Ep. 101: Behind the Scenes of My Sold-Out Launch
I rarely talk about specific revenue numbers because I don't always view it as super helpful. For some, seeing the data is inspiring, and for others it brings up a lot of comparisonitis. But for this episode I'm making an exception. Because honestly if you follow me on IG you would know I filled all 12 spots in my recent launch of Rebellious Success, and you could see the price I was charging & do this math yourself.
So instead of simply sharing the dollar amount, I'm giving you a full behind-the-scenes into how all 12 members came to be in my orbit before they enrolled in the program. This is super powerful because it ties in directly to what I'm always talking about: leveraging the long-game of relationship building.
I'm also sharing some of the parts that didn't go so well, and what I want to improve upon for next time, so you can see that it wasn't all glitter-covered dollar bills.
Links:
Waitlist for Rebellious Success: rebellious-success.com
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Welcome to sell it sister today, I'm doing something a little bit different in that I am breaking down actual numbers on the show, and I don't usually do this because I feel like there are so many factors that go into the amount of money that we make as entrepreneurs that it's not always super helpful.
Right. It's not always super helpful to just see the numbers. Cause it doesn't always tell the whole story and. It can lead to, um, some comparisonitis and things like that. However, I'm making an exception here because these numbers I'm actually breaking down how they happened. And I think that this is a really cool way to see why, what I teach works.
Right. This was one of those things where I did it and I was like, hot damn look at that. Proof more proof that what I teach actually works and I don't know, it's just, it felt really good. And the people that I've already shared this with, um, we're just really excited to see it. And. It sort of gave them hope and it gave them ideas.
Um, so even if they run, you know, totally different business have totally different offer, have different price points, have different ideal clients and all of the above that at least it was like, Oh, okay. It can be really simple, but it can still work. So today I'm sharing with you the story of how I sold out my group coaching program without the usual launch burnout and made nearly $32,000.
In the process and I will be getting very specific here. Uh, so I recently relaunched my group coaching program, rebellious success, and along the way, um, I was posting some updates and behind the scenes, in my Instagram stories, but then when it was all said and done, I wanted to compile it into something that would be more streamlined.
So you could see my process quickly and simply, and hopefully, you know, take, take stuff from it. That you want to try for yourself. So I'm going to be sharing what worked, what I do the next time and a better way to understand the true quote unquote long game of organic marketing that's based on relationship building and authentic connection.
So I'm also not going to be sharing anyone's names here. So instead, each new program member I have designated by a letter of the alphabet. So in case you don't know what rebellious success is. It's a six month group coaching program for people who've been in business for usually around a minimum of a year.
And they've tried all sorts of things, but they're still struggling to understand how to consistently grow their business. They feel like they're working too much and doing all the things, but their results they'd hope to have by now just aren't there. Or they're starting to reach capacity, but they don't know what to do next, so they can move past their in pep ceiling.
Lastly, these are people who have zero desire to do anything that resembles bro marketing or any tactics that feel unethical or on aligned. Also, just as an aside, if you want to learn more about it, if you want to get on the waitlist, just go to rebellious, hyphen success.com and you can learn more there and see how I, you know, have the sales page and all of that.
Again, either for inspiration for yourself. Or to get on the wait list. Okay. So back to the story. So this launch was for the second cohort of the program. Both times I launched, I gave myself an entire month to enroll new members. This is currently my only offer that has a specific cart closed date because I hate the feeling of being rushed.
The first time I did it, I was hoping for 20 people. And I got seven and I won't even say I only got seven. I got a perfect seven people. And in hindsight, this was great. That might, it might feel like, Oh my gosh, you failed, you got less than half now. 20 would have been way, way, way too many for the second cohort.
I kept it at 12 and I got 12. Yay, uh, confetti emoji. Um, so while the price on this is going to increase in the future, I did keep it the same for both rounds, which is, uh, $2,664 total or four 44 a month for six months. So there was no price difference if people needed to do monthly payments, but if people paid in full, they got two bonus one-to-one calls with me.
