Ep #281: Keeping Your Energy up During a Launch

Welcome to the Make Money as a Life Coach® podcast where sales expert and master coach Stacey Boehman teaches you how to make your first 2K, 20K, and 200K using her proven formula.

Hey, coaches, welcome to episode 281. Are you ready? We are going to talk about keeping your energy up during a launch. I was thinking about what I could do for this episode and I had so many different ideas, so many things I want to teach you right now with how fast my brain is firing. And this is the one that stood out the most because this is what I’m doing right now. This is the work I’m intimately doing for myself as we speak.

So as you listen to this episode, we will release this during the three day opening that we have for the 200K Mastermind. So if you are listening in real time, this is our final class of 2024 that we are opening up and it’s the biggest launch I’ve ever done. And the reason for that is because of how many communications and how much pre-launch and how much value we wanted to pour into this launch because we’re changing so much with the Mastermind after five years and 11 classes of it being the same.

And so my idea was I really want to just go really big and it’s always a game of telephone anyways. The more people you have, the less people get the message. So I really wanted to go really, really, really big one time and really master communications for this change, for the unbundle in 200K. And then from here on out, I just want to move on and sell the new program and go all in on its value. So we put a lot of time and energy into this launch more than I ever have before.

I actually came up with all the things I wanted to do for the communications and for the value and for the selling, just all of my entire launch plan. And then I kind of started working backwards in my calendar and I realized, oh my gosh, we should have started this two weeks ago. And I remember this was a Wednesday a couple of months ago and I messaged two people on my team and I said, “Hey, can you come to my house for two days next week?” We need a two day planning and then we’ve got to get moving.

And so they came and we spent two days planning everything that we would do, going through all of our customer narratives for every point of communication we have with our students. From social media to the podcast to the email list and breaking down every single backend task that needed to happen, not only for the actual complete launch. But also for our onboarding, everything new we’re doing within the Mastermind, our offboarding, everything.

And so the two days were very long days, used really, really well. And then we really just immediately went into putting everything together. And so counting that and all the time it’s taken me to create all of the content and the communications and the onboarding and the offboarding and all the new things in the program. We have been working so hard at 150% for eight weeks, maybe even a little longer.

And so the game for me has been keeping my energy up, keeping myself present, keeping myself engaged, keeping myself out of burnout, and really just getting it done. And I think that could be really useful. I’ve been talking to a lot of my students about this and how I do this. And one of the big things that I have heard and what I’ve coached on a lot is that so many of you just are not coaching yourselves hard enough. You’re not getting coached hard enough.

You’re not realizing how much you have to direct your brain in periods of these bursts and periods where you’re really working hard and it’s just drastically underestimated. And on top of that, I’ve been recording some new content for 200K. Our current five step process I just created is a compilation of our best ever teachings from stage and from the modules. And new teachings that I am recording, specifically one entire new module on advanced marketing and I’ve spent a lot of time putting it together.

And so I am recording today, a concept called the value build within launching, but also if you’re selling one-on-one coaching. And in that classroom, within the advanced marketing module, one of the things I talk about is how you can take a small topic and go deep with it as part of your value build. And I thought this would be so fun to be an example of that. So there’s kind of two things happening at once.

It’s just something really on top of mind for me that I think I have a lot of value to add to you. And then also it’s an example of taking a small topic within one of your teachings and going really deep with it in your marketing. And I love to use the podcast to go in deeper to hot topics like this for my students that maybe they’re in within a module, but there isn’t another specific module just on that. But then my students will inevitably say, “Could you do a specific module just on this?”

So I love to do these podcasts that are highly important for execution and the mindset to support the execution. So that’s what we’re going to dive into today. So there are five phases of the launch phase. I think it’s important for me to tell you what they are and kind of give you a small little detail about them just so you understand how important it is to be on top of your mindset in every single phase. And we’ll just talk a little bit more about why this is so important to know them but for now, here they are.

The first is the launch prep. This is when you are planning everything you’re going to include in your launch. You’re organizing what you’re going to do and how you’re going to roll it out and then the things that have to be done to make that happen. And then the way I do, for my 2K for 2K program, it’s really not changed a lot. It’s very consistent. The 200K Mastermind has evolved a lot as I’ve run people through it.

