20: BS Breakthrough: The decision your buyers can’t make is probably your first course
Course Creation Crap: Learning Design for Business with Dr. Catrina MitchumShow Notes
You have a course idea and one decision is standing between you and building it. You go back and forth, and then you do nothing. In this BS Breakthrough, Dr. Catrina Mitchum pulls three lessons from her Episode 19 conversation with bookkeeper Preshus Phifer, who was stuck choosing between QuickBooks, Xero, and a spreadsheet before she could start her course. The answer was not to pick one. The answer was to notice that her buyers couldn't pick either, and that the picking was the real problem to solve.
What We Get Into
Why your research can only hand back the options you put into it. Preshus asked her people whether they wanted QuickBooks or a spreadsheet, and the real answer, "I don't know what to look for," only showed up in an open text box. Dr. Catrina walks through how to rewrite a closed-ended question so that answer has somewhere to land.
Why the decision your buyers can't make is the product. The thing her buyers couldn't do on their own turned out to be the most useful place to put her course-building energy, and it turned a giant software course into a short, concrete four-step email course.
The difference between a homework assignment and a course. Handing someone a document with the columns already in it is not the same as handing them a list, and that space to actually do the work is what makes it teaching.
Why the tool you know best isn't automatically the tool that fits your buyer. Especially when you move from one-on-one services to a course for people who can't afford you yet and are already running things scrappy, not crappy.
Your homework. Revisit the last research question you asked your people, then find the decision they keep getting stuck on before they can even hire you. That sticking point might be your first smaller offer.
The tool you reach for by default is the one that feels easy to you. Easy for you and right for them are two completely different things. If you're stuck on a focus area, this episode gives you a way to stop deciding on your buyers' behalf and start building the thing that helps them decide for themselves.
If your course exists but something feels off, nobody's finishing or it just isn't landing the way you know it could, grab the free Course Fixer Checklist at www.cmlearningdesign.com/free-stuff and start figuring out what to fix first.
Not sure where you fit? Book a free 15-minute Clarity Call at tidycal.com/cmitchum/15-minute-consult.
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Music credit: Alex Mitchum
Alex, Catrina's youngest brother, was a jazz guitarist and his family established a scholarship in his name at his alma mater. Please consider donating: https://www.alexmitchum.com/scholarship
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