4 Questions To Clarify WHY You’re Launching
I cannot stress enough how important today's conversation is going to be. Whether you are just getting started in business, or you're recalibrating, putting something new out there, working on refining your processes, this is going to be a firehose of information that is definitely going to help your business.
We're talking all about launching –and more specifically, why are you launching?
I'm going to equip you with four specific questions that you should be able to answer with complete confidence before you go out there and promote one more thing in your business, whether it's an event, a podcast, an offer a course, whatever the thing is, before you go out into the world and put it out there, there are four specific questions you should answer.
Why Launching Is Important For Your Business
But first I want to talk about why launching is so important in your business. Sure, people know they should launch. They know there should be some kind of plan to put stuff out there. They just don't know what that looks like. Yes, it’s important to have a strategy, but I want to talk about why you should launch it in the first place.
At the core of a lot of business decisions, is unearthing the why. And we don't do it very often because it's not sexy. It's not this crazy hack or shortcut. It's the deep work. And it's also very, very important in laying the foundation for your business and the decisions that you are making for your business.
So all that to say, I think launching is extremely important. But a bigger, better question before you even start with that, before you figure out how many emails to send, or how many DMS to send out or even who this thing is for —before you do any of that, you need to know why you're doing it in the first place.
The very first thing I launched in the coaching space was a course. And zero people bought it. And here's what's wild. I was a six-figure business owner. I was a hairstylist and a lot of my clientele were very business-minded, growth-minded people. The conversations in my chair were not about the Kardashians, they were about how they should market their business, or does their logo make sense? Or does their branding align? Those are the types of conversations I was having with people.
So I naively thought, wow, I already have this business audience, I bet if I put a course on “what they need” out there, they'll just buy it. And they didn't. And it's because of a lot of different reasons. But I share that authentically because I come from a place of, I tried it this way, it did not work. I've since tried other ways that have worked.
We live in a world with TikTok and podcasts and books that give you advice, which is awesome. But sometimes, the solution isn't some external advice, opinion, or strategy you need. Sometimes, it's actually deeper rooted than that. And I want to dive a little deeper into that.
I asked the question, why are you launching? And I want to break it down into four specific elements that need to be addressed. Let’s get into it!
Are You Launching For The Right Reasons?
The first one after why are you launching is –are you doing it for the right reasons? Doing it for the right reasons could be people are asking me for it. That's a great thing that happens. I hear that often.
Right now with my wedding coming up, I am not in a growth business mindset whatsoever. I'm surviving. I'm taking care of my core people. I have ideas, but they are all on pause because that is not the life chapter I'm in right now.
So I would not be launching for the right reasons today. Right now is not the time to launch for so many reasons. But a big core reason being, I don't have the full mindset, time, energy, and creativity to go into a launch, even though people are asking for the thing. And that is okay.
You should be able to answer this question for yourself. Are you launching for the right reasons?
The right reasons look like having a consistent audience that you've been speaking to or being excited about launching this thing –it lights you up to talk about it. I’m working with a client and right now, we’re getting the house in order, which is a core thing I focus on with all of my clients. Now that we've gotten to a place where her systems are in place, her schedule is dialed in, she has some great workflows and onboarding offerings, and she's aware of her capacity. All of that is ironed out.
Now, she actually wants to pivot her ideal client and start to market to a different niche, which I think is great. And the way her face literally lit up as she started talking about this new ideal client was so magical. I'm like, This is what you need to be doing. This is the right reason to launch. So for her, it's exciting, it fills her up, it feels fulfilling.
I also run all my clients through something called a core values exercise. When we dial it back to this person's core values, it's so obvious to me that the market she is trying to serve and break into aligns with your core values of making a difference and empowering people and helping people see a better way through. That is the right reason to launch.
2 Wrong Reasons To Launch
Let me give you some examples of the wrong reasons to launch.
To make a quick buck. Even those high caliber people have to do some work if they want something to be launched and be successful. The idea that you can just put it out there and make a quick buck is not true. So if you're launching because you “need to make a quick buck,” that is probably not the reason to do it.
You tried one thing, but it didn’t work so you’re trying a different thing. This is not the right reason or motivation behind launching. I hear this so often. People will put together an offer, they will promote it, they will launch it, and then no one buys. So they think, Oh, I have the wrong offer. Instead of really pausing to assess what worked and what didn't work, they jump right into something else. But they didn’t stop to think, maybe it's the right offer but the wrong people. There's so much more to the equation but we’re too quick to pivot and we relaunch or launch something different. Maybe that's not the best thing to do. Maybe the best thing to ask yourself, how do I keep the same offer? Do I get lit up when I talk about it? I'm passionate about it, so what went wrong? Where did the interest drop off? How can I maybe get in front of the right people? Maybe I need to spend more time just getting from those right people?
