to sell your course to when it is ready.
So what do you do when you don’t have a course, a workshop, or any assets in your business and you don’t have a following? We are going to talk about that today as I share the 3 steps to take when you are getting started.
No List, No Income
If you have done any digging into online business you know that every person out there will tell you your business is only as strong as your email list. You don’t own your social media following, if you have one, and you need to be building a relationship with your email list.
The problem is that with very few exceptions, no one really walks you through how to build that list in a meaningful way that doesn’t involve simply putting out a lead magnet and hoping for the best. One of those people who does walk you through building your list without needing 8000 lead magnets is Tracy Beavers. You’ve heard me talk about her before and she has been on the podcast twice before in episodes, most recently in Episode 211.
But what do you do while you are building your list, starting to get intentionally active on social media, and exploring your digital course topic?
Hopefully you are earning some money. There is absolutely no reason that you can’t earn money from the start of your business. You don’t have to wait until you have a beautiful sales page, a fully formed digital course, or even a live online workshop to share. You can earn money before you have any assets inside your business.
Well, let me make a small correction to that. You can earn money before you have any assets beyond your experience and insights inside your business.
Let’s talk about the three critical steps to take from Day 1, and these are the same steps that I work with my 1:1 clients on from Day 1 with me.
Step 1: Start In-Person Networking
Even before you worry about how to build your email list faster than a snail’s pace and start building a relationship with those email subscribers, you need to start making connections.
When I first got out of grad school, my first job was because of my connections. My second and third jobs were because of connections, a side gig was because of a relationship that I very carefully cultivated over a year.
The moral of the story here is that if you don’t have an email list in your business, you absolutely have to have a strong network of collaborators, potential referral partners, and even potential clients. Even if you have an email list, you still need to have a strong network around you.
But in our online world, how does that happen?
By going old school, unplugging, and getting plugged into local conversations. Some of the richest relationships that you build will be the ones that you can sit down across a table and discuss ideas. Join your local networking groups, check out the Chamber of Commerce, join a business networking group on Meetup.
You might need to test out a few options because they are not all created equal and not all will fit your needs and personality.
Too often I see people go to one in person meeting, it feels like a flop, and so they retreat back behind the screen and set up more posts and reels.
Keep going. And I am saying this as a really big introvert who has been known to count the minutes before I can leave a networking gathering. What happens when you commit yourself to getting involved in your community is that you make connections far beyond the people that you are talking to. You end up meeting people who can connect you with the right next step, the right resource, and the perfect collaboration partner.
So the first step to making money even before you have an asset in place in your business is to get out there and meet people.
What is the workaround if you live in a teeny tiny town, are homebound, or are in some way unable to get involved locally? Be incredibly intentional about your time spent online. Meet people online, set up a zoom chat with them, follow-up, check in and build a friendship. Just like you can’t lurk in a networking meeting, you can’t lurk in a social media venue and expect for something to change.
By networking early, often, and intentionally you are getting your name and business out there, you get to practice your message, explore what you really want to be doing, and solidify your mission as a digital course creator.
But networking isn’t enough.
Step 2: Decide on a 1:1 Offer
We need to be able to make money and networking until we are blue in the face will not earn us money. Nor will waiting until we have that perfectly created course ready for prime time. We need something before that happens.
The simplest, fastest, and easiest approach to making money before you have any tangible assets in your business is to offer 1:1 coaching in your area of expertise.
A natural extension of making new connections, whether in person or online, is that people will begin to ask how you work with your clients, or even better, how they can work with you.
Let this be simple. Say something along the lines of, I’m working on a digital course, but while that is in the works I’m working with a few clients 1:1 to help them (insert what you help them do).
From there, you can decide how often you’ll meet with your clients, the format that will take (phone call, video chat, in person conversation), and what they can expect to get out of the coaching.
Doing this has a lot of benefits, even if it feels uncomfortable or you know that 1:1 coaching isn’t in your long-term plan.
