Honest Stories About Emotional Site Launches (These Really Happened).
I had a first, two firsts in fact, in the summer of 2022. Two different clients cried during a Launch In A Day website session.
The first one cried out of overwhelm and dissatisfaction and the second one cried out of joy (I’m not kidding).
I’ll start with the first one.
In the course of our session I could tell from the beginning that maybe we weren’t a fit. I’ve done 30+ of these Launch in a Days and about 3 haven’t gone well.
This was the third one. I thought ‘uh oh’ about 90 minutes into the session.
We were crossing wires on everything.
I couldn’t lock onto her design vibe (I can usually do this really fast). I didn’t understand what she wanted me to do (there were some language issues going on).
She wanted things were either technically not possible, extremely difficult or would create problems when she created the site in a second language (which she was planning to do). It took time out of our session to explain all of these things.
By the time we got on a video chat she was clearly very, very unhappy, which I acknowledged. She told me she wasn’t satisfied with the site at all.
This is pretty much my worst nightmare. I offered her a full refund on the spot.
This is when she broke down in tears.
“I can’t do this again” she said.
That’s when I understood how fraught this process was for her. She was presenting her business, and therefore herself into the world.
She didn’t need a refund. She needed this project to be done and she needed to feel GOOD about it.
The thought of starting over with someone else was too much to bear.
Even if I wanted to, I couldn’t just throw the money back at her and wash my hands of the whole thing with a clear conscience.
I took a deep breath and a few moments to feel into what felt fair.
I had done a lot of work in good faith, I didn’t want to do anymore (that I knew would be stressful and difficult) for free. Yet, I couldn’t leave her hanging.
I offered her a far less expensive follow up half-day session (only available to existing clients) at 50% off. She was okay with this. We agreed on a day the following week and took the weekend to recover.
I’m happy to report we pulled it out of the ditch.
Since then she’s sent me messages letting me know she’s gotten good feedback and that she’s very happy with the site.
MORE POSTS YOU MAY ENJOY
Client crying story #2
This one is shorter. A couple of weeks later I was walking a client through the new homepage design.
She had already had some brand work done, but wasn’t attached to it.
I showed her a version that adhered tightly to her existing brand guidelines and another one I created that I felt aligned more to her mood board and brand attributes pre-work.
We worked together to find some photography that felt really right. It was a productive and satisfying session.
On a video call she tilted her head down and pinched her eyes.
“I’m just crying with joy” she told me.
I laughed thinking she was kidding. Then I realized she really WAS crying. “Oh you’re really crying!” I said, surprised and apologetic.
She explained that she’d experienced some personal setbacks in the last year and she really needed this website project to go well.
She had a mediocre experience working with her previous brand designer. She was worried that that the web project would be more of the same.
She was hugely relieved when she got confirmation that wasn’t going to be the case.
These two experiences reminded me what an emotional process launching a website can be. Because it’s not ‘just a website’.
If you’re a solo business owner, your website is ‘you’.
It’s the face of your business you show to the world. You’re putting yourself ‘out there’ and your business outsides needs to match your business insides.
If you’re ready to show your business face to the world (hopefully without tears!), check out all of my website design and launch offers.