Introduction
Are you tired of comparing your work to the big-name courses and wondering if your course is good enough?
Let’s bust some myths! Today, we’re diving into three common misconceptions that can limit your course’s success. Discover why longer isn’t always better, flashy isn’t fundamental, and bonuses aren’t always necessary.
I’ll uncover the truth behind these myths and provide practical tips to help you create a high-quality, profitable course that your students will love.
I’ll also be tackling the problem that pops up when you try to ignore these myths in today’s Sixty-Second Solution.
Fact or Fiction?
Creating a course is filled with a lot of questions, doubts, and worries, but we don’t have to be ruled by them or the myths that seem to float around as though they are the full truth. Let’s bust 3 myths today that might be plaguing you on your digital course creation journey.
Myth 1: Longer is Better
As you build your course you likely will have ideas that come up at every turn. You want to include this piece of information or that diagram to make the course richer and more robust. But is that really better? There is a myth that we tell ourselves that the longer and the deeper our course is, the better it will be.
While quality content is always necessary, longer courses bring up their own unique set of challenges. So unless your students need the information to be successful, don’t include it.
This feels like a harsh statement, but think about a cooking class that is teaching you to dice onions and peppers for a stir-fry dish. We don’t need to know the history of how peppers were propagated or all of the different types of onions that exist. While that is some fun history, it doesn’t impact how we chop those foods. Instead, you might include a quick lesson on choosing an appropriate knife, how to keep it sharp, choosing an appropriate cutting surface, and then chopping techniques. These all are relevant to the course objective of learning how to chop peppers and onions.
And as you are listening to that example, you might be thinking, well of course. But I’m going to challenge you to be aware the next time you sit down to write a workshop, a course, or some other piece of learning material to notice how often you go back and add in another piece of information, an extra module, or a “bonus” approach. When we do this too often, the course can become bloated and make it hard for students to know what the most important components are and where to focus their limited time and attention. And when this happens, students are far less likely to complete the course and successfully implement what they’ve learned.
More and longer is not necessarily better. And in fact, when you keep adding things to make the course longer and more robust you are adding time to market as well and that will most definitely impact your bottom line as an entrepreneur!
Myth 2: Flashy is Fundamental
So myth 1 was longer is better and we’ve debunked that myth from a student and business standpoint. Let’s move on to Myth 2 as we are exposing 3 myths in course creation that limit your success. Myth 2 is that flashy is fundamental these days.
Whenever I work with a course creator they are coming to me with courses like Sell from Stage Academy, Digital Course Academy, Business by Design, and Product Launch Formula in their mind as the gold standard for digital courses. These courses are all well-done, have great information, and even better videography and editing.
But research principles tell us that we have to get a good sample of courses from different levels and topics to better understand what is reality and what is next level. If you fall into a comparison trap, be sure to stick around to the end of the episode because I’m going to give you 2 ways to get out of that trap FAST!
But let’s get back to our myth, and it is a myth. Flashy is not fundamental. It is fundamentally part of highly polished courses that are making multi-millions a year, but those courses are fundamentally different from what you and I are creating at this exact moment.
When you think about a digital course, we can keep it quite simple. I’ve recorded entire courses with just me on the camera talking through the key concepts and provided a workbook to implement what is being taught. I’ve created courses where you can only see slides and hear me talking you through those slides and the content that will be important. And I’ve done combinations of these.
None of these courses required a fancy studio setup, extra special equipment, or hours of editing. In fact, I’ve been known to publish a course without a single edit because I’ve planned out carefully what I want to say and the examples that I want to share.
Are the fun, flashy, fancy course videos cool to see, engaging to watch, and awe-inspiring? Sure they are! There is a team, a big budget, and TIME behind these courses. When you are working on your course, you may have a Virtual Assistant, or not. You might have a video editor you found on Fiverr, or you might be editing everything yourself. You might have a generous budget of money and time, or you might be flying by the seat of your pants.
Flashy is not required. The close-ups, the highly branded slides that coordinate with your outfit, the multiple angles of video are all neat, but honestly, they are adding time to you being able to get to market.
Be sure that as you are building your course that you are authentic, you show up for your course students with the content that you are sharing, and that you get the course done and up for sale.
Done will always be better than flashy. Flashy can come later, but only if it fits your style and brand.
Myth 3: Bonuses are Required
With 2 myths already busted, we are ready to move onto our third and final myth of the day. The third myth is that bonuses are required to be successful as a course creator.
Can you imagine going to college and professors chasing after you to register for their special class and if you did you would get a bonus, maybe they would deliver a home-cooked meal for you and 3 friends? I almost can’t say that without laughing. It sounds so ridiculous.
We took those special classes because we were interested in them. THey were our electives and we looked forward to them. We didn’t need someone to bribe us for us to hit register.
