When you’re the one calling the shots in your business, it’s easy to make major decisions—quickly. But if your major decision is a launch, you have to think about your audience. You can’t just wake up one day and ask your audience to shell out their hard earned money just because you decided at the last minute you wanted to sell.
You need to nurture them and allow them to grow to know, like, and trust you. Which can sometimes feel easier said than done. It takes a lot to take your audience on a journey with you and it behooves you to have a plan and be planned ahead.
Today I’m talking to Tasha Booth of The Launch Guild about all things launching, scaling, letting go, best practices and so much more. We talk about content, nurturing, staying in front of your audience, and best practices for your launch.
Tune in!
Mentioned in This Episode
- Amy Porterfield’s podcast with Tasha Booth
- 6 Pillars of a Successful Course Launch Project Plan
- My Client Journey Ebook
- The Content Mastery Lab
About Tasha Booth
Tasha Booth is an agency owner, coach, and podcaster. She is the Founder & CEO of The Launch Guild – a Course Launch Support & Digital Marketing Implementation Agency supporting established coaches and course creators with Course & Podcast Launches, Operations & Systems Management, and Content Management & Repurposing. Her team is over 20 members strong and works together to support their clients in being able to focus back onto their zones of genius.
Additionally, she mentors Virtual Support Pros (VAs, OBMs, & PMs) who are passionate and ready to grow their businesses while living life on their own term and is the host of the How She Did That Podcast — a podcast for Virtual Assistants, Online Business Managers, and Project Managers to learn business and tech tips.
To learn more check out Tasha’s website or follow her on Facebook and Instagram.
Transcription
Abby Herman 0:08
Hey there, and welcome to Episode 133 of The Content Experiment podcast, a podcast that supports the idea that content and marketing are ever moving targets in any business. And it’s okay if you don’t feel like you’re doing it. All right all of the time, you have permission to experiment with little tweaks and changes in your content, to find what works for you, what increases value for your audience, and what grows your business, and most importantly, what feels good for you. I’m Abby Herman, content strategist and coach for online business owners who are ready to make a bigger impact online. I firmly believe that success isn’t about what big marketing brands and so called gurus think is the right thing. It’s about you and your business, your lifestyle, and frankly, your values and belief systems, you get to do business in a way that works for you. Now, today’s guest is a multi passionate entrepreneur, who has grown from service based solopreneur, to having a team of 20. And being inside the business, only a small fraction of the time.
Abby Herman 1:15
Now, even if this is not something that you aspire to, I recommend keeping those earbuds in and staying with me. I’m talking to Tasha booth of the launch guild about all things launching, scaling, letting go best practices, and so much more. It’s an inspirational conversation that you are going to love. But before we get into the episode, I want to welcome you to the podcast. Are you new here, welcome. I work really hard to make sure this podcast is full of no nonsense support, to help inspire you to get your message out there and give you the actionable steps you need to make it happen. So you can get on with doing business your way. If you like what you hear, hit the subscribe button so you don’t miss another episode. And if you are a repeat listener, and you haven’t already left a rating and review, I would be so grateful if you’d hop over to your favorite podcast app and do just that. ratings and reviews are what helped tell Apple Spotify, Stitcher and all the other platforms and me that you like what you’re hearing, and it helps to get the podcast in more earbuds so others can benefit from the information I’m passing along on a regular basis.
Abby Herman 2:28
This podcast is brought to you by content mastery lab, my membership community where we talk about content creation, idea generation, market research, social media strategies, and all the mindset blogs that get in the way of your own visibility plus a whole lot more. Sometimes it takes some time to be brave enough to share your message. And sometimes it takes some time to get the message right. It’s a constantly changing, ever evolving process. In the lab, we focus on little tweaks and changes in our content to get the best ROI of our time investments. Because big sweeping changes take a lot of time, a lot of effort and a lot of money. And they don’t always pay off like we want them to. So stop floundering with trying to figure it all out yourself and start creating content with a confidence so that you are on the right path. Join us monthly or quarterly or commit to a whole year for extra one on one time with me. And quarterly planning parties or we work through your content together in an intimate group, head to the content experiment comm slash lab for more information and to sign up and use the coupon code podcast to try out your first month for $1. All right, back to our guests. Like I said, I am chatting today with Tasha booth. I met Tasha in January 2019. At a conference slash workshop, the purpose of the conference was to mastermind together so we were all given assigned seats, total eye roll moment, right like I want to sit with my friends.
