The Course Mentors Podcast

Stop Guessing: Validate Your Course Idea in 3 Steps

• The Course Mentors • Season 2 • Episode 6

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We’ve all been there, sitting on a “great” course idea but quietly wondering if anyone will actually pay for it. Instead of guessing or overthinking, there’s a simple way to know.

In today’s episode, we share the three ingredients every profitable course idea needs. We break down how to choose a topic people already care deeply about, how to confirm they’re actively trying to fix the problem themselves, and how to shape your offer so it solves that problem in a faster, easier, or more enjoyable way.

This is the exact process we use with our students, and it removes so much uncertainty from choosing the right idea. If you want a course people are excited to buy (and relieved you created), this episode shows you how to validate your idea with confidence.

SPEAKER_01:

Welcome to the course podcast. Nope. Let's try that again. Welcome to the Course Mentors Podcast. I'm Odette. I'm Amy. And today we're talking about the question that keeps everyone up at night. Will anyone actually buy this course? And we're going to give you the exact formula for knowing the answer is yes.

SPEAKER_00:

Before we dive into it too deeply, Detty, what's been happening in your world this week?

SPEAKER_01:

Me, I it's a little bit not boring, but um structured, let's say. I'm trying to get into more of a routine now. Managing baby and work, basically. Like Emery's about seven, eight months now. So I need to get him out of the house for sure. Mornings are easy. We go to like rhyme time and really cute little baby activities where there's about 20 babies and it's the cutest thing ever. Um, but I really need to keep keep him entertained now. And um, and so I don't go stir crazy as well. So mornings are good, just trying to sort out afternoons. Uh, but yeah, doing lots of coffee dates, sensory classes, things like that. Um, and then getting work done in nap time, really?

SPEAKER_00:

How about you? I miss that time so much. But also, I don't know if I do. Like, I don't know. I love having a toddler, and I talk about this all the time. Like, I'll tell anyone who will listen. I will say, shut up. I love having a toddler so much. I'm so unprepared for when my kid is gonna be like in primary school age. That terrifies me and always has. But I did love the baby stage. I loved like the irregularity of every day and like just getting up and having cuddles and then doing a little baby activity and then doing a couple of hours of work here and there. Like, I loved that so much. But I don't know, I love toddlers too. I love it all. Yeah, my God. It's hard fun. It's hard, fun, it's everything.

SPEAKER_01:

Amazing. How are you though?

SPEAKER_00:

You haven't given me another baby. Well, I can't have another baby, Daddy, because I just moved to Dubai. So we said we would do this, but we are officially, I'm officially in Dubai now. I'm in the UAE, which is so weird in a million ways to say that I am now in the Middle East, which it's weird. It's crazy, it's big, it's massive. And at the same time, it's actually not been that big of a jump at all. I thought it was gonna be way more different. And it's kind of like if you're not Australian, or even if you are Australian, I guess. I moved from the UK to Australia when I was 12.

SPEAKER_01:

12, 12, from memory. From my memory.

SPEAKER_00:

What I imagined about Australia was that there'll be kangaroos and koalas just walking around in the streets, everyone would be walking around barefoot, uh, there'd be people playing didgeridoos on the corner. Like, that's just what I imagined Australia to be. And then when I got there, I was like, oh, actually, this is really similar to England. It's just a lot hotter and there's different foods. That was really what I experienced. And then again, when I thought, oh, I'm moving to Dubai, I guarantee there's gonna be camels everywhere and it's gonna be blistering hot. It's actually been somewhat cooler than Australia because it's the winter here or coming into winter, and I have not seen a single camel. There's some palm trees and a lot of boganvilliers. I don't know, I'm a big fan of a bogan villa, they're everywhere, but otherwise, it's really not been that different. I've eaten some shawamas, which is like a chicken thing. It's so great. That's so great. But it's just like it was like moving to Australia. I was like, it's really not nothing's it's different, but it's not, oh my god, I'm in the craziest place ever. It's like, oh yeah, this looks fairly similar. It's been a really good move. My son's really happy, my husband's really happy, so it's gonna be fun. But yeah, that's my update.

SPEAKER_01:

I'm very proud of you. That's a big move. I thought it would be crazy.

