It’s not enough for you to be respected in your circle, have years of experience, or hold the key to alleviate pain points if you do not lay the foundation, present and follow through with these steps. Don’t be ‘that guy’ (or girl) who thinks everyone will flock to your webinar or class to be woefully let down with crickets and empty seats.

There is just too much going on these days, online and in real life. People are busy. How will you create a successful webinar, class, mastermind, support group online, or instructional class? Taking these steps – every one of them – will guarantee you have the best turn out.

My ‘Why’ for creating this article: I will be completely honest, as the Founder of The Wellness Universe, I personally know some of the BEST resources for health and well-being, self-development, business success and support to live a better life. I support every member of The Wellness Universe and encourage them daily, however, many (MANY) purpose and passion driven people fall short of presenting and marketing themselves to achieve greater success. Classes online or webinars are ideal! They allow people around the world to connect with you. How fantastic?! Just think, the opportunity to have live Q & A in and of itself creates a new dynamic and opens space for your expertise to shine. Recorded classes/webinars are evergreen, as long as your content is still relevant. Seeing people who make the world a better place, happy and successful, gives me such joy! As WU World-Changers achieve success and thrive from their passion and contribution, the entire WORLD benefits. Get out there and create a happier, healthier world!

Inhale. Exhale. Ready? Let’s go!

Here is your ultimate guide to hosting classes and webinars, with the very basics of what you need from tried and true personal experience. Of course, things always change and there may be more tips I didn’t think of or know about, so if you have an awesome tip, please share it in the comments. Thanks!

Pre Class/Webinar Prep

1. Be sure you have a base of potential attendees. If you do speaking engagements, have an email list, have friends and family, these are your ‘golden leads’. These people (hopefully) know, trust and love you. They are your cheerleaders, supports and will megaphone your message and are your best candidates for attending and spreading the news about your class/webinar.

• Fact: Strongest leads come from people you know in real life, however, never rely on them or expect them to come to your class or webinar. Your approach and ‘ask’ plays a huge role in getting them to attend and for them to tell a friend.

2. Have you established your influence? What have you done thus far: Blogged, authored books, given interviews, have an established stream of content online (or a real life following that will attend on-line events) that proves your value and expertise? If not, building your reputation is essential.

3. Have you established an online presence? How does your social media and messaging speak to people? Have you conveyed your message through your communication and posts on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and The Wellness Universe? Be sure what you post is a mix of entertaining, engaging and informative information that speaks to your target audience with value in your content. Creating your target audience takes time.

• Myth: A huge Social Media following will fill seats. Truth: An Engaged Social Media following might fill seats. Why? If you have been giving loads of content and love to your followers for free on social media, your followers must truly adore and trust you. They must find your event seems worthy of their time, money, and are also interested in the specific topic you are covering, to get them to consider signing up and showing up. So, essentially, social media followers are a sliver of your attendees.

4. Poll your audience. What do people want from you? What are they willing to pay for? If your class/webinar is free, chances are you will do some selling. If your webinar or class has a fee, you better deliver original, accurate, quality content and actionable items that add value and can convert to something positive for your attendees. Leave them walking away feeling better.

• Myth: Free will fill seats. No. People are busy and bombarded with FREE all-day long. Never assume your class/webinar will be a super success because you are giving it free. ‘The Freebie Aftershock’  If you are giving a webinar or class free, and still get crickets, do not get upset, feel resentful or crushed. This is not a reflection on your content IF you are really awesome, have done your research and practiced your presentation. It’s a reflection on your track record, marketing and circle of influence.

Prepare & Develop Your Class/Webinar

1. Set your intention. What do you want to achieve? Are you seeking to offer instruction solely? Are you seeking to convert attendees to clients? Are you building up your influence and positioning yourself as an expert? Identifying your goal will help you craft your presentation.

2. You’re set on a topic and goal. Now what? Start outlining what you will talk about and decide if you will do on-camera, on-camera with a PDF presentation or screen share, or just presentation with you on audio.

• Tip: It is recommended you plan to be on-camera. You establish trust and connection with your audience.

3. Your materials are MORE important than what you know. What?? How and what you present is the only chance you will get to convey your knowledge, so while you have a load of sparkles and rainbows in your noggin, if it is not shared in your presentation in a flowing manner, it will not help anyone. Have a script to include vital content in an entertaining/engaging manner and be sure if you use a presentation it looks awesome, is well laid out and flows.

• Tip: Presentations – Make your slides readable, visually appealing and test run them to see if they can be read on the screen or needs to be reformatted.
• Tip: Webinars and classes need to keep your audience’s attention. If you are boring, do not engage them, overwhelm them, have a bad connection, poor visuals, bad lighting or audio, they will get up and go to the bathroom, surf the net, have conversations with people in the room, answer the phone, etc. However, if you have a super duper presentation and presence, they will stay glued!
• Tip: Make your presentation in PowerPoint and convert to PDF. Horizontal vs vertical slides work best.

