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Product Brainstorm

Lesson 6 from: Create Digital Products That Sell While You Sleep

April Bowles-Olin

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Lesson Info

6. Product Brainstorm

Lesson Info

Product Brainstorm

I want you to dio a little bit of an experiment with me. I want you to just pretend for a minute. Even if this does not correspond to your business, I want you to pretend that you are writing any book and I want you to jot down anything that first comes to mind. What's the title? What's the content? What would the main message be? How would you introduce it? How long would it be? Who would buy it? And then you can also use this stuff for a lot of other products. So but this is just if you were writing the perfect book because so many people want to write a book, I need so many people that that's one of their goals that really, really, really, really want to write a book at some point in time that because I was thinking because I know a business ultimate ultimately is not about me is about my client. But I'm just wondering, is it good? Just like a manifesto book to start out with civil? Somebody really wanted to know me that just it's there. Yeah, a good place to start. Yeah, just get i...

t done Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah Bonnie, From going home to roost her you bucks are based on most of them are based on her. One of them is her journey to becoming a service pattern designer, and it's very personal and how she did that. And it's really successful because people want to know about her in particular and how she got to where she is. I would say whatever is coming to mind for you for this. Jot it down because it's not necessarily something that you are going to dio. Maybe, well, maybe you want, but this just gets the wheels turning. We're just trying to get the wheels turning right now. And if you can't think of a title, it's OK or if you can't think of how long it would be, that's okay or how you would introduce it. Just write down anything that's coming to mind just so you have it. And then we're gonna do the same thing for your perfect course. So let's pretend that you're teaching some sort. Of course, it doesn't have to be any course. What would the title be? What would the format be? Would it be 30 minutes? Would it be over a period of five days? Would it be over a period of six weeks? How long would it be? How many students would be there? Would it be? Would your perfect course entail five students? Would it entail 500 students? What would be included? What topics would you cover? And even if you're not a teacher, just just go with me. Just write it down. We're getting the wheels turning. Some of this stuff could be used in lots of different ways. You could use a topic that you come up here with here as a blawg post. You could come up with something that is related to this course experiment, and you could turn it into a book may not necessarily be a course. Maybe you make free YouTube tutorials, so it doesn't necessarily have to be this, but it just helps you to think even more about what the perfect thing for you would pay. And it helps you think about what you really want to do, not just what you think you should do or what your audience wants. It helps you consider what you really want to dio what you really want to offer. So I want to hear. I want to hear just a little bit about one of them. Choose either the book or the course and tell me what you're perfect. One would be Rochelle. I have an idea of what? Where can we find you online? Because you make beautiful jewelry. Thank you. Um, the red Scorpio dot com And also I've split my brand, so the personal jewelry is at rochelle Marie dot com. Okay, so but you can get it, but places. Okay, I mostly block it the red Scorpio. And, um, I want Teoh, right? And e book. And I would love to teach a course, maybe someday creativelive that's called handmade gifts. That don't suck because a lot of stuff that you see for Hameed gives. It's like I don't even imagine my grandmother wanting to receive this from me. You know what I'm saying? But there are plenty of projects that are easy and fun to make that someone would be like, Oh, my gosh. Had so beautiful. I will actually use this. I will actually put this in my home and not stick it in the closet and just bringing out whenever you come visit? Yeah. Yeah. I make handmade gifts for Christmas. And one of the things is sometimes I will create them. I'll be like, No, no, this is going in. The somebody I don't like box. I forgot to get a gift for Maybe I got me something. And I have to get something really quick. But this is not going. Not something that I think people would actually want. Yeah, nothing. I ever do that, of course. But it would be like, Oh, that's so nice. Thank you. Okay. Yeah. Like, do I have to really somewhere keep this forever so that you don't get your feelings hurt, right? And giving to him a gift. Put that person in a kind of a hard position, cause it's not like you can't get back store. Yeah, like, where is the gift receipt for this? Yeah, you can. If you did that course, I would absolutely be in your target market just because I love handmade gifts. I love to make them so we'll talk to somebody. You can ask me questions that I would be in your target market. Anybody else wanna share? I'm Sarah Bracke at the BW Saraki dot com. That's B I e r and a c k I. I know it's the top last name. Um, my course be actually fiction. Writing may be short stories, because I know so many people want to do it. And