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I just took three women through a launch. And it got me thinking a lot about my first few launches of each of my programs, and the launch mistakes I made along the way.

Why? Because these women were experiencing some of those same early launch feels that CAN happen. Not always, but often.

For those of you who don’t know, you have a few options when running an online business.

You can launch, do pushes, or have ongoing enrollment.

These are all different approaches to get your ideal client to invest in your offer, service or product.

I have tried all three by the way. And launches work the best for me, so that’s what I do, as well as what I teach.

For some quick definitions – a launch has an open and close date. The doors will literally close and someone cannot enroll, join, apply, or sign up after the launch is done.

A push is a combination of a launch and ongoing enrollment. This is where someone can indeed enroll or apply anytime but every three months, let’s say, you bring attention to your offer and market it far more heavily than you normally would. The doors won’t close after a push, but you’ll being giving less info about it to your audience.

Then we have ongoing enrollment. This can look a lot of different ways. For instance I don’t open and close my one time purchases items. Anyone can purchase Body Weight For Weight Lifters, Big Lift Audit, Movement 101 or Instagram 101 at any time. I could do pushes for those if I wanted or a little promo. But they’re up for grabs all day everyday. This is a large part of my passive income stream. These programs to date have generated over 15k. We call this the power of passive. And by we, I mean me, right now, in this moment because I’ve never heard that but should def coin the phrase. If any of you steal it, I’ll know.

So, there you have it. You can have open enrollment and talk often about your singular offer, you can do pushes, or launches.

And you can certainly use different approaches for different offers. There is no rule book here. It’s all game. And most importantly it’s what works for you, your offer, your biz model and your audience.

Thus, you can see where this might take time and a lot of trial and error.

Now, let’s get into the three biggest launch mistakes I see and how to fix them. Because I have def made all of these myself.

3 Biggest Launch Mistakes

Not preparing and nurturing your mindset BEFORE + DURING the launch

Launches can be a HUGE emotional and mental rollercoaster. It’s so easy to attach worth, value, desperation and codependency to your launch. All of which are not healthy, nor helpful.

There are very normal fears that arise when one is preparing for a launch. And if you’re not careful, those fears will permeate your launch content.

Fears that you’re wasting your time. That you did all this work, and no one will join. Fears that your message won’t land. That you don’t actually know what you’re talking about. An overall lack of confidence in your offer, and ability to bring this offer into the world.

It’s not good. It’s all normal. But again, not helpful AT ALL. Especially if you choose to believe it, and then act on those feelings and beliefs.

I’m no psychiatrist or mental health specialist. What I do know is that beliefs drive feelings, and feelings drive actions. Soooooo we’ve got to address some of these feelings and beliefs BEFORE launching so that we don’t completely lose our mental shit during the launch.

Here’s the deal. You know I am a bit of a tough love gal. I get to the point and feelings aren’t really my deal. L O L.

With that, I know these truths and questions to be helpful.

When you’re focused on failing, you’re robbing your potential clients of a perfect offer for them. You’re no longer focused on graciously leading your audience. It’s truly selfish.

What do we know to be true – if your messaging is clear, if you’ve defined who this offer is for, what it does, how it helps, and what people get, then we should have no problem inviting your audience into that! Get excited! You’ve created something you your humans will benefit from! That’s amazing! Own it – welcome them in, educate them, communicate with them. It’s a relationship!

Expectations lead reactions – It is VITAL that you have realistic expectations heading into a launch. Don’t expect 10 people to join if you’ve only built a waitlist of 15. Ain’t gonna happen.

Shit happens – a link will be broken, you’ll forget to do something, no one will join on day one. Expect hiccups. You’re more than capable of dealing with hiccups.

Nothing is wasted – I REPEAT. NOTHING. IS. WASTED. Cultivating and growth and abundant mindset are trendy + buzz wordy AF but also, they work. Here is where we observe our launch from an OBJECTIVE standpoint. What’s working? What’s not? View your sales page views through google analytics. Perhaps people aren’t enrolling, BUT they’re viewing the sales page daily. Soooo keep showing up and encouraging those people. Not out of desperation but in order to learn about this client!

Marketing is simply communication and psychology.

