Awesome Fear-Wrangling

(Psst! Are you already fired up and ready to buy? Well, I certainly won’t stop you! Go find out how much this 100% awesome resource costs and get clicking! Hooray!)

Hello, dearest. It’s Catherine here and I have an announcement:

I know you.

Yes, I do. Let me demonstrate my psychic powers and tell you about yourself.

You want a website that earns you money and pride. You think you have something of value you can offer. But you’re stuck.

Maybe you’re endlessly tweaking tiny details, instead of doing the work that really matters.
Maybe you’re delaying putting up a sales page, because you’re not ready to sell yet.
Maybe you haven’t started a website yet, but you’ve been talking about it for ages.

We both know what’s been stopping you:

Fear.

To be more specific:

Fear that’s dictating to you instead of the other way around.

It doesn’t have to be like that!

Fear can be your best friend.

Fear, good old fear is our protective parent. It stops us from poking tigers or punching police officers or investing your savings in a “sure-thing” online marketing system. Fear tells us when we’re putting something at risk. Fear is a damn useful tool…

*caveat alert*

if you can manage it.

When we manage our fear, then we can have safety and risk, stability and growth, usefulness and delight… and of course a gigantic bucket of awesomeness. (Hurrah!)

But when we don’t manage our fear, it leads us to perfectionism, procrastination, and other painful, obstructive behaviours that stop us from rocking it out like the brilliant fascinating rock stars we are.

I know this from experience.

The fears I had to manage to get this far

I can’t learn about websites!
I can’t do design!
I can’t build a business while working a full-time job!
I can’t sell my expertise!
I can’t say that!
I’m going to fail.
I’m going to go broke.
Oh God, what if I succeed?
No-one will listen to me!
I don’t want to offend anyone!
… and a dozen more.

Most of these are reasonable fears: I am putting myself at risk by starting and growing a website. I had to learn how to listen to the sensible parts of my fear (“Do not spend $2,000 you do not have on a training course, you will not be able to pay for it.”) while placating the nonsensical parts (“No-one will actually shun you on the street if you write a bad post.”) This took me three years. Three years in which I talked about starting a website, I planned and daydreamed and what-if’d about starting a website, but I never, ever did anything about it.

Register a domain name? What if I pick the wrong one!
Apply some (any) of the knowledge from the blogs and courses and e-books I ceaselessly read? Oh, but I’m not ready yet!
Offer consulting? But what if no-one buys it!

Luckily, I improved.

After a lot of work I’m now pretty skilled at managing my fear. I still get it wrong sometimes, but I have a website, I post every day, tell people about what I do, sell my advice and skills, and have an achievable plan to quit the Day Job and earn all my income from this website.

More and more as I listen to your comments and talk to you in various media, I can see I’m not alone in having this balance to manage. And many of you are in a similar place to where I was three years ago: too scared to start a website, or too scared to grow it the way it should be grown.

Do you want some help?

I’ve tamed a lot of fears to get where I am today, and I’ve helped lots of other people along their way. I’ve wrapped up most of that knowledge into a resource and named it Awesome Fear-Wrangling: tame your website fears, grow an awesome website.

You (yes, you) know you have something important to share with the world. You also know starting your own website is the perfect way to do it.

If only you could get past the big, scary pile of fear standing between you and your plans.

If your dream is blogging, selling artwork on-line, quitting your day job, or saving the world, Awesome Fear Wrangling is just the extra boost you need to get moving.

This guide offers excellent insight into what feeds your fear, step-by-step advice (with worksheets!) to help you find your own path, fear defeating advice via audio interview with bona fide successful fear wranglers, and just enough cheer-leading to keep you motivated.

It is, in a word, awesome. – Maureen Carruthers, Low Hanging Fruit

What’s in it

A big reassuring compendium of website fears

Reassuring? Heck yes! Everyone thinks they’re the only one who feels this way. And we’re all wrong.

