Creating and supporting sustainable holistic businesses.

This is a post about launching.

This is also a post about failure.

This is also a post about listening to your intuition, being flexible, and letting go.

Settle in, sweetheart. I want to tell you a story about launching three things.

From February 27th through March 19th, I launched three things in three weeks.

In February, I had wanted to offer my business class at the beginning of the month, but I got really realllly sick; so I couldn’t get it ready.

I checked in with my intuition, and talked to my smart people (my Mom, Kyeli, Pace, Kelly, and Noelle, for starters), and determined that I was going to launch the class plus my retainer coaching at the same time.

I felt really good about launching both of them together.

It made sense to me that since the class and the coaching are for entrepreneurs in different stages of business, I could launch them together as long as I explained it well in the launch emails and other launch content.

Tip: planning your launch activities BEFORE you start launching is the best way to do this. It’s surprisingly easy not to do it this way.

• I made a launch timeline.
• I wrote the launch emails.
• I wrote the blog post announcing things.
• I planned a Twitter party with Karl (who is ridiculously awesome, by the way) to build up some buzz.
• I planned a scholarship contest for halfway through the launch, for buzz AND to give something away for free (something I love to do).
• I wrote a beautiful, heart-full Manifesto and cried afterwards because it took everything I had to create it. (Get it by subscribing to my list in the sidebar!)

And then I launched! And … nobody bought a darn thing.

When you offer something, you assume that the money you receive from the sales will be what you use for your business and personal budgets. This is natural.

When you offer something and then travel to Austin during SXSW, you assume that the money you receive from the sales will buffer your travel budget to get home.

And when nothing sells, it’s Freakout City for a number of reasons.

Launch failure has nothing to do with worthiness.

Failing to sell your product or service does not mean you are not good enough.
Failing to sell your product or service does not mean you’re a big failure and a terrible businessperson.
Failing to sell your product or service does not mean you’re a fuckup who can’t take care of her kids and family.

Failures are always full of lessons. Failures are ripe with data of all kinds.

You cannot succeed in anything in your business unless and until you have failed. A lot.

After spending some time in fear, I reached the other side: peace.

I emailed my list to ask them a question. And the responses I got showed me what to do next.

So, I have created a 30 Day Implementation Challenge, which is for entrepreneurs whose heads, hearts, and hard drives are full of information — with no clear plan for how to do something with all of it.

And the reason I’m offering this is because I believe that one of the reasons I had lots of interest but no sales is that people are full of information, and what they truly crave — their deepest desire — is to MAKE SOMETHING.

Yes, I want money to pay my various bills. Yes, I want to take care of my kids and keep my cell phone turned on.

But more than that, I want to offer what is needed, not just what I want to put out there.

Creating offerings is about more than what you’d like to do. It’s about what’s necessary for your people.

And often, the only way to find out what someone wants is to offer them a lot of things that they don’t want.

Your job is to find the shape of what’s right for them. To whittle away the pieces of wood that don’t belong. To shape the marble of your possibilities into the sculpture that is hidden inside.

This takes failure. Honesty. Transparency. A willingness to be in your fear and see what you’re being shown.

Thing number three: the 30 Day Implementation Challenge.

Want in? Check it out. I made it super affordable, because I love you and I want you to get the experience of working with me while you make, and offer, a beautiful thing.

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