Ep. 131: Tips for Preventing Launch Burnout
When we think about launching we usually think about being tired. We think about going so hard that we risk burnout. It conjures up notions of working around the clock, never stopping to enjoy anything, trying to win at all costs. But that's not really necessary. There are so many different ways to launch it's really just a matter of finding what works best for you. And when we can plan ahead to give ourselves all sorts of support around a launch, it can make it even more easeful for us.
Launching, even if it's low-key, is a very normal part of business. If we can be better prepared for it, then we don't have to fear it. In fact, we can profit even more from it because we won't be overly tired. That's why in this episode I'm sharing my best tips on how to have a peaceful launch.
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If you've been in business for a minute, do you have a plan for profit that won't lead to burnout? I'm sure that you have goals, but what about the big picture view of what take to reach them without working yourself into exhaustion? Because that is a different story.
One reason having a successful business can be so tricky. Is that once we finally start getting clients new problems, start to pop up because now you're juggling working on your business while also having to work in it. And it's really easy to lose track of how you can keep all the plates spinning while trying to hit higher [00:02:00] revenue money.
So usually what ends up happening is you try to create new offers to bring in more money, but then you're super busy creating, promoting, and delivering them, or you're extending your working hours into your personal time and it's making you salty, or you started dropping some of the plates and it does not feel good at all.
And there's zero way it's sustainable either. Or maybe it's a combo of all three, the first step to fixing this is looking at the numbers, but not like a giant overwhelming spreadsheet or anything like that. Just simple data that is the most important for moving the needle forward in a more supportive way.
And that is why I have a free workbook and many training just for you. It really is super. Super short, but massively impactful on how you'll be able to make profit based decisions moving forward in your business. And did I mention it's free, I think at it, but it's worth [00:03:00] saying again, you can find it all at bit dot L Y forward slash plan for profit.
This'll be in the show notes as well, but to get the plan for-profit guide, all you have to do is go to bit that L Y plan for profit guide, all lowercase, all one word, and you will get instant access and be able to see in a. Overwhelm free way, what the money makeup is for your business, and then use that to make your decisions on your next steps.
Okay. Onto the episode. Welcome to the, sell it sister podcast. Today, we are talking, launching, and not just how to launch, but how to launch without. Feeling burnt out without getting crispy by the end of it. So usually, you know, [00:04:00] when we think about launching, we think about being tired. We think about exhaustion.
We think about going so hard that we risk burnout and it conjures up notions of working around the clock. Never stopping to enjoy anything, trying to win at all costs, but that's not really necessary. There are so many different ways to launch. It's really just a matter of finding what works best for you.
And when we can plan ahead to give ourselves all sorts of support around a launch, it can make it even more easeful for us. So launching, even if it's low key, which I'm a huge fan of is a normal part of business, right. We have something we need to sell it and. I, you know, when I say low key, like that's something I do with my clients.
That means like, it doesn't need to necessarily be this massive launch cycle. Right. But if, if we have an offer, we want to sell, we need to be marketing it. Right. And especially if it's a new offer, we kind of need to launch it out there into the world. And some sort of. [00:05:00] So, if we can be better prepared for launching, then we don't have to fear it so much.
And in fact, we can profit even more from it because we won't be overly tired. And that's why I'm sharing in this episode, some best tips on how to have a peaceful launch. And when I say we can profit more from it because we won't be tired. I have really found both in myself and my clients. I'm always like, you know, what feels fun if they're deciding between two things and like what feels fun?
And I try to remember to do that with myself as well, because I find that like when we had that excited energy and when our energy is, is up and out, uh, It tends to just like radiate and have this really positive ripple effect. Now that doesn't mean, I don't mean you have to be like super high energy all the time in order to make money.
I just mean, you know, if we're feeling like drudgery around something, um, it's, it's just not gonna go across like the ether. I feel like in the [00:06:00] same, in the same sort of way. So in this episode, it's really, it's a series of questions that I have. Around that, that you can ask yourself, right. To figure out if you are, uh, going to be set up for launch success.
