[00:00:00] Jeffrey: Welcome to the light new launch podcast today. We're talking about moving through the fear of launching. So stay tuned.

[00:00:53] Jeffrey: Welcome back to the show. I'm Jeffrey Sorano, I'm back again with Katie Collins today. We want to talk about one of the single most debilitating reasons people don't launch put simply they're afraid of something, but we're here to tell you that just beyond those fears is the business and the income you deserve.

So what's behind the fear and how do we move through it? Katie, please enlighten us on this.

[00:01:19] Katie: Well, first, we wanted to start off by saying the one guarantee that we can make is that you will not make any money from a launch. If you Don. Launch. So we've asked hundreds of group members in our Facebook group. If you're not in there, you should go in there. It's the launch squad, lab.com/facebook. Um, And one of the questions we ask is when it comes to launching what stresses you out the most and what we see over and over again is, um, the fear that comes up.

So there's fear about launching itself. Like people have a really high expectation of numbers. Um, you know, we use a launch calculator as well, so you can plug in how much you wanna make, how much your offer is, and then it'll spit. Based on a two to 3% conversion, you need X number of leads. And sometimes that number of leads is bigger than your entire email list.

And so then you have this fear that if you launch without the big list, without these big numbers, you're not gonna get, um, the results you want. Um, and so, so just that high expectation around numbers and then. The definition you assign to what failure means, you know what, like are you setting realistic goals?

And if you don't meet them, How are you assigning that? Yeah. What, what does that mean? So those, those are the things that, um, keep people just stuck, like continuously, continuously stuck. Their biggest fear is, oh, if I launch and don't make any money, but like I said, in the beginning, if you're not launching, you're also not making that money from launching

So

[00:03:07] Jeffrey: it's a self

[00:03:08] Katie: might as well give it a try.

[00:03:09] Jeffrey: a self-fulfilling prophecy right

[00:03:11] Katie: yeah.

[00:03:11] Jeffrey: Right.

[00:03:14] Katie: And so Jeffrey, I know you've got a solution to this. I wanted to say like one of my solutions I say to people that are launching for their first time is if you remove the sales goal and replace it with a, getting it done goal. then you win simply by launching.

[00:03:31] Jeffrey: Mm-hmm

[00:03:32] Katie: And we're gonna get into that a little bit more. Like what, um, how can you make that first launch successful, even if you don't have those kind of numbers, but truly getting the launch structure written. Getting your slides done, getting those emails done, setting up the automations, um, understanding your payment cart system, right.

And all those things. That is a huge, huge win. And I think too often, we're so focused on money. We forget to celebrate the wins that are gonna allow us to make repeatable, dependable income down the road. If not right now. So that's my kind of number one. What's yours.

[00:04:12] Jeffrey: Yeah, that's huge. And really that's. Changing the definition of a win or a success. Right.

[00:04:20] Katie: Right.

[00:04:21] Jeffrey: Um, the other thing to do here really is, um, When those things come up and they're usually judgements, right? So if I failed, the launch was a failure. What does it mean about me? I'm not worthy. Um, you know, oh, I, I'm not good at this or whatever.

Right? So you're, you're creating these internal conversations in your head. They're very judgemental. They're very toxic. And that it's not how you would even talk to your friends. Like why would you talk to yourself any differently than you would talk to your friends? If your friend came to you and said, oh, I just, uh, had a launch and nobody bought, would you say, oh, wow.

Well, you're not really worthy of getting the money you deserve. So it makes sense. Right? You wouldn't

[00:05:07] Katie: let me tell you what that means.

[00:05:10] Jeffrey: well, you're obviously a failure. Good job. So let's have tea. Um, you know, so, so really you're identifying this and you're, you're giving. A name, this, this kind of goes back to what any psychologist would, uh, or therapist or whatever would tell someone who's beating themselves up about something, whatever.

Um, you know, you just identify what that really is. And when you, when you get to this point of what does this mean? What does this judgment, I mean about myself, identify. And give it a name and once it has a name, then you can see when it comes back. You're like, oh, there's that? There's that unworthiness again, I'm feeling unworthy because of whatever, but it's, is it real right?

