Badass Is The New Black (Season 4) Episode #26 - Sage Polaris: The Conscious Launch Strategy

small business growth and marketing strategies Oct 19, 2022

On today's episode, I have the pleasure of chatting about all things conscious launch strategy with the one and only Sage Polaris. She's written high converting copy for more than 400 clients, earning them millions of dollars. She helps personal brands and service providers sell more of their services or their offers with the words on their website.

Sage Polaris: The Conscious Launch Strategy

She's worked with people like Shalene Johnson and Rick Mulready, Lane Twist. Basically she makes money for the internet. Famous y'all, the people that we look up to. And I know that she's gonna share some incredible insights with us today. So I am honored Sage, to have you on the podcast with us.

Krissy, I appreciate you and thank you for that beautiful intro.

You're welcome. Now I'm really excited to talk about launch strategies. We've done a couple launches, well more than a couple launches this year and next year. We are streamlining now to have just two incredible launches next year. So I'm excited to learn from you and kind of bring in some new strategies and talk about some of the realities that happen when you launch, like after you launch, like why you tend to hide out maybe a little bit regardless of the outcome. So I'm excited to dive into that, maybe get some tips for myself selfishly, but always as usual, what I learn from you, my audience loves learning from the guests that we have on here. So thank you for being here and taking the time and just sharing all of the things.

Oh yeah, this is one of my favorite topics. I just light up like no other. So let's get into it. Let's do it. So where do you wanna start?

Where do you think is the best to start with our audience? You know, people who have maybe never done a real launch, like maybe they've put an offer out there and like, you know, mentioned it or maybe put it on their website, but maybe they've never really even had a launch strategy before. So that might be kind of where people are at or if they've tried a launch or two and maybe have had some success with it. So I'm gonna let you just kind of dive into where you think you need to start.

Yeah, I love that. I like to stretch the definition of what a launch would mean to someone because whether you're a service provider, course creator, e-com, in network marketing, any of those areas, anytime you put an offer out there, technically it is a launch, right?

But we don't always think of it that way. We mostly think about course creators who are putting out an offer that they want many people to buy. But as a service provider, every month you're launching technically Because you're attracting new clients, right? So first of all, I like to stretch that definition a little bit and to me, I like focusing specifically on conscious launch strategies. And I think what happens for a lot of people is a couple of things.

First, whenever they go to make an offer, they're like, buy my stuff. And then they hide under their desk. Like did anyone see it? I get it, it's a totally natural part of learning to sell, right? Is like putting yourself out there, ripping that bandaid off. So a lot of people are nervous in the beginning about even asking for the sale. And over time I found as you stretch that muscle more and more, it gets to become more natural to have a sales conversation with people.

And the other piece I think is that we get stuck in like an awareness factor where it's like if you don't know about launching and you start to learn methods from someone, then you start to think I'm gonna try the specific strategy that works for them because it'll work for me cuz I want a business like theirs. And the tricky part about that, when you are first getting started, again a natural thing to fall into. But what we forget to do is tap into our own inner knowing, our own intuition and check in and say like what are my strengths? What are the things that come naturally to me? And leverage those in our launch strategy rather than doing what we see someone else doing and thinking it'll automatically work for us.

Because I've been in business for 10 years, I've worked on over 400 launch projects, the network that I have is different from someone who's getting started. So all of those things contribute to a strategy and coming up with a conscious launch strategy that will really support your growth based on the stage and business you're at. So that's the first thing to check in about is like ask yourself what are my strengths?

What are the things that I'm naturally good at? And how can I leverage those to build my business to where I'm at right now?

Love that. Yeah, I definitely think when we have that tendency to try and copy exactly what you said, oh their business is thriving and it's working for them, so I'm gonna try that. That's really the best time to basically figure out what's not gonna work because likely it's not gonna work. And then you're like, okay, that didn't work. So yeah, just kind of avoiding that desire to copy someone and just kind of turning inward and being like, okay, this seems great but is this for me.

So I love that recommendation of leaning into your strengths. We talk about that a lot. Your superpower is your strength. You know, lean into that and not focus on the things that maybe you're not so good at. So I love that tip for just kind of getting started.

And so once you do launch, you know there's a tendency to want to hide either if you have a big success or if it fails, right? Either way. It's funny, you would think when you have a big success you'd wanna share that with everyone, but there's things that happen in your mind, right? Like that you're working through all the time. And so, you know, I found transparency with your audience regardless of your launch results builds community, right? So when you have that big success, sharing what you're comfortable with, like we all have to see, you know, where we land on this. I know oversharing is a whole thing, so you have to decide what you're comfortable with and then you know, or if it doesn't work out, sharing the lessons that you got from it is just as powerful for your audience to learn from. So either way that builds community and makes people feel like they're a part of what you're creating. And so I found that, you know, have fun with it. Like don't take things too seriously. It's very easy to get caught up in your results but it's normal to kind of wanna hide what's actually happening.

