Podcast: Play in new window | Download
Subscribe: Apple Podcasts
Video training is one of the best ways to teach your audience. There’s no shortage of niches that you can serve, teach and create an audience with, and John Highly of DentTrainer.com is a great example of this. John creates video training and other instructional content for his audience and has become the industry leader in his field. I recently sat down with him at his office, since we only work a few miles away from each other.
I loved talking with John Highly about his business and I’m sure you could hear his passion for what he does, his motivation to serve and his striving to improve.
This episode is brought to you by “Easy Video for Courses“. Did you know that online courses that include video are 83% more effective in helping students remember the information better?
But most people struggle with complicated equipment or software, the cost of buying equipment, or they don’t feel confident in front of the camera. That’s why I created Easy Video for Courses. I’ve taken all the confusion out of the process so you can make effective course videos in half the time, even if you don’t like being on camera.
Go to EasyVideoForCourses.com to learn more and get the course.
The Online Course Creation Summit
The Online Course Creation Summit will feature 40 top entrepreneurs & course experts, like Pat Flynn, Ryan Lee, Danny Inny and myself. We are coming together to share our best-kept secrets on how to design, build and launch your own online course! I’ll be speaking about how to use videos in your online courses. We talk about the 3 stages of every great course video, as well as tips to make your videos look professionally made. I’ve been producing videos professionally since 2002 and I’ve worked with Dan Miller, Carrie Wilkerson, The Ziglar company, Fortune 500 companies and many more. And I give a ton of tips and tricks in my interview. You can learn about it and sign up for free by going to OnlineCourseCoach.com/summit
Online Course Coach Podcast Questions
- Tell me about yourself and how you got started in this industry?
- When did you decide to start teaching & creating video training online?
- How did you get started in putting your content online?
- What are some of the challenges you’ve had to overcome with reaching your audience and building your brand?
- What are your marketing strategies for growing your effectiveness?
- What types of videos do you have on your website to teach people how to repair dents?
- Where are you going in the future with your website and platform?
- What are some of the tools, software you use for you online training?
- What advice would you give someone who wants to start creating online courses or membership website?
Podcast Show Notes
Here are some notes that I took during my conversation with John Highly. What impacted you the most?
- John grew up with a dad that owned a car dealership. He has always loved cars and vehicles.
- He started working for $4/hr.
- John Highly does pointless dent removal, which is a unique technique to remove dents and dings from vehicle bodies.
- He went through a tough period of time where he had to pay his bills but wasn’t able to get easy work, like others. He found that dent restoration was a niche that wasn’t being fulfilled, so he began having other auto body places refer work to him and became known locally as the person for this type of work.
- John started doing before and after videos and posting them to Youtube and forums. This helped grow his business as a dent repairer and become an industry leader in that niche.
- He didn’t want to travel so he started a local business to have more stability. It’s this flexibility of doing both local repair work but also online video training that sets him as the industry leader.
- John knows how hard it is to start a business and learning to succeed.
How John Highly has Created a Video Training Library for his Membership Site
- He has a business partner that does video, podcasting, and a membership site. They have 300+ videos on DentTrainer.com since they started and are continually adding more content to their website. This makes it increasingly more difficult for competitors to try to overtake them as the industry leader.
- When they launched, they had months of content in “the can”, which helped them quickly propel themselves and offer a lot of valuable content. This justified the price to the customer since there was so much video training content.
- They looked at Lynda.com and Kelbe training as examples to use and then customized their own site. This allowed them to see what was working in other industries and take pieces of it for their own audience.
- The website has a lot of various types of training content on it including videos, PDFs and other resources for the paying member to watch and download.
- The website has free videos and content, where people can get info. This helps them get new leads, build trust and grow their audience.
- John and his company are able to truly help people, impact them and make a difference. Create value in other people’s life is important to John and he views this as more than just a business, it’s a way to make an impact.
- They’re launching Dent Trainer live for their members soon, which will be an interactive look at the shop, allow people to ask questions and get involved even more. This helps grow the community so they aren’t all relying on John Highly for leadership but can interact with each other.
- He uses Final Cut Pro X, Canon 7D, Canon XA10, lav mic for his video training.
- John recommends using a good membership plugin and is looking at MemberMouse.com. He recommends spending money for a really good membership plugin, rather than a cheaper plugin. He also loves and uses WordPress.org. Check out WP Courseware by Fly Plugins.
