136: How Grace Paul Achieved a $51K Launch: A Case Study for Family Photographer Educators

Dolly: Welcome back to another episode of the systems and workflow magic podcast. I am your systems and workflow BFF and guide, Dolly DeLong. Today, I am pulling back the curtain and inviting one of my current one-on-one launch integration clients. Grace Paul is on the show today because I want to share a little about my launching services and how they’ve helped other clients. And I am so incredibly proud of Grace; knowing her means loving her. She’s become a perfect friend of mine, and she had the world’s most fantastic launch. I am just so blown away by her, and I wanted to invite her to the podcast to showcase our launch strategy. I also tend to overreach the power of launching, and I will not be ashamed of that, you all, because there is so much power in pre-launching and strategically planning out launches. I’m so excited about digging into Grace’s most recent launch. Before we dive into these questions, Grace, would you mind sharing a bit about yourself with the audience?

Grace Paul: Hi everyone. My name is Grace Paul. I am a family film photographer, but I also like to say I’m a mom. Momming is my number one thing, and I love it. I’ve got five little boys right now, and we are about to have our sixth baby in August, and it’s a girl. So I know we; I’m just over the moon. I can’t talk about business without talking about motherhood because it all feels like a part of who I am. So, um, I love home, all things. You will find me regularly with a teacup, a fuzzy blanket, and a sweater, and I’m your neighborhood 30-year-old grandmother. I like to think of myself as that. But I’m also passionate about helping photographers step into who they are as creatives and own their passions and potential. Yeah, and so that’s what I do.

Dolly: that. Thank you so much for sharing that, Grace. Let’s Start with all of these questions. Cause I know it’s, again, this is not listeners. It’s not like the traditional strategy session. We are talking about a specific launch for Grace. I wanted you all to hear and see what this process looks like and see if you might get ideas and inspiration from Grace and learn a lot from her. So I’m excited, Grace, to chat with you. I know this isn’t something that. When I asked you to do a post-launch analysis, you were so afraid of doing it, but then you’re like, Oh, it wasn’t that bad. So, I am excited to dive deeper into these questions with you. Still, I know you answered the question of what, like your professional title and like what you are like, what you love at the moment, but let’s dive into that some more because I think you grazed over it fast because you all don’t realize and understand Grace is a fantastic filmmaker, photographer, and educator. She is just like a crazy facet. Grace, can you explain your film and family photography development and tell us where you are right now? What makes you a fantastic movie and family photographer?

Grace Paul: So, family photography. I mean, I started it really because I just wanted to take pictures of my kids. And then it evolved with friends at church and Kind their friends. And then suddenly I was like, Oh, I should do a website. So, I got into family photography. I’m going to quickly get into weddings because I thought that’s what I had to do to be successful. That’s another story, but shooting weddings doesn’t work in my personal life or our schedule. Then I was like, Oh man, I need to quit or get back into doing families. But if I’m going to run a business in the margins of my time as a mom, yeah. It has to be something that I love. What do I love? The answer was shooting film. And sometimes, I will sit and not decide for a long time. And then, other times, I just cast all my cares away and rip my band-aid. And I go full speed ahead, maybe when I shouldn’t, but in this case, it worked out because back in, I think it was 2018 or 2019, I just decided I was going to be a family photographer. And I’m going to shoot a film because it’s what I think is the most beautiful. I love the process of it. And that propelled my business in a way I can’t explain. So, I fell in love with my art. Every single session was a dream. My client base wholly changed, which is fun because I started attracting people who value this, like fantastic, fine art, and a slower process. So, I connected with them as people. Then, I had other photographers start asking me questions. And so I spent about a year just doing mentoring behind the scenes. That was, I would say, probably 2020. I never started out being an educator or a mentor, as like this forward-thinking strategy or a way to make money or diversify my income. It was, Oh my gosh, I can help people. I figured out how to do something, and I can help people. And that felt so cool. And so that’s just been my heart ever since. I want to help people find something they love to do, do it with all their heart, and create something beautiful.

Dolly: Oh, Grace. I will 110 percent affirm you right now. I always say this to you: your work is beautiful. Listeners, I’ve hired Grace for family photos when I only had one child; I need to; we need to work together again for Jack. I’m sure I’ll be embarrassed by both of my boys. But, when Grace was working with us, we had to bribe Blaze the entire time because he was like, he was two, he was two, but I think it would be a better experience. With Blaise now, I want you to know those pictures still hang up on the walls of our house. And Ty loves that headshot, like, cause you did headshots, like you just, individual portraits for us too. And he’s like, I love that headshot of me!

Grace Paul: it is so cool! You never really get feedback from dads, you know? Yeah.

Dolly: He uses it all the time for his business, etc. 

Grace Paul: Oh, that is so cool.

Dolly: Yeah, Grace is like, well, as you all guessed, Grace is local to where I’m from. So we, like, we met, I don’t even know where we met, but we met in person, and Oh, that’s right. That’s, and I think I, I had had Blaze. He was so tiny, and we were talking about it. Oh yeah. Okay. So, it was a head, headshot swap. I say that fast, and it was my first time meeting you. And I was instantly like, I want to be friends with this woman. And I don’t know, she’ll be friends with me because I’m a little quirky, but we’ve been and been friends.

Grace Paul: Yeah, ever since.

Dolly: That was my introduction to you; your work is beautiful. I would say it’s color-rich, vibrant, and very. It focuses on the family, which I value, too. So, your work is excellent, Grace.

Grace Paul: Thank you.

