The following is part of a series wherein Megan Elizabeth Morris relates her experience of the Lift Off Retreat in autumn of 2011. Got questions you want to ask? Comment or email her here. This is the beginning.
Before I set foot on Lift Off Retreat territory — the territory was beautiful, by the way — I didn’t know much about it.
I coached with Charlie for nearly 2 years before Lift Off really made my radar, but when it did, it boomed. My business footing had been uncertain for long enough to make me nervous. When was all of this hard work going to pan out? Was I supposed to just keep doing what I was doing until it did?
And what if it didn’t?
Let me tell you about Ideaschema for a moment.
Ideaschema’s my primary project, even considering the other wonderful projects I have my hands in. Ideaschema was created to be whatever I needed it to be: An umbrella company to help me accomplish my Great Work, to help as many people as possible, and to express myself creatively to the universe. We were doing creative work for great clients — some community-oriented marketing, lots of illustrated materials and promotions. But Ideaschema was still supposed to be a reflection of everything going on inside my head, and that was… a lot.
You might have already concluded that Ideaschema’s messaging was suffering a bout of extreme vagueness. I’d long made peace with no one knowing what I did for a living, and we were sputtering along okay. But the vagueness wasn’t clearing up on its own the way I’d hoped. I was about to make a break for what appeared to be a clearing up ahead: Book promotions for authors and publishers.
And I only knew a few of those.
This was an initiative based mostly on hypothetical string & sealing wax. We’d done a few projects (for free) to test the waters. Our community seemed to love them. The whole thing sounded okay when I told myself about it.
That’s all the feedback I had, however.
I had no idea if it would really work, and I had gone too long without respite. I needed stable footing fast if I was going to maintain my sanity and stay the solopreneurial path. I needed this thing to work. I needed support, and some (small) degree of certainty.
I was thinking about hoofing it alone (as usual). But I’d done that for a decade, and I had to admit I was tired of just sticking it out. I was afraid, and I still felt alone. I needed something big, something new, and something that was highly likely to work.
What the hell was that going to be?
