Blog - Melissa Dinwiddie | Create the Impossible™ | Innovation Keynote Speaker & Consultant

May 20, 2010

Workshop Review: The Launch Coach’s “Creating Products That Sell” and “Building A Responsive List”

A few weeks ago I got an email from Naomi Dunford. Okay, not a personal email; I’ve never met Naomi, and am just one of thousands of fans who read her hilarious and informative (and potty mouth) blog and bow in awe at her ninja marketing awareness.

If you haven’t heard of Naomi yet, stick around the Blogosphere enough and you will. She’s sort of the Dean Witter of the blog- and small-biz-marketing set. In other words (and I’m dating myself here), when Naomi talks, people listen.

Ittybiz shit for free? Sign me up!

Naomi is famous for her anti-hype, “un-salesman-y” marketing strategies (along with her propensity for cussing), so when I got an email from her linking me to a page on her blog offering six previously unreleased recordings of telephone classes she gave for members of her SpeakEasy class (a class that’s now permanently closed), my ears perked up. (Or my eyes perked up? Not sure of the right metaphor here.)

That alone (the SpeakEasy recordings) might be worth the price of admission (depending on the admission price, of course).

The deal? Buy EITHER Johnny B. Truant and Lee Stranahan’s course Question the Rules, AND/OR either or both of Dave Navarro’s workshops Creating Products That Sell and Building A Responsive List. Then forward the invoice email to Naomi’s ninjas and –wham– you’ll get the SpeakEasy recordings.

As it happens, I’d just purchased Question the Rules, so I qualified for the SpeakEasy dealie already, but Naomi’s description of Dave’s workshops sounded right up my alley. Here I am, itching to create some “digital assets,” some “products” that can make me some passive income, and according to Naomi, Creating Products That Sell will teach me

“How to create residual income products that make money and aren’t lame”

Yep, pretty much what I’m looking for.

I hadn’t seen much of Dave’s stuff before buying these workshops, but I knew he had a solid reputation as The Launch Coach, and I knew (because Naomi said so in the aforementioned post) that “Dave is the one who helps ME [Naomi] make MY [Itty Biz] products, and I am rich and famous on the internet. That should be testimonial enough.”

Indeed.

But just in case that wasn’t testimonial enough, Naomi’s post went on:

Who it’s for:

People who need very clear, simple instructions

People who dig lists, checklists, exercises and so on.

People who like PDFs — this course is almost all written

People who are ready to MOVE. Dave does not pull punches and he doesn’t fluff.

Who it’s NOT for:

People who already know exactly what they’re going to sell

People who don’t learn well by reading

I was sold. And since I’d need a list (and a responsive one at that) to sell my products to, I went for the package deal.

And finally, the review

Understand that the purchase price for these two workshops was not an insignificant amount of money to me, so it represented quite a gamble.

The upshot: WOW! If you are looking for a comprehensive, step-by-step guide to making ebooks, audio recordings, video recordings, teleseminars, webinars, or even a few physical products, Dave’s got you covered.

From how to come up with ideas, to how to go about creating the products (step-by-step, remember?), to boosting sales, to getting money in your account THIS WEEK, Dave leaves no stone unturned.

The man clearly values thoroughness (though you will find the occasional typo or formatting weirdness), and will take you from zero to launch with minimum pain and stress. But don’t be fooled — you’ll have to put the work in. These are not get-rich-quick schemes. Quite the contrary; these are solid tools for your toolbox to (as Dave puts it) “get you started and get an ‘income snowball’ rolling and growing each month.”

I’m still working my way through Creating Products That Sell — it’s made up of five modules, plus a bonus module, each with several chapters. Something like two dozen in all. Honestly, I haven’t even started Building A Responsive List because I figure it makes sense to figure out my product path first, but I have every expectation that it will be as solid a workshop as Creating Products That Sell.

So, Melissa, where can I get these workshops?

