Exploring the Downfall of Mega Courses and the Rise of Result-Oriented Learning

Are mega courses a thing of the past? And, as course creators, how can we ensure our programs deliver results?

Let's dive into these thought-provoking questions together in this enlightening episode. We'll scrutinize the current state of the online learning market where students often feel swamped and unfulfilled by mega courses, typically priced between $3000-$5000. These extensive courses promise to be a one-stop-shop solution, but are they really? As people are now leaning towards quick, specific solutions, it seems the reign of mega courses could be dwindling. 

We'll also turn our attention towards the creation of results-oriented courses. As creators, our goal should be to deliver on our promises and induce tangible transformations in our students.

We'll delve into how to create a precise, no-nonsense curriculum that is designed to address a specific problem. No fluffy marketing promises, just actual results. We'll explore how to track student success rate, utilize principles of instructional design, and get continuous feedback from our students.

This episode is all about moving away from the conventional, broad courses and embracing the value of specific, result-driven learning experiences.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

As the market shifts and changes, will we see the end of the mega course? Let's discuss what change becomes possible when 100,000 people are impacted by your work. This question came to me one day and I have been working to find the answer ever since. Hi, I'm Jess and I help online course creators amplify their influence and create a movement with their message, and on this podcast, I am sharing the simple strategies and systems to help you impact more people with your programs so you can create quantum growth in your industry. You are listening to the Quantum Course Creator podcast. Hey there, and welcome back to the Quantum Course Creator podcast, jess. Here and today, I am talking all about the mega course.

Speaker 1: 0:49

What is a mega course? What has it been in the market for so long, and are we seeing the end of these mega courses? So a mega course is a course put out by a marketing guru or somebody who is like a subject matter expert, where they shove every single thing that they know into one course. They're typically priced somewhere in the $3,000 to $5,000 range and they promise to solve every single problem that you could possibly have. Not only do they teach you how to market your course, they also teach you how to build a team and grow your business and all of the things. Or not only do they teach you how to make more money, they teach you how to manifest. They teach you how to do this, and that these mega courses have been the industry standard for a long time. And so a lot of people have mega courses. They have these gigantic programs with hundreds and hundreds of videos that their students are not really finishing, and as somebody who's purchased more than one mega course, I fall into that category as well, because, at the end of the day, these courses are really more like the Encyclopedia Britannica of education. They are a resource that you can tap into, but not really something that's designed to be completed, and I am of the belief that we are starting to see this trend leave the industry, where we are no longer needing to create or have to buy these mega all in promised solutions to our problems that there is another way. And so here's the thing with mega courses. They are a massive total solution course that promises to solve all of your problems in multiple different areas. They are trying to teach on all sorts of things, even outside of the initial scope of the program. They also tend to have that very high price point. Like I said, they are something that costs a premium because they are promising a premium transformation. They are promising to solve all of your problems, to be the last course you ever need, and that's really how these are being marketed, and oftentimes in these mega courses, people get left behind.

Speaker 1: 3:13

The emphasis is more so on selling the course than it is on helping people get results, and this phenomenon is why I believe that these are starting to see themselves out right. This is something that happens so much in mega courses by mega course creators is they sell thousands of spots into their course each launch, and then they only get like five testimonials from it, and when you look at that kind of number, you're like, huh, maybe it isn't that effective of a program. Right? If a program is selling 1000 spots in one launch, then their completion rate, their success rate, should be much higher than that you would imagine. But instead of focusing on getting students results, they are more so focused on marketing the course, and so that is a big reason why I think that this is going to change. So in my 2023 predictions, I shared that I think that we are seeing the end of the mega course, and in this episode, I'm going to dive deeper into why and what this will be replaced with instead. So now we are in a phase of marketing where I believe that people are seeking specific solutions to specific problems.

Speaker 1: 4:37

People are tired of buying courses that they don't finish or, even worse, buying courses that they stick on their digital bookshelf and never really get started because there was so much FOMO about buying it that they bought it even though they weren't necessarily ready to consume that information. People want solutions quickly and they want to be able to implement it quickly. Right, they want to learn fast and they want to take action fast. They don't want to have to sit through hundreds of videos in order to get what they're looking for. They also want accessible learning. They want to learn quickly. I think, if nothing else, the rise of short form video and TikTok and Reels has shown us that people want it now. They want it fast. They don't want to have to watch a 15 minute YouTube video Tell it to me and 15 to 45 seconds, right. People's attention spans are getting shorter and shorter and shorter, and so people want the information now, they want it accessible and they want to move forward. They don't want to feel stuck and locked into a program trying to find the next negative information that's going to actually help them take that next step forward.