Why You Should Launch For The Right Reasons
Instead of scrapping the whole thing, how can we make some other changes –if you're doing it for the right reasons. Meaning it lights you up, and there is some level of interest. Now as a business coach, if I were to start doing social media management, I could not launch that offer tomorrow because that's a pretty big pivot.
So if I'm not showing up in front of the ideal people in the right way, and preparing them for an offer, then that's not the right reason to put a launch out there.
I also think this concept of launch fatigue is a thing. Gone are the days when you can just have a free webinar, and people are just going to buy the course. We know what that funnel looks like and now, more than ever, people just want authenticity. They want you to be genuine, they want you to be ethical. So many people get into this industry or put offers on the internet that are not ethical. They're just really great at selling, and they actually don't deliver what people need and people are buying things that aren't the right fit for what they need.
Remember, you may not have the right people you can help in front of you (right now). If you’re starting to pivot or make adjustments, my advice is to have some kind of offer that you're brewing on and just pick one and aim to get one or two people to go through it.
Maybe that looks like one on one coaching, maybe that looks like one on one mentorship where they come into your salon and shadow you for a day. Maybe that looks like having them come second shoot a wedding with you. Whatever that looks like, just think of what a very low barrier to entry is but also where you can start to get some cash flow. You don't have to build this giant, robust A to Z course because that may not be right for your business.
So again, why are you launching an equation? Make sure you're doing it for the right reasons and right reasons are, 1) it really excites you and 2) it's going to give the best results to the right people.
2. Is It The Right Time To Launch?
Question number two ties into this equation because it's easy to launch the wrong thing at the wrong time to the wrong people. So we're gonna prevent you from doing that by answering these questions for you and doing a solid temperature check.
Ask yourself, is this the right time? Here's how you know. Launches take a ton of energy and are generally exhausting. It’s also inconsistent. There are days you won't get any traction or engagement and there are days when you may be overwhelmed with traction and engagement and purchase or signups, which is awesome.
But it’s a long game. As a rule of thumb, if you're launching something, it's about a month commitment. In the beginning is where you're really starting to speak specifically to who that offer event, podcast, course, coaching, whatever your thing is for. It takes time to know exactly who you’re speaking to and it takes time to offer the thing. It also takes time on the follow up and create some FOMO or urgency or reason for people to take action now. So you should always have a plan of launching, regardless of what industry you're in because it takes time.
Launching all the time would be exhausting. There is something called launch fatigue, email fatigue, ask fatigue, whatever you want to call it. But sometimes people get tired of being sold too. So don't inundate them. Don't launch just because you need a quick buck. Too many people launch out of desperation, including needing to pay the bills, so they just hurry up and launch something but they don’t have the mindset to go into a launch.
Trust me, there's so many other ways that you can make money if that's what you're really needing to do. Maybe that's a part-time job for the time being, maybe that's offering one on one, even though that's not what you want to do long term. Maybe that's a stepping stone to get you to a place where you have consistent revenue coming in.
But the right timepiece is important. You don't want to launch too often. And you also don't want to do it when you're busy. I launched while I was on vacation, which was ridiculous. Somehow I still got a couple of people to sign up. But I often wonder if I had been present for that and more authentic in my messaging, what could have happened?
If you're going to launch, and you’ve already moved through question #1 (am I launching for the right reasons? I feel great about my offer. It makes me super excited. It's something that I feel like my audience is asking for and makes sense with my business and current offerings) –then you need to look at question #2. Is this the right time to launch? Just remember takes time.
Why I Don’t Launch New Things
I, for instance, don't plan launches of new things. I used to do this. Before I was under this idea that a group offer would be a stepping stone into one on one. And after they do one on one, then I would roll them into a mastermind. And after that, I'm going to have a course that's beginning level. I started to build all these different offers. But when the heck am I going to launch all of that if I'm speaking to the same audience of people? How tiring would that be to share all these new things all the time with people?
Right now, I only have one core offer for my coaching business by design. But because I have my communities I run like Empower PNW and the CEO Society, I'm busy. Plus, I see those as funnels into my business. But essentially I'm kind of launching consistently because we have events every single month, we have a promotion. So you can start to see where this timing question really gets challenged because if I launched our in-person stuff to my audience every single month, that'd be exhausting.
