Launching is like a good, REALLY GOOD cup of coffee.

Now, I might have spent too many hours in Starbucks listening to the sound of them churning out latte after latte, but hear me out on this one.

Brewing coffee is process that starts with the bean and the roast.

Launching is a process that starts with a person and your solution. Check out some of the recent posts, I've shared about this and the myths you might believe if you haven't launched yet.

Now, last week I shared this for the very first time to people who attended one of my live webinars and the response was really not surprising…because everyone gets coffee.

I’m geeking out so much about this analogy and technique of figuring out where you are in the launch process and what to do at each phase…that I had to pull the clip and share it with you today.

Click below to watch:

Before we dive into the four phases, let me give you a little backstory:

When people come to me, they are usually in one of four of these phases… sometimes they know right away that they are in phase 1… sometimes they think they are in phase 4 and really are back at 2.

What comes out of understanding where you are is this:

1. Launching starts as you create your product/service or business.
2. You will keep coming back to the launch or how you will get your business out to the world–the more you know about how you launch the best, the easier it is to create a system that works for you.

Here are the four phases explained a little more:

1. Discovery

(This is like the good roast of the coffee…if the coffee is burned or moldy, it won’t taste good…important to your launch…and you always come back to this…don’t take your ground for granted)

You’re just starting to think about launching.

You might be starting from zero – no list, no product, nada…

This is where you start talking to people and assessing what you want to launch.

Your time should be spent relationship building, creating content directly related to what people are asking for…helping people solve surface problems.

Action you might do at this stage: You might do a few “practice” launches, invite people to join a beta program, release some freemium content.

Important: Take the time here to get your biz, systems and self ready for a real launch.

2. Development/Prep/Leaking

(This is like the brewing process and how your perfect launch  initially prepped… Too hot water? Too much milk? Temp? Didn’t brew long enough? Sometimes it’s the cleaning of the machine…I watched this happen this morning at Starbucks!)

You know what peeps want from you.

You’re creating it regularly, you should keep doing that.

Reaching more of those same people you talked to in Discovery.

Now you’re creating intentional content.

When you’re stuck, you don’t go to your friends, you go to your audience

Action you should be taking here: create a program or offering and leak it out to your audience. Look for interaction. Look for interest. Stay here until you start getting more questions.

*Continue tweaking your main content creation, communication, money-taking, working with VAs  systems that allow you to be spreading your content through social media automatically, regularly, etc.

This is where you start prepping for a launch – and where you’ll be right before you decide how and when you’ll launch.

3. Product Launch – Sales

(This is where the magic comes together…and I’ve got no fancy way to say this…)

Product created or in progress.

Audience asking for the product.

List building in progress and somewhat on auto.

You make the sales page, schedule the webinar, decide how long you want the cart open for.

There’s prep work here too – like writing your copy for emails, sales page, etc. But at this point, you know more about your audience and you’ll know where to go if you’re stuck.

Important: This phase helps you figure out if you’ve done enough work in phases one and two.

*You may always need to go back to the first two phases when you launch, even if you spend most of your time assembling of all the pieces.

4. Ongoing Marketing

(Imagine if Starbucks had like one coffee down and once in awhile they made it perfectly, but then it would be weeks before another happened…what about delivering it ongoing…they’ve standardized their process and made it available to everyone. Same with other coffee companies.)

Keeping the dream alive once you’ve got a good system for marketing a product and a proven audience.

This can mean many things from making updates to the program and to the marketing materials and communicating those changes.

This can mean testing out a self-paced version of a program.

Note: There are no set rules for going into this except you really need to exhaust one strategy and make sure something doesn’t work before moving on. It’s never going to be clear what system works until you do one thing at a time.

Why is important to notice these things?

You always revisit stages… over and over again…whether you are launching a paid product or something new you’ve created that you’ll give to your audience for free!

Yes, you’ll often HAVE to go back to discovery if you’re not quite sure why people aren’t behaving the way you thought they would.

Launching is cyclical process that will often require you to go back through all the elements and phases even a little bit to make sure you haven’t overlooked a piece of information about your audience, to simplify your offer, to look for errors in the way your email autoresponder is set up.

[Tweet “Everything comes back to the launch – to how you spread your idea, your product, your service…”]

Why am I sharing this with you?

Because many people come to the webinars, think about joining Fearless Launching and they literally back away because they think – oh, i don’t have a product yet. I’m just starting.

But the truth is…we’re always starting, testing, evaluating, building, growing…going back to the drawing board.

If I had thought of this back when I first started, I would have joined a community earlier, I would’ve thought about the launch earlier…

So – for those of you who are like – well, I know I’m not ready to launch…I say, okay…but you are ready to learn about launching…and starting the process now…so you will get ready.

Which phase are you in? How far are you from brewing your perfect launch?

Leave a comment below and let me know what phase you think you’re in!

And don’t forget – tomorrow night, Thursday, February 4th, your special graduation bonuses expire!! Head here for all the details about Fearless Launching.

If you are someone who is able to commit to your business and next launch starting now, you are a perfect fit for our Fearless Launching community. Head over here to read more of the details and join us in the program!

However, if you’re not someone who is ready to be part of a team environment, who doesn’t want to get support working toward your next launch, and who doesn’t need experienced feedback on your launch strategy or has any interest in learning what’s working now in the world of launching, then you may not be right for the program.

Make your choice soon – class starts Monday, February 22nd!

I truly hope to see you inside so we can get you to phase 4 and create your perfect launch brew.