In today’s Bright Spark course success story, Sharyn Sheldon and Sarah Arrow meet Chris Gloss, public speaker and former veteran, to get an insight into online courses and how they work for coaches and consultants from ideas to development.
This interview is packed with juicy tips on how to choose your online course content, how to develop it and how much time you will save. #SpoilerAlert you can gain 42 days back per course…
Read more or listen to the video to find out how.
Transcript and Highlights:
Sarah Arrow (00:07):
Chris, please introduce yourself for the audience and tell us what you do and why you do it.
Chris Gloss (00:19):
All right. Well, I'm Chris Gloss. First of all, happy to be here. Happy to be here with both of you. Contents Sparks is absolutely a company that I love and has supported my business for some time now. So I'm completely excited to have the opportunity to connect with you.
I'm a professional speaker known as the possibilitarian. Norman Vincent Peale once said “no matter how dark things are or appear to be, raise your sights, to see the possibilities and always see them for, they are always there.” So being a professional speaker, I also have a consulting side of my business, where I do training for organizations and help them remove the gaps that stand in their way from getting from where they are, to where they want to be. And that's one of the things that led me to Content Sparks, but I'm a servant to the world and helping remove the gaps and challenges that exist so I can help people increase their productivity and profitability.
Sarah Arrow (01:17):
Brilliant. Prior to Content Sparks. How did you create courses? What did you do before you found Content Sparks?
Chris Gloss (01:26):
Yeah. I had a lot of pain before Contents Sparks. Because, as you know, when you're doing consultant work and you find gaps and challenges that people are experiencing, you're gonna have to fill those gaps and, being a solopreneur, didn't have an office, didn't have a staff, didn't have consultants working for me. I had to be the sole person developing the content. So that meant doing all of the research, having focus groups, and finding the best practices that are out in the world today, and gathering all this information on that, lay it out in a perfect format for training to take place.
So it was a lot of pain, it was challenging, and it took majority of my time. So Content Sparks was able to remove all of those challenges that I was experiencing. Because, everything was pretty much done for me already. And all I needed to do was get familiar with the content to be able to help serve my clients.
Sarah Arrow (02:23):
That's brilliant. Thank you for sharing that. Prior to using Content Sparks, how long would it take you to put together an online course or a workshop?
Chris Gloss (02:34):
A considerable amount of time. I would say, consider all the planning, all the research, all the research and all their resources needed, I could get a course up at my best under 30 days. I could get a course up 30 to 45 days.
Sarah Arrow (02:54):
Right. How long does it take you to get one of your programs live today?
Chris Gloss (03:05):
Well, since I am a graduate of the doing a course in 10 days, right. So a considerable amount of time saved in my life and in my world. Because I have the formula now to be able to launch a course in less than 10 days. I have done courses in about five days as well, because of the methodology that you've already laid out and the resources that you have. it's easy to adapt and be able to identify a need of a client, link it up with the right training content material, and go ahead and get that material out. And if I have a weekend available, if I start work a lot of times, a good percentage, 80 to 90% of the work can be done over the course of that weekend, if I could dedicate a full weekend to it. So considerable amount of time saved to be able to create content, because of the formula and the strategies of the content, doing the complete ‘creating a course in the 10-day challenge'.
Sarah Arrow (04:08):
Wow. That's significant from 45 days maximum down to a weekend, which could be three days. It could be two days. That's a saving of 42 days for every course that you do.
Chris Gloss (04:25):
Yeah. That's the beauty of all of the work already being laid out. I mean, the research has been done for me gathering the content, putting it together and it's high quality content. And, even theresources are already developed. I just have to do some simple customization work and familiarize myself and go.
So, it's a tremendous help to be able to reduce timeframes from 45 to under a week. And that helps me secure more deals as well because, I can have that turnover time to be able to help support what the client needs, especially in these challenging times.
Sarah Arrow (04:59):
Well, that's fantastic. Thank you for sharing. I think you're almost as rapid as what I am at turning these around!
Out of all of the Content Sparks products that you've got, which one is your favorite? Which one is your program that you've made yours, that you love the most?
