
In this episode I’m sharing a behind the scenes look at the most recent launch of my program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD).
This episode will help normalise the ups and downs of launching and help you navigate building your business as a perfectionist entrepreneur, regardless of what kind of business you have.
I also share all of the numbers (like our sign up numbers, revenue and whether we hit our goal) and real time behind the scenes insights so you can really get a sense of what the launch was like. Plus I share the new way I’m doing debriefs and how to use it to help you find sufficiency in your own business (even if you don’t do launches).
Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode438.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- Our goal and strategy for the launch of Perfectionists Getting Shit Done
- My thoughts going into the launch and whether I thought we’d achieve our goal
- The surprising realisations I had during the launch that are relevant to all perfectionists
- The 3 steps I follow to do the most effective launch debrief I’ve ever done
- All the numbers including how much money we made and if we achieved our goal
Featured In The Episode:
- Watch free training on how to plan properly as a perfectionist with Power Planning – samlaurabrown.com/plan
- Join the waitlist for Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (PGSD) – samlaurabrown.com/pgsd
- Take the perfectionism quiz: samlaurabrown.com/quiz
- Sign up for daily Perfectionist Power-Ups – samlaurabrown.com/power
- Follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject
- Episode 376: The Importance Of A Growth Goal + How To Tell Whether It’s Working (Repost)
- Episode 254 of Make Money As A Life Coach: High Value and Low Value Cycles
- Episode 408 of The Life Coach School Podcast: How To Make Every Year The Best Year with Ryan Moran
- Episode 409 of The Life Coach School Podcast: Success and Your Feelings with Ryan Moran
Work With Me:
My coaching program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) teaches you how to plan properly as a perfectionist so you can get out of your own way in your business. Enrollment for our April 2024 cohort will be happening in March. To find out more about the program and be the first to know when the doors open, join the waitlist today: samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.
Listen To The Episode
Listen to the episode on the player above, click here to download the episode and take it with you or listen anywhere you normally listen to podcasts – just find Episode 438 of The Perfectionism Project Podcast!
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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the perfectionist getting shit done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.
Sam Laura Brown
It is 2:45pm on Tuesday, the fifth of December. No, yes, it’s December Oh my God. So I am wanting to share with you a little introduction I guess, to the launch debrief episode that I’m going to be doing. Because as you might know, if you’re a regular listener of this podcast, when I am doing a launch for my program, perfectionist getting shit done, what I love to do is document behind the scenes of that process. And the ways that I work on my perfectionism as a perfectionist entrepreneur during a launch, which is just a sales period, a campaign, a promotion, a time where I am showing up and selling more than I usually would be.
And this can bring up a lot of perfectionism for perfectionist. So I love to just document that and share it in real time. Rather than sharing, here’s what happened. I just love sharing, like, here’s what’s happening as it’s happening. Here’s my self coaching, here’s what I’m noticing, here’s what I’m figuring out as I go, and then putting it all together into a I guess, like vlog style episode, where you get to listen to updates in real time. And I will be sharing the numbers and everything like that as we work towards our goal for the launch.
So our goal for this launch is to have 30 PGSDers or clients sign up for our program, because action is getting shit done. And that enrollment period is happening from Friday, the eighth of December, which is a few days away to the 12th of December. So enrollment will be open for about five days, just less than five days. And to promote the program being open. I am teaching a live event called the perfectionism reset event, I’m going to be teaching that twice. So Australian time 10am and 1pm, this Friday, and also we’ll be sending out emails, we’ll be posting on Instagram, we’ll be having podcast episodes go out.
And so it’s a very simple, straightforward launch plan. There’s nothing really complicated or tricky about it. And that is by design, I really want to over complicate everything is a way that my perfectionist brain likes to keep me safe. If everything’s complicated, then it’s not only going to keep me very busy, and have me feeling like I’m deserving, because I’m working so hard. But it also means that I’m able to produce less, and therefore there is less opportunity for rejection. And also I can blame complication. And oh, I didn’t have enough time to do this thing or that thing. Versus like, oh, I actually showed up my best and it didn’t work as perfectionist. That is often what we are avoiding that shame that would follow up like I try my best and my best wasn’t good enough.
So the plan for the launch is very simple. And over the last couple of months. So Renae, my marketing manager, and I have been working on the launch plan and beginning to execute that. And also on my team as well. We have Daisy who’s head of client success for PGSD, and Jen who does our tech setup and all of that kind of thing. So we’ve been working on the launch and getting a few things in place. And I’m not going to go into it too much here. But we have been through many iterations of the plan, because we had it more complicated than it currently is.
And we have just been simplifying and getting to what’s essential. And really just looking at our brains, and where we are making decisions from and making sure that as much as we can, we’re never gonna have a perfectly managed mind. But as much as we can, making decisions from the best place possible, the most growth minded place possible versus from a perfectionist place of business to be perfect for anything to work.
And also as well. So I have shared many launch debrief episodes at this point in time. We will link them up in the show notes if you want to go and listen back to those. So when it comes to the results that we have had so far this year 2023 when it comes to launches and the number of signups that we have had. We had, I think it was I can’t even remember exactly now 12 for our June launch nine for our September launch. And those are the two launches we’ve done this year. And then last year we did five launches we did a January launch where we had 50 or 51 PGSDers sign up and April launch I hope I’m getting the dates right doesn’t really matter. Like just the rough five is enough.
April or maybe it was early May where we had nine and then I did one in July I believe and then September, oh no October. And then December, and each of those had about 22 signups. So I have had a lot of thoughts in the last few months, about things not working and need to like, figure out what that is. And I’ve documented those specific launches. I think all of them, maybe there’s a couple of ones that I didn’t do an episode about. But I have taken the time to identify what caused the results to be different in time and what works and what hasn’t worked.
And I think a lot of the lead up to this launch, I’d say until at a couple of weeks ago, my self image around business and around knowing what I’m doing wasn’t great that I was really feeling like, I don’t know what I’m doing, I have like, led the business astray. And I don’t know if I can recover from this and even at the same time, and you might be familiar with it. When you also believe in yourself so deeply, you know, you’re never giving up, you know, you’re gonna figure it out. But having a lot of those perfectionist thoughts and just really beating myself up about it in a lot of ways.
And I just really, I’d say in the last couple of weeks, I’ve been able to come out of that way of thinking. And actually just being able to reconnect with myself, I reestablish or like, just be back in my normal self trusting place. And really just having a different perspective on this year to what I had had. The perspective I did have was, I’m doing it all wrong, nothing’s working. And I’ve also spent so much more time working than I wanted to particularly if you don’t know, I had twin boys in February, I also have a daughter, Lydia, who’s two. And so this year, like I had, I think it was the 12th of January was my last working day, my proper work day before the twins came, that was about a month before I had them.
And then I had time off after they came obviously, I think I got back into things maybe like six months, no six weeks into their life that I started doing a few things here and there, besides just like checking in on the team and how everyone’s going. And just the perfectionist expectations I had of myself to be able to operate at my normal level. While in the postpartum period, exclusively breastfeeding twins, which meant I was spending in especially early months, I was spending 25 to 50 hours per week feeding like literally a full time job, just sitting on the couch, feeding them.
And just expecting myself like I should already know how to be able to run the business and have been even more successful. Even though I am busy with recovering myself physically and like mentally, like all the hormonal changes and everything like that. And navigating, adjusting from a mom of one to a mom of three. And like all those different things, I just had such perfectionist expectations on myself that I should know how to handle this. And I should be able to just do things as I would normally do them. And it shouldn’t have to impact the business that I am having kids and all this kind of thing. And just that entitlement really took me out of self trust and showing up.
And in the last launch debrief episode I did. I talked about how a big realization from that launch was that there just weren’t enough people seeing what we’re doing in terms of the goal that we had. So the goal for the last launch was 88. I won’t go into all that in this episode, you can go and listen to that one. But there wasn’t enough people in our world for that number to make sense as a goal. And I hadn’t seen that because of the way that I was thinking and my perfectionist thoughts that I felt like well, there are more than that amount of people in our world.
So that should actually make sense. But also a big thing that I realized. And I think the biggest thing and I’ve made a big shift around this. And I’m really still in the process of that is that I had gone out of really self trust when it came to sharing my content, like creating podcast episodes, and doing the things that I was doing. I was really in entitlement around will I should just like this should just work. And I shouldn’t have to put time and effort into this and therefore not actually doing super thinking around coaching tools that I can develop and actually having podcast episodes that are documenting myself coaching like I wasn’t doing as much self coaching and just really what I share on this podcast is me documenting myself coaching as perfectionist entrepreneur, and in the coaching that I give other perfectionist entrepreneurs.
Now having worked with over 1000 perfectionist entrepreneurs, I’ve just been able to see a lot of trends and themes and like testing things for myself and then testing it with my clients and developing it through that and seeing them get such incredible results and then sharing that on the podcast like that is really how I create the content that I create how I have an endless amount of ideas for this podcast and for what I share. And because as well, I was having some time away, and I wasn’t doing as many coaching calls inside PGSD as I would normally be doing. And I wasn’t doing as much self coaching, that I wasn’t having as many ideas for what to talk about on the podcast, and was also really de-prioritizing it.
And I talked about this a lot on this podcast, but just because podcasting, the way that I do it, it feels so easy that I really resist that as a perfectionist, it’s like we don’t trust ease. We only trust things when it’s complicated and hard because that will work. But if it’s something easy, then either that’s uncomfortable because we feel undeserving, or we feel like that can’t possibly produce the result we want in this kind of all or nothing approach to it of like if I want this big result, I have to be doing these big hard things.
So I wasn’t showing up and sharing the way that I normally do on the podcast. And really, I think that began to change in 2020. When I was shifting my mindset from I’m building this business and all of that kind of thing to I need to have this business run without me because I’m going to be focused on having my first child and then getting pregnant again and having more children. And so I really like the primary question in my brain about the business was how can I get this business to run without me having to be there? How can I get it to not be dependent on me anymore.
And I figured out so many things through that, that I am so grateful to have that whole experience because I now have a business where I’m able to work three days a week, it doesn’t depend on me, I can take extended periods of time off. And it’s not a problem at all. But at the same time, I had a notice around then that I started to shift my thinking really subtly into when it came to content and developing coaching tools and things like that it was like well, I need to kind of almost in a way, like stop having new ideas. Because then if I’m doing that, then it’s like the business is still dependent on me. And I need it to just be not dependent and stand alone. I don’t know if that’s making sense.
But basically, I wasn’t showing up and sharing in the way they normally do. I wasn’t prioritizing, creating content. And so when it came to launches, the experience that people were having in between launches wasn’t as valuable and didn’t create that same desire to work with me as had previously happened. So really, with this launch, that is a big thing that I have been focusing on. And it has been a journey. So many ways. I didn’t email about this, actually. But I had an experience a couple of weeks ago, maybe three weeks ago now, where I hired a babysitter to look after the kids. He was at work. And I wanted to record a podcast episode and do a bunch of other things.
