194: How to Get the Most from an Online Course: 8 Steps to Crossing the Finish Line

Well, hey there. Welcome back to the Professional Creative Podcast. I'm so glad you're here. I love our time together and today we are talking about online courses and our education and how to dive in to things that we want to learn and finish them. I think you know by now that I am a firm believer in lifelong learning. Being in the posture of a student is, I think, the number one way, way to continue growing and growing in your success. So from online courses to workshops, to reading books, to masterminds, you can often find me diving in and saying, yes, yes, please, I want this. I want to grow, I want to learn. But have you ever signed up for something like a course and then dropped off and not finished? I certainly have. And so that's what I want to talk about today. How we can so easily start with the best intentions and all of the excitement and all of the enthusiasm, but then we can so easily lose momentum. It happens to me and it happens again and again. And so the pattern starts to feel more than just disappointing. It feels almost like, you know, like defeating. And honestly, sometimes it can be scary because it's like, why can't I finish what I set out to do? Why can't I cross the course finish line? Am I just choosing the wrong course or is the problem with me? So if you've ever felt this way, first of all, you're not alone. In this episode, I'm going to share eight powerful steps to completing any online course. These will help you stay inspired and show up successfully from the beginning to the end. You know, in the creative world, we have so many classes and courses and workshops and more at our fingertips every day. But it takes focus to get through them and to take everything that you can from them and enjoy them.

I'm Bonnie Christine. And this is where all things creativity, design, business and marketing unite. I'm a mama living in a tiny town tucked right inside the Smoky Mountains, running a multi seven figure business, doing

the most creative and impactful work of my life. But when I first set out to

become an entrepreneur, I was struggling to make ends meet and wrestling with how to accomplish my biggest dream of becoming a fabric designer. Fast forward to today. I'm not only licensing my artwork all over the world, but also teaching others how to design their creative life and experience the same success. I'm here to help you spend your life doing something that lights you up. I'll help you build a creative business that also creates an impact, changes people's lives, gives you all of the freedom you want, and is Wildly profitable. Welcome to the Professional Creative Podcast.

I think that we live in such an incredible time where education is at our fingertips, and yet we also often take it for granted because it's almost too easy. So we want to make sure that we find the education that we need and we go all in. Now, don't make the mistake of limiting the steps. In this episode, only courses use what I'm about to share to accomplish anything that you put your mind to personally or professionally. But for the context of this episode, we're going to talk about finishing courses specifically. So the challenge really is thinking over whether this is just me. I sign up for a course, eager, excited, ready to chase my dream or my goal. I make grand plans with the best intentions, and then I don't finish what I started. Life happens, my kids get sick. Other things on my to do list take priority. And it's so easy to put the course that once had me so excited on the back burner, and then guilt sets in. Or limiting beliefs like maybe I am not motivated enough or I always stop. I never finish. I feel like a failure. So if you've ever felt kind of this regret, this knot in your stomach from not finishing something that you paid for, I want you to hear me. This is not a reflection of you because you are 100% capable. It's just that completing a course requires intentionality from the front end. And so without the right preparation, your chances of finishing get smaller and smaller. That's why anytime I'm really serious about taking an online course, I follow these same eight steps. They've helped me cross the finish line again and again and thus really learn so much from access to online education. I would say online education is far and away the biggest part of my education story, my success story, my journey as a designer and an artist and an entrepreneur. Really incredible things at our fingertips. So I'm excited to share with you more ways to complete what we start. Because take a moment and just picture yourself really clicking off the last lesson of a course. It's a massive goal. And that moment, you're filled with so much joy and gratification because you did it. The mountain might have been massive, but you climbed it. And now you get to enjoy the view. So not only do you see the world around you with new excitement and new possibilities, but you actually see yourself differently. You carry yourself with more confidence knowing that you did what you set out to do. That, by the way, is the only way to build confidence, is to tell yourself you're going to do something and then do it. This leaves you feeling encouraged and your hope is refreshed and your dreams are renewed. No one can take that feeling away from you. It's so incredibly exciting. And so it's also so incredibly possible. Before I was really intentional about finishing what I start, I would flounder right there with the best of them. Especially when I was new to learning about pattern design or art or entrepreneurship. I felt like I had so much learning ahead of me. And each. Each failed attempt or dropped commitment would really throw me off my game because I would really start to wonder, does this just mean that I don't have what it takes? Is this the difference between me and someone who makes it? Would Have I made the wrong investment? What if it goes to waste? These thoughts will weigh us down and it makes it really hard to move forward and out of them. But