But what is “The Book Whisperer”?
In the last couple of posts, I've talked about the "why" behind The Book Whisperer and how I'm using AI to help me get started. Now, it's time to get to the heart of the matter: what am I actually building in these 60 days?
The answer, in short, is based on the concept of Minimum Viable Product or MVP.
What's an MVP (and Why Does It Matter)?
I first came across the concept of MVP when I started the Beautiful Noise. It was a crucial lesson in focusing on whether the service worked before expanding. I had big ambitions for what we could achieve (I still do), but as the trustees advised me - don’t try to run before you prove you can walk. This, in a nutshell, is the idea of an MVP.
In the startup world, an MVP is the simplest, most basic version of a product or service that you can launch to test your core idea and gather feedback from real customers. It's not about perfection; it's about validation.
An MVP is like the first pancake you make. It's never perfect. It might be a bit misshapen, slightly burnt, or not quite the right consistency. But it's still a pancake. You can eat it and even ask someone else to try it and tell you what they think. You learn from it. And then you make a better pancake next time. You don't try to create a Michelin-star-worthy stack of pancakes on your first attempt; you start with something edible and go from there.
An MVP is the same concept, applied to a business. It's about:
Saving Time and Money: Avoiding wasted effort on features or products that nobody wants.
Learning Fast: Getting real-world data about your target audience and their needs.
Reducing Risk: Minimising the financial and emotional risk of launching a fully-fledged business before you know if it will work.
Iterating and Improving: Using customer feedback to refine your product/service and make it better.
Using prompts to get to your MVP
So, I’ve said that this series of blogs would also cover how I have used AI tools along the way. The process for getting to an MVP for The Book Whisperer has taken a while. From my first prompt to Gemini, which was about general ideas for making passive income, to what I’ve narowed it down to has been an iterative process. This has generally followed a pattern of:
Me explaining my current thinking to Gemini about the service’s design.
Asking Gemini for guidance on how to implement these ideas, including potential pros, cons, and improvements.
Me spending time offline to think about what delivery of this idea would need to look like on a day-to-day basis and the value a user of The Book Whisperer service could expect to derive from it.
Rinse and repeat.
For the first ten days or so my focus was a service centered around interesting website content and me selling physical products. The latter is still an ambition, but my MVP for the 60-day challenge has stripped out direct selling. This decision is based on my research (about building a customer base) and intuition about what the customer community (people who love the same things about books that I do) would find valuable. My point is that you still need to have your Vision. There would be little value in me providing all the prompts that got me to the point I’m at today - but in this link I’m including some ideas on a process you might go though and the prompts you might use to get to your own MVP.
My MVP for The Book Whisperer
For my 60-day challenge, I'm focusing on building a Minimum Viable Business, not just a Minimum Viable Product. Here's what that looks like:
Phase 1: Digital Foundations (Days 1-30...ish):
Website: A simple, professional website showcasing The Book Whisperer concept, my blog, and (crucially) links to the services I'm offering.
Service 1: Curated Book Collections: Themed collections of books enhanced with additional content, such as an essay exploring the collection's theme, along with facts, reviews, and trivia about each title. Each book in the collection will be available for purchase through affiliate links (I will talk about affiliate marketing in a future blog). This means I don't have to handle inventory or shipping – I'm essentially acting as a literary curator, recommending books I love and potentially earning a commission on sales.
Service 2: The Digital Whisperer: This is a unique feature I'm really excited about. It's an AI-powered service that will provide personalised book recommendations, either for the user or as gift suggestions. Again, this will utilise affiliate links.
YouTube Channel 1: "Becoming the Book Whisperer": Documenting my journey of building this business, with a focus on using AI tools ethically. This is about building an audience, sharing my experiences, and (hopefully) inspiring others.
Phase 2: Expanding the Vision (Days 30-60...ish):
YouTube Channel 2: "The Book Whisperer": This will be the main channel for book-related content: reviews, recommendations, discussions, and showcasing the artistry of books.
Building a Foundation: The primary aim of this phase is to increase the awareness of The Book Whisperer and begin the task of growing our community.
Why This Approach?
This digital-first strategy allows me to launch quickly, test my core ideas, and generate potential income without the upfront costs and complexities of physical products. It also lets me focus on building a brand and audience, which will be essential for future growth.
By the end of the 60 days, I want to have:
A live, functioning website with the core services (curated collections and The Digital Whisperer) operational.
A presence on at least one YouTube channel.
Evidence of some engagement from my target audience (website traffic, social media followers, blog comments).
Demonstrated the potential to generate an income through affiliate links. This is less about the amount and more about proving the concept.
Learned a lot about building an online business, using AI tools, and connecting with book lovers.
The Long-Term Vision
While the MVP is focused on digital services, my long-term vision for The Book Whisperer does include physical products (bespoke book art, curated collections in physical form, potentially even sourcing unique and rare books). But that's Phase 3. For now, it's all about building a solid foundation and validating my core concept. This is how I will measure my own success and identify where more work is needed by the end of the 60 days. Stick with me, and together we'll see whether it can be done.
What do you think about this approach? Please let me know your thoughts in the comments.
