If you've been trying to sell a course in 2026 and the numbers aren't adding up, the problem isn't your marketing. The market has structurally shifted. Courses are declining, and the practitioners who've been in this industry for years are saying it out loud.

In this episode I break down what's actually driving the decline, what's working instead, and what the 2026 buyer needs from you before they'll spend money.

You'll learn:

- Why standalone self-paced courses are losing ground in 2026

- How AI has undercut the information-delivery model that made courses so profitable

- Why course completion rates are making buyers think twice before purchasing

- What group programs are delivering that courses simply can't replicate

- How today's buyers are still spending, just with more discernment and longer sales cycles

The market hasn't dried up. The model has changed. Buyers aren't spending less on coaching, they're spending more carefully. The coaches and program creators who are winning right now are the ones who understand what buyers actually need before they'll commit, and they're building their offers around that.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I've spent 17 years as an educator and course designer, and I help coaches build group programs that scale their business without burning out their roster.

Ready to figure out if a group program is the right next move? Book a free Program Roadmap Call and let's talk through your options: https://curtissatterfield.com/work-with-curtis/

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Welcome to Course Creation for Solopreneurs, the podcast that helps you design online courses that actually transform your students and grow your business.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I've spent 17 years as an educator and course designer, helping thousands of students learn new skills. On this show, I'll help you build courses that get real results - courses that students actually finish, that generate testimonials, and that grow your business through word of mouth instead of constant marketing.

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Online course creation starts with a foundation most coaches skip. Skipping it is the reason clients don't get the transformation they were promised. Most coaches sit down to create a course and start asking "what should I teach?" That question gets them into trouble every time. They end up with a pile of content that goes in ten directions and clients who finish without the result they paid for. The content isn't the problem. The missing foundation is.

In this episode I walk you through the four-part foundation every course needs before you record a single video.

You'll learn:

• Why starting with "what should I teach?" gives you a course with no destination
• How to define the specific transformation your course delivers before you build anything
• Why most coaches build for the client they wish they had instead of the one they actually have
• What prerequisites are, why they're different from your starting point, and why skipping them sets clients up to fail
• How to check whether the distance between your starting point and your destination is actually achievable in one course

Most course creation advice skips straight to marketing and launch strategy. But a course that doesn't deliver on its transformation won't be saved by a good launch. The foundation work is what makes everything else work. Do it first and building your course gets a lot easier.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I spent 17 years as a college professor building over 30 courses, and I help solopreneur coaches build courses that actually deliver the transformation they promised.

Grab the free workbook that goes with this episode. Every step is in there with prompts and examples so you're not staring at a blank page:

The 30 Minute Course Foundation

Ready for guidance specific to your course?

Book a free Course Roadmap Call

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🎁 The Authentic Solopreneur Bundle (Free, during March Only) 30 free resources from experts who believe in growing your business without burnout or pushy sales tactics. Available through March 31st. Grab it here: https://asb.curtissatterfield.com/cs1

Course creation mistakes are costing your clients before they ever start. If you're designing a course right now, there's a step most solopreneurs skip entirely and it sets clients up to struggle from lesson one.

In this episode, I'll show you the course design mistake that causes clients to hit a wall early, what it actually costs you when it happens, and the two-part fix that prevents it.

You'll learn:

• Why course creators unknowingly design courses from the wrong starting point
• What the curse of knowledge is and how it affects your course design
• How to use your ideal client knowledge in a way most course creators never think about
• Why clarity on your transformation is the key to setting the right prerequisites
• How to decide if your course is for beginners, intermediate, or advanced clients

Most course creation programs tell you to focus on your launch. But if your clients aren't starting from the right place, even great content won't save them. Course design that starts with where your clients actually are, not where you assume they are, is what separates courses that get results from courses that get refund requests.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I've been an educator and course designer for 17 years, and I help solopreneurs build courses that actually transform their clients and grow their business.

If this episode got you thinking, check out The Handoff Method: An Online Course Design Fix for Low Completion Rates, find it wherever you're listening right now.

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🎁 The Authentic Solopreneur Bundle (Free, during March Only) 30 free resources from experts who believe in growing your business without burnout or pushy sales tactics. Available through March 31st. Grab it here: https://asb.curtissatterfield.com/cs1

Online course completion rates don't improve by adding more content, they improve through better course design. If your clients aren't finishing your online course, the problem isn't what you're teaching. It's how much you're asking their brain to handle at once. In this episode, I'll break down the science behind why more content makes things worse and four course design mistakes that are tanking your completion rate.

You'll learn:

• Why adding more content to your course actually makes it harder for clients to learn
• How working memory limits what your clients can process in a single lesson
• The layering technique that lets you teach more without overwhelming
• Why naming your method makes your content literally easier to learn
• How cutting content from your course makes it more valuable, not less

Most course creators measure their course by how much is in it. The ones whose clients actually finish and get results? They measure by how clearly their clients can act on what's there. That's the shift — and it changes everything about how you design your lessons.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I've been an educator and course designer for 17 years, and I help solopreneurs build courses that actually transform their clients and grow their business.

