Bernard Gleton: How a Podcast Led Him to Create an Online Course
Welcome to the Course Creator Series, where you can learn directly from experienced course creators on how you can monetize and grow your online business.
I’m your host, Dr. Destini Copp and I help entrepreneurs scale their digital product revenue with automated sales funnels and reduce their reliance on 1:1 services or freelance work. Today, I had the pleasure of interviewing Bernard Gleton.
Bernard Gleton is an ex-pro athlete, a tech entrepreneur, speaker, and podcaster. After having a very short stint in the CFL (Canadian Football League), 4 years removed from high school and no college football experience, Bernard needed a new challenge. After working some dead-end jobs and he went into the tech field. There, he found his groove because of his position in football being analytical. About 3 years in the tech field, Bernard ventured off and started a business called Netware Technical Solutions, a managed service provider, providing IT solutions to businesses. He showed businesses how to leverage technology by saving them time, boosting productivity, and implementing systems.
Now his new venture is in podcasting. His show, The Genesis Project Podcast, brings guests who has reached some level of success and breakdown the principles, failures, and successes to implement them in our everyday lives.
Please tell us about your business.
Alltuit Media is a media company. It started as a podcast called The Genesis Project Podcast, Business Principles for Beginners From The School of Hard Knocks. It morphed into us creating an online course teaching people how to start a business.
After the first season was released, we were building our email list and people started asking, “How do you start a business?”
After the tenth person asked us that question, we realized that there was a need to be filled. That’s when we created an online course to fill that need and teach people how to start a business. With the course, we’ll take you from idea to formation within 24 hours.
Start at the beginning of your journey. What were things like for you? How did you feel? What was keeping you up at night?
I'm an ex-pro athlete turned tech entrepreneur and podcaster. Four years after high school with no college football experience, I worked dead-end jobs and knew that I was meant for more. While at a friend’s house, flipping through channels on TV, I saw a CFL (Canadian Football League) game that sparked the idea of trying out for the CFL.
After spending a few years with a CFL team and playing semi-pro to prepare for AFL (Arena Football League) tryouts, I got injured and had to start over again. That’s when I discovered the tech world. It was an easy jump for me because of the analytical skills required from both worlds. Making the jump from a penny-paying job to going to tryouts for a pro team was extremely scary, but I knew I could do it.
In the beginning, I was so worried about putting out something that was valuable and quality. I walk the line of being an introvert and an extrovert and was entirely out of my comfort zone, but I drove forward anyway. It was the imposter syndrome that was keeping me from moving forward. It's the value of my course, the testimonials from customers, my experiences in switching careers, and that gives me the reason to press on.
At what point did things change for you? What was the pivotal moment?
A couple of moments come to mind. On the podcast, we call it the “Genesis Moment,” where you come to a fork in your road, and you can see what your life could be like beyond that point. The first moment was going to CFL tryouts against my family’s wishes. They believed that they knew what was good for me and my life, and though it was coming from a good place, I realized that it's my life to live at the end of the day, and I have to live with the choices I make. Making that jump of faith gave me the confidence to do whatever I put my mind to. Whether I made it to the pros or not, it was the fact that I jumped that altered the way I view life now.
The second “Genesis Moment” was receiving social proof for the online course. When I have negative thoughts about moving forward, the testimonials from beta testers are what I need to move forward because I know that value is being delivered to the marketplace.
What are the top three mistakes you made in your entrepreneurial journey, and what would you do differently?
The top three mistakes I made are not finding a mentor early on, not investing in myself consistently enough with books and other training materials, and not getting around like-minded individuals.
Here’s what I would do differently: consistently investing in my mindset early on, finding like-minded people to stay motivated continuously, and having a mentor that could help me bypass the many traps of an entrepreneur.
Please tell us about your marketing? What has worked for you? What hasn’t worked for you?
Partly, the marketing that worked for Alltuit Media is our podcast. Gaining traction as a podcast allowed us to build trust first before we started offering products.
Another marketing tactic that has worked for Allutit Media is live-streamed webinars on social media. What hasn’t quite worked out for us yet is Facebook ads.
Something else that we’ve been doing is connecting and sharing on Clubhouse. Being able to communicate in real-time with people and having the opportunity to cut down the six degrees of separation is fantastic. From our experience, people genuinely want to help you crush your goals, and it is incredible.
What is your top traffic source, and why do you think it’s working for you?
Our top traffic source is our podcast, live streaming to social media, and Clubhouse. This is because we’re able to talk to our customers and potential customers in real-time. Knowing that know, like, and trust is essential, we can create that by meeting them on the social platform.
