How to Launch Your Online Business with Jeff Walker: An EOFire Classic from 2021

0:01Light that spark fire nation. JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on fire brought to you by the HubSpot podcast network, the audio destination for business professionals with great shows like DTC Pod. Today, we're pulling a classic episode from the archives, and we'll be breaking down how to launch your online business. To drop these value bombs, I brought Jeff Walker into EO Fire Studios. Jeff is the author of the number one New York Times bestseller, Launch. He's been teaching people how to launch online courses, product services, and brands online since 2005. Fire Nation, today's value bombs, you are not born successful, you make it.

0:35New tools are developed for convenient use nowadays and you need to launch stories, sequences, triggers, so much more. And a big thank you for sponsoring today's episode goes to Jeff and our sponsors. The Next Wave, your chief AI officer, hosted by Matt Wolf and Nathan Lanz, is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business.

1:13Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts. Jeff, say what's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with. Hey, Fire Nation. It is good to be on here. So, John, so great to talk to you again. One thing about success that I believe that a lot of people I think don't get is that people are not born successful. I say this as someone who if you could have seen me at 35 years old, you would have said this guy has got nothing going on and no future whatsoever. People are not born successful. They make themselves successful.

1:56And whatever you want to do, whatever you want to become a master at, whatever you want to succeed at, someone else has spent their entire life studying that thing and mastering that thing. And a huge number of those people are willing to teach you through their podcasts, through their courses, their videos, through their books. and all you have to do is study with those people and follow those clues to get to the success. I love that message and I resonate with it a hundred percent. In fact, I really lived a very similar life myself where if you had taken a snapshot of me at 32 years old, just a couple years behind you, you would have been in the same head-scratcher situation and been like, what is this kid doing?

2:49He's just dropped out of law school, quit corporate finance. like is not doing much in real estate. I mean, he's just kind of floating around doing nothing. And then I finally found my thing at 32 went all in. And then here we are talking almost 10 years later, almost 3000 episodes later, and I'm still rocking and rolling. And that's what Jeff did financially. He found his thing. So just because you're hearing some of my guests be like, yeah, I was like, you know, ripping flowers out of people's garden beds and selling it back to them when I was seven years old and I was mowing 10 ,000 yards a week, and I had all these people working for me, painting houses when I was like 16 years old.

3:30If that's not you, that's okay. It doesn't mean that you're not going to be able to make your stamp, share your message, your mission, your voice in this world that we now live in. In fact, Jeff's a living, breathing example. I'm a living, breathing example. We were in our low to mid thirties when we first started. I've had guests on that started in their 40s, 50s, 70s. I just was interviewed by somebody who's now in his 90s and just launched a podcast. I'm like, this guy is my idol. I love it. And Fire Nation, take inspiration from all of this. Now, we're here to talk today about your book, Launch.

4:03I mean, I interviewed you for the first time on Entrepreneurs on Fire over seven years ago now. I can still picture where I was. I was in San Diego at the time, and I was a little nervous because the name Jeff Walker back then was a really big deal, and he's maintained that big dealness throughout the seven years that have passed as well. In fact, we recently were rocking and rolling down here at Puerto Rico where he was the keynote at a really awesome conference called Puerto Rico Masterminds. One thing that I remember so clearly was being like, man, I was really nervous about the interview with Jeff, but he made me feel so relaxed, so it is, because he's just a cool, normal, down-to-earth guy, and you've always been that way, Jeff.

4:45People say that behind your back, by the way, which is a good thing. They're always like, Jeff's just a cool guy. And it's like, that's exactly what he is. So you came on back then and you talked about your New York Times number one bestseller. And here we are seven years later, you're writing a new addition to this masterpiece. Why? The book contains this formula that I've been developing now for 25 years. It sounds ridiculous, 25 years. And that formula is going to keep on working because it's based on human psychology. It's based on the way we make decisions. And it's taking that psychology and it's putting it to use in your promotion so you can launch whatever you want, whether it's an online course, membership site, podcast even.

5:31It just doesn't matter. It's how to launch. And so the book was, the first edition was published in 2014. Two reasons why I updated. First of all, people go onto Amazon and they see it was published in 2014. They're like, well, this must be old. I'm not going to get it because things move so quickly. Well, that's partially true. The tactics change, but the strategies remain. So in the new edition, we kept all the old strategies that keep on working, But we added the new tactics that are part of the world we live in today. So, for instance, back in 2014, paid traffic, you know, using ads to drive people into your offers was a thing.

