142: 3 strategies to simplify your course creation process (without feeling overwhelmed!)

In this episode, I’m diving deep into the art of creating your course content without the overwhelm that stops so many entrepreneurs in their tracks.

I’m sharing why less really can be more when it comes to designing an online course and how simplifying what you teach can actually help your students get better results.

I’ll walk you through the exact strategies I use to save you time, energy and unnecessary stress. And yes… we’re definitely avoiding the dreaded “content dump” today! You’ll also hear how to keep your course focused on delivering the transformation your students truly want.

If you’re ready to build an engaging, effective course without burning yourself out then this episode is full of practical tips and gentle encouragement to make content creation feel lighter, clearer and so much more achievable. Let’s make course creation simple and even enjoyable!

Transcript

Karen [00:00:01]:
Hello, and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 142, and in today's episode, I'm going to be talking about the easiest way to create your course content without feeling overwhelmed, stuck, or confused. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Hello and welcome to another episode of Online Business Uncovered. 

This is the show that focuses on helping you turn your expertise into passive income and time freedom. I'm your host, Karen, and I really do appreciate you hitting that play button to listen to today's episode. 

Now, this episode is sponsored by the Digital Creators Hub, where I invite you into a free community that is designed to help you turn your expertise into digital products. The free community is there so that you can get access to free tools, free resources, and masterclass replays.

Karen [00:01:14]:
So if you are ready to get started with your online business, then head on over to my website, www.sellyourbrillianline.com.com/community and come and join us in the community and get started with your online business today. 

Okay, so let's dive into today's episode. And today I am diving into content creation. And I know this is one of the steps that when it comes to course creation, a lot of people can lose steam because they get overwhelmed and they may even give up entirely because they feel stuck and they're not quite sure on the content to be creating. And we don't want that. I want you to be able to win at your content because you know that the content that you're creating is going to be spot on for your students. 

Now, this episode is not about encouraging you to create more work for yourself. In fact, it's going to be entirely the opposite, because I'm going to show you why less content actually creates more value and how to shortcut the entire creation process and how to avoid the single biggest mistake that a lot of new course creators make, which is the dreaded content dump.

Karen [00:02:45]:
And by the end of this episode, hopefully what I'm hoping is that you'll feel lighter, clearer, and so much more confident about bringing your course to life without burning out or even falling out of love with the course that you're actually creating. So the first thing I want to really dive into is talking about why less content is actually going to provide more value. Because here's something that I think you need to know up front. Your students do not want more information. Chances are they are probably overloaded with information. We live in such an information time where it's. It's surrounding us. It's information's Everywhere we turn, we're online and we get sent information.

Karen [00:03:42]:
We get constant ads, you know, telling us to download so and so to get more information, you go to YouTube videos and videos and videos on information, go to podcasts, you know, information. Everywhere we turn, we are overloaded with information. Your students don't want more information. They don't need more information. What they actually need and what they're looking for is the transformation. Transformation rarely comes from being in that space of overwhelm. So we have to really avoid overloading them with information so that they can actually walk away with the transformation that they're looking to achieve. So what your students really want is going to be a clear path.

Karen [00:04:38]:
They want short, simple lessons. They want quick wins. They want to get to the result in as fewer steps as possible, and they want less noise. So think about it. The courses that you finish. So if you have taken online courses yourself, the ones that you're going to rave about are usually going to be the ones that get straight to the point. They respect your time and they give you exactly what you need to do and nothing extra. Your course should do the same.

Karen [00:05:19]:
Sometimes I feel like my clients try to prove their value by adding more and more lessons, more and more videos, more and more resources. But the problem with that is that it only leads to overwhelm and students that never finish the course because they're waded through too much stuff. A shorter course is going to be often a better course because the chances are your students are going to be able to complete it. And if they complete it, they'll get results. And if they can get results, it's going to create referrals, it's going to create testimonials, and it's going to give you a reputation that is ultimately going to sell your course for you. So less is more focused on the value and not constantly adding information in when information's not needed. We only want to stick to the point and only provide exactly what they need to get to where they need to be. Now, I recently bought a course.

Karen [00:06:33]:
It was for batching content. So being on social media, I share content. And then one of the things that kind of can stop me from being consistent is the system that I have because I'm not always available to post in that moment. So what I've been learning is how to batch content effectively. Now, I recently purchased a course that was essentially an hour and a half. That's all it was. It was an hour and a half of the. The person delivering the course, host delivering her system, her approach, and breaking it down in a way that meant I only need to do what I needed to do to get the job done.

Karen [00:07:23]:
And I think with that course came, you know, I think it was like a notion template and with some prompts in there, and that was it. The course itself wasn't expensive. I think I paid something like $49. But I have to say the effectiveness of what it was I learned was amazing because it got straight to the point and it taught me only what I needed to know. I don't need. I didn't need all the bells and whistles. I didn't need to know how to learn to do Instagram or how to get started on Facebook or how to post on LinkedIn. That's not what I was after.

Karen [00:08:01]:
What I was after was how learn to batch my content in a really easy system that is effective and that will help me to be consistent with my posting schedule. And that's exactly what it delivered. It was very simple, it was straight to the point and it only provided the necessary content needed to be able to do that one thing. So when you are creating content for your course, I want you to think that less is actually going to be more and your students are going to love you for it because it means that they only need to concentrate on what you're giving them and they can almost ignore everything else. So I just want to touch upon shortcuts and I'm talking about the smart kind here. There are three content creation strategies that I promise you will save you hours, if not weeks of unnecessary work. So the first one, and I've just touched upon this is batching. This is where you are going to create multiple pieces of content in one focus block of time.

