Ethical and Sustainable Product Launches: Building a Future-Proof Business Foundation

Welcome back to another episode of the Sophie Kessner podcast. So in today’s episode, i want to first off acknowledge and say thank you to the folks who have been sending in feedback and letting me know how much you appreciate the context of these episodes and how quickly we get to the point. It means the world and it is part of the field that keeps me going on this. So I want to explore an interesting conversation that’s been coming up quite a bit recently with folks in our programs and then also just with people in my life and in my world, and that conversation is around launching something and having a successful launch with something, and I want to approach this from, obviously, the lens that is geared around sustainability, making sure that it feels really nourishing, making sure that it’s ethical and how to do it in a way that works for you. Now I want to preface this episode by saying, per usual, there is no one way to do anything. There is no dogmatic practice that says this is the way. All else is false. That’s just not the reality. That’s just not the way business works. So everything I’m sharing is just my perspective, it’s my opinion, it’s not fact, and there are definitely other ways and other approaches to do things. But part of what I’m going to be sharing, i want to make sure that I’m also providing you some insight into the why behind it, so that you can start to see what makes sense for you. And if you like pieces, great, and if you don’t, that’s OK too. So let’s go ahead and dive on in Now, when we’re thinking about a product launch. This is a really interesting conversation And here’s why A lot of folks want to go into the fun stuff right The building sales pages, the creating tons of content on social media and marketing, the humping on a bunch of sales calls, the doing workshops and webinars. And one of the things that has become more and more apparent over the years is, if you don’t do the foundational work first and you don’t do it to the best of your ability, like if you have asset, everything else that leads up to that and in that phase, that second phase of the marketing process is going to be so much more challenging. So much more challenging. And it’s interesting.
I had a conversation with some clients recently who were wanting to create products and launch things and market things, and my question always comes back to OK, but who is it for What problem is it solving And what’s the goal of this product Like? do you have a proof of concept And have you proved that there’s a need in the market for what it is you’re trying to sell? Now it’s interesting because we’re going into at the time of this recording what some would be my recession here in the US. No-transcript. When we’re thinking about recessions, the stuff that I see online is interesting, right. There’s some folks who are just like fuck a recession. I deny it. I don’t believe in that. There’s other folks who just kind of stepped down from what they were doing. They’re pretty burnt out and tired from their business, so they’re getting different jobs. And then there’s other people who just are doing the same thing they’ve been doing.
Regardless of what your approach is, here’s my opinion. What we want to make sure we do, if we’re thinking about wanting to future-proof but also recession-proof our business or company, is how do we make our services, our products, a need, not a want, meaning how do we actually create something that’s not just a nice to have but is incredibly important to the folks that we’re trying to support? So, if we start to think about it from that perspective, we really want to get clear on. Okay, how are we creating what we’re creating? without all of the fluff, without all of the noise, without all of the extra stuffing and all of the bells and whistles, instead just giving folks exactly what they need to solve the exact problem we want to solve so that they can get the exact results that they want to get, and from there they can start to experience the success that they’re trying to achieve. Whether that’s in health, fitness, relationships, romance, body image, self-love, business, career, you name it, the biggest thing that we want to look at is what problem are we solving? Now, this might feel really rudimentary, and that’s okay, it’s supposed to.
The reason why I bring this up is because we tend to to dive into the creative process of building something, creating it, launching it, marketing it, selling it, especially if your natural tendency is to be more of a creative. But the challenge with creation purely from that space of, i feel like doing this, i want to do it without taking into consideration the exploration of data creates the need for you to then go and have to test your creative ideas through the market while you’re marketing, while you’re launching, and oftentimes, when we’re testing creative ideas for the first time in a launch, we tend to feel a little disappointed. It’s not always going to go the way that we want it to go. And what I mean when I say that is you have this idea for a program you want to launch, you decide to just throw it together. Put it together, build everything out for it and then launch it, but then maybe you don’t get any signups or you only have one or two signups for it.