6:18But it wasn't a thing at the level it is right now. So I had to update it to show how to use paid traffic within your launches. Same thing with social media. Sure, social media was a thing in 2014, but it wasn't everything the way it is now. So I had to update it to show how to use social within your launches. And then another thing is the tools keep on evolving. When I first started out, the launches were literally via email. That was the only tool we had. Then eventually we had blogs so we could do blog posts. Then eventually we had online audio. Then very simple screen capture online video.

6:59Then it was fancier video. And then we started to use narrative-driven, really fancy video with B-roll and everything. Now we have live broadcasts. We can actually broadcast live via any number of different tools. And so many of the launches, not all of them, but many of the launches now use live video and live streaming as part of the launch. So I had to update with that. But another thing, and I'm sort of giving the whole overview here right now, but the way we actually, once you go through your pre-launch phase and you get into your open cart, that has completely changed as well. So I had to update for all the new tactics and the new tools that we've got these days that we didn't have in 2014.

7:45And Fire Nation, that's one thing that I've been experiencing as well. I mean, we launched Podcasters Paradise back in 2013. I mean, I don't think there's one original video from back then that is still part of our over 200 video catalog because things change. You know, we have to keep up with the times. We need to continue to say, okay, this is what's working right now. And so that's why when you go and you purchase this updated edition of launch, you're going to know that you're getting the latest and the greatest. And what I love about you too, Jeff, is that you're always trying new things and testing new things.

8:17Like you shared a couple of really cool things that you were doing in your own launches when you were down here keynoting Puerto Rico Masterminds a couple of years ago that was really fun to see. And then seeing you put that into action. And this is just a person, Fire Nation, who loves what he does and continues to try to iterate and stay on that cutting edge. So we love stories, Jeff. Fire Nation just loves stories. So share with us some of your favorites about those who have used this book and your method to launch their online business. One of my favorites, recent ones. I've got so many stories.

8:50I love collecting these stories. And I'm absolutely addicted to the impact that my work can make and hearing these stories. Anne LaFollette. Anne was successful in the corporate world. She was in her late 50s working for a great big company at a very successful level. She was in operations and she was a senior leader at this big corporation in operations management. And one day her boss called her into her office. She had no idea why. And her boss basically said, we're laying you off. You're being downsized. And so Anne spent her entire career in corporate, was successful in corporate, but now she's like 58, 59 years old.

9:37And when something like that happens, it completely rocks your world. And it was not an easy situation for Anne. Yet she went home and she like something she'd always done as a hobby was art, just doodling. Well, in the next year or so, that hobby turned into a passion. And she did this thing called surface pattern design, which when she first sent in this email telling me about her results from her launch, I had to go and Google what surface pattern design is and I still didn't understand what it is but it's basically yes John I'm sure you don't know you'll google it you no idea but you know it's it's this idea of taking doodles and designs taking them into Adobe Illustrator and turning them into a repeating pattern that you can then go license to put on handbags or mouse pads or or luggage or whatever, that companies will actually license these things.

10:37So Anne got pretty good at this. And then she started, decided to roll out a course and start teaching people. She had no experience as an entrepreneur, no digital marketing experience, very little digital experience. She's now in her early 60s, but she started publishing. Every week she started doing a live video teaching what she knew. Of course, she had zero audience. So in the beginning, the only person that was actually watching was her cousin. Her cousin would show up every week and watch her do her live broadcast. And Anne likes to say, I was just getting used to talking to the green dot, you know, that little green dot next to your webcam.

11:17I was talking to the green dot. And sure enough, she got more and more and more comfortable talking to the green dot. And And then she started spending$5 a day in Facebook ads to drive people into her live videos. And she started to build a small audience. Then she did her first initial seed launch as a proof of concept. And she made a few thousand dollars, built out her course. And in the next year, she made$100 ,000. That was in 2019. In 2020, she just kept on feeding more paid traffic into her launch, building her platform. In 2020, she did$400 ,000 in sales, teaching surface pattern design as someone who was in her early 60s with no entrepreneurial experience, someone who started with no digital marketing experience, no online experience, and no list whatsoever.

