Listen on your favourite podcast app like iTunes or Spotify.

The idea of having to build an audience first before creating an online program is a bit of a myth. 

If you have an existing audience, it’s super useful but it’s not the only way to create an online program, get it out in the world and get people to enrol. 

I would challenge all of us to think out of the box, whether you have an existing audience or not, if you are running a business and you’re selling anything, from products or programs to services.

In today’s episode, we’re going to talk about what you can do to get in front of your ideal audience, if you are launching without a list. For those of you that have any kind of audience, you can use these strategies to get more people in the door, help increase your client load, and increase the money that’s coming into your practice.

Here’s what I talked about:

• Strategies to build your client list (whether you have an existing audience or not!)
• What others have done to grow their businesses faster than expected (by using other people’s audiences!)
• What I did when I started to grow my practice to get clients (within six months, my practice was where I wanted it to be!)
• How to know where your audience is (these are the steps to take before creating an online program!)

The great news is that even if you don’t have a list yet, you can still serve people and make a huge impact on your community, on your clients, and get people into your program now!

If you enjoyed this podcast, you may enjoy these 3 other podcast episodes about where to start when creating an online program:

• • Ep.05 Do I Need an Email List to Launch an Online Program?
  • Ep. 07 Start Small to Go Big
  • Ep. 29 The Launch Process

Prefer reading? Here’s the transcript below

---

Stephanie: Hey there. Welcome back to another episode of The Leveraged Practice Podcast. I’m so glad that you’re joining me here for ‘Launch Without a List’. This particular episode is a response to so many of you who have connected with me and asked questions and filled out even a little poll that I had on Instagram.

This podcast is all about helping you understand how an online program can fit into your practice, into your business and how it’s something that you can use to serve people and make a bigger impact. If this is your first time here with me, welcome to the podcast. I’m happy that you’re joining me for this one.

I think that the concept of creating an online program or product, okay, we’re specifically talking about an online program, now I call it a product, I’ll get into that in a second, but specifically this idea of creating an online program and then the idea of not having anyone to sell it to is a bit of a myth.

I mean, I totally get the perspective where you need people to sell to, but that’s the culture that we live in today, where the idea of creating an Instagram account for the next two years so that you can grow a big following and then create something for them or launch a podcast like I have or a blog or a Facebook channel or YouTube channel and just get all these followers and then release a product, that is so amazing and cool that we have the opportunity to do that.

If you’ve done that already, good for you. You’re amazing and incredible and it’s so great if your business already has assets, like traffic to your website and a YouTube channel and 10,000 followers on Instagram. That’s so, so useful, and some of this episode will be applicable to you because there are strategies that I teach my clients beyond using your own current list and these strategies will help you grow long-term.

So, if you have assets that you can use when you open enrollment for an online program, when you open doors, when you take credit cards, when you start selling, that is all super useful. Social media and creating these assets long-term must be a part of your strategy. It’s so useful.

But that said, it’s not the only way to create an online program and then get it out in the world and get people to enrol. I would challenge all of us to think out of the box, whether you have these assets or not, if you are running a business and you’re selling anything, from products or programs to services.

In today’s episode we’re going to talk about if you are launching without a list. Like I said, if you have a list, an Instagram following, an email list, website traffic, this concept will still be super useful for you. This way of growing and connecting and reaching out to an audience of people is a concept that we all need to work on in our business. We all need to sit down and put a plan together and a strategy in connecting to that audience.

This is something that I teach much more in depth in my own trainings with my own clients. So if after today’s episode you’re like, “This is awesome, I want more. Stephanie, lead me through this,” reach out to me. You can find me at TheLeveragedPractice.com. You can find me on Instagram @TheLeveragedPractice. You can shoot me an email, fill out my contact form, book in my calendar, whatever you want to do.

Please know that I’m here to help you move forward with launching that online program, optimizing your enrolment, and just putting all the pieces together so that this thing you’re building actually results in sales and helps you grow your business, make an impact, get more clients through the door, make more money, and really, I think, improve the health of the world as a whole, because we can improve outcomes and results by using online health programming. Okay? So know that I’m always here to help you with that and if now is the time, reach out.

This is something that I teach my clients when we talk about launching, when we talk about opening enrolment and we talk about getting people through the door. We talk about all kinds of different strategies, all different ways to launch, all different pieces that come into that, and that’s quite a process.

If you want to hear more about my four-stage launch process, then you’re going to want to listen to episode #29, which is my launch process. That’s going to give you more of the different categories that you need to plan for.

