Where to start, what to sell, who to sell it to… adding a digital product to your business is a great way to diversify your revenue streams but easily become overwhelming before you’ve ever even taken the first step. Not today, though!
Today, I’m chatting with Megan Martin of Megan Martin Creative and the Digital Lab to talk about all things digital products. We’re covering who can benefit from adding a digital product to their business, how to figure out what your product should be, and where to start once you’re ready to create your very first digital product.
By the end of this episode you’ll know exactly what to do first to get started creating your first (or next!) digital product and have the confidence you need to get started on your digital product journey!
Listen now!
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Episode Transcript
023. How to Add a Digital Product with Megan Martin
[0:58] Well hey there friend welcome back for another episode of the build it like a business podcast so excited to share my interview today with Meagan Martin Megan is. Total expert when it comes to creating digital products and I know that so many women in direct sales right now are working to add digital products to the mix of their personal brands and their businesses that they're building and so this is going to be such a great conversation to listen to if that's ever peaked your interest if you've ever been curious about what it might be like to maybe add an online service or digital download or some other type of digital product to your business so. Without further Ado let's go ahead and Dive Right In to my conversation with Meagan Martin.
[1:44] Hey Megan thank you so much for being here with me today I'm so excited to have you as a guest here on the build it like a business podcast. Thank you Kelly I'm so excited to be here and connect with you and connect with your audience of listeners super fun.
[1:59] Yes I know that this is going to be such a great conversation I was saying to you before that I work with a lot of women who are in direct sales and I also following a. Online business owners and especially right now everybody is at a point where they're trying to grow their businesses and add new branches and streams of income and so I'm really excited to talk to you about digital products and what that looks like you're seriously. First person I think of when I think about adding digital products in a way that isn't overwhelming and stressful so I can't wait to have this conversation with you well thank you that means a lot and I. I'm super excited to talk about this even within the lens of network marketing like people would probably not think. That they could add a digital product to the mix so this is going to be super cool super different but.
[2:49] So relevant right now with everything that we're going through. And people needing to Pivot and figuring out how to continue to support their families so I know this is hopefully going to be life-giving to a lot of people.
[3:04] I truly believe it is so I'd love to get started by just letting my audience get to know you can you just introduce yourself just tell us a little bit about who you are and what you do and why you're so passionate about it. Yeah well hey friends I am Meagan Martin first and foremost I am a wife and a mama of four.
[3:25] And on my business side of my life I am a conversion focused website designer.
[3:31] And I have been building my own business for the last 10 years and really found a passion for sharing. Just like opening up my business book and sharing what it is that I do in my business and that's been like a lot of what I've done for the last 10 years and it's morphed into this space of other people asking me questions. On how did you do this how did you build your business how do you how did you get into start selling these templates in these courses and these digital products and and how are you making money literally while you're sleeping.
[4:07] So that turned into me just like found a passion I never knew that I was going to find and helping other people figure out what makes them unique. And take what they know take their expertise and whatever it is and turn that into a digital product that they can actually sell. Literally while you're having dinner with your family while you're sleeping while you're working on something else like you can create an entire Revenue stream that is a hundred percent digital without your hands on it at all times which is. What what I even mean by having something that's life-giving like it is. I'll never forget that first passive sale I was like in the car on the way to dinner with my family and I made money and I'm like what is this life and so I'm so passionate about helping other people create these revenue streams for themselves.
[4:58] Yeah there's seriously nothing like looking down at your stripe account or even if you're someone who is sent using at Sears yeah whatever you're using and you're like oh my gosh did I just make money sitting at dinner sitting with my family and it's just it's pretty incredible to be able to do that because not only are you making money for your family but you're also able to help other people move forward. Every problem it is that you're solving for them without having to physically be there and it's kind of amazing that we're able to do that like that did not exist. 25 years ago like that just didn't exist so that's kind of mind-blowing to me just in general can you talk a little bit about why it's so important for businesses to bring a digital product into their revenue stream into there the cachet of things that they have to offer you sort of alluded to it a little bit with what you were saying but I'd love to just dig deeper into that. Yeah so I think there's a couple main reasons. Number one is income obviously if you are in a business where you are working one-on-one with people whether that be sales or service provider or whatever that maybe you're going to at some point be capped out with the.
[6:09] Amount you can serve somebody and the amount that you can bring in because of that right.
[6:15] Unless you're literally hustling all the time and not having a life you're going to get capped out.
[6:20] And there are other models like you can absolutely scale service-based business you can grow an agency you can there's there's lots of different ways that you can grow a business but there are some people in the world like me who have no desire to do that kind of business I absolutely would fail at growing an agency I am not a manager by Nature. And I don't want to have to deal with a huge team so a digital product is a. Different way that you can build a business and essentially take that cap off of scalability you can theirs digital product is Limitless essentially in how high you can scale it and those are a lot of buds buzzwords but it's the truth once you nail something once you get a great product and you have an audience a captive audience that actually wants and needs that audience or that product you have the ability to to focus on continuing to grow your audience find more of those same types of people and just continue to put that offer in front of them that you've already created so income is number one right but impact would you've already said and you've already brought up but impact is the second part so not only is there a cap and how much money you can make in a one-on-one type of business but there's also a cap on how great of an impact that you can have with one-on-one business clearly.
[7:42] Just impacting one person is so powerful and no matter not just in a business sense but like in a life sentence right like if you can impact one person your life that's very very powerful but.
[7:53] With a digital product you have the opportunity to impact more people than you could ever imagine as you are scaling for income you're also scaling the the number of people that you are serving and helping and that is life-changing for them and for you so.
