I have a confession to make.
I first started making/selling my own digital courses in 2009 – and to this day, it’s really, really, really hard for me to sit down and actually make new courses.
I know some people who are able to just pump out course after course after course like it’s nothing. Not me.
There are a handful of reasons for that:
- I tend to overthink things. I think this is common, but even if an idea starts out "simple" in my head, I am going to complicate it. Every time.
- I’m a dad with 2 kids under 7 years old so time is scarce. One of the beautiful parts of running a solopreneur business is I’m able to spend so much time with my kids and wife. The not-so-beautiful part is that I have to be extremely strict with how much time I spend on the business – which leaves very little time for creating new courses.
- Coming up with new course ideas THAT WILL SELL is hard. Coming up with ideas is hard enough, but having ideas that will actually sell and be worth the time investment, is one of the hardest parts of any business. And since I tend to overthink things (point #1 above) I can fall into a trap of talking myself out of following through on a particular course idea.
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Actually making courses is typically a long, hard, draining process. I will give up before the finish line – only because my perfectionism will kick in, I’ll start overthinking things, and I’ll burn out. Spending months working on a single course is a guaranteed death sentence for me.
But… I make my living from selling digital courses.
And I wouldn’t have it any other way because it gives me my ideal lifestyle – time with my family, living in my favorite place in the world, and the ability to be a successful solopreneur who doesn’t have to manage/oversee other people.
It’s possible because I’ve figured out tricks over the years that overcome every issue I listed above.
One of the most powerful is the idea of Email Delivered Courses (EDCs).
- I only make a course when I’ve proven people will buy it (and I made my first [and most successful] EDC without a list of any kind – something I’ll come back to in a second)
- After creating a very rough outline, I make the course 1-3 days at a time in tiny bite-sized chunks, each lesson delivered daily over email (this means I’m not able to fall into the perfectionist trap – lessons have to go out every day, and they’re short enough that I don’t get lost while writing them, and honestly I need a little fire under my butt to get stuff done and this gives the perfect level of burn)
- I’m getting live feedback from my first batch of customers every day, who let me know if what I’m teaching makes sense or needs further clarification (another trick that keeps me from getting stuck in the perfectionist trap)
- An ideal EDC is only 30-45 days long – so I know after a month, I’ll be done and will have a course that sells forever
- Coming up with ideas is actually relatively easy because EDCs can just be "skill building challenges" where I’m sending simple repetitive exercises every day that keep my customers accountable to building new skills (or they can be more in-depth courses where I’m sharing my expertise on a subject in bite-sized chunks)
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And if I don’t prove there’s demand for my idea within the first 7 days, I simply don’t make it (and move onto the next idea)
But one of the biggest benefits to EDCs is they basically train my customers to associate my name in their inbox with massive value every time – which means I’m left with a hyper-responsive list that opens & values everything I send after the course is done.
If you know you need to get into building your own course, but you struggle the same way I do, creating an EDC can absolutely change your life.
This simple concept has absolutely changed mine (not an exaggeration).
It’s the difference between THINKING about making a new course…
…and actually MAKING IT and then SELLING IT FOREVER.
And the whole problem of "I don’t have a list" or "I don’t have an idea" become irrelevant.
I want to teach you everything I know about building EDCs from scratch.
Starting tomorrow, I’m going to be building an EDC live – that walks you through how to build EDCs from scratch in 30-45 days that you can then sell forever.
(So meta, I know.)
We’ll also be covering how to maintain your mailing list after – so you have a second asset (outside of your course) that you can profit from forever.
Even just seeing one of these built in real time could be a game changer for you – and be enough to make the idea really "click" in your head.
I’m always a little uncomfortable saying things like this but this concept has helped me build multiple courses that have gone on to make me millions over the last decade – and even if it makes just a fraction of that for you, I guarantee it’ll be worth 100x-1,000x what you’ll pay to learn it.
And if you DON’T feel it’s worth that to you? Just shoot me a single email within the first 30 days of the course and get all your money back.
If this is something you need, I want it to be a complete no-brainer for you.
The only catch: the cart closes tonight at 11:59PM PDT.
And when it re-opens in the future, it’ll cost 2x more.
So I recommend you join right now, go through the course, start building your own EDC following my instructions, then decide if it’s the right match for you.
This is going to be a lot of fun and I genuinely hope I get to see you inside.
— Derek