Business Strategy

Red Flags: When You Should NOT Create an Online Course

Almost every piece of advice out there says the same thing: you’re an expert, so of course you should have an online course. Most of the time, that’s right. But there are a handful of moments where charging ahead is the wrong move, and they’re easy to miss when you’re close to your own work. So let’s talk about the red flags. Here’s the thing about all of them, though: a red flag is rarely a “never.” It’s usually a “not like this, not yet.” Each one is really telling you what to fix first. We’ll name the sign and the fix in the same breath, so you leave this knowing exactly what your next move is. Flag 1: You …

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AI Can Explain Almost Anything. So Why Would Anyone Buy Your Course?

Every week, someone asks us the question: “Is it still worth creating a course now that AI can explain almost anything in seconds?” It’s a fair concern. If someone can ask ChatGPT for the steps and get an okay answer in 30 seconds, why would they pay you? And honestly, for a certain type of course, they won’t. Here’s the truth: information has become a commodity. But judgment, insight, real experience, and relationships haven’t. People will still pay for expertise, they’ll just be much pickier about which expertise they pay for. In this post, we’ll break down what separates a course that competes with free AI from one that commands premium pricing, and how to make sure you’re building the …

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B2B or B2C? How to Choose for Your Online Course (Before You Build It)

You’ve got deep expertise in leadership, sales, HR, or another high-value professional skill. You know it could become a course. Maybe you’ve already started mapping out modules in your head. But at some point, a deceptively simple question stops you: Who am I actually building this for? Are you selling to individual professionals who want to invest in their own growth? Or are you selling to companies that want to train their teams? It’s easy to brush past this question and jump straight into content planning. Most people do. And it’s tempting to say “my course is for everyone.” We hear it all the time. But trying to serve both audiences at once usually means you serve neither well. But …

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Cohort vs. Self-Paced vs. Hybrid: How to Choose the Right Online Course Format for Your Business

You’ve decided to build an online course. You’ve started mapping out what you’ll teach. And then someone asks a question that stops you in your tracks: “Will it be live or self-paced?” Suddenly you’re reading fifteen articles, each one contradicting the last. Cohort courses are the future. No, self-paced is the only scalable model. Actually, hybrid is the best of both worlds. Most of the advice out there frames this as a business model decision. And it is, partly. But the question that should come first is one that rarely gets enough attention: which format will actually help your students get results? Because here’s what we’ve seen after over a decade of building courses with our clients: the “best” format …

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How to Price Your Online Course

You’ve built your course (or you’re about to), and now you’re staring at the pricing field in your learning portal with no idea what number to put in. You’ve probably heard the advice: “Charge what you’re worth.” Which sounds great, until you realize it doesn’t actually tell you anything. Or maybe you’ve looked at what other people charge and found everything from $27 to $5,000 for courses on similar topics. That doesn’t help either. The truth is, pricing an online course is one of the most complicated decisions you’ll make in your business. It sits at the intersection of your audience, your market, your delivery model, and the transformation you’re offering. Unfortunately, there’s no formula that spits out the right …

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You Don’t Need to Be the Only Expert. You Need to Be the Clearest One

“But there are already so many courses on this.” We hear this from almost every expert we work with, usually somewhere in the first conversation. They’ve got years of experience, a track record of results, and a genuine desire to help more people. But the moment they start thinking about building a course, they hit a wall: someone else is already doing it. And it feels like that should matter. Like the existence of other courses on the same topic means the opportunity has passed. It hasn’t. The truth is, most courses on any given topic are broad, generic, and trying to speak to everyone. They cover the subject without solving a specific problem for a specific person. That gap …

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The Tools You Actually Need to Run Your Online Course Business

If you’re like most course creators we work with, you’re paying for more software than you’re actually using. Every month there’s another subscription on your credit card, and at least a few of those tools haven’t been opened in weeks. It’s not just the cost. Every tool you add means another login, another learning curve, and another place where something can fall through the cracks. And when things get complicated, you end up spending more time managing your tools than doing the work that actually moves your business forward. You’re definitely not alone in this. It’s one of the most common patterns we see when we start working with a new client. After 12+ years of building and running our …

