How to Rake in Big $$$ With Your Creative Biz

Remember how last week, Christopher the Trash Man and I were BEST FRIENDS???????

And remember how last week, I gave this man MEDIOCRE PEANUT BUTTER CAKE????????????? (Hey, I am trying.)

Well, well, well.

My strategy may have backfired, because this week, Christopher the Trash Man ghosted me. Straight up ghosted me! Never picked up my garbage on trash day. Nope. Just left it there in my driveway, all sad and lonely and left out in the cold. 🥶

Either this means I have killed Christopher the Trash Man.

Or, Christopher the Trash Man was so offended by my lack of culinary skills, he decided to punish me for such an egregious act.

LITTLE DOES CHRISTOPHER KNOW THAT I HAD BIG, JUICY BEERS WAITING FOR HIM THIS WEEK. Which is not at all true, but Christopher doesn’t know that. Hell, maybe I had strippers. Maybe I had a check for one million dollars! I’m a lunatic like that. The other day a friend mentioned offhand how he never could afford college apparel from his alma mater when he was in college AND NEVER HAD A HOODIE, so I logged onto the university’s website and bought seventeen-hundred sweatshirts and had them sent to his house. Because that is the kind of lunatic I am. Perpetually over-the-top. There is nothing about me that isn’t over the top. Sometimes I like this about myself. Other times, like when I am meeting religious people in Iowa, it gets weird.

Speaking of weird—the other day I went down to my friends’ gloriously cool daycare center, this behemoth of a place in the center of town where every single person I went to school with now sends their kids, because it was Halloween and the girls that run it, my pals, decided to do this generous, generous shit where they literally cooked 120+ spaghetti dinners and gave them out to parents for free at pick-up because they knew they’d be busy getting their kids ready to go trick or treating—and who has time to make dinner?! (I KNOW, SO NICE.) So I go down there to help sling meatballs (oh my god, have I poisoned the whole town?) and these parents are picking up the containers and they’re seeing ~me~ in there and I’m greeting them with this rabid fucking smile and I could see the fear in their eyes. Oh good lord, what is she doing here?????????????????? Is this edible? Are my children going to be cursed by the blood of satan? (Or something. I don’t really know what people think. But I imagine that having a brand called “The Middle Finger Project” hasn’t done me many favors in the church.)

Which is all to say: I am probably the most over-the-top person in this town, and the 3,000 layers of pearls that I wear on top of my sweatshirt probably isn’t helping.

So! Christopher the Trash Man should absolutely expect me to be waiting for him with a case of beer on the tailgate of my Jeep truck this next Tuesday where I am going to tell him “LOOK AT ALL THE SHINY THINGS I HAD FOR YOU, CHRISTOPHER,” which absolutely sounds molester-ey, and absolutely is something I really shouldn’t write in the same breath as that last paragraph, but here we are.

So, where were we?

Ah!

Your upcoming Black Friday sale. (That I am making you do.)

You didn’t know that’s where this was going, did you. Well I’m just full of surprises.

Last week, we talked about how the holidays are actually one of the most profitable times of the year for independent businesses, despite how everyone thinks that everyone is too busy buying big, giant candy canes for their lawn (don’t do that).

Every week here at TMF, I write one business advice column for creatives (paid subscribers have full access) because if the theme here is “unconventional happiness,” then most everyone ends up going down the “starting my own business” rabbit hole at one point or another because it’s really the only way that you can make beaucoup bucks while having the freedom to run off to France (have you seen this bitch?) and still have enough time to make little finger sandwiches and work on your novel. Doesn’t that sound delicious? (Keep your eyes peeled: I have big 2024 plans for us for Meat & Hair, my creative writing newsletter & school. 💀)

This week, however, I want to get you revved up to make oooodlles of end-of-the-year cash, because you are not going to ignore Black Friday and you are not going to ignore Cyber Monday, even if you are shy about promoting yourself and want to walk into the ocean at the thought of running a sale, because ignoring both of those things comes with a consequence of thousands of feel-good, happy-to-have-exchanged dollars that your business needs so you can stress less and eat figgy pudding more.

This is THE time of the year to have some fun with it, and if you don’t believe me, read last week’s column on why.

Now.

You’re going to fall into one of three categories:

1. I sell services (where you work with clients).
2. I sell products (like courses, memberships, books, etc.).
3. I sell both and also have webbed feet. Damn.

