Ep 11: Should I Care About... September Launches, What's Actually Working In 2026 & The One Thing Every Good Launch Has In Common?
What this episode is about
This week on Should I Care? we (Sophie Griffiths & Ruthie Walmsley) get into September launches, & what's actually working in 2026.
September is typically go time for courses & service offer launches. It's the last chance for 12 week courses to get done before the end of the year and even the most seasoned evergreen fans can strt to doubt whether they should be gearing up for right now.
Except Sophie's worst launch ever was a September one & she's doing it differently this year.
The question we keep circling is the one you're probably sitting with too: does it still have to be the big masterclass-then-open-cart formula, or has that stopped working?
Ruthie's about to attempt her first proper launch & is talking herself out of it in real time, convinced her audience isn't big enough & nobody will turn up.
Sophie's done years of them & keeps landing on the same thing: the launches that worked best were the ones she barely counted as launches, & they all shared one thing.
Key topics covered in this episode
In this episode:
The September launch Sophie swears she'll never do again: a 3-day event that went well on paper, & the client feedback that explained why it flopped
Ruthie's launch wobble in real time: 11 in the room, wanting 25, & the story about her audience she can't stop telling herself
The "launch" Sophie wasn't even trying to run that out-earned every launch she actually planned, & the thing it had that the planned ones didn't
The £97 membership with 13 people signed up before the workshop had even finished, & the "launch PTSD" sitting behind it
Why you have to talk about it far longer than feels sane, & the DM that proves it
meet your hosts
Sophie Griffiths
Sophie is obsessed with working with impatiently ambitious women who want to build a business based on connection and depth and refuse to accept they can’t work less and still earn big money.
A fast talking scaling strategist who teaches women to grow their businesses with ads, offer they are obsessed with and marketing that actually feels fun.
Over the last 9 years she’s grown the business alongside 2 high energy girls, a cavapoo dog who doesn’t understand personal space, an ADHD diagnosis & strong (positive) feelings about trashy TV (yes Off Campus..) & salted butter.
ruthie walmsley
Ruthie is a storytelling strategist and recovering English teacher ( and deputy headteacher) who helps women turn what they actually think into content people can’t stop reading.
One husband, one son, one ridiculous puppy called Bernie, an obsession with storytelling and a CV that includes some of the biggest names in the online business space.
Read the Podcast episode transcript
NOTE: This podcast was transcribed by an AI tool. Please forgive any typos or errors.
Ep 11 - Launching
===
Sophie: [00:00:00] Hello and welcome to this week's episode of Should I Care? with me, Sophie Griffiths
Ruthie: Me, Ruthie Walmsley
Sophie: We are gonna jump straight into it today 'cause I think we've got a lot to cover. We are talking should I care about launching in September? That everybody's launching in September, that September is the time to launch. this will be going out towards the end of August, so I imagine it will be on a lot of our, clients and peers and everybody online will be talking about September launches.
I have quite a patchwork history of September launches, so I'm gonna talk a little bit about , what's happened before for me in September and what I'm planning on this year.
Ruthie: Hoping to do, a September launch. I've never done one before. I don't know that I can even say that I've done a proper launch before. I've definitely launched things. I've definitely had offers, but I don't know if I've ever followed what I would consider to be, like, a traditional launch runway.
I'm also gonna be talking a bit about, I've been lucky enough to work on some insane launches, as part of the [00:01:00] launch team where, we're talking millions of pounds, or dollars or whatever it might be. And so I think that gives some really useful insight into looking at, what I've seen work what is possible.
so yeah, I think there's loads that we can talk about. And it's a little bit like there is that narrative around launches as well, isn't there, in general that I think we could talk about with,
should we be doing live launches anymore? Is evergreen the way forward? And all of the, the conversation around that.
Sophie: Yeah, our live launch is dead.
Ruthie: launch? Let's start with that.
Are you doing a September launch, Soph?
Sophie: Well, it's funny, when I was telling you earlier, I was like, "I'm not doing one." And I was like, "Oh, but I am selling something." I don't know. I think there's, like, an interesting, conversation around, like, w- what is launching? Like you said, I've launched things, but I wouldn't have said done a launch.
Actually I'll take you back a few steps because traditionally September is, like, I would say for the service industry anyway, service businesses online, September is, , go time. When I used to work with e-com brands, obviously, , you're - really more looking at, , Black Friday, Christmas, that's their big time.
But I think for service [00:02:00] brands, September has always been, , a really big month. And I remember pre-COVID and even the, , few years after COVID, that was when, , the big money was made. It was when all the big launches happened. And then I would say last year, maybe the year before, I would say I have seen a real shift in maybe people being like, "Do you know what?
Live launching isn't the only way that we can sell now," and that actually whether you get the same results as you used to in September. And I think there's, , a few reasons for that. I think part of it is it became such a big thing. You know where you're, like, a victim of your own success?
It's like September became such a big thing that everybody was launching that there was just so much competition. So, you know, it's like, "Oh, I can't come to your workshop because I'm already signed up to two others and I know I won't get through all the replays." I just, I can't. I can't do it." And
I had a really interesting realization last year. So I've talked quite openly on Scaling Unwrapped, which is the private podcast I did at the end of last year, that September was actually, , , the worst kind of [00:03:00] launch I've ever done. I mean, in terms of the actual launch it went great, but it was the results that didn't come in.
So I did a three-day event, , online event. It went really well, had loads of people sign up. I had really good attendance. I had loads of people engage with it. It went really well overall, but I just didn't get the conversions. And one of the biggest things I think I realized and the feedback that I got is that, my clients are people who are selling their own things in September and they were so in their own launches that, A, they didn't really have the capacity to consider what I was selling, B, they wanted to find out the, , outcome of their launch before they decided whether they were gonna work with me or not bec- whether they've got the money or whether actually it went great and maybe they don't need me.
interesting, balance, and I just came away from it feeling really exhausted. I ended up working more in August than I wanted to last year because I was prepping for this launch. I wanted to give myself a long enough runway because it's [00:04:00] quite hard when you're coming back from the summer holidays.
