Hi, this is Lindsay Dotzlaf and you are listening to Mastering Coaching Skills, episode 87.

To really compete in the coaching industry, you have to be great at coaching. That’s why every week, I will be answering your questions, sharing my stories, and offering tips and advice so you can be the best at what you do. Let’s get to work.

Hey coach, so today I wanted to something special by request just for you. If you’ve been listening, a couple weeks ago I aired an episode that was an interview I did on my business coach, Stacey Boehman, I did it on her podcast and it was a part two because my thinking was I don’t teach a lot of business, you know, specific business sales strategies on this podcast, that’s not what we’re about.

And the part one is a little more about the launch I did for the Coach Lab, which is my lifetime program. And I got so much feedback from you that was like wait, wait, wait, hold on, we want to hear the first part. So that is what we’re doing today, I hope you enjoy part one of my interview with Stacey Boehman.

Stacey: So, I don’t really have a plan for this episode, Lindsay, we’re going to talk about both. I think we should talk about both.

Lindsay: You know, I love no plan. And I love a two-parter, so here we are.

Stacey: Yes. So, this one we should talk about, I originally just wanted to talk about the launch but I do think we should also talk about the program maybe. Actually, maybe do the first half creating the program and the second half doing the launch. Do we have enough time for that? Can we get that all in, in an hour-ish?

I think that will be really useful and beneficial because I think the way that you did it is what made them both so successful, such a good program and also such high sales right out of the gate.

And when I talk about high sales I mean it just fucking blew me out of the water, which always makes me so excited. So, for background, we have to start here which is, well, so many places. But for everyone listening, your launch of your first program and your sales may not be what Lindsay’s are, many are not. Mine were not.

When I launched 2K for 2K, I think the first launch was 16 people and then the second one was 20 people. And it was in that range, 24 people here and 32 people here for an entire year. I did I think five or six launches and the highest one I think average, it was 34 people for the $2,000 program. And I was just figuring out my messaging.

And believing in my program was the biggest thing. And then learning how to launch without freaking the eff out and losing my mind. And just crying in my bed all day. And so that was my first year of launching 2K. And then we finally hit a successful launch. And I think we enrolled 100 people with my first very successful launch after a year of launching.

So, I just want to say this ahead of time because if you have been launching or this happens to you where you end up in the zone of 10, and 12, and 15 people nothing has gone wrong. You’re taking the Stacey journey and Stacey is making $10 million a year now. We’re going to do 14 this year so it doesn’t keep you from being successful.

However, Lindsay had some pretty incredible success that blew my mind. So, what I wanted to have her on here for is to glean everything we can from her to help us in our early launches to possibly have the same results.

Okay, so tell everybody, let’s just start there and then we’ll rewind back to the program and I’m probably making you so nervous.

Lindsay: No pressure at all. No pressure. Just tell everyone exactly how you did it.

Stacey: But let’s first just start with, I want to start with what you sold on the opening of this program, what the program was, what you sold as the opening, what those numbers ended up being. And then we’ll backtrack and we’ll talk about how you created the program and all of that. So, take it over my dear friend.

Lindsay: Perfect. So, my program was called The Coach Lab. And it is a program for coaches that is foundational coaching skills. And honestly I meant to look this up right before the call. I sold right around 200 spots for my opening launch. And I don’t know the exact number because it’s always open. So that was just, I had a promotional period for a couple of days. And that’s what happened and just within that period. And then the sales kind of kept trickling in so that’s why I don’t know. My God, I don’t know, around 200.

Stacey: And your goal was what, 50?

Lindsay: Yeah. I thought 50 would blow my mind. And I mean we can definitely get more into this but yeah, I thought 50 would blow my mind. I did have inklings of more than that is possible which felt really fun because that is not usually how I feel in a launch. And we can talk more about that. But I had that inkling of what if, what if I sold a 100 spots? But felt like in what universe, it was like I don’t even have any right to believe this. Where is this coming from? So yeah, I told my bookkeeper, I think somewhere between 15 and 50.

Stacey: That’s so good, 15 and 50 or 200. And what, the promotional period was three days?

Lindsay: Yeah, it was open for one day for the wait list first and then two days for everyone. So technically three days.

Stacey: It’s so insane. Oh my God, okay. So, everyone listening just know we are going to spend the second half of this episode diving into all that led to that. But first hang with us, let’s rewind because I do think this is important, the time you put into creating this program and the work. I don’t think we can say that that didn’t contribute to that result. I’m sure you would probably agree.

Lindsay: 100%, I feel like it had a lot to do with the result.

Stacey: Yeah, so why don’t we start there, talk about that. You just start and I’ll ask you questions.

Lindsay: Okay, I was going to say, where do you want me to start? Five years ago, I had this.

Stacey: No, no, no, let’s start here. Let’s start with, because I think sometimes people think they can’t do this. And I’ve been actually using your model a lot with other Two Million Dollar Group students because it was so successful and it’s not what I did. And so first I just want to say, this is just such an example of you don’t have to follow Stacey’s business model exactly to have success. It worked for me. It doesn’t work for everyone, that exact path.

So, here’s what I want to just say is what really worked for you I found in last year in Two Million Dollar Group is you just sold one offer which was – I don’t know that you call it a mastermind, group coaching or is it a mastermind?

Lindsay: I call it a mastermind, yeah.

Stacey: Okay. So, you sold a group program, a mastermind for a year, how many launches did you do?

Lindsay: Almost two full years of just selling that. So, I did eight launches.

Stacey: Okay, so two full years of it. And so, you were running multiple classes at a time. You weren’t just doing one. 200K we do one. We close it down, we do another one. But I used to do when I first started selling group too, I would do them. I at one point had three. I had one on Monday nights, Tuesday nights and Thursday nights. I was just coaching all the people. So, you did that for two years. And the first year you did coach one-on-one too. And then, no, two straight years?

Lindsay: I stopped coaching one-on-one in December of 2019, I started selling Coaching Masters in December of 2019. But then I didn’t hit my launch well every time that year. So, the way I’ve done it, so I’ve sold it quarterly and at six months.

So, I always would have two going at a time on a very regular schedule. And then I did end up taking a handful, two or three maybe one-on-one clients in 2020. And then last year I sold again, four times of coaching masters.

Stacey: Oh my God, so it’s 2022, this is why I’m confused. I was like, wait, what? Okay, so last year you made roughly what, 700-ish thousand?

Lindsay: Yes.

Stacey: Just selling coaching masters which is your mastermind. We’re going to talk about that too. But just selling that and delivering that for an entire year?

Lindsay: Yeah.

Stacey: Okay, so let’s start there with what you were doing in that year. And just briefly but what – because I think people are like, “I have to be selling all the things.”

Lindsay: Yeah. So, through the lens of in relationship to my program, is that what you’re thinking?

Stacey: Yeah.

Lindsay: So, I think that this is probably one of the most beneficial things I did and one of the things that helped me sell the program. Every time – well, there are a couple of things really but every time my brain would go there, because I knew, that was kind of pinned. I know that this thing is coming, I don’t know exactly what it is but I know it’s in the future.

And any time my brain would go there or think this should be in the program, or this should be in the program I literally just had a file on my computer where I would note it and then move on. Not entertain it, not spend time thinking about it. I mean there are times I would kind of – I don’t know if daydream is the right word, but just kind of think about it for fun. But it was never, oh, I have to hurry and create that. No, bring myself back, this is what I’m working on right now.

There is a reason I decided to sell only this, this year, remind myself of what that is and then just keep going.

Stacey: What was the reason?

Lindsay: So, for me, well, the irony here is that I have never had launches where I’m like, “Whoa, I just nailed these launches. I am so good at launching. I am so good at selling.” And so, it was really just – well, two purposes really.

So, one, to just learn how to sell it and to just – it’s also the reason I sold it quarterly. This is all I’m doing every quarter for the whole year is learning to sell this. And really learning to deliver it at a very high level to where I felt this, everyone should be here. If you’re not, I don’t know what you’re doing.

