Five years ago last week I opened registration for the first ever Do What You Love course. It was terrifying pushing the ‘publish’ button on my blog and the ‘send’ button on my newsletter. I say ‘newsletter’ as if I had a database of people to send it to, but I really mean the email I sent to my friends, and a handful of sweet souls who had stumbled across my blog online and been kind enough to sign up for bits of news from me.
The thing is, I didn’t really know what I was doing. I had spent hundreds of hours and a couple of thousand dollars researching by taking other classes and reading a lot (because research is my default defence when I get stuck on something). But I had one thing absolutely right. I had a burning desire to share something with the world and wanted to make a difference with what I had to say. E-courses were still very much in their infancy, so I had to feel my way in the dark, but I refused to give up and worked things out as I went along.
Five years on that first course is still running (albeit with several updates and a complete image makeover) and I have criss-crossed the globe writing, creating and producing e-courses ever since. Some of those courses have grossed over £1 million each. Collectively they have helped thousands of people in more than 100 countries worldwide to follow their dreams and monetise their passion. I feel really proud of how far we have come, and humbled by the stories our graduates share with us day in day out.
Filming our latest course: ‘Reach. Teach. Profit. The E-course Creation Masterclass‘
What have we learned in that time? Well, a lot, and most of it the hard way! We have invested thousands of pounds in filming and branding a course only to scrap it in a matter of months. We have changed the names of courses, pulled them apart and put them back together, been trolled, been imitated, had technical meltdowns and more. But we have come through it all still here, still loving it, so I want to share some of the main things we have learned along the way.
- You know deep down when something is right or wrong. You know it in your body. You can feel it in your bones, and in your gut. Your heart sings when the answer is yes, and you should start running when you know the answer is no.
- Things go wrong, but if you stay focused on why you are doing what you are doing, and who you want to serve with what you are offering, then things always work out. If you get distracted by the lure of more money for the sake of money, or more fame for the sake of fame, it always comes back to bite you. But if you focus on what really matters, your profile and your bank account will grow anyway.
- Sometimes the things that seem like the biggest disasters end up being the greatest blessings. (Put that one on the wall to look at next time you are mid-disaster)
- Some people will let you down and others will lift you up. You get to choose who you give your energy and attention to.
- When you aren’t loving what you’re doing it’s time to change something.
- People with technical expertise, particularly website developer knowledge, are worth their weight in gold. And it’s a lot cheaper to invest in good people early on, rather than wait until things go wrong.
- Intuition is one of the most powerful weapons in your armoury. It takes bravery to use it but you must. Always.
- Celebrating every step of the way is both fun and vital.
- That we are blessed to live in a time when we can work from anywhere, connect with anyone and build a flexible lifestyle doing something we love.
- That at the end of the day it’s up to you.
Isn’t it funny that hardly any of the really important things we have learned are actually about practicalities. People are so often terrified by technology etc, but in fact it’s the other things that really stand out after all this time. Of course we have learned a ton about the technical and practical too.
If you want to know what we have learned about the practicalities of teaching online (the how tos and what-not-to-dos, the ins and outs, the highs and lows, the lessons learned and fast track ways to do things—in short, a lot!) don’t miss our upcoming new class ‘Reach. Teach. Profit. The E-course Creation Masterclass’ which distills everything we know and have learned into an online course to help YOU get YOUR e-course out into the world. Class launches on Monday February 29. Hop on the waiting list here.
So what have YOU learned in the last five years that could allow you to teach online?
Are you ready to reach, teach and profit? I hope so!
Beth