And by the end of the five hours that I had paid $200 for this babysitter to be here and like all the prep for like handing over how to look after the kids and all that kind of thing. In that five hours. I didn’t finish. I did finish recording the podcast, and I needed to record it again. Because how exactly did it go? I actually need to look at my power planning to remind myself basically, I got nothing done to do. So what happened was I outlined the recording. And then normally I spend like 15 minutes doing that that took me like an hour and a half to do. And then I was I have in my power planning episode 430 recording in terms overthinking, struggling to say the right thing. So like an hour and a half of that happening, then half an hour me self coaching. I’m recording this call, and then the babysitter goes and then I recorded the call while the kids were all asleep.
And then I needed in the end to rerecord it that night, because when I listened back to it, it actually was so convoluted. And this isn’t from a self judgment kind of place, that when I was able to just zoom out and remove the drama, it was like, what am I trying to say? Like I was just so in my head about trying to say the right thing that I didn’t say the right thing, so to speak. Like, that’s what happens when we’re so focused on trying to do things right. It stops us from actually being able to do that.
So anyway, I’ve had a lot of experiences like that, but definitely recently in the last few episodes, I have been so much more self trusting and kind of just like, I can just like giving myself permission to just be me and show up and chat and I don’t have to be like saying it in this really concise, profound kind of way. That is so interesting that well I’m just trusting myself. I say things in a much more concise, profound way.
So anyway, back in self trust, and that is really flowing into this launch, I have just been drafting the open cart email. So the emails that are going to go out normally we have these done quite far in advance, but because the lead up for this launch has been a bit different, where we are having this live event, instead of doing a podcast series, that we have been spending time setting things up a bit differently behind the scenes. And so instead of rushing to get it done head of time, I’m just and we are as a team is trusting ourselves to be able to write the emails just before OpenCart. And I think some of them will be written after the doors open. And I’ve done that before. And also we’ve written them ahead of time before and both of them can work.
It’s not like I really, before I learned how to get things done early and easily, which actually was a launch debrief series that I did, because that was the main focus of the April May launch last year. But I was just really convinced that like me writing emails, like in the moment was what allowed me to create results, and have people sign off and like the energy of that, and like, really, it was just I felt more in control when I was doing it at a similar time to the launch happening. And also I think as well, there’s this kind of feeling of like, well, if I’d done it ahead of time, or I’d be more prepared than I probably would have done better.
So I’m not as accountable, it feels much more vulnerable to write it ahead of time and let it be done. And also when we do things at the last minute, as perfectionist a reason and that really works. So to speak until it doesn’t is that often in those moments, we are having a thought like I have no choice but to trust myself or I have no choice but to say this is done and move on, when we do have the choice to keep going or to call it as done. We don’t trust ourselves with that. And that’s why we often end up overthinking things if we do them early. That’s why I’m so passionate about helping perfection, entrepreneurs learn how to get things done early and easily.
So you can trust yourself the same way that you were the last minute, they can get it done ahead of time and remove a lot of that mental drama. And also just chaos in your life that comes from doing things last minute and also the massive impact that doing things last minute has because so many important things in your business, there’s no last minute, there’s no deadline. There’s no professor telling you what to do today. You have to be able to be self motivated and self accountable. And get that done. So as an entrepreneur, you need to know how to get things done when there’s no deadline.
So anyway, with all of that said, I am going to be tomorrow writing are drafting the first eight emails and sending them to Renae for her to have a look. But the other thing I want to mention before I wrap up this introduction is that I have signed up for Stacey Boehman $2 million group mastermind. So I’m in that mastermind it’s starting in January and goes for six months. But if you’re a regular listener of this podcast, you will know I was in Stacy’s 200k mastermind last year. For both of the rounds that happened last year. That’s a six month mastermind as well. And I have talked about Stacy a lot on this podcast and her concepts.
And I love them, they’re so helpful for me and one of them that I have been reminded of now that I am back in Stacey’s worlld fully is the high value and low value cycle. And really the way that I’ll link up the episode where she talks about it. But really one way to think about it is a high value cycle, which is where you’re producing a lot of value for your business, your clients and all that kind of thing is when you’re in the growth mindset, and a low value cycle is when you’re in the perfectionist mindset. And so just hearing her way of talking about it, and also sharing that with Renae and us having a way to talk about it that isn’t in the tools that I teach.
And this might sound kind of weird, like, behind the scenes we are power planning, we’re getting our clean rest, like we are practicing what we preach. But also I just felt like it would be really helpful as a team for Renae and I particularly to be talking about some of Stacey’s concepts and how we’re both applying them versus talking about a tool that I developed myself. So when it comes to the high value and low value cycle, I’ve really been thinking a lot about that. I’ll talk about that more throughout this debrief. I’m sure because that is something I’m thinking about a lot.
But just noticing like when I’m in a high value cycle, I am trusting myself I am decisive. I am resourceful. I don’t try and squeeze work in. When I’m in a low value cycle and that perfectionist mindset I’m overthinking. I’m polishing and perfecting. I’m trying to like add in every little workout of the day as I possibly can. I’m checking Instagram stats and things like that. So just being mindful of that and for Renae and I to have language around that, that we share and to all So be able to share with each other like, this is what it looks like when I’m not getting my own way. And this is what it looks like when I am getting in my own way. And us being able to more clearly see that in each other has been so helpful.
So I’m really just feeling like I am in that high value cycle slash growth mindset about this launch and actually like enjoying the process of it, which I can’t say was true for the last two launches that have happened, I love launching. And my relationship with launching initially, when I first started launching was very fraught, that it was so dramatic, it was a roller coaster, it ended in burnout every time. And then I learned like the process that I teach in my program, I figured out and discovered how to actually do things in a way that works for my brain. And so I didn’t burn out I haven’t burned out in years at this point.
And I learned to actually love launching, learn to love selling and inviting people into my program. But the last two launches, they I was really just operating from a place of stress and pressure and perfectionism, obviously. But just like this has to work and just solving things from a place of this isn’t working. So I hope this does or like things are broken, I need to figure out like how to fix them or how to stop making mistakes. And now I’m just in a mindset of I know what I’m doing. I know who I’m talking to the person on the other end actually wants to be in PGSD versus and this is what so many of us do when we are selling we’re trying to talk to and convince the person who doesn’t want it.
And instead when I think about like the person who’s listening to this episode right now, who actually wants to be listening to it, who finds this kind of thing helpful, then I share more instead of just thinking like I’m listening to someone who thinks like, Oh, why are you sharing all this stuff where I didn’t really care or whatever. So the same with the launch I was selling. And so now, I have such a great relationship with launching, but because of my perfectionistism this year, and the way that I have been showing up that the last two launches, were not fun.
And I’m so grateful that we didn’t hit the goals that we had, and that it didn’t kind of like reinforced the way that I was showing up with those launches, because I feel like that wouldn’t have served me and I would have, I mean, I’m hoping that I would have still gotten the lessons. But we tend not to inspect things as much when we get the result we want. And so so many times, it’s a gift that you don’t get the results you want, you get the results you need. And that was a result I needed. Because I needed to be reminded of the things that I teach.
And really like the experience I want to have as a business owner as an entrepreneur. So especially the last few weeks, I’ve really been thinking about this a lot. I’ve also been getting back into human design as well. I’m going to for emotional projector if you know anything about human design, you might know what that means. But I have been getting back into all of that kind of thing as well. And just thinking about like, what does success actually look like? And what would have to happen in my day for me to feel successful. Versus like, for a lot of this year, I’ve just been in the mindset of like, if I can just get the business to being a million dollars in a year, then I’ll finally feel successful and whatever.
And that wasn’t what I was literally thinking but that is based on my actions what I was thinking and instead just recognizing the cliche thing of like the journey the way you get there is so important. And for me if I’m not able to have time to go for a walk in nature, like if you don’t know I live in Brisbane, Australia. We live on acreage, me and my husband Steve and our three kids and dog cotton. So there’s a beautiful bushland all around us and I love going for a walk. I love listening to a podcast. I love it not having to be like productive exercise, where I am huffing and puffing. I do love that as well. I do love breaking a sweat, but just going for a walk.
And thinking about all this kind of stuff that I talk about about business and sexism and personal development or just listening to like Hamish and Andy or something really funny. So I love doing that reading a book, love doing that. Spending time with my kids going for a swim at summer at the moment going for a swim in the afternoon. Like if I don’t actually have the time to be able to do that or to be present when I’m doing it. What’s the fucking point I may as well just still be an accountant, like working nine to five in a job that I didn’t hate but I didn’t love.
And so for me, I’ve just been like this year has taught me so much about what is important to me when it comes to the how. And I know that with the last two launches that we had based on the way that I was showing up. Even if we did achieve our goal I wouldn’t have felt successful because of who I was being in the process of that launch and the Um, yeah, just the way I was operating that that isn’t how I want to operate, that that isn’t what I teach. And it’s not that I can’t ever be getting in my own way or any of that that’s going to be happening. And that’s also part of how I always have content, and things to share. And I can develop coaching tools and all that I have my own experience.
But at the same time, it’s just really like, I want to be doing what I know to do, and bringing myself back to that as often as I need to. And so that’s really what I’ve been doing. So like this morning, Steve and I went for a walk together with the twins. Once we dropped Lydia off at daycare I’ve been reading every day, I’ve been self coaching every day, I’m not squeezing things in anymore, literally this morning, I was like I’m done with squeezing things in. In the last few months, I’ve just been in this habit of trying to fit in so much around, like I have my three work days, I’d added a fourth a lot of weeks, and had a babysitter coming so that I could do even more.
And then waking up early, which I love waking up early and working. But also, I need sleep. And that’s time that I would love to be ideally waking up early, and reading a book and going for a walk and like doing that kind of stuff. rather than it just being like watch that I’m trying to squeeze in. And then that whole thing that I’ve talked about before, like, if you can work at any time, then you’re way less motivated in your work time to get things done. Because you can always do it later. And so my work time I can feel it, I can see it in my power planning was getting less productive.
I was procrastinating more, I was overthinking more, I wasn’t delegating as much. For example, with Instagram, instead of me actually delegating to my team, I was like, I need to do this on myself. And because I was squeezing things in, I could let that perfectionism continue. Versus when I’m really constrained with the time that I have, then it actually really gives me so much motivation to let go. The perception is thinking and to delegate and to get support. And to actually prioritize better and to not be in this mindset of everything is important.
Also, I can just really start to feel the cost in my personal life of if I was trying to work in every nap time on a non work day, for example, that when was the time for my life beyond the business, and not just for like life admin, but for things like reading and seeing friends and all of that, but my life became either working or looking after the kids. And that was pretty much it. And that’s not the life I want to live either. Obviously, I love both of those things. But just because you love something doesn’t mean it should should be your everything, your only thing.
