Mia Fileman 0:05
Life’s too short for crap marketing.
The “Got Marketing?” Podcast is for marketers, business owners, and entrepreneurs who want marketing that’s fun, accessible, and meaningful.
Join me, Mia Fileman, for inspired chats with my favourite marketing insiders about marketing that works; campaigns that inspire; and the fads, fakery, and false prophets to avoid.
Hello friend! Welcome to the “Got Marketing?” Show!
It’s my full-time job explaining what a campaign is and what it isn’t.
Recently, I’m being asked more and more about what the difference between a launch and a campaign is. Now, I have my views, but I like to be sure, so today I have invited the launch expert onto the show – Tina Tower.
After speaking at Tina’s retreat in Port Douglas earlier this year, she reached out and asked me to help her build a campaign for the upcoming launch of her program – Her Empire Builder. It was an emphatic yes for me.
Today, we will go behind the scenes of her campaign.
“Because of the concentration of the launch, I go all in. I forget all the rest of left is gone to me. I am so laser-focused and obsessed in that time because that’s what it demands in my eyes, if you really want to do a good job. Some people agree with that, and some people don’t, but that’s just what works for me.”
That was Tina Tower – a high-performance business strategist helping business owners successfully launch their online courses so that they can build their digital empires and live the life they deserve.
Hello!
Tina Tower 1:46
Hi! I’m so excited to be here! I’m such a fangirl of the show and of you!
Mia Fileman 1:51
Aww! Likewise!
This is so great! I was like, “I want to have this conversation, but who do I want to have this conversation with? Obviously, Tina.”
Tina Tower 2:02
You were saying you’ve got all your views on it. I’m like, “Gosh! I wonder if ours match!”
Mia Fileman 2:07
Well, that’s the great thing about this podcast. It doesn’t have to be perfect. It’s a conversation. It’s a discussion. That’s the whole premise of it.
Tell me, what is a launch?
Tina Tower 2:21
Launching is one of my favourite things.
We’re an online business – like a lot of your listeners probably are. The thing that I actually love most about our business model is the launch. We can do really concentrated marketing efforts that are very cyclical. We can double down and get really loud when we are going into a launch campaign. Then, it is over, and we can turtle back in. For me, it may not seem so on the outside, but I am a raging introvert.
The whole process of launching and closing serves my personality type really well in that I can really do concentrated marketing effort and very loudly which I’m sure we’ll get into, but we leave no stone unturned when it comes to a launch campaign. Then, I can turtle back into my shell and focus on nothing but loving up my clients for the next few months, and then we start the cycle again.
Mia Fileman 3:21
So far, we 100 percent agree that that’s exactly what a campaign is as well as a launch – concentrated, focused, cyclical, much more sustainable way of doing business because it’s high bursts of activity.
I saw you talking about this on Instagram the other day. You said it was like pulling back and arrow; I say slingshot. Moving back to move forward.
What then do you think is the difference between a campaign and a launch?
Tina Tower 3:55
I think what I used to do was more launch whereas now we are going more towards a campaign launch. What I mean by that is I used to think the launch in itself was a campaign, but it was really focused on the program rather than each time having a focus.
With us working together, I feel like it’s more supercharged than it has ever been in terms of having that focus which is fantastic. At the beginning, we would talk about launch. Doors opening would be the campaign in itself.
Now, the internet is so much noisier. Even running an online business now compared to five years ago is – rightly so – more competitive. It was much easier in 2017 and 2018 to launch an online course. You could have a few bells and whistles, run a webinar, and it’s like, “Wow! This is amazing!” The floodgates open and in come people. Now, that doesn’t really fly.
You have got to be the next level up and be creative. This concept of going, “Well, what if we campaign launch and have a real focus and real entertainment value to the side?” and talk about different types of messaging each launch.
One of the things that I found was my launch worked really well through 2020 and 2021 which I think was a bit of a kiss of COVID in that it was much easier because there were so many eyeballs online.
I rinsed and repeated the exact same campaign four times in a row because it worked really well. If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. I didn’t want to do something new when the current one was working really well – until it didn’t. Then, it was the biggest tanky launch since I had started.
That really got me thinking, “How can I keep the essential elements that are working for us every four months when we do this launch but also make it fun and make it entertaining, and make it a really concentrated campaign concept in there as well?” I was thinking on that, and I started germinating that idea for this launch.
Then, the beautiful universe, you spoke at our conference. I was like, “That’s exactly what I’ve been looking for! Mia, come on into my world! Come and help me flesh this out!” and we have!
