Episode 177. Leveraging Thought Leadership to Sell a New Offer: A Launch Debrief

I will be peeling back the curtains on a launch where I created and sold a brand new ONE-TIME offer. This was an offer where I created and sold with the full intention of doing it only one time.

I’ll explain my thought process behind the offer, share a comprehensive launch debrief on what worked and what I’d do differently, and also explain how thought leadership played a key role in the success of this particular launch.

Then in the next episode, I want to share the behind-the-scenes of the launch of a brand new SIGNATURE offer. This offer was intended to be part of my signature offers for an extended period of time.

In This Episode:

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How to sign more clients using thought leadership

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A behind-the-scenes breakdown of a launch where I sold a new, one-time offer (The Podcast Club group program)

I’ll be sharing a launch debrief for my program, The Podcast Club, a 6-week group program which I ran during Quarter 4 in 2022. The investment for the offer was $850 USD.

A 6-week group program including: 

  • 5x 90 minute workshops 
  • 90 minute hot seat coaching sessions for the students 
  • A detailed AF playbook summarizing everything we covered in the 6 weeks
  • Ongoing community support in a private Slack channel

The Curriculum 

  • Week 1: Thought Leadership and Positioning – Tips, lessons, and mistakes from my 2 years of podcasting; Analysis of my top performing and lowest performing solo episodes; What is thought leadership? → How I became known for my thought leadership.
  • Week 2: Content Planning & Strategy – My content and marketing strategy, planning process, how I think about each episode, etc; The Money Making Theory Framework; Analysis of Cheryl’s podcast episode scripts (the structure, CTAs, substance, etc.)
  • Week 3: Hot Seat Coaching Sessions
  • Week 4: Content Creation & Time Management – Techniques + tips for scripting/outlining.
  • Week 5: Time Management, Tech, & Tools – Techniques + tips for scripting/outlining recording, editing, and uploading; Demos for recording, editing, and uploading; Tools, tech, and resources.
  • Week 6: Growing Your Podcast & Business – Thoughts on guest interview episodes and being a guest on other people’s podcast; How to promote your show and grow your audience; How a podcast can change your business income, position you as a leader in your space, and strengthen your overall sense of identity as an entrepreneur; Visual branding for your podcast; Cheryl’s plans for 2023.

I will be debriefing the launch in a question and answer format.

These were questions that clients have asked me behind the scenes after the launch ended, and I hope there will be plenty of helpful insights in this launch debrief that can help you as you move forward with building your thought leadership, creating your body of work, and continuing to grow your business.

With that, let’s dive into the launch debrief for a one-time offer.

The results of the launch, what worked, and what resonated with my clients

Q1: What were the launch dates?

I sold the offer actively for 10 days (September 15 to 24 2022), and lowkey continued to make offers from September 25 to October 1, but I sold on a more relaxed cadence. The program officially kicked off on Sunday October 2. 

Q2: What were the # of inquiries you got?

8 total individuals messaged me about the offer.

Q3: What was the final number of students who joined?

4 students joined this program.

Q4: How did you plan it? Did you prepare anything before selling it?

There was no planning before I started selling it.

Initially, this was going to be a series of podcast-focused workshops that I would conduct for my existing clients at that time.

However, there were two reasons that led me to open the doors to the public and sell it as a offer:

First reason: I really, really believe in podcasting. It has changed both my business income and my sense of self. I am the entrepreneur I am today because of podcasting, and it made sense to me to try out a new way of helping others through this new offer. 

Second reason: This one is a pretty funny reason now that I look back. What happened was: On September 14, 2022, I spontaneously decided to book a trip to Los Angeles in November 2022 to go to a Blackpink concert in LA. Because this was not on my agenda or within the budget I had set, I honestly needed to make some cash QUICK to fund my $650 USD concert ticket and $850+ plane ticket.

Because I was already SUPER excited about the podcast workshops that were already scheduled for my existing clients, it felt like a no brainer to open up the workshop series to the public and sell it as an offer.

Literally the next day, on September 15, 2022, I started selling The Podcast Club. Long answer short: There was nothing planned when I started selling it.

Q5:  Why did you only sell this offer only on IG (Instagram)? Why did you NOT talk about it on your podcast?

For context, I only used Instagram as my marketing/sales vehicle for this particular launch. I did not sell this program on other platforms like my podcast. 