You don't wanna leave the, launch event, so this three-day thing. I didn't wanna leave it too late in September because I needed to get people in and onboarded. so I wanted to do it quite early in September, but actually I recommend to all my clients that if you're gonna run ads to get people to come to an event, you wanna do them at least two weeks in advance.
And I would say the same with organic as well. , If you want people to come to your workshop or three-day event or whatever, two weeks s- is a good sort of sweet spot. But that means if you wanna run it earlier than two weeks in September, you've gotta start running them in August. you've gotta start promoting in August.
And it really ate into my August. I didn't really enjoy it, the whole thing. so I swore to myself at that point that I was not gonna do a September launch next year. So cut to like, I dunno, two weeks ago and I'm like, "Right, what am I doing in September?" So my big goal for the rest of this year is to, , just really focus on Outrageous. I really want to get Outrageous to full, if you like. which is about 15 clients. , That's [00:05:00] my big goal for the rest of this year. but I like live events. , I like workshops, I like live experiences.
I love doing stuff like that. I just don't like having huge pressure on them. So a few weeks ago I'm like, "Do you know what I wanna do? I think I'm gonna do a paid-" Challenge of some kind, a paid thing. I know straight away my head is going to creating something new because that's my default. , I am Mrs.
New. I love creating new things. I'm like, "Oh, I could create a micro offer, and I could do this, and I could do that." And I'm like planning it all out. oh my God, 100% shiny objects. , It'll be new, it'll be fun. But I mean, as everyone knows, there's a huge amount of work that goes into anything new.
It doesn't matter if it's micro or not , you still gotta write the sales page and the signups and the emails and like, oh my God, all the things. So Then I was having a look at my time and my capacity. I was like, "Right, well, when am I gonna run it?" , Straight away I'm like, "Well, , I'll run it in September."
Didn't even really do any critical thinking around that. I was just like, "Well, if I want people to join Outrageous [00:06:00] in September," because in all honesty, like, that's when I need the revenue to come in, " I need to run it early September." So I'm working back and I'm like, "Right, when am I gonna start the ads and stuff?"
And then I just had to sort of , take a moment and be like, " oh, you're really falling into old patterns here., This is not what we said we were doing this year. , This isn't how you want to run your business. This isn't the pressure you want to feel right now." So I decided, actually, I already have a really good low ticket paid offer called Obsessed, which I ran, at the beginning of the year and went incredibly well.
I'm going to rework that a little bit based on what I think people need now, so that 90% of the work is already done, and I'm actually not gonna run that until the 5th of October. And so I'm gonna give myself literally the rest of August and all of September to, , get everything prepped in August and then the whole of September to build the wait list, chat about it on socials, probably chat about it on here, send emails, and [00:07:00] just really gently go into it.
Now, just really circling back to when we first said, "What are your launch plans for this year?" I don't know if I'd call it a launch. I don't know because It's not like a traditional, " I'm gonna have a masterclass and then I'm gonna do a lot of pressure and stuff."
Sophie: But I will run ads , , to the paid offer. I will be running a paid offer, which then goes into Outrageous. So probably to all intents and purposes, I will, be sending sales emails.
Ruthie: So what makes you feel like it's not a launch?
Sophie: I know, isn't it funny? I think what makes me feel like it's not a launch is probably, just the mindset around it, because I'm not feeling the pressure.
Partly it's because I know that the money will offset some of the pressure. 'Cause like in all honesty, you know, if I then don't bring in anybody into Outrageous, at least I've made some money. Know what I mean? Yeah.
Whereas for me,, think a launch feels like a bit all or nothing, a bit that like dig in mentality, a bit like it's all or [00:08:00] nothing.
And I think that's where I don't feel like this is all or nothing. I don't feel like that dig in mentality. I just feel like it's just gonna be a really great offer to bring people into
Ruthie: Yeah, and I think I've got a few things to say on it. One is that I was lucky enough to work with this incredible launch manager. I actually worked with her on a few different clients,
had worked with her, and she's brilliant. Laura. and she had some really amazing data on paid activities at the beginning of a launch.
Yeah
obviously harder to recruit, of course.
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: The lesson I got from her, and - this could be outdated, 'cause this is a couple of years ago I was working with her. But she had some really compelling data about if someone pays for it, are way more likely to then pay for whatever the end product is.
Sophie: Mm-hmm.
Ruthie: And
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: clients now, , it's not necessarily a paid challenge, but there are paid elements to the challenge, opportunities to upgrade and so on. And, oh, the data on that was amazing. There was crazy more likely to buy the end product, even though the thing that they bought at the beginning was really low cost.
It [00:09:00] just attracts a different type of person, I think. And so I think it'll be an interesting thing for you to do anyway just from a data point of view to find out, what is the relationship between somebody who pays to attend the first thing, will they then be more likely to continue to pay
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: the end product?
Yeah
so I think that's just an interesting thing to think about with launching. But I think there is, an element of- When your business is in a habit... you're really good at locking in income, right? So you know, I saw your post this week that was like September 2027, I think, you know you've got money locked into.
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: So that does create breathing space, doesn't it,
Sophie: Ja.
Ruthie: from the
Sophie: Ja
Ruthie: And I think when I think about my attitude to launching for my business, it's very different to my attitude for launching. I'm absolutely jolly hockey sticks when it comes to launching for other people. I'm like, "Yeah, come on. We can do this.
What are you on about? Yeah, let's get it done." When it's my business, I'm like so nervous of egg on my face. when you're living in like a public [00:10:00] space of okay, I've gotta tell people about it, I've gotta send them emails, I've gotta talk about it on socials, and so when I talk about a traditional launch, it sounds like the same as what you're imagining, which is some sort of promo window building up to a free live event.
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: be one day, it might be a three-day, it might be a five-day. then following that, you've got, hopefully loads of people turn up for that and sign up for that, and then those people you're then going to, maybe a wider audience, open the doors to something or open an offer that you then hope they'll buy, and you'll promo that for another week or two. The bit about that has stopped me ever doing it that way,
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: part of this might be that I've seen f- tens of thousands of women show up for stuff, is I'm like, what if, on whatever day of the week I choose, I turn on my laptop, go into my Zoom room, and nobody turns up? I'm literally, my blood's just run cold at the thought of it.
