Before you Launch: 4 lessons to learn AHEAD of time

Welcome, welcome. I'm so happy to be here with you. I am Sarah, you know this already, this week, we are talking about launching things. So if you are in the process or considering being in the process of launching something new of planning a new offer of adjusting a current offer I come to you today having just done it. And what I have learned in this, this particular round of launch are a couple of key things that I have learned before. And so what I wanted to bring you here this week on the podcast, are four of the lessons that I have had to relearn in this launch, that maybe you could have ahead of time. So that you can be ahead of the drama that can be launching as much as possible, rather than behind it. Like I feel like I've been lately and I don't think I've actually been, but I have still felt it this way. And so what I want to do for you this week, is really deconstruct this a little bit so that when you are launching whatever new and fabulous thing you're putting out into the world, you a know that you are not alone, none of this is weird, and be have had some exposure to like, oh, you know what I knew this part was going to happen. Here it is. Okay. And I'm still okay. 

Before I jump into that, I want to remind you that this week, this is the week of March 6 and 2023 is the last week to enroll in selling by giving. So if you are ready to not have selling be so complicated if you are ready for it to be less icky, and less mysterious, and more simple and more process oriented and more flexible and feel more like you and actually work, right because that matters. So if you'd like to make more sales, and you'd like to feel better about the process you have for making them and you'd like the whole thing to work a little better and be more predictable. Come join us in the course, we start on the 13th, the last day to enroll is the 10th There have been some changes made to how it's gonna go and the pricing and stuff. If you looked at the page a couple of weeks ago, and you were interested, you should look again, please come join us. spots are obviously limited, hopefully at the point that this launch is there are still a couple we shall see. But please come join us in selling by giving it is going to be ridiculously useful. I am thrilled with it. 

Personally as someone who is in the process of launching a new ish version of something that she teaches a lot. And I know it is going to be useful. So four lessons to learn ahead of launching, you can steal these from me. Number one, and this is actually something I've been talking to clients about this week, things will feel new, even though nothing is actually new. Your brain is going to be like oh my god, this is brand new, you've never done anything like this before you have to start from scratch. Listen, I have sold a lot of things as a business owner. What I've not sold before is a course. But so my brain at the start of launching, selling by giving and talking about it, my brain was like, Oh, my God, you don't know how to do this. But here's the thing, I have a sales process, it works for everything. I know how to sell things. I know how to teach a class, I know how to structure a course, I know how to market my products and my resources and my services. There is nothing new, actually, my brain has had a lot of thoughts about new in what it means. And that because I have not done exactly this thing this way in the past. It is brand new and therefore completely and utterly unknown.

 What I want to remind you of is the same thing I've had to remind myself of pretty much constantly for the last I don't know six weeks. It's that nothing is actually new. The way I remind myself this and the way you know, I was talking to a client this week, who is putting in a bid on some newer work like a different work with a different company. She consults and she's like, but this is new. And I've never done anything like this. Listen, I said to her, okay, when you go to do the proposal, have you done a proposal before? She was like, Well, yeah. The work you do with the people at the business? Have you done that before? She's like, Yeah, have you? You know what, what kind of questions Will you ask them? She's like, Oh, well, I know the answers to those like and what kinds of responses will you get? She's like, Oh, well, I expect these are the kinds of things they're struggling with. Okay, so what actually about this as new at the core, just different people. And, and we all know people, like we just there are different faces in different names. 

So for me, for you, friends, the things that feel new that our brain is like, this is new, this completely unknown. It's uncharted territory. It's like you're becoming a Martian. None of that's true. It's just not nothing you're doing is new. You know how to do it all. Please don't get lost in the sauce that this is different. Because it's not, you know how to offer the thing you're offering? Yes, maybe it's a different container. That doesn't mean what's inside is different. It's like repotting a plant, and then being like, I have a whole new plant. So you don't have the same plant a different pot. It's all That's it. Nothing changed. Okay. The second thing I was reminded of this, this particular lesson is one I think everybody will be like, oh, right, is that old stories, old thoughts, old fears, things that you're like, Well, I've dealt with that will take them the finds the little cracks in, in your foundation, where you're busy thinking about this thing is new, and you don't know how to do it. 

