are you on the lookout for a new podcast to listen to Being boss by Emily Thompson is brought to you by the hubspot podcast network. And something I love about this show is getting the chance to support my community of fellow creators and business owners. Being boss is an exploration of not only what it takes but what it means to be a boss as a creative business owner, freelancer or side hustler and I know it's going to resonate with so many of you who are listening in so if you like female startup club, trust me you're going to love being boss. Hello, it's dune here, your host and hype girl. Oh my God it has been a hot second. It feels like I haven't done a solo episode in forever. It's only been a few weeks but it feels like forever and so much has happened in these past couple of weeks as you would know. Gosh so today I want to take you through my book launch plan and how we approach the marketing for that because I don't know if you saw this but we are bestseller baby, all thanks to you guys.

My God, I'm just like still in shock. I'm just in shock. It's crazy across the U. S. The U. K. And Australia. We hit so many best sellers and my favorite being women in business. We also hit e commerce and we also hit small business books so I mean I just have no words but I have all the words really. And besides the best seller For a few days in launch week. We were also number 55 of all books in Australia, all paperback books on amazon. Can you imagine there are so many books. I I'm just, I cannot Oh my God. So I'm going to take you through my insights and learnings on that whole thing and I'm also going to talk to you about a business that's for sale. Maybe it's your vibe. We're going to put it out there, we have much to discuss. So let's get straight into it. This is me for female startup club. Mhm If your marketing and e commerce brand, you already know that data changes everything more.

Data means more power. And if your email or sMS tools can't handle all that data, they're probably holding you back and that's where clay vo comes in. It's top notch personalization and segmentation. Help you send the right message at the right time, guided by unlimited real time data from your online store and tech stack, request a demo at Clay vo dot com, That's K L A V I Y O dot com email startup club. Hello, welcome back. Oh my gosh, let's get into this episode where to start firstly, I want to say the biggest thank you ever. The biggest thank you in the whole world to everyone who showed up to our new york city book launch party to celebrate this special milestone. Crazy moment with me. I can't tell you how grateful I am and the feeling that I had to meet you all in real life, it's just, I'm still so buzzed, I've been talking about it ever since, I cannot believe the feelings, I have no words and I'm just so grateful that I got to meet so many of you and that you came and that you told me about your businesses and we got to share that special book launch moment together, so thank you secondly, obviously the book just, wow, I mean wow to everyone who has shared the book, shouted about it on social media, sent it to your friends, bought copies, the response has been kind of crazy, I just, I don't know these past few weeks have been nonstop and looking back, I think I even said this on the show, there was that feeling of like I might throw up and you know that feeling when you're putting something out there in the world and you don't know, you don't know if people are actually going to care or if they're gonna like it or you know the judgment you're going to get, you're just putting something out there and seeing what happens and then when you do do that and you kind of take a step back because you start to realize people do really like it and people want to show up and support you.

So I had that I had that feeling like I had the vomit feeling and then the breath of fresh air, like oh my God, everything's okay, you, So with all of that in mind, I thought this could be a cool opportunity to do a quick episode, breaking down my marketing launch plan and what I learned from this experience and what I'll do next time, because even though it's for a book, this is just an easy launch step by step plan that you could use to launch anything really, because the same principles apply basically my approach to the book. Launch was just to try and cover a few different channels, have the Omnichannel approach and create some buzz online. Of course, Number one, I started with content on my channels, content, content, content. I was posting 123 times a day on Tiktok to get in front of new people and grow my audience, which was definitely a success. We grew by thousands of followers closer to the launch.

I was posting more like once a day and I'm still posting once a day and I'm talking about the book every here and there, not all the time. And then I was re posting this content directly back to instagram, I was also posting and circulating the content on linkedin and obviously just, you know, highlighting the book as much as possible on the podcast too. And you will know because you will have heard me talk about it a million times, but basically just putting it out to all of my communities in all the places, Obviously, yes, I have a community, but even if you just have a small community or no community at all and you're just getting started creating content on your own channels is an absolute must, it must not be overlooked. There's no getting around it as a founder and especially as a founder on a limited budget, you need to start putting content out there and telling your story to reach people who will like your story and always keep in mind. People like people not brands, people want to hear your story.

