034 Starting Before You Are Ready
In this episode, we dive into how starting before you're ready can help push past imposter phenomenon and lead to business growth.
Topics Discussed This Episode:
0:00 – 4:00: Introduction to starting before you're ready and the impact of imposter phenomenon.
4:01 – 8:00: Struggles with procrastination, client prioritisation, and business challenges during 2020.
8:01 – 12:00: Importance of consistent marketing, avoiding shiny object syndrome, and the need for long-term planning.
12:01 – 15:00: Practical steps to focus on process improvements and maintaining consistency in business.
15:01 – 19:00: Wrap up and next steps.
In this episode, we explore the challenges of imposter phenomenon and how it affects small business owners. We also discuss practical tips on overcoming procrastination, prioritising marketing, and focusing on consistent action to build long-term success.
There are very real challenges small business owners face, including procrastination, imposter phenomenon, and the constant balancing act of prioritising clients while neglecting your own business growth. By recognising the fleeting nature of imposter phenomenon, listeners can take heart knowing it won't last forever and that moving outside your comfort zone is key to overcoming it.
One of the main takeaways is the importance of starting before you're fully ready. Whether it’s marketing, process improvements, or simply updating your website, the consistency of small, manageable steps will help you grow your business over time. The call to action for listeners is simple: focus on what’s easy and consistent, and over time, you’ll see results. Start now—no more delays!
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0:06
Today it's so your video confidence coach, connecting your dots between your personal brand and the power of video. I slightly stuffed that intro up, but that is okay. So today we are going to be discussing starting before you are ready.
0:20
And for those who are watching on the live stream and who want to or are watching on the replay, feel free to tag and hashtag replay if you like. And for those who are listening to the podcast version of this, feel free to reach out to us on any of our social medias to say that you listen and enjoy the podcast.
0:40
So ultimately, what I want to talk to you guys today about is
0:46
business is about serving others to the best of your ability. That is something that I hold very true to my heart. And the reason that I start business, the reason that I wanted to start a business, was because I wanted to help and serve people in a way that I had power to that I couldn't when I was an employee of another business.
1:06
And there's also my backstory of starting a business when I was 14, because no one would hire me. And then once I got to a level where people wanted to hire me, they didn't, they wanted to control me. So that is for another time, but focusing on the here and now,
1:23
you want to as a business. You want to serve your others to the best of your ability, but imposter phenomenon can hit you like a ton of bricks.
1:34
And for those who are interested, you probably have heard of imposter syndrome a lot. Syndrome is Pro is not the right terminology, because it is a permanent state of being where an imposter phenomenon comes and goes. It is very fleeting. And for those of us who feel imposter phenomenon, and maybe feeling it in the grips right now, kind of like where I am right now, mentally,
2:00
it is going to flee. It is going to leave at some point. There is always going to be a feeling,
2:08
but it ultimately will leave you at some point, once you expand outside your comfort zone, outside your comfort zone, and get to a state of practice and process that you feel comfortable with that you can continue doing for your business so that that phenomenon eventually dissipates.
2:28
Ultimately, what you say, what I'm saying is, your girl likes processes, and I like having things in just a certain way, and over this past, ultimately, past, I want to say at least, past five years of my life and business, it has not been that way. It has
2:49
been very tumultuous,
2:52
as you can imagine.
2:54
Something happened in 2020 that didn't work with any of us, ultimately, and for me, it kind of threw a spanner in a wrench. They kind of threw a wrench into the works that weren't even working well to begin with. And I think that happened for a lot of people, especially in my local business groups and a lot of communities. A lot of people were just struggling as is, and the start of 2020, did not help at all. Yay. Whoa, go, us. But ultimately, I wanted to give you an opportunity to breathe and to remember that everyone, no matter how put together, no how professional, know how like awesome they look, especially online in the digital space, that's not necessarily true.
3:43
It could be falling apart behind the scenes. But of course, they want to put up a front so that you can believe that they're professional and you can buy from
3:52
them. And the reason I want to dispel that is because, you know, I worked for myself my entire life, and I thought honestly, by now that I would have something put together, but I don't, but here we are. I digress,
4:09
and I kept pushing the start date of this live stream and this podcast relaunch for over three years. I had this idea to streamline my marketing process for my business, because I kept putting clients and their tasks and their work ahead of my own business, even on days where I, you know, scheduled in my calendar to focus on my business and to work on my business and the work that I was doing,
4:37
I was still put in client tasks because, Oh, they need this, you know, they're hiring me. They're giving me money. I must, I must put them ahead of whatever I was trying to do.
4:48
And here we are three years later, having done nothing and having nothing to show for it, because here we are again, in the same place that I was three years ago. I.
5:01
And this can be chalked up to wanting to do the best and and keep my clients and, you know, trying to do the best I can for them. But it can also be talked to just procrastination and sabotage, just self sabotage. Of I know that I can do these things,
5:17
but I don't believe in myself that I can do these things.
5:22
And when push comes to shove, for example, like this live stream, if you're watching live, or if you're watching the replay, feel free to comment.
