Evolve & Succeed

Today I write to you from Brooklyn, New York City.

New York city. If you can make it here you can make it anywhere… or so they say.

Welp, my Brooklyn workshop did not make it here.

I had to cancel my Wait-List Me! Brooklyn Workshop last week. (The others are still on though! Never fear.)

I got one wonderful, Jedi-loving sign-up (thanks Deb!) but I had to call it what it was – failed. Total boner kill.

It’s a great opportunity though to show you the ins and outs of a “failed” launch. (FYI this was inspired by this post. One of the Internet Dominators asked for info on my failed launches since I was talking about how 8/10 of my launches get sold out.)

We’ve talked about revitalizing a lagging launch (aka slow to sell) but let’s talk about those skeletons in our closets. The truly failed launch.

(You can rephrase it how you want “experimental launch” or “learning opportunity” but I like to call a fig a fig and it doesn’t hurt my feelings. It makes me more determined.)

When coming up with the Wait-List Me! Workshops I already was outside my comfort zone. The beauty of the digital launch (and a major reason of why I love it) is that you only need your own time and a computer to make money – slap up a sales page, write some content, pimp it and you’re done. These workshops require my time, an expert workshop planner’s time, venue deposits, swag bag purchases, and catering – a mountain of money that I can’t get back if no one buys a ticket.

I launched them months ahead of time and saw 4 tickets bought. My logic was that since it’s a in-person event people would need tons of advance notice, right? Not so much.

My favorite part about launching is the last minute sales but about a week before the Brooklyn workshop… nothing. Now I could have pushed some more but usually if you write a post about your stuff, share it, pimp it, have other people pimp it, rework the sales page again and no sales happen? Then you’re in a hard spot. With a digital launch I’d be ok to sell up to the last minute but with this real life one? I had to close it down a week before, refund the monies, and make new plans.

What might have cock-blocked this launch:

* July is dead in America. Everyone is on vacation. New York is like a quiet country town. Meaning that selling a workshop (plus it running on Saturday) is like trying to set fire to water. September is a better time to sell though.

* The name of the workshops – Wait-List Me! – a wait-list is a natural side-effect of being booked out (I have a wait-list now and it means I can possibly fill up The League with an email in Jan!) but most freelancers/business owners are more attracted to being booked out and that wording. I may have to change the name.

* Saturday. I thought it’d help to have a workshop on Saturday since the other workshops I was looking at ran on the weekends. Big mistake. I should have thought about my ideal client. They would prefer to have it in the middle of the week instead of on their precious weekends.

* Location. I have no idea if my peeps are in Brooklyn, DC-ish, Portland, and San Francisco. I took a total stab in the dark on this one and chose locations that are known for having a lot of freelancers/entrepreneurs. Location based marketing is not the same as internet based marketing FYI.

It’s important to keep your mind open when you’re encountering perceived failure and make sure you’re looking at the whole. Since I’m booked out, I’m in a good place with finances so I don’t need to base my business’ success/failure on this one event.

I’m going forward with the other workshops in September but I’m not going to make these same mistakes again. Personally, I really want these workshops to work so that I can expand the cities I visit next time – Melbourne, Austin, Chicago, Minneapolis – but if these don’t work… I may have to rethink that.

How are your July launches going?

UPDATE: The workshops are now renamed, they are now called Get Booked Out! Workshop. Thanks for everyone’s help on the name.

The after-effects of getting booked out are various and splendiferous. One of my clients today was talking about how being booked out meant she was ready to raise her rates. Which illuminated how different life was before and after you have some client-security.

Life after THE CHANGE:

1. Raising your prices
That’s right. You’re in demand, overlord, which means you can raise your rates now. Consider this your level-up moment!

2. Sleeping SO deeply.
Ahhhh, the sleep of the booked out is one of the finest things in life. Sayonara, 2am money-stress wake-ups!

3. Having more time for fun.
I started doing amateur stand-up comedy. What are you going to do? (Oh your poor neglected hobbies are going to love this.)

4. Being able to reinvest in your business.
The sweet satisfaction of buying a new laptop and signing on for a website rebrand. I’m a BALLER NOW, INTERNET!

5. Having a wait-list
It calms down my money-based anxiety to know there are people eager to work with me (so much so they let me know their names and emails). If I ever have client spots open up, I send off an email and they fill up again. MAGIC!

How do you dream life will be different once you’re booked more than a month in advance?

P.S. I can teach you how to get booked out with the Get Booked Out! Workshop. Click here to secure your ticket!

The past few months I’ve been refining my techniques for getting clients booked out.  There are definitely requirements to make the strategies and advice work.

Here’s what you need first before we can work together (or you attend a workshop!):

A solid business idea.
There’s this nebulous time in starting a business where you change WHAT you wanna do every week – one week a sales strategist, the next a business coach, and the week after a graphic designer. 100% normal. But if this is you, save your money and work with someone like Rebecca Tracey (her Uncage Your Business program looks like the right fit).

Double check your idea.
Work with a few clients. (If you need help getting them – let them know.) There’s another layer of idea testing that comes with your first couple of clients. After working with your first few the majority find they wanna do something else and start over. Crucial to your evolution.

Commitment to progress.
I have yet to work with a client who isn’t committed but this needs to be talked about. If you’re only semi-invested in your business you’ll give up at the slightest bump. This does not a business owner make. You need to be committed to the times that suck and the times that rock. You’ll see solutions vs exits.

Website and content.
It doesn’t have to be perfect but you need a website that has a professional feel (even if you paid dimes for it). Plus the better your content the easier to get you more clients.

Friendly web presence.
One of the best tools is to talk to people in FB groups. It allows you to meet new people who you’d like to work with and develop relationships. I can help you if you’re brand new but it’ll take longer to gain traction if you haven’t made any online friends.

You DON’T need this before we get you booked out:

Millions of subscribers, followers or likers. 
These numbers are great but not necessary to be booked out for services.

Being in business for X number of years. 
I’ve been in business for a year and I’m booked out 6 months in advance. You don’t need to suffer before you succeed. There’s no minimum amount of time.

A million bucks.
Grab yourself a ticket for the workshop that gets you booked out for (comparative) pennies.

P.S. Meet the requirements? Come to the workshops! Click here to grab yours now and let’s make business fun again.