1 00:00:00,080 --> 00:00:04,559 Because I had the deadline, I made it happen. Without the deadline, 2 00:00:04,679 --> 00:00:08,800 I would still be brainstorming it, I'd be outlining it, I'd be procrastinating 3 00:00:08,839 --> 00:00:13,439 it. I would still be just twiddling my thumbs, waiting to feel ready, 4 00:00:13,480 --> 00:00:17,160 waiting for it to feel perfect, and as we know, it never 5 00:00:17,239 --> 00:00:22,440 does. Welcome to Imperfect Action. I'm Steph Taylor. For years, I 6 00:00:22,480 --> 00:00:26,239 read all the books, downloaded all the freebies, and did all the courses, 7 00:00:27,039 --> 00:00:30,879 but it wasn't until I started taking imperfect action that my business had its 8 00:00:30,920 --> 00:00:36,880 first million dollar year. Imperfect action is about doing things before you're ready, 9 00:00:37,159 --> 00:00:42,880 prioritizing consistent action over perfect action, and moving forward even when you're not sure 10 00:00:43,000 --> 00:00:47,000 you're doing it right. On this show, you can expect mindset advice, 11 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:51,679 actionable marketing tips, and strategies to build a business that brings you more profit, 12 00:00:52,079 --> 00:00:57,119 more freedom, and even more joy. Are you on the list to 13 00:00:57,119 --> 00:01:00,880 get my daily businesses? Every day, I'll send you a bite size prompt 14 00:01:00,920 --> 00:01:04,040 designed to help you grow your business in a more intentional way. Sign up 15 00:01:04,040 --> 00:01:07,760 at Steph Taylor dot co, forward slash DBB, or at the link in 16 00:01:07,879 --> 00:01:14,400 the show notes. Hey, welcome back to in Perfect Action. This is 17 00:01:14,439 --> 00:01:19,560 episode seven hundred and ninety seven. Today I am recapping and sharing a couple 18 00:01:19,640 --> 00:01:25,000 of the lessons that I learned from the most recent launch of my brand new 19 00:01:25,040 --> 00:01:29,640 membership. So I recently launched conversion campaigns for the very first time. I 20 00:01:29,719 --> 00:01:34,920 have been sitting on a membership idea for like two years probably, and it 21 00:01:36,079 --> 00:01:38,879 finally all fell into place after thinking about what it would look like, after 22 00:01:38,920 --> 00:01:44,120 mapping it out, after a lot of procrastination. As I will mention a 23 00:01:44,159 --> 00:01:48,680 little bit in this episode, I finally opened doors for the first time. 24 00:01:48,799 --> 00:01:53,480 And doors were open for five days, and then I closed them, and 25 00:01:53,599 --> 00:01:56,519 we'll open them again in May for a couple of days, two or three 26 00:01:56,599 --> 00:02:00,200 days, to allow new members in. And the plan is ultimate to keep 27 00:02:00,239 --> 00:02:02,799 doing this. So it's going to be open for a few days each month 28 00:02:02,840 --> 00:02:07,000 and then it will close. So a couple of different lessons that I learned 29 00:02:07,120 --> 00:02:10,439 from this very first launch, and I'm sure you know, two months, 30 00:02:10,439 --> 00:02:14,759 three months from now, I will have even more lessons to share, because 31 00:02:15,240 --> 00:02:17,240 it's always a learning process. Right when we're doing something new in business, 32 00:02:17,280 --> 00:02:21,199 We're never going to get it right the first time round, and that's kind 33 00:02:21,199 --> 00:02:23,639 of a good thing. Because you know, how boring would it be if 34 00:02:23,639 --> 00:02:29,840 there was nothing else to learn. So the very first lesson that I learned, 35 00:02:30,159 --> 00:02:31,759 I would guess I was more reminded of because this is a lesson I've 36 00:02:31,840 --> 00:02:36,360 learned in other contexts in my business as well, and that is to keep 37 00:02:36,400 --> 00:02:38,919 it simple at the start, otherwise you will never get it off the ground. 