Want to create an online course?

Here's a quick thread on how I created a course that would ultimately be acquired by @beondeck

-A thread-

I had 2 built-in advantages

1. Teaching a course requires public speaking and lucky for me, I was very comfortable doing this since I was teaching public speaking and am a trial lawyer.

2. I had been teaching at SMU Law School for 3 years.

If you're creating a course find a way to play to your strengths.

I did a lot more office hours, live sessions, and demonstrations because that's what I'm comfortable and good at.

Each creator has strengths. Use them.

Having a background in teaching helped.

You can achieve this in a few different ways if you don't have this background.

Take a few courses to learn and try to become a mentor or some advisory role.

Or you can work with someone who does this professionally like @Bazzaruto

Now how did I go about creating this thing?

The first step is to find your customers and do some market research.

That means to go into other online courses and communities.

Talk to people on Twitter, LinkedIn, or wherever your people hang out.

I thought people needed one thing.

I found out that they needed a lot of things.

I took the curriculum I already had from teaching at SMU, pieces of training I had run for businesses, and private coaching I do and translated it into an online course.

I translated my materials into an online course world by studying online courses.

Jack Butcher, David Perell, and Tiago Forte were all great examples.

I looked at the syllabus, the structure, and what I considered the best practices.

I had a 20-page outline in a week.

Then I reached out to people I trusted and respected. Other creators or people that would be interested in my course.

Around 5-10 people reviewed that early outline.

Speakers, online coaches, community builders, doctors, speechwriters, and more took a look for me.

One of the best ideas came from a few of them.

Create a capstone project.

So I made changes.

I saw some of my blindspots because it's hard to remember that other people don't know what I know.

I reorganized some of the outline, added ideas, and removed others.

This became my guiding document.

25 pages that had every session mapped out.

The main theme, sub-themes, specific points, and of course pop culture references to use.

Then I ran through the entire course in a big picture way with new people I trusted.

Did this make sense?

Once I heard yes, I knew I could let it fly.

Now there's much more on the operations side, the marketing side, and actually running the course when it's happening...

But without a clear vision, feedback from others, and great content the course will not reach its full potential.

Again, I had a few built-in advantages.

But I also had weaknesses.

So play to your strengths,

Turn your vision, expertise, and real-world results into something that will transform the lives of your students.

Most days it's filled with pure excitement and an overwhelming sense that you're getting nowhere.

Ask for help.

And remember, that you can help a lot of people.