Launch debrief: What worked, what flopped, and the big changes I’m making to my launches this year

Having recently launched my brand new program, Freedom Fast Track, today I'm sharing with you the breakdown of my launch results. In this episode, we chat about what worked well and what didn't, as well as valuable learnings and some changes that I plan to make to my future launches

– Why it's so important to forward plan, identifying the must-do's in the lead up to cart open
– Analysing the unexpected objections and re-enforcing the overwhelming importance of the 60-90 day launch lead up
– The surprising benefit of pre-launching to a waitlist and the value of automating your follow-up sequencing
– Why allowing time and space to be flexible in your cart open is critical to pivoting based on the needs of your potential audience
– Highlighting the need to make a decision as a sales tool and the value in launch triggers and non-buyer surveys

 

I'm breaking down my most recent launch, which at the time of recording, literally only ended yesterday, but I wanted to record this episode and share it while it was still pretty fresh in my mind. 

So this most recent launch was for my brand new program, Freedom Fast Track, a 12-month business accelerator for my students to turn their business into one that gives them the freedom to be offline. 

 

What didn’t work:

 

First thing that didn’t work:

Now let's start by looking at what didn't work so well in this particular launch. So I got back from Mexico nine days before doors opened, which was pretty tight, but we had fortunately already planned most of the things for the launch. 

All of that was fine except for two days after I got back from Mexico, I got COVID. So I was dealing with pretty bad fatigue, and I really only had about a few hours of brain power each day, which in some ways was really good because it forced me to get clear on what needed to be done each day and what could wait. 

Fortunately, the copy was all written for the launch. Most things were scheduled ahead of time. We've learnt that lesson in the past. Like I got Measles in the middle of a launch back in 2019. 

And that was this big wake-up call of, oh, you can't be writing cart-open emails the day that they go out anymore, because if something happens and you can't show up, you want those emails to still be able to go out? So fortunately most of that was already done. So I didn't actually have that much to do.

And we didn't really have any social proof for this offer yet. So this was something that really reiterated to me how important social proof is in a launch. But since this was the first time that we launched it, that did make the launch a little bit more challenging because we didn't have any case studies.

We didn't have any stories of students that had gone through the program and that my audience could read and put themselves in that person's shoes and say, oh, okay. That's where I'm at in my business, so this is a good fit for me or this isn't a good fit for me. 

But this is also why I always make sure that we offer a founding student's price. The first time we launched something new, we're saying, this is the cheapest it's ever going to be. It's going to be as a thank you for you helping me to co-create this and helping me figure out what you really need so that I can deliver it in a way that helps you best.

 

Second thing that didn’t work:

Another thing that didn't work so well, was that I started thinking the bonuses weren't as strong as they could have been. And I'm usually strategic with what bonuses we include. And I don't think I put enough time into thinking about what those bonuses were going to be. 

So I didn't really focus that much on bonuses in this launch. In other launches, bonuses absolutely have been important, but in this one, I didn't really have any expiring bonuses.

Throughout the launch, there were two that expired but I don't think they were enough to nudge somebody into making a decision that was on the fence. And I've never seen so many fence-sitters in a launch before. 

So a couple of objections we hadn't preempted, firstly, people who weren't quite making $10,000 a month but were quite experienced in their business because they had been learning. They'd been setting the foundations up and they were now at this point where their revenue hadn't caught up, but they were actually quite business savvy and would have still been a good fit for the program. But then on the other side, we also had people who were making $10,000 a month but didn't have a lead magnet or an email list.

And we're actually still quite an early stage in their business, even though they were making that revenue. 

So, I offered 15-minute fitting calls for anybody who was on the fence and wanted to chat with me and find out whether it was going to be a good fit or not. And hardly anyone booked them. 

Now in the past, when I have offered these, I haven't done them very often, but in the past, when I have no payment deposit to book the call. Like it's free, you can book them. And the problem with that is I had a lot of people booking them and then cancelling last minute or not showing up. And I had a lot of people who booked them and they knew they weren't going to join, but they just wanted to pick my brain for 15 minutes.

So, what I did differently this time was I made it so that there was a $50 deposit refundable deposit. You have to pay $50 to book in a call. And as long as you showed up for the call, you could either apply that $50 against the investment to join the program, or you would get it refunded within three days if you decided not to join.

