Life. It’ll get you. Just when you think you have it all figured out, you get a curve ball. So I admit I have gotten distracted. I’m going to bring you up to date on life and business, even though it’s going to mean a serving of humble pie for me. It’s not all bad. As a matter of fact, some of it is downright awesome. However, some of it is admitting that the online French class I invested so much time in has kind of ground to a halt, and I just don’t have the energy to fight the tech and face my mistakes at this exact moment. And part of it is admitting that I still struggle with my old nemesis – biting off more than I can chew.
First, an update on the French. I did complete and launch the beta of my free French course. There were some really strong positives and some really big negatives, as well.
Online French class struggles
On the negative side. I didn’t get a commitment from people that they would complete the class and report back to me what they liked and what they didn’t, so a lot of them didn’t complete the course. Worse, I got very little useful feedback. I was really disappointed by that.
Second, the tech just wasn’t fun. I really did work at it, but some of it I never did figure out. I don’t think I’m ever going to love tech.
Third, after making the French class a MAJOR priority for almost 6 weeks solid, after it launched, I just didn’t want to deal with it again at all. I was so drained by fighting with the tech and making deadlines, and communicating with people who had tech issues, that I shut down. I really haven’t even touched it for 3 weeks, even though I have several re-works I need to do.
And perhaps the hardest thing is something I wasn’t expecting at all. Impostor sydrome. “Who are you,” my brain says, “to think you can create an online course that people are willing to pay for when there are so many other people doing the same thing, not to mention apps that teach language?” I don’t usually struggle with impostor syndrome. While I’m not conceited, I’m real. I admit that I’m not perfect, but I also allow myself some credit where I really rock. And I really rock at teaching languages. But somehow my self-confidence has taken a real hit lately, and I’m not sure why.
And Successes
But it wasn’t all bad. I actually built an online course. WHOA! Let me say that again. I, Jill Wiley, created an online course entirely on my own. I wrote it, filmed it, organized it, and uploaded it. WOW! For me, that is huge.
And while I was building it, I was learning. I was learning what did and didn’t work in more areas than I can really count: tech, presentation, marketing, and much more. I made a crap-ton of mistakes, but I try to be like Anne of Green Gables (my favorite literary character ever!) who says, “I never do the same wrong thing twice.” I might make the same mistake more than once, but not much more, so I’ve learned a lot about what I need to improve, and I’m going to do that.
Finally, I received permission to use an animated short in my paid content. I won’t go into all the details here, but basically, I finally had to wad up my courage and text – yes, text – a person I had never met and ask permission to use her work and how much she would charge. The response was a win-win. She said that the content was free to use, as long as I included credit to her, and I gave her some tips on how to learn Spanish. We both left the exchange feeling a lot happier, I think.