there maybe not, like hardcore about I didn't want to be the next Hemingway, but they just want to have a creative outlet for fun. I think would be cool to have a class with, like, a membership site where people could comment on each other's work, another stuff locally for people. Put some people of in areas where that's not available, and I would like to make available to people and just on instructions with pop culture and other things to make it fun and less scary for people. I would also being your target market. I love to write fiction, but yes, it's more of a hobby for me at this point. But I would love something like that. You guys, I want to buy all of your product. This is crazy. Anybody else wanna share age? Where can we find you? I'm Stage Grayson, and you can find me at stage Grayson dot com and I'm a life editor, the type of life coaching. So I helped ambitious career women at it their habits, routines and mindsets to balance their happiness at work in home. So my big thing that I want people to know is that they don't need a fresh start. They don't need a makeover. They don't need a new you. They just need Teoh edit what they already have. Um, so I like it. Yeah. So I guess what I'm thinking for an e book, which was kind of be like a planner with bunch of worksheets and stuff, too, is something that I do with my one eye one clients. It's an edit in 60. So my one on one clients have day jobs or they have families. Are they have tons of stuff going on. They don't have a lot of time during the day to get to whatever their goals are. So we make a plan, like, if you've got 60 minutes today, here's what you dio. If you've got 60 seconds today, here's what you dio um So choosing how much time you have, what can you do Even if it's so small to get you a little bit closer to your goal. Give a small example. So one of my clients is trying to lose weight. When she's got 60 minutes, we will help her pack up her lunch for the next day and do her meal planning and do maybe 30 minutes of cardio when she's got 60 seconds. She's doing a plank for 60 seconds. All right, The biggest bang for your buck. Yeah, no matter how much time you have. Perfect, Do we have anybody sharing online? Yeah, we have a couple of people who are sharing their e book names and also some of their courses that they want to dio. The time capsule says that they want to have a book titled The Things I Wish I Would Have Saved in Life and That's Gonna be There. E book. Amanda Sue has a name for, of course, that she wants to do the title of my courses. 30 Days of Creative Abandoned. That's catchy title there, some more context on time Capsule. She says that the things I wish I would have saved would be having a target market would be people who like genealogy, mothers, brides, history buffs, people who are looking to purchase decorative baby or wedding gifts, and the time capsule acts as a way to preserve those memories. That's that's what they're looking to target in their course. I love that that person knows their target market so clearly that that's fantastic. Okay, so I'm gonna share with you guys how I choose products, and you also have the list of questions in your workbook because you're gonna fill them out for yourself. But you don't have to do that yet, but we'll get there. So the first question that I ask is, how excited am I about creating this product? And this is I'm being honest. This is the most important question to me is how excited I am. I about it because if I'm not, it's not gonna happen. How much effort will it take to create? So it doesn't mean that I'm not going Teoh create it if there's a lot of effort, but it's just knowing what you're going into, right? So on a scale of 1 to 10 1 being the easiest thing I've ever done to 10 being this is a mountain I'm gonna have to climb. How well does it fit with my current calendar and other commitments. So I want to look at what I already have planned. And if it's something that's a huge time commitment, and I and I don't have the room in my calendar that I'm probably not gonna pick that product for that point in time. Maybe I do that months from that point in time. How well will felt now this is guesswork, right? We never really know. But what does your gut tell you? How well it's going to sell? How well do you think it's gonna sell? How well does it fit in with what I'm already selling? So I look in my current products. Is it going to add to Is it going to take away? Does it fit in? How old is it Fit in with my brand? So thinking about my tagline. Does it fit in? What that does it not how well does it fit in with my overall vision for what I want to be known for in my business schools, and this is also a really big one for me. I want to make sure that it's in line with my goals for my business and for the life that I wanna live. So this is marketing for Creative on. I will tell you how I went through it for this particular product. I was out of 10 for excitement for this product. Can you see? Oh, wait. Can you see? Okay, So I was really excited to write this and I thought it would be pretty easy for me to dio I knew that I was going to have Teoh do a lot of writing, but I like writing. So it wasn't out of 10 for me as faras how hard it was gonna be like a four. And that sounds pretty good to me. How well does it fit in with my current calendar and other commitments? It was at about a seven. How well will it sell? I thought what's given tonight? I think this will do really well because it's gonna be affordable, something that many of my audience members have been asking for. It's something that I know that they need. And I also think of something that they will really want is to have all of this stuff in one place. How old does it fit in with what I'm already felling 10. This is basically the kind of stuff that I sell right. I help creatives with marketing with building their businesses online. How old is it fit in with my brand? 