EP 564 EP 564 Validate Digital Products Before You Build | AI Entrepreneur Plan

[00:00:00] Tracy Brinkmann: It sounds harmless, it sounds like action, and it quietly eats six weekends, a couple [00:00:05] hundred dollars in tools, and a big chunk of your self-belief. Because when launch day [00:00:10] comes, the silence is deafening. May- may all you hear is crickets. ChatGPT [00:00:15] made building a digital product ridiculously fast, an e-book, a template pack, a prompt [00:00:20] library, a mini course.

You can have a draft by Sunday night. And if you're thinking this could be your path to [00:00:25] massive income, you're not wrong. But there's a step almost everyone skips, because [00:00:30] ChatGPT did not make strangers want what you created. Speed of building is [00:00:35] not proof of demand. So today, we're gonna flip the order.

Before you build anything, your [00:00:40] idea has to earn its place. And by the end of this episode, you will have a weekend plan, [00:00:45] Saturday and Sunday, that tells you, "Go fix or kill your project before you [00:00:50] spend a single weekend building the wrong damn thing." And I'm gonna give you step four, [00:00:55] which is the one almost everyone skips.

This is the one that turns, "People said it was a great idea," [00:01:00] into actual evidence.

Dark Horse Entrepreneur [00:01:05] Podcast

What is up? What is up? What the hell is up, my fellow dark horse entrepreneurs? Let's get stuck right in [00:01:10] today. The three things you're gonna learn if you stick around with me today is, one, the three kinds of evidence that [00:01:15] actually count and the one kind of evidence that feels great, but means almost nothing.

You'll [00:01:20] get that in just a minute here. Two, the six-step weekend validation plan that you can [00:01:25] run even while you're holding down a full-time job. Saturday is for finding the buyer and proof. Sunday [00:01:30] is for writing the offer and asking for a real commitment. And three, this is gonna be your go, [00:01:35] fix, or kill numbers.

You're gonna decide the pass mark before you start the test, not after, [00:01:40] so you can't talk yourself into saying yes to yourself. I'll give you starting thresholds that [00:01:45] you can use as is. And at the end, a little whiskered wisdom for you, one small move that you can [00:01:50] make tonight that takes about 10 minutes.

Okay, let's go. Let's start with the trap. All right? [00:01:55] You tell a friend your product idea. They say, "I would totally buy that." We, we've all done that, right? You, you [00:02:00] feel amazing, and that sentence really is worth nothing. Not because your friend [00:02:05] is lying, because saying yes costs nothing. Compliments are free.

[00:02:10] Predictions about what we will buy someday are famously unreliable. People are [00:02:15] kind, and the future is cheap. So here is a rule for this whole episode. [00:02:20] Evidence costs the buyers something: time, attention, reputation, [00:02:25] or money. The more it costs them, the more it counts. If it costs them nothing, it's not [00:02:30] evidence.

Let me give you three levels here. Level one, existing spend. People are already paying [00:02:35] for something that solves the problem you're considering solving. Books, templates, courses, [00:02:40] coaches, software. That's good news, not bad news. Competition means the market already [00:02:45] exists out there. Level two, specific pain in their own words.

Real buyers [00:02:50] describing the problem. Unprompted, in forms, in reviews, in comments, or in a [00:02:55] conversation with you directly. Not, "That sounds cool." Things like, "I've wasted three Sundays [00:03:00] trying to set that up." That is real evidence. Three, level three, commitment. Someone [00:03:05] gives you an email for this specific thing, or they book a call, or they join a waitlist with [00:03:10] a real reason, or best of all, they pay or they pre-order.

Yeah? [00:03:15] Opinions don't fit into level one, two, or three. Opinions are level zero. They [00:03:20] don't even go up on the scoreboard. Keep those three levels in your head because the weekend [00:03:25] plan is just a fast way to climb those level faster. Okay? Before Saturday, [00:03:30] I want you to set your go, fix, or kill numbers. All right?

