In this episode of Made with MV, we are joined by Rachel Bentley, the small business marketing coach, who shares her inspiring journey of selling out her first group course without writing a single word of content. Rachel provides valuable insights and practical tips for business owners looking to launch their service program or course. From accidentally starting her group coaching business during the global pandemic to utilizing MemberVault for hosting her course, Rachel's story is a testament to the power of launching lean and letting the market help shape your program.

Key Topics & Highlights

• Rachel's background and experience as a small business marketing coach
• Discovered MV as a hosting platform for her course
• Set up the Launch and Learn Academy with ease and flexibility
• Expanding Services on MemberVault
• The significance of going public with the launch date and building anticipation
• Strategies for creating a sense of urgency by limiting spots and implementing a countdown
• Encouraging entrepreneurs to launch the program even if it's not perfect, emphasizing the importance of taking action

Full Episode Transcript

Are you planning a fabulous one-to-one service programme or course, all about something you're passionate about that you just know is going to make a difference to people who need you? And are you spending precious time making it perfect chasing rainbows to find the best way to record your videos, creating beautiful layouts or workbooks or trying to work out how to create a wonderful evergreen funnel, using an email system you barely understand?

And weeks, perhaps months later, when all that's done, what if no one buys your programme, and you spent all that time writing all that unpaid time? But if they don't want exactly what you created, or you just don't know how to sell it, you're stuck with a programme no one wants to buy. Does that sound familiar? Well, listen on as I will share my top 10 tips to get you unstuck.

But first my story of how I sold out my first group course without writing a word of content. Hi, I'm Rachel Bently, the Small Business Marketing Coach. And I live close to York in the UK. And it's a beautiful part of the world. My business is 100% online. And I offer success coaching kind of one-to-one and in a mentored group. And helping people just like you build businesses organically, through launching imperfect learning and launching again. I started my business in March 2019. And I concentrated on one-to-one coaching clients. But it took a global pandemic to catapult me into accidentally starting the group coaching side of the business. And it's the catalyst for how I sold out my first group course without writing a word of content.

Yes, a year after I started back in March 2020, add a teeny tiny mail list. And I was building that using freebies and offering copies of my e-book launch online today. It's a short ebook, but it's all about how I started my coaching business online in one day using free apps. And come COVID or Corona as we knew it. I had all that info ready in my ebook, plus valuable research gained from the one-to-one programmes, I literally had to share that knowledge, and know how to get launched really quickly and cleanly. And obviously, I was going to do it free given the circumstances.

So I accidentally launched my first free group coaching programme, and Corona proof your marketing was born using the challenge system, which itself has been an amazing method to get in front of lots of people at once. And I did get some truly aha moments from the people I was training. But I've no upsell, no expectations of anything really. I just gave a brief mention of the one-to-one coaching and sort of threw around a vague idea about a paid-for group programme.

Now at this stage, clearly no word of content was written. But the interesting thing is, I still got plenty of interest and created a waiting list and a couple of one-to-one clients who were desperate for help immediately, and who have become really good long-term clients. So let's just run through that, again, I have people interested and on a waiting list, even without a course outline, without a sales page, without a funnel and certainly without a word of content written, without a video recording, and without a pretty Canva image in sight. Now, that is validation for certain people who wanted to join my programme, and they were willing to invest in me when it was ready. And this was fantastic. Because at this point, there was no going back and that is the best motivation ever simply to commit.

Okay, so let's run it forward a couple of months. And by this time, July 2020. I ran that group training and last had an upsell Yay. But even better, I got valuable information from 200 people
as to what they needed help with. And that influenced my course content, though still not a word of that written. Okay, so now all I had to do was find somewhere to host the course for zero outlay. Long story short, because you know the outcome that's why I'm here. I discovered the otherwise known as MemberVault. Wow.

At first, like a lot of people, I wrangled with it. But I took every opportunity I could to look around other people's marketplaces. I used the native MV help resources and managed to set up my free download in MemberVault. And that was all from the book. It was like a little infographic is still there. Now actually. It wasn't perfect, but it was done and I was driving people to it. The first steps are taken. What I really love about MV is its flexibility. But there is a linear method to it. sought out your sales pages and how you take money before you write anything. This is perfect for me.

So quite literally the basics in hand description teaser and signup organised. My group the Launch and Learn Academy was itself launched. And here is the secret sauce. The modules outlining my own eight-step process were so easy to set up. Still not a word of content written by the way. But the people looking at it could see the module titles, they knew what to expect. They had a programme, and I, a trustworthy site that wasn't going to crash. And that could take payment in instalments. without me having to faff I could just focus on getting people's names in the frame, talking to them. And that led to selling the programme.

By the way, not everyone on this programme came from the free training, some were from groups networking and one-to-one from people I've met in lockdown. So the marketing isn't the message here. It's the goal of doing something, launching it lean and letting the market, in other words, your audience, our clients help you build it. And that's how I did it a step a week over a couple of months. I wrote it up each week and it was sort of just in time sort of close to the wire.

But what I was doing was I was learning along the way about what my clients actually needed. And this meant I could reflect it in the course content, instead of it being pre-written and not necessarily exactly what they needed at that moment. Plus, again, spoiler alert here, I had a few 1000 pounds in the bank, before I invested my own time in writing the content, recording a video or creating a nice workbook. More importantly, I was serving my clients.

So over the past few months, I've helped my group of wonderful solo business owners craft their own new services, help their clients and create income. I have even helped one client literally fulfil their dreams. That's what they tell me. And that's another story. This is super important. If I had not launched when I did, these people would still need that help now. And all that action and changing the world as they are doing that would all remain. And every day something new occurs to me about what is possible in MemberVault. And often this comes from the free Collaborative Facebook group. Now in getting to realize the potential of the site, I now host my ebook in here as a cart bump. I offer freebies, I offer workshops paid and free webinars, and of course my Lunch and Learn Academy.

So let's get back to launching your programme without writing word of content. If you are a proven expert business owner, and you're looking to build a one-to-one service programme our costs are you perfectionating. Are you stuck with getting things out there and the selling bit of the plan? Are you giving yourself excuses as to why you've not launched yet? If so, let's get you unstuck.

And here are my top 10 tips before you even write a word of content. Okay, so get your pens ready. Number one, stop perfectionating, and procrastinating through trying to launch perfectly. Set a launch date for your service programme or course. That's point 2.3 Let it be a date in the future but in the near future let's get some apps belt in here, guys. Number four, share the date. Tell people to go public. Number five, talk to people to find out what they need. Build an outline from this. And really what's the headline? What's the big promise what's the transformation you can create?

Number Six launched an introductory programme. I hesitate to call it beta or beta. So call it an introductory programme. Maybe the price is an introductory price. Number seven recruits paying co-creators. Number eight, sell those seats at your table. Limit the numbers. Put a countdown until the time your cart will close. This will help create a buzz. Number nine, just do it. Get out there and talk about it. Don't spend time making and hiding behind pretty posts or a perfect website. Number 10. Get it done imperfectly. And here you've got to imagine the brackets are not perfect and done.

Okay, so I really hope those have been helpful. Want To find out more about my work and grab my freebies? Well, you can see the podcast notes or simply type Rachel Bentley dot online in your browser. And that's rachelbentleyonline.co.uk.

Thank you so much for listening. This was Rachel Bentley, the Small Business Marketing Coach.