This is an interesting conversation because this is something that could potentially be avoided. And how? how? how could that be avoided? By doing the research, by taking the time to actually go and look into the market and see what is the market wanting, what is the market available for. Because if we don’t do the testing, the researching, the collecting data, then we will have to inevitably because there’s no way around it do the data and collect the research when we are in the marketing process, and that can be incredibly frustrating, it can be incredibly disorienting, it can be many, many things. Now, if you’re on the other end of the spectrum and your offer and your launch works really really well, amazing congratulations. Those are not the people that I’m speaking to. I’m speaking to the ones who are feeling a sense of frustration with their launches? who are feeling a sense of frustration with their products not taking off? because it can be incredibly frustrating, especially when you pour your heart and soul into something. Ideally, any business program that you get into will take you through the process of doing market research. Now, if you’re in a program that’s a rudimentary business program, a fundamental business program, and it does not cover this, it’s important that you find something or somewhere where you can get this information so that you can do the proper market research to ensure that you have a profitable product that has a space in the marketplace And if it does not, then we don’t go chasing that waterfall. And now here’s why.
One of the things that’s been really interesting stepping into motherhood over the last few years is my time and the lack of it that I have. You have so much more time when you don’t have other responsibilities, when you’re younger and when you have so much more freedom. But the more I build responsibilities for myself whether it’s with kids, careers, partners, relationships, all of the other things I realize more and more how incredibly sensitive and fragile my time is. I don’t have the same luxury of having infinite amounts of hours and days that I can do whatever I want, whenever I want. I have chunks of time available to do things, and if I don’t take advantage of those times and oftentimes it sets me back or it keeps me stuck are not really moving forward.
So one of the things that I’ve had to become incredibly sensitive to, and in some ways be a little bit of a just incredibly sensitive to, is how I’m spending my time and how I’m using my time And to make sure that when I have the time available, i’m using it in a really productive, strategic way. That also means that I’m not willing to spend months, weeks or years testing something in the marketplace that I haven’t proven is a need in the marketplace, because then I’m having to spend my time, my money, my energy trying to collect data that I could have been doing in a much shorter period of time had I spent the time actually doing the market research and collecting the data. Now, that process is not necessarily fun, it’s not necessarily sexy, it’s not necessarily the thing where you’re like this is my soul’s calling and this is what I want to do in the world, but it is the thing that’s going to give you the reference points that you need to be able to create something. It’s going to be incredibly relevant to the people that you’re trying to sell it to. Now.
I bring this up because a lot of folks will look at big names and brands that have been around for years and years and years And they wonder, like, how did they get that right? Well, they tried a lot. They did a lot of testing, a lot of trial and error. They tried something and maybe it worked, maybe it failed, but it was the continuous process of trial and error and optimization again and again and again. And when we look at brands that have really potent messaging, they’ve nailed their marketing right. You feel like they’re speaking directly to you. It’s because they’re playing with it and testing it and refining it and optimizing it for years on end to get to the point to where it is today. But oftentimes we don’t see the years and years and years of work that’s gone into the process of developing the messaging and the clarity around it. We just see the message that’s there today.
So it’s important to remember, wherever you are in your process and your journey, that there is time that goes into the development of a skill. There is time that goes into the development of clarity, of understanding, of certainty, of having the well refined skill to be able to do something so well and not to undermine that. Because if you are starting to create something and perhaps you’ve spent years training and studying as a doctor or as a functional medicine person or as a relationship person, whatever your scope of practice is right The thing that you want to build a business around, it’s important to recognize that you’ve spent years, decades, however long it’s been refining and honing your skills for that craft, thank you. But not as much time we’re finding and honing your skills as a marketer, as a salesperson, as a business owner, and those are the things that you’re stepping into. You’re stepping into a new realm. That’s not 100% about what you used to do or what you want to be doing, but it’s something that’s necessary for you to develop the skills to then be able to go and do in the world so you can do the thing that you love.
