What Every Course Creator Needs (But Doesn’t Know to Ask For)

I've spent 3 years coaching 50+ course creators and studying 100+ others. Now, I'm changing my offering based on what I've learned.

I had never even heard of a “pelvic floor doctor.”

But a quick spiel from my friend Cara sold me—and three others—on why every pregnant woman needs one. Cara had seen one on a whim after her cesarean in March. A friend had suggested it because even though Cara’s GP had cleared her, she still felt off.

Ever since that first appointment, Cara’s been an advocate for pelvic floor doctors.

She has a natural flair for sales. So it came as no surprise that she captivated a group of us with rave reviews animated by hand gestures and facial expressions.

“Even women who deliver naturally benefit from working with a pelvic floor doctor. And you can see one both pre and post-delivery to maximize the benefits and facilitate healing.”

I was so sold on the value, I immediately told a pregnant friend she should look into it.

Two Powerful Dynamics

I realized there were two powerful dynamics at play in this scenario:

1. Customers need things they don’t know to ask for.

2. Great customer experiences have a ripple effect.

So I reflected on my work and framed the points above as questions:

1. What do course creators need that they don’t know to ask for?

2. How can I bridge that gap with a product or service that would generate raving fans who sell their friends on it?

I came up with immediate answers.

Patterns I’ve Seen in Course Creation

Pain Points You Don’t See Coming

Most course creators struggle to get their course off the ground.

Anecdotal data from the accelerators I’ve worked on indicate that as little as 35% of course creators actually launch their course—and that’s high. Because a friend who worked on a popular 2021 course accelerator (that has since been discontinued) told me they had a conversion rate of 13% for over a hundred instructors.

Here are the main pitfalls people run into pre-launch:

• Overwhelm due to a lack of structure around building out the course content and materials (like workshops and slides).

• Anxiety about teaching on Zoom and making content engaging.

• Stress about covering the bases and getting everything done in time.

• Burnout from spending hundreds of hours working on the wrong things—or in the wrong order.

Now, you would think surviving—or hell, thriving—in your pilot cohort would be the end of your hard times. But not necessarily. Many people struggle to sustain their course, let alone scale it.

I’ve had several people I coached a year ago through accelerators, approach me over the last few months. They’ve told me their registration numbers took a nose-dive in their second or third cohorts and they don’t have the bandwidth to keep their courses going.

They’re not alone.

Here are the main pitfalls people run into after their first cohort:

• Exhaustion from the pilot cohort and a lack of energy to kickstart the next one.

• Stress and anxiety around how to get everything done for the next cohort.

• Confusion around what was done last time and how to avoid reinventing the wheel.

• Exasperation and disappointment about not being able to fill a second or third cohort.

All of these things can manifest as a pit in your stomach, sleepless nights, and depletion.

But it doesn’t have to be like that.

All of these pitfalls are avoidable—if you know what support to ask for in advance.

The Solution You Don’t Know to Ask For

I’ve spent the past 14 months experimenting with different products and services to offer course creators. I’ve offered coaching, consulting, workshops, workbooks, and worksheets.

I’ve gotten great feedback on each.

But like my friend Cara after her GP had cleared her, I still felt something was off. Because I knew I was only scratching the surface of what I could unlock in clients by offering my advice in fragments.

I needed a holistic approach.

Project Management

I was a certified Project Manager long before I moved into the online course space. So I decided to go back to my roots.

At first, I started using ADDIE with clients. ADDIE stands for analyze, design, develop, implement, and evaluate. It’s the go-to project management framework for most academic course designers.

But over the summer, I realized it wasn’t the right fit for my clients. Because it’s typically applied within schools and organizations. It doesn’t account for the broader aspects of defining a course concept based on market positioning.

But it does provide an excellent framework for course design. So I decided to remix it based on my clients’ needs. And based on a tip from my marketing pal Cam Houser, I opted to brand it as my “5D framework” (not to be confused with the spiritual connotation) in which each of the five stages begins with a D-word: define, design, develop, deliver, and decide.

The alliteration is win-win for both marketing and learning camps. Because it facilitates recall, making it easy for people to remember.

Keep reading for an in-depth look at my framework.

Course-Building Framework

Have you ever reflected on why frameworks are so helpful? If not, pause for a moment to do so.

Then, read this electric quote from author and course creator Terri Lonier:

“Visuals travel to the brain like a Ferrari—15 times faster than text—because nearly half of our nerve fibers are linked to our retinas.”

Terri specializes in helping experts create frameworks and Visual IP to increase their impact and income (check out her course Authority by Design for more information).

I’ve learned a lot from Terri over the past year, especially during our time mentoring Write of Passage together.

That’s when it hit me.

I need to provide clients with a clear path to the promised land of running a scalable course without wasting time and energy.

So I made the visual below for clients to:

• Create a mental model for how to operate

• Orient themselves within a clearly defined process

• Articulate where their needs, blocks, and questions lie

Source: Graphic created using Canva

By walking clients through this graphic, I make my high-level thinking visual. From there, I take things a layer deeper. For each of the five phases, I provide them with:

• Templates for activities they need to complete

• Checklists to make sure they have their bases covered

These enable clients to do the bulk of their work autonomously and simultaneously enable me to be more specific in my coaching and consulting.

Because now my clients and I are coming at problems with a shared vision of where they need to go in relation to where they’re stuck. We’re speaking the same language and that means we’re amplifying speed and traction.

It’s a win-win dynamic.

How Two Powerful Dynamics = a Win-Win Dynamic

Quick refresher: everything I’m focusing on now comes back to these two questions:

1. What do course creators need that they don’t know to ask for?

   Course creators need a framework to build and scale their cohort-based courses.

2. How can I bridge that gap with a product or service that would generate raving fans who sell their friends on it?

   I provide my clients with a bundle that includes my:

   • build & scale course framework

   • templates & tutorials

   • checklists

   • coaching

Stay Tuned

My next step is scaling my bundle to serve more people. I have an exciting announcement coming, so stay tuned to my newsletter over the next couple of weeks.

You won’t want to miss it.

Photo source: Canva

My Challenge to You

Chances are you’re sitting on a “pelvic floor doctor” type idea. The solution your clients (or students) don’t know to ask for.

So ask yourself:

1. What do [my clients/students] need that they don’t know to ask for?

2. How can I bridge that gap with a product or service that would generate raving fans who sell their friends on it?

Think big, and think boldly. Most importantly, have fun drumming up something brilliant that will make people think “Damn, how did I not come up with that?!”

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That’s what I have for you today. Thank you for reading.

If you enjoyed this week’s edition, please like, comment, or share this post with friends. It would help me tremendously in expanding my reach.

Wishing you a wonder-full week,

Alexandra