Dan Gois a high performance coach for entrepreneurs and CEOs High performance founders. After the early death of his mother, Go left a cushy corporate job to become a personal trainer and eventually brought his message of taking health seriously to entrepreneurs. Go's theory is that taking care of your health is a way to transform your life – and your business.

And although Dan likes to coach live, like many entrepreneurs, he needed a solution to increase his time, income and influence.

In response, he created his own online course, Lean body 90. And although he initially saw some success, sales began to dwindle over time. Unfortunately this is common for many course creators and this is why Dan chose to partner with my agency, Hey Creatorto create a sustainable process for monetizing its courses.

I'll share the playbook below and give tips on how you can do the same.

Nurture: The High Performance Journal

Dan produces a weekly newsletter that teaches subscribers how to build your body and increase performance, and it only takes four minutes to read.

He builds his list by posting on social media, doing live events and participating in the ConverKit Creator Network; a platform that enables you to grow your email list by partnering with other creators.

But, building your own email list it's just the beginning. It is also important to constantly feed your audience with valuable content that helps them progress towards a specific goal.

Many course creators have unsuccessful launches because they focus too much on selling their audience as opposed to providing engaging content in exchange for their attention.

Dan spends about a few hours a week writing his newsletter, which has been endorsed by other creative entrepreneurs including Mark Manson, And Koe, Gia McCoolAND Ali Abdal.

How you can apply this to your course:

Practice strategic patience. Wait to launch your course until you've built and nurtured your email list. Sure, you may have a ton of social media followers, but email has consistently proven to be one of the most effective ways to market courses to your audience. And if you want to reduce risk, consider offering a pre-sale and build the course only after you've generated enough revenue from early backers. If you don't meet your threshold, you can get their money back and try again from a different angle.

Connected: 7 Reasons Why Entrepreneurs Should Train

Educate: Lean Body 90 Course

Dan's course is designed to help high performers build muscle, increase energy and burn fat without huge time commitments.

Instead of overwhelming his audience with too much information, which can easily be interpreted as fluff, Dan focuses on impact and shares a simple approach to adapt.

Key features include:

• 3×30 Training System: Short, effective 30 minute workouts three times a week.
• The Simple Eating Plan: Simplifies healthy eating and fat loss.
• High Performance Sleep System: Improves sleep quality to increase energy and focus.
• Comprehensive video library: Demonstrates over 20 moves.
• Bonus Materials: Includes recommended supplements, travel workouts, and meal recipes.

Another best practice, you can complete the course in about a few hours, making it much easier to apply what you've learned.

How you can apply this to your course:

take a “less, but better” Approach. Too often course creators assume they need to cram as much information as possible into their online course in order to make it a “good deal” for their audience. However, completion rates for online courses it is about 10-15%.And since people recommend course they got great results, not courses they got a good deal from, this low completion rate makes it harder to grow through referrals and testimonials. Instead, keep it simple and focus on impact. In most cases, it is helpful to design your course so that it can be completed over the weekend.

Connected: 3 ways founders can connect with their customers to drive sales

Making Money: Course Launch Strategy

Dan works with my agency, Hey Creatorto produce and optimize promotional webinars where he highlights the benefits of his program and encourages participants to join.

To avoid appearing as oversold, these promotions usually only work for new subscribers to new subscribers who signed up within the last three months (10-15k usually qualify).

And, here is the exact playbook you should be using.

Forward:

You can't run a successful webinar if you don't have enough participants. Unfortunately, many entrepreneurs mistakenly believe that sending an email announcing your event is enough. To increase registrations, we usually send out three or four invitations to his audience. And, these invitations don't just ask subscribers to participate, we highlight what they can expect and the results Dan has already delivered to thousands of students. We then create a conversion-optimized landing page to convert visitors into registered participants.

Tall:

The live webinar is primarily focused on educating his audience, with the last 10 minutes dedicated to promoting his course. This focus on education increases audience retention and allows Dan to highlight the transformation that can be achieved by following his instructions.

My agency handles all aspects of the webinar production so Dan can focus on delivering an amazing experience. It also saves a lot of time in answering questions, which increases clarity and confidence.

After:

After the webinar is over, participants will receive a series of emails over the next five days that further highlight the benefits of Dan's program and encourage them to join. On the sales page we include a short video of Dan explaining the program and include testimonials from previous students sharing their transformation.

To increase conversions, Dan also includes a 24 hour fast action bonus. Participants who make a purchase within that time period will also be eligible to join a free group training call.

How you can apply this to your course:

Understand that hope is not a strategy. You certainly worked hard on your course and nurtured your audience. It's tempting to assume they'll just “get it” and make a purchase. They won't, not without more effort on your part. But the key is to highlight the results they can experience and share stories they can relate to. It's also easy to feel awkward asking your email subscribers to make a purchase, especially when you've already asked them more than once. You may worry that they will be deactivated or unsubscribed. Fortunately, you can decide automation that allow your audience to opt out of further promotions without unsubscribing to your entire list.

Results: Substantial profits from digital course sales

Dan isn't one to brag, but his promotions work extremely well and he runs four of them a year. It also cross-sells on another product after the purchase, further increasing the revenue generated.

A portion of this income is reinvested back into his business to pay for the assets and resources needed to keep his course business running on autopilot.

Are these results typical? No. Dan is an example of extraordinary success and he has worked hard to achieve those results.

But luckily, success leaves clues and you can follow his plan to generate income from your courses as well.