From Flopped Launch to $500K

Have you ever experienced a failed launch, and felt discouraged by the outcome? We've been there. In today's episode, we take you through my personal journey from a flopped launch to generating over half a million dollars in revenue with the same program. Trust us - it's not as unattainable as it may sound. We turned a $297 course into a thriving business, and we're going to reveal how you can achieve the same kind of success.

We'll also discuss the significance of utilizing launch data to optimize and enhance future launches. It's not just about numbers - it's about understanding, interpreting, and acting on them to make well-informed decisions moving forward. We'll show you the only validation that truly matters comes from your audience, and how running a launch experiment can give you the insights needed to create a successful and lucrative program. So, buckle up and join us as we explore the path to turning your failures into massive success!

Want to learn how? Check out our new free training at https://www.quantumcoursecreator.com/once

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Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Have you ever had a flopped launch? Unless you're lying to yourself, you probably have right. We all have, and on today's episode, i'm going to share my story of how I went from having a flopped launch to making over half a million dollars with the same offer. So stay tuned. What change becomes possible when 100,000 people are impacted by your work? This question came to me one day and I have been working to find the answer ever since. Hi, i'm Jess, and I help online course creators amplify their influence and create a movement with their message, and on this podcast, i am sharing the simple strategies and systems to help you impact more people with your programs so you can create quantum growth in your industry. You are listening to the Quantum Course Creator podcast. Hey there, and welcome back to the Quantum Course Creator podcast, jess. Here And today, i am sharing the story of how I went from having a flopped launch to making over half a million dollars with the same exact course, and I know what you may be thinking like, jess. That sounds really unattainable, and I want to show you, on today's episode, how it isn't at all And, in fact, how the things that led up to going from a flopped launch to half a million dollars are things that you can do too. I also want to share that this offer is not a high ticket offer. I took a 297 course and grew it to over half a million dollars in revenue list. So all of those little things that may be popping up in your brain about why this may not work for you or how this may not be relatable to you, i want you to just set that aside for a moment and listen to this story. So I launched my first online course back in January of 2019. And in the process, i went through a few different iterations of trying to figure out what exactly the scope was, what was the transformation? And then, in May of 2019, i finally felt really solid about my offer and I named the program what it is still named today, and that launch went really well.

Speaker 1: 2:08

Right, i had been growing my audience. I had been creating content around that offer. I had been really building this up to be my signature program, five months into starting my business, and my first launch was really successful. I think I made about $2,000 and I really felt great about the process that I had developed and the messaging I had developed around my offer. And so, like most launch gurus tell you, i decided to rinse and repeat that launch. I did the same thing again. I did the same challenge. I did the same emails, the same everything.

Speaker 1: 2:44

But the second time that I launched that exact launch, it was a total flop. One person bought And I was like what the heck? This just went so well. Why did just one person buy? What did I do wrong? And I was so frustrated because I had just gone all in with this offer, right, i had spent my time building it up, creating the course, like putting together my messaging and everything. And the second time I launched it, it did not perform.

Speaker 1: 3:15

And I see this happen all the time in the different communities that I'm in. Right, people will have their first launch. It goes swimmingly because their audience is fresh, it's a brand new offer, it's very exciting. And then they go to rinse and repeat that in total crickets, and this is a really common occurrence And I'm going to talk more about why in a minute.

Speaker 1: 3:36

But what I see people do is what I could have done, right, i see them decide that their first launch was a fluke, right, they kind of roll back their past success and be like well, see, i told you I can be successful. This second launch flopped, so I guess it isn't actually a good thing, right, and I could have done that too. I could have been like, well, i guess that was a good run, maybe I should do something different. And what I see a lot of people do which is also something I could have done is create a different offer. I could have said, well, maybe this offer isn't what people want, so I'm going to start over and create something new, which is something I had totally done in the past. Right Before going all in on this one course, i had created many, many, many different offers, trying to figure out the right one for me and for my audience.

Speaker 1: 4:21

And after deciding and having that flopped launch, i probably could have been like man, maybe it isn't it, maybe I'll just start over with something new. And this is something that I see so many people do as well. Right, they decide, man, this isn't the offer, i'm going to start over and create something new, and maybe we've even done the same thing. Or I could have done what I see also a ton of people do, and that is pivot your entire brand Start completely from scratch. Brand new audience, brand new offer, brand new Instagram account, join witness protection and start completely over. And again. I have seen, time and time again, brilliant course creators who had success initially, but then no success the second time, completely start over, thinking that that's what they need to do in order to be successful. And these were all of the ideas that went through my mind. Too right, i was like, well, maybe this isn't the offer, maybe it was just a fluke, maybe I need to start over and start a whole new brand, because these are the things that we think of when something doesn't go according to our initial plan. But instead of doing any of those things, what I did ultimately led to turning that course into a half a million dollar program that has since served over 1,000 students, and a few months ago, i was able to sell that entire digital course business to a competitor of mine for multiple six figures, so that business in itself has really grown and seen long-term potential, because I didn't give up on that one offer after my second launch flocked. So what did I do instead That ultimately took it to this massive, successful program that ultimately brought in over half a million dollars beyond in sales and revenue in the last four years.

