Experimenting and refining — a process for business and for life

[00:00:00] Rene: Hey everyone. Welcome to Your First Digital Product, a show that helps maxed-out service providers create their first digital product so they can gain an additional income stream, grow their impact without increasing one-on-one work and experience more time freedom. On the show, I talk to business owners who have launched digital products and dig deep into how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. I’m your host, Rene Morozowich. Let’s go.

[00:00:28] Recently my son, partner and I went to see Jersey Boys, the musical about Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons. In the first part of the show, one of the characters said, “you experiment, you refine.” Now, often when I hear something that really hits me, I think I’ll remember this later, I. But I never do. So this time I actually got a pen out of my purse and wrote it down in the dark on the leaflet the usher gave us when we sat down.

[00:00:52] The musical was fantastic for a lot of reasons, but mostly I love that the group just kept trying to find their way. They experimented, they refined. I talked about this in episode 10, reflecting on my first failed digital product, and I think it’s so important that I wanna dive in a bit more. Often we are so busy doing, doing, doing that we never stop to think if what we’re doing is actually working in all the ways we want it to. In my most recent email, I shared my recap after 90 days of implementing a social media plan to promote my show. See the links in the show notes for the original email with the plan, and the recap email with how it went, and what I’ll try next time.

[00:01:31] When you think about reflecting, maybe you think about seeing how a thing went after you did it. For example, training for a 5K and then running the 5k. You could look back at how you trained. Did the training work for you? Did you do as well in the race as you wanted to? You could look at a launched digital product in the same way.

[00:01:49] What went well, what didn’t go well, and what would you do differently next time? In these examples, there was a very specific intention at the beginning and that action was completed. [00:02:00] Work through this social media plan for 90 days. Train for and run a 5k, launch a digital product. But I also encourage you to look at things you’re doing that don’t have a specific intention and things that you haven’t completed.

[00:02:14] So let’s say you’ve been meaning to launch your digital product, but you just haven’t yet. I was talking with a new connection on LinkedIn last week, and she said,

[00:02:22] “Of course, like everybody else, I’m working on a digital product that’s nearly done. Hardest part, of course.” These four questions can still apply. What happened? What didn’t go well? What did go well, and what can you try next time? In the case of a not launched digital product, I’m not sure of the exact answers because everyone is different, but maybe there are some common threads, client work, or other priorities got in the way.

[00:02:47] There’s some part of the process that’s unclear or scary. You’ve lost sight of your why, why you wanna create it, and why it’s important or any number of other reasons. Now, as you know, this is episode 20 of the show. The first episode dropped on January 23rd, 2023, and the trailer the week before. I wanna take a few minutes to go through these four reflection questions.

[00:03:10] I know this doesn’t directly relate to creating or launching a digital product, but I think this framework is so valuable in all areas of life and business. So what happened? I had been searching for a specialization for a few years. I tested a few ideas that didn’t pan out. I joined a mastermind that focused on content creation and started writing about digital products, which was an area of interest for me.

[00:03:34] Near the end of the mastermind, I started to consider doing a show so that I could learn more, make connections, and build authority. I then worked with an individual coach, did a lot of preparation, and launched the podcast in January. I’ve been putting out weekly episodes since then, solo one week, and interviews the next week.

[00:03:52] This is the last episode of season one, which is a great time to recap. So what has gone well? I love hearing different [00:04:00] stories from service providers in different industries about creating and launching digital products. I’ve learned so much and made some great connections with people I’ve known and admired from afar. I’ve been able to get the show out on a consistent weekly basis. I’m sharing current and past episodes on social media regularly. I’m snipping up videos to share on social media, which is kind of fun, and I have some social media graphics that I’m using now. I’m building my email list and emailing them regularly, and most of all I’m doing it.

[00:04:30] So what hasn’t gone well? The solo episodes are very hard for me to produce. I worry that I don’t have enough to say or that I’m repeating myself too much, although I know that it’s actually good to repeat yourself for a lot of reasons.

[00:04:42] I’m self-conscious about reading the scripts I write and feel like I should just be winging it to make it appear more natural. I’m not a hundred percent satisfied with my background or setup. I sometimes feel bad about my microphone or my recording setup when I see posts that say they’re not good enough.

[00:04:57] So maybe what’s actually not going well is listening to too many experts. And although I have a process, I need to streamline it a bit more because it all takes a long time. So what I’ll do in season two. Now, let me break this up into what I wanna keep doing and what I want to do differently. As far as what I want to keep doing.

[00:05:15] I’d like to keep finding new and interesting people to interview. Keep doing solo episodes every other week. Keep sharing new and past episodes on social media. And keep emailing my list regularly. And here’s what I’d like to do differently. As a way to make producing solo episodes easier, I’d like to try Joe’s framework linked in the show notes.

[00:05:36] It includes creating a social post first, then an outline, and then an episode. It could also include finding content to repurpose instead of starting from scratch each time. I’d like to batch at least two solo episodes at a time, meaning I would only have to record solo episodes once per month. This would be a huge accomplishment for me.

[00:05:56] I’d like to try to get more feedback. I haven’t pushed this as much as my call to action [00:06:00] has been to sign up for the email list and leave a voice message, but I would love to have more conversations with people so that I can see if my content is actually resonating with my audience. I’d like to measure the amount of time it takes me to produce an episode right now, and then find ways to speed up the process.

[00:06:17] And lastly, I’d like to try something a bit different and do one or two tour / how-to videos possibly live in conjunction with the show, ideally on different selling platforms that people can use to start. So far I’ve been a bit scared to do this, but I’d like to push myself to try.

[00:06:33] Are there other things I could try to do differently for season two? Yes. But I’m a big proponent of not overdoing it. If I try to make every single thing better all at once, I don’t think I’ll be very successful and could end up getting discouraged because I didn’t make enough progress.

[00:06:48] But if I work on a few key things, like I mentioned above, I will continue to get better. So what are you experimenting with and how are you refining in your business? Where can you use these four reflection questions? Send me a voice message at yfdp.show/share. I’d love to hear from you. And thank you so much for tuning in for season one.

[00:07:09] I am so glad you are here on this journey with me and hope to have more valuable content for you in season two.

[00:07:14] Hey, thanks for listening. I’d love to continue the conversation in your inbox. Email SUBSCRIBE to hey at yfdp.show or sign up in the show notes to get bimonthly emails about how you can create, launch, and market your first digital product. Can’t wait to see you there.