In the past 12 months, I’ve created 8 online courses. 

That’s 680 lessons, according to my course platform. 

It’s all been part of a grand master plan I hatched in mid-2023 to build out the complete operating system for building a leveraged, expertise-based lifestyle business.

The eight courses are designed with that specific endgame in mind. 

Here’s a summary: 

• Lifestyle Business School Roadmap: This is the overarching roadmap for mapping and tracking your progress to your personal endgame.
  
• Dream and Design: Design the leveraged expertise-based business model that satisfies the Monday Morning test and feels just right for you.
  
• Create and Validate: Build a simple, leveraged expertise-based offer suite (and the engaged lead list to sell it) in 12-weeks.
  
• Deliver and Delight: The full delivery playbook for building out a stand out and streamlined online course, group program, membership or mastermind.
  
• Rinse and Repeat: The ultimate collective of every live launch and promotion under the sun.
  
• Traffic Playbook: Develop and execute a simple but sophisticated marketing plan to sell your scalable offers.
  
• Automate and Accelerate: Build out a fully automated system of cascading campaigns to sell your offers on autopilot.. while you sleep.
  
• [Not currently included in Lifestyle Business School] Operational Elegance: The full back end blueprint for running your online business including systems, structure and streamlined processes to simplify, scale.. or step back!

Together, they comprise everything you need in a step-by-step, or alternatively pick-and-mix, format.

It was a big vision. 

And I knew that the crafting of it wouldn’t be a walk in the park. 

Creating ONE online course is an undertaking. 

Committing to creating 8? Well, that’s like the Everest of online course creation. 

Here’s why it was important to me, though. 

When I looked around, I saw too much piecemeal advice. 

“Implement this strategy for success!” – one course would say.

“Do this and get your next 1000 followers!” – another would say.

The truth is, everything worked (if implemented). 

But, the advice was piecemeal.

They were tactics, when ultimately what someone needs to build a successful leveraged lifestyle business is a simple, holistic strategy, and a clear map with all of the pieces laid out in order. 

That’s what I have created in Lifestyle Business School. 

I have recently wrapped up the creation process after a year in “build mode”.

And, I can definitely say that even as a seasoned course creator with millions of dollars in online course sales, the process has taught me a lot. 

If you’re interested in creating an online course (or 8!) of your own, here’s some fresh-out-of-fire tips, tricks and lessons I’ve learnt and been reminded of as I have moved through this process.  

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Lesson One: Build With the End in Mind

Lesson one is to be crystal clear and intentional with the “end point” of your online course. 

Of course, for me this was especially important, because I had not just one course to create but a series of eight all leading toward one ultimate endgame. 

The way to achieve this is with a clear and defined “transformation”. 

A transformation is the journey that your student will take from where they currently are (the problem), to where they want to be (the solution). 

Along that journey from A to Z, it is your job as the course creator to identify the key “steps”. 

Ultimately, being a great course creator is mostly about your ability to clearly and concisely organise information into a simple roadmap that is (relatively) easy to implement. 

For me, the first “layer” of steps was the courses in Lifestyle Business School. 

Each of the 8 was a clear “step” in the journey towards a lifestyle business. 

I was extremely mindful of ensuring that each student start by identifying what their ideal lifestyle business would look like for them, so that they would be able to “colour” their journey through Lifestyle Business School with that unique endgame in mind. 

This was the work involved in “Dream and Design”. 

From there, the steps were sequential – design an offer suite (Create and Validate), deliver it (Deliver and Delight), build an audience (Traffic Playbook), launch (Rinse and Repeat) and automate your sales (Automate and Accelerate). 

Within each course, there is also a defined transformation. 

For example, in Create and Validate, the “transformation” is that within 12-weeks, you will have a simple mini-course entry offer created and launched (which you later use as a lead magnet to build your audience).

You also get experience in crafting and testing pitching a core offer to your mini-course students. Whether you make sales or not (note that LOTS OF SALES isn’t the transformation), you will get the data you need to know where you need to optimise and what to work on next. 

With a clear transformation in mind, you are able to organise your modules and lessons, cull (because great courses are as much about what you DON’T include than what you do) and sell a clear result. 

Lesson Two: Choose Your Hard

I don’t think it would be a big secret to reveal that the process of creating eight courses was no walk in the park. 

Creating curriculum is difficult. 

It’s time consuming. 

