Behind the Scenes #11: Preparing for launch!

Everything launch-related! So launch strategies, example posts, target reach, etc. … Welcome back to the Statement Mondays biweekly update! It’s a brief one today since I’ve mostly been grinding to be able to launch next week, Feb 1!

What is Statement Mondays? It’s a podcast for college and early-career women about being bold and authentic in the workplace. I interview career-minded women with strong identities who give examples, advice, and tools that inspire listeners to bring more of who they are into what they do. 

🍪 Asks:

• If you have any groups or social outlets with a large following of college & post-college women, would you share about my podcast once it launches (next week!)? Just respond to this email, and I can give you a template post!

  📣 For future readers, you can see a sample email with my template posts here: https://statementmondays.substack.com/p/sample-launch-posts

• Do you have any sneaky launch tactics to reach the right audience or to convert a first-time listener into one who comes back every week? I’d love to hear them!

👩🏼‍🎨 Since last time:

• Had one more AWESOME interview with a UX designer at NASA JPL, Emma Kalayjian

• Finished first passes of editing a few interviews and finalized edits of two more

• By the time I launch I should have 5 full episodes complete, so that’s a runway of 3 weeks (releasing 3 in the first week)

My latest interview guest, Emma Kalayjian, is already sharing Statement Mondays on social channels!

🧠 #1 thing on my mind: Launch plan

IT’S ALMOST TIME! Shooting for a Feb 1 launch, pending some details setting up RSS feed & editing one of the episodes which could delay to Feb 8. Now that I have the content ready, I need to focus on strategies to reach listeners. Right now, I’m:

1. Locating relevant Facebook groups I’m part of and reaching out to friends in wider-reaching relevant groups (like a previous intern, Lauren, who writes for one of her university’s newspapers!).

2. Posting on my Instagram, Facebook, LinkedIn and asking all you guys to go like my posts hehe.

3. Asking episode guests to share to their networks too (I send them extra info day-of)

4. Asking everyone I know to follow/subscribe and also to review the podcast on Apple Podcasts

5. Facebook ads will have to wait a few weeks -- too much already going on so I’ll focus on that after launch

My dilemma: I’d prefer to have more episodes out before I blast to different places and people who have never heard of Statement Mondays, just to have more evidence of the type and variety of content (hopefully so that a rando who stumbles upon it doesn’t get deterred because it’s so sparse). I also would prefer to optimize for a smaller group of really dedicated listeners than a large group of people who, in average, think it’s a mediocre podcast. Is this logical? Should I just blast far and wide right away regardless?

It’s on my calendar! As if I could possibly forget...

🙌 Shoutouts:

• Karen Plunkett and Brad Greenwald you both sent me a suggestion for another guest -- thank you for continuing to send great recommendations my way!

• Thank you Julie Penner for putting me in touch with a pro podcast producer Samuel. Can’t wait to talk to him next week.

• Thanks Max Greenwald for putting me in touch with my latest interviewee!
  

Thanks for reading! And if you need a reason to be bold today, here it is -- today is Statement Monday.

Natalie Muenster

Founder | Statement Mondays

Website: Statementmondays.com

IG: @statementmondays