Chris Gloss (05:22):
Now this is like a trick question. Because, it's almost like asking me if I had three children, which one is my favorite child. You're about to get me in a whole lot of trouble Sarah, you can probably get me in a whole lot of trouble. I hope Sharyn is not watching. Okay. So here we go. So I'm going to give it, I'm going to say it.
My favorite. I love them all. I love them. I love all of my kids. I love all of the content that I've purchased from Content Sparks. But my favorite is finding out about being / stepping out of your comfort zone. Now that amazes me because of all the content that I have that is just so robust. This was just an ebook, but it has revolutionized my career, my business, and even things that I can talk about. That's relevant to people today. So stepping outside your comfort zone was just simply huge. It came out of nowhere. I didn't even expect it to do this. I thought I was just going to do a 10 day challenge on this. And it turned out to be the thing that solidified all the little different nuances I do in my business. So stepping outside your comfort zone by far is my absolute favorite, but don't tell the other ones.
Sarah Arrow (06:39):
No, you love them all equally.
Chris Gloss (06:46):
I do. I do.
Sarah Arrow (06:48):
When it comes to Content Sparks content, talk us through your process from the moment of purchase to putting it up on to your site as a sales page, tell us what you do. Because, everybody knows what I do. We want to hear the Chris Gloss formula.
Chris Gloss (07:09):
Yeah. It all starts. And it's interesting one of the latest products you have is about finding out your why or understanding what your why is. And for me, it all starts there. I'm looking at my community and identifying what is it that they need? What are the challenges that they're experiencing? And that helps me. When I go on to Content Sparks, be able to find the products and the tools that are going to be most relevant to them. And then, after identifying it, I spend time immersing myself in it, which is very easy; the content is written and in such a very user friendly way, and it's written at a level where my audience can already absorb it. So all I really have to do is kind of dive into it and customize it.
Chris Gloss (08:00):
For me, the biggest thing that I do that may be different than other people, and it's included in the content, is having a mind map. My biggest thing is a mind map. Once I have a mind map, what it allows me to do is help me lay out exactly what I'm thinking in my head. It's like being in an airplane at 30,000 feet, looking out the window. Being able to put those pieces where they are and emphasize the pieces where my clients are finding the most tension and the most challenges. So being able to dive into that content and easily put it in those places to help solve those needs is what I guess the biggest thing that I can do. And it's easy. It's easy to transition into a platform that I use for my membership sites called Ever Lesson. It's easy to transit. It's easy to place content in there because, it's already separated in such a way that it's going to be like bite sized pieces that people can see is telling a story. So it's not just immersing them with a fire hose. It's step by step processes. So it's easy to take it and place it inside this membership area and, it's easy to launch.
Sarah Arrow (09:17):
That's brilliant. Thank you for sharing that.
Sharyn Sheldon (09:24):
Hey, can I just ask a quick question, going back about the mind map, when you say you create a mind map, you do it for that one course or do you create something that's around your curriculum for your membership where all the pieces fit together?
Chris Gloss (09:43):
Yeah, I'll do it for that at one course. So I take all of the structure that you have and I place it in one side of a mind map and, that helps me figure out. So if I'm going to use multiple courses to accomplish a particular goal, that one course can be used across different needs that a client may have. Like, for example, with ‘know your why', that's going to be important to them from a sales perspective. So I can easily plug that course in. Because of the mind map, for this particular client, when it comes to sales or if it's customer service or just leadership challenges, I can easily move it to another group of courses that I have, and I can easily customize it. Because of that mind map, I can see what parts I need to use and what parts I could probably eliminate for that particular line of business.
Sharyn Sheldon (10:40):
Yeah. I mean, that's basically, we kind of do that with the smart art graphics and the success map, but it's good to have. I love mind maps. It's a great way to do it.
Chris Gloss (10:52):
Yeah. I love my maps, especially. I love also Trello. So it was one of the tools you use and you opened my eyes up to how you were using Trello so that when I saw the Trello board, that's a part of the content that you share that opened my eyes up to a new world. Because, I didn't, I never thought about using that as a template to share with clients, to help them navigate through the course material or navigate to get the results that they want, but also as simple and easy to use formula that I can consistently use, no matter what kind of course of content I get. So that opened up a new world to me. So using mind maps and things like Trello, it was a project management tool. It has just been enlightening.
