Snow, which has nothing to do with packages.

Once upon a time (four years ago!), I opened my virtual doors and hung out my shingle as a web designer.

It was exciting! It was scary! And, despite how hard I worked at my services page, it was kind of confusing for my potential clients.

Do you offer this? they would ask, and I would reply yes I do! And then I would find a way to add it to my list of services without making the list overwhelmingly long.

What about this, can I have this and those too? How much is that? they would ask next, and I would reply of course you can, and then I’d spend some time with my calculator and give them the price.

Very soon, it became obvious to me that I needed not just a list of things I did, but also a list of which things went together and how much it would cost to get that combination of things.

It was good, this exercise of exploring the needs and curiosities of my potential customers. I began to understand something deeper about their reasons for coming to me, and how they perceived my offerings.

And so lesson number one was this: putting my services into packages helped me understand the needs and desires that brought my customers to my business.

In order to make my services clearer to my potential customers, I reduced the list of things I offered to what was the most asked-for, and put a new list of packages together that combined (I hoped) the things that usually went together, and put prices on everything.

Then I waited for my customers to knock down my door and flood my Paypal account with money, because obviously the packages were what they wanted.

While I waited for Paypal notifications, I was still answering questions like Do you offer this? and What about these things? and What if I need this but not that? It was familiar, the question-and-answer dance. I replied Of course! and Let’s talk about it some more. I put together custom quotes like usual, although now I had a better short-hand for quoting things that went together.

Lesson number two was this: putting my things in packages gave me a vocabulary for answering common questions from my potential customers, so that I could be more efficient in communicating with them.

And lesson number three: people hardly ever click the BUY button without asking questions first, even if what they see is exactly what they want.

In my experience as a service provider for the past four years, it has been the strange paradox of my website and services page that has taught me the most about provider-customer interaction.

1. Customers want to see what you’ve done.
2. Customers want to see what you can do.
3. Customers want to get an idea about what they might ask you to do.
4. Customers want to feel like the thing they buy from you is just for them, which means that:
5. Customers want to ask you questions before they make a decision.

And so lesson number four is that packages are good for your business, but not in the way you think.

Packages do not make it easier for your customers to buy directly off the services page.

Packages do not automatically make buying from you an easy decision.

Packages make you a better customer service provider.

Packages make you better at anticipating needs and desires and potential roadblocks in your customer’s decision-making process.

Packages are part of the building process of your own business, and part of the window dressing that shows potential customers what you’re about and what you know you can do for them.

Do you need packages?

No. And yes. It depends on what you need them for, and that’s the paradox.

Business is full of these beautiful paradoxes and accidental teachable moments. It’s a blessing to have the experience of building a business, yes?

I’d love to hear your own paradoxes and teachable moments in the comments.

I made this for you.

Happy day of remembering who you are, sweet one.
Happy day of love, for yourself and your calling and your work in the world.
Happy day of feeling the beautifulness of being you.

(Please share, because love is better as it spreads and expands.)

It’s a new year, darling.

Did you feel the shift when the clock gently ticked over from 2011 to 2012?

I did.
It was like a huge sigh of relief.
Like a releasing, a letting-go.
It was like I finally let the mantle of last year fall off my shoulders and puddle in the floor.

And I stepped out of it and into this new year, ready and open and so full of heady excitement for what-will-be.

The first amazing thing that happened is this new website – the business, the heart of it, the core of who I am – downloaded right into my heart and head only three days ago, and here it is.

It’s ready for you.

Namaste, and here’s to us!

xoxoxo forever,
Rhiannon

P.S. And now I am going to take a hot shower and collapse happily onto a handy flat surface, because WOW. :)

Today I want you to know how much I love you. And I want you to know that I see you.

I want you to know that your pain was not for nothing.

I want you to understand that your struggles defined your character; they chipped away at the precious gem of your true self, and polished those parts of you that are now the most blindingly beautiful.

There will always be struggle. There will always be pain. There will always be joy, and the euphoric excitement of deep fulfillment. There will always be happiness, and there will always be love.

Because of happened to you this year, you are better.

Because of what you will leave behind, you are stronger.

Because of what lessons you bring inside your body and your heart, you walk into the new year ready.

We have left behind the darkest night of the year, on the winter solstice, and every day from here on out is brighter with the light. This is a metaphor for your heart as well.

