"A Launch Lady's Journey" :: MONTH 1

Shawna Brea

Hello fellow launch ladies!

Welcome to the start of "A Launch Lady's Journey," a blog solely dedicated to following a female entrepreneur on her path to launching a new business.

Like many of you just starting out, Chasiti Gaines wanted to focus 2018 on officially launching her ad agency. Yet, she was struggling with what to focus on and where to spend her time.

Knowing that so many others were facing the same challenges, we decided to partner with Chasiti so she could graciously share her story of building a business step-by-step using The Launch Planner.

The BIG Surprise 🎉 I’ll be collaborating with @thelaunchplanner to show my entrepreneurial journey as I start my freelance business 💕 More deets coming soon ✨ I grew up in a family that highly valued entrepreneurship. My mother has never clocked in for a job in her life and my brothers also are self-employed. I knew I wanted to start a venture in marketing since I was told while working at an agency that a man could do the job better than me despite my performance record. I’ll reveal more of my story + business idea throughout the week here on Instagram. I couldn’t wait to share this announcement with everyone 💖

A post shared by Chasiti (@dreamsofchaz) on Jan 8, 2018 at 10:22am PST

By following the 6-stage launch process, Chasiti began to tackle the first 5 tasks in the IDEA stage throughout the month of January. This allowed her to gain focus on the "big picture" and lay down some important foundational elements to her new business, like defining her WHY and determining her personal strengths.

This week I’m focusing on the business purpose + idea for my @thelaunchplanner 💡What’s my ”Why.” I’m working on that currently — but I definitely know it’s to create a space for diversity and inclusion within the marketing field and within advertising campaigns. I still remember growing up biracial and never seeing that represented in commercials I saw on tv and wondering WHY NOT? I’m working on the deets + share more soon. Excited to share this journey, along with all the ups & downs. 👊🏻👊🏼👊🏽👊🏾👊🏿

A post shared by Chasiti (@dreamsofchaz) on Jan 10, 2018 at 10:36am PST

The exciting part came when she was able to add the tasks into her Monthly Planning pages as part of her launch planner. By using the provided templates, she could outline her key focus and connections to be made for the first month.

Sneak peek of me planning with my @thelaunchplanner 💖 I’ve added so much more to the planner since then 😭

A post shared by Chasiti (@dreamsofchaz) on Jan 14, 2018 at 11:34am PST

Just this week, Chasiti and I jumped on a quick video chat to reflect on her first month. She shares incredibly valuable insights into the clarity she gained and a new way of thinking about her business.

We both hope you truly enjoy this new blog series!

May this empower you to keep fighting for your business goals and stay committed to taking action. Believing in yourself is half the battle.

Stay tuned for our next recap at the end of February!

xo, Shawna.

PS: Please share where YOU are at in your launch process in the comments below! We'd love to support you on your own journey.

PPS: Follow Chaz on IG @dreamsofchaz and YouTube to get access to a special video she did all about Month 1 using The Launch Planner.