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.

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

(Free Printable) How to Overcome Perfectionism and be Productive

5 ways to let go of perfectionism and be more productive.

If you are a perfectionist, you can relate to this:

• have started and not finished many projects

• taking twice or thrice as long to finish something

• keep double-checking, changing and re-editing your work. (Till it never gets completed.)

If you want to feel more relaxed and less anxious during your perfectionism moments, you can download my Pause Perfectionism & Feel Relaxed cheat sheet below.

My perfectionist streak is something which annoys me to no end.

That’s because it slows down my progress work-wise.

It has something to do with self doubt, self-worth and confidence.

We are doubting ourselves and our work quality too much.

Wait till you spot someone who has half your experience and no qualifications being ballsy enough to do something you want to do. (Such as launching a business and charging sky-high amounts for their work.)

Then we get frustrated with ourselves.

And wondering why on earth we didn’t overcome our perfectionism, pursue our dream (and stick to it) one year ago.

I have 5 small, beginner strategies to help us all overcome perfectionism in our daily lives.

Perfectionism needs a mindset shift. But mindset shifts take time.

So I’ll share practical, everyday strategies to manage our perfectionism in this blog post.

So you can start overcoming your perfectionism and being more productive today.

If you learn better through videos, I have created one video for this blog post. (full volume needed!)

I'll be sharing 5 ways to overcome perfectionism and be more productive! You can download the Pause Perfectionism & Feel Relaxed printable to help you feel calmer during your perfectionism moments. (link below) --- 🌟For more inspiring content🌟 ✨For 'Pause Perfectionism' Action Sheet: www.shikahanuar.com/overcome-perfectionism ✨How to Create a Success Log: www.shikahanuar.com/blog/successlog ✨A Beautiful Mindset ebook - From Self-critical to Self-loving: shikahanuar.com/a-beautiful-mindset ✨For personal updates: www.instagram.com/shikahanuar --- Thanks for watching!

If you prefer reading, let’s start!

Advice #1: Work within time limits!

Doing work at cafes is great because many of us get bored sitting in one place for hours.

So we have no choice but to whip out our laptops and start working away.

If we know that we get bored after 2 hours, we know that we have 2 hours to finish our work in that sitting.

My favourite trick is to do work on my laptop (and leave my charger at home).

My laptop battery dies after 1.5 hours, so I’ll have no choice but to produce something high-quality within 1.5 hours.

I’ll start working and researching at the speed of light.

Trust me, you’ll be surprised to see the type of quality work you can produce if you are under time pressure.

Some people swear by this free productivity and time management app.

It buzzes off every 25 minutes so we are forced to focus for 25 minutes. It worked for me, but makes me a tad anxious. I prefer longer time limits such as 1.5 hours.

Also…if you are a perfectionist, chances are your work is always a little better quality than non-perfectionists (don’t shoot me!).

Because perfectionists are naturally self-critical and hardwired to produce half-decent work, anytime and anywhere. (Again, please don’t shoot me.)

Advice #2: Stick to your decision

If you are the type who changes her mind multiple times in the middle of a project, it helps to stick to one decision.

Yes, better ideas will hit us along the way.

Yes, our project will be ten times better if we add X,Y and Z to it.

But if we follow our every whim and every urge to improve our project, it won’t be done!

And we add unnecessary stress on ourselves.

Right now, I’m in the middle of writing A Beautiful Mindset ebook to transform women from being self-critical to self-loving.

I wanted to add 101 mindset strategies to this ebook. I have too many ideas.

But if I add all these strategies, I will never be productive and never finish writing this book.

So you can try being satisfied with a modest - but solid - project.

Advice #3: Put Yourself Out There

This is scary but works for us.

Put ourselves out there. Tell people that your project, business, presentation will be done by “31st October” or some other specific date.

Announce it on social media (if it’s relevant to you).

We will be hard-pressed to finish it by its deadline to avoid embarrassment.

If we have to scale down our project to hit the deadline, so be it. At least we are productive and the work gets done!

We can always create another project another time.

Once we finish one project, we will be motivated to finish another one.

Instead of planning one big project after another, we can start by planning and pulling through a couple of small projects first.

Advice #4: Mistakes are not life-threatening

“Many of us live so cautiously just to arrive at death safely.”

I don’t remember where I got the above quote from, but it hits home doesn’t it?

This is my favourite but most difficult mindset shift.

“Mistakes are not fatal.”

“Mistakes are part of life.”

“Mistakes are learning lessons.”

“If we don’t make mistakes, we’ll never learn.”

We’ve all heard the 4 phrases above before.

