205: The Overlooked Secret to Scaling Your Business
Have you ever wondered why some entrepreneurs make business growth look almost effortless, while others (maybe including yourself sometimes!) seem to be constantly pushing a boulder uphill?
In this week's episode of the Creators MBA podcast, I'm pulling back the curtain to share something I rarely talk about in such detail – the exact framework I use to structure my business offers in a way that creates sustainable, scalable growth.
What You'll Discover in This Episode:
The "growth flywheel" concept that transformed how I approach my business (and can do the same for yours)
Why having multiple disconnected offers might actually be holding you back
How to strategically design your customer journey from free resources all the way to premium offerings
The specific structure behind my most successful offers (including actual examples from my business)
A step-by-step approach to mapping your own offer portfolio for maximum momentum
I walk you through the real systems I've built that allow new customers to naturally progress through my business ecosystem, creating consistent revenue without constant hustle.
If you've been feeling like you're working harder than your business results show, or if you're tired of the constant grind of finding new customers, this episode might be exactly what you need right now.
Episode Highlights:
[00:01:00] Understanding what a growth flywheel is and how it creates sustainable business momentum
[00:03:00] Breakdown of entry-level offers (free resources, workshops, and tripwires) that bring new people into your world
[00:05:00] Deep dive into core programs: Newsletter Profit Club and Digital Product Growth Lab
[00:07:00] High-touch coaching options for personalized support and how they connect to core offers
[00:11:00] Actionable steps to create your own growth flywheel, starting with identifying entry points
Mentioned in this episode:
How to Structure Your Offer Portfolio to Power Your Growth Flywheel
Have you ever wondered how some entrepreneurs seem to grow their businesses so effortlessly while you're working twice as hard for half the results? The secret isn't just hustle – it's strategic design. After years of helping business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital products, I've discovered that sustainable growth comes down to one crucial element: a well-structured offer portfolio that works like a flywheel.
In this post, I'm pulling back the curtain to show you exactly how I've structured my own business offers to create momentum that builds upon itself. Whether you're just starting out or looking to refine your existing offers, you'll discover how to create a seamless customer journey that naturally guides people from free resources all the way to premium offerings.
Understanding the Growth Flywheel Concept
Think of your business like a wheel. Initially, it requires significant effort to get moving, but once momentum builds, it spins with increasingly less effort. That's the essence of a growth flywheel – a self-sustaining system where each component feeds into the next, creating perpetual motion.
A true growth flywheel uses interconnected offers that naturally guide customers from one step to the next. This not only enhances the customer experience but continually drives your business forward. The beauty of this approach is that once properly established, it reduces the constant grind of finding new customers. Instead, your energy focuses on optimizing the system and delivering exceptional value at each touchpoint.
The flywheel effect means you're not constantly starting from zero. Each new person who enters your world has multiple pathways to continue engaging with your business, creating compounding results over time. This is how sustainable businesses scale without burning out their founders.
Creating Effective Entry Points to Your Business
Every strong offer portfolio begins with thoughtfully designed entry points – the simplest ways new people can experience value from your business. These first interactions are crucial because they set the tone for the entire customer relationship.
In my business, I've created several entry points that consistently bring new people into my world:
Free value-packed resources like my Newsletter Profit Calculator that solve specific problems while showcasing my expertise
Regular free workshops and trainings that deliver complete, actionable solutions in a short timeframe
Low-cost digital products in my Hello Content shop that provide affordable ways to experience my teaching style
The key is that each of these entry points delivers substantial value on its own. A potential customer should walk away from even your free content thinking, "Wow, if this is what they give away for free, imagine what their paid offerings must be like!"
But entry points aren't just about attraction – they're also about conversion. That's why I've set up tripwire funnels behind many of my free resources. For example, after someone signs up for my 13-minute workshop on mapping out digital product offers, they immediately see my Funnel Cure course offer on the thank-you page, complete with order bumps and upsells that make perfect sense as next steps.
Developing Core Offers That Drive Revenue
While entry points bring people into your world, it's your core offers that will generate the bulk of your revenue. These are the programs or products that represent the primary solution you provide to your audience.
A critical mistake I see many digital product entrepreneurs make is failing to establish a clear core offer. Instead, they create numerous low-ticket products without a central offering that ties everything together. The problem? You'd need massive traffic and a huge email list to generate substantial income solely from low-priced digital products.
In my business, I have two key programs that serve as core offers:
The Newsletter Profit Club – Designed for entrepreneurs who want to effectively monetize their newsletters through strategies like affiliate marketing, sponsorships, and selling digital products.