So here we go, first things first, right out the gate, you know, pulling like not, no holding back here. Do you love the offer that you are launching or do you have it because you think you need. So this is something that I think is really important and not talked about enough, is that a lot of times, especially depending on the thing that we do, we feel like, oh my gosh, I have to do this thing.
Right. I have to, um, have a group program. I have [00:07:00] to have a course. I have to have a VIP day. I have to. I mean, I don't even know, fill in the blank. Right. Um, if you sell products, you might be like, oh, I have to do a special exclusive collection for Q4 for the holidays. Like, no, you, you don't. Right. Um, if, if you truly, like, let's say you coach and you just do like one-to-one coaching and there's like, no deliverable.
There's it's just literally coaching. Um, may, maybe there's no. You're not necessarily having to ever do like a full fledged, like cart, open cart, closed launch. Right. Um, that's something that you can do. It's totally valid and viable. Um, so it's a really good idea, especially if you've been offering something for a while.
I, I have personal experience with this, my first group program, I had had it for over a year and I loved it. I loved it. I loved it. And then I realized I was like, [00:08:00] that's time to let this go. But I like, I don't know for a variety of reasons, I was like, I'm gonna, I'm going to launch it one more time and I'll watch it one more time.
And then, then it's done. And lo and behold, I only had two people and I ended up switching them over to like one-to-one clients and it was totally fine, but my energy and my excitement wasn't there. I should have listened to my gut and been like, yeah, you know what? It's, it doesn't need to make sense why I'm stopping it.
I'm stopping it. End of story. Right. So that's, that's the first thing to think about. Um, if that stirs up a lot of like, oh shit, I don't know what I'm going to do then, then that's different, you know, part of another conversation, but it's really good to know, you know, are you launching something because you really want to, cause you think you should, if you love it, it's always possible to figure out a better launch plan.
Right. So maybe you're like. I love the [00:09:00] offer, but I don't love the launch plan. I don't like how this is structured or whatever. Um, I haven't loved launching in the past, but I love delivering it. Cool again, then it's, that's a different kind of conversation if you don't love it, what needs to change right.
Is does something about the offer need to change? Can you pinpoint, uh, you know, what that might look like? Um, like what you're loving about. Maybe what you're not loving about it or is it really just like time to just not, not have that offer anymore? So when thinking about your actual launch plan, if you're like, yeah, yeah.
I like the software. I'm going to make a few tweaks, but I'm still gonna like launch this offer, but I don't love the launch plan. Can you pinpoint what it is about the launch plan that you don't like? So is it, um, I actually was doing this with a client recently. Mapping out her [00:10:00] lunch and it was a relaunch, well sort of a semi relaunch.
It was like a, a new version of like work that she had already been doing with clients. And, um, and she like launched her membership in the past, and this was more like a group program. So it was going to be like a similar style of lunch. And so she was talking about. Like emails, like being stuck in the weeds of emails and struggling to batch them.
Ahead of time, but also feeling really tired during the launch to be writing them and all of that stuff. Right. That's a very concrete thing. We can, we can create a strategy around that because she knew what she didn't like about the lunch. Then also checking with yourself. Is there anything you do? Like, so she did know, she was like, you know, I love like teaching.
The workshop that leads into it. Love, love, love that.Really good at it. I feel super present and everything. So that's [00:11:00] good information. So keep that workshop. We're going to figure out something else with the emails when you know what you don't like, can you get support or create more ease around it? So we'll just go with the email example.
If you're like, I really just in general, I hate writing these emails. Hate them, hate them, hate them. I don't want to do them in the moment. I don't want to batch them. I don't want to do them at all, but I feel like I still want the emails. Okay. Can you hire somebody then to. Right. The set of emails for you.
That's one way you could get more support or ease, right. Or maybe you're like, I don't mind writing them. Like I pull up a Google doc and I can do them all, but it's the tech, the tech. Wigs me out, freaks me out. Okay. Can you get, even if you don't have like a regular VA that works with you, like, could you [00:12:00] have a, uh, cause you have like a tech VA come in and just do the setup, the first launch I ever, ever, ever did.
