The Course Mentors Podcast

You Don’t Need to Post More, You Need to Do This

• The Course Mentors • Season 2 • Episode 7

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Posting on social media but not seeing results? This episode explains why.

We break down how course creators should actually use social media to position themselves as the authority in their space. Not by posting more or chasing trends, but by creating content that makes people think, “This is who I need to learn from.”

In this episode, we share our Authority Formula: strong opinions, deep expertise, and visible passion. We talk about why playing it safe leads to forgettable content, how to take a clear stance without being aggressive, and why surface-level posts don’t convert.

You’ll walk away with clear prompts to sharpen your opinions, show depth in your content, and communicate what makes your approach different.

If you want social media to stop feeling like busywork and start working for your course, this episode shows you how.

Enrolling new course creators now: https://thecoursementors.com/application 

SPEAKER_00:

Welcome to the Course Mentors podcast. I'm Odette. I'm Amy. And today we're talking about how to use social media to position yourself as the authority in your space. So when you launch your course, people are already lined up to buy.

SPEAKER_01:

Before we dive into that, and I cannot wait, this is going to be such a fun topic to tear apart. But Daddy, what's been going on in the land of babies?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, that's it, isn't it, at the moment? When you have a, I think if you have an under one year old, that's all that you think about. When it's your first baby. Um, I don't know, it's kind of boring, but I've been really into meal prepping for Emery this week. Uh, getting lots of nutrients in. And uh, we've both been actually loving it. He's such a good little eater, so I'm very lucky. And I always I really like like nutrition and stuff, and I've always um sort of dabbled. So, um but you don't do things for yourself, do you? But you definitely do them for your baby. So you get some lots of nutrients. I'm making bone broths and ridiculous things. Um, and I need to get through all the allergens, so I'm being a bit more structured with it. That's my world. Meal prepping for a seven-month-old or an eight eight-ish month-old.

SPEAKER_01:

So gorgeous. I kind of just fling a slice of toast at Theo now and say, have at it. No, I'm just kidding, I don't really do that. But it kind of does feel like that a little bit. In my world, I don't know, this is really boring. This is really the most boring update that I can possibly give to you. But I have just moved, right? And we're in an apartment. Now in Australia, it was a little bit different. I had a house. I had a five-bedroom house. Like it was quite spacious, right? And so moving into an apartment has been a bit of an adjustment. That sounds really out of touch, but what I mean is like we're all kind of on top of each other all of a sudden. And I don't know, there's a lot that goes into setting up from scratch. We didn't move anything with us. We moved our clothes and like our laptops and like our lighting systems, but we didn't move like kitchen stuff, you know? So like I am constantly being like, fuck, I need a can opener. Oh God, I need a fucking chopping board. Like it is just a lot that goes into it. And even when I thought, okay, I've got some baking dishes, I've got some glasses. You know, we were in this apartment for a week and we were eating off paper plates, and my husband was just like, have we ordered plates? And I was like, no, we haven't ordered plates. We got nothing. Like it's starting from scratch. I feel like a teenager is how I feel. It's probably the best way of describing it. I feel like when I was 19 and I moved into my first apartment, I feel like that all over again.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. It's like moving out of your parents' house for the first time when you need to buy forks.

SPEAKER_01:

We're not buying the nicest stuff. So we're just buying like two dollar can openers. It truly feels like I'm 19 again, like decking out my first apartment. It's really intense. But it's been fun, Clue. It's been fun. 100%. Total adventure.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. Let's talk about social media. And I'll bet it's gonna be a lot of you on this one, I'm gonna say.

SPEAKER_01:

I it's not that you don't love talking about it.

SPEAKER_00:

It's just that I really fucking love talking about it. Well, um, I'll try to get a word in, but this might be the Amy podcast. But we don't want to talk about posting tips, hoping someone notices you, that kind of thing. We're talking about building a presence that makes people think this person gets it. I need to learn from this person. You know, stuff that's specific to course creators. And here's what most course creators do wrong on social media. They post very generic advice. They share like motivational quotes, they talk about their morning routine, what you might post if you're just like a generic influencer or something like that. A lot of the time we're not thinking about, no, I'm a course creator now. It's a such a different type of posting. And that's probably why they wonder, you know, why isn't anybody buying my course?

