Hey,
I once tried to follow my own instructions and couldn’t get past step one.
I was putting together a storytelling workshop. I had written out the full procedure, every step in order. It felt completely solid. So I tried to follow it as if I were someone who had never seen the material before.
It failed.
Right at the first step. That’s when I understood: knowing how to do something and knowing how to teach it are two entirely different skills.
Today I’m walking you through three options for testing your course instruction before you release it, so your clients can actually follow what you built.
Let’s start with why this matters more than most course creators realize.
There’s a version of this that happens to programmers all the time.
They build the software, test it for bugs, then ship when it looks right to them.
Then the complaints come in. Users are confused. The interface doesn’t work how they expected. Things are broken in ways the programmer never anticipated.
The programmer hears those complaints and thinks, those are minor issues. People are overcomplicating it.
Then someone sits them down and makes them WATCH a real user try to use the software.
That’s when it clicks. What looked simple from the inside is completely opaque from the outside. Suddenly the programmer understands what actually needs to change.
Coaches and consultants do the same thing. They build a course, think it’s great, get low completion rates or zero success stories, and assume the buyers just didn’t do the work.
But a lot of the time? The problem isn’t motivation.
It’s the instruction.
When you write your course content, you’re building a theory.
A theory of what it takes to guide someone who DOESN’T already know what you know through a process that feels completely natural to you.
That’s harder than it sounds.
Experts leave out steps they’ve stopped noticing. They assume context a beginner doesn’t have.
That’s what almost happened with my storytelling workshop. I knew the material cold. What I didn’t know was whether my instructions could guide someone who didn’t. Testing the instruction is what revealed that.
And testing it is the only thing that can.
If I had shipped that workshop without testing the instruction first, I would have been trying to figure out what was wrong live without the luxury of time to test and reflect.
That’s a terrible experience for everyone in the room.
Your content might be brilliant. But if the instruction is untested, you won’t know where the gaps are until your clients are already struggling through them.
Testing your instruction doesn’t have to be complicated.
Option 1: Test on yourself first.
Follow your own instructions. From the page. Exactly as written.
Step by step. Like someone seeing this material for the first time.
Where do you hesitate? Where do you find yourself skipping ahead because you already know what’s coming?
Every one of those moments is a gap. Fix it before anyone else has to find it for you.
If you can’t follow your own instructions without skipping steps, no one else can either.
Option 2: Test with one other person, and watch.
When I was preparing to teach at a new high school, I tested my methods of instruction on my sister. Walked her through exactly what I was planning to do with my classes.
My first days of school were so much better because of it.
Give them the material. Watch what happens. That’s it.
Where do they hesitate? Where do they ask a question you didn’t anticipate?
Those moments ARE your revision list.
One person is enough to find a TON of major gaps.
Option 3: Teach it live before you package it.
The first online course I ever made was called the SAT Essay Formula. Before I designed a single lesson, I had already spent months teaching kids how to write the SAT essay in live classes.
I made the teaching mistakes in person, figured out what actually worked, and watched students practice until I could see exactly where they got stuck.
By the time I wrote the book, my students said it felt like having my class in a book. That’s because it basically was: months of live teaching, refined into something someone could actually follow on their own.
If you have the opportunity to teach your material live first, take it. Even once. Even to a small group. Aim for 30 to 50 percent of the time being PRACTICE, not lecture. Watch what happens when people actually try to do the thing.
You’ll learn more from that one session than from ten rounds of revising your outline on your own.
Some people assume these options only apply to live teaching. They don’t.
If you’re building a self-paced course, you still test the instruction before you build it. The same three options apply. Follow your own instructions first. Then watch one other person try.
If you can, teach it live before you finalize anything.
The SAT Essay Formula worked as a self-paced course because I spent months teaching it live first. The final format was different but the testing process was the same.
Your instruction needs to be tested regardless of how it will eventually be delivered. Test it first. Then decide on the format.
When a course doesn’t deliver results, the creator usually assumes it’s a content problem. So to solve it, they add more content.
But more content doesn’t fix untested instruction. It just gives people more to get confused by.
So before you release it, test your instruction. Follow it yourself, step by step. And if you can, watch someone else try. Or teach it live first.
You’ll create a much better course as a result. You’ll get the success stories you were hoping for when you built the course. You’ll receive messages from clients saying “I can’t believe how much better I am at this now.”
That’s the thing worth testing for.
Rodney
Want a system that helps you build a course this way, focused, structured, and designed to actually get results?
Check out the Atomic Course Blueprint. It’s 33 pages, a repeatable method for building tiny courses that work, and it comes with a 60-day Smiley Guarantee. You must be satisfied or I’ll refund you.
As always, if you have questions or thoughts on today’s issue, just hit reply. I read every one.
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