Creative Differences is our 5 month, small group business development program for low energy entrepreneurs. We just closed enrollment last week.
This launch was by far our most successful enrollment either of us have had ever in our businesses.
We enrolled 13 humans.
And… we are also exhausted.
We learned A LOT about…
Our unique creative, physical, and emotional needs for a launch period
Timing & what specifically to plan ahead for the next launch
What’s necessary for our enrolling process and what’s not
How to approach rest + downtime during a launch
TikTok.
Launching usually takes a ton of energy - physical, mental, emotional.
You are constantly trying to regulate yourself through anxiety or other forms of nervous system activation.
Launches touch on our core needs being met in our current capitalist society. It’s also you putting your words, art, ideas, skills out into the world. It is very personal.
Launching something can be a project requiring a ton of energy with many moving parts and we don’t have the benefit of seeing into the future. So much of what I’ve learned about what’s going to be best for our next Creative Differences launch is from hindsight on the two launches we’ve done so far.
Our takeaways for content strategy:
Especially for anxious, sensitive, introverted humans who aren’t used to or don’t enjoy being seen, being direct about selling - we might have a skewed view of how often we’re really talking about our offer and how direct we’re being.
In the first week of us promoting the waitlist, I thought I had talked about the program a bajillion times and everyone who follows me must hate me by now. I went back and counted the actual times I mentioned the program. It was 3. Over a 5 day period.
At the end of the launch, I went back and tracked all my content I’ve shared on my IG feed in 2022. I figured I did SO MANY direct posts that were explicitly about Creative Differences. Like you would click on the post and immediately see “Creative Differences.” There were actually only a handful that met this criteria. And I saw it took me multiple weeks into our launch to actually put clear graphics on my feed about the details of the program. But if you had asked me in the moment, I would’ve said “oh I’m talking about it way too much. It’s all over my feed.” No. Not actually.
You will annoy some humans by talking about your offer more frequently. And it’s part of the process of educating your audience, creating multiple points of entry for people to learn about it on apps that don’t show the same content to every follower, and you have no idea what is happening on the other side of the screen in terms of people having their own valid, unique process for learning about and deciding on an offer.
Our takeaways for TikTok:
It’s really annoying and low-key ableist but you can make TikTok work for you by strategically posting really targeted content 2-4 times a day, every day. It took Meg’s TikTok well over a week to pick up traction + engagement, but once it did, it flew.
Posting more than 3-4 times a day when you still have a smaller audience by TikTok standards (let’s say less than 50k) could actually do more harm than good. Kendall’s TikTok got way confused by all the content she made.
Planning ahead can really help here - which you don’t always have the ability to do. Ideally, that TikTok surge would happen before you launch or closer to the beginning.
Our takeaways about rest + breaks:
In our TCS mighty network, we shared a couple of key tips for launching for low energy entrepreneurs. One was to give yourself more time than you think you to allow for breaks, downtime, and life stuff to happen. We stand by this. And…
If you schedule in that downtime, don’t fill that downtime with more stuff, content, and projects.
It’s hard. Really hard to step away from a launch especially before you’ve hit your income goals. And it can be a really supportive way to prevent burnout, which you want to do no matter the outcome of your launch.
Our takeaways about burning out from a launch:
We all have launches that don’t go well, don’t hit our goals, don’t sell anything. It really sucks. And can be scary if you’re trying to make sure your bills are paid.
Here’s the deal with launch burnout - At the end of a launch, you want to not be completely drained. Why? If the launch went well or even just okay, you have humans to show up for! You then have to deliver what you launched.
If it didn’t go well - let’s so not a single soul said yes to your thing, then you’re going to want creative, mental, and physical capacity to figure out your next move.
Our takeaways about bonuses and waitlists:
Waitlists work if you have an established audience of humans who would be ready to say yes to your offer. If your launch content is bringing in new humans to your space who are then ready for your offer, a waitlist doesn’t usually help because likely that waitlist is over before these new humans arrived.
People don’t sign up for programs because of the bonuses. Or at least they shouldn’t. No matter how amazing your bonuses are, the actual core offer still needs to be what they’re looking for for people to say yes.
When in doubt, or when in low capacity, simplify your launch. Bonuses and waitlists and the like can be supportive if implemented strategically, but they often require more energy BTS and might not yield any improved results.
Biggest Lessons Learned From This Launch:
People really do sign up either right at the beginning or at the end. The middle of the launch is quiet. This doesn’t necessarily mean you need to shorten your launch period. That middle period serves a purpose for you and your audience to have your natural process.
If you think you’re being direct enough about your offer, you likely can go even further with being more clear and upfront about the details.
Find ways to take a break from the active launch, even if that means doing something else for your business if fully disconnected rest doesn’t feel accessibly to you and your nervous system in the moment.