SPEAKER_01:

Yeah, I think one thing is going to be true throughout this entire episode, and I'm gonna talk about it quite a lot, is that you don't know how to do more. When it comes to marketing yourself and creating content and being online on social media, I think that there's a lot of different conflicting advice. And I think there's a lot of preconceived notions of I need to post every hour on the hour, and I need to be posting on multiple platforms, I need to be posting constantly, and I just have to have this volume of content. But it's just not true. It's not accurate, and it's not been true for anybody that's had success. Spamming just doesn't really work very often. And I think really what we need to get into is posting the right content. So being very specific and very intentional with what you're posting, because ultimately that is what converts to sales, the right content and less of it, powerful content, not a shit ton of it everywhere.

SPEAKER_00:

I think the big mistake, it's playing small on social media. So let's start with why most course creators fail at social media.

SPEAKER_01:

I think, first of all, they're just afraid. Like I am, I was, and I think that's normal. It's afraid to be too bold. It's afraid to take a stance, to have a really strong opinion. But in order to position yourself as an expert, as an authority, your opinion has to be bold. And that's the truth of it. That's the heart of it. You cannot be an expert, you cannot be an authority by having the same opinion as every other person. If you have the same opinion as everyone else, you're just like everyone else. But to stand out, you need to be creative. You need to be bold, you need to be decisive, you need to be divisive, you need to have an opinion that sets people off a little bit, that makes them feel something. They need to either strongly agree with you or strongly disagree, and there needs to be no in-between. I think a lot of times people play it safe and they share really surface-level tips and like five ways you can do X, but it's like, okay, so is everybody else. And I think what this comes down to is maybe it's a part of the times. Maybe it's just being on the internet in 2025. I think we're all afraid to offend someone. And then we want to appeal to everyone. And I think as well, I think as well, when you first start a business, right? You don't want to say no to money. That's normal. You want to start a business, you want to create a course, you want to create a platform and create a community. And you think, well, I can't have edgy opinions. I can't have bold, you know, uh divisive opinions, because that's gonna put people off me. And right now, with no money in the bank account, the last thing I want to be doing is putting people off me. But it's actually the worst thing that you can do. Playing it safe, being lukewarm, having no opinion, being the same as everyone else is actually what's gonna give you no money. To get money, to have a business, to stand out, to be an authority, to be an expert, you have to take a stance. It is one of the best things you can do. It has to be bold, it has to be edgy, and it has to be opinionated. In the last episode, we talked about how to have a profitable idea for a course, right? And we talked about how your idea has to be something that people are already doing and people are already involved and frustrated in finding a solution. And you come in and you do it faster, better, or easier, right? So when it comes to your opinion on social media, get into that. Why do you make it faster, better, easier? Why are people struggling with it? Call it out as you see it. I know you're struggling with X, Y, and Z and be really fucking specific and then say, and I can make it easier for you because I have made the solution that is faster, easier, or better this way. So be strict and be strong in those opinions because that is where the money is, not in being what everyone else is being.

SPEAKER_00:

100%. Good rant. And I want to clarify like opinionated doesn't mean you have to be like like rude. Often people take that like you can still be like a yoga teacher and have strong opinions and and stand out, you know. You can be calm, collected, and have good opinions. You don't have to be yelling and crazy, decisive, and over-opinionated. I'm just clarifying like you don't have to be aggressive. No, you don't have to be aggressive. You don't have to be anything that's not yourself. No, no, no.

SPEAKER_01:

And like for me, I get on social media and I talk about how Duolingo sucks, right? And I don't get on there and say, hey, I know that you suck because you're on I'm not aggressive, okay? I'm saying hey, if you've been struggling trying to learn Japanese because you've been on Duolingo, I know what that's like. And here's how I've been able to fix it. So you're not, you know, being bitchy about it, but you can be opinionated and you can take a stance and say, hey, I know that Duolingo's not been working for you. I know it's not because it doesn't work for anybody. And here's how I know. And you can be opinionated. It's intelligent to be opinionated.

SPEAKER_00:

Definitely. It's probably your your authentic opinions. You just need to not be afraid to share them. So the authority formula. Let's get to that. So, what is it? It's strong opinions plus deep expertise plus visible passion. Break that down for me, eight.