38 00:02:39,360 --> 00:02:44,599 This has I've known this for a long time. This applied when I 39 00:02:44,639 --> 00:02:46,680 was launching my podcast for the first time. It has applied for every course 40 00:02:46,719 --> 00:02:53,080 that I've launched, every offer that I've sold, everything, And I fell 41 00:02:53,120 --> 00:02:57,080 into the same trap that so many other business owners do when they're launching something 42 00:02:57,120 --> 00:03:01,039 new for the first time with this membership. In that but I inadvertently overwhelmed 43 00:03:01,039 --> 00:03:07,759 myself because I wanted to launch this perfect, final version of my membership. 44 00:03:07,759 --> 00:03:10,879 I wanted to be like one hundred and twenty percent done the very first month, 45 00:03:12,199 --> 00:03:16,520 rather than just getting it off the ground and then adding all some extra 46 00:03:16,560 --> 00:03:20,639 things to it later. So I had these huge plans for all of the 47 00:03:20,680 --> 00:03:23,599 things that I wanted to include in the membership. I had these ideas for 48 00:03:23,719 --> 00:03:28,400 all these mini bonus courses that I wanted to include in the membership so that 49 00:03:28,400 --> 00:03:30,240 when somebody joined, they could go down different pathways if they wanted to. 50 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:38,800 And basically I ended up overwhelming myself whenever I even sat down to start working 51 00:03:38,879 --> 00:03:42,919 on it, whenever I even thought about the membership, I felt so overwhelmed 52 00:03:43,080 --> 00:03:46,759 by all of the different things that I had to do to make this gigantic 53 00:03:46,800 --> 00:03:50,360 thing come to life, and so I kept procrastinating it. There was just 54 00:03:50,400 --> 00:03:53,000 so much to do, and I didn't know where to start, so I 55 00:03:53,039 --> 00:03:57,879 didn't start. I had originally planned to launch this membership for the first time 56 00:03:58,000 --> 00:04:02,759 in January, and then I pushed it to March, and then finally I 57 00:04:02,840 --> 00:04:09,400 launched it in April because I had been so overwhelmed by all of the things 58 00:04:09,719 --> 00:04:13,960 I thought I needed to do to get it perfect and ready to launch to 59 00:04:14,000 --> 00:04:17,839 the world. But the version that I launched, my members who were in 60 00:04:17,879 --> 00:04:21,439 it, they love it. They don't realize that there were four extra things 61 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,360 I wanted to at four mini courses I wanted to add and will still add 62 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:29,319 in the future as a surprise for my members. But to them, it's 63 00:04:29,600 --> 00:04:31,399 it appears done right to them, They're like this is perfect. To me, 64 00:04:31,439 --> 00:04:33,759 I'm like, this is seventy five percent of what I want it to 65 00:04:33,800 --> 00:04:39,079 be. But it's going to get better. And I think the lesson here 66 00:04:39,199 --> 00:04:42,839 is really just keep it simple, keep it simple, get it off the 67 00:04:42,839 --> 00:04:45,800 ground, because you can help a lot more people with your offer when it's 68 00:04:45,800 --> 00:04:49,360 off the ground than you can when it's still in your head and you haven't 69 00:04:49,399 --> 00:04:54,480 done anything with it because it's not perfect yet, which leads me nicely to 70 00:04:54,560 --> 00:04:58,120 lesson number two. It is never going to feel ready or perfect. Even 71 00:04:58,199 --> 00:05:02,120 the day that we opened door to Conversion campaigns, I didn't feel like I 72 00:05:02,240 --> 00:05:08,079 was ready to start selling it. I felt really anxious about like, oh, 73 00:05:08,480 --> 00:05:11,759 what's missing. I feel like I've missed something, I've skipped a step, 74 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,680 or I've forgotten to do something. In all of our other launches, 75 00:05:15,720 --> 00:05:17,560 and we launch a lot as a team, you know, this is like 76 00:05:17,680 --> 00:05:21,680 our third launch for the year. In most other launches, we have a 77 00:05:21,720 --> 00:05:26,439 process. We've launched Launch Magic like eight times, We've launched Freedom Fast Tracked 78 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:29,279 twice, so we know how to do all of these things. We've done 79 00:05:29,279 --> 00:05:31,000 it multiple