[8:12] I think that if you have a passion and a heart to help other people a digital product is such a perfect way that you can do that and and serve more people than you could have ever imagined yeah I agree with everything you're saying and I love what you were mentioning about you kind of just said this on and off but it was those are a lot of buzzwords but it's the truth is what you said and I love that you brought that up because sometimes we can get really caught up in the buzz words right we either fall into something that we weren't really planning to and then we're like this is not what I was really looking for.
[8:47] Or we get so turned off by the buzz words that we ignore what's right in front of us and so I think this is a really good chance first all that just step back and say what's like the Bare Bones of this and will this serve my business and is this a way that I can really help others in the process of doing that and that's exactly what digital products are when you strip away the buzz words when you strip away all the fancy marketing that's happening out there digital product just it's just that it's just an easy way for and I don't mean easy like it doesn't take any work but it's an it's a relatively simple way for you too help others for you to take whatever gift that you have because we've all got one even on the days when we don't feel that great about it like we've all got some type of gift to give to other people and a digital product is a way that we can give that to others we can help others without having to provide a one-on-one service without having to always be immediately present with the person that were helping and that's that's a gift for other people but that's a gift for yourself as well which is I mean that's kind of amazing absolutely.
[9:55] So true yeah I think we do get caught up and it's not just digital product world like there's buzzwords in the network marketing world there's buzzwords in. Service provider world like there are cliches and all of our niches and industries that we can get hung up on and not want to be a part of and I think. The digital product model tends to have like over-exaggerated cliches because of some of the like slimy stuff that goes on. But you don't have to run your business that way just like you don't have to run your network marketing business in a slimy way or your service provider business I me wait like you get to choose not only the product that you create. And the way that you serve people but the the way that you are going to run your business to make sure that it is aligned.
[10:37] Your beliefs and your truths hey men amen oh my gosh it's so true and I know that that's going to ring especially true for our gals in network marketing direct sales who are listening because that's an industry with the stigma and online business also can get that same stigma it happens everywhere but it's our job to step back and say you know what what do I want how do I want to run this business like what are my business values going to be because the truth is those are the only ones that matter what you bring to your business is what your business is going to look like to other people so if you bring the Slime people are gonna see this lime but if you bring compassion and a heart for other people that's exactly what they're going to see as well so you just have to make that choice about what do you want your business to be that's up to us. Would you say that digital products are a pretty narrow Market of what they can actually be is there a wide range of what a digital product is can you just talk about what is a digital product like what are maybe some examples of. What a digital product is yeah there's a huge range I would say of what a digital product could be I think in the simplest. Explanation of what digital products are I think of courses that's probably one of the most popular.
[11:56] Templates so thinking things like if you have a technical skill like you're a designer or website designer or maybe you're a copywriter or. Something that you could turn into something that. Somebody else could literally like Build-Off that's a template right there's downloads those are probably the most passive and nature so thinking through like if you wrote an e-book. Yeah or you took pictures of something or you made printables or whatever those are downloads membership programs those are the least passive of all of the passive products I would say because you're constantly having to move more into creating new content and also your most like most memberships have Community elements built into them so you also probably really connecting with other people on a regular basis. And then I also like to include. Some things that are probably like left out of the conversation sometimes like Live Events even though they're not as passive in nature they can be great in terms of a digital product.
[12:54] So you could do like a live Summit or a workshop. And it's all online but it's just not something that you're necessarily repeating you're able to like turn it into a product that's selling all the time right if it's a live event but then there's also a few other like really Fringe things print-on-demand is another. Digital product even though actually it is a physical product so if you are setting up say you want to like sell t-shirts you can set up the entire system to be digital in nature to where you're not having to manage inventory and do all of that but you could have a company come in and print and ship for you so that way it's truly a hands-off business for you and then finally affiliate marketing is another verse it's not a true product but in selling somebody else's product you can make money that way.
[13:44] Serving people by referring things that you love so that's I like put those two and the digital product world even though they're not typically what you would think of in the digital product world yeah that's a great explanation I love that you brought those last two up especially affiliate marketing because that's really one where because we're all on we're online right we're talking about digital products and we all have Instagram accounts and Facebook most likely so we're all in this sort of. Influencer status even if it's just teeny tiny audiences or really big audiences either way we're in an influencer status someone is seeing what we're doing and they are either liking it and then trying it themselves or not liking it and like you know deciding not to do whatever that was so affiliate marketing is such a good way to sort of dip your toe into the digital world.
[14:36] Because you can share whatever it is you love so like anchor design Co has an affiliate program we pay for someone to share our products and they can earn so they share the products they love they earn something on that and I know you have an affiliate program as well where people can share your digital lab and they can earn based on sharing with their friends so you're really just taking these things you already love you're just passing them along you're getting something in return for it so I'm glad that you brought that up as a digital product and I love hearing the wide range that there is. And. As I was hearing you say that I couldn't help but think we can really do more than one of these like we don't have to just do one we don't have to say I'm a coarse grater that's the only thing I'll ever do you can get course creator and do a live event one day and you can have your affiliate marketing and you just you have a lot of flexibility right would you say there's a lot of flexibility in that absolutely I mean I have I probably have a product in all of those categories print on demand I do not have yet it is actually like coming into my business that's my next.
