Creator's MBA: Marketing Tips for Digital Product Entrepreneurs

Send us Fan MailMost of us plan a new year by asking what to do next, and a long list of next steps doesn't tell you whether you're headed anywhere you actually want to go. In this episode I walk you through how I'm planning 2027 the other way around, by deciding how I want the year to end for both of my businesses and then working backward into a plan I can work every week.In this episode:• Where the "write the ending first" idea came from, by way of Joe Pulizzi's newsletter, The Tilt• How I let AI interview me about how I want 2027 to end, by voice or by typing• My real 2027 endings for Creator's MBA and HobbyScool, and why I did each business separately• Three places people get stuck when they write their ending• The five planning steps from the Creator's MBA Playbook that turn the ending into a 90-day plan• The three things that keep running every week no matter what the quarter is aboutResources mentioned:• Write Your 2027 Ending, the free tool: https://lab.destinicopp.com/2027• The full write-up on the blog: https://www.destinicopp.com/blog/how-i-plan-2027-starting-with-the-ending• The Creator's MBA Playbook: https://lab.destinicopp.com/creators-mba-playbook• The Tilt by Joe Pulizzi: https://www.thetilt.comWrite your own 2027 ending with the free tool: https://lab.destinicopp.com/2027

Send us Fan MailA customer bought a VIP pass for one of our HobbyScool summits and then emailed to tell me she was heartbroken by how much selling happens at our checkout. Upsell, upsell, upsell before completing an order, is how she put it. She did not expect that from a craft site.This episode is what I do with a message like that. I go through what a free event actually costs to produce, why the order bump and the upsell at checkout are the thing paying for the free part, and where I think the line really is between selling and being obnoxious.In this episode:- The email I got from a paying customer and what she said- What it costs to put on a free event, line by line- What Amazon and your local craft store do between the buy button and the receipt- The three questions I use to decide if selling has crossed a line- What happens to your revenue when you cut your marketing over one complaint- The three signals that mean a complaint is real feedback and not just noiseOne person's opinion is one person's opinion. It is not the data about your business.We run a live event every month inside the Creator's MBA Boardroom, and it is free to join.https://www.skool.com/creators-mba-boardroomChapter markers (one per line):00:00 The email that set this off01:00 "Upsell, upsell, upsell before completing an order"02:00 HobbyScool is a business, not a hobby about hobbies03:00 What it takes to run a free event04:00 Software, team, ads, and everyone who gets paid05:00 The people who buy pay for the free part06:00 Count the upsells in an Amazon cart07:00 Craft stores, quilt shows, and conferences08:00 Where I think the line actually is10:00 Is the free thing good on its own11:00 Why the volume of selling is not a character flaw12:00 The two rude messages you will fixate on14:00 The mistake that costs people revenue15:00 Volume, who is saying it, and the numbers16:00 Read it once, then go back to selling

Send us Fan MailFor a long time my Black Friday campaign started with a discount, and then I built every email and countdown around that number. Over the past few years I've changed how I do this, and now most of my Black Friday campaigns in Creator's MBA and HobbyScool don't have a discount on them at all.In this episode I walk through what a discount really costs you and five ways to structure a Black Friday offer that work better than a price cut, with real examples from both of my businesses and which kind of offer each one fits best.In this episode:- Why a 30% off sale on a $397 course means you need 43 more buyers to hit the same number- How a $70 gift card on a full-price membership got more sales than our 50% and 40% off days- How we bundled holiday workshops worth $1,545 into a $69 offer without marking anything down- How we presold a full year of summits that didn't exist yet- How a preview email to our best customers got people asking what was coming before Black Friday opened- Why tiered memberships let you give bigger bonuses to bigger commitments- Three questions to ask before you pick your structureKey takeaways:- Every time your price moves, your list learns to wait for the sale- Match the structure to your offer: a gift for higher-priced offers, a bundle for a back catalog, a presell for new ideas, early access for members and past buyers, and tiers for memberships- Start selling in every email now so your list is ready to buy by the time Black Friday gets hereChapters:00:00 What a discount really costs you02:55 Structure 1: Free gift with purchase06:00 Structure 2: The bundle07:15 Structure 3: Presell a new offer09:05 Structure 4: Early access for your best customers10:40 Structure 5: Tiered offers11:45 How to pick the right one for your offer14:05 Putting it all togetherResources mentioned:- Black Friday Profit Party: https://lab.destinicopp.com/black-friday-profitThe Black Friday Profit Party is a self-paced program with a 10-station Claude skill vault that plans your whole holiday season with you from November 1 into the new year. It helps you choose your offer structure, checks your plan against the hours you really have, and writes your emails, social posts and sales pages with you one campaign at a time. It's $97 through October 31 and then goes back to $297. If you're in Newsletter Profit Club or the Creator's MBA Mastermind, it's already included.

