From Overwhelm to Structure in Launch Planning with Elisa Boogaerts | 021

Hi. This is Susan, and welcome to the grand connection podcast. Today's conversation is one I especially excited about, because so many entrepreneurs are in a place where they're ready to bring something awesome into the world or grand, as we say here at the Grand connection, whether it's a course, a program, a book, an event, a new service knowing how to launch in a clear and aligned way can make all the difference. A successful launch is not just about strategy. It's about clarity, connection and collaboration, bringing the right people, ideas and support together to create something that truly resonates with the people you are here to serve when done well, it opens the door to visibility, meaningful relationships and real momentum in your business through partnerships, shared audiences and working together in a way that benefits everyone involved. And that is why I'm so pleased to introduce our guest today, Elisa Boogaerts, and she has been a collaborative partner with us many times within the grand connection community, and is one of our highly respected members. Elisa, I want you to know that you she's a launch strategist and fractional project manager who supports established coaches in bringing together their programs and events to life with clarity and ease. With over 16 years of project management experience, she leads the back end of launches so her clients can focus on connecting, speaking and filling their offers. What I really appreciate about Elisa is the way she blends strategy with calm, grounded execution. She's so organized, allowing your clients to feel confident and supported throughout their launch. So Elisa, welcome. I'm really looking forward to this conversation.

Me too. Thanks for having me. I love this and like said, it because collaboration and connecting and creating together is just it's instrumental with any launches. So this is perfect conversation.

Oh, I know. And I listen and follow your your podcast. What's your podcast called?

It's called Authentically Elisa

So we're going to have some questions on authenticity. It's so how did you get started in working as a launch strategist?

It's actually a funny story, because I originally started my business as a life coach and a health coach. A lot of my life, I've been sort of pretending to be an extrovert, and really am an introvert, and so I kind of noticed that with coaching that it just kind of wasn't my thing. I didn't really feel super comfortable. I felt a bit stressed out about it, but as I was doing my coaching, I was doing my own launches, and I was taking program courses and programs and doing all the things that needed to get done. And, of course, being a project manager, I managed all my own things and planned everything, you know, so a sudden, I had this detailed plan. I was doing the work, and I was executing on it. And actually, Michelle Abraham, that we both know, well, her and I were having brunch, and she were kind of talking about that, and she's like, well, you know, I think that you could, like, you could do that, like, everything that you've been doing for your own launches, you could give to people. And then I mentioned James lamb, my business coach at the time, and he was like, yes, like, That makes so much more sense. It's like, you already have the plan. You could sell that, and you know, you're already doing all this stuff. And that's one of the blockers that people have, is that it can be, or coaches have, that entrepreneurs even that it's, there's so much stuff to do that they don't quite know the order in which to do it, and it becomes overwhelming. There's too much to do, and it just, you know, so that kind of stalls them, and it's like, well, what you have is you could just sort of take them through that and show them the strategy and everything. And it worked really well for me, because, you know, being that sort of introvert, like, I'm more of the person that just gets stuff done then, then being like a teacher or being the coach and so but because I had all the experience of doing it myself and knew the industry quite well, it was a

really good fit. Oh yeah,

Perfect fit. And I'm the same way as you. I like to be the background person. I kind of say I hold the house together. And now what sort of happened is the members have stepped up in our community and are hosting their own events and being speakers and emceeing and helping facilitate the event. And I still get to do what I'm strong in, which is project management, same as you know, yeah, and I always joke, this is kind of funny, unrelated to our topic of today, what would you be if the apocalypse comes? Right? My daughter's a doctor, so she's going to be okay, but I'm a project manager. What of web stuff? I have no real role. It wasn't on the list. But what are you going to do when the apocalypse comes, Elisa?

I don't know. I was thinking about that too. Like, I don't. Well, you're super fan.

You can run marathons, so you can run really well and go get things for people?

Yeah, maybe I could get capital animals or something.

Well, I think that there will still be a role for people who are organized and can project manage, because, you know, you're going to probably group together in communities, and we'll be able to

I could probably do that, make sure everybody has a job that they're good at. Well, but yeah, I think about other times, like if I ever did survivor. With that show, I think I would like, I would only last two days.

You would, because you're strong, you got those runner legs. I met with Lisa in person, and I know she's a long distance runner, so she'll survive, survivor more than two days. Anyways, yeah. Well, okay, so I want to talk about launches, because this is so important for many of us. What are the different types of things people launch with you, yeah.