Stacey: Okay, love it. And I will say for everyone listening, I do think that this, the reason why I’m seeing this as beneficial, and it doesn’t, again, there is not always a right or wrong. When you come into Two Million Dollar Group we look at your business. And we look at where you’re at, what your talent is, where your growth is, what makes the most sense for your clients. We look at a lot of things. But my journey, I didn’t launch 200K until the very end of a year of selling 2K.

So, my year was focused on just selling 2K. I had other masterminds going and I was coaching one-on-one clients still and kind of wrapping all of that up. Brooke would have preferred that I just burn it all down and give them all refunds and cancel everything. I was not that brave which is fine, it worked out. But I was like, “No, we’re just going to close it out.” And I had to work very hard because I had so much going on.

But this is what I wanted to say about this is the challenge when you start, so when you go to start scaling and you create a scalable offer. The challenge if you start with the program that I think I faced and I have seen a lot of Two Million Dollar Group students face as well at that journey. Is your program, it’s the lowest price and you have to sell it to the most people. And you’re probably not, you haven’t developed the skill set yet to do either of those things because we’re used to selling one-on-one coaching which is a higher price point to less people.

So, I’m realizing for so many people, and not everybody, Edie is completely opposite. Edie had a huge network, she has a membership, it’s what, $97 and she’s making a million dollars. So again, it’s not prescriptive to this is everybody’s journey. It’s just an option for a journey which is if you don’t have a huge network, I didn’t, if you don’t have experience of selling to massive amounts of people. And your program is going to be a lower price point.

That might be the thing possibly to develop second and do your group or your mastermind first which is kind of like – and I think this is a mind eff for people. I know people listen in the car with their kids. But I think it’s a little bit of a mind effery because we’re like, “But I have to know what I’m going to teach in my program in order to know what I’m going to teach.” Because I always teach that your program is your foundational teaching and your mastermind or your group is your advance.

So, can you talk a little bit about that? Because you did it backwards but I do think it was the right thing for you. It allowed you to get close to a million dollars. You only had that one offer. Then it gave you zero stress for an entire year to just luxuriously think about your program and take notes and be constantly looking for things.

And my guess is probably in that year you also thought about the difference between what your mastermind would be and what your program would be. And you probably saw things come up in your mastermind that you were like, “Maybe this person could have done Coach Lab first.”

Or this would have been a prerequisite that would have made this better. You just learned so much in that year and because you weren’t selling a bazillion things and you weren’t coaching one-on-one clients. You had the opportunity to spend your brain thinking about these things. So, can you talk about that a little bit?

Lindsay: Yeah. I think I would describe it as I almost let coaching masters, which is my mastermind build, the Coach Lab. So, it was like every time I saw an opportunity for this is something that maybe everyone should know coming into the mastermind. I would add that to the list.

Or the other thing I did as well is when I created the Coach Lab I kind of looked at what I already had in the mastermind. And I said, “What are some things that I’m actually going to pull out of here and package it into this program where they don’t need as much.”

It was the beginning of the mastermind was a little bit of like, okay, let’s make sure we’re all on the same page. And now that’s all the program is. Now we are all going to be on the same page. Anyone now coming into the mastermind with some exceptions, that’s not a 100% rule but for the most part it’s going to be this is the foundational skills that everyone needs to know coming into the mastermind.

So, it’s a little bit of I created new things and then I also pulled some out of the mastermind and have therefore expanded on also what is in the mastermind which feels really fun.

Stacey: Yeah, that’s so good. And you just gave yourself – what were the thoughts? Because we’re talking a lot about strategy, but what were the thoughts that allowed you to not jump the gun? Especially when you’re in a room with people who are making millions of dollars and launching all of the things and doing both of their programs. And it can be really easy to be like, “Well, so and so’s doing this and they’re making so much more money than me.”

So, I see this often, even in just the 200K room. People rushing to get to group when they’re doing one-on-one because they’re hearing everybody else talk about their launches and how much money. And they’re like, “Six figure launch here.” And then they’re like, “I need to jump into group as fast as possible.” So, what were the thoughts that allowed you to just be calm in your lane focused on your intellectual property?

Lindsay: So first I think one thing that I have just done so much work on over however many years is just really owning this is who I am, this is how my brain works. This is how I work best. And I just know for me, figuring out how to launch one thing is enough in one year.

Adding on a second thing, it’s just too much. I mean could I do it? Of course, I could do anything, whatever. But to do it and be very effective and deliver it in the way that I want to, which feels like something that’s very important to me. It’s very high on my values list.

And in order to do that I think one thought I always had is I’m willing to leave money on the table now to create something that’s bigger and better in the future. Better for my clients, better for myself, better for everyone. And even bigger, blow my mind in the future which I think is what happened.

Stacey: Yeah. Well, and also even if it weren’t better, think about this. It’s like if you’re always comparing your business to somebody else’s and needing to move at their pace, your preconceived notion and imagination of what their pace is and there’s always someone that’s going to look like they’re moving faster than you. Then even if it doesn’t create more money later, it just creates more stress for you.

Lindsay: Yeah, when I say better, sorry, I just jumped in and interrupted you. But when I say better, I don’t even mean it’s better because it created these way bigger results. But just better for me. It felt good the whole time. It felt like I know exactly what I’m doing. I can keep going. I never have to hustle.

And honestly, I will say, when it comes to being in a room like the Two Million Dollar Group, I have gotten pretty great at just not paying attention to what other people are doing and not caring where I am when it comes to who’s making the most money, how did this launch go. It’s just not something that I spend time thinking about because it just feels so useless to me. I get zero benefit from that.

And even if I was at the top it wouldn’t even – I don’t know – there’s just something about that that it’s not even like, that doesn’t even feel motivating to me. That’s not even where my focus or energy ever goes. And any time it does, any time I notice it, this is happening, I know here’s something to really dig into in my coaching because why is that happening when it’s so rare that it does?

Stacey: Yes. But I feel that way too. Now, I will say it took me years to get there because I’m a hustler. We don’t have that same thing in common. But it took a long time to get me to slow down and then to see the benefits of slowing down. And then the benefits of staying in my lane and all those things. But I experienced that with the advanced certifications. All of my colleagues have created them at this point and I’m still working on mine. It’s been on the shelf for quite a while as I think about.

But for me I think it’s been really challenging for me to think about just for the advanced business certification is I have such strong – I’ve been coaching with my coach on this a lot. Is I have very strong opinions about business coaching and business coaches and how to do it right. And we’re removing a lot of that because I don’t want to – I want to help business coaches be better business coaches not be replicas of me. So, I need to strip apart what’s my manual, but what is really useful that I can offer.

So, there’s lots of things, so it’s been a lot of the same process that you went through, having a file, writing things down, getting coaching in between. And working through the thoughts to really be the person that can offer that at such a high level that it’s a slam dunk, so anyways.

Lindsay: And I also spent the entire year, so just for people that are like, “That’s great that you don’t compare yourself to other people.” I also spent the entire year trying to convince myself and coaching myself on, but maybe I could sell a lot more than that. Because I will say I did spend the year watching people have so much drama about their programs. But it was almost the opposite. I had to coach myself on, no, I’m going to do it my way. I’m not even going to pay attention to that part either, to any of it.

And when some of that stuff did come up and it felt very strong for me, this, I just had to get some coaching on it and that’s all we do.

Stacey: Yeah, I love that, okay. So, you spent the year delivering your mastermind, deciphering between what’s going to be in the foundational versus the advanced. The last thing I want to touch on this before we move into you actually creating the program and deciding now is the time, we’re going to actually put work into this. The last thing I want to talk about or share because I just feel like I coach this exhaustingly and so I think it’s worth talking about on the podcast as well as when I’m in 200K or Two Million Dollar Group.

Which is when you’re doing this know you haven’t landed on your exact process yet for either program. However, that is not a reason for you to believe that you can’t get results for your current students who are receiving the work the way you are delivering it. And it’s not an excuse to allow your clients to lean on who might see you changing things up, and moving things around, and launching this program, and teaching this one time, and then teaching something different, whatever it is.