So what you're gonna do [00:03:35] is on Friday night, you're gonna take about 10 minutes, and you're gonna write down what pass looks [00:03:40] like before you even start your product. Because if you decide after the test, [00:03:45] your brain is gonna start grading on a curve every single time. Trust me on this. And here are [00:03:50] the thresholds, I promise you.

And they're not magic numbers. Don't get me wrong. They are a reasonable bar for a [00:03:55] small, low-priced digital product, and you should adjust them based on your audience size and [00:04:00] the price you go with. Okay? Let's talk about the go level. At least three people that you [00:04:05] don't personally know take a real commitment step, ideally a payment or a pre-order, [00:04:10] or one paid pre-order plus several strong conversations, okay?

[00:04:15] That's your go signal. Your fix signal is you have people clearly that have a [00:04:20] pain. They engage, they reply, but nobody commits. That usually means the offer, [00:04:25] the price, or the promise is a little off, but it's not the problem. The problem that you're [00:04:30] solving is actually out there. And kill or park, let's call it either one of those two because some [00:04:35] of the platforms won't let me say that word, I'm gonna kill this project or I'm gonna park the project.

You [00:04:40] can't seem to find real people describing that pain that your product would solve, and no one [00:04:45] is paying for anything nearby it. That's not a failure. That's a weekend that you just [00:04:50] saved. So after you figure out what those numbers are, you wanna write those numbers on a sticky note. [00:04:55] Seriously, I want you to do that because that note is gonna be your referee.

Most [00:05:00] digital products fail before they're ever made because they're aimed at anyone who wants [00:05:05] to make money or busy people or beginners. That's not a buyer. That's a [00:05:10] crowd, okay? Your buyer persona, some people call it your customer avatar, [00:05:15] it's gonna have three parts: who they are, what situation they're in, and what is that [00:05:20] situation costing them?

Let me give you a weak version. A weak version of your buyer persona is a [00:05:25] productivity template for busy people. No, that's not what you want. Strong version, solo [00:05:30] bookkeepers who lose two hours every month end chasing client receipts. You see the difference? [00:05:35] You can almost picture that person in your mind's eye.

You can easily find them, and you know [00:05:40] what they would pay to fix. You can use ChatGPT or Claude here as a sparring partner, but don't use it as [00:05:45] an oracle, right? Ask it something like, "List 20 specific situations where a [00:05:50] solo bookkeeper wastes time every single month. For each, who feels the pain most, [00:05:55] and what does it cost them?"

Then you can choose. ChatGPT can generate different options, [00:06:00] but only real people can confirm that those options are their pain points. Those are [00:06:05] the conversations you have. Pick one, not three. One buyer, one problem, and spend one [00:06:10] weekend. That's it. You start picking more, you're gonna suck up a bunch of time you don't have.

Now, you need to go [00:06:15] find level one and level two evidence. Give yourself about two hours for this. H- here's what you can [00:06:20] do. For existing spend, look where products like this already, already are selling. [00:06:25] Gumroad, Etsy, Teachable, Stan Store, Amazon Books in that category. You're looking [00:06:30] for products that solve a nearby problem and show you signs of real buyers, and [00:06:35] these signs are reviews, ratings, sales counts, wherever those sales counts are shown.

If [00:06:40] you find nothing anywhere, I want you to be careful. Sometimes there is an open [00:06:45] lane, but more often than not, it's a lane that no one wants to be in, and that's where people [00:06:50] end up wasting time and money. Okay? And next, you also wanna look for their pain in [00:06:55] their own words, right? You wanna go where the buyer is gonna be complaining.

Reddit, Facebook [00:07:00] groups, niche forums, YouTube comments under tutorials on the topic [00:07:05] that you're gonna be writing about. And here's a favorite of mine, those one and two-star [00:07:10] reviews from competitor products. One-star reviews are gonna tell you what people hate. [00:07:15] Three-star reviews are gonna tell you what they wanted and didn't get, and that's your product gap, [00:07:20] and it's written by the customer, not you.

