The Focus Course

Basecamp Rollout

• We launched Focus Club August of 2016, it’s been two years with minimal updates.
• We haven’t changed anything in two years…
• We’re making a few minor updates to create a better Focus Club experience

Why move to Basecamp?

• We’ve removed Slack as a communication tool internally, so why are we using it to host our membership community

Asynchronous Communication

• Inviting our community into asynchronous communication.
• Basecamp does this really well vs. Slack
• You should be able to jump in Basecamp anytime you want and continue a conversation, or learn something. You shouldn’t have to be dialoging in real time to gain value from the platform we’re using

A Place for club members to Collaborate

• It was hard to find each other in Slack, let alone introduce yourself to a room of strangers
• The message board in Basecamp gives our members the ability to share ideas and collaborate to create

A Central Depository of Knowledge and Learning

• As community members contribute their ideas and conversations unfold, the message board becomes a resource library.
• This could include sharing book notes and takeaways, shared learning from resources or life experiences…
• Slack lacked the ability for something to become a true asset.
• You couldn’t go back and reference a conversation.
• Slack felt disconnected, scattered.

Promotes writing and critical thinking skills

• Long form writing challenges individuals to article the problem or idea they are working through.
• Instant messaging feels like a hinderance to thinking through an idea. It’s restrained to only one way of communicating. and reading longer messages in Slack is a less-than-enjoyable experience.

Long form posting or instant messaging

• Basecamp doesn’t completely remove the ability to IM.
• Members will now be able to engage in long form posting or real time instant messaging

Continued Updates

1. New member spotlight interview. Long form interview of our club members to promote community and finding one another.
2. Exclusive newsletter twice a month related to club topics.

Recap

• Focus Club launched August of 2016, it’s been two years with minimal updates.
• We’re making a few minor adjustments
  • Moving our community off of Slack and over to Basecamp
  • Member spotlight interviews to be featured in Basecamp
  • New exclusive newsletter for the club community, which will also be dropped into Basecamp to continue the conversation

Q&A

Justin:

I’m planning to launch my first product, a journal for finding purpose, in September / October. I’m getting started on creating a launch plan. What are some tips and recommended resources for planning a successful launch?

Weekly articles related to your Finding purpose Journal starting 6 weeks out 1 a week
– One per week for the 4 weeks leading up
– Two per week the final two weeks leading up to launch

Start warming up your email list by drawing them in to a story line
– One email per week 6 weeks out through 2 weeks out
– Week before launch send two emails
– Week of launch 3 – 4 emails.
– Create a storyline, aggravate the pain points of lacking purpose
– Build anticipation for your new product

Reach out to people you know and see if they will help promote it
– Affiliate incentive
– Make it easy for them to link to or give a blurb about the product

A couple options for selling digital or physical products
– SendOwl
– Gumroad

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Mike S.:

What do you think the new model for app developers will be to market?

I’m no expert on launching apps, but with the recent development of Apple’s affiliate program, marketing your app is definitely going to change.

It will be interesting to see what new growth strategies app developers take. If I had to guess, it would be a direct affiliate program in addition to audience growth and promotion.

Though it’s always a good idea to be growing an audience and email list no matter what business you are in. Build a loyal following and then sell to them.

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Mike S.:

Best way to find focus accountability on a personal level? Partners seem tough to find that don’t fall away too quickly

I think it’s no different than anything in life, it’s hard to start and maintain momentum for something like this.

My advice would be start with anyone that will say yes and foster that relationship

We’re often looking for the right person or circumstance to come around to start something like this. Just start with the first person that is interested and go from there. You’ll learn a lot through the experience. What was beneficial, what wasn’t.