In this episode, Tara gives actionable tips for running your BETA program, including how to remember to stay in MVP mode and the 4 phases of the Beta process. Come behind the scenes in a customer example to learn how to successfully navigate through this phase.
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Transcript
Hey, everybody, it's Tara, Brian, and you are listening to
Speaker:the course building secrets podcast. Whether you're a coach
Speaker:or a CEO, the success of your team and clients is based on
Speaker:your ability to deliver a consistent experience and guide
Speaker:them on the fastest path to results. This podcast will give
Speaker:you practical real life tips that you can use today to build
Speaker:your online experiences that get results and create raving fans.
Speaker:Why? So you can monetize your expertise and serve more people
Speaker:without adding more time for team to your business. If you're
Speaker:looking to uncover your million dollar framework, package it and
Speaker:use it to scale you're in the right place. Let's dive in. Hey,
Speaker:everybody, welcome to today's episode. In this episode, I want
Speaker:to talk about your MVP or your beta program. So often, when I'm
Speaker:working with people, this is the part that gets people tripped
Speaker:up. Because in order to take the step forward to say that you're
Speaker:going to package your expertise into an online program, or a
Speaker:business or service, or whatever it is that you're doing, you
Speaker:have to have the confidence that you're able to solve a problem
Speaker:for your ideal avatar. So because of that, we tend to sort
Speaker:of over engineer or, or over commit, if you will, to our
Speaker:idea, to our framework to, you know, really what we're
Speaker:providing as a solution. And the more we do that, the more we're
Speaker:at risk, to not have a product or a service that are really
Speaker:going to help our customers get the results that we're
Speaker:promising. So let me just break it down just a little bit.
Speaker:Because, as usual, so I'm working with some folks right
Speaker:now. And as usual, I'm sharing some of the stories that we're
Speaker:kind of uncovering and dealing with as we're helping them
Speaker:through their process of creating and launching their
Speaker:online experiences. So, so in this particular situation, and
Speaker:working with a customer and they're very married to the
Speaker:solution that they are providing, which again, is very
Speaker:common, and happens to all of us in different ways and in
Speaker:different places within our business is that it's really
Speaker:hard to sort of on, on bundle yourself from the solution from
Speaker:what you're providing, because it is your expertise, it is
Speaker:something that you know very intimately. And in a lot of
Speaker:times, you can sort of see the path. But what's happening in
Speaker:this particular situation is this client is very focused on
Speaker:what they want to teach not so much what the their learners or
Speaker:their customers need in order to get success. And and so the the
Speaker:piece of this, it's really important, in the reason I'm
Speaker:sharing this on today's podcast, is to really just give you a
Speaker:sort of that reminder that at the end of the day, what you're
Speaker:doing is you're helping somebody achieve an outcome that you are
Speaker:qualified to help them with, right? And so you always have to
Speaker:go back to that outcome. Everything that you produce,
Speaker:every every asset, every document, every framework, every
Speaker:everything goes back to how are you helping them get to that
Speaker:result in the fastest way possible. I'm gonna say that,
Speaker:again, everything that you do is to help them get to that outcome
Speaker:in the fastest way possible. It's not about what you want to
Speaker:teach. It's not about this, you know, cool technique that you
Speaker:learned that helped you do this other random thing. It's not
Speaker:adding an extra material to give them more value to give them
Speaker:more quantity. It's about how do you give them the fastest path
Speaker:to that result that they're looking for? Now in online
Speaker:education in in any education, really, there's a couple of
Speaker:fundamental core things that we need to think about. When you
Speaker:are helping someone you're typically helping them increase
Speaker:their skill set, right? So adopt or practice a skill that they
Speaker:don't have yet, right? You're helping them change behavior or
Speaker:change the way that they think in order to make a
Speaker:transformation.
