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Episode 218 - How to Utilize an Integrator for a Successful Launch
551 Plays8 months ago
Today's episode features Kat Schmoyer, founder of KS Agency, an agency that provides innovative services for businesses that want to create, launch and sell digital products. We're talking more about what it would look like if you're going to launch a digital product, what Kat would recommend doing in order to get you that product launched, and how an integrator might help you.
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check ’em out at https://daveyandkrista.com/how-to-utilize-integrator-for-successful-launch-btb-218. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
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Transcript
Mindset: Solopreneur vs. Company
00:00:00
Speaker
Sometimes you need extra humans and I love a good system, but sometimes you just need other people behind you. And I mean, if we compare like the solopreneur mindset to like a company mindset, like that's a big difference there of, you know, it's not just you and there are other people that you can lean on and you can trust. And in our case, you don't even have to hire all those people. You hire one agency and then we've got this like support team to help you get it done.
Welcome to The Brands That Book Show
00:00:25
Speaker
You're listening to The Brands That Book Show, a podcast for creative entrepreneurs who want practical tips and strategies to build engaging brands and craft high converting websites. We're your hosts, Davey and Krista, co-founders of a brand and website design agency specializing in visual brand design and show it websites. You're listening to The Brands That Book Show.
Meet Cashmoyer from KS Agency
00:00:47
Speaker
Today's episode features Cashmoyer, founder of KS Agency, an agency that provides integrator services for businesses that want to create, launch, and sell digital products. You might be wondering, what is an integrator? Well, it's basically somebody that helps you get all of the things done.
00:01:05
Speaker
Not quite a virtual assistant. It's more of an operations person, somebody who strategizes alongside you and helps you implement that strategy. And if you want to learn more about what an integrator is, you should go and check out episode 123 of the Brancetbook podcast, where Kat joined us to talk about exactly that, the role of an integrator.
00:01:26
Speaker
In this episode, we're talking more about if you were going to launch a digital product, what it would look like, or what Cat would recommend doing in order to get that product launched, and how an integrator might help you.
Show Notes and Resources
00:01:39
Speaker
As always, links and resources can be found in the show notes. Check them out at davianchrista.com. And if you enjoyed this episode, please consider leaving a review over at Apple Podcasts.
00:01:48
Speaker
We've known Kat and our family for quite some time now. They actually recently built a house next door to ours, so we get to see them on a regular basis. And for anything organization, Kat is our go-to person. So, excited to have her on this episode. Now, onto the episode.
Relocating: Urban vs. Rural Life
00:02:06
Speaker
What's biggest adjustment to moving?
00:02:10
Speaker
That's a really good question. I think this is our first time with kids in multiple different locations. So that doesn't have anything to do with the move, but I think that's just on top of like, we live in a new area and now like one person goes here and another person goes here and then another one's at home. And like just that rhythm has been like a weird thing, you know?
00:02:29
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. Do you feel like it's pretty similar to the last place you live though? I mean, we like it better, which is a good thing because we're here to stay. In our last place, in order to get to more of the town, it was a longer drive. And so it's actually really nice that here, even though it feels more rural, downtown is 10 minutes away. So if we wanted to grab takeout or just get out of the house, things feel a little bit closer, yet still more rural, if that makes sense.
00:02:56
Speaker
Yeah, it's so funny you say that because I mean, we've had the kind of the opposite experience where moving from Annapolis, big city, everything, I mean, 10 grocery stores are like a stone's throw away, you know? And then to move here, it feels like, wow, you know, the grocery store is basically six to eight miles somewhere in there. It might as well be like, like, if I want to go to the grocery store, I'm like, oh, but it's like kind of far away. You know, people are like, you're crazy. You're crazy. And we're like right down the street. Like, we'll just go get it. There's like the mentality is so different.
