How Coaches Can Launch Without Burning Out

Launching can feel like one of the most overwhelming parts of running a coaching business. For many coaches, the word launch immediately brings up stress, pressure, and exhaustion. It often feels like something you have to push through instead of something that supports your growth.

But launching does not have to feel that way.

In a recent episode of The Amanda Kaufman Show, we explored why so many coaches burn out during launches and what actually helps launches feel smoother, calmer, and more effective. The issue is rarely motivation or ability. More often, it is rushing, under planning, and trying to hold too many pieces at once.

What a Launch Actually Is

A launch is simply a focused period of time where you invite people into something specific. That could be a group program, a workshop, an event, a mastermind, or even a new podcast season.

A launch has intention, a timeline, and a clear purpose. It gives people a reason to pay attention and decide if now is the right time to take action.

Without launches, many coaches stay invisible. You can be great at what you do and still struggle to grow if people do not clearly understand how to work with you.

Why Rushing a Launch Leads to Burnout

One of the biggest mistakes coaches make is underestimating how much time a launch actually needs.

There is messaging to clarify, content to create, emails to write, systems to set up, and details to test. When all of this gets compressed into a short window, stress is almost guaranteed.

Rushing creates pressure. Pressure affects how you show up. And people can feel that energy, even through a screen.

Giving yourself time allows you to show up calm, confident, and grounded. That alone can change the outcome of a launch.

The Hidden Work Most Coaches Do Not See

Another reason launches feel exhausting is because of how many small details are involved.

Links need to work. Emails need to send. Automations need to trigger. Capacity limits need to be considered. One missed step can create unnecessary chaos right before or during an event.

When you are presenting or leading, you should not be troubleshooting technology. Your role is to be present with your people. Planning and support protect that space.

This is why structure is not restrictive. It is supportive.

How Structure Creates More Freedom

Many coaches resist structure because they believe it will limit creativity. In reality, structure does the opposite.

When you know what is happening and when, your nervous system can relax. You stop second guessing yourself. You stop scrambling at the last minute. That clarity allows you to focus on connection, value, and leadership.

Not every launch needs to be big. Not every launch needs to include every platform. What matters is that your launch fits your capacity, your audience, and your goals.

Sustainable growth comes from consistency, not from doing everything all at once.

Launching Is a Relationship Building Process

Most people need time to hear about something, think about it, and decide if it is right for them. Repetition is not annoying. It is necessary.

Your audience is busy, and they are not seeing everything you post or send. Giving yourself time allows people to engage at their own pace and build trust.

When launches are rushed, that trust building process gets cut short.

Why Kindness Toward Yourself Matters

One of the most important lessons from this conversation is the role kindness plays in business growth.

Coaches are often incredibly hard on themselves. There is pressure to perform, to prove results quickly, and to make every launch successful. That pressure leads to burnout faster than any strategy ever could.

Giving yourself time is not a weakness. It is a leadership skill.

When you approach launching with patience, planning, and support, you show up as someone people want to work with. Calm. Prepared. Confident.

A Better Way to Launch

Launching does not need to cost you your energy or joy. It can be a powerful tool for growth that supports your life instead of draining it.

If launching has felt heavy in the past, let this be permission to do it differently next time. Slower can be smarter. Simpler can be stronger.

The goal is not just to launch something successfully. The goal is to build a business that feels sustainable and supports the life you want to live.

Chapters List:

00:00 Introduction to Launching with Ease

02:44 Understanding the Concept of Launches

05:37 Common Pitfalls in Launching

08:17 The Importance of Planning and Communication

11:10 The Role of Detailed Task Management

13:57 Overcoming Launch Intimidation

16:49 The Value of Group Programs

19:33 Conclusion and Resources

Full Transcript:

Elisa Boogaerts (00:00)

Because if you show up to your event as you've been rushing and doing all these things, you might show up looking kind of burnt out or stressed out. And who wants to hire a burnt out, stressed out coach?

Amanda Kaufman (00:28)

Well, hey, hey, welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show. And today we're talking about launching without a big headache. So Elisa Bogarts is joining me today. She's a launch strategist, project manager. She helps establish coaches, launch their online programs and events with ease so that they can focus on scaling their business. She has.

15 years of project management experience that she uses to get her clients ready to launch in a structured, such a sexy word, structured and organized way. She works with her team by keeping everyone focused and on task to her launch plan. And this way the coach can be out speaking or selling or filling their events, knowing that everything else is taken care of. Elisa, welcome to the show.

