Everyone Started Somewhere (If you are worried about creating the perfect offering)
For today’s post, I am inviting you to actually create a free offering for your community and start sharing it. (You will learn a lot more about this process in ✨ BOSS WITCH ✨). But to get meta: This blog post right here, and the mini-course “7 Steps to Embodying Your Business” that you can sign up for below, is a freebie, aka a lead magnet – a taste of your work that is free and that helps people and gives them the time to learn if they want to dive deeper with you.
Now, I know that creating something and being visible with it may bring up A LOT of feelings. Your thoughts may be:
"What if no one likes it?"
"What is if it's not perfect?"
"What if it doesn't make sense or it isn't helpful?"
"What if it is somehow harmful?"
Reading your comments as I share about running a business with integrity has made me think about this last one a lot.
I see a lot of you wanting to have the PERFECT offering and to work in the shadows, and then come out bursting with the new polished project that everyone will love and that no one will be hurt by.
Okay, well, we aren't Beyoncé. And even Beyoncé has a TEAM of humans that are running around getting feedback from people, analyzing trends, and taking notes to learn what the people want! (And even Beyoncé has gotten things wrong, or has people criticizing the way she has done things - there is no such thing as perfection!).
That's what we got to do.
On a much smaller scale.
Because everyone started somewhere.
Building up your email list or showing your work on social media is a great way to start getting feedback.
And creating something and then sharing that freebie with your list is a great way to see your community's engagement … and then ask for feedback on it.
I know this brings up a lot of feelings. Especially if perfectionism or people-pleasing is a thing for you.
But we need to be in communication with our surroundings.
This means that you try something, you listen and then you tweak it. Try something, listen and shift. All with the intention of SERVICE.
If we really care about folks, we want to know how to help them!
And when we start out small like this, we cause way less harm. We can learn quickly.
Anyone who you have seen "called out" on social media or the wider news almost definitely hasn't been listening very well. Mob mentality sucks and witnessing it can be its own form of secondary trauma. That is totally valid. Whenever I witness mob mentality, I like to get some emotional support around it and vent because it can make my body go into shutdown. However, mob mentality is a separate topic that is not the focus of this.
The focus is taking small steps. And listening. And caring.
The focus is shame resiliency to take in the feedback and adjust with gratitude.
I am pretty positive that whenever someone gets called out in a big way, there have been many people trying to tell them, call them in privately, at least a few times, and they haven't been listening to their surroundings.
I didn't start ✨ BOSS WITCH ✨ knowing all I know now.
In fact, I'm sure that in three months I may be embarrassed about something I am doing now!
My community shaped me. Changed me. And I am helping shape and change the future. We are in this together. Being a leader and having a business is a dynamic and communicative process!
"How we are at the small scale is how we are at the large scale. The patterns of the universe repeat at scale. There is a structural echo that suggests two things: one, that there are shapes and patterns fundamental to our universe, and two, that what we practice at a small scale can reverberate to the largest scale."
― adrienne maree brown, Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds
This quote brings up several things for me. One, I want to start small, get feedback; so I can make smaller mistakes. Every human being making waves in this world came from a history of failures and learning from them. They found the shape that could blossom and grow.
This quote also shows the power of even our smallest actions. If you feel intimidated by all of the "steps" in building up a digital product or selling something online, may this quote show that every little thing you do – like creating a freebie – has the power to change someone's life.
Who knows what that will ripple out to.
If you are still feeling scared and stuck, that's valid.
When I started teaching for the first time, I sang “Anthem” by Leonard Cohen often. Maybe you need it, too:
“Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
Ring the bells that still can ring (ring the bells that still can ring)
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)
That's how the light gets in
That's how the light gets in
That's how the light gets in”
Want journal (and action) prompts to reflect on how you could start small and start getting feedback today?
I have a free mini-course for you.
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