00:03:24
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, that's so funny. Well, you know, how do you like your neighbors? I mean, they could be. Just kidding. Oh, no, fair enough. Fair enough. Fair enough. Yeah, we're grateful that you all are here. I mean, for Jack having Micah here, I feel it's been like a just huge blessing. And it's fun watching them run around in the front yard and just do things little boys do, you know,
What Does an Integrator Do?
00:03:49
Speaker
Well, and I'm excited to chat with you about everything that's been going on in your business. You recorded an episode with the, I don't know, it was post 2020, right? Everything's pre and post. So, but it's been a few years now at the very least. And it was, you know, back towards the beginning of your life as an integrator. And now you're running like big integrator agency.
00:04:10
Speaker
So fill us in. It's changed a lot. Yeah, I guess maybe just backing up for people who haven't listened to that episode, if you're interested in kind of the background on what integrator is, you should go back and listen to that episode. But for people who haven't listened to that episode, what is an integrator and what are the sorts of things that you do?
00:04:25
Speaker
Great question. So I'm going to talk about an integrator from like our world of like solopreneurship online small business owners. I feel like it's a little bit easier to think about it from that perspective because I'm assuming a lot of people listening to this podcast, like that's in their world and in their business. But an integrator essentially comes alongside of a visionary. So as a visionary, you're running the company. It was your idea. It was your vision to start being a small business owner.
00:04:53
Speaker
and you can't do it all on your own. So you need that integrator to come alongside you and help you move the needle forward and take on some of those maybe back in business tasks that you don't love doing, or maybe even the things you don't even know how to do, but you know they need to get done in order to grow and scale the business.
00:05:12
Speaker
I realized around that 2020-2021 timeframe that I always thought I was a visionary and I am an integrator. So it was like this big aha moment of myself of like, oh, this is my problem. Like I always thought I was one type, but I'm actually not. This is what I am over here.
00:05:28
Speaker
And so I started working with online small business owners. I started helping them look at, okay, here's all of the moving pieces of your business. And as a visionary, you're so good at coming up with ideas and new things that you want to do and new clients that you want to work with or new services or products that you want to offer. And yet you get burned out really quickly because you're trying to wear all the hats and do all the things. And you need this helping hand to come alongside you and streamline and systemize where needed, but also just realistically project managed.
00:05:58
Speaker
all of the moving pieces of the brand. Yeah, yeah. And so maybe you could give us sort of the distinction between a VA integrator, because I think there are two very
Integrator vs. Virtual Assistant
00:06:08
Speaker
different things. I think the first time we chatted, I had more in my mind, that integrator was basically like a virtual assistant that maybe could do more things. But that's not really the case, right? Like integrator is more of like a chief operating officer, you know, like somebody who helps with the business actually operating.
00:06:25
Speaker
Absolutely. I would say that an integrator is more like a strategic partner for the visionary. You're going to put a little bit more trust and guidance in overall direction. Now that doesn't mean you don't trust your VA. VA's are amazing. We all need VA's to help us do all the things.
00:06:41
Speaker
100%. But I feel like with an integrator visionary relationship, it's almost like you're meeting on the same level. And you're looking at where's the direction of the brand headed. And you're both bringing strengths to the table to then be able to
00:06:58
Speaker
better foresee, okay, where do we want to go? And then the integrator would then go to a VA and say, okay, here's what we're doing. This is the project for this month. And then let's project manage, let's write and project manage essentially just means let's make up the to-do list and figure out the deadlines of when we need to make this thing happen. And so VAs are very, very, very needed. But I do think that that integrator VA role is different.
00:07:23
Speaker
Yeah, yeah, for sure. And I think for a lot of people who started businesses, they're probably the visionary, probably more times than not,
Visionary Qualities in Integrators
00:07:30
Speaker
I would think. I mean, it's funny in your case, like you are more of the implementer integrator type. But I have to say, like, I think you have a lot of visionary qualities, right? And I think that's just from watching outside looking in, you growing your business, you know, I think there's an aspect to running a business where you have to be a visionary. So even you with your business probably have help getting some of the implementation done.
