Why Launching is Key to Building the Business and Life You Desire

 

Transcript:

So excited to be welcoming you to our very first episode of the Launch Perspective podcast. I'm Lydia Martin, and if we haven't met, a quick summary of me. I'm a wife, a mom of three, I love Jesus, ice coffee and impacting the lives of others through my online business. I definitely view my business as much more than a business, more of a passion and a purpose or a calling, but I will tell you getting to where I am today has definitely been a journey.

And I look forward to sharing what I've learned along the way, the things that I know held me back for a long time and those things that made the biggest impact in reaching my goals and dreams. I'm still on that journey as we all are, but I truly believe that what we'll be sharing in the Launch Perspective podcast, that it's going to impact you as well, whether you've been in business for a long time or if you're even thinking about starting an online business. 

I know I was so overwhelmed when I launched my online business because I had so many questions. I knew there were lots of ways to do things and I don't know about you, but sometimes when there are so many choices we tend to overthink and overanalyze. I know I over-research and over-plan things. So, trying to figure out sometimes that one thing, you know, trying to find that perfect course to launch or that perfect way to do business or that perfect thing that you're going to implement that's just going to take off, you know, it is a very challenging thing.

And I finally learned that there really isn't one sure path or one exact way to get to your goals and dream. The only thing that you really need to focus on, and in figuring out what works for you, is to take massive imperfect action again and again. And that's what this episode is all about.  

Here's why launching is a hundred percent key to creating the life and business you desire. So, I launched my current business a little over two years ago now and I know that overwhelming feeling. When I first got started, I was completely overwhelmed. I had so many questions because I had been learning about online marketing, and how to create digital courses, and all of the different ways there were to launch your digital courses and your online business.

When I launched my business, Banish Business Clutter, I didn't wait until I had this perfect, beautiful website. I didn't wait until I knew and understood all of the tech. I didn't wait until I mapped out every single detail from start to finish of how I was going to launch my first course, even what it looked like. In fact, I launched my first course before I even recorded it. Yep, I launched with zero people on my list and nothing more than a simple homepage. I then added an opt-in page where people could sign up for a free five-day challenge. And that five-day challenge, the only reason why I decided to launch with the challenge is because I had recently participated in a number of challenges.

And I knew there were a lot of different ways that people launched courses, but I thought, okay. Well, challenges, it was fun. It was something people could join and get to know me. I could get to know them, so I literally just created this opt-in page that said, "Join my free Banish Business Clutter five-day challenge".

And over three weeks of time, I just started sharing that everywhere. I shared it on social media. I shared it in personal messages. I went live in as many places I could think of. And in those three weeks, I went from zero people on my list to four hundred registered for my free challenge. And on that fifth day, I opened the cart to my first course.

I invited those in my challenge to join me even though that course was not yet built. But two weeks of that open cart, I ended up with ninety-five students enrolled in my $97 course. Now, I definitely didn't do everything perfectly in this launch, but I committed to showing up and I focused really on creating an experience for everyone that was connecting with me, especially through this challenge. I wanted those who were getting to know me to feel encouraged and empowered and I tried to put my focus on them and their needs rather than the focus on how nervous I felt.

If you've ever launched anything new, you know what I'm talking about, right. That nervous energy and anticipation of "Is this going to work? Am I doing this right?" You know that adrenaline can help you get things done faster than you even thought possible. But once I had those ninety-five students, I delivered my course over the next six weeks, and I simply recorded one module a week and then shared it with my students. And that is how I launched my business and my first course.

What did I do next? I launched it again. This is why I feel launching is so, so important. In fact, in the last two years, I have launched this one course seven times and those launches have helped me generate thousands of subscribers and almost $200,000 in revenue.

So, here's the perspective I truly had to embrace from the start, and I hope it's a perspective that you will commit to from this point forward. I knew that when I launched my business that the key was launching, even though I didn't feel ready, even though I knew things weren't perfect. You know, I knew I was going to make adjustments to the course later, but I knew that the only way I was going to learn my next best step was to launch.

So, think about the things that you've launched in your business so far, those things you've done for the first time, because you know that it's going to make an impact. You don't know what the results are going to be when you launch it, but you took that leap of faith, right. You stepped out of your comfort zone and maybe you launched a blog or YouTube channel or a podcast, right, or a new coaching program, a product, a ministry, a Facebook group. It doesn't matter what it is.

