Wednesday, November 10, 2021 – 8 minutes

It’s time that you start letting go of perfectionism. How long do you tweak a thing before you put it out into the world?

You’re launching your digital product, but the launch date keeps getting pushed back – because you keep thinking of more layers you can add, or pieces you can re-record, or that sales sequence isn’t quite polished enough yet.

Never mind actually selling the thing, right? You know you have to schedule that newsletter or Instagram post, but you’re going to hold off till the last second because it’s probably going to need some tweaks.

Get busy. Focus on JUST SHOWING UP. Again and again. It’s going to be painful, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but it’s the only way to get better. Got it? Good.

What we learn in this episode:

1. Perfect isn’t a thing. Better is a thing. (Okay, I know that you know that already. I’m just reminding you.)
2. The only way to better is THROUGH. You’re better than you used to be!
3. It doesn’t have to be perfect to be useful.

Listening to a crappy podcast and being a judgey cow about it isn’t going to get us where we want to go. Making a crappy podcast (or whatever it is you want to create) and then making a slightly less crappy one and so on is going to help all of us a heck of a lot more.

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Connect with us

• Instagram, aka my happy place: @knap.creative

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Referenced in the show

Quote from Elise Blaha Cripe: “When you’re playing the baseball game, you can’t think too hard about the ball you just dropped because you have to catch the next one that’s coming your way. When you’re creating daily work, you can’t overthink the work that you’ve created today, because you have to do it again tomorrow.”

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Episode Transcript

Note: This transcript of the episode was machine generated and has not been edited for correctness. It’s provided for your convenience when searching. Please excuse any errors.

This podcasting thing is freakin’ hard. It’s going to be rough at first. You can come along for the ride, or just check in at episode 30 or so haha

Let’s talk about perfectionism. And let’s talk about letting that shit go.

I’m in it with you, right here, right now.

I’ve been planning this podcast for a couple of years. And planning it. And planning it. It’s going to be awesome… eventually.

But right now, I’m at the point where I have to QUIT planning and start DOING. And it’s hard. And it sucks. And it’s freakin’ uncomfortable.

But. It’s the only thing that’s going to get me to the other side.

Same goes for you, and whatever your version of this podcast is. Maybe it’s a course. Maybe it’s a product launch. Maybe it’s something small and you run into it every day, like a social media post or an email.

Things that shouldn’t take long, but do, because you want it to be FUHREAKIN AMAZINGGG

If you’re anything like me, you’ve been binging The Thing for a while now. Scoping out how everyone else is doing it. Picking up what you can. Spinning your own magic into it. Making it even better. I know the drill.

(You start doing that and you also start getting targeted with ads, which takes it to the next level.)

How ridiculous is it that you’re trying to make a thing that is BETTER than allllll of the other things combined… on your first try?! Hah!! What even are we!

Between where you are now and where you want to be is a mountain of imperfect work!

The people that you’re looking at didn’t get to where they are in a single giant leap.

They started exactly where YOU are. They started at the beginning.

Zero followers. Zero dollars. Zero sales.

Think about where you were a year ago. Two years ago. I’m guessing you’ve come a long ways! And look HOW GOOD your work is now compared to back then.

Legit.

I’m guessing that you’re listening to this while folding laundry, driving the car, or ____ something funny. But next time you’re sitting around picking your nose, GO LOOK AT SOME OLD STUFF!

I just looked at my goals from 2019 and making consistent $5000 was a stretch goal. Now, it would be a TERRIBLE month.

I was also launching Thrive, which was my first attempt at creating a course slash mentorship thingie. It wasn’t terrible, honestly. I feel good about what I did at the time. But again, if I did it now it would look SO different and SO much better.

BECAUSE I did the first sucky round. And then I kept showing up.

Doing the thing is what makes you good at the thing.

We all know that perfection doesn’t even exist. What the heck are we even here for hah

But! You have high standards. I get that.

The thing that’s going to get you there is practice. Practice makes better. And better is good enough. And good enough, well, IT’S GOOD ENOUGH.

The ONLY way that it’s going to get better is if you put out the “good enough” stuff now. Just put out things that are going to work for now. You can iterate later. Minimum viable product, again and again.

Remember how earlier I talked about how we try to combine all of the best things we’ve seen into one EVEN BETTER BEST thing?! (Or is that just me?)

Instead of thinking about all of the awesomes out there, think about the suckies. I’m doing that right now. I love podcasts. I’ve listened to a billion good episodes, give or take.

But!

I have also listened to some reeeallly sucky stuff. Those people are putting their thing out there, even though it’s not that awesome.

And you know what? *They’re gonna get better at it*

Listening to a crappy podcast and being a judgey cow about it isn’t going to get me where I want to go. Making a crappy podcast and then making a slightly less crappy one and so on is going to help all of us a heck of a lot more.

Also! Creating stuff – even if it’s “subpar” – is addicting. The more you create, the more you *want* to create. The more you see results, the more you’re driven to get uncomfortable enough to see *more* results.

“When you’re playing the baseball game, you can’t think too hard about the ball you just dropped because you have to catch the next one that is coming your way. When you are creating daily work, you can’t overthink the work you created today because you have to do it again tomorrow.”

So get busy. Focus on JUST SHOWING UP. Again and again. It’s going to be painful, it’s going to be uncomfortable, but it’s the ONLY way to get better. Got it? Good.

And with that, I’m going to wrap up. I just created my first (super imperfect) podcast episode. It’s not perfect, but you made it this far. That probably means it was sort of useful… which is a win.

In a nutshell,

• Nobody’s perfect
• The only way to better is THROUGH / you’re better than you used to be
• It doesn’t have to be perfect to be useful

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