Stuck at home in the middle of the Coronavirus has given me the opportunity to do a lot of thinking. Mostly I have been bored but also depressed at the lot of those less fortunate than myself. Maybe this is as good a time as any to just go ahead and fully retire. The idea seems tempting, but not that tempting.
If things were not bad enough already, now we have rioting in the streets. Peaceful protests, and they are entirely warranted, are one thing but looting and killing is something else altogether. I’m just not sure about anything anymore.
My weekly lunch group moved to a Zoom setting on March 18. While it has worked better than I had anticipated, we are all looking forward to meeting again in-person on June 3. However, I have at least familiarized myself with online meetings and have conducted some mini-webinars for our group.
Several years ago I had experimented with open webinars, some in collaboration with others, but with mixed success. On top of that, they were free webinars. Lots of work with limited to no monetary return. I bagged that idea. Instead, I created a lot of free training sessions on YouTube and those did result in some business, but not a lot.
Many people encouraged me to monetize those video training sessions that would have meant re-doing all of the videos (the application that they were focused on had evolved) … and I just did not have the energy or the ambition to figure the whole “monetizing” process out.
Over the past six months I have been working on creating workshops with presentation materials and handouts. These are still under development and will be geared toward individual companies vs. an open setting. I’ve done open workshops in the past, with some success, but boy were they a lot of work!
A couple of weeks ago a gentleman that I have known for close to 10 years sent me an email where he is offering an online self-paced course for $297. Now, I’m familiar with his topic (referrals) and methodologies based on already knowing his passion and formulas. For that matter, I have integrated some of his ideas into my own materials.
Why then did I sign up? Mainly out of curiosity. This would be my opportunity to see how these are done and have someone who might be willing to help me with any questions I might have should I elect to develop such a course on my own. Recurring income. The course also integrates a Mastermind group, another area of interest.
Although I did not fully anticipate this … I am very much enjoying the course and it has forced me to reevaluate my own sales and marketing processes. Sometimes the hammer is best when my thick skull is the nail.
My creative juices are, once again, percolating and I am now going to develop an online course of my own. Better yet, I already have the bulk of the materials developed. The platform that my friend is using also, based on my research, appears to be a viable option. I could/might also host it on my own site.
Marketing, unlike selling, is not one of my strong suits and that is a concern. It’s not that I can’t learn. I can, but I don’t particularly want to. I find the entire discipline to be tedious and boring. I used to do a newsletter and I hated every minute of it.
I know that this will be a key component to success and I believe that I have some potential solutions for this need. If not, I’m screwed but I don’t think so.
Workshops … in-person, live online, online self-paced courses. These are my passion and I prefer short gigs to lengthy engagements. Better yet, you can pick your poison in regard to how you wish to absorb the materials and at what level of investment. Perfect.
Looks like I may be working a while longer but, when playing guitar badly is your only hobby … sounds like fun! My thanks to Tom Gay for helping to pull me out of the doldrums!
Craig M. Jamieson
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