In this episode, Tara goes behind the scenes to share an experience about what happens when your customers start to notice that you are operating your business with duct tape and paper clips and what they do about it...

About Me:

My name is Tara Bryan. I help business owners break into the next level of success by packaging their expertise into an online business. It's my passion to help you find the fastest path to results to create a greater impact and income for you and your tribe.

This podcast is 100% focused on support, tips and example sharing, and building a community of online business owners who are passionate about building awesome learning experiences.

We do that by building engaging, motivating, gamified, and learner-centered online experiences. We come up with ideas and strategies to ensure that our learners can thrive and succeed using our packaged products.

To learn more:

Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

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Unknown: 00:00:01

Hey course creators, welcome to today's episode of

Unknown: 00:00:03

the course building secrets podcast. I am thrilled that

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you're here today. Hey, I like this location so much that I am

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back here for another episode. So it may, who knows, it may be

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my new permanent location.

Unknown: 00:00:16

Alright, in today's episode, I want to talk about your

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materials, your videos, your workbooks, your PowerPoint

Unknown: 00:00:23

decks, if you do those, and just in general, that kind of the,

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the assets that you provide to people. Okay, so when you're

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first getting started, we 100% recommend that you take the

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strategy of Done is better than perfect. Right. And so you're

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taking imperfect action? Now, I want to talk a little bit about

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that. Because, yes, we teach that, yes, 100%, I believe that

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it's better to put something out there, then, than to not get

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something out there at all. Okay, but there are certain

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levels to this. And so I want to just review those today. Because

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I think that there's a little confusion, when people say, hey,

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just do an 80% solution, just do an MVP, just put, you know, put

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your first draft out there. And, and all of that is 100% true.

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However, there's a difference between sort of putting out a

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draft. Because you have, you don't have it like locked and

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loaded yet, like you're still refining the message, you're

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still you're still sort of perfecting it. There's a

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difference between that and just being sloppy. And I want to talk

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a little bit about that today. And the other thing I want to

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cover today is just because you start there, right, you start by

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taking imperfect action so that you get started and you and

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you're not really going to know exactly how to refine it until

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you're working with people, right? Because they're gonna

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have questions, you think maybe you're being really clear, and

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they're not sure, right? So. So there's going to be a certain

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amount of iteration that happens in all of your materials. And

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that's totally normal. At some point, you need to

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professionalize those rough drafts, right? Just like when

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you're writing a paper for school, you start with a rough

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draft, and then you continue Lee refine and revise it until it's

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a polished and finished version, you don't just like publish the

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rough draft, right?

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However,

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so that's one concept. But like, just I just want to be clear

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about that, that at some point in your business growth, you

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actually have to go back and, and make a final version, right,

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you have to make a professional version, staying in imperfect

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action for your entire business career, right? Like, you launch

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your business. And then five years later, you're still in

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imperfect action mode, where everything is just sort of a

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thrown together.

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Endeavor is not actually going to help you grow and scale your

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business. I'm telling you right now, like it's not going to

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happen, your customers, at some point are gonna go, what's

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happening, right, like, at what point in time? Is this going to

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be professional? Right? At what point in time? Can I have 100%

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confidence that they're paying attention to all the things

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and so

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so you need to be paying attention to that, right? Like,

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imperfect action isn't a state that you stay in forever. Okay.

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So that being said, when you first get started, and you are

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doing your rough draft, there is a difference between a rough

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draft and sort of a sloppy draft, right. And so let me just

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explain what that means. So if you are, say you're building

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your a PowerPoint deck, because you're gonna do a presentation

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to your customers. Now, your messaging may be a rough draft,

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right, you're taking imperfect action, you may not exactly have

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the messaging, right, you may not have exactly like the key

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points that are going to stay the key points forever. You may

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need more images, you may need a professional brand, like there

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may be things that you need in order to kind of lock and load

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it as a final version. But one thing that is is is not

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imperfect action is just slapping something together and

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having typos and misspellings and just random stuff that makes

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it look like you just like you didn't pay attention, right? You

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didn't care. And and it's just a it's just something that that

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doesn't mean a lot to you because you just put it together

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at the last minute right so so the perception is people are

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really

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really open to taking imperfect imperfect action, they're really

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open to being a part of a beta to being able to provide

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feedback. But that doesn't mean that they're willing it and, and

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accepting sloppiness.

