Tiffany Han: Hey, Hey, Hey, welcome to The Tiffany Han Show, a podcast that teaches highly ambitious people how to have lives that feel as good on the inside as they look on the outside.

If you are ready to dive into discovering Delight in your life, starting today, be sure to check out my free five-day Radical Delight kickstart over at tiffanyhan.com. And, while you're there; you can also find extended episode archives, show notes, and more. Thanks for being here. Now, onto the show.

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Tiffany Han: Hey, hey, everyone. Welcome back. Today, I am giving you a Year of No update and answering the question; has being off social media since December 31st, 2021 completely destroyed my business? One of the reasons that I'm doing my Year of No experiment and deliberately taking a year off of social media is to really find out, do I need it?

Do I need to be on social media; active on, for me, it was Instagram, which took up a lot of my time and even more of my mental energy? Do I need to be active there in order to be successful in my business?

And, if you've been following along, you know that the end of June was my first test of this because it was the first time that I was actively selling something as I went into the early-bird period for my Grown-Up Gap Year program. Now, Grown-Up Gap Year doesn't start until October 1st.

So, if you're just now hearing about it and you're like, ‘Grown-Up Gap Year, that sounds amazing. I want in on that.’ Yeah, it is amazing, and you do want in on it. You can click the link in the show notes to get on the waitlist for that. This was just an early-bird period that I like to do mid-summer in order to let some people in, if they know that they want to come in. Okay.

The big reveal drum roll, please, number #1; no, being off of social media has not destroyed my business. Now, I have some thoughts on this. I have some thoughts on if I were to get back on social media, how I would use it, and some ideas about how social media could be really helpful for my business, but I just wanted to start with; no, I have still sold spots in my program, people are still showing up.

And, that was-- I think the most gratifying part of the launch was that I still have a business. Now, did I actually think that I did not have a business? No, but part of the way that I walked into this launch cycle was with full curiosity and no expectations because with no expectations, there is no disappointment, right?

With full curiosity, whatever happened would be interesting and eye-opening and thought-provoking. Instead of me approaching the launch with, ‘Here are my goals, and here's how I want to do things, and here's what I need to happen,’ and then not hitting that and feeling like I've failed. I think goals can be great.

I'm not going to say all goals are great. I'm not going to say not having goals is great. Both can be true. I think goals can be great. What I know about people like us is that we often set really, really ambitious goals for ourselves, and then get extremely disappointed when we don't hit those goals right away.

And, that extreme disappointment can often trickle down into other things that show up, other results we might get that are awesome on their own, but that feel subpar when compared to the goals that we originally set, which remember, are highly ambitious. Let's stop doing that.

And so, with this launch, I really wanted to play with the energy of everything. I really wanted to see; can I show up for a launch cycle, for a sales cycle - for something that can be vulnerable, that can be full of unknowns - that can be really like, ‘I hope people like it,’ right? There's this anticipatory hope and desire.
And, what I also know about launching and selling anything is it always takes longer than you think. A lot of stuff shows up right at the last minute, which is honestly how I do things too as a consumer; I like giving people the time and space to make the decision that they need to make.

And also, I want everything done right away, in the very beginning, immediately. Like as soon as the doors open, I want it to sell out that day, and then I want to be done. And energetically, the way that I've shown up before is when that doesn't happen, I know that I shouldn't feel disappointed or upset, but it still feels like a little bit of a let-down.

Along those lines, I'm also very happy to report that energetically, the launch felt good. I had as much fun on the last day of the launch as I did on the first day of the launch, I kept my energy really high. That's not saying that everything worked beautifully or went perfectly.

There are some things that I would love to change. I'm going to tell you about that too, but there was a whole lot that worked. So, what we're going to get into this week for my Year of No update is I want to share my launch results, my early-bird launch results with you.

I'm going to share what worked, what didn't work, why I think that there some theories I have about why there are some discrepancies between last year and this year. And then, I also want to share what's next for me in my Year of No. I have a really fun opportunity coming up to experiment, try some new things to live in a different way for about a week. I'll explain all of that too.

And, I'm going to share that too with you of what's coming up in my Year of No. And also, I want to share why I think I might be preemptively anticipating getting back on social media; some tricky, tricky things my brain has been doing lately, and what you might want to take away from that too. So, to start; launch results, let's have the official launch results.

