Episode 57: Overcoming the fear that your digital product isn't good enough
Hi bosses! In this episode of Feel Good Business, I talked about a common fear among new online business entrepreneurs, which is: 'Is my digital product good enough?'
I offered some practical advice on how to decide if your digital product is good enough to be sold :)
⭐ Want to create a digital product but don't know where to start? Look here : https://www.shikahanuar.shop/products/your-first-sellable-digital-product
If you are in the coaching business or starting one, you can download this free '5 Journal Prompts to process emotions’ lead magnet to grow your email list from the link below:
Tell me what you think.
Take care,
Shikah
Transcript
Welcome to another episode of Feel Good Business. I'm Shikah. I used to work as a counselor and now I create done for you workbooks and workshops for coaches and for anybody who's in the personal development or self-improvement niche. So if you are in that niche, you might find my products helpful.
So anyway, for today, I'm going to share this particular fear that is very common, especially if you are relatively new in the online business space. And this fear is: "Is my product good enough?" So if you have never created a workshop ever, or if this is the first time you're creating a digital product to sell, you might have these fears running through your mind.
And the reason why we have these fears is because I think many of us have experienced this before - including myself - a particular coach or business owner promises so many things in their workshop- promises rainbows and unicorns and all sorts of outcomes in their workshop. And then when you buy their workshop and go through the materials, you realize that the materials are not as helpful as we hope they are. Or maybe there is a mismatch when it comes to the marketing promises and what they deliver. And because of that fear or that experience, we may also have this fear that we may be doing that to our own customers or our own audience.
So that's why we have this fear sometimes whether our products are actually worth the money, especially if you're intending to charge for your workshop or course, or book or workbook or whatever. You're going to have these doubts, especially if you are doing this for the first time. Anyway, so when you have these fears, this is going to be extra tricky, especially if you are a coach or you are someone
in the business where the results are not very tangible. So if you are a mindset coach, for example, or a life coach or even a spiritual coach, the results of your transformation is not something that can be seen and not something which can be measured in numbers or in statistics. When you are in this business niche, you may have this fear even stronger than people in other niches
For example, if you are a business coach or a financial coach, it's very easy to see how productive or how effective your courses and workshops are because the results are very tangible in numbers, in statistics and all that. However, if you're in different niche, then the results can only be felt and can't be seen.
So that's where this fear comes in, and it's a very legit fear, like I mentioned, and part of the reason is because... m aybe we have imposter syndrome to an extent, and I do not want to encourage all of us to be somehow delusional and attribute more value to our product when it's actually very basic- I don't want us to be delusional in that way, but I also do not want us to feel imposter syndrome where we actually undervalue what we offer.
This is actually personally a battle which I am also working on. This is something which is very common amongst entrepreneurs. I may be in the online business space for about five years, and I still battle with these thoughts and feelings at times.
Anyway, so what are you going to do if you have this doubt in your mind whether your product is good enough to be charged or not? Well, firstly, as long as there is some kind of change or shift which your audience can feel, I think your product is good enough to be charged.
For example, as long as there is a shift in the way they think, a shift in the way they see things, a shift in perspective, a shift in how they feel or as long as they can walk away from your workshop or your course with something tangible, like a tangible plan. Or as long as there is a specific habit, they can start today or tomorrow to achieve a particular goal, your product is good enough to be sold.
That's what I personally feel . Sometimes your imposter syndrome might get the better of you, and you may think, "Well, there are other coaches or other creators out there who are selling the same things as I do, and my products are not special in any way."
However, I would love to remind you that the way you approach creating products and the way you create your products is going to be very different from the way another coach or creator creates their products. As long as you are authentic and genuine in nature when you're creating your workshops, your courses or your workbooks, it is going to be unique from the way other creators are doing it because your own essence, your energy, the way you speak, the way you view things, are going to be very different from another coach or another creator. That is one thing I want to also remind you. So if you have this thought, whether your product is good enough or not to be sold, you can go through the elements that I talked about just now.
As long as there is a particular shift in how they feel in how they look at things, and if you can couple that with a tangible plan that they can walk away with, I think your product is good enough to be sold.
