Ladies!

This strategy session with Courtney Sewell is for YOU if you want to launch a course with a bang, create urgency, and make a profit…even when your list is small or non-existent!

There are so many ways to generate a buzz, drive excitement, utilize your network, and push purchases by getting in front of your launch. This episode will walk you through one of my client’s new course launches from an inside perspective.

I pray this blesses you!

FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPTION:

(00:00)
Hey, Sis. Welcome to episode 140 of the show. I’m so excited because today we are talking about how to sell a course even when you don’t have a big audience. We are talking launch strategy today. OMG, you get to be a fly on the wall with me and my client, Courtney Sewell as we go through an entire launch plan for her brand new course.

(00:22)
Even if you don’t have a course yet, this is a must listen, because you are gonna be so inspired to start creating passive income for yourself and for your business right now that you may just want to get on the phone with me and grab a breakthrough call so we can map out your course. This is really exciting. I know you’re gonna love it. Let’s go.

(01:28)
Hey, just a quick reminder. Have you ever considered meeting with me for a coaching session? I just want to let you know we can grab an hour and just jam on a course for you, potentially what that might look like, outline it together. We can talk about how you can create a podcast. I can go through the four tiers of podcast creation with you. Before you jump into Podcast Pro University, I’m here to serve you and to help you Sis, if you’re getting in your own way. If you feel like you’re on the cusp of a breakthrough, but you’re just not sure what that thing is that you need to be doing next.

(02:06)
Hey, I’m Stef, let me help you. I want to mentor you through whatever it is that’s holding you back so that you can do big things, email us at info@stefaniegass.com for the coaching menu and let’s get you on the books. So, it’s been a while since we talked. So remind me what, you know, the course kind of ended up looking like, what did you end up pricing it at? And all of those details. Okay. So I did it in four different sections, week one, week two, week three, week four, et cetera.

(02:41)
Each week is a different room in your house. Okay. And what it does is it has, so it’s everything you told me to do. Good. It has a checklist. So like your kitchen, it has a checklist of all the different things, right? The cleaning product, the pots, the pans, the plastic, the food storage, all these different things. And then behind the checklist has all of the information basically that somebody would need to make a decision on those items. So I’m not telling anybody what brand to use.

(03:08)
I really wanted it to be something that somebody could take and go to the store or go look at any brand they wanted to, I didn’t want it to be specific to one brand. So, and what did you end up pricing it at? $47. Okay. And what’d you call it? The Busy Moms Guide to Detoxifying your Home. Love it. I legit did everything you told me. I mean, I didn’t just do everything you told me, and so I agreed with all of your suggestions and I liked all the suggestions that you gave me. So I went with all of that. That’s so good. I mean, and I love the price point. It’s a no brainer purchase. I think it does pair beautifully with your brand and all of those things.

(03:47)
So it’s in the world, right? It’s there. Yep. Okay. And how’s it going so far? So the first day it was good. I mean, I sold four courses, which okay. I thought was pretty okay. Considering I don’t really know how to do anything other than like, Hey look what I did. Like, that’s all I did was like post it. Right. So, yeah. And then I messaged friends and was like, Hey, go share my class. I have a lot of people that know what I have been working on. And so a lot of people were like really excited that I had finished it. And so I had lots of people that were ready to like, okay, I’ll go share it. You know?

(04:23)
Beyond that first day, then it was nothing. Yeah. And so here I am, and I know I could start trying to work on it on my own, but the fact of the matter is, is I worked so hard on it that I just really wanna get it going. And I’ve gotten a lot of really, really great feedback from people like gave it to some friends for free before I launched it and got feedback from them and stuff. So I’ve gotten really great feedback. And it’s interesting because my friends are like, oh my gosh, I can’t believe all this information. I had no idea. And it’s funny cuz I wanted it to say, I’ve been posting it about this stuff for eight years.

(04:57)
I didn’t say that, but in my head I thought it’s very interesting cuz I post about this kind of stuff all the time. But yet it was like the course that was so impactful for them. And they’re all now making these changes. That is so cool. Have you had those people write you a written review? I asked them for it. Yes. Okay. Get on them because once you have social proof, you can then use that everywhere, Courtney. Posting it in your stories once a week, putting it in.

