It’s Okay to Fail Forward & Start Over

The last two weeks have been eye opening for me as an entrepreneur and human being.

If you follow my personal Instagram account (@alessiacitro__), you’ve probably seen my Reels this week sharing the flop that was the Business Foundations Mastermind launch. If you haven’t seen them – here’s the gist: I didn’t listen to my prospective customers and got handed a piping hot plate of humble pie with only one paid enrollment.

Months ago, I surveyed potential customers and was told loud and clear that they wanted to buy courses a la carte by module and did not want to buy the course in full. Shortly thereafter, a coach who wasn’t intimately involved in my business told me that I must sell the course in full. I listened to her instead of my customers. My failed launch certainly bears no reflection on her. She is extremely successful and has taught me a lot. But it is a reflection on me, and how ignoring my audience’s feedback and my own instincts taught me a huge lesson.


A couple other lessons I’ve learned as I’ve reflected on Theia’s flop of a launch:

You really do need to niche down. This lessons in Business Foundations course can help pretty much any type of business, as the principles apply broadly. But that’s also the problem. Because I am speaking to all businesses, I’ve ended up speaking to no one. I’m working on a more targeted approach.

Adding to the above lesson, I didn’t offer a solution to a clear problem, and also never made a clear promise. Providing new entrepreneurs with a blueprint to help them succeed is nice, but it doesn’t offer a clear solution or clear outcome. I’m working on quantifying exactly what you’ll get by being part of this.


I still believe fully in the potential of this business and the impact it can have, but I’m going back to the drawing board. And although it’s uncomfortable AF for an overachiever like me, I’m sharing my losses and lessons along the way. Up until this point, I had inadvertently given the impression that things were rosy as can be, and that helps no one – and certainly not the new female entrepreneurs that I’m looking to serve.

So, here’s to failing forward and learning (expensive) lessons, and sharing them along the way. If this resonates, drop a comment. I’d love to hear from you and learn what challenges you’re facing at present or in the past. It takes a level of bravery to publicly admit our losses, but it’s liberating and there’s a lot of camaraderie in sharing like this.

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