Speaker:And you're helping them actually move from where they are to
Speaker:where they want to go. So those are sort of the three key
Speaker:components of what you need to be thinking of. So when you're
Speaker:creating your your online program, and this becomes super
Speaker:important as you're creating a clear path for people to go from
Speaker:where they are today to the result, or the transformation
Speaker:that you're helping them get to Who is most of the time, it's
Speaker:hooked into very like a path, right? Various skills they need
Speaker:to adopt on a path or a journey to go from, you know, step one
Speaker:to step six or step seven, or whatever number of steps that
Speaker:they have, right? Usually within those steps is a core skill that
Speaker:they need to learn in order to get to the next step. Not
Speaker:always, but most of the time, it's, it's a step by step, sort
Speaker:of progression to go from one place to the other. Now, what
Speaker:happens is, is that the, the steps have all sorts of
Speaker:different things attached to them, right? There's different
Speaker:skills, there's different behaviors, there's different
Speaker:mindsets, there's different levels of detail within each of
Speaker:the steps. But as a core, you should be able to bring it up to
Speaker:kind of a big picture of the path to go from point A to point
Speaker:B. Right where they are today to where they want to go, either
Speaker:the the result, or the transformation. And so what,
Speaker:what tends to happen is, the more we get into the details,
Speaker:the more we get familiar, the more we get into creating our
Speaker:thing, the less we remember what that path is. And so that's why
Speaker:it's so critical, before you get started even doing anything is
Speaker:that you've got that path nailed down, because everything else is
Speaker:going to anchor back up to that path to make sure that you're
Speaker:taking them on the right journey from where they are today to
Speaker:where they want to go. Because what happens is, if you don't do
Speaker:that, the journey becomes muddled, the journey becomes
Speaker:confusing. And then your learners bounce, your customers
Speaker:bounced, they don't stay with you, they don't ascend, you
Speaker:know, become your raving fans, all the things right. And so
Speaker:that's why so often when I'm working with customers, that is
Speaker:the key foundational thing that we will spend as much time as
Speaker:needed on until somebody can articulate the steps that they
Speaker:that their person needs to take. So going back to my client, so
Speaker:so she's sort of, you know, in the weeds now of putting all the
Speaker:things together and making all the assets and figuring out what
Speaker:the details are of each module, or each week, she's teaching.
Speaker:And she's, she's lost sight of the overall pathway. And in some
Speaker:cases, she's changing the pathway, as she's creating her
Speaker:materials, which which happens, but you want to stay at the
Speaker:pathway. So here's what, here's how the MVP or the beta comes
Speaker:into play with the pathway. Because typically, what you want
Speaker:to do when you're first getting started with anything doesn't
Speaker:matter, what it is that you're doing is you want to do a
Speaker:minimum viable product, right, you want to do the smallest
Speaker:amount of work, to figure out whether or not it's a viable
Speaker:solution that's going to work, you figure out how to tweak it,
Speaker:how to make it better how to, you know, you know, change it,
Speaker:evolve it, whatever it is, right, you want to do that as
Speaker:fast and as and as easily as possible. When you have the
Speaker:pathway, you literally could just start teaching or you know,
Speaker:providing value to your people because you have the pathway,
Speaker:you don't have to over engineer, you don't have to build all your
Speaker:assets, you don't have to have your graphic designer do
Speaker:PowerPoint decks, you don't have to have a full of fully baked,
Speaker:produced and printed workbook. At this stage of the game, when
Speaker:you're doing your MVP, or your beta, your beta, because the
Speaker:whole goal is to get in the game and start to serve your people
Speaker:and then get the data that you need to take it to the next
Speaker:phase and take it to the next phase and the next phase. And
Speaker:then pretty soon you go from beta to having a finished
Speaker:product, then you can focus on just growing and scaling it
Speaker:terms of selling and serving your people instead of
Speaker:recreating it each time. But you have to foundationally start
Speaker:with that pathway or that framework that step by step. And
Speaker:then you can show up and teach it.
Speaker:So again, going back to kind of behind the scenes, is the
Speaker:customer I'm working with right now is really struggling with
Speaker:focusing on you know, perfection with how the how her assets
Speaker:look. And, and, you know, making sure that there are you know,
Speaker:specific things for each week and, and you know, gift boxes
Speaker:and all these things that are important to the experience.