Dolly: And I do want to say something like this, kiKindf. As it leads into the launch, what launch questions are we talking about regarding your recent launch? You mentioned earlier in this podcast interview, Grace, that you didn’t initially want to diversify your income; coming in with a strategy, you didn’t start. Your film photography career started with that in mind. You just started it with what is conducive for my family and myself. Like, what do I want to do? And it kiKindf all naturally dominated in a positive way by Kinde. And people started noticing, and let’s talk about when people began noticing because that picked up a lot of momentum for you. What, what would you say? The tipping point for you was when you said, ” Oh, maybe I should start teaching others about this.

Grace Paul: Oh, good question. Well, I had figured out the film, and I had figured out the look and all of that. Then, another friend, a local photographer, texted me one night and had film questions. I thought this should be a blog post, like, oh my gosh, so I mentored her and let her borrow my camera. We were kind together, and we saw it through. Now, she still shoots excellent films and does them very well. And after that, I thought, oh, man, I just took somebody through this entire transformational process. They wanted to do something. I helped them do it. We did it together, And now I’m watching them enjoy the fruit of everything we did. That was cool, and I thought. I wanted to incorporate this somehow into my business because I realized that I love working with photographers and other creatives just as much as I love working with moms taking their family photos. It became a dual passion. And so, just the more I shared about that or even shared my work, DD.M.son Instagram, emails, text messages, you know, like. All these questions started coming in, so if I knew how to answer them, I would. I don’t believe in what it is called. Gatekeeping? Because we’re all learning and evolving, and somebody taught me. There was a point where I didn’t know this, and now I do, so I don’t feel I have the right or the authority to withhold all the information. If you want to learn, then you should be able to.

Dolly: Okay. So it sounds like it started with a few text messages from other local photographers, which snowballed into you creating content about film photography, which then snowballed into you starting more one-to-one mentoring. Is that correct?

Grace Paul: Yes,

Dolly: All right…

Grace Paul: that’s a perfect, concise way of putting that. I tend to draw everything out. Sorry. You can tell me I need to cut it back.

Dolly: No, no, I love it. I love it so much because it’s a long, just like, like in this, in these terms, like talking about a launch, it didn’t happen overnight. I want to stress this to the listeners. Grace is, like, you guys are going to be blown away by Grace, by her personality, by who she is, and by the outcome of what happened because it wasn’t just something that randomly happened for her. It was, like, she was. It’s been a long since she learned how and who to teach and what her ideal client wanted to know. And so, Grace, my next question for you was when you realized it, okay? I can’t physically teach everybody one-on-one. And so I’m going to launch something. I know you have already launched a course, but that was not what you launched; you launched something else entirely. And so, bring us through that timeline. As long or as short as you want to share, I will walk you through that process because many little steps led to you finally realizing, okay, I need to launch something.

Grace Paul: Yes, a thousand tiny baby steps. Looking back, it feels like it was this slow-building tidal wave, right? Leading up to this incredible launch, I had to put in a lot of work figuring out how to be a good educator and what people wanted to learn. And then I did it hands-on first. And then that morphed into, I would say, probably after I had, or maybe when I was pregnant with my fifth baby, I needed to be home more. I want to be home more. And so. I thought, how can I still serve and connect with people? I have a few guides on film and shooting with intention, and I have a film course, which I did. I have so many good things to say about you, Dollya, a year ago,

Dolly: Why did I invite you to the podcast? You can probably share good things about me.

Grace Paul: we’re going to flip the script.

Dolly: these are cats.

Grace Paul: this will be a hype Dolly session in a second. so I had,

Dolly: a

video.

Grace Paul: Well, I had my film course and launched a beta round precisely a year ago. I want to say maybe March, April, 2023. It was great. We had, I think, seven people. It was the course, but I was also doing group coaching.

Cause I just wanted to get feedback, perfect the course, and all that stuff. And then I had plans to relaunch it, just the season of life, kids, homeschooling, having babies around. I didn’t do it, but there was always, I’d say again, that tidal wave. So, yeah. When I was thinking about that, creating that course, launching that, and through the course of all last summer, I thought, how cool would it be if I could pull together all of my favorite educators who teach all these different things in their very own way, And we could somehow put all of our education together, honestly, one, because I admire these people as educators, two, to bless people and to make it easier to get this kind of suite of really, really solid education that IKindieve in.

That dream stirred my heart, but I would never do anything with it because it’s not my personality. I’m like, I can’t go and approach all these people and do all these things. And I don’t know, Ana. It was probably the Lord because last, I guess it was August, you came to me, Dolly, and said, Grace, you need to do a bundle, like you need to collaborate.

And I don’t think I’ve told anybody about this secret in my heart dream that I have about, you know, bringing the photography community together, but you didn’t; what I love about you is that you didn’t like it, you saw potential in something, and you didn’t let me let it go if that makes sense.

You just texted me and ensured I followed through, and I needed that—I desperately needed that accountability. Then, you graciously agreed to coach me through the whole process. So, I don’t know if I’m answering your question at this point or not.

Dolly: So, like, just for clarity’s sake, everyone, like, so you all know, it’s not like Grace and I didn’t know each other. We are in this capacity, for I contacted her as a friend. We would meet once or every other month with another fellow business owner based in Nashville, Rebecca Rice. Hey, we Love you. And we have Chuy’s Dates. With the three of us like all the three of us collectively. I don’t even know how many children we have. I’ve lost count A lot. We have lots of children between the three of us. So our Sweet poor husbands like watch the children, and we end up Like I don’t even know, closing chewies out to

Grace Paul: Every time we go, we shut them down!

Dolly: And then we stayed in the parking lot for another hour, just talking. And this is the power of finding your little community, like someone who understands what you do. And like, I feel that’s what Grace and Rebecca are for me, my little business mom community, like moms who are also business owners, who are also like wives who also love God. From my perspective, I was just there last August because I had reflected on this, too. And I was just like, Grace is sitting on a gold mine. And I, as a friend to her and my strategy head, I was like, she has to do something with this. But I knew I could come across as very strong and very aggressive with my plans. I was like, I’ll remind her gently all the time until. He is ready.

