The Ugly Truth About Online Courses

The Comeback - Week 16 (22,700 Subs):

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Picture this:

You open up YouTube on your phone.

You scroll through the feed in anticipation waiting for something to catch your attention.

Taking you away from the mounting problems in your business.

A clip from Joe Rogan’s recent podcast comes on.

Perfect!

You click and sit back comforting yourself hoping this will distract you from the stresses and worries that are lingering in your mind.

And then an ad.

You hover your thumb over the bottom right ready to skip.

But something inside keeps you watching.

“This guy knows something I don’t” you think subconsciously.

He’s explaining how he’s using a secret formula to sell wholesale on Amazon, promising that if you embark on his course, you’ll become financially free within 3 months.

That’s exactly what you need!

Although, it sounds too good to be true…

But what if? 

What if he’s right?!

Imagine you missed out on this opportunity…

All he’s asking you to do is register for his free training.

What’s the worst that can happen?!

He’s got you now.

Before you know it you’ve paid $997 and you find yourself inside another course.

1 month in and everything is the same.

All those big promises and nothing.

Just another guy getting rich selling dreams to his desperate audience telling them what they want, not need to hear.

Now you know the score.

The ad that hooked you - you begin to see the cracks in the armour.

That lambo picture was a polished facade.

If I had a dollar for every time I’ve heard a story like this I probably wouldn’t be writing this Newsletter.

And yes, I have too been the victim - on multiple occasions.

But are all online courses scams?

Or is there a place for them in today's world?

Are they a net benefit or net negative for society?

Well, that’s exactly what we’re tackling today.

The ugly truth about online courses, why people still keep buying them and 5 pillars to make sure your course is a success.

Today on David to Goliath:

1. Challenges - The Frantic Rush

2. Breakthroughs - New SEO Strategy and Podcast Studio

3. Main Topic: The Ugly Truth About Online Courses

4. Mindset: Judge People By Their Actions, Not Their Words

5. Resource Recommendation: Eddie Hearn 12 Rounds to Success

Road to 100,000: Behind the Scenes

Challenges - The Frantic Rush

Last week, we had just returned from Balkan E-commerce, fuelled with inspiration having done our monumental speech.

But then we found ourselves facing a challenge – our newsletters were behind schedule.

At David to Goliath, timing is everything. Consistency matters. We will not skip a day of posting. We owe it to you our readers.

There we were, scrambling to compose last-minute Google Docs with trembling fingers, desperately ensuring the newsletters were dispatched by 4:30 PM.

Add to this, Midjourney decided to have a glitch, which meant Dan couldn’t do the George Heaton comics until Thursday, the day of posting.

Meanwhile, I’m under vast amounts of pressure to finalize my Agency mentoring, which kicks off tomorrow, so I had little time to play around with.

This is just what happens when you have big goals and are taking the fast lane in life.

It’s chaotic. It’s uncertain.

But I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Breakthroughs - New SEO Strategy and Podcast Studio

We have had some huge breakthrough’s.

We have teamed up with Inge and Tim from Penfriend, collaborating on an SEO strategy which will see content around entrepreneurship, mindset, and personal branding spreading like wildfire.

Again, upping the stakes, upping the workload, charging relentlessly to that 100k subscribers by December 31^st 2024.

More on the new SEO strategy to come - I’m so pumped for this!

Another breakthrough is our new podcast studio.

We now have the right equipment at the David to Goliath Headquarters to move our on-air operations here.

In the backdrop of the gleaming cityscape.

With top of the range equipment.

And if you’re new to the Newsletter you can listen to our behind the scenes conversations here (the new intro we’ve recorded is bold to say the least!)

Main Topic: The Ugly Truth About Online Courses

The internet.

What a wonderful thing.

It’s brought countries and economies together creating an entirely global marketplace where anyone with a laptop or phone and a WI-FI connection can sell products or services.

The opportunities are endless.

And that’s also the problem.

The barriers to entry are pretty much zero.

Anyone can create a course and understanding a few principles about human psychology can convince desperately vulnerable people to believe in a solution to get them out of the hell they find themselves in.

Morally it’s not right so why do they still do it?

Because it’s a great business model (at first).

Record a load of videos once and then have repeatable sales with low operational costs.

Reinvesting all the money back into advertising and content to get more suckers through the door.

Spinning the wheel faster and faster.

A 16-year-old kid who just quit school and is now making $60,000 a month. More than his parents did in their entire lifetime.

You can see why that’s tempting.

BUT.

There is a certain point when you’ve scammed so many people word will start to spread and the negativity will catch up with you.

