October 2nd, 2015
What’s Your Launch Personality?
(This post was originally written in 2015, but I updated it in March 2020 for fun…instead of updating the “types”, I’m leaving them as is–even if the businesses have changed!)
Weird question – Do you know what your launch personality is?
Most people would say no, unless you’ve launched a few times and already know what works for you.
But just imagine for a moment.
Close your eyes and imagine you’re about to kick off your most successful launch (or first success) ever.
Tell me about the launch. What type of launch pops into your head first?
If you’re not sure, keep reading to find out why it’s important to know and how it can help you through your next launch.
We all have the same number of hours in the day.
You know this. I know this.
But why then does it feel like some people are blessed with superhuman abilities to generate crazy income and have launches that look inspired well-oiled machines?
No one starts with a big list, but somehow watching someone who’s got over 100k subscribers makes things worse.
You start focusing on the wrong things—like what you see instead of asking how the “big” launches are executed.
It ain’t all roses people.
Once you realize that, commit to staying in your own lane, with your eyes on your own paper, you’ll start to see where you do things the right way for you…and where you could be doing them better.
That’s what I’m talking about in today’s podcast, we’re going to explore 7 models to help you find our own launch personality.
Why Your Launch Personality Matters
We all start at the same place. There are tons of moving pieces during business and product launches. We need to have a clear defining launch personality to stand out in the already crowded online space.
So even though we all have a unique business style and launch personality, we all need to get the same surface things created to launch our big ideas.
The webpages, the people, the team, delivering the product or the service, communicating with the audience, finding new people to connect to…and everything’s overlapping.
Non-linear is the word of the day when you’re launching. There is no straight track to launch success. Step back and you’ll see the many layers in a launch that are constantly at play and moving forward.
In addition to the layers, the steps, the process, there are also tons of variations possible for each launch. You might be amazing on webinars and focus all your attention on getting people to your promotional webinars. That might be your launch.
And then your business bestie might do a well-produced video series in the product launch formula style.
And STILL others might do both! or neither!
Some of you may use social media and YouTube to connect with your audiences…and stay right there when it comes to launching your new products and offerings.
That’s the beauty of launching — you choose what formats to use, where you show up the best, where your audience engages with you the most, and how long your sales window stays open or if it even closes at all!
The only thing that stays roughly the same across all product, business and online launches is this… the phases of the project.
We all start the planning and development phase, then move to the pre-launch, then open the doors to whatever we’re offering, potentially offer some form of scarcity or deadline, close the doors and then do any final follow up in the post-launch.
To help you choose which type of launch might be right for you, I decided to share some very key launch personalities you might want to adopt and adapt to make your own!
Plus you’ll find a handy pdf worksheet at the end of the post to explore each personality and see which one fits your style.
Discover Your Unique Launch Personality and Style: 7 Models To Mix & Match
Okay, so now we’re going to walk through the 7 launch personality types that I discovered and have loved over the years (this post was originally created back in 2015. I’ve tried to update some of the changing businesses, but I think you’ll see where I’m going with this)!
#1 The Laura
Product type: SAAS (Software As A Service)
Main product/offering: MeetEdgar…a brilliant social media scheduling web application.
Promotion Type: Content marketing
Main Promotion Channels: Email, Weekly Dash newsletter, Blog, webinars
Support team: Laura’s got a top notch team of people running the whole shebang from full-time writers to software developers. The amount of content she puts out means she needs experts in all those positions!
Overall vibe: If you like to keep things simple, promote your products and services on an ongoing basis, give value in the form of content which you can deliver on a regular schedule, watch closely — that’s what the Laura is all about.
#2 The Marie
Business Model: Online Education
Main Product/Offering: Marie Forleo’s B-School (launched 1x a year)
Promotion Type: Product Launch Formula Style Launch – 3 videos plus a sales video. This is the general idea, but we’ll get to some of the added elements later. Once per year only. Exclusive to the max.
Main Promotion Channels: Email, Marie TV weekly web tv show.
Support team: Marie has a full team helping her produce the high quality free content and video is her thing hands down. But she started out using one person. Her core core team is still small, but she’s got a dedicated force that comes on to support B-School each and every year.
Overall vibe: Marie likes to raise the bar for herself, improve the quality, upgrade, really give an experience that people take on a journey. She’s highly creative just like all our other ladies, but there’s something a little extra Marie’s got when it comes to the whole production of the launch.
Again, Marie’s always been the type of person who loves the show. She used to do full music videos to her favorite artists as part of the launch. This girl loves the showmanship part of the launch and she’s great at it! But she’s also extremely dedicated to putting out quality work…and doing it when it makes sense for her.
#3 The Alexis
Alexis Giostra is the girl who used to never launch with email. Up until recently, she was doing all of her promotion via YouTube and Instagram and her Blog. Zero email.
Business Model: Online Education
Main Product/Offering: Empire Building Coaching program, Charmed DSLR
Promotion Type: Photo, Video, Blog post
Main Promotion Channels: IG photos, YT videos, and blog posts announcing both Support team: Alexis is a solo act! She rocks all the pieces of her launches completely solo and she can execute like nobody’s business. She rarely gets overwhelmed because she only launches once she’s finished her work. She sets deadlines and hits them all the time by giving herself plenty of lead time.