Karen [00:09:14]:
Now, I think with batching, I think this is about, this is actually a new developing a skill. I personally don't find batching all that easy. It doesn't seem to sit with the way I work and the way I do things. I don't batch my content. Usually learning to. But what it does mean that when you are creating a course, it means that you can focus on recording several pieces of content at one go rather than one lesson today, one lesson tomorrow, one lesson next week, you can actually get a lot done in a short space of time. So if you enjoy batching and you're comfortable with batching, then I do very much encourage it. Now, why batching works is because it gets you in the zone.

Karen [00:10:13]:
You also will stop switching from one thing to another. So you're going to stay in the zone and you're going to stay focused and you're only going to work on that task. And that means that you can stay consistent in your tone and in your energy. And it's going to help you to massively reduce any mental overload because you've only got to focus on the one thing that you're doing so you can actually get your whole course recording in a single afternoon. And this can happen because you are putting that time aside to batch record. So if you are not familiar with batching, I would highly encourage it. If you are familiar with it, then I would definitely use this strategy to create your course content. The second strategy that will really help you is our templates.

Karen [00:11:14]:
Stop reinventing the wheel. You don't need to start over all of the time. Anytime it's possible, use a template. So think about your slide templates, your script templates, your workbook templates, your email templates, and your welcome module templates. Because when you follow a framework, your content's gonna become clearer and you're gonna get faster at creating it. Now inside my Passive Profit Plan and my Easy Course Kickstarter Kit, two products that I have, I give you templates for this exact reason because they take the stress away and they speed up what it is that you' the third strategy that I would encourage you to think about is repurposing. Repurposing is going to be your best friend because you have probably most likely already done a live online where you've maybe talked about something and taught something. Maybe you've delivered trainings already where you've done some teaching.

Karen [00:12:21]:
Perhaps you have delivered client sessions. Maybe you have delivered some really great work workshops that you've recorded. Maybe you have some blog posts that you have sitting in your archives that you can use. Or maybe you have some podcast episodes that you can repurpose and include in your content. You might even have notes on your phone that will help you. If you have any of that stuff, then repurpose them, adapt them, turn them into lessons instead of starting from scratch. Because 99% of course creators think they need to reinvent everything. But the truth is, you already have the bones of your course inside the work that you've already done.

Karen [00:13:08]:
It's about digging it out and repurposing it, because that's going to save you so much time. So I want to just talk about content dumping, because this is a mistake that I do think creates a lot of overwhelm both for you and your students. Now, a content dumping dump is where you take everything you know, everything you've taught, every single idea that you've had, and you just throw it into your course. Because what that does, it turns your beautiful, simple transformation into a messy, chaotic library. And we want to avoid that at all cost. What you need to do instead is stick to your framework. Now, I spoke about this I believe in last week's episode. If the lesson doesn't move your student one step closer to the transformation that your course promises, then it simply does not belong in your course.

Karen [00:14:19]:
Now, I'm not saying that content is wasted because you can always create bonus lessons, you can do extra trainings, and you can even create add on products, you could even create a next step offer out of that content that you're including. But what I don't want you to do is clutter your core course because you need to keep it clean and simple so that you avoid your students feeling overwhelmed. And trust me, your students are going to thank you for that. And your course creation rates are going to skyrocket. I think one of the biggest things that can stop somebody completing a course is having way too much in the course. And that person either getting overwhelmed, they're getting confused, or they're getting bored because they're having to wade through a ton of stuff. If you can create content that is clear, concise and to the point, and that only gives them what they need to have to move them from point A to point B, then I promise you your course is going to be really effective. So again, we want to strip away all the unnecessary and we only want to keep in there the stuff that really matters.

Karen [00:15:46]:
So when you're thinking about your course content, I want you to think about what is it that my students actually need. By now you should have the framework in place. If you haven't got the framework, then I encourage you to go and listen to episode 141 where I talk about the course framework. Map out your course framework, get the bones of your course outlined so you know exactly what pathway you are creating, and then only include the content relevant for that framework. And if you use my three strategies that I've shared with you today, it's going to make your life so much easier. So I just want to recap on what those three strategies were. The first one is batching your content. The second one is creating templates to speed up your course creation process.

Karen [00:16:45]:
And then the third one is repurposing existing content so that you're not having to start from scratch. Now, I hope by sharing these three strategies I hope you're now feeling lighter and clearer about creating your course content. I want you to know that you do not need to create a huge, overwhelming course for it to be of value. Start small, start simple, and just create the content that is needed. If you focus on creating the right pieces in the right order in the simplest way possible, you are going to have a really successful course that's going to walk your students directly to that transformation. 

Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope this episode's given you some clarity and sparked some new ideas for your business. If you have found this episode helpful, then please do share it with a fellow friend or a fellow entrepreneur who's also building their online course because this episode could be exactly what they need to hear today.

Karen [00:18:05]:
Now, if you are looking at creating your passive income strategy for 2026, be it an online course, a membership, a digital product, but you maybe don't know where to start, or maybe you're feeling overwhelmed and you need a little bit of guidance, then I'd love to invite you to my free masterclass on 26th November at 5p UK time. It's going to be delivered live via Zoom and I'm going to walk you through my three step system to book your place. Head on over to www.sellyourbrillianceonline.com and you can register for free there. I will be back next week with another episode, but until then enjoy the rest of your week.