That they could use during the program. And if people joined during the early bird week, which was the first week, they also got a personalized profit plan intensive with me, regardless of which payment option they chose. And so, yeah, so I did it for a month. The first week was the early bird week. And then the rest of the weeks were just, um, regular.
Okay. So onto what happened during the first launch, I had several people who told me they'd be interested in a future round, but could not join just yet. So I use notion to keep track of all my stuff for my business. I use that software, um, and in there I created a hot leads list and I put those people on it.
So I would not forget to reach back out. When I relaunched the weekend before the cart opened, I reached out to all of these people. There were 13 in total. I was very upfront that I would likely not launch it again. For about seven months and that when I do the prices, absolutely positively going to increase because of this, I was certain, a lot of those people would jump on it.
And when they didn't, I started to get really. Worried, one thing that's super common with launching group programs is the fear that not enough people will join and not only will it not have the same impact with lower numbers, but it will feel embarrassing because the people who join might judge you or be disappointed, right.
They might be like, Oh my God, if she was as good as she says, she is like, why does she not. Why, why does she only have a few people, um, which isn't necessarily the truth, but it's, you know, it's what we get in our heads about. Right. So that Monday came and I started promoting it both to my email list and on Instagram.
So this was the kickoff week. The first full week I had to leave my house to run. Some errands was really getting in my own head about things, even though the launch had only just started, uh, especially because while I was out, I checked my phone and I saw an email from somebody who I was absolutely certain was going to join.
Who told me maybe she would join in the fall instead. So this was somebody we actually hopped on a quick zoom session. Um, I've been wanting to work, uh, with her for awhile. She's so rad. And I was like, yeah, yeah, she's definitely a yes. So I'm out and about running my errands, check my email. And then it was like, my heart just sunk.
And I was like, Oh my God, not only did I not get. All of these, you know, I knew not all 13 would say yes, but I thought a bunch would like right away. Um, and that didn't happen. And then I already had a no, and I was like, Oh God, this, this sucks. I'm going to, this lodge is going to fail. So I came home and then I started doing some work and I realized I had two people who had submitted applications.
So I get little notification when that happens. So I went to go check. Fully assumed it was two of the hot leads that I had already spoken to when I opened them. And I clicked through, I realized I had no clue who these people were. I was like, you've gotta be kidding me. I just went from like, thinking this thing is gonna fail to two people.
Who've never met me. I've never spoken to. Are like, yeah, I want it. That was a good feeling. So that helped me really quickly shift my mindset because it proved that what I teach really does work when you trust it and do it consistently. And why, why would I think that, because when I scroll to the bottom of the application where it had space for a referral name, um, both had come from other people I knew.
So two perfect strangers were each going to give me over $2,600 to learn from me simply because they just, you know, someone that they trust has talked about me before I was so soaked. I was like, this is it. We're off the races. Here we go. So in total seven people joined during early bird week. Then the next four were, uh, in the middle two weeks.
And the final member joined at the very beginning of the final week. So what did I do for my marketing? I typically email my list on Tuesdays and Thursdays. The Thursday email always focuses on my podcast episode that has just come out the day before. And in the other email, um, is just really like the Tuesday email email is really an assortment of like teaching on something or updating them on cool things that are happening such as like places I'm speaking podcasts I've been on for your low cost paid trainings they can register for or something that I'm actively selling.
I emailed a little bit more during that first week because of the cart opening and the early bird bonus. The following week, I sent an email only to the people who had clicked on the sales page to let them know there were only five spots left. I originally mentioned you this towards the end of the launch period, but I moved it up.
Since the space is filled faster than I had planned. And I also plan to post almost every week, Dan and scram, and talk about it consistently. In my stories, I tell my clients all the time that nobody is paying attention, like we are to our own stuff. And that it's imperative to talk about something more than seems necessary because it's very easy for people to not notice something or.
Be ready to check it out and then get sidetracked and forget to come back to it. Even though I know all of this I'm human and I initially felt a little worried about annoying people. This is so, so normal, but I could either annoy people and risk them leaving. And honestly, if they did, we weren't a good fit anyways, or I could be sure that I spoke about it enough so that nobody who really wanted to join accidentally.