Mia Fileman 6:21
We certainly have! I love that so much!
Launch – predominantly a term used in online business. I loved exactly what you said about how before the doors opening and closing was the campaign, but now that’s not enough, and what you need is the big idea. So good! I think we’re going to put that on a bumper sticker!
Tina Tower 6:43
I’m so glad we’re on the same page. You’d debate me if not. Am I ready for that? I’m ready for that, but it bodes well for me that we’re on the same page.
Mia Fileman 6:53
You know what? I’m not afraid of this scary personality that I seem to (6:58 unclear). I think everyone that really knows me knows that it’s tough love but it’s a really warm hug at the end.
Tina Tower 7:08
Completely!
I get into the same mode when people tell me, “You can start from scratch a business, put in 10 hours a week, and become a millionaire in a year.” That’s what gets my ghoulies. We all have our thing.
Mia Fileman 7:23
Yes, and that’s where we align on values.
We might not agree on every single thing – nor should we because boring – but the fact that we align on values, we agree that there are some shady questionable tactics and characters in online business, and – as educators, trainers, coaches, and strategists – we should do better.
We can elevate the level of marketing education. It comes to us. For lack of a better words, we are the leaders!
Tina Tower 7:59
Yes.
Someone introduced me the other day. They were like, “You are like a leader of leaders.” I thought it was so beautiful, but I died inside. I mean, I am. There are so many wonderful leaders in Her Empire Builder, but that’s a big thing to carry!
Mia Fileman 8:19
It is a big thing to carry.
Actually, the most beautiful thing I heard on The Joe Rogan Podcast – please don’t cancel me, unfollow me, or unsubscribe because I have admitted to listening to a couple of Joe Rogan Podcasts, okay? I am just putting it out there – he did this podcast interview where he said that we are all living in these echo chambers of our own design where we surround ourselves with people who look like us, sound like us, and agree with us.
The minute that someone doesn’t agree with us, we are done. We unfollow them. We kick them out of our Facebook groups. We don’t want to work with them. What the world needs right now is a marketplace of ideas because our ideas get better through opposition – not by people going, “Oh, my god! You’re a leader of leaders!”
It’s someone to say, “Hey Mia! That last post you wrote sort of offended me. It polarized.” I’m like, “Let’s have a look at it. Could I choose better language? Could I soften that a little bit? Did I rush it and as a result ended up miscommunicating what I wanted to say?” That’s how we get better communicators.
Tina Tower 9:30
Yes, 100 percent.
Mia Fileman 9:31
We’re nine minutes in, and we’ve already thrown out the discussion cards. I love it!
Tina Tower 9:37
We always knew that would happen.
Mia Fileman 9:40
No, not us!
Online courses – I love that you also mentioned that they are not the be all and end all that they were a couple of years ago. I was very fortunate to launch my online courses post-COVID or during COVID. They sold without any effort. Now, it is both easier because I have a reputation but also a lot more challenging because what I hear every single day is “I don’t want to do another online course.”
I would love to hear your argument about why online courses still deserve such a noble place and how the online course business model is different to other business models because it is a completely different beast, right?
Tina Tower 10:33
Yes, I have a few different answers for that.
The first one would be the difference between online courses. I was in traditional business for 13 years before I started my first online course and had done pretty well before I sold my last company but ended up completely burnt out. You can definitely get that way in online courses if you don’t have boundaries.
However, while they’re saying it’s a passive income, it’s so far from the truth because, if you stop doing things, it will stop coming in, but it is incredibly leveraged and scalable. That is what got me hook line, and sinker when I first started it.
I had run a service-based business. My main business that I sold was primary tutoring centres. We employed teachers. We had 120 staff. We would pay them $40 an hour. We would get $80 an hour out of that.
We’d pay our taxes, rent, marketing, and everything. There was very little left. You had really high scale. The only way to grow and make more money was to either work more hours or hire more people – neither of which were very enjoyable pursuits.
When I sold that, I was really tinkering around, doing some consulting for people until I found my next real business was the plan. I did an online course launch for a product that people were asking me to put together because what I was known for with my previous business was systems. I love systems! I geek out on systems which is rare, I have discovered.
I did this course launch and made $11,000 in the week. To a lot of people, that is not all that much, but it blew my freaking mind. I was like, “So, I created this program, and all these people are really happy they’re getting access to all of this, and I have to do nothing.”
I felt so weird. I even started calling people to make sure that they logged in okay, how they were finding the content. I’m a weirdo. I can’t not serve people. It took a lot of getting used to.