[00:06:00] Katie: Mm-hmm

[00:06:01] Jeffrey: And that's kind of goes into our, our second point here is like, well, is that real? Is, are you really unworthy? Because you didn't. Your expectations matched on your first launch? I, is that real? Like? No, of course not. Of course. It's not real. You, you are worthy, you are worthy because you exist. So why make up a story to combat that?

[00:06:26] Katie: mm-hmm I remember, um, back in the day when I was in therapy and I think we were talking about somebody. Yeah. yesterday. No, um, nothing wrong with therapy. Um, I think we were talking about, you know, if somebody didn't like me and I just remember my therapist being like, so what. and then I would be like, well, but then, you know, it was someone that I worked with and she was a real bully and it, it, it was very impactful.

Cause it was every single day having to share space with a complete bully. Um, you know, but it was like, she was uncovering for me that I was making up stories about myself because of that. And she just kept saying, so what, so what, so I want you. My dear listener to ask yourself that, you know, if you do launch and fail, quote unquote, and what that usually means is I didn't make the sales I wanted.

So what,

[00:07:19] Jeffrey: So what, what does that

[00:07:20] Katie: what does it mean? Right. And can you find a win in it? Like I had said earlier, well, I got all those emails done, right? Sometimes if you just sit back and count, like, oh my God, I wrote 68 emails. for this launch. Great. Um, and so, you know, other people feel like, oh, I'm not ready to launch yet because you know, my program isn't perfect.

So what your first program doesn't have to be perfect. It has to be done. It has to be delivered and you need feedback. The only way you'll get feedback on your program is when you get people to take it. The only way, not the only way, but, uh, an easy way to get people to take your program is to launch. Right. So to hold yourself back and think, oh my program's not perfect yet. So what, um, Yeah. So, and just knowing, you know, that you are learning lessons every time. Um, you know, I, I remember Jeffrey and I, we launched last year and, uh, our act of campaign is our email provider and, um, they had a blip one day and they just didn't send out one of our sales emails.

Well, that's really frustrating, right? Like how much time did we spend writing the sales emails and one of the most important ones didn't get sent, you know, and I, and I didn't log in to check because I just assumed an automation works automatically. Um, and so at the end of the launch, we were looking at our numbers and we saw this one email didn't get sent out.

And then of course, you know, we email active campaign like WTF, you know, and they're like, oh, well, we could send it out for you right now. And I'm like, yeah, you. You missed the point. Right. But, um, it's learning a new lesson every time. So now, even though things are automated, I go into my email system every day and I make sure are there people in queue in this automation, like we used to do challenge emails.

And so day one got delivered on a drip campaign and we had like 150 people stuck in Q. If I hadn't checked, then we wouldn't have known that. Right. So that was the, the lesson that I learned there. So learning new lessons every time.

[00:09:36] Jeffrey: You bring a good point about automations because they're, they're there to support your efforts, not replace your efforts. And I think that's something, I mean, probably a whole topic for another podcast, but that was a really, really good, um, lesson to learn.

[00:09:54] Katie: Yeah.

[00:09:54] Jeffrey: one of , one of these other fears that comes up is, um, Investing all of this money and what if it never pays off?

You know, am I spending my money in the right spot? You know, it it's the money going out without really, I mean, especially if it's your first or second launch, right. Putting a lot of money out without really knowing that you'll get that investment back. Uh, and then some, and you. A lot of people first focus on ads because they keep hearing the number game. And I, I would challenge that a little bit. I would challenge that a little bit and, and say, if this is your first, second or third launch, if you're in the throes of the beginning of this. Filling it up with a bunch of people using paid advertising might not be the best use of your investment at this time.

[00:11:09] Katie: Uh, yeah, I mean, Jeffrey. I'm so much more, um, don't do it. direct. Um, you know, here's, here's the, the scenario, right? When you see like a new restaurant or a new store open, they don't invest in advertising until they know all their systems are a go, everything is working, their staff is trained. And so they often have what's called a soft.

Opening a soft launch, right? A friends and family grand opening before the big grand opening, which is a couple weeks later. And I just want you to see your launch that same way. I personally don't wanna invest in a bunch of money to bring the public into a launch that I am uncertain is gonna work.

