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She’s the reason I started podcasting, she’s the teacher who showed me the way into the online course world, she’s a dear friend, and now she’s the only Goal Digger guest to make THREE appearances on the show. My girl and one of my dearest friends, Amy Porterfield is back by popular demand for a two part interview breaking down the thing she does best: Digital Courses.

Is a digital course on your heart but you’re not even sure if you’re ready for it? Maybe you’re new to the idea altogether… You’ve heard me talk about MY courses, and you’re kind of familiar with digital education and what’s out there, but you’ve never taken a full step back to look at your own life and genius to consider, “Hey, maybe I could do that, too.”

I know that mindset, I know that feeling of curiosity and fear. Before I even launched my email list, my inner dialog probably sounded a lot like yours — in fact, I’m revealing what my first “launch” looked like before I knew Amy AND the five programs I could have created before I even had a business… I mean, it all can feel confusing but you know who walked me through it? Amy Porterfield. And in this episode, part one of two, we will help you discover all the reasons why you’re ready for a digital course. Get ready to challenge those mindset blocks — Let’s do this.

Oh and Amy is hosting a super special training that you can join to learn all about the 3 Behind the Scenes Secrets of Digital Course Success — How to Build, Launch and Grow a Thriving Digital Course Business Without Hiring a Big Team, the Constant Overwhelm or the Momentum Crushing Question, “What the Heck Do I Do Next?”

I’m sending allll of my people there because what she’s teaching changed my life and business trajectory FOREVER so head to learnfromamy.com and save a seat next to mine! I want to flood her training with the Jenna Kutcher fam so we can all learn from my mentor together.

Can anyone be a course creator?

This is the first big question and mindset block that I hear over and over… And it’s even something I asked myself. Could I really be an educator? Can anyone be an educator?

To put it simply: Yes. Anyone can create a course as long as you’ve gotten results for yourself or someone else, and if those results are teachable.

“The beauty of an online course is you just need to be a few steps ahead of those that you are serving and teaching, because they want to know how you got those results and they want you to teach them,” Amy explained.

Tune in with the player above for an incredible story of one of Amy’s students who created a diet and exercise strategy for herself and turned it into a course. Her first launch was incredible!

Can you start your business with a course?

You might hear the advice that you should start a consulting or coaching business before attempting to create a course. That you aren’t ready for a course until you’ve worked the system down and taught it one on one to clients dozens and dozens of times.

False. You can definitely start with a course. This goes back to the same advice, you just have to be one step ahead of the people you are serving and teaching.

One of Amy’s students grew up in a struggling household, but at an early age read a book about etiquette. She started building a business by going live on Periscope (remember that app?) and sharing tips on etiquette. Her vision was traveling to teach people etiquette, but when she had a baby travel became difficult. Instead, she brought the students online with a course.

Without an existing business, without coaching and consulting, she started her online coaching business. Her first launch? $20K. Second? Even bigger. Now, she sees $100K launches.

Ask yourself these three questions

Need to determine your readiness to create a digital program? Amy and I discussed three questions that can help you qualify your experience and knowledge as it relates to creating an online course.

First: Do I have a few ideas for a digital course? You want to make sure you come to the table with a few ideas.

Second: Do I know who I would love to serve? Narrow in on who your course will serve best. You don’t want to serve everybody, because then you will serve nobody.

Third: Am I willing to do the work? You do need to block some time and dedicate yourself to creating the course. It’s worth it, and once it’s created, you can launch it over and over again.

The courses I could’ve created

Looking back to 9-to-5 Jenna in corporate America, it’s crazy to think about all the courses I could’ve created back then! Before I was a photographer, before I’d figured out my Instagram secret sauce, before alll of this, I still had something worth teaching.

How to prepare for a job interview (I was in HR and I saw all of the craziest interviews), how to train for a marathon (yup, I’ve done it), saving on your wedding but still having a beautiful event, learning to raise your new rescue puppy… These are all things I’d done myself or had experience with great results.

Don’t overcomplicate or go for the “how?” right away. Don’t get stuck on the courses you’ve seen other people create. Think of your own genius and how it could be packaged into a teachable course.

There’s also the limiting belief that you can only make money if your course teaches other people how to make money. Yes, these kinds of courses are successful. But no, they’re not the only course people will buy. Amy had a student who created a course on how to make caramel apples. Her first launch was $60,000. Snack on that.

There are so many courses already

Traditional learning is going away. Digital courses allow students to go at their own pace. You can listen on the go. It’s just easier to commit to a course you can do wherever you are.

Yes, there are a lot of courses already, but online courses is where learning is going. Yes, there may be another course out there on the topic you want to teach. But get this, both Amy and I have a course on email list building. We’ve both made millions on this course. There’s plenty out there to go around.

Our goal is the same and our end results are similar. What’s different is how we approach the topic, our methods for getting our students the results they want. You will serve your audience in a unique way.

“Put blinders on. Run your own race and do your own thing,” Amy encouraged.

Press play right now to hear more on this discussion of scarcity versus abundance.

Why you shouldn’t create a course

Now, we talked about all the ways a course could be the next best step for you, but there are some reasons you shouldn’t create a course.

If you have no idea who you want to serve or who your audience is, or you haven’t started building an audience, spend time in this phase before you entertain the idea of a digital course.

People always ask Amy how big their email list should be before they create a course and her advice is a list of 250 people. It’s a solid foundation that you can build upon as you start talking about your course online.

Most importantly, if you’re looking for a quick way to make money and you don’t want to spend time actually doing the work to make it great, don’t create a course.

More from this Episode

Want to know how much I made on my first launch and what did my course look like? What was the “beautiful mistake” I made at the beginning that set me up for success in the future? And if you’re feeling inspired and ready to create a course, we’ll tell you where to begin. Press play on the player above for the first in a series of two interviews with Amy Porterfield about all things course building.

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Want to see if this is a fit for you? Join a webinar NOW!  |  Want to see Jenna Kutcher’s BONUS for Amy’s Digital Course Academy, click here!