1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:02,560 Speaker 1: If you can't afford to say no to one on 2 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:05,400 one client work because you need the income, but then 3 00:00:05,440 --> 00:00:07,400 you don't have the time to go and create a 4 00:00:07,480 --> 00:00:10,919 new offer. Launching it before you created creates a cash 5 00:00:10,919 --> 00:00:13,439 injection that means you can say no to clients for 6 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:17,440 a while. And also, if you've been procrastinating about creating 7 00:00:17,600 --> 00:00:19,800 a course or membership or a program for a very 8 00:00:19,800 --> 00:00:23,000 long time, selling it first creates a deadline for you. 9 00:00:25,839 --> 00:00:29,440 Welcome to Imperfect Action. I'm Steph Taylor. For years, I 10 00:00:29,480 --> 00:00:32,280 read all the books, downloaded all the freebies, and did 11 00:00:32,359 --> 00:00:35,600 all the courses, but it wasn't until I started taking 12 00:00:35,640 --> 00:00:39,200 imperfect action that my business had its first million dollar year. 13 00:00:40,560 --> 00:00:44,880 Imperfect action is about doing things before you're ready, prioritizing 14 00:00:44,960 --> 00:00:49,200 consistent action over perfect action, and moving forward even when 15 00:00:49,200 --> 00:00:52,439 you're not sure you're doing it right. On this show, 16 00:00:52,520 --> 00:00:56,439 you can expect mindset advice, actionable marketing tips and strategies 17 00:00:56,479 --> 00:00:59,719 to build a business that brings you more profit, more freedom, 18 00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,280 even more joy. Are you on the list to get 19 00:01:04,280 --> 00:01:07,239 my daily businesses? Every day, I'll send you a bite 20 00:01:07,239 --> 00:01:09,760 sized prompt designed to help you grow your business in 21 00:01:09,799 --> 00:01:13,120 a more intentional way. Sign up at Steph Taylor dot Co, 22 00:01:13,400 --> 00:01:20,280 forward slash DBB, or at the link in your show notes. Hey, 23 00:01:20,480 --> 00:01:22,640 welcome back to In Perfect Action. This is episode eight 24 00:01:22,719 --> 00:01:27,640 hundred and forty. Today. I'm talking about something that I've 25 00:01:27,719 --> 00:01:33,719 noticed happens a lot with business owners are coming up 26 00:01:33,760 --> 00:01:35,519 with a new idea for an offer, or they've got 27 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,599 an idea for an offer, and for whatever reason, they've 28 00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:41,680 been sitting on this idea for a while. Maybe it's 29 00:01:41,760 --> 00:01:45,200 an online course and they've started outlining it, maybe they've 30 00:01:45,239 --> 00:01:49,640 even started creating lessons for it, and they've just never 31 00:01:49,879 --> 00:01:52,439 quite got to the finish line. And then what happens 32 00:01:52,640 --> 00:01:55,280 is they end up with this half formulated or half 33 00:01:55,359 --> 00:01:59,239 billt offer and months go by and they're still like, oh, 34 00:01:59,319 --> 00:02:00,799 I can't do that. I haven't got it out there 35 00:02:00,799 --> 00:02:04,599 into the world. And the reason why this happened is 36 00:02:04,680 --> 00:02:07,959 usually because they are making one of two mistakes, and 37 00:02:08,000 --> 00:02:10,520 maybe you're doing one of these. So if you can 38 00:02:10,520 --> 00:02:13,319 see yourself in either of these two mistakes, this episode 39 00:02:13,639 --> 00:02:17,919 is a must listen for you. Mistake number one is 40 00:02:18,240 --> 00:02:20,560 creating an offer and then trying to fill it with 41 00:02:20,680 --> 00:02:24,400 so much content and value that it becomes this massive, 42 00:02:24,599 --> 00:02:28,840 overwhelming thing I see this happening the