In this episode, I'm going to tell you why
your digital course needs to follow the tortoise and not the
hare. Hi, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and
money mindset coach, and welcome to the Weeniecast.
Tell me if you've been sold this
dream. And now that I've said tell me, I realize that this is a one
way platform and I'm just talking at you and you can't really tell me back,
but if you want to email me, you can. There are so many
business coaches and business gurus out there who are selling a program on how
you can develop and sell a digital course or some kind
of digital product. And they paint this picture of you
creating this thing once, launching it, and then raking in
millions of dollars, and they make it sound so
easy. And for the low price of
$999, you can do it, too.
You can make $100,000 in two months. And like
most people, including myself, I'm sure you've bought one of these
programs before thinking, oh, yeah, that sounds really nice. I would love to do
that. Yeah, you know, I would love to make more money while
spending less time doing work. That is the dream. So you bought the
course and you started it and you probably dropped
off beyond having ADHD and losing interest
or, you know, just not feeling like the right fit for you energetically and
work wise. There was something off. There was
something that just didn't click for you about how this was going to
work and if this happened to you. I
just want to give your intuition a big nod.
Spot on. There are very few programs out there that can
actually help you build a digital product that will
actually sell. And those programs, if you were to sign up for them,
they are tens if not hundreds of thousands of dollars because that's a
ton of work that someone has to do on your behalf.
Like so many of my clients before they started working with me, maybe you
actually did create a digital course. Maybe you created a whole
curriculum and you outlined it and you made the PDF's and you filmed the videos
and you found a place to host them and you put it all together and
launched it to hear crickets and you frantically
scrambled to try to figure out what the went wrong. Was it your
marketing? Was it the course? Was it too long? Was it too
short? Was the pricing right? On and on and on. You probably freaked out
about every single little detail. And now this digital
course is probably sitting on a very dusty theoretical shelf in your
brain and on your hard drive, not helping anyone
and not making you any money. And it's really easy to do
that and have it flop and start making up a story about yourself,
that no one wants to hire you, that you must not be that
good at what you do, that this could be wrong with you and that could
be wrong with you. And there are so many other people out there who are
doing the same thing as you, and they're probably just better at it than you.
I have a no b's reality check for you right now, and it's that none
of that is true. You just got sold a bill of goods like
so many of us. You cannot start
off selling a digital product that helps people. I
get the desire. I understand how
alluring the idea is that you could create this thing and it'll just generate
money for you without you having to do a ton of work. That is the
dream that most of us are working towards, but it isn't where you
start. When I work with clients and what's extra
frustrating for those of us with ADHD is that we're used to
learning things really quickly. We're used to hearing how
it's done, putting into action, being really good at it, if
not perfect, and then moving on to the next thing, and then the next thing,
and then the next thing. Failing is incredibly hard,
specifically for neurodivergent folks. When we fail,
it activates a whole bunch of rejection, sensitivity,
dysphoria for us, especially when we failed at
something that was public facing, like launching a product
or a service. And it hurts that much more
because not only did it not work out, and not only do you not have
any money coming in, after you spent money on the program that was supposed to
teach you how to do it, after you invested all that time, after you dealt
with all the frustration and trying to figure out all the bits and how they
would work for you, but the reason it didn't work out is
because people saw it and they thought, nah,
I'm good. And there's a whole bunch of meaning you can attach to
that. You can make it all about how you're not smart enough, you're not pretty
enough, you're not thin enough, you're not qualified enough,
this isn't good enough. There are other people doing way better than you,
and that's really hard to deal with. And if you're in that position right
now, I want you to have a ton of grace for yourself because that's a
very painful place to be, and it takes a lot of kindness and
compassion to move you past that stage in your business.
The mindset I want you to have when you're starting your business and as you're
growing your business is to always remember the tortoise and the
hare. That's right. We're getting, we're diving into some fables
today. We all know the story of the tortoise and
the hare. They start a race and the hare
takes off because that's what rabbits do. They're really fast. And
I think the rabbit gets confused or distracted along the way and then also gets
tired and needs a nap and all the things. I think the hare actually had
adhd, but the tortoise just kind of just keeps
plodding along. Doesn't rush, just slow and
steady. The tortoise finishes the race first.
The hare comes in second. The hare is actually also really
stressed out and has had too much caffeine and has called their mom crying
several times because they don't know which direction they're going because it got turned around
at some point on the race course. And they also spent money on a digital
course that was supposed to help them finish the race quicker, and it didn't work
out. Whereas the tortoise was just listening to a podcast the whole
time and just spending time and its thoughts and just continuing
the way it was going to continue. The tortoise probably also got one on one
clients along the way, right? Because, I mean, the tortoise won a marathon.
I'm actually making up that as a marathon. I don't think a tortoise could actually
walk 26 miles. Anyway, if you know different, please
dm me. We need some
tortoise experts to get up in here to correct me on this. Also, I don't
think that the fable is actually based on actual capabilities
of actual animals. Anyway, you get the point of what I'm saying.
Slow and steady wins the race every single
time. I know it's really tempting to try to hack the system.