(05:26)
What else are you doing? So we’ve got Instagram going. What else are you doing? You’re not podcasting yet, right? No, I do Instagram and Facebook are just are the only social media things that I do. Okay. So there’s two. Do the strategies here to sell this course launch. Okay. Which totally we want to launch, even though it’s in the world, we’re still gonna launch it again. Okay. Yes. The second one is you wanna have an evergreen funnel that brings business that you can monetize. Okay.

(05:57)
So the fact that you’re already doing an Instagram and Facebook post that’s educational makes me really challenge you to either do a podcast or a blog. You already have the content, right. You’re already doing it. So it’s putting it then into what a website blog so that you can Pinterest the poop out of it. And then in every single Pinterest post that people click on, it takes them back to your site, which is the course, the whole second part of the blog. Want more on this? I’ve got the Busy Moms Guide to Detoxing your Home. It’s only $47 right now learn how to create a healthy, clean space. It’s got a checklist in here. I go in a simple systematic format so that we can go through your entire home and like blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Right?

(06:40)
So I have a blog, but I mean I have one created and it has like three posts, but I don’t spend time there. So commit to that at least once a week. Okay. You’re already doing the post on Instagram, repurpose it over to a blog. And the only way we get traffic to the blog is if you’re are marketing it on Pinterest. Okay. And I’ve never done that before. Okay. Go listen to my Pinterest episode. I think I actually did listen to it a long time ago, but it was before I was doing Pinterest. So I was more of just like interested in listening. I didn’t really take notes or anything. So relisten with like a I have to do this ear.

(07:16)
And make that a priority because the woman on Pinterest is your ideal avatar. She’s got money. They’re over 75,000 per like it’s a very middle class and up market that’s on Pinterest. She’s a mom. She cares about detoxifying. Like your exact market is hanging out over there. Okay. And Pinterest is really simple once you learn it. I was doing it 10 minutes a week, it’s ridiculous. And it drives 90% of my website traffic. Wow. Yeah. It’s like, and it’s so easy. You go and you set up the little profile, you add a bunch of group boards that have to do with moms. And that’s all in my episode talks about where to find group boards.

(08:00)
You get an account with Tailwind. You do need that. And I think it’s, I don’t remember $50 a year or something. And then it automatically shares your post you’ll upload one pin, one little graphic that you create in Canva. You know, today we’re talking about using ammonia based products or something, and so you have this meme and you add it to Tailwind. It’ll automatically share it for you to every group board that you’re a part of. And then you can say reshare this every two months. Oh wow. It does all the legwork for you. And it’s amazing at driving organic traffic.

(08:34)
The biggest thing is that once you have that, let’s say that article on, should you use ammonia based products or do you know what ammonia, I’m just making this up. I have no idea, but like, do you know what ammonia based products are doing to your health? Like scare ’em a little bit. So they click it and then they read the article or like the, you know, two paragraphs, little blog posts that you’ve created. It’s got some tips and tricks or whatever, and then right below it, there’s a beautiful photo of your course. Ready for more, you ready to fully detoxify your home? Meet the Busy Moms Guide to Detoxing your Home.

(09:11)
Then you go into that little sales pitch that I said earlier, okay, click here. And maybe, you know, the click here, they can buy it right away. Or if you have a checklist of some kind that leads them into the buy or into your email list, you can start with that. I actually don’t have an email list. Okay. So that’s also a priority. Get that set up. I think I’ve been scared of an email list because I don’t know, sometimes just having the thought of creating content scares me, even though I’ve been creating it for so long.

(09:42)
Think about this Courtney, how many blogs do you already have sitting there on Instagram for the entire past year? Yeah, so just repurpose all of that and just use MailChimp, set up a free little email list. That is not hard. You’re gonna set that thing up. It’s completely free. You can create a little landing page in there that’s like a one liner, like get my four tips to detoxing your home in five minutes or less, and then give ’em something for free that’s really juicy to get their email address. And then once you send them that free thing in MailChimp, as it’s just an automatic email that you’ll set up and it’ll say as soon as Mary Jo ops in automatically send her email one and email one has the four tips.

(10:28)
It’s like don’t even overcomplicate it. And then the next email is, did you love those four tips? Guess what? I have the Busy Moms Guide to Detoxifying your Home, cuz it’s not a big ask. It’s $47 bucks. So you don’t need to feel weird about just simply telling people you have this for them. And then every week as you create your blog post, Courtney, send an email to that list. Even if it’s got two people on it to begin with. And so it’s just a copy of the blog post, Hey guys, new blog is up. Click here to go check it out. It’s all about what ammonia products are doing in the home or something. Okay.