If you are a perfectionist, the idea of making mistakes makes our skin crawl.

(Making mistakes is for weaklings - that’s the first thought that pops in my mind. Oops)

The only way to embrace mistakes is to make as many mistakes as possible.

Try a new approach.

If we screw up, oh well. Take a couple of days to recover from our embarrassment and try something else.

The most successful people in the world make more mistakes than the average person.

Advice #5: Remember your little successes

I have written a blog post about this before.

Create a success log for yourself.

The idea is to write our most meaningful successes on paper.

Nothing boosts our self-esteem faster than that.

You can download a template for creating your own Success Log here.

My last thoughts on overcoming perfectionism and remaining productive.

Perfectionism needs mindset shifts.

Perfectionists link our self-worth with our ability to avoid mistakes.

Don’t hold off starting or completing a project because it’s ‘not perfect enough’.

There are many other people with half your talent and half your skills enjoying much success doing what you want to do.

Let’s accept that we are all valuable yet imperfect human beings.

If you want to feel relaxed and less anxious during your perfectionism moments, you can download my Pause Perfectionism & Feel Relaxed worksheet below.

See you in my next post!

Shikah

Featured in this post:

• A Beautiful Mindset eBook - From Self-critical to Self-loving

• How to Create a Success Log

FOLLOW ME ON INSTAGRAM FOR MOTIVATIONAL VIDEOS + QUOTES

(Free Printable) How to Start Finding Your Purpose and Improve Self Worth

I’ll be sharing 4 ways to help you find your bigger purpose and increase your self-worth.

The reason I want to write about finding your purpose is because it will help you feel worthy in life.

You may be jobless, single, an ‘outcast’ or ‘weird’ but if you know your bigger purpose, those labels won’t bother you.

Finding our purpose is simple but not easy.

Because nobody can tell you if your purpose is right or wrong. So we’ll fumble through life trying new things until we feel inner peace.

If you learn better by watching videos, you can watch the video I created specially for this blog post:

I'll be sharing 4 ways for you to find your life purpose. This will help improve your self-worth! Join me in this video if you want to be 1 step closer to finding your bigger purpose in life.

If you want a shortcut and get one step closer to finding out what your purpose is, you can download ‘My Life Purpose’ Action Sheet below.

Let’s begin!

1. Purpose and joy are interlinked.

I am not a spirituality expert.

But the experts always link ‘finding your purpose’ with what gives us ‘joy’.

According to them, our emotions act as a compass in our lives.

So if we feel joyful, free and light doing something, that activity is linked to our purpose in this life.

If we feel dread, heaviness and fear, we are probably not supposed to do that thing.

It sounds rather simple.

I want to add ‘fulfilment’ to this:

Joy + Fulfilment = Our Bigger Purpose

If you can find work which give you BOTH joy and fulfilment, you are lucky.

I want to be practical here and say that in all the work we do, there will be aspects we dislike.

But if overall, you feel joy and fulfilment 70% of the time, you are in a good place!

2. What are your natural talents?

Aha. Do you know what your natural talents are?

Your natural talent(s) is something:

• which is easy for you to do, but challenging for other people

• in fact, sometimes you are bewildered at how other people do not know what you know!

• which you love doing since you were about 6 years old. (Take note that you may be suppressing these talents during your childhood if your parents disapproved of them)

Sometimes you discover your natural talents when you are much older.

And that is okay because all our life journeys are different.

Again, if something is effortless for you to do but difficult for some other people, it may be your natural talent.

3. Ask people for their opinions!

I like this suggestion.

If you are truly clueless, start asking your trusted friends, family members, colleagues for their perspective on your talents.

You will notice some similarities in their responses.

If you feel embarrassed asking people “What do you think I’m talented in?” you can tell them your perspective on their talents and then asking them to return the favour.

If you still can’t get yourself to ask other people what your talents are, you might find my article ‘How Not to Care What Other People Think and Live Your Purpose’ helpful!

4. Complete ‘My Life Purpose’ Action Sheet

I created ‘My Life Purpose’ Action Sheet to help you get 1 step closer to finding your purpose.

I feel strongly for women building their self worth!

Self worth will ensure you stay comfortable in your own skin even if life throws curveballs at you.

You will remain calm and level-headed even if you don’t fit in. Even if you lose your job. Even if you lose a relationship.

Because you know that you have a much bigger purpose on this Earth.

My last thought on finding your purpose and improving self worth

Everyone has a ‘medicine’ which helps heal the people around them. What’s yours?

It’s time to find out!

Meanwhile, have a good week.

Shikah