Course Lab: Lessons from Successful Online Course Creators

Mirasee FM’s Geoff Govertsen chose this episode to rerun during the holiday break. Gina Bianchini shares her passion and expertise in creating online communities and how that led to the all-in-one, community-centered platform she runs today.

Show Notes

Gina Bianchini is the co-founder and CEO of Mighty Networks. Her mission is to usher in a new era of creative business built on community.




In this episode we discuss:
  • The convergence of online courses and communities.
  • Is there still room in the market for new course creators?
  • Scaling your business on a single platform.
  • Moving from content-only to transformational courses.
  • The flywheel effect of adding layers and tools to an existing course.
  • The importance of recognizing and playing to your own strengths when making decisions about what tools and platforms to use for your online business.
  • Danny and Abe’s debrief.



“I am both personally and professionally obsessed with how we create social experiences with communities and courses that enable people to achieve results and transformation in their lives that they simply can't get on their own.” 

– Gina Bianchini

Gina Bianchini is the Founder & CEO of Mighty Networks. Her mission at Mighty Networks is to usher in a new era of creative business built on community. Mighty serves “creators with a purpose” selling experiences, relationships, and expertise to their members via community, content, online courses, and subscription commerce–all offered in one place under the creator’s brand.

     Before Mighty Networks, Gina and Netscape co-founder Marc Andreessen launched Ning, a pioneering global platform for creating niche social networks. Under her leadership, Ning grew to ~100 million people in 300,000 active social networks across subcultures, professional networks, entertainment, politics, and education.

     Gina and Mighty Networks have been featured in Fast Company, Wired, Vanity Fair, Bloomberg, and The New York Times. She has appeared on Charlie Rose, CNBC, and CNN. She grew up in Cupertino, California, graduated with honors from Stanford University, started her career in the nascent High Technology Group at Goldman, Sachs & Co., and received her M.B.A from Stanford Business School.




Resources or websites mentioned in this episode:
Mirasee 
Gina’s website
Gina’s LinkedIn



Credits:
  • Guest: Gina Bianchini
  • Hosts: Danny Iny & Abe Crystal 
  • Producer: Cynthia Lamb 
  • Executive producer: Danny Iny
  • Assembled by: Geoff Govertsen
  • Audio Post Supervisor: Evan Miles, Christopher Martin
  • Audio Post Production: Post Office Sound
  • Music soundscape: Chad Michael Snavely




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Music and SFX credits: 

• Track Title: Serenade No. 13 In G Major. II. Romanze – Andante
Artist Name(s): Moments
Writer Name: Public domain
Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

• Track Title: Bossa BB
Artist Name(s): Marie
Writer Name: Chelsea McGough
Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

• Track Title: Carousel Lights
Artist Name(s): Chelsea McGough
Writer Name: Chelsea McGough
Writer Name: Matthew Wigton
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION
Publisher Name: BOSS SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTIONS

• Track Title: Grace
Artist Name(s): Shimmer
Writer Name: Matthew Wigton
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION

• Track Title: Coo Coos
Artist Name(s): Dresden, The Flamingo
Writer Name: Matthew Wigton
Publisher Name: A SOUNDSTRIPE PRODUCTION


Episode transcript: Team’s Pick: Gina Bianchini 

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What is Course Lab: Lessons from Successful Online Course Creators?

Want to create a hugely successful online course, one that has a major impact on the lives of your students? If you want to learn how to create online courses from the best, you turn to Mirasee; and if you want to host that course, you can’t go wrong using the powerful platform, Ruzuku.

Ruzuku co-founder Abe Crystal and Mirasee founder and CEO Danny Iny know what it takes to stand out and be successful in the online courses industry. And now they’re teaming up to share this intel with you in their new Course Lab podcast.

In every episode, Course Lab showcases an entrepreneur/course creator who is nailing it with their online course -- and not because they’re teaching people how to make more money. In fact, most of these creators occupy unusual or overlooked niches, like music, writing for video games, overcoming inherent bias, and finding your life purpose.

Turns out, the key to their success all comes down to their online course design. In this podcast, Danny and Abe reveal the most important design tactics that are making all the difference for these online course creators -- and how you can implement them in your own online course. So if you want to create a successful online course that changes the lives of your students, this is your big chance to learn how it’s done from the best in the industry!