most with online courses, 43 00:02:29,000 --> 00:02:32,280 but as well with group programs and memberships, actually memberships 44 00:02:32,360 --> 00:02:36,039 quite a bit as well. But what happens is they 45 00:02:36,120 --> 00:02:41,319 conflate content with value, so they think that the thing 46 00:02:41,319 --> 00:02:44,719 that's going to make their online course the most valuable 47 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:48,000 is if it has the most content, the longest lessons, 48 00:02:48,039 --> 00:02:50,919 the most lessons, the most modules, the most bonuses, the 49 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:54,280 most things, that's going to make it more valuable. But 50 00:02:54,319 --> 00:02:57,759 it's not. Here's the thing, because the value that somebody 51 00:02:57,800 --> 00:03:00,560 gets out of your offer is how quick it gets 52 00:03:00,599 --> 00:03:03,360 them from having the problem that they have to solving 53 00:03:03,400 --> 00:03:06,680 the problem to experiencing that transformation that they want to have. 54 00:03:07,639 --> 00:03:10,879 And if you're adding more content, it's going to take 55 00:03:10,919 --> 00:03:14,800 them longer to get from problem to transformation, and that 56 00:03:14,840 --> 00:03:19,319 actually makes it less valuable. Right. Think about when somebody's 57 00:03:19,319 --> 00:03:23,439 buying a car, for example, a car that goes really 58 00:03:23,479 --> 00:03:25,680 slowly and gets them from point A to point B, 59 00:03:25,919 --> 00:03:27,719 even if it's beautiful, even if it's got all of 60 00:03:27,759 --> 00:03:30,919 the shiny things, that's going to be less valuable than 61 00:03:30,919 --> 00:03:32,879 a car that gets them from A to B twice 62 00:03:32,919 --> 00:03:35,800 as fast without breaking the speed limit. Of course, Okay, 63 00:03:36,159 --> 00:03:39,000 so we want to get them from where they are 64 00:03:39,120 --> 00:03:41,800 point A to point B having solved that problem as 65 00:03:41,879 --> 00:03:44,039 quickly as possible, and that is what makes it the 66 00:03:44,080 --> 00:03:47,960 most valuable offer, not filling it with all of the 67 00:03:48,039 --> 00:03:50,840 possible lessons for all of the possible scenarios that they 68 00:03:50,919 --> 00:03:54,960 might experience. The second big mistake that holds people back 69 00:03:55,000 --> 00:03:58,560 and keeps them sitting on their idea or their half 70 00:03:58,599 --> 00:04:00,960 built offer for a really long long time is that 71 00:04:01,000 --> 00:04:03,000 they want it to be perfect. They want it to 72 00:04:03,039 --> 00:04:06,439 be just right before they put it out into the world. 73 00:04:07,240 --> 00:04:10,000 And this is a mistake because well, firstly, it's never 74 00:04:10,039 --> 00:04:13,039 going to feel perfect to you, because nobody is going 75 00:04:13,120 --> 00:04:14,879 to be as critical of your work as you are, 76 00:04:15,479 --> 00:04:19,040 and you know all of the flaws you've created it, 77 00:04:19,079 --> 00:04:22,319 so you're going to feel like, oh, this isn't perfect, okay. 78 00:04:23,240 --> 00:04:25,439 But the other reason why it's a mistake is that 79 00:04:25,519 --> 00:04:28,000 it cannot be perfect until you get it out into 80 00:04:28,000 --> 00:04:31,279 the world. Like it physically cannot be perfect because you 81 00:04:31,360 --> 00:04:34,279 have not tested it with any real life humans. You're 82 00:04:34,279 --> 00:04:37,399 building it in a vacuum, and when you put it 83 00:04:37,399 --> 00:04:40,319 out there to the world and to your ideal clients 84 00:04:40,319 --> 00:04:43,879 and they go through it, that's when you realize, oh, 85 00:04:44,000 --> 00:04:45,800 I didn't realize it was going to take them three 86 00:04:45,839 --> 00:04:48,279 weeks to grasp this concept that I've only given them 87 