Now, this is a really interesting conundrum, especially in the earlier years of entrepreneurship, because we all just want to be able to do the thing we love full-time. But the reality is, if we’re trying to build a business that is profitable, that’s generating revenue. There are going to be things inside of that business that are 100% necessary to be done, but things that we may not necessarily enjoy. Things like admin, things like financial tracking, things like understanding profit and loss statements, things like making sure we’re getting contracts and payments collected and all of the other things that come up with that. These are necessary components of running and operating the business that we have to do, and they’re not necessarily the fun things to do, which is why, when we have the conversation of, well, i only want to build a business that’s really fun and exciting and all of the things, it’s really great. Maybe if you can have the financial resources to outsource all of the other stuff, then that is more of a possibility for you.
But the reality is, you have to look at the business for what it is. It’s a business, it’s a vehicle, And if the part that you really love is the client delivery, then we still have to take into account what are the things that need to happen to get you to client delivery. You need clients, but you need to market, you need to make sales, you need to manage and make sure that the admin process is taken care of so that you can do that part that you really love in the client delivery. And so, if you’re thinking about all of this and you’re hearing all of this, it’s kind of like, well, shit, man, there’s a lot of work that goes into this. Yes, there is, and it’s why we want to make sure that the product that you create, the service that you create, is something that you really, really enjoy and that is well thought out, so that you’re not spinning your wheels on something that you don’t know for certain is going to work. And I’ll say again, like there’s not any absolute guarantee in the world, but there is definitely a level of having a lot more certainty and a lot more proof of concept on something than absolutely none at all. So, that being said, let’s circle back here and come back to the conversation of creating the actual offer. So one of the things that we used to teach back in the day and something we’ll be bringing back into our core curriculum because it’s become such a prominent question that’s come up in calls and in sessions with clients is the process of testing through organic marketing.
Now, if you know me, if you follow me content or if you’re on my list, you’ll know I focus a lot on SEO and email marketing, but I didn’t start there And I think that’s important to emphasize is I didn’t start on blogging, i didn’t start on emails. I started with Instagram and Facebook back in the day and I did all of my testing through Instagram and Facebook. I did years and years and years of content creation through these platforms to figure out, okay, what lands, what doesn’t, what are people responding to, what are they not responding to, what messages really hit home for them, what things really tend to grind their gears. And when we did our first launch of our course, we did it through organic social media marketing And I think that’s important to emphasize because there is a natural cadence, a natural rhythm, a natural process to the development of a business. What I love to focus on, yeah, is 110% this different phase of the entrepreneurial journey where we get to focus on the refinement, the development, the amplification of the business. But if we don’t have the foundation set up and that amplification process is just gonna amplify the issues that already exist. So I think there’s an important caveat to be mentioned for folks who are yet to figure out their profitable offer And for folks who are yet to have a really successful launch, because if we cannot manage to create that with our organic content, then adding SEO to it is not going to solve the problem either. There is an unavoidable process of research and refinement that must be done in order to secure your marketing, your messaging, your positioning and the product delivery structure and pricing, to know that this is going to work in an evergreen method. And that’s essentially what we want to look at the business as is, as a science experiment, as being the scientist in our business, as being willing to run experiments, to test, to collect the data, to do the research, so that when we go and we create the final round of it, the final iteration of it, we know it’s working without a doubt. There’s no, if not minimal, pieces that need to be refined or tweaked at that point.
So when you’re first starting out, you want to do the market research. You want to sit down and ask the hard questions, to go and figure out OK, who is it that I’m wanting to market to, who is it that I’m wanting to sell to And what the heck is it that I am trying to sell? Now, if you don’t know the answers to these questions, then you need to know what problem are you trying to solve? What is the problem that you want to provide a solution for? that you want to spend your days helping people overcome. Whether that’s through a course, whatever the modality is of how you do, it is less relevant at this point. What’s more important is that you have clarity on what the actual problem is. So what is the problem that you want to address? in what specific market? Are you wanting to work with moms who have newborns, who are trying to figure out how to support their kiddos in that early developmental process, or overcoming postpartum? or trying to just sleep train their child? If you are great, go and do the market research with this specific audience.