I just knew like that w it would be so successful because the magic is not just in one little thing. As people were, the magic is one of your magic points for your launch. Banging on your door, literally asking you, and in your case, banging through your DD.M., I still feel like, Hey, Grace, will you answer this question for me? Hey, Grace, will you teach me how to do this? Hey, Grace. And the need was there. So I was excited to finally team up with you and say, okay, this is how you need to lay out the lunch, and you all, Grace. Just listen to my bossiness. That’s essentially what

Grace Paul: But it works. Because I needed a strategist, and that’s what you could do. You had it. You had a proven road map for something completely different that complimented what I had.

Dolly: it’s just fascinating for me to see, when you know, when there’s a want and a need and people are asking somebody to please teach me this, or I want to learn this, if you are sitting on a gold mine, and there are people that are begging you and asking you the same questions over and over, and you are giving away free advice and you have more than multiple people asking you over months, see that as a clue to you, maybe you should consider educating in. That is that small way versus somebody who thinks, Oh, I have a great idea. I’m going to launch this. You need to assess that. Cause I always want to have a caveat and tell people, make sure that I know, like, you can’t prove everything, like a proven launch track, like there’s no such thing. Everything is like, you’re essentially testing many things, and I’m not saying it’s luck. I’m not saying I didn’t even know what I was saying,

Grace Paul: Talking about how you can have something you think is fantastic, but if your audience isn’t interested, it might not be a great fit to launch now. It doesn’t mean you can’t prime them and prep and start becoming the expert on that, but go ahead and look at what people are asking you because that’s the path of least resistance.

Dolly: Yes, exactly. Grace, going back to August, we both started working together. Not officially, but kind of unofficially working together. But, I guess, kind, let’s talk about why you decided you wanted to launch in August. You knew, okay, I want to create something that serves. My ideal client answers many of the questions they’re asking me, but I also want to serve them. I don’t know what it will look like but know what I want to do. Why, how, and what brought you to that point outside of me? You don’t have to use me as an example of prodding you with questions because I feel like other things were going on in your life, too, and you were like, okay, I need to make this happen.

Grace Paul: Well, no, I was. I was scared out of my wits, so doing anything like this was outside my wheelhouse. Yes, I had launched products before but didn’t know how to launch them. Hence, the beta round, therefore, has seven people. It’s not because it was a high-ticket offer. It was because I didn’t know how to launch, so my beta group was so small. Um, but now, I have learned how to connect with people in our community because I love people and answering questions. And so that was all done. I think the Lord brought that group together, too, and I think that was the right fit and the right thing to happen. But in the future, I didn’t want to continue having, I don’t know, seven-person launches, but I knew I would probably have to put myself out there. I didn’t want to put myself out there. At all. This is where you came in because you told me I needed to, but you also equipped me and empowered me with concrete steps that I could take that still felt authentic to me and my brand. But pushed me, not sort of, definitely pushed me outside of my comfort zone to make this happen. But I look back, and I’m just thinking, man, if I had If nobody, if Dolly Hatton believed in me, one, as a friend, but two, like, in a strategist role, in an integrator role, like, if you hadn’t have done that and taken the time to walk me through every single step of the process, I promise you I would never have done it. Never.

Dolly: When did you realize that you’re like, holy cow, I need an integrator and a launch strategist for this launch?

Grace Paul: I feel like we started working together. You were 100 percent a strategist, so you had the entire launch runway. You sat down and created this list of tasks I needed to do. You made me a Trello board, made me the checklist, had everything, and even helped me pitch to contributors. You were with me, walking me through the entire initial process. So that would be September, October, November, and December. We took a break because of Christmas and the holiday. We’re both photographers. I still had my checklist of things I needed to get done. So here comes January, New Year, and we’re launching in February, and it’s like, okay, we are down to the wire.

Some tasks have to be done. We’re on the runway, right? So we’re on the launching runway. I’ve got to get content out. The more I realized how much goes into a good launch, the more I realized I could not do this alone. I have the words, I know who I want to connect with, I know what I’m offering, and I know what I want to come out of it for the community. I wanted it to be relational, where people are brought together, encouraged, and lifted. But I could not do that because I was drowning in stuff I didn’t understand, like Zapier, or even things I did understand. I needed my creative energy to go towards writing the copy and connecting with the people, which I love doing. And it was taking me a very, very long time.

To do the very tedious business tasks, you know, that go behind the scenes of a launch, behind the scenes of setting up a digital product, all that kind of stuff. And so I think it was a very natuKindprKindssion for us to be a strategist to the integrator because, you know, you were with me from the beginning. You were the one who had the roadmap that I was able to implement. And yeah, it was straightforward to start handing over those tasks. It’s like, okay, here’s this, here’s this, you know, to-do list item. Can you take care of that? And yeah, that was a remarkable, seamless transition. We would not have had a successful launch without that. Again, there’s no way I Could have done it all alone.

Dolly: Well, it was so much fun. I had a blast helping you out. And I, I know I share this a lot on my stories, but you all, I love like the tedious behind the scenes tasks for different launches. And I think that’s a lot of fun. So let’s say we teased out, or you teased out a little bit about your launch plans, but what exactly did you launch in February? Like, what was it?

Grace Paul: So, I launched a fine art family collaboration. There were 11 exemplary art family photography educators. We all just put our best foot forward and put our best resources out there. We put it into one bundle and discounted it 98 percent off, you know, for one week. It covered everything that I wanted to learn as a photographer—branding, marketing, editing, posing, and lighting—there was a lot. It was like a one-stop shop for elevating your photography business.

