Finding Our Way Again (in the program-offerin’ woods)

Michele — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 18:35:02 +0000

We swear to you by all that is holy: TeachNow is the real deal.

We pour out the best of who we are and the best of who we know. We interview astoundingly brilliant (and humble and candid and human) teachers. We work up rockin’ good homework to help you make real, meaningful, lasting changes in the places that most hurt in your teaching. We edit, polish, debate how to make the program even better.

We say what others don’t, including…

- You don’t have to have all your sh*t together to be a great teacher.

- You will be scared a lot. Sad a lot. Tired a whole lot. We help you fight the good fight on all those fronts, but we also name the pain and ‘fess up to its persistence in our teaching careers.

- Students can be a pain. Michele is a pain as a student. So’s Jen. And your students’ pain-in-the-patootie moments are some of the coolest moments of transformation for you as a teacher. We show you how.

We pull back the curtain, over and over, and show you – as we’re teaching – the inner workings of our own process.

We do our very very best to try to model in every aspect of TeachNow all the jazz we’re spouting about being a transformational, transparent, vulnerable, humane, powerful teacher.

So we’ve got to pull back the curtain again today to say:

We made a mistake. We hate launches. But oops! We’ve been doing one.

Oh, we thought we were doing this launch thing-y differently. We gave a ton of thought to how to get out the word in a way that does justice to the depth and worth of TeachNow.

We dove into this thing with the intention of being authentic, generous, playful and unvarnished.

To help teachers through our free content, and to have the marketing be an extension of the intimate, safe, challenging, call-forth-your-best-ness of TeachNow itself. And we were so willing to work hard and go for it (I mean, you can’t just sit back and hope people will register for your program, just ’cause it will help them do their world-changing work and will reverse their despair and burnout, right? You. gotta. do. a. launch.) So we did.

We pushed through the fatigue that has settled into our bones…our online community… our financial markets.

We ignored the clenchy, tired, grumpy feeling that settled in whenever we went to work on the tasks of the launch. And we had to overlook our own resistance to all the other launches out there. Even for fabulous programs by amazing people. We’ve recognized that launch emails, raving tweets, list-joining and content-downloading have all been coated, of late, with a veneer of weary “what, now?” for so so many people, ourselves included. We know it’s going to take a pretty deep dig to find the next way to deepen value and intimacy and connect with those who need our programs without using these tools. And we slid right past that big open question and set about offering TeachNow to the world in the best way we (already) knew how.

A few days ago, we went “This sucks.”

Not ’cause the launchy-launch is bombing. Far from it. Our opt-in list is growing well. Our guest posts at Copyblogger and CrazySexyLife and Productive Flourishing and It’sAllYoga are authentic and helpful and are getting great comments. We’re reaching our goals. Just one problem: We’re not enjoying it. We’re tired. Cranky. Physically “off.” It’s been subtle but unmistakable.

When we’re this miserable (but trying to keep going!), the vibe is off because we can’t fake anything (Not that we don’t sometimes wish we could. There are some days when it truly sucks to be this transparent!).

Our launch doesn’t reflect how groundbreaking the program is.

How alive and catalytic we are when we teach. How candid and different our Master Teacher interviews are. How very far from more of the same TeachNow really is.

The people who sign up for TeachNow through THIS way of putting it out there will be in for a wonderful surprise, because the program is much deeper and richer (and more fun and sexier and wiser) than this launch.

But that stops now.

We have no idea what we will do to spread the word. We’re scared.

We’ve planned on substantial income from this launch. There’s no Plan B. But financial fears are one thing. Not standing in our our heart’s truth and the energy of this program? THAT sh*t is what’s costly!
We want to be clear: we are so not embarrassed by what we’ve done so far.

It’s really a lovely launch, as launches go.

Useful content. Generous. Funny. Unvarnished. But the vibration isn’t high enough or true enough. In our quest to be “big girls,” to do a professional launch and take good care of ourselves (all good things, yes?) we lost touch, in a subtle way, with the best of who we are.

How will we get back to our clean, clear TeachNow transmission? Mid-launch, no less?

Not sure yet. We’re thinkin’ we’ll start with this page instead of the good but not-quite-”us” video we filmed for today.
And as we continue (registration will open Monday for TeachNow) we will share our process with you because that is how we best teach!

Here’s what we know for sure today:

If you teach or want to, we want to rub our awesome teaching goodness all over you.

We want to change the way teaching feels for you.

We want to help you dig deeper.

Love harder.

Speak more truthfully.

Make more room for mystery.

Have fewer of the answers and more of the questions.

Imitate less (we are learning that in front of your very eyes!).

Pay more tribute to your REAL heroes and sheroes.

So we will do that even when we are talking about the program and inviting people to join it – doh.

And we’ll know we’re on track ’cause it will FEEL GOOD for us.

So that’s what we’re-a-gonna do between now and the time TeachNow registration closes on September 26: use our own experience as a barometer. Talk to you like we do our students. And keep bringin’ the TeachNow tools to the table.

For sure, we will offer the first class in the series again on the 21st. For nada. We shine when we teach. We know that has huge value. That’s an obvious yes. Other than that? Stay tuned.

If you want to come to the class, do sign up here:

The Teachers Path