Building Your Business: Beyond the Course

Tara Bryan: 00:00:05

Hey everybody, it's Tara Bryan. And you are listening to the course building secrets podcast. Whether you're a coach or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based on your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give you practical real life tips that you can use today to build your online experiences that get results and create raving fans. Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people without adding more time or team to your business. If you're looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

Tara Bryan: 00:00:52

Everyone, I am broadcasting this cast from Mexico. And I'm so excited to talk to you all today. It's been a while and I've been anxious to get back on to kick off the season and have a great time. And I have lost my voice for like two weeks. And so I am back. My voice is so little scratchy, it doesn't hurt, I promise. But it's a little deeper than normal. We'll be back to you know, we'll be back to normal soon. But I hope you're enjoying Season Two of the course building secrets podcast. And like I said, we have so many awesome surprises and cool things for you guys this year. I'm so excited for all of that to come up. So like I said, this week I am in Mexico at an actually at Health retreat. So I am at a resort that specializes in health and wellness. And so we're doing yoga, we're doing meditation, we're eating all plant based. It's It's fascinating. If you're, if you're curious, you know, reach out to me, let me know, I'd love to have a conversation with you about it. But if you look on our stories, if you look at Instagram, you'll see that we are posting tons and tons of pictures of the beautiful food that is here. But I tell you this because one of the things I really want to talk about in this episode, as we start 2022 is really moving forward throughout the year with intention and looking first at what is going to serve you and what what you want to create, that helps you live the life that you want to live. So often I talk to people, and they are working one on one of my clients or they're in a, you know, a career that they're not crazy about. And the hardest part is taking that first step. Often, more often than not right is you know, how do I go about doing this? And one of the things that I help people really look at is like, Okay, so before you start doing this, right, so before we get into the tactics of, you know, how do you build a course? And how do you build a business that, you know serves you and that you're able to help people online, from wherever in the world it is that you want to work or wherever in the world that they are showing up? Before you do all of that one of the things that's so important is to really decide what will serve you what, how do you want to show up? What will work for you as you're creating your business and packaging your expertise or or doing whatever it is that you think that you want to do is what is going to serve you how can you show up in a way that allows you to not only do what you love, but also be able to do all of the rest of the things that are important to you in your life and really being able to prioritize them. So as I'm at this retreat, you know, that's one of the things I've really been reflecting on is, you know, what is that? You know, what is that desire that I have? What am I trying to make sure that I'm achieving? So, it for me, it's less about? Like, what are the what are the things that I'm creating? What are the tactics that I'm doing? What are the programs I'm putting out where the offers I'm putting out, and more about really looking at, like, how can I show up and help serve and in my case, I love to help people who are trying to package their expertise and and serve a bigger audience online and make an awesome living doing it right, where they're able to do what they love, they're able to show up as the best version of themselves, whatever that looks like, right? So for me one of those things is being able to travel. And you know, I love to travel and I love to travel with my family, but I also love to travel with other women and do things that I wouldn't normally do right so you No, you know, taking the time out of my schedule to go to this health retreat where we're really focused on how do we rejuvenate? How do we get that sense of just I just really getting back to, to, you know, slowing down and really thinking about what's important, and how do we serve at the level that we want to serve. Because in my opinion, and the opinion of the people that I'm traveling with, is, in order to do that, you have to fill up your own bucket first, right, like, you have to be full first.

Tara Bryan: 00:05:36

And then you can, you can serve other people. And I think, especially the last two years, it's been really hard. If you're like me, and you have lots of things going on, right, as everyone does, is, it's really hard to make sure that you have what you need. So you can show up in the best way that you know, that you can, I have a friend of mine and, and a client of mine, and he, he had a thriving business and, you know, kind of started to do some other things and felt that the business wasn't really serving Him and wasn't really working how he wanted. And part of he didn't have the energy around it, I guess anymore. Also. And one of the things that's so interesting is he took a couple of months to just focus on himself, his health, and his well being. And not only was he able to lose a bunch of weight, right, he felt great. And now his business is, is really exploding, because he was able to fill himself up, make sure that he was healthy, and he was feeling that he could serve at the highest level. And then as business exploded. I have a another friend, colleague of mine, same thing, right? It was like just a struggle, the struggle, the struggle, of, you know, trying to put things out there trying to make things work trying to do all of these things. And nothing was working, she was frustrated, she was burnt out, she wasn't sure what to do. And, you know, just feeling like, no matter what she did wasn't working wasn't the right thing, she took the time to really just walk, walk away for just a short period of time, work on her energy work on her rejuvenation. And again, her, she was able to go back to her business with fresh eyes, fresh energy. And again, it it, you know, exploded, it was something that, you know, she started to have success with again. And there's story after story after story of, you know, this level of clarity that helps so much when you're in that place. So if you are in that place, if you're in that place of like things are working, but they're not working awesome. And I'm, I've got all these distractions and all these things. And, you know, I won't even mention what's going on in the world. But like all the things, if you're feeling that you just don't have the right, what you feel is the right level of energy to serve at the level that you want to, or things are more difficult than you think that they need to be. Sometimes it takes just taking that time taking that break, and being able to take that step back and see what you need in order to break through some of those barriers, or some of those things that are happening, that that just require you to show up for.

