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Master Your Launch Timeline: Step-by-Step Guide to a Stress-Free Launch Calendar
Episode 10 • 29th August 2024 • Growing a Deeply Rooted Business • Jessica Walther & Rachel Lopez | Rooted Business
00:00:00 00:13:48

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Discover the secrets to planning a successful launch with our comprehensive guide on creating an effective launch timeline. Learn how to avoid common pitfalls, maintain your energy throughout the launch, and ensure every detail is covered, from ramp-up to cart close. Whether you're a seasoned entrepreneur or launching for the first time, this video provides actionable tips and strategies to help you stay on track and achieve your launch goals. Tune in to master your launch calendar and set your business up for success!

We cover:

01:24 The Dual Calendar Strategy

02:14 Common launch mistakes and timelines

03:48 Key questions for launch planning

07:38 Setting key dates and working backwards

10:42 Why you need a ramp-up period before the actual launch

11:47 Final tips for a successful launch


Resources:

Connect With Us:

Jess Website

Rachel's Website

__________

Work with Us 1:1

Rachel's Services

Jess's Services

__________

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>>

_________________

Hang Out & Say Hi!

Deeply Rooted Business Instagram

Jess Instagram

Rachel's Instagram

Transcripts

Speaker:

rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: Hello and

welcome back to another episode of

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the Deeply Rooted Business Podcast.

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I'm Rachel, your marketing ecosystem.

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I hate the word guru, but

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fanatic.

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Mastermind.

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Ugh,

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102: I changed

your name, your official title.

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102:

And I'm here with Jess, our

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sustainable systems, expert, art.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102: Nerd.

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: today

we're going to be talking about

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some of our favorite things, which

is launching for those of y'all who

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haven't heard the remaining parts of our

launching series, go listen to those.

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We've done two amazing episodes, and

this is really like the bread and butter

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of like, Jess and I thrive together.

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with the ops, me with the email

marketing and kind of like overall

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marketing strategy, everything

gels really well together.

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And is this kind of.

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Your launch, it should be its

own mini ecosystem exist so

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that it's the most successful.

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But typically some of the things that we

see with launches that people get drained.

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People lose the energy,

they lose momentum.

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So we're going to be talking about launch

calendars today and really creating

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that like spacious, good vibes, good

energy launch calendar that you're not,

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you're not One day in just completely

depleted with all of that, that exists.

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So, gonna go through what we know.

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of the things that we teach with our

clients and it's going to be a good one.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102:

Yeah, so launch calendars.

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So the thing about launch calendars

that makes them a little tricky is

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there's actually two kind of calendars

or at least calendars in like my launch

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projects that are going simultaneously.

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So you have the marketing side of

things, which Rachel talked about, and

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we talked about in our last episode

where we talked about our first phase,

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which is like ramp up, but you also have

that operation and executional strategy,

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because especially if you're launching

for the first time, or even if there's

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like a relaunch, you are going to have

to, go back and like revamp and re

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recreate and can't connect all the text.

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So there's gonna be

operational tasks to do.

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So there's kind of two timelines going

on simultaneously, usually at the same

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time, like I don't know anyone who goes

into the 12 week launch period with like

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all their operations in a row, usually

simultaneously building out the launch.

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Assets as you're going through

your different phases of launch.

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And I think this is where people

kind of make their first, I guess,

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launch mistake is not giving

themselves an adequate timeline.

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Which Rachel and I usually

recommend eight to 12 weeks.

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And if you're newer to launches or

it's your first launch, even going up.

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To like 16 weeks to make sure you're

giving yourself not only adequate

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time to build your audience, but

also to build the assets that

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you'll need to create for launch.

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: Yeah.

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This is why Planning and like marketing

success go hand in hand because

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typically you see a lot of people

who Will be like, oh next month.

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Oh, I have an idea.

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I want to launch something new and if

you one don't have the audience just

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like just said and you need to build in

the very short window For a new product

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or a new launch can be very exhausting.

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The launch window changes as

you've executed more and more

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launches on the exact same offer.

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So if you are seven launches

in, you probably don't need

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that big of a timeline.

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Especially if your ideal client isn't

really changing, isn't evolving,

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and you kind of have those systems

to build out, but it's absolutely

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Crucial for success standpoint.

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And if you didn't listen to our ramp up

episode, go check that out because we

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talk so much about the market research,

the audits that you should be doing as

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you enter into a new launch and that

all fits into that eight to 12 weeks.