We're all really into all the hacks these days and to
find the fastest way to the biggest results where you have the most
impact. But that's not usually how it works. I'm currently volunteering
on a political campaign for a local Democrat. She's running for
state representative, and this is her first time running for office.
And literally, we're going door to door, knocking on doors,
introducing her to the constituents and her district
if she wins, covers seven towns. And let me tell you
about this candidate. She's incredible. She's worked
in homelessness prevention for decades. She's
been super involved in her community. She gets on stage and
she connects with each and every audience member. She's an incredible
speaker. She has a really great head on her shoulders. She knows when to
ask questions, when she doesn't know the answer to something. I personally
could see her climbing the political ladder and becoming
a much bigger figurehead than what she's going for, but it's
not like she's jumping straight there. She's literally going door to door
in each of these small towns, in these tiny, quaint little neighborhoods,
saying, hi, my name is. But in a much less Eminem kind of
way, more of like a, hi, I'm running for state representative. You know what
I mean? It's
not sexy, but you have to go slow.
The number one goal we have when we start is let's make you
money. Make money, money. Make money, money, money. Make
money, money. Make money, money, money. And I
always tell clients, our fastest path to cash is always
going to be one on one clients. And the reason for this is
because, a, you're not trying to enroll a ton of people
into the same thing on a timeline. That's arbitrary to them.
So, for instance, if you were to launch a group program that starts on
September 1, you have to find the people who are willing to start on
September 1 to sign up for it. Whereas when you're working with someone one on
one, it's on their timeline. They can start when they're ready. And if they're
ready now, they can start now. One on one clients know that they're going to
get a higher level of service from you because they're going to get that one
on one attention as well. And because they're going to get that one on one
attention, they're going to get customization that they wouldn't be able to get in a
digital course or in a group. After you've developed your one on
one book of business and you have several one on one clients that are
paying the bills every month, then you can move on to
developing a group program. And you want to start with the group program
first before you move to the digital product, because this is where you are going
to trial and error, all the things that go into the digital
product. Now, having worked with a whole bunch of one on one
clients, you're going to look for, what is the common problem here? What is the
thing that all of my clients seem to struggle with, and how do
I train them out of it? And you're going to develop your whole group program
around this one thing. And you're going to run that group program multiple
times, you're going to relaunch it and you're going to iterate it and you're going
to change it. And to give you some behind the scenes, this is exactly how
I've grown my business. I built my business solely with one on
one clients until I got to the point where I realized, oh, there are some
parts of what I do with clients that everyone needs.
And I could absolutely roll this out as a group program.
And as you've probably listened to this podcast before and heard me talk
about BYOB, the build your own business group program, that was not its first
inception. Earlier on, I actually rolled out
different portions of that program in a standalone
fashion. So like holistic selling, which is my model for how to sell, it's very
consultative, it's not manipulative, it's very based on helping the
person in front of you. I actually ran that as a
standalone group training multiple times before
I dialed in what that training would be, empathetic
marketing, another portion of BYOB. I did that multiple
times, again with different groups, all on its own, so that I could
really understand, like was the material helpful, who
was the best client for it. And throughout this process,
I realized that to do holistic selling well, you had to understand your
ideal client. So that was a big part of what I needed to incorporate
and build your own business through doing empathetic marketing. Again, I realized
you have to have a deep understanding of your niche. And running
these two independent programs, I realized how they needed to
feed into each other. And I probably ran eight different
short small group programs before I
came up with the build your own business model that would help
people start their businesses and start to scale them. And
even then, my first iteration of BYOB
no longer exists. It started off as a six month program
and it has evolved into a two year support
community. If people so choose where I've broken down
exactly what you need to start with to start your business and start getting high
paying clients. And then you can graduate into an advanced version
of it where you can learn how to do all of the fundamental things that
will help your business kind of run in the background while you do the things
that you love. And I've been at this for six and a half years now.
And while yes, there is a digital format of BYOB,
there are training videos and all that stuff, I'm nowhere near turning this into a
digital course. I share this with you because I want you to really understand the
amount of time that it takes to verify an
idea, the amount of time it takes to understand
what works in a group format, what works in a video training,
and where you're going to have to augment your
delivery. It doesn't happen overnight. And this is why you
cannot start with a digital course. You have to trial it with your one on
one clients, and then you have to trial it with a group program, and
eventually you are going to evolve it into a digital course.
But at that point, you have a verified
idea, you have a verified audience, you've done the market check. You know
that there are people out there buying what you're selling.
So you're probably listening to this and thinking, but Katie, I've heard of so
and so who said that they quit their job and they started
this course and they launched it and they made
$200,000 in the first few months. And then they did this and they did
this and they're selling a course on how I
can do the same thing. Why are you saying that that won't work for
me now? I'm not saying that it's 100% not going to.
There are exceptions to every rule. But the chances
of you creating a digital course that is actually going
to sell and make you hundreds of thousands of dollars without
building it off of what one on one clients want from you, and what you're
teaching in a group program is extremely low.
