5 Things I’d Do If Launching A Group Program For The First Time In 2024
You’re finally ready to add that transformative group program to your offer suite – the one that’s been hot on your heart for a little while now.
You’ve decided it’s time. You’re ready to scale and it’s the perfect next step to take your spiritual business to the next income and impact level.
But…launching a group program for the first time can be a little daunting.
There’s quite a few moving parts and when you haven’t done it before it can be hard to know where to start and what to focus your energy on.
You want to make your first launch a success both in terms of attracting dream clients and hitting your sales goals BUT you also want to do it in a way that isn’t overwhelming.
So in today’s episode of the Feminine Fire Podcast, I want to make that easier for you. Let’s take the guesswork out of launching your group program and give you some solid next steps and key areas to focus on.
I’m sharing the 5 things I’d do if I was launching a group program for the first time in 2024. As someone who has launched a bajillion times over the last 8 years, I’ve put in the work, I’ve learnt the lessons and now I get to share them with you.
So let’s dive in.
1: The first thing I’d do is focus on making the group program itself really bloody good.
I know this sounds basic, but there are a lot of people out there half assing this shit and selling half baked programs that don’t deliver – so taking the time to make your program really damn good is important.
Outside of the fact that it’s just what you do because you have integrity and it's good business, it also gives you a lot of confidence in your own offer. When you know you have created something that’s so bloody good, you can fully get your energy behind the program when you’re showing up to sell it.
Now there's a fine line here because I also don’t want you to get stuck in perfectionism and wanting to get EVERYTHING “perfect” and complete BEFORE you launch, because:
Perfect doesn’t exist
No matter how incredible your program is, you’ll always continue to iterate and improve over time.
This is a really GREAT thing. You want to evolve your offers and programs to continue to meet the market and reflect new learnings. So it’s important to not get stuck here.
Focus on making the program the best it can be with the information you have right now, but be mindful that you’re not getting all perfectionist around it. You’ll get the opportunity to change and tweak anything that needs it in the next round.
So how do you actually do this?
The most important aspect to consider here when designing your program is making sure that you’re delivering something you know your ideal clients DESIRE.
What do your ideal soulmate clients want and need right now?
What is the promise or transformation of your program?
And what is going to help your clients get to that point?
How are you going to support them to get there?
Keep that front of mind as you’re creating your group program, and you can’t go wrong.
2: The second thing I’d do is start talking about it early.
Start generating interest in the program by:
Sharing the behind the scenes and inviting them into your process
Giving them the inside scoop on who the program is for (e.g. “I’m creating a group program for the person who wants XYZ)
And then ask them if they want to be first to know when you’ve finalised the details.
I did this for my first launch of my group program Confident Consistent Cash last year and it worked a treat. I had heaps of people opt in for more info, which really helped me validate my idea first and foremost (always a good thing!) AND it also gave me a good little list of people to pre-sell the offer to behind the scenes once I had the details all together.
So start talking about it early and pre-sell if you can. There really is nothing better than going into a launch knowing that you’ve already got people in. Those first sales give you so much confidence – and that little boost of confidence before a launch is everything.
3: The third thing I’d do is have a launch plan.
I wouldn’t just wing it – because honestly, having a launch plan is going to save your ass.
There’s a lot that goes into a launch:
You’re showing up more.
You’re creating more content.
You’re having more sales conversations.
There’s a lot of moving parts so if you don’t have a plan, launching can quickly become overwhelming. So take the time to create your launch plan, make the key decisions around what launch strategies you’re using for this particular launch and then map out the steps you need to take.
And don’t forget to write the plan down somewhere. If you use a project management tool, pop it in there. If you prefer to have it visually in front of you, write it on your whiteboard or on sticky notes or on a big piece of paper and pop it on your wall. Either way, create your plan, write it down.
And then – follow the plan. One of my friends Sam Dhu likes to say ‘follow the plan, not the feeling.’ Because it is likely that at some point during your launch you’re not going to feel like doing something, you’re not going to feel like showing up and selling, and your inner child is gonna have a little tantrum about it.
