7 Lessons From Launching 12 Cohorts (And $100k+ in Revenue)
Key strategies that worked (and everywhere I went wrong)
In the past 2 years, I have launched over 12 group cohort offers.
Some have been highly successful, pulling in $20-40k of revenue in a month.
Others have been less successful, only generating $1-3k of revenue.
In this brief letter, I want to give you the 7 biggest lessons I have learned from these launches so that you can replicate what has worked for me for your unique offer (avoid the mistakes I’ve made along the way).
If you want to work with me to launch your first cohort on January 1 with a plug-and-play system for your unique offer, check out the $40k launch playbook here (doors close Oct 15 - 4/5 spots remaining) ↓
https://creatorlaunchprogram.com/
Now, onto the lessons:
1) Launch a lead magnet first
The first step I take when launching a cohort is to give away a free lead magnet months before the launch.
Why?
There are many reasons, but here are a few:
A) Builds goodwill.
When you give something valuable away to your audience for free, you build goodwill. Goodwill is the trust you build by giving value first that compounds over time until people buy because they have already seen you can help them.
When I first envisioned launching my first cohort on January 1, 2024, I spent the months of September and October of 2023 not building the actual cohort, but instead building a highly valuable lead magnet called the Peak Performance Primer. This free course was a 4+ hour video course on peak performance, neuroscience, and flow psychology - specifically tailored to creators. It built so much trust and authority within the space that when I launched a cohort a few months later, many of the people who went through that course ended up signing up.
The Peak Performance Primer got 400 comments and added over 1000 subscribers to my email list (as I relaunched it again at a later date), which leads into the other reasons why a lead magnet is so valuable:
B) Builds your email list.
Everyone wants to build their email list. It’s where you create the deepest connection with your audience. It’s the only traffic source you actually “own.” It will be the #1 source of inbound conversions for all of your future offerings. But everyone and their mom seems to have a Substack. Why would someone subscribe to yours?
This is where a lead magnet comes in. Rather than solely relying on algorithms and stellar writing to attract newsletter readers, a lead magnet is a “back-door strategy” to acquire signups. Out of my 3,700+ readers, I would estimate about 50% are from free giveaways. And out of the 100+ people who have signed up for one of my cohorts, I would estimate 70% or more have come from my email list.
These numbers should not only show you the power of building your email list, but also demonstrate how a lead magnet can be the key to growing your list in a saturated market.
C) Automatically boosts warm-lead flow in your DMs.
In addition to growing your email list, a lead magnet also generates dozens, if not hundreds, of warm leads in your DMs. A warm lead is classified as someone who has already engaged with your content, reached out to you, or downloaded one of your free giveaways.
Because I had 1,000+ leads in my DMs from various auto-DM giveaways on X, I now had 1,000+ warm leads in my DMs that might be interested in my cohort. Implementing a DM strategy in addition to email marketing was the key ingredient that took me from $23k in my first cohort launch to $40k the second time around.
This is also why I always recommend launching your lead magnet as an Auto-DM giveaway on X, IG, or LinkedIn. Not only will people sign up for your email list when they download your guides, but they will also be in your DM inbox for you (or your VA) to follow up with when it is time to share your new launch.
D) Solves a beginner problem while revealing the next.
This reason is a bit more technical, but important to note if you are launching a lead magnet.
You don’t want to just launch a random giveaway without a clear intention and strategy. You want to strategically launch a lead magnet that naturally leads into your full offer. The lead magnet should serve as a beginner’s guide to a problem related to your full cohort offer, so that those who go through the lead magnet naturally will ascend into your paid program.
Here is an example:
Say you are a fitness coach, and your full offer is a 12-week weight loss program. As a lead magnet, you’d want to give something that is general weight loss advice (like a free cookbook, calorie tracker, or generalized lifting program). Then, personalized accountability, meal plans, and training plans are your paid offer. Those who go through the lead magnet and gain a bit of knowledge on weight loss will naturally look to the next way to solve their problem (accountability and personalization) and see that your offer perfectly solves their next problem.