00:04:48,279 --> 00:04:50,600 one week to do, Or oh I thought it was 88 00:04:50,639 --> 00:04:52,079 going to take them a whole week to figure this 89 00:04:52,120 --> 00:04:55,199 thing out, but they've done it in a day. And 90 00:04:55,240 --> 00:04:57,279 then you can refine it, but you cannot make it 91 00:04:57,319 --> 00:05:01,240 perfect in a vacuum. The So what happens is I 92 00:05:01,279 --> 00:05:05,079 see people sitting on their half built offers or half 93 00:05:05,120 --> 00:05:08,279 formulated ideas, making these one of these two mistakes or 94 00:05:08,319 --> 00:05:11,319 both of these mistakes, and then they eventually maybe will 95 00:05:11,319 --> 00:05:13,360 get it out into the world. After like three years 96 00:05:13,399 --> 00:05:15,160 of sitting on that idea, they'll be like, Okay, this 97 00:05:15,240 --> 00:05:18,079 is enough, is enough, I'm going to do it. And 98 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:21,319 then they wonder why it doesn't sell. And it's usually 99 00:05:21,439 --> 00:05:25,319 because they're focusing so much on how much value they've 100 00:05:25,319 --> 00:05:27,279 put in it, so they're trying to sell the fact 101 00:05:27,279 --> 00:05:31,040 that there's fifteen hours of lessons rather than the fact 102 00:05:31,079 --> 00:05:33,000 that their course is going to be the quickest one 103 00:05:33,000 --> 00:05:37,000 that gets their person from A to B. Or they've 104 00:05:37,000 --> 00:05:39,560 been so busy building it that they've actually forgotten to 105 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:42,920 market it and sell it, and they put all this 106 00:05:42,959 --> 00:05:45,120 time into creating something thinking that if they can just 107 00:05:45,160 --> 00:05:47,680 make it valuable and perfect enough, then people are going 108 00:05:47,720 --> 00:05:51,279 to want it. Forgetting that, people don't buy something just 109 00:05:51,319 --> 00:05:54,439 because it's valuable or because it's perfect. They buy something 110 00:05:54,480 --> 00:05:57,360 because they have a need for it. And if you 111 00:05:57,519 --> 00:06:00,399 don't spend any time on the messaging and the content 112 00:06:00,439 --> 00:06:02,560 that's going to move somebody to the point where they 113 00:06:02,560 --> 00:06:05,360 realize they need your offer, then it's not going to sell. 114 00:06:06,160 --> 00:06:09,519 So the best way that I have found through my 115 00:06:09,560 --> 00:06:12,319 own business, through the clients and students i've worked with, 116 00:06:12,839 --> 00:06:15,839 the best way to create something that is truly valuable 117 00:06:16,120 --> 00:06:18,920 and to actually sell it is to launch it first. 118 00:06:19,759 --> 00:06:22,639 And that feels really scary, launching the offer, so selling it, 119 00:06:22,680 --> 00:06:25,800 getting people to sign up for it, and then creating 120 00:06:25,839 --> 00:06:29,160 it or launching it while it is half built and 121 00:06:29,240 --> 00:06:32,680 creating it as you go. Okay, So I'll give you 122 00:06:32,720 --> 00:06:35,319 a couple of reasons why in this episode why I 123 00:06:35,399 --> 00:06:39,199 think that launching it first before you've created it is 124 00:06:39,519 --> 00:06:43,279 a really great way to get an offer out there 125 00:06:43,319 --> 00:06:45,240 and sell it. First of all, it's a great way 126 00:06:45,279 --> 00:06:47,800 to test your idea. So launching it before you have 127 00:06:47,879 --> 00:06:51,480 created it allows you to test whether your idea that 128 00:06:51,519 --> 00:06:54,079 you are in love with is something that other people want, 129 00:06:54,319 --> 00:06:57,199 that your ideal clients will pay money for it. And 130 00:06:57,279 --> 00:07:00,879 it allows you to test your messaging and figure out 131 00:07:00,920 --> 00:07:04,360 if your way of communicating that problem that they're experiencing 132 00:07:04,399 --> 00:07:06,639 that your offer solves, figure out if your way of 133 00:07:06,680 --> 00:07:14,240 communicating that is aligned with how they understand it. And 134 00:07:14,240 --> 00:07:16,720 now I love this because I've seen so many people 135 00:07:17,000 --> 00:07:21,959 invest time, money, energy into creating an offer that nobody wants. 