Shownotes
What do Taylor Swift and your next launch have in common? Maybe more than you think.
I’m pulling back the curtain on some of the biggest mindset shifts I’ve had around launching—and how they’ve completely changed the way I approach it. I’m also sharing what Taylor Swift’s no-runway launch style can teach us (and why it doesn’t actually work for most small business owners).
Whether you’re gearing up for your next launch or rethinking your entire approach, I hope these lessons help you feel more grounded, confident, and connected.
In this episode, we cover:
- 01:13 Why you need to build your own launch runway
- 2:50 What is genuine scarcity?
- 04:48 How to turn your launch into an experience
- 06:30 Attention has layers (and you need to speak to all of them)
- 09:48 What to try, what to ditch, and what to remember before your next launch
Links and resources mentioned:
- Behind the Scenes of a $3 Million Launch: https://player.captivate.fm/episode/1ac17ca4-05c3-4ed8-9fb1-235ee38ef972/
Meet Your Hosts
Jessica Walther is the founder and CEO of The Launch Collaborative and Sustainable Success Systems. As a launch strategist and systems consultant, Jess is dedicated to helping solo business owners and small-but-mighty teams build businesses that deliver both peace and profit. She specializes in creating sustainable growth strategies that align with her clients' values and lifestyles.
Rachel Lopez is the founder and CEO of Gal Marketing Agency, a boutique email marketing and strategy firm. With over a decade of experience, Rachel helps heart-driven entrepreneurs craft intentional marketing strategies that attract, nurture, and convert leads sustainably. Her human-first approach ensures that marketing efforts feel authentic and effective .
Together, Jess and Rachel blend systems, storytelling, and soulful strategy to help you grow a business that's deeply aligned with your life—not just your revenue goals.
Connect With Us:
Learn with Us
Get Jess's Sustainable Success Systems Starter Kit, a Notion Business Management Systems that takes your business from overwhelmed to organized with 4 foundational workflows. <<Learn More Here>>
Diagnose Common Launch Problems and Fix Them Fast! Get the Launch Cure Guide : https://www.thelaunchcollaborative.com/launch-cure
Get Rachel's Guide to a High-Converting Email list to learn 4 shifts to elevate your emails & embrace sustainability in your marketing. <<Get it Here>>
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Companies mentioned in this episode:
- Taylor Swift
- Growing a Deeply Rooted business podcast
- the launch collaborative
Transcripts
All right, picture this.
Speaker A:You announce the opening of your next program with two days notice, and it sells out immediately.
Speaker A:Six week Runway was needed.
Speaker A:No complicated launch sequence.
Speaker A:Just boom, an announcement and sold out.
Speaker A:That is Taylor Swift's world, and unfortunately, we do not live in it.
Speaker A:And her no Runway approach really works only because she's been 15 years building her Runway.
Speaker A:Her fans are trained to watch for clues, to expect surprise drops, and to have their credit card ready like I always do.
Speaker A:I'm going to guess that your audience probably isn't refreshing their Instagram at midnight, hoping that you drop a course like I was when Taylor dropped the life of Showgirl.
Speaker A:So today we're going to be diving into Taylor's launch genius and what it can actually teach us.
Speaker A:And more importantly, what we should never try to replicate in our world because we're not Taylor Swift.
Speaker A:There are some real lessons here about anticipation and creating genuine scarcity, but there's also a couple of industry myths that I'd like to bust, including one scarcity tactic that may be driving your sales now, but may backfire later.
Speaker A:But first, if you're new around here, hi, my name is Jess from the Growing a Deeply Rooted business podcast and owner of the launch collaborative.
Speaker A:Rachel is out this week.
Speaker A:Let's get into it.
Speaker A:Lesson number one that we can learn about Taylor Swift is that she is the Runway.
Speaker A:Taylor doesn't need a Runway because she is the Runway.
Speaker A:Think about it.
Speaker A:Her fans are already conditioned to hunt for Easter eggs and decode Cryptid social media posts and watch for announcement patterns.
