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Verbatim text
Lee:
Before we kick off the show, can I encourage you to listen back to episode 200, where I share how to transform your agency. It’s a combination of my own story, but also five pillars of transforming your business. Really, really useful episode. We’ve had tonnes of amazing and encouraging feedback. So I just wanted to encourage you, if you’ve not listened to episode 200, please download that and go ahead and check that one Welcome to the Agency Trailblazer podcast. This is your host, Lee, and on today’s show, we’re talking with Mar Cohen, who tells us all about launching an online course. She opens up and tells all. So sit back, relax, and enjoy Enjoy the ride. Welcome to a conversation with, yes, it’s me, Mr. Lee Jackson. And today we have Mor Cohen. She is a branding and web designer. She is the founder of Design Class, and she’s also a really close friend. Mor, I’m so pumped to have you on the show. How are you doing?
Mor Cohen:
I’m great, Lee. Thank you for having me. I’m just so excited to be talking to you.
Lee:
And we’ve been dancing around this for a little while because I had to cancel a couple of times on you, and you are a legend for being agreeable and re-arranging. So thank you very, very much.
Mor Cohen:
Life happens. I understand.
Lee:
Bless you. Now, More, like I said, we’ve known each other for a long time, but many people listening may never have heard of you. And guys, where have you been? She rocks the Facebook group. If you’re not in there, then head on over agencytrailblazer.com/group. Mor is an avid contributor in there. But Mor, instead of me butchering who you are and describing what you do, et cetera, do you mind just sharing with everyone who listens who you are, what you do, favourite colour, maybe a favourite drink or food, and maybe something you feel that people don’t know about you?
Mor Cohen:
Sure. I’ve been a web designer, and before that, a graphic designer for over 20 years.
Lee:
When she was 10, guys.
Mor Cohen:
When I was 10, yes. We’ve been through quite a journey. I as far as design goes, and especially web design. In the last, I would say, five years, things have changed considerably. I have a web design agency, and I do a lot of work with solopreneur small businesses, mid-sized businesses, and I have a course that I’m teaching as well.
Lee:
That’s awesome. Now, favourite colour, and I know you are a colour fanatic because I’m in your Elementor group. Folks, if you use Elementor, you should be checking out the Elementor design community. I’ll put a link in the show notes. That’s a group that Mor founded, and she shares tonnes of really cool tools. But anyway, back to colours. What do you think your favourite colour would be?
Mor Cohen:
I love green and I love purple. I I know.
Lee:
If we were to combine the two, that’d be like, gripple.
Mor Cohen:
Gripple. Exactly. Gripple. That’s your favourite call. That’s an interesting… We should call Pantone and have them consider that for next year.
Lee:
What? Do they have a phone number?
Mor Cohen:
They should.
Lee:
I know you’re in the States, but your accent does not sound necessarily local to the US of Asia. Where are you from originally?
Mor Cohen:
I was born and raised in Israel, and I came here to the States about 30 years ago. No way. So I’ve been here for a long time.
Lee:
So now people are doing the math because I claimed you were 20 just a minute ago, so people are now confused about.
Mor Cohen:
Yeah, I came here even before I was born.
Lee:
Yes. Amazing. How on earth you did that is incredible. So, well, let’s do this. Let’s jump in the time machine. I love going back to how people got into design and how they started their business. So can we jump in that time machine? And can you think back to the first days of you starting to design? How did you get the creative bug? How far back was it?
Mor Cohen:
You know, it’s As far as I can remember, I was always fascinated by colours, how colours work together. I remember playing with crayons and coloured pencils and not necessarily using them to colour, but I would pair colours together to see what they look like. We’re talking really early childhood for that. But I’ve always really been fascinated by how things work together as a composition. It was so natural for me to gravitate to that. First for graphic design, and then as soon as Photoshop became available, I started working digitally, and it just went from there.
Lee:
Confession corner. Confession corner. Now, what version of Photoshop did you start in? Because you told me this and my jaw fell to the floor.
Mor Cohen:
2.5..
Lee:
What computer was that? Can you remember?
Mor Cohen:
I had one of the original Macintoshes that had the tiny small screen.
Lee:
Oh my gosh.
Mor Cohen:
I’m so jealous. Yes, and it had a dryer hose attached to the back because there was no fan.