SPEAKER_00:

It's not that crazy.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay, let's get to it. Now, there's a lot of noise out there regarding sales courses, what's gonna sell. There's lots of masterclasses and things on this subject. We want to cut through all that noise. So you've got a course idea, obviously. If you're listening to this, you want to do a course, you're doing a course, you want it to be better. Maybe you're starting out and you've got five course ideas because you don't know which one will actually make money. So you're not doing anything, you're paralyzed, you're stopped. Here's what most people do they guess, they sort of throw mud at the wall, maybe see what sticks. They can lose a lot of time to that. They pick the idea that sounds coolest or most impressive or the most niche. It's so crazy that nobody else could possibly think of it. They build the whole thing and then they try to sell it. So we're gonna flip that. I'm gonna show you how to validate your idea before you spend a single hour creating content. And it all comes down to three simple things. What are they, Amy? Okay.

SPEAKER_00:

So just like Det said, I agree. I think a lot of people are out here making courses and they kind of just pick either like what they really like doing or they're really interested in, or something that's hyper, hyper specific and niche because they've heard that it needs to be niche. So they pick something that's so niche no one can possibly have ever thought about it before. Or they just go willy-nilly. They know, well, I know in my service-based business, or I know in my day-to-day job, I help people with X, Y, and Z and they really like it. So I'm just gonna turn that into a course. Without any other thought, I'm just gonna turn that into a course. And so what it comes down to ultimately, the magic formula of creating something that's actually gonna be profitable and actually gonna make money is these three things. One, people care about this topic. It is something that they already deeply care about. Number two, they're already doing it. They're already trying to solve this problem or achieve it in some way. So people are already out there giving it a go, but for some reason, it's not working. And now to make your course profitable, you're gonna take the reason that it's not working for them, and you are going to do this in a better way, faster, easier, or more enjoyably than what they are currently struggling with on their own. So the magic formula is they care, they're already doing it, and they want it to be done better.

SPEAKER_01:

All right, so let's break it down. Let's let's go through like each piece you just mentioned. So, number one, they have to care, like really care about it. And this is good because like you don't have to invent something new. It's not like a new topic. It just has to be something that people are already talking about. People give a shit about already. So it's quite simple, really. It has to exist for starters. It sounds obvious, but you'd be shocked how many people create courses on topics that are like nice to know instead of like I desperately need this, you know? Um, a course needs to like solve a problem. Something that's nice to know, not really solving any problems. You might, you know, learn some things, but it's not like I need this, I need this problem solved. I need a course, I need a journey to get there. So your course can't be about something people think that they should care about. It has to be about something they already lose sleep over. So, how do you know if they care? Is the question that way?

SPEAKER_00:

If they care, it can't be something mild or light or something that they think, maybe I should know about this. It's not those topics. A profitable course has to be something that people are regularly complaining about. It's something that they're telling other people, like, uh, shit, I just can't figure out how to XYZ, or God, there's gotta be a better way to XYZ. It's gotta be something they're spending money on already and they're looking to spend more. They want to try and fix this properly. And it has to be something that affects their daily life, their business, or something they're emotionally invested in already. So something they've been trying arduously to fix on their own, but for some reason it's not working. So here's an example of what I mean by that. How to organize your spice rack, probably not something people care about deeply enough to pay to fix it, and not something they're gonna do an entire course on. And the reason why I say that is because courses take time, take money, take investment, they take effort. Now, if you're gonna invest time, money, effort, energy into something, it has to be something with a proper payoff, especially in today's world where we don't have an endless amount of time and resources. So again, organizing your spice rack, not super important. Not something people are gonna invest their time, space, energy, effort into. How to meal plan so you stop wasting money and stressing about dinner every night, though, is a cool idea. Meal planning is great. Everyone wants to know, okay, how do I get better at making dinners for my family? If I can say, here's how to meal plan so that you stop wasting money and stressing about dinner every night, that is something that I'm willing to solve and fix and put energy and effort and time into because I'm complaining about that every day. I'm already spending money trying to make dinners for my family every night. And it is impacting my daily life. It's something that is bothering me every single day.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, absolutely. People need to say a big hell yes to this topic. Organizing a spicer act, maybe that's an Instagram post, you know, it's not course. In a in a decluttering course, maybe you organize a spicer act, you know, people aren't paying for that information, but they are paying for the hell yes. Oh my god, I need that. Yes, I've been looking for this. You're doing it so well. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00:

And if you teach a topic, and I want to be super clear, if you teach a topic that is not something revolutionarily life-changing, it's not something that's affecting their daily life in a really stressful way. How can you pitch it for people that it is impacting, people that are being affected by it or are complaining about it properly? So, for example, for dead and I, right, we teach sewing, well, debt teachers sewing, the royal we, debt teachers sewing, and I teach Japanese, right? Now, those two things are not things that inherently are losing sleep over. They're not things that people would complain about regularly, unless they have been trying to learn how to do those two things or either one of those things for a really, really long time and it's not working out. Like, say, for example, for me, for Japanese, right? Now, like at a base level, no one's complaining about Japanese and going, I want to learn Japanese and that's affecting my daily life. No one's doing that. Unless, unless they have been trying to learn Japanese for a year, six months, a year, and they have been on Duolingo. They have been messing around with apps, they have downloaded a couple of textbooks or bought a couple of textbooks, it's not doing anything for them. They want to practice speaking with real human beings and they don't have any classes in their local area. Now that's when the problem starts to get compelling again, because those people know it's not everyone ever who's speaking Japanese or wants to speak Japanese. It's a particular subset of those people who are already trying, are already spending money, are already complaining about it. So again, that now taps into a group of people that would spend money on this and would be profitable because it's something they care about. It's something they're complaining about. Hopefully that makes sense.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, which it leads us to our second point, which is they're already trying to do it. It's you're not reinventing the wheel, you're not inventing something new. It exists, they care about it, and they're already trying to do it. Which, as course creators, is the whole thing, you know? People might say, Oh, you teach sewing, but I could just learn how to sew a tote bag from YouTube. Yeah, sure. Yeah, sure you could. Lots of people have tried that already. Lots of people have tried it and failed. People want to get past that a little bit here and uh, you know, a duon lingo hour there for Japanese or a crappy tutorial that doesn't actually get them a really good result or a lasting result on YouTube. That existing is fantastic for course creators. Keep putting up YouTube tutorials on tote bags, please, because people want the full journey. People have dabbled and now they want the true transformation. They want to come and learn how to sew properly with me. You know, they've done the dabbling, they've tried a tote bag, they've tried this and that on YouTube. It's not happening. So they want the real transformation and that's where the course comes in. You don't have to convince them that that, you know, they should try this new thing. They've probably already done it, and that's really good.

SPEAKER_00:

So your course topic doesn't have to be hyper specific and niche, so niche that no one's ever done it or thought of it before. And you shouldn't, like you should not be the only person on the internet teaching this thing. Because if you're the only person teaching on the internet, you are not going to be able to sell the course. It is good. It's good if there is not a gap in the market. It is good if people are already trying to learn it and it's not working. So the second thing that you need with a profitable idea is that people are already trying. They are on YouTube, they are messing around with buying books and apps and DIY solutions because when some everyone does that, no one goes straight from, oh, I want to do this thing, I want to try and give it a go, to spending 10 grand on it. Like it's just not possible, right? Like what happens for most people is they will try to do something quite a lot, actually, and they'll give it a go. The humans are curious, and also most humans can have a little bit of thought for themselves, right? They'll try it out, they'll go onto apps, they'll go into books, they'll go onto YouTube, they'll try those little bits and pieces, and then they will very, very quickly realize that is not going to work. It's not the full picture, it's just little tidbits of information, and it's not enough to actually get them where they want to go. And in that moment, they will start to look for a course. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01:

They've not in that should I even bother stage, they're at that how do I actually do this stage? And that's a really magical place to be with people.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

It's a very profitable place to be. It's true. And like, think about it. Like, would you rather teach someone who's never thought about starting a podcast or someone who's already recorded three episodes on their phone, they're frustrated, that it sounds terrible. That that person who's given it a go, they're motivated. That second person, they're ready to buy. They've proven they care by trying.

SPEAKER_00:

This is a side note. I've got to say this. I have to say this as a side note. This is why, because I, you know, you guys know, you guys know, I love talking about marketing any chance that I can. Now, this is why, when it comes to online course marketing, too many people spend too long trying to educate the audience on why you should do X. Like, let's take the podcast, right? They're like, why you should start a podcast or why you should learn to sew, you know? And that's why that content bombs every time because they already want to sew. They already want to start a podcast, they're already three episodes in and sucking. You should be on how I can turn your podcast from failure to success, because that's what people are looking for when it comes to courses. Anyway, that's a side note. I won't die on this hill, I won't get stuck here. But it's important to know this is why there's a content strategy to online courses.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, 100%. We'll get into that in another podcast, maybe, because I know, I know you will go down that rabbit hole. So very, very good. Number three, the third part of that magic formula that you gave us before, Amy, they want it faster, easier, or more enjoyable. You take something, it should exist already, but how are you going to do it better? This is where your course comes in. So you're not convincing them that they need to do the thing, just like Amy just said. You're showing them how to do it without all the friction that they're currently experiencing.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

So what does that look like?