So for our Black Friday convo, let’s start with services, because this is actually kinda tricky: it is hard to discount time. Most service peeps are barely including enough profit margin as it is—waves to everyone who calculates their time and realizes they have been working for $3/hour— so when you start throwing in discounts, especially big splashy ones like 50% off, it’s very likely you may end up working for free.

Or worse, at a loss.

And no one wants to pay to do work.

But, that IS what can happen if you decide to jump on the Black Friday 50% off bandwagon with your services. Holy hamrods, things can go downhill…fast.

That’s because you’re selling your time, and by discounting it, you essentially have to work twice as hard in order to make the same amount of $$$. EEEEEKKKKKKKKKKK. That doesn’t sound like the greatest promo to me? That sounds like a well-meaning but (oops!) attempt at getting cashflow that you are going to be real, real mad about come Thanksgiving, when everyone else is sitting around drinking eggnog and talking about the political divisions in the United States and YOU HAVE TO MISS ALL THE FUN.

This is why, my dear dolly, a digital product is going to be essential for any—and all—creative businesses. Yup, even yours. And even if you don’t have one yet. BEAR WITH.

In our twenties, my best friend was an international wedding photographer who got paid spaceship tons of money to fly all over the world photographing two people freezing their ass off on the Cliffs of Moher in the middle of November. As one of the first “influencers” of our time, she was hugely in demand. Couples would fly her all over kingdom come and pay for all of her expenses, plus a fat service fee. I used to beg her to create a digital product that would help other aspiring wedding photographers figure out how to go global with their work & charge top dollar. She never ended up doing it, and I used to scream and shout about the literal hundreds of thousands of dollars in annual income she was leaving on the table as a result. Because, while getting paid big bucks in exchange for your time to fly all over the place is grand, it’s also (a) Exhausting; (b) Unsustainable over the long-term; (c) Something you might stop wanting to do once you have a family or other priorities; (d) And requires your 100% physical presence, whether you’re sick, ill, feeling weird, or just want to eat a popsicle in your garage.

This is why my philosophy is that every single creative business under the sun should 10,000% have a digital product: it’s a way to parlay your knowledge and ideas into a product that can sell with or without you. *****Independent of your time.******

But, you know this. This isn’t your first day on the internet.

But, perhaps the reminder is useful—along with a discussion on how you can actually make this work for you now, especially while we’ve got a massive opportunity to sell it during Black Friday & Cyber Monday.

So, let’s talk about two different plans for running a killer Black Friday sale this year—one for those of you who don’t have a digital product (yet), and one for those of you who do. Shazam! ⚡️

IF YOU DON’T (YET!) HAVE A DIGITAL PRODUCT

Oh my goodness, the world is in the palm of your knuckley little hand. You might feel like there’s no hope because it’s too late and that ship has sailed, especially four weeks out from Black Friday, but actually? You might be in the best position of all, because anything you do right now is going to be new.

That’s right, I said something new!

This, right here, is key:

You don’t need to have a digital product in order to sell a digital product.

What is she, high?

Nope, that’s not in my wheelhouse. But what is in my wheelhouse is productizing knowledge. Because knowledge is something that you can put into a digital container—like a book, an audio, a workshop, or a course—and sell separate from your time.

You are selling value, not time.

And get this: not all clients need your time in order to benefit from what you know. The done-for-you model can be awesome, but it’s not the only way to do business. Ya dig?

But what happens when you don’t have a digital product created yet to sell on Black Friday?

You pre-sell it, mom.

You can do this one of two ways:

1. You can pre-sell a digital product you’re committed to making by end of year or within Q1
2. OR, you can pre-sell a live workshop you’re committed to doing by end of year or within Q1

A live workshop doesn’t seem like a digital product, but once you have the recording, you can make that available for sale and then what do you have?

A digital product.

*CUE THEM SINGING BIRDS*

It’s an excellent starter product, and there is NO shame in that.

Here’s what you need to take into consideration: live workshops will typically sell better up front because they’re happening on a certain day/time (and therefore it’s a “shit or get off the pot” kind of scenario) and you can charge more for a live workshop than you could, say, a book, making this combo an unbeatable way to bring in cash flow, run a fun holiday sale, and create a simple digital product from your knowledge.

Like I said, you can continue to sell the replay of it after it’s been recorded, so this is very much still a digital product, and a great, easy way to get started!

It. Does. Not. Have. To. Be. Fancy.

Not yet. Don’t worry about that.

It just needs to be helpful.