How it differs from traditional business is most traditional businesses grow reputationally which is not dissimilar to online business, but you are capped out at a certain period. Probably 50 to 60 percent of effort in a traditional business goes in delivery to clients.
In an online business I really think it’s 80 to 90 percent marketing and sales which is both really good and really bad because I see so many really clever smart women who have all of this expertise and knowledge but can’t market for shit, don’t want to put themselves out there, don’t want to get vulnerable.
In this day and age, the simple truth with courses, if you don’t want to do that, you’re missing the easiest way to grow. I still think there are other ways you can do it. You could create some super sophisticated funnels and put a bucket ton of money into Facebook ads.
There are lots of different ways you can do it, but if you aren’t willing to put yourself at the forefront and communicate from human to human, you are just not going to do as well. That’s the biggest difference between the two businesses, I think.
Mia Fileman 13:47
I love that.
We ask our customers to trust us. That’s what we’re doing. We’re saying, “Can you trust me with your money?” but are we trusting them? Are we opening up? Are we putting ourselves out there so that they can feel comfortable to put themselves out there and invest with us?
Tina Tower 14:04
It is my favourite thing about online business. The market is so big that you can come as you are.
I am really good friends with people that would be considered competitors in my market, but it is fine because we are such different individuals that we will attract different people into our communities in this space for all of us to coexist.
The more you can embrace “this is who I am, this is what I believe in,” the more you are attracting polarized people, and then you will end up going, “I love my life! I love my business! I get to serve people.”
When we have live events, I’m like, “These are my people! This is so good!” which I’m thinking now may be a little bit too much of an echo chamber and I need to open up a little bit, but it’s the whole “vibe attracts your tribe” thing. I love that we’re people that have the same values and can all rise together.
Mia Fileman 15:01
Yes, I am a marketer for marketers, so marketers are my customers, my competitors, and they are also me. I don’t know. I have completely blurred the lines with competitors, but what I have found really interesting is exactly like you said.
There are people who are in Her Empire Builder that are also doing Campaign Classroom that have also done Hack Your Own PR. Now, it’s more about synergy. Now, so many people have done Hack Your Own PR and Campaign Classroom that I’ve said to Odette, “Fuck, let’s bundle it!”
Tina Tower 15:37
Great idea!
Mia Fileman 15:39
They need to do Campaign Classroom first, so they will do that first. Then, they can go off and do Hack Your Own PR. Let’s align the course dates so that it all just works out.
Tina Tower 15:48
This is the other part of your question – “How do you think it’s going now in terms of an industry?”
It’s more going towards that. It’s more going to collaborations and humans working together and going, “What does the client want?”
When did you start in online business?
Mia Fileman 16:04
2019.
Tina Tower 16:07
Much the same time.
I think the traditional model was we do a big fandangle launch and we sell out 8- to 12-week course for $2,000. That was the socially acceptable marketplace. I don’t think that flies as much now. It’s a lot more hybrid in going, “You can’t just set and forget this course.”
You need to actually serve people, jump in with live Q&A components, have accountability calls and connect with people, and have more of these hybrid nature programs, or have much cheaper and very specific problem-solving courses.
I think there is a massive space for how to start your Instagram account, how to launch your podcast, and how to do all of these things. The last course that I bought was how to train your dog to stop barking. It was a very specific program. It was $97. It was the problem I wanted solved. I didn’t want to waste any time Googling and watching on YouTube. I wanted that result from the trusted person.
The course I bought before that was how to grow vegetables for your family in your greenhouse in your background. So specific. I paid $297 for that course. So valuable.
I think it has either got to be self-directed and solve one very specific problem. Anyone is trying to do “how to market your business,” for example, or “how to grow your online business,” that just doesn’t work unless it’s meaty, and even that is really hard to get right because you overwhelm the shit out of people along the way, too.
Mia Fileman 17:47
It’s not specific enough. Yes, that’s such a good point!
The last course I bought was how to optimize your Kajabi blog.
Tina Tower 17:56
There you go!
Mia Fileman 17:57
That’s exactly what I want. I want my Kajabi blog to work harder.
Tina Tower 18:04
Yes, I want to optimize my Kajabi blog. Yes, that’s it.
Mia Fileman 18:07
So good.
The thing that irks me the most is the blanket statements. “I don’t want to do anymore online courses.” Or “I have done enough online courses.” That’s like saying, “I’ve gone to F45, so I’ve done all exercise.” Or “I have worked with one marketing consultant, so I have worked with all marketing consultants.”
