Hey, gorgeous. It's Denise here, and welcome to another episode of Chill and Prosper. We are talking about launch preparation tips that nobody ever talks about. Now, you might have actually read this as an article on my website, but I wanted to do a podcast episode about it as well, because it's really key and there's some other little bits and pieces that I'll probably remember as I talk that didn't get to go into the article. So I have been launching for a long time, right? I've talked about this before. My first launch was in 2009. That was my first group coaching program that I ever launched. I have just done dozens and dozens of launches and over $20 million Australian in launches.

                                                So it's not my first rodeo. Yet, there's still so many things I learned from my recent launch that really surprised me and also made me realize how much I still have this story about just hustle and work hard and pushing through. These days, I just keep on finding new layers of making things easier and easier for myself and I always want to pass these on. So Chill and Prosper for me is absolutely like, it's always a learning experience. I'm not the perfect Chillprenuer either. I still make things hard for myself. I still reinvent the wheel sometimes, and I still screw up stuff all the time. So don't beat yourself up if you screw things up because, let's face it launching is a really exciting time, but it's a very nerve-wracking time and it absolutely will bring up all your money blocks.

                                                The reason of that is there's so much stuff to do, but it's going to bring up all your imposter syndrome and fear and stress, and nobody likes me, and it might really stir up some stuff. So I'm going to give you logistical things to talk about today because I'm a Virgo. I'm a mom of three kids. I've got two dogs. There's just a lot of logistical things that come into my life too that sometimes the though uncover some of the money blocks.

                                                So we're not going to talk about imposter syndrome so much. We're going to talk about getting more help and making things easier does to your money mindset. All right. So let's do it. Yes, I'm a practical Virgo, mother of three kids, two dogs. Bloody hell. Life can be busy even though I try and make things as easy as I can. So in my last launch, I realized just how important it is to have lots of childcare for launches.

                                                Now, you might not have kids, but still keep listening because it totally applies to any caring responsibility you have including pets. But we did a bit of an impromptu launch, a five-day challenge. And this was during the pandemic lockdown in our town. So we didn't have a lot of our usual help and support. School was closed. So Willow School was closed. She's seven at the time. And our daycare for our youngest one was a bit hit and miss. So it could be open. It could be closed.

                                                We also have a nanny and a housekeeper at our house, right? And they both work four days a week and they help us look after the kids. But because it was such a crazy time where if someone was a bit sick, they had to stay at home. Everyone was like halfway through getting all their vaccinations. So then they'd be sick from their vaccination or they needed a day off for their vaccination. So childcare was all over the place and it was really freaking stressful. And it just reminded me about how sometimes as business people, if you have caring responsibilities, it is so hard to switch hats between cleaning up poop and then being on camera, and how much energy you need and how much space you need.

                                                So it's really difficult when you're trying to answer questions or you're trying to be funny to do a real, or do a funny video and everyone is screaming and crying and you don't have that bandwidth. So if you have a launch coming up this year, I really highly recommend you look and see what childcare options you have, what backup options you have, and just put a few things in place.

                                                For example, if you're a single parent and you have a child sharing arrangement, don't launch on the week that you have your kids launch on the week you don't have your kids. I know that sounds so obvious. And someone even said to me like, "These tips are so obvious from this article." And maybe it's just because I have ADHD, but I forget. I would forget to look. Obviously, I'm married, but I would forget to look and see what week would be more useful for me because even in that launch, I was like, "Oh, I've booked all these other things."

                                                I just didn't even think to look, right? So organize that childcare. Maybe it's negotiating who's going to do school drop offs and pickups. Because with our kids who go to school, you have to get there at 2:30 to pick them up at 3:00. It makes your day really short. But if just for that launch week, you could get someone else to do drop offs and pickups, it might just give you so much extra bandwidth. It might be have a family member that comes and stays and helps and takes them out on adventures.

                                                Look at when your close cut is. Because we're in Australia, we're a day ahead. So if we close cut on a Friday US time, that's Saturday morning for us when we don't have daycare, we don't have childcare. We don't have school. I know it sounds stupid, but we still do it. Multimillion dollar business, multimillion dollar launches, we still forget those things. We forget to have backups. So it's really, really important just for like noise factor, stress factor. Maybe it's sleep. Maybe you just get some extra help. Maybe you negotiate with your partner that they get up for that whole week early with the kids.

