Abundance Practice Building
May 2, 2016 06:00am
By Allison Puryear
Under Getting Referrals, Mindset, Nuts & Bolts, counseling, counselor, hustle, jeff walker, launch, launching, Marketing, Private Practice, psychologist, psychology & social work
6 min read

Lessons Learned Launching

So here I am, back from maternity leave and getting all my ducks in a row with both businesses so the content of this post is what’s on my mind. Balance is big for me right now and as you’ll see in this post, I was feeling like a train wreck for part of last year. Here's the story:

Let’s start with a guy named Jeff Walker; he’s a brilliant, likable, extremely successful entrepreneur who a bunch of multimillionaire entrepreneurs listen to about how to “launch” their products or services. Being a millionaire isn’t my goal (I mean, I wouldn’t turn it down or anything) but I figured if it works for the big guys, it’s probably a good model to follow. Plus he has a bunch of rags to riches stories to his name… who doesn’t love those? He has a book called Launch that I devoured, highlighted, put color-coded stickies on, and developed my Abundance marketing around.

Last August I did a big launch of my Abundance Practice-Building Groups.  If you were on my email list then, you couldn’t have missed it. The Launch model involves 3 videos of content your ideal clients want, a pitch at the end of the last video and what feels like one million emails in the time your “cart” is open. It’s much more nuanced than that and if it piques your interest I highly suggest you get the book. It’s a fun read (if you are a marketing geek too) and it’s a system that really works.

I love a plan. Like LOOOOOVE a plan. Plans make me feel safe and happy and appeal to the part of me that just wants to be told what to do and not have to take responsibility for every damn thing. I followed it like the rule-follower I am and like I said, it worked. Typically 1-4% of your email list buys from you and I got 4%.

But I want to share my subjective experience because data and “achievement” isn’t everything. (Please, please remember that as you build your practice.)  So here’s some context: I was pregnant for the 3rd time in a year after losing two pregnancies, my husband had gotten into a mountain biking accident 2 months earlier where he broke 6 bones and was unable to use the top left half of his body for a really long time, we have a 2 year old, a dog and I was running 2 businesses on my own. Life was pretty full. I completely underestimated how much time this launch was going to take. I wrote the emails, filmed the videos, re-filmed the videos because the first ones were genuinely awful, marketed, networked, dealt with tech “emergencies,” responded to emails. For two weeks I worked 12 hour days including weekends and the ramp up to those two weeks was no picnic. I was a basket case and I hated it. I was very much in that hustle mentality I preach against. Plus I worried that all the emails were annoying the people on my list and while I gained a ton of new subscribers, I lost a lot, too.

Here’s the thing. I love running my groups. It feels like what I was meant to do with my work life. I love the people who join, I love the things I teach, I love the things we process, I love the blocks that get resolved, I love watching these practices grow. I love it and this launch felt crazy and so far removed from how I feel doing my groups. I was really glad I had some time between the end of the launch and the start of groups so I could reconnect to what I love about them.

So this year I decided that I’m going to do an experiment. For at least part of the year (and hopefully forever), I’m going to ditch the launches. I’m going to see how it goes. Creating scarcity works to make people buy, thus having a time-limited “cart” open. But it clearly isn’t in line with uhhhh Abundance, right? Instead I’m going to offer new Groups every month so people can join when they want to. I’m going to mention the Groups but not send 30 emails about them in a short period of time (but I will hyperlink the shit out of them :)). And I really hope it works to get people into Groups because I believe in what they offer people and I love the work I’m doing in them. And of course I’m trading the discomfort of emailing an obnoxious amount for the fear that this model won’t work. If I have to go back to the launches to get people’s attention I will because, as I justified to myself before, sometimes we have to stretch and get uncomfortable in our businesses to grow and to let people know what we’re up to. Like most people, I’m trying to find the least amount of discomfort possible to be the best version of myself I can be.

So, if you aren’t where you want to be in your practice, I encourage you to sign up for Group. The community you gain, the skills you learn, and the blocks you’ll bust through are game changers. Email me if you have any questions. There ya go. That’s my hardsell.

How have you pushed yourself out of your comfort zone lately? Are you glad you did? Let us know in the comments.

Update: So, I used this strategy for a product instead of group and had a very positive experience. You can check that out here. Also, while offering Group monthly worked, it was a little chaotic to be teaching Facilitated Groups 1, 3, and 5 all in the same day or week so I'm running them quarterly now so I can feel a little more organized. 

 
May 2, 2016 06:00am
By Allison Puryear
Under Getting Referrals, Mindset, Nuts & Bolts, counseling, counselor, hustle, jeff walker, launch, launching, Marketing, Private Practice, psychologist, psychology & social work
6 min read
Like

Categories

0 comments

There are no comments yet. Be the first one to leave a comment!

Leave a comment

Please log in or register to post a comment