I remember when I first had an idea to start a business in 2008ish (at least 2.5 years before I actually did). I was so worried about doing it ‘right’ that I was absolutely paralyzed by fear and couldn’t move forward with a launch.

Fast forward a few years to my actual business launch in 2011.

I was again worried about doing it ‘right’ and spent a LONG time working on website copy and all sorts of other things that made me feel good but didn’t bring revenue into my business (and let’s face it – without revenue none of us are in business very long!).

In the end, I finally launched… and had quite a few failures along the way.

So coming off my latest launch for the Clarity, Confidence + Cash Mastermind experience (which is now closed), I wanted to share a bit with you about how I moved forward even with the fear in case you are stuck in that same place.

Because you know what?

Even now, after more than three years full-time in my business I still face the fear when launching something new.

So, if you’ve ever said anything like:

I’m working on LAUNCHING my business

                I’m thinking about LAUNCHING a new program

                I’m would like to LAUNCH a new offer

And had those pangs of stress, worry and maybe some fear over doing it ‘right’ I wanted to give you some tips to move ahead with confidence.

Because here’s the truth…

…you will have some stumbles along the way (everyone does)…

…but you can also learn SO MUCH that will catapult you to success if you have the right approach.

I promise. [READ MORE]

Tip #1: Yes, You WILL Make Mistakes

I’ll just put it out there now. Yes, you will make mistakes.

OUCH.

As a recovering perfectionist, that is a toughie for me.

Now that doesn’t mean that I half-ass anything or get sloppy. It means that I go in with a solid plan, but I also realize that not everything will go exactly as I want it to.

(enter the Frozen anthem… “Let it go, Let it go, Don’t hold me back anymore… Let it go, Let it go…”)

Sometimes ads and landing pages don’t perform very well (OK, just tweak them and move forward).

Sometimes emails aren’t delivered as they should be (figure out plan B and move forward).

Sometimes your website gets hacked and throws everything out of whack for an entire month (yep, that happened to me on my latest launch).

And you know what? It’s ok.

Because the truth is, once you accept that everything will not go perfectly to plan it’s actually a big relief.

Knowing that I need to test, tweak and test some more on my way to better performance frees me up from having to be perfect immediately.

Tip #2: Get Feedback That Is Useful

Oh boy, everyone out there LOVES to give feedback. And sometimes the most damaging feedback is actually from people we love the most.

If you’ve ever had a partner, friend, parent, sibling or even neighbor say something like, “I just don’t see how anyone will ever want that.” You know exactly what I’m talking about.

Let’s be honest here… when I was asking people around me for feedback what I was reaaaaaallly wanting was permission. I wanted them to cheer me on and tell me that I’d be successful, was brilliant and all sorts of other great things.

Instead, when they’d start questioning and critiquing, I would get super defensive, upset and feel betrayed by their lack of rah-rah support.

That was a huge waste of time and emotional upset for all involved.

Instead of opening up the feedback to everyone, be really specific in the type of feedback you want AND who you want the feedback from.

I take feedback from four specific types of people:

• Clients (past and present)
• Potential clients
• Mastermind
• Business coach

I’ll talk a bit about each of these in a moment, but first I want to start off with WHY these four types of people.

The first reason is that they either NEED what I offer and can give great feedback OR they UNDERSTAND the market I’m in and can give great feedback.

The second (and probably more important reason) is that I value what they say and actually listen.

I’m not looking for their permission or validation. What I’m looking for is what questions do they have? Is my offer clear? How can I make this more compelling?

That’s a really different place to ask for (and receive) feedback instead of when I was looking for a cheering squad of family and friends.

(If you want a step-by-step process, check out my Clarity, Confidence + Cash free video training. Video 2 walks through how to get great feedback as you think about your business.)

OK – for each group here’s what I look for:

Clients

(note: if you don’t have clients yet, that’s ok. Just skip to potential clients!)

With my current and past clients, I love to get their feedback on anything new I’m about to offer for a few simple reasons:

• They have already made the choice to hire me – and I want to ensure that my product/program/service would appeal to them because I’d like more clients just like them
• They have been through my process and can translate my words into real client words
• They can tell me if a piece of my marketing/product/program/service is not really valuable and why – that saves me a lot of headache!
• They know me well (and I them) and can be totally honest (which is so invaluable)

Potential Clients

I also love to talk with potential clients to understand what it is they’re looking for from me. Honestly, I prefer to talk live but often I’ll do an online survey (I use Survey Monkey) to get even more feedback. I’m looking for a few things from potential clients:

• What questions do they have about what I offer?
• Are they interested in it, and if so what are their biggest concerns?
• What would they feel like the biggest 1 – 2 benefits would be from going through this?
• What would make this a no-brainer to buy?

Mastermind

In my mastermind, I have a whole different level of asking for feedback. These people KNOW me. They know my strengths, my weaknesses, my past successes and failures AND they’re going through really similar events in their business. These are my buddies who are on a business-building adventure right alongside me and can give powerful feedback.

What I look for the most with my mastermind includes:

• Brainstorming ideas to build my product/service/program – really valuable in the early idea stages
• Feedback on my marketing, emails and lead magnets
• Trends they’re seeing in their businesses
• Connections they have that I can leverage for example, leads on landing a great guest blog spot
• Support throughout the launch phase where I can go with my wins, frustrations, questions and seeking guidance
• Laughs (don’t underestimate the importance of this in your crazy launch mode!)

Coach

My coach is like my beacon of hope, truth teller and accountability butt-kicker. If you don’t have a coach, I seriously recommend that you start looking for one who is a good fit for you and where you want to go.

I’ve always worked with coaches who were further along than me because I wanted not just coaching, but also mentorship, guidance and perspective from someone who has already travelled the road I’m on.

I’ve had a number of different coaches over the past seven years. Some I’ve worked with for a short and very specific project. Others I’ve worked with for a longer period of time through bigger goals. Either way, here’s what I’m looking for from my coach(es) as I solicit feedback:

• Am I being realistic?
• What am I missing?
• Will this get me to my profit goals?
• What would you change?
• What am I avoiding (accountability piece here….)
• What can I do to make this even better?
• Who else should I be speaking with?

I really use my coach tactically and strategically. She’s been through what I’m going through and I want to leverage her learning as much as possible so I can achieve my goals even faster.

Tip #3: Measure Your Success By Things You Actually Control

This is such a tough one for me. I always want to measure my success by the amount of revenue I bring in and how many people sign up.

But the truth is that I don’t control either of those and so I’m putting my success into someone else’s hands…

…and that leads to some serious stress.

Instead, I’ve learned to reframe success. Yes, I still have revenue goals. But instead of being completely attached to the bottom line number, I’ve learned to measure my success in other ways like:

• Improving my ad and landing page conversion rates
• Improving my email open rates
• Reaching out to others for publicity – podcasts, guest blogs, articles, interviews, etc…
• Getting active on social media
• Attending in-person events and meeting real people
• Having conversations with prospects and improving my sales abilities (without feeling sales-y)

These are all things that I can directly influence and control. And by focusing my efforts on the right inputs I inevitably get the profit outputs that I really want… without the stress of hoping and waiting for the sales to come in.

What about you? Which of these tips are most useful to you? Any other tips to add? I’d love to hear about them in the comments below!

And if YOU would like to have a (FREE) conversation with me about how to apply the Clarity, Confidence + Cash system to your business just click here. I’ll walk you through how to attract more clients, focus your marketing efforts AND get more profits coming in your door.

Grab your spot here.