Here’s What Most People Skip When It Comes To Course Creation
I see it over and over again.
You have such a vision for your program. You can practically taste the freedom of your open schedule, you’re so excited for the idea of being able to help so many more people (without piling on more and more and more hours).
You definitely get the vibe, and you’re seeing everyone, everywhere talking about courses.
Build your offer in 24 hours. Create your course and launch in a weekend. Group programs in 12 days.
But for some reason, it’s just not coming that easily for you.
The piles of post-it notes, the half-finished outlines, the hours of Internet rabbit holes for best platforms, the explosion of information - it’s like standing at the bottom of a mountain with no clue how you’re going to get to the top.
You’re not doing something wrong, you’re just skipping a whole bunch of steps.
The reality is that when it comes to taking all that juicy brilliance in your brain and packaging it up in a way that actually gets people results, there are 6 different layers that need to be fully mapped out - and most of us rush right to level 6, skipping over all the beautiful structure that the first 5 layers provide us, resulting in a giant, mushy pile of overwhelm and analysis paralysis.
So Let’s Break it Down:
Layer 1: Your Vision
You come first. Your vision for your life comes first. Before any decisions about modules, platforms, lessons, Facebook groups - we need to know what matters most to you.
How do you want your life to look? How do you want to feel each day? What gives you energy and what drains you? What is the impact you want to make.
We use your clearly defined vision to inform all our decisions moving forward, so we can design a sustainably scalable offer + offer ecosystem that works FOR you.
Layer 2: Your Learner Archetype(s)
Who are you serving through your offers? More and more frequently, we don’t have just one type of learner that we’re serving, so if we don’t take the time to clearly define our different archetypes, there is not only a ton of confusion in our messaging, but it also weakens the journey we’re providing through our offers.
When we know who we’re serving, it allows us to build an intentional pathway that flows through our entire ecosystem, laying each offer directly at the feet of our people.
Layer 3: Your Signature Framework
Now, I’m not saying everyone needs a framework - but having a signature framework goes a long way to elevating you from just another service provider into a memorable brand with proprietary brand language and concepts. Your framework is so much more than an acronym or a list of steps, it literally frames and encapsulates your entire body of work. You can use your framework to craft assessments for your programs, to define learner journeys, to structure your offer ecosystem, and so much more.
Layer 4: Your Offer Ecosystem
Your offers don’t exist in silos. All the different ways you support your people, from workshops, to 1:1 services, to programs, and everything in between should work together harmoniously. This isn’t just about making sure you tick the profitability boxes to have one of each - a low, mid, and high ticket offer - this is about crafting an intentional pathway through your offer ecosystem so that your people know exactly where to go next, and are excited to carry on their momentum (then the profitability tends to follow).
Layer 5: Your Program Macrostructure
Now that we have the vision guiding and grounding us, a clear idea of who we’re serving, a framework to orient and encapsulate your work, and we know how your program fits into your offer ecosystem - it’s so much easier to start mapping out a transformational, actionable program.
This starts by defining the macrostructure of your program - where are your people starting and where will they be by the end of the program? What are the modules and program components they need to get these results?
Layer 6: Your Program Details
Last, but not least, we map out the details of your program. What are your talking points? How are you teaching people - video, audio, text, something different? What platform do you want to use?
This is the layer that people try to jump to which ends up at procrastination station because you’re missing the structure that the first 5 layers provide (not to mention trying to choose a course platform before you even know what your course looks like).
Now you may be thinking, ok Emily this seems like a lot of layers, and I totally get it - great things take time.
Your brilliance can’t be encapsulated in a simple, linear, whip it up in a few hours curriculum.
What you have to offer, the way you serve your people - that’s a work of art.
Just because your work is complex, doesn’t mean we can’t find simplicity in the process. Here’s to honouring the layers and uncovering the magic in your work.
