The first time Chelsea (Smart Money Mamas) appeared on the show, it was only her 2nd podcast appearance ever, and she had JUST started to grow Pinterest traffic.
Since then?
She’s made over $250k+ from her first product, The ICE Binder.
Today she’s stopping by to chat…
- The story of the accidental six-figure PDF (The ICE Binder)
- The “CrissCross Drill:” A simple exercise for exploring product ideas
- How to set products up to stand out and succeed
This episode will go down in DYEB history as one of the BEST pieces of content for discovering, creating, and launching your own products.
Enjoy, don’t miss my takeaways below! I’ll also highlight the exercise 🙂
The CrissCross Drill
Note: Chelsea created this little exercise, not me. She’s the brains–I’m the silly idiot who likes to name things ????
Here are the steps:
- What does your audience need help with?
- What helps them DO those things?
- What are you good at?
- What do you enjoy doing?
- Where’s the crossover?
How to DO this CrissCross Drill:
- Grab several sheets of paper, or open a Google doc
- Brainstorm and braindump everything you can for each question!
- Do the “crisscross,” I.e. find the crossover ideas
- Expand on those
I HIGHLY recommend giving yourself a blank sheet of paper for EACH question.
This gives you plenty of space to think, draw, and write.
First, what is the exercise for?
The “CrissCross Drill” is a simple exercise you can do for two applications:
- Formulating unique product ideas
- Getting clarity about pain points your audience has (and how you might help them)
That said, here are the questions:
1. What does your audience need help with?
What are their goals and what is stopping them from achieving those goals?
Where are the pain points? The obstacles they’re currently looking for help with?
Do they need more blog traffic?
Do they need to learn about investing? How to discipline their children effectively? Take better photographs?
Note: I also ended up categorizing my audience for “skill level,” I.e. B = beginner, I = intermediate, A = advanced.
2. What helps them do those things or achieve those goals?
- What systems?
- What courses?
- What support systems?
What type of content? What format?
Is a PDF enough? Digital or print-out? Emailed or snail-mailed?
Course, summit, or membership site? Coaching or mentoring or mastermind groups?
3. What are you good at?
What specifically are your best skills in this arena?
Are you good at talking? Writing? Editing video?
Are you skilled in creating courses quickly, like me? Or in thinking big, planning, and executing like Chelsea?
4. What do you enjoy doing?
We all know of things we can do really well–but we hate doing.
So what do you enjoy?
Creating content? Organizing and planning events?
Connecting people in person? Giving advice like a coach/mentor?
5. Crisscross: Identify where there are crossovers!
If you have fleshed out those questions in full, you should be able to go BACK through your notes/answers–and look for crossover ideas.
A few examples to help you out:
- My audience feels an emotional need to “be prepared” financially (especially for emergencies). They want comfort.
- They need something QUICK and EASY to start fixing this problem today, else it’s completely overwhelming. They also need something affordable (since they’re concerned about money already).
- I’m really good at creating printables, and genuinely enjoy it.
That’s the ICE Binder.
Here’s another:
- My audience wants to grow their platforms and make more money to supplement or quit their jobs–but they usually lack a clear strategy, a bit of knowledge, and support.
- Courses do ok, but there are several other systems and FORMATS that actually help them achieve their goals a lot more.
- I’m really good at creating tons of course quickly, and connecting people with assets that’ll provide them support.
That’s Online Impact.
Don’t be shy in generating a LOT of luke-warm crossover ideas, either.
It’s rare to do this exercise and immediately be hit with a “home-run” idea. However, it can be useful for generating several “base hit” ideas that’ll hopefully lead to a home-run later.
🙂
So there it is. One of the first times I specifically sat down and mapped out what my membership site would look like 🙂
And now Online Impact is BACK. Click here to learn more and join the text waiting list!!!!
Did you enjoy this exercise? Drop a comment!
I’d love to hear if you found this helpful or enjoyed this podcast!
Drop us a comment below 🙂
