Living in the heart of Silicon Valley as I do (10 min from Google HQ, in fact), I hear a lot about product launches from my friends in hi-tech.

Stories of intense weeks of long hours, of all-nighters to push through to make the deadline.

I’ve always nodded in sympathy, but until now I only had an intellectual understanding of what was involved. Kinda like, oh, cramming for final exams in college, maybe..?

Well, now I’ve joined the ranks of Product Launchers everywhere, and I’m here to tell you, it is an insane amount of work!

Particularly when your entire R&D team, Sales & Marketing team, Tech team, Customer Support team, and every other team there is is composed of you, and you alone.

Um, yeah.

But the beautiful thing is that the launch, err.. pre-launch/soft launch/whatever launch of the Thriving Artists Project is going swimmingly! Yes, there’s been the usual share of technical SNAFUs and frustrations, but orders have been coming in, both for the Basic membership and for the Basic membership + One-on-One consulting packages. A community is being born!

If you build it, they will come

When you put something out there in the world, you never know what the response will be. The fear, of course, is nothing but *cricket*cricket*. It sucks to throw a party and have nobody show up.

But people are showing up — people I’ve known for years (which is hugely flattering), and total strangers too (which tells me I must have done a pretty good job with my copy and my promo!)

The responses have also been gratifying.

From Amy Crook, of Antemortem Arts:

The things, they are like mushrooms! You look under one pile and there’s mooooore hiding in the corners! <3

From Mike Davenport, of Stick Figure Simple:

Had a chance to listen to the Ann Rea mp3. Rocked

From photographer Dianne Poinski (who does amazing hand-colored b&w photos):

So excited! This looks great! Thanks for putting this all together.

From Nelly:

Melissa this looks great! I can’t wait to really dive into the content.

From Kim:

Very glad to be here, Melissa, in this community of thriving artists. I know it will be an inspiring place. Thanks for all the work you put into it.

Yes, I’m exhausted, but very, very pleased, and very, very excited about what I’m creating. As with anything creative, the more you do, the more ideas you get, and that’s definitely the case here.

Just 6 months ago this course was no more than a glimmer in my eye, and now it’s walking on its own! And because it will be shaped by the Ground Floor Inner Circle Members who join during this launch, it will be fun to see what kind of adult this toddler grows into.

Still time… but not much

If you’re interested in signing up yourself, or buying a membership as a holiday gift for someone, I recommend you skeedaddle over to the Thriving Artists Project site right now, because the doors on this pre-launch/soft launch/whatever launch thingy are only open until 9am PST tomorrow. After that, nobody gets in until I re-launch next year (at over twice the price).

Just sayin’…

Oh, and tell your friends too! You can score big points with an artist or creative type by showing them you believe in them and what they do, and pointing them to a course like this is a great way to do that.

And now back to work. I’ve got MP3 interviews to edit!

This is it! The doors are open, and the Thriving Artists Project is available for sale for the next 72 hours.

(If you haven’t signed up on the Ground Floor Inner Circle advance notice list, you might want to do so ASAP, because the only people who get keys to the “secret” buy page are GFIC advance notice subscribers. Sign up here if you’re interested. And if you’re already on the list but you didn’t get the invitation email, let me know and I’ll hook you up.)

I was up til 2:30 tweaking and polishing to get the site ready, and I’ve barely slept for days. I’m… well… remember that commercial from the 80s? (I’m dating myself here…):

“This is your brain [holding egg]… this is your brain on drugs [cracking egg into frying pan].”

Today that would be:

“This is Melissa [holding egg]… This is Melissa at the end of the buildup to her pre-launch/soft launch/whatever launch thingy [cracking egg into frying pan].”

But you know what? I couldn’t be happier. (Though better-rested, yes.) I’m in my element.

Special shout out and humongo thanks to my wonderful “beta testers”: Dianne, Fawn, Fiona, Jonathan, Kirsty and Marlene. There’ve been a smattering of technical glitches (including the fact that yours truly forgot – didn’t even think – to create a temporary “doors not quite open… come back at 9am” redirect for my “secret” buy page. (And thanks to those early bird buyers for making me aware of this major crack in my system!)

In fact, I only realized that my system had this glitch when a PayPal payment came through at 9:16 last night! What the… ? Nobody had that “secret” buy page link! How did someone actually buy?

Oh, yeah. I scheduled the invitation with the special link to go out at midnight… Eastern time. AWeber [affiliate] has a distinct East Coast bias, and I just wasn’t thinking too clearly when I scheduled that email.

Ah, well. This is what happens when you’re addled from trying to keep track of too many details on too little sleep.

I’ll give you a full post-mortem after things settle down, and when I’m a little better rested.

Now back to work…

Finally, just in time for Thanksgiving, I bring you the latest update on the Thriving Artists Project! Hooray hooray!

