Are You Guilty Of Overthinking?

Are you guilty of overthinking things? Putting imaginary barriers in your way by making things more complicated than they need to be.

I see it all the time in my consultations.

All too often the problem stems from a ridiculous need for perfection.

I say ridiculous, because perfect rarely exists - it's an unrealistic expectation.

And yet, so many of us let it get in our way.

"I can't do it until..."

"I just need to..."

"As soon as I..."

"I have to wait for..."

"Once I've got..."

We don't want to take action until all the pieces are in place.

The problem with that is it might never happen.

There has to be a starting point.

At some stage, you have to say "fuck it" and just do the bloody thing.

Done is better than perfect

I'll happily hold my hands up and admit I can be the queen of procrastination. But, equally, once I set my mind on doing something, I dive in and get it done.

Last year, I set up two new websites, New Brew Thursday and LS Mentoring.

New Brew Thursday is a passion project so it had been getting pushed to the bottom of the to-do list for a while.

But LS Mentoring was different. I had known for a while that it made sense to split my business into two. Make Your Copy Count worked for the copywriting training side of my business, but my mentoring services were about more than just marketing. I needed to separate my services and have two clear offerings with two clear audiences.

Problem was, setting up a whole new business felt daunting. I felt like I had to give it lots of thought, spend time planning it, choose the right name, think about the branding, make sure the copy was just right. I needed to be sure my messaging was spot on. And so I kept putting it off.

Then I decided I couldn't put it off any longer. I had to split the businesses because I was starting to get self-conscious - how could I give marketing advice to others when my own marketing wasn't right?

And the funny thing is it didn't take me nearly as long to get it done as I thought it would. Of course, it wasn't perfect when it went live, but it was good enough. And I always think of websites as a work in progress anyway - they are never finished. It's getting started that's the biggest challenge.

And so, after months of procrastination, I went from having one website to three.

Then, as if that wasn't enough work, I embarked on another big project at the start of this year.

I had known for a while that my email list was in a mess. I'd been using it for both businesses as well as using it to promote my new brew stuff. It was lacking direction.

I needed to do something, but I kept putting it off.

Then, in December, I had an idea. I'd been looking at three different platforms and realised I could test them all by creating three subscriber lists - one for each of my website audiences.

But rather than keep things simple and just create newsletters, I'd build all three publications in public. I'd document everything and share it with the world.

And so that's what I did.

You're reading this on a platform called Ghost. My new brew newsletter is hosted on Substack. And I'm running a publication all about my experiment over on Beehiiv.

I could have procrastinated over my experiment. I could have spent hours planning and researching, preparing content, setting up the publications, creating lead magnets and so on.

But I didn't.

I thought about the idea for a few days then I made a short video announcing my idea. It wasn't scripted, it wasn't high production. I filmed it on my mobile in my dining room and then shared it on my social media pages.

In the first week of January, I set up all three platforms from scratch and I've been documenting it ever since.

I didn't wait for perfection - I just did it.

And, looking back, there are things I might have done differently if I had planned it. For example, I think I would have moved LS Mentoring onto this platform rather than setting up a new domain and creating a second website for what is essentially the same business.

But that's the point of an experiment - it's all about testing things and learning what works and what doesn't. And even if you have a great plan, things don't always work out the way you expect and you end up making changes anyway.

The main thing is I launched my experiment. I did what I said I would and I'm enjoying doing it. And, because I don't make things easy for myself, I've started working on another big project.

It was always my intention to add more publications to my experiment, but I didn't quite know what they would be about or how they would fit. So over the last couple of weeks, I've been developing an idea and I'm going to be launching it very soon.

But, once again, the task of setting it all up felt huge. And this time I didn't want to just rush into it without a plan.

So I broke it down.

I started by setting my ideal launch date, then worked backwards. I listed everything I needed to do before that date and then put each task into my calendar. Doing this showed me my plan was achievable.

But it's only achievable if I do the work.

So how do I hold myself accountable?

Well, I'm a big fan of announcing my plans to the world. Even if only one person sees my announcement, I feel as though I have to do what I say I'm going to do.

I already mentioned my new idea in my experiment newsletter last week and now I'm announcing it here.

In the next few weeks, I'm going to be launching a new Substack with a membership option. I'm not going to give everything away here, but I will be sharing more details in the coming weeks.

One thing I will reveal is that it’s going to involve the return of my Content Club.

Or at least, it will involve something similar with a new name.

Content Club was something I ran from June 2020 until July 2021 while we were in and out of lockdowns.

It was a monthly online meet-up where members could focus on writing their marketing content. We’d start by telling everyone what we would be working on, then we’d have 45 minutes of writing time, and we’d finish by letting everyone know how we got on. Members could ask questions, share any challenges, and get feedback on what they’d written (if they wanted). The main benefits were:

Accountability – hold each other accountable for achieving your content goals.

Focused writing time – dedicate time each month to content creation.

Collaboration – get insight and feedback from a range of business owners.

I loved running those clubs - they were so fun and productive. The only reason they ended was because the world started opening back up and I was focusing on other things.

So I'm excited about bringing them back for paying subscribers of my new Substack.

But I've got a lot of work to do before the launch. I know it probably won't be perfect when I go live, but it'll be at a point I'm happy with. And that will have to be good enough because if I wait for it to be perfect, it will never get off the ground.

Are you guilty of getting in your own in your way?

If you're waiting for the "perfect time" to do something, stop waiting and start doing.

Stop telling yourself:

"I can't do it until..."

"I just need to..."

"As soon as I..."

"I have to wait for..."

"Once I've got..."

You're just making excuses. And excuses don't get you anywhere.

I can procrastinate with the best of them, so trust me when I say, you need to just get on with it.

And if you need help with that, drop me a message or book 90 minutes with me here.