The error that makes your course take 10x longer to produce and the elegant solution
Hi again,
Due to the Labor Day holiday on Monday in the US, I had a short work week.
Before I had a side hustle, the extra day off was just a day off. But now, I need to fit five days work into four days. 😱
However, it's worth it as I get to spend more time with my wife and two daughters.
So what will we be talking about today?
I. Article - The error that makes your course take 10x longer to produce and the elegant solution
II. Two ways I can help you
Let's get started.
I. The error that makes your course take 10x longer to produce and the elegant solution
Why is Wikipedia the 7th most popular website in the world?
It is not because it is everyone's first choice to look for information. Google still has that distinction. (We "Google it" not "Wiki it".) It is because it's pages rank on the first page of Google for 56% of searches.
Clearly, it's value comes from covering a wide swatch of human knowledge.
When people create courses, they often try to be the Wiki of their field, covering as many topics as they can reasonably fit. Sometimes even including information they are not expert in, all in an attempt to deliver "value."
This is based on a mistaken notion of value that I call the encyclopedia error.
In today's article we will cover that error, the solution and a few examples.
We'll discuss:
Part 1 The encyclopedia error
Part 2 The personal principle
Part 3 Case studies
Part 1 The encyclopedia error
What is the encyclopedia error?
It's assuming that the value of your course is based on the amount of content you provide.
If 1 hour of video is valuable, surely making it as long as the Lord of the Rings trilogy (over 9 hours) would make it even better, right?
Why offer a PDF of 50 pages when we can create a behemoth as big as War and Peace's 1200 pages?
Instead of 9 focused lessons, let's give them 101 ideas to work through.
Are you seeing the problem?
Which choice made you feel overwhelmed and which made you feel relieved?
Your customers are no different. They want to get a result in the least amount of time and effort.
Tiago Forte, created a small book called The PARA Method. In it he has a short chapter that shows how to practice the essence of his digital organization technique in just 60 seconds. Then another section that shows you how to maintain the system in 5 minutes a week. These are the kinds of results that motivate clients.
Show me how to do a good enough job fast so I can get on with my life.
But you may wonder how to put this into practice when creating courses. There's a simple explanation and it's all about you.
Part 2 - The Personal Principle
What is the personal principle?
It involves teaching from personal experience and only promising results you've personally gained or personally helped others achieve.
Have you had some measure of success?
Have you helped others grow as well?
If so, your experience shows you have something to share.
In The PARA Method, Tiago's efficient lessons came from his experience coaching his clients. As he worked with them he distilled his practices to their essence and shared it in the book.
He could easily have doubled the size of the tome.
He might have given long comprehensive guides on how to use his digital organization system. And such long guides can be found all over the Internet. But the unique value of The PARA Method book is that he gave the tiniest practices that produce grand results.
THIS is what people crave. Your unique perspective shared in a way they can grasp and put to use quickly.
However, the personal principle can feel a bit limiting. That's because it is. But this is a feature not a bug.
When you deploy the personal principle, you narrow your attention to the value only you can provide.
Sure there are other people trying to be comprehensive like an encyclopedia and cover all the bases.
But your student wants to know how you do what you do. They want your unique style, flavor and experience. They don't want the objective, Wikipedia perspective.
They don't want to wade through hundreds of pages of text or hours of video to find one or two silver nuggets.
They want you to give them the stuff that is uniquely yours and leave behind the rest.
Otherwise, they don't need you. They need you because only you are you. They can't get you anywhere else.
Now that you know about the error of too much information and the solution, the personal principle, it's time to see it in action.
Part 3 - Deploying the personal principle
But how do you put the personal principle into practice?
You avoid objective questions such as "What's the best way to achieve X?" which lead almost all of us astray and instead ask two personal questions.
"How did I achieve X?"
"How can I help others do the same?"
When I created my SAT Essay course, I based it on the insights I gained helping my students raise their essay scores.
There were already dozens of books on the topic and I read through 18 of them. They mostly said the same things in different ways. But from teaching my students, I discovered a unique approach. I helped them develop tiny skills that improved their writing immediately. No months of practice required. None of the books included these tiny skills. They gave general, bland writing advice.
There was no reason for me to copy what they were doing. My personal experience of teaching was enough.
One of my client was a coach who wanted to teach everything she had learned in her coaching training to her students. Concept after concept, after concept. To help her focus, we identified changes she made in her life. Then focused the course on helping her students achieve just one of those changes -- learning how to toot your own horn.
Next we identified the minimum concepts to achieve it. Instead of a vast and overwhelming library of knowledge most people wouldn't get through, we created a doable four-week program. Relying only on the lessons from her experience of change we created a focused and unique program.
Summary
It's easy to make the encyclopedia error when we think value = quantity instead of value = results.
To avoid this error, use the personal principle which involves helping people achieve a result you've achieved or helped others achieve.
Don't aim to be the Wikipedia of your field, instead aim to be the one person offering compelling results in the shortest time frame possible.
II. Two ways I can help you
The Atomic Course Blueprint - Want to create a course without the usual overwhelm? Try creating a tiny course. Find out more here.
iPARA: How to organize your digital life for action- Is digital disorganization keeping you from reaching your goals? What if just four folders could let you not just stay organized but actually get things done. See for yourself here.
That’s it for this week. I’ll see you next week with another issue.
Still here?
I love that. One thing you can do for me is leave a comment or reply to this email and say “hi.” When I read your reply it makes my day.
Rodney, thank you for the clear examples...very helpful