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TASHA BOOTH: “The biggest thing that I see is people are trying to do all the things, or hashtag all the things, as I like to say. They're trying to do all the things on their first launch, right? And it’s so great to see all the bells and whistles and everything, but I think what we have to remember, especially what first-time launchers have to remember, is those bells and whistles are possible because we have teams, because those people that you're seeing all the bells and whistles from have teams. If you're doing it yourself, keep it super simple.”
“I think of the fact is—so my brother, he's much older than me, but he used to do hurdles, the 110 hurdles. And he was supposed to go to the 1980 Olympics to do hurdles.”
AMY PORTERFIELD: “Woah.”
TASHA: “Yeah. It was the Olympics that the U.S. boycotted, so he didn’t get to go. But—”
AMY: “Come on.”
TASHA: “I know, right? So when I think of hurdles, I would just fall over every single one. It becomes another obstacle, another obstacle, another obstacle, before we get to that finish line to success, right?”
AMY: “Yes.”
TASHA: “If we eliminate the hurdles and we just get to run and we create a clear path from where we are to where we need to be and keep it simple, everything opens up for us. So what I mean by that, in terms of how you can streamline your tech, is think that you just need a way for people to learn about your program, you need a way for people to pay you for your program, and you need a way to deliver your program. Everything besides that is just extra stuff that you definitely don't need in your first launch.”
AMY: “Okay, so, learn, pay, deliver. Everything else are the bells and whistles that you don’t necessarily need in your first launch.”
TASHA: “Exactly. And you don’t need five different bonuses, an up-sell, a down-sell. Keep it really, really simple and really linear in that first launch.”
INTRO: I’m Amy Porterfield, ex-corporate girl turned CEO of a multi-million-dollar business. But it wasn't all that long ago that I lacked the confidence, money, and time to focus on growing my small-but-mighty business. Fast forward past many failed attempts and lessons learned, and you'll see the business I have today, one that changes lives and gives me more freedom than I ever thought possible, one that used to only exist as a daydream. I created the Online Marketing Made Easy podcast to give you simple, actionable, step-by-step strategies to help you do the same. If you're an ambitious entrepreneur, or one in the making, who's looking to create a business that makes an impact and helps you create a life you love, you're in the right place. Let's get started.
AMY: Okay, before we get going, a quick word from our sponsor.
This episode is sponsored by Gravy. If you have a subscription-model business, like a membership site, or offer payment plans, like I do with my digital courses, you've got to listen up. One of my biggest frustrations in the past was lost money due to failed payment plans. In fact, it used to keep me up at night. I would worry about all the people that were on a payment plan, because if they stopped their payments, I'd be screwed.
That's when I started working with Gravy. Gravy sets up a system inside your business, where they contact your customers within hours of their failed payments, and they capture updated billing information and save the customer.
Now, as you know, failed payments can be a sensitive topic to navigate with your customers, and that's why Gravy acts as an extension of your team. So when they reach out to people, they communicate on your behalf, and they do it with compassion. On average, before Gravy, our failed-payment recovery rate was just 33 percent when we were trying to do it on our own. Now it's over 80 percent collection on failed payments. That's a whole lot of saved payments.
If your revenue is currently at $250,000 or more and you know you're losing money due to failed payment plans each month, I want to encourage you to check out Gravy. Here's the great news. Gravy is offering my listeners their first month free. So if you want to book a discovery call to find out if your business is a good fit for everything Gravy has to offer, go to amyporterfield.com/gravy.
All right. Let’s jump into today’s episode.
Okay, let's play a guessing game. If you were to guess where people get stuck the most when they are doing live launches online, what would you guess? Filling up their webinars? Attracting the right, ideal customer? The tech side of things? Maybe bringing it all together? I mean, what would you guess? Say it out loud. I wish I could hear you now. Okay, I'm actually not going to give it away, because my guest today is going to dive into those two areas where most people struggle the most when it comes to launching.
My guest is Tasha Booth, and she's the founder and CEO of The Launch Guild, which is an online business management and digital-marketing implementation agency. And she also mentors and supports virtual assistants, and she's the host of the How She Did That podcast. And I have to admit, this episode's one of my favorites because I get to talk to somebody who gets it, who's as passionate about digital courses and launching as I am. So I'm kind of a kid in a candy store with this episode.