00:07:52
Speaker
Yes, yes. And I think also for me personally, that's what's made it a little bit more relatable to work with visionaries is because there are parts of my brain that click on in that. It's like, oh, we're just so excited. Let's just talk about all these things. And so I love that. And it's so fun to just have ideation. Just sit down and be like, oh, what could we do? What's going to happen?
00:08:14
Speaker
But there also needs to be some of my clients call me like that dream crusher role of like, there needs to be that person that's like, but actually, like, could you do that? And like, what's realistic for your time and your finances and your clients and your audience? And like, what are you doing? And there needs to be that like Debbie downer, so to speak in a relationship so that you make sure that you're moving in a direction that you need to be moving in. Yeah, that's funny to say that because we always say that Chris is my dream crusher.
00:08:42
Speaker
So, but I can see that. I can totally see that literally just came out of marriage counseling. And then one of the things we talked about was just how she's, you know, very tenacious, and she's very much getting things done. And she was asked both about my biggest strengths, but then also about my biggest weaknesses. And so one of the things she said, she's like,
00:09:00
Speaker
Yeah, TV has trouble just, you know, he's a lot of ideas. He has trouble getting those ideas implemented. So, but very grateful for people like you and Krista to help us get those ideas implemented. And you know, it's just funny, like looking at your backdrop and obviously if people are listening to the podcast here, they might not be able to see this, but you know, you have like more calendars on your wall than I own.
00:09:20
Speaker
like just in what I can see that I own like just in general. So one of the fun things is we've had a lot of overlapping clients in the past. And so I've got to see, you know, some of your work, but I would love for you to maybe walk us through continue painting this picture of what integrator does through some of the ways that you serve your clients. What are some of the types of things that you do as an integrator for your clients?
Optimizing Digital Products with KS Agency
00:09:43
Speaker
really niched as an integrator to specialize with clients that are focusing on optimizing and scaling digital products. So the majority of our clients have built a wildly successful service. You know, they're booking out weddings, they're booking out portrait sessions, et cetera. And now they're looking to have a little bit more passive income and to figure out either what does that look like in general. And we're kind of starting with let's create the flow desk account, you know, going from there or they've
00:10:10
Speaker
launched several times. They've created some digital products and now we're helping them scale. So that looks like on a daily basis, my team, we understand like the tech backend of the digital product space.
00:10:23
Speaker
Again, visionary, you have an idea. You know the course you want to launch or the product you want to take to market. You don't have the time to sit down in DIY and figure out kajabi and Zapier and ConvertKit and like all of these techs. So my team steps in. We know all of that tech. So I work with you or one of my project managers works with you to really assess what are we doing?
00:10:42
Speaker
What's the end goal and what's our timeline for this goal? And then we manage and mobilize our team to bring that product to market or work through evergreen funnels, Legion, things like that. So anything and everything in like that digital product space is where we're working in.
00:10:57
Speaker
Yeah. And I think that's such a heavy lift for people at the outset, especially if they've never launched a digital product before. But you've worked with a lot of people who they're not new to launching digital products. And I think they understand the heavy lift that the tech can be, all the different integrations involved. And it's not that it takes some sort of like 150 IQ intelligence to figure those things out, but it is just a lot. There's a lot of moving pieces there.
00:11:21
Speaker
And so having somebody like your team step in and take care of those things, I mean, just hat off to you guys. I mean, that would just be. So let's say someone comes to you, they're thinking about productizing their service or they're launching a new digital product. What steps would you recommend them take to get that idea off the ground?
Audience Engagement Before Launch
00:11:40
Speaker
You're gonna wanna think about your audience first and foremost. I feel like a lot of the times, I can say we because I've done it before and when I've been wearing like the visionary hat in my brand. But again, thinking about ideas and dreaming that tends to be fun for a lot of people that own their own business because you had the dream in the first place to start the business. So we're typically really good at sitting down and starting to brainstorm like, ooh, I could teach people this or ooh, I could offer this, ooh, this fits in really well here.