So, like a launch can be a variety of things, but majority of the things my coaches do with me are like group programs. Is usually what they what they launch in, which kind of makes sense, because each group program has a definitive sort of start date and end date, and they can be a wide variety of lengths. You know, you could be like a six week program. You could six month program, a one year program. So, yeah, those are the main things that people do. But with launching, you could also launch a podcast. You can launch a book. You could launch a business. Yeah, there's many different types of things. You can launch a membership, lots of different things you can

Yeah, memberships is another big one I see happening. Oh, my membership is going to be launching in, you know, two months or whatever. And I know from my launches I've done in my life, the further back you can go from your launch date, the more time you have to plan. And so you know, it really is nice when you go, Okay, I'm launching this in six months. What do I need to do to get done in time? And I know that when you're working with your clients, you have a full process that you take people through that they can work on their launch, and you know what when they get started? What's usually a thing that's missing or unclear when you get started?

So yeah, actually, some when they've come to me, some coaches or some clients have come to me, and they haven't quite sealed in exactly when they're going to do it. So that's usually the first thing I sit with. First thing I sit with them. I call it the keys to success. And we kind of go through the whole strategy. I'm like, Okay, what you know, what is the program that you're doing, and how much is it going to be, and when do you want it to start, and who is your ideal client, and then what's the event that can be before that? And we kind of go through all those different details. And I think it's really good, because then it sort of holds that accountability, because then they put a date to it, like, Okay, this is the date that I'm launching it, and this is the date that I'm doing my event. Because from there, I can put the plan together, and we can figure out, you know, what needs to get done leading up to that date. So that's one thing I really give them clarity on. And some people who do have their dates defined, we kind of look at and say, okay, like, what have you done and What haven't you done up until now, like before engaging with me? And do we have enough time to get it all done? I think that people often don't start early enough. And, and then, and if you don't, I think if you don't start early enough, you won't get as many people registered to your event as you as you could if you did start earlier.

Yeah. And, and a well done launch makes all the difference. I've heard many launches that don't go well, right? They, they, you know, you don't get anybody showing up. You hear even, even Amy. Amy Porterfield, who does launch strategy stuff, she talks about her first one being a being a flop, right?

Silence, too. My first one, i Nobody show up. I did like a series of master classes, I had a few people show up to the first one, but then the next one's no show

Seats for anything is way harder than you think. Mm, hmm. And it's as a marketing consultant, I work with clients all the time on okay, how do we get people in our grand connection events like i i It takes me a lot of time to get, you know, all the people that we get signing up for some of our bigger events, and then you've got this system going in the process. Over time, it gets easier as your list gets bigger, things like that. But at the very, very beginning, you need to work really far back and have a strategy, and you can have a successful launch with that strategy. I agree, yes. So, so what separates the successful launch from the one that feels like it was, like, stressful and crazy and didn't happen?

Well, again, I think it's a time thing, because there are, you know, we might talk about this later. But when I, if I did a like, when I put a plan together for one of my clients, like, I have a template, and we don't use all of these that usually it becomes less but my full template of all the things that you could do with a launch is like, 260 tasks long. It's giant, it's a giant plan. And so you gotta think about, okay, like, you're gonna say we did 200 and got down to 200 200 tasks. Like, that's a lot of work to do. And I think that people don't think that they need to start early enough. And sometimes with my clients, like, I will put the plan together and be like, okay, you know, these 10 to 15 things we're doing this week and this one's we're doing next week, and like, trust the process, there is a flow. And so some people think, like, Well, why am I doing that now? Because I'm not going to need it for two or three weeks from now. I'm like, that's true. However, we need to do these 50 things in the next three weeks. I'm getting you to do it now, because we're going to need it. You know, there's sort of, like a dependency, kind of like flow, the way that things go. And so I think that, yeah, by not doing things early enough, because then, like, if you leave it too late, then you got to do those 50 tasks in one way. Week instead of, or the night before, four weeks, right? Or the night before, exactly. And then, you know, and then PS can kind of happen. And then when you're too busy, and then everybody's kind of, you know, rushing and sort of scrambling around, that's kind of when mistakes can happen. That's when burnout can happen. And then, you know, and if you're exhausted, then you make more mistakes, then you got to fix things, and then there's more scramble. And this just scramble, and it's just yeah. So I like, I love a very proactive person. I like to do things proactively. Like, okay, that's set in stone. Now. We don't have

to think about that for now. A little bit on these other things.