10. How well does it fit in with my overall vision for what I want to be known for and business goals. I gave that one in eight. And the reason I the reason I escorted a little bit lowers because I wasn't gonna be able to give any one on one with that particular product and so a little bit of a lower score. However, it fits in really well with my business. I think it's pretty good. And then I will go through our trip in your, which I told you guys a little bit about in the last segment. It was the membership site that was kind of the one stop shop for creatives, where they could find photography and Web design and marketing and help with etc. I was really excited about creating this when I created it. I mean, I could not stop thinking about it was the first thing I thought about. When I woke up, it was what I was thinking about when I went to sleep, I could barely sleep. I was so excited about creating this. That's when you know, you know, it's a good one. When your that excited about it, how much effort will it take to create 10? I knew this was gonna be a big one because it had a lot of moving pieces. It was going to involve lots of individual feedback for the different members. It was I had to coordinate with all of the different people that I hired to work inside of the program, so I knew it was gonna be a big one. But even though I knew that the effort was a 10 I still wanted to do it really badly. How old does it fit in with my current calendar and other commitments? And nine, because they didn't have anything on my count. Wonder at that point in time, how well will tell. I thought six. And the reason why I gave it a lower score is because I knew I was gonna have to charge more for this program so new, less people were going to buy. How old does it fit in with what I'm already selling. Nine. This is basically what I do again, right? How well does it fit in with my brand? 10. I want to be known for helping creatives build. Successful Doesn't That's exactly what that would dio and how well does it fit in with my overall vision for what I want to be known for in business goals? 10. So that was a no brainer for me. Even though the effort was so high, I knew it was gonna be worth it. So you're gonna choose your next product. What I want you to dio is picked to products from your brainstorm list. Pick two of them that you have circled and starred. That seemed like a really good fit. And then you're going to answer these questions. How excited are you about creating them on a scale of 1 to 10? Where where's the excitement at How much effort will it take to create? How well does it fit in with your current calendar? How well we'll sell, what your gut instinct. Think about pricing. Think about what goes into to think about your target market. Think about the audience that you currently have How well does it fit in with what you're already selling? How well does it fit in with your brand? And how well does it fit in with your overall vision for what you want to be known for in business goals. So I'd like to bring somebody up if they're willing to come up here with me and take the hot seat. Looks hot, right? Yes, yes. Come on. Up. Way even. Have away board for him. OK, so what? I want you to dio. Yes, you can. You absolutely can. What I want you to do is tell me your answers for each product on a scale of 1 to 10. So we'll go with question one. How excited for both of them for the 1st 1 Okay, what about the 2nd 1? Eight for the 2nd 1 Okay. And tell me which what What are the products up, prince? So prints like the one that you showed here. The Isn't she lovely? Okay, is the 1st 1 okay. And then cards, greeting cards, but with a twist. OK, question to how much effort will it take to create? Um, not let's say. Well, what about because I'd have to open an Etsy store to do it too. So I have to learn how to do all that. Okay, that goes into it. Okay, so six may be okay for the print. Yeah. What about for the card? I think that's why it's a little Yeah, I think lets you a seven for the cards. How well does it fit in with your current calendar and other commitments? Uh, it will be hard just because I work full time. So I'm kind of in that place that you talked about when you talked about the beginning, where you had to get up extra early in the morning and stuff. So I feel like that's a hard question to answer because nothing will ever fit until I start. Because if I don't start making money at thes things that I can't Segway over to more and more of it, right, so as good is, it ever will. So I think we should put a 10 for both of them, cause they're both hard to dio considering your calendar. However, when it's worth it, it's worth it. Like I said with the other one is it's gonna be a lot of effort for me, But I still wanted Teoh. Exactly. Yes. Okay. For how well will fell, I think. Well, so I'm I mean, my hope would be that were at around eight or nine. Okay. I don't really Yeah, it's hard to gauge, but it's kind of Ah, the similar concept to like, the printable wisdom stuff. So it's at a lower price point, and I think that's promising. Okay. She does have 29,000 sales on nothing. Exactly. OK, so what about the card? Um, I think same. Okay. How well does it fit in with