Abby Herman 4:01
But Tasha was assigned to my table. And I have to say that as we masterminded and worked through business ideas and challenges together I was in awe of all that she did. Her business has grown so much since then, and you’ll hear us talk all about that. And if you haven’t listened to her episode on Amy Porterfield online marketing Made Easy podcast I highly recommend you tuning in if you want some serious inspiration. Now before we get into the interview, let me formally introduce you to Tasha. Tasha booth is an agency owner, coach and podcasters. She is founder and CEO of the launch Guild, a course launch support and digital marketing implementation agency, supporting established coaches and course creators with course and podcast launches, operations and systems management and content management and repurposing. Her team is over 20 members strong and works together. to support their clients in being able to focus back onto their zones of genius. Additionally, she mentors virtual support pros like VAs, OBs and PMs, who are passionate and ready to grow their businesses while living life on their own terms, and is the host of the how she did that podcast, a podcast for virtual assistants, online business managers, and project manager managers to learn business and tech tips. And I just need to interject here. That’s a lot, right. Tasha also creates like really fun and just really fun, tic tocs that she posts on Instagram stories, so I recommend you checking that out, too. All right, back to her bio. Tasha is an Air Force wife to her husband, Scott, step mom to grace and Meredith and work from home dog mom to Stanley and Boomer. in her spare time, I don’t know where she gets it. But in her spare time, she watches True Crime TV sings karaoke, and tensar her organic vegetable garden. And I have to just interject here again, Tasha has an amazing voice. She did some singing for us during the conference. And amazing. Alright, are you exhausted yet? With all that? Tasha does, I want you to listen in for more.
Abby Herman 6:25
Hi, Tasha, thank you so much for joining me. Thank you for having me. Yes. I’m so excited to chat and play catch up. Because it’s been a while since we’ve, I am really excited to have you on before we dive in. Can you share with audience members who might not know you what you do and who you do it for?
Tasha Booth 6:44
Yeah, absolutely. So I am the CEO and founder of the launch Guild, we are a full service launch Support Agency. So we work with established coaches and course creators on all kinds of launches, from course and program to podcast. And then I also coach and mentor virtual assistants, online business managers and project managers on how to start grow and scale their own businesses. And you have your own podcast as well. And I do my podcast is called how she did that. And it’s busy in tech tips for virtual support pros.
Abby Herman 7:12
I love it. So you are very busy. You’re just a little bit a lot. How does the way that you have structured your businesses and structured you know, the work that you do? How does that help you to live the lifestyle that you want?
Tasha Booth 7:27
Yeah, great question. So I know that when I first started, I was a solopreneur. va. And one of the reasons I went full time in my VA business was number one, because I was making some great money better than in my full time director level job at the YMCA, but also for the freedom piece to be able to say yes to things, which is one of my big, big why’s in my business and in my life.
Tasha Booth 7:49
And what I realized pretty quickly, it was that freedom that people talk about with you know, owning your own business, not so much when you’re a solopreneur, especially as a service based business because your clients are depending on you. And I found that like when I went away, because it was just me everything stopped, you know. So with that, and and also, because I was serving a lot of coaches, of course creators who needed a lot of different things, that was kind of like the catalyst for starting the agency side of things. And the agency really came out of both my own need to be able to go away and have a vacation and still make money and everything, and also the needs of my clients. So definitely on the agency side, it definitely suits the life that I love. Because now I can go away, I could probably go away for a whole month, and my team would probably look up a couple times and be like, Oh, we haven’t heard from Tasha, like, Where is she? But like everything would run, you know, and everything would work. And then on the coaching side that just came out of, I think my love of like nurturing and seeing other people, especially women do amazing things. And I’m very much of like an each one teach one philosophy in terms of like, when you you know, go another step, like reach back and help the next person. And being a coach and mentor just really allows me to do that.
