If you've been working with your clients 1-on-1 for a while, you’ll quickly notice a pattern of stuff that come up for each person. Usually it’s something that comes so naturally to you that you never thought about actually teaching it… but here you are; wanting to see if you can turn this into a group program or a self-study thing online.

It can be so easy to go into overwhelm with this, especially if it’s your first ever program! As the designer on a team, I’ve developed some unique perspectives by observing what goes on behind-the-scenes of a launch. So here are my tips for keeping it simple for your first beta testing round.

TEST YOUR CORE TRAINING ONLY

The goal of beta testing is to find out if your training can get people results. I know it’s tempting to add a bunch of bonuses to “pack on the value”. But this is not the time to let your insecurities get the better of you. If you can’t get people on board to test something for free just based on your core training, then you need to go back to the drawing board. This is also a great opportunity for you to create the bonuses that people ask for when they’ve completed your program, in stead of guessing what they would want. Before you add something extra, ask yourself this question first:

Am I over-delivering, or am I over-compensating?

This is a deeply personal matter because it touches on our self-worth. I get that, and I want you to know that your knowledge is enough. You don’t have to know absolutely everything, you simply need to know more than the people you’ll be teaching. That automatically makes you the expert in their eyes. That is enough. You are enough.

DON’T HIRE A DESIGNER, YET

I see this all the time: when people decide to create a program, their minds immediately go to how it will look before they even have an outline of their program. I challenge you to shift your focus to your customers and making sure that your content is great and well organized. Focus on getting them results. This is not about you! ;) Before you spend the money, ask yourself this question first:

Is my content actually ready for design, or is this just my ego wanting to look good from the outside?

Here’s the truth: if you can get people to rave about your program despite your do-it-yourself design attempt, then you know you’re on to something big and you’ve earned the right to work with a professional designer.

WAIT BEFORE YOU BUILD A MEMBER SITE

Often times you don’t even need a membership site. You just won’t know until you have your content ready. Use this opportunity to ask your customers how they would like to receive the content. This is BETA, nothing is supposed to be final. Before you invest the time + money + energy, ask yourself this question first:

Am I being distracted, or am I taking action?

Golden rule: people first, systems second. If you haven’t created your content yet, researching your options is a distraction. The very act of creating and testing your content will provide you the clarity you need to decide what will work the best for your offer.

For now, you can add your content to Dropbox, and then send out an email with instructions and a download link. Just organize your content in the folder so that it’s clear what order they should go through the content.

Example: “1 Bake Cupcake” & “2 Decorate Cupcake” & “3 Eat Cupcake”. See? Easy.