Turn What You Know Into a Course People Can Buy
The McIntosh Knowledge-to-Income Method™ helps experts turn valuable information, experience, and repeatable processes into a structured course with a clear transformation, production plan, and path to revenue.
Knowledge → Income
You already know something valuable. This program helps you extract it, structure it, teach it, record it, and prepare it to sell.
What Does Freedom Look Like to You?
Before you decide what to sell, decide what this product needs to do financially. Your McIntosh Freedom Number™ is the monthly revenue target you want your knowledge product to be capable of generating.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutesIf They Know Their Number
Have them enter it immediately. The number becomes the financial target the rest of the program works backward from.
If They Have No Idea
Give them a working benchmark of $20,000 per month. They can change it later. The purpose is to stop working with a vague goal.
Live Exercise: Set the Freedom Number
Enter the desired monthly course revenue.
Reverse Engineer the Number
Your income target becomes more useful when it turns into math. Pricing affects how many buyers you need and what level of support the course can realistically include.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutes$99 Course
Low-ticket, usually self-guided, higher volume required.
$497 Course
Mid-ticket, can include templates, support, or accountability.
$2,000 Program
High-ticket, often includes live access, coaching, or implementation.
Freedom Number Calculator
Choose Your Course Business Model
Decide how much access, support, and transformation will be included before building the content.
Suggested teaching video: 8–12 minutesSelf-Guided
Videos, worksheets, templates, and automated access.
Course + Community
Self-guided lessons with a peer environment.
Course + Coaching
Add group or individual support for implementation.
Course + Tools
Include templates, calculators, scripts, or custom resources.
Hybrid Program
Combine training, accountability, live sessions, and deliverables.
Done-With-You
The course teaches the method while guided implementation increases value.
Find the Knowledge People Will Pay You For
Most experts do not lack valuable knowledge. They struggle to recognize which part of what they know can become a clear, teachable outcome.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesKnowledge Inventory
Knowledge Isn't the Product. The Result Is.
Students are not paying for everything you know. They are paying for a better state, outcome, skill, system, or result.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutesWeak Topic vs. Strong Transformation
Topic: “How to organize your house.”
Transformation: “How to keep your home organized while working full-time and raising a family.”
Choose the Problem Worth Solving
Evaluate course ideas through six lenses before investing time in production.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesPain
Does someone genuinely care about this problem?
Result
Can you clearly describe what improves?
Experience
Do you have enough experience to teach it credibly?
Process
Can you explain how you consistently get the result?
Buyer
Can you identify the person who would pay for this?
Urgency
Why would they want the result now rather than someday?
Build Your A → Z Transformation
Point A is the learner's current reality before taking your course. Get specific about the frustration, confusion, cost, or obstacle they are experiencing.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutesWhere They Are Now
Messy house, overloaded schedule, no organization, constant cleaning, exhausted family.
Where They Want to Be
Clean organized home, responsibilities handled, less stress, more time and energy.
Define Your Student's Point A
Define Point Z
Point Z is not “they watched all the videos.” It is the observable result or improved state they can reach by successfully applying what you teach.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutesDefine Point Z
Write Your Transformation Statement
Use one sentence to communicate who you help, where they start, where they finish, and the method that gets them there.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesBusy Working Parents
“I help busy working parents go from feeling overwhelmed by a constantly messy home to maintaining an organized home without spending their entire weekend cleaning.”
Write Yours
Build Your Milestone Method™
Pretend your student is standing at A and you are standing at Z. What are the major places they absolutely have to pass through to reach you?
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesBrain Dump Every Step
Turn the Process Into 6–8 Milestones
Each milestone should represent meaningful progress, not merely a topic.
Suggested teaching video: 10–12 minutesTopic-Based
“Module 3: Social Media” tells the student what the subject is.
Progress-Based
“Module 3: Build Your 30-Day Content System” tells the student what they will accomplish.
Draft Your 6–8 Milestones
Put the Milestones in the Right Order
Sequence matters. A well-built course answers questions at the moment the learner is ready for them instead of creating confusion by teaching too much too early.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesTurn Milestones Into Lessons
Each milestone becomes a module. Each module should contain approximately 2–3 focused core lessons.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesKNOW
What does the learner need to understand before acting?
DO
What action should the learner take?
COMPLETE
What should exist before moving to the next module?
Lesson Planner
Don't Overteach
Experts often try to transfer everything they know. Your student's goal is not to become you. Their goal is to get to Z.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutesKeep It Core
If information is necessary to complete the transformation, teach it in the course.
Move It to Bonus
If it's helpful but not required, make it bonus content, a resource, or an advanced lesson.
Create Action After Every Module
Completion comes from implementation, not watching. Every module should end with something the learner does, decides, creates, practices, or measures.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutesDesign the Course Experience
Your simplest rule: one milestone becomes one module, and one module can represent approximately one week of implementation.
Suggested teaching video: 5–7 minutes4 Modules
Approximately a 4-week experience.
6 Modules
Approximately a 6-week experience.
8 Modules
Approximately an 8-week experience.
Choose the Right Lesson Format
Do not force every idea into a talking-head video. Match the teaching format to the thing the student needs to learn.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesTalking Head
Mindset, strategy, explanation, personal expertise.
Screen Recording
Software, dashboards, websites, systems, workflows.
Demonstration
Cooking, fitness, crafts, physical processes, equipment.
Slides / Diagram
Frameworks, models, comparisons, processes.
Worksheet / Template
Decision-making, planning, calculations, repeatable tasks.
Case Study
Show how the process works in a real-world example.
How Long Should Each Video Be?
A lesson should be long enough to teach one thing well and short enough that the learner knows exactly what to do next.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutes5–8 Minutes
Simple concepts, mindset, definitions, focused explanations.
8–15 Minutes
Most standard teaching lessons.
10–20 Minutes
Demonstrations and tutorials when needed.
Produce Your Course Without Getting Overwhelmed
The heavy lift happens in the beginning. A production calendar turns a large creative project into scheduled, manageable work.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesStudio vs. Home Setup
Choose the environment based on budget, consistency, brand expectations, and how often the course will need updates.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesProfessional Studio
Great for premium production value, multiple lessons in one sitting, and polished brand presentation.
Home / Office Studio
Great for ongoing updates, screen recordings, lower costs, and easy repeatability.
How to Sound Like Yourself on Camera
Teach from an outline rather than reading full paragraphs. Imagine explaining the lesson to one person who genuinely needs your help.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesPackage It, Build It & Get Ready to Sell
At this point, the idea has become a real course architecture. Assemble every decision into one master outline.
Suggested teaching video: 6–8 minutesCreate the Supporting Assets
Resources should make reaching Z easier. They should not exist simply because you think a course needs more bonuses.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesWorksheets
Help learners think, decide, and document.
Templates
Reduce blank-page anxiety and speed up implementation.
Checklists
Help learners execute a repeatable process correctly.
Scripts
Useful when communication or language is part of the result.
Calculators
Great for money, ROI, planning, sizing, and decision support.
Examples
Show what good completion actually looks like.
Prepare the Course for Build-Out
Your final step is packaging the content so it can be uploaded to the course platform, quality checked, and prepared for launch.
Suggested teaching video: 8–10 minutesFinal Content Checklist
Videos recorded and named correctly
Lesson titles finalized
Downloads completed
Course intro and welcome recorded
Build-Out Checklist
Thumbnails and graphics ready
Module descriptions written
Closing lesson ready
Production files organized
Your Knowledge Is Now a Product.
You have defined the income target, transformation, milestone method, lesson structure, course experience, production plan, and supporting assets needed to turn expertise into a teachable product.