Help MORE people without stretching yourself thin.

Did that get your attention?

A group program offer may be perfect for you if you …

Love stepping into a hands-on, facilitator role.

Are passionate about using mentorship to promote growth.

Enjoy combining a personal and instructive approach.

Feel called to serve as many people as possible.

If your interest is piqued, tune into the latest podcast episode where I walk through the ins and outs of a group program offer.

By the end, you’ll feel confident in knowing whether or not it’s for you. Listen now.

CLICK BELOW TO LISTEN!

Show Notes:

Hey, Risers. Welcome to Empathy Rising. We're gonna talk about group programs. Group programs are my favorite income stream.

I think they're the best ones to start with, in my opinion, and I'll share a lot about that, but I'm also gonna highlight some of the negatives of group programs and those negatives might tip you over and say, "nope, that's not what I'm gonna start with".

The truth is, group programs and courses are pretty much mirrors of each other. There are things that are exactly the same between the two, and there are things that are polar opposite between the two and that's what we're going to explore today.

But I'm also gonna talk a little bit more about one-on-one coaching in this same episode because all three of these offers do make up three sides of a triangle if you will.

There are a lot of similarities between all three of these and group programs allow you to cherry-pick the best of coaching and cherry-pick the best of courses and put those together in one place.

We're gonna take a look at that today, and then like I said, I'm always gonna show you the shadow. I'm always gonna talk about what sucks about group programs so you can make an educated decision.

I wanna take a minute here to talk about the fact that the curriculum that you create for a one-on-one coaching package or a digital course or a group program, can actually be the exact same.

You could have the exact same curriculum, sell it as a self-study course, find a section of your audience that wants to go through it with you live, and run that as a group program and there may be people who reach out to you to work with you one-on-one, and you can deliver the same curriculum in a one-on-one capacity.

You don't have to redo a thing. You don't have to go back to the drawing board. You've created the asset and you are just employing it in three delivery ways. Sometimes it's just about adapting it to better fit the needs of your customer, or you, or both, and sometimes you can have the same thing bring in different tiers of money.

If you sell it as a self-study, it brings in between 200 and a thousand. If you sell it as a group program and it brings in a thousand plus, and if you do one-on-one coaching, it might bring in 3000 plus or 5,000 plus and it's all the same thing.

I'm sure you're wondering then if there's so much that can be the exact same about the programs what's the big deal about choosing one? What's obvious here is that the delivery and the work style are the main differences, so that's what I wanna explore.

Coaching is live one-on-one, courses are self-paced with a potential support element (which I recommend), and group programs are live, but in a group, so that's where they really do combine the best of both coaching and courses.

It's the nuanced details that set each type of offer apart, and it's about deciding how your values and your goals align with these nuances that are really going to determine if that type of online income stream is the right for you.

So while the curriculum can be the exact same, I want to unpack one of these nuanced differences, and that is the transformation.

The transformation you're providing from your course is a sense of mastery—they are mastering a skill or they are mastering a process. After completing your course, your students should feel proficient and they can accomplish something.

Now the major transformation that you're providing with coaching is results, right? We've talked about this as well. A person hires you and wants to work with you one-on-one to go on a journey with you and to arrive at a predetermined final destination.

The content inside your course can be the exact same as what you do with somebody individually, but here's the differentiator for group programs. The transformation here is growth.

I wanna repeat that. The transformation from a group program is growth, and as a therapist, that might sound really good to you. I think that can be one of the turnoffs of courses is this idea of mastery. But in a group program, even if it's the exact same content, the nature of the live delivery facilitates growth.

Because they're working in a group setting, they're exposed to each group member and a variety of opinions and a variety of points of view, and then of course, they're working with you to stretch them out of their comfort zone.

They're able to witness a few people that are a few steps behind, and they're able to witness people who are a few steps ahead, and they really get a picture, a clear picture of the whole process. Group programs also have an inherent sense of community.

