Coffee Social | Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, & Entrepreneurship

Digital Products: Launching A Killer One With Less Anxiety | Ep. 20

July 18, 2024 Jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley Season 1 Episode 20

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Journals, ebooks, courses… This episode is dedicated to not stressing out or overwhelming yourself when it comes to creating and selling a digital product! You can do this, and in this episode of Coffee Social, Signature Style & Storytelling Coach Jonathan Howard & Social Audio Marketing Strategist Mimi Langley dive into the world of digital products, offering practical advice on aligning your interests with your audience's needs. 

Jonathan reveals his strategies for using frequently asked questions and market research to identify viable product ideas. They explore a variety of digital products such as e-books, journals, workbooks, templates, and online courses, emphasizing the importance of finding gaps in the market. Mimi and Jonathan also discuss the best tools and platforms for creating these products, from the versatile Canva to Book Bolt for those interested in publishing on Amazon KDP.

Grab a cup and enjoy!

EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS
: What can you create? (We get the wheels turning.)
: Where can you start creating? (We even cover free platforms.)
: Where are you going to sell your products?
: How are you going to sell your products?

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*  Podcast Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast. We may earn a commission from the links listed in this description.

Speaker 1:

Even with Canva, you can have the free version and still create products, you guys. So don't again. You know you can make it work for where you are in your season of business.

Speaker 2:

It's Coffee Social, the podcast, all about social media and business. And now here are your hosts, Jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley.

Speaker 1:

Hi everyone, hi Jonathan Howard.

Speaker 2:

Hello Mimi Langley.

Speaker 1:

Oh my gosh, this is OK. Well, are you so stinking excited?

Speaker 2:

I'm always excited but not as excited as you are about every single episode.

Speaker 1:

Oh well, listen, this is one, and I feel like this is just going to drive birth to your business here. Yeah, creating a digital product, man, we're going to talk about it, we're going to dive into it, but before we do, cheers, my friend, cheers.

Speaker 2:

Cheers, everyone listening and watching Cheers.

Speaker 1:

Okay, we have to sip, not on the microphone. Now I have our notes here Before we do quick intros. Did you want to talk about this? On this piece of paper you wrote that I'm not a swifty. Can we just talk about that first? You're not a swifty how dare?

Speaker 2:

you have you listened to the entire one songs on the new album in the anthology?

Speaker 1:

how dare you? I'm not even going to answer that question, because you.

Speaker 2:

you haven't listened to them Because I was quoting Taylor Swift lines the other day and you didn't even catch on to it.

Speaker 1:

My favorite Taylor Swift line is Charlie Puth should be a bigger artist. Thank you.

Speaker 2:

There you go. Which song is that from? Do you know what? Song it's from You're welcome. Nope, it's not from Fortnite.

Speaker 1:

It's from the Poets Department, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yes, oh goodness.

Speaker 1:

She doesn't like typewriters. We know, Hi Tay. Yep, not a fan, you're not a fan. I am a fan, not a fan.

Speaker 2:

I mean every single reel I've put out, since the new album has had Taylor Swift lyrics on it. Listen. Because, I'm not dumb.

Speaker 1:

Why do we not go to the Eros tour together?

Speaker 2:

I mean, I'm confused. I have a friend who went in Paris and I'm like I'm dead, like I'm dead and the new set, the new set from the new album, in Paris looked amazing, sorry, okay, well, not obsessing. Anyway, you're not a Swiftie.

Speaker 1:

We should. I need to calm down for a second, you guys. I'm just kidding. Shout out to all the swifties out there. I'm a swifty.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you don't have to listen to the whole album to be a swifty okay, you're not a real swifty thing jonathan howard I'm not a swifty, and I listened to the full album five or six times through already I already know that if someone is new to coffee social, they love us already because they probably love taylor. But real quick, just in case we do have some new people listening in. Do you want to tell people who you are?