SPEAKER_01:

Strong opinions. You've got to have an opinion, okay? You cannot come onto social media and be doing, hey, here's three things you might not like. No, okay. Take it or leave it, nah. Let's get a strong opinion going. Why do you do what you do faster, easier, or better? And why? Why are people struggling with doing what it is that you do right now? Like, what is it that they're doing and why does it suck? Okay, have that opinion about it. And then back that up with deep expertise. That's the second layer to this, okay? Now, deep expertise, this is about not just, again, showing surface level tips, but it's teaching the nuance. It's really explaining to people. I, you know, like take me, for example, here's why Jewelingo doesn't work. And then show that you know about it, show that you actually truly understand why it doesn't work, because you truly understand what does work. And then visible passion. Okay. Now, when it comes to social media content, again, you cannot get up there and be like, hey, here's some things that you might need to know. Okay, you have to be passionate. You have to care about this thing, and it has to be contagious. And when you get onto social media, energy is really important. So, content, authority formula, strong opinions, deep expertise, visible passion.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. And what you said, like people, I think often stop at the strong opinion. They just do the surface level like hook and they don't take it deeper than that. So they really miss out on that deep expertise. But really diving in and proving, like you say, duo lingo sucks. You can't just leave it there. You can show people that if you quit the Duong Lingo hamster wheel, take your program, you have the deep expertise to be able to take people from nothing to fluency. I don't know why I always use your course as a rather than my own. I always go back to Japanese. I think because I've also taken your course too.

SPEAKER_01:

I also think it's just so concrete. Like everyone's tried to learn a language or or like at least played around with it, right? Like I think, I don't know. Maybe that's just in my world. I don't know. Come on, one. Yeah, and I think what you said before is really, really important. That most people just stop at the strong opinion thing, right? And so this is where a lot of people go wrong with social media content is they start creating quite like lukewarm content, it'll be quite vanilla. It'll be like, here's three things about this, whatever. And it's not very effective and it doesn't really get any likes or have an opinion, or no one really engages with it. It becomes very like scrollable. No one cares to stay and watch it because it's not worth their time, right? And that sucks. But then what happens is you get told, or maybe you believe, that the way to go forward is actually just to do more. And so then people start doing things like freebies and email sequences and email trying to build their email list and uh they try and create a YouTube channel and maybe a podcast, and then they there's a million things that they're trying to do, right? Instead of just nailing what their opinion is, because people are drawn to and love people with opinions. And when it comes to courses, right, we need to go back to what we talked about last episode, because that's really, really important. How we talked about people already doing something, they're struggling with it, it's not really working, and they're looking for a better solution, right? And then you come in with something easier, better, or faster. Okay. Now, at the time when they're looking around on social media to find something that is easier, better, or faster than what they're currently doing, if your content is lukewarm, you are not an option for them. You're not someone who is going to safely shepherd them towards the light. You're not someone who's gonna help them. Okay, you're just a content creator, just someone on Instagram. But if you stop them in their tracks and say, hey, I know you're on Dreolingo and I know it's not working for you, but I can fix it because I've got this, this, and this, immediately purchase. It doesn't matter, immediate purchase. Because your content is enough. And Instagram is enough. You don't have to have a YouTube, a podcast, a buddy, email list building activity. Like you don't have to have all of that shit. None of that is important if you can nail your content. 100%. We're gonna dive deeper into each one of these different sections. Strong opinions, deep expertise, and visible passion. And I'm gonna show you realistic ways to actually do this. So we're not just gonna tell you to have a strong opinion and see you later. We're actually gonna show you in this podcast exactly how to build a strong opinion and share what your strong opinion is. We're gonna show you exactly how to share your passion and show that you are passionate about stuff. And we're also gonna show you exactly how to share your deep expertise. And we're gonna go through these step by step with actual examples. You ready to get into it, Debt? 100%.

SPEAKER_00:

Let's do it. Okay, so the first one, your strong opinions. So let's keep it simple. Your strong opinions should answer. What is the biggest mistake people make in your topic? Number two, what popular advice do you disagree with? What's the one thing that matters most? And what do most people waste time on that doesn't work? Those are four really good prompts that you can take away. And you could you should be able to write and write and write so many different hooks on those questions. And don't be controversial just to be controversial. And don't be afraid to say what you actually believe. Your opinion, it will come across if you're not authentic. Your opinion is what makes you different from every other person teaching your topic. But if you're making it up for the sake of it, look, people aren't dumb. They're gonna see through that. But if you can authentically answer these questions, it's gonna come across and you'll be passionate about it.

