Is Selling A Digital Product The Right Move For You?

So y'all, this episode is going to be a little bit different today and also the audio quality is not going to be as great. I'm sorry. And the reason why is because me and Jodi, me and Jodi were planning out our topic for this episode and then as we do, we just started to like nerd out and rant, and also like we were also a little bit concerned about the conflict of interest because, because the topic of the episode is like creating like a digital product, right, and like if that is like truly maybe a great next step for beauty professionals, and if it is, and if it's not, whatever. And the reason why I bring it up is because a lot of the people that I work with, particularly high performers, people who are past the 100K plus point, they'll come to me and they, they feel like because they're hitting a glass ceiling and they can't grow beyond what they're making right now or they feel like they can't, they feel like there needs to be like a second or third stream of income.

Um, or they feel like they're spending so much time and overwhelming energy behind the chair to make that money that they feel like they need some sort of out, or maybe you're just super passionate and you look at creating a digital product and you think about it as a way to be able to serve a large amount of people and that's inspiring to you, whatever it may be, right, like whatever the motivation is, I have a lot of people who come to me and share with me that that's what they would like to do. And I've had a lot of experience with like people coming to me, talking this out with people and like being able to lay it all out on the table. I've had experience of people trying it out and like seeing that within like my own facilitation and things like that. And then, of course, I have my own experience of having my own online business for eons now it feels like, for six years now.

I have my experience being a brand educator. I was- I started when I was 19 years old. And so I just have like a lot of understanding of like what it takes to actually make that stuff work, and there's so many, like, pent-up feelings that I have about it that I really wanted to, like, air out and, like, share with people so that way they know what they're getting themselves into if it's something that you wanna consider. And Jodi, I'll let Jodi speak mostly for herself, but, like, Jodi basically teaches you, my friend, like how to make that happen, how to create a digital product and actually make it work and, like, create a business that, like, is truly helping you make an impact, and also start to make actual revenue doing it.

And because Jodi is always with me for the podcast, and I love hearing her perspective, I wanted to make sure that I wasn't going to put her in a weird circumstance where I'm saying like, "Girl, don't fucking do this," or something like that, and then Jodi's like, "Well, that's like my whole job. So yeah, like, that's like my whole thing." And so we ended up just talking about it and, like, talking about our own feelings and it ended up being a really great conversation and we happened to record it. So we're just gonna share with you the conversation that we naturally had.

And so, Jodi, before like I share with the people the conversation we had, would you mind just explaining to people what you do and why your opinion in this is so valuable? People come to me not actually usually when they're creating their very first digital product, but to kind of refine and market and really kind of build a real business around it. So, like the brand, the funnel, the, you know, the sales process, the sustainability of the business. So that is what I do and I work with a lot of people who, like I say in the episode, are either existing educators or influencers and they want to really bring that digital income, whether...

Digital products, sometimes yes, for sure, but also like coaching, mentoring or like educating. Most of the coaches I work with are like actual business coaches and like, not like I'm calling myself a coach 'cause I did this thing once. So that's kind of the distinction, right? So I kinda hesitate to use that word, but I think it's the only right one.

Um, and so, yeah, that is what I do, is I do help people really, you know, get clarity on their brand and, and build the business into something sustainable by filling the skill gaps that we have, which we get into in this episode. Yeah. And let's say that somebody wanted to... Let's say that somebody, like, was a little bit more at the beginning of the journey and, like, let's say that they...

Let's say that... And I think that this would be the great, a great fit for you, like, my friend, like, if you are, like, thinking about maybe making a digital product, and you're thinking about this as a serious second stream of income, then this is what I think would be a great fit and I would love for, Jodi, for you to agree with me or not. I think that if you are already being asked about something that you're doing... I think that if you're doing something truly unique that somebody is actually maybe possibly willing to pay for, like one, one example is I had somebody come to me and, like, have an idea or whatever it may be and I was like, "Well, what's stopping somebody from just going to ChatGBT instead?"

You know, like, especially in today's day and age, right, and I think that there's, like, many ways that you can separate yourself and you're not competing with AI, right, but it's like, what makes you unique? Like, what makes you different? Or, like, why would somebody want to pay you over looking up, like, a free YouTube video, right? Yeah.

Um, and also that you already have a business that's scaled and works, you know? Like, the business that you have now is, like, one that is actually, like, as optimized as possible so you actually have time and space to be able to focus on whatever your new endeavor is going to be, because your new endeavor is going to take time, work and energy. And investment, like any other business. And investment.

And it's like, think about it. You wanna open a salon. They're not giving you the building out of the goodness of their heart. Like, it's...

You, there... It's less of an investment, but there's an investment for sure. Period. And so you also work with those people?

So actually, great fit for those people would be, like, retreats. That would be a huge... 'Cause we do do that, um, in those retreats. And then, like, one-on-one stuff a little bit too, but if you, like, DM me and I'll let you know.

If it's too early stage, it doesn't make sense always, but, um, yeah. I'm, I'm pretty much an open book. All right. Period.

So let's share with you guys the conversation that we had. I draw from my own experience and of cour- And you do too, right? Yeah. My T, my personal T, and I say this all the time, I did not get into this because I wanted to create an education business.

Right. I got into this because I genuinely, j-... Like, for real, for real, and I'm literally not even just saying that, like, and I-I genuinely just loved educating. Yeah.

I genuinely love being behind the chair. That's why I still do it to this day. I fucking love doing hair. I never wanted to stop doing hair.

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hair. And the reason I was able to make the education successful, the reason why it's been this long that, that I've had this business at this point is because I fucking love it. It's not because I was trying to escape being behind the chair. And I think that a lot of people, when they come to me and they say, "I wanna do this second stream of income.

I wanna get ou- I, I wanna do this, that and the third, or I wanna start education or create a digital product," 99% of the time, it's because they want to escape what they're already doing. Right. It's not because th- and of course, like there is a part of them, absolutely, that like just wants to make an impact. In comparison, in comparison, I always say, are you leaving your salon and starting your own business because you're trying to get out of the situation that you're in or are you doing it because you are excited about owning the business, right?

'Cause one of those things are going to be much more sustainable and more likely to actually be successful for you. Yeah. Because when you have the passion to do it, you will also have the gumption to sacrifice and make it fucking work. 100%.

And I think that a lot of people don't understand how much fucking work this is. I agree. How unsustainable it is, how scary it is, how fucking... It is, it is no fucking joke.

Yeah. And so I get it. It's like you, you are laboring your ass off behind the chair and maybe you want something that is not so hard on your body. Great.

This is gonna be really fucking hard on your fucking head. Right. And especially in the transition period in which you're trying to get it off the ground. Like, it takes trial and error.

It is going to suck and it is extremely hard in today's day and age to actually make something work. It is absolutely possible, as you know, from your own experience- For sure. Yeah. and you teaching your people.

Yeah. It is 100% possible, but I think it requires a lot more of being willing for it to flop. Mm-hmm. A lot more short-term sacrifice.

A lot of fucking strategy for it to even work at all. Yeah. And what I think for my ideal person that I'm talking to with Mastermind, I think that what they're trying to do is trying to escape the overwhelm that they have, and I think that their, their focus would be much better cultivated by taking what they already have and figuring out how can I make what's working work even more? And take advantage of the fact that you could probably work two days a week doing fucking hair and make six figures doing it.

That's fucking crazy. Why would you not just try to do that instead of making a whole new business that is going to require so much more work than what you are already doing? Okay. So that's, so that's my T.

That is my, that's my personal experience, that's what I see and then I'm going to furthermore just even say right now I do feel like I don't have a lot of examples of somebody putting in half-ass work and actually making it work. Right? Like, and actually being able to get it off the ground. So, that is just my experience.

And that's like my, where I'm at. I also don't have the same perspective or eyes on what's going on- Right. as you do. Yeah.

So, that's my T. What is your T? Okay. So firstly, I think that I agree with like most of what you said.

I think my only differentiating opinion is the reason that someone would want to do that instead of staying behind the chair is 'cause they want to. And that's okay. Like, if you want to and you want to go in and start a whole new business and you have that purpose and drive and desire behind that, 150%, but it is starting a new business. And so with that- Yes.

it's starting a new, you know, like for me, there's like basically three things that you need to focus on. Number one, you need to have something, you need to have something that you wanna teach or create that there is market demand for. So there needs to be something that is, like, valuable. Um, most of the people that I work with are kind of come to it from like two different angles.

One is they have cultivated their own really unique, really cool systems behi- in their own salons. So whether that's behind the chair, whether that is like, you know, mentoring and coaching their own team, being able to achieve really cool things. Then the other side is people who ho- are brand educators, who love educating, who are sick of being like- Work. basically underpaid and exploited by brands.

So- Sure. those are kind of the two people. And with that, like...They do have, they're coming into it with a little bit of experience, right, like in one of those two arenas.

And then I do think you really have to be aware, like whether, like I quit my behind-the-chair job and went all-in on education, but I also am always very candid about the fact that I was doing and s- you know, social media management as well during that transition period because it takes a while. And the difference between behind-the-chair work and education is that behind the chair you go to the salon, you do the hair, you get paid, right? Online business is not like that. Like you put in a shit ton of work, you test things, you try things, you do all of it to get to the point that it is successful.

And so like I don't actually disagree with anything you said other than I do- Yeah. think a completely valid reason for doing this and for, like, going in and wanting change is that you want to. As long as you understand that you are starting a new business, you know it's gonna be less of an uphill battle if you have a preexisting audience. Sure.

That is a huge part of it. Having said that, I have a client who is, she's not actually in the hair industry, she's a wedding venue owner. And she, like, developed some really cool systems with the way that she handles her wedding bookings and has really great conversions, all of that. She took that, created a program, ran it to cold ads with no audience, and had a $15,000 launch her first launch.

Wow. She has spent the last year learning how to do that. Right. So like learning how to launch.

So I do think that the problem is that there's been so much, uh, marketing out there that's talking about how, you know, I- I do agree in the sense that, no, you don't become successful when you put in half-ass work. You are putting in the work. Like it, I, so I completely agree with that. I think a lot of people were sold the dream for a really long period of time about how it was passive income.

It's not- Yeah. passive income. It's scalable income. Yeah.

But so is anything. And so yeah. Right. That's kind of my take.

Like I see evidence of it being possible and working. I see people- Right. starting companies, like whether it's in education or, like, hair brands or, you know, in businesses that are, you know, quote-unquote oversaturated, but that's because they're oversaturated with people who are half-assing it and not doing all of the foundational work. So can you make it?

Hell yes. Like I fully believe that it's not can I make it work, it's how can I make it work. But don't expect to get rich overnight. Don't expect to have those like, you know, crazy launches out of nowhere unless you are hella specific on what your people want and you're filling a gap and you've put in the time.

So that's my, that's my thoughts. Yeah. No, it sounds like we agree, but I do, you know, where I will, where I will, where I will make sure that my perspective, I guess, is clear or changed from what you shared is like you don't need a reason to do anything. Like there's no, you don't need a reason to want to fucking do whatever you want tomorrow- Right.

as a human being. Like I've always hated like the, you know, I think it's very strategic- Mm-hmm. to let's say be like, you know, w- when you're goal setting when somebody's like, "I want to make $100,000." Just like okay, well why do you want to make $100,000?

Like what is the $100,000 actually doing for you? Right? So it's figuring out like what do you a- a- and an effective goal setting comes from figuring out the bigger picture, like what do you actually want in your life? What are you trying to accomplish?

And then you work backwards, and then you figure out, okay, how much money do I need to make that, make, make that work. Right? But a lot of people will just go straight towards like I want to make $100,000 just 'cause it sounds cool. Yes.

And I feel like that's very much looked down upon sometimes. And for me, I'm like I think it's very strategic to work backwards from like an umbrella thing. I think that that's- Yes. obviously that would be my suggested way to go about it.

Yeah. But also if you just want to make 100,000 fucking dollars 'cause you want to make a fucking h- $100,000, let's fucking do it. You know? Like why do you need a reason to do that.

Right? Like why not just show yourself and other people what's fucking possible and work to make that happen, you know? So that's my perspective with that. And similarly with this, I agree with you.

You don't need a reason. You just w- uh, it's okay for you to just want to do it. Here's where my thing gets a little bit th- th- here's where my perspective is with this, is that if the reason that you want to do it is mostly because you want to get out of what you're doing- Right. then if the goal is similar to what you could accomplish with what you're already doing, why not just do what you're already doing?