Lee:
Oh, no way. Yes. That’s hilarious. I have a Mac classic from the very early ’90s when they relaunched them, but the whole board is corroded and I haven’t quite worked out how to fix it. I am desperate to get it working, but I ended up just doing stuff where I use emulators, but it’s not quite the same. The box just looks so beautiful, but the board is so damaged. If anyone out there has an old-fashioned Mac that they’re wanting to sell to me, then give me a holler, folks, because I absolutely love the old Macs. Well, the old Mac hardware and the old Mac software. So you were using the Mac. Was that at home or was that in a job or at college?
Mor Cohen:
First, it was at a job. And then, very quickly, I found out that I really like working for myself. And in Israel, getting my hands on a Macintosh was not an easy thing at that time, but I managed to do that. I actually came here for a visit and I got a Mac. It was a small investment. Not small. I think that I was one of the first people in Israel to be using a Mac at the time.
Lee:
That’s pretty cool. You purchased that in the States and then brought it back? Yes. Wow. It was one of the Mac classic styles as well, which you can carry from the top.
Mor Cohen:
That I don’t remember. I remember that I had to purchase one of these specially designed cases for that because there were no computer cases or boxes to bring that back.
Lee:
Holy moly, that is so cool. When you launched out on your own, can you describe how that went, how you got started, how you started to generate business, what work you were working on?
Mor Cohen:
At first, I would do anything from small brochures, business cards. It was the beginning of the IPO times, so I would do a lot of prospectus work for companies who were going into trying to raise money. I did a lot of PowerPoint presentations for people who were going this circuit and trying to get VCs to invest in them. It just went from there. I then moved here and I started really working with small businesses, anything from menus for restaurants to designing invoices to, again, a lot of presentations. It just went from there.
Lee:
And you said you moved to the States quite some time ago now. So with regards to that local business, was that pre-websites, et cetera? So this was designed predominantly to print or some of these digital presentations?
Mor Cohen:
Yes.
Lee:
So let’s jump forward a little bit in that time machine, when did the world of the web happen for you and when did you start to move over?
Mor Cohen:
I designed a logo for a client, and he was so happy with it. And he said, Well, this is great. Can you build me a website? And before I could think, I found myself saying, Oh, sure, having no clue how to do that. And it just went from there. I taught myself everything. I’m still teaching myself everything to this day because we’re ever growing and things are ever changing. It just went from there. But I think that this is such an exciting time for us as designers to be able to offer websites. It’s just amazing.
Lee:
The tools now versus what was then. Can you remember how you put that website together? What technology you were using back then?
Mor Cohen:
Yes, it was front page, actually. I don’t care to go back and look at it, actually. I’m not sure that it’s even live anymore. I don’t think that client is still in business. Not because of my website. Of course. Of course. But it was very primitive. The technology just wasn’t there.
Lee:
Oh, Anyway, and may I ask, can you remember what internet connexion were you using? I remember building websites on dial-up and it was so slow.
Mor Cohen:
Oh, yes, of course it was dial-up. Brilliant.
Lee:
Sorry, I’m just reminiscing with you. My first website was in the late ’90s, and I’m just remembering. I ended up saving everything to a disc drive, if you remember the floppy discs, and going into college where they had some ADSL bonded connexion, which I think gave us a megabyte of speed so that I could upload the files because it was just not working at home. Oh my Gosh.
Mor Cohen:
So many- And then you would upload it and go make yourself a cup of coffee and a sandwich and take a nap.
Lee:
Take a week holiday.
Mor Cohen:
Yes.
Lee:
That’s fantastic. And of course, all pre Facebook or pre-social, etc. Of course. Fantastic. So from that website then, again, just thinking back and then we’ll fast forward to the more current technology. So you did that in front page. Did you get a bug then or did you just do websites now and again for the next few years?
Mor Cohen:
I did them now and again because, again, there was just no demand for it. People didn’t understand what these were all about. I got people saying, Well, I have a store. I don’t need a website. Because it wasn’t working for oneself from your home or from a small business wasn’t as it is right now where everyone does that. You were only considered a business if you had a store or an office.
Lee:
Which is insane nowadays, isn’t it? Because we’re all so lucky. I do my evening calls with our community, which you join in as well, all from my home, which is wonderful.
Mor Cohen:
I work from home all the time. It’s amazing. It’s brilliant, isn’t it? We’re privileged, I think, that we can do that.