Abby Herman 9:06
I love that I can totally relate to the you know, being a solopreneur and wanting to take a vacation. So a couple years ago, I did a two week vacation where I vowed to myself, I wasn’t going to touch work for the whole two weeks. And I had no team at that point. And so I prepped my clients, you know, months in advance, I worked ahead on everything months in advance, and I was able to do it, but it was exhausting leading up to that point. So it’s nice to have a team to help with some of that so that it’s not all on you to do everything. Because I also still felt really obligated to check in. I did once I only checked in once. Yeah, I felt really obligated to check in on my clients even though I knew everything was said and done, but it’s a lot.
Tasha Booth 9:49
It is a lie. It is a lot and I even remember like that first time that I did go away it was actually once I had a team and like we set up a plan and everything and we create Did a Tasha SOS Slack channel? And like everything else I didn’t look at? And I would like once a day, look at that Slack channel. If it wasn’t lit up, I would know, okay, the world is not burning down, everything’s good. And I think they used it like once because they couldn’t find a file or something. But other than that it was like glorious. But yeah, it is a stair step process.
Abby Herman 10:20
Yes. So you have two thriving businesses, you have two businesses that are very active and thriving. And I’m just curious how it has felt like growing two totally different businesses. And I imagine there might be a little bit of crossover, but probably not a lot, because they are very different. you’re serving very different dances. Can you talk a little bit about what that’s been like? I have to say, I heard you on Amy Porterfield podcast talking about all of your success. That was an it’ll be about a year ago when this goes live. And I’ll link to that in the show notes. But I mean, you’ve grown a lot. So can you share a little bit about what that what that has looked like over the years?
Tasha Booth 11:00
Yeah, so I definitely focused on the agency side first, and kind of getting that solid. I think it was like, when I look back and say, you know, and look back and see what I did. Right? I think that really focusing on the agency side and seeing, making sure I have the right people in the right seats first, was vitally important to this whole thing, because I think a lot of people look at the success that I now have on both sides of my business, and they don’t look back to like, what it was like building that right, or they see it, and they’re like, oh, if Tasha can do it, anybody can do it, which is totally true. But I didn’t build it at all at the same time. And that’s a really important piece. So we were really intentional about getting like our processes down, getting the slps down, getting the right people in the right places, so that I really got out of most of the day to day before I really then became intentional about building the coaching and the core side of my business.
Tasha Booth 11:53
So probably by the time I first started my, my first and definitely my second program, I was out of like 80% of the day to day, you know, and most of the implementation on the agency side, at this point, I’m probably at 95% out of the implementation on the agency side, meaning, you know, my team will come in and be like, hey, Tasha, I just want to let you know, we made this decision, I’m like, awesome. But other than that, they really don’t need me. And what that allowed was a space to give the other things, the time and attention that they deserved. I think that a lot of times, especially as like multi passionate entrepreneurs, we’re creating all these things. And we throw things at the wall and say, like, Oh, this stuck, you know, this didn’t stick instead of this stuck. And now what am I going to do about it? How do I grow that? How do I scale that? You know what I mean? So when we do that, it’s just such an easier journey to and doesn’t feel like a douche, you know, as you’re growing it?
Abby Herman 12:49
Yeah. It’s so to give all of that some context. What was the timeline? Like, how many years did it take for you to grow the one side of the business to then turn around and start going the other side?
