Ep 63. Thoughts from the messy middle (of a launch I’m not calling a launch)

I’m in the messy middle of my launch right now, except I’m not calling it a launch, and by the end of this episode, you’ll know why. So if you’re new here, hello and a very warm welcome to Quiet Confidence with myself, Anita Popat.

So today’s a bit different. I’m recording this while I’m right in the middle of something, and I wanted to share it while it’s happening. Because honestly, it isn’t neat and it definitely isn’t strategic, even though I bang on about strategy all the time. So think of this as a little diary entry rather than a “here’s how to do it” episode. If anything, I hope it shows you that sometimes you can throw the rules out of the window and just experiment.

[00:00:35] Why I’m relaunching Silent Storm as a group

So here’s what’s going on. I’ve decided to relaunch my signature programme, Silent Storm, as a group. I’ve been running it one-to-one for a while now, and I absolutely love it. I love the depth of it, and I love being able to go really micro with someone.

But the reality is that a lot of people just couldn’t afford the investment, and that’s always sat a bit uncomfortably with me, because they’ve always been the right people, it just hasn’t been the right price point for where they were.

So I thought, let’s try a group again, partly to help more people, but also, and this is the bit I’m quite excited about, to create a little community, because running a business as an introvert can feel quite lonely sometimes, and I wanted a space where people could learn from each other as well as from me.

[00:01:15] The “what if only one person joins?” fear

So in true Anita fashion, I decided, let’s go for it and see what happens. I’ll be honest with you, I’ve been shying away from doing a group version for a while because of the usual suspects. Mainly, oh my God, what if I only get one person in?

Because in my head, one person is worse than no one. With no one, you can quietly pretend like nothing happened. But one person feels very public, like, “Oh, well, that didn’t work, did it?” But then I thought, “Well, if I don’t try, I’m never going to know.”

And actually, if only one person joins, that one person is going to get the best training of their life. They’re basically getting one-to-one at the group price, so that’s not really the worst outcome, is it?

Now, I need to tell you something, and it’s going to sound a bit backwards coming from a marketing strategist. I haven’t really grown my audience since the last time I talked about Silent Storm. I haven’t really needed to, because I’ve been selling Silent Storm one-to-one, and I could just enrol clients in the background as and when they were ready. So this round is basically me asking, “Okay, who’s already in my audience? Who can I reach with the people that already know me?”

[00:02:09] Why I’m not calling it a launch

The other thing is, I feel really icky calling it a launch. The word just feels so pressurised to me, and it conjures up all the images of countdown timers and “only three spots left”, and someone shouting, “Buy my thing, buy my thing.”

Now, hands up, I did use a countdown timer last night, only because time was genuinely running out on the early bird offer, and I didn’t want anyone to miss out on it. And that feels different to me, because it’s not fake urgency trying to push you into a decision. It’s just a heads-up to say, “Hey, this price is ending, and I’d hate for you to miss out on it.” I’m treating the whole thing as telling people, I’ve got this thing, here’s what it is, and if it’s for you, come and join me. And that’s it.

[00:02:43] A workshop instead of an “activation event”

So what I’ve actually done… the launch experts would say that you need some sort of activation event. That again feels really icky, because I don’t want to activate you. I just want to give you a way to experience my style of work, to see if we’re on the same vibe.

Yes, I’ve got this podcast, but I wanted people to experience that in person and do my coaching in real life. So I thought I’d create a workshop that was a blend of doing and off-the-cuff coaching, which I absolutely love. You can watch the replay, by the way. It’s in the show notes.

I hadn’t done a workshop for years, so I genuinely felt excited to share my low-lift content strategies. And I picked that topic because low-lift content was doing really well on my trial reels as well as in my content, so I knew it was something my audience were interested in. That’s a little tip in itself, by the way: let your content tell you what people want to hear about.

I had 37 people sign up, which, considering my audience is relatively small, I was quite happy with. And I really enjoyed the energy of delivering it live. It reminded me how much I love that kind of work, where you’re having real conversations and seeing the penny drop for people on the screen. In the workshop I shared my content wheel and showed people how they can document ideas from what they’re already doing and turn them into four different post ideas.

And then at the end I told everyone about Silent Storm. It wasn’t a hard sell, that’s really not my style. And people signed up to Silent Storm on the back of it, which was amazing.

But the thing I found really interesting was that most of the people who came to the workshop were new to my world. They’d come from other communities that I’m part of, and they hadn’t been following me for ages. They found the workshop, came along, liked what they experienced, and some of them decided to join, which is amazing.

And that tells me that my messaging and the workshop are really dialled in for both groups, for the people who already know me and for the people who’ve never heard of me. And as a marketing strategist, that’s gold, because that’s where you want to be. You want to make the journey from someone finding you to buying something from you as short as possible.

[00:04:25] Everything else I’m doing (and it’s all low lift)

After that, all I’ve done is share the replay with people who couldn’t make it, and create an early bird offer, which ended last night, to encourage people to come in early. Other than that, I’m sharing posts on my feed, showing up in my stories, and doing this podcast episode.