Now, as I mentioned, Tasha’s going to share the most-common places entrepreneurs get stuck when they launch and what to do about that. So we've got strategies. We've got tips. We're going to make sure that this episode is really actionable for you. She's also going to share a few personal touches that she's done in her own recent live launches that have had a significant ROI. Now, the ones that she's going to share are incredible, very doable, and you can implement them in your next launch. Plus, she's going to tell you about her own experiences with beta launching and how you can use this approach as well to not only get a little extra income up front, but also use it to tailor and perfect your course for your audience.
I won't make you wait any longer. Help me welcome Tasha.
Tasha, welcome to the show. I'm so very honored to have you here.
TASHA: Thank you for having me. I'm so excited to talk to you today.
AMY: This is going to be a great conversation. Now, before we dive in, I have to ask, I have heard that you are a true-crime fan as well. Is this true?
TASHA: This is totally true. It’s so true.
AMY: Okay. Okay, we're already best friends. So tell me what’s your favorite show or podcast. Like, what do you listen to? What do you watch?
TASHA: Yeah. So my favorite show is probably—I think it's called, like, Murderous Couples or something like that.
AMY: Oh, I've heard of it. Yes, yes.
TASHA: Love it. I just love it. And it's always, like—I always say to them, “Dude, it's so much easier to make $100,000 than it is to find somebody to kill your wife. You’re going to go to jail.”
AMY: Right? It is so true. And I always say to Hobie when we watch it together, like, when the guy has cheated and the wife murders, I'm like, “Just don't cheat, babe. Just pay attention. Don't cheat.” And then he's like, “You're sick in the head.” And then I realize, like, Tasha, what is wrong with us, that we love true crime? There’s something, I think, a little bit weird about us.
TASHA: It's totally weird. And the weirder thing is the fact that fiction crime scares the heck out of me.
AMY: Yes.
TASHA: I could watch true crime for all day, but fiction, I’m just like, oh, my gosh, it’s so scary.
AMY: Okay, totally agree a million percent. So when I heard that, I was like, “Oh, I got to ask her about that.”
TASHA: Yeah.
AMY: So I am obsessed with Crime Junkie, the podcast. I think it's the best podcast out there. So anybody else who loves true crime, you got to check it out, for sure.
Okay, so, let's talk about you. Walk me through your story. I know you have two different parts of your business. So I want to know what that looks like; how did the business evolve; tell me exactly what's going on.
TASHA: Yeah. So I started off about four years ago as a virtual assistant. I was doing it very part time, evenings and weekends, to just make some extra money to pay off student-loan debt and credit-card debt. And it quickly just really snowballed into a full-on big-girl business, as I call it, to the point of where eight months after I started, I quit my full-time job and went full time in my business.
And what I quickly found was that I really loved tech, and I really loved working with coaches and course creators. And what I'm sure you know is that coaches and course creators always have new ideas. They always have new things that are coming up. And I couldn't always fill all of those holes. And so every time we needed to fill another hole, we had to find somebody, hire them, cross our fingers, hope they were the right person. And finally, it got to the point where I was like, “What if I had a team that I had already vetted? I knew that they were the right people. We worked together all the time. We knew that we jelled really well.” And that's kind of how The Launch Guild side of what I do evolved.
So The Launch Guild, which is my agency, I have about twenty-two team members at this point.
AMY: Wow.
TASHA: Yeah. A big team at this point. And we do everything in the digital-marketing implementation side of things. So that includes course launches, podcast launches, systems migrations, those sorts of kinds of big projects, specifically for coaches and course creators. So that I consider The Launch Guild side of my business.
And out of that came the Tasha Booth side of my business, which is coaching and courses for virtual assistants, online business managers, and project managers, because, of course, as my business was growing, people started asking me, “How did you do that? How are you doing that? How are you growing so fast?” So that's what I do.
AMY: Okay, perfect. So I'm glad you explained that. And I love the two sides of the business, for sure.