It’s not an excuse for either of you to come and not show up as your highest self, to give exactly what people came for and get them the results that they came for. But also, not to get what you came for. So, I just wanted to acknowledge you and have you talk maybe in a second about that. Because while you were going through that year, your students were coming and applying to 200K after they work with you. And I’ve told you this many times but now I’m just going to tell the whole world is it’s been a noticeable difference.

To me, the two things that I’ve really noticed after coaching so many coaches is the people who go through LCS and understand how to manage, self-coach their own selves whether it’s LCS or a certification, whatever. They don’t want to coach themselves with the model and people who go through your program. And the level of their self-awareness and the level of responsibility that I see them take for their own lives, and their own performance, and their own results, it’s consistently.

If we see someone came from coaching masters we’re like, “They’re in automatically for the most part.” I don’t know that we’ve turned anyone away, maybe we have.

Lindsay: Listen, this is not a selling point, on my mastermind I did not tell you to say that. This is not a guarantee.

Stacey: But I do want to say, it has been very noticeable. So, I just think it’s important to say that because that whole year, that program is going to change now that you have Coach Lab, that program’s going to change. So, you could lie and tell yourself, well, I didn’t have a process for coaching masters. Or I’m changing the process. And I just see so many people get stuck in that. I was just coaching someone in 200K the other day. And he was like, “Well, I just can’t, I feel like I have to have all the modules started. And I have to have all of the things.”

And I was like, “No. What’s valuable right now is your time and attention to coaching people in your program, the time you spend coaching people in the program actively, the time you spend thinking about them afterwards. That’s the value they are getting from this particular container, that value just changes if you later develop a process and create modules and all the lovely things. That changes and then they get value that way.” But they’re probably not going to get the same level, it’s not the same.

They’re not going to get you thinking constantly about them anymore. And they’re not going to get you maybe being the coach that’s coaching them all the time. There’s just different ways to receive the value but it doesn’t discount it. So can you just talk about that a little bit because I felt like in that year your clients were still getting massive results.

Lindsay: Yes, I wish that I had been taking notes as you just said all of that because I’m like, yeah, I want to talk about that and that and each thing.

Stacey: Sorry.

Lindsay: No, that’s okay.

Stacey: You can go back and listen to this and then you’ll have a lot of podcast material for your own podcast.

Lindsay: Yeah, that’s so good, yes. So okay within my mastermind, this is actually something I teach. I teach and coach a lot on processes. And because so many of my clients think that I must have this very complicated process in order to be a great coach. They connect those two things. Or just this very specific, very like here are all my assets, all the things that I need.

Stacey: It’s like the inherent belief that the coaching itself is not valuable enough, that there has to be more than just the coaching. And I think that is a lie. I have seen even millionaires have that you have to be very careful about, the coaching itself is valuable enough.

Lindsay: Yeah. And one thing I learned from you that I have really taken and run with just within my own business is your clients don’t want a complicated process. They want a simple process. And the more simple the better. And the more complicated your process never equals you being a better coach. And so that’s something that we talk about.

Stacey: So good, that was a mic drop. What?

Lindsay: That’s just something we talk about and coach on a lot and it really blows everyone’s mind all the time, even when they come in knowing this is something I’m going to teach them, this is something they’re going to work on. They’re still like, “Here’s my 25 step process.” And I’m like, “Absolutely not.” And it feels like it’s always the most brain breaking but also transformational part of the mastermind I think. And of course, that part is in the mastermind, we don’t do that in the program.

But what was there, something you said that I was like, “I have to say this.” No, I lost it.

Stacey: No. Okay, if you remember it.

Lindsay: It’s going to come back, I know it is. It’s right there, I can feel it.

Stacey: I hate when that happens. It happens to me all the time. If it comes back we will just stop and you’ll say it.

Lindsay: Perfect.

Stacey: And now I’m like, wait, I was all in. I was like, “What was it? Let’s go.” So yes, okay, so we can move on and then we can come back if you remember. But the thing to think about and to consider if you’re listening to this episode is that what she just said, your coaching or maybe I just – I don’t know.

Lindsay: I know what it, I got it.

Stacey: Good. Go.

Lindsay: Okay. So, what happens, what I find that happens so often is coaches come, they don’t have tons of experience being a coach. Even they might have a specific niche, they might have, they know exactly all the things. And they’re like, “Okay, I am ready to create my process.” And they think that that means it has to be way more complicated than it does. And I’m there to say, “No, no, no, let’s simplify it.”

But then their brain a lot of times, to address what you were saying, their brain will go to, but to do this thing I have to create these modules. I have to create all the things that I see other coaches having. But when you try to do that, when you haven’t actually coached lots of clients on that thing, the quality is not great. It’s like you’re kind of guessing about what do they need to know, what do they need, what do I need to tell them. Instead of allowing the coaching to be the most important piece.

Until you actually have the things, this is another thing I think about when I created my program. I had been thinking about it and planning it for so long that I’m not questioning what do I teach them. It’s like, no, these are the things I know they need to know to come into my mastermind. Or that they need to know to be an amazing coach, no doubt about it. And that’s so much different than coming at it from, okay, let’s see, what could I teach them? Those are just very different things.

And so, I think when you’re valuing that over the coaching it just does such a disservice to everyone and does a disservice to you as the coach because now you’re missing out on all of the learning from just coaching the clients. And it does a disservice to your clients because you’re teaching them from a place that’s not necessarily expert level yet.

Stacey: Yeah, so good, I love that so much. And I will say, not all clients, for everyone listening, because I feel I have to say this because if you join something like 2K or 200K, there is an extensive process. And not extensive as in complicated but 2K has the basic five modules. And then the classrooms inside each module. But then there’s all these other bonus courses you can do.

And 200K has a very basic, there’s the 200K philosophy, the 200K process, and then there’s all the live events and all the past mastermind calls. And then there’s three separate courses in there which is the culmination of me delivering this program for the last, what, four years?

Lindsay: Something like that. It feels like a lifetime, I don’t know, 20 years.

Stacey: It’s the end result of four years of delivering a lot of coaching, a lot of coaching.

Lindsay: But when you boil it down, your process is still very simple. Yes, you have more assets, more videos, whatever, just like if someone comes into the Coach Lab. Yeah, there’s a whole vault full of videos with more and more coming. But the process itself is still simple.

Stacey: Very simple, yeah, which I think you can only get to when you’ve done a lot of delivery. But here’s what I just wanted to say is I think that I also sell a process because I have one now, so hard. When I was selling one-on-one I was just selling coaching. I’m just good at selling. So, I’m going to sell you, whatever I’m offering I’m going to sell you really hard that it’s the perfect thing. So, if it’s one-on-one I’m going to be like, “That’s the most perfect thing ever, your coaching is the only thing they need.”

But if I have a process I’m going to be like, oh my gosh, having a process makes it so much easier. You can make 200K while I’m sleeping any time of the night no matter where you are in the world. However, I think what people do is they pick up coaches who are further along who have these processes, or who have programs, who have the modules, who have the assets. And they decide also very subtly not only that this is better for the client but that all clients want that.

And I will tell you that there are many of my students even in 200K who just they don’t do the videos, they don’t do anything, they just come for the coaching calls. They get amazing results but that’s what they do. And I was just talking to a coach recently who’s made millions of dollars too. And she was like, “I won’t buy anything. I won’t buy any programs. I won’t buy anything with modules. I won’t do any homework. I will only do things that are done for me or that I can speak directly to the coach. I just want to get the coaching and then I want to never think about it again and I’m out.”

And so, I say that, and not that that’s not, you know, you could sell someone too on why it would be so beneficial. But all I just wanted to say there is that don’t also think that if you don’t have a process yet, if you’re just in your group or your mastermind and you’re just coaching, don’t think that your clients are thinking, I’m not getting enough. I should have modules. I should have books. I should have these things. And even if they think that and tell you that, don’t let them believe that that’s the thing that’s missing as to the reason why they can’t get the result. It’s a fucking lie.

It’s not taking responsibility and owning, I’ll go in anywhere, in any container whether it has a process or it doesn’t, whether it has modules or just coaching, and I’m still walking out with my result. So, I just wanted to touch on that.

