What to do When Your Course Serves Multiple Audiences
In this episode, Dr. Catrina Mitchum works through a live troubleshoot with Mike McQuillan, speaking coach and owner of Fit Presenter. Mike built a course for one audience, but his business has grown in a different direction and the course hasn't caught up. The conversation turns into a practical lesson in one of the most common course creation problems: what to do when the course you built is no longer for the people you thought you were serving.
What We Work Through
Why a course that isn't working might be a content problem, an audience problem, or both... and how to tell the difference
What to do when your course is trying to serve multiple audiences at the same time
How to write feedback questions that actually tell you what you need to know
Why you should design for the time your learners actually have, and then cut that number in half
Why surveying your new audience before you rebuild anything is non-negotiable
Mike came in with a course that had drifted from its original purpose and left with a clearer picture of what to keep, a smarter approach to gathering feedback, and a roadmap for rebuilding around the people who are actually showing up.
About the Guest
Mike McQuillan is a speaking coach and the owner of Fit Presenter, where he helps solopreneurs develop their storytelling and presentation skills.
Connect with Mike:
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-mcquillan-fitpresenter/
Website: https://fit-presenter.com
Apply to be a guest: https://forms.gle/RDHPskg81r3GhSd59
Connect with Catrina:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/catrina-mitchum-learning-design
Subscribe to my Cut the Course Creation Crap Newsletter
Music credit: Alex Mitchum
Alex, Catrina's youngest brother, was a jazz guitarist and his family established a scholarship in his name at his alma mater. Please consider donating: https://www.alexmitchum.com/scholarship
BS Breakthrough: Do you need to re-record your videos, or is there a deeper problem?
Sometimes the question you've been stuck on isn't actually the problem. In this BS Breakthroughs episode, Dr. Catrina Mitchum unpacks her recent conversation with speaking coach Mike McQuillan, who came in asking about video production quality and walked out building an entirely different course for a brand new audience. If your course isn't doing what you hoped it would, this one is worth your time.
What We Work Through
Why the question you're asking about your course might be a symptom, not the real problem
What it looks like when one course is trying to do three different jobs at once, and why that's a losing situation for everyone
How drastically different audiences (think: busy gym owners vs. college athletes with zero margin for error) require courses built from scratch, not retrofitted versions of something that already exists
Why designing around learner constraints, specifically time, energy, and competing priorities, matters more than how much content you can fit into a module
Two concrete steps to figure out whether your course has an audience problem, a design problem, or both
If you've ever felt like your course isn't working but couldn't quite put your finger on why, Dr. Catrina's breakdown of Mike's situation is probably going to feel familiar. Go back and listen to the full episode with Mike first if you haven't yet, then come back here. The link is in the show notes.
Referenced in This Episode
Episode 3: Mike McQuillan on speaking, storytelling, and presentation skills for solopreneurs
Apply to be a guest: https://forms.gle/RDHPskg81r3GhSd59
Check out the YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/@coursecreatorplaybook
Connect with Catrina:
LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/catrina-mitchum-learning-design
Subscribe to my Cut the Course Creation Crap Newsletter
Music credit: Alex Mitchum
Alex, Catrina's youngest brother, was a jazz guitarist and his family established a scholarship in his name at his alma mater. Please consider donating: https://www.alexmitchum.com/scholarship