211 - 8 weeks out from launching (our plan!)

[00:00:00] Caroline: Welcome to Growing Steady, the show where we help online creators like you build a Calm business, one that's predictable, profitable, and peaceful. We're your hosts, Jason and Caroline Zook, and we run Wandering Aimfully, an Un-Boring Business coaching program, and Teachery, an online course platform for designers. Join us each week as we help you reach your business goals without sacrificing your well-being in the process. Slow and steady is the way we do things around here, baby.

[00:00:29] Jason: All right, cinnamon rollers, that's you. Let's get into the show. Eight…

[00:00:38] Caroline: Seven…

[00:00:40] Jason: …weeks out…

[00:00:41] Caroline: …six, five…

[00:00:42] Jason: …from our launch.

[00:00:43] Caroline: Okay. Well, that clearly, we had different ideas about how that beginning was going to go. We like to just be off the cuff. Improv a little. Okay?

[00:00:49] Jason: This is very true. This is an interesting summer for us. If you realize this is the first summer, we're not taking a summer sabbatical in four years.

[00:00:56] Caroline: I know. It's a working summer.

[00:00:58] Jason: Yeah. Which doesn't happen for us. Hasn't happened for us for many years.

[00:01:02] Caroline: Well, if you get four summers off, you might have to pop back in for a summer.

[00:01:06] Jason: Yeah.

[00:01:06] Caroline: That's kind of the way business falls. I think, it is, yeah. We've talked about this before on the podcast, but this year's a little different in that it's sort of a rebuilding year.

[00:01:15] Jason: Yeah.

[00:01:15] Caroline: It's shoring up the foundation of Teachery in a lot of ways, it is. We've had a couple of really amazing, predictable years with WAIM, and now we just want to reset the foundation for the next five years.

[00:01:28] Jason: Yeah.

[00:01:29] Caroline: And so, that's what this year is. And I think that's where the lack of summer sabbatical is coming from.

[00:01:33] Jason: I think it's also just there are ideas falling out of our butts. We have so many ideas, they're just falling out of our butts.

[00:01:42] Caroline: We have so many butt ideas. Yup.

[00:01:42] Jason: It's like, we put them in our pockets, we put them in our backpack, we put them in our hat, and then we had no place left and they start falling out of our butts.

[00:01:47] Caroline: They come out of your butt, and you put it in your pocket?

[00:01:49] Jason: Yeah, it's true.

[00:01:50] Caroline: Okay.

[00:01:50] Jason: Now, don't get gross. I didn't say butthole.

[00:01:52] Caroline: No.

[00:01:52] Jason: I said just falling out of our butts.

[00:01:55] Caroline: Yeah, that's different.

[00:01:56] Jason: Okay.

[00:01:56] Caroline: Okay.

[00:01:57] Jason: I have one small preamble top to share.

[00:01:59] Caroline: Okay.

[00:01:59] Jason: Well, actually, it's two. One is, no, everyone, Caroline has not baked me anything on Sunday baking because…

[00:02:06] Caroline: I think everyone knew that that was a short-lived thing. I love you, and it was around your birthday, and so I'm just doing stuff for your birthday because I love you and you're special, but what do they say? A zebra can't change its stripes. You know what I mean?

[00:02:19] Jason: What is Instagram these days if not to send your spouse back and forth recipes for things?

[00:02:26] Caroline: Yeah.

[00:02:27] Jason: I don't send them to you anymore because, you know what I mean, you're just not going to make them.

[00:02:30] Caroline: No.

[00:02:30] Jason: But I did see today a cinnamon toast crunch cereal rice krispie treat.

[00:02:37] Caroline: Whoa.

[00:02:37] Jason: Wow. It blew my mind.

[00:02:40] Caroline: That doesn't sound like food.

[00:02:40] Jason: It's not food.

[00:02:41] Caroline: It's not food.

[00:02:41] Jason: Most of the items in that are not food.

[00:02:43] Caroline: No.

[00:02:43] Jason: But wow. It's not good.

[00:02:44] Caroline: Yeah.

[00:02:44] Jason: So, that was preamble top number one. It's kind of like a sub preamble top. The second is...

[00:02:47] Caroline: Oh, the first preamble top was just a call out of I haven't continued to bake for you? Wow. Okay.

[00:02:52] Jason: Truth hurts. Yeah. The second one is, I just wanted to give an update on the Ninja CREAMi, that I think you hear people talk about these things, especially like trendy things.

[00:03:01] Caroline: That they're like super trendy, yeah.

[00:03:03] Jason: And then people fall off. Can you give people the update?

[00:03:07] Caroline: The man makes ice cream almost daily on the Ninja CREAMi. The Ninja CREAMi gets so much usage…

[00:03:12] Jason: This thing's going to break down.

[00:03:13] Caroline: It might break way earlier, but this is a personality trait about Jason, is he does not fall off of things.

[00:03:20] Jason: Right.

[00:03:20] Caroline: So, the people who started making sourdough bread in the pandemic…

[00:03:23] Jason: Still doing it. I got two loaves in the fridge.

[00:03:24] Caroline: …the man is still doing bread so many years later.

[00:03:29] Jason: Yeah.

[00:03:29] Caroline: I'm just glad that those were the only hobbies that you picked up during the pandemic. Or else…

[00:03:33] Jason: This is true.

[00:03:34] Caroline: …where would your time go? But, yeah, you're still experimenting. I feel like you've really nailed the recipes, though.

[00:03:39] Jason: I've got the vanilla. When you have the vanilla, the base…

[00:03:42] Caroline: You know anything?

[00:03:42] Jason: …that's the number one recipe you can go for. And then I think what's actually been really helpful…

[00:03:47] Caroline: That's a hot CREAMi tip. Get your vanilla nailed…

[00:03:48] Jason: Get the vanilla nailed and you can…

[00:03:49] Caroline: …and the whole world opens up.

[00:03:50] Jason: Exactly. Because I made pistachio, I've made coffee, I've made salted pecan, like all these...

[00:03:53] Caroline: Yeah, oh, my God, pistachio.

[00:03:55] Jason: But I will say that what I made today, I'm very excited about…

[00:04:00] Caroline: That's your tip of the top.

[00:04:01] Jason: …salted caramel.

[00:04:02] Caroline: It was very good.

