Course Creators Weekly #12 🗓 September 14th, 2020 - The Future of Online Business

In this episode of the Everything is Teachable podcast, Founder and CEO of Teachable, Ankur Nagpal, shares his views on what makes creators successful and his big-picture vision for the future of the knowledge economy.

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  Just get stuff published—that's possibly your biggest barrier
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  Build an audience first, and you'll be far more likely to succeed
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  Look for audience-topic fit—teaching a topic your audience wants
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  Think about your offer—the outcome you promise to deliver
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  Actually deliver the outcome you promise—it's your most important job
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  Avoid analysis paralysis by setting yourself deadlines
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  Find your angle and niche down on a topic
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  You can probably charge more than you think you can
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  Consider coaching—no need for content upfront + can become a course later
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  You don't have to be an expert—people want to learn from those they relate to
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  Don't pick a topic for its popularity—pick something you care about instead

To validate your course, you need to know what your audience wants/needs + is going through + is willing to pay for. Here are three ways you might do that:

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  Look at your bigger rivals, their offering(s), and their audience's problems
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  Survey your audience—keep it short/about them + allow for open-ended answers
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  Pre-sell your course—the best validation of them all

Feeling fear? Your feelings are important, but they're just that: feelings! When it comes to putting yourself out there…

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  The worst possible outcome that you conjure up isn't likely to happen
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  Instead, the most likely outcome is that NOTHING will happen, at all
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  Ask yourself what you stand to lose by giving in to your fears
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  Originality is overrated—you can help someone without being original
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  Still stuck by fear? Just listen to one person, empathize, and see if you can help