Episode 178. The Mindset Behind Selling Your Signature Offer: A Launch Debrief

On today’s episode, I will be sharing the behind-the-scenes of a relatively recent launch that took place for my signature program, the Thought Leader Club, which was, at the time, a brand new offer I was introducing into my business.

This is a follow up to the previous episode where I shared about a launch where I created and sold a brand new one-time offer. It was a super spontaneous and light hearted launch experience. In that episode, I shared my thought process behind the offer, a launch debrief on what worked and what I’d do differently, and also how thought leadership played a key role in the success of this particular launch.

In This Episode:

The mindset highs and lows behind the launch of my signature program: the Thought Leader Club
- General thoughts and mindset
A deep dive into the mindset behind the marketing assets for the launch (Instagram, podcast, and email sales content)
The mindset you need to build thought leadership and grow your business

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How to sign more clients using thought leadership and mindset

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That said, for this episode, I want to approach the launch debrief from a slightly different angle. Specifically, I want to share how my mindset and identity during the launch influenced the actions I took, and how it impacted the marketing of my program and the ultimate final results of the launch.

The mindset highs and lows behind the launch of my signature program: The Thought Leader Club

A big part of the work we do as we build our thought leadership, our body of work, and our business is not just the front-facing work that is visible to our audience, such as creating content and showing up online.

But our sense of self, our belief and conviction in what we do, and how we talk to ourselves when things don’t go our way. These are also very, very crucial to our growth as entrepreneurs and emerging thought leaders.

That is we will take a mindset angle for this launch debrief.

To kick us off, let me give you some context around the launch of the first ever cohort of the Thought Leader Club (TLC). The program officially started on November 1, 2023, and I was actively selling the program for the 6 weeks prior to the program start date.

For this launch, I shared about the program through the following platforms:

1x weekly podcast episode
A few Instagram feed posts per week selling TLC
1x daily sales email in the month of October
Kind of: Instagram stories… Not really, lol, I’ll explain.

In terms of launch results, two people joined the program very, very early on in the launch. Within the first week, actually.

Then, there were a few weeks of silence. Meaning, no sales calls and no clients joining. And in the last few days, two more people joined.

This means that in the end, we had four awesome peeps (in addition to myself) inside the first ever cohort of TLC.

Now that we have some background on the launch, let’s start this episode with some overarching observations about where my mindset was throughout the launch.

General thoughts and mindset

In the beginning of the launch, there were definitely some really helpful thoughts, such as:

This is so fun! I’m so excited to share about TLC!!!!!!!!!!!
This is so new and fresh!!!! People are going to love it!

During the “Mid launch slump”, the thoughts that kept me going included:

Cheryl, keep going because everything you’re doing matters for all the TLC launches that will come.
I’m committed to practicing my writing skills.
I’m going to think about my TLC peeps, there’s definitely something I still haven’t said yet. I can do this.

And finally, during the last week of my launch, I was grounded in the following thoughts:

I’m unattached to the outcome.
Let me focus on expressing my sincerity to my people.
I’m proud of myself for not giving up during the mid launch slump.

That said, it wasn’t always pretty inside my brain. Because there were definitely unhelpful thoughts that went on inside my brain.

For example, in the beginning, despite my excited energy about this new program, my brain was also trying to feed me negative thoughts like:

I don’t know how to talk about TLC.
I need to see what others are saying about their programs.

And during the mid launch slump, my brain was pretty fierce in trying to convince me that:

It’s fine, two people are great already. Just do better next launch.
It’s a new program so you need a few more months to build demand next time.

As we can see, helpful, empowering thoughts that drive us to take action can simultaneously coexist with thoughts that honestly keep us stuck. Both can happen concurrently.

From this launch experience, I learned that it is ultimately how we decide to see our situation in spite of these competing thoughts that will determine how we continue to move forward.

Shitty thoughts and feelings are inevitably going to surface during our journey as entrepreneurs. For example, we might feel discouraged about our business results. But these thoughts do not have to hold you back from doing the work that your business requires of you.

Because I was able to ground back to the more helpful thoughts and continued to focus on why my work through this program, the Thought Leader Club (TLC), was important to me and my people throughout the duration of this launch, I finished the launch proud of not just my launch results, but also proud of who I was throughout the launch experience.

The best part is undeniably the four incredible people who joined the program. The 4 months following the launch was nothing short of fantastic, and this would not have been possible if I had allowed my not-so-helpful thoughts take over during the launch.

