Online Course Creation Tips With Christine Lindebak

Christine Lindebak offers tips on online course creation, the best online course platforms, and how to use Udemy’s free online courses as a lead magnet.

Marketing consultant, Christine Lindebak, spent 15 years working for luxury brands as a Retail Director. Today, she helps experts and influencers package their expertise into an online course, effectively helping them scale their impact and add an additional revenue stream to their business.

Her latest offering is a 90-day program, which is a “Bootcamp” style one-to-one engagement designed to create and launch a signature course into the market.

In this interview, we discuss how to brand yourself with an online course and the best online course platforms and online learning platforms, such as Kajabi, Teachable, Clickfunnels, and Udemy online courses.

Christine also offers online course creation tips to make and sell courses online and we discuss how to use Udemy free online courses as a lead magnet to attract prospects into your sales funnel.

Whether you want to create an online school, develop online training courses for your community or learn about the best e-learning platform for online course hosting, you’ll get invaluable tips for creating your own online course and setting up an online course.

Resources mentioned in the interview

• Christine’s website
• Connect with Christine on LinkedIn
• Train the Trainer Online
• Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind by T. Harv Eker

Best Online Course Platforms

• Teachable
• ClickFunnels
• WordPress Membership Plugin
• Udemy
• Kajabi

Interview Transcript

Priya Florence Shah:

Today I’m interviewing marketing consultant Christine Lindebak. She spent 15 years working for luxury brands as a retail director and today she helps experts and influencers package their expertise into an online course, effectively helping them scale their impact and add an additional revenue stream to their business.

Her latest offering is a 90-day program, which is a boot camp style, one-to-one engagement designed to create and launch a Signature Course into the market. So over to you, Christine. Let’s tell us a little bit about your journey and how you got into what you’re doing today.

Christine Lindebak:

Sure, yes, well first, thank you so much for having me and for connecting. Really excited to chat today. So I made the big jump about three and a half years ago from my corporate career into entrepreneurship, which took me about a year to get all of my plans together and to figure out what it really was that I wanted to do, and how to transition my experience from my corporate role into entrepreneurship.

And so as a consultant, I get to help people other, you know, entrepreneurs, experts influencers, package up their expertise into an online course, which is essentially a digital product that they can then sell. And I tend to work mostly with people like therapists, people who have a skill or a talent that they deliver on a one-to-one basis.

So at some point in their career, they reach a max because there are only 24 hours in the day. And, and a lot of people will experience burnout, which I can also identify with. And so I have empathy for that, when you know, the daily grind of eight hours of face-to-face clients all day long.

Creating an online course that answers some of the questions that they find themselves answering all day long, over and over, that’s usually the best place to start with an online course that if you find yourself answering the same questions over and over, that can usually be, you know, filmed and created into a curriculum that teaches it without you actually having to deliver it each time.

Yeah, so it’s super rewarding. I get to help people free up their time and add an additional revenue stream to keep their business balanced. So, you know, it’s I love what I get to do. It’s fun.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah, I really understand the importance of online courses. But I think of them also as a great branding vehicle to showcase your authority, you know, and your expertise. So can you talk a little bit about that? What do you think about it?

Christine Lindebak:

Yes, definitely. It’s, for a lot of people like therapists or people who work one on one, a  really great way to get your name out there and to also get traffic. So, when I first start working with someone, the first thing we do is look at their value ladder.

So you have basically three steps of the ladder, like the intro offer, your core offer, and then your high touch. And so that all become your brand. Those are your services your offerings. And, and so, a course can become your core product or your entry product.

And it can help people nurture, it becomes a nurture sequence so to speak. So people get to know your work, they get to experience a transformation of some kind.

And, you know, the course then leads them up the value ladder to your premium one-on-one services. And so as a whole, they, those products all work together to form your brand and to help people get to know you better.

And with a course, usually, there’s a video component or audio component. So people are like this, you know, they’re they get to see you and, and learn from you and experience what kind of transformation you can guide them through.

So you can use definitely use a course to reach people and to nurture them into your brand to who you are and, and what you can offer them.

And that can be done in a couple of different ways you can have a mini-course as your, you know, very, very low-cost front end offer. And that allows you to reach the masses, you can run ads to that offer. You can use it as a vehicle to really capture the attention of a lot of your ideal clients.