[00:04:02] Jason: Delicious. And all of the flavor is coming from a protein powder, which you don't expect it to be that good, but it's very, very good, so.

[00:04:09] Caroline: It was very delicious.

[00:04:10] Jason: Just wanted to share that the CREAMi is still going strong.

[00:04:12] Caroline: I gave you the tip of, I think next time we try the salted caramel with pecans because…

[00:04:16] Jason: And they're going to be, whether they're going to be toasted, obviously.

[00:04:18] Caroline: Toasted pecans. Yes, yes, yes.

[00:04:19] Jason: You just not going to throw up pecans in there. We're not animals.

[00:04:21] Caroline: Because I don't think we've talked about this on the podcast, but probably six months ago, maybe seven, we started doing a silly thing where at the end of our members only coaching sessions, Jason does a tier list of something.

[00:04:31] Jason: Oh, yeah, yeah.

[00:04:34] Caroline: You've seen these on YouTube where people put…

[00:04:36] Jason: Yeah, you rank things.

[00:04:36] Caroline: You rank things.

[00:04:37] Jason: S tier, A tier, B tier, yeah.

[00:04:41] Caroline: Yeah. And so, it'll be one month, it'll be salad toppings.

[00:04:44] Jason: Yup.

[00:04:45] Caroline: The most recent one was pizza toppings.

[00:04:47] Jason: Ice cream. Ice cream. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[00:04:48] Caroline: Okay. No, that's where I was getting.

[00:04:49] Jason: Before that was pizza toppings.

[00:04:50] Caroline: Before that was pizza toppings. Oh, we did holiday movies.

[00:04:53] Jason: Yes.

[00:04:53] Caroline: In last December. And boy. And my favorite thing is that it just stirs up the chat. There's so much controversy.

[00:04:59] Jason: Yeah. It's great.

[00:04:59] Caroline: And people are just, it's my favorite thing. It's all very good hearted, but it's just a really fun thing for our community that's absolutely nonsensical and just a fun way to hang out and...

[00:05:08] Jason: It's un-boring. It is an un-boring thing.

[00:05:10] Caroline: And it's un-boring. And you just debate over just the most stupid things ever. And that's what made me think of the caramel pecan, because I learned something about you when you did your ice cream tier. You put salted caramel pecan.

[00:05:21] Jason: A tier.

[00:05:22] Caroline: And an A tier, which is a very particular flavor…

[00:05:24] Jason: It is. I know.

[00:05:25] Caroline: …even though you did this whole presentation of how you weren't particular flavors.

[00:05:27] Jason: We're not going to go into it here, but yeah. Anyway, I do like that ice cream.

[00:05:32] Caroline: Yeah. But I just thought that was a fun thing. If you are looking for fun ideas, engaging ideas for your own community that are not business related, and just a fun hangout thing, definitely do a tier list because people come with their opinions, and I think we can all agree people be having some misplaced opinions these days. We need to channel that energy into something that is not…

[00:05:52] Jason: And get some ice cream flavors.

[00:05:53] Caroline: That does not matter. Okay.

[00:05:56] Jason: Okay, cool. Let's get into this episode because we were talking about things that we wanted to record, and I threw out there. I was like, oh, you know what, you don't really hear a lot about in business stuff is like, "Okay, I'm leading up to a launch. I'm two weeks out. Here's what I'm doing." You hear about that. I just did a launch. You hear about that, but you don't really hear about the like we're two months out from a launch.

[00:06:17] Caroline: What does that look like?

[00:06:18] Jason: Let's break down what that looks like. And so, I thought it would be fun. We thought it would be fun to go over what did the next two months look like for us as we get ready to do the next launch of our WAIM Unlimited program and to really just share with you what are all the things we need to think about really with the grand scheme of sharing all this that we have really dialed in our biannual launches and they feel not stressful, although this one's probably going to be a little bit of extra effort because we'll talk about why, but it's just something that we want to help other people do more of is have less frantic launches.

[00:06:51] Caroline: Yes.

[00:06:51] Jason: And so, we just want to talk about it more. You're going to hear us talk more about launching. And just because I feel like this is one of the few things that we have really, really, really dialed in well.

[00:07:00] Caroline: Yes.

[00:07:02] Jason: And none of it is rocket science or crazy strategic things. It's a lot of planning. It's a lot of preparation, and it's a lot of being consistent in hitting your deadlines throughout that plan that you set far enough in advance that gives you a lot of space and freedom so that you're not writing sales emails the day of and hitting send.

[00:07:18] Caroline: Exactly.

[00:07:19] Jason: You're not finishing the sales page the night before...

[00:07:21] Caroline: Which we have done plenty of times in the beginning of our career. And what Jason is mentioning there is we learned from those mistakes of over time, we honed a system of, we don't like the way that that feels to be up against a deadline. And I just think that makes you the worst version of yourself when you just feel all that pressure.

[00:07:37] Jason: Which is why I think most people don't like launches.

[00:07:40] Caroline: I think so, too.

[00:07:40] Jason: Because it feels so pressure filled, and because it's like…

[00:07:42] Caroline: And chaotic and…

[00:07:43] Jason: "Oh, my gosh, my to-do list is never ending." Yeah, because you started two weeks before the launch…

[00:07:47] Caroline: Totally.

[00:07:47] Jason: …when you should have started six months before the launch.

[00:07:49] Caroline: Totally. And I think the thing about launches is, I was just thinking about this. Well, we'll talk about it in a second. But I think it really hits on all those three points of running like a Calm creator business where the predictability, the profitability and the peacefulness comes in around launches. If you can get that dialed in and you have an offer that you know there's demand for and then you can get a system for launching, that is the core of what can start to really get you momentum in terms of having a Calm business that feels like it's predictable, profitable, and peaceful.

[00:08:19] Jason: Yeah.

[00:08:19] Caroline: And the second thing is, I hope that in doing, I know a lot of people do tend to launch around the fall-ish. And so, my hope is that this, this episode pops up on your podcast feed and you think to yourself, "I know I want to do a launch." Maybe you have some projects you're working on right now that feel urgent because they're top of mind for you, but maybe you can carve out an hour after listening to this episode to just start the Google Doc.

[00:08:43] Jason: Yeah.

[00:08:43] Caroline: Start the calendar, blocking the calendar.

