Best Practices for Online Purpose Discovery
Download as DOCX, PDF1 like346 views
The document outlines best practices for creating and delivering an online purpose discovery course, detailing the phases from pre-work through sales and marketing to course delivery. It emphasizes the importance of team collaboration, customer and market research, and effective marketing strategies including affiliate marketing, social media, and email campaigns. The authors share their experiences and objectives, aiming to help others successfully launch their own purpose discovery programs.
Best Practices for Online Purpose Discovery
- 1. Best Practices for Online Purpose Discovery December 15, 2017 by Brandon Peele, Jon Darrall-Rew, Kara Hess, Spencer Honeyman, and Michael Stern
- 2. Table of Contents Introduction 4 Who Are We? 5 Purpose 5 Vision 5 Missions 5 Values 6 What to Expect: 7 Phase 1: Pre-Work 8 Team Building 8 Project Management 8 Customer Research 8 Market Research 10 Phase 2: Sales & Marketing 12 Pricing 12 Strategy & Timeline 12 Email Marketing 13 Social Media 14 Affiliate Marketing 14 Creating a Sales Page 15 Webinar Registration Page Examples 16 GPE Intro Webinar #1 Results 16 GPE Intro Webinar #2 Results 17 Key Takeaways 17 Phase 3: Course Delivery 19 Course Design 19 GPE: Course Content and Structure 19 Participant Agreements 20 Delivery Platforms 22 Post-course Survey 22 Phase 4: Next Steps 24 Appendix A: Team Agreements 24 Appendix B: Avatar Research Interviews 25 Interview Questions 25 Appendix C: Comparison of Online Course Delivery Platforms 28 Thinkific 28 Ruzuku 29
- 3. Zoom 30 Teachable 31 Appendix D: Post-Course Survey Responses Continued 32
- 4. Introduction Welcome! This document is an effort to share our experience launching a 10-week online purpose discovery program. It is intended to assist you in creating, launching, and delivering a successful purpose discovery online course of your own. We are grateful for your interest in this work and we sincerely wish for this document to be of benefit in serving your dreams and aspirations for creating a better, more purposeful world. If you found this document useful, or have questions, please reach out to us! Bon Voyage! Brandon Peele:b@ensouled.life, BrandonPeele.com, Ensouled.LIFE, Berkeley, CA Jon Darrall-Rew: jonathan@synergyforum.org, GlobalPurposeMovement.com, NakedLight.org, BrightAlliance.org, Berlin, DE Kara Hess: playyourhero@gmail.com, PlayYourHero.com, Charlottsville, NC Michael Stern:stermic@gmail.com, IntegralAlignment.com, BrightAlliance.org, Rockland, ME Spencer Honeyman: spencer.honeyman@gmail.com, SpencerHoneyman.com, Richmond, CA
- 5. Who Are We? In July of 2017, Brandon Peele, the Course Leader of the 10-week Global Purpose Expedition, invited applications for 4 Magellan Fellows to participate in a 5-month experiment to co-design and co-deliver the course to help individuals clarify and live their purpose. The course ran from September 24 - November 26, 2017. Our Purpose,Vision,Mission,Values & Agreements We generated the following purpose, vision, mission, values and agreements at the start of our work together: Purpose We are a community of leaders in the Global Purpose Movement, who stand for the fullness of every human on Earth, through the discovery and embodiment of soul purpose. We have come together to accelerate the Global Purpose Movement by learning, developing, implementing and sharing best practices for online purpose discovery. Vision We create a world where every human has the right to discover their purpose, embody their purpose, lead with their purpose and express their purpose as their livelihood. We believe this is the most efficacious and fulfilling means to create a world that works for all beings - a just, sustainable, loving, creative, emergent, abundant, fun and peaceful human presence on Earth. Standing in the future, we have solved the purpose problem for humanity, lighting the path for everybody to find and live their purpose, clearing the path for humanity’s further expansion, evolution and development. Missions 1. By 12/31/2020, deliver / enable 2 million people to find their soul’s purpose via scalable online / mobile purpose discovery offerings. 2. By 12/15/2017, develop and share best practices for online purpose discovery. 3. Between 9/24/2017 and 12/3/2017, deliver an outstanding customer experience to 500 people.
- 6. Values 1. Purpose - We embody our highest purpose. We have an evolutionary relationship to our purpose, knowing that our soul’s purpose is always on the move, calling us to humbly serve it, embody it and prepare for the next revelation. 2. Integrity - We embrace our word as sacred, as a tool to step into greater purpose and service. This also includes being playful, having fun, being tender and compassionate with ourselves and our team and by embodying wholeness, by being truthful, vulnerable and authentic in our communication. 3. Service - We courageously and humbly taking action to serve others, in using our great powers, generously for the awakening and fulfillment of those we serve and interact with. 4. Adventure - We venture boldly into the unknown, entering into creative partnership with each other and the Cosmos as we look to discover the emergent expressions of our vision, missions and values. Agreements: See Appendix A.