5:29
But here I am. I feel so slap dashed. I feel like that nothing is working as it should,
5:37
but I'm still here supporting you and giving you the reality check, at least from my end, when it comes to the work that you want to do for your business.
5:49
And
5:52
that is okay. I'm allowed to put myself first in my business. I'm allowed to spend time focusing on my own marketing and, you know, showing clients that I can actually walk the talk when it comes to enacting aspects into their own routines and their own marketing practices processes, I show them that I can do that myself and get the same results. Obviously, everything is different, not the like little bit down the bottom where it says, you know, terms and conditions may apply. Just want to stress that, but if I'm not willing to do something, I'm not going to ask you to do the same thing in your marketing, in your processes, whatever you need to do in your business. If I am not going to do it myself, I'm not going to ask you to do it.
6:41
And ultimately, over the past five years, but especially in the past three years, I have not been in the right headspace.
6:49
I've had very poor mental health, a little bit myself, but also a little bit outside, outward forces,
6:57
and not having a lot to show for it, and just kind of holding on to, you know, being in a churning sea of chaos and mental
7:10
breakage, I don't know ultimately, what to call it, and then just holding on to a rock in the middle of the sea and just, you know, praying that everything will be fine As I hold onto the rock
7:22
for dear life, and
7:24
that's ultimately what the past three years of business has felt like for me. And if you have felt the same, feel free to reach out, and we can be condolences and have a little drink,
7:33
cheers, clink and a little condolence session between the two of us, we can chat about everything that's gone wrong.
7:42
I but for myself, I wanted to make a change, and that change meant for me for actively sitting down and making decisions about my business. I currently am part of the C program, which used to be called the nice program back in the day, and essentially it's a government run training course, 12 months training course for small businesses. And when I first started, I thought, I'm not here. The imposter phenomenon was kicking in. Of like all these people are very new to business. I shouldn't be here. I've been doing this since I was 14. What the hell am I doing?
8:27
And then as we were going through the business plan, the financial plan, and all these aspects of business where it's not that I hadn't thought of it at the time, I was just more
8:38
grommet in the wrong trousers, putting the train tracks as they're being pushed along just
8:45
as fast as I possibly could, because that's how my life has always been. I've just been putting the train tracks, one clip in front of the other, and moving as fast as humanly possible.
8:56
And now I'm taking that time, of course, still working with my current clients, and still working with leads to try and get them into clients, but spending that time to actually focus on my own business so it can be ready to work with more clients, to be in a state where I don't hate my business.
9:17
Because 2019 I hated my business, I was willing to drop it and just let it go because it wasn't serving me anymore.
9:28
And since then,
9:29
I made it serve me, because I ultimately have control of my business and the work that I do with it.
9:37
But procrastination is a huge thing for business owners in general. I'm going to stress that I'm not just talking about my talking about myself here. I'm saying that almost every client that I have worked with there's been some form of procrastination, because especially when it comes to running your business, there are so many things to do that marketing, even though it is a very important part of your business. And I'm not just saying.
10:00
Is because I am a marketer, and you you know, hire me for marketing duties. I'm not just saying that. I'm saying it because you need to tell people what you do. You need to tell people, Hey, I am here. These are the services I provide. Here are the type of people I want to work with. Come, you know, come get your services. You know, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, ding, dinner bell. Come get your dinner
10:23
like you need to tell people what you do.
10:27
And of course, some businesses are a lot larger, and they have teams for that. But when you are a small business of yourself, or maybe yourself and a couple of stuff you're doing, everything you're doing, all the things you're trying to do, the things that run the business. So I can understand procrastinating on something as important as marketing, because it's not getting you money right here right now. Because why would it? It's just over there doing its thing in the corner.
10:54
But when times are slow, or, for example, like right now, where
10:59
the cost of living pressures, as we're calling it,
11:03
marketing, then kicks in especially long term marketing that you've been doing over time, which is why my philosophy when it comes to marketing is that it needs to be easy, it needs to be consistent, so you can have longevity of something that you can do over time, and if that means that you have to hire some other people and let them do the marketing for you. So be it just at the end of it, make sure you get your content and make sure you get your IP and the contract that actually says that. FYI,
11:32
but going through my notes, Zoe, because we only got less less than 10 minutes of this episode,
11:38
a lot of
11:40
business owners that I have worked with have a lot of SOS shiny object syndrome, where they just kind of follow from one thing to another that attaches their interest, because
11:53
marketing is such a pain, or they're trying to avoid the pain aspects of their business, where they can just follow something shiny and new that captures their attention. It captures their interest enough so that can distract them from the worst parts of running a business.
12:09
But when you're not doing the worst parts of your business, the business
12:14
kind of collapses, and the machine starts getting a lot worse. And you can see, you can see what I'm getting there. You can see the picture I'm painting. And for those who are just listening to the podcast, I'm not painting a picture, but you can visually paint a picture in your head.
