Clicks and Giggles | Your Backstage Pass to Digital Marketing Strategies

5 Things I Learned From My Failed Launch

• Jordan Rothwell Perry • Episode 14

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Ever wonder why some business launches skyrocket while others fizzle out? Join me as I peel back the curtain on the raw truths of launching, serving up a hearty portion of advice distilled from personal experience where things didn't quite pan out as expected. From the nuances of effective self-evaluation to the art of strategic promotion, this episode is your all-access pass to the hard-earned insights that can transform your next venture. 

Picture the rush of a successful launch as we share parallels with time-honored retail tactics, emphasizing the power of a proactive marketing approach to ensure your efforts are more than just a flash in the pan. This isn't your average pep talk; it's a deep dive into the quintessence of adaptability, mindset, and leadership that can make or break a team's spirit.

Topics covered in this episode:

  • Importance of reflecting on your launches for learning and improving.
  • Promotion is the key to the success of any launch.
  • Pivoting your plans if the initial launch doesn't go as expected.
  • Maintaining a positive mindset during your launch.
  • The reason why you shouldn't dwell on the failures of your past launches.

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the Clicks and Giggles podcast. I'm your host, jordan Rothwell-Perry, and I'm here to make your marketing click, connect and convert. My mission is to help good people with great offers make more money through paid digital marketing strategies. I truly believe that one ad can change everything for you and your business. Tune in weekly to unlearn what the bros and insert air quotes agency gurus have led you to believe about advertising and hear from inspiring women in my network who are making business a little more live, laugh, launch and a little less stuffy suit and tie, because nobody playing the long game is having a terrible time. Whether you're new to business making millions or you're just my mom tuning in for clicks and giggles, you are welcome here in the room. Get ready for a good time.

Speaker 2:

Hi, welcome to the Clicks and Yeagles podcast. Jordan Rothwell-Perry here and I'm going to do a little solo episode about something I've been pondering Five things I learned from a failed launch. Now it might be more than five or less than five, but I started a list of five and so we'll see how this goes. So this came to be because time hop which I love seeing just what was I doing a year ago? What was I doing 10 years ago? Download the free app if you don't have it. Timehop reminded me that two years ago I did a launch and it failed. It bombed by anyone else's standards. It just was not good, and I freaking learned a lot from it.

Speaker 2:

But I don't think I took the time to pause and reflect, and so I think that's going to be. The first tip is take time to reflect, because if you're just going from one thing to the next, you're never going to go. Oh, I really like how I did that. Oh, I didn't like how we did this. Oh, this like was 10 out of 10. It brought a bunch of conversations, but maybe the author wasn't right for them. So I would say take time to reflect, which is what I'm now doing now, two years later, and so here are some of the things I learned and as I'm reflecting. So number one thing I learned from failed launch that I want to tell you to do is take time to reflect whether a launch is great, and when I say launch, it could literally be like you announced you have a blog, or it could be like you're selling 20 offers. You know 20 seats at $5,000 each. You want to have $100,000. Launch it. I mean, launch is really just you putting something out there into the world and telling other people about it doesn't have to be this huge thing, and it could be something like hey, I'm so excited to tell you I launched my podcast, I launched my blog, so that's my definition of it, but also my business name right now. Let's stay tuned on that for later. So one, take time to reflect.

Speaker 2:

So, as I reflected, number two came to be, which is you cannot promote it enough. There's been things floating around that's like old Navy emails you x amount of times a day and you still shop there, which is true. I mean, I'm literally wearing pants from old navy right now and you really can't promote it enough. I basically slapped some stories on instagram and called it a day. I was so busy taking care of my clients which is kind of like the service providers curse that I was like, ah shoot, I need to just see if people would be interested in this. Oh man, like I'm starting in five days, well, let me put a story out there. And so I just did some static stories about it. They were really good and pretty and that was all I did. And I did a couple like link stickers to buy.

Speaker 2:

In hindsight I would have scheduled some emails, I would have gone live on Instagram, I would have done a live Q&A sales call that I sent a video recording out about after, would have done more polls on my stories. These are things you can pause and write down, just so you know, and I really would have put myself in my client's shoes so that it would have gone better. But you really cannot promote it enough. So here's what I say when we plan launches, we backdate things, we go back so say you're listening to this and you want to launch September 15th. You would be like, all right, by August 15th. What do I need to have locked into place? I want to have 10 emails written, the landing page and thank you page. The checkout card is made. I have some social media graphics that I'll do, etc.

