In May 2014, I launched a productized consulting service called My Content Sherpa. It made me (almost) cry multiple times before I had my first paying subscriber. Here's what I learned.

1. How To Make a
Grown-Ass Man Cry
Lessons Learned From Launching a Productized
Consulting Service

2. In May 2014, I
launched a recurring
productized
consulting service
called My Content
Sherpa.

3. It made me (almost)
cry multiple times
before I had my first
paying subscriber.
Here's what I learned.

4. A Necessary
Diversion: What is My
Content Sherpa?

5. Month1: Improve your site
messaging and existing website
copy.
$4000 1-time

6. Month2 and ongoing: I produce
content marketing like blog
posts, emails, etc for you every
month.
$1500/mo

7. I literally stumbled
into doing this

8. I really liked the numbers!

9. I had some time, so I built it.

10. Launch Day: May 22

11. Promotion:
• Tweet from Brennan Dunn
• Email to Brennan Dunn Masterclass list
• Post on Freelancer's Guild forum
• My own tweets

12. I had a sales page, I had some promotion, and I had a Buy Button
The waiting began...

13. Here's what happened next...

14. The 3 or 4 weeks
from inception of
the idea to launch
date were filled
with unalloyed
hope.
PURE
POSITIVITY
"This is DEFINITELY
going to work!"

15. The launch
week was one
big emotional
roller coaster
between hope,
doubt, fear, and
despair.

16. I considered shutting
it down and
refunding $$$ about
38 times

17. Lesson 1:
Moisture + Heat
+ Cold == Hope
+ Doubt + Fear

18. I Got 3 Subscribers (I
wanted 4)

19. I did good work, and
launched again 2
months later

20. This time, I got more
flexible, and allowed
unbundling

21. Then, I kinda got tired and
distracted.
I fell off cadence and stopped
pushing as hard on launch #2 and
switched to "open enrollment".
I added one full subscriber and one unbundled
subscriber. I worked on solving some gnarly delivery
issues.

22. So, as of today:
• $5K MRR as of August 2014 (@patio11 says it can take a
SaaS ~ 18mo to hit this number, though it can be much
faster, like Day 1)
• $1000 MRR lost to churn so far
• $14K revenue collected

23. Happy but tired

24. I learned a few things
from this experience

25. Lesson #2:
I'm not alone in this. Launching a
thing online is not easy, even if it
works.

26. Draft Revise made over
$15,000 in the first week
after launch. And then I
had a panic attack that
lasted for two months.
— Nick Disabato (nickd.org)

27. Lesson #3:
Get real about organization
Omnifocus + http://cmsauve.com/projects/templates/

28. Lesson #4:
Constant
questioning ==
corrosive.

29. Lesson #5:
That chart I showed you earlier?
The one with all the big numbers?
Inspiring, but subtly corrupting.

30. Lesson #6:
Sell the value, not
the deliverables

31. Lesson #7:
Ladder your offerings, and
consider NOT starting on the high
end

32. Lesson #8:
Find a simple+dumb KPI or two to
gauge your success by.

33. Lesson #9:
Don't overthink it. Just do it.

34. Lesson #10:
Guerrilla promote. Existing
network is the best place to start
with that.

35. Lesson #11:
You still have to sell it. Yes, you're
selling at scale, but you have to
SELL it.

36. Lesson #12:
It's OK to offer a moneyback
guarantee on a big-ticket service.
You're unlikely to lose out.

37. Wow, that was 12
lessons!
This presentation is now officially
called "12 Weird Tricks That Will
Improve Your Productized
Consulting Offering Yesterday"

38. Learn more about productizing your services:
http://bit.ly/ProductizedConsultingCourse