Speaker 1: 5:51

So there's a few questions that I want you to ask yourself around your program to help you determine if you have a mega course or if you have a specific solution, and this will really help you figure out what the next steps are for you. And if you have a mega course, don't feel bad. I did too right. I was building out a mega course and I realized that I was putting so much information into this program because I felt like I had to over deliver in order to for it to be worth the price point that I was charging for it. And honestly, that's the mindset that I think these mega courses are born from. Right.

Speaker 1: 6:35

Nobody really feels like sticking the kitchen sink and everything into a course is the best possible way to get people results. They do so because one that's what they see modeled in the industry from these mega course creators but also because they don't feel confident in the value of the transformation of their specific solution. So they shove a whole bunch of stuff in there to try to make up for it. Right, they over deliver, and this is a hot take and a totally different podcast episode I could record. But I think over delivering is not actually serving your clients, right, it is. So that's a whole thing, but I'm not going to get into that.

Speaker 1: 7:12

So the questions that I want you to ask yourself about your program are this. Number one is your program giving a concise solution to a specific problem? Does somebody enter your program knowing that they have a problem and you deliver a solution to that problem in a clear, concise way that they can actually consume and take action on? This is a good question, right? You should start to ask yourself what does my completion right look like? What I'm getting ahead of myself here, but like, am I giving a clear, concise solution to a specific problem? The second question is are people getting through the content?

Speaker 1: 7:56

I feel like we don't talk about completion rates in this industry. We just chalk it up to personal responsibility. So many people don't finish my course because they don't take personal responsibility for their results. Honestly, I think that's crap. I think that we should care more about our completion rates and our success rates than we do about our conversion rates. I'm going to say that again I think you should care more about your completion rates and your success rates than you should about your conversion rates. Sure, you can sell a course, but can you actually get people results? Can people actually finish your course? Are people actually getting the result that you promised from it? And I think that if we started looking at that, if we started asking mega course creators for that number, we will be really disappointed because, like I said, they are selling thousands of spots into their courses and getting tens of testimonials, and when you have tens out of thousands, that is not a very strong rate. People are not finishing the course, they are not completing it, they're not getting success from it because it's unconsumable. And so if people in your program are not finishing it and not getting results and not getting through it, that's a great indicator for you that something needs to change.

Speaker 1: 9:13

You became a course creator to help people get a transformation, to help people solve a problem, not just to sell them on a solution, not just to take their money and then tell them that it's their personal responsibility to fix it right. Like we are purpose driven people, we want to help people and you don't help them just by selling them a course that has some information locked in it. You help them by getting them the result that you promised when you sold them the program in the first place. And the second question, again tangent, was are people getting through the content? Are they finishing it? And the third question is are they getting consistent results? This is such a great question and also a reflection right. And again, if you're sitting here like, ah crap, it's probably because when you created your course, you did so either following somebody's example or somebody's blueprint that didn't have these things in mind, that were not designed to be completed, that were not designed to get a consistent result.

Speaker 1: 10:15

And so, if some of your clients get great results but some of them don't, if some of them completely fall off but some of them finish it, if you have rock star students and students that, like you, really don't want to talk about on your sales page, then this is an important awareness for you, right To look at these things and to think about how you can modify or add or improve your curriculum in a way that's going to create more consistent results. And that is really key, because the more people who are getting the result from your program, the more proven your process is, and the more successful you'll be in the long run, not only just selling your courses, but also when you get people consistent results. They have word of mouth, they tell people, hey, this is the thing, and more people buy it. Like, word of mouth is the best marketing technique. Getting your clients results is the best marketing technique to growing your business, because people will talk, they will share that. This is what they're doing and it's gotten them amazing results. So focus instead on that, then on your conversion rates, necessarily. So if some of the answers to those questions are no, it's okay, but it's a good indicator that you have an opportunity to look at things, and that's what we're going to talk about through this episode. So if your program does not have a clear, concise, specific solution to a specific problem, here's some things that you can look at. So the first thing is what do you help people do, and is that specific enough?

Speaker 1: 11:49

I was scrolling through Facebook the other day and I saw some coach make a post that was like what do you help your clients do? Like, what did they achieve by the end of working with you? And I love reading comments on these kinds of things because they're great market research for me. And literally somebody commented I over deliver because I know how to solve their problem, because I've done it before, and I was like what, what does that even mean? And I couldn't help myself and I commented I was like I don't know what you do, what does that even mean? And then she was able to more concisely explain what she does. But I was like you what? And so I think that this is something that a lot of us maybe struggle with. And then the next comment on that thread was something like I actually I took screenshots, let me pull this up because this was so mind blowing. So, okay, so here's exactly what that person said. To what I just paraphrased, she said I over deliver exactly what they need next, because I've been there and I know how do you sell that. I like what? That is not a specific solution to any kind of specific problem. And, yeah, I literally asked her like I don't understand what that means. Tell me more.