So with that Mastermind, typically in my launch prep, we’re also talking about in the past, the live event and planning that. And then the onboarding and offboarding as well. So the launch prep, the planning stage, there’s a lot going into it, but it’s what you’re going to roll out, how you’re going to roll it out. All the steps that go into making sure on your end, in the operation side, that the customer journey through your launch is seamless and you’ve nailed everything they could possibly be thinking about and every step they need to take in order to go all the way through your sales cycle.

And then there’s the value build. And that is really the content and touch points of value that help your people get results ahead of time or believe they can get results ahead of time. In that period, you’re selling the action. You’re people signing up and engaging with whatever you do for your value build, if it’s a webinar or a challenge week. There are so many different ways to build value going into a launch.

Whatever it is, all of your marketing ahead of time in that value build, it’s very geared towards, they’re just taking the action of signing up for the value build and you’re actively marketing that. And then there’s the pre-launch, which is different. It’s telling them ahead of time what they get, when you’re launching and all the details, answering all the things they need to consider, objections ahead of time.

So the value build is getting them to engage with content that matches the offer you’re going to be making and what you’re going to be selling. And then the pre-launch is telling them about it ahead of time, if you do that. Now, sometimes your value build and your pre-launch will kind of be mixed together, especially if it’s a surprise offer that you’re making or they wouldn’t necessarily know ahead of time about it. It’s kind of, you’re building off of energy and surprise and delight.

But most of the time, if you’re launching say a group or a Mastermind or program, you might want them to know that your offer is going to be opening and then how they can get in on that offer ahead of time. And then your launch is your actual open cart, the actual buying period where you’re selling only the action of buying. That’s the only thing you’re directing people to during your open cart is buying.

Then there’s the post launch. I’m guilty of neglecting this a bit at times too, but when it’s done really well, it can really take cold leads or warm leads and get them on board for your next launch. It really is the first step in your next launch. And I will say in the last several launches we’ve really been working to do that better and better. So that is really preparing unprepared or undecided buyers for your next launch. And it could even be celebrating current people who sign up.

So if you think about those five phases, you can imagine this is a lot of energy, especially if you’re an introvert. But I think just in general it’s a lot for everyone. It does get easier, but I still have to work to keep my energy up all the way through my launches. And I have many millions of dollars into launching and this is really where self-coaching, peer coaching and a paid coaching regimen, all of those together, self-coaching, peer coaching, paid coaching matters and I like to think of it as a regimen.

You have your face care regimen, you have your hair care regimen. You need to have your mindset regimen. This matters so much. So in your launch phase, this is where you’ve got to call in all the favors. You’ve got to use all of your levers and not let a day go by where you aren’t on top of your brain. And people are always, just every time I have this conversation with my students when their energy is dipping and they’re struggling to believe in their launches. They’re just always surprised by the amount of coaching I do on my brain during these times.

I could fill up a whole notebook easily during a launch, an entire notebook. So one of my favorite ways to do this is, every night before I go to bed, I write down such an extensive thought download. This works for me, it may not work for everyone, but I write down such an extensive thought download. It’s a stream of conscious of all of my terrible thoughts that make me feel horrible or stressful or my worry thoughts, anything about my launch that’s creating tension, I get it all out.

I like to think of this not as complaining, not as doubling down on negativity, but as seeing and hearing my brain. Because if your brain doesn’t feel seen and heard and its concerns for you and your well-being, it’s going to bark louder. This is my moment to say every night or you can do this every morning, I like to do it at night, every night, listen, I see you. I hear you. I have filed your concerns. I always say that to my husband and he dies laughing. Concern, complaint has been filed.

That’s what I do with my brain. Don’t worry, I hear you. I’m entertaining you. And I really keep going until my brain can’t find anything else to complain or be worried or stressed about or feel disappointed ahead of time on. And this is why this works for me is, I do it until eventually I get sick of my pity party. I get sick of the worry and the concern and I just start solving for my problems, reassuring myself. There’s a point at which, if I do it for long enough, the positivity in my brain kicks in. It just starts going to work and it’s like, “Yes, but let me just tell you all of this side of the argument.”

