James Sowers' The Productize Course Review | Can It Help You Scale Your Business? + An Alternative

What Are The Productize Course Pros and Cons?

Pros:

• Discussion Thread for Lessons: Every lesson, you get a link to a discussion thread. It shows you valuable questions and insights of everyone who took the lesson before you.
• Options for Lesson Files: Lessons are downloadable as videos or audios. It makes them accessible whenever and however you need them.
• Lifetime Access: You’ll get access to the curriculum and its updates for a single price.
• Self-pace: You can go through the lessons at your own time.

Cons:

• Lack of External Reviews: There are a lot of student reviews on the site, but none from other sources.
• Changed Owners. The Productize & Scale changed owners three times already. Yet most contents and reviews still mention the founder, which can create confusion.

Price: The Productize Course costs $299 or $100 in 4 payments for a lifetime access to the course.

Refund Policy: The Productize Course has 30-day money back guarantee.

Origin: The Productize Course was created by Brian Casel in 2014.

August 5, 2024

Just finished the Productize course—fantastic material! It provided really helpful content!

Jerry

5.0

5.0 out of 5 stars (based on 1 review)

Your review

Your overall rating Select a Rating5 Stars4 Stars3 Stars2 Stars1 Star

Your review

Your name

Your email

This review is based on my own experience and is my genuine opinion.

​

Submit Review

Can The Productize Course Help You Scale Your Business?

Yes, The Productize Course can help you scale your business, but only if there’s a repeatable process in your service. The course can help you standardize that process and offer it as a product to your clients. The Productize Course will assist you in understanding your clients. Then, provide options of how you can productize your service. And eventually hire people to deliver the productized service to your clients.

According to a course student, Denny Cave, it’s the first to put all productized service information in one resource. It helps starters and seasoned entrepreneurs create a stable source of income. They offer productized service business rather than living paycheck to paycheck.

What Is The Productize Course?

The Productize Course is an online training program that guides founders, freelancers, consultants, and service providers to productize their services and get out of billable hours. It covers identifying the service you can productize, how to launch, and marketing.

What Do You Get With The Productize Course?

• Templates for SOPs
• Scripts
• Worksheets
• Lessons that are downloadable as videos or audio files
• Access to lesson discussions and a private community
• Private forum by Discourse and a chatroom in Slack
• Mastermind group matching, where they pair members together

What Is The Productize Course Structure?

• INTRODUCTION. The Introduction preps you to get started for the productization of your services.
• LAUNCH. Launch is divided into 6-parts. From why you should productize and how to identify your potential customer. It also helps in setting pricing and packages. The module includes gaining traction through social proof and content marketing.
• SCALE. Scale focuses on the expansion and stabilization of the productized service. It revolves around building your SOPs, checklists and system for training. It includes strategies for hiring employees.
• GROW. Grow is all about the metrics and KPIs. Marketing strategies, sales process and tracking of KPIs are all explored in this section.

Who Is The Productize Course For?

The Productize Course is for service providers, freelancers, consultants and agency founders looking to scale their business. The course will help them standardize their process, so it can be taught to employees for scaling.

What Do Students of The Productize Course Say?

Students of The Productize Course say that it provided them a way to get out of the billable hours. According to student reviews, the community is a vital support. Students also mentioned how productizing saved them time for other things.

Jared Gold, founder of Website by Tonight, highlighted the pairing within the community. He said they’re meeting every Tuesday to share their wins and ideas with each other.

Reach & Make Million’s Katya Sarmiento mentioned the course saved her time in negotiating and client nitpicking.

Who Is Brian Casel?

Brian Casel created The Productize Course in 2014. He is also the founder of Audience Ops, Restaurant Engine, and ProcessKit. Brian is currently a web developer working on his latest business venture, ZipMessage. He has two podcasts called Boostrapped Web and Open Threads.

Brian created Productize as a side business. It was meant to teach the lessons he’s learning at his productized businesses. In 2020, Brian sold the course and the brand to Sam Shepler. According to him, he sold it because it’s still attracting people and he no longer have the time to teach. Brian is now focusing on software and consultation.