00:12:06
Speaker
But we don't necessarily ask our audience or we don't necessarily start looking at what we're doing and thinking about, well, do I have the audience who's going to want this? And so I've worked with clients before. I've had friends in past scenarios that have put all of this work into getting a product ready, filming the course and everything that goes into writing the content and getting that ready.
00:12:28
Speaker
but they haven't prepped their audience well, or they haven't even asked their audience, so then it flops. And that was because they had a great product, but they didn't have this other missing piece of the funnel, which is the audience. And so my number one recommendation, if you're just getting started, is starting to think about growing your audience to want whatever it is that you are going to offer. And you can do that really simply by creating top of funnel content.
00:12:52
Speaker
So thinking about Instagram and like creating reels, creating feed, creating stories, creating things that like, okay, this has to do with what I want to teach or what I want to be known for. So let's start planting that seed. Obviously on the email list side of things, you can create a lead magnet to get people ready.
00:13:08
Speaker
for so-and-so is really good at client experience. Like I need to download this guide or I need to take this quiz to learn more from them. So obviously growing your email list is going to be really important on that side of things. And you could also even go for like a low ticket offer. So like a tiny offer, something that's, I don't know, $15, $30, something really, really small. That's an easier yes for your audience versus jumping right out the gate with a $500 signature course and overwhelming
00:13:36
Speaker
what might not be ready for market yet. Yeah, no, I think that's such great advice. And actually teaching and training after this on building an email list and how important an email list is to validating an idea. And it's just this engine that allows you to validate ideas in the future because you're able to get ideas out to a large group of people. And basically, to your point, ask them, is this something you want?
00:13:59
Speaker
I think something else that you mentioned is creating top of funnel content and seeing what resonates. I think even before creating a lead magnet, one piece of advice that I typically give people is before you spend hours figuring out, mapping out this quiz or creating some sort of 100 page ebook, maybe just write a blog post about it and see how it's responded to.
00:14:19
Speaker
You know, because if people like the blog post, chances are they'll also like, you know, however you extend that content with a lead magnet. But how important is an email list to selling a digital course? How important is to your clients as well and like your experience?
Building and Using an Email List
00:14:35
Speaker
Incredibly important. It is one of the very first things that if, when I'm working with a client, it's one of the first things that we're going to start really auditing and figuring out what are you currently doing with your email list? So then how could we potentially like add a little bit of gas to that fire, you know, and what could we do additionally with the list? Or if there isn't a list, we're going to get started creating that list. We're going to get a lead magnet up and running. We're going to have a really solid nurture funnel
00:15:01
Speaker
after the lead magnet has been created. Because honestly, Davey, that's a huge thing I see a lot of times when we're jumping in with clients that are newer to digital products is, again, ideas. Ooh, this lead magnet. Ooh, this freebie. They might have some really awesome stuff, but then nothing's happening once those people get into their email list. They just sit there and hang out for a while. So we want to also audit the whole step of that email funnel to make sure that we're continuing to show up and serve these people on a regular basis.
00:15:31
Speaker
Yeah. And so, you know, do you have like a certain benchmark for people to hit in terms of an email list before you want to, like before you recommend actually launching something like a signature course or a digital product? I mean, I know some of your clients have probably six figures worth of email subscribers, right? But then some of your other clients, you know, I'm thinking just one in particular, you know, I remember when they were just starting their email list, you know, but you know, over the past few years, it's grown pretty significantly. Like, do you have a number where you're like, hey,
00:16:00
Speaker
you know, we need to get to this point before we launch this product. Yeah, I don't, but I look at conversion numbers. So again, dream crusher comes out of me of like, okay, well, if we're going to launch this, what are the revenue goals? And first of all, I like to set goals in like a good, better, best standard because I'm a big fan of like that measuring stick of really then understanding, okay, I didn't hit this part of my goal, but maybe I got over here, you know, and we can kind of assess that goal a little bit better when we have that good, better, best strategy.
