Below is an archive of every blog post shared through this site since 2010. For posts by topic, check out articles on marketing, leadership, and building new products.
For new posts, check out my Substack newsletter and subscribe:
Happy New Year’s Eve!
Here are my top 5 blog posts of 2021:
1. In Online Ed, Content is no longer King–Cohorts are
2. Course Mechanics Canvas: 12 levers to achieve course market fit
3. The Super Specific How: How to make your cohort-based course more rigorous
4. The State Change Method: How to deliver engaging live lectures on Zoom
5. How to instantly show your value
Read MoreWe’re in a post-content age. It used to be that original educational content was scarce: a decade ago, such content was a major selling point for universities and accelerators.
Today, however, educational content is cheap and abundant on YouTube, in newsletters, on blogs, and on social media. People view learning-related content on YouTube 500 million times every day; the free YouTube channel Crash Course, for instance, features instructors with PhDs in everything from physics to organic chemistry.
Read MoreCourse creators often ask the same questions about how to get started: How much should I charge for my course? How long should my course be? How many students should I aim for?
Enter the Course Mechanics Canvas. By using this framework, you’ll be able to make more confident decisions about your course pricing, length, student count, and more. Instead of guessing and shooting in the dark, you will have the language to discuss and shape your course around your unique circumstances and goals.
These are the same 12 levers I used with 1:1 consulting clients to design their courses from scratch, including directly working on building Section4, William Ury (Getting Past No/Getting to Yes), Morning Brew, and helping to level up Write of Passage, Ascend, and Build a Second Brain.
If you’re a creator who wants to create a cohort-based course, but are overwhelmed by where to start, this post is for you.
Read MoreSince launching my startup a few months ago and putting a name on the concept of “cohort-based courses”, there’s been growing excitement in the online education community about this new, more engaging way of learning.
But what makes cohort-based courses (CBCs) so engaging compared to other forms of online education?
Read MoreStudents don't owe you their attention. Once you internalize this, you can embrace the fact that it's your responsibility to keep your audience engaged.
Listening to one person talk for long stretches of time is mind-numbing--especially on Zoom where you have to sit still, stare ahead, and maintain eye contact with a screen. If you’re teaching online, whether informally or formally, it's important to make sure your audience is awake and paying attention.
Read MoreI’ve compiled my favorite ways to convey your product’s value prop. These apply to products and brands, but feel free to apply this to people too. These work for job interviews, selling yourself as a consultant, etc.
Read MoreThe last newsletter of the year... What to write about? This was a weird year. There was a pandemic, but at the same time, I’m grateful too. I bought my first home! And started a company. And I met a lot of cool new friends via this newsletter/Twitter/the internet.
Read MoreCommunities are a focal point of cohort-based courses (CBCs). You can't have a start and end date, and just expect a high completion rate. You need community to help students stay motivated and stick through learning hard things. So how is community building different for CBCs vs other types of organizations? What unique challenges do courses bring?
Read MoreEarlier this week, my cofounder Gagan and I launched a crowdfunding campaign for anyone to apply to invest in our startup. This is a pretty new way to raise money and there isn’t much precedent for it, but I’ve been excited about it since we got the idea over the summer.
Read MoreDo you ever write something and think, “Damn that’s good. I should save this to use elsewhere”?
If you’re like me, you’ve saved scripts for a bunch of different occasions. It’s useful because you don’t have to think from scratch and it saves time.
But one thing I realized is having a script doesn’t mean you can turn off your brain.
Read More