It’s Not Happening Quickly.

The Pink Gorilla Collective is going really well. Slower than I hoped, if I’m being completely honest, but it is going well. We’ve got five-star reviews, actual success stories and members making proper progress. Not pretend success stories written to make a launch look good. Real people getting real results. I’m so bloody proud of it.

This is probably the longest I’ve ever taken to build a business. Normally I have an idea at breakfast, buy a domain name by lunchtime and somehow own another business before dinner. This time, I was adamant that it had to be tested properly. I didn’t want to spend thousands making it look successful before I knew whether it actually worked.

So we tested it. We listened. We changed things and watched what people genuinely needed. Only now is the proper grown-up branding about to launch, which I’m mega excited about because I’ve been limping along with a Canva template for what feels like 700 years. But underneath the shiny new branding will be something that has already been tested, used and loved. Something with proper foundations. If Steph and I had done the branding at the beginning it would have been a totally different beast, but as it is now it’s super fucking cool. I’m buzzing to launch it. We have a photoshoot booked 13th September to add a few more touches so shorty after that you’ll get to see it.

Slow growth can really mess with your head though. We’re constantly shown businesses launching with thousands of customers, sold out offers and six figure months before most of us have even found a clean mug. It makes steady progress feel like failure. But slower doesn’t mean failing. Sometimes it means you’re listening. Sometimes it means you’re getting it right. Sometimes it means you’re building something that will still be here once the excitement of the launch has worn off.

The Collective has also made everything else going on in my life feel slightly easier to cope with. It has given me something positive to hold onto and reminded me that even when life feels unsettled, I can still build something good. I don’t need to have every part of my life sorted before I’m allowed to move forward. Perhaps that’s what starting again really is. Not waiting for life to become neat and comfortable, but finding the bits that are working and building from there.

Thanks to the people who donated to my GoFundMe, I’m also about to put on my first free business workshop in Bristol 1st October. I’ll be travelling down by train and turning up with everything I need to help people take their ideas seriously and work out how to begin. When I eventually have the wellness taVAN, I’ll be able to travel further, reach more communities and offer trips away from the noise, giving people space to think, breathe and work on what they want next. But I don’t need to wait for all of that before I start doing the work.

So no, none of it is happening as quickly as I imagined. The Pink Gorilla Collective is still young, the proper branding isn’t quite here and my life is definitely not tied up with a tasteful little bow. But the reviews are coming in. People are getting results. Bristol is happening. The ideas are moving. Maybe this is what proper grown-up success actually looks like. Not pretending everything is finished, but being proud enough of what is working to keep going while you build the rest.

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