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So it's really important

to not skip a lot of that.

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So you don't end up

burnt out and depleted.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102: Aside from

timeline, we want to also give you a

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couple of other things to consider when

you are planning your launch timeline.

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Questions that we like to ask our clients.

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So number one is, when was the

last time you launched this offer?

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Because you don't want

to burn your list out.

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Do you need time to grow your

audience to achieve your launch goals?

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So one of the first exercises that

Rachel and I do with our clients is

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one, take their launch goal and then

reverse engineer it back to what

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their audience size would have to be.

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And I think that's

usually a big aha moment.

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And really helps inform like when we

need to start our launch timeline.

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And third thing is, what

does your schedule look like?

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Because you do not want to be traveling

like the week before your open enrollment

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or really, I mean, I would say like any

time during launch, maybe during ramp up.

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I'd love to hear your

thoughts on that, Rachel.

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: Well,

you and I both, well, we were vetting

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a perspective launch client who was

eventually going to be essentially

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out of town all the way up until.

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active launch, like in that phase.

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And both you and I were like, huh, you

know, this isn't really one, the ideal

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client that we really want to like be

vibing with and two the timeline, it

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just feels forced, being out of pocket

for that amount of time while you're

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planning all of the various components

that go into, Your launch calendar.

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And that means like we just

outlined launch and for email

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alone, there was 30 emails.

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And so from that perspective, and then

you have social posts and you have web

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pages to build, it really does add up.

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And this is where sure you can try,

but really, really emphasizing what

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Jess and I talk about here, which is.

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not entering into something that is

going to just drain the life out of you.

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So you don't end up hating launching,

you don't end up hating, you know, like,

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or having no success in your launch.

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So I typically always advise against it.

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I'm like, this is not the

right time to launch this.

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there's so many components that

are moving and it's so easy to

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fall out of that energy when

you're like, Oh, got vacation mode.

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Yeah.

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I'll do those 20 emails later

and then they never get done.

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Yeah.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102: So in addition

to that how many assets are you going

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to have to create from scratch and then

making sure you're giving yourself enough

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time for execution when I'm personally

building out a launch project plan, I

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love like that week before launch, I call

it like an optimization and tweak week.

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And ideally my goal is before that

week, sales pages are locked and loaded.

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Emails are locked and loaded.

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Social media content is set up.

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Created and scheduled.

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And that week is really just about

the client getting their energy right,

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or like even resting if they've been

in go, go, go mode, trying to create

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all of these assets because the next

week they're the star of the show.

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And there's not really too much that

Rachel and I can do if the client

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shows up with depleted energy.

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Like, even if we wrote our best

emails and made sure the sales

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page is primed for conversion.

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if your energy is not in check

for that launch, then it can

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affect all of the results.

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So that's why I always try to build

a week for Just fluff where the

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client has nothing to do leading

up to launch to make sure that they

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get their energy right for that.

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one other thing just to consider that

we missed was making sure like you're

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planning your launch around holidays.

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So really knowing your, Ideal client

and what they're going to be doing

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or what mindset they're going to

be in during that launch as well.

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: The worst

thing you can do is kind of like

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launch into quiet time where your

ideal client is not on their phones,

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not in the mindset to buy things.

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And you're fighting with you know, during

the holiday times, or you're fighting

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with, Oh, am I going to buy these gifts

for my family or am I going to buy this

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course or program or whatever it is?

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So, always consider that, that

there are certain times that it's

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probably smart to just not launch.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102: Cool.

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So we're not going to spill our

entire proprietary process for

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planning your launch, but we do

want to give you just a general

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breakdown of the step by step process.

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: So the

first things we do are really just

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start by setting and establishing

what those key dates are.

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This is so crucial because everything

shifts depending on these key dates.

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So we're talking about what's

your target launch date.

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When you're closing your cart, when we're

launching the survey, when we're doing

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the on sale, or the down sale, when we're

having an event, when does the challenge

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start, like all of these components need

to be flushed out entirely before you can

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start writing anything, doing anything,

and like, you Start the actual work of it.

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So sitting down and kind of

like putting it into place.

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Jess has the most incredible notion

template that we use for our clients.

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And I'm always amazed that when we're

like trying to figure out that perfect,

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sales window, that perfect open cart.

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And we're just moving things around

and we're looking at it visually.

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And we're like, yeah,

that doesn't feel right.

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Okay.

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What about this?

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And then literally the drag

and drop process of it is

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so like how my brain works.

