HSH 006: The $64k Vacation-Style Launch with Jenna Soard
Jenna Soard has been a graphic designer for as long as she could remember. Having a lot of entrepreneurs in her family gave her an entrepreneurial spirit at a very young age. She began doing graphic design in the mid 1990s and started designing for her high school.
After obtaining her MBA, she started her own graphic design company. She worked for 200 companies including Nike and also had the opportunity to teach in four different universities. She now teaches entrepreneurs on how to brand themselves.
“What happens to a lot of entrepreneurs is you’re in a hurry, you need something done right away and you don’t have a strategy about it”
She launched a branding program about two years ago and found success. Before this, she had done a lot of testing and figured out her “Launch Your Brand” program worked best.
From past experience, November and December were the best months for launching. Although she was going on a month-long trip during her launch and her mentors discouraged her from travelling during that time, she decided to still go with it.
“I want to live the lifestyle that I want. I have a brand that people know, like and trust and I have this great credibility, so why not try it?”
Since she was travelling, she decided to do a combination of blogs, emails and a Q&A webinar to promote the program. She worked on the launch in the morning and at night during her trip. That specific launch resulted in sales of $64,000, twice as much as any of her other launches, with less effort required.
What helped the launch to be so successful, apart from being emotionally detached from it, was that she teamed up with people who were willing to do bonus exchanges. She also made sure that there were affordable payment plans available, a self-study version of the program as well as a VIP version. The VIP program included meetings twice a week to give feedback and advice, so she was able to increase the price significantly.
“I decided I didn’t want to do this business unless I was changing people’s lives. If I don’t have a connection with my students, then I don’t want to do this”
“It’s from me being a professor for so long, I know what it takes for somebody be able to really learn something or not”
The launch process was planned in advance and was mostly automated. The sales funnel consisted of a “roadmap” checklist with a link to her program. In addition, each item of the checklist is linked to a lesson in the program, so it was acting as an introduction to the VIP program.
The email series, on the other hand, was more like a three-step process. The first part was to talk about struggles the client is experiencing, and getting them to relate with you. The second part was to paint the picture of why her programs solved their struggles and the final part was introducing the program and presenting the product.
“I did a lot of testing and a lot of failing before I got to this point. So if you are trying things out and failing, your failures are your biggest treasures”
Jenna found a way to merge all of her systems (membership platforms, courses) that were working, tying them together perfectly into what she calls her “secret sauce.”
Before you invest time and money into branding, she advises to make sure that people want what you are selling.
“I have had people develop beautiful brands with product ideas that there is no market for. We can make the most beautiful brand in the world, but if people don’t want what you’re selling, they are not going to buy from you”
To Jenna, “hustle” means sometimes pushing yourself to do things that other people wouldn’t be willing to do.
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