Entrepreneur self-care | 7 tips to a low-stress launch

Are you preparing to launch something in your business? In this video, I'm sharing reflections from my own recent live launch, including my top 7 tips for a low-stress launch. Whether you're already interested in self-care habits for entrepreneurs or looking for new self-care ideas to use in your small business, you're in the right place!

Table of Contents

1. Introduction
2. VIDEO: 7 tips to a low-stress launch  
3. Tip #1: Schedule proactive rest
4. Tip #2: Soothe your nervous system
5. Tip #3: Go on a "low-info diet"
6. Tip #4: Talk about your launch
7. Live Q+A Replay 
8. Tip #5: Outsource specific tasks
9. Tip #6: Simplify the plan
10. Tip #7: Bring more "you" to your launch
11. Recommended resources
12. Let's take action
13. Share this post

If you've ever launched anything in your business, then you know it can be a pretty stressful experience.

Well, I just came off of launching a brand new offer in my business, and I can honestly tell you it was a remarkably low-stress experience! And when I reflected on what practical advice I could pass on to you so that you can experience the same, I came up with 7 ways I practiced self-care throughout the process.

So, today, I'm going to walk you through them! 

Read on for 7 entrepreneur self-care tips to a low-stress launch:

VIDEO: 7 tips to a low-stress launch

Tip #1: Schedule proactive rest

The first way I practice self-care was by scheduling a break for proactive rest.

Now, this isn't something I put in place because of the launch. It's actually a favor that Past Me did Future Me about a year ago. I was coming off of a season of fatigue and, honestly, burnout.

So, I blocked off time in my calendar and told myself: "You're going to take a week off of social media. You're really going to drop all your responsibilities for that week so that you can rest on purpose in preparation for whatever's coming next."

I didn't know at the time that what would be coming next would be this launch, which can be really energy intensive, really demanding.

The timing worked out really well. But, I want to be honest, this is historically not an area where I shine. I tend to really just kind of collapse into rest after all the work is done. So, if you tend to struggle with that, too, you might benefit from scheduling some rest on purpose ahead of time.

Practically, here's what it looked like:

• I dropped my normal posting schedule on social media.
• I didn't schedule any meetings or deadlines or have anything else set up. (And because I'd scheduled this so far in advance, I was able to plan ahead, budget for it, and account for it... so that the break itself didn't become another stressor.)
  

KEY TAKEAWAY:

For a relatively short break, my week off helped me resume my normal schedule with renewed clarity and energy. So, if you're like me and you don't tend to prioritize rest quite as much as you should, consider scheduling a break on purpose before you start your launch.

Tip #2: Soothe your nervous system

The second way I took care of myself during this launch was to take a little break from alcohol. Now, this was another choice I'd made separate from the launch. Awhile back, I decided at the start of this year to take a break from drinking. (I enjoy a glass of wine, but it doesn't always play nicely with my nervous system and definitely can disrupt my sleep.)

So, it worked out really well that by the time I moved into the start of my lunch, I had had three months off of drinking at all. In addition to helping with introducing more calm into my life and improving my sleep, it also had the effect of challenging me to come up with different ways of winding down at the end of the day.

I found that in the months leading up to my launch, I was watching less TV. More likely to sit down at the piano and just play. Reading books for fun. Practicing yoga in the evenings. All of these different habits kind of combined together to make me feel relaxed and really well supported going into the launch. 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Even if you don't take a break from anything or give up a habit, think about what kinds of other nurturing habits you can introduce into your routine to help set you up for a nice calm launch period.

Tip #3: Go on a "low-info diet"

The third way I practice self care going into this launch was to put myself on a "low- information diet":

I unfollowed or muted accounts on Instagram. I unsubscribed from YouTube channels or email lists. Really, I just quieted the noise so I could maintain my focus on what I was working on for this launch.

(Interestingly, I found that even with sources of content I really enjoyed, having them removed from my field of focus really helped my message and my purpose come to the forefront in a helpful way.)