Tara Bryan: 00:08:42

So there you go. So that so therefore, there's a long way of saying, this is one of the reasons why I did this particular retreat, what others experience is to really spend four days just really focused on what do I need to fill my cup to, you know, take that time to get some more clarity, get some energy back and just, you know, really just get off of that. That constant treadmill that I have been on of trying to make things work or trying to coordinate all the things or, you know, worrying about this or doing that. And it has been such a game changer because my energy is balanced it feel more clear. I feel more grounded. And you guys I can't even tell you the stuff that's come out of this week has been amazing. Like just you know, you'll start seeing it as it comes. But I couldn't have done that without taking that that time out. Right. And it doesn't have to be a long period of time, right? Two days, four days, whatever Oh, you may need a lot more time that you you never really know Right? But put yourself in situations that maybe are a little bit uncomfortable for you I had where I I'm here with a woman. And this trip was totally out of her comfort zone. She went not by herself, but what without sort of a best friend, right? And, and she's a self proclaimed introvert. And you know, so this trip was very out of her element, she has just, like, there's so many things about this experience that has changed her viewpoint has changed the way that she thinks about things. And she can go back into her world, and start making some changes, making doing things a little bit different. And so I really encourage you to do that. So one of the cool things, I don't know, you know, you may be that person that comes up with the word of the year, I've been doing it for, like, I don't know, five or six years, I've always had kind of that word of the year, like, what am I going to focus on? What's my big sort of, piece of, you know, kind of mindset that I'm going to use to anchor all the things that I do this year, and this year, my word is clarity, and clarity of purpose, clarity of, you know, the, the process, clarity of all the things that I'm doing, and really, using that as my frame of reference, right? If it's not clear, I'm not doing it, if it feels like it's too difficult, or there's something I'm trying to force is not the right thing. And in terms of, you know, creating a course or really growing the business, you know, and, and packaging, the framework and packaging, you know, one on one work and all the different things that I work with my students on, it's really about looking at that piece of clarity, right? Like, what is the process that you need? How do you help people? How do you get results? What is the problem that you're trying to solve? And be really clear about that? I remember when I first started in this game, one of the things that is a positive and a negative, right, is that I love helping people, right? Like, I love helping people, I love solving problems. And I'm a big picture thinker. So for me, when I think about solving a problem, I want to solve the problem from like, the beginning to the end, right? Like, I don't want to solve like, a little tiny piece of it, I want to go like, Okay, we're gonna go in, we're gonna, like, look at the whole thing, we're gonna look at the picture, and we're gonna just get this from, you know, zero to, you know, whatever, right? Like, nothing to pull. And, and so that's my tendency, when I'm looking at something, as I look at it, like a system and look at it, like, here, all the things from which, which is great. I mean, it's great. Like, I love that about myself, but

Tara Bryan: 00:13:06

it tends to overcomplicate things when I'm trying to teach people how to do something, right, because you really have to go to step one. And then you need to go to step two, and step three, right. But sometimes you don't need to know that there are 500 steps in the process, you just need to know that, like, you do this one, and then you move on to this one, and you move on to that one. So we can talk about all of that another time. But one of the things that I realized when I first started was I was spending time. But it wasn't like confusing people, right? Because you could see the whole path, which is, you know, again, like super important, you want to show them the whole path. But I was trying to teach the whole path at one time. And I think so often, that's what we we do, right? We're like, I'm really passionate about this topic. And I really want to teach people how to do this thing, or I want to teach people about my expertise, or, you know, what, I really want to geek out with people about this particular topic, whatever it is. And so we go deep, and we're like, we just give them all the things right, and we get super excited, and we geek out and then they look at us like, oh my gosh, I'm so overwhelmed, right? Like I don't need all this yet. I just need like this one piece. And so that was one of the traps that I found myself in actually at the beginning of this and that's why I think I'm good at sort of helping my clients with this. But here's the biggest differentiator is just like if you're going on a mountain path, right, like, you can see where the path goes all the way up and around the middle. You can just see a little bit in front of you and when you are building your program or packaging your program, wherever you are. One of the most important things to think about is what is the next step for that client right? What is the next problem that You can solve for them. So it's really looking at how do I package something that solves a problem for someone, right? It's not about the topic, it's about how to solve the problem within the topic. So that's the first thing like really dial in, what problem do you want to solve? So for me, I'm in online courses, right? So I help people package and scale their online courses. So the problem that I'm helping people with most of the time, I have a couple different programs. But most of the time when I'm helping people do is they have an expertise, they have a way that they're helping people, but they don't know how to package it up in a way that helps people get results online. Right, it you know, when you you know, when you're teaching live, or when you're trying to do something, one on one, it's very different when you try to package it, and you're not actually physically there. So that's my specialty, I help people do that. And so that's the problem that I'm solving is I even know what to put in this court? Like, how do I make it effective? How do I help people? How do I replicate or, you know, make an experience online, similar to what I do in person, that's the problem. But if I were just to say, hey, I want to create a course, on how to create an online course. I mean, it could go on forever, because there's so many different, you know, asset aspects of it, right? It's how to design it, how to, you know, create your framework, how to package it, how to sell it, how to market it, how to, you know, create activities, how to, you know, do graphics, how to do all the things, right, like how to fill your program out? And, and yes, I have, you know, offers for all of those different things, and I coach on all of those different things. But the place that people are coming in is different, based on which problem they're trying to solve, you wouldn't start with, you know, trying to, you know, so for example, trying to, like add all these bells and whistles to your course, before you've created it doesn't make any sense, right? Like, you're like, I don't even have a topic. But I want to create, you know, a course that's got all these bells and whistles. So I'm going to create all these bells and whistles, and then go back and actually decide what you're going to teach, right? Like, there's an order to things. And so, as you're looking at that, it's that clarity of like, which is what step are people on? And in which step? Do you are you passionate about helping people because you don't have to teach all of it, you just teach the, the, you know, the one piece that you're super excited about?