Lee:
Absolutely. The only problem I do have is the fact that the fridge is just in the next room.
Mor Cohen:
You know, offices have fridges too.
Lee:
That’s true, but they’re not full of my home cooking that I made last night, that I could just pop in the microwave and have an early lunch. So that’s the only downside That’s what I’m looking for on the website. All right, well, let’s fast forward because I know you love WordPress as much as I love WordPress. Can you remember the first moment you found out about WordPress?
Mor Cohen:
Honestly, that is a good question, and I really don’t remember that. I think it just came so naturally to me to start working with WordPress. I can’t even put my finger on that moment.
Lee:
It’s like you were always using it.
Mor Cohen:
I was always meant to be using it, yes.
Lee:
For the first few websites, for the first few websites, for the first few websites, for the first few websites, for the first few websites, for the first few websites, for the first time, you were using themes, perhaps, or whether you were making things yourself?
Mor Cohen:
At first, I was trying to survive without a theme, but I’m not a coder. I’m a designer. It was very limited and it was very frustrating because I couldn’t get it to look the way I wanted it to. I started looking for tools that will help with that. I found a theme, a specific theme that had a builder in it. It didn’t feel natural. It didn’t feel… It’s This wasn’t flowing. Then I found Jenner Press, and after that, I found Elementor, and life has never been the same.
Lee:
I feel like we should put in at this point a chorus of Hallelujah, but from Handel’s Messiah. As you saw Elementor and a light shined from the heavens on you. Exactly. And it was that moment, yeah?
Mor Cohen:
Exactly.
Lee:
Now, for anyone who hasn’t heard of Elementor, obviously everyone knows how much I love Beaver Builder. Elementor is a product. It’s a visual builder, as it were. You can visually create your web pages online. I have a deep love for both. I’m allowed to. I use Beaver Builder for specific development tools, etc. But equally, we use Elementor in a heck of a lot of our websites as well. I would say Elementor is very much like a design tool. You mentioned Photoshop 2.5 in the early days, and you’ve obviously developed your career by using those sorts of design tools. Would you agree with me in saying that Elementor is very much like a design tool online? You can almost forego using any of the old, say, Photoshop or anything like that?
Mor Cohen:
Well, I privately call it the Elementor is the Photoshop of web design because we can layer things on top of another. For me, it’s very intuitive, just like Photoshop or illustrator. It’s the same, I think, process in my mind and my head in the way that I think and the way that I work. So it’s just very intuitive. That’s the thing that really attracted me right away, how intuitive it is for a designer.
Lee:
Absolutely. And I like how you said that you privately say that it’s the Photoshop of the web world because it’s not private anymore. It’s between you, me, and a few thousand people who are listening to this episode.
Mor Cohen:
That’s okay. I think I’ve used that before. You probably. But this is how I feel. It comes so natural to me.
Lee:
Absolutely. Folks, if you’ve not checked out Elementor, then do be sure to go and take a look at that, especially if you are a designer before anything else and you just want that custom flexibility. This is not an advertorial necessarily for Elementor. They’re not paying us any money to be saying this, but both me and more absolutely love that tool to give us that creative freedom of design. Now, speaking of design, you launched a course which I have been honoured to be taking and I’ve been really enjoying, and we’ll talk about that bit later. But can you tell us a little bit about this course? It’s called Design Class. You can find this, folks, in the show notes, or you can head over to thebrandingdesigner.thinkific.com. Can You tell us a little bit about why you have launched this course and what it’s all about?
Mor Cohen:
Sure. I have had many conversations with web developers who were completely frustrated with their own design skills, and they always felt inadequate. They felt that their work did not measure up. They didn’t know how to put fonts together, how to put colours together, how to lay out web pages so they look cohesive and they look appealing. They felt like they couldn’t charge higher fees for their work because they were unsure and very frustrated with their own processes and their own understanding. It hurt me to listen to that because I I thought that if people only knew, if they had the information and they had the knowledge and tools, they can really up-level their work to where they can charge more and they can be proud of their work, and they can save a lot of frustration and time when they don’t just sit around and they look at the screen and the screen looks back at them and no one is moving.
Lee:
Somebody just described my life a few years ago.