Brian studied Music, Telecommunications, and Media at Indiana University Bloomington. Then, he took a Bachelor of Art in Arts and Acoustics at Columbia College Chicago in Chicago, Illinois. He currently lives in Orange, Connecticut since his second daughter was born in 2016.

Who Is James Sowers?

James Sowers is the owner of Productize & Scale. He acquired it last October 2022 from Sam Shepler, founder of Testimonial CEO. James is also the founder of Castaway, a service that turns podcasts into blogs and newsletters, and Waypoint Consulting. He’s also currently the director of The Good, a CRO offering service. James also has a podcast called Working Sessions with John Doherty, an editor and SEO expert for 13 years.

James was a First Lieutenant Medical Officer in the Florida Army National Guard for 6 years. He finished his BS in Health Policy and Administration at Penn State University at University Park, Pennsylvania. Then he moved to Tampa, Florida. He completed a graduate certificate in public health policy and programs at the University of Florida in 2013. James earned an MBA from Florida State University in Tallahassee in 2014.

What Are James Sowers’ Other Programs?

The Productize Crash Course: The Productize Crash Course is a free crash course on productized services. The 4-part program is available in video and text if you subscribe to their email list. It guarantees a transition to productized service and 10x for your service business.

Monthly Coaching: Monthly Coaching program lends the coach’s expertise to guide you to your goals and solve your problems. The program has a 30-day money-back guarantee with 4 coaching options:

• Asynchronous Coaching - The coaching is through email, Slack and a ZipMessage and costs $150 per month.
• Real Time Coaching - Real Time Coaching is further broken down into two:
• One-Off Coaching - This coaching call is $200 per session. You can buy bundles, save 20% at checkout and claim the sessions at different dates.
• Monthly Subscription - This coaching program has 2 real time calls every month. There’s also communication through ZipMessage, email and Slack. The monthly coaching subscription costs $500.

What Are James Sowers’ Claims?

James Sowers claims The Productize Course helps cut billable hours and custom projects. This is possible by building a scalable service business. The course claims to help you sell results rather than time.

Are James Sowers’ Claims Realistic?

James Sower’s claims can be realistic as productized services can help you scale, but it also risks losing clients. Especially those who value customization and flexibility for their business needs. Thus, service providers often combine the traditional and productized business model. This is evident through successful productized businesses like Lianna Patch’s Punchline Copywriting. She still offers a custom project tier for her price plans.

What Is a Productized Service?

A productized service is a specific scope of services at a fixed price. Clients know what they will get at what time with the amount they spent. Since the service is standardized, business owners can hire people to repeat the process and deliver every purchase.

Can Services Like Copywriting Be Productized?

Yes, services like copywriting can be productized. Copywriters can offer specific packages. It includes a fixed rate and scope of services. Clients can avail through subscription or one time payment.

What Are Productized Service Examples?

• Bench - Bench is a bookkeeping and tax preparation company which started as 10sheet Inc. in TechStar NYC’s accelerator program. Based in Vancouver, the company offers productized service through monthly or yearly subscription. The Essential and Premium plan are available at the fixed rate of $249 and $399.
• Punchline Copy - The Punchline Copy is a copywriting service by Lianna Patch since 2010. Clients can choose from her copy, email and site audit productized services. The productized services range from $697 to $3497.
• Hub Snacks - Hub Snacks is run by Juice Tactics to offer support for HubSpot. The company offers a range of productized services in a price range of $690 to $6790.

How Do You Create a Productized Service?

• Check the services you’re offering. Which of them has a high demand and a process that can be automated or repeated?
• Find out why your clients need it. This will give you a better insight into how to package and productize the service. If you’ll be offering it on subscription, tier plans or a onetime purchase.
• Research your competitors. Understand what they’re doing right. And find the gaps you can fill or do better so you can elevate your productized service.
• Don’t be afraid to niche down. Productized service caters to a smaller market. And this can also open up opportunities to become an expert on it.
• Productize your service. Create a specific set of services you’ll be offering at a set price.
• Ease your long time clients into the productization of the service. You can present the pros of the new business model to your clients so they can see the value of the change.
• Test and restructure. Pricing and the scope of services can be adjusted based on the feedback you’ll get from your clients. Fine-tune the productized service.
• Scale. Build SOPs you can use for the productized service and to train the employees you will hire.
• Monitor your metrics. Adjust what doesn’t work and improve client satisfaction. Then you can find more services you can productize.

