105 | How to create & launch an online course with Anastasia Ushakova
How To Create & Launch a Successful Online Course
WITH ANASTASIA USHAKOVA
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In this episode, Tish sits down with online course expert, Anastasia Ushakova, to discuss how online coaches & service providers can add a passive revenue stream to their business with online courses.
Anastasia shares her journey to becoming a course creator, along with insights on the best time to launch, building a framework, and maximizing success even with a small audience. She offers practical tech recommendations for those starting on a budget and provides valuable tips on leveraging collaborations, testing with paid ads, and standing out in a saturated market.
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Episode Transcript
This transcript is AI generated. Please bare in mind that it may not be 100% accurate.
Tish
Hey Anastasia, welcome to the podcast. Why don't you introduce yourself and just tell us a little bit about your business and how you got started in the online space.
Anastasia
Hi Leticia, thank you so much for having me And hi to all of the listeners. Well, I'm Anastasia, and I'm an online course expert helping agency owners, freelancers, and coaches exit the one-on-one work and add a passive revenue stream to their business. And the way I landed in an online business space is actually quite traditional, if you can say that.
Anastasia
I was working as an online marketer and marketing online courses for about 6 years before I decided to go edit on my own. I was working mostly in agencies and media companies, creating and marketing courses for them.
Tish
I love, love, love that you help business owners step away from one-on-one and just free up more of their time. That is something that I'm so passionate about as well in creating simple and sustainable businesses. And I would just love to know how you got into courses as a whole, so could you tell us maybe about the first online course you created for your business And what inspired you to begin creating online courses?
Anastasia
Well, I remember the first ever touch point I've had with online courses was years ago. And it was, I don't want to say it was a new area back then, but it was definitely not as, you know, common as it is right now. I remember thinking, online courses, that's interesting.
Can they really work? Is it really, do people really make so much money with online courses? Can online courses really help? And then I remember being behind the scenes of the first course I ever worked on, which was a design and innovation course for UX designers, basically helping them get ahead in their careers.
And 1 thing that completely changed my perception of online courses was seeing how many thankful messages me and the team were getting on the daily basis. People say, well, obviously we did not solve world hunger or we did not solve like major political issues. But you know, people were messaging us every day with, hey, you helped me get my promotion or you helped me turn my business around or I've hit goal XYZ. And I have to say that feeling of, oh, wow, we were able to help literally hundreds of people at the same time.
That was quite amazing and that's what actually made me fall in love with online courses.
Tish
Yeah, I mean, the great thing about courses is that they're more accessible, right? So you can help people achieve incredible results at a fraction of the price if you were to work with them one-on-one. And I think that is probably my favorite thing about courses.
But I would be interested to know, other than that, what would you say the main benefits of having an online course as part of your offer suite would be?
Anastasia
Absolutely. Well, especially if you're a coach or a freelancer, you probably know this problem all too well. You either don't have enough clients and you're hustling trying to get more clients on your roster or you have too much work and you're literally spending 60, 70, 80 hours a week trying to get all of that work done and to a high quality standard because obviously you want to deliver good quality work to your clients.
And your income is always kept. Obviously you can raise your prices, obviously you can try to find higher paying clients, but at the end of the day, there are only 24 hours in a day and only so much you can sustainably work. So what I see a lot of freelancers doing is they go down the agency route and they start hiring other freelancers or they expand their team just to be able to make more money. And what ends up happening is, well, at least in my experience working with agency CEOs, they start hating their jobs because they're getting paid only marginally more, but they have all of the weight and responsibility on their shoulders.
Now, not only for themselves, but also for their entire team. Their overheads skyrockets. They now maybe even need an office. And now they definitely need that steady inflow of new clients every single month.
And that's just not the case with online courses, because with online courses, you only create them once and you can sell them over and over again. You don't really have a lot of overhead costs. You don't need a massive team. So instead of being capped with 24 hours, working time a day, you can literally work with thousands of people a month without going crazy or burning out.
Tish
Yeah, you nailed it. I created my first course back in 2020 and it really opened my eyes to the world of passive income opportunities and just kind of creating a more sustainable business and I'm so glad that I did take that step and create my first course and I know that you Anastasia, you've helped multiple business owners create successful courses and I'd love to talk about what you've learned through that experience. So let's start with probably 1 of the most important things. When would you say is the right time for a coach or service provider to launch their online course?
Anastasia
Oh, I'm going to go against the grain here. And I know there's a narrative going around that says, oh, you can launch an online course whenever and I really don't agree. I feel like the right moment to launch a course is when you've nailed down your framework.
Because if you don't really know what is it exactly you want to teach your audience, if you don't have a framework that you're 100% confident in, well, then you're going to create a course that is not necessarily going to deliver results. And then you are going to feel sleazy promoting it. You're not going to show up to promote it as much as you would need to. And you'll just think, oh, online courses don't work.
So I would definitely say the first step that you need to go through is nailing down the framework for whatever topic your online course is about. But that's basically the only prerequisite. There is not really an audience size that you absolutely must hit before launching a course, not really years of expertise that you must have before launching a course. You literally just need to master that 1 thing that you're teaching.
Tish
Yeah, I also think it's important to have some kind of working framework that you've already gotten results for clients 1 on 1. Otherwise, they're just not going to get those results inside your course. And that is the most important thing, right?
