3 Tips for Launching with Tasha Booth
Branding with Friends | Episode 21
Featuring Expert Guest: Tasha Booth, Founder & CEO of The Launch Guild
Watch or listen to the video interview below or scroll down to read the transcription.
Meet Tasha Booth, Founder & CEO of The Launch Guild
Annie: We all need somebody like you and your team of 20. That's incredible. Tasha’s going to share tips, all about launching. Three things to move the needle for you, if you're a coach, consultant, or service business owner. We're gonna save that third tip for the end, because she's got something special before we get to that third tip. But as we're talking, you know, 20 business owners, you do all these wonderful things. How did you get into this work? And how have you grown it so successfully?
Tasha: So I actually started as a blogger. And by just doing the things that bloggers need to do to grow their blog, I got into becoming a VA basically or being a VA. I saw a lot of bloggers in the Facebook groups that I was in looking for VAs and I was like, I need some extra cash. Let me see if I can do this. Sure. And quickly, I learned that my specialty was tech virtual assistant, being a tech VA, a lot of times it was for coaches, and course creators.
And a lot of times coaches and course creators were launching things and needed all of the other things like copywriting and Facebook ads, and tech, you know, all the support. All the things. So quickly, I realized that I was not going to be you know, jack of all trades, master of none kind of thing. And I decided to start an agency and to really find other people who were experts in what they did. And one of the things I love about The Launch Guild is that we work so well together, and we work together day in and day out that we all have our specialty, but we also know how to come into an existing team or, you know, support an existing client, and help them in a holistic way. So yeah, that's how kind of started and grew.
Annie: I love it. It's so well integrated, I think you've done a great job of sort of playing to your zone of genius, and then recruiting people who do that, and then you help others sort of stay in what they're great at. And that's scaling at its finest. So I am so glad you're here. As I mentioned, guys, Tasha is here to give her best tips about launching, even if it's something you've never done before or you've done and you have not done it well. I'll raise my hand on that. A marketing guru that I paid a lot of money to teach me and I got no results. It wasn’t the right way to do it. And she's here to tell us the right way to do it. So as we're thinking about this, what if we're thinking about launching a service or a course or some sort of new thing in our practices? What's the first thing we should consider?
#1 Action TIP
Always take more time than you think
Tasha: So always taking more time rather than less. This is one of the things that I see a lot of people making the mistake about. And this is what leads to overwhelm. And at The Launch Guild, we like to talk about stress free launches. And I think of stress in two ways, right? There's good stress, and there's bad stress.
So that good stress is the fact that we care about what we're doing and that we have butterflies and that we're excited about the opportunity and the possibility. That good stress is always going to be there. But the bad stress is the stress that we get from being overwhelmed. And a lot of that overwhelm is that we don't anticipate how long things are actually going to take us. And so if we really look at not just okay, what are the tasks that I need to complete in a launch, which when we do our launch project plans, those are about 20 tasks long. It's our 200 tasks long. We're easy peasy in and out right? Over 200 tasks for our project plans for our launches. But you also have to think about what are the life things… like your life can't just stop, you know, when you're in launch mode, right? So what are the other obligations that you have both in your family life and your business life?? Those sorts of things as well, and then decide on your timeline. So that timeline probably looks, at least at minimum eight weeks to plan your launch and to execute it. Really, if you're brand new to launching, or if you're newer to launching probably 12 or 16 weeks. So give yourself a good quarter to even a little bit more than a quarter to be able to see what you know what all those pieces are, and then to execute slowly and in a way that feels good to you.
Annie: I love that. And I think it's so important. One of the pieces I do running Greatest Story, we do branding services, but it's a lot of business consulting, as well. Because fixing unclear inconsistent marketing is is a lot about having the competent tools, but it's also about knowing what to do with the tools. Right? So that's a part of your genius as well.
And one of the biggest success tips I share with people was one that I've learned, which is to track your time. Once you start tracking your time, you're going to realize exactly the value of what Tasha just said, of this idea of leaving yourself more time, if you don't know how much time it takes you to do things, it's good, we more leave it leave more space. I know how long it takes me and I still need to leave a bit of buffer, an extra day. Because it's just life, as you said, life, you know, is a priority not just gets in the way it should be the foundation.
