4 Lessons Learned After Creating 20+ Lead Magnets

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Table of Contents

Podcast Description

I’ve created over 20 freebies in my time online, 22 to be exact. Not all of them have been for this business, but each time, I’m always reminded of the same 4 lessons.

These lessons are not just relevant for lead magnets. They’re valuable reminders you should keep in mind when creating any type of product to help you get them done more efficiently. Let’s dive in to learn what they are.

Links Referenced in Episode:

▶ Episode 11: Using Strategic Systems to Reduce Your Overwhelm

▶ Episode 28: Tools to Automate Your Online Business: I Use These Daily

▶ Episode 55: Overcoming Distractions: How Systems Keep You Focused

▶ Trello Automation Tutorial: How To Remove Labels From Cards

Connect with me:

Website | Instagram

Watch on YouTube:

Episode Transcript

(Note: This is a formatted AI-generated transcript to make it easier for you to read through, but is not an optimized blog post. Please excuse any spelling or grammar errors and filler words – it’s just how I speak LOL)

Episode Intro

I’ve created over 20 freebies. Not all of them have been for this business, but each time I’m always reminded of the same four lessons. These lessons are not just relevant for lead magnets, they’re valuable reminders you should keep in mind when creating any type of project to help you get them done more efficiently. So let’s go ahead and dive into learning what they are.

Hey, I’m Lucy Reyes, your host of the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast, where I’m on a mission to help online entrepreneurs like you focus on all the right things and kiss overwhelm goodbye. Here, you’re going to learn strategies that will boost your productivity so that you can scale your online biz and impact lives sooner. It’s your time to shine. So let’s get started.

My 20+ Lead Magnets Journey

Hey, hey, welcome back to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast. I am really excited about this episode. I have my outline here in front of me, but in preparation for it, I actually went into my digital files and started counting up all of the lead magnets that I’ve ever created and totaled up 22 freebies.

They all haven’t been for this business and even this business has been rebranded. Overtime, let’s say three different niches, my mom blog, back when I was solely focused on teaching bloggers, and then this one where I’m focused on teaching productivity for online business owners.

I’ve created 22 lead magnets. That doesn’t include any launch events that I’ve hosted for any free events like my summit, my Savvy Sampler Pass. None of that. This is just standard, standalone evergreen freebies that I have created. From checklists to evergreen challenges to masterclasses, to journals, to all of the types of freebies out there… I’ve probably created it.

New Upcoming Freebie

Now working on a free private podcast. I’ve had my head down really focused on getting that one done because I will have it out to you within the next few weeks.

It really got me thinking of all of the different lessons that I have learned over time, not just with this project, but all of the lead magnets that I’ve ever created and decided to share that information here with you.

4 Lessons Learned From Creating Lead Magnets

Before I get carried away and start already telling you what all of these things are. Let’s go ahead and dive in and talk about the four lessons that I’ve learned that could be beneficial for you whenever you are creating a lead magnet or just a product in general.

These are true no matter what you’re creating. It just happened that it came up for me whenever I was focused on creating my new private podcast that’s coming out soon.

#1: Always start with a brain dump.

The first lesson that I have to share here is always start with a brain dump. You have so many ideas circling in your head. You’re probably multi-passionate like me, so you always have all of these amazing ideas and sometimes you just don’t know what to do with them.

Ideas + Formats

My suggestion here is to brain dump everything. If you get an idea for a new freebie or a new product to create, put that in a brain dump and really force yourself to get out all of the ideas in a single setting, because then they’re not just circling in your head and forcing you to stop what you’re doing to try to write it down.

And then, you’re just like, “I don’t know where that product idea went. I don’t know where it is.” Make sure you have it stored in a centralized location that you can easily find it. You want to brain dump the freebie topic ideas and any format ideas that you have.

So for me, what I was experiencing when I was trying to come up with this lead magnet specifically, I was going through, should I make it a masterclass? Should I make it a private podcast? Should I add a workbook? Should I do this? Should I do that?

And so you really want to brain dump and think about all the possibilities of what each format could look like for this specific topic that you’re wanting to create your freebie around.

Freebie Notes / What To Include

Another thing that you could brain dump are the notes on what to include. Once you have decided, or maybe not even after you’ve decided, maybe this is all happening at random times, but you want to make notes of what you want to include.

Maybe that is actually a step that will help you determine the format. So what do you want to include in this new lead magnet that you’re creating?

For me, I knew I wanted to cover very specific topics. I knew that I wanted it to be different than what I’ve ever created. I knew that I wanted it to be somewhat accessible if you are time constraint.

Because let’s be honest, if you are in my world, that means you’re trying to learn how to get more time in your days, because you feel like you have no time. So it’s not going to be helpful for me to give you something that’s going to require you to take a lot of more time.