And if you're independently wealthy and you don't have to worry about paying the bills
and this is just something that you're doing for fun, then you know what? Knock
your socks off. Go for it. Have fun. Try it and
see if it works. But if you're independently wealthy, it doesn't really matter if it
fails, which it likely will. But if you're like the rest of us
and have bills to pay and a dog to buy, really
expensive treats for, and maybe a small, small book
buying habits that you have to support, then that's not going to be
the best course. And even for those of you who start a one on
one coaching business or consulting business or whatever, know
that when you launch a group program, 50% of them will fail.
Even after you've done a market research check, even
after you have, like, gauged it with your audience.
There's so many factors that go into you having a
successful launch of a group. You know how many followers you have
on social media and how engaged they are. That's a big factor. How
big your email list is and how engaged they are, and
how honed in your email list is on your ideal client. That's
another massive factor. I think we've all been a part of one of those
groups. I think early on in my business, I had a business mentor
who pushed us all to grow our email list,
but didn't give us any guidance on how to do it. And so they're like,
just ask your friends and family. Ask people in this group. Go
to Facebook, say, join my email list. And
we all did it. And we all got a whole bunch of people on our
email list. And let me tell you, there's nothing more disheartening than getting an
email back from your newsletter, from your aunt who's telling you that you shouldn't swear
so much. Like, thank you so much. Great feedback. Not
listening to it. Also, would you like to buy my stuff? No. Okay, cool.
I'm just kidding. I would never ask a family member to join any of my
programs.
These are all things that take time to build. They either
take time or they take a ton of money to
establish quickly. And like I said, if you're a normal human
being who needs to pay the bills and needs to buy the
treats and is buying stuff for whatever hobby
you have, be it reading, woodworking, underwater, basket
weaving, you need to be making money from your business in the interim.
And at the heart of it, you're in this to help actual human
beings. Yes. You want to make money. Yes. You want to make lots
of it. Yes. Like, maybe you want to have private jets and you want to
do all the stuff, but more than that, you genuinely
care about helping people. And if you actually
want to help people, creating a digital course that
no one's going to buy and no one's going to go through and really no
one's going to even ever know about, it's not going to help anyone.
It's actually just going to end up hurting you and your confidence. But working with
clients one on one and holding their hand and walking them
through whatever transformation it is that you help them through, that helps
people. Launching a group program that helps ten to 20
people who are all working on whatever transformation it is that you
help folks with, with, that actually helps people. And the best
part, besides helping people, is that it actually makes you money in the
interim. And depending on what your business is and what your
niche is, let me tell you from experience, you can quite
simply build a $100 to $300,000
a year business, helping people one on one. I've done
it and many of my clients have done it. Does it take work?
Absolutely. But is it fulfilling?
Yeah. Does it actually impact the world?
Yes. And what's cool is that if you do have a dream of
eventually rolling out a digital product, this is the best
place to start, because through your one on one clients, you're going to
verify that whatever problem you'll solve through your
digital course is actually a problem that your clients have.
And in fact, you could probably figure out what is the problem. They had two
steps before, before becoming my client, so that you can capture
people earlier on in the process. And then your digital
course isn't just something that you sell to make money. It's something that you sell
that is also a lead magnet. It attracts people in, and it helps
them with something that you do not work on in your group or your one
on one coaching or consulting. People buy that first,
and they work through it, and then the next logical step will be to
sign up with your group or doing one on one work with you. The key
here is that you have to make sure that your work actually works
for the people who matter, and that's your clients. And I know
it's so easy to build a strategy
around how you want it to work, around this idealized
vision of how other people seem to have done it. And it was so easy
for them, and it's going to be so easy for me, and so I'm going
to do all the same steps, and blah, blah, blah, blah. It's so tempting to
get sucked into that kind of thinking. But just because you want
something to work a certain way does not mean it will. You have to
build your strategy around a realistic
plan. You have to assess what actually works in the
world that we live in and follow that, rather than
how you want it all to look. And if you're ready to get real with
yourself and see, start running your business to
a realistic strategy that is designed
to get you making money as quickly as possible. Working with one on
one clients, evolving yourself into some kind of group
program, and then developing whatever digital course comes
out of that. Then I invite you to book a generate income strategy
call with me. If you're super attached to
how you want things to work and you're hoping that you're going to talk me
out of, oh, but like this, this one time, you're gonna help me with the
digital course first, right? Do not book a call. I don't wanna talk to you.
I know it hurts to. To realize that you've been following this
cult of, oh, it can be super easy, and I'm gonna roll
out a digital course, and it's gonna make me a ton of money. It's really
hard to let go of that thinking. But if you're willing to be brave
and you really want your business to work out, then
you're gonna need to invest in a more realistic way to do things, and
I'd love to help you with that.
Luna, no barking. Come on, please. Oh, no.
Oh, no. Luna, out. Okay. Excuse me while I evict my dog from
the room. Okay, out you go. See you later.
Bye. Anyway,
welcome to my ADHD show, everyone. I hope you're enjoying.
Squirrel. Squirrel, squirrel, squirrel.