Part of launching, opening enrolment for a program, and just long-term business strategy to get more people through the door, more people coming to you, more people interested in what you have to offer, is about growing your audience. Growing your audience, connecting with your audience, is a task that you need to be planning out strategies for annually, quarterly, monthly. You probably need to be doing things every single week that is getting out there and connecting with a new audience.

The Concept of Launching Without a List

 

The concept of launching without a list is the idea that I teach all of my clients, in that building an online program is like building a product for your business. If we can enter into the idea that we have a business, or maybe a side hustle, or maybe you work for a company or a clinic or whatever and you have different things that you serve people with.

An online program is one of those things, one of those service items or one of those products or packages or things that you offer that will allow you to serve people. Whether you’re taking money or not – for those of us running businesses, it’s taking money.

It’s a product that we offer, so maybe we offer this, this and this. Or maybe you want to run a completely online exclusive company where all you offer is online programs, which is also cool. So those are different products that you sell, that you charge money for. You set financial targets on how many you want to sell on an annual and quarterly basis.

I look at an online program as an amazing tool to serve people and impact lives, but also when I put my business hat on, I look at it as a product. You’re developing a product that is going to help you grow your business over time and bring more money in. You can bring more money in today when you launch it, but also long-term.

As I talk about this with my clients, as I talk about this with you right now, about this idea of a product, have you heard of other companies creating a product before they have an Instagram following, or before they come to market, or before they have a lot of traffic to their websites? Yes, you have. All the time it happens, where big companies will create a product,. They will spend six months, 12 months, or even longer.

James Dyson spent five years creating his first Dyson vacuum cleaner and had thousands of different renditions until it was the one he was going to sell. People invest time in creating a product before they have a business or before they grow an incredible audience.

So if you are someone that doesn’t have an audience, then you can build your product first and use some of the strategies that I’m going to teach you today about getting that in front of your ideal audience.

If you’re someone that has a practice, has a business, has followers, has referrals coming in right now, then amazing, good for you. You need an online program to add another product, another stream of revenue, or just to improve outcomes for your clients right now. The good news is you already have assets, but you can continue to grow that practice and business with some of this no-list strategy. Okay?

If we look at big companies, there are a lot of companies that just created their product first, fantastic. I mean, almost every company, right? Probably 99% of companies do this. But also let’s look at companies that actually didn’t have a list and didn’t have a big following or a big group of people that they owned to launch to.

There are going to be things that you own, like your own audience, which is your website traffic, your own email list, any names or referrals you’re getting, as well as you kind of own social media. You don’t really own social media, but you’re in charge of your own followers on Instagram, or YouTube, or Facebook, or Pinterest, or LinkedIn, or whatever.

We’re specifically talking about audiences you do not own. There are other audiences. There are other people’s audiences.

If we look at the company Headspace, which is a meditation app, when they first launched they did a bunch of different things. Without getting too deep about the way that their product actually changed and grew over time, when they first launched their company, they didn’t have an audience, they didn’t have an email list.

What they did was they had an article published in The New York Times. They actually talk about this in another podcast episode, not mine, but in a podcast called ‘How I Built This’. Great podcast, love it so much. If you listen to the Headspace episode, I think that you’ll get some really great information about their company and how they launched and it might even give you some inspiration.

They got a two-page spread in The New York Times about their founder. That spread, that published article, gave them so much. They got in front of that audience, the audience that reads The New York Times, and then that gave them some momentum to get people to buy their product.

Later on they got a partnership, and again, they worked on these things. They had a relationship with The Guardian in the U.K. They developed a pamphlet that went on the front of that about the benefits of meditation and how to get started with meditation, and that went out to everyone who read The Guardian.

Again, that gave them this huge momentum to get in front of someone else’s audience. They provided at one stage a story about the founder, so you could connect to that person, like him, and want to work with him.

Then with The Guardian, they provided value. They provided a free resource on how to get started with meditation. They connected with their audience first.

Spanx is a company I love, with Sara Blakely as the founder, a brilliant woman. What she did with Spanx, she just started cold calling people. She didn’t have an audience and so she just started cold calling. She knew that she had to sell her product in front of someone else who owned her audience, right? So where was her audience?

Sara has an online storefront as well as she’s in retail. She started by getting into Neiman Marcus, which is a storefront, so that’s a distributor that has her audience that comes to that store and she sells her product there. That’s how a lot of retail does it. But she also got on Oprah very early on as one of her favorite products and that spread the word.

