The What, The Why and the How of your Beta

Hey everybody, in today's episode, I want to get

back to basics. So it's been a while since I've talked about

your beta, and your beta is actually the very first

iteration of your digital experience that you are creating

for your customers. And think of it like a prototype or MVP. So

when you think about like a physical product, right, so, so

you have, you've invented some physical product, you don't just

go out and, and create, like, you know, 10,000 units of this

product.

This widget, whatever it is that you've invented, and put it on

Amazon and try and sell it, right, it's not how the process

works, you first, do some market research, right, you make sure

that it's a viable,

you know, it's solving a viable problem out in the in the

market, right, that's the very first thing that you do. The

second thing that you do is you actually create a test version

of it. So people can try it and practice it and play with it and

break it and do all of the things so that you know, how

other people are using it, how, what's working, what's not

working, what needs to be tweaked

all the different parts and pieces of what goes into

actually creating a physical product. And your program, your

digital experience is no different. And so just like you

wouldn't go out and

like put your shingle up and say, I'm available and get

10,000 customers at one time, you would start by testing your

material testing what you've created, doing, doing

some prototyping and doing a beta. And so that's what we're

doing. So you're pre selling your program before you've

created it. And when you're doing your beta program, what

you're trying to do is you're testing your signature

framework, you're testing, the methodology that you've come up

with,

that will help people get results, right, because

remember, you've chosen your avatar you've chosen who you

want to work with, you found a viable problem in the market

that you can solve. And so your job is to come up with a

proprietary framework, that is the way the fastest path that

you take somebody from where they are today, the problem that

they have to getting that solution, that that process is

your proprietary methodology, the way that you do it, you're

gonna show up different than I'm going to show up in order to

teach something, right. So the steps may be similar, they may

be called something different, but they may be similar, but the

way that you and I are going to do it is different because of

our unique take on our expertise. So the whole goal for

your beta is to test that methodology. Where do you need

to add something? Where do you need to take something out?

Where do you need to switch it around? You know, how do you add

more interactivity? How do you get people engaged? When are

they asking questions? What are they getting stuck? What's

happening throughout the process, that is your beta. And

that is the very first thing that you need to do is to test

your program. So so often I have people come to me, they're like,

Oh, I created a bunch of videos, I'm gonna, I've seen him in a

platform, and then I'm going to throw ads at the program, and

I'm going to sell it, it's going to be great. And I'm like, wait

a minute, you're missing the testing phase. Because you don't

know what's gonna work, you don't know what's gonna sell,

you don't know what people what questions people are gonna have,

or where they're gonna get stuck, or where all of the

issues that are going to come up as you go through the process.

And so when we're working with our clients, this is a very,

like, first thing that we do in order to test your framework.

And, and so when you're doing your beta, the goal is to not

like go out and sell to the masses and like have a bunch of

random people in your beta the goal is to is to test it, right?

So just like you would, if you had a prototype of a physical

product, you would invite people in and kind of watch how they're

going through it or what questions they're having, or you

know, what's happening as they're, as they're doing it,

you're observing and you're watching and you're seeing what

they're doing that you don't want to have 100 people in the

room at one time because you can't get that that experience,

right, unless you had a huge team of people who you know,

each had a little segment of people. You want the you know,

representative group of your ideal clients to be a part of

it. And so in our our whole process that we teach, we we

have you get five superfans into your beta program and your five

super fans are the ones who are like representative of your

ideal clients, and they're going to be the ones who are going to

test it and and you know, you're going to be able to observe

what's happening as you're teaching it.

And, and where they're getting stuck and, and where they're

succeeding and how they're getting results. And then you

guarantee and you can get them to a result. And sometimes it's

a clean path. Other times, it's like, okay, this isn't working,

I gotta shift, I've got a pivot. That's why when you're doing a

beta, it's not like, you know, pre producing your videos pre

producing your course assets, you're,

you're working from your framework, and not producing

everything yet, before you get started. Because you, you want

to do that prototype or that test take. And then from there,

you can take it and go, Okay, this worked really well, I'm

going to lock and load it. And this is what I'm going to have

for my signature program. This one I need to work on a little

bit. So I'm going to go through and make some adjustments, maybe

you test it again. Or maybe you have the information that you

need to put it in and lock and load it right but, but you're

constantly going through and doing that, you may do a one

beta, you may do multiple betas, it just depends on where you're

landing with your people. So we recommend that you do a beta, we

recommend that you pre sell your betas, so you're not, you know,

creating it first. And we recommend that you get five

superfans, and you don't need a bunch of random people who

aren't going to participate. You need the right people who are

going to get in there and and give you the information that

you need to be able to create and produce that more polished

product. Alright, that was a quick one. But hopefully that

helped serve you in terms of like, where do I start, right.

