This week I did something I’ve wanted to do for years. I launched my own online membership programme. Even writing that sounds strange.
For years I’ve been coaching women and men on how they can use the amazing capability of online marketing to grow their business. I get amazing results for my clients, not only do they know how to create a strategy, and how to use the tools, but they feel more confident doing so, raising their prices, dealing with time management and generally leave feeling full of the possibilities of what if.
But even though I get these great results and I still couldn’t move forward with launching my own community. I’ve watched my contemporaries around me grow and create multiple offers, but I’ve been stuck.
Does this sound familiar? Do you ever feel stuck in your business? Maybe you know where you want to go, but your feet seem to be stuck in concrete?
Now there’s all sorts of things that hold us back. Procrastination (read here for the 3 main reason why you might be procrastinating), perfectionism – it might never be quiet the way you want it to look before you launch, problems – you may see a million reasons why it’s not the right time, you just need to learn one more thing, you’re not quite ready, it’s about to be the summer holidays, all sorts of things. Let’s call these the 3 P’s.
But here’s the thing. Most of these things lead back to one main thing.
Fear.
Fear that you won’t succeed, fear that you’re not good enough, fear that you’ll release your offer and hear crickets, fear that people will laugh at you, fear of failure, even fear of success.
Sound familiar?
This month we held our 4th Birthday for The Blue Stocking Society, an achievement in itself. I remember starting that and wondering will anyone come? And people came and we had a fantastic bunch of female entrepreneurs come and help us celebrate.
And the thing that made the shift, well 3 things.
1. I was listening to the amazing Alison Reader speak with passion about the book ‘Feel the Fear and do it anyway’. She was talking about the fear of letting go, the ego getting in the way and us being afraid we can’t handle it.
Well that spiked my interest. I’ve read this book countless times, if you haven’t go grab and copy and alongside that read The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks. But sometime we just hear things at the right time.
2. I’m working with Janet Murray and she encouraged me to just go and launch the community. She told me she'd launched things that haven’t worked, but she dusted herself off, learned some lessons and come back with an even better offer.
If no-one signed up to my offer what would be the worst possible outcome? I’d have to try again – not that hard really.
3. I did some work with the wonderful Esther Felder Owen, a lightworker who helped me get past some personal blocks that have been holding me back for a long time.
What’s the point here Debbie?
So, the point is that yes we have to feel the fear and did it anyway. That everyone feels the fear and if you’re holding back from grabbing an opportunity and starting something new, you’re not alone. But we can’t always do it on our own. Who have you got in your team? What is it you really want? How can you make sure you’re on the right path to grab it?
Happy Endings
I launched my Indie Freedom Seekers programme on a whim. And bloody just do it, in between a client and running off to Derby to deliver a workshop. I didn’t think too much about it, I just did it.
And it’s full! I got more than I expected to join the beta group. We’re going to be having some fun creating a new community and I get to do what I’ve always dreamed of doing, helping even more women create profitable businesses that suit them.
Here’s a quote from one of my members Misia Smith ‘Why am I here? I just think Debbie is a very clever woman, an inspiration, has loads of great ideas and quite frankly I joined because I want her in my life. So does that make me a stalker? I don't know but I just know that I will grow in confidence and my business will grow with that too. So thank you, Debbie, for taking the plunge and creating what I know will be a happy, prosperous and healthy family x ‘
Well I can’t believe that I waited so long and was so scared!
If you were on the fence about joining don’t worry we’ll be opening the doors again end of August/September and we’d love to have you in the group! Sign up here to be one of the first to know.
