55: Do You Really Need 250 Subscribers Before You Launch Your Course?

You. We're kicking off a brand new chapter of the podcast with a special 21 day series called From Purpose to Impact. I'm celebrating by giving back to listeners who are ready to take the next step. If you've been feeling stuck, overwhelmed or unsure of how to move forward in your online business, I want to hear from you. Simply go to youronlinebusinessmentor.com and tell me what's been holding you back, or ask a question you'd love for me to answer on the show and you'll be entered in a special listener giveaway for access to programs designed to support you in your journey. I can't wait to help you get unstuck and moving forward. Welcome to day eight of our 21 day series from purpose to Impact. Today I want to talk about something that quietly stops so many aspiring course creators before they ever begin, and it's the belief that you have to have a certain number of email subscribers before you launch your course. Maybe you've heard this advice before. You need 250 subscribers, or 500 subscribers, or a thousand describers before you launch. They say Wait until your list hits a certain number, build your audience first and grow your email list before you try to sell anything. And I understand why this advice exists. Having subscribers definitely helps. Having an audience helps. Having people who know you and trust you absolutely helps. But if I had believed I needed 250 or 500 subscribers before launching, I may never have launched at all. Because when you're starting from zero, that number feels enormous. And here's what's interesting. It was my launch itself that built my first subscribers, not the other way around. When I launched the Digital clutter cure in 2020, I did not have a fancy funnel, I did not have a library of lead magnets, and I did not even create my first PDF style freebie until I was about 18 months into my business. My list grew because I launched something specifically I hosted a free live challenge. Originally, I had Banish Business Clutter Challenges and later renamed it to Declutter your business Boot Camp. This challenge, or boot Camp was my lead magnet. I ran it six times in the first two years, and every time I ran it, my list grew because Because a live experience that solves a real immediate pain point is more powerful than a downloadable checklist. A workshop can be a lead magnet. A challenge can be a lead magnet. A coaching series can be a lead magnet. If anything you're offering solves a problem that they're actively experiencing, it builds your list and can build revenue at the same time, by doing challenges, I grew my email list from 0 to to my first 400 subscribers in my first launch. By the end of year two, I had over 2,000 subscribers. Now, I do want to be transparent here. It absolutely helped that I had relationships. I had built connections over the years from previous jobs, previous businesses, through my church, community and life. So when I hosted my free challenge, my family and friends were willing to share it. People I had invested in were willing to spread the word. Those relationships meant everything. So if you're sitting there thinking, well, I don't have a big email list, ask yourself, do I have relationships? Because if you have relationships, you can launch. You don't need thousands of followers. You just need people who trust you enough to share. So let me share the exact steps that I took. I created a simple opt in page in Kajabi for my free challenge. I wrote three simple blog posts, and at the bottom of each one, I invited readers to join the free challenge. I updated cover images on my social platforms to promote the challenge. And I created a Facebook event and personally invited people I thought would benefit. And the biggest thing I did is I reached out directly in emails, DMs, and in voice messages. I would say something like, I'm hosting a free declutter your business boot camp. If this would benefit you, I'd love to have you. And if you know of someone who could use this, feel free to share it. No viral videos, no complicated funnels, no waiting to be discovered. It was all about connection. Now, once they registered for the challenge, I showed up live every day with practical, helpful content. I gave them quick wins. I built trust. And on the final day, I invited them into my course. That's how I was able to go from 0 to 400 subscribers and 95 paying students, all in my first launch. Before I built a list, if I had waited Until I had 250 subscribers first, how long would that have taken? Six months? A year? Launching was the mechanism that built both my audience and my paying customers at the same time. So now I've debunked the myth that you need a certain number of subscribers to launch. But there's another myth I want to debunk, and that's that you need a ton of free lead magnets. I see so many new entrepreneurs stuck in this phase. They think, I need a free PDF, I need a checklist, I need a quiz, I need a funnel. I need. And they spend months building assets instead of building momentum. Lead magnets are helpful, but they are not required to start, and they are not the first step. Truthfully, until you have total clarity on the offer you're going to sell. Creating a lead magnet means you could potentially draw in an audience that isn't even ideal for your offer. Why not create a live experience around a real pain point and be willing to personally invite people into it? That is the list building strategy I used. You don't need a complicated ecosystem, you just need a problem worth solving and the courage to invite. My entire growth strategy was three things. Increase reach, increase relationships, increase revenue. Reach came from visibility and personal invitations, Relationships came from serving people live, and revenue came from inviting them into the next step. It was simple, it was scrappy, and it worked. If you want to see the exact steps I followed in my first launch, I'm making that guide available for free. It's my personal online revenue roadmap and it still works today. It outlines the practical steps I took to move from idea to launch to revenue. You can download it now at launchwithlidia.com forward/just start because I don't want you to wait. I don't want you thinking you need a bigger list before you start. Your service can build your audience and your invitation can build your momentum. If you have relationships, if you have a real problem you can solve and you're willing to show up and invite, you can launch. You don't need 250 subscribers first. You just need movement, and that's how purpose turns into impact.