It's like the fear of, oh my God, what if no one shows? I haven't got a massive audience. What if it's me and, [00:11:00] one other person? I think that would be worse than if it was, no one.
Sophie: That's actually what I was gonna say. Actually having no one, I would say is better than having, , one or two.
Ruthie: Yeah, 'cause they can see it, can't they?
Sophie: You think it's safe. I think. it's really interesting though, and that is definitely something that, , really comes up with my clients, and this idea of, , doing a live workshop, and how incredibly vulnerable it makes you.
It makes you so vulnerable, and there's loads of things that you can do to, prevent that happening, and to put, , safety measures in place that basically ensure that you know that you're gonna get, , a reasonable amount of people turning up. I mean, one thing would just be to tell your clients to turn up, there's loads of ways you can do it. But I do think That is one of the mindset issues that really stops people from, launching or that they don't want to launch anymore because it's so tough on their nervous system, because they're so worried about, , all of that stuff and everything.
And also, I think there's another mindset [00:12:00] thing. Well, there's quite a lot of mindset things we can go into. But , interestingly the workshops never bothered me quite as much because it feels a little bit more private, like only a few people would see maybe, like no one came.
For me, it's more , , the public I'm launching. I want new people to come in. And then the outcome whether it's, , your client seeing or whether, , you're like, "Yeah, actually nobody joined.
Ruthie: Yeah.
And this is like at the start of the show, we talked about my reluctant September launch.
And I really to do... And I told myself I was doing a launch, okay?
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: And I laid the stake in the ground, and I set some potential dates, which I already can't remember. and as you were naming the dates of when you are thinking, "Shit, I need to go and check where mine are." Which makes me sound like a shambles, and I'm really not. I'm a highly organized person, but there's something about this launch that's just, I'm I'm nervous to do it in the traditional way where I probably feel like I know some stuff to be true. I feel [00:13:00] like I know my audience isn't that big.
My original plan was between when I launched the Bloody Good Story Club back in, March, April time. My plan was to use the income from that to reinvest in running some ads to try and build up my audience in between. Now, I haven't done that. I bought your course. I haven't done it yet, just because
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: busy, and that's
not any reflection on me.
It's just the timing hasn't been right for me
with school holidays and all that sort of stuff. so, I haven't made that investment in running ads. I don't feel like I've grown my audience enough, this is the story I'm telling myself. Now, actually, recently, if I look at my new followers on social and the new people that have joined my list, they are ideal clients, So what I should be telling myself is while my audience hasn't grown hugely, the people it has grown with are the right people who are ripe for the product that I want to sell. they'd be perfect for the Bloody Good Story Club. But I've just got this nervousness that, like my audience hasn't grown enough, therefore, I'm not gonna get enough people sign up [00:14:00] for this free workshop. And then that's gonna feel really humiliating. And then I know from working on loads of launches that some of this is a numbers game. That, if I'm dropping, a pretty average conversion rate to get where I wanna be, I need probably way more people in the room than I'm gonna be able to get out of my audience.
And I can just talk myself out of it. And I'm a go-getter. I've built this, business from nothing. I do really well. I've got some incredible clients. I've worked in some amazing businesses. But when it comes to just actually having the gumption to do it, I do really feel nervous.
And so I find myself thinking, "Right, I'm just gonna put it off a little bit. I'm just gonna leave it. Maybe I'll do it just in a slightly more lo-fi way so that the risk-reward ratio is less risky," essentially. Even if it also means it's less reward
Sophie: I wonder, I'm just gonna do some coaching now, 'cause I think people are gonna be screaming I wonder if being part of really big launches has skewed your views a little bit on what you need for a successful [00:15:00] launch. Because first of all, I would say conversion rates on low-level launches are way, way higher than on big launches.
So, you don't need 40,000 people signing up, and you've got a relatively low-ticket product which is highly proven. You've got a really engaged audience, which has been growing. , The reality is, how many people do you actually want to join?
Ruthie: I suppose I'm not looking to, grow it rapidly because also I'm trying to learn about it as I'm in
there. there. are certain elements where I've got a question mark as to how scalable they are, and I'd hate for the quality of what I'm doing to drop. So at the minute I've got 11 people in it, and I'd love to maybe get it to 25
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: what that feels like.
I don't
want to suddenly have, 100 people in there and think, "Shit, actually, this is not sustainable. I can't offer the service that I'm saying I can."
yeah, I suppose I'd want to look to get another 14 people in, because the women that are in there are in there, for 12 months anyway, 'cause it's a 12-month commitment.
so yeah, I [00:16:00] suppose I'd be really chuffed if I could get it to, 25 people in total, so another 14
Sophie: Yeah. And I would say, I think there's two ways to approach this. , There's one to be like, just rip the plaster off and just do it, and just try and hold the belief. The other one is to be like, is it so bad to, build up your confidence? Do you have to run a workshop if that's the bit that's really stopping you?
Ruthie: Yeah. And part of me thought as you were talking then, and, listening to what you said about the thing that you've got planned in October,
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: think partly it's that traditional formula of launching that I talked about locked into,
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: and I've seen businesses have huge success with it.
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: if I just a workshop as lead generation, as trying to get more people who follow me to also be on
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: list, for example.
And if I can just get people to come to that, great. then, , I could potentially, compartmentalize the two things. So yes, I am
Sophie: gonna do a free workshop, and yes, I am also gonna open the doors to Bloody Good Story [00:17:00] Club, but they don't have to have this completely smooth relationship to , one another. I could just see the workshop as its own thing for fun, for lead generation, for building relationships with people online, because I'm good at them as well, I know I am. Um, and also it is true that my doors are gonna open, and if the two things happen to have a great relationship with each other, wonderful, but I don't have to follow this pathway that I've seen work for other people and assume it has to work in the same way for me, Yeah. I mean, I think also, , and we can talk about this more broadly, but, like, there's so many ways , to launch. , Workshops definitely work for some people. For some of my clients, ,, they're not interested in doing workshops. , Some of them, it works really well for them to do, , private podcasts.
