6 Simple Steps to a Million Dollar Course on a 3 Day Work Week
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Episode Summary:
In this episode, I’m sharing how I’ve created a successful business even while working just three days a week, first with 1-1 clients and then scaling to multi-six figures with online courses and group programs. If you have an online course on your goal list for 2025, this episode is for you! I’ll give you the 6 simple steps you can take to build your million dollar course.
I’m also excited to invite you to my brand new live workshop Million Dollar Course on Tuesday, November 12th at 10 am PST, where we’ll outline your profitable course together. You’ll walk away with a course or program that’s designed to attract your ideal clients again and again—leading to massive long-term, stable income growth.
Topics and Strategies Discussed:
My journey to six figures with a 3-day work week
The steps to help you build your first online course
How the energy of creating a “Million Dollar Course” can motivate you
What I’ve learned from supporting 400+ students about achieving results
Setting boundaries, overcoming impostor syndrome and owning your course idea
Building your long-term, Million Dollar Course mindset
Episode Resources:
Join my FREE live workshop: Million Dollar Course happening on November 12th at 10 am PST.
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Anna (00:06):
Welcome to the Heart-Centered Entrepreneur podcast. I want you to be rich. Yes, I want abundant financial success for your business, but I don't just care about your business making money. I care about you too. I want you to be rich and happiness in the impact you make in your relationships and in how you give back. I'm Anna. I built my six figure business as a side hustle while I was pregnant with my daughter in 2016. Now, I've helped dozens of women do the same. I'm here to help you build a profitable heart-centered fully book business with the latest tips on sales and visibility with proven mindset hacks and sneak peeks behind the scenes with what's working right now in the online space and in my business, ready to make more money with heart. Let's go.
Anna (00:50):
I've been getting a lot of questions lately about Anna. I wanna leverage my time. Anna, I wanna launch a group program. Anna, I love the online courses that you create and I never knew I could feel so supported or get such great results from an online course. I want to create my own, I <laugh> feel like I need to talk about this because in the online space, I feel like there's so many courses that are fluff or there's no live support and I just have so many opinions on this. So I'm doing a training <laugh>. I am calling it Million Dollar course because this is the phrase I tell my clients when I hear that they want to launch a course or a group. I tell them, this is your million dollar course. Maybe it won't be a million dollar course right away, right? Maybe the first time you launch it, you'll make $8,000 or $10,000.
Anna (01:42):
Maybe you'll get three paying clients or 12 paying clients. But that doesn't matter. What matters is that over its lifetime, this course, this asset that you're creating, this basically a book that you're writing, these worksheets and videos, your expertise, your exercises, over time, it's gonna make you a million dollars and you just have to create it once. And the reason this mindset is so huge is because I think whenever we do anything new, we're creating it on the backend. We're so excited, and then we put it out on day one and it's usually crickets from our audience because they've never heard about it before. They've never seen it. And so it takes a little bit of our faith, our momentum, our inertia. That's why I'm honestly not the hugest fan of market research because I think it just doesn't have the strong energy of like, Hey, this is what I'm putting out there in the world.
Anna (02:34):
Who wants to hop along for a ride, right? Which I think sometimes accidentally we put out this energy of like, Hey, here's this online course I've created and does anyone wanna join? And maybe I think it's a good idea. Do you think it's a good idea? I'm just giving you a hard time, right? Or you know, okay, if enough people sign up, I'm gonna go forward with it. But if not enough people sign up, I'm gonna cancel it. Like who wants to hop on board with that energy? Nobody <laugh>, nobody does. It's your job to be the leader and to be like, this ship is sailing and whether one person signs up or 50, I'm creating this course, right? Because I wanna get paid. I tell my clients that the job of your first launch of your online course is to get a few students in the door to get a cash infusion and get paid to build out this asset, right?
Anna (03:22):
A course you are creating the course itself, the worksheets, the videos, but you're also creating the marketing, the promotion, the emails, the social posts, the sales page, right? It is a investment of your time, but trust me, it is so worth it in the long run of your business, especially if you're fully booked in your one-on-one, it makes sense to start making money in a way that isn't completely attached to your time. So today, I am so excited for this and today's training is called Six Simple Steps to Make a million dollar course on a three day Work week, right? A lot of times I think we hesitate to do these projects that will be good for our long-term benefit. I think about the courses, the main two courses I have today I made two years ago and five years ago. And I'm still profiting off them.