Speaker 2:

Yes, my name is Jonathan Howard. I'm the owner of Success on Social and I help successful female coaches reach their ideal clients on social media by creating a signature style and showing up on video, sharing their story and eventually changing the world, because that's what you're all going to do anyway.

Speaker 1:

I feel like I've almost memorized your intro.

Speaker 2:

I haven't memorized it.

Speaker 1:

When you say changing the world, I almost want to like like. I almost want to like lip sync it. Anyways, we'll do that one day. That'll be a fun reel.

Speaker 2:

You'll have to.

Speaker 1:

You'll have to actually do my intro one day and I'll do yours, okay, well, let me go ahead. I'll go ahead. Hi everyone, I'm the better half of coffee social. My name is baby she's feisty today yes, I am. Hey everyone, I'm amy langley. I teach women in business how to host rooms, how to moderate rooms, on social audio that's linkedin audio clubhouse. It's really a great way to grow your business from the ground up, and so that's what I teach and preach about. Here we go, jonathan Howard.

Speaker 2:

I know, I know, teach and preach that part I know.

Speaker 1:

Teach and preach. Yes, okay, let's talk about this. It's a packed episode, as always, and we want to try to keep these as digestible as possible for everybody. But digital products for everybody, but digital products, okay. So we're going to cover what to create, how to create them, where to sell them and how to sell them. So we're going to cover these kinds of categories. So make sure you're listening to the entire episode so you don't miss a tip and trick that you may need when you have one. So let's talk about what to create. Jonathan, are you ready for this?

Speaker 2:

I'm ready. I'm ready create.

Speaker 1:

Jonathan, are you ready for this? I'm ready, I'm ready. So it's on your mind. You know, maybe you're like, at this point you've talked about something you're starting to gain an audience. You know, let's just paint a picture here and you're like okay, I want to start making some money, I want to monetize off of my knowledge, off of my expertise, and you think, a digital product. So how do I come to like, how do I figure out what, like what to create? There's so many possibilities.

Speaker 2:

There are so many possibilities and I think and I mean you might even be a better person to answer this question because you've created some really successful digital products but I would say it's really it's a matter of what your audience wants and what you really like to create. I think when you kind of hit that perfect mix of what your audience wants and what you really like to create, I think when you kind of hit that perfect mix of what your audience wants and what you enjoy creating that's a great digital product, to create, something that you can provide a unique perspective on, so that people are getting not just cookie cutter advice from your digital product, because the goal with your digital product is to bring them on to another level of coaching or whatever it is, with you and your business.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I love that. That's so spot on, and thank you. By the way, I received that compliment because I have had some really successful digital products that I'm very proud of. One of my first introductions to monetizing for this particular business was a digital product. To monetizing for this particular business was a digital product, and I guess a piece of advice I can give people is don't overwhelm yourself. You don't have to make it a big, huge ordeal. Yes, you can go ahead and create a 100-page ebook if you want to, or create that course that you've been wanting to do, but it doesn't have to be that For me.

Speaker 1:

What I did was I grabbed a lot of frequently asked questions when it comes to moderating and hosting and leveraging social audio. I would get the same questions over and over and over again and instead of me spending my time one-on-one answering people, I was like you know what, Maybe I'll just create a workbook slash guide and direct people to that. That's a beautiful question. I have a whole guide that goes above and beyond and answers this question, and there's more.

Speaker 2:

And there's more. All the questions you're going to ask after this question are answered in there because everybody's already asked them. No, that's great. I think that's the perfect way to go with a digital product, because you already know there's a market for it, because people are already asking you these questions, and that's I think one of the most important things when we're looking to create is don't just create something that you want to create because you want to create it, but create something that people want because otherwise it's not going to sell. It can be the best digital product, the best course, the best thing in the world, but if nobody wants it, I'm not going to sell.

Speaker 1:

Well, that's, that's and I see here in the notes. Like you said, you know, ask your audience what they need. So how would you set that up? I'm putting you on the spot. But, like, how would I approach people? Because then they're going to be like she's just trying to make money off of us. Now, like that could be an assumption that you know what I mean. So how would I go about trying to get that market?