Now let’s take a closer look at the marketing assets I created during the launch, and the thoughts that went on behind the scenes.

A deep dive into the mindset behind the marketing assets for the launch (Instagram, podcast, and email sales content)

Instagram Stories

Let’s talk about Instagram. When it came to the Instagram stories I posted during this time, I Liked that I used visuals to capture the essence of the Thought Leader Club (TLC), and also how I was showing behind the scenes of how I’m preparing for TLC.

During the last few days of the launch, I started talking about the peeps already inside the program. I remembered that I would keep re-reading these Instagram stories because I just think the TLC peeps are so awesome.

Looking back, the thoughts that contributed to me having the capacity or creativity to create Instagram stories content that I liked include:

TLC is FUN!
Prepping for TLC is FUN!
I am CREATIVE!
The peeps inside TLC are COOL!

On the other hand, I could also see that there were parts of my Instagram stories during the launch that I didn’t quite like. This includes:

Sporadic and infrequent mentions/selling of TLC. If someone only follows me regularly on Instagram stories, they’d think I’m half-assing the launch. Or, it seems like no launch is happening.
Very shallow explanations – For example, all I did was share my curriculum overview (in bullet points) and that’s it. No other elaborations.
Simply reposting my Instagram posts on Instagram stories felt… half assed.

With hindsight, I can see that the thoughts that contribute to the above include:

I’m tired and don’t have time, I’ll just do the bare minimum by reposting my feed posts to stories.
No one is watching my Instagram stories anyways.
I already have two people.
No one will join anyways.

As you can already see, there are definitely some pretty clear linkages between the thoughts that came up internally, and the external content output.

Again, helpful and empowering thoughts about my Instagram stories marketing content can concurrently coexist with not so helpful and disempowering thoughts.

Upon further reflection, I realized that moving forward, I didn’t want to just repost Instagram posts on Instagram stories.

Instead, I want to take the time to think of how to deliver the same information in a more engaging, thoughtful way for my Instagram stories audience.

It was also super clear to me that I needed to work on my belief that people on Instagram stories *WANT* to join TLC and want to hear about it.

Finally, I will think about when doing the bare minimum makes sense and when it does not. I’ll also consider what kind of people I will attract when I have the thought, “I’m just going to do the bare minimum.”

Now, let’s look at my Instagram posts during this launch.

Instagram Posts

First, I created 4 Instagram posts that were repurposed directly from my sales page:

What I liked: You could see the shift in Cheryl’s messaging. You could see Cheryl starting to step into her own thought leadership.
What I didn’t like: Text heavy, too much information jammed into 4 posts.
Thoughts: 1) I’M SO EXCITED TO SHARE TLC. 2) But how the hell do I talk about TLC??? I don’t know so let me just repurpose from my sales page.
What I’ll do differently: The delivery of information feels “standard” and basic. Even though I really liked my sales page at the time, I think I could have split up the posts into more pieces of content, and give each separate post more thought on how to communicate/deliver the information written on the sales page.

I also created several feed posts where I talked about TLC as helping you pave way for your 1-3 year dreams:

What I liked: I like the angle of “1-3 year dreams”, it resonates with me and the essence of TLC; I like sharing my own examples of how my body of work has played a role in my dreams, and how it will play a role in my next 1-3 year dreams; I painted this as a journey.
What I didn’t like: The examples of 1-3 year dreams were arguably vague; It was positioned as a “nice to have” rather than THIS IS THE TIME. I didn’t touch on WHY NOW.
Thoughts: TLC is FUN!!!!! But how the hell do I talk about TLC??? I don’t know??? It’s fine, just get something out first.
What I’ll do differently: Give clear and specific examples of 1-3 year dreams (ex: Round 1 TLC clients’ dreams) → How TLC process helps you build your dreams. Answer “WHY NOW”.

Then, I had a number of Instagram posts that were repurposed directly from my emails:

Here, I had the same thoughts as my emails and we’ll unpack my thoughts about my emails later on in this episode.
Thoughts: I’m tired and don’t have time, I’ll just do the bare minimum (by repurposing my emails into Instagram posts). The real underlying thoughts – No one is seeing my posts anyways. There are already two people inside, it’s good enough already. No one will join anyways.