Overall vibe: Working smarter instead of harder is Alexis’ mantra. She will go off the grid to create a new product and emerge in a week with a completely fleshed out, beautiful course that she immediately spreads to her social media networks… she makes it look easy…and to her it is…no fuss, no muss. Do the work. Reap the rewards.
I really feel like Alexis is the best kept secret on the internet. With a YouTube following of over 85k, Instagram following over 25k and climbing daily and a blog that receives 30k+ views per month, it’s no wonder that she keeps her promotion in these three places and hasn’t had to skip into email marketing yet.
#4 The Amy
Amy Porterfield is one of those dynamo people who has the mix of being a genuinely nice person, who works hard, gives her best, and truly cares about the people in her audience.
Business Model: Online Education
Main Product/Offering: Digital Course Academy, Webinars That Convert, List Buidler’s Society…
Promotion Type: Webinars (this has evolved over the years)
Main Promotion Channels: Email, Facebook, Webinars, Ads, Livestreams
Support team: Yep – she’s got a full team indeed! Overall vibe: Friendly, helpful, hard work gets you there. While the quality and look of Amy’s is gorgeous, it’s the content that will absolutely knock your socks off. She even puts her values front and center on her about page.
#5 The Erica
Business Model: Coaching – online education hybrid
Main Product/Offering: The Daily Whip
Promotion Type: Email, Live Master Classes, Case Studies, and Free Business Whippings…
Main Promotion Channels: Email, Facebook, Twitter, Blog > she’s got all the basics covered.
Support team: Yep, there’s a team behind this lady. While she’s the head honcho and creator, Erika knows that she needs to surround herself with amazing, strong team members.
Overall vibe: Rule-breaker. Elegant. She releases her offerings when she wants. She doesn’t do anything over the top but she does have a high quality, relevant emails series. She usually includes some way to connect with people on the phone live with her during the launch.
#6 The Hilary
Business Model: Online Education, Coaching
Main Product/Offerings: Instagram With Intention, Style & Stylability, Elegant Excellence (mastermind and also goals journal).
Promotion Type: Facebook Ads that lead to Webinars. Emails to follow up. And of course Instagram.
Main Promotion Channels: Instagram. Instagram. Facebook. Webinars.
Support team: She’s built up a strong, lean team over the years!
Overall vibe: Hilary is a ball of energy, enthusiasm, wit, whimsy and the girl next door. You just want to hang out with her and chat it up all night long. While she’s all business, she’s not afraid to show off her fun side by hosting impromptu #deanstreetdancebreaks before her webinars and invite people to the party. If you love a little fun mixed with your wisdom, check Hilary out ASAP. You can also find her right here!
#7 The Racheal
Racheal Cook (you might also know her Promote Yourself To CEO podcast) has tried many – a launch strategy…
They worked in the short term but long term never felt right and she felt less than inspired to simply update and improve. So she focused on creating a community around her challenge – Fired up and Focused.
She’s built an insane community there and does her launch by doing the FB group > leading to the launch of her signature program.
Business Model: Coaching, Online Education
Main Product/Offering: CEO Retreat
Promotion Type: Challenge
Main Promotion Channels: Her Facebook Challenge & Group, Weekly Live Podcast/Show, Email…
Support team: She’s got a stealthy crew of success coaches to push her program forward, team members to support her customers, and even her hubby on board. Sounds like she’s designed a business that is definitely working with her life.
Overall vibe: She’s a mama through and through who walks the walk in her business. She encourages you to join her in designing a business that actually makes sense for your life…and not a life that fits the business. She’s got a brilliant team but it’s her ingenuity and willingness to try new things (even when other things are working OKAY)…
I think a mix of mama and MacGyver are what has lead to her crazy success.
Okay, so what’s your launch personality?
Do you see yourself, your business and your strengths in any of these types?
If you start connect with more than one launch personality, don’t be surprised! Tell us what you discover in the comments below and embrace your own unique style.
Once you know your type, you can mix and match to fit your launch personality…and then get specific about the strategies you want to learn. Of course, Fearless Launching is a great foundational guide through the launch process and will help you understand all strategies before you choose one!
More Resources!
1) Free Launch Planner: Grab this completely free launch planning workbook. Download, print, and start planning your launch today — don’t forget to add in the test and secure your website tasks!
3) Want to work closer with me? If you’re a business owner who knows that you need a coach, someone to work through your launch strategy, figure out your launch plan, get spot advice as it comes up…then we could be a perfect match! Don’t see what you need here? Email me and let me know!
Enjoyed This Episode? Want To Hear More?
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Of course, I’d love to know what you thought about today’s episode. Leave a comment below or shoot me an email!
Thank you, Anne, for such a great podcast and notes. I adore Laura and also follow Marie and just recently found out about Rachel. Totally agree – best to do what feels good and that is reflects our personality.
I thought that Alexis’s strategy is amazing (listened to that podcast as well) it actually helped me to understand that I don’t have to do Facebook or Twitter (thanks to Rachel as well) if I feel better on YouTube and Instagram 🙂