Design a Maven Course That Professionals Need
Vanina Schick
Former VP Marketing @Maven I Qual Expert
A course is like any product. You can't just build it and expect they'll come.
If you have valuable expertise, a course is one of the highest-leverage ways to monetize it. But only if you can frame your expertise as something the market needs, not just something you know.
As VP of Marketing at Maven, I spent years studying what bestselling courses get right. I found a consistent set of strategic decisions.
Skip these decisions and your course is just a container for knowledge. Sales will not match the value of your expertise.
If you don't yet have a large audience, this step is critical. Instructors with a warm following can iterate toward fit. Without built-in distribution, you must nail the commercial logic before launch.
x A cold audience will not invest without a clear ROI case.
x Maven does not amplify courses that aren't already selling well
In this intensive workshop, we will answer the questions that define course success:
-> what problem your course solves
-> who will pay to solve it, what makes the price obvious
-> why you are the credible choice.
I guide you through my structured process with real-time feedback. You leave knowing exactly what to build.
Bring game. This is intense.
Workshop agenda
- 9:00AM EDT
Your Course Opportunity
Set yourself up for success with the two critical pillars of your opportunity. First: clarity on your personal motivation and expertise. Second: the criteria that determine Course-Market Fit.
- 11:00AM EDT
Your Students
Use my audience qualification framework, structured specifically for executive development. It covers professional mandate, constraints, failure patterns, and career stakes.
- 1:00AM EDT
LUNCH
Eat and get some air
- 2:00PM EDT
Your Credibility
Mine the stories and identify signals of judgment that make your authority and expertise unarguable. Scale your cringe mountain and define what makes you uniquely compelling as an instructor.
- 4:00PM EDT
Your Student's Transformation
Articulate the before-and-after in your student's operational reality. Define the specific professional outcomes that will land as critical, urgent, and drive willingness to pay.
What you’ll learn
I give you the keys to design a successful course, and avoid wasting time on what market won't pay for. Not a seminar, expect to do work.
Reframe your expertise from "what I know" to "what changes for the student professionally"
Anchor your course to a structural problem with real career stakes
Identify a course promise that makes inaction feel more expensive than enrollment
Surface the stories that "show not tell" your expertise
Define what in your experience makes you credible to senior professionals, beyond credentials or career chronology.
Sharpen the unique point of view that will demonstrate your earned judgement
Make the professional outcome specific: what changes for them when they go back to work
Articulate the mindset shift you'll deliver, how will you impact their confidence or emotional state
Identify what needs to happen in your course to deliver strong student ROI
Learn directly from Vanina
Vanina Schick
Product Marketing Leader
Who this workshop is for
You have valuable expertise but not a large audience—we'll find how to make your course command attention, irrespective of follower count.
You want to create a course but are too busy—we'll dramatically accelerate the development process for you. Think months to hours.
You already launched a course but it's underperforming—this workshop will be a powerful commercial audit and reframe for you.
Prerequisites
You come prepared (1 hour of pre-work)
We use your skills and experience as raw material, so we need them loaded upfront.
You commit to a full day of on-camera presence
Every session is interactive and builds on the last. Your full and sustained engagement is needed.
What's included
Live sessions
Learn directly from Vanina Schick in a real-time, interactive format.
Your Strategic Foundation—Written and Pressure-Tested
This is not a lecture. You will produce the three foundational analyses necessary to surface your strongest course opportunity: your audience's real problem, your credibility narrative, and the professional transformation your course delivers. You leave with strategic clarity you can act on, not notes on best practices.
My Course-Market Fit Framework—Applied to Your Expertise
Five proprietary criteria I use in my consulting engagements to evaluate whether a course offer will convert at premium pricing: Audience Precision and Pull, Market Urgency and Economic Weight, Value and Outcome Clarity, Competitive Superiority and Decision Logic, and Credibility and Operational Realism.
A Peer Sandbox—Constructive Critique From Senior Professionals
You'll work alongside other experienced operators building their own courses. Seeing how they solve the same structural challenge with different expertise sharpens your own commercial thinking. The best insights come from watching someone else's positioning break down.
My Course Hypothesis Template—The Best Way to Evaluate Objectively
After the workshop and the follow-up session, I'll give you my structured template for your course hypothesis. This is the strategic bet you are making: who your course serves, what problem it solves, and why the market will pay. Whether you are starting fresh or repositioning an existing course, the template forces strategic clarity.
Unlimited Office Hours & Open Hypothesis Demo—Monthly
I do monthly office hours as a public Lightning Lesson event. Willing participants present their hypothesis for live critique. These are scheduled at 6pm ET the week after the workshop because the powerful insights often happens after you've had time to sit with the problem. Unlimited Q&A, for real.
Maven Guarantee
Your purchase is backed by the Maven Guarantee.
Frequently asked questions
$390
USD
2 cohorts