I just did something I’m pretty proud of – I created an online course in only 6 days.
And I didn’t work on it for long hours every day.
I didn’t do anything at all one day, I had two days with minimal hours, and I had a lot of other stuff on.
I didn’t even plan it either! Elizabeth Goddard was running a Get It Done week for her awesome Small But Mighty $9 Offers course, so I decided to jump in at the last minute.
And I’m really glad I did, because I a) have a new product, and b) I learned more about my own productivity and how I work, which has given me more motivation to create quickly.
But before I get stuck into my day-by-day timeline, take a look at my new $9 course.
DIY Branding for Overthinkers
Say hello to DIY Branding for Overthinkers!
I walk you step-by-step through choosing your brand’s colours, fonts, and logo, making sure they work, and putting them onto a brand board (templates included, of course).
I’ve got over-the-shoulder videos of me doing the exact process to create the brand board below, so you get to see how to use all the free tools and hear my decision-making process.
After brainstorming a few $9 course ideas, I decided to take out the branding module for my Evergreen Business Foundations course, and turn it into a standalone $9 course.
Let’s be clear – I didn’t just transfer the existing content. I had to redo ALL of it.
At the time, EBF had been tested, but really needed a final draft and polish.
So I had the skeleton, but I rewrote most of it, rearranged it, added some more info, and redid all the videos.
I don’t think my existing work saved any more than a few hours. The main bonus is I had feedback from the testers, so I already knew that people were really happy with the content, and it helped them with a big pain point.
Therefore, it should make a pretty good standalone product, and also act as a good example of what people get in Evergreen Business Foundations. People that find this useful should be very likely to go on to buy the entire course.
What I learned about my productivity
I’m usually a slow creator. I think I make really good stuff (and my reviews support that), BUT I don’t make a lot of stuff, and I seem to take more hours to make it than most people do.
I’m fine with that. I may need to plug away for a bit longer, but I get there in the end, and I don’t burn myself out by unsustainable hustling (been there, done that, not worth it).
Plus I tend to be really good at the ideas and binge-drafting part, but I find the final draft/polish part excruciatingly boring and tedious.
I tend to procrastinate when I get to that bit 😳😆
I’ve come up with a lot of strategies over the years to help me get stuff done – because even with all of the above, I get a LOT done. I share those strategies are in my Master Your Minutes course, which is also a quick $9 course.
So creating (and finishing) a course in less than a week is HUGE for me. It was a good way to challenge myself and see that yes, I can create quickly when I need to. Add this to the great results from my recent beta-test, and I’m starting to see that I can create a lot more content than I thought.
I also loved that fact that in just a week I had a brand-new product, and another (small) income stream.
It’s inspired me to create more in general – pushing through the boring bits is very worth it.
OK, here’s my $9 course creation week, and how I fitted it in around my day job, farm and house chores, parenting, and life in general.
Course Creation Week
Monday
Public holiday, no day job, yay!
6.30 – Got up, had a cocoa with the husband, did the farm chores with him – all the normal stuff.
8.10 – I started off by drafting my bundles post, but got lured into the $9 Get It Done Challenge when I was going through my emails. I knew it was coming, but hadn’t really thought about it – the email sparked a ‘challenge accepted’ moment, so I ran with it.
9.00 – Brainstormed products by looking at my product ideas list and looking through other $9 offers
9.30 – Decided to publicly commit and invite others to join me, so I sent an email to my list.
9.50 – Wandered off and had breakfast.
10.30 – Redid the Small But Mighty $9 Offers course, plus the Get It Done Week resources.
Chose my topic – DIY Branding for Overthinkers. Branding is a big sticking point for people, plus I already had a rough draft of the content inside my Evergreen Business Foundations testing run. I had to review and polish it anyway, so this also helped with that goal.
11.45 – Created and started drafting a sales page
12.30 – Lunch, family stuff.
2.00 – Set up and templated the course in ThriveCart Learn+.
2.30 – Started transferring the content. Realised I’d templated some things wrong, so I had to redo my content boxes in each lesson. Argh!
3.30 – Reviewed the sales page.
4.00 – Wanted to get more done, but my focus was fractured and I had to admit that I’d run out of steam for the day. Checked a couple of things and finished up by 4.15.
Tuesday
5.30 – 6.00 – I was raring to go – I set up my product in ThriveCart, embedded it on the sales page, and did a quick review of the sales page.
8.00 – 4.00 – Day job
5.00 onwards – I spent about 20m replying to an email about the Evergreen Business Foundations launch and rescheduling the rest of my Substack podcast posts, but that was it for work.