Not all online courses are created equal. The devil is in the detail. Yes, there are some not-great-quality online courses just like there are some not-great-quality fitness classes. Throwing out the entire industry of online education, self-paced, it’s such a sweeping statement.
Tina Tower 18:55
You see that? I don’t ever see any of that. I am like, “What? People are feeling that way? Oh! I don’t get that.”
Mia Fileman 19:02
We do.
Tina Tower 19:02
No, I don’t pay any attention to that.
Mia Fileman 19:05
Great. I’m going to come hang out where you are hanging out.
Tina Tower 19:10
Also, it depends on the consumer.
I am a voracious learner. In my 20 years in business, I have had business coaches right since the beginning. I have been part of business coaching programs. I have bought courses. I have read all the books and done all the things. I never stop because things are changing all the time.
But my priorities change sometimes. In a year where I might be looking to get up on technical stuff, I will buy 20 courses in the year. I can get one thing out of those courses and think it’s good value because all I need is one little snippet. You have got other people that are like, “If I watch from start to finish and I don’t love every second, then I don’t like it.” It depends on the person.
I have made mistakes with what I have bought, too. I have wanted connection and community in some of them, so I have joined high-level masterminds. The biggest one that I have joined that I made a mistake on, I paid USD 35,000 for a year and it was terrible. I was like, “How did I do this?” but it was someone that had a really big name. They didn’t have to try that hard.
I have had better experiences from programs that I have paid $10,000 in the year for, but they were led by someone who wasn’t leap years ahead of me, but was slightly ahead and was still really trying hard to impress, so I think it depends on where you are at with your journey as a consumer and what you are looking to get out of courses in that value perception.
Mia Fileman 20:43
Are we not talking about this enough? Business is inherently risky.
If you are not a risk-taker, I do not think entrepreneurship is for you. Sometimes, you are going to invest in the wrong places and get on with it. But if you are going to sit there and cry over the $35,000, at least you tried.
That’s such a good point you made about, if you get one thing out of an online course, it could be worth it. I did an advanced Facebook ads course. I found it really basic. At the end, I was like, “This was a waste of time,” then I’m like, “No, it wasn’t.
It told me that actually I know a lot more about Facebook ads than I gave myself credit for.” What I had learned was that I still don’t enjoy it. It’s not a problem with my knowledge. It’s that my brain doesn’t work in that way. That was the impetus to outsource our Facebook ads, and we’ve never looked back!
Before, there was this guilt that I should be doing my own Facebook ads because I’m a marketing strategist, but no. I paid $297. That’s a great lesson for $297.
Tina Tower 21:53
That’s great value lesson.
Mia Fileman 21:55
Absolutely!
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Let’s talk about Launch House! Step by step, take us through it. How did it come about? What’s involved? Let’s do it!
Tina Tower 22:52
Yes, this episode is coming out after Launch House has been and done, but we are recording before it. I am still in the stage of going, “I don’t know how it’s all going to unfold,” but this is also in reference to people that think that online courses are passive income.
Our analogy of the slingshot or bow and arrow – I have spent the last month pretty much all day, two or three days a week, planning this launch. It’s eight days of live launching which will look like so many things because I do all the things.
I don’t just do some of the things. I do so many things and there are so many moving parts, but the preparation that goes into it is extreme. I am aware that not everyone wants to do all the things. A lot of my clients are like, “I’m okay for 20 percent of the results, but I will do 20 percent of the effort because that is a ridiculous level of things.” I always do that with my members.
I do a debrief after. I show them everything that I do. The most common response that I get is “That is a lot! I don’t want to do all of that!” but Launch House is the fun part.
Back in March, we did our first Launch House with other people. I brought my team into a house in Palm Springs. We ran the launch from there which was the first time I had ever ran a launch with other people. I always destination launch – except for those pesky couple of times when COVID wouldn’t let me leave my house.
I always destination launch. I have launched from beautiful hotels all over the world. I love having that different energy. Also, because of the concentration of a launch, I go all in. I forget all the rest of left is gone to me. I have no husband, children, dogs, and gardens.
I am so laser-focused and obsessed in that time because that’s what it demands in my eyes, if you really want to do a good job. Some people agree with that, and some people don’t, but that’s just what works for me. I embrace that because it works really well.
We did that Launch House. I was like, “I really want to experience this with members,” because we were getting so many questions. I’m like, “It would be really fun with members – answering people and doing that.”