Tasha Booth 13:02
Yeah, so I gave the agency a good year before I started with the other things. So the majority of my agency’s stuff was built in, like 2018. And then everything continues to be refined and everything. But we started feeling really, really good about where things were, like 2019, everything, we had a really, really great team and a solid, solid structure and workflows and everything. I had one program during that time, but it was like 12 people tops, it was, you know, it was pretty easy and easy for me to implement and everything. And then 2019, we added another 120, we added actually two more. So it’s been a little bit at a time. And my barometer for like, when to add something else is how much of me is required in order to not just like keep it going, but in order to like market it and stuff like that. So by the time we were on our third program, like and launching that third program, I was filling up the first two without really having to talk about them all the time on Instagram stories and do that sort of like grassroots marketing piece, which really helped the other programs be able to thrive, I think,
Abby Herman 14:11
Yeah, and I actually remember, like watching you on Instagram Stories talking about your mentorship program. And I remember that from a few years ago and seeing that, how exciting. So as somebody who is on I’m on kind of that agency journey, I have employees and I have team members who have taken over some of the client work, but not all of it by a longshot. What was that like? Because I know I struggle with the letting go of things I struggle with not owning everything. And, you know, sometimes I might put myself into things that I probably shouldn’t be in. But can you talk a little bit about the mindset challenges that surrounded that for you?
Tasha Booth 14:54
Yeah, absolutely. That was a huge mindset shift and it was definitely the hardest piece and what really helped clueless, I have two different coaches like I was so resistant to handing things off, and delegating and getting out of the implementation for the longest time. And over probably a year span, I had two different coaches that basically said to me, Tasha, you’re not that special, what they meant, but I know I was like, Okay, thanks for that, why am I paying you 1000s of dollars. But it really it did like it boil down to the fact that my zone of genius is my zone of genius. But it’s not something that I can’t find in others in different ways. But and also cultivate and teach and mentor. And so when I kind of got over my ego and over myself, because let’s be honest, that’s really where it came from ego, right? That’s when I, when I was able to fully step from the implementer to the CEO seat, and really change the messaging in our business from a me to a we, and realize that I was still integral in everything that was happening, it was just a very different way, you know, that I was now moving the company forward. And I think I was worried that like, not just that my clients needed, or were gravitating towards the launch scale because of me, but more so that they wouldn’t need me and like, what was my purpose if they didn’t need me? And once I got over that and realize like, oh, there’s so much that I’m still doing as a CEO of the launch Guild. That’s when things really started to thrive as well. The other thing that’s interesting is, have you ever taken Clifton strengths finders?
Abby Herman 16:32
I have Yeah, I don’t remember what mine were, but I have I know I’ve taken it. Yeah.
Tasha Booth 16:36
So I have no execution strengths, which is hilarious, since I own an operational based business, right. But then. But once I like realized that I was like, Oh, I’m doing exactly what I’m supposed to be doing. I’m doing exactly like, what I was born to do and what I thrive in doing. And that’s creating relationships and doing podcasts like this, and those sorts of things. And I’ve also built a great team whose strengths are all in execution, you know, and so they’re doing the things that they should be doing. And so that felt really good and really aligned.
Abby Herman 17:07
Yeah. Oh, I love that that is. So it’s true when I think about letting go of some of the client pieces, or even some of the client communication because I have somebody doing some of that right now. It is hard. And you think, you know, what do I do? And I do actually have moments where I don’t have any client work that I’m responsible for at the moment. It’s all done. And I think I sit and I winter, I’m caught up on the podcast. Okay. So what’s the point of me being here like, well, that gives me space to create something else? Or to take the day off? Take some time off?
Tasha Booth 17:44
Yeah, exactly guilty about it. I totally get this. And I was actually talking to a jailer and my director of operations last week, because she was like, you need to rest like you never rest, you’re always going, first of all, I’m a generator. So I’m like, I’m fine, you know. But at the same time, I was like, well, I feel guilty sometime. Because I know that you guys are like putting in the hard work and doing amazing things. And she’s like, but Tasha you can’t negate the amount of mental energy it takes to like, be creative and to create new visions and to lead, you know, the way that you’re leading. And so you need to rest in order for your brain to be able to create an envision and I was like, Oh, you’re so right. Okay, I’m gonna go take a nap like.
Abby Herman 18:21
Yeah, because we’re trained. I’d never worked in corporate, but we’re still trained that there should be output. There’s something tangible that comes out of what we do. And the ideas that come out of our head are not tangible. Yeah. So you know, we’re trained to not, I guess not be the ideas post. Yeah, absolutely. Which is sad and sad. And it’s unfortunate. And I think it holds a lot of us back. So you niche down in the agency to launch support? Why did you decide on that? Like, how did that come about?
