If you’ve ever watched a YouTube ad promising “Four easy steps to a six-figure course!”
you’ll know how tempting it sounds.
I fell for it too.
I thought, How hard can it be?
I’ll just film a few lessons, upload them online, and ta-da – instant learning magic.
Except it wasn’t magic. It was messy. Really messy.
Because turning The Confidence Breakthrough into a six-month online course wasn’t just about filming videos or building a website – it became a crash course in patience, persistence, and personal growth.
What I thought would take a few weeks took the better part of three years, and tested every ounce of courage I teach.
Here’s what I learned along the way – so if you ever decide to create something of your own, you’ll know the truth behind the highlight reels.
Lesson 1: Translating a Face-to-Face Course Is as Hard as Writing a Book
I thought I could just ‘lift and shift’ my live content online. After all, I’d been running those sessions for years.
Wrong.
Translating a face-to-face course into an online one is as complex as turning it into a book. It took months of trial and error to figure out what worked, what didn’t, and how to keep learners engaged when I wasn’t in the room.
Lesson 2: Uploading a Course Is Easy. Creating It Is Not.
Every tutorial makes it look effortless: upload your slides to Teachable or Thinkific, add a few videos and voilà! They’re right – uploading is easy.
What no one tells you is that getting the material ready to upload is the hard part.
Designing content. Structuring the journey. Writing scripts. Recording videos. Creating activities. Testing audio. Redesigning slides. All before you even log in to the platform.
Lesson 3: YouTube Is a Terrible Teacher (When You’re Creating a Course)
I started by studying other online creators for inspiration. Unfortunately, my main research source was YouTube, so my first few videos looked and sounded like… well, YouTube videos.
That’s fine for makeup tutorials or travel vlogs, but not ideal when you’re trying to explain cognitive-behavioural principles in a professional confidence course.
I had to learn everything from scratch – from how to design video layouts (hello Canva, my patient companion) to how to structure learning for people who are reflecting, not scrolling.
Lesson 4: Finding Your Voice (Literally)
You’d think doing a voiceover would be simple, wouldn’t you? Oh, how naïve I was. The sound quality on my first attempts was awful, so I bought a decent mic.
Then I read my script word-for-word, which sounded robotic.
Then I tried speaking naturally – cue umms, errs, and more retakes than I care to admit.
After three months of hard graft, multiple meltdowns, and a newfound respect for YouTubers, I proudly produced a three-minute video.
I sent it to a trusted (and brutally honest) colleague for feedback. His response? Silence. Then: “No. This isn’t right.”
Crestfallen doesn’t begin to cover it. But as I teach resilience for a living, I reminded myself: there’s no such thing as failure, only feedback. So I dusted myself off and started again – with a new approach.
Lesson 5: Cheating
You can probably tell I tried everything to avoid recording myself. It wasn’t that I hated being on camera (I did) – it was that it was so hard.
So I tried to cheat. Enter: my AI avatar. She looked ten years younger, had flawless skin, and never stumbled over her words.
But she wasn’t me. She felt flat and passionless, and passion is the one thing I’ll never outsource.
So I gave up on cheating and accepted the obvious truth: I had to show up myself.
Lesson 6: Lights, Camera, Chaos
This is why I’d been avoiding recording in the first place. I had to become:
- a film director (camera angles, backgrounds, wardrobe choices)
- a sound engineer (the fancy mic looked like a prop, so I upgraded to a lapel mic)
- a lighting expert (ring lights, softboxes, and eventually a green screen to fight shadows)
Unfortunately, my blonde hair glowed like a celestial halo against the green screen. I looked like a heavenly weather presenter. And this was before I even spoke.
Then came the challenge of remembering everything I’d scripted without umms, errs, or long pauses. A one-minute clip took an entire day of filming.
Eventually, I surrendered – not in defeat, but in acceptance. I needed help. Enter the brilliant Colin Stone (https ://www.linkedin.com/in/colin-stone-tv/) who saved both my sanity and my project.
Lesson 7: Editing Is an Extreme Sport
With filming finally done, I had 87 videos to edit. I learned how to add B-roll, text overlays, and music cues. It took five months.
Then came the activity sheets, and the creation of Sam and her team, the learning avatars. Another steep learning curve.
Lesson 8: Build It and They (Might) Come
Once the content was ready, I had to decide where to host it. Uploading to Teachable or Thinkific would’ve been simpler, but I wanted something more bespoke for corporate clients.
So I built my own website (with the amazing Victoria Jones (https://victoriajoneswellbeing.com), who deserves a medal).
And since I was doing everything else, I thought, why not rebrand my entire company too? After 17 years as Orchard Training, I finally became Jo Blakeley Training. (Yes, that’s the sound of my creativity running on fumes.)
Lesson 9: You Also Have to Become a Lawyer (and a Marketing Department)
Just when I thought I’d finished, I discovered the real work hadn’t even begun. Terms & Conditions. Privacy Policy. Disclaimers. Cyber insurance. GDPR compliance. Cookie banners. ICO registration.
Apparently, creating an online course also turns you into a part-time lawyer and part-time IT manager. And that’s before you even start selling it.
Because once the legal boxes are ticked, you suddenly have to become a content creator across three platforms, a sales strategist, and a PR professional – all before breakfast.
The Big Takeaways
✅ Creating something meaningful takes longer – and digs deeper – than you think.
✅ You’ll need more patience, persistence, and passwords than you ever imagined.
✅ But every mistake, retake, and meltdown is part of your breakthrough.
There were days I wanted to throw my laptop out of the window and others where I sat back thinking, I actually did that.
Somewhere between the chaos, the cables, and the caffeine, I realised this course wasn’t just about teaching confidence – it was testing mine.
And that’s the messy truth: confidence isn’t built by getting it right first time.
It’s built by showing up, starting messy, learning, and growing even when it’s hard.
If you’re creating something that feels impossible right now, keep going. The messy middle is the breakthrough.
✨ The Confidence Breakthrough Online Programme launches 17 November 2025.
📘 The Confidence Breakthrough book is available now on Amazon → www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0995730520