Another example of this strategy was my free lead magnet Creative Work 101. This was a beginner-level course on the creator economy and social media growth that naturally led those who went through it to the next logical problem to solve in their creator journey - monetization. Once someone went through the course and gained sufficient awareness of the creator economy and social media growth, they were now ready to think about the problem of monetization, where my upcoming cohort was positioned.
In essence, see the big picture of your cohort offer, and position your lead magnet to solve a beginner-level problem that will reveal the next problem that your cohort is perfectly positioned to solve.
2) Vibecode a minimal, aesthetic landing page BEFORE you build the program
I put off learning how to build websites for years. I made excuses like “I’m not technical” or “I don’t want to spend the time learning web design so that I can focus on writing and creating.” These were really more limiting beliefs than rational explanations.
Finally, I decided to give this vibecoding thing a try. I went on v0.dev by Vercel, began to talk to the AI, and realized I could do this. Now, I can whip up a website within a few days using this tool, just by talking to the AI, and without knowing a lick about coding.
Why is this important for your cohort launch? Again, there are many reasons.
A) A website boosts your authority
A clean website boosts your brand authority and increases the likelihood that someone will click “buy.” It is a fact of human psychology that we are more likely to work with someone or buy a product from a company with an aesthetic, professional brand image (ie, the Halo Effect). It is also a fact of human nature that we are more likely to buy from those who have helped others achieve results (ie, social proof), which is why it is important to stack your landing page with testimonials and client results. Just take a look at one of your favorite creators’ offers or personal websites. Odds are, it probably looks pretty professional and it littered with testimonials.
A few years ago, during my first few launches, I intuitively knew this fact of human nature, and so I spent a few thousand dollars (each launch) on a website from a freelance web designer. The decision to do this definitely boosted my brand authority and increased my conversions. But now I see that I didn’t have to hire someone to do this for me, and that I could instead build the website myself within a few days, gain more autonomy over the design and flow of the site, and save a few thousand dollars in the process.
B) Forces clarity on your offer, system, and curriculum
When you sit down to create your landing page before building the actual curriculum and container for your cohort, you are forced to see the big picture of your cohort to complete the page.
A sufficient landing page would include an offer, a big idea, an outline of the curriculum, a unique mechanism, and details on the container and how the program will run. By running through this process (and you can look at my vibecoded landing page as an example), you will have no choice but to get clarity on all aspects of your cohort.
From here, it becomes much easier to build the actual cohort because you have an outlined curriculum and a plan for the structure and fulfillment of your program.
C) Validates your offer
The easiest way to waste tons of time and energy in this economy is to spend months building a product only to find out that nobody wants to use it.
A smarter way to go about this (and I have learned this from NOT doing this multiple times) is to build your landing page first (and announcing it to your email list and audience after you launch a lead magnet). This way, you verify if your offer is actually desired by the market - without wasting time building a product that nobody wants.
Then, if someone clicks “buy” on your page, you can now execute an email marketing strategy, content strategy, and build the entire program because the offer is now validated by real-world data.
3) Position your offer as “surface level”
When creating your offer, think in terms of what people actually want.
People want more money, more time, a better body, more athleticism, a higher social status, a girlfriend/boyfriend, or more sex. These things seem surface-level, but you have to realize you are selling to people’s egos and desires as much as you are their higher selves. You are selling “chocolate-covered broccoli,” in the sense that the stuff everyone wants is the “chocolate,” and the real work that’s required to get the result is the “broccoli.”
In my creator cohorts, I sell the ideas of freedom, meaning, and internet money. But within the program, I am teaching the inner and outer work that will unlock this through the vehicle of online business.
People come for the possibility of living in Bali and making internet money, but the way they actually achieve this is through learning psychology, modern business skills, and self-discipline (among many other domains). The lifestyle of sipping coconuts on the beach in Bali is the chocolate. The skills, traits, and daily habits that unlock that lifestyle are the chocolate.
The chocolate and the broccoli are really inseparable. You can’t ever taste the chocolate (the fruits of your labor) without putting in the labor itself. It is the monkey mind or the ego who wants to eat the chocolate, but it is the willful self who is willing to eat the broccoli. Do not be afraid to sell to people’s monkey minds, and work with their spirits to achieve a real transformation.