Missed out. I also did something which I'd wanted to do for a long time, but it felt scary and vulnerable, which was asked my clients to share their experiences on Instagram. Live with me. I also asked them for feedback, even though they had only completed two months of the program so far, these were the members of the first cohort because I overlapped the two cohorts.
I took their feedback and had my assistant make graphics with their words and their headshots. And I scheduled times that we would do with the interviews. So this was super, super, super vulnerable for me, but I'm incredibly glad that I did it. And you'll see why. So in weeks one and two, I did free group coaching on both of the Fridays.
These were no strings attached sessions where people could show up to zoom and get a question answered for their business. I like doing this because it allows people to experience what it's like to work with me before they decide if they want to invest. Obviously, this might not work for everyone depending on their business, but it was fun and it was easy to set up.
So I did, I did those. That was great. I did that for the past one, um, or the first cohort as well. And it was also super fun. Lastly, I had a free training that I was going to do the Friday of week three a week before applications closed. My original thought was it would serve as a final push to get the last several people in.
Ultimately by the time I did the training, I only had one spot left. I created the training during my first launch. And while I tweaked it a little bit for the second launch, there's still some updates I want to make for it. I also tried to run some ads for this training, but did not have any success with them.
Also. I think you'll be super happy to learn that my email list at the time, it's still not much more than this, but at the time was only around 850 people. And my Instagram at the time had just over 3,300 followers. So no where close to the swipe up feature that you get when you have 10,000. So here's the breakdown of the members and how they came to join the program.
So member a was a hot lead. We initially met on Instagram, um, ended up being in a paid membership program together too. After this, we mostly, uh, had stayed connected via Instagram though, um, to keep growing the relationship. Uh, member B also a hot lead. We initially met through paid program that I was assisting with, um, but stayed connected via Instagram to keep growing the relationship member C came as a referral through B.
I had never met her before member D. I had never met her before either. She came as a referral through a woman I met in the same paid membership community. As member a, the refer and I had also spent some time chatting via Voxer when she needed some help with her offers. The refer had me as a guest on her podcast as well.
Member E I had been Facebook and Instagram friends with her for awhile. We originally met through a mutual friend. We would just casually chat from time to time. I honestly had no idea. She was interested in joining. Member F we connected on Instagram several months back through mutual friends. I also had no idea.
She was interested in joining member G we met via a speed networking event put on by a mutual friend. Then we had a virtual coffee chat after I also had no idea that she was interested in joining, seeing a trend here. Right. Um, and if you also want to know more about, uh, if you're like virtual coffee chats, what's that I have a podcast episode on it.
I walk you through the whole, the whole shebang, uh, member H another referral from member B. So member, uh, member B had posted on Instagram sharing about me and how she likes my approach. And then H member H sot, um, member B also have me on her podcast or in the launch and posted about that on Instagram.
But I'm not even sure if member H listened to the episode or not. I'd never met H before she applied member. I was also a hot lead. We'd met through a mutual friend who she does some work for. We'd done a virtual chat several months before when she wanted to ask me some questions that would help her with her work for our mutual connection that we had.
Uh, she realized what I did was kind of interested and we had stayed connected on Instagram after that. Member J another hot lead. I believe we originally connected via Instagram and then just, we've just been friends in the DMS over there for, well, over a year, maybe actually closer to two years, member K was the same as with member Che, except that she wasn't a hot lead meaning I never directly reached out to her.
Asking if she wanted to join, she had been a previous client for a personalized profit plan intensive with me. So one-to-one intensive, but no, um, no ongoing coaching. I also had no idea. She was interested in joining and lastly member L same as Kay. I had no idea. She was interested in joining. She was, you know, somebody who.
Um, ident a personalized profit plan with no ongoing coaching. Didn't know she was interested in joining and then she applied. She filled that final, final spot at the beginning of the final week. So once the launch wrapped up, I had several new hot leads to add to my list for next time. Conversely, depending on how the existing hot leads responded, I made a note for next time too.