[15:44] I'm project I'm working on more so because I want to like help other people see that this is something they could do. But and it's kind of fun for me but but yeah I have a I have a product that fits in every single category and it's because if you actually look at all of those different types of products it's because they at the end of the day they do something different for the person on the other side of the screen so for me like when we're talking about creating products for our customers. I have a membership program that almost works as Like This Is Us holding hands like side-by-side I'm taking your hand and we're going to I'm going to be in it with you for the Long Haul but then I have you know we're working on currently creating a new course but we have other courses as well Anna membership product our membership product you're not able to necessarily Go full A to Z in with someone that's not necessarily always the goal of a membership it's more about again that like long-term support. And so a course is something that's going to go like far in depth this is great if you really have liked great experience in depth in a very specific category or Niche or whatever you can walk someone. Step-by-step through something like a course but then they might need something you know they might not have a technical skill that you have so my case I can teach you how to create and design and write a website that converts.
[17:13] But you might not actually want to sit there for months and design your own website or learn graphic design or learn coding or any of that so I have a template product ready for you to purchase if you'd rather just do that right so there are different ways that you can show up and serve your Market even in the types of digital products that you can.
[17:34] That's so cool and that I'm thinking about anchor design Co and my business as you're saying that and even if I don't right now. I've done the same thing I have dipped my toe in all these different areas and on one hand it's cool because it's fun you get to try all these different things you really get to see what it is that you're going to be excited about and at the same time if you realize you create a course or you start creating a course you're like actually this is not for me or maybe make a membership that's probably even a better example you you start this membership and you're like oh my gosh this is so not what I was signing up for you can pivot you can turn around and do something else with relatively minimal cost involved because. When you're working online it's really that Sweat Equity right it's you putting hours in time in there might be some software involved but compared to like opening up a retail location and stocking it with inventory digital business of any kind whatever type of products you come up with is going to most likely be a lot less expensive there's exceptions to that but for the most part it's a lot less expensive which gives you the flexibility to Pivot and change and try something else and adjust what you do right now might look totally different from one year from now and I will say.
[18:55] You alluded to print on demand products and I am really hoping there are some Meagan Martin t-shirt designs coming out because I feel like they would be so cute so anyway I want on that email list noted yeah that is so so true about the the like the flexibility and. I can attest to that a hundred percent I do not okay I very very rarely these days take on one-on-one design work in terms of like my website design business. Having my digital product business this is another benefit of digital products it's allowed me because I have a revenue stream that has been built and the digital product side it is allowed me to take so much pressure off of myself to have to show up and provide by doing services and that one-on-one work so now I have the ability to not only raise my prices because I am seen as an authority in my niche.
[19:58] Because of the digital products and the amount of people I'm serving that way but also it allows me to be highly selective about who I want to work with and when I want to work. People so in the in the conversation of being able to quickly pivot for example in 2020.
[20:15] When everything hit the fan right I didn't have a load of client work on my on my desk to have to to deal with so I was able to quickly pivot like within 6 days quickly pivot when things were going wrong and we had an entirely different plan for 2020 and we actually. Even pivoted within our digital products so we were we had a course. That was my signature course at the time and that was our plan to really just drive into that but when we were seeing what was going on and what our customers really needed that was not the time to show up with that so we were we had all the the software's and everything set up like we didn't have to pay for anything new to start something else and we were able to quickly make a decision we saw a need in the market and we moved on creating it and that's the other beauty of the digital product world is that when you put out a digital product it doesn't have to be a hundred percent.
[21:15] We launched a product that was literally nothing at the time like it was just like here's a name and this is the container that that's going to be the product and we would love to invite you in and we grew to over a thousand people within five months with a product that was literally nothing when I launched it.
[21:33] And so it is the view you can actually build digital products with your customers in real time which can a test they love it that way because you're actually showing up and creating value based on need and not on Hope cross my finger hope this is what you want right so it's it is such a a cool way to grow a revenue stream that's actually helping other people yeah that's pretty amazing and I was one of the first people who joined your digital lab back when you're doing a promo right at the beginning and it's been incredible to watch that I can attest to.
[22:11] Yeah we love it we love it - show us behind the scenes you're like join this you'll get whatever it turns into but you'll also get all of the stuff that happens along the way you'll get every lesson that happens as I'm building this and that's a really cool thing to be able to see and it's a really unique perspective.
[22:27] To be able to have when you are building a business to be able to watch that and get those real time lessons good bad and ugly as they're happening. Would you say that digital products are more for people who are just coming up with their first product or do you think that they can really be added to existing business I think it's absolutely for both I think if you have zero business savvy in the sounds like something that you want to do the the more passive Revenue model it's for you you can come in as long as again you have something that you know you love you already have with Nu that people. People recognize within you it's like one of those things if your friends and your family like oh you're so good at XYZ that's a that's a clue right there that a digital product is in there somewhere. So it's for that person but it absolutely is for somebody who is an established business owner. You already have some sort of talent already have some sort of built-in audience I would assume as an established business owner and what better. Way to just be able to say hey like I cannot serve all of you at one time so this is a product that I can put in front of you and help you right now.
[23:34] It's an absolutely no-brainer for somebody who's established yeah I totally agree and especially thinking about your experience where you have your template shop you had your design business and then you added your digital lab and your this digital product to your business and so that's just that just goes to show us all. You can have an established business you can have an established Market you can absolutely bring in a digital product and allow that to just be a branch of your brand and how you serve people.
[24:03] Do you think that. There are specific types of businesses that benefit from digital products do you think that any type of business can have a digital product where do you think that fits in. In the all the different Industries are niches or types of business that exists. Out there yeah I cannot think of one business that wouldn't benefit from a digital product or a business that could not create a digital product I mean that maybe there are some in terms of like licensing. That you would have to be careful with but sure for the most part I can't think of any type of business that could not create this for example in the digital lab which is my membership for digital product creators we have a nurse.