You have a amazing checklist. I I've had the courtesy of being allowed to see this amazing checklist that Lisa has that you work with your clients on. It allows you to make sure that nothing gets missed that becomes a critical point that makes the sixth launch not as successful as it could be. So this list is really amazing. You also have a framework, a launch framework. Do you want to tell us a little bit about that.

Yeah, yeah. I call it the launch method. And the word launch is an acronym, so there's like six sort of main steps to it, and it really kind of helps you to plan and promote and other programs and events, and like we were just talking about, do with a bit more ease and not so overwhelming, and we don't miss any steps. So the L's stands for locking in the launch plan, which is kind of what I just described, defining that strategy, anything organized, getting all the pieces in place and getting that plan together. And then the A is to activate your audience and your partners. So this is figuring out who your joint venture partners like, who you want to help promote your events, and getting them the assets, booking speaking gigs. This is why you need to start early. Because some people, you know, their launch calendars, or their their promotional calendars are full. If you want to get on their calendar, you got to ask them, like, three months in advance or or a year.

Some people I'm working with, it's a year in advance, right?

And even as well, speaking is a great way to be visible. And so if you want to get on the right stages that are aligned with when you're launching right you kind of want them to be within, sort of, like, a couple of weeks. Let's say some of those, you know, they they require you to submit your application months before. And so if you want to get on those right stages, and some of them as well, like, if you are sponsoring a stage and you want to pay for it. You got to, you know, get that paid for early on as well. So you want to get that going early. And also looking at your lead magnet. Because, again, a lot of speaking you can do, you can give your lead magnet. And so like, do you have one that fits within the funnel that leads people to your event, into your program, and then the U is to upload and build your launch assets? So this is where all the tech comes in, the funnels, the affiliates, the sales pages, all that kind of stuff. The end is to nurture and promote. So this is where you really got to be visible. You got to have a good marketing content calendar. Get all that promotion going, love on your JV partners, to get them to promote. Lots of tracking going on there, just seeing if you're hitting your targets, and then the C is to convert them through your event and having an amazing experience for your people there. And you know, so, setting up your your pag, your program at a glance, and doing your event really, really well, and tracking attendees, all that kind of stuff.

This is leading up to an event that actually sells the program, right? That's right. So do you often have more than one event your clients?

Sometimes? Yeah, so if they're having, like, a multi day event, so like a one or two or three day event, some of them will do free webinars leading up to that. So they'll invite people to their free webinar, and then in the webinar, they'll sell a ticket to their event, and then in the ticketed events, where they'll sell their high ticket program, some people who are doing more of a low ticket offer, then they'll just do the webinars, and sometimes they'll do, like, say, one masterclass or workshop or something like that, and then they might do an encore or two afterwards. So yeah, there can definitely be multiple events.

So how do your clients figure out what they're going to do before? How do before. How do you work with that?

It becomes part of the strategy. When we sit down at the very beginning and figure out, what do we want to do, we actually like, if they're doing a like, a multi day event, we'll have a ticket map, and we'll actually like, ding on me. Okay, where could these tickets be coming from? Do we want to be doing our own webinars? And we just kind of talk through it all, put the strategy together and see what we want to do and also what we have time for. And one of my clients right now is doing an event this week, and she was thinking of doing a webinar, like a little while ago, and then we're like, oh, we don't know if we have time for it or not. She ended up doing one last week, kind of, it was a few days notice, and she was still able to get over 100 people at it, which was amazing. But we were thinking of doing them kind of earlier, but we didn't have time, so yeah, we kind of squeeze it in the last minute. So yeah, is this?

Michelle, yes, I've been, I've been getting emails from you and good reminders, like I just today shared a bunch of posts after getting a reminder from you, because that's also what you do too, is you help nudge these. Long and it's hard for the the person that's running the program, they've created these relationships with these JV partners, so you don't want to be bugging them and being a nag. But when you have someone like yourself supporting you in the role, it just becomes one of the jobs that a person on my team is doing, and it's not taken personally.

Yes, yes, exactly.

