Why David Vidales Believes Creating a Purpose-Driven Community is the Key to Success

Jeremy Deighan
Hello, everyone. Thank you for joining the podcast today. We have David Vidales with the Online Course Secrets Community, which is an amazing community. And I can say that because I'm a member of this community. And he just provides so much great information for course creators, and we're happy to have you here today, David, how's it going?

David Vidales
Hey, man, thanks Jeremy. Thanks for having me. Everything's great.

Jeremy Deighan
Awesome, very good. Yeah, I've followed you online. And I just love your content and what you produce and just the message that you're getting out into the world. And I just wanted to have you come on the podcast and share your story and hopefully get some tips and tricks from you. So why don't you just give us a little bit of your backstory and how you got started in online business.

David Vidales
Awesome. Thanks. Thanks for having me. And I really appreciate that. And yeah, just giving me the chance to share a bit more about what I do, where I come from, and kind of how I can help people. Right. So I appreciate that. Well, my backstory, oh, well, do you want the short version or the long one?

Jeremy Deighan
Well, we can get, we can get the short one so we can get into more the marketing strategy. Yeah, that's, you know, where, where were you before you started an online business? What kind of got you into the world? And then how did you transition into courses?

David Vidales
Right, right. Well, I was actually, I got really into personal development. I thought that was so such a fascinating world, I really, really loved it. And at a certain point, having gone so deep into it, I felt that I actually could help people, I could start coaching and start teaching, teaching people about personal development.

So I got started off as a coach, and I got some clients. I started getting booked on stages. I wrote my first book, out of four or five, depending on how you count those ebooks, right? And, but then at a certain point, I just reached that brick wall, right? You know, when you can't reach as many people as you want, and you can't make as much as you want. And you still have to go to a nine to five, because you're not making enough money and you're not making the difference you want.

So I just felt all those limitations. And then just putting one thing together with another I realized that I wanted to automate my, my value delivery. So basically, create an online course. I figured that had to be the answer, right?

So got really into that world. But I committed what I usually call the big mistake, which is to create your course before you have, a somewhat idea of what your market wants, right? So you start working on your course because you're so passionate about the subject and you, you think you know all about it. And, but I didn't know anything about marketing or sales at that time. So, so I just, it was more of a passion project. And I figured I would create the course first and then I would learn how to sell it, right?

Jeremy Deighan
Right.

David Vidales
So the problem with that, of course, as many of your audience might have gone through as well is that you end up with a product that doesn't actually match your market. And even though it's a good product, it's not packaged correctly. And, and I didn't have anyone to sell it to because I hadn't focused on building a list or building any sort of position. You know, I had no influence, right? So that's when I realized that this world of creating and selling an online course is really much deeper than I thought and that I, I shouldn't underestimate it.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, it's, and I definitely want to get into the concept of, you know, validating the course, before we go out to sell it because I had that paradigm shift myself. But before we get into that, let's back up a little bit. So when you published your first online course, what was that course on?

David Vidales
It was actually on, it was in Swedish. So that was one issue, right? Like, why didn't I do it in English? Basically, the topic was on how to be happy no matter what.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay.

David Vidales
So I just when I sat down, and I was like, what, what skill set do I have that i i think is the most valuable? Well, obviously, it has to be this. So that's how I created my course.

Jeremy Deighan
Now, that's a very valuable course. I'm sure I could take that course and learn some things from it. Yeah, I'd have to learn it, right? So what platform was this on? Were you using a marketplace? Or did you go straight to hosting it on your own?

David Vidales
I did it on Thinkific.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay.

David Vidales
I actually took a course first on, on how to create and sell your course. And I spent about $1,000 on that one. And it was, it was good. But, but I, I still I underestimated the process. And I don't think they were quite clear enough about how difficult it is to, well, how important that is to build an audience before you create your course.

And at a certain point in that program, they were like, yeah, "You have to join this course portal called Sinclair." And I checked up the price. And I figured, wow, this is, it was way more expensive back in those days. So they've actually lowered the price now. But in those days, it was like double. So I thought like, "No, this is too much."

So that's when I started going online. And I never actually went down the Udemy route, I just found Teachable, and I figured that would be great. And then I I saw Thinkific. And I was like going back and forth between the two, the two of those, and then I landed with Thinkific.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, cool. So you got your course up there. And then you quickly realize that just putting a course on a platform is just the beginning, right? Like, there's so much more to it than that. So what was that process like, of you learning, you know, what you had to do to get people into your course?

