Sarah J. Bray

The Book of the Future by Grant Snider [via]

Man…I need my jet-pack travel to be un-encumbered. That’s a deal-breaker for me.

(Grant’s comics are amazing. Try Synesthetic Crayons and Iconic Houses. And this Escape from Your Digital World poster NEEDS my desk’s wall to be its friend.)

“Opportunities do not float like clouds in the sky. They’re attached to people. If you’re looking for an opportunity — including one that has a financial payoff — you’re really looking for a person.” – Ben Casnocha, Why Entrepreneurial Thinking Is For Everyone Now

I love concepts that drastically simplify my thinking.

Man. Launching is crazy-fun. Well, once you let go of your expectations and your freak-outishness (which is very, very hard to do). It took me pre-launch week to get over that, and now I’m just feeling good. I’m really happy with the group that’s registered so far, and I’m excited and honored to get to spend the year with them. (If you’re thinking of signing up, get your ticket to the free weekend getaway here. Or you can skip straight to finding out more about the year-long tour (including cost) here – and if you have questions about any of it, just email moc.yarbjharasnull@troppus).

So here’s how I’ve learned to enjoy the launch process:

1. Pre-launch! I cannot say this enough. Get thee a list of people who love you (and want to get emails from you for no other reason than that your emails are awesome), and then show your product/service/class to them first. I’ve already got over 40 folks coming along for the year-long tour, and the available spots in the group tour are going fast. All because I have the most amazing people on my list who let me try things out on them first.
2. Plan your launch activities like you’d plan the most amazing day you can imagine having. Okay, so maybe “launch activities” doesn’t sound like something you’d include on your favoritest day ever, but what if they were? What if you purposefully planned things to do to let people know what you’re doing that were fun and crazy and not-fear-inducing? Genuine enthusiasm is attractive. Manufactured buzz is not.
3. Make everything you do a contribution and a gift. I learned about being a contribution through The Art of Possibility, and I learned about gifts via the lovely Frank Chimero. When you’re feeling stuck on something, when you’re feeling resistance to doing something – ask yourself, how can I be a contribution? How can I make this a gift? What if your sales page was a gift? What if your emails were a gift? What if you placed them lovingly on the doorsteps of the people you’ve made them for, and then ran gleefully away?
4. Don’t launch alone. Even if you work alone, how can you bring other people along on your project?Having built-in people who are enthusiastic about your project helps on the days when you’re freaking out.
5. As hard as it is, release your expectations. Know what you know, and then let it go. When you release something out in the world, really release it. Let it fly where it may. Support it, talk about it, run with it, yes…but let it do what it does.
6. Stop staring your project in the face. The biggest thing that helps me when I’m launching something is to support and encourage other people as they release their work. I am especially aware of how angst-ridden launching can be during the time when I’m doing it, so I’m extra-full of compassion for people who are doing the same thing. And somehow, it frees up something huge inside me when I stop obsessing over my own stuff for five seconds.

An example of Point #4

This week, I’ve been spending a lot of time working with Julianne Carson. She is a big part of the creative genius over at A Small Nation, and she helps me get over my freak-outs and just have fun and make great stuff. She keeps me true to my heart-vision.

Yesterday, she took me on a photo shoot down at the oceanfront. A couple of the shots that are making me laugh (you’ll see why when we’re finished with what we’re using them for):

Seriously, Jules and I are dangerous together. (And just as seriously, you have got to go on this weekend getaway. It’s totally free, and you don’t even have to do it on the weekend. And you’ll learn my secret to profitable prices, get my favorite recipe for blood orange soda, learn how to design your business around the type of day you want to experience, and watch a Monty Python movie!) What could be better, right? I love launching!

Well, it has happened. The weekend getaway is here, and it’s ready for departure! (As soon as you are, of course). Get your free ticket here.

I spent all last week sharing this with my sneak peek list and getting feedback from them. They had some really good questions, and I thought they’d be useful to share here, on this Official Day Of Going Public With This New Thing (ODOGPWTNT for short…if I say odogputawnt later, I fully expect you to know what this means).

What is the weekend getaway?

The weekend getaway is a free sight-seeing tour of several of the places we’ll be visiting on the year-long Tour de Bliss (which is not-free, and the-best-investment-you’ll-make-this-year). You can start whenever you want your weekend to be (right now, for instance…as soon as you sign up, for instance).

Who is the weekend getaway for?