And before we get into all the tips and tricks of successful launching, you and I were talking before I started to record, and you were mentioning that you are getting ready for a big move. And I wanted to talk—your team's totally virtual, right? All twenty-two people?
TASHA: Right.
AMY: So talk to me about this idea that—you've got to love the location freedom, right?
TASHA: Yes. I love the location freedom. And that was one of the other reasons why I started my business. My husband’s a major in the Air Force, so he's an officer in the Air Force. So we're guaranteed that we move every four years. So right now we're in Tucson, Arizona. In a couple months, we're going to be moving to Albuquerque. And actually, that's going to be our last move of his career. He'll have done twenty-four years in the Air Force.
AMY: Wow.
TASHA: Yeah. And so we're super excited for that new journey. But before, when I had a brick-and-mortar full-time business, I had to go find another job when we moved, you know? And so now I can go anywhere, be anywhere. I've worked in Spain and worked in my business when we were on vacation, I would work a little bit in my business. I’ve worked at basically everywhere at this point in my business, and it's so nice to know that I can pick up and move and do that.
AMY: Yes, I agree. So that whole idea of having more freedom, working from wherever, that's a huge plus as we build our online businesses.
Okay, so, now, I promise we're going to jump into the tips and tricks of successful launching. But just even before we go there, I wanted to congratulate you on being ahead of schedule for your 2020 revenue goal. Now, not a lot of people can say that right now, so I did need to take a moment to celebrate. So, first of all, that must be an amazing feeling. And then, remind me, what was your goal and how far ahead are you right now? And we're in June.
TASHA: Yeah. Thank you for that. So our goal for this year is half a million dollars, which still scares me. It was double our revenue from last year. So our goal was to double our revenue this year to half a million dollars. And we are $50,000 ahead of schedule as of June.
AMY: Okay. This makes me so very happy to hear. Congratulations for that.
TASHA: Thank you.
AMY: I mean, you have done that through a pandemic. So that is really incredible. What are some of your secrets? You've kept going through all of this, and you're ahead of schedule. Like, talk to me about that.
TASHA: Yeah. I think that we had a really solid plan going in. I do think that it helps that I have the two sides of my business. And I also think that I've done a lot of work in networking and making sure that I'm consistently connecting with people. And so that's just really helped get the word out about The Launch Guild, about what we do. And I think it's just helped us continue being able to go and be ahead, even in the light of the pandemic.
AMY: Yes. And I can attest to you being out there meeting people, networking, because we were at Tyler J. McCall’s event, right?
TASHA: Yeah.
AMY: Yep. And we got to talk to each other and get to know each other a little bit from there. And there you were, out there, in real life, in person, before the pandemic, of course. And I think there's a lot to be said about that. For someone who's a total introvert like me, sometimes I just want to stay behind the computer. But every time I go out there and meet people in real life, I make connections that turn out to be people on my podcast, like you. So I want to encourage our listeners to push yourself a little bit to not just be behind the computer.
TASHA: I totally agree.
AMY: It’s a big one.
Okay, so, you've done a few pretty amazing personal touches in some of your recent launches, and I'm all about the personal touches. So I want to hear about what you did, because I think that these little touches make a huge difference in your webinar attendance and in your revenue. Now, I don't want to give any of it away, so tell me exactly what you did and how you felt in terms of the ROI.
TASHA: Yes, absolutely. So one of the things that you should know about me and your listeners should know about me is that I'm an extrovert.
AMY: Oh, you are? Okay.
TASHA: Yeah, I am. And I love connecting with people, and one of the things that I was afraid of when I went from a one-on-one model to a one-to-many model, like courses, was that I was going to lose that personal touch and lose that connection to people. That's really important to me. So the last webinar that I did, or the second-to-last webinar that I did, I had 800 people register, which was absolutely amazing. And what I did was—I planned this out before, so this is important that you plan this out—but I scheduled time in the morning and then in the afternoon as well, and I recorded personalized Bonjoro videos for almost every single one of those attendees. I think I got to, like, 600, 650.
AMY: What in the world?
TASHA: I did.
AMY: Oh, my gosh. Okay, so anyone who doesn’t know what that Bonjoro video is, is basically you on camera, talking specifically to one person. And it's a technology that just makes it really easy. So you could send the video to someone in an email, right?
