Launching anything for the first time is scary!

Against all odds, @cahouser and I kicked off the first cohort of Minimum Viable Video last week.

A recap of what it took to sign up 20 students to a brand-new program, the activities that mattered, and what we’ve learned

The 6 activities that made the biggest difference for the launch:

- hosting free workshops
- having a lead magnet
- sending lots of emails
- creating personalized videos
- collaborating with other course creators
- a lot of personal conversations

What else impacted the launch?

Timing: We realized the ideal timing doesn’t exist! There’s always something else going on.

The faster you ship, the faster you get feedback. And the faster you get feedback, the faster you can iterate and ship again.

Pricing:

Be flexible and willing to adjust.

What counts for the first cohort is getting enough students to prove the concept.

The goal is to provide an out-of-this-world experience that warrants glowing testimonials and helps build trust to drive sign-ups for next cohort.

Effort:

It's easy to underestimate the effort it takes to start a course from the ground up.

Find a partner in crime with a complementary skillset.

You can’t be good at everything, and trying to be will wear you out.

Also, it’s more fun to celebrate together.

Lesson learned about naming:

We brainstormed 26 potential course names.

You’ll have to go through the really lame ones like “Video made easy” to eventually arrive at the ideas that don’t completely suck.

Read the full recap here (incl. screenshots and numbers): https://juliasaxena.com/full-recap-how-we-launched-minimum-viable-video-for-the-first-time/