Mor Cohen:
It’s very common. It is extremely common. People are wasting a lot of time and go back and forth and start over and over and over again with the same site because they’re unsure of the direction that they need to go. I really wanted to give them tools to overcome that.
Lee:
Now, one common thing I find with many of us web developers. I’m a web developer at heart. I build websites. You’re a designer at heart. The actual coding is something that’s not your skillset, which is fine. Each person is good at what they do, and they love what they do. And what I tend to find, though, is as we are, a lot of us are predominantly web developers who have been asked to start designing, and we do struggle with that. And we get a lot of people applying to be a part of our Facebook group. And one of the questions I ask is, can you also let me know what your website is so I can take a look and find out a bit more about you? And I’ll say 90 % of the people who share their website always put in brackets, It’s not finished yet. It’s a work in progress because they somehow feel ashamed of the work that they’ve done. I think people fall into two camps. Either they are never happy with their own work because they’re perfectionists, or alternatively, which is probably more often than not, is that we come from a development background and we’re just frustrated that we lack that design skill.
Lee:
I mean, folks, if you look at Angle Crown’s website, you’ll tell that back in the day, go to archive.org and have a look at the many different iterations that it’s gone through. And you’ll see that I started off as a developer and have slowly been learning design and have slowly We’ve been evolving it, which is pretty much why I started Angle Crown as a developer for designers, because it’s that design side of things that’s always eluded me. Now, I’ve been going through the course and I’ve really, really enjoyed it because what you’ve been doing is helping me understand some of the fundamentals or the frameworks of design itself. So introducing us to some of the basics. And I’ll share with you a quick story because you’ll like this more. I was out at a client the other day and I was explaining to them. So we’ve got clients who use visual builders that we provide. We’ve got some software and our clients will use a visual builder to create web pages. And unfortunately, they don’t always look great because our clients don’t understand the design. They’re just using the tools that are there and we’re asking them to stay on brand.
Lee:
We’ve given them the brand guidelines, et cetera, but they’re not following them. So one of the things that I was able to teach them was all about headings and the heading hierarchy and how each heading should have… The heading sizes should go down. I think it was something like, was it two pixels or a certain percentage each time so that they can follow these rules? So it was good for me because I was able to tell them the theory as to why that was important and why they should be adhering to that. And that was because I’d covered that in your course, which was super helpful. I think a lot of us as developers, we’ve not had that design experience and we’ve not been given the theory and the reasoning behind all of these decisions and these choices, et cetera. A lot of us know that they’re important, but we don’t know why they’re important, which is flippin’ awesome. I will just say thank you very much for the course. I’ve been really enjoying it. I’m not finished yet, folks. I’ll let you know I’ll be doing a full review on YouTube about the course as well so that I can let people know how I got on with it, and that’ll be over the next few months.
Lee:
But yeah, how have you found that’s gone? Because it’s always very scary, isn’t it? Putting yourself out there. You’re a designer. You’ve got to put yourself out and say, Hey, folks, I’m going to teach you something. How does that feel? Because I’m thinking of the old imposter syndrome now. Whenever I put myself out there, I freak out. How did you deal with that?
Mor Cohen:
Well, I live the imposter syndrome. It’s in me. Of course, you always… I think, well, on some level, I think having the imposter syndrome is a good thing because it keeps us from feeling too comfortable in our own skin and always makes us want to get better at what we do. And of course, at first I thought that I had nothing to teach. And people know things. But if I was serious with myself, knew that people did not know things. And even designers who’ve been designing for a long time, you can see that they are doing things because they’ve always done them, not because they understand what’s behind what they’re doing. I think it makes a really big difference in one’s work when you actually understand the reasoning for everything. I started putting everything together, and the more stuff I started, the content for the course, the more I discovered that I wanted to cover. But I didn’t want it to be too long. I really wanted it to be a tool that people can use, can learn, and go back to whenever they need a refresher or whenever they need to revisit a point.
Mor Cohen:
I wanted to keep it really on task.
Lee:
Absolutely. Now, folks, if you’re listening and you’re feeling like you ever wanted to launch something like this, so more has taken the plunge and she’s gone ahead and done this, and she’s done a fantastic job. Now, when I launched Agency Trailblazer, the premium community I was freaking out. I had the whole imposter syndrome. But as I was creating the content for it, I was like, Oh, I actually know an awful lot more than I realised, because it actually helps you to lay out in a gorgeously clear structure what is in your head and what you knew all the time, but it wasn’t in some structured order. If you’re ever considering going ahead and doing a course, don’t stop and think, Oh, don’t give in to imposter syndrome. Actually take some time to start to map out your processes and to map out what it is that you know, and you’ll probably be really surprised. Do you have that experience? I heard you saying, Yes, I’m presuming that was the same experience for you as well.