And so I want to have time to do other things. And I also just want to have time, like I just want to have a feeling of spaciousness and not always like I’m behind. And there’s so much more to do. So literally this morning, I had set my alarm for four o’clock. And I just was like, No, I’m not, I’m going back to sleep. And I’m just not squeezing things in. And I’m just going to be resourceful enough to figure out how to have the success I want in three days again, and just like come back to that I feel like last year, I had a lot going on in my personal life I got married, I was pregnant with the twins had a toddler as well, obviously, but was navigating pregnancy and all that.
And I just didn’t have as much time so to speak for the business in a way so that I just kept things so simple. And I just let it be done. And it worked beautifully. And then this year, even though I still have a lot of time constraints and personal life things. I just was in this more perfectionist mindset about things. And I don’t think that’s like a bad thing as well. Just I have been navigating a real life transition. And protectionism will often come up when you are doing that because of all that uncertainty that our brains are like, okay, like, if I go back to this strategy of protectionism that will help me cope that will help me handle things because I’m not the kind of person who can handle things, and all of that.
So I’ve just been navigating that. And I don’t want to make myself wrong for that. But I have been navigating that and I feel like this launch just feels like coming home to myself. And just yeah, it’s been this year has felt like trudging through mud in many different ways. And I’m just grateful for that experience as well. Because I know that that’s part of business and me having experiences like that, which I’ve had before but having it again, it’s just like, Oh, I know exactly how to help other perfectionist through this as well.
So anyway, with all of that said, that’s a little update on where I’m at with the launch. What I’m up to, and on Thursday, I’m going to be doing the PGSD coaching call recording episode 434 for the podcast, and finalizing the OpenCart emails. I have a weekly meeting with Daisy about client success in PGSD. And I am having a call with Aditi who’s currently a PGSD coah, but she will be wrapping Not shortly before the end of the year, or her last call will be the annual review call that we do in PGSD. Because I just want to be coaching again and on all the coaching calls, at least for the time being, there will be a time where we have PGSD coaches again, and our PGSDers love having other coaches as well.
Just hearing different perspectives on the tools and philosophies and everything like that. And just yeah, they are the best the ones that we’ve had. And I know that whoever we have in the future will be incredible, too. I have a call with a duty, we’re planning the annual review call. And then Friday, I have those events. On Saturday, I am going to the wiggles concert with Lydia, I’m really excited about this. So Wiggles are a children entertainment band, or whatever you want to call it. If you’re not familiar, their Australian, their massive, absolutely massive. So if you have kids, you probably have heard of them.
I’m taking Liddy to the wiggles and we have a friend’s Christmas party on Saturday. So I may have a call with Renae planned on Saturday, I’ll do a little check in that morning. So each morning, I’m going to be recording a little update for this episode. I’m not really planning to work on Saturday. So that’s really the first full day of the launch. And then yeah, we have essentially four days that Renae and I will be working together.
So that’s the plan. I’m really excited isn’t quite the right word. I just feel really like grounded and connected and present and engaged with it all. So yeah, really excited to be. I just thought I wasn’t excited tonight. Obviously I’m excited. But I’m really excited to be doing this episode in the style that I usually do, and sharing the progress towards the goal and all that so at this point, my plan is to do the next update for this on Saturday morning, the morning of the wiggles concert to give you an update on how the launch is going to the cart will be opened doors will be open by then for PGSD. So I’ll be giving you an update in real time each day of the launch. And yeah, I’ll talk to you then.
It’s 8:30am on the 10th of December, not the ninth as I said it would be, but on the 10th, and I’m headed to meet Renae, we’re having the workday together today, and not at my house, but at the Airbnb, or hotel or whatever, where she is staying, for she’s in Brisbane for the launch. So I’m going to meet her at the foyer of the W Hotel in the carpark and then go up and work together. I’ve just spent the morning organizing everything for the babysitter, who is looking after the kids today.
And I just want to share, I guess where I’m at, where the launches are, what I’m thinking about because honestly, I didn’t record yesterday, because I just, it was just so funny to just notice myself feeling way out feeling. But I could feel myself. So the launch started in Australian time at 9pm on Friday evening. And I could feel myself when it came to the early hours of Saturday morning. And I was awake because I was feeding Jack. So it was maybe like 3am 4am. And I could feel myself really wanting to check. But then resisting checking. And I usually like to just check in at specific times, I’ve decided ahead of time versus just like refreshing, refreshing that kind of vibe.
And so I was like I’m not planning to check until I am awake, awake, not just awake, because I’m feeding. And anyway, I just decided, actually I need more sleep. And I’m going to go back to sleep. And instead of as planned, waking up at four o’clock, and doing my lunch check in and like doing all that stuff before the kids wake up in starting my day, yesterday went to The Wiggles concert, which was also in a friend’s Christmas party. But I wanted to do the launch related things before everyone woke up.
And I just decided that I actually needed more sleep. And I love how you probably do this as well, like we do this where we can be very convincing about like, actually, it makes so much more sense to me to get a proper sleep, I’m really tired, I just need to sleep properly. But the reality was, I was just wanting to avoid looking at the sign up numbers and seeing that be zero and the feeling that I would have if that was to be the case. So I woke up I think it was around 630 when all the kids got up, or after that because Steve got up early with them so got up and then I checked the numbers so we had a sign ups. And we hadn’t had anyone sign up.
And at the time of recording this, we still haven’t heard anyone sign up. And I feel like so good about it currently. Yesterday I did not and when I say feel about it, not in this like optimistic kind of denial. But I have done the work on my thoughts to not go into disappointment, despair, shame, like Oh, silly that I was in yesterday. Like, I still haven’t figured it out. And this launch is just gonna fail again. And like thought like that. And just noticing that was so powerful. And it’s so great to just be able to notice that without, like still feeling the feelings from that.
But just like oh, I can see my brain is just immediately wanting to go to this isn’t going to work like this is going to be like that again and just wanting to go really into a place of certainty about it failed. And yesterday on the way to the Wiggles concept. I listened to a bit of a podcast episode, not a podcast episode, a coaching call replay, that was talking Stacey Boehman was already back. She was my coach, diamond had to lead a group mastermind which starts in January, but I’ve worked with her before anyway, I was listening to her coaching at the 200k mastermind about the high value and low value cycles and allowing negative emotion and it was like just the exact coaching I needed in that exact moment.
And I am so grateful I could just listen to others getting the coaching for me. I get that coaching exactly when I needed it. So what I took away from the coaching she was giving is just allowing yourself to be in a negative emotion and not resisting it and kind of pushed against it or action your way out of it. And thinking about what negative emotion like what emotion do you need to allow? And what emotion do you need to generate in order to stay in your high value cycle or growth mindset, like what do you need to generate and allow, in order for that to be the case, leave some coaching and talk about disappointment and different things like that as people were getting coached.
But what really resonated the most was, when I listen to the second half of that, this morning, everything really clicked together, that it’s about allowing uncertainty, and also in a way generating the feeling of certainty. I know that sounds so contradictory, but it’s really, that I’m wanting, I can feel myself wanting to be certain. And because it feels easier to be certain about failure, that my brain is just by what I’ve said, this is going to fail, even though there’s no incentive for people to sign up in the first 24 hours, 48 hours, 72 hours, like, we don’t have an incentive, except for like, you get instant access to everything.
But we promote that this report starts in January. So signing up a few days early, like, Yeah, you get access to everything you get started. But ultimately, there’s no big incentive to do it. And so if I’m reading into like, well, if people wanted it, then at least someone would have signed up and and that can, like, help me feel confident and keep going. But really just, instead of going into this certainty that it will fail, and the comfort of that as much as as despair and disappointment, because initially, that’s the exact coaching is like, oh, I need to allow it to be disappointment. It is that and just this feeling of like failure and those kinds of flavors things.
But really, when I are talking about the sovereignty piece, and the uncertainty, it’s just allowing that to be uncertainty, because the only reason I feel that disappointment, or despair, or disheartened moment, is because I’m trying to be certain about something. And those things are easy to be certain about the failure, this is not gonna work and all of that kind of thing. And then when you go into that place, the ideas and problem solving, that comes out of this place of like, it’s not working, but I’m gonna try and fix it, that it’s broken, but I’d fail. But like, let me just try and make it right, like that kind of mindset that I have definitely been in before durig the launch.
It doesn’t produce the results, it doesn’t feel good, it feels miserable the whole time. It’s exhausting. And it just like it doesn’t bring people in, especially not the kind of person that we want to attract, in that isn’t going to resonate with me when I am in fear. When I’m just not in the most growth minded place that I could be with that I need to be perfectly in that place. But I know that me, allowing myself to just let that be uncertainty is so powerful, because then as soon as I do that, and as soon as I allow myself to shift into not thinking about myself, which is where that disappointment and all that I’m not thinking about the other person when they feel disappointed.
I’m thinking about myself, how I look what my goals are. And so when I shift my focus to the people out there in the world, who right now are thinking about perfectionist getting shit done and deciding about it or have decided, and then I’m going to be signing up. By the time that enrollment closes. When I think that that’s, that’s when I’m like, oh, I want to say this in an email versus like, what’s the right thing that I can say? So that I can convince someone to sign up and not because I’m trying to be manipulative. But just because when I’m, I’m in that perfectionist mindset about things, it just goes into that tenses and like I need to get it right.
And just not even believing that it’s valuable, which then has me doing the convincing because I’m not actually just being present with Yes, it’s valuable. Yes, they want to Yes, now it’s about time, and all of that. And so I can just communicate normally and not be weird about it and not have to be tense about it all. So just noticing I need to allow uncertainty to be there. And I think as perfectionist, that is one of the hardest things to allow and what we’re constantly trying to avoid.
We want things to be sited and we would rather certainty than success. And I know that sounds really weird to say but we would rather be certain and if we need to be certain about failure then to be certain about that, then the uncertainty that is required for us to be in, in order to create success. And I think this is why so many of us, myself included, we go to the tactics and the strategies to try to figure out the how and do the math and crunch the numbers and all of that, because I drain to get certainty.
And if I can just allow that to be uncertainty, then that I can just like I as soon as I can, no leaks, that was what I need to do and recognize that I could just let it be that. And I could just kind of carry around the uncertainty. And then when it comes to work, I need to generate certainty, but not around having to feel certain in the results. But I think and even as I’m talking about, as I’m recording this, it’s more so being certain in the kind of person that I am, and my self image and that I can handle any feeling that I get shared or any results. And certain, which I already am stressing about PGSD. And who it helps in the value of that and all of that kind of thing. That is just like not trying to be certain about… okay will definitely have 30 signups and I can be certain about that.
Because for my brain, it feels so hard to feel certain about that, that I just go into, like wanting to feel certain that we want to have 30 signups. And so instead, I think just focusing my certainty around who I am, and how I want to show up and who I want to be during the launch. And having fun with it. And being playful. And like all of those different things. If I focus on being certain around that and staying true to that, then I know that that will result in the best result possible. There is no way that me being certain about those things is going to have us have a worse result.
