Your slightly less vague idea trying to become something shiny-er - pt 2

1. After you created some value…

So now what right? I sent over some content ideas that were tailored to my life coach friend (3 in total for 3 reels which I actually just Chatgpt and packaged it up into a one pager) I hadn’t sent over the Lovable yet because I needed to find the loop of value first. At this stage I didn’t even have no brand, nothing, I just sent this over:

She was like yep, great ideas, I used them. I then realised if I can get this to her weekly and she uses it, I can charge something for it & as she said it saves her time. Read that again:

‘it saves her time - to make more money’

So the value is you saved them time. They pay a little but they can use that time for other things to make more money. You need to find the point where you change their life. It could be Time, Money, Energy, Focus, Clarity. I always say value becomes a feeling. You then have to communicate that, manually & through product marketing.

So you have a little sales pitch here.

This is what we call value proposition.

So hey life coach, if you pay me £10 pw, I can send you 3 content reel ideas and written content for you to quickly create in Capcut. It will save you time planning & frees you up to take on another client. That works out £3.33 per reel that could generate you more clients.

The magic would be if it even created it for you - but that’s an advanced product.

A value prop in product marketing terms, helps you define benefits to clearly articulate your solution. Your solution isn’t ‘my shiny app that works like Duolingo’. Duolingos value prop is making language accessible. Accessible being the key word.

2. But now we think about scalability.

Shall I be honest? This is where everyone gets really really stuck if you’re not that technical. If you’re technical you need to not get lost in shiny product code. I’m a victim of this. Cause it’s hard. It’s hard because we stick to what’s comfortable in the process because it makes us feel better. Is this the point we go right is it kill or I’m I still hustling?

Can this grow without you manually?

• What happens when 10x more people use it? Do you break? Does the product break?

• Can the core value be delivered with automation, delegation (AI, templates, workflows, etc.).

So how do we get over this hurdle? Write out what the user needs. A set of requirements.

1) User wants 3 content ideas pw
2) User wants them tailored to their business
3) User wants the content written for them
4) Each week, it just sends it to them

Okay so let’s dissect that?

I can prob do this for about 10 people, then It’s graft. BUT I might not be technical, but If I do it for 20 SMEs for 6 weeks I make: £1200. - Could I use that money to then get someone to build what I need? Be smart init.

Now, I’m building a tool for quick passive income. But you know when you got big dreams, that’s always a killer. be task orientated, small increments start hitting at an accelerating rate at some point. Like this newsletter ha

I watched something this week that when Richard Branson started Virgin Airlines, (granted he had made ££££ already) but he rang Boeing and asked them to rent a plane. Which was laughable.

He hustled his way through and they gave him an old plane to rent. He then created this pre stream of income with pre bookings, which paid for the rent of the plane in advance (200K pm).

Strategic & bold. He didn’t run to a VC, he got smart with how he built revenue to fund it initially.

So I have 2 routes imo:

1) Manually scale till I have some money to pay a quick dev if I am not that technical
2) Build it if I can use automation etc (or even code), box it to key requirements & roll it out. But it can’t be to janky & I stick to the manual route which provides quick value. Don’t over complicate it until you need to.

Timing is key.

3. Finally, distribution. What do we mean by that?

If you post it and no one sees it, did it even launch? If you’re not a big brand online, this ones tough. But let me say this with confidence, post it. You might only have 1 like, but eyes are watching, more than you know. I post things about this and get 6 likes but 10 sign ups. It’s a weird moment.

But you need to think like a growth hacker. If your growth plan is “I’ll just tweet about it”, that’s not a strategy love. That’s just lazyness.

Here we think of loops. So If my life coach friend loves it, how do I get her to tell a friend? & What can I give her as a reward? Brian Cheskys comment on 100 users who love it is better than 1000 avg users (something like that). You need some product champions - you need to make them feel things.

How do I tap into SME communities?

If you’re a marketplace, so you might have 2 core audiences, you need to focus on one to build for the other.

Growth hacking needs patience and time, but small increments and seeds will pay off.

So what’s next?

I actually think before I share the Lovable link, I want them to be paying weekly, using the content ideas & then introduce Lovable on subscription at a decent price - so they will feel they got something better.

This might not be the approach always, but back to my point on I am solving a problem, not feeling good about myself by sharing a link they will forget about. I need to create habit before I upgrade the habit.

Again, timing is key - giving all the value sometimes creates no value. You gotta drip feed it.

I hope this is useful. I won’t be doing part 3 just yet. But I have some ideas to come back to this in a few weeks. Please share your thoughts or something you might be struggling with in this process that will resonate with many reading.

2. Quick tech goss of the week…

This week let’s look at a bunch of young people building Startups so we can all feel rubbish. Joke, but this is actually brilliant stuff…

Liam fuller - who’s 18 and founded Source, raising $1.4m. Source streamlines procurement for retailers managing thousands of SKUs with minimal tools. At 18, I was selling adobe layouts for MySpace & Piczo sites and thought I was boss. I didn’t even know what procurement was till I was at least 25. Just an old person here whining sorry.

BUT wow, amazing to see this coming out of Europe too. Read more here

Toby Brown - 16 yr old founded Beem & raised $1m. Read more here

Sharing Meet-Ting which has gathered 500 signups. Thought it was cool so I would share. Not getting paid to (yet ha) but excited to see it’s journey - Product Hunt

3. Product gems that made me howl…

Leaving you with my fave gem for your thoughts…

& finally, am I even up to anything great for your nosy?

Writing this newsletter ha. I do want to get this in front of more eyes, so please share this where you can. & give me feedback and suggestions. I also would like to feature people & some interviews so as my loyal subscribers, reach out if you fancy it!

I have 1 more slot for coaching this month if you are looking for career or startup coaching.

& working on some consulting work which is fun. Always open to conversations with businesses where my expertise can help!