[00:08:46] Jason: Yeah. The Notion page. Come on.

[00:08:47] Caroline: Start the Notion page. Start the Notion project today so that you get that ball rolling in your mind, and you may be setting yourself up for the most peaceful launch you've ever had.

[00:08:57] Jason: Yeah. So typically, how it works for us is about six months out from a launch date, we will have started just deciding what the schedule is going to look like. So…

[00:09:06] Caroline: Yeah. And actually, the truth of this, it used to be definitely six months. What it actually looks like is now we have it so dialed in that we know it's going to be generally fall and generally spring.

[00:09:16] Jason: Yeah.

[00:09:16] Caroline: And so, what it looks like is when in December, we usually choose the monthly coaching dates for the next year.

[00:09:23] Jason: Yup.

[00:09:23] Caroline: Literally January to December, we choose what date we're doing live coaching. And when we do that, we look at the weeks and we say, "Here's a time window where we think we're doing a spring launch, and here's the time window where we're doing a fall launch." And then six months in, we check in and go, okay, let's dial it in for sure.

[00:09:39] Jason: Yup.

[00:09:39] Caroline: And so, what happened this time is we would normally then plan whatever that window is. We always do a two-week launch window. We usually three months out from that. We'll do a kickoff meeting. So, we give ourselves three months to really start planning everything. This time we had a launch window.

[00:09:55] Jason: It was already on the calendar.

[00:09:56] Caroline: It was on the calendar. We had some travel pop up, some life stuff pop up. And so suddenly, we had to move up the launch, our fall launch. So, it's going to be the earliest fall launch we've ever done. Technically, Jason's told me it's not even fall, technically.

[00:10:10] Jason: It's actually not fall. It falls at the end of summer.

[00:10:12] Caroline: Did you know that fall doesn't start until the end of September?

[00:10:15] Jason: September 22nd.

[00:10:15] Caroline: That doesn't seem right.

[00:10:18] Jason: That's fall.

[00:10:18] Caroline: When we went back to school in the United States, it was sometimes it was like late August, early September.

[00:10:24] Jason: At summer. You're going back in summer.

[00:10:25] Caroline: Well, no. No one ever told me that. And that really changes the story.

[00:10:29] Jason: Yeah.

[00:10:29] Caroline: It's like fall. Back to school fall.

[00:10:31] Jason: Yeah. So, our launch dates will…

[00:10:34] Caroline: It's a fall semester. Or I'm saying…

[00:10:34] Jason: You'll hear about them a bunch, but it's basically August 26th through September 9th is going to be our "fall enrollment", but the whole point there is that now, instead of having three months to plan things out, we only have two months.

[00:10:48] Caroline: That's what I was trying to get to.

[00:10:49] Jason: So, it's good thing that we have this dialed in launch schedule and plan and all this stuff, because have we not had that? It's still two months. It's still a good amount of time, but it might have felt a little bit more stressful.

[00:10:59] Caroline: Especially with everything new we're trying to fit in. So, we're going to share it here.

[00:11:01] Jason: Exactly. And so, the first tip here, if you listen to this, is just the earlier you start planning, the calmer your launch will feel. And as Caroline was just saying, even if you're not exactly sure the next time you're going to launch, start that Notion page, start the Google Doc, whatever. Just start jotting down some notes of, "Okay, I think this is about the timeline. What are all the things that I need to do?" Just start listing them out so you can see them, so that you can start tackling them way earlier than you have before.

[00:11:24] Caroline: Definitely. Now, as we alluded to, this fall launch is going to be a little different.

[00:11:30] Jason: "Fall launch". You got to do the quotes every time.

[00:11:32] Caroline: I refuse to just call it a summer launch. I'm not going to ever get there.

[00:11:35] Jason: Okay.

[00:11:35] Caroline: So, it's a fall launch, and that's just a lie that I'm telling.

[00:11:39] Jason: Oh, wonderful. Yikes.

[00:11:40] Caroline: I mean, so rebellious. So sassy.

[00:11:41] Jason: You're so sassy. Everything's falling out of your butt. Go ahead.

[00:11:42] Caroline: But not… hole. It was different.

[00:11:47] Jason: … hole

[00:11:47] Caroline: So, what's different for us is three things. Number one, this time around this launch, we are actually adding a new program into WAIM Unlimited and includes something we've never done before, which is a live cohort…

[00:11:59] Jason: Hmm.

[00:12:00] Caroline: …which we'll talk more about. Typically, in WAIM Unlimited, we're really building it around the Un-Boring Business Roadmap, which is really a roadmap through all of our live coaching sessions and resources that you get inside WAIM Unlimited. This time around, we really wanted to hit on one program that people could go through together with a definite outcome. So, we'll come back to that.

[00:12:19] Jason: Yeah.

[00:12:19] Caroline: That's the first difference. Number two, we are going back on social media.

[00:12:23] Jason: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

[00:12:24] Caroline: Okay, which we'll talk about.

[00:12:25] Jason: If you've been listening to our content extravaganza…

[00:12:26] Caroline: Extravaganza.

[00:12:27] Jason: …podcast episodes, it's still going on. The content extravaganza is going on forever.

[00:12:30] Caroline: It never stops.

[00:12:31] Jason: It was a five week, and now it's just going to be a five-year plan.

[00:12:34] Caroline: Yeah. Exactly. And then, the third one, because that's not enough work, is we are transitioning our website over from WordPress to Framer, which is a big project. We've alluded to that in previous podcasts. But I am so excited. I know there's a lot of work ahead of us on that, but I can't wait. Talk about setting us up for the next five years. I'm just so excited.

[00:12:54] Jason: Yeah. Framer is amazing.

[00:12:55] Caroline: It's amazing. So, yeah, there's some extra work. However, like Jason said, the reason we can fit those extra things in is because when I tell you that our launch is dialed in…

[00:13:06] Jason: Yeah.

[00:13:06] Caroline: …we could do it in our sleep.

[00:13:07] Jason: Yeah.

[00:13:07] Caroline: Which is great.

[00:13:08] Jason: If we had to, this next launch coming up, if we didn't have a new product and you were just like, "How long would it take you guys to have the sales page ready?" The sales emails people are ready to buy, what's the total amount of time? I would say it would take us, maybe if we reused all the same sales emails, which we would recommend people do, it would probably take us one day.

