4 must-have boundaries for your digital course, group program and other online offers (and how to *actually* communicate them)

Boundaries are a hot topic—not just in business, but in everyday life too. Setting boundaries is one thing, but knowing how to implement them—and communicate them to others—can be quite the challenge! So, in today's episode, I am sharing the 4 must-have boundaries for your online offers so that YOU feel safe and comfortable in your business AND your clients know what to expect.

– How to define your boundaries in your business and why they are important
– The types of boundaries needed for both 1:1 and group online programs
– How clarifying why and when your clients can contact you sets the foundation for all future interactions
– The benefits of being proactive about boundary-setting
– How to deal with those clients who disrespect your boundaries

Episodes referred to in this podcast:
https://listen.stephtaylor.co/499 – Monica Yates on how to create boundaries in your business to protect your energy

 

Today we are talking about boundaries in the context of online courses, online coaching, and any digital products that you are selling. 

So, Back when I worked one-on-one as a marketing consultant with clients, I had zero boundaries. I didn't realise this at the time. I didn't even really know what boundaries were at the time, but I was traveling and I was working, and I would take client calls at 4:00 AM because that was the only time that would work for the client. I would reply to client emails in front of the Eiffel Tower because I thought that if I didn't reply to them within an hour of receiving the email, they would be mad at me.

And you know, I even remember being on a yacht in Greece, my first, that was meant to be my first seven days completely offline since I had quit my corporate job and started a business. I also once had a client call me on a Sunday night to make one tiny insignificant change to a sales page.

 

How to define your boundaries in your business and why they are important

Now let me just say there are clients out there, if you are dealing with a painful client, it does not necessarily mean that it is your fault. There are some clients out there who can be quite painful and demanding. However, a lot of the time what we perceive to be a painful client, we can actually fix, or I guess not eliminate the situation entirely, but we can really smooth the situation out a little bit by setting some boundaries.

And this goes with one-on-one clients as much as it does for online courses and group programs. And I don't think enough people talk about the importance of setting boundaries in those contexts. 

Now, boundaries teach others how to interact with us. And if your clients know that they can expect you to answer their calls at 8:00 PM on a Sunday, guess what they will do more of that. They will call you at 8:00 PM on a Sunday cause they know you're going to answer. 

 

The types of boundaries needed for both 1:1 and group online programs

The same within your online course. If your students in your course know that they can DM you on Instagram and ask you any questions about their business or about their situation, then they're going to keep doing that.

And it's actually doing them a bit of a disservice because rather than you teaching them how to think for themselves, they are now just learning to rely on you to give them the answer, and then as soon as they finish your course, or as soon as their access to you runs out, they're exactly where they started off.

Because you haven't actually empowered them with the skills to go and figure it out themselves. They've just learned, oh, I can ask a question. I get my answer, and now you know, that's what I'm used to doing. I don't need to go and figure it out. So when I started letting go of clients, when I started going from one-to-one to more of a one-to-many style business where I was selling more digital products, I had a membership, I had a couple of courses, I didn't realise just how important boundaries would be in selling and in delivering my one to many offers. 

 

What *actually* is a boundary?

Boundaries are a bit of a hot topic at the moment in the psychology kind of world. I know there have been a lot of psychologists on Instagram who have shared many carousels and a lot of really couchy posts around the importance of setting boundaries.

But what actually are they? So, Nedra Glover Taub, she's a licensed therapist and author of Set Boundaries Find Peace, which by the way is an awesome book, and she says, A boundary is something that keeps you safe and comfortable in your relationships.

Now, obviously, this applies to friendships. It applies to romantic relationships. It also applies to your client relationships, your team, contractors, and anybody who you are working within your business and we chatted quite a bit about boundaries. 

Now, what boundaries might you set in your online offers? Obviously, when you are coaching, that contains a slightly different relationship to if you have 50 students in a course or a hundred students in a membership, or more than that. 

So here are four key boundaries that you might want to set in your online offers. 

 

First boundary: The first one is around how much support someone can expect. 

Can they contact you via email or not? Can they DM you with questions about your course? Can they DM you with questions about their specific situation? If it's a coaching client, can they DM you between coaching sessions? Can they email you between sessions? Do you have Voxer access with them where they can message you via Voxer, between sessions?

And if so, is there a limit? 

How long can they wait to expect a reply from you? All of these expectations, form a boundary that you can then communicate to your client or your student. 

 

Second boundary: To set interaction in the community.

So if there is a community component to your offer, is that community there for them to ask you questions or is it there for them to interact with the others in the community? There's no right or wrong, but one of them is going to be a lot more hands-on for you. Can they expect you to reply to every single post in the community, or is it more of an expectation that they will reply to each other's posts? Maybe they can expect somebody in your team to reply, but they can't expect you to reply.

What is that going to look like? Set those expectations. 

 

Third boundary: Response times.

This goes for any offer that you are selling online but what timeframe can somebody expect a response to a support query? So if they are emailing your customer support inbox because they've lost their password, or they can't find a particular lesson or whatever, what timeframe can they expect a response, 24 hours, 48 hours? 

Even just having that expectation communicated to them if it takes 48 hours, but they know it's going to take 48 hours, they're much more likely to be comfortable with that than they've just sent this email to a support inbox and they've never heard back, and they don't know when they're going to hear about and they feel like maybe they've been ripped off.

 

Fourth boundary: Consider the setting around any calls that you have.

If you have Q and A calls, if you're doing one-on-one, if you have the one-on-one calls, group coaching calls, how long should they expect the calls to be? Can they expect them to go overtime or under time? How much time can somebody expect from you in a group situation?

You know, if somebody's asking you a question in a Q and A call or in a group coaching call, how much time can they expect? Do they get every single question answered? Is it that everybody is guaranteed a certain amount of time for each call, or is it a first-in, first-served? Is there a limit to how many questions they can ask?

Is there a limit to what the questions should be about? Where should they ask the questions? Is it something that they unmute and ask on the call? Is it something they put in the chat? Is it something they need to submit ahead of time to be considered? These things I've really been learning as I do more and more smaller group things, I'm really learning the importance of having boundaries in those calls.

 

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