times. My team does a lot of it as well. But 80 00:05:31,120 --> 00:05:34,480 because this was the first time that we were launching a membership as this team. 81 00:05:34,920 --> 00:05:39,800 I previously launched a membership back in like twenty seventeen or twenty eighteen, 82 00:05:40,360 --> 00:05:43,839 but it was a very different membership back then. This is the first time 83 00:05:43,879 --> 00:05:46,199 we were doing it as a team, and it was the first time we 84 00:05:46,199 --> 00:05:50,360 were using a different platform for this membership. So we use Kajabi for all 85 00:05:50,399 --> 00:05:56,279 of our courses, but there was a one particular small feature that I was 86 00:05:56,319 --> 00:06:00,680 really particular about that I wanted to have for this membership. So this was 87 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,399 the first time that we were using a completely different piece of software. So 88 00:06:03,480 --> 00:06:08,279 I did a lot of it myself, and I was figuring out a lot 89 00:06:08,319 --> 00:06:12,720 of it along the way. And because I didn't quite know how it all 90 00:06:12,759 --> 00:06:15,399 worked and how it all fit together, I was really worried that I'd forgotten 91 00:06:15,399 --> 00:06:20,040 something and that it wasn't ready to launch yet, and this was part of 92 00:06:20,040 --> 00:06:25,399 the reason why I procrastinated it. But eventually I had the deadline and I 93 00:06:25,439 --> 00:06:28,800 had no choice but to get it out there. And I knew that if 94 00:06:28,839 --> 00:06:30,480 there was something I had forgotten, I could just fix it, or I 95 00:06:30,519 --> 00:06:35,279 could add it later if I needed to, which also then leads me beautifully 96 00:06:35,279 --> 00:06:39,199 to less than number three. These all quite related. If you hadn't noticed. 97 00:06:40,079 --> 00:06:44,160 Lesson Number three was sometimes you just needed solid deadline to get it done. 98 00:06:44,240 --> 00:06:48,639 I procrastinated this launch. I moved the deadline multiple times until I could 99 00:06:48,639 --> 00:06:54,839 no longer move the deadline anymore. And as with somehow with every launch that 100 00:06:54,839 --> 00:06:58,079 I had ended up doing, I ended up hopping onto a plane the week 101 00:06:58,120 --> 00:07:00,000 that the launch happens. I don't know why. I don't actually plan this 102 00:07:00,079 --> 00:07:03,639 intentionally, but it just happens every time that I launch. And because I 103 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:06,480 was hopping onto a plane the week that it launched, I couldn't delay the 104 00:07:06,519 --> 00:07:13,120 membership launch any later without moving it into May and May just felt to me 105 00:07:13,360 --> 00:07:16,040 like, oh, that's five months after I'd originally planned to launch it. 106 00:07:16,079 --> 00:07:20,959 What am I doing? Surely I'm not procrastinating this for five months because I 107 00:07:21,040 --> 00:07:26,480 had the deadline. I made it happen. Without the deadline, I would 108 00:07:26,480 --> 00:07:30,399 still be brainstorming it, I'd be outlining it, I'd be procrastinating it. 109 00:07:30,480 --> 00:07:34,199 I would still be just twiddling my thumbs, waiting to feel ready, waiting 110 00:07:34,199 --> 00:07:38,920 for it to feel perfect, and as we know, it never does. 111 00:07:39,720 --> 00:07:44,040 This is one of the reasons actually why launch Magic works so well for my 112 00:07:44,040 --> 00:07:46,879 students who are launching things for the first time, because you have the group 113 00:07:47,040 --> 00:07:49,680 launching it at the same time as you. You have a launch date that 114 00:07:49,680 --> 00:07:53,560 you have set in stone, and you have the accountability of the group. 