I’m so glad you asked. It turns out that Naomi’s special SpeakEasy dealie was a rare opportunity to get your hands on Dave’s workshops. At the time of this writing, they aren’t anywhere to be found on his website; the offer I followed up on was part of Dave’s “soft launch” (which resulted in 400 sales for him — go Dave! — that’s why he’s The Launch Coach). Now, however, Dave is about to launch them formally.

The official launch is not until Thursday, May 27th, but pre-launch goodness starts Friday, May 21. Want in? Click here for details.

And the interview

If you’ve read this far and you want just a teensy bit more info, I’ve got a surprise for you. I managed to score an interview with The Launch Coach himself, who was kind enough to answer some questions about his soon-to-be-launched workshops. Read on:

Q: Dave, tell me about your Creating Products That Sell and Building A Responsive List workshops; what are they and what will people get from them?

A: The first workshop teaches you how to rapidly create high-quality, high-value products that your audience wants; the second teaches you how to build that audience and get them to look forward to buying from you on a regular basis.

Q: What kinds of people are these workshops aimed at?

A: Actually, I’m covering a good range here — I have step-by-step stuff for beginners who need the hand-holding as well as advanced strategies for product/list-building veterans. Basically, I wanted to cover how to rapidly get started and then give my best strategies for getting visible results fast. So, it’s valuable for any skill level but it’s really focused on information products (not physical products like clothes or toys).

Some of my happiest customers are artists, coaches and consultants because this material so so instantly applicable to growing their business.

Q: What kinds of products do you cover in Creating Products That Sell?

A: I cover how to make all kinds of products (and easy ways to make them high-quality) like PDFs, audios, videos, teleseminars, webinars, and a few variations on physical products.

Q: Do you have to be technologically savvy to benefit from these workshops?

A: Not at all — in fact, it’s step by step for a reason, to cover people who are savvy at what they do (their expertise) but may need to start from scratch tech-wise.

Q: What gave you the idea to create these workshops?

A: I listened to my audience after I released How to Launch The **** Out of Your Ebook and they told me via surveys that product creation and list-building was hard and scary and too complicated. That told me the market was ready for an easier solution that helped them get results fast.

Q: How did you learn all this stuff?

A: The unsexy truth is that I really purchased quite a lot of information products and took really good notes, then did what I could to improve upon the techniques I learned. Then I put it into practice and learned more about what worked and what didn’t.

Q: Did you have to push past any blocks in order to create your various courses and workshops? If so, what were your blocks, and how did you get past them?

A: My biggest obstacle is always worrying about the “giants” in the industry, like “how can I compare to them.” I have to remind myself that success doesn’t come from beating competitors, it comes from helping customers. So I just focus on the people I’m helping and it all works out.

Q: I heard that you recently quit your day job, and now focus full-time on your internet businesses. Congratulations! How are things going in your new entrepreneurial life? Is there anything that isn’t what you expected?

A: Getting the paperwork done (insurance, legal, etc.) takes a lot longer than I expected. I wish I’d paid people to research / file stuff for me instead of doing it myself. Lesson learned!

Q: Is there anything else that you think people would want to know?

A: The most important thing to succeeding online is to take consistent action. It’s like a snowball — you just keep rolling it bigger and bigger ’til your results are huge. Don’t go looking for the avalanche – work on that snowball. I spent 5 years trying to make an avalanche of success happen (it didn’t). I then spent working on that snowball and surprise, it worked. 🙂

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For more information on Creating Products That Sell and Building A Responsive List, be sure to check out Dave’s pre-launch, which starts Friday.

*Disclosure: If you buy Creating Products That Sell, Building A Responsive List or Question the Rules, I’ll get some affiliate income, and will be forever grateful. If you don’t buy at all, or you buy through another link, I’ll never know, so don’t lose sleep over it.