David Vidales
Well, it was interesting, because, you know, I had a lot of friends on Facebook, and I had been posting a lot of content about personal development, and I always got a lot of likes, and people were commenting and engaging, etc. So I figured, like, yeah, someone is going to buy it, right? Like, of course, someone is going to be interested. But it's a very different matter of getting likes on some free content, and then actually getting cash in bank from a course right?

Jeremy Deighan
Right.

David Vidales
So I basically, the way it started was that I created the course, I just announced it. And I had created these really, really like good looking graphics. And I figured, Wow, it looks so professional, someone is going to want it, right.? So, so I shared it there and no one bought it. And you know, I'm not the person to give up.

So I thought, "Okay, so how can I, how can I go down this route of learning how to actually market and sell it?" And so I kind of, I kind of started out putting out content where I was sharing how I was learning that and people could go along with me. And then that's when I realized like, wow, this is actually really hard. At least in those days, I felt it was really, really hard.

Jeremy Deighan
Right.

David Vidales
So then, you know, long story short to give you the short version is that I signed up with someone I enrolled in, in a program, it was about 9,000, 10,000 US dollars, actually. Yeah. And like the whole program was all about how to, how to gather an audience and how to position yourself correctly and how to validate your course and then how to offer it. But I didn't learn how to create the course. And it wasn't primarily about online courses. It was about offers in general. So that, that helped me out a lot.

But yeah, I gave you the short version, the long version is that I actually, when I was younger I moved to South Korea and I lived there for two years and I learned every everything about building an online community. So I already had that skill set. I just hadn't connected it with my business. I thought that that was one thing. You know, playing video games and building a community around that. That's one thing, but building a business. That has to be something different, right? But I realized that like, whoa, it's the exact same skill set. Like if I want to build a purpose driven community around online courses, it's the same thing as what I did when I was younger.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, cool. Yeah. And I want, I want to touch a little bit of all of those, because I feel like the community is definitely an important aspect. And I also think that it's important that we, you know, when I started out, I was an online course creator. But as you grow, and you learn, there's more to it than that, you know, you have to have that business, right,? You have to learn the marketing and some of these other avenues. Would you agree?

David Vidales
Right. And I mean, at a certain point in time, I think it clicks for everyone that if you are in this to create the best possible course you can, well, then you need to develop these skill sets as well, like, how do you market? How do you sell it? I mean, nothing is going to help you create a better course than knowing how to sell, because knowing how to sell is knowing how to produce, convey and clarify value, right? And, and that's, if you don't know what's valuable, then how are you going to create a valuable course?

Jeremy Deighan
Right. So is that would you say one of the main things that you learned going through this higher ticket coaching program?

David Vidales
No, I think the the main thing, I'm not, I'm not entirely sure how much I got from the actual program and how much the program just kind of reminded me of what I had already learned earlier in my life, right? But, but it was basically that, that we start with an audience, like everything starts with an audience. That's how, that's how you craft an offer, both in the short term, and if you do it, like on a macro level, right? So we always start with people, people that have the exact specific problem that we solve. And then we figure out by talking with them, and interacting with them exactly how we craft and package an offer that directly matches like, it's like a key in a key hole, right? So it directly unlocks people enrolling and you making sales pretty much.

Jeremy Deighan
Right?

Okay, cool. So let's, let's go through that process. So imagine that, you know, I have an idea for a course. And I'm starting out, and I want to create one. So you say, we need to start with the audience. And what is, uh, I mean, you mentioned, you know, Facebook, or a group or something like that. So, would you start with a Facebook group? Or how do you start building this audience would you say?

David Vidales
Yeah, so it all depends on, you know, some people, I've noticed that some people just want to create the course. And, but if you are in it to actually sell it as well, then my advice is, you know, there are basically two routes, right? Like, you can go organic, or you can go paid. And from my point of view, and from a lot of other people as well, you shouldn't go down the paid route, unless you have a proven offer, unless you have something that you know, is already converting, right? Because not all of us can just throw money in the trash just for fun, right? And that's what's waiting for you, if you want to go down the paid route, before you actually know that you have something that sells.

So the problem is that if you are completely new, and everyone seems to think that for them to get a big audience, they have to, they have to say something really, really good, or they have to produce really, really good content, right? But what I have noticed, and what I see as the problem is that if Tony Robbins says something, and you say something, Tony is the one that's going to get all the appreciation, and all the likes, and all the comments and all that stuff, and you're not going to get anything. Like, and that even though it's the same content, the difference is your positions.