This is pretty standard. Although my day job is fairly laid-back I still find it tiring and I need recovery time.
So next time you see a neurodivergent person functioning well at work remember that it’s very likely they’re depleting their energy, and they’ll need to repay it later. It always comes with a cost.
Wednesday
No business stuff today. I didn’t do anything before work. I then had a very social day at work, with multiple meetings. So when I got home I was wrecked, and mostly read my current book and hung out with the family.
Thursday
This day was a really good example of me avoiding the boring last steps – but I got there in the end! 😆
5.00 – Went for an 11km trail run with the husband. I need to reconsider Thursday morning runs – I always have a work hangover, so I’m fatigued and sluggish. But I also have an upcoming 25km trail run so I need to train.
9.00 – I finished transferring the course content, editing as I went. It’s starting to look like a real course!
I had regular breaks, and also dealt with a few tricky emails regarding non-work stuff, like the kids’ Greek citizenship applications.
12.00 – Nap, lunch, family time
2.10 – Final draft and polish
3.00 – Wandered off and did other stuff
4.30 – Made myself finish the final draft. The written content, formatting, and images are all done – woohoo!
5.30 – Finished for the day
Friday
5.20 – Got woken up by the husband’s very loud alarm. Nearly fell back asleep…until my daughter arrived back from a trip away at 5.40 and her dogs went bananas. Admitted defeat and got up.
6.00 – Went over the course so I had a big-picture view. Made a feedback form and linked it in the course. Added in a couple of draft bonus lesson ideas (no content yet, just templated). Ended up reading with a cup of tea, making the most of a peaceful house where I was the only one awake.
7.15 – Did the chores without the husband, which means feeding and watering the cows, goats, dogs, cat, 3 separate flocks of chooks, quail, rabbits…it’s a lot!
8.00 – Took all my scribbled notes and started drafting this post.
8.30 – Food time. Got stuck reading. Set up my son for his online speech therapy and did his homework last-minute.
9.45 – Set up an automation and wrote a welcome email.
Fixed up anchor button links on sales page, and tested purchase of product. It worked – I got access and the welcome email!
10.10 – Went off to organise forms for Rex’s driver assessment, and ended up losing the rest of the day. We had to go to town for appointments and the big monthly shop.
Talked to multiple children on the phone as two of them are getting ready for their SES tasks for upcoming severe flooding, and the other is organising an interstate move.
When we got home we unpacked, did all the chore stuff, and I accidentally fell asleep. So after 10.10am the day was a write-off in terms of business.
Saturday
5.15 – Farm chores, parkrun tail walking, 6km run afterwards, home, more farm chores, shower, cocoa – Saturday mornings are busy.
10.30 – Did my monthly stats for this site and Dye DIY. I do this on the first of every month.
10.50 – Rather late breakfast with a book. Cut my hair. Had to deal with some stuff.
12.40 – Slapped some makeup on, set up my recording studio (aka corner of my bedroom) and started recording videos.
3.00 – Husband and daughter came running in to tell me that Rumble in the Jungle tickets have been released, so we all bought tickets.
I’m really going to regret entering the 50km run…but everyone else is doing it.
3.30 – Kicked them out and recorded the last two videos.
3.50 – Finished! Went and had a break.
4.05 – Editing videos
4.40 – Food
6.30 – Back to editing videos
7.25 – My eldest daughter called from work, and agreed to run the ultra with us. She also volunteered her boyfriend – he’s going to get a surprise. I buy them both tickets.
7.40 – Edit another video.
7.50 – The lure of the lovely evening outside is too much. I make cocoas and go sit out there with the family.
8.40 – Determined to get those last two videos edited tonight.
10.10 – It’s done! All the videos are edited, compressed, and uploaded to the course, I’ve done a final fly-through edit, and I’ve submitted it for inclusion in Lizzy’s promotion.
Technically, it all works, and it’s all pretty good. I need to do a sales page review and course review in a few days with fresh eyes.
But for now, I’m going to bed.
Wrapping up
And that was pretty much it.
The following week I did a quick review of the course and the sales page. I tidied up some wording in the course, and added two images to the sales page.
I’ll then need to add in evergreen marketing, so it can sell on autopilot
- add it to my menu bar
- create a Convertbox pop-up
- Add links inside my evergreen email sequence
- Add links inside my existing blog posts & content
But right now I’m about to email this post and my new $9 course out to my email list, and see what they think – I’ll update when I have the results.
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