Speaker 2:

research. First of all, I think that's a mindset switch. It's a you know you're serving them by providing the content that you're providing, by providing the product that you're providing, you're serving them. You're not selling to them. So that's kind of a mindset switch everybody has to go through. The other thing is just one, like Mimi did, frequently asked questions is a great place to start when it comes to when you want to create a product. The next thing I would say is go onto your Instagram stories and pull them Like what do you want to hear next? What are the problems that you're struggling with? What are you know? And you can even frame it in the I'm running a room on Clubhouse that's going to talk about this or this. Which would you prefer? And if one of them out by a gazillion ways the other, then you know that your audience wants this one thing.

Speaker 1:

So those are some good ways to do it. That's really good. And also, just since we're talking about what should I create? Because there's so much out there. You know, I have a list here E-books, journals, guides, workbooks, templates. You could even sell meanings, courses, all the things. One thing that I think that could never hurt you is kind of observing what are other people in your industry creating, like, what are they coming up with to talk about? What you know you talk about, and then you put your own spin on it. What do you think about that, jonathan?

Speaker 2:

I'm going to go the opposite direction. I'm going to say what is everybody creating? And then, what are they not? Where's the gap in the marketplace? Because if there's a gap in the marketplace, you can fill that gap if you know your audience needs that. So looking for on the other side of things and just like with freebies I'm not a fan of shit paid like $7. Things Like a digital product that's $7 should still help move the needle in some way for your audience. So if I'm paying $7 for it, I don't want to get shit.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, I love that you said that. Yeah, don't downplay your audience, like, yes, you put a great price point on there $7, but you should still be showing up 1000%, like give it to them every time Like, wow, can you imagine this is a $7 product? Can you imagine if I spent $100 on this person?

Speaker 2:

Right. Can you imagine I spent his $2? He charges for coaching what I'd get out of that hour. Yeah, you want them to feel that way, just for coaching what I'd get out of that hour.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, you want them to feel that way. Yeah, because I have bought a ton. I like low priced you know, lower priced digital products, depending on what it is you know, and because I'm always like researching, jonathan, of course I want to learn too, but a lot of the times I want to see how are these people creating these things? You know, just for myself to know, and you wouldn't even believe how many like lower priced digital products. I bought that. Just I'm like are you kidding me? This is what it is. You didn't sell it that way.

Speaker 2:

But anyways, yeah, Templates, I find templates like all that stuff. I've stopped buying that stuff because it just doesn't deliver anything.

Speaker 1:

Okay, well, was there anything else from this category that you wanted to bring up?

Speaker 2:

No, I don't think so.

Speaker 1:

Was there. Can I just mention AI for a second?

Speaker 2:

No, you better not.

Speaker 1:

Did you delete that off of my notes? I?

Speaker 2:

deleted that off of your list because, I know you put it in there, and if you go to AI and create a digital product that's straight out of AI, I'm not going to support you.

Speaker 1:

That's not what I'm saying? What I'm saying is just for direction. We've talked about this, but I was like I swear I put AI on this list. Do not have. I repeat, do not have AI build your product. Please do not do that to yourself. Okay, you're a thought leader in your industry. Do not do that to yourself. Don't take what AI gives you and just copy and paste it into an ebook. Please do not do that. We have a whole AI episode for you.

Speaker 2:

Yes, I think it's out already.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, it is out. Already it's out. Yeah, okay, let's move on to where. So I have my idea. Where should I be creating the digital product, jonathan?

Speaker 2:

Well, you know, Mimi, there's so many different places that you can create it. I am a huge Canva fan when it comes to creating products, because Canva just allows you to do everything. Like I've said a couple of times, I create websites on Canva so that you know the videos are active, they can click on the links and all of that, and then they just get the link to the website when they purchase the product. It's a great option. I love it. I know, Mimi, I've created eBooks on Canva, but I know Mimi's done something that's really, I think, a really smart idea. She had a Google document that she would update, create and if you want to talk about that because that's another great option for and it's cheap- Well, it's really free for you as the creator, I mean, and even with Canva, you can have the free version and still create products, you guys.