115 00:07:53,600 --> 00:07:57,000 You've told people I'm launching on this date, and the group can keep you 116 00:07:57,040 --> 00:08:01,360 accountable, and that means that you stop procrastinating you actually get it done, 117 00:08:01,560 --> 00:08:05,199 Whereas if you don't have a deadline, it's very easy for things to just 118 00:08:05,680 --> 00:08:09,639 take forever and then they never happen. You can wait to feel like it's 119 00:08:09,680 --> 00:08:11,439 ready, you can wait to feel like it's done, and then three years 120 00:08:11,480 --> 00:08:13,879 later you're like, oh, I wanted to launch a course three years ago 121 00:08:13,879 --> 00:08:18,000 and I still haven't got around to it. That's because you didn't have a 122 00:08:18,040 --> 00:08:22,079 deadline. Number four, The best way to figure out all of the little 123 00:08:22,120 --> 00:08:26,160 details is to just start. This launch, like I said, was a 124 00:08:26,160 --> 00:08:31,720 weird one because there were a lot of new Techi details to figure out in 125 00:08:31,799 --> 00:08:35,799 this particular launch. All of our courses are in Kajabi. I love Kajabi, 126 00:08:37,039 --> 00:08:39,399 but there was one tiny little feature that it was missing for this particular 127 00:08:39,399 --> 00:08:45,919 membership. So I chose to go with searchy for conversion campaigns, and that 128 00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:50,200 meant learning an entirely new platform connecting up all of the techi bits, because 129 00:08:50,240 --> 00:08:54,960 it's not all in one like Kijabi is. It's a lot less intuitive than 130 00:08:54,000 --> 00:09:00,440 Kijabi is. Figuring out little techi details like when somebody's payments. How are 131 00:09:00,440 --> 00:09:03,440 we going to make searchy talk to Kajabi, which is where our email list 132 00:09:03,480 --> 00:09:05,120 is. How are we going to make those two platforms talk so that they 133 00:09:05,159 --> 00:09:09,399 get the follow up emails sent to them from Kajabi. And all of these 134 00:09:09,399 --> 00:09:13,600 little things felt so overwhelming when I thought about them. But once I started 135 00:09:13,720 --> 00:09:16,960 taking that action and implementing them, you know, imperfect action. There's a 136 00:09:16,960 --> 00:09:20,440 reason why this show is called imperfect action. Once I started doing the things, 137 00:09:20,519 --> 00:09:24,120 I figured them out. And if the techi things overwhelm you as well, 138 00:09:24,840 --> 00:09:28,879 thinking about them more isn't going to help. You have to start taking 139 00:09:28,960 --> 00:09:31,440 action, and you have to trust that you can figure it out, that 140 00:09:31,480 --> 00:09:35,399 you will figure it out once you start making those steps. But thinking about 141 00:09:35,399 --> 00:09:39,440 the more is just going to overwhelm you, which then is going to probably 142 00:09:39,480 --> 00:09:43,559 make you procrastinate it like I did. Number five. This was an interesting 143 00:09:43,600 --> 00:09:46,320 one. I learned that people will pay for a few months upfront if they 144 00:09:46,360 --> 00:09:50,080 have a reason to I somehow assumed that most people would pay for the month 145 00:09:50,159 --> 00:09:54,600 to month option, as that was a lower investment upfront, but I also 146 00:09:54,720 --> 00:09:58,080 wanted to create an option. I was like, well, there might be 147 00:09:58,080 --> 00:10:01,279 some people who want to pay for three months ahead and they can pay quarterly. 148 00:10:01,159 --> 00:10:05,320 I didn't expect as many people to take me up on that offer as 149 00:10:05,360 --> 00:10:09,360 they did. And the reason why I think so many people took up that 150 00:10:09,440 --> 00:10:13,480 offer was because I rewarded the people who committed for three months. I offered 151 00:10:13,480 --> 00:10:18,799 them a bonus quarterly planning and review workshop. So anyone who signed up for 152 00:10:18,799 --> 00:10:24,440 three months gets like, a, well, they get a bonus workshop where 153 00:10:24,440 --> 00:10:26,240 we're jumping on zoom, we're reviewing the last quarter, and we're planning for 154 00:10:26,240 --> 00:10:28,399 the quarter ahead. I in my mind, I was like, oh, 155 00:10:28,399 --> 00:10:31,879 this is a really easy bonus for me to deliver. I didn't think they 156 00:10:31,919 --> 00:10:39,279 would find it as valuable as they did, and by far most people chose 157 00:10:39,320 --> 00:10:41,720 this option. That was such a surprise to me, because yeah, I 158 00:10:41,840 --> 00:10:46,679 really just thought, you know, people are everyone's saying that they are struggling 159 00:10:46,720 --> 00:10:50,360 at the moment their businesses. The cash flow is not great at the moment, 160 00:10:50,440 --> 00:10:52,440 so I thought, well, everyone's going to go for the cheapest option. 