Episode Transcript
[00:00:06] Hi there and welcome back to the Confessions in the Home Office podcast. I'm Wendy Hill and I've been working out of my home office, running my marketing agency, market momentum for 20 years. Some days I can't believe it's been 20 years. That's kind of crazy.
[00:00:19] Today we're going to dig into one of the most overused and sometimes overrated pieces of business advice that I've heard. And that piece of advice is just start.
[00:00:30] If you've been around the online business world longer than you know just a few minutes, you've heard this phrase. It's printed on mugs, T shirts, plastered all over Instagram and quotes. And it's the. And it's all in the latest self help books and casually tossed at you in motivational speech speeches like it's the secret to life.
[00:00:49] And to be fair, it can be, but it can also set you up for chaos, burnout, and I would say a whole graveyard of half finished projects.
[00:01:01] So today I want to share the times that Just Start completely changed my business for the better. The times. It led me straight into a mess. And how you can take the spirit of that advice without falling into the trap I've fallen to. Fallen into before, more than once.
[00:01:17] So the first time Just Start worked for me, I was frozen. I had been talking about going out on my own. I was working for an agency and I kept saying I wanted to start my business, I wanted to have more flexibility for my family and just over my schedule. But my brain kept throwing up these roadblocks like I don't have a website yet, I don't have a business form yet. How long is it going to take for me to find clients?
[00:01:42] What if I think this is the right time, but it's really not? What if my personal reasons for starting the business aren't really a reason to start a business?
[00:01:49] So that may sound familiar to you and just know that head trash will wear you down.
[00:01:55] And then over lunch one day a friend looked at me and said, wendy, just start. Just quit your job, set a date, send out the emails, make calls, tell people what you do. Just stop waiting for everything to fall into this perfect space.
[00:02:09] So I did.
[00:02:11] So the next week was the. The week after we got back from the office being closed over Christmas and New Year's and I resigned, gave my two weeks notice. Then I sent an email to everybody that I knew saying that I was going to start offering marketing and PR services. I didn't have a fancy sales page, I didn't have a launch plan Just a really simple, here I am, here's what I do.
[00:02:35] Very soon after that, I had my first client. And that momentum pushed me to keep going. And pretty soon I had replaced my salary.
[00:02:43] And that's the magic of Just Start. It cuts through the fear. It forces you into action. Just set a date and you turn an idea into reality faster than all the planning and making sure everything's perfect.
[00:02:55] So here's another story. When I first thought about starting this podcast, I almost talked myself out of it.
[00:03:01] I wasn't sure about the format. And I kept thinking, who's going to listen? And then I thought, well, I do want to have guests sometimes, but not all the time. Is that going to be a problem?
[00:03:10] And then I remembered how Just Start helped me get my first client.
[00:03:13] So I decided just to record a promo and record the first episode in my home office with the dogs growling at Mr. FedEx in the background. And while I was finishing up planning our wedding last summer. And was it perfect? No. Is it still perfect? No. Was it out in the world? Yes. And that's the only reason why you're hearing me today is because I just said, I'm just gonna do it.
[00:03:41] And then here's the part that people don't tell you sometimes. Just start. As the beginning of a disaster.
[00:03:49] A couple of years ago, I decided I wanted to create all the things. I had been buying every course and listening to every webinar. And I thought I'm gonna have this huge membership, a signature course.
[00:04:00] And because apparently I had some free time, my daughter and I wanted to start an online boutique.
[00:04:05] Well, I did all of that. And I kept thinking, don't ever think it, just start. And do you know what happened? I ended up having like half built program. I got it finished, but it wasn't great.
[00:04:16] It was half promoted. And then I would get busy and not promote it. And I just didn't really love all these projects. I was tired, I wasn't focused.
[00:04:25] And after spending all that time and like churning, I really wasn't making a lot of money off of that because I really wasn't given anything.
[00:04:34] The one thing the attention it needed. My marketing agency was still going well because that's what I was focused on. The boutique went well. When we focused on it, we had little open houses in our house on Friday afternoon. We would have all these ladies come from all over Greenville and we would make a ton of money. But that was just not what I wanted to be doing full time. And then my daughter got a little bit older and Made the cheerleading squad at her high school and she didn't have time to help me anymore.
