The other day I was on the phone with one of my Idea Bouncers, when she asked:
“Hey. You signed up for my free e-course. What did you think of it? Can you give me some feedback?”
Uh oh.
I’m sure that her free e-course contained valuable information. I’m even more sure that she spent hours…more likely days…working on it to get it just right.
And now I was going to have to tell her that I hadn’t looked at it.
I could hear the deflation in her voice when I admitted the truth.
I have a pile of stuff I haven’t looked at yet
Her product, along with several other free (and a few paid) downloads, were queued up on my computer…waiting for my attention.
And it’s not just me.
I’ve been on the phone with entrepreneurs all month. And lots of people have reported the same thing. (Probably every caller I remembered to ask.)
A few of them felt stressed about it. “I’m falling behind.” “I didn’t finish the program.” “I should get back to it.”
Big sighs.
The other thing in common with most of my callers:
I’m working on my first/my next/my free product
Like another conversation I had later the same day.
“I have this idea for a free product. I do a meditation thing. It takes about 5 minutes. And there’s a one page worksheet that goes along with it.”
My ears perked up at the 5 minute thing. Perfect.
“I have a few of these. I think I could make a recording that’s about 35 or 40 minutes long. But is that enough?”
I’m thinking: Whoa! You had me at 5 minutes.
I asked her: “Why would you add more?”
“They say that I need to stack on the value.”
Is that true? Are “they” right?
Here’s my reaction:
5 minutes? I can do that now. 1 page document? I’ll print it right away.
45 minute audio? 50 page e-book? Those will have to wait until “later.”
They’re going on the pile.
Or more likely…I’ll pass on the offer.
Because I already have too much stuff waiting. And adding to that pile is adding to my stress. (And I’ll encounter another 20 free offers later today.)
We’re all struggling with the same 2 problems
1. Information overload.
2. Lack of time.
Yet, somewhere along the way, we’ve bought into the idea that a product (even one we’re giving away) needs to be big and substantial in order to provide value.
More pages. More minutes of audio. More hours of video.
It’s the information product equivalent of the fire hose from the stage at a live workshop.
The thing is: Value doesn’t come from size.
Value comes from solving someone’s problem
Instead of asking: How can I make this product BIG enough to provide value?
What if you asked: How SMALL can I make this product?
How can I solve this problem for my client in the shortest period of time and with the least amount of effort on their part?
How can I cut through the information overload and pick out exactly the pieces they need (and nothing more)?
Some examples: small and exceptionally useful
Everything I need to know about audio files in 6 minutes
How to remove the ums and ahs, how to shorten it, how to get rid of unwanted noise, how to adjust the volume of 2 voices so that they’re the same and how to convert the file to mp3 format. Exactly what (free) software to use and where I can download it.
Pace doesn’t teach me everything there is to know about audio. She teaches me everything I need to know about audio. She cuts through the information overload for me.
What do your clients need to know? What are the questions you get asked all the time? What can you teach in a 5 minute video?
Remove faulty thinking with a single sheet of paper
How to do The Work – the judge your neighbour worksheet
On a simple one page document, Byron Katie provides both the instructions and a fill-in-the-blanks worksheet. (You may recognize my use of her question “Is that true?” earlier in this post.)
Do you have a process you lead your clients through? Can you walk them through it on a single sheet of paper?
Help me plan my month, one page at a time
Charlie Gilkey releases free planners every month.
Can you create a useful reminder your clients could hang on the wall in front of their computer? (Or on their fridge? Or bathroom mirror?)
Cure insomnia in 10 minutes
Fabeku from Sankofa Song offers a free sacred sound download.
One of my friends listens to this recording every night and says it has cured her insomnia.
Can you record a guided meditation? Or a pep talk?
Your product doesn’t need to be huge to be helpful
I believe it was Tony Robbins who once said that 80% of the people who purchase a self-help book don’t get past the first chapter.
Today, people are busier than ever.
If you’re going for “huge and full of value” there’s a good chance the product you’re working on is going to end up languishing on someone’s already over-crowded To Do list.
That won’t help them. And it won’t help you.
Try thinking small instead.
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{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Patty,
Smaller chucks are definitely the way to go. We are so distracted, so attention-disordered, that most of us can’t sit still for a 20-30-minute video.
We are finding on our WordPress membership site that the 2-3-minute video, just teaching one little thing at a time, is very popular. People can access the exact thing they need, get in, get out and make the fix on their blog or website.
I HATE sitting through a half-hour video for the one little piece of information I needed that was 3/4 of the way through the darned thing.
Great advice here.
Patty – Once again you have captured an essential truth hiding within conventional ‘wisdom.’ In the land of super-size me, more is generally considered to be, well, More.
Thank you – thank you – thank you for calling attention to the important and true statement that Value comes from solving a problem, Not from delivering volumes of stuff (unless stuff solves your problem . . .) Whew! It takes courage to adopt the contrary attitude, but I love your clarity, and believe that this is an important message for your business.
I’m also laughing to myself because it seems that so many of us are so busy and overwhelmed with incoming messages and information, I/we keep on working to keep up and rarely slow down and sort, question, and let go of the things we aren’t going to use.
I now choose LITTLE books on topics I want to learn something about for the very SAME reason. The author has distilled all the really good stuff and discarded all the endless examples, etc. I read. I learn. I move on.