I rented this gorgeous house in the Gold Coast and had members apply to be in there, so that we could do Launch House. That’s what it was supposed to be – until you and I started going, “What should we do for this campaign?”
I had this to flesh out and the other idea that I had was Live Life in Full Colour which actually came about from a line that you said in the conference when you were presenting onstage. I wrote in my notebook: “Life live in full colour.” I think that it’s the most amazing campaign idea. However, we can’t spell the word “colour” because we have half Australian audience and half American audience. There’s no word that replaces “colour” really well in the same way.
We went down this Launch House idea. You had the beautiful yet crazy idea to make it like a reality show. We will do Big Brother. We will do different things. We will have interview rooms. Straight away, I was like, “Yes, that sounds like a whole lot of fun!”
Mia Fileman 26:11
I got off the call and I was like, “Oh, my god, Mia! Did you just pitch a reality TV series?” Yes, I did!
Tina Tower 26:20
Yes, you did!
We are still three weeks out from going into the house. Circling back to my introverted-ness, we are going to be running launch at the same time. I will be doing live training every day. I will be doing Instagram lives every afternoon with members as well as hosting five members as well as filming a reality TV show at the same time. All the things!
Mia Fileman 26:49
I will continue to bring you hydration and nutrition so that you can maintain your energy.
Very exciting!
I was nervous about pitching Launch House because, before starting my online business, I worked with very big brands to do their campaigns – Maybelline, Vegemite, Witchery, Mimco. They make decisions by committee. Every idea I have ever pitched has been diluted. Everyone drives the chain and needs to go through three levels of approvals, so I was worried about pitching such an ambitious idea.
Obviously, I have misjudged Tina because you just get it done. You and your team get it done. It has been such a beautiful partnership and it’s coming together really well. I think we’re really organized.
Tina Tower 27:45
It is, yes. We are on our Monday boards. We have got everything really well-organized. We filmed yesterday. We had all the scripts done which, by the way, is something you introduced me to through this campaign.
I don’t think winging it is a strategy. I am hyper planned with many things. However, I do all of my videos from dot points. I have never written a script for a video before. Often, when I am going to hit record, I have this moment of going, “Remember to say this, and remember to say that. Hit those points, yes, yes, yes,” then I go for it. I am one-take-Tina. Sometimes, you have that regret afterwards and go, “I should have said it that way,” but I have just always done it like that.
You wrote these entire scripts. They had these giant iPad-sized teleprompters to change my freaking life. I’m like, “What have I been doing? Why have I been putting myself through that?” The good part is I didn’t have to think about it at all. The downside was I couldn’t let go of (28:44 unclear) halfway through of which I do like the naturality of being able to pause and laugh and do that sort of thing.
It’s been interesting trying those new things and having your input into that as well, but it’s so organized. We’ve got run sheets for people. Our members have really rallied around it, too. I find it really difficult to ask people for help. It’s a thread that has run throughout my life. I always have to be the person that does the thing.
This has been a really interesting experience. It’s very dependent upon our five members that are coming into the house. I have had to ask them to do a lot of different preparation things and things that are taking precious time out of their schedules to do as well. They have rallied. They are having a great time.
Mia Fileman 29:33
Our group chat is on fire.
Tina Tower 29:35
I was talking to one of them separately last night. She is the most extroverted of the bunch.
I was saying I have nerves around my energy and that I am going to have to disappear for an hour or two in the day at different pockets and watch Netflix, or have a bath, or sit, and can she hold the space for that time? She was like, “We’ve already been talking about this. We fully expect you to lose your shit at one point and be like, ‘Everyone, leave me alone!’”
Mia Fileman 30:08
Definitely going to film that!
Tina Tower 30:10
Yes, that’s been really interesting to explore.
They say to ask for help from people because it feels so much nicer having it all together. The feeling going into this launch, one of my goals for Her Empire Builder this year was really to morph from “me” to “we” and that involved bringing on a whole lot more team and really very slowly changing our branding from Tina Tower to Her Empire Builder.
It’s a three-year plan to do that but making it not The Tina Show feels really significant in that move to the business as a whole. It feels nerve-racking, all of the things, but it also feels really light in terms of every day I will have five of my favourite humans there with me that are in it with me, and we can carry the load together.
It’s a really interesting campaign on many fronts.
Mia Fileman 31:11
It is, but we always say that it should always be 80 percent pre-production and 20 percent production. We have got run sheets already and step by step what is going to be in each episode, the focus, the action, who is going to be there, what they are going to wear, and all of that.
