DCA 9_25_23 (Edited)
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[00:00:00] It is that time of year when doors open for Amy Porterfield's Digital Course Academy. It's her signature program where she teaches you how to create and sell your digital course. It's the course about courses. It's very meta, but if you are considering creating a digital course, this video is for you.
I'm going to talk about DCA Digital Course Academy. I'm going to just give you the real raw. information. So what's inside the course? What isn't? Who is the course for? Who isn't it for? So I'm just going to give it to you straight so that you can have the information to make the decision for yourself and how to move forward.
So first I should introduce myself. I'm Chelsie Hayes, The Course Pro, and I help industry experts package and sell their digital courses. We manage the launch experience. We build out the tech for the launch and we create the launch strategy for [00:01:00] our individual clients. A lot of our clients are also DCA students.
And I'll talk about that towards the end on kind of like what that mashup looks like. Um, But I also am a 2019 grad of digital course Academy. So I started my business in 2018 as a virtual assistant, doing a little bit of everything for anyone that asked. And I gave myself the year of 2019 to figure out what is the niche?
Who is it that I want to serve? What is it that I want to do? Cause I didn't like doing everything for everyone. I just never felt like I was really good at any one thing. And so, um, about this time in 2019, um, I was listening to a podcast episode from Amy Porterfield. She was interviewing one of my clients and my clients had, she had generated 36, 000 in her very first launch.
And I had just helped her along the way as she was launching. She [00:02:00] just asked for a few tasks here or there. And once I was listening to that podcast interview, I realized, Oh my gosh, there's a whole system that she used. She was just so natural about it. I didn't know that it was. Her implementing digital course Academy.
And so in that, while I was listening to that podcast episode, I realized, huh, if she needs help behind the scenes, creating her course, are there other people out there that need help behind the scenes, creating their course? So I enrolled in DCA in 2019 so that I could learn the methods that way. When I worked with my clients, they didn't have to teach me what needed to be done.
I already knew. And over time since 2019, a lot has happened. So I have not only been an alum of the program, I was an advisor in 2022. I was also a course coach handpicked by Amy herself, uh, for her done with you, uh, course creation program. [00:03:00] I also have used Amy's methods every single day in my business.
That is, these are the methods that we use to help our clients launch their courses. And in doing so, we've worked with over 50 course creators. We've done over a hundred launches enrolling more than 5, 000 students in generating more than 2. 5 million all with these strategies. So I am definitely a fan of digital course Academy because it is.
It works. It is a proven system. And I can confidently say that because I've used this system time and time and time again. Okay, so let's talk about who is DCA for? Who is Digital Course Academy for? And this is coming from my perspective based on who I've seen be successful with their courses and, and some people who maybe not have Bit as successful.
How do you say that in a nice way? Um, DCA is for, I like to say is for industry experts. So maybe it's [00:04:00] something where, you know, something very, you know, your area of expertise, maybe you're a therapist, maybe you're a mindfulness coach, maybe you're a physician, maybe you are a PR expert, whatever it is that you do in your business or in your daily life.
And you're an industry expert, this is a perfect opportunity for you to create a digital course, whether that's a nine to five job or your own business, you are an expert, a digital course absolutely makes sense for you. Um, I will also say that, um, digital courses are great. If you want to add an additional branch to your business.
So maybe you do a lot of one on one or, you know, you do, um, work, maybe done for you services for your clients, but you want to be able to add an additional stream of income. Um, or maybe there's a certain, certain topic that you can teach, um, that that's a [00:05:00] great reason to create a digital course. If it's you want to reduce the amount of one on one work, you can absolutely do that.
Um, I have a client, her name is Savannah Gilbo. She is a book editing coach doing a ton of one on one work. So together we created her digital course. She's a DCA alum and it works with us or partnered with us to actually do the tech side of her course. Um, and now she still does one on one work, but she gets to handpick.
The projects and the clients that she works with. So the majority of her business is now digital course, but she still does take on a few one on one clients, but that's her choice. Having a digital course allowed her to have choice. It gave her options. Um, another example that you might, uh, use a digital course for is if you want to take your business online.