Have I mentioned lately just how brilliant you are?! Well, let me do it now before I forget (which happens very quickly and without warning, BTW). Patty, you are brilliant! And so is this post! You hit the absolute point of no return for so many of us who are out there trying to help people: We think we have to make it big to make it matter. We think we have to make, offer, give something that’s bigger, longer, and way more involved than who ever we’re comparing ourselves against today if we want people to pay any attention to us. And sadly, we’re going about it all wrong. What we give has to come from a big place inside us. But we need to serve it up in bite-sized chunks…small enough that no one chokes…big enough for them to love the taste and want more.
Yep, you’re brilliant! Thanks for reminding me of this very important point.
Gail McConnon´s latest ..The Meaning of Silence- An Invitation
@Judy – short chunks are definitely more useful for anything technical – not surprised at all that they would be your most popular videos. And I’m with you on the 45 minute video – especially when the vast majority of it is either padding or sales pitch.
@Barbara – sigh. I didn’t even think about the letting go part – but that’s true too. I’m thinking about declaring “pile of stuff amnesty” and starting fresh.
@Vicki – Yes! When you think about it, quite often a whole lot of content can be disguised as a single quote.
@Gail – Thank you. And yes. The whole idea of having a free product in the first place is to give people a taste of what we do, so they want more. And don’t get me started on the whole comparison thing!
Good content and excellent ideas Patty. I can relate to the overwhelm of all that is swirling around. There are so many things we need to keep track of as solopreneurs and it can just start to pile up for sure.
One thing that I have found to be of value is to have a clear flag pole of questions to get me to my Yes or to my NO. That means that I have a series of exercises that I put all opportunities through so that I can make my decision to best support my growth. Period.
The other that I do is to have my day of the week to check in on specific things. Tuesdays are usually my Blogging day. that is to check in and comment and write my content. I set time for social media so I don’t get distracted by the bright shiny objects floating by. And there are several other tools I use in my toolkit to avoid the piles.
To your point that value doesn’t come in size. I agree. It is true. I have found simple tips and quotes or ideas in a 140 characters to offer HUGE value and a shift in perspective over volumes of paper.
Tammy Redmon´s latest ..5 Ways to Avoid Valentine’s Day Blues
I tend to write the bare bones of things, and have always felt that I was doing it wrong. I’m planning an ebook but I dread having to ‘pad’ it to make it substantial enough to charge for. So it’s a relief to read your post, but are people willing to pay for a bare-bones product?
@Tammy – Yes! I’ve recently adopted 2 key filter questions:
1. Do I need this *right now*?
2. Do I have the *time* to commit to it?
Once I started asking those 2 questions, the pile stopped growing. (And I’ve actually spent some time using the resources that are relevant to where I’m at now.) I’m trusting that this constant stream of information will still be there when I need to dip in to get the next piece of the puzzle.
@LaVonne – I love this question. Possibly because you’ve given me an idea for an entire post! Assuming your e-book “delivers the goods” and actually solves a problem for someone, I would say yes. Especially if you highlight the time-saving aspect of your offering. Time is *more* valuable to some people than money. (Also: people for whom this is true have money to spend.) Given the choice between a resource that will take one hour to solve my problem and one that will take 3 days, I’m picking door #1.
And a big UGH on the padding thing. I can’t stand doing it. And I can’t stand wading through it (or worse – listening/watching through it on audio/video.)
This whole post reminds me of the feeling I had when I read Steven Covey’s “7 Habits of Highly Successful People”. If there are only seven habits, why did it take a 200 page book to tell about them???? Couldn’t he have just told us each of the habits, given a short example and leave it at that? It’s part of the reason I go to Patty for my inspiration instead of self-help books!
Great article Patty. I know that when I give myself 5 minutes to do something instead of an hour I work more efficiently on what is important. The same premise could be used here. Tell yourself that you have 5 minutes to get your point across instead of a half hour. What is most imporant? What matters to your audience most?
I too get annoyed when I get a product promising to tell me the “5 best something” but then it takes me an hour to read through the material to get to those 5 things. I feel like it was a waste of time because they could have put all of the important information together without the fluff and it would have only taken me 5 minutes to read. I will keep this post in mind when developing my free products.
I can’t even tell you how timely this post is for me right now, and on so many levels.
Finishing my “Put an end to your paper piles” recording (which I’m planning to give away for free right now) has been on my to-do list for more weeks than I care to admit.
Working on these kinds of projects always makes me think “hmmm…maybe I’m not rid of my perfectionism as much as I thought.”
What really got to me about your post is that I coach and consult clients on time management and productivity – and here I was, completely forgetting that the last thing I’d want to do is add more guilt, more to-do’s, more clutter to anyone’s list.
So funny how in wanting to give the very best of ourselves and our knowledge, we can end up doing a disservice to our clients. Wasn’t it Mark Twain who said “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead”?
Back to the drawing board to put the material to the test against the questions in your post – if it passes, and needs to stay the length it is now, I’m thinking maybe I can turn it into a series of shorter recordings.
Thanks so much for this, Patty – it makes sense and I love that this new awareness will help me honor and respect the very thing I value so much and my clients come to me to protect – their time.
Hi Patty! Great post! I’m catching up on your blog! (Is it really August and I haven’t been on your blog since FEBRUARY!?!? Where does the time go?! Gads.)
I somehow had the same idea when I wrote my ebook “How to Finish Something.” It’s a quick 15 pages (small pages at that), double spaced and all that, with 6 practical points.
The book is here: http://hovergirl.wordpress.com/ebooks/
Keep up your awesome posts! (I don’t comment on every one, but they are all awesome!)
Teresa´s latest ..More Adventures
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