Speaker 1: 6:09

Well, the first thing that I did was I got curious, and anytime that anything doesn't go the way that you expect it to, rather than getting frustrated or annoyed or exasperated, i encourage you to get curious instead. Curiosity is the most valuable energy that you can be in when you are in business. Rather than letting something get to your head or get to your heart, rather put on your goggles and say how, like, let me examine this. I'm curious, what happened here? And that is one of my favorite things to do. I get curious all the time. Anytime anything doesn't happen exactly the way I think it should. I get curious because I want to dig into it and look at things objectively so that I can learn from it. So I got curious, i looked at the numbers, i did a full debrief of what took place before and what took place then, and I was able to see, side by side, the things that changed.

Speaker 1: 7:08

In my first launch, i had a larger audience going into it. More people opted in, so it would make sense that less people purchased because less people got into the launch to begin with. The age of my audience was different. In my first launch, they had been following me for four to five months and had really grown around my message In the second launch. I had just tried to attract those people in the week or two beforehand And so they weren't as aware of me And they weren't as familiar with my message and how I help people, and my messaging leading up to the launch didn't do a great job of educating them quickly so that they could become educated and aware of who I was by the time I made the offer. So that was another really big thing. There were a few different things that I looked at that I was like, huh, this is what worked. Well before I did not repeat that, i just like copy and pasted and hoped for the best, but I didn't really take into account the other things below the surface that ultimately lead to people purchasing something. And that curiosity, that examination, that looking at it and looking at the numbers objectively and not letting it mean anything about me, is what really gave me the insights that I needed going into the next live launch. And so I dug into the data And that's the second thing that I really recommend is taking away any of the feelings.

Speaker 1: 8:31

Feel the feelings. You're allowed to feel your feelings. You're allowed to move through them. I don't recommend stuffing them down. Feel your feelings, but then look at the data, because the data is objective. The data is not dependent on your feelings. You may have feelings about the data, but the data is what's going to tell you what's actually taking place, because the data doesn't lie.

Speaker 1: 8:52

And so look at how many people you got in front of. Did you promote it as long? Did you promote it in as many places? Did you use ads? Did you not? Did you email your list? Did you not right? Then dig into how many people opted in. If you got in front of a lot of people but not a lot of people opted in, maybe the messaging was off, maybe it didn't resonate with those people, right? And so look at the number of people who raised their hand and said I'm interested in learning about this, i'm interested in having more information. And how can you improve that process right there. And then look at the number of people who opted in versus the number of people who showed up. Oftentimes we lose people in the process between opt-in and show-up, and so how can you recognize that and then tweak it accordingly, right? And then the number of people from opt-in and show-up to purchase And where did people go from there? And if you can really get clear on this journey that people took and really look at the numbers and how they fluctuated and how people moved through that process, you can start to find the holes in your funnel and in your process, that you can start to plug up And so really digging into the data, looking at the numbers and trying to figure out what went wrong, what went awry, where did things go off track, what are the holes and the leaks in your system And how can you start plugging those to improve the result moving forward.

Speaker 1: 10:13

Now, the third piece of this that I think a lot of us don't give ourselves the opportunity to do but is absolutely crucial is learning from it. Right, maybe you'll look at the numbers, maybe you'll get curious, maybe your coach will tell you like, do a debrief, look at the numbers, and you're like, yeah, yeah, yeah, i looked at the numbers, they were fine, but then we shut down and we don't actually learn from it. Learning from it is not just looking at the numbers, right, it's taking the numbers, discovering what they mean and then applying that meaning into the future promotions of your offer. It's not just seeing the numbers. It's interpreting them, analyzing them and then optimizing for the future and making different choices, moving forward to apply what you learned. This is a big gap that I see a lot of people have is that they're like, yeah, i looked at my numbers, but then they do the exact same thing next time. Or they look at their numbers and then they feel some kind of way about it, so they don't allow themselves to learn from them.

Speaker 1: 11:15

Here's the thing about marketing. Marketing is entirely led by your audience. The people will tell you what's working, and it's this really interesting phenomenon where we want validation, but we're often looking for it from the wrong places. Right Inside my program, the Quantum Impact Equation, we do launch asset reviews where we'll take a look at something and let you know, like if there's anything that can be improved. And oftentimes people are looking for that validation from me, for me to give you the shiny stamp like, yep, this is great, send it forward.

Speaker 1: 11:48

But at the end of the day, the only validation that really matters is your audience's validation. Right, it doesn't matter if you like it or if I like it. What matters is how your audience responds to it. What matters is how it's resonating with them. And so going through the process of running a launch experiment really gives you that validation. It gets it in front of your audience and allows them to tell you if they liked it, if it resonated with them, if the offer is a good offer for them.