Speaker 2:

And so just know that, like you can't promote it enough and you can't prepare for it either, in my opinion, imo that's kind of my two cents on that one Backdate it so you can promote it. If it's September 15th and the live event to start before closed cart, you start promoting April or August 15th, then you know, take four weeks, july 15th to August 15th, to get ready. Just give yourself enough time because stuff's going to come up. What is Dave Ramsey? Talk about Murphy's law. And like you only have X amount of money, you're gonna like, need new tires, you're gonna need a new washing machine, etc. Like, if you're planning a launch for yourself, things will come up and knowing you're ahead of the game is 10 out of 10. Amazing.

Speaker 2:

And with promoting it, just know that, like when you do your first big launch, everything is you're able to duplicate it again. So when people come on board for ads, they're like oh, this is like. Sometimes this feels like a lot. Like we're making a landing page, we're doing this, we're doing that. Like, oh my gosh, yes, the first month of anything new is going to be new and different. Think about, like a new way of eating, a new diet plan. You're learning how to play pickleball or tennis. Like you don't just go out the first I mean, maybe you're very athletic, that's not my, my story but nine times out of 10, you're gonna have to practice and put in the work to then be good. And that's the same thing with launching. Like, once you have this cadence, you're just tweaking your launch plan and making it better.

Speaker 2:

