The Tech Of Business Podcast

We’re at the halfway point of the Expand Online Summit and there is still a ton of time for you to learn from the experts to take action and put things in motion for your business. Click over to https://expandonlinesummit.com to register now! Today’s episode is a peel back the layers type episode. We’re going to break down the differences between landing pages and sales pages and checkout pages. All these types of page have a critical role in your online art education business and I know that they can be confusing at times… so here we go :) Let’s start at the beginning… While a landing page can be defined as any page on your website that you drive traffic to, the specific definition of a landing page that I want to work with is that it’s a dedicated page on your website that has one unique goal -- to begin the process of inviting people to go deeper in a relationship with you. The landing page isn’t going to have your normal website header -- the home, about, contact, services links -- rather it’s going to go

Join the Expand Online Summit Today -- https://expandonlinesummit.com  The truth of the matter is that launching is hard… and I know because I’m in the middle of the biggest launch of my almost decade in online business! If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while, you know that registration is now open for the Expand Online Summit for Artists and that I would love for you to attend. Just click this link! In my 5 phases of an online product framework, launch is the final stage. It’s what we’re working towards and it’s a massive milestone in your online ventures. Without launching, we’re just throwing spaghetti at the virtual online wall and hoping someone is going to follow the strands to our product or program. And that’s not a well thought out strategy at all. But rest assured, launching doesn’t have to be big or scary. So breathe, you’ve got this. Remember also that you’re not going to start launching before you’re ready to start launching. Your product is going to 100% be ready for people to check

If you haven't registered for the Expand Online Summit yet https://expandonlinesummit.com now -- the summit is live from May 4 - May 8, 2020. The building blocks of every Expand Online journey revolve around checklists, journaling and deadlines... seriously, what big scary project have you ever tried to work on that didn't have checklists and deadlines? It doesn’t matter if you’re doing an exact 1-to-1 translation of your past work into online work or doing something that looks dramatically different, when you expand online it’s so easy to let time and effort slip by. And that’s why we need to set realistic deadlines. Yup, we’re going straight to the hard stuff… there are 5 major deadlines that need dates in order to put something online, and unsurprisingly, these tie exactly to the 5 phases of an online product discussed in the Expand Online Getting Started Guide. You can always down load it at https://techofbusiness.com/onlineproduct/ but in case you haven’t downloaded it yet, I’ll let you in on tho

Before we get into this, if you’re listening or reading in real time, or anytime before May 4, 2020, I invite you to head over to ExpandOnlineSummit.com and sign up for the Expand Online Summit. It’s another completely free way for you to learn more about expanding your business online. The summit is going to be live from May 4 - May 8 and features over 20 artists, musicians, actors and coaches who work with artists, musicians, performers, singers and actors! The goal of the summit is simple: to help more creatives like you stop wishing and dreaming about doing something online and take action! It’s a great compliment to what we do on a weekly basis here on the podcast. You’ll have the opportunity to watch 4 or 5 sessions each day and a vibrant community of artists to interact with on Facebook. Sessions run from 30 - 50 minutes and I’ll be providing you with the exact run times and topics inside the Expand Online Summit Playbook which is a workbook and guide book at the same time. The mission of the summit is

In today’s episode, we’re talking about what it looks like to get online ready. It really doesn’t matter what you’ve done online nor what you’re wanting to do, there is one underlying thread that needs to be succinct within your online presence… and that is what your business looks like visually. And of course, I’m talking about images and fonts and colors. These are the visual representation of your brand. Equally important is the messaging of your brand. What emotions does your brand evoke? What type of person is attracted to your visuals? Are you relatable? Do the visuals match your level of experience? Because you’re transitioning from an offline brand to an online brand, you will want to look at every aspect of your brand identity and make sure that it translates as well on the screen as it does in 3D. Let’s start with your colors. In the printing world, they use CMYK to create color -- or in other words this model works by partially or entirely masking colors on a lighter, usually white, background. I

Today we’re talking about something that I know is top of mind for artists who suddenly found that according to the government your business is not an essential business and you cannot keep operating in the way that you have previously. We’re talking about releasing fears of the unknown and the fear of how am I going to “make it.” These are real and you’re completely normal to have these fears… but part of the reason you’re listening to this podcast right now is to find your path forward and explore what it looks like to transition your business into a virtual one. The good news is that at some point in the future, you’ll be able to go back to your studio and resume the methods that have got you to the success you already have. And the even better news is that by releasing your fears and adding an online branch to your business, you’ll be expanding your reach and creating something that can live long into the future. Some of the fears that come up most often from my perspective are: Fear of failure Fear of s

