Triumph Over Launch Trauma: From Expectations to Achievements

Ready to shatter your launch goals without suffering from launch trauma? I'm Jess, your guide on this journey, and this episode is brimming with strategies to help you do just that. We'll be exploring the critical difference between launch goals and launch expectations, and I'll be sharing personal experiences and practical insight on how to set targets that push you to level up your game without attaching your worth or success to them. In short, we're talking about how to play big, but smart.

As we peel back the layers, we'll walk through the calculations you need to make to reach those 100 sales, discuss the costs associated with attracting the right people, and dissect how to improve your launch conversion rate. We'll also consider the importance of adjusting your goals during the launch, and how this essential step can help you avoid negative launch experiences. Whether you're eyeing a $60,000 launch or even more, this episode is your roadmap to achieving those big, hairy, scary goals without succumbing to unnecessary stress and disappointment. Let's redefine success, together.

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

If you have ever been disappointed by the outcome of your launch, you need to listen up. On today's episode, I am sharing the difference between setting launch goals and launch expectations, so stay tuned. What change becomes possible when 100,000 people are impacted by your work? This question came to me one day and I have been working to find the answer ever since. Hi, I'm Jess and I help online course creators amplify their influence and create a movement with their message, and on this podcast, I am sharing the simple strategies and systems to help you impact more people with your programs so you can create quantum growth in your industry. You are listening to the Quantum Course Creator podcast.

Speaker 1: 0:47

I've been thinking a lot about this concept and, after talking about it with some of my friends and peers, I decided to share this with you guys too. When we get into a launch, we set launch goals, right. I think that that's a pretty fairly common practice. They are like I want to have a six-figure launch, I want to have a $50,000 launch, and when you go into your launch setting a launch goal, things might not work out the way you planned. So on today's episode, I'm going to talk about the difference between launch goals and launch expectations and when you should move the goalpost so you actually see success. It is fairly common practice to set a launch goal. This is where you look at yourself financially, look at your past launches and really determine where you want to go with your next launch. And oftentimes we create hairy, scary launch goals, which are these big numbers that we push us, so that push us to do better and play a bigger game. And I am all for the hairy, scary, audacious goal method. Right, I do believe that something happens when you set a goal that feels like a stretch to achieve. It makes us play a different game, and so, when you're setting those launch goals, it's important to figure out a goal that will not only push you but will motivate you to play all out. One of the biggest mistakes that I see people making when they set their launch goals is setting them so low that they don't feel motivated or like inspired by that potential outcome. This is the same thing that happens when people set really attainable weight loss goals. Right, you don't have to change anything to make that goal happen. And so, when it comes to setting launch goals, I am all for the big, hairy, scary goals. In fact, I have been known to set unrealistic launch goals and really use that as an opportunity to up level my game. But here's where things change.

Speaker 1: 3:01

I don't believe that setting a goal means anything about you. Setting a goal and creating that number that you want to hit doesn't mean that you are a failure or less than if you don't hit it. And I am such a big proponent of this that when I set goals, people are like oh my gosh, jess, like you set such a big goal, how are you going to feel when you don't hit it? Or how does it feel if you don't hit it? And I like to say to them the people who cure cancer don't set out to do it incrementally right. Their goal is to cure cancer, their goal is to get to the ultimate outcome. But they don't make it mean anything about themselves if they don't cure cancer. You're just chipping away at that goal. You set the big vision, you have the big idea for the future and you play that level of game. So when you set the goal to have a six figure launch, does that mean that you have everything you need right now to make that happen? Maybe not, but by setting that goal, you rise to the occasion you step it up and play that level of game. When I set a goal like a six figure launch goal, I ask how would I run a six figure launch? And I actually have a really great episode all about this. I will make sure to plug the link to that in the show notes about tuning to the frequency of the goals that you want to achieve. How would you show up to make that happen? But there's this different thing that happens within the course of a launch where your goal needs to change. So I am all for setting that big, hairy, scary goal right, looking way out in the future, saying this is what I want to achieve.

