So, what's it all about?
In this episode, I chat with the amazing Rai Richardson - Launch Strategist and Marketing Mentor from Force 4 Events and we talk about all things launching.
We also chat about why it's super important to know how to launch (even if you hate launching and never intend on doing it - or if you've tried it and don't ever want to do it again!) so you can transfer those vital skills across your business marketing and sales.
And finally, she tells us how you can get your hands on her No Stress Lunch Content Checklist. to help you with everything you need to know - step by step - for your launch.
What can you do NOW to grow your business?
If you're ready to take your business to the next level, but don't quite have enough confidence - or know how to actually do it - book a FREE Breakthrough Call below
On the call we'll...
✅ Get total clarity on where you are with your business - both in terms of Mindset & Strategy
✅ Figure out what's holding you back from taking your business to the next level (this is often where the breakthrough happens!)
✅ Come out with a clear plan of how you can push your business forward, to earn you the money you want - in the time you have!
Choose a time in my calendar by clicking the button below...
LET'S CHAT
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Transcript
[00:00:00] Hello and welcome to this episode of Mindset and Method. Today I am super excited cuz I am joined by Ray Richardson. She is all Things launching and we've not done a podcast episode on launching before, so I'm really excited to be joined by her just to chat about launching and how important it is.
To understand how to do it for your business. So let me hand over. First of all, Ray. Hello. Welcome. Tell us who you are and what you do. Hello, Jenny. It's so wonderful to be here. So, yes, I'm Ray Richardson, and I am a launch strategist and marketing mentor helping business coaches, mentors, course creators to launch without burnout in the simplest of terms, essentially.
And that is so vital because I have done my fair amount of launches and I always burn out at the end. I [00:01:00] always get ill at the end, and I'm always chatting to people who do the same and put so much into launches. It's such a full on experience that yeah, having somebody like you to hand hold people through it is just, yeah, it's an incredible job.
I absolutely love what you do, but tell us about, Why you love what you do and why launching and understanding how to do it properly. is important in your business. So I love what I do because of the sort of the confidence that I portray two people and I give what I've learned over the 12 years being in marketing and events.
I've done a lot of the things I've trialed and errored and learned from various things as well. So I've got all that sort of experience. That I carry along with me and I absolutely love sharing my wisdom and giving that confidence to someone to be able to do their own marketing and be able to really show up in the [00:02:00] way that feels authentic and good to them by writing content that converts by sharing messages that resonate with their audience and talking about their own launch and their own.
Course or an event in a way that feels good to them and resonates with their audience. And I just love empowering my clients to use their own channels to be able to know and navigate their sort of way through the sort of co webs and the burnout and the overwhelm of of marketing world really to make sure that, cuz a lot of my clients tend to come to me when they've just started their business they really love what they're doing.
They love sharing them as them teaching, mentoring others, but it's the marketing that they never had experience in, they've never really had to use. Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn, you know, all the ins and outs that each of those platforms might have. And when we start working together, you know, they start building email [00:03:00] lists and they get confident of how to grow that audience as well.
And then Toand to serve the basics of it as at least to be able to really scale as they're ready. Yeah, and I think you've touched on in a really important point, like already here, is that. There's like launching, there's no right or wrong way really to do it. And I loved what you said right at the beginning, which was, you know, you have tried loads of stuff, you've done loads of stuff.
And I think as a coach in any industry, if you haven't tried loads of stuff and actually failed at quite a lot of it, to find out what works, then you can't be a great coach cuz you can't give people. All of the context of all of the different ways of doing it. And I think when you've got coaches like popping up saying, Right this way is the right way, and this way is what worked for me.
Yes, that might be what worked for you. But if you haven't got coaches that have tried all of the things [00:04:00] and if you are an entrepreneur, whatever you try, most of it is not gonna work, right? But it's what you learn from the stuff that doesn't work that makes the stuff that does work. And the fact that, you know, you've been in marketing for 12 years, you are experience trying all of these different things.
It. It gives the depth to coaching, and that's the same with me. I've done all of the different things. Loads of it hasn't worked, but it's persevering and understanding the bits that do work and why the bits that don't work haven't worked and launching is so much like that. And I think you've kind, you've gotta be the right personality to love launches and not be as scared of.
