Caitlin Bacher:
Hey there, you’re listening to Scale with Success®: The Podcast Built for Course Creators™ and in today’s episode, we’re talking about a major challenge you may be experiencing in your online course business, student success. If you’re feeling overworked and the idea of enrolling more students sends you into a cold sweat because you’re already stretched to the limit, that could be an indicator that you have a bigger problem going on in your business.
Caitlin Bacher:
Today, we’re diving deeper into why this might be happening in your business right now and the actions you can take to overcome this challenge so you can double or even triple the number of students each month. So, if you feel like you need a student success system that gives your students a great experience with or without you, then keep listening because we have a lot to talk about. So stay tuned.
Caitlin Bacher:
My name is Caitlin Bacher, founder and 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. Together with my co-host and director of marketing Karie Price, we’re sharing, revealing conversations about what it really takes to scale an online course business to millions of dollars per year.
Caitlin Bacher:
Join us here to discover the tough decisions we’ve had to make, the biggest failures we’ve had to bounce back from, and the learnings that emerged every step of the way. We are so grateful that we have the chance to share it all with you right here on Scale with Success®: The Podcast Built for Course Creators™. Let’s get started.
Caitlin Bacher:
So today we’re talking about what it really takes to optimize the student experience for ongoing enrollment so that they can thrive with or without you. Here’s how to know if the current way that you are serving your students inside of your course is standing in the way of scaling your online course business. So, the very first way to know that something is off is if you find yourself working around the clock. So you are the only one inside of the Facebook group for your students that are answering all of their questions, and you find yourself in a situation where the more students you have–while you’re thankful for having more students–the more work you have for yourself as you are their primary source of support.
Karie Price:
Yeah, absolutely. So it probably has you wondering or worrying about the idea of adding more students, doubling, maybe even tripling the number of students that you have right now and how on earth you could on-board and serve them?
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah, and I don’t know about you Karie, but one of the things that I know about myself is if I really deep down am afraid to do something or don’t want, on a surface, I can say, “Oh yeah, sure. I want more students. Like, yeah, let’s double, let’s triple, let’s 10x the number of students I have each month.” If deep down I am scared that, oh my gosh, I do not have capacity to serve all these students. If I am scared that, oh my gosh, they’re going to come in and it’s just going to be chaos because I’ve never managed this many students before, I am going to kind of sabotage my success. I’m going to – not purposely – I’m going to subconsciously do things, whether that’s not promoting my program as much, or whether it’s maybe doing other things that cause other problems in the business, because then I can focus on that as opposed to the matter at hand.
Karie Price:
Yeah. You’re so right Caitlin. And you’re right, it’s subconsciously sabotaging. You’re obviously not doing that on purpose. You want to grow, you want to scale, but you start creating all these little problems that make that really difficult and that takes all of your attention. And so you’re feeling like I’m too busy, I can’t focus on the growth because look at how busy I am doing these other things and what’s going to happen when I have more students. So it totally would make sense that that’s how this is showing up.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah. I encourage our clients to really think about, “What would it feel like? What energy would you bring to the sales process? If you were a hundred percent confident that you could have double, triple, quadruple the number of students enrolling every month and you were a hundred percent confident that they would have a great experience.” If you felt that way, you will be talking about your course all day. You’d be like in line at Starbucks, waiting for your Americano and chatting someone up next to me like, “Oh, by the way, I have this great opportunity.” Right, because you were so certain that they would have that experience. And so, when we talk about client success, it really does. The more confident we are in the success system that we have for our students, clients, whatever the case may be to succeed, then we’re more able to talk about it with other people.
Caitlin Bacher:
So, let’s talk about some common mistakes to avoid when it comes to improving your success system. So, here’s one that I see happen a lot, especially when people kind of, this is like them dipping their toe in the evergreen waters and for those of you listening that don’t know evergreen, it means that you’re selling your course all the time. So you have sys-, not you personally, but you have systems in place that are enrolling students 24/7, right? It’s not a launch model where you only intake new students at certain points in the year. So what happens a lot of times when people move to this evergreen model is they feel afraid of what we just talked about, of having new students come in every single day and they don’t know how to effectively manage that to ensure that students are able to go through their program and get the results that they want.
Caitlin Bacher:
And so, a lot of times they might experiment with the cohort model, right? So they might say, “Okay, we’re going to have an intake every month.” So either they’re doing a live webinar every month, or they’re doing some other kind of sales mechanism to on-board people, but everyone starts and stops at the same time. And I don’t know about you, but the whole brilliant thing, the reason why evergreen works so well is that you can set up automation systems in place so that people join when they’re ready, they don’t have to wait.
