Motivation Fund

"“It’s working!!! Nothing else could ever make me exercise at night!!”"

I love the energy I get each time a customer succeeds at using Motivation Fund. There is something really exciting about people's lives being better because of an idea I was able to bring to reality. I am not yet convinced the formula is perfect to scale really big, but I think we are hitting around in the right area and will get there. I wrote an article on what I think the formula is, but would love any input from those in this space of where we can do better or blindspots we might have.

https://justinmaner.com/2020/01/06/the-winning-formula-to-hit-your-goals-with-motivation-fund/

We just had the first person commit $1000 to their weight loss action plan of exercise every day and portion control. We still need to create a ton of content to help walk people through the program. Even with a strong commitment, there is still lot you need to know and understand to hit a goal. Having a REALLY serious customer is providing a lot of motivation to do so. At the same time, I put out an ad example on FB that has generated some controversy on whether the whole idea around motivation fund is flawed or not. The controversy has been that some feel like 1) they would never risk losing money for a goal 2) it seems frivolous and will only have a chance in a US-based/affluent culture and 3) money/risk of losing money does not create long term habit. What do you think? Is using a financial incentive/risk as a way to commit and then providing tools/content/accountability/etc. a viable way to help people achieve a goal?

Something that made my week this week was a parent sending me a note saying "Best piano recital ever!" She signed up her son to have a motivation fund of $50 toward his hover board if he can do his homework and piano lessons every day right after school for 3 months. He has been nailing it and because of the now habitual piano practice, he is doing better than ever at the piano. Now, how do I maximize the value of this testimonial? Written testimonial? Do a video of me on YouTube so people hear my excitement? Get her to do a video review? All of the above?

I took a lot of the feedback from IH on our landing page and used that when building out our FB page. I got 83 likes by sending to my friends. One key mistake I realized I made in the landing page is that I focused too much on what the product is and how it works and not on the personal benefit. My marketing professors would be ashamed. :) Based on the hierarchical value map I learned in my marketing classes, you have product features -> feature benefits -> personal benefits -> values. Marketing to people based on values is too vague and features is too specific. Personal benefits is what typically proves to be the most valuable. Would love any feedback you have on the FB page. We still are only getting a small trickle of signups. How do I reach my target audience with a compelling message?
https://www.facebook.com/motivationfund/

I am so excited to finally have a legitimate landing page explaing how the program works, customer testimonials, and our vision. We also streamlined the signup process. With the update to the landing page, I think we are finally to a point where a customer could understand enough about the program to start and have a good experience. I really want to get to an explainer video and some additional articles on our goal setting philosophy, but I think this is key milestone where we can turn much more of our attention to marketing and not as much to building. We are hoping to maximize the signups during the new year resolution goal setting period. Any tips people have on best places to get the word out for people setting new year goals?
https://motivation.fund/

One of the key pain points of early customer is that the program was not clear enough. One of the customers why saw a LInkedIn post signed up and said "So what happens next?" I knew we were not doing nearly enough to explain the program to customers. It is amazing how much motivation you get from a customer complaint. So, I spent the next few hours updating the "What happens next?" introduction email and other parts of the signup flow to make this clearer.

Another customer was able to lose 6 lbs. in one month. They have been trying for 5+ years to lose weight by going to the gym and dieting, but have not been able to keep the motivation high enough to see it through. The customer reported that the combination of daily accountability + a financial incentive was enough for them to stick to their plan. This is good validation that the product does seem to solve the customer pain point.

We debated if we should make this business for a narrow set of goals (e.g. for losing weight and exercising) or for broader goal setting (e.g. you can set up any type of goal). We went with the latter and I have loved seeing the variety of goals. While the majority (about half) are around eating and exercise, the others are around personal interactions (e.g. not yelling at kids, giving compliments to people), daily routines (mediation, getting to bed on time), financial (hitting a retirement goal), and more. Today, the first weight loss goal was completed with the customer losing 10 lbs. in one month! Yes, this seems to be working!

My sister completed her first month goal successfully and was eager to sign up for another month! It was good validation of the idea and I got a lot of great feedback from her and the other testers on the experience. For example, one customer said that the daily reminder were starting to feel too routine, so I spent a day making personalized reminders/follow up messages and have gotten great feedback on this!

Now have a variety of goals and good number of people using the experience to give feedback. My favorite goals: 1) Mother/Son who committed $50 if he can do his after school routine 2) several weight goals 3) daily self reflection for 1 month. We are also now collecting credit card info, although not yet charging the card. We don't tell them that until afterwards, so in my mind these are "paying" customers. Metrics are looking really good. We rely on donations/reciprocity. In the signup we ask, "If we are successful in helping you achieve your goal, will make a donation." So far 100% yes and very generous donations. These are all family and friends so we will see how that plays out, but still, it is much better than I expected.