Anyway, that's all I want to share for this episode. You can download a few free coaching tools which you can use with your clients or use as lead magnets to grow your business from this blog. I hope this episode has been helpful for you, and I'll see you in my next episode.
Goodbye.
“What if nobody buys my product?”
In this episode, I addressed a common mindset block that many aspiring and new entrepreneurs face - the fear of 'What if nobody buys my product?'
I shared my personal journey and experiences with imposter syndrome in entrepreneurship and offered some advice on how to shift your energy and tackle the initial challenges of launching your own digital product.
Watch this to shift your 'stuck' energy and ensure that lovely digital product of yours gets created, launched and the attention it deserves ;)
Take care,
Shikah
⚡️And if you want to launch + sell your own imposter syndrome masterclass without having to write your own script, create your own slides (the worst😂) or write the workbook yourself, I have the solution for you here.
Transcript
Hello friends. Welcome to another episode. I am Shikah and I used to work as a counselor, but right now I am an online entrepreneur. I've created many digital products over the years, and I've sold them as well. And today I want to talk about a particular mindset block, which can hinder you from launching something you've always wanted to launch or stop you from doing something you've always wanted to do.
If you are someone who's been playing with the idea of creating digital products and selling them, or if you are a coach or influencer or a blogger and you've always wanted to create something and sell it, but something has been stopping you, maybe you have this particular mindset block.
Alright, so the mindset block that I'm referring to is this thought that "what if nobody buys my product?" You may have that fear in your mind and this is a very common thought, especially if you have never created a digital product before, or if you are someone who has some imposter syndrome, then this thought is something not new to you, I would say.
And I don't want you to punish yourself for having these thoughts because these thoughts are more common than you think. I started my digital product business about five, six years ago in 2020. And even I have these thoughts, even though I have counseling experience, formal counseling experience, formal certifications in this topic, and I have informal certifications as well.
So I have experience and certifications and interest, but even then, I also had a ton of imposter syndrome before I started this online business in 2020. So it's nothing new and I don't want you to feel that you are, you know, you are someone who's a quote unquote 'loser' for having these thoughts because these are more common than you think.
And I'm going to share some things that you can do to shift your energy about this.
So this whole episode is not about doing mental gymnastics or some kind of mindset work for you to reframe your thoughts but I just want to shift your energy and just give you more motivation to just get startedtoday, tomorrow, or sometime soon. Alright, so when you have this thought, "what if nobody buys my products?" And then you might feel, "Oh, no. I will feel embarrassed. I'll feel ashamed. Maybe the people I know will be laughing at me. “Oh my God, she started a business and nobody's buying her products.” That's so embarrassing."
You will feel embarrassed by imaginations of failure and imaginations of doom. But your thoughts are not always real. If you are someone who is a little bit of an overthinker, a bit of a, someone who does not have a very positive mindset, your thoughts are going to be feeding you with all sorts of disaster scenarios, which may not even happen.
So acknowledge that these are just thoughts and these are just your fear based thoughts in particular. And of course, I don't want to encourage you to be totally delulu and delusional and have this rainbows and sunshine attitude and be totally ignorant of the challenges that come with this digital online space.
I want you to be positive, but also reasonably positive. I think that's what I want you to do. So what are the things that you can do to give yourself some encouragement in this aspect
is to remind yourself that you will not know if something succeeds or not until you actually start doing it. So if you always wanted to create a workshop, for example, a 30 minute workshop teaching your audience something, and you are too scared to do it, I would say just do it because you will never know whether it will fly or not until you actually do it and put it out there, and even if nobody buys it at the beginning, I don't think it's a sign that, that you are a failure or this idea is a failure. Not at all.
Because sometimes when you put something out there, it does take time for it to gain traction. It takes time for people to take notice of it and sometimes it takes time for people to consider about buying it or even to buy it.
And at the same time, if something is not selling really quickly, it can be duemto many other reasons. Maybe the marketing was not sharp enough, the positioning was not sharp enough, or maybe the topic is not something which is interesting to the audience in general. So there are actually many other factors which contribute to the product not selling as fast as you dream or as fast as you hope, and it has nothing, it probably has nothing to do with you personally.
