10 Lessons From My Largest Live Launch, Ever

Hey Friend!

So in this post, I’m doing something kind of different. I’m actually giving you a behind-the-scenes look at my own personal live launch that I did.

Many of you were part of the Boot Camp that we ran back in August. This was actually the largest live launch or largest sale that I’ve had to date in my thirteen and a half to fourteen years of being a full-time entrepreneur. This one absolutely blew me away. It was extremely, extremely successful.

I want to share with you 10 lessons that I learned from my largest live launch ever. Why? Because I believe that these lessons can greatly impact your future success as you move into some more advanced sales strategies like:

• A Workshop,
• A 2-Day Boot Camp
• A 5-Day Full-Fledged Live Launch

Grab a notebook and pen. This one is about to be gold.

Testimonial

Hey, Stef, it’s Joy from the Joy Loving Home podcast. I had to pop on and let you know what a difference 2 years can make. I just crossed my 2 year anniversary of podcasting. It was on Day 1 when I joined P2P with you. After graduating from that program and learning how to use some keywords, I went from one download which was me listening to myself to now having 200,000 downloads.

I know you say this can be done without social media, but I’m not sure everyone believes you. I’m here to prove that it actually does work because I have never once spoken about my podcast on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or anywhere.

My ADHD and stay-at-home moms are all finding me just because they’re searching for the things that I know they want help with. It’s been so rewarding to have that service to them. And with 2 years under my belt, keeping my head down, and doing all the things that you say, I now have a membership group that is small but growing.

I have a free community that has over 750 people in it. I just got my first podcast sponsor. They reached out to me! It’s been a wild ride. I just want to put my head back down and work some more because I’m loving this. Thanks, Stef.

This Testimony Warms My Heart

I remember sitting with Joy at the very beginning of her joining Podcast to Profit 2 years ago now and her telling me, “Stef, no one knows I’ve started this podcast. I’m hiding in my, I don’t remember if it was her attic or a corner of her bedroom. And she said, “not even my family knows. I cannot share about this.” She just didn’t want to tell anybody.

And I said, “Joy, it’s okay. You don’t have to. You don’t have to build this thing on social media.” And, man she believed me. She took the resources, training, and teachings that came from my 6-month group coaching program, Podcast to Profit straight to the bank.

She implemented everything, put her head down, and did the work. I love this testimony so much because it’s not an overnight success. It’s 2 years later that Joy is experiencing 200,000 downloads, a paid membership community, and having her first podcast sponsorship knock on her door.

This Will Build Upon Itself

Friends, what I teach you inside of my program, Podcast to Profit is that it’s something that’s going to build upon itself. It is not an overnight success. If you’re looking for overnight success, you better find yourself another coach. I’m here to create sustainability with you. I need you to be willing to grow slowly so you can grow really big.

• Do It the Right Way
• Stop Throwing Spaghetti at the Wall
• Be Strategic About the Way That You’re Going to Grow Your Business

If you are willing to trust me for 6 months, I truly believe that when you put your head down and you do the work and you’re consistent and dedicated like Joy, you’re going to see the fruit of that labor.

My Live Launch Success Story

And I am so excited to share yet another success story with you guys about how a podcast can work to grow a profitable online business. If this is landing for you, please go and do your research on joining my programs. As soon as you’ve launched your podcast, you can apply for Podcast to Profit.

I want to remind you that if you haven’t started a show, you haven’t started a podcast yet, and you’re going to come to Podcast Pro University. This is my course that teaches you how to launch a podcast. Okay, let’s talk about the 10 lessons I learned from my largest live launch ever.

Lesson Number 1: Your First Live Launch Might Stink

Here’s lesson number 1. Your first live launch might stink. It’s probably going to feel clunky. You’re going to be awkward. It’s just not going to go smoothly because it’s your first time, okay? So what I’ve learned now, I think this is my 3rd big audacious live launch.

Before this, I did small ones, like, a couple of days. And before that, I did 45-minute live launches. The first time I ever did one, and you guys I have shared this story before, my computer died! I was at my Mom’s house in the backyard. It died. I did not have a charger. The sun was casting a shadow on my face. I barely had any time to pitch at all, but I still sold some stuff.

So what I’m here to share with you is you’ve got to get it out of the way. You’ve got to do your first one in order to have your great one.

Live Launch Lesson Number 2: Perfect Your Launch Content

The second live launch lesson is to perfect your launch content instead of coming up with new content every time. So we really thought we should have an entirely different strategy. We should have a boot camp specifically on this or this or this.