TASHA: Right, exactly. And so I made them really short—all of them were under a minute—but I made sure to use their name. I made sure to ask them a question and ask them what specifically they were interested in learning during the webinar.
And I got so many amazing replies back. First of all, just thanking me for taking the time to do that. And then, also, what ended up happening was there were so many great questions that I would have missed out on had I not taken that time to do that. And so I was able to kind of refine my webinar material to make sure that it really met the needs of the people that were going to be attending.
AMY: Okay. I want to do some—I’m not going to be able to do it for everyone who registers, but I would love to at least surprise some people what that, because you took it beyond just, “Hey, Sally, I'm so excited you're going to be on my webinar. I can't wait to see you there. If you've got a specific question already, let me know.” So, one, you're making that personal connection. Like, I would be super wowed if someone sent me a video like that. But then you're asking them a question that you could literally bake into your webinar and make sure you address it, especially if you do enough of these videos. I'm assuming you saw some themes come through with some of the questions?
TASHA: Definitely. And the most surprising thing—so this specific webinar was for my course for beginner virtual assistants, for those who are thinking about becoming V.A.s or who are very new to being a virtual assistant. And one of the questions that kept coming up was, What exactly is a V.A., and what can I do as a virtual assistant? And I was so floored.
AMY: Holy cow. Yes.
TASHA: I was like, “Oh, we’re starting there.” I was three steps ahead in terms of the webinar material, and I was like, “No, I need to educate people around what is a V.A., what can you do in the V.A. space, and how can you take what you're doing in your nine to five and translate it into the V.A. space?
AMY: Okay, you just pointed out something—I love talking to you about this—that is so very normal in my space as well, teaching new course creators, you just said it, you were three steps ahead of where the audience was that was going to show up for this webinar, and you would have never known that. So you were genius to be sending these videos and asking them. But that whole principle of, we're typically a few steps ahead. When I teach stuff on webinars. I'm like, “Oh my god, I've talked about this 100 times. People are going to be like ‘That, again?’” They never say that.
TASHA: Right, right, right. We so often think that everybody around us is the expert. We’re the expert. They're learning from us, so we have to make it super-duper easy, and understand that they're not at where we are yet.
AMY: Yes, for sure.
Okay, so you made these videos. You asked this question. That is amazing. So good. But you also sent out an email the day of. Tell me about that.
TASHA: Right. So I send out an email the day of, and that's an email blast to anybody who’s registered for the webinar. And I ask them to hit Reply. So I give them a strong call to action: hit Reply. Let me know that you're coming. And after they hit Reply and let me know that they're coming, I'm actually the one in my inbox responding to every single one of those emails that day.
AMY: Damn. I mean, come on. That's so good.
TASHA: And yeah, it’s labor intensive, but once again, I just block off my entire day. I know that there's going to be a lot of emails coming in. And I keep it short—it's a couple sentences, maybe five at the most—and just let them know that I'm super excited that they specifically are coming. I think that the important piece to point out is that everybody wants to feel like an individual. They don't want to feel like a number. So the more that we can show them that we appreciate them and see them and honor them as an individual, the better.
AMY: Yes and yes.
Two things I want to say to these great points you're making. One thing that I do, and I'd like to do a lot more of during the launch, is that I'm typically not in Help Scout, which is our customer-support portal that we use. So when people send emails, I typically don't see them, because we have a large business now, and it's a lot of emails, and we have a team for that. However, during a launch, I get into Help Scout, and they assign me certain emails that they’re like, “Amy, I think this woman would really value hearing from you,” or whatever the situation might be.
But what I do is I use Snagit, which is I just record my voice, and what they're seeing in the video is their actual email that I'm reading. Like, “Hey, I just saw your email.” So it's a video, but it's really just showing the screen. But they're hearing my voice, because typically, now that the business has gotten bigger, and this will even be true for smaller businesses, they don't believe it’s you.
TASHA: Right, absolutely.
AMY: Yeah. So they're like, “Well, they're saying they're Amy, but this is really her customer support. And it's really Josh.” And that's not the case. We don't pretend it's ever me. And so we just want to use my voice, and that goes a long way, because they’re like, “Holy cow. I can’t believe you reached out.”