What’s super interesting about evaluating my Instagram posts during this launch is that it’s just so obvious how whatever thoughts were rummaging through my mind at the time, would reflect in the decisions I then made, which would then influence either the quality of the marketing assets I posted or how I showed up. SO FASCINATING.

Podcast Episodes

Now, let’s take a look at the podcast.

During the launch period, I released 7 episodes on the podcast where I made an invitation to join the TLC. For this particular launch debrief episode, I’ll unpack 3 of the 7 podcast episodes.

Side note: I’ve since then renamed my episode titles so that it’s more optimized for searchability.

First, let’s talk about Episode 141: When You Have Little Likes & Low Engagement.

Interpreting data: Sample size, data reliability, and data validity.
What your social media analytics cannot tell you.
Looking at your “qualitative data” from clients.

What I liked: I liked that I was sharing my own story and perspectives; I offered a very unique point-of-view (POV) regarding the topic of “vanity metrics” and “analytics” – It’s likely an angle that very few in the coaching space have considered or thought of; I showed my researcher Cheryl side; I explained technical terms in layman language; I also managed to weave in TLC and connect it to the episode’s focus; I repurposed a Google Doc of stuff I typed in response to a client’s question.
What I didn’t like: N/A.
Thoughts: I HAVE THINGS TO SAY.
What I’ll do differently: I would like to infuse more storytelling and “lightness” (energy) into a relatively technical episode.

Episode 144: The Audacity to Believe and Sparkle: The First Step to Becoming a Successful Content Creator

My story of continuing to show up online despite experiencing judgment, unkind comments, and harassment.
The difference between good thought leaders and exceptional thought leaders.
What to do if you’re struggling with the thought of “But I’m not a thought leader…”

What I liked: I liked that I was sharing my own story and perspectives I like that I weaved in my story on why content matters to me, why I believe so much in sharing my story and I shared what I believed thoughts leaders do / what they don’t do (creating a “culture” of thought leaders). I like that I was able to weave in an invitation to book a discovery call I repurposed from my emails.
What I didn’t like: N/A.
Thoughts: I’m just telling my story, I know how to do this.
What I’ll do differently: I could consider doing a separate podcast episode on a framework that you could use to tell your story, today.

Episode 145: Consistent Podcasting: What to Do When You Don’t Feel Motivated to Create Content

I was planning on skipping this episode and missing a week of the podcast. Here’s how I got myself out of this rut.
How I planned what to talk about in this podcast episode.
The thought process behind how to speak to my audience about my program.

What I liked: I liked that I was sharing my own story and perspectives. I liked that I was documenting my own thought processes when faced with a scenario that so many aspiring thought leaders face as well. It was a quick episode to write because I was following my own TLC process (1. Start with what’s recent and top of mind → 2. Document exactly that). I weaved in many reasons why someone should join TLC, and addressed thoughts people might have about joining, which I repurposed from my emails.
What I didn’t like: N/A.
Thoughts: I’m just telling my story, I know how to do this.
What I’ll do differently: N/A.

What stood out to me among these three podcast episodes is how they were all rooted in the underlying thought of: “No one is selling the same thing, why bother looking around?”

Because of this, there was barely any temptation to look around at how others are talking about and marketing their coaching programs. As a result, I was able to create several podcast episodes that I truly feel are an encapsulation of how I think and are reflective of my thought leadership. SO COOL.

Emails

Now, let’s discuss the emails I sent during the launch.

What I did for the entire month of October 2023, was I would send one sales email to my email list, every single day, for 31 days straight. I want to read out loud the email I sent the day before the first email went out.

Hi NAME, starting on the 1st of October, I’ll be taking on a self-imposed challenge where I send you an awesome sales email about The Thought Leader Club. Every. Single. Day.

Like many, I too grapple with the thoughts of, “One email a week is already too much.” and “People will unsubscribe…”. But the thing is, I know that among the 315 peeps currently on our email list, there’s some of you who would LOVE to hear from me regarding the upcoming cohort of The Thought Leader Club. So, I’m writing 31 emails, over the next 31 days, for you 🙂

Here’s what you can expect:

A good ass sales email about The Thought Leader Club, every day, for the next 31 days.
A direct invitation to book a discovery call with me.
On some days, you may receive more than one email from me (ex: On Wednesdays, I also send an email to share our newest podcast episode).

If you don’t want to be part of the 31 sales emails, you can click here to unsubscribe to the sales emails (but stay on our regular email list). You can also unsubscribe from this at any time in October.

