FTApr Webinar Strategy: A Simple, Soulful Way To Share Your Work
I enjoy running free webinars. After years of experimenting (and fumbling through different formats!) I’ve landed on one I’ve come to love: a way of gathering a group of people live, many of whom I’ve never met, and spending 90 minutes exploring something we care about, together. It’s become one of the more joyful practices in my work.
It didn’t start this way. Like many soulpreneurs, I began with the default approach: teach something for free, leave the recording available forever, and hope a few people would buy something later. It mostly didn’t work! Sure, registrations came… but attendance was so low, and the recording just joined the pile of unconsumed content in everyone’s inbox.
I’ve also sat through other people’s “free” webinars that turned out to be sixty-minute setups for a pressure-y sales close… filled with scarcity, urgency and bonus stacking — “only 3 spots left!” After those experiences I swore I’d never do that to my audience. Many of us who’ve experienced things like that have likely made the same promise to ourselves.
So I kept experimenting. What I finally found worked best is a simple format I now teach to my clients. It’s called the FTApr webinar: Free To Attend, paid recording.
What is an FTApr Webinar?
The idea is simple. Anyone can register and get the zoom link to show up live, for free. But access to the recording is handled with care, to signal its value, rather than being casually free forever.
There are three ways I’ve handled the recording, and all of them can work well:
- A limited-time replay, available for 24 to 72 hours after the webinar, and that’s it.
- The replay living inside a paid course, usually as Module 1.
- Lifetime replay as a feedback bonus: free for anyone who attended live and fills out a feedback form afterward. This rewards attendees and can get us some testimonials about the experience, along with feedback about how to improve.
Actually, I use all three methods in combination. You might want to experiment and see what you like best.
Why free-forever replays hurt everyone:
Most of us have a default assumption, that “free webinar” must mean “free recording forever.” I understand. It feels “generous”.
But over time I’ve come to realize that it actually isn’t.
A free-forever replay contributes to the mountain of unconsumed content sitting in our audience’s inboxes/bookmarks. They add it to the folder with the thirty-two other unopened webinar replays. They feel a bit of guilt every time they come across it. They may even end up unknowingly feeling some negativity toward us for adding to their overwhelm…
A limited or paid replay, by contrast, is realistic. It keeps wiser boundaries. It says, in effect: don’t hoard this. Either show up, or simply let it go. You don’t need one more thing sitting in your inbox undone.
So that’s my rule for webinars now: it should have either a limited/paid recording, or even no recording at all (FTAnr, more on that below)… but never a free-for-all replay.
A free webinar shouldn’t be a sales pitch in disguise.
Many of us have sat through those “free educational webinars” that turned out to be sixty-minute (or longer!) sneaky sales presentations. If you’ve been in one, you know the feeling, that slow realization (around minute 35 perhaps!) that the whole thing was a setup.
An FTApr (free-to-attend, paid-recording) rests on a different premise: to give attendees a genuinely good experience. Something they’d feel was worthwhile even if they never bought anything from us.
Something they’d tell a friend about.
What I do my best to offer every time: a quick win that they can apply immediately… a real sense of possibility and optimism about the journey… my authentic presence (my energy signature / what it’s like to learn with me)… and an enlivening experience of the human community that gathers around this work.
Information transfer is the least of what matters in a good FTApr. The live experience itself… the felt quality of 90 minutes together with other humans engaging with something worthwhile, is the real value. If I happen to have a next-level offer that fits, I’ll mention it briefly and genuinely at the end… but the webinar stands on its own as a gift.
How this benefits your business:
When people know the recording isn’t free forever, they treat the live event as worth showing up for. Registrations grow our email list. (A small note: in GDPR contexts, please obtain explicit permission before adding anyone to a marketing list.)
The recording itself becomes a small paid product without extra production, or a bonus for an existing program.
We get to test course ideas with low risk, learning what our people want before we spend months building.
Goodwill accumulates with everyone who shows up, whether they ever buy or not.
And any single recording can become Module 1 of a paid course, a lead magnet, or a handful of social clips.
FTApr has become my favorite way of growing my audience via word of mouth.
It gives attendees an experience of my presence and energy signature.
And of course, it also is one of the best ways to interest people in becoming our clients.
I hope you give this tool a sincere try as well.
Realistic expectations (so you don’t quit after doing two of these!)
Here’s what I’ve learned over time — don’t expect the paid recording itself to sell well, or at all if you have a small audience.
The real benefits of this method I’ve already stated above. Audience growth. Topic validation. Goodwill with new potential clients (who have now experienced your energy signature). Raw material for the paid offers that come later. And maybe the recording itself as a value-add to another thing you offer.
It’s also worth doing because we were going to teach this content to our paying clients anyway.
Another reframe that helps me: a free webinar is like having an exploratory call with potential clients… several of them at once!
Where the FTApr fits in the bigger picture:
Here’s how I think about this in the shape of a small pyramid:
Level 1 (the base): the FTApr webinar. This is the audience entry point, the list-builder, and the place where goodwill begins. Our audience starts experiencing our work and gets a sense of our energy signature.