[24:49] And she's a so she's a nurse and she's a certified nutritionist and she helps women. Who are dealing with fertility issues so she creates digital products to help these women with her expertise we have women inside the digital lab who are embroiderers and they sell. Download templates of embroidery. I don't even know how to call it like it you know what I'm saying I told him broker so I don't know but they sell the templates to that and you would think like these are so simple ideas but there are people out there in the world that want to embroider and they need templates because they're not maybe it's not like their gift to come up with some of these cute designs right so those are like super out there.
[25:30] Examples right I think in the B2B Market its huge digital the digital product world is huge if you are a business owner and you serve other business owners so I'm thinking like social media marketers. You know attorneys attorneys sale contract templates I mean there are tons of examples of.
[25:49] Business owner serving other business owners but even in the network marketing world I think there is a huge untapped potential here and I think people don't think about this because they're so focused on the brand that they serve and they sell through they they don't. How could I complement this with something that is a hundred percent my own room it was stream and so I think that there is huge untapped potential there as well this is part of why I talked to my audience so much like they're probably sick of hearing it but I'm never going to stop this is why I talk about building your personal brand separate from your businesses brand and really thinking about your network marketing company as. Place where you're buying the products that you're selling just like the local shop in downtown has a place where they buy all the products like they're not necessarily making every single individual product that exists in their gift shop let's say or their clothing store their Boutique downtown but they're buying those products from somewhere and as a someone who's representing the network company you can think of your company like that they are what would you call that a wholesaler they're your wholesaler that's where you're buying your products from but you as a business owner you are your own entity and you have an opportunity to really build this brand around yourself I use the analogy of a solar system when thinking about.
[27:08] What a personal brand is and so I always say that you know in your solar system what's your son is it you or is it your product and you want it to be you. Because then each planet in your solar system is a different branch of your business so your network marketing product could be one one planet and your solar system but then you can now have a digital product as a planet your solar system you can't do that if your network marketing product is your son you have to be the Sun so you've got to start now really thinking about how you can represent yourself instead of just the product that you sell so that when you go to do this you really have the freedom to actually be able to so that's getting off my pedestal now I harp on that a lot but I'm really passionate about it honest so smart though you've got to be thinking about that so smart yeah and I mean I think that applies to literally every type of business like even in network marketing or not like. If my product we're a hundred percent the sun even as a digital product creator.
[28:10] I could build my business that way and there are people that do if they don't necessarily want to have a personal brand but it. It makes it difficult for me again going back to that conversation of pivoting and makes it difficult for me to Pivot if my product is the Sun. And what happens when that product is not serving somebody else anymore or it's it naturally you know is not. Relatable anymore or in this in the sense of what you're talking about what happens if that company goes out of business that you're selling their product what do you do.
[28:41] So that is such a powerful example that if you take hopefully nothing else away from this like just listen to that because. You have to be if you're going to continue to provide income you have to be able to quickly make moves if necessary.
[28:56] Um so wise yeah that's one of my favorite examples to share because it just gives you that Visual and I know I'm a visual learner like I need to see it laid out in front of me and I know that a lot of my audience is that way as well so yeah I agree if you take nothing else from this at least at least start working on making yourself the center of your business. Or at least not making it so that your 100% reliant on just your product make sure that you're still there if your product were to go away or you just didn't want to sell that product or whatever the case may be and I'd love to even talk a little bit more about thinking about digital products with people in network marketing because a lot of my audience are in that business they are in the network marketing space and they're used to selling those physical products but they're now learning to be online they're used to holding parties in person they're used to delivering orders on doorsteps and being able to make that in-person personal connection that. Really is the beauty of direct sales network marketing is you get as the customer you get to feel like you have this one on one person. That's there just for you but it's very hard to do that these days so I would love to just talk a little bit more about how digital products could really benefit someone who's in network marketing who's in direct sales maybe even just thinking about.
[30:17] Baby what kind of product could potentially be a good fit for someone in direct sales we could take this in a lot of directions we could and I'm like trying off my brain to like okay think about all the different network marketing companies out there okay so I'm thinking a beauty counter right now and I'm only thinking about this because I literally just purchased beautycounter from my very dear friend.
[30:37] Like literally DM her on Instagram is like I need some makeup can you help me I want to start using beautycounter. So no parties involved right no one on one person parties involved sends me some links of some examples of things that she thinks I might love but. Here is an example of how digital product would have crushed it in this example. Along with sending me some links to greet makeup that she loves if she could have sent me say a video just a recorded video hey I've got this like $27 recorded video and I'm going to show you exactly how to do your makeup with these products like it's great to send me good quality makeup to my door but if I don't know how to do my makeup that's not helpful for me right so if she could actually create me a mini course or an e-book. Or you know a some sort of download with pictures of like this is you know exactly how to apply your makeup and guess what we can add another digital product into the other this digital product by going to the next step which is affiliate marketing. So if your company that you're a direct seller for doesn't offer say I don't again I don't know everything about beautycounter but what if they don't offer brush.
