What to expect during your podcast launch: tips from launching my own podcast

I’m going to pull back the curtain and let you behind the scenes of my recent podcast launch. The reason is because I want you to see what it actually looks like when someone, with 12 years of experience online, launches something. I want to be real with you.

When we launch something online, a new course, a podcast (in my case), a website, anything – we are hopeful and bright-eyed. We’re excited. That excitement and hope keep us up at night. We can’t fall asleep because we’re dreaming of all the exciting things that this new launch is going to mean for our life and business. But at the same time, our fears of what might not happen can wake us up in the middle of the night and keep us from pushing forward and doing what needs to be done in order to be successful online. 

Today I want to pull back that curtain. I want to be very transparent with you on what went on behind the scenes of my podcast launch. My goal with this is to make you feel more normal. To make you understand that certain parts of your launch, that you aren’t happy with, are absolutely and totally normal. Remember I have 12 years of experience marketing online. I want to tell you what went wrong with my podcast launch. We’ll end with what went right, but I think it is very important for you to know what went wrong. 

Things WILL go wrong during your launch

All right, we’re going to start with the night before. I made absolutely sure that all my automatic emails that were going to go out were working perfectly. I tested them on two different computers. I tested them on my phone. I tested them in incognito browsers. They were working perfectly. Someone would sign up for the swag bag and they would get an email from me that would give them a username and a password to access their swag bag immediately. And, in fact, they wouldn’t even have to wait for that email because they would be automatically logged in and taken to a page where all the swag bag stuff was and it was working perfectly. 

Fast forward to Thursday morning on April 23rd and I get online 10:00 AM I leave a Facebook live in the event. I say, guess what? The podcast is live. Go check it out. Go tell everybody about the swag bag and I started getting email signups. And then my good friend, Amber from Left With a Smile, sends me a message and she says, Misty, I can’t sign up to your email list. It’s not working. It won’t let me sign up. There are these captcha issues and I can’t get through and nothing’s happening. 

And I panicked. I thought, no, this can’t happen. 

The whole point of this is I want to get people on my email list so that I can help them and serve them, and if they can’t get on my email list and they have a bad first experience, they’re going to leave. This is crappy, but guess what? I had faced this before I had faced this with previous launches.

Tech never, ever runs perfectly. It just doesn’t, and if we can accept that, then these frustrations are much more manageable. So was I frustrated? Was I panicked and anxious a little bit? Yeah. But I was also able to take a couple of deep breaths and work through it. 

 I realized that I was still capturing the email addresses of these people. They simply weren’t getting the emails and weren’t being logged into my site.  Once I knew that, I made a plan. I was able to email them manually while my email service provider got things fixed. It did not ruin my launch. 

In the middle of dealing with that tech issue, I got a message from someone (who had donated items for my giveaway) that the links to her website were not working, and I felt awful. Here’s this woman who had generously offered to support and help me. And her link wasn’t working. 

Then I got a message from someone who was trying to access the swag bag and a link inside the swag bag wasn’t working. Then I got a message that one of the women (who had donated to the swag bag), I had her name wrong on the landing page. Can you imagine I had her name wrong?  I had copied and pasted and I forgot to change the name to her name. 

So I’m trying to fix these other issues while still trying to send out all these manual emails to people as they’re joining my email list. I’m worried that I’ve offended people by getting their names and links wrong, and I’m trying to email them and apologize. 

And then I get a message at 11:30, from someone, saying “You are going to go live at 11:45, right?” And I said, “yep, I’m going live in 15 minutes inside the Facebook event to answer questions.” And she said, “Great, I’ll be there.” Just a few seconds later, I got a message from her saying “Aren’t you going live?” Only, it wasn’t a few seconds later. It was actually a half-hour later. It felt like a few seconds to me because of everything I was in the middle of, but it was a half-hour later. I had completely forgotten to go live. So I hopped on. I went live. I answered her questions and everything was okay, but I felt bad again that I had messed up. 

To make this even worse. As the week went on, I completely forgot the following six lives until I sat down to write out the outline for this podcast episode. I did not realize I had forgotten to go live every other day, like I had promised. I had promised everyone I would be live at 11:45 AM every other day, during the podcast launch, to answer their questions and I completely forgot. 

And nope, it doesn’t end there.

 I had also told some of the women (who were giving away items for my giveaways) that they could go live inside that event on the day of their giveaway and share who they were and what they did and what they offered. And I forgot all about that as well.

There were other things that happened that were disappointing; that really weren’t my fault and weren’t anything I had control over. There were members of my actual launch team that didn’t share or review the podcast at all. There were people who I thought were excited about this podcast who did not even mention it online anywhere. That was disappointing.  

As I look back on that week, it was exhausting. As is typical of my personality, I went above and beyond. I did too much.  I believe this overwhelmed me from being able to truly serve in the way I had wanted to serve during that week.

I believe it also overwhelmed those who were attending. As I look back at my Instagram feed from that week, it’s giveaway, giveaway, giveaway, giveaway, giveaway, giveaway, and I’m sure people got tired of hearing about giveaways. I should have spaced them out better. I should have limited them. I should have, should have, should have.

Now, I could choose to focus on all the things I wish went differently. I could choose to focus on all the things I should have done and be frustrated and disappointed by this podcast launch. 

