Addictive stories and embarrassing tell-alls from the front lines of online business. Written by reformed girlboss who learned a better way. Read by 10K+ consenting adults.
I shouldn’t be doing this
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One Thing To Never Do During A Launch, And One Thing To Absolutely Do I’ve been doing something you’re not supposed to do during a launch. At times it feels a bit reckless, but most of the time it feels absolutely right. So right that I thought, “I’d better write an email about this.” Before I tell you the reckless thing I’ve been doing (including a video example if I have time!), let me tell you about all the responsible, business-minded activities I’ve been up to while in promotion for The Girlboss Apology Tour. It’s been years since we’ve put this much intention, time and money into any offer, let alone a free one. My team and I (five people total) have put three months of love and labour into designing a summit experience that’s unlike anyone else’s. We’re very proud. But showing it to the world for people to decide whether or not they want it? It feels so vulnerable. Like my friend Hillary said in a heated text exchange on day three of the promotion, “IT’S YOUR BABY IN A CUTE BABY CONTEST.” Yes! That! Exactly! Those first few days, our landing page conversions were at 25% to warm traffic, and 15% to cold. Some people might consider that okay but for an overachieving ace copywriter like Tarzan, that is a dog shit conversion rate. For context, my newsletter opt-in page routinely converts at 60%...to cold traffic! I used the most important lifeline I had: I called a friend. A lot of friends, actually. Drawing on my entire ten years of building capacity to receive feedback, I asked the smartest people I know, “What’s wrong with my landing page?” Nicole Edwards got our Meta ads going so we could test headlines and layouts faster. Marisa Corcoran gave me clear “do this, not that” instructions about what works on summit registration pages. Hillary Presswood went for a walk and talk and came up with the snappy new headline we finally landed on: Make more money without making yourself cringe. Chela Davison heard all my doubts and made me laugh in the moments I really needed it. Maegan Megginson listened patiently to endless voice notes in the moments it felt like this might actually kill me. “I understand completely,” Maegan said. “It’s way more tender than money. We can fake our way into being rich. That’s easy. Being authentic and going against the grain is way harder.” Boy, did that feel like a truthbomb. It ain’t easy being green! The good news is that it worked. At its height, our best performing ad set was converting at 65% to warm traffic. Granted, we were still paying about $7 to get signups from PEOPLE WHO ARE ALREADY SUBSCRIBED(!!!), but still, we fixed it. I’m proud of that. When you put your offer out into the world and it doesn’t immediately go as planned, the natural instinct is to run and hide. Make something else. Try a different career. See if Costco is hiring. But launches almost never go as planned, Reader. And in those moments, you need the people in your network to remind you that your work is important and that the world needs it. You need both tactical and energetic support from a trusted circle of people who know that one day it’ll be their turn to call you for the same kind of support. Okay, that’s the speech. Now, back to the reckless but necessary thing I’ve been doing. I got a new toy. It’s called a Loop Station. I had to make about forty-five trips to Long & McQuade to find the right cables to make this thing work, plus buy wired headphones, a new audio interface, and a bunch more stuff I convinced myself was necessary because when you’re on a spending spree and the “I hope I don’t die broke” narrative quiets down for a second, you take advantage!! The Loop Station lets me create layers of vocal loops that people (i.e. you) can sing along to. Here’s a sample, and remember, it’s made for you to sing along. Also your voice is perfect just as it is, in case you didn’t know. 
Go easy on me, this is brand new and I have a lot to learn about getting levels right. You wouldn’t believe how many cables and manuals and AI prompts were necessary to teach a simple layer song. My Loop Station has pulled me away from work a lot in the seven days I’ve had it. I drove three hours to get a super deal on Facebook Marketplace, on day five of our promotion…IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAY! And I’ve spent hours and hours playing with it. But those hours also represent hours of play, which unlocks all those sneaky neuro pathways that freeze up under stress, making you freak out and hide under a rock instead of doing what needs to get done. Instead of obsessing about why everyone thinks my baby is ugly, playing gave me the capacity I needed to make all those uncomfortable edits to my registration page, ask our speakers and promo partners to please share one more time, even write some custom copy for people who asked for it.* I’m feeling good about my choices. It took courage to face what needed fixing and give The Girlboss Apology Tour a fair chance, but it also took courage to step away and do something nourishing. It’s often hard to know which one is needed, especially when you’re earlier in your business. Let’s not forget I have ten years of experience falling on my face and picking myself back up. May you have the courage to choose play when everything in your body is shouting at you to work harder, do more, try something else, do not stop ever. That is the voice of fear, which can be a great teacher. But so is play, so make sure to choose that too. ❤️
*I even axed my favourite joke, which was a button that said, “Girl, start apologizing.” All my friends are sad about this, but all the experts including me agree that clear is better than clever when it comes to button text. But please PLEEEAAAASE tell me if you saw that joke and laughed at it.
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Emails, but better.
Addictive stories and embarrassing tell-alls from the front lines of online business. Written by reformed girlboss who learned a better way. Read by 10K+ consenting adults.