[31:47] What am I supposed to take my hand like this and put my makeup on like this is an opportunity that you could show up not only with a digital product to take the next step with your customer and and offer them but then you can incorporate affiliate marketing as a part of this to say hey like this is a great complementary product to the product that I'm selling through this direct seller and now you're not only selling your product. You're offering an additional complimentary digital product to go with it and you can earn affiliate marketing by aha. Offering complimentary products to the products that you sell so it can really start to build on each other and it is it's not like it's going to be this massive explosion at first. Make it start to build upon each other and over time you could be making. Literal income in your sleep because of this whole situation yeah and what's interesting about that is once you serve one person this is like you know the Crux of network marketing right like your networking and your customers are networking for you but once you make that big impact in one person's life they have an opportunity then share that with other people which is really kind of where the snowballing starts to happen and as you were talking about your example for beautycounter I was immediately like okay I can see courses and workshops and any education based digital product. Working incredibly well for pretty I mean honestly anybody but like direct sales network marketing like.
[33:17] You're representing the company that sells a product but to use that product in the best way that they can most people need to be taught how to do that which is where you as the human in your business comes in right because technically your company could just sell through their website but you as the human provide that education and that is your secret sauce that's really like what you bring to the table is the ability to teach how to do this if you're selling cleaning products or home organizing products or bags or anything like that well you could Branch into the home organizing space or you know whatever I don't know what other words to describe that with but. You know how do you go and declutter your closet or how do you declutter your pantry organize your pantry like so simple it's about finding like your product and then. What's the space kind of next to your product that they need to understand before they can really use your product to its fullest potential so I feel like there's a lot of options there right so many options and I was just even thinking like.
[34:20] You know we were talking earlier about the stigmas with in network marketing right yeah. And I think this is this could be a really neat way and strategic way to build your network marketing business because you could instead of like constantly be pushing the product itself. You could start here at a digital product because for in the example I was just sharing. Many many women need help learning how to do their makeup right.
[34:50] If I was showing up and consistently talking about I'm here to help you learn how to do your makeup as opposed to I'm here to sell you beautycounter. Right that's that comes off two different ways and one is so much more receptive. And so again this is going back to this whole example of the Sun as well like I'm here to show you how to help you do your makeup I've got this great course and this is where we become Limitless in the way that we can scale this business because you could start running ads to your course that has nothing to do with beauty counter itself it's your business it's your Revenue stream you could start advertising you could start creating organic content around the course that you sell and that course directly feeds into your network marketing business and what better way to who to show up with the products that you love and you know by showing somebody to actually the benefit of what that product was in the first place. And that's what they really want they don't care about the brand name itself that you're selling they don't care about.
[35:53] Any of that they want the benefit they want the transformation they're looking for. Whatever it is at that products going to actually help them do and if you can be strategic and smart enough to show up and say I'm going to help you do this and then the product is just a result of helping them to do that they're going to be much more receptive to saying yes to purchasing that product. Yeah oh I gosh I absolutely I agree with literally everything that you're saying this is pure gold everyone needs to be listening to this right now. Yeah that's just so good and so with that I would love to talk about how to get started with digital products like where in the world do we even start so what would you say is like step one if you're listening and you're like. Okay I'm ready you've convinced me how do I get in on this digital product where do you start how do you figure out what to do or where to go where to go first yeah I think I would go back to the idea of like looking at your life experience and taking inventory thinking back to times when you've heard friends or family be like man you're really talented at whatever it is those are those clues that there's something there I would start there and think about okay.
[37:07] If you this is not just for Network marketers if you're a Network marketer you probably want to align it with the product that you're selling right but if you're not a Network marketer you you can just take inventory of like what is my life experience what do I know a lot about and what do I love to do like and what feels sometimes it just even can feel really easy to you and you might not necessarily have a system or whatever you know you're going to try to show up with an educational product you might not necessarily have a system for whatever it is but what comes easy what do you know what do you love and what to other people naturally recognize in you and and start there where can the ideas from those. Where can idea come out of. Once you start of have like okay I know I'm talented in say you know if back to the beautycounter example I know I'm really talented at doing makeup.
[37:59] Um I maybe you I'm making an example of a person right maybe you love the wedding industry maybe you love. Working with Brides. Maybe your friends who have been who have been getting married or like hey Megan can you help me do my makeup on my wedding day because you're so good at it that would be an example and I'm saying okay. I love makeup I love brides and my friends who have been getting married have been asked me to do their makeup maybe I could create a digital product to help women learn how to do makeup for their wedding day or for their wedding weekend and now I've got a digital product idea I can call up some of my friends and say hey this is Step 2 we're going to reach out to real human beings we're going to say call them on the phone if I created this product idea would you actually think that would be helpful for you like would you want a product to help you learn how to do your makeup for your. Wedding day or something that you could share with your bridesmaids maybe they don't want to pay to get their makeup done by professional but you could share this resource for them that way they could look just as beautiful as you do well maybe a little bit less beautiful never want to show up the bread right but Detroit is like now I've got six other bridesmaids that could potentially be this could be like a gift to them I could buy I could gift my class to my bridesmaid.
[39:23] Bridesmaids and I've got six more customers right so if your friends and your family or your people who you were like these are ideal customers for this idea. If they're like absolutely I wish I would have had something like this or this would be so helpful for me to solve my problems I'm in now we've validated this digital product idea and then third as. Overwhelming as it might feel to get into this world with the technology involved and again back to these buds words and the puzzle pieces there's a lot of puzzle pieces the truth is if you can just get started.
[39:57] Building the product you can figure the puzzle out if you have a great idea and you have people who actually want and validate this idea the puzzle will the puzzle is figure out a bowl to take Marie forleo's word like the puzzle is absolutely figure out apple and we can help you scale it to the moon as long as you have got a great idea and a real people who want that idea you can make it happen yeah I love that you brought up validating your idea I just that's so important and it's so easy to. You start taking inventory of your life experience and what you're good at and what people are asking for and then you get really excited about what you're doing.
