Course Creators Weekly #64
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September 13th, 2021
- Dickie Bush on Feedback Loops
Jay Clouse talks with Dickie Bush about writing online, Wes Kao presents the Course Mechanics Canvas, and Andrew Barry talks with Khe Hy about market validation.
Dickie Bush on Feedback Loops
Jay Clouse talks with Dickie Bush about writing online, optimising for feedback loops, and Dickie's experience with building Ship 30 for 30.
On writing:
Write to distill your ideas, to clarify your thinking and understanding
Create your own luck by consistently putting yourself and your ideas out in the world
Publish consistently over a long period of time, like a year, and it will change your life
Recognise and appreciate the power of the Internet to help you spread your ideas
Optimise for faster feedback loops to refine your ideas—Twitter is great for this
Create systems to help you speed up the process of writing—try writing in batches
On building a course:
Stop looking for the perfect starting point—there'll be lots of surprises once you start
Think about how you might leverage the power of community to drive accountability
Measure engagement in your community and try to re-engage those who fade away
Start by teaching somebody who's on the same journey as you, just one step behind
Find a partner who can help you take your course to the next, more advanced levels
Get comfortable with doing enough—there's an infinite number of things you could do
Listen to the episode for more insights! 
Picks from past editions
Course Mechanics Canvas: 12 Levers to Achieve Course-Market Fit
Courses are complex systems with interdependent parts (levers) influencing one another.
In this article, Wes Kao presents her Course Mechanics Canvas, a framework and 12 levers you can pull on to design and deliver a cohort-based course that's uniquely yours, while following best practices from the most successful CBCs.
Here are the 12 levers:
Length
Number of students
Price
Intensity
Project-driven
Group interaction
Coach involvement
Instructor involvement
Production value
Pre-recorded content
Application process
Cohort frequency
Some levers are highly interdependent and "move" together:
Intensity, Project-driven, Group Interaction
Number of students, coach involvement, instructor involvement
Length and price
Some key takeaways:
Begin with the transformation—bigger transformation = more value/leverage needed
Binary outcomes promise bigger transformations + value than Spectrum outcomes do
The levers you pull depend on your existing assets + constraints + personal preferences
Start with the levers you care most about / trust your gut—you can always revise later
Lean into your strengths, natural inclinations, and what's practical for you, not others
In the beginning, it's OK to mimic others—you'll develop your own style over time
The most transformational courses tend to be intensive, project-driven and interactive
Use coaches (aka mentors) to scale your cohorts while limiting your own involvement
The ideal length + price for a course depend on the students' perceived value of time
Whether or not you're creating a cohort-based course, it's absolutely worth checking out the article for more context, more tips, and plenty of examples/case studies that are relevant to any type of course.
The case studies are full of additional insights! 
Khe Hy on Market Validation and Teaching
"You never want to compete with someone who's having fun and genuinely cares." —Khe Hy
Validate your course idea through 1:1 or group coaching, if you're not doing it already
Get a first-hand look into people's daily challenges by coaching in small group settings
Sell something, however small it may be—it'll expose you to a whole new set of skills
When it comes to idea validation, a single actual sale > subscriber/follower count
