I’ve been designing websites and building online courses for 5 years.

I am finally starting to feel like I’m making good progress.

Yet, all along the way, I’ve been carrying around the expectation that I can and will be “successful” very soon. It’s always been just over the horizon.

I’ve built a lot of things over the years. And with every single one of these things I had the expectation that it was gonna be “the thing” that would make me successful.

Many people may see my accomplishments and think that I have “made it”.

I haven’t.

But I am in the game.

I’m making it. I’m creating it.

Everything I create gets better.

Everything I create gets easier.

Everything I create is more enjoyable.

And people seem to like what I make more too.

I used to always search for the shortcuts.

And if that time spent searching for the elusive treasure, would have instead been focused on putting my head down and creating things just for the sake of experience, I would be even further along. Far further.

6 Figures In 6 Weeks?

When I first got into the entrepreneurship game, I naturally went to the internet to find insights and wisdom on how it works and how to go about doing it.

That is when I discovered internet marketing culture.

All these self-made millionaires were creating these “landing pages” with big bold headline that promises to give you their secret formula for crushing it online.

You’d pop your email into the box, then they’d send you a series of automated emails and video lessons, showing you the overview of their innovative system.

After going through their mini course, they would present you with a hard-sell on their complete program that promised to teach you their entire system from top to bottom, and guide you in applying it in your biz.

The thing that really kept me engaged was the carrot that was dangled in my face. Usually it was something like “using my system you can build a $6 figure online course in 6 weeks” or “the complete framework to growing your email list to 10,000 subscribers in X months”.

This led me to believe that thing it would be quick and easy to reach my financial goals in the online business game.

Here’s the thing, it’s not that they were being dishonest. They just weren’t telling the full truth.

The problem is that to generate 6 figures in 6 weeks, you need to already be settled into your craft with a helluva lot of experience. You need to actually know what you’re doing.

You’re (Probably) Not a Unicorn

There is the occasional unicorn. The person that had no idea what they were doing, who followed some magic formula, and knocked it out of the park on the first try. These are the people that get featured on the sales pages of these magic formulas.

We think “hey, if they could do it, so can I!”

What we don’t hear about is the countless number of students who dive in, do their best, and then end up deeply discouraged by the result.

The sales pitch on most of these courses is that it’s what worked for the creator. “I hit 6 figures in 6 weeks with this exact formula!”.

What they forgot to mention was the 6 years of working their ass off to be skilled and experienced enough to make it work. Oops.

Everyone wants the shortcut.

And many people are profiting greatly by selling shortcuts.

It’s a hot commodity.

The problem is that they simply do not work.

There is no shortcut.

I can build a beautiful website in one day.

It took me 5 years of consistent, daily practice to build a one-day website.

I can teach you how I build a website in a day. But the thing is that it’s STILL going to take you days, weeks, or even months, depending on how much experience you already have.

It will definitely shave off some time, but it’s not going to do the work for you.

We can’t escape the work.

Every creative entrepreneur eventually comes to the realization that action is the only way forward.

There is so much fear of the long haul. Everyone wants success and they want it now. That’s how it’s sold to us and thats how our society behaves, so no wonder I had unrealistic expectations.

I’ve come a long way, but I am still just getting started.

I’ve finally come to embrace the long cut.

And now I’m catching my stride.

The wave is swelling.

My fire is stoked.

The Dream vs. The Reality

When we find ourselves disappointed with our work or progress, it is simply because our expectations were not set in our favor.

We tend to expect and hope for things that are outside of our control.

This sets us up to fail.

If I place my success and expectations on earning a certain amount of money, or gaining a certain number of subscribers, or having a certain amount of traffic hit my blog, then I am bound to wind up frustrated and defeated when I miss the mark.

If I place my success and expectations on producing a certain amount of work, or trying and applying something new, or launching something into the world, then my success depends entirely on me. If I fail, it’s because I didn’t do the work. The ball is entirely in my court.

The Long Cut is the Short Cut

This obsession with finding the quick fix, the latest hack, or the newest shortcut ultimately leads us down a path that will stunt our growth rather than boost it.

The irony is that when you decide to take the long path, you actually end up on the most direct route.

