186: The Lazy Entrepreneur's Guide to 10X Growth
Picture this: It's a year from now. Your digital product business is thriving. Revenue has skyrocketed. And the best part? You're working fewer hours than ever before. Sounds like a fantasy, right?
Well, buckle up, because in this week's episode of the Creator’s MBA Podcast, I'm sharing a principle that could turn this dream into your reality. It's a simple yet powerful concept that's been hiding in plain sight, and it's about to change everything for your business.
Key points with timestamps:
[00:01:06] Understanding the 80/20 rule and its relevance to entrepreneurs
[00:03:46] Applying the principle to product creation and lead magnets
[00:05:32] Identifying and focusing on your top-performing marketing channels
[00:07:18] Recognizing and nurturing your VIP customers
[00:14:36] Embracing automation and creating standard operating procedures (SOPs)
Mastering the 80/20 Rule: A Game-Changer for Digital Product Entrepreneurs
As a digital product entrepreneur, you're likely familiar with the constant juggle of creating products, marketing, managing customers, and everything in between. It's easy to feel overwhelmed and stretched thin, especially when you're trying to balance your business with family obligations and personal time. But what if there was a way to achieve more while doing less? Enter the 80/20 rule, also known as the Pareto principle.
In a recent episode of the Creator’s MBA Podcast, Dr. Destini Copp delved into this powerful concept and how it can revolutionize your approach to entrepreneurship. The 80/20 rule suggests that roughly 80% of your outcomes come from 20% of your inputs. In other words, a small portion of what you're doing is responsible for most of your success. Let's explore how you can apply this principle to various aspects of your digital product business and potentially 10x your revenue.
Streamlining Your Product Creation Process
One of the most exciting aspects of being a digital product entrepreneur is creating new products. However, the 80/20 rule challenges us to rethink this approach. Instead of constantly developing new offerings, consider these strategies:
Identify your product superstars: Look at your existing portfolio, including lead magnets and free resources. Which products are your customers raving about? These are your flagship products that people can't live without.
Improve your best sellers: Rather than creating new products, pour your energy into making your top performers even better. This focused approach can yield significant results with less effort.
Repurpose existing content: Take a fresh look at your lead magnets and free resources. Can you transform these into paid products? Consider beefing them up and incorporating them into your sales funnel as order bumps or upsells.
By concentrating on your most successful products and repurposing existing content, you can maximize your returns without spreading yourself too thin.
Focusing Your Marketing Efforts
In today's digital landscape, it's tempting to try and be everywhere at once. However, the 80/20 rule reminds us that not all marketing channels are created equal for your specific business. Here's how to apply this principle to your marketing strategy:
Analyze your data: Dig into your analytics and identify where your sales are actually coming from. Which channels are bringing in the most customers?
Double down on top performers: Once you've identified your most effective channels, make these your primary focus. For example, if most of your sales come from email marketing and Pinterest, concentrate your efforts there.
Let go of underperforming channels: It's okay to put less successful platforms on the back burner or even let them go entirely. This frees up your time and energy for what's truly working.
Remember, what works for one business may not work for another. The key is to find and nurture your unique marketing goldmine.
Nurturing Your VIP Customers
The 80/20 rule applies to your customer base as well. Some customers are likely spending far more than others, buying everything you offer. These are your super fans, and they deserve special attention. Here's how to make the most of this insight:
Identify your VIPs: Use your sales data to pinpoint customers who buy frequently or spend big. Tools like Stripe can help you easily identify these top customers.
Create exclusive experiences: Design special offers or experiences just for your VIP customers. This could be early access to new products, exclusive content, or personalized services.
Show extra appreciation: Find ways to make your super fans feel valued. Personal thank-you notes, special discounts, or even a VIP customer program can go a long way in fostering loyalty.
By focusing on your most valuable customers, you can increase customer lifetime value and potentially generate more revenue with less effort.
Maximizing Your Time Management
As an entrepreneur, your time is your most precious resource. The 80/20 rule can help you make the most of it. Here's how:
Track your activities: For a week, jot down everything you do each day and the results of those activities.
Identify high-impact tasks: Look for the tasks that are really moving the needle in your business. These are your 20% activities.
Prioritize and delegate: Make your high-impact tasks your priority. For everything else, consider delegating, automating, or eliminating.