Tasha: I absolutely believe that life should be the foundation and thinking in terms of like, you don't know what you don't know, right? And so if we give ourselves the space to take a little bit of time for those emails, those conversion emails that we've never done before, or that sales page that we've never designed before, you know, that way, we're not rushing or feeling like we're not ready. And then we can walk into our launch with confidence and feeling really great about it and really rested and prepared instead of like just, you know, jittery and crazy.
Annie: The next episode will be with Maegan Megginson and she covers burnout proof businesses. And so we're talking a lot about how to get some rest gets naps, burnout proof your business. And that really fits in this burnout proof your launch. I love it. So we want to give ourselves more time rather than last time. So you said you know sort of that eight week windowed all the way up to maybe 16 weeks, depending on what it is and how much time we think we need. What's the second thing we need to consider?
#2 ACTION TIP
Launch Linear - Connect your ideal client and community with how you can best serve and support them.
Tasha: The second one is to launch linear, especially when you're first starting. So what I mean by that is, a lot of times I'll have brand new clients to The Launch Guild come in, and they're like, well, so and so said, I need to do this, this, this and this. And then this other guru said, I need to do this. And I'm like, hold the phone, you haven't launched at all yet. Let's strip all of that back and really, our goal is to connect our ideal client and our community with how we can serve and support them, right? Everything else is a bonus and an extra.
And so what I mean by that is maybe an affiliate-like program with a bunch of affiliates, the first timeout isn't the best move, maybe having an upsell and a down-sell at the first time isn't the best move. We really want to think about how can you make it easy. And when we strip all the other things away, it's so much easier to collect the data and to see what's actually working and not working so that we can improve, modify, adjust for our next launch.
Annie: I think that's really the difference of working with an expert versus trying to cobble together a strategy with all the free advice. You know, I know I give a ton of free advice, you give a ton of free advice, but nothing is going to take the place of working with a partner like you to sit down and say this is what I'm trying to do. And then getting a personalized recommendation.
Tasha: Yes, absolutely. And the other thing about getting that filtered expertise, basically unfiltered opinion, is it takes into account how you actually enjoy already showing up in your space where your community already sees you. And it lets you play to your strengths. And instead of well, I have to do a webinar because everybody else is doing a webinar, right? It's like, well, what's working for you already? Let's do more of that. How do we you know, how do we tap into that?
Annie: That's exactly how I approach branding as well. It's like what's in the data? It’s less about coming up with your client avatar, whatever that means. I know, that works for some people but it doesn't work for me. And I don't make my clients do it. Because I say, you know, who have you worked with, that you've loved working with? And, let's find what's what patterns there are?
Let's double down on the people you've loved the most because there's a reason. Yeah, like we all sort of start like this big menu thing. And then we sort of narrow you know, we write our work as the diner, we can make anything, what do you want, and then we come down. And most of us if we're higher ticket providers want to become a professional chef. You know, and so you do that, you know, you narrow down your menu, say this is what I'm best at. This is how I make the best this and I don't make that right. And then word gets out and they come to you and they don't get overwhelmed by you know, I want eggs and pancakes and whatever else.
Tasha: Exactly. And a lot of times when you're trying to just, you know, throw everything into your launch and be the diner, you end up losing the core of your message, you know, you end up losing the essence of what makes your program amazing, and then you start talking to like everybody about how you can help them in every way, right? As we know, that loses everyone?
Annie: Well, it just, it doesn't serve either of you. Because then you end up having to reinvent your process. And you can't guarantee the results. And you can't deliver great client experience because you're constantly reinventing what it is. And, you know, we could talk for days I'm sure me and you about that.
So we're talking about give yourself more time rather than last, keep your lunch linear. I love for you to tell us a little bit more about when you work with clients. How important is it that they have some sort of branding that they have, whether that's a brand style guide with fonts and colors and logos to use? Or even the brand messaging and say, here's my brand voice guide? Like, what does that do when someone comes to you and says I need to launch? And they have that or they don't have that way? How is that work for you guys?
Tasha: Yeah, it's absolutely essential. And we used to work with, you know, kind of any clients at any place that didn't have that a lot of times, and what what ended up was that we would have so many different iterations and have to go back and back and back, because they didn't have their brand figured out. And they didn't understand who they were as a company really, and as a as a brand at its core. And we were like we're not, we're not your branding, we're not creating your branding from scratch. You have to come to the table with that.