Um, I did that. I felt so overwhelmed, uh, at the time with learning. Um, the backend of active campaign, I just had someone come in just for a project, set up automation, load everything in, and then she taught me how to do it. And I was like, oh, that feels so good. Right. And then also, can you double down on what you love?
So if you're like, you know what, like for me, I didn't do this with my most recent launch. Cause it really just came down to like, Thing like in not wanting to infringe on my own time boundaries, so I didn't do free coaching. Um, but I love free coaching. And so for me, that is something that as part of a launch, um, I could do, I could double down on that.
I could do hot [00:13:00] seat coaching. That then leads in to the thing that I'm, you know, to the coaching program that I'm launching. Cause it makes it makes sense. Right. Um, However, one thing I do love to do is I love teaching. So a lot of my content and specifically my launch content is around teaching. What I don't love is having the setup, all the backend stuff.
Right. So I make sure my team now handles that. Another thing you can do is ask yourself what are three other ways I could launch this? Right. So what are it like if you know, the, if the classic model is, I'm just going to say, you know, cause it's this online business and when I say classic, I don't mean this is like the best, not anything like that.
Just like the classic model is like a webinar with emails on the backend. Well, what if, what if you don't want to do [00:14:00] that? Right. Were three other ways that you could like. Could you do a challenge? Does that feel fun? That might not feel fun, but am I feel fun? Um, could you do, uh, low costs, like a low cost or free, um, in depth workshop that then goes into it.
Could you do free or paid hot seat coaching? And that goes into it. Could you do. I mean, oh my gosh. There's like so many different, so many different ways that you could do this. Um, but just getting curious, right? Not that you have to decide immediately, which of those things you're going to do. You might need to get some help around those, but just really taking a step back and being like, what are three potential, other ways that I could launch.
Also, [00:15:00] what I think is really important. Um, especially now in this like global pandemic world of, you know, and everything else that is happening, which is like really mentally draining for, um, for a lot of people. And I feel like we're all like extra distracted and we have like less bandwidth and everything.
Give yourself more. Even if the normal launch model or like the common lodge model is like a week or two weeks, like give it, you can give yourself more time. You can either do a longer runway for your launch. Like you could do a month if you want, you could do six weeks if you want. Um, or if you're like, No, I want to keep it tight.
Like I want to do a tight two weeks or even a tight week. Give yourself spaciousness on either side. Right? If you're like, I only have the bandwidth to like go all in for one week talking about it. That's [00:16:00] super cool. You can do that. Um, then maybe. Add in a buffer week, before and after for yourself. Um, so for instance, by the time this comes out, I will have just finished a relaunch for my rebellious success program.
And I decided to, I did a really long, uh, runway for it. Cause I, I was like revamping it, making it, making it even better. And, um, So all along that process, that process took a few months and I was like, starting to let people in, like I did like a special extended payment plan of people just wanted to be in and hold their spot and start paying early.
Um, I let them do that because the page was ready. Like while the other stuff wasn't quite ready, the sales page and all of that was ready. Um, but I also gave myself a week between when the applications close and when we start, because. I wanted to give my team a chance to [00:17:00] do onboarding and us not to be scrambling.
And I also wanted to give myself some time off. Right. So also, what support do you need for yourself during launch time? So really good question to ask. This could be home support, business support, emotional support, spiritual support, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. Right. And it could be layers of. Support, it could be that like you have a business coach or a mindset coach or, um, a life coach, something like that that really like helps you, um, in, in the ways that they can.
And that feel good and feel really supportive. For you, and you can communicate that with them. Maybe you have like a group chat that really hypes you up, right? Say like, okay, it's my eye. I'm like going up to launch week, you know? Or like I'm starting my launch period. [00:18:00] And, and, uh, like, can you hype me up?
