Three Lessons from a Profitable Launch

You're listening to the PT Profit podcast, episode number 29. Today, I'm breaking down three lessons I learned from my last profitable launch that actually went wrong. So stay tuned. Hi, I'm Beverly Simpson, former fitness manager turned online personal training business owner. And this podcast is where smart fitness professionals, including trainers and clinicians, discover how to increase client performance in movement, package and position their products and services, and get out of their own way so that they can increase their revenue to live a life that they love without sleazy sales. Welcome to the PT Profit Podcast. What's up, coach? Welcome back to the PT Profit Podcast. I'm your host, Beverly Simpson, and. And I'm super excited for today. It's just me and it's morning time here and I just sent the kids to school, so my voice is a little bit, it's a little bit froggy today, but hopefully we're gonna get through it. So bear with me as we, as we do this podcast together this morning. I know I sound just a little bit off, but wanted to make sure that I get this recorded, warm up my voice, because we got a lot of teach happening right now. Right now I'm putting together a ton of content for the PT Profit formula. And so I've been doing a lot of teaching and a lot of coaching and a lot of talking. So it's caused my voice to just go a little bit sideways. But that's all right. We're here together, you and me, and I'm warming it up and it's going to be an awesome episode. So I'm super pumped to kind of get in today's content because I think that with marketing and with a lot of things that you might see on social media, it can get easy to be swept up into the smoke and mirrors components of marketing and messaging. And so I think that it's really important that we pull the curtain back just a little bit so that you can see that a lot of the things that you might look up to, it just might not be exactly what they seem. And not necessarily that it's a bad thing or that people are trying to pull the wool over your eyes or anything like that. But I think that it's just important that at least for me to be completely transparent so that you know that I'm in the trenches too and that I'm going through the same stuff that you're going through and to just give a little bit more perspective and let you know that those people that you admire, those seven figure business owners or those marketing masters they go through the same stuff that you do. And what I have noticed from my mentors and from people that I coach and work with is that the main difference between the people who make seven and eight figures versus the people who make five to six figures, they just get through their lessons faster. They go through the same stuff. They just learn it and get through it faster. So I wanted to just share with you a little bit of what happened in my last launch. And I'm laughing because it definitely did not go the way that I wanted it to go and to just share with you the three main lessons that I had gone through. And I learned some of them on the spot. And for the record, this stuff that I'm about to go through with you, it comes from doing it. It comes from being in the trenches. It comes from taking messy action. And if you're anything like me, you might feel the urge or that need to make sure you're extra prepared and make sure that you get it right, make sure that it' perfect. But the truth of the matter is that you're not gonna. It's not gonna come out the way that you want it. No matter how prepared you are, no matter how much time you spent in your Runway or no matter what you've done, there are things that are going to come up. It's inevitable. And so it's not about making sure those things don't happen, but it's about making sure that you have the things in place to manage and deal with anything that does come up. Because things are going to come up. So let's dive in. So the first lesson that I'm going to share with you is spend time on your messaging. And I slowed that down because it is very important. And when I'm referring to messaging, let me just dive in specifically to what I'm talking about. You want to know who your ideal client is, and you want to be so clear on what their struggles are, where they want to be, and most importantly, use the language and know the language that they are using to describe their concerns. And why this is so important is because if you change or you use language that doesn't resonate, then you are potentially leaving behind people that need your work and service. I'll give you an example. So for me, one of the mistakes that I had made with my messaging was that I used the word challenge. And I know that seems like, oh, that's not a big deal, except that it was in the sense that I work with so many high level coaches, and they don't use the word challenge in their vocabulary, to them and to you, there is a connotation to that word and to that experience that resonated more with my moms when I was serving my mom than it did to my high level coaches. I just noticed from talking to my clients, from talking to people that were talking to me in the dm, it was not verbiage that they were using on an every day, on a day to day basis. Now, that's not to say that I couldn't make a case like I could have made a case for why challenge is the way to go. And I did. But that was a barrier that I think I could have mitigated. I think I could have moved past that barrier faster. I could have explained that this wasn't a challenge in the sense that they were competing for anything. It was more about the training. It was more about education and like a seminar. If I had used the PT profit seminar or talked about this as a training, I think it would have resonated more and it would have been an easier barrier for me to break through. Just based on the fact that most people, and most of my people don't use that language or they don't think of it that way. When they hear the word challenge, it's. It tends to resonate with a fitness challenge or maybe a competition. And that was just not what this program or this training was about. And it was something that I had recognized right away. But from those of you who have gone through a launch or gone through that kind of experience, when you are in momentum and