Lindsay: I have to tell you my comeback I guess to that because my opinion is the same, it’s going to sound different. This is one of those, we’re going to say the same thing, I just say it a little differently which is everyone has a process. Your process might be very loose, it might be. That’s the thing I think that sometimes blows my clients’ minds. And I’m like, “No, no, you do have a process even if you haven’t decided, even if it’s not written down on paper and you don’t have videos and whatever. You have a process.”

Stacey: Yeah, you’re just delivering it through your coaching.

Lindsay: Yes, even if the process is just, okay, here’s how this goes, you come to calls every day, we decide what we’re working on, we evaluate it, we make changes and keep going, that’s the process.

Stacey: And let me just say on top of that is if, okay, there’s two thoughts I have when you said that because we are on the same page. This is a little bit of a rant because I’ve coached thousands of coaches and heard all the excuses for why people can’t get results.

But if you’re coaching and you have a process and you’re just straight coaching your group or your mastermind or whatever. And just because you haven’t laid the process out doesn’t remove your clients’ responsibility for knowing the process.

Lindsay: I like it, yeah.

Stacey: Right. Just because you haven’t formally created one yet, I have students that have come to me and been like, “Well, I don’t know what the process was after coaching with you for this long.” And I’m like, “Well, that’s your problem. You didn’t learn the process, you didn’t pay attention. What do you mean?”

And this is what made me think of this is that people have asked me a lot over the years what Brooke’s process was for Million Dollar Mentoring. And I’m like, “We didn’t have modules or books that she gave us. She didn’t teach us anything.” There were a couple of times she taught us a couple of things early on in the meeting for 10 minutes. But for the most part we just met and we coached every day.

But I left knowing exactly what the process is to making millions through implementing all of the coaching I received. And then now I turned it into what is now the 200K process and now what I’m coaching in Two Million Dollar Group. But that comes out in the coaching and then it’s always the client’s responsibility to take that and to implement that.

If they don’t it just means they haven’t taken the coaching and applied it, that’s why they don’t understand the process is they never made it all the way to the other side. So that was one of the things. And then I can’t remember what the other one is so if I remember we’ll come back to it.

But anyways I feel like this could have been a whole episode. But let’s talk about moving into actually the moment you decided to create the Coach Lab, now I’m actually doing it, walk us through that.

Lindsay: So, I think the biggest thing that became clear because of the way I had been doing it and the way I had been noting, taking notes on what is it going to look like, what’s going to go into the lab, what will be the mastermind. And it just became so apparent, okay, it has to happen now. It could have kept going the way it was forever. But in my brain it was, okay, it’s so clear now. There’s no more reason that I wouldn’t sell it now.

Stacey: Okay, so can I just stop you and say to everyone because I feel like I say this all the time and you just said it so beautifully because I always tell people, when it’s hard and you’re having to put so much effort and so much. And it’s difficult and it feels like it’s pulling shit out of your brain. That’s because you haven’t let it marinate for long enough. And I always talk about taking an idea and putting it on a bedside table and just looking at it. We think we have to hide it in the closet, in the back.

And I’m like, no, you can put it on the bedside table and you can look at it every day for a year. But pick it up when it’s super easy and super obvious. To me that is the trick of enjoying your business, making money quickly and not having to go up against your brain and the resistance, and trying to create ideas from lack of experience. That’s what makes the process so difficult. But for you, you let yourself just take.

I always say even with group coaching, I’m like, “Don’t move into group until it just becomes so obvious that that’s what you have to do. Don’t create a program until it becomes so obvious that it’s what you have to do or vice versa, don’t create a group until.” So that was just such a beautiful transition that I saw you make as you were willing to let it take the time it took for that moment to happen naturally.

Lindsay: I would say I have never thought about it like this before but it’s almost the definition of slow burn, which is how you described my business and how, the way you’ve described the way I do things. I also did that with one-on-one coaching. I made a lot of money as a one-on-one coach until the time that I was like, “Okay, you know what, this is, I’m coaching on the exact same thing on every call with every client.”

Now is the time, it has to happen because this is not, doing this isn’t sustainable and it no longer feels fun to me because it’s the exact same coaching call with every client that I’m having.

Stacey: But the process also emerges because you’re like, “I’m coaching on the same things over and over all of the time.”

Lindsay: Yeah, and it was like this is a waste of my time, this is a waste of their time. They’re going to learn so much more when they’re in a group together. Let’s just do that now.

Stacey: Yes, okay. So that moment happens and you decide, why wouldn’t I wait? Obviously let’s just do it now.

Lindsay: And I’d almost launched it and I got coaching on this. I could have launched it the fall or winter before, whatever year that would have been, 2021, a few months earlier. And I just knew, I’ve gotten really good I think at just listening to my – I don’t know, there’s like an inner knowing that’s just like it’s not the time. I didn’t feel that, okay, there’s no reason that I shouldn’t do this. Here we are, we’re totally ready, let’s go. And I’m also at that point in my business where I do have a team now.

And I have other people working with me which makes it a little harder to just like, okay, switch, one day just be like, “Okay now we’re just going to launch this thing, let’s do it.” It does take a little more planning and a little more allowing them to catch up which has been a transition but also really fun.

Stacey: Yeah. So how much time did you spend actually creating the program and did the creating it and the launching it, the putting the sales pieces together, did all of that overlap? What did that journey look like?

Lindsay: So, when you say creating it, do you mean filming the actual modules?

Stacey: Because you had been creating a file.

Lindsay: Because I’m like a year, I don’t know, more.

Stacey: Yeah. So, you felt like you had all the information ready to go, you literally just – and you had organized it.

Lindsay: So, it wasn’t fully organized. I noticed, that was the first thing I noticed when I was like, “Okay, now is the time to create it.” And so that was the first thing I did. I was like, “Okay, how do we organize this?” I knew I wanted something where people could login. And it was like, I don’t want it to just be like, “Here are 25 videos, good luck.” So, it was like, how do I break this up? What does that part look like? And so, I kind of started there. And then it was like, okay, now what’s missing?

And I actually because this is how I like to work I kind of broke it up where I would do, I would work on my launch a little bit and then I would film a couple of videos. And then I would work on the launch and then I would film a couple of videos.

Stacey: Oh my God, that’s me right here, what’s happening?

Lindsay: But I would do it from day to day, not in one day. I wouldn’t switch back and forth. But just I would batch them. Okay, I’m going to record all the modules about decision making, that’s happening today. And so, I would do that and then the next day. But that’s just how I like to work.

Stacey: No, I love it. I love that you work differently because I always say, Brooke and I don’t have the same ethic. We don’t have the same. I feel she can do that, more of that. And for me I have to have a whole solid day open and it’s just the recording. And I have to do all of that first and then do the sales or do the sales first and then do that. But my brain, it gets very…

Lindsay: I do have to do it from day to day. I can’t do, if you think about…

Stacey: Yeah, but for me it has to be even project to project.

Lindsay: No.

Stacey: So perfect, so if everyone’s listening, you don’t have to do it like me, you can do it like Lindsay if that works for you better.

Lindsay: And even the way Brooke teaches and more of Monday hour one style is even more broken up in one day. She might do this, this and this. And I’m like, “Oh no.” Even when I was a one-on-one coach I would have, okay, these days are my coaching days, this day is my, you know.

Stacey: Yes, I can’t do that either.

Lindsay: Write and posts and email days or whatever.

Stacey: I mean maybe we have thought errors but I just can’t. That is not how my brain operates. I have to have whole days of just thinking and putting things together. And I’ve done lots of coaching on how I don’t do it like her. So, I love that you have this other version as well. Yeah, it’s perfect, it’s fine, okay.

Lindsay: But I’ve tried all the ways and I’ve just landed on this is what works best for me. I can do it the other way, it just isn’t as efficient because it takes me more time in that in between stage of switching and then working through the resistance that I always have no matter what, until I actually do the thing.

Stacey: Okay, so you organized the content, you filmed and then worked on your launch. So, let’s kind of move into that and talk about how you set this launch up to be so successful, because it was pretty freaking successful. You were texting me the whole time and I was like, “What is even happening?” And you were like, “I can stop texting you.” And I’m like, “What? Of course, don’t stop texting me. I want to know all of the things. This is so incredible.”

