How 257 real people saved my first course launch

When I launched my first online course in 2015, I had an itty bitty email list.

My First Launch: A $10,541.85 Story

I launched my first video course, the Get Noticed!™ Theme Unlocked. With a 9-day registration period; the launch generated $10,541.85 in total sales. Before the launch, I set a $10,000 sales goal. It’s incredible to see how close we came to that mark. But meeting that goal

Sell Your Smarts with John MeeseJohn Meese

I felt like a fool even thinking about launching an online course with only 257 email subscribers.

But as I stared at those email addresses, my eyes drifted to the list of names beside them.

Bruce, Karl, Beverley…

These were real people with hopes, dreams, and fears. Real people who had signed up to hear from me, learn from me, and maybe get my help to accomplish their goals.

I closed my eyes to imagine a room filled with 257 real people, listening to me on stage, and I smiled. They were waiting! How could I let them down?

So I launched that first online course as if I was speaking to an eager audience in a crowded room, and I earned $10,541.85 in 10 days—from “only” 257 email subscribers!

I shared the rest of that story in my ​opening keynote at ConvertKit’s conference, Craft & Commerce​:

The core idea I latched onto was this:

Relationships > Results 🤝

I have this phrase written in my notebook, and I’ll often rewrite it on my whiteboard: Relationships > Results It has a double meaning because the symbol in the middle means “greater than” to remind me that relationships are greater than, and more important than, results. The double meaning shows

Sell Your Smarts with John MeeseJohn Meese

This meant I made the choice to put relationships before results at every opportunity, sending emails as if they were written to each individual subscriber, rather than “blasted” to hundreds of people at once.

Over time, I learned that when you put relationships before results, results come after relationships!

It seems obvious now. In fact, it was staring me straight in the face:

Relationships -> Results

Still, this guiding principle of “Relationships > Results” has helped me change the lives of thousands of people while earning millions of dollars in course, membership, and coaching sales for myself and my clients. It’s a pretty sweet gig!

Putting relationships before results has led me to profitable business partnerships, bestselling books, and 10X career leaps (get the full story by ​watching my keynote​).

What choices could you make today to put relationships before results? I’d love to see what happens next.