Tasha Booth 18:58
Yeah, so that was a huge decision that we made in the middle of last year. And I think like many of our team members, and myself included, were starting to feel that poll because we start to look at what we were great at and what we really enjoyed doing. So we had been kind of struggling, ongoing VA and OBM support and launch support. And we were starting to become known in part because of Amy Porterfield. And because of that episode, but just because that was the thing that we were talking the most about the thing that we were really good at and everything. We started becoming known for that. And we looked at like the VA stuff, and it was starting to feel heavy. Whereas the launch stuff felt light and exciting and everything. And one day Jayla, and I just got on a call. We were like, what if we just didn’t do like VA and OPM support anymore? And one thing you should know about me is like I’m a person that once I’ve made the decision, like it may be marinating in my mind for like months, but once I like verbalize it, and then make the decision. It’s like okay, go so I went on to Squarespace I deleted all VA says support, like packages off of our website like that afternoon. And then the decision was made. And it has been the absolute best thing.
Tasha Booth 20:08
And I think the thing that we were most concerned about, of course, was how would it affect our bottom line? Like everybody talks about monthly recurring revenue and how important that is. And, you know, knowing that we were basically only going to be doing packages that had like eight to 12 weeks that people would be working with us at a time, like, what would that do? We made that decision in June and August, we’ve had our first $100,000 month. So. So it’s like, okay, validated. Yeah, and it’s just been month after month growth, you know, basically from there, and definitely a decision that we are so glad that we made.
Abby Herman 20:44
So clearly if niches the riches are in the niches, they say, totally true. Yeah. So are you finding clients through any marketing efforts? Are you finding them through word of mouth? Are they a lot of repeat clients? Where are they coming from?
Tasha Booth 21:01
Yeah, at this point is kind of a mix. We’re very consistent on social media and everything. But I would say that there is probably always going to be a referral element to it. So a lot of times, people will, you know, either find us through Facebook groups, like so many mentions that they’re looking for lunch support, and they’ll tag me or they’ll tag our company or something on it. So I think that there’s always going to be that element of kind of like a grassroots effort, referral base kind of thing, which is one of the things that number one I’m really good at. And number two, I enjoy doing and number three is part of what I need to be doing as a CEO. So I spend the majority of my days like networking and connecting with people either on coffee chats, or in Facebook groups, and that sort of thing. And just kind of creating content that way, because that’s been the thing that works best for us.
Abby Herman 21:47
I love that. And you also create really fun tick Tock videos on Tick tock, but I see them when you post them on IG.
Tasha Booth 21:59
It’s so funny, because like, I’ll create my video and then I’ll like, I’ll watch it 10 times and laugh every time and I’m like other people need to see this.
Abby Herman 22:07
Yeah, they’re fun. So let’s, I want to shift gears and talk about launching a little bit and content and the content that goes with launching, because there’s a lot of it. And I would love to know, so first of all, what would you say would be best practices for creating content for a launch?
Tasha Booth 22:26
Yeah, so I always tell people to start with the end in mind, right? So we want to reverse engineer and kind of look at what we’re selling, what is our product? And then what are the needs of people for every touchpoint leading up to the launch. So what that means for me, and I’ll use one of my courses as the example. So I have a course built to profit, which is for brand new VA s. And so when I first started this course, when I got to like the webinar piece, I started in like what services you should offer all of those pieces. Well, what I didn’t realize was that the people that were coming into my pipeline for that webinar, they had just heard that term VA, like a lot of them had just heard the term VA. So they were still in the exploration phase of what is a VA, like, what can I do in the online space. So creating content, once I realized that then the next time we were about to launch built in profit about 12 weeks out, I started creating some content around like, what is even a VA, like how do you know if you would make a good VA or if you actually want to be a VA. So then that way, we’re getting over those hurdles, those objections. And we’re kind of getting them through step one, or step zero rather, before they even get to the meat of the thing. So I think that that’s kind of the easiest way to look at your content until look at like, what you should be building to make sure that it makes sense. And then it’s an even flow from start to finish for your ideal client.
