Welcome to Female Owned, the podcast for small business without the hustle, without the hacks, without the overwhelm. My name is Astrid Bracke and I’m a small business mentor working with small business owners, freelancers and creatives just like you to create slower, gentler and more profitable businesses.

I wasn’t planning to launch my gentle marketing programme Grow again in 2025.

But when I wrapped up the final call of the programme in July, I immediately knew: this programme is special. It attracts such amazing people—and I wanted to run it again, sooner.

In today’s episode, I’ll walk you through the autumn 2025 launch of Grow: what I did, how I planned it and how I look back on it.

I used to be terrified of launching — the visibility, the pressure to “do it right,” the worry about whether anyone would buy. It kept me from launching for years.

I’ve become more confident in recent years, but one hurdle remains: deciding when to launch. I’ve had so many conversations with business buddies about this that I must sound like a broken record.

And I know I’m not alone. My clients often tell me they already feel behind — that they missed the “right” time to launch. They’ve heard all the advice about certain seasons:
“From late November on, no one buys unless you sell products.”
“No one buys in summer.”

And I have this voice inside my head too.

I remember sitting down with my calendar and realising that every date overlapped with holidays somewhere — school vacations, family time, my own time off.

That happened again this time. I liked the idea of an autumn launch for Grow, but because it’s a four-month programme, it would run through December — the holiday season and my own time off. Should I go earlier or later?

What I ended up doing is what I always recommend to my clients: start with what works for you.

So for Grow, that means four months starting November 1st, with a December break. That structure feels spacious for me, and I hope it feels the same for the participants.

I settled on this timeline back in July, before I signed off for summer. Once the dates felt right, I mapped out the launch.

• Around a month of pre-launch — sharing my marketing philosophy, introducing the programme, and inviting people onto the waitlist.
• 72-hour waitlist-only access with a 10 percent discount.
• Two and a half weeks of public launch.

I like this structure. It allows me to send about two emails a week (three in the final week), and it gives people enough time to get familiar with the programme and decide whether it’s right for them.

To prepare, I emailed everyone already on the waitlist to announce Grow’s return.
I reached out to business buddies about guest posts, researched podcasting, planned this season, asked my VA to create new Pinterest pins for my marketing hurdles quiz, and blocked out weekly time for Grow starting in early September.

In September, I reviewed my spring launch emails and decided which ones to repurpose and which to rewrite. I wanted a mix of “feeling-seen” mindset emails and practical ones — together they show the full range of Grow.

I shared snippets of the modules, hosted free office hours as a taster, and repurposed some newsletters — shorter this time, since my new goal is to stay within 800–900 words.

I’m recording this the week after the launch ended, and I’m feeling good about it. Of course, the number of sales matters. But equally important to me is how the launch felt.

I feel proud of the newsletters I sent, both to the waitlist and to my general list. Even though it’s always a bit scary to take up more space during a launch, those emails felt aligned with my values and gave a clear sense of the programme.

Every time I launch, I imagine I’ll have all the emails written and scheduled ahead of time — and I never do. I do start early and give myself buffer space, only just before the pre-launch started felt a bit of a crunch.

This podcast is part of how I scale up my marketing — not part of my usual core ecosystem, as I explained in episode 3. I’ve enjoyed making this season much more than my first podcast experiment two years ago. I also love allowing myself to record short episodes: as a listener, I appreciate them, and they’re easier to edit. But I’m ready to wrap up this season and return to my core marketing for a while.

There were slightly fewer sign-ups for Grow this time than in spring. And yes, during the final week — when a third of sales came in — I was nervous. But the final number feels good. I’ve already spoken to a few participants and read others’ onboarding forms, and once again it’s a lovely group of female small-business owners.

For next time, I might rethink the 1:1 bonus I’ve offered to the first five sign-ups. I’m not sure how much of an incentive it really is, or whether it encourages earlier decisions. I enjoy those calls and know they’re valuable — but I’ll mull it over.

And that’s it — for the Grow launch and for this season of Female Owned: the Podcast for Small Business Without the Hustle.

I hope these episodes have felt inspiring and empowering. I’m planning to be back with another season in 2026 — and if you have topic ideas, I’d love to hear them.

If you’re craving a slower, gentler and more profitable business, I’d love to support you — through Grow or through 1:1 mentoring. You’ll find all the links in the show notes.

Speak to you soon!