May 19, 2010

The Power of Naming Yourself: Multi-Passionate Creative Artrepreneur Business Cards

Because “Renaissance Woman” is passé now that I have my new job title, of course I needed new business cards!

I like ’em. What do you think?

I’m curious, what’s your dream job title? If you had a business card for your ideal business/job/career, what would it say? What would it look like? What’s your next step to getting that business/job/career?

Here’s a tip: if it feels far off, why not make yourself a business card and tape it someplace where you’ll see it? Even if for now you just write it out by hand (yes, in your messy handwriting) with a ballpoint pen on a piece of scrap paper. (Yeah, I know that sounds silly, but sometimes silly is just what’s needed to bust through the “I couldn’t possibly do that” stuckness.)

Start naming yourself what you want to be named: artist? entrepreneur? visionary? empire-builder?

If you have a big goal that seems out of reach right now, start trying it on for size. If you really want to make it happen, you’re going to have to embrace the label eventually, right? And if you don’t name yourself, other people will name you, and not necessarily the name you want. So you might as well start naming yourself now. If you can’t call yourself the thing you want to be, it’s unlikely anyone else will.

Own it. And if you can’t own it all the way, just take one baby step toward owning it. You may not feel it yet, but if you start owning it even a tiny little bit, it may help you start to feel it a tiny little bit. And if you feel it a tiny little bit, maybe you’ll start to do it.

And contrary to what The Secret says, doing it is how you create the life you want.

Comments?

May 18, 2010

Dedicated to the Fearless and a Guide to Build a Great Life Doing What You Love

Today in Giselle‘s jivamukti yoga class we were invited during the pre-asana meditation to dedicate our practice to someone who inspires us, someone who lives their life fearlessly.

I sat with my legs crossed, eyes closed, hands resting palms-up on my knees, and the first person who popped into my head was someone I’ve never met: Chris Guillebeau.

If you’ve read any of the early posts on this blog, you may know that Chris has been a huge inspiration to me in my quest to follow my evolving Bliss and live the life I really, really want. He leads by example, and with his writing and creativity he’s developed a sustainable business by doing what he loves, and helping others do the same.

How much more of an inspiration can you get than that?

Chris has created a number of guides on various topics related to “unconventional living,” from working for yourself, to making money from your art, to guides on how to travel on the cheap. I’m currently enrolled in the $100 Business Forum that he facilitates with Pam Slim (review coming soon!), and when Chris launched his latest big project, the Empire Building Kit, I was on board with the top level, “Hail Caesar” package.

The initial EBK launch was 24 hours only, so if you didn’t grab it right then you were out of luck.

Except that now the EBK is back… for another 24 hours (starting at 9am this morning).

If you’re not interested in creating or growing your very own, very small business, then you can ignore the rest of this post. But if you think you might be even the tiniest bit interested in a program that helps budding entrepreneurs take one step each day (for a full year) to build a profitable, sustainable online business, check out the Empire Building Kit info page. Read my review from one month in. Read other reviews online.

What I love about Chris is that he really walks his talk. He has built his business on transparency, open communication, ethical business practices and zero hype. He’s out to change the world, and he’s already changed mine, so kudos.

He shares all of this in the EBK, which in addition to 365 days of emails includes:

Video interviews of entrepreneurs who have grown their “lifestyle business” to $50,000/year or more
Transcripts of same
Case studies of several more entrepreneurs with a wide range of businesses
Video tips from Chris

And for the “Alexander the Great” and “Hail Caesar” versions, you also get a 43-point launch checklist from The Launch Coach, Dave Navarro.

Plus, for the first group of emperors, Chris put on a live webinar to answer individual questions. Although he’s not doing another live webinar, anyone who joins the second group of emperors will get access to the recording.

There are so many products out there claiming to help people like me who want to create a sustainable income doing what we love. The Empire Building Kit may not be for everyone, but I’m really glad I decided to gamble on it.

If you decide to join the ranks of the first group of EBK emperors, please let me know! I’d love to compare notes.