4. Don’t just talk, show us! Maybe you have included images in your presentation, maybe not. Do you have something you can show on camera? Remember show and tell? Bring props and examples to show and demonstrate adds interest. 

5. Make sure you test out what your audience will see. Do a trial run, or two or three. Record and review your class/webinar. Invite an honest person to help you review and make changes.

• Tip: Attend and review other people’s classes and webinars!!! What can you do BETTER, different or have you become aware of through their class? It is WORTH your time and money to attend super successful webinars and classes to become YOUR best.
• Tip: Be sure to review classes/webinars that are similar to what you want to achieve. Compare apples to apples. If you are giving a free webinar intended to ‘sell’ something, review those. If you are planning a ‘class’ in which you charge a fee, go to classes that charge and see how they run.

6. Buddy up. If you do not have a producer or assistant, connect with other WU Instructors who are willing to co-pilot your class/webinar. It is highly recommended you have another warm body in the room with you. You can test your audio, camera, have them help you field questions, etc.

7. Get familiar with your platform. Do tests over and over. Get familiar with the technology you are using. The Wellness Universe uses the technology from Learn it Live to power The Wellness Universe Lounge (which we offer free to every member of WU).

• Tip: Another reason why you are urged to have a person assist your live class is so you do not take up the time of your guests who made the time to attend, on one user who is having tech issues and trying to assist them live during your class. ALSO this attendee MAY be the one who walks away frustrated and unhappy due to their tech challenges, so they must be attended to and sorted out. Everyone in your class is important.

8. Test your audio, lighting and practice looking at the camera and be aware of your presence. Be aware of background noise, post a sign on your door to not ring doorbell, etc. Your test run should be done in the same location with the same connection (hardwire is recommended on Google Chrome browser) where you will have your live event at the same time of day as lighting changes.

9. Practice your presentation by recording it. If you are not confident and stumbling through your presentation, you will not leave a good impression and miss the opportunity to create trust and reliability. If you are insecure, get coaching.

10. Make a checklist and fine tune it as you create and review your practice sessions. Don’t forget to refer to your checklist the day before your class just in case you forgot anything.

Marketing – The Key To Your Success & Beast We Loathe

1. Don’t take all your hard work and flush it down the toilet. Myth: “Build it and they will come.” Not true online. MARKET it and they will come.

• Tip: If you have a limited personal audience, small database, short client list, lack of influencers around you, or lack of notches on your belt with classes and webinars, the more you will have to put into paid advertising.

2. Create marketing materials in advance. Email copy. Memes/posts for social media. Blogs. Videos. Facebook Live(s) topics. Making these in advance will allow you to schedule and mentally map out your postings as well as put them into a calendar. This will enable you to focus solely during this marketing time on responding and commenting to interest which your posts generate, as these are great leads.

3. Golden Strategy:

-> Set up your class/webinar at The Lounge with a great description addressing the problem you solve, speaking to the audience you wish to serve. Include a powerful image associated with your class and brand. Be sure to create DISCOUNT CODES, including 100% off to give free seats away.

-> Build an Opt-in (landing page, funnel, sales page, etc.) Research best practices for highest conversion or hirer an expert to help you build your page. Including a video is highly recommended. Include bonuses and freebies like worksheets or free consultations for all live attendees.

– >Email your list AND your friends and family.

-> Blog and create content and include an invitation to join you.

-> CALL people and invite them.

-> Advertise your class with Facebook and Google Ads.

-> Social Media the heck out of it. Here is where you can change your message slightly to see which post gets the highest engagement.

• Tip: USE YOUR VALUABLE FEEDBACK! Did a particular post appeal to a slew of people? Be sure your presentation/class/webinar includes that specific information people responded to.    

 -> Reply to your engagement on Social Media. Very Important! These are now warm leads. Share the link to your landing page or direct link to your class with them.

• Tip: Speak from your heart and invite them with pure intention. For example: “Thank you for your interest. If you see that I can enrich your life in a significant way through what I will be sharing, I would be honored to see you. If you come live, I promise to offer you a great class and answer all of your questions. Thank you in advance for your time!”

-> Give Away Seats. If you are running a ‘for a fee’ class, give away seats. How?

• Blog and post on social media and hold a contest or offer a seat for all who comment.
• Ask people to share on social media and give them a free seat.
• Host Facebook Lives and give away seats to live attendees.
• Invite WU World-Changers from the community.
• Ask your circle of influence and network to email their network and tell-a-friend.
• Give away seats by any means possible that creates promotion at the same time you are filling a seat. 

-> Be sure you can have 2 or 3 reliable people to commit and show up live. This can be your triple diamond clients, friends are family that will create positive energy ion the room for you. You will feel much more confident with a few familiar faces in the room which skyrocket your confidence, put you at ease and aid in delivering a great presentation!

4. Spread the word for weeks, however, the final day and even the last hour before your live event, is where you may double your attendance. Several times we have had cases where we nearly doubled signups within the hour before! Last minute marketing is very important, don’t leave this out of your plan.

