How to Start Community in Courses and Coaching Programs

Community businesses often start with learning and coaching components. They usually aren't a membership from day one.

If you run an online course or a coaching program and want to add a community to your offer, it doesn’t have to be a huge pivot for your business.

Adding community can be a good idea for the people you serve and for your business:

• Unlike courses and coaching programs, community is a way to support members long-term.

• Within a community structure, you’re able to work with more people.

• A community can generate recurring revenue for your business.

• Community helps spread out your power as the teacher/coach. This helps avoid pedestal culture and eases expectations for you.

If that sounds like a path that makes sense for your business, you can start small and move towards centering community as you learn and grow with your members.

Below are some ideas to try as you ease your business into a community business.

Clearly define and communicate how and why connecting with others is a part of their growth journey.

Whenever you’re asking members to connect with each other, be explicit as to how it’ll help them reach the goals related to the course or coaching program.

It might be that peer accountability will help them fulfill their commitment to themselves, or that they can share resources with each other, or have a place to vent when things aren’t going well. Get clear about how community will help, and then communicate that to members.

Host pop-up gatherings for past clients and students.

Create a space for members to ask questions and receive personalized support from you. You can set up an event where members are invited to see themselves in others’ challenges and start sharing experiences and challenges with each other.

Hosting an event for current or past students or clients is a great way to cross-pollinate connections between people who have had a common journey. It’s an opportunity to test how a community might work alongside your current offers.

Add breakout rooms to live learning events or group coaching sessions.

Breakout rooms build trust and intimacy between attendees.

In a course, they can help students solidify and begin applying their learnings, brainstorm new ideas or get feedback from peers. In a coaching program, they are perfect for venting sessions, peer coaching, and to help participants see their own experiences through a different lens.

Breakout rooms should have very clear prompts, be shorter than you think, and they tend to work best with 3-4 participants.

Match participants with an accountability buddy or group.

Accountability can help members stay on track and spark connections and camaraderie. The goal of these groups starts as accountability and often end up being more about supporting each other and becoming friends.

It’s important to have a clear suggested structure to remove awkwardness as strangers are meeting for the first time. By making groups optional, members can choose to participate at their own comfort level.

Design a short-term community experience.

If you’ve already dabbled in adding some of the above connection points to your course or coaching and are ready to go further into community, the next step is to launch a short-term community experience.

This is a way to experiment with community-building without committing to a long-term membership model.

It can be a short-term project or challenge that brings members together and gives them a taste of what a community can offer. Or it can be a special version of your existing offer that prioritizes the community aspects.

Centering community aspect to your online course or coaching business can be a big shift, but it doesn’t have to happen all at once.