It’s not there to restrict you. Of course, we can go off-book after that. It’s just there to guide us so that in the moment there can be flexibility. There can be an opportunity. As you are reading that script, if you are like, “I keep wanting to say this word,” then say it! That’s the beauty of planning. It’s not there to bind your hands.
My favourite quote in the whole world is from Jocko Willink.
Tina Tower 32:01
I love Jocko.
Mia Fileman 32:02
An ex-Navy SEAL. He says, “Discipline equals freedom.” I freaking love that!
Having everything in place, having all of it ready to go gives me the freedom that, during the campaign, I can be like, “No, that’s not a good day for that post, that’s not a good day for that story, so let’s flick it to the other day,” but it’s all there. I’m not scrambling.
Tina Tower 32:22
I do exactly the same.
The day before yesterday, I finished scheduling all of our emails that go out through launch. We have a daily email – sometimes two emails a day towards the end – that go out towards launch. Only 50 percent of those emails will end up being what they are, but every single one of them is scheduled so that, if I lose my mind for some reason, everything should still go on how it is.
I totally agree with “discipline is freedom” because then it frees up your mind that you know everything is taken care of and everything is fine. You can be really present in the moment which I do think is what a launch requires.
I will get very personal with you for a second because I think that it’s probably very helpful to people that are listening. Launch House is basically where we’re showing people the real behind the scenes of us in the thick of a launch. I don’t know how that’s going to go. It may be the best launch we’ve ever had. It may be the worst launch we’ve ever had.
I was talking to my coach the other day. The worst launch I’ve ever had was the exact same time last year. I was going, “Is that going to repeat? What if it sucks?” I have all my members there. I have a film crew in my face. I’m like, “I’m the person who teaches launching, and I suck right now.”
It was a real fear point, so we have spent the last couple of sessions working through what if that does happen. We ended up putting it into going, “It could actually be more beneficial because there are more lessons when you suck than when you win.” When you win, you’re like, “Yes, everything went smooth. Beautiful! Welcome!”
When things go wrong, it teaches you a whole lot more. While I hope it doesn’t suck, while I hope it is the best one ever, I had to get to the stage also that I will be okay emotionally if I am completely on the road where it’s all not working to plan and I’m okay to show that and let people learn from that which is something that I was most nervous about.
Mia Fileman 34:28
It’s not going to happen. It’s strategically sound.
Tina Tower 34:33
It has a three percent chance of happening. We actually ran the numbers on all of the different things that would go wrong and discovered that we do have a three percent chance of a repeat of the same time last year, but we have got a 97 percent chance that it won’t, and we have got a seven percent chance of everything going right and it being the best one ever.
It is most likely going to fall somewhere in-between.
Mia Fileman 34:53
I will take those odds for sure.
That is such a good point, especially because you are very similar to me. You are a very transparent entrepreneur. I call it how the sausage is being made. All my emails to my entire database are literally why we do what we do and how we do what we do behind the scenes of our campaigns. Very transparent.
We are currently running the last intake of Campaign Classroom for two years because I am moving overseas. There are five spots left. I don’t know if I’m going to sell them because everyone that has reached out to me to do it, I have knocked back because they are not ready for it.
I’m like, “But I always sell out. If I don’t sell out, that’s going to be a real problem.” Then, I’m like, “No, it’s not.” I’m going to talk about the fact that, to maintain the five-star reviews that I have for it, to maintain this reputation, I need to start knocking people back and saying, “I’m sorry. You’re just not ready for Campaign Classroom. It’s an advanced program.” It’s hard, though. It’s very hard turning away money.
Tina Tower 35:58
It’s very hard, but it’s a very unrealistic expectation for us to expect to win 100 percent of the time.
I will say I have only become better at this probably in the last five years because I feel like I don’t really have much to prove anymore – people can think what they want of me and my life, and I’m good. I wish I had that when I was in my 20s and I had all the energy to really capitalize on that.
But the thing that makes me the saddest is when I talk to women or our members and they are going through something in their business and they are trying to do a launch campaign or something new and they are like, “I don’t know why it’s so hard for me and so much easier for everybody else,” and they give up on their dreams because they feel like it’s worse for them.
It becomes easy when you recognise how hard it’s supposed to be. If you embrace the hard, that’s what makes it easy. It’s never easy.
These people that are doing Instagram posts of traveling the world and only working 10 hours a work and making millions of dollars could be true. However, they have either built something really significant beforehand that’s now paying them for the work they’ve already done, or their profit is miniscule because they’ve employed a Grade A team to keep that going, or they are lying.