SPEAKER_01:

Okay. So that's your opinions. Those are the things that you feel strongly about that set you apart, right? And then here's how to show deep expertise. So show people that you actually know what you're talking about. You're not full of shit. You know exactly what to do. Here are the ways to do that really, really clearly. One, teach the mistakes. Here's what I see everyone getting wrong about your topic. They think they need to, whatever it is that they're currently doing that's causing whatever it is that they're dealing with, their specific problem. Instead, here's what works. So teach the mistakes. Break down what people are currently doing wrong and show, hey, I know, and I'm just gonna come back to Japanese because it's easy. So bear with me if you absolutely love Duolingo and you think duolingo is the best thing ever, then this is not the episode for you because I am talked a lot of shit about Duolingo. But hopefully duolingo is a divisive opinion, okay? All right, so here's what I would do. Here's how I would teach the mistakes. I would say, here's what I see everyone getting wrong about learning Japanese or learning kanji or learning Japanese pronunciation or whatever, one of those. They think they need to use Duolingo to learn a lot of vocabulary, but actually that is just a glorified game. Instead, here's what actually works. So I would break down and show what actually goes wrong for a lot of people and what mistakes they're making and subtly call them out because people are gonna see that and go, oh damn, I've been using Duolingo and it's not working. She's got the answer, right? So that's deep expertise. Next, share specifics. This one's a hard one for a lot of people. I know Debt, you hate doing this and you really struggle with this, I think. Sorry to call you out, but sharing specifics, numbers, timelines, and exact things. I think that you find like sharing numbers to be kind of crass. Yeah, yeah, I do. Yeah, yep, you do. But sharing numbers, especially if you work with businesses or people that need a hard ROI. So if you do something that's like accounting or numbers-based or something with business owners who like whatever they're investing in has to have a hard ROI. Numbers, timelines, and processes and like the exact specifics is very important. So I tested six different email subject lines. Here's what happens. And so when you share specifics, that's very credible because you are showing I have done this before and I know what I'm talking about. That's deep expertise. That's not like, here's what I think would work, or like, here's, you know, what my opinion is. It's I've done it. I've I had this opinion. I had an opinion about different email subject lines. I actually went out there and tested them. Here's my results. So share those things. Next up, explain the why. So don't just tell people what to do, but tell them exactly why it works. And that is deep expertise too. This technique is effective because and then explain. Explain exactly what it is that you know to be true. So, for example, with me, and I've been teaching Japanese for a very long time, and I don't like Duolingo for a lot of different reasons, right? But I can't just say Duolingo sucks. That's not deep expertise. I have to get nitty-gritty. I have to explain to them, hey, the reason why I don't like Duolingo is because it's a glorified app that make more money for you being on the platform and staying there and not making progress. So I can talk about that until the cows come home, right? But I have that why and I can share the why. So don't be afraid to explain the why. Not all the time. Don't be banging on about it every day, night, morning, and breakfast, afternoon, lunch, tea, but talk about it where you can and where it's where it's relevant. And then last, tell the backstory because your backstory shows your expertise because to put this really, really simply, it shows that you've put the time in and that's the time that they want to skip. So tell the backstory to what it is that you teach and what you believe in and what your opinions are. I used to believe that, you know, Jewelinger was really great, but then I discovered and everything changed. And here's what I learned through that process. Share your hero story and talk about how you were able to come to the conclusions that you're able to so that they can skip it.

SPEAKER_00:

All right. And then the last part is visible, visible. The last part is visible passion. Showing them that you care, basically. Putting putting it simply, showing them that you care about your topic. So, how to show your passion on social media. First of all, get specific. We're gonna always say that, but get specific about why this matters and why it matters to you. Don't just say, I'm off teaching this. Say, I spent five years struggling with XYZ problem. And the day I figured out your solution, I literally cried. What was like, what happened to you? Think about it. Tell the story. Nobody else should have to struggle the way I did. That's why I teach this. So much more compelling than I'm off teaching this. Get specific. Next, share your rants. Don't be afraid to show emotion on social media. You don't have to share your life story. Like you don't have to share personal facts. I don't. I don't enjoy that, so I don't. But share your rants. What makes you frustrated in your industry? What do you want to call out? What do you wish people understood? Let it all out. It's a safe space, your social media, to let it all out. So, an example for this is can we talk about how this common practice in your industry is setting people up to fail? I am so tired of seeing this specific issue. Here's what should happen instead. And then tell them what they should be doing. Literally take that verbatim, make a post, go for it.

