It’s been just over a month since our Kickstarter failure, so I thought I would check in with you ladies for a little #realtalk. Thank you for the feedback you had on my original post. It warms my heart to know it encouraged so many of you.
To celebrate our failure (we have to celebrate these things!) we had a Fail Party a few weeks ago where we invited you all to come hang out with us, eat cupcakes and have intentional conversations about fear and risk taking. Women openly shared their experiences with failure, as well as their plan to take more risks.
At the party, we filled out this worksheet that helped us examine what we have learned from our failures. It also gave us time to think about risks that we wanted to take that month. Feel like you need a bit more risk in your life? Going through your own failure? Feel free to print out this worksheet and use it as you choose!
My friend (and member of the #bloomdude crew) Tim joined us at the party and made this fun video documenting the night.
This month has been an interesting one. So many people have been asking me how I’m feeling after this whole thing. The truth is, right now I’m doing really well. The first few weeks after this ended I was sad and definitely felt myself going into a dark place at times, but I’m feeling good now. Kickstarter is an emotional and time consuming project. Now that it’s over, I feel like I was fired from a job, giving me all this time and clear head space! It’s funny how when things don’t work out the way we plan, they’re often a blessing in disguise.
So now, we are busy working away at making this year’s Yellow Conference the best that it can be. We have so many amazing speakers and workshop leaders this year. I can’t wait for you to experience the knowledge, wisdom and stories they have. We’ve also just added Mentor Sessions to our ticket line up, which allows you to sit down and talk with our speakers 1-on-1. Pretty stoked to be offering that this year.
If you read my post last month, my hope is it has encouraged you to step out and take more risks. Know that failure is always a possibility, but the fear of failure will put a stop to many more of your dreams than actual failure will.
Too often we only hear about the successes. It’s important to know that with every success story there are a thousand failure stories as well. So talk about your failures. Not after the fact- that’s too easy. I’m saying talk about them when they happen.
Trust me- I know it’s embarrassing, it’s vulnerable. I can’t tell you how many people have sent me articles on failure, tagged me in a failure quote on Instagram, or look at me when failure is mentioned in conversation… Not sure how I feel about becoming known as the “girl who failed” but hey, I’ll take it if I know that it inspires people!
Step out. Fail big. Talk about it. Be brave. Be vulnerable. Life is too short not to.
Thanks as always for your love and support,
Joanna Waterfall
Yellow Conference Founder
PS- huge thanks to Tim Oberg for the video above, and Shabby Apple for supplying me with that amazing skirt I wore to our #failparty!!