12:32
Making direct money
12:34
is more important at that moment, and for a lot of businesses, especially right now, making money and making direct money, as in providing a service, providing a product, and getting the money off the customer is more important right now than the theoretical
12:52
money of putting it into marketing or investing or training your staff or yourself, or training, and you know, investing and training for yourself or spending time to develop processes, or all of these things where, for a lot of business owners that I work with that are inherently in the productivity space. I'm going to stress this now that a lot of people that I work with, when you when it comes to small business, there's just so much to do being productive, being
13:18
being productive, I should say, just comes with part of the puzzle. Just if you're a small business owner, you're going to,
13:25
you're going to need to be productive, because you don't have that much time. So I totally understand, you know, wanting to do what you need to do.
13:33
But when it comes to when you're out of that specific moment of time for your business, or, say, for example, things are starting to working, and they're starting to pick up steam. The Snowball is getting bigger and bigger and bigger as it rolls down the hill, but then you hit a log or a tree as that snowball rolls down the hill. Because you have never reached out to people. You don't have an email list of any kind. Your website is something that you know you've got a friend in high school to make you know, a one page website that is very out of date, and people are not coming to you or wanting to use any of your products or services because it's it's very out of date.
14:20
And again, I understand that it's another thing that you have to add on to the work that you're going to do of your business, because it's not a direct again, like I said, it's not a direct money maker. I understand that when it comes to business,
14:35
but business is a leap of faith,
14:38
and unfortunately, not everything that you do in your business is going to result in direct money coming in.
14:46
You making your processes more efficient doesn't necessarily equate to getting more money in but you know. You instinctively know that over time, as you make these processes easier for yourself.
15:00
And for your staff, if you have any,
15:02
they're going to make it easier for you to do you can do them quicker, and you can get more people in
15:07
Tada.
15:10
And of course, marketing helps a lot with that awareness factor of your business. Have people seeing you at networking events? Have people seen your face or your business or your logo out on the streets or out,
15:25
you know, at events, or have they seen it pop up, because people are only going to pay attention once they know what you're about. I
15:36
understand wanting to put marketing on the back burner,
15:41
but when the kitchen gets crazy, you're
15:45
going to need to use the back burner for other things,
15:49
but it's already filled with marketing. So where is everything going to go? Oh, it's going to go on the floor. It's going to fall off and go on the floor, and there's going to be a mess on the floor, and everything is going to be even worse, because the back burner is already filled with marketing.
16:03
So I digress, and I'm going to step back a little bit.
16:07
So ultimately,
16:10
starting before you're ready
16:12
may seem incredibly daunting and incredibly overwhelming,
16:18
but I am proof,
16:20
as you are watching me, as you are listening to me right now,
16:25
I am proof that you can start when you're ready. You can start when you're not ready
16:31
to be able to achieve greater things.
16:34
Just always think about what is easy for you to do, what is something that you can consistently do over time,
16:43
and that will lead to longevity, not just for yourself, but for your business as well.
16:51
And if that involves something as simple as
16:56
going into your website, on the back end of your website, and updating things for half an hour a week. Awesome.
17:03
That is a good first step. Is something consistently that you can do every single week, for example.
17:11
And for those who are ready to make that next step up
17:15
in their marketing or in the work that they're doing, to get more leads in, to get more awareness on your brand, and again, when it comes to that funnel, and I probably shouldn't be describing that too late in this podcast episode, Zoe, but essentially, a marketing funnel is something that has a different a couple of different stages regarding, you know, the practices of marketing. You want to get people from an awareness stage of your business all the way down to wanting to eventually purchase from you, be it a product, be it a service, and you want to get them past that point, to raving fans, to people who will, you know, word of mouth, you to the to the moon and back. You want those type of people on board.
17:51
But how do you get them? Well, they have to know that you exist first, and that starts with consistent marketing practices that are easy enough for you to do that possibly you've seen other people do in adjacent industries to you, or maybe even competitors. Maybe you've seen them do it and you're like, I can do that better. Prove it. Prove that you could do it better. So if you have any not questions, but if you're finding that any of this is useful for you, feel free to reach out or comment in below, either if you are live or in the replay, I will always respond to comments or do my best to respond to comments, and I will do my best to make sure this is nice and pretty for those who are listening to the podcast as well, right? And also, I will also create some titles. So between these two sections that you know, there's a nice palette cleanser between each of these sections, because, of course, I'm using this as an opportunity to record my podcast, but I can also happy to let the live streams go where they may, because I will be here, available to answer people's questions.
18:54
That's what I've been doing, honestly over the past, however long, I've just been finding myself like prompting people being go, hey, you know if they want to spend some time with me, or if they want to pick my brain, and they're not, and they don't have the funds to say, for example, actually purchase a pick my brain session from me. Then I enable them to go, Hey, I'm going to be live streaming from 10 to 11 on a Friday. If you have any questions, jump in on the chat, and I'll answer your questions on live, cool, win, win. I.
The above episode description and transcript were generated with ai.
Who is your host?
Zoë Wood, your Video Confidence Coach connects the dots between personal branding and video marketing. Helping women and non-binary folk in small business, find their way in the world of marketing their passion without the energy drain.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
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