Embrace automation: Use tools and software to handle routine tasks. This frees up your time for more strategic, big-picture thinking.
Create SOPs: For tasks that can't be fully automated, create step-by-step guides or standard operating procedures (SOPs). This makes it easier to delegate these tasks in the future.
By focusing on the activities that truly drive results, you can achieve more without working longer hours.
Implementing the 80/20 Rule in Your Business
Ready to put the 80/20 rule into action? Here's a simple way to get started:
Assess your current situation: Take a good look at your products, marketing efforts, customers, and how you spend your time.
Identify top performers: In each area, determine what's driving the most results.
Create a focus plan: Develop a strategy to concentrate more of your energy on these key drivers.
Streamline the rest: Look for ways to automate, delegate, or simplify the remaining 80% of activities.
Monitor and adjust: Keep an eye on your results and be prepared to reassess and adjust your approach as needed.
Remember, the 80/20 rule isn't about working more—it's about working smarter. By zeroing in on what truly drives your success, you can achieve significant growth without burning out.
Implementing the 80/20 rule in your digital product business can be a game-changer. It allows you to focus your energy on what really matters, potentially leading to exponential growth while actually reducing your workload. So why not give it a try? Your future, more successful, and less stressed self will thank you.
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Transcript:
Dr. Destini Copp [00:00:07]:
Welcome to the Creator’s MBA Podcast, your go to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destini Copp, and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desk, constantly live launching, or worrying about the social media algorithms. I hope you enjoy our episode today. Hi there. Destini here. And today, I wanna talk about a concept that could change the way you run your business. Now I know that many of you, you don't have a ton of time to invest in your business. At most, some of you might only have 20 hours per week to work, and that's between all of the kids' stuff, the family obligations, and everything else that you have going on.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:01:06]:
The concept that I want you to think about today is called the 80 20 rule, or if you're in the scientific community, the Pareto principle. And this rule suggests that about 80% of the outcomes come from 20% of your inputs. In other words, a small portion of what you're doing is responsible for most of your success. So let's talk about what this means to you as an entrepreneur and why you should care about this. So here's the deal. We are all juggling a million things. We're creating products. We're marketing them.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:01:56]:
We're dealing with customers. We're managing our websites. We're posting on social media, we're creating content. I mean, the list goes on and on and on. It can feel like we are always busy, but are we really moving the needle? And that's where the 80 20 rule comes in. It's all about working smarter, not harder. So by focusing on the stuff that really matters, and I'm gonna call that the magical 20%, you can drive results without working 60 plus hours a week. Now in my digital product growth lab that we are gonna be launching next month, this is a major focus for us, and that is figuring out what you should focus on to actually move the needle in your business instead of spreading yourself too thin.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:03:01]:
So let's break it all down here. I wanna walk you through the 80 20 rule in action. And the first place where you can apply this concept is when you are creating new products. And I know all of us, and I'm I'm gonna put myself in this category too. We love creating new products. Well, here is the truth bomb. You might not need to do this. Instead, what I want you to do is to take a look at the products you already have in your portfolio, even your lead magnets and things that you have been given away for free over the years.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:03:46]:
I want you to figure out what your product superstars are, and these are the ones that people cannot live without. You know that these are your flagship products. I want you, instead of creating new products, I want you to pour your energy into making those products even better. Another opportunity that I want you to do, and let's go back and assume that you might have these lead magnets that you've created over the years. I want you to figure out which lead magnets you really need to take that new person coming into your world on that buyer's journey, and then I want you to repurpose all of those old lead magnets into paid products. You can make them better. You can beef them up, and you could put them in a sales funnel. You can put them in like an order bump or maybe a bundle some of them together in like an upsell.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:04:47]:
So you're gonna take what you've already done, and you're going to repurpose it. Now moving on, let's talk about marketing and figure out where's your gold mine here. And I would have to say we have all been there, and that is trying to be everywhere at once. Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, email, blog posts, YouTube, podcast. I mean, it can be exhausting. But here's the thing. Not all of these channels are created equal for your business. And what might work for me, something else might work better for you.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:05:32]:
I'm not on TikTok. I don't plan on being on TikTok, but TikTok may work great for you. I love Pinterest. I love podcasting. You might like being on Instagram, and that's where your sales are coming from and your customers are coming from. So that's what I want you to analyze. I want you to dig into all of that data and look at where your sales are actually coming from. And I want you to identify your top performing channels.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:06:02]:
These are the ones that are bringing in your customers, and then I want you to double down on those channels and make them your marketing playground. And then for the ones that just aren't working for you, it's okay to let them go or maybe just put them on the back burner and don't post on them right now. So maybe you'll find that most of your sales is coming from your email list and Pinterest while your Instagram is just crickets. So then I would say, why not focus on crafting amazing emails and your Pinterest content and driving traffic to your website instead of stressing about things that aren't working for you? The next thing I want you to think about is your customers. And here's a little secret that you might not be aware of, and that is not all customers are created equal. Some of your customers are probably spending way more than others are buying everything you put out there. And I have people like this. Like, I have people that will buy almost everything that we offer.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:07:18]:
So I want you to take a look at your customer base and really, you know, identify what you would call your super fans, and these are the ones who buy often or maybe they're spending big with you. And I think if you go into your Stripe account, it will tell you who those people are. I know, like, we have customers in our Hobby School brand that buy every single VIP pass and all of the upsells that we offer through that funnel. Every time we have a summit, they will go in and buy it. So those are our super fans. They are very interested in what we have to offer, and they love it. So I want you to think about those type of customers and how you can make those VIPs feel very extra special. And then you can think about creating experiences or offers just for them.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:08:14]:
So think about that and really identify who your VIP customers are. The next thing I want you to think about really comes down to time management. The most precious thing we have as an entrepreneur or just in life in general is our time. We can never get our time back. And the 80 20 rule suggest that a small portion of what you do each day is responsible for most of your results. So here's what you can do to kind of figure out what is your sweet spot there. So for a week, I want you to jot down what you're doing each day and what comes out of it, you know, what you accomplished, if you would. I want you to spot the tasks that are really moving the needle for your business.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:09:05]:
Track how long those take you, and then say, you know, these are the ones that I'm seeing the most results from. I know for us, it comes down to our podcast episodes. It comes down to our weekly email newsletter and what we do with the email list, and then it comes down to our dis distributing our content, which the for the majority of what we do, we're using Pinterest for that. And we know that those three things are really moving the needle for us. So then I want you to make those high impact tasks your priority. And for the other stuff, you can delegate, you can automate, or you can even eliminate it. So like I said, you might realize that the hour that you spend on email marketing consistently drives your sales, while the hours that you spend perfecting your social media post, not so much. So then I would just suggest that you shift your focus to what is working for you and to really understand what is working to move that needle in your business.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:10:18]:
Now the next thing I wanna talk about, and this is an area that you should definitely take a close, look at, and that is creating content. And I would suggest here that quality beats quantity. And we know that creating content is a big part of our digital product businesses. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to look at how your content is performing, what's getting traffic, and what's leading to sales. And then I want you to identify your superstar content. And this is the stuff that's really resonating with your audience. What are they responding to? What are they watching? What are they listening to? And then really figure out what makes that content special.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:11:07]:
Is it the format? Is it the topic? Is it the way you presented it? And then I want you to create more content like your top performers. So that's gonna help you really understand where you need to be placing your focus. So maybe what your focus should be are YouTube videos, and that's what's driving a lot of traffic to your website. If that's what it is and, you know, that's part of your content creation strategy, then double down on that. The next thing I want you to think about is scaling up but not burning out. So really define your sweet spot here. I want you to take a good look at your products and your services. Think about which ones are bringing in the most money with the least amount of effort from you.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:12:05]:
So let me just say that again. To scale your digital product business, I want you to take a good look at your product and your services and your offers and figure out which ones are bringing the most money with the least ongoing effort from you. So you're gonna list out all of your offers, and you're gonna list out how much time and effort each one of them takes. And then you're gonna identify the ones that are making good money, but don't need you to be hands on with them all the time. And then think about how you can promote or expand these scalable offers. And I know that a lot of you, because you are digital product entrepreneurs, I know that you have products that you've already created here that might be a self study course, might be a digital product bundle. I want you to think about how you could promote and get these awesome products that you have out into the marketplace. Whereas, like, a service that you're doing or, you know, if you have, like, 1 on 1 coaching where you're having to do Zoom calls all the time, that's not as scalable as a self paced online course.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:13:21]:
So I just want you to think about that and figure out what you can do to get more revenue coming into your business without it taking up more of your time. Okay? The next thing I want you to do is to embrace automation. So when you're thinking about the 80 20 rule, this can also apply to you setting up systems that handle most of your routine tasks, which will bring you up to focus on more strategy, more big picture stuff, and more things that are gonna move the needle, if you would, in your business. So I want you, to identify tasks that you find yourself doing over and over and over again. So think about AI and how you can get AI to do a lot of this in your business. Now we are using AI day in and day out in our business to help us with email marketing, content creation, all of that stuff that used to take us hours and hours to do. And quite frankly, it has cut all of that in more than half the time. So we're doing it at least 50% faster than what we used to do in the past.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:14:36]:
So I want you to look for tools and software that can take all of that off of your plate For things that can't be fully automated, what I want you to do is think about creating a simple step by step guide. A lot of times you'll hear those referred to as SOPs or standard operating procedures. And the reason why you want these step by step guys is if you ever at a point where you're ready to hire a VA or somebody that could come into your business and help you, like, 5 hours a week, you can just easily hand off stuff like that to them. Okay? So definitely think about ways that you can use AI to cut your work in half and then make sure you have those step by step guides put in place so when you're ready to outsource some of this, it's easy for you to do it. Now what I want you to do is to watch out for some of these traps here. There are definitely a couple of pitfalls to watch out for. The first one is I don't want you to mistake being busy for being productive. So just because you're always doing something doesn't mean that you're focusing on the right things.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:15:56]:
I want you to keep an eye on the results, not just how busy you feel. The other thing I don't want you to do is to completely ignore that other 80%. So we definitely wanna make sure that we are focusing on the high impact stuff and activities in our business. You can't neglect everything else. The other 80% still contributes to your business, Quite frankly, it's still gonna have to get done, so make sure that you don't ignore it. The other thing I don't want you to get stuck in is in analysis paralysis. So don't get so caught up in trying to perfectly identify your 80 20 split that you never actually make any changes. I want you to remember that this is a guideline and not an exact science.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:16:54]:
So if you are ready to give this a go, I want to give you a simple way to get started to identify the 20% activities in your business. The first thing I want you to do is take a really good look at what you're doing. So look at your products, your marketing efforts, your customers, and how you spend your time. And I want you to identify the top performers in each area. This is gonna be the activities and the things that are really driving your results, and then make a plan to focus more of your energy on all of these key drivers, and then look for ways to streamline or automate the rest. Now in our business, we have definitely done this. So we are using AI on a regular basis. We have done a lot of automations in our business and put together those SOPs, so we know what needs to be done for each task.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:18:03]:
We have focused on specific products and events that we're working on. And quite frankly, there's a lot of stuff that we kinda put to the side, and said, you know what? That's not driving ourselves, and we're not gonna spend our time working in those areas. And social media has been one of those for us. Now I'm not saying that we won't go back and revisit that at some point in the future, but right now, it hasn't been a main focus for us. So what I want you to do is to put your plan in action and keep an eye on the results, and then go back and reassess every now and then and look at what's working, what's not working because some of this may change over time. So just to wrap it up here today, I just wanna mention that the 80 20 rule isn't just about managing your time better. It's about completely changing how you approach your business and life. By zeroing in on what really drives your success, you can achieve some serious growth without working all of those crazy hours.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:19:18]:
And I do want you to remember, it's not about working more. That's not what we're wanting to do here. It's about working smarter. So by doubling down on those 20% activities, you can make a much bigger impact while potentially lightening your workload. And don't we all want that? And if you're excited about this concept and you want to apply it to your business, I've got something special coming up for you next month. I am launching the digital product growth lab where we will be diving into strategies like this and putting together a very tailored and focused plan for you and your business. And this will help you focus on those 20% activities to 10 x your digital product revenue. I'd like to invite you to get on our wait list so you can be the 1st to know when the doors open.
Dr. Destini Copp [00:20:23]:
And remember, it's not about working harder. It's about working smarter. And here's to your success, And thanks so much for tuning in today. Bye for now. Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you'd like the show, I'd appreciate a review on Apple Podcasts or your favorite podcast platform. Have a great rest of your day, and bye for now.