I don’t know that we’ve had a student that’s come in and done that much out of the gate. So that was very impressive to me. Maybe, Kristen, I don’t know on her earlier launches. I mean she’s killing it now but I really feel like for the first launch there’s no one that’s come out with higher numbers than you. So, it’s just very impressive. Not that it’s a competition. But I do think it’s just so fun and exciting that it’s possible, to think that’s possible.

Lindsay: And for anyone that’s listening, that needs to go listen to my podcast. I did a whole podcast about this at the end of the launch where I described how I went from, oh my gosh, this amazing to, what is actually happening? And I was literally freaking out thinking this looks like, you know, you think it’s going to be all great and it went from this is great, oh my gosh, it’s happening, it’s working to oh my gosh, it’s working too well. It has to stop.

Stacey: Or did you have any thoughts about I’m going to have to keep this up, I have to do it this big every single time? Or did I just give you that limiting thought to marinate on?

Lindsay: No, you’re the fifth one who’s given me that thought. And I’m like, I’m not even there yet actually because the crazy thing is my goal for the whole year was 100. So, at this point I’m like, “Well, let’s say I sell five more spots”, which I’m not going to, I know that. But I think that that’s how I comfort my brain of like who cares, just keep going, this is everything.

Stacey: So that’s another option or strategy because I’ve implemented this strategy a lot, I’m always talking about. If you achieve your goal, what everybody thinks you have to do is set a new one immediately. You could just spend the rest of the year doing whatever you want to do because you want to, because you choose to knowing you’ve already hit your goal and you only work then because it’s fun. That’s an option as well.

Lindsay: I do have a new goal, I will say, I do have a new goal only because it feels so fun and I know that my brain needs something to work towards otherwise I’ll be like, yeah, I’ll just. I know myself too well to know that I’ll just coast. And I’ll be like, “I don’t need to do any more launches this year. We’ll figure out how to sell it more next year.” Which that’s not useful. So, I do have a new goal but truly if I sold zero more spots right now, it would not change the way I feel about it.

Stacey: So good. So, tell everybody how you set the launch up.

Lindsay: Okay. Well, I mean first I used your launching strategy. So, I went back through that.

Stacey: Pat myself on the back. It really is good. Just for everyone listening, I’ve talked about the launching course for a while but it literally walks you step by step through creating your launch.

Lindsay: And I have done it enough for my mastermind launches that it’s like okay, I know the launching strategy but because I was launching something new I did go back and re-watch some of the videos and just brush up on it. And really decided, I don’t know that I realized I did this until I’d kind of gotten most of the way through planning the launch.

I really set aside every thought that I have had about my mastermind launches. And considered what if this is totally different? What if I put aside all of my thoughts about launching in the past? And this is the first time I’ve ever done it, clean slate, start there. I think that was very useful and it really helped me see how much I bring my thoughts about past launches into current launches.

Stacey: Yes. Let me just say, I just coached someone on this in 200K, we’ve been coaching so much on basically everything that we have talked about on this episode I feel like has been coming up a lot in 200K because they’re all in launches.

I think you teach a big breakout group and you’re always like, “All we talked about was launches.” And there’s a lot of people in the room that are in that space. But I just coached someone on this and actually she wasn’t even launching. This is for, I think, one-on-one coaching where her goal was three, yes, it was one-on-one.

So, her goal was for three clients and I think it was three clients this month or something. But she’s had 18 no’s in a row. And she kind of mentioned the 18 no’s in a row and then how she’s really trying to work to believe that she has these three clients coming. And I said, “So here’s what you really have. You have a result you want to create, one that you’re working on creating. And then you have an unprocessed result. You have unprocessed emotions from previous results in the past.

And now you’re trying to figure out the current result you want to create with all of those unprocessed emotions around all of your past results. And so, this is what your”, and she was like, “Wait, what?” That’s what you’re saying. You left behind, you processed through, left behind all of the thoughts, the emotions. And I don’t know 100% what you did but clearly in that work of coaching yourself on that you moved through the emotions. Because I will tell you 100% you can’t do it by just ignoring it or setting it aside.

You have to have completely made peace with those results, process through them emotionally and then made the decision, now we’re moving forward with this new result. And when you’ve truly processed through something nothing feels like it lingers, at least for me it doesn’t feel like I’m bringing baggage along. The only time it feels like I’m bringing possible failure along with me is if I haven’t really processed through the failures in the past. I’m not saying all your launches were failures. You’ve had lots of successes too.

But when you are not carrying past with you it’s because you’ve fully processed that and you’re moving forward.

Lindsay: There were lots of thoughts about my previous launches especially when we talk about being in a room with, you know, watching my colleagues launch things and the results they’re getting versus the results I’m getting. And I just noticed I had some thoughts that I was like, I can’t bring these with me. These are terrible. These have to go.

Stacey: Yeah. What were some of them, do you remember them?

Lindsay: Yeah. Well, I think one was definitely, well, if I can’t – so for the past couple of years of selling my mastermind I had some launches that I hit pretty much the exact results I was looking for. But I was watching my colleagues blow it out of the water. I’m filling 20 spots and I got 50 applications or whatever. I’m like, “I’m filling 20 spots and I got 22 applications, or 15 applications, or 18.” And so, my thought was, I’m always so close. I’m always just almost there.

And I noticed, I definitely can’t bring that with me because if I’m looking at their results and they’re, you know, okay, I’m enrolling 15 people this month in my program. And then 20 people the next month and then whatever. I was like, “Well, okay, if I am going to say I’m going to fall on that scale in comparison to them like I would in a mastermind launch, this is just going to be miserable for me the entire time.” Why would I want to do that?

Not that there would be anything wrong with that but just the way I was thinking about it, it just would have been not useful at all. And I will say, I do think I have this ability that it’s like when I really see something like that I can just be like, “Okay, that’s done. We’re done with that.” Never thinking that again. And then even when it pops back up every once in a while I’m like, “No, remember, we’re never thinking about that again.”

And so, I did that with several things. That was probably one of the biggest ones and then another one was like it has to be hard. And I got some coaching on this from you in the Two Million Dollar room. One of my thoughts was, this is so big and it’s going to be a lot of work.

Stacey: I was thinking you were going to say the lifetime commitment one. It’s like a marriage.

Lindsay: It’s all together, it’s a lifetime program. It’s a really big deal. I just created it to be this giant, okay, I’m going to put on the sweater and the sweater does weigh 200 pounds. But that’s okay, I just have to coach my mind around wearing the 200 pound sweater is almost what it felt like. So, I had gotten onboard with it. I was like, “Okay, I’m doing it.” But then it just kept coming up. As it got closer it was like the anticipation of putting on the 200 pound sweater was just too much.

And so, I got coaching on it in the Two Million Dollar room. And I mean of course the coaching blew my mind. And I was like, “Wait, wait, it’s actually not true that the sweater is 200 pounds.” I don’t need to coach myself to be okay with it. I need to actually just coach myself on that thought.

Stacey: Just question it, yeah.

Lindsay: Because I hadn’t questioned it at all. I was like, “No, this is just the truth. This is just what’s about to happen.”

Stacey: Well, it’s so crazy because after you finished your launch you said to me, I don’t remember if you said this in the group or just to me. But you had said, “Oh my God”, something along the lines of, “This feels so light, and fun, and exciting, and I get to do this.”

Lindsay: So different than I have committed to this for my lifetime. For my lifetime, forever I am committed to this thing. And now it’s like, what, I am committed to this thing and it’s so fun.

Stacey: Yeah. Think about, it’s like marriage. I mean if you love your spouse, if you enjoy your spouse, that’s the caveat. But if you really do enjoy your spouse at the height of your in love-ness. It’s like making a commitment like that. I remember my entire wedding day I was just rushing around. We never bustled my dress one time. I was just rushing everywhere to get to the moment where I got to say, “I do”, and be married to my husband for the rest of my life.