161 00:10:52,799 --> 00:10:54,279 It's a brand new membership. You know, they don't know what's inside 162 00:10:54,320 --> 00:10:58,000 it yet, They're going to just go for the easier, the cheaper, 163 00:10:58,399 --> 00:11:03,639 lower investment commitment. But now that I know great people want to pay upfront 164 00:11:03,720 --> 00:11:07,600 because this is a really good incentive to pay upfront, then I will offer 165 00:11:07,600 --> 00:11:13,679 it again when doors open up again in May number six. There is always 166 00:11:13,720 --> 00:11:16,679 going to be something that you couldn't have planned for in your launch. This 167 00:11:16,799 --> 00:11:18,639 happens, you know, every launch. There's always something that I'm like, 168 00:11:18,679 --> 00:11:22,000 oh, yeah, didn't plan for that one, And in particular in this 169 00:11:22,039 --> 00:11:24,960 one, because it was something new that I was launching. I hadn't launched 170 00:11:24,960 --> 00:11:30,080 a membership in a long time, six years. I had to wrap my 171 00:11:30,120 --> 00:11:33,480 head around it. I had a whole bunch of different new things that I 172 00:11:33,519 --> 00:11:37,519 needed to do, and I knew something was gonna go wrong. I knew 173 00:11:37,519 --> 00:11:41,200 something would happen that I hadn't planned for. The thing is that a few 174 00:11:41,240 --> 00:11:45,080 years ago, launch slip ups were like this big disaster for me, and 175 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:46,600 I would freak out if something didn't go according to plan. It was like 176 00:11:46,639 --> 00:11:50,840 the end of the world. Fortunately, Most of this launch did go to 177 00:11:50,879 --> 00:11:54,240 plan, but I did make a bit of a silly mistake. This was 178 00:11:54,399 --> 00:11:56,679 the only slip up. It was so minor. But what I had was 179 00:11:56,720 --> 00:12:03,039 I had an automated Instagram DM message set up where if somebody messaged me the 180 00:12:03,120 --> 00:12:05,879 letters CC, it said you know, it sent them the link to join, 181 00:12:05,919 --> 00:12:09,720 and it mentioned that the founding member price was thirty seven dollars a month, 182 00:12:11,039 --> 00:12:13,679 when in fact it was actually thirty nine dollars a month. Tiny, 183 00:12:13,799 --> 00:12:16,480 tiny mistake, but it did confuse a few people, and we had a 184 00:12:16,480 --> 00:12:20,279 few people pointed out, these things happen, We make mistakes. The world 185 00:12:20,399 --> 00:12:24,799 didn't end, would you believe it? And now I know that I need 186 00:12:24,840 --> 00:12:28,879 to double check the pricing when I next set something live. And yep, 187 00:12:28,919 --> 00:12:33,480 if you send me a DM with the letters CC, you'll get a message. 188 00:12:33,480 --> 00:12:35,159 Now you can jump onto the waitlist. I'm there at Steph Taylor dot 189 00:12:35,159 --> 00:12:39,679 co on Instagram. Send me CC and you can hop onto the weightlist for 190 00:12:39,720 --> 00:12:43,480 when I open doors again in early May. Okay, number seven, final 191 00:12:43,519 --> 00:12:46,919 one. This was probably the biggest lesson and it's one that I have been 192 00:12:48,200 --> 00:12:52,360 reminded of over and over and over again, and that is if you can. 193 00:12:52,519 --> 00:12:56,480 If you struggle to articulate your offer, your audience will struggle to understand 194 00:12:56,480 --> 00:13:00,559 it. I always send out a non buy a survey after relaunch. We 195 00:13:00,639 --> 00:13:05,559 set one out after this launch as well, because even though the launch was 196 00:13:05,600 --> 00:13:07,840 successful, you know, we had quite a lot of people sign up this 197 00:13:07,919 --> 00:13:11,000 round. Even though the launch was successful, I still want to know what 198 00:13:11,200 --> 00:13:16,879 