Megan Martin 0:00
This is talking small business with Kat Schmoyer. And Meghan Martin, a podcast for creatives who like to keep it real about what it actually takes to grow an online business. We’re competitors turned to biz besties, who chat daily, and now we’re bringing you into the conversation.

Kat Schmoyer 0:20
Hey, y’all,

welcome back.

This episode puts

Megan in the hot seat. And I’m excited. All right, this girl just wrapped up a beta test for her revenue ripple program. And Megan, we get to hear all about it. I’m excited. For those of you guys listening, if you’re thinking about doing a beta test, or you have you know, maybe you’ve already done one and you want to learn some do’s and don’ts from Megan, I feel like this is going to be really insightful to get a true BTS look at what that beta was like. Yeah, thanks. I’m nervous a little bit now to be in the hot seat.

Megan Martin 1:00
But um,

yeah, actually, I did kind of share the behind the scenes of what beta testing this program looked like. And also kind of I think it will be interesting to share a little bit of the strategy of why I did it the way that I did. Because I think it’s gonna depend on how you should approach beta testing depending on like, what your overall vision is, for what this product or offering or service or whatever you want to call it will be in the future. So quick, quick storyline about how this product came to be, I run a membership. It’s called Digital lab. It’s where I help people who are creating and selling digital products, it’s a community based membership, there is content inside the membership. And a lot of the content inside focuses on marketing and selling. And we realized over time, that digital lab is really best served if you already have a digital product up and running. And the content within digital lab is going to help you increase your sales potential, or go after a different strategy within your sales funnels and email marketing and you know, writing sales pages and all of that. So it really focuses a lot on the marketing and selling side of digital products. But we have members inside of the digital lab who continue to say, hey, like I don’t know what to do with all of this information, because I don’t have a digital product yet. And so it got Jeremy and I really thinking that we probably need some sort of additional offer that somebody could go through in order to learn my step by step process to create a digital product. And so it quickly kind of came the idea was shaped into the this should probably be some sort, of course. And so we got this idea, probably about a year ago, at this point, we realized, hey, we need some sort of entry level product before somebody enters into digital lab to make sure that the digital lab is really best served there for them. And it was something that I was like, Okay, I have this idea, I’m gonna put it on my goal list. But I was like, I knew the the idea was the right idea, but didn’t necessarily know how to execute this idea in a way that would make sense in a way that would help somebody get to the digital lab and feel empowered there. But also in a way that was going to be unique, because there are other people who already teach how to create and sell a digital product. And I wanted to make sure that I was letting this simmer and marinate long enough to make sure that I was going to come to the market with a product that was going to be my own unique process and wasn’t just going to be regurgitating a bunch of people’s information, right. So I let it simmer for a long time I really thought through like, what is my angle? What am I going to like? What unique process can I create in order to help somebody create their own digital products? And so I would say that I spent about six months in that process of really just like, letting the simmer and thinking about it. And then finally, it was like, okay, we need to do this. Like we know we continue to see members say the same exact thing. So I was like, Okay, I can’t marinate this on this anymore. I really need to get something done. And I remember I started boxing cat and I’m like, okay, I really got to do this. Here. I knew my angle was really going to be focused a lot on how to come up with the right idea. I am the idea person like I could sit with pretty much anybody and hear their life story and their life experience and come up with a digital product they can sell like It’s like my little suit. It’s so true. Yeah. I just I don’t know how I do it. I just can. And so I’m like I need to figure out how to turn my ideation like my that like talent that I have into a process a step by step framework that somebody could actually learn and It used to create that idea. So that’s like where revenue ripple started from. And that is really the whole, like the secret sauce of revenue ripple. And so I remember I, I talked to Kat and I said, You know, I need to just put this out there. And I’m thinking about beta testing it. And I had done a course prior where I built the whole course before I launch it. And I will say, I loved that way. Because after launching, I could breathe a sigh of relief, like there was no more work on my shoulders after launching. So I loved that model of just make it and sell it. But I was curious, like, I was worried that

worried is not the right word. I just I wanted to make sure that other people could understand this framework that I was creating. I don’t know if you have anything cat in your life, where it’s like, this is such a natural thing that comes to you that it’s hard to imagine teaching this to somebody else. Yes, yes. So like me being able to come up with ideas. I had a system in my mind for what I think could work, but it had to, it had to be something that somebody else could take and run with. And we’ve tried,

