Welcome to Step 1: Making the Key Decisions 🎉
This is where everything starts. Work through the six decisions in order, one tab at a time. Fill in the boxes, lock each decision, and watch the progress bar climb. By the end you'll have all 6 foundational decisions made and a complete reference document to build from.
Your Decision Checklist
- ✔ Decision 1: Who is your perfect person?
- ✔ Decision 2: What is your profitable problem?
- ✔ Decision 3: What software/platform will you use?
- ✔ Decision 4: What type of course will you create?
- ✔ Decision 5: What is the price?
- ✔ Decision 6: What is the name of your course?
How saving works (read this once!)
Your playbook auto-saves in this browser, on this device. Two rules so you never lose work: (1) come back in the same browser on the same computer, and (2) click SAVE in the bottom bar often. That downloads a file you can reopen anytime, on any device, with Load File. Always SAVE before you touch Clear All. Working with the AI Strategist coach? It can hand you a pre-filled file to load here too.
Decision 1: Who Is Your Perfect Person?
Your ideal person determines your marketing, your emails, your content, your course title, your price. When you speak to one person, that person feels it. They think "she gets me," and they buy. This will evolve over time. You're not tattooing it on your body. Decide and move.
What surprised you in your market research?
What was validated in your market research?
Competitor Analysis
| Name | Product | Price |
|---|
What kinds of problems are your competitors solving?
How are they solving those problems?
What would you provide? What would you do differently?
What do they need to know before they find you?
What are the next steps they are looking for?
What is your ideal student's struggle? What keeps them up at night?
Their obvious / tangible problem
Their hidden / intangible problem
What have they already tried to solve their problem?
The tangible AND intangible result your course gives them
Decision 2: What Is Your Profitable Problem?
People don't buy courses. They buy solutions to problems. The more specific you get about the problem you solve, the more profitable you become. Vague problems get vague results.
What kept coming up in your research? How do people describe the problem?
What is your ideal student typing into Google?
How do you solve the problem?
What is the specific result they are looking for?
Build Your Profitable Promise Statement
Decision 3: What Software / Platform Will You Use?
Hear this clearly: the software does not make your course effective. Your content does. Don't lose weeks to this decision. And once you choose: stick with one platform for at least one full year with enrolled students before you even think about switching.
Course platform
Recording setup
Design tool
Payment processing
Decision 4: What Type of Course Will You Create?
The right course type isn't about what sounds coolest. It's about what your students actually need to get the result you promised.
What level of knowledge does your audience already have? How comprehensive must the solution be?
How much content do you already have? How willing are you to expand it?
What kind of pricing and value do you want to offer?
Your decision
Decision 5: What Is the Price?
You have 3 days maximum on this decision. Not 3 weeks. Pricing is one of the biggest indecision traps for course creators. Work the four factors, run the calculator, land on a number, and move.
Factor 1: What kind of transformation are you providing?
Factor 2: How much support are you offering?
Factor 3: How much time will your course save them?
Factor 4: What is your competition charging?
Pricing Baseline Calculator
Your Price + Payment Plans
Decision 6: What Is the Name of Your Course?
Your course name has one job: make your ideal student immediately understand what they're going to get. Test: say it 10 times out loud. If you're tired of it by the third time, it's not the one.