Rewind to 2018 and when I first launched Content Clarity. As I already knew I was entering the coaching space, I knew courses were an essential part of my offer suite. So I launched with 3 courses.

Now, I did pretty well considering I had an audience of zero. I made $500 (respectable!) But over the space of the last 3 years I’ve learned so much about tweaking and perfecting these courses, to ensure I get the best results. I wish I knew these from the start:

Mistake 1 – Not knowing what your audience wants

The very minute you decide you’re going to make a course, you’re already away looking at Canva slide templates. But you need to stop and go through some of the groundwork first (you can’t build a house by putting the windows in first!)

Ask yourself; does your course idea solve a problem that your audience has?

Now you can’t answer that question unless you get to know your audience first.

This is something that I teach in Passion to Passive and it’s something I get all my students to go and do as their very first exercise.

Only when you know your audience inside and out, do you know exactly what they struggle with (that you can solve) and it’s the perfect first footing for a course idea.

Better yet, interview your audience and have them tell you exactly what they’d love you to solve for them.

Mistake 2 – Is your course idea valid?

So you’ve honed your course idea and feel confident it’s what your audience have a real need for. But nothing quite tests the water than validating your idea.

How do you validate your course idea?

• Poll on Stories
• Interview a select few people on Zoom

Once you’re satisfied there is a good level of demand for your course idea (and indeed you’re very much on the right track with what you want to include inside your course. I always recommend doing a presell AKA selling your course before you even make it.

It might sound a bit counter intuitive (and flipping scary!) But preselling your course is a sure fire way of validating that demand and seeing if indeed people will pay for your course, before you go to the time and effort of creating it!

Mistake 3 – Keeping quiet until launch day

So many people fear letting people into their idea, in case someone steals it. Or in case they change their mind, or it doesn’t work out (what will people think?!). But you can’t just rock up one day and sell something that you’re not even known for. You need to build up desire, grow an audience (if you don’t have one) and nurture people to overcome the objections they may have.

People love to see behind the scenes and feel part of something and be the first. It feels special to them… So let them in!

Mistake 4 – Over perfecting and over thinking

I’ll say it now… YOU DON’T HAVE TO STUDIO FILM your course! Seriously!

Some of the 4 figure courses that I’ve paid for that have essentially been a Google Doc… It didn’t get in their way of going on to make 5 and 6 figure launches.

What really matters, is the transformation your provide to people.

Look, I know it’s hard. You want it to be branded and look pretty, which is why I’ve made a 40 page mix and match course workbook Canva pack to help you create your course.

But I’ll tell you now, there will be changes to your course once you get feedback from the 1^st round. So I recommend saving the studio filming until you feel confident that it’s hitting all the marks!

Far easier to edit in an extra slide and voiceover, than to re-record a 30 min lesson to include an additional explanation.