Abby Herman 23:50
Yeah, so you’re saying educate your audience? Yeah, what they need and educate them along the way. What would you say? How far ahead would you start educating our audience?
Tasha Booth 24:01
I like a good 12 weeks, so and I kind of like to, you know, start dripping that I like to call them like breadcrumbs. I think about it as like Hansel and Gretel in the forest, right. So think in terms of like, starting with, like the little pieces, and just kind of planting those seeds of like, what’s possible in their minds. And then as we get more and are closer and closer to launch time, then it starts increasing. Maybe we start doing some Facebook Lives or like a special podcast series or something. But yeah, it’s just a little bit dripped out. And I love 12 weeks, 16 weeks, if it’s like your first time, and you’re really working on building your audience as well, for that first time. 16 weeks works as well, too.
Abby Herman 24:42
And so are you talking about specifically just like social media content, or if someone has a podcast then just like publishing other podcasts or other places, we should be creating content to help build that interest and to educate our audience.
Tasha Booth 24:57
Yeah, so I like to say lean into the field. Good. So Where do you feel really good in showing up for your audience? And where is your community already kind of starting to get used to seeing you and knowing you? So one of the things that I hate is when people have these great audiences on Instagram or tik tok, or wherever, and then they’re like, Oh, well, I’m doing a launch. Now, you know, Suzy McHugh over here, so that I’m supposed to launch this way and use this platform and do this thing. And I’m like, but your audience is used to you being over here. So why would you just do like more of what’s already working and where they already enjoy your content. And I started doing that even in my own launches, I used to try to do a lot more like Facebook Lives on my Facebook business page. But I’m like, nobody’s actually like there. And you know, the algorithm doesn’t enjoy showing the my stuff to people. So now most of my launches are done like inside of my Facebook groups, and on Instagram, because those are the two places that I enjoy hanging out. So it’s really about like, not reinventing the wheel and starting from scratch, but really leaning into the feel good.
Abby Herman 26:03
And then just like amplifying what’s already working, yes, I so agree, I would love to start showing up in Facebook Lives. But there’s no point in doing that, right. So let’s talk about one of my favorite topics, email, where does email fit into all of this, when you’re talking launches,
Tasha Booth 26:21
I believe 100%, that email is still alive and well and still works so well. So once somebody is on your list, they need to be hearing from you at least weekly. And what I like to say is like we all have that relative or friend or whoever, who we only hear from when they need something, right. And we don’t want to be that person to our audience. Because that doesn’t feel good. Like when you get that text, you either ignore it or you know, you look at it, and then forget about it. If you want your audience to show up for you, you have to show up for them in the same way. And so when you’re starting that 12 week, or even in the in between, especially in the in between when you’re not selling anything, we want to make sure that we’re still showing up and still adding value in everything. And so the minute they’re on your list, they should be getting an email from you at least weekly.
Abby Herman 27:09
And so can you share. So I’ve talked about this on the podcast a few times, but it’d be I’d love to hear it from you. You’re gonna really similar to what I would say, What do you include in those emails? What are you sharing outside of the launches that make your actual launches more effective.
Tasha Booth 27:28
I love story emails. So I just share a lot of observations about like, what’s like behind the scenes, what’s happening in my world, what lessons I’m learning what successes my students, my current students are having. I like to mix it up with a lot of different kinds of content. But most of the content that I’m sharing has some sort of a lesson that is driven by story. And it’s just to like add value on the other pieces of business that maybe like your course doesn’t even really dabble into, but it’s still important and will show that you are an expert without us having to say like, I’m the expert, right? And a lot of times, so I’ll give you this example, I just got into coloring on my iPad. And like one day, I sat down and I was like, What do I use my iPad for nothing. Let me start coloring, right. And so I shared like an observational story in one of my emails about the fact that like, I always zoom in, because I like the ones with like little tiny, tiny pieces. So I always have to majorly zoom in. And I’d be like, Oh, this doesn’t look like anything. But then I’d zoom back out and like see how far I’ve come. And of course, the story, like the correlation was making sure that you’re zooming out as you’re building your business to see how far you’ve come and everything. I probably got, like over 20 responses back to that, like, that’s exactly what I needed, you know, and that’s starting that conversation that’s like brand new people who just got on my list here saying like, Oh, she gets me. And that’s what you want leading out of a launch into a launch in between launches. We want our community to understand that like, Yes, I get you, I understand where you are, and I’m here for you.
