7 Steps to Getting Your Product Out of Your Head and Into the World
For the past year, I've wanted to write an ebook about "white space" and how busy moms can get more of it. But life kept getting in my way. I realized it was time to practice what I preach. I made room for more white space in my own life and got my book written. Here's how I did it and how you can do it, too.
1. Make the Decision
When you make a decision to do something - and this can’t be said enough - it puts your decision in motion. Clarity leads to action. Action leads to results. All it took was for me to decide and I was on my way. I didn’t worry about the details. I kept my eye on the outcome and got to work.
2. Schedule It
The next thing I did was put a deadline on the calendar. I needed to set that date or else I'd let something get in the way. I’m great at giving assignments to everyone but myself. ;) Once I had a deadline, I included other important dates like the first draft due date, the deadline to send the ebook to editor, when to find the graphic designer and when to email my mailing list. I also allowed extra days to deal with our move to Seattle, time to hang with Mila, the new preschool search, weekends off and my other work. Give yourself a ship date and stick to it. Thank you, Seth Godin.
3. Get Expert Help
If you are juggling your household, your business, your kids and more, get some help. I hired three people to help me get my book to the finish line - a coach, an editor and a graphic designer. My coach Kelly Kingman took my goal seriously and gave ME the white space I needed to get my project off the ground. Taking those first steps is the toughest part of any project, and she helped me do that. Thanks to her encouragement, I hired an editor and a graphic designer, after thinking I could do both of those jobs. Don’t fool yourself into thinking you can do it all. If that were true, you would have done the “thing” by now.
5. Get It Out There
After the design was done and I had those files in my hand, the next step was putting up a sales page on my site. Instead of writing a lengthy page, I kept it short and sweet with two buy options. I also wrote a sales-page type of blog post that came out the day the book was released. I didn’t want to complicate this “just get it out there” part of the process. I didn’t want another excuse why the book wasn’t ready to sell. Once you get your product out there, you can test and tweak all you want.
6. Promote It
Next, you need a simple, repeatable way of sharing your product with the world. Here’s what I did and you can do, too: 1. Write guest posts for sites with a receptive audience 2. Offer special discounts and promos 3. Share on social media Simple, repeatable, trackable steps. So you see, it turns out that creating my ebook was a lot easier than I thought. Once I took action, my hard work paid off quickly and I now have my very first product out in the world.
What's stopping you from getting your product out in the world? Share with me in the comments.