Dolly: And before we knew these numbers, Grace, when we, you, and I sat down to initially plan this launch, what was your goal?

Grace Paul: It wasn’t a lot.

Dolly: I know, I know, I know, but I was hoping you could share it with the audience because this was our goal the entire time. This is what we were aiming for.

Grace Paul: My first goal was between five and ten thousand. You said, Grace, you’ve got to do more than that. I think you pushed me to put maybe. Was it 15? And I was like, I’m sweating now. I don’t know, 15 000 is a lot of money. Like, yeah. And then, and then I was like, let’s backtrack. Three is great. Three would be great. And you were like, no, Grace, you need to have a goal of it because sometimes. Putting yourself out there can feel personal when it’s your name on your business and brand. Even if people ask you questions, people say they want what you have. It’s just… I don’t know. For me, it was just different. It felt like my worth was not tied to it at all. I don’t believe that, but yeah, it was just scary.

Dolly: Listeners, if you’re like, okay, well, how did you, dolly, and Grace? How’d you come up with those numbers? Like, I was looking at Grace’s. I was looking at how many, but not precisely the exact number of people asking her, but I was looking at the desire. I was factoring in people’s willingness to learn from Grace. That was high. I was also factoring in, like, okay, who Were the contributors who will work with her and like people who want to learn from them? I was also factoring in, okay, like email list size and like reasonable better best goals, And so that’s where that number came in from and also based off of like what the projected sale Was going to be like for the actual like for a person to buy it You had shared, it was a 97 product for what’s like 98 percent off. And that’s where this came in, like the stats for us. And of course, like, I remember talking this through with you, and you were like, you were freaking out. You were like, I don’t know about this. I don’t know. Let’s do 3000 in my mind. I was like. Grace, you’re going to make 3000 in a minute. But okay, we’ll write this down to calm you down. And I was like, I can’t wait until February. Do you like the outcome of your final launch?

Grace Paul: So, the total launch numbers after our one-week launch were collective: We brought in 51,000 from that collaboration launch.

Dolly: I, you all, that was this. This was Grace’s first extensive official planned launch. Do you mind sharing numbers from your email list? What was your email list size before? And then after, cause this was also mind-blowing for me.

Grace Paul: Yeah, so we started my email list with around 300 people, and it had been at 300 for a very long time—and I mean a very long time, at least a year or two. You know, it would grow a little bit. And then now I believe we’re sitting at Dolly. You’re my numbers person, but we’re sitting at around 1200 right now.

Dolly: I just checked it today. It was a little under 1200. And I want to attest that because, as somebody who sees the behind-the-scenes of your business, I know it wasn’t just because of that launch. We had a strategy for you leading up to the launch grace. Do you mind sharing what we stressed regarding email list growth? What were some of the things you were working on actively?

Grace Paul: I have had freebies set up in the past. I did a webinar all about elevating your brand. It was an excellent webinar. I loved connecting with everybody on that, which drove much of our email traffic. I’m going to go with 99. 9 percent organic marketing. I only ran an ad for three days to get people to the webinar. I never ran any ads for the collaboration and nothing at all. It was all organic traffic. Most of those leads came from Instagram, where I’ve been hanging out for the past few years. I don’t get on Facebook that much. I do blog occasionally, but I find my people on Instagram. And that’s what I’ve poured into, which is why all those leads were converting and where many of those email list numbers came from.

Dolly: I love that so much. So again, a reminder to listeners, like, this wasn’t just a one-time thing that was like an overnight success, like Grace has been slowly, unknowingly planting these seeds. And because she’s been sowing these seeds, what has been growing unknowingly. Are there people who are showing interest in learning about film photography? Ask her, like Grace, to please teach us your ways. Cause her photography is fantastic. It’s beautiful. It’s incredible. She’s also been honing in on her education and her skills. She knows she wants to connect with other moms and photographers. She’s like honing in on her ideal client. And from an outsider perspective, looking in, cause I was, I’ve been looking at this so much—journey for a while and then get behind the scenes of this launch. I was like, yes, this makes sense. Like Grace has been, she knows who she’s talking to. She knows who she wants to serve. And people are asking for this. People are asking you to please, Grace, teach us how to do this. Watching it unfold for you, Grace has been such fantastic and unique data, and I love strategy. It just fits. All these puzzle pieces fit perfectly, and I was so excited for you.

Grace Paul: Yeah, me too. But the thing about it is that it is fun when you find your people. There was this period in business where it felt like the stress of trying to figure everything out. But once you realize what you want to offer and start putting that out consistently, you’re automatically going to attract people interested in the same things, you know? And so, really, it was just the beautiful storm of all of the tiny baby steps that I’ve unknowingly been taking for the last two years with the sole purpose of connecting with people in this community authentically and genuinely and getting to know them as people and what they want as friends. That lent itself beautifully to launching this educational offer. You can meet people where they’re at and come alongside them because you’ve put in the time to get to know them first.

Dolly: You shared your numbers. Thank you so much for sharing. What was your initial experience like during launch week? Like, what was going on in your head? What yeah, I was freaking out. I mean, pretty much the whole time. But also, we had been in this do mode for six months, priming and building up that launch and providing a solid education for people. And then, during launch week, I still felt like I needed to keep that momentum, but because of your plan and your stepping in and helping me, especially last month, there wasn’t much for me to do.

