137 – How To Design Powerful Training Courses

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Highlights in this episode:

00:27 – My Simple framework you can use to plan your course
00:45 – Using the popular ‘4mat’ format
01:18 – Why keep it under 12 minutes?
01:34 – The module format in action
02:19 – Today’s action step – Start your very own course module

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Transcription:

James Schramko here with a business tip and this one is going to help you create information products or to create courses for your customers even if they are consumer guides or paid products.

So, I put out a lot of products, usually one per month at a minimum, and many people come to me and say “James, do you have a template or framework for creating an information product?”, and the answer is YES I do.

The Framework Of Designing A Powerful Training Course
So here’s my process. I rule up a big whiteboard into a grid and it is the “product outline board” and it simply has columns which are the Course Intro, then Topic 1, Topic 2, Topic 3, so on and so forth, and in the end is the course summary. And then down the page, I simply have Introduction, WHY, WHAT, HOW, What IF, and this is using the popular “4mat” format.

So we want to explain with each module the introduction to the module. Why do we need to know this? What is it? How do we do it? and What about this or what about that? – covering off objections. And then you have a summary. Summary should be the “action steps” after each module.  So if you use this format, then you are going to have information modules that are useful to people.

Designing A Powerful Training Course

The 12 Minute Principle
I recommend if you’re using videos or audios that you keep them under 12 minutes, that is the maximum.  Two to twelve minutes is ideal. Short modules get high retention. And now if you want people to actually learn things, keep it short and finish on an “action step”.

Start Your Very Own Course Module Today
Now let’s run through this with this particular training module right now. So the introduction is I’m going to tell you about my training format. Why do you need to know this? Well, it’s going to make creating products much easier for you in the future. What do you do? You create a whiteboard with modules that you fill out so that you know exactly what each module is going to look like in advance.

How do you do it? You simply rule up the whiteboard, fill in the squares and then create your modules according to the plan. Now what if you’ve never done it before? Don’t worry, you can always ask me a question right near this video. You’ll find it gets easier and easier the more you do it. And then of course you have the action steps. The action step today is to go and rule up your whiteboard into a grid using the format supplied and create your first module.

Come back and post how you went. I’m James Schramko and I’d like to hear from you.

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