Kat Schmoyer 6:11
you want to? Yes,

Megan Martin 6:13
yeah, we’ve talked about this in other podcast episodes like it before you teach something, you need to make sure that somebody else could also get a similar result, right? Like,

Kat Schmoyer 6:21
just because you can do it doesn’t mean that like other people can understand how you do it. So can we can you explain before you like, keep going with like your reasonings for beta testing? Can you do like just definition 101? Like, what is beta testing just for somebody that’s maybe listening to this? That’s like, Wait a second,

Unknown Speaker 6:37
do you?

Kat Schmoyer 6:38
Do people pay to beta test?

Megan Martin 6:40
Like, can you just talk about like, what is beta testing? beta testing is literally just bringing, I mean, it could be a minimal version of a product or a full version of a product or an offer service, whatever you want to call it. It’s bringing it to the market and allowing a consumer to participate in trying out the product for their feedback.

Kat Schmoyer 7:04
That is the whole goal of feedback is so important. Yes. Like, that’s what’s so important about beta testing. So when Megan saying like, she had this idea for revenue ripple, but before creating and taking to market as a finished product, she knew like I have to test this. And in testing that it wasn’t just saying, will somebody purchase it? That’s not beta testing. Beta testing is not necessarily just purchasing the validity of the selling point, like, yes, that’s important. You want to know, like, when you’re beta testing something, Will people buy it. But it’s, like getting feedback on the process. So making sure that you’re getting customer feedback throughout the whole process of the beta?

Megan Martin 7:42
Yeah. So I was like, about to just sit down, make this whole course. And I had so many questions myself, like, is this process going to work for somebody else, and what information is going to be the most relevant to these people and what I had my own assumptions and my own biases of what I thought my customer needed to know, but I also really like wanted to make sure that it was correct those assumptions. And if not, I needed to be able to course correct, and alter my content to make sure that I’m serving what they need, because I’m five years into digital products, like, I know what I know now. And there’s, that’s a huge competency gap of versus someone who has never started with a digital product. And so I needed to make sure that I like it’s hard to bring yourself all the way back to the beginning of your journey to help somebody at the beginning of theirs. And beta testing, I just decided, like instead of making this to meet my customer, where they are, and invite them into the creation process with me would make sure that I am meeting them where they are at the beginning of their journey. So we made this decision. And I think it would be interesting cat to talk about how we decided to price revenue. I wondered if you were going to bring that up in this conversation. So I think with beta testing, there’s a lot of different pieces of advice out in the world of how you should price a beta product. And the most traditional type of beta price point is to discount heavily. So most people think when they when they beta a product that you should, you know, give an insane discount versus what you expect to sell the product for. And I want to say that if that is your strategy, there’s nothing wrong with that. It is a valid strategy and when you are selling to some something to someone that you have absolutely no guarantee of the results on if you might want to do that. You know, but I’ve been doing this for a really long time and I do know how to create and sell digital products and I can help people do that. I had been doing it in the digital lab for over a year. I have results based work in my portfolio right And so I kept going back and forth with cat like, should I do this as like a super cheap course offering and say, hey, it’s gonna be like $100? Or I don’t know.

Kat Schmoyer 10:14
Like literally and in her head inbox like, don’t do it.

Megan Martin 10:18
That’s a bad idea. Yeah, cat was like very pro. This even though Yes, this is a brand new product, this is not something that you don’t know what you’re talking about type of product. And she was just such an advocate for we can create a different type of beta product. So the traditional market is to say, hey, discount it heavily and sell the product, right? The cat really got me thinking about how could you reposition your beta offer to still make it a beta product that somebody is going to test and give you feedback on but maybe instead of heavily discounting, you can add, like immense value to this beta program. And so instead of discounting and pushing out the self paced content, we refocus the product to be more of a coaching experience, which was totally different than the original plan that I have, which was really just to record the course content and publish it.