Um, these notes were everything from check back in the fall, which is when I plan to relaunch it to they're a better fit for a different offer now. And also no response, either way, the people who didn't respond at all, they will not be contacted again during the next launch, because I don't want to be.
Obnoxious. Uh, so what works really well? Well, I made a promise to myself that I was going to go all in for this launch. I wasn't feeling graspy about filling all 12 spots. Like I wasn't like, Oh my God, I absolutely have to. Or, you know, not, I didn't have any weird energy around it like that. I was just new.
I would be happy. What, you know, wherever we ended, if that was seven again, if it was 10. Whatever it was, I was going to be happy and satisfied, but I also wanted to make myself really proud, really proud if I didn't fill them all. I want it to be able to feel like I still really showed up for the launch and didn't flake out halfway through because I feel like that is my default.
I'm a really strong starter. I'm not a great finisher. So, um, I was like on no, I'm gonna I'm I'm not gonna give up on myself, my best friend. And I, she was launching something at the same time we held each other accountable for the whole month. It was really awesome. So for the record, I also definitely had what I call the winter blahs during this launch.
And I've been tracking my time. Uh, with toggle. So I went back and looked and I only worked about 82 hours total during the entire month. That number includes all of my reg regular coaching calls and paid work too. Not just the lunch. I definitely wasn't hustling to fill it. Um, but as I already said, I know, I know I tend to be a strong starter, but don't always have.
The best follow through, and I really wanted to break that habit. So I feel incredibly, incredibly proud of that. Um, I'm also glad that I got out of my comfort zone and I asked for help. So ultimately I realized that my current clients were so excited to get to participate in the launch. And I had almost talked myself out of it.
Many of them even shared my Instagram posts and pulled their followers about their experience in the program. And that any stranger was allowed to DM them for an honest conversation. Like they did that on their own. I did not. Tell him too. It was awesome. And that definitely made me emotional in the best way.
It was a huge, huge, huge confidence boost. And I just. I cannot even express my gratitude for the members of cohort one. They're so awesome. So even two months in, um, that the first cohort were already like asking, like what comes next? Um, because they're like, we, you know, we already don't want it to end.
Right. So that was, I was like, Oh my gosh. Thank you like those mean so much to me. So that was, that was really lovely, but here's what I'll change up for next time, as they already mentioned, the price is going to increase. I'm not sure by how much, but it will be more, um, and I may change up some of the, the bonuses as well, because, um, what I realized was like with having all those extra one-to-one bonus calls is that.
Um, because most people ended up paying in full. I was like, Ooh, gosh, there's a lot of, a lot of calls I got to like get in in the next six months. Right. So, um, number two, I'm going to have my team help me prep more of. The content the month before I was super organized with content and creating SOP our standard operating procedures in case you're not familiar with that acronym, um, this time around.
So a ton of it is going to be repurposed. We already repurposed some from the first launch, but the next one can be even more streamlined because of the good systems that we've now put in place. Number three, I'm also going to preschedule IgE lives with past clients. So I'm not trying to fit them in as I go during the launch.
So before the launch month, I'm already just going to get those, um, on the books. And that will be, that will be wonderful. Number four, I'm going to create a raving fans, folder of assets for past clients to use, to be able to share if they want to. Um, this will contain specific verbiage and graphics to make it as easy as possible.
And a special shout out to launch strategist and friend of mine, uh, Zakia Houghton, who gave me that suggestion, number five, I'm going to move the free training up to the second week instead of the third, because it felt really weird to be telling people about an opportunity when there was only one spot left, number six, I'm going to be even more proactive about adding to my hot lead list between launches.
Number seven, which kind of dovetails with this. I also know have a waitlist form on the sales page that I can keep growing and can give those people first dibs next time. So I'm hoping that between I, you know, I know not everyone on the wait list is going to say, yes, I know not everyone on my hot leads list is going to say yes, but at least if I have.
