You have to jump before you can land.

In some ways, every day of our lives is a risk assessment, isn’t it?  

You make dozens of choices everyday and most of the decisions we make are based on the amount of risk involved.  If I do this, then I have to give up that…  If I commit to this, then I may not be able to do that…  If I eat this, I may feel like this…  Risk assessment after risk assessment.  It can be exhausting, no?

I say this because I have taken some major risks recently.  Some calculated, some not.  I decided I was going to release an EP with work that I wrote, helped record, and helped produce, and I decided that I was going to show up in a way publicly that I had never done before… through this very blog you are reading now.  I committed to honesty, truth, authenticity, and sharing what I believe are really important things that I’ve gone through that may be of encouragement and value to others.  It’s been mighty rewarding – so much so, that I’m planning on dedicating a lot of time, even more time than I do now, to content creation for 2019.  

I’ve done all the above while running 2 other businesses.  One that I own, called Steele International, and one that a friend of mine owns in Florida (she was given a huge promotion at a tech company and has needed me to help run her firm during the transition since August).  It’s been a lot.  A risk I miscalculated a bit if I’m honest.

Even though I prepped for this busy season by making sure I had my business team in place, I didn’t account for the changing levels of energy I would have.  I have this bad habit of always assuming my energy is going to be high – which it often is – but not always, and not all day long.

So why am I sharing this with you?  Because it relates to the release of my EP.  I’m currently performing a risk assessment.  I released Mississippi Sinner in prep for a full EP release in late November/early December, but I’m realizing I’m not fully prepared for the marketing portion of this album release.  I wrote the songs, got them recorded, did massive work trade to pay for it, helped produce and edit them, and now… only a few weeks out, I feel like I need more time to market them.

If I know one thing it’s this:  I worked SO hard on these songs, a whole team of us did, and I am SO massively proud and excited to share them with you… but, I don’t want to share them in a way that feels rushed.  I want to share them in a way that feels intentional, purposeful, aligned.

So I guess my question is:  would you care if I pushed the release date of the songs to January?

I realize that asking a question like this to your audience is very unusual, but like I said above, I’m committed to including you in this process.  I want you to see/hear/read that you aren’t alone in the struggles you experience.  You aren’t alone in questioning whether or not you are doing the right thing, the right way, at the right time.  I’m right here in the trenches with you, trying my best to be prepared, but also just figuring it out along the way.

The title of this post is, “You have to jump before you can land.”  It is an adaptation of a lyric from a song I wrote called “If Not Now.”  The actual phrase in the song is, “I don’t need a plan/I’ve gotta jump before I land.”  If you ask anyone that knows me, this lyric is the total opposite of my personality.  I LOVE planning.  In fact, I spent my whole morning work block (notice I use work blocks #plannerPatricia) on planning my daily schedule for 2019!  But the thing I do understand is that:

Doing anything brave requires risk.  You can plan as much as you want, but at some point, you will have to jump.

So my jumping point now is… I’ve done all it takes to create this music and have it ready to market, but now that it is ready to market, what do I do?  

Yes, I have a background in branding and marketing, but I’ve never created a marketing plan for my own music before (my first EP was just distributed and that was that… we had no idea how to market and release anything at that point in time).  I’ve only ever shared stuff on social media.   This fact is a bit daunting, but it’s also incredibly exciting to be embarking on this next lag of my journey.  But that being said, I think I need more time before I release this small body of work in it’s entirety.  I don’t want to disappoint anyone, ever, but at the same time, I feel in my guts that these songs are worthy of the time and energy required to market them.

What do you think?  What would you do if you were me?  What have you done in the past when you were faced with rushing something out or extending the deadline?  I would LOVE to hear from you.  I NEED to hear from you.  This is the part in the blog where I ask for your story.

I’m so grateful you’re here.  ALWAYS.

LIGHT, LOVE, & PEACE,

JACLYN STEELE