Lessons

Lesson Info

What is Holding You Back?

I want to know what holds you back if you already don't offer digital products you've thought about it before but you haven't done it why not? Why haven't you what's going on that's holding you back? And if you do offer digital products but there are other types of products you want offer but you don't currently do it what's holding you back I am launching a performing arts school and I often have been held back by thinking the performing arts it's in person you know it's not a product that I could sell I was having trouble picturing a digital download of anything aside from a piece of music or a song that you would buy, like on itunes, but you know, through hearing about this it's some more ideas about courses online and stuff like that, but I think I get a little nervous about it's a service that's something that's in person how can you get it online in like a tangible form or a virtual form? Are you thinking now that you've heard other ideas that it might be possible? Yeah, it seems...

more possible s o the wheels have started churning andi, I'm just trying to picture how these people are doing it with courses in my own way world but I'm wondering if there are other people who were thinking does my product or service air field work in the digital space and I think that you can always come up with ways that it can work and might not necessarily for every business that might not necessarily be your entire business but it can be a part of your business and you don't always have to give up the other stuff in orderto offer patrol products it can be something else so people who can't get to you and work with you in person they can still work with you in this other way I think that that's one way that offering digital and online courses works so much better that people who really want to work with you get a chance to do it and I know for me there's no way that I could work with each person who wants to work with me in person and with helping somebody build their business it's the same way like how in the beginning I was thinking how do I do this in a way that's going to be really helpful for people and yet I'm not providing a ton of individual feedback well I figured that out in different ways I do live calls so that I can answer questions for people that have something specific going on in their businesses I allow them tio leave comments so that I can reply to those comments I often have a facebook group that people can join that they can ask questions in that way so I think if you get creative about it, you can figure out how to make it work with whatever kind of business you have, you just have to get creative and see what they like. I mean, experiment c put something out that doesn't take you a ton of time to dio and maybe even something that people get for free and see how interested they are in it, and then you can kind of tell, okay, this works, let me build something bigger out of it, so we'll talk about doing stuff like that, too, so that you can see what actually works, what else was holding you back help people with the courses and online courses, especially the curriculum, because I have a teaching background and really helping them with that. And I did do a pilot lunch in the summer, and that went really, really well, and I think what's holding me back in terms of what what I'm gonna put out in the future is the fact that I like to do it myself, but I don't have that design scale. I don't have the ability to make it beautiful, like I want it. So I have this vision in my head of what I wanted to look like, but then when I get down to do it myself is completely a different story so I think that's what's holding me back as I have the knowledge and the content but it's just packaging it up and making it what I envisioned it to be I will tell you that I felt the exact same way when I first started offering things is that I don't have the design background to make this amazing I don't have the money to hire somebody to do it for me so what do I do? I just did the best I could you know I found when I was doing online courses I would find templates that I thought okay, this is good this is good enough for me I will use this and it works I mean I never had complaints from people who are like this doesn't look amazing and said they were focused on the contact you know it's like I wish that this is prettier I don't have anybody who's got that maybe somebody was thinking it but nobody said that to me actually a one woman in my course did say that she goes you know what? I like this like basic design and this is basic set up because in her mind to it was all about being bigger and better and then she saw my course and she was just like, oh, I don't need t be bigger and better and bolder and brighter I can make it simple and, you know, that's one thing I do talk about on my website is it's all about the content and while you're putting out there and how you're going to use that to help people and help them change their lives. So yeah, yeah, yes, it's all about the content, especially with something like that, so don't let that hold you back. I know that it's there and it's going to be there, but people aren't going teo pay attention to that when you're giving them amazing comic, I even think about when I'm creating slides for something like this I'm making are the slides good enough? Are they designed well enough? So I have enough visuals? Are they boring or the black and white ones boring? I want to make them really nice, and I feel like people are focused on more focused on what I'm saying and how I'm helping them build their businesses. So I've done the very best that I can to make the slide the very best that I can write, and then I go from there and also as that stuff increases, your prices increase so often times when you're first starting out, you start at a lower price point and then as your skills increase as you make the course more what you wanted to look like. Then that's, when the price increases as well, I know an example of that is my she started out selling like this messy boot camp for I want to say one, forty seven or one ninety seven and now it's for ninety seven, and one of the reasons is because in the beginning, I didn't look the exact way she wanted it to look, and so she didn't feel like she could charge that price point now it's exactly what she imagined, and so she feels completely confident in her price point now, so that's another thing to consider, too a lot of people online sharing in with with some of the things that are holding back just want to share some three, eighteen media said that the biggest thing for them is time they have their business, the writing, the podcast or they're teaching and trying to find time for some new digital products. A lot of people just said that the fear of failure it was something that was getting in the way the blood shows owns is determining what content has real value and how to price it, italy ash says. I just don't know what to offer, amanda sue says that it's the idea that I'm not as good as so and so combined with the question of my, too. Quirky so so that just to give you an idea of what people in the chat room are thinking, I think that throughout this course we're