You can see the new Impact Insider video here. The fist few seconds of the video are the same, but the rest is shorter and (hopefully) a lot clearer.
How are you planning to leave your comfort zone, for the benefit of your business (and life) goals? Let me know in a comment!
(also, any feedback on the new or old video is much appreciated)
Please leave a comment below.
Note that I don’t reply to all comments, but I do read them all. If I don’t reply to your comment, it most likely means that I agree with what you say and don’t have anything meaningful to add, myself. I appreciate and read all comments and your comments play an important part in what I write about, so keep them coming.
Spammy comments are always filtered or removed. No surprise there.
Thanks for the update and the video was excellent. What interests me about IM Impact is you sharing your experiences both good and bad. This can only help those of us get closer to our goals.
Getting out of our comfort zone is something after its done, the outcome may be what we expected or not..but the actual doing takes courage. Keep it up. Art
Thank you, Art! Yeah, I believe in sharing the good and the bad. Otherwise, it just creates a skewed view of the way things are.
You can mess up A LOT and still have a successful business. In fact, one might be necessary for the other. I think people need to know that.
Shane I like to follow you and see what you are doing because I do learn a lot from you. Thing is I might have learned too much from you because I see the product you are presenting here. Your second video is not helping either (IMHO) because the product you are moving here is still basically a string of ideas. Too many maybies and I don’t knows going on here.
My recommendation is that get the product off the ground first. Offer 3 months of free membership. Nobody minds teething problems if the service is free so you can test the ideas and get feedback from a much larger crowd. Those that like the service will stay and pay up and those that don’t will bail. (you can have a VIP area where only paying clients can go)
In the end you will have results you can use to show new members. Don’t you want to see results or something.. other than an Idea before you sign up for a subscription service?
Am I right? Maybe..maybe not
I’m looking forward to see how well you do with this. Always ready to learn.
Hi Steve,
Thanks for the comment!
I see what you mean and it’s a good point.
My thoughts were that I don’t want to get as many people as possible in the community, right away. If I made it free, there would probably be around 1,000 people in there, by now (at least, if my last free thing is any indication). The problem is that 90%+ of them would not be the type that would pay for a membership in such a community, no matter what. So, I’d be getting feedback from and building a business around the activity of 90% of the people who won’t end up using the community…
I’d rather start small and perhaps stay small for a while, but have only the more dedicated people signed up.
Of course, this is something that I decided based on what I believe. I haven’t actually been able to test these two options against each other, to see which would work better, so it’s hard to tell whether I made the right choice or not.
Shane,
I’m just beginning an online education business and I’m definitely nervous about putting my first course out there! It’s so good to hear that someone as successful as you still gets nervous about introducing new things to the marketplace. Thanks for sharing you teachable moments with us!
Thanks, Jeffrey! It does get easier. And for the record: that first time I convinced myself to publish a product is probably one of the best things I’ve done in my life. :)
Yes, stepping out of our comfort zones is a critical part of our growth – both personally and with our businesses. Many people never take the steps necessary to try new things and learn new skills, so kudos for what you are doing!
Minor suggestion: the last few videos of yours have had less than stellar lighting on your face. I have a major hearing loss, and often using lip reading to help me understand speech. I would benefit from better lighting quality.
Thanks for everything you’re doing. (And, yes, I’m using you as one of my role models for my own business!)
Hi Debra,
Thanks for your reply!
The videos I make with my crappy webcam do indeed have bad lighting. I’ll have to see if I can do something to improve my “sitting in front of the computer” setup. :)
hi Shane, nice to meet you, I follow you for a long time, and you’re doing a great job, especially useful.
Go outside the comfort zone, is a fundamental requirement in order to grow, and to think this way has made me much increase my skills and my successes.
I would like to bring a paradigm shift regard to the comfort zone. here is what I mean…
maybe it’s better to think of the comfort zone as a fence.
If you think to go out of the comfort zone, on a mental level, it’s difficult in the sense that you’re going into an area where you’re not comfortable, however, if you think like a fence, leave the enclosure is synonymous of freedom .
This makes a big difference and encourages us to get out.
I’m sorry for my english, I’m Italian.
I hope this help
keep doing what you do, i always follow and read all your emails.
Hello Federico,
Thank you for your comment!
That’s a really good concept, mate! I like it a lot. “Stepping over the fence” is the new “outside the comfort zone”. :)
Hi Shane,
Although I’ve been following you a relatively short time (I think it was Andre Chaperon who recommended your ‘Viral Quiz Builder’ product) I continue to be impressed by your forthrightness, honesty and integrity.
I can tell that the above video was probably not the most comfortable video to make and that this in itself was another case of you moving out of your comfort zone and coming clean about a mistake that you made (where would we be if we didn’t make mistakes?). Massive kudos for doing this and it just strengthens the bond and the trust I myself feel I now have with you as an online mentor.
As far as moving out of MY comfort zone, I am now very close to making a decision about my future and starting a business as an online marketing consultant & email copywriter for local businesses. I have been putting all my ducks in a row (thanks to you) with some of your software.