Yes, if you only ever want to make $1 Million dollars a year and don’t care in the slightest about helping others there are enough vulnerable people in this world to keep spinning up new courses for the rest of your life.

However, if you want to build something massive it needs to change people’s lives for the better.

So you have word of mouth marketing working on your side.

Imagine if Jeff Bezos made a course on how to build an E-commerce business and make $10k per month?

(to be fair I’d probably be his first customer!)

But it begs the question: If these course gurus have the best business model in the world, why aren’t billionaires doing it?

Do they actually believe they’ve got the best kept secret that the smartest people in the world haven’t figured out?!

No.

Instead, they’re building businesses centred around actual impact, driving humanity forward - resulting in real enterprise value.

Although I get it. We don’t all want to build billion-dollar behemoths and run huge teams that take every last ounce of our energy to maintain.

So is there a right way to create and sell online courses without burning your reputation in the process?

Yes, I believe so.

But there are a few things that need to change.

I’ve broken this down into 5 pillars of success:

1. Qualifying Criteria

2. Setting Real Expectations

3. 1:1 Tuition VS 1 to Many

4. The Best Thing Noone Talks About: Community

5. A Trusted Verification Partner

1- Qualifying Criteria:

Remember the ending scene on The Wolf of Wall Street when Jordan Belfort asks the audience to “sell me this pen”?

Everyone who attempts starts blabbering on about how wonderful the pen is.

That isn’t how you make sales.

A doctor asks before they prescribe.

Firstly, you must figure out if they actually need a pen.

Because even if you manipulate them into buying it but they don’t need it, it certainly won’t have a positive impact on their life and they’ll probably never trust you again.

This is exactly what most course people do.

They just let anyone buy their course, regardless if they need it or not. 

As long as they’re waving a credit card, they’ll welcome them in with open arms.

Short-term great, long-term terrible.

Yes, if you have qualifying criteria so not just anyone can buy your course and only allow in people who it will seriously change their lives, it will take longer to get momentum - as you will have to turn people away.

But once those people get results they’ll tell 10 of their friends. And their friends will be just like them - so it will also change their lives. 

And then they’ll tell 10 of their friends and so on.

Also, by limiting supply, if your course actually gets people results you’ll skyrocket demand.

The fear of missing out and scarcity is a real thing - it’s just most people manipulate it because to have it working properly takes time and work.

Remember: You’re going for people’s trust and respect. Long-term that will make way more money than a few 10k months right now.

2- Setting Realistic Expectations:

Another crucial thing is setting the right expectations.

If you tell someone that they can get 50 sales calls in 30 days and then they only get 10, they’re going to be disappointed.

Even if those 10 sales calls massively grow their business.

To stand out in a landscape where the competition gets tougher by the day, the course marketers are getting more and more extreme.

But they’re just shooting themselves in the foot long-term.

Because as I said and I’ll say it again: You have to win people’s trust and that’s done by delivering on your promises.

For the majority of people who take the course, not the minority who get results by sheer luck.

So instead of telling people what they want to hear.

Tell them what they need to hear.

Be guided by the truth.

Deliver on the expectation set. Ideally, overdeliver.

And watch as they become your biggest advocates.

3- 1-1 VS 1 to Many:

Time and time again it’s been proven that 1-1 tuition and training gets better results than one to many.

But why is that?

Because of context.

If Michael Jordan tried to teach a guy from Bulgaria to be the world's best basketball player with the 41 key steps that made him great do you think it would work?

Of course not.

They’ve both grown up in completely different eras and in completely different cultures.

But if Michael Jordan worked 1-1 with this guy, understood his situation, gave him only the advice from his experience that was relevant, and then once implemented course corrected, it would have a huge impact.

And that’s what most course gurus don’t think about.

In reality that one product they tested on Amazon and made millions of sales with was complete luck.

But because of their naivety they believe it was because they’re special so build a 29 step process around exactly what they did.

Shock horror: For 99% of people it doesn’t work the same.

Although for the 1%, they also get lucky and then say that course changed their life.

And these are the same case studies you see on the YouTube ads.

Because no one is going to talk about how they spent $997 and failed. Not in public at least.

It’s embarrassing.

So how do we solve this problem?

Assuming you’ve qualified people correctly (step 1) then you work with them 1-1 (with a higher price point) and handhold them through the process.

Using the experience you had to solve real-time problems that crop up when they implement what you say but it doesn’t quite work the same.

Remember: Success is never a straight line. It’s never an exact blueprint.

And if you’re helping people who grew up in different countries with completely different backgrounds context is incredibly important.

That’s why mentors and 1-1 tuition is so damn valuable.

