STOP Selling Education. Sell These 4 Things Instead

0:00AI did not kill your online course.

0:02Selling information did. Google made

0:04information free in '98. YouTube made it

0:06watchable and now AI has made it

0:08obsolete. So, what do people pay for

0:11anymore? That is this whole video. And I

0:13know it works because I've either sold

0:15or helped to sell $25 million of online

0:17courses, coaching, and other digital

0:19products across these five businesses.

0:21And let me tell you, information was

0:22never the thing we sold. Four things

0:25[music] were. And in this video, I'm

0:27going to show you exactly what those

0:28four things are, how to sell information

0:30without literally selling information,

0:32and how one pricing mistake [music] just

0:34last year cost a multi-million dollar

0:36course business 74% of its subscribers

0:39in just 4 months. [music] So, let me

0:41start by saying the quiet part out loud,

0:42okay? Information has been free for a

0:45lot longer than AI's been around. Let me

0:47show you just how little AI has actually

0:49changed about the information landscape

0:51as it applies to us selling information,

0:53or courses, or coaching, etc. When

0:55Full-Time Filmmaker launched in 2016,

0:57everybody was saying, "Courses are dead.

0:59Who's going to buy your online course

1:01when it's all free on YouTube? It's all

1:03there." And honestly, wasn't a bad

1:04point. That exact doubt, however, is why

1:07many people never even attempt to

1:08monetize education online. But millions

1:11of dollars of this course selling later,

1:13it's pretty clear who was wrong. But

1:14they were only wrong because Full-Time

1:16Filmmaker was never selling just

1:19information to begin with. And you can

1:21say the exact same thing about college.

1:23I actually had no idea about this. Did

1:24you know that in 2012, Harvard, MIT, and

1:27Stanford all put their entire courses

1:30online for free. All their lectures, the

1:32assignments, the exams. New York Times

1:34was calling it the year the university

1:36would end. Sounds familiar, right?

1:37Education, information is dead. Well,

1:39guess what happened? Only 3% of people

1:41even finished those courses. 52% never

1:44even started it. And all three colleges

1:46across the board went like this. Their

1:48enrollment skyrocketed. Their revenue

1:50has skyrocketed. They're just business

1:51models built on top of information. But

1:53how's that possible if what they're

1:55selling is basically information? Or

1:57look at the personal fitness space. I

1:58don't think there is a more saturated

2:00market of information dissemination than

2:02in the personal training niche. Every

2:04workout on planet Earth that exists to

2:07train every part of your body is on

2:09YouTube right now. Every shred of

2:10information you could ever want on how

2:12to lose weight, diets, you name it, is

2:14published by millions of people

2:15everywhere. And yet this market only

2:17continues to grow every single year by

2:19people who understand the utility and

2:22the correct way to use information in

2:24their business model. Tax law is another

2:26perfect and beautiful example. 10

2:28million words and 70,000 pages of tax

2:31law is free right now on the IRS

2:33website. If information is so available,

2:35it's so free, why are you not a tax

2:37expert? Why aren't you doing your own

2:39taxes each year? Softwares like TurboTax

2:41exist literally so that you don't have

2:42to know the tax law. CPAs offer a

2:44service to do it for you for the same

2:46reason. But do you see the pattern?

2:47Whether it's courses, college, software,

2:49coaching, or services, people will pay

2:51for what's built on top of the

2:53information, not the info. And so you're

2:56probably asking yourself, well, if

2:57people don't actually want information,

2:59what do they want? There's actually a

3:00name for it. There are just two types of

3:02value every business provides its

3:04customers. It's called durable value and

3:06consumable value. Once you see this, I

3:09promise you can't unsee it and it will

3:11help you to change the way you view your

3:12information or education-based business.

3:14Think about a car. You buy a car one

3:17time. You own it. It's a high-ticket

3:18price. It does not run out. You don't

3:20run out of the car. The car is always

3:21there. But is the car worth anything by

3:23itself? No. Cars need gasoline. It needs

3:26tires. It needs insurance. These are

3:28things that you buy again and again to

3:30get the value out of the thing that you

3:32bought once. The car is durable value.

