So what would Gandhi or Greta Thunberg or Martin Luther King do if they were launching a product?

They wouldn’t… they’d start a movement.

Think about it…

Greta and Gandhi and MLK didn’t “launch” an idea or a belief, they created a movement around their cause.

And that’s one of the biggest reasons why they attracted an audience — a tribe — of millions of fans and followers.

It’s how they created unstoppable momentum and it’s how they ended up changing the world.

Choosing to start a movement around your business, your message or your product can set you up for exponential growth and impact.

And if you’re thinking, “I’m no Gandhi, Marisa! That sounds way out of my league!” I’m here to tell you that it’s not. 

With the right mindset and strategy, just about anyone can start a movement and here’s how I know…

It’s been done before and the results are mind-blowing.

13,000 People in 24 Hours

Jason Fried is the founder of 37signals which is the company behind Basecamp — an incredibly successful project management tool.

So I’ve been following Jason for a long time and earlier this year, I noticed he started talking about email marketing on Twitter. 

And a lot of it was super controversial!

He got into how email has been commoditized by Google and by all the major players in the online space (and he even went so far as to publicly name and shame them!).

And then he talked about how people used to look forward to getting emails, and how it felt a lot like receiving a hand-written letter in the mail.

But now email has turned into this dreaded thing that nobody wants to look at let alone open and read!

And in his series of Tweets, Jason tied it all to how it was time to bring email back, the way it used to be… something we love, something we look forward to.

So this went on for weeks (if not longer) and then boom…

He shared a Tweet about a new email marketing product by Basecamp and he included a link to a landing page at hey.com.

People could get on the early invite list for hey.com by sharing their personal stories about email — that was the cost of admission 🙂

The landing page didn’t say anything about the product for months (as of May 2020 it still doesn’t).

It was all about building curiosity around a new approach — a fresh take — on email without saying what that fresh take was…

And in less than 24 hours 13,000 people had submitted their love stories about email (you can check out my email love story here).

In entrepreneurial circles Jason is known as a bit of a rebel — even a radical — when it comes to what work should look like.

He’s built a successful, lucrative business based on his out-of-the-ordinary ideas and he’s written bestselling books about his approach to work.

Jason has an engaged audience of hundreds of thousands of people (me, included) and for years now, he’s been building more than a product, more than a business, more than a presence as an author, entrepreneur and thought leader…

He’s attracted a tribe of people who believe in his unusual ideas…

People who love what he’s doing, people who are ready to change, to transform and to MOVE into a new reality.

And whether he did it consciously or not, Jason Fried started a movement built on radical new ways of thinking about work and experiencing work, and how we can all shift into powerful, supportive, profitable ways to make a living…

Without having to give up on having a life. 

Starting a Movement Vs Launching a Product

So here’s the thing about starting a movement versus launching a product…

Starting a movement is all about making things personally meaningful.

It’s about connecting with your audience on a deep level and taking time to understand the real world problems and challenges that they face…

It’s about getting real and relatable.

If you look at Jason’s hey.com, you’ll see that it’s not a run-of-the-mill, emotionless “get on the waitlist” page.

It’s not an “opt in” page, and it’s definitely not a sales page.  

It’s a heartfelt invitation and it encourages you to look at email with new eyes. 

It asks you to share what you love about email and what you don’t…

It asks you to reconnect with the awesome power of email and think about how you can maximize its potential for your business.

It encourages you to rethink your relationship with email marketing and what it can do for your business.

And that’s what starting a movement is about.

It’s about personalizing, contextualizing and connecting your product to real world experiences like Jason did.

And it’s also what we did when we launched our Experience Product Masterclass.

Vision for a New Future

EPM is my signature 10-week online program on how to design, market and launch engaging (and profitable) products and courses that keep students coming back for more.

I started a movement around EPM by personalizing, contextualizing and connecting the program to people’s real world experience of getting stuck or feeling left behind when they’re trying to learn and do something new… especially online.

And I connect that personal experience to the statistics that 97% of people who sign up for an online course or information-based product don’t complete it and get results…

So if you want to create online courses today you have to learn a new way that actually engages your students so they take massive action, get the result you promise and ultimately want to buy from you over and over again. 

Because, as the late great motivational speaker Zig Ziglar said,

“You can have everything in life you want, if you will just help other people get what they want.” – Zig Ziglar

And this Customer First approach has resonated — big time. As no one wants to create programs that leave their students behind. They want to do well by doing good. So when they see that they can 10-30x their student success (and ultimately their business) using the Experience Formula, they’re all in.

So something to keep in mind…

When you start a movement around your offer, you’re not just “selling” a product …

You’re transforming how people see themselves and what they’re capable of and you’re helping them step into a new reality.

Just like Gandhi and Greta and MLK… and Jason Fried.

Launch Mode to Movement Mindset

So the next time you’re ready to launch a book, a product, a course, a training program — even a brand new business — I want you to forget about launching and think about starting a movement.

Ask yourself…

How can I make this product or book or business something people can connect with on a deep level?

How can I create a bright, new future while solving a big problem in the present?

How can I contextualize it, personalize it and make it relatable for my audience?

Your answers will quickly shift you out of launch mode and into what I like to call the “movement mindset” so you can inspire people to see themselves with new eyes and maybe even change the world in the process!

And if you’re feeling excited about the idea of starting a movement …

If you’re done with investing your time, energy and money on launching your product or program only to hear “crickets”…

If you’d love to finally learn to create a transformational experience for your students, clients and customers so they’ll be motivated to complete your programs or courses and see awesome results (and come back to you for more!)

Check out the Experience Product Masterclass.

EPM is essentially my quest to create programs that are effective for people… programs that create real world results.

And EPM is the culmination of thousands of hours of working with clients plus my personal experience in creating products and courses that have generated over $17 million in revenue while generating hundreds of pages of success stories.

You’ll learn step-by-step, actionable strategies and techniques you can use to create game-changing products and programs no matter what your industry or area of expertise (I’ve personally used these exact methods to take Live Your Message from zero to a mid 7-figure business). Check it out now.

Over to you …

What’s a product, program or course that has changed the way you see the world… the way you see yourself? Share in the comments. I read and reply to each one 🙂