It’s okay if it’s a Zoom recording. Seriously. Just be honest about what the product is on your sales page. In either case, there are plenty of people who would LOVE to know what you know about a topic, and this is a great way for them to access that knowledge without having to spend thousands of dollars to work with you / hire you / commit to this thing / get intimate with you. This is something that people are afraid of, particularly afraid of in the coaching space - it’s A LOT to ask someone to finally overcome their fears and work deeply with you on something that’s been historically difficult for them. Especially if they’re nervous that you won’t vibe, or that it won’t work, or that they’re wasting their money. But, offering up a digital product or workshop like this allows them to “taste” the waters and ease in. This won’t only generate cash flow for your business now (and in perpetuity), but is actually one of the strongest sales tools you could ever employ. Contrary to what most people believe—that doing a workshop or making a course would render them redundant—the opposite is true: the more people see how kick-ass you are and alllllllll the stuff you know (that they definitely didn’t even realize!), the more inspired they are to work with you.

This is 100% a win/win, no questions asked.

That said—A LOT OF PEOPLE WANNA VOM WHEN THEY THINK ABOUT RUNNING A LIVE WORKSHOP WITH, LIKE, ACTUAL HUMANS.

Like, how true is this? Very true. Even though I have been doing online workshops with hundreds and sometimes thousands of people in a room at any given time for like 15,000 years, even I still get a little clammy. Like, okay, here we go—WHY IS YOUR HEART RACING, ASH? WHY?????? YOU HAVE BEEN DOING THIS FOR YEARS! IT ALWAYS GOES GREAT! And then the fucking power goes out and you faint and your soul leaves your chest and it gets worse. 😂

Therefore, darling—if you are someone who would rather walk straight into the enemy forces at World War II than give a live online workshop…

A written digital product is for you.

Specifically, a digital kit.

This is something that’s a hybrid between a course and a book. It’s not a course because there are no videos (that’s way too advanced for what we’re doing right now), and it’s not a book because that’s way too low-value for what we’re trying to accomplish.

What you want to make is a digital product kit that’s going to give your clients & customers a specific result by using it.

For example, here’s a link to one of my best-selling digital products, The Creative Writing Class, produced by my creative writing company, Meat & Hair.

It’s a kit you can purchase that will give you twelve creative writing masterclasses—all delivered in written format via massively huge & easy-to-reference PDF—on how to use a different creative writing technique to transform anything you’re writing in seconds. Each one is instantly applicable and can be used right away to make your writing pop.💥 Make it sticky. Make it real. Make it fascinate. Make it buck. Make it shake. Make it linger. Make it loved. Make it human. Make it bingeworthy. Make it yours. There’s no theory, only “how-to”—with tons of practical before/after examples so you can really learn the technique and see the difference.

Another example of this is my Book Proposal Kit, also produced by Meat & Hair. That’s an awesome one, because I took my experience working with Penguin Random House and my literary agency and packaged it into the most useful lessons I’ve learned—and is invaluable to anyone dreaming about publishing a book someday. (It’s hard to get access to insiders in that industry!)

Another example: I used to have a digital product kit I sold that contained hundreds of scripts to use in business without sounding like a giant lymph node (I need to bring that back, right?!).

I’ve also given endless workshops, both live and pre-produced, on specific topics in creative business and writing. (And by endless, I mean I have produced 50+ of these.)

These are awesome digital products. People love these. They get tons of out them, AND it’s fun for you to produce! If you don’t have a digital product in play right now, this is a great way to get started. I would 10,000% start thinking right now which digital product you’d like to make, and then prepare to run a massively fun pre-sale for it this Black Friday & Cyber Monday. (More on how to do that next week. Make sure you’re a paid subscriber to get my business column.)

Note on WHICH TOPIC digital product to produce: the more specific, the better. Don’t try to make “the world’s most comprehensive kit on everything you’d ever want to know about marketing.” Or cheese. Or photography. That’s too big a scope. Think in terms of results: which do I want them to be able to do when they’re done?

Here are some egggggxamples (wow I’m hungry for eggs):

• Here’s a kit that’ll help you DIY your bathroom reno in a weekend
• Here’s a kit that’ll help you DIY your own headshots (no photographer needed)
• Here’s a kit that’ll help you get started on TikTok (all ages welcome)
• Here’s a kit that’ll help you learn how to cook pasta like an Italian

Everything there offers a tangible, clear result.

You know why that’s important?

Because that’s how your customers think.

“What will I get out of this?”

The more clear and specific you make that, the more you will sell.