And then you can have a Signature course that prepares people for your one-on-one offering. So you know those are like the questions that you get all day long. If someone is coming in too, is buying your premium one-on-one services.

Let’s say you are a coach and part of your coaching strategy revolves around meditation practice. And that’s something at the very base that everyone that works with you one on one, you know, really needs to have this practice in place. So that’s a great place to have a course. So they take the course.

And some are ready for working with you one on one or your retreat or whatever it is that you’re your high-touch offering is so yeah, courses are a really great way to expand your reach, which is your brand as well.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah. So how do you recommend your clients, you know, create the course Do you have any preference for any platforms such as Teachable or Udemy? I mean, do you have a preference or are you ok with them creating it on whichever platform they prefer?

Christine Lindebak:

There are so many ways that you can go about hosting the content. Most of my clients choose Kajabi, because it’s an all in one platform, right?

That makes it easy to integrate all of your sales pages with the course content, and from a branding perspective and has a really elegant user experience. So for your students that are taking the course, they get a really good impression of your brand. It’s very professional.

And because it’s all under one house, so to speak, they buy the course, and then they automatically get into the course content. But other ways you can do it is if you have it on like a teachable or even Clickfunnels.

You can host your course on Clickfunnels, which requires some content. So you have your sales page as one part, and then the fulfillment of your courses another part, and you have to connect those two so that when they buy, they get the fulfillment of the product. And that gets a little more technical, a little bit trickier. But it definitely can be done.

And you can also self-host your course on your WordPress website. If you host it on WordPress, it is a bit more work and a bit more money on the front end to get it all built, because you have to basically custom build the course.

Whereas if you go with Kajabi you’re basically just uploading your content onto their platform. But you do pay with Kajabi you pay monthly or you pay annually and you know, it’s like renting a house as opposed to WordPress.

When you are just, you know buying the land and building your house it takes a little bit more time to build the house. Right? There are different ways to go about it.

And I think being really mindful of the experience for the students is really important as it ties into your branding because the experience that people have when they purchase a product from you, and how they’re treated after that purchase is really important to who you are as a brand as an expert.

As a human being you know, it just shows there are many different ways to do it just like you can go to an H&M or you can go to a Louie Vuitton. It’s different experiences, and it’s all our power to create that experience. And, that is what we can do to more or less control how our brand is perceived.

Priya Florence Shah:

Right, right. So that’s important to have a good customer experience after they purchase it. And when they access your course, that’s a very important thing to think of. Right?

Christine Lindebak:

Yes, definitely. And another thing that a lot of people that I see a lot is there’s this one type of thinking around online courses, which is, you know, it’s passive income, you just make the course and then it just sells.

And so a lot of people then find themselves in a situation where they haven’t planned for the customer service part of the revenue stream. So it’s not that you’re going to be sipping Mai Tais on the beach while your course just sells.

It is passive income and you can set it up in ways that it’s an evergreen product, but there’s still the fulfillment side and the customer service side.

It’s so important that you have either your own time allocated or you have a virtual assistant, or someone who can support those students with the questions that come up like, yeah, I’ve lost my password or if it’s a continuity payment plan, oh, my cards declined, or all of these little things that will come up, it’s just normal. This is a normal, part of being a course, having a course business.

So that all plays into the personal branding and the experience that people have, and what they say about your course and your brand and you when they talk about it with their co-workers, colleagues, and other people in the industry.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah, that’s a very important thing to consider, and I have had some bad experiences with courses I’ve taken, there’s no follow-up, there’s no customer service, and you try to get things done and there’s no response from them. So yes, there are people who don’t give you a good experience.

But I think as we get more courses, courses become more popular as service offerings or as product offerings, I think we’re going to see more of that happening. And it’s going to separate the good content creators from the bad ones, you know, we’re going to see that happen, I guess.

Christine Lindebak:

Yes, yeah. And eventually, it will impact their ability to sell, you know, to continue selling more products to people or whether it’s just kind of a one-and-done type of thing and they never buy from you again.