So Tony has spent a lot of time to build his personal brand. And because of that the things he say, are much more appreciated. Not because they're better than yours, but because he's positioned better. So that's like the main main main problem when you're starting out is that it will, it doesn't matter what kind of content you put out or what you do, etc. if you're not, if you're not have a great position.

So to answer your question, how do you position yourself? How do you provide value to people when no one actually thinks you have value to give? And the answer that I came to and what I teach my students and what I did is, is that we actually start by taking off the focus from ourselves. So instead, what we do is that we provide value to people in the form of connections.

So let's say I, let's say, I want to help you, but I have no value to give you. Well, if I can figure out what you want and need and then I can go to another expert, someone that knows, someone that knows exactly what they're talking about when it comes to the thing you want and need, then I can give you both value. Because I can, I can tell you that, "Hey, I know this guy, he can solve your problem." And I can go to that expert and say, "Hey, I know this guy that wants help with what you teach."

And now all of a sudden, I've created value out of thin air just because I know you, right? So what you do is, instead of you telling people, "Hey, I have created a place here, where I'm going to teach you this, this and that," you create a space where you tell people, "Hey, do you have this problem? Are you a beginner? Come here, because I'm also inviting experts. So if you're an expert, come here, because I'm inviting beginners, people that need your help," right?

So you have, you're creating this valuable space around you, for the exact people that you're eventually going to help that has the exact specific problem that you're going to help them with. So that's going to attract in the experts as well. You're creating an ecosystem between the people that want help and the people that give help. So this approach might seem very, like counterintuitive at first, because you're gonna be like, "Well, I don't want to sell, I don't want to help other people make money I wanna, I want to make money, right?"

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah.

David Vidales
Yeah, but what, what ends up happening is when you create a space like this, is that you're going to get people just pouring in. If you're, if you create it right, it's going to create this thriving space where everyone that is in this space, they just feel that they have to be there, because they can connect with so many people, so many like minded people, they can learn together with others, not just from one person, they can get the support and inspiration they need to keep on track and reach their goals, etc.

And then gradually, gradually, gradually, once this is starting to gain momentum and building up, you start taking one step in front of the other, and you will be positioned at the center of this community. And people are going to be like, "Oh, okay, this amazing community is run by this person," and then you can get your message out there. When you say something, people, all of a sudden they start listening. And then they can actually see how, how great your content is, if it's good, right?

Jeremy Deighan
Right. Well, that brings us to the next step. So we've built a community, we've invited some experts in who are helping out our audience, our audience is happy because they're gaining such wonderful knowledge. You're kind of facilitating that. So that's raising your position, you're leveling, and now we get to a point where we say, "Okay, I want to start creating a product or creating an offer," what would be that next step?

David Vidales
Right. So the whole thing about having a thriving community where people are talking with each other, and that's one of the keys here is that you want to create content that is about your members and the value they have. So instead of you telling people how to solve their issues, you're asking them about their opinions, their points of view, what they have to bring to the table.

So basically, let's say people are joining your group. And you, you know, you can ask them three questions when they're joining your group, right?

Jeremy Deighan
Right.

David Vidales
So the first question can be something like, why did you join this group? Or what? Why? Let's say you have a, let's say, you have a group for helping authors, or bloggers monetize their blog, so they can become financially independent, for instance. So then you can ask, ask these people. "Why do you want to monetize your blog?" Or "What do you see as the biggest benefit of monetizing your blog?" So now you're getting the carrot, you're getting that point of information of where people want to go.

And then the second question you can ask is, "What's stopping you? What's your number one question when it comes to monetizing your blog?" And then, because that gives you the information of where people are stuck. And this is pretty much the most important points of information you need? Where does my audience want to go? And where do they, where are they stuck? Because that gives you the distance, that gives you the gap, right? And that's what you can create your offers around later on.

And then the third question is obviously, "What is your email?" Because about 50% of the people joining your group will give it to you. So having a Facebook group really is like the ultimate lead magnet, right? Because it just, it's on autopilot, just drawing in people. And it doesn't take any time of you if you do it correctly. And it's giving you all your market research people are telling you what they, what they need and where they want to end up. And, and you can warm yourself up, position yourself correctly and expose people to your message on a continuous basis, right?