gonna have some answers to a lot of these problems yes, and amanda tio, you are good enough as anybody else. I know you. Yeah, yeah, but we all have those fears and I don't think they ever go away that's the bad news is no matter how good you get it something or how much of an expert you become, I don't think any of that ever goes away. You just kind of have to work past it, and we're going to talk about some of that as well. So the fraud complex in fear, what are your fears? We've talked about some of them and you suffer from the fraud complex the I'm not good enough amanda seo the semi an expert enough so one of the things I tell people to think about when they're having those am I good enough? Am I an expert enough? I don't know if this is gonna work, maybe it's going to fail. One of the things I tell them to dio is to ask himself what's the worst that's gonna happen if you offer course and nobody signs up socks doesn't feel good, but in the grand scheme of things what's the worst that's gonna happen not too much right right you're gonna have to pick yourself back up, dust yourself off and keep moving forward but nothing nothing intensely crazy is gonna happen think we picture the worst and then times it by one million instead of actually picturing the reality of what can happen if things don't go the way we picture it and then another tip I have for people who are thinking well I'm not the best of the best of this is just start a few notches from where you're at you don't have to be teaching advanced things you don't have tio right an advanced e book if you're in it er you don't have to put out these intense advanced in knitting patterns star with beginners start with somebody who is below where your ad experience wise you can offer them so much so you don't have teo started some crazy lot I'll just start where you're at and grow your products is you grow as you get better at things you're going to come up with more ideas you're going to be able to offer things that are more advanced and I love bonnie christine said to me when I asked her about this when I interviewed her she said somebody has to do it so why not me I love that because I asked her I said were you nervous when you went to creative live to teach her course were you thinking at all like should I be the person who does this? And she said, of course everybody feels like that, but I said to myself, somebody has to come and teach it my shouldn't it be me? I can do that so I think that that's a great attitude to have about it, and I believe that passion matters just a cz muchas experience if somebody is putting out products and they don't have that passion, you can tell it's obvious. And when you do have the passion it's contagious, it can create something that it's hard to even describe it's not even something that is a tangible and easy to describe, and I really believe this whether you think you can or you think you can't you're right if you say to yourself, there's, no way I can do this, there's no way I can make this work for my business guess what, it's not gonna happen for your business, you're not going to do it if you say to yourself to give you without this sounds like something I could do and I can figure it out, and if I don't know what I'm doing, I'll google it just have the attitude, and when you have that attitude, you're much more likely to accomplish things and get results and one of the things that I think you have to keep in mind is that you have to have confidence in your products and services if you don't, nobody else is going to if I came up here and I was like, well, guys, I think this course might be good, but you know, I'm not really sure I think I can help you. You you would not want to be here, you'd be like I traveled to do what people watching would be like some good check out this youtube video so you have to have confidence in your product, so create things that you're excited about, their confident about, that you are ready to put out into the world and do what you need to dio to expand your confidence. There are so many things you khun dio to make yourself feel more confident in your area of expertise and with your product. For instance, do beta launch get five people, test out your product, get their feedback and when they say to you, this is amazing. This helped me so much or this knitting pattern was the first one I can actually follow, or this painting course has given me the confidence to actually paint things and feel like I'm not a second grader. This is amazing you're going to see that you couldn't see what your products khun do for people, so do a beta launch. With five people that are your ideal customer five people who are your friends by people who you think it would be a really great for and go from there you can also take courses so let's say you want to make videos and that's what you want to sell take a course on how to improve your videos so that you feel more confident in it or whatever it is they're courses on writing knitting patterns are writing sewing patterns and if that's what you want offer take a course on that so that you feel more confident in your abilities gain experience by working for freight and I say this with like a cringe because I often do not advise people to work for free you are building a business so you need to be making money however in the beginning it can be really helpful to build your confidence so if your life coach and you're thinking who's going to want to work with me am I gonna have an impact on people? Is this really gonna work? Do some free consulting sessions do ten twenty minute free consulting sessions see how it goes build your confidence so that when you put out your sales page you feel like I've got this I can do this that's always something that you can dio even though it feels like well I don't want to work for free sometimes in the beginning it's worth it and then you can also get testimonials which is a really nice whenever you're writing a sales page and we're going to talk about that okay so let's talk about the copycat syndrome this is the syndrome where you don't create anything because you're afraid that people are going to copy you and I had so many people I asked my audience I said what is holding you back from creating digital products why haven't you done it so many people said to me people are gonna copy me if I teach them how teo make whatever it is that I make they're going to build a business off of it they're going to coffee me if I sell digital prints it's easy for them to copy them so what am I going to do so this is this is a copycat syndrome now yes it is a legitimate fear because it happens the more successful you get the more you're gonna have people who wanna ride your coattails who see you being successful and copy what you're doing but you can't let that stand in your way you really can't if you let that stop you from creating than the people who do that kind of stuff so shady people they win so don't let them stop you from creating if I thought that people were going teo steal these videos and put them up online or take what I'm teaching and then create their own online course of course, I would have created would be much different, it would be from a scared I'm not going to share all my secrets