135: Turn your expertise into a profitable online course

This week on Online Business Uncovered, I’m sharing how to turn your expertise into an online course that creates freedom, flexibility and passive income in your business. If you’ve been wondering how to create an online course but feel overwhelmed by where to start, this episode will give you the clarity and confidence you need.

I take you behind the scenes of my own journey from burnout to building a scalable business with digital products, uncover the most common myths that hold entrepreneurs back and show you the first steps to packaging your knowledge into a repeatable online course.

I’ve also got an exciting announcement about my free masterclass where I’ll walk you through how to create an online course that actually sells without the stress or confusion.

If you’re ready to stop trading time for money and start building a profitable, scalable business that gives you more freedom then this is your episode!

Transcript

Karen [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 135 and in today's episode I'm going to be talking about how you can turn your valuable expertise into an online course. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered, the show that helps you turn your expertise into digital products, passive income and most importantly, time freedom. 

I'm your host, Karen and I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. So before I dive into today's episode, I want to just let you know that I'm running a free masterclass on 9th October 2025 at 7pm UK time, all about how to turn your expertise into a profitable online course. So I know that I'm talking about this topic today and today I'm just going to be talking sort of high level. But in the masterclass I will break it all down.

Karen [00:01:21]:
I'll give you action steps. So if you are thinking about creating an online course, then by the end of that masterclass you'll be read, ready to take action. So if this sounds like something you're interested in, then I'd love for you to head on over to my website, www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com. you can register there for free. Sign up for the 9th of October and come along and find out a little bit more about how you can turn your valuable expertise, your skills, your knowledge, all of that good stuff into a repeatable income that's going to give you that time freedom back. 

Okay, so let's dive in to today's episode. And today I am talking about how to turn your expertise into an online course. As I said, this is just going to be a high level sort of talking about what an online course is or why you'd want to think about creating an online course and how you can get started.

Karen [00:02:22]:
But I do encourage you, if you want to know more about this, then come along to my free masterclass on the 9th of October. Okay, so I want to just start by kicking off talking about something that sort of tends to happen when we start a business. If you're like me, you most likely started your business because you want some kind of freedom. Maybe you used to work in corporate where you had to give a lot to get your pay and you were on the clock and your salary never quite maybe was enough. It never really paid you what you felt you were worth. So maybe starting your own business was your way of taking back that control and creating freedom in your life. Now I've heard this so many times and like I say, I also had this dream. However, the reality is that once you start your business and you start looking for clients and you start providing a service, you then start trading your time for money, which means that the one employer that you gave up, you most likely then take on multiple employers through your clients because you're on the hook.

Karen [00:03:53]:
In order for you to deliver your services, you have to spend your time giving, you have to give your time to those clients in order to fulfill the brief that that they're paying you for. So that's fine if this is something that you enjoy doing. And for me for a long while it was. I had a branding studio, a successful branding studio where I would provide creative services. However, there is a ceiling, the amount of time that you are able to give to anything. Your time is valuable. It is probably the most important currency that you're going to have. But I think the problem is when you are a service based provider, you give your time because in exchange you want that money, you want to pay the bills, you want to keep the lights on in the business and you need money in order to survive.

Karen [00:04:52]:
It's not sustainable. If you are looking to scale, you may be thinking about taking on a team, but then you're into people management where you are still on the hook to make sure that everything is running smooth. So if that's something that you like the thought of doing, then brilliant. But if you have created your business because ultimately you want to get that time back, you want to build freedom into your business model and you want to have that impact serve of where you can and really help your audience to achieve a resolution to a problem that they are experiencing, then you delivering your services is not going to be enough because you can only work with a certain amount of clients at any one time. And even then you most likely are going to head towards burnout if you're doing all the things which in business is the likelihood when you're starting out. Now I discovered this the hard way because I had a branding studio and I burnt myself out. But I'd also created an online course which was all to do with branding. And what I realized was that when I sold my online course, I didn't have to do anything.