Last year for my Grown-Up Gap Year early-bird launch, during the early-bird period, 45 people registered. The program capacity is a 100 people, so that's 45%. Great. That felt great. And, as I mentioned before, in my previous episode about this, during that launch period, during the time - the time leading up to it, the actual time of the launch - I was exhausted. It felt really sloggy.

It felt like just a lot, a lot, a lot, a lot of work - a lot of like little minutia things that they did not jive with how my brain best works. My theory on business is that, especially for someone like me, where my business is myself, right? I am my business.

I have awesome people that I work with, that help me part-time; but really like, it's not like I'm CEO of a company and we're making sneakers. This business is me. And, my energy is really essential in showing up and being the face, the voice, the ideas of the brand.

So, my theory for business has always been that when my energy is aligned, everything grows. When my energy is high, everything grows. When my energy starts to get low things, don't go as well. I still stand by that theory, even though I had fewer people register this summer than last summer during the early-bird period.
And again, I'm going to share with you some of the reasons why. So, last year, I had 45 people register during the early-bird period. This year, I had 31. Well, that feels very different, right? That's like a 33% decrease. We could look at that and be like, ‘Well, it went down. You didn't do as well.

Obviously, you need to be back on social media, the other way worked better. You've really screwed up, Tiffany.’ [laughs] Yeah, I could tell myself that. And, I actually don't think that would be helpful.

I hope that you can hear in me saying that, that like, if you talk to yourself like that, also not the most helpful, right? Not the most constructive; and honestly, not the most nuanced way to look at things, right? If we only look at baseline results, it's very easy to say, “Last year, better than this year. Therefore, go back and do everything you were doing last year.”

But y'all have heard me say time and time again, that my mental health is in a significantly better place this year than it was last year. And, if my mental health being in a significantly better place means that I have to have lower registration for my program, okay.

I am willing to make that trade because I know that with my mental health sustainably being in a better place, again, y'all, deep roots, everything grows. And, this is that idea that you've heard me talk about before with this slingshot effect that it might look like I'm taking a cut, right?

But I'm actually pulling back in order to gain more momentum instead of like; just keep doing what we're doing and feeling like it's more, sloggy more, sloggy more sloggy, because then nobody wins. That's no fun for anyone. I promise you don't want to listen to a podcast hosted by someone who feels like they're moving through a slog, promise.

So, what were some of the reasons that I think the registration was lower this year than last year? A whole bunch of reasons. Number #1; last year, the early-bird period happened later in the summer. It happened over a month later.

I actually do think that that has something to do with it because I'll tell you right now, I'm recording this on Friday, July 15th, October 1st feels very far away, very far away. Last year, early-bird registration happened July 23rd through August 4th. So, not only was it over a month later than it was this year, but it was also a longer period.

So, it was nearly two full weeks. This year I had things open for about six days. I was actually going to keep them open for an even shorter amount of time, and I changed my mind on Day 2 because everything felt like too constricted. So, later in the year, longer period-- Now, again, y'all, does this mean that I should always have my early-bird later in the year, and open for longer?

Honestly, I don't think it does, but I do think that it's possible that some people who maybe needed a little bit more persuading, that it was easier for them to say ‘Yes’ last summer than it was this summer. Next, how many people I was selling to. So, last summer for the early-bird period, I was selling to 157 people who were on the Grown-Up Gap Year waitlist. I also had 365 people on my Raise Your Hand Say Yes Inner Circle waitlist.

So, if you recall, up until last year, I had taught a year-long program called the Raise Your Hand Say Yes Inner Circle. I taught it for five years. I taught six rounds of it. And, that was really for those five years, the way to work with me and especially the way to work with me long-term.

So, there were 365 people on that waitlist who had not yet signed up to work with me for a year, who for at least some of them, it was highly likely that they still wanted to spend a year with me; 522 people, let's keep that in mind. This year I had 273 people on the Grown-Up Gap Year waitlist.

But 33 of those had joined last year. So, I actually was only really selling to 240 people. Yeah, that's like less than half. Okay, that makes sense. So, does it stand to say that based on statistics, if I had twice as many people on that waitlist that I would've brought in twice as many new people? Probably, right?