So I want you to bear in mind that in business it may take time for things to be sold for people to pay attention to your things. It takes time to market something and not to give up immediately when something is not selling. You know, some people might just take it off the market, take it off their blog, or take it off their blog shop when nobody is buying it.
But that is not the approach that we want to take. There was one time someone I know wanted to set up a business and the thing about that is that she got really nervous about launching her business.
This is her first time doing business, I believe, and she was very caught up and nervous about launching it. But the thing is, I wanted to tell her that when you launch something, it's not going to be all "fireworks" and money coming in into your bank account unless you're someone who's pretty experienced in this area.
So sometimes when you launch something, there's crickets. Nobody's buying it. So I don't want you to place so much pressure and expectations on yourself when you are about to launch a new product or a new service or a new business, don't put that kind of unnecessary pressure on yourself because like I mentioned, it takes time for things to gain traction.
It takes time for people to get their eyeballs on your product. So don't launch something and then expect all sorts of miracles to happen on the day you launch something. And the reason why I say this is because I sometimes experience this as well because I launch digital products probably once every two months, sometimes even every month.
And sometimes I put so much expectations on a particular product. And when it does not sell as much as I hope on the first day or second day, I start feeling discouraged. And I think that is quite a silly attitude to take because sometimes it's just not the right time for your clients or customers or audience to buy your products.
And it may take a longer time for them to warm up to your products before they want to buy them. Maybe your positioning, like I mentioned, is not strong enough, so it can be due to many other reasons which are not related to you at all, this is what I want you to bear in mind, and that is, sometimes it takes time for people to buy your products and that's fine.
That's okay. Another thing that I want you to bear in mind is that sometimes your product is good enough and because of your imposter syndrome or because sometimes you have this, what I call the 'curse of knowledge', you think that your product is very basic, when in general it can be really helpful. So some of us have that kind of mindset block going on.
So when you have these mindset blocks going on, this is going to stop you as well from launching your product or slow you down from launching your product.
'Curse of knowledge' is when you think that people already know that what you are teaching. I have that also like some things come very naturally to me, but they're new to people and I've received comments, emails and also messages from people who consume my videos or my podcast episodes, for example and they say "they're so helpful" when to me they come so naturally I didn't - I wasn't even sure whether my episodes were helpful to be honest, but I do get messages and emails saying that my free content is very helpful.
So this is what I mean by the 'curse of knowledge'. Sometimes we feel that what we have is so basic, is so general, is so foundational, but that particular knowledge can be something new to someone else. It can be something that someone else learns for the first time. So you may have a curse of knowledge and that's why you have this fear that nobody's going to buy my product because "my product is so basic".
I think one of the things, the pitfalls that people fall into is that they immediately give up when they launch a particular digital product, maybe a workbook or planner or a workshop and then when nobody buys it, what they do is they immediately give up or immediately take it off their blog or take it off online shop and then stop trying.
I would say that's one of the biggest mistakes that someone can do in the online business space because sometimes it's just the copywriting on your sales page which needs tweaking.
Sometimes the products - maybe the niche or the way you position your product, the way you communicate the helpfulness or the benefits of the product needs to be tweaked. Sometimes, you just need to market it better. Maybe you need a bigger audience. Maybe you need to tap on someone else's audience, collaborate with a fellow content creator who has the same base as you, but not competing with you in terms of business.
Maybe you need collaborations to get more eyes on your product. So there are many reasons why that is not selling immediately. So don't immediately take it off your blog shop or take it off your online shop or whatever it is.
Give it a try. Tweak the messaging, tweak the sales page. Maybe you may even need to tweak the image itself - you can actually get templates online- product templates- online, Canva templates online, and you can tweak the product image to make it more appealing to your audience.
That can also be the reason why it's not getting a lot of attention. Sometimes it's the keywords that you use or you just need a bigger audience, you know? There are many reasons why it's not selling and not to just give up and stop creating and stop selling. Once you don't get the results that you want on the first day itself of launch.
