Coffee Social | Social Media Marketing, Content Creation, & Entrepreneurship
Embracing Failure: Lessons from Not Selling a Thing | Ep. 07
Jan 31, 2024Season 1Episode 7
Jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley
It can be the worst feeling in the world to work so hard on something and put it out there just to have no one buy it.
In this episode of Coffee Social, Jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley dive deep into the inevitable aspect of entrepreneurship – failure. When your product's debut feels more like a face-plant, you'll want to hear how Jonathan & Mimi dust themselves off. Trust them when they say, you’re not alone in this one, and listen in as they navigate through the tough times and provide insights on bouncing back and turning sales stumbles into strides.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS : Everyone fails. It’s not just you. : Not selling freaking sucks. That is a valid feeling to have. : Lean on & brainstorm with your entrepreneurial friends. : There’s a lot of different variables to not selling something.
DID YOU LOVE THIS EPISODE A LATTE? 😂 Give the podcast 5 STARS & write an awesome review! It helps your hosts so much!
* Podcast Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast.
It can be the worst feeling in the world to work so hard on something and put it out there just to have no one buy it.
In this episode of Coffee Social, Jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley dive deep into the inevitable aspect of entrepreneurship – failure. When your product's debut feels more like a face-plant, you'll want to hear how Jonathan & Mimi dust themselves off. Trust them when they say, you’re not alone in this one, and listen in as they navigate through the tough times and provide insights on bouncing back and turning sales stumbles into strides.
EPISODE HIGHLIGHTS : Everyone fails. It’s not just you. : Not selling freaking sucks. That is a valid feeling to have. : Lean on & brainstorm with your entrepreneurial friends. : There’s a lot of different variables to not selling something.
DID YOU LOVE THIS EPISODE A LATTE? 😂 Give the podcast 5 STARS & write an awesome review! It helps your hosts so much!
* Podcast Disclaimer: This podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and should not be considered legal advice. We are not responsible for any losses, damages, or liabilities that may arise from the use of this podcast.
Nobody cares that you fell down, that's a you problem. And hey, I'll use a current ish example. When Taylor Swift Heel failed in her errors tour, Did she run off stage and cry because her $1,000 shoe was broken?
Speaker 1:
Like Beyonce no, she continued the show. She ripped that heel off and continued the damn show. She ripped it off and continued the show because, guess what? It's not that she fell down, it's that her fans were there and they needed to have a performance. And it's now an iconic moment in her errors tour Ripping that red sole off, throwing it and continuing the concert. Yeah, that's what matters, keep going. It's Corfy Social, the podcast, all about social media and business. And now here your hosts, jonathan Howard and Mimi Langley.
Speaker 2:
Hi everyone. Hi Jonathan Howard, Hi Mimi Langley, why were you hesitating to say my name?
Speaker 1:
I don't know Say my name say my name. I don't know. You came with the Jonathan Howard. Very weird today.
Speaker 2:
Did I.
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Well, listen, I'm excited, shocker.
Speaker 1:
Guess what Mimi is excited about this episode.
Speaker 2:
I'm so excited. Well, first of all, I'm excited about the episode, but I'm really excited about the scarf that I'm wearing. I just got it in the mail. It's from the loft shout out to the loft and it's actually a scarf that Candace Cameron Beret, the girl DJ from Full House. She was wearing it in one of her Instagram posts and I asked her Can you bottom up the Instagram? Post. No, no, no, no, no. I asked her. I said where did you get your scarf I need? And she responded so here we are.
Speaker 1:
Here we are you've got a new scarf, and it's a famous scarf.
Speaker 2:
It's gonna sell out watch. I mean, I'm just saying so what about you? What are you wearing today?
Speaker 1:
I'm wearing rental, of course you are. I rent my clothes. I rent a lot of my clothes, so I guess Well, that doesn't shock us.
Speaker 2:
That really doesn't shock any of us. That way I can send it back.
