FAILED LAUNCH? What to do When Your Thing FLOPS!

Hi Friend!

Nothing? Seriously? WHY isn’t anyone buying? Whaaaaaa….

***insert tears, feelings of lack, overwhelming frustration, and thoughts of throwing in the towel***

You did everything right. You planned, you prepped, you showed up BIG-TIME, you put yourself out there, you set up the landing pages, the carts, and the copy. You on mascara for crying out loud – you went live and you dripped those emails. You. Did. Everything. Right.

And your THING flopped. You didn’t hit your goal. You didn’t get the clients. You didn’t have that big juicy launch you hear the experts tout as ‘so easy’. And it SUCKS.

Sister, hear me. I’ve been there. Multiple times. In 3 years, I’ve created 8 courses and retired most of them. I’ve gone live when NO ONE watched. I’ve had a group coaching program that no one joined and courses that no one bought. I know how gut-wrenching it is to feel like you failed.

That’s why I put together this episode for you. Hear me – in order to have your SUCCESS STORY, you will have your failure. In order to launch BIG, you will have to learn, grow, and sometimes pivot your offer based on your audience.

In this episode, I walk you through 5 THINGS you need to evaluate after something fails, flops, or doesn’t do what you expected. There is no such thing as giving up, there’s only GROWING UP. Taking lessons and applying them, tweaking, and re-doing!

Perception is EVERYTHING, sister. When we look for hidden blessings and keep pushing, we WIN.

Join me and learn from my journey so that you can stand up, dust off, and keep pushing.

Your success story is only a few chapters away. Let’s get you there.

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00)
Hey loves. I am here to record for you another bonus episode. I hope you’re loving the extra episodes this month. I officially have lost my mind, but I figure if there’s anything I can do to keep you inspired and excited, there has been no time such as this, right? Because the world be crazy. The kids, the distance learning everything, it’s just a lot.

(00:28)
So I’m here and I’m showing up at a deeper level for you this month, because well, God led me to, and I’m happy to do it. So sisters, today, we are going to talk about what to do when your thing flops. Wah wah. What to do when your launch doesn’t really launch, you know? It kinda like looks really good. The space shuttle is prepared.

(00:57)
We’ve got all of the rocket fuel, like you’ve told everybody about it and they all show up and it doesn’t take off. Yeah, girl. Yup. Talking to you. What do we do when the thing doesn’t sell? That’s what’s up. We’re going to get into that. And here’s the hope and the excitement. The good news is that it’s not all for not, and we’re going to use it for good.

(01:30)
Real talk. I have helped so many incredible women. Like hundreds, start podcasts, start coaching businesses, create the online courses, launch the courses, do the things, but not every single one of them has had a massive success story, right? Like not every single person just does one thing and it explodes and you’re done, you know like wham, bam. Thank you, Ma’am.

(02:48)
I made my 10K launch, like check, done. Like I’m up, I’m up. I’m up. I’m headed to the milli’s. No, sisters. Hear me. Like the road to your ultimate breakthrough is long. It’s stanky. It’s hard. It’s rocky. It’s full of rubble, and you’re going to trip and fall. You are going to trip and you are going to fall.

(03:10)
If you have not had a launch quote unquote or a product or a thing or crickets yet, it’s coming. Why am I saying that? Not to be negative nancy, but I’m telling you the truth about figuring out your thing. Okay. In order for us to really have a huge success story, we have to ultimately figure out what the number one demand is inside of our market. And some of us don’t have a market yet. You know, some of us are still growing.

(03:41)
Some of you are new to your space. And so how do you ultimately know what your signature product will be? You don’t, you test, you launch, you do trials. You experiment, you, you show up in a big way and you create what you think things are. Then you’ve got to just pray and hope that it is the thing.

(04:02)
To date, I think I have created like seven or eight different products, and I only now market really only market two things, two passive things. Now, of all of the things I’ve done, I’ve had two products like full on flop, like flop face, flop, belly flop in the pool, red belly, like you’re not walking flop. And it is debilitating and it hurts and it feels like you failed. It feels really hard and really just sucky of let’s just be honest. It sucks.

(04:45)
It sucks. Cause you did all this work and he did all the things and he did the market research and you poured into the creation and you showed up and then you put yourself out there and you did the video marketing and you promoted, like you’ve never promoted before. And you set up the landing pages and you just worked so dang hard and it didn’t sell.

