How to structure your media product: Courses, coaching, digital products, & more

Most people build media products all wrong. If you’re creating a course, coaching program, or any type of media product — follow these rules to build it.

They’ll help avoid the most common mistakes that could cost you millions of dollars and months of wasted time.

1) Transformation

The most successful products deliver transformation not information or education

The goal of your product should be to help people achieve a real, tangible outcome in a short period of time.

But don’t over promise!

Help customers with ONE simple and achievable outcome that can be done in 4-8 weeks (or less)!

You’re responsible for kick-starting customers success, not giving them everything they need for the rest of their lives.

2) Do the homework, get the result

Every product needs homework assignments so customers put what they learn into practice.

Homework should be about taking action (doing the thing you teach), not busy work like filling out a worksheet.

If students complete all homework assignments, they should be able to achieve the main promise of your product realistically.

If they can't get there by doing the homework, make the program better or promise less.

3) Short, narrow, small

It’s better to leave customers wanting more, than to make them feel overwhelmed.

The biggest reason people don’t use media products is because of information overload.

People feel good when they complete something. Help them achieve that!

Here’s the short, narrow, small framework:

Your media product should be…

• Short: 2-12 hours to consume (or less)

• Narrow: Only solves one problem or delivers one outcome

• Small: Feature lite — Only 1-3 features (4 max)

For example, let’s say you have a cohort based course. Here’s how to structure it:

• Feature 1: 8 live sessions & recordings (8-12 hours to consume)

• Feature 2: 8 resources that help people implement the training.

• Feature 3: Course community with 2-3 channels that helps students connect and get their questions answered.

That’s all you need.

4) Turn-key system

You MUST make your product feel “done for you”.

Why? Because people don’t want to learn or work. They don’t want a course, book, subscription, or coaching program — they want results.

Your product should deliver the most valuable and actionable information in the fastest way possible.

And give customers shortcuts!

Create: Tools, templates, scripts, examples, AI prompts, checklists, or services that DO the hard part for your customers.

For example, imagine you have a program about email marketing…

• Teach your email marketing system (how-to content)

  And,

• Share examples of proven marketing emails, create fill-in-the blank email templates, and give customers AI prompts that write emails drafts for them

This helps customers get results faster — and feels done-for-you.

5) High touch, high ticket

It’s better to sell less units, at a higher price, and work with those customers closely.

Especially for your first media product!

This sets you up for future success and the ability to have a more scalable product later.

Here’s why:

• High ticket: Makes customers take it seriously, more likely to use it, and more likely to get results.

• High touch: With less customers you can support them more closely and get them better results.

And with more results: You get more testimonials, reviews, and success stories, so you can sell more later!

Generally, high-ticket means $1,000, $2,000 or $5,000-$10,000. Sometimes more.

6) Have a guarantee

You will sell more if there is no financial risk if customers don’t get results.

Your guarantee should be 1 of 3 options:

• Unconditional and time based (30 day 100% money-back guarantee)

• Conditional and time based (Complete all homework assignments within 30 days, and if you're not satisfied, get 100% of your money back.)

• Until to you do (keep working with them, free, until they get result)

My recommendation is to start with an “unconditional and time-based” guarantee for your first product. Your refund policy should be generous because the product is not proven yet.

After you get 50-100 customers, you can move to a conditional guarantee — or you can add a refund fee (5-10%) to protect your IP and make up for transaction fees.

“Until you do” guarantees are best for high ticket products and programs.

They’re not for everyone, but here’s how they works:

“If you complete [criteria] and you don’t achieve [goal outcome] within [time] I’ll work with you (within the program) for free until you do.”

The bottom line

These frameworks will help you build the right media product so you can sell more units and help more customers.

They apply to nearly all types of media products: Information products, educational products, coaching, courses, subscriptions, community, events, and more.