136 00:07:22,879 --> 00:07:25,120 And if nobody wants it, then it's much better to 137 00:07:25,160 --> 00:07:28,199 know this now before you've spent months creating something that 138 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:29,800 they're not interested in or that they're not going to 139 00:07:29,800 --> 00:07:33,399 spend money on. Honestly, like, one of the biggest hesitations 140 00:07:33,439 --> 00:07:35,560 or biggest fears that I've seen with people when they're 141 00:07:35,560 --> 00:07:38,399 creating new offers is they think, what if I spend 142 00:07:38,439 --> 00:07:41,079 all this time creating it and nobody buys it. So 143 00:07:41,160 --> 00:07:43,959 if you test your idea first, that's a really effective 144 00:07:44,000 --> 00:07:47,720 way around this fear. The second reason is you get 145 00:07:47,720 --> 00:07:51,120 paid to build it. Okay, So the thing is that 146 00:07:52,560 --> 00:07:54,079 I know for a lot of you, if you're really 147 00:07:54,079 --> 00:07:58,160 busy working with clients, you can't necessarily let go of 148 00:07:58,160 --> 00:08:01,000 a client to then fore your time to build a 149 00:08:01,040 --> 00:08:04,120 course or a membership or a program, because you need 150 00:08:04,160 --> 00:08:06,439 that income to keep your business running, to keep your 151 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:09,879 life afloat. I get that. The thing is that if 152 00:08:09,920 --> 00:08:12,720 you can just create enough time to launch it, and 153 00:08:12,759 --> 00:08:15,120 if your launch is successful, if enough people buy it 154 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:17,120 for it to be worth your while to create it 155 00:08:17,160 --> 00:08:20,839 and deliver it, then you now have a bit of 156 00:08:20,839 --> 00:08:23,120 income that you can use and you can maybe free 157 00:08:23,199 --> 00:08:26,079 up your schedule a little bit to create that offer. 158 00:08:26,839 --> 00:08:29,199 So if you can't afford to say no to one 159 00:08:29,199 --> 00:08:31,959 on one client work because you need the income, but 160 00:08:32,039 --> 00:08:33,879 then you don't have the time to go and create 161 00:08:34,080 --> 00:08:37,360 a new offer, Launching it before you create it creates 162 00:08:37,360 --> 00:08:39,279 a cash injection that means you can say no to 163 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,879 clients for a while. And also, if you've been procrastinating 164 00:08:43,120 --> 00:08:46,039 about creating a course or a membership or a program 165 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,000 for a very long time, selling it first creates a 166 00:08:49,039 --> 00:08:51,799 deadline for you. The thing is, if you're procrastinating it, 167 00:08:51,799 --> 00:08:55,159 it's because it's not really a priority. And it might 168 00:08:55,200 --> 00:08:57,279 not be a priority because you have all of these 169 00:08:57,320 --> 00:09:00,559 other urgent priorities, like clients in your inbox who you 170 00:09:00,600 --> 00:09:03,919 need answers and who want things done from you right. 