Abby Herman 29:01
And that you’re a human like, yeah, human being also. And you can relate so many things that parenting challenges, life challenges, body image, that you can take and relate to business that shows that you’re human. And I think that just allows for so many other points of interaction and connection with your people. When you absolutely, absolutely. So I love that. And yeah, thank you for saying exactly what I would have said yes, maybe not exactly.
Abby Herman 29:33
So when people are launching and you’ve touched on this a little bit, but I want to make sure we spotlight this when people are launching what are some of the mistakes that you see, either, you know, maybe mistakes that your clients have made in the past before hiring you or mistakes that you see other business owners make.
Tasha Booth 29:52
Yeah, so there’s three number one we’ve already touched on and that’s not emailing your list in between. So goes Seeing your list in between your launches. Number two is having really short launch timelines. So one of the things that is really important to us at the launch guild is feel good launches and stress free launches, and stress free and launch often don’t feel like they should go on the same sentence, right? I think that there’s like unhealthy stress and there’s healthy stress. And that healthy stress is always going to be there. That is because we care about what we’re doing, which is totally fine. But that unhealthy stress is the stress that we put on ourselves when we create unrealistic timelines. And so we get a ton of inquiries, probably each month, where we ask one of the questions that we ask on our discovery call form is what’s your estimated launch timeline or your estimated launch date, and people will say, like two weeks from now, we exactly.
Tasha Booth 30:52
And I feel awful that I’m like, we can’t help you, you know, because we have to have a timeline that number one is going to serve you both in the amount of content that you’re going to need to create and the emails and everything. And also going to serve your audience and like not warming up, your audience isn’t going to give you the launch results that you want either. So that’s number two. And then number three, would definitely be having too many bells and whistles when you’re not ready for it. So we really want to think in terms of once again, not looking at those big names that have huge teams and like, you know, hundreds of 1000s if not millions of dollars in ad spend behind them. And really looking at Okay, what is most important, what’s most important is you connecting with your community, sharing the value that your product or your program creates and having them buy it right. Anything else was upsells or down sells those around the world sells we can save until you’re ready for that. But we want to make it linear to start.
Abby Herman 31:48
Yes, amen. You don’t have to do what the big Yeah, people are doing. It doesn’t have to be flashy, it can be something that feels good. I love, love the idea of the healthy and unhealthy stress. I just, you know, when your son that it totally resonated with me, because I know that I feel like I get really stressed out about certain things in my business. And I know that it’s because I care. But when it’s happening, it doesn’t feel really good. So I like that the you know, thinking about it that way, and like being able to reframe that this is a healthy stress, because I care. And yes, I’m prepared and yes, things are ready. And yes, it will be okay, you know, versus the crap hitting the fan. And, you know, that would be the unhealthy stuff. And I think if we, if we worry too much about some of the things that are going on inside of our business, then it definitely turns into the unhealthy stress. So it totally does. Yeah, thank you for that reframe. I like it. Can you talk a little bit about So you said like two weeks is not enough time to plan a launch? Can you share, like what that launch runway should look like? And you said about 12 weeks or 12 to 16 weeks? What are some of the most important things that we should be thinking about as we are gearing up for the opencart time period?
