Lesson #4: Break it into bites
Can you believe it's been 9 days since this challenge started? 9 days! Sweet sparkle-farting unicorns, it seems like forever / no time.
I don't know about you, but I've been filing my nose to a point on this grindstone over here. It's quite pointy now.
Which is why I'm gonna stick it in your business and say:
Are you working on That Thing?
Have you taken 30-60 minutes to sit down and design your destination — what it does, why, and for whom?
Did you then start at the end, working your way there?
Did you cut it brutally and push off all of the nice-to-haves, so you can ship on time?
If not, wellllllll, I can't make you. Obv. I hope you will. At this point, everything is in your hands.
But if the reason you haven't is because you're not able to imagine what the next step looks like, well, this lesson should rev your mapping engine.
You're in a case study right…now
Hi. **gestures widely** You are currently in the Ship in Six Challenge. I'm working on it right now.
In fact, I began working on Ship in Six way back in July 2015. "But, er, Amy… it took you 15 months to make this email course about shipping in six weeks!?" As deliciously ironic as that would be, no!
In July 2015, I launched the Ship By September Challenge.
I made lessons for SBS during the Ship by September Challenge. I designed my destination, and then I started working backwards, just like I taught you. I wrote an outline, wrote a landing page, wired up a sequence and shipped with just the first few lessons. The rest I wrote during the challenge. Because I'm insane like that.
It was slightly off-schedule and more than a little janky.
And people loved it. I got scores of happy emails announcing "I shipped!"
Now here I am, taking what I made last year and giving it polish and upgrades: the new edition has work sheets! And a real logo. And a name we can use again & again (not just once a year). And its own web site.
The Challenge didn't have any of those things before.
But enough about the Challenge itself. The Challenge isn't my final destination.
This is my final destination: Just Fucking Ship sales of $10k a month, regular.
And this is my current location: $1-2k a month, regular-ish.
Welp, to continue torturing my mapping metaphor, this route is not a case of hop on the freeway, hop off the freeway, bam! 5-10x increase in sales.
There are a lot of steps — and rest stops — along this long route.
So, how do I go about increasing sales 5-10x?
I need to improve the conversion rates at every step of the way in the funnel of: hit my blog -> sign up for my list -> buy my book.
I also need to widen the funnel, to get more people in.
I worked backwards and came up with the following necessary components:
- a persuasive sales page
- an impactful, evergreen email course
- high converting calls to action
- higher traffic
- getting in front of new people
Did you see that that's the funnel… in reverse? I get in front of new people. They end up in my blog or on my specialty landing page for SiS. They sign up with a CTA, for my email course (hi!). Then they start seeing the value in JFS. Then they check it out. Then they buy.
That's how this works.
I'm no slave to order of operations — first I did Ship by September, then I improved the JFS landing page and created a premium package, now I'm doing the email course again, and I'm in the middle of editing JFS for v2, and we're finally making progress on our new blog which will make it far easier to do the CTAs.
But I know… to achieve my goal, they've all gotta get done. And more, besides.
And this is where shit gets really real:
The email course is itself a destination.
It's a stop along the way, but it's also its own thing.
To create the email course, I needed…
- a signup form
- configured campaign
- a reason for people to sign up
- persuasive copy about the campaign / a deadline
- the content for the emails…
- …which required an outline
- ……which required a clear goal and a desired end result for you, the reader
- then I needed subscribers…
And so on. At each backwards step, I take in the view "behind" me (that I will need to tread in the future), and ask myself:
- What's the step before that?
- What's the step before that?
- What's the step before that?
That's how you do it.
That's how you start at the end.
You sit there, and you look back, and ask:
- What do I need?
- How do I get it?
- Now how do I get that?
And you write it down. Then tackle the tasks in rough order, in tiny bites.
So…
Where do you want to be?
What's the step you need to take right before that?
What do you need to get there?
How do you get it?
You can learn more about defining and ordering and cutting and kicking ass with individual tasks in my book, Just Fucking Ship.
On that obsessive and recursive note… have a great rest of your week. :)
My next email will include a cheat sheet for the above steps, one you can print out and keep handy for whenever you feel overwhelmed or stuck!
Cheers,
Amy
Did you get this lesson from a friend?
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Here's what comes next
- WEEK 1 — Start at the End, Design Your Destination,
- WEEK 2 — Cut Without Remorse, Break It Into Bites
- WEEK 3 — How Do You Stay Motivated?, Finish Something Microscopic
- WEEK 4 — The Myth of the Big Win, Creating the Little Win Habit
- WEEK 5 — The Life Changing Magic of Shipping 1 & 2
- WEEK 6 — Myth of the Big Launch, The Fear of Shipping
- BONUS WEEK 7 — You Shipped! Now what?