Once my brain really feels heard on its concerns, it’s like if you’re in an argument or a disagreement with someone and you chime in with your side of the argument before the other person has gotten everything out. I do this even when I’m coaching my clients. I let them tell me everything. And then I’m like, “Is there anything else I should know?” And then I let them tell me more. And then once I feel they really got it out, then we can get to work. So I’m doing this with my brain as well.

I’m just letting it all get it out and once it feels heard it’s available to hear the other argument my brain has, which is all of the things that are working for us., all of the things that will make me feel really empowered and positive and on track. Now, if it doesn’t for any reason, this does happen sometimes where it just doesn’t really dislodge in the moment. I just sit in allowance for that. And I tell myself, processing those emotions plus a good night’s sleep will give me perspective in the morning and it always does.

I cannot tell you, I know so many people will say, “Oh, but I don’t want to go to bed stressed. That feels really stressful before bed.” I will tell you, I get better sleep doing this and I wake up more positive, more engaged and more alive, feeling more refreshed. I think the reason for this, my guess is that if you don’t air out the dirty laundry ahead of time, your brain’s thinking about it online while you’re sleeping. And that’s actually a much more stressful sleep. So that’s my brain regimen, just that.

Now, I also reach out to my peers a lot. I coach with my coach a lot. I post all of the thoughts that I can’t unstick on my own or I’m just stuck in kind of processing a decision or working through an objection that my people might have. Whatever it is, if I can’t get to it on my own, I will also often post for my Mastermind. And sometimes I’ll post to my Mastermind first and get their feedback and then take that to my one-on-one coaching session or my own self-coaching session. I do a mix. It’s all of the things. I’m just available for all the help.

I also will watch coaching calls and listen to podcasts in times where I’m doing mundane things or when I am doing my hair and my makeup, if I want to go for a walk, when I’m folding my laundry or any other thing. Just anything that would allow me to have something in my ear, I have something positive in my ear. And I try to be with my clients as much as possible. That’s not really about self-coaching, but I did want to include it.

I really like to be in conversation with my clients while this is all happening, so I stay anchored to the work and the service. And then the other thing that I think is really important is I just expect my brain to still freak the eff out. It’s going to do it and I’m going to tell you why but I just want you to know that that’s going to happen. I think what takes so many of you out of the game is you think it’s not going to, and then you’re shocked when it does. And you make it mean that it’s happening because you’re going to fail versus this is just what the brain does.

And I surround myself with people who don’t believe my shit when this does happen. I often text a friend and she’s always like, “Stacey, every time you launch your brain says this, and every time it’s wrong. When are you going to just stop believing it.” And it’s helpful to hear that. My husband says this to me all the time. He’s like, “Stacey, every time your brain goes to the worst case scenario and every time you end up pulling it out, no matter what. Everything always ends up working out. You are always okay and you’ve never been more successful than this moment.” He just always says those positive things to me.

Here’s why I think your brain freaks out. You are putting yourself on the line. Launching is not 100% masculine. I know that a lot of people think it’s so incredibly masculine, and it’s such a manly online marketing dude thing to do, and it’s so hustly and it’s so hard on your body. And there is a lot of work that is kind of that masculine energy work that is the action line, in the planning and in the doing. But there is so much that is feminine. It’s opening up your heart and really your home. It’s being deeply vulnerable. It’s asking to be seen.

I think there is so much of that laying yourself on the line, opening up that vulnerability of being willing to work towards a 50K launch or a 100K launch or your first 20K launch, whatever it is. Making an offer to the public, I mean, there’s just nothing more vulnerable than that. I think that is a very feminine energy thing. I’m not talking about man or woman. I’m just saying feminine or masculine energy. A lot of people focus on launching being very action oriented and masculine.

And I think there’s so much that’s vulnerable. It’s about receiving, creating space to allow for clients to come for you. It’s so feminine. And the visibility piece is so vulnerable. So I think that’s just really important to know, to know that it’s such a vulnerable thing. And because of the intense vulnerability your brain is going to freak out about it. Just helpful to know, I’m doing something incredibly vulnerable, very publicly. My brain is going to be scared. I’m going to have to reassure it a lot.

It’s like maybe a child going to school for the first time. There’s a lot of love and care that’s got to go into it. So something else I love to do to prep my energy and help maintain it, is create an exhaustive list of objections or obstacles and my answer for them. If I don’t have one, I spend a lot of time thinking deeply on it, getting coaching on it, asking my peers. I want to go into my open cart, making sure I’m solid.