Right. So Jeffrey, where do you think people should spend their money instead?

[00:12:00] Jeffrey: listen, I'll tell you that the first thing to invest in is a good copywriter and. For the sales page and emails. These, I think are some of the pinnacle items in a launch. You want cohesion in your launch, which comes from on point messaging, coherent messaging, consistent messaging. You want everything to work together.

and I'll tell you right now, a sales page is especially vital. Like an entire business can hinge on a sales page. There are special, um, uh, sections of a sales page that are vital. There's an order you wanna follow? There's a formula to this, right? We learned a lot about this from Danny page and, and her formula and her approach to this.

Uh, but if you're a copyright that you're probably nodding your head saying, this is absolutely true. Um, so I would definitely say if this, if you're starting out or even if you've launched several times, Don't try to do the copywriting and the design for your sales page yourself, unless you are a copywriter and a designer.

These are pivotal, pivotal assets in your business that I, I believe are well, well worth the investment. And, and you know, that that could run you upwards of $5,000 for a really good. But it's worth it. It is totally worth it. You want the person reading your sales page to make that connection, to follow this form, to, to convert bottom line.

You want it to convert, right? And that's what the, the professionals do.

[00:13:57] Katie: I think that people make the mistake again of being like, oh, I, you know, I can't afford, I can't afford to invest in the sales page or the copywriter you now. Oh my God. $5,000. And they end up throwing at least two to 3000 in Facebook ads and the thing, you know, um, People that work with us in our partnership program.

That's one of the things that comes with our partnership program is a professionally written sales page. And that is not written by Jeffrey and me, cuz we're not professional copywriters. we bring in pros for that because we feel so strongly. you know, why would you, you know, it's kind of like you spend a couple hundred dollars on an amazing gift and you wrap it in newspaper print instead of, you know, some glorious, gorgeous wrapping paper in a pretty bow, right?

It's the presentation of the gift that you are presenting here. Um, and, and I've found that I've leveraged my sales pages. If you, um, came to our summit, um, Danny page did a really great interview on how to leverage your sales page in your social media and in your emails. So you're not having to reinvent the wheel and yet all that copy was written by a pro.

Right? You can still get, um, the recordings for those, if you want. We'll put the link in the show notes. Um, But I've leveraged a sales page many times. And maybe even if my offer changed, I could at least start with the sales page that I hired someone to write and I could tweak it a little. Right. So that if my offer changed it, wasn't like I had to hire a copywriter again.

Um, but sometimes it is worth it. If your offer really drastically changed and, and we've seen that as well, um, To me, that investment is one that keeps on given where, when you invest in Facebook ads, it's one and done. And you know, we have a client right now. That's invested a lot in Facebook ads and she's finding, you know, they're not opening her emails.

Now, whether they're getting into their inbox is a different story, depending on email marketing systems and all of that. Right. But at the end of the day, They're not opening your emails. And so it's a one and done, you're advertising your launch and if they come or don't come, or if they're not impressed by your launch, then you know, that's, that's kind of it, right.

you might be able to rescue some of those leads, but do you see how a sales page is a bigger bang for your buck here?

[00:16:19] Jeffrey: right, because the, all of the people you're getting through ads, you don't know if they're converting, like what's the use of. Spending $5,000 to get, you know, a thousand people in your funnel to see your sales page that doesn't convert, you know, so, and going back to the, uh, restaurant analogy, like how, why would you start inviting customers in when you don't have a chef?

[00:16:46] Katie: Yeah, you just have to know that things are dialed in. Right. And I mean, we still, you know, I hear here I am with my tech guy, quote, unquote Every business owner's dream is to have a tech guy on their team. And, you know, even with a tech guy, it's like stuff still breaks, you know? And I wouldn't wanna invest in bringing in a bunch of people until I knew my system was working.

It wasn't broken. Um, I'm dialed in. My delivery is dialed in. My content is dialed in. My program is dialed in. And so when I'm creating a new program, I would much rather have six to 10 friends and colleagues in. Then try to promote it to a bunch of strangers as if it were like the end all be all program.