Doesn't impact the relationships. People need reminders, and that did work. Your reminder set the stage. I even talked to Michelle. I got some some other coupons and things to be able to use with the help the promotion go a little bit better. And, you know, we're able to get more signups for her, for her launch. So that's exciting. And as you can see when you're listening to our podcast, a lot of us are doing things together. And as a welcome to you listening. If you're new to the grand connection, you can always come to one of our guest events, get a guest pass and meet the people that are playing together. And, you know, join the party, because collaboration really makes things effortless. You know, you got people together. You learn from people like Elisa. You can learn Michelle, who we just talked about, produces this podcast. So that's how I know her. She's she's a part of this podcast collaboration, and she's working with Elisa to help her get more traction on her upcoming event that's coming on so very exciting that things that go on in the community now, we talked about audience building. That's the A in your launch framework. And I'm just going to also mention you want to know more about this launch framework. You did a whole episode on it early in the year, didn't you? Do you remember what episode number it is?

I think it was in January. Sometime it was in January.

So go look for that if you're thinking about launching. This is kind of starter information. Go and dive deeper into Elisa's podcast, authentically Elisa. So when we talked about the audience building part, what should people really focus on to get that audience? What if you don't have an audience at the beginning and you're going to launch something six months away, what do you start doing?

Yeah, so I think speaking, booking, speaking gigs for sure, getting speaking opportunities and being more visible, because in a lot of especially if you're just sort of starting out, and maybe you don't have the funds to be buying stages and spending 20 grand on something you know, you're just doing, like a 60 minute masterclass or something like that, you can there's lots of, you know, summits and things out there, and even podcasts. And so booking those in, because at those ones, you can give your lead magnet, and so that can help to grow your email list right then and there. So that's always great. And then those people are, you know, they're kind of warmer leads, and then you can nurture them, and then invite them to your free event, and like we talked about, as well, JV partners. So, you know, usually we're in programs ourselves, learning how to start our businesses and how to create our programs and do all that kind of stuff. And so you have like minded people with you, and you've got, you know, Coach buddies or entrepreneur friends that you can ask to to promote each other. And it's great because then you get visibility into their whole community. Even if you have a list of, say, 10,000 people on your list, not all of those 10,000 people are going to buy from you, you know, so you can share the wealth a little bit and promote other people, because then, you know, they might love the other person's program more than yours, and so there's no competition there at all. It's all about collaboration and supporting each other and seeing how you can create things. Yeah, so those are the things I think I would say at the beginning. And even with your JV partners, you could ask them to promote your lead magnet if you want. You want. You know, if they don't feel comfortable going straight to the event, you could be like, hey, about this cool thing. And then they get onto into your world, and you invite them to your event.

Well, I have some JV partners, and I consistently promote their lead magnet, their their gift, and it's a good, valuable gift. There's some really great gifts out there, valuable to my community. It helps me and at the Grand connection when, when I am a JV affiliate partner with some of my partners, I donate all the proceeds from the affiliate commissions to our charity. So that kind of gives a win that. And then we're also helping, helping Robert and his his school over there.

So just in terms of the promoting that we're talking about, I have, like, have about 30 different ways that you can promote yourself. So when I'm planning, you have to do all of them, of course. But when we, when I'm planning with my client, we go through them and I show them the list, and then say, Okay, let's go through them one by one. Do you want to do this? Do you not want to do this? Some people like to use meetup. If they have a community, they can invite them to an online event. Or if they have an Alignable account with a community there, they could invite them, but if you don't have those things, and we can just scratch them off the list, and don't need to worry about it. So yeah, there's so many different ways that you can promote and generate your audience and get out there.

And you got to step back, have the plan, have the clarity around it. What's the strategy going to be now? How are you going to reach those people and who's going to do it? You, as a launch strategist, can help support them in some of this, their own marketing team. If you have some vas, they could be out there promoting them. And then the lead magnet drives to something that's leading towards the launch. Right? Exactly? Did you just always think through, okay, what's the little path that we're going through? And that's something that you work with people and you map it out. It's different for. Everybody, right?

Totally, yeah, yeah, exactly, yeah. It's all different. And even for me right now, like I'm looking at launching a membership. I was in, I had about three or four different people and a different sort of speaking opportunities and gift giveaways that people are like, Hey, I'd love to you to be in my gift giveaway. And I was like, Oh, well, maybe that can be part of my launch. And so I decided to have my launch a little bit later so that I can build that list and get people in, and then that kind of becomes the funnel. So you can just totally see how it goes and see what opportunities you have.

And well, we run the grand giveaway. I love to suggest to our members, when they're putting in their gifts, is to actually bundle something, so you have an immediate, consumable gift, and then you also have a gift that might be the next free, free access to the webinar that's leading to the bigger launch, right? So, so you're, you're bundling that's in there, getting some value they can use, get to know, like and trust you immediately. Then in three or four weeks, they can do, do that next step. And then they're counting more. They're having more and more steps to building the relationship that will they'll be interested in your bigger program, which kind of works together. Are you in our grand giveaway? Did you get your gift in?