[40:37] And dive right into it before ever asking you. Are people really interested in this and that can cause a little bit of a disconnect when that happens it can cause you to go down One path when they really need you over here even if it's you know you're on the course path like.
[40:52] Answer the questions of the people are actually asking and you find out what those questions are by validating idea by asking people is this what you're looking for if it's not a hundred percent like what would you be looking for so I think that's a really really important step that. Easily be missed so I just want to bring attention to that and call some extra call some extra attention to that I love it yes so true so true we can like get so excited about that idea Dive Right In launch it and crickets happen and a lot of times it's because somebody missed the validation stage. And they didn't you might even in this example like even thinking back to what I just gave like there are people whose jobs is to help. It's to do makeup for brides on their wedding day so you could call your friends up and they be like honestly I would just hire a makeup artist like and that would be like oh maybe my idea needs some reworking right so you could go back to the drawing board but it is such a critical I would say almost.
[41:50] The most critical part of the digital product creation phase is to make sure that real people actually want what you have to offer. Yeah I think it's a good way to avoid burnout too because you can get really burned out getting super excited putting all of your energy into a product and then if you then hear crickets because you start to feel like oh my God was all that work worth it was all this effort and like. Really that love that you put into it because it becomes your baby when you're creating a digital product like you really care about that thing and so you. Then hear crickets and you're like oh my gosh did I just waste all that time and it can sort of bring you down when the reality is its digital you can just pivot and do something else but you don't want to put yourself in a position to like hit a wall and feel like you can't pivot because well you just put all that time in and now you're hearing crickets so yeah definitely make sure that you're checking in with people and.
[42:46] On the flip side I'm going to contradict myself a little bit I'm also going to say don't let one person hold you back so if one person says you know I would definitely just hire a makeup artist but other people are saying yeah that would be really cool I don't have the budget for a makeup artist. You can let go of the opinion of the one person who isn't wanting that product because you still do have an ideal customer you still do have a specific niche of people who want to work with you so it's a balance validate it but be okay with releasing the opinions of people who are not in your ideal audience right and even in the digital product world like you are not meant to serve everybody on the planet and I think that's one of the biggest mistakes.
[43:34] That we make in any business type but definitely in the digital product world. They think oh well this one digital product could actually serve lots of different people and lots of different stages of life or you know lots of different.
[43:48] Whatever I fill in the blank right but you're going to see the best. Success when you Niche down just like you with anchor design right like you serve people who are network marketers and. I am like look at Kelly she is a fantastic example of this in action she serves us hyper specific ideal customer and she's not worried about the fact that she's not able to serve everyone else in the world she probably could you're really you're great you have a lot of business savvy.
[44:20] But you're focusing your efforts on who you know and who you serve really well and that's okay if you repel people who don't fit in that into that. Snatch and all even toss it out there that this is not always easy. Because even for me thinking about that that's that's something that everyone has always said like yeah you're really good example of Nisha NG down and I will say that it has not always been a simple thing to do because it's really hard to look at what you might perceive as especially when you're first starting and you really are needing that income you're needing to start making money on your product it's really hard to look at what could be a potential sale what could be potential income to your business that could make a really big difference for you and say no I'm okay with walking in the other direction for that that's not an easy thing to do and it doesn't always go away I think you just get better at being okay with that you get better at letting the thought come into your head and then just letting it go with anchor card.
[45:17] We have obviously our software developer and she comes from a background of working with tons of different Industries and tons of different digital products and she looks at anchor card and she's like Kelly this can. This can go in a lot of directions like we can serve a lot of people with this and it's very difficult not to go down that path and say oh let's just run with it let's just roll their and we might one day it would be really cool but I know that right now I can make the biggest impact by serving the people who are right in front of me I can make the biggest change in their lives makes the biggest difference in their life by putting my focus and attention into the niche that I'm working with which is direct Sellers and network marketers and even with this podcast there are people following who are in online businesses but that I enjoy that I love doing that. But that doesn't mean that the products themselves are necessarily going to be for everybody and so just maintaining some of that focus and allowing the thought to come in and go back out is a skill that you'll learn over time so. Be okay with not being great at that right off the bat just be aware that that can happen and you don't have to be perfect at it right away so I'm curious.
[46:35] I have a friend and thinking about a specific person in mind so I'm hoping that she's going to listen to this I won't name her but I have a friend who. I know really wants to launch her own digital product like this is for you please listen to this I know she really wants to launch a digital product and she's really good at what she does like she is genuinely an expert in her field like I will always go to her first for what she does.
[46:58] But I know that whenever she comes up with a product idea and she looks around and she finds a version of it already existing she feels really discouraged and I've seen her go through this cycle. Over and over and over again she always feels like she has to go back to the drawing board because there's some version of this digital product out in the world so I'm just curious what your thoughts are on that does your idea need to be a hundred percent unique like never before seen to move forward with it is there space for duplicates almost like what are your thoughts on this I'm really glad you asked this question because I'm super passionate about the answer and that is.
[47:39] Absolutely if there is another product on the market that looks like feels like shapes up like the idea that you have.
[47:48] You should still go for it.
[47:50] And here's why number one if there's another product on the market and it's successful I mean you can't always know if it's successful but from the outside looking in if it looks successful then that's a good sign that there are validated real people in the world that want what that person is selling right so that's number one number two that person is not you and nothing is new Under the Sun literally that person is doing something that somebody else is also doing I'm going to give a very real example I am in the B2B world so I follow a lot of Educators who are serving business owners and a very real example of this is someone like Jenna Kutcher. Who teaches on Instagram and Jasmine star who also teaches on Instagram both of them run multi-million dollar businesses teaching on Instagram.