Go and ask these moms or people who have moved maybe a little bit beyond that stage, and get curious about what’s happening at that stage, or what was happening at that stage. What were the questions they had, the things that they were struggling with? Did they invest in anything? If so, what? How much were they willing to invest, so that you can get information that you need to know? OK, what is the market open and available for? What are they actually wanting and needing? Would they be willing to invest in something like this? Now, here’s what’s really interesting about this, because, again, this is a big question that comes up a lot, especially because there’s a trend around high ticket offers and group coaching programs et cetera. And it’s actually a conversation that I’ve been having with a private client of mine recently where High ticket isn’t necessarily the solution for every business.
It might work really well for certain businesses and certain business types and certain business models, but it is not the solution for every business And it’s not the answer for every type of programmer offer you’re trying to create, because if you have a market, for instance, something like postpartum moms, that market might not be available to purchase something that is high ticket or to participate in something that is high ticket And you might have a lot more success going with something that is smaller as far as the investment and the time that goes into it and what you’re creating inside of it. Now that’s going to change the type of business model that you’re developing. So this is why it’s important, before you go and just create an entire high ticket coaching program and you put all in the general stuff of what is normally taught, you go and you actually explore and you collect the data and you get the information, you get the insight from the audience to say, okay, what actually is the range that these folks are available for? Because if no one is saying that they’d be willing to invest thousands of dollars into that kind of support, then you have to be willing to listen to the market and say, okay, great. I’m aware of the fact that not one single person out of the 50 people that I’ve interviewed was willing to invest that much, but they were willing to invest this much, so how can I make that profitable and feasible for me? if this is something that I want to do? If there is people who are saying, yes, i would want to invest in that, because if they’re not saying that they would invest in that, then it’s telling you that there might not be a market for the thing that you think you want to create. And again, this isn’t necessarily like the fun, sexy thing that’s like so soul-filling, but it is the thing that’s going to give you the information that you need to be able to make better decisions in your business. And I think that this is a really, really important thing to take into consideration is do I actually have a proof of concept? Do I actually have validation that my offer is wanted and needed and that people are willing to invest in it. Now, the other question that I get around this a lot is the pricing of the offer and if the pricing makes sense for it. Now, one thing is the delivery, the other thing is the pricing. Your pricing will be hand-in-hand with the delivery, depending on what the delivery structure is. It’s going to dictate what the pricing is going to be, because you need to create the offer in accordance to what the time spent delivering set offer is, to make sure that you’re paying yourself an equitable salary in the delivery of that process and that you have a healthy profit margin.
So let’s backtrack a little bit. If you have an offer and you’re hearing that not a lot of people are wanting to invest in this offer, if it’s like a group style program, then that’s a data point. It’s a piece of information. So what you want to do is you want to ask the questions. Okay, great. What about this offer? Was it made of no for you? What would have made it a yes? What was the thing that was keeping you from it? And these are the things that will help you better understand exactly why your launch did not succeed.
Now, there’s a number of variables to this, so we’re not going to pretend like it’s a one-shot thing, which is why we have to ask the questions, it’s why we have to do the research, it’s why we have to explore and figure out okay, what worked, what didn’t, what were people responding to? what were they not responsive to? what were the reasons why people said they didn’t want to join? because one thing could be they just didn’t feel it was right for them. And if some people feel like it’s not right for them, but you feel like they’re the perfect client, then there’s something going on in your messaging, something going on in the way that you’re talking about the thing that you’re selling.