over time, I realized fear wasn't the enemy. It was simply part of the journey. Instead of trying to avoid it, I started to acknowledge it. And I learned that by facing those fears head on, I could move past them more simply, more quickly. And so the more I did that, the more I grew. I kept making new finish lines and learning how to cross them. And over time, after so many mistakes, I discovered that my personal recipe was this. The one that I'm going to show you today. My recipe for follow through. Because I often say creativity. For creative entrepreneurs, creativity is our superpower. Focus is our kryptonite. And so when you put focus and creativity together, world, watch out. Here's the framework. Number one, calculate the value of the course that you're taking. This is really important because we will prioritize what we value. End of story. We pay attention what we pay for. And I know this from my very own experience. The more I pay for a course or an experience or a coach, the more I show up and the more value I get from it. That's why it's really important to know the value that a course offers before you start. And keep this value in mind until you finish. It is the tool to determine if a course is worth your initial and continued investment. So in order to kind of figure this out, there are a couple of questions you can ask. What does this course provide for me? From a process perspective, you can create a list of the tools and the skills that you'll gain through the course and remember to consider time and money. Will this course save you time down the road that is worth so much? Will it allow you to gain more clients? Will you develop a skill that equips you to raise your prices or grow your business or offer something new. The next question is what will this course provide for me? It's important to invest in your personal growth and so you can consider how a course will change or grow you as a professional or as a creative. Think about who you want to become and what the course brings. Does the course help you become who you want to be? Are you investing in who you want to become in the years ahead? And what value do you place in that? The next one is what will this course provide for my piece? Sometimes courses are valuable for the safety net they provide. Consider how a course might provide a safety net for your growth. Maybe it's the community of encouragement, or the comfort of knowing that you're not alone, or the structure and rhythms that allow you to keep growing. Or maybe it's the mindset growth, or the personal development, or the confidence that it will bring, or the ease of knowing. The tools and resources are right there at your fingertips. As you think through these questions and calculate the value, write your findings down and keep this list where you can find it. Because oftentimes you'll be able to commit to something that you value, and the value is likely going to be immense. Step number two is mark the time off of your calendar. This is maybe the most crucial step for your success. Whether you're attending a workshop or a course that spans multiple weeks or months, you've got to put it on the calendar. Block off the time it will take you to show up for each lesson, complete each project, or show up for the live portion of the course if there is one. Be generous with your time calculations and give yourself some wiggle room. If you're like me, I can be a bit of a time optimist and so nothing feels better than margin. I like to think of this as making an appointment with my future, more successful version of myself, and that is an appointment that I will not miss. So whether you prefer a paper or digital calendar, mark the appointment and set the reminder. What I definitely know is that if you sign up for a course experience and you are going to kind of try to fit it in, chances are you won't be able to fit it in. The number one thing you've got to answer after you set a new goal is like, great, when am I going to do that? And when you put when on the calendar, that is when you will find success. Number three is to create the space for success. So I want you to think about your environment, the environment that will support your goal and this can be one of the most powerful ways to just set yourself up for success. The spaces that we learn in can either inspire us to move forward or hold us back. So where will you be when you take this course? If you can create a dedicated workspace, maybe it's your desk or a coffee shop or the kitchen table. But choosing one specific location is going to help create a rhythm for you to show up even on the days that you don't want to. And the more intentional that you are about creating a space free of distractions, the more you will gain from the course. One problem with taking something online is that, well, you're online, right? Tabs and research and Instagram, they're all right there. Click away. And so it takes a lot of discipline and focus to prepare a space for success. Maybe you watch the course on an iPad so that you're not so tempted to click through tabs. Or maybe you can remove your phone from the room so you're not tempted to scroll. During the lessons, go ahead and turn off notifications and reach for your notebook to take notes by hand. One of my mentors always says if you don't write it down, you don't remember it. And that's true for me as well. I think writing it from a mind to hand to paper is part of the magic that helps things stick. And then can you have a space where interruptions are limited? If you're in a space that is easy to be interrupted in, maybe you can remove yourself, take yourself and this learning experience somewhere that will limit that kind of interruption. As you consider your spaces, you can think about what will help me focus and what will make me look forward to coming to this space. So many times I like to designate a learning space outside of my normal workspace because as soon as I sit down in my work chair at my desk, my mind is 100% on business and I feel almost like this 3, 2, 1, go sense. And so if I sit down, I'm