Anna (04:09):
I'm still benefiting from them. And so it really isn't a one-time investment of your time that you keep getting to grow from. And you know, I think a lot of people are like, oh, I don't have time to make it. In my mind I'm like, you don't have time to not make leverage products, right? Otherwise you're gonna burn yourself out. And I'm gonna talk about how I do this on a three day work week and just kind of some tips around that too. This training is a preview of the live workshop I'm doing, which I'm so excited about. If you're watching this in real time, make sure you sign up. It's an absolutely free live workshop. This is not your boring webinar where someone just agitates you the whole time and then at the end tells you to buy their paid program. No, I'm literally workshopping with you and helping you create your course outline your course name, your course actually on the workshop together, just like if you were in my mastermind.
Anna (04:58):
A big part of what we do, because I know when you hang up that zoom call, life happens. And so I wanna coach you live, I wanna get you some results live. I wanna get you some traction live. So listen to this, but then come to the live workshop so that you can actually take action, actually start to execute. 'cause That's where the beauty happens. Not just in learning this stuff, but actually in taking action on it. And so my hope is in that live workshop with other heart-centered entrepreneurs, sisters, you'll be designing your course and applying this. And of course I'll be there live to answer your questions on whatever you feel stuck on, whatever isn't making sense. You can raise your hand, you can ask questions, but I think you're gonna get so much breakthrough through this. Also, this process, I is the same process that I teach in my template set program in a day.
Anna (05:46):
Basically, it's all the resources you need to create an online course. So I have just everything you need. I have a planning template, but I also have actual email swipe files so that as you're creating your course, you have a base of emails. You know, when you have an online course every week, your clients are getting an email. So you can use my exact 16 emails that I use for my courses and programs. A welcome email week one, and then at the end like requesting a testimonial, doing surveys, all of that. You can literally swipe. I also have swipe files. If your program or course has a community, I love having my programs either on Facebook groups or on Slack. I also have Google Doc worksheets, so you don't have to start from scratch. And you can use these worksheet templates and make them for your program.
Anna (06:35):
I have pre-survey examples, coaches, commitment and boundaries, an outline for a one hour group call. Also have elements for your graphics. So your course graphic email headers, video thumbnails, basically <laugh>. This, this bundle is, is wild and I think you're really gonna love it. My goal was to really simplify. I think we overcomplicate what an online course needs to be or we think we have to have a fancy online platform. But all of my courses, I started out just having it be organized, but just emailing my clients like, Hey, welcome to week one. Here's the worksheet, here's the video. Like literally just in a Gmail email, and then week two, and I'm a big fan of doing that on your first launch so that you don't overcomplicate it, right? You can keep it simple so that you can actually get it out the door and then improve it each lunch.
Anna (07:26):
So if you're listing in real time, make sure you check your email because I have a special code for you. Spoiler alert, it's a really great deal for you to get on the bundle. So if you're feeling inspired by this episode and you're feeling ready to launch your course, I highly recommend you do that. It's basically like hiring me as your VA to create all those resources for you. Okay, let's dive in. So I'm gonna go over six simple steps to think through if you are wanting to create your course. But again, come to the workshop because I'm, we're gonna go through this in more detail, okay. And have you actually take action. So number one, so important is creating the program outcome. You may have taken a course before and it may have felt like a lot of resources or videos or trainings, but you might not have got past module two and it might have been like a lot of stuff in this inside.
Anna (08:23):
In fact, it might have been too much stuff on the inside and this sounds wild, but I think the most effective coaches actually know how to limit information, know hold to hold back, know how to simplify. Sometimes I'm coaching a client in session and I'll think through like, oh my gosh, are these five things I need to tell them? But I try to ask myself, what's the one thing they need to know right now? Because it's not just lack of information why people aren't getting results, it's also lack of taking action, lack of maybe some mindset stuff around it, right? And so really it's our job as the course creator to pace our students and to only give them what they need. And something that I've started doing in my courses is making my courses simpler. One or two worksheets, one or two five minute videos.