(11:05)
That’s the evergreen marketing funnel that you’re missing. Okay. I mean we can launch to our warm market, but our warm market, just however, you know, a hundred of people that we know and selling four of ’em is great that that’s, you know, 4%. That’s great. So you’ve gotta keep growing the pipeline. Right. Exactly. Okay. And of course, you know, the next step for you, I’m gonna tell you is you should have a podcast. Yes. I mean the thought has crossed my mind and I’m sure you probably hear the same thing again and again, but I just don’t know what I would talk about. I know that sounds crazy, right?

(11:43)
All you’re doing on a podcast is basically reading your blog post, right? So like gimme something recent that you posted on Instagram about that’s educational. Tell me just vaguely. Well, I think when, so when I post things, it’s such a small, simple thing I think for me, it’s like, how do I make that into a podcast? You know? Okay. I mean, I guess for example, I posted something that said, you know, in 2019, over 40,000 people were poisoned by bleach. Okay. So here’s what you do. A podcast has no rules and a podcast is the highest driver of organic traffic to my business from anywhere. I mean to bottom line revenue. Okay.

(12:30)
If you imagine, what if you set up five-minute, minisodes once a week, they’re five minutes and this is, you know, that nutritious kind of crunchy mama who’s like really into just clean products, clean living. What if every week you had five minutes or less and you educate her on a different way that she can detoxify her home, her life, her pantry, her food, the way that she lives. And it’s basically you reading a crazy statistic, giving a story to resonate with her and then tips like two or three tips that she can walk away with to make change. Hmm. I would’ve never thought that I could do like a five minute podcast.

(13:11)
Heck there are no rules on podcasting, zero rules. I mean, it is whatever the heck you want it to be. And my only reason of saying you need that is if you’re already gonna do the work, you’re writing out a big thing for Instagram. Well, heck now we have a blog. Well, if we’re gonna write out a blog post, just read it and make it a podcast so that the SEO is working for you on Pinterest on Google search. You’re already doing the work, right. So why not be everywhere? Makes sense.

(13:40)
So table that one, but I think it’s just a no brainer to bring more traffic and awareness to what you’re really passionate about. And in every podcast episode, just like in every blog you’re yo mama, yo crunchy mama, listen up. I know you love this tip. We didn’t know what we didn’t know about bleach. Right? Super crazy. But listen, there are better products for you. I want you to detoxify your home. I’ve got a full busy mom’s guide for you. We’re gonna detox your home in two weeks or less or whatever it is. And you can come on over, check out my mini course, get your home in order.

(14:19)
And I’m gonna meet you over at blah, blah, blah.com. Thanks for being with me. I’ll meet you next week for our five minute minisode on, you know, whatever it is. We’re gonna talk next week about chemicals that are in your kids’ cereal, like right. Like, you know, all this stuff better than me, but true story. Yeah. So I want you to stay with that because if you’re doing the work, I want you to repurpose it in as many ways as possible to drive traffic to your course. Okay. I can do that.

(14:50)
Any other questions on that? And then let’s move to launch. No. Okay. So with launch, I want you to imagine that you have not launched your course yet. Okay. Because remember you think all these people see what we do. Nobody cares. Nobody’s looking at us. They’re not reading our stuff very often. They’re like, oh I do this course. I never knew that. You’re like, are you serious? I post about this once a week. Yes. So, oh, but I already launched it. No you didn’t. You published it. It’s there, but now it’s time to launch it. Okay. Okay.

(15:24)
And launch is super exhausting and I do it as very limited as I possibly can. Cuz it’s just so energetically draining, but you have to be sick of it, sick of it. And then, you know, maybe they heard it. It’s crazy. Okay. I’m ready. Okay. Let’s say you start on the 15th tomorrow and you let everybody know that your product is officially coming out on the market. Even though it’s kind of there. People just, they don’t get it. Nobody knows. Okay. It’s officially coming out on January 21st or if you’re a numbers person, whatever number that needs to be for you and let them know I am taking preorders right now.

(16:14)
You can get in at the early bird pricing. Okay. Right now you can get access at early bird pricing. Okay. And basically like you’re setting a countdown on Instagram. You are getting those friends, you’re getting those testimonies from them and you’re posting them in your stories. You’re posting them on Facebook. You are asking them to create a video for you. And talk about the course. You’re talking about the course, you’re talking about like every module you have four sections, give them a sneak peek, like okay guys. So I know our course is coming out on the 21st officially, it’ll be here for you.