Mor Cohen:
Absolutely. Because when you start laying the processes down and just get them out of your head and into a screen or paper, you just then realise that you actually have it all streamlined and you just need to convey it to other people. It was really revealing for me as well as for my students now.
Lee:
So it must have been a great confidence booster as well. Like, yes, I know this.
Mor Cohen:
Absolutely.
Lee:
This is me.
Mor Cohen:
Great film. When the reviews started to come in and people were commenting how much it helps them, even people that have been designers for many, many, many years. They kept saying, I didn’t realise how much I didn’t know. It’s just really an amazing feeling to for me to know that I’m helping them put things in order and understand things. Of course, developers that never designed before, they’re just like, I can’t believe I developed and I built pages and I will build sites without knowing all this. I get people saying all the time, I’m afraid to go back and look at my work from before, which is… I understand the fear, but from my point of view, it’s It’s amazing to hear that.
Lee:
Sometimes I think it’s great to be able to look back as well and go, Wow, I’ve come on so far. Now, again, for people who are considering, there’s a lot of people listening who are in different niches, and they’ve got some great information that they can put together in a course just like you’ve done, and they can share it with their audience or with their clients, etc. I’d be really interested in how did you go around? Obviously, you had this idea, you saw the pain point was there. How did you go about validating that people would be interested interested in a course like this? Because a lot of people will tend to make the mistake of, Oh, I’m just going to create a course and put it online and then presume that people would come. How did you go about, I guess, A, creating an audience and B, validating with that audience, whether there was an appetite for this?
Mor Cohen:
Well, first I started asking people who joined my list from the Elementor groups or the general press groups or any other group. I asked them, What is it that they struggle with the most? And if I could help them right away, what would that look like? And I gathered all their answers, and I started thinking of the course based on the struggles that people actually have and how I can help them solve that. And then, again, I think I started with a poll in the Elementor Group a long time ago asking people if they were business owners building their own sites, or Or were they web developers who are building sites for other people? The more information that I got, the better clarity it gave me as to what information I need to put together to help people. So it was a gradual thing.
Lee:
So you built up an audience through the Facebook group that you had, et cetera, in the list, and then you started asking your audience, Hey, you guys know, like and trust me, what things can I be helping with? What problems have you got? And then that’s how you then That essentially seeded the idea for the course. Now, how did you go about then, I guess, validating or pre-selling that? Because, again, something that we talk about in business a lot of the times is, don’t go ahead and build the whole thing and then hope people will buy. Did you do any pre-validation, like pre-sales or anything like that, to help fund and also ensure that people were interested in this enough to part with cash?
Mor Cohen:
Yes, absolutely. I put up a landing page with all the information for the course, and I I have to tell you that it just took me by surprise how many people joined and were willing to trust me. I’m so grateful for that. That’s phenomenal. As I was building the course. It was just an amazing experience. I think I’ve exceeded my original target by 150 %. No, more than that.
Lee:
That’s not bad, is it?
Mor Cohen:
No, not at all. That’s amazing. Not at all. I thought that I was brave to begin with. So it’s been amazing. I’m really, again, very grateful to all the people who trusted in me and sat patiently, very patiently for months waiting for me to finish everything.
Lee:
Yeah. And that in its own right comes through. All right. Again, people listening, they’re thinking, Right, I’ve got this information. I want to start a course. I’ve got an audience. I can then validate that idea. I can then put it out and see if people are willing to part with money. How did you then go about actually building the course? Because I notice you’ve used Thinkrific rather than say something like WordPress. I mean, a lot of us are in the WordPress space, so we automatically assume we’re going to have to use it. For people who are thinking, Hey, I’m going to start this course. I need to put it together in something, what was your thought process? Did you try anything else before going to Thinkific, et cetera? Thinkific, yes. Sorry, Thinkific. I Thinkific also sounds cool.