I’m also going to make myself personally invite people who I think would be a really good fit, and I’ll be honest, that’s not my favourite job, because there’s always that little voice going, “Oh, what if they think I’m being pushy?” But you honestly never know. Sometimes I’ve had clients just from saying hello when they’ve followed me. If you think about the secret admirers, someone could be sitting on the fence watching my content in the background, and maybe that personal message is what they need to ask a question or feel confident that, okay, this is the next step for me. So I’m going to do that in my own casual way and see what happens.

And that’s it. That’s my low-lift way, for now anyway. I haven’t used any ads. I’m staying all organic with the audience I’ve got right now. I’ve created a workshop to bring people a bit closer to me and experience my style of working, and then I’m going to create some posts from different angles.

[00:05:20] Treating it as an experiment

I probably shouldn’t tell you this, but I haven’t gone into this strategically at all. If I was being properly strategic, I’d have spent a few months growing my audience first and building the waitlist up, and then gone into it. But I didn’t. I just had the idea, and I thought, “Let’s just try this first with the audience I’ve got right now and see what happens.” And then I can build on it from there.

So I’m treating the whole thing as an experiment, and that’s made a massive difference to how I’m feeling about it, because an experiment can’t really fail. You just learn something.

[00:05:46] When the doubts creep in

But I’m not going to pretend that it’s been all zen either, because it hasn’t. I’m seeing a lot of posts about people launching this week, so there must be something in the air. But I saw one post that really made me think about how much I’d also had in my head without saying it out loud.

Because the thoughts creep in, right? The “what if only one person joins” one pops up every now and again. Even silence after a post can feel really personal, even though I know it’s not. And every so often I get a little burst of, “Oh my God, I’m crap at this.” I know I’m not, but that doesn’t stop the thoughts turning up. So I wanted to share what I’m doing to stop those thoughts running the show, in case it helps you next time you’re putting something out there.

[00:06:17] What’s helping me keep those thoughts in check

The first thing is the one I’ve already mentioned: I’m not calling it a launch. It sounds so small, but the word really does change how it feels. Launching just feels like there’s some sort of scoreboard that I’ve got to hit.

And then there’s the experiment thing. Because I’m treating this as a baseline, there isn’t really a pass or a fail. There’s just data, and I can use that data next time.

You’ll know if you’ve listened for a while that a lot of my clients never engaged with anything before they started working with me. They were just quietly watching, and then got in touch when they were ready. So silence doesn’t always mean that no one’s interested. It often means that people are thinking about it.

And then my feed helps too. If I feel like I’m getting triggered by all of these launches and people making loads of money, I’ll just mute them or unfollow them. To be fair, I’ve curated my feed so it feels like good vibes only, so I’m only really inspired by the people I see on there. But with suggested posts, the other ones do sometimes creep in. It really helps at times like this when you’re not constantly being bombarded by messages that you don’t want to see.

And then there’s the body stuff. Yoga is part of my morning routine anyway, but I’m making sure that I do it every single morning right now. I’m also taking myself for a walk at lunchtime, just getting out, getting some fresh air, and not looking at my phone. And that just resets me, and I come back and things that felt massive an hour ago feel like, “Oh, that’s fine actually.”

And on the days where my brain says “computer says no”, I go into my smile file and remind myself of the people I’ve already helped. That last one might sound a bit woo, but it’s genuinely stopped the “I’m crap” spiral, and I’m trusting that whoever needs to come into Silent Storm will come through.

As long as I’ve done the work, told people about it, and shown up in a way that feels like me, the people it’s meant for will find it, whether that’s this week or in six months’ time, when I’ll probably run it again. I’m not about chasing anyone or convincing anyone. I just need to keep telling people and let the right ones come. And that’s where I’m at.

[00:07:57] You don’t need a perfect plan to try something

I wanted to share all of this because I think we can get really caught up in thinking that we need a big fancy launch plan or a huge audience or a perfect strategy before we’re allowed to try something, and you don’t. Obviously all of that will make a difference, but sometimes you can just have a go, see what happens and learn from it.

I’m a big fan of finding out what your way is, and that’s a massive part of the work we do in Silent Storm, because we’re full of so many “Oh, I need to do it like this” ideas from everything we’re fed through the feed.

Sometimes, in the case of Silent Storm, spending three months away from all that noise, really thinking about who you want to attract and how you want to show up without mishmashing everyone else’s strategies, can be the thing that unlocks a consistent stream of clients for you. Because you’re doing it your way, and that way is going to energise you and keep you showing up, and that’s naturally going to be magnetic.

[00:08:43] About Silent Storm

So if you’ve been listening and thinking, “Hmm, Silent Storm sounds like something I need,” all the information’s in the show notes.

It’s for introverted business owners who are experts in their field. So you know your stuff, and you’ve already been creating content, but it doesn’t quite feel like you or sound like you. Something’s feeling hard, or you feel like you’ve got to perform. This helps you create a marketing strategy that gets you clients without trying to become someone that you’re not.

We get really clear on who you are right now and what makes you different. We map out your trust bridge, so your audience knows exactly what they need to hear at each stage. Then we build a content rhythm that works with your energy, and then we work on your quiet confidence, which honestly is the bit that makes everything else work. And this time round, it comes with a lovely little community too. All the details are in the show notes, or just drop me a DM on Instagram and we can have a chat about whether it’s the right fit for you.

I’ll come back and let you know how it all went once it’s started. Until then, keep building your quiet confidence so you can make a loud impact, and I shall see you next time. Speak soon.