But really the openness is what makes people remember you. So that's another tip for people who have already launched.

And the, to touch back on the failures, you know, aspect of it, I'm big on learning from your failure, so I love that you're encouraging people to kind of share that and, and again like goes both ways, like however comfortable you are with sharing, you don't have to share all of the details but like, hey, and you don't even have to say like I failed miserable, like I tanked. But it could just be like, hey, this is what I learned and this is what I would do differently next time. Maybe I think it could be really impactful for people. And I love that you're like, this brings in community with people because people do like transparency. Not everything is rainbows and butterflies, right? And so not that people want to see other people fail. I certainly don't want that, but it definitely makes me feel like, like they're more human, right? And you're like, oh, business is not always perfect and not every launch is success and like they're figuring things out.

It almost gives me permission to be figuring it out and to not be perfect. At the tail end of my launch. I always share the good, the bad and the redemptive lessons. But I always like to end with lessons and a call to action on how I can improve things because I know people get so much from those specific things.

For example, I just launched my copy template membership. We had about 3,700 people sign up, which was amazing and we were expecting, you know, a lot of sales from that and we did get a lot of sales. It was incredible. I'm so happy we've had about 150 people come through our membership. However, this last launch we tried something different where we said we want a 12 month commitment from everyone who joins versus a three month commitment is what we had previously given them a choice for and people were not ready to commit to those 12 months, particularly this year. Like there's just so much going on with the economy in the US, other areas of the world as well. And so it was a lesson that I learned, right? And I'm like, okay, so now I know people need that smaller commitment when they're first getting to know me cuz there were a lot of new people in my audience.

Incredibly impactful and it's kind of crazy how things change from year to year. So what you might have done last year might not be working. I mean we're doing some of the same things in one of our businesses, how we've run it for forever. It's just not working the way that it used to. And so it's like alright, let's actually take a look at how we can serve our customers the best in this time because things have shifted and changed And so actually coming up with those ideas and how can we serve them better kind of actually shifted how we manage the business and it's gonna be incredible for all parties involved, right? So it's like you have to be able to kind of be fluid and shift and come to the reality that what worked before might not work and you might have to tweak things and I love that you just kind of came to that like you tested it though, right? Like that's part of the important piece of business is testing, constantly testing and then gathering the data to just see did that work or did it not?

And then asking yourself the intelligent questions, why didn't it work? Okay, the economy is not where it's at. Now let's shift how we do that. So was there anything that you did once you realized like ooh that didn't work, how we thought and we came to this realization, did you go back to the audience and then like make a tweak and adjustment or are you just kinda like, okay now we'll just wait until the next one, We're gonna wait until the next one.

My team did offer to make that adjustment like during the launch and I decided to not do it at that moment. Another thing I learned from the last launch was to not launch during graduation season. I feel like there's always something though you're like, oh maybe I learned recently not to host a retreat during the month of October because actually everyone's very busy in October and give yourself a wide window to bring in people. So it is funny like there's these interesting seasons and really taking a look at your audience base and like what are they gonna be participating in, right? Like if they're moms with school children like, and that's a tough one cuz that's, you know, a lot of my audience has had children and I'm in the south and we start school early August and then the north starts school early September. So it's kind of this big window of like okay we can't really launch anything until like way after everyone's in school.

So it is kind of interesting to take a look at that and really know and understand what's going on in people's lives too, cuz it has a big impact on the success that you have.

You know, and interestingly it wasn't my audience that had an issue with the grad, it was my life. I didn't have time to make any changes to offer cuz I was like, I'm literally going from this thing to this thing then getting on a plane, like all these things, it just happened to be for my life an interesting time. So yeah, and I think this goes back to like making conscious choices about your launch strategies too though. Like often we're thinking so much about the audience but also we have to think about our own energetics.

And like what's happening for us is really important. So you know, there's even little like practices that I like to do during a launch but also throughout the rest of the year. Like small things like whenever someone comes onto my list it gets stacked inside of this one spot in my inbox and I love just like making a heart to heart connection with people.

I don't always have time to do it depending on how many people are coming in at once. But I'll scroll through the names and just sit there with my hand on my heart and be like, welcome, welcome to my community.

Oh I love that. Yeah, It's fun. Thank you for pointing out that you're like, actually no, not my audience.

Me what I Needed.