So the first thing is you're creating your framework, then

you're testing your framework, and then you're able to take

that and make that into a digital experience that then

serves

and scales to more people, right. One thing that I always

get around the beta, and I just want to quickly address it

before I sign off today is a beta is not a lesser product,

it's not a lesser program, you are showing up, you're running

through your framework, and you are serving your people at a

high level. Now you could do that one on one, you could do

that in person in a workshop. Or you could do it in a digital

experience. That's the first time that you've done the

digital experience. But you don't need to discount it. So

think about like if somebody sells you a workshop and in

person workshop, right? Like, I'm you know, we're doing a

three day workshop at this college or at this conference

room or whatever. And it's, you know, a certain amount of money.

You don't like pay for it after or they you don't say, oh,

because I'm coming in person, and I haven't seen you teach it

yet, then I'm not going to pay until after or I should have a

discount? Because I haven't haven't seen you teach it yet.

That doesn't happen. Right? So why do we have a tendency to

think that when we do something for the first time in a virtual

format, that it would be a discounted program. And so I

just want to validate that for you that this isn't about the

first time that you do something isn't like, Oh, I'm discounting

it. So

because I haven't done it before. If you choose to

discount it, that should be from a strategic standpoint, it

shouldn't just be like I'm gonna get people in and I have to tell

them, It's my first time doing it. So therefore, I should

discount it. That's not actually the case. Right? And so,

consider, consider it if like you were going to do it in

person and have people in the room they don't need to know or

necessarily do they care that you are doing it for the first

time or the 100th time.

Because what's happening is you're teaching from your

framework that you know, has gotten your results, or your

customers results or other people results, right. And so

be confident in your expertise, be confident in your ability to

put together your proprietary framework based on how you know

that that is the fastest path to success, and then just own it

right, it's not going to be perfect, but that doesn't mean

that it's a lesser program, right? Because the goal is to

get them results. The goal is not for them to have, you know,

all the videos produced perfectly. All the worksheets

produce perfectly yet, they just need what they need to get to

that result. So they're that's what they're paying for. They're

not paying for the polish.

And so you just have to own that you have to lead with that. And

you put together a minimum viable product that allows

people to be able to interact with you and get the results

that they need. When you're first doing your beta you're

you're doing it live you're doing it live virtual you're

doing it live

Have in person, however you decide you want to test your

framework. And so they're actually getting the highest

level because they're getting you live there at able to have a

conversation with you don't just count that,

when they're taking it in a digital experience, it's going

to be tested, it's going to be something that you know is

working, don't just count that either. Right, this is your body

of work, this is your proprietary framework, own it,

feel comfortable with it, if it's the first time or the

500 100, at the time that you've done it, be confident in what

you're producing. If you're not confident, you need to go back

and you need to work on your signature framework until you're

confident that you're getting getting results. And sometimes

that means you need to help people just one on one, right?

You need to test in a one on one environment before you can move

it into something that you're teaching.

or providing to a group. You could do that too, right?

Sometimes it's like, okay, wait, let me just make sure that that

this is the right formula. Can I go through this in your

business? Can I help? Can I test this? Can I look at how this

would work? Do that. Right? Do that until you feel confident

that the framework is correct. But don't get hung up on the

assets and all the things that need to be created and all the

things need to be perfect. In your beta. You have plenty of

time for that, once you've tested that step in the

framework, and then you're able to lock and load it into a

digital experience. So again, hopefully this serves you let me

know if you have any questions about the beta and and why and

how and all the parts and pieces of it happy to answer those for

you as you go in and start testing your proprietary

framework. All right, there you go. Have a great day.