Episode 182: The Power of Less - Embracing Simplicity in Online Business
In the bustling world of online entrepreneurship, we often find ourselves caught in a relentless pursuit of the next big thing. From complex marketing strategies to an ever-growing array of products and services, it's easy to lose sight of a fundamental truth that has quietly shaped the successes of many: simplicity.
In episode 182 of the FEMnation podcast, I, Whiteev, take you on a personal journey through the landscapes of online business, exploring the transformative power of simplicity. With over eight years of experience under my belt, spanning a diverse array of product launches and business models, I've come to realize that the essence of sustainability and growth lies not in the complexity of our endeavors but in their simplicity.
The Essence of Simplicity in Business
My reflection on simplicity isn't just a sudden revelation but a realization born from witnessing the ebb and flow of the online business world. It's a narrative of understanding that, amidst the noise and haste, simplicity remains our most powerful ally. This episode isn't merely about sharing insights; it's an invitation to rethink our approach to online entrepreneurship.
Journey from Digital to Physical
The transition from digital products to exploring the realm of physical goods has been a pivotal part of my journey. This shift wasn't just about changing the nature of the products but embracing a learning curve that taught me the value of touching every aspect of the creation process. It's a testament to the idea that understanding the intricacies of our business—be it digital or physical—enriches our approach and aligns us more closely with the core of simplicity.
Overcoming External Perceptions and Self-Doubt
One of the most challenging aspects of this journey has been navigating the sea of external perceptions and the undercurrents of self-doubt. The fear of how others perceive our business decisions can often cloud our vision. Yet, it's in overcoming these fears that we find the freedom to test, iterate, and refine our business model towards greater simplicity and authenticity.
Simplification as a Strategy
Simplifying our business doesn't mean compromising on our goals or visions. It means identifying what truly matters and finding the most efficient and authentic way to achieve it. From marketing strategies to product development, simplicity guides us to clarity, enabling us to focus on what truly resonates with our brand and audience.
The Road Ahead
As we continue on this journey, let's carry the lessons of simplicity with us. It's a pathway to not just a more sustainable business model but a more fulfilling entrepreneurial life. The pursuit of simplicity isn't about doing less but about achieving more by focusing on what's truly important.
I invite you to join me in embracing the power of simplicity in your own online business journey. Let's simplify our path to success together, one step at a time.
Share Your Journey
I'd love to hear how simplicity has transformed your approach to online business. Connect with us on social media and share your story. Your insights and experiences are what make our community thrive.
And if you're looking for more strategies and insights into simplifying your launch processes, dive into the Coach Launch Toolkit. For those curious about the physical products I've been passionately working on, visit my shop.
Here's to simplifying our journey together, FEMnation. Until next time, keep moving forward.
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Podcast Transcript:
Hey, femnation. Welcome back to another episode. Today I want to dive into a topic that's coming up consistently for me recently, and it's all around simplicity. And here's the thing about simplicity, is that everything has to lead toward simplicity, right? Because if it's not simple, it's not sustainable. Yes, you can outsource, yes you can higher, yes you can be efficient and resourceful. We'll dive into a few of those things. But I want to talk about the topic. Let me do that again. I want to talk about the topic of simplicity today. Hi, I'm Whiteev, your biz BSfef and your favorite online mentor. And I welcome you wholeheartedly to another episode of the Femination podcast. Let's dive in, shall we? All right. Simplicity is key. And here's the thing, is that for a, long time, over eight years that I've been in the online business world of, ah, varying capacities of it creating a multitude of different products, from uber low to ultra high, right? Offers, sold offers, sold thousands, hundreds, thousands built offers for some big names out there. What have you not diving into that today? What I'm getting at is that I've seen all levels of business building, business creation, and yet there is a lack of transparency when it comes to simplicity in this online space. Now, everybody says they have the strategy that works, they have the method, the way, the process that absolutely works, right? But the problem is that this online world, online business world, is an evolving process, constantly evolving with factors that are outside of our control. So what does that mean? What's in our control? And let me even reduce that down. What's in my control? What can I do? Because even though a strategy could be simplistic to someone, it may not be simplistic to me. And that is where then I have to know myself best and I have to know what is working, and I have to be able to assess that from time to time, because what worked yesterday may not work today, and that's a very real possibility. What was working yesterday or last year or two years ago, the outside parameters outside my control may have shifted and it's no longer working for me. And not even just my internal world. Yes, my internal world factors always factors, right? And so I will constantly move myself inside this process, to continue