                                                Anything that's just going to help give you that bandwidth, I find that I would prefer to do everything else in my business, but I can't do it when kids are screaming. Right? You might also like have restricted screen time, normally. Well, cool. Charge up those iPads before you go to bed, so those kids can watch Peppa Pig on repeat it. It's worth it. It's worth it.

                                                Maybe you get a local teenager to come and watch them just for that close cut period or get them to have an extra backup while you're doing a sales webinar. So the baby is not crying. Just things like that. We get our kids involved, done our launch as well. So our oldest, she stuffs envelopes, because we send welcome cards to all of our Money Bootcampers. My friend's teenager does all her social media. Any way that you can get the kids involved in a way that's not going to be stressful for you, but it is so worth it just to plan ahead and budget ahead.

                                                Same with pet care. I've done webinars where my dogs are barking in the background or they did... Seriously, before my big launches, they always do a big poop just outside my office door and I'm like tiptoeing through the poop because I've got to run to get stuff. So doggy day care like someone to walk your dog, just for those moments, it's just an extra little thing off your plate.

                                                Okay. So that's that, right? I think that's just so worth talking about. But it's like, what are the caring responsibilities do you have? Mark is president of the school P&C. Can you get someone to take over some of your caring duties or some of your stuff that you need to do during launch week? It's so important.

                                                All right. Let's talk about beauty and self-care because I think if you're not feeling good, you might just get that excuse to go, "Oh, I don't feel like being on camera. Oh, I won't jump in and do a live stream. Oh, I don't want to just do those impromptu videos." So I try and do that beauty stuff ahead of time to give myself that extra bit of confidence.

                                                I always do my videos barefoot and my photos barefoot. So I get a pedicure. You might want to have a nice manicure for... I talk with my hands, right? So you might want to have a nice manicure. I always forget to do it.

                                                I had to do lots of videos during lockdown with four-inch black dark roots, because I get my hair dyed. So little things like that are really worth looking ahead and scheduling them so you're not doing them all last minute. Now, I'm not a natural beauty. Sorry to tell you that. I dye my hair. I get a little bit of Botox. I get a little bit of lip filler these days. I have a mustache that needs regular waxing.

                                                I have microbladed eyebrows. I have no eyelashes. So I have to think ahead to do all of those things. And that does not mean you need to be a supermodel to launch. I'm not saying that at all. I'm just saying, "If you do get those things, get them ahead of time, so you're not puffy, so you're not red." And again, you think I would learn, but on a day that I had to film videos for a launch, I'd gone to acupuncture that day.

                                                So I had like a mark on my face for lying down on the massage table and I had like a red face. I didn't think about it. Don't be me. Actually think about these things ahead of time. I also like a fresh blow dry the week of my launch, just so I feel good, so I feel like going on camera. Again, you don't need to do it, but for me I just needed those little extra boosts of confidence. Okay?

                                                So think ahead to when you're going to launch and go book those in now. The other side of that is that if you book them, it'll make your launch feel even realer. So that's also a bit of a manifesting thing to book those things ahead of time. All right. I've got lots of extra tips for you and I will be right back after this shot break.

Lynn Coleman:                  Hi, I'm Lynn Coleman from Your Epic Business based in the Netherlands. I'm a copywriter for coaches, trainers, and healers and a single mum. I've always invested in my business, but my personal finances were a roller coaster. Last year, I decided that had to change. A good friend of mine always talked really positively about Denise. So I picked up a copy of Get Rich, Lucky Bitch. And then I looked at it for several months. In fact, I put my tee on it for several months. I hated the idea that I was going to have to become a bitch if I was going to earn money.

                                                But Denise looked so friendly and reassuring that in the end, she won me over and I actually opened the book. What I especially loved was the process to get over money blocks and the baby steps. It all seemed so doable. And luckily, I didn't need to become a bitch after all. I decided to start a money journal and record my experiences. And I made a promise to myself to improve my personal finances step by step. I'd had this idea brewing for a membership for a long time, but I'd been holding myself back.

                                                Suddenly, it made complete sense and I got to work. Now, I feel really excited about what this could mean for my clients and for me. I'm consciously focusing on money every day and it feels great. I'm really glad I overcame my resistance to the word bitch and actually opened the book. Thanks for kick starting this process, Denise.

