324. Why Your 2025 Didn't Go As Planned (And What That Teaches You About 2026)
Release Date: 11/13/2025
338. Podcasting - What's Working in 2026
The Launch Lounge Podcast
If your podcast growth has flatlined, it's not your content—it's the platforms. And I'm going to prove it. 🚀 The algorithms have changed. They're no longer pushing shows to new listeners like they used to. Now they reward volume—more episodes, more output, more downloads. And that's pushing course creators into some uncomfortable corners. When I relaunched my show in 2024, I discovered something surprising: more episodes helped me go deeper with existing listeners, but not wider. That's when I found the real growth lever for podcasters in 2026—and it's probably not what you think....
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337. Amy Porterfield Retired DCA… So Are Online Courses Dead?
The Launch Lounge Podcast
Amy Porterfield retired Digital Course Academy—so are online courses dead? 🚀 Here's my full-body, gut-level answer: absolutely not. But when someone as established as Amy pivots, I get why course creators everywhere started spiraling. So let's break down what's actually happening. Amy's move is a personal lifestyle decision, not a market verdict. She's been doing this for 15+ years and can afford to cut off a revenue stream. Most of us can't—and shouldn't try to copy that move. Your course is likely the front door to your business, and closing that door doesn't magically send more...
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336. The Only 2 Things That Matter if You Want to Nail Your Marketing
The Launch Lounge Podcast
The Only 2 Things That Matter if You Want to Nail Your Marketing What if everything overwhelming you about marketing right now could be stripped down to just two things? 🚀 If you're posting, emailing, launching, and rebuilding—but still wondering why nothing's clicking—I'm about to make your life way simpler. Most course creators think they have a marketing problem when they actually have a traffic problem, a conversion problem, or both. Instead of diagnosing it properly, they pivot. They rebuild. They burn everything down. But here's the truth: your marketing isn't broken. It's just...
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335. What You Can Expect in 2026
The Launch Lounge Podcast
What if the smartest content strategy isn't about reaching more people—but going deeper with the ones already here? 🚀 I'm shaking things up in 2026. After an email list disaster cut my podcast downloads in half overnight, I learned something powerful: you're not random strangers scrolling Spotify. You're my people—course creators who've been in my world for months or even years. So I'm done chasing podcast algorithms. This show is becoming my cozy living room—a space for real conversations about what's actually happening in your business. YouTube will handle the reaching. This...
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334. Stop Half-Working Through Christmas
The Launch Lounge Podcast
If your version of "time off" is scrolling on the couch while mentally auditing your funnel, this episode is your intervention. 🚀 Let's be honest—most course creators have mastered the art of fake rest. You know the kind: laptop at every family gathering "just in case," mentally planning your January launch over Christmas lunch, checking your Stripe account while pretending to watch holiday movies. But here's what I learned the hard way: fake rest doesn't refill your tank. It just makes everything feel heavier when January hits. Today I'm walking you through my Clock Out CEO Checklist so...
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333. Still Not Making ‘Quit My Job’ Money? This Might Be Why
The Launch Lounge Podcast
What if you never make the "quit my job" money you've been dreaming about? 🚀 If that thought has been quietly haunting you, I need you to hear this: the problem isn't your work ethic or that you're not cut out for this. The problem is you might be running a business model that was never designed for YOUR life, audience, or strengths. I learned this the hard way chasing other people's membership models. They had huge audiences and years of platform-building behind them—I was trying to copy their playbook and wondering why the math didn't math. The day I stopped building their business and...
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332. 3 Signs You're Ready to Scale (And 3 Signs You're Not)
The Launch Lounge Podcast
Scaling your course too early is one of the fastest ways to burn cash and accidentally build a business you hate. 🚀 Everyone's screaming "scale, scale, scale" online — but nobody mentions that scaling doesn't magically create more profit. It increases revenue at a higher cost, with more complexity, and usually a lower ROAS. Ouch. So how do you know if you're actually ready? In this episode, I'm giving you three green lights that say "go for it" and three red flags that say "hang on, let's stabilize first." No more guessing, no more gambling with your ad spend. Whether you're a course...
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331. If I Had to Start Over Again: What I'd Do Differently in 2025
The Launch Lounge Podcast
What if you could keep all your skills and lessons but rebuild your business the smarter way? 🚀 I've been playing with a fantasy lately: burning it all down and starting fresh. Because if I had to rebuild my online courses business from scratch in 2026, I absolutely would not do it the same way I did in 2016. The market has changed. Launches have changed. People have changed. In this episode, I'm sharing the exact five pillars I'd focus on if I were starting over today. The best part? You don't have to torch your business to use this. Think of it as a lens for seeing what's working, what's...
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330. Your "One More Launch" Is Keeping You Stuck
The Launch Lounge Podcast
What if that "one more launch will save me" energy is actually the thing keeping you stuck? 🚀 I'm seeing it everywhere right now—smart course creators pouring everything into one more webinar, one more challenge, hoping it'll rescue their business. I get it because I've been there. In 2023, I ran four launches in one year, each born from that same desperate prayer. Spoiler: it didn't work. Here's the truth nobody wants to admit. Cold traffic converts less reliably now. Buyers need 27 touch points instead of 7. That Hail Mary launch strategy? It's working less and stressing you out more....
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329. Your 2026 Success Map Starts NOW: My Planning Process Revealed
The Launch Lounge Podcast
If traditional planning makes you want to cry, this episode is going to change everything. 🚀 I spent $200 on a fancy planner, filled out January with color-coded perfection, and found it abandoned in a drawer by March. For years, I thought that made me a failure at business. Turns out, I just have ADHD—and every planning system I tried was designed for a brain that works completely differently from mine. Today I'm revealing my exact 4-step planning process built around profit, joy, and how my beautifully chaotic brain actually works. No rigid color-coded systems required. 🔥 In This...
info_outlineI cut my email list in half this year on purpose and it tanked my podcast downloads overnight—turns out those "dead leads" were worth nearly $40,000 in revenue. 🚀
That's just one of three expensive mistakes I made in 2025 that taught me exactly what not to do in 2026. If you had big plans this year that didn't quite pan out—launches that underperformed, evergreen funnels that didn't convert, or ad spend with nothing to show for it—you're not alone. But before you just hope next year will be different, let me show you the three structural problems probably hiding in your business right now.
The difference between making $100K and $300K isn't working harder. It's fixing three foundational gaps. I'm talking about the gap between your calendar and your revenue (hello, feast-or-famine cycles), the gap between the metrics you're tracking and the ones that actually predict revenue, and the gap between the business model you built and the one you actually need for scaling online businesses sustainably.
In this episode, I'm pulling back the curtain on my own mistakes—because sometimes the best lessons come from seeing what NOT to do. I'll show you exactly how to identify these gaps and fix them before January 1st so you can build a freedom empire that actually gives you freedom.
🔥 In This Episode:
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Why making 80-90% of your revenue in just three launch months is creating massive risk (and the four simple revenue bridges that fix it)
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The expensive lesson about email list size versus engagement—and why optimizing for wrong metrics cost me thousands
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How the high-ticket-only trap breaks your customer ascension path and leaves most of your audience with nowhere to go
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Your three-tier offer ecosystem for predictable revenue without launching every month
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Your exact action plan to audit 2025 and build systems that work for 2026
✨ If today's episode helped you, help other course creators find these strategies too! Your review helps us reach more people who need to get their knowledge into the world. Rate and review the show - when more helpers succeed, we all win. Thank you! 💫
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Salome
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