What to Tell Yourself When Your Course Launch Feels Like a Total Failure

During a recent meeting with a client, when we were reviewing the results from her second launch of her membership program, the client expressed her frustration that she hadn’t turned much of a profit yet.

Like so many other entrepreneurs, she’s been lead to believe that it’s reasonable to expect to turn a 5 or 6 figure profit whenever you launch an online course or program, and she's disappointed that after 2 launches, this hasn’t been the case for her yet.

I’m not gonna say it’s impossible to have 5 or 6 figure launches. It’s totally possible. But if you’ve launched something yourself and didn’t achieve the results you wanted, you gotta make sure that first of all, you’re comparing apples to apples.

Those “huge launches” you hear people bragging about take a lot of momentum. Again, not impossible to achieve, but one of the things to consider here is your optimum speed of implementation. Be honest with yourself – if you had a 6-figure launch that brought 100 new clients into your business all at once, could you handle it? Could your business handle it? Are the proper systems and processes in place to ensure it wouldn’t all fall apart?

I hate to sound like a bore. Or a party pooper. But I gotta be a realist here, and so do you.

What do those businesses have that you don’t, and vice versa? Some things to think about when you’re playing the comparison game:

1. How big is your list compared to theirs?

While you don’t need a huge list to successfully launch (something our clients have proven time and again), its size is most definitely proportionate to the amount of revenue you can expect to generate.

2. How many times have they launched their product or service?

If they’ve had plenty of opportunities to work the bugs and kinks out of their process, and you’re only launching for the first or second time… well, that’s not exactly a fair comparison, is it?

3. What is their advertising budget?

They may be spending $100 in advertising for every $1 that you’re spending. Again, hardly a fair comparison when they can literally buy more reach than you!

By no means am I pointing out any of these things in order to discourage you from pursuing your launch.

Quite the opposite!

My intention here is actually to encourage you to stay the course.

To get back to what I was originally telling you at the start of this blog… the truth is, many launches don’t turn a profit right away. So the fact that our client turned a profit at all is stellar, and we made sure to tell her that it was an accomplishment worth celebrating.

This is also the point in any launch where Jillian asks me to tell clients what she calls “Katy’s Rule of Three.”

(I can’t take credit for it – I learned it from my business coach, Pat Mussieux)

This so-called Rule of Three applies to just about anything new that you do:

Rule 1:  The First Time you launch, you’re “Figuring It Out.”

This is the launch where you’re throwing strategic spaghetti at the wall. The results from this launch will become your yardstick for future launches, the benchmark you’ll strive to improve upon.

Rule 2: The Second Time you launch, you’re “Working It Out.”

This launch can feel like a bit of a slog. You’re making tweaks and adjustments to your content, your pricing, your audience, your marketing strategy… smart, strategic tweaks, mind you, based on your results from your first launch. Essentially, you’re “working out” the bugs and kinks and challenges you identified during the first launch.

This is also the launch where I really encourage you to stay the course. It’s almost always worth it.

Rule 3: The Third Time you launch, you’re “Knocking It Out.”

By the third time you’re launching the same product or service, you’ve figured out what works and ironed out the kinks. You’ve garnered momentum now. You’ve started establishing some name recognition. Your list has grown. You have satisfied customers who’ve used your product or service and who become your brand ambassadors.

See what I mean about staying the course through and after your second launch? All that is so worth it!

So remember: when you’re in the thick of your next launch, and it feels like more effort than it’s worth, remind yourself of that Rule of Three. It will make all the difference!