So I'm glad that you mentioned that. I think 1 of the biggest things that holds business owners back from launching a course as well is the worry that they don't have a big enough audience or that they're going to have to reach thousands of people in order to match what they're making with their one-on-one work. So how big would you say that someone's audience should be before they launch a course?
Anastasia
Well, you definitely have to have some sort of reach because people need to see your offer if they need to buy it, but it's often a lot less than people might think it is. For instance, I've recently worked with a client who's in the beauty and spa industry, and she didn't really have a huge audience. She had about 100 people on her emailing list, right?
That's more than manageable. I'm guessing a lot of the listeners to this podcast will also have at least 100 people on their list. And she came to me and she was a little bit unsure. Should she run ads?
Should she start heavily investing into growing her audience. And while growing your audience is always, always, always a good idea, I suggested she monetize the audience she have right now. And so if you are able to tap into your audience's pain points and your offer is really nailed down and is really irresistible, it doesn't really matter how big your audience is. She was able to sell her or pre-sell her course and make over $3, 500 off of those hundred people who she hasn't emailed in a year.
Right. So it's all about the offer. It's all about it being nailed down to what your audience really wants instead of just the size of the audience. So, yeah, I would say as long as you have even a hundred people listening to you, you can start monetizing.
It will not be 100k months probably, but you will start first money, making first money with your course.
Tish
Absolutely, you can absolutely launch a course to 100 people and have a profitable launch. I love that you shared that example. The thing with launches is that they are going to grow your audience at the same time with maybe a launch event or a lead magnet.
They are always doing the marketing for you as well. So I'm curious, I know you mentioned that client who got really great results but do you have any tips on how someone who is starting out with a smaller audience could still have a profitable launch?
Anastasia
Absolutely. Well first of all you don't necessarily have to sell to your audience only. I think 1 of the easiest ways is to piggyback off of someone else's audience. So find someone in a related industry to you.
So maybe if you're, I don't know, a massage therapist, is there a hairdresser who does something similar to you? Is there a fitness trainer, a holistic nutritionist, someone who's talking to the same ideal client as you are? And can you ask them to affiliate for you, to promote your course for you? Of course, you will have to give part of the revenue to them, but that should be totally worth it because you will get more people and you will make more sales.
Tish
I'm so glad that you shared that because I think that's so important. I've done that with my own launches and I've been invited into other people's groups and masterminds to speak to their audience and it's worked so, so well for me
Anastasia
Yes, exactly. And I think it’s also a great way to build relationships within your industry. When you’re able to collaborate with others and tap into their networks, you’re creating a win-win situation where both of you can benefit. So, besides affiliates, you can also consider doing things like guest trainings, joint webinars, or even going on podcast interviews, just like this one, to get in front of new audiences.
Tish
That’s such good advice. Collaborations can be so powerful, and I love that you mentioned it because a lot of people don’t realize that you don’t need a massive list to make an impact with your launch. It’s about getting in front of the right people and offering something that truly resonates with them.
Let’s shift gears a bit. Once someone has a course and they’ve launched it, how do they continue marketing it in a way that feels sustainable? I know a lot of people worry that they’ll run out of people to sell to or that it’ll become too repetitive.
Anastasia
Great question! That’s definitely a common concern. What I suggest is to always keep nurturing your audience and to not be afraid to cycle back and re-engage with people who might not have been ready the first time. Not everyone will buy the first time they hear about it, and that’s okay.
So, to keep your course “evergreen” or continuously relevant, you can plan out different launches or promotions around it. You can create a few different live events, like webinars or challenges, and run them a few times a year to get fresh eyes on your course. And of course, keep your evergreen content going. Have some social media posts, emails, or ads working in the background so people are always hearing about your course in different ways and at different times.
Tish
That’s fantastic advice. I love the idea of making it evergreen, and running live events here and there really keeps the momentum going without burning yourself out. Thank you for sharing that, Anastasia.
Alright, before we wrap up, do you have any last words of wisdom for someone who’s thinking about creating and launching a course but maybe feels overwhelmed or unsure of where to start?
Anastasia
Definitely! I would say, don’t let perfection hold you back. Your first course doesn’t need to be the ultimate, end-all-be-all course. It just needs to solve one specific problem for your audience. Start simple, even if it’s a mini-course or a workshop. Just get it out there, see the feedback, and improve as you go.
Also, remember that launching a course is a journey. You’ll learn so much from just doing it, and each time you launch, you’ll get better and better. So, don’t wait for everything to feel perfect. Just start, trust the process, and stay focused on helping people.
Tish
That’s such a beautiful way to wrap up, Anastasia. Thank you so much for joining me today and for sharing all these amazing insights. I know listeners are going to take so much from this. Where can people find you if they want to learn more about what you do?
Anastasia
Thank you so much for having me, Leticia! It’s been a pleasure. If anyone would like to connect, they can find me on Instagram. I’m always happy to chat and help out with anything course-related!
Tish
Amazing. Thank you again, Anastasia. And thank you to everyone listening in. We’ll see you in the next episode!
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hey, I'm Tish!
I'm a multi-passionate business owner, digital marketing strategist, business mentor & part-time digital nomad ✈️
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