Speaker 1: 13:07

The next person commented I help them be their unapologetic self and create a life. They Okay, how? What does that mean? We are kind of talked into this kind of fluffy marketing speak that we think people want to hear, but that is not a tangible solution. That is not specific enough. What exactly do they get by the end of working with you?

Speaker 1: 13:34

This next one also was very confusing to me. She said I help them take the blindfolds off and when they see how much socio-cultural conditioning they are steeped in and the difference in their lives when they break free from it, they are wowed. You guys, I wish that I were making this up. What so? Like? Huh, they, yeah, I don't know. How do you take someone's blindfold off or why are they blindfolded? These things are not clear, they're not specific and they are not things that people can say. Like, at the end of this program, I took my blindfold off and found out how much socio-cultural whatever I was steeped in. Like, these are not language that people are using, and so if somebody gave you this advice, I'm sorry because it's terrible advice. Oh, and also the coach on that post was like so powerful, I love this and I'm like you do. I don't even understand this. Like, what are you talking about? Anyhow, I didn't comment on anyone else's. I was like I'm going to let that go, but I'm going to screenshot it and talk about it later.

Speaker 1: 14:39

But this is the question, right Do. What do you help people do? Is it specific enough? Do people know they have the problem that you help them solve? Are there people out there now searching for a solution for this? Are there people out there right now wearing a literal blindfold, who are aware that they are steeped in socio-cultural whatever nonsense? Who are looking to be wowed? Like no, probably not right, I'm not Google searching that, I'm not on Pinterest. Like, how do I remove the blindfold to my socio-cultural nonsense? What no, right? Like people do not know what that is and I'm confident that no one knows what that is. But not just because I don't have that problem, or I'm not even sure if I have that problem. I don't even know what socio-cultural whatever is right. I might have that problem, but I don't know that I do because I'm not.

Speaker 1: 15:34

They're not effectively communicating what the crap they do, and so, in that sense, how can you scale it back and make it more specific? How can you dial this in so there is a tangible outcome at the end of working with you? And this is so important because when people know what you help them do, then they can say, okay, I want to do that and I understand that some of the things that we help people with are less tangible, right, but you can think of how can I make that intangible more tangible, right? So, like the person who says that she helps people something about being empowered in something else, let me look at it that she helps them be there, unapologetic, self and create a life they love. For what? What does that look like? How do you help them do that, right? So, rather than like, live a life they love, which is vague, af, what is the outcome that they have when they love the life that they have? Right? What does being unapologetic look like? What is the tangible outcome of that? For what purpose? To what end? Right?

Speaker 1: 16:42

These are the kinds of questions that you can ask yourself when you are creating this scope of your program and being clear and concise about the specific solution to the specific problem that you help people solve. This is so key because if you cannot give that, then you can't help people do it. If you can't define what it is that you do, how on earth can you tell people that you do it? And also, how can you deliver on that? It's when we have these super fluffy, unclear things that people are walking away, not sure if they got the result that they were looking for, because the scope of the program was unclear and the actual result was unclear. Right, does that make sense? So, rather than trying to like fit it all into the kitchen sink of this weird I mean these are very like fluffy examples. But even like I help people like start a business, okay, cool, but what kind of business Are they starting from scratch? Do they have an idea? Do they have ideal clients? Are they? What are the steps here? Or do you help people complete their first year and I don't even know what are the steps? What are you doing? How do you actually help people and what is the specific problem that they know that they have that you are helping them achieve?

Speaker 1: 18:06

Second thing some people just chalk low completion rates Up to industry standard. If you guys have heard me ever riff on industry standard before, you know I hate it. But people not finishing is actually an indicator that something is wrong and we need to take some personal responsibility for these outcomes. Right, yes, your clients need to take a level of personal responsibility in their results, but we need to take some personal responsibility in our clients' results and I think it's the entire lack of personal responsibility in our clients' results that's resulted in these courses that don't get completed or get people results right. We kind of shirk responsibility. Well, I can't guarantee results, so I'm not even going to like I'm going to take zero personal responsibility for anything. Well, we have personal responsibility to deliver on the outcome that we promised, right? I think we all can agree on that. And so it is an industry standard that people don't finish your course, right? That's an indicator that there's something wrong and we need to care enough to actually do something about it.