Speaker:Once you've you've kind of tested and dialed in the
Speaker:experience that you're creating. And so again, hopefully this
Speaker:serves you kind of sharing this example because it is very, very
Speaker:common is that when people get more into the details, tend to
Speaker:lose sight of some of the things that are more important because
Speaker:what's happening is it's delaying the start of her
Speaker:program is delaying her ability to get out and find customers
Speaker:who want to get the results that she's promising. And so she's
Speaker:losing sight of that and starting to, to get into sort of
Speaker:perfection land around activities that aren't as
Speaker:important at this point. So with an MVP with a beta, it helps you
Speaker:stay focused on, on looking at what you're doing as a draft,
Speaker:looking at it as a minimum viable product that you're just
Speaker:using right now to test, you're using it to come up with what
Speaker:will happen in the future, but it's not over designing things
Speaker:yet, at this place. Now, I'm not saying just go wing it and show
Speaker:up and just, you know, give your people a bunch of crap. It's not
Speaker:what I'm saying. But I'm saying there's a, there's a point in
Speaker:time where you flip from a minimum viable product, to
Speaker:focusing on perfection, and then you're gonna lose sight, because
Speaker:things are gonna have to change, it's gonna be a costly mistake
Speaker:when you get to that place. Okay? So let me give you a
Speaker:little bit of a framework for an MVP. And, and this will help you
Speaker:as you are thinking through, like, how much do I create? When
Speaker:do I stop? Where do I focus my time and attention to make sure
Speaker:that I'm serving my customers in the best way possible, but not
Speaker:wasting too much time making things perfect? Knowing that
Speaker:they're going to change? Okay, so the very first thing is, when
Speaker:you're looking at that MVP approach is looking at what is
Speaker:the smallest amount that you need to create in order to be
Speaker:effective at getting some new to the results? So again, we start
Speaker:with that pathway, and then we look at, okay, so what do they
Speaker:need to get to that result, and then that's what you're focused
Speaker:on, not all the bells and whistles and all the extras, but
Speaker:what do they need, most of the time, when you're teaching
Speaker:somebody in, in your framework, it's, it's about like the
Speaker:concept, putting them in action, having them do it, and then
Speaker:showing up to give them feedback or to help them along the path.
Speaker:If you do that, you're you know, 80% of the way there. And so
Speaker:it's really focusing on those pieces. And then you can turn
Speaker:that into a calculator, you can turn that into a tool, you can
Speaker:turn that into a workbook, you can turn you know all the
Speaker:things. After you've shown up, you've given them the concept,
Speaker:you've you've taught your framework, and then they've been
Speaker:able to take action. Okay, so it's built, right? Build the
Speaker:minimum, minimum viable product, what is that? What is the thing
Speaker:that you need to build? Again, I'm telling you build a pathway,
Speaker:and build what you need for each week to get you through that
Speaker:pathway, whatever that looks like for you. Okay, and then
Speaker:we're going to measure we're going to get real time feedback.
Speaker:How was that? Did that resonate with you? Is there anything else
Speaker:that you need to be successful in this week in this module,
Speaker:measure and test often in terms of what's you know, what
Speaker:feedback are you getting? what's working, what's not working,
Speaker:don't be so married to what you have that you're not able to
Speaker:take feedback, and make the changes that you need in order
Speaker:to to enhance it either from a coach that you've hired, and
Speaker:you're paying, or from your customers. So, so think about
Speaker:that, then you're gonna learn, obviously, from that feedback,
Speaker:and from what you've what you've done, what I recommend people do
Speaker:is they do their beta. And, you know, typically they're doing it
Speaker:live, so it's week by week, or you can think about it module by
Speaker:module, whichever way you want to do it. And each week, you're
Speaker:sitting down, and you're saying, Okay, what worked? Well, what
Speaker:didn't work? Well,
Speaker:what do I want to change? What do I want to adjust what's on my
Speaker:wish list of something that would make it easier for people
Speaker:to be able to consume this or to be successful? Write all that
Speaker:down and keep those notes because if you're doing 10 weeks
Speaker:of a beta, you may not remember what happened in week one,
Speaker:because you've evolved it so significantly, since? Since the
Speaker:time that you had that week one, right? You're answering a lot of
Speaker:questions, you're, you're pivoting, you're adding in more
Speaker:information as you need to. And so it tends to change quite a
Speaker:bit. So each week, write down your thoughts, and just document
Speaker:all of it. So you have it each week, you can go back at the
Speaker:end, and really look at evaluating what worked, what did
Speaker:it what do you need to change? What are the kind of core pieces