[00:13:31] Caroline: Probably a day.

[00:13:32] Jason: One day, because we would just queue up all the emails again.

[00:13:34] Caroline: Yup.

[00:13:35] Jason: We would just turn the sales page back on.

[00:13:37] Caroline: Yup.

[00:13:37] Jason: And literally everything is ready to go. All the onboarding emails happen, the surveys, the things. Everything's good to go. It's fantastic. But we have a lot more things that we're doing this time around. So, there's a lot more that we have to figure out.

[00:13:47] Caroline: Yeah. And I think the great thing about a Calm launch is that's kind of what you're aiming for is to get to the place where you could just turn it on and off that easily. And then once you feel like you have that dialed in, then that's where you can add your spice. Right?

[00:13:58] Jason: Right.

[00:13:59] Caroline: Where you're like, what's different this time, or what do I want to test this time or what do I want to highlight? So, it doesn't get monotonous for you, but you're wanting to get to that place of monotony. So, then you can spice it up again.

[00:14:10] Jason: Totally. It's like eating a delicious burrito and halfway through being like, I mean, I may as well put the fire sauce on it, this has been delicious…

[00:14:16] Caroline: Spice it up.

[00:14:16] Jason: …but I don't want to feel feelings anymore.

[00:14:19] Caroline: Babe, it's just like that.

[00:14:20] Jason: Thank you so much.

[00:14:21] Caroline: Okay.

[00:14:21] Jason: All right, so let's talk about this new program that we are adding to WAIM because this past spring enrollment, the results, and you can go back and listen to our launch recap episode, told us that we raised our price, and we need to shift to a more valuable problem that we solve.

[00:14:35] Caroline: Yes. So, this next section of the episode, I wanted to share our thought process on why we decided to change things this launch, because I think you all find that valuable is when we're sharing with you what precipitated certain decisions. So, knowing that your decisions might be different, but you can follow the same logic. And so, like Jason just said, if you listen to the previous episode, we raised our prices and we still had a fantastic launch, but we could tell that there was a disconnect between the price and some of our audience. And so, we asked ourselves, what can we do to bridge that gap? And so, where we first started was narrowing down our audience and the problem that we solve to better match the WAIM Unlimited as a solution. And so, we did an entire episode on our strategic shift. And so, now we are focusing on solopreneur creators. So, content creators or digital product creators, but really, that solo piece is very important, who have two big problems. So, they either want bigger launches with less stress or they want to grow an audience with organic content, and they want to do that without burning out. So, it's really around these two very specific parts of running an online business. WAIM Unlimited has definitely before been this more broad soup to nuts...

[00:15:50] Jason: Run your small business, yeah.

[00:15:51] Caroline: …of running your small business, your online business. And that's been great, and it's a holistic solution. But now we're interested in getting really tactical and giving people an outcome that they can look for. And part of that strategy is also just coming from the macro trend of people are looking for solutions now that there are so many online businesses to choose from. Right?

[00:16:11] Jason: Yeah. And I think this also stems for us. We've been running WAIM Unlimited like you have seen it now. If you've been listening to us for any amount of time, for about four years now, we're going on our 58th coaching session. So, that's almost five years of monthly coaching sessions, and those have been very helpful. But I think we haven't really focused heavily on solving one or two specific problems, which is what you're talking about. And I think we also are making the commitment that we're trying to target creators who are a little bit further along on their journey. Not so much the folks who are just like, "I don't know all my offer ideas. I'm just getting started." We've loved helping those people for years, and now we have a whole library of content that can help them.

[00:16:51] Caroline: Exactly.

[00:16:51] Jason: But we believe that this targeting of someone who's further along, they want to do a launch. They've done one before. It wasn't Calm. Too many things just fell apart. That person can afford because they have a business that's working and is making money to invest in a program like WAIM Unlimited to learn how to have a better launch. And the price of our offer is not something they're going to balk at. They're going to see, "Oh, okay, great. I'm estimating my launch is going to make me $30,000." Just as an example. "If WAIM costs $2,800, if that helps me get that launch smoother and calmer, that's well worth the investment."

[00:17:22] Caroline: Exactly. That's what I was going to point out. This is where the strategic decision making comes in, is you have to ask yourself, "Is my price of my offer aligned with my audience?" And we certainly, by no means, want to alienate some of those folks who are just getting started. And all of our free content is really focused towards a more holistic kind of getting started. A lot of our articles, et cetera, and a lot of the resources in WAIM can help you do that, but it's also a recognition of Jason and I have been doing this for 10 plus years now, and there comes a moment where you also just realize you've been doing it for so long that you're becoming more removed from the understanding and empathizing so deeply with the problems that someone has when they're just getting started. Right?

[00:18:03] Jason: Right.

[00:18:04] Caroline: So, part of that is just like, I can never go back and be in the same exact mindset as I was when I was struggling to find out what is my creative skill that I want to monetize. I can certainly teach people about that, but it's almost like what I'm trying to say is like, it's not that it's inauthentic, but there's a more authentic route to go, which is I can better dial in what the pain points are of someone who is having a chaotic launch because I'm more closely tied to those emotions than I am to when I was trying to start my first business. Does that make sense?

[00:18:31] Jason: Metaphor.

[00:18:32] Caroline: Go ahead.

[00:18:32] Jason: You're deciding that you want to be a chef.

[00:18:34] Caroline: Yeah.

[00:18:35] Jason: And you have no skills whatsoever.

[00:18:36] Caroline: Yup.

[00:18:37] Jason: If you go into a Michelin star restaurant and you go into the back of house and the head chef is like, "Sure, I'll teach you some stuff." You're going to be blown away. Like blown away in a bad way. It's going to be so overwhelming. You're like, "I don't understand. You're doing mise en place? We're doing all these things."

[00:18:52] Caroline: You're doing some type of molecularization of things.

[00:18:56] Jason: Yeah. We've got foams, and I literally don't even know how to hold a knife properly.

[00:18:59] Caroline: Right.

[00:19:00] Jason: So, it's like, you actually need to go to Ruby Tuesdays, and you got to figure that out. We're not here to say anything bad about Ruby Tuesdays. Ruby Tuesdays is the world…

[00:19:07] Caroline: That salad bar, come on.

[00:19:08] Jason: …has a great salad bar with so a plethora of options.