So we do work with a lot of people that have like a brick and mortar or in person services and then want to transition to [00:06:00] being online. So that, for example, uh, one of our clients, Celie Colley, she's a certified professional organizer. She's used to going inside people's homes to organize their closets, organize their kitchens, organize their homes.
And so. She doesn't want to do that forever and always, um, and so she transitioned her business online with her course, the paper cleanse. So it's a really, um, it's a spotlight course with a very specific topic about decluttering paper clutter without scanning her audience is a little bit older. They don't want the digital version, but they also don't want the paper clutter.
So she was able to use her digital course to leave her, uh, yeah. In person business, and then take off an additional in a digital format. Let's talk about who the course is not for, who Digital Course Academy is not for. It's somebody that doesn't have a specific area of expertise. So if you can't pinpoint exactly what you're good at, it [00:07:00] might be harder for you to create not only a course, but a business around that digital course.
So, I mean, that is definitely a journey that you can go through. I would just say, maybe do that first, figure out what your area of expertise is first, and then bring on a digital course. It can be a lot to do it all at one time. The other thing I will say is who it's not for is somebody that has no audience.
Like if you don't have any social media following any, uh, um, Email list. If you don't talk about what it is that you want to teach with the people in your life, then this might not be the first step for you. Maybe the first step for you is creating an audience. But if you're somebody that, even if you don't have an email list, um, or a strong social media following, but you have a really strong network.
Digital courses can still work for you. And I kind of put a little abstract on that to say, if your goal is [00:08:00] to like focus on this as a business, right? So you also have to have the, the goal that not only are you going to create a course, but you need to create your own audience to sell the course to.
Otherwise you have this amazing course and there's nobody there to buy it. So if you're thinking like, yes, I really want to get this message out there. And you are committed to creating your own audience, then the, I, then this could still work for you. Um, but it is something where you're going to have to do a little extra to get to that stage.
Um, one example I have for you of somebody who did this very well, her name is Dr. Stacy divine. She is a DCA alum and she's one of our clients as well. She started her digital course without really having much of an audience. She had a little bit of an email list, but she. Put her lead magnet out there and put some Facebook ads behind it.
And she was able to grow her list by, I think up to 2000 people, um, [00:09:00] in just a few months, which is actually very quick to grow your list. The one thing that I will tell you why I think that worked for Stacey is Stacey, what Stacey does is very specific and obvious. So, Stacey is a doctor, triple sort, triple board certified, uh, physician.
And she teaches people inside of her course and inside of her business how, um, She teaches people how to, I shouldn't even just say people. She teaches breast cancer survivors how they can reduce their risk of occurrence through lifestyle choices. So what they eat, how they move their body, the supplements that they take, their sleep patterns, alcohol consumption, all of that caffeine.
She teaches people how they can improve their Uh, lifestyle, reduce their risk of recurrence through lifestyle choices. Now, it's very obvious to know if you are one of [00:10:00] Stacey's potential students, or if you are the type of person that would be in her community, because Are you a breast cancer survivor that has completed treatment?
Yes or no? Right? So it's very obvious. Um, as to like, who is the right person to be in her world? It's a little bit harder to do that for things like personal development, where there's not a very specific or even very tangible. Thing that you teach, if you teach mindset, if you teach how to get rid of burnout, if you teach, um, a lot of these intangible things like personal development, it can be harder to grow your list.
So maybe courses aren't right for you just yet. Maybe you spend the next 12 months really growing your audience, building your, um, building your list. And then join in fall next year. So I just want to give that to you straight. I'm not trying to like deter anybody from doing it, but I just want to be really [00:11:00] honest about who is.
Based on my experience, based on my experience, who is most ready for this kind of path? Okay. So what does Amy teach you inside of Digital Course Academy? So she teaches you how to create and sell your digital course. There are six modules. So I'm just going to give it to you real simple. If you want more information about like the details of the program, I've got it linked, uh, where you're watching this or where you're listening to this, this in the show notes.
So real high level, what she teaches you. The first module is about making key decisions. What do you name your course? What do you price your course at? How are you going to deliver your course? What kind of tech are you going to use? What are your launch dates? So the first module is getting through, uh, making all of those key decisions.
The second module is about identifying who your ideal client avatar is, your ICA and testing your offer. Module three is. All about creating the course [00:12:00] itself. So Amy teaches you her process, uh, her, I think it's even called the Porterfield process, uh, about how to take all the knowledge that you have in your head and lay it out in a digital course.
