You may remember the story that Jacques Hopkins first shared on the Side Hustle Show in 2017 about his online piano lesson.
Over the past decade, he has systematically transformed the piano in 21 days, into a powerful brand that he has built over 4 million dollars in sales.
Now in 2024, I reconnected with Jacques to get an update on his current projects and outlook, looking back at his business wins and lessons learned over the years.
Like all experienced business owners, his approach and focus have evolved quite a bit over that time frame.
Tune into Side Hustle Show episode 596 to find out:
- Jacques’ online piano lessons business after 11 years and over $4 million in sales
- Elements of Building a Successful Online Course Business
- How Jacques’ passion has shifted after being this side hustle for over a decade
- What does Zach focus on next with his training program and podcast
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Piano in 21 days in the last decade
Jacques released his first version of Piano in 21 Days while still in college after reading The 4-Hour Workweek by Tim Ferriss. His book opened his mind to the possibilities of generating income through the Internet.
Teaching piano was not Zach’s background or passion.
As he says, the course he created was actually the 7th project he attempted after graduation. But it ended up resonating for a few key reasons:
- The beginner-friendly method of learning piano was quick and simple
- Name Piano in 21 days set clear expectations about the speed of the learning system
At first, it was difficult because Zach had to work hard to learn about marketing, sales strategies and how to grow an online audience.
Zac weathered the storm and is now making $10,000-$30,000,000 a month semi-passively from the business after expenses. 2020 was his best year $145,000 in one month largely thanks to the strengthening of the pandemic.
However, he openly admits his passion for the piano itself has waned recently as his interests have shifted to helping others build successful course businesses through theonlinecourseguy.com and his podcast The Online Course Show (which he told me was inspirational from Side Hustle Show).
“Don’t get me wrong. I love hearing from people. And luckily, because of the hard work I’ve put in, I don’t have to put in so much hard work anymore and I can focus on other things that I’m more passionate about.” clarified.
The 2 key beliefs about conversion
When asked about the elements that make his sales funnel so effective, he shared two critical beliefs that any high-converting sequence should instill:
The main goal is to make people believe that they can succeed by joining Jacques’ piano course. His course helps beginners learn and makes them say, “I can do that!”
- “This is the path that can help me.”
This will make you believe that his course, in particular, is the best way to achieve your goals.
Product launch formula
When Jacques was asked about the format of the 12-day sales funnel sequence, he explained that it closely follows the famous product launch formula popularized by Jeff Walker.
For those unfamiliar, PLF pioneered the idea of warming up an audience through a structured value waterfall before presenting a paid offer as the next logical step.
When people visit Jacques’ website to learn piano today, they are greeted with a link offering his free ebook, Learn 36 Popular Songs in 5 Days.
This serves as a lead magnet that people can download in exchange for their email address.
Once signed up, customers enter his ever expanding email funnel next 12 days. This sequence provides valuable content to warm up candidates before offering paid courses.
Towards the end, Zac promotes a limited time sale out of its way to incentivize people to buy within the 12-day offer period before it closes.
If previous leads don’t end up buying, Jacques has designed the series to automatically re-approach cold leads every 100 days.
It says on average 3-4% of newcomers convert on their first pass through the funnel. About 1% per re-engagement end up buying thanks to multiple follow-up attempts.
This multi-layered evergreen approach makes sales for him 24/7. And he’s doing it well—making millions over the past decade.
Pricing evolution
The price of Zach’s $800 course today is significantly higher than when he first started.
He found that this resonated much better with students as it was more honest and aligned better with consumers’ usual buying behaviours.
He also said that early on, he offered various levels such as a $100 ebook to a $500 video lesson.
“What I’ve noticed is that people have not been successful with this low-end package. I didn’t feel like I was serving people very well to include it further,” he shared.
When he finally removed the original pricing, he feared that the price hike would hurt conversions.
But he found that after increasing his course from $500 to $800 (and keeping the 20% discount in the funnel), his revenue actually increased due to higher order values compensating for modestly fewer purchases.
3 models for urgency and increased conversion
When it comes to marketing an online course, Jacques notes that every creator needs to solve the equation of urgency. After all, most people don’t wake up eager to buy your educational offer first thing!
1. Availability
An effective way (which Zach used early on) is to tell people that there are only a limited number of seats available and they need to sign up quickly before they run out.
The course will only be available until all places are filled and once they are, no further registrations will be allowed.
2. Discount
As his business matured, Jacques shifted to presenting a discount offer during the funnel sequence instead of pure availability claims.
This works better because people enjoy cracking deals and it’s more honest than pretending there’s a shortage.
% encourages users to sign up quickly before the timer runs out and prices go up.
3. Bonus
Another effective strategy Jacques mentioned is to offer a time-sensitive bonus. This could be something valuable like a cheat sheet, private coaching, or anything of value.
People feel an urgent need to sign up before this date to make sure they get the bonus.
Coaching programs
While Jacques’ piano course is passively run, his main passion now is mentoring fellow course creators through 3 programs:
- Genesis Courses – For people who are new to online courses and looking for a simple way to start their business
- Next Level Coaching – For established course creators looking to create their first 5 to 6 figures
- OCG brain – For successful course creators making at least $100,000 in annual profit who want to connect and grow with like-minded peers
Tools and Tech
When asked what critical technology allows his business to run so smoothly year after year, his list was short:
He sang praises especially for Kajabi. Their all-in-one platform makes starting courses simple by unifying course content, website and more.
ActiveCampaign sequences feed the evergreen funnel along with automated re-engagement flows to bring cold leads back to life.
And the Deadline Funnel is the glue that makes his sales run like clockwork behind the scenes.
Challenges & Surprises
With nearly a decade under his belt, Zach admits that the past year has had some surprises and renewed disappointments:
Lost passion
As someone who was never a professional piano teacher, Zach feels he was “lucky” in his success. And after many years, he is not as excited about it as before.
Now, he’s considering three options: sell it and move on to other projects, hire help to scale it further, or leave it as is to reach the future with minimal oversight required.
Looking to the future with online courses
Zac remains passionate about e-learning and courses. He is currently working mainly on two related projects in this area:
The Online Course Guy: This aims to help others plan, start and grow successful online course businesses.
The course webcast: A podcast to share knowledge and help course creators succeed.
Zach’s #1 Tip for Side Hustle Nation
2024: “Creating Content”
2018: “Think Customer Transformation”.
2017: “You’ve got a catchy hook.” “Half the cost of piano lessons and ridiculously more effective.”
Episode links