Members can experience the safety to dig deep and explore, knowing that the other group members in the program are going to be there to catch them if they fall, to support them, to lift them back up, whatever that might be. All of these are catalysts for growth.

Hey, Risers. We are all here listening today because we're craving that lighter lifestyle that's possible when we repurpose and repackage our clinical skills into an online income stream. But none of us is alone when we've realized we have 25-plus ideas floating around in our head and zero clue how to take the first step.

The truth is there are a lot of different types of programs we can offer online and each one will help us scale beyond one-on-one clients so we can start claiming a bit more time and financial freedom, and every online income stream has subtle nuances that make it different than other revenue sources.

Each income stream requires something a little bit different from you and it's wise to take a look at things like your work style, your values, and your business goals before you decide which type of program you want to offer.

So whether you're thinking about adding coaching, a digital course, or even a retreat, gaining some insight into which type of program is best for you will make it so much easier to get and that's why I made a really fun quiz.

In 10 pinpoint questions, you'll take a look at things like the work that lights you up outside of the therapy room and how comfortable you are with marketing and visibility.

And at the end, you'll see which type of online income stream is right for you, so you can move forward with the clarity and confidence to make it happen. Just head on over to marissalawton.com/quiz to take the first step in building the business and the lifestyle that you crave.

Okay, so let's dive in now to group programs. Specifically, we know that they're about growth. We know that they're a combination of coaching and courses. We know that the curriculum can be the exact same among all three, but what is it about group programs that are different?

Because they are a combination of coaching and courses, they're a great way for you to combine your therapeutic skills with something new and different. One of the upsides of courses was that they were new and different, but sometimes that can be too big of a leap.

Group programs allow you to still be that space holder to still use some of those therapeutic skills, even some group therapy skills like linking and all of those things joining all but then you add on the instructing component as well. It's a really nice blend.

While courses use a straight-up different skill, group programs combine them. They're a nice middle ground. So let's jump into the pros of the group programs. Here's where we get into those opposites. Group programs are hands-on. While courses were hands-off, group programs are hands-on.

If you are a person who likes to facilitate growth, if you are a person who likes to work in an intimate way, if you are a person who likes to achieve a deep transformation, then a group program might be more right for you than a course.

Group programs also offer a sense of mentorship in the sense that members can follow along in your footsteps and implement a method that you've walked and see results. This part hearkens back to coaching.

Group programs also feel like a culmination. They're letting you use those therapy skills and your teaching skills and your relational skills and your networking skills. They kind of feel like coming home in the sense that you get to use all of the parts of yourself.

You don't have to tune yourself out or not acknowledge that you are a person like sometimes you have to do in therapy. You can bring yourself to the group like you can with coaching, but you also get to instruct.

Bring out those new fun things that you don't get to do enough in session.

One of the reasons that I really like group programs is that they're family-like. The members in your group program are all striving for the same transformation, and it bonds them together for a common goal. I really feel like stronger bonds happen in a group program than in any other kind of online.

And also the other pro is that group programs are broadening because yours isn't the only opinion being shared like it is in one-on-one coaching. Or even with courses, each member in your group gets to share equally and has the equal opportunity to learn from everyone else so it's really broadening.

You know, you could have people from all over the world in one group program and so lots of different cultures, lots of different opinions, lots of different points of view, and it can be a great, again, growth opportunity.

And my favorite pro probably is a combination. A) They’re easy to sell, and B) you don't need a big audience. Group programs are easy to sell because they are less expensive than one-on-one coaching, but they are more supportive than the traditional course that we've talked about.

While courses can be between two and usually tend to tap out at a thousand dollars, sometimes they'll go up to $2,000, but usually, they cap out at around a thousand dollars.

Your group program is starting at around a thousand dollars, so they're more expensive than courses, but the reason for that is you are showing up.

You're showing up every single week running that content live. You might even also have a Facebook group for questions between calls but because it's done in a group, it is less expensive than one-on-one therapy. A group program can maybe go up to like 5k.

