Do you ever feel like your big course idea is never going to make it out of your head? Two members of the Ruzuku team put on their participant hats and took the 30 Day Course Creation Challenge for a test drive. Here's what happened.
Meet the Challengers
Jessica
Blog Editor and Content Writer for Ruzuku, also a yoga teacher helping social entrepreneurs find work-life balance. Business stage: Starter. Course creation stage: Acceleration.
Lisa
Affiliate manager who stumbled into influencer marketing. Business stage: Starter. Course creation stage: Exploration—just wanting to play with the idea and see if she'd enjoy it.
Week 1: Getting Clear
The big goals were to get clear on who we're serving and identify one key result that participants will get from the course.
Jessica: Had a moment of panic thinking "why am I doing this to myself?" but was publicly committed. Struggled with coming up with a course title—got stuck on that lesson for the whole week.
Lisa: Loved that the homework was always really simple. The biggest challenge was finding time, but could sit down on Friday and go through the week's work in a couple of hours.
Week 2: Elevator Pitch & Outreach
Tasks included crafting an elevator pitch, deciding free or paid, and connecting with potential participants—before the content was even finished!
Jessica: Found 8 beta testers through personal outreach, email list, and Facebook. Was surprised by the resistance to asking for help. Email had 44% open rate but zero responses!
Lisa: Marketing is her job, so this was old hat. Nervous about how much actual course would get done.
Week 3: Content Creation
Time to outline the course and begin creating minimal content.
Jessica: Completely freaked out at the beginning of week 3. Spent the entire week doing more research instead of the lesson. Finally got the outline done at the end of the week.
Lisa: The outline was easier than anticipated. The Challenge was so simple it made her realize her course could be simple too.
"I've worked with clients who sell really in-depth courses, so when I think 'online course' I think of something complex. But the Challenge made me realize my course could be simple too."
Week 4: Finishing & Planning
Creating welcome and conclusion activities, planning the timeline.
Jessica: Once she quit freaking out and just wrote that first lesson, progress started again. Got stuck on one lesson for 2+ weeks, then finished the last 2 weeks of material in 2 evenings.
Lisa: Still hasn't planned a launch date. May never launch this particular course. But the process helped explore whether teaching is something she'd enjoy.
Key Lessons Learned
- The Challenge got ideas out of heads and into the world
- One small, achievable task at a time builds momentum
- Running into the same challenges our readers face is humbling
- It's okay if not every course idea leads to a launch
- The process of exploring is valuable even without a finished product