And this is where the long term comes into it as well. That I’m not saying that the best result here is 30 signups for this launch. It’s considering that and I was with Renae yesterday, we had a call, I would rather have one person five people sign up, who are the person that we can definitely help who are like they have perfectionist things going on productivity struggles, they need to work for their self trust and all of that. But bringing in the people who we have really designed the program for who it gets results for. I would rather that than try and like call in anyone who we can like, oh, yeah, you know, this could work for you too.
And like all people who are really at a place where kind of like me in 2013, when I started that I like my protectionism was debilitated. Like, I don’t think I would have been ready for PGSD. I mean, I would have gotten so much value from it. But I didn’t even like I couldn’t even tell anyone in my real life about it. The thought of even offering anything for sale was just like, way too much like. So anyway, I just am very committed to long term, the results that I want to create in a business in terms of who we help what we offer, the results that we get for those people.
And so that might mean that by me being certain about who I am and what I can handle and showing up to my fullest, it might mean that for this launch, we have a lower number. But we ultimately more aligned with the overall long term direction. And ultimately, we’ll end up with more signups overall of the person that we’re best equipped to help. Versus like very much focused on the short term. So that’s what I have been thinking about. And just allowing myself to see where my brain is like, oh, let’s try and be certain about certain things that I don’t want to be certain about, like this is gonna fail, this isn’t gonna work. I still haven’t figured this thing out.
And just allowing myself to be focused on what I do know, what I do want to be certain about and allowing that to be room for uncertainty, and room for things to change along the way. And not thinking like, well, we didn’t have a certain number of signups by a certain point in time then it’s off track. And now we need to go into this troubleshooting mode. And so yeah, I just feel really great about the launch in the sense of who I am being and how I’m showing up and that me feeling that way yesterday wasn’t a problem.
And just not this like boy, I should already, you know not be in those failures because I know and I think winch people out of that, and have my clients not being those failures, I shouldn’t I should know about like, no, of course, my brain is like, oh, okay, let’s be certain about something, it’s not gonna work. And part of what’s really helped with this as well, is with the $2 million group mastermind, I’m going to be traveling to the states for about a week to go to that event in Nashville, which I’ve never been to Nashville before. So that’d be really fun.
But I was feeling like, I’m not sure if I really want to go in person, like I know I do. But I also don’t as well, like, oh, maybe I’ll just do the event. So actually, which I can do. And it’ll be overnight. Like it’ll be I think it’s like, maybe 1am to 9am or something Brisbane time, but I can do it overnight. I’ve done that before. And that’d be fine. But I was just looking at, like, I really had that desire to go in person, but I could feel myself talking myself out of it. And when Steve and I went on a walk the other morning, I was chatting about it with him. And it’s like just noticing the different layers of objections that I had to go in person that I was like, going this way to this day, but I was like, oh, you know, you show you like, if you have all the kids in the work for just a week, give me to be completely gone. Like, that’ll be okay. And then we’ve talked about that. And that was all fine.
And then I was like, it also just feels scary. Like, I want a big reason I want to go to meet people in person, and have those relationships and dislike, the downtime that you get between sessions. And like all that kind of stuff. I feel like events I’ve gotten to that’s where you get to chat to people versus just like, you still have to talk to people during the event itself. But it’s I don’t know, it’s just limited to whatever is the topic of the discussion in that moment.
So I really want to meet other people in the mastermind in person, and just be there in person. And so I was just say to Steve like, it’s also this fear of like meeting people in person, as much as I want to meet people in person, that it’s like it feels more vulnerable to do that, versus like behind the screen and all of that kind of thing. So I was like, I can feel it some of that bad. But ultimately, like, that’s not enough to stop me. But just like my nature was to hit people is I just will kind of like sit back and like I will be a bit slow to warm up once I’m warm. I’m very warm. But yeah, so it just always kind of primary if I want to call it introversion, because that’s more just how you recharge versus how you interact in social settings. But yeah, just those kinds of feelings. And then I was like, to be honest, I’m just also anxious about flying.
And I love flying. And I also prime in turbulence. And it’s like the uncertainty, it’s just coming back to my talking about this. The feeling when I’m in turbulence of is the uncertainty of like, why is the plane shaking like this so much. And if something bad about to happen, that like when I’m in turbulence, as it currently stands, on a plane, if I’m watching a movie, I turn it off, if I’m reading a book, I start reading the book, I like put on music, and sometimes like I need to just put on something that feels so like comforting on nostalgia, like Disney music, like there’s something that I’m like, this will just like comfort me, I bought it the plane has a little you know, on the screen the setting so you can see what like the cameras of what it’s like outside or you can see the cockpit kind of settings of like, what altitude you’re at, and things like that. I turn it on to that.
And then I’m just there watching. And I’m looking around at everyone else who’s just watching their movie reading their books, like, just be normal, and like how is everyone else but you know, my whole brain is just being consumed by the uncertainty and not being willing to just have that be there. Or obviously you’d have different thoughts that you don’t have that feeling of uncertainty and it’s like, oh, this is the same like and I know all these intellectual thoughts of like, please like crash from tabulates like all of that stuff, but my brain is just feels like well what is going on?
So just thinking about like when I can just allow like because I want to go to the States for this event. If I just allow that feeling of uncertainty to be there versus I was like, yeah, maybe I can try and figure out like what I can do mindset wise and I don’t have that fear when I’m flying and whatever. Just like what if it’s okay that I do feel like that for like 14 hours and then whatever the connected like the four hour flight or whatever I can I’m just what if I’m just willing for 18 hours to feel that feeling in my body.
And let that be there. And when I do that and think of it that way, then I’m like, Oh, of course I want to go. And it’s not a big problem. And I can feel that feeling. And let it be there, it’s going to be much better if I’m not resisting it or trying to respond to it, but I didn’t like. So we always we had things to say with the plane and try to, like, get a sense of control by nature, like they have none. But just letting it be there can say to me with this launch to launch in general business in general, because as much as we want that certainty, there’s, there’s no way to ever get it.
It’s just like, we can either give ourselves the illusion of certainty, and like have fate. And I don’t think optimism but like that faith of like, everything’s, you know, going in my favor, it’s all gonna work out. And that kind of thing. But I think it’s even more powerful as all that coupled with that is, and I can handle uncertainty, and I can just be with the messiness of it, I can be with the process of it. And I can, instead of wanting to be sad, and jump to conclusions, so I can be certain that I can just let myself feel uncertain.
And see how my brain wants to take me to certainty in an unhelpful way, and just bring myself back to letting myself be uncertain. And then be connected with what I’m doing, why I’m doing what I’m doing, who I am, how I want to be, and show up from that place. So yeah, I just feel like if I just allow myself to have that be uncertainty, like how many signups we’ll have, when they’ll come in, and all of that kind of thing. And release my expectations, or like my need for validation of like only if we have a certain number of signups for a certain time. And I’ll feel good about it and be easy to show up of like, but I want to be the entrepreneur who doesn’t need that validation from something instantly working.
And I love that. So launches, especially this year, I really been teaching me that. And I feel like not that I feel like I’m like, it’s all trying to teach me a lesson. But if it was, then the lesson would be like, lighten up, have fun with it, stop just kind of use this as validation. And I feel like I’m not going to get the validation that I’m looking for from the launch until I don’t need it anymore. And as long as I need it, it’s going to be withheld from me not like by the universe or whatever. But like, I’m going to withhold it from myself, subconsciously so that I can learn this. And so I’m about to arrive to meet Renae.
But to wrap this up, I am just like my aim for today and to load incidents, have fun with it. Be thinking about the person who is thinking about PGSD, who’s signing up for PGSD, telling them about it, celebrating our PGSDers being connected with those who are already in the program. And just like actually enjoying it and not be like, well, I have to fund launch. If we have the sign up numbers be exactly how I want and then if not, then I just have a shit time. Like that is not my goal for business. That is not what I teach. That is not what I want to model. And so I loved that the launch. And it’s really having me learn that on a deeper level. I’m much more emotionally regulated than I previously was. With a launch that wasn’t going the way I had expected it to my perfectionist brain had expected it to. And now it’s just that next layer that so yeah, with that said, that is my update for today.
Today is the 13th of December, and I’m in the car, I’m actually on my way to the hospital. I’m okay and Steve is okay, but he’s in the hospital for an unexpected overnight admission. So I’m dropping him off some things and I thought I would record an update. Because I haven’t done one for the last few days. But I have been having so many realizations, epiphany’s, aha moments like it has just been this launch experience have been so important. And I know that the insights that are coming from this launch, have just grown me so much as a person but also in terms of its business.
We’ll have the business be able to achieve the big goals that we have in terms of impacts in terms of making money, because I wouldn’t have gotten the lessons from this launch. If things weren’t going to the way that they have been going. At the time I’m recording this it’s 1pm. There’s still two hours left of the open cart enrollment. So when I left for the car trip, we had four signups and our goal is 30 signups for this launch. And we had the first signup. Erin on yesterday, yesterday, we had the first signup. So we had, and basically until those 24 hours to go, we had zero signups. And I’ve never had a launch where we have had zero signups for so long.
There’s been launches, where it’s been like this last 48 hours, 72 hours and no one signed up. But having a launch where it’s not until the 24 hour to go mark that we have anyone signing up has not been anything I’ve experienced with a PGSD launch. So there’s a lot of reasons for that, that I can see. And I’ll talk about it more in the debrief. But just having the experience that we’ve had and also welcome to Erin, and also Stacy, who signed up, and Patricia, and Kathy, so those are the PGSD that we have so far for the January cohort at the debrief, I’ll give an update on exactly how many PGSDers we had.
I’m so excited to meet everyone and coach and have them in PGSD. Really, really excited about that, especially with it being the new year and everything. But yeah, just having that zero signups and then that having us actually look at what’s going on. And so like just kind of all these layers of epiphanies and realizations in terms of I don’t even like I know the last update, I was talking about feelings, and needing for there to be this feeling of uncertainty, and thinking about what feelings to generate.
And then when I met up with Renae, we had such great discussions about so many things, but me just understanding and beginning to realize that I need that to be a feeling of inadequacy, just allowing it to be there because that feeling of inadequacy. Also feelings of potentially humiliation, embarrassment, like just allowing all those feelings to be there because I don’t want to feel or think I was mentioned as much as I think I would rather feel disappointed and disheartened than inadequate.
So my brain just wants to manufacture those feelings. Rather than just being with the feeling of I did my best. I really thought this was going to work and it didn’t. And I just allowed myself and on to think on Sunday, maybe on Monday, I was just really focused actually on Monday, Renae and I went for a walk to begin our day. And I listened to a coaching call from the mastermind and just noticing for myself I need to just let that feeling of inadequacy. Be there rather than trying to resist it, trying to improve things from a place of inadequacy, just letting that sensation be there not needing to identify the thoughts or like what happened in my past or anything like that. Just letting the physical sensations of inadequacy be there.