SPEAKER_00:

So whatever it is out there that they already care about, they're already doing it, and they want it in a better way, you need to come in one of three different ways. Faster, easier, or more enjoyable. Now, faster looks like stop spending 10 hours a week on social media content. Here's how to batch create a month's worth in two hours. So you're literally coming in and taking what they already do and just speeding it up. Now, in a world where we're all busy and we have a limited amount of time, this is a really great angle, especially for business courses. If you can make something faster for someone in business, that is a profitable way to do things. Next, easier. Now, an example of a way to make something easier would be forget complicated spreadsheets and systems. Here's a simple way to track your business finances. So you're taking something that is generally quite confusing, quite complex. It has a lot of steps. It is something that people struggle with because of the volume of information they need to get through, and you're cutting through all of that noise and you're making it no fluff. That also is an extremely profitable angle. And then finally, you have more enjoyable. So the way to make something more enjoyable is you take something that is, you know, traditionally not enjoyable and you turn it into something really, really fun that people can then look forward to. Like exercise doesn't have to feel like a punishment. Here's how to find workouts you actually look forward to. So everyone knows working out kind of sucks if you're doing it the wrong way and it's not fun and you're not going to stick to it. So you take something that's like frustrating or hard or annoying or difficult or not traditionally fun, and then you turn it into something that's really fun. And maybe there's a community and you've got a lot of inclusions, and you build that out into something really fun as well. So, again, just to kind of reiterate everything we've talked about so far, to make a course profitable, you take something that people are already doing, that they care about a lot, that they're already trying to figure out and they're feeling frustrated by it. It's not working, like trying to create social media content or spreadsheets and systems and business finances or working out. It can be any niche, any topic. And you take that and you make it faster, easier, or more enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, amazing. A combination of all three, you know, with sewing. It's a way more enjoyable process for the people who take my course because they're doing it together. They're not stuck in their living room floor trying to sew and work it out themselves. It's way more enjoyable. It's easier because they've got a sewing tutor. And it's faster because I actually give them structure to learn how to sew. They're not trying to piece together and fail. Lots of different YouTubes, lots of different little those mini tutorials on social media that make sewing seem like a five-minute thing. Oh my God. I think, God, people must look at those and they are just setting people up to fail. Anyway, again, that's a rabbit hole. So the point is you need at least one or a combination of easier, better, faster. What is going to make it a compelling pitch for your course?

SPEAKER_00:

At the end of the day, people will pay to remove pain, save time, or make something suck less. And that is the entire business of online courses. That's it.

SPEAKER_01:

If you can make something suck less for people, it doesn't sound pretty. It doesn't need to. It might not sound like the most professional pitch we're giving you. Something needs to suck less, but it's the truth.

SPEAKER_00:

That's what people spend money for. There's like a rhetoric online about online courses that they have to be like hyper specific and super niche. And then you have to reinvent the wheel and teach something brand new and create something that no one's ever done before. And that's how you make money in courses. But it's truly not the way to do it. It's also just not just teaching what you love or doing something you like think is a good idea. It's being specific. So it's actually just doing something that people are already doing and doing it, bringing something to market that's better, easier, faster, or more enjoyable.

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah. We said it in a podcast a week or so ago, I don't know when, but it's like if a book already exists on a topic, that doesn't mean people need to stop writing books on that topic. You know, that's ridiculous. We would never say that if people want to write a book. But when it comes to courses, people think, oh no, there's already a course and that I can't do it. Crazy. Crazy. Competition's good. Um is what we actually want you to take away from this episode. First, a profitable course idea. It's not about what's trending, what you think people should want. It's about finding the intersection of these three things. They care deeply, they're already trying to do it, and they want it in a better way.

SPEAKER_00:

If your idea has all three of those things, or if you can kind of make it have all three of those things, you've got a winner. And if it's missing one of those three pieces, honestly, you might struggle to sell it. So before you create a single video or write a single lesson, validate your idea. Make sure that you've got all three of these things. Because the worst thing that you can do is spend weeks building out a course that nobody wants. And the best thing that you can do is create something people are already desperately searching for.

SPEAKER_01:

Yes, your future students are out there right now. They're struggling with something that you know how to make easier. So go find out exactly what that struggle looks like and then build the solution around that. Now go validate the idea. And we invite you, please, to email us. What's your idea? Let us know. We can absolutely help you with it. But we need to hear it in order to do that. So email us. We love when people email us from the podcast, which is honestly rare. And we wish uh people would reach out more. We see the listens, but email us. Slide into our DMs. We are waiting to chat. All right, we'll leave it there. See you soon. Have an amazing week. See you guys. Bye. Bye.