Sometimes one-on-one coaching is starting at 5k. It blends the two together nicely, and it provides that middle ground for somebody who wants more support than just learning the information, but maybe isn't ready to spring for a one-on-one coach.

Or even if they can spring for a one-on-one coach, sometimes they like doing things in a group. I prefer masterminds than I do for one-on-one. I think each has its time and place, but even if the price was the same, there are times when I would choose a group over a one-on-one coach.

You've gotta take that into consideration, and I also said that the second half of this is that you don't need a big audience. Sometimes in your group program, you're looking for eight or maybe five or maybe even three sales.

If your group program's $2,500 and you sold three and had this really intimate group, that's still $7,500. You don't need a big audience to make significant money. The counter to that is because you're showing up.

You're gonna probably start picking up on a theme here: the more you show up, the more you can charge, which is gonna feel very different from therapy. While you need three, five, or eight sales of your group program, you do not need the 50 or the 100 like you do of your course to make the same amount of money.

One of the cons is that group programs are not scalable in the traditional sense. While you might think your group is a really good size at eight members, there's nothing that's stopping you from holding more than one cohort at a time.

Your group program, it might be eight weeks, and you might want eight people to a group, but if you made 24 or 32 sales, you can split them up into three or four separate cohorts. Your income is not hindered here, but what gets more involved is your time.

Instead of running one call a week, you might be running three or four calls a week. So you're in that same time problem that you are with one-on-one therapy or one-on-one coaching. But again, the money component is much higher.

Group programs are a perfect example of what I mean by passive income, but not a passive business model, because you can have a funnel set up that drives people to a waitlist or an application, and you can have a good number of people who are ready to buy when you open the doors.

That can all be done automatically. That can all be done with a sales funnel, but you still have to show up and deliver the curriculum live, and you still have to show up in that coaching role. You're definitely not going to get something that is hands-off like an information-only course with a group program.

It just doesn't work that way, but that's what allows you to charge the higher price. Here's that time versus money question. When we're looking at expected profit then, the profit on a group program is more than a course because they're higher priced.

But again, it's gonna be a little bit less than coaching, so it's right again, in that middle ground. The reason that you can charge more for a group program is because of your presence. If it's an eight-module course that you sell self-study, you might be able to charge $600 for that.

But if it's an eight-week group program that takes the same eight modules, but delivers them live with you, serving a coaching role each week, that's easily double the price. Now the technology and the expenses and the overhead to deliver a group program are going to be similar to that of a course.

You're going to need your content hosting platform as I've talked about. I use Teachable for that, but you're also going to need something like Zoom to host and record the group call, so that might be an additional expense.

But here's where I save money; because I am not running a passive course and I can upload my students manually into Teachable, I do not have to pay for the automated version of Teachable. It saves me a hundred dollars a month.

Now let's get into what it takes to market a group program. I've dropped a couple of times in this episode that I think that group programs are one of the best to start with, and this is where we're going to explore that.

The way that you market a group program is in a demonstrative way. Demonstrate your skills, your knowledge, your expertise, and your ability to help them solve the problem that they're looking for a solution for, and you will have people join your group program.

The best way that I think to do this is to do a challenge, a five-day challenge on X, Y, and Z. A facetious example here, let's say that your group program is to help somebody to spring clean their house, get it organized from top to bottom right.

You can do a five-day challenge on something really small like organizing your master bedroom closet. We're not gonna try and tackle their entire house in five days.

If a group of people worked with you for five days and by the end of those five days they got their entire closet organized and they could walk in and breathe a sigh of relief and they could know what clothes were going to Goodwill and what still fit them, and they knew that the clothes in their closet matched their style and made them feel good, that would be an awesome win.

You could give them a really great win and they got to see what it was like to work with you. They get to walk into that closet and say, "Dang, if we could do this closet in five days, I wonder what we could do with my whole house". You have demonstrated something to them.

Then go back to those rock stars and personally invite them to take it to the next level. I know that's scary. Like what? Personally invite somebody? But this is what's gonna work for your group program, throwing out some numbers and making this more concrete.

