Launching can be amazing and exciting and overwhelming and #allthethings, but let’s take a look at the overwhelming part. We don’t want you to be overwhelmed during a launch, that’s a recipe for disaster. So maybe you need some extra help. But how do you know when it’s time to hire this help? As a CEO, it’s important that you know when to outsource your launch prep. 

Before you make this decision, there are three things to know before you outsource your launch prep: 

1. What your mindset should be
2. What kind of team to hire
3. Are you and your business prepared for new teammates

As you’re reading, think about your own business and where you want to be. Do you think you’re ready to outsource your launch prep, or do you need to adjust a few things before you think about hiring? These are great questions to ask yourself during your CEO days if you’re looking to grow or expand your business. 

Your CEO Mindset

At the Launch Guild, we typically work with Creator people. Ya know, the person who makes things, like courses or products. Creator people are good at thinking up great ideas and bringing them to life. 

I would know, I’m one of those people too! 

Most people like us, the Creator people, don’t get into business to launch – they get into business to sell the incredible new thing they just made! Think about it. If you’re a course creator what are you more focused on? Creating your course? Or launching your course? 

Bzzzzzzzz! Can we get Creating Your Course for 500, Alex? 🙋🏽‍♀️

As a business owner, you have to play to your strengths and outsource the rest when you can. And as a course creator, for example, your job is to create courses for your audience. You have a community of people waiting to be educated by your incredible mind. You’ve got to give people what they want. As an expert course creator, you will create an incredibly mind-blowing knock-your-socks-off course to launch and leave the launching to the launching experts. 

It’s a natural part of your role as a CEO. As a CEO, you’ll start, or you’ve already started, removing yourself from the implementation process. Eventually, that means removing yourself from the launching process too. 

I know it’s hard, but it has to be done. 

But how do you know when to let someone else handle your launch? Who do you even call? And what if this launch is HUGE and more than one person can handle? 

So many questions and we’ve got all the answers for you. 

Who Do You Call?

For a huge incredibly mind-blowing knock-your-socks-off course launch, you’d call a ✨Launch Team ✨

They handle everything launch-related so can focus all your attention on serving your students and sharing your product with potential customers. That way, on launch day all you have to worry about is showing up. You build the product and the launch team handles the rest. 

But what does the rest look like? You’ll want to know exactly what the launch team does because you’re going to be communicating with them for weeks making sure everything is perfect. 

A launch team’s work usually falls into these three categories: 

Tech – Online Platforms 

Social Media – Marketing 

Planning – Keeping you and everyone else on schedule

The launch team handles the structure of the launch so that the end product flows perfectly on the launch date. That means reaching out to your audience and keeping them engaged, reminding you when to show up Live or on video to nurture your people, making sure all your platforms run smoothly every single time and communicating with you to make sure everything is exactly how you want it.

Doesn’t that sound AMAZING! With them in charge of all of that, you can focus your time on connecting with your audience and talking about your course with potential students to bring those sales in!

But! 

Before you dive in, we’ve made this very important checklist to make sure you’re ready to outsource your launch prep. 

We’ve created this checklist to make sure you’re ready to hire an incredible launch team.

Your Hire-a-Launch-Team-Checklist

Item #1 – You Have an Audience

I can only suggest that you outsource your launch prep if you have an audience to launch to. If you have no previous clients, no previous courses, and no previous launching experience, it’s a no-go. 

Having an audience to launch to is KEY. Because it doesn’t matter how good your course is, if there’s no one there to buy it, no one will know how good it is. 

Once you’ve got your audience, you want to figure out where they are and what they love. 

“Where” means where they engage with you online. Do you get a lot of engagement on your social media? Is it more than the engagement you get on your email list? These are things to consider when marketing for your event. You want the most active parts of your community to see this launch so that they can show up for it and for you. 

Let’s think of your email list. You should have at least 500-1,000 people on your email list to start. You can have more, you cannot have less. 

That’s because only 1-2% of those people on your list are going to convert to clients, so be prepared for this number.

And don’t freak out!  

That is a crazy small number, we know, but it’s reality. If you want to take a look at how that 1-2% translates financially, you can use our launch revenue calculator. We use this calculator before every launch so we can have Good, Better, and Best revenue goal numbers to reach. 

And most importantly, a launch team knows how to make this work. I’ve seen my team help clients make tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars off of ONE launch, so don’t let it discourage you! Take a deep breath and trust the process 😌

Item #2 – You Have a Vision for Your Content Strategy

Part of hiring a launch team is telling them what you want. So, let’s figure out exactly what you want. 

First, think of what you want to be after this launch. Let your wildest dreams come true! Are you considered an expert in your field? Are you the new go-to course creator? And who are you this expert for? Who’s your audience and why do you love them so much? Why are you creating so much for them? 