Denise Duffield...:            Okay. Welcome back to the second half of this podcast episode about launch preparation tips that nobody talks about. I don't want to be mean because unfortunately in my early days I learned a lot of my launch prep and launch strategies from men and they often don't have to think about this stuff. Again, I'm not being sexist, but men could have a shower, shake his hair out and be okay being on camera maybe with a bit of shine, like powder. But for me, I need a lot more prep than that. Okay?

                                                So don't beat yourself up if you haven't thought about any of this stuff, it's just that you might have been learning launch strategies from people who have learnt from men or are men themselves who don't necessarily think about these things.

                                                All right. So here's some more logistical tips to think about. Fill your prescriptions ahead of time. Fill your prescriptions ahead of time. Leading up to a launch is so busy. There's so many things to think about. You don't want to be running out of meds in the middle of a launch. Okay?

                                                So I was diagnosed with ADHD last year and sometimes leading up to a launch, I forget to refill my prescription. Or it just goes on the back burner and then it's too late. During the start of the pandemic, so the first year of the pandemic, I took an antidepressant because I had massive anxiety. I could sleep, and I would forget to refill it. My husband Mark has a skin condition. Sometimes he needs to take regular medication. If he doesn't take it, he gets full on breakouts over his whole face.

                                                My kids take supplements to help them with sleep and with calm. And when things get busy, we sometimes forget to feel those creams or those supplements. My dogs need regular flea and tick treatments or they itch and scratch and they get... So the point is you don't want to run out of essential medications during a stressful time like a launch. So if you need meds to thrive, to sleep, to protect your mental health, to deal with your hormones, if you take hormone stuff, you don't want to be running out of that during a launch when you're going to be sweaty and stressed enough.

                                                This is where I say, people don't really talk about it because every time I talk about meds, someone says, "Oh, you should take natural stuff or whatever." Please do not send me anything like that. Let's be real. Some of us take meds and that's okay. And you do not want to run out of it during a stressful period of your life, right? Sometimes you even want to up some of that.

                                                So before I do stuff. Sometimes I get a vitamin injection. I go to the IV lounge and I get a vitamin cocktail of stuff. You might want to get extra sleep stuff or stress like I take supplements that help with anxiety and stress sometimes too as well as actual pharma meds. So look ahead and just see what you can do to mitigate any of that extra stress that you might need.

                                                If you're getting like regular flu shots, plan a buffer. Don't get that in the same week as you're launching. I've done this before. Everything I'm telling you is stuff that I've made a mistake on. By the way, things like contact lenses. I've ran out of contact lenses in launches because I was too busy. During one of my last book deadlines, my eyes were so sore because I wasn't wearing my glasses. I needed a new prescription. I needed eyedrops, things like that.

                                                So if you go to the pharmacy and collect all your stuff, pick up things like extra vitamins, eyedrops, throat lozenges. If you're going to be talking a lot, extra painkillers, essential oil, calming break. Any of that stuff, pick that all up while you're picking up your meds ahead of time, because it can be really, really stressful.

                                                Do you go with any surgery or medical stuff? And again, you might go, "Denise, no one does this." Yes, I do. I've had my wisdom teeth removed days before an important photo shoot, and I had this big old puffy face. I have planned webinars, joint webinars like when I had surgery scheduled. I literally got out of hospital. I was discharged at 10:00. I had a webinar at 3:00.

                                                I was still wearing my medical brace. I'm stupid guys, and I don't want you to make those same mistakes. I had planned a very important webinar when I was nine months pregnant. I set my alarm. I had to get up at 6:00 for this webinar. It was with some people overseas, and I went into labor that night. I was like, "Maybe I could still make it. I'll just have the baby and then I'll just get on webinar."

                                                So don't do stuff that to yourself, if you don't have to. I was getting veneers. My two front and my two bottom teeth are veneers. I had a temporary a tooth in there. And guess what? The doctor said, "Don't eat anything that will stain in your tooth." I went, "Okay." I went straight to a cafe and I had Nasi Goreng that has turmeric in it and my teeth fluorescent yellow.

