How the relationship experts Rabbi Shlomo and Rivka Slatkin DIY’d marriage counselling for couples

• Course Instructor: Rabbi Shlomo and Rivka Slatkin
• Website: www.TheMarriageRestorationProject.com
• Course Topic: No Blame/No Shame Marriage and Communication Training
• Interesting Stats: We get over 7,500 visitors to our website every month

1. Who are you?

We are a husband and wife team who had our own struggles early on in our relationship. We got help, Shlomo became a Certified Imago Relationship Therapist, and we made it our mission to help other couples receive the same quality help that kept our family together. Shlomo is a Licensed Clinical Professional Counselor and Rivka is the marketing director.

2. What’s your course all about?

Our course gives couples a 5 step plan to creating a healthy and happy marriage through instructional videos, audios, our 5 Step Action Plan to a Happy & Healthy Marriage book, and a workbook. It provides doable steps to make a real difference in one’s relationship.

3. What makes you an expert in this field?

Shlomo has worked in the field for over 15 years with couples worldwide in all stages of the relationship. He has years of training in Imago Relationship Therapy and has been featured in print and online media.

4. What is the transformation your course offers to the students?

Our course offers practical skills as well as a new way to envision their relationships. It gives the individual or couple working together a game plan to take back their marriage, distilling the secret ingredients that Shlomo has observed over the years in his own practice.

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5. Which market does your online course serve and how did you get into it?

Our course serves anyone who is in a committed relationship. It can be done on one’s own or with one’s partner.

6. Why is it important to you to serve this market?

It is often challenging to find quality couple’s therapy, not to mention expensive. We wanted to provide a DIY option for couples who can’t benefit from extensive counselling but need help. We also understand that many times, one spouse is not interested in therapy. This course enables them to participate together in an educational program, or at least the interested spouse to do the program alone and create a ripple effect in their marriage.

7. Describe the moment when you decided to create your own course. Where were you, what happened and why did you decide to do it?

We decided to create the course when we realized that there were so many struggling couples who couldn’t find good therapy, couldn’t afford therapy, or couldn’t convince their spouse. We didn’t want anyone to be prevented from transforming their relationship so we decided that if they can’t come to us, we can come to them in the comfort of their own home.

8. How did you overcome doubtful moments during your course creation journey?

We kept our mission in mind so that despite the tedious efforts of editing books, studio recordings, and videos, we were determined to reach our goal and help others.

9. What are some of your tricks to deal with imposter syndrome?

As we share our own challenges in the course as well as our successes, we don’t attempt to pretend or misrepresent ourselves. We are just a regular couple with the same challenges everyone else has and we’ve discovered a way to be happy together.

10. How long did it take you to create your course?

While we created our book first, it took over a year from start to finish as we had the book professionally designed, and the audios and videos professionally recorded.

11. How did your first launch go?

Our initial launch went well. We had many couples subscribed to our email list who had read our material as well as our book, so they were anxious to take advantage of our course once we launched it.

12. How do you structure your launches in general now?

We have done many things over the years. Currently, we have couples find us on our website or promote the course during interviews.

13. Where does your traffic come from?

Couples find us organically, through paid advertising, our podcast, or interviews.

14. Which content do you like producing the most?

We enjoyed recording the audios in the recording studio. It was fun learning how to write the script and it came out really professional. 

15. What online course platform are you using?

Lifterlms.

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16. What is amazing about this platform?

It has great customer support and integrates well with WordPress as well as our amazing checkout plugin called Upsell, created by Jaber Marketing.

17. Which features do you wish this platform would have?

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18. Why did you choose this platform over other platforms?

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19. Which other tools do you use to keep your online business running?

We have a podcast, blog, Facebook groups, and our email list.

20. How many students have you served so far?

We have served thousands of students.

21. How much revenue have you created during your first launch, and ongoing?

n/a

22. What are you running costs to keep the online course business going?

The cost is minimal at this point. It was mostly on the front end creating the course.

23. What are some of the biggest mistakes you made along the way?

We spent a lot of money on course creation. We probably could have done it much cheaper.

24. How has your business changed since implementing an online course into the business model?

The online course is just one component of our business. We have found other ways to reach more people such as hiring more clinicians as well as training other therapists.

25. How has your personal life changed?

We now have teenagers and a new child since we started the course. We moved and are in our 40’s, so we see things a little differently with age.

26. What’s the greatest transformational story you can tell about one (or more) of your students?

Here is a letter we have received from one of our students: “We came to see you almost a year ago for therapy. As you may remember we only came for one session and we were in bad shape. My husband did not want to continue and being that he was unemployed and I was making a meagre salary, we couldn’t afford weekly sessions. We did get your digital program though we didn’t touch it for months. I thought it was over. Things only got worse from there. My husband was put in jail on false charges, I lost my job, and then I found myself sick for months. I discovered there was a sewage leak in my bedroom that was contributing to my condition. This was the turning point. When we started your communication training, I downloaded your audio mp3s to my husband’s phone, hoping he would listen to them.

I started to notice that our communication had changed. He had implemented some of the strategies you suggest on his own. We began connecting again. We stopped the constant bickering. For the first time in a long time, I had hope that our marriage could succeed.

We are now expecting our first child any day now and couldn’t be happier. Thank you so much. Your program saved our marriage and we are eternally grateful. Please continue to let other couples know that if your program could help us, it could help anyone, as you would be hard-pressed to find a marriage as bad as ours was.”

27. If you could use a time machine and send yourself back to the time before you started out, what advice would you give yourself, knowing what you know now?

I would research what people wanted instead of just making a course and hoping people would purchase. There is a tendency to think that courses are popular so just create it. It’s always best to create the course according to the needs of your audience.

28. What is your million dollar piece of advice to those who are just getting started in their online course journey OR for those who are looking to scale?

Be passionate about your topic. Don’t just do it to make a quick buck. Make sure you serve a need and find out how to reach people who want what you have to offer.