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- [00:01]
A
Hello. Hello. Welcome to the podcast. Thank you so much for spending part of your day with me today. Hope you're really excited for today's topic, because I know I am. I think it's really great timing and I'm going to touch on why in just a moment. We're going to ask a really important question that I want every single one of you out there asking yourself if you are a small business owner, an online entrepreneur, which I'm guessing you likely are if you're listening to this podcast, or at least you're thinking, thinking about it, right? And that question is, are you launching to grow or just avoiding the real work? So if you don't already feel this, you will. Very soon. We're going to start to see lots and lots of people gearing up for fall launches. And when I say launch, I just mean like a big kind of promotion window of typically something like a group program, you know, a mastermind, big course launches, membership launches, things like this. You're going to see lots of people promoting. As you know, we're back to school and there's kind of this, we talked about this in last week's episode. This, like, renewed energy of people getting back to work, getting back to school, you know, really getting back to being in a learning mood. And so we'll see people doing big pushes to close out the year. And that's not even to touch on things like Black Friday, right? And so for many of you, you will be very tempted to get a piece of that pie. You're going to want to ride that wave and you're going to be thinking to yourself, maybe I should do that, or I think I should do that. I should be launching. I want to get something out there. I want to work with lots and lots of clients. Like, there's so many reasons why you may be entertaining the option of doing a big launch. All right? But before you throw yourself into the rabbit hole that is Canva and making graphics and pump out social media content and, you know, sometimes, frankly, let's just say the chaos that can go along with a launch based business, I'm going to ask you to pause and ask yourself something that I think can be a little bit uncomfortable but really powerful, which is, are you launching or trying to launch or planning a launch because it's actually the next aligned step for your business. It might be, it very well might be depending on who you are. Or are you thinking about launching, planning a launch because it's a shiny distraction from the deeper work that you've been Avoiding possibly even the less fun work that you've been avoiding. So that's what we're going to get into today. We're talking truth when launching actually grows you and when it's appropriate to launch. We're going to be covering this in a. In a few different episodes coming up. I even have, like a launch readiness checklist that I'm planning to talk you all through in an upcoming episode. But for today, we're going to talk about just some questions you can ask yourself, some things to keep in mind that will really help. You know, is it a moment where launching is going to grow you? Is that appropriate for you? Or is trying to plan a launch something that is going to quietly keep you stuck right now? Okay, so I have three main points that might stir the pot a little bit and most importantly, get you thinking about whether or not this is the right path for you or most importantly, what your next step should be. Because you all know if you've been listening to my podcast for any amount of time, I want you getting out there and getting clients that might be through launching or it might be through other means, which we'll talk about other strategies. But it's really important to be clear on where you are right now and make sure that we're not falling into the trap of shiny object syndrome. I know it's maybe interesting. I think it's interesting to think about something as big as launching. Like, launching is a lot of work. I'll never sugarcoat that. So it is really counterintuitive to think that launching could be a shiny object. But I see this quite a bit with the clients that I work, you know, with every single week in my Mastermind sold out group programs. And so it's definitely something I wanted to bring to the podcast. So first things first, I want to talk about how launching and planning a launch and getting ready for a launch and preparing can really be a productive distraction.
- [04:26]
B
Right?
- [04:26]
A
It can be procrastivity. I know that. You know, I would actually argue that procrastina productivity is like the sneakiest version of avoidance and procrastination that exists. Other types of procrastination, we know we're procrastinating when we're scrolling on TikTok. If you're me, TikTok is like my kryptonite. I have to literally block it on my phone because it's just such a rabbit hole, you know, that is very obviously procrastinating. We can be in the moment being like, yeah, I'm procrastinating. Right now. Other sneakier versions of procrastination include procrast planning.
- [05:03]
B
Right?
- [05:03]
A
Where we're like, no, no, no, I'm. This is really important. I need to sit down and plan my day. I need to plan every minute of every day. Yeah, that is a very fine line between actually helpful and necessary planning. That's going to keep you utilizing your time in an efficient way versus just planning because it's fun and it takes up time and you don't have to get down to the big scary work if you're planning. And then I think even more slippery is this idea of procrast productivity. And I think that something to consider here is it's very easy to convince yourself that you're being bold and that you're being entrepreneurial and you want to be in the big leagues. You know, you want to go for it. You see the people that you're, that you look up to having these big flashy, loud launches where they're working with lots and lots of clients and they're posting a ton and they're everywhere all the time. And that's great. I teach those strategies inside of sold out group programs. I want to be really clear. I have a launch based business. I teach entrepreneurs how to launch. This is nothing against launching. Launching is a critical business skill. If you are in the industry of service providing or coaching. You know, if you're creating group programs then absolutely you will get to a place where you need to be launching. So it's an amazing strategy. And but here's the thing, it's a very advanced strategy. And so sometimes we convince ourselves that we're ready for that and that that's what we need to be working on. Cause we want to grow up in our business and we want to have a real legit business. We when really we might be dodging the scarier. Sometimes I'm even going to use the word slower work.
