Episode 127: 4 Things That You Might Consider Before You Press Purchase on (Yet) Another Online Course
For this quick tip episode, Fiona talks about online courses and the important things you need to consider when making a purchase. And no, it doesn’t include your budget. Listen now to find out what they are.
And if you’re interested in OUR online courses, check them out here.
Topics discussed in this episode:
Introduction
4 Things to Consider when buying an online course
Skills Matrix
Who is teaching?
Do you have the time?
Accountability
Conclusion
Get in touch with My Daily Business Coach
Links/Resources Mentioned in this episode:
Episode transcript:
Hello, and welcome to Episode 127 of the My Daily Business Coach podcast, it really means so much that you are giving me your time, your precious time, for the next 10 minutes. And I really know that today's quick tip episode is gonna be super useful. So you're not giving it up for nothing, just letting you know. And before we get stuck into that, and it's all about learning, so it's a good one to listen to. I just wanted to pay my respects to the traditional owners on the land on which I record my podcast and I run my business. I'm out in North Warrandyte, in Victoria in Australia. And yeah, the traditional owners of this land are the Wurundjeri people of the Kulin nation. And I just pay my respects to their Elders past, present and emerging, and kind of give you this as obviously paying my respects but also a reminder to do whatever small thing that you can do in your way to promote equality and access for all. So today, it is a quick tip episode. So let's get into it, shall we?
Alright, so today, I wanted to give you kind of four things to consider if you're about to purchase an online course. Now, I know that a lot of people use online courses, myself included. And I also know that a lot of people kind of get caught kind of almost addictively buying online courses almost kind of like, if I've bought it, I've gained that education before you've even completed it or done anything. And I also know that 80% of people who buy these courses never actually finished the course. So part of the reason that I run my nine week course and coaching program to go with Marketing For Your Small Business, is that Marketing For Your Small Business is a chunky course. And I want people to not just work through it in their own pace, but get through it and accomplish it and finish it and sort of get as much as they can out of that.
So if you are someone who's buying online courses, and you're kind of racking them up, then firstly, you're not alone, because a lot of people are like that. But I kind of wanted to point out four things that you might consider before you press purchase on the next online course that you're going to buy. And these are for things outside of the budget. So obviously, budget is a big one, it's like can I actually afford this? Am I throwing money at something where I can potentially hire a consultant to do that for me or outsource that. So that's one thing. But that's not included in these four.
The four I'm going to talk about are things that I think are often just not even considered when it comes to online courses. And yet, those are the things that are really going to help you assess Is this the right course for me right now in my business.
So without further ado, and in no particular order:
#1 Skills matrix
Now skills matrix is just a matrix, it's just a table really, of all the kind of skills and tasks that you may have existing in your business. And it could be things that you need to do and all the skills that you as the business owner need to have. You could also include they're all the skills and tasks that your staff do. And so what you do is you fill in a skills matrix. And you can either create one yourself or I have a free one, you can get that at mydailybusinesscoach.com/freestuff and just look for skills matrix. And it's just a table and really in the first column, you can have all these kind of tasks, elements, areas of the business. So you might have PR, you might have social media, you might have influencer outreach, you might have a whole bunch of other things. You might have analytics, e commerce setup, email platform, email, sequences, a whole bunch of things. And then you're gonna have three kind of tabs next to them three columns. And you're going to have skills, interest and experience. So what you want to be thinking about is where do you have an interest and maybe even experience in something but you don't have the skills?
So say for instance, you might be like, I'm really interested in analytics, and I need to get better at it. I have a real interest in that. I also have some experience in this but I'd really like to get better skilled at, say, using Google Analytics or using any kind of Shopify insights or any sort of tool that's going to help you understand more about your business. So you've kind of ticked interest because you interested in it, and you've ticked experience. But you don't have the skills, no one's actually ever sat down and walked you through how to get the most out of, say, Google Analytics. And so therefore, you dedicating some time to a course that's going to teach you step by step Google Analytics, and even better, maybe Google Analytics for your niche or your product or service, then that's a good use of your money, because you know that you have the interest, you have the experience, but you don't have the skills. Whereas if you have, say, you know, you're about to buy a course, because a really cool ad came up, and you're like, yes, this is the course for me. Like you've worked through your skills matrix, and you're like, somebody else already worked on that in the business. So I actually am paying someone else to do that. I could either invest in the costs for them, and kind of get some updates. Or I could go to them and say, could we fix this ourselves without having to invest in this course?
So the skills matrix is the first thing? am I interested in this? Do I have experience in it? And do I have skills that are missing? Or maybe I do have skills? Or maybe there's someone in my business that could teach me these things, rather than spending money on a course. So that's the first thing: identify the kind of missing skills that you want to have, rather than getting kind of blindsided by an ad, that looks really cool. And suddenly, you've spent all this money and you're like, why did I do that? I didn't even need to do that. Or I already have three courses on that already. And you might even add a fourth column, which is courses we already own, and kind of take, we have one on PR, we don't need to buy another one, please, we need to finish what we already have. So that's number one, skills matrix.
#2 Where is the teacher or the person leading this or the agency leading it?
