We’re excited to introduce you to the always interesting and insightful Dee Willis. We hope you’ll enjoy our conversation with Dee below.

Dee, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. So, let’s imagine that you were advising someone who wanted to start something similar to you and they asked you what you would do differently in the startup-process knowing what you know now. How would you respond?

If I had to start all over again, I would focus more on building an audience first, and everything around that goal before ever creating or presenting a product or service.

Today, I challenge the product-first mentality because it’s easier to create a product or service for your ideal person when you actually know what they want. When you get to a point where you know what they are going to say or ask for before the words finish leaving their mouths, it becomes more meaningful and enjoyable because you’re not wasting time.

Like with your children or spouse, you know what they are going to say before they say it, and that is how intimately you should know the group composed of your “ideal person” before ever trying to sell them anything. When you create a product first or have a product first mentality it’s a constant uphill battle and fight trying to “find” the people who will buy it. Therefore, you are prolonging the money you could be making.

The hardest thing to do is build an audience. And I’m not talking about audiences like you see on Instagram or TikTok, I’m talking about an audience made up of your “ideal person.”

Not all audiences are created equal, and just because you have a large following, doesn’t mean they are buyers. Now, I’m not saying that having a large audience is a bad thing, it’s good for other reasons, but the primary focus would be to find “my ideal person” first and foremost. That’s because I want to get to making products & services as soon as possible in an efficient manor.

But, I get it.

Everybody wants to do the fun stuff (I did too). However, I’ve learned that those “trendy” “easy” things doesn’t allow you to stand out from the gazillion other people who are following the same “trendy/easy” thing.

Which means, it’s not really going to add to the foundation of your bottom line (profits). It’s not about how much you make (revenue) it’s about how much of it you can keep (profits).

So, here is where my focus would be, because now I know the BEST results are not “Buzz-Worthy”?

1. The One-Page Business Plan

I’ve never believed in long drawn out business plans from the beginning, so this I would keep the same, the format has changed for me over the years, but I would stick with my one-page business plan. The exception would be if you were trying to get capital from investors or a bank, which I never have. All of my business ventures were self-funded.

Some questions to asked yourself:

Who do I want to serve? (Who)
How will I help them or what can I help them with? (Solution/Result)
Why would this be important for them or to them? (Benefit/Pain)
How would they like the value delivered to them? (Stage)

2. SEO Research

This I skipped on in the past because it sound scary and to be honest, it’s the MOST overlooked online business game-changer anyone could ever do. It took me years to realize it. It took me to have to bite the bullet because I wasted so much time trying everything else around this that it made everything else I did in regards to my content creation suck, in addition to me not even having an audience at first.

So, no audience, no SEO research and just created products that I had no clue if anyone was searching for them or not. It’s one thing to have no audience, it’s another if I would have just did the research and I could make something at least somebody was searching for and that could have possibly help, but I had neither, so that was a total fail!

3. Then Make Content

Only, after I’ve completed my research would I invest my time (which I can’t get back) into making content, but at least I am working with something. This is how you attract the “ideal person” that you stated in the business plan that you wanted to serve. The research allows you to choose the “Stage” in which you will deliver the content and how they will find you.

It’s through consistent content that you will begin to know them more. You will be able to know what they are thinking and know what problems they really have and what they are looking for. Only then are you ready to present a product or service that can help them.

But, in your original one-page business plan, you are finding topics you can help them with and the content you use is for educational purpose, NOT Sells, not yet anyway.

This is how you can also validate any products you have in mind. Start making content around the product, not mentioning the product per se, but information about the topics and problems that you know the product solves or things it can do to improve something. If there is no interest from the audience through the content you’re creating. You know NOT to proceed with that idea just yet. Keep it around, don’t throw it out the window completely. Save every idea even if it doesn’t catch attention right away. Put it to the side and in time you could probably revamp it working a new or different angle. But definitely don’t put it out to the ideal audience if those individuals didn’t like it. You’ll have to keep working on it or something else. See, I just saved you $1000s right there.

4. Move Off-Stage or Take Them Back-Stage

It’s however you want to work it, but ultimately, when you are creating content you will eventually want them to get onto an email list.

You want them to do this as quickly as possible. Which means, you need to offer them something of value or bonus information for them to do this. This is what I call moving off-stage or taking them back stage.

Moving off stage is positioning a lead magnet an actual digital checklist or something like that. Something they can download.
Taking them back-stage is offering them to join a newsletter when you give them some exclusive stuff, with their back-stage access pass. That’s how I think about it.

Either way, just get their email address at minimum.

5. Automated & Affiliate Income

This is what I love. I love automating my income because it allows me to do all the things I love without having to personally be present to fulfill orders or take any payments. Automated income is when you have or created any type of digital products of your own.

Now, if you don’t know how or have to gain the skills to create your own products, you can them promote and educate your “ideal person” about the tools that has been helping you and other things you use to give the result you mentioned in your one-page business plan.

I wasted years and money doing things based on trend and working around the things I didn’t want to do, it cost me dearly. This is how I move in today’s digital economy and if I could go back and talk to my younger self I would say, “Dee, stop comparing yourself to everybody, blend your interests together surrounding a popular topic that way you come across with your own unique way to say trendy stuff, follow the 5 steps I’ve outlined and keep going even when it seems like nothing is happening because that is the calm, before the storm of money that is going to come your way. And don’t veer away from the profit formula”

Have enough people (ideal person) + Help them get the outcome they want (the value) = You having everything YOU want.

And this is worth repeating…

It’s not about how much you make, it’s about how much you keep.

Dee, before we move on to more of these sorts of questions, can you take some time to bring our readers up to speed on you and what you do?

Dee Willis is a single teen mom turned 4x Certified Digital Marketer + Self-Published Author + Digital Product Creator with over 2 decades of experience in entrepreneurship and internet marketing. She is a servant for those who want more out of life. She is dedicated to helping you build an online business that generates automated income streams without the hype while mastering the mindset needed to accomplish your goals. She believes the joy in entrepreneurship is doing with you have an affinity to do while being your true self.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

The most rewarding aspect of being a creative person is that ability to allow my digital products to help others accomplish what they once dreamed about. It’s always an rewarding feeling to help others reach their goals.

Is there mission driving your creative journey?

My missions is to take all of the click-bait and hype out of the digital marketing space. It’s just too many “gurus” pushing overpriced things just to fund their own lifestyle. I want to help people build a solid foundation, the right foundation and the mindset needed to build a real online business that can produce automated semi-passive income for them, which takes time and patience. This is one business where instant gratification doesn’t exist. It will take time to see the results that looks like a person accomplished over-night. People only see the tip of the iceburg, not how much of it remains “unseen”.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://deewillis.com
• Youtube: https://youtube.com/@deewillis/videos