- [06:45]
B
Okay.
- [06:46]
A
It feels like something about launching when you're putting together, you're planning out like a big product launch or program launch. It feels pretty fast. And I already use the word flashy, like fast and flashy. Actually what's ironic about that is when you do it properly it really shouldn't feel like that. But we'll talk about that in a later episode. But, but if, if that's kind of how it's feeling for you where it's like you want to be engaging in this like fast, flashy business model, you really might be avoiding. And I want you to ask yourself, where might I be avoiding? The scarier, slower work of doing things like refining your offer, right? Getting people to actually buy your offer. Like, are you, do you even have a proven track record of being able to sell? That is such a key question. Do you have a track record of being able to sell? And when I say track record, that can even look like signing maybe three clients into an offer. If you have experience of, oh, I've sold a one on one package to at least three clients, I would say three clients, up to 10 clients, then we can stock, talk about more advanced launching strategies. But for a lot of the people that I talk to and that I work with, their confidence. If I ask them their confidence level about like, how well do you are, what is your track record? What sort of proof of concept do you have when it comes to selling your one on a one on one version of your service? And their answer is like, oh yeah, no, I don't know how to do that, or I haven't done that, or maybe I did it a while ago, but not recently. If you are not able to close at the individual level, right. If you haven't built that skill of being able to sell one on one, it is possible to go straight to a launch based business. I do have clients that have done that. But for the very most part, you've got to understand what makes your audience tick at the individual level before you can ever hope to speak to people at scale, right? You have to know how, like what makes people tick, what makes them say yes, what they are looking for, what the transformation is at the one on one level before you can sell at scale. And I think we kind of delude ourselves into thinking that selling at scale is easier. And this is really important for me to point out, I understand the allure of this perspective that like, yeah, but if I sold something at scale, it could be low, low price point, you know, it could be more accessible to people. And while there is certainly some truth to that, it's really important that you know you're never going to get around the need to show people a clear transformation. It's probably the number one thing I talk about with my clients. It doesn't matter if you're selling something for $5, 500, $5,000, $500,000. Every single offer you ever have has to have a clear transformation. Doesn't matter if it's cheap or if you feel like it's a steal. If people don't understand your story arc and they don't understand the point A to point B transformation, it's Just not going to work no matter what your price point is. So don't fall for that sneaky little like story that maybe selling at scale would be easier for, for me and maybe that would help me reach more people. Because the truth of the matter is if you can't sell something to one person, you're not going to be able to sell something to a hundred person people. And I say that with love and I teach people how to do this every single day. Same day sales is my program that can really help you get good at selling at the one to one level, even if you have big dreams of having group programs. That is great. We're going to be talking more in upcoming episodes about how getting good at selling at the individual level is actually part of knowing how to sell out a group program.
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B
Okay?
- [10:37]
A
So that's really important is to ask yourself, and some of you I know, I know for a fact are hearing this right now and you're like, yeah, I think this might be me. Where like maybe I am dodging some of the scarier. Like, you know, avoiding some of the work that I just would rather not do. Like that feels big and scary. Like figuring out my messaging, right? Figuring out what people actually want and how they want to be talked to and what makes them convert. So that's the first thing is thinking about launching as a productive distraction. Is it possible that you are falling into that category? The second thing here, I touched on this, hinted at this just a tiny little bit, but we're going to go a bit deeper is, is it. This can really be a ego trap, right? So you have to ask yourself, am I planning a launch? Am I moving forward with a launch because it's the right move for where my business is. Like the business indicators, the key business indicators are there. Or is it an ego trap? Am I doing this? Is it coming from a place of ego? And you know that it's coming from a place of ego when it feels like something like this, you're trying to feel like a legit CEO, right? You're trying to make your business legit. You're trying to, you want to appear a certain way to your audience, to your clients, to your peers, right? You're doing it because, or thinking about doing it because. Because the people you look up to do it or because like ultimately that's the level of business that you want to have. That's how you know that your ego may be getting involved and that's. There's nothing wrong with you. You're not an egotistical. Person. That's not what I'm implying at all. We all have an ego inside of us and keeping up with the Joneses and looking around and comparing ourselves to other people. Especially like I said, going into the fall of 2025, right now, when you're looking around and you're gonna, if you haven't seen it yet, you're, I promise you're gonna start seeing it. There's always a pretty big rush of people promoting and launching and selling and you're going to look around at what you're like, what, what are they doing and what's that person doing? And maybe I should be doing that strategy. It's very tempting to think that what you need, like you might think to yourself, oh, I just have, I just have the wrong strategy. I just need to have a different strategy and my stuff will sell. Like, I just need to do it. Like they're doing it and my stuff will sell. And that's very likely not the case. Again, it kind of goes back to the first point of getting better at selling, at like understanding the mechanics, understanding the messaging, understanding what makes people convert. And so you have to ask yourself, are you making decisions that actually move you toward consistent revenue, sustainability and sanity?
