👯 My New Chapter As A Maven Cohort-based Course Instructor 🚀🚀🚀

I’m excited to share a new chapter in my life: teaching cohort-based courses. Read on about why I chose this format and what I plan to teach!

(“King of the World”, Teddy the Corgi, Bay Area, California)

Why courses?

After 15+ years in as a product leader and executive, I embarked on a journey into full-time coaching. From a nights-and-weekends passion project in 2016 to a full-time business by 2024, I’ve had the privilege to work with hundreds of talented leaders and aspiring executives along the way. 

My mission is to support women and minorities to reach the executive level and realize their career dreams. In the last 9 months, I’ve learned that my time is the limiting factor on my impact to date: one-on-one coaching with me is powerful, effective, and (arguably) life-changing. But it is difficult to scale. Therefore, I decided to all of the best learnings and tried-and-true tactics and turn them into cohort-based courses. 

I have two cohort-based courses actively enrolling for the October cohort: 

• Unleashing Your Leadership Superpower: Do More with Less

• Mastering Executive Presence & Communication

Why cohort-based courses?

It’s simple: No room for BS. 

The primary reason I shied away from courses is that I felt like with something as personal and unique as leadership skills, it would be difficult to develop an impactful course. Everyone has a different set of parameters: personal strengths, workplace culture, specific projects, etc. I worried the content would feel generic. However, this changed when I discovered cohort-based courses.

Cohort-based courses are different from traditional types of teaching — online or in person. They feel like a wonderful combination of small lectures and fun discussion groups. Wes Kao outlines this well in her blog post,

“The higher price points of CBCs mean categorically different expectations. They’re looking for behavior change and transformation.”

Most written form content – books, posts, tweets – give surface-level treatment to a topic. They primarily focus on the what and why, and will give a high-level approach to the “how”.  Most video-based courses spend 80% on the what and why, and 20% on the how. This was my primary concern about trying to teach a course — while it’s nice to know the what and why, it’s hard to make it applicable to each student’s career.

With cohort-based courses, I can spend 20% on the what and why, and 80% on the how, applied specifically to each student. I focus on making sure each student can apply a theoretical concept or framework well to their specific scenario. This is where the value is — each student will experience a tangible acceleration in their career trajectory. Boom. You do get what you pay for.

“Cohort-based courses have a bi-directional relationship between the instructor and students.”

Have you had a classmate ask a question, then realize you had the same question? Have you ever heard your teacher explain a concept, and then realized you had understood it completely differently when reading about it in a textbook? This is a hugely valuable part of CBCs that isn’t present in books, articles, video-driven courses, podcasts, or other formats.

Transform Your Career With Me

My first cohort-based course Breaking Barriers: From Manager to Executive was done jointly with Reforge. The course covered the critical parts of career growth: Charting a path, executive presence, finding your superpower, self-advocacy, advocating for ideas, building relationships, and getting sponsorship. 

I enrolled a record-breaking 70+ students for a beta run and achieved 70% promoters and 90% instructor effectiveness – highest of all courses on Reforge in Q2’24. But it was too much information and work all at once, and the leaders and executives did not have enough time or space to complete all the reading and projects to truly hone on the “how”. 

After taking in all the feedback and recommendations, I decided to move my course to Maven where could better control the timing and format of the course for a better overall experience. I also decided that rather than one giant comprehensive course, I would break down the content into individual cohort-based courses where I could go more depth in to each (per popular request) and busy working professional could find the right two- or three- weeks to devote to each topic. 

And so, I am building towards a five part series on critical leadership skills you need to move into an executive role: 

• Mastering Executive Presence & Communication - Now Enrolling

• Unleash Your Leadership Superpower: Do More with Less - Now Enrolling

• Self-advocacy & Advocating For Ideas - Coming Dec 2024

• Building Influence & Getting Sponsorship - Coming Feb 2025

Each cohort-based course will be jam packed with interactive live sessions, in-depth lessons, take home “graded” projects, guided reflections, and access to a private community of like-minded peers. 

Course 1: Unleash Your Leadership Superpower: Do More with Less.

"Unleash Your Leadership Superpower: Do More with Less" is now open for enrollment—here’s why I created this course and who will benefit the most.

Leadership today isn’t just about working harder; it’s about working smarter—and that’s exactly what this course is designed to help you do. I’ve built it to empower leaders to find their unique strengths (aka superpowers!) and leverage them to create maximum impact while reducing stress. Because burning out is not the path to success.