(05:08)
Or it didn’t sell well or nobody cared or nobody bought or one person bought it. It just, it didn’t work out. It feels like you’ve been gut punched. I’ve been there. I want you to hear this. I’ve been there. But what I’m here to talk about today is I don’t want to just validate this flop or this, this kind of moment of feeling like you failed.

(05:34)
I want to validate the why and the beautiful blessings that come from that experience so that you can see that the fruitfulness of you doing an acting and trying and working it out and then staying, staying with it. Even though it seems like it didn’t work out is always going to end up playing out in your favor, right?

(05:59)
Because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance James 1:3. And another oneFfor, we live by faith, not by sight. 2 Corinthians 5:7. Just you guys, faith is everything. And we are going to have our faith tested as entrepreneurs and as Christian entrepreneurs. This is part of it.

(06:25)
So let me walk you through some of my flops and talk to you about what happened after that so that you can have that perspective change and that perspective shift. And instead of hiding from your perceived failure, you can face it, head on and pull from it, all of the lessons and glorious blessings that are going to come from it, because that is inevitable. All right.

(06:52)
The first flop or quote, unquote failure, really big one that I had was trying to relaunch my very first group coaching program. It was called passionately profitable. And it’s incredible. It’s for the beginner entrepreneur, really setting up like the business foundations. Like what do you do? Niche, avatar, email marketing, like that type of thing. It’s a great program.

(07:15)
But when I launched this, my audience was really small. And I think the first time I did it, it was amazing. I think I had like 10 or 15 people. Well, I thought this is so wonderful. I’m going to launch it right away again. So I tried to launch it like immediately after. The problem was, you guys, I just didn’t have enough super fans. Like everybody had already taken it. So nobody bought.

(07:36)
Actually, let me take that back. Four people bought it, but I was going to run it again as like this live program. So for me going from like 15 to four, I, all the things I’m like, uh oh, like, Oh, nobody wants it. The first one must have been horrible. And nobody, nobody wants to do it again. There’s no demand. I must not understand my avatar.

(07:58)
Like all of the limiting beliefs flow in when something doesn’t sell. How many of you are experiencing that? If you are listening to this episode, you’re either just an avid Lola and I’m so grateful you’re here. Or you have experienced this before, or are experiencing it right now. Like I tried to create something and it didn’t sell. It didn’t work.

(08:18)
My launch didn’t work. It flopped, it failed. Nobody bought it or I’m hearing crickets or like, I can’t get anybody to hire me. And you’re in that, in that space. And so the limiting beliefs you are feeling are nobody wants to work with me. Must not be a good product. I must not be qualified to do this thing. I just can’t sell. My pricing is wrong. What else? Um, I’m a loser. I should go get a job. Or was that just me?

(08:49)
I was like, that’s it. I’m done hanging up the hat. Give me corporate back. Thank goodness. I didn’t do that. You guys, but here’s the crazy thing inside of every perceived failure, there are incredible lessons that you can apply. Here’s the reason that things don’t sell don’t work, don’t fly off the shelf. Here they are.

(09:10)
You need to write this down and we’re going to answer these questions for my flop so that we can take a look at this as a real life example. So the question number one question is how many super fans do you have? If you guys have not listened to that episode, let me tell you that episode. You have to listen to it because you must know this number is episode 199.

(09:34)
If you don’t have enough super fans and I’m talking, you have to have 200 super fans even make one sale a month, write it based on my calculation. So sometimes you guys are launching things, thinking you’re going to have this big influx of sales, but you don’t have enough super fans to have that. So that’s the first question.

(09:55)
How many super fans do you actually have? What is the realistic expectation? Because if you don’t have a lot of super fans, create the thing and then just stick with it, keep marketing it. Over time as you grow that super fan number, more people follow you more and more people listen to your shows or whatnot. The more you’ll sell just on an evergreen basis.

(10:17)
The second thing you have to ask yourself is, did I create this for them? Or did I create this for me? Right? When I relaunched that group coaching program, that was for me, I wasn’t hearing any additional demand. They weren’t saying Stef, we wish we would have been part of it. Like relaunch it, do it again. I didn’t bring it to God. I didn’t pray over it.