The Digital Product Growth Lab – Created for digital product entrepreneurs seeking a clear path to scaling their businesses through the growth flywheel approach.
These core offers provide recurring revenue (available as monthly or annual subscriptions) and create a stable foundation for my business. They're priced at a point that makes them accessible while still reflecting their substantial value, and they're comprehensive enough to deliver transformative results.
Most importantly, all roads in my marketing lead to these core offers. They're the natural next step from my entry-level content, and they're positioned as the complete solution to the problems I address in my free content.
Adding Premium Offerings for Personalized Support
Not everyone wants the same level of support. Some clients are perfectly happy with the group learning environment of a core program, while others crave more personalized attention. That's why I've created premium offerings that allow customers to upgrade their experience.
For those who want more direct access, I offer:
VIP Coaching – Weekly real-time strategic feedback sessions via Voxer where members can ask questions and get immediate troubleshooting help
Digital Product Accelerator – My highest-level one-on-one coaching package, which includes unlimited Voxer support, monthly personalized Zoom calls, detailed marketing audits, and weekly accountability
These premium offerings create natural progression paths for clients whose businesses are evolving and require more comprehensive support. As they implement what they learn in my core programs and see results, many naturally want to accelerate their progress with more personalized guidance.
From a business perspective, these high-ticket offers increase customer lifetime value and deepen relationships with your most committed clients. They also create opportunities for case studies and testimonials that fuel marketing for your entire offer portfolio.
Ensuring Your Offers Create a Seamless Customer Journey
The true power of a growth flywheel comes from how seamlessly your offers connect to one another. Each offering should naturally lead to the next, creating a clear pathway for customers as their needs evolve.
In my business, someone might discover me through a Facebook ad promoting a free workshop. After experiencing the value of that workshop, they join the Newsletter Profit Club. As they implement those strategies and grow, they also join the Digital Product Growth Lab to further scale their business. Eventually, as their business becomes more complex, they upgrade to VIP coaching for personalized support.
This intentional design keeps the flywheel spinning. Because many of my offers operate on a subscription basis (either monthly or annually), once someone enters my ecosystem, they tend to stay. Many clients join both of my core programs, creating multiple streams of recurring revenue from the same customer.
The key is that each transition feels natural and timely. I'm not aggressively pushing people toward the next offer; I'm simply ensuring that when they're ready for more, the logical next step is clear and available.
How to Map Your Own Offer Portfolio
Now that you understand the framework, let's talk about how you can apply this to your own business. Here's a simple process to get started:
Identify your entry points: What is the simplest way someone new can experience value from your business? Create at least one powerful free resource that showcases your expertise and addresses a specific pain point.
Set up automated funnels: Design tripwire funnels that present low-cost offers immediately after someone engages with your free content. This might include a mini-course with relevant order bumps and upsells.
Develop your core offer: Determine what your primary solution is – the offer that all your marketing ultimately leads toward. This could be a course, cohort program, group coaching, or membership.
Create premium upgrades: Consider how you can provide more personalized support for clients who want additional guidance. This might be VIP days, one-on-one coaching, or done-for-you services.
Map the connections: Visualize how each offer leads to the next. Ensure there are clear pathways for customers to progress through your business as their needs evolve.
Take time to map this out visually. Draw the connections between your offers and consider the customer journey from their perspective. Does each step logically lead to the next? Are there gaps that need to be filled?
Final Thoughts: Building a Sustainable Business Engine
Creating a growth flywheel through your offer portfolio isn't just about making more sales – it's about building a sustainable business engine that serves both you and your clients at the highest level. When done right, this approach reduces the constant pressure to find new customers and creates space for you to focus on delivering exceptional value.
The beauty of this system is that it works across virtually any niche or business model. Whether you're a course creator, coach, consultant, or service provider, structuring your offers as a growth flywheel can transform your business from a constant hustle to a smoothly operating machine.
Remember that building this system takes time. Start with where you are – perhaps by creating that first compelling free resource or developing your core offer. Then gradually add the other elements as your business evolves.
If you're ready to implement this in your own business but feel like you need guidance, consider joining us in the Digital Product Growth Lab where we walk through this exact process step-by-step. Together, we'll create a growth flywheel that works seamlessly for your unique business.
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] 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 desks, constantly live launching.
or worrying about the social media algorithms. I hope you enjoy our episode today.
Hi there, Destini here. Today I am super excited to take you a little bit behind the scenes and I want to walk you through how to structure your offer portfolio to power your growth flywheel. Now you may be wondering how some successful
[00:01:00] entrepreneurs managed to grow their businesses so quickly. And I really do think that it all comes down to strategically structuring an offer portfolio that acts as this powerful growth flywheel.