Where has their experience come from? Now, this can be a bit of a controversial one. But when I buy a course, I really want to know that the person teaching me has more experience than myself in this better skills, really proven that they've worked all over the place, they haven't just been able to do this for themselves, they've been able to replicate it across lots of different industries, or across at least my industry. And I want to understand that. And I've talked before about some of the courses that I've invested in have been from people who have done really, really well in their field, and they are absolute gurus of what they teach. So I remember one of the first courses I bought, gosh, probably like 2016, was a Pinterest course from Melissa Griffin in the US and Melissa Griffin had made millions selling courses through Pinterest as a key marketing tool. And it was like, okay, yes, I'm gonna learn from somebody like her. And she's been able to replicate it again and again. And again. Likewise, I have bought SEO courses from Kate Toon, who is a guru at what she does. And I often bring her into group coaching, to talk about SEO, because that is what she's a specialist in. So you want to be thinking about the experience of the teacher. So say, for instance, against Marketing For Your Small Business, which is my online course, I have multiple courses, but Marketing For Your Small Business, I've been in marketing for 20 years, I have worked at huge companies like Amazon, and audible and country road group. And then I've worked for a bunch of small companies that are just getting started. And I've seen them be able to grow as a result, partly, obviously hugely by themselves as well, but also from doing my course or doing my workshop. So that's the second one, what is the experience of the teacher? And am I going to really, really learn?
#3 Do I have the time to execute on my education?
And I think this is one of the biggest ones, we get so excited about getting this course we're like, oh my gosh, oh, my gosh, I want you to really think about: Could I execute on this education? So say it's a website design course? And you're like, yep, because I want to redo my website. Do you want to redo your website in the next 12 months? Or is it something like in two years? Do you want to redo your website in the next three months, and if so cool, I want to buy this course. And I need to have the time, I know that I've got a bit of time coming up, because I'm kind of slow on projects or something else. And I've got the time to execute the education that I'm going to learn. It's one thing to get all the education, it's quite another to execute and implement it, which is the most important part. Otherwise, you're just getting all this information. And if you're not doing anything with it, did you really need to get it in the first place. So that's number three: Do I have the time to execute on this education that I'm about to buy?
#4 Accountability.
So how can I stay accountable to these? Do they have coaching sessions? Do they have a course and coaching program like I do with Marketing For Your Small Business a couple of times a year? Do they have a way of contacting them? You know, once I've bought it can I reach out to them if I've got problems or issues and I know with my courses, people will reach out on dm and I'll reply and say, "Yes. Tell me about this." So, you know, how do you go with module five. And so I'm available, you know, I'm not available all the time. It's not like, Oh, she just comes with free coaching. But I'm there. Whereas I know that I've bought courses in the past. And when I've contacted them, there's been nothing, it's like, we got your money, we have no interest in getting back to. And there's no like Facebook group, there's no kind of attachment to it. So really think about how am I going to stay accountable? And if I can't contact those people, which is fair enough, you know, I get it. What about? Could I contact them and maybe get somebody else who's in the group? Or who's done it to kind of be my accountability, buddy? Could they partner up with someone? Or could I do this with a friend? So could I say, Hey, friend, I'm going to buy this course, I think you also would really benefit from it. Let's do it together. And let's set up a kind of weekly or monthly get together. And we're actually working through this. So I know that seems like a lot, especially when you're getting sent this really cool ad and you're scrolling Instagram, and you're like, Oh, my God, that looks really fun. I should just pay my money.
Stop, stop for a second and really think about those four things.
#1 The skills matrix are the skills that I need at the moment.
#2 Who is teaching this? And do they have the experience and proven track record that I want to learn from?
#3 Do I have the time to execute on the education that I'm going to be learning?
#4 How am I going to stay accountable? And it could be like I said, you get a friend involved. You partner up with somebody else, say if they've got a Facebook group, you find someone in the Facebook group, and you stay accountable to finishing the course.
Like I said, in the beginning, 80% of people who buy courses never actually finished them. That's just a little fuel for thought food for thought fuel for thought maybe both. If you're out there, and you're thinking of buying a course.
And same goes with my courses, like, do I expect you to go through these things? If you're going to buy my courses? Really think about? Is it something that I want more skills in? Is she the right teacher for me? Do I have time to execute? And how can I stay accountable.
And if you are someone who's bought one of my courses, please reach out. Instagram is a good way you can just find me at @mydailybusinesscoach. Come on over send me a DM and I'm happy to help you with any of those four things. So that is it for today's quick tip episode. I hope you enjoyed it. If you found it useful, please share it with a friend. And I would love love love. If you could just leave a review for us. It just takes no time at all. And it really really has a huge impact on this podcast. We read every single one and I appreciate every single one. So thank you so much for listening. I look forward to hearing from you maybe an Instagram maybe through a review. Whichever way you know you feel good with that. Yeah, thanks for joining me and I'll see you next time. Bye.
Thanks for listening to the My Daily Business Coach podcast. If you want to get in touch, you can do that at mydailybusinesscoach.com or hit me up on Instagram at @mydailybusinesscoach.