Um, module four. So that's like the first half of DCA is really, um, creating the course itself. The second half modules four through six is about the marketing aspect. So module four is about creating your sales page. So when people come to your site, they know exactly what the course is about. Um, and you kind of take them through that journey.
Based on the sales page, that website page that you'll create, um, module five is about using live webinars to warm up your audience. So they're ready to purchase your course. And then module six is about email campaigns, using your email list to, um, using your email list to market and sell your digital course.
So that's a real quick rundown about [00:13:00] what is included in the course. What is not covered? So let's talk about what is not covered. What is not covered is your basic business fundamentals, right? So this is not a, how to create a business course. This is Uh, how to create a course, a course. So what's not going to be covered is things like how to create an LLC, how to track your business finances, um, uh, what's not covered is like legal agreements that you need to have.
Some of that can be suggested, but it's not going to walk you through step by step on what to do. And, and Amy doesn't claim to teach that. I will say that. She doesn't claim to teach you all of this. I just want to share that with you going into it, what, what you can expect. So those are some of the things that are not included.
Um, also not included is. Her whole entire signature program on how to create an email list. She does have a start from scratch bonus that, uh, will help you, [00:14:00] like, kickstart your email list, but it's not her entire process. She has a separate course about that. It's called List Builder Society. Um, So what you'll get along, along with Digital Course Academy alongside DCA, it's six modules and it's released over a nine week span.
So one module per week, plus three weeks of implementation kind of spread throughout. Uh, I will say nine weeks is extremely fast for somebody to go from zero. Having nothing done to their course launched, but nine weeks is a really good time to get a strong handle on the course that you are going to create in the course that you're going to, uh, eventually package and sell.
And I will say most people. Most people don't finish their course by the time DCA ends, most people don't finish, but that's not to say you're a failure or you're doing it wrong. It's just that this is a really [00:15:00] concentrated time to jumpstart the course creation process. And if you think about it, um, as it we're recording this right now, it's the end of September.
So we have entire quarter four through throughout the rest of the year to work on this. Is what can set you up for a very successful next year. And one of my kind of tricks that has served me well in business is I start on my next year's goals in quarter four of the year before. So while the rest of the world only gets 12 months to work on their goals, I get 15 months and to.
Reach my goals. And so you can do the same. And if you want to go, you know, use that little nugget and that piece of mentality to go through, um, to take you through the rest of the year. Have it. It's served me very well just to get my mind in the right spot. So that's the core part of DCA. She also offers bonuses.
So some of the bonuses, there's an entire tech [00:16:00] library that walks you through the tech component of how to create the course. Um, This is how I trained myself. This is how I learned how to do everything on Kajabi is I started with the tech library and then over time, especially as Kajabi has changed and Zoom has changed and there's different programs that we've added on to our particular clients.
Um, But I had to start somewhere. And so the tech library is very extensive. It's very step by step by step. It is very helpful for the person that wants to do it themselves. So tech library is something that's in addition to the course. Um, she also offers a private Facebook group. So for those nine weeks, so there's a lot of support and guidance inside that group.
Um, she also will teach you how to make your course evergreen. So the DCA style. launch is, or the DCA method is to live launch your digital [00:17:00] course where you use live webinars. Your cart is open for about 10 days and then you live launch your course. You have open enrollment and then at a certain day you close the cart and your students are not able to join until the next time you launch until the next time you open your cart.
The op. Opposite the other version of that is evergreen and evergreen, like an evergreen tree, which stays green all year long. Evergreen is something where you're, you can have your course available to purchase every day of the year. So she does have a separate module or a bonus training that teaches you how to take your live launch into evergreen.
Um, and Amy does recommend, and I do too. Live launching at least twice before shifting to evergreen and that's because you're going to learn so much about your audience about your potential students about your actual students and you can make tweaks and changes while you live launch and then when you shift to evergreen, you now have.
[00:18:00] Data that you can make the best possible version when you shift to evergreen. Um, I already talked about this start from scratch module and then she has one last bonus. It's a pay in full bonus. So she offers a full pay and a payment plan option. If you choose the full pay, you get the special bonus that teaches you how to use paid ads to fill up your webinar, which.