Oh, not even ChatGPT, for that matter. Copy the [00:07:25] exact phrases that you find into a document. Don't paraphrase because you [00:07:30] want their own words. Just literally copy and paste it in there. Okay? And here's a useful move here. [00:07:35] Paste in the quotes that you collect and then ask ChatGPT to group them by theme and [00:07:40] rank which pains appear most.

'Cause you could spend, you know, like I said, two [00:07:45] hours going through and doing all this research and then have to go through and sort them. ChatGPT is really good for this. It's a [00:07:50] real time saver. But just don't let it invent quotes. You, you can actually tell it, "Only use these quotes in [00:07:55] here." Only feed it what real people have actually said.

By lunchtime now, you should be able to [00:08:00] answer two questions. Is anyone out there already paying to solve something close [00:08:05] to the problem my product would solve? And can I show five or more real people [00:08:10] describing this pain that my product would resolve in their own words? If both [00:08:15] answers are no, that's important information to have.

Go back to step one, pick a different [00:08:20] problem or pick a different buyer, and then restart your two hours. Okay? Here's a mindset [00:08:25] shift I wanna drop here for you. You don't need the product to test the product. Yeah, so many [00:08:30] people get stuck on this. You do, however, need an offer, and that offer is one page. H- heck, it [00:08:35] could even be one paragraph, and that one page or that one paragraph needs to answer four [00:08:40] questions.

Who is this for? That's your, your buyer persona we talked about. What result does it help them [00:08:45] get? This is where you're gonna use their words from the quote document you put together. What [00:08:50] exactly will they receive? And you're gonna wanna be very concrete here. Example, a 12-page [00:08:55] checklist and three email templates beats, "You will get a complete system."

Y- you feel me? Get... Tell [00:09:00] them w- exactly what they're gonna receive. What does it cost? Pick a real price. You, you may [00:09:05] find that it's over or under, but pick a real price. For a first small digital product, most [00:09:10] creators, they start low, but do me a favor, avoid free. Free tests interest. [00:09:15] Price is what's gonna test real demand.

Here's an example from our bookkeeper we're, we're [00:09:20] building off of. Let's say your paragraph is gonna say something like this: "The month-end receipt rescue kit [00:09:25] for solo bookkeepers tired of chasing client receipts. You're gonna get three copy and paste [00:09:30] client email sequences, a receipt request checklist, and a one-page policy you can send to [00:09:35] new clients, all built to help you cut your month-end chase time, and it's only $19."[00:09:40]

See? Simple. You don't have to overcomplicate this. Notice it doesn't promise any guaranteed [00:09:45] outcome or any specific number of hours saved. It promises a clear set of tools aimed [00:09:50] at a very clear pain. This is what getting to product market fit actually looks [00:09:55] like at the micro level, not the macro level. A specific buyer, a specific [00:10:00] problem, and a specific solution.

Bam. There it is. ChatGPT can help you write [00:10:05] 10 versions of this in a few minutes. Ask it to use the exact customer phrases that you collected, then [00:10:10] pick the one that sounds most like your buyer, not the one that sounds most like a [00:10:15] marketer. Okay? This is the fourth step that I teased up at the beginning of this episode.

This is the one that [00:10:20] most people skip, and hopefully you will not now that you hear it. Instead of building the whole [00:10:25] product, build something that shows the product, a cover image, a sample page, a [00:10:30] screenshot of the first template, a table of contents. 30 to 90 minutes tops is what [00:10:35] any of this is gonna take you.

Why does this matter, Tracy? Well, let me tell you. Because people respond to what they [00:10:40] see. Would you buy a receipt kit? Gets a polite shrug. A clean image of a [00:10:45] kit with the first email template visible gets a realer reaction. Either, "Where do [00:10:50] I get this?" Or it gets silence. Both of those reactions are useful.

Both of them tell you [00:10:55] something. And if you put that mockup on a simple landing page, your one offer paragraph, [00:11:00] the mockup, and an action button, that button is where the real evidence is gonna begin to show [00:11:05] up. Here are two honesty rules here, and these, my friends, are non-negotiable. [00:11:10] First, if someone can pay before the product exists, say so plainly.