- 7. What to Expect: The document is broken into four main sections, which mirror the chronological phases of the experience of creating and delivering an online course: 1. Pre-Work 2. Sales & Marketing 3. Course Delivery 4. Next Steps Please feel free to jump to particular sections that would like to dive into or read the whole document from start to finish. You’ll find a combination of technical resources regarding specific practices, software, and platforms, as well as collective learnings that we learned along the way. May this be of service to your work in the world! ————————————————————————————————————-
- 8. Phase 1: Pre-Work To ensure the course produces the desired results, course creators should begin pre-work three to six months prior to the anticipated launch of the course. The intention of the pre-work is to congeal as a team, set parameters and identify the basic course requirements in a number of areas, which we will now look at in greater detail. Team Building One of the most important elements of launching a successful online course is to have a reliable, competent group of people to support you on the journey. You will want to look for a diversity of skills, backgrounds, and perspectives, as well as a deep alignment of purpose and values. During this phase, we shared our Magellan Fellow Application with each other and had 1-on-1 calls to get to know each other better. Our experience of working together was one of deep trust, support, and appreciation. We all learned a great deal from each other, both personally and professionally, and formed deep relationships on the journey. It was a true gift to go through this process with such a committed, capable group of souls, and we are grateful for the privilege of working and evolving together. ProjectManagement Effective project management is essential for designing, producing, and delivering a successful online course. Using a collaborative project management tool will help you and your team to track work, achieve goals, and meet deadlines. Another important aspect of effective project management is defining clear roles and accountabilities. Each member of the team should know what they are responsible for and who they can expect to be responsible for each specific task for the entire project. Two of our Fellows, Spencer and Michael, had significant project management experience using Asana as a collaborative software tool. Their contribution to setting up the basic structure and timeline for the entire project was invaluable. CustomerResearch Generally, customer research is undertaken to know the consumers' demographics and psychographics (preferences, attitudes, loyalty, usage and behavior). There are several ways to categorize the various market research methods. The vast majority of techniques fit into one of six categories: (1) secondary research, (2) surveys, (3) focus groups, (4) interviews, (5) observation, or (6) experiments/field trials.
- 9. Customer Research - Methodology Methodology Quantitative Or Qualitative Typical Cost Typical Duration Use Case Secondary Research Can be Either Typically free or low cost Short Great place to start but often not detailed Survey Qualitative Varies widely, cost typically includes a participant incentive, survey design and survey administration Medium Suitable to measure attitude across a large population and answering specific questions Focus Groups Qualitative Medium, key costs include focus group and participant incentives Short / Medium Also good for exploratory research Interviews Qualitative Similar to focus group but it can be cheaper depending on audiences Medium Used for deep dive into specific topics (most suited for customer research ) Experiment and field trials Qualitative Most expensive method Usually very long Scientifically testing specific hypotheses Observation Qualitative Medium Medium Good for measuring behavior Face to face interviews can be really effective for answering: - Who is this course for? - What are your avatar’s pain points? - What do they most want/need? - How do they want the information/solution delivered? - Where do they hang out / where can you find them? - How much are they willing to pay for it? We found this portion of the work to be especially rewarding. It was great to connect directly with individuals who represented our target audience and to hear about their experience. We all learned a lot through this process and developed a strong appreciation for both the value of
- 10. customer research in general as well as the deep need that currently exists in the world for high quality purpose work. This course was focused on Millenials, age 27-35. See Appendix B: Avatar Research Interviews for the complete list of questions we used in our avatar research interviews, as well as key data points and takeaways. Market Research When designing a new online course, creators need to understand not only the needs of its target audience but also the existing competitive landscape. The success of any new online course will depend partly on how well the course meets the needs of the target market (as identified through customer research) and whether it does so in a way that is not currently possible through other existing similar products and services. Application of Market Research Key questions that should be asked in online course pre-work market research include the following:
- 11. Concept Screening (Bringing New Ideas to Market) – Key Questions Questions Why Does the course meet a need? What is the specific nature of potential users' requirements? This will assess the demand for the product How existing products are used, i.e. for how long, how frequently, precisely what for etc.? This will show the behavior of people buying existing products What challenges do people face in using existing products and what requirements are not being met? To what extent are users of current products satisfied with these products and their suppliers? This will identify any gaps in the market. The Magellan Fellows relied greatly on the experience of Brandon and Michael to guide our understanding of the current landscape of self-development online courses, with durations ranging from 4 weeks to 4 months, and price points ranging from $19 to $3,500.
- 12. Phase 2: Sales & Marketing After identifying the ideal avatar for your course (customer research), and how you will position your course to stand out as a unique offering that effectively meets your avatar’s needs (market research), it is time to outline your sales and marketing strategy. Even if you create the best course ever, it won’t have impact if nobody knows about it. Pricing Because our priority was making the course accessible to anyone who felt called to doing this work, we charged $399 for the program, with generous scholarships (50-75% off) offered to: 1. Emerging Leaders (Age 27-35) 2. Heros (Teachers, Nurse, First Responders, Active Military, Vets) 3. Unstoppable (catch all for anyone who has experienced hardship, discrimination or marginalization) Strategy & Timeline The timeline depends mainly on the marketing strategy. Typically, a three-month marketing phase is recommended prior to a course launch. We had significantly less time, about six weeks. We spent the first two of those weeks deepening our connection as a team and doing fifteen 1-on-1 market research interviews with our target market, Millennials aged 27-35. (See Appendix B: Avatar Research Interviews.) A typical strategy has two phases.1 Phase 1: A free event on a topic related to the course. The free event is promoted as widely as possible and only requires an email for registration. The goal here is to build a list of “warm leads” for the course by giving people a free sample of it and also allowing them to get to know the teacher(s). So the first phase is about driving traffic to this free event. Phase 2: The course is marketed to the signup list for the free event. If the free event has done its job well, then a certain percentage of participants will be primed to sign up for the course. The reason for this two phase strategy is that few people will commit to spending the time and money involved in a full course simply based on a few emails. There has to be a way for them to get enough information, and a feel for the work, to make a considered decision. 1 Thanks to online course consultant Bill McCart (www.billmccart.com) for his expertise on this matter.