, When I did Scaling Unwrapped, last year, that was... I mean, I wouldn't recommend this necessarily, but that was , 12 podcasts over the first 12 days of December, and then we had a Telegram group. So every day a podcast dropped, and then people would come in and we'd chat about it.
It wasn't even meant to be a launch. , I sold Obsessed after it, and the most revenue has come from that thing that I probably, that I've ever done. It was so [00:18:00] incredibly successful. and so private podcasts can work really well. I would say for you, , a, five days with you like a mini challenge of, three posts, and they could see the difference of what storytelling how it actually feels different doing it.
Ruthie: Yeah
Sophie: you know what I mean? Like, they don't necessarily need to learn. Maybe they just need to do. , Maybe like a mini five-day challenge 'cause I often say to people,
if you can emulate the experience of the product or the service they're buying, , that's when you get the best, , the smoothest path.
Do you know what I mean?
Ruthie: To- totally. And actually, I heard someone say that whatever your workshop or the start point of your launch should be is chapter 0.5. What is chapter one of them working with you? What would chapter 0.5 look like? , How could you help them take the first step towards it? And I think what you said your diagnosis, was spot on, in that I think I've worked in so many traditional launch pathways that it's limiting my ability to, think [00:19:00] creatively about how I could do it. And I think also maybe I'm telling myself the story that I'm being shit by not doing it, and I don't like that feeling. I don't love the feeling that fear or, the potential for embarrassment being the thing that's stopping me. And so I think partly I wanna do it because I'm like, "Stop it.
Stop getting in your own
way. Stop being a wimp." And my audience are so nice to me that
I don't believe that even if no one turned up and then if I did a post that was like, "Guys, no one showed up. It was awful," everyone would just be like, "Oh my God, we're so sorry. we should have come," blah, blah, blah.
Ruthie: I know it would be lovely. So part of me wants to just rip the plaster off and do it because stop it, I'm getting in my own way. But then another part of me is worried that I'm just only thinking about it in a really one very obvious way because that's what I've seen work for the clients that I've worked with.
But, the clients I work with are often , a completely different level to me in terms of, audience and ad spend and all of those things. So I'd be keen to know from you, just trying to get the intel on the behalf of
Sophie: [00:20:00] Yeah
Ruthie: what approach has been your most successful launch?
Is it that private podcast I mean, , so the Scaling Unwrapped was by far my most successful launch, and I wasn't even launching. I did it as, , a celebration. So back, last year , I was, named as one of the top 100 small businesses in the UK, and when I did my application for it
Sophie: you had to say how you would basically, celebrate's the wrong word. Like, I guess pass on your knowledge. So the, the whole thing is about, , you know, growing networks and, expanding your knowledge and sharing it beyond, just your clients, and you had to say how you would do it. And I said that I would do some sort of, , free event.
Obviously, me being me, it got a little bit out of hand, and I had this idea of, like, the 12 days of Christmas. I was like, "Oh, I'm gonna do something every day." And then I was like, "I'm gonna do a private podcast." And I did , six were just me literally sharing how I scaled my business last year. Three were interviews with, coaches I'd worked with over the year, and three were interviews with clients that I'd worked with over the year.
[00:21:00] And, do you know why I think it worked? Is because I just fucking loved the idea. I was like, I wasn't launching. I hadn't even, , actually worked out what Obsessed even was when I started it. I didn't start selling it until the middle of the first week.
and I was still creating it, , that first week. didn't go into it , with an intention to sell loads of stuff. I just was so hyped about it, the whole Scaling Unwrapped thing. I was like, "This is just so amazing." There was this incredible community on Telegram. Everyone was just buying into it, and I think it was because no one felt like, " Oh, here comes the sell."
'Cause I didn't have any energy around that because I didn't even know if I was gonna sell anything or not at that point. so I have always found, the things that sell and,, the launches that have gone really well for me, and I think for clients as well, is when you are really, really bought into.
You're not just, ticking a masterclass off 'cause you're doing a masterclass, or you're like, "Oh, I'm doing a three-day event," or , whatever it is that you're doing, you're not doing it because you're like, "Oh, I think people will convert from that." You're doing it [00:22:00] because you're like, "This is fucking gold.
Like, you would be absolutely insane to not be here. My clients are going to... Oh my God, they're gonna love this. , I want to invite my clients to this 'cause I think it's gonna be so valuable."
Ruthie: being able to sell your offer afterwards, with the intention, "But of course you wanna join.
Sophie: Guys, it's brilliant.
Ruthie: wanna jump in." Like, why would you not? There is something so attractive about that energy, and I think the reason why people don't love launches is because it can be quite hard If you know, like you, right, for example, you're like, "I know I should launch in September. I know I should do this thing."
Sophie: I'm just, I'm not feeling it right now. I feel like I've got to do a masterclass. I don't really wanna do it. What if no one turns up? , When you're then trying to promote that masterclass and then trying to sell afterwards, , it's just, there is an energy and it's very hard to manufacture that energy.
Ruthie: And actually, as you were talking and talking about that enthusiasm you felt for Scaling Unwrapped, I definitely do have that enthusiasm for the Bloody Good Story Club.
it's, absolutely brilliant in there. the women are having a great time. I know they are. , It's [00:23:00] brilliant, and I love it, and I'm really proud of it.
And so I definitely do feel that energy about the Bloody Good Story Club, 'cause You know that feeling when you've just got, like, proof of concept?
you've definitely got it with Outrageous. it's brilliant.
it's so good. It works. I love it. And so I feel that energy when it comes to Bloody Good Story Club. But I think what this conversation... , and , this isn't just about me and my business. I just know from the people that message after the podcast,it is useful sometimes to hear not just about, the success stories and, what has worked, but also, , the difficulties and the challenges and stuff like that.
So I
know people will find it so useful hearing you talk about it, and also hearing me being like, " don't know, because I think what these conversations encourage me to do is, I'm going on holiday tomorrow, and I'm hoping, I'll have space to think about something just for fun. creatively. ... Because one of the things I have done for so many clients, , one big client in particular, I'm known for being really good at coming up with fun experiences. Like, how can we make this, rather than just being boring, , how can we make this feel different?