Level 2 (the middle): paid courses. Ideally a small catalog of them over time, each around 4 to 6 hours, delivered over 4 to 6 weeks. Some of those who attended our free webinar will want to go deeper and experience the full journey.
Level 3 (the top): 1:1 clients or a mastermind. The deepest work, with people who are already “on the same page” with us about the foundational concepts, because they’ve taken our course. This is where the most meaningful work happens. See my private coaching page here.
The FTApr is the front door to the whole system. Without it, the pyramid has no base…
Inspire them with the overall map:
One of the more common mistakes I see soulpreneurs make with their webinars is trying to teach everything they know in 90 minutes. It comes from a generous place… “I want them to leave with all of it!”… but in practice, it’s overwhelming. People retain less, and leave the experience feeling flooded.
Instead: teach maybe 3 key ideas, with a story or two each. And a little exercise to have them experience something meaningful.
Here’s the distinction that’s helped many of my clients — in an FTApr, attendees receive the map: the key ideas, the common myths, the overall framework, a small but meaningful exercise. The paid offer is for those ready for the complete journey: in-depth practice, personalized support, deeper implementation over time.
This also resolves the common fear of “am I giving too much away?” We’re giving orientation. The supported transformation happens in the deeper work.
Again, a good FTApr includes a few myths or unconventional truths about the topic… the overall framework/map… one quick-win exercise… and space for Q&A.
If you’d like to see what this looks like in practice, you can request a 72-hour replay of my FTApr webinar at georgekao.com/free.
After the webinar, two paths…
Path 1: You already have a next-level offer.
Spend 5 to 10 minutes at the end introducing it with your authentic enthusiasm, but without need for any hard-sell. Remember that those who are a good fit are already leaning in, interested in how they might work with you. Focus on answering any questions. The questions show you what to emphasize. Then, send a gentle follow-up email to those who didn’t buy on the day.
Path 2: You don’t have an offer built yet.
The FTApr becomes your low-risk way of seeing what to build next. Treat the webinar itself as Module 1 of that future course, program, or service.
Two concrete examples I’ve seen. A webinar on a therapeutic method introduces at the end a paid program where participants can pair up to practice the method, with the mentor’s ongoing support. A webinar on a productivity framework becomes Module 1 of a course teaching the framework in depth.
And please don’t stall just because your audience is still small. Even seven engaged attendees can sustain a mastermind at $200 to $500 per month. We don’t need hundreds of registrants to make this worth doing.
(If you want a step-by-step system for turning FTApr webinars into paid courses and launches, dive into my The Course Creator’s Journey.)
When to do FTAnr instead (Free To Attend, no recording)
Sometimes a recording isn’t the right choice. FTAnr (Free To Attend, no recording) is the right strategy when the experience isn’t duplicable on a recording (e.g. facilitated group work)… when participants need privacy or confidentiality… or when the whole point is giving people your presence, and a recording would pale in comparison to the live experience.
A lovely side benefit of FTAnr: attendance rate is much higher. When registrants know there’s no recording, they show up! On the sign-up page, state clearly that there’s no recording, and briefly why.
Go FTApr when…
- the recording has lasting value
- the experience is far better than any recording
- the recording can be Module 1 of a paid course
Go FTAnr when…
- privacy or confidentiality matters
- you want a simple low-cost offer
- you want to maximize attendance rate
Cadence: one per month
If you want to build momentum in your business, aim to host one FTA every month.
I know people who ran FTAs for years. Their audience grows, they get testimonials, and new clients follow. Not overnight. Over seasons. My own experience confirms the same.
An important benefit: over time, we learn to prep less and structure less. For many soulpreneurs, that’s the biggest hurdle, and it really does get easier with reps.
“Good enough” is good enough! Your first FTA doesn’t need to be polished. (None of them do.) The experience simply needs to be helpful, clear, and alive. The outline improves every time you teach it.
“Won’t people be upset if there isn’t a free replay forever?”
This is a question I get a lot, and the honest answer is: usually not, as long as you explain it clearly on the sign-up page.
In practice, clarity increases attendance. People know they need to show up to get the value. They appreciate when we treat their attention as precious. After years of running FTA webinars, for thousands of attendees, not one person has complained about a clear limited-time or paid-replay policy.
Your turn…
An FTA practice can dramatically increase engagement for our work, without asking us to become someone we’re not. No sixty-minute sales pitches disguised as teaching. Just a generous live experience, offered once a month, that helps our people feel our energy signature and witness our work.
If you’ve never run one: please start as soon as you can. Don’t wait for your full course or program to be built. The webinar comes first, and the follow-on offer can become clear because of what the webinar experience reveals.
If you used to run webinars and stopped: I hope you come back to it. Pick a topic. Put a date on the calendar. Use the FTApr or FTAnr strategy.
Trust that one meaningful live experience, offered with care, is enough to begin. Let the gathering itself teach you what to build next.
May this practice grow you, as much as it serves the souls who show up!
If you’d like a complete roadmap for running FTApr webinars, validating course ideas, and launching paid offers without overwhelm, in a way that honors your values, you might explore The Course Creator’s Journey.
And I’d love to hear from you below. What might your next FTA webinar topic be? The comments area is a tiny experience of a soulpreneur community. Thank you for being here. 🙏🧡