[00:19:10] Caroline: So many options.

[00:19:10] Jason: But it's basically us saying we've gotten to this place where it's hard for us to know how to tell people how to hold the knife in online business in 2024 at the beginning.

[00:19:19] Caroline: Yeah.

[00:19:19] Jason: So, that was my metaphor that I brought to that.

[00:19:21] Caroline: Okay. Well, I really like where your head's at today.

[00:19:23] Jason: Thank you so much.

[00:19:23] Caroline: And I feel like the metaphor game is on point.

[00:19:26] Jason: Wonderful.

[00:19:27] Caroline: I mean, on point was a strong kind of assessment, but…

[00:19:30] Jason: I mean, I'm hearing cheers from the crowd so we can move on.

[00:19:33] Caroline: You're always hearing cheers from the crowd, babe.

[00:19:34] Jason: Thank you.

[00:19:35] Caroline: So, that was the first step, was narrowing in on our audience and just getting tighter about who we are trying to reach out to and who it's a good match for, for WAIM Unlimited. So, then that shifted our offer slightly, like Jason said. Right? So, then it goes, what's the right offer for that audience?

[00:19:51] Jason: Yeah.

[00:19:51] Caroline: Yes, of course, WAIM Unlimited is our offer, but the benefit of having a membership program type offer is it's just a container. So, it's like what do you want to highlight in that? Like I said, you can highlight the Un-Boring Business Roadmap. You could pluck out one online course that we have in our 40 plus online courses in there and say, "This is the core offer." It's really about your messaging and what you're highlighting. And so, we asked ourselves, what is the offer that, that is going to offer a solution that that group needs? And we determined that there's two core products that would be ideal. Going back to what we said about solving a specific problem. And so, those two solutions would be one being, what we're calling the Calm launch formula. So, we give you the entire blueprint of a Calm launch from start to finish.

[00:20:41] Jason: Yup.

[00:20:42] Caroline: And very actionable. And then the other would be the Calm content factory of how do you make ongoing content? And obviously, we're focusing on Calm launch first because that's one that we have super dialed in.

[00:20:51] Jason: Yup.

[00:20:52] Caroline: And so, with those two core products in mind, then that shifts your messaging. Right? So, I'm sharing this with you so that you can track with me in doing this for your own business. I started with audience, then I asked, what's the solution that that audience needs? Then I ask, what's the messaging that supports that offer? And so, instead of focusing on talking about everything under the sun with online business, everything from your newsletter to your memberships, to your live workshops, to your curriculums, to your offer, to your everything, which we can talk about.

[00:21:23] Jason: Mm-hmm.

[00:21:24] Caroline: We really want to focus in on Calm launching, and then we really want to focus in on faster, easier and systematic content creation to match what those needs are of that audience. Right? And then the third thing that bridges the gap of all of it is the Calm business mindset, which is our differentiator, which is just like, aiming for enough, building in breaks into your business, embracing what feels natural to you, not trying to strive so hard, and really trying to find that work life balance. And so, yeah, and just as a side note here, these three topics you can notice really tie back into that promise of helping someone create and grow a Calm creator business. Right? Predictable, profitable and peaceful. Those are the general benefits that we're promising someone. So, once you understand that we need to shift our messaging, then you go, "We need to shift our content." And so, that is, I think, part of the reason why our content has taken a little bit longer is it really is a relearning for me to not just go, I can talk about anything online business under the sun, but to really go, like, what are the tactical things that someone would need to know around launching.

[00:22:28] Jason: Yeah. And we had a moment, I think it was like a week or two ago, where you were like, "I have this huge bank of ideas for content I want to create for WAIM on Instagram." Let's just call it exactly what it is, carousels and reels. And you were like, "But I think I'm doing the thing that we always do, which is I'm being too broad."

[00:22:44] Caroline: I'm being too broad. And I really was realizing that the content that I was creating was more tailored towards a beginner.

[00:22:51] Jason: Exactly. And I think that this is something that a lot of you listening can relate to, whether you fully acknowledge it or you're like, "Oh, if I go and look at my content, oops, I'm doing the thing that I know I shouldn't do, which is my content isn't niche enough, it's not focused enough. I'm not solving a specific problem through my content. I'm just kind of repeating things or I'm doing things that other people are doing and I need to be more focusing in on that." So, what we did is we sat down, and we said, "Okay, great, what is the thing that we are going to focus on in this next launch that is the most important thing?" And that's the Calm launch formula. So, from there it was sitting down and going, okay, well, actually, before we start thinking about content ideas, let's actually go over this program and how we're going to teach what we've learned these past four years and hone in this system that is so repeatable and is actually, it's not challenging or it's not crazy difficult for anyone to do. It's just, I think not a lot of people talk about the Calm version of a launch. It's the, how can you squeeze more dollars? What tactics can you use? Everyone trip over every wire possible.

[00:23:50] Caroline: All the live webinars, all the live social media things. Yeah.

[00:23:53] Jason: Exactly. Yeah. And so, yeah, so I think for us it was actually taking a step back from that content to go, great, let's talk about this Calm launch formula. So, I think let's go ahead and talk about that, and whatever plan is.

[00:24:02] Caroline: Yeah. And just to recap that section again, if you're playing along at home, narrow your audience, enhance your offer with a more specific solution, shift your messaging topics to match your solution and then build your content around that message. And if you do all those things, that's sort of like the groundwork that you're going to set for the next two to three months when you're preparing for your launch because you know your content is going to tie all the way back to the narrow audience you're trying to attract.

[00:24:25] Jason: Yeah. Yeah. So I'll give the super high level of what the Calm launch formula is going to be so that you listening to this, maybe it's attractive to you if you're a solopreneur creator who is launching digital products in some way, is that we want to show you how to create a system where you do a two-week launch, open and closed cart, you have all your sales emails written, you have your sales page written, you know what your bonuses are during the launch, you know what your key talking points are, you know what the benefits of your program are. The transformation. Basically, every single thing you need to do in a launch with enough time in advance set up so that you don't feel stressed.

[00:25:01] Caroline: Yeah.

[00:25:02] Jason: And that really to me is the absolute benefit. I know that so many people listening are like, "But to help me get to a six figure launch", it's like, that's really subjective to every single person's business.

[00:25:11] Caroline: Your offer, your audience, yup. Your audience size.

