The Fierce Business Babe Podcast Ep 84: Behind the Scenes of Launching
In today’s episode I am going to be diving deep into all things launching. I will be sharing with you my 4 step framework for launching and giving you some helpful tips on how to create a seamless launch from beginning to end. I will also be answering some common questions about launching and breaking down what happens behind the scenes of my own launches.
Behind the Scenes of Launching
By: Melissa Lin
I remember when I first started my business and I had no idea what a launch really meant. So I started my first business in 2014, way back in the day. I'm going to give you the play-by-play of my epic, and I mean epic, launches back then. I would have this great idea for a program, I would be so excited about it and I wouldn't even do any market research. I would just slave away for two days straight creating it without even taking the time to see if this was what was needed in the world at the time. I was just overly excited. I got it ready and then I finally announced it on my Instagram post, this is before Instagram stories even existed. If nobody bought within the first like 30 minutes, I felt like a complete failure, right? I would attempt to talk about it again, maybe two weeks later and maybe get one purchase. This is what launching looked like to me back then. Boy can I tell you, I have come such a long way since then.
I want to ask you, have you felt that way? Have you experienced a loss like that? If yes, I want you to know you're not alone. I have too and some of my clients as well before they started working with me. Now, 5-6 years later, I have mastered launching in these past few years. I've had many 50k and above launches. I have helped my clients map out and execute multiple five-figure launches and now it's your turn. Now is the time, it's your turn. Let's get into it.
Before we go into any type of launching strategies, we first need to get into the launching mindset. You really need to master your mindset around launching before even touching the strategies, right? So you get to number one and truly, truly, truly, stand behind and believe in your offer, in your service, in your program, in your product that you're launching. Fully stand behind it. Let me ask you: do you truly believe that this program, the service that you have, this product that you have, is going to solve a problem and create incredible and impactful transformation? There are going to be times during your launch when you roll into self doubt. We want to make sure that you truly stand behind your offer or your service, your program, your package, whatever it is that you are creating. Your Amazing Amazing Creation that's going to change lives. You have to fully stand behind it. And if the answer is yes, then okay. Yes. Let's continue on.
So there's going to be times in your launch when you will most definitely be rolling into Self Doubt. I know I do from time to time, my clients do from time to time as well. This is why we have mentors and people in our corner, support systems, to help us during those times and launches. You may feel like things might not be working, or maybe, you go one day without any applications or purchases, and what happens? You stop showing up, you stop believing in yourself. You stop believing in your product. This is where I see a lot of launches go south, because people stop showing up. So get ready to write this Golden Nugget down.
Always, Always, Always show up for yourself, your audience and for your clients.
If there’s a day where you don’t feel like showing up, it’s okay, you’re human, but you can show up anyway. We can add systems into our businesses to help us show up on those days when we aren’t 100% feeling like showing up. So, if and when you prepare for your lunches ahead of time, you can definitely lunch with ease. Master that mindset. I've launched, and I’ve had over 50k lunches, while traveling and while being in a business conference for 4 days straight having very little cell service and you can too, it's so possible.
Let’s dig into the strategies, strategies, strategies that I know you’re dying to hear. I’m going to walk you through my 4-step framework of launching. This is what I teach my clients. This is what I use in every single launch of mine. So I hope you're ready. Make sure your pen is ready to go and full of ink.
The first step of launching is doing the, you might laugh at what I call it, but doing the pre, pre- launch work. What this means is doing the work before your launches that you need to have finished. Number one is going to be market research. Please do some market research to ensure that whatever it is you're about to launch is what your people actually need. Poll your audience to ensure that the transformation you're wanting to help them create is a transformation that they’re actually wanting. The more feedback that you can get about this, especially in the early stages, the easier your launch will be.
Once you've done your research and know that your program you're about to launch is exactly what your babes need. Let's start mapping out your program, if you haven't yet. You probably already have it mapped out, if you launched before now. If you haven’t mapped out your program, or have never created a program before, I actually have an entire post about how to create your program and a full step by step workbook that I've created to guide you through this. I will add the link to that workbook at the bottom for you. So go ahead and grab that.
