The One Day Product Creation Formula
How To Turn What You Know Into A Product In 8 Hours Or Less
Have you ever felt that high that comes from completing some big task?
That exhilaration of knowing you accomplished something that’s going to move your business forward in a big way and help a ton of people?
Product creation is one of those high leverage activities that causes major breakthroughs for someone’s business because it allows an expert to create leverage and it’s very hard to do.
It can take a long time to take what you know and turn it into a product that is valuable, outcome focused, and creates transformations in it’s consumers that make the product worth paying for.
In fact, it used to take weeks or months of work. Interviewing my clients. Working with them to extract their knowledge and make something you could give to someone else and get that person the same kind of results as working with that expert one-on-one.
I was like the proverbial cobbler’s son, whose shoes were full of holes. I helped my clients extract their knowledge and turn it into powerful systems and yet I had my knowledge totally in my head and no system of my own to speak of. That meant I could only work with clients one-on-one. I had no leverage. So, I set about creating a system out of my own knowledge.
One of the best things that came out of systematizing my knowledge is what I now call the Perfect Product Creation Blueprint because it takes what used to be a long arduous process and turns it into something that can be done completely in a single concentrated day of work.
In fact, one of my clients came to me just the other day with an idea for a product he wanted to create. We sat down with my blueprint and started going through it.
Because of my tool, it took us 4 hours to have all of the content from beginning to end. Then, because we had the rest of the day still available... we just started recording and had the entire product recorded and completed in another 4 hours. It literally took 8 hours to go from idea to completed system and product. Then add on a few hours for some minor video editing and uploading and the product was ready for sale in less than a day. Talk about leverage.
You know what the best part is? One day product creation is just one small win. When you take the time to create a system out of your knowledge you get several other things as well.
For instance, now that I have my expertise systematized I have a map for my clients when I work with them one on one. I used to just have a general idea of where I was taking my clients. We’d follow the proverbial stars to get there. Which isn't hard for me to do, because I know my stuff so well. But, now I have a topographical map that I can show my clients exactly where they are, exactly where we are going, and what challenges we have to overcome to get there. It's an amazing tool to have.
Then, you also end up with a content creation framework. You can take little pieces of your system and create live streaming content, videos, blog posts, lead magnets & more. And everything you create will be helping to drive people towards a transformation. That's powerful.
So, let's talk about how you do this yourself.
Luckily, there are only two steps:
- Step 1 is to establish your escape and arrival.
- Step 2 is to answer the four magic questions.
Establish Your Escape & Arrival
The first question is, of course:
What is the Escape and arrival framework?
Well, it’s a concept I learned from Frank Kern.
And it’s all about the transformation your system is designed to bring those who go through it.
It’s the “Defined Outcome” for your system.
Since our goal is to motivate people to take actions and achieve a very specific result…
it make sense to start out with a map. When you think about it, your system is all about taking people on a journey. What are two thing every journey has in common? A starting point and a destination.
But this type of journey is a lot different than your average family road trip.
Why? Because the folks who need what you teach have a problem. They find themselves in a specific circumstance. That’s causing them pain or fear or worry or exhaustion or any number of other bad things. And they want desperately to be out of that circumstance… so for them… this is a journey born out of desperation.
That’s what I like to call a “Primary Motivating Factor”.
They want to ESCAPE from some sort of painful circumstance.
But that’s only the first half of the equation. Because while escaping pain is one of the primary motivating factors that gets people to take actions and make changes in their life… the other one is “The Promise of Pleasure”. You see, people want to ARRIVE in what I like to call “The Promise Land”. This is a circumstance where the pain has finally been removed. But it’s more than that… it’s the life they will be living now that they are pain free. The Promise Land is an experience of life now that they have achieved their desired outcome.
When you combine these two Primary Motivating Factors you not only get a starting point and a destination for the journey you want to take your clients, but you have built in the motivations that will get those clients to take action and actually get the results they seek.
Okay, so know that you know what the escape and arrival framework is...
Let’s Talk About Why It’s Important.
It’s important for 2 reasons. One of which we’ve already covered.
So the first reason is that by using this framework as the starting point to build your system you will always be starting with an Outcome in mind (that’s the arrival) and you’ll be building a system that motivates action because it’s predicated on the two Primary Motivating Factors in human behavior, The Escape From Pain & The Promise of Pleasure.