Instead of obsessing over nailing it the first try, what if you let the next 2 years be purely for learning and refining your skills in course creation?

Why does that feel so demanding?

People do it all the time when they want to learn a new skill, especially when that skill presents a business opportunity.

It’s called college. People pay a lot of money and a lot of time for education, and there is generally no expectation of applying that new skill in the real world until after they graduate. That’s 2+ years of hard work, just to get a diploma that says you’re now qualified to do it for real.

Yet in the world of making money online, nothing is ever advertised as taking two years. Six weeks seems to be the gold standard. And it’s 110% unrealistic, 90% of the time.

It wasn’t until I decided to slow down and enjoy the work, that my work finally became worthy. The best stuff I’ve made the result of me having a lot of fun.

Do it for the joy

The work has become the payout.

I love what I do.

The thought of doing something for the love of it doesn’t seem to resonate much with the entrepreneurial world. We obsess over conversion optimization, lead magnets, exit strategies and endlessly searching for the next wave of hype.

Here’s the thing: if you’re just starting out, or relatively new to this game, it will likely require years of action-taking to create something that really strikes a chord with anyone other than your friends. You won’t be ready until you start.

If you just started painting, would you expect anyone to buy your first painting? Would you even expect anyone to buy your 4th or 5th?

If you just started learning guitar, would you expect people to purchase your first songs on iTunes?

If you’re like me, then the answer to that is a big fat “nope!”

But if we set our expectations right, learning those skills can be a pure joy, and they usually are. That’s why we do them in the first place.

It is absolutely no different with course creation.

Someone can sell you a training program that will teach you how to create a painting in 6 weeks. But you better be real with yourself about the fact that it’s 99% likely that the only person who is going to like it is you, and you’ll probably think it’s rubbish the moment that initial satisfaction rubs off.

The course will definitely help you learn faster than going at it alone, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s going to take at least a year or two or more of consistent practice to create a painting that is good enough for people to think, “Wow, I need that in my home!”

Unless you have years of experience with running an online business, have a decent sized following, and are experienced in creating high quality content, then you would be best served to expect it to take a few big projects and a few years to get to where you want to go.

Slow consistent growth is the only reliable path.

This is why we don’t offer a misguiding promise that you’ll create a course in X number of weeks when you join The Great eCourse Adventure.

It takes awhile.

It takes consistent action.

It takes a lot of support.

But if you walk the path and don’t give up, you will reach your destination. And you’ll get there far faster than you’d expect.

When we ease ourselves of the anxiety that comes with trying to achieve the unachievable, we create the space for something truly magical to happen.

If I accept that everything I create for the next 2 years is going to be not very awesome, but that I have to create it to become skilled enough to make it awesome, then I am going to realize the only choice is between two things: to enjoy the work, or resist it.

Part of the work is putting yourself out there. Sure, you can refine your skills in the privacy of your studio, but if you drop the mask and learn out loud, you’ll supercharge your progress.

Yeah it’s scary, but it’s a massive opportunity.

Make friends with the fear and you’ll be well on your way.

You would have an unfair advantage if you decided to treat your first couple years in course creation as a “college education.” This will set you up for success, and prove to be exponentially more effective than any shortcut the world may promise you… IF, and only if, you show up, do the work and push through the fears that come up along the way.

I wish they would have told me this in online biz school

The most valuable lesson I’ve learned recently is that my work is my salvation. Creating work that matters, work that fills me up to the brim and beyond, work that changes my life and the life of others… That is the holy grail of my creativity.

We’ve been sold the idea that the goal is retirement.

You’ve probably noticed that current trend in the internet marketing world is the idea of early retirement.

Here’s the problem with retirement. Unless you do some type of creative work, your life loses purpose. You get bored. There is no escaping the work.

So we slave away our entire lives, because were promised retirement one day where we can finally relax and enjoy life. But then we get there and then what? Travel around, check things out, and then after awhile the boredom sets in and you have to figure out what to do with your time.

No thank you.

The true goal for me is to create a lifestyle that I don’t need to escape from. Retirement? Pffffttttttt. That’s for people that don’t truly enjoy their work.

The goal is to create work that is play.