First up, you can get some income faster than waiting until you are ready to launch a full course.
Second, you get to try out the concepts and approach that will be making their way into your digital course. You can note where the stumbling blocks are and plan for those. You can see what information and actions are truly necessary and in what order they are best tackled. You can get feedback faster and make adjustments.
Third, you get to see if your course idea will have widespread interest. If you tell people about your area of focus and they just smile, nod, and move on AND you are in the right rooms with people who should be interested, you know that you either need to tweak how you are talking about your course and coaching OR you need to make an adjustment to the focus of your coaching.
Finally, you get to see if you really like working in this area long term. Sometimes an idea seems like fun and profitable in theory, but then you end up hating being boxed into that topic or concept. You find this out before you spend months creating a polished course that you’d like to put out with next week’s garbage because you are sick of the idea.
Getting that 1:1 coaching offer out into the world is one of the fastest ways to make money and fund the creation of your digital course. And that leads me to Step 3.
Step 3: Create a Simple Checkout Page
One of the things that holds entrepreneurs back is perfectionism. We want to put our best foot forward. We want everything to be representative of our expertise, passion, and commitment to our clients. When we settle into this perfectionism, our brain gets sticky. I love that imagery that a neuropsychologist in our area uses to talk about perfectionism. That sticky brain doesn’t allow us to let go of something until it is “just so”.
But what would happen if we let go just enough to create a checkout page that allows potential clients to share their credit card information with us so that we can offer our expertise and be compensated?
They would get help and we would make income with our experience and insights.
So the third thing that I recommend for my clients who are just getting started is to set up a really basic checkout page, a service they can offer today without any thought or preparation.
This might be a Stripe checkout, a google doc that asks for some information and then a link to pay. It would be a coaching agreement and a link to pay. I don’t want you to overthink the checkout page.
You will see plenty of examples of lengthy sales pages. You don’t need that right now, or possibly ever for a 1:1 offer. You’ve personally vetted your potential client and they are ready to say yes. They don’t need 80 testimonials, 5 objection busters, or 10 benefits of coaching with you laid out on a sales page. In fact, this might actually lead them to saying no because you are introducing doubt.
A simple checkout is all that is needed here. I’ve sold $400 1:1 hour-long consultations from a Calendly scheduling page connected to Strip following a quick Facebook DM conversation.
Repeat after me: I will not overthink this. I will not let my brain get sticky. I will not let perfectionism get in the way of me helping someone get unstuck.
Action Item
Speaking of not overthinking things, we’ve come to my favorite part of the podcast and that is the action item for the week. None of these ideas and steps will help you in your business if you do not implement them. So first up, choose the step that is most applicable to you right now.
Then create a plan for implementing. If you are choosing to start in-person networking, find your first group. If you are creating an offer, think about what you are willing to do – meet once a week, meet once a month, in between Facebook DMs available? And if you are creating your checkout page, get that set up. Give yourself a time limit, test it, and then go network.
Where to Go Next?
I can’t wait to see the richness of connections you’ve added to your business, the connections you’ve made that have made a difference, and the simplicity you’ve introduced that allow you to make money with less stress.
The goal is to always move your business forward in a way that works for you, supports your needs, and allows you to be financially stable.
If you are ready to keep digging in and taking action, check out Episode 192: Perfectionism is the Fastest Way to Digital Course Creation Failure. Since we were talking about perfectionism today, this is a good one to listen to if you’ve ever struggled with even a tiny dose of perfectionism.
And if you are thinking about how to maximize the last few months of the year, listen to Episode 182: How to Create a Quarterly Plan the Fast Way as a Digital Course Creator.
And finally, if you are ready to build your digital course, check out Episode 175: 3 Critical Steps to Getting Started on Your First (or Next) Digital Course Without Having to Backtrack.
That’s it for this week’s episode. I’d love to hear where you will be networking this month. Send me a DM on Instagram or Facebook at Digital Course Creator Guide and let me know.
Until next time, happy creating!
