8 emotional stages of launching

a field guide to the heart of bringing impactful work to the world

Launching is exciting. At least that’s the story you typically see promoted with offers about launching your big program or offer or website.

The story you don’t hear is the full range of emotions you will experience leading up to a launch.

We’ve explored a lot in this space about taking certain ideas slowly and wisely - and the value of pausing. But this season you might be in launch mode. Some readers wrote that part of their vision recalibration includes launching - and recalibrating launches.

If that’s you or that’s been you, do you have any resistance to showing up publicly and explicitly saying “This is who I am, this is what I stand for, this is what I can do to make your life and work a little better?”

Do you ever feel resistance once you’ve created an offer to actually show up and tell people about it - repeatedly?

Yeah. So do I. This resistance is common. It has come up among a few TW Inner Circle MasterMinders gearing up for launches - new business websites, a rebranded business website, a new book on the way, a new program launch. lately, a few TW Inner Circle MasterMinders also have been gearing up for launches - new business websites, a rebranded business website, a new book on the way, a new program launch.

About seven years ago, my team at the time and I had been observing a lot of these common emotional patterns among our branding clients during the branding or rebranding journey with us.

We wanted to come up with a way to help them experience wins along the way. So I mapped “The Emotional Stages of Launching.” It’s been several years since I’ve shared this field guide to your inner journey.

So, this updated version is for them and for you.

Let me know what resonates or what you might tweak with your own experience.

By the way, I’ve been enjoying making these bonus Shots of Wonder messages and receiving readers’ “wonderings” back.

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In this week’s Wonder Dispatch:

Jeffrey’s Main Musing: the 8 emotional stages of launching

An invitation to work together

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When you launch an offer or website, you are investing considerable time, resources, cognitive creative bandwidth, and labor. That investment translates to an emotional investment. You have expectations of how people will respond and react – which you hope will be favorable.

This is a feeling that I know all too well. Before we launched the Tracking Wonder Podcast, it took me four years from first seeding the idea through to committing to it. From the moment of commitment to the actual launch six months later, I experienced a full range of emotions – fortunately, tempered now in part because I have gone through this emotional journey numerous times.

For all Tracking Wonder clients, from business owners to health & wellness authors, corporate consulting clients to executive leaders, we ask our clients to put intellectual and emotional skin in the game.

And we’ve realized that the journey follows similar stages, what we refer to as the 8 Emotional Stages of Launching.

Stage 1: Wide-Eyed Enthusiasm

This is the start of your journey of your endeavor itself. You’ve crossed the threshold to get ready for launching it to the public. You’ve got the inklings of what the launch might be like – whether for a brand or product or book or new offer. You’re committed, and the more that you conceive and develop it, the more exciting seem the possibilities.

People will, at last, see your business or endeavor or book as it merits being seen. People – and many more people – will at last benefit from what you or the business you work for or own have to offer.

This stage might also be where you first start working with a team or publisher, which can really start to make the process real for you. One client said to us, “I love telling my husband that I have a team all working for my business and book and on my behalf!”

The facet of wonder to track: Openness, the Wide Sky Facet.

Caveat: The rush can feel neurologically like falling in love.

It’s a beautiful feeling. Enjoy it!

Stage 2: Discovery & Deep Curiosity

At this point, you’re immersed in developing and refining your idea as you’re reconceiving, designing, researching, and learning.

And learning. And learning. And learning.

The process of launching forces clarity because you in essence will be communicating with a public. So, you’re learning even more about yourself, your subject of authority, and possibly your team in the process.

You’re getting even more clarity about areas you might have taken for granted - your core beliefs, values, and even how your point of view and stance really does distinguish you from others in your field.

You’re learning more about the value of what you actually do and you’re learning more about the people you ideally love to engage and serve - your heroes - (and who you don’t so much).

The facet of wonder to track: Curiosity, the Rebel Facet.

Stage 3: Exhilaration & First Low Alarm

You’re starting to see the first drafts of things come through – maybe it’s a mock-up of your logo, or a web page or landing page design with some copy. Or you’re starting to implement behind-the-scenes the pieces of your business’s online course or program for organizations.

Maybe you’re getting edited versions of your manuscript back from your editor.

Or maybe as an author you’re beyond that stage and starting to see the details of a book launch plan.

Then the first low alarm kicks in. You need to futz with the logo. Tweak the web copy. Figure out some technical details. Rewrite that paragraph 16 times. You’ll be struck by the fact that there is so much work to do, and that you need to experiment like a scientist.

And it’s true, there’s definitely work to do. But you can do it.

It’s around this stage that we might send out a client Launch Kit just to help clients anticipate and plan a few easy ways to plan for launching.

The facet of wonder to track: Curiosity, the Rebel Facet.

Stage 4: A Pang of Resistance

Now you’re seeing your point of view and beliefs reflected back to you, in a tangible, concrete way. The brand or book launch, the podcast or scalable offer are taking shape.

