The Ultimate Guide For Equestrian Course Creators
In 2022

Want to sell your equestrian course online?

But not sure where to start & how to go about it...

Don't worry!

You've just landed at the right place.

In this post I show you how to create & sell your equestrian course online in the easiest & fastest way...

I've studied professional horse sports management at Bern University of Applied Sciences, cybersecurity at Harvard University.

I've been a showjumping rider & coach for over two decades teaching horses & riders up to 150 cm international classes...I've learned my craft from Olympic showjumping champions...

I'm not telling this to brag, but to rest you assured I what I show you here is what works for me & thousands others clients who use Thrive Apprentice as you'll discover below...

In this Ultimate guide you discover how to profitably sell your equestrian course online in 2 weeks...then you create it with your students & without investing a penny out of your own pocket for software or coaching...

I show you how to test drive Thrive Apprentice 2 weeks 100% free trial, during which you sell your course & invest in Thrive Apprentice from the proceeds of the selling your course so that you don't risk a penny out of your own pocket.

Selling then creating equestrian online courses in way is the best way to grow or scale your equestrian business...with unlimited growth potential & limited financial risk.

It also doesn't require any upfront money investment except a bit of your time.

It's impossible to scale your equine business offering traditional training horses & riders...because you're selling your time for money...and if you're like most horse professionals I come across, your time is limited.

Selling your time for money as a horse riding trainer or coach won’t cut it in today's world...

However, selling your equestrian course online is very scalable...Because it doesn't require any more of your time...when a new sale is made...

In this blog post, I show you How You Can Sell Then Create Your Online Course & Earn $1000 (In 2 Weeks)...So you don't have to pay a penny out of your own pocket to learn how to do it or pay for a learning management system software to host your course online.

Cool?

Let's jump right in...

Framework

You've got to take action to live the equestrian lifestyle of your dream...

In the previous posts of this series, you learned how to offer coaching or consultancy & affiliate products to start a conversation with your ideal equestrian clients & target audience…

This allowed you to know what their equestrian specific problems & desires are hands-on.

Selling affiliate products helped you test the markets & see what products your equestrian clients & audience are actually buying. 

We also discovered where the horse usually people get stuck, and when they have their epiphany moments...

You spotted repeated questions, problems, patterns & stereotypes...

Now, it’s time to capitalize on all that knowledge.

The first step on this track is to:

Productize Your Service

Now, is the time to productize your equestrian service...
To package it in an irresistible core offer.

Create an equestrian flagship course that you can sell for a premium price.
Because it solves specific problems your equestrian clients & audiences have.
And it gets the results that your equine clients want.

Pre-Sell Your Course

The most important piece of information I can give you is that you pre-sell your course...before you create it.

This helps you test your assumptions & make sure people want what you're selling.
And that they actually buy it before you build it!

You don’t want to waste your time creating a course that nobody actually wants.

If your course won’t sell or scale.
So why waste your time & money to create it?

Remember, at this stage, your priority is to scale your business.

You want to offer your own equestrian course to scale your horse business selling it at a premium price to a large enough audience. 

This sounds a bit scary now. I hear you...

Don’t let fear get you sidetracked!

Even if you feel that you're not good enough...
You don’t have enough experience...
You're not a techie...

None of that is required!

You don’t even have to be the expert.

Because you can be the reporter who brings in the experts for your clients & audience, if you're not an expert yet.

Now, ready to jump in?

One last thing before we jump in, let’s run the numbers to see how we can make $1000 in 2 weeks...

If you sell your program at $100 to 10 clients or $200 to 5 clients,
you’ll generate $1’000.

It's challenging, but it is definitely doable. 

Here’s what you need to do:

Week One:

Ask Questions & Build Anticipation

This is your warm up groundwork.

The purpose of this first week is to test your assumptions to make sure that people really want the equestrian course you’re offering.

Day 1: Warm-Up

The first step is that you’ll start to warm up your clients & target audience by enticing them ask you the top questions they have on your topic.

You’ll probably get the same questions they’ve asked you before.

You want to continue the conversation they had in their minds.

And then you answer them.

You can simply send them an email or post on your social media platform asking them:

"What's the number 1 question you have about topic X"

Example:

"What's the No. 1 question you have about jumping young horses?"

if you don't have an audience yet, no problem.

Check out equestrian or horse blogs, forums, book reviews, social media groups to discover their questions or problems, or what keep them up at night?

You can also check out tools like Ask The Public or Google Trends.

You can set up a page to collect emails from those who would like to discovers ways to solve the specific problem you figured out from your research...

You collect their emails so you invite them to your teaching sessions.

Once you figure out this step then you can move to day 2.

Day 2: Build Anticipation

The second step is to start to build anticipation for your online course, by letting your audience know you’re working on your course...Where you're putting in all your pearls of equestrian wisdom & experience.

If you're bringing an expert then mention them instead of you. 

Your course is meant to solve a particular problem. Then you ask them if there’s something important they think you should include...