Speaker 1:
Smart. Okay, let us know if you rent. I don't have to do the laundry.
Speaker 2:
Let us know if you guys rent your clothes, put that in the comments. No judgment here Come on cheers.
Speaker 1:
You haven't used. Rent the runway for yourself.
Speaker 2:
I have not. You should Cheers my friend, here we go.
Speaker 1:
Cheers. You should Maybe.
Speaker 2:
I will Next time you got a fancy thing to go to.
Speaker 1:
you can rent like four dresses to figure out which one you wanna wear. Okay, well, I will you wear it, send it back.
Speaker 2:
Can we do it when we go on our podcast tour? Can I rent dresses? Can we wear like ball gown outfits? I'm so excited.
Speaker 1:
I think I can rent tuxedo pieces from, although I have my own tuxedo, but I don't wanna wear the same one every day.
Speaker 2:
I think we should get really fancy when we go on the podcast tour. I think that'd be hilarious. Also, what are you drinking? What's in the coffee cup? What am I always drinking?
Speaker 1:
La Crosse? No, that's the name of the cup or the company that made the cup Cold Brew.
Speaker 2:
Oh yes, I'm drinking gosh. I don't even know the name of it, but all I can tell you it's organic, Organic coffee. Yeah, it's very good, and actually you're supposed to refrigerate your coffee. Did you know that your coffee grinds?
Speaker 1:
Yes.
Speaker 2:
Oh, of course you knew that. What do you mean? You knew that Anyway. We've always refrigerated our coffee, jonathan, let's talk about today's episode. Yeah, probably a good idea, yeah, so listen, this is a huge one because you're not alone you guys.
Speaker 2:
We're gonna be talking about failing at sales. So maybe it's a launch that you're so stinking excited about. You get it out there. No one buys, right? Or you have an early bird special, maybe to your email list no one buys so. Or maybe it's your second time launching something and the first time you did it it was great. The second time, no one buys, so we're gonna talk about it. We're gonna talk about overcoming Kind of that, that mind. I think it's mindset, really right, jonathan?
Speaker 1:
It's absolutely mindset and and understanding that it's not just you. No matter what all the I'm gonna say this nicely no matter what people say online, they failed in some aspect of their business. They didn't make a million dollars in five minutes, like they say. They actually had to do some things, learn some things, fail at some things and then, after so many iterations, they got there.
Speaker 2:
Oh, cheers to that, cheers to failing you guys, because listen so much to learn from failure. It's not win or lose, it's winner, learn.
Speaker 1:
Have you ever heard that?
Speaker 2:
Yeah, okay, let's jump into it. So, like the first thing in my mind was it freaking sucks, like when, like when you're in that moment because you're so excited, well, also you're really nervous, right, because in some way you're like, okay, well, this might not sell, like I don't know if you ever get like that, but I kind of always have that in the back of my head, like maybe this won't sell, but you still put it out there anyways. Maybe that's bad, juju, maybe we shouldn't even think bad.
Speaker 1:
That's bad juju. That's part of your mindset. It's part of the mindset you have to believe that what you have is Going to serve the people that you want to serve and that they're going to want to buy it because you're helping them solve A major problem in their life or get past something or whatever it is. But you got to be in in your mind. You have to know it's gonna sell, oh.
Speaker 2:
My gosh. I feel like we need a whole episode on easier said than done.
Speaker 2:
That's what I'm saying. I'm like this could be a whole episode about how do you get past that. Like thought you know before you even launch. Yeah, my thing is is like it hurts. It really hurts, you know, because it's like this is something that you love, you're passionate about and you know is going to help people, which is why you launched it. But then when no one sees that, no one buys, it really sucks. So, like for me, I Don't usually like keep it to myself. I don't shut down, like not that there's anything wrong, I guess, with keeping to yourself, but for me I need to tell my, my, my friends, like people that get it. I lean in on them. Like how do you think about, how do you feel about that?