If it’s too broad, or too squishy, or too jargoney, like “manifest your desires and create your dream life,” the product will fail. No one walks around thinking, “oh yes, I’d love to learn how to manifest my desires and create my dream life.” That’s way too broad.

Better?

• Retire by 50 (Even if You’re Broke): A Comprehensive Plan for Late Financial Bloomers

See how it’s connected to a specific result?

The process you use to get them there may very well be manifestation, as much as that whole idea makes me gag, but you aren’t selling “manifestation.” You’re selling the result.

If you think about it, even I could create a product using creative writing that was called “Retire by 50 (Even if You’re Broke): A Comprehensive Plan for Late Financial Bloomers Who Love to Write. The outcome would be the same—retire by 50—but the approach I take would be vastly different, and would focus on helping writers who never started writing, jumpstart their writing career now.

So, think about the result you want to offer, and then how your work can accomplish that.

Sell the result, not the process.

(Though the process should still be clearly outlined on the sales page—nothing should be “mysterious,” it just needs to be properly positioned.)

IF YOU ALREADY DO HAVE A DIGITAL PRODUCT

Bravo! You’re ahead of the game.

For my darlings who already have a digital product, you have it easy: this is the time when the benefits of having produced a digital product really reveal themselves. You put in the work up front—like, a lot of work—and now, you have a product you can sell when you need cashflow.

This means your time can be divorced from your value.

This is the first step in creating real wealth in the modern internet era.

People all over the world are actively seeking knowledge in this knowledge economy, and you sharing what YOU know how to do is a beautiful way for you to earn money while they get the benefit of your experience.

There is no better win/win.

Even though digital products have been around for quite some time (I’ve been producing them since 2009): most people still haven’t gotten there yet, and that’s okay! I will beat this dead horse, even though that is a really terrible phrase.

The tricky part for you is: how do you actually sell it? If you’re like most digital product creators, you made your thing and you made a page for it and now it just sorta sits there, unmoved.

Soooooo—now’s the time to change that!

Now’s the time to use the holiday to run a fun & light & merry promo to get your sales moving, and reward your business with warm & cozy cashflow.

Next week, we’re going to talk about HOW to run a kick-ass promo for Black Friday (we’re T minus 4 weeks!), but right now what I want to encourage you to do is take this week to review your product and your sales page, and decide whether or not the positioning is strong.

By “positioning,” I mean: does it check all the boxes of the conversation above?

Is it positioned to offer a tangible, specific result?

Is it clear and immediately useful?

Or is it kinda vague and broad, like my shoulders?????

Remember, it’s the difference between:

• How to Paint With Watercolor
• How to Paint a Doggie Portrait With Watercolor, For Beginners (Makes An Awesome Gift!)

(By the way, when I was thinking about this, the brand name “Paint Your Presents” popped into my brain and that is SUPER FUN and should totally be someone’s business.)

I’m not saying that you need to completely re-do your existing digital product, but if sales have been lackluster, especially when you’ve run promos in the past, then sometimes putting a new “face” on the product can be a great way to give it new life and inspire sales.

Same product, different cover.

Just like if I were to take The Middle Finger Project book and re-title it with a new cover.

Same product, different cover.

That’s a thing. 🙂

Alternatively, if you’ve got a huge, comprehensive digital product that covers a TON of information, you could also think about teasing out just one module that explains how to do X and sell that as a stand-alone product, for a limited time, during your Black Friday / Cyber Monday sale.

That’s another great way to use your digital product as a sales tool, because afterward you could offer an upsell to the full shabang.

And if it’s all out of date? You could also just give a live workshop that covers that one specific topic.

Not everything you do needs to be a permanent product on your shelf. It could just be a fun offering for the holidays (that also generates superb cashflow and gets the blood running.)

So, give some thought.

Dust off your digital products.

Analyze what you’ve got.

See what you think.

Maybe you even have one that sold like hotcakes in the past, but it’s since just been hanging out on your website, not getting much traffic.

Use the holiday season to drive traffic to it and make a big, fun fuss!

And yes: “Make a big, fun fuss” is absolutely my marketing motto.

It’s THE WAY, babes. It’s THE WAY.

And, I can’t wait to continue helping you sell more this holiday season with your little creative business that could. ⚡️

You’ll get my next business column next week as a paid subscriber, and in the meantime, we’ll chat about life, love, money, sex, and unconventional ways to do it all.

Unless Christopher the Trash Man throws me into the garbage truck.

Maybe I should hand over the beers after all.