That energy and that excitement of just got to get there, I’m so excited. That can be the energy, if you create a program that is lifetime access, that can be the energy that you come to it with instead. The ball and chain.

Lindsay: That’s exactly, it was a very similar type of thought. Okay, I know it’s going to be worth it. I have heard it’s worth it but here we go.

Stacey: So good, okay, so you coached yourself on some really good thoughts. So, I also just coached someone in 200K on this. This is so important, even though I teach a launching course in 200K, it is very strategy based on this is literally what you do every step of the way to prepare and execute your launch. There is also a whole thing about how you have to coach yourself. And a lot of times I see people, they want to take all of the strategy and leave all of the coaching behind.

And how I know they do this is they post in the group and it’s always on their launch strategy and there is never any thoughts included ever about this is what I need coaching on, this is the thought I think created this, this is what I’m thinking. Nothing. It’s always a really easy sign to tell that you’ve not done thought work. And that’s the first work, it’s the most important work, it sets up how easy everything else becomes.

Lindsay: So, here’s how we know that this is true, because when you come into the Two Million Dollar room, and you look at let’s say the posts in the Facebook group. It’s the opposite, not all of them of course. We do have some strategy conversations. But in a launch for example, most of the posts are, okay, maybe here are some facts, here’s what I did. But mostly, here are my thoughts.

Stacey: That is true for in my mastermind as well. I can always spot things based on how we are behaving and showing up to the coaching versus how other people are. And I do think it’s a learned skill. So, I just want to say, if you’re not doing that in your launching, you’ve got to join a room that does that consistently, we do that in the 200K room. I think it’s important what happens then.

Lindsay: It’s also the importance of having a coach, being in the room because I mean I even noticed for myself if I think about past mastermind launches, the closer I get to that end, right to the end of it. And maybe my results aren’t where I want them to be, the much harder my brain tries to just grab my wrist and just drag me down until, no, we must look at every strategy, we must look at, it just wants to go to every action, every how do I fix this, how do I, whatever.

Versus wait, what am I thinking right now? should I even be rereading these emails through the lens that I’m currently in? Probably not.

Stacey: Yes, a 100%. So, I just want to say for everyone listening, when you’re doing your launch evals, when you’re prepping for your launch, when you’re putting it together, if extensive thought work is not showing up, you want to look at that. Your thoughts have everything to do with how your launch goes. And it’s not just believing that you’re going to sell however much you’re going to sell, it’s all the thoughts that we just talked about like the 200 pound sweater, or what was the other one? There was the 200 pound sweater.

Lindsay: The marriage. The ball and chain.

Stacey: Yeah, the ball and chain but there was one before that too. Not taking your past launches with you, all of that stuff. So, there’s just a lot of uncovering and working through that is also equally important, if not more important than any other strategy you put together. So, you coached yourself extensively. You went through the launch course. Anything else that we need to know that is very important that you did to make these 200 sales happen in three days?

Lindsay: So, I will say, the two things that are coming up for me that are just kind of standing out because they’re so different than what I had done before is that I actually as you suggest, I actually did write all the things beforehand and have all the timeline and everything planned out before for the first time ever. And I’m just going to out myself, you already know this. But it just seems so silly now that I’m on the other side of it, I didn’t drag the launch out for a month.

Now, it is an open program so people can still sign up but in my masterminds I’ve been known to drag it out. And be like, yeah, I don’t know, it’s maybe going to be a two week launch and then you’ll ask me again. And I’m like, “I think it’s four weeks, yeah, it’s definitely four.” I don’t know, I took a break there in the middle, I just didn’t sell, just a mess.

Stacey: Lots of people do that, that is very common, yes.

Lindsay: I see it now and I laugh because I’m like…

Stacey: Must have a very defined beginning and end, that’s always a good idea. And it should not be a long, long period of time.

Lindsay: And to be clear, you have to have the thoughts that align with that though because the very first or second or something launch I ever did, I tried to just follow your launch process without aligning my thoughts to why we do this. And what the benefits are and all of that. And without planning it all ahead of time and so it was just, that was probably a just huge fail because my thinking was not aligned with the actions that I was taking.

And so yeah, I think this felt like the first time where it’s like it all actually came together. I decided ahead of time. I made every decision, every like this is when we start, this is when we end. This is what happens if someone emails the next day. I think I even said on my podcast, if you email the next day and you missed the founding members period, it’s a no. And I just was so clear, so clear, clear enough in my mind that I never questioned it, that I never was like, “Maybe we could do this or maybe this thing.”

It was just like, “No, this is what’s happening. I told you 200 times, so if you missed it, I’m sorry, that’s not on me.”

Stacey: Yes. And so, what I just wrote down because this made me think about this is don’t you think the decisions for your launch are the hardest part of your launch? Deciding being firm, being sold on them and not going back and forth about it? I mean I’m curious, maybe it’s not. But for me I think it is.

Lindsay: For me it’s probably just actually writing the emails that usually feels like the hardest part. And if you asked my brand manager she would probably say, “No, no, Lindsay’s hardest part is…”

Stacey: Yeah. That’s the easy part for me, okay, yeah. For me, okay, so I will just say, for me the decisions are the hardest part. Because I was just thinking about this today, about something completely different that has nothing to do with launching. And I was thinking I had the thought, you realize that you keep just trying to change the decisions to feel better. And instead, you have to make the decision and coach yourself to love that decision, I told myself. I was coaching myself today and my brain as I was getting ready.

And I’m like, “Why are decisions so hard for me?” And it’s of course because you’re afraid you’re going to make the wrong one or you think there’s some better decision out there. But for me and that’s why I also love doing, for example, for 200K, we keep the launch and the strategy pretty much the same the whole time. So, I never have to make those decisions again because they’re so hard for me. And so that’s always for me, I get myself into decision fatigue. I get myself in a lot of drama around the decisions because I forget that you can just decide and then find thoughts.

My coach also told me this a couple of weeks ago. She was like, “You realize that Brooke just makes a decision and then she just finds thoughts to support that decision and never looks back.” Where I’m like, “Let’s talk it through.” I have five different ones we could make, let’s investigate all of them to death and then let’s bring in five different people to coach me on it.” Then once we’ve done that I’m going to come back with my additional thoughts about each of those five things.

Lindsay: Well, we have seven choices.

Stacey: Yeah. Now we have lots more choices. No, what I’ll do is I’ll be like, okay, I’ve thought about these five things and I’ve thought about all the things we’ve coached on. But now I’ve gone down the rabbit hole of the things that could go wrong with each one of these. So now we need to address these things. It’s a mess in this brain of mine. So, for me making the decisions is so important to do it ahead of time, coach myself, decide that it’s the right decision, love that decision.

And then especially with launches, I don’t change them very often. We do the same kind of format over, and over, and over because then I just never have to think about it again. That’s my crazy for the day. You’re welcome.

Lindsay: Okay. So, I’m just laughing as I’m listening because of course we’re so different.

Stacey: Because you know this is true about me.

Lindsay: But no, but here’s what’s so funny is that when you describe Brooke and you describe you, and again I just fall right in the middle.

Stacey: You’re just right in the middle.

Lindsay: I make the decision, no problem, decision made, perfect, move on. Then I move on and then it’s the sticking to it. I could consider myself a very good decision maker. I can usually make them very quickly. I have no drama. I move on. We’re good to go until something happens then I’m like, “Oh, wait. Now do I need to change?”

It’s just sticking to the decisions that I’ve made and really remembering the reasons that I made them instead of changing. Which is what would draw my launches out before because I would like, “Well, I said it’s closing on Friday but I don’t have as many applications as I thought I would so I’m not really going to tell anyone, I’m just going to extend it a little bit. No one will ever know.” It’s a terrible strategy, don’t do it.

Stacey: I know. I do that with my filters. I have very specific clean filters, very good reasons for them. I’m not changing my mind any time soon for 200K. But every launch my team is like, “Stacey, what’s happening? We’re never telling you about any of the”, they’ll send me a list of maybes and they’ll be like, “It’s on the line.” Everybody has a circumstance, it’s a flavor of one of the filters that we have. And I’ll be like, “Take them, let them in.” And they’re like, “No.” Or I’ll see someone that’s on the no list and I’ll be like, “Why are they a no? I love them.”