Sarah Arrow (11:41):
Thank you. I've completely lost the plot. Now I'm going to have to think up a question on the fly. Sorry about that. Is there anything that you'd like us to ask you, Chris, flipping it totally back onto you?
Chris Gloss (12:00):
I don't know, but I can say that because of Content Sparks, especially during this period or during this time of great change going on, it has helped produce a sense of – trying to think of the right word. What would I call it is a sense of steadiness in my business. Because, one, I think I don't have to worry about and be stressed out about is coming up with things immediately. That's relevant to organizations, and things that they are experiencing right now. I even went through the list of different content that I've purchased in the past and is relevant now. And so, especially for some of my clients right now, so it makes life so much easier for me to stay relevant with my clients, address their needs, solve their problems and make sure my business cannot just only survive but thrive.
So Content Sparks, I look at Content Sparks as not an organization for me, Content Sparks is a part of my team. So for me, it's almost like I have an outsourced content development team where I don't have to struggle to try to keep up with the changes and being able to be flexible, adaptable, versatile, and agile with my community. This for me is just simple and easy to be able to keep the pace with them and make sure that I'm surviving it. And I make sure I'm thriving and not just surviving.
Sarah Arrow (13:38):
That's brilliant. We love being part of the virtual outsourced development for your courses and things like that. I was listening to the stress part. Okay. Yeah. But I'm now stressed about getting the stuff together that everybody's asking for. So Chris, if you could wave your magic wand and have any program, any online course, what would you like Content Sparks to create?
Chris Gloss (14:17):
You do so well with everything, because it keeps. I think I say, I live in a bubble, so there are things that I don't tend to think about, but I know over the years I've always wondered about a course about using assessments. Because, I find assessments really help eliminate the gaps that people are dealing with. And because, instead of thinking, you know, what's going on thinking, you know, what's wrong in your organization, it's better to know what's on. And you do that by asking. And I think sometimes fundamentally we overlook the power of assessments and all of the tools that are out there. You could go from informal assessment tools like survey monkey or, you know, basic survey tools all the way up to doing things like Myers Briggs or, or some of the other psychometric tools that are out there.
Chris Gloss (15:13):
But I think a course around that will really help a lot of smaller businesses, not just smaller business, really any business, especially solopreneurs and a lot of the smaller businesses and even larger organizations begin to find out what, what is the true thing? Because, it's in my experience, people just tend to say, well, this is what I think it is. Let's throw this at it. And it might not be the thing that resolves it. So they continue to see this over and over and over again. So a course around assessments, using assessments to help identify those gaps.
Sarah Arrow (15:48):
It's really interesting because, I posted on my Facebook profile a few weeks back about what are the qualities of a really good trainer. And one of the things that came up consistently was going into the room to try one thing, but training another because the need that was identified wasn't the need of the actual people in the room. So you're absolutely bang on when you sign any organizations and even individuals don't know what their training need is. They don't know how to identify in any meaningful way in order to then go out and find a course or other type of program.
Sharyn Sheldon (16:30):
But you're not talking about assessments in terms of training assessment, are you? It sounded like you were talking about assessing different things in the business, like 360 feedback.
Chris Gloss (16:45):
Yes, exactly. All those different tools that it's bigger than just a training issue. It's sort of like one of the programs that you have around the target marketing, the target market audience. So usually when I meet a lot of solopreneurs and I ask them, well, who's your audience? Well, the big answer that you get is everyone, right? I serve everyone. I know everybody's my audience. Because, everybody likes bread. Well, no, everybody doesn't like bread, right? And then different types of rice. So to me, it's bigger than just a response about this person doesn't understand what, who their target audience is. They have a fundamental challenge in their entire business. So for me as a consultant, being able to do things like the 360 feedback and help them get a good picture of how their business is actually structured and what they're doing in a different aspects, being able to come in and do an assessment of their business and, and see where the different gaps exist.