Kat Schmoyer 11:19
And so I like to jump in for a minute and explain like my thought process there, y’all. my thought process for that is well, and Megan already said it, but so if you’re if you’re considering like a beta, when you are, you know, listening to this episode, I think first and foremost, it’s thinking about like where you feel like you fall in your expertise within that. And I know we’ve already talked about like expertise and educators and all of that stuff. But I mean, Megan has the stats to backup that she knows how to do this. So this wasn’t like, you know, yes, it was a brand new offer. And it was the first time she would truly walk somebody through this framework. But if she’s sitting down with somebody one on one, she knew how to teach them how to do this. And so for me, I love the idea of making your beta a coaching program, because not only does it help increase your revenue, so on a business side of things, it is helping to increase revenue, potentially, because you’re charging more for the product. But even more than that, goodness, all of the feedback that you’re getting from the consumers in that product, because it’s group coaching feel, because they are getting you and you are getting them. Okay, so yes, they’re paying that price tag to get more of you. But Gosh, all of the feedback that you’re getting one on one, or in that like group zoom call that is worth gold for any product. And now, I mean, I’m excited to hear beggins feedback. But I know for me when I’ve done my own betas I’ve done it that way. And the awesome testimonials and the awesome experience that I am getting from them on what do they want to see different? What do they want more of what questions are they asking me one on one and other things that that’s going to help like spin my wheels of new ideas or new ways that this same product could morph and serve my customer even better? It’s just so valuable. So I am all for Team charge more for data.

Megan Martin 13:15
That’s my stance. Okay, keep going. Yeah, so charge more for beta is exactly what I did. So instead of just selling the course content I sold, I’m just gonna like quickly explain what the beta program was. So it was the course content that you were going to get access to. And you also got five weekly calls with me as the group together, as well as we I gave voxer access to me throughout the five week program. And I was very clear that this is a five week program. And instead of charging like a super low price, I charged a premium. So it was about $1,000 to join this five week program. And again, that is such a different perspective than what you normally hear about beta testing. But I wasn’t just charging to charge I really showed up a lot they got a lot of access to me and I was there to coach them and prioritize them and those five weeks. So I went with cats idea like once she kind of pitched this idea to be in boxer I felt like she was like selling to me a boxer. But I once I got to thinking about it. I’m like she’s right. Like I probably still could have gotten a testimonial from somebody who purchased the content for a lower ticket price. But I wouldn’t have been able to like hear my customers in the moment of going through the content, what they were thinking, what they were feeling, what they got stuck on what they needed help with like to be able to talk one on one and in my case and voxer but also in those group call scenarios, like I was able to like really understand what my customer was thinking at each point of my course. And that was invaluable and If you do something like group coaching calls, and you do it on something like zoom, of course, be upfront with your customers. But I told them from the beginning that any type of contribution they made, whether that was on boxer on zoom, they sent me an email, they commented on the course, like all of those contributions, were going to be a part of, I was going to own all of those contributions. So I recorded everything, I recorded all of the zoom calls. And now I can go back and re listen to that. And guess what, when I create marketing content, where do you think I’m going to get that marketing content, I’m going to go straight back to those calls and hear exactly what my customers were thinking at every touchpoint of my course. So it was absolutely invaluable. And I’m on pro charge more for beta now. But, um, so yeah, pricing was a big, big decision. And this, but I absolutely think that it was the right decision. And I, I definitely, definitely would, if I if I created another course, I think I would do it the same exact way. Awesome.

