48 – How to use your story to sell more courses

This week I had a client ask a question about the story (bio):

Is it really necessary to tell my story in the theme of I was miserable at my job, struggled, then found my true calling etc. ?

The thing is I wasn’t, I was in the buy side, job is interesting, people are smart, but it is not relatable to people.

I just want the flexibility to spend more time with my family. 

This person also didn’t want to bash the job, “corporate” world etc.. as still doing things in that area. 

If you’re not famous (your bio) is a very strong component of your sales page. 

Unless you’re selling a very technical course with a direct outcome but even then it might be the difference between you making 6 and 7 figures. 

Just do a search for Ms Excel in google. 

She destroys most of her competition by connecting with the audience via videos and social media. 

Here’s how you relate with people & build an audience

  1. Choose your story

There are 3 types:

The Positive Change – Most popular. Character starts off with varying levels of personal unfulfillment and denial. Will be forced to challenge beliefs of themselves and the word, until finally conquers inner demos (and outer circumstances) and change in a positive way.

The Flat Persona – What most course creators use and it is very unpersuasive as people cannot connect with it. Character presents himself as already essentially complete. One that doesn’t require personal growth or help fighting any battles. In movies it sparks grown in other minor characters. Like Jesus. The only way to give this one some color is to show yourself as an expert with minor flaws that you’re still battling with.

The Negative Change – Offers more variations but difficult to pull off. You present a character that’s done amazingly well and then ended up in a worse state than when the story began. A good example of this is Jordan Belfort (lost business, went to jail and then tried to reinvent himself). 

  1. I assume you’re going with the positive change

You don’t need to grow from broke to rich OR miserable to happy. Smaller variations of this are ok. The goal is to “amplify” who you already are and how you want people to see OR talk about you to others AND create connections. 

Pick common enemies: 

You might have been ok with the corporate world (but not the hours). 

You didn’t mind taking directions (but not from bad bosses)

You didn’t mind working with clients (as long as you could choose which ones).

You didn’t mind long projects (but not when your grandparents had birthdays which you wanted to spend with them). 

These are all powerful connectors. 

Stand for something:

You believe that spending time with your family is more important than chasing money.

You believe that doing your best work should not stand in the way of your other life goals (whatever those are).

Struggles:

You don’t want to mention corporate ones. Ok. Mention personal ones instead. 

The goal is to include as many of these in your bio (alongside the credentials, experience, years in business). 

It’s only a cliche if it is done poorly. Same thing with sales. The people who seem salesy are just bad at it. 

Until next week,

Tom

Whenever you’re ready, there are 2 ways I can help you:

1. Course Marketing ServiceWant an expert to take over or help you with your marketing? Check out what we do, our case studies and book a free consultation

→ wemarketonlinecourses.com

2.The Course Engine: Transform your course into a money-making machine with The Course Engine. It will teach you the system I use to transform average courses into ones that can grow past 7 figures in revenue with my in-person clients. A course without an engine is a commodity that relies only on pricing.

→ Join 279+ students here

Join 14K+ subscribers growing their online course businesses

Every Saturday morning, you’ll get 1 actionable tip to validate or scale your online course.

I will never sell your information for any reason

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Subscribe to the Newsletter

Join 14K+ creators that receive one tip each Saturday morning on how to validate, scale and exit their online course business

    Share this Newsletter on: