EPISODE 125: How do I turn my expertise into a digital product?

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Welcome to Online Business Uncovered — the podcast for entrepreneurs ready to turn their expertise into profitable digital products, create passive income, and build a freedom-based online business.

In today’s show, I dives straight into one of the most common questions: “How do I turn my expertise into a digital product I can sell on repeat?”. If you’ve ever wondered whether you truly have something worth packaging and if you’re ready to create income that flows even while you’re offline then this episode is tailored for you.

I break down what really counts as expertise, explore common types of digital products that work and share inspiring, actionable steps to help you get started - all without overwhelm or perfectionism holding you back.

Whether you crave freedom, flexibility, or simply want to stop trading your time for money, my practical advice and relatable stories will help you uncover how your personal experience, problem-solving skills, or unique systems can be transformed into a sellable digital product.

So grab your notebook, hit subscribe, and get ready to take the first step toward building a sustainable online business that works for you!

Transcript

Karen [00:00:00]:
Hello and welcome to Online Business Uncovered. This is episode 125 and in today's episode, I'm going to be answering a question that I got asked a lot. How do I turn my expertise into something that I can sell on repeat? So today we're going to be diving into getting started with your first digital product. So let's jump right in and let's get started. Welcome to Online Business Uncovered, the show that lifts the lid on what it really takes to turn your brilliance into digital products, passive income and time freedom. I am your host, Karen, an online business strategist, course creation expert and your go to for building a business that works for you and not the other way around. 

If you are an ambitious entrepreneur, feeling overwhelmed, burnt out, or maybe you're just ready for a smarter, more sustainable way to grow, then you're in the right place. Because each week I'll be bringing you inspiring conversations, practical strategies and step by step guidance to help you create scalable, repeatable digital products that sell even while you sleep.

Karen [00:01:11]:
So if you're ready to stop trading your time for money, reclaim your time and finally build a business that gives you the freedom that you deserve, hit, subscribe and tune in every Thursday. Let's uncover what's truly possible for you, starting now. 

Hello and welcome. Thank you for hitting that play button today to listen to another episode of Online Business Uncovered. This is the show where I peel back the curtain on what it really takes to build a digital business that gives you freedom, flexibility and income that flows when you're offline. Now, if you've ever caught yourself thinking, I know a lot about xyz for example, but I have no idea how to turn that into something that people would buy, then this is the episode for you because today I am answering the big question that I get asked a lot. How do I turn my expertise into a digital product? So I'm going to be sharing what actually counts as expertise. So we're going to get really clear on what that looks like, the types of expertise that works best for digital products and the first steps that you can take to get you started, all without feeling overwhelmed.

Karen [00:02:38]:
But for now, let's dive in because I want to start talking about what actually counts as expertise. Now I know with a lot of business owners that I speak to that feeling of being an expert can actually feel out of place. Believe it or not, so many people, even though they do amazing things in their business, actually do struggle with the idea of being an expert. And I come across this so many times when I'm talking about creating online courses. And people will say to me, but I'm not an expert. And I will say to them, yes, you are. If you are creating change for someone and you're facilitating any kind of transformation, small, medium or big, then you are an expert. Because people are coming to you for that guidance and that support, and they're asking you to help them with that.

Karen [00:03:39]:
And by definition, that makes you an expert. So if you feel a little bit icky about being seen as the expert because maybe a little bit of that imposter syndrome is creeping in and that little devil on your shoulder is saying, you're not this and you can't do that, I want you to just flick it off and ignore it. Because if you help people to achieve any kind of result with the work that you do, you are an expert. It doesn't matter if you're only a few steps ahead of someone. If you can show somebody what they need to do that's going to make a difference to them, then you are the person that they need to listen to. Now, there seems to be a misconception that you have to be the best in the world. You do not need to be the best in the world. You just need to know more than the person that you're helping.

Karen [00:04:33]:
If you have helped people in your life, if friends have asked you for advice, if you've sold a problem for yourself and maybe think that others could benefit from this as well, then you most definitely have expertise that is worth sharing. Because I think we so often undervalue what we know because it feels easy or obvious to us. I mean, for a long time I took being creative for granted because as I was growing up, art and creativity was my natural default. I would, at school, I would excel in my art, I would be very creative. I would do watercolor paintings, I would sketch, I would do really creative stuff. And I just, I took it for granted because I assumed that everybody had these skills. And as I got older and I moved into graphic design and I was, I was working creatively within sort of professional environments, I realized that not everybody has that skill set. My husband, he's not creative at all.

Karen [00:05:45]:
He's very left side of the brain. So he's very analytical, he's great with numbers, he's great with really detail orientated work. But if we are decorating a room, he can't choose any colors for toffee. He is absolutely rubbish at it. I will test him and I will say to him, what about this color palette? And he Will be. Yeah, yeah, that's great. And it is just the most awful colors. So it's really interesting how we are all very different and we all have skills and talent in very different areas.

