Release
Sometimes I get pissed when the outcome is different than what I expected. When I put so much love, labour, and light into a course, a book, a product only to have it….well, flop…I can really get down on myself. I used to be waaaaay worse about this - thinking something was wrong with me, until I realized that my job wasn’t to control the outcome, it was simply to:
Create & Release
This really hit home for me when I was on a cruise ship perusing their onboard library (pre-covid days…) and this tiny little book jumped out at me. It was The Marketing Checklist 2 by some random gentleman I had never heard of before. I piled it up with the other treasures I found and found my way to the deck and to delve into that new little book that I had found. It was signed by the author himself, someone who was also on that ship at one time or another. In that moment, the Universe delivered Hank Yuloff’s insightful words about vanity domains and my business was forever changed. I am not sure if Mr. Yuloff has had great success with his book sales, all I know is I had never heard of him nor his book in any podcast, NY Times Best Seller list, or any other list of status, yet his courage to put out his book significantly changed an aspect of my business (and any business I create going forward.) He rose to the occasion and wrote his book (probably questioning himself the entire process as I did) and had the courage to just release it.
And it found me.
When he set out to write it, I am sure he heard the voices of all the naysayers in his family and friend circles, convincing him that his ideas were stupid or that what’s the point of him going through all that trouble for it to maybe only sell a few copies - AND HE STILL SHOWED UP and he trusted the process.
Another time, just this past year, my husband and I were driving to Utah and decided to take a little jaunt through Yellowstone and on the drive, I asked Ryan to pull over at a little beachy bit so I could see the water and maybe find some treasures among the vast pebbly shore. As we were leaving, I reached down and grabbed a rock which had the date of 4 days prior written on it - someone else took a chance, wrote a little message, and released it….and once again
It found me.
When the person set out to leave their message, I don’t think they had TERI HOFFORD as the intended recipient. They just trusted that it would be found by the person that needed to find it. Following that experience, I then found my name carved onto a long bridge as we continued to Utah. These folks just followed their creativity and intuition and just released their art & message into the world and it continued to find me.
So, whenever my brain decides to be mean or tell me that I’m not doing enough, or not enough people like my thing, or what’s the point since no one will see it - I remember these moments. I remember the small moments that made me feel something in the moment that I experienced them. Whether it was confirmation of me being on a roadtrip or literally taking advice from a book on a cruise ship - these experiences inspired me, moved me, and encouraged me. It reminded me that maybe the stuff I put out won’t be seen by a million people or I won’t get 10K subscribers on youtube or be the top instagrammer - but for the one person that stumbles across my content when they need it the most, I want it to be there. What if the words I write or a video I create or a course I put out there flops now and becomes a retro success when I’m long gone? Will it still have been worth it? I like to think so.
We need to let go of the desire for a knowing that the content is making an impact and just trust that it will. We need to release ourselves from the pressure to obtain certain metrics and trust the process. We need to just show up, do the work, ignore the noise, and keep creating and then just…