You or someone on your team might experience a pang of disbelief or even self-criticism.

You didn’t expect all of what you’ve been discovering in the earlier stages to show up so front and center on your website, or on your offer landing page or in your book or in your marketing efforts.

Or if you’re designing your offer behind the scenes, you’re likely thinking that the delivery is not going to be worth your labor.

You will feel doubt – a natural part of the process. Welcome to entrepreneurship and business artistry.

The Tracking Wonder practice for this stage: Devotion.

Don’t just fall in love with a fantasy. Stand in love with a dream you’re devoted to.

Stage 5: Unbidden Surprises & Fertile Confusion

Of course, while you’re working away on the project, the world isn’t going to stop turning. Someone you care about will get ill. A tree will fall on your roof. Technology will let you down. And this unbidden surprise will inevitably happen just as you’re really getting rolling and about midway through the pre-launch stage.

It’s the last place that you want to feel pulled up short, but you have to remember: it is a pause, not a stop.

This is where you will be psychologically challenged to stay calm under pressure and not over-react.

The facet of wonder to track: Bewilderment, the deep woods facet.

Stage 6: Launch Approach & The Wonder Zone

The Wonder Zone is that emotional space where exhilaration and fret meet. It’s like standing on the edge of a precipice. Part of you is wowed by the beauty of how high you’ve climbed and by the view ahead, and another part of you panics about the drop below.

Expect all kinds of subtle resistances to appear. You will bring in waaaay too many non-chefs into the kitchen by asking all kinds of friends and peers, “What do you think?” You will weigh all of their warnings and get paralyzed in over-planning and over-perfecting. You will over-edit, over-futz, over-fret.

It’s natural. But if you foresee it, you can recognize the patterns and not get paralyzed. Test things out. Prototype and don’t over-perfect.

Good colleagues or team members will help you recognize the patterns of over-perfection and move through to wise launch.

A key disruptor: This launch is not about YOU. This launch is not to feed your ego. This launch is to elevate the people you’re here for. It’s to put forth the valuable ideas - the medicine - that the launch offers.

The facet of wonder to track: Hope, the Rainbow Facet.

Stage 7: Admiration & Self-Admiration (& a Wee Bit of Astonishment!)

You will launch, and it will feel as if you’ve just taken a rocket ride of your own making!

Yes, you might lose a little sleep from being in the Wonder Zone, but when you launch you will feel wildly awake. You did it! This is who you are, what you stand for, what you deliver and how – and why all of it matters now. Wow.

And guess what? People will respond, and they’ll respond in ways you hoped, and in ways you might never have imagined.

Remember: The more you focus on bringing your heroes delight, the less you focus on yourself except for some genuine self-admiration.

The facet of wonder to track: Admiration and Self-Admiration

Stage 8: Confidence to Show Up & Do the Work

When you really see the heart of who your brand, business, or book is reflected back to you, you’ll be surprised how that can motivate you and your team to show up day in and day out in ways they or you weren’t before.

You might feel driven because you’re clear now how to show up and engage your people, and you’ll have the confidence to tell people about what you are about because you have integral messaging for what you do and how it helps your people.

And, yes, new rounds of other emotions will continue after launch, and you very well might experience some version of these stages all over again even after 10 years of launching. You’re human, after all, and you will evolve and create anew. And you care.

But at least you’ll be able to recognize the signs.

The facet of wonder to track: Connection, the Flock Facet.

Because now your idea isn’t yours. It’s the world’s. Do It Together Beats Do It Yourself. Now you live that.

Your Turn to Wonder:

»> What stage are you in with your current (or next) launch? What emotion most surprises you there?

» Think of a past launch - successful or not. Which emotional stage defined that experience, and what do you wish you’d known then that you know now? Any tweaks to the 8 stages here you’d offer?

Reply or share in our Wonder HUB thread. I read each note.

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Reclaim Possibility

»> Strategist for Thoughtful Growth: Individuals
Some of you have asked. I have a couple of openings for private clients this season and quarter. I work with thoughtful entrepreneurs, creatives, and change-makers ready to grow wisely, lead authentically, or bring a bold idea—like a book or business up-level —to life. If you're curious about having at last a dedicated idea partner and strategic advisor on your side, complete this form today, and we’ll be in touch. No sales. Just questions and connection.

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I appreciate your showing up for the work that matters and this one life of possibility - no matter what. I’ll see you soon.

Thanks for running with me,

Jeffrey

Reintroduction to new readers: I’m founder of Tracking Wonder Consultancy and author of Tracking Wonder (Sounds True), a Next Big Idea Club finalist. Fast Company, MindBody Green, Psychology Today, and other leading outlets - I’m grateful to say - have featured my insights.

For over 20 years, I’ve equipped entrepreneurs, creatives, and teams to think more expansively and bring more meaning into their work so they can advance their best ideas without burnout. Learn more about Tracking Wonder here and The Wonder HUB here.