Without a double, at some point in time your program is going to conclude and we want to celebrate the progress that our members have made during the time we’ve been working with them! I am so passionate about the full experience for our online program participants that I want to take our time today to discuss some of my favorite ways to wrap up group programs and when students complete their courses. Before we get there, I want to assure you that the online ship hasn’t sailed and left you behind -- Nope! you can do this and your exact right set of students or members or participants or whatever you want to call them are going to be there when you’re able to serve them online. Many of your existing or past clients are probably waiting for you to create what they need; they really aren’t looking for other instructors. So, rest assured, what you’re inspired to create by working on expanding online is the right thing for you to be doing now. There… that’s out of the way. Remember the best resource to get started

Now, more than ever, this is a topic that is being brought up by a lot of people. Before we get into the episode, I want to take a couple of minutes to let you know how I’m feeling about the Coronavirus and COVID-19. Not because we’re not inundated everywhere with this content, but because it’s fueling an online revolution and it’s got me fired up to get content like today’s scheduled episode out. Last Wednesday, after my teenager was home from school but before my 11 year old’s day was over, the school district announced closure for the following day for at least two weeks. My husband had already been home for a week at this point and I was mostly trying to make heads or tails of our new normal. I actually really like having him at home. Both of us working, but conversations during the day being over food or breaks instead of text and FB messages. When the schools announced the closure, we were prepared. We already had an inkling that this was going to happen and I was prepared to have the girls home while w

It is my pleasure and honor to be here helping you find the right way for your business to expand online and to support you through the implementation and launch! This episode is about group programs. Some people call these incubators, accelerators and masterminds but I prefer to use the more general term. Essentially what we are talking about is a program with a weekly online live session along with complimentary worksheets and exercises and possibly additional touch points. Most group programs also have a private Facebook group or online forum component. Group programs can be run for anything and like last week’s episode one of the compelling features is accountability and establishing relationships between participants and with you as the leader, mentor, guide or facilitator -- whichever word you prefer to use. The prep work for a group program is different than a course because so much of the work and teaching is done live. But that’s not to say that we don’t need to prep at all -- in fact, most group pro

First off… a quick definition for you… a cohort is simply a group or company of people. In terms of online courses, a cohort is a group of course participants who start the course at the same time and are guided through the content. A cohort helps participants actually accomplish what they buy the course to help them with. Because, as we’ve been discussing lately, it’s not enough for us to put out really good content, we need to help our students move through the content. And a cohort is a great way to really create the impact you seek. As you know, the two most popular methods of having online courses are evergreen and open cart/close cart. The evergreen course is always being marketed whereas the open cart/close cart has launch cycles. Running a cohort works with both methods but there are obvious differences in the way a cohort needs to be presented. A cohort is super easy to implement with an open cart/close cart launch method. Because in this method, we only have the doors open for a short amount of time

Over the past few episodes, we’ve been getting into the nitty gritty of online courses - from if this is the right online product for you, to administration and supporting your students… but what we haven’t talked about yet and what I’ve been saving up for in this episode is pricing and value. These are two separate topics for sure, the price of your online course and the value one receives from the course can be completely disconnected (like you could give away a course for free and it be life changing or you could charge a fortune for your course and it not help your student at all) -- but what we really want is for the price to reflect the value and the value to be seen within the price. Pricing structures There are multiple ways to price a course, I’m going to go through the most common ways here. Flat rate. Your students pay 100% of the course price up front before gaining access. Installments. Your students pay a percentage of the course price each month for a certain number of months. Free trial + fla

Supporting your students as their online course instructor is part of why you’re creating your online course, right? So in today’s episode we’re getting into how that support manifests itself and how you can create the best experience for your students. In my opinion, it’s not enough to provide content access, we must provide other classroom experiences even for virtual classrooms. A formal classroom comes with expectations; students know what is expected of them when they arrive, how they should act and processes for when they leave. We need to create that same level of expectation online. It’s something that separates your course from lesser courses online. We accomplish this with a multi-pronged approach. The first approach I’m going to discuss is your Facebook group ~ I bet you thought I was going to jump into email or the intro unit inside your course material, didn’t you? But the warmth and clear guidelines of your Facebook group (or other online discussion forum) is both easier to understand and relate

Today's topic is probably the one that I get into the most with my clients as we get beyond content creation and they know that the vision is going to become a reality… we’re discussing what is needed to effectively administer and deliver your online course. Often the easiest part of an online course is the content – it’s really everything else that goes into the course that feels daunting. And that’s because it’s new and different and most course creators don’t have a strategist or mentor or adviser to help them get from idea to active selling. And that’s really what we’re going to break down in this episode. Part 1: Delivery There are dozens of different tools that are designed to fulfill the delivery. And truly, the exact set of tools you choose will work and it could look different than someone else who is listening to this podcast right now. There is no one right set of tools. It’s more important to know what content we need to deliver and when we get to the second half of this episode, we’ll focus o