The other thing I wanted to mention is that these two awesome ideas, guys, that I highly recommend you are intentional about them in your next launch, they require you to have the time to do them. And that part, I'm so glad you brought up because when I go into a launch, a lot of our—and we'll talk about some of these things—a lot of new, first-time launchers who you work with very closely, they are doing all the things. So they're like, “Are you kidding me? I have no time to make videos like that.” But as you get more experienced in your launches, I have tons of time to do stuff like that now in my launches, because I have a small team helping with all the other things. So if I'm going to do these videos like you suggested here, I'm going to make sure I talk to my team and say, “Give me three hours on this day at this time to make these videos. If I don't schedule them, this is never going to happen.”
TASHA: Exactly, absolutely.
AMY: Yeah. Okay, so I’m glad you brought that up. Okay, so—well, I guess I brought that up, but I’m glad you brought the point up of making the videos.
Okay, so, you’ve supported a lot of digital—well, wait. Time out. I totally missed something. The ROI of doing those two things. What would you say that was?
TASHA: Yes. So we definitely had our highest percentage of show ups webinar for both of those launches because of those actions. It's just a matter of taking the time to do it, and people seeing, like, “Oh, she took the time for me, so I'm going to take the time and show up for her.”
AMY: Yes. Totally agree. So we're really focused on increasing our webinar attendance. So things like, “Hey, click Reply, and let me know you're going to be there,” and then you respond back to them. Oh, that person’s showing up for the webinar. So good.
TASHA: Right, right.
AMY: Okay, so, you've supported a lot of digital-course creators during their launches, especially first launches. So what would you say are the most-common areas that they get stuck when trying to launch?
TASHA: Ooh, that's a good one. So I think there are two, and that is tech and copy.
AMY: Ding, ding, ding. I mean, these are the ones I hear all the time: tech and copywriting. Yes.
TASHA: And I think it's for very different reasons. So I think the tech is because not everyone's under genius's tech, and the copy is because I don't think it's always prioritized as quickly or as soon as it should be within the launch.
AMY: Oh, okay. So prioritizing the copy, I could get behind that.
Okay, so I want to kind of hear a little bit about—let's talk tech first, okay? So if people are getting stuck with the tech, where are they getting stuck specifically, and what can they do to avoid that happening when they're launching? Let's say these are people who are not working with you, right?
TASHA: Yeah, absolutely.
AMY: Okay, got it.
TASHA: So I think that the biggest thing that I see is people are trying to do all the things, or hashtag all the things, as I like to say. They're trying to do all the things on their first launch, right? And it’s so great to see all the bells and whistles and everything, but I think what we have to remember, especially what first-time launchers have to remember, is those bells and whistles are possible because we have teams, because those people that you're seeing all the bells and whistles from have teams. If you're doing it yourself, keep it super simple.
I think of the fact is—so my brother, he's much older than me, but he used to do hurdles, the 110 hurdles. And he was supposed to go to the 1980 Olympics to do hurdles.
AMY: Woah.
TASHA: Yeah. It was the Olympics that the U.S. boycotted, so he didn’t get to go. But—
AMY: Come on.
TASHA: I know, right? So when I think of hurdles, I would just fall over every single one. It becomes another obstacle, another obstacle, another obstacle, before we get to that finish line to success, right?
AMY: Yes.
TASHA: If we eliminate the hurdles and we just get to run and we create a clear path from where we are to where we need to be and keep it simple, everything opens up for us. So what I mean by that, in terms of how you can streamline your tech, is think that you just need a way for people to learn about your program, you need a way for people to pay you for your program, and you need a way to deliver your program. Everything besides that is just extra stuff that you definitely don't need in your first launch.
AMY: Okay, so, learn, pay, deliver. Everything else are the bells and whistles that you don’t necessarily need in your first launch.
TASHA: Exactly. And you don’t need five different bonuses, an up-sell, a down-sell. Keep it really, really simple and really linear in that first launch.
