As you may know, we launched our first online training program, Clarity Course, last week. We had been working on it for many months, so I was really excited to finally share it with others. I’ve had a lot of people asking how the launch went, so I figured I’d do a post about it and give you an update and some lessons learned.
So how did the launch go? It did fine…not as well as I would have liked, but it was ok. Whenever you do something like this for the first time, it’s hard to know what to expect. You have no baseline for what’s average or “normal.” How something went for someone else may be completely different from how it goes for you. I’ve always been a very driven and motivated guy, so it’s easy to set unrealistic expectations for myself and then be disappointed when I fail to meet those expectations.
Let’s go over what went well and what did not with the launch…
What Went Well?
- We built and launched a product – I started thinking about this course back in July. One of the most common emails I get from people is “I don’t really like my job but I’m not sure what I’d rather be doing…what should I do?” I knew Clarity Course could help. One thing we talk about within the course is to test your ideas, so you don’t end up wasting time and money. So I reached out to people who had emailed me and asked them if they wanted to be part of creating this course. I told them I had literally nothing more than an idea, but they could be part of the process and provide input and feedback. We had 14 people who signed up as a beta test group, and we worked through the material with them for the past several months to create something that would be helpful for others. And I think it turned out pretty well.
- The launch/course was well planned and executed – When we started planning this in July, I put December 8 on my calendar as the day everything would go live. Then we backed up from there and mapped out how to stay on track and get the project done in time. I’m proud of how well everything came together and how we stuck to our internal deadlines.
- Course is well designed – One piece of feedback we heard from several people was that all of our materials (website, videos, lessons) look really, really sharp. Honestly, that has little to do with me and more about our team. My sister does all our graphic design work and is quite amazing (don’t tell her that though…I’m still her big brother and have to keep her humble). My video guy Andy made some really sharp looking videos. My tech guy Jeff really did awesome at bringing the pieces together for the launch.
- We finished strong – Sales started off extremely slow at the beginning of the week, but we finished extremely strong to close. We ran our launch from Monday through Friday and over 80% of our sales came on the last day. Crazy. It’s not how you start but how you finish.
What Did Not Go Well?
- Sales were good, not great – Sales were fine. We earned several thousand dollars in a few days which is nothing to be disappointed with. I think I had unrealistic expectations going into the launch, so when sales were just ok, I was bummed.
- Lack of clarity – In a bit of irony, I think the title Clarity Course leaves it a bit unclear of what the product is and who it is for. When people would ask who the course was for, I’d say, “It’s for people who don’t love or hate their job but aren’t really sure what they’d rather be doing.” Unfortunately, that applies to a high percentage of people. The less clear you are about who your product or service is for, the worse it will sell. If you say your product/service is for everyone, it’s really for no one.
The bad news is the course didn’t sell as well as I would have liked. The good news is the course is more or less finished. We’ll continue making improvements and tweaks, but the guts are ready to go. That’s the hard part.
I’m excited for the test group of people who have already gone through the material and the new members already starting their journey. Hope to have you join us sometime soon!
