How Filipa Canelas is Helping Others Be the Best Version of Themselves

Who: Filipa Canelas

Website: filipacanelas.com
Course Topic: Productivity

Interesting Stats: 40,000 students from all over the world

Who are you and what course have you created?

I’m Filipa Canelas, a 21-year-old productivity expert! I’m the author of Around is Forward: The Productivity Cycle Behind Extraordinary Results, an online course creator, and entrepreneur.

I’ve helped over 40,000 students from 140+ countries, including employees from NYSE, Airbus & Hitachi through my courses. This comes in the form of mastering focus, hacking the learning process, being productive, or achieving goals.

I’ve also represented Portugal as the Ambassador of WAVE, a European NGO whose goal is to eliminate violence against women and children.

Contributing to a world where successful people are no occasional miracle. That’s my purpose.

What market does your online course serve?

My market serves the personal development world — helping people become the best version of themselves through productivity, skill acquisition, and performance.

What’s the biggest benefit of taking your course?

My courses address different angles of becoming the best version of yourself. However, they all come together in one thing – developing the necessary mindset for believing in your ability to succeed. I think that is probably the most important aspect, including in the process of creating your course.

How did you get into the market?

I became completely fascinated with the personal development world at 17 years old. I couldn’t believe there were so many ways to improve my performance. After reading hundreds of books on the topic I got excited to share the insights online. I resonated with the hunger people have to become the best version of themselves and had to do it.

That’s when it all started.

Why did you decide to create an online course in the first place?

Back at 13 years old, I discovered my passion for creating content through video form and launched my first course (thankfully, it is not online). Since then, I’ve never stopped.

Did you have any moments of doubt before you created/launched it?

Absolutely, and you will likely face some moments of doubt too.

If so what made you turn it around and do it anyway?

I knew I was passionate about the topics I was teaching. And even though imposter syndrome was real, my deep need to help people thrive and get where they wanted to be, made me continue creating. -Filipa Canelas Click To Tweet

In the end, it is not how much we’ve struggled but how we were able to thrive despite the challenges. “To be fearless isn’t really to overcome fear, it’s to come to know its nature.”— Pema Chodron

What’s your online course like?

Most of my courses are in video form – me talking in front of a camera, with some animations and titles to illustrate the key points. I also like to include some presentations for students to download and additional resources.

How long did it take you to create your course?

Courses between 2-5 hours of content can take me from 1-2 months to create. My process looks something like this:

Brainstorming: After deciding the main topic for the course, I spit out dozens of potential modules and videos for the course. It looks super messy but that’s how I find it to be the most helpful.
Structuring: I gather the most relevant insights from the brainstorming session and structure them in a logical sequence for the course,
Researching: I always seek out to give my audience the most relevant and up-to-date content. Thus, research is always a crucial phase of developing a course.

Scripting: In this phase, I develop the script for each of the videos.
Filming: Well, I get in front of the camera and hit record!
Editing: I usually edit the courses myself because I enjoy the process (although it can get a bit annoying watching myself talk for so many hours :p)

One extra day: “When you think things are absolutely done, take one extra day. And make them extraordinary. Excellence only takes one extra day.” — Brendon Burchard

Tell us a little about the process of launching your course and getting your first sale(s).

For me, the process of launching a course is much more challenging than creating the course. Definitely, having an email list helps get those first sales – building momentum, using an email sequence, and launching. Still, it is not that easy.

My primary strategy is publishing a lot of content for free – jab, jab, right hook; building my email list, and using it to leverage my sales.

Do you have a lead magnet?

Absolutely. I’ve had several lead magnets over the years, and through a lot of experimentation, I’ve found what works best with my audience.

My experience tells me not to overwhelm new leads with a time-consuming lead magnet (like a free online course). A 6-page infographic that summarizes the central insights of my book has been working so much better. - Filipa Canelas Click To Tweet

The main goal of the lead magnet is building my email list, which is the mean I use to communicate with my audience. Every time I launch a new product, I make sure to email my audience. Even better, I involve them in the process of creating any new course.

What’s the traffic strategy that works best for you?

Content, content & content. I’m not afraid of sharing information. I want my readers to succeed, independently of them buying or not. The more content I share, the better the results. But of course, marketing plays a big role in getting people to find your content.

What online course platform are you using?

I’m currently using Teachable.

It is really intuitive and easy to set up. The only downsides are the payment fees and the lack of customization in building the landing pages.

Check Out Teachable

Teachable is one of the top online course platforms used by successful course creators interviewed on coursemethod.com. It is easy to set up and build your site pages, and the course area looks great.

Price Range: $0 (+ transaction fees) to $299/month

Most Popular Plan: Pro Plan at $119/month
Annual Discount: Yes, take 17% off!
Free Trial: Try out Teachable’s core features for free

Try Teachable Free

*Our content is reader supported, which means when you buy from links you click on, we may earn a commission.

Are there any features you wish it had?

I would love to have a better way to build a community inside the platform.

What made you decide to use your chosen platform over others?

I knew several people using it and it seemed like a great option for me too.

What other tools do you use to run your online course business?

I use the following tools …

Editing: Adobe Premiere Pro
Email Marketing: Mailerlite

Website: Squarespace
Project Management: Notion
Script Creation: Notion

Cover Design: Canva (or freelancers)

What books or training programs have you found useful on your journey to a successful business owner that others might find valuable too?

Books: The Millionaire Messenger by Brendon Burchard
Courses: Public Figure Bootcamp by Sorelle Amore

Do you have any big mistakes you’ve made along the way that you’d be willing to share?

With my first courses, I thought the creation phase was the only requirement to sell courses. Oh, I was so wrong! Marketing must be there too.

Please share some idea of revenue.

About $40,000 in 2 years – most is automated now.

Please tell us a little about what the money you’ve earned from your course has done for you.

This has provided me the freedom I need to continue working on my business full time!

In addition to revenue are there any numbers you would like to share?

The launch of my book Around is Forward: The Productivity Cycle Behind Extraordinary Results brought 100 subscribers in less than 3 days.

What has creating your course done for you personally?

It is such an amazing feeling to contribute to the success of my students by doing what I love – creating content, sharing, helping! Creating courses was one of the best decisions of my life.

Do you have a story of a transformation from any of your clients?

Yes! I have many! Here is an example:

“At 41, I was diagnosed with ADHD and have always struggled to learn and recall information. This class was not at all overwhelming, and I was able to focus the whole way through. The Teacher has the ability to get information across in a way that is clear to the student and doesn’t fill space with unnecessary chatter. I will be putting these skills into practice NOW and will be revisiting this class regularly to reinforce my learning and implementation. Thank you so much.”

What advice do you have for people just starting out?

I think the best advice when starting out is this: do it. Go all in and commit to bringing your course to reality.

But don’t forget to bring sales… they come in handy 😉

Learn more about Filipa Canelas of filipacanelas.com:

Website: filipacanelas.com
LinkedIn

Twitter