Product creation is about how to package our abilities in ways that transform lives. I’m writing to share how real change can come from very small products we can create ourselves.
How does change happen?
First, real change requires recognizing a desire.
- We must want change because real change must come from within.
- We must recognize what outcome we want.
- We must be willing to do what it takes.
Second, real change requires creating new habits.
- When we continue to do what we’ve always done, we tend to continue to get what we’ve always gotten.
- When we create a new habit we can cause different results.
Third, real change requires practice.
- Knowing what we want and beginning new habits starts us on a new path to new results.
- Life can be really bumpy, so we’re likely to lose our new habits and forget our desire.
When we teach a new habit, we don’t need to take a lot of time to do so.
- Getting people to understand something once, anything, that’s different, can happen in one instant.
- Giving an exercise can be done simply.
- Reinforcing that lesson and following up with another exercise can be done in another product we create!
For example, three popular things people often like to change involve their finances, their weight (weight loss or weight gain), and their date or dating status.
Creating Products for Finances
When we’re creating products that help people with finances, we can help create a habit that leads to spending less and saving more. We can create a lesson where we teach one aspect of how to figure out where we’re spending now. Another might be to help attach day to day meaning in what we’re saving for means to us.
Entertainment is one area! We can enter product creation for finances that’s centered on figuring out our spending on entertainment.
We might pair types of entertainment that have little or no financial cost along with entertainment we enjoy that’s more costly. If we want to package up our abilities in the area of finances, we might package introductory lessons on specific forms of entertainment with how to save money so we can invest money. That allows us to attract like-minded people to us so we can help with finances, whether we’re simply going to teach people or we’re interested in helping them with other areas of finance, ranging from charitable contributions that leave a legacy to financial planning for investment or tax planning.
Or we may choose to create products to help people who are saving for a new car, a vacation trip, college education for ourselves or someone we love, or retirement. Because our product creation can be about reframing in our minds that can increase our desire to do what we want to do! So we may be able to package ideas on focusing on a specific purchase with how to save money so we can invest money.
In the area of finance, our product creation ideas might focus on matching a desire with a new habit. Then we can think about how to teach a teeny tiny lesson that’s practical and can deliver measurable results. In this case, the measure is simply the financial amounts set aside and saved.
For example:
- New car desire? Having pictures of the car we want in our wallet can help us watch what we spend today.
- Vacation desire? Hanging a poster showing the location we want to visit along with a list of the things we want to do there can help us put aside the impulse to buy what we just saw advertised on television.
- College education desire? Keeping pictures of the home and family life a college education can provide can turn an intangible like college tuition bills into a decision on something like trading your time to cook dinner tonight instead of eating out or picking up fast food.
- Retirement desire? Gathering pictures from our day to day life now can help us focus on what we want to include in our future and the feeling that the future is something real can help us choose to do the extra work now that generates the extra income to provide for our future selves.
Creating Products for Weight (Weight Loss or Weight Gain)
Product creation can be based on something we’ve done, even if we’ve had to do it repeatedly, like weight changes. Desire for weight loss and weight gain are common.
Creating products for weight change might begin with a simple lesson we give for free as a gift. Perhaps it’s a new habit of how to start to eat a little bit less each time we eat.
One practical tip could be a lesson that shares how to put, for example, more broccoli on our plate during dinner and less mashed potatoes, meat or any other calorie laden items.
The idea is that we might not need hours of lessons by starting small! We could simply include a graphic and example stories such as how to order in restaurants or how to prepare delicious meals at home.
Creating Products for Dating
Another popular area is dating. Our product creation if we’re an expert in some aspect of dating might be small confidence building lessons.
We might include a lesson such as those taught in The Dale Carnegie Course that helps build confidence through practice. We might focus that on dating.
For example, we might teach about acting enthusiastic being a path to being enthusiastic. We might share examples of how being enthusiastic is attractive to people and attracts people to us.
Instead of more broccoli as in the weight loss example, a dating example might be to look for a common interest and engage in conversation. Stories help.
For example, we might give example stories such as how to listen to what someone we’ve just met shares. Our nod or question can open up a conversation during which we can learn more about someone to find out if we are interested in getting to know more about someone.
Conversations build up confidence as well as as showing whether dating even makes sense. Teaching dating is as much about who not to date as who we may be interested in dating.
Product Creation for Startups
When we go into business we start out, often as one-person startups, we’re going out as a small flame in a big world. We don’t want to compete with big businesses so much as find what we can offer that complements demand that big businesses are addressing in other ways.
We want to supply existing demand! In other words, we want to be in an area where money is being spent. We don’t want to be brand new and have to educate people to want what we offer.
When we see ourselves as a small flame in a big world, we can avoid the drafts that blow out our flame. When we work on our business, we want turn that small flame into a burning desire, don’t we?
We need to guard our small flame. Often our desire, that flame within us, comes from a burning desire to help people. That’s where to look within, at our desire and ability to help people. Because helping people is what’s going to get us from startup to launch.
Sometimes in our desire to help, we want to make something big. But big does not work for small startups.
We simply don’t have the ability to make something big succeed when we’re small.
There are lots of reasons simple and easy is better:
- Because often times we try too hard to help too much in one tiny product so it’s overwhelming for someone to start using it.