How can it [00:24:00] feel experiential rather than just being, like, a straightforward kind of next-day chronological type thing? And so, yeah, I think where energy goes, energy flows, isn't it? And I really do believe that, and I do think that the thing that is holding me back with planning out this launch is that I'm just not feeling about the front end of it as much as I am the back end of it. and so I'm gonna give myself some space on holiday to hopefully come up with something really cool that's gonna excite people. But it's interesting to hear, especially for people who are introverted or not I'm not an introvert, but a masterclass still scares me. like the idea of recording a podcast might feel way more comfy and exciting for people, or doing, like, email series that's got a really specific focus.
I've seen someone doing that recently and I thought, "God, that's good."
Jess Bruno.
I don't even know if it's actually leading up to a launch or not, but she's sending these emails and I'm like, "These are really good. Really, really good." I think it's just interesting to hear of different ways that you've approached things that are outside of that traditional [00:25:00] method that can feel intimidating for people.
Sophie: I think one of the things that I like the most about, running groups and being part of groups, especially with other women that are doing these sorts of things, is like seeing how other people do it so that it really lights them up, and it's really exciting for them, and they actually can get behind it, rather than just feeling like everyone has to go through this cookie cutter, two-week promotion, master class, two-week, sales, end of story.
, I've had some clients do brilliant things., One client did an email sequence launch, where literally it was really low lift. It was in September. She was like, "I haven't got hardly any capacity. I literally don't even have time to do a workshop." So she created a, maybe
it was, 10-day, maybe 14-day email sequence where people signed up for it. So she promoted it, and people signed up, and then each day it sent them a prompt to do something or take a small action or something like that. And then when it finished,people signed up for it, and they just started straight away, so it wasn't like everyone went through the two weeks at the same time.
And then at the end, she just had some emails scheduled that sold, and I think she had a membership, and I think she got 10, 12 people [00:26:00] into the membership just because they'd used some of the prompts. They'd seen her in their inbox for 14 days straight.
they liked , her tone. They liked, what she was saying, and they just signed up. And I think, private podcasts also work really well, for some clients. I think the thing with a private podcast that I've noticed in terms of launching is it's better when there's a live element alongside it, like a Telegram group or a Slack group or something like that.
Because otherwise People really do intend to listen, but it's very hard to pull them into a deadline and a sort of like, "No, now is the time to sign up."
Ruthie: And yeah, and it's having that moment, of pulling them in from arm's length, isn't
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: if you're not gonna have the live workshop element, how are you pulling them in? And actually, one of my clients, we, have traditionally done the launch and had a community, a pop-up group
But it's intense because
Sophie: It's a lot of work for whoever, and sometimes that's been me running the community, and you're like, "Oh, my God." and we're testing and have tested removing that community element to see what impact [00:27:00] it has on conversion.
Ruthie: And it's hard to say for sure, 'cause you're doing slightly different things every time. But yeah, I can see why having some sort of element where it's a little bit more tangible would be important so that you can have that kind of contact with people on a more, reciprocal basis
Sophie: Yeah. , I think it's that reciprocalness. 'Cause even if you have a workshop, at least some people are there live. , You're talking to them, you get that energy. I think with a private podcast, if you have say, 100 people sign up, as the person running it, you don't necessarily have any interaction with them.
they might be listening. You can see the numbers of who's listened, but you can't reach out and be like, " What did you think? Did you get anything from that?" you can send emails, but, for me, that feels very much like you're pushing stuff out into the ether, and I need stuff to come back to me.
I need feedback. I need encouragement., I need to see people on the workshop. I need to have people signed up to the Telegram group. that's what keeps my energy going. I think private podcasts are brilliant as nurture tools. so if you are more of , an evergreen focus where you want to be selling every month, then I think having , an [00:28:00] evergreen private podcast is an incredible tool to use.
Ruthie: one of the things I saw, an ex-client of mine use, and . She's not doing it anymore, but I think it's 'cause she's basically become too much of a big deal. , she's on telly now. But
Sophie: Oh, wow.
Ruthie: is a
Sophie: specifically worked with, high-performing women. her signature program I think is still called Love for Leaders, and it's about women who are high performing in all elements of their life, but maybe their, love life is a bit of a
Ruthie: and wanted to move out of that intense launch
But instead she just started running, a master class with a slightly different topic, something she wanted to talk about, It was based on, what she was enjoying, things that she was thinking or talking about. and so people would come along, and then she would always mention the
Sophie: so Yeah
Ruthie: it , was way less pressured than, , a traditional launch because it was based on the fact that she was just almost like a live podcast, if you like.
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: what it was like. It was
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: podcast episode, and at the end she would invite people to stay on the call if you wanted to hear about the program. and some people would [00:29:00] leave and some people would stay. And she wasn't so attached to with the outcome because it... she knew she got another one coming up the following week or the following month, and it was just learning and, I thought that was interesting. A different way of doing it that, again, she got great results from it and probably better than the launch results, traditional launch results.
Sophie: And that I would say , that's pretty much the approach that most of my clients take in Outrageous, is they will do some kind of repetitive... so rather than waiting for like key periods of the year, might not be every month, but last year I think I ran eight live events through the year.
Whether it's a masterclass, a paid thing, like, Obsessed, Scaling Unwrapped.. I ran something most months. I think I didn't run them in August, and maybe there's one other month, so maybe it was 10. And I just find , the more you run them, the less pressure there is.
The more , you're just like, "Yeah, this is fun." I can have 100 people, great. Probably 40, 50 will turn up live. Great. we'll have a nice conversation. And people that join one month, they might not buy straight away, again, you're doing it next month. Maybe they'll join that month, maybe they'll come to the next one.
At the moment I'm testing doing the [00:30:00] same one. So it's the same workshop. I'm mostly getting people in. I've done it for the last four months, four or five months, and mostly I'm promoting it on ads rather than on organic.
