The Everyday Entrepreneur Podcast
#8: How One Corporate Belief Could Hinder Your Success As An Entrepreneur (and what to do instead!)
Episode 8
Episode Summary:
Welcome to my very FIRST solo podcast episode!
If you’ve been sitting on an idea for a long time but you just don’t feel ready to put it out there, this episode is for YOU! There’s a good reason behind procrastination that has absolutely nothing to do with you being lazy or not excelling at execution.
If you’ve spent YEARS in Corporate America, I strongly believe something else is at play when it comes to why you aren’t taking action. Something that has nothing to do with you… so relax and go easy on yourself a bit!
Once you’re aware of this one thing it can be the difference between making your dreams a reality or doing the same ‘ol, same ‘ol.
Ready to put your dreams into motion?
You Don’t Want to Miss…
01:34 – The importance of changing your beliefs
02:17 – What Corporate America teaches us that doesn’t set us up for success in entrepreneurship
07:24 – News flash: Life altering change time!
10:45 – My continued struggle in this area, and tools I use to combat it
13:02 – How to implement the tools in your life
Grab your freebies:
Solidify your business idea - Free Business Action Guide
Simplify your life - FREE Checklist of 7 Tools to Save Time and Reduce Overwhelm
(NEW!) Episode Transcript:
Hi friends, Holly here today, I am excited to talk to you heart to heart, one-on-one!
Today’s podcast is about something that's very near and dear to me. I’m talking about the idea of taking imperfect action, a key critical mindset shift that every business owner needs to adapt as they transition out of Corporate America and into having their own business.
Why do I think this is important?
Taking imperfect action is imperative for your growth, your business' growth, and for you to continue standing out among the sea of many other people who are out there also trying to make it work and trying to make their business take off. So I'm going to go a little deeper into the why and the hows around embracing the idea of imperfect action.
But first let’s cover why imperfection action is hard, why it’s such a big transition, especially for people who have spent years working in Corporate America.
Okay. So I'll begin with my own journey in and how I was conditioned to think that imperfect action is the arch rival of success.
Throughout my career, I was always rewarded when things went well, when things went nearly perfect, when I pulled something off flawlessly and made it work, and showed little to no struggle. Gold star for magically making everything just come together and it be just, oh, so perfect. Mistake free.
When this happened, it reflected in my annual review, sometimes resulted in a promotion, a raise, and some kind of a score, like “exceeds expectations”.
Now, let me tell you why this system is flawed when it comes to building your own business.
This form of working is deeply flawed because it sucks the creativity and imagination right out of an individual. It puts immense pressure onto somebody to perform, and to get it right the first time, which, if you think about it, this striving for perfection (sometimes cloaked in “excellence”) takes the entire human element out of being human.
And if we can't be human, what are we?
Robots?
My experience in Corporate America is that robots or robotic-like thinking is favored because when people make mistakes in this environment, they're costly. There's so much shame around having to go to our boss and admit that we didn't get something right. That we got it wrong. That we fucked up. (Cover your little ones’ ears. I may drop another F bomb and I apologize in advance).
So there is shame associated with making a mistake in Corporate America. We let other people down, we let our bosses down. We impact people's reputations with our mistakes. Mistakes cost companies thousands of dollars. And so from a very early point in our career, working in corporations, we are conditioned to believe mistakes are bad. And worst case scenario, that we are bad if we make a mistake.
I'll give you an example: I was working on a project and it was going really well. We were on track to meet a timeline and we ran into a few bumps in the road that were starting to impact our timeline and our ability to deliver according to the expectations set with stakeholders.
As the program manager, I made a mistake reporting out status that wasn't quite accurate, that didn't tell quite the right picture in terms of where we were at within delivery. The information I had put together, gave the wrong impression of where we were. This resulted in disappointed stakeholders, in probably a loss of credibility on my end, and overall thousands of dollars lost, because now we needed to invest more time and resources into making up for the mistake.
That one little mistake that I made, miscalculating where we were at in the project, probably hurt my career at that one point in time. I was embarrassed. I was ashamed because I had to go with my tail tucked between my legs to a leader and be like, "Oh, I screwed up. I reported the status incorrectly, etc etc etc.” Having been burned in the past, I was terrified of the repercussions!
And so what I want to convey today is that what got you here won't get you there.
If you're thinking about starting a business, there's one amazing thing that you can let go of, and that is the expectation to be perfect.
You get to let go of anyone’s expectation of being perfect, the expectation of getting it right every single time. Because as a business owner, if you are perfecting, and perfecting, and perfecting, and only putting your work out there when you know it is 100% right, and there's nothing that could possibly go wrong, well, my friend, you're going to be waiting a long time!
Your business will suffer as a result, your business won't grow fast. You won't learn fast and fail forward.
Did I mention you’re in luck?
We in the business owner community support mess-ups, we support screw ups. We support ideas and creative ways of doing things that may or may not work out, that may or may not be proven success methods.
We support you going ahead and doing it anyway, and taking the imperfect action. You don't have to get it right every time.
