3 Tips for Creating Digital Products with Molly Ho
Branding with Friends | Episode 27
Featuring Expert Guest, digital product and course coach, Molly Ho
Watch or listen to the video interview below or scroll down to read the transcription.
Meet Molly Ho, Digital Product and Course Coach
Annie: Today I am so excited to introduce you to one of my friends from the business world. If you've been thinking about creating a digital product or maybe you have created one and it didn't go well. You are going to love today's episode my guest today is the awesome Molly Ho.
Molly is a digital product and course coach helping online business owners like you create time money and location freedom in their lives. She helps her clients and customers from beginning to end through her digital product membership from validating their right product idea to feeling confident and selling it. In addition to owning her own online business, she has also traveled to six countries on her own, and counting. Welcome, Molly! I'm so glad you're here.
Molly: Hi Annie thanks so much for having me here.
Annie: Absolutely, well of the six countries that you visited do you have a favorite or a recent favorite?
Molly: I would have to say Thailand because I could eat Thai food every day for the rest of my life. So it did not disappoint? Did not disappoint.
Annie: Wonderful. Well, I think you know what you do is so interesting and I know I'm working on this and launching digital products and it seems simple on the surface but when you get into it there's a lot we can all learn. So I really wanted to have you on because you talk great about this on Instagram and other spaces and you really are an expert in it and you're doing a lot.
I love that you are guiding coaches and consultants and service business owners sort of through the whole journey of it from the idea to the confidence and selling it. So, how did you get into this world like what were you doing before that you sort of got sucked into digital products?
Molly: With my business when I first started I realized that the last company that I worked for, my values just weren't aligned with theirs. And I thought about it, I was like weighing out all my options of do I want to go into another business or work for another business where potentially the same thing might happen? Or was I willing to like risk, you know five years or so trying to build my own thing? And I was like even if the next five years don't go that great I still have a lot of time in my life to kind of figure out what it is. And luckily, it worked out but I would say for the first two years it definitely did not work out. I was trying a bunch of different things in terms of business or what to offer in my business. So how I ended up with digital products is because I wanted to travel and I didn't want to be confined to a schedule. I also realized I wasn't that great at doing services.
Annie: it wasn't your wheelhouse.
Molly: It definitely wasn't my wheelhouse. Like I loved working on projects but the revision part I was just not a fan of.
Annie: Not a fan of that. You get to do the development then you release it, you don't get the back and forth.
Molly: Exactly!
And that's what I love about digital products is that you kind of create it and then it's out there and then you can sell it and then there are other ways that you can improve it, but you kind of do it on your own time.
Annie: At your own pace.
I know that's really appealing and today if you've never watched Branding with Friends before, welcome! Molly has brought us three expert tips. So, if you were wanting to get started or restarted with digital products she's going to teach us three really important things to know about that, that we can put into action after today's episode.
If we are somebody a coach or consultant trying to figure this out where should we start? What is that first tip in this world?
#1 Action TIP
Center Your Digital Product on Solving Specific Problem
Molly: I would say the first tip is centering your digital product on solving a specific problem.
You want to think about what your audience is struggling with. For example, if you know you're someone who helps photographers - one of my first digital products was creating templates for photographers. I created these pricing guides for photographers because I knew that you know photographers want to display their work in a nice and appealing way for their inquiries. I created a guide where basically they could say a bit about themselves, show their packages, show their work, have a FAQ so it answers all of the potential customer clients’ problems.
You want to think about what kind of problem you're solving for your customer.
Annie: I think so many people start with this idea of, I want to create this thing because I care about it, I'm interested in it. But it's that idea of what are your customers struggling with? I also think there's an issue and you probably teach a lot about this in your membership, about being specific. If the problem's really broad it doesn't deliver on a really tight solution. Like, your example is a really good one right, so it's not templates for everybody except it's for photographers having a specific sort of angle.
I would wager is probably like a kind of photographer even um that helps that thing get found and that is where there's so much connective tissue with branding. I joke that a lot of our experts come on and say something to this effect - problem and solution, have a strategy, know what this is supposed to do. That is branding 101. That's like if you're not clear on what your business or your brand is all about, what is the biggest, not the only problem it solves, but what's the biggest problem? How are you providing a high-value solution? If you're not clear on that we're dead in the water. We gotta fix that. That's the branding bottleneck.
Same goes if you think well branding's not my problem. I need to do this digital product. Molly's here to tell you nope, you're stuck here too. You got to know what it is you're you known for. What should that product do? It can't just be a brain dump of what you know. It has to actually solve a meaningful problem.
So I love that you brought that around on Branding with Friends because it is the perfect place to share a point like that.
We know we need to center our digital product on solving a specific problem. So, maybe have a problem in mind. What do we do next if we're really jazzed about digital products?
#2 ACTION TIP
Validate Your Digital Product Idea Before Creating It
Molly: Yeah, so we definitely want to validate our digital product idea before creating it. So I know that one of the most common concerns I get from people is like will anyone buy this? And if you validate your product idea before creating it then you definitely know that it's going to sell because people are telling you that they're interested.
