Podcast

Episode 562: Escaping The Scramble Cycle So You Can Finish What You Start

Do you ever notice yourself jumping from one project to the next – always busy but rarely feeling complete? In this episode, I share a story about one of my 1:1 clients that perfectly captures what I call the Scramble Cycle. It’s that perfectionist pattern of getting something 80% done, hitting a snag or losing momentum and then rushing off to the next thing that suddenly feels more urgent.

You’ll hear how my client was caught in the Scramble Cycle and what became possible once I pointed out the pattern. I also talk about how this pattern shows up for perfectionist entrepreneurs in subtle ways: when we avoid the final steps, procrastinate on tech setup or abandon an almost-finished project because it feels safer to stay “in progress” than to feel exposed by completing it.

If you’ve ever found yourself constantly scrambling, always behind and never quite finished, this episode will help you see exactly why that happens – and what to do differently so you can finally feel on top of things again.

Resources to help you get out of your own way in your business:

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FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Introduction
Hi and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionists Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.

Sam Laura Brown (Custom introduction)
In this episode, I’m sharing with you something that I’ve recorded when I just felt compelled to pick up my phone and record. And this is all about escaping the scramble cycle, we perfectionist can really end up in this cycle of scrambling, where you are in a rush to get something done, and then you do it to 80% completion, and then you stop doing that and start doing something else, and do that to 80% completion, and you end up with this pile of tasks and projects that are almost complete. But then there was a little obstacle, a little hurdle, a little frustration, something towards the end, or maybe it just got so time consuming, like, oh my god, this should already be done by now, I’m just going to move on to something else, and then you just end up with this big pile of tasks and projects that are not completed, so you don’t get the benefit of all of that work that you’ve been doing.

And this also really just decreases self trust, because then you start to second guess, well, what should I work on? And I don’t even know that if I do start to work on this, I’ll actually finish it, so it’ll probably be a waste of time, like there’s just so many reasons to get out of this scramble cycle. It’s something I support our PGSDers with we’re helping them in that program, take consistent action in their business without burning out, and to show up consistently with their marketing, even if they’re not working every day. So that comes up with that. The scramble cycle definitely comes up in that regard, and also with my one on one clients, and we are focused on making consistent sales in their business even if they’re not working every day, and that scramble cycle can show up there as well. So in this episode, I’m talking about how the scramble cycle showed up for one of my one on one coaching clients, and what was able to happen when she was able to escape from that scramble cycle. So I hope you enjoy this episode.

Sam Laura Brown
I want to share something that I saw one of my one on one clients doing, and immediately I could see that it was part of what I am calling the scramble cycle, because that’s what I’ve called it for myself, when I’ve seen myself in it, and I called her out on it, I called her attention to it, and she was able to make an adjustment that meant that she could actually create a lot of leverage in her business because of following through on something to completion instead of getting it 80% done. So what happened is my client, she’s a YouTuber, and she was working on hiring someone for video editing for her YouTube videos, and we had identified this would be a real point of leverage for her, as she’s working on limited hours, and by being able to at the stage she’s at, being able to actually have someone help with the editing meant that she would have more time for client delivery and for selling as well and for clean west.

So what happened was she was figuring out how to delegate to someone and doing all of that. Not sure if you can hear my dog, cotton barking in the background. She was figuring that out, and she came up with an issue with her Google Drive, which was that she wasn’t able to upload it quickly at all. It was taking like, 18 hours or whatever it was, to be able to fully upload a video, and sometimes it would just stall out right towards the end. Obviously, super frustrating. We’ve all had those issues. And we were also simultaneously working on a way for her to sell her one on one, coaching out and getting things ready for that. So she had that project going on at the same time, and so she sent me a WhatsApp message and said, hey, just giving you a progress update and letting you know that I’m going to get this tech stuff sorted in September.

But for now, I just want to get focused on recording the videos that we talked about. And on the surface that might look fine, but what was actually happening is that she was in this scramble cycle where, and we’d identify this in other ways too. This is just like a perfect example of it, where she was 80% done, like I could see as her coach, that she was so so close to being able to upload her videos onto the cloud, and also, I could see, as a business coach, how valuable that is to have, because her YouTube videos are such a key part of her business as such an important asset. But what was happening because of the thoughts she was having and how she was thinking about it was, she was like, well, I have it all on my hard drive, and that’s fine, but I can see, as her coach that’s not actually a good thing for a key business asset. You want to have it backed up, ideally in two ways. She was so close to having figured this out, and it would unlock her being able to get support, not just with her YouTube videos, but also with reels and shorts and other things like that.