To be honest, making $$$ wasn’t the priority for me this launch. My vision for this program was to simply take on just a few clients who REALLY wanted to learn about podcasting from me. Especially since not all of my existing coaching clients at the time were in a stage where they are planning to start a podcast. That’s the first reason. 

Another reason was that my launch timeline was very short. It was honestly just too much of a rush to create podcast episodes where I weave in an invitation for The Podcast Club.

Third, I thought this would also be a fabulous time to practice my selling skills on Instagram. Because there was only two weeks before I was scheduled to host the first workshop of The Podcast Club, I rather focus on practicing the skill of SELLING on only one platform i.e. Instagram (rather than both Instagram and the podcast). 

Q6. How did you position the offer?

The Podcast Club = A live 6-week experience for coaches and entrepreneurs who want to get their thought leadership out to more people, sign more clients, and ultimately do less work but still be able to put out long form and evergreen content regularly.

I also thought about explaining it with the following points:

  • Who it’s for: Coaches, service-based entrepreneurs, side hustlers. 
  • Immediate Result: Your next 3 months of podcast content outlines (like the legit episode notes and structure and CTAs, etc.) all planned and written out.
  • Long Term Outcome: Sign clients with less than 100 listeners.
  • Cheryl’s Unique Skill: Thought leadership.
  • Why This Matters: Your story, ideas, and work matter, and it can make you money.

Around September 14 or 15, I also brain dumped the following ideas to help me with creating content on Instagram for the next 10-ish days:

How can the structure or format of this program help the student?

  • Hot seat coaching to see that you can flush out a solid 15-20 minute podcast episode in 90 min.
  • Exercises to help you plan your podcast content for the next 3 months.
  • Exercises to help you create podcast content that reflects your own unique thought leadership.
  • Workshops focused on teaching peeps how to THINK and use their own brains to create thought leadership content that is honest, genuine, and uniquely differentiated in their niche/industry.
  • Step by step tutorials to see how I do the tech side and how-to’s of the podcast.
  • 5 weeks is more than ample time to get you started on your podcast.
  • A supportive and diverse community to see that we each have our own voice and each of us have a story, message, and work that matters.
  • You will walk away with your next 3 months of podcast content and outlines done. 
  • You will walk away with clarity and confidence in creating regular long form content.
  • You will walk away knowing how to position your podcast.
  • You will walk away with clarity and confidence in your own unique thought leadership.
  • You will walk away with an exact plan that you can follow and repeat.

Potential objections or hesitations:

  • … But I don’t know if I can stay consistent with my content.
  • … But I don’t know if I have time every week to create podcast content.
  • … But I don’t know if I can have enough ideas for new content every week.
  • … But I’m worried my podcast would be too basic or not good enough compared to other people.
  • … But I don’t know if the tech will be too time consuming, overwhelming, or stressful.
  • … But I don’t know how to structure my thoughts for a full episode.
  • … But I don’t think I can create long form, engaging content.
  • … I don’t know if I can do it good enough.

Who is The Podcast Club for?

  • This is perfect for coaches and entrepreneurs of all business income levels.
  • This is perfect for anyone who is not yet creating long form content regularly. 
  • This is perfect for both full-time entrepreneurs and side hustlers who want to maximize their efforts by creating long-form content.

Why am I the BEST person to teach The Podcast Club?

  • 6-figures with less than 200 podcast listeners.
  • You don’t need to hire anyone to do this.
  • The skill of building your thought leadership and brand is a LIFE SKILL and is transferable to so many areas of your life.

These ideas served as the basis for most of my launch content during that period of time.

Q7. Your launch felt vibrant, excited, and fast… How did you channel the energy? 

It all came down to the belief of, “I can REALLY help someone inside the container.”. 

And that led me to a new insight: Imagine you’re a teacher who thinks your own teaching skills suck. How would this teacher be showing up to interviews at schools? Or what about a doctor who thinks they can only accurately diagnose 30% of their patients? How would they be showing up to promote their private clinic?

Let’s take it to the context of your business. If you know that the coach or service-based entrepreneur was constantly asking their own coach to help them feel better about selling their offer, would you still want to work with them? Likely it’s a no.

Here’s what I realized from this one time launch: Sell an offer you’re already REALLY proud of and are confident that you can help someone with. Focus on the skills you already have. Lean into your existing strengths and skills, even if you feel like it’s too basic. 