Things flopping occasionally to really understand how you love to launch and take the stress out of the situation a bit So, Yeah. I love that you touched on that straight away, cuz I think that's really important in all areas of [00:05:00] business. But tell us a bit more about launching and why it is important to launch and to figure out how to love to launch in this kind of day and age, in, in social media businesses and in the businesses that, that the listeners here are likely trying to grow.
So the first part of the question is why is it important to launch and why would you ever consider that? It's that it's, well, it's essentially a pr exercise for your business. It's a great way to build visibility. To build that brand awareness about what you are doing to showcase what you are doing.
But also the organic marketing way, which is the kind of the long term strategy way you have to build that sort of low and trust before you can really unveil anything. So showing up regularly sharing value and. With your audience and trying to really grow and nurture them in between the launches is also just as important as when you are, [00:06:00] you know, preparing to launch and when you're when you're unveiling something.
And so the reason why you might do that is is primarily to showcase a particular feature, a particular product course for your business that you are and the idea with unveiling like something like a group program or a course is that you are able to. Your energy as you would working with someone one to one intimately, but actually spread your wisdom and spread your skills a lot wider a field by working with a group of people at the same time.
So your energy still. The same. And you are, you're sharing the same sort of skill set and wisdom with the people, but you're doing, you know, more, you're serving more audience at the same time with that course, for example. So, so that would be the main reason. But there's also lots of different ways to launch something.
So again, that's what I work with my clients is identifying what feels good to them what. What do they enjoy? What really doesn't, you know, doesn't click for [00:07:00] them. So we look at all of those things and work together and I take all of that into account when we build the bespoke launch process that we work on.
Absolutely. And I think even if you want a business that. You don't have to launch to get sales and you wanna build a more kind of evergreen type program or like consistent marketing. I still think it's really important to know how to launch because if you are just evergreen and you're just using your kind of traditional marketing messages on a kind of rinse and repeat thing, your audience gets bored of that.
And even if you haven't got anything big to launch where you have an open door, By now and then closed door strategy, which I must say I've moved away from that. It's still really important to do those kind of launch exercises to pump in. Like you were saying, energy is so important in your business.
It's about pumping in that little period of energy to get your audience hiked [00:08:00] up again, like inspired, motivated to take action. Even if you're not really launching something big, like a new program and you're opening the doors and then you're closing the doors and you are making a big sale at the end, it's still really important to know how to pump energy into your audience to keep doing that.
You know, a few times a year at least, just to mix things up and remind people who you are and what you do, and, you know, build that kind of enthusiasm and like you say, build your visibility, build your audience, all of that stuff is what launching is great for. So I think traditionally we always thought about launching as.
You do a challenge or something like that, you open the doors for a new offering, like a program or a course, whatever it is, and then you close the doors or you do a special offer and you do a sale. I think nowadays it launching is, it is done a bit more evergreen as well. It's about relationship building, it's about audience growth.
[00:09:00] It's about adding value out there to your audience and reminding them just how awesome you are with a big pump of energy. Even if you're not closing the doors on anything, and it's an evergreen sale after that, it's still really vital to know how to do that in your business. So even if you don't want to run on a launch cycle to sell, still really important to know how to do it so you can pump that energy back into your audience.
I see you nodding a lot, but people on the podcast aren't gonna see that , so Yeah. Tell me that. Yeah, it looks like you agree with me on that. Oh, absolutely. Yeah. I completely hit the nail on their head there. Couldn't have said it best of myself to be that he, the nodding, I think. Yeah, absolutely.
The energy. So, so vital because you just get lost, I think, in the sea of sameness. Otherwise, if you just keep it, keep tugging along so you're not really gonna see a massive growth. You really need to regularly add fresh and new people into your funnel. And it's a [00:10:00] great way to, to surf. Just build momentum and carry on building that because you don't want your audience to get bored or forget about you ever really.
So, regularly coming back to the foresight to, to keep your business and your brand out there, you need to think of ways of I guess reinvigorating what you are doing to whether. Relaunch of new branding or refresh of content or a launch of a group program or a course or a brand new product even you know, you need to keep invigorating that.
Yeah, absolutely. Okay, so we always chat about mindset. So my next question for you is all about the role that mindset plays. In launching. So tell us about like your experience, your client's experience. I know there's like this phrase, it's like the day two of doom, isn't it? That, so when you launch and then you sell your offer, that you get like a [00:11:00] spark of interest on day one and then day two goes deathly silent. I've had this myself. It really, it's like it really shakes you. It's like day two doom. And mindset plays like a massive part in launches. Cause as soon as you get that little ah, quiver, oh my God, it's got a bit quiet. It's so easy to pull your energy out of launching. And launching is all about the energy.