- [13:10]
B
Right.
- [13:11]
A
Like I would actually say the first one is the most important. What is going to move you toward consistent revenue right now?
- [13:18]
B
Right.
- [13:19]
A
Oftentimes I'll talk to folks who really aspire to have group program type businesses and I help them get there, I help all of my clients get there. But one of the first things that we have to do is get them good at consistency, bringing in revenue.
- [13:35]
B
Right.
- [13:35]
A
Can you say that you're cons that you're good at consistently bringing in revenue? If you can say that, then yeah, you should be launching.
- [13:42]
B
Right.
- [13:42]
A
And you should come work with me so I can help you make your launches even better. But if you are not to a place where you feel like you're consistent with your revenue and you, you don't know how to create revenue consistently, we want to make sure you're making decisions from the place of what, like how do I actually create stability, how do I create sustainability so that I can scale. When we try to scale something that is first of all doesn't exist. So a lot of times folks will be like, well, this isn't scalable. And I'll, I'll be like, well, scale what? Like we have to have something to scale. Am I right? Like for me, when I came back to business after taking a break, I, the first thing I did Even though I had multiple six figure experience with all kinds of group programs, first thing I did was not launch a group program, friends. The first thing I did was sell out my one on one coaching. I got 10 people into that program, not program, sorry, into that offer. 10 different people. I worked with those people. I built consistent revenue so that I had the foundation and the footing and the confidence and the messaging and the transformations to be able to have successful launches. Okay, so that's. The second thing is ego trap versus the next right move for you. And then the, the, the third thing I want to touch on here are some signs that you might be launching for the wrong reasons or thinking about launching for the wrong reasons. This includes your board. Okay? You're bored with what you've been selling. One of the things I think I spend a lot of time on with my clients is selling them on the value of being boring, right? I call this a simple business. And I say all the time that when I had a one on one business and I just had 10 clients, my business was never simpler.
- [15:25]
B
Right?
- [15:25]
A
A lot of you say that you want something simple, you don't want something that stresses you out, and yet you're not necessarily willing to have the simplest business model, right? Which is one on one clients. And I'm not, I'm not, I'm not here to say that everybody out there needs to have one on one clients. But if you have not again, it goes back to if you do not have that skill, if you have not, you know, know, shown yourself that you know how to close, this is, can be the simplest thing that you can do. Again, going back to creating consistent revenue, Creating consistent revenue is going to feel boring.
- [16:02]
B
Okay.
- [16:03]
A
When you put together a powerful, simple offer and it's your job to just focus on selling it day in and day out, week in, week out, your brain might get bored with that. Your brain might go to shiny object. Your brain want more advanced strategies. And that doesn't mean that you should change the plan, right? It kind of reminds me of like if you've listened to the show for a while, you know, that I, I tend to really feel this parallel between building a business and building fitness. I like to work out. I like to, you know, I'm in my late 30s now and I'm really trying to build this like strong foundation for myself as I age. And I find the same thing can be true with a workout plan. The best workout plans, you know, are not necessarily jumping around to like, like some like doing something totally different every single day. Like, sweet. Like, on paper, that might sound smart because it's like, oh, well, I'll keep it and keep it novel. But when you change it up that much and you're not, you know, if you know anything about the fitness world, we talk about, like, progressive overload, where you are lifting a certain weight one week and then the next week you're going to crank up the weight a little bit more and a little bit more and a little bit more. That's how you actually train your muscles and actually put on muscle versus jumping around to all different kinds of training modalities because you're bored. And then you wonder why you don't see results.
- [17:17]
B
Right?
