You know that product idea you’ve had forever but never found time to finish?
Yeah. Same.
Three years ago, I kicked off what I thought would be a (relatively) simple mission: take our proven business writing course – the one we’ve run live for years with consistently rave reviews – and turn it into a self-paced version.
Build it once. Sell it again and again. Make it accessible to more people. Scale. Grow.
And surely it wouldn’t be that hard, right? After all, I’d reimagined this course before. During COVID, I moved our face-to-face course to a live online format in just three weeks – because I had no choice. Was it smooth sailing? Absolutely not. But I got it done.
This version, though? The one with no deadline and no pandemic pushing me? It took three years. So… why? What took so long?
Turns out, this mission really seemed… well, impossible. Until we finally cracked the code, that is.
Read on to find out how it all played out.
CHAPTER 1: The slow years
We started, as many do, by looking around for a spare pair of hands. Any hands.
So, at first, I put a junior on it. (Look, I know what you’re thinking – and I get it now! Not my finest resourcing decision.)
She was capable and enthusiastic, but it was unfair. The project needed someone with real-world commercial experience and a deep understanding of learning design. A true battle-tested agent.
Then, several months later, I had a lightbulb moment: the person with the right skills had been on the team all along, hiding in plain sight. Her name? Veronica. Sharp, strategic and (bonus!) a qualified educator.
It made perfect sense. But there was a problem.
At that time, Veronica was still fairly new to the business (Refresh Marketing, as it was then). And she was juggling a full load of copywriting work. So while progress did happen, it was verrrry slow.
In hindsight, I’d given the right person the job at the wrong time. And like before, it wasn’t a fair ask.
CHAPTER 2: The outside agent
Fast forward a couple of years. Communication Skills Academy was now up and running, so the self-paced course had climbed up the priority list.
Yes, Veronica was still the most logical person to build it. But by this point, she was also the most senior member of my team – which meant, like me, she was more flat out than ever.
So together, we decided to hire an external consultant to make it happen: a specialist in self-paced learning. Hiring him felt like a masterstroke. The perfect agent for the mission.
But yeah… not quite the silver bullet we were hoping for.
Lovely guy. Talented. But several weeks in, we realised it wasn’t going to work – simply because he had no hands-on connection to the course content or our clients.
Lesson learned: some things are just too close to home to outsource. This was one of them.
But the trouble was, we were still too busy doing client work to make space for something that could actually change the game.
So the project stalled. Again.
CHAPTER 3: Mission (actually) accomplished
Three months later, in October 2024, we finally did what we hadn’t managed to do before: we cleared the runway so Veronica could actually lead the project. Properly.
How? By promoting from within to take a heap of work off Veronica’s plate so she could focus. I made space for myself too. After years of lobbing it over the fence, I got back in the trenches with her.
And that’s when things shifted.
The two of us went full mission mode: we locked ourselves in a room, whiteboard at the ready, mapping the course from top to tail. Suddenly, the impossible felt possible. And actually doable.
But as we inched closer to the finish line, we remembered that building the course was only half the story. We also had to step back and ask: How are we going to launch this thing? How do we make sure it doesn’t just sit on a shelf gathering digital dust?
So we looped in the marketing team to create a landing page, capture early leads and design a launch strategy.
In parallel, we ran beta testing – gathering feedback, refining, tweaking – until the course felt right. Until it felt like a worthy replica of our proven in-person course. Only more portable. And more accessible as a handy resource for participants to return to.
And now? It’s ready. It’s solid. But most importantly, it’s us. Just in self-paced form.
MISSION DEBRIEF: The 3 big lessons
In the end, we pulled it off. No battle scars – but plenty of hard lessons. So, in case you’re sitting on your own ‘mission impossible’, here are the big three:
1. If it matters, make room (and make the call): We knew the demand for a self-paced version of the course was strong. But knowing isn’t the same as acting! During COVID, I converted the face-to-face version of the course into a live online version in just three weeks… because I had to. This one took three years – because I didn’t. You can’t wait for space to magically appear. You have to create it.
2. Not all outsourcing is equal: Look, I run an agency, so of course I’m a big fan of outsourcing. But not everything can be handed off. Sometimes, what a project actually needs is someone in the thick of it. Expertise is one thing. But being on the inside? That’s your unfair advantage.
3. Find the right agent (and trust them to deliver): Some projects only come to life when you’ve got the right person beside you. For me, that was Veronica. Smart, steady – and just as invested in the outcome as I was. Having a partner who believes in the work and carries it with you? That’s everything.
If you’ve been sitting on something for way too long – I see you. I am you.
Maybe for you, that ‘thing’ is writing more clearly, concisely and confidently at work. If so, we’ve got something that might help. No scheduling required.
Check out the new self-paced course! Finally live. Finally real.