Kat Schmoyer 16:07
I think that’s super helpful to hear. So what, in doing it that way? So we know that you’re glad that you did the beta in terms of making it more group coaching. Now looking back as the the program is over, what else do you feel like you learned or you kind of like took away from the host of like this beta program

Megan Martin 16:27
that you would do again, I think if I did it again, I would let me be transparent. When I did the program, it was like in the middle of summer. So my kids were out of school. And I already had a commitment to speak at creative at heart. And I also already had a vacation scheduled. So I was looking at our timeframe. And we knew that we needed to get this product up and running again, like I run a membership. And currently, all of my, at the time, all of my marketing efforts were pushing the membership or my website was pushing the membership. But we knew we knew that we needed an entry level product before the membership. So we had to get this product done. And so we’re looking at my timeframe. And in order to do this in a live setting, I had to have five weeks of uninterrupted time. And we realized that I needed to launch this and started quickly. So I launched the beta program and then started the course content, like day one, it was like, maybe 13 days in between, like press publish on the first email, start the program. And so that was not a long enough window, to be honest with you. Like, I think obviously, you can do it, it got done, I did it. But if I were to go back and do this, again, I would really get strategic about my launch, and then plan the start date a little bit further out, maybe like a month out to give myself more time because it’s not just creating content at that point when you’re running a live program, because now you’re having to stop creating content a lot in order to interact with the people and deliver on the promises that you’ve given them. So I found that was a huge barrier of like, I had deadlines, I was promising my customers that I would turn in my content every single week on Thursday. But I was also juggling my time, my work time in serving them as their coach. And so that made deadlines really, really difficult like I was I, I hesitate to admit, but I was working till like 12 or 1am in the morning some nights in order to get in order to hit my deadlines. And that is not how we work in this family. Like we do not do like 10 hour days here in this family when we work. And so it was a season of hustle. And I don’t think that hustling is wrong. I think it’s fine to do seasons of hustle, but I could have better planned for

Kat Schmoyer 19:00
preparing to be able to deliver on those con content deadlines. Right, right. No, that’s super valid. And I think just helpful for anybody thinking through like what they want to do something like that to factor in the physical time.

Um,

I would love to hear your take because I know before and so y’all to preface Megan has no idea what I like we didn’t plan any of these questions. We were like to talk about the beta. So she literally has no idea what I’m about to ask. But I’m super curious because we haven’t talked about this since the program has ended. I know prior to the program beginning because it was group coaching feel boundaries are something that you were a little bit nervous about. And we are momma’s and wives and just we wear other hats and so wanting to make sure like when we give people access to us via voxer or on like more of a regular basis, like how do we communicate that with clients when we want to serve their business, but we also you know, need to have dinner without Vox going off or you know, whatever it is, so Do you feel like that went? Well? Do you feel like there was something in there that you would want to do differently on that sort of access to you in a group coaching

Megan Martin 20:10
environment? Yeah, great question. This was probably the number one thing I was most nervous about with this program. Again, my kids are home, it’s summertime, I knew I was I had a lot of work in front of me. And I was really nervous about the access. And I was nervous that first let me say this, if you’re listening, and you did my beta program, I absolutely loved the group of people that were my beta program, like it was a rock solid group of people. And they were the most kind and sweet. And just like understanding people on the planet. And I think part of that is because they know me, and they know that I’m a mom. And they were very forthcoming with like, even in their messages, they would say something like, I know you’re busy, like, don’t worry about like this right now. Like they were it was just so kind and thoughtful the way that they would like, prioritize that boundaries with me. Yeah. But I will say, I think that that happened, because I was very clear about my boundaries, and all of the copy and messaging. So from my sales page, to the thank you page, to the email that they got about, like either our live calls or the voxer. Access, I like went over and above to communicate what my boundaries were going to be. So for example, you know, I said that I was available Monday through Thursday, from nine to four, and voxer access, and then our weekly live calls, we’re going to be one hour, and I really stuck to that, like, I think we may have gone over 10 minutes at the longest for any of those hour calls. And it was great it was everyone just understood and accepted my boundaries. And I think that’s the number one thing that you need to do as a group coach is to or any kind of coach, or any kind of service provider is to be super clear about your boundaries so that your customers don’t feel like they don’t feel like they are being let down in any way they knew exactly what to expect, right? And so for me, at first, I felt a little bit of like, I felt like I would feel bad if if maybe one of my beta members would voxx me on a Friday. But then I started to like decided that I was not going to let that made me feel guilty, because for me, I didn’t mind that they’ve asked me if it was after hours, or if it was on a Friday or whatever, because I decided that I would show up in the hours that I promised to respond to that. And so for me, if that happened, I let any guilt go that I could not respond to them right away. And then I would be super excited on Monday morning at 9am to show back up and respond to them. And it was never a problem again, because I set those expectations. But I don’t think I would change anything. Honestly, I think it went really well. And again, they were just really gracious because they knew what my boundaries were.