when you're in, you know, when you're going through this process, all of my stuff, and like I said earlier, all of my stuff, stuff was already laid out because I was trying to be as prepared as possible. So all my content was created. My images, my graphics, my slides, they were all created. And yes, I could have spent time, you know, I'm looking at my notes now. I'm going to give you a bonus because time, you know, this is important thing. But I was looking at the time investment that would, it would have taken me to do all those changes that I felt like it wasn't worth it. It was one of those things I said, oh, I know that lesson I've learned and I'm gonna move on. But something else that's really important that I want to reiterate when I'm talking about spending time on your messaging because sometimes I go through those feelings of imposter syndrome and I'm wondering to myself, oh, Beverly, you teach messaging, and I do. I teach messaging. And for me to mess up on my messaging, I felt a little bit like, oh, I'm a fraud. Or this is, you know, this was a flare of like, oh, here comes imposter syndrome. But here's the truth of the matter, and it's something that my mentor also helped me get my mind right on, which is that messaging, you never just arrive and you get there and you just sit on that mountain peak. Messaging is something that is always growing. It is. You are always learning, you are always sharpening the saw. That's like saying somebody went for a squat, they pr and then that's it, they never squat again. That's not how this works. Same thing is true with your messaging. You are always massaging it. You are always sharpening it. You are always getting better. That's true for me, too. You don't just arrive, become the expert, and then that's it. You're always. And it's also changing because your audience will change. Messaging will change their wants, struggles, and desire. That will change. Maybe not on a macro level, but it will on a micro level. And so you'll want to match your messaging to go with what's happening now. Like, for example, my mom's. When I was working with my moms, they weren't dealing with the impact of coronavirus or the impact of the pandemic. Two years ago, my messaging had to change and evolve, and so will yours. And so it's not like you just arrive and then you get there and then that's it. It's always a work in progress. And the people that continue to grow their business understand that and always go back to the messaging. So that was something that I felt like I had missed the mark this launch. The second lesson, which goes a little bit with number one, which is manage your expectations and check your ego. This one might be a hard one to swallow, and it was a hard one to swallow for me, but something I tell my clients all the time, which is that no matter what happens, whether it is positive, whether it is negative, these are just outcomes. And I live by this mantra, which is, you are either going to get the lessons that you need or the success that you want. And the faster you can detach from those outcomes, the faster you'll be able to grow. Why? Because when you get into those feelings of feeling bad, feeling like it's not going well, you will lose momentum, which is also going to lead into number three. But you. It will start to drag you down, and then you won't be able to be present, you won't be able to serve the people that are there for you now. And so what happened to me was that I've launched a million times and I've done every launch possible that I can think of. Everything that everything I've tried everything. I mean, I'm sure I'm speaking in absolutes and I'm sure it hasn't been everything. But listen, I have done a lot of different launches. Masterclass, Webinars, Evergreen Challenges, Live long. I mean, I've literally done so many types of sales mechanisms that are out there, and I'm open to trying anything and everything that's out there. So I had had this almost sense of arrogance going into this launch. And I know that sounds odd, because if you talk to me or met me in person, and I'm not arrogant at all, but I had this expectation that things were going to go a certain way or the way that I wanted it, because I have all this experience, because I have a converting offer, because I have done this a million times, not only for myself, but for other people. So you know how I always say that confidence comes from competence, Right? And so you may or may not have heard that I say that, that your confidence is going to come from competence. But confidence is different than arrogance. And for me, my arrogance was coming from this place of, I've done this before, it should be like this. Arrogance comes from this expectation and also entitlement, because I've done X, Y and Z. It's going to be like this. But the truth is that it. And this was a lesson that I needed to see in this moment. And I knew it right away. And it wasn't about a shame spiral. It wasn't about, oh, Beverly, you're a bad person. No, this was about, oh, here. Here is my ego again, saying, this is. This is what it's going to be like. And it's not about trying to put myself into a shame spiral or to be, you know, or to be unconfident. That is not what I'm going for. But when you can find yourself saying, I only have 100 people. I only have 17 people. I only have 200 people. That's a mismanage of energy and expectations. Because there was a time in my life and there's someone out there where I would have killed to have 100 people in my challenge. There was a time I couldn't get 20 people in my challenge. And so right off the bat, things started not going right. And what I mean by that is that my organic efforts were. Was crushing. It was doing great. But my Facebook ads, they were not. I could not get them to convert, and I could not. I recognize now some of the technical stuff that was going on that was a little bit. That was a little bit off of. My Facebook ads weren't converting. The messaging wasn't resonating. And what happens when you're in a launch is that you have. You. You can't start too early. It's kind of like the Goldilocks. It's the Goldilocks experience, because you can't start too early because then people won't come. They'll forget about it. You can't start too late because then you don't get Facebook enough time to