Is a very fantastic training. I've actually watched it several times just for myself personally. So if you're interested in using paid ads, maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow, maybe not this launch, but eventually when you use paid ads for your webinar, this is a really powerful bonus. Okay, then I will also share with you, I have a bonus package.
I am a partner for Amy Porterfield, which means if you do sign up for DCA, I do get commission, but you also get my entire bonus package. So it's kind of a win win for everybody. So, uh, the bonus package I have is, and you can, [00:19:00] again, find all the information linked where you're watching this or in the show notes, if you're listening to this, uh, is two, uh, One on one strategy calls.
This is something that I have felt is very important for anybody that goes through DCA is the ability to talk one on one with somebody who knows what they're doing, who's been in this course launch world, um, to give you specific guidance about your course idea. Every course is different. There's different nuances.
Um, and we've worked with a lot of those people. And so I want to offer anybody that does purchase with my link. To one on one strategy calls that way, as you're going through the course, or you're going through the digital course Academy experience and you have questions and you're kind of maybe not really sure what to do, or you're kind of, um.
weighing two different options in your head. Those are the questions that you come to our strategy call about, and I will help guide you through that. So we can talk about your launch strategy. The [00:20:00] other option with that is also to talk about Kajabi. So if you're a Kajabi user and you want to set it up yourself, but make sure that.
We've set it up correctly. We can do that. One of our strategy calls where we'll share screen, we'll click around together and make sure that you are set up for success. So there's different options, but I just want to be available to you. And those that have purchased with my link in the past have said, that's actually the reason why, because they wanted to be able to talk to a real life human, um, about.
Their course ideas and not just like post in a Facebook group. Um, I also will give you the student experience template pack. This is something that is not covered in DCA. Um, I should have said that earlier, but what happens after they purchase, right? So one thing that we do is where one of the bonuses is a student experience template pack.
This is what we do for our private clients, but I want to share that with you. It's a template for a welcome email. It's template for a Live Q and a reminder [00:21:00] email. It's a course calendar. We build this on canvas so you can take our template and create your own. Um, and there's a couple other goodies that are in there.
So student experience template pack. It's a Google Doc. So you can really just like, plug in your information and go. Um. And I also will gift you my lead magnet tech kit, which is a series of how to videos for Kajabi users, teaching you not only how to create your own lead magnet on Kajabi, but also your wait list, your weekly email, and there's more that goes along with it.
So I have a couple other goodies in the bonus pack, but those are some of the heavy hitters that I wanted to share with you. Okay. So. The next question is, do I need DCA or can I just work with you, Chelsea? That's a really good question and it does come up a lot. I will say most of the people I work with start in DCA and they come to me.
And that has been a really successful flow for both of us because [00:22:00] we're speaking the same language. And as a DCA student, you understand the Big picture of what needs to be done. Uh, and kind of why we do things the way that we do, but you want somebody to help manage the project, manage the launch, and then also build out the tech, right?
Maybe you're somebody that's like, I want to focus on the content, but I do not have any interest in building out the tech. That's where we can partner together. If you're a DIYer, that's like, Hey, you show me what to do. I can just do it. DCA is perfect for you because there is the tech library inside that can walk you through that.
I will say I do not, there's a, there's three areas that I don't teach my clients or we don't cover. And that's specifically about the content. So, um, the actual course itself to work with me, you would already need to know what your course is about, how you've laid out your course, you have your course videos, and then we take that and upload it to [00:23:00] Kajabi.
So if you need help creating your course, how to take all the information you have in your brain and lay it out, DCA is a really good tool to do that. Um, we also don't help you identify who your audience is. We found those that, um, like to work with us. You need to have an existing audience. You need to already know who you, your people are, what you teach, what your business essentially is about.
But Amy can really help you do that if you're not sure. And that's in module 2 of the course. And then the last key piece is, um. The webinar content itself, I can help guide through big, big, through big picture, but Amy teaches you in depth inside of DCA, the sales strategies, um, and like exactly what to say inside of your webinar.
So I can give you a high level suggestions, but for somebody that really needs help and wants help knowing what to say in the webinar. That's where DCA can [00:24:00] come into play. Okay. So how do you get started? If you are thinking, okay, yes, I want to do DCA. Um, I feel like the time is now I have this digital course idea.
