Launching With Farideh Caeser

{Ep 54} Burlesque, Launch Monsters and Launching With Farideh Caeser

Farideh Ceaser joins me today to talk all things launching and shares simple launch strategies that will help you improve sales because no one likes launching to crickets, right?

We talked about the work you need to do *before* you put up your sales page, the importance of creating connection with your audience through blogs, newsletters, 1-1s and being able to tell stories, the importance of being an extreme version of yourself and being able to stand out online and how ensuring a successful launch has a lot to do with what you do before you launch.

Key Takeaways:

  • Create a connection with your audience
  • Research what your audience wants through surveys, 1 on 1 calls
  • Ensuring a successful launch has a lot to do with what you do before you launch
  • Create desire. Start talking about your launch.
On #launching: Putting up a sales page is like burlesque dancer going up completely naked- No show

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Resources:

What are you launching? I’d love to hear!

Tweet me @SandySidhu

Join the Ignite Online Community and connect with other entrepreneurs over at https://www.sandysidhumedia.com/igniteweekly

About Farideh Ceaser

Farideh Ceaser - Launch StrategistFarideh (fair-a-day) Ceaser has spent her life in creative entrepreneurship. As a musician, she has toured the world making a personal connection with various audiences through her voice, storytelling and humour. Professionally, Farideh has worked on the marketing teams of multi-million dollar corporations. Farideh is passionate about all things launching and stays up late hatching brilliant plans for her genius clients.  Learn more about her at http://www.farideh.ca/

 

 

How Do You Manage Your To-Do List?

Last week I posted this question on my Facebook page as I was curious to see what other people use to manage their to-do list on a daily basis as well as when it comes to a product launch.

The responses varied and included several which I am currently using and others that I plan on checking out.

Erica Lee from EngineerYourLife uses TeuxDeux to manage her to-do list. Teux-Deux is a no-nonsense web-based browser app that lets you create and manage your to-do list. There is also an iPhone app so you can sync your updates.

Luz Garcia-Pennock of LovelyGalPosh uses her Google Calendar to track and manage her daily to-do items. I use this method as well and like blocking off specific times to work on things.

Angela Horn from Balance and Life has gone back to using the good old-fashoned paper and pen method and finds crossing items off very gratifiying. I totally get that and sometimes have found myself adding items to the list that weren’t there just so I could cross them off 😛

What do I use?

I started using Action Method recently and like the fact that I can organize tasks by project and have a visual overview of what needs to get done. I also use a paper to do list and post-it notes because there is something about the tangible-ness that I can’t seem to shake. I have a wall in my office where I post the projects and their respective to-dos because it’s always in front of me where I can see it.

Clearly there is no one-size fits all method but the key is to find what works for you that allows you to get things done!

Whether we’re in the middle of a product launch or just keeping up with the day-to-day, we need a way to keep track of everything that needs to get done. Let me know in the comments what you use to stay organized and on top of the always growing to-do list!

Episode 9: Turning Ideas Into Action And Launching A Product With Natalie Sisson

An important part of being an entrepreneur is learning from your peers. “Unstoppable Entrepreneur” profiles entrepreneurs just like yourselves who have taken the leap to follow their passion and create their own work & lifestyle. They share their expertise: tips for success, tools they use and valuable things they have learned along the way.

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Natalie Sisson of The Suitcase Entrepreneur live! Natalie shares with us the details of her first product launch, her advice for those just starting out and her biggest initiative yet!

Watch the video below.

 

 

Key Takeaways On Launching Your First Product:

  • Be specific about the outcomes you want and taking yourself seriously.
  • Ask yourself when developing your product, “Who am I serving?” “Am I doing it in the best possible way?”
  • The importance of starting your idea and building on it as you go.
  • Invest the time, money and plan so your product looks good!

An idea is just an idea until you put it out there and take action.  Click to Tweet

And Natalie’s latest product launch:

$100 Change initiative

product launch tips for solopreneursAbout Natalie Sisson

Natalie Sisson, The Suitcase Entrepreneur, shows you creative ways to run your business from anywhere. She’s travelled to over 56 countries, biked across Africa and raised over 12K for WomenWin and is passionate about entrepreneurship.

 

Enjoy Unstoppable Entrepreneur? Want to be featured or recommend someone? Email  me at sandy@sidekickpm.com.

Start Today

I’m reading “Poke the Box” by Seth Godin right now and although short (around 80 pages), it is filled with valuable insight.

