Creating a Mini-Course to Attract Dream Clients - Kathy Stowell

Website: https://www.blissbeyondnaptime.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blissedbeyondnaptime/

 00:02 Hi, hello, jump starters. I am Kathy Stowell i'm here to talk all about how to create a mini course so you can start attracting your ideal clients. And I am going to share my screen with you to share my slides so I could stay on track. I have a tendency to be a chatty Kathy, so let's not let that happen. All right, here we go. Present mode voila let's create a mini course together. It's gonna attract you to you, your ideal clients and not only ideal, but dreamy as well. So a little bit about me.  

00:48 I am Kathy Stoll and I have been in this biz for a long time when I get into that but today I have helped over well over 100 moms start and grow coaching businesses. Before that, I was selling handmade clothes and art yarn on Etsy, which led me to create my first mini course. And that then led to me deciding to become a coach to work with moms.  

01:20 And before that, I have spent time working in marketing in the corporate scene. And I love Wiener dogs. I love mini dachshunds so I love mini courses, mini dachshunds, and mini cows we used to have a mini milk cow i love all things mini so I'm really excited to share this topic with you today. And for fun, I do pickleball and I'm very passionate about helping moms make money from home and doing so as quickly as possible because my favorite motto is success loves speed.  

01:57 Ok, So what if your dream clients could get a little tiny taste of your brilliance and want more of you? And that's what mini courses do. And the beauty is you create it and catching, you're getting these PayPal notifications as you sleep so you wake up with your cup of latte in hand and some really good, exciting news. And, yeah, because not only did you sell something, but chances are very good that you sold something to someone who wants more of what you got going on here.  

02:35 So it can lead to more sales so we're going to get into that, too but what we want to quickly share again, I was making handmade clothes and deciding I wanted to scale that biz at the time, I had my kids, who are now 20 and 16. My daughter was starting kindergarten, my son was a baby and I was sewing during the day and then at night I was online at C posting my stuff and I was pooped not only that, I didn't like going to the post office I didn't like.  

03:14 I still don't like going to the post office very much i just don't like packing things to be mailed out i am the worst at Christmas now I just order everything from stores and ask them please can you mail this for me because I hate doing that. So so I decided I need to scale and that's why I decided to make an E course i call it Backwoods Mama's Sew Camp and I made a whole bunch of other ones and the whole premise of it is to how to sew when you got Rugrats around so I was sharing what I was experiencing small children, but still just finding, you know, getting my yayas from making clothes i loved it and I decided, you know, I realized there's a way to do it by releasing perfection and doing like little chunks of time.  

03:58 So that was back in 2010 And then I opened up another E course because what happened when I started selling the sewing course, people were coming back to me showing me photos of them wearing these really cute backwoods Mama outfits that I helped them create. And just seeing the look on their face of pride, they were like, I didn't think I'd be able to do this you know, I'm so stretched thin with my kids around, but I was able to show them just release perfection, you know? You know, good from far, but far from good that's OK.  

04:37 And that gave me the clarity that I wanted to go deeper with these moms i wanted to really prioritize that time for them to pursue their passions outside of motherhood. And so that actually led me to become a coach. I became a creativity coach and I got certified too as a simplicity parenting coach. All the things that I found worked for me to be living this life where people were asking me how do you do all that? So in 2012 after I became a coach, I made my first official mini course which was selling my coaching services i called it 10 Days to Get You from Crummy to Yummy Mummy and what I loved about that, it was a freebie and I really again kept stretching out of my comfort zone.  

05:31 But basically I was riding the thrill that was I have all these tangible coaching tools now I I know the result. I want to get my clients and I wanted to give them a taste test of what feeling more yummy actually felt like so every day I gave them a little morsel of a coaching tool that I use my clients so that they could experience because it felt like back in 2012 especially life coaching, coaching was kind of weird.  

05:59 It's much more mainstream now. So this gave them that tangible experience of what it was like to be coached by me. So mini courses and my pictures missing here, they're still helping me. They're helping me grow my email list because it helps to build trust again, going back to getting a little taste of what I'm all about and it helps me reach, it helps me grow my reach so I keep bringing people into my world onto my email, list and then I can nurture those people on my list and keep reminding them, right if you stumble upon someone online and you're like, whoa, they're so interesting.  

06:43 Wow, I never heard of such a such a course or service provider. Unless you get on their email, list chances are very good that you'll have no idea how to find them again so an equal, a mini course that I use as a freebie has been really successful in helping me grow that. Selling courses too, has created a new income stream and it helps me participate in some it's just this one when the opportunity presents itself, the more mini courses you make, the better you get at making them. And really quickly you could be like, yeah, I could totally teach on that topic and then you, you know how to execute it with confidence and with ease and you don't get too stressed out about it.  