- 13. Standard conversion rates are demonstrated by the following example, which assumes a target of 100 students in the course: ● Your target is 100 paid students in the course ● At a 2% conversion rate, you need 5,000 opt-ins to the free preview call ● At a 10% conversion rate, you need to reach 50k people (5-30% is the normal range) The time from the announcement of the free event to its occurrence is usually about three weeks. This means that everything related to promoting the free event must be completed three weeks before it’s held, and therefore at 5-6 weeks before the start date of the actual course. The timeline from the free event to the start of the course is 10 days to three weeks, depending on the marketing strategy and the course. Courses that are longer and/or higher priced require a longer time because the decision to commit takes thought and planning. Shorter, lower priced courses can have a shorter time. This strategy isn’t necessary for courses under, say, $100, which includes most pre-recorded courses. And it may not be necessary if the prospective audience is existing participants; e.g., when offering an intermediate course to people who are just finishing up an intro course. Email Marketing Marketing emails are generally meant to build awareness, trust, and excitement about the course and the teacher. The first email of a campaign usually recapitulates the main message on the sales page (see below for more on how to create an effective sales page); it’s the first look at the course so it hits the 3-4 key points you want people to connect to. Subsequent messages can’t simply repeat this or people stop paying attention, open and click- through rates drop, etc. So subsequent emails have to approach the topic from different angles. To some extent you can identify some of these in advance. For example, you can take one dimension of the course and go more deeply into it to draw our more of the benefits. Or you can recount past participant’s experience with the work (repeat courses only). You can also see what happens during the campaign and respond to that. Sometimes someone will write in with a perceptive question that allows you to respond to everyone in a compelling way. This could be a question about the curriculum or a “here’s my situation, is this course right for me?” type of question. Sometimes people point out things about the course that may be unclear so now you have an opportunity to clarify then. In the case of answering questions, it’s important to treat it as a kind of dialog so that people can see you are listening to the response to the campaign. Another effective method is to share free media content that will illuminate the course and the teacher, deliver value to the consumer, and create an opportunity for the content to be shared and spread organically to other potential course participants.
- 14. Social Media Statistics show no matter what age group any business is targeting or where they are located, email remains a great way to reach to the audience. However, social media is increasingly becoming ground zero for building reputation and connecting with potential customers. Over two billion people are using various networks across the globe, and as device usage surges this number will definitely continue to grow. Radicati group email statistics report 2017, shows that email and social media is two most important channels of digital marketing mix especially for the small business. Digital Marketing Mix by Channels, 2017 Source: Radicati Group Email Statistics Report 2017 Starting and engaging in conversations with your community and your potential customers is one of the most effective ways to build valuable relationships and attract new customers. But social media is also saturated with providers looking to do exactly the same thing for their own offerings. If you are not a social media expert, take some time to learn how to use it to effectively reach your goals, and consider enrolling someone in your support team who has experience using various social media platforms in this context. We employed a number of tactics on social media which included: 5 Facebook live videos by Brandon, promoting the webinars and course, 8 days of Purpose Week videos on YouTube by Brandon exploring different aspects of the purpose discovery journey, and dozens of social media posts across Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Instagram, as well as shared with 20 related Facebook groups. Affiliate Marketing An affiliate marketing program is by far one of the best advertising tools available. The basic strategy is to: - Identify potential strategic partners (individuals and/or organizations) who have access to communities that represent your target audience
- 15. - Invite the partners to share the details of your event with their communities in exchange for a commission on any sales that come from their promotions. (Some partners often prefer to pass on the commission to their communities in the form of a discounted price when signing up for the course.) - Use affiliate tracking software to track potential customers from when they click on the affiliate link until they eventually do register for your course, so you know who the commission goes to. Important benefits of an affiliate marketing program include: - Low entry price. Your only up-front costs are to purchase an affiliate solution (we used iDevAffiliate) and to invest time and energy in setting up your affiliate partnerships. Otherwise, the only costs involved are the commissions you pay out for new registrations in your course. - Only pay when the promotions work. The only time you need to pay your affiliate partners is when they generate sales that you otherwise would not have had. For the GPE we had 4 weeks (about half what we would have liked) to build our affiliate network which included each of the Mentors, their orgs and network orgs: Integral Alignment, IVY, Global Purpose Movement, Naked Light, Enlivening Edge, The Pachamama Alliance, Woman Within and the ManKind Project. MKP was our largest affiliate, with two lists of 9k and 6k and a Facebook presence of 1.6M Likes. As described above, our goal was to leverage our affiliates to promote a free live webinar targeted to Millennials. Creating a Sales Page The sales page for your course (and your free intro session) represents the “hook” needed to gain your prospective student’s interest and convince them that your offering is worth their investment. Here are some key things to consider and include on an effective sales page: ● Overview:A general introduction and description of the course. What's the headline? What's the hook? What is the purpose of this course? Usually just a paragraph is enough, or even a couple of powerful questions that invite inquiry and possibility. ● Audience: Who this course is for? Your sales copy needs to speak to the avatar.What are their defining characteristics? What are they looking for? Longing for? What are their key pain points? What is their higher potential? Where are they developmentally? Use bullet points to clearly describe your intended audience. ● Learning Objectives:What's possible for a participant in this course? What will people be able to know/do by the end? Use bullet points and/or paragraphs to describe the key outcomes and/or deliverables.