Live your days in love, and experience your happiness in reverse – anticipate what good will come, and live in its reality now.

Namaste, dear one.

If you can’t see the video, click through to the post and watch it.

What’s that sound? Crickets? Again?

You’ve noticed this trend lately, haven’t you: your launches are light, list signups are down to nearly nothing, and nobody wants your amazing, life-changing products.

It feels like nobody is listening to you.

It’s terrifying, isn’t it.

Remember that when nobody knows why they should buy, they won’t.

When nobody knows what you offer, they won’t buy.
When you aren’t connecting with your right people, they won’t experience your amazing, life-changing work.

And when you don’t really know who (or where) those right people are, you won’t be able to offer them something they want to have.

Let’s change that – now.

You want a burst of delicious business clarity for the new year.
You want laser-precision focus on who your right people are.

Are you ready? Let’s do this.

Join me and Larah White Ritchie for Extermination Marketing, a FREE teleclass this Tuesday.

(Yes! Free!)

WHEN: Tuesday, December 20th, 2pm EST

WHERE: In your pajamas, with your coffee (or tea, or adult beverage), on the phone with us.

WHAT: Discover who your right people are, and how to connect with them where they are.

Where do you find them? How do you find them? How do you offer them your great work in a way that speaks to them?

(PLUS, when you sign up and join us, you’ll have the opportunity to attend my Holistic Business class that opens in January, at a special discounted price!)

So, sign up right here for Extermination Marketing this Tuesday, and leave those annoying crickets behind.

Click here to join us!

Excellence is the practice of doing your best, all the time.

Excellence is pushing yourself to the brink and beyond, in the name of your great work.

Excellence means tying up the loose ends, following the trail your customers take to be sure they won’t get lost.

Excellence means thinking about and speaking about your process and your work in holistic language. Language that uses grace, compassion, empathy, and forgiveness as its mode of speech.

Perfectionism is the practice of never being happy with what you have done.

Perfectionism masquerades as excellence, up until you feel beaten down and so unhappy with yourself that you want to give up altogether.

Perfectionism means that, instead of looking at your work holistically, you look for ways to tear it down, to believe it will fail. It uses the language of disappointment and unworthiness. It cannot see potential, because all it knows is the unhappy striving toward a goal that can never be reached.

Many of us are perfectionists.

The problem with perfectionism is not that it compels us to do marvelous work; the problem with perfectionism is that it blinds us to what we have done, and what we are capable of.

Perfectionism steals away your joy in creating, because it assumes things must be a certain way. It leaves no room for the beautiful mess of life, or the truest truth that things will never go the way you have them planned.

Be excellent in your work.

Be excellent to yourself as you strive for greatness. Thank perfectionism for showing you how beautifully and completely you can make something, and then wave it goodbye.

The world needs your excellence, not your perfection.

I am new.
I am old.
I am the same as I was, but I will never be the same.

My name is Rhiannon, and I am an entrepreneur. I want to change the world with love – and I already have. My legacy surrounds me. With every person I touch, it grows.

This year, I left an abusive husband. There are many scars on my heart, most of which are still new and pink and tender. There are sacred truths I now know about myself that no one can take away. This is the biggest journey I have taken in my entire life, because it has been about remembering, discovering, and claiming who I really am. The name change is only the most obvious part of a significant convergence of events in my life this year.

There is an expansive feeling in my heart, borne of love and loss and pain and heartbreak and fear, and of coming out the other side of deep grief and feeling myself to be whole, still. Even now. Even in this.

What does this mean?

In this journey, I am a little more private than I was before. I need more time to myself than I used to.

And conversely, I am so much more willing to give of myself in my work. I want to work with more entrepreneurs. More small business owners. More web clients. More motivated, learning-hungry world changers.

Here are the things I want to do with you.

There is a paid community, for $20 a month, with a forum and regular Skype meetups. I love these people. I give them a lot of what I have, gratis, because they’re the reason I’m doing this work. Please consider joining us.

There is coaching, both a Pay What You Can option and a structured ass-kicking session. I want to work with you. I want to co-create your beautiful business, and see it grow and bloom and change and weather the seasons. Come get some of my time.

There is a shiny new Business School, which is almost ready to take registrations for the inaugural class. Make sure you’re on my list so you find out first when it opens.

