Joe OviedoThere’s a part of building a course I can happily spend hours on without learning whether anyone needs it. I open a document, outline the course, move a topic from module three to module two because it seems to belong there. When I close my laptop, it feels like progress. And it is: I know how I’d explain it. I still don’t know whether anyone would pay to sit down and work through it with me.
I like to keep those things separate. Otherwise, the work I’ve already done becomes a reason to keep going. If I’ve written the outline, why not record the first lesson? If I’ve recorded the first, why not do the rest? Meanwhile, the more uncomfortable question remains: what would have to be happening in someone’s life for them to set aside time and pay for this?
What could I help solve in one session?
Imagine I want to make a course for people planning their first paid workshop. I can picture the topics: choosing a subject, setting a price, inviting people, deciding what to do if it doesn’t fill. It all makes sense in an outline. But I don’t know which of those things is stopping someone who’s been talking about the workshop for two months and still hasn’t set a date.
Instead of selling the whole course, I’d try something specific: “If you already have a workshop idea, bring a draft of your invitation. In an hour, we’ll look at who it’s for, what someone will get from attending, and what you need to clarify before you share it.”
I’d charge for it as a working session, not as a call to see if I can sell something afterward. If someone pays, my job is to help them leave with an invitation they can use or a clear decision about what’s left to resolve before sending it. I wouldn’t charge them to help research my next course. The session has to be worth it on its own, even if the course never exists.
There’s something to learn before anyone books, too. Suppose one person asks whether they can come without a draft. Someone else has written the invitation but wants to know whether we’ll discuss pricing. If I say “sure, we cover everything” to both, I might get more bookings, but I’ll walk into two very different sessions with the same promise. One person still needs to decide what workshop to run; the other has decided and isn’t sure what to charge. Which can I really help in an hour? That decision matters more than another item on the outline.
What happens when someone brings a draft
Say someone books and brings a nearly finished invitation. I expected to spend most of the hour helping them explain the workshop. But the invitation makes sense. There’s a date, the activity is clear, and they even have a list of people it might help. They just haven’t sent it to anyone.
I could spend the rest of the hour polishing the copy. They’d leave with a better version that still sits in their drafts. I’d rather ask whom they’d send it to first and what worries them about doing it. Maybe they can think of five people to invite but don’t want to announce anything publicly before knowing if there’s interest. In that case, five personal invitations ready to send might be more useful than a revised sales page.
That doesn’t prove everyone needs the same thing, or that I should make a course on sending invitations. It shows me something I hadn’t put in the outline. I might be preparing material on how to explain a workshop when part of the job is helping someone share it for the first time and decide what to do with the replies.
The less encouraging case interests me too. If nobody books, I wouldn’t conclude nobody cares. I’d look at whom I asked, what they understood we’d do, and when I asked them. Someone who wants to run a workshop someday may like the idea but have nothing to review this week. Their “not now” doesn’t tell me much about the session if they weren’t in a position to use it.
Not everything people buy needs to become a course
After a few sessions, I’d look at what I could help solve and what depended on being there to listen. If I keep explaining the same thing before someone can move forward, maybe that explanation belongs in material they can review on their own. If the useful part was reading their invitation and helping them decide what to do with it, maybe I don’t have a course yet. I have a good working session, and I can keep offering it.
I might also find that the hardest moment comes later. They sent the invitation, a few people said yes, others didn’t reply, and now they have to decide whether to run the workshop with four people or move the date. That gives me a concrete reason to consider a second meeting. It’s different from putting six sessions on a page because six sounds like a program.
I still like making outlines. What’s changed is when I sit down to do it. Before I decide what goes in module two, I’d rather charge for part of the work, do it well, and see what problem someone brought and what was still unresolved when they left. If a course comes out of that, I want it to grow from something I’ve helped someone solve, not everything I’m capable of explaining.
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