Anna (09:12):
And then anything else I'm itching to put inside because I'm an ENFP in Enneagram seven, I put in a bonus resources folder. But if you jam it in the modules, what's gonna happen is people are going to not be able to finish the modules. They're gonna feel behind and they're not gonna finish the course. Instead of making your course steps simple and having a resources folder with all the bonus stuff that you were excited to put inside, right? Again, it reminds me of like editing a book. Like when we write a book, a lot of times we delete 50% out. In fact, when I wrote my book 20 K Freedom Fund, the Wild Thing is actually that was just one chapter in the bigger book I was writing and I realized like, no, this is my most important thing. I'm gonna drop my ego at the door.
Anna (09:54):
All the other stuff I can use for future blog posts or something, which I did, I used it for a lunch. But really about, you know, 20% of this book actually needs to be my whole book because I want my people to get through it. I'd rather give them, if you've seen my book, it's short, I'd rather women get through that book because I think it's the thing that's gonna change their lives, creating a 20 k savings account, right? Than them give them this giant book and them never finish it and them never get to that most important part in my opinion, right? Same thing with a course. Are we really making sure that we are keeping it simple so that our students actually get results? So step one is to come up with a program promise, a program outcome. And before we think about the simple steps that's going to get them there, really thinking about the result.
Anna (10:43):
When someone finishes your 12 week program or your six month program, what results, what outcome do we want them to get? Something practical, something people are willing to pay for a problem that people are actively looking at solving. It's ideal to launch a group program. When you're one-on-one is already booked out and a big reason for this is you have evidence of what people have already paid you for, right? That's what we wanna be creating. What's a, you're creating this asset, you're taking this time to make a course. So we want it to be profitable, we want there to be a demand. And a lot of my clients, you know, as they are coaching their one-on-one, clients start to build out their course, start to make worksheets, start to record videos, right? So this might be what you have coached people on one-on-one before. Step two is your outline.
If you get the template set. By the way, I have a worksheet that walks you through all six of these steps. So if you have the program in a day template set, go to the fast track checklist and I'm basically walking through this worksheet <laugh>. So don't feel like you have to memorize this, you can fill this out. It also has a long description under each section that I'm not gonna read out, but it will give you more context, okay? Step two is making that program outline. So really thinking through, especially if you've worked with paying clients on this before, thinking through the things you've done with them to get them to that outcome. Have you told them the same story every time? Is there a special exercise? Is there a analogy that you use? Is there a journal question you have all of your clients do for me?
Anna (12:24):
A lot of times, like I'll see, like in my program getting coached, that helps women get their first clients. I noticed on week one they, you know, even though we were working on getting clear on their offer, they were really getting stuck on their message, right? And then week two, as they're getting ready to announce, I noticed that they were getting stuck and having visibility blocks, right? So the cool thing when we work with people, we start to see in real time, like what are their blocks? How can I create content that's gonna help my clients get results? Not like what feels fun to add to my program, it's about our clients, right? So if your program is 12 weeks long, thinking through for each of those 12 weeks, what's the action step I want them to take knowing that the action steps are gonna add up to the outcome and start brainstorming the exercises, the questions, the stories, the type of things you wanna put on your worksheet to help get them to that outcome.
I'm a big fan when I create my programs. I love to create my worksheets first. I used to record my videos first, but I found that it makes it clearer when I get clear on those action steps. And then I make a worksheet. If you've done any of my programs before, you guys know I love Google Docs because my clients can fill out the worksheets, get my personal feedback from it, and then from there I can record a video that supplements it. But I think there's something about writing that makes us really get clear and makes us as the leader of our program really decide and be decisive on what we want the client to do or get or execute on that week. Okay? Next step is a program name. And you've heard me talk about this before, but I actually think program names are something that people do not spend enough time on.
Anna (14:14):
And I don't know if I say that phrase about anything else in the online space. Everything else I'm like, hurry up, get to work, do the action, get messy, get the ship off the dock and I'll steer it later. Like, just take messy action. Your program name, this is the one thing actually this whole planning your course thing should be taken seriously, but your program name, you've gotta take it serious because I feel like it's one of the most powerful marketing assets in your business, right? So many people are not going to read your entire sales page. They will however hear your program name. And so we want it to be compelling, we want it to be sexy. I'm a big fan of doing your subtitle, first results oriented subtitle, 12 weeks to blank, your desired Result, right? And then making the title like 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 words.
