Riding the wave of a (creative business) launch...

Reflections, lessons and unexpected gifts with Lauren Barber.

Hi petals,

This post is part of my the Behind the Scenes of my Creative Business series.

It’s a longer one today so feel free to hit save and revisit.

I’ve started to tag the posts that related to owning and growing a sustainable business which I’ve been doing since 2008 so you can re-visit and connect with my shares and process if you’d like.

Before I forget, you’re all invited to close the year with me in a Ways into Creative Journalling workshop live on zoom on 28 Nov (replay available). I’d LOVE to see you there and hold space for your end of year reflections. ✨

On launching….

I have had the pleasure of being connected with

Lauren Barber

over at

The Mother Well

and as synchronicity would have it, we were both launching ‘group development’ programmes at the same time.

Lauren is a sacred space holder, a mother, coach, mentor and writer. She’s also my friend (now) and soon to be a space holder for me as I’ve signed up to her January Mothermind programme. 🥰

We ended up chatting over voice notes in the lead up to our ‘closing date’ for our group programmes and supporting/ cheerleading the journey of that in each other.

I asked Lauren if she’s like to share a post of reflections with you as an act of service and reflection and she was super keen.

I’ve also shared my own 3 reflections behind the paywall for you.

If you’re interested in reading more of the process of running a wholehearted business and how it felt all for me.

The intention of launching a group programme was to replace my 1-2-1 work for the winter and it’s done that and so much more for my business - I’ll tell you about it all and please feel free to ask questions in the comments if you’re a member here or restack on Notes and we’ll chat there. I’m an OPEN book.

My reflections focus in on;

1. Doing “enough” 
2. The butterfly effect
3. Self seeing my own biz

I’ll unpack more after we hear from Lauren. Thanks again to her for EVERYTHING. I’m super grateful I had a colleague and friend to share this with.

Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Over to Lauren…

The launch of The MotherMind was the first significant ‘launch’ I have done since I have had my second baby - and actually probably since I had my first other than a short 4 week container I created during lockdown. 

Despite having held my own business container for nearly 20 years now, I will be honest and admit that I STILL have some complex narratives around ‘launching’.

In fact - I would say that I have/had quite a lot of anxiety around rejection and failure in relation to many offerings receiving the tumbleweed effect. Many have also flourished - but of course we usually focus on what DIDN’T work don’t we?!?

The nature of the way I run my business is very much by experimentation - so of course it makes sense that I have had to learn what DOES work by finding out what DOESN’T work. I often think this side of business isn’t really spoken about - and yet is such a natural part of growing and evolving in our work. 

Here are three of the wonderful lessons I learned during the recent launch of The MotherMind… regardless of the outcome of my ‘launch’ - these lessons have been a gift in themselves. 

Tending to my nervous system is imperative. 

Over the years I have learned through experience that in order for my business to thrive and grow - nervous system support is at the very foundation. When we are stretching ourselves into the tender and vulnerable space of putting an offering ‘out there’ (that has often been birthed with a lot of heart and soul poured in) it can feel extremely wobbly - even unsafe - to our nervous system.

While we know rationally that we are perfectly safe and in no imminent ‘danger’, the older primal parts of our brain don’t… and so we can sometimes find ourselves in a state of disregulation. The way that has shown up for me in launches in the past is to retreat away and duck out without seeing it through - a kind of flight response in a way. The fear of rejection, of failure, of not having that heART work received in the way it is intended can be enough to stop us from putting it out in the first place, so when we finally pluck up the courage to bring it to the world, we need to take care of ourselves - and that means tending to our nervous systems. 

For me, in this launch, that meant a lot of practices to regulate myself before, during, and also after the launch. My personal favourite tools are getting out in nature, social connection with supportive community (via WhatsApp voice notes a lot!), meditation and Yoga Nidra to calm and stay connected to myself, embodiment practices such as dancing and yoga, and soothing salts baths to immerse myself in water. Before you begin your launch - make sure you have your tools set up and ready to access!

And don’t forget to tend to yourself AFTER the launch - we need space to integrate our experience and actually complete the entire cycle.

I find that my nervous system is heightened during a launch phase - not always in a bad way - the buzz and hype feels exciting of course - but it is very natural to need a bit of space at the end to settle, land and nourish ourselves again. 

Focus on the journey

Hugely inspired by my Mentor Jessie Harrold (who held me throughout the entire process - which I am forever grateful for), this time my emphasis was to focus my energy on the launch process itself instead of the ‘thing’ I was launching. 

When I did this it meant I could enjoy the journey and create from a space of desire and inspiration instead of with an end goal in mind.

It also meant that I opened myself up to many unexpected gifts that launching gave me - that were not people signing up to my offering - and provided me so much rich information. By removing an expected outcome and simply honouring the birthing process - connecting with amazing souls, getting to talk and share space around topics that light me up, receiving support and encouragement from my community, and going through the launch process with an open mind and an open heart - it meant that actually this process was really healing to me in terms of how I have experienced previous launches. 

The gift was the launch itself… the offering was secondary in so many ways. 

Changing my language

The word ‘launch’ conjures up many different pictures and feelings in my body - tightness, pressure, deadlines, expectations… none of which I actually want to taint and bring into the purity of my offering. 

What does the word launch surface for you?

When we create something that is interwoven with pure heart - sometimes the launch can feel like it takes the sacredness and purity out of it.

I looked at my launch this time as one big long invitation.

This was not about me throwing something out into orbit and hoping that it landed where it needed to (which is how I visualise launching) - this was about consciously and intentionally inviting people in - on an energetic basis, on a heart and soul basis, on a literal basis.

So with all the communications that went out around my offering, I considered - ‘how can I invite people to this container’ - and this truly have me a completely different feeling when sharing about it. 

It still stretched me, it still gave me opportunity to grow, it still brought up many of my insecurities  - but that is the nature of running a soul-centred business in my mind.

The result was not as I originally expected, but actually has lead on to something even better - a calm, peaceful experience that I can now use as ‘evidence’ that I am able to put my offerings out into the world with love, gentleness and aligned with my values.

At the closure of this launch I felt that the offering needed refining, and also that the timing was’t quite right… so I sat with the essence of the creation and decided to shorten the container, amend the price and postpone the start date to January. 

I wouldn’t have had this information without going through the launch process so I’m forever grateful I had the courage to experiment and put it out there regardless of the outcome. 

Thanks for reading and if you feel called to subscribe I’m here.

Love

Lauren

My online homes: www.laurenbarber.co  / www.theheartworkstudio.com/  https://www.instagram.com/laurensarahbarber

I have enabled 7 day free trials temporarily so everyone can read the rest of this post. 💕