00:16:28
Speaker
So I'll talk with the client around, okay, we're going to launch the signature program. It's $4.99 or whatever the price point is. What's your good, better, best? How much revenue do you want to bring in once we launch
Understanding Email Conversion Rates
00:16:38
Speaker
it? Okay. Well, your email list is only 500 people conversion of one to 3%. This is actually what you're looking at. And usually when we have that conversation, it's again, it's like crushing up like slightly up.
00:16:50
Speaker
Okay, I can only expect this amount, but it's that reality check of, okay, then what's the client's goal? Is the goal just, I want to get it to market. So I'm not even really worried about revenue. I just need to get it out there. Okay. That's a different conversation than if revenue is a deciding factor in the launch.
00:17:07
Speaker
Yeah, I think people are always so surprised to hear that the conversion rate is going to be only 1% to 30% of your email list. But the gift in that is that that's pretty solid truth. Across the board, you can look at somebody's email list and say, and look at the offer. And as long as the offer is pretty good, that, yeah, probably going to convert somewhere between 1% and 3%. In our experience, a smaller email list might have a higher conversion rate, but not
00:17:32
Speaker
not in the way of 50% or 75%, like higher conversion rate in 7% to 10%, something like that. But still, I think the gift in an email list is that things are more predictable. Whereas if you look at somebody's Instagram following, what it converts at is going to probably vary drastically from account to account. And so it's nice having a list that's predictable like that.
00:17:55
Speaker
Absolutely. And again, even though it's sad, in some cases to be like, oh, okay, if I'm looking at 1% of my email list, like what is that number? There is though, then a benchmark in that of, okay, if you want to hit 1%, 3%, whatever it is, now we know for Legion, now again, let's like reverse it of, okay, now I know how many people I need to get on my list before I feel comfortable launching if I want to have that conversion of one to three in terms of the revenue. So it's just math when we're thinking about it from that way.
00:18:23
Speaker
Yeah, for sure. So somebody comes to you, they tell you about this idea. You're looking at everything that they're currently doing and specifically whether they validated that idea. They started to work on their email list, kind of what's the next step from there.
00:18:36
Speaker
The next step would be to actually map out the project plan. This is probably my favorite step in the process because this is where I get to put on my like to-do list hat of like, okay, here's all the fun things that we get to do. When we're planning for a launch, we need at least six to eight weeks, but that is, I even hesitate sometimes to say that because that also just really depends on everything that's been done before the client comes
Planning a Successful Product Launch
00:18:59
Speaker
to us.
00:18:59
Speaker
So if it's somebody that maybe we need a little bit more email nurturing and some marketing going on, then we're going to push that and do more of a three month or four month timeframe versus like a six to eight weeks. But essentially I'm going to work backwards. So I'm going to say, okay, you want to launch your product on April 1st.
00:19:17
Speaker
So here's everything that we need to do from now until then to get this ready for market. I look at a launch from two hats. I look at it from the operations hat. What does the product need? What do we need in Kajabi? What do we need in terms of filming the content, workbooks for the students, like all of the details inside of the operations of the product? And then what do we need on the marketing side? The sales page, the emails,
00:19:42
Speaker
that instagram content i feel like a lot of business owners struggle with because there are two sides they're putting all in on one side like all in on like i'm gonna hire a production team and i'm gonna do x y and z and it's gonna be the most beautiful course ever and they forgot about the marketing
00:19:59
Speaker
and they forgot that they have to be telling their people and priming their people that this thing is coming or the opposite happens. And they're hiring the designer for the sales page and hiring the copywriter and all of this stuff. And then the night before they're still recording their content to like upload it into Adobe. Like we've all been there, I'm sorry. So it's interesting to like work with clients on here's everything that we need. And now here's an actual realistic timeline so that hopefully you don't feel totally burnt out by the time that the launch has happened and you have a support system
00:20:29
Speaker
sending you details and things to review as the launch is getting closer. As far as your background as a wedding planner as well, there's probably no better person to hire to help with the logistics. I even know from a neighborhood community standpoint,
00:20:44
Speaker
You know, I know Krista really appreciates like you all are get things on the calendar type of people. But from there, you know, so you have all this mapped out. How much does your team do specifically around like setting up the various things? So there's, you know, you mentioned things like sales pages and emails and, you know, there's integrations between the two checkout. You know, what does your team take care of?
