“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 is wide open in almost every single niche we’ve worked in.
The experts who build courses that actually sell and get results aren’t the ones with the most original topic. They’re the ones with the clearest point of view, the most specific audience, and a method that’s distinctly theirs.
The “It’s Already Been Done” Fear
It makes sense why this feels like a dealbreaker. If someone is already teaching what you want to teach, it’s natural to assume the market is spoken for. Especially if that person has a bigger following, a more polished brand, or a few years’ head start.
But this logic treats the market like a fixed pie, as if there’s one slot for “leadership course” or “nutrition coaching program” and someone already claimed it.
That’s just not how buyers make decisions.
Think about how you choose things in your own life. When you’re looking for a financial advisor or a therapist, you’re not picking the only one available. You’re picking the one whose approach resonates, whose language makes sense to you, and who seems to understand your specific situation.
Your future students are doing the same thing. They’re not running a competitive analysis. Most of them will never even see the other courses on your topic. They’re going to find you through a referral, a blog post, a webinar, or a conversation, and they will decide based on whether what you’re offering feels like it was designed for someone like them.
The competition you’re worried about? Most of it is broad, generic, and trying to appeal to the widest possible audience. That is not your competition: it’s your opportunity.
What “Clarity” Actually Means (It’s Not Just Good Copy)
Clarity isn’t about having the best tagline or the most polished website, and it runs deeper than marketing.
It’s about three things:
Who You’re For
Not “anyone who wants to improve their leadership skills.” That’s a topic, not an audience. Clarity means knowing exactly who your course is designed to help. Mid-level managers navigating the first 90 days of their first leadership role. HR directors in mid-size accounting firms trying to reduce turnover in hybrid teams. Consultants who’ve been delivering the same keynote for three years and want it to reach more people.
When someone specific sees your course and thinks “that’s me,” you’ve already separated yourself from the generic options without having to compete on credentials or audience size.
Your Method
This is the one that makes the biggest difference and the one most experts underestimate. You already have a way of doing things. A sequence, a set of principles, a framework you walk clients through. You might not have named it yet, but it exists in how you work.
When that method is defined and visible, it gives potential students something concrete to evaluate. They’re no longer choosing between “leadership course A” and “leadership course B.” They’re choosing between your specific approach and someone else’s. That’s a completely different decision.
The Outcome
Not “you’ll learn about conflict resolution.” But “you’ll walk away with a repeatable process for handling difficult conversations without shutting people down or avoiding the issue.”
The difference is specificity. Outcomes described in terms of what someone will be able to do are always more compelling than outcomes described in terms of what they’ll learn. One is a transformation. The other is a curriculum.
These three things working together are what make someone choose you over the 47 other options. And none of them require you to have a totally original topic.
Here’s the bottom line: clarity beats originality, every time.
What Makes an Online Course Stand Out (Hint: It’s Not the Topic)
To see this in action, consider how the same broad topic becomes a completely different course depending on who it’s for and how it’s taught.
Take something like “time management.” One version is a general productivity course with tips on calendars, to-do lists, and morning routines. It could be for anyone.
Now imagine a course called something like “Time Architecture for Solo Consultants: How to Protect Your Deep Work While Running a Client-Based Business.” Same broad topic. Completely different course. You know exactly who it’s for, you can tell there’s a specific method behind it, and the outcome is concrete enough that the right person reads that and immediately feels the pull.
Or think about “public speaking.” A generic version covers body language, slide design, and how to calm your nerves. Now imagine a course called “Technical to Transformational: How Engineers Can Present Complex Ideas to Non-Technical Stakeholders Without Dumbing It Down.” Suddenly you know exactly who it’s for, what makes the method different, and what the person will be able to do afterward. Different audience, different energy, different result.
The topic didn’t change. The clarity did.
This is what separates courses that get lost in the noise from courses that people talk about and recommend. It’s not that the creator invented a new subject. It’s that they got specific enough about who they help, how they help them, and what changes as a result that the course stopped being one of many and started being the obvious choice for someone.
Bonus: courses that are this specific can also typically command higher prices than broad, generic alternatives.
How to Differentiate Your Online Course by Finding Your Angle
The good news is you don’t have to invent your angle from scratch. It already exists in how you work. You just haven’t pulled it out and named it yet.
Here are a few questions that can help you start to see it:
What do clients come to you for specifically? Not the broad category of work you do, but the specific thing that keeps showing up. Maybe every client you work with is stuck at the same point. Maybe you’re the person people call when they’ve already tried the obvious solution and it didn’t work. That pattern is telling you something.
Where do you disagree with the standard advice in your field? Every experienced practitioner has at least one thing they see taught or recommended constantly that they think is wrong, incomplete, or overrated. That disagreement is often the seed of a distinct point of view, and a distinct point of view is what makes a course worth paying attention to.
What’s the thing you say that makes people stop and think? You know the moment. You’re explaining something to a client or colleague, and they pause and say “I’ve never thought about it that way.” Whatever you said in that moment is probably closer to your real method than what is on your LinkedIn profile.
For example, maybe every sales trainer talks about “building rapport” but you’ve found that rapport-building is often a stalling tactic. What actually moves deals forward is asking uncomfortable questions earlier. That’s a point of view worth building a course around.
You don’t need to have all of this figured out before you start building. But even spending twenty minutes with these questions this week can start to reveal what makes your approach yours, and why that matters more than whether someone else is already teaching the same topic.
Building the Course Only You Can Build
You don’t need a topic no one has ever thought of. You need a clear point of view, a specific audience, and a method that’s yours. That combination is what makes a course sell, what makes it worth building, and what makes it impossible to replicate, even if a hundred other people are teaching the same broad subject.
The experts who succeed with online courses aren’t the ones who got there first. They’re the ones who got clear.
If you’re sitting on expertise and experience but haven’t built your course yet because you’re not sure what would make yours different, that’s exactly the kind of thing we help with. Our team works with coaches, consultants, and subject matter experts to pull out what makes their approach distinct and build a transformational course around it.
Click here to share more about your course idea, and our team will reach out with next steps.