Kat Schmoyer 23:07
That’s such a great reminder that like boundaries, they’re not a bad thing. And boundaries can actually allow you to wear the Megan business coach hat even better, because you have those boundaries. And you know that when you’re turned on for that you are turned on you were all in for them. So yeah, I think that’s a really good reminder for anyone out there that has a service offering and means to set clear boundaries with their clients.

Megan Martin 23:32
Yeah. The other thing that I think it’d be interesting to kind of talk or in this conversation with, should you beta test a product is understanding like what the future goal of the product is. And so for me, I, I was transparent with with my beta members the entire time, because they paid more currently than what any future students of revenue ripple will pay for. Again, they got an immense value add in that coaching experience with me. And so they know that right, but I was very transparent with them from the get go that I don’t plan for this to be a high ticket offer. When I repackage it and resell it in a new form, it will be a lower ticket offer because again, for me, my original plan and original goal for even creating this product was because I needed an entry level product before I moved someone into my membership or, you know, offered my membership up to a customer because again, I knew from my customer feedback as with my membership, that people need to have a digital product in order to be successful in digital lab. And so I would say like, always keep in mind what your future goals are when you are beta testing the product and make sure that if you do what I did, which was you know, create this high level experience that You are doing it in a way that is not going to compromise the content for your future goals. So I was like consistently going back and forth in my brain between like, I’m a coach right now. But also, this content is supposed to be a self paced course. And so I would like consistently have to like, be careful when I was creating the content to make sure it wasn’t just for the beta members that were there, but also content that could live and accomplish my future evergreen goals. So that was really interesting to like, be in that headspace because, you know, if you were creating content or teaching somebody, you’re going to teach them in the context to which they signed up. But I was like teaching in the context of like, future students that weren’t even here. And I think you could do it a different way, like you could just teach as is and then re record content, but I wasn’t gonna do that. I

Kat Schmoyer 25:51
know that I never thought of that.

So that is super interesting to know, like, wait, when you’re recording where one hat, but then in live calls, or inbox, or you know, in other ways, you generally feel like you could do even more of that over deliver because of what those students paid for versus what the recorded content will like wrapped up in be later.

Megan Martin 26:10
Yeah, it was really interesting, because I would I was like strategic, even in the live calls, that I would talk to them, like talk to my students and engage with them. And then I would make sure the, the the meat and potatoes of like the content, because we act i actually taught more content in the live calls. So when the middle of the live call, I would make sure that it was like, not just beta beta group, like the way that I was talking and sharing. And then at the end, I would like, give more notes about them being beta testers, you know, so but I could strategically just edit those videos really easily to know like, at the beginning, we can take that part out at the end, if there was any notes specific to being a beta program. student, I could take that out and still have that meat and potato content to be able to serve my future students.

Kat Schmoyer 27:01
So smart, so smart.

I love it. It was really it was really weird. Do you feel no, it’s not where it’s literally so strategic. And it shows that like, you’re so time driven, they’re like, I’m not gonna spend reading this, like, we’re gonna edit what we need to edit. And like, we’re just super smart. Yeah, um, I would love to hear because revenue ripple was beta. So not only was part of the value for you, as the host of this, and you know, as the creator of this, you’re getting content, you know, and you’re getting feedback from your students, and voxer in those lab calls. So that’s wonderful. But in the more generalized purpose of beta is to get content anyway. So if somebody is going to beta, and maybe they’re not doing live calls, you know, or they’re not doing box access, you would still hope they’re sending out surveys, you know, we’re doing to get feedback. Do you feel like you did you got enough feedback? Or you’re like, Okay, I’m glad I did this beta. And now I know to do X, Y, and Z, when it’s repackaged? Like, do you feel like that paid off for you to put in that extra time and effort as a beta? Absolutely.