Speaker 1:
like your entrepreneur buddies, I think it's really important to have entrepreneur buddies and people that know what it's like to run their own business and do what you're doing. Especially, you know, if you are you know the first generation entrepreneur, if you don't have friends that are entrepreneurs, nobody's gonna get you. They're not gonna understand what it's like to be struggling on like you're. Oh Well, nobody bought.
Speaker 1:
Somebody buy something else, yeah, it's okay, there's another day, it's another chance, there's. You know, all that stuff is great, but it still feels like the day it happens. I bleep myself out there.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, you did. I'm actually really shocked.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, it still feels that way when the day it happens and the day after, and then you are trying to figure out what the hell went wrong. Yeah, ive been a little bit of a jar of Like literally like you eat away.
Speaker 2:
At that, you're like, ok, well, what is it Like? What? You know? What's the problem here? And it's crazy because I agree with you, you can't just open up to anyone, because not everyone is going to understand the entrepreneurial journey. And you're right, they'll probably be like maybe you should give up on it, or maybe you know what I mean, move on to the next, like just get you know, kind of get over it, Not say it like that. But you know, sometimes people can be very like harsh when they're not in it and they don't understand what we're doing.
Speaker 1:
Right so, and they don't understand the passion that you have around something and the reason behind that passion.
Speaker 2:
Mm, hmm, I was thinking too. When you lean in on your people you know your entrepreneurial friends or your creative friends like when you lean in on them you could also brainstorm right. So it's not necessarily you just dumping your feelings even though that's amazing, do that and then they remind you of how amazing you are and how amazing your product is but also maybe you can brainstorm on how can we get this thing going right?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, and I think that's valuable and I think it's important to do those sort of things with your entrepreneurial friends. Just make sure that you know you're looking at what you want, what you can do, what you can support, because a lot of times the ideas are great and it's amazing, but can you support those ideas in your time and you're the expert in your business they aren't. So, while they might have great ideas and you should listen to them, there's a lot of value in that you also have to decide what works for you and what doesn't. Are you looking right at me?
Speaker 2:
I'm just kidding, I'm looking right at you. No, I was thinking how many people? Just just in case, like how many people do you let in that?
Speaker 1:
circle.
Speaker 2:
Like, let's say, your launch didn't go as planned. How many people like entrepreneurial friends do you actually turn to Like as a very close like, maybe like close, like a small, like small, like like two people?
Speaker 1:
It's like a close to three people. Now I don't think you should hide that your launch failed. I think that's part of the journey that we all take and it's not about the failed launch is about getting back up. But keep it, because the more people you tell, the more ideas are going to throw at you, the more it's just going to get confusing. Yeah, and you don't want to get confused.
Speaker 2:
I agree, there's a lot of cooks in the kitchen. You don't need all that yeah.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, exactly. It's like oh, do I go this way, do I go that way? Am I doing this right? And is it that that I'm wrong with? Or what is what's blocking me? And a lot of times it is a mindset block that's blocking us and keeping us from selling. But what is it? And if you have 15 different people telling you, no, it's this, no, it's this, no, it's this, you're going to go into a corner and cry.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, I agree. What about also like your business coach? Like I know, not everybody, especially if they're early in on their you know entrepreneurial journey. They might not have a business coach right now, or never really considered or have one. Would you turn to your business coach in times like this?
Speaker 1:
Um, if you're in business and you've been in business for more than six months, I'm going to tell you you best bet get a business coach to support you. Because, yes, you should talk to them, yes, you should get help from them, yes, they're the ones that can guide you because they've been through it already, they know what it's like, they've been there. So, getting that business coach that you really click with, that you feel comfortable sharing with, is really, really important. I think everybody should have coach and every coach should have a coach.
Speaker 2:
I love that, and he does talk about this all the time. You guys, this is not Jonathan just making up something for the sake of this episode, like he really truly believes in that. You know, having having a coach. Um, can we move to this point?