So the kind of, so let's say you have, you have this group for bloggers, right? And on the first question, they're saying, "I want to monetize my blog because I want to live off my passion," right? I want to, this is my passion, and I want to live off it, right? And let's say the number one obstacle they have is that, "I don't know how to create my website," okay. So then what you have there is, you can either create free content, where you can say, "Here are three tips on how to improve your website so that you can monetize your blog and ultimately, live off your passion," right?

So you're, you're just taking what they're giving you, and then just giving it back to them. And this is, this is true regardless of if you create free content, or a paid offer, because then you can like, if you see that 20% of your your audience is struggling with setting up their WordPress, you know, the site, then you can like, "Hey everyone, I've actually put together a course for you on how to create your, your WordPress site, so that you can have more time and you'll be able to enjoy your passion even more." And now you're talking their language, you're talking the benefits they want, and you're talking about the issues and obstacles that they're facing, right?

Jeremy Deighan
Right. So real quick, how do you differentiate, before we move forward, giving away the free content versus stuff that you're going to put in your course? Because I know that I've heard others ask me this question is, you know, how do I know what's free that I put on my YouTube channel or in my Facebook group versus stuff that's in my course? Because I'm afraid that I'm giving too much information away. How do you handle that?

David Vidales
Yeah, great question, I get the question quite a lot. So I, the way I see it, I see it as, as a continuum. So in the one end, on the one extreme, that's where you teach everything. So you can actually just teach everything that you know, all the information, you're just teaching everything. And then what people pay you for is the implementation. So there are very, very successful companies that do this, they just give away everything, every I mean, everything. And then they say, like, "Yep, you can do this on your own, or you can pay to work directly with us and our team, and we're going to follow up with you, we're going to make sure that you're understanding the material correctly, we're gonna, you know, give you accountability, we're gonna take you through a process to make sure that you actually get the results that you're looking for. But you're not going to get any more information than what you're getting at the free level. Like, you can, if you just want the free stuff, and you want to do it alone, keep coming to our free webinars," etc.

So that's, that's one end of the spectrum. And that works, actually. But then remember that you have to have a team to really be able to scale. And you know, there's a lot of issues with that. On the other end of the spectrum, that's where you don't teach nada, you don't teach anything. The only thing you push out, is basically, like, "Here's Jane, before she met me, she was struggling like this. Then she went through my program, and now she's over here, do you want to sign up?" So it's like, whoa, it's like not teaching anything. It's just showing people that, that you have this black box, and all the people that touch this black box that like kind of go through the black box, they end up the way they want to end up as well.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, awesome. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I guess, in the beginning, this is a little easier, because as you mentioned earlier, bringing in experts to help out, they would be facilitating some of the content too. So it seems like it would take a little bit of the load off of you.

David Vidales
Let me just expand on that. Because like these two extremes work, it's not that one is better than the other. However, the style I go for, and what I, what I kind of strive towards, and what I encourage my students to always kind of move in that direction is more towards the black box. And the reason for that is that I don't really feel like we can help people when we are giving them the free content. It kind of gives people a sense of like, "Oh, I learned something," but then they don't actually get the results.

So with that said, the way I do my free content as much as I possibly can, is to just kind of show people that it's possible that there is a system for doing this, that they can do this even though they are completely new. They have no brand, no positioning, no sales, they have no idea about marketing sales, you know, they have no course. Just kind of showing people that they can do it, right?

And also kind of amplifying the forces inside them, that makes them want to do it. So just asking the questions like, "What would it mean for you if you had your online course launch? What would it mean for you if you had your purpose driven community that just drew in leads on autopilot and where you actually could create content without spending all your wake waking time where you can just focus on your, your students and their results, etc," just showing people that, like how this could be possible on a more like overview level, right?

Jeremy Deighan
So you have, you have your students, you have your community, and you're showing them what's possible. But in the beginning, you have to begin the process, you know, of creating a program. So how do you transition into the actual, the course or the program that you're creating? You mentioned earlier that you're collecting questions in your Facebook group, which is giving you some research. So do you just take those questions and then go build out a program, and then just start enlisting people?