A private podcast feed is what made sense for me, because it’s something you can listen to while you’re walking your dog, while you’re driving to pick up your kids from school, while you’re doing laundry, something like that.

And not to say that any other format is not going to be beneficial for your audience because they might not have time either. You just have to sit and think about the pros and cons for each format. And that’s something else that you could brain dump as well.

Lead Magnet Title Ideas

Something else are title ideas. I know this is something that usually causes me or not causes me, but it takes me a really long time to figure out. I use tools like the Marketing Magic dashboards or ChatGPT to really help me figure out what those titles are.

Then I will really sit with them for a bit, or I will work with my OBM to really figure out which title makes the most sense. I will get to working with a team member here in a minute, but those are different things that you could brain dump.

And really what I’m trying to get at here is that you want to get everything out of your head and somewhere you can easily reference, specific for this new freebie, this new lead magnet or new product that you are going to be working on.

#2: There’s always more tasks involved than you think.

The second thing is that there’s always more tasks than you think, and this still shocks me.

I have my systems for everything that I create, and even then, as I’m creating my system, I start to realize how many more tasks are actually going to be required for me before I get this out into the world.

My Free Private Podcast Flow Example

For example, when I say I’m going to create a private podcast feed, the first thing I did was brain dump all of the things that I said. From there, I’m brain dumping all of the tasks that are going to be involved with creating that freebie.

I already have my standard SOPs for creating a lead magnet, but I’ve never created a free private podcast before, so I did have to update some of my old systems to really turn them for this private podcast.

So I’m creating that and then I’m getting to, “okay, well now I’ve created the private podcast. What else do I need? Oh, I also need to create the opt-in form.” So I’m creating that workflow and then I’m like, “oh wait, what is the thank you page going to be?” So now I have to create a workflow for the thank you page.

And then it’s like, “okay, well now I have to create the emails because as I’m creating the opt-in form.” It’s like, “well, what sequence am I going to send them to?” Well, I have to create a welcome sequence, but personally, I am going to be building a funnel for this private podcast. It’s like, “what is my funnel going to be?”

If I have an evergreen funnel, that means I have a sales page for the product that I am creating. So it was this really long project that started with, I’m just going to create a free private podcast. And even the whole process I’m like, “oh yeah, I forgot. I’m going to need to duplicate some sales pages, create some coupon codes, create some countdowns times, etc.”

Then for me, I have some other projects that are going on with my funnel. So I’m like, “I might as well knock out some of these other funnels and just be done with it.”

And so this one project that started off as creating one lead magnet, turned into creating a lead magnet, three sales pages, and opt-in form, a checkout, I think it might be one or two checkouts. I don’t know. But it’s all of these different things, so there’s always more tasks than you think.

Dealing with Procrastination

Sometimes having more tasks than you think also leads to procrastination because you look at everything that you have to do and you’re just like, you’re overwhelmed.

You’re just like, “I don’t know how I’m going to get all of this done. All I wanted to do was create a free private podcast.” And now you have all of these other tasks that you have to do before you even get it out to the world.

Well, you can do a couple of different things here if this is you.

For me, I could have decided, “you know what, I’m going to stop at the welcome sequence. I’m not going to tie in the funnel just yet.” And that would have been totally fine. I decided that I’m going to take on the extra work of creating that funnel.

Another thing that I decided was I’m going to create a special tripwire page or an easy yes offer as a thank you page instead of just a standard “thank you, here’s your freebie. Your freebie is on its way, page.”

That’s an extra task that I decided I want to do. If I felt like I was really time constraint or like, I’m not going to get it done or I’m too overwhelmed to where I’m just going to stand still and do nothing. Then I probably would have taken that out as well. And instead of sending them to a tripwire page, I would’ve just sent them to a generic thank you, your freebie is on its way.

So there’s that, that’s something that you can do. You can look at your task and see. What can I cut out for now? What can be done later? Or decide that you’re going to do it and then keep it part of your project workflow.

The other thing is there’s going to be tasks that you just don’t want to do. You just don’t want to do it. You don’t like to do it and so you procrastinate on doing it. This happens to me all the time every time I’m doing something.

There gets to a certain part in the process that I just don’t like, and so I will procrastinate on it.

Not to say that there’s something wrong with procrastinating or that you shouldn’t ever procrastinate, but you should really be mindful of when you are procrastinating because you don’t want to get something done; and find a work around for that, which we will talk about in just a second.

But basically, because there are so many tasks that you actually have to do, this is why you need systems for every single step of the process. Now, if you go back to episode 11, I talk about all the reasons why, besides this, of why systems are going to be super helpful for you.

In episode 55, I talk about how systems can actually keep you focused despite there being so many tasks at hand. Not only do these systems keep you focused, but they help you keep track of your progress. They help you know where to pick up, and it makes it easier to hop around the different tasks that you’re working on, like procrastination.

