Two questions have collided in my world recently, related to the work that I do here at Verbal to Visual and the future of this project.
The first question: How should I charge for the things that I make?
The second question: What do I want 2027 to look like?
In this post I’m going to explore both of those questions and share how the answers to them are leading to some changes here at Verbal to Visual.
The Pricing Question
I am an online educator, and the skill that I teach is visual thinking, also known as sketchnoting or visual note-taking. I demonstrate and teach these skills through free videos, and I also run my own learning platform that has a blend of courses and community features.
When it comes to charging for an online course, it makes sense to offer it as a one-time payment for lifetime access. If you’re running a community with ongoing events, the subscription model makes sense, charging for access to that community on a monthly or annual basis.
But what if it’s a blend of the two? What if you’ve got a library of courses as well as community events and other features? That’s what things have looked like at Verbal to Visual for quite some time.
You could do both: keep having one-time payments for the courses and a separate subscription for the community. But most recently at Verbal to Visual I tried to simplify things by just having a single subscription that gives you access to everything.
I don’t think that’s the right structure anymore.
What I Want 2027 to Look Like
To fully explain why, let me tell you what I’m thinking about for 2027, even though it’s still half a year away. I’ve been thinking about it because of a few books that I’ve been reading and sketching out recently.
One of those books is Sustainable Ambition by Kathy Oneto. One of the things that stood out for me while reading that book was her pause and break blueprint, encouraging us to slow down at various scales: on a daily and weekly basis, but also on a monthly, quarterly, and annual basis. I recognize that I haven’t been great at taking breaks on those larger time scales. Rarely have I given myself the space to slow down outside of weekends.
I’ve also been reading Slow Productivity by Cal Newport. One of his main tips aligns with a message that we heard from Greg McKeown in his book Essentialism: do fewer things.
As a one-person operation doing all of the course development, community management, content marketing, and ongoing admin, it often feels like a lot of things, which can make it hard to focus and do a few things well, as opposed to many things mediocrely.
The Subtraction
It’s for that reason I’ve been considering a subtraction that I’d like to make for 2027, one that will relate to the pricing model that I use.
That subtraction is to remove live events from what I offer on the community side of things. Within Verbal to Visual I have been hosting (and will continue to host throughout the rest of 2026) weekly live workshops that rotate between Q&A events, focused skill-building workshops, and book club events.
As much as I enjoy having the opportunity to connect with and support folks who are building their visual thinking skills in that live setting, it often ends up being one extra thing that comes every single week that can make my work as a whole feel not so sustainable, and it doesn’t provide the opportunity to slow down and to do fewer things like course development, public video creation, and all of those admin things that go along with running a business as a single person.
The Shift: From Subscription to Ownership
Here’s how that relates to my first question of how I should charge for the things that I make.
I am moving from the subscription model to the one-time payment for lifetime access model. You can purchase each course individually or a bundle that includes all of our courses, and then you will own them forever.
My sense is that for many of you, that’s a more appealing model anyway, compared to the subscription model, since I’m sure you have so many of those to deal with already.
What’s Still Included
Even though those courses are the things that I charge for, there are still plenty of community elements that come along with them. As you’ll see within our learning platform if you sign up for one of those courses:
- Replays of all the live events that have already taken place
- A place for you to share your work and get feedback from me and other members of Verbal to Visual
- A dedicated space where you can ask questions as they come up
- Specific prompts and challenges that I will continue to post
So those community features will be there for anyone who picks up a course, and they will all be available asynchronously so that you’re less limited by your time zone, as is the case when it comes to live events.
If you’re someone who has the space for and benefits from those live events, do keep in mind that we will continue them throughout the rest of 2026. Those live events and community features will now be included with the one-time purchase of a course or course bundle.
For current members of Verbal to Visual who have an active subscription, we will be phasing those out at the end of 2026 and converting them to lifetime access to specific courses, depending on how long that subscription has been going. If you’d like to make that conversion from subscription to specific course access now, as opposed to the end of the year, just reach out (doug@verbaltovisual.com) and let me know.
To Summarize
Instead of charging an ongoing subscription for access to all of the learning resources inside of Verbal to Visual, I’m shifting to an ownership model where you can purchase an individual course or a course bundle through a one-time payment that will give you lifetime access.
I’m making that shift because I think many of you like that model better anyway, and because in 2027 I’m dialing back a bit on the community features through the subtraction of live weekly events in order to create a bit more space and to maintain a sustainable workflow as I continue to make educational resources to help you develop and put into practice your visual thinking skills.
You can learn all about those resources here.
If you’ve got any questions about this transition, don’t hesitate to reach out: doug@verbaltovisual.com.
Cheers,
-Doug