THIS IS GOING TO BE SO MUCH FUN… Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.

Cheryl

P.S. Just for fun, I’d love to share with you a sneak peek into my brain… Here are my thoughts of why I WANT to write (and send) an email a day for October (which I will practice grounding into, every day, next month):

I want to show myself I can do this.
I want to disprove my thought of “I don’t know what to even say in an email”.
It’s in integrity for me to do this challenge. I go first and lead by example for my clients.
It stretches my own thought leadership, writing skills, and creativity.
It’s cool that I can write an email a day!
This is 31 additional touch points between me and my peeps.
I’ve helped clients do this. I can do this for myself.
I just need to put myself in an environment where I stretch myself to do it.
Among 300-ish subscribers, I’m sure that at least 6 people are interested in joining the Thought Leader Club.
I want to practice developing my own email voice and not boxing myself into any email or writing “rules”. I want to own my voice by the end of October.
I want to do this.

P.P.S. Ready to book a discovery call and talk more about whether The Thought Leader Club makes sense for you in November? BOOK YOUR CALL HERE

As you may have guessed, writing one sales email a day wasn’t exactly easy. It definitely stretched me out of my comfort zone and challenged my discipline and commitment to my own word.

But what I thought was really pivotal for me to actually commit and finish this 31 day email challenge was the mindset that underlies the challenge.

I really, really wanted to better my skill sets as an entrepreneur, strengthen my identity as an entrepreneur, and also simultaneously created more sales touchpoints with my audience.

And it’s cheesy to say this. But honestly, I am still kind of pleasantly surprised at how my “why” for the email challenge really was the driving force behind my ability to take action and carry out this email challenge.

Throughout the month of October when I was doing my 31 days of sales emails, the response was generally quiet. No one replied back to my emails at all… until day 31, when one of the awesome peeps on our email list wrote back and shared with me their favorite 3 emails in the past 31 days.

They wrote:

OMG it’s been a month already?! It sure didn’t feel like it because I was enjoying reading your emails wayyyyy too much… Just popping in to congratulate you on your rebrand! Always love seeing the growth of your journey. For me, following your story feels like I am being transported into the front row seat of an autobiography being painted in real time. It is so incredibly brave. My top 3 favourite of the emails that you sent is: (gonna let you know even though you didn’t ask for it. hehe)

Who should NOT join the Thought Leader Club – woo, this was a strong one. It demonstrated your integrity in business as well as your authority in understanding your area of expertise by recognising clients can be at different points of their journey and needs. I kept screaming YES YES, way to go Cheryl while reading it. And the hook for this piece? Chef’s kiss.
If people around you don’t get it – This belief shifting piece sets the mood for ethical urgency. Just brilliant.
I’m fed up and fired up – This felt like a Kinder Surprise moment for me. I was not expecting this piece to be a part of a launch sequence but I am glad it was though. It was a really strong positioning piece on personal brand messaging. You nailed this.”

So proud of you to have completed this challenge you had set for yourself.

Such an affirming message to receive, first and foremost. Second, there is an interesting common denominator among the three emails that this person mentioned.

Let’s take a closer look at these three particular emails.

Day 7: Who should NOT join the Thought Leader Club

What I liked: I love all of the things I wrote for who shouldn’t join.
What I didn’t like: N/A.
Thoughts: I know who I want inside TLC and I want the people / these peeps to know!!!!
What I’ll do differently: I could have expanded more on: If it IS for you, here’s what we can make happen BECAUSE we’re such a great fit!!! (or I could do a separate email on this).

Day 17: I’m fed up and fired up

What I liked: I like my fervor and energy in this email. It was written based on a recent event I experienced → Very easy email to write.
What I didn’t like: N/A.
Thoughts: I was FIRED UP after being pissed off by the event.
What I’ll do differently: Nothing, except this needs to be a podcast episode lol (and Instagram post).

Day 18: If people around you don’t get it…

What I liked: I was responding to a message I received from someone who mentioned how much they enjoyed my TLC content.
- I like the angle of this email
  - And because of these voices around you, you’re questioning your dreams and goals.
  - That dream to be a speaker? Podcaster? Author? Workshop facilitator? Entrepreneur? Coach? Thought leader?
  - Yes, you’re questioning whether that’s even what you want.
- And also
  - Thought leaders don’t wait.
  - They don’t wait for people around them to “get it” before they start sharing their story and perspectives.
  - Thought leaders don’t wait to start leading by example and are willing to go first.
  - Thought leaders don’t wait to start doing things and saying things that others are afraid to do or say.
  - Thought leaders don’t wait before they start building their body of work.
- And I like how I transitioned to selling: I don’t want you to keep waiting. I want to help you figure it out, right now.
What I didn’t like: N/A.
Thoughts: I was fired up after seeing the person’s message.
What I’ll do differently: N/A except this needs to be a podcast episode lol (and Instagram post).

