That’s a subject line you won’t see very often.
I’ll just straight up say it: I love the thrill of buying new courses!
But only because I’m now buying them systematically instead of haphazardly (Shiny Object Syndrome) like before.
Have you ever heard a marketer (probably a copywriter) say, "I took just one nugget from XYZ course and it made me an extra $100k this year." Or, "If I get just one new tactic from this course or event, it will pay for itself."
It’s safe to say that I’m this guy now.
Here’s how my healthy system for buying courses works:
First, of course, I know my business model. I sell courses and promote affiliated courses (from good creators that I trust). And I know my one traffic source that I’m focusing all efforts on at the moment: Affiliate traffic.
In order to make use of this model work, I need to write sales pages, emails, and landing pages.
With that information, I only buy courses that help build the skills necessary to support the business model or courses that help me solve problems that start to drain my time and energy.
Let’s talk about skills:
Quite obviously for me, selling courses, I need to be able to write copy. I need to write sales pages, emails and landing pages. So what do I do? I buy copywriting courses and books! Just like you bought or will buy CopyHour (because you will), I also buy copywriting knowledge to get more diverse perspectives and uplevel my skills.
Answer these 2 questions:
- What skills do you absolutely need to run your business? Only pick 1 or 2 skills at the most to start. You want to go deep into the skill, not wide into other skills.
- What skills might make you more money, quickly?
Buy courses, books, and coaching to learn these skills.
One note: Don’t try to save money with the skills you’re building.
For example, don’t learn coding to save money on designing sales pages. Do it so you can charge a ton more for your copywriting services.
Now let’s talk about Problems:
Next, I buy courses when I encounter a problem somewhere along the way trying to use my business model or traffic source.
For example, I reached a sticking point where I felt like I wasn’t moving fast enough in creating new courses. So I bought a course on creating courses quickly (kinda meta, but you get the point).
Whenever you encounter a problem with your business model or your traffic source and it starts to drive you crazy, that’s a good sign you might need more information or an expert’s eye.
Think about times when you say stuff like this:
"Every time I try to scale past a $100/day in ad spend I get stuck, conversion rates drop and I lose money."
Or…
"This is taking me forever."
Or…
"I’m stressing about XYZ."
Buy courses that solve specific problems in your business.
Along the way you’ve got remain steadfast and focused and say to yourself, "I’m not jumping ship on my business model or my traffic source. I’m using this course or book to go deeper into what I’m already doing."
Warning: the product creators you encounter are going to dangle Shiny Objects in front of you, but you must resist.
To recap:
- What skills do you need for your business model or traffic source? Buy those courses. (Like a copywriting course or email copywriting course).
-
What problems are you experiencing, where are you stuck with your business model or traffic source? Buy courses that solve those problems.
What I’m really doing is giving you permission to buy more courses – but make sure you’re only buying courses that solve very specific problems or build very specific skills that support you.
I hope this series of emails was helpful.
Have a great weekend!
– Derek