Most business owners start in the catalog searching for products: mugs, totes, notebooks, "what's trending?" The problem? A catalog can't tell you what the product is supposed TO DO. So you end up with something nice, generic, and something everyone else is slapping their logo on. (Seriously, who needs another baseball cap or mug?!) Instead, I use what I call the MADE Framework: 1. M: Mine. What already exists in your business? The questions people ask you over and over, the method you keep explaining, the moments that matter. Pick ONE. 2. A: Audience. Not "clients." The specific person, and the moment the product enters their life. 3. D: Desired Outcome. What should they think, feel, remember or do because they have it? 4. E: Expression. Only NOW do you choose the product. Here's what that looks like: A realtor's closing gift is usually a candle or a bottle of wine with a logo on it. Nice. Forgettable. Run it through MADE and the moment becomes the first night in a new house, so the product becomes a First Night Home kit: a flashlight, a tape measure, the tools you can never find on night one. And all housed in a brand new toolbox. They use it that night, and they'll remember who gave it to them... for YEARS. That works because the product gets a job before it gets a logo. So, stop starting with the catalog. Start with the job. New here or missed this? Check out Module 2: What to Make Before You Make Anything, it's a good video to get you thinking! Your turn: what's the M in your business, the one moment or question that keeps coming up? Drop it below.

𝗢𝗻𝗲 𝗣𝗼𝘀𝘁 𝗙𝗿𝗼𝗺 𝗮 𝗖𝗼𝗺𝗺𝘂𝗻𝗶𝘁𝘆 𝗼𝗳 𝗛𝗼𝗼𝗸𝗲𝗿𝘀 𝗚𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗠𝗲 𝗦𝗶𝘅 𝗠𝗲𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗜𝗱𝗲𝗮𝘀 @Caroline Fransz a member of this group runs a crochet community. She calls her members Hookers! Which already tells you she knows exactly who her people are. (And she's hilarious!) Her recent post joked about the possible side effects of learning to crochet: • Buying yarn for projects you haven’t started. • Saying “just one more row” at midnight. • Collecting unfinished WIPs. • Calling the yarn stash an “investment.” • And eventually referring to yourself as a hooker in public. I read it and immediately started creating a 12-Step 'Recovery' Program for merch that would be fun: Project bag: One Stitch at a Time Row counter: One Row at a Time Stitch-marker tin: Emergency Hooker Supplies Project tags: Still Working My Program / It’s Complicated / On a Break Crochet notebook: My Recovery Plan — for recovering all those unfinished WIPs. Tool pouch: One Stitch at a Time — Hooker Survival Kit None of those ideas came from browsing “best merch for crocheters.” They came from the culture she had already created. The language. The habits. The inside jokes. The things her people immediately recognize as theirs. The products aren’t the idea. Her community is. Sometimes the best product ideas are already sitting in the way your customers talk. What’s one phrase or inside joke that would immediately tell your customers, “this was made for us”? Don’t give me a product idea. Give me one phrase, joke, habit or problem your clients, customers or members understand that an outsider probably wouldn’t. Let’s see what might be hiding inside it.

Find one piece of merch, packaging, or physical brand experience you’ve seen that made you stop and think: How did they make that? Post a photo or describe it. What caught your attention? The shape? Material? Printing? Construction? Packaging? A detail you had never seen before? I’ll tell you the first production question I would investigate if we wanted to create something similar.

Forget the big order for a minute. Imagine you could create a very small first run for 25 customers, clients or members. What would you most want that test to tell you? - Will people actually use it? - Will they ask for another? - Will they show it to someone? - Will they pay for it? - Will it make an experience better? - Will one version clearly beat another? Pick one thing you would want to learn before making more.

FRIENDS! I am launching a podcast, and on the morning on Oct 13th, I need people to follow it and help the algorithm. Would you be willing to do that when I share the link? Thank you!