They don't want to be told about the features of a product or blah blah blah. They want to hear about how they want to hear about the why And they want to be like part of the journey, they want to be going along that with you. So even if you've got, you know, 100 followers or 500 followers or it's just your friends and family on Facebook, Start posting their start getting out there and sharing your story on those channels and talk about what you're doing and why it's important to you and what the impact of this is in the world or what the impact of this is just in your community. All that stuff. All that storytelling stuff is so important and that's like 100% where to start with any marketing plan. So on the note of Tiktok and you know creators and things like that. The second thing I did was I obviously wanted other creators talking about us on those channels, I didn't have a big budget to work with. I had $1000 usd or there about and what I did was went through all the people in my network that I knew who were friends and might be able to do some kind of cross promotion swap, offered them to do a cross promotion swap.

But then I also created a list of creators who I didn't know that I would love to work with and reached out to find out their rates and see if there was a way that we could work together within my budget. Again, during this process, I was sharing my story telling them about the book, getting them excited about what I was doing and seeing if there was any creators who were aligned to me and the mission that we have with female startup club, and, you know, we're able to meet me where I was at with my budget. I'm not some huge business that, you know, has hundreds of thousands of dollars. I'm a small independent creator and I had a small budget that reflected that. But of course, I wanted to try and reach creators and create those partnerships. So we had a few really incredible creators come on board to help spread our message and I saw a lot of people commenting on the videos that went out saying that they had bought the book and you know, then come to my channel and saying, you know, they found me through the creative videos and I could just see it, you know, I could see the buzz, the issue that I have that you won't have as a founder is that amazon does not share any customer data, so I could only know this based on the comments I was seeing and reading online and not as a fact, which is a bit of a shame when it comes to what I was doing.

But I mean I was just still so excited seeing people being like, I just ordered your book or like I discovered you and now I've ordered your book, it was, I can't describe the feeling amazing. So yes, I loved working with the creators, you know, we had some brilliant women like Nadia from august share on her platform, she has 2.4 million followers on Tiktok and she has 100,000 on instagram and she just went above and beyond for me, which was so great and we also just had like a few other amazing women, amazing, amazing women to work with. So that was very cool. Then I kind of looked at press and I think this is where I didn't do as well and where I think I could have done better. So through my network and sharing my story again with people that I knew I was able to secure a ridiculously epic article in refinery 29 on launch week and this is like you know amazing. It was a dream moment for me, I was so happy with that, but that's the only price that we were able to get now.

I did hire someone at the last minute to do a pr campaign for me which was too close to the launch to secure anything during that week and it's a longer tail approach and still in action. So I don't really have any results to report back on yet. But I mean I hope we do have some, but I think what I could have done better here is given it just more energy again, telling my story, getting out there introducing myself to journalists, trying to get more introductions and fostering those relationships directly, but you know live and learn only so much you can do next time that is the approach that I'll take. Then I focused on podcasts. So obviously I have my own podcast which you're listening to, but I was focused on getting on other people's shows. So talking about while I was launching the book, how I launched the book, what the blueprint was, how I was planning on marketing it, all of that kind of stuff and obviously my story with female saddle club. So in the months leading up I hopped on a bunch of podcasts, I'm going to say 10, I can't remember right now at the top of my head, but let's say 10 and some of those went live during launch week, some of them are still coming up because again, that's one of those bigger long tail kind of strategies.

And the key to things like podcasts and creators for me, this is what I found is that you don't need to overwhelm yourself with having like a list of 100 influences and 100 podcasts and 100 pieces of press. You can be so much more like realistic than that, pick a number and just work towards that number even if it is just 10, which for me it was 10 across the board. I was like 10 creators, 10 podcasts, 10 pieces of press. I didn't hit all of those things and you quickly realize whether it's achievable or not, but it's a great number. That's easy to aim for. That doesn't make you feel super overwhelmed. Um and it also just kind of keeps you on track because it's easy for you to be like, what a 10 podcasts that I would love to be on or what attend, who attend creators that I already engaged with, who already know what I'm up to that I would love to work with. It's, it's just so much more realistic than being like, okay, I'm going to sit down and do a list of 100 which is probably gonna take me all day to research and you know, the outreach alone would be crazy.