And listen, I get it. You need to make money. You know what I can promise? Stopping ain’t it. Quitting ain’t it. ONE HUMAN joined BBA when I launched it back in 2017. I created 12 months of programming. My first program that was truly what I was meant to do. And ONE HUMAN enrolled. And I served the shit out of that one person.

I was so freaking stoked that ONE PERSON enrolled. I didn’t flop. My people ARE out there. Something IS happening. Now we move forward.

And yes, I worked full time at this time. So I had other income. But the goal was forever to build up that online side. Which meant I had to keep going. Learning, failing, doing better, testing etc.

Get your mind right. SERVE your people. Hone in on your messaging. And be willing to learn and welcome those new clients with the most love you possibly can.

Not having a launch plan

And when I say a launch plan, I am NOT playing around here. I am not talking a little baby, vague plan. I am talking you know exactly what is supposed to happen every damn day of your launch and it’s planned ahead of time.

This doesn’t mean we can’t shift throughout the launch. That can absolutely happen. But having a legit, thought out plan – what days you discuss who it’s for, what’s involved, results, pain points, questions, pleasure points, the process etc – allows you to remain steadfast through the madness that can tend to happen during your first few launches of a single service.

I also want to make so crystal clear that not everyone’s launch will be same. So perhaps you hate structure and feel restricted by having a task to do EVERYDAY. What if you wake up and want to talk about who it’s for, but today is supposed to be laying out the pain points of this customer?

GREAT – do you. Build out EVERY PIECE you need to cover during the launch, but drip that info out day by day as you see fit. It’s all got to happen, the info is laid out ahead of time, the emails are written, but you decide in real time or 2-3 days in advance, what info will go out to your audience.

That’s fine too.

What we avoid in having a legit PLAN + all of the pieces created ahead of time is you having to create content or emails on the fly during a launch… while also having to be present on social media and come up with what you’re doing tomorrow! 

That stresses me out just thinking about it.

I hope you can see the value in having a detailed launch plan + all of the pieces prepared ahead of time. That way, you can simply execute said launch plan and have SPACE and ENERGY to be present during the actual launch.

The next one is kind of a two part deal.

Sleeping on the Warm Up Phase + Not building a waitlist

If you don’t know, I teach the anatomy and phases of a launch inside my business course, FitsPRO Foundations.

The first phase of a launch is the warm up. Just like a lifting program.

The absolute main objective of the warm up phase is to get people on the waitlist for when your launch goes live.

Why?

If we can get our warm leads in one place, then we have a much better expectation of how many people will buy/enroll.

Rather than blindly launching to 400 IG followers, you’re now launching to 30 waitlist humans or what have you.

Having a solid warm up phase can make a launch MUCH SMOOTHER, and way more enjoyable.

The warm up phase gives you time to start educating your audience on any VIP fast action bonuses, incentive, or the offer itself – why you created it, who it’s for etc.

Do the heavy lifting up front in order to make the launch more seamless and honestly, predicable.

People sleep on the warm up phase, half ass it, or don’t do it for long enough. And then they’re disappointed by their launch.

Yo – do you know how many times someone has to see something before they join a list or take ANY action for that matter? Think about YOURSELF. You literally do this when you’re debating buying a service or product!

Some points here – the more expensive something is or the newer it is to your audience, the longer the warm up phase should probably be.

The more you launch something, the more familiar your audience will become with this offer.

And those from the waitlist who don’t end up purchasing, remain on the waitlist for next time. So now you’re starting ahead of where you started this launch.

Make sense? Makes sense!

That’s it my FitsPRO fam bam.

• Get real with your mindset and review some truths that you know
• Create a launch plan, or join fitspro foundations so you can have access to mine
• Warm up your audience before the launch. Prep them for what’s coming.

Review of the week comes from cgant10 and says,

“Annie has helped me build more confidence and informed me on how to build my online platform. She never steers you wrong. She has endless resources as she is a huge resource herself. If you want to become a fitspro and learn all the nitty gritty, Annie is your girl.”

Remember you need to check the show notes (here) to see if you were review-er of the week, and then keep an eye out to see if you were listener of the month as well. That will be in the show notes and Annie’s Weekly Wrap. You can subscribe to Annie’s Weekly Wrap here!

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