Beyond the Boring - Goodbye CCW, Hello BTB 👋

Hey Reader!

It’s been a while since I sent you the last edition of Course Creators Weekly. It was December, actually! 🤯

Since then, I’ve been reflecting on my journey and motivation, and ultimately, I decided to stop writing Course Creators Weekly.

But, it‘s not farewell, my friend!

This is the story of my pivot from Course Creators Weekly to Beyond the Boring, and my biggest fear moving forward. 🙈

It was time to move on… 🥲

I started CCW to learn from experts while attracting an audience and building my own personal brand. My ultimate goal? Building a course platform for cohort-based courses—what I called “group programs” before Maven popularised the CBC term.

Except, things rarely turn out the way you imagine they will.

I learnt a lot from the experts, attracted incredible people like you, and built somewhat of a personal brand, but I didn’t build a course platform. I realised it was too big a project for an aspiring solopreneur. I let that idea go without ever making alternate plans.

I‘ve also learnt as much as I could from curating and summarising content about online courses. The whole idea and experience of curation stopped feeling as exciting and novel as it once did (If you want to take a guess at my biggest fear moving forward, now would be the time! 😬)

What, then? 🙃

I curated all sorts of content for CCW, from audience-building and idea validation to content design, pricing, marketing, and way, way more!

Out of all those topics, I found myself most excited and drawn to ideas around learning design, student engagement, gamified learning and storytelling in online courses.

That’s why I decided to start Beyond the Boring—a digital garden to feed my own curiosity while helping you build powerful, engaging courses.

You might be wondering… what the hell is a “digital garden?” Maggie Appleton has written a fantastic article on the History & Ethos of the Digital Garden, but here’s the gist (and an honorary CCW-style summary! 😁)

🌿  Think of an “open” blog, where ideas are planted, cultivated, and grown in public
🌱  Not every idea is viable—some die while others grow into solid, reliable resources
🍂  Nothing is permanent or perfect, but designed to evolve alongside our thoughts
🦋  Made to be explored, posts are connected by themes, topics, and shared context
🧑🏽‍🌾  They’re personal—a place for the owner to experiment and follow their curiosity

In Beyond the Boring, I hope to write about learning experience design, student engagement, gamification, storytelling and anything else I find relevant to making online courses more powerful and worthy of people’s attention.

CCW is becoming BTB, so there’s no need to subscribe explicitly, though if you wish to unsubscribe now, that’s totally OK too: unsubscribe from future emails.

Still here? 😍

Thank you!

I haven’t figured out the right format for the BTB newsletter yet, and I may not send it every week. But, I know I’ll be sending it out on Tuesdays, and I expect the format to evolve over the next few weeks and months.

In the meantime, please…
👀  Check out Beyond the Boring—let me know what you think!
📥  Add merott+letter@beyondtheboring.com to your contacts—or set up a filter for it
⌨️  Take 30 seconds to answer ONE question—you'll also uncover my hype song! 🎸🎻

Almost forgot… My biggest fear… 😬

Let‘s cut straight to it.

I’m worried about losing my excitement for Beyond the Boring, in the same way as I lost it for CCW. Am I just chasing the next shiny object that catches my eye?

Some days I tell myself, “Hell yeah, I’m doing this.” Other days it’s “No way in hell I’m doing this.”—which damn version of me do I believe?! 🤷🏻‍♂️

Some creators talk about creating for themselves and that they’d still show up even if no one was on the other side to cheer them on.

Honestly, I don’t think I fall into that camp. Sure, I’d still be curious and excited about these topics, but as a passive consumer, not a creator. It’s unlikely I’d produce anything if it wasn’t for your support and encouragement.

I can’t help but wonder if there’s a “passion” out there that I’d feel differently about, that I’m yet to find… 🤔

What would YOU create if no one was watching?

Hit reply and let me know. I’d love to hear from you! 😊