Online course creation starts with a foundation most coaches skip. Skipping it is the reason clients don't get the transformation they were promised. Most coaches sit down to create a course and start asking "what should I teach?" That question gets them into trouble every time. They end up with a pile of content that goes in ten directions and clients who finish without the result they paid for. The content isn't the problem. The missing foundation is.

In this episode I walk you through the four-part foundation every course needs before you record a single video.

You'll learn:

• Why starting with "what should I teach?" gives you a course with no destination
• How to define the specific transformation your course delivers before you build anything
• Why most coaches build for the client they wish they had instead of the one they actually have
• What prerequisites are, why they're different from your starting point, and why skipping them sets clients up to fail
• How to check whether the distance between your starting point and your destination is actually achievable in one course

Most course creation advice skips straight to marketing and launch strategy. But a course that doesn't deliver on its transformation won't be saved by a good launch. The foundation work is what makes everything else work. Do it first and building your course gets a lot easier.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I spent 17 years as a college professor building over 30 courses from scratch, and I help fully booked coaches build group programs that deliver real results for their clients and scale their business without adding more hours.

Grab the free workbook that goes with this episode. Every step is in there with prompts and examples so you're not staring at a blank page:

The 30 Minute Program Foundation

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Book a free Program Roadmap Call

Note: This episode was recorded under the show's original name, Course Creation for Solopreneurs. The podcast is now called Program Design for Coaches. The name changed to better reflect what's actually working in the coaching space right now. Group programs where the coach is present and involved are what's selling, and that's the direction this show has moved. The instructional design principles in this episode apply whether you're building a course or a group program, so everything you hear still works.

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