You want them to take part in building the program with you early on in the process.

People like what they take part in building & what they feel they are a part of...

It’s important to call out a specific ideal customer from among your large audience.

So you can give them a chance to raise their hands, identify themselves with you & feel that they belong to your group. 

It’s important that this group speaks the language you do (preferably English), has a spectrum from beginner to advanced level, self-identifies with the identity you specified & is large enough to scale in the future.

Once you’ve got a few early adopters, it’s time to move to day 3...

Day 3-4-5: Teach Your Framework

Here you’ll build your authority & rapport with your group.

Make sure you email those who showed interest & gave you their email address.

Email them 30 minutes before the event to remind them to come watch your class.

You’ll let your audience know you’ve been where they are & that you’re a few steps ahead and can help them solve their problem. 

You’ll educate them on:

• Who you are
• Why you do what you do 
• How you can help them solve their problems & hit their goals 
• What their lives look like when their problems are solved.

You’ll start to teach them your framework in a 3 part series.

One part per day with homework (a worksheet or playbook).  

Each part solves a specific problem.

Once a problem is solved, the door is open for another follow-up question to a new problem that arises. 

Example:

Let’s imagine you teach people how to buy their 1st horse…

Buying a horse will automatically open the door for a new set of problems, like where to put the horse (how to find stables near you), then how to feed your horse to keep him healthy (nutritions, vaccines, supplements), then how to fit his saddle (saddle fitting), then how to train a horse (training exercises)...

As you can see, solving a problem leads to a new set of problems that you can address & help them solve these problems.

It’s helpful to imagine where your client is & where they want to go.

Then guide them through the main steps or stations they need to pass by to reach their destination. As if you're going on a train ride to another city. There will be train stations along the way that you'll have to pass by.

It’s also important to show them the knowledge, skills & personal attitude they need to solve their problems & achieve their dreams.

You can divide each part into 9 minutes of either text to read, audio or video.

(You can choose the medium that you enjoy the most & you're good at)

• 1st 10 minutes you teach
• 2nd 10 minutes for questions & answers
• 3rd 5 minutes you pitch your course

You open the cart for buying the program from the first part.

Pro Tip: Each day you reduce the price & increase the free bonuses you offer with your course.

You can also future frame them on how their lives will look like when they take your course & the stakes if they don't...

At this stage, it is important to help them identify their problem & goal, imagine they have solved it or achieved it already & practice affirmation...

It's important to establish routines & rituals... 

Motivate your audience to do their homework with prompts or playbooks.

Let them express themselves...listen carefully to them...encourage them to contribute...and answer & help each other out...

Ringing a bell or an aha shout-out are practical rituals that they would normally like & wouldn’t want to stop.

Encourage & celebrate those who do their homework or share their wins...

By the end of day 5, you close the cart & start to teach your program.

Day 6 & 7 are weekend. 

You can reflect, catch up on things you missed & plan the week ahead.

Week Two:
Prepare Your Marketing Materials 

Day 1:
Here you should have a few marketing materials done.

These would include:

• Your course name (example: the secrets of X, the new method to X )
• A compelling back story about why you created your course (with a beginning, middle & end)
• Your one-paragraph course description & one-liner
• A few pictures (with or without quotes) or video ads
• Advertising copy to specify the problem & result you help people with
• Your big idea, claims & a guarantee that your program promises

You also need to set up your learning management system (LMS) on your own website.

Your LMS is where your course lives on your website.

There are many plugins for that purpose.

Here's the tech stack that I use:

- Hover: to buy your domain name (this is your address online)
- SiteGround: to buy your hosting (this is the land where you build your business)
- WordPress: to get your content management system (this is the building itself)
- Thrive Theme & Plugins: to buy your theme (this is the design, colours, fonts, look & feel of your website) & your plugins (this is the functionality your rooms inside the building. Oven for cooking for example)
- WooCommerce & Strip: to get your cart & payment system (this is to be able to set your online shop to sell online & collect payment from clients)

For my theme & plugins,  I use the Thrive Themes Suite. There is an LMS Plugin included with it called Thrive Apprentice. I strongly recommend it for delivering your course on your own self-hosted WordPress site.

You Can Learn How to Sell Online Courses With Thrive Apprentice & WooCommerce here.

Never build your assets (course) on someone else’s land (platform)!

Day 2:
Your Course Assets

These are the assets that the clients who bought your course will find when they buy your program & go into your program:

• An outline about the program
• The framework of the program
• A bit of information about you as the instructor
• The recording of the lessons you already taught them in the previous week.

Review & Update Your Course

Now, encourage your group to tell you more about themselves, their stories, questions & the problems they want to solve & the results they expect.

This will allow you to double-check your outline, framework & customize your program to their common needs.

Day 3:

Start Your Live Sessions

Here you'll continue to teach, coach, advise your clients live, record your sessions & upload them to your LMS.