(16:52)
You can access it at a special price right now. And you know, if you wanna give them a $10 discount or something for anybody that does get in before the 21st in exchange for a review and a video. Wonderful. Right. Okay. How do we promote the launch in a week? There are things you can do. You can do a giveaway for them sharing about the course and giveaway your favorite product. You can do reviews and testimonies. Those need to be shared like crazy. You can do sneak peeks. That could be you doing a quick video snippet of the course, like an insider peek. And every day, multiple times a day, this is all you are talking about.

(17:40)
There’s no way to oversell a launch. It’s like you’ve gone off the deep end. It’s like, oh gosh. But here’s the thing. People sometimes watch our stories and unless they’re an avid follower of you, then maybe they’re watching every story. But so what they’re like, yeah. Get it girl. Like if they’re an avid follower, they’re gonna be your biggest fan. Right. So don’t feel weird about that. So there’s giveaways, they’re social proof. Like all the testimonies there’s sneak peeks that you can do. There’s a giveaway. I would totally give something away for people sharing about the course or sharing about your account or the knowledge that you have.

(18:20)
So then how would I do a giveaway like that? So I would have it for the week of launch and let them know like, Hey, if you share about the course or you share one of my previous posts in your stories, you save a picture from their account into a folder on Instagram. Or this is what I do. I save them into a folder called giveaway. Then once I’m done with the giveaway, I go into like name picker.com like the free ones. Okay. And type in all their names and do the drawing live in my group. Okay.

(18:52)
Maybe you have like a little cleaning gift basket or something. Right. That has to do with, I don’t really want you to gift access to the course cuz we want them to be buying it and not waiting. Like did I win first? And then I’ll buy it. So yes, of course do something else. Okay. So those are all ways. So now that you’re gonna be doing all of this by yourself, how do we get more visibility outside of, you know, Courtney’s Instagram and your Facebook. That’s where you wanna think about a launch team.

(19:25)
Now with a launch team, I would take, obviously those girls that have gone through the course for you. Okay. Ask them, Hey, will you be part of my launch team with me? And you know, whatever you wanna do for them, I’ll send you a free product or, or will you do it out of the goodness of your heart? Cuz you love me. Yeah. Think of five people that you think either have a similar market, they’ve taken the course. They are really supportive of you. They obviously need to have social media think of five people, voice message them really, you know, authentically heartfelt and say, will you be part of my launch team with me for a week?

(20:04)
I need you to help me promote this course help me promote like the mission that I have behind having a clean home when detoxifying the products that you’re using, I would love for you to help me market this. And if you do, I think it’s, you know, I’ll send you a free product or I’ll send you a thank you gift, et cetera. And really all you’re asking them to do is at least once a day share about it for you. Okay. Because imagine if you have five people that say yes to that and they all have a hundred followers and let’s say half of those followers watch their stories. Well now you’ve just touched 250 more people, right? Yeah. Okay. Perfect.

(20:40)
So that’s the launch team and then what you’re really driving I think in this week is you can get early access now and cause urgency sells. Logistically, how does that work? As far as like, I don’t unpublish it right. I just get the price changed. How do I do that? Yeah. So it’s in Teachable, right? Yes. Go into Teachable. Change the price to $37. Don’t give people like links or anything. So if you have that like as your biolink right now or something, take that off. Okay. And then let them know. Okay. Like I’ve got it at a very special early bird price.

(21:22)
You guys can get exclusive access for the next week. Only, only until the 22nd, when it’s launched to the general public, you’ve got to DM right away. So I can get you on the insider list. And the reason that I want them to go through you instead of just going and buying the course is because you need to say, yes, here’s the special link to grab it at $37. Even though anybody could go buy it, nobody will. They’re gonna do what you tell them to do. Right. So they’re gonna come into your DM and you’re gonna say for this special price, I need you to just commit to me that you’ll give me a review and I need that review within three days.

(21:55)
So you’re gifting them a special price, but you want a testimony in exchange and you can use that testimony now in marketing reviews and testimonies are insanely valuable. Okay. So, let me think, you know, the other thing you might consider would be, do you have any Facebook groups that are really into this whole sphere? That you’re part of? I mean I have crunchy mom groups, but I feel like crunchy mom groups are not my target, because a lot of those people are like super crazy. And I’m just looking for like the average person that’s trying to do better. Not the crazy person that thinks they should like be able to eat every ingredient they use in their home. Like crunch ish.