A large enough amount there. Um, it would be really, really awesome to maybe even fill like half the spots, um, before I even launched to the public, uh, number eight, I'm going to be more proactive with the free coaching Fridays that I did because I forgot I had done that for the first launch. And then when I was in the second launch and I remembered.
I really was not great about giving people a lot of lead time to that. So in the future, I'm going to add it to the emails and talk more about it on, um, on Instagram, but still glad I did it. Uh, it was, it was still a lot of fun. Number nine. I like a better system for being able to segment my list of warm leads.
Who've clicked on a sales page for the end of the launch. I was worried that some of them were hearing from me a bit too much. I also couldn't track. Um, who'd been to the application, but didn't fill it out because it's currently. A Google form. So I couldn't pixel it. So for the next time, um, and that's, that's just like ad speak where you, you can put pixels on different, um, and different website pages and stuff like that.
And, uh, you can actually track people who land on different on different pages. Um, but with Google forms, uh, you can't do it. So I had, I had tagged people who, um, had clicked. The sales page, but I couldn't then also tag people who clicked the Google form and stuff. And it was just, I mean, somebody may have clicked the sales page and then been like, Oh hell no.
Um, but th they were still getting the emails cause they had been, they had been tagged on it. So I would like to, I would really like to get that. Fixed in the future. So I'm not unnecessarily like messaging people who are totally not interested. Um, I, and, uh, lastly, number 10, I tried to run ads to the training, to the free training, but they completely flopped.
Um, there were some, right at the time I was doing this, some recent changes to Facebook ads. With like the new iOS and stuff like that. And I had set up a few things incorrectly on the tech end and by the time I realized it and changed it, it was just not enough time to really change course and get signups.
Um, so next time I'm going to bring, uh, Jenn Possick, who is, um, an ad strategist in earlier for help in setting up the ads. So she helped me a little bit, but it just, again, by the time that I realized. Things were broken and not working. It just wasn't enough time to turn the ship around as they say. So some of my final thoughts here, um, as you can see, it wasn't flawless, but it worked.
The main takeaway for me is that many of the people I thought would be an instant. Yes. Ended up not joining. Only four of the 13 hot leads joined. And I never heard anything back from another for, at all. And also that people I didn't expect to join. Dead. So hopefully in those numbers there, um, you can see like, Oh, okay.
So there were 13 people, four said yes, four never said anything. They didn't even respond. Um, and then the rest can move into like, uh, reach back out for. The next time, so five get moved to the fall launch. And then as I track the relationships back, I can see how it can take a longer time before people are ready to invest.
This is something that I teach and preach, but it was nice to see it actually play out in the data. It also shows that word of mouth is super powerful and showing up, even when it feels like quote unquote too much, um, also works and. Uh, part of why, like I really loved doing the Instagram live with people is I always talk about like social proof, right?
People, people want to, people need to trust you before they invest. And so I feel like by having actual clients on with me sharing their own honest stories, it's somebody who has nothing to gain personally. From somebody enrolling, right. They, they just are genuinely showing up to share their experience.
Um, and so as somebody objectively watching that, who is interested. It's like, okay. It's not just Erica talking about how great it is because Eric is going to be the one to make money off of me if I join. Right. It's this other person who is talking about how great it is. So that was fantastic. Um, in total, so for the full dollar breakdown I brought in $25,308 cash from the launch initially since three fourths of the people paid in full and in total, the expected revenue.
From the launch was, uh, $31,968, which is the total of the 12 members times the $2,664. They each agreed to pay either at once or in payments. I really wanted to clarify this because often in the online space, there's a lot of talk about. Total launch numbers and less about the actual money received versus payment plans.
Um, as the investment for the program increases, I do also imagine I will likely have fewer people who will pay in full, but that is satisfying. Um, it's just, you know, it means that there will be more consistent, ongoing, uh, monthly revenue rather than getting it all, all upfront. So my goal next time is to have all of the spots filled by week three so that I can completely shift gears to onboarding and week four and resting even more before the new cohort begins, maybe even taking a full week off while my team does the onboarding.