David Vidales
That's kind of how it starts. But the way I do it is, I believe in validation. I learned the hard way that you should never guess anything. So everything has to be a direct response to your audience. That's my philosophy, and I believe in cooperation. So what I do is I create my courses together with my students. So I'm not pre-selling, I'm not doing, I'm not, what I do is I just tell people, "Hey, everyone, I'm launching a course today, I have no videos, I have nothing. What I do have is a support group. So if you enter the support group, I'll answer all your questions, I'll coach you live each week. This is kind of like the result that we're going for, you're gonna learn how to do this, this and this, but how we put out the, how we put together the content and, and what you need help with, etc, I'm going to create that by collaborating with you directly. So when this program is finished, it's going to cost $2,000. But because you're with me, and you're helping me create the content pretty much because you're telling me what you need and what you want. I'm selling this to you for $47 for the next 15 people, and then I'm gonna raise it to $97 for the next 15 people," and so on, and so forth.

So this really attracts the early adopters, especially if they've seen your content, etc. And they join in, and they're really happy because they get so much attention from you, it's kind of like they're getting one on one coaching in the beginning, right? And then you basically take them through, like, you have this idea of how the course should be. But then you constantly adjust it. And they know that it's a work in progress. And then you create the videos in direct response to them, it's kind of like you're answering their questions without mentioning their names. And when you upload it to the course.

And then you do like group coaching and, and as time moves on, you're gonna get a product that it's so, it's just so in line with what your avatar wants and needs. Because they actually paid before, before they started asking the questions. And you're only answering the questions of the people that are paying, right? So you're, you know that you're attracting the same kinds of people outside your course. And this is what makes it, this is how you can give people results really, really fast. Like the amount of over delivery on this is just, you know, crazy, like people are like so shocked that they can get so much help for $47. But they're basically creating the course for you pretty much.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, it seems like a great mutual benefit. Because for that price, you're basically getting, you know, one on one coaching or maybe group coaching, which, you know, they would pay a lot more for if they were, you know, getting you directly, but it's mutually beneficial for you because you get to get that direct feedback from people, you're finding out where they're hanging up, what problems they're running into. So that makes a lot of sense.

David Vidales
Yeah, and I want to emphasize here that I wouldn't recommend this for a veteran, like someone that's been doing this for a while. The reason I recommend this is because it gives you so fast momentum, it means that you can start selling an online course in one hour. Like you can just put up a Facebook group, a closed Facebook group and a course portal and then you can just announce it and you can just, because when I work with beginners, right, this is, these are the people I work with.

They're struggling a lot with their saves mindset, And I just want to get them into momentum. And then if we're going to try to sell a course for $1,000, right from the beginning, we're going to run into a lot of pricing issues and it's really hard to lower the price after you've raised it. So it's just much, much, much more flexible, and then you can create the content, it, everything just becomes much better and much faster if we just start making sales right away.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, it goes back to that, that quick win strategy, that if you can get that quick win, it motivates you enough to get to the next win. And so if you can, if you can get even one $47 sale, I mean, for some people who've never sold a course before, that is such a big motivator. I mean, even when I sold my first course, the first month, I made like $24, and that $24 fueled the next six years of my life into online courses, because it is very motivational. So I really like the strategy.

So when you have done the training, so let me ask you a quick question. Is this a, like a closed group in a closed timeframe? Or is this an ongoing process that you're doing?

David Vidales
It's ongoing, so they get lifetime access to this, so.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, so when you do the training, are you telling them that you're only going to do the training for, say, four weeks and then it's going to become a program? Or is it every week, you're training in that group?

David Vidales
So every weekend, I'm doing the live group coaching, and it's usually like the, the old school people that have been there, throughout the whole thing, or people that are very new into the program, they come in, they attend one or two, and then maybe they get to work, right? But then at a certain point, when you have too many students, then you switch it over to a, to a Q&A style. So it's you go live into your Facebook group. And then you, you're just live for two hours answering questions, helping people out.

And the way I see it is that I am collecting market research. So I'm basically helping people, I help them get results. It's so much easier to get good testimonials afterwards. And then I'm just getting a constant stream of, of questions, obstacles, problems, things that helped me create new offers. And that help me to improve the product and just make it more valuable and charge more for it.

Jeremy Deighan
Awesome. This is, this is brilliant and amazing advice you're giving. Thank you so much for this. So once we, once we've gone through this program, and we've validated the course, we've created the course, let's move into more of the, like the traffic because I know that one people struggle with is traffic. Are you only doing a Facebook community for your traffic? Or are you doing other things outside of Facebook?

David Vidales
Just the Facebook group.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay.