Show them the system you have developed, the resources, the tools they need & the tech stack that they will use. Walk them through it all. Show, don’t just tell.

You’re literally getting paid to build your program with & for your clients as you go.

I like to set up my course as a 6 week course, with 6 modules. Each module includes 6 lessons in 6 days & 1 day off.

Each lesson is about 9 minutes, that includes (what) I'm teaching for 3 minutes, (why) it is important for 3 minutes and (how) to do it for 3 minutes.

Day 4: 

Q&A

In this teaching week, you make sure you’ve solved your client's problems. You’ve shown them how to reach their goals. And you’ve helped & guided them along the way one step at a time. 

Make sure to get all their questions answered, that you’ve cleared their limiting beliefs & what’s standing in their way to achieving their dreams. 

Day 5:

Get Testimonials

In this last day, you get your audience's testimonials... Offer then a free bonus for doing so. Let them share their Aha moments, or what they learned.

Celebrate their wins & show them how they can help you by spreading the word about your course.

Make sure to include how they can earn commissions doing so using affiliate marketing. 

They can also help you teach your program to new students & guide them along the way.

Now you have a recorded program ready. You can review it & improve it based on the feedback you got. So you can launch live a couple more times to make it as excellent as you can.

Once you have built a solid program that delivers on its promise to your clients, you can sell it at scale as a recorded program or a productized service.

Then your live sessions are only to take questions or to coach & consult those who need more personal or customized help.

Why Selling Then Creating Your Online Course Is The Way To Go?

If you want to scale your horse business to six figures in 2022, then creating your online course is the way to go.

There you have it!

Now, that you've built your essential module, sales & marketing material, you've got to spread the word about your course...

It's time to make some noise!

Be creative & test. Then double down on what works.

Important things to remember when you're spreading the word about your course are:

- Always lead with value first

In your content or sales & marketing materials or ads. Give people some free information then pitch your course. Then sell one thing at a time. Don't over exhaust your audience with sales messages. Make sure you offer free value at least double the time you sell.

- Talk & write about what concerns your audience

It's not about you. What's in it from them. What keeps them up at night or day dream about in the morning. Their pain points & secret desire. Talk about one thing at time. One big idea, one emotion, one promise or result & one call to action.

- Be concise

Stories sell but get to the point early on so you don't loose people's attention or interest. Start your content with the end in mind. Then explain. Start each content piece or paragraph with a concise short sentence that sums up what you want to say, then you can go to more details.

- Appeal to both reason & emotions

People buy on emotion then justify by logic. Make sure that your message feels good & makes sense. Most people go through life in silent desperation. Give them hope without hype.

Here's a few ways to spread the word about your course:

- Reach Out 

Call message or emails people you know or in your circles who may be interested in your course. You can also reach out to people you don't know but think they might be interested.

- Your Profile & Posts In Social Media

Include a link in all your social media profiles & post about your course regularly. Find good hooks & angles to grab attention to your posts. Novelty & curiosity are attractive. Test what works.

- Build Your Contact List

Publish free content in written form like blog posts, audio like podcast or videos on Youtube where you include a free bribe for interested people to subscribe at your mailing list. A free masterclass, checklist, template or a coaching group to take part of.

- Paid Ads

You can drive paid advertising to your offers through Facebook Ads or Google Ads. Test different target audiences, creatives (pictures or videos) & sales messages. Discovering how much it costs you to acquire a new customer is gold.

As long as you can sell your course at least 3 times more expensive than the cost of acquiring your new clients, you'll win. 

The course creators who can afford to pay more to acquire new customers will win over their competitors.

Now, you have 3 options:

1- Do nothing.

2- Take action & implement what you've learned on your own.

3- Short cut your way to profitably sell your 1st course following the tested & proven blueprint of Course Craft. It is a step by step process from the moment you start to think about your course to the moment you finish it.

If you want to take a deep dive on how to craft your own flagship program check out Course Craft Now!

Shane Melaugh, the Co-founder of Thrive Themes University bootstrapped several 6 & 7 figures online businesses from scratch, on a shoestring budget.

In Course Craft, he's going to reveal to you in more detail why launching your own online course is the way to scale your online business model & create profits.

Check out Course Craft now to enjoy your personal freedom, this year & beyond:

What is Course Craft?

Course Craft is an online course consisting of video lessons, worksheets & exercises.

Course Craft contains step-by-step, proven advice to walk you through Shane Melaugh's entire process for going from zero to creating a $200 online course that sells to at least one student per day. This makes you $6000 per month.

Course Craft modules include everything you need to know in the 3 key areas of online course success:

1 The Tech Stuff
2 Building a High Quality & Valuable Course
3 Launching & Marketing your Course 

I've personally taken Shane Melaugh's Course Craft & strongly recommend it to all Thrive Themes users, online entrepreneurs, business owners & investors in my community.

Check Course Craft Now!

Now you're ready to move to the next step on ladder of The One Company Band For Digital Brands...