Speaker 1:

So don't again. You know you can make it work for where you are in your season of business. Yeah, but Google Docs and Jonathan, I actually surprised myself. I think I must have gotten inspired by somebody and I'm like you know I could do that too. You know I love Canva, but Google Docs, I love them. And the thing with my industry because I teach about social audio and at that time I was very focused in on Clubhouse before I really fell in love with LinkedIn audio and with Clubhouse. If you've ever been on the app, it's constantly changing and so in my mind I was like you know what I need to do this? I need to teach people about this version of Clubhouse, but I also want to update it just because things are changing so frequently and I felt like the Canva doing it on Canva would just make it harder on me, whereas with a Google Doc it's a live doc and anytime they click on it they have the latest of what I have to share. So it worked.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, that's what I love about the Canva websites is anytime I make an update on anything like I could even say, oops, I totally screwed that up, got to take that out and put the right thing in there. You can do that, right, and they'll see it when they log onto the website. Oh my goodness.

Speaker 1:

Okay, you're going to have to put together a tutorial about that. There are so many people that would want to know about that. Okay, other places that you can create those not just Canva, not just Google Docs you can create. There's a depending on what you're trying to create, like, let's say, you want to create a journal, right, or even a coloring book could be a digital product. I've heard so many things about this website and I actually signed up. I haven't created anything yet, but it's called Book Bolt.

Speaker 2:

Book Bolt yeah.

Speaker 1:

We'll put it in the show notes, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, it's Amazon, kdp Amazon owns it or no? It's connected with Amazon KDP, so you can create on Book Bolt and it then automatically is something that will be listed and it'll have an ISBN and you can sell right on Amazon. I need to do that because there's so many options that I could do and I haven't.

Speaker 1:

I mean, it's pretty wild. I found out about this through a YouTuber. If I can find that video, I will, because I want to give her the credit. That's where I found it from. But she goes into detail. She showed you how to make the journal or whatever. I mean, I'm actually shocked that not more people are doing this. I'm shocked that we're not doing this, jonathan. We really should.

Speaker 2:

It's a simple process in theory, but also like it gives you you can put, make the cover whatever you want, title, it do those things. And then it gives you the different pages that you can put in it, so you can put graph paper, line paper, planner paper, like, and you just decide on what you want. It gives you the price it'll go for and boom.

Speaker 1:

And it's print on demand.

Speaker 1:

It's not like you have to get a hundred of them. Yeah, that's really cool and I know for a lot of you, listening in or watching in your industry is probably like we need journals. Last thing is, if you're thinking about a course, because an online course is a digital product, it could even be a mini course. Again, it could be a training. You know, where do I create it? You could create it, you know, using Teachable. I have experience with Teachable. I mean, there's Kajabi. There's a bunch of places that you could be creating your course.

Speaker 2:

So, anything on that, on courses, you know the one reason I didn't create Kajabi, teachable, any of that and I did it on my own website and created my own website for it is because I wanted to own my content. It's my thought leadership. I wanted to own it and there were some clauses in Teachable and Kajabi and I don't think they're no longer there but that suggested they would have some rights to your content and I didn't want to do that.

Speaker 1:

So always, offer those clauses.

Speaker 2:

Yeah Well, and so I created on my own website. I have my own website with my course materials and then I just create my courses Canva I create my slide decks on Canva, I create my worksheets on Canva and I can just download them as PDFs or whatever and put them into my courses. Oh, I love that.

Speaker 1:

That makes me think yeah, I mean with Teachable. I thought it was very nice, like how? Cause I already recorded the videos, you know, just with my camera and then Teachable.

