How to pick the right course

What to look for, what to ignore and my best tip to make aligned choices

Online courses have kick-started my entrepreneurial journey, my career change and my drive to build a completely new life. So it is fair to say that I am pretty enthusiastic about this new world of education. And no, my first online course wasn’t a business or marketing class, it was my first Yoga teacher training that ignited that spark in me. I totally believe that personal and business growth go hand-in-hand, but this is a topic for another time. In this article I am diving into how to make a good choice when picking a course. I call it well-picking - totally underrated skill in my view. I will also debunk some sales tactics that you might come across and that you might not even recognize as such. 

So let’s dive into it. If you’re anything like me, you probably get excited easily and hit the “sign up” button as fast as you can pull out your credit card. But it’s worth taking a few deep breaths before you do that. These breaths can literally save you tons of time and money. Let’s be honest, these trainings can be fucking expensive and you might spend a lot of time with them, so it is worth spending a minute or two to ponder on whether you should do it or not. I am not talking about the 97$ courses, I am talking about the 100+ hours trainings that take weeks and months to finish. 

It’s all about you

What is important to consider? First, yourself. What is your motivation, what are you hoping to get out of the course and why are you looking for the course now? These are three simple questions that you should be able to answer. Why am I saying that? Well, if you have quick and solid answers, great. If you don’t, that’s where it gets interesting. Some people (and I am totally guilty of that) use constant education to avoid getting into action. Let’s just take one more course and then I’ll be ______ (fill in the blank, good, confident, certified etc.) enough to actually do that thing. Some people tend to just throw money at a problem and hope that by learning more, it will go away. The truth is, it won’t. Ever. So if you don’t have good answers, investigate a bit deeper here. 

But let’s assume that you had really good and honest answers and you are excited to dive into that topic more. You have narrowed it down to multiple courses to choose from. Now what do you do?

What’s your budget? 

The best investment is in yourself. Right? Absolutely. And, what’s also true is that you are the person who knows your financial situation best. So run the numbers carefully before you make a big commitment. If you are not in the position to lay that amount of money on the table, look for payment plans - most providers, especially the bigger ones - are happy to work out a plan to make it work for you. Sometimes, they offer it on their website, sometimes, you have to ask. Some even offer scholarships, which can be a great option in case you are on a tighter budget at the moment. 

Once you have checked the tuition price, you want to make sure you understand what the actual costs are. Do you have to buy any books? Any props like Yoga blocks or straps? Any other equipment? Are there any other specialties offered against extra cost such as 1:1 mentoring or coaching? Do they charge an extension fee for graduating later or a renewal fee for your certification? If it is a hybrid or in-person training, you’ll obviously have to travel somewhere - what’s the cost of flights etc.? Is accommodation, food and transport from the airport included? Even small amounts add up. Be smart about that. 

What’s your schedule and what’s the time commitment?

Now that you have an idea of the costs, let’s look into the practicality of what the training will look like. The online trainings I took and looked at were organized very differently. Some have weekly live calls at fixed times, some have flexibility which day you attend, some have daily calls, some use the weekends to have a more intense experience. Some require a lot of self-study or exclusively self-study, some are more focused on interactive lessons. Many programs offer replays to watch if you can’t make it live - you’ll have to factor in time to watch them, too, though. 

So, that one is not rocket science, just make sure you understand the requirements, because there’s nothing more disappointing than not being able to attend and dive deep into what you were so interested in. Once you have cleared these personal aspects, you can dive into the content. 

What are you getting and how is it delivered? 

There are various aspects to consider. 

Material: Do you love big fat manuals, because it gives a calming sense of safety that you can look up everything in case you need to? Do you have to print it (costs!) or is it shipped to your door for free? Or does that feel totally intimidating and it is more important for you to have a group where you can ask questions? Are you a visual learner and videos are best for you? Do you travel a lot or have some commute time? Maybe you would like to have downloadable video or audio content. No training will be completely ideal, but make sure that its overall structure aligns with your personal schedule. 

The value of lifetime access to online material cannot be overstated in my view. You would not believe how often I have gone back to the training content of my Yoga teacher trainings, even years after the training ended. I love it.

It takes away the stress of having to digest everything all at once and limited access creates that unnecessary fear of losing information. For me, this is the point that separates the great from the world-class courses, so it is absolutely worth checking that. 

Group size: If this is a live course where you progress with a cohort, it can be interesting to find out what the group size typically is. Will you have the opportunity to ask questions, get personalized feedback and form connections with other students? Are there study groups, break-out sessions, how and how often do you get to practice (if it is a teacher training)?