(10:38)
I literally was like, I have all this stuff. I’m just going to redo it. When you do that and you don’t bring your business decisions to God and you try to create something, that’s just for you and you haven’t heard from the market. If this is high demand, you haven’t analyzed how many super fans are left that haven’t taken it yet before you relaunch.

(10:59)
You haven’t heard that Holy Spirit, divine intervention, that whisper go, then it’s probably not the right timing. It’s not for, for her, for your avatar because before I ever create something now, before I bring something to you guys, I’m making sure you’re asking me for it. Now I understand that this is easier once you have an audience, but again, if you don’t have an audience yet, you don’t even have the super fans to make the sales and you just keep showing up organically.

(11:31)
Don’t leave the job until you’re making enough money in this online business and your online thing to leave the job. Okay? Because you never want to be in a position of panic when something isn’t selling, you don’t want to have that desperation. So that’s number two.

(11:47)
Number three is you didn’t sell it enough. You didn’t up at a high intensity to sell it. So I’m gonna use another example. You guys know, I just, I just created the course masterclass for you guys. I have not sold very many of those. Why? Not because it’s not in high demand because it is not because I don’t know that I have enough super fans. I do. Not because I didn’t talk to God about it. I did.

(12:19)
This one is on me. It’s because I’m not selling it heavily. I’m not promoting it like a gangster. I’m not in my groups doing bootcamps and promoting it and talking about it 24/7. I did a couple of podcast episodes to it. And I’m like, here it is. Why did I do that? Because that’s not my signature product. Because I’m just going to pin it up on my website and whoever needs the backend of course creation the tech part of it. I’m just going to say, go buy the course.

(12:46)
It was an evergreen strategy. So if you’re not really behind what you’re selling at a super high capacity, it’s just not going to sell. Why? People need to hear about it. Seven to 15 times before they even consider it. Timing has to be right. You have to have enough super fans. You have to know what’s in demand. And then you have to be so excited about it for a straight week, a straight week.

(13:10)
Like I’m talking all up on your ish. Can I say that? I’m like really bringing it. You have to use organic hype. And so that could be why your thing didn’t work. Okay. The next reason why your thing potentially didn’t work is you weren’t clear on your messaging. Like what does someone walk away with when they buy this thing? Not what is this thing? Not what’s inside this thing, but like, what’s the actual takeaway?

(13:42)
What did they get? Right? Like when I’m my signature product that sells like gangbusters. I have a really funny story for that. For those of you two who are looking for hope like Stef, can you just get, get to the chase? Like cut to the chase. Where’s my hope right now. I’m going to give that to you in a second.

(13:57)
But with Podcast Pro University, I don’t sell it like this: buy Podcast Pro University, which has 17 modules, including how to record, edit and monetize your podcast, like, wah wah. No it’s like: Sister, do you want to walk away with an organically growing flourishing audience? Do you want to make money from sitting behind a microphone?

(14:24)
Do you want to show up braless and flawless in your PJ’s without having to use video to grow your online business and to touch more people using free strategies? Guess what? You need a podcast. In my number one podcast for the mompreneur for the online female entrepreneur, Podcast Pro University, I’m going to walk you through literally everything you need. Super simple. You’re going to walk away with the podcast in 30 days or less.

(14:54)
Do you guys feel the difference? Like when you sell something and this is what I’m saying, it takes practice. It takes repetition. It takes honing in on your skill. If sales is not a skill for you here, I’m literally telling you exactly what to do next time so that you can be better prepared if you hadn’t launched it and practiced and tried it, you would have nothing to improve.

(15:20)
So I’m giving you the different criteria right now of how to analyze what potentially didn’t work or wasn’t right. When you’re, this is number four, when your messaging is off, when it’s not about her, the takeaway, what does she want desperately want? What are the triggers? What are the things she’s seeking? Then you give them the answer. It’s not about what’s inside your thing. It’s not about what it’s like to work with you as a coach.

(15:46)
It’s not about what’s inside of your masterclass or mastermind or product. It’s about what did they get and walk away with? They don’t really care how they get there. So that’s number four. Number five is the platform was unaligned. What does this mean? Maybe your audience really craves one-on-one they crave you. Like you’re the secret sauce they want to do coaching with you. You’re like the person for them. They are always on your lives.