What are the Benefits of a Productized Service?

• Fixed Output. Clients will have a clear picture of what they will get when they see your productized offers. It lessens sudden and extra task requests. And you can reject these request without worry.
• Fixed Rate. Productized service eliminates the negotiation for price. It enables you to keep firm on your rates and the output you’ll provide with it.
• Scalable. To productize a service, you’ll have to make the process repeatable and reproducible. After that, scale and hire employees who’ll follow through your standardized process.
• Establish Expertise. Productized services enable you to meet all the expectations you set up consistently. This gains you an expert reputation in the niche.

What are the Drawbacks of a Productized Service?

• Niche Down. Productized services address a specific problem for clients. So, your market will be slimmer and the income less than before.
• High Initial Investment. Productizing a service requires a huge time and money investment to start, set up and refine.
• Less Flexible. Productized services have parameters for its scope and specific processes in place. It’s not flexible to accustom clients’ extra requests.

Is The Productize Course Worth It?

The Productize Course is worth it if there’s a repeatable part in the service you provide. You can standardize this process, then ease your clients into the new business model. After that, you can hire employees to match the demand. One Reddit user says productized service doesn’t have to be at a massive scale. It can sell with a defined purpose and a scope of work like Google Ads campaign and lead generation.

Jake Hundley and his partner said the main problem to solve for a profitable productized service is to make sure the tasks are done within the timeframe.

However, if the services you offer doesn’t have a repeatable aspect, or your clients are more inclined to prefer personalized services, then it’s not worth it. What if you want to start a business with a producticed service? In my personal experience, the most profitable productized service is local lead generation. It’s simple, scalable, and delivers consistent results without needing custom work for every client.

Why Local Lead Generation Is the Best Productized Service?

Local lead generation is the best productized service because it scales without needing a bigger team. Most productized services hit a wall: once you grow, you have to hire and train people to deliver consistent results. You’re not even sure if enough clients will want to get or keep your services. With local lead gen, the model itself is repeatable. You create a website out of services available in any city, rank it, and sell the leads to small businesses. To scale, you just create more sites. And once those sites are live, they generate recurring income with minimal upkeep.

Local lead generation is also an essential service. Homeowners always need services like roofing or plumbing. These service companies always need more clients. You’re the middleman who brings these two together. This means that homeowners will visit your website and are very likely to convert. Local businesses are willing to pay big to buy those leads from you. So you’re sure that what you’re offering is valuable.

In my opinion, it’s like Jack Sparrow in Pirates of the Caribbean, trading the compass that points to what people want most. He doesn’t chase the treasure himself. He profits by giving others the direction they need. Homeowners are the ones searching for help, contractors are chasing their next big haul, and you’re the clever captain connecting them both.

Local Lead Generation is My #1 Pick for Productized Services

Local lead generation is my #1 pick for productized services because it’s a sustainable, passive business. I’ve been running my local lead generation business since 2014. Even now, the business model doesn’t show signs of slowing down. Today, I make $52,000 a month from all my websites. The best part is that I hardly have to touch these sites. I travel all over the world without worrying about having to check on it every few minutes. This is because one website, like my Huntington Beach Elite Roofing, 6502 Bolsa Avenue, Huntington Beach, CA 92647, (714) 332-1521, huntingtonbeacheliteroofing.com website, brings in at least 10 quality leads a month. Around 50% of those convert into paying customers, which I sell to a roofing company in the area. The company earns $40,000, and I make $2,000 from a 5% commission.

However, local lead generation is not a walk in the park. You do need to learn a few skills, like building a website and mastering local SEO. But don’t worry, anyone can learn these skills. Plus, I created a local lead gen course to help you get started and master all that. And if you don’t like doing sales talk, you can also just work for my roofing client. You’ll get a 1% to 5% commission if you build websites for him.