The list includes:

• fear of failure
• fear of technology
• fear of rejection
• fear of getting it wrong
• fear of trolls (The mean-commenter kind. Not the bridge-lurking kind.)
• fear of not being cool enough
• fear of not being expert enough

Where the fears come from

Most of us lead very safe lives; there are no lions and tigers and bears (oh my) lurking outside our apartments. We’re not afraid of the same things our ancestors were, right?

Actually, yes.

Cavemen didn’t worry about copywriting or positioning, but they were petrified of being kicked out of the tribe. And so are we.

Cavemen didn’t know about conversion rates and upsells: they were worried about starving to death. And so are we.

They’re the same old fears with new faces. Knowing that gives you so much power over your fear: you can stop wondering why one unsubscribe freaks you the hell out. (It’s because we’re tribal creatures and tribal creatures fear rejection.) Once you know that, your conscious mind has a chance to intervene with rational explanations and perspective and all the things that make our brains so cool. Sounds good, no?

Specific fear-management strategies

Taming the fear of technology is different from the fear of failure. Each fear has its own unique and relevant advice so you can be super-duper-effective at getting a handle on your fears.

Afraid you can’t afford a website? I provide some resources that help you to start a decent website very cheaply. (Even for free. No matter how tight your budget is, you can afford free.)

Afraid that you aren’t expert enough to write? There’s guidelines on how you can start a useful website at any level of expertise.

(And squoodles more, of course.)

General fear-taming strategies

We’re not going to control or banish your fears, because that’s impossible. And silly. Fear is a useful part of you, remember?

It’s okay to be scared. It’s okay to pay attention to the voice that wants you to be safe. It’s not okay to be unable to push past the fear and act. That’s where the taming strategies come in.

These are great tools and they work on every fear, so you can choose a technique that suits you. All of them are practical, simple and free. (Well, some need a notepad.)

A list of the disguises fear wears

Fear isn’t polite enough to always come up and introduce itself: sometimes it hides under our behaviours. You know, like:

• perfectionism
• procrastination
• self-sabotage
• overwhelm

Once you realise that these come from fear (and which fear) you can start to get to the real problem. And once you start addressing the underlying fear, those behaviours tend to… vanish. It’s the best feeling ever.

The world’s simplest worksheets

There are two of them.

• On the first, you’ll identify all the fears you have.
• On the second, you’ll make a plan for taming the two fears you’re going to focus on. (No more than two. This is hard work!)

That’s all. I don’t want this to be complicated, I want this to be oh-so-doable. Two worksheets, no excuses.

A totally kick-ass cover

Designed by Willie from itchillustration.com. Isn’t it adorable?

Is this relevant? No. I just really love this cover.

Thirteen super-fantastic-awesome interviews

I had the great pleasure and honour of interviewing the creators of some of my favourite websites about their journey. I don’t want to underplay my work, but you could seriously just listen to these interviews and know almost everything you need for a rip-roaring job of fear-taming.

In a series of half-hour interviews we talked about their fears, how they managed them, and their best strategies. I walked away from every single one fired up and ready to play a bigger game, and I know you will too.

The stunningly cool people I had the honour of interviewing are:

• Ash Amberge from themiddlefingerproject.org
• Charlie Gilkey from productiveflourishing.com
• Dave Navarro from thelaunchcoach.com and rockyourday.com
• Fabeku Fatunmise from sankofasong.com
• Jade Craven from jadecraven.com
• Johnny B. Truant from johnnybtruant.com
• Kelly Diels from kellydiels.com
• LaVonne Ellis from completeflake.com
• Mel Brennan from superwahm.com
• Natalie Christie from thetinysoprano.com
• Sinclair from selfactivator.com
• Sonia Simone from remarkable-communication.com
• Sparky Firepants from sparkyfirepants.com
• Wendy Maynard from mavendiary.com

Are the interviews good? Oh man, they’re fantastic. David Burch, who hangs around being exquisitely useful to people on Twitter under the handle of YourGoToGuy (and you should go follow him – after you’ve bought this resource, of course) took these notes while listening to the call with Dave Navarro:

• How Dave overcame his fears, and rose above others in a competitive niche, by not trying to be the biggest or the best.
• How admitting your mistakes can put you on a level playing field with the big-time gurus.
• How to be transparent without sacrificing your privacy
• Why, despite being immensely successful, Dave only recently quit his day job.
• How Dave broke his fear about not having enough cash flow to make it own his own. Nothing changed in his external circumstances. He just started using this one simple mind trick.
• How Dave used “The Perfect Day” concept to shift his mindset and conquer his fear.
• How paying yourself first can create major breakthroughs.
• How the old Buddhist saying, “When the student is ready, the teacher appears” is wrong.
• How we fail to see opportunities because our brains are hard-wired to protect us from information overload. And how to rewire your brain to take advantages of the abundant opportunities you encounter every day.
• How Dave uses “The Dishes Principle” to eliminate baggage.
• Dave’s #1 Jedi mind trick to use if you have a problem asking people to pay for your work or if you have ever caught your nagging inner voice telling you “I’m not good enough” or “Nobody wants this”.
• Dave’s solution for when you are stuck with way too many things to do.
• How making the wrong decision can be the best solution for stuckness.
• How the very last thing you feel like doing when you are stuck, is your way out of stuckness hell.
• Two never-fail actions to take when you are stuck.

And that’s just one interview!

If you hired all the people I interviewed for a half-hour of advice, it would cost you at least $2,000. You’d be happy to pay it too, because these people would rock your face off. Getting all of that wisdom for a teeny fraction of that price is, let’s be obvious, a ridiculously good deal.

A page of useful resources

I’ve been doing this for awhile, learning who’s trustworthy, who gives good advice and who isn’t worth paying attention to. This is a group of my trusted resources:

• web designers who won’t break the bank
• copywriters
• illustrators
• other blogs to read for inspiration

They’re all people you can feel safe hiring and listening to. Another fear squished!

Plus one useful bonus!

Emotional management 101

Mike Reeves-McMillan is cool hypnotherapist and health coach from New Zealand. His website is hypno.co.nz and it’s full of thought-provoking articles: deep enough to be all cool and professional, but accessible enough for, you know, us to understand.

He’s created an excellent, practical and zero-fluff series of audio and workbooks called Emotional Management and very kindly donated some of the materials to the Awesome Fear-Wrangling:

Emotional Circuit-Breaker

There’s a learning resource of seven quick techniques to interrupt patterns, so you can get out of the hamster-wheel of panic (my phrase, not his) whenever you want to. The nicest bit about these is that Mike explains what’s going on and why it works, and that makes a huge difference. I’ve had people telling me my entire life to focus on my breathing when I’m stressed, but no-one before Mike has ever explained why.

It works much better when we know why. Who knew?

Also, three short and powerful audio tracks:

• Fast Phobia Cure
• Control Panel
• Calming Thoughts

You can tell the experts from the dabblers by how efficient they are. The longest of these is only eleven minutes, but Mike still gets the pulse down and the mind back on track.

That’s a lot of stuff!

It really is.

Put them all together and you have everything you need to tame your fears. You can be glorious, dearest. You can achieve excellence, earn money, gain renown and respect.

For those of you considering it, I am loving the material thus far. Honestly, you have no excuses to be stuck in fear after you go through this program with her nifty way of explaining why we might be feeling the way we do as we build and grow our sites and how to overcome them. Also, the interviews I’ve listened to so far have given me great insight into those who have been in my place before and how they’ve gotten through those moments of “oh, shit, what am I supposed to do now!?”, with a cute Aussie accent to boot! – Miss Mandie

(ps – Catherine did not pay me to say any of this, but in the spirit of transparency, I am biased about the accent seeing as I am a fellow Aussie )

So what you’re wondering now is, how much is all this charming fear-wrangling deliciousness?

There are two options!