- Because sometimes we get lost in the process of perfecting our offering.
- Because life happens and things out of our control take us away from getting something out the door.
- Because unless we ship something we cannot succeed.
- Because until we ship we cannot get feedback.
- Because after we ship we must update.
- Because when we update we improve.
- Because our improved product delivers more results.
We want to get something out that we can sell that helps people. Starting small is doable.
Let me repeat that because that’s a difficult lesson I’ve been facing and refacing. Starting small is doable!
Let me rephrase that. I learned a hard lesson!
I don’t want you to get stuck repeating my same problem. So that’s why I’m saying that this is an important thing for us to get between our ears and in our heart and at the tip of our tongue and flowing from our fingertips! Start small. Start simple. Start easy.
Simple and easy matters. Simple and easy is doable.
That’s why starting small is doable. That’s why this lesson is critical.
And it’s so easy to overdo and get lost! So learn from my error. Stick to simple and easy.
Starting small is doable.
We all have our own reasons for being in business. Because it’s about our own personal desire! As long as that desire includes an interest in helping people we can learn how to package our abilities in ways that transform lives by starting small.
We all come to business ownership for different reasons. But one common piece is a desire for more of something. Usually something we value!
Discover What We Value
We start with what we value. Then we add ourselves.
Then we look for the smallest thing that can stand alone. Product creation can be about delivering really tiny changes of value!
Develop Our Process
When we add value we can matter to one person. When we package our abilities up in a unique way because we’re unique, we can attract people who want that unique value.
When we figure out the process for making a change we can teach that change. It can be as simple as a book, an audio recording or a YouTube video where we document what we teach.
Product creation can be about processes we developed for our own lives that transform lives for people who do what we teach. It can be as simple as a recorded message that can be picked up along with a homework assignment or as complicated as anything we have the ability to create on our own that taps into partnerships with other companies or access to other programs.
Product Creation For Helping A Little Bit
When we choose to focus on helping people just a little bit, we can put our help into small packages. That way we can deliver our value in ways that get results.
When we deliver real results, people who want more can buy more of our products. That requires we keep at it with product creation!
For example, maybe we put together a series of three 15-minute lessons on how to do something we have used to solve a small problem we’ve overcome.
Then perhaps we add in ways to interact such as teleseminars for phone-in and webcast-in connecting with people who just consumed a lesson. That way, over time, as people buy from us, they can get questions answered as well as give feedback.
Product Creation for Attracting People
Our first product can attract people for our second or third product. Because that way we can attract people to us rather than expend effort in making sales.
When we attract people, we can afford to provide help in a free trial type of format. For example, by giving as a free gift one of our trainings.
Product Creation for Sharing
Then we fan the flames. By that, I mean we let people know what’s in our heart.
We get stuff out there so that we start helping people in small ways. Along the way, some of the people we help will be ready to trade money for more help.
Then we can sustain our business and help more people!
Product Creation for Internet Delivery
Part of how to use the Internet effectively is as a vehicle for delivering real help to real people. That’s why learning how to package our abilities in ways that transform lives is important. We want a way for our help to be deliverable!
Getting our first products out is about helping a big ocean of curious people a little bit. Then we invite those who are ready and willing to take another step and work more closely with us, to become buyers of one of our products.
People who want more results and can pay for those results will begin to do so over time when we match what we offer to what people are spending money for right now.
Product Creation for Building Our Business
Building our business takes effort over time. We figure it out bit by bit.
It’ll take a while to build up a system. So along the way we’ve got to be careful to attract people so we can get feedback about what to supply.
Because there’s a lot of moving parts, so to speak. But along the way, if we continue to focus on helping real people with real problems we’ll end up with little packages we can offer online that’ll get us the feedback we need for what product creation we can do next.
Product Creation Focusing On Value
There are a lot of steps, but by making each step offer value, we can attract people without expending our resources on advertising and other expenses. Because we’re just looking for small results with each step so we can survive another day.
Some of us desire to change the world. That’s me.
Some people consider that silly. Especially now.
But all we have is now! And when we help one person, we make a difference.
When we help one person learn to help others, we start a process that changes the world in small ways. Then when we repeat by helping another person and teach them to help others, our impact on the world grows.
Rejoice! We Can Restart Our Lives
When we look at the world, there are ways we can apply what we are, have and do to make a difference in people’s lives. When we help people, we change their world.
Sometimes all it takes to change someone’s world is to help them gain new habits. Doing that while providing a presence of caring consistently day in and day out as a role model means helping people to recognize we can restart our lives no matter what’s happening.
Because part of what our business can do is care. Caring is lacking in the world today. It’s difficult so it falls by the wayside. But product creation, with systems for questions and feedback, provides a framework for delivering a caring presence that can support people when they choose transformation.
Product Creation As Delivering Role Models
Small business owners are role models. When we help people, we can pass that on even with remote delivery of information products using the Internet.
So to some extent, simply being in business and acting as ourselves, being role models, we change the world. By caring and making a little difference each time we help one more person we transform lives.
Product creation means learning how to package our abilities in ways that transform lives.
By the way, do you want to learn more about how to package our abilities in ways that transform lives?
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