Oh, I think so. I love the grand giveaway. Yes, I love being at the top of the leaderboard. It's always fun.

Yeah, no, you're always on the leaderboard. And Lisa's speaking at one of our grand mixers. That's another JV partnership that we do with other communities this this week. So by the time you hear this, she'll have already spoken. It's all gone really great. So we'll just talk as if it was in the past, and it's just one of the many ways we support our community at the Grand connection in collaboration and partnerships going on. You had a podcast, and you talked a lot about different types of partnerships. I listened to on the plane the other day, and you know, one of them is referrals. What are some of the other types of partnerships that you work with your clients on setting up?

Yeah, definitely referrals. So we talked about joint venture partnerships a lot today with people you can collaborate with. And that's a bit different from like affiliates, because affiliates, I find, is sort of like a one way thing where someone's just like, Yes, I'll promote your thing. And it's kind of like that, sort of as far as it goes. Or a joint venture partnership, it could be a little bit more like, you might collaborate together. You might do something like a social media Live, which is always fun to do with a JV partner. You might do like a lead magnet swap, or things like that. So I feel like a joint venture partnerships a little bit more of a good relationship to have, and you're doing a little bit more give and take and more exposure. So yeah, JV, partnerships are great. Affiliates are also great. But you know, I prefer the relationship building and the partnership so we can work together. You can have also like sponsors. You can have integrated partnerships as well. So that's when you might speak to somebody else's community. So like, maybe you'll be a guest speaker in their communities. You get exposure to their paid community, and you can teach them whatever it is that you is your expertise. So that's always a fun way to partner with people as well. Yeah, that's all the ones I have the top of my head.

I like, I love the the JV partnerships, and I would almost call them JV integrated partnerships, where you you've got a relationship with someone, and you just support each other many different ways. You might speak on their podcast. They speak on your podcast. You have them coming in and speaking at your event. You're always sharing their lead magnet. You have their affiliate links. You just use them. They have your affiliate links, they use them, and there's just this reciprocity that goes back and forth. And you know it's working, when both people are gaining some new clients from each other's efforts, and it becomes friends. Then you go for dinner together, you travel and you get on a cruise together. You went on a cruise recently, didn't you?

I did, yeah, back in January. That's awesome. It's called the marketers cruise, and there was a cruise, and there was over 400 entrepreneurs as part of the the cruise. And we're like a little group there. And yeah, it was great. That's nice, because you can actually go and, you know, like you said, have dinner with people, break bread, even go on excursions, hang out on a beach together, and you really get to know each other a more personal level. And yeah, actually had my roommate. I didn't realize how much we had in common in terms of, like, our history and things like that. And I was like, Oh no, I feel even closer to you now than I did before. So yeah, it's really, it's really nice when you have that

I mean, those commonalities or nodes, or whatever you want to call them, it really makes the relationship stronger. And you're you become more aligned in it. It's very good to find that like so when you are meeting people, and even when you're doing your first one on one, ask them about their kids, find out where they grew up, or where did you go to college, like we have this game we play at the Grand connection, where you find links, but you find where those links are, and those links are things you remember, and it makes you more connected to that person, and it's just an easier way to remember what they do. And it brings a smile to your face, and you have that commonality between you that helps create the relationship the know, like and trust, so that you can start partnering and doing things in bigger and better ways. And then, of course, we've talked about it in other episodes, continuing the journey and being authentic. That's that's your big word, Elisa, and reliable. Consistent and making sure that what you're doing and partnering together is win win for both parties, so that one person isn't getting more than the other. You're both getting something out of it that's helpful for all of you, and that comes with good communications, having clear expectations, all the things that are around, creating a great partnership with somebody. Now we've talked a bit about partnership, you have this magic list of all the different ways you can build your audience that when you meet with Elisa, you can learn about and let's talk about authenticity, because this is a passion of you, of yours, and you've actually started your own podcast about authenticity. So how does authenticity impact a launches success?