07:26 And just like with my E course for sewing, it brought clarity every time I make a course, I get some clarity of, oh, this is another way I can teach my ideal client going through this specific struggle. It starts growing your body of intellectual property and you start to stand out as an expert because you're constantly eating, breathing and problem solving on your clients behalf. And the truth is, you can never have too many mini courses you can offer these as bonuses for when you are in a summit or if you're being interviewed on someone's podcast.  

08:06 You just constantly have this like resource of gold available to you to share with your ideal client and it's such a great way to grow your confidence. Ok, so today I'm going to tell you why many courses work, especially for coaches, coaches and service providers. The four part mini course creation framework that you can use over and over again as you continue to make your courses and what to avoid when creating them. Ok, so why mini courses work? As I've been sharing, it builds trust. It shows that you're not simply chat GPT little thing that got spit out, right? You're a human.  

08:57 So you're using your voice and you're showing your face hopefully, perhaps. And if this is going to be a way to draw in your idle client, so you are going to be number two attracting people into your world because you're going, and I'm going to show this in the next slide, the four part process begins. You're solving a problem O this is going to be it's more valuable than simply an ebook or PDF because you're going to be adding adding a little bit more bells and whistles to it so it's going to be really value rich and it's scalable.  

09:37 Like I was saying with the E course for sewing, it wasn't sustainable for me to be constantly sewing and going to the post office, right? You could trade it once and it provides A transformation to your ideal client over and over, all over the world while you're sleeping, right like for sure there's some legwork at the beginning, but it doesn't have to be super exhausting. And it's a primer, meaning it prepares your ideal client with the foundation they need to kind of have at the ready or at least start wrapping their mind around some concepts before being ready to hire you as a service provider or as a coach.  
 
10:18 Ok, so here's the four part mini course creation framework. You always begin with a struggle O Think about a very specific problem that your ideal dream client has. O if it's helpful, just step into the Daydream machine of imagining their day from the moment that they wake up. What what is the first thing in their mind? And then moving through their day, What are they getting frustrated with? You know, they have a goal that you are an expert at getting them to. What are some of the obstacles that frustrate them throughout the day that reminds them like, Oh my God, I still got to do this.  

11:02 So get really clear on what that specific problem that you can solve in not too long, right you want to have like a lot of air. It's not the word breathing, breathing space, air that you can breathe within solving that problem. And you're going to solve that problem and number two a three step process. So what I like to tell my clients when they're coming up with their process is to, again, use your imagination that you're sitting here in your office or wherever you work, and your ideal client comes into your office.  

11:41 And maybe you have a chair facing your computer or a sofa and they plop down and they're looking really frazzled. And they're like, Oh my God and they say what that struggle is and point number one and then you just sit there, you crack your knuckles and you're like, OK, this is what you're going to do. And come up with five i call it 5 you're gonna, first you gotta, then you're gonna, then you gotta, then you're gonna, and then you're gonna got.  

12:13 And then see if you can come up with five points and then group those five points into 3 groupings so this is kind of like boom, boom, boom. This each step moves in closer to getting them to that point B of that little micro struggle, right? When you choose a niche for your business, you really want to, this is like a whole other topic, but lean on your niche statement, meaning who do you help? What's the big kahuna struggle you help them through? And what is the main result you help people get to and I want that result to be either to help them make more money, to help them create stronger relationships or have better health.  

12:59 But then within that big struggle, right for example, my niche statement is I help moms who coach are struggling with getting clients so they can make more money. There's so many little teeny tiny struggles that float in that biosphere of the main struggle, right? So the thing with the mini course, you're not going to set the expectation that this is going to fix all the big kahuna struggle, right? But it's going to show them it's going to flex your I got a real result from that muscle, right? Flex your stuff.  

13:34 It's going to showcase that you get results. So make those three steps, boom, boom, boom, really potent. But simple, simple simplicity is where it's at. Ok, so you're going to choose your delivery style. So a long time ago I heard a coaching business coach say something to the fact of you could make an ebook and today it's more simpler than ever to create an ebook you go into Google Doc, you write your stuff out, you save it as APDF and voila, you got an ebook or you can take it one step further, go into Canva and then get really pretty.  

14:17 But I want you to add another bell and a whistle on there. Meaning you want to give people a taste of how you talk so have some kind of pre recorded video or audio and then think about how what would be helpful for your ideal client. Like I work with mom so over the years, whenever I offer a mini course, I always ensure that there's some kind of audio component to it so they can listen to it on the go. So I remember when our kids were little, we lived out in the sticks and we would come into town about twice a month to get groceries and stuff and it's like 45 minutes each way so I would listen this is like right at the the cusp of my my coaching career, just like devouring all this advice.  