Speaker 1: 4:51

But one of the biggest mistakes that people make is that they go into their launch and they make that hairy, scary goal their launch expectation. So they set the goal that they want to have a six-figure launch, for example, and then the launch starts. They start putting out their audience builder, they are growing their launch list and then they come into the launch mechanism phase of the launch, where they're doing the challenge or running the webinar and they're still holding that hairy, scary goal as their launch expectation. And what happens is they go through that process and the numbers are not mathematically aligned with that hairy, scary goal, but they still hold that expectation and I know this because I went through this myself. I went through this in a very tangible way.

Speaker 1: 5:46

So in the summer of 2020, I was launching my then signature program and I had a hairy, scary goal. I had a ridiculous goal. It was a million-dollar launch goal and I'd never had a six-figure launch at that point. But I was holding true that this was possible and what I didn't realize was that I had attached meaning to that outcome. So I knew that I wasn't going to have a million-dollar launch. That was a hairy, scary goal. But I had pretty firmly set my sights on having a six-figure launch. And so I went into the launch and I went through all of the numbers and things were looking okay, but they were nowhere near where they needed to be to achieve that outcome. But still, I held firm that I was going to have a six-figure launch. I was going to have a six-figure launch and I realized as I was going through the process that the numbers just weren't going to make sense and instead of shifting the goalpost, instead of taking what I'm about to tell you into the heart, I held firm to that unrealistic goal as my goalpost, as my measure of success.

Speaker 1: 7:04

And so when we set ourselves up for unattainable success, we are setting ourselves up for sure failure. And when you see that coming, it doesn't feel very good. And I have seen my friends do this, my peers do this and I've seen my clients do this where they set a hairy, scary launch goal oftentimes based on somebody else's launches or somebody else's launch goals and then when they come down to it, they hold so tightly to that outcome and they don't move the goalpost that they start to make meaning about them not hitting that goal. And that is when the launch panic sets in right. That's when you start to question yourself and you start to feel like you're not going to make it and that you suck at launching and that you're never going to be successful. And and and and and right.

Speaker 1: 7:53

And so my entire launch, where I was holding so tightly to this outcome, I felt like shit because I knew that I wasn't going to hit that goal and I was making that mean something about myself. I was making it mean that my family was going to suffer and that I wasn't going to be successful and I had all of this pressure and all of this meaning wrapped up in that goal and when? Had I just taken a look at the numbers at the beginning of that phase of my launch and moved the goalpost, I would have realized that I was going to have a wonderful launch that had a really solid conversion rate and ended up being a $70,000 launch. So it's not that it was a bad launch it was a great launch but my experience of it was negative because it wasn't what I was expecting, and I think that something we need to talk about more in this industry is managing our expectations going into a launch.

Speaker 1: 8:58

There are some things about launching that are just principles. Right, they are rules, they are scientific principles that we can't change no matter how hard we try, and there are industry norms and average conversion rates that come into play when you are in an online business, and so, instead of trying to achieve the unachievable and set your goals beyond what you've ever done before, set the goal, move the goalpost. Set the goal, move the goalpost. So how do you do that? Here's what I recommend At the very start of your launch, I recommend setting that Harry scary goal. This is 12 to 13 weeks out from Card Open. I recommend setting your sights on the game you want to play. So, for example, that would be a six-figure launch, or whatever number feels really good and exciting to you. Maybe that's a five-figure launch, right? So setting that goal, as I am going to play this level of game and go into it, knowing what those numbers look like and playing that level of game, so to break down some numbers and to show you how bad I am at on the spot math, let's see what this looks like.

