#244: How to Pivot in the Age of AI

Welcome back to the Course Creation Incubator podcast. I'm your host, Gina Onatibia, here to get you excited about whatever you are building for yourself online, whether it's a group coaching course, an onboarding course, a certification, whatever it's looking like, I am here for you. So hello again. We took a break, but I couldn't stay away.

I had too many pieces to talk to you guys about, and I'm back with another episode. So I was reading a thread recently about how AI is essentially killing traditional search. People aren't clicking through to websites the way they used to. They're just asking AI and getting the answer right there.

It got me thinking this isn't just a small shift. it's a major reset because when discovery changes, everything kind of changes. So today's episode, our first episode in a few weeks, I want to talk about how entrepreneurs, business owners, course creators are pivoting right now, what we can learn from it and where to go from here. So if you've been feeling stuck or if you are frustrated that your course is not doing as well as you would like it to do to perform, listen up.

We've got some solutions that we're going to talk about today. This episode is brought to you by our done for you services. If you are looking for course creation, website development, brand marketing services, we are your people. We take only a few clients each quarter to help you really customize your voice, your presentation, your brand.

So if you're interested in working with us, go to coursecreationboutique.com slash course, book a call and we'll chat. Now, before we took a break, I was training for my half marathon. I had talked about it on this podcast and this was a few weeks ago and I was stuck in my training.

I was stuck on running about 10 K six miles and I couldn't quite get past it. Now, when you're training for a half marathon, what I've heard is you want to get to at least 10 miles before you run your race. You don't have to do the whole 12 or 13 miles, but 10 miles is really good benchmark. Then I finally did a 10 mile race.

I hadn't run 10 miles. I had only run six miles but I thought I never going to break through if I don just go for it So I signed up for this 10 miler and yes I paid for it but it took a little bit of a push because I paid for it for me to show up and it took me out of my comfort zone and it got me to the 10 miles. So I'm proud to say I run 10 miles now. That's who I am.

And I'm also proud to say I ran the half marathon and I made it. And now that's my identity. It's a runner's identity. I needed to run 10 miles on Easter morning.

I went out there and I did it because it's part of who I am now. And if you need to push through, maybe you need to book out that workshop. You need to make a public declaration. hey, I'm doing this, I'm doing a one hour workshop or whatever it looks like.

What do you need to book into and make a public commitment in order to break through your comfort zone to get you to the next step? Okay. So think about that. If I hadn't done that 10 miler, I wouldn't have finished the half marathon.

I needed that step and I needed that commitment. All right. Now let's talk about a few of the shifts that I'm seeing from entrepreneurs, business owners, course creators in three different areas. And the first areas are bloggers.

And bloggers used to rely on SEO, write an article, rank on Google, get traffic, monetize. But now, like I said at the beginning of this episode, AI answers the question before the click ever even happens. So writers, bloggers have had to pivot. They're building email lists.

They're turning their content into newsletters, communities, and products. They're leaning into personality-driven platforms like LinkedIn because they realized they need to own the audience. They can't rely on Google traffic anymore. So list building is even more important than ever before because you want to own that audience.

You really want to speak to what they're passionate about. And this is where niching down is so, so important. And then capturing their email so you can nurture them because we no longer can just rely on SEO. So I'll link to some lead magnet podcasts that I've done in order for you to truly own your audience.

A second audience that I'm seeing really pivoting are copywriters because let's face it, AI now can generate pretty decent copy. Claude has been amazing in terms of the first draft Like it it all comes down to the prompts right But they have pretty good copy coming from Claude So the value is no longer just writing. It's positioning. It's messaging.

It's building funnels and systems. The best copywriters, and we've talked about this before, are strategists, not just writers. So for example, right now, I'm hiring a writer for an agency that I consult for, and I am looking for strategists. I'm looking beyond for someone who can go beyond just fill in the blanks because there are a lot of writers out there that I say, hey, here's your container, write to it.

those to me those writers are a dime a dozen but somebody who can develop an idea or can look at a campaign and say oh I know what's missing here it's it's x y and z that's invaluable so having that strategic eye nowadays is what is the huge differentiator so going from just writing which has been completely disrupted by AI to strategy. And then a third area that I think audiences are really pivoting are us as course creators. And I know this one hits close to home. Courses used to be record once, sell forever.

Now information is everywhere. And I talked about this in the episode where I was talking about, are courses dead now? Of course they're not dead, but they're just looking for different things. Your audience wants different things from you and that evolves every few years anyway.

We have to change. The shift is live cohorts. They want accountability, live accountability, feedback, community. Now people aren't paying for information, they're paying for access.

They're paying for transformation with them. So a great example is I talked to this expert on referral marketing and I said to her, Hey, I can use AI to give me prompts, what to say, but who's holding me accountable. It's a very different feeling to say, do a 30 day sprint with her. And she's asking me and she's bugging me.

And I know she's holding me accountable. Have you set up your system? Have you texted so-and-so here? Let's go over your spreadsheet.

Let's brainstorm different ideas of talking to this person or that person. Have you created a process that works that will stick with you? So that is a very different feeling that people will pay for People will pay for access like that because they know hey I can just put in a prompt for referrals what to say to my client but the experience is what they want to pay for, that custom high-touch experience. Another example is I had a pediatrician that I was working with, and he had this strategy, this newborn sleep strategy.

So we built out this sleep course. And there's a lot of sleep courses out there. And especially now you could just figure it out with AI, right? If you have trouble with your newborn, you just plug it into AI and they give you so much advice.

So he decided to do these workshops, really their Q and A, their glorified Q and A because people wanted 30 minutes with him as a licensed pediatrician to just ask questions. And that's what people pay him for now. Not for a course, but for that time with him. That's what he's getting paid for.

So think about that. Think about access to you. Think about how you do that high touch. That connection is what people are really looking for now.

And this is exactly what we're seeing in our own business. We're shifting more to access, high touch, customization in terms of our courses, websites, branding, et cetera, because that's what people are asking for. We always want to move towards what people are asking of you and we're always evolving. So what does this mean for you?

Okay. One, stop relying on borrowed platforms. We talk about that all the time on this podcast, build owned channels, email community to think strategy, not just delivering results. and three, be willing to pivot before you have to.

See the writing on the wall. The best, most successful business owners are people who continue to innovate. I have this one client who's always innovating. He's always ahead of the curve and it serves him.

That's part of the reason why he's so successful. So think how you can get ahead and how you might have to evolve. Watch the shifts move early.