Because that is, and obviously like we find ourselves in this space where we're always thinking about the people on the outside and you can't pour from an empty cup so like filling up your cup in whatever way that you need. So I love that you realize that like, oh my gosh, this is not the time for me to do this because it does take energy and effort, whether it's a smaller launch like you mentioned, like maybe just a new product is coming out with your company or something like making sure that your schedule and your dynamic that's going on at home is providing the best situation for you so that you can bring that energy. Because people can tell even online, like they can feel your energy and they can tell what you're putting into it.

And so that, that I think is just incredibly impactful. So thank you for clarifying that you meant yourself and not necessarily always your audience. What are any other like practices that you have found to be incredibly helpful to you know, having successful launches or connecting with your community maybe even after a launch? Yeah, I mean after a launch having people, once they're in my community I love to surprise them with lots of things.

So we'll have guest speakers come in who will share their expertise. Like we've had, I don't know if people are familiar with Laura Belgrade, she's a copywriter. She came in and taught in our community and it's, and like Kathy Olson from Funnel Gorgeous talking about sales pages and stuff like that. So we do try to really love up on everyone. My favorite thing to do that I just sent out in the mail is we surprised them with a 90 day challenge.

So once they're in it's like no hiding, we want you to be a part of and participating in the community and earning points for it. And then I send goodies in the mail to them. So I just sent like three lovely packages of like self care items. And I was kind of in awe because our community is so global. So one of the packages went to Singapore, the other one went to the UK and then one went to the US. So I was like it's really special the community that we have. That's awesome. All like literally global all the way around.

I love that.

Yeah And it's just so fun to gather all the items and send it with some intentional love.

So what kinds of things are you sending now?

I'm just curious.

I am really into spiritual growth as well as business growth. So I like to send random things like incense that are for your chakras or a sleep mask or I found these socks that moisturize your feet for the winter. Like Oh my god, amazing. All the things to take care of yourself.

Yeah. Oh my god, I love it.

I love it. Yeah. Okay. Anything else that you feel like you, the audience definitely needs to know to maybe prepare or embrace launches? Cuz like you mentioned, and I'm glad that you made that clarification, like it's not just one big launch that you plan, it can be these little things or if you have an offer you're doing, you know you're a coach and so you bring in people on a more regular basis, you're kind of constantly launching. Are there any other tips that you can give someone to be able to come into these launches with ease or if they feel like they're constantly doing them to be able to do them with ease and grace?

I mean there's so many things I could say, but I think my favorite thing to talk about is personalizing your launch as much as possible.

So I'll give you a couple examples. As a service provider, if I know someone wants to work with me, I have a video that I send them and if I can make them individual videos I will. So I still do private copy services and also once they sign on, like I send them a personal video walking them through their intake forms for sure I do that one.

But those little personal touches as a service provider make you stand out from the pack for sure. And there's also like, there's so many tools that I give them as well, like a launch map that they're not expecting so that they can take their entire marketing plan and see it visually laid out. And then, sometimes I'll surprise them with that before they book me so that they understand like I'm here to make your life easier.

And then for my launches when I'm offering my membership, for example, if I see names that I know that have clicked on the sales page, cuz you can go into your email service provider and see who has clicked on the sales page. Again sending them a personalized video. I use a tool and it gives them that personal touch that you wouldn't otherwise be able to.

I haven't because the launches have grown so much, like I've tried to figure out how can I continue to scale that personal touch. And for now I've been doing Instagram dms, so I'll have my team start the DM with everyone and they're very transparent like hey this is Aaron from Team Sage or whoever's doing it, you know, what's one thing you're gonna implement from this training that this free training that you just took with Sage?

And then when they respond, I am the one to come back and start to communicate with them. So it's really helpful to have somebody start the conversation. Cuz again, I'm trying to figure out like as things grow, how can I continue to, to make things feel really personal with me? So that's where we're at at this point. And you know,

I'm always trying to come up with new ways to continue to personalize things. And I will say like when you have a smaller list, you have the advantage because you are able to see like, okay, you know, 50 people clicked on my sales page and of that I know 10 of those names, like people I already know. I would definitely send them videos and personalize things so that they feel really excited about being welcomed into the community.

So those, and that's before they buy, right? Like and if even if they have bought, maybe you wanna send them some love as well. Like, these are all different ways that I'm, I'm looking at continuing to, to make people feel really welcomed and loved up on.

What I'm hearing from all of that. And what I'm taking away is like going the extra mile.

Yeah. Like doing the extra thing to follow through to get whatever the result is that you're looking for. And if they haven't bought yet, maybe it's the result of purchasing or maybe it's just making that connection or maybe if they have bought, it's deepening that connection and getting them excited about what they just invested in.

