Courtney Foster-Donahue’s Evergreen Guild Review: Can Course Creators Succeed Without a Live Launch?

Courtney Foster-Donahue’s Evergreen Guild is a done-with-you coaching program for course creators. Formerly known as Launchpad, the program teaches creators how to achieve a 6- to 7-figure business while working 10 hours or less each week. Furthermore, it encourages course creators not to do live launches. Evergreen Guild runs for 6 months and accepts a limited number of participants.

Evergreen Guild’s official website features several screenshot testimonials. One social media post writes about making her first $997 course sale. Another shared that 10 people joined their course in a week.

I also run a coaching program where I teach students about local lead generation. So far, we’ve had over 7,000 students and counting. In this Evergreen Guild review, we check out its offerings, such as the Evergreen Guild Framework, the 7 Purchase Profiles, and more.

Evergreen Guild Review: Pros and Cons

Can Course Creators Succeed Without a Live Launch?

Course creators can succeed without a live launch, according to the Evergreen Guild Framework. It involves:

• Automating sales funnels - Set up automation tools to streamline your lead attraction and conversion process. This guides potential customers through the bottom funnel without manual intervention.
• Understanding different purchase profiles - This talks about the 7 most common buyer behaviors and why Evergreen Guild only relies on 3 of them. You learn to customize your marketing campaigns across multiple audience segments.
• Scaling your signature course to 7 figures - Improve your pricing and marketing strategies to scale your potential revenue with a low-ticket offer.
• Implementing efficient, maintainable workflows - The program teaches you to work 10 hours or less per week through automated processes. It promotes work-life balance to avoid burnout and achieve a successful online course business.

How To Join Evergreen Guild?

Only a limited number of people can join Evergreen Guild. The 3-step admission process is:

1. Fill out an online application form. You’ll provide personal information and their business goals.
2. Get an invite to an info session and access to the video. Qualified applicants will receive a call from a team member within 48 hours. This will lead to an info session and video access where the Evergreen Guild Framework is explained in greater detail.
3. Receive the next steps needed to enroll. Those who decide to join the program are then given more information about what they need to do to start with enrollment.

Who is Evergreen Guild For?

Evergreen Guild is for:

• Course creators who need expert guidance as they launch their courses or memberships. Evergreen Guild provides them with support as they create, launch, and automate their courses.
• Beginners who want to create profitable courses and scale through automations and evergreen funnels.
• Experienced creators who want to scale to a 7-figure business through automation, membership, and digital products.

The website also mentions that the program is not ideal for course creators who treat the business as a hobby or side hustle. Evergreen Guild only accepts committed students who have real goals.

What Do Students Say About Evergreen Guild?

Students have positive things to say about Evergreen Guild, based on the screenshots shared on Courtney’s website. For example, someone shared about making over $3K in sales and attracting 57 people on their first day of launching their webinar.

Another student admitted to having worries about their specific niche. Despite having a beta-launched course, she made $35K in a month and is already on track to earning $100K. The course owner has been consistently hitting and surpassing $20K per month since March.

What are Other Programs by Courtney Foster-Donahue?

• Pocket Products. This short workshop teaches students how to create small digital products and generate profit within one week. This tests original content on a smaller scale before a full course. The process also helps creators grow a list of interested customers instead of freebie-seekers. Pocket Products costs $197.
• The Course Course. This program is for creators who want to create and launch a signature course within 4 weeks. It helps business owners transition to course creators, even without an online following or social media presence. The Course Course is temporarily closed to the public. However, it offers a free class for those who want to learn more and receive exclusive invitations.

Who Is Courtney Foster-Donahue?

Courtney Foster-Donahue is an actor, entrepreneur, and course creator from Atlanta, Georgia. After a dance-related injury, she started exploring business options online. While still stuck in bed, she began making money through a monetized blog. She would later build two more successful businesses.

Courtney began doing 1:1 coaching for business owners when she received requests for marketing tips. She would eventually compile her knowledge into her own online courses and products. This strategy helped her serve more clients while working less at the same time.

Within two years of creating Pocket Products, Courtney grew her business into a seven-figure company. She has since been featured in Forbes, Teachable, Belong Magazine, and Strategy Hour.

Courtney Foster-Donahue Claims Course Creators Earn $100k Per Month

Courtney Foster-Donahue claims that course creators can earn $20k, $50k, or $100k without doing any sales calls or live launches. She also claims that you can make sales all the time and scale to over 7 figures with less time investment.

Why Courtney Foster-Donahue’s Claims May Be Unrealistic

Not everyone can generate $20,000 to over $100,000 in revenue from online courses. A ZipRecruiter report states that course creators make an average of $6,874 monthly. If you don’t have a solid following online or on social networking platforms, you can’t expect consistent sales. Plus, live launches and cold outreach are well-known strategies for driving purchases. HubSpot reveals that six or more follow-up calls can increase conversion rates by up to 70%.

Beginners will likely struggle as they create and sell a new offering to a wider market. That’s why you need social media marketing and networking strategies to build your online presence. Moreover, creating, selling, and updating an online course requires a significant time investment. Yes, you can automate your marketing and onboarding process with tools like Kajabi and ManyChat. However, it takes continuous social engagement and content improvement to establish a sellable course.

Is Starting an Online Course Business Popular in 2025?

Starting an online course business is popular in 2025. For example, Udemy has over 250,000 courses on its platform. Course creation requires low initial investment and offers a wider reach than traditional mentoring. Moreover, online courses allow experts to earn extra income as they monetize their skills and knowledge. Top platforms for selling courses include Udemy, Skillshare, Teachable, and Thinkific.

On Reddit, Joe Gilder of Home Studio Corner shares how he earns over $300k per year selling music production courses. He’s been doing this for over 15 years and has helped over 8,000 clients.

However, starting and maintaining an online course is time-intensive. You need to record and edit a lot of audio and videos for self-paced learning programs. Maintaining the quality of your course entails consistently updating it with new information. You also deal with student support systems, negative reviews, and changes in learning platform pricing. Plus, you need to adjust your package prices to compete with other course creators. It might prove more stressful than just automating all your processes.

Conclusion: Why Local Lead Generation is More Passive Than Online Course Creation

Local lead generation is a more passive business model than online course creation. As a course creator, you have to provide ongoing support for your students. You also have to update your courses often to keep them fresh and relevant. Your earnings depend on the number of course sales you make each month. With the growing demand for online learning, you’re competing with thousands of new and established course creators.

You will not experience those disadvantages in local lead generation. Instead, you only need to build a business website and then rank it on Google. Once you achieve top search engine results, you can approach local entrepreneurs to offer your services. Business owners will be happy to pay $500 to $3,000 each month as you consistently send them high-quality leads.

Best of all, local lead generation is mostly a ‘set it and forget it’ business model. You won’t have to hold weekly coaching calls or monitor your students’ progress. You only have to do little or no maintenance work to keep your site’s ranking, so passive income is possible. Personally, I own multiple sites and earn up to $52,000 per month with this strategy.