Grace Paul: And that felt very weird. And so I know I would text you daily like, Dolly, what do I need to do now? And you’re like, nothing. Go outside with your kids. And I’m like, I can’t. I physically can’t. You know, and I’m like, I’m not going to look at the numbers. And my husband would be like, we should look at the numbers. And I was like, no, I don’t want to. I don’t want to know. I want to live in La La Land. Because, again, it was so scary. Like you, you put in all this work. But on day one, I sat down right before bed and said, ” okay, I’m going to check it. And we were at over 20,000 in one day. Honestly, I am in awe of how God worked the whole thing out and took me way outside of my comfort zone because, again, I looked at the numbers, too, ; Ias like, Oh my goodness, this is. I know it’s a life-changing education because I’ve taken these courses, and seeing how many people I know will be impacted by that was overwhelming. It was overwhelming. And then, by Wednesday, I felt like a failure again because it wasn’t the life of a creative entrepreneur. I was like, I need to be doing more again. What am I? Because you know what? There was that middle-of-the-week slump, and then I texted you again, and it was like, I need to do more again. And you were like, no, you don’t. This is fine. This is normal. Like we have done everything before this. This is where you don’t rest. You can take a breather, and then, as I guess, see, I’ve never been a data person. I’ve always been a, I love beautiful things, feely person, which is another reason why we work well together: you could calm me down from my very feely feelings. And then, yeah, by Friday, I remember the point we were in. We were in the 40 K range, and I remember thinking, what if we get to 50? Oh my gosh. And I started to feel like it was possible. And that was the best feeling in the world.

Dolly: I love that for you so much. I was so thrilled to see Grace. It exceeded my expectations. I expected this would happen quickly cause everything was lining up for you. And so I was. Every day, it was so much fun to see this all unfold. But I guess the question I want to ask you is, what are some things you know you had to do way before this launch happened so you weren’t scrambling during the week? I have seen so many different people from the outside looking in. I’m like, they are scrambling during their lunch, and they’re stressing themselves out. And that’s not what I want for myself or my clients. So, what helped you prepare for this launch?

Grace Paul: I think two things come to mind. I want to preface this with people seeing 51,000. And that is a very shiny number. But it’s important to know that that’s not what I put in my pocket. You know, this was a collaboration, and it would not have been a success without it. All of the collaborators are doing their part, talking to their people, building solid educational communities, and, you know, pouring into their audiences. And so I think good communication with them about, you know, this is our deadline. This is what we need to do. This is who we’re trying to serve and encouraging them to connect with their audiences, which, honestly, was such a solid group of educators. They were already doing those things. I could tell them and give them some copy about the collaboration as a whole, but they’re already loving and serving their people so well, which is why I wanted to collaborate with them—because of their hearts and who they are as people. So, who you collaborate with is essential because, again, that 51,000 did not come into Grace Paul’s pocket; you know, this is a collaboration, and all of the contributors put in a lot of work to make it a success. So that’s one essential thing. So, I communicated with the collaborator, Dolly, whom you helped me with. Because you’ve done it before, you know? I wouldn’t have known how much work was involved on the back end. Would it not have been for a clear roadmap, even going back to August? Having everybody kind of start pouring into the community, all 11 of us, usually, so that, again in February, could come together to be this big, beautiful thing. So, um, it was the first note, and the second note was batching. I will be darned if the one thing you preach, Dolly, doesn’t work, doesn’t work so well. Um, I, you know, I felt probably in January like, oh, there’s so much I have to do, so much I have to do. And I sat down and batched out my social media posts for, I mean, a few weeks, and I ended up having extra posts that I didn’t even have time to post because we were already launching. Like, and so that, that took a lot of stress off because social media is, you know, it can be dicey. It’s a love-hate relationship. I think everybody has that with it. Um, but planning that well, since that’s where my people were, and I enjoy connecting with people, planning that well and bashing that out was helpful.

Dolly: Y’all, I did not tell Grace to talk about batching. 

Grace Paul: No, no, you didn’t!

Dolly: I love watching. Um, compared to your first launch, like a year ago, when you did everything on your own, and now this year’s launch, when you are working with me as your integrator—whatever you want to call me—I don’t know your systems and workload, BFF. What were some differences for you?

Grace Paul: I realize that you can’t just, you know, a week out post on Instagram, Hey, I’m doing this thing! Join my thing, or then a week is not enough to prime. People are busy; they live busy lives, and social media usually people use it to You know Lik,e a lot of people I know use it for work like other creatives, or they get on there to scroll at night, and they check out and And it’s a very fast-paced thing. And so, um, yes, it just takes a lot of showing up, a lot of intentionality, a lot of clear messaging, um, and launching itself is way more. Then I ever thought it was going to be, it is, it is a lot. So, I learned it is way better not to do it alone. Um, even to have somebody like during those launch weeks to text and say like, I’m freaking out, you know, but somebody who’s been there with you for the beginning. So, um, yeah, definitely nobody should launch alone. Everybody hears that. Nobody doesn’t launch alone. You put in the time; if you put in the work on the front end, the potential is far greater than you can imagine.

Dolly: I love that so much. So, what were some wins you experienced working with me as your launch integrator? Yeah.

Grace Paul: Oh, um, I could go to bed before, like when I am, because seriously, there was this in-between time, right? Dolly had been operating as my strategist, holding my hand and building the Kindollab. Um, but I was still doing everything on my own, and it was probably, yeah, like a January, and I’m, I’m. I’m staying up until one morning and still have babies who wake up and crawl into my bed at night. Even my six-year-old is like, Mom, can I come into your room at night if I’m scared? And I’m like, of course you can. So yeah, still trying to live like a full mom and, you know, home and, you know, Um, like that life, staying up till one on, on top of doing my photography business clients. And, um, it was, it was a lot. And so whenever I could hand the tedious parts off to Dolly, that. They took me six times as long as it would have taken her. Whenever I was able to hand that off, I got it; I got some of my peace back, you know, I was able, I was able to sleep more and, and just, but again, during launch week, it was such a weird feeling because I was like, I don’t have, I don’t have anything to do because there’s somebody capable. Who is in there looking at the numbers, which I react emotionally, but who can be objective, wise, and knowledgeable? Um, and so I could have peace of mind that I knew that that was getting taken care of, but I wasn’t having to be a slave to my computer to do it.

