Late last year, I made the decision to radically transform the business I’d half-heartedly run since 2009. I was on the verge of quitting, but a handful of projects I enjoyed, done for people I really liked, inspired me to consider changing course instead.
Before I could even say for sure where I was going with this reinvention, I received a curiously timed e-mail that offered help focusing my mission and launching my new business. For free. And in the span of only 30 days.
Whoa – what was the catch? There wasn’t one, exactly.
The e-mail was from a favorite client, and was about a Masterclass put on by ConvertKit, an e-mail service provider offering fairly robust capabilities in an affordable package. When I clicked through from the e-mail and saw the course curriculum, it was exactly what I needed and I knew it.
I figured if I had to endure a few sales pitches it’d be a small price to pay for the know-how I’d gain.
The course topic was how to launch an online business, start to finish. Even though I had an online business of sorts, the Masterclass was exactly the hands-on, ground-up reimagining I needed.
I came into the course with only a very fuzzy idea of where I wanted to go, yet the foundational concepts and roadmap it provided helped give birth to A Fearless Venture.
As if a whole new business wasn’t good enough…
Not long after completing the “Launch an Online Business” course, I discovered that ConvertKit had another Masterclass – this one aimed at helping with product creation. I inquired and learned that, like the business launch Masterclass, the product creation course was only offered about once a year.
Well, crap. I wanted to figure out now what products I could offer, and how to best create and promote them. I added my name to the “please notify me when you offer this” list and tried to forget about it.
I created one service product and one downloadable product, guessing at what people would want. I knew there was probably a better way, but I had to keep trying until I had a better way.
Last week as I was about to start my third product (and another round of guessing), another fortuitous message made me stop dead in my tracks.
It was an e-mail announcing that ConvertKit had opened enrollment for their Product Creation Masterclass. Not only that, but it was starting in less than two weeks, and would wrap up just before the RV Entrepreneur Summit I’m attending in February. For me the timing was as close to perfect as it could get.
Well, perfect except for the 30 days of hardcore work on top of everything else I’m trying to do. But am I going to do it? Hell yeah.
What’s it like?
The Product Creation Masterclass promises to help us plan, create, test and launch a product from scratch, in just 30 days.
If it’s anything like the Launch an Online Business Masterclass, we can expect:
- Solid, well-planned curriculum
- Expert instructors
- A motivating community moving through the class together
- 30 days of intense work
- No need to be a ConvertKit customer to benefit
- No real ConvertKit sales pitch
OK, for real: What’s the catch?
I’ve sat through (or bailed on, actually) free classes and webinars that imparted nearly zero useful knowledge. It really is true that there’s no such thing as a free lunch. We should all be suspicious of anything that seems too good to be true. Yet I’m telling you this is actually free.
Why would ConvertKit do all this for free?
Well, they’re not dumb, first of all.
In the parts of the Launch an Online Business Masterclass that involved e-mail, they’d tell us to set up an e-mail to do XYZ thing. They showed how to do it in ConvertKit, and it was super easy.
Then they’d say if you’re using another e-mail provider, you’ll need to do this, and then that, and then the other thing. In other words, you knew what you needed to do if you weren’t going to use ConvertKit, but you definitely saw the value in choosing ConvertKit.
Secondly, ConvertKit invests heavily in customer education. That’s because if customers haven’t learned to make money, they won’t be customers very long. Although you don’t have to be a ConvertKit customer to attend the Masterclass, the education is for its customers, too.
Third, they give you a 30-day free trial so you can work through the Masterclass using ConvertKit, if you want. Fair warning: There’s a good chance you’ll become a customer once you see how well it works. I did.
Want to join me?
Here’s what we’ll learn in the Product Creation Masterclass…
WEEK ONE
Product Planning
- Narrowing Your Niche and Ideal Customer Avatar
- Type of Product to Create
- Validating Your Product Idea Before the Creation Process
- Intentional Goal Setting for Your First Product and Clarifying Its Purpose
- Creating an Ideal Timeline for All Product Tasks
WEEK TWO
Product Creation
- Creating a Content Outline
- How Much Content Do I Need to Create?
- Planning a Sustainable Creation Process to Consistently Get Work Done
- Lead Magnet Ideas to Grow Your Email List with Subscribers Already Interested in Your Product
- Building a Product-Driven Wait-List and Select Beta Testers
WEEK THREE
Product Testing
- Send Survey to Beta Testers for Quality Feedback
- Edit Existing Content Based on Beta Tester Survey
- Finding the Right Price for Your Ideal Customers
- How to Position Your Product
- Discovering Existing Communities to Bring Your Product Into
WEEK FOUR
Product Launch
- Building Confidence in Talking About Your Product
- Creating an Irresistible Sales Funnel for Your Product
- Writing a Launch Email Sequence that Converts
- Creating Urgency with Your Product Launch
- Increasing Product Sales Through Webinars, Affiliates, and Other Marketing Tactics
I can’t promise we’ll have the same life-altering experience I did with the previous Masterclass. What I can tell you is I’m certain that if we put in the work and finish the class, we (and our business/blog) will be far better for having done it.
You may even get a money-making product out of the deal. Woo-hoo!
For more details and to reserve your spot, head over to the Product Creation Masterclass page now. See you January 15th!