There’s $100K hiding in plain sight in your business

If you heard someone say that there was $100K hiding in plain sight in your business, right now, your defenses would immediately go up.

And for good reason.

It sounds like a ludicrous claim.

Or, at the very least, a bold statement.

But it’s true.

If you’ve been working online for even just a couple of years, there’s 100K in your Google Drive

And I’m not just talking about a one-time cash inflow.

No.

I’m talking about a recurring revenue stream of $100K or more.

One that doesn’t keep you stuck in the time for money exchange that your client work does.

It’s just a matter of discovering it, then building a sales and marketing machine around it.

“Create an online course” the gurus will tell you. “It’s the KEY to building passive income online.”

But that’s only part of the equation.

And more often than not, that advice is actively harmful.

Because if you’re a service provider, you’re already basically maxed out when it comes to your time.

Any time you’re not spending actually serving your clients (the thing you thought you’d be spending all your time doing when you got into this business in the first place!), you’re working on building your pipeline.

And if you had listened to the people who told you to create a digital product, you spent a lot of time building that.

You didn’t ask anyone if they’d be interested in buying what you were building, partly because you didn’t know when or whether you’d have enough time to finish creating it in the first place.

So you toiled.

You worked on your digital product or online course after you were finished with your client work.

You filmed videos.

You created worksheets.

And by the time you finished, you were spent.

What’s worse, you spent so much time creating a product that you neglected to keep your pipeline filled.

So when you were finally able to come up for air, you realized you had a problem.

You didn’t know where your next client was going to come from.

Your client work is more lucrative than course sales, and you knew you needed to get your next client.

So you shelved the course.

Decided to focus instead on the activities that would bring you your next client.

You put that digital product on a digital shelf, telling yourself that you’d get around to marketing it “one day.”

But you never did.

On the one hand, you know that product is good.

But there’s a part of you that worries that if you have a DIY version of your high-end, high-ticket service, you’ll cannibalize yourself.

You’ll make $699 instead of $10,000.

Your reasons for not launching your digital product or online course make sense. But they’re still holding you back.

When a famous chef releases a cookbook, do people stop going to their restaurants?

Of course they don’t.

You, in this example, are the high-end chef. Picture yourself with a whisk in your hand.

Looks good, doesn’t it?

You, chef, know that giving someone who doesn’t live in your area access to the way you show up in the world through a cookbook doesn’t diminish the number of reservations in your restaurant.

So why not put out the cookbook?

Analogies like this are helpful, because they get you out of your business.

Of course a chef should publish a cookbook.

Of course you should put some effort into marketing and selling your digital product.

If you don’t have a digital product on your digital shelf, that’s even better.

Because creating an online course sounds complicated.

It’s not the same thing as deciding to become a college professor and then creating the syllabus for a yet-to-be-taught class, but it may as well be.

But you’re not an aspiring professor.

You’re a professional entrepreneur. An expert in your field.

You’ve gotten to where you are by doing things your own way.

Two different options to consider when you’re thinking about building a digital product to supplement your income

Option 1: Teach people who are similar to your existing clients, only with one major exception… they aren’t ready to book your full-service package.

They’re ordering your cookbook and wishing they could visit your restaurant in person.

Option 2: Teach people who are a few steps behind you how you built your business to where it is today.

What could you teach someone who is currently where you were two or three years ago?

Essentially,

• Teach your craft, OR
• Teach your systems and business growth

Both are valid.

But don’t build it yet.

Validate your offer before you create it.

Otherwise, you’re going to set yourself up for failure.

This is where so many creators get tripped up.

They think that they can’t sell something they haven’t built.

Even if every single thing they’ve ever built for a client has been executed flawlessly and to a deadline.

Plus, there’s vulnerability in validating your offer.

In asking whether this idea is something someone would buy.

Because not everyone will say yes to your idea.

But don’t let that stop you.

If you set this part up correctly, you will not have to do any work building something until you’ve determined whether you have something people want to buy!

This is what we’re getting into in much greater detail during each round of The Well-Paid Expert Mastermind.

Auditing your business for what it already has.

Figuring out which audience you’d like to serve.

Deciding how to package things up.

Trust me, it’s all so much easier than you think.

And once you commit to building something that divorces you from the time-for-money exchange, your life will get markedly better.

Let me know if I can help.