I rather we all become the BEST at this so-called “basic skill” and sign clients by helping people with this “basic skill” and get fabulous client testimonials and results by helping people with that “basic skill”, than struggle to sign any clients at all.

Because frankly, your confidence and energy sells. It really does. And for me, in this launch, I never felt more confident in selling an offer because I had the belief, “Even if a complete stranger / cold lead joins, I KNOW I will blow their mind with this program.”. And this belief carried over into everything I did, from my marketing for Instagram, to the actual teaching materials I created for the course thus far.

Q8. I think I’m really curious how your brain is always coming up with amazing content every day 

At the time of that launch, I’ve been doing this for 3.5+ years so I’m highly attuned to how everything can be translated into content or inspire a new content idea. It’s simply a muscle I’ve strengthened with time.

But also, realizing that everything already inside my brain (ex: my opinions and lived experiences) is amazing content, and knowing I can always repeat what I’ve already shared.

So that is a birds eye view of the launch. Now, I want to take some time to really breakdown how thought leadership played a role in the success of this super spontaneous launch.

Leveraging thought leadership to launch your offer and build your business

Personally, I felt that this launch was a success given that it was entirely unplanned, as the timeline from ideation to execution was around two weeks or so.

It literally started out as an idea and the launch started and ended, all within two weeks. 

Ultimately, four students joined this program and we had such a fun time together over the 6 weeks of this program.

Looking back, I can identify a few core variables that contributed to the success of this super zippy, super light-hearted launch experience.

Reason 1: I have demonstrated how I have built thought leadership through my body of work (i.e. my podcast) –  I was an example of what is possible and I had the skills and street cred to show for.

People saw me as an example of “This is the person I want to become” or “This is the sort of solopreneur business or life that I want to create”. And that means I’ve got to start now. I want to be known for XYZ subject matter like how Cheryl is known for certain topics, so I need to start getting my thoughts out on the Internet now.

But more than that, people have also seen how I spent the past few years building my podcast and business, step-by-step. At the time of the launch in late 2022, I was creating a 6-figure revenue per year in my business and each episode had around 150 downloads per episode, usually no more than 200.

I was also creating my podcast all on my own, every single week. I was clearly showcasing what it means to be a solopreneur who was successfully leveraging her podcast to grow her business and set herself up for her long term career and business  goals. 

They saw the success I’ve created and HOW I’ve created that success through podcasting.

And therefore, it was abundantly clear to my people that Cheryl is THE best person to help them create their own version of success by building thought leadership through podcasting.

Reason 2: My people and I have the same long term vision. Sure, on one hand, we understand how a podcast can serve as a marketing funnel for our offers or services, but on the other hand, we have long term, bigger picture career aspirations.

Here’s the thing. We all have heard about how important it is to share your why with your audience because that communicates to your people why you care about your work and explains why your work matters.

But what I think we often forget is that not only does our work matter deeply to us, it also matters deeply for our people.

One thing I realized I did during this launch was really highlighting why podcasting matters to me and my people.

For example, my people and I are no longer driven by check boxes or traditional metrics of success. Instead, we want to proudly build something of our own, and this looks like a podcast.

Success and achievement matters to us, but we crave doing it in new and innovative ways such as podcasting. Put another way, podcasting is how we are quitting the traditional to create something that’s truly exceptional. Podcasting matters to us.

My people and I want to become known for something and we want to make a name for ourselves. We desire to become acclaimed and widely recognized speakers, authors, and thought leaders.

We understand that in order to reach those bigger picture, longer term thought leader career goals, we’ve got to start showing up to share our ideas openly with the world.

We’ve got to start putting in our thought leadership reps, starting right now. And a podcast is a fantastic way for us to lay down the bricks for what we want to build in 3 years time. Podcasting matters to us.

Also, my people and I care about doing work that we are proud of. And podcasting lets us zone in on topics and subject matters that are important to us as we continue to gain more knowledge and hone in on our craft or skills related to the subject matter.

Podcasting is a vehicle for us to document how we are learning, growing, and turning our vision into reality. Podcasting matters to us. 

These are examples of a shared vision that I have with my peeps, and I was able to really weave this messaging into my sales content for this launch.

As a result, not only did we have four amazing students decide to join The Podcast Club, but they were very, very aligned to the culture inside The Podcast Club.

This is exactly why your thought leadership matters. Not only does your thought leadership position you as a subject matter expert in your niche or industry, but your thought leadership also inadvertently exemplifies your why and captures why it is you do what you do.

