In this Podclass, I am joined by Rob Galvin of Themeific, who shares his insights on creating courses online. As freelancers you can leverage course platforms to generate new leads for your business, create new income streams for yourself, or offer a service to entrepreneurs, helping them build their courses. Rob talks about how to design (or build) a course and emphasizes having the right idea that will impact the right person.

Podcast Outline:

0:00 - Opening thoughts

1:01 - Introduction to Rob Galvin

2:34 - Setting the stage for the topic of course creation (why a freelancer or virtual assistant might want to create courses):

• Lead generation
• Another stream of income
• Opening up a whole new niche (building courses for entrepreneurs)

3:32 - Rob's story

6:26 - The importance of searching for opportunities in course creation

8:20 - Why are online courses so popular today?

• 9:02 - They're accessible to anybody.
• 10:05 - People want quick ways to get solutions.
• 10:33 - Our perception of education has changed.
• 11:29 - There's always new technology coming out.
• 11:37 - The game is changing from the traditional "just in case" information to the "just in time" learning.
• 12:50 - Business owners need to figure out where they should be spending their time and when they need to hire an expert to focus on course creation.

13:25 - Steps to designing or building a course:

• 13:40 - Things you shouldn't do:
  • 14:10 - Your course idea should focus on what impact you're going to give to a certain person (the right idea for the right person).
  • 15:42 - Think about your first course as a founding member's experience.
  • 16:28 - Do a live cohort model as your first course.
  • 19:46 - Create a private Facebook group so people can work together to solve problems.
  • 20:46 - Take a smaller portion of a topic to teach on.
  • 21:22 - Don't get caught up with the technology or overwhelm.
• • 13:56 - Having the wrong idea
  • 15:18 - Taking too long to get the course out there

22:16 - Picking a webinar tool:

• 22:34 - Pick a tool that you feel comfortable with.
• 22:13 - Don't get caught up in trying to create crazy automations.

23:20 - The opportunity to use Thinkific as a platform to help entrepreneurs:

• 24:20 - #1: Content marketing (videos, graphics, social media)
• 24:55 - #2: Content creation (videos, downloads, PDF worksheets)
• 25:22 - #3: Configuring the system (uploading the system, setting emails up, understanding the platform)

25:46 - The benefits of Thinkific and how to try it out

26:26 - Information about The Online Course Builder course at FreeU

26:53 - Diverse income opportunities available within the online course creation space

28:03 - Information about Rob's company and how to connect with him

29:03 - Closing thoughts

Resources and tools discussed in this episode:

• How to connect with Rob Galvin:

Themeific: https://bit.ly/robgalvin (https://themeific.thinkific.com/)

Facebook Group - Thinkific Studio for Online Course Creators: https://www.facebook.com/groups/thinkific/ (Tag Rob, say you heard him on the show, and if you have questions, he'll respond to you.)

• Tools:

Thinkific: https://www.thinkific.com/

Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/

Kajabi: https://kajabi.com/

Zoom: https://zoom.us/

Facebook Live: https://live.fb.com/

• Freelance University courses:

The Online Course Builder: https://my.freelanceu.com/courses/the-online-course-builder