Everything these days is about customization. It sounds great, right? Customization is better than getting some item that doesn’t really fit anyone perfectly.

The digital course industry is just one industry that has seen a big push for customization, and it is certainly not the last.

With all of the innovations and technologies available, customization is a hot topic, but sometimes it can be too hot to handle.

So the question is, should we be customizing your course for our online students? What are our students expecting?

As an entrepreneur and consumer, you’ve probably had expectations of digital learning experiences in the past. As a digital course creator you are probably asking what pieces need to be customized and which can be mass produced.

We definitely want our digital course students to be successful, but customization can get us into trouble.

We can make some big mistakes with customizing our courses that end up being detrimental to our student’s progress and success.

Now, if you haven’t ever thought about customizing your course and are now panicked that you have to customize it, please don’t panic. Listen to this episode and then consider your options. Just know that there are options for best serving your digital course students without overly complicating things on your end of things.

So let’s talk about the dangers of over-customizing online courses and how to customize an online course effectively.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

Your phone chimes with an email from your digital course student at 11pm on Friday night. They are going through Module 2 and are stuck. There is a typo in the worksheet and it doesn’t match up with what you are saying in the video. The student says that they want to make it through your online course, but this is creating a roadblock.

Immediately you regret picking up your phone to browse funny cat videos as you unwind from the week, and the second feeling is one of dread and worry. You’ve already shut down your computer for the day, but you don’t want a student to get frustrated with you. You are wondering what that issue between the worksheet and video is, because as much as you wrack your brain you can’t quite figure out what could have happened. As you start to go through the scenarios in your head, you notice that your heart starts to speed up a little as you wonder if this student will go to the community and complain and get everyone riled up or if they will ask for a refund.

We’ve all had those moments of panic where a student needs support, but we are not available. Whether it is because we are tending to a medical appointment or have shut down for the day.

As small business owners, as creators of online courses, what is the right answer here? I can tell you right now, it isn’t to jump up at 11pm on a Friday night to figure out what is going on. That is the fastest way to entrepreneur burnout.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

You want your students to be successful, but so often they drop off the face of the earth after they’ve entered their credit card number or maybe they make it through Module 1 and then suddenly it is crickets.

Why does this happen with alarming frequency?

A lot of reasons, but one big one is that your students aren’t ready for your digital course, become overwhelmed, lost, and frozen.

This is NOT what we want for our students. We want them to be successful, first and foremost, because we have entered the digital course realm to make a difference. If our students don’t finish our course, then we aren’t having the impact that we hoped to have. Secondly, we want to be able to feature our students, celebrate their wins, and learn from their struggles in the course so that we can make it better.

Neither of these things happen if our students don’t make it through the course. And this brings me to the question of whether you should consider prerequisites for your course and how that works when anyone can get to your sales page and enter their credit card number.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

How many $2000 courses have you purchased as an entrepreneur? The more entrepreneurs that I talk to, the more I hear that they have purchased 2, 3, 4, and even 5 different $2000 (or more) courses. So many have shared that they’ve invested over $40,000 in their business before selling anything.

Your first thought might be wow! That is a LOT of money. Followed closely by did they finish all of those courses, implement everything, and get a good ROI?

These are fair questions and one of the reasons that I’ve stopped buying $2000 courses over the last 2 years and one of the biggest reasons that I’ve been implementing more cost effective services and options in my own business and I’m going to share with you my reasoning so that you can decide if the hype of continually raising your prices is worth it for your business.

You might decide that there is absolutely no reason to ever charge less than $2000 for your digital course and that is completely fine, but you might also discover that there is a place for inexpensive services, workshops, and even courses in your business.

I’m going to challenge you to think about what would happen if you priced your services, courses, workshops, and memberships at something that was doable for most people.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

Not for the first time I heard an entrepreneur sharing that something was hard for them and the other person said that they thought it was easy.

That kind of comparison makes entrepreneurship hard because we start to wonder what we are missing, if we aren’t cut out for the path we’ve chosen, or even if we are smart enough to make a go of our business.

We’ve all heard the saying, “Comparison is the thief of joy.”

The truth is that when we compare ourselves to others it can steal our joy faster than a toddler can grab a fourth cupcake off the party table.

Mindset is one of the biggest factors in entrepreneurial success, in fact at one point this podcast was called the Entrepreneur Mindset Podcast. That is how important mindset is to being a successful digital course creator, but it is a lifelong journey.

Today we are going to spend time going through 3 activities that you can do each week to bolster, reset, and strengthen your mindset so that you can move toward success as a course creator and limit the comparison thief.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

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.

A lot of times we talk about having to troubleshoot a failed launch, a course that flops, or the tech issues that seem to follow us around like a pesky sibling who swears they aren’t touching us.

But what about the times when things are quite literally out of our control? What do we do then to set ourselves apart as course creators committed to our audience and our own well-being?

In the aftermath of Hurricane Helene, this has been on my mind a lot and today we are going to talk about the mindset that we need during the times when we don’t have control over what happens.

I will say that this episode might be hard to listen to, I’m going to try my best to keep it focused on mindset, but I will talk about the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and how our family handled the situation to not only serve clients, but also to maintain our well-being.

I know that this is a difficult topic and might not be for you. If you are looking for mindset episodes that do not reference hurricanes, check out episodes 192, 166 with Guest Kelli Risse, and 152.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

We are told to build our list every day. That without consistent list growth our digital course business will not thrive and in fact, it will likely do a face plant.

But almost no one talks about how to build your list in a way that works and doesn’t require you to waste thousands of dollars on ads and an exorbitant marketing agency fee.

Today, I invited guest, Tracy Beavers, to share her top tips with you on evergreening your list growth efforts. And guess what? She doesn’t used paid ads!

You might recognize Tracy’s name because she was on the podcast last fall in Episode 155. And everything she shares is absolute gold. That might be because as the CEO and Founder of Tracy Beavers Coaching, Tracy has a proven track record in marketing, sales, and business growth. With an award winning career spanning 20 years and a multi-six figure business, Tracy has helped hundreds of entrepreneurs with everything from overcoming the fear of sales to growing their business visibility through organic marketing strategies.

She has been honored nationally by Vanity Fair Lingerie as a Support Award winner for Women in Entrepreneurship. Pretty amazing, right?

She is a public speaker, and a published author. She has been featured on top business podcasts, and has been a regular contributor on one of her hometown’s premier tv shows. Kajabi looks to her as one of their expert coaches for small business owners. She is the creator of two online programs: “Business Visibility Made Easy” and “Be A Confident Entrepreneur”. She also has a top ranked business podcast “Create Online Business Success!”

I’m thrilled to have Tracy back on the podcast and without further ado, let’s talk with Tracy about all things strategy and list building.

Show Resources:

• Check out all podcast episodes and full transcripts (www.digitalcoursecreatorguide.com/podcast)
• Follow me on Facebook (facebook.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) and on Instagram (instagram.com/digitalcoursecreatorguide) for daily tips and ideas

• Sign up for Tracy's Masterclass: https://digitalcourse.pro/growth
• Join Tracy's Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/beaconfidententrepreneur
• Listen to Tracy's Podcast: https://www.tracybeavers.com/podcast