Three realistic goals for 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] A few weeks ago I was on Instagram and saw an ad that read, “My online course made nearly 200K in one year completely on autopilot with zero audience.” The ad was for her free mini course on how she did it. And just to give some context, the image in the ad was of a happy woman, arms in the air, on the beach.

[00:00:48] I took a screenshot because I knew I would wanna come back and talk about this. I’m sure you’ve seen this kind of marketing before. Big Promise Marketing. Follow these exact steps and you’ll make a ton of passive income, lose weight, fall in love, get rid of all your stress and anxiety ?And live happily ever after.

[00:01:05] We love this kind of marketing because we want what it promises. We want to make 200K in one year completely on autopilot with zero audience. We want to live peaceful, happy, prosperous lives. Now, I don’t know this woman. I didn’t click on the ad or download the mini course. I don’t know what her online course was about, and I’m not saying that I don’t believe her or believe that it can be done.

[00:01:27] What I am saying is that it sounds like an unrealistic goal for the majority of people. Most people out there will probably not see that kind of success with their courses. So if 200K in one year completely on autopilot with zero audience isn’t a realistic goal for most people, then what is?

[00:01:45] Today I’ll share three realistic goals for your first digital product. The first realistic goal I wanna talk about is around mindset. When we’ve never done something, it can be hard to picture ourselves having done it. Think about running a [00:02:00] 10K or having a child or taking the entire summer off. These are big and scary things, full of unknowns.

[00:02:06] But once we do something, even just one time, we gain so much confidence. Our mindset changes. We see with physical hard evidence that we did it. So we know we can absolutely do it again and do it better next time.

[00:02:22] This is also why I’m such a big proponent of a smaller first product. Because it takes less time to create, you can get to the “having done it” state much more quickly. When I first struck out on my own, I saw this comic strip about freelancing. I wish I would’ve saved it. In the first panel, there was a stick figure hanging by one hand off the side of a cliff. In the second panel, the stick figure had let go.

[00:02:44] It was on the ground, and the ground was pretty close. The fall wasn’t nearly as bad as we thought it was going to be. Everything was fine. The same is true about your product. It’s not as scary as you think, and you’ll feel a world of difference having created and launched. The second realistic goal is around money, and there are two parts that I wanna touch on.

[00:03:04] The first is your investment. One realistic goal could be to have the product pay for itself in a specific amount of time. Chances are that you’ll need some software to create, launch, or market the product. In episode 10 about my first fail digital product, I talked about the software I used and how I spent more than I made on a few purchases that weren’t really worth it.

[00:03:24] In episode 11, Kyle shared how he recommends investing in software upfront that will make your life easier in the long run. There’s no right or wrong answer for what software you should use, but something to think about and having a goal to have the product pay for itself is a good one to have. You may find that you also want or need support in creating your product.

[00:03:44] Maybe design, audio or video, marketing, technical help, accountability or coaching. You may find that the upfront cost of this outweighs what you make at first, but hopefully it provides you a framework that you can leverage going forward with additional products. [00:04:00] And don’t forget, you can keep selling that product over time, and hopefully you do.

[00:04:05] The second goal around money has to do with sales. Now, sales aren’t something that we can control. We can’t just wake up one day and say, we want a hundred sales today. What we can control is what we do to get those sales. Ongoing marketing, sharing the information about your product, creating content, posting on social media, building and emailing your list, putting yourself out there.

[00:04:29] So while it might be great to have a goal in mind, for example, Liz’s goal in episode one was to sell 50 copies of her ecookbook in the first three weeks. And Sara’s goal in episode nine was to pay one of her bills with her product each month. Remember that you can only control what you do to get those sales.

[00:04:46] The last realistic goal I wanna share today is around your audience. As you market your product, you may find that some may not be ready to buy, but they will join your audience. An increase in your email list or social media following, even without sales right now is okay. They found you. Your message resonates with them.

[00:05:04] They’re now in your orbit. Maybe they’ll be ready to buy later. Maybe they’ll be ready to buy your next product. Maybe they will give you valuable feedback and market research so that you know what products they want to see. Audience growth is a great goal to have after you’ve launched a product. It’s not just all about the sales.

[00:05:23] So to recap, the three realistic goals for your first product are around mindset, money, and audience. Now, I know these are not sexy. They’re not big promises. There’s no huge transformation. They’re not even really quantifiable. There’s no numbers. Now, I don’t know about you, but I find this philosophy way more approachable.

[00:05:44] To go back to the ad, it didn’t specify if that course that made all the money was her first course or something that was built later after other courses and digital products were created. But if it was a first course, can you imagine what that would be like? For real? Let’s say the course [00:06:00] was $500.

[00:06:01] That means you’d have about 400 customers. You’ve never done this before. How would you know what you are doing? What about the questions you’d get? The troubleshooting you’d have to do with 400 customers. If you’re a service provider, you might work with 10 clients a year, maybe 20 or 40, or let’s just say, let’s get really crazy and pick a hundred. 400 is four times that number.

[00:06:24] How would you even do it? A smaller product lets you test the waters. I like to say this about email marketing. People always think you have to build the list to a huge number before you can start to send emails. But if your list is super huge, what if you mess up? Then you mess up in front of all of those people.

[00:06:41] If the only people on your list are your mom, a few friends and some colleagues, that’s a much safer space to find your footing, your voice, and get comfortable with all the things. The same with your digital product. It might actually be a good thing if it doesn’t go viral right away.

[00:06:56] It will allow you to find your way, to work out all the kinks and present a much more polished version, either of the same product or a subsequent product when your audience gets much bigger. So what do you think about these goals? Do you subscribe to this philosophy or do you still really want the big promises?

[00:07:15] Send me a voice message at yfdp.show/share. I’d love to hear from you.

[00:07:19] 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.