You’ve probably been told at least 15,000 times by now that a great way to throw off the shackles of selling-your-time-for-money is creating information products using your expertise. You’ve probably also heard that by creating products you’ll get more credibility, and this will lead to hordes of hungry would-be clients salivating at your door.
But here’s the thing: The people who are giving you this advice (myself included) aren’t just telling you. They are enthusiastically telling everyone they meet. You see, us marketing types are like that. Once we hit on a good idea, we go on and on about it to anyone who strays across our path until either we find a new shiny object to take our attention, or somebody threatens us with violence.
Which means that right now, quite a few other people just like you are sitting in front of their to-do list with “create and launch product so I can fill my bank account even whilst pruning the petunias” staring back at them.
One or two of them may have crossed it off and written ‘done!’ next to it in smug red marker pen.
Because let’s face it – the whole products thing isn’t a new idea any more. There are loads of information products on every conceivable topic already.
Even if there isn’t one addressing the specific need you help people with, it’s likely that your clients will have bought (and been underwhelmed by) several books or courses in the past.
So if you want to build a product which is really going to knock their socks off, and inspire them to hire you right this moment, it had better be pretty darned special.
Great. How exactly am I supposed to do that?
Welllll… that’s exactly what one of my favourite purveyors-of-online-goodness, Catherine Caine’s new course is about.
It’s called DIY Magnificence. And despite a title that sounds like a guide to becoming a home-improvement ninja, it teaches you how to design and create products so wonderful that they practically sell themselves.
Catherine was kind enough to send me a preview copy to take a look at, when I was stuck with the sales letter for my coaching service. I’d been researching other people’s services, and really wanted to avoid just another “me too” offer. The course helped me get a good perspective on exactly how I want to help people, which has made creating something different much, much easier.
It might well be able to help you too, if you’re at the stage of your business where you’re looking to productise what you do, but that little voice of perfectionism is holding you back.
So what is DIY Magnificence?
In short, it’s a beautifully designed (physical, not virtual) course to help you create products and services that truly reflect and magnify your own strengths, rather than just making ‘just another e-book’ to fill a gap in your sales funnel.
The benefit of this is that the stuff you produce will be a lot more unique and special, and it will also be incredibly useful to the people who buy it. And that, of course, leads to rabidly loyal and delighted clients, who give you more referrals and come back to buy more of your stuff.
The way Catherine does this is very smart. Rather than diving into the nuts and bolts of product creation, she first walks you through finding out what you’re really good at, and who you should really be working with. Although you may have done something similar before, pay attention here, because she has some surprises in store.
After you’ve got that covered, she then helps you decide exactly what to create, and how to deliver it. All this is delivered in Catherine’s intuitive, gentle-yet-insistent style that gets you asking yourself tricky questions, whilst keeps things light and fun enough not to frighten your creativity elves away.
The end result is that you’ll create a product of which you can be immensely proud, which fills a burning need amongst your ideal clients. As you can imagine, this makes the whole selling part much, much easier.
What’s so great about it?
A course called DIY Magnificence would be disappointing if it didn’t have a few magnificent points of its own. So you’ll be pleased to hear there are several things about it that are pretty freakin’ awesome. In particular:
Thing 1: I mentioned it’s a physical course. It’s also beautiful. When you buy it, you can await the arrival of the postman with bated breath, and impatiently open the box like a 4-year old on Christmas Day. Then you can say “ooooooh” at the shiny workbook, flash cards and CDs. Try not to drool on the CDs, as they don’t play well when wet.
(I dunno about you, but I’m a lot more likely to read and use all of a product if it’s nice to look at. Maybe I used to be a magpie in a previous life. Who knows?)
Thing 2: It’s immersive. You get a workbook, companion audio CDs (both calm and excited versions), and flash-cards with inspiring questions on that you can leave around the house to annoy your significant other. Seriously, if you’re on a mission to create something amazing, the more you bombard your mind with it in different ways, the more success you’ll have.
Thing 3: Catherine’s approach is very non-prescriptive. She guides and questions rather than tells. This gives you a lot more space to work your own magic (even if you didn’t think you had magic to be worked).
Thing 4: It is inevitable that in the process of creating your product, a lot of ‘your stuff’ will come up. You know, the stuff that inevitably leads to an urgent need to tidy the house and research the origin of the word “specious” on Wikipedia? Uh huh. That stuff.
Luckily, Catherine’s predicted it too, and gives you exercises to deal it. (It’s from the Latin ‘specio’, meaning ‘to see’, btw.)
How much is it?
It’s $297. Not cheap, by any means, but given the amount of pain and stress getting this stuff right will save you over the next few years of marketing your business, a very sound investment – as long as you make use of it.
Is there any reason I shouldn’t get it?
Actually, yes. This course isn’t for everyone. It’s designed for people have some idea of what they’d like to create, but want to refine it. As I said earlier, it’s very non-prescriptive. This is a Good Thing in many ways, but if you’re totally new to creating products, you may need a little more hand-holding.
It also doesn’t take you through the nuts and bolts of making PDFs, videos etc. If you do need step-by-step ‘starter level’ advice, you’ll probably get more out of Dave Navarro’s Creating Products That Sell workshop.
In Summary
What Catherine’s created in DIY Magnificence is a beautifully thought-out and presented course which will enable you to create your Magnum Opus in a product. It doesn’t get too bogged down in the details of making and marketing, but instead helps you draw out your own knowledge and talent, and shape it in such a way as to really shine to your ideal clients.
Get a free coaching session!
I mentioned the fact Your Stuff will inevitably come up whilst you’re creating your Magnificent Product. At this stage, it’s very, very helpful to have someone you can call on to get you unstuck.
With this in mind, if you buy through my link, I’ll give you a free 30 minute coaching session (worth $75 based on my usual hourly rate) to use at any point to help you get moving. Just drop me a line with your receipt number, and we’ll set it up.
Sound like it could be for you? Check it out here now.
(Note: I am an affiliate for Catherine, so I get a commission if you buy through the links above. )