Megan Martin 28:10
So I did surveys. We did the five weeks, and then I would send surveys the same day that a content would drop, like the next weeks, I would say, hey, before you dive into this content, will you take a survey about last week’s content? So I put a survey for each week? Yes. Love that. Yeah, that’s so specific. That’s great. Yeah, cuz and what’s really cool, if you look at my sales page, now, I’m like repackaging it for this evergreen offer. But I, you know, social proof is so powerful on any sales page. But now I can put testimonials and each module. So like, it’s like module one, you’re gonna learn this. And I have a student that says something very specific about module one, and like, how it helps them. And so that was, like, really cool to be able to build out. But yeah, so I would say that I got great testimonials, even on the content itself each week. But also I was able to quickly, quickly course correct. So for a very tangible example, is that revenue ripple is built to help you do the entire process, from uncovering your idea to writing your email, launch sequence and pressing publish on your product in 30 days. Now, that’s a crazy timeline. There are some products like if you’re creating a signature course, that’s like 10 hours long, and all of these resources, you might not be able to do that in 30 days. But if you’re creating something like say, a downloadable ebook, or a PDF guide, or a template of some sort, you can create it in 30 days, I’ve created products in six days, like I’m telling you can happen. And so that’s like the backstory of the structure of revenue ripple. And so again, I had zero content ready to send to my people when they purchased, but I did want to approach at least giving them some sort of timeframe of Hey, this is what you can expect to spend. Every day, going through the video content and doing the work, and so I, I sort of like had a hypothesis of how long it would take somebody to do that work day in and day out through the 30 day program, I knew going into creating the content that I was going to try really, really hard to make the videos 20 minutes or less like that was really important to us that we wanted the video content to be shorter, and easy to digest, what I did not know perfectly at the time of creating these numbers, is how long it would actually take to do the implementation work. Every video, almost every video in revenue ripple comes with an action prompt at the end. So that way, like from day one to day 30, like when you get to day 30 there’s no more work to be done. Like you’re literally hitting publish that it all builds upon each other. So I made a guesstimate in the beginning of how long it was going to take you every day. And I put that on that thank you page and that information page. And then even in the different action prompts, I would say something like, take 15 minutes to do this action prop trying to fit it in a certain timeframe each day. And I got feedback. I think it was the second week, one of my beta students. My question my surveys were always super, super short. I’m saying like four questions or less, I did not want it to be like obnoxious the amount of questions I would send every week. But one of the questions I would always send every week was Do you have anything else for me? And so it was kind of like this open ended question where people sometimes would be like, I’m obsessed with this content. Or sometimes people would give me like feedback that’s super specific that I couldn’t have known to ask them about.

And one of my students said, Hey, I’m just letting you know, like, it is taking me way longer than the suggested times that you’re putting on these action prompts to do this. And it’s making me feel like I don’t know if I’m doing this correctly. Or if you know, maybe you just need to alter your timeframes like but it’s causing some friction. And that’s like a client experience feedback that I was never known about. How do I know? good feedback? Yeah, so good, right. And it’s fun, like, at least setting up the expectation? Well, I thought it might only take you 30 minutes a day of work, if it takes you an hour a day of work, it’s still more time. But if you have that expectation coming in, you’re, you’re fine, right? Like, you know that that’s what it’s going to take, right. So for me, I was able to we were we had just finished module two, I was able to go back to all of those worksheets that I had already created and quickly take all of those timeframes out. Like I just, instead of even putting a time on it, I decided I’m not even going to say take this amount of time, it just said do this work, you know, because it took that friction out for my person. And that was so quick and easy. Because I was in the middle of the content, it wasn’t an entire course or products worth of content to fix. But I was able to do that fast. And then it saved the rest of the program for me. So like instead of for five weeks straight, making them feel like they can’t do this in the time that I’m telling them I was able to like course correct From then on, and not set up those time expectations for my students. So that’s just a really tangible example of how like, even though it was really, really stressful to hit those deadlines, I absolutely would not change a thing because it allowed me to get like in real time feedback, and not just like at the end of the course result feedback.

