Your launch didn’t go as planned. The program you poured your heart into attracted crickets instead of clients. The offering you stayed up late perfecting barely made a ripple. The webinar you promoted for weeks had a handful of attendees.
I want to start by saying this:
You are not your launch.
In a world that measures worth by metrics and success by sales, when you have a launch that falls short, you can end up thinking you are a failure. But this moment isn’t evidence of your inadequacy. It’s an invitation to pause, reflect, and reconnect with what matters.
What’s Really Happening When A Launch Fails
When I launched my Women Entrepreneurs’ Support Community a few years ago, I was certain it would fill.
Everyone I talked to was telling me this was so needed. I had done everything the so-called right way: I wrote what I thought was compelling copy and designed a lovely sales page.
I built anticipation on social media and continued sharing valuable content, now focussed on the value of having peer support for your emotional and mental health as an entrepreneur. When only four people signed up, I was crushed.
What I couldn’t see then was how many factors beyond my control were at play. The economy was struggling. My audience was dealing with their own financial pressures. My audience needed to be bigger. None of these were personal failings. They were the conditions operating in the business context at the time.
What we call “failure” is often just feedback about timing, messaging, or market conditions. The capitalist systems we operate in want us to internalize disappointing results as evidence of personal deficiency, because that keeps us buying more solutions, courses, and quick fixes.
What can we do instead?
Creating a Container for Your Feelings
First, I invite you to say hello to your feelings. Disappointment. Embarrassment. Worry about finances. The grief of unmet expectations. All of these and more.
These feelings (all feelings, really) aren’t something to push through or overcome. They’re coming forward for care. Offering them that care can show up in many ways: Taking time to savour a cup of tea. Wrapping yourself in something soft. Writing it all out without censoring yourself. Calling a biz bestie who gets it. (Here’s a self-empathy journal you can use to support you with this.)
Your nervous system needs to process what happened before you can make clear decisions about what comes next. Rushing past the emotional experience, or letting your emotional response run the show often lead to reactive choices rather than responsive ones.
Gathering Wisdom from What Happened
Once you’ve created space for your feelings, you can begin to look at what this launch might be teaching you. I invite you to evoke an attitude of compassionate curiosity as you do this.
What parts of the process felt aligned? What felt forced? Where did you notice resistance or confusion from your audience? What questions did people ask that your messaging didn’t address?
Sometimes a launch falls flat because it wasn’t truly aligned with what your people need right now. Other times, the offering is solid but the messaging didn’t connect. Or perhaps the timing wasn’t right for reasons beyond your control.
Remember that your perspective right after a disappointing launch can be clouded.
The data you gather now is just one piece of the puzzle, not the whole story.
You can also take courage from the fact that, despite the “failure,” you brought a whole lot of skill and competence to the process. Here’s a journalling guide that can help you ground in that.
Moving Forward with Integration: Entrepreneur Mental Health Practices
After my launch disappointment, I took time to reflect. I discussed it with my mentor and with business friends. Afterwards, I wasn’t thinking from the part of me that was disappointed, discouraged and doubtful. I had access to my problem-solving and creativity skills, and developed a response that served me and my business. This processing time wasn’t just a business strategy. It was an essential entrepreneur mental health practice.
I invite you to consider what small, gentle step feels possible now.
Maybe it’s reaching out to people who expressed interest but didn’t buy, not to sell them, but to understand their hesitation. Maybe it’s putting this offering aside temporarily and focusing on something that brings you joy in your work. (Joy is an overlooked mental health strategy for business owners but experiences of joy and delight give us the inner resources we need to face the real, messy work of running a business.)
If finances are a concern after a launch that didn’t meet projections, you might like to look at what simple offers you could extend to your community.
Once you’ve metabolized the emotions of the experience, if you decide to make other offers or highlight the ones you already have, you can make these offers from a desire to serve, rather than with a sense of urgency around survival needs.
The Bigger Context of Entrepreneur Mental Health
The truth is you’re running a business in a time of ongoing collective trauma, economic uncertainty, and profound social change. The entrepreneur mental health challenges you face aren’t personal. In other words, the challenges don’t mean there’s something wrong with you, and they’re and not unique to you. They’re connected to larger systems and conditions.
Many of the launch formulas taught in business programs were developed during different economic conditions and for different kinds of businesses. They rely on creating artificial scarcity and urgency, which are manipulative and don’t centre centre human well being over profit.
Your launch results aren’t just about you. They’re about the intersection of your work with complex systems and this particular moment in time.
Here’s a quote I really like from Dr. Michael A Freeman, a US-American psychiatrist and psychologist who works closely with entrepreneurs and conducts research into mental health and entrepreneurship. On a podcast recently, he said:
“It is not true that you are either a success or a failure when your business is either a success or a failure. It’s not that you are succeeding, it’s that your business is succeeding for the moment in this very dynamic environment that can change. Your business exists in a very dynamic ecosystem and you shouldn’t take its success or failure personally. Business success is 50% luck.”
I have read and re-read this quote from my notes on that podcast many times as I face all the difficulties we all face in business.
Finding Your Way Forward
Where do you go from here?
I invite you to be curious: What small, sustainable steps can rebuild your confidence?
A launch that falls short isn’t the end of your story. It’s one chapter in the longer narrative of building work that matters in a complicated world.
You are still the expert in your work. Your wisdom hasn’t disappeared. Your ability to serve hasn’t diminished.
I invite you to explore what it would mean to take gentle care of yourself. Alone, or with the support of a friend, biz bestie, coach or therapist (I’d be a good candidate to support you), you can listen to what this experience is teaching you.
I also invite you to remember that the true measure of your work isn’t found in any single launch.
Use the insights from the fail forward journalling activity to tell yourself stories about yourself that support you in connecting with your skills and capacities, empowering yourself for the next launch, whenever that may be.
If you want support to work through the emotions of a failed launch, or any failure, book a free call here to explore working together.
Photo by Padraig O’Flannery on Unsplash