There's a couple of ways that you can validate your idea. Iin the past, I haven't done, like I've done market research but not in the way of asking my audience. I also looked out at what other people are creating and if there was a demand and if there is, then that was how I validated my idea as well and I just kind of made it my own.
There are different ways to validate your idea. You can ask or email your audience if you have one. Ask your Instagram audience, through stories, through posts, reels. Something that you can do is create a lot of content around your idea and see if people are engaging with it. I know a lot of your audience probably works with people one-on-one, so if you already if you're already helping people with the thing that you want to do, then that's also validation because people are paying you like the big bucks you know to solve that problem. So, that's another way of like validating your idea.
Annie: And I hear a lot about that too. The coaching that I get from folks that are making multiple six figures, what they're saying to me is too many people jump to that scaling step, to this digital product step without having mastered the one-to-one work.
And not everybody has to do one-to-one. I mean you didn't do it, for example. But if you know for a lot of us who are coaches or consultants, we have to figure out what our framework is and what problems we solve and how and how do we get more results for people. And that tends to be I think easier in some ways to work out on a one-to-one level where you really get to know your ideal client inside and out and you really are confident in what you teach. And then it's really just about how do you put that into a course. How do you distill that information into something that can be self-paced?
I love that you've brought up this idea of validation and it's really that feedback loop of like being open to feedback. I know that's a big problem with courses is where you create this whole course, you spent all this time and then it's, it's dead in the water because nobody wanted it. It didn't solve a problem that people at least the people that are in your world heard about.
Molly: I would say that even though I didn't do one-on-one and what I realized later on is I wasted it with myself. So I used myself as a case study and I did enough times to where I was like okay these are the steps and I know what the steps are because if someone has never used Pinterest you know they might not know what the steps are. But I know what the steps are and I know what like what questions I had when I first started out.
Annie: Absolutely and I think that you know as you said you kind of gave a couple different examples of how you might validate things. I think it's a lot of and it doesn't have to be that you, you give everything away of like what you're thinking about but being like are you struggling with this particular issue? Or you know have you found a solution to something like this? What do your solutions look like? Or what would make life easier? Or I'm thinking about creating something in this world or something that might solve this problem are you interested in something like that? You can literally say like I'm debating whether to create something. Tell me what you might need, what kind of style you might want it in.
I've been reading a lot about launching with my next book coming out. It's called Establish Yourself. First-time I’m talking about it on Branding with Friends. So a little book plug, coming out on March 3rd, 2022. And this idea of with launching and learning you know there's a really bad form to it for example just like launch your product out of nowhere. Like no one's heard of it. You haven't sort of seeded it with people. You haven't validated it, right?.
So, the nice thing about as you're teaching us to validate the idea is that it also encourages us to kind of see the idea with people and to show some of the behind-the-scenes. Like I've been talking about this book for over a year. So, I didn't announce the title for over a year and people were like what's going on with your book and like I want to read it. And like I now have like you know like hundreds of people on my list like excited to read it. But imagine if I'd only like just now announced it. Like people been sort of following along as I've been like banging my head against the wall and writing 300 plus pages and being like why did I decide to write a second book. You know those are they're kind of invested in the journey. So, this validation point can also be a starting point for you to be building hype for it and real interest in what you're doing.
Molly: it also helps you write your sales copy better, your marketing copy. You're going to have to do all of that as well. You know you don't just create your digital product. At some point you have to sell it too.
When you're doing that market research you can get feedback from people - this is what they're thinking. These are their thoughts, you know these are the problems that they are struggling with, and so you can write it from their perspective.
Annie: That's always what this is about because as much as you are a valuable expert or I am, it's what people need and want, is what's going to really drive a business because people invest in solutions. So they're problems not the thing I like best.
We've talked about centering your digital product on specific, resolving a specific problem, you want to validate that idea.
I'm really glad that you're here today we're gonna get to that third tip in just a minute. But I know you've got something special for those of us who are watching, reading, or listening to Branding with Friends. And it's perfect because what you're about to share - I was going to ask you what -- tell me more about - what are digital products? We're kind of assuming people know that but you've got an amazing guide that I know you're going to tell us more about. But maybe you could throw out a couple of examples from the guide because I think answering this question of well what can a digital product be could be really eye-opening. Things you may have not considered beyond like a course, maybe the most obvious option. So, tell us more about what you have for folks today.
Don’t miss this special opportunity for “Branding with Friends” fans…
Grab Molly’s Free Digital Product Resource Here.
Molly: Digital products could be anything from workbooks, worksheets, ebooks, templates, swipe copy, graphics, anything like that. I like to sort digital products by two types. So, there's the resource type of like templates, swipe, copy ect. And then there's an educational one of ebooks, maybe do a pre-recorded masterclass or a workshop. So, those are also digital products. I define your products as anything that you sell online that you don't have to actively trade time for. Like yes, you have to put in time upfront and also yes, you have to put in time for the marketing. But if you streamline that then you're not, it's not like one-on-one coaching where you're actively being on the calls.
