How good is good enough?

As I’ve shared recently, I’m in course building mode at the moment.

And as I start to get into the content creation phase, the following question rears its ugly head:

How good is good enough?

After all, if you want to be taken seriously your content needs to look pretty slick, right?

Well, maybe. Except a couple of recent experiences seem to contradict that assumption.

For instance, Sam Ovens, the well-known entrepreneur and founder of Consulting.com, recently launched a new platform called Skool. It’s described as Classroom + Community + Calendar.

What I found really interesting were the videos Sam created to introduce people to the platform. They were so basic in terms of their production.

The first video was a just a screen capture of Sam talking through a few bullet points in an on-screen Google Doc. Then he switched to walking us through the platform itself.

But it worked just fine. In fact, the sheer down-to-earthiness of it was rather refreshing.

Around the same time I also got a peek inside a high-end program from a newer entrepreneur who’s already well-respected and enjoying rapid success.

Inside his (fairly expensive) course, it was the same deal. Just a bunch of videos of him talking over a plain text Google Doc. And some of these videos were an hour or more in length.

Now I’m not saying that there’s anything magical about teaching via Google Docs, but there is something powerful about being very pragmatic with your content production, at least for version 1 of your course.

Because here’s the thing:

If your information is valuable enough, people don’t care how they consume it. If people trust you enough, they don’t need a slick presentation make them feel like you’re the real deal.

So if concerns about achieving the right production values are holding you back, you should be encouraged by these examples.

But if you worry that your ideas and methods aren’t good enough, no amount of slick presentation will fix that. (Instead, try testing them out with a small group of people, even if you do it for free.)

Personally, I still wrestle with the whole “good enough” conundrum. But I do know it’s not me who ultimately decides where the bar is set. It’s the people who enrol in my course.

So the only way to find out the answer is to get something launched.

See you soon,

Glen.