Growing up as the son of two English teachers, I was raised in a home that was lined floor-to-ceiling with books.
Teaching and storytelling were as common in my home as cartoons and cereal on Saturday mornings.
And, while I didn’t realize it at the time, I’d later discover something critical about being successful in business – teaching sells.
If you’re able to teach someone else how to get something he or she wants, or how to solve a pressing problem in his or her professional life, you’ll never be short on sales leads or revenue.
And, while my parents spent the 1970s and 1980s inside a physical classroom with a small group of students, the “classroom” for the rest of us is global thanks to the Internet and Webinars.
The Big Lie About Webinars
For the past five years, I’ve spent thousands of hours studying (and perfecting) how to create wildly successful webinars.
Today, when I set out showing others how to create, hold and run a webinar, I see the same infuriating fallacies and myths holding others back. I want to spend the rest of our time right now addressing (and dismantling) three of the biggest myths when it comes to webinar training.
Myth #1: Webinars Are Expensive and Time-Consuming
This is one that stops Business Coaches, Consultants, Entrepreneurs, Authors, Speakers, Small Business Owners and others who would most profit from holding a webinar.
Because those types of professionals are so busy both running and building a business, the idea of having to dive into the world of webinars just seems like leaping into digital quicksand.
In reality, webinars have never been easier to set up or less expensive to run. In fact, my favorite webinar platform costs less than $400 per year and includes unlimited attendees, pre-built landing and registration pages, pre-written email reminders and more.
Best of all, the advent of automated webinars allows you to create a high-value, high-converting online presentation that reaches a global audience without even being online.
(Related: How I Stumbled into a Webinar System that Generates $37,547 Per Month …
Without Me Being Online!)
Myth #2: Webinars Require Tons of Overhead, Tech and Tools
This is another big misconception. All I use for my webinars is a laptop, a “fill-in-the-blank” presentation template tool that costs $7 per month and a Blue Yeti USB microphone that goes for around $100 on Amazon.
My favorite webinar platform already has pre-built, pre-hosted landing pages, registration pages, calendar reminders, pre- and post-webinar emails, all hosted, automated and and delivered for me.
When it comes to creating a killer webinar, the days of needing a degree in IT, a team of graphic designers or a massive budget are gone.
Myth #3: Webinar Presentations and Content Are Difficult to Create
This is perhaps the biggest stumbling block many well-intentioned professionals have.
“What will I talk about?”
“I’m not a designer – how do I create slides?”
Having spent the past five years giving (and attending) thousands of webinars, I’ve found that there is a very specific format and formula you must follow in order to be successful.
(Related: The 10 Irrefutable Laws of Successful Webinars.)
The best webinars utilize a few specific steps, and they’re the biggest reason I’ve been able to build a thriving, six figure business online using webinars.
For example, the first step in the process involves the “warm up” or introduction phase of your webinar.
(You can watch and see how it works here.)
The remaining steps walk through a logical path, from warming up your audience to validating their decision to attend to sharing the story of why you are the expert on this topic to teaching in a way that naturally transitions into your sales pitch or product offer.
Webinars That Work = Ongoing Sales Leads + Revenue
When done correctly, webinars are the single best online sales tool I’ve ever seen or experienced.
They’re especially powerful for those who sell knowledge for a living – Business Coaches, Consultants, Authors, Trainers, Speakers and Entrepreneurs. Since teaching and training comes natural to those groups, webinars are an easy way to “bottle up” and share your wisdom with a worldwide audience.
They also work incredibly well as a way to showcase how your product or service can solve a pressing problem or relieve a pain point that a specific audience has.
The devil, of course, is in the details, but those are easily sorted out once you get past the biggest myths and misconceptions that we addressed above.
Bottom line: Getting a virtual room full of your ideal prospects or customers together and teaching them on a scale my English teacher parents could never have imagined is the gift webinars can bring your business.
If you aren’t using them already, it’s time to get started!