And then, Hey, like we're in cart close. Like, can you hype me up? Things things of that nature and maybe it's that you, you know, get, uh, like a meal service or something at home. Cause you're like, I just don't have the bandwidth to think about feeding myself. Right. I don't, I don't have the bandwidth to, uh, remember to.
Do the things that need to get done that make me feel good and allow me to keep going. Like any of those things that you need are all valid and they don't have to all be like paid things either, right? Again, group chat free. Maybe like if you, you know, have other people in your house who can like maybe do extra stuff during.
Your launch period, right? Like maybe they're in charge of, um, all the house [00:19:00] stuff for like the week or a couple of weeks, something like that. Right. Um, it's really just a matter of recognizing what you need and then like communicating that as best as possible. And then hopefully you have some of those, you know, people in and means and ways to be able to support yourself, even if it's literally just like in earlier bedtime, you're like, you know what, I'm not going to spend the last hour of.
On tech doc, as fun as it is, I'm going to go to bed. It's free. Go to bed is free. Um, I'm going to go to bed because I want to be like rested. I want to be present. Um, also, what is your launch pattern? Do you tend to give up in the middle? Um, do you tend to, you know, like fizzle out at the end, do you tend to avoid the beginning?
Like what, what is your, what is your launch pattern and like, look at it without. Right. So they're like, oh yeah, this is my launch pattern. Okay. All right. Who can hold you accountable? Right. Is it a coach? Is it a best friend? Is it, [00:20:00] you know, your group chat? Like, uh, where, where can you go to say, Hey, um, besties, like, uh, I have this three week launch and I know that in the middle, I'm going to start to wig out and not want to keep going.
And I'm going to be doubting myself and all the things. So like around this time period, can you check in with me? Can you like, give me that push, I need to get over that hump and finish strong and with being able to predict that, is there anything else you can do as a buffer or to Sue yourself? Right. If you know, again, like in addition to the accountability, if you know that.
Uh, let's just say in the middle again, that you really start to like, get a lot of feelings going on. Right. Well, do you have like a [00:21:00] therapist or other like therapeutic support that you can, can you schedule an extra appointments for yourself? Right. Um, what are the other things that sort of like refill your emotional buckets?
Right? Is that coffee with a friend? Is that. You know, treating yourself to an uninterrupted stretch of time with a book. Is it rewatching like your favorite movies? What are those things that you can predict and sort of be ready for and have in place so that they, so that in the moment you're not trying to layer on support.
You just have this port ready. Also, how can you make it fun? Right. As I said, right at the top of this podcast, it's, you know, being able to like have fun, feel really good and really, um, aligned is, is really, I think really, really crucial. So how can [00:22:00] you make it fun for yourself and how can you keep up the momentum?
How can you feel excitement while also not holding too tightly to the outcomes? Right. If you're like, okay. My goal is like 10 people in this program. Like I need five at a minimum to run it. My goal is 10. Like how can you keep that whole process fun? How can you keep going? Like, maybe you've got five and you're like, oh, I really like, I still have a week left that I really want to get the 10.
Right. And not as a way of like, I'm going to judge myself terribly. If I don't hit the 10. Even if I only got one more, right? Like how do I want to show up in a way that feels fun and feels really aligned, even if I only get one more person. Right. How can I still feel excited? Even if I only get one more person that is really important to consider too.
And also what does a win look like? Not just in terms of [00:23:00] money for people who've opted in for the thing, but like what other ways would that look like? I know that I had a client, another rebellious success, um, client, who she was launching a group program and she ended up getting some interest. She didn't have enough, she didn't hit her minimum number to be able to run it, but she had two things that.
Uh, win for her where she was like, I actually, I feel really like as much as I wish I could have run it and everything. Um, I feel really good. I, I still feel like it was a win for two reasons. One, she didn't give up midway through. She made a promise to herself. She would go all the way through to the very end, no matter what happened.