Like if you're listening to this and you're going to do a launch in September, october, like, do take that timeline. Like use a month to get ready for it and then use the next month to prepare, lock everything in and sell and report back and then be like oh, I can definitely do this again in half the amount of time, because I've learned and I have this almost template of sorts. So number two is you cannot promote it enough. And number three is it just says freaking pivot. And here's what I have to say about that. So this launch it was called the launch pad, which in hindsight, someone else already has that. I should have checked the trademarks. The logo is really good. Maybe I'll link it so you can see. But it's great. It was a group program. It's going to be like eight or 12 weeks, so good. And guess what? No one asked for it and I just wanted to do it. 'm like, oh, I want to do it, this is gonna be so good, I'm gonna do this group program. Oh my gosh, it's gonna be amazing. Well, okay, it's a lot easier to build something that has demand and people are asking for and that you have gone out and gone to the market and been like oh my gosh, how can I help you? How can I serve you? How can I serve you? Versus I just saw clients doing group coaching and peers in the industry and I was like I want that, I want to do that and in hindsight, I'm so thankful that it didn't work out the way I wanted it to. Which retweet you can say that for a lot of things in life Because I wasn't ready Like I, just like 100% was not ready to hold space for people in that container and I needed to put my time in with some more one-on-one clients and be and honestly actually be in a couple of group programs. To be like, oh, I like this, I don't like this Reminds me, um, before I got married, I, I was at a wedding. My mom was with me and she was like this I was in my 20s. She's like this is the best part about weddings is now we can look at what we like and what we don't like for yours and I've always thought about that. I thought that was hilarious and it changed how I looked at weddings. Even though I enjoyed them, I was like I don't know, I wouldn't do that, or like I love this. So, same thing with learning from other groups. You're in there, you know. You may be like, wow, I was in a group program where, like, the leader could not corral the group to save their life. Or wow, I was in a group program and we had Slack access and they never replied to us. Or you know, I've seen things where it's like, oh, I was in a group program and I just was like left to the wolves after there was no continuation of it and they could have sold me in better. Like, there's so many things I learned and you will learn from putting yourself in those shoes. And just don't don't create something purely for the fact that you want to create it. Like, create it because you know you're solving a need and there's demand for it, like I what I was going to teach. There is demand for it, but it just wasn't buttoned up in the way that people needed it. And so, going back to number three, which is freaking pivot or be be willing and ready to pivot. I did. I sold a seat, so it wasn't a failed launch overall. Sold a seat, went to her and said hey, I didn't have it turn out like I wanted it to, and this is advice for you If this happens, I would love, love, love to coach you one-on-one. Would you be up for that? And so I think it was eight weeks for a grand. And so I coached her for eight weeks and it was amazing, and she is awesome. I still really enjoy her and it worked out fine. Like that's the thing. You just have to be willing to pivot and be like hey, this is a little different than I thought it would be, and here's what we're going to do about it. Are you in? And like, if you have to refund someone, okay, but I would learn from it and be like hey, I'm going to serve this one person so freaking well, and I'm going to learn from it. So that's number three, which is freaking pivot. Number four ready? Don't be bitter, get better. There is always a win. You want to know who does the best in launches the people who have their mind right, the people who have their head in the game, the ones who are like, hey, this is not exactly the numbers I thought I was going to have, but I'm still getting sales, or this is still happening. It's the people who keep their head down and they're not. And they're not, you know, refreshing the transaction list. They're refreshing the transaction list over and over and over and over. Yeah, they're looking, but their head is down. They're in the game. It's the visual of someone who's playing the game. They're on the field and their eyes are glued on the field and their opponent and how they're going to freaking kick their hiney and their opponent and how they're going to freaking kick their hiney. And then they look up at the scoreboard and they're like, oh my gosh, we're winning. This is great. And so there's so much that goes into. I could literally have a whole other conversation on money mindset and launches and money mindset in general. But get your mind right and get better, because you're always going to find a win in a launch and if you don't, you need to figure that out, because those limiting beliefs are actually going to limit your launches, because they limit how you can show up and how you will show up. If you're not feeling confident in your business because everything is tied to that dollar, then how are you going to get on stories and sell people and sell the belief that they need what you have if it's out out of scarcity or if it's out of kind of like a well you know, guess, this isn't going to be what we want it to be and I want to be like girlfriend. There's 72 hours left. Do you know how much can change in 72 hours? Also, everyone buys last minute like unless you have some sort of. That's like getting them in the door sooner. People are waiting. People have also. People have lives. Like people are not you know. Like on pins and needles, like what are they launching? Oh my gosh. Like yeah, they may be intrigued, but like you honestly have to look at what is the whole other thing? I'm watching like cleaning the calendar. What time of year is it? Are kids getting out of school? Are kids going back to school? Is it spring break? Is it the holidays? Is it freaking Mother's Day weekend and you're closing car on a Sunday night. So much goes into it and so you have to find those wins so that you can be like, oh yeah, I learned this. Or like, holy moly, there's so much traffic going to my site, why aren't they converting? I need to dig into that. And treating it more as like a puzzle to be solved rather than a problem is going to be what helps you grow and scale. If it's always like an Eeyore moment, well, a, no one's going to want to work with you and B, you're never going to find this excitement in what you're selling and you're going to lean towards bitter versus better, and that comes off so much in your sales. And so I just want to remind you to not be bitter but to use it to get better and always find a win, and maybe during your launch, it's finding a win each day Like, oh my gosh, so-and-so has been on the fence for selling and they finally bought Yay, or oh my gosh, this is the first time it's felt like my team is humming along. This is