Course Creation Secrets From a 20-year Pro
Course creation secrets: it’s an internet search that returned 338,000,000 results. So if you think people are eager to learn how to create courses, you’re right. But can you imagine sifting through nearly 350 million results to find what you need? I didn’t think so. I’ve been creating courses my entire adult life. Let me save you the time it takes to search through hundreds of millions of results to learn how to create courses.
Pro Tip #1: Let Go of What You Think You Know
I work with subject matter experts on the regular and they all have one thing in common: they hold on for dear life to their subject matter expertise. And rightly so: it’s hard-earned. But it’s often hard for someone with so much knowledge to face the fact that creating a course requires a different set of skills. And then, they find it even more difficult to realize it takes time to learn that new skill. We are quick to forget how long it took us to accumulate our subject matter expertise in the first place. And if you’re doing it right, you’re still accumulating data and information to grow.
Clients hire me to create online courses for them, but that doesn’t stop them from trying to win arm-wrestling contests with me about how the information should be presented. I’ve got lots of experience managing expectations when it comes to creating courses so it’s easy for me to redirect clients to the subject matter but it’s not always easy to remind them that creating courses is different from knowing how to teach something. They are two different skills.
So whether you decide to create a course on your own or hire an instruction designer, you have to be ready to let go of how you think this thing should look. Change is good.
Pro Tip #2: Less is More When it Comes to Your Knowledge
I know, it’s a hard pill to swallow, but tone it down. A lot. Trim the fat like you’ve never trimmed the fat before. And then trim some more. Here’s why: you’re not striking out into course creation land to replace yourself, despite what the internet and marketers tell you. That’s not the point of online courses or courses in general. Their purpose is to transfer knowledge and create opportunities for transformation. They are not about showcasing how much you know about a particular topic. But good on you for having so much knowledge. It just won’t all have a home in your new course.
Instead, focus on action. My secret weapon question I use to keep clients on track is “how does that help me DO something I couldn’t do before?” If they tell me something because they think it’s important but it doesn’t help me do something I couldn’t do before, it finds its way to the cutting room floor. Course creation secrets aren’t really secret at all, but many clients convince themselves that this must be harder than it is. And they want to argue about why more is more. But it’s not. Less is more. Focus on the action. Leave the rest.
Pro Tip #3: You Might Not Even Need to Create a Course
Alright, this one throws people. A lot. I have conversations with potential clients all the time. And less than half of them actually need to create a course. Here’s why: speaking to me helps them get clarity on what they are trying to achieve by creating a course. Many coaches, consultants and online business owners think creating a course means they have more time. And while that is true, eventually, it’s certainly not true at the outset. So I sat down and figured out the math of it all based on my experience creating online courses since 2008. It takes about one full year to see a sizable return on your investment of time, money and energy. And it takes that same year of pushing out content, promoting and most importantly, making offers for people to buy your course.
The number one reason courses don’t sell is that you’re not making offers to people.
So yes, you’ll have something to put on the shelf and sell, but if you don’t sell it, it won’t sell. Sounds simple, but a lot of people miss this one. So rather than spend the next year finding out you don’t really want to have a course to sell, I often point clients in a different direction. Here are my top three recommendations instead of creating a course.
- move to group coaching, if that applies. By simply inviting a third person to a Zoom meeting, you’ve created a group coaching situation. Focus on the facilitation of those sessions, not delivering more content.
- record yourself delivering a module of your content and use it to see if your audience even wants to buy an online course from you. It’ll take you an hour. Sell it through Eventbrite so you don’t have to create a full landing page and don’t need to set up a paywall.
- scale with service instead: a client recently told me they were swamped with consulting after delivering a workshop. If you’re swamped, congratulations. Increase your price, change your consulting framework or create a filter for accepting clients.
Put Course Creation Secrets to Work for You
If you made it all the way to the bottom of this article and you’re still interested in creating a course, let’s chat. Book a call with me now to find out how easy it is to work with me and create courses that make it simple for your clients to succeed.
