Highlights: Conversation with Caroline Chambers
This amazing teach-in can help you grow your business
👋👋 fam,
Thank you to everyone who came to the Teach-In and Q&A with Caroline Chambers (@carochambers on Insta), and especially to Caroline for sharing her hard earned wisdom and being so generous with her time.
You can view the recording here. Below are notes that might be helpful including timestamps, highlights from the marketing section, and links to tech/gear.
The feedback we received from folks who were able to attend was that it was inspirational, entertaining, and filled with helpful tips like how to grow class size and set up your tech/camera. Caroline shares the real, raw numbers and will make you feel like you can take on anything, which you can! :)
We’ve had such positive feedback that we’re thinking about hosting more of these sessions. Who would you like to hear from and what topics would you like covered?
📹 Video outline and timestamps
Intro: 1:30
Background: 6:40
Your first class: 8:50
Overcoming self doubt: 10:35
Marketing classes: 13:20
Online vs in person cooking classes: 19:25
Using a moderator: 22:00
How many spots should you open?: 25:30
How to come up with recipes: 27:20
Launching a membership: 31:30
Corporate classes: 44:00
Timing classes: 48:20
Camera set up: 50:00
How to prep for a class: 56:30
What to do after class: 1:05:30
Spending time on blogging vs classes: 1:08:00
Transition to paid content: 1:09:00
Opportunity: 1:15:00
Go get em: 1:16:30
Airsubs shoutout: 1:15:15
📢 Marketing notes
Caroline’s marketing tips — which helped her grow her classes from 25 attendees on average to well over 100 on average — were especially interesting. Here are notes from that part of the conversation.
Biggest marketing channels. Caroline’s primary marketing channels are email and Instagram.
Email. Build up an email list however you can so that you have a built in audience that you can market things to whether it’s classes, products, or anything else. It seems like it’s old school but it’s the only scalable way to communicate directly with people from your community. Experiment with things like free e-books. Each time a new person signs up for class, your emails list grows.
Instagram. Use stories to explain what’s going to happen and class and pitch people on why they should come. Explain what’s special about the class and why it will be fun. People are signing up for class because they like you and find you compelling — talk to the camera! Make it easy for people to find the class by putting the link in your bio. Hitting 10k followers so you can use the “swipe up” feature is a game changer.
“Sell out” and then open more spots. Limit the number of spots that are available so there are never more than a few open. When those are all purchased and you are “sold out” tell people that you sold out and you’re going to open up more spots. Don’t worry about the class getting too big. Always keep selling spots because some people won’t make it to class and the quality of the class is still strong with big numbers.
Ask people to share. At the end of class ask people to take a picture, share, and tag you in it, and then re-gram it when they do. They’re telling all their friends that they had fun in class, and you can show people how much fun they had too. Caroline says something like “I want to see what you made, take a picture and tag me in it!”
After class email. Send an email to people who attended class with any follow ups like links to products or topics from class. Make sure to promote and link to your upcoming classes. It’s a great way to get people who just had fun in class to sign up for the next one.
Offer private classes. You can teach public and private classes and there will be overlap between the people who take both. Teach “public classes” where anyone can sign up, and many of those people will sign up for a private class for a birthday party, bachelorette, corporate team building day, or other special occasion.
Teach a charity class. Many of Caroline’s early classes were geared towards supporting causes she believed in and she donated the proceeds from these classes to amazing organizations. It gives people another reason to sign up and expands your community and your reach.
Pick dates and times that work for your audience. Are most of your people in NYC or LA? Pick the class time that will work best for them and you.
🤓 Technology and gear recommendations
Wifi upgraded to top tier
iPhone as primary camera
Secondary device like a laptop to see chat box with questions
Ring light https://amzn.to/2O4D1qG
iPhone mount https://amzn.to/3uYqbLm
Induction burner if oven is an inconvenient place https://amzn.to/2NVTMV3
Ethernet cord: https://amzn.to/2O48mtz