My day job is becoming unbearable at a workplace where the budget is tight, we’re understaffed, and our workload is at a ridiculous level. I’d like to think I could resign in 6 or so weeks and be able to transition into running my business full time as I really cannot fathom being there a minute longer than I really need to be because my health is starting to suffer as a result.
I’d love some advice if you have any. Thanks again for everything.
Thanks for the reply, Malcolm!
I can understand how you feel, suffering from a shitty job. We’ve all been there. Actually, I’m just having flashbacks to some back-breaking work I did in an over-filled warehouse, years ago…
Anyway, my advice is to make sure you don’t end up more stressed than you are at the job. In the startup scene, a lot of people talk about “runway” as a term for how much space you have to gain momentum, before the business needs to take off.
You have to make sure that you have adequate runway in front of you, before you drop the job. The ideal scenario is that you already generate income from your business, before you quit the job. In other words, you already have some clients and some work and you know that there’s demand for your service, so all you need to do is scale it up.
Plus, you need to have enough savings to keep you going for at least 6 months, even without income.
Depending on how many commitments you have (family, etc.), you might also want to consider moving to a cheaper part of the world, to keep your living costs down.
Don’t be too harsh on you about it Shane.
Impact Insider is really an amazing project, and has all that is needed to become the most amazing community of real online business entrepreneurs, based on real value businesses.
I watched your first video a few days ago and didn’t hesitate to become a member at that time: the purpose of the community was already very clear in the first sales message and video you published, and it is even better now.
Congratulations on Impact Insider and let’s build together a place that really helps us to make the difference in our own online businesses and also in the environments and communities around each one of us.
Thanks!
Thank you, Marcus!
I’m excited about Impact Insider, as well. I’ll be sending out an update with some ways we can make the community more useful for everyone, in a few days. :)
Hi Shane, your 2. video is much much better than the 1!
Now it is clear, what is the real intention of this tribe, i´m happy to be a part of it. stay tuned!
all the best! Matthias
Thanks for the input, Matthias! Good to know that the new video made more sense. :)
Hi Shane,
You will have gained a lot of respect in admitting to your mistake. Though I think it was more a miscommunication, originally you just never quite had the right wording. What you are saying is that you are targeting a specific audience and this is not for everyone. You are human,the important thing is you have acknowledged it & proceeded to correct it.
Thank you, Josh. Yeah, that’s exactly right. I got too caught up in the “not for everyone” part. I’m hoping that the comparison to the Warrior Forum in the new video makes that a lot clearer, in far fewer words.
Hey Shane, long time without actually leaving a reply, but always following you and reading your articles or watching your videos…Shane, we all learn from our mistakes and I’m sure Impact Insider will be very successful in the future because you are following the MVP strategy…however, because you already have a great reputation, the question arises: does the MVP strategy apply to all kind of entrepreneurs, or only for those who are just starting and haven’t yet earned a reputation? Does it still apply for those who already have a great reputation? Because with the MVP strategy the main concern comes to money and time, but when you already have a great reputation, the situation has changed and you probably also have some money, so your main concern is probably not money anymore, but your reputation.
And again, it’s never my intention to criticize, just contribute to the debate. The MVP strategy definitely will work for me, also I recognize it’s a good strategy to stop procrastination (by the way: you should make the MVP strategy a movement against procrastination)…but, will it work for someone that already has a reputation?
Thanks again for making these videos and sharing with us.
Have a great week! :)
That’s a very good question, Luis.
Reputation and reach definitely matter. If you already have a great reputation, you can use that to sell anything (even something non-existent). But you’ll run out of steam very quickly, unless your product is actually good. What’s for sure is that MVP’ing is a lot easier and faster with reach and reputation. If I was starting from scratch, it would have taken me much longer to realize the mistake I made. In the position I’m in, I can see that conversion rates are lower than expected and I get several emails and questions within 12-24 hours of launching something new. That’s definitely a big advantage.
So, in short: I believe it is a strategy for everyone, it’s just the speed and scale that changes.
Case in point: even Seth Godin did a Kickstarter for his latest book, which is basically creating an MVP and testing market demand, before going ahead with the project.
Thanks for replying Shane! Great point and great case in point, maybe you could make a post out of it…does Apple do the same? I think Microsoft does it everytime they release the new version of Office, I think they always release first a beta version for free.
Have a great week!
Hi, Shane:
The opposite of “nailing it” is hitting your thumb with the hammer! Hope it heals quickly!
I love the transparency in the video Shane. It makes me trust you even more! Just wanted to say that and hopefully encourage you to continue to do that.
Morten
Hi Shane!
Thanks for Sharing! What was the single most thing that motivated you to move out of your comfort zone to do your first product?
Thanks!
Sheelagh
Thank you!
The main thing was that I wanted to do better. I saw so many mediocre and downright disappointing products out there. I wanted to prove (to myself and to others) that I can do better.
This has always been a big motivator for me: I just have a strong desire to create products that are simply a notch above anything else. I don’t think I’ve always succeeded at that, but aiming this high has ensured that all of my products are of high quality.