When creating your cohort offer, do not be afraid to go broad and surface-level. A program that appears superficial, like a dating course, a confidence cohort, or a business program, will inevitably contain deeper truths about psychology, reality, and human nature that will transform someone’s reality from the inside out. The shiny stuff you are selling is the desired outcome. But the mechanisms by which you help a client undergo that change (the real work) are what allow the outcome to become reality.
Sell them chocolate. Serve them broccoli.
4) Give yourself plenty of time from idea to launch
It may seem obvious, but the more time you give yourself to plan and execute a launch, the more successful you will be.
I’ve been least successful when I’ve launched a cohort within 2-3 weeks of the initial idea. Without ample space and time, you can’t execute on all the subtle elements that maximize your success (like a lead magnet, growth strategy, and outreach flow that build months in advance of your official launch).
I’ve been most successful when I’ve given myself 2-3 months to execute a comprehensive strategy with all the subtle elements dialed. The times when I hit $23k and $40k months were the times I had 3+ months to visualize and execute the entire strategy.
This is why my CreatorLaunch offer starts in mid-October for a January cohort launch. With 2-3 months of space, we will create a comprehensive game plan that creates momentum and authority leading up to a giant payday in January.
Whether or not you sign up for this program, I recommend starting to map out your launch strategy now if you plan to launch something on January 1.
The more time you give yourself before a launch, the more successful you will be.
5) Use a “price-scaling” email marketing strategy
Human beings need reasons to make decisions. If a human being does not have a reason to make a decision, they will never make one. This fact of human psychology is where a price-scaling email marketing strategy comes into play.
A price-scaling email marketing strategy is fairly simple. Over the launch window (say 5 weeks), you would scale the price by 10% each week. This maximizes the number of times an interested lead will decide whether they want to join or not. All that’s required to do this is a mapped-out schedule and an email list (which is again why launching a lead magnet early is so valuable).
Here is an example of a template I would use for a price-scaling email marketing strategy if I were launching a cohort on January 1.
The Multi-Week Email Marketing Strategy
Nov 24 - Initial announcement
Nov 27 - Story email #1
Nov 30 - Story email #2
Nov 31 - 50% off email
Dec 2 - Story email #3
Dec 4 - Story email #4
Dec 7 - 40% off email
Dec 10 - Story email #5
Dec 12 - Story email #6
Dec 15 - 30% off email
Dec 17 - Story email #7
Dec 20 - Story email #8
Dec 23 - 20% off email
Dec 25 - Story email #9
Dec 27 - Story email #10
Dec 28 - 10% off email
Dec 29 - Story email #11
Dec 30 - Story email #12
Dec 31 - Final announcement email
This way, I send six emails that give interested readers a reason to buy, rather than just one announcement email. Each week when the price increases, an interested lead now has a reason to make a decision.
From this strategy alone (without getting into detail about story-based marketing emails), I have seen upwards of 50% of conversions from these price-increase emails alone. And if you add an element of scarcity into the emails (3 spots left, next 2 spots get this bonus, etc), you are maximizing the likelihood that an interested lead takes action.
6) Create an evergreen community beyond your cohort (free or paid)
One of the most valuable parts of launching a cohort is the evergreen asset you create beyond it. Any cohort can easily be turned into an evergreen community after the program is done. You can charge members a recurring rate like $47/month to stay in a private community, or you can plug them into a free community that serves as a client-attractor pool for all future offerings.
With each of my cohorts, I have always offered lifetime free access to a community afterwards. For over a year, that community was simply a private alumni networking group chat on Telegram that grew to over 100 people. People found life-changing job offers, roommates, and business partners through that group. Then, I put all my course content into Skool for free and brought those people into Skool to be the foundation of the Conscious Creators Community. Now, the community has about 200 people, but that number is largely due to the initial base of people who were previous cohort students transitioning into community members.