Speaker 1: 12:15

And you have to get in front of those people in order to actually get that validation. And so if you are getting the information from them but you're not willing to listen to it right, maybe nobody purchased and you're like, well, i suck. They all think I suck, i'm never gonna do this again Well then you're not actually learning from what they're telling you, right, because they're telling you something by not purchasing. They're telling you that the messaging didn't resonate. They're telling you that the offer wasn't right. Right, they're telling you that maybe the price wasn't there for them. And if you ask them, sometimes they'll tell you exactly what they're telling you. But you have to ask them right, and you have to really see what information you're getting from that and not letting it shut you down, but actually wake you up and really help you get curious and dig into that information And then taking what they're telling you and applying it to the next promotion, to the next launch to the next time that you're going to get in front of them, and it really is this process of like putting something out there, listening to what they're telling you and then optimizing it and doing it again, and that's how you will ultimately create a system that's going to be able to scale to half a million dollars, and that's exactly what I did.

Speaker 1: 13:29

So, after I had this flopped launch, i listened to the information that my audience was telling me. My messaging was off. I was trying to sell, like make more sales in your business, which is so vague, rather than like what they really really wanted. And so I really honed that in and I used their language to explain the problem that I solved. Right, i said it how they would say it, not how I would say it or how I think that they would say it, you know. And I made it really clear what the outcome was. They're not just gonna learn how to make more sales, they're going to learn a sales system. They're going to learn XYZ, right. What is the tangible thing that they are going to learn that they're gonna walk away from, and what is the outcome that they really really want from that? And so I really honed in my messaging and then I did it again. I launched again and I had a much better response to that launch. I think in that one I made $8,000, which was amazing And I knew that I was onto something. And from there I created a system to keep testing and keep growing that program without having to launch it all the time.

Speaker 1: 14:34

And this is another thing that I see so many people get stuck in is this idea that they have to live launch all the time. And I get it Like. This is what I was doing early on in my business. I don't know how I found her, but I was following a business coach and purchased a program from a business coach who literally taught you to launch every month, which now that I have been in this business for a minute, i like I don't even know if she still teaches that, because bananas right, but I was literally launching every single month. I had a week where I was promoting the challenge, a week where I was running a challenge, a week of card open and then a week to onboard new people into my next program, and then I was launching again And I was freaking exhausted, but I felt like I needed to make sales every single month or money would run out right, my business wouldn't be successful.

Speaker 1: 15:19

And so, instead of getting stuck in this cycle of constantly launching and maybe you're not launching every month, but maybe you're launching every quarter, right Or getting stuck into these constant cycles of launching, i developed a system for sales that allowed me to continually test my messaging and make sales all the time, without having to launch all the time, you know. And so I put that program on automations with a strategic funnel that drove traffic to that offer, even though my second business coach at the time told me that was a terrible idea and that I would be out of integrity and cannibalizing my offer. And blah, blah, blah, blah blah. I did it anyway And I drove traffic to it with automations, using an evergreen style promotion in between launches And then once a year I launched it again, and every quarter I did a re-engagement where I did like a specific topic workshop or some kind of like masterclass that then drove sales back into the funnel. And this process of bringing in sales from multiple places, having like this ever flowing current of automated sales, and then these quarterly re-engagement promotions that would bring people back into the funnel, and then every year, doing a big live launch with some kind of like update to the program or new bonus or something. All of that is what allowed me to scale it to half a million dollars By building out a system that made sales constant and consistent and sustainable, that I was constantly tweaking and testing my messaging and looking at the numbers every single week, tracking the numbers and seeing, okay, how can I improve this, how can I get more people here?

Speaker 1: 16:59

That is what gave me a sales system that converted, no matter what I did. Right, i ended up having a system that all I had to do was drive people to it and I knew that it would make money. And you know how powerful it is to have a system that all you have to do is like turn on the faucet to make money. It's an incredibly powerful process when you have something like that in your pocket, and that's actually why I just created a new training called Launch Once Make Sales All Year Long, teaching this exact system, breaking down the process and the parts inside of it and how I can help you build yours out in my new program, the Quantum Impact Ecclesion. So if you are sitting there like man, i wanna scale my course.

Speaker 1: 17:43

I had a flopped launch and I wanna make half a million dollars or more with it. How do I do that? This webinar is going to be the best way to learn how to do that. I'm gonna break down all of the steps of the process the three big components that you need to make it work, the mistakes that you may be making around it and exactly how you can do what I did, going from a flopped launch to over half a million dollars and serving over a thousand students with one course in three years in that training. So go check it out. It's at quantumcoursecreatorcom. Forward slash once or check out the link in the show notes And I can't wait to hear what you think about it. Thank you so much for listening. I hope this was helpful and I will see you in my next episode.