I know that may not sound like a big deal, but it’s really what separates powerful transformational products, and speeches, and coaches from those that are just mediocre.
The second reason is that by using this framework you will be helping to combat the paralyzing effects of overwhelm. First for your clients. By focusing only on the steps necessary to take someone from the painful circumstance they are in to the pleasurable circumstance where they’d like to be you remove a lot of distractions and can make the process simple, manageable, & less scary. All of which will lead to a higher degree of success for those who take your journey.
Second is for yourself. I don’t know about you, but one of the most daunting parts of creating anything is getting started. It’s looking at that blank canvas. That cursed blinking line on the word processor. Where do you start? What do you say? How do you say it… so people get it… and take action on it? It can be so overwhelming that many of us never actually get to creating anything or if we do… those things are unfocused and as a result our clients get poor results and because of that we have a hard time selling it… so we just stick to done for you stuff where we get to control the outcomes. Sound familiar? I know it does for me.
So to recap briefly, using the Escape and Arrival Framework will help you focus on the primary motivating factors & to combat overwhelm both of which will help your clients to take better action and see a higher degree of results from what you teach.
Now Let’s Cover How You Use The Escape & Arrival Framework
The steps are pretty simple, here they are:
Step 1:
You are going to start with where your clients are now that is causing them pain or frustration.
You will want to write down from where they wish to Escape.
For this step you should focus on what I like to call the Big Three Desires - Those are “Be, Do, & Have”.
What’s cool is that Everyone’s desires fit into one of these three categories. So let’s explore what they are.
The first, Be, is all about the person’s character. Who they are at their core. They have a desire to change part of who they are and want to become someone better. For example, I might be a procrastinator and I’d like to change that about myself and instead be an action taker.
The second, Do, is all about the person’s actions. What they want to do. They have something that they would like to do and for whatever reason, they can’t do that thing right now. For example, I might want to travel with my family, but I can’t right now because my work keeps me in one place.
The third, Have, is all about a person’s possessions. The things they want to have. These might be material possessions, like a table or a house; or they might be experiential, like a lover, a child, or an audience. For example, I might want to have a platform from which I can get my message out, but I don’t have that right now because I don’t know how to build one.
So for step 1, you want to put your “Big Desire” into the negative circumstance.
Like this: I Am Not {Desired Character Trait}, I Do Not Get To or Know How To {Desire Action}, or I Do Not Have {Desired Thing}.
When you’re thinking about this for your Escape & Arrival framework, you only need one of these, but it can be extremely powerful if you can weave all three together with one desire.
So, for example, I might not BE outgoing (I’m shy). And I DO not know how to start a conversation with a pretty girl. So, I don’t HAVE a wife or girlfriend.
That’s pretty much it for step 1. You are writing down the escape that someone wants and writing it in terms of the big three desires: Be, Do, & Have.
Step 2
This is where you write out your client's Arrival and all you have to do is just take the inverse of Step 1.
So for our last example, it might be this: I’m am outgoing and comfortable in social situations. I know exactly how to start a conversation with the hottest girl in the bar. And I have the confidence I need to go out and start a relationship with a girl who could go on to be my wife.
LIke this: I am {Desired Character Trait}, I have {Desired Thing}, or I get to {Desired Action}
Does that all make sense? Okay good… because that’s literally all there is for step 2. onto step 3.
Step 3
This is where you start to actually plot the points of interest on your journey. These are what I like the call your “Macro Steps”. They are the big milestones that people must achieve if they are going to reach their ultimate destination.
So, let’s say, for example, that our escape is that I am Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead (great book btw if you haven’t read it). Notice that this isn’t written in the negative state of being “I Am Not”, it’s written in the positive state of being “I Am”, with negative adjectives. I just wanted to show you that you could do it both ways… feel free to be creative here when you are putting your first escape and arrival framework together.
Our arrival in this example would be that I am Healthy, Vibrant, & Full of Life.
What I need to do is map out the Macro Steps that will take my clients from Fat, Sick, & Nearly Dead to Healthy, Vibrant, & Full of life.