Elisa Boogaerts (01:18)

Thank you so much for having me, Amanda. I'm super excited to be here. And I love that you think that structured is a sexy word. Sometimes I feel like I'm being kind of like boring and mundane with that one. But I love a person that loves that word.

Amanda Kaufman (01:29)

I

gotta tell you something, people are so into chasing what I call the dopamine dragon. We're in a world right now that is, it's all about hooking you within .3 seconds and 30 second sound bites, reels and jokes and news lines and all that kind of stuff. And it just really does, I think, affect people's attitudes towards work and why it's so important.

but I'm getting a little ahead of myself. I'm so curious, like, why launches? Why do you love helping coaches with launches?

Elisa Boogaerts (02:00)

Well, you know, I think that, that's a really good question. Why do I love that so much? Because they, well, one of things is that I guess I didn't realize it. And one of my business' coach actually had to like give me the mirror and show me this, but I guess I just, because project management and like strategizing and planning and organizing and delegating comes naturally to me. And it's, you know, I've been doing it for so long. And I didn't realize that that's a skill that not everybody has.

And so when I've worked with and like, you know, doing being in programs and doing my own launches and seeing how a lot of coaches kind of struggle with that, I was like, I can help you do that. You know, so I think that's kind of what I love about it is that, yeah, that kind of it feels that gap for them that can be a real pain point.

And then I get to watch, like I love working with coaches because they're doing such amazing work in this world. Like they're literally making the world a better place in so many different ways. And they're so passionate about it. You every time I talk them, like, tell me about what you do. You know, they this, totally light up and they like go about what they're doing, what their mission is. Like they have some serious missions and they want to do, you know, so many amazing things. And so I just, I love working with them. And if I can help them in this way, then yeah, and I just love doing it.

Amanda Kaufman (03:11)

love it. And the great thing about what you've chosen as a focus, as somebody who's very organized and into project management is like,

Launches give people a reason to connect with the coach on a deeper level. And yes, you make more money because people are in high trust. But for those that are listening that maybe don't understand what a launch is or how it might be different than their day to day operations, how do we define the term launch? What does that really mean?

Elisa Boogaerts (03:38)

So a launch is like something that sort of has a start and an end date that you want to put into the world. So as a coach, it could be a group program, for example. So usually a group program has a start date and an end date. And so that start date of that program, there's like a bunch of stuff that needs to happen before that. And that is kind of like the buildup to launching that program and starting that program. can also have like, you know, could launch a mastermind, you could launch a book.

You could launch a podcast. You could launch a new season of a podcast. There's lots of different kind of types of launches that you can do. The ones that I find I work with people the most is a.

Amanda Kaufman (04:15)

Mm-hmm.

And know, like, listener, the thing is, launches are fundamental to business. Like, that's a fundamental business skill. You know, there's very few things in this world that, you know, I almost think of it as like, we, even as humans, we launch, we have a birthday, right? Like, there's that significance, that thing that's happening at a particular date that, you know, other people can organize around and they can motivate around. And if there's something about,

I notice a lot in the coaching space is coaches, and I started this way too, so I'm not coming off of some, know, ivory pedestal or whatever. But like, you get the skill of coaching and then you think, okay, I'm so coaching now. Like, because I'm so coaching now, you're gonna be really attracted to working with me. And sadly, here to report, that does not work, right? Like being a secret coach does not, I've been telling people this year and they're just like, their eyes open up and I'm like.

secret coaches don't survive. So I love the launch strategy because it's a way to get the secret out, right? And to build some anticipation and to like give a reason to a more structured communication strategy that allows people to follow along on their terms, right? Cause people can choose not to participate in a launch. They do that all the time. But for the people that it's like the right time to be engaged in that conversation, it could lead to a

literally life-changing decision. Yeah. So good.

Elisa Boogaerts (05:41)

Right, yeah, yeah,

100%. Yeah, and I love how you said that too about the communication of it, because that's really what it is. I'm not a marketing specialist, but there is a lot of marketing to that. And a lot of it is that you're nurturing people and you're communicating with them and you're telling them about whatever subject it is that kind of relates to the program that you're selling or the event that you're gonna do.

And yeah, so it's kind of like the whole time, it's like even maybe up to about eight weeks of that nurturing and communication and getting people warmed up and excited. Then when you have the event, they're like, yes, like she's an expert at this. She's all she's been talking about for last like six weeks. I'm coming to that event. And then at the event, you sell the program and it's kind of a smooth, it's really a nice smooth process. And it is all about that, just communicating to them and giving value.