Send me a message!

🎁 The Authentic Solopreneur Bundle (Free, during March Only) 30 free resources from experts who believe in growing your business without burnout or pushy sales tactics. Available through March 31st. Grab it here: https://asb.curtissatterfield.com/cs1

Online course creation starts long before you hit record, but most solopreneurs skip the readiness check and pay for it later. They jump into building modules, picking platforms, and recording lessons without the foundations in place, and end up scrapping weeks of work or launching something that doesn't deliver.

In this episode, I'll walk you through four things you need to have ready before you create your first online course, so you can go in prepared instead of scrambling.

You'll learn:

• Why your coaching experience might not be enough to build a course yet
• How to know if your process is ready to be packaged into a repeatable system
• The difference between being comfortable on Zoom and being ready to present on camera
• Why courses don't run on autopilot and how to protect your time from day one
• The common "sell it first, build it later" advice and why it backfires

Most course creation programs focus on marketing and launch tactics while skipping how to actually build a course that transforms your clients. The truth is, if you get the foundations right before you start building, everything else becomes easier. Skip them, and you'll spend months fixing problems that didn't need to exist.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I've been an educator and course designer for 17 years, and I help solopreneurs build courses that actually transform their clients and grow their business.

If you want to learn how to structure your course once you're ready to build, check out my episode "How Long to Make Your Course: Modules, Lessons, and What Makes a Valuable Course."

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Want free feedback on your course structure? I'm reviewing five course outlines this month. Grab your spot here: https://curtissatterfield.com/free-course-review-call/

The wrong course platform can wreck your first online course launch before you make a single sale. If you're researching Kajabi, Teachable, or Thinkific for your course creation setup, you're about to make an expensive mistake.

In this episode, I'll tell you the platform I recommend to my clients, why the popular options are a bad fit when you're just starting out, and how I learned this lesson the hard way after switching platforms myself.

You'll learn:

• Why the most recommended course platforms are wrong for first-time course creators
• The simple math that shows how a $200/month platform can wipe out your launch profits
• How most platforms take a cut of your sales on top of payment processing fees
• How I wasted six months on the wrong platform and what happened when I switched back
• The one platform I recommend and have used for years across multiple courses
• Why "more features" doesn't mean better results for your clients

The big course creation programs push expensive platforms because they're built for people doing six figures in course sales. You're not there yet. And picking the wrong platform before your first launch is one of the fastest ways to lose money before you've made any.

Two Tools Episode mentioned in today's podcast .

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I spent 17 years as a college professor building over 30 courses from scratch, and I help fully booked coaches build group programs that deliver real results for their clients and scale their business without adding more hours.

Ready to stop spinning your wheels? Book a free Program Roadmap Call and let's figure out the right next steps for your course: https://curtissatterfield.com/work-with-curtis/

Note: This episode was recorded under the show's original name, Course Creation for Solopreneurs. The podcast is now called Program Design for Coaches. The name changed to better reflect what's actually working in the coaching space right now. Group programs where the coach is present and involved are what's selling, and that's the direction this show has moved. The instructional design principles in this episode apply whether you're building a course or a group program, so everything you hear still works.

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Your students have purchased your online course, full of excitement and anticipation. Yet, many mentally check out within the first 30 seconds. Not because the course lacks quality, but because the introductory moments fail to engage them. In this episode, you'll learn about critical course design mistakes that cause students to disengage right from the start, and discover a simple, three-part framework to hook your audience from lesson one.

You'll learn:

• Why "In this lesson, we're going to learn about..." is the worst way to start
• The four intro mistakes that make your course sound like a boring lecture
• How YouTube, TV, and podcasts hook audiences, and how to steal those techniques for your course
• The difference between telling students why a lesson matters and showing them
• A simple three-part framework you can use to open every lesson in 15-30 seconds

Your students already paid. But attention isn't included in the purchase price. You have to earn it every single lesson, the same way a TV show earns your attention every single episode. The good news? It's simpler than you think.

Perfect for solopreneurs looking to build an online course that transforms students and grows their business, this episode offers actionable advice rooted in 17 years of course design experience. Attention isn't guaranteed just because someone paid—it must be earned lesson by lesson, just like a hit TV show. Tune in to learn how to design course intros that captivate and retain your students from the start.

I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I've been an educator and course designer for 17 years, and I help solopreneurs build courses that actually transform their students and grow their business.

If you liked this episode, go check out my episode on "The Handoff Method." It's another lesson-level design technique that helps your students go from "I get it" to "I can actually do this." Search "The Handoff Method" wherever you're listening.

Send me a message!

🎁 The Authentic Solopreneur Bundle (Free, during March Only) 30 free resources from experts who believe in growing your business without burnout or pushy sales tactics. Available through March 31st. Grab it here: https://asb.curtissatterfield.com/cs1