And so now we really talk about that with our clients at the beginning. That's one of the expectations that they already know who they are as a company, that they've already got their branding down. And now we're just ready to build on that and help support getting their services out into the world and getting how they support people out into the world in their products and programs and everything. But we're not doing it from scratch for them. So super vital that they know who they are at their that at the core, and that they're already able to represent themselves with something like a style guide or a brand guide. And then we're just building off of that and being able to represent them really well.
Annie: I love that you've shared that. I think that that's also a big reason why you if you've worked with a website designer before, but haven't had your branding done that that can be a really friction filled process, really expensive. take a long time, because what's happening is a similar thing that Tasha is describing. Where they're going to have to go back to you and back. Well, what colors do you want to use? What fonts are you? What is this all about? Why are you doing this? Those things we don't realize actually can be done and branding. So it's a little bit of a linear thing. If you have the brand figured out - Who are you? What are you doing? Here's my toolkit. You can work with a web developer and get website done faster.
Work with Tasha to get your launch 10 times better than it would have been if you didn't have answers to all that and faster. It's the efficiency equation. So I'm glad that you you're dialed into that because I'm sure you're you get a huge relief when a client does.
Tasha: Yeah. So helpful when we send them, you know, the SATA form with a little place to like, upload your brand kit, and they're like, here's my fonts, here's everything you need to know.
Annie: And that also helps you get better results, right? It's the clarity, the consistency like this is where this is why I wanted to have a guest on about launching, because launching, we don't even realize is so tied into branding. And people think well, I have to launch this course before I can brand myself and it's like, yeah, what's the course about? Who's it for? What are you trying to do? I feel like everyone's trying to figure it out - it's like diet, and exercise, everyone's to figure out how to do it without having to do it. Like how do I lose weight? What I don't want to do diet or exercise. There's really no other way than to ask the uncomfortable questions on time. Well, who am I trying to be? What am I offering?
This comes up in every single Branding with Friends. It's like my running joke that like I think people pay them to, like, come on and say that, but it's like, no, strategy is the sexiest S, as I'm very fond of saying. And it's true.
Nobody wants to talk about it. But it's super true. Because everyone wants to like noodle things. It's a little easier, safer. It feels not as not as effective. That's not a big thing. So fabulous tips today, give yourself more time, keep your lunch linear, we're gonna get to that third tip. But I know you've brought along something for Branding with Friends, folks. So if you're listening or watching, if people want to take the next step with you, Tasha, like what what should they check out?
Don’t miss this special opportunity for “Branding with Friends” fans…
Check out Tasha’s Six Pillars of a Successful Project Plan at thelaunchguild.com/6pillars
Tasha: Check out our six pillars of a successful project plan. Basically, it's how we start our project plans for any client. So it's the zoomed out high level version of those six pillars. And then we're going to give you some questions to ask yourself to make sure that you as you're building out your project plan and building out each one of those 200 tasks and subtasks to make sure that you're not forgetting anything, and you really dial in on each one of those things that you want to think about.
Annie: Awesome. So if you were thinking about launching that course or that project, or whatever it is you want to bring out to your clients, check that out. It's a great place to start. It's going to be linked wherever you are listening or watching this episode. And if this episode got you thinking, I have no idea what I'm doing. I don't have that kit. I am not clear and consistent in how I'm branding myself. I've got you covered as well. You can always set a free time to talk with me at greateststorycreative.com, just hit the big red button that says free consultation.
Alright, so that brings us around to launching and we've had some great tips up to this point. So we're going to leave ourselves more time. We're going to keep it linear. And what is that third thing we really want to keep in mind?
#3 Action Tip
Launching is Cumulative
Tasha: This last one is so important. It's to remember that your launch is cumulative, meaning that we're not just launching for this one thing. And if we don't have a $100,000 launch, we're a failure, right? No, we're really thinking in terms of getting the data, collected the data, maybe getting a couple of students in that first time, really wowing them, getting some feedback from them, refining our course, or membership or service, or whatever it is, and then relaunching it, right?