Karen [00:06:11]:
It was being sold in the background without me having to be there every time to deliver the training. And for me that was very liberating because up until that point I just felt like I was on the hook for everything, for finding the clients, for onboarding the Clients delivering the client work. Even though I had a team that I was working with, it would be me managing the projects and then off boarding my clients at the. At the end. So at every single stage, there would be so much work that needed to be done, which meant that every time I took on a new client, I'd be multiplying that work. This is where creating an online course becomes a game changer, because it means that you can create it once and sell it on repeat. And it also gives you something to scale with as well. It moves you away from the reality of burnout, which I think probably a lot of entrepreneurs are on the cusp of, if not dealing with, because of all the things that they're having to do in their business.

Karen [00:07:20]:
So it's really important, I think, when we're looking to grow a business, that we choose a business model that really supports the growth of the business. And I don't think selling your time for money is sustainable long term. And I think when you do hit burnout, if you've hit burnout, then you'll know that it's hard, because when you're in burnout, that's where you start to question everything. Everything feels heavy, everything feels hard. You question the love for what you do, the passion for what you do. And this is where you're most likely going to be in your most vulnerable state, where potentially you could be thinking about walking away from your business. So we want to avoid burnout at any cost, which is why digital products like online courses are such a powerful shift, because they allow you package up your knowledge, deliver it once, but sell it hundreds or even thousands of time. So think about what it could look like for you if you was to package up a simple framework that gave a solution to something and you had that selling for you whilst you were enjoying time with your favourite people, or whilst you were having a coffee in your favourite cafe, or maybe you're on holiday with your family.

Karen [00:08:47]:
What would that look like if. If you had that level of freedom coming into your business? Because it's possible. It's possible for everybody. Everyone that provides a service, there will be a part of what you do that you can package up and sell as a repeatable, scalable product like an online course? You just have to uncover what that is. So what happens when you do create an online course? Because if you've never done it before, you may not know. So I just want to really break it down. The first thing that starts to shift when you have an online course is your time. Instead of always being on that hamster wheel, of finding the next client or project.

Karen [00:09:33]:
You've got something that you can run on repeat. You put the work in up front. So you have to do the work. You have to take action. But when you've done it, your course continues to serve people and generate income long after you've actually created it. So imagine waking up to a new sale notification on your phone or going on holiday and coming back with new students inside your program. That's what I mean by creating freedom in your business. Because things start to happen passively in the background, that starts to give you that freedom back.

Karen [00:10:18]:
And it isn't just about making money. Yes, you want to make money because you want to pay the bills, keep the lights on, and keep your business operating. But I think more importantly, it's about choice. The choice to take Fridays off if that's what you want to do. The choice to reduce your one to one clients so that you can focus on projects that you're passionate about. Or the choice to finally stop saying yes to things that just doesn't light you up, where you can actually focus on doing the things that you want to be doing because you've got a baseline income covered. For so many entrepreneurs, creating an online course is a turning point in their business, where their business actually starts to work for them instead of the other way around. So it can be a game changer for you.

Karen [00:11:16]:
I just want to cover some myths, because there's a lot of myths around online courses. Now, the first one is the thought that the market is saturated. Yes, there are a lot of courses out there, but no one will have your unique perspective on what you're teaching. They won't have your skills, your expertise, or your story. People don't buy courses because they want a course. They buy it for connection, trust, and relatability. So if you have something that you offer, that you teach, that can really support somebody on their journey, then you have the makings of a really great course. Now, the second myth that I come across a lot is the thought that you're not expert enough.

Karen [00:12:15]:
I hear this all the time. And here's the thing. You don't need to be 100 steps ahead on your journey. You just need to be a few steps ahead of the people that you are helping. If you've solved a problem for yourself or for your clients, then you, my friend, are qualified to teach this. So if this is something that you struggle with, then I want you to think about the people that you help, the people that. That you Support and the difference that you make, wouldn't it be a shame not to help more people? And at the end of the day, it isn't about you. It's about bringing what you offer to market and letting people access it through them.

