Teaching isn’t just about spitting out content and hoping it sticks—it’s about making so muthaaaf’ing sure it does. Through this journey, I’ve picked up a handful of gemstones that aren’t just about being a better teacher, but also about being a clearer communicator, a more thoughtful organizer, and yeah, a bit of a show-stopper too. Here are the 5️⃣ lessons I learned while teaching my latest course, MVP Launch Lab, lessons that turned the typical “blah” into “boom” and made sure that what I teach actually lights a fire under your. So, if you’re gearing up to teach your next class, count these for consideration.
5️⃣ THINGS I LEARNED TEACHING MY LATEST COURSE:
- Teaching the thing doesn’t mean the thing is actually learned. This will stick with me every class/course/workshop I teach, and even more so in my day-to-day communication. If I’m not clear, you aren’t clear. When i started pivoting my teaching away from the “heady intellectual”, the more clarity students started to have — some of which have been marketing vets and with the clear, “what is it really” narrative, things finally clicked. Often times we are vets for everyone else but ourselves. And so, when we can easily explain the thing vs teach the thing and hope you get it, the more progress y’all can actually have
- A structure with foresight is crucial for keeping engagement. This piece of feedback has stuck with me since my early days in digital education — if i don’t share with you what you’re about to dive into, you’ll have this sense of falling behind and not knowing what to know. So not only was structure given before joining the class, but also in the upfronts when diving in; as straightforward as an agenda to header banners highlighting what topic was discussed.
- Consideration of time is thoughtful (+necessary). As simple as it gets — if you’re asking for a time commitment, that’s the commitment it should be. Going over time means other shit has to be reorganized on the student’s end which can cause so much friction. So i overbooked time in the onboarding process, so i knew that no matter what, i had 90 minutes for teaching and checking in. And always, as corp as sounds, the gift of time back.
- Build a framework and be okay to build as you go. One thing I’ll never do again is build an entire course, soup to nuts, labor over each module and homework sheet, before class even begins. This time around, i build the general slides and modules and outlines and based on student responses or their intake form, i pivoted the information to best serve who’s in the room. This meant they got the best possible outcomes vs my assumptions.
- Under promise, over deliver. This is straight forward — i love to surprise + delight my community. And so what these students weren’t expecting was four extra weeks with me on Voxer to workshop or utilize that time together, as they worked on their MVP. Dropping in some extra goodness they weren’t expecting, means more for their money. And that matters to me.
If you’re working on a product or service, think about how you can implement some learnings from past experiences that would support your launch.
