Today I want to talk about all the unpleasant emotions that hit before, during and after launching your course or any other product. These can be the reason you never try again, give up too early, decide this business model is not for you, and so on. But none of that is true unless you give it that exact meaning.

Tune in below:

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Show Notes:

• The worst thing you can do after a failed launch
• Why you actually did a great job
• What to do immediately after closing the doors to your program
• Ways to simplify your launch process
• Keep this in mind if you made zero sales in your last launch
• What lies ahead of you

Mentioned:

• Bold Business School WAITLIST

Transcript

If you’ve never launched a product before or aren’t even willing to create a course only because you think you won’t sell anything, this episode is for you. Getting over the fear of making $0 during your promo period can be one of your most profound accomplishments in business, and it’s mostly a mindset game.

That means you get over the beliefs that are currently stopping you from planning and executing your first or next launch, you show up for your audience and sell actively, and you know that there is nothing to lose.

Now, the worst you can do is make your failed launch mean something about you and what you’re capable of as a course creator and business owner. One promo campaign doesn’t define you.

All the successful people out there had many launches with zero sales because they had no idea what they were doing in the beginning.

Some created a product no one actually needed, others didn’t know what to write on their sales page. Some didn’t have hot leads on their email list, or didn’t sell enough during the launch. Or didn’t describe well what the course can do for the right people so of course no one would buy if they can’t see how it will make their life better in some way.

These are just a few of the many, many reasons why your launch didn’t go as planned. So many elements go into this and that’s why there’s a lot more to learn about running a digital product business other than just getting a product out there and selling it.

In fact, I suggest you first change your beliefs around money, sales, business and self-worth even. Then create a strong foundation for your business, have a content strategy and a trust funnel thanks to email marketing designed to bring the right people to your online world.

That’s when you can come up with your course idea, name and framework and add all the elements that go into an actual paid offer, such as pricing, guarantee, sales page, objections, urgency, and so much more.

Once you have the people and the offer, you can announce it. You can present it in a way that makes sense for your ideal customer and you can get paid for your program before you’ve even started creating the content. That takes a lot of pressure away and you’re validating your idea. The revenue you earn and the students eagerly awaiting the modules is what will keep you going and help you deliver your best work in that container.

All this is what I’ll be teaching you inside my 3-month membership program Bold Business School. It’s an expansive and empowering business experience that will support you through shifting your beliefs, growing an email list and making email marketing work for you, designing your signature program and turning it into a magnetic offer that you launch strategically and can sell over and over again.

You can join the waitlist here because doors will open for a short period of time at the end of this month and only those on the waitlist will get the chance to enroll.

As this will be the first class of Bold Business School, I’m keeping the launch intimate and I’ll be offering a special price that won’t be available again. If you join with this round, you become one of the founding members and many amazing surprises are waiting for you inside the program and more is coming later this year.

So if you feel called to join, if you’ve been looking for a business program designed specifically for course creators that teaches you all the other elements that go into a digital product business, I’d love for you to join.

Now, what does a failed launch look like?

For a start, I don’t really want to call it failed because the only failure in business is giving up. But that’s how most people describe it so I wanted to use their words and give them a new perspective on this.

If you define something you did as failure, ultimately you start feeling like a failure too. That usually goes in one direction – you feel worse and worse about yourself, compare yourself to others who are doing better, and decide you don’t want to try again because you don’t want to experience that same feeling.

But what doesn’t go the way you want in business, and in life, is your biggest teacher. If you didn’t see the results you imagined, then there are lessons for you that wouldn’t have been possible to learn without actually executing this launch. So for that, congrats. You did a great job.

You put yourself out there, released an offer, tested a specific launch process or marketing techniques or just made little steps in order to make sales. Now sit down and analyze each and every one of them.

Launch Debrief

This is called a launch debrief and it’s a crucial part of the whole process. In fact, it should be done immediately after you close the doors to your program and before you move onto something else.

You can gather all the numbers, without putting any emotion in them, and try to figure out why these are the results you got.

If you haven’t launched anything before and this is your first set of metrics that you get to work with, no worries. You have nothing to compare them with but pretty soon you will.

This analysis will help you plan out your next launch and now is the time to decide what you will do differently. Make sure you change just one or two little things so you can easily spot if they lead to big results or aren’t worth repeating.

Over time, you’ll have a proven process that works every time.

What a failed launch really means is that you haven’t put all the pieces of the puzzle together yet.

Pieces like defining your ideal student, warming people up with pre-launch content, writing your email and social media copy in advance so you don’t stress when it’s time for action, the right pricing, the right payment plans if you’ll have any, the right platform to promote all that, the words you use to describe your program, and so much more.

That’s why it’s best to keep it simple for your first launches.

You either have your program ready or just the offer, but in any case, you can decide to simplify things.

For example, if you help people with many problems in your course, it might be overwhelming to talk about all these aspects during your launch.

What if you pick one big benefit your program provides and give it a different spin any time you post about it or send an email? This way every person on your list is going to get it, it will sink in and they will have enough information to make a decision.

Because that’s all that launching is – you are helping people make an informed decision on whether this program is for them or not and whether they are ready to invest now. If not, there’s nothing you can do.

Maybe they join with the next round or they simply aren’t the person this course is meant to help. And let me remind you that we aren’t in business to please everyone or try to transform everyone’s life or enroll every single person that engages with our brand inside our program.

You only need the right people. Then designing the sales page and writing the promo emails become easier because you’re doing it for that one person whose struggles you’re most familiar with. 

If you made zero sales in your last launch…

This was just one small step in the big picture that is your business journey. It doesn’t mean anything because you continue.

Don’t let that stop you from opening the doors to that same program – if it still feels right – a few weeks from now. But enter that new launch with better preparation, new energy and excitement.

Maybe set a smaller goal or don’t set any revenue goal or number of students that you want to enroll. Sometimes we might be limiting ourselves this way without even realizing.

So let go of any expectations, detach from how the launch will go and what its end result will be, enter it with confidence and focus on your desire to serve people.

If you’re in the digital product business, you have many launches ahead of you.

The fact that it hasn’t worked so far doesn’t mean anything about the future offers you’ll release in the next months and years.

Every single time you put an offer out there, you’re getting closer to your first profitable launch, and then your first 5-figure launch. How about that?

So by staying in the energy of disappointment and reliving your past failures, you’re only slowing down your journey.

The best thing you can do now is analyze how your last launch went, learn from the numbers and actions you took, make a plan for your next one, and get excited about it.

Final words

I’m curious how you were feeling about all this before you listened to this short episode and what you think now. It’s worth sitting down and journaling on all that came up.

Write about all the feelings that came up the last time you offered a paid product to your audience and saw no response. Give them a new meaning, tell a different story to yourself and make it an empowering one.

Join me in Bold Business School if you want help with all this because launching, sales and mindset are 3 core topics we’ll be focusing on. Doors open for a short period of time at the lowest price ever at the end of this month and only those on the waitlist will know about it.

Thanks for tuning it today and I’ll see you next time.