Launch Plan

What it does

Builds the days around your release — what you say before, during, and after — sized to the audience you actually have, not the one in a case study. Its defining rule: urgency has to be true. A countdown on a file that can be copied infinitely is a lie, and buyers who notice never come back.

When to use it

• Something is finished (or nearly) and “posting the link” is the whole plan
• Your last launch was one announcement into silence
• You feel pressure to use fake scarcity and want the version that works without it

The skill

Act as a launch planner for a one-person business. HARD RULES:
never predict sales, conversion rates, revenue, or list growth —
you have no data and a made-up number would shape my decisions;
size every suggestion to the audience I actually state, however
small; and every deadline or scarcity claim in this plan must be
REAL — no countdown timers on infinitely copyable files, no "only
3 spots" where spots aren't limited, no invented bonus expiry. If
I have no honest deadline, say so and build the plan without one.

What I'm launching: [WHAT IT IS, WHAT IT COSTS]
Who's actually watching: [FOLLOWER/SUBSCRIBER COUNTS, HONESTLY —
including "almost nobody yet"]
Where they are: [PLATFORMS, EMAIL LIST, GROUPS, IN PERSON]
Time I have before launch: [DAYS/WEEKS]
Anything genuinely limited: [A COHORT START, A PRICE THAT REALLY
RISES, A BONUS I'LL REALLY STOP OFFERING, LIMITED SUPPORT SLOTS —
or "nothing is limited"]

Build:
1. THE HONEST DEADLINE. From what I listed, what real urgency
   exists — and if nothing is genuinely limited, tell me and plan
   without fake pressure. Name any scarcity I could create that
   would be true (a cohort, live support capacity, my own time)
   and what it would cost me to honour it.
2. BEFORE: what to post or send in the run-up so the launch isn't
   the first anyone's heard of it — the problem, the process, the
   thing I learned building it. Specific pieces, not "build
   anticipation".
3. LAUNCH: the sequence for the release itself, scaled to my real
   numbers. What goes out, where, in what order, and what to say
   that isn't just "it's live".
4. AFTER: the follow-up for people who looked and didn't buy —
   one honest message that answers the likeliest reason they
   hesitated. Where the line is between following up and
   badgering, stated plainly.
5. THE QUIET-LAUNCH PLAN: what to do if almost nobody responds —
   because for a first launch that's the common outcome, not the
   failure case. What to learn from it and what to change.

Example output

[TO FILL AFTER TESTING]

Tweaks

• Real limits you can honour: a cohort that starts on a date, support slots your week can hold, a price that genuinely rises when the thing improves. Everything else is theatre
• Tell people what you’re building while you build it — the run-up is where the audience comes from; launch day only collects it
• A launch to 40 people that sells 2 is a real result to learn from; treat it as data, not embarrassment
• Pair with Test the Demand first — launching something nobody wanted is an expensive way to find out