held back the people who didn't sign up, And some of the responses that 199 00:13:16,919 --> 00:13:18,240 I got were things like, oh, I'm not making enough money in my 200 00:13:18,240 --> 00:13:20,399 business, so that's why I didn't join, or I didn't join because I 201 00:13:20,399 --> 00:13:26,919 don't have enough time. And this is really interesting because for me, when 202 00:13:26,960 --> 00:13:31,919 I created conversion campaigns, I created it as the solution to not making enough 203 00:13:31,919 --> 00:13:35,039 money and not having enough time. Because once you can generate cash injections, 204 00:13:35,320 --> 00:13:37,840 then you can reinvest in the systems and the support, you can reinvest in 205 00:13:37,879 --> 00:13:43,240 software, you can reinvest in virtual assistance to free up your time, and 206 00:13:43,360 --> 00:13:48,320 the cash injections are creating more money in your business. But obviously I didn't 207 00:13:48,320 --> 00:13:50,240 do a great job of connecting the dots. That's what these responses tell me. 208 00:13:50,320 --> 00:13:52,840 They're like, oh, well, Steph, you didn't connect the dots. 209 00:13:52,879 --> 00:13:56,240 Between how conversion Campaigns is going to help somebody to make more money and 210 00:13:56,279 --> 00:14:00,600 free up their time. Now I know when I re launched again in May, 211 00:14:01,159 --> 00:14:03,759 that I need to articulate that bit better. Another one that came up 212 00:14:03,960 --> 00:14:07,879 was somebody said I don't have a specific offer, I just do one on 213 00:14:07,879 --> 00:14:11,120 one and that was interesting to me because the whole idea with conversion campaigns is 214 00:14:11,120 --> 00:14:16,200 that you are imperfectly testing new things you can offer in your business, and 215 00:14:16,240 --> 00:14:18,200 you are testing new ways to sell your existing offers, and I'm giving you 216 00:14:18,240 --> 00:14:22,159 the templates to do all of that. So I now know that I need 217 00:14:22,200 --> 00:14:26,759 to improve how I articulate that as well. I also had a lot of 218 00:14:26,759 --> 00:14:31,279 students who were in my other programs in Awful Less Sell More or Launch Magic 219 00:14:31,399 --> 00:14:33,399 or Freedom fast Track. I had them reach out to me and ask if 220 00:14:33,440 --> 00:14:37,639 there was any overlap between Conversion Campaigns and the program that they were in. 221 00:14:39,000 --> 00:14:41,399 So now I know for the next launch, Oh, I need to make 222 00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:45,279 it really clear that this is completely different from anything else that I offer. 223 00:14:45,960 --> 00:14:48,720 So I guess the lesson. The other lesson in there for you is always 224 00:14:48,720 --> 00:14:52,879 send those non buya surveys because the people who don't sign up, are going 225 00:14:52,960 --> 00:14:56,799 to have such great insights that you can use the next time you launch, 226 00:14:56,120 --> 00:15:00,879 whether it's a membership, a course, a program, literally anything. The 227 00:15:00,919 --> 00:15:03,600 people who don't buy are going to tell you so much more that's gonna help 228 00:15:03,639 --> 00:15:07,759 you to sell more of it next time. So there you have at seven 229 00:15:07,960 --> 00:15:11,480 little lessons that I learned from this most recent launch. I will keep you 230 00:15:11,559 --> 00:15:13,879 up to date with how the membership goes. No doubt there will be other 231 00:15:13,960 --> 00:15:18,600 lessons that I learn in the coming months, so stay tuned for all of 232 00:15:18,639 --> 00:15:22,039 those. If you've learned anything from this show so far, please leave a 233 00:15:22,120 --> 00:15:24,720 quick rating and a review. I really do read every single one of them. 234 00:15:24,759 --> 00:15:28,120 It means a lot to me because a lot of work goes into producing 235 00:15:28,120 --> 00:15:31,559 this podcast, so it means a lot to know that people are listening and 236 00:15:31,600 --> 00:15:35,480 that you are learning something from it. Thank you so much for listening. 237 00:15:35,600 --> 00:15:35,360 Catch you next time.