In July I promoted it more widely, but, other times I haven't. And it's brought in really great potential people, like they're really ideal clients. It's really nice just to be like, "Oh yeah, I'm just turning up and doing my workshop." There's less pressure. I think the biggest challenge with it is, A, obviously there's the ad spend that's related to that.
And then if you don't want to do ad spend and you could vary it each month and you want to do it, you still have to grow your audience. To do a monthly workshop and then get clients from it, you need to be growing your audience in between, 'cause otherwise you're just gonna get the same people coming who are like really lovely and interested, but you're not gonna get the volume that you need to make that happen.
And I think, like you were saying, you meant to do ads back in April, and now you kind of got to this point and you're like, "Oh, this is just really annoying." that's the biggest shift when , clients come to me, for Outrageous or even for the Superfan Sprint, is just getting those ads on so that the,
Ruthie: Yeah
Sophie: is growing all the time.
And then if you want to do a big launch, you can do a [00:31:00] big launch. If you want to , do a masterclass every month, if you want to do a private Telegram group with a private podcast, if you want to do an email thing. Ultimately, we don't necessarily want to go viral or have hundreds of thousands of followers, but the more people in your world, the more , potential buyers.
Ruthie: Yeah, it takes some of the pressure off what your
Sophie: yeah.
Ruthie: needs to be, doesn't it?
Sophie: It really does
Ruthie: of the things that always wish more people knew about the big launches that we
I've worked in lots of them. and often we talk about "Oh my god, such and such had a five-figure launch," or,
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: launch," or, "They had an eight-figure launch."
Like this is crazy numbers. but we never really know, not many people are sharing, "Well, actually, I spent amount on
Sophie: Yeah. Yeah
Ruthie: And I think it can create unrealistic expectations. I think it's why Jessie Gene's kind of resonated so
Sophie: Mm.
Ruthie: all organic, and you're like, "Oh my god, maybe that is possible for me, then." a lot of these big launches that we see, we don't know what they're spending on ads. and, from personal experience, sometimes it is huge, thousands and thousands of pounds are going into making sure [00:32:00] exactly what you just said, bums on seats. Like, how can we get as many people as possible?
That's not to say that the only way you can have a successful launch is by spending loads, but it is one strategy, isn't it? that could potentially, done well, bring more people in. But I do think that thing to learn from that is that big, successful, online businesses are noticing that they need to replenish their audience, and you need to constantly have fresh people.
And you can do that in a variety of ways, and we don't need to be doing it on the same scale as people who are trying to bring tens of thousands of people into an event., It's just interesting, I think. even as you were talking and you mentioning what people in your program have done, and straight away it just gets you thinking, and hopefully it does for the people listening, of different ways they can do things.
just because there's one method that is known to be proven doesn't mean it's the right route forward for your audience. and you've learnt loads from doing your Scaling Unwrapped.
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: have done that just from the experiment and wanting to do something and feeling excited about it, you wouldn't have had God knows how many clients come through. and [00:33:00] similarly, I did last year a summer workshop in person, and the reason I did that in person was because I wanted to. I was like, "I wanna do an in-person event." I was really excited about it. yeah, just really wanted to do it. And actually, the I think 12 women attended, a good few of them are in the Bloody Good Story Club, a good few of them have had Power Hours. a good couple of them have become retainer clients at certain periods. So I do like the idea of being in a good energy about things and feeling excited about it, which I think , is like a really good way to take the temperature of it.
Sophie: . I think the more you can , be excited about it, the better. But it is hard when, you've just come off the back of six weeks of juggling and childcare and energy. Like you say, you're like, "Oh, okay, I can breathe next week. I'm away on holiday. Maybe I can be more creative."
it's hard, isn't it? 'Cause sometimes you're like, I just have to show up and just do what I've done before and just hope that it works. And I think that, genuinely, and I know this is my thing, but if you're growing your audience all the time, that is less, risky if you're always growing your audience because [00:34:00] you do just have more people there available to.
But I would say for you, you haven't drained your current warm audience. So I think if you were gonna launch September, November, and January, and you didn't use ads or like any other way of like growing your audience in particular other than Instagram, I think by January you'd be really struggling.
Ruthie: But I think because it's been five, six months since you last, like you actually launched it. and obviously you're doing this now, which is a, Come
Sophie: mega audience builder. We have actually just hit over 1,400 downloads, guys, so I know.
Ruthie: And like one of those is me
Sophie: Yeah, every week. Ruthie's always like, "I was listening to us and I noticed this."
I honestly never listen back.
Ruthie: cannot stand it
But it is we are joking about the podcast, but, for me, I'm really noticing that I'm getting people, a crossover. some of my
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: like, "I've started following Sophie.
Sophie: and likewise, I've had people drop into my inbox that are like, "Oh, I've started following you because I listened to you on Sophie's podcast."
Ruthie: And whilst [00:35:00] we're not tens of thousands of downloads every week, actually the right people are really landing with me from it, and hopefully the same for you, in that, the crossover audience and making sure that we're appealing to the people that we actually wanna do business with or wanna impart knowledge or share experiences with, I think is really useful.
And again, it's another example of, not everything has to be viral to be valuable. Oh my
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: good did that sound?
Sophie: Oh my God, that was like, that was a real soundbite.
Ruthie: Yeah.
But yeah, I do think , that is of note, and, important for me to remember, 'cause I think, like you said, I've seen such big launches that sometimes it's easy for me to what good would look like for me and what I need in my business and what I'm hoping for, um, rather than just having in the back of my mind, like, six-figure launches and five-figure launches and, £30,000 launches, and all these numbers that we all are getting bombarded with.
I'd love it. Don't get me wrong. If it happens, great. But it's actually not what I'm aiming for
Sophie: Yeah. Shall I leave you with some proof from a client that I worked with? So [00:36:00] she ran a membership, which was, I think it was 97 a month at the time, so not that much more than yours.
Ruthie: Yeah
Sophie: a bit more than yours, but not by much. she had 70 people sign up to her masterclass. I'm pretty sure she had 60 come live.
It was a wild, , show-up rate, 'cause she had a really warm audience, like you. Before she even finished the workshop, she had 13 people had signed up to the membership. I know. , On the call, and then I think she had another five or six afterwards. I think she ended up, just under 20.
but how wild is that?
