Avoid the AppSumo Pitfalls: Shop Smart as a Neurodiverse Entrepreneur

Welcome to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, also known as the Geeky Girl. In this podcast, we're going to be talking about some amazing things to help you get over overgiving. Hi, and welcome to this episode of the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. My name is Angela Mondor, and I'm also known as the Geeky Girl. Today, I want to talk to you about something that I'm sure a lot of you have already heard about. Maybe you've even partook in some of these deals and some of these ideas. I want to talk to you about AppSumo. There is some fantastic things that AppSumo offers, but there's some also some massive pitfalls that you could fall into when it comes to AppSumo. So I wanna really dive into this today, give you some thoughts and ideas because shiny object syndrome, let's be honest, like that is something that AppSumo plays really, really hardcore into. Follow— they do a great job with their emails. They do a great job with follow-ups. the, the software itself. They do a great job promoting all the pieces of software. They're just really, really good at what they do. So cheers to you, AppSumo. You really do do an amazing job at what you do. Now let's talk about this from a business owner perspective, and not just any business owner. If you're neurodiverse, neurospicy, AppSumo could really pull you in. This is where I want to talk to you about today, is how this is going to impact your business. Based on your version of neurodiversity. Now, we talked about— I mentioned shiny object right in the very beginning, and that is one of the things that AppSumo does a really good job of doing, is literally putting these offers in front of you. When you see them, you're like, do I need that? Oh, do I need that? And when you ask that question, it leads you to the website. And sometimes that leading you to the website isn't just, oh, that's the place where I landed for the thing I wanted, but now there's the other side of it where now you get to see all the other offers that are there. Okay, this is where things get spicy. So yes, it's great because you can get some cost-effective deals. You can get some lifetime deals that are life-changing. There are some great deals out there, and you can have like exclusive access depending on whether you've purchased some of their VIP access and blah, blah, blah. There is fantastic value for the money in terms of, you know, you look at how much it costs for that particular SaaS program over a long term, and you can pay a one-time fee that's literally like one year's worth of payment. That those are some things that give you value for money. And you can get them even cheaper than that if you get one of the lower tiers. And that is a fantastic way to get software if you need it. I draw a line, exclamation points, can we make that in bold? If you need it. I often look at some of the— I'm often looking at AppSumo. Let's be honest, I like to check out what's out there. And I do go there when I'm looking for a piece of software specifically to, to answer a question or to solve a problem inside the business, I do go to AppSumo. I do purchase from AppSumo, but I do purchase with caution. And so I'm going to share some of this because there are some reasons why maybe AppSumo is not the right place for you. Or maybe it's causing some other issues that maybe you don't know. So when we think about, you know, the experience of AppSumo, it's really easy to go, oh, I'm gonna toss $20 here or $30 there or $40 there. Sometimes $100, whatever. There's a, there's different price points and the different things that come across and you're like, oh, that solves a problem. Throw the money, throw the money, throw the money. And then you get all these bits of software. There's an information overload, first of all. So there's some overwhelm that happens with a bunch of different pieces of software. Recently I came across, there was something in AppSumo And it was a thing that you could use, was AI-generated content, and you would just put something in there and it would create a piece of content for you. There's lots of them out there. But if you're using ChatGPT, or if you're using another piece of AI software, like ClickUp already has a built-in AI software, we use it for a lot of things, you might be purchasing something that you can do with something you already have. And so if you have a bunch of software, and you're like, oh, I do this for this unique item, and I do this for this unique item, and I go have to go to this software and this software and this software. You see how it gets a little crazy? First of all, you have to manage all of the usernames and passwords, the access, the how do I do this with this thing and not with that thing. The more simple you make your life and your business, the better it's going to be on your brain. That is just the truth. So sometimes we're purchasing software on these deals or this AppSumo stuff And you maybe you've done it with like $9 products, or maybe you've done it with like $29 products or whatever. Like you've found other deals on the internet that aren't AppSumo. But the concept is it's like, oh, that's not a lot of money that can solve a problem. Oh, that's not a lot of money that can solve a problem. But what