Mor Cohen:
I know. Maybe they should change the name. At first, I started with LearnDash, but I really think that as far as user experience, That was my main concern, making sure that students get into the course at all time to minimise the risk of my hosting going down or something goes wrong as far as WordPress. It’s not that things happen with WordPress, but there’s always a potential of that. I know when someone is taking a course and they have a problem that they need to solve right now, they need an answer right now to a question or a struggle or they’re not sure what to do, I wanted to make sure that they can always get into it 24/7 whenever they need it.
Lee:
That’s good.
Mor Cohen:
That was the main reason. I really like Thinkific user experience. They’re huge about really, really… User experience is extremely important to them, and it was a major point for me as well.
Lee:
No, that’s good. I’ve enjoyed using their interface. The reason why I asked you that, and I’m glad you gave the answer, was really to encourage people who are looking at doing stuff like this. Sometimes we can use these third-party providers because you will have saved an awful lot of time trying to do an instal, trying to make it look good, all of that good stuff. Whereas out of the box, this looks fantastic. I’m actually looking at the course page right now. It looks fantastic. It works wonderfully. I can see how far through I am. I can see what videos and what stage I’m at a particular video as well, which is phenomenal. I can also see all of the relevant attached downloads and everything is clear and crisp. Like you said, you don’t have that fear or that worry about, or if the site goes down, I’ve got to worry about that. The guys at Thinkific are looking after this for you. You can put a support ticket in there with them if there’s a problem. Someone else is responsible for that, so you can focus on getting the content right. Folks, if you’re thinking of putting into course together, then I would certainly say consider using perhaps a third party just to take that extra stress, especially if this is going to be your first course and you don’t want to have to be looking after absolutely everything.
Mor Cohen:
People are welcome to talk to me about Thinkific if they’re interested.
Lee:
Absolutely, I’ll be happy to help. Connect with more. She’s lovely. She will always talk to anyone. She’s very nice and generous with her time. Now, when you planned out the course, can you describe how you did that? Was this something where you bulleted everything out and then physically wrote it down and then recorded those videos. Can you help us understand how you went through that process?
Mor Cohen:
I think I started from just looking from a top level, and then I went down into the specifics. I thought of the subjects I wanted to cover and the order that I wanted to cover them because things are built on top of one thing leads to the other. Then I just really drilled down to the details. I started down with the good old pen and paper and a lot of sticky notes. I had one large board where I put sticky notes on and made a puzzle out of. I just went from there to create the presentation to create the videos, the downloads, everything. Just all the pieces of the puzzle fits together.
Lee:
That’s good. If folks, there’s a really cool video. I don’t know if you’ve seen it as well more. Pat Flynn does a video on how to plan a book, and he actually does something very similar where he writes down the key subjects, as it were, the key lessons that need to be taught, and then he will then break them down into almost like subsections on sub post-its. He had this big board and had all these post-its out. Essentially, he then flat-planned an entire book. It It’s like a very similar process that you went through. You flat planned the entire thing. You pick typography and then you break down typography. Then you’re following with, say, colour, and you can break down all of those things with regards to colour and so on and so forth. Again, really, really effective way of doing that. Now, you’ve put an awful lot of time and care as well into the video production. I’m actually sensing here that your experience in PowerPoint may have been something that’s influenced the type video you’ve done. How did you create these videos? Because as I watch them, I hear your voice, you’re very calm, very measured, very clear.
Lee:
So it’s great sound, which really, really helps when I’m watching and we’re learning. What software have you used to actually create these videos? Because they look very similar to a PowerPoint presentation, but then they also switch into screen shares as well, where you’re showing me actually how to do something. So can you share with us some of the tools that you use to do this and perhaps the microphone you’re using as well for anyone who’s thinking of putting this together?
Mor Cohen:
Sure. I use Comptasia. I recorded the presentation separately and then brought it into Comptasia, brought in the screencast, integrated in between, and then recorded the voiceover for the whole thing on top of it separately. It took a lot longer than recording yourself as you’re actually running the presentation. But I think it gives better resolve because I can really focus on the visual as I’m describing what is going It does make a significant difference as well, because like I said, I mentioned that your voice is very calm, very measured, and you speak.