What are some of the best ways you’ve found students for your online course(s)?
The best way for us to find students is by live-streaming the webinars. We’re also pretty active in Clubhouse, Facebook Groups, and Reddit boards, to name a few. We’re hoping to tighten up on our Facebook ads and see what type of returns will yield us.
What is your entrepreneurial life like today? What pain points have vanished? How have things improved?
My entrepreneurial life today is just getting things on a system to run smoothly. S.YS.T.E.M stands for Saving You Stress Time Energy and Money. Creating systems for myself does precisely that, which is to save time, energy, and money. Working out the kinks of our systems has been able to do away with many pain points that existed. Receiving more and more social proof has done away with the imposter syndrome.
Another way entrepreneurial life has changed is by scheduling my days. From the time I wake up to the time I lay down. I make sure I accomplish my top 3 goals for the day. If everything fails, at least I’ve achieved three things out of that day that was super important.
Have you pivoted in your business?
The original path for Alltuit Media was to be a podcast, offer businesses opportunities to set up podcast tours to help them market. But now, we’ve realized that what’s needed from our base is education. At some point, we may revisit the original plan, but we’re going to move forward as an educational company for right now. We’re currently amid our pivot, offering an education platform for people who wants to learn entrepreneurship.
What are your best tips for growing your online course business organically?
If you have the money available, invest in a copywriter to get your message across to your audience. I believe that you can catch more flies with honey and your sales copy is the honey. You must get that part right.
Another tip would be for you to continue to show up wherever you can offer value. With social media, it’s so much easier to spread the word about your course. You must be consistent, however. I mean posting and live-streaming, showing your value, and being authentic every day, multiple times a day. Above all, BE PATIENT.
A bonus tip would be to consider doing joint venture partnerships or even creating an affiliate program. Getting multiple people screaming from the mountain top about your product can help get more organic reach. This is a strategy that we’re currently putting together to roll out, along with the live streaming tactic that I’ve mentioned earlier.
If you had $1,000 to spend on marketing next month, what would you spend it on?
With $1,000, I would spend a significant of it on getting the messaging right.
If I had to put it into percentages, 70% would go to nailing down the messaging. 20% would go on influencers/joint ventures and setting up the affiliate program.
The last 10% would be spent on doing podcast tours. Evidence shows that if you get on enough podcasts, you will get in front of everyone in your market. Utilizing a podcast tour is a great marketing tool that is often next to nothing in cost.
How do you stay focused and productive in your business? What advice do you have for new entrepreneurs?
Create a plan for your day the day before by using your calendar. Make sure you set some time in between each task to re-center and refocus yourself. I found that planning out my day helps with time management, and I know what I’m looking to accomplish for the day.
Meet with like-minded people as often as you can. You can do it through Clubhouse or be a part of groups. They help you keep focused, and many times, they will inspire you and get your creative juices flowing. That’s always a good feeling when you get timely inspiration.
What helps me the most is meditating. It helps me connect, be sensitive, and open to ideas. It’s a great way to reduce anxiety. It’s not as complicated as many people think. It’s just all about concentrating on your breathing. You can do that by listening to music, chants, or silence.
To help me produce focus is working out. Staying active helps me to expand the focus that I can put towards everything else that I do in my life.
What is your favorite quote or business book?
I have a few favorite business books. The E-Myth Revisited by Michael Gerber helped me to create business systems.
It may be tough to create systems initially, but you’ll be glad that you did. It makes business so much easier. If you want your business to be more automated, this is the book you want to read.
The 4-Hour Work Week by Tim Ferris: It’s another book about automations. It’s super detailed and willingly gives you how you can do it on your own.
I’m not sure if this is a business book, but it helped me in business: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason. It helped change the way that I ought to look at money. It has a lot of great money lessons in that book.
What advice do you have for other online course creators/entrepreneurs out there?
Perfection is the enemy of progress. It’s great that you want your course to be perfect, but that’s the wrong mindset to have in the beginning. Your would-be customers will appreciate that you’re improving their experience. So, don’t try to make it perfect. Put it out there and constantly update and upgrade by listening to your customers. Also, be sure to network with other entrepreneurs to keep your creativity wild and your inspiration on fire.
How can people find you to learn more?
You can find me on Instagram @GenesisProjectPodcast, my Facebook page @GenesisProjectPodcast, YouTube, and our website at https://genesisprojectpodcast.com/.