Amanda Kaufman (06:30)

So let's talk about like.

from the perspective of maybe, okay, look, there's probably a few people in my community who have, you know, been there, done that with some kind of a launch and they're maybe a little bitter about it and cynical because maybe things didn't quite go well or they've never done a launch before, but they're intimidated by it because it sounds big and scary. So could you unpack for us, like, what are perhaps the top one, two or three things that,

I wanted to say a successful launch, you know what? I want to know how to mess it up. Give me the reverse. Why do launches fail?

Elisa Boogaerts (07:05)

I think there's a couple of things. One is that often people don't give themselves enough time to launch fully. So if you're launching something like a lower ticket offer program, say something like under two grand or something like that, so you usually would do like a free webinar with that. And so some people can just be like, I want to launch my program next week, so I'm going to do my webinar sort of today, when really you probably need a good two or three months of.

planning and strategizing and putting all that communication we were just talking about together so that you can warm people up to get them to your event. So I think that people don't give themselves enough time. And if someone comes to me and they're like, oh yeah, I want to launch in two or three weeks or even four weeks, I'm like, okay, we can, but now instead of doing this amount of things, we got to do this amount of things and it may not be as successful. And then also like there is a lot of stuff to do and then that can kind of get stressful. So I think that if you...

can be really kind to yourself and give yourself enough more time to do all the things, then it will go a lot better. Because if you show up to your event as you've been rushing and doing all these things, you might show up looking kind of burnt out or stressed out. And who wants to hire a burnt out, stressed out coach?

When you kind of think about that, you want to come into it being like, yes, I do all this stuff and I'm feeling really good about it. And so you're not this kind of stressed out mess. I recently had a client with that where...

She was like, there was lots of stuff going on with her personal life and all these things. And so like, she was able to kind of put it to the side and show up really well. But I think that the process coming up to it, all, there was a lot of like stress kind of burnt out energy happening. And I think that kind of affected the launch. So yeah, that's one thing for sure. Give yourself enough time to do it. Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (08:44)

Yeah,

and you know, I think when people don't give the time, I'm curious about your reaction to this statement, but I would say that in general, when I'm working with people on marketing, they don't know.

They underestimate how many communications are being crafted and scheduled. And maybe you're going omnichannel, meaning like you're on multiple different platforms. So it's like, maybe you have the core message dialed in, but what you would say in Instagram is very different than what you would say, well, not very, but it's in different format to what you would say in the Facebook message. It's just in different format, again, to what you would have written in email. So before you know it, to just say the same thing, you could be saying the same thing.

three, four different ways and you're like, that was just one thing. And then when you add to that, it's like, okay, but now you're gonna do that, you know, anywhere from one to four to six times in a day for the actual promotion plan. Like if you're working with a decent marketer, they are not gonna tell you to say something three times. They're just not, right? So, you know, I feel like the time thing,

Elisa Boogaerts (09:29)

Right.

Amanda Kaufman (09:48)

It is a little bit of time, but I generally notice like when I tell people talk about time with people, they take more time, but they don't actually have more productivity because they don't know what the activity is that needs that time. What's your reaction to that? Like, do you have do you have a similar experience is like people they get that it takes a month, but then they wait until the day before the end of the month to start.

Elisa Boogaerts (10:00)

Mmmmm ⁓

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Right.

Yes, yes, exactly. And sometimes that's when it gets, you know, kind of like stressful and air-raising. And so, yeah, that's kind of like where I come in with that because I have a full plan and I know the sequence of things that need to get done. And sometimes when I work with somebody, I'm like, okay, I want you to do this now. And I know it may not make sense because you don't need it for like three or four weeks. But if we do it now, then it's done. We don't have to think about it because we have all this other stuff we got to do between then and now. So I really like to put a plan together.

Amanda Kaufman (10:39)

Yeah.

Elisa Boogaerts (10:42)

The plan, and I actually created the plan when I was doing launches myself and when I do do launches myself. so, and as I've worked with different clients, you know, I find that every launch is different. So I always do a customized plan. And so I'm always adding things in and tweaking things because everybody learns from different people. And I really love that. But it's over 260 tasks long because I'm very detailed or into like, I'm very specific. So that may seem overwhelming, but if you can.