Choosing to do work I love, and to love my work, has had a four-fold effect.

• I am more present in my life. I am not waiting for tomorrow.
• I am enjoying the process. I enjoy the imperfection.
• I am doing better work and experiencing constant improvement.
• I’m starting to care more about the work itself. rather than the end result.

They say the journey is the destination.

Maybe it’s time we listen.

Our joy depends on it.

And the thing is, we only ever find out if a certain decision is the right one or not by trying it.

Here at eCourse Adventures, we love experimenting with new ways of doing things, learning from the process and sharing our discoveries.

Right now is, yet again, another leap of faith and lesson to share.

So what’s the topic at hand?

Pricing

You may or may not have struggled with pricing before, but it has certainly been a hot topic for us.

In the year and a half since launching the Great eCourse Adventure, we have gone through probably a dozen different pricing models.

• One time payments ranging from $299-999.
• Monthly recurring memberships.
• Tiered membership levels.
• Payment plans.
• The works…!

We’ve tried every trick in the book, and so far nothing has felt completely authentic and in alignment with our bigger vision (which we’ll get to in a moment).

The last pricing change we did definitely felt like the closest thing to being “it.”

We switched the pricing model from $997 one-time to $299 up front + $29/month, going with a more hybrid membership model.

When we came up with this pricing model, we were 98% sure that we’d nailed it!

However, deep down in our guts, we knew we were still missing the mark.

The upfront fee + monthly membership felt overly complicated.

And we were right.

Many people reached out to clarify how it worked. There were lots of questions about a seemingly simple thing, which is not a good sign.

The value was spectacular, but it was enough of a foreign concept that it caused many would-be adventurers to think on it and postpone their membership.

And as we all know, tomorrow never comes.

Honesty is the best policy

So we did some soul-searching and realized that our mission and our actions have not been in alignment.

We’ve been playing along with the industry standard approach of less sales at a higher dollar amount, thus creating what amounts to be something akin to an exclusive club.

What we really want is to lead and inspire a critical mass of innovative course creators to turn this whole industry on its head with wildly unique and transformational learning programs.

So the name of the game became clear.

• Create the conditions so that The Great eCourse Adventure is an obvious no-brainer for anyone that wants to create effective courses.
• Find a pricing model that is extremely easy to say yes to with minimal forethought, yet is sustainable to grow the biz.
• Minimize risk for student purchases.
• Get as many people on the mountain as possible, thus growing a thriving culture of innovative course creators.

We (finally) figured it out.

From now on, membership to The Great eCourse Adventure is just $35/mo.

Not only that, but every membership comes with a 14-day free trial to make sure you love the course, online community and weekly coaching sessions before you pay a dime.

Here are 7 reasons for why we are changing our prices

1. The upfront fee was out of alignment with our bigger vision.

Our mission is to create a thriving culture, community and marketplace (imagine the Netflix of eCourses) that is full of the greatest, most transformational courses on the planet.

In order to do that, we need A LOT of students creating innovative and transformative courses.

The piddly $299 upfront fee was stopping way too many people from getting started.

We want it to be a no-brainer for people to join the adventure.

Offering a 14-day free trial and a simple $35/month membership fee is as no-brainer as it gets to inspire people to jump on the trail with us.

We’re playing the long game and intend to keep our students engaged for many years to come.

2. What we were doing was not working.

We definitely thought that more people would have jumped on the adventure when we lowered the price from $1000 down to $299 + $29/month, but we wrong.

Sure we got a spike over the last few months of new members who were really grateful for the super affordable pricing, but it was not how we thought it would be.

They came in trickles rather than droves.

So after looking at our analytics and realizing it just wasn’t working, we were finally ready to surrender and say, “Screw it, let’s do it.”

We lowered the bar to entry to make it the easiest “YES” possible.

This idea is completely in alignment with the philosophies we share at our website, CoursesWorthSharing.com

Some folks say that prices this low would mean students don’t value the course. We say that’s bullshit.

3. We are following in the footsteps of teachers we love and trust.

How did we come up with $35/month you ask?

We talk about the crew at Fizzle.co a lot. They have one of our favourite podcasts and blogs.

