Mid-June was the date on the calendar when I set out to debut a new product to the world. Well in advance, I assembled the perfect team of technology wizards and administrative talent to support me. Step by step I planned my approach. And I even took time to specify with an extraordinary level of detail all the ways that everything would go my way in service to a much greater good.
And, despite my best intentions and preparation, lots of things went wrong.
* Link snafu with first major partner eblast #1 – despite having been tested reliably several times before launch.
* Scramble for redirects to make everything work and try to save and claim all available opt ins.
* Shopping Cart goes down for maintenance, creating unanticipated delays for emails to go out to respective opt in lists.
* Web host drops account and site goes down without notice in the middle of the launch, creating frustration for everyone. No one will get on the phone.
* Fulfillment house gets duplicate orders sent to them electronically, creating major fulfillment issues. Dozens of emails back and forth to solve the problem. No one will get on the phone.
* New work-around solution with link redirects created to try to salvage things.
* Redirect creates more issues with links not working to other pages at the site.
* Redirects are set in motion to try to address non-working links created by first work-around solution
* Follow up emails that went out today had to be redirected in midflight because of an unanticipated shopping cart glitch.
* VA team gives notice.
* Still scrambling to get agreement on which link belongs to which partner so sales can track reliably one day before 3rd partner call.
* Email account gets tangled up so two of everything deliver, and not necessarily on time.
After checking into Pity Party Hotel for what Oprah Winfrey describes as “the ugly cry,” I kept asking myself this question. What am I supposed to be learning from all of this? What is the lesson for me? I am still reasoning through all of this, but I have some thoughts.
1) Even the worst set of circumstances can deliver a wonderful outcome. One of my partners asked me to make a super simple offer to her tribe, and that super simple offer was the most effective of all.
2) I’ve been pretty transparent about the fact that technology is not my favorite thing.That is more true today than ever before.The answer for me may be to keep things super simple going forward. I can still run a very successful business without going “tech crazy.” And for me, chances are,I am going to love my work more if I do that and also stay in my own particular zone of brilliance for having done so.
3) I will be making some vendor changes shortly so that I can be assured of the option to have real, live telephone support when the rubber meets the road.I am sick and tired of vendors telling me that email support is my only option, and I am going to shift focus toward those that ALSO offer phone support whenever possible.
In the darkest moments of frustration over the days of this launch, I thought about why I do this work in the first place. I remembered the big vision I created for my service to the world that came to me on a much brighter day. And I remembered the words of Sean Stephenson that he shared during a recent interview with Christine Kloser. He said, “When I prove my vision is more powerful than my doubt, that makes for a very great day.”
Those were the words that encouraged this somewhat introverted spotlight seeker to once again, “Fall down seven, Get up eight.” So off I go, waving the flag for others in the world who are also on missions for good and doing it in the ways that are the best fit for my own skills, gifts, and sensibilities.
We can make our voices heard and make our best impact. We just have to stay the course, stay true to our own best approach, and believe that the journey is just as important as the destination.
Authentic Visibility Question of the Day:
Just curious, have you ever checked into Pity Party Hotel when everything that could go wrong did? And what called you forward to check out and rise again? I’d love to hear from you.