171 00:09:04,600 --> 00:09:06,320 But then when you have that deadline to get the 172 00:09:06,360 --> 00:09:10,159 cost done, suddenly that's also a priority. And somehow magically 173 00:09:10,240 --> 00:09:12,320 we manage to find the time for the things that 174 00:09:12,360 --> 00:09:14,919 are a priority, so that will bump it up the 175 00:09:14,919 --> 00:09:17,799 priorities list and you'll actually get it done, whereas if 176 00:09:17,799 --> 00:09:19,480 it's sitting there on your to do list as a 177 00:09:19,559 --> 00:09:22,480 maybe someday thing, you won't get it done. It will 178 00:09:22,519 --> 00:09:25,879 take a lot longer. The third reason, and this is 179 00:09:25,919 --> 00:09:30,000 my favorite reason for why I love launching offers before 180 00:09:30,000 --> 00:09:32,240 I've created them, is you get to co create your 181 00:09:32,279 --> 00:09:35,960 offer with your buyers. When you create that offer. As 182 00:09:35,960 --> 00:09:39,360 you go week by week, lessen by lesson along with 183 00:09:39,399 --> 00:09:41,399 your students, you are giving them what they actually need. 184 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:44,840 You're not just guessing what they need. The thing is, 185 00:09:44,919 --> 00:09:47,039 if you are the expert in what you do, it's 186 00:09:47,080 --> 00:09:50,159 probably been a while since you were in your student's shoes, 187 00:09:50,399 --> 00:09:52,799 or maybe you've never been in their shoes, and you're 188 00:09:52,799 --> 00:09:54,919 an expert because you've gone and studied it. Like I 189 00:09:55,120 --> 00:09:59,000 work with a lot of nutritionist clients who they haven't 190 00:09:59,039 --> 00:10:02,120 necessarily experienced. It's the same problems that their clients are experiencing, 191 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:05,759 and it's really hard when you are in that expert 192 00:10:06,200 --> 00:10:08,720 position to go and put yourself back in somebody who 193 00:10:08,759 --> 00:10:12,240 doesn't know what you knows shoes. So then you kind 194 00:10:12,240 --> 00:10:14,720 of have to guess. And this is where I say 195 00:10:14,759 --> 00:10:18,240 you can't make it perfect until you've actually put it 196 00:10:18,240 --> 00:10:20,679 out there and got that real life feedback, because everything 197 00:10:20,679 --> 00:10:22,639 else is just based on a guess of what you 198 00:10:22,720 --> 00:10:25,080 think that they need. And it's only when you're working 199 00:10:25,080 --> 00:10:27,039 with them side by side that you get to see 200 00:10:27,039 --> 00:10:29,960 what you don't see, right, You get to see the 201 00:10:29,960 --> 00:10:33,720 things that they don't know, and it might be different 202 00:10:34,279 --> 00:10:38,360 to what you think. Right. You might think that they 203 00:10:38,399 --> 00:10:42,600 don't know, they don't know X, but actually no, they 204 00:10:42,639 --> 00:10:44,919 do know that, and it's this other random thing that 205 00:10:44,960 --> 00:10:47,639 you hadn't even thought about that they don't know. You 206 00:10:47,679 --> 00:10:49,759 don't know what those knowledge gaps are until you put 207 00:10:49,799 --> 00:10:53,480 it out there. And it's much easier to pivot and 208 00:10:53,639 --> 00:10:57,159 tweak your content or your structure the way that you're 209 00:10:57,159 --> 00:11:00,360 giving them support because you haven't now gone and put 210 00:11:00,399 --> 00:11:03,039 all this blood and sweat and tears into recording all 211 00:11:03,080 --> 00:11:06,480 of these lessons right. Recording lessons for a course is 212 00:11:06,480 --> 00:11:08,840 one of my least favorite tasks to do. Even though 213 00:11:08,879 --> 00:11:10,919 I love creating the lessons, I love knowing that people 214 00:11:10,919 --> 00:11:12,960 are gonna get a lot of value out of them. 215 00:11:13,279 --> 00:11:15,720 I don't like sitting down and recording and talking to 216 00:11:15,759 --> 00:11:18,720 a screen. I would much rather teach something live, and 217 00:11:18,840 --> 00:11:20,759 once something is recorded, I don't want to have to 218 00:11:20,799 --> 00:11:23,639 rerecord it for years if I can help it. Okay, 219 00:11:23,919 --> 00:11:25,960 and maybe you're different, maybe you do enjoy talking to 220 00:11:25,960 --> 00:11:28,159 a screen and you do enjoy recording it, But for me, 221 00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:31,519 it just feels really draining. So I know that when 222 00:11:31,519 --> 00:11:33,559 I'm creating a course, I want it to be perfect. 