Speaker A:And when she stood in front of a certain number, she has created a culture where anticipation is really part of the entertainment.
Speaker A:And to be honest, most of us just don't have that luxury.
Speaker A:We are building awareness from scratch or with a very little moment, them every single time.
Speaker A:Which means that your launch Runway is not wasted time.
Speaker A:It is crucial.
Speaker A:It is going to be how you create readiness for an audience that isn't already obsessed with you.
Speaker A:The difference is that Taylor has trained her people to always be watching.
Speaker A:And we need to train ours to be ready when it matters.
Speaker A:And my favorite way to do this is by sharing fly on the wall content.
Speaker A:So things like sharing behind the scenes of you building out your program, or sharing behind the scene aspects of you getting ready for your launch, or sharing testimonials or student experiences, etc.
Speaker A:This is going to prime people and get them obsessed with your product and ready to buy your content, your product, and maybe even dming you asking if they can have the checkout Link.
Speaker A:Now, if you do it the correct way.
Speaker A:So instead of rushing to open your cart, ask yourself, how do I really get my people excited about what's coming up?
Speaker A:And how do I build anticipation without creating fatigue for them?
Speaker A:All right, lesson number two.
Speaker A:The scarcity myth.
Speaker A:So let's talk about scarcity.
Speaker A:Taylor is brilliant at it with limited release vinyls and countdown timers and vault tracks that disappear.
Speaker A:And data and research will show that urgency tactics really do work.
Speaker A:That is why everybody uses them.
Speaker A:But here's where the launch industry has led us astray.
Speaker A:We have been trained to believe that without urgency or false scarcity, nothing will sell.
Speaker A:We're putting countdown timers on everything and limited bonus stacks on top of limited bonus tax.
Speaker A:And there's fake deadlines just everywhere.
Speaker A:The honest truth is, is that people are like, catching on to it.
Speaker A:And I've actually seen some of my clients increase their revenue and increase their enrollments by removing these fake deadlines and focusing on genuine value timing instead.
Speaker A:So sometimes the most radical thing you can do is tell people they have time to think.
Speaker A:So one of the things that we've also done is put pricing on waitlist pages for programs that we run over and over again so that people, if maybe they don't have the funds to join this time, they know and can anticipate and save up for the next time.
Speaker A:I know this is what my daughter does.
Speaker A:She always makes sure that she has at least a hundred to $200 in her bank account at any time, just in case Taylor happens to drop something.
Speaker A:But you know, sometimes if you over use this scarcity, it can start to backfire on you.
Speaker A:Or if people see through that, it's not genuine.
Speaker A:Because I've even seen on some of the TikToks that I've been seeing, her most devoted fans are starting to grumble about the constant countdown timers and variant releases.
Speaker A:Scarcity fatigue is real.
Speaker A:All right, so the lesson here is to use scarcity when it's true, when you have a real capacity limit, when timing actually matters because your program is starting and and when it creates energetic boundaries that serve both you and your clients.
Speaker A:Not everywhere and not all the time.
Speaker A:All right, so let's move on to lesson number three, Launching as an experience.
Speaker A:So one thing that Taylor has mastered during her releases is turning her album launches into experiences.
Speaker A:She doesn't just drop an album.
Speaker A:She creates a month worth of hype with Easter eggs and announcements and announcing it at global events like the Grammys or on her boyfriend's podcast.
Speaker A:She builds entire eras around the album.
Speaker A:Now we may not be able to announce our group program during the super bowl, but we can ask ourselves what would make this launch feel like event worth participating in?
Speaker A:Maybe it is a live experience.
Speaker A:Maybe it's a miniseries of a training.
Speaker A:Maybe it's inviting your community behind the scenes of your process.
Speaker A:I had one client last year who hosted a five day masterclass.
Speaker A:It was a.m. and p.m. and let me just tell you, him and team just poured into the people that showed up every night.
Speaker A:They also invested in getting guest speakers to come.
Speaker A:And let me just tell you, by the end of those five days, people were begging to get the link for the next step.
Speaker A:So in reality, your launch is really not just about a product.