(22:35)
Semi crunchy, you know, people just looking to do better. Not like super crazy extreme. Yeah. That’s like me. I’m like, oh I could do better. But like I don’t care immensely to where I’m like, can I lick my counters. Yeah, exactly. I was just dyeing my hair and I’m like thinking so many people gimme so much flack. I’m like, but I have to dye once and then I’m gonna use the overtone from then on. So that’s like, it’s like me, I’m your market. So maybe instead of the crunchy groups, you go into the mom groups that you’re part of or find moms. Oh hot dang.

(23:20)
I just got a great idea. So create that freebie that I told you to create. It’s like four tips to detoxing your home in five minutes. Right. And it’s just like, you could do it in word if you want to. It’s not about the aesthetic. Okay. It’s about the content. Create a simple free thing, go into these groups and create, of course you need the email list. Right. And you need a landing page that says grab your four tips to detoxing your home in five minutes or less. And it’s got a box for their email and first name and that is it super simple. It’s white. Like it doesn’t need to be fancy. Okay.

(23:55)
So what’s a landing page? Like would that be like just a blog post? Like on my blog? No, that’s through MailChimp. A landing page is through MailChimp, and it’s the little page where you opt in for something. Oh, okay. And it’ll be free in MailChimp for you to create. Now go into these groups and be like, Hey, I’m looking for average wanna be crunchy moms. So make it funny. Right. I just created a freebie and I need your feedback. I’m wondering if the content that I’ve put into this freebie is helpful. And if you guys have any feedback for me, if you’re interested, would you please comment below with your email address for me?

(24:37)
Do that in every mom group, because you’re not promoting something, but you’re asking them for feedback. And I think that’s a great way to get some feedback to start your list, to then funnel them into your course. And I did that with my podcasting one and I got hundreds of people in my email list. I got great feedback and I got a couple sales and I think that’s a great place for you to begin that. You’re just growing an audience right now. Okay. awesome. So lots of things. Any final questions? I know I left you with a lot, but you’ll have the replay to be like, what did she say?

(25:17)
I took a lot of notes. I have one last question is how do I make the link clickable on Instagram? Well, the only way you can is to have the link in your bio. Okay. So you’re gonna go into your settings and it will ask you, what do you want your URL to be? Or your link to be. Oh, okay. Yeah. And you know, eventually I want it to be a link where you have your blog, your podcast and your course. Okay. So for now in my bio, what clickable link should I have, the blog? Yes, because I want you to get started with that right away. Okay. And that’s where they’re gonna go to get a little bit more meat and free value about what you do and the more they learn from you, the more they trust you.

(26:16)
And they’re gonna see your upsell in every blog post and that repetition it’s like, oh, maybe I should grab that course. Yeah. It’s only $47. I come to her blog every week like, maybe I’ll just grab it. You know? And so that’s where you’re able to sell the implementation for her is right there inside of every blog or every podcast in the future. Okay. Perfect. Lots of stuff to do. Yes, I’m excited. Can we just pause and talk about how amazing that conversation was with Courtney? I am beyond excited for her to launch her brand new course into the world with excitement and passion and have success and start seeing those passive income dollars roll in while she helps women detoxify their lives. Like triple win.

(27:05)
Anyway, I just wanna leave you with a big virtual hug and say thank you a bajillion percent or a bajillion times for being on this journey with me. I love you. I am so grateful for each and every one of you. And if you’re not over in my Facebook group, the Mompreneur Mastermind Show sisterhood, you need to get over there. I have been up in there, we’ve been having candid conversations about businesshood and motherhood and we have polls and we’re having fun. So you can come join us. Sending you love. I am lifting you up right now with happiness and joy and sending you God’s strength for whatever you need today.

(27:54)
I’m sending you joy so that you can look around you and notice all the incredible blessings that God has gifted. You just smell those little kids. I hope they smell good, but breathe them in. Soak them in. If you have teenagers, God be with you. I hope I pray that you are enjoying your life. Okay? I pray that you are just feeling into the blessings that you are surrounded with and know that wherever you sit right now, it’s enough because God’s given it to you and He’s put you in your seat, right where you sit. Right now He’s preparing you. He’s preparing you. So don’t get lost in the want and the I wish and the when, but get lost in the now, the present, the glorious miraculous life that you are leading. See you soon. As always, love and light, Stef.