Sorry, 10 Have 10. It's an easy number. Next thing I did was I went through my email list, my WhatsApp and my facebook contacts just kind of like went through all these different communities to see who I knew already. That might be able to shout about the book in some way or connect me to someone who I should talk to. And this is how we got a few cool promotions in other branded newsletters. And it's also what led to my to launch events because the lovely chaps at Soho works and Norby, we're really interested in supporting me and came to the party throwing, you know, epic cute parties. So you really do have to put yourself out there. You have to ask for favors which can sometimes feel like a bit daunting again because you have that like, oh my God, are they going to judge me? What's the feeling going to be like? But what I found with this and asking so many favors was people want to rally behind you. People are just there to support and be your cheerleader.

And it's not this big scary thing. And sometimes it's not about just like asking a favor and it's a one way street. I was also thinking about how I could support them and what we could do in return and cross promotions and things like that. So it's not just a one way street. You can also think about how you can offer value to the person that you're asking something of. And this point leads me to the launch party. The launch party, Oh my God. Well to launch parties, a gathering of any sort, whether it's an intimate breakfast just for some founders and your girlfriends or a party with the wider community like we did is an amazing chance to meet people in real life, get to know people face to face and take your brand from being behind the computer screen or you know, in your house where you hang out all day into the big world, it is such a nice feeling. I had all the giddy butterflies like it, I mean it was so cool, the launch events were just so much fun and something I'm absolutely wanting to lean more into now, moving forward, even if it's just a monthly catch up in whatever city I'm in for some founders to get together like super low key.

I just feel like if there's a way that you can gather people, especially if it's around the launch or if it's an ongoing series or whatever it might be, make that happen because there's something really special about R. I. L. Meetings now, I think, especially since the pandemic, if you're on the lookout for ways to make your business sail smoothly from one quarter to the next look. No further hubspot helps your business get shipshape with an easy to use Crm platform that aligns your business and delivers a seamless experience for your customers. Other serums can be cobbled together. But hubspot is carefully crafted in house for businesses like yours, its purpose built suite of ops sales and marketing tools work together seamlessly. So you and your team can focus on what really matters your customers plus with helpful educational content, a supportive community and access to hundreds of app integrations. Hubspot, all in one platform is built to grow with. You learn how to grow better by connecting your people, your customers and your business at hubspot dot com.

Are you a founder that's been trying to relocate meet with investors or participate in accelerator programs in the US. Traditionally the work Visa application process has been time consuming, complicated and quite frankly, frustrating legal pad is changing that. Legal pads, specializes in the sought after founder friendly 01 Visa for individuals of extraordinary ability. Now this may sound intimidating, but it's just a fancy way to describe someone at the top of their field. Many founders qualify, entrepreneurs engineers, scientists, graphic designers and researchers can all qualify with the right accomplishments. Curious how legal pad can help you Get in touch for a free consultation and get a $500 credit for female startup club listeners when you tell them I sent you find more info in our show notes. Okay, where am I up to? That was launch party gifting in the end. We sent out about 100 books for gifting. That was to some friends that was to some loyal listeners. That was two people in my network.

And it also included the women who were featured in the book which were 51 If you haven't Seeing me say the 51 before 51 of them. Which side note here? I did not account for how expensive shipping books is. My cost of goods for those parcels was very high and unexpected. Uh, definitely something to look into. But I had no other way. I really wanted to send handwritten notes and I really wanted to send them in these pink metallic fun padded bags. But what I didn't account for was that the pink fun padded metallic bags pushed me up from being in the size of a large letter that could fit through the mailbox into a small parcel. So learning there should definitely explore those kinds of things. But sending out the gifting was also a really fun photo moment. We've got a lot of content being posted in the lead up to the launch, which was cool. And then with the founders who were involved in the book, we also had specific asks like I asked them, you know, and I sent everything like as an individual personal message, you know, to that person.