Run a challenge. You get 200 people to sign up of those 200 people that signed up for the challenge, there were 10, 15 that were there every day, that watched every Facebook Live, that opened every email. You probably can recall their names or at least recognize their profile pictures.

Send an email to those 15 people and say, "Sally, you rocked and organizing your master closet. I just can't wait to see what we could do with your whole house. I'd love to have you join me in a group program, it's gonna be eight weeks long, and over those eight weeks we're gonna do your kitchen, your kids' rooms, your playroom, your living room, everything, and those same exact results that you felt for your master closet you're gonna feel for your entire house. I'd love to have you join me. You're such a rockstar. I know I can help you. Let's do this".

You send a very similar personalized email to all 15 of those people and five of them, six of them say, "Heck yes, I want this feeling that I have for my master bedroom closet for my whole house. Yes, let's do it". It's that simple.

Personal invites work amazing for group programs, and if you've run your numbers and you only need three people, I mean, you can fill, you can get three people in a group from a personal invite. This also goes to the fact that you don't need that big audience.

If you had 200 people join the challenge, it's reasonable to expect five or six of them to come into your group program.

Whereas with a course, and without having that demonstrative marketing and without having that personal connection to you, you can expect maybe two people to buy a course out of an audience of 200.

Group programs and the demonstrative, personalized way of marketing them mean that you do not need as big of an audience. One thing to think about here though is you're going to need to have a live launch.

The reason for that is because your group is time-bound. They all start at the same time. You're going through this thing together live. You're gonna have to plan the live launch, and if that's a challenge, then you plan the challenge to start on a Monday of one week.

They go through five days of a challenge with you, and then your group program could start the next week or the week after. There is some planning and there is going to need to be some kind of launch to get those people into your group or to get the visibility to get the people into your group.

The good thing is the launch only needs to bring in a small amount of people. It doesn't need to bring in thousands of people. The other thing is you're probably going to want to screen your group members in some way.

You wanna make sure that the personalities that you're drawing towards you are good fits to be with each other. You're cultivating this family-like community. That's also what a live launch allows you to do, is when everybody's in that challenge together, you can see who's a cheerleader for whom you can see who is building up the community and moving others towards results.

You can easily see if there's somebody in there who's like being a naysayer or a negative Nancy and that you wouldn't want in your group, so the demonstrative part goes both ways. You get to demonstrate your skills, but they also get to show themselves.

By having a live launch and having a live event, you get to screen. You can also do this by adding something like a sales call to your launch. They do the challenge and then you invite them to get on a call with you.

The personal invite could be a phone call instead of an email. That could be your way to screen. There are some passive ways to make sure you're getting your audience ready for your group, like starting a wait list before the challenge ever goes live.

Ultimately you're going to have to do live promotion. This is a program that is run live, so it's not something that sells passively and it's not something that is carried out passively by any means. I could seriously talk about group programs all day.

You can probably tell why they're my favorite offer for a lot of reasons, but mostly it's that elbow-deep, family-like feel that you really can only get from this online income stream from a group program.

There are plenty of drawbacks. They are not any less of a time commitment than what you're doing in session. It has to light you up and it has to be that thing that you wanna do. It's still a one-to-many delivery, so it is more scalable than one-on-one coaching or one-on-one therapy, but it's not scalable in a time sense. You have still committed your time to the group.

When you're thinking about "Do I want a course or do I want a group program?" reflect on these two things; am I more likely to help somebody achieve mastery or am I more likely to help somebody achieve growth?

That's reflection point one, and reflection point two, is how much of myself do I want to be involved in this?

Because if you're wanting a thousand dollars a course, and you're already gonna have to have a student-only Facebook group, how much more of your time would it be to just run it live and be able to charge $3,000 for it? Or at least, you know, 1500, 2000 for it?

All of that is a reflection for you. I hope this episode was valuable and gave you more clarity about whether a group program is right for you. Keep on rising.