And it’s so fascinating whenever I do allow myself to just feel the feelings, and often I’m not even conscious that I’m resisting it. But when I just allow it to be there and carry it around with me, typically doesn’t feel that bad. Like the lengths that we go to to avoid the feeling. They don’t feel that bad. And they often like when you allow yourself to actually feel them without an agenda for like, well, I’ll feel this so I can feel better later. But just have it be that with you and allow that to be space for it, it really just flows so fast. But anyway, I allowed myself to just carry around like, I’m feeling inadequate. And that’s okay. And just by even for just like a few hours, letting it be there not having to dissect it or self coach on it, but just like letting it be there. I just feel like my relationship with this launch changed so much that I was able to just actually look at it for what it is, and in a much more objective way than I had been, instead of being from a place of like, well, I’m not good enough.
And like this launch is saying something about me, which obviously we all intellectually understand. It’s not a reflection of who we are as a person and how good we are and how worthy we are unlovable and all of that. But subconsciously, we do make it mean that and so I was actually able to subconsciously, stop making it mean that just by allowing that feeling of inadequacy to come along for the ride. And so I was able and with Renae to help as well, he will to begin seeing what contributing factors, had the launch result be what it was. And could we reasonably expect that to have been zero signups if we objectively look at the inputs for the launch.
And so one of the big things I realized, and this is a huge thing, I’ll probably do a whole podcast episode just on this alone, is that because I hadn’t allowed myself to see what was working and really celebrate it. And I’d been in an all or nothing mindset of either the launch is working or it’s not working. So the launch I did in January 2022, where we had 50 PGSDers signed up. And a lot of that content was created really easily like that if you listened to that launch debrief. And like the launch, vlog episodes, essentially they did for that launch, like there was drama throughout it, like I was doing some things last minute, and all of that. But because I didn’t hit the goal that I had in mind, I determined that that launch, even though it was successful in a lot of ways that it didn’t work.
And therefore, basically for the last two years, and since then, I have been in the process of trying to figure out what needs to happen in a launch for it to work. And this whole time missing, that what needs to happen is just having more people in our world. And rather than expecting that, despite keeping basically the same people in our world listening to the podcast, opening emails, like yes, having some new people come in. But for the most part, not seeing any sizable increase in our email list, or in podcast listenership that those things in some ways, overall decreasing, that we just didn’t like the launch was working. And it just needed new people. So my expectation on my belief had been, well, I should be able to just have the launch converting better and better each time. And of course, like people are listening, and they’re like, I really want to, you know, be power planning and have a growth goal and all of that kind of thing.
So my thought my expectation was that with every launch, we should be having more people sign up. But I had missed that you actually need traffic, like more traffic to do that. And that isn’t a realistic expectation objectively, to be able to not have your audience grow and to keep launching the same thing. And to have it have more and more and more signups. And so, we had this realization, like we knew about this, and in the last launch debrief. I know like I had some other realizations about entitlement, I had to like, I shouldn’t have to do new episodes on the podcast and things like that. But ultimately, as well, like I had that realization, or they definitely have it about traffic.
And yet we didn’t solve for it because we were so focused on the short term. And also we were solving from a place of, it’s not working. Instead of recognizing the launch that I did, the emails that got sent out the messaging around power planning and everything like that. That works. And we just need to have it be in front of new people, which means we can stop spending 80% of our time 80% of our work week, tinkering with things so so much of our time and I’m going to be doing a time audit in my power planning to really see it. But I know there are little warning signs along the way. But essentially, so much of our time went into creating, like, basically what would our live event be because we need to do something. And because we don’t have enough time to get traffic, and we realize traffic is the issue, we need to think about the people who are already in our world.
And therefore we need to do something new, because we can’t just keep seeing things the same way. And so that’s really how the perfectionism reset event, which I love teaching the first half of that event came to be. And that we ended up using a word with a title that I never use, I never talk about resetting your perfectionism. And to me, even when we were creating it, I was like, Okay, it’s interesting, were picking a word that I never use, like and seeing now that that was from the thought of like, we need to do something new, like we need to get people’s attention. Versus if it was just like the power planning workshop, if it would be so easy for me to teach, and that we know for sure, we would have had, like just this kind of, like, that’s what I talk about power planning and how to use that to overcome perfectionism and to show up consistently, and do the things that you need to do.
And so instead of just talking about the obvious thing, because I was just thought of, I need to do it in a new way, I can’t just keep talking about it in the same way, essentially, because it’s the same people. So I need to say it differently. So much time has gone into, like editing OpenCart emails, or writing completely new one does basically like tweaking something that was already working, and then having the frustration that comes from doing something that’s already like trying to adjust something that’s already working. And being at that point, if you think about the law of diminishing returns, which is at a certain point, extra effort doesn’t add any extra benefit. So for example, if you’re going to do a workout, you might do an hour workout, say an hour and a half. But basically around that point, any extra time working out like a five hour workout isn’t better than in an hour and a half workout, or an hour workout, or even a 30 minute workout.
There’s a law of diminishing returns. So at some point, when you begin or continue to put effort in that effort gives you less back. And so we had reached the point without realizing it. And when it was me doing the launch, I had reached that point of the launch is converting at a great rates. If you objectively look at the numbers, which I hadn’t been, I just been really focused on the mindset side of things, and missing the part about like, really seeing what’s working and understanding that and sitting with that. And so we had just been so busy tweaking things that were already working, and then not putting time, that asset into growing the traffic and our audience and having the launch be in front of new people. And because we’re in this mindset of like, we don’t have time to have new people come into our world.
So what we need to do, again, is have it be focused on people who are already in our world. And at the same time, we didn’t then say, Okay, let’s start doing longer term things. We were running some ads, that ultimately was with this really short term perspective on it as well. And so that has just been, I think, I mean, there’s been so many realizations, but one of the biggest ones, like if I don’t celebrate, if I don’t really sit with and dissect what has worked, I’m going to end up spending all my time trying to fine tune something that doesn’t need to be fine tuned. And the opportunity cost of that is so large, because that’s time that like even if there is a marginal benefit to that I could be getting so much more benefit from the time I’m putting in. If I’m doing something that really isn’t needed lever, for example, maybe it’s you know, podcast. Me just showing up and like nurturing the new people who are coming into our world. And Renae is the one who’s essentially going out and finding them and bringing them to me so I can they can listen to podcasts. And I can just be doing my thing coaching, self coaching and chatting about it.
But just seeing that, and basically the last two years has been stench, tweaking something that was fine as it is that was good enough as it is, but because I didn’t acknowledge that it was sufficient. And I was trying to improve things from a place of inadequacy from a place of insufficiency because I wasn’t allowing myself to just be with the feeling of inadequacy. I then made it mean like I am inadequate I need to change the way I’m doing things and so much of what I’ve been doing has been from this lens of what I’m doing is not working and so I need to fix it and so even recently with recording podcast episodes, and this is usually the easiest thing for me. And I know that when I’m struggling with it. There’s something going on. But I was using this mindset of I need to be doing podcast episodes better instead of just returning to self trust, and coaching and self coaching and sharing about it, which is when the podcast has always worked best.
And when I’ve always loved it the most, it feels too easy for me to do that. And so I’m like, oh, no, I need to do episodes on certain topics, or I need to have it be more concise. And it’s not to say I can’t improve the way I’m doing it. But ultimately, when we look at it, the way that I’m doing podcasts doesn’t need improving, either, I can just let myself do it the way that I would do it, and improve with practice, it happens by the virtue of practicing by the virtue of showing up and doing it you do improve. And so instead of having all my time kind of have this new, better way, to just like, let the way we do launches be the way we do launches, seeking a bit more like at Evergreen funnel, as if we weren’t doing it live, so to speak every time but if we were to set it up on autopilot, like having that mentality around it, trusting myself with the podcast episodes, allowing myself to spend my time where it is best spent coaching, self coaching, talking about running the business, like doing the CEO, stop having the bigger picture, vision, and all of that kind of thing.
And then having Renae bring in new people, so just from me being able to be with Okay, I’m gonna need to allow that to be inadequacy, and exploring what other feelings are there. And also, a big realization was that I kept us so busy with the launch, because of the fears I have around being more visible, having my work be listened to by more people or seen by more people judge up in the takes by more people that I wanted to keep us busy with this launch, and fine tuning and tweaking that, but I feel so much safer than me being out in front of more people based on the way that I’m thinking about it, and my self image and all of those kinds of things.
But instead of directly working on that, it’s just been like keeping myself busy and entertained with the launch drama, instead of allowing myself to be in launch ease. And then just dealing with the fears I have and like not dealing with it but changing the way and thinking or allowing certain feelings to just be there. So that we can worry the traffic and do those things. And that I don’t have the need to then create drama. And like basically keep myself entertained and busy and distracted with tweaking the launch stuff. And so just seeing that going on and there are so many symptoms of me wanting to avoid that. And I think a big part of it, too, is being compassionate with myself.
And really like I didn’t have the emotional capacity to have uncertainty in the business and also the uncertainty I was experiencing in my personal life as I was navigating, transitioning from being a mom of one to a mom of three and all the postpartum hormones and severe sleep depravation which I love but it was so hard and just like going through that that like of course I didn’t want to be putting myself out there more and having more people seeing things and like opened myself up to what I believe would be fair to them judgment excetera and so just being so kind to myself about that and I know like I really feel like I am in the best place to come for sure but just being like oh yeah, I’ll score and I can allow any even just like allowing feelings of judgment to be there.
Like if I’m judging myself that’s okay I don’t have to like wrestle with it or argue with like, okay if I’m judging myself then I am but ultimately just by allowing myself to have feelings be there it has been so powerful… Just pulling to carpark now so I wrap up this update in a second but I just for the last couple of days especially really been thinking a lot about feeling. I’ll link up a couple of podcasts episodes I listen to on Brooke Castillo’s podcast, The Life Coach School. I like if you have been listening since the beginning, oh, if you’re not, you probably know Brooke Castillo from The Life Coach School is like, is a person I really look to when it comes to coaching. And just because she’s such an example of what’s possible, but the way she talks about feelings and of course, as a perfectionist, the feelings stuff is always the word that I want to skip and skim over.
But it is the work and so I just listened to a few episodes from her podcasts that I listened to years ago, two years ago and they came out but I just felt cool. Yesterday I was dropping Cotton off to get groomed, it’s kind of like, I need like those episodes, they know. Like, I just feel like I need to search for them and listen to them. So I did, it was so helpful. So if you can relate to what I’m talking about as well, or even just in general, I highly recommend listening to it. But I’ve just been paying more attention to how am I feeling? Noticing a lot of times, I don’t know how I’m feeling like I’m quite disconnected from feelings. And in any given moment, I wouldn’t say I know, I was feeling I know what I’m thinking. I can tell you a thought if you asked me that, oh, yeah, I’m feeling and then I’ll tell you a sentence, but a feeling is one word.