Not like some, you know, BCC group message asking them specifically what I mean? Also letting them know that the book had been shipped to the address that they gave me asking them to post on their personal social media or the brand social media and also to include it in companies like channel or newsletters. So I had a lot of asks for the founders who were featured in the book. I said you know don't do all of those things but if you could just do one that would be super appreciated and we've got a really good response from that a lot of people shared. We also sent our advanced copies of the manuscript to some of our loyal listeners and hype club gals of the show who were just armed and ready to leave us Reviews on Amazon on Day one and that it was amazing. It made such a big difference, I've been told time and time again how important reviews were and I really think that played a key part in us doing so well in launch week ah and also obviously having the community rallied behind me and be my hype girl when I really needed it was so special And then of course you know the next part of my community was rallying my personal crew of hype girls and hype guys, all my friends who are close enough to me that would love me, even if I hassled them day after day and then lead up to the launch and after by getting your personal kind of group of people, your closest family and friends together and asking them to post around the launch and just even if it's sharing an asset, like creating something that they can just immediately share to their facebook page to shout about something like that.

Yeah, you can't underestimate just the people in your life who love you the most, who want the best for you. And so my friend ambassadors, they were all lined up to buy on certain days during launch week. I asked them to shout loudly on social media and I also asked them to send it to their own network of friends who might also like the book and who would also benefit from reading the book. Yeah, I also did a few instagram lives and live events like in other people's private communities and things of that nature during launch week just to again connect RL but online and what else? I think they were the kind of main things that I did. I don't know how many points that was but all of this to say it might come across as overwhelming but I promise you it's actually not all it is, is a simple checklist. I put everything into a spreadsheet and I just showed up day after day after day. I created content. I sent messages to people I connected with whoever I could and I just talked about the book every single day.

That's it talked about the book. So that's kind of my launch, like my launch plan, Looking back, I would say it went better than expected in some ways. I think definitely in hindsight I could have done better in a lot of different areas, but you know, this for me was definitely figuring out the blueprint so that the next time I do it I can tackle it with a new, a new kind of approach um, and taking all the things that I learned and what worked and what didn't and rolling with it, Someone asked me last week at an event if I had to do just one thing, if I was doing it again, what would it be? And you, if you listen to the show, you can probably guess what my answer was. It's Tiktok both creating content for myself and working with other creators on Tiktok is where I was really able to see the buzz and have people directly telling me they purchase the book. Um, you know, I was able to use that content across on instagram, but it also lasts longer. Having that content there means it's kind of like continually popping off.

So like a video that is three weeks old now. I see people commenting on it now and I'm like, that's so cool. And so it lasts longer. It's less fleeting and overall, that's what I would do. Again. I would create even more content on Tiktok and I'd really lean into that a lot more and I think I'm going to lean in a lot more now, moving forward, I'm going to scale up my content on there, maybe do three posts a day again and just see how that goes. But if you, that's the breakdown, if this was useful for you, please do share this episode on stories on instagram or turn it into a Tiktok if you want to, helping spread the good word about the show is how other listeners find us. And I'm always just so grateful and I love to connect with you on instagram in the DMZ but on to other things, that's this thing, that's this thing that I want to talk about. There are two types of founders that I often see there is the founder that loves the early stage of building a business that 0 to 1 phase, rolling up the sleeves to prove out the concept, iterating the concept and finding the product market fit, and getting that early traction, the builder And then there's like the ultimate operator who doesn't care so much about that early phase, but it's the person to scale a business from 1 to 10, they have the framework, they're great with operations, supply chain logistics, they know all the levers to pull and how to turn it into a huge business.