One of the biggest things she talks about that she did in her company is she got on QVC. Sara got on QVC and, I think it was in a five-minute segment, sold 100,000 Spanx or something super incredible. I don’t have the exact numbers off the top of my head, but I just remember it was just so incredible. QVC had her audience.

Now, Neiman Marcus and QVC, in the retail world anyways, they’re going to take a percentage, right? So by getting in front of somebody else’s audience, sometimes it’s an investment of a percentage of your sales or it has a cost to it. It doesn’t mean that investing in other audiences is a bad idea just because it costs money. It actually can grow you way faster. Spanx was a $2 million company in its second year, and that’s because Sara worked so hard to get in front of other audiences that would grow her more quickly. A lot of retail works like that.

One more company that’s super interesting is Bumble, another app company where when they wanted people to use this app they actually thought, “Where are young men and women who want to date each other and get to know each other?” They went to campuses, college campuses, sororities and fraternities, and talked to the men and women there to download their app. So they went to these places, had conversations, showed them the app, they had a great story and a great pitch and a great idea, and got people to download it.

I want to give you those examples, and there’s countless other examples of companies who have done this and who are doing this now, where they know it’s not just about the list and the people that they own on social media, email, website, that kind of stuff.

It is so much about where their audience is currently consuming content and information right now. Where are your people right now? Where are they looking for information? Where are they getting information? Who are they asking for information? Where are they reading and listening to information? How can you create collaborative relationships with other people where it’s supportive and it’s helpful for them as well.

It’s helpful for QVC and Neiman Marcus to sell Spanx. It’s helpful for The Guardian and The New York Times to create really great content and share that to their readers. So how do you create these relationships? Where are your people? How can you get in front of them?

The Strategy I Used to Build My Client List

 

My story is very similar. When I started my business in 2011, at that time I was a digestive practice, I provided one-to-one digestive support for people that had IBS and other digestive conditions. I was a service-based business and I had a small office.

It was 2011, where was I going to get people from? For me, I thought where are people who are struggling with digestive symptoms? Where are they going for information? Where is the starting point in their journey of understanding what’s going on with their body, getting a diagnosis, and starting to ask questions?

I wanted to start where they started, which is so often in the family doctor’s office or even a specialist’s office, a GI or gut health specialist. So my plan was to go to all of the local and … How to explain my city? Basically where my office was, within a 30 to 45 minute radius, there happened to be a couple of small cities.

So I made a huge spreadsheet, figured out what doctors’ offices and specialists I was going to go to. I remember, there were eight GI specialists and then there were eight medical practices with multiple physicians in them. Those numbers for me felt like it was going to give me enough business.

So I went to those offices and I shared my story, why me, what makes me special, why I can contribute, why I can help. Knowing my audience was really important. For physicians, I would give them information about the research, give them information about the practice, numbers, stats, the kind of stuff that physicians are going to want to convince them to refer me clients.

That’s one of the things you need to do, is be very clear on your message. Why you, what makes you special, how can you contribute and help?

But I didn’t just do it once. I went back to these doctors’ offices every month for six months, with different resources, with different value.

Remember we were talking about that pamphlet that Headspace put on the front of The Guardian about how to meditate and how to get started with meditation? That’s value. It’s not just like, “Hey, we’re Headspace. Come and work with us and give us money.” That’s an ad. We’re talking about value, which can be so useful.

So for those physicians’ offices, I was dropping off resources to help them understand gut health conditions, help them understand the diet protocol I was using, help them understand how to have conversations with their clients about this. I dropped off different tools, resources, books and different things that I thought would be helpful for their clients.

I wanted to keep showing up and letting them know I’m an expert on this, but I also had to convince them I was an expert on this issue by giving them really good, valuable resources that would help them and would help their clients. Within six months, my practice was where I wanted it to be, which was part-time, about two to three days a week of seeing clients.

I didn’t have a list and over those years, since 2011, eventually I grew my email list to 10,000 subscribers. Eventually I grew my website traffic to, I think the highest it’s been is like 35,000 new visitors in a month. Eventually I grew all of these assets that I own, but in the beginning I didn’t not have a business, I didn’t not make money, I didn’t not provide services because I didn’t have an email list of 10,000 people. No way, Jose.

How to Start Building Your Audience

 

You can run a business, run a practice, sell an online group program, an app, a software, whatever it is, without having a huge audience to date. Again, for those of you that have any kind of audience or assets, good for you, that’s a great starting point. It doesn’t mean that’s all you need to rely on. You can do other things to get more people the door, help increase your client load, and increase the money that’s coming into your practice.