Like you don’t have to follow a step-by-step like, “this is step one. This is step two. This is step three.” You could bounce around the different tasks and still know where you are at each step of the process because of your systems.

That is something that I do when I start to procrastinate. I’m just like, “I’m going to leave you “on hold” for now and I’m going to go do this thing over here.” Then I come back to this when I’ve kind of reached my limit of what else I could do before this is holding me up in the process. So that’s another thing and another reason why you absolutely need to use systems.

#3: Delegate, outsource or automate.

They also let you know who your task is pending with. This is helpful if you have a team member, which leads me to lesson number three, which is to delegate, outsource or automate.

Delegate or outsource tasks to team members

You don’t have to be the one to do everything. If you have a team member then hand some of those tasks off to them. And I can say that when I first started. This was super hard for me.

I started with one VA and even after working with them for a couple months, it was still really hard for me to hand off some tasks and I would just do it myself. And the more I started working with them, the more I realized how helpful it actually is for me to not do certain tasks and to let them go and give them to someone else.

It helped me be more efficient and more productive with the things that I didn’t want to do.

So some of the things that I know I love to do, but it takes me a really long time are creating graphics because of my perfectionist in me. And partly because I also, at some point figured out or thought maybe I should become a graphic designer, which didn’t happen.

But because of that, I know that this is one of those tasks that I should probably hand off. Because social media graphics are not going to make or break my launch or who signs up for something as long as they’re not like hideous.

So use your team members and make sure if you have team members to make sure that you’re actually delegating these tasks off to them.

Automate tasks using tools you already use

But I know that not everyone has team members or that you might not be in a place where you can hire, or you can outsource.

Check the tools that you already have. Check what other features they might have that can help you automate specific parts in the process. In episode 28, I talk about the tools that I use specifically to automate certain parts of my business.

Even just setting up your welcome sequence through ConvertKit or MailerLite or another email marketing platform. That is a form of automation because you’re not manually sending an email to every single person that signs up, so even that in itself is a form of automation.

Set up automations in your project management tool

Another thing is doing some very very basic automations inside of your project management tool. You probably know I use Trello so one thing that I always create for all of my Trello boards, almost all of them, is the automation of removing labels.

Whenever I’m keeping track of my progress I use labels. So I have a green “complete” label, I have a yellow “in progress” label, I have an orange “with VA” or whoever my team member name is. I’ll have that label and so when I mark something “complete”, I have an automation that automatically removes all the labels.

Maybe I’ll check off the due dates. Maybe I’ll move the task over to the bottom of the list or to the end of the board and that way I don’t have to do all of that myself and don’t even have to think about it because I’ve already set up an automation to do it for me.

It sounds super simple or like it might not save you that much time, but it actually does take away some of that mental space or it gives you some mental space, because you don’t have to worry about doing it yourself.

And actually on my Instagram at @CheersToProductivity, I just uploaded a how-to video on how to create this specific automation in Trello. So if you use Trello, go over there and check that out and then show that reel some love.

#4: It doesn’t need to be perfect.

And then lastly, the fourth lesson is one that I struggle with all of the time and it is that it doesn’t have to be perfect.

The perfectionist in me always wants to make everything as perfect as possible. And I’ve mentioned it before and I don’t see that as a flaw. I don’t think that is necessarily a bad thing, but I do recognize that it can hold me up in getting things done because I am taking longer than they probably could for very similar results.

Something that you want to remember here is that you can always update it later on. It’s not set in stone. Your lead magnet will be out there, but you can always go back and fix an error. You can always change the graphics. You can update the funnels. You can change the design or create new graphics for it.

You can always update it later on so just get it done. Just get the lead magnet done and then you can make these changes later.

Some of these little things that we tend to hold back on or that tend to take us a little bit longer just because we’re trying to make it perfect are not the things that are going to make or break that funnel or they’re not the things that are going to determine whether someone actually signs up to that lead magnet or not.

Sometimes it’s just not. And if it’s not, then just put it out there. Let people start coming in, and then little by little you can work your way towards making an update or changes or improvements on it later on especially as you start to receive feedback.

Some people might be like, “oh my gosh, this is the best thing ever.” It’s converting amazing and you don’t even have to go back and change that one color or that one angle of that graphic because no one noticed but you.

Episode Wrap-Up

So those are the four lessons that I have learned after creating so many lead magnets in my business and ones that I was specifically reminded of while I was working on this new free private podcast that I will be working on so stay tuned. I will be announcing it here soon.

So definitely follow me on instagram at @cheerstoproductivity and be sure to follow this podcast that way you not only know when that free private podcast becomes available, but it really helps support the show.

And if you are loving the episodes, if you’re getting some takeaways, then I would absolutely love it if you could leave a rating and review. I appreciate it so much, it really helps us out. And I love, love hearing from my community. So I will talk to you in the next episode.

Episode References + CTA