Can we talk really briefly about a type of product you can add to your ecosystem that will help shift your potential clients from “Convince me why I should work with you.” to “I’ve experienced your approach and I’m ready for more. What’s next?”?

If you work in the realm of big ideas—as a thought leader, changemaker, coach, consultant, etc.—adding a prerequisite product (and a proof of concept product, which we’ll talk about later) to the world you’re building with your ideas . . . is a really good move.

I’ll share the what, why, etc. behind a prerequisite product below. Also: I’m hosting a $35 class on both of these products on Thursday, March 27. Members of the Idea-First Platform Intensive get this class included in your membership.

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There’s a profound shift that happens when you add a prerequisite product to your body of work.

What is a prerequisite product?

A prerequisite product is an always-on offer at an approachable price point that introduces people to your frameworks or methodologies, teaching style, and core beliefs. It’s where your clients experience your approach (and sell themselves on its place in their lives) before investing in your deeper, more intensive work.

Examples of prerequisite products you might offer:

• A Signature Live Workshop or On-Demand Course​
  A multi-session or multi-module experience that delivers a complete framework and guides people through key projects, instead of just sharing information.
• A Framework-Based 1:1 Session
  A guided session that follows a dashboard or process, where clients experience your approach directly and leave with something tangible. They also leave with a defined structure for what they’re building next. Meaning: This is not just an “Ask Me Anything” type of session.
• A Strategic Subscription​
  Regular events, lessons, and/or activities that get sent out, and are not just info/content delivery, but progressive frameworks that build over time and create ongoing touchpoints with your thinking.
• A Methodology-Based Book​
  Structured guidebooks, manuals, and playbooks that not only showcase your unique methodology, but give readers specific planning and projects to do.

Hint: When I say these are “always-on” offers, I mean that a person can always click and go to a page that either lets them buy your product and get it delivered immediately, or lets them register and pay for the next available slot of your 1:1 calls or upcoming live workshop.

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For “ideapreneurs” and people who like to shift paradigms, an always-on prerequisite product is often a better fit for leading people into your deeper offers than sales calls, back-and-forth DMs, networking events, and more.

Why? Because those things often ask you to:

• “Prove” yourself to new people constantly, one at a time
• Settle for clients who don’t value your unique approach
• Exhaust yourself explaining your methodology from scratch each time

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If you’ve been in your industry for a while, then you’ve likely been through the common stages we all go through—

The Whatever I Can Get Stage

When you’re new to a passion/interest/focus, you often take on whatever projects you can get, because you’re still building skills and figuring out how best to do your work.

The Frustrating Differentiation Stage

When you’re further along in an industry, you’ve likely developed deeper philosophies and set ways you want to do things, but you don’t yet have the practice or ability to consistently sell *only* to people who value your approach. You might experience a slow, frustrating time of trying to prove your work is different.

The Well-Developed Ideas Stage

When you’re deep in your industry and have solid ideas that you’ve developed over years of doing your work, it becomes ideal to have a few key places where you share those ideas, so that the people who want your specific approach can self-select to go further.

At this point, if you’re still marketing in ways that feel like you have to “prove” yourself or work with clients who don’t understand/value the differences in your approach, it’s an unnecessary drain on your energy.

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How does this relate to a prerequisite product?

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I like to help clients streamline their body of work to fill in four main spots: Think–Spark–Invest–Reinvest

Working backwards—

The “Reinvest” spot is where you have your deepest offers. This might be a $10,000 service, a $5,000 group program, a $1,000 course, or a $7,000 certification, etc.

Example: a writer and coach who sells a $1,200 Novel Architect Program that helps people write and publish fiction that presents diverse characters in powerful ways.

The “Invest” spot is where you can use a prerequisite product that will be your primary lead-in to the deeper offers people can reinvest in with you.

Example: that same writer might have a $250 Complex Characters Bootcamp; the approachable price point and well-defined goal (developing believable, layered characters and engaging dialogue) help to bring more people in. Once in, people get exposed to unique models to build out characters, and, they learn about the other three cornerstones to amazing novels—cornerstones fully covered in the “reinvest” offer.

The “Spark” spot is where you create pieces that help to spark interest in your distinct approach. These are pieces that your best fit clients likely spend a good bit of time with. And, they lead directly to your “Invest” offers.

Examples: (1) a well thought out essay on how independently publishing novels with marginalized main characters—who don’t fall into harmful or boring stereotypes—can help you create the world you want to live in, (2) a 5-day email course with a “blueprint” for complex character building (through backstory, worldview, using the Enneagram, etc.), and (3) a 30-minute training on the 4 cornerstones that help you become the architect of the beautiful story idea in your head that won’t leave you alone.

The “Think” spot is where you publish pieces that help your best fit clients think about things in new ways. These pieces will be people’s first touch with you and your ideas—so, they’re likely to be SEO articles/videos, social media, a lean thought leadership ads campaign, etc. Note: Think pieces lead directly to Spark pieces—that's their purpose.

Examples: a carousel lesson on IG about a “character dimension matrix” to help you build out characters with complex motivations (that leads directly to the 5-day email course or essay), or a video on YouTube about the trickiest parts of the process when you’re indie publishing a novel (that leads directly to the 30-minute training), etc.

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Most of my clients end up with 1–2 “Reinvest” offers, 1–2 prerequisite “Invest” offers, 4 or so “Spark” pieces (and maybe 1 new one per year), and a few “Think” pieces per month.

When you have a few key roles to fill, and you fill them in strategically, you don’t have to play the quantity game online. So, Think–Spark–Invest–Reinvest is in direct contrast to Know–Like–Trust marketing.