00:21:04
Speaker
It's a little different depending on every like the client's preferences. Honestly, I don't want that to be like the gray area question of like, we'll do whatever you want. Because that's also not realistic either. But a couple of factors do go into it. We have some clients that for example, we have one client that like she loves to design her sales pages like she
00:21:22
Speaker
like she loves to do that so great like we want her to sit in her zone of genius and if that's where she wants to be like that's where she wants to be and then our team could help with other you know specifics and other details we have other clients that don't want to write anything ever they just want to like go through a google doc and just make sure it all sounds good and then we're writing all of the content we're
00:21:42
Speaker
scheduling it in ConvertKit and pressing send on all of those emails. So we try to be a little bit of a chameleon based on what's that client's comfort level and their zone of genius. And then some of that does depend on like the tech side of things too. And we try to be very realistic with a client when we're onboarding because we'll have a list of their tech stack.
00:22:02
Speaker
So I'll know like, okay, they're in show it. Great. Like we feel really comfortable with show it templates and be able to get the job done in there. Oh, they're in Squarespace. Not so much. Like we're not really going to touch the back end of that website. So we want to have those conversations up front so that that client is well aware going into the process. These are the things cats team can do. And then these are the things that are still left that, you know, we would need to hire out for, or that client would be responsible for doing.
00:22:28
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. So as far as getting everything mapped out and getting everything set up, is there a next step? What should people be, I guess, worried about or concerned about as the actual launch date approaches?
00:22:43
Speaker
really just focusing in on their to-dos and the things that they need to be doing. I don't think there's necessarily things to worry about if you've planned it out really well, because hopefully you've had realistic conversations already around if this is our launch day, like our live day, and then here's all of the steps leading up until that, you know, we just want to keep open communication as we're working forward on
00:23:05
Speaker
getting that product ready to go. And then if we need to adjust dates and things like that, we can do that because we're constantly communicating with each other throughout the process. When I was with Till Agency, the ad agency, one of the things that I found was like some of our best clients were ones that had done it on their own before, you know? And so they had experience maybe doing a course launch on their own. And then they would come to us and say, hey, listen, I've done this thing. I built this thing. And now I want somebody else to
00:23:33
Speaker
help put it on autopilot or help scale it or, you know, whatever it is. Do you find that's the case with what you're doing as well? Most of the time, there's something fun about being able to talk with somebody that understands a little bit, not necessarily even the tech, but just like the generalized like, this is what happened last time and just what worked and what didn't and what can we do in the future? Sometimes with a client that is brand new to launch, like they don't know what they don't know.
00:24:00
Speaker
that's not their fault like they literally have never done it before and so sometimes there's like I feel that pressure of like waving the magic wand of like oh yay what are we gonna do and like I don't want to disappoint them but there's so many details in a launch that aren't even up to me because like we talked about before audience and product and pricing and like all the things so if they've done it before we at least have that measuring stick to go off of of expectations even for
00:24:25
Speaker
the launch tracker and what's going to happen. If they've never done it before, we're all going into it blind. We're holding hands and we're going into it together, but we don't necessarily know exactly what's going to happen. Yeah. And part of the reason I bring that up is because I think what I hope it is is encouragement to people who are listening who have never launched a digital product
Starting Small with Digital Products
00:24:44
Speaker
before. Maybe they've been running a service-based business. And when you're running a service-based business, certainly if it's something that's more luxury level or high-end, you don't need
00:24:52
Speaker
a thousand clients in a year. Typically, if you're a wedding photographer, you might need 20. When you're selling a digital product, you want the thousand customers. I say that hopefully as encouragement to just get started and it's okay to jump in, see what you can figure out on your own, make mistakes, understand that maybe it's not going to be a five-figure launch or a six-figure launch or a seven-figure launch like you hear about from the online gurus, but you're going to learn a ton.