                                                So my dentist had to overnight, a 3D printed tooth for me because I had a photo shoot. So look around. Clear out your schedule. Obviously, your health stuff comes first. If you've got a mammogram, a pap smear, a colonoscopy, colonoscopy, anything like that, just launch your away from those times. Give yourself the mental space. Right? And the mindset lesson could be around working hard. It's okay for me to have a buffer. It's okay for me to have space.

                                                I don't have to jam everything in. I don't have to suck it up. I don't have to launch when I've just come out of hospital. I can say no to people. There's always a mindset lesson. Okay. So my friend, Stasha Washburn, she runs something called the Period Coaching School. And she talks about different times in your period that would be good to do different things, right? Sometimes in your cycle, you're more chatty than others. Sometimes you're, I don't know, more creative.

                                                So that could be a thing as well is check your cycle especially if you have a regular period and if you track it, you can know in advance when your period's going to be due. So do you want to launch when you've got your period? Do you want to launch when you have PMS? Maybe not. And again, when you're going to the pharmacy to refill your meds, pick up some extra tampons, pick up some extra painkillers because that stuff can be really painful literally and metaphorically.

                                                So that's just one extra thing to look at that you've probably never heard a launch person ever talk about before, because I've always learned from people who don't have periods. So, yeah.

                                                Okay. Let's talk about food and home help. Again, I've made so many mistakes about this where I've launched and then I've gone, "Oh, crap. What are we going to eat?" Then I've gone, "All right. Well, let's jump in the car. Let's get drive through McDonald's. So maybe you plan this ahead of time. You get some healthy meals and you cook stuff ahead of time. You budget, so you can Uber eat stuff to you. And especially like breakfast and lunch, right?

                                                I sometimes skip breakfast during lunch times because I get a bit hyper and I don't want to eat before my webinar. So stock up on all that stuff that you need and make sure then that you are not having to then cook for people after you've been launching and doing marketing stuff all day. It's really exhausting.

                                                Give yourself that space and that time. Same with any home help like laundry, cleaning. I've done it where I've forgotten that the cleaners are coming on days that I'm doing a webinar. So just look at all that stuff, get it done beforehand and get it after. Let your house get a little bit messy. Who cares? Because launching something, launching your book, launching your course is really important.

                                                It's really important for your future, for your business. It's worth having time and energy for. If you've got regular people come to your house for things, put a do not disturb sign on your door. Tell the handyman not to come and use the leaf blower on days like that. Or I often hire an Airbnb and I go away from home to do a launch, to do videos, to have my clothes cart.

                                                But just to outsource any home stuff that stresses you out because this is an investment in your future. Cleaning everything yourself during a launch is not an investment in your future because the next day it'll be messy as well.

                                                Okay. Let's talk about boundaries. So this could be that you have to say no to things during launching. And this goes for books as well. During my last book deadline, I stopped doing interviews. I stopped saying yes to people saying, "Oh, hey, can you do a blurb for my book?" I was like, "Nope, I've got book deadlines." I found that people really respected book deadlines more than a launch deadline, which I thought was interesting because people go, "Oh, yeah, books. Oh, yes. Of course, you have a book deadline. You have to sit down and write."

                                                Whereas launch deadlines, people don't really care about. So if you need extra bandwidth, say no to things. Look at your calendar. What can be moved? What could be rescheduled? What could be canceled? Make sure people can't book in with you. Make sure that maybe it's not the best time for your family to visit. It's not the best time for friends to drop in. It's not the best time to volunteer. It's totally okay to say no. And then here's the last thing.

                                                Don't forget to book in the post-launch self-care too. I used to always forget about this because I always thought the launch was the thing. And then it's so exhausting afterwards. Even if you have a really positive launch, a lot of people get like a launch hangover and they feel like doing nothing. You might feel deflated or demotivated after a launch. This is the time to book things like a massage. Go and see a movie with a friend. Go to a spa. Go to the beach because it's so exhausting and you just want to have that space.

                                                Now, this wasn't a launch, but it was a really interesting thing. I did a big speaking tour one time and my father-in-law came to visit. It was not the right time, because I was like, "Oh, God, I'm not present," because I'm doing all these speaking things. But he said, "Oh, I'll take the kids for a walk in the [inaudible]," because Mark was helping me with the speaking tour.