to drill down on simplicity. But the external factors may become cumbersome and then it becomes not simple for me. So my goal, my ultimate internal structure, strives creating simplicity. And I think in a world that's inundated so much knowledge out there that a lot of times we find that we may not know that we already have a simplified version. So the pursuit of that answer, that knowledge, ends up taking precedence over the simplicity. So what do I do? I test everything all the time, and I lean into the freedom of being able to, test consistently, shift consistently. And what I had to drop in order to do that was the perception of what I think people think or what I think people perceive me as, right. So I'm trying to build, as I was building my business, as I was evolving in this space, I think it was not just in any one particular moment, but as a collective, always striving towards being, that leader, that person that has the knowledge on something and not thinking for the longest time that I actually knew anything or had anything to contribute, but for the sake of stopping that process of not worrying about, am I knowledgeable enough to deliver this information, simply, am I knowledgeable enough to find this simple version of this knowledge that I learned? Am I knowledgeable enough to be able to, share this? Am I qualified to be able to share this? Right. These are all things that have also popped up for me, right. And I say also because I know for a fact that if you're in this online business building space, it's popped up for you at some point in time. There is no if, it's when, right. We've all struggled with that. We will all struggle with that to some varying degree, including an ongoing basis, because of the external shifts inside of this world that maybe, we are not in control of. That causes us to shift our own perception of what is real, what is possible, what we know, what we can share, what we can teach, and how that looks, for those learning under us. Now, going back just a little bit on what I was saying there, going back to what I was saying there. So I had to drop the perception. I had to not worry about what people perceived or not worrying about staying in my niche or in my lane, not worrying about, the potential of confusing. And I'm putting air quotes, but you can't see me if you're listening to the audio version of this, but the perception of how people perceive me as a thought leader or a leader in general. Right now, there is less guru status, right? There are influencers, but there's less guru status, and there is more of, experience, right. People out there are seeking those to learn from, with which to learn from, based on what they're sharing, where they are in the journey, and, their direct experience in that journey. They are not sharing it as the person that arrived or the person that has came up with some unique way or process or method. It is sharing the common parallel journey with their actual experience inside of that journey. So let me give you an example. Earlier this year I gave myself a pause on digital products and went to physical products. I started painting. And you may or may not know this, but I'm bringing this in as a relevant example today. I'm just stumbling on my words. Earlier this year I brought in, or gave myself the space to paint. And I knew that I was going to put it out as physical products. How or what, I wasn't exactly sure exactly how or what that was going to look like or how am I even going to put this together back in. But I know myself enough that I will absolutely figure that out. Right? That's the easy part for me. But creating a custom physical product, because I had been in this digital space for a long time, for eight years now, and I hadn't had a physical product. I've had plenty of digital products, knowledge products, downloadable products, low ticket, all the way up to coaching, right? And so when I did that, I had to not be concerned about the perception that I was leaving my audience or putting out into the public, because if I did, then I would not have pursued that arena to be able to understand the whole structure behind putting a physical product out into the world. I would not have been able to navigate it the same way had I not walked through it. And not just any physical product, one that I created unique to me, right? Because there's plenty of physical products. I'm not going to be a reseller of something else that's out there. If I'm going to put my time and effort into it. I want it to be extremely purposeful and meaningful for myself and for the recipient, for those that choose to purchase. So that being said, I wanted to create a custom product, physical product, and then I wanted to put it together and I tested various methods quickly, I'll say, but I tested various methods on exactly how I wanted to capture that sale of a physical product. Ecommerce, call it what you will, art, there's many names for it, but physical products, what we're going with for today. So I had to drop the perception of what people may inherently think that I'm doing. And all the things play in my mind. I am not immune to all the thoughts, same as anyone else out there that is in the business space. I'm not immune to them. They do still plague me as they will plague anyone else. The difference is I know them well enough that I know when to silence them, and I know when to just continue to move forward, because that's the path that I'm on at the moment. I can pivot and shift and swing in a different direction whenever I want to. That doesn't matter, right? We have the attention span of a goldfish in the Internet space anymore. So I put it together, tested various methods, landed on the one that I liked, put that together, and then reproduced the art. So now I have several custom pieces that are reproduced as prints that took about, I'd say, about 60 days from start to