Things You DON'T Need to Launch Your Course (But Might Be Keeping You Stuck)

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If you’re holding off on launching your course because you think you need a fancy website, polished branding, or a professional photo shoot first — this episode is going to feel like a breath of fresh air.

I’m breaking down the real barriers that keep so many talented course creators stuck — and what you can cross off your list immediately so you can start getting your course out there and making money.

In this episode, I share:

• 7 things you definitely don’t need to launch your course
• Why skipping the “perfect setup” can actually speed up your results
• How to move forward with a scrappy, simple, and wildly effective launch strategy
• What really matters when launching your course (spoiler: it’s not your branding!)

View the shownotes here for all links and resources mentioned:
https://loublakely.com/things-you-dont-need-to-launch-your-course

Enjoy the episode,
 Lou xx

Join me on IG: https://www.instagram.com/loublakely_/

Find out more on my website: https://loublakely.com/

Transcript

Hello and welcome to the online course creator show. I am back with a new episode today, which is all about things that you don't need to launch your course, but might be keeping you stuck. So if you are waiting to launch your course because you feel like you have to get something else done first, like a new website or fancy branding, or you need to book a photo shoot or something like that.

then I'm here to tell you that you actually don't need those things and they're probably keeping you stuck. Because if we're just pushing off the online course creation or the online course launching until we've got all this laundry list of items completed, then we're probably never going to get there. Because the thing is these things take a lot of time.

and usually they also take a lot of money. Like we're investing in this stuff and at the end of the day it's going to make very little difference to a first launch anyway. So today I'm going to cover those things that I see quite often keeping people stuck and hopefully this is really refreshing that you actually don't need to spend a ton of money or a ton of

getting these things done when you can actually start with your first launch and get some money actually coming in the door to you instead in the meantime. Sure these things are great to have later but you definitely don't need them before you launch an online course. Now quite often we think that these things are going to make us more successful or in some cases we think that they then qualify us to

be able to launch an online course or to actually achieve success. So sometimes it could be you need that credibility. You feel like you need to tick that off the list, like you need to achieve that to be seen as credible enough to have an online course. So today I'm covering it all. There are quite a few things in this list and some of them may really surprise you. So stay tuned while we cover them all.

And I do think this topic is really, really important. And the reason why is because there are so many smart, inspiring, capable women and guys out there who have knowledge that is really valuable to other people that other people really want. But if you are not putting it out there, then you're not helping them and you're also not achieving your own success. You're not getting your name out there. You're not becoming the go-to in your industry.

There are so many side effects of you not moving forward. So let's clear that list for you so that you can actually get onto what matters.

So the first one I'm going to cover may surprise a lot of you. And also I think this is a really common issue that I see come up a lot. Like I'm going to launch a course once I have this done. And that thing is a website. Now, contrary to popular belief, you absolutely do not need a website in order to launch your first course. Now I have actually talked in depth with a lot of

clients, potential clients, people that have been in my programs about this. And there is this idea that you have to have an amazing website so that when people are considering buying your course, they can go and take a deep dive into your website, find out everything they need to know about you so that then they can make an informed decision. Sure, there are some people.

that do this, but really it's going to be such a small number because your website is not the thing that is selling your course. And it's not so much about you per se and what your website is, what the rest of your business is. It's whether or not this course can actually solve their problem. And that's what people are most interested in. And it's the thing that's going to actually make them purchase versus knowing

all of this stuff about you. And also, as I mentioned, it's actually a very small portion of people who are going to go and look at your website anyway. So maybe you already have a website, but you feel like it needs to be improved. This advice really applies to you as well. Like your website does not need to be any better than it is now. Like how many times are you going to keep tweaking the homepage or the about page before you feel it's perfect enough? Because you're never going to get to perfect.

Anyway, so hopefully this is refreshing. You don't actually need to spend time on this right now. Sure, a website is a nice to have for later. And you know, as you get more into the online marketing world, it is really going to become a really good asset for you. But you absolutely don't need it to do your first launch. You need to actually launch your course, get it out there, get money coming in the door and then look at it.

