eCourses and Coaching are like Music
…excerpted from the book “Multiple Streams of Coaching Income” by Andrea J. Lee
Have you ever heard of the book ‘Everything Men Really Know About Women’ by Ken Debono?
It was published in 1996 and clocks in at 200 pages.
If you have the chance to look at a copy somewhere, have a flip through.
You’ll notice that inside the bright blue cover, all but four pages are completely blank.
Wry smiles aside, there is a greater lesson in the blank pages of this book than you might think, and it has to do with the power of silence and blank space.
As we all know, there is just so much information in the world these days, and successful coaches around the world are becoming skilled at making sure there is ample learning and integrating space.
Furthermore, inherent in the 1-1 coaching relationship is the fact that there is usually a week or more time that goes by between each coaching call.
That’s the space in which everything happens.
In the bigger picture, we talk a great deal about meditation, and exploring the gap between our thoughts. Spiritual leaders everywhere are proponents of a daily habit of silence.
What’s interesting is that eCourses, by their very nature, are a time-release format of delivering material that lends itself perfectly to the idea that silence is important.
eCourses are small pieces of writing delivered to readers one piece at a time via email. Using autoresponder technology, the lessons can be delivered with a specific interval of time in between.
Oftentimes, an eBook which is just one long piece of material, can be nicely chunked down into smaller pieces, and delivered in eCourse style to great effect. (Or indeed vice versa.)
You see, creating Multiple Streams of Coaching Income doesn’t have to mean many times more work, or long drawn out periods of time creating products. In fact, leveraging one piece of writing into multiple formats is simple if you know how.
In fact, the profound effect of eCourse material, written in a coaching format that has time to soak into a person’s life, is key to so many successful eCourses, it’s impossible to keep up.
Especially well suited to changing lives, I like to describe the eCourse as the unsung hero of coaching formats, period, and as such presents an opportunity for you.
Put simply:
An eCourse is simple to write.
Each lesson is a simple article. Write between 5-10 lessons and you have a terrific eCourse on your hands.
If you find it easier to write a Top Ten list, as many coaches do, try that, and then chunk each bullet point into one lesson. And there you have it.
An eCourse is a perfect relationship-builder and lead generator.
As they say in sales circles, it often takes seven times before a customer says ‘yes’ and opens his wallet. A multi-issue eCourse is built to give repeat occasions for the prospective client to check out the coach, and purchase other products, whereas other one-off items may not.
As they say in relationship circles, it may take you more than one date to get a peck on the cheek. Once again, an eCourse is a coaching format that allows your prospective client to get to know you before hiring you for something.
Although eCourses for pay are being used effectively to generate revenue in dozens of coaching businesses, they are the quintessential lead generator when used as a freebie (pink spoon.)
An eCourse is a powerful mirror of the coaching process.
It allows a space in between lessons so that action can be taken, and new ideas integrated.
Written by a talented coach, a good eCourse can bridge the gap between the reader knowing something, and that same reader applying it to their lives. Just like the weekly coaching session.
How does this happen? By capitalizing on the time that elapses between lessons…the silences.
In other words, if your eCourse is 10 lessons, be sure to close each lesson off powerfully. At the end of the lessons, design an exercise, a call to action, an invitation or assignment that lets the reader live with the concepts you’ve just shared, before the next one arrives.
Want a concrete example of an eCourse that does just that?
Here’s one you can experience if you haven’t already, and then print out and analyze to use as a template if you wish:
FREE AWARD-WINNING ECOURSE
“The Five Keys To Putting Money in Coaches’ Pockets”
Click here to access the Multiple Streams of Coaching Income home page to sign up.
Let me put it to you another way. Have you ever listened to a piece of music, perhaps something classical, and noticed the silence between the notes?
Maybe it’s the silence after a particularly stirring bit of energetic violin, and there is a very full moment of silence that anticipates the next note?
That’s what the silence that occurs between lessons in an eCourse is like. Also the ‘silence’ between coaching sessions. And that’s where tremendous shifts can be made.
Great coaches know how to build up the gap between lessons/sessions.
Write your eCourse.
Want some action points to get going now? Here you are:
(1) Pick an eCourse that you responded positively to. It can be the ’5 Keys’ eCourse above, or another one.
(2) Pick a topic of interest to your target market. Preferably focus it on a foundational issue the market is experiencing.
(3) Write just 5 points about your topic. (That’s half a top ten list.:-) ) For each point, make 3 sub-points.
(4) Now use the eCourse of your choice as a template. Replace the content with your own. Following the original as a model, fill in the appropriate website links and salutations, to suit you.
(5) Your mini-eCourse is complete!
Stay tuned to a future issue of ‘Creating What Matters’ for a recommendation to a web-based tool to deliver your eCourse, or consider the Multiple Streams of Coaching Income membership, details below, for more action steps you can put in place today.
