She Knew What to Teach. The Problem Was 'How'
How an hour strategy session helped a coach turn eight modules of 'what to teach' into a six-module self-study academy that brand-new members actually complete.
"I know WHAT I want to teach... but I need help organizing it so members can actually IMPLEMENT it without getting overwhelmed."
That’s what Amoya sent to me in her strategy session intake form. That and a 1300 word outline for her Academy. She runs The Society, a $27-a-month membership that she keeps at a low price because $27 was a stretch for her too, at one time. She built an academy inside one before but it wasn’t designed as a self-study because it had frequent calls.
This time, Amoya wanted to build something folks could move through on their own AND be successful in. She came to a strategy session with a detailed eight-module outline and one specific fear: that her members would get overwhelmed and quit.
What She Really Needed
Amoya came in ready to go. Her outline was detailed (seriously, 1300 words is 2.5 single spaced pages), but the flow felt cumbersome and overwhelming. She booked to get her outline fixed.
But the outline wasn’t the problem. I could see every step and what each module would cover. What I didn’t see? HOW they would do the things she was promising. When we’re designing self-paced on demand courses that gap is mission critical and needs to drive the structure of your course.
You are the connective tissue in a live cohort or program; without you, the distance between “here’s the info” and “here’s what to do with it” is where people quit. So her outline didn’t need to be cleaner, but it did need to be flipped: lead with the task, attach only the information required to do it. We don’t talk at people to give them value.
Also? She needed permission to cut. She’d planned 3 big goals for her members across eight modules. Three goals is a big lift in self-study in that short amount of time. It’s the core of the overwhelm.
The Session Work
So we turned the structure inside out by leading with how they were going to do the thing she said they were going to do. The how was the gap so we closed those micro gaps every step of the way.
Then we cut. Ruthlessly. Originally, this outline had folks setting three goals; we cut it to one. Why? Because even the most type-A of us struggles to hold on to and reach one goal without accountability. If this was going to be self-study with the bigger community being support, we needed to simplify.
That also means eight modules became six over twelve weeks, because past that point a self-study audience drifts and you lose people. Adults need wins and context to continue with learning; when we stretch those things out too far it can be difficult to stay motivated. Narrowing to a single goal with specifics around how they’re getting there gave her space to realize that a lot of the information she was planning to give them wasn’t necessary.
From there, we went after the spots where self-study clients drop off: the first decision they have to make. In this particular course, it was which area of their lives to work on. People freeze. It’s why so many people are coached through that activity. So instead of asking them to reason their way to the right one, we talked through giving them an audio that would have them feel through the choice that makes the biggest impact.
We leaned into what Amoya already talks about in terms of mind and body needing to be connected and not “shoulding” on ourselves. This was how we built differentiation into the course: a guided exercise for folks struggling to choose and written prompts for those who don't need to do that work.
The other trap people fall into during that same exercise is overlap. I don’t know about you, but my life areas bleed together, and when people try to choose the “correct” goal, they get stuck. I’ve watched this same exercise show up in a bajillion programs pretending these are clean cut categories. We decided that naming the overlap and letting them decide and giving them permission to let things be squishy as they’re trying to make things concrete not only would set her clients up for success, but would also set her program apart.
The core practice of the course is asking members to imagine their goal as already real and write from inside it. For someone brand new (that’s never played sports), that’s a big leap. So we built a ramp. First they write a simple what-if scenario that’s low stakes, with a worked example for each live area. I gave her one of mine to model it: what if I could hike without my can? What would that look and feel like?
The core of the session was the “how-to” functions as the thread holding everything together. Then every video, every audio, everything she teaches supports that.
What she Built After
She rebuilt the academy from the outline we created in that one-hour session. That new outline focused on:
One goal instead of 3, with the structure being easy to rinse and repeat when they’re ready to move on to another goal.
Six modules instead of eight, with 12-16 week pacing.
Every module leads with tasks
The workbook is the anchor because the doing is the anchor.
Videos are shorter because of this narrow focus and the real focus is providing scenarios and examples around what they’re going to DO.
After the session she said, “I went from overwhelmed with creating my Academy to taking action."
She is still building. At the time of this writing, she’s provided her members with 4/6 modules. Around the halfway mark, she shared this:
"I just filmed Module 3 from bed and it's so helpful to have Catrina's notes so I stay focused. That session with her helped me not get overwhelmed and stay focused.”
What She Learned
That her members are past versions of herself and past Amoya didn’t know what she knows now. She kept catching herself mid-session, a little surprised at first that the things that feel obvious to her are brand new to the person who just bought in.
Expertise does that. It buries the beginning so deep you forget you ever didn't know. Once she designed for that person who doesn’t have her shorthand, her frameworks, or her years of reps, instead of for herself, the overwhelm she'd been afraid of stopped being a risk and started being the thing the structure was built to prevent.
She also learned that when she stops trying to over deliver (even if it’s from a good place), people get results. One client said "I just got to the part where I chose my domino life area. It wasn't even what I thought I'd choose when I started."
The Takeaway
A strategy session is an hour with someone who can look at what you’ve got and name the thing you can’t see because you’re too close to it. In this case, it was an outline built around the material instead of the “how” of doing. That hour mattered because anyone can build a course people buy. Building one where your people finish the work on their own time?
That’s the bit most people don’t get right. Amoya’s members, though, they’re finishing what they started.
So if you’re stuck or unsure of what your next step is, I get a lot done in just one hour, check out my strategy sessions.