10 Online Courses Tips for Artists: Maximize the Return on Your Investments
Courses are a great way to learn or strengthen a skill. But online course investments can go south quickly if you don’t have the right approach.
Being the artsy Hermione-type that I am, I cannot get enough of gaining mastery of my skills and I invest thousands every year in developing my strengths. Speaking of strengths, my top StrengthsFinder is Maximizer and I’m relentless about taking my strengths from good to excellent and making the most out of every investment I make.
I’ve taken over 25 online courses (Paige Brunton, Emma Natter, Squarestylist, Amy Porterfield, Copyhackers, and the list goes on) so far, and let me tell ya—I have THE BEST ADVICE EVER on how to make sure you get what you pay for… and then some!
But why so many courses (and thousands of dollars)?
Investing in any kind of professional development that helps you become better, more efficient, or better-rounded at what you do can help you make more money. For example, if you take a course on how to create digital patterns from your artwork, you may then proceed to build a line of products with those designs or pursue partnerships that can make you money.
Or if you learn how to use your website better, you can pivot on your next great idea and set it up online in a flash (and without creativity-killing fear).
After all the courses I’ve taken, I’ve realized that there’s no better way to boost my revenue (and sustain it) than thoughtfully investing in the development and mastery of my skills.
Before I give you the same approach I’ve used to 5X and 10X the returns on my educational investments, I have three disclaimers: DIY vs Outsourcing, and Reframing Past (Unsuccessful) Experiences.
DIY vs Outsourcing
I want to be clear that it is of utmost importance to know what skills are worth your time to learn, and which are worth outsourcing to a pro as soon as you can.
As entrepreneurs, it’s easy to end up wearing all the hats (accountant, social media marketer, Facebook ads manager, shipping, customer service, etc), but this is not a sustainable long-term growth strategy for your business and it’s a fast way to lose your creative juices, energy, and eyebrow hair (just trust me on this).
Make it a goal, if you haven’t already, to analyze your strengths and make moves that will eventually result in you operating in your zone of genius (i.e. creating) instead of your zone of incompetence (that’d be accounting + bookkeeping for me).
In my early days, I invested a small amount of money on a course and spreadsheet that allowed me to keep track of my income and expenses. In time, thanks to what I learned in that course, I gained clarity about my finances and I saw that I could hire a bookkeeper. I did so right away and I haven’t looked back.
Since bookkeeping is my Achilles heel, I knew pouring my money into becoming a bookkeeper was NOT gonna be the best use of my time and energy. I invested just enough to get me by while I got to a place where I could hand the keys to my bank statements to someone who could do it better and faster than me.
Now, the most recent course cost me over $2,000 and it has taken about 6 months or more for me to go through it. It’s a course that has helped me strengthen my custom code skills to the point that I’m able to create better websites in a shorter amount of time. The course has helped me increase prices confidently AND make my process more streamlined, all while delivering way better work. It’s a win for me. It helps me maximize my strengths and keeps me operating in my zone of genius.
Reframing Past (Unsuccessful) Experiences
If you’ve purchased courses that end up collecting iDust somewhere on the interwebs and are afraid of just adding another one to the collection, it’s important to have a little grace and be able to allow yourself to come to terms with that and make the decision to do better. Keeping yourself from the education you’re excited about just because your track record is, well, less than stellar is a disservice to you and your business.
It’s ok to fail.
And also, remember that many one-size-fits-all approaches that educators take can be detrimental to your artistic spirit. An independent artist is a different type of entrepreneur. Soooo much of the marketing, branding, copywriting, and business-building advice I see out there is NOT made to safeguard your creativity. Yeah, you can learn how to be super productive or your own bookkeeper, etc… but what’s the point if you end up leaking out all your creative energy in the process.
But in the case of courses which you know you didn’t give your honest effort to, know that that experience ≠ your identity.
You can choose to commit to being the best student you can in future courses and have a completely enriching experience.
Without further delay,
Here are 10 actions you can take to get the most out of all your online art or business education courses.
Dropping hundreds, and sometimes thousands, on a course can feel daunting. It’s also an opportunity to gamify it. See how many sales you need to make back your investment. Or try to leverage what you learn in the course to help you skyrocket your ROI.
Set an intention for the course. Visualize the end result and let yourself feel excited! I always visualize myself making my investment back 2, 5, or 10 times within 6 months of completing the course and I ALWAYS do!
Don’t just consume the learning, but implement what you’ve learned. Do the assignments, watch the videos, and don’t let yourself move on to the next lesson until you’ve taken the appropriate action for each one. This may mean blocking off time every week.
Adult school supplies! There’s nothing like the smell of a freshly-sharpened Blackwing pencil to get my motivation revved up. New pens, highlighters, a new notebook… all are things that help me feel committed. Oh! And getting the course workbook printed and bound if (like me) you’re obsessed with writing IRL can also be so helpful since it can be easier to reference in the future.
Organize course materials and logins on Google Drive or a folder on your desktop. I have a main Courses Folder on Google Drive where I have the materials and logins for all the courses I’ve taken.
Remain coachable, but be discerning. This means, remain open to hearing new ideas, even if it causes friction with your existing views. Be open to learning. On the other side of the coin, be aware that not all courses are created specifically for artists and thus can shift your business into an unsustainable slow-mo trainwreck. Make sure you consider how certain things will impact your time and energy to create. If something seems like it would drain you, try it out short-term, and then decide if it’s worth outsourcing or ditching altogether.
Plan how you’d like to celebrate completing the course. Carryout for dinner is my love language, and preferred way to celebrate finishing a course (also, splurgy trips to Sephora).
Think of different ways to apply the knowledge you just acquired to other areas.
Choose your teachers wisely. Research who you learn from, consume their free content, join their newsletter, interact with them online, make sure they’re centering their experience (and not just their flashy revenue) and reviews. Signing up for a course only to realize that you and your new teacher are not vibing is a huge bummer. Get to know them, put them to the test, hear what others have to say, and theeeen invest.
Don’t miss out on the opportunity to become a case study. This is a fantastic way to build relationships with your favorite mentors and support their good work. You may also get the chance to get a link back to your website which is SEO gold.