Mia Fileman 37:33
Oh, my god. I was just about to say Option C.
Tina Tower 37:37
Yes!
If people are listening, well, it’s hard, and there’s a lot. Of course! Welcome to the game! That’s business.
Mia Fileman 37:46
Exactly.
I get that. People are like, “The campaigns are just so much work.” I never told you they weren’t – ever. I will not. It’s so much work, and what? Get on with it!
That leads into the next question perfectly which is that the tagline for the Launch House campaign is “Go big or go home!” I’d love for you to speak more about what this means to you.
Tina Tower 38:11
Yes, you came up with that one. You were like, “Is this too forward for you?” There was a moment where I was like, “I don’t want to turn people off with that. However, one of the most beautiful compliments I got which was right before you pitched that tagline, I was at an event which I haven’t been to a live event in a really long time.
She said to me, “I love Her Empire Builder. It’s the place where high achievers go. I’m part of all of these different networks and all of these different programs, and some people are there because they like the glorification of being an entrepreneur, but they are not actually getting any results, or they are circling back around. You’re the place where you’re hold accountable, and you’re expected to get results. It’s a lot of pressure, and some people opt out because they feel like they are not getting results and they don’t want to do it and it’s too much pressure, so they’re gone.”
The first couple of years we ran, I didn’t want that because I didn’t want people to feel like they were not taking action or getting the results that they have to self-select out. But at the same time, when she said that, like you said with Campaign Classroom, people have to be ready for it to get those results.
I love being known for the place that gets actual tangible business growth. I don’t want to be filled with bullshit and prettiness. I want prettiness and I want results. I want all those things. Then, when you said, “Go big or go home!” I was like, “Yes!” because it is what I believe.
If you want big results, you have to take big action. It always matches. There have been different seasons in my business where I have had a year where I’ve gone, “I just want this year to be a calibration year.” I want to regroup this year. I am not going for 10X growth. I am happy staying where I am. For that year, I did less action, and I got less results. If I’m ready to go big, I’m so for that!
Mia Fileman 40:14
Yes, you’re putting your money where your mouth is.
You’ve hired a house. You’ve planned out several emails a day, Instagram lives every afternoon, live coaching, a film crew. You have gone big.
Tina Tower 40:28
I have gone big.
Mia Fileman 40:29
You’re walking the walk, and you’re talking the talk.
I think we underestimate the subliminal damage that the gurus have done to us because, when I talk to people, there is still some underlying belief that it should be easier. When I say to them, “Campaigns have many moving parts. We plan it for six weeks – if not nine weeks – and then we are in market for however long. Blah blah blah.” They are like, “Ah! That’s so hard.”
Where did you get the idea that it was easy? I would say that it comes back to those people that you were talking about – scale your business to seven figures in six weeks working four hours a week. It’s a house of cards. You go back through their Instagram and see that they were posting every single day for three years, Instagram live every single week. They had a podcast. They pumped out a hundred episodes.
Exactly what you said earlier on in this chat. It’s leveraged. They’ve leveraged what they did in the first three years. Now, it’s paying off for them, but that was a risk. They were also dancing while no one was watching.
Tina Tower 41:48
Yes, exactly!
I do think there’s also got to be a willingness of going all in, too. There’s a lot of protection that we have as humans around ourselves from going all in. When I was talking to my coach the other day, I did say there’s an element there of that fear and going, “If this isn’t my best launch, it will not be because I didn’t give it my all. I will get an A for effort. I have tried everything. I will be doing what I currently know with my current state of business and experience everything that I know to be best practice.”
There is a lot of safety in not doing everything because you give yourself a cop out in going, “Well, I didn’t do my lives, so that’s obviously why it didn’t work,” or “I didn’t want to run a challenge this time, so that’s why it didn’t work,” or “I thought I’d lower my emails this time,” or whatever it is. We usually give ourselves a bit of an out so that we don’t have to carry the failure.
I am fully embracing the potential for failure. I don’t want it, and I’m doing everything I can to mitigate it, but I’m also okay in going “it won’t be because of me.”
Mia Fileman 42:57
Exactly. I feel exactly the same way.
There’s nothing with being in a stage of business where you are not ready to give it all. You have young children. You have other priorities. You are on this healing journey. You want to run a marathon and that’s your priority this year – not launching an online course and scaling your business. That’s fine!