ends up happening is you almost get decision fatigue or you get information fatigue. You're overwhelmed by all of the different pieces of software that you're using. And a lot of times we forget what one piece of software does because we don't use it for that. And then we think, oh, I need a software to do this. And we don't check what our other software's already doing for us or maybe has evolved into. I mean, certainly when I started working with ClickUp in 2019, AI wasn't a thing that was built inside ClickUp. So if I hadn't stayed up to date with what's happening, I wouldn't know if I was just using ClickUp the way I did in 2019, God forbid, then I would miss out on some of the really cool stuff that they've brought to the table since. So the same thing can happen with software that you might already have. Maybe you've already purchased it and you're using a corner of it and you don't realize that there's more to the software. Software platforms who stick around tend to upgrade their systems. They tend to add more bells and whistles or features to their software. Sometimes, yes, they charge you for those, and sometimes it's included based on whatever it is that that software does. However, if you— if your initial thought is, I need something new every time, it's going to cost you time and money. It doesn't seem like it's costing you, but it is. If you think of your SaaS programs or your software, so SaaS stands for software as a service, SaaS, software as a service. So when I talk about a SaaS program, it literally is just software. Okay? When you think about, I need a new piece, I need a new piece, I need a new piece, then you're adding all these different puzzle pieces and ultimately you're overwhelming not just yourself but your team as well. So if you have a team member and you're like, I need you to go to this software, this software, this software, and this software to complete this problem, and maybe you're lucky enough to have a team member who thinks outside the box and they're like, I can do all of those things in this one. And you go, oh, I didn't know. And that's a great thing for you to know. However, I encourage you to think about that before going to AppSumo. So last recently, we created this amazing SaaS checklist for you. So we'll link that in the description, put it into, you know, the description for you to go get it. It's a free download, but it'll help you to look at your SaaS programs differently and hopefully to be able to not purchase so many so that you don't have SaaS overwhelm. It's— I understand the draw to purchase new software, and there's a few different things that can be downfalls, let's call it. Now, I discussed very heavily the downfall of being overwhelmed with too many SaaS programs and not needing those— that many. But let's talk about the other side of it. Let's talk about a program that you you actually need. You see something on AppSumo and it looks like it's going to solve the problem. It's going to cost you a lot less than another product that maybe has been on the market for a lot longer or even a shorter period of time. But at the end of the day, there's a few things to consider when purchasing this product. So we recently— we're going through this right now. We're looking— we're internally, we are looking for a SaaS program to solve a specific problem. And yes, we are considering stuff that's on AppSumo, but we're also considering things that have been around a while as well. So the idea here is, first of all, the temptation is that it's cheap, right? It's like, oh, that's like really cheap. But then the other side of it is that there is a chance that you purchase something and you're— when we do purchase a software, one of the things that has to happen is we have to set it up. So there are some softwares out there that aren't heavy in setting up. So recently I purchased something and it is AppSumo. I did purchase this there where you can upload a video and it'll give you a bunch of clips. Fantastic. Not a lot of setups. But if you were to purchase something like ClickUp through AppSumo, which isn't an option, but if it were an option, there's a lot of setup that comes with ClickUp. So there's time that needs to be put into it. So time equals money. And so if you purchase something that requires a whole bunch of setup, then you may find yourself with a program that you didn't pay very much money for, but that in fact costs you a lot of time. Or it might even cost you to hire somebody to set it up if you need the assistance. Or maybe if you're getting your team to set it up, I mean, there's a cost of time versus money there. So that's one thing to consider. The other thing to consider is the quality of the product. So now anybody can, I mean, you can create a piece of software and sell it. Yay, right? Like it's, it's a service. People can do that. But there's a few things to consider. The longevity of the product. Is this something that you're investing in that is a fly-by-night? It doesn't matter if it doesn't work for the next 3 years. And that's different, right? So for example, the piece of software that splits a video, it cost me very little money. If it only works for the next 6 or 12 months, I'm cool, and it'd be alright if I moved on to something else. If it just disappears, whatever, I'm cool with that as a