- [17:18]
A
And so I totally understand the feeling of, like, you know, gosh, I just have this one offer and I want it to be more interesting, but it's like, at a certain point, do you want it to be more interesting or do you want consistent revenue? Most people tell me they want the revenue, and there's nothing wrong. If your plan is really simple and your offer is really straightforward and your job is just to go out there and sell it, that is your job. And your brain is gonna wanna avoid that because it is uncomfortable sometimes and because it might feel repetitive, but that doesn't mean that anything's wrong. You might also be looking for excitement or validation. Very similar, but a little bit different. You might be, you know, like, if you're anything like me, kind of like a serial project starter. You like the front end of a project. You like that shiny new project energy. Once you're halfway through a project, or, God forbid, finishing, coming to the finish line of a project, it can be hard to keep up that momentum and that focus and that discipline, but that's exactly what's required. Again, it goes back to achieving your business goals. Get your excitement, like, I don't know, go get a hobby if you want to feel excited, you know, and I'm not saying that your business can't feel exciting. I think we could definitely go in the direction of, like, you can get excited about the clients that you're helping. You can get excited about tracking your progress in your sales. You can get excited about what you're building. But too many people are asking their businesses to be like their dopamine hit. And you also may be looking for validation in your business. You may be looking for external validation. You might be tempted to throw together a $20 digital product to see if anybody will buy it to make you feel validated. And that's really important for you to know and you may also be thinking that a flashy launch will make up for the fact that these things haven't been converting for you. Okay, I see this one a lot and this is deep. And it's really important for me to point out. I work with people who will be like, I've tried, I put something out there and it didn't work. I put something out there, I tried to sell one on one, I tried to get some clients and it didn't work. And because things haven't been working, whether you feel like your social media is not working, you feel like your audience growth attempts haven't been working, you feel like your sales haven't been working, you're thinking a big flashy launch will make up for that, right? When actually it's the opposite. Trying to think of a good analogy for this, it would be like if you have been trying to build a car, like think about putting together a car. I can't even imagine how challenging it would be to build a car and make it go. That's like what a business is. And something's like not working with the engine. Something's not working with like the base mechanics of your business. But you're thinking that if you, you know, get a new coat of paint or you get leather seats, or you get the best stereo system that like, somehow that will make the car come together.
- [20:00]
B
Right?
- [20:01]
A
And you and I both know that we have to do the boring, sometimes tedious, really, sometimes complicated, but doesn't have to be that complicated, but like really getting in there with your wrench to figure out like what is actually gonna make this thing move forward before I try to make it pretty or I try to iterate on it.
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B
Right.
- [20:19]
A
I think that's so super important. Now if we were to flip this and kind of like looking at the flip side of this. So we kind of talked about how to know that maybe launching, like you're thinking about launching for not the right reasons, not the best reasons. Let's flip that. How would you know that you are entertaining a lot? You are launching for the right reasons. Like a launch is actually in the cards for you right now, is the best decision for you right now. The first thing I would say, and I want to mention too, I already, I already said this, but just so you know, if you're interested in this, I'm going to be doing an episode very soon about sort of like launch readiness. So this is just a little taste. We're going to get deeper into this for sure, so stay tuned. But for right now, I want you to think. Think about optimizing, not reinventing. If you are optimizing, not reinventing the wheel, then that's a pretty good sign that you're launching for the right reason.
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B
Okay?
- [21:14]
A
So that means that you already have an offer that converts organically. You already know how to convert, okay? If you don't know how to convert, you have to learn that skill first, okay? Then you're going to use a launch to amplify demand.
- [21:32]
B
Okay?
- [21:33]
A
Think about that. You can't amplify something that's not there, friends. So you have to build demand, not treat it as a Hail Mary. That's quote. You know, finally going to make something work. Like, this is going to be the thing. Let me lob the pass down to the end zone. Let me throw a launch out there. I see this all the time, and I understand why you're tempted to do it. I've done it, too. But nine times out of 10, there's not a receiver down there to catch that ball, right? You're tossing it down the end zone. Maybe this will be the one. And nine times out of 10, it's just a huge waste of your energy and your, you know, your time. And so, on the other hand, if you already have an offer, you are converting now. It's time to optimize, not reinvent the wheel, not start from scratch. You should never be starting from scratch. You should be trying to figure out how to turn the dial up on what's already been working. So that's the first thing. And actually, that leads me second perfectly to my second point here in my notes, which is you have foundations that are already working. Okay? You understand your messaging. You know that people resonate with it, okay? You have at least some audience, some connections. The audience that you do have, they're paying attention. They're listening to your podcast. You're emailing, you're talking to them. You're connected with them, right? And you have seen sales skills. Your sales skills are sharp. You're not hoping that a launch is going to fix a shaky business.
- [22:56]
B
Okay?
