Wendy (00:00.858)
Hello there. Welcome back to The Coaching Edge. I'm your host, Wendy McCallum. We're to talk about something today that comes up a lot with the coaches that I support in my business building group program. And that is how to deal with a disappointing launch. I hear this all the time. Coaches get really excited about their first online offer. Maybe they're creating a group program.
Maybe it's an evergreen course that they're going to sell, but they get really, really pumped about it. And they put so much energy and heart into the launch process only to have the enrollment be really low and for them to feel really disappointed and frankly, like the launch was a complete failure. And that can be so demoralizing. And the thing with that, you know, the demoralized state that we find ourselves in.
when it feels like we failed is that it's also paralyzing. It doesn't lead to any growth or any further action. And that means that very often what happens is coaches get stuck in that and they don't ever relaunch. And there are all kinds of assumptions that coaches make around what it means when a launch fails. And I wanna be really clear, programs don't sell for a million reasons.
And 99 .9 % of the time when I'm supporting a coach and we get into the details of what happened and what they did and what they didn't do, the reason that the program didn't sell is nothing to do with how good the program is or how good the coach is. It's something completely separate. But we often take it very, very personally and assume that the fact that the program didn't sell and that we didn't succeed in the way that we wanted to succeed with this launch is a direct reflection of how good of a coach we
And that can again lead to that demoralized state where we actually take no further action and decide, forget it, I'm gonna shelve this program and I'm never gonna offer it again. I'm here to try to encourage you not to do that. I'm here to try to offer you a bit of a reframe and some information that might be helpful to you in terms of shifting your perspective or lens on whatever last launch you had that didn't go as well as you wanted to, maybe dusting off that program that you worked so hard to create, pulling it back out and relaunching it.
Wendy (02:18.542)
episode today is not about the nitty gritty of launch. This is not about, you know, launch strategy and talking about, you know, how many emails you should have in your, you know, email sequence, whether you should offer like a live event or not, whether, you know, you're, you're going to have like a cart bonus, mid cart or a closing bonus. Like that's for another podcast episode. What I'm really talking about today is the mindset around what makes a successful launch.
and how to shift your lens or perspective so that you can actually stay in a growth mode when it comes to your business and your program and course, and take advantage of everything that you learned during the launch process and then actually use that to launch again and launch more successfully. So the first thing that we need to talk about is how you're defining success.
Because almost always this is a huge piece of why coaches feel like they failed. They define the success of their launch based on very specific, objective, measurable criteria that are also outside of their control. So for example, a coach might say, this program will be a success if I sell 10 spots and make $20 ,000. In that situation, the only way to succeed
is to sell 10 spots and make at least $20 ,000. If you sell less than 10 spots or you make less than $20 ,000, you haven't met your goal, therefore you have failed. I know that's a really simple example, but I'm doing this for a reason. I'm gonna compare it to a different way of goal setting around success. That's a behavior -based, very specific metric -based definition of success. And it involves factors that frankly are outside of your control. You cannot control how many people sign up for your course.
You can't control how the copy resonates with people. I mean, you can do all the, make all the best efforts to make your copy, you know, as good as it can be. But when you are launching, especially for the first time, you don't know how things are going to land exactly. And you definitely cannot control whether people sign up for your program or not. A different way to define success. And this is what I'm going to recommend you do. Let's say you've got a course that you haven't launched yet, but you're about to launch it or you're excited
Wendy (04:37.51)
to create a course and launch it in the fall. Maybe you're joining us in the CCC program and you're gonna be creating your first online course and launching it. Or maybe you're looking at relaunching something that you launched a year ago and kind of shelved. I'm gonna really recommend that you define your success with the course and the launch differently. And what I'm gonna suggest you do is think about the factors that are actually within your control.
to find success based on those. So for example, maybe a successful launch is a launch where I get organized in advance, I send a series of this many newsletters out to my mailing list, I show up on social media, X number of times a week, I do two lives with people, I get somebody externally to edit my copy.