So that's one of the biggest mistakes that someone can do if they are new in this online business space. So I have a shop selling done-for-you workshops, as you can see here, and workbooks in the personal development space, mindfulness, goal setting, imposter syndrome and more.
And you can actually edit these products and sell them to your audience. You can go to my shop and buy them and so that you can launch your own products with ease, with speed, and knowing that they are created with someone who actually has experience in this field- in this field of counseling and personal development.
So if you want to launch your own product quickly, you can get something from my shop and launch it. So let me know in the comments below if you have had these blocks before. You know, these thoughts of "what if nobody buys my products? What if my product is not up to standard? What if my products are not good enough?" If you have had these thoughts before, let me know in the comments section and maybe we can discuss .
Alright, see you in my next episode.
Goodbye.
“The Nightmare Year” method: a new, counter-intuitive way of scripting your ideal year
I would make the bold assumption that many of us are familiar with creating vision boards and scripting to manifest your dream year.
In this blog post, I will be sharing another method for you to light the fire within yourself to pursue your goals, and to feel less discouraged and motivated.
How does this ‘The Nightmare Year’ method work?
Well, instead of scripting or writing your ideal 2026 for example, you will be scripting how you do not want 2026 to turn out.
This flies in the face of many self-help advice but hear me out for a minute 😅
There are 2 steps to this method.
Step 1: Do a mental scan of your 2025
Pinpoint
1) thought patterns
2) habits
3) anything else you do not want to repeat in 2026.
Step 2: Start scripting your nightmare 2026
Reach for a pen and paper and start writing how you do not want 2026 to turn out.
I'll share my own personal example below.
My Step #1 :
My immune system was not the strongest in 2025 and I saw my doctor more times than I care for. I also spent too much time resting on my sofa and having low energy on many days. It was not fun.
I made many decisions based on fear. For example, I did not want to pay $X to get a new business tool / software ‘in case it does not work out or becomes a waste of money'.
I also made the least income in my 5 years of business in 2025. Just like other businesses, A.I. has knocked my sales down by a lot. I do not want to have the same income in 2026.
I felt disempowered and discouraged in my business due to the rapid development of AI and too much other noise on the Internet. I simply do not want to feel that way any more.
My Step #2 : I will now script how my ‘nightmare 2026’ will look like
"In 2026, I do not want to spend too many days feeling low on energy or recovering from one small ailment to another. Spending days resting on my sofa to rest myself physically and mentally is not appealing to me.
In 2026, I do not want to earn the same low amount of money I did in 2025. That felt like a drag and I do not want to repeat that.
In 2026, I do not want my fear to make decisions for me. Being too careful made me feel stagnant, restless and downright bored - both in life and in business.
In 2026, I am done feeling disempowered - or or any form of helpless feelings - when running my business. My income may fall with competition, AI and more, but feeling disempowered makes me feel depressed-like feelings which affect other aspects of my life.”
So how did I feel after this brief exercise?
I felt a new sense of determination after I’ve finished scripting my 2026 nightmare. It lit a fire within me to keep trying new things to keep my business motivation going.
I have also taken practical proactive steps to strengthen my immunity and well-being.
If you are intrigued by this method, share it with your clients or use it on yourself.
Let me know your experience with this method :)
Shikah
Five coaching journal prompts to help your clients process emotions and shift from overwhelm to calm
If my free content has helped you in any way, please consider leaving a tip! It makes me more motivated to create more free and meaningful content for you to grow your coaching business. Thank you for your kindness. - Shikah
Hello friends! Let’s talk about how to use precise journal prompts to help your clients shift from emotional overwhelm to feeling calm.
I’m Shikah and I’m a former counsellor who helps coaches get more leads and sales with content marketing. Let’s get straight to a content idea you can share with your audience.
If you have had clients who find it difficult to identify their emotions, if they get stuck in a loop feeling the same negative emotions over and over again, or if they analyse their emotions using too much logic instead of embracing those emotions, then this video or podcast ep can help you.
Well-thought-out journaling prompts are not just empty questions, they can start inner conversations if someone actually pauses and reflects on the prompts seriously.
If you want a copy of these 5 prompts, just key in your email and I will send it to your inbox.
