Breaking the Cycle of Procrasti-Planning: How to Bring Your Digital Product to Life
Doctor, don't let your digital product idea stay just an idea. Break the cycle of procrasti-planning and get going! Here's how:
Jan 22, 2023 •
Every doctor has an idea for a digital product or service.
Yet 90% of them never take a single tangible step toward making it a reality… When asked why they’ll say things like “I don’t have time”, “I don’t have money”, or simply “I don’t know how to do x”. But neither of these are the real reason why they haven’t acted upon it.
The reason is overwhelm.
You get overwhelmed when you know the outcome you want but you can’t envision your current self achieving it. So instead of taking action, you go back to what feels safe: learning. Suddenly you find yourself reading blogs, joining Facebook groups, downloading podcasts, and maybe even enrolling in an online course (or several).
At face value, studying and learning about what you want to do sounds like the smart thing to do. Heck, it even feels like the right thing to do…
But if you use up all the spare time you have learning instead of doing, you won’t get far. I call this procrasti-planning.
It’s like deciding to become a salsa dancer but instead of going out and dancing, you spend your evenings watching videos of people dancing hoping you’ll suddenly “be ready”.
If it sounds ridiculous, it’s only because it is…
By now your brain is probably saying something like: “yeah but launching a digital product is different… I need x first…”
But your brain is wrong on this one and I can prove it to you.
Think back to your med-school years.
Do you remember how boring and (dare-I-say) abstract your preclinical years were? Mine definitely were. But then we got to go on clinical rotations and things began making sense… Suddenly you realized patients with certain conditions looked different than what you had imagined based on the descriptions of your textbooks.
And at some point you realized you had learned more in 2 weeks of clinical rotations than in 2 years of preclinical studies…
So how can you overcome this overwhelm and start moving towards making your digital product a reality?
The goal with this essay is not to give you the “theory” as to why you haven’t acted upon your idea of creating a digital product.
It is to get you started with it! And after helping doctors do just that for a little more than a decade, I know the most effective way to start moving in the right direction is by building an audience. It does not require a huge time or money investment and it has no downside.
Here are the 4 simple rules to start building an audience online:
- Detach from the outcome. Specially in the beginning. Your goal at first is to create. You hit post because that’s what creators do, not because you want the likes or follows. Put in the reps regardless of who’s watching.
- Pay attention. See how your audience –no matter how small– reacts to your content. Essentially, see what works and do more of it.
- Get accountability. A coach, a friend, a spouse. Anyone who will push you to show up consistently.
- Be consistent. It is better to publish one crappy post daily, than to publish one “perfect” post every other week. Again, put in the reps.
Follow these 4 steps for 30 days and you’ll have more experience, more knowledge and a much more refined idea of what your digital product should look like.
And if you want some help figuring that out, book a clarity call with me and we’ll create a personalized, step-by-step plan for your next 90 days. Guaranteed to get you results. (DM me on Twitter for some $$ off your first call!)
Audience Growth | Dr Ernesto MD - Physician Coaching
With 100k+ social media followers and 20M+ yearly content impressions for our clients, I can provide the guidance you need to gain followers interested in your specialty. Let's work together to grow your following organically.
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