Karen [00:06:21]:
And what that means is that there are people out there that need what you have. Because, like myself, I can build in a website is an easy thing for me, but there are so many people out there that wouldn't even know where to start. So if I wanted to teach somebody how to build a website for, to them, I would be that expert because I have experience and I have skills in doing so. And as experts, we need to own that. We need to own the things that we're good at. We need to stop undervaluing what we can do, because not everybody can do the things that we can do. Even if something feels very second nature to you, it could be somebody else's. Oh, my God.

Karen [00:07:06]:
That's exactly what I need. So if you are a mum, say, of three, who has figured out how to sort of create meal plans without, you know, getting stressed, getting overwhelmed and just, you know, losing your mind, then maybe that could be something that other mums would benefit from. Or maybe if you're somebody that has worked in HR for years and years and years and you know how to write a really great cv, that could be something that you could offer. Or maybe you're a yoga teacher and you have found a really unique way to create themed classes and plans that help beginners get started. That could be something worth packaging up. This is all expertise and it can be packaged up, sold and scaled as well, which means you get income that flows when you're not at your desk. Yesterday I was attending one of my favorite networking events and I got speaking to a gentleman at the event. And what was really interesting is that he was sharing some resources with me that he thinks that I should listen to.

Karen [00:08:18]:
And the third resource he suggested was his own. And he has developed this audiobook. And what he said to me was, currently it's sitting on his Google Drive, it's eight separate files, and I can just download them and listen to them as audio recordings. And I said to him, I said, how come you've not created an audio course for this? Because if you've got eight audio recordings, this is a really great product that you can package up and sell on repeat. And he was like, what do you mean? And I. And I spoke to him about it and I explained that he could put them on a platform, he could create a checkout, create a order for, like, sales page and sell it. So in that particular networking, this could be one of his call to actions, Go and buy my audiobook. And he didn't know how to do that.

Karen [00:09:17]:
He did not know what steps were required in order for him to get to that point. So he is sitting on this brilliance that he has shared through these, these audio recordings, but he is not selling them. He has them on his Google Drive but he is not making money from them. And I just thought this is really interesting because how many people have this kind of expertise? How many people have this brilliance that they are literally sitting on, which is a goldmined because this is where you can make that repeatable scalable income, but yet you're not doing anything with just collecting dust on your Google Drive. This is really why I wanted to sort of record this episode today. Because if that is you and you have this content that is worth making money from, then I want to just sort of walk you through what you can do to get started. Having said that, I want to just dive in and get specific about the three types of expertise that tend to work really well for digital products. So the first one is going to be problem solving expertise.

Karen [00:10:37]:
So this is great if you help someone to overcome a very clear challenge. So for example, maybe somebody is new to Instagram and you have a framework that you can use to help them actually get set up on Instagram, start getting their first followers and start getting their message out there. That's great because you're solving a really key problem. Maybe you are a productivity coach and you help people to get really organized in their inbox. So that's a great thing to do because it's very helpful. There's a clear outcome and it's helping people to get organized. So you can package a process up for that and you could sell that. Or maybe you are somebody that teaches parents how to help their baby sleep through the night.

Karen [00:11:32]:
Maybe you've got a technique or you've got tools and resources that you can package up as well that's going to help them achieve that goal. Whatever your clear outcome is, whatever problem you're solving, that expertise is so valuable because you are guiding somebody to an outcome that they ultimately want. So you can package it up in a mini course, you can do a step by step guide, or you can even create an audio training. The second type of expertise that works really well are time saving systems. People are time poor. So if you can provide something that gives them their time back, then that will go down really well. So if you've created A shortcut or a system to save time, then people will pay you to skip that overwhelm. So examples could be templates for social media, it could be swipe files for emails, or it could be things like Notion dashboards to plan launches and scheduling things and stuff like that.

Karen [00:12:43]:
Yesterday I was training in Notion. So for those of you who don't know, Notion is this brilliant project management tool, and you could do so much with it. It's very adaptable, it's very flexible, and it's. It will really help you when you're building systems and processes and creating things that are going to help you to stay organized and consistent. And I'm currently running a program for a bunch of ladies all about creating their podcast. And one of the things that I've done is I've built a Notion dashboard for creating their podcast, because one of the things about podcasting is you have to be consistent, and you need a really great system that you can use to help keep you on track. And I've taken them through this training and they've all come back and said, this is an online course. I would pay to have this training because it's so good, because Notion is so good, it's so useful.