- Create a “value ladder” with your free content. Know where you want to take them. Build your tribe and listen to them and what they need. Survey your tribe, see what they want
The Online Course Creation Summit
The Online Course Creation Summit will feature 40 top entrepreneurs & course experts, like Pat Flynn, Ryan Lee, Danny Inny and myself. We are coming together to share our best-kept secrets on how to design, build and launch your own online course! I’ll be speaking about how to use videos in your online courses. We talk about the 3 stages of every great course video, as well as tips to make your videos look professionally made. I’ve been producing videos professionally since 2002 and I’ve worked with Dan Miller, Carrie Wilkerson, The Ziglar company, Fortune 500 companies and many more. And I give a ton of tips and tricks in my interview. You can learn about it and sign up for free by going to OnlineCourseCoach.com/summit
Bio of John Highly: A lifetime of Automotive Repair with 20 years of experience.
John Highley has been working in the automotive dent repair industry since the age of 13. His father owned a body shop and a small car dealership where he taught his son how to paint, detail, and how to do body work. John also learned the hammer dolly technique of paintless dent removal. Later in life John continued his journey by managing a million dollar auto reconditioning center at the age of 20. Soon after that he received his first set of PDR rods, it didn’t take much to his imagination to realize this was the way to refine the technique.
In 2001 John and his wife Angela had their first child John Jr.
After years of employment, in 2003 John decided it was time to go out and dedicate 100% of his energy building the DentMagicJohn brand. John then started his dealership service route, he dedicated his days in the wholesale industry doing dent repair at auto dealerships. At one point John serviced over 50 dealers. Looking into the future and seeing the wholesale industry in a decline John decided to leave the dealership route and become a storm chaser within the auto hail damage industry.
In 2006 John left his dealerships and went on to his first hailstorm in Indianapolis, Indiana. The experience was truly humbling with cars coming in that had hundreds of large dents and busted out windows. This storm was truly a baptism by fire. After working in Indianapolis for nearly a year John refused to give up while repairing some of the worst damage in the country. After chasing the hail circuit for another year it was time for John’s son to start kindergarten, It was time to begin another journey.
Coming fresh off the hail trail in 2008 John was faced with going back into the declining wholesale industry or taking on a whole new idea of selling his dent repair to the public. John then gave all of his energy to the mobile retail PDR business, the first year was a success but nothing compared with what was soon to come. After 3 years of developing a growing mobile business. In 2011 Centerville, Ohio a near by town was hit with a giant hailstorm, it was time to open the first DentMagicJohn Hail Repair Warehouse.
From the aftermath of the hailstorm that hit, John moved his business into a 25,000 square foot warehouse and hired as many hail chasers as he could handle. That year the DentMagicJohn enterprise fixed over 1700 vehicles including fleet accounts from three local cities, sheriff’s department, and four body shops. With a year occupancy the business had never been better and it was the right time for John to open his first retail location. Furthermore during this hailstorm John began filming his work and crated DentMagicTv.com.
After receiving thousands of views from his videos and hundreds of request for training in 2012. John decided to start his own training company. People loved John’s unique ability to convey his message through a principle based training system. In 2012 John was elected to become a board member within a worldwide nonprofit organization called PDR Nation, which the groups main objective is to educate technicians all over the globe. He chaired the ethics and standards committee, helped write the I-Car curriculum, and currently resides as their Marketing Manager. He then contributed his oil can stability technique by writing a article for one of the biggest industry news letters, the PDRN news letter.
2014 we launched world wide recognized DentTrainer.com
In 2013 John launched his successful charity, Dents For Kids. He was also a speaker and coordinator within a marketing seminar at the 2014 world wide Mobile Tech Expo. John has a lifetime of achievement in the PDR industry and would like nothing more than to pass his expertise to you. John stresses that connecting with a reputable company who offers one on one training and has passion for their students success is KEY when receiving good PDR training.
Quote, “Your Success Is My Success”
This episode is brought to you by “Easy Video for Courses“. Did you know that online courses that include video are 83% more effective in helping students remember the information better?
But most people struggle with complicated equipment or software, the cost of buying equipment, or they don’t feel confident in front of the camera. That’s why I created Easy Video for Courses. I’ve taken all the confusion out of the process so you can make effective course videos in half the time, even if you don’t like being on camera.
Go to EasyVideoForCourses.com to learn more and get the course.
Have a question for the show?
DISCLOSURE: I may be an affiliate for products that I recommend. If you purchase those items through my links I will earn a commission. When you order through my link, it helps me to continue to offer you lots of free stuff. 🙂 Thank you, in advance for your support!