Howdy friends,

I hope I made my point sufficiently well in the welcome email and now, going forward, you won't be digging anywhere to find my emails 🤞

This is the first chapter overview. You'll notice that fact is nicely called out in the header image (more on visual aids later). This is THE place to outline everything that's coming and remind folks why they're here and give them a reason to feel excited about the learning journey they're embarking on. I find that the simplest and most effective way to do that is to show them the "table of contents".

Here's mine, in a not very table-of-contents-y visual:

The curriculum flows from logistics (getting you set up to make the most out of the course) to course design (curriculum structure, content/copy, design) and then finally into the technology components. We'll wrap up with some final comments on some topics that didn't have a super natural place in the course.

While Chapter 1 is "set up" heavy, Chapters 2-4 are all about putting in the work. And I'll just tell you right now... the most challenging part of building an EBC is getting the outline right.

These emails are filled with all the stuff I wish I had known at the outset of my EBC journey

Had I known these things, it would've saved literal weeks of extra work (a lot of which was "re-work" towards more efficient and improved student-experience versions of the course). In a way, this course is my own "EBC-dedicated diary". So technically, you're reading my diary... please forget that I said that.

How's this all gonna go down?

You'll get an email a day, for the next few weeks (it's ~20 emails in total). After the first chapter, we'll be skipping weekends — but if you'd like to go at an accelerated pace (and maybe even read a few emails ON the weekends), you can do that too.

I've incorporated little action items throughout I deeply encourage you to participate. I'd also encourage you to block off a few hours on your calendar so that by the end of the course, you have an outline for your EBC, a fully drafted email (potentially more than one!), and your automations underway.

Whether you leave this experience on track to complete a badass EBC is entirely up to you... but I'm gonna try to make it really easy for ya.

That's not to say making an EBC is easy

On the contrary... a great EBC is a lot of work if you, like me, aspire to treat the inbox like a classroom and show your students the respect they deserve. Well, let me rephrase that: it's a lot of work upfront. That's the beauty of an EBC — unlike a newsletter where you are optimizing a process, with EBCs you are optimizing a product.

The 80/20 of EBCs

The first version of your course should prioritize the outline and the content. Everything else--fancy automations, graphics and visual aids, surveys, integrations, etc. can come after. Those are the sides. The flow and the content are the entrees (I like two entrees, sue me). And if I were to get really specific... the outline requires the most THINKING, the content creation requires the most EFFORT.

Suggestion: put on your meta-glasses as you go through the course

I intend to address every component of every email in some way or another, but taking the time to think through what each email contains, why it might be structured that way, and how you can incorporate these techniques in your own course will put you ahead of the game.

(For example, the little "fast forward" feature at the bottom of this email and all the emails to come... self-pacing is a pretty great feature of evergreen courses and we can work it into email courses as well.

Before we cruise into the next email, I'd like you to take 1 minute to set a goal for yourself. What do you want to get out of this course? What impact would you like this experience to have on your business? What WILL you have achieved 2 months from now? That sorta thing. Have fun with it and don't worry... no one else is gonna see it. (Except me, of course).

(Btw... you should come back here once you've set a goal, and hit the fast forward link below... there are little 💎s hidden everywhere)

Fast forward: click the link to get the next email