Karie Price:
Yeah, you’re right but I also can understand why people feel like it’s simpler to do a cohort model because I did it too. When I had my course business, I felt like that’s why I did launches, because I want everyone to start at the same time, because then I’m providing support at the same time and moving everybody through. But for anyone who has a cohort model, you know, by about week two, everybody’s at a different place already. So, as much as you think it’s going to be so great to support them, some people are going to want to move faster. Some people for whatever reason are at a slower pace and so they’re not able to keep up. So you don’t actually get the benefits. So, but I do understand why it feels simpler, but it actually adds complexities.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah. That’s actually a really good point. I love the way you explained it, how we think that we’re doing a service to our students but the reality is, even if we’re all starting at the same time, just like you said, by week three, everyone’s in different places. And the problem is that if you’re doing it live and everyone is starting and stopping at the same time, you don’t have a system to support their needs. You have to just keep going. So like that whole teaching to the middle thing, right? Like, okay, here we have, we’re a robot week three, week four, here we go. And then those of those people that were initially a little bit behind, by the end of the six or eight week course, they are way behind. They’re feeling overwhelmed, they’re disappointed in themselves, but they feel like they didn’t take what they needed from the experience. So it does create extra problems.
Karie Price:
Yeah. Now, the funny thing is this actually leads into the second common mistake that we see, right? And that’s spending all your time answering the same questions over and over again because you’ve got people at all these different places. And so you answered the question maybe in week one, but now someone’s catching up and three weeks later, they have a question. So you’re answering it again. And you get caught in this cycle of doing that over and over again, inside your student community.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah, a hundred percent. That is a big mistake. We do not want you to do that. We’re a big fan of systems here at Scale with Success® and we are all about putting systems and processes in place to prevent that from happening. The other thing that I see a lot of people kind of struggle with, which kind of is in alignment with that is that they create a community. They create an environment where their students are only there because they want to connect with the host, with the course creator. And in doing that, they fail to make those connections with each other. And if you create a community for your online course, where if you create that expectation that you are going to personally be getting one-on-one feedback, answering every single person’s question one-by-one inside of the community, you will not be able to scale. You will not be able to grow. You will not be able to take on more students.
Karie Price:
Yeah, a hundred percent. Here’s the interesting thing about this, I think people think that the clients are here for them, right? As the course creator, we think that our clients are coming because they’ve connected with us on our social media accounts. They resonate with us and relate to us, but we ended up being the bottleneck when that happens. And the truth is ultimately, your clients want results more than they want time with you.
Caitlin Bacher:
A hundred percent. It’s like, do they really care if they’re getting support from you, or if they’re asking a community member, or perhaps they’re getting support from someone on your team? No, they want the results. That’s what they really want, right? The other thing that I want to say is that, when we talk about Scaling with Success, we’re all about the long game, right? We’re not in this for short-term results. So we really, as course creators, we really need to be conscious that we are not spreading ourselves too thin, just because we feel like we were afraid if we don’t personally answer every single one-on-one question, that someone might be upset, right? Or we feel afraid to make it clear from the beginning, look when you join, you’re going to be supported by my- I’m not going to be answering your questions, but you’re going to have somebody even better, which is a full team of people that are supporting you along the way.
Caitlin Bacher:
If you’re afraid to do that, totally normal, first of all. Pretty much every new thing that we ever do in business, ignites some kind of a fear, right? Like I’m pretty sure at least one time of the day I am in fear. I’m just like, “Yeah, I don’t know what I’m doing.” When you spread yourself too thin, because you’re, you’re kind of like in that people-pleasing mode and you want to keep everyone happy, and so you’re just like, oh, I’m going to keep answering the questions. I’m going to keep doing this because I don’t want to rock the boat, that’s not sustainable. It’s not sustainable for you and it’s also not sustainable for your students because they’re not going to be able to get the results that they want as you grow.
Karie Price:
Right because they’re just going to be waiting, right, for that next opportunity. Are you going to check in or are you not? But having other ways that they can get support, allows them to continue. We talk about keeping our students, our clients in momentum, right? We want people to stay in momentum. And you talk about this, not being sustainable for the course owner too. It’s the proverbial marathon versus the sprint. Right? You’ve got to look at the long game, you’ve got to look at what systems and processes are you putting in place that will sustain you, not just now, but as you scale. If everything is you’re running yourself to burn out before you get there, that’s not going to be successful, you’re not going to be happy and results all around are going to suffer.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah, a hundred percent. Let’s talk a little bit about some things that you can do, some things that you need to have in place. You want to make sure that you have these things in place in order to really improve your student success system so that you can begin to enroll twice as many, three times as many students as you have now. So the very first thing that you need to have in place is a great, solid on-boarding system. If you’re running an evergreen course, you will have rolling enrollment. You’ll have people join on Sunday, you’ll have people join on Monday, Monday morning, Monday night, every time of the day, right? You need to have a system in place for on-boarding. And it needs to go beyond just getting their email. Where it’s like, here’s your login and your link. That’s not onboarding. That’s good, yes. They need that. But we really want a robust on-boarding system that’s really going to get them acclimated to the community.
Karie Price:
Yeah and think about it, this is the first major impression that they are getting about your course. So you got them all excited, they know that they want in and they want results. And you want to capitalize on that excitement by giving them a really amazing on-boarding experience. So it reaffirms for them, they made a good buying decision. And that eliminates the doubt of like, wait, what did I just invest money in? Like, this is all I get. Where’s the support? What do I do? Where do I go? Just really helping them get in, plugged in, and start making progress is going to go a long way.