But we decided to just stick with what we knew from the last couple of launches and perfect it even more. It absolutely made a huge difference. My own organic conversion went from 9% to 20%, actually over 20%, which is absolutely bonkers. I would definitely not expect that to happen for you and your live launches right now.

For my students, we have an expectation of 0.5 to 1% conversion. So to show you the power of practice and the power of perfecting a particular training curriculum, it’s really key.

Lesson Number 3: You Need a Strategic Live Launch Plan

Lesson number 3 is you have to be strategic. You can’t just decide that you’re going to do a live launch or a boot camp. By the way, these are interchangeable words. You can have a:

• 2-Day Class
• Boot Camp
• Workshop

All of them are live launches where you’re launching something into the world with urgency. That’s what I mean when I say this. But you have to have a strategic plan. If you just come out swinging and you’re like, “Oh, by the way, I’m going to do a class, and it’s going to be an hour, it’s going to be great, and hopefully you come.”

This Will Not Work!

Sorry, but it’s not going to convert. It’s not going to work. People aren’t going to show up. You’re not going to know how to prime an audience in a live launch and what are all the steps.

• You need to have a plan.
• You need to have a strategy around what this live launch is going to do.
• You’ve got to lead into the launch.
• You need to know what the content is.
• What is the podcast going to talk about to prime your audience?
• How long are you going to lead people into joining this class or boot camp?

What is your strategy to take them through these different steps in order to have them buy at the end? So, you have to have a strategy. This is where I think something like Podcast to Profit really comes in handy. Because inside Step 5 of my group coaching program, we specifically go into live launching.

I actually walk you through how to strategically set one up. You’re able to get coached in my power hour spotlight time on what your live launch should be.

• What You Should Call It
• How It Should Work
• Help With Your Email Marketing

And all of those things. So please have a strategy before you do your first live launch.

Lesson Number 4: Have a Comprehensive Workflow

Okay, lesson number 4 is to have a comprehensive workflow to stay organized. There are so many moving pieces, especially when you guys scale to the level where I am right now. We had roughly 5,000 leads coming into this live launch.

That‘s a lot of human beings. We had a team of people. My whole team was all hands on deck. We had to come up with door prizes. Yours is not going to be this complicated until you scale, okay? But this is where I’m at.

What I would do differently from my first couple is really take the time to have a comprehensive live launch workflow. When you guys invest in Podcast to Profit and you buy my operating system, we give you my live launch workflow. We actually let you upload my workflow. That’s right.

So those of you that are in Podcast to Profit, but you’re not to Step 6 yet, surprise! Or those of you that are coming into Podcast to Profit, and you’re like, ”Wow, you said a lot of fancy things Stef, and I don’t know how to actually implement those things, or I’m not sure what those steps were that you just mentioned.”

When you buy my operating system, boom, and upload this workflow, it’s really super simple. If that’s not something that’s in the cards for you right now, you need to take the time to build out a project board. It should include every single step in it with all the weeks leading up to your big launch or your boot camp so that you know who’s doing what on your team, and when each and every step is due. This way, you can stay super organized.

Lesson Number 5: Get More Help Than You Think You Need

Lesson number 5 is to get more help than you think you need. When we are live launching, it is not just my company that is on overload, but it’s my family too, because mom is working.

• I’m Doing a Launch
• I’m Working With the Team
• We’re Closing Leads
• We’re Following Up
• We’re Fixing Kinks

Things are going to go wrong. It’s a live launch. And so I get help with my kids. I have a conversation with my husband. I bring my Mom in, and she takes some load off of us to help with the kids. Also, I get more help for our team. We bring in launch team members. We pull interns off of other things to help us.

I Repeat, Get More Help Than You Think You Need!

I think that this goes even for your very first one, even if it’s tiny. You’re like, “Stef, my audience is like 40 people. I’m going to do a live launch to have fun.” In Podcast to Profit, I teach you:

• When to Do One?
• When Should You Do Your First Live One?
• How Big Should It Be?
• Should You Just Do a 30-Minute Class?
• Should You Do a Full 3-Day Thing?

By the way, there are milestones based on where you and your business are. So don’t stress about that. But let’s say you just have a couple of people in your audience and you know it’s not going to be a huge thing. That’s okay.

But I will still share with you that if you can get one other person to help you out. Whether you have a virtual assistant that can help you or even if you just grab one of your super fans from your community, and you’re like, “Hey, do you want to learn behind the scenes of a live launch with me and help me out with a few administrative things next week?”

That is a great way for you guys to learn how to start growing, and how to start managing some people to help you with the things that you should not probably be doing in your business.