Tara Bryan: 00:17:41

And, and then that is how you get started is by really looking at that. So for me, my word of clarity, is, how do I always lead with clarity, especially when I'm super excited and passionate about and I want to help all the people, right? Like somebody comes to me, they're like, hey, I want to create a whole program on virtual reality and learning. And like us. And let's do that. That sounds great. But then I have to look at it. And I say, wait a minute, is that part of what I have committed to doing? Is that part of the business that I have created? So while that's a super, super cool, shiny squirrel? No, it's not right. So I have to say, that's not gonna give me more clarity. I cannot add that to what I'm doing this year. So something to think about, as you know, you're sort of planning the year figuring out what is that focus that you're going to have for the year? Maybe you do a work, but really looking at like, what is it that you're trying to do? And what are the steps that you need to do to take that and then again, through that clarity filter? And how do you make it more and more and more clear to yourself and to the people that you're trying to serve? Both of those things will just take what you're doing to the next level. So alright, so I had a couple of course building secrets in here today. And less like step by step, but one, I really, really encourage you, especially, you know, right now, with everything that's going on in the world, see how you can take some time out, see how you can get out of your environment. And, you know, take that time for yourself, connect with people that maybe you don't connect with on a regular basis. Or if you can't do that, how do you create something within your home or within your environment that gives you a place to have some time to reflect, to breathe, to just really collect your thoughts and rejuvinate in terms of really looking at what you can do, to just get that sense of calmness, so you can start running and you can start blowing up your business in the way that you want to, or whatever it is that you want to do. Right? I just, I cannot even express to you how important that is and how grateful and blessed I feel to be able to do this this week. And, again, it just, it makes such a difference. And, and so I encourage you to think about how to do that, again, even if you don't go anywhere, like how do you just, you know, create some time and space in your current environment that allows you to just do that. Maybe it's just even, you know, an hour in the morning just to sit and journal and be quiet with your thoughts, to really just get clear on what you want. You may consider creating sort of a focus for your year or a word for your year if you want to do that. And then also really think about what you're trying to create what you're trying to do how you're trying to serve people, and put it through that lens of clarity, how do you become more clear to yourself, and then also to the people that you're trying to serve, because and I sort of laugh at myself about this, because I do this all the time. So I certainly am speaking from experience. But you know, if I'm confused about something, and I try and like put it out there into the world, guess what the people I'm trying to serve, are super confused to. So I know that I have to spend that time to get that clarity, I need to spend that time to really, you know, be specific about the results that I want to help people with and the experience that I want to create for them. If I can do those two things, I know that I will be effective, I know that I will be able to help people. So really think about that, as you consider you know, what your goals are for this year? Is it to build an online course business? Is it to package what you're doing? Is it just to kind of figure out like, What is the method to your madness, right? Like, what is that framework that you use to help people? You know, can you boil that down to somewhat of a standard process that you use to help your clients get results? Right. So some of you are just starting in that place of? Well, I feel like you know, I'm doing one on one. And I feel like there's a way to, to not reinvent the wheel every time. And others of you who are listening are like yeah, I have the online course. It's great. Now I'm ready to scale.

Tara Bryan: 00:22:56

Excuse me. So wherever you are, can you add another layer of clarity to that. So that is my challenge for you today. So hopefully you enjoyed this a little bit longer, course building secrets podcast, and I am going to sign off from somewhat sunny Mexico. And I hope that you enjoy the rest of your day. If you enjoyed this episode, give it a like give it a rating. We'd love to have more people listening to the podcast, send it off to anyone you think that would benefit from listening to this. Also, if you are interested in more information, more ways that you can learn how to build and package and monetize your expertise. Jump into the show notes because we have different ways for you to get involved in the community. So Alright, until next time, have a great day.