So often entrepreneurs choose tools out of convenience, by referral, because they are free or they are the shiny new trend. While this may be the ‘easy’ solution, in the long run, it usually does not serve your customers well and typically becomes a giant headache for you, the business owner.

In this episode, Tara gives actionable tips to choose your course tech solution that will support your course, your business, and your customer.

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Transcript
Tara Bryan:

Hey, everybody, it's Tara Bryan, and you are

Tara Bryan:

listening to the Course Building Secrets® Podcast. Whether you're

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a coach or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based

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on your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide

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them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give

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you practical real life tips that you can use today to build

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your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.

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Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people

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without adding more time or team to your business? If you're

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looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and

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use it to scale, you're in the right place. Let's dive in.

Tara Bryan:

Hey, everybody, in today's episode, I want to talk about

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taming the tech. So so often, the tech part of online

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programs, online courses, online business, businesses, whatever

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you want to call them, is the thing that stresses people out

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the most. And I want to tell you why that is today. And then how

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to change it. Alright, so here's the deal, is most people choose

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a tool based on what somebody else is telling them. Right? So

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you go out into the world, and you're like, 'Okay, what tool

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should I use?' And people say, 'Oh, I like this one, you should

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use this one, do this one, do that one.' And the problem is,

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is that when you approach it from that perspective, you

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actually are approaching it from the perspective of what do you

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need, right? What are your requirements for running your

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business. And so you end up most of the time, I would say, like,

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99% of the time starting with a tool, you get into it, and then

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you realize it doesn't do what you want it to do, or it's

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clunky, or there's another tool that may be better. And so then

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you switch to another tool, and then you switch to another tool,

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and then you switch to another tool. And hey, like I am guilty

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of this as well. However, I will tell you that the tech is

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actually the least important part of your online program. And

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because here's the reality is that most tools will do what you

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want them to do, regardless of which tool it is, right and so

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that the the place to start is actually mapping out the

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requirements you have for what you want to do not starting with

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a tool.

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So in in the in my many years of doing an online business, and

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creating online courses. The challenge has always been if you

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open it, open a tool, whatever one it is, and you start with a

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blank screen, you just sort of look at it and you stare at it.

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Just imagine, I know you can't see my screen, but just imagine

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like, just staring at a white screen and you're like, how am I

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going to fill this with stuff. And that becomes overwhelming.

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And then you start just like sort of filling it up. Because

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we're just uncomfortable with the white space. And then what

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happens is because you haven't planned what you what you want

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to do, it'd be it becomes unorganized very quickly. And so

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the biggest recommendation I have for you is like never start

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with a tool. I was looking at a post somebody put the other day

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and they were talking about how, you know, sort of clunky, this

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one learning management system was because you had to build out

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all of the things in a you know, an online builder and they're

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like, well how do I know where to put the various you know, the

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order to put things in and and how it's all structured and I

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have so many topics at this just seems overwhelming to put them

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all in there. And then I thought why? Why would you build it for

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the first time in the tool? And because again, like people are

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just uncomfortable with whitespace and so they go in and

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they start filling things in? Well then it becomes a hot mess,

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because you're just like throwing things in there and

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there's no sort of plan or strategy or even learning

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success path right like forget about just putting assets in and

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how to organize the assets. There's no path or plan whenever

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somebody says why 52 lessons and you know 100 videos I'm always

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like wait timeout like that. That's way too many for one

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course. And so that's the first red flag, the second red flag is

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you want to externalize all of that, right? Like, I would never

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recommend that somebody goes straight into a tool and starts

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building, make sure that you map it out and you have sort of your

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path and in the direction that you're going in outside of the

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tool, then the tool becomes secondary. And, so when when

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you're able to map it out and look at it, as, you know, the

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path of like, how are you solving someone's problem,

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right? How are you getting them from point A to point B, when

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you map that out outside the tool, then what what happens is

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you're able to see the pieces better, and it becomes less

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overwhelming.

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I had a client who was overwhelmed with emails. And

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then again, what we did was we structured the emails and looked

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at the emails that we needed, mapped those out before, she

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went into her email, email automation system, and it became

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manageable instead of going out there and trying to build emails

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as, as she went. And so if you take this approach, and

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honestly, like, you can use fancy pants, apps out there that

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map everything out and in, give you all the things you can use

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PowerPoint, you can use, you know, whatever, whatever tool

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you want to use to do that, or you can use paper, right, like,

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I have a sketch pad next to me. And so if I'm mapping something

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out, that's a little bit complex, and I want to look at

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how it's all going to come together. When I, I automate it,

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when I create, can kind of the path in the tech, I do that on a

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sketch pad with a marker. And so, you know, that's, that's a

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solid approach to take, because it takes away the overwhelm.

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Then you apply the tool that you need, based on the requirements

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that you have, right? Like you've mapped it out, and you

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need it to do xy and z, then, you know, you can choose the

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tool that's going to do XY and Z.

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And so my my lesson for you today in this is do not pick a

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tool based on somebody else's recommendation without looking

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at how it matches your requirements. And if you don't

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have requirements yet, think about what your requirements

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are, and then go out and ask the question based on what somebody

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says because just because some gurus tells you that this is the

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tool to use, just because your friend says this is a tool to

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use doesn't automatically mean it's going to match your needs.

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And so the next time you feel tempted to grab that, that tool,

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you know that that piece of tech that you feel like that you need

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before you grab it before you start paying for it monthly,

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really identify whether or not it's the the thing that's going

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to slide into your business and create that path, that

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experience that helps your customers move forward. Alright,

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there you go. That is my course building tip for today.