- 16. ● Curriculum: A session-by-session outline, not with too much detail. Use a few bullet points per session, enough so it makes sense to the reader and they feel how the course flows. This step was not well developed for the GPE. ● Course Structure: What is included in the design of the course? How will people engage the content and each other? Here is where you describe the various learning modalities involved in the course: live calls, supplemental readings, Q&A with teacher, breakout groups, accountability partners, mentoring groups, FB group, homework assignments, etc. ● FAQ / Disclaimer / Terms & Conditions: Any administrative of logistical questions that haven’t already been addressed in the main copy can go here. ● Instructor/TeamBiography: Let students know who is delivering this course and why they are the right person to do it. Finally, perhaps the most important element of your sales page is your Call-to-action (CTA): A clear CTA drives prospective customers to become leads. You call-to-action could be sign up for the webinar, register for the course, subscribe to our mailing list, etc. The whole point of the sales page is to be relevant and interesting enough to persuade visitors to complete your call-to- action and become part of your sales funnel. Webinar Registration Page Examples We wanted to share a few examples of webinar registration pages that you can use as templates to build your own: ● https://manonpurposecourse.com/purposefromchaos ○ Targeted to Millennials. Note that the copy is all about enticing you to attend the webinar. ● http://strong-willedchild.com/free-webinar/ ○ Good, professional page. Strong title, subtitle and headline. Simple clear, message, nothing else to confuse the mind; if you like what I’m writing here then you’ll sign up. He has a book on this topic (Who’s the Boss) but he’s not giving it away to get people to sign up. The webinar should stand alone as powerful and very interesting/enticing. ● http://drjacqueline.info/intuition-medicine/ ○ Clean, easy to understand page for a few webinars on Intuition Medicine. GPE Intro Webinar #1 Results Our first webinar entitled “Unleash Your True North at Work” was not a success (view slides here). Despite having 500 people sign up, few attended and no one purchased. Here are the results: ● Webinar registrations: 500
- 17. ● Zoom LIVE Attendees: 30 (<10% vs. industry standard of 20%) ● Sales on webinar: 0 (0% vs. industry standard of 2%) ● Sales in the next 48 hours: 1 ● Webinar recording blast to webinar list: 187 opens of 500, 70 clicks of 187 opens We were especially dismayed at there being only one person (out of 30) that was in our target demographic of 27-35. Virtually everyone else was between 40-65, which is normal for a purpose offering, but not what we were trying to accomplish. GPE Intro Webinar #2 Results Following the poor performance of this webinar, we did a post-mortem and consulted Chris Kyle, an expert in online education. We decided to push the course launch back 2 weeks and scheduled a second webinar titled “Purpose + Prosperity for the Next Generation of Leaders”. Here’s what we decided to change for the 2nd webinar: ● Have multiple email reminders for the webinar ● Speak more to the pain of purposeful work ● Speak to Millenials as a generation. ● Have a softer sales approach. ● Give folks a more in-depth overview of the course ● Alert folks to the scholarships available Here are the results: ● Webinar registrations: 190 ● Zoom LIVE Attendees: 20 (10% vs. industry standard of 20%) ● Sales on webinar: 1 (5% vs. industry standard of 2%) ● Sales in the next few days: 5 Key Takeaways Our experience of the Sales and Marketing process was challenging yet fruitful in terms of the lessons we learned. Here are some of the most important things we learned: ● Show, don’t tell. In your marketing, show people the “interior” of the course by outlining the key elements, topics, and learning outcomes that students can expect. Use visual aids to give people a feel for the course. Provide sample content if possible. ● Highlight the teacher. Give potential students ways to directly experience and engage with the teacher of the course and their previous work. ● Be authentic and vulnerable. If you want to stand out in the sea of content that is available online, you need to prioritize making personal connections with your potential
- 18. students. Much of what we found in terms of “best practices” for marketing online courses did not feel aligned with the values and spirit of what we wanted to offer. ● The market is saturated. You need to identify and emphasize what stands out about your purpose course and make it easy for people to understand and connect with the specific value you are offering.