(16:18)
They’re all over your podcast. You offered an online course and nobody bought it. Maybe it’s because you’re the secret sauce. Everyone’s demand was to work with you privately. Okay. I hear you. So instead, launch a mastermind where you are present at a higher price point, okay? Maybe it’s opposite. Maybe they love what you teach and they really love your strategy. They wanted an online course to learn whatever, like how to create videos or something.

(16:51)
Then you offered this membership group and they were like, I don’t want a membership group to learn, to make video. I want a super short in your face, easy to digest. E-course okay. Maybe, you know, and maybe like, if you’re doing an eCourse and you launched it at $2,000 and your avatar is a brand new online business person, who’s trying to use a video on Instagram for the very first time.

(17:18)
Like they’re not paying that. Okay. Or maybe your entrepreneur is established in her business and you launched a $27 membership community. She’s like, I don’t want to be part of a membership community. I want the full immersion experience with you. So that, which is number five is you have to analyze was the platform misaligned?

(17:40)
Because that’s an easy fix. Ask people. Y’all if you recently have tried to do something and it didn’t work, I want you to ask your audience why? Why didn’t you guys buy this thing? Was it the price? Was the platform? Was my messaging unclear? Did you not understand what you’d walk away with? Um, is this not something you even want and need? Like, just ask.

(18:06)
When we are vulnerable enough to get out there with our community and get that feedback back, we can then just tweak, guys, tweak what it is we were selling and sell it again. 30 days later, this, so here’s your good news. Here’s your hope. When you go through those five questions and analyze, what did I launch? Where am I at? Do I have enough super fans to do this thing?

(18:33)
Is this something that they needed and wanted? Did I bring it to God first? Did I price it appropriately? Is the platform aligned with how people want to learn from me, from you? People love to learn from me through one on one coaching and then through my signature course, Podcast Pro you that’s really it and my mastermind.

(18:53)
So if I launched a membership community, that would be totally misaligned with you guys. None of you would want to be part of a membership with me. And also I’m never doing a membership. I’m just going to lay that out there. I guess I should never say never, but I’m 99% sure. I’m not doing that.

(19:08)
Because that’s just how you guys jive with me. I know you so well. And I’m willing to ask you why something works and why something doesn’t, do market research and test. So you have to do that, that work to ask yourself what wasn’t exactly right. Was your messaging off? Was your pitch off? Did you not sell it enough? All of those things.

(19:30)
Then what I want you to do is fix it. Fix those things. If you don’t have enough super fans, lay down the course for six months and double down on your podcast. Do two a week, do three week. I don’t care. Double down on growth. Okay. If you didn’t ask them what they actually need, lay down the course or lay down the coaching or whatever the thing is and get in your analytics.

(19:56)
What do they need? Get in the inbox. Open the doors to communication. Start asking, really get insightful. Look at your podcast episodes. Which ones are people devouring. That’s what they want from you. And then check it yourself. Was the pricing right? Was the platform correct? And fix it, just fix it and then set a date to redo it. Redo it.

(20:20)
So here is the exciting news. I try to do that thing and that, so what did I do? I laid it down and I doubled down on my podcast for an entire year, maybe six months. Then what did I start doing? I started getting deeper with my audience. Be like, what do you guys need? What do you guys need? What do you guys need? What do you want? What do you want? Paying attention to my analytics?

(20:42)
I saw this recurring theme of like, Stefanie, we want to grow an audience. We are tired of crickets. We don’t want to spend money on Facebook ads. We’re super over funnels. I don’t want to do Facebook ad spend. I just want to like be and show up and like have fun with this business, but have it still grow.

(21:02)
I want to do it organically. And Stefanie, I’m willing to do the work I’m willing to do the long play the long game with you. I knew the answer was podcasting. Cause I had done it. Then you guys were hiring me to start podcasts with you over and over and over again. And finally it clicked and God spoke to me super vividly. And I created Podcast Pro University, which became my signature product.

(21:23)
Here is the moral of the story though. When I launched podcast pro university, I didn’t have a launch strategy. Like I have now. All I did was like, hi, I have a course. I’m so excited, yay buy it. And it was a very tiny launch considering the super fan number that I had at the time, it was a small launch. It was a couple thousand dollars.