It's amazing: Once we give our brains the ability to just focus on one thing at a time, the clarity is so much sharper and we really feel much more connected to our purpose. 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

There's often a lot of advice to unfollow accounts or sources of information that don't make you feel good, but I would argue that even if you enjoy them, there's nothing wrong with just muting / pausing / unfollowing for awhile, just to kind of quiet those inputs again so that you can stay laser focused on what you're working on.

Tip #4: Talk about your launch

The fourth way I practice self-care for this launch was to talk (a lot) about what I was working on.

So, depending on your personality type, that might seem totally obvious. But for me, that's just not my natural way of being. And around the time that I was planning this lunch, I was doing some reading about human design. And I learned that my particular type just naturally keeps our plans really, really close, almost secret. My natural default setting is to privately work away, like in my own little lab on whatever it is that I'm working on until it's totally ready. And then I release it to the world.

Well, an unintended consequence of this approach is that other people don't have the opportunity to know what you're up to and, by extension, join with you in that and cheer you on!

And so, going into this launch, I really tried to experiment with sharing what it was working on, what I was excited about, what my next move was going to be, etc.
(Not in a marketing way, but more just in an open channel of communication. And so people in my immediate life and people online, I just shared as openly as I possibly could. And the result was that, throughout the process of my launch, I felt like I had this whole team of people behind me, cheering me on, rooting for me to bring this vision that they'd been hearing about all along into reality!

KEY TAKEAWAY:

If you tend to be more like me and kind of squirrel all your ideas away until they're totally polished and ready to share, maybe just start sharing! Even when they're not fully formed, it's going to get people excited to hear what you're working on. And that, in turn, is going to help you feel even more excited.

Live Q+A

Have a question about something I've shared in this post? Join us LIVE on YouTube this Thursday + I'll answer it for you!

Tip #5: Outsource specific tasks 

Speaking of having a team around you, the fifth way that I took care of myself for this launch was that I outsourced. I didn't try to do it all myself!

This is a continual "growth opportunity" for me, because I tend to take on more roles than I need to. And it ends up just slowing down the process-- and stressing me out along the way.

So, for this launch, I really tried to stay in my own lane as far as what I'm best at and what I needed to be doing to make the launch successful. If there was anything that was too far outside, my sweet spot of what I'm naturally good at, I tried to find someone who was an expert at it and outsource it to them.

From launch planning to building out the backend system of my actual one-on-one offer to graphic design to video editing, I really did hand off lots of different roles within my launch. The result?

• A finished product that I felt really, really good about sharing.
• A much less stressful workload for me.
• A team of really excited co-collaborators who were all putting the full force of their genius behind me and my launch.

And it just felt really, really good! 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Even if you don't have a permanent team assembled around you, try to think about specific roles and pieces within your launch that you can delegate. And then find someone who's made it their beeswax to become an expert at it!

Tip #6: Simplify the plan

The sixth way I practiced self-care during this launch was to simplify my lunch. (Quite a bit, kind of on the fly!) Here's what it looked like:

The original plan for my launch was to invite people into a free 3-day challenge that would walk them through the process of creating their own Copy Vault-- a bank of words and phrases that they could use to reach more of their dream clients with their business.

And at the end of that challenge, they were then moved into a sequence that would educate them and introduce them to my brand new offer. A one-on-one intensive done for you version of what they just learned in the challenge. So, it's a done for you. Vault of your client's words that you can take and use yourself outsource and put to use right away, writing everything you need to in your business.

So, that was the flow. That was the plan. But, as I was moving from the challenge into the launch... I got sick. I caught a cold that was making its way through our house. (What are you gonna do, right? It happens.)

But, at that point I already had a lot of momentum going. I already had people actively participating in the challenge. Everything was set to go, so I decided to press on with the launch, but to simplify it, to make it easier for me to actually pull off.

