This is coming from my new domain, switching from jessica@jessicalackey.com to jessica@deeperfoundations.com - a reply helps with deliverability!
I just wrapped the sixth launch of my group program, Define Your Foundations.
And I wanted to share some reflections on launching, as many of you start preparing for late fall/early winter launches.
First launches are fun — stressful, but fun. Stressful because you’re cobbling together sales pages, curriculum, and tech (I was still fixing things at midnight the day that Relationship Rhythms began). Fun because you’re often selling to superfans — the people who’ve been asking for the program or who will buy whatever you’re selling because they trust you and want to support you.
But subsequent launches are harder. Now you’re selling to people who’ve seen this offer before, or to new people who don’t know you as well.
At the core, every successful launch has to meet three requirements:
- New people. About 3–5% of your audience is ready to buy at any given time. Without fresh eyes, you’ll quickly burn out your audience if you’re simply “selling harder” to the same people.
- Trust-building experiences. We’re in a more saturated (and skeptical) market. People don’t buy off a single post anymore. They need to spend time with you and your work—live workshops, podcasts, video—or trust you through referrals and affiliates.
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Advanced planning. This one is two-fold:
- For your audience. People can’t buy if they’ve already spent their money or committed their time elsewhere. Budgets aren’t endless, and calendars fill fast. Your audience needs to know about your program early enough to set time and money aside for it.
- For you (and your partners). You need enough lead time to build relationships, line up affiliates, equip collaborators with materials, and actually execute your visibility strategy.
For this launch, I started my plan six months ago.
- I joined summits, ran lead magnet swaps, tested Meta ads, and built steady referrals (including mailing lots of cards!).
- I hosted more live experiences than usual—monthly dialogues, two paid workshops, and weekly Membership events. About half of my new clients had already joined a smaller paid offer first.
- Because I launch the program every six months, with the price posted, people could plan for it over the summer.
I’m a low-and-slow kind of gal. I like repeating things, building trust over time, and keeping a steady cadence.
Of course, that’s not the only way to make a launch happen.
Here are three other ways you might hit those launch requirements:
The Burst
A concentrated push: a summit, a 5-day challenge, or a live event. Brenna McGowan of the Pre-Launch Program gets a ton of exposure by running a Behind the Launch summit, which participants promote to their audiences. But that's a peak versus the steady content game.
What’s hard: It’s intense. You have to plan months in advance and have really strong enrollment systems, because you don’t get many opportunities to convert.
The Trust Transfer
Affiliate marketing, collaborations, roadshows—borrowing trust from someone else’s audience. One peer sold her program almost entirely through affiliates. And you might remember the B-School model, where Marie Forleo’s affiliates often made more money selling her program than selling their own programs.
What’s hard: You’re dependent on partners’ calendars. You need to equip them with promo materials well in advance.
The Evergreen Layer
A library of always-available assets—books, podcasts, YouTube, micro-courses—so people spend hours with your work before ever joining live. One peer runs dozens of micro-courses, and every week new people discover him and naturally step into his bigger offers.
What’s hard: It’s front-loaded work. Building the assets takes time, and results can be slower to show up.
The Common Thread
You don’t have to be consistent like me. But you do have to choose your style and build it into your calendar.
And the honest answer is that no matter which style you choose, the real key is advance planning.
- Planning for your audience, so they can set aside the money and space.
- Planning for yourself (and your partners), so you have the systems, relationships, and materials ready in time.
What fails? Deciding to “throw something together” two weeks before launch. Without lead time on both sides, even the best program won’t convert, particularly in a second or subsequent launch.
Is planning ahead less appealing than “a how I made a six-figure launch in one month” story? Absolutely. But I guarantee they’d been laying the groundwork far in advance.
So before your next launch, ask yourself: Am I giving both my audience AND myself enough runway for success?