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So that's what we start with first.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102: so once

you've got your key day set up,

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then you're going to work backwards

on your two different calendars.

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So I'll let Rachel talk from like a

marketing perspective in a minute,

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like how you would work backwards,

but essentially you're going to work

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backwards and see like what needs to get

created by when based on your milestones.

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And then.

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batch, what you're going to be working on.

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So obviously if you're creating any

sort of landing page for your launch,

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you're going to have to write the copy.

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You're going to have to design the page.

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You're going to have to connect the tech

and then you're going to have to test.

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So you're really going to have to

do that for each different asset or

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page you're going to have to build.

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So lining those things up to make sure

that they're aligning with your marketing

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calendar so that they're ready to go.

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Ideally a week or two ahead of time,

just so you have like extra time to.

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Judge it up

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: Yeah.

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So like Jess said, Your operational

calendar is the build out of everything

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and your marketing calendar is really

kind of, and I like, it's hard for me

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to describe this process, but you're

talking through what you've learned in

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the market research where you're saying,

okay, these people we're targeting maybe

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exist a little bit more in the analytical.

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So we need to write some

analytical copy during The drive

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to register for the webinar.

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We need to build this

out in like the ramp up.

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And so all of your pieces are

slowly kind of like formulating

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and then you're plugging in

the messaging, like key points.

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what do they need to understand

before they get out of ramp up?

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What do they need to understand?

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while they're driving to the registration

page and all of those like messaging

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really bridges that awareness cycle where

you're taking them from completely unaware

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to aware, to solution aware, to then

ready to buy as soon as the cart opens.

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So it's like the layered approach to

your marketing calendar that really is

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in cohesion with the operational side.

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Which is like.

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Okay, now that we understand this, now

we need to get this done type of thing.

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So once you've worked backwards towards

your events and have all your components

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keyed up and everything, then we add

in that like 30 day ramp up period.

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So that ramp up period is really

crucial in understanding how many active

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prospects you have on your list, how

many more you need, and then Getting

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all audiences that you're talking to.

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So some people do just an email launch.

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Some people do email, social podcast

launch, like all of those various things.

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So whatever audiences you have lumped

into your launch, that you are getting

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them all primed for the sales messaging.

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So that ramp up is what

a lot of people skip.

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And To me, I'm like,

why would you skip that?

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that's the part that builds the most

confidence when you're saying like,

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Oh, people are eating this up versus

I'm just going to hit like turn the

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sales message on and see how it goes.

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Like, Oh, it's so stressful

when they skip that part.

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Cause you don't know what

you're going to get out of that.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102: again,

especially if you want to add any like

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paid ad components to your launch.

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Testing that messaging

before is pretty critical.

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All right.

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So do we need to do a recap?

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I feel like this one was such a short one.

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So just make sure when you're

planning your launch timeline, the

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key is to show up launch day, card

open day with energetic, happy, non

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stressed light energy, because then

that's going to pull in all of the

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clients that, want to work with you.

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And they can tell when you're stressed

out, like no, one's going to want

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to work with a stressed out person.

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So making sure that you're giving

yourself this spacious timeline so you

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set yourself up for your best results.

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Consider those questions that we

gave you to make sure that you're

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choosing your launch timeline

appropriately and strategically.

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Then basically you're just going

to work backwards through the step

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by step process and kind of reverse

engineer your launch from there.

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Rachel and I have been really

enjoying tag teaming our launches

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together and we're going to have

an official like collaborative

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launch offer starting in 2025.

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So if you're planning to

launch anything in:

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Yes, reach out to us now, because like

we said, you need a spacious timeline.

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So if you're planning and Rachel's

going on maternity leave very, very

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soon, the doctor says, but when she

gets back, we're going to be ready

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to rock and roll with these launches.

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So, if you would love to have your launch

basically handed to you on a plate and

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all you have to do is show up in great

energy, definitely reach out to us.

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rachel_1_08-05-2024_131102: if you

enjoyed this episode, make sure

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to tune in next week where we are

talking and kind of taking ourselves

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back into our past lives with the

habits that we learned from corporate

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that make us better business owners.

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you found any of these launch tips helpful

as we kind of exit this little mini launch

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series that we've done, make sure to

share this with your launching business.

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Bestie and help them out on their

next launch and then leave us

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a review on whatever podcast or

whatever streaming platform you use.

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And until next time, we're.

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jess-_1_08-05-2024_131102:

We're rooting for you.

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