Why You’re Still Broke After 3 Courses and 1,000 Canva Templates
(And How to Finally Make the Damn Thing Work)
Why You’re Still Broke After 3 Courses and 1,000 Canva Templates
Let me guess.
You’ve done the work:
Bought the $1,997 course (on sale, of course)
Watched the 73 videos
Downloaded 40+ lead magnet templates
Built half a funnel
Got overwhelmed
Switched strategies mid-week
Made $0.58 in affiliate commissions
Sound familiar?
You’re not lazy.
You’re not dumb.
You’re not even “doing it wrong.”
You’re just stuck in the course-content-template trap.
And no one tells you how deep it goes.
Story Time: The Solopreneur Spiral
I once worked with a client who sent me a Notion doc called “Launch Plan - Final FINAL for Real This Time.”
It had 6 different strategies, 4 possible lead magnets, 3 half-written email sequences… and zero sales.
She wasn’t short on effort.
She was drowning in it.
“I’ve taken all the courses,” she said.
“Why does none of this actually work for me?”
Because she was collecting knowledge — not applying direction.
The 5 Quiet Killers of Your Progress
1. You Keep Switching Coaches Mid-Sentence
Every time something feels hard or unclear, you bounce to a new guru.
Now you’ve got 8 voices in your head and no clue who’s right.
Result?
A Franken-strategy that contradicts itself every third slide.
Pick one teacher. Follow the path. Ignore the rest.
2. You’re Obsessed With Looking “Professional” Instead of Selling Something
Another Canva template won’t save your business.
Neither will the perfect font or yet another mood board.
If you haven’t sold anything yet, your brand doesn’t matter.
Your offer does.
People buy help, not Helvetica.
3. You’re Learning More Than You’re Doing
Learning feels productive.
Doing feels risky.
So you keep watching course modules… instead of sending the damn email.
But guess what?
Nobody gets paid to finish a Google Doc.
You get paid to launch, test, adjust, repeat.
4. You’re Building in a Vacuum
Courses give you the steps.
But you’re still the one doing the clicking, writing, connecting.
You’re trying to build a business in your head —
instead of putting it in front of people who can say “yes” or “no.”
Action creates clarity.
Not another Trello board.
5. You Don’t Trust Yourself Anymore
After so many failed attempts, it starts to creep in:
“Maybe I’m just not built for this.”
But here’s the thing:
You are.
You’re just not following a simple, focused, aligned plan.
You’re patching together “magic bullets” from too many marketers with too little context.
Big Lesson
You’re not broke because you didn’t try.
You’re broke because you’ve been trained to consume instead of create.
Courses don’t make you money.
Templates don’t make you money.
Consistent, real action toward a clear offer makes you money.
It’s not sexy.
But it works.
What to Do Instead:
Pick ONE offer to promote
Pick ONE method to deliver it (emails, DMs, lives, doesn’t matter)
Write ONE sentence that clearly explains how it helps someone
Send it to 10 people this week
Repeat
Results come from boring consistency, not dazzling design.
Let’s Wrap With This:
“The man who moves a mountain begins by carrying away small stones.”
– Confucius (probably didn’t use Canva)
Your Turn
Did this smack you in the right spot?
Here’s what to do next:
Drop a comment if this hit home, or if you’re still stuck in the course loop
Save this so you can reread it the next time you’re 3 hours into font pairing
Forward it to a friend who’s “rebuilding their brand” for the 9th time
Stick it on your wall: Learn less. Do more. Profit follows.
Subject Lines & Pre-Headers (Email Style)
1.
Subject: Still broke after 3 courses? You’re not alone.
Pre-header: Let’s talk about where all your progress is actually hiding.
2.
Subject: The $6,000 lesson nobody wanted
Pre-header: And why Canva can’t save your funnel.
3.
Subject: No, it’s not you. It’s the “strategy salad”
Pre-header: If your brain’s full of gurus and no results — read this.
Fun Fact:
The average person who buys an online course…
completes only 8–12% of it.
Yep.
Most folks don’t even make it past the second module — let alone apply what they learned.
So if you’ve finished a course and implemented it?
You’re already in the top 10%.
Not because it was magic.
Because you actually did something.
#AffiliateMarketing
#OnlineBusinessTruths
#NoHypeMarketing
#SolopreneurStruggles
#StopTheTemplateTrap
#CoursesArentCashflow
#BuildThenBrand
#ActionOverAesthetics
#DoLessBetter
#DigitalClarity
See you next time. Go fix the funnel, before it ghosts another lead.
– Kevin