How A Workshop Launched My Business

What to hear the deeper dive into the topic? Listen to the podcast episode ☝️

There are a million different ways to get started online. Today I want to share with you the way I got started. It wasn’t fancy, there weren't a lot of bells or whistles, or tech for that matter. So, what did I do?

A workshop!

Here are the 3 steps I took to launch.

1. Problem

The first step I took was researching what my niche was struggling with. I went into Facebook groups and searched for key terms such as: help, stuck, struggling, lost, etc. These key terms helped me find posts where my ideal client was searching for answers. 

One of the struggles that kept showing up was how to know what to put in your course and how to know how much is enough or too much. 

This problem was one I knew I could help with! After teaching and designing curriculum for over 10 years, I had a strategy I knew I could teach and simplify the process and get them beyond this hurdle.

So, what did I do? I decided to create a 90 minute workshop where I would teach my process to outline a course. 

2. Promoting

Before we dive into this one, I need you to know…I had NO idea what I was doing! I had an idea and ran with it…scared!

My goal behind this was just to test the idea and see if what I was teaching made sense. Remember, this was my very first time putting anything online. So, I wasn’t looking to make money off this, I was truly just validating my idea. 

I went into a Facebook group, where this was ok AND wasn’t direct competition teaching the same thing, and I posted about my free live workshop I was hosting. I had people comment, then I sent them a message and had them send me their email address so I could send the Zoom link (this was before Zoom was a big thing) for the workshop.

3. Planning and Presenting

I knew what I was going to teach before I promoted it, but I hadn’t actually created the content for the workshop. Now I knew people were interested, I had about 10-15 people sign up, so I planned my workshop. Even though it was free, I wanted to knock the socks off the people who were attending.

I built my slides, created the workbook, and planned the workshop using the techniques I knew from being a teacher that would get them results! 

The day came for the workshop and I was nervous as all get out. I told the participants this and explained this was my first time doing this. They were all so kind! I taught the workshop live on Zoom, people could ask questions and interact. And guess what…

It worked! 

The participants gained clarity on their course idea and were able to get their courses outlined. Whew! I was so excited! My idea worked!

That’s not all though. At the end of the workshop, I had participants reach out to me and asked if I worked one-on-one with people to help them build their course and get it online.

Four years later and I’m still working with some of those clients.

Although a workshop may seem like a simplified version of a course, it can get you big results!