[00:00:00] Episode seven of the Aligned and Thriving podcast for ambitious female entrepreneurs where we align systems, strategy, and self for sustainable success. Hello and welcome. My name is Jada, your host, and I cannot wait to dive into this week's episode with you. Today I wanna share with you three highly important areas and actions that so many people skip when it comes to launching courses, memberships, programs, one-on-ones, whatever you might be launching in your digital business.
Even when you have done the courses, you're following the bar blueprints, you're following the launch strategy. These three areas are so often skipped over and they always come back to bite you in the bottom big time when you don't do them. So I wanted to share with them with you today. The first one [00:01:00] is.
The kind of pre-launch or the in-between launch audience growth. So people will often come to me and talk about that, their results, you know, they're not happy with their results from one launch to the next. And one of the core questions that I will always ask is whether they've done anything in between.
Their last launches to actually grow their audience. But going a little bit further than that, not just growing their audience with anyone, but growing their audience with people who are aligned with their, the offer that they are focused on launching into. And so this can also sometimes be expressed as a question of, do I really need such a long lead up into my launch?
Uh, if you have followed the launch formulas and et cetera, then you'll often see that there's a six, eight, or even 12 week lead up into a launch [00:02:00] and. You know what? Yes. The more you do in the lead up to your actual launch, the better because too often we're going slightly off track. I'm going on a tangent too often.
What I see is just, just when there is a launch event coming up, the promotion of that launch event, and then only when the open cart is open talking about the offer itself, the course membership, one-on-one service, whatever it might be, the actual thing that you're selling. Being talked about only in that open cart, which means that we haven't kind of built up the excitement, the anticipation, and the desire for the actual thing you're selling.
So that's a slight tangent, but this pre-launch. And audience building is part of the factors that increase your conversion, your sales in a launch. So speaking [00:03:00] specifically about audience building at this point, less so about that kind of direct pre-launch period of building up into your launch, but more about the in-between and kind of pre pre-launch audience building.
So this is something that is just often overall skipped all together, or it's done just slightly like just general audience growth through social media accounts or maybe just a, a lead magnet or opt in that you kind of have and you're like, I'll just pop that on and put some ads to it and we'll kind of grow the email list a little bit with that.
That's great if you're doing something a little bit actively to grow your audience in between launches, but what's even better? Is if you design a lead magnet, uh, something, people can opt into something valuable that is directly aligned with the kind of person [00:04:00] who's pretty much ready for your offer for the paid offering that you're going to sell into from your launch.
So you can. Really kind of work backwards from your offering, whether that's a membership, a course, or your one-on-one services or a program. And think about who is that person who's ready for it, and you can kind of go half a step backwards or a step back from there and create a valuable something, whether it's a video, a PDF, A guide, an audio training.
Whatever that might be that you can give away as a lead magnet to build your audience of aligned people that are going to be that half step or one step before your. Offering being ready for your offer. Because what this does is it not only grows your audience, which you know, as I said, if you have got focus on growing an audience well, you're a [00:05:00] step ahead of so many people, so congratulations.
The next step is to make sure you're growing that aligned audience so that when it comes time to start promoting your launch event, whether that's a class a boot camp. A video series, whatever it might be, you'll launch event. You have grown a list of people who are going to be ready for it. In fact, they're gonna be wanting it because you've prepped them.
You've given them something that meets them like that half or one step before it. And then within that thing that you've delivered to them, whether it's an audio video or PDFA guide, you've taken them towards that launch event, which I ease towards. Being ready for your offer. And then you can utilize the nurture sequence emails to help them feel even more ready for your offer so that by the time you're actually putting your launch event and also then your offer in front of them.
You're talking to people who are right at that [00:06:00] stage and they're even more ready and you've already built trust with them and they're very much aligned and ready for your launch event and your offer. So this is where we kind of go deeper, yes, to building the the audience, which is an area just overall it is often skipped.
So if you're doing anything in that. That area. Awesome. But let's take it that next level and make sure that we're getting aligned people into our email list and following us on social media so that when we come into that launch phase. We already set up for more likelihood of sales, for more success, for creating more conversion when we come to actually putting that offer in front of them.
So that's one of the really important areas is audience building in between launches and in that pre, pre-launch time, but not just any old audience building, creating aligned. A, an aligned audience built. Number two is doing market research. So many [00:07:00] people that I speak to, in fact, the vast majority of people have not done market research or not in depth.
So maybe they've researched. You know, Googled used chat GPT to look at like what are the types of things that people in this area or with these needs, or looking to change this thing or looking for maybe some market research. But when I'm talking about market research, I'm talking about actually having conversations with real people who are your ideal customers.