00:25:18
Speaker
Before our first course launch, we hired Jesse Marcheccio, who was my partner over at Till Agency. And he's still running that, of course, and his wife Becky. And we just learned a ton from them. And that was knowledge we could implement for every launch going forward. And so bring this back to what you're doing. For people who are, I think, thinking about doing this, but don't feel like they're the kind of people who are like, I just know if I try to do it myself, I'll never be able to do it. Can they still work with you?
00:25:48
Speaker
Yes. So we have worked with clients before and actually last year we had about a 50-50 split of clients that had, I would say were a little bit more advanced in their digital product, just portfolio, like things that they'd done, offerings that they had, things like that. And then we had about another 50% of our clients that had either only launched one product or had, were truly building from the ground up. Like we were like, okay, you know, we have a hundred people on this email list, like did not have very many Apple.
00:26:14
Speaker
And there is some beauty in those first steps and getting started. And I do understand, just like you were saying, sometimes we don't know. And because we don't know, we just feel overwhelmed. And so we keep stopping. And if that's what's holding you up and you need to feel a little bit more secure and like, no, I want the confidence of having a team that's done it before to really walk me through. That's not to say that this wouldn't even be a good fit or you can't find an awesome business coach to help walk alongside you as you are going through some of this.
00:26:44
Speaker
So I don't think that there's necessarily a threshold of you have to be at this point before you hire out. But I do think that it is helpful if you can like bootstrap it a little bit in the beginning and figure it out some on your own to at least just again, get the list started, get some things out there to make sure that what you're going to then put more money behind to produce is even better for you and for your audience.
00:27:06
Speaker
Yeah, and you know, I say if you're listening and you're thinking about reaching out to cats team as well, and you've never done this before, I would just make sure if you do just pay attention to what you all are doing. And I love what you mentioned the beginning, you being a strategic partner, and I think that's like, there's just so much value in that. And so, you know, remember, like,
00:27:24
Speaker
Yeah, so you might be paying a little bit more upfront to get things going, you know, everything that's built can be reused in the future. And all that, you know, knowledge you've gained through working with an experienced team, you know, you can use in the future. And then likewise, on the other side of that, you know, I think that everybody hits a point where it's like, okay, they built this thing, and they've proven it out, they validated the idea, things seem like they're converting, and they just need to figure out how to pour some gasoline on the fire, right? In which case, again,
00:27:48
Speaker
You know, it's nice to have a team like yours that's so varied in expertise, you know, like you can help with the copyrighting and help with sex, you can help with like more of the strategic vision as well. Sometimes you need extra humans. And I love a good system, but sometimes you just need other people behind you. And I mean, if we compare like the solopreneur mindset to like a company mindset, like that's a big difference there of
00:28:09
Speaker
you know, it's not just you and there are other people that you can lean on and you can trust. And in our case, you don't even have to hire all those people. You hire one agency and then we've got this like support team to help you get it done. Yeah, exactly. So, you know, I guess real quick, just a few sort of miscellaneous questions as well, just for people who might be thinking like, okay, well, you know, I'm a solopreneur, you know, do I need like basically an integrator or would that like, would that be ridiculous to hire an integrator?
00:28:39
Speaker
It depends on what you're trying to do. If you're a solopreneur and again, if we're looking at like the agency model that I've created, then if you're a solopreneur and you're looking to launch digital products or you have some digital products and you want help growing and scaling, it could be a good fit. So reach out and you know, we can have some conversations.
00:28:57
Speaker
If you were thinking, not so much the agency model, but just in general, do I need
When to Hire an Integrator
00:29:02
Speaker
an integrator? No, because the general term of an integrator is managing your team and your projects. And if you don't have a team for that person to manage, then you don't need an integrator. I would definitely get a really awesome VA that you can manage and have that extra person to help you get some of those things done.