15:11 And I loved it when people were offering audio component to their courses or I would listen to podcasts so think about your ideal client and what would help them make the most get the most impact from your teachings. So keep the tech simple, but start experimenting in a really good idea to think about is how do you like consuming when you are taking a course, right? So start taking mini courses yourself and pay attention to what attracts you to it, what you enjoy in the teaching and start playing with that. Because whatever modality you use over and over again, it's going to be get it's going to be a bit, it's going to get simple for you to replicate it.  

15:56 And this is what we want it to do we want it to be not stressful when an opportunity comes again for you to teach something or if you want to offer a new freebie or if you want to offer you know another way to make some income in your business or you want something that's going to really get people excited for a bigger offer that you offer your big kahuna course or working with you one-on-one So the call to action you're going to and you know, Speaking of which, moving on to the big kahuna is to invite them into the next step.  

16:34 So working with coaches, what we typically do is invite people into discovery call where we will listen to the potential client, really listen to what they're struggling with, and then reflect back i hear you saying this and this is exactly what I can help you with. And this is what what it looks like working together. And again, this is kind of a a macro vision of the micro vision is of your mini course, meaning coaching package 2 is made-up of a three to five step process so you can explain this is my signature process and often it's kind of echoed in the mini Ness of your mini course so or you can invite them to your program or buy a bigger offer, but just have that really clear call to action at the very end 'cause they're just going to be like whoa, that blew my mind.  

17:31 I want more and that's the thing with the mini course. You are offering a result, but it's just one little drop in their struggle bucket. You're showing them how you can cover even more. The closer they can work, the closer they can work with you personally. And as you know, the closer they can work with you, the more it's it's going to cost. All right, So this is what you want to avoid when you are creating your mini course. Trying to teach too much don't cram too much in remember that we want to have a lot of breathing space. When you are teaching in your main, in your mini course, you want to have a cadence.  

18:16 You want to just let it really sink in. And if you have too much, it's just going to overwhelm them and they're not going to absorb anything and it's just going to feel like a lot of gobbly goop. You don't want to make it too long it's just going to get exhausting and this, this rings true too for your freebie so back to that crummy to yummy offer I made.   18:43 So it's 10 days to get you from crummy to yummy mummy. And every day my email service provider would drip out one lesson. And after about six months, I checked out the stats and you could see I had like 100 % people open the first email 'cause that's how they actually got on my email list. But then day 2, only like 75 % of the people opened it and then day three sixty day four fifty and it just like very rarely would anyone actually get to day 10. So I took those that data and I actually later condensed it i think it was like 5 days to get you from crummy.  

19:32 Anyways, I fixed that, but don't keep it too long is my my point. And then if it is too long, what you could do is you could change it into three different mini courses as opposed to one. Don't be too vague. In the coaching world, we call this fluffy coach speaks so I always like to say you want to be hypoallergenic. So be very specific you know, how can I say this more directly on the struggle using your own voice, using the words that your ideal client uses so put on that Nancy Drew hat or Hardy Boy hat, whatever hat you got that you can investigate and pay attention to the words that your ideal clients use, either when they're on a call with you or in your own group or in other people's Facebook groups or.  

20:26 Even in testimonials for other groups or courses of your competitors, notice when they say first I was struggling with blah blah blah. How do they explain that struggle and don't skip the call to action. I work with a lot of really, for lack of a better word, heart centered mamas and again, that's kind of on my list of floofy words, you know, heart centered but you know, people who are just they want to give, they're very, I want to, you know, everyone should know this. So this kind of ties in with our money stories, the fear of being too salesy.  

21:06 So this is a great practice and remembering to be very direct and have that call to action of this is your next step if you like this oK, quick recap, mini courses work so don't delay. Start creating 1 today. Follow that four part method over and over again for your free stuff, your paid stuff if you're doing a presentation like this, just offer it that niggity value filled goodness and you know you're not what's the word giving away the milk for free you want them to buy that cow if you're so making sure that you keep them hungry for more and so you don't want to cram them too much information.  

21:57 Less is more, less is more, especially when it comes to your mini course and make that macro offer that next step so where you can go into more detailed on another area. All right, so you don't need a full course it doesn't have to be this huge gigantic offering and in fact, it's better if it's not. You don't need a giant audience or fancy tools or funnel. What you need is just to be super clear on what you're going to deliver in this mini course so you're strutting your eye actually get you results stuff and desire to help tap into that why of your business, why you decided to do this? How is this going to impact the world and go out there and impact someones life today? All right, and here's my clear call to action for the day make sure you grab the freebie that goes with my presentation it's a mini course called Find Your Mom Coaching Niche, 'cause that is the very first place to begin is getting clear on your niche statement 'cause that's going to nail down the main kahuna, big kahuna struggle that you are an expert in solving so thanks so much Kat for having me as a presenter i love the theme of the summit.  

23:11 Let's just start our businesses. And thanks for watching this one bye.