Like the statistics, probably, but half the number of people, short amount of time earlier in the year; now, it's starting to make sense. The other thing that happened with timing is, everybody knows this happened, the Friday of my early-bird period was when the Supreme Court, here in the United States, delivered their decision, which overturned Roe v. Wade.

And, like, half the states in our country immediately outlawed abortion. That was not a good day for so many of us. Being in business for yourself, there are ways that people say, “Just keep going, just keep going. It's a business, it's a business. It doesn't matter what's happening in the world.”

At the same time, as a woman, as a citizen, as a community member, as somebody who cares about human rights and justice and healthcare, I mean, I could not separate myself from it. And so, it also felt really hard and almost laughable to try to be getting people's attention and be like, “Don't you want to take a Grown-Up Gap Year in October?”

Because it was like Grown-Up Gap Year early-bird launch was so unurgent. Now, I also decided, because my early-bird period was ending, I think Monday, Monday or Tuesday, the following week, I decided to not extend it further; that I was going to keep going, that I can reference like things being what they are right now.
This work is still important, but it didn't feel like I could really just bang that drum so hard because I know that all of us were dealing with very limited attention span and focus.

I still feel really good about that decision that I made. Okay. Also, last summer, leading up to the early-bird launch, I had five podcast episodes that I had recorded that were really specifically addressing; the people that would do well in Grown-Up Gap Year - the people like what they were hungry for, what they had tried, what they were telling themselves about how they wanted to feel.

So, it was very systematically designed. This year, I did not. I mentioned the early-bird - yes, that's great. I still feel fine about that because the way that I'm treating the early-bird launch is it's more for people who don't need that big cell. They are really a big Yes, and they just want to get in and get their spot locked in.
Now, one number that I feel like is really interesting is that last year during the early-bird period, 30% of the people who were in my Inner Circle ended up joining Grown-Up Gap Year.

This year, 30% of the people who were in Grown-Up Gap Year ended up signing on for another year. Guess what? Those numbers are identical. But I had more people in the Inner Circle last year than I currently have in Grown-Up Gap Year. So, while it's 30% for both, it's actually fewer people who signed on for the second year.

And, that makes up most of that difference. It's about 10 people. So, if those numbers had been identical, then we would've been looking at 45 versus 41; almost the same, right, right, right? Yes. So, that's the data, right? 45 people last year, 31 this year; still feel great about it.

Here is a list of all the things that worked, right? Let's start with what worked. What worked, number #1, ditching the sales page, going with a magazine-style layout instead; totally worked. At least for me, I loved it. I loved working on it. I loved making it. It felt like something that I was able to immerse myself in the process.

I am not good at immersing myself in like editing and tweaking, but something about the way that this was laid out and that it wasn't this massively long scroll, that it was just like some of the information at a time. And, the way like page by page; really, really worked for me. I got awesome feedback on it.

I was able to cut the word count from last year's sales page to what I presented in the magazine this year by half. So, we got rid of half of those words, which felt awesome. Didn't quite work as well as I had hoped in terms of the magazine was that it was still pretty long. There was still just a lot that needed to be said.
And, I'll tell, y'all, after I went through all my edits and my final edit, then I even went back through and cut like three pages. I was like, ‘I need to be ruthless here. And, I'm asking people to make a commitment, to make an investment; to make a commitment of time of money of energy, spending time with me.’

And, it actually is important that I don't sacrifice any of the information that they might need to help them make that commitment. So, it was longer than I wanted it to be. I still stand by it though, right?
That was a deliberate decision.

And, my goal in presenting it like the magazine was that it was presented in a way that made you want to like read the next page, read the next page, read the next page, read the next page. And then, by the time you know it, you're at the end; and you're like, ‘Oh my God, that totally was me.

I need to apply for this.’ I've been simmering on some ideas, y'all, for the launch that happens in September for when doors open officially - with, is there a way to present something that feels a little bit more interactive for people? I don't know yet, but I'm noodling; and I'm open to ideas, and I'm open to the inspiration of what comes. So, what else worked?

What else worked for me was really following my energy in terms of; the emails that I sent, the way that I presented the information, giving myself permission to not have everything mapped out and written in advance, letting myself like write the emails the day before; that worked really, really well.