Lee:
For me, I need someone not to talk at a million miles an hour. I need someone to just explain it, take a breath, go on and continue. It did take me by surprise that you did that, and I’ve actually really enjoyed it because I do courses where I do it live and I share the screen and I talk and I M&R as I go through. I think a lot of courses that I’ve purchased as well do that. I was interested in, A, how you built it and be the reason you’ve already shared that as to why you did that. I think as well, that explains a lot as to why it also took quite an incredibly long time for you to get it all together. It was a few weeks of you just working flat out and getting all of this done. But again, because you validated it and you already had people willing to purchase this course in advance, that also gave you the reason to go all in and make sure that this was premium quality. Folks, again, when we’re launching our courses out there, et cetera, if we’re pre-validating it, if people are paying in advance, et cetera, then we know we can spend time to make these look awesome.
Lee:
I think a lot of people may have… I’ve purchased courses in the past, and it’s always felt like rushed that they’ve done it quickly. I imagine that they’ve done it with no money down necessarily and then hoped they can sell it afterwards. There’s an awful lot we can learn from you here, which I’ve really appreciated.
Mor Cohen:
I’ve gone and re-recorded a lot of the information, a lot of the videos, because a little bit of a perfectionist here, and Something didn’t sound right or something wasn’t really synchronised, the voice with the image at the specific second in time. So I went back and we did a lot of stuff. It’s really important for me to provide the best value for my students and to make the process easier on them because people are terrified of design to begin with. So I didn’t want to add their anxiety by not being able to follow at the exact pace that works for them.
Lee:
Absolutely. Well, Ma, this has been brilliant. Number one, finding out about your journey when you were 10, just 10 years ago, because we’re not giving you away. Also understanding how you got started in design. That’s Photoshop 2.5. Amazing.
Mor Cohen:
Yeah, you’re going to send this a few more times. I understand that. I will never live this out. I get it.
Lee:
On the Mac, I am hyper jealous. I love your journey into web design just saying, Oh, yeah, sure. I’ll your website on good old front page. Then we’ve moved into when you discovered WordPress and then finally, Generate Press tools like Elementor. You’re not very well kept secret about how you consider Elementor as the Photoshop of the web, which I totally agree with. Then how you built up an audience, you validated, well, you actually found out what they needed. You then created a landing page to say, Hey, is this what you guys will want? People were like, Yes, they parted with some money because they believed in you. Then you were able to create something of value and choose a platform to deliver that with. So it’s been a fantastic journey that we’ve gone with you. I think there’s two people who will really enjoy this podcast. There are people, developers like myself, who will want to know more about how can we be better at design and how can we upskill. And folks, if you’re interested in that, then please go ahead and check out the brandingdesigner. Thinkific, not thinkrific, thinkific. Com. But don’t worry, that link will be in the show notes as well.
Lee:
And the other people who will really enjoy this as well are people who are either planning or are in the stages of building out a course for their audience. And you’ve been really, really open as to how you got started and your tools you used, etc. So really, really appreciate the time that you’ve taken. So all that’s left for me to do is to say thank you so much for your time more. And how can people connect with you before we let you go?
Mor Cohen:
First of all, thank you for having me. It’s been amazing. I am on Facebook. I welcome everyone who wants to send me messages. They can also email me at more at flixframe, F-L-I-X-F-R-A-M-E.com. But really, I think the easiest way is to connect with me on Facebook. I am always there. Facebook is my home.
Lee:
Same here. I’ll make sure I put a link to more on Facebook. If you are an Elementor user, Generate Press user, etc, then be sure as well to join her Facebook group. I’ll make sure I put a link in there and you can hang out more, share some really cool tools in there that aren’t necessarily always to do with design or Elementor either. There’s some really fun things going on in there, so go ahead and check out her Facebook group.
Mor Cohen:
It’s a fun group. We talk about a lot of stuff, not just a mentor or a designer. If someone has a problem, if their dog isn’t eating, we can tackle that, too.
Lee:
Exactly. Whatever ales you get into that group because more and the community will certainly help you out. Ma, you are wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. I really, really appreciate and have a wonderful day.
Mor Cohen:
Thank you. You too.
Lee:
Cheerio. And that wraps up today’s show. Folks, if you’ve not got your ticket for Agency Transformation Live, then time is running out. Head on over to agencytransformation.live to rock up at an amazing event with some wonderful speakers and an awesome community. I would love to hang out with you, so check that out, agencytransformation.live. If we don’t see you there, if we don’t see you in the communities, then we’ll see you in the next episode.