Speaker:that you need in order to enhance the experience? And and
Speaker:then continuously number four is to loop through that
Speaker:continuously loop through that maybe in the next time you do
Speaker:it, you're doing an enhanced beta where it's not your MVP,
Speaker:but you've added in some additional pieces. So now you're
Speaker:in like version 1.0. Right? Do the same thing. loop back and
Speaker:keep keep going? evolving in and, and moving to the next
Speaker:iteration of your program. And but don't over again, don't over
Speaker:engineered, you may not get to hire a graphic designer to build
Speaker:out your PowerPoint decks or make a whole branded experience
Speaker:until like version three, right. So don't stress over all of that
Speaker:your goal is to get people and give them a result. However, you
Speaker:can do that. So often, the other thing that I find that people
Speaker:are doing a lot of, in my experience is trying to move
Speaker:straight to automated, right, just gonna create the thing and
Speaker:put it out there. And, and that's just gonna be it. And
Speaker:here's the problem with that right is you do not have any
Speaker:proven case studies, you don't have any proven results saying
Speaker:that your framework, your course, your experience,
Speaker:whatever it is you're creating, has gotten people results. And
Speaker:so you have to back up, and you have to think about it as an
Speaker:iterative process, right. So very rarely do people knock out
Speaker:of the park and get their million dollar. I said that in
Speaker:air quotes million dollar payout on their online program. If
Speaker:they're not starting with an MVP, right? Very, very, I don't
Speaker:even know if I can think of one person who has literally like,
Speaker:created a program, launched it to the world, without doing any
Speaker:beta without doing any testing without actually working with
Speaker:live people put it out into the world and sold it and sold, you
Speaker:know, a million dollars worth of revenue from it. Because, well,
Speaker:there's lots of different reasons. But the big one is
Speaker:because you haven't done an MVP, you haven't tested it, you
Speaker:haven't seen where there's pitfalls, where people are
Speaker:struggling, where they're not able to, you know, get what the
Speaker:concept that you're teaching, or they don't have the right tools
Speaker:to move forward, or whatever it is, right. And so it is super
Speaker:important to do that, even if this is your expertise, even if
Speaker:you have been doing online courses for 30 years, right,
Speaker:it's still important to do that beta test. So when I'm working
Speaker:with customers, that's one of the things that we talk about
Speaker:the most is do a beta, and don't be married to the results, be
Speaker:prepared to make shifts and changes based on actually
Speaker:working with real humans. And, and so once you do that you have
Speaker:a much better product, you have a much better outcome, and it
Speaker:becomes so much easier to automate it. When you know that
Speaker:you have the right things in place, and people can still
Speaker:become successful. And it's an evolving process. It is not a
Speaker:one and done. sort of scenario. So when I'm working with my
Speaker:clients we talk a lot about that is that, you know, this is this
Speaker:is an investment that you're making either to package your
Speaker:expertise or to change your service based business into a
Speaker:digital business, or grow and scale your digital business and
Speaker:take it to the next level is it an investment that you are you
Speaker:are using and doing to enhance the experience that you have
Speaker:with your customers, enhance your business, grow your
Speaker:business, whatever it is you're trying to do, right. And, and so
Speaker:just like everything else you do, it's the same concept,
Speaker:right? You, you practice it first, and then you polish it.
Speaker:Alright, so hopefully this serves you I really I know I've
Speaker:talked about the MVP and the beta before.
Speaker:But as I start unpacking it more and more with customers, this is
Speaker:one of the biggest kind of pitfalls that I see them make is
Speaker:is just trying to over perfect it try and make it into a
Speaker:finished product before it's tested. And and so if I have one
Speaker:piece of advice for you, it is to build that pathway and then
Speaker:stay connected to that pathway more than you're connected to
Speaker:the polished finished outcome. And again, a lot of times that
Speaker:shows up in perfect PowerPoint decks or beautiful graphics. And
Speaker:the more the more you polish it the more you finish it the
Speaker:harder it is to change. So use stick figures don't use real
Speaker:graphics yet right there lots of tips and tricks and and
Speaker:techniques to help you sort of stay in MVP mindset which is you
Speaker:know, kind of get to that 80% And then don't stop there.
Speaker:Right? But test first and test often and then iterate and
Speaker:create your additional versions until you get to the place where
Speaker:you've got it dialed in. People are consistently getting
Speaker:results. And you know without a doubt that what you have We'll
Speaker:help people succeed if they go through it alright there you go
Speaker:that is my course building tip for today