The act of building a body of work centered around your thought leadership is, in my eyes, an act of devotion to your craft and it speaks volumes in terms of your commitment to your work. Your thought leadership integrates your “why” into the vision that is shared between you and your people.

In my case, my people were able to see, “Wow, yes, Cheryl is just like me. We have the same long term aspirations and I can see how podcasting, building thought leadership through podcasting, and building a body of work through podcasting, all of this matter. It matters to Cheryl, and it matters to me too.” 

As you can see, even though the launch was unplanned, very spontaneous, and very short in terms of timeline, I would not call it an overnight success.

Rather, it was successful because I had spent months and years prior to the launch building thought leadership and becoming known for my thought leadership.

Specifically, I was known for being an example of what is possible and I had the skills and street cred to show for. I was also known for the common big picture, long term vision that I share with my people.

This is how my thought leadership and body of work was able to support me and my goals at that time, which was to launch and welcome students into my program, The Podcast Club. 

This is also precisely how thought leadership can play a key role in helping you in turning your 1-3 year dreams into actual reality. This is the work we do Inside the Thought Leader Club program.

The Thought Leader Club (TLC)

In the Thought Leader Club, we will create a thought leadership strategy to help you step into this new identity both online and offline. In 3 months, you will take concrete steps to become known for your unique thought leadership, create a 1-3 year plan centered around your thought leadership, and also embody this mindset and lifestyle outside of your business.

You know deep down that you’re meant for something bigger than what you’re currently doing or what you’re currently working towards. On top of that, you also know that you’re going to need to start building a body of work that encapsulates your thought leadership. And guess what? The Thought Leader Club is going to help you with exactly that.

Maybe your 1-3 year dreams are to attract really cool speaking opportunities. Or you want  to set yourself up for a successful book launch. Or you really want to grow your coaching or service-based business to hit certain revenue goals. Or maybe you want to grow an award-winning podcast. Or facilitate workshops for organizations you care about. Or climb the corporate ladder. Or something else!

Whatever it is you want to build in the long term, the Thought Leader Club will help you build thought leadership and a body of work to set you up for these dreams.

NOW is the time to start putting in the reps to build thought leadership, to start building a consistent and prolific body of work that lets you become known for your unique thought leadership, your story, and how amazing you are at what you do. And ultimately to start setting yourself up for making your 1-3 year dreams a reality.

In the past 5 years, I’ve worked with entrepreneurs from all around the world to become known for their unique thought leadership and build a body of work that attracts clients, speaking opportunities, and become a recognized name in their field.  And now, I am so confident that the Thought Leader Club is where you, too, will want to be in moving forward 🙂

Your next step is to book a discovery call to chat about you joining us inside the Thought Leader Club. You can book a discovery call at www.cheryltheory.com/discovery. 

Here’s what you can expect from our discovery call: I’ll be mainly asking questions to get a better understanding of what’s going on with you, where your head’s at, what you’re looking for in our coaching together, etc.

Of course, we will also have a conversation about 1) What are your dreams in the next 1-3 years, 2) The coaching, skills, and actions you need to make these dreams happen, and 3) How working together will support and guide you with all the above.

After I have a good understanding of where you’re at, I’ll also share where I see the biggest gaps or the areas where coaching will be the most beneficial for you. These will be the areas that I’d like to work with you on as a coach.

Lastly, if I determine that we would be a good fit, then I’ll go into more detail about the Thought Leader Club itself. Overall, it will be a casual conversation and I cannot wait for us to chat about how we can set you up for your long-term vision, goals, and aspirations through your thought leadership and body of work.

Again: You can book a discovery call at www.cheryltheory.com/discovery.

Sounds good? Awesome. Let’s get to work.

Listen to the Episode

Additional Resources

THE AUDIT: BUILD A DIFFERENTIATED & TIMELESS BODY OF WORK

– Audit 9 different parts of your body of work

– Identify the specific areas you can improve on right away to set your business apart from the rest

– Book a free 60-minute AUDIT CALL with Cheryl to create an actionable plan together

Get the free audit: https://cheryllau.com/audit 

Other Episodes You’ll Enjoy

Episode 98. Why Clients Buy Coaching (Part 1): Being THAT Coach

Episode 99. Why Clients Buy Coaching (Part 2): Selling THAT Offer

Episode 178. The Mindset Behind Selling Your Signature Offer: A Launch Debrief

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