optimize. So you have to find this Goldilocks timeline. This is why it's just like. It's just like fitness goals. This is why it sounds so easy. But so many things are at play, you know, so many things have to happen at once. It's like that house of cards metaphor that I was using in an earlier podcast. One thing falls off. It kind of can throw everything off. It's not as dramatic as that, but it definitely feels like that. So what was happening was that my front end, the top of my launch experience, right inside of my program. I'm talking about the three phases of a launch. Well, right at the beginning, and there's also a three phase of the Runway. So now I'm in that third phase of Runway transitioning into this launch. And it was just not converting. It was not getting the people at the top of the funnel that I had wanted. And so my ego reared its ugly head and said, oh, this isn't what I wanted. And so instead of being grateful and present for the people that were there, I could feel myself going for those negative feelings and spending time in there, which was going to affect how I showed up. For the people that said yes to themselves, that said, yes, I'm ready now. Something I want to share with you, too, is that I've worked through a lot of those feelings in previous launches. So this was not an experience where I wallowed in that or really felt that and spent time there. I just know that I could feel it, that it was present. And so the second for this launch, the second I felt it and knew that it was there, I was able to shift my attention. I was able to really focus in on the people that were there. I hadn't in previous launches. And so the fact that it was there for Me now was something. It was just a sign, right? Pain means pay attention. And so it was just a sign that it was some. Some work I still needed to do and that my ego was showing up, my arrogance was showing up here. But I was able to move through that fast because I knew what was happening. The other thing that was happening for me, that was lead. That was frustrating in terms of managing your expectations, which is that no matter how prepared I was, things went sideways. For example, my assistant lost his Internet for five days. And he's the one who is the linchpin in my business in many ways. Meaning he does all the graphics, the video editing, make sure my websites and my sales page are up. And when he wasn't there, we got behind on some deadlines. And like I was saying earlier, when you're in this room, when you're in this Runway, it can feel very time sensitive because. And you have to have the Goldilocks experience because one thing goes off, it kind of sets things, it sets things sideways, which can be frustrating. And then my other assistant, who is my other linchpin in my business, she got sick. And so it wasn't like, you know, when one goes down, someone else can pick up the slack. They both went down. And so there was only me left. And that completely zapped me out because not only am I in the middle of this launch, I am also fulfilling on my day to day business, right? My day to day experience of coaching, of. Of fulfilling on my other offers that still existed, my full time job still existed. So I just so, so many things had to go to the wayside. So this is where I was talking about the bonus tip. I'm going to give you the bonus because number three is that you need to be able to be discerning about your time all the time, but specifically in a launch. And so what I mean by that is that I encourage you and I encourage my clients. So make sure you are staying in your zone of genius. And I am a huge delegator. You need to delegate the stuff that does not pertain to the growth of your business, right? So some people might say, but Beverly, look what happened. Your assistant got sick and your other assistant lost his Internet and so you didn't have a sales page. Well, here's the truth. It wouldn't have mattered. Why? Because my energy needs to be on serving the client, saying and being present to whatever my ideal client needs to hear in order for them to say yes to themselves. Because this launch is not about me, it's about you. And it's about making sure that you have everything you need to make a decision. Because whether or not you come and hang out with me, it's not. And you decide that you need to learn marketing and messaging with me. That's awesome. And I would love that. Come hang out with me. But if you decide that Beverly's not for me, I'm going to go work with someone else. Great. I'm also all for that, too. Why? Because it is more important to me that you find someone, a coach, a mentor that helps you put together your messaging and your marketing so that you can put your stuff out there for the people who need it. Why? Because if you're here, chances are you are in the top 1% of strength and conditioning coaches. It might not feel like that, but you are. And your work will change people's lives. So it is more important to me that you get it out there at some capacity than it is to work with me. Because it's not about me, it's about you. So most trainers, they get stuck. Most coaches, they get stuck on making sure their website looks good and making sure that have their business card or making sure that, you know, let me get this landing page right. That's some. And that's something that you can delegate. You want to spend the time on the copy and what the messaging says on the landing page, but you don't need so that it sounds like it's your voice. But me spending three hours of my time trying to build out that web page is not a good use of my time. It's more important to me to connect with my ideal clients. Because at the end of the day, when someone says yes to themselves and says, yes, you're my coach, I could just send you a checkout link. So I'm always evaluating. Is this a good. And if you've been with me for any time or know anything about me, you know that time is my most valued asset and it is the most undervalued asset. Most people think we have time, but the truth is time you can never get back. Money we can always attract, money we can always make. But time we don't have. That 9am Thursday, Sept. 10, is never coming back. It's undervalued because most people think they have an abundance of time to give. It's the resource that they have control to give. But