I run my copy through some kind of a beta trial thing. I send it out to people who think might be interested in the program, get their feedback on it. You create a list of criteria that are actually within your control and you do all of those things. And if you do all of those things in the course of the launch, then you have succeeded in that launch experience, no matter how many people sign up, right? And you can also talk about how
it would feel how success might feel to you, how you want to feel in the course of this. Well, I to feel like I did my best with this. I want to feel like I did all the things that I had on my list as things that I think are important in a launch. I want to feel like I showed up with energy when I was on any sales calls or I was doing lives around this product or launch. And I want to feel like I really, you I believe in this product and that that came through when I was talking about this offer.
to my audience. If you set a goal based on how you want to feel, you have so much of a better chance of actually succeeding because there are so many different ways to feel that way. You don't need to get 10 signups and make $20 ,000 to feel like you showed up energized and in a really great mental state whenever you were talking about this program. You don't need to make $20 ,000 and have 10 signups in order to, you
Wendy (06:55.484)
you know, get really clear on your offer and be feel really confident when you're talking about your offer, which might be one of your metrics for success that is actually within your control. So again, the way that we define success has a huge impact on whether we actually are successful or not. I mean, this is kind of obvious, I think, but it's also something that a lot of people don't think of. We are absolutely in a culture that teaches us to set goals based
performance metrics, not on how we want to feel, but on what we're going to do or what's going to actually happen. And I think we focus on more on how we want to feel.
so much more likely to feel successful. And the reason why this matters is that when we don't feel successful, when we feel like we failed, that causes shame, it's demoralizing, and from a place of shame and of feeling demoralized, we are not gonna take action. We're gonna be in paralysis because we're gonna be feeling really anxious and not good about ourselves. I don't want that to happen after your launch. I want, no matter how that launch goes, I want you to feel good about that launch and I want you to feel energized and ready to up level.
You know, and relaunch because almost nobody launches the first time to like enormous success. It just doesn't work like that. You know, I'm a big fan of betas. I talk a lot about that in the CCC, which is my coaching course creator program. We talk a lot about the value of a beta, which is a test run with your course. And most people skip the test run. They just go out, they offer their program and they try to sell it right out of the gate.
The test run allows you to do a bunch of things. It allows you to obviously test your course material and your content to see if it resonates, to fill in any gaps that you might've missed, to take out stuff that's not landing with your participants, to hone your marketing and your language and your copy, to gather testimonials and feedback from people that you can actually use to create better copy the next time around and market it better. So, going into a launch with this idea that it's gotta be perfect right out of the gate and that it's just a one -shot thing and then it's done.
Wendy (08:59.868)
It's either going to succeed or it's going to fail. And if it fails, you're to put it back on the shelf and never offer it again. It's just a terrible way to approach course creation, content creation, and launches. So reframing success is a really great first step. So ask yourself how you were defining success in that last launch that feels like a failure.
Another thing that's really important when it comes to launch success and feeling like a success is having something to offer that you are genuinely completely stoked about. Something that you are so excited about. You believe in the content. You believe in the program. You believe in your ability to help take people from point A to point B and to help them affect this incredible transformation that is gonna have this very big impact on their lives. You wanna
jazzed about the thing that you are offering because if you are not, I am absolutely confident that you will not launch successfully. The way to sell in the most easeful way is to be selling something that you genuinely believe in and are incredibly excited to be able to offer. And also, if that's the place that you are launching from and selling from, then whether people buy it or
is a whole lot less important. If you're selling a program that you cannot wait to coach and only three people sign up for it, you're still gonna be really excited to coach that program to three people. And it's also being excited about it is gonna increase the likelihood that more people join the program because that energy and excitement is contagious. So is this actually something that you wanna coach? Are you actually really excited about this course? If the answer is no, go back and tweak
It doesn't mean you need to start from scratch necessarily, but this thing is not yet where it needs to be for you to be super excited and confident about it. Maybe you need to run a second beta if you haven't run, or first beta if you haven't run one, gather more information, tweak it more, get some feedback from people, get pumped up about this thing. Again, that
Wendy (11:17.498)
You know, I think it's just like one thing we don't talk about enough. think there's this idea out there. Well, I just need to create what they want. It also has to be something that you want to coach.
Okay, poll your audience. my goodness. I say this so often to the coaches that I support. Have you actually asked them if this is what they want and need? What they need, you might have a better sense of what they want, they're gonna know. Ask your people, ask your audience, ask them on social media, send out a newsletter with a link to a survey.
Send direct personal emails to clients that you work with in the past and ask them if they'd be willing to get on a call with you so that you can ask them a few questions because you're trying to create the best group program you can for people just like them and you want to know what it is they might want. Polling your audience is so helpful. You could also poll your people after a disappointing launch.