Speaker 1:

I was able to expand, you know, upload and actually build on there, but I love it. See, this is what these kinds of episodes I'm even learning Jonathan's learning and y'all are learning, so there's a lot of things you can take away when you're thinking about digital products. You may even already have a ton of digital products on the market, and some of these things will get you pumped up, Jonathan. We have to talk about where to sell it and how to sell it, how to market it. So we're going to talk about that when we come back from our commercial break. Are you excited? I'm excited. I hope so.

Speaker 2:

I hope at this point we do. Jonathan, there we go. I got to find the button. What button do I press? I got to find a button back here, but this will be right back. Are you tired of not having the time, not having the clarity, not having a clue what to post or what trends are even important on social media? There is a solution out there, and that solution is the Signature Membership. The Signature Membership will help you by providing you a strategy showing you how to remain consistent, always having ideas on what to post and having clarity in your content. Overall, it's even going to help your visibility and your ability to make money on social media.

Speaker 1:

Is social media starting to feel like crickets for you lately? No engagement, no likes. Hello, does anyone see this? Is anyone out there? What if I told you that social audio, aka audio marketing, could be the game changer that your business needs? Hi, it's Mimi Langley here and I teach all about social audio, and right now I have a brand new training all about LinkedIn audio. Yes, linkedin has social audio. Learn how LinkedIn audio operates and the strategies you'll need to gain visibility, make sales and grow your email list in under 60 minutes. Check the description for a link. Thank you everyone for listening. The links will be in the show notes for you, or the description if you're watching on YouTube. All right, let's talk about let's just jump right into it where to sell the digital product. So we figured out what we're making. We made it. Where are we selling it, jonathan?

Speaker 2:

Well, you know me I'm going to say on your website should be the first and generally only place that you want to sell your product, because that way you're getting all the information, you have the customer base and it's not going to an outside third party. You want it and whenever you can get it on your website, and the people that work on WordPress and the developers are all going yes, yes, because you don't necessarily want to have it all over the place. Now there are some options. I use ConvertKit for some of my lead magnets and it's a great option, but it's not as good as my website, but there's definitely options. Mimi, where would you sell it?

Speaker 1:

Well, I agree with you.

Speaker 1:

My website has and a lot of our website platforms. I use Squarespace currently and you can get a plan that has e-commerce attached. So look into it If you're like I don't know how to do that, check your website and see if there's a plan where it has e-commerce. And I agree with you because you have them on your site already, so it's just driving traffic to you and other places. I've used Gumroad, which I find easy to make, like their landing, like their sales pages. I love creating on there, so I like gumroad for the visual aspect of it. Uh, there's pay hip, there's stripe. You can check out with stripe only, right?

Speaker 2:

yeah, I will. I can do stripe or square, or I have pretty much everything set up. But yeah, but stripe is what is used on convert kit.

Speaker 1:

It's what's used on clubhouses, make a website on or make a sales page on Stripe. You can create it.

Speaker 2:

Yes, okay, yeah. When you see the product pages that are kind of like two columns, those are Stripe product pages.

Speaker 1:

Okay. Okay, we'll talk about that too, because I've been wanting to dive into Stripe ConvertKit. Like Jonathan was mentioning Thrivecart, which I think Thrivecart looks really pretty. So if there's something that maybe you're trying to sell, like a group coaching program, like I, would look into Thrivecart. I like their layout a lot and there's people that sell Thrivecart templates that I find fascinating, and you can even use PayPal. People use PayPal as well, please get a business PayPal.

Speaker 1:

Business PayPal yes, that's a good. But, jonathan, also something to mention real quick. Before we dive into how to sell it, look at your fees, because all these websites they charge fees, even your own website, you know the checkout will have fees, so yeah, you have to pay.

Speaker 2:

You obviously have to pay a minimal amount of fees based on, you know, the credit card processing. That's just going to be given. But there are some websites, there are some, you know, things that you can put on your, on your Instagram, like the, the link trees and stuff, and if you have the payment through there and it's on app through, like Apple, you're going to get charged the Apple fees that you don't want to do. That it's a lot of money when it adds up and it takes away from what you're actually making.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, I would definitely look into the fees. I think people skip over that part and they're like wait a minute, I charge $49 for this. Why am I only getting paid $29? You got to look at those fees. Okay, let's jump into how to sell it. Is this your favorite part or is your?