Right. Instead I'm admitting it's a new program, it's a beta program. And the only way it's gonna get better is if you give me feedback. So thanks for being here. Right. Um, so, so yeah, so we really, we don't recommend trying to launch without investing in anything at all, because that's where the overwhelm comes in.

You know, there's a reason why software exist systems exist. Tech consultants exist, copywriters exist. Um, and if you're trying to do it all all on your own, because you're trying to quote unquote, save money or you wanna make money so that you can invest those mindsets, keep you stuck, right where you are every single time.

I promise that never works.

[00:18:16] Jeffrey: Which brings us to the second place to put your money in the, in the beginning is the underlying technology, right? Hiring a tech advisor, hiring somebody who's gonna implement and build the systems for you, but having a solid foundation for a marketing system that works. Is what really, really, as Katie mentioned, relieves that overwhelm, right?

You have an automated system to support what you're doing, not to replace it, but to support what's going on. It just means there's less to do during the launch. And you're just checking in on things. Is this working? Yeah. Cool. Okay. Is this working? Yeah. Awesome. Is this working? Nope. Okay. I can address that.

Right. Uh, so that's the other place I would put the money.

[00:19:07] Katie: Yeah. And you know, we had talked, um, last week we came to you and talked about mistakes. People make when they're launching. And one of the mistakes was allowing your technology to make decisions for

[00:19:17] Jeffrey: Mm-hmm

[00:19:18] Katie: When you bring a tech consultant in, they're gonna be more aware of what is available. And help you transition to the right thing.

Um, and Jeffrey offers those. So if you're interested in that, just reach out to us, um, because that's a great place to start. Yeah. Um, all right. Our fourth point we wanted to talk about today was just that concept of that comparisonitis

[00:19:45] Jeffrey: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:19:48] Katie: you may have joined some big group program that was gonna teach you about like getting your online course out there.

And that mentor just had a, literally I'm not, I'm not even exaggerating. He had a $9 million launch. He launches one time a year and he makes 9 million doing it. And it's easy to look at that and go, oh, well, I'm the same as him. I'm a course creator. I, I, you know, I can launch one time and make $9 million.

Now I know that you are not exactly think you're gonna make 9 million out of the gate. But a lot of people, when we ask them what their sales goal is, sometimes it's a high number. I'll just throw a number out there. $50,000. That's a great sales goal for a launch that works. I don't know if it's a realistic sales goal for a brand new never done before launch.

[00:20:44] Jeffrey: Right.

[00:20:45] Katie: And so really reigning in the expectation and the hope that you have for your large numbers for that first launch, in my opinion, is a mistake.

[00:20:59] Jeffrey: And, and it brings it back to that, um, uh, feeling of failure when you compare your results, your first, second launch results to somebody's 30th launch or 40th launch or whatever it is, you start making up those stories. But they're completely baseless, completely baseless unless you're approaching it thinking, okay.

My 30th launch should be that way could be that way. Right. But that's not what people do

[00:21:35] Katie: mm-hmm

[00:21:35] Jeffrey: I launched once and I didn't make any sales. My mentor launched and he made 9 million. I am worthless.

[00:21:42] Katie: Yeah. You know, I used to, uh, work for another coaching company and they tried to gamify some of their teachings. And so we would have. 30 day kind of go home and do the thing and then come back and bring the results. And it was with teams. So it was a competition and the winner won, you know, maybe a massage or something.

And I would've people come up to me and say, no, I'm not into the competition thing. And I would always say to them, the only person you should be competing against is the older version of yourself.

[00:22:12] Jeffrey: Yeah.

[00:22:12] Katie: That's all that matters. Right? So if you've never launched before, and you're about to get that out there for the first time, like I said, celebrate the fact the pages are done.

You hired a copywriter, you wrote the emails you showed up every day, right? You, you organized your launch content and you got answers. Yay.

[00:22:31] Jeffrey: you've got no competition. It's all you games all you

[00:22:35] Katie: I mean, and, and that's the thing is like the, the failure is not launch. Right. So you've already beat the older version of you because you've taken a step into something you've never done before. That is a win. And I think too often we skip over those wins with yeah. Buts. Yeah. But I really needed to make $50,000.