Amanda Kaufman (11:08)

you're being this

specific because people don't realize like 260 tasks, right? You know, and sure, sure. And okay, so this is maybe like next level nerdy, whatever, I don't care. It's my show. When it comes to you defining a task, I'm so curious about how you think about this. What is the average duration of a task? Or what is the average effort of a task? Like when you say there's a task, there's 260 tasks. Do you mean

Elisa Boogaerts (11:12)

Like give yourself three months to do that.

Amanda Kaufman (11:38)

that you've parsed that out by individual emails that are going out, or is one task representing that you have to write 20 emails.

Elisa Boogaerts (11:46)

is usually the individual emails and yeah, so I get very specific. So I'll say, don't just like create a landing page for you. We'll have that. Create a landing page for say your event if you're doing a webinar, but you need to think of like the design of the page. You need to think of what you wanna put in it. What is it called action? You need to have that link. You need to have an email with it. You need to have a tag with it. You gotta create an automation. You wanna have reminder emails, right? And then like that's when I kind of.

Amanda Kaufman (12:11)

Right. You forgot the

images. No, I'm just kidding. But that's exactly it, right? Is you need the checklist because there's 15 things just to do a simple thing. Right. And that's the first page.

Elisa Boogaerts (12:14)

Yes, graphics as well. Yeah. Yeah. A total check.

Yes, and so some things might take...

And some things might take longer than others. So like going in and creating a tag could take a minute where writing copy for a landing page could take you a longer time. So ⁓ the all tasks are equal, that's for sure. But yeah, I get detailed into that and that's why there's so many of them because like you just said, as I was listing them out, I forgot graphics. I have graphics on my plan, but it's so easy to forget something, right? And then someone goes, yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (12:33)

Okay.

That's exactly it.

Elisa Boogaerts (12:48)

It's so easy. And I remember once I did that where I created the page and I created the automation so that when someone signs up, they'll get the email and so on and so forth. But I forgot to, I created the tag, but I forgot to put it in one of the places so it didn't link. So, all of a I was getting people to sign up and I could see people were signing up and getting tagged, but they weren't getting the emails because I didn't connect it to the automation. So even something simple like that, then all of sudden it's happening like,

Amanda Kaufman (13:04)

so you didn't have a trigger for it to apply the-

Elisa Boogaerts (13:17)

no, nobody got reminder emails on the events tomorrow and like, you know. So I think it's really important to be specific and list those little things out because it's so easy to forget something.

Amanda Kaufman (13:21)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, yeah. And I have to imagine in your 260 tasks, you probably have things like checks, right? Like the systems check, because how many times have you been on a meeting where the link was the wrong link or, you know, like,

Elisa Boogaerts (13:36)

Yes, testing.

Amanda Kaufman (13:42)

I've been in situations where like the capacity wasn't considered like for, I think it's so easy to make these mistakes with digital marketing because with physical events, You know, okay, the event is this size, we can fit this many tables or chairs, so then that means we can have how many tickets, right? And there's something very tangible about that. But when you go online, it's like so easy to lose all your sense about the plan.

Elisa Boogaerts (13:47)

For Zoom.

I'm

Amanda Kaufman (14:10)

Because

it's like, it's not pretend, but it is a little out of sight and out of mind. Right? So, and there is just more capacity, right? So then you don't worry about these things, but then it's easy to miss details.

Elisa Boogaerts (14:16)

Mm-hmm. Right.

Yes, yes, and I think because of doing it myself and then also working with other clients or them telling me what they may have missed, that's when I keep on adding into those details, because it is, most of them are lessons from someone making that mistake. Like one of my clients before I started working with him did a Zoom event and they had over 100 people show up live. So of course you have to upgrade your Zoom accounts. Most of them only allow about 100 people. And if you want a bigger room, you got to...

pay that you got to upgrade to have more people be there live. And so there were people who were like emailing support, like, I can't get in, I can't get in, what's happening? And they're like, we broke Zoom. then they upgraded right then and there and people could get in, but they probably missed the first like 10, 15 minutes because people didn't realize what was going on. that's something that I like to do.

Amanda Kaufman (15:12)

Yeah, all the more reason to have

someone like you, right? Because when you're presenting, you can't be in Zoom tweaking something, right? You can't be in your support inbox while you are also completely present with the presentation, right? So that seems like a lot of what you do for people. So I'm just so curious.

Elisa Boogaerts (15:27)

100%.