                                                He took them out for a walk and he was literally waiting at the side of the stage when I got off stage. So I just did this big talk like this two-hour thing. I was just going to go fix my lipstick up and then go take photos with people. I walked off stage and he was there at the side of the stage. Bless him. But at that stage he hadn't spent that much time with our kids and he was just there going, "Are you finished now?"

                                                And I was like, "No, dude." But I had to go straight back in into mum mode straight away, and it was exhausting. So make sure you've got space. I know if you've got a partner and they're like, "Oh, you've been doing all this launch." All right. Now, it's your turn for the kids." And it's like, "But it's not over yet." It's not over. You've got to plan some buffer in there. It's just as important as the other stuff.

                                                All right. So I have so much launch stuff that I want to share with you. If you love me talking about launches, just go to denisedt.com/launch. I'll have everything I've ever written or talked about. All of the resources that I use. All my courses that I love, every thing. It will all be at denisedt.com/launch.

                                                All right, my lovelies, it's totally safe for you to launch. Get prepared, give yourself that buffer, and I'll see you just after this final thought.

Katya:                                   Hi, guys. This is Katya from Germany. I run Bright Idea, a small holistic branding agency together with my Dutch husband, Hans. We live in the north of Germany and whenever we can, we hang out on the Dutch beaches. We have a 10-year-old fierce and feisty girl who is already my tiny mini-money mindset coach. She's a Virgo, of course. I joined the bootcamp in 2017. At that time, we're charging way too low. We didn't even have package prices yet.

                                                Picking up stuff through osmosis inside the amazing group really works wonders for me, but what really turned stuff around to the effect that we are finally breaking through the six-figure ceiling, this was when I witnessed Denise and her magic live in London at the Chill and Prosper workshop in 2019.

                                                After reading all her books and joining bootcamp, loving her books, by the way. She's an amazing writer, I think. In London, what really changed things around for me was the bullshit busting exercise to witness all these amazing women from all over the world own up to really embarrassing stuff that they think is holding them back or that because of that, they shouldn't be successful. That really shifted things for me around massively and sustainably.

                                                I am excited this year, not just about it being a six-figure year, and us finally owning our worth and increasing our visibility. But I'm also excited for Denise's podcast and for my own, which is going to see the light of day this year. Best of luck and thank you to all my fellow bees. Love being in bootcamp and recommend it to absolutely everyone all the time. [inaudible] and rock on, everyone.

Denise Duffield...:            Hi, and welcome back to our final thought. Thanks for sticking with me. Now, this is one today about brain pickers. You might have seen a lot of stuff around this cause people talk about it a lot about where people are picking your brain. Just little requests for your time all the time. And I thought I was really good at it, but it still pops up occasionally. I've noticed for me, it pops up in groups where people might go, "Oh, hey, what do you think about this?" And not even my groups.

                                                I've recently just gone, "Oh well, I actually don't need to respond to everything that I'm tagged in. Ah, I don't need to do that." Especially when sometimes it's easy for people to find that answer. I also find that it happens at home and it's not my family members going, "Oh, can I get your advice on my business?" It's, "Hey, what's the weather going to be today?" That's a form of brain picking too. Right?

                                                I'm like, "There's a weather app. Go grab a look." So I found that there's been little bits in my life where I'm just starting to push back a little bit and going, "You can find that answer. You can find that answer. I'm not Google. I'm not Siri." Honestly, sometimes people are like, "Hey, Denise." It's like, "Hey, Siri."

                                                So if that's been happening to you as well, so an affirmation for you could be, "I don't have to help everyone with everything. I don't have to know everything. I don't have to solve everyone's problems. It's safe for me to say no. It's safe for me to say no to brain pickers. It's safe for me to let other people figure out the information and it's safe for me to have boundaries."

                                                So yeah, that's what's been on my mind recently is how much that's showing up for me, and it might be for you as well. All righty. I hope you enjoyed today's episode of Chill and Prosper. I always have so much fun hearing from you. I love seeing your screenshots on social media. I love seeing your ahas. So please definitely tag me @DeniseDT everywhere. Have an amazing week and I will see you next week for more chill and more prospering. Bye.

Speaker 1:                           Thanks for listening to Chill and Prosper. Tell your friends to chill and prosper. Review and subscribe. We hope you had a very good time.