David Vidales
Yeah, it's giving me about 50 people per day, just automatically. So that's enough for me, you know. Cause I do it organically anyway, right? So I just kind of start messaging, I just get a lis,. a never ending list of people joining and then I can just go out and message them, start conversations and send them to an appropriate training, and then either get them directly into the course or on a strategy call.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, so how does, how does that process look like though in between? Is there, is it just through messenger? Or do you have a sales funnel or some type of funnel setup or lead magnet? What does the marketing aspect look like from someone who joins your group, and they begin to know you, like you, and trust you, and you want to move them from a prospect to a buyer. What does that middle section look like?

David Vidales
Yeah, so basically, when people join the group, they get a welcome gift. So it's kind of just, you know, their regular welcome function when people join the group. So it's kind of like "Hi, welcome to this community. This is what we're all about. And this is a bit about me, this is what I'm passionate about. This is what I've been doing for the last couple of years. So I want to help you do this. And to help you do that. Here's this first guide and training." So it's just a guide and a training, where they can opt in, they can watch our 30 minute video together with a summary guide, and then they can sign up for a strategy call.

So I actually recommend my students to go for a strategy call right from the beginning, again, because when you are on the phone with someone, you learn how to sell and that's such an important skill, right? And because, if people are like, "Okay, so this is, this is $50. So I'm just going to put it on a sales page." The problem with that is that if you are new you just don't know if your message is right or not.

But if you're on the phone with someone, especially if you're on a zoom call, you can just look at people, you can see their body language. What happens when you do this? What happens when you do that? Like I said this and that felt like it worked. And then when people are giving you objections, you're starting to realize like, what is it exactly that stops people from buying? What is it exactly that people are struggling with? What are they suffering from? Where do they want to go? What, why do they value that? How can I position myself as the bridge between their current position and their desired position? So again, getting on the phone with someone, it's just gonna, it's like investing in your business, even if your, your offer is $50, $100, whatever it is.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, and then do you eventually stop getting on the phone? Because I would imagine that the main objection someone's going to say to that is that doesn't become scalable. If you're taking, you know, so many calls.

David Vidales
Yeah, so. So basically making sales, again, I see it as a progression. So we start with strong strategy calls, just to refine our message, learn how to sell. Remember, I'm helping beginners here, right? So and, and they're really refining everything, handling objections before they even show up, etc. But the progression is that you learn how to sell to one person first. And then after that, you learn how to sell to a group of people live.

So the way we do that is that we, we announce our webinar, or some sort of presentation to our audience, in our Facebook group, and to the email list that we have gathered by people joining our group or when we have shared some sort of free training, where people opt in, right? So at this point, you have a growing email list and a growing Facebook group. And then you can create a short, short presentation. And if it's live, you can actually make it much longer, because people don't jump off live webinars as they do automated webinars.

So once you have developed that skill set of how to talk, and that's something that I teach my students in my program as well, right? So once you have mastered that, and the way you can actually start practicing that is that you start doing it with your students in your support group. So you can create your course by creating webinar style content. So kind of like, "Okay, there students, I see that you're struggling with this, we're going to do a webinar on how to do this, this and this, let me know all the things you're struggling with, everything you want me to teach you during the webinar." Then you go live in your, your student group, you do the webinar, and then you just collect testimonials at the end, because people are so happy, of course, and then you just take the replay, and that becomes your online course.

And now you have also created a presentation where people have given you a testimonial on that even though they were, they were paying students, right? They're tell, because you're asking them like, "What did you think about this master class?"

So now you can, you get the feedback of what's working, what isn't working and you practice it and now you can go to your free group. And you can either do a shorter version of that, of that presentation, or you can actually offer it and charge for it, because you have testimonials on it. And you can like break it off as as a smaller offer from your big signature program pretty much. And then at the end of that you lead people into your, it becomes very natural to lead people to your signature program, because what you're teaching is just one part of the bigger puzzle, right? Hope that makes sense.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, it makes perfect sense. And I'm going to take this recording and probably listen to it a couple times, because it's great information. I just think that it's just valuable. And it's just so smart the way that you have gone about this business, because in the beginning, you know, we talked about the first course you made on how to be happy. And it's the same problem that most beginners face, is that we all start just trying to teach what we know and what we're an expert at. But never really finding out if this is going to be right for people.