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And if you want to erode somebody's confidence, be

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sloppy, right? So if you put together a PowerPoint

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presentation, take up, take the, the couple of minutes to either

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review it yourself and make sure there's no typos, or hand it off

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to somebody on your team and say, can you just review this?

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Look for any grammatical problems look for any

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misspellings look for anything that doesn't seem like it makes

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sense. So that when I present it, I'm at least presenting the

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best rough draft that I have, at this point in time, it doesn't

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take a lot of time to just spend reviewing, and and polishing

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your rough draft. Right. So a rough draft does not mean sloppy

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draft. So I just want to be really clear about that. Because

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what's happening in the minds of your customers, as they're

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looking at your presentation, or they're listening to your

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presentation, is they haven't spent the time. They don't care

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about me. And

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and they're not professional, right? And what happens is that

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they say, Well, I wonder whether or not this level of detail or

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attention

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is in the deliverable of whatever it is you're

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delivering. Right? So say, for example, you are helping

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somebody with their finances, if you have a PowerPoint deck

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that's full of typos, and it just is looks like it's been

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thrown together? Is that how the customer is perceiving what

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you're doing with with their financials? 100%? Right. Like, I

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wonder if what they're creating over here is thorough is, are

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they paying attention to the details? Are they just throwing

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something together. And so you have to realize how your

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customers perceiving that particular situation, right, if

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you're putting something together just in time, because

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either you don't have time to focus on it, or,

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you know, you, you, you just want to be in the moment, like,

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it's still important to really think about the perception that

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that's putting out there for your people, and how it starts

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to permeate throughout your entire business. So I was just

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recently at an event and and this conversation came up,

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there's a, during the presentations, there was a lot

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of typos, there was a lot of sort of, I would say rookie

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issues, that if somebody else would have just reviewed the

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PowerPoint decks, it would have eliminated all the problems,

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just was not polished and professional, let's put it that

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way.

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And, you know, for me, I tend to see all that right, like, part

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of my job is helping people, you know, work on their materials

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and create digital assets. And so I my brain has the red pen

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just automatically running through anything that I see.

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But, um,

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so I so I'm aware of the fact that like, I see all the things

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right, I like, if there's a misspelling in anything, it's

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just like, it is just like a glowing beacon. And I just see

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it, but

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so so so I say that because I tend to be the one who is just

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like, oh, my gosh, okay, well, you know, this would be a really

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easy fix.

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But we were out for dinner. And there was a conversation that

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was happening and, and somebody brought up the PowerPoint decks

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had a lot of misspellings. There was a kind of a flyer that was

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sent out, professionally printed, probably cost, I don't

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know, maybe three to $5 each to print. And it was full of errors

Unknown: 00:09:24

full of misspellings. And it was a $4,000 program that they were

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launching, and it was full of issues full of errors. In fact,

Unknown: 00:09:34

one of their their top headlines was misspelled. And, and so you

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know, you look at it and you're like, Okay, well,

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do I want to pay four grand for a program that it can't even get

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the flyer, edited? Right, like, what does that say about what's

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in the program? What does it say about how they're, they're

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paying attention to the details of the experience?

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So, of making sure that I'm getting results of, you know,

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like, what what's happening in the rest of their business, if

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they, if their, their materials that they're putting out there

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on a high ticket offer are not proof read, right? Like, to me,

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there's some issues going on there, right? Like, there's

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chaos happening if that level of basic

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professionalism isn't there. So again, I tend to be more

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critical because I'm looking for those things, I help companies

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kind of fix all of that in their entire business, as they're

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looking at their customer experience.