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*Note: If you buy The Empire Building Kit or any Unconventional Guides product from any of the links here, I’ll get some affiliate income, and will be forever grateful. If you don’t buy at all, or you buy through another link, I’ll never know, so don’t lose sleep over it.

May 17, 2010

How the worst mistakes and crises are sometimes your greatest gifts

Dispatch from the EBK

In today’s Empire Building Kit* email (day 41 of 365), Chris Guillebeau shares a horror story from his upcoming book (Penguin, September 2010). Some years ago, when Chris was working as a volunteer in Sierra Leone, he was also running an online business back home. One night, while checking email via his flaky satellite connection, he discovered that his fulfillment center had gone out of business.

Not only would no more orders be shipped, but it turned out orders hadn’t been shipped in three weeks!

With a lot of help from his brother back home, Chris managed to figure out a solution to this crisis. I won’t go into details here, but the important part is that this admittedly pretty awful experience had some pretty amazing results:

It forced him to think creatively to solve the problem
He emerged with a new sense of confidence that he could handle any problem that came his way.

In his own words, he learned “that you can come back from anything.”

Lessons from the music and performance world

Reading Chris’s EBK email reminded me of a “crisis” of my own, that, while admittedly a lot smaller in the scheme of things, had a big impact on my outlook.

In 2005 I started singing jazz, and for several quarters I was enrolled in an amazing jazz vocal solo class at a nearby community college. Our final exam was a public performance in a local bar, where we’d each get to sing two songs.

At one of these finals, as the pianist played an intro, I realized I couldn’t “hear” my starting note. I panicked, and did what you’re never supposed to do: I asked to start over.

Okay, that was embarrassing, but that wasn’t the really bad part.

Because I was so nervous, and I was so afraid of not being able to hear my note the second time, I asked the pianist if he could just play my starting note for me before launching into the intro. He played a note as requested, and I gripped that note in my brain like it was a life rope. I would not blow it this time.

But when I launched into the song, I could tell something was wrong. I knew that what I was singing didn’t sound right, but I couldn’t quite figure out what to do about it! I knew I’d sung the note he fed me, but I also knew it sounded wrong.

I was on a train headed right over a cliff.

Don’t let them see you sweat

Since I didn’t know what to do, though, I just kept right on going, all the way through the song. I was cringing internally, but outwardly smiling.

True to typical jazz standard form, I sang through the song, then the rhythm section played solos before I came back in at the top. The break while the band was soloing was enough to get me centered again, so when I did come back in, I was on the right note this time. (Thank God!)

After that song was over, I went into my second song, and this time I nailed it. Nobody would have know that I’d screwed up the first song so badly.

Still, when I got offstage and sat down with my then-boyfriend, I was so horrified and humiliated at my performance of the first song that I burst into tears. How would I ever live it down?

(Later, the piano player came over to apologize: turns out he’d fed me the wrong note! Though as the bass player [and a mentor of mine] said, it was still my fault; as the singer, it’s my job to listen to the introduction and sing from that, rather than from the note I was holding in my head. And he was right.)

When the initial trauma and humiliation calmed down a bit, though, I realized that this train wreck of a performance was probably the best thing that could have happened at that particular stage of my singing life. Why?

It showed me that even when the worst thing happens onstage, lightning doesn’t strike.
I learned that even if I mess up, I can go on to give a great performance on the next song (which is a pretty important skill to learn as a performer, since, as the bumper stickers say, shit happens!)

These two big lessons proved to be crucial in my development as a performer. If the idea of messing up paralyzes you, you’re never going to take risks, and never going to get very far. But if you know you’re going to screw up at some point, and you know you can recover from it, suddenly you’ve got total freedom to try anything!

The moral of the story

So many times when we want to try something new and big and scary, we let the fear of something going wrong stop us from even trying. But the thing is, bad stuff does happen, and if you let your fears stop you from going after your dreams, bad stuff still might happen, but you won’t be any closer to what you really want.