Yeah. So if you're going into education because you want to have w- less labor and you want to make X amount of money, then why would we not do that with what you already have if that's possible? Versus starting a whole new business where there's so much risk and investment and time to make that happen. It's like look at the business you have now, what are the small tweaks that we need to make or the small things that we need to do over time that would be a lot easier for you to do to get to the same result.

Right? So like that's where, that's where I'm coming from. But at the end of the day, if you want to fucking do it 'cause you want to do it, pop off. Like let's do it.

And yes, you will be able to make it work. You know, I agree, and I also think too that like to your point, if that is something like I don't, like I feel like we're in a society now too where we're like getting less comfortable with long-term goals. Right? And so like- Oh, yeah.

and I can speak to my own, like one of my major motivators is location independence. Right? That's like one of the biggest things for me. And so- Right.

however, like-Had things not shaken out the way that they shook out, right, what I think would have been a really great way to accomplish the same goal in five years, like I very easily could have maxed out my behind the chair income, you know, gone even less time behind the chair. So like if someone is, you know, thinking about going into education and that's their long-term goal, they want that location independence or they want that online business, they wanna have different, you know, revenue streams or whatever, like there's nothing wrong with that, but I actually think probably the best first step would be going and really dialing in what you have going on in your current business and creating the time and space for it. As per usual. I mean, and, and that's, that's always my goal, right?

Mm-hmm. Like, I mean, if you wanna do this, that's always my goal, that's always been what I've always talked about from the very beginning. Like, if I didn't already have it dialed in automated streamlined, like this is behind the chair, I would have never been able to make this work. Mm-hmm.

And I mean, still, even with that, right, I still, I, I wish, I mean even this fucking past week, like I was literally up at all hours. Like, I was working nonstop. Yeah. And it's like the amount of work that I put in, right, like you would expect somebody who had worked and done the crazy shit that I just did to be making a shit ton more money than what I just made and what I'm going to make.

No, it's a very good living, obviously. For sure. Like it's very worth it, right? Like I'm making a great money, great profit, all the things, right?

But like for the amount of work I just put in, like it was nuts. And it requires a lot of sacrifice. And a lot of people don't, I, I think that a lot of... and low key like, like becoming an influencer, that's one game.

And then having like your own product and then selling direct to consumers, it's a whole different game and it's a very, it's a very like, it's a less familiar one I feel like to the people who are in the industry who want to go about, about this. Dude. This is exactly why I do what I do now. You know what I mean?

Right. Like because it is a whole different thing. Like and there's so much to it, and I think that like you said, it's like you just have to be willing to look at it as a whole new venture. Like that's what it comes down to.

And if you really wanna do it, you really love it, like you, you have so much passion, like I do think that yes, you can make it work. It's not an overnight success thing. And there's a lot you have to learn. And so if the goal, like you said, like I think it's examining your motivation, 'cause if your goal is escape- Yeah.

then I totally agree with you, it's not an escape from having to work. Sorry. Like no matter what everyone tells you, that's just not the case, right? No.

And I, it really depends like how you like to work. Like I genuinely love the fact that I can bust my ass for a couple weeks and then I can kind of coast, you know, for like- Yep. a little bit of time I can, you know, travel, I can do all the things that I do. Um, but I'm the kind of person where if I could retire right now, I wouldn't.

Like I would need to be doing something. Like I give a shit so much. And that's I think why we- Right. get along so much 'cause we're borderline obsessive.

That's why we get along so well, that's why we love what we do, and that's why we're successful. Yes. Yes. Exactly.

So- I mean, they say, people say it all the time, it's like you, you look at any successful CEO, like it's because they were obsessed with the business. It's like what they thought about 24/7, it's what they worked on 24/7. Do I think that that's the only path? No.

Mm-hmm. But if we're being realistic, and I always say I'm not a fucking motivational speaker. Yeah. I'm not a bullshitter.

Like I'm just not. I can't be. Like it's not in my DNA. Like, like if we're being so for real, like yes, there are ways to be able to make beautiful success by working less and being smart and efficient, 100%.

But like if you're starting a whole new venture, it's gonna take a long time until you get to that point where that's actually feasible- Yeah. where like it is like you only put in a little bit of effort and you get a lot of return. And a lot of the time that comes from just having a team who's like fully responsible for the growth of the business. It's not always less work, it's different work, you know?

Period. Period. Yeah. Very much so.

Very much so. I say that we just make this the episode. I think this is the episode. It is the episode.

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