What’s Your Product Prevention Plan?

You may already have a plan for creating your first—or next—product.

But I have another question:

Do you also have a plan for making sure it never gets created? 😂

I call that your Product Prevention Plan.

Most Product Prevention Plans don’t look like prevention.

That’s what makes them so sneaky.

They look responsible.

They sound reasonable.

Sometimes they even feel productive.

You’re researching.

You’re planning.

You’re improving.

You’re getting ready.

Meanwhile...

the product still doesn’t exist.

Here are 3 Product Prevention Plans I see all the time.

This one sounds like:

“I’ll create it when I know exactly what it should be.”

So you tweak.

And rethink.

And rewrite.

And maybe start over.

Because if people are going to pay money for this thing, it needs to be GOOD.

I understand.

There’s just one little problem:

Nobody can buy the perfect product that never gets created.

At some point, version one has to become version one.

Not perfect.

Not finished forever.

Not the definitive work you’ll want engraved on your tombstone. 😂

Just...

real.

This one is one of my favorites.

“I just need to learn a little more first.”

Another book.

Another course.

Another podcast.

Another tool.

Another certification.

Another six months.

And all of that can feel incredibly productive because technically...

you’re working on the product.

Except you’re not.

You’re preparing to prepare to possibly begin working on the product.

Someday.

Maybe.

The Preparation Plan has a wonderful promise built into it:

I’ll finally be ready when ________.

But somehow the blank keeps changing.

This one says:

“If I’m going to create a product, it needs to be a BIG product.”

Twenty modules.

Fifty videos.

A 147-page workbook.

Resource vault.

Community.

Bonuses.

Certificates.

Matching lunchbox. 😂

Suddenly, creating your first little product feels roughly equivalent to producing the next Marvel movie.

So you don’t start.

Meanwhile, the person you’re trying to help may not need your 20-module masterpiece.

• They may need the three-page template sitting on your hard drive.

• They may need the checklist you use every week.

• They may need the simple process you could explain in 30 minutes.

They may need one small thing that solves one real problem.

The problem may not be that you don’t have a product idea.

You probably have plenty.

The problem may not even be that you don’t know how to create one.

There may simply be a story standing between your idea and the person who needs it.

• A story about how good it has to be.

• A story about how ready you have to be.

• A story about how big it has to be.

And once you can see that story...

you can start questioning it.

• Maybe your first version doesn’t need to be perfect.

• Maybe you already know enough to help someone.

• Maybe your product doesn’t need to be big.

• Maybe... version one only has to exist.

And that brings me back to my question.

1 — Perfection:
“I’ll create it when I know exactly what it should be.”

2 — Preparation:
“I need to learn a little more first.”

3 — Production:
“It needs to be bigger before I can sell it.”

Or maybe you’ve invented an entirely different Product Prevention Plan of your own. 😂

Tell me in the comments: 1, 2, 3—or yours.

And if you’d like, tell me what product is still sitting inside your head.

I read and respond to every comment.