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You can call it like I helped come in and professionalize

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businesses that are running with duct tape and paper clips. Yeah,

Unknown: 00:10:44

that's what I do. So again, I would expect that I would see

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those different things. But anyway, so we're at dinner, and

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somebody else brings it up. And they're like, Well, I don't know

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if I want to be a part of this new program, if they're not

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paying attention, even to their PowerPoint decks, or to their

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materials, enough to get the spelling correct. And she's

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like, so. And she said, that she's like, so what else? Are

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they not paying attention to? Right? Are they not paying

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attention to me, my particular part of the program, like, you

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know, the, the materials, the, those specific things that they

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have to turn in, in order to move forward in the program, or

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to their results. And she's like, Hey, I just, I love being

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a part of this community. But I just don't know, if I want to

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pay a premium pay all this money, if I don't have

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confidence that the business is,

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you know, put together enough for me to get results and trust

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that, you know, my money, my all my, all the different things

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that they're contributing, are going to be taken care of.

Unknown: 00:12:07

And, and a lot. So you think about it from both perspectives,

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right? Because, of course, when she said that, I was like, yeah,

Unknown: 00:12:13

that's, you know, that's what everyone else is thinking,

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right? There was probably 10 people at the table. And

Unknown: 00:12:17

everyone was like nodding like, yeah, it just seems like maybe,

Unknown: 00:12:21

maybe they don't have their act together. And,

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you know, maybe this isn't the right. This isn't the right

Unknown: 00:12:28

solution, which is a really scary place to be if you're a

Unknown: 00:12:33

business owner trying to make an impact, and you know that you

Unknown: 00:12:36

have the ability to make the impact. You don't want your

Unknown: 00:12:39

customers sitting around a table talking about something as silly

Unknown: 00:12:43

as typos on different documents or on presentations. But when

Unknown: 00:12:51

you don't realize how powerful that sort of nonverbal messaging

Unknown: 00:12:57

is, you miss it, and you don't get why people are leaving, you

Unknown: 00:13:03

don't get why there's more complaints, you don't get why

Unknown: 00:13:05

people are coming up to being like, what the heck, like, why

Unknown: 00:13:10

don't you have somebody to proofread your stuff, right?

Unknown: 00:13:14

It's not about the typos, it's about the message that it's

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sending about the rest of your business, because that's an

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indication that something is wrong, right? It's a symptom to

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the bigger problem. And the bigger problem is that if you

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can't take care of something so small in your house, then

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there's, it sends the message that there are bigger issues

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that are going on that aren't taking care of. And, and so at

Unknown: 00:13:44

some point, that MVP, that rough draft needs to turn into a

Unknown: 00:13:51

professional solution, especially as you go up in terms

Unknown: 00:13:55

of a higher ticket price, right? As you go up to asking your

Unknown: 00:14:00

customers to commit to you to spend more money, you also need

Unknown: 00:14:05

to commit to them to create something that provides them a

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fast, easy and consistent way to get the results. Right. It's

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hard enough for people to actually take action. Right?

Unknown: 00:14:20

It's hard enough, we consume enough brain calories, trying to

Unknown: 00:14:24

learn something,

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kind of take something in new and adjust our behavior, adjust

Unknown: 00:14:30

our skills, and and move things forward. Right? It's hard to do

Unknown: 00:14:35

that, right? You get into a certain place where you're like,

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This is where I am, and this is where I want to be. But in the

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middle, you actually have to do something right like learning

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isn't passive. Skill Building is not passive behavior. Change is

Unknown: 00:14:47

not passive. You have to do something. So your people are

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struggling just to get the energy to change their behavior

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in order to get to the desired result that they want. You

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You creating chaos within that whole process is almost

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insurmountable for your customers.