Speaker 1:
Mm, hmm.
Speaker 2:
And I think I know my mind goes there, If, if I didn't sell, sell the thing that I put so much blood, sweat and tears into it's almost like you're like well, okay, I guess no one needs this product. The product is crap. I should probably trash the product Like what do you think about that, the product being crap, the product?
Speaker 1:
is probably not crap, that, what probably happened. I mean, it could be a number of things your messaging, your marketing, how hard you went on it. Because, guess what, if you're not going out and getting 50 nos a day, you're probably not working hard enough.
Speaker 2:
Whoa.
Speaker 1:
How'd you come up with that number? Because that's the number I get every single day.
Speaker 2:
Those are the number.
Speaker 1:
That's the number of people I call, I DM. I reach every single day. And if I get 50 nos, then I was successful that day.
Speaker 2:
Actually that is so. That makes me think about numbers, and you know, sometimes I like to stay away from numbers.
Speaker 1:
Yes, you do.
Speaker 2:
I'm not really a data person, even though you should know your numbers and something I heard it was. It's not magical, it's mathematical, isn't that crazy? Like you know, this is actually a great point. How many people are you actually reaching? Because? Okay, so you have zero sales out of how? Many people that actually that you reached you know what I mean. Right, that's important.
Speaker 1:
If you're going in, it's a closed like. If you're doing a closed launch and you only had 10 people show up for that launch and you, in that closed launch, sold your product and you sold one. You were right dead on ball spot. That is a successful launch. You needed to get more people into there. 10% buying is really pretty good, but you needed to get more people in there so you could reach your goal of maybe 100 sales or whatever it was. You need to talk to more people. That's why and I don't remember who gave me that idea of I think it might've been one of my first business coaches you've gotta go out there and get the nose. But when you get the nose, that means you're talking to people and they might come back and say yes later, and that's happened to me more times than not.
Speaker 2:
Same same. They're like well, I wasn't ready then, but now I'm ready, like now I need you. Yeah, I mean wow, I hope that that just gave you guys goosebumps. I hope that that, like, maybe you're in the middle of your launch right now and it's not going in your favor Reach out to more people, like, do not stop. Like Jonathan said, we have to believe in the product that we created. Right, like I don't know, I again mindset, but so important.
Speaker 1:
Yeah, believe in the product you created and then, if it doesn't sell, go to your audience and say what would have gotten you to buy this, what would have gotten you to buy this Like and that could help you like. Oh, it was that easy, that's the one thing you needed. Or it was $10, too expensive, or whatever. It may be Right. Then you can make adjustments on that and not change your product per se.
Speaker 2:
And people will tell you, that's my question to you, jonathan, yeah.
Speaker 1:
You've got people in your audience that you have seen in your audience for a long time and they've never bought anything. Ask them why I love that. It could very well be like oh you know, I just I like you, I like hanging out with you, it's fun to being, you know, in your circle, but I don't really need what you buy, what you're selling, so I'm not going to buy it and that's fine. But then you talk to another person and they're like yeah, it was, I was thinking about it, but you know, with Christmas and everything, well then it's a timing issue maybe. Or you know, you'll get different things and you can interpret them and see what the feedback is.
Speaker 2:
Yeah, there's all. There can be a lot of variables, you guys. Again, it's not necessarily the product, it's not necessarily the price, even though I feel like a lot of us go directly to okay, it's the price, let me cut the price in half, and you still won't sell it.
Speaker 1:
Exactly, and sometimes, if you doubled the price, you would sell it.
Speaker 2:
You have a point here you put without failure, we don't learn. Do you want to expand on that?
Speaker 1:
Yeah, I mean, it is through the failure that we learn. It is through those moments where we fall down and we have to get up that we've learned how to get up and we learned what was going on that didn't work. So, even in a successful launch, if you want it to be even more successful, you have to look at the things that didn't work and it's all a training process. I think I put in the notes babies, don't learn to walk immediately. It's a journey. It's learning how to get there. You're crawling right now. I'm barely walking right now.