Put it in there. [00:11:15] This is a pre-sale. The kit ships on, and give them a specific date. Name that [00:11:20] date. Second, offer a full refund if you decide not to build, and please [00:11:25] mean it. You're testing demand. You're not trying to trick people. Your reputation is the one [00:11:30] asset you will never, ever be able to build, not even with AI.

Okay? Now, you wanna [00:11:35] take that landing page to real people. I don't want you to take it to your mom. Don't take it to your [00:11:40] best friend, unless, of course, your best friend runs a, a bookkeeping organization. But you wanna take it [00:11:45] to people who match your buyer persona, and here's three ways you can do that.

Pick whatever fits your [00:11:50] situation out of these three. Way number one: have conversations. Message 10 to 20 people [00:11:55] who fit your buyer description. Many of them will be in the same communities where you found the pain [00:12:00] when you were doing your research. Be respectful of each group's rules. Most of these platforms or [00:12:05] groups will not allow promotion, so lead with a question, not a pitch.

Something like, "I'm [00:12:10] putting together a small kit for solo bookkeepers on month-end receipt chasing. Would you be open to [00:12:15] a quick chat on how you handle this now?" In that conversation that you have, ask [00:12:20] about the past. Don't ask about the future. Tell me about the last time this happened to you. What did you try?[00:12:25]

What did it cost you? Because past behavior is evidence. Future promises, they're just [00:12:30] compliments. Okay? At the end of the conversation, show them the mock-up and the price, and then [00:12:35] ask them directly, "If this existed this week, would you want it for..." And then give them the price. [00:12:40] Then, and this is the important part, if they say yes, give them a way to act on it [00:12:45] right then and there.

Okay? Way number two is the pre-sale. I have done this one a couple of times, and it's been [00:12:50] very successful. Your landing page includes a real payment option, and the pre-sale date, and [00:12:55] the refund promise clearly stated. Payment is the strongest form of evidence you [00:13:00] will ever get, okay? And see how many people sign up.

The last time I did this was for a, a [00:13:05] podcasting course I hadn't even created yet, and within two hours, I had 18 people signed up, [00:13:10] okay? Here's way number three, the specific wait list. If a pre-sale, let's say that's not wa- [00:13:15] ready for you right now, use an email sign-up, but make it specific. Not, "Join my [00:13:20] newsletter."

Instead, "Get the receipt rescue kit at launch price when it's ready." It's weaker than [00:13:25] money committed, but it's stronger than, "Ooh, that sounds cool." Okay? Share the landing page wherever your [00:13:30] buyer already is and the promotion is allowed. Plus, put them in your profiles and any small [00:13:35] audience that you may already have.

Okay? Now, go ahead and pull out that sticky note you created on [00:13:40] Friday and count what counts. Payments, specific sign-ups, booked calls, [00:13:45] strong pain stories from strangers. Then make the call. Go fix or [00:13:50] park. If you get a go signal, you hit the bar. You got the right numbers there. Now you [00:13:55] build, and you build fast because you already have buyers waiting, and you know exactly what they ask [00:14:00] for.

Your quote dart is your outline. And if this becomes something people buy without you doing any [00:14:05] initial work each time, that's what passive income actually looks like. Earned, [00:14:10] not assumed Fix signal. They have a pain, they engaged, but nobody [00:14:15] committed. Change one thing and re-run a smaller test next weekend.

Usually, I [00:14:20] find it's the promise or the price, and sometimes it's the buyer, too. Change one of those. [00:14:25] Change only one or you won't know what works, okay? Until you find you [00:14:30] get a go signal. In kill or park, there's no pain, there's no spend, there's no [00:14:35] commitment. Close that doc. Write one sentence about what you learned, 'cause you will learn.

You [00:14:40] have just collected a bunch of data. Then go pick a new problem. You've just saved yourself [00:14:45] weeks creating something that got you crickets. And at the same time, you just got better [00:14:50] at this very thing you're trying to do. And here's the part that no one says out loud. A kill or [00:14:55] park is actually a win.