I have seen so many people who basically stopped before they've even started because they don't have the success or the outcome in terms of revenue that they'd like that first time. And so they're like, I'm going to go back to the drawing board. Well, the best launches aren't just like, I go back to the drawing board each time, no, I made $1,000 or $200, or whatever. And then I work on the process, and I work on and I rinse and repeat and try again. And those are the launches that do the best overall, you know, not the ones that people just throw away after one try.
Annie: So it's really thinking about launching as sort of a strategy over time and iterative one.
Tasha: Yeah, absolutely. I know that for myself, I've got a couple of courses and group programs of my own. And one of them the first time I launched it, I think I made $100. And at this point, I launched about a couple times a year, and that program makes me over $100,000 every single year now. Well imagine if you've given up on it. Yeah, if I was like $1,500 is not worth my time.
Annie: You applied lessons learned? What else? What else would that particular example? Did you feel like move the needle for you, when you have that $1,500 launch? What did you do to bring it up to the level it's performing?
Tasha: I actually had Zoom conversations like this with my students and said, what's working? What's not working? What do you need more and then I refined the process and just went back to the drawing board. And some things, I re-recorded some things, you know, and I made it better each time.
Annie: I love that story. I've become a really big believer. And what I'm trying to teach people is the value of commitment. You know, consistency is great. It’s great that you're consistent for two weeks, that's not really consistency. It's being committed. If you are committing to launching something, that might mean you launch at once, and you learn and you launch it again. And you launch it again. Because it's something you can learn from.
As you know, Tasha has shared today, that it’s ongoing. What makes the difference are the people who are going to run the race for the long haul. It's a marathon and not a sprint to be a business owner and to be a service business owner, like a coach or consultant. And like you said, there's too many of you know, I launched it, it failed, I did nothing with it. Right? It didn't work. That kind of thing. If you believe in it, you go talk to people, you see what worked about it, and then you keep iterating. And you work with the expert like Tasha, or you work with expert like me, it depends on where you get stuck, that you can get unstuck with the right, asking the right questions, reaching out for help, all of those good things. But I love that that you shared that with us today. Anything else that you think it's really important about launching before we let you go?
Tasha: I want to say with that commitment piece - commitment during a launch - that is not creating the outcomes that you want. And I see too many people who halfway through their launch, they're not getting as many signups as they want, you know. And so they stopped showing up on social media, they stopped doing the Facebook Lives that they said that they were going to do, your audience is seeing that. And there are so many people who may not be ready for that product at that moment. But they're still looking at you and they may be ready the next time
Annie: Or they might buy on the very last on the last day.
Tasha: Showing that commitment to your community, you know, whether they're going to buy or not that that time is is so valuable for them and also for you for the data piece. And for them just to see that like you are there for them.
Annie: I think it's the follow through. And I also think it's the vulnerability because like, for example, when I did that launch many years ago, it was I didn't want to do a launch. It was what is it? You know, a consultant told me and I share what I learned from as I should have trusted my gut. Yeah. But you know, I did it. I didn't like it, didn't perform. But what I took away from it was at the end of the day, you have to do the thing that sounds that makes sense to you. But it's like if it's making sense to you and it just didn't have the results. You wanted to hang in there and you commit to it and you hang in for long haul because businesses don't happen overnight. That that's the messaging that I'm really trying to fight against is that there's all this like marketing guru speak of like, if you don't have to six figures in six months you're a failure. Right? No, it's like it took me like six years that make six figures, on my terms, with my balance, with taking a month off and like I'm cool with that that worked for me like it but it's everybody at their own pace. So I think these are all super solid tips. Again, if you guys if you want to learn about launching Tasha is your person and she's got more people than herself to help.
“Branding with Friends” Episode 21
Show Notes + Resources
Here are 3 key tips on launching to grow your service business:
Always take more time than you think
Launch Linear - Connect your ideal client and community with how you can best serve and support them
Launching is cumulative
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To learn more about launching or to seek Tasha’s help:
• Visit Tasha at tashabooth.com and thelaunchguild.com
• Follow her on Facebook: @thetashabooth and @thelaunchguild
• Follow her on Instagram: @thetashabooth and @thelaunchguild
• Check out Tasha’s Six Pillars of a Successful Project Plan at thelaunchguild.com/6pillars