Unknown: 00:15:08

Right? If you think about it, like, like, if you are trying to

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run on the treadmill, let's just say that right like, so you're

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trying to run on the treadmill, maybe you're going from couch to

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5k, right, so three little over three miles. And so you're

Unknown: 00:15:25

trying to train for this 5k. So you get on the treadmill, and

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you start and you start small. And then you build up to your

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goal of running three miles, so that you can run this 5k Say, at

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the same time that you're running on the treadmill, your

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dog is underneath you or the power keeps going out. Or you're

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like somebody's throwing water on you, or like there's just all

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sorts of crazy obstacles that are in your path as you're

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trying to run. And it becomes harder and harder and harder and

Unknown: 00:16:00

harder to accomplish that three miles if you're constantly

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trying to overcome hurdles, and obstacles that aren't even

Unknown: 00:16:09

necessary to get from point A to point B. Right. And so so often

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as, as business owners who are trying to scale right, high

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growth companies that have done an awesome amazing job at sales

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and marketing, are trying to scale their their inadvertedly

Unknown: 00:16:26

at adding more obstacles and hurdles into their customers

Unknown: 00:16:30

path that are totally not necessary to the process. Just

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because they're not considering how what they're doing is, is

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affecting the effort that your customer has to take. And, and

Unknown: 00:16:45

so that's like, it's such a critical component. And it

Unknown: 00:16:49

starts with something as little as a typo on a PowerPoint deck,

Unknown: 00:16:54

or

Unknown: 00:16:56

a typo on a marketing flyer or on a workbook page or not even

Unknown: 00:17:00

having a workbook page, right, like you're presenting this

Unknown: 00:17:04

amazing material, and you don't have anything to help your

Unknown: 00:17:08

people actually like, internalize what you're

Unknown: 00:17:11

teaching, you're you're missing the boat, you're making it more

Unknown: 00:17:16

complicated. You're you're making it harder than it needs

Unknown: 00:17:19

to be. Once that happens. And your customers are like, Kevin,

Unknown: 00:17:23

it's hard enough for me just to learn this and apply this in my

Unknown: 00:17:26

own life with all the other things that I have going on.

Unknown: 00:17:29

Now. They're, they're intentionally throwing extra

Unknown: 00:17:33

hurdles and obstacles at me. I'm out. I can't do it too hard.

Unknown: 00:17:38

Right? And so, so consider that, as you're looking at how do you

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not only build your online Empire, but

Unknown: 00:17:51

when you're growing and scaling, consider all of the different

Unknown: 00:17:54

things. So take imperfect action, right Done is better

Unknown: 00:17:58

than not done, right? Like launch your thing, do your beta,

Unknown: 00:18:03

but then you have to shift into how do I make sure that I'm

Unknown: 00:18:08

delivering something that's not putting more obstacles and

Unknown: 00:18:10

hurdles in people's way, so that I can continue to grow so that I

Unknown: 00:18:15

can deliver the kind of experience that I want to

Unknown: 00:18:18

deliver so that my people get results, right? And then clean

Unknown: 00:18:23

up your house, make sure that you don't have silly mistakes,

Unknown: 00:18:28

or issues or errors that are just not necessary, right?

Unknown: 00:18:32

Always have somebody just like, look something over just just to

Unknown: 00:18:37

double check, right?

Unknown: 00:18:39

Again, with the intention of how are my customers perceiving

Unknown: 00:18:43

this? How are my people? How are how am I making my people's

Unknown: 00:18:48

lives easier so that they can get results? Right? It's it's

Unknown: 00:18:53

not about the information you're teaching is about all of the

Unknown: 00:18:56

things that are happening as you're trying to help somebody

Unknown: 00:18:59

get from point A to point B. So hopefully this serves you. If

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you want to talk more about this or kind of get into maybe some

Unknown: 00:19:08

examples that you're seeing in your business, give me a shout.

Unknown: 00:19:12

In fact, if you're seeing this in your business, I would love

Unknown: 00:19:15

to have you be a guest on this podcast and we can kind of riff

Unknown: 00:19:17

through like what are some? What are some ways that you can

Unknown: 00:19:21

overcome that? What are some examples that would be really

Unknown: 00:19:25

easy to kind of eliminate those hurdles and obstacles that

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you're not even meaning to put in your customers path so that

Unknown: 00:19:33

you can continue to grow and you can continue to scale from the

Unknown: 00:19:36

inside out. Alright, there you go. Have a great day. You