Why selling before you create can be a recipe for disaster

The more clients I speak to, the more stories I hear about business coaches advising their clients to sell a course or program before they have created it. The idea behind the advice is that you can gauge whether there’s enough interest in the course so you know whether to invest the time into creating it. The other idea is that you’ll then have a concrete deadline to work towards; you’ll stop procrastinating and actually get it created. That is all very well and good for a short, sharp course or program that has little content to create. If the deadline that you’ve set yourself includes enough time for you to plan, structure, write, record, edit, compile and upload all the content, then SPLENDID! You should also be piloting and reviewing the content before you run with it too; but hey, it still depends on how tight that deadline you’ve set yourself is, right? The trouble is passionate professionals, with phenomenal content and the sort of experience that can bring that content to life, are taking this advice, running with it, and subsequently running themselves into the ground. Their intention is to create a course that can truly change lives, engage, inspire and motivate their clients to create real change. And why wouldn’t that work? They’re passionate, they’ve got phenomenal experience to share, and they’ve been through what their clients are going through so many times… so being able to help them should be a SHOO-IN, right? (Where did that expression come from, anyway? I just went and found out it’s from jockeys, if you believe it. Check it out here.) The reality, however, is often very different. What I see is these passionate professionals spat out at the other end broken; they’re exhausted, overwhelmed, disorganised, disheveled and generally feeling pretty rotten. This isn’t always the case; and of course, some are driven by the deadlines, set realistic deadlines, and come out smashing it. Recently though, I’ve heard many more stories about the ones who are coming out feeling less than fabulous. Why? Because it didn’t really go as planned. The expectations weren’t set up properly from the start and they ended up over promising and under delivering. The materials weren’t planned properly, things ended up all over the place and they KNOW what they delivered isn’t a patch on what they’re really capable of. They’re the type of professionals who WANT to over deliver, and actually give a flying funkadoodle about the results that their clients get, so because it wasn’t as good as it could have been, they’re feeling like a bit of a failure. (Probably quite unfounded, but you know what us passionate perfectionist professionals can be like!) They end up feeling like maybe they’re just not cut out for teaching, that possibly their reputation just took a nose dive, and quite frankly they’d much prefer to find a rather large hole and get comfortable at the bottom of it. My advice? 1. Sell the IDEA before you start creating the content. Float the idea, create an opt-in that summarises the end goals that your course or program will help your clients reach, then spend the coming months planning, structuring, writing, recording, editing, compiling and uploading all the content. Spend those months publishing awesome little tips and tricks that you’ve learnt along your journey, that you KNOW will help your tribe – spend that time building trust in you as a professional (with your problem solving magic!) who can help them solve that ‘I can’t work this out by myself’ problem that is driving them up the wall. 2. Take your time. Spend that time developing your content so that you can pilot it with a small section of your tribe, who KNOW you’re piloting and so AREN’T expecting all the bells and whistles. Float different ideas, materials and tasks with them and let them (the customer) tell YOU what they need and how it’s going to help them most effectively. 3. Make mistakes, and learn from them. Let your customers help guide the process of course creation because ultimately, they’re the ones who are going to buy that solution from you, and shout from the rooftops about how bloody fabulous you are. Selling before you create is the curriculum developer’s equivalent to fingernails down a chalkboard. Quality takes time to develop. If you really want to create real change and be renowned as an expert in your field, create a quality learning experience — not some trumped up, quick and nasty version of what you KNOW you’re capable of.