- 19. Phase 3: Course Delivery Course Design Once a course’s pre-work parameters have been defined and agreed upon, course creation enters the design phase. The content & syllabus of an online course are no different to that of a face-to-face course. Similar to a face-to-face course, the desired goals should be translated into the content of online course. The development of content and the syllabus consumes significant time (and effort) prior to a course launch. It’s when the creators actually collect and create all course content. Below are some of the most important considerations we navigated for course design: ● Learning objectives and the sequence of learning journey content by theme/week. We promised participants, a high-definition understanding of their soul’s purpose, all ten aspects of their Purpose Tree (call, vision, mission, powers, craft, flow, virtues, core, story, worldview), a high-definition understanding of their ego’s voice (critic, skeptic, image consultant, protector and wounded child, ref. Tim Kelley’s True Purpose, 2009), a purpose Project (a 30-60 day project that expresses their purpose), and a highly engaged community of fellow purpose seekers. ● How students will engage with content, the instructor and one another. For optimal student engagement, online courses must be designed “flexibly” and specifically for an online medium. Flexible design proposes that content be organized in flexible formats, used in a variety of activities and accessible through a variety of technologies to allow for customized learning experiences. The rule of flexibility is also applicable in multiple avenues for communicating with students. Course email and discussion forums tend to be standard communication tools, but embedded audio and video, chat rooms or instant messaging, broadcast text messaging, and home page announcements may also be useful. ● Feedback to students about their performance is important in the effort to keep students engaged in the learning journey. Quick responses to discussion posts and email questions can help keep students on track for the next assignment or activity. GPE: Course Content and Structure Typical purpose courses are 5-8 weeks long, as commitment / interest often wanes after that point. Brandon opted for a more intensive 10-week experience. The structure of the GPE was as follows: 1. 4 weeks of initial discovery, with 2 of those weeks having an internal focus via guided exercises, and 2 of those weeks external via feedback and connection with others: Entelechy (guided), Community Feedback from 10 people who know the participants well, Messages From the Future (guided), Purposeful Titan Interviews (from 3 people living soulfully, and/or who are at the top of their game)
- 20. 2. 2 weeks of resistance work - HD Default Purpose Exercise, Transforming Resistance Exercise 3. 2 weeks of deep discovery - Soul House (guided), Jungian Journalling 4. 2 weeks of integration and action - 10 Years Process (guided), Purpose Project Each week the participants experienced: 1. A live 60-minute group video session on Sunday at 9am PST (scheduled to include the EU and EST and PST participants), comprised mostly of 1-on-1 coaching between the Course Leader (or one of the Mentors) with the participants, as well as triad breakouts for participants to share the their experience with the exercises with each other. 2. An exercise to be done in their own time (usually around 1 hour) to be completed before their live pod group video session. 3. A live 40-minute pod group video session, where they shared their experience with the exercises, and made their declaration who they would do their purposeful share with. 4. A purposeful share, wherein they shared what they were getting out of this program with 1 new person a week for 10 weeks. 5. A private online forum on Facebook for sharing with the whole group 6. A weekly survey that asked 4 questions: a. How connected are you to your purpose versus last week? (More / Less / Same) b. I completed the exercise before my pod call. (True / False) c. I participated and was on time for my pod call. (True / False) d. I completed my purposeful share before Saturday evening. (True / False) To set the container for the course, participants and course leaders need shared agreements to feel safe, connected and accountable. Below are the agreements we used for the GPE. Participant Agreements What follows is the agreement between the Team (Course Leader and Mentors) and the participants: This outlines the Terms of Service for participating in the Global Purpose Expedition online course starting September 24th, 2017. Before commencing your program, please review the following Policies and Procedures. The GPE includes: ● 10 live online video sessions every Sunday at 9am PST hosted by Course Leader, Brandon Peele and the Mentor Team ● 10 live online video calls with your pod of fellow purpose explorers ● 10 exercises, one to complete each week, that will take you deeper into your purpose, and empower you to overcome resistance to living it ● 10 purposeful conversations ● An online forum to support your participation for the whole course ● A lifetime alumni network of purpose-awakened change-makers ● A lifetime access to the exercises, including updated materials.
- 21. Agreements ● Scheduling. You agree to attend each live session. If you cannot make each Sunday session live, you agree to listen to the recording within 24 hours. You agree to schedule and participate in your live pod video session between Tuesday and Friday of each week. ● Contribution. You agree to complete all exercises prior to your pod call each week, so that you can connect with your fellow members about what you are experiencing as a result of the exercise and to learn from their experiences. ● Be in communication. If you feel stuck or challenged between sessions, do not struggle alone. Do not retreat or withdraw, reach out to your pod or to the mentors immediately. We are here to support you. Please post in the Facebook group for fastest response, and to allow everyone else the benefit of your question and the discussion. You can also send an email to info@planetpurpose.org for highly sensitive matters. We will respond to all e-mails as soon as possible and within two business days. ● Group responsibility. If you are unable to attend any of the live sessions with your pod, you agree to communicate that to the other members of your pod as soon as possible, via email or other messaging platform, e.g. voxer, whatsapp, and to share your experience of that week’s exercise with your pod prior to the scheduled pod call. If you are unable to complete any of the exercises prior to your pod call, we ask that you seek assistance immediately, so we can support you to stay up to date with the course. ● Personal power and responsibility. You agree to be 100% responsible for your experience in the course. If you’re not getting value, let us know. Or if something doesn’t seem right in your pod or in the course, please address the person with whom it concerns, one-on-one, and as soon as possible, or take the matter to one of the mentors. This also means to not gossip, which we define as any communication that leaves you or another disempowered, justified, withdrawn or inactive in the course, OR diminishes the reputation or perception of another person. You are, of course, encouraged to share your experiences. However, if your experience is unsatisfactory, you agree to reach out to us first, so we can address it and ensure you are get the support and coaching you need. ● Confidentiality. As part of this course, you will share personal information with Brandon, the Mentor Team and your fellow participants. You agree to keep confidential what you hear. You can share your experience, but you agree not to reveal any personal information to anyone outside the GPE program. Staying Safe We recognize that purpose discovery is a transformational process. This can result in significant shifts in a person’s perspectives, emotions and daily life. If you feel at any time that this is causing you psychological pressure or a challenge that you need help with, please contact us immediately. We will do what we can to support you in the most appropriate way we can. We also underline that we are not mental health professionals and so if there are any challenges you experience that relate to your mental health, we invite you to immediately contact a mental health professional to receive the support you need.
