Suzanne Chadwick 0:00
Welcome back to the brandbuilders lab podcast. We're on episode four of our scaling with group programs series. I hope that you're enjoying it. If you've got any questions, send me a DM at Suzanne Chadwick on Instagram, I am here for it, I am here for it, and I am loving creating this series for you too. I hope that you're getting a lot out of it. Because I have lots of these conversations on a regular basis where people want to do it, they want to do it. They're waiting, they're like, so ready. And they're just like, right, teetering on the edge, wanting to get it done. So we're gonna walk through all the questions and the conversations that I have. So today, we're going to be talking about building, building, designing and building your program now. So this is obviously I think, where people get the most scared because they're like, oh, like, where do I start? What program do I use? How long does it take? Like, what do I do first? And so we're gonna be talking a little bit about that. And this is something that obviously I walk through with my clients within the AMPLIFi accelerator mastermind. And really just taking it step by step, if you know me at all, I am somebody who's always about how do you eat an elephant, one bite at a time. And so it's about breaking it down. At the very beginning, when we work together in amplify, we really take a look at who you are what you want to be known for, as we've talked about who your dream client is, and this, I feel like we need a different word for Avatar. Because I think avatars just not really what I'm talking about, like I am talking about the deepest knowing of your clients what they want, what their deep desires are for themselves, like the things that they think about at night, when they go to bed, and they lie in the dark, like, what is your ideal client thinking about? What do they want? What do they long for? Why do they long for it? What are their motivations. And so we really start by looking at your who like who you are and who you want to work with, and what that program needs to be. And as I've said in previous episodes, it's about solving one problem right now, like we do not need to solve the world's problems. It's just the one problem that they have right now. And so I want to give you a quick example. It's not a business example. But it could be like you want to build a rope program to help women to renovate their homes. This is a client I worked with for years ago, and I thought it would be a good example. So you want to build an online program for that. And so what we did is that we sat down and we designed it, we designed all we took a look at all the questions that she got, we took a look at like the process that she goes through, we started mapping it all out. And as we did that, it just started to find its groove, like we could see a clear path of what she would teach how she would teach what level she was teaching. What would need to be included, what other things she could create and do within the program as well. What kind of support would they need? What would be really cool as bonuses, whatever else that might be. So we designed so we designed it based on all of the questions that we asked around who she wanted to be and who she wanted to work with. And the deep desires of her clients. Within the design phase as well, I think it's a really great time, because we're actually in that exploratory stage is all around the messaging. So we worked out all of the messaging that would really connect with the things that we were designing for her then to build. So I feel like there's, you know, different elements to your group program that you can consecutively or build alongside each other as you're doing some of the work. So once we designed it, we worked out how long is it going to be? What's the price point gonna be? What else is there in the market? What else do we need to look at? You know, what kind of support do you want to give because if it's just an online course, it might be this price. But if it's an online course, with time with you, then it might be that price. And so we kind of worked out all of that in the design phase. And so within AMPLIFi one of the exercises we go through is that you do the design, you send it through we take a look, we send questions. We have this kind of back and forward as well so that you're really clear on why you're doing In what you're doing, and we really want you to be super confident with what you're building, how you're building it, and how it, you know, works for you. Because at the end of the day, when we are building additional products and services, to increase the number of revenue streams that we've got in our business, we want something that works for us, we don't want to be building something that is a rod for our own back, that we're going to be like, Oh, I can't believe that I'm doing this, all the rest of it. So you want to design, you know, we talked about designing a life that works for you, we want to design a program that works for you and your business. And, you know, gives you more time instead of taking more time. Now, the one thing I do want to say about that is that obviously, with any program, you are going to have to front load there is going to be work upfront. But there's also different ways of doing that. So when I actually did my very first program back in, when I say 2017, or even earlier, because I built a program before VBA, that was a monster, it was huge. And I would just like record all of the videos at night, because I was still working. Yeah, so I said, for those of you who are not even working, I was working, I had little kids. And I had my business and I was building this program. And so I would record whenever I could. But one of the things that that I it was a mistake is that I built the whole thing. And then I went to sell it. And I wanted to say I probably sold about maybe $2,000 Worth

back in 2016. And compared with the size of the program and what I delivered, it really wasn't much I think I charged I don't know, like $350 or something was it was not a good it was not a good business decision. But it was a great learning experience. And so the next time I built a program I built the first two is the first two or three modules and I sold it. And once I sold it and I sold it to the level I wanted to sell it to I then started building out the other modules as well. So you can absolutely be doing that to where you can plan out what you're building when you're launching. And you can stagger the build as well so that it's manageable for you. And so there's a few different strategies that could work for you. There's like a waitlist strategy. There's like a prebuilt strategy, there's a beta strategy. So there's lots of different ways that you can potentially build your program that could work for you. I think it just depends on the design and the size of the program, too. So that's kind of the first thing is really designing it with all of those things in mind. And then it's really about project planning. Now for me, I come from a project management background. And so breaking things down planning them having specific dates, that you want to get things done by which is not just the build of the program, but it's the build of or