It’s for people who want to intentionally design their business so that it brings more of what they want and less of what they don’t. It’s for you if you love what you do, but can’t seem to bring in the money you need. It’s for you if you are bringing in the money you need, but you can’t seem to love the daily experience you’re having. It’s for you if you want to start over, but you’re terrified of what that could mean. It’s for you if you dream of something bigger (or smaller) or just a business that is completely in tune to how you want to live your life.

And you want it sooner rather than later.

The weekend getaway is based on the system we will be using throughout the year-long Tour de Bliss. It is a new system of interacting with your business. It’s fueled by enthusiasm and intention, designed to hone your intuition so you can be the visionary leader that only you can be (and by the way, that’s the most important role you have in your company; it’s the only job you can’t hire other people for).

Is it free?

Yes, it’s free.

What will we be doing on the weekend getaway?

In short, we’re learning how to intentionally interact with our businesses, how to price our products and services to make a real profit (as opposed to a fake one), and how to design our businesses around the daily experience we want to have.

Need more details?

It starts with an in-flight video to prepare you for how you want to experience this trip. Don’t skip it! You’ll miss my new haircut in action!

Then you’ll be welcomed by your welcoming committee. That would be me and Mo (your website — his full name is Momentum, but that’s a terrible name, so it would be kind of you not to bring it up.) You’ll get to hear my sordid story about why I created this experience, and you’ll get to celebrate that that story is not longer than it is. Hooray!

Next, you’ll get your Manifest Starter Kit. This is where the fun starts! In your starter kit, there’s an audio tour that explains how you can use The Manifest, and a free PDF download for you to enjoy. This is going to be one of the major tools we’ll be using to interact with your business, and we’ll be tweaking and adjusting it to make it the perfect format for you.

Then, we’ll go on our first excursion: a trip to the Day Designery. The Day Designery is this amazing design space where all of our minutes, hours, and days are designed. It has an open-floor plan and there’s tons of collaborative room. You will love it. On this excursion, we’re going to be visiting The Department of Time Conservation, who is giving a tour on the intricacies of Designing Your Hours. It’s quite riveting. You’ll get some pages to add to your Manifest while we’re there.

We’ll also do a brief overview of the other departments in the west wing of the Day Designery, which you are welcome to explore at your leisure.

When we’re done there (and maybe after you’ve rested a bit in your room), we’ll be headed over to the Money Garden. This is one of my favorite places to relax (you wouldn’t think it’d be relaxing, but it is…quite!) There are over 500 acres in The Money Garden, but the place we’re going to be visiting is The Gazebo — a quiet, secluded space for you to work on your relationship with money.

On that day’s stroll, we’re going to be discovering How to Price Your Offerings to Make a Real Profit (as opposed to a fake one, which isn’t as fun). Along with the audio tour, you’ll be receiving a Magnifying Glass that helps you look at your pricing objectively. The things it reveals just might shock you. But then you’ll have Mo with you for some friendly reassurance. He’s good at things like that.

We’ll also do a brief jaunt to a few other areas of the Money Garden, which you can come back to later if you would like.

And finally, you have your Return Flight. This is where the registration desk for the year-long Tour de Bliss is, so you can sign up for that on your way out if you wish (it departs on Monday, April 16th; there is a group tour with me, and a self-guided solo tour available…early-bird pricing ends this Friday).

I hope you’ll come!

I’ve prepared and planned it just for you. And please bring friendly folks along with you for the ride (you can leave the unfriendly ones at home, thanks). And tell me how it goes! I would love to hear all about your adventures. Get your free ticket here.

“…our email seems to call for us to complete the task of removing the unopened item notification in a sort of challenge to gain control over it (the self). Interestingly, these motivations go away as soon as we’ve actually opened all our emails and the mystery disappears. We’re addicted to checking email while there is still variability of reward and once that’s gone, emails languish in our inboxes.” Nir Eyal, Want to hook users? Drive them crazy.

So that explains my email addiction.

Nir’s article on desire engines is brilliant (and now I understand the rewards that I sent Hot Daters for completing their work wasn’t as effective as I’d hoped…they were too predictable!). Of course, marketing companies are always using their knowledge of the way desire works in the brain for their nefarious purposes. But I know you. You’ll go and use it for good.

(Hat tip: @TeaSilvestre for sharing this. Thanks!)

Public service announcement No. 754: If you haven’t signed up for the weekend getaway yet, you should not do that. It is far too entertaining and useful for a Thursday. Carry on.