So those steps might be: 1- Get your mindset right about food and nutrition, 2- Remove stresses from your life, 3 - Get your exercise right, & 4 - Get your nutrition right.
Now, there are 2 important parts to this step.
The first is that each step is verbal phrase. It’s an action. That’s important. Make sure each step is written as an action.
The second is that you don’t have to be an expert at each step in this process. You don’t have to be the one that teaches each step. You might focus on just one part of it. For example, you might just be a exercise coach, but you know that your clients need to get their mindset, their stress, and their nutrition down if they are going to have success. So if you know that, you can prepare for it in what you teach and/or you could have resources lined up to help them in those areas. They could simply be pre or post-requisites for what your primary focus is. So, don’t let any knowledge or expertise gaps you may have stop you from putting down any essential Macro Steps.
And I’ve got a bit of a Pro Tip here when you’re building your steps - You want between 3 & 9 Steps. 9 is the largest amount of information bits the mind can hold at once. If you go beyond that… you’ll start to cause overwhelm again and that’s not what we want. I have found that 3, 5 or 7 steps tend to be the best for people’s memory.
Step 4
Okay, onto step 4. This is where you go into each Macro Step and break it down into it’s component parts. Or what I like to call the “Micro Steps”. So what you’ll do here is actually start the escape and arrival all over again for the overall macro step.
Let’s take step four in our example: Get Your Nutrition Right. The escape, I have poor nutrition. The Arrival, I have stellar nutrition.
So, all I need to do is write out the steps to take me from poor nutrition to great nutrition.
So those steps might be: 1 - Remove enriched, bleached, or white things from your diet, 2 - Add more greens to your diet, & 3 - Get the right kinds of protein in your diet
That’s it!
When you leverage the escape and arrival framework in this way, you’ll be building systems and products that are clear, concise, and capable of providing massive transformation for others. It’s a very powerful tool. But you’re not done here. Because now that you have the steps… you have to actually teach them to your clients in and entertaining and empowering way. That’s where the teaching framework comes is.
Answer The Four Magic Questions
I call these questions The Teaching Framework
What is the teaching framework
The teaching framework is pretty simple. It’s just a set of four questions you ask yourself about each major action or mindset shift you want to teach.
Those questions are “What is is? Why Is It important? How Do You Apply It? & Now What?
Now what is simply an illustrative story, example or case study that passes on your perspective or drives a particular point home NOW that your learner is actually doing what you taught.
I know that seems overly simple… but I can barely even begin to tell you how powerful this framework is. So, let’s talk about…
Why is it important?
Well it’s important for two reasons.
The first and most important reason is that it’s designed specifically to take someone through the four levels of problem solving.
Think of it like this: every action you want someone to take is like a miniature problem that needs to be solved or overcome.
And anytime you need to solve a problem, you have to go through these four levels to have a well-rounded understanding of the problem and how to best solve it or go about taking that action.
If you don’t cover all four of these points when teaching, what ends up happening is that you’ve made assumptions about your learner’s existing knowledge and understanding of the problem and the actions required to solve it. They may or may not be able to fill in those gaps.
If you’ve ever gone through a course and felt underwhelmed or gotten that feeling that something was missing or that you didn’t quite get it… this is why. The teacher didn’t cover these four things.
So the levels of awareness are What, Why, How, & Now. These can be applied to lots of things in your business… like copy writing, or launch sequences, or funnel sequences.
But, when you apply them to teaching or getting people to understand a specific action or problem it might look like this:
What problem is it.
Why do I have it
How do I solve it.
Now that I’m solving it can you help me navigate.
So the first part “What” is where your get everyone onto the same page. You start off by setting up the definitions. Because when you control the definitions the people are using… you can control the outcomes they get. This is vitally important… because if you don’t supply the definitions of what you are talking about… you’re learner will supply their own. And their assumptions could be right… or they could be totally off base. So always start with the what.
The next part is the “Why”. This is where you give the reason why a particular action is important to the outcome that your learner in interested in achieving. Humans are strange creatures… we will do almost anything when given a plausible reason why we should do it. You are far more likely to get engagement on the actions you’re asking you're learners to take if you tell them why it’s important.