Creating or improving your website later on so hopefully that's refreshing to know that you don't actually need it because firstly websites can cost a lot of money they can be super slow in terms of project wise to actually work on this work on a new website and even if you are Outsourcing it there's still a lot of work that you will need to do to project manage or provide the people who are creating it with what they need so

Wipe that off your list. Absolutely not needed. All you will need is somewhere to create a sales page. Generally, we wouldn't actually use a website for this unless your website had that functionality. Many of them don't, by the way. So when it comes to where can you build a sales page, it's on platforms like Kajabi, like Kartra,

like lead pages and then you also need a checkout which is literally just where someone goes and puts in their credit card details and purchases the course. Those are the two facilities that you need to be able to actually sell an online course. You don't need a website. So the second thing that you don't need is fancy branding. or any branding at all actually. I have worked with clients who have had

successful launches and they don't even have brand colors. They've just got a kind of idea of what they like. I can share tools with them around how to come up with like colors that they might like to use that work well together, that kind of thing. you can also just create a logo for your course name in Canva. Like there's so many templates in there. So

You definitely don't need to be investing in fancy branding, which hopefully is a relief because branding is very, very expensive. Yes, it's great in the long-term, but you don't need it to sell a course and people are not so much interested in the design and what you look like. mean, they might go, well, that looks cool, but it's not going to make them buy. People care about your message and the transformation that you're offering in your online course, not your color palette.

So we can tick that one off the list for now. Now the next one is a professional photo shoot. Again it's very similar to fancy branding. So these are great to have but if you think about a lot of the way that marketing is done on the internet these days there is lots of reels that you're just recording with your phone. You take selfies like you can use your phone.

to do the majority of what you

Having fancy photos is definitely not necessary. Sure, it's a nice to have. Again, it's not going to make any impact on the money that you make in your online course. So wipe that off your list, save it for later when you've got the time and the money.

Now the fourth thing that you definitely don't need for your to launch your online course is a copywriter. So this is potentially a controversial take, but I 100 % stand by it and there's a few reasons for that. Yes, a copywriter can save you time. That's for sure. Like there's content that you've got to create, a lot of words you've got to create in a launch and

Outsourcing it to a copywriter is a very appealing prospect. But if you don't have that budget, then don't let this hold you back because you might be thinking, well, I'll just save up. I'll do a project or a couple of projects one-on-one or whatever things that you don't really want to do in order to have the budget to spend on this. But what I found is that if you go down that road, you may end up being quite disappointed because

Hiring a copywriter doesn't guarantee results. It could sometimes, but actually I've worked with quite a lot of clients and I've also had this experience myself where I have spent money on copywriters and what I have got back is disappointing and does not sound like me or my brand at all. And then you're kind of just looking at this big expense and you have to rewrite the copy anyway. This happens.

a lot. Okay so just hiring a copywriter isn't going to be the secret source for your launch and if you can't afford, well if you don't even have the money for a copywriter right now, don't go and do that big project to fund it. Instead actually use some good templates and tweak them to your own audience and get to know your ideal customer really really well.

Like having that knowledge of your ideal customer is actually going to outperform any copywriter anyway. And templates are fairly easy to come by. I have templates for everything in my money makers program. So like they're literally plug and play. You just put in your parts and they're good to go and you can personalize them as much as you like. So you don't need a copywriter for your first launch.

You don't need to spend thousands on a copywriter. And actually copywriting is a skill that I think every business owner should start developing. And being able to write good copy is going to be something that actually is an asset to you. So start learning it now. And that could be just starting with where you're at and using some templates and starting to write and starting to put together your ideas.

And of course you can use AI to help you just as long as it sounds natural and sounds like you. But there are so many tools available now that you don't necessarily need to be spending thousands of dollars on this anymore, which is great.

Now the fifth thing that you absolutely do not need for your online course launch is an ads budget. Sure, you can do with us down the track 100%, but for your first launch, the name of the game is actually validating your offer and seeing the response to your offer, engaging what that is like. Okay, so we're not wanting to mess with that by spending a lot of money on ads anyway. Now, even if you've got a small audience, I still don't recommend that you use ads.