Ruthie: Amazing.
Sophie: Amazing.
Ruthie: She must have been thrilled
Sophie: She was thrilled. She was thrilled. It was the first launch that we worked on together. and she'd done masterclasses before. She used to tell me, she was, like, really open about this, and she was like, "I have launch PTSD." She'd , done two, I think, before me, and she was like, "The first one was, like, mediocre, a bit disappointing.
The second one was horrific." she was just like, "The whole thing felt horrific. . It didn't convert. It took up huge amounts of time and energy," and she just was like, "It was just rubbish." yeah, we did it together. she was in Inevitable at the time, my mini mind.
We did it together, but it's interesting, isn't it? [00:37:00] 'Cause when you say, 70 people signed up for her workshop, on its own, a bit like when you were saying about how, the last episode that sometimes you don't see the, mega wins unless they're, like, huge wins from your clients. When someone says, "Oh, 70 people signed up to my masterclass," you wouldn't immediately be like, "Oh my God, that's incredible."
Because so often we hear, even amongst our level, oh, 100, 150, 200, 250, 600, whatever it is, and you're like, "Oh, 70 is not wild." But that show up rate alone is insane,the nurture and the connection that she had with her audience was amazing. And she did also have a, obviously 'cause we worked on a strategy,, to get people moving, this might be something you want to think about, to get people moving, she had,they're called, fast action bonuses, well, you know what they are.
And I would say this, I'm not talking to you now, but, more generally, There's nothing worse than doing a workshop or whatever it is and then just, waiting to see if people are gonna buy. So if you want to stop that horrible, doom spiral afterwards, create something that's either available for a very limited amount of time, [00:38:00] like anyone who signs up in the next 24 hours gets X bonus, or a number of people.
So the first 10 people to sign up are gonna get X, Y, whatever. that worked really well for her because people were literally signing up on the call so that they would get the thing to make sure they got it. Yeah. So it's-
Ruthie: work really well for one of my clients. One of my clients actually used to have an annual launch,
Sophie: what that did to the nervous system,
my God. Yeah
Ruthie: or breaking and so she actually retired it for that reason. but one of the things that worked really well, for her, she always used to do a fast action, but then she also used to do a mic drop. So you know
Sophie: Oh。
Ruthie: your, traditional launch window, you have the people that sign up straight away, then it goes a little bit quiet,
And then everyone's, holding their nerve.
Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, shit.
Sophie: then the doors start to close, and you start to get the, my client Lucy used to call them deadline dancers coming in. And then as it gets closer, more and more are coming in. But you've got that horrible moment where you have to hold your nerve in the minute.
Ruthie: It feels horrible. so a couple of times we did a mic drop bonus, which was just in that moment, in the window in the middle, anyone who'd already joined got it as well, so there was no [00:39:00] one missing out. If you'd already joined, you're gonna get it. But if you join now in this next 24 or 48 hours, whatever it might be, then you're gonna get this.
and we did various different versions of that, and that can just be a nice way to energize or if you're feeling like, "Oh, I don't know if I can wait till the last day to, find out,"
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: and pull people in quickly.
and the other thing I just wanted to say on launches, just about, the energy of how often you need to talk about it if you are doing organic.
even if you're, even if
Even not, to be honest. Someone who I followed online kept track of every single time they mentioned their launch. So they kept track of how many emails they'd sent, how many Instagram stories, how many Instagram posts, how many Facebook posts, and it was prolific.
they'd really gone all guns blazing. And on the last day of her doors being open to whatever this product was, she got a message from someone who was already a follower saying, "Oh, when are you next opening the doors to your such and such program?" And she was [00:40:00] like, it was such a penny drop moment for this person 'cause she
Sophie: "What I realized is I was sitting there thinking, God, I must be doing people's heads in talking about this launch.
Ruthie: It is all I've been talking about for what f- it's basically a month. I've just been talking." And yet someone who was really warm, her audience already, active follower, messaged and was like, "God, are you gonna open the doors to that again? Because I've been waiting." And she's "It was just a realization for me that just because we feel like we're talking about it a lot, we
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: idea how many of our emails one person has opened, how many of our stories they've seen." And so I just think as well, whilst we're talking about things that are important to a launch, not always important, but, in that idea of energy, , how often have we spoken about it,
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: how often- On the back end of that will people have actually seen it? if you look at your, number of eyes on a post and number of opens of an email, actually your audience shrinks quite significantly, no matter how high-performing it is
Sophie: Yeah, 100%. I think you've gotta talk about it way more than you feel comfortable talking about it. And I think that's why [00:41:00] when you love what you're offering, it makes it so much easier. Because when I was talking about scaling Unwrapped, I was really happy to talk about it every day. I was like, "Oh my God, guys, I'm doing this, and I've recorded this, and I did this person's interview."
And "Make sure you sign up. It's gonna be so good. I'm gonna be literally telling you everything I've done to scale." it was just the most fun energy because I just knew it was gonna be great. I just knew that it was gonna be so fun, and it, I think it helped that it was free. It really helped I wasn't asking people for money.
Ruthie: And I didn't have an agenda. I think part of it was that I didn't feel like I needed to say, "Sign up if you have a group program that you wanna scale to six figures." It was just like, "Just sign up if you wanna come and have some fun." And
Sophie: yeah
Ruthie: guess one of the things that's positive about that is that it's on their timeline.
Sophie: Yeah.
Ruthie: Yeah
can listen to that episode in the morning on their run or walk,
, I think one of the things that people worry about when it comes to, a live masterclass is, what if they can't make it live?
And then, I've got to
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: Will they watch it? And all of that sort of stuff. Whereas, I guess part of the beauty of [00:42:00] the private podcast, yes, they've got less of a commitment to show up. there isn't a hard show up thing, but there is the freedom to listen to it on their timescales or how suits their day
Sophie: And I think that like five-day and three-day things as well, that have, things that you can listen to in your own time or doing activities and that sort of thing, they can be really good too because you've got the space of a week rather than just 90 minutes. but yeah, I think launches are, just a really interesting concept.