• Market through the above suggestions for as long as you wish, however, your reminders to those who have registered the day before, morning of and at least 30 minutes before will get those who registered to show up live.
• While marketing, be sure your last moments, the day before and day of, your emails, social media, etc. to get sign-ups express urgency. Ex. ‘Don’t miss this!’ ‘Happening TODAY’ ‘LAST CALL’ ‘LIVE NOW’

5. Talk about it. Do you network or speak publicly? Do you belong to organizations or communities like The Wellness Universe that you can get support from or invite to attend? Spread the word via face-to-face!

• Tip: Don’t be invasive or all sleazy sales about it. Mention it if someone asks how they can support you or you see the opportunity. People are more willing to take action and support you when you have an event with a set date, time and purpose.
• Tip: Speak confidently about your class and how delighted you would be if they would attend.

Show Time! Your Class Day is Finally Here

1. Prepare for the best or worst. Breathe and go deep. Your mindset is essential! Although you have sign-ups, you never know how many will show up live. Whether you have 1 person or 300 people show up, each situation has its emotions that need to be addressed prior to going live. It’s important to mention that no matter the turn out, you must tell yourself you will put on a successful presentation and give it 100%. YOU are worth it.

2. Give it all you’ve got! Now that you have prepared mentally, be sure you show up physically polished and looking professional. Look good with grounded energy.

• Tip: At all costs, do not be late or cancel….unless you are dying. But seriously, as they say in show business, “the show must go on.” Canceling, showing up late or starting late due to technical issues is unprofessional unless it is completely unavoidable. Your attendees have made YOU a priority. You owe it to them to be 5 star and on top of your game.

3. Have a tips sheet you can cut and paste from. Better yet, ask your co-pilot to have handy: tech troubleshooting tips, links you want to share, etc. (If you are an instructor at The Lounge, email me and I will give you a copy of my tips sheet to help attendees troubleshoot tech issues.)

• Tip: If you are using a presentation at The Lounge, it must be a PDF. All of your LIVE attendees can click licks in your PDF right from their screen during the live class! Getting your attendees to take actions right then and there increases your success for them to take that action 100% because they are LIVE with you and clicking is simple! Don’t worry, the links all open in separate windows so they can bookmark everything you want them to see.

4. Message your registered attendees 20 -25 minutes before the class starts. Include the call-in number from your class in case they cannot get in front of a computer to attend, they can at least call in.

• Tip: You have access to message all of your registered attendees through your class listing as well as their email addresses since they registered for your class/webinar at The Lounge.

5. Engage and acknowledge your audience! During your live class, NOTHING is more important than your guests. NOTHING. Welcome them by name at the beginning, and once you are in full swing, late joiners will not be ‘hurt’ if you don’t shout them out.

6. Ask questions to create interaction and get feedback. At The Lounge, attendees have access to emoticons to express themselves and can reply via chat box!

7. Ask if there are questions throughout your presentation. Before the official Q & A at the end, I like to ask about twice during an hour-long presentation or after specific sections if all content is clear or if clarification is needed. Usually, the majority of people will be processing the information and you will get questions at the end. Also, this keeps your audience paying attention.

8. Be sure your rules and guidelines for attendees are clear. Let your attendees know they will be muted or not and to come on camera or not. This way, if you have someone come on camera during your presentation or have their mic on, and you close their video or mute them, no hurt feelings. Yes, believe it or not, people will come on camera and sit there. Post this information in the chat with your ‘Guidelines’ (here is another great cut and paste point to have ready for your co-pilot to have ready). If you have a large crowd, you can ‘mute all’ and lock so they cannot unmute.

9. Don’t forget to hit record! And of course, stop recording at the end.

10. Follow up after your class. You have access to your students’ emails. Reach out and ask if they need support or have come up with questions after they have digested and processed your information.

11. Request your attendees leave feedback and a 5 star review.

• Tip: You need reviews. This will help build trust for your future classes/webinars. We are grateful to have over 230 personal reviews and a 5 star average for The Wellness Universe! That builds a lot of credibility.

“The measure of your worth is not in your wisdom, education or even what you are offering, but in your ability to impact others in a positive way. Package, convey, market and deliver your message so it has a massive impact where your ideal student or client has the opportunity to experience all that you are, know and offer. The transference of knowledge and support creates your value and success. What epic shift will you influence someone to make in their own life and help create a happier, healthier world?” – Anna Pereira

After all, it’s your life’s mission to do what it is you do to make the world a better place.

What action are you taking to grow your influence, spread your message or add to your financial stability and increase your sales? Adding online classes or webinars to your mix, is another way to spread your support, message and wisdom.

To your success and impact!

This instructional video will give you more great tips and a brief training at The Lounge of the platform.

Wondering why do free classes and what to include in ‘free’ or ‘for a fee’ classes? A roadmap to you content included in this stellar class: Online Classes 101 Free or For a Fee