Dolly: Oh, Grace, I’m so happy. Thanks for sharing that.

Grace Paul: yeah, of course

Dolly: I know we have many more questions to ask you, but I’m just curious to know what opportunities have arisen for you since you first planned your launch besides that shiny number, which I’m glad you pointed out. Like it is a lake. Like it just didn’t go to you. You collaborated and built relationships and connections with somebody like that. Like a great fruit of your launch, but what other opportunities have come up for you since your lot?

Grace Paul: I think it. It propelled me to where I want to be in business, and I’ve made deeper connections with other educators. And now we’re able to collaborate even better to serve the community. And there’s just this beautiful snowball effect. So, um, one of them, I’m flying to Rhode Island in a couple of weeks to speak at a retreat with the Kindred Path. And so, I absolutely cannot wait for that because I love all those people. I am also flying to Texas this fall to speak at another photography conference slash workshop slash retreat. Um, and it’s given me the, uh, Confidence and the motivation to launch, um, my one-on-one group mastermind, um, honestly, to do what we did with the collab, but to do it on a closer, more intimate scale where I can work with, you know, a group of maybe like seven to 10 women. We go through this whole transformational process one-on-one instead of, you know, in the digital core space. So those are the three immediate ones that come to the top of my mind.

Dolly: And what would you say to somebody who, because I know you are experiencing this life right now. Um, what would you do? There is a rollercoaster, I would say, of emotions that happen, like leading up to a launch during launch week or after launch week. Logically, I know about it like an integrator. Still, it’s a different experience when you are in the middle of the launch, and it’s like you have been busy since your launch. What ha. What has your experience been like with that launch rollercoaster? Like, where are you right now? Grace.

Grace Paul: Oh, and now I’m good. Yeah, it took me, it took me a bit to get good because there’s still that part of me that’s driven, that wants to continue producing, continue, you know, putting out all of these things, but we all have to have periods of rest. Um, it is necessary. And so it took me a long time. I feel like to wind down from all of the past, you know, six months of doing leading up to this launch. Um, now I feel like I’m in a perfect place. I’m also, you know, spring is crazy wrapping up homeschooling. When kids are in soccer, I’m now over 20 weeks pregnant. And so I’m thinking, Oh my gosh, I will have a baby. You would think that I would know what that’s like. At this point, but, um, other things are occupying my mind now, which helps. I needed that to help me come down from the rollercoaster, but I also needed to have people tell me beforehand at the launch that it’s normal like the rollercoaster isn’t usual. Even though my feelings were going all wild, objectively in my mind, you know, I could talk to those feeling and say,, okay, like you can chill out, Grace, like it’s, it’s all right. Um, So that was helpful, too, to know. Yeah, I guess it’s normal, you know, that you will eventually come down from the roller coaster, and then, and you’ll dream again like there’s this point of exhaustion. And then, um, but then there’s a time where you’ll get excited all over again. And I think life is very cyclical, and our businesses are, and there are seasons to everything. And so,

Dolly: I love that. No, that’s beautifully put.

Grace Paul: Now that you were, as you shared, off that rollercoaster, Kund settled in. Do you want to launch again? Yes. So I will launch my group coaching program, my mastermind, and it will be called the fulfilled photographer. Um, just because I firmly believe that you can be a photographer who’s not in hustle mode and wants to step out of hustle culture and that, yeah, there’s not a one-size-fits-all approach to building a business, I feel like I have tried everything. I’m just really passionate about that, and I’m excited to do it in that smaller group setting. I’m taking everything I’ve been doing with my One-on-one mentees and bringing together a group of women to walk through this transformational process.

Dolly: Oh, that’s so exciting. And just for everyone’s clarity, Grace will be in the middle of round one when this episode airs. So, I will be sure to put a link. I have access to her, the backend of her business, you all. So I put a link to the waitlist, um, in the show notes, because if you, I know a lot of photographers listen to this podcast, um, if you want to experience, like, True, like I believe true transformation for your photographer, like family photography business. If you’re going to get intentional, please get on this waitlist. And I get no credit for, um, sharing this. I love watching Grace’s transformation happen. Her business and the way she educates are incredible. And it’s been such an honor to be your integrator throughout this process. And, um, I’m so proud of you, Grace. I’m so proud of you.

Grace Paul: Oh, thank you.

Dolly: Seriously. Okay. I should ask more questions about launching integration. What would you say to someone on the fence about working with me as their launch integrator? What would you want them to know besides telling and warning them about my intensity?

Grace Paul: Dolly dolly is beautifully intense. I will put it that way, but that’s because you’re passionate and very knowledgeable. You know, I think I think that’s where, and I don’t know if I’d call it intense, but that’s where that comes from is because, You know,f, if you’re somebody who has It’s a dream or a desire or a product that you want to launch. Dolly, you did more for me, and as an integrator, you do more than plug in the back end. You provide solid, proven roadmaps and strategies leading up to launch. You walk people through that. Um, yeah, and I just Literally, like what I said earlier that nobody should launch a loan, you shouldn’t, there, there is a time to buckle down and, you know, build and hustle in your business, but there is a time to accept like, Hey, there’s something, there are some things that I’m good at. And there are some things that I need to hand off. Um, and for me. Part of what made this launch so successful was whenever I let that go, and I let you handle the things, Dolly, that you were great at, which was having the, you know, having the excellent launch runway and priming, um, and getting all of that tech stuff to where it was going to be seamless. I need to say we had, again, 51,000 launches for 97 products. Many tech,d funnels,s and triggers needed to happen to get that in place and run smoothly. But at the end of it, all of the numbers for me and my business and each one of the contributors, um, all of the accounting, everything lined up perfectly, literally perfectly, because Dolly had set it up to where we were able to do this whole thing without a glitch, you know, and, and like tech is techSomething will always happen. Still, I can say this was such a seamless process. You see, I wasn’t putting out any fires. Launch week. Because Dolly had done it right for me before we even, you know, hit, hit live on our sales page.

