I bought my first Audible book in 2013. The next book I bought on Audible was ten years later, in March or April 2023. Since then I’ve bought and listened to 15 books.
I never listened to this book I bought in 2013, but last week I decided to listen to it – even if the first that came to mind was that this book must be outdated and no longer relevant.
And boy was I wrong! This book is called The $100 startup by Chris Guillebeau. I’m not done with the book yet, but I’m still processing and thinking about one thing he talked about in the book and it has to do with the orange, like the title of this email.
In the book he talks about the stuff you give for free, has to come at the right time for your ideal client. Your ideal client might want what you give for free, but if it’s the wrong time, so they won’t get it.
The example Chris gives in the book is about free stuff at a marathon. If you’ve been running a marathon for some time and you get offered a sliced orange or a doughnut – you will choose the orange because you are thirsty and it’s refreshing, and you would say no to the doughnut.
But when the marathon is over, you (the runner) might prefer the doughnut and not the orange. Both great free offers, but the key is the timing of the “freebie”.
I’m in the process of creating a new freebie for this summer in my math business. And since I listened to this part of the book I’m constantly thinking about what could be my orange.
You see, the parents that I’m targeting have different needs depending on the time of the year. I need to think about what orange could I offer them this summer – i.e. what do the parents need right now.
I’ve created a lot of freebies over the years, and I have freebies that I only run at certain time of the year, because I know that the parents are dealing with different problems depending of the time of the school year and also what grade their teen is going to.
But still reading about this made me so excited to create something of value for the parents right now and really focus on creating something that is like an orange for them. I’ve come up with few ideas, maybe I’ll create two different types of freebies and see witch one does better. Online business is all about testing and tweaking so that’s what I’ll do.
Now back to you!
It does not matter if you have a freebie or not, but since you need one, I highly suggest you think about what could be your orange. It’s June, what is your ideal client thinking right now (not in August or in the fall) that would make her crave for your freebie?
You can do this! Get working and create the freebie that your ideal client wants and needs right now.
As always, if you have any questions, hit reply and ask me.