I want you to embrace this thought that launching is what gets us closer to our goals and dreams, even when the results don't quite meet what we were expecting, okay. Here's the deal. Of course we feel nervous at first, of course, sometimes, you know, the results, aren't what we're expecting, but the more we launch, the more we do that thing that connects us with people and our audience the more confident we become and the faster we're able to make adjustments that help us scale and grow. 

So, here's my question. What's keeping you from launching? If I asked a thousand people that question, I have a feeling the majority would probably say fear, right. And it's typically fear of two things: fear of failure or fear of FOWOT. Do you know what FOWOT is? FOWOT. It stands for Fear Of What Others Think, right. So, those are two things that typically hold us back from launching. It's that fear of failure and it's FOWOT, that fear of what others think.

So, let's just talk about this for a minute. What is failure? If you believe that failure is the opposite of success, you will avoid failure at all costs, right. You will feel like a failure any time you set a goal and you don't reach that goal. And you will think that, you know, not handing those results means you failed and if failure is the opposite of success, then you're a failure, right. But if you can embrace this thought instead, that failure is actually what we experience on the way to success, you're going to embrace failure very differently. You're going to look at every launch as a win because in every launch you learn what works and what doesn't.

I love, you know, that quote by Michael Jordan, right, "You miss a hundred percent of the shots you don't take.". So, if you've launched something you're winning because it's that step, that launch, that gets you towards the next step. And if you never take the shot, you are always going to miss. So just by launching, you need to view that as a success, even if it didn't hit the numbers you were hoping for, or the results you were hoping for. Launching is success.

So, I want you to think of that as a win, never as a negative. But the second thing, the fear of what others think. Why do we hold back from launching something for this reason? Right. Because we don't want to look like a fool. We don't want to make mistakes. We have this fear of, you know, messing up or not looking good, not saying everything perfectly. Maybe we don't feel good enough, smart enough. We are worried that no one is going to respond or like or approve of what we're doing.

Here's the thing. No one is looking at you as critically as you are looking at yourself. It's time to stop worrying about what people think of you and start putting the focus on the people you're serving. I don't know if you've ever heard this saying, it's "SW SW SW SW", and it stands for "Some Will. Some Won't. So What because Someone's Waiting.". And I've always remembered that, because if I focus on those who are not interested, those who say, you know, nope, that's not for me or they don't follow me, don't connect with me, don't buy my courses and programs, if I focus only on that group, I'm going to miss the group that is waiting and wanting what I offer.

So, it's not about worrying about those who aren't taking advantage of your offers or aren't following and subscribing. It's about focusing on those you serve, those who want what you're offering. So, it's time to let go of FOWOT and it's time to embrace that feeling of fear. Honestly, if you aren't feeling fear often in your business you most likely are not launching or aren't launching enough.

Did you know that rockets that go to the moon are off target 99.7% of the time? I share this because I know a lot of times we hesitate to launch something because we're worried we're going to make a mistake, we're going to do something wrong, that we've made the wrong choice about how to do something. But here's the thing about those rockets going to the moon. Even though they're constantly off target, they're basically continuing to work and readjust until they hit their destination. Well, that's what you're going to do in your launch.

When you launch, you have a destination in mind, but you know that there's going to be times that you're off target, where things may not quite be working like you want, so you readjust, and you work towards that destination. If you have this perspective then you're going to learn, you're going to adapt, you're going to try new things, and you're going to figure out what that next step is. Taking action is key because motion is what leads to momentum. So, if you feel like you've been stuck in your business, there's no momentum building, it's time to launch something new, whatever that is for you. The only way to know what will work and what won't work is to launch it. 

So, what is it that you need to launch so you can gain momentum in your business? After this episode, I hope you're ready to embrace the perspective that you have to launch to learn, that you're no longer going to be afraid of failure because it's part of the journey, and that you'll stop overthinking and overplanning but decide and do because motion leads to momentum.

If you want to get your questions answered about growing your online business, I invite you to join our Facebook community at launchperspective.community.

Thanks so much for joining me today on the launch perspective podcast. Looking for more? Head over to launchperspective.com for show notes and quick links to the content and tools we shared today. Want to stay up to date on new podcast episodes, or ask a question that I answer on the show? You can do this and more at launchperspective.com.