If you’ve been sitting on an idea or have been “thinking” about launching something new, PLEASE listen to this episode. You’ll thank me later 🙂

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Big Ideas

The Founding Member Launch Strategy [2:52] 

You’ve got an idea and you want to put it out there but you’re hesitating for whatever reason. There’s a super simple five-step strategy that I developed years ago that I’m going to walk you through. It’s almost going to sound too simple, but it’ll allow you to be able to move forward quickly and create a ton of momentum. I’m talking about my world-famous founding member launch strategy that has been used in our business in so many different ways: to launch memberships, masterminds, workshops, courses, and you can use it for your business too. 

Years ago, my friend Nicholas Wilton reached out to me as he was in the midst of delivering a course. He was coming toward the end of the course and people in the course were asking him what’s actually going to happen to the community. He was panicking, but he realized this instance would be perfect for a membership site, however he didn’t have time to create it. He called me asking to help him figure out what to do, and that was when I shared my founding member launch strategy with him.

Idea [4:52]

First and foremost, you start with the idea. In Nicholas’ case, he invited the group onto a webinar and shared with them his idea about creating a community for this group who had built so much momentum and camaraderie together. He said, “My idea is to keep us together not just for the length of this course but for all year long.” You also need to explain where the idea came from. Sometimes, and more often than not, it’s actually driven by your audience. 

Vision [6:12]

Second thing, you want to cast a vision of where you see this idea going. In Nicholas’ case, he outlined the vision for what that community would become over time. What makes this whole process so great is that you don’t have to have everything figured out. In fact, it’s actually better if you don’t. One of the beauties about it is that you are upfront with your people that it’s in its raw format. It’s just an idea right now, but it allows you to get going. 

As the third step, you want to invite people to join you as a founding member. This is where Nicholas basically said, “I want to invite you to join me as a founding member, and I want to give you the absolute best price possible. Not only that, but I want to grandfather you in at that price for as long as you remain a member. When we do launch this to the general public and we raise the price, your price will forever be locked in at the founding member rate.” 

You reward your early adopters. That’s your way of thanking them. In addition, he also emphasized that he wants them to be involved in the process in order to get their feedback and insight before he rolls the community out.

CTA [8:07]

Number four, you want to give them a very specific call-to-action. This is where my hesitation would kick in in the past. Because what if nobody responds? To make it easier for myself, I’ve decided to do it in a Facebook post. Then what I said in the call to action is, “If you want to join me as a founding member, send me a direct message.” See the elegance there? Nobody’s going to know if 1 person or 1,000 people send you direct messages, and so it protects the ego. You could also do this via email and just ask people to hit reply, but there’s got to be a specific call to action. 

Follow Up [9:40]

Step number five, you want to follow up. When people send you a direct message or when people reply to your email, follow up with some kind of a payment link. In Nicholas’s case, he shared this with roughly 200 people who were going through his course. Over 180 of them signed up to become founding members of his membership, generating $5,400 in month number one, and he hadn’t even created it yet. 

People Are Your Best Asset [11:22]

I’m sharing this with you because it’s so simple, and it’s going to allow you to generate momentum. Yes, the money coming in is awesome, but I’m more interested in the people that you get to work with. No matter what  you’re selling, now you’ve got this small group of people that you can work with and help them get results. When you can help them get results, that is the greatest marketing asset you can have as you begin to roll this out. 

Do not underestimate the simplicity and/or the power that can come from creating this kind of momentum. Many times you’re going to surprise yourself in terms of what is possible when you put it out there. As Mike Littman said, “You don’t have to get it right, you just have to get it going.” That’s what this founding member launch strategy does. 

I want to encourage you to put it into practice. If you’ve been thinking on an idea, if you’ve been thinking about launching that membership site, I encourage you to put it into practice and start with a founding member launch.

Memorable Quote

“When you can help people get results, that is the greatest marketing asset you can have as you begin to roll your membership out.” – Stu McLaren

Resources

TribeWorkshop.com
MYB 168: How To Sell Without Being a Slimeball

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