So oftentimes you're like, well, how do I do that if I don't like have them yet? Or if I don't, I don't. I haven't got a list or I don't have any people in a course or a program yet or things like that. So there's a few ways you can go about this, but the, the key point here is to have conversations with people who are your ideal audience, your ideal customer, your ideal client via Zoom or over the phone.
[00:08:00] And the reason being is that this is going to save you so much time and so much money and so much frustration because. Once you've done this, you can utilize and tap into the things that they shared, but not just the goals and transformations that they're after, and also being able to speak to then the challenges or frustrations that they share.
Going deeper than that, you're able to use the words and the language that they are actually using so that when you then. Put that into your sales page and your opt-in page and your marketing, your emails, your social media. And you use the words that they're actually using. Then you are talking directly to the people who are perfectly aligned with your offer, and you're talking to them in a way where they feel like you're literally in their head like you've built this [00:09:00] offering specifically for them.
Because a lot of times we can get a little bit caught up in. You know, jargon and lingo or words that we use when we're further along in any particular field or subject, et cetera, because we're experts in that area. And we can use words that the person who our offer is for is not using. And so one of the major, um, issues when a launch is not delivering the conversion results, the sales that you're looking for.
Is comes down to often the offer and the messaging, and so this is why I'm kind of backtracking from that a little bit and sharing this, this point of the actual market research conversations. So a couple of ways that you can go about this. You can do a call out on your social media. You can do a call out in your email list.
You could do a call out amongst family and [00:10:00] friends and asking them to ask other people who fit. Some kind of criteria, obviously, whatever kind of criteria that you have around your ideal customer or client, and. Then ask if people would be willing to get on a market research call with you. You need to share that.
It's gonna be like 15 to 20 minutes. You need to share that. It's absolutely not going to be a sales conversation. It is literally just asking some questions so that you can learn more and improve your offerings and make sure that you're serving your community better and et cetera. So you can put a call out through your social media, your emails, friends and family.
You can also, if you have already run your offer once or a number of times, you can even ask people who are already your students or your clients to, but when you talk to them, ask them to think back to where they were before they started working with you. Or ask [00:11:00] them if they know somebody who is at the place they were at before they started working with you and see if they can refer you on to have some market research calls.
So it is time consuming. It does take some courage. It, you know, it requires just kind of slowing down a bit to do this. And it might take you a number of hours. It might take you a number of weeks. And really you wanna be doing at least 10 calls, you could be doing 50 calls, and I'm not even joking. The more you do, the more you're going to gather the valuable and important information that will feed into the, the messaging, the wording, and really deeply understanding.
Not just the outcomes and goals people are looking for, but the way in which they're thinking and speaking about them, and you really wanna make sure that you dive in with extra, deeper questions [00:12:00] to understand. Kind of more deeply why those transformations and goals are important to them, so that you're able to also share the tangible day-to-day outcomes that they're desiring.
So whatever a core goal or transformation is that your. Offer actually creates or, or resolves or gives to people. You need to kind of go deeper and think about what does that actually mean for them on a day-to-day basis? Because we need that message to connect emotionally with them. What does that mean for them if they get X.
Transformation or they get X outcome, which your program or your membership or your course or your one-on-one services delivers, what does that actually mean for them so that we're getting that emotional connection and desire. So this is going to feed into, as I said, it's gonna feed into your sales copy, [00:13:00] your email copy, your marketing copy, your social media copy, the way in which you speak about things in your live launch events and et cetera.
So this market research is so incredibly important, and in fact, if you would like, I'd be happy to share with you. My market research guide that I share with my private aligned launch coaching and consulting clients and my holistic business mentoring clients, I have a guide that actually has a whole bunch of market research questions that you can then tweak to make sure that they match your industry, your area.
Uh, and if you would like that, you can just send me a DM on Instagram. At Jada Business Mentor and just, uh, just DM me the words market research and I'll be happy to share with you that guide. Alright, let's move into number three. The third highly important area that you [00:14:00] really need to focus on and that so many people skip when it comes to launching, and that is.
Planning in ways to support yourself in feeling good and at the top of your game leading into throughout and post-launch. I hear from and see and observe and speak to so many people who go through their launch feeling burnt out, and if not throughout, then certainly post-launch feel completely burnt out.
To the point where I've had people describe it as you know, that they're curled up in a fetal position on their bed after launch and literally a non-functional. Not just for days, but sometimes for weeks after their launch. Now this is a bit scary because, well, business is still continuing, life is still continuing.