And they’re like, “Stacey, you’ve made this decision.” They’re like, “We’re not telling you about any of them from here on out.” I do often want to go back from them as well and I have to remember why. So, the hardest part of the potential launch for all of you listening is that maybe your window is too long. You didn’t make the decisions ahead of time firmly. Maybe you did make them firmly but then once you’re in the launch and things start playing out you decide, oh, no, I’m going to change those decisions.

Lindsay: And not tell anyone. That’s my best trick. And I’m not going to tell anyone I’ve changed them because they can’t know. So, then it just turns into the forever launch. Well, now there’s just no end date, just apply whenever you think.

Stacey: Yes. Alright, so we don’t do any of that. We make the decision. We stick with them all the way through. I did love how one of the things that you said, maybe it was in the 200K call when you taught, that you thought about when you were setting up your launch and where you were going to spend your time selling people. You thought about where do my people spend the most time. Where are my people at? So instead of trying to be everywhere, in all the places, social media, podcasts, emails, Facebook Ads, all the places.

You were like, “Where do my people spend time? And that’s where I’m going to focus most of my launch energy.” So, can you talk about that?

Lindsay: Yes. So usually when I go into a launch as I’m looking through your launch process, one of the things it talks about is writing emails and the email sequence. And so, my brain goes there first. We have to write the emails and that’s first on the list. And this is the first time that I’ve said, “Wait a minute”, because writing emails is my least favorite part. So, I can’t just sit down and whip out five emails. That’s not how it goes. And so, in doing that I caught it and I was like, “Wait, this actually doesn’t make sense.”

Because if I look at my email list, I look at how many people follow me on social media and how often, how kind of intermittent I can be sometimes on social media. And then I think about where do almost all of my clients come from is my podcast. And the way that I have planned my launches in the past is my podcast is the last thing that I think about. Okay, do I need to make any changes here? Do I need to, should I record a special intro or something? And I’m like, “Well, now it’s the week before the launch so probably not. It’s too late.”

And so, I just flipped it and I was like, “Okay, the podcast is where I’m going to focus my first energy, if this is where all the people come from, what do I want to do? What feels fun? Should I record a podcast about just the program?” Which I did that and then I recorded a special intro for the month before it launched. And it was just, not that those specific things matter but it was just this is where I’m putting my energy first for at least a month before the launch. And then I moved on.

Then it was like, okay, now, let’s address the emails. Now let’s address the social media post. And I just did it in order of where are the people.

Stacey: That’s so good, so brilliant. Okay, do you have any other little tips, tricks, things that you did that might be something maybe you do differently than I teach in the launching course or something that might have been different than any other time you’ve launched before? Anything else that you can think of along that line that would be useful to share?

Lindsay: I think the two quick things, one of them that I think will be useful for everyone is when I did plan the things ahead and do it like you teach to do it. One thing it allowed me to do is say, “Okay.” And I taught this in 200K when I led that call. I just asked myself, okay, it’s all finished, here it is, we’re ready to go. What am I afraid of? And that just really brought up a couple of things that were like, I have to coach myself on this. I don’t want to go into this launch with carrying this fear through the launch.

Or if let’s say it’s ‘not working’ and I need to go back through and read my emails or whatever. I don’t want to be reading them through this lens of here’s what I’m afraid of happening and now it’s happening. And how do I solve for it? I wanted to solve for it ahead of time.

And so, when I say that, some of it was just thoughts that I needed to coach myself on or things that I just needed to say, “No, that’s not going to happen or this isn’t sure, or whatever.” And some of it were actually, what if this happens? What if the link breaks in the middle of the night and I miss it? And I wake up to 2,000 emails from angry people, what then? Kind of, and you teach the pessimistic.

Stacey: Strategic pessimism, yeah.

Lindsay: Yeah, strategic pessimism. And it’s similar, it’s a flavor of that. It’s like, okay, it’s all set up. Now what am I afraid of? And not just to bring up fear, not to create new ones. But just to really allow myself to address them. Because especially for me I have a tendency to be like, “That’ll be fine. That’s fine. Let’s just move on.” And this was like, no, I have the actual time and space to dive in and say, “Okay, what is it?” Let’s put them all out on the table. It really felt like putting all my cards on the table and just being like, “Okay, I am all in. Here we are. Let’s do it.”

Stacey: It’s so good. I think people also refer to this as I think, something along the lines of going into the battle having died all the ways you can die.

Lindsay: It felt like that, yeah. Not much bad happened but there were just a couple of things. And it’s like, yeah, I prepared for that, here we are. I know the answer.

Stacey: Yeah, that’s so good. I think about that too. That’s the strategic pessimism, is like what are all the things that I could forget? We even do that as a team. We get together and we meet, we do a user experience meeting. I’m usually not on them anymore but they go through and they’re like, “What could possibly be missing? What could come up? What could potentially present as an issue?” And then it just allows you to solve for those things ahead of time and also produce thoughts to be prepared for them.

Lindsay: I posted in the Two Million Dollar Group, so I’m sure you remember this. But one of the things that happened which I actually had prepared for was I got the biggest hater email I’ve ever, ever received. It was my first time really getting an email that literally said what’s wrong with the coaching industry and gave all the reasons why.

Stacey: I do remember that. I was like, “I don’t remember this.” No, I remember that.”

Lindsay: And I was like, yeah, prepared. So, I had zero drama. It didn’t even slow me down. It didn’t take me out because the reasons that they gave, the things that they were upset about, I was like, “Oh.”

Stacey: I remember the things too, so silly, okay. And you had just been like, “Yeah, I made peace with all of those things. That could be true.”

Lindsay: Yeah. I had already thought, some people might not like this. And turns out, some people didn’t like it and they told me. And it was fine, I just moved on.

Stacey: It’s so good. Okay, what was the other one, do you remember?

Lindsay: So, the other one which might not be as pertinent to everyone, but people that, if you do have a business manager or if you’re working with any pieces of a team the one thing I really did that was different than I’ve done before is I really leaned into trusting to let them do their job. To let my business manager who’s incredible, to really believe that she’s going to do exactly what she said she’s going to do. And she did.

And for me that was a huge growth because I’m a little bit of like, “No, no, no, but let me just check it all. Let me control it all.” That’s going to be probably the best thing. And it turns out, it’s actually not true because when your people are good at their job, they know what they’re doing.

So, I think that was the other piece that I coached myself on was even if something goes wrong there, I trust myself to figure it out. It’s not going to be, even if it’s a mistake that isn’t mine, that’s okay.

Stacey: So good. Okay, so my last question for you and then just if you want to add anything else to this part one of this equation, so I’m just wondering as we’ve been talking. I think you’ve addressed it but I think people might want to know is how long before you opened did you start planning this? How long did the planning phase take you, that they should allot to give themselves? Because I think sometimes people try to get this result and have this launch and they pre-plan for a week in advance.

Lindsay: Right, okay. So, at first I was like, I don’t know how to answer this. But I will say definitely longer than a week. And even though I was sometimes doing things at the last minute, it wasn’t actually at the last minute like the day before the launch. It was the last minute like my OBM told me to have this thing to her by tomorrow and I haven’t done it yet so I’m going to do it today. But we still had a month before the launch started.

Stacey: Yeah, I feel like I remember it being one or two months, because you were also filming the stuff at the same time.

Lindsay: Yes. And it was the master coach training. There was a lot going on. So definitely, yeah, I think maybe I’m not giving myself enough credit. I would say I probably started right after Christmas, after the holidays when I came back and started working because I took a week or so off, came back and started working. And when did I launch? The end of February, beginning of March, beginning of March.

Stacey: Yeah, something like that.

Lindsay: So over two months.

Stacey: Yeah. So just everybody consider that, that’s how much time it takes.

Lindsay: Plus, a year of the actual planning, of the setting ideas aside and saying, “I’m coming back to base.”

Stacey: And two things that I want to say that I also think contributed to how, we’ve already talked about them so I won’t need to spend a lot of time. But that contributed to this result is I think that number one, okay, there’s actually maybe three things. Number one, I think your podcast content, you launching that, how many episodes are you on now?