The other thing that worked was that I presented like a mini teaching to all the people who were on the waitlist. And then, I also invited the current Grown-Up Gap Year people to join that too, and that mini teaching was all about Radical Peace. That was awesome, and I loved it.

I did hear from one person on feedback where they said, “I knew that the program wasn't right for me. And so, I didn't join in the lesson because I didn't want to be tempted.” And, I will say, for that person, if you're listening to this podcast, please go back and have a listen. I did not do a hard sell on it.

And, what I was teaching in the Radical Peace mini teaching is something that you could implement into your day, today, starting now, that will make a tremendous difference in your life without you having to buy, or do, or take on more and more and more.

Now, if you're intrigued by that, if you're like, ‘But I want to do that too,’ I am going to work on releasing like a, making it into a thing that I can share with you so that you can also have that experience because if I have a key that is free and easy to implement, a key to radical peace, I have to share that with you.

So, stay tuned for that. That's one of the things that I want to try and experiment with between now and then. So, when I did that Radical Peace mini lesson, I really, really wanted to be able to show up the way that I show up to Grown-Up Gap Year teachings, without having to do the big sell and the big push.

And, I did that, and that felt awesome and I loved it. What didn't work? Should we talk about what didn't work? Here's how it didn't work. I am Tiffany Han, and I am bad at time management. oh, y'all, there was just--

It was things were ill-planned in a few different places, where when the launch started – remember; I'm writing all of the emails as we go, I'm keeping space opened or apply to applications to make the videos, all of that.

And, like, for that five-day period of the launch, I had two or three days that were fully booked with calls, [laughs] too much. And, we decided that was a good week; we, I did - this was all me. I decided that was also a good week to have these shelves that I had built for my office installed, which meant that we also had to clean out my whole office, move everything down into our basement so that I could work.

So, like everything was super chaotic and up in the air - not going to do that again. Here's how I'm going to proceed later is that I yesterday sat down in anticipation of being accountable to y'all on this episode of the podcast.

I sat down and blocked my entire calendar for September so that I can keep this space open, because what I realized is that in having all of those calls and all of this work to do and wanting to be open to applications and making the mini lesson and deciding the afternoon of the mini lesson that I want to create a mini podcast with it and all this stuff, which I'm so glad I did, I actually didn't have huge chunks of time to respond to applications.

And, there weren't, right, I wasn't like being inundated with 25 applications a day - I welcome that universe, hear me out, I welcome that. But if I had been, I would've been a mess; it would've been too much. So, let me repeat that, right? If I had been inundated with 25 applications a day, that thing – remember, at the beginning, where I'm like, ‘I want everyone to come in at the very beginning.’

So, let's say that I had sent out the early-bird to that 240 people - and 100 applications came in within the first hour, y'all, I was in no way, shape, or form available to receive that. That would've been-- It would've been-- It would've been a look, is all I'm saying. So, I think sometimes the universe is like, ‘I'm giving you what you can handle, Tiffany, because you can't handle all of that.’

So, in September, I'm going to be prepared for the floodgates to open; I'll have backup plans, right? I'll have some books or something just in case things don't go. I don't want to just spend like nine hours looking at my inbox. That doesn't feel fun either, but this is really about designing the space to allow for that to come in.
There were a couple late nights, I'll admit. There was a night that I stayed up until like midnight working on some stuff, which again, y'all, not the way that I do things. My bedtime is 9:30. I do not like staying up until midnight working, and it needed to get done. And, even though I was working until midnight, I was fine with it. So, it did not bring my energy down, at all. I was tired; and I was like, ‘I shouldn't do this again.’

And, I was like, ‘this is so fun, I'm still glad that I'm doing it.’ So, in that respect, complete and total whelm. So, now, you might be wondering, what's next with Grown-Up Gap Year sales period? Yeah. So, I am taking a little bit of a breather.

And, I have got some really fun things planned for September, which I'm going to start sharing with you soon - since I'm doing my episodes now every other week instead of every week. But I do have something really fun planned for September, and then regular applications are going to open mid-September.
So again, even if you know that Grown-Up Gap Year is something that you're like, ‘I'm intrigued,’ then click on the link in the show notes to get on that early-bird list because everyone on the early-bird list will still get first dibs on regular applications, right?

