Though our official WordPress tutorial product was released in 2004, fact is, I’ve been teaching, guiding and coaching on it for longer than that.  For the longest time – Oh… I’ll admit it, until this very morning – it has been a personal mission of mine to make sure everybody who came into our training program would come out being savvy about WordPress and any other system we teach.

Image courtesy of Guudmorning!

Yet, year after year, it never fails. Some students just don’t get it and time after time, I beat myself up over it. Enough to put myself in a minor depression.

What’s wrong with my teaching? What’s wrong with our material? How can I make this better?

It is a good idea to periodically review those questions. Today however, I realized something else. Some people just aren’t wired to understand whatever it is you teach. It’s not your fault and it certainly isn’t the student’s fault. I like to think it’s because that isn’t the student’s real strength to begin with, or, it’s just not the right time.

Think about your own school days. Weren’t there subjects you just weren’t good at? Physics – that was my folly. Then, there were subjects that you thought you weren’t good at, never got good grades but now, after experience and wisdom that can only come from life and adulthood, it’s much easier. For me, that’s advanced math.

So how is this good for you?

Because…

If you teach and also have a ‘done-for-you’ option for what you teach, you win. In fact now that I think about it, those of us who sell information should have a done-for-you option. This can be a backend sale or whatever.

Blech.

Done-for-you = services = trading hours for dollars = crappy hours/lifestyle? You got to be kidding.

I don’t think that is necessarily true. It is, if you DIY. It can be every bit as successful and wonderful a lifestyle as an information marketer or digital product seller. Many have done it. Think of chefs who teach on Food Network, have cookbook after cookbook but still own restaurants. The key is in building that team.

But you don’t want to manage a team.

Then it’s still good for you because you can team up with someone else who does and negotiate a commission for sending clients their way.

So… a couple of takeaways here, and these are true for myself as well.

1. Have a done-for-you option/backend to your information products, or if it cannot be done for them, offer high end consulting/coaching.
2. Don’t discount services as part of your product mix, just because someone tells you it ‘sucks’. It only sucks for them, not necessarily for you unless you’ve tried it, been there done that.
3. No matter how perfect the business, there’s always some aspect that sucks. Even so called ‘automated’ digital products where you collect money in your sleep. Deal with it.