So, Yeah. Tell me about the role that mindset plays and the role that you see in your client and how important it is like to have somebody like you there to keep picking people up when they have those moments of, Oh my God, this isn't gonna work, which happens to us all on launches.
So yeah. Tell us about your view on the role that mindset plays in launching and supporting your clients as well. So mindset plays? Yes. A huge role. In, in launching and in business in general, of course. But for, with the launching set of things the second day of Doom I think it [00:12:00] starts quite a lot before before say you open doors to something and unveil something.
It plays a part when you are writing up the content, it plays a part when you're trying to really nail that transformation to people as well. When you start talking about your excitement and you start sharing things, maybe there is things that people resonate with or don't resonate with. You don't, you know, if something doesn't feel right at any of those points, you of feel like, Oh, I posted something yesterday.
I won't do it again today because you don't want to be too much in people's face or something like that, you know? So any sort of, I think those doubts and questioning and that self-belief plays such a huge part along the whole, like in the leader throughout the entire time as well. And also afterwards is you know, once the doors have closed or just before they close when you do any kind of follow up and anything else that might come after that really.
And also, how do you. Pick yourself up after the launch as well. Like how do you [00:13:00] carry on? Do you like, go completely silent and hide in the dark room, or do you you know, carry on and still show up and still give value and keep that Momentum and that kind of interest and engagement kicking along.
So, so it plays a huge part. But it also, so looking after yourself spending time outdoors, really focusing on the kind of the things that you can touch and feel and see right in front of you is really key. Just to readjust and And help you get through each day.
But in terms of where I come into that process is time and time again. I tend to drop into people's inbox and say, I haven't seen you post anything today. I just wondered everything is okay. I give a whole load of hints and talking points that they can go off and just get going with.
And I've just heard it so many times, go, Oh my God, I'm so glad your email just arrived at the right time, because I was really beating myself up about it. Okay. Well, I can tell because this is when it happened, you know? It's bound to happen. It happens to [00:14:00] everybody. So, so yeah, so I've got some like motivational cards that I give out to my clients as well that when we work together to just pull one out every day of your launch and just keep you motivated and and keep that mindset intact.
Yeah. I love that. I love that cuz it's so easy. I know I've done this in the past, I know clients have done it as well. It's so easy to be so passionate and energetic during the challenge bit where you are teaching and you're helping people get clarity over the problem and all this stuff that we are told to do in the, like the challenging bit or the launchy bit.
And then as soon as it comes to the end where you're like trying to sell something or trying to get people to connect with you or be cool with you or something, it's like a totally different energy. And you can tell when you're watching people launch, they love doing all the teaching bit, adding the value bit, you know, giving the.
Advice, you know, tick, all of that stuff. The energy's really high. But as soon as they switch to, [00:15:00] Okay, well the reason I've done this launch is to sell you something, it's like the energy drops completely because of that mindset around, Okay, now I'm going into, Sales mode, and I don't like being a sales person because all sales people are sleazy and all of these beliefs that we have around selling just kick into play and it's a real mindset thing.
And that sales at the end, and then you've run the launch and then. It's the sale then. So your launch isn't actually like maybe if you're doing a week long challenge, your launch isn't just that week long challenge. It's the week after as well. We've gotta be on top of the sales. You've gotta be reminding your audience what you're offering them and how amazing it is and how to take the next step.
And it's so easy for people just to do the fun bit at the beginning. And then go quiet on the sales bit and then think to themselves, Okay, launching doesn't work, or I'm crap at launching, or I'm crap at selling. And so yeah, like I love the fact, just those little reminders that after they've done [00:16:00] the fun bit, Are you still talking about it?
Are you chasing up the people who have been really engaged through the challenge? Do you have a way of tracking these leads who've been really engaged and you know, have you got a way of building that relationship with people? What's your strategy next to actually convert these people who were really interested into clients?
And I think also if you don't get your mindset in check with that. You're doing them a disservice because you've given them a taste of what they could have and the results that they could achieve, but you're not giving the opportunity to buy what it is that would actually give them the amazing results because of your own mindset blocks around selling.
So actually, not only are you damaging your own business in terms of selling, you are stopping them from having the opportunity to go all the way through the complete process with you, buy something and get those amazing results that you've been talking about. So it's like a double negative whammy if that's.
