How To Build Your Offer Ecosystem
Today, we’re going to talk about how to build your offer ecosystem, but before we build it, we have to know what it is. Typically, when we talk about our offers, you may hear them referred to as an “offer suite”, “offer stack”, or ascension model. You think about your offers working together to move people from point A to point B, whether it’s a single service or a series of services that graduate them along.
What is an Offer Ecosystem, and What Makes it Different?
What I like to do is think of these things as an ecosystem because it breaks free from that linear model. It allows us to think that– while, yes, we have a transformation that we want to get to people– there are a series of little transformations that happen along the way. By thinking about things as an ecosystem, as a series of offers that all fit together and flow together to serve your people to the best of your capability, it removes pressure from that one service.
Oftentimes, when we think about moving people from that point A to point B, we put so much pressure on that one transformation (i.e. that one service or that one program). We think that in order to scale or to add more programs to our suite, we need to replicate that transformation but in different levels, whether it’s the exact same thing but as a group program, or the exact same thing but as a 1:1 service or self-study course.
Now, that is totally viable. I’m not saying that isn’t something you can’t do, but I am letting you know that there are other ways of looking at things.
So, when we think about it as an ecosystem, it allows us a bit more flexibility and a holistic view of the transformation or the experience that we want to create for people. And it also gives us a lot more room to play and have fun. Let’s dive into how we actually build it!
Get Clear on the Overarching Transformation You Want to Provide to People
This is a little of that point A/point B I was talking about earlier. Point A is thinking about where your people are starting. Ask yourself these questions about your ideal people:
What do their lives look like? (If you work with business owners, for example, what do their businesses look like?)
What are they thinking?
What and how are they feeling?
What skills and knowledge do they already have?
What skills and knowledge do they need now?
I want you to go all the way to the end of the journey. Think about what happens after they've interacted with absolutely everything that you have to offer to them. How have they been transformed? What do their lives, their businesses, their health, their relationships, their financial goals look like for them?
I want you to take some time and dive into it so that you're crystal clear on how you want your people to feel and what you want their lives to look like.
Break it Up Into Smaller Pieces
Usually, the differences between point A to point B are huge. While we may try to bridge the entire thing with our 1:1 service, often there are smaller journeys that we can break it up into along the way. I'm going to use my own business as an example. My ultimate goal is to help every single person that I interact with– take that brilliant vision, their knowledge, and their unique magic, and turn it into an online program that is powerful, profitable, and feels like them.
Whether that's a group program, a self study course or something in between, I want them to take that knowledge, create an incredible transformational curriculum and learning experience, and then put it out there into the world.
Now, there are lots of smaller journeys that happen along this process. If we think linearly, in order to do this, you need to be crystal clear on your audience. You need to be crystal clear on the topic and the transformation you want to provide as part of your program. Then, you need to map out the entire program: your curriculum, the structure, the framework, and then build all of your workbooks, slides, materials, anything that goes along the way. So, what I've done then is taken this big transformation, and I've broken it up into smaller pieces.
I want you to do the same thing! Look at the transformation that you're providing and break it up into smaller pieces along the way. To help with this, if you feel like you're getting stuck or you're feeling like, “Okay, I've got one transformation, and there might be something more there either before it, or after it, or next to it”, ask yourself:
If you want to see if there's something that comes before it, what do your people need in order to be ready for this transformation you've mapped out for them?
In my case with my signature service, I know that I help people design their program curriculum and map it all out, so they know every single moving piece of their signature program. If I was asking myself what they need in order to be ready to come into this service, I’d say they need to know their audience, their topic, and they need to be very confident in their zone of genius. On the flip side, at the very end of it, you can ask yourself what comes next for them, and this gives you really clear graduation points from that offer.
So, you can see we’ve kind of thought about it as what comes before the transformation, in the middle, and after. I know I said in the beginning that we’re trying not to think of it so linearly, so this is where things get really fun.
Figuring Out Your Supplementary Journeys
Oftentimes, what happens is we have other supplementary journeys that are happening along the way. This can look like a mindset journey, self-care, tools and practical applications, or skills they need along the way.
Using my own business as an example, one of the things that comes up a lot for people when they're leading a group program for the first time, or when they're creating a course and it has live calls, is they're feeling a little bit nervous and not super confident about leading a group call. And for that reason, I created a little mini course, a toolkit that leads people through how to lead group calls and feel super, super confident about it. That's not part of the main linear journey but is something that runs alongside it, yet still compliments it and still fits within the ecosystem.
Similarly for you, when you're thinking about the journey, ask yourself what tools you can give your people that would make their lives easier. What blocks might be coming up for them that could affect this main transformation that you’re providing for them that you could mitigate by giving them templates, tools, or little mini teachings? This helps in quite a few different ways:
It allows you to cross-pollinate between all of your different offers because you have these tool kits.
You have these other offers that supplement the learning and the journey that you're taking your people on.
It makes sure that every single offer doesn't become overwhelming.
When we think of our transformation as taking people from point A to point B, and we need to give them absolutely everything they need to make that journey, that's where we end up with those over-stuffed, over-complicated courses that are super overwhelming. What you can do as a little test is keep asking yourself what would make their lives easier. Does this feel like an integral part of that transformation that you cannot possibly separate? Or does it feel separate enough that you could probably pull it to the side and make it a separate offer as part of your ecosystem?
Know That Building Your Ecosystem Takes Time!
Now, it may feel a little bit overwhelming because there are lots of different options available to you, so I want to let you know that I'm not asking you to go out and create all these things all at once. Building your ecosystem takes time, and it is informed by the work that you do with your people, whether that's through your one-to-one or your one-to-many, the more you interact with your people, the more they are going to tell you what they need out of this ecosystem.
Give yourself permission to go a little bit at a time, and know that there are so many possibilities that everything will get to fit together, and it’s going to feel SO delicious!
Need a little help building your offer ecosystem?
If you have any questions, know that I’m always here to help you! Each month I host a free live Course Cafe so that you can ask me any course creation questions and so we can work through any stress, confusion, or overwhelm. Trust me, I understand that building an ecosystem isn’t easy (if you couldn’t tell by this incredibly thorough and detailed blog post!)