Most people find out their idea doesn't work [00:15:00] after they've built it, priced it, launched it, and posted about it. That's when they found [00:15:05] out. You found out within 48 hours and it cost you a sticky note. That, [00:15:10] my friends, is a real quality reality check. I wanna give you three cautions here. [00:15:15] One, small numbers are noisy.

Three buyers this weekend doesn't guarantee [00:15:20] 300 next month. It usually means you've cleared the first bar, but you should keep validating as [00:15:25] you grow. Big creator results that you hear out there are not your forecast. You will [00:15:30] see videos about people making big money from their digital products. Treat those [00:15:35] numbers as their report results, not a prediction of what you could possibly gain.[00:15:40]

Your evidence is the only evidence that matters for your idea. And the third [00:15:45] caution I wanna leave you with is ChatGPT drafts, but you decide. [00:15:50] ChatGPT and all the other tools are out there, they're great at brainstorming, grouping quotes, and drafting orders. They, [00:15:55] my friends, are not customers. Never let them stand in for a real person's pain, [00:16:00] and never publish AI-generated reviews or testimonials.

I've seen that done. It's [00:16:05] shady. Again, it comes back to your reputation. Eric Ries, who wrote The Lean Startup, put it simply: [00:16:10] get out of the building and talk to real people, real customers. No large [00:16:15] language model is ever gonna replace that, okay? Now, everything we just walked through, [00:16:20] the pass mark, the buyer persona, the quote doc, the offer, the scoreboard, it's a lot to [00:16:25] hold into your head on a Saturday morning or during a podcast.

So I, I put this all into [00:16:30] a one-page document for you. It's called the Weekend Validation Worksheet. Step by step, Friday [00:16:35] night, all the way through to Sunday evening, with a spot for every piece of evidence that you collect, and a [00:16:40] quick go, fix, or park read at the end. It's free, and it's gonna be in the link [00:16:45] down in the show notes.

But here's the thing, validating one idea is a skill that you build. If you want [00:16:50] help building it every week with practical evidence-first moves for building a side hustle [00:16:55] around your full-time job, around your family life, go ahead and join the AI Escape Plan newsletter. That's gonna be [00:17:00] over at darkhorseinsider.com.

That's darkhorseinsider.com. And again, [00:17:05] the link to the full Weekend Validation Workshop will be down in the show notes. Go check that out [00:17:10] for yourself. Free, no email required. Now, okay, now we come to my favorite part of the episode. [00:17:15] This is your Whisker wisdom for this week. You like the new chapeau? I [00:17:20] think it fits the whole Whisker wisdom vibe.

Here's your one step tonight, and it takes about 10 [00:17:25] minutes. Open up a note on your phone and write one line: "I believe buyer [00:17:30] will pay price for result." Fill in the blanks for your own idea. [00:17:35] Now, under that, I want you to write, "The evidence that would prove me wrong is," and [00:17:40] then fill in that blank. Finish that sentence.

That second line is the real [00:17:45] secret that most people are gonna miss. Most of us look for evidence that we are right, that [00:17:50] what we're doing is amazing. When you name in advance what would prove you wrong- [00:17:55] You turn your idea from hope into a real test, and tests are [00:18:00] something that you can run this weekend.

Now, let's bring this all home, shall we? Evidence [00:18:05] costs the buyer something. Set your go, fix, kill, or park numbers first. Do that before you [00:18:10] even start anything. Saturday, go find one buyer and their pain in their own [00:18:15] words. Then write the offer, make a mock-up, and then on Sunday, ask for a real commitment on [00:18:20] your landing page.

Then score it, and score it honestly. Look, you don't need more [00:18:25] weekends. You need the right weekend, one where the market tells you what to build before you [00:18:30] ever spend any time building it. Whatever the result, go, fix, or park, you walk [00:18:35] away Sunday night knowing more than most people who just started building and prayed [00:18:40] and hoped.

With that, I'm gonna leave you as I always do. Think successfully and take action.