Speaker 1: 19:12

So people wanted the solution that you promised when they bought it, right? People wanted the outcome that they were promised when they bought your program. So why didn't they finish it? Did they already get the result? Was part of the course? Enough, that's important information, right? Maybe they only needed a chunk of the information, not the whole thing. They got the outcome that they were looking for Bonus, right, that's OK. Maybe you have stuff in there that they don't need Spoiler alert, you maybe do right. And so identifying that is a good thing to know. Like, hey, this is extraneous, this is bonus, this is not actually serving people.

Speaker 1: 19:49

The next question is well, do they no longer want that outcome. Did they change their mind right when they bought your program. They wanted that outcome. So if they didn't finish it and didn't get that outcome, do they still want that outcome? Or did they change their mind and did they end up finding it somewhere else? And, unfortunately, I think that this is what happens to most people Is they start a course, they buy a course because they want a specific outcome. That course promises that that specific outcome is going to happen, and then they get through a certain amount of content and they're like I actually don't think this is what I was looking for. I'm going to go get it somewhere else. And if that's happening, that's another big issue. Right? That is a red flag that you are not delivering on what you promised and that people are seeking outside options to get the results that they're looking for. So rather than kind of ignoring that and saying, ok, well, industry standard completion rates are really slow, look at the actual data and say, well, I'm assuming they wanted this when they bought it, so why didn't they finish it? And how can we identify those things and create curriculum that's more designed to be completed?

Speaker 1: 21:01

So one of the biggest indicators that I like to look at is where people are getting stuck. This is one of my favorite things about using Kajabi is it shows me where people are at in the program and I can see when they got stuck, where they are hopping off, where they're not completing the program, and that's really valuable information Because it tells me that maybe there's something in there that is unclear, right, or there's something missing. Because when people feel like something is unclear, they stop. Right. Our brains are like Mmm, missing piece here. I can't make the leap. I'm gonna take a second. And often times when people stop, they don't come back, and so that's when you end up with no completion, right? Is somebody's like mmm, I'm missing something here, I need to go find it somewhere else. And so when people stop, if there's a certain place where a lot of people are stopping, that's a great indicator that there's something missing there. So you can look at the curriculum and say what do I need to add in here? It's going to get people over this hump. Is there something unclear that I can clarify? That will help people get through this part and continue getting results.

Speaker 1: 22:08

And here's a really important piece that I think we don't do enough of is ask your students, ask them for feedback, ask them why did they stop and, most importantly, ask Did you solve the problem? Did you get the solution you were looking for? If they solved the problem before they finished the program, that's fine, right, they got what they needed. They got the solution they were looking for. But if they stopped and they didn't get the solution, they were looking for red flags right. That is when it is your job to dig a little deeper. I think it would be an amazing customer service experience to say, hey, awesome, thank you for the feedback. Can you hop on a quick call with me and tell me a little bit more about your experience? That will not only salvage the relationship between you and the client, but it will also really show you what is going on behind the scenes, what happened for them, and you can take that feedback and improve things.

Speaker 1: 22:58

Moving forward, and Before you are ready to scale, you need to make sure that your offer is delivering on the promise that you are making. If you have this promise but none of your students are actually getting that result where the vast majority aren't and you're not doing this Research and trying to figure out why and trying to improve things. You are not ready to scale because more people is not going to make your course more effective. If your course doesn't convert for 10 people, if 10 people going through it Don't get results at least like 50% until like, then you cannot add 100 people and get a better completion rate. Right, it really comes down to working on what you have before you try to scale. So the last thing you really need to think about is are they getting results?

Speaker 1: 23:46

And your success as a business owner is Not how many courses you can sell, and unfortunately, this is what we talk about in this industry. This is what we're taught. Focus on conversion rates, sell more programs, how to market yourself, how to make more money, how to convert more, how to sell more programs, but nobody is talking about how to get people better transformations, how to get more of your clients transformations. Your success as a business owner is about how many transformations you can help people get, how many outcomes you can help people achieve. That's why you became a course creator. Right?

Speaker 1: 24:22

We need to stop glorifying launch conversion rates and start celebrating student success rates and not just like the super high Converter, the super high flashy testimonials that you're splashing all over your sales page right, because that doesn't help you either. It isn't about the one student who got an amazing result, even though you sold it to thousands. It's about creating consistency and getting a lot of people results and also celebrating any measure of results. If you're only celebrating the person who made a hundred thousand dollars in their first launch from your program, or whatever that is, then the people going through your program are going to feel like they didn't succeed because they didn't get that person's results, even though success may look different for them. So we need to take on some personal responsibility, like I said, for the results that our clients get. Yes, there are other factors, but you should in fact, care about Delivering on the promise and getting people results, and this is not something that we talk about enough in the industry.