And so oftentimes, we don’t know what that word is. So I’m just like, letting that be okay. And just being curious and exploring, and just paying attention to like, physical sensations a lot more. And even I don’t know, if I mentioned common for how about having cold showers. But anyway, when I have one, to just like, last night, I was like, I’m just gonna notice how it feels physically. Like I have the mental drama in my head about oh, my God is cold and blah, blah. But like, physically, how does being cold actually feel like if I were to describe it to someone who’s never felt cold before, or never had a cold shower, and ultimately, when you get really present to her, when I get present to it, it’s really like the physical sensations are very tolerable.
They really aren’t a problem. It’s just the mental drama of oh my god, it’s cold, I don’t like being cold and whatever. And also, your body physically reacts to the cold, but it’s completely fine. So and this morning, I went for a run. Like I’m just going to actually notice like, because I can have a lot of mental drama about a run as 10 most people, like, ah, like, even before I went, I was like, what is his feeling? Is it red like, because I actually enjoy running, I’ve learned to change my self image around it, see myself as a runner, tell myself a different story. So my experience has changed. But then ultimately, like, physically, you’re exerting energy. Our brains don’t like that it wants to conserve energy, it’s going to deter us from doing anything, it’s going to burn calories, because otherwise, we don’t have those calories. If there’s danger we need to escape from it’s going to be harder for us to get away from it.
So of course, we have that resistance to it. But just noticing like, okay, is this stress? Like, what is this feeling that I have? And this feeling isn’t so bad? And do I need to read into it. And then when I was going for a run, to say, okay, I can feel my legs are heavy, because I did a workout yesterday morning with one of my friends, we did a leg workout. It’s like, okay, I can feel my legs like, they’re uncomfortable. And the story I want to tell myself is I can’t run any faster because my legs feel so uncomfortable. Just the muscles, but when I actually focused on it, I was like, Okay, let me speed up and see does the feeling in my legs change when I’m running at my jogging pace versus my running pace. And it feels the same way, which is so interesting to just the presence like, Okay, this story I have about my leg. Like it feeling heavier is part runfiles.
Actually this sensation about as the same and I was just paying attention to, okay, what are the sensations, the physical sensations that I want to avoid when it comes to running. It’s like, okay, my head feels the same, like, my head from my eyes up feels the same when I’m running or when I’m not running. And then, yes, I’m breathing a lot heavier, it’s harder to breathe, my mouth is dry. And then kind of like, okay, it was hot this morning. So I can feel on my skin, like, I’m sweating. And then I have that like prickly kind of sensation on my skin. But just paying attention to feelings and sensations and naming them and describing them have been really helpful. Because if we spend our whole lives and construct our whole lives to avoid feelings, like, what if those feelings aren’t so bad? And what if you can really start to like if the game is just learning how to feel and experience any physical sensation without making it a problem? Like what opens up to me when I’m able to do that?
The things I’m willing to do, that would have me going the business or like just doing more enjoyable things, even when I mentioned about having anxiety essentially about flying, that’s just a feeling in my chest, essentially, of my like my heart rates going up and fit. What if I could just sit with that feeling like what if having that feeling the whole plane ride wasn’t an issue, that I’m able to go to a different country and meet new people. And so that’s just what I’ve been sitting with. And personally, for me, has been the biggest realization so far, I would say from this launch has just been about the feelings and really getting, like allowing myself to feel inadequate, and also and I won’t go into it now but allowing myself to actually be with the positive feelings which I feel like is more uncomfortable than the inadequacy.
But really when I say about inadequacy, because if you’re a perfectionist, of course you can relate because perfectionism is all about avoiding shame and inadequacy. Am I trying to like, outrun those feelings and make things perfect so we don’t have to feel that way. But then for a lot of us, I would say probably for all of us, the feelings that are the hardest to feel are sufficiency, joy. And because when I’m thinking about it, like, oh, it’s that kind of fear of what if the other fear drops? Or like all of that memory? Or what even is that feeling? And what if I could just be with that feeling of the other shoe dropping? And if that is like a sense of dread, or a sentence unease? Like, what is that feeling of things are too good to be true? And what if I just allowed myself to be in that feeling? What would open up to me if that was the case? And so yeah, that’s where I’m at with that. And I think the biggest realization, business wise in terms of like, strategy, and that kind of thing is about like, it’s a traffic problem.
And just let things be boring and let them be simple. And the needle mover isn’t fine tuning the launch, like the launch emails, we can just send out the emails, as they are, as I wrote them in January, because when I went back and read them, I was like, These emails are really good, they’re really clear. And instead of me thinking, like having the thought error of I have to say it a different way. I can just say the same way, I didn’t have to make any edits to them. And they can go out and create those epiphanies, and talk to the person that we want to have in PGSF, who is going to work for. So that has been a relief as well, not to say there isn’t going to be a lot of feelings you felt with actually focusing on the things that are going to move the needle, but at least there’s not going to be this like frustration of feeling like we’re banging our head against the wall, because I’ve spent or I’ve spent the last two years fine tuning something. That didn’t mean fine to me. And that’s okay.
And I hope that I’ll wrap up with this, that if anything, hearing me talk through these experiences and shares them helps, helps you see that it’s okay, if you have a realization, and then you forget it, or you literally teach something for a living, and you aren’t able to or like you don’t apply that intellectual knowledge or even like deep understanding, it’s like the layers that you’re going to have an ice like this past year, the past few years, have really been me getting such a deeper understanding of what I share about and talk about and coach on with perfectionism and productivity and business and all the different things like that, like I have had a deepening of that knowing through my experiences, which I’m so grateful for in the same way that I know the first few years of my business when I was just completely debilitated by my perfectionism that so much of what I teach today came from that experience, not me reading textbooks, or intellectually understanding thing but my actual experience with being so in my own way with perfectionism, and then being able to get myself out of my own way through experiences and helping others with that, that has been everything and so I basically had another experience like that again.
So yeah, it’s been absolutely huge for me and this launch has been so powerful, I feel so good about it and we will be doing a full debrief and noticing what has worked about the launch and not skipping that like oh, this launch didn’t work at all. It’s not closed yet and it’s not over yet and also even with four signups and with four people that we get to help with PGSD that there are things about this launch that really worked and things about it that didn’t work and things about it that were okay so instead few minds that are like well this one didn’t work or like the last two they didn’t work well there are a lot of things out those ones that did work. And so it’s just been a big realization as well that all or nothing mindset, how it can make us really miss what’s working and therefore spend so much time and energy fine tuning things that don’t need any fine tuning. So with that said, I hope this update been insightful and I will talk to you again soon.
Okay, so it is time for the launch debrief section of this episode, it is the 28th of December when I am recording this. So it’s a couple of weeks since I recorded that last update that you listen to. And I just want to share with you my overall thoughts and takeaways from this launch as well as the numbers. I love sharing what our actual numbers were. And I also want to mention why I think the next launch debrief after this one is going to be the last one that I record, at least for the time being. I know that there are so many people who really enjoy these episodes. This style of episode isn’t going anywhere, but I want to mention why I think me doing these launch debriefs won’t continue to be a thing.
But ultimately, with this launch, I shared in those updates. So many of the biggest epiphanies and breakthroughs that I had during this launch, I think, first of all, it was really about understanding the law of diminishing returns. And that with this launch to PGSD, that we were already at a point of it being sufficient when I did the launch in January 2022. But because I didn’t hit the goal and was in the all or nothing mindset about it, I then drew the conclusion that it didn’t work, nothing about it worked. And since then I have pretty much spent the last two years trying to improve something that was already sufficient. And it’s not a problem to improve things. But improving them from a place of insufficiency only creates more insufficiency.
And that really was what my experience has been. So that has been such a big aha and has informed what the plans are going forward. And then also, I think the biggest thing that I have taken away from this launch is finding sufficiency and getting more comfortable with my emotions, and actually feeling them and allowing them and not just resisting and reacting to them. So I kind of went through it with those different updates that I recorded for this episode. But initially, it was really understanding, okay, I need to allow that to be a feeling of uncertainty, my brain is seeking certainty, and therefore manufacturing disappointment because at least that gives me certainty about something, I can be certain that it’s not going to work.
So I need to allow there to be uncertainty. And once I allow there to be uncertainty, at the same time, also generating certainty about certain things like, what I’m capable of who I am, and that kind of thing, I was able to then move to the next thing, which was allowing that to be feelings of inadequacy, and not needing to find the thought that’s creating the inadequacy. For a past experience that I’m having to present a thought about. That’s crazy inadequacy, but just allowing those physical sensations to be there in my body, as well as feeling judged by myself by others, just allowing those negative feelings of shame essentially, to be in my body.
And then ultimately, once I was able to do that, and I was doing that, then I was really able to open myself up to the most uncomfortable feeling of all, which is adequacy and sufficiency. And so going on that journey through this launch has been so informative for me, I would say life changing to really just be present with the power of emotions and allowing them and just seeing how much I had been resisting emotions and kind of white knuckling things that I just wasn’t willing to allow certain sensations to be in my body, when I get really present to them. They’re really not hard at all. So that I think is I am gonna be talking about a lot on the podcast going forward.
But I want to share with you as well, just how I went through the launch debrief, because it’s going to be so helpful for you, especially if you are about to be at the time this episode is going out about to be planning anything for 2024 or you’re reflecting on the past year or maybe you’re listening to this at some point in the future. Anytime when you are debriefing on anything, whether it’s a launch, whether it’s a quarter of the year, whether it’s a full year, whether it’s anything else, and especially if you’re about to be making plans, finding a place of sufficiency is so powerful, and it has really changed the way that I’m approaching 2024. I won’t go too much into it in this episode. But before really getting to that place of sufficiency, which happened I would say like a week after the launch, that I was feeling like okay, I need to make some quick decisions so that we can try and fix things and like get the business back on track and just in that all or nothing mindset and that big rush. But the all or nothing mindset about like, I need to make some big decisions and big changes and do them quickly.
And I could just feel that impatience. And thankfully, from my experience with this launch as well, I could see like, Okay, I’ve been in this feeling before, when I’ve acted from this feeling hasn’t worked out particularly well for me. So I’m actually going to ground myself first and just calm myself the fuck down before I make any plans. And so I’m just gonna go through what I did. It’s very simple. And it’s so powerful. So you’re going to be able to do it too. But before I get into that, I want to share with you the numbers, and where we ended up. And I also want to say, a massive Welcome to our new PGSDers. So we have Rita, Sonya, Kathy, Stacy, Erin A, Patricia and Erin N. So we had seven signups. Our goal was 30. And as I mentioned in the previous update, we had zero signups until 24 hours to go literally zero signups. And I’ve never had it happen that way before.
