As business owners, we can really be our own biggest roadblocks to growth and success in our business, and we do this by concentrating on perfection.
You might be thinking “Oh, not me. I just like things to be as good as possible” and yet that distinction can be what creeps into project bottlenecking and inaction.
Let’s talk about two ways to cut down on this barrier.
Mindset Work
There is no way for me to cover everything there is to know about mindset hurdles and the work that goes into overcoming them here in this post. The best resources for that are therapists, coaches, and mentors who specialize in this work. However, what we can chat a little about is the fact that our past experiences and societal norms all play a part in how we show up and our ideas and assumptions about what it looks like to do so.
For women especially, there is a lot of pressure in being polished and professional or else risk not being seen as an expert, knowledgeable or someone to be respected. And to be very clear on where I stand on that school of thought, let me simply say...
Thankfully, we’re seeing a shift in this narrative as more and more women become the faces of businesses, but it’s a slow shift. In the meantime, what we can do is recognize these ideas are holding us back and costing us money.
Something I love is the rise in garbage posting. What this means is focusing on showing up (video, blogs, emails) consistently with your knowledge and value and worrying less about the pretty bow of how it’s presented. For me, this meant committing to really investing in making TikToks…even when those videos could have used better editing between clips, contained typos, or I didn’t post at the best time.
Instead of receiving personalized snail mail asking me to never post again until I could get the clip timing perfect (as I assumed would happen), I received messages about how much people loved my videos and related to what I was saying in them. That’s right - my imperfect approach to simply showing up with value was not just ok, but it was good and connecting with my audience! What can you start today that you’ve been putting off until you "get it just a little bit better" (i.e. another way of actually meaning perfect)?
Delegate
Secondly, even as you’re working on your own mindset and possibly already showing up, there are going to be times you still get in your own way.
This is when it becomes really pivotal to have team members that can either move things along or point out when you’re holding something up or even better have team members who own the parts that you tend to get hung up on.
An example of this is content creation. Maybe you’re worried that if you delegate it all then you’ll lose your voice in what’s being put out there under your name. However, you’re also finding that the final review stage is getting held up as you sort through each word and decide if another sentence structure could sound more snazzy.
Nope.
Instead, try being there at the top level of creation. What’s the big idea? What are terms or words you want to make sure are used? What are terms and words you want to avoid? Maybe even outlining this part. But after this, who can handle the detailed creation and execution? Perhaps a copywriter to write it and an OBM or marketing director to have final approval on what’s being published.
You still keep your voice in the process, but things can continue moving forward!
What’s a place in your business you have seen bottleneck? Are you part of the problem? If so, make a plan today to fix it! And if it’s happening in your email marketing process (or the lack of one) then schedule a discovery call with me to see how I can help.