The next part is “How”. This is where you actually break down the process of how to do a thing. How to take the action. How to solve the problem. This is where you impart your knowledge and your experience. Don’t make assumptions about what steps people may or may not already know how to do. Write them all down. Make sure you consider any prerequisites that might exist for someone to do something.
The final part is the “Now”. This is where you start to provide your Perspective on the problem or action as one who has been through it yourself and or helped dozens of people though the exact same thing. The best way to pass on your perspective is with Stories, Examples, and Case studies. We’ll cover how and when to use each a little later.
The second reason the framework is important is that big factor we talked about with the escape and arrival framework. Overwhelm. this teaching framework is going to give you a perfect way to break down content so consumption and understanding isn’t overwhelming for your clients. As well as keeping you on track and only covering what’s necessary for any particular action. which will make your learners more likely to take that action. All of this will make for a very complete and satisfactory training for your clients.
The other side of that coin is for you. You won’t ever have that blank canvas staring back at you. You will know exactly what you have to teach and all you have to do is answer the questions in the teaching framework with the knowledge and perspective that is already in your head.
How Do you Use The Teaching Framework?
Okay, so let’s talk about how you use this teaching framework.
It’s pretty simple… you just answer the questions. The end. Haha… but seriously let’s look at how you use these questions to teach what you know.
Answer The Questions
So you are starting with a micro step. Then you take that step and ask the four questions: What is is, why is it important, how do I apply it, and what illustrative example, story, or case study can I use to pass on my perspective”
Let’s say for the sake of example that our micro step is to “Make an example step” just for giggles.
So what you do is to reframe each of the questions to fit the “Make an example step” action.
So you start with “What is an example step?”
Then you ask “Why do example steps matter?”
Then you ask “How do you use example steps?” Which you could take further just for clarification “How do you use example steps for your process building efforts?” That just make the question easier to answer because it will have a more clearly defined outcome.
Finally you ask, “What illustrative story, example, or case study can I use to pass on my perspective on this action?”
After you’re reframed all of the question…Then all you have to do is answer them.
So for this example. What is an example step might be answered like this: An example step is just that, it’s an example used to showcase how to use this amazing process building mind map tool.
Then we answer “Why do example steps matter?”:
Example steps are important because they allow you to showcase how simple this process really is and how easy it is to defeat that blank canvas monster. (notice I named an enemy).
Then we answer how do you use example steps in your process building efforts?
Well you Do this, then you do this, finally you do that other thing.
Lastly, you’ll need to think of an illustrative story, example, or case study that will pass on your perspective and help people understand what you are teaching.
So what I’m going to do is use an example to illustrate what the differences are between stories, case studies and examples. and why you might choose each.
Stories
So first up is a story. Stories can be real or imagined. They can be yours or third party. To tell a story all you do is go from a general idea to a specific point. As an example: So there was this one time I was teaching a concept to a whole bunch of people and nobody seemed to understand what I was trying to say. Have you ever experienced that problem? (that’s general) - Well then I decided to tell a story to illustrate my point and suddenly everyone connected with what I was teaching (that’s specific).
Always remember that no matter how useful your story is, that you only use it to make * one important point at a time.
And lastly note that Stories are most useful when the point you are trying to make is about mindset shifts.
Examples
Next is examples. Examples are used to illustrate points. These are very useful when what you are teaching is technical or mechanical in nature. Like how to tie a show or how to use a piece of software or run a mile. Examples are a lot of what i’ve been using in this video. They are best used when you can do some sort of show and tell.
Case Studies
Case studies are the last ones. They are generally results driven. Again, these can be first party or third. They don’t even have to be your case studies. But they are used to illustrate the effectiveness of the approach or action you are suggesting.
You tell them just like stories, but instead of general to specific. You cover three important milestone with the case study. What was the struggle before, what was the journey like during (make sure to discuss the struggles), and finally what were the results like afterward?
So as a quick way to remember this just think: Beginning, Journey, Results.
These are very powerful if you want to really drive home why someone should do what you are suggesting. It’ll provide motivation and inspire action.
That’s it.
That’s the entire teaching framework.
With that and the escape and arrival framework… you can create powerful outcome focused systems very fast.
If you want, I’ve created a very cool mindmap tool that literally walks you through this whole process. You can download it here. It’s the very same tool I used with my client to go from idea to finished product in less than 8 hours.