- 22. Your Relationship to the Course Leader and Mentors If anything occurs between you and Brandon or any of the Mentors that concerns you or does not feel right, please inform us immediately. Our goal is to have an open, authentic, trusting partnership with you, and to provide you with effective support to help you find and live your purpose. It is your responsibility to let us know of anything that you feel isn’t working or could be working better, so that we can adjust accordingly. 100% Satisfaction Guarantee If by the end the course, you have completed all the exercises, had all of your purposeful conversations, attended or listened to all the live sessions and attended all the live pod calls, and you feel you did not have a satisfactory experience, we will work with you until you are satisfied or offer you a full refund. Delivery Platforms There are a variety of tools for delivering content to end customer such as Thinkific, Zoom, Ruzuku and Teachable. After a fair amount of research and experience, especially that of Brandon and Michael, the team decided on the following platforms: 1. Course Software: Thinkific ($40/month) 2. Project Management: Asana (free) 3. Webinar sales page: Leadpages ($40/month) 4. Introductory Webinar delivery: Zoom meeting ($155/month - for one month) 5. Course Video calls: Zoom ($15/month) 6. Course Forum: Facebook (free) 7. Affiliate Marketing Management: iDev Affiliate ($42/month) See Appendix C: Comparison of Online Course Delivery Platforms for more details. Post-course Survey Of the 30 participants, 6 dropped out early on, due to personal or scheduling conflicts. In addition to the lifetime access to the materials, we offered them free tuition in a similar future purpose course. Of the remaining 24: ● 12 completed 100% of the exercises and purposeful shares ● 3 completed over 90% of the exercises and purposeful shares (up through week 9) ● 2 completed over 80% of the exercises and purposeful shares (up through week 8) ● 2 completed over 70% of the exercises and purposeful shares (up through week 7) ● 5 completed less than 70% 12 of the thirty participants filled out the post-course survey (50%).
- 23. Here were the questions we asked participants: On a 1-10 scale (1 being “not at all”, 10 being “most definitely”) 1) I feel more connected to my purpose after having taken this course // Avg = 8.9 2) I have a good understanding of where my growth edge is and what work I need to do next // Avg = 7.9 3) I felt supported by the GPE staff through this 10-week program // Avg = 8.4 4) I was able to stay on top of the workload // Avg = 5.6 5) I felt satisfied with my experience in my pod // Avg = 7.9 6) I would recommend this course to a friend or family member // Avg = 7.9 Further long form answers to other questions such as “What parts of the program were most impactful?” are included in Appendix D “Post-Course Survey Responses Continued”
- 24. Phase 4: Next Steps The GPE was designed to leave participants with a great deal of purpose and ego awareness, tools to overcome resistance, clarity about their Purpose Project and a vision for their future development. A follow-on course was crafted, the live Global Purpose Intensive, a 3-month, $3k program to take folks deeper into their purpose via 5 additional exercises (including a 1-day Soul Quest), and 5 weeks of deep resistance work, as well as to support folks in completing their purpose project, via group video calls, pod video calls and 1-on-1 support from Brandon. Due to Brandon’s 2018 commitments around his book launch and other related endeavors, this course was postponed to late 2018 or early 2019. In lieu of this offering, we made available a number of resources to go deeper with their purpose, integrate and embody their purpose, do deep healing and step into purpose-driven leadership. Purpose ● 1-on-1 work with mentors: Jon Darrall-Rew (http://nakedlight.org/) Michael Stern (http://www.integralalignment.com/) Spencer Honeyman (http://www.spencerhoneyman.com/) Kara Hess (https://www.playyourhero.com/) | customized programs / journeys (ranging from several hundred to a few thousand dollars) ● Quests: http://animas.org/ | http://schooloflostborders.org/ ($1-3,000 each) ● Medicine: http://medicinepath.org/ | Ask mentors and participants via a phone call, about underground medicine communities | $200-300 each Embodiment http://mankindproject.org/ | http://womanwithin.org/ | http://landmarkworldwide.com/ | about $750 each for the flagship training Healing MKP and WW (above, $750 each), mother and father wound workshops, e.g. http://w15.hai.org/ ($500-$2,000 each) Leadership Landmark’s leadership programs (above): Self-expression and Leadership Program ($250), Introduction Leaders Program ($200 ass kicker), and Team Management and Leadership Program ($2,000) | You’ll have to do the Landmark Forum and Advanced Courses first before you do any of these (about $750 each) Appendix A: Team Agreements
- 25. The Magellan Fellows acted as course mentors to participants in the GPE. We had weekly, one-hour calls to debrief the past week’s activities and participant’s experiences. We regularly checked, posted, and commented on the private course FB page. We joined the pod calls, monitored student progress, and stayed in direct contact with our pod members throughout the course. Below are the agreements we created (after the Vision, Mission and Values above) to create our container as a Magellan Fellow / Mentor team. 1. Integrity a. We complete the Fellowship. a. We keep and honor our word / agreements, which means doing what we said we were going to do by when, e.g. be early / on time, complete projects on time, and alerting affected parties in advance, if the agreement might be broken and/or needs to be restructured 2. Leadership a. We are leaders in the Global Purpose Movement, and given what is at stake (the survival and flourishing of the human species), we hold ourselves as leaders and embody our purpose. b. We are fully responsible for our satisfaction in the Magellan Fellowship, which means we generate an empowering context wherever it’s absent, and/or get in action to improve matters. 3. Communication a. We communicate in a way that forwards the conversation, that expedites our vision and missions. b. We assume that each team member has our best interests and the best interests of the team and project at heart. If a team member starts to occur otherwise, we clean it up immediately. c. If we get charged, we go straight to the person who can do something about it. This means no gossip, as defined as communication that doesn’t forward the progress of the GPE/team, or diminishes the reputation / character / listening of someone on the team. d. We primarily use Voxer and Asana to communicate with the team, such that we all are aware of what is happening and can all benefit from any questions or discussions occurring. 4. Learning / Creative Commons a. Everything we generate together, e.g. our white paper, in this project serves the Vision and Mission, as such everything we create will be made public under a Creative Commons license. Appendix B: Avatar Research Interviews Interview Questions