what you're already felling? I don't sell anything yet. I just log. So it fits in. Let's say 10. Let's say 10. Let's say 10. Give it a 10. And how well does it fit in with your brand? Perfectly. Both. Yes. And how well does it fit in with your overall vision for what you want to be known for in your business? Cole's 10. Both of them? Yes. You're a hard one. Thes air. Pretty similar. OK, so what I would say is that this one seems to be winning out, right? Yeah, I think that that's the easiest place to start because I don't even like the cards or just a tiny bit harder. Because I'm already gonna be learning, um, photo shop and all of that illustrator. And so the idea of, like, getting the lines right and everything else and the full, you know, it's just one little step harder and knowing myself and my schedule and the fact that I'm learning and everything is new, I think easiest, easiest first thing. And you're most excited about the fun. Yeah. So I would say this one wins. I would work on this one through the rest of the course is that I would dio That's all right. Thank you for coming up here for being the first video. You're awesome. And one more time. Remind us where we combined you online. You can You better go there. The last questions that you want to ask yourself when it comes Teoh picking the digital product that you're gonna work on our why? Why does your customer need this? Why will she want it? So need and want are two different things. And often if you think your customer needs something but they don't want it, it's not gonna sell, and that stinks. But we have to figure out a way to make them really want it. Good example of this is Marie for Leo has a book called Make Every Man Want You and Ladies, Don't You Want to make Every Man want? You know? I mean, you want that, But the book is really about being in the moment and staying present and how that makes you successful in an area, every area of your life and how that makes you more attractive to people. And when you're engaged with them, let's say on a date or whenever they're going to be more into it right when somebody is paying attention to you and is engaged in moment. So, she said, be in the moment. If that was the title of the book, it wouldn't be as exciting. I don't think it was Sella's well right, and that's one of the reasons that she talked about. That's why she named it. Make every man want you because that's what women want, right? So if you're coming up with something that people need that they don't necessarily want, how is it going to help them and how Can you sell it in that way? And why will your customers choose you? Why are they gonna pick you and your product? And I'm hoping all of that helps you to kind of narrow down and pick between the two. And this is going to be the product that you're gonna work on throughout the rest of the course. I'm gonna help you get so ready to sell this thing to get it created to get launched, to market it in a way that doesn't feel completely overwhelming. And you'll be able to replicate this over and over again with other products. You don't feel like this is your only chance? I think that you guys all can probably help me answer the question. Um, depending on how you feel about writing, I guess. But I have the first answer really figured out. And it's for I'm Kris with a k again still at with writing dot com. Um, and it's for the product I think I'm gonna work on is the first guide on how to use a real systematic approach to writing so that it doesn't feel horrible and so that you don't feel like you can't do it on. The first question is why she needs it and she needs it because she's attacking, writing all wrong and it's hurting her, and that's not okay. Um, but I don't really know why she'll want it. And I have a whole lot of vague feelings about why women want it. Why? Specifically, women and business want it, but I don't know that core like the difference between they want to be in the moment and they want every man to want them. You know what I mean? I don't know. So maybe if you guys, if I can crowd source that a little bit, Do you wanna? You want help? I feel like something about being like an irresistible blogger. Something about that about just being more exciting, like how to get everyone to want to read your blawg. So what entrepreneurs want. They want to be more successful. They want to write copy that is engaging. That gets people excited about their product that makes them want to buy. They want to know how. Teoh, right? With personality, right? They wouldn't know how to not be boring. That's what I hear over and over and over again about blogging is I don't know how to write blood Post. I don't think I'm boring. But then maybe I am Because my walk post kind of come out boring. And they're not filled with personality, those air, Certain things that I hear over and over again. Okay. Any anybody else as needing help with writing that would make you want it As an entrepreneur, you don't have a lot of time. Yeah, I wanted to be. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Nobody wants to stare at that blank screen for 30 minutes before something pops into their head. Yeah, exactly. Did you want to add to it? Um, like, high in particular Would want to know how to get better at it. Because in the past, I've been told, Well, you take really good pictures, but you're not really a very good writer. So I have, like, these emotional blocks, and I'm afraid of what to write because that Teoh So you know I want to get past that because I have something to say. I just need help saying it