Anna (15:02):
Just really short, right? You guys know my programs are like sell with heart, get and coach your first client, right? So just really keeping it short and compelling. I'm a big fan of brainstorming 25 names, especially with chat GBT nowadays, this should not be a problem. And you guys should really be taking serious what you name your programs, what you name your frameworks, what you're putting in your email subject lines, like really with chat GBT, there's no excuse when it comes to brainstorming and picking the most compelling names because again, like once that your program is named, you can rename it, but it's just not ideal. Okay? Next step is deciding on your first week of content. I'm a big fan of not putting pressure on yourself to design your whole entire course before you launch it. Why? Because at the same time that you're creating all your course content, you're also usually creating all of your marketing content and trying to get people enrolled at the same time.
Anna (16:02):
And that's just a big project. And so I am a fan of like working a little bit in advance, like working one or two or three weeks in advance. And so I really encourage you to think through now that you've made, you know, your outline for all 12 of those modules, thinking through the first two, number one, so it can be done and ready to go for your students number two, because however you do the first two weeks of your program is exactly how you're gonna do the, the other weeks of your program too. So really it's the hardest part, right? Because then you're gonna have a template and then you can just duplicate that same thing but with different content for the rest of the 12 weeks. So your first week of course, content I think can be the hardest mindset wise. And so I really encourage you to think through when do you want your course to start and when do you want your first week to be complete, right?
And not overthinking it. Again, we want our course curriculum to be simple. We think if we have like a high ticket course or something like that, that it has to be really complicated. But I find that my students get the best results when my course curriculum is actually pretty simple, is actually pretty basic and straightforward and to the point and directive, like maybe includes a swipe file or something. But if you have done any of my courses, you know that my worksheets are very simple and very like interactive because half of it is that. But remember half of it is helping your students get through any mindset blocks that they're having along the way. So again, my favorite thing to do first is giving myself 30 or 45 minutes to do the worksheet. If you have my templates that you have an example for that, then I love to give myself time to record the video.
Anna (17:42):
I'm a big fan of making it like a three minute video, a five minute video, and doing it in one or two takes. You guys have heard how I do the podcast, like I don't edit my podcasts. You guys like if I sneeze, it's in there. Like very rarely will I edit it. And I'm a big fan of doing that for your course content too. Just doing it in one or two takes and letting that be enough and not overthinking it. And it's so much easier to do that when you've already made your worksheet so you know exactly what it is you are going to be asking your clients to do. Other elements that you can think through besides your week one worksheet. Your week one video is I love doing a welcome video. I have an example for you of that too. I love doing a course pre-survey.
I love doing a welcome email so that when they register, they're getting a short little welcome email. I send them via Gmail at the start. And a week one email. So you are writing them an email. It can be really simple. Again, I have a template for this, but it basically is like, hi, welcome to week one. Here's the link for the video, here's the link for the worksheet, here's the link for, you know, our support community if you have one. And then I also have a template in there for your week one call reminder if you're having live calls with your program. But those are the deliverables of what you need done to start your course. And it might sound like a lot, but it actually isn't that bad once you sit down and do it. Like we're talking about one or two hours.
Anna (19:10):
And I find that you probably actually do have one or two hours. And the cool thing about this is, again, you're not just spending one or two hours to monetize right now, but this is creating an asset that literally can serve you for the next decade, right? You are sacrificing your time, but you really are planting seeds that are gonna flourish. Okay? Next step is writing an announcement post. Like I know that, you know, it can feel like, oh, we wanna be okay, I'll launch this in four years. But I really encourage my clients to realize that the best way to get a big project done is to drop your ego and go public with it. I've done this with my courses, with my books. It creates natural accountability and it helps you feel excited and less alone as you're doing a big project, right?