Kat Schmoyer 33:21
I love that. And you’re right, I, first of all, keeping those surveys short is great. And then leaving that open ended question. I bet you got really great pieces of information every week, you know, by just kind of saying like anything else, like what else can we do? I feel like that’s always a really good survey question to throw in there.

Megan Martin 33:42
Yeah, we did. I got some one of the one of the coolest pieces of feedback that I got, which was criticism, essentially. But I was fine with it, you know, but we did these live calls. And the way that I structured it is that I gave the new content on a Thursday, and then we would do a call on the next Wednesday. So it was almost one week from content drop. And like that call content was like you already went through the content of this module. And now here live, we’re going to either take it a step further or go deeper with the content that you just learned, if that makes sense. And one of the pieces of feedback that I got from one of my students in this ask, do you have anything for me question was, Hey, I really think that these calls should be before the modules because a lot of the content actually helps me understand the modules better. And so I was like, Huh, that’s interesting. Like, in my mind, I thought you would want to go through the content in order to be able to better understand the live call content, but I was getting feedback that that was actually not the case for them. And so while I did not course correct that in the program, because I literally had outline the content in a certain way and I couldn’t just like create a whole module modules worth of content for like, one day deadline. So I couldn’t necessarily course correct that for that beta program. But now I can course correct it for my evergreen products. So now, what I plan to do and is like almost gamify my course for future students. And so we’re gonna have bonus content. But that bonus content has to be unlocked by actually consuming the course content. So when you get done with one module, I’m going to unlock that live content that pertains to the next module before you go into it. And then that way, you have the choice whether you want to listen to it before the module content or after the module content. And so that was like a piece of direct feedback from her that I would have never known about, had I not had that open ended question.

Kat Schmoyer 35:47
So great, so great. Okay, I want to ask you, I have one more question I want to ask you. And then of course, I want you to share like other any other BTS thoughts you have. But in that line of thinking with utilizing beta to really get in our customers head and really be able to like better understand who we’re serving, how do you balance or decide? What is feedback that you should take action on? And what is feedback? That’s just like, okay, that’s just this one person? Because I mean, you’re creating this for the masses. I mean, it’s an evergreen product. So you want this to work for a lot of people. And there are a lot of different personalities and a lot of different businesses out there. So how do you determine, okay, that’s great feedback. But that’s really just singular.

Megan Martin 36:31
Let’s just is such a good question. And it’s a hard answer, because I don’t think there’s a perfect I think it’s a gray area in this answer. But I got feedback like that within the revenue ripple program. And I think when I get feedback, I, I first tried to read the message. And then I my like, first thing is like, let’s not get defensive, no matter. Like, before I read any survey, I’m like, okay, we’re not going to get defensive, no matter what this survey says. Right, like, so I always enter with that. And then I try to read the the feedback through the lens of like, Is there an emotional element to this feedback, and, you know, feedback that says, like, for example, the student who said, Hey, I’m not hitting these timeframes, and this and the time that you’re saying, that’s, like, very clear, crystal clear feedback, it wasn’t emotionally driven. But if I got feedback that said something like, I don’t like to do work this way, or I don’t like to consume content this way. That’s more of an emotional, emotionally driven response. And I think you have to like, also remember, yes, we are trying to get feedback from our customers. And yes, it’s super valuable. But also you are only human, you know, like, right, I do not possess the, the like, all the powers in the world to create the best product there ever was, right? Like, I’m only going to be able to create my best product based on my talents and my strengths. And you sort of have to, like, put feedback through that lens of like, what you know, is supposed to is what this future product is going to be, and how you know that you can show up to help somebody. And so I can’t necessarily, like, change my entire personality and change the entire way that I structure and build a product. Because one person doesn’t like one certain way of doing things, right. And so when I got feedback like that, or any time in the past, when I’ve gotten feedback like that, I kind of take it with a grain of salt. And I realize that, hey, I cannot be all things to all people. But I. But also I look at the bigger umbrella picture too. So that was like week in week out. I had surveys, but I also had an end of program survey. And at the end of the program, when I’m getting answers like this change, this was like pivotal in my business. This changed my business, this program, like I had no idea what a digital product was. And now I’m like ready to launch my digital product. Like I’m getting these kinds of results. I know that while you might not like a certain way that I can produce something, you got the intended result. And so if you’re at the end of the beta, and people are like, no, this didn’t work for me, then maybe Yeah, maybe you do need to revisit the way that you structure a product or you create a product or the content that you bring to the table. But if you at the end of the day, the same person who might say I don’t like something specific, actually got the intended result that they needed to get it also it’s sometimes you got to put it back on them that like you might not like it, but it’s what you actually need. Yeah, absolutely.