But the main thing was that you had to show up to the call. And not that many people booked them, which I was quite surprised about because obviously there were people there who had questions, who weren't sure if it was a good fit, but they were reluctant to spend the $50 out of their pocket now even though they were going to get it back if they didn't join.

 

Third thing that didn’t work:

Then the last thing that didn't work so well was that we didn't have a launch trigger and we didn't have as much lead-up content before doors open. Now I teach and I stand by my launch method where you're sharing content in the lead-up for at least 60 to 90 days. If it's something new, if it's a new product, a new program you've never launched before. In which case this was.

But the thing was that I only decided in November or December, that we were going to add this program and we had to launch it early in this year to fit it in with everything else. So that really just reinforced how important this lead-up is. Like the questions that people were asking. 

So those are the things that didn't work. And, you know, I'm a big believer that we learn more from what didn't work than we do from what did work. But let's look a little bit at what did work. 

 

What worked:

We opened doors to the wait-list two days earlier than to everybody else. And that actually converted at 16%. So 16% of the people who are on the wait list signed up. Granted it was a very small white list. I didn't do a whole lot of talking about it in the lead-up. 

When I noticed a few days into Cart open that we had a lot of fence-sitters, I actually added a little automated follow-up sequence. So when somebody who was on my email list viewed the sales page. It would then 35 minutes later, send them an email, encouraging them to make a decision. Now it wasn't, Hey, this is why you should sign up or you're going to miss out if you don't buy or anything like that, it was simply presenting three options to them.

Option one. I see that you've read the sales page. If you've read it and you can confidently say this isn't for you. Great. Click here and I won't send you any more emails about it, and that would remove them from any other emails about the freedom fast track. 

And then I went on to say, look, but if you are still on the fence, you can keep sitting on the fence. And wait until the very last minute. And then miss out, because doors closed and you forgot or make a really rushed decision at the last minute without knowing a hundred percent, whether it's the right place for you or not. And if you don't want to do that, these are your other options, book in a fitting call or hit reply. And ask me a question essentially.

And that worked really well because many people were on the fence, they will suddenly like, oh yeah. I feel really seen, I'm not a hundred percent out, but I'm also not a hundred percent sure if this is for me yet. And this is my situation. Is this going to work or is it not going to work for me?

So that is something I think I'm going to keep in the future in all of my launches is having that follow-up sequence. 

 

Big changes to watch out for:

So the final part of today's episode or the second final parks. I have an audience question that I'll end with, but the third part of today's episode and the changes I am making in my launches in the future. 

I really learned just how important it is to allow time and space in Cart open to make pivots, to change up the open cart emails. To add live calls, Q and A's, and how-to quizzes having that time and space is so important because all of the cart open emails were already scheduled.

I had the time to reflect on what questions people were asking me. And then add extra emails or add that training or create that quiz. Whereas in launches a few years ago where I was making everything up as I went, I didn't have that time in space. And it felt a lot more rushed and I felt so much more in the weeds. I couldn't step back and look at the bigger picture.

Another big lesson that I've learned is just how important it is to emphasize the need to make a decision rather than keep sitting on the fence indefinitely. So for me, this looked like actively promoting the opt-out link. In the past actively saying, if you have decided it's not for you. Click here and you won't get any more emails about this.

Another lesson learned was, it's not really a new lesson. I knew this, but it really reiterated the importance of having some kind of launch trigger. 

 

A question from the audience:

“How do you handle launching with ADHD?” 

I really loved this question because since I've shared that I have ADHD, I've had a lot of people who listened to this podcast, reach out and say like I do too.

So I do want to answer this one because I know that in the bigger context of my business, I find that launching is great because having a few launches a year means that I'm always working on something different even if it's a product that we've already launched before, there's still new tweaks that I'm going to make each time we launch it.

And that keeps my sparkly squirrel brain entertained and keeps it happy rather than if we were just working on the exact same thing every single month. But when it comes to focusing on each launch in particular, that's where the challenges creep in. And it's a lot easier now that I have somebody else writing most of the launch copy.

But I know that the most important part is having structure. If you are somebody who has ADHD and has structure means that you keep on track a lot more. And that means knowing what you need to work on and when it needs to be done by and having that deadline. 

If I didn't have a deadline for freedom fast-track I so easily could have moved it back a week, especially because I was sick. I could have said, well, no, I'm moving it back a week. But because I knew that would throw off everything else we were planning to do this year, I kind of had to stick to that deadline. And this year we have so much structure. 

 

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