00:29:19
Speaker
Yeah, yeah. And I love just kind of how transparent you are about all of that and whether people would be a good fit or not. If somebody is going to launch something, and you alluded to this earlier in the episode, but what would be kind of the ideal timeline to
Setting Realistic Launch Timelines
00:29:30
Speaker
launch? Maybe they're working on a digital product now and they have really ambitious hopes to launch next month. What would you say to them?
00:29:36
Speaker
Maybe that's literally ambitious, but I think some of that's going to depend on what the product is and all of the details that are going into the product. Like we talked about before with like, there's the operation side of making sure the product is ready to go. And there's also the marketing side.
00:29:50
Speaker
And you're probably not just sitting around only working on that. You're probably doing other things for your business and you might have, you know, services that you're fulfilling or other digital offers. I don't know. You've got a lot going on. I'm sure. So if you're thinking about right now it's February, if you would like to launch and it's the very first time you've ever launched something, I wouldn't do it any earlier than like mid April.
00:30:12
Speaker
because that's at least giving you more of like that eight, nine week runway. But even then you might find that once you really map out everything that needs to happen, that you might need to push that back a little bit. And that's okay. I feel like sometimes it's that instant gratification of I said I was going to do it. I got to do it right now. Like, no, it's still, that's only eight to nine weeks away. Like you have, that is great. You're not like missing out on anything by waiting just a little bit.
00:30:35
Speaker
Even that sounds really ambitious, honestly. If you had said like, oh, you have to wait until mid-summer, I'd be like, yeah, that sounds about right. Especially if you've never launched something before. And we find that with website design too. What people reach out and they're like, I want to do this project. It needs to be done next week. And it's like, well, why? And it's like, a lot of times it's just self-imposed deadline. And in talking to people, they realize, okay, yeah, actually, I don't need this next week. And it's important to just take the time with the project and do it
00:31:00
Speaker
well the first time and it's going to prevent headaches down the line. So I would say if you've never launched something before, maybe give it like three months. That's probably a pretty realistic timeframe in terms of planning for the launch. Is there anything else that I'm not asking that would be relevant for people thinking through productizing a service or launching a digital product or just working with an integrator?
00:31:22
Speaker
I feel like we covered. And we covered even more in the, or we did not even more, but we covered additional stuff in the first episode as well.
Learning More About KS Agency
00:31:29
Speaker
I would recommend that people go and check out that episode too. If people are interested in working with your team, where should they reach out? You guys can head to our website. It's just catchmoiror.com. So I'll make sure that Davey has that to link in here. And you can learn a little bit more about the agency and meet our team. And then we do have an application process because we do want to make sure it's a good fit all the way around.
00:31:47
Speaker
We'd love to talk with you if you are intrigued by what you're hearing here and want to have a conversation. Learn more.
00:31:54
Speaker
Well, a few things that I really appreciate about Kat. One, her content is always top-notch. She's launching a new podcast, which might be out by the time you're listening to this episode. You should head over to her website and check that out, but I just appreciate how you don't hold back. Whenever we have conversations, you don't hold back on your blog, and I expect your podcast is going to be the same way. Also, probably one of the most detail-oriented people I've ever met in my life.
00:32:18
Speaker
It wasn't meant to be. I didn't tell you it was a discovery call, but I've done a discovery call with you on the agency side.
A Thank You to Cashmoyer
00:32:24
Speaker
And, you know, I just really appreciated, you know, how carefully and thoroughly you walked me through the process of what it would look like to work with you and your team. So again, if this is something that you're thinking about, it's on your list for this year to maybe launch a digital product or you really want to figure out how to take that digital product to the next level. I'd highly recommend reaching out to Kat and seeing if her team can help you.
00:32:46
Speaker
Thank you. I appreciate it. Awesome. Well, thanks again, Kat. I can't wait to connect another time.