Hello Reader,

Do you journal, or occasionally go back through old emails or texts? I journal more regularly now than I used to, and it's interesting to go back and see how differently I thought.

THIS WEEK

GIVE IT A SECOND LOOK

When I look back at the things I was really worried about or obsessing over, they seem so unimportant now. Or I think, "Oh, if only young me could have had this little bit of information, it would have been better."

You can do the same thing with your courses, and if you have a group program you absolutely should, because you've got new people coming in and going through those older pieces more often than you would with a course you have for sale. A course on a shelf usually doesn't get quite the attention it did when you first released it.

As we get to the end of the year, with Black Friday coming up and a new year approaching, it's easy to think, "Well, what new thing can I make now?" We're always in that cycle of having to create, having to create, and it's exhausting.

Instead, what if you took a trip down memory lane through your courses, the things you released and even the things you never finished, and gave them a second glance? Just like with your journal or old emails, you'll see a version of you that didn't know what you know now. You'll see messaging that might not fit the way you talk about your work now, because we all evolve and grow. But the process, the content, and the learning might still be sound and still good.

Maybe the platform you were using back then has had updates, new little things you could add to make your course even better. Think of all the lessons you've learned about your clients, like the questions they keep asking you after a session, the "okay, now what?" ones. You know them better than you did back then, and you can support them at a new level. Maybe you even have new offerings that would make sense to combine or add on. You could relaunch it, and add a new level of support for the people who already bought it. A well-designed course can keep getting your clients results long after you first build it.

So pick an old course, an unfinished course, or even a workshop you never did anything with, and go through it. The teacher in me wants you to grab a red pen. As you go, ask each piece two things. Does this still sound like me? Does it still fit where my business is going now? Find what works, and circle it so you know to leave it alone. Cross out what needs updating or a second look. See what you were missing then that you want to add now, and put your effort there. I'm sure it'll go a lot faster than starting from a blank page.

And if it starts to feel like a little too much, reach out. This is what I'm good at.

FROM MY DESK

My Take From Sessions talk is live this week, and it's pretty much this whole email in about 20 minutes. It's called Making What You Already Created Better with Course Archaeology, and it comes with The Course Dig, a little interactive tool that walks you through your own course and builds you an action plan you can save.

Each group of presentations is only open for 72 hours, so catch it before Thursday.

Sarah