12:20And in 2021, she moves to Puerto Rico to keep all that internet money she's making. Am I right? Maybe. Maybe. She lives in Minnesota, so she might be ready for some warm weather. Oh, just six months a year. Come on down. Come on down. The weather and tax benefits are right. But Fire Nation, what I love about the story that Jeff shared is that it wasn't just like this person woke up one day, launched it, did all these things, and had hundreds of thousands of dollars coming in. This is a process. This is a journey. $5 in ads can help you understand if you actually have something that people want, that people need, that people will vote with their wallet, that people will pay actual money for.

13:04And man, stories like these that really do give me shivers and maybe we'll have time for another one as soon as we get back from thanking our sponsors. The overwhelm that comes with choosing the right software and tools for growing your business is real. With so many options and so little time, how are you supposed to know which platform is best? You've got your email marketing platform, payment systems, content tools, the list goes on. It can sometimes feel like you're spending more time organizing all the moving pieces and places than actually connecting with prospects and customers. And this is where HubSpot steps in.

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14:16Grow better, faster with HubSpot's all-in-one intuitive customer platform. Visit HubSpot.com to learn more. So Jeff, a lot, and I mean a lot has changed since you published that first edition of the launch. What are some of those big changes that you've seen? I mean, we talked about a few of them earlier on in the interview, but let's really dive into some specifics, maybe one or two, where you're just like, you know what, these are things I really had to focus on to really make this new addition relevant in today's world? One of the things that I mentioned very briefly was the open cart. So in one of these launches, we have this period called the pre-launch period.

14:58And in the pre-launch period, you're delivering content. And it's not just random content. This isn't just like quote unquote content marketing. This is, well, it follows a formula. It's very, very specific. It's generally three pieces of content. And the first one is all about establishing the opportunity. So whatever you're selling, there is an opportunity for your clients, your future customers to either have reduced pain in their life or increased pleasure. Pretty much everything we sell comes down to either of those things or both of those things. So they have an opportunity. Maybe it's an opportunity to quit smoking, to develop a meditation practice, to have a better tennis swing, to learn to play guitar.

15:43Whatever it is, that first piece is about the opportunity for their life to change. That leads into the second piece, which is the transformation, where we start to make that transformation in their life feel very, very real. That leads into the, and I'm going super quick here, this is the whole pre-launch, the pre-launch magic. But the third piece is what we call the ownership or ownership experience. And that's where they really start to take ownership on that future life that you're promising them, that future life that they're going to have when they get your product, when they have that meditation practice, when they find the love of their lives.

16:22And that whole pre-launch period can be anywhere from three to 10 days long. In that time, you're developing a rapport with your audience. You're building reciprocity by giving them amazing things. They might want to give something back to you. You're developing your authority. You're showing that you've truly got the skills to deliver on this. You're creating social proof so that they can see other people are excited about this. And this all leads up into launch day. Launch day is when you open cart. So we use that as a verb. You actually open cart. This is when people can actually start buying your product, signing up for your membership.

17:06We also use open cart to talk about this open cart period, or we might call it cart week. And this is like five to seven days where they can actually buy from you. At the end of that time, you have to shut down your launch offer. Doesn't mean it has to come off the market, but there's a specific period of time where they have to act to get your special offer. That's what makes it all so exciting and unique and makes them act now. So that's your open cart period, your open cart week. I call it a week. It's usually five to seven days. But in the old days, as of a few years ago, open cart was basically, hey, cart's open.

17:47been, I know you're excited about this because you've been watching all my pre-launch videos. You've been consuming that. I've been watching all your comments come in. Now you can come and get the offer. Here's the link. And then it used to be a few days later that it was like, okay, offer's coming off the market and you have to act by tonight to get the offer. Well, nowadays the show has shifted from being all about the pre-launch to being about the pre-launch, but also about that open cart period. So during that cart period, you'll generally release another piece of content. That piece of content will be not super complex.

18:27It won't introduce new things, it's not new knowledge to study and to learn, but it's a simple, easy training content piece that also leads into the making the decision to buy. We'll also generally during cart week add in a live stream or two. Often it's with past clients or success stories or other leaders in the industry. Another piece of that might be an FAQ video or an FAQ live stream where you're answering the top questions. So this cart week, remember I talked about the formulas is opportunity, transformation, ownership. Cart week is all about enrollment. It's about getting them not only to enroll in your product, but really first to enroll in themselves.