Kat Schmoyer 39:44
Yes. And I love how you said like when you’re looking at it, looking at it through this lens of like this is information and so let’s figure out the best information that we need to pull from this. I feel like that when I’m reading specifically reading like surveys from the conference, and like trying to decipher like emotional responses versus like actual constructive information and things that we can take action on. So I think that’s really helpful for anyone doing a beta specifically looking at like the survey portion of beta.

Megan Martin 40:15
Yeah. Honestly, beta testing, I am like a huge advocate of it. Now, after doing this program, and I’ve beta tested offers in the past, but not in this capacity, specifically a course like this. It was so transformational for myself as well, as a creator, I know for I don’t know about you guys listening in. But like, sometimes when I’m creating, I feel like I’m just in a vacuum. And it’s me, and it’s my thoughts and my ideas. And it’s like, hard to imagine how it could impact somebody else. But through this beta experience, like I got to, like, in real time, see the transformation happening for my students. And that was, I mean, we all literally teared up on the last live call, like, at the I love that we were like, and I’m not a crier I was literally. But I’m like it was. So it was like, we all just like, ended this on an empowering note. And they were like, seeing the transformation for themselves whether or not they were able to actually finish every single piece of content within 30 days. Some of them were not fully done in 30 days, like I had a student who was literally creating a huge Signature Course, that wasn’t going to happen in 30 days. But that was okay. But we all ended this on this an empowering note. And to be able to see that transformation happened in real time for my students was, was so invaluable. And so it wasn’t just the feedback at the end of the day, that was so great. For me, it was literally being able to see that my work my content, and what I have to share and the gifts that I can show up with are actually impacting people. And that is even more valuable, I think, than the feedback itself. Because now as I step forward with selling this product to hopefully many, many more people, like I know that this product works. And I also know the serious impact that it can make on somebody’s life. So that’s just like really, really cool.

Kat Schmoyer 42:08
Gotcha. Good like affirmation and like a boost of encouragement and like confidence. I feel like for any creator

I love that

I’m so glad any other or like any final thoughts for like BTS of revenue rebel and I know you already like spoke to spoke to your crew, but I wouldn’t want to like leave them with or tell them.

Megan Martin 42:32
I just want to say to my beta testers, thank you. Thank you so much like the contribution that you made to this program was absolutely invaluable. And

Kat Schmoyer 42:43
yeah, I will be lifetime cheerleaders of my beta students for sure. So good, so good. Okay, well, I’m so glad we had this conversation. And if you all have other questions around beta testing, Megan is definitely your girl. So, vendor I messaged sent us both a message or whatever you want to do. Love beta testing. Love the results that you got and excited for what’s next for revenue

ripple too.

Megan Martin 43:11
Thanks, friend. All right, y’all. I yeah, we’re absolutely here to help you. If you have any questions on beta testing, send us send them our way. But until next time, we can’t wait to catch you in the next conversation.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai