Thread
What I learned today:

Positive transformation (no matter how small) has no monetary value.

I had the thought and a few others after completing the final Zoom call w/@Nicolascole77 and @dickiebush

Why I think Ship30 takes my spot for best online course I've ever taken.
It felt like graduation day, when you're crying and hugging, saying goodbye to good friends and venerable instructors.

But there were no diplomas. No credits. None of us were even in the same room.

Yet I heard transformational story after story.

How did it happen?
1/Amazing community

Community has become a popular buzzword lately. It seems every course includes one, but few make it feel as welcoming and active as Ship30 did.

There's 2 reasons for this.
a) Most of the experience plays out on Twitter and LinkedIn.

By doing this, they allowed people to participate on a public platform instead of forcing them onto their community hub on a less accessible platform (which is what many courses do)
b) They allowed for face time during the live sessions via breakout rooms.

This is where many of the courses I've been in have broken down. There's only time to receive instruction, not to get to know other people.

In Ship30 this small tweak made a big difference.
2/An actionable and tactical curriculum

Some online courses thrive on theory. Ship30 doesn't. There's a lot of information, but it's easy and fast to implement the things they teach.

That tightened the feedback loop and made it easier to adjust day to day. Fast feedback = good
3/Open-ended outcomes

The challenge of Ship30 is simple: write online for 30 days.

But the motivations for taking on that challenge were as diverse as the parts of the globe all of us were working from.
Here are some of the reasons people cited for joining the course:

-find their niche
-build a consistent writing habit
-find clients
-improve their confidence in themselves

No matter the reason, this choose your own adventure format helped people stay engaged during the course.
4/Gamification (badges)

Initially, I thought the badges and leaderboard were a little gimmicky.

But several people cited showing up on the leaderboard every week as a motivating factor that kept them writing during the challenge.

(I was also trying not to drop badges lol)
Once again, this was a small touch that I haven't seen any other online course completely commit to like Ship30.
5/Presence of the Instructors

I was pleasantly surprised by how hands on @Nicolascole77 and @dickiebush were during the entire course.

They certainly have the resources to just throw in video lectures for each lesson. But they showed up to every live call,
with first day of school enthusiasm every time.

As a high school teacher, I know this is not easy to do.

Especially when you're teaching through a screen (there's no room energy to feed off of, so you have to project twice as much to appear present and energized).
With hundreds of us students in a single cohort there's probably a lot to manage behind the scenes.

Their team. Reading essays. Preparing for live sessions. Keeping up with all of the other bells and whistles to keep the ship afloat is probably tiring. I applaud their effort.
As a military veteran, I've been to a lot of training courses over the years.

During those courses I learned some things, but it's the relationships I made along the way that stuck with me throughout my career.

Ship30 had that same vibe.
Everybody came from around the world to get training in a particular skill.

We all left with that and more friendships, followers, and fans than we anticipated.

That's the sign of a highly valuable course.

The transformation worth every precious dollar and day spent.
Summary:

Ship30 is the best online course I've ever taken because:

- Great supportive community
- Tactical curriculum
- Open-ended outcome
- Highly gamified (addictive, in a good way)
- Instructors bust their ass to give a good experience

(If you're on the fence. Buy it.)
Here's where I should put the link to my Typeshare, but I don't have it anymore.

Spent all my money on the Captain's Table :(

But if you like, you can check my website and see more of my writing and other work

keithhayden.net/
Mentions
See All