And in terms of the theory as to why I think so many of the things that I mentioned really went into that, like the thoughts underpinning the launch, like there was some entitlement as well on my part. It’s interesting to say entitlement shopping all these different ways, but entitlement of like, well, it’s January soon. And so people are going to be wanting to be planning and wanting to be doing this kind of thing. And so I think, as well, that made me create less urgency around a bit. Also, there was no incentive to sign up at the beginning of the launch, which is interesting to look at. Like why do we have it open so long if there is no incentive to sign up for the first few days. But anyway, that aside, we didn’t have any signups until 24 hours ago, and then we had seven.
My estimate, I think when were at 24 hours out was that we would have six signups I knew there wouldn’t be zero signups, I just would be really shocked if we did. But I thought about six, we had seven in the end, so a massive Welcome to our new PGSDers in terms of payment plan and pay in full, we had five who paid in full, which is an investment of 4440 US dollars. And then two people who took the payment plan option, which is 12 payments of 444. US dollars. So all in all, that meant cash collected from the launch in Australian dollars, because I’m Australian. And that’s what the business operates in, was 35,774, roughly, that’s taking into account the exchange rate because technically, we get US dollars, and then it gets converted into Australian dollars. So it’s 23,080 US dollars cash collected.
And the lifetime value, once everyone has paid their payment plans, and everything like that is 50,778 Australian dollars, which is 32,760 US dollars. And I could go into more numbers. And I feel like it’s not really relevant in this launch. I don’t know just the way I’m really thinking about it in the future and what I’ve got planned, but just to share with you some of the podcast download numbers as well, because I usually mentioned those in this kind of episode. So we had the we didn’t have a podcast series for this launch. But we had the perfectionism reset event replay go up as a temporary episode. So at the time of closed cart, we had 1138 downloads on that. And we had 2 OpenCart episodes, which I believe from memory were replays of interviews that I have done before with PGSDers. So we had 827 downloads, and 880 downloads on those two episodes at the time of close cart, as I go into all the thoughts behind so many different decisions with this launch.
But I think ultimately, the biggest thing that I am taking away from it is that because I just really wanted to be in the comfort of the launch drama, that I had so much of my focus on the launch itself, and not on the business as a whole, that I didn’t zoom out and really spend my time in other areas of the business that would much more benefit from me spending time that versus to tweak the launchthat was already working quite well. And so those areas, for example, financial health of the business, leaving the team, having the bigger picture, delivering to clients operations, networking, basically every other area other than sales, because essentially the launch is sales, and there are lots of other departments within a business. But I had focused so much energy on that, because I was getting comfort from being involved in the launch to such a high degree and getting to have this great reason to deprioritize, things that are more uncomfortable or are going to take more mental energy.
And so I just don’t want to even in this world, it doesn’t even feel relevant to go into all of the numbers. And when I mentioned about the plan for launch debrief episodes going forward, so just briefly on this, that we are going to be changing the way that we’re doing the PGSD launches, so to speak. So it’s not going to be every launch, it’s like reinventing the wheel, which is kind of has been, which is why there have been these big episodes about it is going to be having to be a lot more boring. And just having the launch stay the same. And then changing other things that we’re doing. So having more people seeing the launch, which was one of the big realizations from the previous launch that we didn’t implement in this launch, because I wanted to be in the launch drama, and not in the the vulnerability and the new experiences of growing traffic.
And all of that kind of thing, having more eyes on me, so to speak. So at the moment, the plan is that the launches we’re going to be doing every quarter are going to be pretty much the same. And so there won’t really be much to share about it. And my updates that I’m envisaging doing. And I love doing this kind of episode, I love listening to this kind of episodes, I want to keep creating it. But I’m going to do one more launch debrief kind of episode like this on the next launch that we do. And then I’m going to be updating you on other things, because there is more to my role than just this area of the business. And I think it has served me so well to be focused on the launch. And now it’s recognizing, okay, that is sufficient. And there are other things that I can be doing with my time. And ultimately, to get to the next level of business, I need to move my attention elsewhere.
Otherwise, the business isn’t going to grow, we aren’t going to be able to help the number of people that we can help. Because I’m focusing on improving something that’s already good enough. And I’m saying it multiple times over and over. Because I really want you to get the lesson about sufficiency. And so to do that, I’m going to share the process that I went through when I was debriefing the launch. And then I went through with Renae and then I went through it with Daisy as well. This exercise of finding sufficiency is so powerful. And when I was doing this the other day, it was after we did the annual review call inside PGSD. So at the end of each year, we lead a call where we debrief on the year together, we look at the winds and what you accomplished and what didn’t work, and then taking those lessons and creating the sense of completeness for the year.
So they can go into the next year feeling fresh, and not feeling like you have to make up for things that you have to like, finally get on track because you were so behind. So you can go into the new year with this big spurt of motivation. We really want to have you been feeling sufficient and being grounded and calm. And a lot of coaching is about helping you find sufficiency because when you are feeling sufficient, you have more resourcefulness, you are more decisive, you are more courageous, there really is no downside to feeling sufficient. I know that for myself, the objection that I had to that is like, well, if I’m focused on what’s sufficient and what’s good enough, then I’m going to get complacent, then I’m in denial. And there are always so many things to be improved, but really being insufficiency first. And then improving is where the real improvements happen. And I learned that the hard way.
So I really wanted to get that across. But in terms of this exercise, and how to find sufficiency. There are I would say three steps. The first step for finding sufficiency is to identify what area of business you want to find this around. It could be the business generally, it could be like in this case, a launch. It could be around your product or service. It could be around your Instagram strategy, your podcasts or do like social media strategy generally. Just pick an area of business so that you can just direct your thoughts around it. So when I did this with myself and with Renae we thought about the launch specifically. And when I did this finding sufficiency exercise with Daisy, we were talking about the program itself perfection is getting shit done.
So once you have identified the area that you’re going to be thinking about, the next step is to find what is sufficient to Just create a long list of what is sufficient. And this exercise really emerge from when evaluating and debriefing and doing that kind of thing. A question that I like to ask that a lot of people talk about as well, is thinking about what working and I think we perfectionist, at least in my experience, that question like I can say, like this thing’s working, but it’s really hard for my brain. If something about it isn’t working, I just kind of go into that Oh, nothing mode and categorize the whole thing as not working basically, unless something is flawlessly working, then it’s not. And that is what has led me to categorize things that are working as not working, and therefore not be able to be in that sufficiency needed to really create true improvements and the most sustainable business growth possible.
So when it comes to this, it’s having this long list, exhausting your brain, and being super generous with yourself about what is sufficient, knowing that your perfectionist brain doesn’t want to call things sufficient. It is so practice at finding insufficiency. We love noticing what could be improved because it gives us hope that we can improve it and finally be perfect to just be insufficiency it feels like well, what are we going to do with all our time if it is already sufficient if we’re already good enough? What what do we even do? How do we even decide what to spend our time on, but getting comfortable in sufficiency. As I mentioned, the beginning of this is so uncomfortable, I think even more uncomfortable than being in inadequacy or feeling shame.
Feeling sufficiency is this new feeling. And it might be a different word for you that you think about when it comes to this. But sufficiency is a word that has really resonated with me when words like adequacy and enoughness. And that kind of thing, haven’t really stuck. Sufficiency just makes sense to my brain. So you might need to call it a different name, if that resonates with you. So you want to write a really long list, like exhaust your brain, this is your brain lifting weights, you are doing a workout, you are finding what is sufficient. I’ll share a few things from that list in a second. But I just want to mention what the third step is.
The third step is that once you have, again, completely exhausted your brain about all the things that are sufficient, then you can identify what is insufficient, it’s really important that you do it in that order. Because and if you listen back to all my debriefs, you will notice that I go into like, Okay, this launch was great, because I learned so much about what’s not working. Here’s all the things that didn’t work. And I very rarely mentioned, anything that has worked, anything that has been sufficient. And I know that without even having to go and listen back, because it is that thought pattern that created the result that I am experiencing, or have experienced with this launch. So I know that that’s true. And I haven’t been in that place of this is what’s working.
It’s being more so that oh, this was because it allowed me to see what didn’t work. It allowed me to get the lessons. And when I was doing this debrief, and I hope Renaze doesn’t mind me sharing, I’m sure she won’t, that I asked her would you call this launcher success? And she said, well get like we learned a lot of lessons. Like I thought that was you know, really good. But like, would you call it a success? No. And we did this efficiency exercise, it completely changed the way we were both thinking about it. But when we are in this mindset about it, then we tend to be like in this case so zoomed in. So when we actually looked at the launch, and really found sufficiency first, what we could see is that the launch itself was working. It just didn’t have enough people.
And you might feel like I’ve already said this because this was my last launch debrief. But then it just felt so uncomfortable to actually implement that, that I got really good at finding reasons not to. But to just know like the launch work, the launch itself was successful. What wasn’t successful was the amount of traffic that we had. But that was a natural result of the action that we took. And so you can trace that back to my thinking, and to Renae’s thinking as well but predominantly my thinking as a leader as a business that really informs so much it sets the tone it trickles down. And so you can see why that has happened. It’s not a mystery. It’s not like oh, there’s a recession or whatever. It’s like oh my Thinking I created this. And also I can change the way of thinking to show up differently. And if there are valid external factors that have been influenced, then of course, being in a place of sufficiency and adequacy, and therefore resourcefulness and determination, and is grounded calm energy and not being attached to it like it’s deciding if you’re good enough or not, but actually being able to solve for objectively is the best way to handle any kind of external circumstance as well.
So it’s just really important to know that we can just deem something like if we’re not looking at this efficiency piece, we can be so laser focused in on one part, and then say, like, the whole thing didn’t work, when actually we could see it did work, we just really didn’t have enough people coming through the launch. And we didn’t, because we were so busy trying to improve the lunch that was already fine. So when it comes to this exercise, and what came up just to give you some ideas of what this sounded like, and initially, when I asked Renae like what works, it was then again, know what sufficient, like, let’s just talk about what’s sufficient, of course, everything can be improved. But what is the efficient because as a business, we are always managing our resources, we are allocating our time, our energy, our mental energy as well, to different areas of the business, there is always going to be something that can be improved.
And a really important part of entrepreneurship, is understanding that that’s part of the job is just being able to sit with the discomfort of seeing areas for improvement and not improving them. That if we are, and I think I’ve been doing a lot of that this year, that if you’re so focused on improving all the little things right before your eyes, it could be optimized, then you’re not getting to improve the things that actually need that that are the needle movers. So I might be making little 1% improvements here and there, and not a 50% improvement that needs to be made on another area of the business. So with this, these are some of the things that came up when we thought about what is sufficient, like what is actually at that point where it is good enough, even though our brain wants to say like, oh, it could be better, it could be better, so it’s not sufficient.