And if you are a little skeptical of the similarities between college registration and someone choosing to purchase your course, let me give you another example. We’ve just started baking sourdough bread in our home and this is new to all of us. I love to bake, but sourdough is a whole other world for me. So I’ve been spending a ton of time on the King Arthur website learning, reading articles, and studying recipes. We bought their new Bread book that came out in the Fall of 2024. And on their website they have courses for sale. Some are inexpensive and some are several hundred dollars. What is interesting is that none of them have bonuses.
The courses on the King Arthur website are designed to sell themselves, without needing to bribe someone into buying them. That is exactly what we want for our digital courses. We want people to see the power of what we are offering and purchase it.
Bonuses are something that can act as an enticement for purchasing the course, but honestly, if you are spot on with your messaging, you have a course that your potential students want, and you have done a good job building an audience then bonuses are just that, a bonus. They aren’t necessary to get someone to purchase your course.
On the other hand, if you aren’t prepared to have great messaging, a rock solid course that is wanted by your potential students, and an audience that has gotten to know you and trust you, then perhaps bonuses are required.
So while I’m willing to say that Bonuses are required for success with your digital course is a myth, I do recognize that in our culture right now, all of the super successful course creators are touting their bonuses and that makes everyone think that they need bonuses.
If you don’t want the pressure of building bonuses on top of a really fantastic course, start looking for examples of courses that don’t have bonuses. What draws you to them, what makes you hit purchase, what qualities does that course have that you’d like to emulate?
Bonuses aren’t required.
Action Item
With three myths busted, it is time to take action. I’ve already dropped some hints as to things you can do this week if you have been falling prey to these myths, but let’s tie it all together and create an actionable list of options.
First up, take a look at your course or your course outline to determine if you have been falling into the trap of longer, or more, is better. If you find superfluous information and you are still in course draft mode then go ahead and set it aside. If you have an existing course, mark it for possible removal or revision during your next course overhaul.
Second, if you are working on your first or next course and have been worrying about how you are going to create high polish, flashy videos for your course go ahead and release yourself from that expectation. And if you are struggling with this, I’m going to address what to do in our Sixty-Second Solution in just a moment.
Finally, examine your course messaging and marketing materials, explore what your potential students really need from your course, and then review the bonuses you have planned or are using to determine if they are necessary. Remember, you can always surprise your course students with extra materials once they get going.
Alright, how will you take action this week with your digital course? Remember that when you set time aside to learn and listen to business podcasts, the key is to take action on what you are hearing.
Sixty-Second Solution
As you start to take action with your course, you might notice yourself jumping into the comparison game. You are taking a course that a multi-million dollar business created and you suddenly doubt what you’ve created. You worry if your course is enough. If it has enough information, enough resources, enough fancy videography. And you get stuck.
I would love to say just stop comparing yourself, but I know that is easier said than done. If you’ve ever fallen into this trap and just telling yourself to stop comparing doesn’t work, here is the fast and easy way to get out of that comparison trap.
First up, many times we are comparing ourselves to someone who is much further along in their course creation journey. SO the first question you can ask yourself is, “Is this person at the same point in their business? Are they earning the same amount I am, have they been in business for the same length of time, do they have the same team that I do or don’t have?” If the answer is no, then release yourself from the comparison. They are at a different point and you cannot compare yourself.
Second, ask yourself if they are trying to accomplish the same thing that your course is trying to accomplish. If the answer is no, then you should not be comparing yourself to them. When courses are categorically different is like trying to compare apples and oranges. They are both fruits, but are just different. Just like you wouldn’t blame the apple for not being orange in color, you can’t knock down your course for not having a specific feature that may not even apply to your course.
Be on the lookout for those comparisons and be quick to ruthlessly cut them out of your thinking.
Where to Go Next?
You also want to be sure to ruthlessly ignore the myths and keep focused on finishing your digital course so that your students can learn and make changes in their life. That is ultimately what we want when we sit down to pour our hearts and souls into a digital course.
The myths can easily get in the way, but when you are aware of them and how to squash them with intentional action, they have less and less power over our business and our success.
Now, one of the myths that I talked about today is course bonuses and I recognize that this is a controversial topic. In fact, I even admitted that we could argue that course bonuses could be helpful since they are widely used. If you want to learn more about my take on course bonuses, check out Episode 207: Online Course Bonuses: Do they make a difference?
And if you are thinking about 2025 planning, what you want to offer and where a digital course fits, check out Episode 197: What makes sense? One-to-One Coaching vs. Group Program vs. Digital Course.
Finally, before we go for today, would you do me a favor? If you found this episode helpful, would you grab a screenshot and post it on your favorite social media platform and tag me at DigitalCourseCreatorGuide (Facebook or Instagram)? I’d love to give you a shoutout and those quick stories help build my audience and keep this podcast going.
Until next time, happy creating!