We have different brand entities for a reason. So that way, we can just launch specifically within CEO Society and specifically within Empower PNW. Sometimes I grab that and pull it into Kelsey Marie Knutson. But this is very intentional.
Instead of launching new things every month, I sit down and I map out what new thing do I want to put out there? I already have something planned for 2024. I start with that and then I work around it. Okay. If I'm launching to multi-six-figure business owners wanting to scale to multi-six consistently and seven, then how do I speak to them? What do they need? What are their pain points? What content does this podcast deliver that would help somebody like that? And then I work backward and make sure the months leading up to that I'm just serving. I'm not asking for a penny. I'm asking for nothing, I'm just giving them support, I'm starting to isolate my messaging to that person. So then when I go on launch, the ball is teed up so to speak.
Going off that golfing analogy for a second –imagine driving the ball without a tee versus with a tee. You're a little more accurate with a tee obviously. This is the same as timing your launch. If you're really good, you don't need a tee. But this timing thing is so precious, and we don't recognize it. We just say, crap, my bank account is tight, I need to make a quick buck. I want to have this event or this party in my business and I need 10 people to go to pay my bills. So I'm going to put all of this desperate energy out there and hope people sign up because I need them to. Oh, and by the way, I'm going to discount them because I just need people there.
That's not the energy to take into a launch. And that ties back to point number one: launching for the wrong reasons. So make sure you're doing it for the right reasons. Make sure it's good timing. Make sure you're in a good headspace mentally and physically within your business. Look at the momentum of where your business is. Is your audience hungry and wanting to work with you? Have you sold them or launched something recently? Maybe you’ve been serving your audience the last couple of months and you’re starting to get more specific in my messaging. Great, now probably is a great time to move to question number three. But always, always answer those questions before we move on.
3. Are You Launching To The Right People?
Question number three is, do you have the right people? This is where I got it so wrong the first time. I assumed because the people who sat in my chair would ask me business-related questions that they saw me as an authority in the business space. Turns out they didn't. Now they probably do, but they didn’t then. I did not have the right audience and didn't recognize it. I made assumptions. And that's not the right way to go about it.
If you're unsure of your audience and what they think of you or what their needs are, ask them. Ask if you can have a coffee date. Just say, hey, I'm just doing a little bit of industry research here. I'm doing XYZ. Could I have a 30 minute Zoom call with you? Can I grab a coffee with you and see what your feedback is?
I still do this even at this phase in my business. I will reach out to business owners and ask their opinion of things. What are your pain points? What are you struggling with? What kind of support do you need in your business? Because I want to make sure I'm not missing the mark with what I offer next.
In my own business, I'm launching something new in 2024 and I want to do it with intention. I want to make sure that what I think people need is what they actually need, because it makes it a lot easier to sell. So make sure you're in front of the right people and recognize it might take some time.
I was talking to someone who recently made a pretty drastic pivot in her business where her target market that she was initially serving is vastly different than her market today. She’s successfully made the pivot and success –which to me, means she now makes money doing the new thing. So she's moved her audience, and she now makes money doing the new thing, which is great.
That being said, I asked her how long it took to talk consistently to your audience to rebuild and get to a place where someone eventually hired you? She said 8-9 months. And I'm not surprised by that answer.
So if you have this thing you want to launch –a podcast, a course, a networking group, an event, a coaching offer, a mastermind or retreat, or whatever it is –just make you're doing it for the right reasons, that the timing feels good, and that you have the right people in front of you.
Don't just make assumptions about it. Have the data to back it up. Running polls on your stories on Instagram is a great way to get feedback. Send emails asking for feedback or have questionnaires for people to fill out on the podcast saying, Hey, do me a huge favor and share this episode. Let me know what your biggest takeaway was. Have call to actions where you're just gathering information and do that for a while before you launch something put something out there. I promise, it will be a lot more impactful and successful for your business.
4. Are You Launching The Right Offer?
Number four is to make sure you are launching the right offer. This offer should be so exciting to you. It should be a match between what you are best at (how you can best support people), and what people actually need.
Here's what I’ve learned that’s kind of tricky. I've been in the game for a while. I did consulting after university, then went on into the hair world and built my own business. And now I'm consulting again. So even though I've only been in the online coaching space for a couple of years, I know this world and I know small businesses. People are in denial about what they actually need in business.
