The Day I Launched (And Almost Talked Myself Out Of It)

This was the most exciting and scary day of this whole business build. The exciting part was that everything made sense. I understood my business inside out. I knew how my website worked because I was involved in building the whole thing. And it looked like a REAL website. I had my social media schedule set to post for the week, all of my platforms were connected and working together for a complete function of my website, and my free checklist was ready for download.

That graphic up top is the actual post I put up that day — my photo, my quote, and the exciting news. That’s the one I’m about to tell you the real story behind.

What could go wrong?

Well, a few small things

I had forgot to set my social links to my footers, I had the icons but they weren’t set to direct anyone that clicked on them. Ugh. So, I figured out how to fix that, but then my icons resized and were halfway showing. Claude help! A quick aesthetic setting fix. Phew! Ok I’m good now.

Then the scary one

Nope! With much excitement to show off my new website to my friends, I send them a link to it. I later get a screenshot that my website is a dangerous connection. Oh no! How embarrassing.

Turns out there is a setting on your SSL records on Hostinger that has an “Unforced” button that you click and then “Force” it again. That resets your domain to safe with all forms of your website address, www or https://. I resend the link and it worked! Phew! That would’ve been horrible.

Lesson: send your link to a couple friends or family to try your link before you put it out to the world.

One more fix before I could relax

I then checked all of my analytics and saw a performance tab to the side. I check that and my mobile speed score was not as high as my desktop speed. Well, that’s not good, considering most people are on their phones. Turns out there is an AI optimizer button where it runs your website for you to get everything back up to speed. It takes about 10 minutes. Once that was done, all speeds were perfect. Now we’re in business.

Then the fear I didn’t see coming

After all of these finishing touches, the realness starts to set in and that’s when I really felt that scary feeling. I thought that was gone, but this was something new. My website is out there for everyone to see. And new thoughts enter my mind. Is this stupid? Is anyone going to like this? Did I say the right things? I’m not an expert, people are gonna say I’m wrong! I’m so nervous. I should take it down.

This was a whole new level of the actually starting phase. A whole new set of feelings of why I shouldn’t do this.

Don’t forget where you came from

I have no idea why I was feeling this way. I had worked so hard, hands on throughout the whole process. I experienced every feeling I was writing about so I know it’s real and truthful. But that doubt is no joke.

I decided I’m going to fight through this the same as I did in the beginning. It all goes back to that saying “don’t forget where you came from.” I had come from self sabotage and doubt of even starting a business, but I did it and overcame that part. Now I’m trying to ruin everything I did because I’m worried I didn’t put everything together right and what if it doesn’t help anyone like I planned?

If you’re reading this

I’m writing this the day of my launch so my true feelings are coming out. So today, I’m going to let it ride and trust the process. I will follow through and continue to grow my business. If it fails, then I’ve learned way more than when I didn’t give myself a chance to even start basic and learn what it takes to put one together.

I hope my next blog has some good news on what happens next. If you are reading this, then I know it’s working — and I hope you’ll stick around for my updates.

If you haven’t read how this all started, go back to The First Day. And if you’re circling your own launch right now, feeling exactly like I did — send your link to a couple people first. Then hit publish anyway.

The Weekly BOP — my weekly nudge to keep you building — is coming soon. For now, go do your version of today.