great and just know, like, from a service provider perspective, like your team feels it too, and if you're struggling, like you're passing that along to them and it also shows that you don't have as much confidence in them, which is not not fun to feel. Feel anyways Cause, like we can't control. If someone takes their car down and buys, I can't reach through the screen. Make them walk to the kitchen, get their car down and buy. I can't control that. When they're about to buy their baby woke up from their nap or DoorDash delivered their food, instacart dropped off groceries. What we can control is like, hey, are they getting the emails? Are you showing up on social so they can see stories? Are they catching a reel in their feed? Oh, my gosh, they're seeing retargeting ads. Oh, they're Googling you and your name's coming up because you have Google ads running. Oh, they just saw another email and they bought. Like we can control the omnipresence of you showing up, but freaking, check that attitude of you showing up. But freaking check that attitude. One of my clients who I adore, jamie Berman, does such a good job of this. She just like holds the line and holds the vision of how she wants the launch to go and she's like let's freaking go, let's get after it. Like I'm in it and she is in it with the team until the cart closes and then we all joke like we're like, all right, we need to go take a nap, we need to crash, cause like she is in it with the team until the cart closes. And then we all joke like we're like, all right, we need to go take a nap, we need to crash because like she's in it and like, even if gosh there's, but there was a launch where, like, the numbers weren't quite what we wanted, but she was like I'm holding, like this vision I have that this is going to be this launch. And it's not like she was just sitting on her couch eating potato chips, chips, holding the vision, like she got on coaching calls, she reached out to leads, she was doing her thing too, while the team was, and so there's always a win and your mindset is is going to make such a huge difference in that. So that's what I would say Don't be bitter, get better. And then my last one that I'm going to tell you would say don't be bitter, get better. And then my last one that I'm going to tell you and I hope it brings you some relief and like a oh right, is no one remembers. I'm going to say that again no one remembers I used to care so much about what I wore to church on Sundays, like before I had a life, and I would be like, oh, I, just I wore that, you know, two Sundays ago. My mom's, like literally no one remembers. And if they do remember, that's weird and that's more on them than on you and I never like on them than on you and I never like it didn't. I didn't get it back then and now I get it even more. But truly no one knows that the launchpad didn't do as well as I wanted it to do and also no one remembers and no one cares. Also, if someone cares that much about your business like well, their business might be in shambles it's like why, why do you care so much about this person's launch if you're needing to find your business and care about your own business? So truly no one remembers. So if you have had a launch or if you honestly are nervous to put something out into the world that you know people need, that there is a demand for because you're worried how it might go, I just want to encourage you that a I'm cheering you on. It's amazing and people need what you've created, especially if it comes from such a pure-hearted place and b no one will remember anything. You did as much as you do, unless you do something illegal, and that's. I can't help you there. But what I can say is, if you put something into the world and it doesn't go as planned, that's okay. I'll be cheering you on and message me like hey, I launched this. It was not what I thought it was going to be, but I guarantee you you will learn something and you'll refine it, and that's why people launch things and create things constantly, because you truly do not know how it's going to hit. Until you take it to market, you can create something, all I mean. Imagine if Steve Jobs had sat in his garage for 50 years working on the computers and then he was like I don't know if they're gonna like this. And then instead he was like oh, the boom box is out, I'm gonna make something called a little ipod nano throwback. No, I don't know if they're gonna like this. Okay, phones are now going in cars, let's make something called the iphone. And then he didn't put it out there because he was worried what people would think like. It's the people that are the dreamers that do, the dreamers that are willing to step out of their comfort zone and be like you know what I? I'm going out on a limb here, I'm going to put this out there and let's see what hits. Like. Those are the people who fail enough time that it works, and so I'm just here to encourage you that no one remembers, and I guarantee you that you will be so much better off putting something out there than letting it sit in your Google Drive and just rot in your Google Drive graveyard. So those really are the things I learned from a failed launch. I want you to take time to reflect on it, to know that you can't promote it enough. You have to learn to learn from it. Don't be bitter, get better. There's always a win in business to find Freaking pivot, pivot, pivot, pivot. Don't wait till the buzzer goes off to go. Well, we should have done that. Like, you need a monday morning quarterback yourself in the game. Don't wait till it's time to watch a game bill. Like pivot and you got it. And then, lastly, no one remembers. I promise you and and honestly like, if you remember things other people have done and failed, use this as a moment to check your heart and be like why do I care? Because that's projecting something else and truly no one remembers or cares. Get out there, get after it. I can't wait to hear what you're working on and you're launching into the world. Please DM me launchwithjordan on Instagram or shoot me an email and just tell me, like if this resonated with you, tell me if you've had a failed launch before, and I just want to hear more. But I want more people to feel so empowered to just put things out into the world because they know it helps other people, they know it makes them better, they know it's needed and they're willing to take the risk of it going out there as done is better than perfect Then, like I said, sitting in the Google graveyard. So I hope the five things I learned from the failed launch helps you. Like I said, message me, tell me what you're launching soon, tell me how I can help you, and I'll see you soon on the next episode of clicks and giggles.

Speaker 1:

And that's a wrap. Thank you for listening. If you were inspired by this episode, be sure to check out the show notes for the linked resources and my free guide three ways to know you're ready for ads. If weekly episodes aren't enough for you and you want more of your favorite click magnet, you can connect with me over on Instagram. At launch with Jordan, I host regular challenges and drop valuable tips that will help make your marketing click, connect and convert. And if you think it would inspire a friend, send it, share it, just for clicks and giggles.