Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Paying late, not responding to emails, arguing about art direction…enough is enough. Get more respect & make more money by resolving these conflicts in your favor – more details
Consultant and freelance developer Glenn Stovall joins the show to talk about how he diversified into the product business. We cover the idea of products as a long-term play, the true nature of a launch, and shadow work!
Bootstrapped Product Talking Points
- Why a product business launch is a process, not an event
- Why products won’t earn like services – and that’s OK
- Adjusting from service sales to product sales
- How pulling back on scale can help you ship
Show Notes:
Dependable: Deliver Software on Time and On Budget – Glenn’s new book
Special deal on Dependable for Chasing Product listeners
Glenn on Twitter
Gumroad
Small Product Lab
30×500
Amy Hoy – creator of 30×500, previous Chasing Product guest
Spin Selling
Drip – Lightweight Marketing Automation That Doesn’t Suck
Marketing for Developers
Justin Jackson
Majestic SEO – Marketing Search Engine & Backlink Checker
Thrive Themes – Conversion-Focused WordPress themes
Editflow – editorial calendar for scheduling blog posts
Audience Ops – content marketing service & tools
Brian Casel – founder of AudienceOps, previous Chasing Product guest
Remarq – create stunning documents from Markdown in seconds
Stripe – oh, come on, you know what Stripe is!
War of Art – book about winning the inner creative battle, by Steven Pressfield
Do The Work – overcome Resistance and get out of your own way, by Steven Pressfield
Glenn didn’t start out in the product business. Like many of us, he started out working in an agency. After taking a 5-year long “semester off” from college, he found himself in an agency position, managing other developers. After later making his way into his own business, Glenn spent 3 productive years freelancing before considering launching a product business.
Glenn learned about the importance of scope in the product business after participating in the Gumroad Small Product Lab. His initial product was going to be a Saas app but he reduced the scope and launched a book instead. This product would serve as seed material when he launched Dependable a year later, providing more valuable experience and asset-building for Glenn’s product business.
We talk about the disconnect between the skills needed for service business sales and product business sales. Glenn points out that product is a long-term game, and that it won’t earn the same money in an immediate time frame that services will. We talk about how building a product business is like building an asset, and the fringe benefits that come from having product on the market.
Glenn shares his basic marketing stack with us, and talks about some of his go-to moves for growing his product business. Then he caps off the interview by sharing 3 action items for his fellow founders.