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Ratings and Reviews

Domesticraft
 

OUTSTANDING COURSE! Yes, I yelled that! :) If you are just starting out or you are a seasoned entrepreneur or anywhere in between . . . this course offers tons of good, immediate, put to use RIGHT NOW stuff that will move your biz forward on a firm and well thought out foundation! I bought this course before I saw it, because I am a big fan of April's already and I knew how much work, thought and love that she was putting into this course and she NAILED IT! The price is ridiculously low, she is just "covering her postage" on this one,if that. You would be doing yourself a huge disservice if you did not GRAB THIS COURSE UP at this price . . . it is worth so, so, so much more! I'm feeling kind of guilty already, like I should give her a cut of my profits now! I do know I will send her handcrafted gifts from time to time and tell everyone I know about her and her awesome biz brain. Thank you April, you WAY OVER-DELIVERED, again, and I will make you proud! :) xoxoxo Nancy www.domesticraft.blogspot.com P.S. Thank you too, Creative Live for bringing April back! I know she's got more, so . . . again please! Also, Mayi Carles and a creative cooking course with her about to be launched "Life is Messy Kitchen" cookbook would be HUGE! I would book her now before she turns all Diva after her appearance on Oprah, ya know? Jus' sayin' ;)

a Creativelive Student
 

I consider myself so lucky to stumble upon your course, April - you rock! Great training skills, high quality content, professional & down to earth attitude, excellent tips, secrets and real life examples and... I love love love the workbook! I cannot tell you how useful it is; I have many other business trainers who I simply adore but no one so far until you gave me a such comprehensive and practical one for all the steps. Indeed, you do what you preach, you over deliver! Also, the Facebook group is so supportive! Signed: A very happy customer of April! :-). P.S. for all the people who watched this course: I know we all have busy lives but if you feel that April helped you in your efforts, then I think a way to show her that we are grateful is to leave a review for her here, thanks.

Tasha Miller Photographer
 

This course has given me so many great ideas of how to turn my abundance of digital ideas into one solid and firm idea. The information, examples & case studies given were priceless. As a stay-at-home mom of 5, homeschooler, wife & photographer; this was perfect for me. I have been trying to think of ways to turn my ideas into an online reality! Now I feel like I am able to move forward with my new business, so that I can gain time freedom to focus on the things that are truly important for me. Thank you April & thank you Creative Live for bringing her in! :)

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