If you have a launch that doesn't go the way that you wanted to reach out to people, if there were people that you talked to, maybe you did some sales calls with people and they didn't buy, why didn't they buy? What was missing from the program? What if you had been able to, if you had added it to the offer would have made this a no brainer for them. That's such a great question to ask people. What could I have added to this offer that would have made it a no brainer? Or what was this sticking point for you? What was the piece of this offer that didn't feel like resonant or right for you?
you will be amazed at the types of things that you hear and it can be so freaking helpful to get this feedback. For example, I have had coaches do this with existing audience when they have made an offer and the offer's gone out in a really broad way and they've said like, if you didn't buy this, why didn't you buy it? And the answer's been,
Wendy (13:03.066)
because it was way too, it felt like way too much stuff in four weeks and I felt like I was gonna be setting myself up for failure. I did not feel confident that I could do all the things that you said you were gonna do in this program in four weeks. So I didn't sign up for it, right? Or it might be like, the coaching times, the group call times were just completely outside of my time zone. There was no way that I could make that work. Or it could be, I didn't really understand exactly
The point of the program was the stuff you were offering sounded really interesting, but I couldn't figure out how this would actually benefit me, what the actual like real life value would be to me of taking this program and, and or affecting the transformation that you are, that you were promising to help me make in this program. So getting that information back from people can be incredibly powerful. It can help you to tweak your program and relaunch to a completely different level of
response and success. Okay. Once you have pulled your audience, then you want to look at tweaking your content and tweaking your messaging. These are really important parts of relaunching a program. Again, getting some feedback from your beta members. If you run the program once, you want to know what was missing from the program, but also
look at the messaging that went out with the program, the way that you were talking about the program and describing it. What is not clear in that? And if you need to go and survey people who fall within your kind of dream client target niche for this program, go and do that. But is this program clear? Is this messaging actually clear to people when they read it or not? And
Also, like I said, tweaking your content to make your content more resonant and make sure that you've filled in all the gaps. Here's another thing that you can do after a disappointing launch that can be incredibly helpful. Whoever did participate in this program, make sure you get feedback from them. Make sure you send them a link to a Google form where you ask very pointed questions about their experience in the program. How were they feeling before they came into the program?
Wendy (15:17.788)
What were the parts of the program that they loved the most? If they had to describe to people what this program was about, how would they describe it? Where were they after the program? What is available for them now post program, post this work that they've done that wasn't available to them before? Would they recommend this program to a friend? Get all of that information from them because it's gonna be helpful in many different ways. First of all, you're going to get some great feedback, because I know you're a great coach. Getting good feedback from people,
helps to take the sting out of a launch that didn't go exactly the way that you'd hoped it would go. And it also motivates you to relaunch and re -offer because obviously if you get great feedback on a program from people who actually went through the program, that tells you that this program is valuable. It tells you that it is transformative. It tells you that you're actually helping people and that people benefited from this program.
And that is really, really helpful information to have, as obvious as that sounds. That can really help you when it comes to your relaunch. So get testimonials from your participants, even if there were only two or three in the group. And if you need to do it live, do it live on a call. You can also do it with a Google form. I'm a huge fan of using a Google form for feedback. You're have to send reminders. And you can also make it really easy for people. You've probably heard me say this in other podcast episodes, but if you had a few participants in the call,
in the calls and at the end, last call of the the group schedule, you said, I'd love to just go around the room and hear from you guys, like what your favorite parts of this program were, what you've learned from this program, what you think has changed for you as a result of doing this work. And somebody says something really great. Ask them on the spot if you can use their words and ask them if they're cool, if you transcribe what they said in the group session.
and do a little editing on it and send it to them for their approval. That makes this so easy for them. You wanna make it as easy as possible. People don't wanna do any extra work. So making it as easy as possible for your participants is just a little tip for how to get testimonials much more effectively. Look at how you launched this thing. What can you add? So it might be that the things that you did were actually fine, but you just didn't reach enough people.
Wendy (17:37.498)
or your launch period wasn't long enough, people didn't have enough time to get to warm up to you and to decide whether this program was the right program for them, or to get these dates in their calendar so they could actually commit to it. Tweak that, change the way that you're launching, add some things to the launch. Ideas of things you can add to a basic launch would be a social media series as part of the lead up.