finish, while not having a path written out for me, just following my instinct to deliver, knowing that I will find the path in the online space, putting it together in about 60 days. Now, in that time frame, my content shifted, right? So my forward facing marketing arm of what I create changed for people. So, I wasn't putting it out there as what had commonly been seen, what most people commonly had received as information from me, what I had trained my audience, to view from me. And so I had to abandon the thought process that there may be some questions, some judgments, some kickbacks, some flak, some, concern, what have you, right, in order to fulfill that process. Because it's not an overnight process for me. There's no way that I can be 100% creative and then turn around and touch every physical aspect of that product creation, bringing it to life, and then putting it out in the world for people to be able to tap into and access it. There was no way to do that without me touching every single part of it. So from the inspiration, to the creation, to the supplies, to the website, to the landing page, to the checkout, to the packaging, to the, delivery process, to, the feedback, to the conversation, to the content, all the above, to the funnels, even to the automation aspect of it. All of that goes through my hands. I want to touch every aspect of it. Why? Because I want to understand in this particular journey, in this particular funnel, in this particular process, in this particular purchase of a thing, physical or digital, but for this sake, in this example, physical, I wanted to have a complete understanding of my customer experience. So then if something comes to me and someone says, hey, whitedove xyz, I bought ABC, happened, then I can know what cog in the wheel I need to address. I can understand the complexity of what area of the process, the customer journey I can expect to focus on or where I could start to focus on to remedy the situation. Right. All of this I wanted my hands on. Why? Because I want to have the very simple understanding of what my customers go through. And I also want an experience that separates me from, many, many other retailers or sellers or, business owners out there. Because instead of hiring someone to do a fraction of my business somewhere in the journey, the customer journey, so if something happens, I'm scrambling to try to figure it out. I know that I can adjust it. I know I can fix it. I have a, workable understanding and knowledge of that space in my business. That's simple. To me, the learning curve is there. Sometimes learning curves are not always simple. Sometimes they're frustrating. Sometimes they take a little longer than I want or hope. But it doesn't matter. It's still a learning curve. When I get to the other end of it, I will be done with it, and then I'll move on. It's all project based. But to me, it's simple to tap into the understanding of the customer journey for what I'm creating. See, I'm a brand. What I create all falls under my brand. And I can create anything I want to because that gives me the freedom to consistently build assets with which I can sell, which I have offers with which I can fall back on. If I don't want to run something live or something that's time intensive, everything I create, all of the learning curves that I go through, all the pieces and the parts that I touch and understand and have a working knowledge of, all of those are assets in my business that never changes. What I learn through this process of going out there and trying something new is only compounding my simplicity. Because whether anyone believes it or not, and whether listening to this sounds simple or not to you, that's okay if it does or does not. But what may not be understood is that at this point now, I have a collection of art that I can rotate fresh pieces. I can change them out, and I can run them as prints. I can run them as varying pieces. I can use that to create branded, content. I can use that to create something unique and new and different. See, I already laid the foundation. I already paved the road. I already know what that looks like. I already touched all the hard part is done. Now I have an entire product suite, physical product suite, that I can rely on so that if I do not have a digital offer program to offer time to add for another coaching container or such, I can still offer something that is unique and very me to the world. That is a layered simplicity. So that's what my eyes were set on at the beginning stage of this, because I know from doing the last four years specifically in the online space, I don't always want to live in the online space. Sometimes the online space is not everything that I want it to be. I have my pockets that are very intentional and very specific and very, much dear to me. Yes, but they're limited. Limited for a reason. Because if I do too many, it's not simple anymore. It becomes overwhelming. And I do not want the overwhelm. I want simple because there's so much more complexity in this world outside of just my business alone, that I need my business to be simple. So everything I strive for, everything I build, everything I learn, everything I create, everything I test and I test and I test and I test. Every ounce of that is a layer of simplicity. Now, before I wrap this up, I want to say that there are elements of what I do that may not be simple to you or other listeners or other people in general. That's okay. But my point in this lesson, in this episode is that you understand that it's short learning bouts. It does not need to take long. It should not take a year. You should be able to pivot and shift multiple times inside of a year. And every time you do that, you should be leaving what you completed as another layer of your simplified version of business. That is how you build multiple income streams. That's how you diversify. That's