when you can value your time over money, you will grow because you can use that resource to connect with people that you need to serve. And so was it ideal that I like that I love it. No, of course not. But I knew it wasn't the end of the world, so I didn't want to spend my time clicking around on sales page and my assistant. Both of them are amazing. And so I knew that they were gonna do whatever it took. And they. They operate in that way, which is a gift. And so we did get. We were behind, but we did get it together. And honestly, I'm not sure what he did to make that happen, but he did. He made it happen. And I'm so grateful for that. And so the other things that happened that I had to let go of. So what happened is that I asked myself, you know, and this goes back to the three bonus number three, which is that you want to be discerning with that time. So things that. So that I had some things. There was a level of polish that I felt like was missing, which is fine, but I was. That, you know, ties back into number two. That was a mismanaged expectation. And then the last lesson four is play all the way until the end. So one of the things that was happening, which I've already kind of articulated what happened in terms of the launch, it definitely was not going the way that I wanted, from the top all the way to the bottom. So when Cart opened, I really wanted to just close. I wanted to, like, you know what? This is. This is. I just. This is not going right. This is. This is not the way that I wanted it to go. And I really wanted to just shut down the launch. I wanted to not play to the end. But that is one of the biggest mistakes that you can make. And that is because I did not have number two. I hadn't learned number two, which is, you know, managing your expectations and checking that ego. Because if I had done that, if I had closed my launch, I wouldn't have been able to. I wouldn't have been able to serve the people that have did say yes to themselves. And I did. We pulled in a group, a really good group of people. And like I said in the title, it was a profitable launch. And how do you determine the profitability? Well, you look at your expenses, your cost per lead. Then you look at the revenue that you generated in that launch and you divide it by the people that went through the launch. And that's going to tell you what your earnings per lead were. And as long as your earnings per lead were greater than your cost per lead, then you're okay. That makes it profitable. And then your work becomes increasing the performance of your launch or your business and so to say that it all went bad, that would be wrong. That would be a mistake. Because. Because it was a profitable launch. But it wouldn't have been if I had thrown in the towel and if I had managed, number two, my expectations. And I just celebrated and felt good about the people. The 10 people that were like that raised their hand and said, yes, I'm in for this, then, then it would have been different and I would have felt good. But luckily I had someone purchase early from the wait list. And so when that happened, looked at it and said, okay, one person has said, yes, I am playing to the end. And so I played all the way until the end and we got a really good group of people. And then plus, here's the thing. When it comes to your launching, just because it doesn't go the way that you thought it was gonna go doesn't mean that you're not going to make it profitable. I put this offer out and it wasn't the right offer for some people. So then we changed it and I made a second offer. I opened up a couple more spots in my 101 calendar. So this is something that's really important and it's something for me. And if you're anything like me, then this might resonate with you. But you can have goals. You have to detach from the goals and it not always going to look the way that you thought it was going to look. And that's not a bad or good thing. So we set the goals and then we let them go. We have to. So those were my main lessons from the launch. Just a quick recap. I gave you five, so I'll recap them. Your main takeaways are, number one, spend time on your messaging. It's always ever growing and it's always changing. Number two, manage your expectations and check your ego. Number three, be discerning with your time. And then number four, play all the way to the end. Last thing I want to say about playing all the way till the end. I know I always say I'm going to wrap up and then it's like three more things. But the last thing I want to say about playing all the way till the end. And it kind of ties in with number two, managing your expectations, which is don't assume that you know what's happening and what people are doing and experiencing. You can't control that. So what I mean for me is that I felt like there was no momentum and I felt like no one was paying attention. I could just feel like there was not the energy that I thought was going to happen. I felt like it wasn't there. But that wasn't true. That wasn't true at all. People were paying attention, just not paying attention in the way that I thought that they were going to. That content, those lessons, those trainings, they were. People paid attention, just not in the way I thought it was going to be. So it's really important. Set your goals. Make sure that you just are aware and present to what it is that you can control and let go of the stuff that you can't control. I know, I know. It's easier said than done because, listen, I've been doing this for years now and I still, I still come up against this. So thank you so much for hanging out with me today and I'll catch you on the next episode. Thank you for listening to the PT Profit Podcast. If you like this episode, chances are your friends will too. So it would be a huge service to us if you would please leave us a review and share with your friends on your social media channels. When you leave us a review, be sure to take a screenshot of it and email that screenshot to my team@info simpsonfitness.com and we'll send you a very special Instagram podcast that will show you how to create compelling content so that your ideal clients come to you and you go from wanting clients to a wait list of clients ready for your services. Thank you so much for listening and we'll see you on the next episode.