So today, I kind of want to, like I said, take you behind the scenes and show you how I have structured my portfolio. my offers and how they all kind of seamlessly work together to build that sustainable and scalable growth. But first, let me briefly kind of walk you through what a growth flywheel is. And here's how I want you to think about it. I want you to think about your business like a wheel. Initially, it might take a lot of effort to get that wheel moving. But once you have
[00:02:00] momentum, it spins with much less effort. So it's growing your business sustainably.
And a growth flywheel uses These interconnected offers that naturally guide customers from one step to the next, which takes them on, you know, that customer journey inside your business, but it's also going to continually driving your business forward. So in my business, I would say that I have carefully designed my offers to really smoothly guide people through their growth journey.
And I do have some entry level offers. These would be kind of the starting points if you would. So somebody who's just coming into the my world, this is where they're going to start. Now generally this is going to be like my free resources. So, just to give you an example
[00:03:00] here, I have my newsletter profit calculator, so that would be a free resource that I offer.
I also do webinars, or free trainings, or free workshops on a regular basis. A lot of people come into my world through those free trainings. I have some low cost, affordable digital products. I have all of those set up in my Hello Content shop. So all of those initial kind of interactions, provide a ton of value, right?
My workshops provide a ton of value. My free gifts provide a ton of value and definitely helps my audience. familiar with how I can help them. Also with these entry level offers, especially with the free gifts and the free resources, I have tripwire set up for them.
And I'll give you an example of one. So one of the ones that I have set up
[00:04:00] is for like a very short free workshop that I do that helps people map out. Their offers or their digital products in a tripwire type funnel So it's like a 13 minute workshop People can sign up for it.
I have an AI prompt that helps them kind of map all of that out from their lead magnet to their tripwire, to their order bunk, to their upsell, so they walk away from that 13 minute training and they know exactly the offers that they're going to have in that tripwire funnel. Once somebody signs up for that free resource, On the very next page, I have my tripwire offer, which is my funnel cure course.
and then along with that, I have like order bumps and upsells. So again, those are kind of my entry level type offers. Once someone has experienced my entry level content, typically they're going to
[00:05:00] move into one of my key programs.
The first one is the Newsletter Profit Club. So that is designed for entrepreneurs who really want to dig in and effectively monetize their newsletter. So in there I cover strategies such as affiliate marketing, sponsorships, selling their own digital products in their newsletter. And then we have a lot of other stuff that we do there, like collaboration opportunities.
I do live monthly workshops. There's a private podcast feed where they can ask questions and get answers. So there's a lot that I offer in the newsletter profit club. The other program that I offer is my digital product growth lab. So that's for digital product creators who want a clear path to scaling their digital product business.
So we talk a lot
[00:06:00] about the growth flywheel, how to do your perfect offer, how to, set up in really looking at all aspects of that growth flywheel. I have trainings that I've already done. I have monthly workshops. We do live Q& A sessions. I also have some focus implementation weeks to help people get results.
Now, like I said, a lot of people join. both of those programs. Now, in addition to that, for people who want more personalized high touch support, I do have some additional coaching options so they can upgrade. So let's say that they're in the digital product growth lab. And they want to get some personalized coaching.
I offer real time strategic feedback. every Wednesday in the VIP coaching that we do there.
[00:07:00] And that's done via Voxer and members can instantly ask questions. They can get, you know, feedback there.
We can sit there and troubleshoot and we can go back and forth for somebody who really wants that high touch coaching. I have my digital product accelerator, which is my one on one coaching. So that's my highest level coaching package. And in there I do unlimited Boxer support. We do monthly personalized zoom calls.
They can also submit, for a detailed marketing audit every month. And I also do customized milestones and weekly accountability checks. So here's how all of this kind of strategically connects to each other. So as you can tell, as I was describing this, you can see how each offer in my portfolio will naturally lead clients to that [00:08:00] next step depending on where they are in their business journey.
To give you an example. So let's say That somebody's new to me and they have discovered me in one of my visibility efforts that I have. Maybe it's a Facebook ad I'm running. Maybe it's a summit that I'm participating in. Maybe I've done a newsletter swap with somebody.
So they're either, finding out about that free workshop that I'm doing or one of our free resources or signing up for that, then maybe, They'll join the Newsletter Profit Club or the Digital Product Growth Lab after signing up for that particular resource. A lot of these resources, like for instance, for the Newsletter Profit Calculator, the tripwire for that is the Newsletter Profit Club.