So you're going to create your offer. Create it, have it ready to go. Then, during this pre, pre-launch time, you're going to start teasing, letting people know somethings coming, and start teasing that program; the name of it, when it will be ready to go, when it’s complete. Now you don't have to have your entire program, the deliverables, the training and the coursework polished and ready to go before you launch. I usually don't. I usually create as I go because I want to be able to help people as quickly as possible. I don't want to waste two months creating the offer, and then going in and selling. That’s two months where you're not helping people, you're not selling .I go through all of this in that workbook. We are going to start to tease, tease, tease, and here's a little trick. This is something that I love to do. I love showing behind the scenes of the program as I'm creating it, even just as I'm outlining it and I love to throw it in all of my Instagram stories, my captions, and all of my trainings, like, hashtag program name. For example, my group program to help women start and scale to 5k months in their online businesses is called the Fierce Business Academy. So, if I’m in launch mode for that, if I'm starting to tease it, I'll have like hashtag Fierce Business Academy or hashtag Academy. If I'm launching my incredible launch course, my launch program. I will have a hashtag like hashtag five-figure lunch and that type of thing. So this is you starting to actually tease your offer to your audience, so that they know it’s coming, because it takes anywhere from 7 to 10 times for somebody to see something before it really clicks for them. So start early, really early.
Now, let's roll into phase 2. You’re going to love this name for Phase 2. This is what I'd like to call The Pre-Launch. This is one of my favorite parts of my launches because if you've seen how I launch, and you probably have, what I love to do is give out some early bird pricing, some pre-sale pricing, waitlists, and perks to allow some sales and clients to come in before your launch even truly begins. Did I just blow your mind? I know right. So, you want to do this because it will give you an idea of who is truly interested and may grab their spot early. These are typically going to be your hottest leads and your warmest leads that you’ve got. Why not make some sales before your launch is even open? Why not?
Then, you’re going to roll into phase 3. Phase 3 is your actual launch itself, getting your program out there, opening enrollment to the public. For those of you that have been in my community, those of you that are in the incredible Fierce Business Babes, you know I love to add that value. So during this phase, I love adding value so that I can give, give, give and at the end of the day your value is always your pitch. So add value during your launch; mini training, webinars, live stream series, challenges, whatever floats your boat. That'll give your audience a quick win to build out that “like, no, trust” with them. And yes, you can do this as you’re launching. You can have a livestream series and be selling your program during the livestream series. You can have a webinar and sell during the webinar. At this point in your launch, you've probably filled at least half of your spots in your program or in your course, in your package, in your service. Keep in mind that typically 30% will buy towards the end. I’m going to talk about that number and why people don’t buy earlier on. That’s actually going to move us into the last phase of the launch.
Your celebration phase. Your toasting your champagne as you officially close the doors to your program enrollment. One thing about humans is we avoid spending money until the very last minute. I can’t tell you how many ladies I’ve had opt-in to my waitlist save $300 on a program, $500 on a program, but then wait until the very last day of the launch and they miss out on those savings. And it's because people wait until the very last minute to make a decision. Money is their safety. They feel safe when they have money in the bank and they want to be able to hold on to that until the very last minute. I’m sure you’ve got people that you’ve talked to where you’re selling to them and they are doing the same thing. They’re trying to hold onto their money. So, as you’re getting into this, as you're starting to plan your launch and what this looks like, remember that at the end, as you're celebrating, you’re toasting your champagne, create fomo. Welcome your new members, Your new clients. This is going to really push those that are on the fence to not want to miss out. Celebrate. Celebrate. Celebrate. Remember, those last few will come at the very last minute. I have sent so many one hour emails out before and that’s when people buy, the three hours left, one hour left. That’s what I typically do.
So as you're starting to put this all together, I'm sure you’ve got a few questions. I can already imagine what some of these questions are. I’m going to go through and answer some of these imaginary questions that I know that you're thinking because I know you so well. A few questions you might be asking:
How long should a launch actually be, like, what does that look like?
Well, this is going to depend on you and your business. This will depend on what you're selling. For example, if you're selling a course with a buy button, this may be a shorter launch compared to a coaching program where you're qualifying applicants and getting on sales calls to enroll them.
Another example, If you were wanting to get 30 people enrolled into a course and you're not getting on sales calls, that could just be a one to two week launch, but if you are enrolling into a coaching program or private coaching, or group coaching program, whatever your packages are, and you're trying to get 20 women inside but youre getting on sales calls with all of them. If you’re closing rates 50%, You most likely need to get on, you know 40 sales calls or 50 sales calls, whatever your numbers are, in order to close those 20 that you're wanting inside of your group. Which will mean you need a few more applications than the sales calls because that's part of your sales funnel. So it will depend on what you're launching, how you're launching, what your sales system, your sales process looks like. now another question that you're probably asking.
What if I'm not getting applicants, what if there are days where people aren't buying?