My unsolicited advice (to myself as well): just fasten your seat belt and brace yourself for the ride. Whatever slings and arrows life throws at you will probably result in some amazing lessons (and possibly a good story or two).

Now get out there and follow your evolving Bliss!

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*The Empire Building Kit is a 365-day course for people who want to launch or grow a very small business. It’s filled with video interviews with entrepreneurs with all kinds of unconventional “lifestyle businesses,” PDF case studies of several more, and video tips from Chris Guillebeau from The Art of Nonconformity. It will be available for sale tomorrow, May 18, for 24 hours only.

If you buy the EBK, every day you’ll receive an email from Chris, with one thing to do toward creating your own empire. Some days it’s a business principle to think about; some days it’s a video to watch or an audio recording to listen to (a few days ago there was a special bonus recording with “Career Renegade” Jonathan Fields).

For a more in-depth review, see my post on the first month of the EBK. Upshot: I was super-anxious about sinking so much money into something when I didn’t really know what I was getting, but I’m awfully glad I did. I’ll share more as my “year of empire-building” proceeds.

Note: If you buy The Empire Building Kit or any Unconventional Guides product from any of the links here, I’ll get some affiliate income, and will be forever grateful. If you don’t buy at all, or you buy through another link, I’ll never know, so don’t lose sleep over it.

May 17, 2010

Confessions of a Technophobic Pseudo-Techie

Are you a technophobe? Do the letters HTML make you cringe and want to run screaming in the other direction?

If so, I sympathize wholeheartedly. I’m a member of the technophobe tribe myself. Or if not technophobic, at least shall we say that Geek is not my native tongue. Not by a long shot.

Oh, I’ve learned to use a lot of technologies that started off feeling completely unattainable, but it was always out of necessity, and there was much hair-pulling and gnashing of teeth involved.

False belief: you’re either born understanding technology, or you’re doomed to never understand it

I don’t know about you, but I find myself defaulting to the irrational belief that if I don’t automatically understand all of this technological stuff, or if I didn’t get in “on the ground floor” when everybody was a newbie, it is surely out of my reach forever. It feels like I’ve lost the race and might as well just give up.

But then years ago I had an “aha” light bulb moment.

I was about to go through a divorce, and it was quite obvious that my existing business model (in which everything I created was completely by hand — you know, like with pens and brushes and ink and paper and paint and stuff) was not going to pay my bills. It was clear I needed a new set of marketable skills, and since I was already an artist and designer, the obvious direction was computer graphics. But of course I didn’t know any of the tools: Photoshop, Illustrator, web design, they all seemed impossibly out of reach.

I will confess that there was a moment of utter defeated terror. I was that unconfident about my ability to function in this brave new world of technology.

Only then did it suddenly occur to me (because it had to) that the skills that felt so out of my reach were actually things I could learn.

I mean, duh, right? But seriously, at the time this was a huge revelation!

Yes, Virginia, you can learn this stuff!

I immediately signed up for a metric ton of classes through UC Berkeley Extension. (Yes, I know classes don’t actually have physical weight, but my brain was so overloaded with information it felt like they did.) The specter of hunger or homelessness is a big motivator, and I dove into this computer graphics thing with a vengeance. Some of it was easier than I expected (InDesign made complete sense to me and came very easily, so did compositing in Photoshop), some of it the stuff of nightmares (beginning web design almost killed me, and color correction in Photoshop did not sync with my neurons in the slightest). But when it was hard, I just kept plowing through.

