I’ve been working with John Thornhill and Randy Smith in the Partnership to Success program and am close to having my first product ready for launch. Looking back to where I was even a few short months ago, it has been a journey of learning and discovery. I’m also shocked at how quickly I lose sight of the strides I’ve made and instead tend to get caught up in how far I have to go.
Possibly the most difficult aspect of this has been narrowing my focus down. I submitted my first mind-map on the 6th of April, for a product based on a business development workshop I had created and delivered successfully. Randy’s immediate feedback was he thought it was way too big and way too detailed and I needed to simplify and streamline. A week later I sent him my revised map. His feedback was the same – I was still too detailed and too much there to be able to complete and deliver.
I went back to the drawing board and I’m not sure exactly how I got there, but I chose to model my revision on the old Eddie Cochrane hit Three Steps To Heaven (although the version I know is the 1975 Showaddywaddy hit).
Again, my focus was on business development and using the theme of the 3 steps to move from identifying your target market and customer avatar (Step 1: You find a Girl to Love); attracting their attention (Step 2: She falls in love with you); and developing a relationship with your ideal customers (Step 3: You kiss and hold her tightly).
I found that very useful in getting focused and keeping moving, but once I was up and running, I moved away from it and back towards a less gimmicky format/theme. It took me nearly four weeks to get my next draft in and surprise, surprise – Randy again told me – too big, too detailed, too complex. Back to the drawing board!
Another 3 weeks of to-ing and fro-ing, change and undo change, add, delete, rephrase, reorder and I submitted my most recent draft on Sunday last 31 May. Randy replied within hours – “Yep, I like it…” Woohoo! I still have a long way to go. I had originally aimed to be complete by the end of May and have now re-set my goal to have it done by the end of June. It’s taken a lot of work and a few calls with Randy whose advice and support has been fantastic.
When I think that I’ve come from Day Zero in developing my product to this stage in less than eight weeks, I’m delighted and more than a little proud. Thanks John. Thanks Randy.
If you think you might like to have a go at developing an online business and/or creating a product, check out Partnership to Success – I couldn’t recommend it highly enough.
I’d love to hear your comments below – all feedback acknowledged 😊