Speaker 1: 10:22

So let's say that you have a $1,000 product and you want to have a $100,000 launch. That means that you need 100 people to purchase your program. And so, knowing the way that the industry works, average industry conversion rates is 2 to 5%, which means that you need 2,000 to 5,000 people to opt into your launch mechanism. That is 2 to 5%. So the way that I figured that out is I take the number of people I need to purchase my program and I divide that by.02 and.05. And what that gets me is the number that that final number is those percentages of. So 2% or 100 is 2% of 5,000 and 5% of 2,000. So you need 2 to 5,000 people to go through your launch mechanism, which is your webinar or your challenge or whatever, in order to get 100 people to purchase. So, keeping that in mind, then you need to think about how many people do I need to see my opt-in page for my launch in order to get 2,000 to 5,000 people to register for it. So you take the larger number and you divide that by 0.3, which is 30%. You need to figure out because industry average conversion rates on a landing page are 30%. So if you send 16,000 people to a landing page, you should get about 5,000 of them opting in, which means that you could end up with about 100 sales.

Speaker 1: 12:02

If these numbers are blowing your mind right now, sorry, this is just the reality of a six-figure launch with a $1,000 product. So to get 100 people into your offer, those are the numbers that you're playing. So set that goal yes, and say okay. How can I get in front of 16,000 people? Who do I need to show up as to play a 16,000-person game? Start going with that intention. Start figuring out your ad cost. How much do I need to spend in ads to get 5,000 leads If I know that my lead cost is $1 per lead, which is bananas? These days, leads are way more than a dollar, but it's easy math. But if I know that my leads are $1 a lead, then I need to have a budget of $5,000 to get 5,000 leads. Does that make sense? My leads are averaging about $3 right now, so I have to set aside $15,000 to spend on ads to get 5,000 leads. Hopefully these are big numbers and I apologize, but hopefully this is making sense.

Speaker 1: 13:05

So that is how I set launch goals. How am I playing that game? I want 100 people, which means I need 2,000 to 5,000 people in my launch, which means I need to spend $15,000 on ads to get in front of that many people. And so that's the goal at the beginning of the launch. And then I set course to run that outcome right. I start running ads to my opt-in. I start growing my launch list, I start showing up at a 16,000 person game and I really show up. It's the kind of person who's going to have a six-figure launch.

Speaker 1: 13:43

And then you come to the point of your launch where the rubber is meeting the road, and this is when you move from audience builder phase to launch mechanism phase and you're getting people to opt-in for your actual launch mechanism. This is where you need those 2,000 to 5,000 people to opt-in. So you spend two weeks promoting your launch mechanism and it's coming down to launch time. Now this is when you're going into your webinar or going into your challenge, and this is when you need to reassess your goals. This is when you need to move the goalpost. So look at your numbers when that is starting.

Speaker 1: 14:26

At that point, when you are going into your launch mechanism, that is when you need to look at your numbers and if you don't have 2,000 to 5,000 people opted-in, it's time to move the goal. What I do at that point is I look at how many people I have opted in and I assume industry average. Unless I have a proven launch asset that I know converts at a certain percent, then I go with my proven conversion rate. But if I don't know, then I assume two to five percent and I redo the math. So let's say I have a thousand people opted into my challenge. Cool, a thousand people is a lot. That's really great. So take that one thousand people and assume that out of that thousand, two to five percent will purchase it. So two percent of a thousand is 20 people and five percent of a thousand is 50 people. So you can assume 20 to 50 people are going to buy your program and at a thousand dollars a pop that means that you'll have a 20 K to 50 K launch A pretty cool launch. Right, that's not bad. But those are your numbers.

Speaker 1: 15:45

If you continue to hold the faith that you will receive a hundred people purchasing when you only have a thousand people in your launch, you're probably going to end up disappointed, unless you have a proven funnel that is proven to convert at 10 percent. It's really not in your best interest to hold firm to that hundred thousand dollar goal because at the end of the day, you're more likely to be disappointed. And it's not that I don't want you to strive for a goal that's hard to hit, but striving for an unrealistic goal is going to diminish your mindset and it's going to create a launch trauma that's going to make it hard to launch again in the future. So by moving the goalpost and setting a more realistic goal, you can then start to push toward that. So in this instance, where your outcome is anywhere between 20 and 50, I would probably set my launch goal like move the goalpost to 60. And I would say my goal is to have 60 people by my program. That's a stretch, right. Industry average is telling you 20 to 50, but I'm going to say I want 60. And how can I show up in this moment and get and play a $60,000 launch game? How can I help 60 people get off the fence and into this program? And that's what I focus on. I let go of the six figure goal and I move the goalpost and start playing that level of game.