Send us Fan MailMost creators plan Black Friday as one week. They pick the offer, pick the discount and count the emails between Thanksgiving and Cyber Monday, and then October is quiet, December is empty and January starts from zero.In this episode I walk through how Sephora, Target, Starbucks, Amazon and Apple ran their holiday season last year and what a digital product business can borrow from each one. None of them focus on just Black Friday week. They plan the whole season and Black Friday is one moment inside it.In this episode:- How Sephora ran its biggest sale of the season for members only and finished it before Black Friday even started- Why Target opened its October sale two days ahead of Amazon and Walmart and used it to sign people up for its paid membership- How Starbucks turned one season into five reasons to pay attention without running a single discount- What Amazon's made-up shopping holiday tells you about creating your own event in a slow month- How Apple sells at full price with a gift card, and the HobbyScool Black Friday promo that got more clicks than our 50% and 40% off deals- What a full holiday season looks like for a digital product business, from an October warmup through a January wait listKey takeaways:- Start in October with something that warms up your list and brings new people in, like a free challenge, a workshop or a lead magnet push- Let your members and past buyers in first, and give your highest tier the biggest bonus- Give people more than one reason to open your emails, like a new bonus revealed each day, and keep selling after Cyber Monday with gift memberships, an annual plan push or a next step for your Black Friday buyersChapters:00:00 Why a one-week Black Friday plan leaves money on the table01:50 Sephora: early access for members, finished before Black Friday04:25 Target: Circle Week, Deal of the Day and a free paid membership06:20 Starbucks: five moments in one season with no discount09:05 Amazon: inventing your own shopping holiday11:50 Apple: full price plus a gift card, and our HobbyScool results13:50 The pattern all five retailers follow15:55 What a holiday season looks like for a digital product business17:35 The Black Friday Profit Party19:55 What to take away from todayResources mentioned:- Black Friday Profit Party: https://lab.destinicopp.com/black-friday-profitPlan your whole holiday season with me inside the Black Friday Profit Party. It's a self-paced program with a 10-station Claude skill vault that plans your season from November 1 into the new year, with a menu of 62 campaign types, and it writes your emails, social posts and sales pages with you. It's $97 through October 31 and then goes back to $297. If you're in Newsletter Profit Club or the Creator's MBA Mastermind, it's already included.

Send us Fan MailYou're posting, you're emailing, you've got people on your list and maybe a free community too. And still nobody is buying. Tracy Beavers says that's almost never a visibility problem, it's a conversation problem, and it's a much easier fix than most people think.Tracy is a business and sales coach out of Little Rock, Arkansas who spent 25 years in corporate sales before building her own business. In this conversation she walks through how to move people along what she calls the conveyor belt of your business, starting with the emails you're already sending.In this episode:- Why a 7,000 person list can still produce almost no sales- The conveyor belt, and why it beats thinking about funnels- How to write emails people actually reply to, including the band candy story- The one question Tracy asks people all the time that almost always gets an answer- How to start networking if you're an introvert, in one breakout room- What to say in a DM so it doesn't sound salesy- How to grow your business this week without creating another piece of contentTake the sale out of it and go build the relationship. The income follows.Resources mentioned:Tracy's free Relationship Revenue Engine Workbook: https://tracybeavers.biz/conversationsTracy's podcast, Create Online Business Success: https://www.tracybeavers.com/podcastTracy's website: https://www.tracybeavers.com/If you know you need to be emailing your list consistently and you want the system for doing it, come join us inside Newsletter Profit Club.https://lab.destinicopp.com/newsletter-profit-club

