Episode 100 | Part 1: You Need to Launch! with Coach Jeff Walker

Whether you’re starting out or well-established, you need to launch! It’s time to dream bigger and soar higher.

To celebrate our very special 100th episode of The Business of You, we’ve brought on the ultimate VIP of online marketing: Jeff Walker! 

After a renowned 30-year career in internet sales, Jeff is here to share his insights with us. The truth is, whether you’re developing your brand or you’ve been in business, you need to launch. It’s time for you to reach the next level of success…and Jeff is exactly the entrepreneur to get you there!

Jeff Walker is the author of the #1 New York Times bestseller LAUNCH. He coaches people how to launch online courses, products, services, and brands online. Jeff started his first online business in 1996, and he pioneered the very idea of the online launch. His “Product Launch Formula” transformed the online marketing world from the day it was released in 2005 and Jeff–and PLF–have never slowed down! Now, all these years later, the Product Launch Formula brand is the gold standard in the online entrepreneurial training market. Jeff’s students and clients have done over a BILLION dollars in launches in hundreds of niches and markets and dozens of countries around the world!

If you want to start or grow a successful online business, you need to launch. Are you ready for takeoff?! 

Set goals, start small

Before Jeff was an entrepreneur, he was a stay-at-home dad in the 1990’s. Struggling to support his wife and feeling uninspired by his previous corporate resume, Jeff sought out to contribute financially by learning about the stock market.

Spending nights researching stocks and trading, Jeff realized that he wanted to teach others how to make money doing it too. He began writing a modest email newsletter and sending it to his list…of 19 people. Regardless of the size of his email list, he invested his time and energy into making his newsletter the best it could be. Eventually, he realized he could charge for his knowledge, but he was nervous – what if people hated him for asking for money? In his desperation, Jeff showered his readers with more and more free resources and knowledge until he finally asked them to subscribe to a higher-value newsletter. It was his first launch, and he brought in $1,650. He was floored. 

The success of this first launch was enough to get him inspired, motivated, and fueled by the desire to do more. Every single launch he did after that grew exponentially – from $6k to $8k, then $5k and $34k – and ultimately to a $100k launch that helped him buy a home and prompted his wife to quit her job. 

Jeff’s first launch may sound simple, but it is truly a success story. He never let a small email list or the lack of industry experience  bring him down. He literally invented the product launch – simply by setting goals, and starting small!

Believe in what is possible for you

After he made $1,650 at his initial product launch, Jeff made an important discovery: An idea can become an income. We can see evidence of his discovery in everything we do as entrepreneurs, even decades later. 

While he had been building up his email list and making a small income, he had a backup plan to return to graduate school. But during his first class, he got up and walked out. Laughing, he reflects that it was out of character. “I’m not a dramatic type person,” he insists – but he realized that his path was clear. After leaving school for good, he intensely pursued online marketing with the goal to improve and learn from every launch.

Even now, Jeff talks about his first launch with the fervor or someone who has landed on the moon. Despite 17 consecutive multi-million dollar launches, it was that $1,650 that changed the course of internet sales forever. 

Enjoy Part 1 of this conversation with Jeff Walker, and be sure to tune in next week for Part 2! 

Quotes

“How do you sell something? I had no sales experience! I started researching it, and no one was teaching online marketing or online business at the time. I started studying the old masters of direct marketing going back to the 1920’s.”

“I had discomfort with sales. I thought…these people love me. But they’re going to hate me if I try to sell them something. But we were desperate as a family for an income. So I thought, I am going to really romance these people! I am going to give them even more free stuff, and make it even cooler, and it will naturally lead into an upgraded paid newsletter that had more and was more frequent. It was the free-to-fee model, and it was 1996.”

“I set goals in every area of my life – my parenting, my marriage, my adventure goals, my physical goals, and my income goals! The absolute biggest number I could imagine making was $100k. Three years later, I did it in a week. It was insane.”

“I went to a marketing conference. I didn’t know it was unusual, but I started talking about the launch. People were asking me how I did it. I started informally helping and coaching, not even charging. I didn’t even know if it would work in any other businesses.”

“I was still sitting in my office, writing newsletters about the stock market. But the floodgates were open. People were calling me, and my phone was ringing off the hook – they wanted help, and they wanted coaching.”

“The internet was growing. It was crystal clear. The idea of selling stuff online was growing. I did not see multi-million dollar launches! But I saw a legitimate path of being able to help people and build a business slowly.”

Links mentioned in this episode:

Podcast Resources

Check out Jeff Walker’s website at https://jeffwalker.com/ 

Enter your best email address to get Launch Quickstart – Jeff Walker’s FREE training for building a business you love: https://productlaunchformula.com/ 

Buy Jeff’s #1 New York Times bestselling book, LAUNCH: https://jeffwalker.com/programs/book-launch/ 

“Is it possible to launch a ___?” Check out this page for amazing marketing case studies. Learn about the power of launching: https://jeffwalker.com/blog/launch/launching-a

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