Why You Should Document Before You Launch

A few days ago, I wrote about my friend Jesse, who accumulated 10,000 subscribers on YouTube in 10 months for his sustainable disc golf company called Trash Panda. 

On Tuesday, he launched his first product, and sold 1,000 units in one evening. 

Here’s what’s really interesting: Jesse had been documenting the process of starting his sustainable disc golf company, without selling any products at all. Then, after 10 months of making vlogs and how-to videos, he launched his first product. And he made $10,000 in an evening. 

If Jesse hadn’t been documenting the process and sharing his failures for nearly a year, there’s no way his launch would have been so successful. 

Every company has an R&D phase. Every company has its grassroots period. But most companies don’t share anything until a week or so before their product launches. We all know how that turns out. It looks like an Instagram account with 137 followers, giveaway posts that 3 people comment on, and a very slow launch. 

Jesse also had his R&D phase. He’s still in his grassroots period. But instead of waiting to share anything until his product was ready, he started sharing content almost a year before that. And then, when it finally launched, his audience eagerly purchased. He had to stop sales to make sure he could create and deliver the products quickly enough. 

Here are the lessons: Consistency builds leverage. Documentation is the key to maximizing a launch. Every company has a slow start–why not get a head start by documenting the process before launch? 

Of course consistency, quality, and a strong niche are invaluable for the kind of success that Jesse found. But he wouldn’t have found this success without starting before he was ready, and documenting the process every step of the way. 

Good luck out there.