AMY: I always say, keep it simple; get fancy later. And so I don’t think anybody—and I tell my Digital Course Academy®️ students this. Your first launch, you should not be doing an up-sell or a down-sell. You should not be doing webinars for five different ICAs and five different webinars, or making a special video series that goes into a webinar that goes into a challenge. You don't need all of that. And I would never have been able to do anything like that in my early years. So I do think the more-profitable launches are the simple ones.
TASHA: Mm-hmm. Absolutely, absolutely.
We just had a client. She had a $16,000 launch. It was her first launch, straight out the gate. And she kept it so super simple. The only extra thing she did because she had us as a team was she ran Facebook ads. But other than that, it was a lot of social-media content. I think she did two webinars. It was really, really linear and easy, but it was exactly what her ideal client and what the people that she served really needed.
AMY: And $16,000 is a great first launch.
TASHA: It’s a great launch.
AMY: Right? That’s amazing. And if you can do $16,000 in your first launch, watch out, world. You have your foundation.
And so inside your agency, that's one of the things you do for people when you help them launch, you run their ads?
TASH: We do. We do. Yeah.
AMY: That's big. We're going to talk about your agency a little bit later. But that's a huge roadblock for a lot of my students, and that's one thing they want to do more early on is to run ads, but they're like, “I have no clue.” So we'll talk about that.
Okay, let’s talk about copywriting, because that is another one that really gets stuck, especially the sales page and the emails, right? And in Digital Course Academy®️, I have my students write a lot of emails. So anything that you can help here in terms of navigating through copywriting, where people are getting stuck, what words of wisdom do you have here?
TASHA: So definitely prioritize the copy from the beginning. So when our clients are doing their first launch especially, and when they choose to write their own copy instead of having us write their copy for them, we prioritize that from the very beginning. So the first probably week or two weeks into our launch plan with them, which is usually about eight or twelve weeks out, we're having them write their sales page, because it's going to take the longest, and it's going to be the thing that needs to be refined, and they're going to want to come back to it.
So don't think, “Oh, I can get to that later.” Really focus on doing that ahead of schedule so by the time you're in launch week, you don't have to be writing the email for the next day, the night before. That's the worst feeling, absolutely.
AMY: Ever. Yes.
TASHA: The other thing is that I think that people get lost in the copy and think that it has to be this amazing, grand thing, when it really just needs to speak to the needs of your ideal client. So what do they need to hear to get from where they're unsure and scared to take that leap to where they're ready to take that leap?
AMY: Okay, so, this is important because—and I think it also comes back to what you said in the first point with tech, that you don't need all the things from the get-go. So even though I tell my students what emails to send during a launch, a lot of my students don't send every single one of them their first launch. They know what's needed, but they cut back a little bit, which is totally fine. So also, I think getting really clear on what assets do you really need to write for and what can wait for launch number two. Would you agree?
TASHA: Absolutely. Absolutely, I’d agree.
And the other thing that I want to point out is they probably, if you've already been connecting with your ideal client and you already do a newsletter or you do Facebook Lives or Instagram Stories or any of those things, you probably already have so much content that you can repurpose for your emails, and just use that. Don't be afraid to use that. I used to think, “Oh, people have already read this,” but nine times out of ten, either they loved it the first time and they’re excited to read it again, or they missed it the first time and they're excited to read it for the first time.
AMY: Which is great. I'm always reminding myself, just because I put it out there does not mean the whole world has seen it, so we can repurpose some of this.
And for emails, what are some of your suggestions to kind of streamline the emails? A lot of times, when it comes to copywriting, my students are like, “I don't know what to write in this email. I don't even know what I'm supposed to be talking about.”
TASHA: Yeah. So I know you do a great job inside of DCA, giving them some outlines and stuff for emails. And my suggestion would be, you want to think about some stories, a lot of stories, help stories of what you have overcome, stories of what other people that you've worked with—even in a one-on-one basis—what they have overcome in their transformations. And then, also, frequently asked questions are a great one. Just give them the information that they need in order to get from where they are to where they need to be.
AMY: Yeah. So very true.
