Stop Wasting Your Time Creating the Best Course

Here’s What to Do Instead

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Most creators spent weeks (or even months) trying to create the best course.

And when comes time to launch…

They throw their hands in frustration because it doesn’t like hotcakes.

Perhaps you’ve tried it yourself… or have been in the process of doing so.

If that’s you, stop it.

I know exactly what you’re feeling because I’ve been in the same boat for many years.

Today I make a six-figure income out of my own courses, but it hasn’t always been that way.

You don’t need a perfect course to start making money

Perhaps you’ve read all the advice, watched all the tutorials, and maybe even paid for a few pricey courses on how to make courses.

But for some reason, you’re stuck.

You might start to think, “Maybe my course isn’t good enough. Maybe I need to add more content, polish my videos, or hire a professional editor.”

The problem is, the more you try to perfect your course, the more time you waste, and the less energy you have to focus your efforts on what’s really bringing in business.

The longer you spend perfecting something no one knows about, the more your confidence takes a hit.

What makes it worse is perhaps the frustration of comparing what you have to offer — your knowledge, your experience, your expertise — with what your competitors are doing.

You look at their best-selling courses and think, “How are they making this work? My content is just as good, if not better.” It’s maddening to see others succeed while you struggle. God bless them. But hey, we’re human. You deserve your part of the pie, too.

Bottom line: you really don’t understand how they are able to make their courses successful even with inferior knowledge and perhaps flawed methodologies.

It’s not your fault.

There’s the common narrative that “if you build something great, people will come.”

But the truth is the opposite: it doesn’t matter how amazing your course is if no one knows about it. It’s like opening the best restaurant in town but forgetting to put up a sign.

The ugly truth about course buyers

People don’t buy the best product; they buy from people they know, like, and trust.

And they buy from people they feel know them better than anyone else.

Think about it: how many times have you purchased something because a friend or someone you respect recommended it? You didn’t need to be convinced it was the best — you trusted their judgment.

Take the example of Instagram influencers, especially those in the beauty and makeup space.

They don’t always have the most polished content, and let’s be real — most of them are promoting cheap, mass-produced Chinese crap to their audiences.

But guess what? Their followers still eat it up.

Why? Because their audience feels a personal connection with them. They’ve built trust over time by consistently showing up, sharing their lives, and being real with their followers. It’s not about selling the best products; it’s about selling themselves — being relatable, reliable, and making their audience feel like they’re getting advice from a friend.

Humans are sheep, so they follow recommendations blindly.

Now, this is not a permit to create crappy content and sell crappy stuff. I simply want to show you that if this works with crappy products, just imagine how this is going to work with products where you’re delivering.

I’ve seen it happen time and time again. My own courses? They’re far from perfect. I mumble, I hesitate, and sometimes the slides are a little off. But guess what? People still buy them. Why? Because they trust me to help them solve a problem. They’re not looking for a Hollywood production; they’re looking for a solution. And that’s what they get.

So instead of wasting my time doing work that doesn’t move the needle, I invest that time into getting more eyeballs on my work.

When you focus on building an audience first — an audience that knows you, likes you, and trusts you — something magical happens. They’re more forgiving of imperfections. They’re more willing to give you the benefit of the doubt.

And most importantly, they’re more likely to buy what you’re selling, even if it’s not perfect.

A smarter way to create a best-selling course

So, stop wasting your time trying to create the best course out there. Instead, shift your focus.

Build a hungry audience of buyers first.

Instead of wasting your time looking for the best camera equipment or the best learning management software, invest your time in creating content.

Create content that gets you discovered. Create content that your audience wants to consume. Create content that gets you to the top of the search results.

Then channel those eyeballs onto your email list.

Once people are on your email list, start emailing them at least twice a week. I do daily emails. (You’ll see better results with daily, especially with a small audience.) But I want to keep it simple for you.

The more valuable emails you send, the more you’re going to start building that trust. Also, the more emails you send, the more touchpoints you have with your audience, which means that people are going to start asking questions or reaching out to ask if you consult for them. This is how you discover what your audience actually wants to learn.

You then take all these questions and all this feedback to start crafting your online course.

This is exactly what I did when I launched my course back in 2022.

I published articles on Medium about note-taking. I noticed what the audience wanted. I engaged in conversations. And that’s how I generated five figures in sales in 90 days.

This is what you should do before even thinking about creating a course.

Once you’ve done that, you can create a course that meets their needs — not some idealized version of the perfect course.

You don’t need to bake the most exquisite cake in the world to satisfy a sweet tooth. You just need to bake a cake that hits the spot.

As long as you have an audience and you create a course about something that they want to buy, it’s going to sell. So stop focusing on the wrong problems and start building that audience starting today.

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