And, it can be creatively draining. 

It’s also up front work.

Also? It’s not the only way to build a leveraged lifestyle business. 

It’s the way that I have chosen, because I am what I coin a “creator expert”.

Creating content and building an audience is my passion. 

When deciding what sort of leveraged expertise-based business model you want, I recommend deciding what type of expert YOU are. 

And then, choosing your “hard” based on that. 

For example, if you enjoy creating content and marketing, a lower-ticket creator model where your time is spent building curriculum and then creating content to market it might be perfect for you. 

On the other hand, if you prefer to spend your time delivering and serving, but in a more leveraged way than with 1:1, then a coaching model might suit you better. 

You won’t need to spend LOTS of up front time creating course curriculum, but you will spend more time on an ongoing basis delivering your coaching. 

For me, this model is perfect. 

It was a lot of work – granted. 

But, it suited my lifestyle and my need over the past year to “drop everything” at times. I have been able to sit in my office and build courses, and haven’t need to commit to coaching calls (which I wouldn’t have been able to anyway). 

It has been a lot of work upfront, but now that it is created it will be less work (delivery-wise) moving forward. 

I have created assets that will work for me. 

Note that I haven’t said that it’s NO work moving forward – which brings me to my next point. 

Lesson Three: Get Fast Feedback

There are ultimately two ways to create an online course. 

One is in a vacuum. 

You decide what you want to create an online course about, and then you spend six months in a cave working on it. 

I have done this before, and I see a lot of others do it this way. 

There are a few problems with this approach. 

Firstly, it can lead to never-ending procrastination, perfectionism and shifting launch timelines. 

An online course is a significant undertaking, and it can be easy to get in your own head, tell yourself why it’s not yet ready (when actually you’re just scared) and drag things out forever. 

Secondly, it doesn’t result in a course that satisfies what your STUDENT needs. 

It’s easy as an expert to ASSUME what someone wants and needs, and that is usually very different to the reality. When you create it in a vacuum, you are starving yourself of the feedback from real students on what they need. 

And thirdly, it can be a costly mistake if you spend months creating a course.. only to discover that no-one actually wants it. 

There is a better way to do it (and this is the way I did it). 

Firstly, I came up with a concept. I wrote it all out on a plane to London last year, and when I arrived back in Australia I decided to test it. 

Secondly, I validated the concept. I ran a free mini-course where I shared super valuable content that was ultimately “step one” of Lifestyle Business School. I listened to the feedback of the people in the mini-course and later pitched them the offer. 

Thirdly, after people purchased and the offer was validated I built it all out. 

The truth is, I already kind of knew that it would validate. 

I teach this whole process in Create and Validate, but essentially that process is designed to do three things: 

a) Tell you what your click power is: This is the number of people you are able to drive to an offer in a small period of time. I knew I already had an audience, and that I would likely be able to generate the traffic required to sell an offer if it was the right one. But, for people that don’t yet know what their “click power” – or in other words, traffic driving ability is – this is a powerful piece of data. 

b) Validate an offer: By crafting an offer with the feedback of real-time students telling you what they want, you are able to better hone the skill (and it IS a skill) of offer creation. Based on your click power, and how well you execute on that skill, you may or may not make sales that first time – and if you don’t, THAT’S FINE BECAUSE YOU NOW KNOW EXACTLY WHAT TO DO NEXT. I kind of knew I would validate because I have been crafting offers for years, but also? MY GOSH was I able to create a better offer from the feedback I got. 

c) Give you clarity on next steps, namely:

• If your click power was low: You know you need to follow a traffic plan. 
• If you didn’t make sales: You need to either increase your click power, refine your offer or maybe both. 
• If you made sales: You need to deliver, baby!

That clarity is priceless. So often, we’re sold that “making six figures is the only way!”, but actually? When we’re first starting out what we actually need is practice, realistic expectations and clarity on next steps – and that’s what this process can do for you. 

Lesson Four: Online Courses Are NOT One and Done

People who think that online courses are passive in the sense that they are “one and done” might be sorely disappointed. 

Here’s what I now know to be true after creating many, many online courses and having now finished up with the creation of these eight:

Online courses are NOT one and done. 

Here’s what this practically means for me. 

After validating Lifestyle Business School, I created Create and Validate live in real time week by week, with live coaching calls in between. 

By doing it this way, I could see the gaps in my course and where my students were getting stuck. 

