December 16, 2019
Brainstorming productized service ideas with Brent Giesler
Sent by Jonathan Stark on December 18th, 2019
Long time reader and friend of the list Brent Geisler asked a question in TPS that spawned a brainstorming session that I think you’ll find useful. Here’s our thread (shared with permission):
Brent Giesler
Hey JS - I’m tripping up on coming up with a productized service... (this is for Docs that recommend a low carb lifestyle)
Don’t I need to observe them/answer bomb before I decide what service they would find valuable? I could envision a bunch of development related services, but not sure how they would relate to that group.
Am I over thinking it?
Jonathan Stark
You’re not really overthinking it… it’s just that I reversed the approach in this new version of TPS
Last time around, we started with “who do you want to help?” and this time we’re starting with “what do you want to do?” which I think might be an easier question to answer for folks
Either can work. If you start with the target market, you need to be flexible about what you do. If you start with what you do, you have to be flexible about the target market.
for your “low carb doc” target market, I would imagine that their #1 concern is growing their audience
the bigger the audience, the greater the impact (and the more money they’ll make)
Brent Giesler
That would be my guess too, but I haven’t evidenced that yet through Twitter. But, I did see that a bunch of the conferences qualify for continuing ed credits. and most of the conference organizers are docs that are also thought leaders, authors, podcasters, etc.
Jonathan Stark
the fact they are on twitter at all leads me to believe that they are trying to grow an audience
most docs aren’t on social media (for business reasons at least)
and for docs that already have a big audience, they’ll likely be looking for new ways to monetize
Brent Giesler
ahhh.. yep.
Jonathan Stark
someone with a dev background like you could certainly help a relatively non-technical doc get set up with online productivity and platform software, and perhaps create custom integrations between things like mailchimp and their e-comm platform
Brent Giesler
So maybe becoming the “online marketing guy for low carb docs” would be a good starting point?
Jonathan Stark
right
digital marketing for celebrity docs
easy to find the target market when you pick “famous ones” :slightlysmilingface:
Brent Giesler
.... for docs that eat meat :slightlysmilingface:
Jonathan Stark
digital marketing for famous carnivores :wink:
you could maybe even niche down into a subcategory of digital marketing like:
“email marketing for celebrity docs”
or
“digital product development for celebrity docs”
or
“online sales funnels for celebrity docs”
or
“online membership communities for celebrity docs”
or
“podcasting for celebrity docs”
I’m not saying any one of those is better than the others
just throwing things out to see if anything clicks
Brent Giesler
Nice. I REALLY like the membership idea. Most of these guys that are trying to monetize are just asking for Patreon donations. I’m thinking membership communities may be a more professional way to attract patients/$$.
All the conference sites list about 80% of the same “famous” thought leaders/docs... Which are very visible on Twitter.
Jonathan Stark
Ugh, Patreon
Patreon is like begging for change on the street
I have nothing against people who beg for change, but that’s not a good fit for your target market
Brent Giesler
hahaha... that’s exactly the feeling I get when I here these guys suggesting that I go to their Patreon page, at the end of their podcast episodes.
Jonathan Stark
If they’re using Patreon, you might want to introduce them to real e-commerce with something like shopify or wordpress or moonclerk
also, if they’re sending podcast listeners to Patreon, building an online sales funnel for them would be :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup: :thumbsup:
“Go to lowcarblifestyle.com to download my free weekly recipe guide and get daily tips on living a low carb life”
setting up the infra to support such a CTA would be relatively easy for you but almost impossible for them
Brent Giesler
Like it... big fan of Moonclerk simplicity, based on my experience with your stuff.
OK... so now we’re cooking. What’s a good strategy to use since they don’t see any issue with Patreon
Jonathan Stark
Find out what issues they have with Patreon
“Are you 100% happy with Patreon?”
if you get some “No”s, you’re onto something
“Is there anything you wish Patreon could do?”
Brent Giesler
(me on Twitter)..... “Hey Doc... I noticed you asked me to go to your Patreon page on last weeks podcast... Are you 100% happy with Patreon?
Jonathan Stark
“Did you hear about that guy who got kicked off of Patreon?” https://www.businessinsider.com/sam-harris-deletes-patreon-account-after-platform-boots-conservatives-2018-12
Brent Giesler
whoa...
Jonathan Stark
yeah, you can get kicked off
buh bye income
it was political, but still…
“Are you worried that your views might be distasteful to Patreon?”
Brent Giesler
... and politics around meat vs plants is HOTTTT in this arena right now
Jonathan Stark
right
Here’s a reddit link: Complaints about Patreon? https://www.reddit.com/r/patreon/comments/5lkwov/complaintsaboutpatreon/
Brent Giesler
...genius... btw, feel free to share all this goodness with whoever might benefit
TPS or otherwise
Jonathan Stark
Thanks!
Brent Giesler
:head_exploding: You da’ man...
Jonathan Stark
:bow:
Thanks again to Brent for granting permission to share!
I hope you found our conversation useful :-)
Yours,
—J