Why your curriculum's like a fancy restaurant menu

Near the start of my career I worked in Bologna, Italy, at a client site, for a whole month.

The days were long and the work was dull but there was a serious upside…

The cuisine.

I’d travelled out with a colleague and who’d lived in Italy for several years and spoke fluent Italian. He was also a “foodie” and so he quickly narrowed in on the best restaurants. 😋

When we ate out, he’d translate all the dishes for me, and we had some phenomenal meals — all courtesy of the company credit card. (I gained more than 10 lbs while I was there!)

But when he returned to the UK a few days ahead of me, I’m embarrassed to say I stuck to the dishes I already knew to avoid any unpleasant surprises.

Normally though, the menu is a big deciding factor when choosing somewhere to eat, right? If you don’t like the look of the menu, you’re unlikely to sit down in the restaurant.

And restaurant owners know it. These days, the menus at fancy eateries are almost like works of poetry. (I’m sure that “food copywriter” is now an actual job.)

So here’s something to consider…

Your course curriculum is like the restaurant menu for your course. If it doesn’t look tantalising, people won’t want to come inside.

In fact, many course platforms automatically include your curriculum on the sales page, so people will expect to see it.

Knowing this, don’t give your lessons boring, functional titles. Make them snappy, eye-catching and curiosity provoking. Treat them like mini headlines that inspire people to find out more.

Also, don’t settle on the first idea you have. Brainstorm 5 or 10 alternatives then review them a day or two later and see which stands out the most.

I can honestly say that “pep up your lesson titles” is one of the most common pieces of feedback I give my mentoring clients.

But if you give your titles a little more love, you can make sure your course isn’t like a restaurant where people glance at the menu in the window and then say: “No - let’s keep looking.”

See you soon,

Glen