Chris Gloss (17:51):
More than just a marketing issue. There’s probably some other fundamental issues and you don't uncover those without doing some type or some form of assessments. And I know that's broad because, it could go multiple ways when, especially when you're thinking about assessments and assessment tools. But, I don't know, I couldn't create it. So that would be something on a wishlist because your great minds might be able to help direct that conversation. And what's a better way, Hey, you are the development team for me. I can't, I don't know, but I just always think that's a good conversation
Sharyn Sheldon (18:28):
I see, I wonder whether Kate, who does a lot of instructional design, I'll have to see if she has any experience in that. Because, she's got all sorts of hidden experience that I only find out about when I raised the topic with her. So yeah, I've done that before.
Chris Gloss (18:45):
And survey. Survey is still a huge need as well. So assessment surveys are types of assessments, can be used as assessments, and those are still very popular and people are getting a lot of success. I don't know if you're familiar with the book, Ask by Ryan Levesque. I mean, it's powerful and how you can really use those tools to help automate a process and navigate people to getting to a better place to be.
Sharyn Sheldon (19:15):
I have that book somewhere. Yeah. I don't know. It's probably digital. I don't have a lot of paper back anymore. They're all in the basement. Yeah. Okay. So that would be interesting. Any other topics on your wishlist?
Chris Gloss (19:41):
I have plenty that I still need to do the work with and help finish and create those things. But I love the track that you're going down because, it seems so timely. I mean, so I don't even have to really think about it, like with the product about know your why, it wasn't on my radar, but it's such a it's I believe it's going to play such a big part in the overall service that I can provide to my client. Because, ultimately, because of this event that we've been, that we're currently going through, people are in more survival mode and things have been shaken up around them. We're going to have to start at the basics or start at the root, in identifying your why, why are you doing what you do?
Chris Gloss (20:29):
Why do you get up out of the bed and get in traffic and come here every day? Or why do you get up and spend countless hours in front of your computer to grow your business? Especially multilevel marketing and a whole bunch of different industries. It all comes back to why being crystal clear. Because, that's what's going to motivate you to keep on when the economy is down and things look challenging. You can't figure out how you're going to be able to sell anything. It all goes back to your why, it all goes back to your why. So it all begins there. So for me, I love the track that you're on. I love the way that you develop things that are just so relevant and timely. So I'm just hitching my wagon to yours.
Sarah Arrow (21:10):
So Chris, if somebody was reading this blog slash video collection and they were thinking of using Content Sparks for the first time, what advice would you give to them? What tips would you share with them?
Chris Gloss (21:26):
The first thing I would say is don't think about it, do it. Don't sit there and wonder, don't start trying to figure out well, is this the best company or, well, is this content going to be good? Is it going to be relevant? Will it help solve a need?
Don't think about those things and dive in, if the course or if the content fits your need that you're looking for.
I would just say invest is the first thing. Because you can take it from myself and other people that are in a Content Sparks community. It fits the bill. It's high quality. The work is already done for you, whatever challenges that you have experienced by using a similar companies, they don't exist here. And the support is incredible.
You know, so anything that may be standing in your way or blocking you from making a decision to move forward.
Don't get stuck in thought mode, trying to consider and think about it, just do it.
Because, I would not be on here raising the flag for Content Sparks and the other people would not be raising a flag for Content Sparks if the proof wasn't already in the pudding. Dive in and just get to work. Because it's going to be easy to customize, and with the support, it's going to be everything that you need.
Sarah Arrow (22:44):
Brilliant. Thank you. The next question. My last one, unless Sharyn's got some, where can we find you online if someone's watching this and think, gosh, that Chris is an amazing person and you absolutely are, where can we find you online? Where can they find the Comfort Zone course? Where can they connect with you
Chris Gloss (23:06):
You can find me in Content Sparks community. You can see me happily inside of there. Outside of that, you can find me at ChrisGloss.com. That's C H R I S G L O S S.com. And when you go there the step outside your comfort zone is featured on the website. So it's actually a special going on and you can dive in and get firsthand account of how great Content Spark's material is.
It made my life easier, and that course was created in less than 10 days. So you’ll be able to see how you could even use it in your world.