Now, if people are saying, well, i really wanted to do this, but I’m not sure if this is the right fit for me, or I don’t like a group program, then you know it might actually be the structure and the delivery of it. Now, if everyone’s like, oh, my God, i love this and I really wish I could do this. I just can’t afford it right now, then it tells you something about your pricing. So every single piece of feedback that you get about why somebody is not buying, about why somebody is not enrolling is a data point to give you insight into what is the mismatch between your offer and what they’re needing or wanting to invest in right now. If somebody is like, oh my gosh, yes, i want this, i’m in, then you know that you’ve nailed it, especially if they’re your ideal client and you’re getting them amazing results.
But I think the thing that we have to start to be more humble in our approach as business owners is recognizing that what we think is the best thing in the world is irrelevant if our clients, our potential clients, don’t see it the same way. So we have to find that meeting point, that bridge between where the client is at and what they’re thinking and wanting and needing, and where you’re at and what you’re thinking and wanting and needing for them, so that they can equally be met in that process and come over to get everything else that they need from you. But you can’t be trying to sell people and something that they just don’t know or don’t care to want or need because they don’t think it’s relevant to them. It’s an uphill battle and it’s a losing battle. You want to be able to create something that your people are aware of, that this is the problem that they’re dealing with and that they need.
And this is the conversation that comes up a lot when we’re talking about marketing and messaging and positioning, because it’s easy to want to only focus on the things that you really love and enjoy And, of course, there will be people who resonate with what you feel and what you think and what you enjoy. But again, we’re building something to solve a problem. We’re building something to meet a need in the market, and if we don’t know what those things are or we don’t have clarity on what those things are and we haven’t had success with what we’ve been creating, then it’s time to go back to basics and to do the market research, to see what our audience is saying, to see what it is that they’re looking for, what they’ve invested in, what they’re willing to invest in, and then adjust our offer accordingly. That is how you start to create something that is going to do well in an industry and going to do well in a marketplace, versus something that you’re completely uncertain about. Now, the first time that you launch anything, my recommendation is always to do it as a bait around and to let people know that it’s a bait around so that you can have permission inside of that to adopt and adjust and make mistakes and figure it out inside of that process.
I think one of the worst things we can do is build something out completely with no audience inside of it and think that we have everything that we need to test with, and then people get in it and it’s not what they need or it’s not what they want or it doesn’t even sell, because then you spend hours and hours and hours creating this entire thing that you’ve become so overly committed to because you’ve put so much time and energy into it, but now it’s not working. We have to again slow down and humble ourselves and get back to a place of okay, what is actually happening in the market? What are these people saying they’re wanting and needing? Okay, great, let me create something of an outline for what I think I want. Let me test this outline and see if people are willing to beta test this for me. You get people in. That’s proof of concept that the beta testing with the marketing, the positioning and the structure are going to sell.
And then you refine the delivery process for said clients to make sure that the delivery is enhanced enough to get the clients the best results possible. You take their feedback, you implement their feedback, you make it better and better and better, and you do that again and again and again until it’s perfected and, over time, what will inevitably happen is this thing that started off really, really small, with a bare minimum, the minimal viable product, is now this thing that is running on a repeat, that is so refined, so streamlined and so clear and so clean, and you’ve got your main product inside of your business. That is the goal that we’re going for. That is what we’re trying to make happen. Over the course of the time that you’re trying to have a successful launch, you’re trying to figure out what your product should be, or what your offer should be, or your pricing for that, etc. Because then you’re actually meeting the market where it’s at. you’re creating something that’s going to support the market with where it’s at, and that is the goal.
So hopefully you enjoyed this episode. If you did, please feel free to leave a comment, a review I appreciate that It means more than the world and then make sure you hit subscribe If you are enjoying this podcast. It really does make a big difference for those of you that do subscribe and getting this shared out into the world And if you have questions, feel free to reach out at hayatthesacredco. My team and I will be in there to answer any questions. Otherwise, i hope you have an amazing, amazing day and I will see you on the next episode.