So here’s some of the things we came up with. It’s quite a long list. I won’t go through it all. We’re communicating the promise of PGSD and the offer sufficiently, we offer something specific that people really want PGSD is sufficient, we have a sufficient number of testimonials. The way Sam communicates between the coach, the perfectionist power up, and the reels are sufficient. The Instagram highlights are sufficient. The perfectionism quiz and the epiphanies that achieves are sufficient. The open rate of our emails which is around the pretty much the same as it has been an all launches around like 30 something 32 percent is sufficient.
The quality of emails we sent, and that being a filter for people who are interested is sufficient UTM tracking is sufficient the PGSD sales page is sufficient. The time constraint and urgency we have around the offer is sufficient the rate at which people join the waitlist is sufficient. The overall branding for PGSD as it is is sufficient, our messaging is sufficient to move people into action. How I naturally record podcast episodes is sufficient. That is one I added that I was like when I look at it from sufficiency. I’ve been trying to optimize everything like it is sufficient. The back catalogue of podcast episodes is sufficient the process of getting the podcast live is sufficient. The podcast efficiently moves people into action Asana sufficiently helps us execute our plan. The Google Drive is sufficient to help us find and say what’s needed the table sufficiently passes walk from one person to another.
And that goes on and on. Like we exhausted our brains to think about every area of the launch possible. So once we had done that, and there are a few things that came up. So for example, the UTM tracking, which is just a way to track data, it is not something you need to be thinking about right now, if you haven’t made $100,000 Yet, I would say but with the UTM tracking, Renae was saying, Oh, isn’t sufficient. There’s something that needs to be fixed. Like, actually, is it just that it is sufficient. And there’s something small that needs to change. Or do we have to label the whole thing as insufficient? And when we looked at it, well, it’s sufficient. And there’s just like something that really needs to be fixed quickly, like a five minute fix if that.
So what is sufficient and I can just tell you the way I felt, as we were going through it was so relieving just to realize so many areas of sufficient. And by the way, 10 years into the business, I have been launching PJSC since 2019. So it’s not that this is my first launch. Everything’s deficient things things at some point these Things were insufficient, like genuinely insufficient, and I needed to work on getting them to a place of sufficiency. But those things are now all sufficient. And you will have regardless of how long you have been in your business, there are things if you allow yourself to be generous with yourself, it might be helpful to think about, like, if there was someone else, like if you’re a PGSDer, if another PGSDer was helping you with this, what would they say like, Hey, but this actually looks sufficient to me, what things would they say?
So we need to, again, really be generous with ourselves with this. And then from that place, we went to, okay, what’s not sufficient, what is insufficient, the volume of traffic is insufficient to achieve our goals. And this is the caveat to all of it as well. It’s is sufficient to dot dot dot, it’s sufficient to achieve our goals that we have. So for example, if we had different like, much bigger goals, or much smaller goals, then this would change because we are determining sufficiency based on what the goal is, because that is why we’re getting to. And this is why it’s so powerful to have a growth goal and have that set at the right level for you and your mindset.
Because it’s going to help you when it comes to this kind of exercise, if you aren’t clear on what you’re trying to achieve, this exercise is actually going to be quite challenging. So you want to make sure that you have a growth goal for your business, which is a 12 month revenue goal. And it’s going to get your perfectionist mindset working for you instead of against you. So I will link up an episode that talks about the growth goal. And obviously, that is something we do in PGSD. It’s one of the first things that you do when you come in, you set your growth goal. We support you with that, because that really is what allows you to prioritize your time figure out what’s important and what isn’t, and do all of that if you don’t have a goal, you can’t be productive.
So what’s insufficient to achieve our goals? What isn’t going to get us to our goals, and the list was so short, and I know for sure, based on all my experience in these last debriefs that if that’s efficiency piece isn’t done. And we probably spent, I would say half an hour going through the sufficiency, really sitting in that and with each of those elaborating on why it is sufficient, and creating a lot of pride and celebration around that. That the list of insufficiencies basically would have said everything on that list is insufficient, because it’s not perfect. And part of this is defining sufficiency, as what it really is, versus sufficiency being perfection, only perfection is sufficient. No, that’s not the case. And when I’ve been trying to perfect the launch, it’s meant that all these other areas of the business are insufficient.
So when it comes to this debrief, particularly it’s looking at just the launch itself, but if I’m to do one about the whole business, which I will be doing, then there are other insufficiencies that need to be solved that I haven’t had the time to, because I’ve been so busy trying to make those little 1% improvements to the launch, I couldn’t make a 20% improvement to a different area of the business. So what’s insufficient, the volume of traffic is insufficient to achieve our goals, the effort we’re putting into the traffic we’re getting is insufficient. And Renae said that one, I loved it so much. The effort we’re putting into the traffic we’re getting is insufficient.
It’s insufficient, that we are not actually trying to improve or increase the traffic. It’s not just like were putting our best effort and it’s not good enough, that happens. And then you can make adjustments from that. But like we need to solve for the effort, the time, the attention, we’re giving that area of the business, and also the strategies that we have and things like that. The PGSD sales funnel is insufficient to run significant volumes of traffic to so there are some adjustments that we need to make to the way to get into PGSD so that we can begin doing paid traffic. The result page for the perfectionism quiz is insufficient to call someone into action for the next steps because we weren’t clear on what that is. And so that isn’t clear either. That’s all we had. That’s only insufficiencies from the launch.
So I hope hearing that has been really helpful to just understand what you can do to find sufficiency if you are feeling like this year hasn’t gone the way you want it to go. Or actually the time you’re listening to us, it’ll be 2024. But if you felt like 2023 didn’t go the way that you wanted it to go, that you’re behind if you’re feeling in a rush if you’re feeling like you need to make some quick decisions and big changes to get things finally going right. Then you need to find sufficiency and a place of calm and patience. And I know it’s so uncomfortable to be in that. And I think we are inherently impatient in some ways, but we really just want to be doing things and creating results. And there’s all of that. But patience is what allowed us to zoom out, look at the bigger picture, make plans from a grounded energy, consider all the angles because something I realized during this launch as well was that I had done a lot of time consuming under thinking, I’m going to do a whole episode on that.
And it was so interesting to see that it basically took us like a month to get into gear with prepping for the launch, because I was doing all this planning of like, the goals for next year and different things like that. But ultimately, I under thought it, but it took a lot of time. And so it wasn’t overthinking, it was actually under thinking, but it was time consuming under thinking. So I’m going to do an episode on that coming up very soon. But yeah, it just is so powerful to to just see how this plays into things. And it really comes back to with perfectionism. That perfectionism is a strategy to avoid shame, that we are not wanting to feel shame. And I think ultimately, I don’t know if I want to, like, say this now, but perfectionism is also a strategy to avoid feeling sufficient, that that feels so uncomfortable, that we are not actually allowing ourselves to feel adequate to feel good enough that that feels even more painful than shame, in some ways, and that it’s just like, you know, if there’s a movie that you love watching, like, for example, I love Harry Potter, we’ll just like put that on and watch it or like maybe there’s a movie you watch every year at Christmas, like love, actually, whatever he you know exactly what’s gonna happen.
And even though there’s maybe an even better movie that you’ve enjoyed even more, but you haven’t watched it yet, so you’re on take the risk on, you just watch that same movie over and over again, because it gives you comfort, I think that’s what we do so much with shame and feeling insufficient and inadequate. And through this launch, I really recognized like, I do need to just allow that to be pure inadequacy in my body, rather than manufacturing other feelings like disappointment, and things like that, that like, I need to allow myself to actually feel inadequate and to feel judged and to be with those feelings rather than resisting them. But the work is to really open myself up to feeling sufficient. And if I’m thinking that sufficient means perfect, then of course, I’m never going to allow myself to feel that anything part of the reason we love defining it that way, so we can deny ourselves of that feeling.
Because it just basically would shatter our whole world view to find out that all this time, we have been okay, everything has been fine. It’s like what have we been so busy doing if it was final along. So that has been such a big breakthrough for me from this launch. And I’ll be talking about it going forward and continuing my journey with increasing my emotional capacity, and feelings and like being with the feelings, and I never want to look at that I am doing my personal development, I always kind of find myself dipping over the feelings bit or if someone asked me how I’m feeling and I’ll enter with a thought. Not a one word, like feeling. So that is what I’m practicing, letting that’d be those feelings in my body getting familiar with it.
So like, even last night, I was like, I’m just gonna like sit with the feeling of desire. Like after I finished my dinner like I’ve finished eating today, I’m just gonna sit with desire. I’m not react to it, I’m just gonna notice how it feels in my body. And just let it be that and so it’s like just noticing those different feelings. Like I mentioned when the update about when I was going for a run and like noticing how that feels. So that’s a lot of what I’m doing. I hope this has been really helpful to feel, I hope not to feel to think about though to feel as well. And I hope that you do do that sufficiency exercise. If you are inside PGSD. I also recommend if you haven’t already doing the annual review, call exercise, I guide you through this and go to the PGSD private podcast to find that or it’s also available via video and can see everyone’s faces there as well who is there live in the PGSD website. But yeah, I hope it’s been so helpful. And I will link up everything that I mentioned in the show notes.
So you can find that if you want to listen back to past launch updates that I’ve done, you can but yeah, you just see going forward that my focus as both the coach, the head coach, and the CEO of the business isn’t going to be on the launch itself and that I am moving my focus to nurturing the people that we have both who are in our paid world, so to speak, delivering to our PGSDers, improving, and developing the coaching tools, the experience and all that kind of thing. And then also on the podcast, and everyone who isn’t yet inside PGSD, but delivering value to the people who are in our world. So that will be what I’m focusing on, Renae will be focusing on traffic, and we will let the sales portion like we will not going to drop the ball and take our eye off it. But we’re not going to be polishing it, we need more people to go through that, to have enough data to be able to make adjustments. And so I mentioned that I’m in Stacy Bateman’s $2 million group mastermind, which is meeting in a few weeks, and so something that I’m going to be taking to that mastermind.
And I’m prepping a lot for this at the moment, I’m really looking at things in the business and my thinking and all of that, but is deciding and figuring out changes that might need to be made to the business model in the way that we do things to really support the bigger goals that we have as a business. So I’m really excited to get supported with that and to navigate that. And I know, it’s gonna be a lot of ups and downs, and uncertainty and all that. But I’m really feeling grounded and ready for that. And in a really good place, personally and professionally as well.
And just doing that sufficiency exercise right before Christmas, and like having five days of her Christmas was so good. So give yourself that gift. And to find out more about the program itself and how it’s going to help you plan properly as perfectionist and get shit done without burning out. So yeah, that is all available to you. We had quite a few emails, once we closed enrollment, saying hey, I just saw this I missed it and can I come in? The answer is no history with our deadlines. So if that was you and you miss it, then go to samlaurabrown.com/pgsd. Sign up for the waitlist and put it in your calendar and I’ll be doing that enrollment in March. We will email you with the date and that cohort will begin in April 2024. Okay, so with that said, I hope you have a beautiful day and I’ll talk to you in the next episode.