Do THIS before you record your next lesson

Ever been lost?

Like literally lost?

About 20 years ago I was.

As I started driving out of the Newark, New Jersey airport I realized that I immediately made a wrong turn.

But it was late. It was dark. And I had no map.

In the time before GPS maps on our phones you had to take the time to chart your routes ahead of time.

And guess what I forgot to do?

So here I was driving in a minivan down the street of a broken down inner-city neighborhood.

All from one wrong turn.

And this is what I see happen in people’s courses a lot.

You can’t just start building - there’s an essential set of first steps.

You have to chart your route.

This is the Design Pillar to course creation.

The work done inside the Design Pillar is how you map out:

• value of your course
• the content of your course
• (most important) the end goal of your course

Here’s a few things worth thinking about as you design:

• Transformation: Learn to vividly describe your student's life after your course. In this phase, you you learn to show your student how their life is far better after taking your course.
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• Offer: What does your offer look like? What are the elements? How can you maximize the average order value (AOV) and lifetime value (LTV) of your customer? (Want to know what most people skip? Look for ways to inject surprise and delight into your process 🎉)
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• Funnels: Take the time to design (or refine) funnels to help people move through your offers. When done right - your funnels should take people from cold to warm, and warm to rushing to buy your course.
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• Painkillers: People buy when you relieve the most pain. Work to design your course that is a customer's "must-have" rather than a "nice-to-have".
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• Systems and frameworks: Dive in make your methods memorable and repeatable. Find ways to take everyday information and turn it into your own unique mechanism. This step differentiates you in the market and to brings life to a brand-building course.
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• First impressions: Make people love you. Learn to intentionally build a first impression that links a great experience with your brand. When you nail the first impression and deliver a quick win - everything else gets easier from there.

These are the principles you wan to think about BEFORE you write your script - before press record.

The milestone at the end of this pillar?

You have a comprehensive course outline and a preliminary marketing plan.

Once you have a solid design, then you can start on the part everyone wants to get to - building your course.

Remember - be intentional.