Or for this unbundle, I spent so much time preparing for the communications, knowing that when coaches who have been really consistent for years and have a lot of visibility make any changes, it can be very scary for people. And so I wanted to take charge of that and make sure that I had really walked people carefully through my decisions. So even not objections to buying, but it can be just things that they won’t understand. So I think very deeply on them. I get coaching. I ask my peers. I make sure I’m solid.

And for some of you, that might be your entire work for a minute. Just that alone could create so much money for you. And your launches, is going in and being able to answer anything without being thrown off guard, feeling fully confident and capable in your answers. I think a lot of you go into sales situations, even consults and you’re just like, “I hope they don’t bring it up. I hope they don’t. I hope they don’t make me answer this question. I hope they don’t have this objection. I hope I don’t have to talk about it.”

No. You’re going to be like, “I’m ready. I hope they do because it gives me a chance to really talk them through it. It gives me a chance to really help them understand this offer even deeper, to understand the work even deeper, to understand themselves even deeper.” I also love to laser in on the people wanting to work with me right now and how they need me to show up. Instead of thinking about needing to sell and what to say to people, which is where we kind of get in our own brains and insecurity when we’re putting marketing content together.

I think of who they need to experience. What’s the energy? What do they need from me? What do they want to experience of me? How do they need to feel in my launch? I get all up in their perspective. If you have ever done any of my programs, this is the one thing I think is different about me than any other business coach really in this industry. Everything really is coming from this is my well thought out marketing, selling and delivering teachings based on thinking of the clients’ perspective and how to get the most out of what I’m offering for them.

I’m just thinking of how you are experiencing it and what I can do to create a great experience in their perspective. So if you’ve ever done my clean selling module in 2K, my consultation process, the advanced marketing in 200K, advanced selling in 200K. It’s all geared towards here’s what the client is thinking or feeling or experiencing in this moment. Here’s why you want to do it this way. So I spend a lot of time doing that. I just spend a lot of time thinking about my people and what they want from me.

Tony Robbins talks about this, I think it was Tony Robbins, I could be wrong, but he talks about this in relationships. He says a lot of people think of their dream partner and all the qualities they want their dream partner to have. And they never think about that dream partner who that person’s looking for and becoming that person. What?

When I heard that, I swear to you, this is how I have the relationship I have now with my husband, I thought about who he would want to be with. Before I met him I thought about the type of guy I was looking for and the type of woman he might be looking for. And I cleaned up all the things that weren’t that person. It’s such a good thing, such a good exercise for your brain.

But I also plan lots of fun time in my launches, in my life, a lot of physical activities or doing or spending time with other people and I want to tell you why. This is not about taking baths and self-care. I think your brain is working very, very, very hard when you’re launching and when you’re writing sales emails and you’re marketing and you’re putting all of this together. And you’re coaching yourself so hard to believe something new that you’ve never done before. Your brain gets tired and the way you stay out of burnout is giving it rest.

And I have found for me, so this could be different for you, but for me, if I sit in the tub, I’m going to get on my phone and start thinking about my business a lot of times. I love baths, but a lot of times, if I have just a weekend off where I’m relaxing at home, I’m going to think about my business. I’m going to end up picking up a business book or I’m going to end up writing a podcast or I’m going to just be thinking about it in the background of my mind.

It’s a little bit harder for me to just sit around the house. But if I go to the zoo with my kid or I take a walk or we do a double dinner date or I take a date with my husband or we take a quick weekend getaway. If I’m out of the house, I think this is also because we work at home. Sometimes there’s a harder line when you work at home. But for me, if I’m out of the house or if I’m doing a project in the house, something that’s really hands-on, it has me focused on the doing and my brain actually gets to take a rest. So that’s really helpful.

I just think you have to know you have to give your brain rest. I give myself lots of sleep too. I just give myself what I need within reason to be well rested, cared for. And I really see myself as an asset. Even if I don’t get my work done ahead of time, even if I’m having to put things together last minute, I want to make sure I’m well rested, cared for again, so if it’s that extra hour of sleep, the day at the zoo.