Yeah, yeah, I support them in the back

end during the event as well. Yeah. And I was just going to say about that's what that's one thing that I do when I first meet with somebody is I think about their strategy and their targets. So if they do want to have 100 people live or 150 people live, like, OK, that task for upgrading Zoom is valid for you. But if you only want 50 people there, then it's not valid. So we take it out of the plan. So that's like a meeting I like to have with everybody to kind of get their goals and put together their launch strategy.

Amanda Kaufman (15:58)

I really wanted to ask you this because I'm sure it comes up all the time. People are very intimidated by launching. you know, but what happens if they don't? Like, why is this even something to be considering or?

Elisa Boogaerts (16:05)

Mm.

Amanda Kaufman (16:13)

You know, because I just, think there's a lot of people who are honestly ready to do it, but they don't do it because they think they're too small or they think it's too expensive or they think it's too hard or they, you know, they have these beliefs, these honestly false limiting beliefs about what it takes. Like, what would you say to that person who's like, I don't know, but they're thinking about it. How can they know that they need to do this?

Elisa Boogaerts (16:37)

and for me, it kind of like one of my, reasons for becoming an entrepreneur and many other, and other approaches have that. And also one of my values in my business is freedom. And so I really feel like, you know, especially if you're starting out as a coach, you usually start with one-on-one and eventually you're going to run out of time, right? You're not going to be able to take on more clients because you simply don't have any more time in your week or you'll be, you know, just.

it'll take over your weekends and all that kind of stuff. And so by launching something like launching a group program, you actually free up your time because you can give value to a group of people as opposed to just one person. And then that gives you more time back, which gives you more of that freedom. So ⁓ to me, that's something that I always like to kind of keep. And it's always a motivating factor for me is like, okay, that is that sense of it. And...

Amanda Kaufman (17:17)

Mm-hmm.

Elisa Boogaerts (17:25)

And also you can just kind of help more people as well. So I think that it's important that way. And if you do want to start scaling your business, you're going to have to eventually move into some type of format, some type of group format or raise your prices. But there's only, you know, at some point there's only so much raising that you can do with your prices for the one-on-one, but you can also still offer that. You can have a hybrid, you can do a group coaching program and then increase your rates for your one-on-one because that, you know, does take up more time.

Amanda Kaufman (17:49)

Big time, yeah.

lot of the things I help people with is around their offer design because a lot of times, you I get wanting to focus, but, and also, having one system, you know, of offers or an ecosystem of offers can be a really great solution depending on your business and what it is that you're doing. So, Alyssa, what is the best way for people to keep up with you?

Elisa Boogaerts (18:14)

Yeah, well, I do have my website, but something I would love to give as a gift is because we talked a lot today about the tech of things, right? Setting things up. I mentioned automations and tags and all that kind of stuff. And I know that the technology side of being an entrepreneur and launching something, I know it can be a bit daunting for people. And so they often want to hire someone to go do it for them.

And I don't know about you, but I have heard some nightmare stories of people who have hired somebody and then it didn't work out or they thought that they were setting up everything for their event and then the week before it turns out they did nothing, you and they have to delay things. So I have this coach's checklist for hiring a trustworthy tech pro. And it's a checklist of things where you can prepare yourself before meeting somebody that you want to hire. And you got to think about it because we kind of

It's kind of hard to put your mindset to it, you know, because the person is trying to get you to hire them, right? Like they're trying to sell you what they offer, but you want to actually hire it. Like you need to interview them. You need to make sure that they, you know, can do your technology and all these kinds of things. So I have a checklist of things to prepare and then specific questions that you can ask them during the meeting, like as you're interviewing them and also some tips for some red flags that might come up.

So that you can make sure that you hire someone that is trustworthy that is gonna they knows what they're doing and is gonna actually be able to help you with that tech So yeah, you can find that at launch partner pro comm slash hiring tech pros

Amanda Kaufman (19:42)

And we've got the link for it down below as well, dear listeners. So make sure you grab that. a juicy gift. Alyssa, thank you so much for being here on the show today.

Elisa Boogaerts (19:52)

Thank you so much for having me. This has been a wonderful conversation. was so lovely talking about it and getting your perspective too. And yeah, I hope that everybody's excited to launch.

Amanda Kaufman (20:01)

Absolutely and listener don't forget to like check the show notes below wherever you happen to be watching or listening And give a follow and you know find out more about what Alisa it's doing But also if you love this make sure you grab the episode You can grab the link wherever you happen to be listening or watching and send it to three friends You know you can text it to them email them Print it out, which would be very weird But you can do whatever you want to do like it's good information like share it with your people and by the way We've got another episode coming up real soon, so if you love

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