[48:37] I guarantee you there are probably customers that have purchased both of their courses in both of their audiences so. Guaranteed I'm I would not be surprised one bit if they share customers on the same exact topic.
[48:51] So that's there's a few lessons in this number one is there might be people in the world who don't like that other person and what they're selling they don't like the way they come about they come out there product maybe they don't like their personality maybe they just don't jive with them maybe they they're looking for a little bit different nuance. To the delivery of that product or the product itself and so they're just not vibing with the other person that's selling something on the market and maybe you could come in and you're just the perfect fit for them. You're the perfect personality you teach just the way they like they really relate to you and guess what they didn't purchase product a but they're absolutely going to product purchase your product which comes on next. So I remember when I was getting coaching.
[49:37] In the beginning stages of growing my own digital business model and somebody said that for every you know if you look on Instagram and somebody is in your Niche and it's not just in the B2B world but in whatever Niche that you're looking and there's like these celebrities and all of our business niches right.
[49:52] You look at their followings and you're like well they launched this product and it's really similar to what I want and they have like a million followers on their Instagram so there's no way that anyone's ever going to pay attention to me and my coach at the time said for. For the a million people that love that person there's 3 million people that just truly do not like them like and that's not to be mean. But we do we naturally like and dislike people right and so you might be the perfect person to fill that three million other people in the world that are interested in the same thing you might be it for those people right but if you never show up because you're so afraid that somebody else is doing it you're never going to give yourself the opportunity. To even see if you have potential to make it yeah I this even goes back to thinking about direct sales like.
[50:40] Your customers are buying from you because it's you they could go to your company website and just buy from the company website they could go buy from the girl who's like illegally selling products on Facebook Marketplace like they can do that but they're buying from you and they're loyal to you because of you because of your personality what you personally bring to the table so yeah I completely agree even if that product exists go ahead and bring your spin on it because you have a unique perspective and unique. Right history I guess of everything you've gone through to learn how to do whatever it is you're doing and that's going to benefit someone in a way that's different than what this other course or other digital product is able to bring to the table yeah and I think we also have these like biases about thinking about like okay if I purchase a product.
[51:32] Um we think in our minds that. Going back to the idea that there's probably people in both Jasmine and Jenna's audiences that purchase most of their courses and I only say that because I have a course and I know my students have also purchased courses of the same similar nature. As other Educators in the industry because they've literally told me and so it just goes to show that like. We have this bias sometimes that we're like well I already purchased a product and that.
[51:59] Like so nobody else would want to learn from anybody else but the one person that they purchased from but that's not true.
[52:08] If you are passionate and interested in a topic do you just go to Google click on one. Link one article and you're like yes I got everything I needed good I'm going to close my phone and be done with it no like you probably are going to go back to Google and search some more articles because you want to get different perspectives you want to you might catch like a really good tidbit on a on one article and then you might be like Blown Away by like a random sentence on another article right and so that's we think because these purchased these these things that were creating these offers that were creating they cost money we think because money is involved people would never want to purchase multiple products of the same nature that's not true right it's like eyeshadow I purchased. I purchased lots of different palettes similar that they're all in that like neutral thing but like I purchased them because I want a different look some days than other days.
[53:01] So just to hold yourself back because you're so afraid of that is.
[53:06] It's doing a disservice to yourself obviously because you're holding yourself back from some income that could come your way but also again it's coming back to it's not just income you're holding a lot of people back from the impact that you can.
[53:19] And that is that is.
[53:23] The worst outcome in my mind like the income stinks to lose the income right but like the fact that like you could really help people you could change people for the better.
[53:33] To like leave that on the table out of fear is just like I just like want to encourage you to go for it and just to like. If you are following the people that you're seeing doing the same thing I would truly encourage you to mute them or turn them off for a little while because sometimes that can get in our heads. Get on our heads about like they're already doing it and they're saying all this great stuff and they're putting out all this amazing content like mute them for a while and then do what you can do. That's not like not supporting them that's that's that's so that you can get something done that you need to get done yeah oh gosh that last parts I mean that's pretty amazing to think because I think that we.
[54:11] I don't think a lot of people think about it like that I mean it's okay to both love and admire someone and also look in the other direction because you need to there is absolutely nothing wrong with that along with that you also don't owe anything to anyone so you do not owe some type of like weird Digital support like. You know you have to follow this person just because you're like no you don't you don't owe anything to anyone the only thing you owe is to yourself to not hold yourself back to actually take the steps to do what's going to make you happy what's going to serve your family and bring the income into your business and. As a result of doing that help the other people that are in your audience as well who need what you have to offer but other than that that's where your that's where your. There's a work what's the word I'm looking for that's where your obligation ends it really ends there with you so. Feel free to unfollow feel free to mute nothing wrong with that no nothing I would love to. Talk a little bit about roadblocks before we wrap up our there any common roadblocks that pop up that maybe we can like for warn people about I just say hey this might pop up it's all good you can get past it does anything come to mind I would say.
[55:35] One of the biggest roadblocks is. Launching for the first time and having way too high expectations and not meeting those expectations and that can really be like. Huge bummer I've been through it and we even talked about like validating your product and not letting one person.