[00:17:00] There's such a thing of that. I've just made that up as a phrase, but yeah, you're doing yourself a disservice and you're doing those people who've invested time in your challenge a disservice from not giving them the opportunity to buy from you. Yeah. No, exactly right. Exactly right. So yeah, talk about the next thing is if you could go back and to yourself at the beginning of your business and give you one bit of advice that's gonna help people listening to this podcast, what would that be?
It's not to spend too long. Perfecting things done is better than perfect and something that I still have to tell myself every day to this day. But I wish I had started, but I wish I had started telling me that to myself right at the beginning as well, because spent way too long on certain things that really didn't make any difference whether I had them or not, or how perfect there were so, [00:18:00] And another great thing in launches, like so many people plan and procrastinate over a launch for so long.
And I always think it's better just to set the date first and then figure out everything else later. . Yeah, totally. Because that makes you do it. And like you say, like we were saying it the beginning, like even if it, even if you do it and it's not got the best results out of it. Still learn so much from doing that.
So yeah, love that bit of advice. Just done is better than perfect. The imperfect action is, yeah, is massive. So yeah, thank you for joining me. Tell everyone how people can come and join you in your world. I know you have a freebie that no stress launch, like content checklist. And I think this is great because with launches, There is a process to it.
There's a lot to do. And so having that help with a checklist is so vital. So offering that for [00:19:00] free is amazing. So tell us a bit about that and tell us a bit about how people can come and join you and learn from you in your world. Okay, so first of all is the checklist is essentially all the includes all the content that I create when I'm launching.
And so it's the reason why I did that, I pulled that together because It just saves so much time and energy when you are in launch mode thinking, Oh, I forgot to set up a confirmation email, or I forgot to set up a follow up email or whatever other things that you might need the sales page and et cetera, et cetera.
And so when you start thinking about launching content plays such a big part in there because if you don't have content, People won't know about what it is that you're trying to tell them. So actually getting that set up from the very beginning is it just saves a whole load of stress. So hence the name.
No stress. A launch content checklist. . Absolutely. And how can people get hold of that? So [00:20:00] it's on my website. And that's force number four, events dot code uk slash content checklist, or if you visit my website there's a whole load of other resources and things that you can download as well in my resources section.
And we'll drop the links to that in the show notes. So wherever you're listening to this podcast, if you check out the notes, there'll be a link for that. Three B to raise notes, stress launch content checklist. And where can we find you most? Where do you show up most? Where if people wanna come and join you in your world, where's best to check?
So, best places are LinkedIn. I was the very first reminder to ever register on LinkedIn. Hence, I don't need to enter a surname next to my name, so it's not my first name down. Then you can find me on LinkedIn very easily. So I'm on LinkedIn most of the time, but also on Instagram and the business name course for.
Awesome. And [00:21:00] yeah, we'll drop those links in the show notes as well. Thank you so much for joining us here today. Yeah, I can't believe I haven't done in 40 something episodes we've not really touched on launching, so thank you so much for coming and just yeah, having a chat about launching. I think it's, even if you don't want a launch kind of business where you are launching every time you wanna make sales.
Some people love that. Some people hate that. But even if you hate that, I think it's still really important to know how to pump energy into your business by doing something that, that does that, even if it's not a launch, but it's just something that pumps a lot of energy into your business, grows your audience, gets your visibility up, gets your engagement up.
All of that stuff is brilliant to know how to do. So, yeah, completely recommend going to follow Ray and get her freebie and immerse yourself in that world because it's really valuable to try some of that stuff. See if you enjoy it. Give your audience a boost, give the energy and your [00:22:00] business a boost and learn from it because that's what business is all about.
So thank you so much for joining me. And yeah, that's it. Thank you.
Thank you so much for listening to this episode of Your Mindset and Method podcast. If you want to grow your business and you're struggling with maybe the confidence or the strategy, To be able to really take it big. Then why not try my 30 minute do it yourself business growth audit. You can find this on my [email protected] slash growth audit.
It's completely free and it will take you through a 30 minute process to audit your business. It will help you to develop a success mindset and get clarity over your business right now and what potential it has for growth, and it will help you discover more about how you spend your time and where you are wasting it.
It will also help you to define your [00:23:00] vision for the future and set your goals so you can wake up excited every day. Knowing how to push your business forward. So take the business, jenny deto.com. Thank you so, and I'll see you again for the next episode.