Something that I see happen all the time is somebody's in a launch and they don't see money rolling in, they don't see people buying, they don't see applications coming in. They feel that things aren't working and that they should just cancel their launch and stop their lunch and throw their hands up and run away. I want you to know, things are working. We just may need to make a few tweaks. So if you don't get an application for a day, or a purchase for a day, go and check your numbers. You’ve heard me say this before, your numbers tell you a story. So, go and look at your Google analytics. Are people looking at your sales page, but not converting? Are they going to your sales page and clicking on the application, but not applying? This is where we could potentially make some tweaks in your messaging. Look at your numbers, utilize Google analytics. My team does this daily. If you go and do a huge Instagram story where you're talking to your audience and giving them some value and then pitching, you will probably see a big spike in your analytics; more website views, more sales page views. So look at those numbers and see what’s going on. Those numbers are going to tell you a story. That way you don't feel like you're in a black hole, not understanding why things aren't working, because they are. We just need to go understand what's actually happening behind the scenes.
So you've seen me launch while traveling the world, you see me launch while in Bali, while in Italy, you’ve seen me launch pretty stress-free and you're probably wondering,
“Melissa, How do you do it?” How do you launch stress-free while traveling?
I remember I had one lunch last summer. My boyfriend and I were getting certified to sail. So our entire weekends were filled up and I was still selling, I was still getting people enrolling into my programs, while in a full sailing class and studying and testing and getting certified. You can too! You can sell with ease, you can launch with ease. The way that I am able to do that is, my team and I prepare a lot beforehand. So, all of our emails, captions, sales pages, everything is ready to go before we launch. So that our lunch is seamless. If this is something that you're launching again, you already have most of the materials ready to go. You are allowed to repurpose that stuff. I'm giving you the permission slip right now, signing it. You can do the same. Repurpose. Repurpose. Repurpose. It’s going to make your life so much easier.
How do you not go stir-crazy and compare yourself to everybody else and their moms are also launching?
I know this comes up for you because it comes up for my clients and myself sometimes, this comes up for everybody that I've talked to. To prevent yourself from comparing yourself to everybody else out there on social media, It can be hard. I know, I hear you. I feel you. Something that I actually do, especially during launches, is I set intentions for when I go into social media. I'm either on there to answer questions in the DMs, add to stories, going to post my caption and that's really about it. I don't allow myself to scroll. I hide all of my business besties. Love you all so much, but I hide them all and I mute them all. So that I am not looking through stories aimlessly. I definitely hide all of those others in my industry because I want to stay focused on me and my creation of content and my launch. I highly recommend that you start doing that as well during your launch and even day to day if you’re not launching. It’s going to really help with that comparison-itis that a lot of us go through.
Now, something that I have all of my clients to do and I do this as well is daily self-care during your launches. It's absolutely necessary. So here are a few things that you may want to add to your launch schedule every single day and I'm going to give you some examples and some things that I actually do that are non-negotiable, 100% necessary. So every single day, I've got my daily self-care that I do, whether I’m launching or not, I’m journaling, meditating, high-high-high focus on journaling and reflecting, getting enough sleep, right, Please get some sleep. You're feeling a lot of people's cups during your lunch, you have to fill yours as well. Drinking enough water, I know it sounds silly, but ladies, our health is number one, and making sure you are eating nutritious foods. Please take care of your body, especially during your launches. Now something I love to do is I love to add a self-care activity every single day. Like, it's literally on my calendar during my launches, something that I do for me. Now, This could be an afternoon nap. This could be going to get your nails done. It could be a massage, going to the gym, even going on a walk outside or maybe a date night with your partner, a movie night. Anything that makes you feel great to ensure that you're filling your own cup during your launch.
So, I know that your favorite notebooks are filled to the top right now and I can't wait to hear about your biggest takeaways, because I know you've got them. So I'm going to leave you with an action item today. So your action item for today is to go and outline your lunch and let me know how it’s going. So send me a message on Instagram. My handle is @Themelissalin. I would love to hear about how your launch planning is going.
Topics we cover include:
How to Stay in the Launching Mindset
My 4 Step Framework For Launching
What to do Pre-Launch
Building Trust By Adding Value
Your Questions Answered
And so much more!
Times to check out:
(5:24) Getting into the Launching Mindset
(7:53) 4 Step Framework For Launching
(8:15) Doing the Pre-Launch Work
(9:07) Mapping Out Your Program
(13:10) How to Build Trust By Adding Value
(16:10) Your Launch Questions Answered
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