Start Rising Podcast

Episode 45: Overcoming Fears and Embarking on Your Passion Project: A Publishing Journey

Caiti Courtier Season 2 Episode 6

Send us a text

Imagine the exhilaration of stepping beyond your comfort zone, confronting your fears head-on, and finally committing to your passion project. That’s exactly the journey I embarked upon, launching a free Intro to Publishing Workshop. As a new mum and innate perfectionist, my insecurities and fear of visibility were high. But with a teacher's heart and a desire to help others navigate the publishing process, I pushed past the fears and anxieties, transforming them into a motivation that fueled my journey. 

Can you relate to the feeling of being trapped in the quicksand of self-doubt? Join me as I share my story of courage, revealing the internal pep talks and the Mel Robbins 5-4-3-2-1 countdown that helped me hit the share button. You'll hear about the challenges of balancing my responsibilities and my passion, and how I managed to turn my fears into a source of motivation. Most importantly, I hope to offer you encouragement as you face your own fears and venture into your daunting projects. As I had to remind myself, nothing changes if nothing changes - so maybe it's time for you to make your dreams a reality.

Connect on Instagram @CaitiCourtier

Leave a review on itunes (screenshot before submitting) and email the screenshot to StartRisingPodcast@gmail.com for a snapshot of Books and Podcasts that I’ve been loving, perfect addition for mind nourishment


Check out Empowered Brand on Etsy, for your own Empowered statement shirt

https://www.etsy.com/shop/EmpoweredBrand

Speaker 1:

Hey everyone, welcome in to today's episode where I share my tales of being scared and doing things anyway, coming to you in real time with the most recent action I've taken. So, for those of you who may or may not know, I'm opening up a free Intro to Publishing Workshop, which, while I've taught the workshops before and offered them for payment, this is the first time I'm really opening up and putting out there for this free challenge that will then eventually offer into my publishing five week program that takes you from all the way, from the beginning all the way to getting your first review on Amazon. However, with the free challenge, while there is nothing that I suppose can, nothing can jump out and grab me, and that was the big thing. I was talking with some of the people in my cohort that I did the coaching program with, and they were asking about dates and I thought, well, I have some dates in mind, but I haven't done it yet, I haven't actually committed to it, I haven't put it in stone, I haven't put it in a landing page, I haven't put it on a graphic or anything like that, and I thought to myself no, you know what I need to hold true to what I can offer people and assist with, and I know I have the ability to help people with creating their journals. I've done that before. I've created successfully with my journals, and so the publishing aspect of that I've got no qualms with the content and I'm no doubt with my ability of helping someone get there patiently and calmly and working through things with them. I'm a teacher at heart, which is why I enjoy this kind of stuff, but it's the fear of visibility was the things that was holding me back, something you're probably familiar with too. It's very, very easy to let that stop you in the quicksand.

Speaker 1:

So last night I decided, after my son went to bed you know what I'm going to rip off the bandaid. I need to reply to some people and I need to tell them when this publishing workshop is, and then also the program. So I needed to actually get off my biscuit and I needed to do something about it. Granted, this happened at like 10 o'clock at night, because apparently that's when I get my to-do stuff done, because trying to juggle with an infant is a challenge, but a beautiful one, and I thought you know what. This is my dedicated time. Both my son and my husband were asleep, the dogs were asleep and I was like, alright, well, let's go, let's get this done.

Speaker 1:

Old version of Katie would have made every excuse under the sun oh, I'm tired, oh, I don't know how to do this, oh, I don't fully know how I can do this. I haven't got a full scaffold of what I can offer them and how it's going to then be different from the free challenge to the publishing program. Old version of Katie would have stopped in her tracks and she would have decided, yep, no, I don't have enough prepared, even though I know I can help people. And someone's probably sitting on the sidelines having the desire to be a published author or super duper, frustrated with where they're at right now in their publishing stage, trying to go it alone. And I can help them. And when I look at it that way, it's not fair of me to just sit on the sidelines and not offer something that could be the reason that someone stops being so frustrated or gives up on a dream that they have. So new version of Katie says nope, it's getting done, it's getting done now and it's getting put out now. Before you get to go to bed, and sometimes you need to give yourself the cookie and in my case the cookie was a good night's sleep I say good in quotes because I have a three and a half month old, so take that for what it is but I knew that it was time to do the thing, put the thing out, and I have just been putting it out there.