We are purely testing the offer to see what the uptake is like in the first launch. So save that budget. You don't need to go and buy a Facebook ads course or hire an agency or anything like that. And you don't need the ad spend instead just follow the process, follow the launch strategy and actually get your first launch done. Then you can look at adding ads in once you know what you've got.

is working because ads will only amplify what's already working anyway.

Now the sixth thing may surprise you and this is one that I've actually heard quite a lot. This is the one that I feel like is a qualifier. Like you feel like you've got to have done this in order to be qualified to create an online course and that is to sell out your one-on-one offers. Now this concept of having to sell out your one-on-one before you are able or qualified or should create an online course is absolutely not true.

And the reason for that is that you can be an expert and actually really not enjoy one-on-one and for whatever reason, showing up on calls all day long or always being on the clock for someone if you're doing done for you services, they can feel

For some people that can be so tiring and actually just take all of the energy away. And I have to say, can 100 % relate to that. It is tiring to be fully booked with one-on-one clients. Now what's gonna happen once you're booked out is that you're gonna have no time or energy to create a course anyway. You're gonna feel stuck. You're going to feel like you've hit the ceiling of what you can earn with your time and you would be 100 % right.

And you are going to feel like there's no way out of the situation and you're actually going to have to get rid of some of that, those one-on-one clients before you can actually create your course. So don't wait. There's no qualifier. You don't have to get to that point. You don't have to burn out in order to feel like it's the right time to create a online course. There, if you have knowledge that people want, there's...

You can literally start right now. There's no need to wait until you are booked out.

Now the last thing that you absolutely do not need to launch your course is a huge audience. I have heard recently some people that have been given this advice that you can't launch until you've got 10,000 followers and I just think that's absolute rubbish. And this is something I do talk about quite regularly. In fact, I did talk about this in the last episode as well. So,

You know, you can have a very successful launch without even really being on social media. So that 10,000 followers thing is just rubbish. Obviously you'd need an email list for that, right? But.

If you have a good offer and people actually want it, it doesn't matter how big your audience is. And also there's the concept of starting with what you've got, right? Like how long are you going to wait until you have this huge audience? Because it could be years before you hit a particular number. So we just don't go there. We just start with what we've got and we get moving because a great launch strategy is also going to increase your audience while also making you money. And that

is the key.

So you don't need thousands of followers to sell your course. You need the right offer, the right message, and a launch strategy that's going to grow your audience while also making sales.

So those are the things that you do not need to launch your course, but might be keeping you stuck. hopefully you've heard something in this list that's felt like a bit of a relief that you can now remove it off your plate. You no longer have to invest in it. So it's going to save you money.

and you don't have to spend the time. Your time is actually more needed to go into creating that amazing offer. And hopefully that speeds up the process for you because every time you delay your launch waiting for these things, you're holding back on achieving the results that you want, both for yourself and for your future students. Because if you're not putting it out there, you're not helping anyone.

And the most successful course creators are the ones who just start with what they've got, start where they are. They get scrappy and then they improve as they go because as I've mentioned with a lot of these things, you can add them on later, but they're not needed at the start. So if you're serious about launching your course and want a simple step-by-step plan that works without needing a big audience, fancy branding,

or ads, then you'll love Moneymakers. It's my signature program that teaches you how to launch your online course in a way that actually works and feels good while you do it.

So waitlist to Money Makers is open. Doors are opening very soon. So if you are interested, hop on the waitlist now to get access to a very good early bonus. Okay, so head over to lublakely.com forward slash waitlist and pop your name down there and you'll get all the information sent straight to you. So I hope you enjoyed this episode today. I really hope that

there's something here that you took away that really actually made you feel like things just got a whole lot easier. Okay, that was the goal with this episode.

Now I'd love to hear from you. If any of these surprised you, if any of these felt like a relief, then let me know. Pop over to Instagram and send me a DM. I would love to see you there. And the link to my Instagram is always below every single episode. And I will also drop the link for the wait list below in the podcast description and also on the show notes. Thanks so much for joining me for this episode and hopefully I will see you on the next episode. Bye.