On a team meeting we had just earlier, someone mentioned something that I knew I wanted to share with you.
He said, “Don't invest a lot of time or money when starting a new project, start with an MVP and go from there. Your customers will tell you what's the direction to go and what they like or don't like about your product. That will save your time and money.”
Something that I've seen over and over again are people who put EVERYTHING into building a course or membership site without first validating the idea at all.
Don't get me wrong, I've been there and understand the mentality.
But there is a better way.
Maybe you already have a successful site and you're wondering what this has to do with you. What I'm about to share works for starting a new site, but also adding new programs to existing, established sites.
So…
Before you spend a ton of time and energy planning, recording, editing, and marketing your program, try this.
- Reach out to all your contacts and potential buyers (if you're just starting, this is likely all your friends on social media, colleagues, etc.)
- Invite them to a live 4-8 week course held on Zoom, 1 hour each week, over the topic you'll be creating your course on
- Charge a nominal fee for it
- Use this to gauge the interest
If you can't get 3 people to sign up for the live course, you're going to have a hard time getting people to buy into a membership program.
The other reason why this is so powerful is you don't have to have all the content ready ahead of time. Go in prepared to teach the first lesson and then the next lesson will be tailored around what your students need help with.
By the end of the program, you will have actual feedback from real students who paid you. This will help you build a course that's actually valuable since you will have uncovered ideas/problems/solutions you didn't originally think of.
I hope you can use this tip whether for a new membership site or just adding a new course to your existing one.