SPEAKER_01:

Go to it right now, in fact.

SPEAKER_00:

And then celebrate your students' wins obsessively. So when someone has a breakthrough, share it. Ask people, hey, how are you going? And then share it. Get excited about it. For example, you guys, Sarah just sent me this message and I am literally tearing. Up. Tell them the story. Share your interactions. Tell them this is why I do what I do. Next, I'm going to speed round this because Amy, I'm sure, has more to talk about. Talk about what you're learning. So you don't have to know everything. You can still be learning in your subject. You know, you're not a you're not the god of whatever your subject is. Share what you're discovering, what surprised you. Show them that you're still interested in it and that you're also, you know, upskilling. You're on this journey with them. What are you excited about? Give them cool recommendations. Here's an example. I just tested something new, and oh my God, the results. Let me show you. God, I can tell you wrote these examples, Amy. I'm just not that enthusiastic. One of us is a woo girl and the other one is debt. The other one is debt. Yeah. That's funny. All right. So last one. I'll give you one more. Be nerdy about your topic. So whatever you're geeking out about, share it. Similar to the last one, you know, what are you learning about? What's interesting you or interesting you? That's a terrible word. About your topic. Share it. This is here's an example. Okay, this is probably only interesting to me, but I just discovered this pattern in, let's say, kanji practice, which is like an alphabet in Japanese. You've probably heard Amy say it, I'm sure, already in this podcast. Very niche. And I can't stop thinking about it. So be nerdy, just like Amy. Go to her Instagram and have a look.

SPEAKER_01:

Because I think it's important, right, to like be a nerd sometimes. Because if I'm not a nerd about it, then why the fuck should they work with me? Genuinely. If I don't care about it the most, like they can't care about it more than me. That's bad, right? Like I've got to be the one that cares about it the most. I'm the teacher. So when they see me talking about something hyper-specific, like, yes, you know, I think social media content, oftentimes people are told, oh, just be really valuable and provide value. And like, yes, provide value, right? But if you only focus on providing value, your feed will literally be here's five ways you can do this, just on repeat forever, and it's so dull. But when you get to be nerdy about your topic and show that you care about it, even just for fun, like it doesn't have to be valuable, doesn't have to be a post that they can get a lot out of or whatever. It can just be you geeking out on your feed, right? And when they see that, they go, Oh my God, she really knows her stuff because this is like so specific. And she cares. She cares about this so much that she's gonna care about if I win and I succeed. And that's how people buy. They don't buy from here's five phrases. They buy from someone that's just like absolutely being a massive nerd on their feed. Percent. 100%.

SPEAKER_00:

100%. Yep. So take those prompts. Go write some posts, you know, verbatim. Be a nerd about it. But I think we can leave it there, Amy. That's enough.

SPEAKER_01:

We can, we can, we can, we can, we can, we can. Here's a takeaway, guys. All right. Social media isn't about being relatable or likable or perfectly curated. It's not about posting more and more and more and more and more and more and more. And hopefully that gets people on. It's not about having perfect, amazing posts that are five things that you can do in whatever. Who cares? No one cares about that stuff, right? What social media content for course creators specifically is ultimately about is having a strong opinion, having expertise to back up that strong opinion and showing, showing ultimately that you can do a course better, faster, or easier and building trust. So actually showing you passionate about this and showing up every week and being excited about your course topic. That is what is at the crux of really, really good, highly converting, highly profitable social media content. If you can nail this, you don't have to do anything else if you can nail this. So take strong positions, teach with depth, and show your passion.

SPEAKER_00:

Amazing. Let's leave it there before Amy rants again. Um, I've enjoyed this one in saying that. So we'll see you next week, ish or next fortnight. Twins when I edit the podcast. Amy will prompt me.

SPEAKER_01:

You're the best. Thanks for listening. Speak soon. Bye. Thank you, guys. Bye.