Why you’re REALLY procrastinating on your first digital product

[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] Today let’s talk about four common reasons you are really procrastinating on your first digital product. The first reason is time. It takes time to create a product. And I don’t know about you, but as a service business and a mom and a partner, time can be in short supply. So how do we work with the time that we have and prioritize our digital product?

[00:00:49] Enter the Eisenhower Matrix. It’s a four quadrant system of – things that we need to do. They’re both urgent and important. Things that we need to schedule. They’re not urgent, but they are important. Your digital product would fall into this category. Things that we need to delegate. These are urgent but not important. And things that we need to remove.

[00:01:10] They are neither urgent nor important. This is a great tool because one ongoing challenge of mine is trying to determine what’s actually important versus what’s just busy work. So think about what you can schedule, what you can delegate, and best of all, what you can let go of. In episode two, I talked about why Mondays are a great day to work on your digital product, and I’ll share that link in the show notes.

[00:01:34] Now it’s easy for me or anyone else to share the Eisenhower Matrix, but it can be really hard to implement, especially if you’re used to prioritizing tasks for others first, like clients. Think about client work. One reason client work is easy is because you’re really clear on what you need to do, which leads me to my next reason you’re procrastinating, you’re not really clear on what needs to be done. [00:02:00] This is a commonly overlooked reason for procrastinating. If this is true for you, a clear plan may be all that you need. In my last email, I shared one of my goals for the year is to be on more podcasts to talk about digital products.

[00:02:13] I’ll share the link to the email in the show notes. I had taken a few steps in this direction. I attended some of Joe Casabona’s live streams about where to find potential shows and how to pitch yourself. I talked to Liz Fetchin about a PR effort, topics I could speak to and what kind of information I need to gather for her to pitch me.

[00:02:31] I started a ClickUp list to record who I pitched to and when, plus information about following up, but it was all kind of like a mishmash with no clear direction. I sat down and created a plan over the next 12 weeks, and will start on it today. I wasn’t clear, so I got clear. For your first digital product, maybe you’re not clear on what you want to create, who you want to sell it to, or the problem that your product solves for people.

[00:02:56] Maybe you’re not clear on the exact steps you need to take to create the product or how long to devote to each step. Maybe you’re not clear on how you’d market the product or the software platforms you’d use to sell and or promote the product. Maybe you’re not clear on how to even start. I totally get it.

[00:03:12] It can be overwhelming. At this point, I have 16 show episodes that you can listen to, plus a few resources on my website that you can check out. See if you can determine where exactly you need help. Send me a message and let’s chat. The third reason that you’re procrastinating is that you’re telling yourself all the wrong things.

[00:03:29] You may be trying to protect yourself from failure, but I think these negative sentiments can do more harm than good. Here are five examples.

[00:03:37] “There are so many other better products out there.” Yes, there are a lot of great products out there. There are also a lot of not great products out there. Think about your service business. You probably have competitors who perform the same service as you. Does that mean you’re not needed? Of course not.

[00:03:53] The world is big and there is more than enough work to go around. The same with products. There are many people out [00:04:00] there to help, and your voice and approach could be exactly what someone is looking for.

[00:04:04] “No one will ever buy it.” There’s no way to know that unless you don’t create it and put it out there. The truth is that maybe no one will buy it. Maybe some people will buy it, or maybe a lot of people will buy it. Regardless, if you take the time to create the product and share it, you’ll learn something from the process, and that’s valuable.

[00:04:22] From there, you can figure out what went well, what didn’t go well, and what you’ll try the next time you create a product that will hopefully increase your chances that more people will buy.

[00:04:31] “What if it’s terrible?” Before I started freelancing, I was scared. I didn’t know how it was going to go, if I was going to be able to support myself and my son, if I would find any clients or be any good at all. My partner countered my question with, What if it’s amazing? And spoiler, it was and is amazing.

[00:04:49] I know we like to look at the possibilities of what can go wrong so that we can prepare for them, but we should also consider the possibilities of what can go right so that we’re inspired to take action and share our gifts and ourselves with the world.

[00:05:03] “You don’t know what you’re doing.” Of course you don’t know what you’re doing.

[00:05:05] Who does? Think back to the first clients in your service business. How did those projects go? I remember one of my first clients, there were so many things I didn’t know that I didn’t know. The project took a really long time, came in way over budget and yes, there were late nights and crying. But after that, I knew a lot more about what to ask and what to look for and what to take into account from the next project.

[00:05:29] The same can be true for digital products. Creating and launching just one product will give you so much confidence for the next time.

[00:05:36] ” It’s not going to be good enough.” What you’re really saying here is that you are not good enough. I can totally relate to this. This is episode 16 of this podcast, but I feel exactly the same way.

[00:05:47] Are these episodes long enough? Are they too long? Do I look okay? Does what I’m saying makes sense? Will people listen? Is my sound and setup good enough? What about the editing? Am I getting anywhere with this whole endeavor? [00:06:00] Even though sometimes I tell myself otherwise, the answer is that what I’m doing now is enough.

[00:06:04] What you are doing now is enough. The product you create will be enough. Will this podcast get better? If I keep at it, yes. Maybe the sound will improve or the editing, or I’ll be more clear with the content or create episodes that people really wanna hear. Whatever it is. You and I just have to start somewhere.

[00:06:24] The last reason you’re procrastinating is that you don’t actually want to create a digital product. Maybe you think you should create a product because you’ve heard that it’s the next step. One of my colleagues worked with a coach and participated in a mastermind a few years ago. Out of working together came her first course. She sold it to one or two people and then immediately took it down because it wasn’t actually what she wanted to do.

[00:06:47] If a digital product doesn’t feel right for where you are in this season of your business, or isn’t the path you wanna take right now, that’s totally okay. You’ll feel a lot better letting it go versus having it hang over your head as something you should do, but never get to. So let’s recap. Four reasons that you are procrastinating on your first digital product.

[00:07:07] Time, you’re not really clear on what needs to be done. You’re telling yourself all the wrong things and you don’t actually wanna do it. So what do you think? Why are you procrastinating on your first digital product? Send me a voice message at yfdp.show/share. I’d love to hear from you.

[00:07:25] 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.