[00:05:03] So the truth is, just start doesn't tell you what to do next. It's just like telling someone to get in the car and drive, but not giving them a map.
[00:05:11] Sometimes you need to think about the map and what your next step is going to be.
[00:05:17] So here's the truth. Starting is really exciting.
[00:05:21] Finishing something can be really satisfying. I love having a list and crossing it off or checking it off, marking it off on my trello board. But the middle, that middle part is really boring.
[00:05:34] It's all the follow up emails, tweaking the process, maybe doing a little more research and doing a little extra work when you really want to binge a show or go out with your friends or go out to the farm. Like what we want to. Like what we like to do on the weekends.
[00:05:52] But doing the same thing week after week, day after day will help things to actually grow.
[00:05:59] No one really posts about the middle on Instagram or Facebook or TikTok or LinkedIn.
[00:06:06] It's easy to feel like you're doing something wrong when you're not constantly buzzing with excitement. Like, I'm watching this, I'm planning this, this is new, this is coming.
[00:06:15] But you get started with that and then what do you do? But the middle is where the magic really happens and it's where you get better.
[00:06:22] You learn how to be consistent with things and you realize that consistency helps with progress and it helps you to become more known. It's also the part most people skip when they hop from idea to idea.
[00:06:35] So these days I still love the just start mindset, but I've kind of put some boundaries around it. Guardrails, whatever you want to call it, blinders.
[00:06:44] And before I start something new, here's what I what I go through. It's kind of my own personal checklist. Number one, does it fit my big picture plan?
[00:06:55] If it doesn't really align where I want my business to go to this year, it goes on the later list. It doesn't go away because a lot of times those things pop up and can be wrapped in or something you should do later.
[00:07:06] I have a huge whiteboard on wheels in my office and the backside has all those items on it. And a couple times a month I go stand on the backside of the whiteboard and look at it and think, should I keep it on there? Should I move it around to the front with the other things? What can I do with this? Because there were good ideas. They just may not be for right now.
[00:07:28] Number two, do I have the time and energy to follow through on this if my plate's full? Clients are busy all year long, but we all know there's times when you're just extra busy and everybody's come back from vacation or everybody's getting ready to go on vacation and it's just nuts.
[00:07:45] And I think if I add something new, is it going to get abandoned?
[00:07:51] And then I have to really look at my personal life too. What's going on at home with my parents? Sometimes they need more help at times. And sometimes my college kids have more things going on where they need us to come over there, they have some type of an event or they just have something going on. Is it a busy season? Do I really have time to do it?
[00:08:10] Number three is can I test it in a small way? Maybe it's not a big course or a new program.
[00:08:16] Is there something I can do to research it or test it like a one time class, a one time workshop and see if there's interest?
[00:08:23] And number four, do I actually want to commit to it?
[00:08:26] And sometimes, and I have been so guilty of this and I know a lot of small business owners will buy courses, buy programs, buy memberships.
[00:08:36] Sometimes just start is really I saw someone else do this and it looked cool. That's not enough to sustain me through the middle. All the work that has to be done. I always say if it excited me when I saw it on Saturday and I'm still excited by Wednesday after the work week has started and everything else has hit and everything else has come up and I'm tired from meetings and the dog got sick and all that.
[00:09:02] If I'm still excited, then it's something I should consider.
[00:09:05] If you're stuck in planning mode, yes, just start. Take the first step. You can plan forever, and you do need to plan a little, but not forever and ever. But if you're drowning in half finished projects, your job now is to finish something before you start anything else. Because the win isn't in the starting, it's seeing it through and getting it done.
[00:09:28] So here's what I want you to do this week. Figure out if you're in a season of starting things or if you're in a season of finishing things. Both are really important, but they require different energy and focus.
[00:09:41] So if this episode hit home, send me your best or worst just started story.
[00:09:46] I always love to hear a good business confession from listeners. And if you haven't yet, please follow the podcast show, Share it, Send me a comment like it whatever you do, so you don't miss an episode and so others can find it.
[00:09:59] So, until next time, start when it matters, finish when it really counts. And remember to survive the middle, because that's where a lot of progress gets made.
[00:10:09] See ya.