letting your audience know, it's the marketing that happens alongside the build too. And I think what I see happen with a lot of people is that they build, they go all in, then they go to market it they don't have an audience, they've not talked about it. And they kind of launch cold like they launched to people that are not really didn't know it was coming. And I remember seeing and this kind of breaks my heart a little bit. I remember seeing about a year ago, I was in an online course group wasn't mine, it was it was a it was a community, for course creators. And this one woman said, I've built my course I have spent days, weeks months on this, I have spent so much money, and I've not sold one. Now, I don't tell you that to scare you. The reason that I tell you that is because what happens is that people build they don't have an audience. They don't market it. They don't like know what they're trying to communicate to their audience. And then they don't have the success that they're looking for. And one thing I do want to say here is that, and I've shared it before I have launched and I've had $100,000 months plus and I have launched and I have had a flop. And so depending on what the program was, there have been ups and downs as well. So it's not to say that it's always 100% Like gung ho guaranteed, it's gonna, like work the first time but that's why it's an asset because it's about building it. But I also think that if it's the first time when you are in that build as well. It's also about letting your audience know taking them on the journey, and really having the conversations along the way as well. And so that project management phase of building your program, I think is really about mapping out the whole process. And it's not a difficult thing to map out. But it's just about knowing what questions to ask. It's about really looking and committing this is such a big one, committing to doing the work, and doing what you said you were going to do in the time that you've blocked out. I know that I hear this a lot, I block time out for myself, and then I just don't do the work. And I'm just like, Well, why do you not want to have this? Do you not see it as important? And so I just think, you know, if that was client time, there's no way you would move that. And the same goes, so your program, like if you are going to block out time to build your program, then you honor that time, I always say that the time I block out for myself, I honor as if it's a client, because I am my best client, I have to be my best client in order to continue to grow the business. So when you're in the build phase, that's kind of the you know, that is doing the work, it's actually like trying to make things happen and build from a place of still not 100% Sure, exactly how many people are going to join or what its gonna look like. But just once again, going back to last episode of Mindset, it's the belief that this is going to be great, I know I can create it, I'm going to, like do the best with what I have right now. And I can always make it better down the track, too. So I think that building, not in a place of being a perfectionist is a really important thing to take note of. And also just being somebody that's like, I can do this. Yeah, like The Little Engine That Could it's like, let's keep going, like I can do this, I can do this, I can do this. And I think it's actually fun. Like, I actually do enjoy the process of mapping out what I want to teach my clients and building that for them. Even as I'm doing this, like smaller product, I'm like, Okay, so I'm gonna include this and this, and I think this is gonna be really helpful. And then I connect the two and, and this is what I know they're going to walk away with. This is the goal of that particular digital program. And I think the other thing is, is that once you build one program, that's a skill now that you have, like, you know, I've got memberships, I've got bold speakers collective amplify, you know, BBA, I've got smaller products, like once you have the skill of building digital programs, and you know, the structure and what to think about and how to build them and communicate the value of them. That's a skill that you now have, like, you can build as many as you want in your business, I'm not gonna say go nuts, because obviously, whatever you build, you have to sell. But I want you to know that once you've got that skill, you can go and reuse that skill again and again, in your business. And so when it comes to the build, I feel like it's the design and the build set hand in hand. It's like the design, the build the project management, those are three things that you've really got to spend time working through understanding, and really squeezing as much out of it as possible, so that you can use whatever you are building and creating around your messaging and your marketing and making sure that you're, you know, taking your audience on a journey with you, and letting them know what's happening, what's coming, how it's all going to work and, and sharing that with them as you build as well. You know, I think when I think about content online, it's like I love watching. I love watching reels where somebody's bought like a really old house, and now they're gonna renovate it. And I'm gonna watch the renovation. And I think sometimes we think that people just want to see the end result. But they don't like we want to be with you on the journey, the ups, the downs, the ins, the outs, all the rest of it. And so really thinking about how you're going to design and build it, how you're going to get deep into the minds of your audience and your ideal client, and really think about what they are thinking about it night when they go to bed. So that whatever you create is going to help them achieve the goal that they really want. That's what we want to do. So those are some things to think about and know about when it comes to the design the build the project management of creating the program, if there are simple steps. Yeah, yeah, it does not have to be bigger than Ben Hur. It's actually one of the things I say to my clients is that it's better than it's not because when you give your clients too much, you fire hose them, which means that you give them so much content that they are overwhelmed. They don't know where to start or what to do. And it's so overwhelming that they then don't actually do the program. And so we want to keep it consumable which we create in the Design phase. And we really want to be sharing with them exactly what it is that they need to know, no more, no less for them to get the transformation and the result as well. So those are some of the stages. Those are some of the things that we go through a lot of the things that we go through when it comes to that particular stage of building your program. So it's something that you can start thinking about now obviously, if you're going to come join us in amplify, then we will walk through this with you and hold your hand as you go through that process too. But I think it's a fun thing. I think it's a fun thing to do is design, build and project, manage your program, have some dates, get excited about it, and take people on the journey. If you've got any questions, let me know. I'll see you next episode.