going to really want to dive in headfirst to the day's business. But if I'm taking a course, I really want to separate the experience so I'm not tempted to to get to the rest of the things on my to do list. So have fun with this one. It should be a space that makes you excited to learn and you can be intentional about where you learn and that's going to help retain what you learn. Number four is to know the flow of the course that you're taking. If you are a type A planner, this step is going to come easy, but for those of us who need a little bit of a reminder, look ahead and notice. Notice how the course modules are laid out. Notice how the assignments and tasks are coming and the pacing of each lesson. In most cases, there's an intentionality behind the structure of the course, and so the more you can familiarize yourself with the details, the more excited you'll be to complete it. Once you know the course flow, it's going to be time to think about your workflow and process. Now each of us learns differently, so it's important to take a moment to think about you. Consider the current season of your life and your current learning style. Maybe you're a mom and you'll best succeed if you break the course into 20 minute chunks during nap time and listen to lessons on stroller walks. This was 100% me with bear and Ollie when they were younger. Maybe you have a long commute and some parts of the course can be listened to while you're driving. You might learn best if you work at your desk, notebook in hand, during the first part of your day. Maybe you're a night owl and you need to kind of carve the time out after you put your kids to bed. It's easy to jump into a new course without pausing and considering how to best learn what's in front of you. But taking a moment to think about the workflow and your personal work style and life flow is going to go a long way. Now, if you can only do one thing a day in this course, do it. It's okay if it takes you longer to finish the course than your classmates. The important thing is just showing up consistently because the more you know the course flow and the workflow, the easier it will be to show up through the end.

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Step number five is to engage and connect with the community. This step alone can make a difference in whether or not you finish the course. Because we need accountability. It takes vulnerability to share our goals with someone. It takes openness to show up into a group and share our progress, matter how small. But this vulnerability and openness are really where the magic happens. They grow our commitment and connection. So suddenly a course doesn't become a bunch of lessons, it becomes an avenue for inspiration and encouragement. You show up because you know if you don't, you'll be missed. Here's what I suggest. Create a buddy system. Choose someone to learn alongside you, share insights with and keep each other accountable. Then show up in the course community. From the study groups to the project posts, comment like ask questions. Simply engage. It really all makes a difference. I know this from my experience in so many different situations. One of them is the gym. I have proven to myself for years and years and years that if I'm going to work out on my own at my house or go to an unstructured kind of open gym, I oftentimes don't. And if I do, I oftentimes don't really push myself. That is one reason why about eight years ago I fell in love with CrossFit. Now the real reason is the community. Because we are all in this class together and I know if I'm not there, my friends are texting me and it has meant that I have been more consistent in my personal working out history for the longest period of my entire life. Because we're doing it together. There's a togetherness. There's a start and a fin. And also there's a little friendly competition happening during the workout as well. So I push myself really hard and that means that I get a much better workout. My point is that we flourish with accountability. So invite a friend, have a buddy. As you take an online course, it is going to push you to think bigger and to show up better and to take more action and to believe in the potential of your dreams. So before we move on, who would enjoy taking whatever course it is you're thinking about with you? Number six is to have a little grace on yourself. The secret to staying on track is giving yourself the grace to fall off and get back on. It is so easy to slip into the mindset that we must do everything perfectly. We tell ourselves, this is it. This is the course. I'm going to do it. And then life is filled with surprises. And the more we try to control, the harder it is to get back on track. So make a plan and then have some grace when you need to pivot. This is not a game of perfection. It's a game of pivoting. My friends, the people that you see crossing the course finish line, they don't have a magically smooth few days or months. They kept running after tripping. They got back up into the race after recovering from a side cramp. They paced themselves out of the gate because the weather was unexpectedly hot. Some of my most productive learning moments have happened when life was most unpredictable, when my days were filled with nap times and morning sickness and moving houses and all of those life things. But I learned to give myself grace and get back on track. That's the most important thing. And you can, too. Number seven is to set your intention, your why it's tempting to jump into a course and hit play. But before you do this, consider why you're taking this course. Connect this course to your bigger picture and think about how it fits into your purpose. You know, one of the things that we did with a recent workshop, we had a workshop. We sent an email and said, hit reply and tell me why you want to take this workshop. And so a lot of the answers were, I want to learn Adobe Illustrator. I want to learn how to license my work. And then to that email, we sent another reply. It was a video from me, and I said, okay, great. Now