Lesson Number 6: Follow-up

Follow-up is king and queen. You’ve got to follow up. The people who are on live with you during your boot camp or your training, they’re the hottest leads you have. Don’t get all high and mighty and think that you don’t have to get in the DM’s or even get on some phone calls to close people. Especially when your business is new, you do. We have an entire follow-up process for our hot leads. The team is following up. My OBM is following up and even I am following up if need be. So follow-up is going to be absolutely key to conversion.

Lesson Number 7: Email Marketing Makes a Huge Difference

Live launch lesson number 7 is email marketing makes a huge difference. There’s a whole strategy around how to create an email marketing campaign to help nurture your leads, help move them into a buyer posture and ultimately create the sale.

Inside Podcast to Profit, I give you the blueprint for what emails we send and when. I give you the structure of that email so that you don’t have to come up with this on your own. If that’s not in the cards for you, I would highly consider how you can create a beautiful experience for people. An experience where they’re going to be consistently reminded of the offer.

You’re going to remember to sell in a multitude of different ways. You’re going to be pointed and also create an urgency. This is coming off the table. It’s got to have a deadline. It’s got to have urgent offers inside of it. Email marketing is going to make a big difference when it comes to people making the decision to buy.

Lesson Number 8: Warm Traffic Converts Better Than Cold Traffic

Here’s lesson number 8. Warm traffic converts so much better than cold traffic. What is cold traffic? It means it’s people who don’t know you yet. They don’t know, like, and trust you. I want you to consider this. If I were going to run a bunch of Facebook ads and bring in cold cold traffic to this boot camp or I’m going to bring people in from my own podcast who already listen to me, who already like me.

What is that conversion going to look like? Well, our conversion looked like about 0.95% on the cold traffic. Let me say that again, 0.95%, not even 1%. That’s a 1% conversion versus over 20%. I think it was like 20.7% or something on my warm traffic.

Why am I sharing that with you? Because you guys get focused on I want to run Facebook ads. There’s a day and a time when that will happen for you, and it’s typically over 250k in revenue. So put it aside if you’re not there yet.

I want you guys focused on building your hot leads and hot leads come from what? The podcast. So instead of wasting time and energy on other things, like marketing over here. Just do more episodes on your podcast. Get more strategic, invest in P2P, and learn to grow the thing that’s going to actually make you the money in the long run.

Lesson Number 9: High Energy and Confidence Build Excitement

We’re now to lesson number 9, high energy and confidence build excitement. So you got to bring the fire during live launch week. And this means, man you got to prep. It’s truly like running a marathon. So the weeks leading up to it.

• I’m eating super clean.
• I’m getting a lot of sleep.
• I’m working out and moving my body.
• I’m having periods of rest.

Because when you get into live launch, there‘s no sleep There’s no time to pee. Like, you’re all in, okay? You’ve got to really prepare yourself for coming into a live launch of this size. You’ve got to bring the confidence.

If you are feeling insecure, and it’s normal to be a little bit anxious. You’re just going to apply that excited energy and help create a transfer of belief to your listener. You really need to mind your mind. If you’re feeling really self-conscious or like it’s not going to work. Well, friend, it’s not going to work.

If you keep telling yourself, no one’s going to show up. Guess what’s going to happen? No one shows up. Because the reticular activating system, RAS, inside your brain is going to create the reality that your thoughts are telling your brain to do. It’s just literal science. You’ve got to coach yourself through it.

• I’m going to show up.
• I’m going to give my all.
• I’m going to transfer belief.
• I’m going to pour out.
• I’m going to be excited.

Do some jumping jacks. Really get in a headspace of showing all the way up. Volume, dial it all the way to the right.

Lesson Number 10: People Love Prizes, Bonuses, and Surprises

Last but not least, lesson number 10, people love, love love prizes, bonuses, and surprises. We really ramped up the bonuses, the surprises, and the giveaways that we had at this live launch. It had such a fun impact on just the buzz and the culture that it created. People were pumped. They’re like, “I want to win.” The show-up rate is directly impacted by what you’re giving away. That would be something I would definitely implement if you want to have your biggest live launch or sale ever.

How Do I Actually Do All of Those Things Stef?

There are some strategies for you. How do I actually do all of those things you just said? Come on in and apply for my 6-month group coaching mastermind program for podcasters, and I’ll show you. I will give you all the different pieces and train you on all the different ways that we actually execute a sale, a boot camp, or a live launch. So that you can just plug and play, show up, and rock it. And the details for that are at Podcast to Profit. I will see you so soon. Thank you guys for hanging out with me.

I pray this blesses you!

Xo,

Stef

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