Sometimes it’s even just DoorDashing, my favorite Starbucks is enough to feel really luxurious and taken care of. And even if that’s every day that week, as equally as I work hard, I’m going to equally take care of myself and rest my brain. The only thing I don’t do is take vacations ever during an active launch. I see so many people do this. I do not understand this. The posts on Instagram and the reels of you living your best life are not worth taking a vacation where you have to be working the whole time, and when you’re in a launch, that is what’s happening.

Now, because this was such a long prep period for me, I did take an entire week off halfway through and we went to Miami and I really rested. I went to the pool. I read a book, was really engaging for me. We took long walks on the walking path by the beach. We went shopping. We went to our favorite restaurants, we did all the things. And it was really what I needed to get back and work for the next four weeks, really, really hard. But if I’m in an active launch, I’m definitely at home fully focused on that launch.

So just know and remember you’re pushing your brain so hard in these periods and they can last anywhere from four to six weeks, not including your launch prep. So depending on how much time it takes you to actually prep for your launch, which could be an additional 30 days out if you’re prepping at all. You have to just know, you’ve got to give your brain rest.

And know this too, if you’re not prepping and it feels really, really hard, it’s because you’re doing multiple phases all at once. And I think it’s hard enough just to deal with the phase you’re in, which is why I teach launch prep in my launches course but it takes work for some people. I’ve seen this round after round, it takes them sometimes two or three launches to get the hang of getting the work done ahead of time.

So a lot of times in the early launching, you’re kind of doing all of these phases at once or mixing them together. And it takes a lot of work to do this while serving your clients at the same time. It’s for sure next level growth in your operations and your self-concept. It’s okay if you’re not there, but the more parts of the launch you do at the same time, the simpler you want to make your launch for energy maintenance. It’s all about energy maintenance.

I have done webinars before where my energy dropped right at the sales part and we did terrible. And I was like, “Gosh, I did all that energy.” But I didn’t quite plan out what I was teaching well enough to be really thorough in the delivery so that I still had energy at the end for selling and that is everything. The name of the game to get the most out of your launch is really energy maintenance.

So the last thing I really want to kind of go over is when it’s not going your way or you’re 50% of the way there in an active launch. This is really important to know. You have to remind yourself, so if you’re in that period where your energy is starting to really dip, your belief is starting to tank and you’re like, “I’m going to fail.” You start to go into failure ahead of time or you’re like, “I’ve got five out of ten people closed, and I don’t know where these other five people are going to come from. It’s going to be half what I expected. I’m already really disappointed.” Here’s what you need to remind yourself.

This is part of your energy maintenance. It takes as much energy to not believe as to believe. When my coach told me this, this blew my mind. And then I took it a step further and I said, “Actually I think it takes way more energy not to believe.” And I want you to ask yourself how that’s true, how does not believing and then telling myself I’m going to fail and being in fight or flight, how does that zap my energy more than just doing the work to believe, than being vulnerable to believe?

I have spent a lot of time in the last two years, this was presented to me two years ago. And since then over the last two years, I’ve spent a lot of time proving to myself that not believing is much harder and takes much more energy than believing. And when your brain believes that, you’re going to get on board with believing new things a lot faster.

The other thing is the belief has to be for you, something you decide to believe for you. Rather than you reporting what you believe of what you were observing and that observation’s failure. We decide whatever we currently believe, we believe that because we’re just observing the truth and obviously the truth is failure. So I’m just observing this failure happening. That’s why I believe this. No.

You’ve decided to believe the worst case is going to happen, and that feels protective to just know ahead of time something terrible is about to happen. But really, belief gets to be for you. And I remember one time I was 24 hours from closing a launch. I had three spots still to fill and no consults on the books. This was my first 200K launch ever. And I remember taking a walk and deciding what is belief for, what’s the point of believing ahead of time? And I realized it’s for me because it makes me feel good. I love who I am when I show up.

I love how I keep fighting when I show up, when I believe that. I just feel better than failing ahead of time. I’ll deal with the failure at the end if it’s what actually happens. I love who I am when I’m believing. And I just decided to believe and three people reached out, out of nowhere. I didn’t even know they were following me or paying attention to me. And I ended up closing the exact number I wanted.