So they sign up and then immediately they're presented with that offer and I have a lot of people that join immediately.
[00:09:00] Sometimes I will run Facebook ads for an offer like that and some of my people will, they don't know anything about me, but they'll still join like the Newsletter Profit Club directly from the Facebook ad.
And then once they're in that program, as their business evolves, they need more support. They're making progress in their business. They will upgrade to the VIP coaching or choose even the one on one coaching for very comprehensive, tailor guidance. So this intentional design that I have set up keeps that flywheel spinning.
So for instance, a lot of the offers that I have, are monthly type offers. Now, a lot of people sign up for annually, but a lot of this too is monthly. So the VIP coaching is monthly. The one on one coaching is
[00:10:00] monthly. Obviously, like for the newsletter profit club or the digital product growth lab, they have options.
They can join monthly or they can join annually. So what has happened is once somebody comes into my world, They pretty much stay there. I know that if somebody comes in and joins the Digital Product Growth Club, they're probably going to join the Newsletter Profit Club or vice versa.
So most people, a lot of people will be in both. So that's monthly recurring revenue that I have coming in every single month from that particular member. So let's talk a little bit about you and what does this mean for your business and how can you set up your growth flywheel. Now generally where I tell people to start is to
[00:11:00] identify the entry points.
So what is the simplest way someone new can experience value from your business? So that's where you're going to want to start here. So you absolutely want to have a valuable free gift. And this, like I said, this could be a free gift that you have, like I have my newsletter profit calculator.
Or it could do be like a free workshop or free training that you're doing. That is. a very valuable way, a very simple way for somebody new to come in and get a huge amount of value from you. And then from there, depending on how you have that set up, I generally recommend that folks have some type of automated funnel setup.
Somebody signs up for your free gift. Maybe it's a, like a PDF that has like a video with it on the next page. I
[00:12:00] want you to have some type of tripwire type offer, which for most of you that's going to be like a mini course. For instance, I talked a little bit earlier about the funnel workshop.
that I have that leads into my funnel cure course. That's a mini course where I walk people through how to set up their tripwire type funnels so they can get customers on autopilot. You have that tripwire offer set up. for somebody who purchases that, they're going to get an immediate understanding of what it's like to work with you and what it's like to get value from you.
Then from there, I want you to think about what is your core offer. And really in your business, you want all roads to lead to this core
[00:13:00] offer. A mistake that I see a lot of digital product entrepreneurs out there making is they don't have a core offer.
They have maybe a bunch of these digital product offers that they've set up and they're selling them maybe they're selling them on their everything page. Maybe they've even put them in a Shopify store. The problem is you will need a ton of traffic, a large email list to make what most of you are going to consider a good living from,, a bunch of low cost digital offers.
To me, the best way to sell those low cost digital offers, let's just say you had 10 of them. I'm just going to throw a number out there. The best way to sell these low cost digital offers will be in a tripwire type funnel. So somebody signs up for your lead
[00:14:00] magnet and you have your tripwire, which will be some type of mini course.
You might have an order bump there and maybe, you know, a couple of upsells. So in that particular funnel that I just described, you'll have your tripwire offer, order bump, and maybe, two or three upsells. That's five products. You could easily put in a tripwire funnel like that
and then if you set up two of those, you're going to have the opportunity to sell those offers anytime somebody signs up for one of your lead magnets. So if you're participating in a bundle or participating in a summit, or you're just driving traffic to one of your free gifts, maybe you're even driving pay traffic to that.
You're going to have an opportunity to sell those offers on a regular basis. But your core offer would be something that is real, is higher price. So it could be a course, it could be a cohort, it could be a group
[00:15:00] coaching program, it could be a membership like what I have. Then from your core offer, you can even have some upgrades from there. Like what I do, right? I have the VIP coaching, which is the Wednesday office hours that I sell for $199 a month or I have my one on one coaching, which is my premium high touch coaching which sells for, depending on what plan you pick, it can sell for anywhere from like $500 a month to $450 a month.
So there you can see how your clients can progress from those low entry type points all the way to your core offer. And then even some of your upgrades from your core offers. So there you go. I've kind of walked you through how you can Use your offer portfolio to power your entire growth flywheel. And what I
[00:16:00] want you to do today is take some time and map out your offers visually.
I want you to think about each step and how it logically leads to the nest. And if you want some personalized Or maybe you just have questions. Think about joining the digital product growth lab. Just reach out to me. I'll be more than happy to give you some more information and I love to help you create a growth flywheel that works seamlessly for your business.
Bye for now.
Thanks for listening all the way to the end. I hope you enjoyed this episode today. If you love 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.