Do-It-Yourself Wrangling

The Do-It-Yourself option includes all the training materials and interviews listed above. You will read and listen at your own pace, and focus in only on the fears that affect you. Then you’ll make a confident new plan to tame your fears.

The bad news: You’ll still wake up at 3am sometimes thinking, “What the hell am I doing?”

The good news: You’ll get up in the morning and do what needs to be done.

Once you learn to listen to your fear, make a rational decision to act and then do it? You’ll start seeing BIG success with your website, and – let’s be ambitious because it really does happen – the rest of your life, too. (If you don’t start getting traction within two weeks of using this resource, come get your money back!)

Better website, improved fear-taming skills and a more kick-ass life, for $97. Is that an excellent deal, or what?

(It is.)

Remember, I spent THREE YEARS procrastinating and delaying before finally starting this website. If someone had offered me a resource to shave two years – or even six months – off my dithering and dilly-dallying, I would have paid a lot more than $97 for it. Did you read that sentence and ruefully review how much time you’ve wasted already?

I know you don’t want to take three years, or longer. I promise that if you do the work, this resource will help you get started now, stronger and better than ever before. And having more fun, too. Because building new things while fear is strangling you is not much fun. Building stuff when you’re scared but going for it anyway? That’s exhilarating.

Want it now? Awesome!

Do-It-Yourself Fear-Wrangling

$97

The Big Orange Button knows what it’s all about.

Do-It-Together Wrangling

In the Do-It-Together option, you get all the written resources and interviews listed above, plus more stuff! Awesome.

Four 30-minute one-on-one support calls (you’d pay $300, usually)

You can use these super-strategically, if that’s your cup of tea: one after you make your list of fears, one after making your first action plan, and two follow-up sessions to make sure you’re on track.

Or you can keep them up your sleeve like Get Out of Panic cards and only use them as you need them most.

Either way, I’m excellent at helping you cut through the core of your stuckitude to see what the real issue is. Then I grab that sucker and drag it into the daylight, where suddenly you realise, “Oh hey! That’s not so big after all.”

Here’s a couple of quotes from people I’ve talked with in the past:

Thanks to @catherinecaine for another great call today – you’re great at keeping the momentum going!

Catherine has a knack for getting to the important stuff quickly. In the 30 minute session we had, she gave me two valuable tips on how to sort out parts of my online marketing I’ve been stuck on for ages. And now I’m making progress!

I ended the coaching session clear (and not overwhelmed) about my next steps as well as some food for future developments down the road. Awesome, indeed!

Catherine doesn’t just help you jump over your hurdles – she explodes the barriers so they don’t even exist in your world anymore.

Sounds good, doesn’t it?

Also: a copy of Website in a Weekend (you’d pay $27, usually)

This is my simple resource on how to start a WordPress-driven website in one weekend. It’s a series of video tutorials, made for people who have never started a website before, and great if you want to learn the basics.

With all that on your side, you’re going to be magnificent!

For only $247. You have to hurry, though, there are only 15 spots available. (Because I have to eat and sleep sometime.)

You can save yourself piles of heartbreak and delay, and get yourself much closer to building (and enjoying) your website. Let’s knock down the walls!

Do-It-Together Fear-Wrangling

$247

Aw, that’s going to be so cool. I can’t wait to see who goes for it.

So, dearest, are you ready to rock it out?

Do-It-Yourself Fear-Wrangling

$97

Do-It-Together Fear-Wrangling

$247

But what about guarantees?

Oh! I completely forgot, I got so excited about this.

I love Mark Silver’s guarantee at heartofbusiness.com, so let’s use that one. But tweak it a bit.

If you don’t adore this resource, could you email me first? I want the chance to see if there’s a way we can work it out and get you taking action.

If not? 100% of your money back, with zero problems. For the rest of your life. (If we’re both 80 by then you’re gonna have to speak up a bit.)

Then you find someone who needs this resource, and give it to them instead.

Cool?

Get the feeling that this resource can help you solve your problem? Then buy it, dearest!