The other thing I want you to know is when you really get stuck, you have to just get back to serving. Serving energy is always going to pull you through. What do my people need right now and how can I give it to them? Those two questions will take you out of your own suffering that zaps your energy so much.

And lastly, you have to remind yourself that at the end, those last final moments of the launch, regardless of how it’s performing, you’ve got to go all the way through the finish line, all the way through with 110% of you, 150% of you, all you’ve got. One round of 200K when we were talking about this, I actually showed a video that I had seen on Facebook. We’ll link it up in the show notes for this one, but it is an incredible visual of this idea.

It’s a women’s running race, a track race, maybe the Olympics, I don’t really know, college, I’m not even sure. I don’t remember what the context was, but this runner comes from seemingly last place all the way up and wins by just a second from the person who had been leading the entire time. And I think about this woman every single time I launch, every single time when I get to the end of something or completing a project and my energy starts dipping, I think of this woman, this runner.

I imagine her and her energy, and what she must have been thinking in that moment to keep going and close the race and win with someone leading the entire time and she did it in the last final seconds. That can be you. You have to be willing to pick yourself up and give yourself that final burst of energy at the very end when you feel like you’ve given everything you’ve got. You’ve got to increase your capability for more.

And that’s an energetic thing, increasing your belief in your own capability to keep going and to give it more than what you think you currently have. I always say capability is infinite inside of us. We just have to tap into it, you’ve got to tap into that in that last moment.

So in closing, you might think it’s just too much. Everything I’ve talked about, it’s just too much, it’s too much work especially if you aren’t actively launching now. But remember this is as much about a sales push as a self-concept push. You are working to believe you can make money, 20K, 50K, 100K all at once, all at once. Your first big money launch could change your whole year, it could change your whole life.

The first time you make $100,000 in one launch, I promise you, your life will be changed completely and what you are capable of forever to come. What you’re capable of in the future forever will be changed. I am working to become the person. This is a self-concept thing, the person who can easily launch once a week if I want to.

And now this is really exciting, I have an advisory share in a software as a service company, a SAS company, developing software to make this simple and doable on the operations side. It’s being designed based on my business and my clients’ businesses in the 200K and the Two Million Dollar Group room. We’re starting with my business first and then we’re going to have some of my students run through it. It’s going to be amazing to have this perspective, my perspective on software to support this entire process.

I don’t want to give away too much. But we are working to have this in the hands of coaches possibly even this year. So I’m working right now to be the person that can maintain energy so much so, I remember launches used to take me a week or two of recovery. I would need a week off after a launch and now I don’t need any time. In this current launch, it’s the biggest launch we’ve ever done, it’s taken the most of my energy, and we’re already starting to work on future things as this one is starting to complete.

A week or two out I’m like, “Alright, what’s next?” I want to be the person that could do it all the time and be like, “What’s next?” Because I’ve become the person where the energy is just there, all of the thoughts, the beliefs are supporting it so much so that I just get the work done so quickly and sell so greatly that it doesn’t take a lot of energy from me.

I’m working to be the person who can use a combination of my self-coaching and my mindset and what I know about launching to reach more people and create software that supports all of it, just so great. I’m in the best receiving energy around launching right now. I want you to borrow it, borrow my receiving energy. This is it, it’s the maintenance of your brain. You’ve got to be on top of it. It is the single most important thing.

You can write the best PSPR and you can create viral reels and you can book so many consults. If your energy tanks, you won’t close them. So you’ve got to be on top of your brain. So I hope this was so helpful for you, I just knew. You know when you land on an idea for an episode and you’re like, “Oh, how have I not done this already?” Bam, it’s this.

I’m so excited for you to hear this episode. Let me know what you think @staceyboehman on Instagram. I would love, love, love to know what you think after listening to this episode. Have an amazing week. If you are listening to this in real time, make sure you get your application in for 200K Mastermind at staceyboehman.com/200KMastermind. And if you’re listening after the fact, join the waitlist because you’re going to want to get in on the next class. I’ll see you inside.

Hey, if you’re ready to make money as a life coach, I want to invite you to join my 2k for 2k program where you’re going to make your first $2,000 the hardest part using my simple 5 step formula for getting consults and closing new clients. Just head over to www.staceyboehman.com/2kfor2k. We’ll see you inside.