Links:
Are “coaches” really all that helpful?
I think people are getting tired of the canned quotes.
I made $415 in my first month selling digital products.
Sounds decent until you run the operational numbers: 95 hours invested, $180 in expenses, $235 net profit. That's $2.47 per hour.
Less than military base pay. Way less than my Fortune 500 consulting rate.
My product was a comprehensive creator operations manual. 147 pages of frameworks, templates, and process diagrams. I built what I thought was systematically brilliant instead of what creators operationally needed.
Classic engineering mistake: over-designing the solution.
Nobody wanted a comprehensive system. They wanted to solve today's operational problem: "How do I track my revenue without spreadsheet chaos?"
My guide couldn't compete with a simple income tracker template.
Three operational failures that killed profitability:
Built in isolation. Never validated with actual creators having real problems. Competed on features. Bragged about "12 frameworks" instead of time saved. Launched once. Expected exponential growth, got linear disappointment.
Next product: A revenue tracking spreadsheet. $29.
Before building it, I did proper market research. Posted in creator groups: "Would you pay $29 for this operational tool?"
Forty-seven creators said yes. Three asked for early access.
That template made $638 in its first week. Better revenue than my "comprehensive" manual made in a month.
The operational principle: People don't buy products. They buy operational improvements.
Specific solutions beat comprehensive systems every time.
Your minimum viable product doesn't need to be complete. It needs to be operationally useful.
The validation framework:
Identify one specific operational bottleneck
Build the smallest solution that removes it
Price based on time/stress saved
Pre-validate with real money commitments
Stop building what you think is clever. Start building what actually works.
Ready to validate your next product idea systematically? Get the MISSION Product Validation Manual: https://store.nicheof.one/l/mission
THIS framework will fly!
"Stop building what you think is clever. Start building what actually works."
(great, another tattoo)