I want to grow my business. I want additional revenue. Then go to your course, pro. com. DCA hyphen bonus. Again, I'll link it where you're listening and watching. Um, it will show you my bonuses that I'm offering. You click the button there and it will take you to Amy's sales page. This has my partner link baked in so that you get all of my bonuses in addition to the course itself.
In addition to Amy's core bonuses as well. So your course pro. com slash DCA hyphen bonus. Hurry soon though, because Doors close in just a matter of a few days, literally days. Okay. I'm going to leave you with this one story. Um, and it is a client of mine. I'm going to call him Ross. That's not his real name, but I love some friends.[00:25:00]
So we're going to use Ross as the example and here's. Here's the timeline of what we have done working with Ross, so he reached out to me in spring of 2020 saying he has an idea for a digital course. And that's when I was still like, very kind of new in this realm or newer in this realm. And he just had some ideas.
We talked about his course idea, and he said, I'll get back to you. It was also at the height of the pandemic. So everything was a little bit wonky then. So this is spring 2020 in summer 2021. He says, Chelsie, I've decided I'm doing my course. Um, can you just help me build out the Kajabi side of it? He told me I already have a videographer lined up.
I'm going to go to their studio. They're going to record me in my lessons. And then I'll give you the videos and you can pop them into Kajabi. I said, cool. That's great. Well, he goes to the session and he sits down and he doesn't know what to do or doesn't know what to say. [00:26:00] He was hoping the camera guy would tell him, like, how does he deliver his course materials?
What does he talk about? He has all this knowledge in his head and he thought, okay, if I just sit in front of a camera, it'll all just come out. And that was not the case. Um, and so what happened was. It was kind of a waste of a day waste of resource. Um, he is not a digital course Academy student. Had he been a digital course Academy student, this probably would have never happened because he would have had the framework of how to take his information and prepare it so that he can record these stellar course lessons.
So that was summer 2021. He told me, Chelsie, I gotta figure some things out. Let me get back to you. It wasn't until fall 2022, he reaches back out and says, okay, I have, over the past year I have hired a company. They helped me work through my course. Um, I flew out to [00:27:00] California to record the videos. They edited them, they created my sales page, and now I just need you to check behind the scenes if they did everything.
And you can imagine. To fly out to another state to have somebody put all this info for you together. That's got to be a pretty penny, right? So then he has me look at it. I'm like, well, they didn't do this. They didn't do that. And I suggest we do this. And I suggest we do that. And it was. It was almost a little deflating for him.
He was excited. He had his course videos done, but then he realized, man, it was not set up in a way that was designed for the student experience so that they could go through the modules. And so there's a lot of things that we had to tweak inside of his Kajabi account to get it set up. So finally, by fall 2022, we got him situated.
He could officially make his course live. He was able to enroll a few dozen students right away. and off and running. [00:28:00] And then by spring 2023, he had already created two more courses. But what's the moral of the story? The moral of the story is it took years, spring 2020 to nearly, what is that? Two and a half years to get the course completed.
My question to you is what is your time worth? Do you want to do a lot of this trial and error to figure out like what it is that How to create this course, how to sell this course, how to record your course, how to package your course, or do you want the proven path, the step by step of here's exactly what you need to do, here's how you can do it, and all you have to do is the work.
You've got to just show up and implement, but you know what to do. Somebody has given you exactly step by step what to do. That's what I would choose because I sure as heck don't want to waste a lot of my time, uh, creating and figuring things out. I want to just... Show up, do the work and [00:29:00] get it done. So if you are thinking about creating your course, uh, this is your time.
If you were thinking, I'm so busy now, do you think you're going to be busy in the future? Probably. So you might as well get started now when you have support through me, support through Amy inside of digital course Academy. And then you can go into the next year. already being in a much better spot. So I encourage you to enroll now if this feels like the right path for you.
And I want you to know that your future self will thank you for it. Now, if you have questions, reach out to me, the quickest way is probably sending me a DM on Instagram, miss Chelsie Hayes, M S C H E L S I E H A Y E S. And we can chat back and forth about if this is the right step for you.