Another saying I heard somewhere else recently was that ‘your feelings do not make a good CEO’. You don’t want your tantruming inner child to be the one making decisions about your business and your launch.
So don’t let your feelings run the show. Follow the plan, not the feeling.
Now that doesn’t mean I recommend you ignore or bypass your feelings. It is important to feel your feelings. BUT it doesn’t mean you have to make business decisions when you’re experiencing big emotions. Do what you need to do to process and move through any feelings that are coming up for you, so they’re not running the show and you can get back to following and implementing your launch plan.
On a similar note…
4: The fourth thing I’d do is prepare my mindset
Launches can be a rollercoaster ride and it is pretty expected that you’ll experience at least some mindset wobbles during a launch. I don’t know anyone in business who doesn’t have at least a moment or 2 during a launch where self doubt pops up.
The biggest mindset piece I support clients with, particularly when it’s their first time launching a group program, is “what if no one signs up?” or “what if only one person signs up?”
And here’s my recommendation. Rather than reframing this thought straight out the gate, I think it’s more helpful to actually answer the question. Like, what if no one signs up? What if only 1 person signs up? What happens? What will you do?
Creating a plan for the worst case scenario and actually just deciding – well, if no one signs up then it's back to the drawing board. Okay, it’s not ideal and a bit disappointing but it’s also not the end of the world. And if only one person signs up, then they either get the most epic 1:1 experience OR you can tailor it and give them some options. If there's one thing I've learnt in business over the last 8 years it's that nothing is ever a problem. There's always a solution.
Doing this creates safety in your mind. Because then you have a plan for if the worst case happens. Now you can actually put those “what if it doesn’t sell” thoughts to bed and shift into the mindset of “what if it sells out early” instead.
So that’s what I’d do if I was launching a group program for the first time – I’d prepare my mindset by really examining the negative thoughts and fears I had around it, and then doing what I need to do to create some safety for my mind around any of those fears so I can let them go and focus on shifting into an abundance mindset.
5: The fifth thing I’d do is record my launch process as I go
The first time you launch anything new is always going to be the most amount of work – because you’re not only creating the program itself, but you’re also clarifying your messaging, creating all the marketing assets, the sales page, the launch content, as well as showing up for your launch and then onboarding clients into a program that’s never existed before.
So you’re putting in a lot of the work upfront now to build it out and create the assets and the processes – knowing that you can rinse and repeat it all next time and it won’t be as much work.
But in order to make it easier for future you – you need to record your process.
Having a solid launch plan that's written down somewhere is going to help you with this (see above). But there will ALSO be other things that pop up that you’ll find yourself doing during your launch and you’ll want to add them into the process as you go.
Next launch you don’t want to be scrambling around trying to find all the bits and pieces from this first launch OR trying to remember it all off the top of your head.
You want to avoid having your process living in your brain, because you’ll likely forget something OR you’ll find yourself going over your to-do list every night before bed in an effort to NOT forget – and it takes up a lot of brain space.
I’m speaking from experience here. The first time I recorded my launch process in Asana, and I pulled everything out of my brain and wrote it down, and launched with a process in that way – oh my goodness, I remember how freeing it felt to not have to constantly be remembering everything. I trusted that it’d get done because it was written down AND suddenly my brain had space to think.
And now each launch, we simply duplicate that process, we rinse and repeat it, and it makes it so much easier. We’re not reinventing the wheel. We’re not trying to remember all the steps. It’s there and we can just hit go.
So do future you a favour and record your process as you go so you have it all there for next time.
Bonus Tip: Set up a waitlist and promote the group program outside of launches.
Again this is about setting yourself up for the future and making the next launch easier AND more profitable.
Having a waitlist of eager people ready to buy is a game changer. So set up a waitlist and have a process for directing people to it.
Remember this gets to be simple and easy. You will likely already be talking about your group program in your content. For example, when you host a group call with your clients and you jump on instagram stories to share the common themes. Or when you reshare any instagram stories that your clients tag you in. Or when you share screenshots of client messages and celebrations.
Whenever you talk about your program – use it as an opportunity to share the waitlist and promote it outside of your launches. Again, future you will thank you for it.
