Something scary, but useful!

I’m starting something this week that’s scaring me a bit. I have been challenged by my business coach to get out of my comfort zone and do something I’ve been talking about (and not taking action on) for AGES! I’m in the process of starting to create online courses!

The aim of my first course is to help people become more effective in their business writing, particularly when it comes to social media, newsletters and blog posts, and to help a wee bit with the things that can trip some of us up along the way, such as spelling, punctuation (see image!) and grammar.

At the moment it’s going to be very much in beta mode, and I’ve gathered a small band of willing volunteers who are going to help me hone it into a format that works for everyone, including a snappy title (I hope!).

Is it normal to feel resistance?

I wrote a bit about this in another post a few weeks ago, and I have to admit I have been feeling a large degree of resistance towards the whole thing. I know now that this is completely normal. Although I very much enjoy the different challenges of the day to day workings of my business (and transcription can be a big challenge sometimes!), I felt it was important to do something a bit different, even just to avoid becoming stagnant. It’s easy to get into a bit of a rut when you’re doing the same sort of thing every day, and I didn’t choose to work for myself to feel like that!

Blogging and social media gives every man and his dog the opportunity to be a writer these days, and there’s a huge amount of really useful and well-written content out there, but there’s also a lot that doesn’t grab the attention in the same way. I won’t even begin to pretend that I’m a seasoned blogger or that I have a huge audience (yet!), but I do enjoy the writing process and I enjoy crafting each piece of content as well as creating smaller pieces of writing that go into my social media posts. I know that some business owners find this a struggle, particularly if they’re worried about the grammar police coming down on them like a ton of bricks!

I have been procrastinating over this for weeks now, but with only four weeks until the Fife schools break up for the long summer holidays, it’s time to put my money where my mouth is and just get on with it.

I’m really nervous about how it’s going to turn out, but really, what’s the worst that can happen?

Have you thought about doing an online course, or have you done one, or even a few? I’d love to hear how you got started, so please leave a comment or drop me an email. I will keep you posted as to my progress!