Flawed assumptions around course creation

Right at the start of the pandemic I ran a weekly Zoom class to help people (including me) get better at presenting on video.

I called it “Trust Me to Open My Mouth” (a nod to the title of one of my favourite songs by Squeeze).

Originally, I’d planned some in-person sessions to help local people improve their public speaking, but COVID stopped that.

So, I pivoted to Zoom and a small group of us worked to “get comfy on camera”.

Interestingly, the same feedback kept coming up for each of our mini-talks: “It was good, but it wasn’t quite… you.”

You see, we were all trying to present ourselves in a certain way. Trying to be “professional” instead of just being ourselves.

It actually took a few sessions to relax and become more natural on camera.

But thinking you need to be a certain way on camera is just one of the false assumptions that throws course creators off.

Here are some other examples:

• Thinking you have to know everything about your course topic to be taken seriously. In reality, you just need to know enough to help people make progress.
• Thinking your course has to tackle your audience’s biggest problem or goal. Actually, you can tackle a smaller challenge as long as it gets them closer to the “prize”.
• Thinking you need to launch your course on a slick platform like Kajabi or Thinkific. In fact, you can launch a beta version on something much more basic.

It’s easy to feel blocked. But sometimes your blockages are based on flawed assumptions. What about yours?

See you soon,

Glen