I'm excited to get into this episode because it hits me so close to home... I have been working with entrepreneurs and business owners since 2010 to create the exact right tech stack to support their online business goals. My heart swells with pride when my clients hit the “go live” button on whatever project we are working on. It’s not just about go live, it’s really about creating the right online product for both my clients and their audience. Not every business owner who wants to have an online revenue source is going to go about it the same way and there is no one right way. Today, we’re going to determine if an online course is right for you!! There are a lot of offline instructors and coaches who could create and sell online courses. But just because you could, should you? I have seen that the success of online course launches has less to do with what you teach and more to do with who you are as a person and how you present yourself to the world. And what’s more, launching an online course can be d

I believe that scheduling software systems like Acuity Scheduling and Calendly (among others) is an absolute requirement for online course creators. You’re doubting me, I know it – when I proposed this topic to my friends they thought I was nuts to insist so passionately about this! Because, well, you’re setting up your online course so that you can leverage your time and offer your brilliance in a one-to-many capacity. That’s a great mission, it frees you up to work on your own art expression, hone new skills and become an even better ambassador for your craft. But, the reason you’re setting up your online course doesn’t help your students get the success or knowledge they seek. Your objective has many folds and one of them is most certainly helping your students complete the program they purchase, enjoy the process and share your courses with others. And, your online scheduling tool will certainly help with those objectives and has a direct line to increased profits – so that’s good enough right? We can sto

This episode is completely actionable and these actions should take you less than 30 minutes to complete. There are a few things that you can do in your business to make things SO. MUCH. EASIER. And that’s what we’re tackling today. I have worked with businesses anywhere from “I’m going to start a business” to having a sizeable online following and revenue in the 6 figures. And regardless of where my client is at when we start working together, my first step is to make sure the foundations are present and working. The foundations are 5 areas that need to be dialed in. We went in depth on these in episode 71 and to remind you they are: Your online home Email marketing and/or customer relationship management A mechanism for delivering free and paid content A checkout or payment system Scheduling software I’d love for you to go back to episode 71 to hear a bit more about why I think these are the foundation pieces of every online business. Today all you’re going to do is categorize the tools that you’ve thou

It's super important to make sure you have a solid online product idea before you start to create it. This episode highlights several ways to perform product validation (and this comes WAY before pre-selling!!) Connect with Jaime and share your feedback: Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/techofbusiness/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yourbiztech/ Expand Online Community: https://techofbusiness.com/community/ Email: jaime@techofbusiness.com 

So, you’re ready to expand online? Awesome!!! And I’m sure you have thousands of thoughts running through your head as to how to make that a reality. This is an exciting time and I’m so glad you’re here. The Expand Online podcast is hosted by Jaime Slutzky and its mission is to help you see what’s possible for your business in the online space and to help you take the steps needed to make those possibilities a reality! Your business is already successful in your community and it’s time to remove location barriers and provide your brilliance and unique approach to a corner of the massive online audience. This episode goes into starting in the right place in order to quickly and smoothly expand online. The right place is visioning and idea generation… That is figuring out what you want to actually create and who you are creating this online product for. Are you wanting to create an extension of your offline/in-studio business or are you wanting to create an entry level or advanced level opportunity that leads

Your online business success is my goal and focus. Tech of Business is what I do, but your desire to Expand Online is what brought you to this podcast, right? You are a professional with an offline hands-on business and are super excited about the idea of adding supplemental or replacement income through an online product. An online product: online courses membership sites group programs distance teaching that meet via Zoom video conferencing (with or without material provided online) physical or downloadable products with online marketplaces There are several phases of online product development and my sweet spot is in the tech… but there is so much more than the tech that goes into successful online products. This episode focuses on the mindset that is needed to venture online when you already have offline successes. Regardless of the reason for wanting to create an online product, work in the online space takes a different mindset than in person work. There are probably a stack of questions swirling aro

In this episode we’re going through the pre-work steps how to get your online product to the point of creation. That is -- everything that I think needs to be figured out before writing a single video script or writing a single line of sales copy or creating a single graphic. In short, this is developing the promise. Your online product is going to deliver on a promise. And every aspect of the product, whether it’s a course, membership site, group program, distance learning or other type of online product, needs to work towards delivering on that promise. Let's use an example to illustrate how to develop the promise. Let’s say your online program is going to help someone keep their paint brushes in good working shape for twice as long as the average lifespan of a paint brush in under 15 minutes. There is value to this program -- your students are going to save money by not having to purchase new brushes as often and being able to sit down and paint whenever they feel compelled (because their equipment is