Yeah, I think that Adventists in general can really impact your success. Of your business, which launches is usually a big part of anyone's business, because, yeah, when you're just really true to yourself, that's when people really relate to you more and want to buy from you more. I think that I've heard so many stories about people saying that they're like, you let go of certain things and didn't do like, you know, kind of not ignored, but let go of everything that they were sort of being told the way they have to be, they have to be. It's just what you have to do in running your business and the way that you need to act and respond. As soon as people are able to sort of let go of that and really step into who they are, is where, you know, their businesses just go up. Which is why I really like with when I work with my clients in that plan, even that 30 different ways that you can promote, do what fits right with you. Don't do the things that you hate. Because if you, for example, hate doing reels and on Instagram or something like that, and all of a sudden you're doing all these realist people can tell with the video. You know, you're not being authentic. You're sitting there and you're like, Oh, I hate doing this. Why am I doing this? And let's that's what you say. Video, of course, but I think it just really shines through and and I think that's also why it's so important to have people help you with the launch, because there's so much work to do, right? We talked about like, 200 tasks like, that's a lot of stuff to do, so it's really good to have a supportive team, because then you can show up to your event when you're selling your program. You can really show up as your yourself. You can be grounded in who you are. You have the energy. You can deliver the great value not showing up as a burnt out coach who's exhausted and frazzled. You really want to, want to have that energy and really standing in your power to deliver your best

content and value. And then people will want to work with you more.

Well, I know that I myself have had the odd time where some, there's been some like panic right before, hardly slept, and then I am not authentically me the next day, when I'm running my event, very planning and being organized, and then coming into your event calm and collected,

Like and having that supportive team there that can deal with those things. A client of mine, her internet went out, she was like, in a three day event, and all of a sudden she dropped off zoom. And luckily we had it like the producer had the zoom on his thing, and he had, like, all these different backups of all the stuff. And so of a sudden she sort of disappeared. And because our the team was there, we were able to sort of step in, and one of us came on the spotlight and was like, Okay, I'll just continue. There was doing some panel discussion. We were able to just sort of continue on until, you know, I know you took a few minutes, your internet came back up, and she was able to join again. But,

Well, the big co host, if your internet goes down and you haven't put a co host on Zoom, the whole thing will go down for everybody, right? There's nobody to take over. So have anybody as a co host, so at least it's still running. Elise will be a great co host. You can be your co host and make sure you're okay and step in if you have something go wrong, or anyone else on your team that's you know there to support you and understands your audience. No very important on that. So when you got the launch, launch happens. Would you measure stuff when you're going through and you're working with your clients to make sure that it's success, you can learn and have a more successful second launch?

Yes, absolutely. I have, as part of that big plan, I have, like, a big Google sheet that I use, because everybody can access a Google Sheet. But as part of that, we have trackers for everything, and I have an event tracker. So usually we have, like, a goal of some kind, how many people would like to register, and sort of what the revenue goal is. And so then as we're building up to that, you know, even when we're doing all the promotions, we're tracking registrations. How many people registered? Like, where are we? You know, if we wanted 200 people registered, and we're at 100 and it's a week away, then, you know, what are we doing to get that extra 100? Extra 100, you know, do we need to do any more of those marketing things? Do we need to collaborate with people? Do we send another email to our JVs? You know? What do we need to do to kind of be getting to that? So I think that tracking is really important. And then, yeah, looking at what happened, you know, like, how many people showed up live? How many people were there when you were making your offer, you know, how many people converted, you know, say, on a certain day, or was it the follow up, actually, that did it? Was it like, you know, an email that people really responded well to? So, definitely looking at all those different things. And I know, being a project manager, I know that you understand this, we always do lessons learned right? We always think about because there's always, always ways to improve. Even if it's like a fantastic event that went exactly the way you wanted it, you're probably going to want to do a little bit better next time. So like, what needs to be tweaked and changed to be even better? And if it didn't go so well, you know, what could you do to make things better? And I think a lot of them as well. People do say, Oh yeah, maybe I should have started earlier, right? I should have started soon, or we couldn't do these certain things because we didn't have

time. So next time you got to make sure we have time to do these things, which could make it even more successful. So yes, definitely look at things, look at the numbers and seeing what went well. And because if someone well, then maybe you want to repeat that, and you can just tweak other things to improve.

I find with event planning that most people sign up at the last minute. That gets quite stressful, because you're looking to week out something you put so much effort into. And you know, maybe 6070, people haven't even registered yet, that that will be coming right?

