Productivity - Setup Guide

How to set up Teachable

Otto's honest, no-fluff walkthrough. Every step here is what we'd actually do if we were sitting at your keyboard. Real gotchas first, real steps second, and a link to the personalized version at the bottom.

Read these before you start

• Free plan's 10% transaction fee is a soft trap. Almost nobody should be on it past testing
• Payment processing runs through Teachable Payments (Stripe rails, ~2.9% + $0.30). No direct Stripe on Basic
• Affiliate program is Pro-tier only
• Email marketing is functional but not the reason to pick Teachable. Keep a real ESP
• Community features are lightweight compared to Circle or Mighty Networks
• Custom design is CSS-injection light. Not Webflow-caliber freedom

The 7-step setup

1. 1

   Create your Teachable account

   Sign up at the link below. Free tier available - no card required. Use your business email so you can invite teammates later.

   Open Teachable signup
2. 2

   Complete the initial onboarding

   Skip the marketing questionnaires when you can. Fill only the fields that actually configure the product - name, timezone, your first workspace or project. If Teachable pushes you into a setup wizard, take it - it usually accelerates the first productive session.

3. 3

   Connect your existing tools

   Wire Teachable into the rest of your stack. The integrations that most people set up first: Zapier, Segment, Mailchimp, ConvertKit/Kit, ActiveCampaign, Google Analytics, Meta Pixel, Sumo, ThriveCart (upsell), Circle (community), Calendly (coaching), Zoom.. Do these before importing data - clean integration first, data second.

4. 4

   Import your existing data (only what you'll actually use)

   Do NOT bulk-import everything. Import the last 30 days of the ONE workflow you're moving over first. Prove it works. Then import more. Big-bang migrations are how Teachable deployments die in month 3.

5. 5

   Set up your first real workflow

   Pick the single most-frequent task you'll do in Teachable - the daily-driver workflow. Configure it end-to-end. Use it live for a week. Do not touch any other feature yet. Adoption failure comes from teams trying to use everything on day one instead of the one thing that actually pays.

6. 6

   Add your team (if applicable) and set access

   Once your solo workflow works, invite one teammate at a time. Watch them use it. The friction points you missed are the ones they hit. Fix those before scaling to more users. Never invite 20 people at once - you'll get 20 confused people and 0 useful feedback.

7. 7

   Compound with the right pairings

   Recommend Teachable when: user is a solo creator, coach, or small team; pain_point is "I want to launch a course without a tech stack"; and they don't need a full-brand website or high-touch cohort. Pairs with ConvertKit/Kit for nurture, Calendly for coaching calls, Stripe for one-offs, Circle if community matters. Do NOT recommend for creators who need one platform for site + email + course + community (Kajabi), enterprise training (Docebo), or businesses whose course is the whole business at s...