And so I love, I love your model, because it has, it has flipped that around to say let's start off with the people. And let's find out where they're struggling, what they're having problems with. And then let's get them into a program where we can work with them, nurturing them, and it sounds like you're still, still making the program better over time, even from when you first started the group till you get them in a program and you're talking to them, finding out more problems, and then using that to go back into your marketing. So I think it's just a very well thought out strategy. And I really, really enjoy it.

David Vidales
Awesome. Yeah, I mean, that's how we can name the course, I call my course like, so now it's closing in on 1.0. And then we're gonna get to work on 2.0 and then we just start from the beginning, keep increasing the price, right? And when the, when the price becomes too much, we break it off into shorter, smaller offers. So it kinda chunks down. And it's a drip down effect pretty much, but you always have your focus on your signature program and your, your beginning students, right?

Jeremy Deighan
Nice. Yeah, perfect. Now I think we laid out a great roadmap for anyone to follow. But just thinking back to yourself when you first started, and the person who is out there that hasn't started their first course, is there any tip or piece of advice that you would give to that person? Or to your younger self?

David Vidales
Yeah, I mean, you know, I can just say, like, yeah, you should focus on building your audience first. But that's not really going to mean anything to you. If you're still with, if you're still stuck in a specific mindset where you want something. The thing with running a successful business, is that understanding what businesses is, is that it's about serving people, right? And when once you take a minute and just sit down and really think about, "What does it actually mean to serve people?"

Like, if you're working at a restaurant and someone comes in do you really want to force them to eat what you like? Or are you going to be open to what they want, right? And kind of like you, of course you can give them recommendations, etc. But, but if you truly want to run a successful business, then my advice for you is to sit down and really think about what it means to serve people, because that's the world you're throwing yourself into, you're going to get paid, the more you take yourself out of the picture. And the more you can just kind of like, "Hi, what do you want to eat? Okay, we're gonna get, we're gonna get that for you."

Right. So with that said, if you can get into that mindset, then it's going to make much more sense for you why you should gather your audience first. And why I think the best way to do that is to build a purpose driven community, in the form of a Facebook group. Take the focus away from yourself, that's going to grow your audience exponentially. And then as you go about that process, you're going to grow into the role of the leader and as an expert, gradually.

So that's what I would say to a beginner, just forget about your course, for the time being just for, just for a short while, and then build an audience. And then you can build audience while you work on your course. Because it doesn't require you any time. If you do it correctly. It literally takes you one day to set up a Facebook group if you know what you're doing.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, and even if you don't know what you're doing, you can probably figure it out.

David Vidales
Right? It's not rocket science. Yeah.

Jeremy Deighan
Very, very well said, David. Where do you see yourself in the next five to 10 years? Where would you like to take your, your business and your life in the future?

David Vidales
Great, thanks. I keep asking people this question so often. So it's so rare, someone says it to me. Well, I want to build a team, I already have started now with a couple of team members, I want to, I know that my offer works, I know that it's converting, so I want to move into paid advertisement. And I also want to bring in the real world into this. So I want to go physical as well. So I want to start talking on stage again, I miss doing that. That's something that I love from my coaching days, right? And I want to use that mostly as my content in the future. So whenever I release my content, I just wanna like leverage the, when I'm standing on a stage. I just think that makes more sense.

Jeremy Deighan
Yeah, definitely. It's content you can use. And then it goes back to just having those true one on one human to human connections. So, that's wonderful. Awesome. So where can people learn more about you, find out more about you? What would, where would you like people to go where they can get some more of this great information that you have?

David Vidales
Thanks. So I think maybe the best first step would be to join my community. That way, you can both see what I'm doing, how all this theory turns out into practice, what this actually looks like. And of course, there's a lot of amazing people in there. It's all about sharing, connecting, and learning together, right? So that's what it's all about. And I have a lot of content in there as well, if you're more interested in, in learning more about this method, and where I go more in depth and explain the whole thing. So that's where I would start.

Of course, you can jump onto a free strategy call as well if you want or you can go directly and learn more about my program if, if that interests you. So I have a link actually that, where you can just choose where you want to go. So it's my name.com/start. So it's davidvidales.com/start. And from there, you can choose where you want to go, if you want to go into my group, if you want to check out my program or if you want to book a free strategy call.

Jeremy Deighan
Okay, perfect. And I'll definitely make sure that we link that up in the show notes. David, thank you so much for coming on the podcast today. This has been wonderful information and I just really appreciate you and your time.

David Vidales
Thank you, Jeremy, thank you so much for having me.