3 Thinking Errors we all need to work through

You do not know what other people are thinking

I talk to my kids every morning. Well, we try to talk about thinking errors every morning. One of these is mind reading. We think we know what someone else believes or thinks. For example, I could try to read the minds of those who I thought would share the podcast who didn’t and I could determine that it’s because they don’t like me. Or it’s because they didn’t like the podcast. Or they didn’t think what I was sharing was a value.

But, maybe it’s just because they were overwhelmed in their life and busy. Maybe it’s simply because they forgot. Maybe it’s because they’ve pulled off of being online and are trying to focus on their family. I don’t know those reasons. And I can choose what to believe. 

You cannot predict the future

Another thinking error is predicting the future. Oh, no one is going to be able to sign up for my email list. No one. Well, I don’t know that. I could have sat there and been depressed about that and frustrated instead of digging in and tackling the problem and figuring out people were being able to sign up for my email list. I just needed to send out the emails manually for a short period of time. 

Stop making things a bigger deal than they really are

Third thinking error and this is a big one for me, blowing things out of proportion. Oh, that was a total failure. Really, it really wasn’t. I’m going to show you why in just a minute. But, my launch was anything but a total failure. But again, we get to choose. We get to choose what we believe. 

If I have learned anything in my 12 years as an online entrepreneur, it is that nothing ever goes perfectly. Yes, my tech skills have improved, and my marketing skills have improved. Absolutely. But, even with that, nothing ever goes perfectly. And yet I still grow. My business still grows. People still find me. I am still able to help and spread goodness and light.

I want you to remember this when you launch something, whether it is your brand new website or a podcast or even simply a new podcast episode or new blog post. You will find disappointment in those launches and frustration. But if you expect it, it won’t be nearly as difficult to deal with. 

What went right with my launch

So let’s talk about what went right. First of all, I received incredible support from so many other online entrepreneurs. Most of those people who were on my launch team did review and did share. They actually went above and beyond what I had asked them to do to help with my launch. 

Every single person that I asked to donate to the swag bag or to give a giveaway said, yes, I’m tearing up here. I got reviews for people that I didn’t even ask for; that I didn’t even know were listening to the podcast.  I got support from people I didn’t expect. Becky Higgins, from the Cultivate a Good Life podcast, sent me a message. I have never met her, or interacted with her in any way, and I was so touched. And honestly, a bit star-struck. 

Sarah Allred, from Sarah Grace Live, is targeting the exact same audience I am. We are both trying to help Latter-Day Saint entrepreneurs, and she was such an incredible cheerleader. Checking in with me, asking how things were going donating to the swag bag, the giveaways, talking about it on her Instagram feed. I was touched. 

Angie, from Come Follow Me FHE, got wind of what was happening.  We have not interacted online a lot and she reached out and she offered to support it through a giveaway.

My friend Amber, from Left With a Smile, (I mentioned her earlier) – we have been friends for many, many years, 10 years or so, but we haven’t really talked a lot in the last year or two. And, in fact, she launched her website maybe a year or two before I sold mine in 2018 and she reached out and said, “Hey, Misty, could you submit a story for my new website?”

And I said, “Yeah, Amber, I’ll do that.” And I never got around to it. She could have chosen to be offended by that and not supported me in my launch. But instead, she said, “Hey, I don’t care if I join your launch team or not.” (I gave my launch team free access to my e-course.) She said “I don’t even need that. I just want to help you. I really just want to help you and support you.” I did give her access to my e-course, but I am grateful for her willingness to support no matter what. 

I had a friend who spends no time on social media – very little time online at all – bring me balloons the night before my launch in order to show support for the party. 

I had podcast reviews that went way above what I was expecting. I was hoping for, yeah, this is a great podcast. Misty does a good job. Misty knows her stuff, and that was all. I had reviews that went so much deeper, that they seriously brought tears to my eyes. 

I more than doubled my email list. That’s incredible. To more than double your email list in a week’s time. That’s amazing. I made new friends. People who have joined my email list or join my Facebook group, and I am learning about more Latter-Day Saint women who are doing incredible things online. 

And if we want to get into the actual financial side of things – all but one of the sales that I made to my Ask Me Anything group and to my Good Start Game Plan e-course, were to the new people who joined my list during the podcast launch. So there was a significant financial benefit as well. 

You get to choose what to focus on

So what do you focus on in your business? When you launch something, small or large, where do you put your mental focus? On the good that is happening? On the things that are going right? Because you know what, they are always there. Or do you focus on the things that don’t go right? Because those are always there as well.

Where you choose to focus is going to make a difference in the future of your business. Not what actually happens. So I invite you to look at a past launch or look at a future launch and focus on what went right and be grateful for it. 

Coming Up

In the next episode, I am going to show you how it is possible and completely realistic for you to be making $20,000 a month within the next two years. And no, this is not some fancy marketing ploy or get rich quick scheme. This is real.  I believe it can happen to anyone who is willing to consistently work at their business.

If you aren’t yet an official member of The Goodness Squad, I would love to have you join us. You can do that at mistydmarsh.com/join. I have all sorts of free gifts and downloads and tools and worksheets for you there. But, the best part is the other women – the encouragement, their friendship, and the reassurance. Because in order to succeed online, we need each other’s faith, fortitude, confidence and feedback.