As Seth puts it, it is a “manifesto about starting”, not just “thinking about it” but

leaping, commiting and making something happen

which got me thinking how often do people get stuck at the starting line? How often do we become our own barriers to starting? Or we put off launching something because it is not “perfect” yet? We come up with all these things we think we need to do before we actually start, get overwhelmed and then never end up doing anything.

A year from now you will wish you had started today -Karen Lamb

Starting is important. Your first blog post won’t be nearly as good as your 100th but you need to go through that process to get better and improve.

It’s normal to feel overwhelmed when you first start something new but chances are you can break down your ideas into smaller pieces and chip away at them bit by bit.

The world is waiting for you! Get unstuck . Stop watching and start doing.

                                                                                        Source: google.com via Sandy on Pinterest

 

 

I’d love to hear what you’re starting and working on in the comments below!

What an 8 year-old Knitting a Sweater Taught Me about Launching a Product

What can an 8 year-old knitting a sweater possibly teach you about launching a product?

Read on.

There was an 8 year-old that I knew once upon a time whom for random reasons I thought about the other day. She was a curious, talkative girl and in grade 3 was really enthusiastic about a knitting lunch club her teacher started. She didn’t know much about knitting except for what she had seen her Mom do on occasion yet she was completely fascinated by the idea of creating something from a few strands of yarn and having an end-product of a beautiful sweater.

The teacher gave them the pattern, yarn, needles and all the materials to start.
They were instructed to knit square patches in a variety of colours which would then be sewn by the teacher into the final sweater. They would meet once a week during the lunch period where the teacher would provide additional guidance, tips and help.

There was only one caveat-the patches needed to be completed by a certain date in order to have the sweaters ready to present at a school assembly.

The 8 year-old worked furiously, knitting in all her spare time. She could envision herself in that beautiful sweater that she would wear with a sense of accomplishment knowing she had made it from start to finish.

And she did it. Over the course of the 3 months, the young girl worked away at her patches and got the teacher’s help whenever she was met with any challenges. Each week the pile of patches grew steadily until the day finally came when she was ready to assemble her sweater. She beamed with excitement and pride when she finally got to put on the sweater and show it off to her friends and classmates.

She had done it! She had turned those balls of yarn into a beautiful finished product.

Focus, dedication, commitment, and perseverance paid off.

Little did she know at the time the valuable lessons she had learned would be ones she would one day reflect back on.

I know..because I was that 8 year old 🙂

So..what can be learned from all of this?

Start

Starting is the first important step. You may not know everything or have everything in place but you will learn as you go. It may seem kind of obvious but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t actually get past this part. They get stuck at the starting line.

Be Specific & Work Towards a Goal

It is easy to get carried away and think you can do everything or even need to do everything. Picking too many things to start will most likely prevent you from a) starting or b) finishing. So be very specific about what it is you set out on doing.

In this case, the goal was the final product of a sweater. It was very specific and I knew what I needed to do to get to the get goal->knit patches. Your goal may be writing that ebook you’ve always wanted or finally narrowing in on that niche. Or maybe it is starting a blog? Picking your website designer? Getting started on social media?  Pick!

Seek out help/resources

You may know everything you need to get your product or service launched. Or you may not. The thing is you don’t have to know everything…ask for help. Research on the good old ‘net. Either way don’t let this stop you from getting your work out in the world!

Have a Deadline

Having a deadline is important. Too often we have moving targets which prevent us from committing and sticking to it. Pick a date and work towards it. And stick to that date.

Accountability

Deadlines are great but if we don’t actually tell anyone it’s easy to fall off track. Accountability partners are great for that..they can provide guidance and be that gentle (or not so gentle) poke when you need it. Don’t have one? How about making a public announcement on Facebook? Announcing that you have a project in the works with a fixed deadline may be the first step. Also something about making it public makes it so much more real.

Visualize Success

Picture yourself with the final product in your hands or using the skill you are hoping to learn. Research shows that the brain cannot tell the difference between a real and an imagined action so by visualizing yourself successfully doing something the stimulation in your brain (and subsequent chemical reactions) is no different than actually having done it. Win! You’re able to train your brain and convince it (and yourself) that you can (and will) do it.

Do the Work

So you’ve picked a specific area to work on, found resources to help you, picked a deadline and announced it to the world. Now you must commit and do the work. Carve out the time to spend on your project each day/week and in no time you will have yourself a new skill/ebook/niche/website or whatever it was that you set out to do. Go for it!

And there you have it- 7  things you can learn about launching from an 8 year-old knitting a sweater.

Anything to add? W ould love to hear your thoughts!