Okay, so tech and copywriting. Yes. Two areas. I think the moral of the story is let's streamline it and keep it simple and get ahead of it, especially the copywriting. I've never suggested that, and that is something that I 100 percent stand behind, and I should start talking about it more. It's the thing that takes a while if you're not going to have someone write it for you, which typically, if it's your first launch and you don't have much money, you are writing that copy.
TASHA: Right. Yeah.
AMY: So, yeah, makes sense.
Let's talk about beta launches because I love a beta launch, but I want you to explain what that is. But also, you've done some great things with a beta launch. So tell me what it is, just for my audience who doesn't know, and then share how beta testing a digital course and launching it has worked for you by sharing specifically a personal experience.
TASHA: Yeah, absolutely. So, I believe that beta launches are the launches without the bells and whistles. So it’s your first, first time out the gate. You're validating your idea. You're validating your course. You're getting some feedback from those people who already know and love you. So they're probably the people in your community who are already excited about everything that you do. And so they're probably going to be the first buyers.
So within that beta, one of the things that I did in my first beta about a year and a half ago is I didn't even have a sales page. I had a Google Doc that I had made to look really pretty and on-brand.
AMY: That’s so good.
TASHA: Yeah. And I just walked through, okay, what is the important information that they need to know? What are they going to learn? What is the transformation? What is the price point? Where can they go to pay? All of those pieces, I created in a Google Doc, and then I just talked about it. I talked about it on Instagram Stories. I talked about it in my Facebook group. I think I sent a couple emails to my list about it. And that ended up being a $4,000 beta launch, which was pretty amazing for something where there were no Facebook ads, no sales page.
AMY: Incredible.
TASHA: Yeah. It was great.
And then recently I did a beta launch for—it was kind of a group coaching/course hybrid. So we did have a once-a-week group-coaching component to it, but that didn't have a sales page at all. I just got into my Facebook group, and once again on Instagram Stories, and talked about what I was going to help them achieve and learn during those four weeks. And that became a $6,000 launch.
AMY: Wow.
TASHA: Yeah. I really believe in keeping betas super easy for you and super easy for your ideal client to say yes to.
AMY: So, that reminds me. A lot of people that are launching for the first time, we have a lot of discussion and a lot of focus on their email list, and the fact that some people come into Digital Course Academy®️ with just 200 people on their email list, and they want to work on that and grow that; or some people come into DCA with an email list, but it’s not really engaged. They haven’t talked to that email list for a while. When you work with clients about launching and those who have been successful, do you put a focus on the email list? Is that something that you look at? Where does that play into how you help your clients?
TASHA: Yeah. We do put a focus on the email list because I think that it's really important that they already have people that are excited about what they're doing and that they're already starting to curate that know, like, and trust factor. So if they don't have an email list, there needs to be some place where they're already talking to their community. Maybe it's a Facebook group. Maybe they have a strong social-media following. It's not so much the size of the email list; it's more so the energy of the email list, right?
AMY: Yes.
TASHA: So we want them to be really engaged and really excited and to be having real conversations with their ideal client all the way through, way before they're ready to ask them for something.
AMY: Yeah, totally agree. I think it should be a focus. It doesn't need to be huge. It's the energy. It's not the size. One hundred percent.
You and I are so on the same page.
TASHA: We’re so on the same page.
AMY: We definitely run our launches same and have the same philosophies, which is one of the reasons why I wanted you here, because I've heard such great things about your launch business and how you support people. You’ve supported some of my students in DCA, and they absolutely rave.
So before we tell people where to go to check you out, talk to me about what it looks like to work with you and your team in The Launch Guild, and what are some of the things that you offer? And here's the deal. For those of you listening who haven't yet created a course and you're thinking about it, this is something you put in your back pocket and think, “When I'm at a place that I can afford some support, here it is. It's waiting for me. It's available.” And those of you who have some funds to put towards this, you don't have to do it alone. So there's something for everybody here, whether you're ready to jump in or not. So when people get to work with you, what does it look like?
TASHA: Yeah. We have a lot of different ways that people work with us. I say a lot, but it’s really, like, three at this point.
AMY: Because you're a smart marketer, and you keep it really streamlined.
TASHA: Keep it streamlined and simple, right? So we have one thing called launch day, and that is all of the tech pieces. So we go in, and we set up all of the back end, all of the tech for our clients in one day, which is a busy day.
