Back in 2018, I launched my first online course. I was full of excitement, nerves, and anticipation.

How would my course be received?

Would people like it?

I had spent months and countless hours preparing the topic, scripting, filming, editing, and preparing everything to market after launch.

Post-launch, I spent the first weeks maniacally refreshing the Udemy Instructor page to see if I had any new students or reviews.

Much to my delight, the reviews were overwhelmingly positive. As a result of this social proof, the number of students in the course continued to grow and I gleefully started considering what my next course topic should be.

Until I came across a 1-star review with the comment:

“Not a great match. A little too basic…”

A pretty vanilla comment.

Not personal and clearly explaining the reason for the poor review.

Seems pretty fair right?

Yet, I felt it.

I had spent so long working on this course — and someone didn’t like it!

I was crushed.

I immediately went into mental defense mode:

Too basic? I said it was a beginner course.

They should have read the course landing page better.

I bet they didn’t even look through the course content outline.

By this point, the course already had over a hundred reviews, typically 4 or 5 stars. Yet, this 1-star review is the one I remember.

I don’t remember a quote from a positive review. Though I know there were many lovely ones because I can remember how I felt reading them. But, I can’t remember the comments themselves off the top of my head.

Full blog available on Medium.

Credits:

Read aloud by the author.

Image credits:

Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash

Music credits:

True Feelings: Relaxing Lofi by The Turquoise Moon

Relaxing Lo Fi Chill by Sondé

Sofa Sleeping by Jon Presstone

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