How - and Why! - I Experiment with my Business - When I Grow Up

How - and Why! - I Experiment with my Business - When I Grow Up Ive been The When I Grow Up Coach since 2008. Thats 8 years! Its 21%  of my life! The point is: Its a long-ass time. And yet, although I have a business that supports me although I have a business I can trust although I feel like Ive (almost) done it all during that time theres still so much room to grow. To play. To experiment. To explore. When I start working with my clients, I encourage them to take action earlier than theyre ready, because action leads to knowledge. Without doing it yourself, you just dont know. But you not only have to do it you have to notice everything thats going on that relates to it.  Turning a blind eye to  whats happening along the way the good, the bad, the ugly, the yucky, the amazeballs, the eh is like youre not doing anything at all. Reminding my clients that Its just an experiment! also allows them to breathe easier with their career idea. It  relieves the pressure of whatever-theyre-trying-to-do and makes it about more then just succeeding. The expectations drop or are totally eliminated! and now were in Nancy Drew mode, taking notes on whats happening and hypothesizing why. No matter what stage of business youre in, experimenting with something automatically makes it a success. It cant be a failure, because its just an experiment. I like to practice what I preach, but Im not big on quickie experiments. When I offer something, you best believe theres blood, sweat, and tears behind it. For example, I started working on Career Change Masterclass  6 weeks before the cart opened. I spent 20 hours on it, from the lead up   writing the sales page, setting the marketing plan, working with my designer, loading up social media posts, etc until the cart closed almost 2 months later. To be honest? It bombed. I had 1 sign-up while the cart was open, and another registrant accidentally get through a week after the offer was down from the site. My December income was gone, and because of the refunds it looked like Id be having my first ever negative month in January. And yet I wasnt devastated. I had my Nancy Drew hat on the whole time. After it was over, I wrote two pages of notes on what I learned from the bum launch. I dont know  exactly why Career Camp Masterclass didnt work, but I have my ideas. I was paying attention, and I realized quickly that it took hindsight to see what didnt work about the entire offer. But just like my Clubhouse, which also bombed the first time I ran it, Im already putting wheels in motion to retool it and offer it again this year definitely at a lower price point and definitely at a different time of year. Now, lets remember how long Ive been doing this for. Some offers are absolute home runs for me, and others crash and burn. But nothing makes me close up shop, or have me despair in my choice of career. In seeing all I do through a lens of experimentation, I just cant fail. Last month, you might have noticed my make-me-an-offer birthday offer, which popped into my head when I was told Id have a break from my treatments in February.  I realized I wasnt happy thinking of taking the time off from coaching, and the other projects I have in my head (book proposal, workshops, in-person event) werent appealing for me to work on. What I really wanted during the time was more one-on-one coaching, and yet I knew I couldnt start working with anyone long-term until April. Also Ill admit to it I really wanted to see if I could make a nice amount of money appear out of nowhere (aka with zero prep), and the thought of making a negative amount of money in January was no bueno. (Yes, I know my word of 2016 is Accept. I really just couldnt.) I thought of resurrecting one of the short-term coaching packages Ive offered in the past, but it felt too hard. I didnt want to write a new sales page, or schedule out a ton of promotional tweets. I wanted it to be easy, and fun, and get me matched up to the clients I wanted to work with who couldnt otherwise work with me. When I put that post up, I knew I only wanted to fill about 6 spots for February. I assumed a lot of offers would be too low for me to accept, and that it would take two-ish weeks to find the right people with the right offers. However, before that week was out, I had 22 applications and 16 invoices waiting to be reconciled. That means 72% of the offers that were made paid for and scheduled! I had 13 new clients and 3 grads (those are what I call my one-on-one client who has worked with me for at least 12 sessions) on my calendar, filling up February, March and part of April as well. The crazy part? I made exactly what I projected to make for Career Change Masterclass, and its gonna lead to my best January ever for my biz. You might hear that, to have a successful business, you have to offer what  you want to work on. You also  might hear that, to have a successful business, you have to give your audience what they want. My eyes have been open since 2008, and I havent stopped paying attention to the intersection of what works for me and what works for my clients.  That is where you find your successful business. That, and a Nancy Drew hat. What have you experimented with lately? What are you now gonna experiment with and how are you gonna record your field notes? I wanna hear about it in the comments!