[00:25:13] Jason: We can't help you with that. But what we can help you with is to feel like, "Oh, I got into the Calm launch formula. I spent two weeks working through the bite size content, which we'll talk about because we don't want to do long form content. And I felt like by the end of that I had a plan that felt so easy and doable." Yes, it's a lot of things that you have to do, but you see it all and you go, "That's it? I don't have to feel stressed about this?"

[00:25:36] Caroline: By the way, I think it's also a really good recognition to realize that if launching was less chaotic and overwhelming for you, do you think you might do it more throughout the year?

[00:25:46] Jason: That's what I was saying earlier.

[00:25:47] Caroline: Instead of doing one launch a year or two, would you do three to five because you had a dialed in system and so you could do a smaller digital product here, your bigger program here, because you knew you had a system and if you did more launching of your thing, don't you think overall your revenue would be more?

[00:26:05] Jason: Exactly.

[00:26:05] Caroline: And so, to me that's where the value of that offer really lies.

[00:26:08] Jason: Yeah. So, we are going to do a live cohort with this, which we'll talk more about in a little bit of. But basically, it's going to be, for lack of a better way to describe it, it's a course, and in the course, we're going to have eight modules as of right now, and we're going to break all the steps to creating a Calm launch into three-to-five-minute videos that are super actionable. So, what we don't want to do is what we've fallen into in the past, which is like, we over stuff. It's like 20 minutes lessons, and it's just this thing's going to take you 10 hours to go through. We don't want that for you.

[00:26:36] Caroline: Not this time.

[00:26:36] Jason: We want to simplify it as much as possible, also for our own sanity, because we just know that we overdo things all the time.

[00:26:43] Caroline: And this is a benefit of having a very specific outcome you're trying to get for someone is like, I know what you want at the end of this. You want to have a launch plan that you can hit press play on, like stat.

[00:26:53] Jason: Yeah.

[00:26:54] Caroline: So, I'm not interested in teaching you the fluffy theory about this and the trend about that. I'm interested in getting you to figure out whatever you need to figure out in order to move forward.

[00:27:03] Jason: And I think one of the guiding principles for us, and maybe this will be helpful for you listening, if you're about to build your next offer, is this is one of the very few, or we're just going to be very opinionated. And normally we leave a lot of room for like, "But you could do it this way, and you could do it this way", because we know that everyone has different circumstances and different things. But a launch is only successful when you stick to a plan that someone set for you that has worked for them many times over, and that we need to be opinionated about that.

[00:27:33] Caroline: Exactly. And…

[00:27:33] Jason: So, opening up room for like, "Sure, you could do for three weeks." We don't know what a three-week launch is like. We know the cadence of a two-week launch down pat, and so that's what we want to teach.

[00:27:43] Caroline: Yes. And my mentality of it is, one of the values that we teach so much is experimentation and having an experimenter's mindset. And so, my goal is to get someone the blueprint so they can start with this, with an opinionated blueprint, to just be like, this is the thing I'm going to follow. Then I'm going to do a debrief, which we have a bonus lesson about that, and say, okay, I felt like, here's the email that got the best click through. So that one worked really well for my audience. And then, you can experiment.

[00:28:11] Jason: Exactly.

[00:28:11] Caroline: But once you're never going to get to that point where you can really dial it in if you don't give yourself a tried-and-true plan to start with.

[00:28:17] Jason: It's like, don't put a bunch of extra stuff on a grilled cheese besides bread and cheese until you get that dialed in and you have a delicious grilled cheese.

[00:28:23] Caroline: Then you're like, "What would it be like with a little bit of a tomato?"

[00:28:26] Jason: Exactly.

[00:28:27] Caroline: Okay.

[00:28:28] Jason: So yeah, some other things that we have to do besides building the actual course and program itself is we want to have beta testers. So, our existing Wandering Aimfully members are going to get early access to this to make sure that everything works well. And we've got some done for you resources that we need to build. So, one of the big highlights of this program is we want to have some really helpful things that don't feel like you have to do all the work yourself.

[00:28:52] Caroline: Yeah. Anywhere basically in the curriculum where we were like, could we, between AI and spreadsheets and Notion documents and all of everything we've created up until this date, if it was something that we could do for you, we basically have created a resource to do it for you.

[00:29:06] Jason: Yeah. So, we have all that, and then we have our premarketing plan, which is we'll talk about here in a moment. So, that's our immediate next week. We have eight weeks leading up until we're launching this. So, for the next two weeks, essentially, we're really focusing on the curriculum, the recording and building this…

[00:29:25] Caroline: And I think the lesson there too, for you listening, is if you are, just like we said, the earlier you start the launch, you're better. The earlier you can complete your offer, the better. So, I do know we've been in a position before where you're putting the finishing touches on the thing as the launch is looming the next meet.

[00:29:43] Jason: Yeah. In fact, we've even said like, "Hey, by the way, you're not going to have access to the thing that we're talking about for a month because we didn't finish it in time."

[00:29:50] Caroline: And we've done that and it's okay and you can, and you follow through on it and you set expectations and it's good. But let me tell you, the one lever that can definitely make a difference in feeling Calm is having that offer buttoned up and polished and looking great, one, two months beforehand.

[00:30:06] Jason: Polish those buttons.

[00:30:07] Caroline: Polish those buttons.

[00:30:07] Jason: All right. So, then for the next month, so we have the two weeks where we're going to be working on the product, but in the next month, we also need to redo our WAIM Unlimited sales page.

[00:30:17] Caroline: Yeah.

[00:30:17] Jason: Which we've had the same sales page for three and a half years. I think it's been seven launches of WAIM has been the same sales page, which is incredible.

[00:30:26] Caroline: That thing works. And to still to this date, after every single launch, after every single launch we get at least one email, if not several, of people being like, "That sales page, I tell you what." So that's why we don't change it.

[00:30:38] Jason: And you might be wondering, well, guys, if it's worked seven times and people say it's good, why are you changing it? Number one, we're moving over to Framer from WordPress. So, we have to redo it anyway.

[00:30:46] Caroline: It's good timing. Yeah.

[00:30:47] Jason: And also, just as creators, you like to be excited about something. And so, with the focus of this upcoming enrollment being about the Calm launch formula is like our main carrot. Like, yes, WAIM Unlimited is the thing that you're buying, but this is the thing we want to focus on. That's going to be a big change in the focus of that. We have…

[00:31:05] Caroline: Yeah. So, it's just good timing all around.