We love them and totally align with their values, humour and way of doing business online.

They’ve done an amazing job growing their membership and online community.

Fizzle costs $35/month for their membership + community + coaching and to us, that sounds so easy, delightful and doable for folks to say yes to.

We recommend Fizzle to many of our students and feel great doing so because we know it’s a no-bs pricing model, anyone can afford it, and their training is the best in the industry.

Our hope is that others do the same for us.

4. We want to remove the energy of “Selling” from the sales experience.

We are so tired of all the gimmicky, hypey, manipulative ways people are selling their courses online.

“Hurry up the doors are closing in 8 hours!!!”

Yeah, whatever.

We’re ready for a fresh approach.

All we want do is create awesome products and experiences for our community, and cut out all the gimmicky marketing bullshit.

Currently we have three incredible freebie offerings, that if someone was to go through each of them in full, we have no doubts they’d know whether our adventure is for them or not.. Or at least if it’s worth a 14-day trial.

Courses Worth Sharing is an interactive website that teaches you our core philosophies on building eCourses in an engaging and enjoyable way.

The Art of eCourse Creation Masterclass takes you much deeper into how to craft a theme’ified, gamified, transformational eLearning experience.

Our Beyond the Blueprint newsletter shares the most innovative, inspiring and helpful resources & viewpoints in the world of online learning we can dig up. (you get this by signing up for the Masterclass)

With the quality of work we’re putting out and the new no-brainer price point, we don’t need to create a 10 mile long sales page and 4 part video series launch funnel.

If you want to learn course creation, it’s the obvious choice.

No need to play mindgames with you.

What a relief.

5. We want a steady and sustainable flow of new students, NOT feast-famine launches.

We’ve done our fair share of “launches”. It’s exhausting.

That and people are so tired of being launched to.

It’s really quite predictably annoying if you ask us.

Sure the business model works for some, but it’s not for us.

We are now building a business model that aligns with the lifestyle we want to be living.

Laid back, enjoyable, fun, creative, full of freedom, easy-going and consistent.

Rather than sporadic launches, we want a continuous stream of excited new people joining the adventure, growing our culture every single day.

This fresh infusion of new energy in the community feeds and inspires everyone on the mountain.

We’re choosing inclusivity over exclusivity.

It sure does feel good.

6. The $299 up front fee was coming from small, short-term thinking.

More important than $299 is helping as many people launch incredible courses as possible.

By charging the upfront fee, we were basically putting all our eggs in one basket, limiting ourselves to membership being our primary way to make money.

When we let go of the need to make $299 out of the gate, we opened ourselves up to many other creative ways we can generate income.

Here are some ways we’re considering growing our income and service to our community:

1. Build a marketplace where we feature all of the courses our students create and launch, making us a small % on every sale that’s made. Kinda like a really small affiliate fee.

1. eCourse audits, where we’ll go through your course and make suggestions on how it can be improved.
2. Coaching or consulting with our students and their teams on curriculum or experience design.
3. Licensing out our own eCourse creation tools, templates and technologies, which we’re in the process of building right now.
4. Developing websites, membership platforms, online communities, gamifcation elements, branding packages, etc.. for our students.
5. Video and audio production for students.
6. And many other ideas we’re playing with…

We now see how small we were thinking and how much we were limiting ourselves by trying to make “more money now.”

Sound familiar?

7. Our new $35/month membership fee gives us predictable and sustainable income to be able to budget for upgrades, team building and creating new courses.

As we grow our team with the monthly income, we’ll be able to improve everything about our platform and business.

Walt Disney once said, “I don’t make movies to make money. I make money to make movies.”

We feel the same about building transformational courses and products.

The bigger of a community we grow, the more we’ll be able to create.

This new pricing feels like we’re opening our arms and hearts wide to the world and saying, “Here we are, here’s what we stand for, are you with us!?”

No longer will they answer, “I am, but I just can’t afford it or justify signing up right now. Maybe later”

Instead, they will be a “F-yes” or a “Nope, not for me”

We’d love to hear your thoughts or stories on any struggles you’ve gone through around pricing too. Or if you have feedback on our decision, we’d love to know. Share in the comments below!