Caitlin Bacher:
And the other thing that you want to think about is you want to make sure that your course is really structured in a way that prioritizes group learning. So what you don’t want to do is start hosting a weekly Q&A call or a monthly Q&A call or live, whatever it is, for your students, where you are just have the questions queued up and you’re just answering them one by one, right? So you’re helping one person then the other, then the other, that’s not group learning. And it’s also not one-on-one help. Cause that person has to like, wait their turn, listen to a whole bunch of stuff that is not relevant to them, which creates frustration for them. It’s like the worst of both worlds, right? It’s not group learning, so you’re not able to take advantage of all of the benefits that come along with group learning. And it’s also not one-on-one help. So it’s just like, kind of in this middle area, that’s just not helpful for anyone.
Karie Price:
Yeah. And I think kind of a similar problem that we’ve seen some course creators do – they think, oh, well then I just must need more Q&A calls, right? But that still doesn’t solve the problem of the group learning and support. So you doing a live Q&A every day does not solve that problem either. But you want to make sure that what you’ve got in place is allowing again, your students to make progress where they’re not waiting on you. You’re busy scaling your course, don’t make them wait on you to make progress and get results and more Q&A calls isn’t the answer either.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yeah and we’re big fans of really supporting our clients and just structuring a Q&A call that is optimized for that group learning experience, right? So they’re not just like having to wait in line or whatever it is.
Caitlin Bacher:
The other thing is that you really want to set up your student community so that it’s able to run smoothly without you. This is something that you cannot avoid. And I totally get it. I know how it is to be like, okay, well, we’re technically on a holiday break. So, you know, my team is off, but oh my gosh, someone just threw in this like really odd question into the student community, so now I have to go and like take care of it. You can’t scale – If that’s your solution, you can’t scale, right? You need to have your community set up in a way so that, that doesn’t happen. You don’t have to sacrifice that time off and you don’t have to constantly have to jump in at all hours of the night, even.
Karie Price:
Yeah, it’s definitely going to prevent your ability to scale and you’re not going to love it. Like we talked about earlier, right? You’re just going to have that subconscious self-sabotage there. Cause you’re like, I don’t want more of this. I don’t want to have to duck out of the family time on the weekends to answer questions. So why would I want even more students that might cause that to happen.
Caitlin Bacher:
And it’s such a perfect example too. Some people say, I don’t know the difference between working on my business and working in my business. Well, if you’re answering questions at all hours of the night and on your vacation inside of your group, you are working in your business, right? Like you were not sitting in that CEO seat and making decisions and creating strategies that are really going to exponentially increase your sales revenue. Right? No CEO should be doing that. Now I get that we all do it at the beginning because of course like, that’s how we grow. But over time you need to create systems that are able to replace you so that you can start to think about the other higher level things in your business.
Karie Price:
Yeah. If you’re stuck down in that nitty gritty, in the details of that. Yeah. You’re definitely not giving yourself the space and the breathing room to think about those higher level strategies, like you said.
Caitlin Bacher:
And one of the side benefits of making sure that you have these systems in place is that you’re really going to reduce your risk for refunds and failed payments. And I know some of you right now are thinking, well, I don’t have any refunds or I don’t have any failed payments. Yes, we get it. That’s very common if you have a small group of students, if you’re used to selling to warm traffic, people who have been on your list forever.
Caitlin Bacher:
But once you really start to scale and you’re getting cold people come in, like they don’t know who you are. They don’t have any loyalty to you. They’re going to come in and if you don’t have these systems in place to support them, then you’re going to have a big problem on your hands. And that’s one of the things that we are really passionate about at Scale with Success,® is making sure that you have the support you need throughout all 5 Pillars that are required to scale your business, your online course business to and through $1 million because yes, having a great sales process is good, but you’re going to need to have systems in place to handle all that huge influx of students that you’re going to have.
Karie Price:
Yeah because if you don’t, you’re putting all this effort and energy and to acquiring all these new students and then it’s just bleeding through on the back, right? It’s like a sieve, like you’re putting, collecting money in, but it’s just like bleeding out the bottom. I talked a little bit earlier about creating that really good first impression so that they don’t have buyer’s remorse. This is a way of reinforcing that every day, that your students are getting the support, they’re getting the help, they’re making progress because you have systems that support them again, without you. In fact, I’d even argue that your students get better results without you.
Caitlin Bacher:
Yes, a hundred percent. If their results are tied to you, then you are the bottleneck and that needs to stop basically. But I know today that we talked a lot about optimizing the student experience, but now we would love to know your biggest challenge when it comes to scaling your online course business. So please send us a DM on Instagram or join our free Facebook group and let us know.
Caitlin Bacher:
Are you ready to scale your online course business so you can impact the lives of more people and create real change in the world? Join us inside our signature program, Scale with Success®, where you’ll get the content, coaching, and community you need to successfully implement our proven process to help you scale. So you can start reaping the rewards of running a highly profitable online course business. Scale with Success® is a multi-year group coaching experience built for online course creators who are ready to scale their business to and through $1 million with certainty as a result of having the right support at the right time. What are you waiting for? Click over to ScalewithSuccess.com and apply now.
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!