Speaker A:It is about the story that people get to be a part of and the relationship that they have built with you.
Speaker A:Lesson number four is that attention has layers.
Speaker A:And Taylor is absolutely brilliant at directing attention.
Speaker A:Every announcement that she does is really clear.
Speaker A:It's repeated across platforms and it's designed to reach people wherever they are, whether it be in Times Square or on Spotify.
Speaker A:And it's really the same message repeated over and over and over.
Speaker A:And here's what I've learned after working behind the scenes of launches is most people like to think of attention as binary.
Speaker A:Either people see it or they don't.
Speaker A:But really, attention is going to have layers.
Speaker A:So there's awareness, there's consideration, there's decision ready.
Speaker A:So you need to make sure that there is an opening for each point no matter where they are at in your business.
Speaker A:So maybe if someone's in awareness, they're downloading a lead magnet.
Speaker A:But if somebody is decision ready, they are joining the wait list.
Speaker A:Taylor is a master at this.
Speaker A:She gives people different entry points into her world.
Speaker A:She doesn't just announce once and hope.
Speaker A:She creates multiple touch points to meet people at where they are in their readiness.
Speaker A:And for us, that means picking one or two channels to focus on during launch and going deep instead of wide and repeating your messaging over and over and over again without apology.
Speaker A:We know the statistics show it takes between six to 18 times for people to hear about an offer or a product and to buy it.
Speaker A:Okay, People in this economy are holding back even more.
Speaker A:They want to really know they were really in the learn.
Speaker A:There's a lot of things going on.
Speaker A:Even though you may be sick and tired of resaying your message or your pitch over and over and over, the people in your audience are not getting every email, they're not getting every Instagram post, so feel free to kind of just repeat, repeat, repeat until you're absolutely sick about it.
Speaker A:And I promise you, you are going to get better results the more you talk about your offer.
Speaker A:All right, lesson number five is that launching is a long game.
Speaker A:So here's what ties all of Taylor's launch brilliance together.
Speaker A:It is that she is playing, or have playing the long game.
Speaker A:Her drops work not just because of the tactics, but because the relationship she has built with her fans.
Speaker A:The vault tracks the Easter eggs, the eras, everything that makes the fans feel part of something bigger than any single launch or release.
Speaker A:For us, that means showing up consistently between launches and sharing your processes, sharing your wins, sharing your learnings, and creating rhythms for showing up in people's email inboxes and on their screens that they can count on.
Speaker A:And when you do that and you show up for your community consistently, launches really stop feeling like a shock to the system, and they start feeling like the natural next step in the story.
Speaker A:And people are going to be ready to be a part of that story.
Speaker A:And just remember, every launch is building momentum for the next launch.
Speaker A:And every relationship is going to deepen the opportunity for someone to buy from you.
Speaker A:All right, so to wrap it all up, here's what we can learn from Taylor's approach.
Speaker A:Her no Runway works because she spent years building that Runway.
Speaker A:And for most of us, the Runway is what creates the readiness, and it is what is going to create the results in our launches.
Speaker A:Number two, real scarcity.
Speaker A:Authentic, genuine scarcity works, but fake urgency and pressure will backfire on you.
Speaker A:And sometimes the most powerful thing you can give people is time to think.
Speaker A:Number three, launches work best as experiences, not just sales and pitch events.
Speaker A:Attention has layers, and remember to create entry points for each.
Speaker A:And number five, I think I said number two, but that was number four.
Speaker A:And number five, always, always, always, always play the long game.
Speaker A:Every launch is part of a bigger story.
Speaker A:All right, so let me know what is one lesson here that you would actually try or one thing you know you shouldn't copy?
Speaker A:And I'd love to hear your thoughts.
Speaker A:You can DM us on Instagram at the growing a deeply rooted business account.
Speaker A:And if this episode shifted how you think about launches, share it with someone who needs it or a business bestie.
Speaker A:Next week, Rachel will be back.
Speaker A:We'll be talking all about launch strategy.
Speaker A:And until next week, we are rooting for you.