- 26. Demographics ● What is your age? ● What is your highest level of education? ● How do you describe your gender? ● How do you describe your sexuality? ● How do you describe your ethnicity? ● Do you rent or own your home? ● What is your job title and industry? ● What is your total HH income? ● Describe your neighborhood? (urban vs. rural, rich vs. poor, connected vs. ambivalent) ● Are you married, single or divorced? Pain Points #1 ● When it comes to finding meaningful work / exploring your passions / purpose, what is your biggest challenge? ● When it comes to finding meaningful work / exploring your passions / purpose, what stresses you out? ● When it comes to finding meaningful work / exploring your passions / purpose, what are your 3 biggest frustrations? Outcome #1 ● What excites you about having a purposeful life or career? ● Describe your perfect day living your purpose / at work? ● What is the single biggest result you want in your life? Solution #1 ● If you wanted to find the best course or program to help you find meaningful work / exploring your passions / purpose, what words would you type into google? ● What have you done so far to find / create meaningful work / exploring your passions / purpose? ● Have you paid anyone to help you? ● How much money you would expect to pay for an experiential online program to find a meaningful career / exploring your passions / purpose? ● What words best describe your attitude towards meaningful work? adventure, journey, calling, meaning, purpose, impact, discover, explore, "change the world", dharma, soul, "life's work", genius ● If someone had the perfect solution for you, how would you want that solution delivered? ● Would you like to have peer mentorship be part of your perfect solution? ● Would you like to be a change agent to help others on their journey? ● What is the dream solution you'd pay almost anything for? Outcome #2 ● Which public figures do you most admire? (5-10 people) ● What do you admire about them? (list words they use to describe each person) Pain points #2 ● What keeps you up at night? ● What do you worry about? ● What do you not look at because it triggers too much fear? ● What do you secretly wish was true about your life / the world? ● What is your worst case scenario in going for a meaningful career / exploring your passions / purpose? ● What do you fear would happen if your worst case scenario came true?
- 27. Solution #2 ● If you had a magic wand and could make everything in your life happen perfectly, how would that story go? (ideal job / life) ● If the story went that way, how would others respond to you? ● If the story went that way, what would you be able to achieve? ● If the story went that way, in what areas of your life would you be more fulfilled, powerful and influential? Psychographics ● What do you read? (books, blogs, magazines) ● What do you watch? (TV, movies, genres, youtube) ● What do you listen to? (music, books, podcasts) ● What offline communities are you a part of? ● What online communities are you a part of? ● What conferences have you attended in the last 18 months? ● What do you do for fun? ● What is your political affiliation or philosophy? ● What is your spiritual affiliation or philosophy? ● What do you think will happen to humanity in the next 20 years? ● What social media networks do you use? ● How do you find out about new opportunities for career development? ● How do you find out about new opportunities for personal growth? Takeaways: 1. Crave passion, impact and meaning, but not purpose (doh!) 2. Financial abundance is a core concern 3. Would pay $100-$500 for a program. Data here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ixoHGJhHvTLLLinrb9B2Yyx4LrY1Y8F- MT8o2NH7IXY/edit?usp=sharing
- 28. Appendix C: Comparison of Online Course Delivery Platforms Thinkific Pros Cons - Create and sell online courses to students anywhere - Add videos, images, PDFs, quizzes, surveys, and more to your curriculum - USer can create discount codes and set up affiliate tracking. - Customize your website and course pages with themes or HTML/CSS editing to match your brand - Accept payments for courses with Stripe and PayPal - Engage with your students through in-course discussions - Thinkific’s biggest limitation is limited support for discussion and online community. - Thinkific also does not offer any conferencing or webinar features for running teleclasses or webinar classes within your course. User would need to research, purchase, and manage a separate conferencing tool. Pricing: - Free Starter plan for access to core features with a 10% fee for all student transactions. - $49/month Essentials plan for access to Starter features with a 5% fee for all student transactions - $99/month Business plan for access to Essentials features with no transaction fees - $279/month Advanced plan for access to all features with no transaction fees
- 29. Ruzuku Pros Cons - Ruzuku is another online course selling solution that's packed with features. To start, the course management is quick and easy, and just about any media file can be uploaded for selling to customers. -Video, audio and PDF courses are all supported through the Ruzuku platform, and user can run webinars and engage with customers through live chat - Ruzuku is a top platform for both streaming and downloading content, and user can create memberships or send out drip content based on course timing. In other words Ruzuku is designed to host both “scheduled” and evergreen courses. A scheduled course starts on a specific date and allows a cohort of participants to go through the course together, on the same schedule. This model facilitates peer-to-peer learning and community for “live” courses and group coaching programs. Ruzuku’s visual outline tool makes it straightforward to plan out your course, and choose the dates on which lessons are released. - Limited “activity” options - Page loading times weren’t great during testing. - Limited styling options (7 colors, 4 font styles) with no previews. - Courses aren’t interactive or engaging. Pricing: From $49 per month (with 25 enrollments) to $997 per year for unlimited access and all features. A free 14-day trial is also available.