Prompt number 1 is “What are 3 emotions I am feeling right this moment?'“
Emotions are nuanced, and writing just one emotion on a piece of paper cannot provide depth or undertsanding of your own emotions. Hence, encourage your clients to write 3 to 5 emotions they are feeling in the moment. For example, their response can be “The 3 emotions I am feeling right now are: slightly frustrated, boredom and a little anxiety.”
This trains them to be more self-aware and be more in touch with their emotions. We rarely just feel one emotion at one time, we feel quite a few. And these few emotions can be caused by a few events. To understand our triggers, it is always helpful to pinpoint 3 - 5 emotions we are feeling at any one moment.
Prompt number 2 is “Where in my body do I feel these heavy emotions?”
This encourages your clients to tune in to your body and be present. They may answer something along the lines of “I feel as though there is a weight in between my shoulder blades”, “I feel a churning in my stomach”, “I feel heavy in my heart space (or chest area)”, “I feel tension around my forehead.” This places them as an observer of their emotions rather than being engulfed by those emotions. This prompt will also boost their self-awareness. The more specific they can describe those emotions and pinpoint the physical location of them, the more self-awareness they have.
At this point, you may be wondering if you can get a copy of these prompts so you can share them with your audience. That’s why I want you to download my free coaching journal prompt ideas do you can use it as a lead magnet to grow your list.
Simply key in your email address above to get your copy for free.
Now with that out of the way, let’s move on to the next coaching journal prompt to help your clients shift from overwhelm to calm.
Prompt number 3 is “What are the likely triggers of these emotions?”
I know that this prompt can be very challenging because your clients have to come face-to-face with their mistakes or negative past. If we approach this prompt gently, it can be very helpful for them to not repeat past mistakes and make better, wiser decisions. The triggers can be as simple as “I feel frustrated because of my exhaustion today - and this is triggered by me sleeping past midnight yesterday.”
The emotional triggers can also be poor time management, lack of direct communication with people, not having clear goals and more. You can always prompt your clients to set a timer for 5 minutes and write non-stop about what they intuitively feel are the triggers for their negative feelings. You can remind them to be as honest, raw and as uncensored as possible so that this journaling can be a form of emotional release. Nobody needs to read their writing, so they can be truly honest with themselves and destroy the writing afterwards.
Prompt number 4 is “What stories am I telling myself about my emotions and situation - and are they 100% true?”
This is where your clients have to pause and reflect if their possibly negative perspective is causing them to feel a certain way. For example, if your client is a freelance artist and her friend made an off-hand comment about freelance workers being irresponsible, does your client take that personally and feel hurt? Does she tell herself that her friend is throwing shade at her and starts withdrawing from this friend?
If this happens, your client can ask herself this question: “Is my assumption 100% true? If not, what else can be true?”
Your client can stretch her creativity and write down 5 different ways of interpreting this situation.
Perhaps her friend who made this so-called hurtful comment was simply projecting her frustration about her own family member who happens to be a freelance worker and is irresponsible. Or perhaps that friend was being defensive about her personal decision to be a workaholic. Or she may be echoing her inner critic and ego which equate her self-worth to a high-paying job.
From this cognitive reframing example, you can see that there are many angles for us to explore just one comment made by someone else. Your client can use this coaching journal prompt to diffuse any anger, hurt or fear they may feel when on the receiving end of a negative comment.
Prompt number 5 is “What can I do right now to honour these emotions in a healthy way?”
As a coach, this is where you guide your clients to take the action they need to do - not the action they are tempted to do. When they feel stressed out at work, the temptation to lash out and take their frustration out on family members can be strong. Or your clients may be tempted to numb the stress out by eating excessively, drinking, watching Netflix till late hours or other unhelpful coping methods.
You can gently point out the difference between reacting to their stress and honouring their stress. Honouring their stressed-out emotions and other negative emotions can look like calling a trusted friend for support, talking to a therapist, journaling out their emotions, proactively planning how to set healthy boundaries at work, indulging in a hobby or going to the gym to release pent-up anxiety.