3:34The gas, the tires, that's all

3:36consumable value. Put another way,

3:38durable is one-time value, consumable is

3:41ongoing value. The good kind of golden

3:43rule question to ask yourself when you

3:44are thinking about your business and

3:46whether you have consumable value or

3:47not. And if you're about to fall in the

3:49same trap that we did, is once somebody

3:51has the value or the information, do

3:54they still need you? If no, you've got a

3:56lot of durable value. If they do, you've

3:58got some consumable value. And that is

4:00precisely why selling information by

4:02itself doesn't just underperform. It's

4:03not just a bad thing to do. It has a

4:05built-in cliff. It's a sharp decline

4:07that I call the value cliff. And this

4:09cliff is one I've watched two businesses

4:11walk off, and one of them was mine. It

4:13is how I'm able to make this video to

4:15help you avoid the cliff so that your

4:17business doesn't flatline or decline and

4:19create a model that actually works and

4:21is built on top of information, which

4:23happens to be durable value. Cuz here's

4:24kind of the oxymoron, or I guess the

4:27dichotomy of online courses and

4:28education. The better your course is,

4:30the worse your business model is. In

4:32other words, the better you teach

4:33something, the faster the person's going

4:35to get the value, and so the faster they

4:37leave because they get it, right? It's

4:38the durable value. I got what I wanted.

4:41I'm out of here. In this business model,

4:42literally success is losing the customer

4:45because they graduated, right? They

4:46crossed the finish line, and now they

4:48got what they wanted. If you did a good

4:49job teaching it, the information,

4:51they're gone forever. And we saw this

4:53play out in our two multi-seven-figure

4:54businesses twice. The first one, Course

4:56Creator Pro, online business, we teach

4:58people how to create, market, and sell

5:00online courses. Education, right? It's

5:02durable value. We sold $3.5 million of

5:04this online course, but the only way to

5:06scale this business is if I just sold

5:08more courses every single month. It was

5:10an empty slate at the beginning of every

5:12month. And in 2021, we started noticing

5:14our business started to flatline and

5:15decline a little bit. It was tied to our

5:18efforts. It would only grow in so much

5:19as we marketed it, spent more on ads,

5:21made more YouTube videos. It was a

5:23hamster wheel. Then, in 2022, I noticed

5:25something. I said, "Wait a minute. We

5:26are teaching people how to create online

5:28courses. We're giving them all this

5:29valuable information. That's great, but

5:31then we're just dishing them off to

5:32other softwares like Kajabi, School,

5:34Mailchimp, Active Campaign, Teachable,

5:36Go High Level, whatever. We gave them

5:37the car, and then they went to go get

5:39the gasoline somewhere else." So, we

5:41started selling the gasoline. We

5:43launched Course Creator 360 in 2022.

5:45Course Creator Pro as a single durable

5:47value asset that was just information

5:49did about $3.5 million lifetime. By then

5:52selling the consumable ongoing value in

5:54the form of a software, which is just

5:56one of the four types I'm going to go

5:57over in a minute, our lifetime revenue

5:59is now what we do on a yearly basis. We

6:01five to 10x the company overnight by

6:04understanding durable and consumable

6:06value. But I'm not done. Second example,

6:08Full Time Filmmaker launched in 2016,

6:10sold the information or the durable

6:12value, which was the course itself for

6:14$500 on average and generated over $25

6:17million by doing that. But at the end of

6:192025, it ran a test and posted the

6:21numbers publicly. There is 10 years of

6:23education, beautiful, exceptional

6:25treasure trove of information. None of

6:27that ever changed, but instead of

6:29charging $500 one time for that durable

6:32value of information, it tested charging

6:34a $37 month price tag for the same

6:37durable value. 360 people picked the

6:40monthly subscription and the average

6:41lifetime value came out to about $150

6:45from those monthly subscribers on

6:46average. Now, compare that to what it

6:48was, okay? It was about $500 in lifetime

6:51value per customer. That is a third of

6:54the value per customer all because

6:56durable one-time value got mispriced and

6:59forced into this consumable ongoing

7:01value that was not ongoing to begin

7:03with. So, I'm sharing you these two very

7:05real case studies for one reason. If we

7:07can make this mistake, surely you can

7:09too and you probably are making this

7:10mistake. And the fix for both of these

7:12was the same question. What is our

7:13gasoline? What is the consumable value

7:16we're giving and if we aren't giving

7:17any, we have to price it appropriately.