Annie: Absolutely. And you have a special guide. So tell us about the guide that we can download if we follow the link here in the show notes.
Molly: So, the guide gives you fourteen examples and I give you some industry examples as well. So, if you're like you know sometimes you download something and then they give you the information but they don't give you examples. So, you're like okay how can I actually apply this to what I do? So, that's what I did in this guide. So, you get like examples. Y
Annie: Yeah I'm gonna get it after this. I'm so excited, so check that out. Molly's got this great gift, it's called 14 Digital Products You Can Sell Today. If you've been thinking about digital products, you want to take action on today like think about what could work for your business. Check that out from Molly. It's going to be here in the notes.
If talking today has gotten you thinking I don't know what problem my business all solves. I don't think I can create a digital product until I figure that out. Come and talk to me about your brand. You can always set private time to talk with me via the big red button on my website at greateststorycreative.com. You can grab a free consultation, most times of the year except for December when I take my sabbatical.
We have come around the bend. You told us to center our digital product around solving a specific problem. We need to validate that product idea before creating it and essentially seed the idea with our audience.
What's that third thing we want to keep in mind?
#3 Action Tip
Don’t Start From Scratch
Molly: So, the third tip is don't start from scratch. I see so many people starting from scratch and I learned quickly on that I did not want to start from scratch if there were already a resource out there. So, things like if you're not a designer there's you can either hire a designer right or you can also there's like tons of templates out there. If you're not that great at writing there's swipe copy out there. So, for me, I'll take those things and then I'll turn it to make it my own right. So I won't use the template as is. But I do think that a lot of people take the template as is and then it turns out looking like everyone else's. So, definitely don't do that, but also don't start from scratch. There's a lot of resources out there so definitely use them.
Annie: I think as you were saying that kind of made me think there's like these three levels to it. So, I think if you are not --let's take design for example. If you're not a designer there's kind of three ways you can do it. Try to do it yourself and it won't look very good, get a template, keep it the way it is, it'll look okay and professional and take that template to another level by tweaking it. That's probably the best or hire somebody to just do it for you. It's probably the fourth level of that. Right, but don't you know that what I think a lot of people, a lot of people I work with are at this moment where maybe they haven't hired a professional or even bought a template. They've been trying to feel like they've been scrappy and that all this -- everything has to be done themselves. And I've just been learning even by investing in my own business that the more I invest the better I do. It's like kind of exponential because it frees my brain up to do what I'm best at.
Molly and I were talking just before we started recording that I love this message of don't start from scratch. And it's something even I have to take to heart as one of my kryptonite as a business owner is I can do a lot of things. I'm the designer, I'm the writer, I'm a strategist, so I can do like my own social media templates and those sorts of things. But they take time and I'm not an expert on every single kind of design and so I had already been thinking about maybe investing in some prompts or things like that to help me write up captions that are more engaging. Like, yes I can write but it drains me so much that I think I would do better, like you were saying like having that maybe that starter kit. But like even that you know the professionals in their field sometimes invest in templates. And you know some of some of the best things I've learned about my business are because I hired other branding and business consultants who do what i do and they're just farther along. I said oh gosh how do you do this. So, whatever your version of don't start from scratch is, just recognize that you don't have to start from scratch and that you can make the beautiful cake by maybe starting with the Trader Joe's one and putting some decoration on it and that sort of thing. So, I love that tip. I think all these tips are really, really helpful. M
Molly, anything else you want to share with us before we wrap up today?
Molly: Yeah, can I do a shameless plug?
Annie: Sure, just make it extra shameless.
Molly: Yes, okay so I not only do I help people teach people how to create digital products, I've also created those resources I've talked about to help people like do it even faster and better. So, I have Canva templates and I have a toolkit to help create their first online course and all of that. So, if anyone is interested in you know, seriously not starting from scratch.
Annie: Molly's got some good stuff for you. I will have to check that out too as I'm building out everything but Molly, thank you. I was very inspired by you. I'm so glad that you could come on today and share some of your genius with us. So thank you.
Molly: Thank you so much for having me.
Annie: Absolutely and we hope that you all enjoyed yet another episode of Branding with Friends so many thanks to my special guest Molly Ho. Tune in next time when we're going to tackle yet another topic where branding meets business. Until then I'm Annie Franceschi with Greatest Story Creative. You can find all of our episodes, branding resources, and so much more on our website at greateststorycreative.com. Have a great one!
“Branding with Friends” Episode 27
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips for digital products to grow your service business:
Center your digital product on solving a specific problem
Validate the digital product idea before creating it
Don’t start from scratch
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To learn more about digital products or to seek Molly’s help:
• Visit Molly at mollyhostudio.com
• Grab her freebie on digital product ideas here
• @mollyhostudio on Instagram