The old fears are going to worm their way back in. Like, I have this very old. Worry of my own. That is something along the lines of I don't belong, that I don't belong doing this thing. I have no business teaching in this space. I'm just a teacher. I am not really a business person. Like I it's a it's an old story. It's been here a long time. And for the most part, it's not something that like rears up and pops around that I deal with day to day anymore. But the minute I started doing this new thing there it was. And I didn't notice it right away. It was like, oh, man, I really don't belong. And I believed it for a little while. And then, you know, a couple weeks in I was like, Oh, nuts. I noticed that. It was like, oh, okay, this is old story old song Old, old drama that I am deciding to make new drama. That's fun. But you know, the key to it is like, oh, okay, okay. Okay. So for me, the steps of managing it. Were not like, that's not happening, because pushing it away doesn't help it. But I did have to notice it and be like, Oh, okay, I noticed that I feel like this is brand new, even though it's not. I noticed that because I feel like it's brand new. 

My brain is telling me that obviously I don't belong, which we have been through before. I know how to handle this. I hear you brain, I think you're just trying to keep me safe. Thank you for that. And please, you know, why don't you can sit in the corner, I'll get you some tea and a cookie. Right? Like, it's like, okay, pat you on the shoulder, I appreciate your support. Thank you for bringing up these old fears to keep me safe. And also, I'm just gonna keep doing what I'm doing. So you will have things that come up and you're gonna think like clients say to me all the time, oh, my God, I thought I dealt with that. Listen, all that stuff just keeps on coming up. One of my favorite analogies of all time is a spiral staircase. Imagine yourself walking up a stone spiral staircase, and all of your drama is like, like panels of walls surrounding it. Like you're in an octagon, right? And every time you go up the staircase, you meet that that drama in a new way. It doesn't go away. as tall as the staircase goes, those panels go with you. 

But you know, it doesn't mean you're wrong. It just means you know, I'm meeting this drama in a new place. I have a new iteration of I don't belong right now. And that's okay. It's just my brain trying to keep me safe. Am I right? You're alright, but just know what's going to come up. And don't be surprised when something you're like, oh my god that again. Really? Okay, that was gonna happen. That's normal. You're alright. Okay. This is again, thing to know ahead of time. And then when it happens, you're like, oh, there it is. Holy crap. She said that it was going to happen and you can send me an email and be like it. I found it there it is. The third thing in this one, I don't know. I feel like this is new learning for me on some level. I don't think it actually
is. But what I what I've walked away from this launch, remembering is that the internal load of doing something new will make it feel more complicated. So I feel like I have felt like there's been it's almost like I'm a tie They're trying to figure out how to get dressed. I can't think of a better analogy than that right now. Like, and I keep putting my arms through the pant leg and my head through the sleeves. 

And it's like, holy crap, how does this thing work? And so it's because I'm doing this internal work of like stepping into a newer version of me, where I have one on one clients, I have group clients, and I have this course. And it's like, okay, as I'm starting to figure out how to wear the outfit that Sarah wears there, I keep putting it on backwards, or inside out, or upside down, or like, I put the socks on my hands, and then I'm like, What the hell. So understand that there's internal work process that is happening as you do this new thing. And it's going to make the actual stuff feel more complicated. The key is, the actual stuff isn't more complicated. Like for me, it does feel like sometimes I'm putting my arms through the leg holes. And also, it's like, well, if I don't know how to put my arm, arms in the arm holes that I can't write a post about it. That's not true. I can say, hey, I'm doing this thing you should join. I don't need to make that more complicated just because I'm having trouble putting on the outfit. 

The thing about it is this, eventually you're going to be dressed. And you're going to be ready, and you need to talk about it on the way. So for me, it has looked like okay, what's the simplest way I can say this today? What is the next step I can take that feels accessible to me? What is the simplest next step? But I don't know if I remembered how much how much how big the internal work would feel of this. And it feels big for everyone. And I think we don't notice we're like, oh, God, it all feels so hard right now. That is because internally you are changing. It's like my son right now is getting taller. I don't know. He keeps getting taller. I think he's going to be nine foot tall. But he'll he'll tell me that his shins hurt, his ankles hurt and his knees hurt because he's stretching literally. And for me, I feel like I'm doing that from the inside out sometimes like it is the growing pain when everything you're doing is like feels like slogging it's because internally, you're growing. And you're stretching. And you're like, why? 