Dolly: Well, I do have to say, like, from my experience, I’ve learned to, like, you were saying Grace, like not to launch alone, like, and me as an integrator, I don’t. Integrate alone. I don’t, I don’t, I don’t strategize alone. So I do have a good. I wouldn’t call them a team, but there are peers in my industry with whom I work, and we helped you out. I will give full credit to Hey, Angela Tan if you’re

Grace Paul: Angela Tan.

Dolly: Systems are X; we’d love you. But I work alongside Angela for launches, so if my clients need a sure thing that I know you can’t provide, like Dolly, she is an air table genius guru. And so she stepped up and helped you out with this. And that was a giant puzzle piece that I love. I love working alongside other business owners I know, and this will be a good fit. Let me bring them on to this launch and help you out. Um, yeah. So it was. It was fun, Grace. I’m glad for you. I’m so excited for you. Um, let me think of any other questions I may have about your lunch. It was exciting. Okay. What are you going to, let’s start with the negative and then end with positive. What, in your opinion, did not go well in your lunch? I,

Grace Paul: It exceeded my expectations, and I loved everybody I worked with. So, I am trying to find a negative, and I’m sure there might be one. Oh gosh, Dolly. I mean, is there a negative that you thought was negative? Because I can’t, I can’t think of any.

Dolly: like from an outsider looking in, I would say. You exceeded expectations, but I would say it would have been exciting to see it with a longer runway. The thing that was, um, unique about your launch was that. Your if we had done a longer runway for you. It would have cut into the holidays, and I know for you, that’s such a significant period for your family. And you are so true to your core. I’m just looking at it from, like, she could have had more reach, but honestly, like Grace, you knocked it out of the park. So, like, I just wanted to get it from, like, from your perspective, like if what, like them, I know it was intense like it was a fierce launch for you because there were a lot of puzzle pieces that we worked on together, but would you take anything out?

Grace Paul: So, I don’t think I would take anything out, but I would add, I would add, you know, kind of this, maybe the second week of launching or, or soKindlan to where people who miss the deadline could still get it, but at a different price point, because that’s another thing I wanKind be true to my word, like, hey, it’s 97 for this one week. That’s it. Like, that is seriously it. Um, yeah. Yeah, honesty. Honesty feels vast in that, you know, um, but knowing how many people asked for it, I’m still getting messages like this launch was like, I don’t know, two months ago. Yeah. And I’m still getting messages asking if you will ever open it up again.

Dolly: Oh my gosh.

Grace Paul: So, right, right, and so having some system or plan to where, you know, after that, after Friday at midnight or whatever it was, they could still buy but maybe at, you know, 1. 49 or, you know, yeah, something like that, I think, um, Especially because, as you said, launches, you never know exactly how they’re going to go.

Dolly: Yeah.

Grace Paul: Plan for them to go wholly excellent, and you need to keep the doors open longer. Yeah,

Dolly: Okay. Okay. I was curious. Well, I’m so glad that everything, according to you, went well cause I’m always like, here I am. I’m just like, we could have done this differently, and we could have done that differently. But at the end of the day, I just wanted to ensure you were served. Well, um, something I enjoyed working with you, like you. Cool. If I could get a hundred graces, just like to work alongside a hundred graces, I would because, like yours, your values speak volumes, and they continue to speak volumes to me as a business owner. Like you value family, you value God, you value your husband, you value your relationships. Um, you want to put a good education out in, like, for me working with you, that it just put me at ease the entire time. It gave me so much peace. It was like, it wasn’t awful. It wasn’t a horrible experience for me to work with you.

Grace Paul: that is very good to know, too. That’s very good to know.

Dolly: Other things to tell you, Dolly, you were overbearing. And, uh, there were times you all, like, I will be, I will, I will. I did text Grace sometimes. If I’m overbearing to you, just let me know because now my personality is like balls to the walls. We’re doing this strategy. We’re going full force, and I can be a Brillo pad. Like, I can go for it. So it was like a perfect balance with us. No,

Grace Paul: I think we’re both learning. I think I’m learning where I need to Be a little more like grit and brillo pad or tough. Maybe challenging is the word. I don’t know. Um,

Dolly: you’re perfect just the way you are.

Grace Paul: oh, thanks. See, I think I think you are. I think we were all made, you know. We’re made like we are for a reason, so

Dolly: I think it was an enjoyable working relationship, and I loved it. And I guess, okay. So, I think I said we should start with the negative, but there was nothing negative. What, what are you going to, so what do you want to repeat? And, like, maybe. I know your next launch is going to be a different launch. And listeners hear this: Every launch will not have the exact roadmap. Like, I share this all the time on this podcast. I share it on my blogs. I share this on Instagram. I share it as launch strategists. Like you, there’s not a one size at all. For everyone, like, like you’re going to be testing different things out and, but the most important thing I think for like you, if you want to do a launch, it’s like, make sure that people want it, make sure that, that you have like an ideal audience. That you’re speaking with, like that, that you’ve honed your messaging in, you know, your offer and like, you know, who it’s for, you know, the benefits, you know, the features, people are asking you for it. Um, and like, you know, I, I, and you’re comfortable with selling. That’s another thing you have to be comfortable selling. You don’t have to be a salesperson or a professional salesperson, but this is part of launching and selling.