And I want to be even more present to be talking about the program on social media. And I plan to do that by again, leveraging those good systems that we set up this time too, and leveraging my team. Um, I really. Can see that being a reality for the next time. And, uh, yeah. Any, anything, any way that I can prepare ahead of time will just free up my time for, um, going live for talking about it for, um, going live, not only on my page, but on other people's pages and just things like that.
Uh, so that really, that really wraps it up. Um, I. Uh, yeah, I, I feel like I'm, I'm an open book on this. It's, uh, really not hard to know. Like if, if you were following me during that time, like you definitely would have said, like, I, I was, I was very open that like, it's it sold out. It got full. Um, this is not, this is not new information and it doesn't take a rocket scientist to.
No, that if there are 12 spots open and the, and the price, like, you know, doing that math, uh, to figure out how much I brought in. So it's not, it's not like this was any, any secret or anything, anything like that. Um, I also have a very lean team. Uh, I have one. Assistant, um, in my business, I have a, I have a business manager, Patty who's super awesome.
And then, yeah, and then I was working with my friends Akia because I believe that even when we do something and we are really good at it, like I'm really good at planning other people's launches. And I knew that I was like 80% of the way there for my own. But, you know, why, why not leverage somebody else's strategic brain to get the other 20%.
Right. So, uh, even, even coaches need coaches, even experts the experts. Um, there's no, no shame in that. I'm so glad. I'm so glad I did. Uh, but on the whole, yeah, I run my business like in a pretty. Paired down way, just because I really, I really love simplicity. Um, and this was, this was really exciting. And, um, it was my biggest launch to date.
Absolutely. Uh, it was really exciting, but more than. The money, like this is gonna sound super corny, like, boom. It's not about the money. It's about the people, but like, it really is like, you can make $32,000 in a lot of ways. You make $15,000 in a lot of ways. Um, but the, the people who, uh, who are now in the second cohort, they are amazing.
I love working with them. We just finished the first month. It's been super awesome. I feel. In so much gratitude and appreciation that they trust me, um, that they trust me with their investment, their time, their businesses, everything. It's, it's a huge responsibility. It's not something I'd take, like take lightly.
Um, and I, I just, I feel incredibly, incredibly lucky and fortunate to get to work with them. And I will also see on the other side, because I did, I did an application process. Is there was somebody who. I felt like she wasn't far enough along in her business and I had to turn her down. And so, um, You know, it's am I, of course, of course I felt bad.
And of course it would have been easy for me to just be like, Oh, sure. Yeah, come on in. Um, but I, I didn't feel like it was fair to her. I didn't feel like she would get the most out of her investment. So I, uh, I let her know about a different course that I have that I thought might be, um, might be a better fit instead of.
So that is the recap of my rebellious success launch. Um, I would say, uh, depending on when you're listening to this, um, you know, we, I might be closer to the relaunch, uh, but if you're listening right as it. Comes out. It's going to be several months before I do relaunch it. Um, either way, whenever, whenever you were listening, again, feel free to go to rebellious, uh, hyphen success.com.
You can learn more if it sounds good, feel free to get on a wait list. Um, and then I would also say to you that if it doesn't quite feel like the right fit or it's. You know, you're listening in real time and April, 2021, and it's not going to be until the fall and you really need help. Now just reach out to me either.
Eric turbans.com. Or on Instagram, Eric Dobbins consulting, um, just message me. Cause I have other ways that I work with people and, uh, maybe we can do something else in the process that can help advance your business right now so that you are not waiting for so long. Um, and of course, either way, uh, I love when you stop by and say hi to me on social.
Signed to my DMS at Eric sevens consulting. And if you enjoyed this, I'm sure somebody else in your life will too. So please feel free to share it with them. Especially if you just take a screenshot and share to your stories and tag me, I love to see who is listening and it's always super flattering when people share this out sister podcast out.
Into the world. Thank you again. Thank you. If you're here, happy to answer any other questions you may have about this and as always happy selling.