- 30. Zoom Pros Cons - Zoom is designed exclusively for hosting webinars, teaching online courses, and conducting online training, video demonstrations, virtual meetings and video conference; and represents an easy to use online video conferencing and meeting software that integrates video conferencing, simple online meetings, and group messaging into a single cloud-based platform. - The quality of the call is much better compared to other video conferencing software - Zoom’s cloud video conferencing capability contributes to the dynamic hosting of webinars. Such capability allows the viewing of both panelists screen and presentation screen which is referred to as dual screen support system. It also has an HD video and HD voice with dynamic voice detection functionality. - Allows “Breakouts” where several participants can be grouped together in a temporary, private “room” to do small group exercises and/or discussions. - Priced per host. - Cloud recording is an add-on with Basic plan. Pricing: Personal Zoom accounts are free to create, and should work fine for most course participants. However, since free accounts are limited to hosting meetings of 40 minutes maximum, it is highly recommended that the course host upgrade to a paid account for $15/month.
- 31. Teachable Pros Cons - Landing pages, Blog, an easy-to-use course builder and a nice course interface - Video hosting, Quizzes & discussions - Good pricing scheme (started for free) and good support -Flexible pricing options - Multi-tier pricing, recurring subscriptions, bundle courses, and coupon/ promo codes - Integrations with other services, eCommerce functionality - If user don't drive traffic, user will not able to sell courses - As compared to full-featured LMS, the functionality and course components teachable offerings are limited. Pricing: Basic plan ($29/MO) and Professional plan ($99/MO)
- 32. Appendix D: Post-Course Survey Responses Continued Learnings & Post-Course analysis: ● Overall we had 30 people join us from 5 countries. ● Of these 30 people we had a 33% completion rate ● Here were the average scores for the following post-course survey questions: What part of the program was most impactful for you? (Responses) ● The soul house exercise. Helped me tap into the gold and push through resistance. ● The weekly calls ● Soul house, meditations, telichy pod calls ● Facebook community, weekly pod call, community developed through 1:1 interactions with other participants. I would have liked more opportunities to interact with staff on an occasional basis - such as "office hours" or group podcalls that were facilitated. ● There were a few exercises that stood out to me as really beneficial, the entelechy one, and the one where we asked 10 people to answer those 5 questions.I also really enjoyed getting to know a few members of my pod. ● Speaking to my titans, and being in community with other purpose seekers ● Can't think of just one, so I'm going to list two: ○ (1) Connecting with GPE peeps and fellow participants. ○ (2) Getting clear about my "what's next" regarding my purposeful work. ● Pod call ● Exercises, Pods, and weekly Sundays What suggestions do you have for the GPE team to make the course even better? (Responses) ● My suggestion would be to explore how the Sunday calls could be better. Maybe assign a couple of students to share on a given call their experience for the week. ● Stretch it out some more. Every 2 weeks instead of weekly. ● Make it longer to be able to complete all the lessons. Felt rushed. More time on Sunday calls and break out pods. ● As earlier, maybe some drop in hours when they are available for a pod call to those who want to join.
- 33. ● It was an interestingly men-heavy approach, and it would be nice to have more support for women's issues since we're in a time of humanity's evolution where that topic is really coming to the forefront. ○ I also would have enjoyed having a Pod mentor present at each call to help guide things. ● Longer group calls to allow for more group sharing, or fewer participants. ● (1) Make it shorter (5 or 7 weeks). ○ (2) Make Sunday group call more about activity explanation and sharing answers of previous week with people pod people or others. ○ (3) Didn't feel engaged with class at times when people shared about their results/challenges on Sunday call. ○ (4) No coaching on group calls. ● Expand the program to over ten weeks for breathing space ● Highlight the identity and roles of the 4 "Interns" or moderators. I found it difficult to differentiate them and their roles from those of the participants. What do you feel is next for you in your journey? (Responses selected from several answers) ● Becoming the embodiment of my purpose. ● Becoming the embodiment of my purpose. ● Becoming the embodiment of my purpose., Learning how to lead with my purpose. ● Becoming the embodiment of my purpose. ● Becoming the embodiment of my purpose., Learning how to lead with my purpose. ● Healing around core wounds / shadow work., Becoming the embodiment of my purpose., Learning how to lead with my purpose. ● Healing around core wounds / shadow work., Becoming the embodiment of my purpose., Learning how to lead with my purpose. ● I'm good to go, no further support or training desired. ● Healing around core wounds / shadow work. ● Becoming the embodiment of my purpose.