Especially one that doesn't have a natural due date, right? When you tell yourself, I will make a course, you know, you can keep putting it off and putting it off because the only person that it affects of you putting it off is you, you get the short end of the stick. Of course you're gonna show up for everyone else, for your family, for your kids, for your friends, for your current clients. But creating this course benefits your financial future. And so I'm a big fan of for things that are important but not urgent, creating a little fun, creating a little external accountability. And so I encourage you to write a teaser post, right? It can be a wait list post, like message me to join the wait list. My first course wait list. I just literally had like a sticky note by my desk and if someone said they aren't interested, I would write down their name or email address.
Anna (20:47):
So it can be, this can be like join the wait list. It can be a teaser like coming soon. This can be an announcement. Like if you wanna announce we start on this date. And so I really encourage you to draft that out even if you don't post it yet. But what this does, if you're having some resistance to this, I get it right, because you're like, oh wait, I actually have to do, wait, this is actually gonna see the light of day. Like what if I get sick? What if my kids, what if that happens? What if all the things come up right? But I really encourage you to draft the post, to put it out there and to announce it. Okay? final step is your commitment and remembering that the win of the first round of a course or group program is to, number one, get the asset created.
Anna (21:33):
Number two, get paid to move real humans through it, right? This is how I view anything I launch for the first time. Really the cash is a bonus. And when I do it with this energy, I make a lot of money on my first launches, right? I've seen this. So I feel like about three clients this quarter launch new programs or courses and they all crushed it, but I feel like they went in with the energy of like, I'm creating my million dollar course. Like I know over my lifetime it's gonna create a million dollars. So if it only creates a hundred on the first go, I don't even care because I'm going out there. And that's why they crushed their launches and why they made a lot of money is 'cause they had that goal of like, I will create this asset. I will move students through this, this will be successful.
And that energy is so contagious over time. This asset will only get more and more profitable, right? You'll be able to make it more effective for your clients so they get better results and you'll be able to get better at marketing it and messaging it and positioning it and creating sales pages and creating freebie and trip wires and funnels and all the things, right? But remember, you have to start with something. You have to create your asset. And so that's why I am just the biggest fan of starting starting starting. Okay? I have some final reflection questions for you as we wrap up. Number one, what do I want my course to do for me in the next five years? Again, doing a project like this, we're thinking of a big year vision. Maybe you wanna say, Hey, I wanna make a million dollars with this course in the next five years, right?
Anna (23:06):
I wanna make whatever it is, $200,000 a year on this course. Maybe it is. I wanna reach this many humans with my message. Cool thing about a course or program is you can reach more people 'cause you're serving them in a leveraged way. You can have 30 people on one zoom call, right? The next question is, what actions do I want to focus on for the next few months to get there? Maybe it is signing up for the mastermind, signing up for my support as a coach so I can coach you. Not just on creating it, but selling your course and actually getting humans in it. Right? Next question is, what are my biggest fears that I wanna release and clear? I had so many fears when it came to creating online courses. I was so nervous about like, you know, I get my clients' results.
Anna (23:53):
One-On-One like, can I get people results in a group program? And the truth is, I really had been able to, because when you systematize and standardize something, I was just talking to my OBM about this. Like I was encouraging her to keep passing off more to my beautiful VA because the truth is that as she does it, it actually refines how we do it in our business, right? As you are creating worksheets and videos, you are actually creating an even better version of you because it systematized and standardized. Like for me, I might forget to say something to someone in a session, but if someone's going through my 12 step process, they are getting every single process, even if I'm busy, even if I'm sick, even if I'm in a bad mood, right? And so I'm never realized how much standardizing things would really, really help my students and clients.
Anna (24:39):
I was also afraid of like putting up boundaries, right? Like in my quote, lowest level course. I don't have unlimited slack access to me like I do in my mastermind. In my mastermind. Basically women can message me any day of the week, right? And I respond within 48 hours. Versus in my course we have one day a week that's our live call another day a week. That's our virtual support where I'm answering their questions in the Slack community. And so it's more boundaried. And I was so nervous about this <laugh> 'cause I want women to know that I care and wanna show up, but I, but it's gone great. And I find that people ask questions actually even more because they only have one day to do it. So they're a lot more serious and intentional about asking that question and having their stuff ready, right?