I think it’s so important in business that we have a niche. It’s for the high achievers. There are other people that can help you make sure that you sell out all of your service, that you fill all your spots in your client roster, that you have enough work to replace your corporate income. There is enough people that can help you do that, but you do something different, and that’s how you stand out in the marketplace.
Tina Tower 43:49
Yes.
Mia Fileman 43:51
Final question. This whole campaign is all about getting members into Her Empire Builder. Why is this so important to you?
Tina Tower 44:01
Because I think wealthy women change the world is really what it is.
Through my whole business life, the thread had carried through of helping women become more financially independent and stand on their own two feet.
Last night, I was watching a speech by Goldie Hawn who I love. She was on this full rant about the only way that women can have really healthy marriages, be really healthy parents, and be all of these things is by first being rooted in who we are, being able to stand on our own two feet by ourselves first, trusting ourselves, and having that knowledge that we’ve got us.
When one of our members recently retired her husband who hated his job. She finally was able to get to the stage of going, “If you want to try a different career and go back to uni, you can do that.” She was in tears talking about it. It was something she never dreamed was possible for her. I love seeing people blow their own minds. It’s my favourite thing – ever.
I think the only way that we can really make impact in the world is to do well ourselves and spread that far and wide. When people say money doesn’t buy happiness, I’m like, “You’ve never been broke.” It’s horrible, and I think it’s a really privileged thing to be able to say because, once you have money, yes, it doesn’t buy more happiness, but you can then look after yourself, your health, your education, you can do what you like. It solves so many things.
At the moment, we fund 45 girls going to school in Kenya through our scholarship program. I want to grow that massively. When we see more women in positions at the table, the world starts changing. We are going into a shit show overseas with climate change happening and with politics being so up and down. We need more women that feel like they have the space and the mental fortitude to hold those spaces. I like to do my little part of that, but really, we are all about systems. That’s why I do it.
For a lot of people, there are mindset experts and all that sort of thing. I am very big on mindset, and I do a lot of mindset work myself. However, that’s not what Her Empire Builder is about. Mine is really going, “You want the big thing. You want to create the business.” But you’re like, “I have this dream, but I’m not really sure what to do next or how to do it better.” That’s what we give.
We have got all of the experts, the templates, the systems to really plug into your team, plug into yourself to elevate the business to a next level because I geek out on all of that stuff. Why I do it is because I want people to do well.
Mia Fileman 47:03
So good.
After the conference, I joined Her Empire Builder because I wanted in. I absolutely loved the vibe and the people. It is insane value – so much value! I log on during the weekend. Tina’s given a hundred templates in Canva that you have to literally throw in your stuff. So good.
Tina Tower 47:25
That’s the beautiful thing. Everyone’s a course creator. Whenever I make something that I think will be helpful, I share it. A lot of people say, “I can’t believe you just give all of that to your members. Aren’t you afraid they’re going to give it to other people?” I’m like, “Go for it! Spread the love!”
Mia Fileman 47:41
Yes, my core brand value is generosity. I feel like you give, and it comes back.
There are moments in your life that stick with you. I remember taking a year off. I had started uni. I did one year. I took a year off and travelled Europe, as you do. I was having moments of “do I ever want to go back?” and “do I want to go to uni?”
I was in the Island of Rhodes. I was working at a café for fun. There was a lady there also working at the cafe. She was full-time. We got talking one day. She explained that she married straight out of school. She married a guy. He told her to give up her work. They had children. He has now left her.
She has absolutely nothing and is forever going to be cleaning ashtrays in a café because she handed over all of her financial power to him. I was like, “This has been fun! I’m going back! I’m going to finish this little trip. I’m going to go back and finish my degree. I’m never going to put myself in a position like that.” My heart absolutely broke for her.
Tina Tower 48:55
I have been married for nearly 20 years and have such a beautiful relationship with my husband. I really think it’s because we are two independent and fully formed humans that love being together.
Mia Fileman 49:12
I love that. What a beautiful way to end.
Thank you so much for being so open!
Tina Tower 49:18
Thank you, Mia!
Mia Fileman 49:19
Generous with your time and your ideas.
I can’t wait to get this episode out. I am going to link all the things in the show notes, website, details for Her Empire Builder, and I cannot wait to see Launch House in the wild.
Tina Tower 49:33
Me, too! Thank you!
Mia Fileman 49:35
Thank you!
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Podcast reviews are like warm hugs. They’re also the best way to support a small business. You can connect with me, Mia Fileman, on Instagram or LinkedIn. Feel free to send me a message! I’m super friendly.