And my first love, my web design and development service, is re-opening before 2012, so get on the list to find out when. Email me right now with your proposal if you already know you want to hire me.

In short, my darling, I’m still here. I’m ready to flourish and grow in 2012. And I want to do it with you by my side.

I know this: I will continue to write, and make things, and serve you, and lead a community, and teach and encourage and be here.

Maybe I should have changed my middle name to Consistency. ;)

Choose a service, leave a comment, and let’s look forward to a beautiful shiny year together.

It’s the second week of launching here at Brand Harmony Studio, and I’m so excited to introduce my two new coaching packages!

Like before, I chose this music video to accompany your reading. Enjoy, darling.

Now that I’ve called you to join my community, to be part of a support system for you and your business, I want to extend a second kind of invitation to you.

I want to coach you, and be part of co-creating the business you are working so hard to build.

I’ve had the singular blessing of being coached and mentored by some truly brilliant people. I have been counseled and encouraged by Pam Slim and Charlie Gilkey. I have sat and soaked up Pace and Kyeli’s wisdom. I have been kicked in the (figurative) ass by Adam King. I have been motivated and equipped by Catherine Caine. By Naomi Dunford. By Kelly Kingman. By Ashley Sinclair, Jenny Bones, and Andy Fogarty.

So I know, beyond a doubt, that the brilliance and perspective of others can change the trajectory of a business. And I want to offer that to you.

Right now, there are two different ways you can work with me one on one.

The first is a ninety-minute in-depth conversation, with an action map for you based on what you need, and a follow-up call after you’ve put things in place.

The second is thirty minutes of my time, pay what you can. Because you shouldn’t have to give up the opportunity to get help with your business, just because you only have three dollars and sixteen cents in your Paypal account.

Go get some time with me. I can’t wait to talk to you.

We are re-launching the former Caffeinated Business Commmunity as the Brand Harmony Business Community, and today is the launching day.

I wanted you to know how deeply I love this community, and that I am extending my hand to any of you who need this right now. Also, this music video is beautiful and I hope you can use it to listen to the music while you read.

This, the first part in our musical manifesto, sounds like the rallying cry of a movement.

It sounds like the beating hearts of multitudes of entrepreneurs who are striving, tooth and nail and blood sweat and tears, to do their great work.

It feels like being in community, having someone to lean on, having wisdom to lean into when you don’t know what to do next.

It’s the experience of never being alone, even when you work by yourself, late at night and early in the morning, between other coffee shop patrons, after the kids are in bed and before they get home from school.

This is what the Brand Harmony Business Community is like.

It’s having friends on your side, fellow business owners down in the trenches who know what’s going on with you because it’s going on with them too.

It’s having mentors who care about your success.

It’s compassionate conversations and kicks in the ass and help with technical stuff when it’s driving you crazy and you’re just trying to launch, already.

There is no better way to learn than together.
There is no greater joy than to experience love.
And there is nothing I would like more than to see you in our community.

Click here to join us.

You cannot get what you want without risk.

Risk is intrinsic to life: in love, in business, in every aspect of who we are, we must risk something to get something else (someone else, somewhere else) that matters.

We spend a lot of time trying to avoid risk. We don’t want to be afraid. We don’t want to feel the earth shifting under our feet (figuratively or literally). We don’t want to be left holding onto something that ends up not mattering. We don’t want to make the wrong decision. We don’t want to look foolish. We don’t want to BE foolish.

But we can never know if it’s worth it if we never take the risk.

We can dance around it, pretending we’re just about ready.
We can talk about it enthusiastically, putting words to what we’re so close to, but so far away from.

Or we can just do it. Just try it. Just write it. Just ship it. Just commit to it. Just jump.

Every risk holds the potential for success as well as the potential for failure.

Most of us who are entrepreneurs are accustomed to risk. We risk financial failure, social failure, even relationship failure, by making the choices we make on a daily basis. It’s exciting and exhilarating and downright fucking scary.

It gets easier, but not because the risk becomes less. It gets easier in the same way that it gets easier for a child who, transitioning between his Mom’s house and his Dad’s house, becomes used to how it feels to be sad and happy at the same time – to miss one and be so glad to see the other, all at once. It gets easier because you learn that you are able to hold the paradox of fear and possibility together in the same space, and that on the other side you are still okay.

What are you afraid of?
What is keeping you back?
Is your fear worth keeping you where you are?