Anna (25:24):
Like they have to turn in their worksheets to me by Thursday to get it reviewed. And I find that more people do it because they're like, Ooh, I have a deadline. And so really believe that as you, you know, do things for you in your business to make more money, to serve more people that your clients and audience will benefit to. Okay, final question is what support do I need to help me get my big vision out into the world? Maybe it's telling one of your biz besties, like, Hey, I haven't really told you this, but I really, really do wanna launch a group program or mastermind course, right? Maybe again, it's signing up for a discovery call with me so I can support you not just in creating it, but in filling it and allowing it to be easy to make money and scale your business to six figures and beyond.
Anna (26:07):
Maybe it's hiring a va, maybe you're like, I'm fully booked in my one-on-one and I need some admin help so I have some time to be building this course on the side, right? This is really a call for you to get support, to let go of control, to really trust this process as you're taking risks. And I hope this was helpful for you. Okay? I know this was a lot, so I hope you come to the live workshops so I can help you actually execute and create your beautiful plan. And I have some fun bonuses. I'm gonna do live some experiential exercises. I love experiences. I shared on Instagram stories today that I did a dance lesson with a instructor privately, and it was so good because, you know, I am <laugh> he was telling me like, you're really tense when you dance. Like you have to relax, you have to trust me, you have to let me share some of the load, right?
You have to allow yourself to feel calm and relax and trust me. And of course, like that's some of my work as a woman is learning to trust others and let go. And in my business, I just, it's just been so much evidence that like, as I let go, as I trust, as I realize that I don't have to do it all my own, that I can rely on my community now. My community is my coach, my OBM, my va, my pa, my nanny. Like, it's just felt so good to know that I, like, I am worthy of being supported. It's safe to be supported, it's safe to work in my zone of genius, but I get that it takes trust and I get that it takes faith and maybe there are times in your life or business where you haven't been able to rely on others or trust on others.
Anna (27:46):
So I just get that so much and just saying a prayer for you as you, as you take a chance on yourself and as you trust and as you risk, and as you build out your program. Okay? Email me if you'd like and let me know what course or program is on your heart to launch in the next year. I wanna hear it. I wanna hear it. I would love for you to share it with me and just kind of put it out there in the world. Like I'm kind of scared, but I'm excited to launch this program, to launch this course. It's on my heart. I'm ready to make more leverage income so that I can work in a three day work week. Right? And you guys know I'm a big fan of, let me talk about that for a second before we wrap up.
Anna (28:22):
Since it was in the podcast title. I'm a big fan of the three day work week, and I love seeing one-on-one clients, but the only reason I've been able to keep my work three day work week and keep making more money is by having leveraged programs, right? By having Zoom calls with more than one woman on it. And so that is a big part of my three day work week, right? Is that I've been able to keep opening up capacity because group calls you can just see more people. You guys know, I'm also a big fan of not just the three day work week, but the three day week working out of the month. So having at least one week off every month where you can not work and you can relax often, that's where I put my vacation or my downtime, but it's also been where I have put some of my more creative projects, right?
Anna (29:08):
And so if I am, like when I made my last course two years ago, I'm pretty sure I used one of those weeks to have a CEO week when I didn't have client calls. So I could kind of really batch out some of this coursework because it is a bigger project, right? And so I am so thankful for that schedule three days a week, three weeks out of the year because again, it allows time for those bigger projects without encroaching on your sleep, without burning you out, right? And so for me, it's, it's really essential in that way. Okay, let me know your course name or your course idea. I would love to hear it. I'm wishing you a beautiful week. Thanks for hanging out today. Please hit that subscribe button so you can make sure to stay updated anytime a new episode drops. And I would love for you to join me in my free Facebook community. It's called The Heart-Centered Entrepreneur. We discuss the podcast episodes. I regularly go live and do free trainings, and you may even meet your newest biz bestie, so you can join at heart-centered community .com. It's absolutely free and I cannot wait to see you in there.
PS: In the midst of this challenging time I’ve been asking myself what I can do to help? One of the #1 ways I support my clients is by helping them simplify their business so that they can increase the flow of money without creating extra work. In this season simplified visibility and sales is needed more than ever.
So if you’re craving personal support as you reposition your free and paid work, I’d love to help you simplify your sales process so that you can produce income in your business even during a challenging time. If you want support you can check out my services and book a free discovery call here, or you can send me a DM on Instagram.