Send us Fan MailMost creators don't touch Black Friday until the first week of November, and then they're scrambling to throw an offer together and put a discount on it, hoping that one week carries the whole quarter. That's a lot of pressure to put on three days. In this episode Ruth Poundwhite turns the tables and interviews me about how I actually plan Q4, which starts with treating November 1st through the end of December as one season instead of one weekend.In this episode:Why I have my promo calendar mapped out a year ahead, and how that changes what Black Friday even has to doThe October work that decides whether your Black Friday offer lands, including the warm-up sequence people skipWhy a pre-sale is one of the best things you can put out in Q4, especially if you don't have much to sell yetHow to take an inventory of your offers and decide which ones are worth promoting, plus the out-of-the-box offers worth testingUsing bonuses instead of cutting your prices, and how those bonuses doubled as market research for meThe sale structures we've tested inside HobbyScool, from a one-offer-a-day week to a twelve day December run to a simple three day flash saleWhat I'm handing to AI this year, what I'm keeping, and the automation that puts a page live and expires it without anyone touching itKey takeaways:Black Friday is a season, not a day. Plan November 1 through December 31 as one campaign and the pressure on any single day drops.Your audience has to be warmed up before the offer shows up. If you want to pre-sell something in November, the free gift, the webinar, or the sequence that gets them ready has to run in October.You don't have to discount. Adding a bonus to the plan you want people to choose, like the annual or lifetime option, protects your pricing and gets people better results.Take an offer inventory first. List everything you have, mark what you want to sell, and give yourself permission to test something new.AI can build the pages, the emails, and the images. It can't tell you what your market wants. That part stays with you.Resources mentioned:Black Friday Profit Party workshop, run every OctoberNewsletter Profit Club: https://lab.destinicopp.com/newsletter-profit-clubThe Creator's MBA AI Mastermind: https://mastermind.destinicopp.com If you want to sit down and build your November through December money plan with me, that's what the Black Friday Profit Party workshop is for, and I run it every October. You'll find it inside the Newsletter Profit Club, so come join us at https://lab.destinicopp.com/newsletter-profit-club and I'll walk you through it. It's also included if you're already in the Creator's MBA AI Mastermind.

Send us Fan MailYou already have automations running. A welcome sequence, a few tags firing, maybe a workflow you built two years ago and have not looked at since. Then AI showed up and everybody started talking about automation like it was brand new, and now you are wondering whether what you have is still doing its job.Steph Blake has been in the online space for over a decade helping small business owners simplify and automate so they can work 20 hours a week or less. In this episode she walks through what she actually has running in her own business right now, from inbox drafts to call transcripts to a full lead dashboard, and she is clear about which parts she refuses to hand over.In this episode:- Why automating everything is the wrong goal, and what to look at instead- The one automation Steph thinks every business owner should already have running- How she turns every call into a searchable library of quotes, pain points and content ideas- The connectors she uses every single day and why your email tool should be first- How she built her own second brain in Google Drive instead of Obsidian- The 30 minute flash sale process that used to take her a day and a halfStart with the things that do not need you, and keep a human in the loop everywhere else.If you want help deciding what to automate in your own business and actually building it, come join us in the AI Mastermind.https://mastermind.destinicopp.com/

Send us Fan MailAlmost everybody I talk to has been using AI for a couple of years now. They have a paid subscription, they have watched the videos, they can tell you what an AI agent is. And then you ask what systems they actually have running, and how any of it is helping them make more money, and there is not much of an answer.I open this one with the thing I changed in my own business, which is that I stopped building my slide decks in Canva and started getting a finished, polished deck in about ten minutes using Claude and Gamma. Then I walk you through the AI in Action Summit, running September 15 through 17, session by session, so you know exactly what is in it before you register.In this episode:- The ten minute workflow that replaced an afternoon in Canva- Why knowing how to use AI and having AI run part of your business are two different things- The one instruction I gave every speaker before they submitted a session- Who is teaching what, across agents and automation, selling your expertise, content and visibility, and client systems- My three live sessions, including the one where five people bring something they are stuck on and we build it live- How the summit week works and what is in the VIP passThe gap is not what you know about AI. It is whether any of it is running without you.Register free for the AI in Action Summit, September 15 through 17.https://lab.destinicopp.com/ai-in-action-summit

Send us Fan MailThe event we ran last month is the first one I did not touch. Not the funnels, not the products inside them, none of it. My team handled everything, and that was a first.Steph asks what is under the hood at HobbyScool. How we source speakers, who the three humans are, and what changed when Claude and the MCP connectors entered the workflow.In this episode:- The repeatable monthly system the whole year gets planned against- How we find speakers, and why their list growth is the entire pitch- Three people, and what each of them owns- What the Kit connector replaced- Why the marketing calendar comes before any AI questionMap the next three months first. Then ask what AI can do with it.If the connector workflow is the part you want, we build it together in the mastermind.https://mastermind.destinicopp.com/

Send us Fan MailA free summit does not make money. The pages behind it do. Registration page, VIP pass, order bump, upsell, membership, and a downsell if they say no to the annual.Steph walks me through the whole thing and I give her the actual numbers, including what the ads cost and how much goes back out to affiliates.In this episode:- The difference between an order bump and an upsell, and how I price each- The conversion rates I expect at every step- Why I use dollars off instead of a percentage above a certain price- The annual first, monthly as the downsell test that surprised me- A $37 VIP pass against a $17 cost per conversionTest the offer before you build another one on top of it.If you want to know where your own funnel is leaking, start with the scorecard.https://scorecard.destinicopp.com/