✍️ Last Updated: October 21, 2025

Hey there! I'm Xiaochang 🌭
It's time for my weekly letter to grow a little together with you!

My biggest project in December was to complete《Effective Input ∞ Rapid Output》lecture, because it was my first time hosting a paid lecture in my life. I have many insights and areas to optimize and improve. In this article, I want to share with you my "MVP Lecture" retrospective (it's a long post!).

⚡️ Agile Lecture Preparation: Creating a Course Without Slides Days Before

I'm actually quite embarrassed to openly share this 😂 For this 12/4 (Wednesday)《Effective Input ∞ Rapid Output》course direction, I sketched out a rough outline when writing the course copy, but I didn't have the complete syllabus structured so quickly.

90+ students who purchased the course felt overwhelmed (？)

However, from the lecture's marketing release date on 11/3 to 11/30, over a month's time, I recorded everything—daily inspirations, thoughts, my regular input/output SOP, knowledge points and transcripts from books that fit this course, any content and case studies that connect to this lecture—all into the Heptabase whiteboard for this lecture. Imagine it as dumping everything into this folder.

After collecting so much material, don't rush to create the course outline or content. Instead, I chose to review surveys from 50 students and actively interact with students and fans in my "Lifelong Learning LINE Community" to discover the course content they love and need most. This group is only open to those who subscribe to《Gut Talk Newsletter》After subscribing, the system will tell you how to join.

At this point, I created a minimal version and had my core students review it and provide feedback before fully planning out the content. This allowed me to "correct course" and ensure the teaching stayed on topic. In just 2 days, I organized the entire course outline and content, and only then started creating the presentation slides.

This method of developing lecture courses—selling first, collecting feedback while developing, continuously adjusting—follows an "Agile Development" process that ensures the lecture content meets students' needs.

The process of building an MVP for entrepreneurship follows the same concept. If you're interested, reply to me so I can see how many people want to 'actually develop their own MVP product.' I'm currently discussing with serial entrepreneur friends whether this skill can help more people and potentially become a showcase for our new business 😋.

💭 6 Reflection Insights from the Course Launch

I was really, really nervous. This lecture has several areas I could optimize further. Below are my self-reflections on launching this course. If you attended the class and have suggestions about my lecture content or delivery style, please feel free to share them with me via email—I'd be very grateful.

#1 Speaking too quickly with minor stuttering

Honestly, when I was teaching, I felt like I was s-t-u-t-t-e-r-i-n-g noticeably. But after asking my assistant Azi and friends who attended, they all said, 'Not at all! I didn't notice any stuttering.' This made me wonder if I'm setting too high a standard for myself. But if possible, I'd like to feel more at ease during my presentations.

#2 Poor English pronunciationpronounce

The course frequently mentions English terminology and foreign names, but I've always felt my English is poor. So whenever I mention English during presentations, I get stuck or mispronounce things 😅 This makes me look unprofessional and indirectly affects corporate interest in inviting me for training—it's actually more serious than I thought.

Going forward, I must place greater emphasis on pronouncing English correctly. Whenever I include English content, I need to first learn how to pronounce it properly.

#3 Need to pause and explain technical terms

During or at the end of the course, when I share specialized terminology that most people aren't familiar with—like the 'power law'—I need to deliberately pause and explain it. Otherwise, most people, finding it unfamiliar and too difficult, will think the content is boring and can't absorb it, so they'll just close the livestream (this tends to happen).

#4 Right After the Course EndsSend feedback form immediately

My setup this time was to have students leave a 5-star rating ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ on the platform, then gift them two pre-made, super-useful AI robots (content generation and proofreading robots)—without asking them to use immediately. I should revise this to 'Right when the course ends, immediately provide a QR code or link so students can fill out a feedback form and receive the course slides or gifts.'

Immediate feedback captures the most authentic and memorable responses right after the course. Otherwise, people forget most content within days—the human first brain is forgetful.

#5 Mind map-based presentation style makes it hard to stay focused

Previously at various 30-minute free talks, I used this approach—not only to showcase Heptabase's features but also to let students see my overall curriculum design structure. While there are many benefits, the biggest drawback is that everyone's attention gets scattered. 😭

So for the second livestream of this course, I decided to break down the massive mind map into smaller ones and intersperse beautiful Canva presentation cards and images. This way, students won't experience attention scatter or dizziness during class.

#6 Chose Zoom for livestream instead of Google Meet

Google Meet can be called a 'super convenient' online meeting tool because everyone has a Google account and can enter directly by clicking the link, whereas Zoom requires downloading software separately.

But why am I saying we should choose Zoom? I have so many insights that I could write an entire article! The most important difference is that Zoom's chat allows you to react to others' messages with emoji and reply to specific messages!! Don't underestimate these small 'interaction' features.

The most important thing about a live course is interacting with the teacher and classmates. Zoom also allows private messaging with specific students for social connection, so for the second livestream, I'll switch to Zoom or another platform to try it out.

#7 Within 10 minutes before starting class, explain "the syllabus order for this livestream class"

I can tell everyone upfront which chapters will be covered today and which subsections within them. I can preview the structure so students get oriented faster, rather than jumping straight into the mind map expansion. While that feels exciting like unboxing, adding this step helps students better understand today's flow.

#8 Use stories to introduce knowledge points

Rather than using case stories to illustrate knowledge points—in the last livestream, I used many stories as case examples. Later, chatting with a friend who's a high school teacher about 'What does good education look like?', we came to two conclusions:

1. Explaining knowledge points simply is a sign of truly having substance
2. Start with a story, convey the context of why someone needs that knowledge point, then derive the knowledge point

Simplifying complex things and the structural order of presenting knowledge—I think I've achieved the former, but for the latter, I'll try to optimize it in the next live class by finding a story that runs through the entire course (or future lectures).

The above is my review of this lecture. Xiaochang would like to remind those who purchased the course that you should have received an email offering a one-time '1.1 Free Consultation Service' to help you resolve your Knowledge Management challenges in 45 minutes to 1 hour. This is currently only available to course purchasers. If you're a student who wants to book a 1.1 consultation with me, please check your email!

😭 Thank you again for your feedback and encouragement. Being able to truly help you with this course is my greatest honor

📣 This Week's Heart-Warming Share

📌 【Heptabase】Free AI-Generated Podcast Transcripts and Summaries, Outperforming All Note-Taking Apps

A few days ago, Heptabase released this amazing feature that you absolutely must try! This article solves all the problems you might encounter. Go check it out!

📌 What Does It Feel Like Spending New Year's Alone for Two Years? How to Resolve Solitude Anxiety and Enjoy Being Alone

Recently, I've quietly changed all article cover photos to a unified format for clearer information. This article is my life story, shared with you.

💬 One sentence per week #Gut Talk Wisdom

I hope this newsletter helps you learn something, feel more connected to the world, and grow a little!
If you have any feedback, suggestions, thoughts to share, or recommendations for me, please reply to this email. I'll respond to you thoughtfully.

See you next week in "Gut Talk Newsletter" again~ 😘
by KnowledgeGutfounder Xiaochang

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Xiaochang is meticulous about typography; if you spot typos or formatting issues, please reach out to Xiaochang's IG Contact! All articles come from Heptabase Xiaochang's Second Brain🧠 Content is purely human-written, never AI-generated.

If you have any questions about the article content, or if there are any parts you'd like me to elaborate on, feel free to leave a comment below and let me know～
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by Knowledge Management Mentor Xiaochang🌭