This week, we are super excited to welcome back the fantastic Teela Cunningham from Every Tuesday. Teela does so much as a creative entrepreneur, but we’re thrilled this week as she is going to be sharing her strategies about how to launch and sell courses to creatives. So, if you have that little spark inside you where you feel like you want to teach the world something, Teela is highly experienced, highly successful, and very generous sharing all of her best tips. This is going to be an action-packed masterclass of an episode. So without further ado, let’s get into the show!
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Show Notes for This Episode:
[1:20] Teela explains how courses have helped her business.
[2:00] How Teela exposes new audience members to her teachings.
[3:00] The ins and outs of Skillshare.
[4:25] Dustin shares one creative’s Skillshare story.
[5:20] Ian shares his financial numbers from Skillshare.
[6:00] Signup referrals and course views.
[7:30] Why Ian decided to start with Skillshare.
[8:15] Deciding how much value to put into each course.
[9:00] Offering discount codes to lure students to your platform.
[10:05] Companies want you on the content hamster wheel.
[11:30] Teela understands why Skillshare runs their business the way they do.
[12:00] Why Teela decided to self host her premium content.
[13:20] Earnings in one year self-hosted blows Skillshare earnings out of the water.
[14:30] New teachers and teaching platforms.
[15:00] Hidden figures of platform earnings.
[17:10] Teela shares her favorite self-hosting platform.
[18:30] Teela shares humble beginnings to course creation today.
[19:00] The course Teela purchased to learn how to create her own courses.
[20:15] How Teela discovers what she wants to teach?
[21:00] Audience polls validate what courses make the cut.
[23:00] Free content – light and deep dive content.
[24:30] Ian asks Teela how she updates courses after software updates.
[25:00] The joys of re-recording courses to catch software updates.
[26:00] Dustin talks creating products for new software.
[27:30] The anxiety that goes along with software changes.
[28:00] Concerns due to changes to Procreate’s brush engine.
[29:00] Changes are job security.
[30:30] Tom shares some information about the early stages of his course.
[31:00] Stepping throuogh the steps of creating a course.
[32:00] First step is creating a project that the users will create.
[33:00] Teela works script-free and narrates while working.
[34:00] Dustin asks if there is a lot of post editing with off-the-cuff-narrating.
[35:00] There is no one size fits all way to teach. Find your style.
[36:00] Ian’s teaching style is short videos.
[37:00] Teela uses one camera angle for her courses.
[38:00] Film and editing.
[39:10] Tom asks Teela if she enjoys editing.
[40:00] What tips Teela would offer to help make a more polished video.
[41:20] Time lapses are great for boring parts of videos.
[42:00] Get to the point already!
[43:00] Sharing what you are making at the beginning of the course.
[44:00] Dustin asks Teela what she sees in the future of online courses.
[45:30] YouTube isn’t going anywhere.
[46:30] A great sales page for your courses is a must!
[47:20] Going the extra mile with online courses.
[48:20] Tom and Teela nerd out about Teachable.
[49:00] All courses in one easy to use location.
[50:20] What is the earnings margin for Teachable?
[51:00] From Free to $1000 a month, Teachable has a tier just for you.
[52:00] Seamless email list building and communication.
[53:00] Always offer a deal to those in your email list.
[54:00] Marketing is generally the same process repeated. It’s not magic.
[55:00] YouTube is a great place to test your topics, edit and build an audience.
[56:00] Ian was enticed to buy a course after seeing another student’s project.
[57:00] Don’t forget about your past courses!
[58:00] Hashtags help others promote you and bring new customers to you.
[59:00] Tom shares his marketing philosophy.
[1:00:00] Teela shares why she doesn’t offer workshops.
[1:01:00] Ian asks Teela if she’s ever had any major ‘Uh-oh’s.
[1:02:30] All nighters, subpar lighting and recording on a cell phone.
[1:03:00] This struggle has led to her most popular course to date.
[1:04:00] Audio over video, always.
[1:05:40] When your audience complains, it can be harsh.
[1:06:00] Don’t take refunds personal.
[1:07:00] Teela is firm on her 30 day refund policy.
[1:08:00] You can’t please everyone, so don’t stress complainers.
[1:09:00] Dustin shares a Dad story.
[1:10:40] How long does full course creation usually take?
[1:11:00] Start small and work your way up to longer courses.
[1:12:00] We hope more listeners will jump into the online course game.
[1:13:00] Where can you find Teela online?
[1:14:00] That’s a wrap!
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“A must for every creative freelancer (or those aspiring to freelance). Thank you for being so… honest! Such a wealth of information from people I admire who have ‘been there and done that’. Listening to the podcast every week feels like I’m among friends. Can’t wait for more episodes!” – AG_GD
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