One of the questions I struggled with was how to break MyTimeDesign into manageable product offerings that would have the impact that I wanted, while enabling it to continue.
While I love blogging at the 2Time blog, one thing that I learned from the classroom and online programs is that it’s possible to learn a LOT more from focused training than from reading 400 posts.
But I also learned that most people required specialized support to be successful in changing habits permanently.
As I was trying to figure out what to do, I downloaded a free audio-book entitled “Free: The Future of a Radical Price by Chris Anderson.” I listened to it over and over again, mulling over its potent message.
To cut a long story short, I decided to create a 6 week version of MyTimeDesign that I could offer for free.
Essentially, it’s a portion of the same content that I offered in MyTimeDesign 1.0 early in 2008. Back then I sold it for US$99, and it included audios, videos and text, covering the first 7 fundamentals of time management.
Plus, it gave access to an online forum, where users could support each other in upgrading their time management systems.
How can I afford to offer this program for free?
Well, in Chris’ book I heard that line repeated – “information wants to be free.” I also realized that the actual habits that are recommended in MyTimeDesign are not ground-breaking… they are repeated all over the internet in tons of lists of “10 zillion Time Management Tips” that can be found with a simple Google search.
It told me that the key information (in the form of tips blogs, ebooks, audios and videos) was already free and more or less already saying the same things. (An online survey I recently did confirmed this finding.)
What I am offering in the MyTimeDesign programs is something different — a way to use these 10 zillion tips tips without getting lost.
In other words, MyTimeDesign offers an upgrade path… a way for you to to get from where you are today, to a destination that you set for yourself. You define where your upgrade will take you, based on the information in the program.
Rather than offering you the “perfect set of habits,” MyTimeDesign is provides intelligent assistance to effect an upgrade.
I imagined that there are 3 groups of people who might be interested:
Group #1
I imagined that for those people who are super-highly self-disciplined, just finding out that there is an upgrade path would be enough. They would implement it themselves. Before last year, I think I would have put myself in this group. Now…I don’t, and I can only admire them from afar!
Group #2
I also imagined that those people who are completely new to time management (what MyTimeDesign calls “Level 1 White Belts”) would be blown away by the idea that they already have a system, and that it can be upgraded whenever they want with the right approach. They would move up a notch by simply obtaining a new level of awareness.
Group #3
Lastly, I perceived that there was a big group in the middle. They would benefit the most from having a supportive environment that’s required to make major habit changes over time in order to upgrade their time management systems. They are the ones who would end up making the biggest changes, and undergo the most profound transformations as they undertook the right changes at the right time, rather than trying to wade through 10 zillions tips, or implement a whole new system from scratch.
All this thinking led me to the following decisions:
- Offer MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free to the public at no cost and gear it towards the needs of people in Groups #1 and #2.
- Invent MyTimeDesign 2.o.Professional at a price, and gear it to the needs of people in Group #3.
My hope is that enough people will decide to upgrade MyTimeDesign 1.0.Free to MyTimeDesign 2.o.Professional to make the entire effort a profitable one that is sustainable. As a result, “Free” will be ad-supported.
In other words, I want to have a business that produces enough valuable results for the customer that enables the thinking I have started to continue that pulls from the best of the research that exists.
What would be different enough about MyTimeDesign 2.0.Professional that would make anyone interested in it? Tune into my next post…