You want to brainstorm the ideas now. You want to think about where your customers currently are. Customers, clients, whatever you want to call them.

Where are they right now getting information? What are they reading? What are they listening to? Where are they looking for the answers that you can provide them? You can use my example of my clients’ journey, my customers’ journey. Where was the starting place for people with IBS? Where did they start? Where did they get diagnosed? Where did they first get that information? Where did they first start asking for questions? If you can be in that place, that’s amazing.

You can also be in other places as well as they start to get information. If you’re someone who runs a business or a practice and you want to run online programs for women who are pregnant or breastfeeding, where would those women be getting information that you can collaborate with?

Family doctors are a great place, probably also midwives, maybe OB offices, potentially doulas, maybe even prenatal yoga classes or mom groups for brand new babies. All those kinds of places are great places. Those can be online, like Instagram accounts and blogs and podcasts and places that publish articles, as well as in person, local small practices and offices. All of this is possible for you to connect with and to share valuable resources and tools and information about what you do with that audience.

So sit down and spend some time brainstorming where you think your customers are. Ask people to find out where they get information. If you have clients coming through the door right now, always ask them where they’re getting their information about this topic. If you have new people DMing you on Instagram, or if you have people sending you emails or calling you and interested in working with you, always ask them, “Where are you getting information? What have you tried already?”

Those kinds of questions are really going to help you identify where you can do more work. Ask current clients, ask potential clients, ask friends. Do some research. Think about it with your big brilliant brain, where are people and where can you get in front of them with other audiences?

Then I want you to think about what value you can provide. What’s your message, what makes you special, why you, and then what value can you provide? What consistent value can you provide?

Like me, I was going to those doctors’ offices every single month consistently until they really knew me and felt confident sending me clients. Then after that, when I had one of their clients, I’d still fax them or email them a letter back about that client, right?

Nurturing that relationship on a consistent basis is super key to your success. What kind of resources, tools, teaching, training, or other things can you provide that helps people trust you, that helps that person to refer to you or helps their audience?

What’s the first step that can get people some results, that can get them some impact, that can help them to see, “Wow, this person really knows what they’re talking about. I want more from them. I really want them to continue to help me with this problem.”

The three things in summary are, you’re going to brainstorm where your customers and clients are currently getting information. Where are they? Then you’re going to make a giant list of potential opportunities for you to reach out to and collaborate with. Then you’re going to get super clear on what your message is, why you, what makes you special, why this approach, how are you helpful. So you can prove yourself and make your case. The third thing is to understand what kind of value you’re going to provide and how you’re going to be consistent with it.

This is a project that I want to leave you with that may take you a couple of days, may take you a couple of weeks, but don’t delay on it. Make time to do this. This is the first step for you if you want to create an online program, if you want to launch an online program.

Listen, if you’ve already created an online program, because I know some of you have, and if you’ve already launched with not the best success, because I know some of you have because you’ve told me, then still back up. You can still be successful in this area. Take this information, take this project I’m giving you, map it out and it will give you some great confidence in being able to do this again and a great starting place of where your audience is.

For those of you who are listening, who maybe are still trying to figure out if an online program fits into your practice or if now is the right time, then use this activity to know that you don’t have to have a giant list. Your social media and your email list and all these things can be and are an important part of your long-term business plan, but it doesn’t mean that you can’t still serve people and make a huge impact on your community, on your clients, and get people into your program now, if you want to run this program in the next couple of months.

As you know, I am right here to help you. The Leveraged Practice winter semester is currently open for enrolment. You may be listening to this at another time because it’s a great episode that I’m sure people are going to come back to all the time. If you’re listening to this and it’s not the winter semester anymore, we always have a semester open.

So no matter what your timing is, when it fits for you, when you’re listening to this podcast, you can enrol in an eight-week program with me and build your online program, make sure that it’s built for people and it gets results, and launch it with my strategies and my protocol. Save time, save money, get on over here and join us. I’d love to help you do this in The Leveraged Practice. Anytime you need me, I’m here if you want more help with this.

But for now I want to leave you with this project. Please reach out to me and let me know what you think. Tell me what you end up with, send me what your project is, send me what your list is. I’d love to chat with you more about this.

I hope that this episode is helpful and you found some great value and some great information here for you to use and to help you continue to move forward in this idea of creating and launching a successful online program.

All right. Find me on Instagram, find me on my website. Please reach out, I would love to hear from you. I’ll meet you back here next time.