When you fill in your prerequisite product (Invest) spot strategically, you can move away from the Know–Like–Trust numbers game and experience these 4 amazing benefits: liberation from the credibility cycle, protection of one of your most valuable assets (your energy), the freedom to evolve your highest work, and the “forever change” that happens with your sales.

As I explain these benefits below, here are some real-life prerequisite products (that clients and friends of mine have put together and sold successfully) for you to use as examples in your mind:

• A 3-day intensive for chefs who want to build a more refined culinary brand
• A live workshop for women to help them have better conversations when dating
• A 93-page playbook on healthy workplace exits and transitions in nonprofits and other changemaking organizations
• A multi-session crash course for thought leaders who want to publish their first non-fiction book (🙋🏽‍♀️this is one I hosted)

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Here are the benefits a great prerequisite product offers:

1. Liberation from the Credibility Cycle

After all these years in your field, developing new methods and carefully testing things out, you’ve earned the right to stop constantly trying to prove yourself. Without the right prerequisite product, it’s easy to get trapped in an endless and time-consuming cycle of establishing credibility with each new potential client through Zoom meetings, emails, free consultations, etc.

The thing is: Your deep expertise deserves better than being compressed into 45-minute sales calls or social media DMs. A prerequisite product creates a structured experience where your accumulated wisdom—nuanced frameworks and approaches you’ve refined over yearrrrrs—can be properly understood, applied, and valued.

This is especially powerful for you if your work challenges conventional wisdom or introduces paradigm shifts. Your prerequisite product is where you can fully articulate your perspective without reduction or compromise, and where clients can self-select based on true alignment and success with your models.

2. Protection of One of Your Most Valuable Assets: Energy

After all this time, you know which projects and clients thrive with your approach and which clients or projects drain your resources. Your prerequisite product becomes the boundary that preserves your energy for the clients who will benefit most.

This is not just about your or my comfort—it’s about impact. Every hour spent with misaligned clients/projects takes a toll. Your prerequisite product creates a natural, inexpensive filter, ensuring the people who reinvest in your deepest work are not only people ready to implement it, but people best positioned to experience transformation through it.

Also: Your prerequisite product protects the integrity and safety of group experiences.

When everyone in your advanced programs has successfully completed your prerequisite and determined they were a good culture match, you create flow-y, high-context environments, instead of disorganized or awkward ones.

3. The Freedom to Evolve Your Highest Work

The most overlooked benefit that the right prerequisite product might offer you is that it creates space for evolution and innovation in your advanced offerings.

Without a prerequisite, your signature program will often serve people who are newcomers to your methodology. So, you end up spending more time than you want to on foundational content that you’ve taught hundreds of times, which leaves less room for your cutting-edge thinking.

When everyone entering your advanced work has already mastered your foundations through your prerequisite product, you can lead them into territory (questions, ideas, etc.) that still energize you after years and years in the field.

This creates a virtuous cycle where your deepest work becomes more sophisticated and impactful, attracting even more aligned clients.

4. The “Forever Change” in the Ways You Sell

When you have the right prerequisite product for you and your best fit community:

• The invitations you make from your “Think” and “Spark” content can become streamlined and focused. You’re guiding people to one or two prerequisite offers that you know do a FAR better job of helping people understand your methodologies (and figure out if your deeper program is the right fit for them) than sales calls and DMs. Hint: If you do/like sales calls, your prereq offer helps you *only* get on calls with highly aligned people.
• Anyone who proceeds to a deeper reinvestment with you is actually invested in your approach (mentally and purposefully, not just financially) and is more likely to succeed in your deeper offers.
• People won’t need to be “sold to” in heavy or high-pressure ways to know whether they want to move to the next reinvestment step. You’re not gonna have to do a dance, make outrageous promises, or pretend there’s some urgency or scarcity that doesn’t exist.
• People will excitedly inquire about what’s next while they’re still experiencing your prerequisite offer. Or, they’ll just proactively find whatever’s next and book it.

A prerequisite product can forever change the way you sell, how much you sell, etc.

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Reminder: Thursday, March 27, I’m hosting a $35 class on Creating Your First (or Next) Prerequisite Product and Proof of Concept Product.

​You can register for it here. If you’re already a part of the Idea-First Platform Intensive, this Thursday class is included. The link will be in your dashboard. If you register below and can't make it to the class live, you will get an on-demand version sent to you.

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Hint: From this Prerequisite Product, you can often extract a Proof of Concept Product.

And we’ll talk about it more in class, but a Proof of Concept Product is a "quick win" tool, template, or dashboard that’s a smaller, project-based offering. When someone uses your tool and succeeds, they’ve proven your concept works for them and that they can learn with you.

The Proof of Concept Product has a key place in your ecosystem (it’s a paid Spark Piece), and I’ll give you the details on it in the upcoming class.

In the class on Thursday, March 27, you will develop:

• Clarity on the best prerequisite product type for you—through a detailed lesson on the 4 types
• Ideas for your first/next prerequisite product—through a unique brainstorming exercise
• An understanding of how to extract a "proof of concept" product from your prerequisite—through a lesson on the most potent types
• Ideas to help your prerequisite actually convert to deeper “Reinvest” offers—through guidance on pricing, positioning, and selling your prerequisite -and- guidance on what to do inside your prerequisite to segue to your next offer

​Register for only $35 right here.​

If you’re not able to make it live, an on-demand version of the class will be sent to you the week after the live class.

I hope to see you soon,

Regina out.

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