Karen [00:13:45]:
So if you have trained anybody and they've come back to you with that kind of feedback, then I want you to listen to it and I want you to take that on board, because that could be your starting point. So start where you know and package up anything that you have already, that you've already delivered that could be of value to somebody else. Okay, so the third type of expertise are transformational stories. So this is where your personal journey becomes a roadmap for somebody else. So, for example, you could package up a process on how you went from being really burnt out and broke to being balanced and have abundance. So lots of clients, you've got really great income, income, and you have figured out a system or a process that has helped you to achieve that goal. Or it could be how you lost £20 with just building in simple habits on a daily basis. So if you have found a way to lose weight, then maybe that could be something that you could package up, or maybe it could be something like you managed to leave your corporate job and you've built an online business.

Karen [00:15:07]:
That could be something that people would be interested in. How did you do it? Maybe you have a process or a formula there that worked really well for you. So the best kind of formats for this kind of expertise would be ebooks, workshops, audio series, or it could be sort of guided journals, things like that. So if you are sitting there thinking but what would I even sell? Then what I would encourage you to do is start asking yourself what have I overcome? What do people ask me about? What shortcut have I created for myself or for others that other people would benefit from? And that would be your starting point. So getting started. So once you have a really good idea on what your expertise looks like and how you can help, then you need to pick one specific problem. So get really laser focused on one problem that you can help fix. You're not trying to fix everything.

Karen [00:16:11]:
This is not everything in the kitchen sink. It's just one problem. It could even be a really small problem. The more specific you are, the more sellable it is. Step two. You need to choose a simple delivery format. So you don't need to spend months to month to month filming an online course. It's not necessary.

Karen [00:16:34]:
You can just create a PDF, a checklist, a recorded audio or just a simple swipe file that is going to help somebody. And sometimes that's enough for somebody to get started with. I have created multiple digital products and I have everything from workbooks to ebooks to checklists to I've got mini gray courses, I've got a digital masterclass, I've got all different things. So think about who it is you're creating there for. What would they like to receive, what is the easiest way that's going to help them achieve their goal and then that's where I would start. So if an ebook feels doable or, or a simple checklist. Stephen, for, for many years in my branding business I had a branding checklist and that would be my lead magnet and I would get hundreds and hundreds, probably thousands of sign ups just for this one checklist. So sometimes we don't need to go all in.

Karen [00:17:40]:
It could just be something really simple that people want because remember, you're removing the overwhelm. So simple is always going to work best. So once you've chosen what delivery format that you're going to use, then test your idea. So ask your audience, post in Facebook groups or you could even pre sell it. So get feedback early because it's going to save you time and you can tweak your product with that feedback and you can make it even better. And here's the thing that I always remind my clients, your first digital product is just the very beginning. It's a stepping stone towards a more scalable, flexible and freedom filled business. So it's worth taking that time and tweaking your product so you end up with something so valuable that people ask you if they can buy it.

Karen [00:18:36]:
Today I've shared some really simple steps that's going to help you to start turning your really valuable and precious expertise into your very first digital product that is going to work for you whilst you are busy living life. This is the thing. You don't need to be famous to do this, you don't need to be an influencer and you certainly do not need to wait until everything is perfect. I created my very first digital product in 2018. I was one year into running my branding studio. I created my Brand Discovery Planner which came off the back of my brand discovery workshops. It was a very simple planner that literally walked people through the process of getting clear on on what their brand is. I sold that as hard copy A5 books.

Karen [00:19:28]:
I sold out on that and then I sold a digital version of that book and I still sell it today online. I'm not famous, I'm not an influencer, but I am somebody that has expertise that is worth selling and you my friend have that as well. You just need to believe that what you have is enough and that someone somewhere out there is going to buy it. And that is the beginning of creating a business model that's going to give you that freedom because it's a scalable product that you are ultimately creating so you can start making money whilst you are spending time with your favorite people. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I hope you found this episode of value. And of course please do feel free to share video this it with others who you may think will also benefit from listening to today's episode. If today's discussion has sparked some inspiration and you are eager to get started with creating your very first digital product, then I'd like you to sign up for my free weekly newsletter, Online Business Digest.

Karen [00:20:42]:
It's free, it's value packed and it's always written with you in mind. Just head on over to www.sellyourbrillianline.com or hit the link in the Show Notes to get started. Thank you for listening to today's episode. I will be back next week with another episode, but until then have a great week. Thanks for tuning into today's episode of Online Business Uncovered. 

If today's conversation has sparked an idea or gave you a dose of clarity, then please make sure to check out the show notes for all the links and resources mentioned. New episodes land every Thursday, so hit follow or subscribe to stay in the loop. And if you're loving the show.

Karen [00:21:29]:
A quick rating or review goes a long way in helping more brilliant entrepreneurs like you find this show. Until next time, keep showing up, keep sharing your brilliance. And remember, freedom in business is possible and it starts with taking the next right stack.