Speaker 2:

favorite part, my favorite part, really no, I like creating it. Actually my favorite part is creating it. I could create digital products all day and be like, woohoo, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, I got this one, but nobody's going to buy them.

Speaker 1:

But like how to sell it? Oh crap, we have to sell it. What do you like to do?

Speaker 2:

One mention it all the time.

Speaker 1:

How many times Okay?

Speaker 2:

All the time Because people aren't hearing it for the first time, they're not hearing it on your second time. They don't know. I have people that still and I've been promoting it for four weeks now have no idea that I have a 50-page signature style guide available for them. No idea, and I talked about it a lot.

Speaker 1:

That's a free product That'll be in the show notes if you guys want to get your hands on that.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, but it's a free product but people still don't know. I've been talking about it because it's a lead magnet into my membership. So, one, talk about it. Two, make sure you're posting on as many platforms as you're on. Don't go onto new platforms and start posting your product just cold turkey. And networking. Networking is another great way to sell.

Speaker 1:

I love that. You are so right about that. And where can people network?

Speaker 2:

Just in case, they can network online. They can join a B&I group. There's tons of in-person B&I groups. There's tons of online B&I groups your chamber of commerce Clubhouse, linkedin. There's networking rooms on LinkedIn. So all great opportunities.

Speaker 1:

I love that, jonathan. That's so good For me. Obviously, my number one place to sell is social audio. So I'm going to say, host your own room or host a room with somebody else and plug it, promote it, tell people about it on Clubhouse or LinkedIn audio, your email list. It's a great place to sell. You know you can, if you want to sell it obviously a paid digital product get them into your email cycle by giving them a freebie, a free resource, a lead magnet, right. Get them on there and then sell that bad boy, you know, promote it. I have on here. You know, instagram Pinterest is another great one you can drive them to. You know, a blog post. In the blog post you have a link to it. I mean, there's so many ways to do it. I have word of mouth, which is almost similar to networking, you know, because, yeah, like somebody can talk about your product on behalf of you. So that's just, you're not even doing any extra work, yeah.

Speaker 2:

Affiliate programs yeah.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's actually getting really big. Even for independent you know, independent creators and solopreneurs the affiliate marketing you can still make happen, absolutely.

Speaker 2:

Absolutely.

Speaker 1:

All right.

Speaker 2:

Jonathan. I mean we've kind of hit no, we have hit a lot of the categories that are going to help. Absolutely, absolutely, jonathan. Let's go ahead. And close now is we're also available on YouTube. Mimi has us on threads and Pinterest and Instagram and every social media site there is. She's got us on MeWe, she's got us on you know, I don't know everywhere. It feels like no, we're on Instagram. Youtube, so you can find us there. And Mimi wait. Mimi loves her five stars, so make sure you give her a rating of five stars.

Speaker 1:

Thank, you so much.

Speaker 2:

If you don't, she has me chase after you and hurt you.

Speaker 1:

You can chase Bob. He gave us three on Spotify.

Speaker 2:

Bob is dead to me. Bob, I know you're out there. Bob, my gosh, you guys Not okay.

Speaker 1:

Not okay. All right, you guys, we're going to end this with the most important question of them all, and that is are you team, mimi or team?

Speaker 2:

Jonathan.

Speaker 1:

Come on, you think after all these episodes, I think people just got really scared. Yeah, Don't joke. Thank you everyone for watching and listening. Thanks, Jonathan Howard.

Speaker 2:

Thank you, Mimi Langley.

Speaker 1:

Wait, did I mess that?

Speaker 2:

up. You messed that up so bad.

Speaker 1:

Bye everyone. My close, close eyes, I can see you. I can see you. I can see you in my close eyes.

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