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Is there a right or wrong way to structure an online program? Most the ideas business owners come up with are based on what other people have done… and many of them are the same strategies on rinse and repeat.
Today I’m sharing with you exactly how (and WHY) I’ve structured my six-figure program with three unique engagement strategies that you can leverage for your own business.
In this episode we’ll dive into…
- structural changes I made to my program and how it evolved
- knowing when to offer one-one-one as a bonus inside your course / program
- three enhancements I added to my program (plus some tips on how you can make these as part of your own course /program)
- recommended tools
Episode Show Notes
Speak Up to Level Up (SULU) Evolution (to give you some context around structural changes I made)
SULU as a group coaching program
When we first launched SULU, we launched it as a group coaching program. It was 10 weeks long but we just rounded off to 12 weeks to give people some free days in between.
At the beginning, I taught it live so I can get real-time feedback on the content. We had live training each week. People had access to me during office hours with live Q&As and then we would do some hot seats. That’s how things started but my vision when I started the program was I knew I wanted to have it be a scalable program so I can help fulfill my mission to help more entrepreneurs boldly share their message because I believe that’s what’s going to make a significant change in our world. For me, I need to make sure that I have a program that can scale for that without sacrificing the coaching and support piece.
SULU as a digital course
The program is working, the method works, people are getting great results. I love it and we’ready to start scaling it for more people so I did a stair-step where I launched the program as a live digital course. It was a live experience direct over 12 weeks with weekly Facebook office hours.
Here’s where things started shifting for me. One of the struggles I had with an online course was my inability to actually see people’s faces and get real-time feedback around how people are experiencing it and I missed the live coaching element. For me, coaching is a very unique skill. It’s a specific skill and I thoroughly enjoy it.
Redesigning SULU: Honoring people at their own pace
After running the program as a digital course, I realized that I really want the opportunity to coach people. I can’t coach everyone but if I can coach some people live, everyone would benefit. So I started retooling and figuring out how I can design the program in a way that fits both my teaching style and my zone of genius and where the magic happens where people get results. Thinking about being scalable while still being able to serve in the way that I want to, and that’s where it totally redesigned Speak up to Level up from a structural perspective.
Content is still the same but here’s how the program works today. Essentially, Speak up to Level up is a 12-month experience. There is a core training within the program that you can jump in and can go through at your own pace.
I wanted my program to honor people who wanted to jump ahead and also really honor the people who need to move at their own pace and actually cheer them on for that because most business owners have a lot of things going on. You should be proud of training regardless of the pace that you’re doing. That’s the culture that I wanted to create.
In knowing when to offer one-on-one as a bonus in your program
I really think it just comes back to you. Do you want to offer one on one services? Is that going to be a high value? Is that going to be something people want? There’s no right or wrong to this. You have to make a decision for you.
3 Enhancements I added to make the course really work (that you can totally steal!)
1) Office Hours – a quick Q&A for your members to get what they need and keep moving
I made “office hours” on Voxer and I defined the schedule and the time. Having access to a coach on Voxer, it’s a huge perceived value and people love that. If you have a program where you can offer that as long as you train your people how to engage, this can be an exceptional value add on your program. People will ask but they won’t abuse it and try to Voxer you all the time.
BONUS TIP!
I highly recommend you gain questions in Google form or Google Sheet because then you have a place of all the questions people ask you that you can use for future content. You also can use it to make your course better the next time you go to record it.
2.) Working sessions – a safe space for your members to practice and get better
I think one of the negatives of a lot of digital programs or digital courses is people learn things through worksheets and workbooks but they don’t actually put the skills into practice, that could not be the case for speaking.
With Speak Up to Level Up not only do they have access to be able to go through the content, come to office hours for 12 months. We created something called the Level Up Lab and that essentially is a live zoom we do every month where I teach them something for five to 15 minutes and then send people out to breakout rooms to actually practice not just chit chat but practice the art of speaking.
Thinking about how this could apply to you if you teach something that requires practice, how could you create a space for that? Think about what will actually help your clients, members, or students get to the finish line with having higher perceived value and low effort on your part.
3.) Surprise Audits – so you can see how your members are putting what your teaching into practice
I’m not doing this every day or every week and you don’t have to work with everyone. People don’t all have to submit their homework. What you can do is teach through example and have one person submit their work or a few people submit their work and then you choose one that really would be a good teaching for the class or group and you do an audit.
I want to see how people are using it and also want to see people’s success stories and see how they’re putting what I’m teaching to them into practice. It keeps me very connected and in tune with my Speak Up to Level Up members. So audits, this could be something really cool!
LISTEN to the AUDIO of this episode:
RELATED / MENTIONED EPISODES:
How to Create Trust by Setting and Communicating your Boundaries – Ep #82
TOOLS YOU CAN CHECK OUT:
Zoom | Voxer I Marco Polo I Facebook Messenger – for Office Hours
Loom – for Surprise Audit
