- Hey author, do you wanna serve your reader
in a bigger way,
and make a whole lot more money from that book
than you're ever gonna make from royalties?
Turning that material into a course is smart.
And if you want some fundamental tips
to make it more likely you'll succeed doing that,
then this video is for you.
(happy music)
Hey, there I'm Julie The Book Broad,
from Book Launchers.
We're your professional self publishing team,
helping you write, publish and promote
a nonfiction book that will help you have
a huge impact on your readers,
and done right, will help you grow your brand,
build your business and make you money.
The best part you, yes you, keep all rights and royalties.
Before I launched Book Launchers,
I built courses for a real estate training
and education company I built with my husband.
We had a couple of courses that stood on their own,
a couple that we taught live,
and in addition to online,
and we wrapped everything we did
up with a higher level mastermind group.
It was a solid business, and it was actually a lot of fun.
And let me tell you, our mastermind and core course
was based on the material in my first book,
"More Than Cashflow."
And the two went so well together.
The hard work I put into explaining things,
in "More Than Cashflow" directly translated
into great teaching points for our course,
and our mastermind.
And the book sold our course, and our mastermind so well,
we found ourselves in the wonderful position
of raising prices, because we hit capacity.
And eventually, when I decided to exit that business,
we licensed out those courses for others to teach.
So, I know a few things about building courses from books.
And today, I'm gonna share the three things
your course needs to succeed.
And I'm gonna give you an example
of how you look at the content from your book,
and decide how it could become a module in a course.
First, the core difference between your book and a course
is not the content, it's the design.
A great book is designed for consumption.
Design your course for action.
So with that in mind, the three essentials to have
for a successful course are, number one,
a specific, a very specific problem you solve.
Two, a clear audience that needs that solution.
And three, a process for achieving the desired outcome.
This is similar to the hook of your book,
which is really the desired outcome for your ideal reader,
after they're done reading your book.
You know, the reason they're gonna buy your book right now.
That reason that someone will typically buy your book
is not because you gave them marketing tips,
but because your book reveals
the single most important piece
of their business marketing strategy they need to add now
to save ad costs, and generate real live customers.
So the essentials of a successful course are similar,
but it's the outcome that someone's going to have
at the end of the course, that's really important.
My most popular course, I built for my business,
after I wrote "More Than Cashflow,"
the real risks and rewards
of profitable real estate investing,
was a course we called Fund Your Deals in 49 Days,
a no cold-call approach to raising all the money you need
for your real estate deals.
That was a course with a very clear outcome,
and as a result, it sold well,
both online, in person, and as a hybrid.
By the way, in case you're going, "What do you mean hybrid?"
That is an online course, it was delivered online,
but we had a start, and finish date,
for group to go through it together.
And we offered weekly group coaching calls,
and a few one-on-one sessions,
in addition to the online material.
The online only typically sold
for less than the other two options,
but no matter what you do,
you need to have a clear audience and a specific outcome,
with a process that will achieve that outcome,
because that is what's gonna make someone
pull out their credit card,
and pay you money for that course.
So once you have clarity
around that problem you're solving,
and the process that you're going to walk them through,
to achieve that outcome, now you can look at your book,
and figure out what chapters
will become modules in your course.
At Book Launchers, we've added the service
of helping our authors turn their book into a course.
And here's how the modules are typically structured.
So typically, all the courses we help our clients build
are video based courses.
So there'll be an introduction video,
which will be recorded by the author.
Then each module, we usually have video content,
sometimes a couple different videos,
with supplementary materials, and then an assessment.
There's also downloadable files
that will go, when I say supplementary material,
I mean, downloadable files, like checklists,
spreadsheets, and those kinds of things.
So you'll hit repeat on each of those modules,
until you get to the concluding module.
And a fun little thing we do at the end
is have a certificate of completion,
'cause who doesn't love earning certificates?
(laughing)
So now most courses will have more than just two modules.
That was just an example.
But how many modules you have does depend
on how many you need to achieve the outcome.
Most of the courses I made,
and we typically see these days,
are somewhere between six to nine modules.
But when you take a book and turn it into a course,
it's not as simple as going one chapter equals one module.
Each module really has to offer a step in the process,
on the journey to achieving that outcome.
So some chapters may have more than one module,
while others may combine together to make a module.
To give you an example, I thought we could take a look
at my upcoming book, "Self-Publish & Succeed."
Now, this is in copy edit, so it's still not finalized,
but (laughing) I thought showing you this
would help you visualize how you can decide
what becomes a module.
So chapter one covers self publishing,
versus traditional, and really assures you
that you're making a good choice.
So if I was creating a course
on writing a #NoBoringBook,
I might touch on these things in the introductory video,
but it wouldn't be the first module.
Chapter two would actually be the first module.
And I think I would potentially split it up
into two different modules,
because there are two important things
that need to be completed here.
First, there's defining, researching
and really just getting clear on who is your reader.
Number two is figuring out
what the hook of your book should be,
because the hook depends on reader clarity,
and it has quite a bit of work that should go into it.
That would be module one.
And module two would be based on the other considerations
that go into creating a great hook.
And it would borrow some material from chapter three.
So essentially, chapter two would become two modules,
and it would borrow material from chapter three,
to go into module two.
Getting this? (laughing)
Chapter three is where we define
what makes you, the author, unique,
which really plays into that hook.
From there, in module three,
we get into developing your outline,
and creating a writing plan,
which is what chapter four and five are all about.
If you remember each module needs to have an outcome,
that builds on the module before,
to ultimately lead the student
to the overall outcome for your course,
it will help you in figuring out
how your chapters will become modules in your course.
You, you, you (sighing).
(static crackling) (beeping)
Then, all you need to do is layer in some other tools,
like checklists, calculators, quizzes, and worksheets,
and include a short explanation video
for each part of the module, and voila, you have a course.
(laughing) Okay, it's not as easy as voila,
but the hard work of developing the content is already done.
So why not invest in making it into a course,
so your reader can take action on your material,
and generate more of an income from it.
I have so much more to say on courses,
like how do you price it?
How do you sell it?
What do you put in it to have a great student experience?
And I'll be shooting more videos on that,
so let me know what your questions are,
in the comments below, and on your way to comment,
make sure you smash that thumbs up button.
Go on, try it, it feels so good.
And when you comment the day a video is released,
you'll be entered to win some sweet #NoBoringBooks swag,
and you'll be one step closer
to being one of my absolutely beloved YouTube besties,
like Mike Hird, Michael Facherty,
Brian K. Morris-Rising Tide Publications,
Molly Sung, Poetry from the Heart,
and of course, Kevin Maguire, Kevin 2.0,
and Rachel Robertson.
Thank you so much for always commenting,
liking, and sharing my videos.
You are the best, that's why you're my besties.
All right, we have new videos every Tuesday and Friday.
Make sure you catch every one of them
by subscribing to the channel,
and turning those notifications on.
You know what, you've been a real delight
to spend time with, do you wanna keep hanging out?
- Yes. (laughing)
- This video right here,
on getting into the mind of your reader,
is some of the content that would be in my course module,
if you're curious about that.
If you want more on turning your book into a course,
I did this video for you, a little while ago,
and it adds onto this one.
Go ahead, choose one of those videos,
and I'll be waiting there for you, looking forward to it.
(happy music)