I have logged every question and stuck point, and these have been mapped out to update in my next round of curriculum updates. 

I also ask for feedback on a regular basis from my students. 

Specifically, I ask them to rate their experience and to tell me something I can improve upon. 

This gives me an understanding of a few things: 

1. Where I need to improve: I look for patterns where people are getting stuck, or where they are consistently mentioning something that needs improvement. These then get added to my curriculum update roster.
   
2. Whether my marketing is attracting the right person: Sometimes, I will get feedback that is telling me that I need to improve my marketing. For example,I had a student give me a “4” rating because I wasn’t able to give them a 1:1 call and they weren’t willing to post their question in the Facebook Group.
   
   Rather than updating the course to include this (which absolutely could have been an option if I wanted to increase the price), I instead reviewed my front end marketing materials to see whether perhaps there was confusion, and where I needed to update for clarity. 

This feedback loop is an ongoing process, and I will ALWAYS be iterating based on feedback. 

In addition, curriculum will be updated as strategies change, things become updated etc. 

It will also be updated to make things prettier over time, more streamlined and more “professional”. 

This is important to recognise, because sometimes thinking that a course needs to be that way from the start can stop people from EVER starting. 

Instead, viewing an online course as an “ever improving”, iterative asset is powerful (but also wipes out any idea of it being passive income – sorry!) 

Lesson Five: You Need to Make Space for the Upfront Work

Every time I create a new course, I am reminded of the time, energy and mental effort it requires.

Usually, this means that other things fall by the wayside. 

For example, I personally find it very difficult to create a course and ALSO pour creative effort into front end marketing. 

I find it very difficult to create great podcasts, or social content, to market at all. 

For that reason, I think it’s important to realise that committing to the creation of an upfront asset like an online course means that something is going to have to give in other areas. 

If you are a service provider with a full client roster, it is going to mean that you are going to have to drop a client or two to make the space. 

If you are an existing course creator, it might mean that you might not be as “visible” with your marketing whilst you are in that deep creation process. 

I think that it’s important to make peace with that. 

Otherwise, from my experience you will burn out, and start to spin your wheels trying to do all of the things. 

It doesn’t make for a fun creation experience. 

Of course, from a financial perspective it also requires planning for the space you are going to have to make. 

The first time I created a course, I made “financial space” by taking on double the client load in the lead up so that I could bankroll the time I had off to create the course. 

This time, I knew that I would need to take a fairly significant financial hit from a business perspective whilst I was in build mode. I planned for it, and I knew that once that phase was over I could “make up for it” by having that done and then dedicating a lot of my time to marketing. 

I don’t think there is a “right answer” in terms of what is best here – just what is the right answer for you. 

I DO think that you need to be pragmatic and realistic about what you plan IS though, because you do need to make the space if you want to make this viable and not burn out. 

So many people don’t get their online course off the ground because they don’t properly make the space and that makes me sad – because there is so much time, freedom and opportunity on the other side of that up front build. 

Lesson Six: The Sense of Satisfaction When You’re Done is OFF THE CHARTS

The feeling of lightness I have now that the up front build process is done really is something else. 

I would imagine that an author would have a similar feeling after penning the first draft of their book – they know they’ve DONE it and yes, there is going to be more work in refining, but the bulk of the creative effort is done. 

Ultimately, when you create an online course, you are creating an asset that is then able to work for you over and over and over. 

It then becomes something that can impact people at scale – WITHOUT being dependent on the hours you work. 

Knowing that I have, over the last 12 months, encapsulated EVERYTHING required to build out an online course, group program, membership or mastermind business, and that it is going to help others to create their own lifestyle business is an incredibly feeling. 

I feel proud of it. 

I know that it is going to impact a lot of people. 

And I feel accomplished. 

My job now?

To continually refine, iterate and to focus on getting it into the hands of as many people as possible. 

If you have “creating an online course” on your goals list, I’m here to tell you that it’s absolutely still worthwhile and that there is more opportunity right now then ever. 

I’m also here to NOT sugarcoat the work involved. 

Of course, you likely aren’t going to be committing to the Everest of online course creation and committing to creating eight online courses in a year. 

I don’t recommend you do. 

Just one can change your life. 

If you want to build your first or next online course and turn it into a leveraged lifestyle business, that’s what Lifestyle Business School will help you to do. 

To join us, click here.

Keep Listening!

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