Honestly, I cringe at the term, “launch,” which has become cliché in the marketing world. However, it’s the best term I can find to use in this piece. Why? Because I want you to sense the propulsion of your next big thing…

It’s the beginning of a new year, 2024, and I have a question for you: is 2024 your launch year? Here are four desires that drive my two-step method for a successful launch below. You may have your own version of these, which is good, and the method still applies. So, is 2024 your year to:

Launch your creative “hobby” into an online business?
Launch more time and focus into an interest or strength that’s outside of your corporate job responsibilities?
Launch your own business with plans to eventually roll off the corporate dole?
Launch your existing business into a new direction or simplify your focus to grow your income in 2024?

If you don’t have something to launch in 2024, do some soul searching to find something, no matter how small or seemingly inconsequential.

Use the fresh momentum of a clean start ushered in by the month of January. I love fresh starts, and get very invigorated by the turn of the calendar.

Here is my two-step method for launching your thing:

Step One: Neutralize the stories

The first aspect of selling my fine art online was facing a multitude of beliefs and stories about what that meant for me. I found a lot of resistance around creating the art, putting myself out there in the world in a different way, and the big mac daddy of them all: “you can’t make money selling art.” Dang.

So let’s work through it together, shall we?

This is the method I’m using to surface and neutralize the stories that could thwart my launching a beautiful online art business, and you can use this process to neutralize what inhibits your launch:

Make a list of your stories/beliefs that are thwarting your launching your thing and being successful at whatever it is
For each story on that list, ask yourself: 1) What is the basis for the story, and, 2) what would happen if it weren’t true?

Here’s an example from my list of stories:

“No one will find my paintings interesting enough to purchase.” I’d say that story basis comes from low confidence in selling my art online because I’ve never sold it that way before and perhaps the belief that I’m not as good as professional artists who make a living at their art—which is all BS, by the way.
If it weren’t true, and it isn’t, I’d sell a TON of paintings and help buyers fall in love with the spaces they place my work.

See what opens up when you do this exercise. It’s quite liberating, but will require you to focus on debunking those stories for this method to have a lasting effect. Rewrite your stories by neutralizing the ones that keep you playing small and not launching the next thing for yourself.

Step Two: Get organized

As in any practical endeavor, you need to get organized. Being organized means laying out a plan, outline, steps—whatever works—so you have a guide forward. The worst thing to experience is a sense of overwhelm when facing a launch because we look at it as a whole, not a series of steps, tasks, etc. to accomplish along the journey. You eat an elephant one bite at a time.

No one ever starts out with any endeavor a pro. You achieve pro status when you’ve done it for a long time and achieved some level of mastery. But it’s not achieved overnight. And honestly, the journey toward mastery is where the joy and satisfaction comes from, not the destination of reaching mastery. Mastery is ephemeral as you can always improve, shift and find new delights and interests from whatever turns you on and lights you up at that moment in time.

Here’s how I got organized:

I did a TON of research. I looked at other artists and what they were doing to promote and sell their work online.
I closed the gaps. I learned how to set up an online store, make giclées, ship products, collect taxes, etc.—everything I needed to learn to be able to create an online business based on selling products versus services, as I’d done since 2006. Very different business model.
I made it a practice to neutralize the stories that were, or could, hold me back from making progress. (By doing Step One)
I journal EVERY MORNING to get in the practice of focusing on where I want to go and appreciating where I’ve been and what could open up for me.
I sharpened my receptivity to signs the universe was showing me, saying “Yes” to more things outside my comfort zone and going on adventures such as driving to different beaches to take photographs for future paintings and hitting up Art Basel Miami with gal pal Lisa where I met an accomplished professional encaustic artist, Shima Shanti, who marveled at my work.
I stocked up on my supplies from canvases, brushes and paint to shipping tubes, postal scales and a label maker.
Made it a “to-do” to paint every single day, even if it was for just a half hour.
Made it a “to-do” to create content and share about my art journey and message of creative flow.

I could go on, but you get the idea. I hope you use this two-step method to make your launch happen in 2024. And if you get stuck, book time with me and I promise to help you sort out what’s keeping you from moving forward. ❤️