I have personally made so many friends around the world just from study groups, breakout-sessions and self-organized online meet-ups - and I think these types of connections can happen especially when people are put together in small groups. This leads into the next question.

High touch or not: Many trainings are run by more or less famous people, but almost every program has a face, the founder’s face that you associate with their specific method or style. Very often, they will be the reason why you are signing up for a specific training. Maybe you have been following the person on Instagram or have been watching their YouTube videos for a while and you liked their style, message and attitude.

Now, the bigger their audience and the more famous the person is, the more likely it is that they already have a big team that helps them to run the program. Which can be great, because you get multiple perspectives and it can totally be helpful for learning, because sometimes we need to hear the same thing from different people in different words for them to make sense to us.

However, it is fair to expect to get a lot of immediate input from the main character, since that is what you pay for actually. If you can, make sure you find out what the sessions look like, if you get to ask them questions directly or via email, do they teach themselves and give feedback etc.? 

What’s your experience level with the topic? 

This is maybe an unusual caveat to the points I made earlier. It’s your experience level. The higher it is, the more you will be able to discern and give the points above more or less weight. What do I mean by that? I will give you an example. When I signed up for my first 200 hour Yoga teacher training with Brett Larkin’s Uplifted Yoga, I signed up entirely for the content and the way it was delivered.

I knew I wanted a very structured, highly organized training with super professionally created material. I had more than 20 years experience with practicing Yoga and meditation, but I wanted to learn about Yogic philosophy, anatomy, especially the myofascial system, and the nervous system. I did neither follow Brett Larkin on Instagram at that time nor did I loveeeee her classes to be honest (with the exception of the Kundalini classes, but that’s a different topic). I actually only started doing some of her Yoga classes after (!) I signed up. Why? Because her style of teaching classes is not why I signed up, what I loved is how she teaches students to teach in their own unique style.

And while I was not raving about how she taught classes herself, I knew that she would be able to teach me to find my own teaching style, because she had a systematic approach on how to teach and find your own style. And that was what I liked. And I loved every part of the training and I keep going back to the material over and over again.

Now how is that possible? For me, the reason is my own experience level. I had so much confidence in my own experience that I knew exactly what I liked and what I didn’t like and what I wanted out of the training. I was able to use my discernment in a more nuanced way. I could distinguish between “wanting to learn what she does” and “I know I don’t want to learn what she does, but I want to learn how she got there”. So, check that for yourself and see if it makes sense. 

What about programs with no price on the website?

Let’s talk about the tricky ones. Nowadays, you’ll often see courses that don’t tell you the price, but instead ask you to book a call or “apply for the training”. It has become a new thing. So people have to apply for a training and go on a sales call with a person whose job it is to recruit people into the program. My personal opinion: I hate it.

Have I taken trainings that do that? Yes. Were they good? Also yes. I still hate it. I find it profoundly dishonest (and unnecessary) to not tell grown-up people the price of what they’re getting and - especially combined with the “apply for the training” approach - it creates a very weird power dynamic. Because the people who do the sales calls on the other end are, guess what, trained to do sales calls. While you are probably not. And they have leverage - expect that they are going to offer you a super valuable discount or some goodies and bonuses on the call, but only if you sign up then and there on the spot.

That is another sneaky sales tactic which creates urgency, plays with your fear of missing out and of course with the shame of not being able to say yes to spending that amount of money. The “apply now” tactic will make you feel like you have to “behave” and present yourself in the best possible light so that they won’t reject you. Like a job application. Again, nothing nice about that in my view. I understand the entrepreneurial perspective. I understand that the feeling of being “handpicked” makes people feel chosen and special and all, but come on.

People absolutely spend 5,000+ $ without skipping a beat when they love what they see. I have done that and I have seen many, many other people do it. There is no need to make it so painful and complicated. I mean “schedule a call” feels very much like work to me. Do you want your clients to feel like they’re applying for a job? Yeah, I thought so. Okay, that was my rant on sales calls. ;) 

If you find that lack of transparency suspicious, but you really, really want to do the training, you are probably already 50% committed when you enter that call. Be aware of that ;). What does that mean? Well, they know that, too. That’s why you are routed towards the call. So they will only have to give you a little nudge to get you to 100%. Be prepared.

Here’s a prep recommendation: Always remember that they want you to sign up for their course and give them your money. They present themselves to you while you have choices. There is an abundance of course providers out there. You could give your hard-earned money to someone else, so make sure they earn your money and have a lot to offer. Be PICKY ;).  

What to ignore

The price is a big part of the decision process. You probably won’t be able to ignore that one. So let’s switch gears a little and get to the things that you can ignore. 

