Turn your service into an online course with the M.A.P. technique

Over the weekend, I told my private email list how the identity of choice makes us hesitate before making big decisions – whether that’s getting into the best shape of our lives or launching an online course.?

There’s another reason we put off launching a course though and it’s all about facts, not feelings.

Fact: You focus on what helps you right now.

Fact: You know a course will help you eventually but might not see how it’ll help right now.

BIG FACT: A course can replace 60% of the work you’re doing with clients right now.

Yes, I know that sounds like a lot and you’re an evidence-based person and so to see what I mean, let’s look at your M.A.P – M.A.P. is part of my launch framework that I use to make things super clear for my clients and it stands for:

M - Model (your current “bridge”)

A - Assess (your current “bridge”)

P - Plan (for a better bridge)

(If you're more of a video than text person, then I'd recommend playing the video first, then continuing with the text below.)

M - MODEL (your current “bridge”)

Before scientists run a test, they start with a model - a simple way to see how a system they’re interested in works.

Why this matters: If you work with clients, then we could break down your system for all past, present and future work into 5 simple parts:

This 5-part model is adapted from “Telling Ain’t Training” 2nd Edition by Harold D. Stolovitch and Erica J. Keeps. Only print versions are available so no instant gratification here but totally a keeper for your bookshelf if you’re a nerd about helping humans like I am.

This model is your current “bridge” - a way for you to help clients get from “Point A” to “Point where they want to B”.

Now, if you were on one of my group coaching calls, this is the part where you’d have seen Allyns and Claudine pausing to take notes because as service providers, it allowed them to:

1) See their own method: For years, they developed and delivered their unique coaching, consulting, or training methods (and this allowed them to see the meta patterns across all of them).

2) Make other methods better: For years, they’ve also used established methods and this helps them to see the part’s that are helpful and the parts that aren’t.

3) Create new methods: Because they’re always discovering new client needs, they saw how they could use this framework to develop completely new trainings to address those needs.

Regardless of which reason fits where you’re at right now, this model shows the 5-parts of the “bridge” you use to take clients from “Point A” to “Point where they want to B”.

That’s cool because now we can…

A - ASSESS (your current bridge)

Once Allyns and Claudine saw a literal picture of the “bridge” they were both currently using, they did the thing anyone who cares about clients does (which is to ask)...

“How do I build a better bridge?”

That’s when I gently point out that we’re jumping to ‘prescribe before we diagnose’, which is an effective way to kill patients and live in the shame of medical malpractice.

“Dramatic much, Marc?” Maybe, but in my defense, I’m a son of a doctor -- I have strong feelings about this and this makes my point quickly :).

Half jokes aside, a better and MUCH faster question for you to ask is this:

“Do I repeat myself when working with new clients?”

If you said yes…then you already have some or all of an effective bridge for guiding clients from “Point A” to “Point where they want to B”.

If the answer is no, then chances are…

1. You haven’t worked with enough clients.

2. You’re working with too many different kinds of clients.

3. You’re reinventing the wheel from scratch even though you work with the same kinds of clients.

4. You do repeat yourself...but you’re too close to your own work to notice it.

Either way, within a few seconds of reading this, you just assessed your current bridge, which, as you’re likely realizing, has created most of your…

P - PLAN (for a better bridge)

Now, if you’re expecting me to say:

This is how you can stop repeating yourself 60% of your time.

You’d be right!

Especially if your service delivery format is coaching, advisory, workshops, trainings, consulting (done with you or done for you)…or even a physical book.

That’s because as service providers, we usually repeat our “rationale”, “objectives”, and “actions” when working with new clients – which means we could put that into a course.

But it’s not just about a course. For some of my past clients, they usually see 3 things:

1-Creating a course is an effective way to productize and scale their service.

2-Creating a course can lead to turning some or all of it into a SaaS (software as a service) product – which is only becoming easier because they are now solutions to create apps without code.

3-Creating a course is an effective way to scale group coaching – where you can answer a question for 1 person and scale the answer to 25+ people at a time. That’s how I did as a lead coach for 800+ course creators although 8,000+ people had bought the course. If you glance at those numbers, you’ll see that the course handles most questions and for the questions it doesn’t, you can scale the way you answer questions.

I share this, because it could all be part of your plan.

Whether you want 5-figures, 6-figures, 7-figures or 8-figures, I have past clients who’ve done it.

“Heidi: We just had our first 6-figure launch!” (Heidi and I worked together for years to launch, grow, and optimize her course business)

Whether you want to go the courses, productized service or SaaS route, I’ve got clients who’ve done it too.

None of it happens without getting clear on step zero: getting clear on your course idea.

That starts with “structuring what you say” – this is something you need to for sanity and clarity if your mind has asked any of the following questions more than once:

· What course topic should I start with?

· How do I know who’s right for the course?

· How much should I charge for my course?

· What if I want to launch multiple courses?

· How do I sell my courses and services together?

· Is launching a course really worth it?

I call these “course idea” questions and I they usually come up after someone has stopped asking “can this work for me?” questions and has started asking “how exactly do I make this work for me?” questions.

If you nodded your head to that sentence, then I created a thing for you.

I call it:

The “Ready To Sell” live challenge for course creators that care.

It’s hand-crafted to help you go from “I don’t know if anyone would buy” to “[ number ] of people want to buy my course on [ topic ] for [ price ] in the 1-4 weeks.”.

If that sounds relevant, then here are answers to your other questions:

1. Yes, it’s free – my goal is to make my free stuff better than paid stuff out there – I want you to get results that inspires everyone to level up their game.

2. Yes, at the end of it, I’ll invite you to work with me if you’re wanting more help and there’s an exceptional fit.

3. Yes, it’s not silly puffery –I’m including the template Ciara used to sell her $4,000 course and the worksheet Warren used map his offer suite that includes a $100 entry offer, $5,000 core offer and higher end subscription offers. No more hoarding that valuable genius inside your brain. Nah. Time to get your special sauce out into the world my friend.

If all that sounds like a bag of yum and then some, then sign up for the waitlist here and I’ll have the details coming your way.

That be it for today – thanks for reading :)

-Marc