[55:53] Totally do rail you but I would also just go ahead and encourage you to not let that first maybe even second launch derail you because you might not meet the expectations that you were hoping for. That doesn't mean that you failed. You you might just need to do some more work and growing your audience or maybe you need to do some more work and refining the product that you've built I know that I every single product I've ever launched I have refined over time and it's taking me time to grow the audience of people who actually want those products so don't get discouraged if you launch and you feel like you failed or flopped or whatever the case may be the fact that you literally did it is A humongous win and again it goes back to this puzzle there's a lot of puzzle pieces in the digital marketing world and you might just need to take some more time like putting that puzzle together and that's okay you have lots of time.
[56:50] In your life to figure this out yeah absolutely that's a really good one okay I'm so glad that that's I'm so glad that that's the note that we're sort of ending on here because that really is such a tough one when you. Especially in a world where everybody seems to be skyrocketing so fast or at least those are the people getting the most attention like those are the loudest voices that were all praising it looks like you need to move so fast but the truth is is that that's not the reality for most people and so set yourself some real goals.
[57:29] For where you're at not based on what does everybody always say not and somebody else's highlight reel like don't base your goals on someone else's highlight reel look at how many people are in your audience look at what your price point is look at how many people you've actually validated with take all of that into account when you're setting your goals.
[57:50] Don't take into account or don't necessarily put so much weight on what you see somebody else doing or what you perceive someone else to be doing. So before we wrap this up I love to just do some rapid fire questions I love hearing all these different answers from all different people because I just find it so interesting and also I'm building up a library of things I need to check out so with that I would love to know what is your favorite business.
[58:19] My favorite Business book is probably influence the psychology of persuasion by dr. Robert child Eeny Superdry book but super good.
[58:30] It's good I'm telling you it's like really dry it's really really nerdy like super super nerdy psychology science-based. But it.
[58:41] It will make you a better copywriter in your business at the end of the day like fantastic business but I love that okay I'm on board with all the psychology I think that's so relevant to business so okay definitely checking that out going right in my Amazon shopping cart. Can you share a tool or software that you use in your business that you just can't live without oh this is a hard one I've many tools that run my business I would say I definitely could not run my business without G sweet like it would Crash and Burn and be gone in a day so I would say like it runs my business I could not run it without G suite for sure I'm right there with you I completely agree um what would you say is your favorite thing to do to unwind when you're not working definitely have a glass of water. I love it have a glass of wine and have dinner with my family this is what we do every night we just have dinner like we just totally unplugged we put the cell phones away. And we just connect with our kids and talk about anything but work.
[59:43] And just yeah just have fun but that's amazing I love that all right Megan well if somebody wanted to connect with with you where can they find you online where can they follow you yeah you can my head to my website it's Meagan Martin dotnet all the good things are there for you to explore and see what I do and what I'm passionate about as well as I love to just keep it real 24/7 on Instagram at Meagan Martin creative.
[1:00:10] And that's where I have the most fun so I totally tell you to go there perfect that's amazing and do you have any products or services or freebies that you want to shout out while you're here you have you have a captive audience oh well thank you I honestly like I have the freebies you can go check those out on MegaMart dotnet but if you are somebody who is interested in getting into the digital product world I would totally encourage you to come join the digital lab all access membership. This is a really beautiful and active community of people who support each other Kelly's in this community. And it doesn't matter what stage of business you're in she's like what four or five years in the digital product business world. But we have people who are just trying to figure out what idea is perfect for them like we have a huge range of members and side and. It's just really neat to see each other. Coming together and actually supporting each other as we're walking through this digital product journey together so that is the perfect place for you to be and I share literally like just open up my entire Business book to give you whatever you could ask for I will tell you.
[1:01:19] So definitely join us inside the digital lab yes I will say I joined this is what I was talking about earlier for anyone who's listening when I said that I joined your digital lab back when you first started it which was. Back in probably March of last year or maybe April but it was April basically one year so happy birthday basically for you but it's been such a it's been such a great group to be a part of and one of the things that I love the most about it is the conversations that happened so you are there and your present and your actively answering people's questions so it's kind of crazy to have like the business owner right there in your husband's in on it too and he's just amazing with the answers that he comes out with but also you're connecting with so many other women in the group which is that by itself is so valuable and I will say and I've said this before but other paid membership programs that I've been a part of is. I love programs that I have to pay for because there's a higher caliber of people.
[1:02:20] Or answers at the very least who are there because when you put your money where your mouth is you follow through on what you're doing great so I definitely will encourage everyone to check out the digital lab I am a proud affiliate for Megan's digital lab so if you want to I believe it's a.
[1:02:36] Thank you trial that you can get you can try it for free if you go to Anchor design co.com / digital lab that'll just pop you right over to Megan's website so yes we would love to have you thank you Kelly yeah this is an awesome conversation I know this is going to help so many people as they're growing their businesses especially right now in this digital world that we're living in so thanks again and I hope you have an amazing day Meghan thank you thank you everyone for listening I appreciate you so much it's been so fun.
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The Highlights:
Short & sweet episode highlights
Where to begin if you want to create a digital product
What to do if someone else already created your idea
How to stay focused as you get started creating your digital product
The biggest roadblocks most digital business owners run into
3 Action steps to take today if you’re ready to create your first (or next!) digital product
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Meet Megan!
Megan is a Mama of 4 and a conversion-focused website designer by trade who helps passionate creatives own what makes them unique and turn what they know, love, do, and already have within them into what they can sell through digital products like courses, memberships, templates, downloads, and more.
In 2020, Megan opened the doors to Digital Lab All Access, a membership community of over 1,000 business owners who are doing digital business together! She believes that one small idea can have an enormous impact and is on a mission to help you find your first (or next!) digital product idea.
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