Entrepreneur, philanthropist and international speaker. Regan Hillyer is here to help you make a bigger impact. www.reganhillyer.com
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Let’s talk about the role of the powerful pause when strategizing a new product or service launch. You’ve done the work and you know what the message or product or service is that you want to share with the world. Then what? How do you actually launch yourself and your magic onto the stage and ensure the right people will see it, hear it, notice it and take it to heart?
Launch time is a busy, sometimes frantic period in any business — be it a new business or an established enterprise repositioning itself or launching a new concept, product or service. However, during all of the madness that occurs at this time, by far the most powerful technique that I recommend to my clients is the power of "The Pause." It offers true clarity and tuned-in insight that is essential to an effective delivery and launch.
What does "The Pause" actually look like in practice?
It's the power of simply breathing, creating space and reflecting that allows for the magic to happen. It's at the point that you are ready to launch that I suggest you pause. Take time out to do something different. Go for a walk, exercise, meditate, cook — something that signals to your brain, "This is relaxation time." It can be almost anything as long as it doesn't involve revising or reviewing the work you've done. I've found that it's in these moments when you're looking the other way, that the "Ah-ha!" happens and you gain clarity. This in itself is a skill.
A large part of my role as a coach and thought leader involves helping my clients tap into their innate, existing, deeper power. I condition my clients to succeed by helping them to recognize and utilize their already existing skills. Usually, it's about questioning them from the point of view of a consumer. I ask the questions that experience has taught me consumers want to know prior to engagement. And then guide them to recognize that they have the skills to handle the different perspectives that they will encounter from their targeted user. Often, my clients don't know that they actually have these requisite skills and the role play crystalizes that they do know what they are launching and the rationale behind it — or not.
How long should it last?
In building my own seven-plus figure business, I have had many reminders to pause over the years. There is no set time to be reflective and the amount of time and type of time you need for the pause is personal and specific to each person. I have had pauses that lasted for four weeks and pauses that have lasted just a few moments. What's important is receiving the clarity around the messaging.
You can look at all of the facts around a launch — the numbers and the expectations, the market, the target clients and the time — however, it is in the powerful pause, the reflective times that the true clarity of the worth of the launch will be revealed.
What are the benefits?
I can personally attest to the power of the reflective pause and its role in building a work-from-anywhere-in-the-world business, as it was from a point of pausing early on in its formation that I decided to completely change my tack and rework the initial shape of my first launch. I reworked my product offerings to have a larger appeal and created a body of offerings that I believed (correctly so) would attract a wider base of potential clients and that I felt more comfortable offering.
Because I took the time to reflect on what felt right for me and my brand, I wasn’t following someone else's strategized launch plan, someone else’s agenda for "success." I was making myself available and listening to my inner guidance. I created the space within the strategy framework to actually go within and harness my natural creativity and intuition around the launch.
I regard this time as pivotal, and I firmly believe that if I had blindly followed a formulaic launch plan — without the powerful pause time to truly listen to my inner self’s consciousness — my business would not be as successful as it is today.
What is it not?
Lastly, it should be noted that I'm not advocating that you get "lost" in the pause or use the pause to self-sabotage and doubt yourself. I am certainly in favor of the specific steps that one should undertake to make a product or service launch a well worked out, strategic, genuine, value-for-money entity. But how many times have you felt a voice or your intuition giving you that feeling, that nudge, and you have ignored it? Then, in retrospect, you have realized that you should have listened or acted? Ignore your soul’s guidance at your own peril.
I am a huge believer in listening to your inner guidance, your gut, your soul, your belief and your own mindset when it comes to really showing up as your authentic self and giving true resonance to your launch. The purpose of the pause is to listen, evaluate and surrender to doing the work that is required to have the very best launch possible. It’s a time to evaluate what you have created and determine that it is the best possible content and offering to launch in order to attract the best possible value clients.
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