AMY: Yes.
TASHA: Yeah. But we do that. And because, once again, the tech is one of the big pieces that people get lost in, right?
AMY: Yep.
TASHA: The other beginner kind of thing that we offer for our clients is design day, and that's actually two days where we design their sales page, their thank-you page, their webinar page, their webinar thank-you page. So if people are kind of like, “Oh, I’m kind of on the fence. I’m not really sure about my design skills,” that's another place where I think that we definitely shine.
So those are kind of our two lower-end ways to work with us. And then we have the huge package, which is full-launch support, where we offer Facebook ads support and project management and all of the tech and all of the design, social-media strategy, the whole gamut of launching and launch support for that.
AMY: And The Launch Guild, is that the—when you say you have twenty-two employees, is that between the two businesses?
TASHA: No, that's on The Launch Guild side.
AMY: Wow. So, you also have the bandwidth, you have the support. You're not pretending, like, three of us can do all of this.
TASHA: Right, exactly.
And we usually have about five to six launch clients at any given time. Sometimes it's more than that. But that feels kind of like our sweet spot. Five to six launches in the course of four weeks or so, on average.
AMY: Now, a lot of my students are freaked out by live launches. And I have this philosophy that if you want to create a digital course in your business, over time one of the best ways to build that foundation is to have an evergreen product, which you run all the time to have consistent revenue, and then you do live launches, because I believe in the power of live launches. I think they grow your email list quickly. They put you on the map. You get to get in the trenches with your customers, and you get to address their objections in the moment so that when they need you to say, “Hey, am I right for this?” you're there to talk to them. And there's just a lot of magic that can happen from live launches. So when I heard about you guys, I was like, “Oh, I'm all about this.”
But someone who is launching constantly with other people, because you're in the trenches, how do you keep your sanity? Because a lot of people are like, “Holy cow, one launch and I'm done for the year,” kind of thing. And it doesn't have to be that way. What are some self-care launching strategies you have?
TASHA: Yeah. So our big one and our rule at The Launch Guild is that everything is done a week before the launch starts—
AMY: Amen.
TASHA: —so that everything is done. So that means all emails are scheduled, all the tech has been tested multiple times, everything is done. Number one, that helps the team to be able to get some rest and to come in fresh for launch week. And then, number two, it definitely helps our client who is launching to just be able to show up and be excellent at being themselves. And I think that that's so important to prioritize getting things done ahead of time, because when you're trying to build the plane as you're flying it, it never feels fun.
AMY: No, no. That's such a great analogy. I love that.
So where do people go to learn about both of your businesses?
TASHA: Yes, I have two websites. The Launch Guild’s website is thelaunchguild.com. And then the Tasha Booth website is tashabooth.com, and that’s for all things coaching and courses for virtual-support pros.
AMY: So we will be linking to all of that in the show notes at amyporterfield.com/325. So if you forget one of those URLs, that's the place you go, and you can link directly to it.
Tasha, I am so glad that we got to meet at Tyler's event. I am so glad that you are going to be a resource for my listeners, because this is such a topic that I'm so passionate about—live launching. And here you are, stepping in, saying it doesn't have to be so tough. There are different ways to streamline this. So thank you so much for being here.
TASHA: Thank you. So fun talking to you.
AMY: So there you have it. One thing that I loved most about this webinar is that I learned some new strategies that I've never tried before. And this episode reminded me that I want to interview more entrepreneurs who are launching online and doing really creative things with their launches that I've never tried before. There's so much that you can do and experiment with and really just make your launches super authentic to who you are and how you want to show up. So I hope you loved this episode as much as I did, because I'd love to do more of these, really reach out to entrepreneurial women who are doing amazing things online and learning about how they launch and what that looks like for them. So I hope you loved it because there's more of this to come.
All right. So thank you so very much for tuning in. I want you to check out everything that Tasha has to offer, and she didn't even mention that she has a podcast. It's called How She Did That. So I'll link to all things Tasha in the show notes at amyporterfield.com/325.
And as always, I'll see you same time, same place next week. Bye for now.
