So, I sent this to out as an email earlier today and I kept thinking that you needed to read it too.
It’s about all the stuff you’re doing to connect with your ideal peeps, discover your customer avatar and figure out what you should launch.
So, we’re told to talk to people.
But I don’t know about you. I’m starting to feel like all I ever do is talk to people? Like all day long. In every medium possible. Skype, Voxer, blog comments, Facebook groups, Twitter, Instagram, texts.
And again, I don’t know if you’re feeling it, but if you’re like me, then you’re tired because even though you’ve been told to have conversations with people, engage and become part of a community in order to figure out what people are struggling with…you’re pretty sure that the conversations are leading nowhere. Definitely not to better sales of your signature product or service.
So you’ve been trying a lot of stuff and not seeing results.
You might be wondering…is this EVER going to work?
What you’re doing isn’t wrong. But your perspective might need to change.
It seems that no matter how much time you spend listening, responding, and asking questions, you still don’t feel any more connected with your audience or clear on what they want or how to get it to them. And you wonder – I’m doing everything right, why isn’t this working? (I’ve got a special invite to a class on this very topic…scroll down if you can’t wait!)
Many of my Fearless Launching students come into the program with a big dream of launching their program but with no real idea if what they’re doing is reaching the right people with the right message.
Add that to the overwhelm that comes when you start listing out everything you need to do to launch – and all bets are off…all of a sudden there seems to be a mountain of work to do.
But the truth is something that’s taken me a long time to realize and I’m hoping will help you now if you’re feeling overwhelmed and also you have no clue how to reach the right people.
When you accept that overwhelm is going to happen, only then can you detach from it and make better decisions, evaluate what you’re doing, see what is actually working, and then find those ideal people.
When you understand that a plan is important but doesn’t need to be loaded in order to be effective, then you’ll learn how to prioritize your work and NOT put your audience on the back burner.
When you have a map to follow, one that gives you structure, you’ll have more time and energy to spend talking, reaching, and connecting with the people who will become your clients, students, and customers.
But these are skills you learn over time…and they don’t have to be piled on to be effective.
I think of Camila Prada, a ceramic product creator, and designer who joined Fearless Launching in 2014. She often feared that she didn’t have the process quite right–that she might have missed a step. She joined Fearless Launching because she’d been struggling to get her products into people’s hands and homes, and she just wanted a path to follow.
Through Fearless Launching and taking what she initially thought were TINY steps, Camila started sharing the behind-the-scenes work on her Facebook page. She discovered on this page a place where people seemed to be listening, watching, talking to her … and loving what she was posting. It eventually became a huge channel for her to use when she launched a successful sell-out promotion for Black Friday last December.
Camila’s focus on this one channel lead to a successful promotion and that led to another and another and another. Now, if you jump over there, she’s still sharing her process, cute pictures of her product…and there’s a real joy in seeing what she posts. You can see why her Facebook page has been so powerful for her. She’s ADORABLE and people see that and immediately want to hang out with her there.
But — would you believe that when she first started leaking her launch and promoting her product and sale there, she didn’t see it as a real launch?
After the Fearless Launching community pointed out to her that she’d taken all the primary launch “steps” and had done it in her own way — starting with her own self-defined “tumbleweeds” Facebook page to the vibrant page it is today, I’d say Camila found her place to launch. She followed the Fearless Launching process, but did it in her own way–one that surprised even her!
So, as you can see – starting small allowed her to put overwhelm on the back burner and the more important work of meeting her soon-to-be customers and fans front and center. She didn’t have to create a 3 video series, do a ton of guest posting, or even write a ton of emails…
Camila came to Fearless Launching with a beautiful product and now she’s able to share it with the world, meet new people easily, and make money in a way that works for her — next up for her is reaching even more people with a Kickstarter campaign.
To find out more about Camila and her beautiful products, click here.
Camila’s story always tickles me because it’s easy to see small things you’re doing as having no affect on your business or even your upcoming launch. As soon as you have a map to follow on the foundational things needed in a launch…and with some careful focus on YOUR right channel, you can start having conversations that sell too!