We don't want our launches or our business at [00:15:00] all to be having us feel like that. So what can we do about it? We can do a number of things, uh, you know, and we can go deeper into that. But I'm very much around creating an aligned. Business and launch and all of that kind of thing. So some of it is looking at the style of launch that you're doing, how many layers you're putting into it.
Uh, there are various things that we can look at to make sure that it is going to be aligned for you, your phase of life, your stage of business, you know, your launch goals, et cetera, all of those things. Yes, but it's also a matter of pre-planning. And protecting the things that you can do to set yourself up to be feeling good and at the top of your game, and also supporting and resting and taking care of yourself in the lead in during and post-launch.
And this is going to be a bit different for everybody, but of course it's [00:16:00] going to include things like purposeful rest, things like making sure that you schedule in things you enjoy doing. So that we're not just stopping life while we're launching. Yes. You know, launch time is an extra expenditure of energy and time because it's extra to the day to day of business.
We are doing more, we are connecting with more people. Our energy output is greater, so. We can either plan in that we have less other responsibilities in our business over that time to create more space within our normal work hours and scope and et cetera, to put into the launch. Or sometimes it means that we're doing more hours or we're putting more energy output when we're doing a launch, it's quite inevitable depending on how you want to manage that and what kind of team structure you have and et cetera.
However, we don't want it completely taking over our life. So. When I sit down and I work with my private [00:17:00] clients on this. We always look at the things that they know, have them feeling their most energetic, have them feeling their most creative, have them feeling the most confident, and it can be actually building in a date night, mid-launch, or a catch up with your girlfriends or time out in nature, or you know, doing a fun.
Class or whatever it might be for you, but things that bring you joy, things that energize you, things that have you feeling good, things that have you feeling rested. So it could be put planning in more rest. It could be planning in making sure that you're moving your body every day. Hopefully you're doing that anyway.
But definitely making sure you're not skipping those things because oftentimes, and you might, you know, relate to this, and I certainly have been guilty of it in the past, I would. [00:18:00] Skip my gym sessions. I would skip the walk. I would drive my kids to school instead of doing the school walk so that I had more time on the launch.
I would spend less time getting myself nutritious food. I was taking less care of myself in a time when I was doing peak performance, extra performance, and that is not the time to be dropping down out or dropping down the things that keep you. Going, the things that keep you in peak performance, it's the time to be upping your nutrition, upping your rest, upping your health and wellness practices.
So it's really important to plan in as part of your launch plan, just like you might plan to do lives, just like you might plan to do, you know, block out time to create social media, just like you're gonna plan time to sit down and write emails, plan in. How [00:19:00] and when you are going to look after yourself and in what way?
In the lead up during and post-launch. And to take that even a step further, I would always encourage some kind of reward. No matter how the launch goes, reward yourself for doing it. It's not just about rewarding yourself for hitting a goal, it's rewarding yourself for doing it because there will be so many things that you will have achieved throughout a launch beyond.
Monetary values or the number of people that you might have welcomed into your program or course or membership. It's also just the fact that you've done it. So taking this a step further is to always plan in a reward. And a reward can be anything so longer as it is meaningful to you. It can be literally saying Cheers with your partner and.
You know, with a coffee or with a champagne or with a glass of wine, doesn't even have to be a special one, but it's the intention behind [00:20:00] cheers to this, or I'm celebrating this. It's the intention behind something. Could be taking a bath, could be going for a long walk. Could be taking yourself to the beach, could be catching up with a friend.
Could be taking yourself from a massage, could be purchasing something you've been wanting for a while, whatever it might be. It doesn't even have to cost anything, but whatever it might be, it has to mean something to you. So make sure you also reward yourself. That's a little bonus. So there you have it.
Those are three highly important areas and actions that so many people skip when it comes to. Launching their digital offers that always, always, always create either more burnout, more stress, more frustration, less income, less time, like more time spent, sorry, all of the things. As I said at the beginning, they always come back to bite you in the bum big time.
So I'd love to hear from you via DM on Instagram. Again, I'm at Jada Business Mentor [00:21:00] and I'd really, really love to hear can you relate to any of these? Which one are you gonna focus on making sure that you do for your next launch? One or all of them. And let's connect. 'cause I've definitely skipped all of them in the past.
Uh, you know. I, I put my hand up for that as well and it's so, so common. And if you're feeling like, oh my gosh, I don't do any of those things, you are not alone. There is a reason I've brought these three things up. It's really important. So hopefully that has been helpful. I'd love to hear from you. Which one, or all of these are you gonna action?
Can you relate? Let's connect. I'd love to chat with you. Thank you so much for tuning in. I look forward to sharing more with you on next week's episode.