how you become a marketplace, and most prominently, a brand. And that is where this industry, the online space, online retail, online program, all of it is going to is you have to be the face of your brand. So create something genuinely you teach people along the way. Do not ever think you have to arrive to have been the force or the inspiration or the leader, thought leader of a particular topic. You don't. People no longer even seek that. They're seeking what is your experience and your walk in your journey in creating what you've done? Because, my friend, trust me, people are watching you. Even at the stage that you're at, they're watching if there is no engagement, they're watching. If there's no content, they're watching if you're not showing up. Be everywhere. And by everywhere, I don't mean try to be on all the social media channels. You don't need to do that yet. But set yourself up for things that are replicatable, simplistic and doable, but start with one and allow yourself to be in one at a time. But don't pigeonhole yourself there. Do not stay in that one mode perpetually thinking that the one course or the one product that you are creating is going to be what you're going to ride off into the sunset with. Those days are gone. Those days no longer exist. People need to have something new show up all the time. That's a dopamine hit. It's an adrenaline rush. It is purchasing on impulse. So if you give them those low ticket products or those mini, small price opt ins, if you give them those opportunities to invest with you, if you launch something new, then you get good. Like I've said before, at the launch process, that is the business model. You get good at the launch process. What you launch and what you offer to people becomes second nature. No longer are you learning how to use a strategy to try to build a product for. You are building a product and running it on an average strategy that doesn't take rocket science to learn. In fact, if you're in mycoachlaunchtoolkit.com, humble brag there. but if you're in my coach launch toolkit, you see that process. I remind people all the time, go back to that content and watch those three lessons, because that is the business model. There is nothing else you need to understand. And you should not be adding more complexity to your business by adding elements that either are expensive or a, complete time drain that you desire to outsource it or have to cough up a lot of money to do it. Those should not be where anyone is at. If the foundation has not been set, because the foundation has got to be simple or it cannot be scaled, does that make sense? All right, in leaving, I want to leave you with a couple of things to think about. One, if you're not part of coach launch toolkit, I suggest you highly get in there for 7 a month. You cannot afford to not be in there. Second, I want you to audit your current approach. How are you showing up with what you are creating, what you're building and your dreams and goals that you're going after? Audit the approach that you're getting there. Are you thinking that if I just create this one product, then I can sell it over and over and I will never have to sell again? It doesn't work that way, but get the one product done. The process of creating the product then becomes duplicatable and replicatable, and therefore you have simplicity. If you've got that, you've got a huge chunk of the game, but just do not go into it with the thought process. You're going to stay there perpetually. You're going to have to continue to create, but you can continue to create in the same bubble that you're in. You don't even have to go outside of it or come up with something new. But audit that process. Where are the current complexities in how you are trying to achieve your end objective? Whether it's a short term goal or a long term gain, audit those. Second, adopt a minimalist marketing approach. I'm telling you right now, the number one thing that you have to be doing is putting content out there. And if you are not putting content out there, even if you do not have a launch open or have something for sale right now, if you are not doing that, you are holding yourself back. It's a very easy way to do it. And I don't mean kitten and puppy pictures or, cute scenery. That's great. Those are always fun. But they should be a 20% out of all of your other content, right? Show up and say what you know is true for you and truth for people to hear. Again, that goes back to where they want to hear your experience and thought process. That's where we are in this online space as of this recording today. I want you to not try to be everywhere. Pick one and get real good with it and then you can find ways to maximize the effort. But if you are not regularly consistent in the one you have no business trying to diversify to, others get good at your minimalist marketing approach. That is where you're going to becoming business owner business leader type. Because your marketing means that you get in front of other people and the only way to sell something is to get in front of other people and do not think that eventually you're going to make it into the ad space and you'll then double down on it. Then no, get good at the organic so then you can even be more efficient with your ad spend dollars later. All right, my friends, thank you for joining me on this topic of simplicity and walking a little bit of the journey with me. I'm always happy to share. I'm always happy to converse. Hit m me up on the social media channels. Tell me you heard this episode. Tell me your thoughts about it. Tell me what your questions are and if you aren't in the coach launch toolkit, get in there. Also, if you want to see where my physical products that I did mention in today's episode are, you can go to whitedove-gannon.com/shop and you'll see them there. As always, my friends. Keep moving forward.