Should You Do Paid Courses to Level Up Your Web Design Game | EP 617

Should You Do Paid Courses to Level Up Your Web Design Game

1. “Buffet Learning”  00:50
2. Quote – unquote skin in the game  02:31
3. Being in Community 03:33
4. Coaching Calls 04:28
5. Certificates 07:47

Read the full episode transcript below:

00:28 David Blackmon: Everybody welcome to another episode of WP The Podcast brought to you by WP Gears I’m David Blackmon

00:36 Tim Strifler: And I’m Tim’s trifler

00:38 David Blackmon: Today an episode 617 we’re gonna talk about whether or not you should do paid courses to level up your web design game. Tim what’s your opinion I’m gonna let you start.

00:50 Tim Strifler: Yeah now full disclosure David and I are course creator so we’re a little bit biased but we’re gonna try to give you some solid facts here from our own experience and just kind of some good general knowledge on this object because the topic does come up. It’s like should I just learn stuff for free on YouTube doing Google searches reading blog post stuff like that or should I actually pay for a premium course instead of doing that. And so in our opinion when you pay for a premium course you get a consistent in clear path to whatever the objective might be. So in mine and David’s case we have a Divi Business course a Divi WordPress business course and their clear path is to show you how to build a long-term sustainable business, how to get clients, how to get recurring revenue within your business and so the clear path is to show you how to do that when you’re learning from free resources like YouTube and blog articles and you’re googling stuff it’s what what I like to call buffet learning which is you’re taking a little bit from this person taking a little bit from this person a little bit from this person and not that that’s necessarily bad but you’re you’re missing all the in-between stuff. And so this person might have a good idea but doesn’t necessarily mesh well with this other person’s tip over here because they’re not meant to go together and so it’s the kind of the the concept of you don’t know what you don’t know. But when you’re getting consistent in clear direction from one instructor or one pair of instructors like me and David you’re able to learn the things that we’re teaching that maybe you don’t realize are is the important part of the learning.

02:31 David Blackmon: Number two, reasons why you should potentially you know do paid courses, is you know when you pay for something, it gives you some quote-unquote skin in the game. You know you’re more likely to implement some of the strategies that are recommended and taught as opposed to not when you have money invested. It just makes sense you know if you’re gonna if you want someone to be serious you want to find out how serious someone is about something ask them to pony up some some cash to find out whether or not they’re really serious about taking their learning to the next level and stuff. And typically with a paid course it means you’re in that you’re in that zone you want to take your stuff your your learning and your knowledge to the next level and stuff and by paying for something it gives you some skin in the game and and and you’re more likely to implement what you’ve learned as opposed to maybe watching a youtube video and yeah I’ll do that tomorrow.

03:33 Tim Strifler: Yeah absolutely and then, the next reason why you should do paid courses to level up your web design game is accountability in community with other students. And so for example when you’re kind of out there learning on your own and taking bits and pieces from different things and stuff there’s no community and there and there’s no accountability. There’s no one to ask questions to and stuff like that and we’ve come to learn that those are some of the things that our students value the most or maybe though that those are some of the things that we didn’t realize that they would value as much as they do in the course, like yes that the content is kind of the bread and butter of the course but being able to ask questions, to for me and David and then also get feedback from other students like that’s invaluable and that’s a huge part of the education and learning experience. Is getting that and and so without you know a structured course here you’re missing out.

04:28 David Blackmon: Next on our list of reasons why is the ability to ask instructure instructors questions from someone that’s been there. So Tim and I for example we do live coaching calls with  our students once a week. You know when we launch a new class for the course or something you know we’ll have eight weeks of live coaching calls and on these calls we give our students the ability to get clarification to ask us  any question that’s related to a WordPress or their business.  It doesn’t matter if it’s technical or like I said business-related you know a lot of them struggle with sales and stuff, so you know, having the ability to communicate and ask someone face-to-face hey you know and present situations that you come up against in your real life business day-to-day business.  It’s huge! Yes you can ask your friends and yes you can ask other people and it’s really important to have mentors and stuff like that but when you do a paid course you’re actually getting direct access to those instructors to answer questions that you’re struggling with that you’re probably bought the course for to begin with. So for example building a business and WordPress and Divi you know we cover everything from you know the very basics of what type of hosting you should get all the way to pipelines and closings and presentations and contracts and agreements and insurance and all the stuff that’s that’s like you may not even be thinking about, but you know, you need you have the ability to ask instructures these questions right off the that.

06:07 Tim Strifler: Yeah and that’s something to really look into when you are evaluating courses how much access do you get to the instructors and and is there a actual you know formal method of being able to ask whatever questions you want, like David mentioned we have the  coaching calls and stuff and so the reason I say that is there some courses where it’s like. Yes you are paying you are investing in it you are getting a consistent and clear path of learning but there’s no community, there’s no you know question and answer a time or no way to reach out and ask questions. And so you know the instructors are basically just cashing in and cashing the checks without you know doing the other things that that should be involved with with learning from the paid course. So the last thing on our list here kind of a bonus reason of why you should do paid courses to level up your web design game is the added credibility that you get with a completed course and that there’s a certificate that often comes with and so being able to say that you completed this course over here with, and so being able to say that you completed this course over here with this reputable company. And you know you have the the necessary training to be able to take on these projects and stuff like that. That’s invaluable and so that’s something I never really realized how important it was until hearing the feedback from students and the question that they would ask you know regarding you know getting a certificate and stuff like that, and you know am I allowed to say that I took this course on on my website and obviously the answer is yes, and so you know that’s something that we didn’t anticipate being as important to people as it is yeah and and and it just makes sense.

07:47 David Blackmon: You know I mean when you have that stamp of approval you know. So like WordPress you know a certificate or learning Google Analytics you know when you’ve got that branded you know recognizable badge that says “hey I’m an expert in this because I have completed and you don’t”. Get these things unless you complete the course and stuff so if you bought a course don’t think you’re getting the certificate just because at least from us anyways you have to actually go through the course complete it and answer a certain percentage of questions and get them right. So that allows your customers and and people that you’re presenting to and stuff and you know safety and security to know that you actually are an expert in this field and stuff so yeah so go out buy some paid courses and come on over and buy ours if you want and join us in our live coaching calls. We do some pretty awesome stuff we’ve got a great community and some amazing students and stuff who have really been just killing it and stuff and it’s been awesome to see and stuff so yeah WPGears.com tomorrow we’ve got another great topic why WooCommerce is the best e-commerce platform in the world. Tim just try me I’m gonna convince you why that is tomorrow so…

09:09 Tim Strifler: hey I’m on the same page..

09:11 David Blackmon: I’m just messin. Build it up for the audience, so yeah build the suspense build the suspense all right well until tomorrow we’ll see you then.

09:20 Tim Strifler: Take care bye bye.