223 00:11:33,600 --> 00:11:35,519 By the time I get around to actually recording it. 224 00:11:35,519 --> 00:11:37,360 It's like that's my set in store and version. I 225 00:11:37,399 --> 00:11:40,399 don't want to rerecord it. So that's one of the 226 00:11:40,440 --> 00:11:43,960 big reasons why I recommend teaching it live the first time, 227 00:11:44,440 --> 00:11:46,279 and then you can always just go and change your slides, 228 00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:48,120 teach it live again, and then by the time that 229 00:11:48,159 --> 00:11:50,480 you've taught it two or three times, then you're ready 230 00:11:50,480 --> 00:11:53,480 to go and record it and sell that recorded version. 231 00:11:54,519 --> 00:11:56,000 The other thing I would say is when you're teaching 232 00:11:56,039 --> 00:11:58,720 it live, make sure you encourage feedback. You ask your 233 00:11:58,720 --> 00:12:01,559 students to ask you as many questions as possible, because 234 00:12:01,600 --> 00:12:03,799 then you can work out where the knowledge gaps are 235 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:06,200 and the gaps are in your content, and you can 236 00:12:06,360 --> 00:12:09,080 add extra slides to preempt the questions that they might have. 237 00:12:09,879 --> 00:12:12,519 This is a much easier and much more efficient way 238 00:12:12,559 --> 00:12:16,639 to create course content, membership content, group program content, because 239 00:12:16,679 --> 00:12:19,200 you are only creating what is actually important and what 240 00:12:19,240 --> 00:12:22,840 they need, and you're not wasting time creating stuff that 241 00:12:22,879 --> 00:12:27,080 they don't need to get that transformation. Okay, So if 242 00:12:27,120 --> 00:12:29,120 you have been sitting on an idea for a while, 243 00:12:29,480 --> 00:12:31,639 or you're maybe you're trying to find a little bit 244 00:12:31,679 --> 00:12:34,639 more clarity on your offer before you launch it, My 245 00:12:34,759 --> 00:12:37,679 short three hour course offer Less Sell More is exactly 246 00:12:37,679 --> 00:12:40,120 what you need to figure out what you are selling, 247 00:12:40,200 --> 00:12:42,240 so what all of your offers look like in your business, 248 00:12:42,279 --> 00:12:44,679 and to set up your entire office suite in your 249 00:12:44,679 --> 00:12:47,759 business to make a consistent income without having to launch 250 00:12:47,799 --> 00:12:50,320 all the time, without having to set up all sorts 251 00:12:50,360 --> 00:12:53,799 of evergreen funnels and things and be really complicated. It's 252 00:12:53,840 --> 00:12:56,960 a very simple short course. Head on over to Stephtaylor 253 00:12:57,000 --> 00:13:00,399 dot co, slash olsm or send me a DM on Instagram. 254 00:13:00,440 --> 00:13:02,679 I'm there at Steph Taylor dot co send me O 255 00:13:02,879 --> 00:13:05,519 LSM just one word and I will send you the 256 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:08,519 link to go and find that. All right, that is 257 00:13:08,559 --> 00:13:11,240 it for today's episode. If you have enjoyed the show, 258 00:13:11,320 --> 00:13:14,039 please take thirty seconds to leave a quick rating and 259 00:13:14,080 --> 00:13:16,559 a review. I really do appreciate them. I read them 260 00:13:16,600 --> 00:13:19,000 all and that is it for me. Thanks so much, 261 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:19,840 catch you next time.