Speaker 1:
There's people ahead of me that are running marathons right now, and good for them, but I'm not there yet. You're not there yet. So help the people behind you. Always reach back that hand and help people, but know that you still on a journey. You're not at your destination yet. So I think that's really, really important. It's not about the falling down. Nobody cares that you fell down. I know you think you care that you fell down. Nobody cares that you fell down. That's a you problem. Hey, I'll use a current ish example. When Taylor Swift her heel failed in her errors tour, did she run off stage and cry because her $1,000 shoe was broken?
Speaker 2:
I, it's Taylor Swift, she's like Beyonce. No, she continued the show. She ripped that heel off and continued the damn show.
Speaker 1:
No, because, guess what? It's not that she fell down, it's that her fans were there and they needed to have a performance. And it's now an iconic moment in her errors tour Ripping that red soul off, which is not good for Louboutin, it was a looping there. Yeah, ripping that red soul off, throwing it and continuing the, the concert yeah, that's what matters. Keep going. I love that. I love that so much.
Speaker 2:
And again like, if you feel like that's it for that product, then okay, right, if you've come to that decision, then okay. What Jonathan is saying and what I agree with is just keep going, just keep going, just keep pushing, just keep taking action. And you know what's so funny? It's like you'd be surprised on on when people buy something I know we talked about that earlier, but you may think it's over until someone says or you get that little cha-ching, you know what I mean sound effect coming through, and you're like I just made a sale. I thought no one wanted my product. It's like the best feeling ever.
Speaker 1:
So yeah, or when some of the most accomplished people buy your product, you're like what, why, who, what? That's not who I was selling to, but it hit and that is also, could possibly be, an indicator. Are you targeting the right audience.
Speaker 2:
Gosh, that's so good, so good. You guys, we all fail we do We've all had unsuccessful launches and more times than I'd like to say. Yeah, and you're right, though, like I feel like no one really talks about it, but I think it's important too. So I'm happy that we did this episode, jonathan, and maybe we'll have a part two, who knows? I mean, of course, we're going to have a part two, three, four, five.
Speaker 1:
We always. There's 200 of each of these episodes. Just wait till the next episode. Just wait till the next episode.
Speaker 2:
What is the?
Speaker 1:
next episode.
Speaker 2:
What is the next episode? Yes, oh, it's about storytelling telling stories to convert sales. I'm so excited. All right, jonathan, all right. Yes, jonathan's favorite thing in the world is storytelling. Okay, let's wrap up this episode, because we do like to keep these episodes digestible for everybody. So, jonathan, what do we like to say at the end? Or what do you like to say?
Speaker 1:
Oh, I like to say that make sure that you give us five stars. Wherever you listen to podcasts, make sure you come, you know if you are enjoying any of what you're listening to. Make sure you give us five stars. Write a review, let us know what you like, what you don't like, all those things. Visit us on YouTube, you know. Punch us on there, punch us in the face there, and make sure you get a what is it? A subscribe there? Or follow on on Instagram, all those things. Make sure you do all the things and make sure you give me me five stars.
Speaker 2:
Thanks, jonathan. I'm so happy I'm working with you. But seriously, you guys use the comment section. Make sure you guys tell us what you're drinking whether it's matcha tea, coffee. We want to know. If you have any questions, we want to know them so we can make episodes answering those questions for you, and all of our links for the socials will be in the description, jonathan, I think it's time to ask the most important question, jonathan, hold on, I gotta ask it. Oh, I got really loud right there.
Speaker 1:
I got very angry here's the most important question to ask yourself.
Speaker 2:
Are you team, mimi or?
Speaker 1:
team. Jonathan, the obvious answer.
Speaker 2:
Not sip sip. Thanks for watching, thanks for listening, guys, you didn't even sip the coffee. Thank you, jonathan Howard.