So, first off, I took a look at everything that I'd planned to do during that two-week live launching period, and I cut it in half. I was able to condense it down to just over a week while still maintaining all of the same content, still making sure I was serving, educating, and hitting all the different segments of my audience so that they got everything that they needed to make a good decision about whether to opt in to this new offer.

From there, I took a look at the actual components of my launch: What was I supposed to be doing each day? What had I planned for myself? And I found that there were a lot of really energy intensive, live components. (For example, I was going to be going live every single day on Instagram for two weeks.) Even when I reduced that down to one week, it just didn't seem feasible. I didn't know how I was going to be feeling it became difficult to coordinate.

And so I made the decision to collapse them all into one. Big live and hour long live that I hosted, um, here on YouTube streamed into my community. And I did that at the end of the week, so I was able to bring my best energy and really show up as well as I could when that time came.

But, in the meantime, I was serving them with posts and videos that had already prerecorded. So I was able to really convey the same message in the same ways, but just take some of the heat off of myself. And that really helped a lot. So, my encouragement to you is to really think through your launch and ask yourself:

• What are the main components that I have planned here?
• What are some different ways I could connect with my intended audience during this launch?

Because the reality is there are a lot of different ways to reach people. There are so many different ways that a launch could look. At the end of the day, we're human beings at the center of all of this. So, we really do need to take good care of ourselves because whatever energy we're bringing to the launch, it's going to be transmitted to the people on the other side. We want to make sure we're taking good care of ourselves so we can communicate that message with resonance and the energy that we want.

KEY TAKEAWAY:

A you're looking at your launch plan, even if it looks pristine, ask yourself: Are there some different contingency plans I could come up with? What's like one notch simpler I can go with this. That might turn out to be your sweet spot, your perfect launch plan for this go around. And again, remember: This is just one launch. You're going to have many more opportunities in the future to tweak it, refine it and make it easier for you to deliver.

Tip #7: Bring more "you" to your launch

The final way I took care of myself during this launch was to bring more of my non-work life into my launch. Here's what I mean: Normally, in a challenge I'm hosting, I'd pull in examples from my work with other business owners. I'd use my client's words to illustrate the points I was making.

But, this time around, I decided to share some of what *I* was working on. I took a passion project of mine. That's unrelated to my business that I need to create a copy vault for. And I used that. So, as I walked people through the challenge, I shared with them, examples of what I personally was working on in my own writing. I think this made it so much more personal. I got a lot of great feedback from people that it helped them connect to the idea... and to me.

The other thing I did was collaborate with my video editor on some creative ways we could bring more of a vlog style to the challenge videos. So, before we'd get down to the actual content of each day of the challenge, I'd share B-roll footage around my home and my office and share some personal reflections along the way. Again, the feedback I got from the people going through the launch was that it personalized the experience and  made it feel much more intimate.

So, that's the external feedback I got from the people going through the launch. But, personally, it also just felt really good to me! It feels good to harmonize and integrate the different parts of ourselves-- projects we're working on outside of our business, our pets, our family members. 

KEY TAKEAWAY:

Any way that, as you're comfortable, you can bring the pieces of other parts of you to how you're showing up in your launch, it's going to humanize you and make you feel reconnected to the person you are, separate from the numbers and the metrics.  


At the end of the day, we're not robots. We're human beings running our businesses. And so it's a really powerful choice to make, to prioritize caring for yourself, even as you're driving towards your goals in your business. It's just going to set you up to feel really well supported and cared for as you're making progress again for the long haul. 

Recommended resources 

Want to explore more ways to craft effective website copy to market your health + wellness business? Check out these blog posts:

• How to get referrals for FREE
• 3 common website mistakes (+ how you can fix 'em!)
• 3 sneaky places to find website copy inspiration
• How to write great private practice website copy

Let's take action!

Ready to implement what you learned in this post? I like your style!

1. Choose 1 of the tips in this post and put it into practice in your business.
2. Curious about the Challenge I talked about in this post? Come join us here! 
3. Want more actionable tips + real-life examples to help you reach more of your dream clients? Subscribe to my email list!
    

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