7:19And turns out there are only four kinds

7:21of gasoline or consumable value and

7:24every business should have at least one

7:25of these. Now, what we're calling

7:26consumable value, I'm just going to call

7:28it for exactly what it is. These are

7:29four things that you can sell after the

7:32information. They go in these concentric

7:34rings, right? So, from the outside,

7:36these are the easiest to build and also

7:37the easiest to cancel. And the closer

7:39you go to the middle, the harder they

7:40are to build, but also the harder to

7:42leave. The first type is what I call a

7:43direct value. These are templates,

7:45assets, downloadables, things that I can

7:47get directly. For a full-time filmmaker,

7:49for example, we gave them the

7:50information that was the durable

7:52one-time value, but we never just gave

7:54them more how-to videos to just watch,

7:56like YouTube. We gave them lot packs. We

7:58gave them sound effects. We gave them

8:00Premiere Pro templates. We gave them

8:01these copy and paste shortcuts and

8:03assets they could use that would better

8:04help them on their filmmaking journey.

8:06For CC360, same thing. I didn't just

8:08tell you how to sell a course or how to

8:10make a funnel. I gave you a funnel

8:11template that we have used, email

8:13templates, website templates, copy and

8:15paste tools. Dollar Shave Club sells you

8:17the razor once, that's the durable

8:18value, but the blades are consumable.

8:20That's direct value. HP printers gives

8:22you the printer, durable value, one time

8:24you pay for it once, the ink is ongoing.

8:27Again, direct value. So, that's the

8:28first type. I think it's probably the

8:29easiest and most obvious type of value

8:31that many of us can already think of

8:32many ideas that we could give to our

8:33customers that would give direct value.

8:35The second is what I call

8:36human-delivered value. And this is

8:39exactly what it sounds like. It is you

8:40delivering value as the human. Almost

8:42always comes in the form of either

8:43coaching or services. This is the

8:46trainer who's at the gym at 6:00 a.m.

8:47waiting for you. That's a human. The

8:49accountability, the training you get

8:50from that human directly is consumable.

8:53I want it again tomorrow and the next

8:54day and the next week and the next

8:56month. Instead of our business, we do

8:57coaching calls, done-for-you build-outs.

8:59We have masterminds. There's live

9:00events. This is what a CPA would do,

9:02right? The tax law is free, the

9:04information's there, you can get it

9:05whenever you want, but the human, the

9:06human-delivered service is something

9:08they do for you every single April when

9:10tax season comes around. Again, that's

9:12consumable. I've been paying my CPA

9:13every year for many years. The third

9:15type is what's called strategic value.

9:17This is data and intel for the most

9:19part. Perfect example, Bloomberg

9:21Terminal. They charge $30,000 per seat

9:24per year, and all this is is a place for

9:25you to see every stock and bond price,

9:27they give you news the second it breaks,

9:29it's for traders. Carfax, same thing.

9:31It's intelligence, it's data giving you

9:32a vehicle history report per car because

9:35the history of that car changes with

9:37every owner. This is also what

9:38newsletters are, right? People just

9:40literally charge for newsletters to give

9:41you the most up-to-date trendy things in

9:43that niche or in that industry every

9:45week, every month, whatever. And then

9:47the fourth and final type is the hardest

9:48type of gasoline to sell, which also

9:51makes it the most stickiest and the most

9:52value. It's called operational value.

9:55These are tools, systems, and software.

9:57And it's called operational value

9:59because without it you should not be

10:01able to operate. This is precisely what

10:03happened to us. On top of the

10:05information I was already selling, I

10:06needed something to help them to operate

10:08and sell the course. Funnels, the course

10:10hosting, the community, the websites,

10:11automations, all this stuff that I was

10:13previously dishing off to other

10:15softwares where they were making a bunch

10:16of money off of me. TurboTax took all

10:18this free information about how to do

10:20taxes and they made a tool that applies

10:22them to your business, to your tax

10:24return. Oura Rings, I'm wearing one

10:25right now. This thing is durable

10:27one-time value. I paid like 300 bucks

10:29for this.

10:34Excuse me, but it's the operational

10:35value that I care about. It's the app

10:37that I log into, I see my heart rate, my

10:39sleep scores. I can't operate or

10:41function as well without that data, the

10:43software, the proprietary IP that comes

10:45with the durable one-time value. The

10:48ring is your online course. It's the

10:49information. Now, some of you at this

10:51point are probably saying, "Okay, this

10:52is great. Cool theory, four types of

10:54value, I get it. I'm understanding now

10:56consumable versus durable value, but I

10:58don't know how to apply any of this to

11:00my specific business or my course. How

11:02could I possibly create consumable value

11:04for my business?" Well, for you I built

11:06a prompt and also a Claude skill,

11:07depending on what AI tool you use, that

11:09will take everything I taught in this

11:10video and it will apply it to your

11:12business. Links in the description. All

11:13you got to do is paste it into your AI

11:15tool of choice. You tell it what you

11:16teach, who you're actually selling

11:18yourself to, and then it's going to

11:19audit what you currently sell today.