And she did. And number two, she showed up in the way that she wanted to in integrity and alignment, all of that. And. That was huge, right. To be able to step back and be like, I didn't fail. I'm not a failure. This [00:24:00] doesn't mean I suck. It doesn't mean I can never do it again. Cause now she's going to relaunch it again.
But just like what other things besides money, or like people enrolled would be a win decide before you begin what those things would look like. Feel like. You know, and, and all of that pre decide what, what that is. And then at the end, how are you going to celebrate, regardless of what happened, maybe zero people bought, right?
How are you going to celebrate when you hit those other wins? Like when you didn't give up or, you know, or even in case. Okay. But like Erica, not giving up again. That seems like, oh my God, is she working all the time? No, no, no. She was not, she wasn't like quote unquote going hard. Right. Um, but on the flip side of this, like a win, a win could also look like not being massively, like [00:25:00] present to the launch in the sense of like.
Not obsessing about it, you know, 24 7, right? If you like a win could look like maybe you go camping for a long weekend in the middle of. Uh, launch, right? And you celebrate that. You celebrate that. You're like Jada, what, whatever happens in the end. I don't care. It's important to me to go camping. It's important to me to take time off.
Maybe you still keep your, like, maybe you have like a really. Uh, slim down work schedule. And you honor that the whole time, like you're, you're like I only work 20 hours a week and I kept to my 20 hours a week. Right. So even if nobody joined, I honor that I kept my time boundaries or maybe midway through the launch.
You're like, oh, I'm starting to feel really tired. I'm starting to feel really depleted. And you honor that. Right. You. Take a [00:26:00] day off of social. You cancel all your, your, you know, plans for a day, um, of, of, you know, your to-do list, right? You scrap your to-do list and you're like, I am just going to, uh, do like a Lord of the rings movie marathon.
Right. And I'm going to have hot tea and I'm going to, you know, order in food and it's going to feel like I'm just going to take really good care of myself. I'm going to receive that care, um, that I feel like I need, right. That's a huge, huge, huge win. And. How will you celebrate, right? Is it something, is there something that like is really significant that you've been wanting to invest in?
Is there an experience that you've wanted to have? Is it, uh, you know, taking that week off, regardless if you haven't quote unquote earned it, right? Maybe you maybe only two people bought and you want to find people to buy, but you're like, I'm going to give myself a week off after. And you don't beat yourself up and say, well, [00:27:00] forget it.
I don't deserve that. I didn't sell all five. So I'm just going to keep working. No, no, no. Keep that week off. If it feels, if it still feels aligned, celebrate the two people that enrolled take the week off. Um, and then lastly, what does the debrief process look like? And when will you do it? This was really important.
Um, and something that. I used to be really avoidant too, because I would make whatever happened means something about me. Right. I'd be like, oh, I'd get all in judgment on self judgment. Oh, see, look at all the ways I fucked up and I could've done better and I could've done more and blah, blah, blah, blah. No, no, no, no, no.
Like try as much as possible to be, to be detached from it. When I say debrief, I mean, Just look it over, like your launch plan and like what went well and what didn't. And I have a podcast episode about this, about the second time I launched rebellious success and, um, [00:28:00] how I, you know, like it was like all the things that went well and the things that like, I didn't get around to, or like, didn't go well, or I would do differently next time.
Right. So it's really just like looking over. What was the plan? What did I actually end up doing from the plan? Did it work? Did it not? Did I like it? Did it, did I not? What did I not do? Do I want to try to do that next time? Or does that just get scrapped? Um, all of this, like, I'll probably do a debrief episode.
Um, maybe like in like Q1 around the. Launch that I will have just finished by the time you're listening to this. But for me, like right now, I know I already mentioned like taking the week off after, but at the time of recording this, there is a, so it's a Tuesday and applications close Friday. And my [00:29:00] parents come in for a visit tomorrow night.
So literally like the last two full days of. Cart open. I won't even be working that much. Like my family will be here. I will be enjoying time with them. I will be doing, you know, things out and about and taking them, you know, showing them around where I, where I live now and stuff. And, um, and that feels really.
