Program Design for Coaches: How to Build Group Coaching Programs That Sell, Scale Your Business, and Free Up Your Time

Most coaches think building a group program means building one giant, finished thing: a library of courses, live coaching calls, and a community, all of it before they can enroll a single person. So they spend months, sometimes years, building, and never make a dollar. The program that was supposed to buy back their time ends up eating more of it. This episode lays out the simple way through: how...

You're a 1:1 coach who knows you need to scale. You've thought about a course, a membership, group coaching. But every time you sit down to plan it, the same question stops you: which kind of group program do you actually build first? In this episode, I walk through the three most common group program formats, why the wrong starting point sets up the wrong business, and the two questions...

You launched your group program with content you know is solid. By week two, clients are quietly checking out. You can't figure out what went wrong, and the answer is almost always the same thing. Information overload before clients have a single real win to stand on. In this episode, I'll walk you through the fastest way coaches lose clients from group programs, why it happens even when...

Most coaches plan their group program by listing everything they cover in 1:1 sessions and turning it into content. It feels logical. It also tends to produce a program that looks right but doesn't move people the way your one-on-one work does. The gap isn't your expertise. It's that coaching someone through a transformation and designing a program that creates transformation for a...

If your roster is full and it still doesn't feel the way you thought it would, you haven't done anything wrong. You've hit the income ceiling every successful coach eventually hits. And the problem isn't your work ethic or your pricing. It's the model. In this episode, I walk you through where that ceiling actually comes from, why the obvious fixes don't solve it, and...

If you're building your coaching business on social media, you're building on land you don't own. The algorithm changes, your reach drops, and the audience you spent months growing suddenly can't hear you. That's not a marketing foundation, that's renting. In this episode I walk you through the three things every coach needs to have in place to stop renting and start...

If you've been trying to sell a course in 2026 and the numbers aren't adding up, the problem isn't your marketing. The market has structurally shifted. Courses are declining, and the practitioners who've been in this industry for years are saying it out loud. In this episode I break down what's actually driving the decline, what's working instead, and what the 2026 bu...

Welcome to Program Design for Coaches, the podcast that helps fully booked coaches build group programs that scale their business, deliver real results for their clients, and free up their time. I'm Dr. Curtis Satterfield. I've spent 17 years as an educator and course designer, building over 30 programs from scratch. On this show I'll help you build group programs that actually work...

Online course creation starts with a foundation most coaches skip. Skipping it is the reason clients don't get the transformation they were promised. Most coaches sit down to create a course and start asking "what should I teach?" That question gets them into trouble every time. They end up with a pile of content that goes in ten directions and clients who finish without the result...

Course creation mistakes are costing your clients before they ever start. If you're designing a course right now, there's a step most solopreneurs skip entirely and it sets clients up to struggle from lesson one. In this episode, I'll show you the course design mistake that causes clients to hit a wall early, what it actually costs you when it happens, and the two-part fix that prev...

 Online course completion rates don't improve by adding more content, they improve through better course design. If your clients aren't finishing your online course, the problem isn't what you're teaching. It's how much you're asking their brain to handle at once. In this episode, I'll break down the science behind why more content makes things worse and four cou...

Online course creation starts long before you hit record, but most solopreneurs skip the readiness check and pay for it later. They jump into building modules, picking platforms, and recording lessons without the foundations in place, and end up scrapping weeks of work or launching something that doesn't deliver. In this episode, I'll walk you through four things you need to have ready b...

The wrong course platform can wreck your first online course launch before you make a single sale. If you're researching Kajabi, Teachable, or Thinkific for your course creation setup, you're about to make an expensive mistake. In this episode, I'll tell you the platform I recommend to my clients, why the popular options are a bad fit when you're just starting out, and how I le...

Your students have purchased your online course, full of excitement and anticipation. Yet, many mentally check out within the first 30 seconds. Not because the course lacks quality, but because the introductory moments fail to engage them. In this episode, you'll learn about critical course design mistakes that cause students to disengage right from the start, and discover a simple, three-par...

For solopreneurs looking to build an online course that truly transforms students, understanding the difference between transferring information and transferring skills is key.  In this episode, we introduce the Handoff Method, a simple three-step approach to course design that helps your students move from "I get it" to "I can do it."  You'll learn: Why most online course...

Creating an online course? Solopreneurs often make this course design mistake without realizing it. And it's costing them students, testimonials, and future sales. In this episode, I share a personal story about learning to crochet that reminded me why so many course creators lose students before they even get started. You'll learn: Why students give up on courses in the first few minute...

Are you ready to record your online course lessons but unsure whether to write a full script, use bullet points, or just wing it? This episode explores essential techniques for course creation that help solopreneurs build an online course that truly connects with their students. Learn from my 17 years of experience as an educator and course designer as I break down the three main approaches to les...

You build an online course, launch it, and only a few people sign up. For solopreneurs trying to create an online course that grows their business, low enrollment feels like failure. But it doesn't have to be. In this episode, I share exactly what happened when my course launch got only one paid student, and the course creation strategies I used to turn it into a sold-out relaunch just months...

Online course completion is the key to course creation success. If your students aren't finishing, you're not getting testimonials, referrals, or repeat buyers. Just silence. The problem isn't your content. It's that your students don't understand why each lesson matters to them. And the common advice to "just explain why" doesn't work because it relies on y...

You're building your first online course and you can't stop asking: how long should it be? You've searched for answers. Maybe you even bought a course creation program hoping they'd tell you. But nobody gives you a straight answer. In this episode, I share 4 course length realities no one talks about - and they directly affect whether your course succeeds or fails. You'll...

You want to build a course that helps people. But when you sit down to actually create it, you're staring at a blank screen thinking... what do I actually put in this thing? Most course creators just record everything they know and hope something sticks. That's why their students don't finish - and why refund requests pile up. In this episode, I share 5 truths I've learned in 1...

Passive income from online courses is a lie. At least the way course gurus sell it to solopreneurs. You followed the launch formula. Built your list. Sent the emails. Did everything the gurus told you to do. And you got almost no sales. In this episode, I share the story of my first course launch. $2,000 spent on a program. Six weeks of work. 2,000 people on my list. One sale. I break down why thi...

Course design determines whether your second launch is easier or harder than your first. Learn how to build an online course that turns students into your marketing team. Your first course launch is a grind. You don't have testimonials, success stories, or proof that your course works. You're convincing people to take a chance on something unproven. But your second launch? That one shoul...

You bought a course creation program expecting to learn how to build your course. But module after module was about launching, selling, and marketing - with almost nothing on how to actually structure your content so students get results. In this episode, I share the story of Anna, a book coach who paid $2,000 for a course creation program and asked for a refund. Then I walk you through the specif...

Course creation as a solopreneur doesn't have to be overwhelming. In this episode, I'm sharing my complete framework for building an online course that actually transforms your students and grows your business. You'll learn: Why most course creation programs set you up to fail (and what to do instead) How to identify exactly who your course is for and what they actually need The one...