Yeah. But I invested, you know, let's say you did invest in a sales page and emails, and that came to $5,000. Let's say you did invest in a course platform. That's costing you $300 a month, you know, and then you have the, yeah. But. I invested upwards of, you know, six 70, $8,000. And I made nothing, well, are those investments a one and done, or are they things you can capitalize on over and over and over again?

Right. So for the most part, if you follow our guidance, they're not one and done, they are things that you can do that you can use over and over and over again. And so you there's no failure there, you know, there's just inform.

[00:23:40] Jeffrey: Here. Here's the thing though. When, when can we call it a failure is when you walk away and you say, oh, that didn't work the first time. I should never do it again. I'll I'll, I'll call that a failure. I'll I'll agree with you. That's a failure. Don't do that.

[00:23:54] Katie: You know, or it, it is those stories you make up. You're like, oh, I didn't sell anything. It must be that my niche. Um, they don't like to invest in themselves or it must be my offer. They, they didn't like it. Or my favorite, it must be the Price's too expensive.

[00:24:11] Jeffrey: Yeah.

[00:24:12] Katie: Right. And I promise you, I bet none of those things are true.

It might be a numbers game. You might be right. Like next time you launch, you want bigger numbers, right. That's you know, it is what it is. My solution to having a small list is never to say, wait till you have a big list before you launch. I think that's really bad advice. I think it's a lot of waiting. I also think you're focused on the wrong thing because you're focused on the numbers and not the.

[00:24:40] Jeffrey: Mm-hmm

[00:24:41] Katie: And so we being a more heart centered approach, you know, we focus on the people right in front of us. So I'm always saying to our clients hoops right in front of you, that's literally following everything you're doing. They're buying all of your $37 things. $97. If you have a book club, they join it. If you got a Facebook group, they're in it, they're on your list.

They're opening your emails, who are those people, call them up and sell them the course that you are about to launch. Just sell it to them over the phone. Right. I mean, especially if it's the first time, it's probably gonna be the cheapest it will ever be. Right. Maybe you're knocking it down cuz it's a beta launch or maybe you're knocking it down cuz they're your friend.

And you're like, I'm gonna give, I'm gonna, I'm gonna launch this thing for 1500 bucks, but I'm gonna offer it to you for a thousand because you've been with me every step of the way. What do you. If you make five of those sales before you launch, not only do you know that course is a go already, right? But now all your self confidence is boosted up because the fear of what if no one buys is gone, you already sold it.

And then it's even better when you can say, you know, I've only got room for 10 and five spots are already gone. Who wants it? Now? That's a.

[00:25:59] Jeffrey: you're you're now, now once you've made those sales, you're showing up to the broader launch with much better

[00:26:06] Katie: Much more confidence. Oh my God. You like puffing out your chest. Like that's right. 50%. Pre-sold boom. Right now you get to decide if you only want 10, but let me tell you if I'm interested in your offer and 10 spots available, and five are already sold, I'm gonna jump on your offer today. Right. And that's the kind of buyer I am.

Right. But you can use that sense of urgency and scarcity and it's legit. You're not lying. Right? So those are ways that I get around and I suggest you get around not having a sizable list or a sizable launch list. And instead, really tapping into the people that already know, like can trust you. I would call them warm to hot leads.

The low hanging fruit. Right. And then also tap into your business besties. If you are in any group program, you G I guarantee you've made friends there. Right. And so think through like, who do you know that would be willing to do you a favor and send an email, one email to their list, promoting your launch and promise them the return to favor when it's their.

Right. Come up with E even if your audiences aren't the same, or that might not work for, for your people, whatever, come up with a win for both of you. But it's getting out of the space of, I don't have enough numbers and getting into the space of how can I boost these numbers without paying for ads.

[00:27:31] Jeffrey: Yes.

[00:27:32] Katie: out of the I can't and into the, how can I is a huge CEO leadership level solution that costs you no money.

It's just your mindset. And that my friends is how you have a good successful launch.

[00:27:50] Jeffrey: and that's where it starts. So let's wrap this up. What, what are our key takeaways here? Um, the, the first thing I'll say is, you know, do it two to two to three times before you pass any judgment. I, I like what Katie's saying about change, uh, change the goal, right? Have the goal be to run it three times before you make any kind of judgment, any kind of judgment.