Karen [00:13:04]:
Paying you. My third myth that I hear all of the time is that thought that you don't have time. You don't have time to sit down and create an online course. Now I get it. The prospect of creating a huge 12 module, 8 hour course straight away can feel really overwhelming, really daunting, and feel like you haven't got the capacity or the time to get started. But here's the thing. You can start with a mini course or even a workshop series, or maybe even a digital masterclass where you teach one thing, as long as it solves a specific problem, you can create it. So you can create an hour's workshop that you can put a payment gate around and sell.

Karen [00:14:02]:
It doesn't have to be hours and hours and hours of time that you have to dedicate in order to have something ready to put out into the world. Start simple, get it out to your audience and build from there. So it might be that you start with a very simple masterclass in order to kind of build your confidence and get comfortable with what you're doing. And then from there you can then develop a mini masterclass series where maybe you incorporate a couple of other sort of videos. And then from there you can build it out further into an online course. 

The biggest mistake that anyone who has this knowledge to share, the biggest mistake that they could make, is waiting for the perfect time. Because I'm telling you now, it doesn't exist. You're never going to get more time back because there's always going to be things that fill your calendar.

Karen [00:15:02]:
The perfect time is now. Now is the time to get started because tomorrow you could be bringing income into your business. So here's my question for you. Why did you start your business in the first place? What is your big why? Is it to have more freedom with your family? Is it to create stability in the future? Or do you want to create things that you are passionate about without sacrificing your time, your energy and your health? 

Creating an online course could be the exact bridge that helps you to get there. It will give you leverage. It will give you income on repeat and the space to finally step into the role of a business owner instead of an employee of your own brand. So I just want to summarise online courses, whether you start small and build is a really smart move for your business because it'll help you escape the burnout of trading time for money. It'll give you that reoccurring income and that freedom that you most likely desire.

Karen [00:16:24]:
And it will help you to impact so many more people through your teaching that you will provide. And remember, this is just now over the next 10 episodes, I'm going to be releasing an episode a week that is dedicated to helping you get started with your online course. So if this is something that you're really interested in getting started with, then I encourage you to listen to next week's episode, which is where I'm going to dive into how to decide on the perfect topic for your online course. 

I've got lots of good stuff to share with you to get you started, to help you get out your own way so that you can start creating that freedom in your business, to give you that time back so you can actually go and live the life that you want to live. Now. I love hearing from my listeners about what it is they're achieving in their business and I would love for you to reach out to me and let me know what is stopping you from getting started with your online course. Or maybe you've started creating your online course and you are maybe feeling a little bit overwhelmed or you've run into challenges. Or maybe you have created your online course and you're selling it and you've got some wins to share.

Karen [00:18:07]:
Please reach out to me on Instagram at Karen Underscore Digital Coach and I will share them on this podcast. And because I think it's, it's, it always helps to for other people to know what other people are going through and that's something in my own community, in my membership. So your brilliance online, I encourage my members to, because we're all in this together and it's about being accountable and being part of something that helps to motivate and drive you forward. So do reach out to me. Let's have a conversation. And as I said, I would love to share it on the podcast and, and you know, just give other people an insight as to what is going on as well. 

Now, before I wrap up today's episode, I just want to remind you of my upcoming masterclass. On the Thursday 9th October at 7pm UK time, I'm diving into how to turn your valuable knowledge into an online course and I'm going to give you the steps needed so that you can take action.

Karen [00:19:29]:
Head on over to my website, www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com and you can register for free there. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope this episode has given you some clarity and maybe even some ideas for your business. If found this helpful, then please do share it with other entrepreneurs who are also building their online business, because this episode might be exactly what they need to hear today. 

And if this episode has got you thinking that you are ready to start turning your valuable expertise into income, then I'd like to invite you to join my free upcoming masterclass, how to turn your expertise into an online course of sales by visiting my free website, www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com. it's happening on the 9th of October at 7pm UK time and it would be great to see you there. I will be back next week with another episode, but until then, have a wonderful week.