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A
Instead of hoping that a launch will fix a shaky business, what you're doing, if you're doing it correctly, is you're pouring gasoline on a steady flame. You have to know how to build that flame first.
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B
Right?
- [23:10]
A
And the third thing is you're emotionally and energetically prepared, and I would also say financially prepared.
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B
Okay?
- [23:17]
A
So you're not hoping for a launch to lift your mood or to prove something. I talk to people more often than you would think who are like, this is my last shot. They're like, I've been trying lots of things and it's not working. So I'm giving this one last shot. If you really think about that, that's already like, launching is. I'm not gonna pull any punches. Launching is very stretchy work. It's very. You will grow. You will grow so much. Not only will you grow your business, you will grow. All my clients who are listening to this, they know my clients who launch. You will grow as a person. You will grow in your identity, you will grow in your visibility. Everything about you is going to be asked to grow, all right? And so if you're already on emotionally shaky ground and you're like, you know, you're like bleeding out and you're like, this is the one last thing that I'm gonna try, or something like that, maybe it's not quite that dramatic, but you're like, really trying to prove something to yourself, especially that's going to put you in a really tricky place energetically for your launch. You want. On the flip side, you want to feel like you're ready to show up, to lead, to execute, even when it's boring, slow, super uncomfortable, makes you want, have to do work that you want, don't want to do. Like your launch should. It shouldn't be dopamine filled and flashy and all of these things that we've been talking about. If done properly, it should be planned in advance. It should be an extension of what's already worked.
- [24:51]
B
Right.
- [24:51]
A
And I mentioned financially prepared as well. I personally don't like my clients to be in a place where they're super depending on a launch. Financially, I mean, yes, like, if it's a part of your business model, of course, but you don't want to be at a point where you're like, if this launch doesn't hit, I'm in trouble. We want to stay out of that. Right? We want you in a financially healthy place again, that's that steady flame is burning and we can pour the gasoline on it. So if you're not in a good place financially, right, you don't have like the next 3ish to 6ish months figured out from a financial perspective where you would be, okay. We need to work on building that up to put you in a better position.
- [25:33]
B
Right?
- [25:34]
A
So here's your gut check, my friends. Are you launching because it's your strategic next move that actually makes sense, or are you thinking about it and flirting with it or trying it? Maybe you're even out there trying to do it because it feels like an easier way to be busy rather than slowing down and tightening your foundation.
- [25:54]
B
Right.
- [25:55]
A
It reminds me of like, I don't know, like, I. Whenever I think of foundations, I always think about basketball. I think it's because I once read about Michael Jordan and how one of the things that made Jordan Jordan was that he never got too good or too big for the foundations. He was known to be out there practicing three free throws more than anyone.
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B
Right.
- [26:14]
A
And so if you're trying to like, skip past that, you want to go to the big leagues, you want to play in the Olympics when you're not, you know, standing on the court shooting free throws to get better. That's something you want to look at, right? Growth minded CEOs launch to amplify what's already working. If it's an ego driven decision, you'll be launching to distract yourself from the systems that you secretly know you need to fix and from the selling problems that you secretly know you need to fix. If you're in the first category where you're ready to amplify what's already working, then hell yeah, get in the arena, suit up, get your sweat headband on, and go big. That's amazing. If you're in the second category, that's also amazing. Be brave enough to remove yourself from some of the, you know, podcast du jour and the strategies that are going around and the people on Instagram and the things that you're looking around being like, I'm supposed to be doing that, you know, putting your eyes on other people's paper and instead do the real work first, do that foundational work first. Either way, this fall does not have to be another round of, you know, maybe I'll figure this out in the future, maybe I'll try something different. But you have to be willing to be honest with yourself right now.
- [27:34]
B
All right?
- [27:35]
A
And so I want you to know that what, whichever these categories that you're in, I help clients like you every single day. Every single day. A lot of times people reach out to me and they'll be like, I don't know that I can work with you because I'm a beginner. I'm still working on, I'm still working on building up that steady flame. I help people actually in both my programs. Yes. Even in sold out group programs who are working on building up that steady flame before they pour the gasoline on it, because building that flame is part of having a sold out group program. So I hope that this episode has been helpful for you. I'm so excited about upcoming episodes that I have for you. We're going to kind of keep going. It's a little bit of a series, a little bit of a launching series. Over these next few weeks, we're going to touch on a lot of different topics and a lot of different, you know, sales based material that can really help you have a super strong fall and get yourself to a place by the end of the year where you just feel so proud of yourself and you feel that measurable progress. So I will see you next week and until then, I'm wishing you the courage and the clarity to go after what you love.