Offering lifetime free access to your evergreen community will also drive up the perceived value of your cohort. We can get more into “offer stacking,” another time (explained in detail in the Conscious Creators Curriculum), but essentially it means driving up the value of your offer via bonuses, masterminds, calls, or any other creative way to add value. Lifetime community access is a great way to value-stack your offer, and give interested leads more of a reason to click buy.
7) If it’s not broke, don’t fix it
If I could go back and give my former self a piece of advice, it would be to stay consistent with what was working and continuously build, launch, and iterate off of my successful cohort launches.
As I mentioned in my last letter, after I made $40k off a cohort in April 2024, I launched the curriculum as a digital product in June, made another $12k, and went to Thailand for 3 months and entirely paused all business pursuits. From there, it was a constant uphill battle to regain the momentum I had during those initial months of 2024 (along with new external obligations like football and school).
Now, I wouldn’t go back and change anything. I needed that time in Thailand to experience the feeling of being radically free. My entire life, I’d been working and grinding in sports and business. My spirit needed a break. I also learned a ton about myself and the world in a way I wouldn’t have had I continued grinding on business. But I do wish I had been more strategic about how to sustain that momentum from early 2024, even while traveling.
If you launch a successful cohort (or you are experiencing any type of business success) and you are in the wave of momentum, keep riding it. We know from Isaac Newton that an object in motion stays in motion, and an object at rest stays at rest. It is more difficult to stop and attempt to regain momentum than it is to keep momentum going. When you launch a successful cohort, the game then becomes how you can maintain that level of success while continuously iterating to a lifestyle and business that is completely aligned. I’d recommend creating an evergreen community, launching the curriculum as a digital product, and relaunching the successful program multiple times a year while continuously growing your audience.
More nuanced cohort launch strategies
There are plenty of other strategies and principles that go into a successful cohort launch beyond the lessons I have just mentioned. But if I were to list them all out in detail, this article would be 10,000 words and 25 pages. Instead, I will list out a handful of other key lessons I have learned throughout various launches.
If you want to dive deeper into these for a January cohort launch, work with me here.
Create “tiers” for your cohort. Having a standard tier (say $1,000) allows your 1:1 VIP offer to be sold at a much higher rate (say $3,000-$10,000).
Create clear boundaries for who this is for (and not for). When you try and sell to everyone, you sell to no one. In your marketing and copy, tell people exactly who this is for and not for, and not only will you work with more aligned clients, but you will have interested leads thinking, “This is exactly for me!”
Map out your live call schedule in advance (and have all the links, dates, and times locked in). Doing this ahead of time will save you a lot of tedious planning and organization as you run your cohort.
Find guest speakers for your cohort. This will drive up the perceived value of your cohort and give your students more insights and value from a complementary perspective.
Hire a trusted VA/ appointment setter. This is the #1 investment to make during a launch (especially if you have a big audience). You can create a DM flow chart for your VA and only engage in conversations once leads reach a point of interest that makes it worth your time. This way, you don’t spend hours a day in the DMs, and can use that time to build, create, and get on calls with those who are actually interested in signing up.
Create social media momentum around your launch. Hitting a growth sprint leading up to your launch will maximize your authority, expand your reach, and create a buzz and momentum within the ecosystem around your name. You should drop your most viral posts and best ideas leading up to your launch.
Cross-multiply your curriculum in various ways. A particular section from your broad cohort curriculum can become a $99 asynchronous course. Another section can become a free lead magnet. And your entire curriculum can become the foundation of an evergreen community. You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel and start from scratch with each new project you launch. You can look ahead, think strategically, and use one asset in a dozen ways.
As I said, these are just a few of the key strategies that have worked for me over the course of a dozen cohort launches.
Hopefully through this letter, you have gained insight into how you can maximize your chances of success for a cohort launch.
As I mentioned in my previous letter, I recommend waiting to launch a cohort until you have a sufficient audience and a proven offer that can be scaled to multiple people simultaneously through an information product.
If you do have an audience and a validated offer, and you want to launch your first cohort on January 1, join CreatorLaunch (program closes in 10 days, 4/5 spots remaining).
Thanks for reading, and I’ll see you in the next letter.
~ Jack
So much fire in one post.
Definitely took notes.