Grace Paul: I am not comfortable with selling in any capacity. I’m the least aggressive. I will hide under my fuzzy blanket. I wouldn’t say I like it, but I believe in collaboration. Once I started seeing traction and that other people were hungry for it, it became much easier, and it didn’t feel like selling. It just felt, you know what? Dolly, talking about having the longer runway, there was a point in the middle of launch week where I thought I should have done more. I should have done more because of how excited people were getting and who were already diving in. And I was already getting all this great feedback. And so I had let, you know, fear dictate a lot before, like, Oh, I don’t want to be sales. Like, I don’t, I don’t want to push people. Um, But then, in the middle of it, I’m thinking like, Oh my gosh, I want this in front of more eyes because I’m seeing, I’m seeing how it helps people. So I think proof of what it is, proof of concept, like, even before you launch, go ahead and have somebody look over it. Whatever you’re launching, or have somebody Have some transformational story. And so you can even feel confident, like, all right, this is a good offer. And then again, it won’t feel like selling. You’ll just be excited about it.

Dolly: That was good. Well, you were perfect about it. I will say this, Grace. You were perfect about leading up to the launch. Like you, you have a podcast,

Grace Paul: Thanks to you. That was another bandaid you ripped for me. That could be a whole other podcast.

Dolly: You have a podcast, and you have already established a good community for yourself, like with your blog, with your fine art photography blog, with educating, so you were doing essential things. Like, you were already doing those things, but you, like, we just had to flip the script for you a little bit and showcase to you, like, hey, you, you can, like, still, like, get people excited without really selling to them along the way and get, get them excited about what’s coming up without necessarily selling. And you did that well,

Grace Paul: Thank you.

Dolly: you did that well. I’m proud of you. I was like, yay, Grace, look at that pre-launch!

Grace Paul: I’m talking about an offer I have instead of just sitting on top of it.

Dolly: You did so well. I’m so proud of you. Okay. Um, all right. So, where was there anything out of your control

Grace Paul: In what way?

Dolly: Let’s say, not in emotional terms but in logistical terms, you ever felt like, Oh my goodness, this is a hot mess. Um,

Grace Paul: I don’t think so. There’s always this, like, I knew going into it. Objectively, I can only know my emails to my audience. I know the posts I have scheduled. There are ten other contributors. I’m not asking them for their content calendars, you know, or Making sure they’re doing whatever they need to do to launch. So there is this kind of element of the unknown that you don’t know howKindwill goes because I don’t know their numbers or statistics. I didn’t even know my numbers until you told them to me, Dolly. So, um, even with the post-Kindch analysis, I was like, I don’t want to look, I don’t want to, I, can you do it? Please do the numbers for me. Um, and why, you all, it’s not a big deal. You all will think I’m crazy for not looking at my numbers. But, you know, I can’t say I was ever apprehensive about that because I believed in the people I would be collaborating with, so that’s another thing. If you ever collaborate, don’t, don’t have a bunch of people to have a bunch of people. I mean, really, like, look at Value versus, is it, uh, quality versus quantity. That’s what I, that’s what I wanted to go for with this collab. And that made it so much more peaceful, too, because I didn’t know if anybody would share anything about it. I mean, I could look at their track record and see that you guys are just solid. Or you gals, you ladies are just solid. So, um, yeah, that was the one thing I wasn’t apprehensive about, like the one up in the air.

Dolly: Well, thank you so much, Grace, for letting me ask you all these questions. And I want to say thank you again for entrusting me with your launch. It was so much fun, um, from start to finish, watching it unfold. And, um, I am always so honored whenever somebody wants me to help with the backend of their launch. It was a blast for me.

Grace Paul: Oh, I’m so glad. Again, I mean, it couldn’t have gone better. I’m just, I’m thrilled. I’m still overjoyed, and, um, yeah, I can’t wait for us to do it again.

Dolly: I know. I’m excited. Okay. So, how can people find you, connect with you, and work with you, especially if they are family photographers themselves? Do they have different ways to work with you? I will share the wait list for round two of your mastermind. Um, but what are some other ways that a person can connect with you?

Grace Paul: Yeah, so I, I love Instagram. If you want to get to know me and talk more, I will call you at the DD.M. anytime. That is, that is my main motive. So, um, my Instagram is Grace Paul’s photo, and my website has lots of educational stuff there. So, like, I’ve got blogs. Um, if you want some free resources, I also have some of those. I’ve got guides, my film course, and one-on-one mentoring options. All of that is going to be at Grace Paul. Co, and you can also find a link to my email list. I love to do lovely little things on Saturday. So we catch up, and I share all the lovely little things that, you know, I’m enjoying on my weekend. So yeah, it’d be an honor. Connecting with you all in any of those places would be an honor.

Dolly: Um, and don’t forget. You also have a podcast! 

Grace Paul: I do also have a podcast.

Dolly: Yes, and I, I, I am subscribed to it. I love it. I’m biased. I love listening to Grace and learned a lot from her. And she truly is a lovely soul. You all. Sweet soul.

Grace Paul: The podcast is rooted at home, and it’s all about motherhood and faith, being creative, and wearing all the hats, correct? Entrepreneur and mom and homemaker and all the things. So,

Dolly: All the hats.

Grace Paul: all the hats.

Dolly: Well, Grace, thank you for coming to the podcast. I know listeners, this was a little different, but I wanted to showcase the behind-the-scenes story of what launching looks like and what I’m like from start to finish. Grace shared it so beautifully with us. So, thank you again, Grace. I will be sure to include all of the links mentioned in the show notes so that you can connect with Grace and stay streamlined and magical until then. You amazing muggle. Next week, I will discuss new systems and workflow magic podcast episodes. Bye.