Over the years I learned what I needed to know in order to get the job done, and I have to say it has been hugely empowering to be able to do stuff on my own that I’d previously had to rely on others to do for me. Among other things, I learned to:

create my own website
scan my artwork myself and do all the fiddling in Photoshop to prepare it for printing
print my artwork in house, rather than having to outsource it
create my own WordPress blog, and style it in Thesis (and now working on Headway [yes, that’s an affiliate link — watch for a review after I’ve had more time to play with it, but so far I’m pretty damned impressed])

Once I had a bit of a foundation, adding to it was still challenging, but less painful than the initial climb up the learning curve. As I needed to do more things (and of course when the inevitable upgrade could be put off no longer — argh!), I’d steel myself for another learning curve and start trudging up the hill.

Yes, frequently with hair-pulling and teeth-gnashing, but little by little I’d make the ascent.

The unexpected benefit of being a non-techie

Now I realize that I’ve accumulated a valuable set of skills, not only for making my stuff, but also for sharing what I’ve learned with others! In fact, being a bit of a technophobe by nature actually gives me a distinct advantage in this regard: I know what it’s like to feel intimidated by technology, I know what it’s like to get utterly unhelpful “help” from corners that don’t know how to break things down for someone like me! And because I’m a good teacher — and I speak plain English, not Geek — this is an additional skill I can draw on to share what I know in a way that will ease the path for others.

Coolness!

And you know what’s especially cool? Because this technology stuff isn’t utterly opaque to me anymore, when I face a new learning curve the challenge can actually be (gasp!) kind of fun!

Who’da thunk it?

How this fits in with Living A Creative Life

An important part of living the life I really, really want is connecting with people to help them live the lives they really, really want. That may include putting your special thing out in the world — and online — where you can share its unique wonderfulness. For many creatives, artists and solopreneurs, a website or blog is part of the vision, but the steps to creating your own website feel way too daunting. And getting a professionally designed site can be crazy expensive! Plus when you want to make changes to it you’ve got to shell out more money to have someone else do it for you.

That’s where I can come in.

I’m using the lessons in the Empire Building Kit [affiliate link], the $100 Business Forum, Marketing School and Dave Navarro’s Launch Coach workshops [affiliate link] to brainstorm exactly what I will offer, and Question the Rules [affiliate link] for ideas and inspiration. It won’t be “full-scale, totally customized from-the-ground-up web design,” but it will include a range of services, and it will give clients a website that they can easily maintain and edit themselves, without knowing a lick of code.

I know it will include a DIY version, for people like me, who want to learn to do stuff themselves, as well as an “I do it all for you” version, and probably a premium “I create your site, write your copy and design your header” version. I know I will offer a video tutorial and probably an e-workbook. And I know that the first small group of customers will get it for a ridiculously low price.

How low? Like $13 for the first person who signs up for the most basic “I do it for you” version.

Yeah, you read that right — a fully-functional multi-page WordPress website + blog that you can edit yourself for thirteen dollars! And $26 for the 2nd sign-upper, $39 for the 3rd, etc. The first few may even get a free telephone consultation as part of the deal. The exact details are still in process. I’ll keep you posted.

So my first thing is coming together, little by little.

Watch this space!

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If you, or somebody you know, is interested in being a guinea pig in my super-inexpensive insta-website charter group, sign up below and you’ll be notified before I launch, so you’ll get first crack at the crazy-inexpensivest pricing.

(Yes, I know “inexpensivest” is not a word. It just came out of my fingers as I was typing and I liked it, so it stayed. It’s now a word. So there.)

PS – I include mentions of affiliate links, where applicable, because it’s important to me to be transparent on this blog. I only sign up as an affiliate for products that I can recommend with a confidence. Are all of the products I recommend 100% phenomenal with nothing to complain about? No. They wouldn’t all necessarily get an A+ (though some would). But they are all good products that I have gotten a lot of value out of. I always recommend reading reviews — mine (as I post them!) and others — before you buy, and don’t buy anything unless it sounds like a good fit for you. If you do buy something through one of my links, I’ll make some money, and I’ll be eternally grateful to you. And if you don’t buy through one of my links, I’ll never know, so don’t lose sleep over it.