(21:44)
I was excited about that. I really was because I had never had a thousand dollar course launch like that. Anyway, I then was just like, well, I mean, God told me to do it. The demand is here. I’m just going to stay super hyper focused on this until because I knew all five of those questions. Yes. All five of them were right.

(22:06)
Sometimes when you guys launch something, it’s not about the launch being a flop or it’s not about the strategy mishap or you not doing something correctly. It’s about you staying faithful and, and focused until God makes good on that promise. Right? When it’s literally from him, don’t lay it down. Don’t give up, keep going.

(22:31)
So I just kept organically marketing podcast, pro university. I pitched it to big affiliates and they said, yes, like everything aligned for that to become super successful. Over the course of a year of just organically marketing it, it has now since become, I believe the number one online course for Christian female entrepreneurs who want to start a podcast. I know it and I’m seeing tons of, um, social proof.

(22:58)
People are launching top 30 ranked shows. They’re launching in 30 days, thousands of downloads, people are loving it. It’s exciting. It’s fun. The SEO is working, all the things. And now I can say I sell, you know, one area every day, every other day, which is insanity fully organically. So what I’m saying to you guys, just take a look at what happened.

(23:23)
Do some exploration, answer those five questions. If all of those five questions are not, yes, you have some work to do, but don’t give up. Fix it, tweak it, put a pin in it, put a tack in it and then redo it when all those questions are. Yes. Or when you’re like check, check, check. If you did every single thing, right? And you feel super aligned with it and you just are at a like, why didn’t this work? Why is nobody hiring me?

(23:48)
I know the demand is here. I know everything should be working. This should explode. This should be my thing. Don’t give up on it. Then It is your thing. It’s just a question of when God is going to take all of those beautiful seeds that you have planted and water them and have your incredible fruitful garden bloom for you, as my client, Heather Shriver Burns says, right?

(24:15)
It’s not sometimes about our timing. It’s about staying consistent and believing that this product, this thing, this coaching business, whatever is going to be there for the long run and not laying it down. It’s a test. It’s a test to your confidence in what you’ve been asked to create.

(24:35)
So wherever you sit today, I want you to know there is growth and learning in every experience. Every time you open your mouth to sell something that doesn’t sell, you get better. Every time you create something, you get better. Do you think that my latest course is as good as my very first course ever was? Absolutely not. But I learned, I grew. It was fun.

(25:01)
Let me give you a little secret here sister. The first thing you create will not be your last and it will not be your most successful. So just get ready, get ready, to try to create, to pivot, to explore different options, to revamp to rework and then to relaunch because that’s this business, that’s the business you’re in.

(25:25)
If you’re an online entrepreneur, you did not pick this so that it would just be easy. You picked this because you were called to do this work. Yes. That means getting in, digging in and not giving up until, until you see the incredible provision and favor that God has in store for you, because you didn’t give up. You kept showing up and pouring into your avatar, into your person over and over again.

(25:54)
When it didn’t make sense when no money was there, when you just didn’t understand why things weren’t selling or how things would sell or what to sell. Because it’s not about that. It’s a question of are you willing to give and to show up for the calling inside your heart, with the spiritual gifts that God has blessed you with, even when it doesn’t make sense?

(26:20)
I know the answer is yes, because you’re still listening to this because you’re still here because you’re one of my Lola’s. And if I know anything about you, I know that you do not have a spirit of fear. I know that you are strong and you are steadfast because you are a daughter of the King and daughters of the King. Don’t give up easy.

(26:40)
So I want you to keep fighting. I want you to fight, to rise up and to rework relaunch dust off and keep going. I hope this was encouraging. I hope that this was a word that you needed to hear today. And I pray that God just encourages you pours into you, lifts you up and reminds you. You are enough. The things you are creating are a value.

(27:04)
They are in demand. And if, if they need to be tweaked or reworked or whatnot, that God just gives you that clarity. He gives you the peace in your heart to know that what you’re doing is right, and to keep pushing and keep going. I pray for provision and favor over your businesses.

(27:21)
Over the people that are led to you. I pray that you are aligned with every opportunity to help you grow and scale and step into your full potential, your God gifted potential, and that you just trust and have faith in God’s plan for you. Love you Jesus name. Amen. I’ll see you back here soon. Love and light, Stef.