knowledge. But if I purchased a piece of software that I was gonna lay a lot of my business on, and I was going to rely on that software, and I hope for it to be— hope for it to be around for the next 5 to 10 years, maybe 5 years, Maybe 5 is a stretch, but 3 to 5 years, let's say. But how do I know that the company is going to maintain that product, that that company is going to be around for that length of time? And what happens if I invest the time and the money and purchase the product, set it up and get it ready, and it's a client-facing thing, and all of a sudden they disappear? What happens then? So there's some things to consider when you're thinking about the different ways that that SaaS matters in your business. And of course, you know, that whole concept of setting up, there could be a learning curve too. And so what does that learning curve mean to you? Like, you know, how, how much is it going to take you? How much energy is it going to take for you to get to a point where you're comfortable with that piece of software? Those are things to be considered of. The other thing to be considerate of when you're talking about purchasing a bunch of different kinds of software is the literally the management of the software. So sure, if you're using something like LastPass to keep your passwords, at least those are all in one place. You could even categorize them to say that they are a SaaS program, or you could let, you know, categorize them as AppSumo if you want to gather them in one place. That's one way to consider looking at those things. But the other side of it is how do you manage knowing where these things are if you don't have a password keeper like that? So in ClickUp, we use a list system so that we have a folder just for our SaaS programs. We call it Systems, and then we have a list for every single system that we have purchased or that we are using. So if the system is no longer in service, we at least have a place where we've kept all that information so that we know in the future if maybe we decide to entertain that software again, what was, what was with the last offering of that software, or what did we do when we had it last time? So those are some things to consider too, is how do you manage all of these softwares and how do you manage what gets used for what? It can get a little hairy. Then the other side— there's so many sides to this equation, let me just tell you. It's possible that perusing through the AppSumo stuff could actually distract you from some of your business goals. It's possible that if you are not solid in defining the goals for your business, if you're not solid in knowing where you want your business to head, it's possible that something on AppSumo, you might go, oh, that's so cool, I could enter that in my business. And yeah, let's implement it. And it totally takes you off the path of what you were already doing inside your business. Shiny object syndrome is a bugger. I wanted to say something different there, can you tell? But when it comes to being able to look at the different pieces of software, if you are jumping ship and moving from software to software, you can distract yourself from the things you're actually trying to accomplish. Just because a neat software comes along doesn't mean to say that A, it's going to be good, or B, that it'll be around forever, but C, that you actually need it in your business. It might just look shiny, and maybe you're wasting time and money on that when there's something else to be done entirely. Not saying anything about any of us neurodiverse spicy human beings. I'm sure I, I know I've done it multiple times. We've all done it. So have fun, enjoy looking at all the things that you could possibly accomplish with AppSumo. Be mindful things are timed, so they only offer X amount of licenses, or they only offer the license opportunity for a certain length of time. Those are things that are true to AppSumo. So you want to be thinking about those things as well. But when you're thinking about purchasing something, consider those things that I mentioned. Consider whether or not you already have a piece of software that's already being used. Consider whether or not it's an actual tool that will help you. Consider whether or not the consistency or quality is going to be there, the The longevity of the business behind which you're purchasing. How much does that matter to you? The setup and the time it takes to do those kinds of things, managing all of those different pieces of software, and then also making sure that you're not straying from your core business goals just because you find something shiny and new. I hope that you took a few things away from this. And like I said, I will put in the comments below so that you could get our checklist for how to manage your SaaS programs internally, help you with some of these questions as you move through. Even if it's not AppSumo you're looking at, there are a lot of other really cool things out there, and that checklist will help you. I hope you have a fantastic day, and I look forward to talking to you next time. Thank you so much for listening to the Overgivers Anonymous podcast. Your support means the world to me. You can find show notes for this episode and other goodies at overgiversanonymous.ca. 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