You’ve asked yourself what your next offer’s going to look like, right? Probably more than once, too. I get this question in almost every strategy session. In most cases, my clients want to build something that:
- Adds a new revenue stream
- Generates (semi-)passive income
- Is fairly easy to build and maintain
“Should I build a course?” is usually the underlying question. Courses are seen as the Holy Grail of founder-led businesses: a bit of work upfront and you profit for years.
If it’s not a course, it’s something else that essentially productizes knowledge and helps you sell at scale.
There’s absolutely nothing wrong with wanting that for your business. But, the recent decay of courses aside, the issue is the starting point — which is why I advise my clients not to start with the format but with the outcome.
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When we think of a new product/service to add to our stack, we often think of it in terms of business goals and revenue → how will this pad my bottom line?
That’s a great criterion, a definite must-have in any business. But it’s not where you should start.
This is where you should start:
What outcome does my audience need?
The road from idea to packaged and ready-to-sell product is longer than most people think. [This is a primer on building new products and how I approached this road for one of mine.]
The best place to start is, obviously, with identifying a need.
Let’s say your audience needs to publish more content without diluting quality. VERY IMPORTANT: they know that more is more; they are aware of this need. If they’re not aware of the need, your sales cycles will be longer and more unpredictable.
This is the premise I started on for my upcoming workshop. Still, a premise does not equal a product.
The JBTD (Jobs To Be Done) framework applied to new product-building
The JBTD framework has four components:
- Job: the job that the customer is trying to accomplish → publish more content across platforms
- Motivation: the underlying motivation or goal behind the job → a larger footprint means business growth
- Outcome: the desired outcome or result of the job → publish as much content as you need without spending dozens of hours on it every week.
- Constraints: the limitations or obstacles that the customer faces when trying to accomplish the job → lack of time, lack of experience with writing/editing fast enough, and second-guessing.
The examples above are not made-up; they’re based on real conversations with my clients, so I know I’m on solid ground.
My next task is to figure out the best way to get my clients there: how can I help them create and publish more content that eventually leads to business growth, without them burning out?
Now that I have the outcome, it’s finally time for the format.
Potential formats and how to choose between them
Whatever outcome your audience needs, the first format that comes to mind is services.
Services are the easiest, fastest way to add a new revenue stream
No matter the outcome, people will always pay more for someone to get it for them than for someone to teach them how to do it or do it alongside them.
It’s the classic DFY (Done For You)-DWY (Done With You)-DIY (Do It Yourself) dilemma.
There are two problems with this approach, though:
- It doesn’t scale — for you or the client. Your calendar has finite space, and client budgets eventually max out. In my case, my clients can hire me to write their content for them (DFY), but they may run out of budget eventually. So it makes more sense for them to learn how to do it themselves.
- Some people will always prefer the DIY/DWY road — and not just because of budget constraints. Acquiring a new skill is always valuable if there is enough bandwidth for it.
Beyond the DFY/service approach, there is still some ground to cover before you land on a final format:
- Know your customers: do they prefer the DIY or the DWY approach? → this will tell you whether you should build a course or a live workshop/cohort-based program. Or maybe templates are enough?
- How long do they need support for? Is it something they can learn in 60-180 mins, or do they need to practice along with you? → this will tell you how long you need to be “in it” with them.
- Do they need accountability? If so, from you or from one of their peers? → this will tell you whether you can go completely hands-off, build a cohort, or a community where people can meet peers.
A word of caution: go through these questions by keeping your client’s best interest in mind, NOT yours.
During the first pass, you want to make sure you do everything you can to support your clients getting to the promised outcome.
Later on, bring your own availability into play. For instance, you may land on your clients needing peer accountability, but you’re not willing/you don’t have the bandwidth to mediate for them in the long run.
In that case, you may land on a cohort-based program with a single session designed to help them find accountability buddies.
Nuance alert: remember, format choices significantly impact profitability. High-ticket DFY offers fewer sales but higher margins per sale, while lower-priced DIY relies heavily on high-volume sales.
Understand your audience’s price sensitivity and realistically evaluate your capacity and volume goals. Also, make sure you’re very realistic about the size of your audience — a 2,000-person audience won’t make you rich from course sales.
How I landed on the workshop format following the framework above
Once I knew that there was demand for boosting content velocity, I had a few format ideas in mind:
- A 6-week bootcamp where I teach people how to write → it’s not what my clients need. They don’t want to be the next Hemingway, they just want to write faster and more convincingly.
- Templates: I already offer some of those in my courses, and sometimes in this newsletter.
- AI prompts: nope, definite no. There will be some prompts in the workshop that you can use, but the prompts alone won’t get you the outcome. They’ll just get you churning out content that sounds good but doesn’t do anything for your business.
- Community: overkill for this specific outcome — too much ongoing management and commitment (from my clients) for too little additional benefit.
- Workshop, then re-package as a course: bingo! because it’s the best format to teach systems. You can watch me do it and you get access to all the materials. There’s no need for accountability in the long run.
A quick note on courses and educational products in general
Courses have been the way to “stop selling your time for cash” — or so the business gurus said.
Truth be told, outside the pandemic-induced drive to buy educational products, very few people got rich from courses. If they did:
- They were the first to package a certain topic this way
- They had a huge audience and enjoyed its trust
With AI commoditizing most educational businesses, I expect courses to only work in the two scenarios above, plus a third one:
- When you promise a single, clear outcome. Think: “how to file business taxes in Iowa” rather than “Business taxes 101”
In this case, why the heck am I building workshops and courses anymore, you’re asking?
Because like Inbox to Income, the upcoming workshop is designed to offer a single, clear outcome. More importantly, my audience has grown accustomed to me helping them with various problems in their business, as they move from challenge to challenge.
It works for me — as in, it drives enough revenue to make it worth my time, not as in, it’s a 7-figure business.
So, before you decide to create a course or productize your knowledge in another way, ask yourself this:
Will my client get the outcome they wanted IF I pass on responsibility to them?
Productized educational offers depend heavily on your client’s willingness and ability to implement on their own. Sometimes, that’s exactly right. Other times, it unfairly sets them (and you) up for frustration.
Always align your choice with what your audience genuinely needs — and can realistically implement.