Priya Florence Shah:

Completely agree. Yeah, I’ve bought courses from people I will never buy anything again and I was really underwhelmed by the experience. So it’s very important, I think that’s something very important to keep in mind that we have to give them a good experience and make sure that they’re happy customers no matter what, right?

Christine Lindebak:

Yeah, definitely. Definitely. And that’s, that’s how I can help my clients is having an expert. It’s like you wouldn’t climb Mount Everest without a guide, you know, someone saying, Oh, no, don’t go there.

No, this is the way you know, make sure you pack this and all these things, that when you’re going on it the first time it’s there’s a learning curve, and there are things that you that it’s hard to put all the pieces together if you haven’t gone the path before, right.

So that’s why I’ve in my own brand, I’ve been able to really hone it in to first starting in my journey starting with more digital products and more of a general thing.

And now I’ve moved into really specifically online courses because it is such it’s such a specific thing and there are so many details in creating and delivering content and just teaching in general. Yeah, a lot of times we can be experts in our content and our experts in what we do, teaching it is another skill there.

Priya Florence Shah:

Absolutely. Yeah, I mean, there are some really boring courses out there. I’ve taken courses that cost me a lot of money. And they had a soporific effect on me.

Just watching them talk and I would fall asleep. And I’m like, Oh my God, I paid so much money, I’m falling asleep watching it. Oh, no. And it’s not a meditation course.

Christine Lindebak:

That’s why more and more, I’m guiding my clients to create action in the courses so that it’s not just like a passive thing that you’re watching and you know, maybe not paying attention, but actually inspiring them to take action as part of the course.

And that way we learn more when we actually implement and we do. So, absolutely. There are different learning styles and teaching styles.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah, there are some people who are really great teachers. You know, I think one of them is T Harv Eker. I don’t know if you heard of him.

Christine Lindebak:

Oh, yeah, I love his book, The Secrets Of The Millionaire Mind.

Priya Florence Shah:

But even his courses are pretty good because he’s really engaging and he’s a great teacher. He’s an amazing teacher, even on the stage as well as in his courses. My personality is not like that. So I can’t create courses like that.

He’s got that personality that is very engaging. And I think people should watch him in action when they’re creating courses. So they know that he’s a good example to follow, as far as coaching and training are concerned.

So I think maybe course creators should do a course and you know they have Train The Trainer courses. Yeah, those might be good for them.

Because a lot of them don’t know how to deliver content in an engaging manner on video, you know, and there are lots of courses that teach you how to do that, in fact, so I think, maybe that should be mandatory, I guess.

Christine Lindebak:

Yeah. It’s one of those things that, you know, most of my clients are the type of people who are always learning, they are just constantly learning and so it falls pretty naturally when they’re going to take the journey.

They have to commit to 90 days with me when I work with them, right. So you know, that all comes into being the best prepared you are to take that journey.

And yeah, and there are other ways to build an offer, that, you know, if someone isn’t strong on video, there are ways to build in the value and to deliver the video and content in ways that are in line with that person.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah, nothing wrong with that. I’ve taken courses where the person was not on the video at all, but they had slides that explained their concepts really beautifully. And, that works great, too.

So yeah, you have to decide what is your strong point? Are you good with the slides? Are you good with the video, you know? So, with that, which is the best way to deliver content to your audience, you know.

Christine Lindebak:

Usually, I recommend doing an intro video as Face to face just so people get the idea of who you are, and then allow you to have a conversation. And then as you get into the course content, you can use the slides.

But it’s also really important on the title side. So from a branding perspective, you know, having all of your brand elements within the slides, but having a title slide that has your photo, and you know, the title of that module, or that unit, just remind people again, who you are and what they are, they’re interacting with you and you’re a real person behind the voice.

It can add that extra element of familiarity behind the course even if they’re not seeing your face.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah, that’s a good idea. That’s a great idea, actually. So I’ve seen course creators who’ve done that, they have an image and then they have the title and then they go into the slides and stuff like that.

So that’s a great idea. You know, and yes, people should start doing that when they create a course. Right? Yeah, especially for the branding element.

So how do you help them? If you can give us a little glimpse into how you help your students put their courses together? You know, what, what do you focus on when you do that?