When we look at these three emails, it seems that when I am resonant with the words, content, stories that I’m sharing, people can feel it. When I was grounded in my values, the result was an email that resonated with my peeps.

But in order to even write an email where I am sharing my thoughts and perspectives boldly and confidently, before I can produce a quality piece of sales content that lands with my people, I need to be in the headspace where I am able to do exactly that.

For example, some days, I had to work on being rooted in the belief I have something unique to offer, the belief that the Thought Leader Club program is a very unique experience.

Other days, I have to work on the belief that by going first and sharing my perspectives through me, leading by example is sufficient as a “sales email”, rather than trying to structure my email to sound like everyone else’s sales emails.

Overall, at this point in the episode, I think it’s abundantly clear what message I’m trying to relay to our listeners.

To reiterate once more, I wanted to take the time today to use my own launch debrief as a case study of how your mindset and how you’re seeing yourself and your work can play a profound role in the quality and impact of your content or marketing, in your overall business results, and also in terms of how you stay committed to doing the things you say you would do for your business.

The mindset you need to build thought leadership and grow your business

This is precisely why in our program, the Thought Leader Club, we work closely together on taking the concrete steps to becoming known for your unique thought leadership and creating 1-3 year plans centered around your thought leadership. And we also coach on your mindset as you continue to step into the new identity of a thought leader both online and offline.

Because in order to help support you in taking action for your business or other professional aspirations, you need to take care of your mind and be super attuned to how you’re seeing yourself and what’s going on around you as you work towards your goals.

Ultimately, your thoughts will serve as the driving force behind you being able to do the action items you planned out. And frankly, our thoughts could make or break us, depending on how we choose to look at the situation in front of us.

I know you already have the work ethic, brilliance, and capability to hone in on the skills you need to make your business and thought leader career goals happen. But right now, the actions required of you are feeling out of your comfort zone.

And of course, your goals and dreams are not traditional. They are exceptional!

Building thought leadership is our way of doing something extraordinary and meaningful. So of course this will require you to step out of your comfort zone and there will inevitably be uncomfortable feelings or unhelpful thoughts that feel so suffocating, and at times, paralyzing.

Maybe you find yourself constantly second-guessing yourself, or you feel so crippled by what specific people in your network will think of your content, or you feel so discouraged by not hitting your business goals in the past 6 months. Whatever the case is for you, these are the exact thoughts that will slow you down.

The question right now is NOT about whether or not you’re able to learn certain skills, do the action items required of you, or reach your goals. Instead, it’s the sh*t you’re telling yourself, which eventually will lead you to give up too early.

In entrepreneurship, no one will be there to tell you that you’re doing things right. Our audience are usually super quiet and won’t tell us how much that LinkedIn article impacted them and gave them a different perspective. Nobody is going to give you a gold star every step of the way.

The Thought Leader Club CAN give you the tools that have worked for me and my clients. TLC is also here to hold a safe space for you to practice your reps. And by reps, I mean both your body of work reps and your mindset/belief reps.

TLC is here to give you feedback on your body of work. The TLC will also give you a different perspective when things feel complicated, overwhelming, or just plain hard.

That’s why if this is work you’re committed to doing, I want you to consider joining the TLC. This is the work we do here.

For all the information on the TLC program: You can go to www.cheryltheory.com/tlc to read all about the program and check out the curriculum.

When you’re ready, your next step is to book a discovery call to chat about you joining us inside the Thought Leader Club. You can book a discovery call at www.cheryltheory.com/discovery.

I hope today’s launch debrief offered you something to think about and gave you the push you needed to commit to your goals.

Specifically, commit to your goals both from the lens of taking action and being proactive with the way you think and see your goals, your business, and yourself.

You are a highly capable individual, and I am genuinely looking forward to seeing you equip yourself with the skill sets and mindsets you need to build thought leadership and create a body of work that will ultimately set you up for success in the next 1-3 years.

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.