Selling my course on auto-pilot wasn’t always easy – but, not for the reasons you might think.
In fact, there was a lot of emotional baggage I had to let go of in order to create and SUSTAIN a profitable course business that was strong enough to generate millions in revenue per year.
Course creators everywhere are beginning to see the light and are making the switch from launching to selling their own courses on auto-pilot…and I see so many of them fall into the exact same mindset trap I did years ago when I first quit launching.
Today I’m sharing the #1 mindset shift I had to make in order to generate over $250k months CONSISTENTLY from selling my course on auto-pilot and I don’t think this is something I’ve really shared much about before. If I knew about this back then, it would have saved me months of grief and helped me gain even more profits.
I love talking about mindset just as much as I love discussing sales and marketing strategy and I know you feel the same. So, sit back and enjoy today’s episode.
My name is Caitlin Bacher, CEO of Scale With Success®, and I’m on a mission to help course creators all over the world grow their business in a way that is profitable and scalable. I’m sharing revealing insights about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year. Join me here to discover the tough decisions I’ve had to make, the biggest failures I’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. I’m so grateful that I have the chance to tell you everything right here on Scale With Success®: The Podcast. Let’s get started.
When course creators think about making the switch from launching to selling on auto-pilot, many are most concerned with strategy – and believe me, finding the right sales and marketing strategy for you to generate consistent revenue is important…but, what most course creators don’t see coming is the mindset shifts required to create and SUSTAIN a profitable selling system.
It is more important than ever for course creators who are making less than $1m per year to make selling their course on auto-pilot a top priority…but, when a course creator DOES make the switch from launching to selling on auto-pilot, what is the #1 mindset block that (if left unchecked) prevents them from reaching their profit goals?
Today, I’m sharing exactly WHY selling your course on auto-pilot should be your top priority AND the important mindset shift you’ll need to make in order to reach your goals.
Why Every Course Creator Making Less Than $1m Needs to Prioritize Selling On Auto-Pilot
When I first started my business, all I ever heard about was launching. I was told it was the best way to grow and the fastest way to achieve my goals – but, in my experience I didn’t find that to be true AT ALL.
Launching requires 2-3 months of intense list building and content distribution leading up to what’s called an open cart. Open cart is the period of time when you are allowing people to enroll in your course. It can last anywhere from 5-7 days. Then nobody can buy until your next launch, which is maybe 4 mos or a year later.
What many course creators find is that when their launch ends, so does ALL the momentum they worked so hard to generate. And it’s radio silence for your business until the launch cycle begins all over again.
This is a very high risk way of selling your course. Especially for course creators making less than $1m/year with a tiny team (or no team at all) and a non-existent ads budget.
If your course is generating LESS than $1m/year, the number one thing you need to focus on is generating consistent revenue so you can start to get some real traction in your business.
Just like a plant needs water to grow, a business needs revenue to thrive and putting all your eggs in one basket with a high-risk launch model was not something that worked well for me or my family.
I can think of one launch in particular that I did where I spent $20k upfront on everything I needed to execute that launch and do you know how much I made? $20k.
$20k in and $20k out meant there was no money for me or my family, which created a big problem.
I’m sure many of you have found yourself in a similar situation from time to time as you work towards growing your business. So, I started exploring avenues to generate consistent revenue.
I didn’t want to run a membership and be responsible for creating new content each month – I just wanted to be able to make consistent revenue from my course.
By chance, I joined a mastermind where I met this one guy and he was selling a $297 course he created himself all about how to declutter your home and he was making $300,000 per month without launching.
My mind was blown.
So, I came up with a plan and I got to work. By the end of that year, I turned that flop of a course into a million dollar business, consistently generating six figures per month every month, without launching.
But, making the switch from launching to selling my course on auto-pilot wasn’t easy and I went through a lot of growing pains.
The #1 Mindset Shift I Made When I Switched Selling On Auto-Pilot
If you think all you need to do is launch once and then repurpose all your content into an automated funnel, you’ve got another thing coming.
I should know because that’s exactly what I tried to do and it didn’t work. My automated funnel flopped HARD.
To make matters worse, I had this wild idea that I should start running ads to it right away – so not only was my course not selling – I was actually losing money.
I was making every mistake in the book and I felt so frustrated. I started thinking to myself that maybe selling on auto-pilot just wouldn’t work for me and that my audience would ONLY buy with a big, fancy launch.
I was spiraling and my negative emotions began to influence my actions, which didn’t make things any better, because I fell into the trap of believing that the only way I could FEEL better was to DO better. I was stuck in a cycle of feeling worse and worse, then doing worse and worse.
Once I realized I had it all backwards and that the only way to DO better was to FEEL better EVERYTHING changed. In that moment I clearly saw that it was up to ME to manage my emotions (and the thoughts that were triggering them) SO THAT I could get things moving in the right direction.
I always tell my clients they’ve got two jobs as the CEO of a growing business.
#1: manage your emotions
#2: measure your results
But, you can’t measure your results without managing your emotions.
Managing your emotions isn’t easy, especially when you’re trying to reach big goals. Big goals require growth and growth requires you to be uncomfortable, encounter unexpected challenges, and make tons of mistakes…which is GREAT if you are able to recognize that the struggle is a gift – IF you treat it that way. IF you’re able to see that every setback is an opportunity to strengthen your resilience and your commitment to achieving your goals.
You can’t have a million dollar business unless you have the mental stamina to handle million dollar problems and THAT isn’t possible unless you take accountability for managing your emotions.
By the way, taking accountability for managing your emotions doesn’t mean you have to do it alone. I’m a big believer in asking for help when you need it and asking for help is absolutely a way to take accountability.
It’s EASY to manage your emotions when conditions are perfect, but in business – conditions are never perfect. There’s always something going right and something going wrong. There’s always something to let go and something to take on.
Reframing your relationship with setbacks, challenges, and mistakes is a big piece of managing your emotions. Again, not saying it’s EASY or COMFORTABLE to do it – but it’s possible.
One of the big benefits of learning to manage your emotions is that business becomes a lot more enjoyable, but on top of that it’s a lot more profitable because less drama always leads to more profits.
Less Drama, More Profits
Making the switch from launching to selling your course on auto-pilot will require you to try new things, make mistakes, and at times feel uncomfortable – and making sure that you aren’t getting sucked into the drama of feeling helpless or blaming others.
Selling your course on auto-pilot gives you the OPPORTUNITY to get better at managing your emotions so that you can achieve your goals no matter what…
…even when you make mistakes
…even when you encounter unexpected challenges
…even when you feel like you’re not moving as fast as you’d like to be moving
I appreciate you being here and make sure to tune in next week for another episode of Scale With Success® – The Podcast.
Are you sick and tired of launching and looking for a proven method to generate consistent revenue from your online course on auto-pilot?
Sign up for my free masterclass, “How To Generate Launch-Sized Revenue Without Launching” and I’ll show you how our clients are making MORE money in LESS time than they ever did while launching.
If making sales everyday in a way that is completely automated and doesn’t require paid advertising sounds good to you, then click the link around this episode and sign up for my free masterclass today.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Scale With Success® Accelerator — an online course designed to help you generate launch-sized revenue without lanching. If you want to learn MORE about our proven method for success, click here to watch my free masterclass. See you in there!