They're very unique, obviously, big products and everyone does big launches, but I think finding a way that you feel really comfortable, selling your offer is one of the hardest things that we have to battle with as business owners because it feels really vulnerable.
You know you have to do it if you wanna grow, and I think it's just a case of what I did last year and what I've done this year, is just try your absolute best to, have fun with it, and that sounds so flippant and just try and have fun. it's fine. It's like I know launches don't feel fun, but if you can tap [00:43:00] into what would feel fun for me to do, and then know that next month you can do something totally different, and the month after you can do something totally different.
Ruthie: I use this phrase all the time, to, for myself and for clients as well, of, it's just for now, it's not forever. Just try it now. It's not forever. You don't have to ever do it again if you don't want to. just try it and see
Yeah. And also, like I was thinking how sometimes there's a financial driver. So sometimes you're trying to create more money. Sometimes you might be right at the beginning of your business, and actually you need to generate some bloody income, and that can feel like this enormous pressure. And we can say, "Well, actually, no, it's different for me because I actually need the money.
Like you're in a different spot to me. You've got money. I need to find the money." However, I think the answer back to that is like, "So do it again then."
if that one didn't work, do it again. Like this is
Sophie: Yeah
Ruthie: that it has to be the solution. It can be one of several attempts at a solution to help you generate income. and I'm very quick to tell people with social media to view these things as an experiment.
Sophie: like [00:44:00] rather than me being married to the engagement that you're getting, "Oh my God, that post failed 'cause it didn't get many likes," I'm like, "Okay, what can you learn?" Let's just treat every post as an experiment to find out more about what your audience want. But I really struggle to apply that same methodology to the idea of launching. and I think for me, one of the - thoughts I'm taking away from this is I think maybe doing things more regularly that aren't about necessarily conversion, that are just about the act of recruiting more people, getting more people into my world.
Ruthie: 'Cause I know that, without being a big head, when people spend time with me, they normally buy from me. And so maybe if I look at it from that instead, and then have avenues of them to work with me, one of which is the Bloody Good Story Club when doors are open, I think that's an exciting prospect for me, definitely
Sophie: Yeah. It's a great way of nurturing as well. Like I have one client that runs really regular workshops, but she hates selling on workshops. She just has no interest in it. So at the end she will mention that her thing is open, but , there's no 15-minute pitch, there's no slides on it. Like there might be one slide or whatever.
But she knows that every [00:45:00] month she is building her list, nurturing people, and she knows that at some point she will have an offer that they'll want to buy. And, so she just kinda keeps going with it Takes a bit of time to build that momentum, but it does build over time
Yeah, and liberating as well. Yeah
Ruthie: women that I've worked with and one of the jobs that I've done for people over time is I'm not, I don't work with them long term, but they'll hire me to write their launch emails, for example. So I'll write their promo emails and their nurture and then their open cart.
and I see and hear so often, this success-fail matrix and I've invested and I've done this." And I think maybe , for some of us, there'd be great freedom in not seeing these big launches, but instead seeing regular nurture list building activities that may lead people to sign up but might not need to in the intense way that I'm currently trying to orchestrate.
Sophie: Yeah, exactly. and that is literally, it sounds like a really great plug. That's literally what we do in Outrageous, so
Ruthie: Man,
Sophie: that is
Ruthie: thinking a minute ago, like when you were talking, I was like, "I bet so many people..." 'Cause I was sitting there [00:46:00] thinking, "Shit, I really need to work with Sophie." as you were talking, I was like, "I need to work with Sophie." And I was thinking about so many people are listening in their cars or whatever thinking, "I wonder if I could work with So- maybe I should work with Sophie." And l- meanwhile, I'm like, "I don't know what I'm doing."
Sophie: We, like literally that is for me, like the whole thing is yeah, we work on your offer, we do ads, and we work on like the selling rhythm. So like a rhythm that just feels like you can build into your life so it doesn't have this nervous system. But fundamentally for me, like my whole thing is like I want you to feel safe.
I want you to have money locked in advance. I want you to feel safe, 'cause you're doing stuff that feels fun. I want you to run ads in a way that doesn't freak you out and think you're gonna like waste loads of money. Fundamentally, I just want people to be able to scale and grow and , reach more people, have more impact, and do more fun stuff in their business.
Because it's really hard to do fun stuff when you don't feel safe that the money's coming in, that you don't feel safe, that you're gonna launch and anyone will join. Everything changed for me when I had the mastermind [00:47:00] that locked in enough revenue that I could then start having fun.
So that is like my big mission is how can I help as many women do that?
Ruthie: Yeah. And yes, please is
Sophie: Yeah,
Ruthie: sounds great.
Sophie: come join us.
Ruthie: I hope people have found that really interesting to think about launching in different ways
I care about a September launch? I think my takeaway from it yeah, if that feels good for you, or like you need to, then of course, but , this concept of it having to be a September launch or a January launch isn't necessarily true anymore and that there is more freedom to explore different ways of achieving the same result.
Sophie: . Yeah, 100%. And I think I would just say for me, it's just a really good reminder that launching isn't just one thing. I have clients who are technically evergreen, so they sell the same thing every month, like program doesn't close, and we still do campaigns.
we still have months where they're like pretty chill and just filling it from Instagram, and then we have months where they're like, "Oh yeah, I'm running a workshop, and I'm doing a campaign." technically that's a launch. But it's when you [00:48:00] take the pressure away, when you take the language away, when you take away all that stuff around it, it just doesn't activate your nervous system in the same way.
So I think , it's just a good reminder that, there isn't one way to launch, and you don't have to call it that if you don't want to
Ruthie: Yeah, maybe that's the thing. Maybe we should just all give it new names.
Sophie: New names, exactly. Give it your own name. Amazing.
Ruthie: on a personal level
Sophie: Yeah, you're so welcome.
We will, see you next week. Thank you so
Ruthie: Bye
Sophie: Bye
Subscribe to ‘should I care?’
Episodes release every Tuesday. Make sure you don’t miss any by subscribing on your favourite app.
Next
Next