Or where maybe you thought like, when we put together, sort of like a, we could kind of do this more for, like, the the full day events, but we put together that ticket mat and be like, Oh, well, we thought maybe so many people were going to come from this one thing, you know, maybe I did a speaking event, and I was assuming that there might be 50 people would buy tickets, or something like that. And then they didn't, you know. So then you want to kind of see, okay, well, where else can we get that? What else can we look at? But you're right. People do leave it to the last minute, even if you might want to try to promote it early. Promote it early. And if you promote too early, people will forget. They want to have it in their calendar. Something else will come up, or what have you. So there's kind of like trying to figure out when is the right amount of time, because you want people to be able to have the time to block their calendars off to attend. So if they leave it to the last minute, maybe they won't be able to come to the whole thing.

In all the setup you need to make that really frictionless in the registration and adding to Calendar, I still get some things signed up for and there's no Add to Calendar, and I'm like, Oh my gosh, how am I going to I got it? You expect me to copy and paste this in and create a calendar invite for myself? And like, if it's really important, I do half the time I don't and I will not have remembered to come because, unless I maybe get a reminder, but most of the time you're booked out by then, yeah, yeah.

100% I get surprised by that too. Sometimes I'm like, what? There's no ad calendar,

Yeah, yeah. And I mean, when, when did ad to calendar get invented? Maybe in the last decade, they didn't use that.

I mean, now when I do have to do it myself, I'm like, oh, okay, like, I'll do it. I'll copy and paste that. I I always have this little bit of a moment where I just wish I could click a button and maybe there. Yeah.

Well, so when you're setting yours up, make sure you find a tool that has an Add to Calendar. Very important to have that. Yeah. And I noticed with some of your clients, they also will create a calendar invite and just invite people to it that have already registered so that they can get a second off option to add that to their calendar, exactly.

Yeah, that's great that it gets in there, it disappears and there it is. Yeah.

So that's another thing you could do, too. If you've already got it going you didn't have an Add to Calendar. Well, Add to Calendar. Well, all the people who registered now go and add them to your Google Calendar and invite them.

I don't know about the other ones. I use Google Calendar the most, but there's some settings that say that whether or not you can see the other people invited. So make sure that's not ticked because you don't want to be sharing the emails like because if you have even 50 people to your event, you don't want every all the 50 people to see everybody's emails, so make sure that they cannot see each other's emails.

Yeah, that often, then not that they can invite other people, because that can make it really messy, too, and then they can end up duplicating the event too. We had somebody do that one time. They duplicated it or delete it. You're like, so somebody had set it up with an open like, everybody on it was able to edit the event. Oh, wow, yes. But I was early days, five years ago, when I was just beginning in this world. Yeah.

So this is part of the lessons learned, right? So you would review that and be like, Okay, next time or not, let anybody edit it

Cuz you actually talked about starting too late. Is it one of the biggest mistakes that people make? What? What would be another one that people make that's common that you notice, um,

I would say the whole visibility thing. I know there was some clients that I had where they just relied on purely email marketing and social media. And to me, I find that a little bit passive, if you will. So yes, you know, email marketing is great, and you definitely get conversions with that. And social media is great for visibility. Is great for visibility, but it's not enough. I find like, if you just do that, you may not, especially if you don't have a big list, or maybe they're not a super responsive list, you know, most email lists would have like, a 20% open rate, you know. So even if you have 1000 or something, only a couple 100 people looking at it, and they may or may not be interested. So yeah, so I would say, think of different ways that you can promote yourself and really be visible, because you're the face of your business. So you need to be out there, and you need to be telling everybody, and all the different ways possible that this event's coming and that you want them there, and that you're super excited about it. So I would say, yeah, definitely put yourself out there, be visible, and do not just rely on email.

Do them. Social media doesn't convert email. Converts really well, but you have to do multiple ones because to be frequency three to five back in the day now it's like 20 something, like it's a lot. This is why people don't register to last minute. They don't see it. It either goes to spam or they miss it, or, you know, they're not going to read it. They don't open up every email every all the time. And the other thing is, I gotten some success that are creating events on LinkedIn or Facebook, if you're a really big Facebook paper, and you can invite people through there. And with LinkedIn, you can do 1000 a week. So if you start further back, you can end up inviting 5000 people through LinkedIn like so that makes a big difference in getting signups. Then you need to still remind them they won't have maybe registered and gotten the Zoom link. They've just said they're coming on the LinkedIn, but at least you've got some people of interest there, DMing, people afterwards who were accepted the invitation on LinkedIn will will help too. I get conversions out of that. That's very powerful. And then let's circle back. It's the joint venture people that really work because they're inviting their list, they're inviting it. It's not you, it's someone else saying, Hey, I know this great event coming up. This is my friend, and she has great value. You're going to learn a lot, or whatever it is that's about it, and they're going to share it with their community. And then a person like you, Elisa, can help make that happen and give them a schedule that they will follow up on.

