Greg Smith

Greg Smith is a lawyer turned online course creator and technology entrepreneur. Greg has built multiple businesses including some that are fully automated.

At Thinkific, he’s built a team of 36 amazing people helping others build their own businesses.

Expert session

Tactic that has had the biggest impact on Greg’s success

Using online courses to grow your business

Result if you follow the steps in Greg’s session

Leverage automation for your online course

Full session with video, notes, audio and discussion inside EHQ Club. Learn more

Expert session snapshot

Transcript

That’s something that a lot of people overlook in any kind of education or training. And this almost applies, you know, anytime you want someone to get value out of knowledge that you’re sharing with them, this applies. 

And the reason it’s so critically important is, that if people don’t finish the course or the content that you’re giving them and they don’t understand what you’re delivering, and then they don’t go and apply it, then they’re really not getting a lot of value, which means they’re less likely to give you referrals, testimonials or come back and do business with you. 

So if you can get people to finish your content or your course or your training, get value out of it, and even apply it in their life, then they’re going to come and they’re going to give you other referrals, they’re going to be testimonials, and they’re going to do business or continue to do business. 

So probably the number one thing you can do with that is, especially if you’re doing a course, is some kind of accountability partner. So if you match them up with someone else who’s taking the same program, and they’re accountable to each other, and this is something that Jack Canfield is very big on in his programs, and he teaches millions of people around the world is really just match someone up with someone else taking the same program. 

And it can be very simple. As simple as a once a week or even once a day five minute call to just say, here’s what I got done since our last call. Here’s what I’m promising to you. I’m going to get done in our next call. And just having those daily five minute calls, or weekly five minute calls, that makes a huge difference in people being successful with your content, which of course leads to more business for you. 

A few other big things that you can do is having some kind of group that people can be a part of which goes to the accountability part, because then they can discuss, solve problems together, they feel a little bit accountable to each other. Not as much, though, as with an individual partner. 

Another one is the bite size pieces. And I love the fact that you are keeping these interviews short 25 minutes. I find in online courses, particularly if you’re going to do videos, or voiceover slides, doing actually two to seven minutes is the optimal length for that. Even if it’s only a quick break between that and the next one. It actually keeps people moving along and increases the likelihood they’re going to finish it. 

And then there’s a lot of other things, you can do formative assessments, it’s one, and that’s just a fancy word for a quick quiz. So a formative assessment is just a quick one or two question quiz, usually multiple choice and you want people to get it right. If they were paying attention, they should get it right. 

So if I was going to ask a quick quiz right now, I might say something, you know, you could be as simple as, what are we talking about? Are we talking about online courses or courses? And hopefully everyone’s going to get that right. If they’re not, they really haven’t been paying attention. You might have something more like how long should a video be in an online course short, like two to seven minutes or long, like an hour or two. And hopefully everyone would get that right at this point. 

But the key is you want them getting 100% if they’re paying attention, that gives them a little burst of almost endorphins and adrenaline to keep going. It’s actually used a lot in video games, where you get these little rewards that keep you going along and it creates almost an addiction. Plus, it makes you pay a little closer attention on the next lesson or the next video, because you know that there’s another quiz coming. 

And then the other big thing you can do is some kind of follow up. So I’ve seen people, we do a lot of automated email follow ups. But even things like text messaging follow ups is a more extreme way of doing it, that actually works quite well. So making sure you’re staying in touch with people as they move through the program.