Yeah. So that's what I'm hearing and that's what I love because I do see that a lot and I've even fallen victim to it.

It's like you put all this energy and effort into it and so then you're just kind of like, okay, I hope like the emails work and all of that works and then you just are kind of like exhausted and you stop. But really like what the whole thing that we've been talking about, like, you know, doing some personal things for yourself, making sure that you're putting yourself in the right energy and the space to have the energy for this launch so that you can go the extra mile because that will make the difference and having a successful launch and not I truly believe that.

Yeah. And even like making buffer space for knowing that something might go wonky and you're gonna have to jump in, right?

Like so preparing yourself to make space prior to the launch is there's so much gold in that as well.

Yeah, a hundred percent. Like have the emails already set up, have like the content already created so that you have this extra space for like if something goes wrong or, and that doesn't have to be like something tech goes wrong and you have to fix it.

Like it could be your child gets sick and you have to step away, right? Or like you, oh my gosh, I have a graduation and it's way too overwhelming and like there's too much, right? Yeah. So I think there's so many things, unexpected things that you can't predict that could get in the way. And so being able to just create that space I think is just a really awesome tip.

So thank you. Cool. Is there any, any other little golden nuggets that you want to share with the audience before we give them your free gift?

Yeah, so in the strain, I was just thinking like in the strain of going to make more space for yourself during a launch, one of the things that I do, first of all, prepare your family.

Like let them know it's coming.

Yeah, great tap, great tip guys. Yeah.

But also, you know, at this point in my business, I'm able to book an Airbnb for the two weeks that I'm doing the free filming of my copy course. And that has changed everything for me. Like getting out of my normal environment for one, like having space cuz I know that there's things that might have to happen late at night and I'm not gonna be able to take care of my kiddos as much as I usually am.

So, and if you can't create space for yourself yet, like booking an Airbnb is not in the budget at the moment, then even just trying to film may be like in your backyard. That's what I do when I'm at home, like somewhere where I feel really comfortable and I, I love being in that space. So switching up your environment I think is another key thing that I highly recommend for launches because it does change your energy as well.

And so with the videos that you're talking about doing, like where are those going in your launch? Like can you just elaborate on that a little bit more?

Yeah, so I do six sessions where I'm teaching for two weeks and we release the first three the first week and then the next three the second week.

Gotcha. And so these are videos that you're recording ahead of time to be able to do or?

No, They're live, they're, so everybody comes to that training live and that is essentially like I'm giving away that course for free for two weeks.

Gotcha. Well I love that. And so now you're at the point where you are literally going to an Airbnb by yourself. Is anyone with you? Oh my gosh, that just sounds like a dream by yourself to just be able to pour into your business.

That's amazing. Yeah, that's really cool. That's awesome. And yeah, if we all start somewhere, so I'm sure that wasn't, like you said, that wasn't your, your first launch wasn't booking an Airbnb going and doing that. So not to say that that is gonna generate all the success in the world, right? It's all of these little pieces that Sage has been talking about, but when you can bring them all together, like it's just gonna create that magical launch with ease. So I love all of this. This has been amazing. We have a free gift for people and I'm gonna go get this gift as soon as we get off of here because I'm excited about it. Do you wanna tell them about it?

Yeah, I would love to.

So it's called the triple email open rates templates. So if you have an email list and you have ghosted them, it happens to the best of us. You can go to sage polaris.com/ Krissy rocks and it's three emails that you can copy, paste and personalize. You'll know exactly what to say to your list as you show back up in their inbox. If you've had a list for a while, I highly recommend using these because if you have not scrubbed your email lists, like gotten rid of unengaged subscribers, anybody who hasn't opened your emails in the last 90 days, send them these three emails. If they still don't open, you wanna remove those people because first of all, it's hurting your deliverability score if your open rates are lower and this will raise them back up.

Plus you'll know like anybody who's hearing from you absolutely wants to hear from you.

Yes. Ah, love that. Love that. Okay, Sage, where can people find you to continue to connect with you?

I'm at sage Claire dot com and Sage Claire on Facebook and Instagram are my happy places to hang out.

Perfect. I love it. Y'all go connect with Sage, download that free gift or grab that free gift from her, put it into action. I always tell you guys, go take imperfect action. So she's giving you this free gift that you don't have to do much except for actually just take action on it. So go do it, carve out a little bit of time, put it in action and then let us know how it goes.

Sage, thank you so much for taking the time to be here and sharing all of this amazing goodness with us.

Ah, this is so special. Krissy, I appreciate you opening up your circle and I got to play with everyone. It was really fun.

Love it. We'll talk to you later. Bye.

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