[00:31:06] Jason: Yeah. We have about 20 sales emails that we've used in various forms over the years. So, in the next month, we will pluck out the ones that we want to use. We send nine sales emails per launch. So, we'll pick out those and then we'll have to rewrite a few, especially related to the Calm launch formula. And then we'll have to just tweak a bunch of our messaging that we're going to be putting out in different places. This podcast, our newsletter, et cetera, get those talking points ready for sharing all those things. So, that's in the next month.

[00:31:34] Caroline: Yes.

[00:31:34] Jason: And then that leads us into the premarketing window, which is the four weeks leading up to the launch.

[00:31:42] Caroline: Yes. And this is premarketing window is the most important window to a Calm launch. And it's also the one that people always…

[00:31:51] Jason: Get wrong. Yeah.

[00:31:52] Caroline: …get wrong and put to the back burner because, and I understand why I have so much empathy. I've been there. It's because you're usually like putting the final touches on your offer. You are building the thing, you're building your sales pages. You're like doing all of the building prep stuff. And so, you're like, the last thing I have time for is to be strategic about my content at the same time. And so, you forget to tell people that your launch is coming up and you don't mention it. And then before you know it, you're like, "Oh, shoot. Let me send an email a week before I open the doors." People have only heard about it one time. One time.

[00:32:23] Jason: Yeah, exactly. This is the thing that I have seen, because I'm the one who typically is closer and talking to our WAIMers and answering emails and other people and things. But it's the, "Oh, hey, how'd your launch go?" "Oh, it was pretty lackluster." "Okay. I'm sorry to hear that. How many weeks were you promoting it beforehand?" "Oh, I couldn't do any promotion. I actually, I wasn't able to post on social because I was just finishing everything and then I launched." It's like those things don't add up. You have to do the premarketing.

[00:32:50] Caroline: It's very important. And our challenge this time, I can foresee this is going to be a big challenge for us because we are going to be doing more building than we're used to doing.

[00:32:59] Jason: And normally, our launch would only include four emails and three podcast episodes that we focus.

[00:33:06] Caroline: But we have socials on top of it.

[00:33:07] Jason: Yeah.

[00:33:08] Caroline: And so, our challenge this launch is really going to be balance. It's going to be balance between building the new things that are going to be added, but it's balance between that and promoting, and we're just going to do our best. And so right now, it's looking like our goal is to go back to Instagram to revitalize the WAIM Instagram account around July 15th. That's six weeks until launch. I would love to go back sooner, but the reality is we are juggling a lot of things right now. And since this is all about Calm launching, I have no interest in overstressing ourselves to prove a point or to try to do it all. If we're going to practice what we preach, we just have to make some concessions around, cool. It's not going to be eight weeks before. It's going to be six weeks before, so we can get more ducks in a row, and that's okay. And we're just going to do our best to balance those two things. And have a mindset of, you and I had a conversation earlier today about what does good enough look like, in this season of business, where we are trying to balance a lot of things, we have a very high standard for ourselves, and I think that served us well in a lot of ways, but it also can be a hindrance because at times, we could get things out the door faster, and usually it's me. I'm the bottleneck of the…

[00:34:20] Jason: I didn't say…

[00:34:20] Caroline: …the quality from the creative perspective. And so, my thing that I'm learning in this little chunk of time is what does good enough look like? And something is better than nothing, and it does not have to be perfect. And so…

[00:34:34] Jason: I mean, if you just need to post just quick little clips of me dancing around the house. Actually, not dancing.

[00:34:39] Caroline: You would not dance.

[00:34:39] Jason: Running around the house.

[00:34:40] Caroline: Just running.

[00:34:41] Jason: You'll catch me running.

[00:34:42] Caroline: Okay. Maybe that's our entire strategy.

[00:34:43] Jason: If you're curious, if you're someone who has not done a good job of premarketing your offer, you might be wondering, "Great, you're telling me to premarket for four weeks. What the heck do I premarket about?" Awesome. Here, I will tell you, the very simple thing to do is look at your offer and pluck out 25% of the content and tactics from that and then share that over the course of four weeks.

[00:35:04] Caroline: Yup.

[00:35:05] Jason: So, for us, what we're going to do is we're going to create the entire curriculum for the Calm launch formula, and then we're going to pull out four things that can be really helpful, 25%. But four things that we can really focus on. And we'll share those things on our email list, on our YouTube channel, and here on the podcast, and that will be giving away content that's on the inside of that. But if it helps someone and they see the value in it, then it entices them to get ready to buy.

[00:35:30] Caroline: Yup. And I always talk about this, like iceberg strategy of just picturing an iceberg, and you picture your offer as the 75% that's below the water. And you ask yourself, "What is that 25% that if it was bobbing out of the water?" Would be attractive to the person who I'm trying to ideally attract that has this problem. Right?

[00:35:52] Jason: Yeah.

[00:35:52] Caroline: So, it's like, what are those micro problems that that person is dealing with that you could solve quickly? So, another good way of, you're like, "Well, what 25% do I pull out?" Look for things that you can offer a solution to that have a relatively quick turnaround time. Right?

[00:36:08] Jason: Mm-hmm.

[00:36:08] Caroline: So it's like, "Oh, actually, I'm so stuck with how to talk about my offer on my sales page." Okay, what's my formula for coming up with a copywriting formula for a sales page? That's something that someone could do in a day. Right?

[00:36:21] Jason: Yeah.

[00:36:22] Caroline: But maybe building out a huge premarketing content calendar would be a little bit more of a thing. And so, maybe I want to save that for inside the program. I just think, have a discerning eye of any of these little micro solutions that you can offer and pluck out of your offer are really good premarketing content.

[00:36:38] Jason: Yup. The other thing we're going to do in the month leading up to the launch, so during that premarketing window is we're going to have the beta testers who will have gone through or be going through Calm launch formula, gather some testimonials from them on how it went, how they felt. If their launch is completely planned for their next launch in that time.

[00:36:56] Caroline: How does that feel?

[00:36:57] Jason: What does that feel like? And then also we have two folks who I have helped specifically with launches that I want to hop on a video call with and record a conversation. And we want to share those as well leading up, because that'll be really fun to actually talk to other people and be like, "Okay, you did X, Y, Z in your launch, how did that feel to have everything ready to go?"