Speaker 1: 17:15

And what this does is it realigns your expectations and helps you realign your energy. Because the alternative is you go into your launch mechanism and you realize that you have half as many people as you need to going into your launch and you start to say, oh, I'm never going to hit it anyway, but I'm still going to hope that I will, for some unknown reason. And then you feel like crap about it, the whole launch. You never feel expansive and great about what you're doing because you're holding so tightly to the attachment of this number that you set before you started running the experiment. So when you come, point to your launch mechanism, look at your launch list, see what the numbers are and move the goalpost, create a more realistic launch expectation and then bump that up to a realistic launch goal. That will help you push a little bit further and when you do this, you will realign your expectations. Let go of the original launch goal and actually feel empowered by your launch.

Speaker 1: 18:23

And let's play this experience out. And let's say you go through your launch and you have a $35,000 launch. 35 people bought your program. Some people would say that was a failure. Some people would say, see, you suck at launching. That was a total failure. You're never going to do this again. Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. Instead of that, instead of making the goalpost, which was 100, now 60, and you only hit 35, instead of making that mean that you succeeded or you failed, look at the numbers. So 35 out of 100 is 3.5%. 3.5 is a really respectable conversion rate. Like I was saying, 2% to 5% is industry average. So 3.5% is great.

Speaker 1: 19:15

And now you have that baseline data that you can move into your next launch. You now know that that launch asset, with that launch mechanism, with this audience, and that messaging results in a 3.5% conversion rate. And you can do two different things with that information. One is you can recreate the launch and get more people in. So if you have the goal of having $100,000 launch and you know that it converts at 3.5%. You take that 100 people that you need to purchase your program and you divide that by 0.035 to figure out what 3.5% is. And now you know that you need 2,857 people to opt into your launch. And because you know your numbers, because you know what your lead cost is, because you just went through a launch, you can say, okay, if it cost me a dollar per lead, and I need 2,800 leads, I know that I need to budget $2,800 in ad costs in order to get that many people opted into my launch. And you can then run that experiment. This becomes a scalable, repeatable thing that, once you know your numbers, you can do it again and again.

Speaker 1: 20:28

The next thing that you can do, or the other thing that you can do, is try to improve it, and this is exactly what I do with my students in the lab. We run your baseline launch, we figure out what your numbers are and then we try to improve them. We look at the numbers, we see what went well and what could use improvement, and then we tweak two to five things for your next launch. We reset the experiment. We tweak those things like the messaging, the emails, the launch mechanism, the frequency, the sales page, the price. There's a million things that you could possibly tweak. Only tweak two to five of them so that they are measurable, and then run the launch again.

Speaker 1: 21:09

And you run it again. You play the bigger game. You set the goal. You look at your numbers, like I did in that last experiment or that last example, and say, okay, if I need 2,800 people to convert, I'm gonna spend $2,800 on ads or whatever it is. Up your ad game, get as many people as you can into your launch mechanism, move the goalpost and run it again. And this time it converted at 4.5%. Awesome, that's improvement. So you go back and do the launch debrief, see what you can change and keep increasing your conversion rate.

Speaker 1: 21:44

And that is the process that you go through to improve your conversion rate and build a converting launch asset and then, once you get it to a place where you're comfortable with it, you scale that shit to the moon. Right. Then you know, when I spend $5,000 on ads, I make $100,000. And then you play with that. You play it over and over and over again and you continue to grow. That is the process of growing your launches and scaling your business. But it all starts with realigning your launch expectations and letting go of the launch goals that you set at the beginning of the launch. So hopefully this was helpful. I know that it was very number heavy, but hopefully it got your wheels turning and you go into your next launch realizing that it's okay to move the goalpost. In fact, I highly recommend you move the goalpost because when you set unreachable goals, you create trauma in your launches when you don't reach them.