Exactly yes, 100% and yeah, as we talked about, the email marketing definitely does convert. So if you can get more people to email for you, so it's not just your list now, it's also, you know, maybe 10 other people's list, and if they all have a couple of 1000, then your exposure is that much more. So yeah, yes, email marketing doesn't work.

You work with bigger clients and people, they have big lists, don't they?

Yeah, some of them do, for sure, yeah, we're into like, the 10s of 1000s, yeah, yeah.

So then you're working with JV partners. It's kind of a leveling up in the JV partner world of finding those relationships. So start building them with people now. And I know some people that I started JV relationships with their lists were small. They're now like 20,000 so they've built their list. They're great partners. We've been working together for four or five years. You know, we're all growing together and increasing our our exposure and audiences reach through working together, having been in a relationship for a long time, too.

So Exactly, yeah. And also, you know, I remember a client of mine said that he there was someone who wanted to partner with him, but she was sort of just kind of starting, and her list was small, and I don't know, a couple 100 or something like that. I think under 500 but she was like, oh, and he's like, Well, you know, why don't you promote for me first, and then we'll see how it goes, and then I'll promote for you. Because this list was much bigger. I think he was like seven or 8000 or something, and but she had a very responsive list, and she got, he ended up getting more opt ins and tickets sold through her than some of her his other JV partners, who had a 10,000 you know, 20,000 list, because her audience responded to it very well. Loved what he was doing. So it was a really good fit. And there's a very responsive list. So, you know, there's some people that have, you know, 50,000 person lists, but they're not very responsive, and maybe they're not interested in it.

So there's lots of people that are doing a lot of JVs. They're they're using their list up, like they're doing stuff all the time, and then their lists start getting not noticed, their emails probably had a list that she she just gave really good value all the time. And when she said something that this was good, they just said, oh, oh my gosh. Well, well, one second was wonderful. I'm going to go whoever that person was. And another strategy that you could do, if you have a small list, is be really active with DMing. People that you know would love that event, do a little sales effort and get a few people, and then when you've done something really well on your side, you've showed that trust, and you showed that you you are a great partner, and you know, the reciprocity will come back to you. So very powerful. Well, this has been fabulous. Elisa, I know that people will have lots of questions for you, so when you're at the Grand connection, make sure that you you you get to together with Elisa and do your one on ones, and learn a little bit more about how she could support you in your launch, and also subscribe to her podcast. There's so much value here for everyone that I feel that you know you're going to get a next launch that's going to be clear, aligned and supported. And if you're thinking about launching something in the next 60 or 90 days, or maybe it's six months away, take one step today. Get clear on what you're bringing into the world and who it's for. That clarity is where everything begins. And of course, you want to meet with Elisa before, before you get going on this on your next program, so you can meet her at the Grand connection. And as you've heard today, you don't have to do it all alone. Collaboration, partnerships and the right support can make all the difference in creating successful and sustainable launch. Now, Lisa, where can people connect with you and. Learn more about your work.

Yeah, they can go to my website. It is launch partner pro com, so you can learn about what I do there, and you can book a call with me there as well. And I believe I gave you a lead magnet. I think the one that I gave you was, think I did it in the form, was the hiring Tech Pros, because I know that technology, especially if you're starting out, can be a very scary thing. And when you're doing a launch or you need to do websites, you need landing pages, you need like, we're just talking about 20 different emails who's going to be scheduling all of those that can be really stressful. So often people want to hire someone, and so I have a checklist that gives you the different steps that you need to take to make sure that you're hiring the right person, someone that you know is actually going to deliver, and you know they have a good reputation. So there's some things that teaches you how to like prepare for the meeting with them, and some red flags to look out for, because you want to make sure you hire the right person who can really help you.

Well, we'll make sure that that link is in the show notes so you can get the tech pro list, definitely a must have for anyone getting started. And I think we all need a tech pro in our lives. So it's a good list to have for all of us, even if we're not launching in the next six months or so. And if you're looking for a community where you can connect, create and collaborate with heart centered entrepreneurs, we invite you to experience the grand connection. You can grab a guest pass and join us for an upcoming event. Until next time, connect, create and collaborate. You.