Lindsay: 80.

Stacey: Okay, so 80 weeks ago you started a podcast very thoughtfully in this exact same way.

Lindsay: And I literally said, “I’m willing to do this for an entire year with zero listeners.” I think about that all the time because it’s kind of the same idea. I’m willing to just keep going and decide that this is going to work no matter what.

Stacey: Yes. So, I do think that the podcast and the level of content and intellectual property that you’re sharing on your podcast, I think is a huge contributor. Your podcast has grown. Your audience has grown so big. That really is your biggest audience. You’re killing it.

So, I think that’s one of them and then I think just everything we’ve talked about so far obviously. And I do think that what also, because I’ve been thinking about this a lot, we have been working for the last year just like you on the Two Million Dollar Group process. And what has emerged after coaching people for now, what, four rounds or so, what’s kind of emerging.

And one of the things I’m seeing especially with anyone that’s in the coaching world or you don’t consider yourself a business coach, but in the business coaching or coaching coaches world. And I’m sure it’s the same with weight loss world and all the other things is that you can make hundreds of thousands of dollars teaching other people stuff or having similar stuff to other people.

But when it comes to making your first million and then going beyond that, the only way to do that is to have really solid intellectual property where you’re teaching something that no one else is. Your work can’t look, or have the flavor, or the voice of anyone else. Because if it does, the people will just hire that other person.

Lindsay: Here’s one of the things I coached myself on when I was like, okay, then now what am I afraid of? I did get a couple of emails that were like, hey, so people know that I’m certified through The Life Coach School. And their question would be like, “So do you teach the model? I’m looking to get really good at using the model.”

And I’m like, “What? Go to LCS. What are you talking about? No.” No, why would I be teaching someone else’s, helping you master someone else’s content? That makes no sense. Of course, you should go get certified at LCS. I cleaned up all of that before going into the launch. And it was so easy to just say, “No, go take their thing. I’m not teaching their thing.”

Stacey: So good. Oh my God, that’s the perfect segue into what you are teaching for the next episode. So, is there anything else that we want to end with this one, part one, is there anything else we need to say about what created this incredible result for you, 200 people in three days? And it’s the best community too. You’re loving it, everything.

Lindsay: Obsessed with it.

Stacey: It’s so fun to watch you post all the testimonials and everything, the breakthroughs people are having. It’s so fun to see that happen for you.

Lindsay: It is so fun for me to watch it happen because honestly it still blows my mind a little bit. And one thing that when we were talking about doing this and you’re like, “I can’t wait for you to tell them how you did it.” My brain still goes to I have no idea how I did it. No, of course all the things we just talked about definitely created the results, I know that. But it still is a little bit of, did it happen? I think so but there’s still a little bit of – I’m still catching up to it a little bit.

Stacey: How much money did you make on it?

Lindsay: Well, that’s a good question. So, they can make three payments in their first three month. So, I didn’t make – the math isn’t as easy as 2,000 times 200. But I think it was right around 200,000 in that first couple days.

Stacey: Oh my gosh. And then because some people might be making payments it’s like…

Lindsay: And now closer to 300, 400, yeah.

Stacey: Holy smokes.

Lindsay: As you can tell, I focus a lot on the numbers. I check my numbers all the time. I have no idea.

Stacey: I was just curious if you knew, but yeah, that’s a lot of freaking money on one launch. I just, again, I have to say, I felt our first launch that did 400K was higher converting consults for 2K. I mean we were making millions in 200K, but for 2K for my program, I felt like it took me a long time to get there. So, I don’t think it’s unicorn results. I think it’s what’s possible results. Someone just needed to come first and do it and tell people that they can do it as well.

And they just need to do a couple of things. Follow everything you’ve said, they probably need to join my program, they probably need to join yours and they’re set.

Lindsay: I think the reason it feels like a little bit of still cognitive dissonance for me is because it feels like unicorn results when I think about watching other people sell their programs. But then when I know the work I’ve put into it and the time I’ve spent thinking about it. And even for example the reason I decided to allow that couple of payments if people needed to, everything, I put so much, it was like everything was so intentional. There was not one kind of stone left unturned. I really worked through, here’s why I want to do this, here’s why I want to do this.

And for anyone that’s like, this is why, she had a payment plan. I’m going to tell you, almost everyone, 75% I think just pays in full. So, most people don’t even use the payment plan which I find fascinating. It feels like a study and it really is true that it doesn’t matter.

Stacey: Yeah, we’ve done one for the first time ever in 200K. We did a pre enrollment and then an open enrolment. And I think they’re almost 50%. I don’t remember which one was higher or lower. But it was right around very similar numbers for the people who did the pre enrolment and the open enrolment. It just created another opportunity which I loved but it wasn’t like some blowout where I was like, “I’ve been missing all these sales for so long”, and anything like that.

So, I love that. I do think it was a contribution of everything we just talked about. And I just want to acknowledge you, badass, you just showed all of us, literally all of us what’s possible. It’s so exciting.

Lindsay: I will say now as we’re recording this, I don’t know when it’s going to come out but as we’re recording this I’m headed into a mastermind launch. And it already, just because of that experience it feels like night and day. I feel so excited for it and I’m using everything I learned from that launch and applying it here. I’ve dropped, I’ve decided, still not to keep any of my previous thoughts about launching my mastermind. And yeah, we’ll see, I’ll keep you updated.

Stacey: That’s so fun, I love it. Okay, so we’re actually going to move into the part two. But maybe we can end with this which was one of my questions was, because they’re going to hear next week what you do and why it’s different than the model or why it might be beneficial for them. And well, we’ll just get into it on the next episode.

But one of the questions I had for that episode was, should they do Coach Lab before they do Coaching Masters? And you’re getting ready to move into a launch. I don’t know. When does your launch actually start? Because this one, I think this episode comes out on May 4th, so it may be after so they may not be able to get in this round.

Lindsay: Yeah, they’ll be able to get in, that’s perfect timing.

Stacey: Because I keep my launches open all the time.

Lindsay: Yeah, it’s a two month launch. No, I’m pulling up my calendar. It is the week of May 25th, so it’s a month from today.

Stacey: Perfect. Great. Okay, so should they join Coach Lab first and learn all your foundational things before going into Coach Masters? Or is that another conversation for the next episode? I’m putting you on the spot.

Lindsay: I know, I hate to just be the example of listen, sometimes you can just have an unmanaged mind and still make a lot of money. But this is the one thing that I haven’t decided yet. So maybe we can talk about it.

But I think that, my thought is now, because this is the first time that I’m doing it, I know that people will be fine coming in without having been in the Coach Lab. But would it be a huge benefit for them to be in it first? Yes. Am I considering just selling them together during my launch? Yes. So that’s where we are right now.

Stacey: Yeah. You should do what I do, people are going to love this but we did this for a long time is if they got into 200K.

Lindsay: No, I’m not doing that.

Stacey: In 2K we made them buy both, just consider it.

Lindsay: Listen, that just feels a little tricky to me. So, if I do that what I’m going to do is say, “You have two payment options. If you’re not in the Coach Lab, here, you join here. It’s 2,000 plus the price for the mastermind.” Versus just joining and then me telling them.

Stacey: How is that not what I just said?

Lindsay: Because you’re like, “They joined and then we tell them they have to join the other.”

Stacey: No, no, we would send them an offer and we would say, “It’s conducive on you signing up for 2K as well.” Yeah.

Lindsay: Got it, okay.

Stacey: And then we would be like, “You have to do 2K before.” Oh my God, my ears just popped. We would tell them they had to do 2K before we start it.

Lindsay: Yeah, I think I’m just making it an option on the sales page. So, it’s like I don’t have to interact with it at all, just click here if this is what you’re doing.

Stacey: Perfect. Okay, love it. Thank you.

Thanks for listening to this episode of Mastering Coaching Skills. If you want to learn more about my work, come visit me at lindsaydotzlafcoaching.com. That’s Lindsay with an A, D-O-T-Z-L-A-F.com. see you next week.