Quick Tips to Build Your Confidence as a Course Creator

Creating an online course can be scary. Here are some quick tips to help you build your confidence as a course creator.

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Halfway through creating my online course, I almost quit.

People had already bought it during my pre-sell period, but I was ready to refund everyone and walk away.

Lack of confidence + imposter syndrome were both eating me alive.

All of the content I was creating felt like a joke. It felt made up and unhelpful.

But a small (dare I say, almost non-existent) voice told me:

Just finish it.

But even after I finished it, I didn’t even want to promote it!

Deep down, I felt that my course was despicable. I had this horrible feeling that as soon as someone bought it, they would message me and say:

You tricked me into buying an online course that has nothing useful in it. I want a refund! 

These are the very real doubts and thoughts of bloggers, coaches, retirees, and entrepreneurs creating online courses these days. 

So I want to share some valuable strategies you can use to build your confidence and work WITH this voice as you’re creating your online course.

Because the problem is, the voice doesn’t ever go away.

You just end up developing a muscle for letting it be there AS you create your course.

Below are a few things to keep in mind.

Build Your Confidence By Realizing You’re Not the Best Judge of Your Worth

Think of your favorite person. If they came to you and said, “I’m horrible”, what would you say to them?

You’d probably tell them that they were amazing, smart, talented, and everything you always wanted to be!

The problem is that we’re not the best judge of our worth.

One of my subscribers emailed me the other day to tell me he had four years of experience with teaching but still didn’t feel like an expert.

He may not have been the best judge of his own worth, because from where I was sitting, that was a TON of expertise to put into an online course.

The takeaway here is to realize that your feelings about your competence (or lack thereof) are usually lying to you.

Here are a couple of tricks I like to do when these low self-worth feelings start to creep in:

1. 1. I pretend my sabotaging thoughts are speaking a different language and I can’t understand them.
   2. I think like a goldfish with a 5-second memory (thanks Ted Lasso!). I intentionally forget and keep moving.
   3. I imagine that my good thoughts are like rolling stones in a river stuck on a branch (i.e., a negative thought). I tell myself to let the negative thought go and visualize my good thoughts (the stones) being carried away by the river, undisturbed.

Remember That Fear is a Door 

At the root of all of our sabotaging thoughts about creating an online course is fear.

I’m a big believer that there are only two choices we have in this world: love or fear.

So if how we feel about our course isn’t love, it’s fear.

Now there’s a lot to be said about fear, but one way I look at it is…

…it’s like a door we are afraid of walking through.

On the other side is only a feeling.

Quick example:

I’m afraid of driving the freeway because of an accident a long time ago.

When I get scared on the road, instead of clamming up, I think of my fear like a door, and it makes it slightly easier to move through.

What’s on the other side? What would that feel like? Be open to exploring that feeling.

Fear is not a wall that you can’t get through, but an opening and an invitation to see what’s on the other side.

This is something that can help you through your fears to deliver content you are passionate about creating.

You might be afraid that people won’t learn anything in your course, but really, we are only afraid of a feeling on the other side of a door.

What would happen if you put the course out anyway, and stepped through to the other side? What would you see or feel? Explore that!

Develop Your “Do it Anyway” Muscle to Build Your Confidence 

I once heard Seth Godin mention that we never really abolish our fears — we just do things that scare us anyway, with our fears riding shotgun.

I like this idea because fear will always be there.

And what I tell many aspiring course creators is that you’ve got to develop your ‘do it anyway’ muscle.

It’s not a muscle that’s easy to develop, but you can start small and exercise it over time.

If you’re afraid that you might not be creating the right content in your course, create the outline anyway, just to get it done.

You can always join a Facebook group in your niche or talk to people in your industry to get a clearer idea of whether you’re on the right track — but don’t let your fear of creating the ‘wrong’ content stop you when you feel the inspiration to write.

And even down the line after you’ve validated your course idea and you’re about 60% sure you’ve got content that’s going to work, create the course anyway.

You’re never going to 100% know your target audience. People, ideas, products, and technology are always changing. People may love one thing one minute and change their minds the next!

This shouldn’t keep you from creating.

Marie Forleo once said that clarity comes from engagement, not thought. 

This means you have to create your course anyway. You have to take action, even if you don’t feel 100% confident about it.

Once you do, you will know exactly whether people like it or not, because it will be out there and people will buy it and give you their feedback.

So even when you’re unsure, I want you to keep moving forward and “doing it anyway”.

Build Your Confidence By Facing Everything and Rising (F.E.A.R)

There’s a quote by Zig Ziglar that says: “F-E-A-R has two meanings: ‘Forget Everything And Run’ or ‘Face Everything And Rise.’ The choice is yours.”

I don’t know about you, but I feel a little different each time I do something that scares me.

In 2021, I had the opportunity to interview Amy Porterfield, and I was a nervous wreck for weeks beforehand.

I couldn’t sleep the night before and I took the entire day to sit in front of my computer and panic-prepare.

After the interview though, I felt like a new person. A different person.

It was as though something chipped away at the person I thought I was, and I became the person I really was — a freakin’ warrior.

Sometimes you have to play the Zig Ziglar card and face everything and rise.

Just that thought alone (face everything and rise) during a scary time is enough to pull something strong out of you.

Use it the next time you feel scared and watch the strong person come out.

It might feel small at first, but a stronger, more confident you is in there, inching outward the more and more you do things that feel scary!

It’s time for you to give those scary things a try.

To Conclude…

I want you to know that I’m with you. We’re all afraid. It takes courage to create, and 98% of the time it’s scary AF.

But the more you take action and the more you step through your ‘fear’ doorway, the more you’re going to develop the muscle to be able to do it over and over.

Heck, you may even start seeing that sabotaging voice for what it really is — a fearful untruth that isn’t worthy of you.

Do not stop. Be open to finding out what happens when you ‘do it anyway’.

Let’s walk through that scary door together!

To your online course success,

Monique