The scalar. Now, of course you can be both, but sometimes you lean towards a certain type and in my case I lean towards the builder because I just love the fun side of creating the business. That early vision, all that fun brand building stuff. But if you feel like you're the ladder a scalar and you're interested in really growing a business that's already up and running. Those folks often thrive in buying a business to take it to the next level and all of this to say a friend of mine reached out to me today who's looking to sell her business. So I thought I'd just drop it in here, see if there's anyone out there who's interested, who is a scalar. It is, I can't say the name but it is a premium ingestible beauty brand that's set up as a fully operational turnkey company including existing stock including you know the I. P. The relationships that they've already got going on customer base, basically all the assets They've got to combine social media and email list of 10,000.

They're already stocked at really cool major department stores and specialty spas and boutiques and it would suit anyone worldwide because it's T. G. A. Approved and they have their biggest audiences in the US and Australia but can ship anywhere. The price is listed at the moment circa 300,000. And if this is your vibe, send me an email, I can connect the dots and we can continue the conversation. But yeah, basically business for sale. Haven't advertised something like this on the podcast before, but why not? If you have a business for sale, come and tell me maybe I can shout about it. Lastly, I've been working on the next thing for female startup club. Can't stop, won't stop now that the book is out and totally firing, it's time for me to level up what our offering is with female startup club and just change a few things around because you know, that's the vibe. So we've had a hype club in beta for, I think I would say a good six months now and the community aspect is just so incredible and so important and so so needed.

But something I see time and time again is people just need more of the blueprint. People just need the checklist of what to actually do, whether it's pre launch and you know, building out your marketing plan or whether it's post launch and just trying to grow day by day, the community aspect is so key for that constant cheerleader moment and the constant hype. But if you're anything like me, you just need a checklist of every single step you should be doing, you know, before you hire an agency or every single step that you should be doing. Even if you have already hired an agency, the blueprint to building a DTc brand in today's landscape is what we need and I'm not talking about just like the fun, sexy marketing stuff. I'm talking about what you do with your website, how you optimize that, what you do with shipping. Like I experienced and ways you can reduce your costs there, how to track your sales, see what products are profitable, unprofitable, all that kind of thing. That's what I wish I had when I was building my first day to see jewelry brand And at this point of the business of female startup club, I have interviewed more than 300 women, 300 mega successful founders to understand the blueprint.

I've been able to ask the questions around money and startup capital around mistakes, around marketing, the favorite resources, you know, all the things you listen to the show, you know how it goes. I've also watched my husband scale dTC brands and I know where brands go wrong and where they go right, seeing the foundational work that so many founders overlook before they're trying to scale. I've worked with the e commerce experts, I've worked with consultants to understand how they work with their clients and I've also gone through it myself and failed and have the learnings and insights from that. So basically this is just an update to say that at the moment I'm heads down, I am putting together this blueprint and I'm making it everything I wish I had when my DTC jewelry brand was struggling to grow and I just didn't know what I should be doing every day. As a one woman show. Sometimes you just need a good old fashioned list to get cracking on and help keep you accountable day by day. And of course on the side of that, access to a next level, amazing community of other female founders who are going through it too.

Last thing before I wrap up, today's many, that's not so many episode. I have been having so much fun over on Tiktok. If you haven't seen, you should go check it out, sharing founder breakdowns and money mistakes. If you have a money mistake that you want to share with our community in the hopes that it will help someone else going through the journey, Shoot me through an email. It's hello at female startup club dot com. It doesn't need to be a crazy amount of money either. It could simply be $500 that you wasted on packaging and you know, you learn from that. I would love to create a Tiktok video about your experience. Okay, that's all for today. See you next week. Bye. Hey, It's Doom here. Thanks for listening to this episode of the female startup club podcast. If you're a fan of the show, I'd recommend checking out female startup club dot com where you can subscribe to our newsletter and learn more about our D I. Y course the ads, N. B A. I also truly appreciate each and every review that comes our way. It might seem like such a small thing, but reviews, help other heirs find us.

So please do jump on and subscribe rate and review the show And finally, if you know someone who would benefit from hearing these inspiring stories, please do share it with them and empower the women in your network. See you soon. Mm hmm. Mhm.