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Are You Ready for a Done-For-You Course Creation Team? 5 Signs You Are (and 3 Signs You’re Not)

Last month, a successful consultant with a six-figure practice told us he was “definitely ready” to hire a done-for-you course creation team. He had the budget, clear expertise, and ambitious goals for his course. Three weeks into the project, he went radio silent. When we finally connected, he admitted he’d been “too busy with client work” to participate in strategy calls or provide the input our team needed. His course sat unfinished for months. Here’s what we’ve learned after working with hundreds of entrepreneurs: the people who think they’re most ready are often the least prepared for what this partnership actually requires. Meanwhile, some of our most successful clients initially worried they weren’t ready enough. The difference isn’t what you …

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The Course Creator’s Guide to Content Protection: What You Actually Need to Know

You’ve poured your expertise into creating a transformational online course. The content is polished, the videos are professional, and you’re ready to launch. But have you thought about how to protect your online course content? Let’s start with some good news: Content theft isn’t as common as you might think. Most course creators, especially those just starting out, will never face serious issues. Your energy is usually better spent creating amazing content and serving your students than worrying about protection. That said, it’s smart to put some basic safeguards in place. Think of it like insurance for your intellectual property. In this post, we’ll walk you through six practical steps to protect your online course content without making access complicated …

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Beyond Teaching: How to Build Lasting Authority Through Your Online Course

Understanding Thought Leadership and Authority Creating an online course isn’t just about sharing information—it’s one of the most powerful ways to position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Yet many course creators miss this opportunity, focusing solely on content delivery while overlooking the authority-building potential of their course. Think about it: When you create a course, you’re not just teaching—you’re demonstrating deep expertise, systematic thinking, and the ability to transform complex ideas into actionable insights. That’s exactly what thought leadership is about. What Really Makes a Thought Leader? Forget the common misconception that thought leadership is about having the most followers or the loudest voice in the room. True thought leadership emerges from three key elements: Your online …

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Why People Don’t Buy Your Online Course (And What to Do About It)

Every course creator’s nightmare: you’ve built something amazing, but your potential clients aren’t buying. It’s not just about fear of rejection, it’s about understanding why people hesitate and knowing exactly how to address their concerns. The real challenge isn’t the “no”—it’s knowing what to say and do when someone isn’t quite ready to say “yes.” You can plan around this by anticipating what your clients need to know in order to say “yes” to what you are offering and “YES!” to the results they really want. Here are four reasons potential clients don’t buy, the questions they are asking, and how you can answer them to help your ideal client move to the next step for them. 1. They don’t …

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Are You Making These 5 Course Pricing Mistakes? Here’s How to Fix Them

Getting your online course pricing strategy right is one of the hardest parts of launching a course. Price too low and you undervalue your expertise. Price too high without the positioning to back it up and you hear crickets. We see course creators make the same pricing mistakes over and over again, and most of them are completely fixable. In this post, we will walk you through the five most common pricing mistakes we see course creators make – and more importantly, how to fix them. Whether you’re launching your first course or your fifth, these insights will help you price your course with confidence. Mistake #1: Pricing Your Online Course Too Low “I’m just starting out, so I should …

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create multiple offers from one online course

How to Create Multiple Offers from One Online Course (Without Creating More Content)

How can you create multiple offers from one piece of content? As course creators, we often fall into a dangerous pattern: constantly creating new content instead of maximizing what we already have. We call this the “content trap” – the belief that more content equals more value. But here’s the truth: sometimes the key to growth isn’t creating more, it’s leveraging what you already have. The “Content Trap” Warning Signs Before we dive into solutions, let’s identify if you’re in the content trap. You might be if: If you are working on or just launched your first online course and you can already see opportunities for your next course and your next, let’s chat! What happens when we move from …

