Copy of Why people donβt want to take your course and what to do about it | STP60
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Hello. The CS, the scaling therapy practice. This is the show where we empower mission-driven helpers to launch life-changing online courses. My name's James Marland. And this episode, we're going to talk about customer research. How much time should you put into customer research?
The exhibit, the answer. I do not have I don't, I can't tell you a number. I can't say, oh, you need to do this many hours of research and you need to. Make sure. That you have all these things nailed down because the answer to how much research it is. Is. When you have enough, your program works. And when you don't have enough. You're not able to make sales.
You're not able to convert. You're not able to communicate effectively what you're doing. And the transformation that you're making. So the answer is it's. I know it's longer than a day. Like it takes longer than a day to.
Get all the information you need. But if you do six months of research without releasing anything or doing something or getting any sales, then you're probably. It's probably sooner. Sooner than six months.
One of the things that, that bothers me a lot is when I hear. Or read in on Facebook groups.
I have this course, I have this idea. And just keep working at it. And it's been six months or six years or a decade that they've been working on it and they haven't released it. And. The idea I want to present to you is. If you can release something that gets the transformation for people. Even though it's not perfect.
It's better than the content that you leave. On your desk or leave on your computer, leave in your head. So. How long should you be researching? Let me give you some guidelines. And things that. That I would counsel people to go towards to be able to release their course and know that they've done enough work.
This comes from. Training. I just did with Joey Racoona. And also the book. The lean startup. And I forget the author of that, but I can put it in the show notes. And you've probably heard this too. It's the minimum viable product. When should you be. Releasing your product. You know, or how do you know you've done enough research? It's when you have a minimum viable product so that you can take your students from their storm. To their safe Harbor. So you can take people from their pain to their promised land. But that's a packed sentence. Because you need to know some certain things in there.
So what are the things you need to know? You need to know about yourself. Like, what are you good at? What do you like to do? Where is your strengths? That you can get people, the results that they need. So you need to know about yourself.
The other. You also need to know about your students. What storm are they going through? What is their crisis? Where are they living? What is their circumstances that you can take that. You can identify. You know, because of your strengths and your history and your education, you know? That you can get them through their storm. So you got to know about their storm and in their storm, they have pain and they have problems. Somebody in a storm, on a boat that some of their problems would be waves or a shark, and the pain might be they're thirsty or they're hungry.
You know, if they're shipwrecked or something to thirsty or hungry. So your client is in a storm. Your ideal client is in a storm. You know how to get them out of this storm and you can identify their pain and their problems. But if you haven't done the research to be able to identify what their pain and problems are, if you haven't done the research to. Communicate with their pain.
You're not going to be able to get them to know you and to trust you and to get on board your ship, you know, to get on board, whatever you're promising them. If you can't communicate effectively enough, they're not going to. Join in with you. So part of your research is having conversations. I think conversations is probably one of the best ways to get to know what's on people's mind.
You've got to have this conversation with people. What are your pain points? What are your problem? What's your situation? What have you been trying right now? What do you wish was solved? What keeps you up at night? All those things. Add to their current situation and the better you can communicate that you understand. And that you can take them to someplace safe. The more likely they will respond to your signal and get on that boat with you. So you gotta know, you gotta know their storm and their struggles. And you got to know where they're going.
Like what is their dream destination when you're selling a course or selling a product or selling therapy services? People don't want. Don't. They don't want to take a course. We covered this a couple episodes ago. They don't want to take a course. And if you're a therapist, they don't want to go to therapy.
If you're sick, you don't want to go to the doctor. If you're trying to get a degree to two. Educate yourself. You don't necessarily want that degree. You want the benefits, the transformation of that degree. When you go to the doctor, you don't want to have your blood drawn. You want to feel better?
The same thing is true for your ideal clients. You want. They want to feel better. They want their problems alleviated. They want to be out of their crisis and they want to be in a better place. And if you can communicate that with your research, you got to research what they're actually want. They actually don't want to be smarter.
They actually want the job done. They want the transformation. So you have to know. And be able to, if you can communicate that, that I am. I me, I'm the captain. And I know how to get you through your storm, out of your pain, out of your problems, to the promised land, to the safe Harbor, when you can communicate that and you've outlined the steps. Then you've done enough research.
That doesn't mean you have to. Have all your slides done and the handouts done. If you can communicate. The transformational process, then you have something you can sell. You have something that you can build a minimum viable product for a beta test. Program a cohort of a few small people.
When you have done those things.
You, you can get started. You don't have to wait six months and have every, all your ducks in a row. One of my big struggles is I want to have everything in a row. When somebody asks me a question, I want to be able to rattle off the answer right off the top of my head. I need to be comfortable with. Knowing 80%. Knowing just enough. That other people. I can get them to their a hundred percent. So.
I don't have to be, um, afraid of not knowing everything all at once. But I need to be able to communicate enough to get people to their desired destination. So, does that make sense to you? When you're thinking about like, your course when you're. Ready to make your core. So you've been thinking about making a course or people coming to you and say, you should do a course on this because you're really good at it. You're like, oh, I got to keep doing research.
Where are you? If you want to email me and just tell me where you're at. My name is James at course creation, studio.com and just say, Hey James, this is where I'm at. I'd love to have a conversation with you about creating a course. If you. If you're ready to take that plunge to create a course, I am starting a cohort. In March 25th and we're going to get people. The idea is to get five to 10 life-changing helpers. Launching their course in the next two months. I'd love. It really One of my missions is to help people. Launch their course, so they can start transforming other people in their world. And in, in essence, making the world better through people, helping people. That sounds like you, that, that sounds like something you'd like to get involved with.
Email me, James, of course, creation studio.com. I would love to know what your situation is and where you're at in the course creation. We can kind of. Check to see if this would be a good fit for you to get you to your next to launching your course, getting it out of your head and into the hands of the people that you can help.
I do have a resource for you. If you signed up for the Signed up for the newsletter, sign up for the newsletter and ask for my course navigation map. I. At something I used to do webinars, but I'd love to give that to you. Just also send me an email, James, of course, creation studio.com. I say Hey James, give me that course creation map and that the maps spells out just what we were talking about the. The elements you need to know about to help you launch your online course. All right, this is James course creation, studio.com.
We'll see you next time.
[00:09:55] Emily: This content is intended for educational purposes only. If you need expert guidance from a lawyer, accountant, or therapist, it is advisable to consult with a qualified professional in the respective field. The information provided in this episode does not establish a client-professional relationship and should not be treated as a replacement for professional advice.