Why I’m Excited to Share This Course With You 🎉

If you’re feeling stretched thin at work or unsure how to step into your full potential, this course is for you. We all have a limited amount of time and energy—and knowing where to focus that energy is what sets top executives apart from the rest. In this course, I’ll teach you how to identify and capitalize on your unique strengths, so you can deliver more value, get noticed, and move up the ladder without burning out.

Who Is This Course For?

1. Senior Managers, Directors, VPs, and Entrepreneurs

If you have more than 4 years of work experience and are ready to level up your leadership impact without burning out, this course is designed for you.

2. Those Looking to Deliver More Value and Build Capacity

Are you seeking to do more with less? This course will teach you how to increase your influence at work while decreasing stress, helping you become more effective in every aspect of your leadership role.

3. Professionals Who Want to Build a Personal Brand and Get Noticed

If you’re aiming to stand out, advocate for your wins, and secure your next promotion, this course will give you the strategies and confidence to build your personal brand and make your superpower your secret weapon.

We will cover how to:

1. Discover Your Leadership Superpower 🦸‍♀️

Are you a visionary? A team builder? Maybe you excel at managing through crises? Through practical projects and real-world examples from executives like Steve Jobs and Fiji Simo, you’ll pinpoint your leadership superpower and learn how to use it to your advantage.

2. Maximize Your Impact, Minimize Stress 📈

This isn’t about doing more work—it’s about doing the right work. Learn strategies to play to your strengths, pitch yourself for projects that align with your talents, and balance your workload without sacrificing your sanity. By focusing on your superpower, you’ll not only accelerate your impact but also reduce stress in the process.

3. Build Your Personal Brand and Get Promoted 🚀

In today’s workplace, it’s not enough to be good at what you do—you also need to make sure others know about it. I’ll walk you through how to turn your superpower into a personal brand that will make you stand out and get recognized. We’ll even dive into tactics to use during performance reviews to ensure your contributions are seen and valued.

Next Cohort-Based Class: 

• 📅 Dates: October 1–16, 2024

• ⏰ Time Commitment: 4-6 hours per week

• 💻 Live Q&A: Thursdays at 9 AM PST

Don’t wait—this is your opportunity to invest in yourself and increase your leadership potential. This course is drawn from my experience climbing the ladder from Product Manager to CPO, along with insights from coaching 300+ leaders. Head to my course page to enroll! Let’s transform the way you approach leading others!

Course 2: Mastering Executive Presence & Communication 

Develop a commanding presence and gain respect. Increase your gravitas, manage high-stakes conversations, and get your ideas heard—here’s what you’ll get out of the course and who will benefit the most.

Why I’m Excited to Share This Course With You 🎉

This course focuses on developing the key traits that distinguish impactful leaders — executive presence and communication. You will learn to communicate with clarity and confidence, and project authority in every interaction.

Through practical exercises, use cases, and real-world examples, we will explore the essentials of effective body language, voice control, and emotional intelligence.

By the end of the course, you will be equipped with the tools to influence and inspire others, manage high-stakes conversations, and project gravitas. Join us to enhance your leadership capabilities, build authentic connections, and drive your career success.

Who Is This Course For?

1. Senior Managers, Directors, VPs, and Entrepreneurs

If you have more than 4 years of work experience and are ready to level up your leadership impact without burning out, this course is designed for you.

2. Those feeling overlooked

Feel like you’ve got good ideas but can’t get them heard? Are you delivering super impactful work for your company but not getting recognized? This course will help you learn how to best speak up and get noticed!

2. Those who want to learn to control a room

This course is for those who want to learn how to better facilitate leadership and executive-level conversations and show others that they belong in THE room.

We will cover how to:

• Enhanced Communication Skills: Clear, confident, and effective communication

• Improved Body Language: Learning to use non-verbal cues to project authority and confidence.

• Build Emotional Intelligence: Learn a proven method to understand others and manage your own in difficult times.

• Influence and Persuasion: Techniques to effectively persuade and motivate others.

• Increase Your Power and Confidence: Build self-assurance to lead and influence others effectively.

Next Cohort-Based Class: 

• 📅 Dates: October 7-26, 2024

• ⏰ Time Commitment: 4-6 hours per week

• 💻 Live Q&A: Thursdays at 9 AM PST

Don’t wait—registration closes on October 8th!

Thank you for coming along with me for my teaching journey. I would love any feedback or suggestions you have at any point. You can find me at yue@yuezhao.coach. 

Onwards and upwards!

Yue

P.S. I offer a small discount on the courses for all my Paid Substack Subscribers. Find me there to get the code!