52 | How digital products transformed my business
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How digital products transformed my business
Have you been dreaming about passive income? Sick of trading all your time for money with 1:1 services? I was too! In this episode, I’m sharing how I created more time, freedom and profit by creating and selling digital products & courses.
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When is the right time to introduce digital products & courses into your business?
I know that there are mixed feelings about digital products and courses, and when the right time to introduce them is. Honestly, the right time to introduce digital products and courses is different for everyone.
It depends on your niche, your experience, the goals you have for your business… there are so many different factors that go into this that no one can say that there is a definitive ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ time to introduce digital products or courses.
You will often see online business gurus and marketers say that you need to have XYZ in order to create your first digital product or course, but I am always wary about this umbrella advice because it really does depend on a case-by-case basis.
When I created my first digital product, it was against the advice of my coach at the time, and against a lot of popular business advice - but it ended up being the best decision I could have possibly made for my business. If I hadn’t listened to myself and that feeling I had in my gut, I would not be where I am today.
So before I get sidetracked, let me take you back to the start…
The backstory
I started my business back in 2019 as a mentor working solely with 1:1 clients. This is the same way most people get started in the online space - with a signature service or offer that requires them to work with clients in a 1:1 capacity.
For a while, I loved this! I got to really get to know my clients, serve them in such an intimate capacity, and it was sooo rewarding! But after about a year, I started wanting more… I was starting to resent my calendar being full - I wanted more freedom, and as much as I loved my clients and loved our calls together, I didn’t want to be tied to my calendar anymore. That’s when I started toying with the idea of launching a course.
I knew that a course wasn’t going to magically solve all my problems, but it was a step in the right direction to building the freedom-based business that I truly wanted.
At this time, I was being coached by quite a big name in the online space. I ran this idea past them and they straight away shut me down and told me that I needed to completely book out my 1:1 coaching and be making consistent $5k months before I could even think about creating a course. Honestly, they didn’t even hear out my ideas or allow me to explain further (which is an issue in and of itself, but that is beside the point…). But I trusted her, right? I’d invested in her and she was so much further ahead in business than me, so she must have known what she was talking about…
Another few months passed, that coaching relationship ended, and I was still no closer to where I wanted to be. If anything, I was getting more and more resentful of the business I was building because it just wasn’t what I wanted to do.
So I was at a crossroads… I could either pack it all up and find myself a steady 9-5, or I could try a different approach, go against popular business advice, and the advice of my coach, and see if it would pay off..
So I decided that I was going to give it a go, lean into my intuition, and see if I could turn things around and create the business that I genuinely wanted.
Reclaiming my time.
The first step I took isn’t directly related to digital products, but it’s an important part of this story because it gave me more freedom, which was my main goal.
When I decided to make this shift, the first step I took was to stop offering traditional 1:1 mentorship. It wasn’t in alignment with the business I wanted to build. As an introvert, I felt drained by all the calls and as much as I did love supporting my clients, it just wasn’t working for me in this format anymore.
What I was finding, however, was that a lot of the transformations my clients were experiencing were actually taking place in between calls when we were talking in Voxer. So, I decided that I was going to transform my 1:1 mentorship package to be entirely text & voice message based via Voxer.
This was a scary decision because it wasn’t something that was widely offered at the time - I knew people had the odd ‘Day of Voxer’ offer, but I hadn’t seen anyone who was offering mentorship or coaching solely through Voxer and I had no idea whether this would work, or be something that people would be interested in.
But, like I said, I wasn’t aligned with the business I had built or the way I was currently working with clients, so I decided to take a gamble. And it’s one that paid off! After announcing Voxer Mentorship as a service, I had a lot of interest in it. And within a few months, I was serving more clients than I had ever served before.
The best thing was that I was able to serve them at an even higher capacity because I was able to show up in my best form as I wasn’t feeling drained by the calls or resentful of my calendar being full… and there are so many other benefits to offering Voxer Mentorship, but this is what truly allowed me to fall back in love with my business and have that freedom that I was really craving.
Creating my first digital product.
Around this same time, I also decided to create my first digital product. I wanted to dip my toe in the water before going all out and creating an online course, and I was still worried about it because of the comments my previous coach had made. I knew that a digital product would be a great way to test the waters because it wouldn’t take as much time to create as a course, and it would also be a low risk investment for my audience.
So, I got to work on creating my first digital product. I called it The Story Lounge and, at the time, I priced it at $57. It was a Trello board of fill-in-the-blank style Instagram Story scripts that business owners could use to nurture their audience, increase their engagement, generate leads and sell their offers.