All these questions will help you see the Future You. Once you have an idea of what you want Future You to look like, send her off to the launch team so they can make that future happen. 

Your Launch Team will take the idea of Future You and make Her a reality. 

Once Future You is ready, think of the platforms you’ll be using for marketing. Places like Facebook, Instagram, Linked In, TikTok, etc. 

Now think of how you want to market yourself to let the world know that Future You is here and ready to kick some butt!!! What does her Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn look like? Write it down and let the launch team know. They can take your ideas and make them a reality.

Item #3 – You Can’t Keep Up with Everything

If you are running out of hours in the day, it’s time to start out-sourcing. There are not enough hours in the day to create a course, run a launch, and keep up your regular everyday business hours. 

When you’re running your business, creating your course, AND launching said course, there are just too many moving parts to keep up with. You may don’t have time for social media strategy and platform building and figuring out why that particular font won’t work on Squarespace. 

And to be honest, that’s not your job. Remember, we are playing to our strengths 💪🏽 and letting someone else handle the rest. 

So relax, take a deep breath, and refocus. You must avoid burnout. 

Once you’re at 80% capacity, it’s time to start outsourcing.

Otherwise, you’ll find yourself pricing online coding classes for the fall semester. You don’t want to go back to school to learn about social media marketing, tech details, and admin stuff. It’s too much! Your brain can only hold so much before it forces you to take a break. 

So pay an expert to get everything you don’t know how to do done the right way. That’s a much better use of your time and money.

Item #4 – You’ve got the goods 

Before you outsource your launch prep, you need to make sure you’ve got a proven, validated product on your hands. 

Emphasis on proven and validated.

This is something you know your community wants, needs, and is willing to pay for. 

I personally wouldn’t outsource your launch prep for a brand new product. It’s just too risky, and there’s only so much magic a launch team can make with a product that flops because there wasn’t enough research behind it. 

Launching takes a lot of time and energy, there’s not a lot of room for recreating an entirely new product halfway to launch day because now it’s clear that this won’t sell. Retouching we can work with, recreating is not happening. 

If you do have a new product you want to launch, you should try launching a beta version of the product before you start a huge launch schedule. You want to test your audience first. Look for a signal that your community is ready for this kind of product. Once it’s clear that waaaayyyy more people can benefit from your product, that’s when you call in the cavalry.

Item #5 – You’ve Got a Smart Launching Timeline 

Let’s be clear, you are not launching next week. You’re not even launching 3 weeks from now. A launch typically takes 12 weeks total, or longer! Keep that in mind throughout this entire process, because it’s a process, and you can’t rush it. 

12 weeks seems like a lot of time, but it’s actually just enough to get everything done. If you want to know how you should be spending that time, take a look at “What a Reasonable Launch Timeline Actually Looks Like.” There we break down what you and your team should be doing every week and what kind of mindset you should have going into your launch. 

As long as you know what a reasonable launch timeline looks like, you can set reasonable expectations for everyone on the team. That way, nothing falls through the cracks and you minimize the amount of crazy technical emergencies. There’s always at least one so be prepared, but we want to prevent them as much as possible 😅

That being said, since a launch takes so long, you can use it to your advantage. 

Here’s a secret- you don’t HAVE to create the entire course before you outsource your launch prep. You can create it as the launch team works its magic. You’ve got 12 weeks to make some magic while they’re working their magic! That’s two birds with one stone! 

While the launch team works on getting your audience in the room, you’ll work on the outline, the benefits, the recording and then have it all ready for launch day.  

And don’t even dream about slacking off. The Launch team keeps the course creator accountable. They’ve got dopy deadline dates, implementation week, launch week, and more on the calendar waiting for you to hand in your homework. As long as they’re working, you’re working.

Now that you’ve got this checklist, take a look at it on your next CEO day. Go through every item and decide for yourself if it’s time to outsource your launch prep. If it is, make sure you bring your CEO mindset with you. I don’t want to see you doing any editing or implementing! That’s the launch team’s job. Let them work their magic so you can work yours 🪄

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Whether this is your 1st launch or your 100th, we want to make sure you don’t make any all too common mistakes. That’s why I’ve made this video detailing the most common mistakes I’ve seen first-time launchers make 

“4 Mistakes Coaches and Course Creators Make as They Scale their Launches”

This FREE video is more than a few tips and tricks. These are structural changes you can make during your launch so you’re not scrambling to clean up after any preventable mistakes. 

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The Launch Guild is all about making course creators like you feel good about your launches while amplifying your impact. 

If you’d like to book one of our launch services for your next launch, schedule your complimentary consultation!