[00:37:14] Caroline: Exactly. And that's what you want to be doing, is you want to be highlighting that transformation and that outcome that your ideal audience is looking for. Because what they're really looking for is evidence that it's possible for the transformation that they want.

[00:37:28] Jason: And when you use the Calm launch formula and you have the bandwidth because you've planned far enough in advance, that frees you up to have the time to then do other things in your launch. So, it's like those interviews that I was just talking about, we've never done that in a launch, but because we're planning it now, it's like, oh, I actually think I'll have time to do this, and I think this would be an excellent thing to add.

[00:37:46] Caroline: Exactly.

[00:37:47] Jason: All right, then we have a few small tasks that we have to button up in between the next two months. So, I just mentioned we're going to gather some additional new customer testimonials. We'll do some that are about the Calm launch formula with the beta testers, but also just some about WAIM Unlimited in general because obviously we sell the whole program. So, we want people to have that.

[00:38:06] Caroline: Yup. And then just generally double checking all of our automations and onboarding emails and make sure those are good to go. Again, once you set those up, you feel good about it. You just want to make sure that you switch over the tags to the fall launch, instead of the spring launch in any way. There's some admin stuff involved.

[00:38:19] Jason: Yeah, we have our affiliates, if you listen to our affiliate podcast episode where we shared basically how we run our affiliate program with WAIM Unlimited. There's a hub that we have, that we've created for everybody, so we have just some resources to update in there to make sure everything's fresh. With the Calm launch formula, there's a couple more things to create to add to that so that people can share it. We didn't talk about was the cohort. So, maybe you want to spend just a couple minutes sharing the thoughts on that?

[00:38:43] Caroline: Sure. So, the idea, Jason and I both came to this conclusion at a similar timeframe after the spring launch. And I think it was a combination…

[00:38:51] Jason: Let's call it the spring enrollment.

[00:38:52] Caroline: Spring enrollment.

[00:38:53] Jason: Yeah.

[00:38:53] Caroline: And I think that this was a product of you and I just both kind of itching to do something different, but also recognizing one of the lessons from that enrollment period was, we need a specific outcome that we're getting for people. And the problem we kept coming back to is, well, I just don't want to toss somebody into information yet again. I think we're all strapped for time right now where every year that goes by, there's more and more pulls on our attention and it becomes…

[00:39:22] Jason: And left to our own devices.

[00:39:24] Caroline: And left to our own devices, where it's going to be hard to sit down and focus and go through a program. So, I think this live element of going through a program together as a group and providing support and access to us where we can answer questions is really powerful. And we've already kind of, like, you could say, beta tested this idea with a few times popping up inside WAIM Unlimited, where people will go through the same resource at the same time. But it's really powerful for accountability and clarity and being able to figure things out alongside other people and get inspired from their answers and how are they doing things. And so, Jason, I decided, as we launch this new product inside of WAIM Unlimited with the Calm launch formula, wouldn't it be great if we then, immediately following the fall enrollment period, do a two-week live cohort where we're going through that program but on the same schedule.

[00:40:18] Jason: Exactly. So, yeah, our goal for right now looks like it's going to be two calls per week for two weeks, and there'll be high level teaching, direct Q&A with how can we help you kind of solve the problems. And then basically kind of like, here's homework before the next call to make sure that you're ready for the next call.

[00:40:33] Caroline: Exactly. And all of this is born, again, out of this idea of what is the outcome I'm trying to get for someone and what can I do in my power as a coach, as a leader to try and get them closer to that outcome? That's my goal in helping someone. Right?

[00:40:48] Jason: Yeah.

[00:40:48] Caroline: And so, if I know that one of the barriers is going to be, "It's hard for me to focus, it's hard for me to make time." Let me give you the schedule. Let me show up and be there with you. Let me answer your questions so that you can blast through any roadblocks that you have. And at the end of two weeks, I want you to have your plan done so that you go, "Oh, my gosh, my launch is actually two months from now, but I know exactly what sales emails I'm sending on exactly what days. I've never had that before. That feels incredible. And actually, that makes me feel like I could do three launches instead of two." And so that is the win that I want to get someone.

[00:41:23] Jason: Yeah. And we're just excited to see. This is going to be our first ever live cohort doing these calls. But as mentioned, we've done 57 coaching sessions at this point, and those are always done live on Zoom every single month. So, we have a really good system for that. And we really like it. It's a really fun way to engage with everybody. So, I'm very excited to see how this goes, how actionable it can be for people because that's the thing we want. We don't want to sell another online course that just sits in your email inbox, and you don't go through because you don't have the time. We want to give you a thing where you can access it at any time you want. But you could also join us for two weeks and get 95% of your launch plan, done, ready in those two weeks and you can be like, "Okay, great. I actually have the structure for my sales page. I have all my sales emails planned. Now all I have to do is just button everything up and get it ready and I'm good to go." And I think that would be really powerful for people. And we will find out how that goes in just about eight weeks.

[00:42:17] Caroline: Just about eight weeks.

[00:42:18] Jason: That's how much time we have. All right, so hope this was fun for you to hear our eight weeks out plan. We really don't like having frantic launches or stressful launches anymore. We don't like doing things last minute, so we hope that if that's something that's interesting to you, you will keep paying attention here for the next two months and join WAIM Unlimited. And if you're a WAIMer and you're listening to this, excited for you to get your hands on this and give us some first feedback. But we love making new things, too, so it's also just a fun task for us to make something new and fun.

[00:42:45] Caroline: For sure. That's why this year already has been so fun, just as a rebuilding year, because there's so much to get excited about. And I just love seeing the evolution of our business. And I think that's something that all kind of solopreneur creators can relate to is that satisfying feeling of evolving your business as you evolve as a person. That's what I think the benefit of having a solo business is. You have the flexibility and the agility to really marry your business and evolve it forward as you change as a person.

[00:43:14] Jason: Fantastic. All right, everybody, that's it for this episode. Hope you enjoyed hearing our eight weeks out from a launch schedule, and we'll be back next week with another episode.

[00:43:23] Caroline: Thanks for listening.

[00:43:24] Jason: Bye.

[00:43:25] Caroline: Bye.