If they are lost and not sure what to do to honour their emotions, they can simply pick up a pen and a notebook to journal continously for 10 minutes using the 5 prompts we have discussed in this video. Encourage them to get as raw, as unfiltered and as authentic as possible to shift those emotions and feel calmer.
Now you know the 5 coaching journal prompts to help your clients process their emotions, you may be wondering how you can use these prompts for your coaching business.
If that’s you, download the free coaching journal prompts and use them as a lead magnet to grow your email list. Simply go to the link in my description box to get your copy for free.
If you want to launch your own signature journaling masterclass, you can also check out my done-for-you masterclass which you can use and sell to your clients.
I’ll see you in my next video, goodbye.
Creating a business 'for fun'. Is there such a thing?
Hi friends!
In today’s episode, I want to share some behind-the-scenes struggles I was facing when I wanted to set up a NEW business ‘for fun’.
For context, I am a creator. I love creating content, particularly self-help and mindset content. I am trained as a counsellor and I create done-for-you coaching tools which you can use or sell to your clients.
Recently, I wanted to set up a new affirmations and mindfulness business because I love it. It is driven by passion purely and I want to make some income out of it because I don’t want all my efforts creating podcast episodes to go to waste.
So I set up a YouTube channel and also a podcast of the same name. In my idealistic vision, all I have to do is pick up my mic, record my motivational episode for the day and publish it on my new podcast. And then hopefully it will gain traction and grow.
But I ran into many little roadblocks.
Number 1, I am someone who needs a script before recording any podcast epsiode because I have a tendency to go off-topic or get nervous half-way. I needed to draft a script before recording even a 7-minute episode for this new podcast. It sounds manageable. So I did it.
I also need to edit the recording. I have to delete some pauses, delete some stuttering in the podcast recording. Perhaps even add auto-captions to it. All these are extra work. And if I want to upload this podcast episode on YouTube, I would need to open up Canva and create thumbnails for it.
After that, I realised that I do need to market my new podcast somehow. Which means, I have to create YT shorts, reels and more.
And then, I would also need to have a new blog to park my new episodes to rank in SEO. I know how to do that with my current business, so it’s not anything new for me.
And then I would need an email marketing service. Because, all businesses need email marketing in some way, in my opinion. As you can see, a small business which I wanted to create for fun (and some income) needs a lot of work.
Also, my current coaching content business is a B2B business whereas my new mindfulness business is a B2C business. The approach is different. I am a one-woman show so 2 businesses was a lot to handle.
Not to mention the new expenses that I will have to incur if I want to start a new business. The blog hosting, the email marketing service and more.
What I want to share is that setting up a business for fun is not as easy as we imagine it to be. Creating free content is not free on our part.
How can we solve this? I would say a mindset shift is needed if you want to set up a business ‘for fun’.
Number 1 : Don’t place high expectations on it. If you expect or have the goal to make money from this business, it’s not ‘for fun’ anymore. It will need work and commitment. If it is truly a passion project, let it remain a passion project. Create for the sake of your love for creating.
Number 2 : If you want to launch a passion project for fun, dont let naysayers bother you. There will be people who tell you that it’s a waste of money and effort. They might say “Why are you spending $300 a year and wasting your time creating and editing podcast episodes when you are not making money or have the intention to make money?”
My argument for that is : everyone has a hobby. If your hobby is creating podcast eps and videos, so be it. Most hobbies cost money! Someone else might have cooking as a hobby. That costs money too. If you are a foodie and you love exploring new food places, that costs money too. As a creative person, if creating gives you joy and you can afford the expenses that come with it, do it for the fun of it.
All in all, if you have an idea to create a business ‘for fun’, and you are going to treat it like a fun hobby, you are probably not going to make much money for it, in my opinion.
I may eat my words in future, I don’t know. I stand corrected. But from my viewpoint and experience, a business no matter how small, needs consistency and marketing.
I don’t know what I’m going to do with my new podcast channel.
I might just treat it as a fun project, as a way to inspire listeners and not put any expectations on it. My mistake was to place monetary gain as part of my expectations when I do not have the time to commit to another business, truthfully.
Let me know your thoughts about creating a business!
Shikah