place, and it wouldn't be very helpful, so you can't create from that place, and then there are things that you can do, for instance, you can say this is only for personal use, not for commercial use, and I have found that a lot of people really respect that from the creative entrepreneurs that I talked to, who are really successful have said that most of their audience respects it every once in a while they'll find somebody who isn't abiding by the terms of use, but that it's such a small percentage it would never stop them from putting their products out there. And then also, if somebody is copying you, I send them an e mail let them know that you know, what's going on that you see it happening and that it's not okay, you need to take it down, and if you need something like a cease and desist letter, there were tons of sample ones online that you can use their up there, use it to send them a cease and desist letter, and people get scared, they're like, what is his legal letter nam scared now I'm really going to do something about it. And sometimes you have tio involve a lawyer if it goes that far, you have to decide personally you have to decide how far you're willing to take it if it's something that isn't that big of an offense and you just don't want to spend your energy on it you don't need teo, but if they are copying your entire business, then it's worth it to get a lawyer involved and make sure that things were taking care ofthe thankfully I'm married to a lawyer, so so I tell him and he takes care of it. So with these principles that I'm thinking about doing, I have lots of ideas for, like funny, inspiring things and I sort of wonder since I'm not really famous, I'm not really quotable, right? So if I say something hilarious and somebody else thinks it's equally hilarious and they put it up on their etc shop the next week not what I can do about that that that's, my little phrase or whatever I said it first rate or I'm not sure okay, do you have a lawyer in the audience way get a little advice from now on? We're not going to give legal advice way al advice love it the copyright, the underlying what's protected there is copyright and short phrases titles and short quotes are not copyrightable it's the longer so but the the quote on the background like the whole look and feel of the printable if someone were to take that and two duplicate it, then that's where we're running into copyright problems, but the actual quote is a short phrase and probably not protected by copyright thank you for that, but that's not legal advice that should I got you? My husband has the same exact thing I wantto share a couple of examples because I asked every single woman that I interviewed about this what they d'oh when they find something like this is happening so that I could give you some examples. Angie from angie makes who she designs beautiful website themes and clip art and bonds. You guys should absolutely check out her website. She designed some of the prettiest stuff she will step away from her computer, take a few deep breaths right? Because she doesn't respond want to respond when she's angry and try to think about where that person's coming from and if they know any better and then she sends them an email pretty much that takes care of it. Juliet crane she has a template email that she uses when she sees someone who's selling work that too closely resembles her own, and she teaches painting courses, but she lets students no you have to create something that looks like your style, right? I'm teaching you these techniques but then you have to create something that is you not that is the exact replica of me and you could do that when you're teaching something like that ashley from principal wisdom she has this is kind of shady what people dio they use her business name as a tag on etc so that people when they search for her business their products will come up who is doing that? Stop it right now if you're watching on unacceptable behavior but she has filed for a trademark because of that so that she could stop people from doing it. So there are things that you khun dio but everybody that I asked they said that you can't let it stop you still create put your step out there share your work that's how you're going to build a successful business and there is never a perfect time there's never a perfect time people will say to me well, I don't know if I have the time right now I don't know if I don't have the skills right now maybe in six months maybe in three months a year from now I'll try this no, no there's never a perfect time and you're never going to feel completely writing I can tell you I prepared like a madwoman for this course, but dude, I feel one hundred percent prepared when I walk through these doors no you never dio you never know when I launch of course I have prepared as hard as I possibly can but I never feel ready when I hit published on the sales paige and I e mail it out to my list I never feel like okay I am one hundred percent confident in this I feel confident standing up here teaching the scores I know my stuff I know that I could do it but you never feel all the way roddy with anything when you're releasing a new line of knitting patterns you're not going to feel all the way ready and there are always things that you can tweak there are always things that you could make a little bit better and I probably drove my content producer brian crazy when I was creating this course because I kept tweaking things and wait what more day enticing you sides because I want to add just a little bit more to this one he was probably thinking give me the slides already it's never a perfect time an example of that is actually from principal wisdom you guys should check out her etsy shop she built her business while in medical school and get this she's over twenty nine thousand sales on fc do you think she thought oh this is the perfect time I'm a medical school I should start a business it doesn't happen like that there's never a perfect time there are always things there are illnesses and children and whatever is going on in your life so what I say is that everyone needs to decide right now that now is the perfect time start before you're ready start today if you have been thinking about starting a blogger but you haven't done it start today post your first post at the at the end of the course when we wrap not right this second but start today start doing things today that are gonna help you get closer to your goal the use use this goal sheet so that you have broken things down and just pick one thing from the task cliff so that you're not overwhelmed so that you're not freaking out and do that one thing and once you do the first couple of things it becomes easier starting is the hardest part that is something that bonnie said when I was talking to her, she said starting is the hardest part once you do that it's all easy peasy and it's shrill it gets so much easier as you go so stop making excuses and do what you can with what you have a member of the a story about my and how she didn't have anything she didn't even really know how to use illustrator and she downloaded it made those plainer than three weeks so do what you have do what you can with what you have use what you've got