I created and launched this offer within a month, and my first launch saw over 100 people join in just a few days. It ended up being a $5,000 launch, which blew me away as it was such a low-cost offer. But, it only affirmed that digital products and courses were the right choice for me and that I wanted to continue down this route.
If you’ve been in my world for a while then you’ve probably heard about The Story Lounge because this offer is actually still a part of my business, but it’s since evolved into a membership and is actually one of the most popular offers within my business to this day.
When I decided to transform it into a membership, the goal was to bring recurring revenue into my business. I had this vault of scripts that people were using and loving, but as a bonus, I also offered a 30 day Instagram Story challenge that basically laid out the scripts in a strategic way that would allow you to nurture your audience, build connection and then sell in an authentic and genuine way. And I had a lot of messages from students telling me how much they loved this resource and wanted more, which gave me the idea for the membership.
So now, if you join The Story Lounge, you can join for $37 per month and every month for 6 months, you are delivered Instagram story plans, scripts and educational resources that all build off of each other…
This membership later supported me when I lost a family member and wasn’t able to show up in my business for over 3 months. I couldn’t show up for clients, I couldn’t show up to market my offers… but the recurring payments that were still coming in from this membership, and the funnel I had set up to continue to get new members in the door, made it so that I was still able to earn while I was grieving and couldn’t physically bring myself to run my business in any capacity.
It was at that point that I realised how important it is to set up systems within your business that can run in the background and continue to make you money while you are unable to show up, whether that’s because of some unexpected life event, or maternity leave, or simply because you want to travel…
I actually spent 3 months in South East Asia at the beginning of this year and before I went, I made it a priority to take the time to set up systems and funnels and automations that made it so that I only had to show up and work few hours a week while I was away, yet I was still making consistent sales.
How launching a digital product led to an influx in 1:1 clients
When I first launched The Story Lounge, I had over 100 students join within the first few days. A lot of those students then came to me and told me that they were struggling with their content strategy as a whole. So, a couple of months later I created my first online course: Content That Sells.
I actually presold this course before I created it, and filled up the 10 beta spots that I was offering within a few days. After creating these two products, I began to notice that some of the students who bought my lower ticket products wanted to work with me in my higher ticket offers and were inquiring about working with me 1:1.
Pretty much as soon as I launched my first digital product and course, I had an influx of enquiries and I was starting to work with more 1:1 clients, without really having to do anything to find them. This was because I now had students who knew me, liked me and trusted me because they were ALREADY a paying student and they had already gotten results through my low-ticket offers so it made it a much easier decision to take the next step.
Fast forward to today and, I have a tonne of different digital products, resources and courses that I sell within my business, and I love being able to offer a variety of products to people in all different stages of business.
Over the years, more than 80% of my income has actually come from my digital products and courses, or been generated as a direct result of having them in my offer suite - and this is why I am such a huge advocate for them!
I’m not here to sell you false promises about passive income and how you can bring in hundreds of thousands of dollars in revenue without ever having to lift a finger again.
The truth is, you’re going to have to put in the work if you want to see results.
You have to create your offer, you have to create the marketing materials, you have to launch the offer, you may have to change or update it based on feedback from your students or as it ages, you have to build your funnel, you have to tweak it… adapt it… There is so much that goes into creating digital products and courses and it’s not true to say that you are going to set this up and it’s immediately going to be a passive revenue stream.
But once you’ve put in that work, it does get to be passive… and it certainly allows you to spend less time and serve more people than you would if you are solely offering 1:1 services. So if there’s one thing that you take from this blog post, know that it is more than possible for you to build a sustainable business that supports the life you desire.
You don’t have to hustle 24/7.
You don’t have to do things you hate for the sake of business growth & success.
You can create a business that feels good to YOU - one that allows you to work 4-hour days, prioritise time with your family & do more of the things you love OUTSIDE of business.
If you have been relying on 1:1 services to make money, but you know that you want to get started with digital products and courses then I would love for you to join me inside my new mini-course, Low-Ticket Revolution.
This mini-course is your step-by-step guide to creating & launching your first digital product and setting up an automated sales funnel so that you can sell on autopilot!
I created Low-Ticket Revolution as a resource for those who are just thinking about creating their first digital product as a way to help you get everything created, set up and selling within 30 days, or less.
Click here for all the details you need to join Low-Ticket Revolution today.
CONNECT WITH TISH:
Instagram: @marketingwithtish
Website: leticiajcollins.com
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Hey, I’m Tish!
I'm a marketing mentor for ambitious entrepreneurs who want to create more time, freedom & profit in their online business, in a way that feels good to them!
If you’re ready to build a sustainable & scalable business on your own terms… then grab a cuppa, get comfy & stay for a while ☕️ ✨
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