QUESTION 15
What Actually Makes an Online Course Worth Building?
Not the camera. Not the platform. Not the price. An online course is worth building when one person finishes it changed, and that is decided before you film a single lesson.
I am not going to hand you a checklist here. Checklists are everywhere, and that is exactly why so many courses sit unfinished or unwatched. What I can give you is what more than thirty-five years in front of a room taught me about teaching.
I Have Been Teaching Since 1990
In 1990 Allan Hagler hired me as Educational Director of Nexxus of NY, Paramount Beauty. He owned the company, and he believed in my genius before I had the track record to prove it. That is where I learned to teach: hair cutting and hair color, in front of working professionals who would tell you to your face if you wasted their morning.
From there I went on to teach personal development, and then marketing and business. I built a multi-million dollar business through teaching. Along the way I have helped thousands of people build their own online courses and presentations, from the front of the room and as clients.
I tell you that for one reason. Everything I am about to say, I learned by watching real students either get it or not get it, for decades.
A Course Is Not Information. It Is a Changed Person.
Most experts start a course by asking what they know. That is the wrong first question.
The right one is about the student. What is the ONE THING they take away? How do they feel when they are done? What gift have they received?
If you cannot answer those three, you do not have a course yet. You have a pile of content. People do not finish piles.
That is the entire purpose of the work: making sure every single person receives exactly what they came for.
Everything Matters When You Are Teaching
The filming matters. The storytelling matters. The outline matters. The language matters. Everything matters when you are teaching.
A student feels the difference between a teacher who planned the lesson for them and a teacher who is reading their own notes into a lens. They may not be able to name it. They feel it, and they stop watching.
This is why I hold every course to three words: simple, fun and memorable. If a lesson is not all three, it is not ready.
Your Course Is a Business, So Treat It Like One
Every business needs a plan, and an online course is exactly that, a business.
Here is the part worth getting excited about. Once a course is built and marketed properly, it can be delivered anywhere in the world, at any moment, to the right people. Digitally delivered teaching is the most scalable thing you will ever make.
But scale only multiplies what is already there. Scale a course that changes people and you have a legacy. Scale a pile of content and you have a bigger pile.
You Are the Student First
While you are building your course, you are in the role of the student. You are the one learning how to say it simply, how to order it, how to let go of the ten things you love that the student does not need.
That takes bravery. I applaud anyone who does it. The only way people know what they may face in the future is to ask those who are already there, and your course is how you answer them.
Questions People Ask
Do I need to be well known to teach an online course? No. I believe every entrepreneur, author and person of influence has a story to tell and valuable lessons to share. What you need is one result you can lead a student to, and the discipline to teach only that.
Is an online course worth the work? It is if you treat it as a business and build it around the student. It is not if you treat it as a recording of everything you know.
What matters most in an online course? The student's outcome. Filming, storytelling, outline and language all serve it. Decide the outcome first and every other choice gets easier.
I teach this live. If you want to see how a message, a room and a plan come together, take a seat at the next session.
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