Passive is Passe: Designing and Creating Online Courses Requires Active Involvement
Most service-based enterprises with a passive or leveraged income-generating products sound like a great concept, however there's an array of psychological and mental issues that can arise when entering this field. There's a misguided belief that passive income is the most lucrative source of income. Yes, it's possible to make money in your sleep and go to the beach. You're right, but you don't have to offer it for sale to me.
But what if you ACTUALLY are concerned about the customers that are buying your product? How would you feel if you don't want to head out to the ocean, but instead you would prefer to stick around, hold some hands, answer some concerns, and really support your customers through the program?
Is that a sign of a bad professional?
Is that a sign that you're onlyleveraging, and you're not creating a true passive income so it's a failure?
Not at ALL.
This is what I'm going to say that leveraged is the new black.
Besides the passive income, it is also a huge part of this year.
Successful online course creators stay connected to their customers
Beautiful, heart-centered entrepreneurs are creating BRILLIANT leveraged programs and keeping in touch with their tribe which is loving their work for it.
In an age where prospective clients have ALREADY registered for numerous online courses and have never completed the program, a new self-study course is just white noise.
In this day and age, people are SICK of being pushed through automated funnels, lead generators, and generally forced to leap through hoops to determine how much cash you'd like and then how much you can pay it to you, online buyers are pushing against. Saying no. Delaying the decision until they have the opportunity to collaborate together one-onone or as part of an intensive group that involves LOTS of face time.
for creators of connected courses for connected course creators, this could be GREAT news.
Personally, I don't even believe it's part of my genetics to earn a true passive income. My very first truly product that was passive in income was a yearly planner for entrepreneurs, and it cost just $19.98. The first time I launched it I was able to sell 170 copies. It was stunning. I then proceeded to start sending out emails and messages to people who had bought it to make sure they'd been filling it in for the first time, and find out how they liked it and if they had any suggestions, to provide ideas on how I could keep it going throughout the year.
It is not an investment product with a passive income. Actually, I was chastising the people who bought it to discover their thoughts and to help them use it!
Then, one year later, I launched my Heart and Soul planner again at the end of the year of 2015. It was this time with two workshops for groups: One where I walked all participants through the page through the pages, asking questions and offering suggestions, and a second workshop in which I assisted individuals develop their own implementation strategy to ensure the planner didn't be a mere dust collector.
In transforming my product that was passive into a leveraged one I realized a variety of benefits for seller and buyer alike:
- I felt more CONNECTED to those who bought, and was able to ensure people were getting the best value for their money. It was good to me, and also good for them.
- I created a TRIBE - we were all on the live chat together. participants were interacting with one other, cheering each other for each other and offering ideas and suggestions. The focus was not on divide and be divided - rather, the goal was to unify and connect.
- People could easily know me - and therefore, my KLT (know that, love, and trust) factor skyrocketed.
- The conversion to higher-end products was phenomenal - out of the 256 women who purchased this time around three of them are now VIP clients fourteen have joined one of my programs and twenty have signed up to my business school only in six short months. The process of conversion will keep happening all through the year, I am sure.
If you're planning and scheming your next course, program or product, you should give idea of designing something that's more connected and not as passive. Sure, you might have to show up to work a bit more consistently.
But you never know that you may decide to like it.
Tash Corbin is a business coach and mentor for soul-centered, heart-centered entrepreneurs. She is a lean start-up specialist and helps women to build the passive income and leveraged earnings. Her Facebook community, Heart-Centred Soul-Driven Entrepreneurs is now over 10,000 active members and growing rapidly.