19:19To say, yes, I am the kind of person that's going to quit smoking. Yes, I am the kind of person that's going to build a yoga practice. So you're getting them to enroll in themselves. So throughout that entire cart week, it used to just be a few emails, but now it's actually a little mini campaign within cart week to get people to move. Talk about value bombs, Fire Nation. I mean, how can you not get excited about this content that Jeff is sharing? And as he mentioned earlier, I just want to reiterate how he truly does feed Fire Nation off of your success stories. He loves the impact that his work, that his value, that his knowledge brings.

20:04And it's just so exponential to see what he's done over the years. And that's why he has such a large and loyal community. They just love having access to Jeff's brain. And that community is awesome. In fact, my neighbors here in Palmas, Del Mar, Puerto Rico, Farouk and Heidi, got married after they met at Jeff's Masterminds and being part of his annual mastermind that he does where he has a community of people that get together multiple times, of course, online virtually very often. And they met, fell in love, and now they're my neighbors and some of our dearest friends. And that's just, you know, a fraction of a minute fraction of the impact that Jeff has had over so many people over so much time in so many different areas and walks of life.

20:47So Jeff, give us the one key takeaway that you want to make sure Fire Nation really gets from everything that we talked about here today. share a direct call to action where fire nation can pick up this spanking brand new edition of launch and then we'll say goodbye first of all you need to launch no successful business brand product service survives without a launch you need to launch you need to put your stake in the ground and focus a white hot spotlight no matter how small that is no matter how small your audience is you have to focus that on your launch to get people excited to get them to move.

21:30And your business will be a series of launches. When you first start out, you might be like me. My first email that I ever published went out to 17 people. It didn't make a lot of noise. My first video that I ever published went out to just a few hundred people. It didn't make a big impact. but it was still a focus that got that that initial launch set up all the subsequent launches so first of all you need to launch second of all the launches are built of stories and sequences and triggers and i mentioned you know john what i love about you is is every one of your episodes is focused on story yeah and the importance of story because that's how humans learn.

22:18That's how humans transmit information. So your launch needs to be built of story and sequences. We talked about two of the sequences, the pre-launch and the open cart, and it's built on triggers. And we talked about some of the triggers, authority, social proof, reciprocity, community. Stories, sequences, and triggers will build an engineered launch for you that will focus all the attention of your audience on your offer and get your results. And if you want to learn more, thelaunchbook.com. So first of all, the book is titled Launch. You can get it on Amazon or any other booksellers. But if you go to thelaunchbook.com, then I'll have a bunch of extra goodies for you there just to make it an irresistible offer.

23:05History, Fire Nation, his story. We love stories. We should also have another word, her story, her story. I mean, we live and breathe on story. So I love all of that. But that was one thing I wanted to double back on. Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. And hello, you've been hanging out with J-Dubs and J-L-D today. So keep up that heat. Head over to eofire.com. Type Jeff in the search bar. He did a prior episode, as we mentioned earlier, on Entrepreneurs on Fire seven years ago. We really get into his story on that episode. So you want to hear a little bit more detail about Jeff's story.

23:44Like it's a doozy. We talk about his worst entrepreneurial moments, which was quite a story as well, as well as what was firing him up back then, which would be really interesting for you to hear about. So just go to eofire.com, type Jeff in the search bar, and both of these episodes will pop up. Listen to him back to back and make sure you head over to thelaunchbook.com to get all the goodies he's including at that URL. and of course, read the book and implement the genius within. Jeff, thank you for sharing your truth, your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation today. For that, we salute you, brother, and we'll catch you on the flip side.

24:24Hey, Fire Nation, today's value bomb content was brought to you by Jeff and Fire Nation. Are you ready to rock your very own podcast? Well, check out my free podcasting course where I will teach you how to create and launch your podcast for free. Freepodcastcourse.com. That is freepodcastcourse.com. I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flippity-flip side.

24:56The Next Wave, your chief AI officer hosted by Matt Wolfe and Nathan Lanz is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals. Matt and Nathan are leading AI creators in your guiding light in the AI and technology frontier. AI technology is transforming the way we do business and the media landscape is fragmented. The Next Wave strives to be the leading podcast on AI technology and how you can apply it to growing your business. Listen to The Next Wave wherever you get your podcasts.

25:32Thank you.