Much to be thankful for, indeed.

Yes, the Thriving Artists Project is pre-launching.

Or soft-launching.

Or something.

Basically, all that is just a fancy way of saying that I’m gonna start letting people buy it. Like, next week, in conjunction with the end of Customer Love.

But only people who are signed up on the Ground Floor Inner Circle advance notice list.

I’ll give my Ground Floor Inner Circle subscribers first dibs to try it out, and it will be their feedback that I incorporate into the official launch (in January… I think.)

Ground Floor Inner Circle subscribers (you know who you are!) will get to work out the kinks and help me make the Thriving Artists Project even better, and in exchange you’ll get ridiculously low pricing, plus the opportunity to participate in an exclusive, free webinar where I’ll do my best to answer any questions you have.

Want to learn more? Check out the brand-spankin’ new Thriving Artists Project website!

And now, a moment to say Thank you!

Thank you to all of the Ground Floor Inner Circle advance notification peeps who took the time to answer the survey I sent out a coupla weeks back. You ROCK!

Here are the results:

You said you wanted:

• Inspiration, support, encouragement
• Stories/a behind-the-scenes view of actual thriving artists
• Business fundamentals/practical steps/info for how to set up a business
• Resources for ways to sell art
• Resources for how to gain patrons/clients/customers
• Connections with other artists who are challenging the starving artist’s mindset

..and the interviews cover all of these things, and more.

—

You asked for the following to be included with the course:

• Notes with highlights of the interviews – 70%
• Follow-up inspirational emails – 60%
• One-on-one mentoring sessions – 50%
• Transcripts of the interviews – 30%
• Tutorials on creating your own website or blog – 30%
• Follow-up inspirational videos – 30%
• Group mentoring phone calls – 30%
• A user forum – 20%

For the pre-launch, I will be including annotated indexes of each interview, follow-up emails (in fact, the interviews themselves will be delivered, via a web link, 3 per week over a 5-week period), and an exclusive free webinar to answer your questions. Pre-launch buyers will also have access to special pricing on one-on-one mentoring sessions, to help you get unstuck and charging forward after your evolving Bliss. You can pick my brain about anything you like (from WordPress tutorials, to social media, to color theory, to the meaning of life [yeah, I know it]), or get my laser-sharp creative thinking focused on something you need help with.

Transcripts, video tutorials and a user forum might be down the road, but given limited resources of time and energy, I had to pick and choose what to focus on first.

—

You asked for interviews with specific thriving artists, some of whom I knew of already, and some of whom I didn’t (so THANK YOU for turning me onto them!) Of the people you recommended, some never replied to my query, and one was only interested in my “reach” (which was apparently not up to his standards, because he never got back to me).

However, I was able to score interviews with:

• Flora Bowley, painter (what a blast that interview was!)
• Carol Marine, painter (ditto!)
• John T. Unger, artist/designer/metal worker/digital guru <-my label (his interview was so fun we couldn’t stop talking, and it went on for an hour and half! Oops… And btw, the deal he made with me was that he’d be a guest for the Thriving Artists Project, if I would be a guest on his Art Heroes Radio. Score!)

Add these to the existing list of interviews with cool thrivers:

• Aimee Golant, metal artist
• Anna Kuperberg, photographer
• Chris Guillebeau, writer/traveler/fighter of the status quo (and owner of The Art of Non-Conformity)
• Cosy Sheridan, singer/songwriter
• Deborah “DJ” Hamouris, musician & teacher (who figured out how to make a full-time living from her music in her 50s!)
• Michael Nobbs, artist/blogger
• Phil Johnson, comedian/musician
• Verity Price, singer/songwriter
• Will Edwards, singer/songwriter/web designer

Plus bonus interviews with:

• Kirsty M. Hall, artist & purveyor of mad, obsessive projects
• Fiona Purdy, equine & animal artist
• Tim Sweeney, independent music marketing guru

That’s fifteen interviews, plus a number of additional interviews and bonus tracks that simply haven’t been scheduled yet. (In other words, stay tuned! And whenever you buy in, you’ll have access to all content, old and new.)

—

You asked to pay $97 for the course…

And because I like to make you happy, that’s the price the course will start off at when it’s officially launched. (Since I’ll be adding additional content over time, I expect the price to go up over time too.) However, for the pre-launch only, I will be offering a steep discount.

But again, that’s only for Ground Floor Inner Circle advance notice subscribers.

Interested? Check out the Thriving Artists Project in Technicolor detail and sign up for Ground Floor Inner Circle access here.

I’ll send notice to everyone who’s on the list, with details about the pre-launch—when, where and how much.

Coolness!

Have a Happy Thanksgiving, shine your light, and onward ho!