I am so pleased to announce that I’ve launched my course, Hired with Excel: What Every Analyst Needs to Know.
This is a long time coming. I thought, brainstormed, and procrastinated over the past few months. At times I felt like the starving artist who had spent decades crafting the perfect novel. I thought it would never get done — something always came up.
But with all the fears and worries on the line, I shipped anyway. Because nothing is perfect. And there are people who need the class.
Building an online course has been incredibly educational for myself. It goes up there as one of my proudest achievements. I learned a lot — and not just about Excel:
“When you buy, buy good.”
This is attributed to my great-grandfather. Be frugal. But when you do buy, go all in.
How true, and how I wish I’d listened more. When it came to everything — microphone, recording software, etc, I’d try saving a few bucks on cheaper equipment, only to find it didn’t meet all my needs. Then I’d buy the good stuff.
So I was even more behind than had I just bought quality in the first place. When it comes to e-learning technology, you get what you pay for. Great-grandfather Mount’s wisdom lives on, a century later.
Don’t try to be a one-man band
At first I tried doing all the logistics myself. I’d host the course on my site. Ecommerce, video hosting, everything would be integrated under my control. This turned out to be too much work. It looked awful and the user interface was awful. Thank you for bearing with me, test group!
Once I gave up the aspiration that I could do it all myself, I decided to put the course on a great third-party course hosting site called Thinkific. Now I won’t have to worry about video hosting or user login management. I can focus on creating great courses, instead.
Video editing is fun — just don’t go crazy
One thing that particularly scared me about creating the course was video editing. I thought I’d have to hire a Hollywood director and pay a fortune. Turns out this isn’t true.
After “buying and buying good,” I used Camtasia to produce decent videos. This was essential — it is a best-in-breed screencasting software.
At first I thought my videos must be perfect, full of special effects. But then I considered my favorite course sites — Khan Academy and Lynda.com. The quality is incredible, but the focus is on content. There are very few super-duper effects on these courses. Rather than fret on the video editing, I focused on producing good content, with the best equipment.
Just ship it
I finally kicked myself into launching. It was difficult. Things can always be better. But with recent grads deep in the job search, I knew it was time.
There will be chances to get feedback and improve. This won’t be my first course. It’s important to get the ball rolling. So I finally launched.
Thank you
Before I close, I do want to thank you all for reading my stuff. I am humbled by the support. If you’re looking to improve your Excel skills, please check out my course. Please pass along to those who can benefit from it. Thank you again!
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