We’ve all been there. You sign up for a workshop, excited to finally figure out a problem in your business. You log into Zoom, notebook open, ready to go.
Then, the slide deck starts. And it keeps going. For 50 minutes, you sit there listening to someone talk at you. Maybe they pause to ask if anyone has questions, or throw out a broad prompt like, “How do think this apply to your life?” or “How would you do this?” Then, they do a general Q&A or cram some vague, rushed 10-minute activity into the very end before waving goodbye.
You walk away thinking, “Oh, that was cool, I get what they’re saying.” But a few days later? You haven’t implemented a single thing.
After nearly 20 years in professional learning design, there’s one common trap I see keeping brilliant ideas stuck in mediocre workshops: the training is entirely too passive.
Explaining information isn’t teaching. You’re telling them how to do something, but they aren’t actually doing it piece by piece.
So, if you want your audience to walk away thinking, “Holy shit, I’m actually doing the thing! She’s so frickin’ good!” we need to change how we build a workshop.
From Passive Listening, to Real-Time Action
The reality is, adults don’t learn by storing up hours of lectures to use later. We learn through direct, cumulative application and problem-solving. We need to build the result in real time, block by block.
So, instead of saving the action for the final stretch of your next digital offer, you need to flip the ratio. Teach for 10 minutes, then stop.
Here’s how you break down a 60- or 90-minute session so people actually learn:
Sketch the transformation: Grab a piece of paper. On the far left, write down where your student is starting today. On the far right, write down the exact, tangible result they will walk away with at the end of that 60-90 minutes.
Break it into 3 or 4 chunks: Divide your workshop into small, distinct steps that bridge that gap between the start and the finish.
Talk for 10 minutes tops: In each section: (1) teach the main idea, (2) illustrate it with an example, and then (3) immediately get them to DO something with what you just taught.
Now, when I say “do something,” I’m not talking about broad reflections, opinions, or Q&A. I mean actual, literal application: filling out a single line of a worksheet or template, making a specific business decision, or mapping out one boundary.
Info-Driven VS Results-Driven
To see how this works in practice, let’s look at how a standard 60-minute info driven-session compares to a results-driven workshop structure.
The Info-Driven Workshop Model | The Results-Driven Workshop Model |
Minutes 0–45: High-level teaching, explaining, and personal anecdotes. Students sit in passive listening mode. | Minutes 0–10: Teach the very first step or core idea required to get started, grounding it in a real example. |
Minutes 45–50: Quick reflection prompt or opening up the floor for general Q&A. | Minutes 10–15: Students take action immediately (e.g., writing one headline, choosing a topic). |
Minutes 50–55: A rushed, final activity where students try to apply everything they just heard all at once. | Minutes 15–50: Repeat the cycle. Teach for 10 minutes, then have them execute the next small block for 5 minutes. |
Minutes 55–60: Wrap up and/or pitch. Students leave overwhelmed with information but no actual momentum. | Minutes 50–60: Tie the pieces together. Students review the tangible asset they just built during the hour. |
The confusion often happens when we equate teaching with explaining. Which happens so often because that’s how most of us learned in school. And which is perpetuated by so many experts online who prioritize selling and marketing, instead of real results-driven teaching.
The good news? There’s another way. And you just learned the first step of how to do that!
A Quick Thing You Can Try Right Now
If you’re still flushing out a workshop, then go through it using the steps above and see how that maps out!
If you’ve already got a workshop or training, go in and take a look at your slide deck or notes sheets.
Find the very first spot where you ask your students to take a meaningful action (no reflections, no “have any questions” – real action). If that action step doesn’t happen until later in the workshop, then I want you to challenge yourself to move it up. See how you can chop that massive block into smaller low-stakes “do this right now” steps in 10-15 minute chunks.
And the next time you offer it, watch how the energy in the room shifts when people start getting hands on with your teachings from the start!
Why Real-Time Momentum Changes Everything
When you slice your workshop up this way, your students build the “big” result in real time. They aren’t leaving your session with a massive to-do list of things they need to figure out later on their own. Instead, they walk out the door thinking, “I know I can do this, because I literally just did it over the last hour.” That gives them confidence in themselves AND in you!
Building your digital offers around results and transformation rather than information is what sets your work apart. It builds deep trust, creates genuine word-of-mouth referrals, and creates a strong foundation for your business in the long-term.
If you want extra support building out your next workshop, apply for my 1:1 “Design Your Workshop” program and we’ll create it in real time together!
