Hey, Tom Gaddis here.
In 2016, I launched my first digital product. At the time, I had no connections. I had no credibility in the industry. My audience was tiny. At times, I really wasn’t too sure what I was doing.
Three years later, I cracked my first seven-figure year in online business. That’s right, my product launches and recurring revenue added up to over one million dollars.
How did I manage to do it? Today, we’re going to talk about exactly that.
For the past couple of months, we’ve discussed all the ins and outs of product launches. This post ties everything together, giving you the playbook to build an uber-successful business using them as a cornerstone.
On top of that, I’ll try to share some of the mistakes and misconceptions I’ve had so that you can avoid them.
Remember, the purpose of launches is not to make a ton of money. Rather, they’re about building your audience of recurring customers. This way, your recurring revenue grows, and you don’t have to rely on the lump sums that come just a few times a year from launches.
By the way, if you want to hear this in podcast form, simply follow this link.
It’s a Process… But One You Can Complete
New entrepreneurs I meet often fall into one of two camps. Maybe you’ll identify with one of them.
On the one hand, I meet people who insist that building a business is only for folks with trust funds or business degrees. It’s too overwhelming to build something from scratch. You might as well not start.
On the other hand, I’ve recently met more people who believe that it will be easy. Making money online simply means dinking around on a laptop for a couple of hours a day, and watching the money roll in. As they start, they wholeheartedly believe that they’ll make it to 7 figures within the first year.
To the second group, I’ll say, this entrepreneurial life is a process. It’s definitely not a get-rich-quick scheme. Anyone promising that the road ahead will be easy is probably trying to take advantage of you. Even if you can accumulate wealth quickly in this business (which I did), it’s not easy. It requires serious personal and professional investment to get there.
To the first group, I’ll say that though it’s difficult, you really can get there. I’m living proof of that. I’m just an average Joe who got laid off from his corporate job and decided to become a full-time marketer. I made plenty of mistakes, but even from the first year, I found a way to pay the bills and provide for my family. If you go through the process, there’s a piece of the pie for you.
Regardless of how you feel right now, whether you need to put your fantasies aside or believe that it’s possible for you, there are definite steps you can take to improve your chances of success.
By the way, launches constitute the third part of my signature method for making money in online business. I call it the “M.I.L.K. It” Method, which stands for Market, Idea, Launch, and Ka-Ching. If you’ve never read up on it before, then follow this link to discover more.
The Roadmap For Growing a 7-Figure Business With Product Launches
It’s a long road ahead, but let me inform you of some of the major steps:
- Set realistic yet satisfying goals.
As you begin, you have to set goals. Again, these are not lofty and unattainable ambitions like “launch a million-dollar product next week” or “reach 100,000 people with my first video.” They ought to be realistic.
For me, it was “create one viable product.” I broke this up into smaller sub-goals that had to get done if the product would truly be viable. This meant committing to market research, audience building, and setting up a modest launch. It took dozens of hours of work, but by the end, it felt more satisfying than any of my previous professional achievements.
- Build recurring revenue to handle cash flow fluctuation.
Something the so-called “gurus” don’t tell you is that cash flow is going to be very up-and-down during the initial stages of your business. Many entrepreneurs fall into the trap of relying on launches as their main source of revenue. So, when the launch ends and the revenue dies down, they have to scramble to create another product. This leads to a nonstop cycle of mediocre launches.
One thing we did correctly (though we didn’t know it at the time) was to build a community around us and leverage our launches to grow that community. This mostly happened through a Facebook group. This led to recurring revenue from people who showed up to all of our launches and also bought products from our catalog in the meantime.
We only run 3 launches a year now, and they’re not even about making money. They’re all about growing our community. Whether you’ve launched your first product or not, start building a community of your own now. Then, develop products that renew on a monthly or yearly basis instead of a one-and-done deal.
- Focus on pain instead of money.
I know that statement might seem weird at first glance, but it caught your attention, didn’t it?
One of the biggest mistakes I’ve seen (and made) in online business was focusing on making money. This is the wrong way to go. Money comes as a byproduct of solving the pain points of your ideal market.
Get obsessed with the problems and pain that your market experiences. You should know it better than anyone else. This way, the products you develop will perform extremely well. We always center our products around solving a specific pain point for our audience, and the last one we launched made $160,000 in the first week.
- Develop a strong support system.
Lastly, you need to make sure you have a strong support system. This job is tough. It can get lonely. People will come to you with customer service problems, and they will be downright rude. You’ll need people on your side who have your back no matter what. These could be business partners, fellow marketers, or someone in your family. Make sure you have someone to turn to when the going gets tough because it will.
One last word: don’t quit. Keep moving forward. Do not let other people talk you out of this. You have what it takes. If you feel stuck, make another realistic goal, and commit to it. Breakthrough will come when you count yourself in for the long haul.
For more secrets the so-called “gurus” won’t tell you about making money online, check out my podcast.