that was likely kind of an answer that was more in your mind. I want you to move into the heart. Why do you want that? And that is a really important why. Why do you want to learn Illustrator? Why do you want to license your artwork that is super interesting and compelling to think about? Because there is a greater purpose, and if you can connect that to your experience, you're going to be more motivated and more dedicated than ever before. Is it because you've always known that you were meant for something bigger? Is it because you want to quit A day job that's draining you. Is it because you want to support your family financially? That why is what will compel you to show up for this course that you're attending. Because now you've attached it to something greater than just the surface level, things that you're going to take away from it. It. It's powerful and it's unique to you and your big goal. So write it down and keep it in place where you'll see it regularly, whether it's in your workspace or on your phone background, somewhere that you can consistently be reminded of the heart behind your goal. Knowing your why is going to help you navigate obstacles and really maintain momentum. So when you hit roadblocks or a bad day, you can come back to your why. Now, number eight is to celebrate as you go. I want you to prepare small celebrations for yourself to enjoy as you work through the course. And yes, I mean small. Don't wait until the very end of the course to celebrate. We need glimpses of joy along the way. So if the course you're taking has a lot of modules, maybe make each module an opportunity to celebrate. Or if it's a short course or a weekend workshop, celebrate the completion of each day day. But pick a reward that feels really meaningful and exciting to you. It could be a small break, a nice meal, or something bigger, like a beautiful notebook or a new tool, or a massage. Choose rewards that make you feel really appreciated and excited to keep moving forward and really celebratory of the success that you're having and the momentum that you're gaining. You want to make sure that the reward genuinely feels like a treat, something that will motivate you to keep going. Celebrating your wins is such a beautiful way to reflect on how far you've come, and it keeps the momentum going. Truly, every goal you reach, big or small, is a moment worth pausing for. As entrepreneurs, we are so inclined to just barrel roll through one accomplishment to the next. And so I'm inviting you, I'm begging you, to slow down and give yourself little rewards along the way. This matters. I'm showing up for myself. I'm making progress. That motivation can carry you all the way to the finish line. So often we push joy further down on the road, so saving celebrations for some distant, perfect moment. But we don't need to wait. Find joy in every step and let each milestone remind you that you're growing. If you have a sneaky little voice that whispers, but I don't know if my dream is worth investing in, I want to Talk. Maybe we buy the course. We tell ourselves. We believe in our ability enough to take the first step. But then, deep down, there's still this kind of seed of doubt. It's a lie that our dream is not worth investing in and we're wasting our time. And without even realizing it, we start to pull back or play small. We let other priorities in our lives creep in. We show up late to the course lesson, we brush aside the projects, and we don't carve out the financial bandwidth in our budget to get the tools. Because even though we won't admit it to anyone, a small part of us still wonders, is this really worth it? Am I really worth it? And if that's familiar to you, I've been there. I've had to face this lie so many times. But the truth is that your dream is worth investing in. And you are worth investing in. I remember the first big investment that I made in my Future. It was 2010, and I didn't have any money, and I knew I needed the right tools to make my dreams happen. So I saved up for months to buy a new computer and a drawing tablet. I'll never forget opening those packages and feeling the finality of it. Like, okay, I'm taking myself seriously now. It was a big investment that I made for this dream, and that took courage, and it also made me show up. So when you sign up for a course, it also takes courage. You're making that really big decision to move forward and say yes and move towards the life that you imagine. So keep showing up. Keep taking those steps. Every small investment of time and energy and belief, it builds something bigger that you can see now, and you'll have skin in the game. So take it and run with it. And when that little doubt creeps in, just remind yourself that you bring something beautiful to the table. Your dream, your story, your creativity are unique to you, and you are worth every investment. Seeing a course through to the finish line takes commitment. But with these eight steps, you can do it. They are as a recap, calculate the value of the course. Mark the time off on your calendar. Create a workspace for success. Know the flow of the course. Engage and connect with the community. Be gracious with yourself. Set your why and celebrate the small wins. By taking these steps, you are going to set yourself up for success. You absolutely have what it takes to finish strong. It will take sacrifice and dedication and time and hard work. And also, you can do all of those things. One thing I've learned is that the very best artists and creatives they never stop learning. Name a profession. And this is true. We keep learning and growing. And there is beautiful purpose in this. Maybe you're in the middle of a course. Or maybe you're in the middle of my course, the immersion course that we're in the middle of right now. Or maybe you're thinking about starting one. Wherever you are, it is never too late to put these eight steps into action. I'm always learning, too. And we're doing this together. Okay, my friends, create the beauty that you want to see come alive in the world. And remember, there's room for you.