11:20It's then going to give you an honest

11:22score from 0 to 100 of how well your

11:24model would actually fits with

11:25consumable value. Because some of you

11:27just may not be in a very good gas

11:29selling business. You might be better

11:30off just focusing on the one-time sale

11:33of your car instead. But, it gives you

11:34both. It tells you what you should be

11:36charging up front and for the one-time

11:37durable value and also all of your

11:39options across all four of these types

11:41with the full model and the revenue math

11:43included, all programmed entirely on

11:45what I'm teaching you right now. Links

11:46in the description, go wild. But, I have

11:47to just say this because it's going to

11:49be the first mistake I promise most of

11:50you make because we made it. Recurring

11:52prices do not create recurring value.

11:55Learn from that case study, right?

11:57Slapping a recurring monthly price tag

11:59on to a product that is inherently

12:01one-time value in nature does not make

12:03it consumable. It's still durable, no

12:05matter how you price it. And so, when it

12:06comes to selling education, information,

12:08courses, etc. online, there's a model

12:10that I love called big head long tail.

12:13Charge high and charge once for the

12:15information, charge small and monthly

12:18for the gas that comes after. This is

12:20the appropriate way to sell education

12:23online. Just look at my business right

12:25now as a living example of this working.

12:27We sell Course Creator Pro, the durable

12:29one-time value of information. We teach

12:31everything you could possibly want to

12:33know about how to create, market, and

12:34sell online courses, how to market

12:36yourself online with Facebook ads,

12:37YouTube ads, YouTube organic, Instagram

12:39organic, how to copyright, how to make

12:40funnels, how to write emails, how to run

12:41webinars, the whole shebang. We price

12:43that at $1,500 appropriately. Once you

12:45get the information, you can't unsee it.

12:47It's durable. I'm pricing it that way.

12:49But, the software is the tail. That's

12:51the long tail afterwards, a much smaller

12:53price where I just so happen to include

12:55operational value, again the middle of

12:56the ring. I'm also giving you direct

12:58value with the templates for funnels and

13:00websites and emails and much more. I

13:02also give you the human delivered value

13:03by doing coaching calls. We have 24/7

13:05chat support. We've got a community. And

13:07I myself, by understanding the

13:08difference between consumable and

13:10durable value and pricing everything

13:12appropriately, 5 to 10x my business, and

13:14it's going to look different for you

13:15than it looked for me. But, the big kind

13:17of full circle moment here is that

13:18information has never been dead. If

13:20you've been selling the information, how

13:22you package or sell the information is

13:25dead and is always going to change. The

13:26reality is though, from 2016 we've

13:28always been doing it appropriately, not

13:30without our mistakes and without our

13:31bumps along the way. But, if you're

13:32simply just making videos, you're

13:34spewing information at a camera and then

13:36slapping a price tag on that, that is

13:38not what selling online courses is. I

13:40could give you tens of thousands of

13:41examples of highly successful

13:43businesses, whether they're selling

13:44services, coaching, courses, education,

13:46software, physical products, most of

13:48them are built on some sort of

13:50information as the foundation. That's

13:52always going to be the case. It is the

13:53foundation. Information really has not

13:55changed that much. It didn't get less

13:56important. It's not less true. It just

13:58takes up far less of the pie of what

14:00your business should be built upon,

14:02especially as we advance further and

14:03further into the age of AI. That, my

14:05friends, is how you actually build an

14:07information-based business. And if

14:08you're looking to create, market, or

14:09sell your own online course, a

14:11community, a membership, a coaching

14:12program, you can join a 30-day free

14:14trial to our software, Course Creator

14:15360, where again, I give you not only

14:17all the information and the durable

14:18value that you need, the how-to, but I

14:20pair that with the operational value,

14:22the human-delivered value, the direct

14:23value, strategic value, giving you every

14:25single template and asset I have used to

14:27sell or help sell $25 million of online

14:30courses. But, that's it for this video.

14:32Like and subscribe for more, and I'll

14:33see you in the next one.