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TL;DR of "12 Months to a Million": Launching and getting to 25 sales

Launching and getting to 25 sales — that’s what we’re talking about this week. Last week, we covered the quick and dirty of choosing a winning product (check it out here if you missed it.)

I’m excited to share a few new gems with you. And I had to get through a lot of fluff to find them this time, so I’m pretty satisfied knowing that you won’t have to (aw no prob, you’re welcome!). 😘

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📕 The book du jour: 12 Months to a Million (How to Pick a Winning Product, Build a Real Business, and Become a 7 Figure Entrepreneur) by Ryan Daniel Moran

😎 TL;DR: This was all about launching your first product and growing to 25 sales per day. Still kinda weedy, but I’m not done plucking gems (which I’ll detail below).

Why care about what this author has to say? Made his first million at age 26 via email marketing. Has since co-founded two 7 figure businesses (before age 35).

Why read this book in particular? Came out in 2020 so it’s super duper fresh. Has almost 600 5-star reviews on Amazon. Promises to be practical yet mind-blowing.

🤩 Key Takeaways:

  • The purpose of your launch isn’t what you think it is. It’s not to put you on the map everywhere — it’s to get the wheels turning.
  • If your launch tanks, don’t freak.
  • Resist the temptation of equating “thinking bigger” with “getting more sales.”. Think smaller. Ask yourself what the smallest possible thing you can do is to make a sale. That might mean phoning your family. Or your old college roommate.
  • Do the small things over and over again until you build some momentum.
    The author says 80% of his time as a business coach is spent getting people not to do things. Don’t hire anyone. Don’t build a new marketing strategy. Instead, make those first sales in the simplest way possible, and then turn those sales into reviews.
  • Remember, at launch you’re still very much in “The Grind.” Which means, speed is your friend. You’re replying to every comment. You’re as available as possible. You’re putting everything you make back into the business.
  • If you do any fundraising (like a Kickstarter campaign) make sure anyone who wants to participate can. As in, make it an option for people to pledge $1 toward your project. In the end, you may raise less money, but you’ll have waaay more people talking about your product, which is a long-game win.
    When you have a following of a thousand people and you have at least 20 reviews, you will likely get to 25 sales per day quickly.
  • Everyone starts off doubting themselves.
  • Analysis paralysis is your nemesis, small steps forward are your bff.

🤮Biggest disappointment this time around: Tons of fluffy “success” stories about people who enrolled in his programs. And most of those stories have some caveat like, “...out of nowhere, Ariana Huffington retweeted their product.” Also, there are quite a few more details about selling on Amazon. If you’re interested in more info there, this might be a book worth buying.

Upcoming (and last) chapters: Getting to $100k a month

Stay tuned! 🙏

Subscribe for quick breakdowns of the newest biz books — I read ’em so you don’t have to. 👇

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    Thank you for doing the work on reading this for us! I don't think I could sit through all that fluff and self-promition, so you're the real hero here. This has been really helpful information that you've pulled out.

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