Tasha Booth 33:10
Yeah, so we usually come in about eight to nine weeks before our clients are launching. So that 12 to 16 is with kind of like your content runway and everything and like your opt in and all those things, when you’re really building out the launch pieces is about at the eight week mark. And we really want to think about front loading. Number one the decision making. So making sure that like all of the decisions are made. And that’s for two reasons. As you get closer to your launch, you’re going to be more tired. And so you having to create content and make decisions while you’re exhausted. Not a fun combination, right? So we can make all the decisions on the front end, then we’re able to execute and create the outcomes and like the deliverables, you know faster and easier. And then the other thing that we want to also front load is creating the content too. And making sure that like by the time we are at the first sales event, basically. So whether that be a webinar or started the challenge, or whatever the case may be, all of that content is already created.
Tasha Booth 34:11
We’re not up until midnight writing the email for the next day and those sorts of things. And then the other important piece that I see a lot of people who are launching on their own sometimes not do is really creating some kind of a place whether it be a spreadsheet or a Google doc or a project management software. We use Asana to how’s everything and really to think about every single detail. So what I mean by that is create sales page is not a task because you have to write the copy you have to design it you have to create the frequently asked questions you have to source the testimonials like there’s so many other pieces. So take the time on the front end is especially if you’re going to do it alone, but even if you’re doing it with you know, maybe a team who hasn’t done as many launches, really think about taking the time on the front end with them to sit down and be like, Okay, what are each one of the pieces of all these larger tasks that we actually need to task out to like people and assign due dates for and that sort of thing. So that we’re not rushing at the end or trying to do all of the sales page things in one day?
Abby Herman 35:17
Oh, yeah, for sure. Yeah, you, you have to get it? Well, you have to get on somebody else’s calendar, especially if you’re hiring a contractor to do it. And they need time to gather information from you. So yeah, yeah. Good. Yes. So you have a tool that for listeners to help them figure out how to set up this lunch, correct?
Tasha Booth 35:40
Yes. Yeah. With everyone. Yeah. So it’s called six pillars of a successful course launch project plan. And basically, it’s super high level super zoomed out what we start with when we are creating project plans for our own clients, so it’s each of six different areas that we look at. And then some questions and some kind of like question starters for you to start thinking about in terms of your own launches. So you can go to thelaunchguild.com/six pillars for that opt in.
Abby Herman 36:09
Thank you so much. So you have covered so much information. It’s been amazing. My head is spinning, which is a good thing. Yeah, it’s good stress. It’s not bad. But if listeners were only to take away just a couple of things from the conversation, what would you think? What are the most important things that they should remember about launching or about scaling their business? Or what would you just love to have them take away?
Tasha Booth 36:38
Yeah, I would say take your time and be intentional. So I think that it always feels in the moment that it’s taking longer than we want it to. But if we’re intentional about the time that we’re spending, if we’re intentional about what we’re doing in our business, like I always call it a snowball rolling downhill, right? It starts really small. And if you keep doing it and are intentional and consistent about it, it just gets bigger and bigger and rolls faster and faster. And that’s been the case for me and other people that I know as well. So take your time be intentional.
Abby Herman 37:10
Awesome. Thank you so much, Tasha, for joining me. I am so happy to have had you here. Thank you. Alright, so you know how it feels when what you’ve been teaching and talking about for years is validated by someone who is further ahead of you in business. Yeah, that’s exactly how I felt during this interview. It felt really good. I know that Tasha had a different overall takeaway from our conversation. But I want to share this, you can’t decide tomorrow that you’re going to launch something in a few weeks. I mean, you can, but it’s not going to turn out the way you want it to. You need to have a runway a 12 week 90 day runway. And it’s so incredibly necessary to continue nurturing your audience all the time, not just when you’re launching. Now, if that’s something that you’re interested in learning how to do, and you want to start experimenting with content marketing in your own business without having to do all of that guesswork yourself. Remember that you can join us inside of content mastery lab at thecontentexperiment.com/lab and use the coupon code podcast to get your first month for $1 Pricing starts at just $97 A month after that. If you found value in what you learned here today, be sure to share it on social media. Take a screenshot of the episode on your phone and share it over on Instagram stories. tag me add Abby Herman and the content experiment and tag Tasha @theTatabooth or @thelunchGuild. The more you share, the more we can get the podcast into the hands of more business owners just like you who needs to hear the message that they are not alone. Until next time, take care
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