Good. Right. I have decided this ahead of time that this is how I'm structuring this launch and that where ever it ends up. Uh, it's a win to me to be able to not be absolutely frantic on the final day and not enjoying my time with my family and also, you know, having. Having that time next week, um, [00:30:00] after they leave, like that's probably when I'll sit down and do a bit of a debrief for myself, maybe not even like a super deep dive, like, I don't know.
We'll we'll see, like, I don't know if I'll go into like active campaign and look at like, which emails got open and stuff. Like maybe I will, if I feel like it, or maybe I'll do that. Like. Or maybe I'll have my assistant do it, you know, I don't know, but really just like checking in with myself, like high level, like what was in the plan, what didn't get done.
What did. What felt good? What didn't, what do I want to do differently next time? And just having that in a document so that I know, so that when I relaunch I have it and I can go back to it and it feels really good and it feels really supportive and I'm not doing it with judgment. It's it's would be very easy to be like, oh my God, see this, you suck.
And you, you know, you could, uh, you know, could you have gotten another person if you just did this or that? Like maybe. [00:31:00] Maybe, but in the end, I know how I like to be supported. I know how I, you know, we can advocate for that support can add that support in, I know what I want the launch to kind of look and feel like I know what would feel like a win.
I know how I'm going to celebrate all of those things. And I feel like in the end to me and people might disagree. That is more important than, oh, did I, did I hit that? Like the actual, like goal number, right. Did I, did I actually hit the, the goal number? Um, and if I didn't do I make that mean that I'm a failure somehow, because again, going back to what I said at the beginning, we will always be launching.
Form or fashion, we will always be launching. We will always be marketing and [00:32:00] everything is not going to be a slam dunk. It just won't because there are way too many factors at play that have nothing to do with us when we are launching. Right. So even like, I'll just like give this last little anecdote.
So last fall during the U S presidential election. Stuff was super wonky with paid ads. So I have some clients who do paid ads. I have friends who do paid ads and, uh, with the way that things were going on, Facebook and them trying to like, you know, sort of crack down on some of the like politically motivated, paid ads and like all of that stuff that they were doing, it was.
Making it very weird and difficult for people who typically run paid ads. So it was making people's launches really, [00:33:00] um, challenging people who were, who rely on paid ads, obviously not for everyone, but for a lot of people, a lot of people's like Q4 launches were. Did not go as planned. And even for people who, you know, if, if you weren't using paid ads, when people are really distracted and are focused on other things, uh, it's totally possible that they just wouldn't be paying close enough attention to realize that you're launching something.
Right. So it could be things that have literally nothing to do with you. You could have like the best launch plan. You can be super stoked. Like you could be all in, you could be doing all the things. Um, And like, you know, honoring your personal boundaries and your personal energy and the whole shebang.
And it could still not go how you want, because we are just, we're talking about human to human interaction and sometimes other things can influence and impact that. So, uh, really to me, I say all that to say, like, [00:34:00] don't hold the success of one launch. Like, don't hold that as an indicator. Uh, the success or failure, failure in air quotes of a launch as like what this means about you or the long-term success of your business, because it could just be that some things need to be tweaked and adjusted and try it again.
But what is most important is that you set yourself up for long-term success, that you are kind of. And as many ways as possible to yourself through the whole process so that you can feel that motivation. To want to keep, um, moving forward and to keep creating and relaunching and all of those things. If you have any questions, feel free to send them my way.
Cause I love, love, love talking about this stuff, but, uh, yeah, you can find me over at. Well, if you're on Instagram, Erika, Tappin's consulting, feel [00:35:00] free to decide on my DMS and say hi, or I love it when people screenshot and episode and post it in their stories and tag me because this way other people can see, can learn about the podcast as well, and can check it out for themselves or, you know, feel free to just share it with people as well.
And, um, and I, I really love like meeting and hearing. My listeners and hearing your ahas and takeaways as well. So say hi over there. I hope that this gives you, uh, a bit of relief when it comes to launching and as always happy selling.