And, um, I'll say, learn from the data. Like let the data, tell you what the launch, how the launch is performing. Um, If you didn't, if it didn't feel right or what doesn't matter. Right. Did, did people come in, did they go through the launch? Did they see your offer? Did it convert at all? Right. What are the numbers that actually occurred during the launch?

Like basing it on speculation or half self criticism is not helping you, like, it's really putting a damper

[00:28:59] Katie: mm-hmm and, and, you know, we've talked in other episodes about these data points, you know, and another thing we offer is a fun analytics session.

[00:29:09] Jeffrey: Mm-hmm

[00:29:10] Katie: Jeffrey's a certified fun Alytics guy and, um, and we can get a visual display. Every step of your launch and then specific links for each of those steps so that you can actually, you have data, you can see, oh, my Facebook post didn't perform well, but my LinkedIn post did, or email number three, nobody opened right.

Things like that. Um, you can learn from, from that. And also even on your landing pages, how many people landed on. You know, sometimes percentages don't work if you have small numbers. Right. So I really like to, again, I like to bring it into people. Non numbers. So if you're like a hundred people landed on my page.

Great. How many of those a hundred opted in . Um, and now if, if you're gonna tell me 15 out of a hundred, well, that's not a great conversion rate. We're looking for 30% or higher, right. So we'd want 30 or more. And so then great. I'm so glad we got that information right now in the middle of you launching so that you can change something on your page and make it have a better conversion.

Right? So we've done a lot of conversations around data points, but I just wanted you to understand, it's not just about how many showed up. It's every step of your funnel and learning from that data. Where do your people hang out? Where are you loud and proud and how, how has that supported your launch?

[00:30:37] Jeffrey: Mm-hmm And give yourself grace, right? It's not about, uh, matching your preconceived expectations the first time. Right. And that's okay. It's about getting it done as Katie said more than once. It's about getting it done. So I think that grace, you know, allowing yourself to say, doesn't matter really what happens.

I just gotta get it done. I just gotta F and launch already. Right. Um, it, and then be wise with your investment as you're starting now. And I, I, a lot of this content really is, is aimed at those people who are launching the first time, second time, you know, if you're right there in the beginning, if you're thinking about launching.

This, this is where we really want to hit home on this is be why is with your investment and know that you're gonna do this over and over and over again. So start with a solid well planned foundation. That includes a strategy and a foundation of technology.

[00:31:38] Katie: Yeah. And I would say the final takeaway is to allow yourself to get support, to relieve the overwhelm. I mean, everyone, you know, when I say like, The word that comes to mind. When you think about launching overwhelm is the overwhelm and exhaustion are the two words people say, and I'm not gonna lie. I've launched plenty of times.

And yeah, it's exhausting. It's a lot of energy. It's a lot of extroverted energy. So if you're air more on the introverted side, it, it depletes your energy a lot, you know? And so. Support that you need, whether it's that self care support or in the home support or getting your meals figured out that week, like take one less thing off your plate, right.

And coaching, right. Or hiring a virtual assistant to support the process and just know someone's got your back that week. Um, I think there's a lot of solo entrepreneurs out there that just have this belief. They have to do it all themselves. They can't afford a team and that kind of thing. Um, again, you can tap into.

Is, and just allow yourself to demand support for what you're about to do. Um, cuz the last thing you wanna do is be exhausted before you start your program,

[00:32:52] Jeffrey: Yeah. And I, I love that creativity of. You know, usually when people say, oh, you need support for your launch. They're like, oh, I gotta hire a VA or I gotta hire this. I gotta hire the, well, no, I mean, it really could be a house cleaner and some TV dinners for the week. Right. it could be just simple. Right.

[00:33:10] Katie: Yeah. Yeah.

[00:33:12] Jeffrey: Awesome. Well, thank you guys for joining this, joining us on this. And if you like this episode, um, hit that like, and subscribe, uh, give us a five star review and you can check out all the show notes and some resources that we dropped during the episode at the launch squad, lab.com forward slash episode 81.

See you next time.

[00:33:35] Katie: Bye.