31% of the spots are taken. And so, still hoping to get to 100. We'll see though, we will see; still hoping for that. That would be awesome. And, all the fun is coming in September. So, that leads us into what I'm doing next with my Year of No, and this weakish long opportunity that I've been given - that I previewed there in the beginning.

So, we had a camping trip planned for the end of this week and into next week. And so, I had blocked like 10 days on my calendar because, you know, camping, there's all the prep work; I'm in charge of the food, and then all the work when you get home, and then catching up, and all of that.

So, we actually decided though, a few days ago, after looking at the weather to cancel our camping trip, to release the reservations that we had because of a heatwave that is coming. I feel like all summer has been a heatwave, but the highs where we are planning on camping were going to be like 107 every day.

Tim and I talked and just said, “Well, that sounds miserable. So, let's not go camping.” So, all of a sudden, I am home during that time, but I have the time blocked. Now, do y'all remember before when I said, I'm not very good at time management and I'm not great at planning things in advance? That is 100% true.

And, as part of my Year of No, I want to experiment with; okay, what if I tried a different way of time management in a different way? Actually, it's not even time management. Let's be clear on that. What if I tried a different way of showing up to things in advance because I've got couple weeks now, and then my August is actually kind of busy; and then, I move into that launch time?

And, remember y'all, for launch, I want to keep my calendar and my workload as light as possible during that launch time so that there is this big open space for all of your amazing applications, delusion to me.

Woosh! I was looking over things yesterday and planning things out; and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, I really need to spend this heatwave reprieve that I've been given, working on some stuff for September. Now, y'all again, it's mid-July; so, working on things a month and a half in advance, is not the Tiffany Han way.

Remember I have ADHD. My brain does really well with immediate deadlines, does not do so well with like six to eight weeks away. Do I have to accept that? I say, no, maybe, maybe I do. Maybe I do, but I want to experiment with it and play around with it.

And so, what I've decided to do is this week and a half-ish long experiment to see, what happens when I go all-in on creating the conditions for inspiration and setting up different ways to remind myself, check in with myself, keep the ideas front of mind, simmering – like the front burner simmer?

How much progress will I be able to make on the work that's still a couple months away during this time, but without doing the thing where it's like, ‘No, it's fine. I'm just going to commit and every day do one thing.’ But like for my brain, I don't work well-- Like I don't work well with batching because if I show up to it and the energy's not there, it just doesn't feel good.

I know that some people can do things if it doesn't feel good and they're like, ‘Whatever, you just do the work and who cares,’ but y'all, that is not the Tiffany Han way. And remember if the magic's not there; if my energy's not there, the magic's not there.

So, that's what I'm experimenting with next is it feels like this beautiful week of spirit-tending; this beautiful week of just diving really, really deep into what I'm most curious and excited about - what I'm most curious and excited to tell you and share with you.

Again, full curiosity, no expectations, but just like, let's see what happens, right, full-on experiment mode. And if you're really intrigued by that, that's part of what we do in Grown-Up Gap Year together, get on the wait-list. So, that is what's next for me in Year of No; I'm sticking with my no news, no news scrolling, right?
Although I will say the past few weeks, I have peaked more the normal, but I'm still falling asleep well at night. I've also found myself looking at clothing online, which is very interesting. I went to a concert last week and I almost bought a t-shirt, which has me wondering, ‘Do I actually want to break that part of Year of No? Do I want to buy some clothing?’

And, my really full-bodied answer is like, ‘no, I don't,’ but isn't it interesting to notice when we start slipping back into old habits, when we start slipping back into old patterns, this is why I'm doing my Year of No for a full year. Part of me and my brain and ADHD means that like, when I start to get into the middle of things, the middle of the year, this feels really long.

And, I don't know, and I'm kind of bored of it. And, what is a better cure for boredom than a new Avett Brothers T-Shirt, bought a Red Rocks? And listen, I have no problem with concert t-shirts.

I came real close, real close, and there is no line at the merch table either, but I'm proud of myself for not. And also, y'all, if I bought a t-shirt, I bought a t-shirt; who cares? Right? Who cares?

I can still be in my Year of No, but again, just noticing for me, what triggers me to start looking at things online, and then also noticing how interesting the internet is, where I'll be working on other things, but then the Google ads show up, right, showing me more shirts and more dresses and all of that.