Testimonials. Seriously. “Social proof” is just marketing nonsense. Every testimonial will be like “this was a life-changing course, I was skeptical at first, but this was really different, greatest teacher ever, loved it”. And yes, it is probably true. Let’s leave aside the fact that many testimonials are just outright fake and assume that - especially if they have a large following and hundreds or thousands of people have already taken the course - the testimonials are real and people loved it.

Great, so you compare the courses and literally all the testimonials say the same thing. Not helpful. So one easy tip to save time is to simply ignore them. What really helps instead is if you know people you trust that have done the course and ask them. That will be a much more reliable source. If you don’t know any, go back to ignoring. 

Promises. Second thing to ignore is the “our students make the money back in no time” promise. Everyone will tell you something along these lines: “Our students make their money back in the first 6 months after they graduate from the training” or “Our average graduate makes 7,000 $ per month.” Which might be true for some, but let’s be real, for most people it’s not. It’s a sales tactic to take away that fear of investing a large amount of money.

I can tell you for sure, because I have taken trainings who claim that - and how can I tell? Well, first of all, none of the people I am still in contact with (including myself) have made their money back in only 6 months. Okay, we might all just be losers and might not have put in enough effort. Fair enough. But, more importantly, the provider hasn’t even asked any of us how much we make, so how in the world would they know what the “average student” makes?

I think it is fair to say that you should take these sales slogans with a grain of salt or ignore them entirely. Because they might be an outright lie or they choose a very tiny group of students and pretend they’re the average. Look, if you enter the training and you already have a business in a similar field with an existing client base, and you just add that modality you learned in that course to your already existing offer suite, chances are you will make your money back quickly.

If you have no business, start everything completely from scratch, you are in an entirely different situation. You’ll have to build a community, an email list, a following on socials or any form of client base first, so that you have people you can sell your services to. This takes time, usually more than 6 months. Building a business can be hard. There is no magic way around it. You can’t manifest it, it will require effort and time. Everyone who tells you otherwise, is just outright lying. So if you ever hear this slogan, just make sure you don’t fall prey to believing it - and make sure you can afford the training even if you don’t make the money back in the first year or two. Again, use your brain, check your situation and be realistic.  

The ultimate somatic test before you sign up

Now that you have considered all the aspects and know what to ignore, let’s set you up for a successful, big decision. I would like to end this article on a positive note and give you a super simple, tangible tip on how to make any choice. So if you made it this far, congratulations. Looks like you are really curious and serious about making big choices.

This test is a bit of a gut feeling kinda thing. Does the training check all the boxes, but somehow you don’t feel the vibe? Does it feel like it “should” feel like the right thing, but somehow you’re not getting excited? Trust that. Or maybe, you totally feel the vibe, you love the person who delivers it, but the content is not what you were looking for if you are truly honest with yourself. Yeah, then don’t do it, girl. Now, how do you find that out? 

First tip would be to sign up for some free live sessions before you spend thousands of dollars. It makes a huge difference to see a person live - we all know how fake Instagram can be. Don’t sign up just for the sake of “I trained with ___(add in a famous person’s name”. 

Second tip is to do what I call the “full body yes” check. Here’s how you do it. It’ll take less than 5 minutes. Let’s go. 

Take a few deep breaths and get into a peaceful state of mind. There’s no point in rushing this. Close your eyes and start with a round of simple questions to which the answer is obviously yes. “Is my name ____ (your name)?”, “Do I live in ____ (city where you live)?”, “Is my favorite food _____ (your favorite food)”?

Check in with your body and see how that feels. Probably calm, warm or expansive. Maybe no reaction at all. And that’s all okay. Now, you know what a “yes” feels like. Do a second round, this time with the same questions, but you change them so that the answer must be no. “Is my name ____ (not your name)”?, “Do I live in _____ (not where you live)”?, “Is my favorite food ____ (the most icky food you can think of)”?. Pay attention to how that feels in your body.

Chances are it felt almost stupid and you wanted to laugh, you might have felt a visceral mini contraction somewhere or a tingling sensation that signaled your body and brain that the answer is just wrong. Now you know what a visceral “no” feels like.

Do a third round, take a deep breath and ask yourself these three questions: “Is this training what I am looking for?”, “Is it the right time for me to do it?”, “Am I ready to commit to this program?”. There’s your answer. If you get conflicting answers (some yes, some no), investigate what caused the irritation and take it from there. In my experience, if it is not a full body yes, i.e. you are not getting a very clear “yes” three times, and you don’t feel an expansion, it is a no. Don’t overthink it and don’t try to find reasons. Trust your body. It is much smarter than your brain. 

I hope you found this helpful. Happy well-picking ;).