Maybe the next time you launch this thing, you plan it so that you have a full month before the cart opens and you start selling this thing where you're doing teasers on social media every day or every second day you're coming in and you're doing a series of little short videos that talk about the problem, the pain point that you are gonna be solving with this group program. And you share your story maybe on that, your own personal story, maybe you share some client stories and you also provide
some coaching and some support around those and some insight into that problem. So you start warming people up to the idea of this program that's gonna come through a social media series. Another great way to relaunch differently and to come back from a disappointing launch is to add a live event to your launch. Now, this is more
And this is something I don't generally recommend in any kind complicated way in a first launch situation. But on a relaunch, this is a great thing to add. And what I mean by a live event is that you invite people to some kind of event. Usually it's free or might be low ticket, but something that's really interesting that and really enticing and kind of a no brainer for people to sign up for, where you are going to introduce something that is relevant
to the course or program that you're trying to launch? And I often suggest like a great thing, I think to do or to cover in a live event pre -launch is to address the problem that people have that is keeping them from signing up for the program. So is there like a pre -problem to the problem that you solve in your course? So for example, I often use like, well, let
Wendy (19:53.638)
Let me kind of think this through. Okay, it might be like, let's say I'm doing a course for coaches and I'm talking about how to create a really great newsletter. And the course is all about newsletter creation. The problem that people have that is that one of the problems people have, coaches have that might be keeping them from signing up for that newsletter course is that they don't have anybody on their email list. So they feel like that is a step that they're not ready for yet. What I might
is create a free event or a low ticket event that's all about how to increase your mailing list stat, right? So something that gives them, know, 10 different ways to get people, more people on their email list this week. And have that be the event that people sign up for. I get them on there live. I've got their email addresses now. These are people who are interested in this topic. I know they have this pre -problem. I know they might be great candidates for the newsletter program. And I can then...
give them lots of free value in that live event, build the like no trust with them. Also incorporate some of those organic hooks that I'm always talking about where I can drop some hints about the fact that I've got this really great newsletter creation course or program that I'm gonna offer. And I can also then send them an email series where I actually make the offer to them after the email list. So once I've got them warmed up and they're kind of excited about this and they're starting to realize the...
the real power and potential of harnessing an email list and sending out regular newsletters, then I can start sending them some emails after that event where I talk about this program and I actually do like a launch series on the tail end of that live event. There are so many different ways to do live events. I've done three day live challenges, I've done five day live challenges, and the goal is at the end of those things, I'm gonna be launching a program.
Right? So it can be three days, five days, but it can also just be a one hour free workshop or presentation that you do. So if you're new to all of this, it's the first time you've done a live event, start small. Think of it as a beta, right? Remember, everything is a beta, which means everything that you do for the first time as a coach is a test and you're doing it as an experiment. You're learning from
Wendy (22:10.714)
And the goal is not to nail it right out of the gate. The goal is to do it and to learn from it so that you can do it again and do it better the next time. And that's what I wanna end on. I wanna end on the importance of a beta mindset around launches. It might be that you launched without a beta mindset the last time. And that's one of the reasons why it's feeling like such a failure. On your relaunch, I want you to remind yourself of the importance of a beta mindset, even on a relaunch. It's like, this is my first relaunch.
What am I gonna learn from this relaunch? Well, I am going to gather more feedback from people. I'm gonna try some different things and I'm gonna see how those things work. I'm gonna learn all of that and then I'm gonna tweak everything again and I'm gonna launch probably the next time a little bit differently than I launched this time. But I'm gonna stay in that beta sort of beginner's mind, growth mindset place with this and I'm going to consider this to be a really big success, this relaunch.
as long as I learn a lot from it, right? Again, setting yourself up for success by creating a goal that is based on the things that you actually have control over. How much you learn from a relaunch, 100 % up to you, right? You get to control that by staying in experiment mindset, by trying different things, by paying attention, seeing what happens, tweaking things, gathering feedback. That's how you're gonna learn as much as you can from that relaunch process.
data mindset, game changer, game changer. Use it for everything, but definitely use it around launching. And remember, nobody launches their product for the first time and knocks it out of the park. These social media influencers are telling you that you can have like a frigging six figure first launch of something, are full of it. It doesn't happen. The majority of coaches launch the first time to a very small enrollment on programs. That is part of the process.
Every program that I've ever launched has been like that. That's not true. There've been a couple that have been surprising to me where their enrollment has been a lot higher than I thought right out of the gate. But if I'd given up on all of the programs that I've created over the years after the first, quote unquote, unsuccessful launch, I would never have created anything successful. Launching is an iterative process. You're gonna need to launch over and over again. So be kind to yourself. Your last launch was not a failure.
Wendy (24:37.784)
It was a test. What did you learn from it? Go back and look at what you did. What can you do differently? What can you do better this time? What more can you do in the second launch of this? And what did you learn from that first launch that you can use to change both the content of your programming and also the messaging and delivery of the marketing messaging around the program? I hope you found that helpful. I'll see you next time on The Coaching Edge.
