012: Launch Hangover Truth

How do you think you will feel after you pushed through, and you launched? You go live and you do something really outside your comfort zone? You're going to feel amazing afterwards, right? Wrong. That isn't the way that I felt at all. And in this episode, we're going to dive into what I'm calling the launch hangover truth. Because you're led to believe it's going to be amazing, and yet it just did not live up to the hype. I recently launched my Messy Bun Boardroom program, which is a program for solopreneurs who need to level up their CEO skills to be strategic and intentional in their business. I went live with webinars and I felt fantastic about it. I wrote, I spent so long writing these webinars, asking people what they really needed to see to have the best possible value. I was so excited to have lots of people show up and I just presented my heart out.

At the end of it, I felt like I was on this performance high. I felt like, Oh my God, I've done it! And people are like, Oh, thank you so much. That was really great. It was everything I wanted to do. It was about giving value and just helping people to really be able to do the best they can in their businesses. Then of course the webinars ended and nada. You know, if it were live, if we were all together in a workshop room or maybe on a stage, then perhaps there'd have been a cocktail party afterwards. Maybe, just down the pub for a few beers, people would be like, “Oh, that was awesome!” And you get that high. I can imagine, although I've never performed as an actor, but I imagine that if you were in a sort of performance arts kind of state, you would have that real rush at the end of it.

As an online entrepreneur, there wasn't any of that… You're just at home ...and you say goodbye, on zoom... and click. You're just in your bedroom or the study or wherever you set up your desk that has a good sound environment. And then suddenly this horror kicked in, this vulnerability of having made an offer at the end and said to people, “If you liked this, then you could work with me further and here's an opportunity.”

As online entrepreneurs, any entrepreneurs, we have to make offers. If we don't make offers, or we don't have a business, we just have a hobby.

Right? So getting over that icky feeling and making the offer is a really big thing to do. And you know, it doesn't feel that natural at first. And so having made this offer suddenly I felt incredibly vulnerable afterwards

I thought, who am I to do this? Why would anyone really want to buy this? Literally, all of these thoughts and these insecurities came rushing right through me. I thought, I've made a big mistake. I doubted my offer. I doubted my pricing, even though I had been through this so many times in my own mind, with my accountability pod, and my other business friends. Testing and testing until it was right. Suddenly, all of that is out, now I just want it to literally hide under the duvet and not come out until the cart was closed. In fact, for the few days that my cart was open, I just felt really, really low. Like my energy was low. My vibration was low. I was going through all this stuff in my head thinking “Oh my God, with this low vibration, what am I telling the universe? Am I telling the universe that I don't really want to run this program?” I was thinking that nobody will come, all this stuff. All this mindset stuff was going through my head.

The reason I really wanted to share this today is because I now understand that it is true. That whenever we level up and push outside of our comfort zone, we get this awful anxiety and welling up of feelings. We feel we are not being worthy of it or not being good enough. Perhaps that's familiar to you too, as you are also pushing your boundaries and doing things outside of your comfort zone, in your new business. I know that there is this launch hangover. There is this hangover effect that you get after you do something outside your comfort zone. You could plummet, you could feel that you’re just not good enough. Those feelings of insecurity, well up. Now that I know it, I can be prepared and that's what I'm hoping to help you with today too.

One of my mentors, Mariola Czarniak, says that there's such a thing as a pushback reflex. Catch her Ted talk. It is absolutely fantastic. She tells us about that inner saboteur. It's the fact that we have these neural pathways of our subconscious, that are there to keep us safe. Those pathways are so thick and wide because we've been doing it for so long and they tell us ‘You're good, just where you are. This is who you are. Don't try and change it.’ They are telling us that we are safest right here because this is what we're used to being. In business that can easily be ‘I'm a moderate earner, or I'm not that successful. I'm mediocre or I'm just okay.’ Maybe you have some stories in your head that just tell you that you'll never be that 1%. You'll never be a successful entrepreneur. You'll never level up in these different ways. And that pushback reflex means that whenever we push those boundaries and we are ready to level up, suddenly we snap back to where we were before, because that's where our subconscious is most comfortable.

Ultimately, we have to rewire our own subconscious. We have to manage the voice inside, so we can literally push through and go to the next level.

This is the area that I was struggling with. I was trying to overcome this pushback reflex and get over procrastination and fears and doubts. The happy end of the story is that people did book my program and I launched it last month and it was fantastic. I'm loving running this program. I've got some amazing feedback. So know now that it was the right thing to do. I'm so grateful that I did level up and make that offer and push myself outside of that comfort zone, so I could serve in the way that lights me up, that gives me meaning, and most importantly gives great value and helps others.

That's why we're here. That's why we are all heart-centered entrepreneurs trying to build our businesses the best way we can and to serve people in a way that only we can. The second thing that I really realized about this launch day hangover is the fact that we need some support after we do something big, after we step outside our comfort zone. If you have friends who are launching or doing something big, make sure that you drop them a line the next day to see how they're doing. Similarly, if you yourself are about to launch or make your first offer or do some lives or any of the other things that so many of us struggle with that are out of our comfort zone, then make sure that you put some support in place for yourself in the next day. Because you might find yourself feeling a little bit flat.

And we all have these amazing friends within the business. We have our accountability pods and if you don't, now's the time to listen to last week's episode and make sure that you really do get yourself an accountability partner or pod. Make sure that you're meeting with them regularly, because this is the time you can call on that support to lift you up and say, “You are great, you have done so well for doing something outside your comfort zone. You've leveled up whatever the outcome is. You will have so many more reserves within you that will help you grow and have the most successful outcomes in your future as an entrepreneur.

Do not avoid the launch hangover! It is the sign that you're leveling up.

It's the idea that overwhelm is a gift because it means that you're taking on more things that you can cope with because the universe doesn't give us stuff that we can't deal with. We just have to ride through it. Level up. Become the person we're supposed to be.

I'm grateful for those few days of feeling low, because it really helped me understand the process that I'm going through. The process of growing and developing as the person that's running my new business as a coach, as a mentor. It's given me gratitude that I'm able to share that with you today. It also means that I will be reaching out next time to have one of my business bestie’s give me a call to say “It’s going to be okay, You can come out. Don't hide under the Duvet anymore. It's all good.” So drop me a line if this resonates, I'd love to hear from you have an action filled week, speak soon. Bye now.