Learn How To Launch The Right Way With Charlie Gilkey
My friend and uber-popular contributor, Charlie Gilkey, has created the Epic Launch Class to teach folks how to launch their product the right way.I asked Charlie to tell us a bit more about it, so if launching something is on your short list, read on.
Tell us a little bit about your Epic Launch Class.
First, thanks so much for taking the time to share this with the other Mogul Moms. I’ve always enjoyed being a contributor here and appreciate the time to be able to share some information about the Epic Launch Class.The Epic Launch Class is a 4 week course that teaches online entrepreneurs the principles and techniques of launching the right way. It’s definitely a “learn how to fish” course because I believe that’s exactly what so many new launchers are lacking - following the seven-step, by-the-numbers process of somebody else tends not to work well. It doesn’t honor the launcher’s true genius and connection with their market, either.
Why did you create this program?
Honestly? I’ve gotten tired of so many good, brilliant, and motivated people tanking launches and beating themselves up about it.You don’t have to be a launch psycho to have a good launch, just as you don’t have to be sleazy to get good sales. But there is a learning curve here, and most of that curve is spent in the strategy and planning stages that we’ll be working on in the first week.Here’s the truth of it: so much about launching isn’t about the actual product or the actual way it’s being launched. This course is the difference between understanding how the chessboard is setup and the important part each piece plays rather than just learning the best ways to use pawns.
Who is this program for?
I see two main avatars here: one is the person who’s never launched anything and wants to make sure they’re doing it right, and the second is the person who has launched before and wants to continue to improve and not do the “dumb” things we’ve all done all over again.I’ve had a couple of lackluster flops because the names of the products were horrible; after a few knocks on the head, I decided it was time to learn how to come up with a framework and checklist to help generate product names that sell themselves or at least don’t leadweight the sales. Like everyone else, I have a hard time taking some of my own medicine - it comes easily when I’m looking at other people’s stuff.It’s not for people who haven’t actually started a business, though, simply because a lot of the content requires some engagement and familiarity with your market. It’s not enough to know how the market works for other people because that’s missing some critical pieces such as how long someone has been building trust and social capital with their market and network.
How will Epic Launch Class students benefit from this program?
At the very high level, they’ll be able to move from launching being mysterious, intimidating, or requiring a lot of figuring-it-out-on-the-fly to being able to work through the process of engineering a launch that’ll work for them and their business. That alone will take months off the time it takes to launch just because of all the wheel-spinning that happens.But we’ll also talk very straight-forwardly about sales copy, upsells, and developing products people want to buy right out of the gates, so they’ll get better sales in the short- and long-term. When it comes to down to business, my team and I help people get more customers, increase profits, and grow strategically, and this product has our mission and focus baked right in.
What is the time investment for Epic Launch Class?
I’ve designed this class so that people can invest the amount of time they can and want to and still get a lot of value.There are three modules a week and the video-length of each module will be between 12 to 20 minutes. That’s deliberately done so people can actually squeeze it in while they’re doing other things or on a break. (Hint: making content inaccessible for people means they don’t get as much value.)We’ll do live calls after we send the content so people can choose to just listen to the content OR show up for the calls OR do both.Each module will have some action steps that’ll take between 30 minutes and an hour to do, but what I’ve learned from teaching other courses like this is that once we start getting deep into high-impact business work, it opens up other stuff that participants will naturally want to address. For instance, after doing some of the action steps, a participant might see that she needs to redo her about page because it just didn’t mention what they do for a money and how they help people.For most people, though, I think they’ll get the best value to allocate two to three hours per week if they’re wanting to get through the material in 4 weeks. They’ll always have access to the content later for review or if they need to slow down the rate of learning and processing.
What do people need to take part in Epic Launch Class?
More than an actual product is the time, willingness, and curiosity to learn and think through how the material applies to their unique business; it’s more valuable to learn how you need to launch a product and why that way rather than just being told “do this.”A product idea would be nice just because it gives an actual context for the questions, but one of the first things I’ll encourage people to do is to be open to changing what that product is and how it’s put together. Of course, if they already have a developed product and are on an externally-pressed deadline, it’d be one of those things where we could just figure out what the best way for them to launch it is, and that’s still really valuable.Again, thanks for the sharing the mic with me, Heather!