[av_heading heading=’#109. High Profits with a Simple Business Model with Hugo from innerFrench’ tag=’h1′ link_apply=” link=’manually,http://’ link_target=” style=” size=” subheading_active=” subheading_size=’15’ margin=” margin_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ color=” custom_font=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” av_uid=’av-kpi1jddq’ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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Hugo Cotton is the creator behind innerFrench, a podcast and YouTube channel that focuses on teaching French at the intermediate level. He likes to keep the business simple, using a straightforward model of creating high-quality audio and video content to attract customers for his two premium courses.
What you’ll learn in this interview:
- Keep it simple
- The importance of structure and processes
- How to use LearnDash as a course platform
- Do you need a marketing degree to run an online business?
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Hugo’s story
Hugo “fell into teaching by accident” after his Polish DJ Party business failed. He had a marketing degree to offer, but the school that hired him needed a French teacher, not a marketer. It didn’t take long for Hugo to realise how much he loved to teach — especially French conversation.
At the same time, Hugo was busy learning to speak Polish and discovered a Polish podcast that resonated with his learning style and needs. He decided that format would be perfect for his students and launched the innerFrench podcast in 2017.
Lessons learned from failure:
Hugo’s DJ Party business may have flopped, but he learned some valuable lessons to take into the online business world.
- Know your market: Hugo and his partner didn’t understand the workings of the Polish DJ world. They needed the vital knowledge that most DJ parties in Warsaw were free entry.
- Grow an audience first: Warsaw party goers had no idea who Hugo and his partner were, so their advertising didn’t attract them.
- The finances have to add up: the DJ business had to attract a crowd of 400 to each party to make a profit but typically drew only 50 people.
- Give the fans more of the experience they’re looking for: People in Poland didn’t know any of the DJs that the business brought in from other countries. That meant they weren’t motivated to attend the parties.
Find the model that works for you in a crowded market
It’s fair to say that online language teaching is a crowded space these days. But, because many different people want to learn, there’s also room for many different teaching styles and methods.
Hugo concentrates on discussing interesting, topical and sometimes controversial subjects, which attract his audience of intermediate-level learners. He speaks clearly — and not too fast — so that listeners can understand and enjoy his content while naturally learning French.
Much of the inspiration for innerFrench content comes from Hugo’s audience, who ask him questions about French life. Often he doesn’t know the answers himself. That involves researching, which keeps things fresh and exciting for him and his students.
Hugo echoes the advice from many of our Creator Smarts contributors: the essential thing is to genuinely love what you do — whatever the style you choose. That way, you’ll attract an audience who loves those things too and resonates with your style.
Keep it simple
“YouTube is a way to broaden my audience. And then the podcast is a way to build loyalty.”
InnerFrench follows an uncomplicated business model, presenting unique content to attract an audience on Hugo’s two preferred platforms.
Income comes from the two high-quality courses which Hugo created in response to demand from his followers. Keeping to the format students have come to expect from the podcast and videos, the courses dive deeper into aspects (e.g. grammar) that are not included in Hugo’s free content.
Hugo made a conscious decision to keep away from Instagram and other algorithm-dominated social media sites. Even so, his business is still growing at a rate that demands a change in operations. Eventually, Hugo realised that he was in danger of burning out and decided to hire a team.
A business needs structure and processes
Now that Hugo has other teachers on board, he’s finding that a business needs systems to work efficiently.
Some problems that come from his current lack of structure include:
- Content isn’t consistently delivered on time
- Difficulty creating new content because there’s no clear pattern
- Losing interest because of overwhelm
- Staff can’t complete their projects because they’re waiting for your content
- No structure for team members
- Risk of burnout
Everything in your business will benefit when you create clear patterns, processes and procedures.
Hugo knows he can’t continue to work non-stop. So his next goal is to create the structure that will improve how innerFrench works behind the scenes.
LearnDash: a WordPress course platform
When you want to run a course, inevitably, this question comes up: “which platform should I use?”
We recently discussed using Skillshare and Bright Trips when we spoke with Nathanial Drew. Teachable is another well known and easy to use platform favoured by many course creators. But Hugo decided that he wanted to have a more varied quiz format, for innerFrench so he decided to run his courses with LearnDash.
“LearnDash is used by many big universities and some pretty big companies for training (team members). It’s really flexible. You can do pretty much whatever you want — (providing) you’re willing to spend a bit of money to hire a developer from time to time or to spend a lot of time on YouTube watching tutorials.”
LearnDash is a WordPress plugin that allows you to create and host a course on your website. It includes a drag and drop format for creating your lessons and plenty of online tutorials. It also has “focus mode”, which gives your learners a distraction-free environment.
Hugo chose LearnDash for its varied quiz format, including eight different question types — single & multiple choice, free text, sorting, matching, essay, fill-in-the-blank and survey questions.
Because LearnDash is hosted on a WordPress website, you need to host it on a premium server to avoid access issues. InnerFrench uses Kinsta, which is pricier than some servers but has never let Hugo down.
Do you need a marketing degree to run an online business?
Both Hugo and Jan agree that the knowledge gained from their Marketing Degrees has little relevance in the online marketing world. The trouble is those techniques were targeted towards marketing in the corporate world.
Online marketing has different needs and strategies, and there are plenty of podcasts, blogs and YouTube channels dedicated to teaching you the ropes.
At the same time, there’s no substitute for experience. So one of the best things you can do is try different strategies, review your successes and failures and learn by taking action in your business.
Contact
innerFrench website
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