So, I think that I need to spend some time like Googling lumber or something that is not going to distract me from my work and from what I'm doing online. So, that's my next experiment. You know, I will keep you posted with how all of that goes. And now, let's talk about social media, because again, I felt that mid-year slipperiness happening with me, with my news, my clothing.

And, I also, y'all, found myself starting to plan what my return to Instagram would look like, thinking about, how do I want to do it? What is my strategy? Because during the early-bird launch, what I realized was that part of the way social media really, really worked for me is it allowed me to be in casual conversation with people, a different kind of conversation than you get via email.

Because email, even if you're writing quick emails, there still is this aura of formality and definitely a different kind of conversation than I'm in via podcast, because I'm talking to you, but you don't get to talk back.

You can reach out to me via my website, of course; or submit a question, of course; or apply to my newsletter. But all of those require like some steps versus I'm on Instagram, you're on Instagram - we're in a DM conversation that feels easy and quick and fun, and like light, right? There's like this levity to it. That is the thing that I do miss about being on social media.

And that's the place where I could see my business needing that, needing that piece, needing that ability to be in conversation with people. Y'all, at the same time, I also have to ask though, what is my capacity for conversation, right? How many conversations can I hold? How many people can I be in conversation with? And, what happens when we try to be in all of these conversations all the time?

Now, I know people have other people in their DMs, all of that, to me, at this point, that doesn't feel great. Like, if someone thinks they're talking to me, I want them to be talking to me. I don't want to trick people, but really, it's like, how many conversations can I be in?

And, where does my most valuable conversation time need to be spent? Does it need to be spent in Instagram DMs? Does it need to be spent with my students, right, with my paid students, people who are spending a year with me? It needs to be spent with my paid students first, right?

And then, with whatever's left, DMs. So, it's just been really interesting to note how my brain, y'all, even though it's been six months, six and a half months, my brain keeps thinking about Instagram. Like if the hooks are in me deep, Ooh, they're in me deep.

And to me, that is the sign to dig in deeper to my Year of No commitment and to really ask myself, if I do get back on Instagram in January, ‘What are my goals? How am I going to design those boundaries? How am I going to hold those boundaries?’ Because what I do know is I can't go back to trying to do all the things, right?

Create content for my feed, DMs, stories, all the things, checking in, be both business and a person and relatable and authentic, but also legitimate and professional and all the-- Even as I say that, I'm like, oh my God, I'm exhausted. So, that's really, really, really good to know.

There are a couple different ideas that I have that I'm not even noodling on because that feels so far away. I'm just like, there are noodles that I put on the back of my shelf. Right? I'm like those noodles can sit there. They can get dried out.

That's fine. I will be able to look at them in December and figure out how, what I'm going to do. And trust me, y'all are going to hear all about that. Okay. There we go - Year of No July update. If you have questions about the Year of No, please let me know. If you have questions about Grown-Up Gap Year, please let me know.
If there's anything that you're like, ‘Tiffany, I would love to see you experiment with X, Y, Z,’ during my Year of No, please let me know that as well, because I'm also toying with the idea of, do I take a content break? I'm also though toying with the idea of bringing the podcast back weekly. We'll see, who knows? I'm toying with all the ideas; I'm just playing with them. I'm just playing with them.

But if there is something you would love for me to try, please let me know that. Big love to you also, if you want a week of showing up completely differently, if you want to try that for yourself, this is a really good time to do that. If you are really into the Radical Peace mini lesson, let me know, but probably, it's coming soon. You're amazing. Thank you. I'll be back in a couple weeks. Take care.

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Tiffany Han: Thank you for listening. And, if you liked what you heard, please be sure to tell a friend or spread the word about the show. In addition to that, ratings and reviews make a huge difference in helping me get my work into the ears of other people. So, thank you for everybody who has done that. And, thank you for everyone who is about to do that right now. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Also, don't forget about my free five-day Radical Delight kickstart, my private five-day podcast that is designed to help you infuse your days with Delight as quickly and easily as possible. The Tiffany Han Show is a production of Say Yes Creative LLC with editing and sound mixing from Podcast Edition; and post-production and ongoing support from Jaz Zepatos, Her Podcast Club. Thank you again for listening, and I'll see you next week.

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