Where do I put these limbs? I don't know. Like, I once had a kid as an eighth grader that I taught my first year teaching. And over the summer before eighth grade, he grew eight inches. And those first couple of months of school. Like he didn't even know how long his limbs were, he'd be like knocking stuff off other people's desks. And he'd be like, flapping his arms around, that he couldn't even figure out how to make a work. And so, you know, this is the same, you feel like your arms are flopping around, but you still know how to use your hands. So use your hands. It's okay, just notice that you're like, Man, the internal work of this feels really heavy, feels like I'm becoming something different. That's okay. In the process, simplify the external. 

What can I do to make this simple, what's the simplest next step? Also, if there are ways ahead of time, you can reduce your decision making. So like, for me, it is knowing I'm gonna make three posts a day about this, it is knowing I'm going to put one of my group one on LinkedIn and one on tick tock, or whatever it is, I'm going to decide what can be decided ahead of time ahead of time. So I have less things to decide day to day, the more you can pull down your decision fatigue, the better keep it simple. The last thing that I think I learned in this launch that I knew before, and I logically know, but emotionally, this was a tough one is that I get to decide change, or adjust as I need to as I want to and as I am required to without apologizing. And that that last bit is important. 

So like I have changed the schedule for this, I have changed the pricing for this course I have changed the structure, I have changed all kinds of things. I have changed my approach to talking about it. I keep changing, because I keep getting input that requires change. And I have had lots of thoughts about what other people will think when I change. But actually they don't have any thoughts number one, and if they do, they're they're like, oh, that's better. I want it that like that. Great. Cool. You get to change and adjust. No one is going to think less of you because you change and adjust. They're gonna be like Cool, good for her. Man. I don't know if I'd have that kind of nerve. I had somebody say that to me the other day. I love that you adjusted. I loved watching it. I don't know if I'd have been able to do it. And I was like, Oh, I I didn't know if I was gonna do it either. But that being said, you don't have to Apollo dies. And I actually, you know, I took a couple of extra days to think about the changes I was going to make. So that I didn't have to over explain it.

 Like, I didn't want to be like, here's all the reasons I'm changing. Here's all the thoughts I have about it. I wanted to be like, Okay, guys, here's the changes I'm making. And until I could be a little more matter of fact about it, I held off. It took me a couple of days, it took me, I want to say four or five in my journal before I was like, Okay, I'm solid. In my decision, I understand what I'm changing, I understand why I'm changing it. And I'm just going to tell them it's changing. You're allowed to do that. But you do not need to, like, invite people into the entire drama as you do it. You get to just change your offer. It's your business, it's your thing, do what you want. What I decided, at some point, in the process of launching this course, I was like, I don't think it's gonna work. And I was like, Okay, well, if it doesn't work, and of course, it's working. Makes me so crazy. 

Because it's always working, right. But I had this like, whole doubt spiral thing. And, you know, what I came to was, like, this core question is, do I want to figure it out? Or do I want to digit? And sometimes for some of us, the answer is digit. In this case, for me, the answer was figured out. So then the next question is, okay, if I'm gonna figure it out what has to change, and the rest took care of itself. But I first had to decide that I was going to figure it out versus digit. So if you get to a point where you're like, I don't know, if this is working, you get to stop and be like, Alright, does it make sense for me to let this go? Or does it make sense for me to continue? How do I want to do this, and and act accordingly. But you get to decide you get to be intentional about it, you get to make all the decisions. Okay. And that really is, that's what I got. So for you, for me, if you're starting to launch, the key is to notice what you're thinking about as you go. 

Notice things that are about whether or not it's actually new. Notice things that you've seen before that you're like, Oh, that's a familiar refrain. Notice if it feels very heavy on the inside, and acknowledge that. And then remember that you are in control, you decide you do what you want. Friend, this is your business, you have that permission. And if you need help with selling, this is me telling you selling by giving is for you. Because it really is for you. That is why I decided to stick with it. I decided not to ditch it because it is too important for you to be able to sell effectively. 

And simply it is too important for you to be able to sell as the person you are yourself. It is too important for you to be able to give to the people you want to give with and also get back. This is this too important for me to put it aside. So I decided I'm committed. And here we go. I'll see you in the class. And I'll see you here on the podcast. If you haven't subscribed or you haven't taken a second to rate and review on iTunes, we would love if you did, either or both or all. This is how other people find the podcast and we would appreciate your support so much it means so much. And if you have any feedback, you can always reach out. You can find me in my Facebook group on complicating business for teachers helpers and givers. You can find me on LinkedIn or on facebook or all those places and I love hearing from you so please always feel safe to reach out. I'll see you next week.