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favorite books for online course creators

6 of Our Favorite Books for Course Creators

We’re big readers over here, so we’ve curated a list of six books we consider essential reading for online course creators and entrepreneurs. From mastering the art of selling to crafting irresistible content, they’re packed with insights to help you create courses that truly resonate with your audience. Let’s dive in! To Sell is Human, The Surprising Truth About Moving Others by Daniel Pink One idea from the book that you can apply immediately: Ask the 5 “Whys.” To sell, you need to solve a problem. When you want to figure out what kind of problem someone has, ask a “Why?” question. Then, in response to the answer, ask again. Repeat 5 times and you will get much closer to …

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How to Move Beyond One-on-One Work as a Coach or Consultant

Wondering how to move beyond one-on-one work as a coach or consultant? This question is the key to making the shift to really grow your business fast. The problem is there are so many different options for how you could do this. Here are just a few ways to move beyond one-on-one work as a coach or consultant: All you have to do is look in your inbox to get overwhelmed with all the different ideas for how you should expand your business. The key to avoiding overwhelm is this: instead of asking yourself what you should offer next, shift your question to “what do I want to get up and do every day?” That question is what you need …

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How to Outsource Course Creation: The Roles to Hire (and What to Pay Them)

If you’re building an online course, it’s easy to assume the whole thing lands on you: the content, the copy, the video, the design, all of it. Here’s the truth: it doesn’t have to. The course creators who scale without burning out are the ones who bring in the right people for the parts that fall outside their expertise. That’s what outsourcing course creation really means: handing off the pieces that aren’t yours to do, so you can focus on the work only you can do. That’s when the practical questions show up. Who do you actually hire to help build a course? How do you tell which curriculum developers have actually built online courses like yours? And what should …

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Why Long Term Planning Doesn’t Work for Small Businesses

Ahh, the start of a new year is right around the corner. There’s nothing better than a brand-new notebook and a clear calendar, full of possibilities. It’s a time when we usually sit down, take stock of everything we’ve accomplished over the past year, and begin plotting out what’s next. Before you get out the complicated spreadsheets and 100-page five-year plans, let’s take a look at a different way to plan. A lot of us tend to plan our business growth the way we’ve always heard planning “should” be done: First, I have to say: Starting your business plan by looking outside of yourself is a recipe for disaster. You can generate revenue that way, but you can also easily …

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Selling to Corporate: Connect What You Do to What Companies Buy

You might think that selling to corporate clients is a tough nut to crack. Not true, if you understand one critical rule: companies are all about the bottom line. If you want to get their attention, you need to speak their language. And what’s their language, you ask? Profit! If you can show small, medium, and large businesses how your online offers, coaching, or consulting can help increase sales or reduce costs, you’ll have them eating out of the palm of your hand. So let’s get to work and figure out how you can help corporations with your expertise. In this post, we’ll walk through 4 different ways you can connect what you do to what small, medium, and large …

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How to Play Big (Even When You’re Small)

If you’re just starting your business (or have been in business for a while as a ‘solopreneur’), it’s easy to think you’re at a disadvantage compared to bigger brands with large followings on social media, or the mega-mogul leaning against their newest red Ferrari celebrating the success of their recent launch. The truth is, you can play big — even when you are small. You have the freedom to be creative, to experiment, and to make your own rules. And, being a small business or solopreneur can actually be an advantage because you can focus on things that bigger brands aren’t able to. In this post, we’ll explore how you can use your size as an advantage to build stronger …

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How Do I Get Clear On My Point of Difference?

This is a really important question because when you are putting out your work, you have to be really clear with your audience about: What’s different about your approach?What’s different about your method?What’s different about the way you do what you do that gets results? The problem is that the better you are at something, the harder it is to see why. It is easier to notice what’s unique about how other people get results than it is to identify what is unique in yourself. The first step in defining a compelling point of difference is to notice what you do differently that produces different results. Once you notice what you do differently, you can share your unique approach as …

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