Speaker 1:

I literally did the Mel Robbins 5-4-3-2-1 countdown and press publish. And this pressing publish on a graphic was I had a group set up, I the countdown was. I needed to go ahead and post it to my personal page so people on you can see it and then maybe someone they know, or even themselves they might have something that they may be interested in doing or maybe they have some kind of thing that they wanted to publish and get that out there. But publishing it to my personal page, literally did the countdown Press publish and thought, huh, you know what? Oh, sigh of relief, it feels good. And no, there are no, nothing that's jumping out of my computer trying to slap me or grab me or something like that, like how it feels like you're. I don't know about you, but your body responds in a way that can be equated to like flight or freeze response and increases your heart rate. And I had to literally talk myself down, going oh no, you good, you, you've putting this out there. You, I am very capable of doing this and I had to talk myself through. So maybe there's something in your life that you're putting off or pretending you don't need to do it now and you may need to use the same idea of self-talking to yourself, like you are your own best friend, to encourage yourself.

Speaker 1:

So I rolled forward with putting out my intro to publishing course. I set up the Facebook group for it. I went on my landing page because even that perfectionistic part of me, even though it's not as pretty as I would like it to be, I had to have the landing page there, because you have to have somewhere for people to go to be able to then register and do part of the thing you're offering. You want to make it as a a seamless challenge for people, but it was. It's just kind of a, at the end of the day, the steps there for them to sign up and they can if they want to and they don't have to If it's something that's on their heart and they're excited about what you have. As far as the content to offer, it won't matter if your landing page is sparkly and all of that stuff, like they are here for.

Speaker 1:

What's in it for me was the return, and those are the aspects that I wanted to make sure that I covered, and I've actually really enjoyed connecting with people who are interested and just sending them a voice note and Just connecting with them. I'm curious to see what people are thinking of creating and how I can assist with that. So I'm very excited to be able to offer that, which then would lead into that publishing program, and I can confirm it's been just nearly shy of 24 hours since I put my offer out there and I first pressed the button to press Send out to the Facebook world and then also send out a tick tock to the tick tock world, and I am still here in one piece. There has been no one or nothing that's come back and challenged my credibility, when I know that I'm able to help people and and be that Person that supports and guides people through bringing their ideas to fruition. So If you're thinking about doing something scary, take it from me. Take my advice. Heck even pretend it's my voice talking to you. If you don't believe your own voice, borrow my confidence and that I've gained in doing this and find a way to make that your own, to be able to do those things. And, as I reminded myself when I was thinking about this stuff, nothing changes if nothing changes. And that really landed especially.

Speaker 1:

For quite some time I've been thinking that I want to become an entrepreneur and ultimately I haven't really done much To put myself out there and be visible, and that's the part that's going to either make it or break it being the one to put your stuff out there. That is the key. So, after hiding in the shadows for so long, not only did I speak up about my podcast To my friends and family and people didn't even know that I had a podcast, not that I was ashamed or embarrassed, I just I Don't know. There's that block in Feeling like you have something to offer, or Feeling like you might be judged a little bit more harshly than the close friends and family, then complete strangers on the internet. You feel like there's they the friends and family, might judge you more because they know you, but I don't know. It's. It's all a journey. It's nothing changes.

Speaker 1:

Nothing changes keeps coming back to me, and that even more of a strong statement is when I was saying, it was saying to my husband. I was like I'm just getting frustrated at myself. I'm not putting stuff out there, I'm not seeing the traction that I want to see with it, and I heard kind of the voice in back of my head say, katie, look, piss or get off the pot. Like You've got to either do something like or nothing changes. So that's my Offering to you today to share my experience of taking the scary action, or at least perceived scary action, which, on the other side, has been quite great, and I'm really looking forward to offering that the three-day Intro to publishing challenge, and then also Creating the offer for the five week publishing program. So I'm excited to go ahead and do that.

Speaker 1:

I Hope this may resonate with you and you may see yourself somehow in my story. If you are interested in joining either of those two things, please reach out to me and let me know. All my details are in the show notes, as always, and I'd love to have you, even if it's after that time Can always put you on the waitlist for the next go around, because we are doing brave things and I know that I can help and serve people who want to publish their books. As a quote-quote new author. That's it for this week. Until next time, my friends.