The Number One Thing That’s Missing In Most Launches
Honestly, I don't think people have the self awareness to know what they actually need –so they seek out what they know. So you need to communicate in their language and connect with them on the level they know. They may not know what the core problem is, but they see the symptoms. So talk about the symptoms. Our job is to say, Hey, I see your symptoms. Here's what it could look like on the other side of it. But here's what you actually need. We expose the problem and we heal that problem.
This is a massive missing link in launching. People focus so much too much on how many modules are in it or what time of day is it. Sure, it's a cool vibe, it's pretty or it’s fun, but that doesn't sell people.
Launch for the right reasons. Launch if the timing feels good. Launch if people are asking for it –if they're you're drawn to the offer or they're drawn to you it's a mutual exchange. But you have to make sure that the offer you're providing is the right fit for them and do not make assumptions. I did, and it was a huge learning curve. Thankfully, it worked out and I was able to retain some of these clients.
Why Your Mindset Is Key For Business Growth (Not Your Revenue)
I also learned that at different stages in business people need different types of support. And just because a business makes more money financially or more revenue is coming in, doesn't necessarily mean they're further along in their business growth mindset. I've learned the mindset thing actually has less to do with revenue. I do think there's a starting point.
The entrepreneurs I’m working with on a one on one capacity are doing the thing. They are full time in their business. They're here and they want to go to this next level. They’re aware that they have exhausted all the tools they know and they're willing and able to make changes, adjustments, try new things to implement new systems, hire, fire, make hard choices. They're willing to do the work to get to that next level. There is no specific revenue point that this happens. It’s not like once they make $500k+ they're at this mental space. That's actually not true.
I was making these assumptions on what these business owners need. I have some business owners I've worked with that are newer to the game that are way more self sufficient than some business owners I work with that have massive amounts of teams but need more hand holding.
So don't make assumptions and make sure the offer you're building gives them what they need. It may not be what they want. I'm gonna say that one more time, you need to deliver to your ideal person what they need, and it may not be what they want.
For example, a lot of people come to me initially with social media questions, or they want to launch a business or they just need like business advice. But what I really end up actually delivering and helping people do is be more confident in making business decisions. That's it. With confidence comes clarity. It comes with systems, it comes with the ability to delegate effectively. That's what I deliver to people. I help them build the tools or realize that they have the tools within themselves to run their business and have the ability to make hard decisions and take action on those decisions and pivot were unnecessary.
The more they can do that on their own, they eventually won't need me. So that's the secret sauce. That's the hidden backdoor. It's nothing crazy. But I have to package it in a way where someone's gonna see it, hear it, and be like, Yes, I need that. If I just said, Hey, I'm gonna help you make better decisions –that's not deep enough for them.
So you need to make sure this offer is not only enticing to the right people who are in front of you (and that you have the right people around you) and that you're delivering them what they need. The further along someone is in business, the less they're going to want to meet with you. The less they're going to want back and forth. They want efficiency. So build the efficiency.
If someone's just starting off, they are probably going to need more hand holding. If someone's just getting started or starting out in business, they may want more of a course or step by step guidance. They may want more of a group offer. Or a live training or a workshop.
With my higher level CEOs, they bring specific questions to me and support them. We talk through core problems, we help hire, we help fire, we make decisions. Boom. Done. It's the least amount of hand holding. So I don't need to overcomplicate my offer just because I feel like I need to add more value. At that level of business, that's not what their need is.
So you need to be really aware of that. Is what you’re launching a great fit for those ideal clients? The best way to figure that out is to have those conversations.
Do you want to start a retreat business for moms who make products? Okay, great. Start to interview people who are in that chapter. How long would you want to be gone? You want to be gone a weekend? Are we going to Mexico? Do you want to do something more local? Is it two nights? Is it three nights? Have those conversations and have those questions ready. Doing the market research is so incredibly important. It's something that we neglect because it doesn't feel “sexy.”
I want to make sure you understand why you are launching. Success starts in the beginning. And it's being able to answer these four questions, which are:
Are you doing it for the right reasons?
Is it the right timing?
Do you have the capacity for it?
Is your audience ready?
It's been a while since you've launched something you focused on serving, they see you as an expert in the industry you're in, you have the right people in front of you, and you have the right offer that excites you, and is a good fit for the right people. So if all of those things are in check, then then then is the time to come up with a strategy and then go execute on that.
It's important to get that foundation in order. If you are launching something new or relaunching something you've previously previously launched, I'm truly cheering for you. I want to take the stress out of launching and I really think it starts with tackling it from this angle and being able to confidently filter your potential offer through these four things.