The fact is most people aren’t willing to put in the work.

4- The Best Thing About Online Courses No One Talks About: Community

But what if you don’t have time to help everyone 1:1?

What’s the solution then?

Well, I don’t know about you but what I keep hearing time and time again is that even if the material in the course wasn’t valuable the community was worth the investment.

I found my previous business partner in an online course and we went on to create a 7 figure marketing agency together.

So was it worth the investment? Yes, 100%!

I didn’t buy it because of that but imagine if I did?

If you don’t have time to mentor everyone 1:1 I honestly believe the best solution is instead of focusing on selling a course, focus on selling a community.

People are lonelier than ever in today's world and crave companionship.

With the power of the internet, we now have the opportunity to connect with other people who align with our exact principles and are in exactly the same journey in life.

Those people can forge alliances, refer each other business and maybe even partner up on a new venture. That’s insanely valuable!

And then once the community is up and running, you can ask for feedback on what information they want to hear more of and build the course together.

Imagine how much your community would appreciate it if they were involved in building the course with you?

Also it would actually work!

So if you can’t mentor people 1:1 instead focus on selling a community and then build courses based on what the community want.

5- A Trusted Verification Partner:

As much as I think formal education is massively overpriced and for most a waste of time, they have got one thing right.

You can’t just whip up a University and overnight become part of the University league table system.

There are certain criteria you have to meet and it’s regulated by a governing body.

Imagine if before you bought a course there was a body that verified it. So you’d know if it was legitimate or not?

I know there are a few things that exist and obviously platforms just for courses that people trust although it still seems this part hasn’t quite been figured out.

I’m not sure exactly how I feel about this either because the moment you bring in governing bodies into it things get political.

And it goes against the whole idea of decentralizing power and allowing individuals with no qualifications to share their knowledge and experience.

I know there is a solution here, I just don’t know exactly what it looks like.

Maybe you know the answer, feel free to share your ideas!

So is there a place for online courses?

Yes, absolutely. 

I just believe we all need to get more honest and play longer-term games.

In summary, the 5 pillars of success for an online course to succeed are as follows:

1. Only Let In People Who Need It

2. Set Realistic Expectations

3. Work With People 1:1 (If you have time)

4. If You Don’t Sell A Community (and build a course with them)

5. Have Your Course Verified By A Trusted Partner

Mindset - Judge People By Their Actions, Not Their Words

I learned this lesson the hard way, on multiple occasions.

So many people talk a big game - it seems worse now than it’s ever been.

But not many of those people back it up with real-world results.

If someone tells you they're disciplined for example instead of taking their word for it, look at their actions.

• Do they keep to a consistent schedule?

• Do they show up on time?

• Do they exercise regularly?

• Do other people say it on their behalf?

If the answer is no then they’re probably full of sh*t.

The more you can judge people on their actions, not their words, the higher likelihood you’ll have of building relationships with genuine people who have your best interests at heart.

Because if someone is lying to you about one thing you can bet your bottom dollar that isn’t the only lie they’re telling.

Life is short so you have to be brutal.

For the people who don’t align their actions with their words just save yourself the hassle and cut them out.

There are fewer people who do but there are many of them.

Never accept someone’s word at face value.

Judge them by their actions over an extended period of time and you will find out the truth.

This also applies to people you’re thinking of buying online courses from!

Resource Recommendation - Eddie Hearn 12 Rounds to Success

One person who certainly didn’t get rich from selling courses is Eddie Hearn, Chairman of Matchroom Sport and Professional Darts Corporation.

Being a kid who was ‘handed everything’ on a silver spoon by his Dad Barry Hearn, he had a chip on his shoulder from day one.

Proving to the world he was more than just “Barry’s son”.

Working in boxing is one of if not the hardest industries in business.

Constant corruption, backstabbings and arguments.

But through it all Eddie took over his Dad’s business and has turned Matchroom into a billion dollar corporation.

In his book “Relentless: 12 Rounds to Success” he reveals how he made this possible.

If you’re looking for a genuine entrepreneur who took risk after risk and just kept betting on himself, this book is for you.

As you know at David to Goliath self belief is the cornerstone of everything we do.

Whilst some might call Eddie arrogant, you can’t deny the man has self belief and conviction on a completely different level.

He reminds us all you have to face rejection head on, put your name on the map by whatever means necessary and just keep dreaming big, even when the world calls you crazy.

Watch out for Thursday’s email where we’ll be unravelling the entire backstory of Eddie Hearn…

Until then keep Dreaming like a Giant.

But fight and believe in your dreams like a God damn Underdog!

Yours truly,

-Nigel Thomas

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