Christine Lindebak:

Yeah, so the very first thing we get dialed in is their offer. So from a selling perspective, really looking at it, it’s most likely not just a course, you know, there are other things that build out the offer and make it sellable and make it irresistible, right, while delivering the transformation.

So the offer is the most important first step, and then we look at how we’re going to launch it. So is it going to be a beta launch or more of a pressure launch? And also considering their list size.

So do we need to do some Facebook ads to build a list to get people ready? Or do they have a list and also if it’s a premium offer or if it’s more of a front end just kind of to get people into your brand, it all depends on those different factors.

And then we go into actually simultaneously list building while creating the content, and then going into the launch. So it’s usually a pre-launch. So we get, get your audience excited for what’s to come, and start overcoming objections even before we launch. And then launch, open the cart and close the cart.

And then after we’ve launched, once we have a lot of data so we understand what’s going on, and then it’s a reassessment. Okay, this went really well. And, and, you know, this didn’t go well.

So that gives you all the data, you need to then launch it again, you know, maybe in the second quarter next quarter and then, you know, once you get it going, once you kind of refines that process, then it becomes just evergreening the process out.

So taking it, taking as many of the repeatable elements and making them automated, so that you don’t actually physically have to be delivering a webinar or you just you deliver it once and then it goes on automation and you focus on the fulfillment.

So, the most important thing is starting with the offer, because everything else builds on that and how it fits into your offer letter or your value letter and your brand as I as a whole, yeah. And then that’s important.

Priya Florence Shah:

What do you think about using free courses as lead magnets for instance, or low-cost courses, like people, put up Udemy, I’ve heard from some course creators, that it helped them get business.

They put up a course on Udemy, a low-cost course that demonstrated expertise in a certain field. And it helped them get clients, it actually helped them build their business, you know, so, what do you think about that?

Is that a good way to kind of build your brand or get known for your expertise? Is that a good lead magnet for instance?

Christine Lindebak:

Yeah, it depends on your niche and how it fits in. It’s definitely an option and I would look at it from not looking to make a lot of money from a low-cost front-end offer, but it’s really about getting leads into your funnel.

And so from that perspective, it can be really good – free courses, free challenges, 3-day challenges – these kinds of email mini-courses can be really popular and also can be really inexpensive to deliver.

So you can deliver it via email and that can be a great way for people to get a taste of your services. And yeah, I think they can work really well as lead magnets.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah, because I’ve heard from other people. I don’t have a course on Udemy. But I’ve heard from other people how well they can work as lead magnets and I have some courses on Teachable that I offer for free and those build my list as well. So I think that’s a good way.

I mean, today courses are becoming really popular. Right? So I think it’s good to use the marketing power of platforms like Udemy because you don’t have to do anything. All you do is put up the course and let them market it for you and they basically do all the marketing.  It’s like having a book on Amazon.

(You can also find a list of the best platforms for your online courses on eduardklein.com)

Christine Lindebak:

Yeah, it’s a similar methodology of putting a low-cost mini-transformation out into the world and, then bringing them into your world. I think it’s important to have the full funnel built out so that if someone comes to you, they buy your Udemy course. And then they’re on your email list, then what do you do with them?

So making sure that the nurture is set up to continue and lead them into your other offers? Because it probably won’t be a huge moneymaker. Ensure you make the most out of the leads that do come in from those traffic generators.

Priya Florence Shah:

Yeah. So basically just widen your net. That’s what I think of it as just casting a wide net so that you can use the marketing power of all these big platforms to draw in leads into your system. That’s something I’m experimenting with. And your course is launching soon?

Christine Lindebak:

Yeah. So we’re kicking off February 1. So it’ll be a 90-day course and I’m doing discovery calls in the next couple of weeks and getting really excited about the group that’s coming together.

Priya Florence Shah:

Oh, that sounds good. I hope you get a lot of people coming in from my video also. I’ll put your links in the video description. So that was really interesting.

I mean, you had a lot of very good information for my audience because a lot of them are people who are maybe coaches, consultants looking to brand themselves and looking to create passive income from their courses, right?

So I think what you’re offering can definitely help them do that. So if you’re looking to create a course, visit Christine’s website. I’ll put the link in the description below. So you can check it out, and do sign up for her 90-day course.

 

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