Day 1–100 Days To Becoming An Online Course Instructor
I can make my coaching and facilitation business a reality.
Right now, I am feeling excited. And scared.
Excited, because I want to progress my business and this project will help me to do that. Scared, because 15 May 2021 (Day 100) seems simultaneously very close and a long way off.
In two years, I have “put myself out there”. I have an audience, but I wouldn’t say that my coaching and facilitation business is yet a reality. Not in my eyes, anyway.
I don’t know what makes this year different to any other year. There are times when I can’t help thinking that taking on this 100-day challenge could really be me embarking on a journey where I end up documenting a full-blown failure, visible to the entire world. Mostly, I know this year will be different, and that I will be celebrating some form of success in 100 days.
Some background. I work full time for someone else while trying to build a coaching business on the side. I love my job, but my long term goal is to become fully self-employed. Two years ago, I finished an amazing ontological coaching course. I was full of theory and feeling anxious about creating my business. I decided to continue finding myself — understanding my anxiety and who I wanted to be in the coaching world became a priority. And I have now done that. I can finally declare it:
I am a coach and facilitator.
This year, I want to challenge myself to create products that I will sell. I want to become a solid coaching offer.
The first step in this is to design, market and deliver a course. Hence the 100-days project and the following declaration:
I will develop, market and sell an online program that helps everyday people to navigate their emotions.
I am not concerned with how much I achieve in 100 days, only that I consistently show progress.
Knowledge
I have a hangup about the word “knowledge”. My interpretation is that humans spend all of our lives trying to acquire and accumulate knowledge and in doing so, we often fall in a heap and judge ourselves when we don’t have (enough of) it.
Our obsession with knowledge has the power to break us, and it often does. Knowledge has become a possession.
For this project, I am interpreting knowledge to be the things that improve my ability to take action towards my goal. Knowledge is not a heap of information that I will acquire in an attempt to define myself as knowledgeable. Knowledge is an assessment of my ability to take action.
That probably sounds pedantic. Maybe the definitions even sound similar.
My simple truth is that focusing on my ability to take action feels useful. Focusing on knowing things so that I can say I know things does not. Focusing on my ability to take action also reminds me to consider things other than “knowing”. All of a sudden, feeling able to ask for help becomes something that will help me to take action, even though it is also readily admitting that I don’t know.
On Day One, I believe I have the ability to take action in the following ways:
- Outlining and writing a program that provides some solid foundations for navigating emotions in everyday life, whatever that might end up being.
- Choosing a course platform and implementing my program on that platform.
- Breaking down my goal into smaller tasks for the next 100 days.
- Understanding the thoughts, emotions and physiology that support me or don’t support me in taking action for this goal.
I feel as though I don’t yet have the ability to take action in the following areas:
- Marketing a course.
- Building my mailing list.
And this is where I keep getting stuck.
The truth is that I have been doing everything possible to avoid marketing my programs. I am worried about failing. Ironic really, because in taking care of not failing, I am inadvertently creating a reality where I am not succeeding!
Time to overcome my fear of marketing and, in particular, my fear of failing at it.
What I Have Learnt
On Day One, I feel as though I have learned a lot…
Lesson 1 — Be prepared to ask for help and/or accept offers of help.
As I was trying to plan out my course writing goal, two things happened:
- Andy Taylor offered me the opportunity to write about my 100 days of progress.
- Another friend offered me a conversation about what would help me to focus on my goal.
I accepted both offers.
These stories are my vehicle for accountability.
From accepting these offers, I learned that it is ok to ask for and accept help. Not only that, but it is acceptable that asking for and accepting help occur as valid steps in making progress.
Lesson 2 — Break the task down and keep it simple.
It is easy to become overwhelmed when a task seems huge. So, break it down.
My first step is going to be to find people in my target audience to interview. Over a period of a couple of weeks, I expect to become more knowledgeable (or able to take action) with regard to defining a program that speaks to my target audience.
Lesson 3 — Change the stories that I am telling myself.
I keep telling myself stories that aren’t helpful:
- It is wrong to accept money for helping people.
- I have to figure the whole process out before I can take action.
I will change these stories. I haven’t yet. I will soon.
Lesson 4 — It can be helpful to deliberately choose the emotions from which we will operate.
I have used the technique of choosing my emotions many times previously and I love doing so. However, I was so caught up in not failing that I had forgotten to take this step. I’ve remembered now. I choose:
- Curiosity
- Wonder
- Enthusiasm
Lesson 5 — It is OK to not know.
Getting caught up in not knowing is a thing that I do well. I start by doubting myself because I don’t know. Then, I become resigned to never knowing.
And then I become stuck.
This journey is about becoming unstuck. It is about accepting that I don’t know how to take action in every possible scenario. It is about reminding myself that I don’t know yet. It is ok not to know. I can learn.
Not knowing does not make me a failure.
Progress
On Day One, I have achieved the following:
- I am at peace with my goal and feel as though it can be accomplished.
- I have a plan for moving my goal forward. I will identify 20–30 people I can interview to help me understand what my online program will specifically offer.
- I have shifted to curiosity, enthusiasm and wonder.
- I have accepted offers that I feel will help me.
I wonder where this will go? I can’t wait to find out.
1/1/100 (Days on track / Days gone / 100) So far, I am on track.