Why Experience-Based Courses Beat Research-Heavy Ones Every Time
Hi,
Before we get into this week’s article, I’d love if you could answer a few tiny questions for me. It will allow me to create content that will solve your problems.
Please take two minutes to answer my questions here:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/MMGRGWS
Thanks in advance for your advice.
Now on to this week’s article.
Rodney
Why Experience-Based Courses Beat Research-Heavy Ones Every Time
In 1707, two hundred sailors died when their ship crashed into an island.
The tragedy happened because sailors couldn't determine their east-west position at sea—known as the longitude problem. They knew the solution required an accurate timepiece, but existing clocks lost minutes per day and were even worse at sea—making them useless for navigation.
This disaster prompted Queen Anne of England to offer a £20,000 reward for a solution to the longitude problem—worth over $4 million today.
Isaac Newton declared that creating an accurate sea clock was impossible. But John Harrison, a carpenter with no formal education or scientific credentials, believed otherwise.
Harrison spent the next 30 years building four different versions of his sea clock. His fourth and final version? A pocket watch that lost only 5 seconds in 81 days at sea. He'd solved the "impossible" longitude problem through pure craftsmanship and persistence.
Here's what made the difference: Harrison didn't have Newton's reputation, but he had something just as valuable—hands-on experience building things that worked.
The same principle applies when you create a course. You don't need fame or credentials to build something valuable. You just need the lessons learned from your experience, packaged in a way that helps others solve the same problem you've already solved.
That's why I recommend creating an experience-based course.
What is an experience-based course?
An experience-based course is built on what you've learned from actually doing something and getting specific results. It's not about compiling every possible technique or researching what others have done—it's about teaching the exact steps that worked for you.
Why are experience-based courses so valuable?
They're automatically unique. No one else has your exact combination of experience, perspective, and results. When you teach from experience, you're not competing with Wikipedia or trying to be comprehensive. You're offering something only you can provide.
They guide customers by the hand with your unique wisdom. Your students don't want every possible solution—they want the solution that actually worked. They want to know what you did when you hit roadblock X, how you handled challenge Y, and which techniques you tried and abandoned.
You don't have to do research to find a framework—you do "me-search." Instead of hunting through books and studies to create your curriculum, you look inward. You outline lessons by answering simple questions: What concept am I teaching? Why is it important? How does someone use it? What are examples of when I or others used it successfully?
When you answer these questions, you get courses like Justin Welsh's LinkedIn Content OS, which shows his exact system for creating content that grew his massive following, and Ev Chapman's Effortless Creator Course which teaches her method for generating thousands of content ideas per year—a solution she developed after struggling with inconsistent publishing.
But what if I learned everything from someone else?
That's perfectly fine. Once you've put ideas into practice, you've likely made changes to fit your unique situation and added your own spin. Your implementation is what makes it yours.
Take my Atomic Course Blueprint. I learned techniques from Sean D'Souza and Guila Muir, but I adapted them based on my 10 years creating courses and my background as a public school teacher. The result? A system that's uniquely mine.
These aren't research projects. They're battle-tested systems that solved real problems.
Common objections
"But I need scientific support for my ideas."
One of my clients, a medical professional, wanted to find research to back up every technique in his course. He thought other clinicians would demand scientific proof.
I suggested he create the first version based purely on his clinical experience and see if anyone actually asked for studies.
Turns out, no one did. His students wanted to learn his unique approach, not read research papers. He saved months of unnecessary work.
"My experience feels too normal to be valuable."
This is the biggest misconception I see. People think their experience isn't enough, so they pile on research and techniques they've never actually used.
Here's the truth: if you can do something today that you couldn't do yesterday, and it was hard or time-consuming to figure out, someone else would love to learn from you. You're giving them the shortcut.
Your experience only feels normal because you've already done the hard work of learning. To someone still struggling with the problem you've solved, your "normal" experience is exactly what they need.
What goes into an experience-based course?
A promised outcome you've gained or helped others gain. This isn't theoretical—it's something you've actually achieved.
A framework—your set of steps to get there. Not every possible step, just the ones that moved the needle for you.
Specific how-to instruction to implement your framework. The practical details that only come from actually doing the work.
Remember, people want the minimum information required to solve their problem, not every possible technique. They want what worked for you.
The Harrison principle
Remember John Harrison? He created the first clock accurate enough to help sailors find their way at sea. You might wonder if he actually received the prize money he'd been promised.
Well, the queen had died and Parliament tried to weasel out of paying him. Harrison had to appeal to the king, who forced Parliament to honor their commitment.
But here's the key difference between Harrison's experience with Parliament and your experience with customers: when you do a good job teaching people to solve real problems, your customers will be more than happy to pay you. No political maneuvering required.
Your experience-based course doesn't need Newton's reputation or Parliament's approval. It just needs to work.
Want to create a course without the usual overwhelm? The Atomic Course Blueprint shows you how to package your experience into a tiny course with big value. Find out more here.
