In 2022 I had a brand mini session launch that stunk.

I was on the verge of launching my brand photography business, and thought that mini sessions would be a great way to help others get the experience of working with me without having to commit to a full brand session. I was actually also using it sort of as a litmus test to see if people would even care that I was doing something new and want to hire me as a brand photographer.

Welp, the brand mini session launch failed. I had ONE person sign up and she was a friend who I think actually booked a session with me because she felt bad.

But, I survived a failed launch — and in fact, today I am so happy to share that my most recent launch of brand mini sessions was a big success, and all of the spots were filled within 72 hours.

So, as you can imagine, I’ve learned so much from this situation that I want to share with you.

Here are 3 things I learned for how to survive a failed launch:

If you fail to plan, you’re planning to fail

When my launch flopped, I was so sure it was because people just didn’t think I’d be a very good brand photographer. I didn’t feel confident about it either, and decided I didn’t want to waste my time on planning something that might fail anyway. It sounds ridiculous now that I write that!

But when I started talking out loud about my dreams and created some real plans for how I was going to set myself apart as a brand photographer, I got so much support — in fact, people started booking me at my full prices (before I even retried offering my mini sessions)! It turns out that sticking my toes in the water with a mini session launch wasn’t necessary, I just needed to have a plan about how I was going to turn my dreams into reality.

You can’t whisper about your business, you have to shout it

I don’t recall, but I think I shared one Instagram post and talked about it in my Stories maybe 3 times over a month. It wasn’t much. I was very quiet about it because I felt so uncertain. But I don’t think hardly any of my audience knew about it and even if they did, I was so timidly awkward about it…I probably wouldn’t have booked me either.

For the “relaunch” of my brand mini sessions, I entered with a whole marketing plan and lots of confidence. I talked about the mini sessions almost daily, and why my audience should book one. I teased, and then teased it more, and had a waitlist. I sent emails. I wondered if I was being obnoxious, but on the morning of the launch, 70% of the spots were booked within 1 hour.

You have to believe you before others will

You might pick up a theme in this email so far: I lacked confidence in my own ability to achieve my dreams. There were lots of things behind this, but the reality was this: I was already a successful wedding photographer, and I had a background in marketing and storytelling that would help me to support the brands I wanted to photograph.

It wasn’t until I got some business coaching that I realized I already had everything I needed to be an amazing brand photographer for coaches and creatives, and I just needed to step into doing it.

The bottom line?

When something fails, come up with a plan, shout it from the rooftops, and believe in yourself — and your ‘bad’ launch will teach you everything you need to know to be a more successful, more empathic business owner.

Click HERE to check out my successful brand mini session launch.