I'll give you another example.
As an entrepreneur, as a business owner now, I still struggle with taking imperfect action and making mistakes.
I'm still sometimes think, "Oh, but it has to be just right before I put <creative project> out there." Or, "I need to tweak it just a little bit more because what will people think if it's not right? Or if it's not perfect? Or if I see a word that rubs someone the wrong way, I better just think this through a little bit more," because that's what I would've done in Corporate America.
Being our own bosses, we get to choose. We get to choose how we run our own business, we get to choose what we say, what we do, and how we approach putting our strengths, whatever they are, into the world.
When I first started writing a blog, I hired somebody to proofread it and edit it, because I was not confident in my writing abilities. The thought of putting out a page worth of my thoughts and ideas on the web for everyone to see (probably all 10 people at the time) was terrifying.
And so I hired this woman and she edited it and she made it what I wanted it to be, and I hired her because I wanted this blog post to be perfect. I wanted to get the A, rather, the A+, on this blog post.
But who's judging, right?
Because of this engrained mindset I’d built up from my corporate jobs, I spent money, unnecessary time, and I delayed launching this first blog post because I had to get it just.perfect.
Since then, the more blogs I launched, the more comfortable I became and the less I cared about them being perfect or rubbing everyone right way. And the less I cared about pleasing everybody.
Since, I've launched many imperfect things. Many. I recently launched a video on Instagram Stories and the sound wasn't on. And there I was, a talking head without sound. A friend pinged me and was like, "Oh no, your sound isn't working on your Instagram story." Three years ago, I would have been like, "Oh no. Now I have to go delete everything and have to start over. And I have to rerecord it because it has to be done just right.”
I have become more comfortable with taking imperfect action and I just laughed, and thought, "Oh, well, messy action. My sound isn't working on my Instagram story, not a big deal."
I've also received countless well-intended feedback pointing out blog post misspellings. And yet I think, "Who freaking cares? I launched the blog post!"
And, yes, it’s important to produce high quality products and high value information, but worrying about a word or two spelled wrong, friend, do not let that be the make or break point of you getting your creative work out into the world.
So I hope this all makes sense when it comes to taking imperfect action. Just to tie things up into a nice little bow, because that's still the slightly, a little perfectionist in me from Corporate America; always on top of recapping meetings, and giving action items.
Corporate America teaches us and rewards us for being nearly perfect. Corporate America rewards robotic-like behavior because mistakes are very costly in multiple different ways. And that works for corporate America. It doesn't work for being an entrepreneur.
What DOES work when it comes to creating your business, is putting your art into the world, and putting yourself into the world.
Imperfect action.
Heck, taking most any action is what is going to drive you forward.
Rather than getting tied down with perfecting every single detail before you launch something, allow yourself to be playful, to have fun with it.
And you know what, if a word is spelled wrong or your video is on mute when it shouldn't be, that is okay, because the thing to be celebrated is the fact that you put something out there.
I clap you up and I will clap you up every time you take imperfect action. Because when you put your art, business, and thoughts out there, you're putting yourself out there, and you're being vulnerable.
Not easy.
And so for that, congratulate yourself, reflect and celebrate yourself for being super brave, for being courageous.
You don't have to get it right. You don't have to get it perfect. You just have to take imperfect action, and that will get you progress.
So with that, friends, I hope that this podcast today inspires you to take imperfect action.
Heck, I hope this podcast inspires you to take any action.
You're here to help people, and procrastinating and waiting for something to be perfect is keeping your talents and strengths from helping somebody else. So here's to helping people, here's to bringing your strengths into the world, here’s to being vulnerable, and a courageous business owner.
And on that note, as you are thinking about starting a business, and you want to solidify your idea, I have a framework of six easy steps in my Business Action Guide that you can download for free at hollyknoll.com/free. Grab my free Business Action Guide there.
I have also created a checklist with my favorite tools that will help you get your business up and running quickly, without having to research every single tool on the market. I've done the heavy lifting for you.
Two freebies for you right now, your Business Action Guide and the Seven Tools Checklist. Both are available on hollyknoll.com.
So thank you for being here today. This is my first solo podcast episode, and I hope you enjoyed it. I’ll definitely plan on adding more of these into the mix as well.
I'll close by saying, I was really nervous to come on here today, and to be out here on my own. I got caught up in thinking, “I have to know exactly what I want to say. This has to go right. I can’t mess this up."
And I just kept thinking, and thinking, and thinking about how I can make this episode, just dare I say, perfect.
Until I finally let go of it and turned to preparation instead.
Preparation helped me be ready, but it also let me off the hook of making this perfect. I created an outline, I prepared. I pressed record.
Imperfect action partners beautifully with preparation. So prepare, take your imperfect action, and let me know how it goes.
What imperfect action will you take today?
Thank you so much friend, and I will see you next time on the Everyday Entrepreneur Podcast.
Chat With Me and More Free Resources At:
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Email me – holly@hollyknoll.com