Speaker 1: 25:26

Right, and so how do you do this? How do you really build a results focused program? The first thing is create a course intentionally Don't just sell zoom calls. Creating a course intentionally, designed to get results, using instructional design principles and course structure right. These like start with your course. Make a course that is effective and that's actually designed to get people people results. Don't just sell stream of conscious zoom chats right, that is not how most people learn. And sure, if you're channeling, like that's cool, start a podcast, right? Like, yeah, that is not a course. You channeling is not a course, it's a podcast. I and then set up systems to collect results.

Speaker 1: 26:18

I was actually having this conversation with a client of mine via Boxer right before this about different ways that you can quantify results from your clients, and one of my favorite ways is to ask questions where people rate their current experience on a scale of one to 10. And so, even if you have a program that doesn't have quantifiable results necessarily, you can create quantifiable results by asking them to rate themselves on a scale of one to 10. So you could ask, like, how confident are you showing up on live video right now? One to 10? And they'll say a three. And then at the end of the program, you ask them how confident are you now showing up on live video? One to 10, and they'll rate a seven. And you can say on average, like, again, not just this one person, but overall, on average, our students experience a 50% increase in confidence on live video, and you know that because you got the data, because you asked them to self identify and to rate their results.

Speaker 1: 27:16

This is such a great way to not only get testimonials and collect results, but also you can use that in your marketing, which is far more compelling than the one person who's like. Before working with so-and-so, I was so afraid to even talk on the phone, let alone in a live video, but after going through her program, I'm now a TED Talk speaker and I speak in front of thousands and thousands of people because of this, like one, not realistic. Two, not the result that most people are going to get. So stop sharing those testimonials and start creating quantifiable results that you can share, that your program as a whole creates. Because when you get that data as a whole, it is far more compelling than the one example of a person who got like ridiculous results. Right, and as you are going through this process and collecting that data, examine that data and follow up. If there's something where they say like they didn't improve, or when there's information that they're saying isn't working for them, follow up, schedule a call, work with them to figure out why and identify the weak spots. They have so much valuable information for you If you just ask and rather than being ashamed that it didn't work for this person. Be curious, ask them for their feedback. They are going to be the most valuable students in your program because they're going to help you improve.

Speaker 1: 28:36

And do not scale until you have a consistent result rate. Do not scale your program until most people are finishing it and getting consistent results. And I know that you want to make more sales. I know that you want to make more money. I get it. But it will ultimately serve you in the long run to scale something that is getting consistent results, because that's how you make an impact. You don't just make an impact because somebody gave you $3,000. You make an impact because you get them a specific result, a specific, repeatable result that they can then turn into a lifetime of results, and that becomes your impact. If your impact is that people are walking away from your course feeling jilted and feeling like they gave you $3,000 and did not get what you promised, I promise that's going to bite you in the ass, like Taylor Swift says, like karma is the wind on the weekend or whatever. Karma is a cat, karma is a whole bunch of other things, and so karma will come back to get you if you do not focus on actually creating something that helps people and gets them results, and that is your responsibility to your students to do that. So this was a big one Lots of soap box moments. Thank you for hanging in it with me.

Speaker 1: 29:47

But I want you to consider how you can solve a specific problem for your ideal clients. You guys, people are searching for solutions to specific problems. People are googling, people are on Pinterest, people have questions and they want to pay somebody to solve that problem, but they're not googling. How do I become unapologetic and create the life I love? They are not googling. How do I remove my blindfold to the socio-cultural conditioning that I'm steeped in and I want to be wowed by that? Right, they're not googling that. That's not what they want. How can you focus instead on getting them a specific solution and then build on that? Focus on creating lifetime customer value. It's okay to have more than one step in your process. You don't have to shove everything you've ever learned about something into a mega course, right. Create courses that are people are going to finish, People are going to get a specific result and then give them an opportunity to go deeper or further with you. Create a next step, create customer value, create lifetime customers. That is really how you can grow and scale.

Speaker 1: 30:55

So thank you so much for listening. This was a fun one. Thank you for taking this into consideration. This is something I'm obviously very passionate about, but I think it's something too that we need to talk about more in this industry and how we can be focused instead on conversions and focus more so on client results. So in my next episode, I am sharing the mindset that I am taking into this new year, going into my fifth year in business, so I am so excited to share that shift with you, and I will see you next week on the podcast. Thank you so much for listening and I'll see you later.