How to Pick the Best Topic for Your Course
May 8, 2025
Considering 200 is only 0.00000244% of the world's population, I guarantee you know something that 200 people in this world would pay you 5 grand for.
But here’s the problem: How do you know it’s the right course topic?
You don’t want to just pick a topic you like. You could end up building a course that no one buys.
And you don’t want to just pick a topic that you are good at. You could end up creating content you have no passion for which means your content will probably be boring. Like oatmeal. Nutritious but nobody’s getting excited about it.
And you don’t want to pick a topic that just makes money. If you aren’t good at it, how are you going to help people? At some point people will figure this out and the reputation of your business will die a painful death.
You need a course topic that stands on 3 pillars: you are good at it, you love it, and there is a strong market for it.
Put another way: Enjoyment ❤️ Skill 🎯 Cash flow 💰
The first time I published a video that covered all three pillars, that video made me $97,332 in course sales.
How do you pull this off?
First, I have yet to meet a single person who did not have an expertise that more than qualified for all three.
You just need to find what it is.
There are skills you’ve been developing all your life—whether your realize it or not—that you could make a lot of money and change a lot of lives with by turning that skill into a course.
The problem: we have been taught by society to look at our skills like hiring managers look at your resume: Do you fit into my predetermined slot?
Hiring managers are like puzzle masters, checking if you’re the exact piece they’ve already carved a space for. They measure you against a template, instead of evaluating you as a complete asset.
The result? They overlook 90% of your skill mosaic just to see if the 10% they're looking for clicks into place. And then without realizing it, we do that to ourselves.
Let me ask you a question: If you’ve raised teenagers, and a hiring manager interviews you for a position that requires high proficiency in negotiation, do you think he’s accounting for the negotiation skills you developed raising teenagers and being married for 20 years?
So how do you fix this?
Domains and layers.
Every life experience you've had since birth is a domain.
And every skill you developed in those domains is a layer.
A domain = an arena of experience
A layer = everything you learned in that experience
It’s sort of like video gaming:
Domain = the game level (e.g., the Fire World, Ice World, Forest World)
Layer = the skills and upgrades you unlock in that world (fire resistance, ice climbing, stealth)
Using domains and layers can uncover 10 times the skills any hiring manager could possibly see in you.
Think about your domains:
Relationships, finance, government and politics, nonprofits and volunteering, business startups, team sports, internet technology, marketing, video production, academia, law, health and fitness
(This is just a sample of hundreds of domain possibilities.)
In each domain, you have layers of experience.
Corporate culture teaches us to think one-dimensionally about our skills.
It’s time to destroy that.
For example let's say that you worked as a purchaser of office equipment
You learned far more than just purchasing office equipment. You also learned:
How to negotiate. You negotiated prices, terms, and conditions with suppliers.
How to analyze data. You had to analyze cost, quality, and service offerings from vendors.
How to do market research. You had to track market dynamics to forecast needs and make informed buying decisions.
How to do supplier management. You had to build relationships with suppliers, manage supplier performance, ensure reliability, and resolve issues on the go.
How to create and manage a large budget. You had to create a budget, stay within financial constraints while meeting company needs, and strategize to help the companies you work for gain maximum value on the dollar.
How to manage contracts. You had to learn contract law in procurement and how to draft, review, and update contracts to protect your employers without burning bridges with suppliers.
How to manage projects. You had to plan, organize, and oversee the purchase of furniture for multiple employers within a defined timeframe and budget.
How to work with logistics. You had to learn shipping, handling, and installation of heavy or complex equipment.
That’s eight different course topics and we just scratched the surface.
Don’t just look at domains. Look at sub-domains.
Marketing is a domain. Content marketing is a sub-domain.
Training is a domain. Training in IT is a sub-domain.
Fitness is a domain. Fitness for people in their 40s is a subdomain.
Relationships is a domain. Marriage is a subdomain.
What are examples of layers from relationship subdomains?
Perhaps you:
Successfully raised children through middle school season, or
Survived divorce after having kids, or
Struggled for years in your marriage and then experienced a huge breakthrough with your spouse, or
Have years of dating experience pre-marriage, or
Learned how to care for a chronically sick spouse for years, or
Grew up in a home with more than 5 siblings
Domains & Layers can bring 10 times the skillsets to the surface.
This makes it easy to pick out what you love and what you are good at.
“But, Seth, I don’t have that many domains.”
Before I became an entrepreneur, over 80% of my life experience was in one domain: ministry.
And my roles were very few: youth pastor, college pastor, evangelist.
I didn't even have the role of senior pastor or lead pastor. I was always the junior guy.
And my bachelors and masters degrees could not have been more unrelated to business: both were degrees in Bible knowledge and ministry.
So I was screwed! Right?
Wrong!
As a college pastor I learned:
How to motivate people without the power of the paycheck
How to build teams
How to delegate
How to hold attention while teaching for large and small audiences
How to read the culture and unspoken nuances of college life
How to vision cast – Leading a ministry with a compelling mission and clarity.
How to plan events (retreats, worship nights, outreach events)
How to fund raise
How to manage a budget
How to negotiate (navigating the unique tensions between parent expectation, professors, and college friends)
I could go on for another 10 minutes.
If you still feel unqualified, may I remind you that The Bible is filled with "unqualified" heroes?
Moses stuttered. David's armor didn't fit. John Mark was rejected by Paul. Timothy had ulcers. Hosea's wife was a prostitute. Amos' only training was in the school of fig-tree pruning. Jacob was a liar. David had an affair. Solomon was too rich. Jesus was too poor. Abraham was too old. David was too young. Peter was afraid of death. Lazarus was dead. John was self-righteous. Naomi was a widow. Paul was a murderer. So was Moses. Jonah ran from God. Miriam was a gossip. Gideon and Thomas both doubted. Jeremiah was depressed and suicidal. Elijah burned out. John the Baptist was a loudmouth. Martha was a worry-wart. Mary was lazy. Samson had long hair. Noah got drunk.
God does not call the qualified, He qualifies the called.
The challenge for every single man in my Craftsmen Cohort is not finding his area of expertise, but having so many skills to choose from.
If you teach what you love and are good at it, the byproduct is changed lives.
Okay, but what about the third pillar: How do I make sure this course will make money? I cover that in this video here.