And so what I said to her was, hey, this is the scramble. You were so close to being done. Let’s just have you get this complete. And did you notice how you didn’t actually give a really specific time for when it would get done, you were just kind of in this rush of like, okay, well, this other thing’s more important, and this I’m not close to that, so let’s just like, go and focus on the thing that I feel like I’m behind on, and this thing at the moment doesn’t feel like it’s going to make a big difference. But she was so close, so I just said, let’s get this completed. Just support yourself through it. And we talked about what that would look like, and then what actually was able to happen is that she figured it out. She followed what we said, she figured it out, and then she had that completion. She had that completion momentum that she could then take into the recording of her videos. And she was then able to easily from those videos that she recorded with ease and with self trust, she was able to convert within a week to clients from that just going out on her YouTube channel.

But her brain, her perfectionist brain, was wanting to just be in this scramble of like, getting something 80% done, and then we know if she had moved from, okay, this tech thing, it’s not going to be able to be completed. I’ll move on to the videos. Then probably 80% of the way through recording the video should be like, Oh, but now I need to do this. And if you find yourself jumping from thing to thing to thing, that this is that scramble cycle that the perfectionist brain loves. Because when we’re in this scramble cycle, we don’t actually have to feel the vulnerability that comes from completing things. And so you might be thinking, maybe you’re neurodivergent with ADHD or something like that, and you can be a perfectionist and have ADHD. Both of those things can be true, but for sure, this scramble cycle is coming from the perfectionist thoughts and the way that we think about ourselves, and the emotional capacity that we have that relates to perfectionism for things that are vulnerable, we’re like no everything has to be perfect, so that I always feel in control. I never feel exposed, I never feel vulnerable.

All of that to say this scramble cycle, you can break free of it. I was able to coach on this because I noticed myself in this scramble cycle, and then figured out how to actually get out of that cycle of scrambling, getting something 80% done and then moving on to the next thing, because I felt behind on that and then getting that thing 80% done and then moving on to the next thing, and only really completing things if there was a deadline that someone else was enforcing. And as a business owner, it’s so important to be able to finish things that you have set the deadline for, because almost all of the important stuff in business isn’t going to have an external deadline. You are going to need to have that. So for me, and I had developed, have developed so many skills across the year, the year, the decade, of being able to complete things, to take consistent action, to show up in a sustainable way. That’s what I help my clients with Perfectionist Getting Shit Done.

And there’s also just, like, the next layer of scene, oh, there’s also this, this scramble cycle. And so many of our PGSDers like, I just find myself scrambling. I’m constantly feeling behind, and then I’m in a rush to get it done, and then I feel behind, and then I’m in a rush to get it done. And you’re never feeling on top of anything. You’re never feeling like you’re fully in control. And that means when you do make a sale, when you do show up consistently, you feel like you can’t even replicate it, and you wonder how long it’ll last, or you wonder how long it’ll be till the next one, just because the way you are when you’re creating those results, you’re not actually owning what you were doing. You’re not actually owning what you are capable of, and that you are the one who is able to complete things. So I just wanted to share about that scramble cycle, because when you can spot yourself in this scramble cycle, and then, and this is what I help my one on one clients with, and also pgsd is so one on one clients, we work on consistent sales. That’s the focus of that container.

And then PGSD, we’re focused on consistent action. You got to be taking consistent action to then be able to make consistent sales. Doesn’t mean you have to be working every single day. I work three days a week. It’s not what consistency is. Consistency is about showing up more often than not on the plans that you made. So if you plan to work three days per week, for example, then it’s about showing up on those three days, not. Perfectly just showing up for your business once you’re showing up and you’re taking action. So in PGSD, we help people go from like posting super sporadically on their podcast or their YouTube or different social media platforms or pitching people, or however they’re marketing, we help them actually market consistently and do consistent marketing, and then once you’re consistently marketing, then you’re able to start making consistent sales, and that requires learning selling, so we teach that in the bottom line, in the self trust selling, so consistent marketing and consistent action is what is taught inside PGSD and then consistent sales.

And how to have that marketing and that action turn into sales, and not just sporadic ones, which will happen when you when you start marketing more consistently, you will be making sporadic sales. But if you want to have those sporadic sales turn into consistent sales, then as a perfectionist, there is work to be done, to get your perfectionist mindset on your side with selling, so that you’re not in this kind of like performative energy, trying to get it right, trying to say the right thing, trying to have the perfect strategy, trying to do it like everyone you watch online and they’re doing it right, and all of that energy repels sales. So what we want to have you do is go into that self trust selling, and be able to be connected with yourself, with what you do, with the people on the other end. So that’s what we do on the one on one. And the scramble cycle, like being able to break out of the scramble cycle, whether you’re consistently marketing, and that’s what you want to be working towards, sorry, if you want to start consistently marketing, or you’re ready to start consistently making sales, that is the next thing to be working on.

Outro
I currently have a few spots open to work with me privately to create consistent sales in your business. This really is a matter of learning how to work with your perfectionist mindset instead of against it, so you can show up in a way that not only creates connection, but actually creates sales, even if you’re not working every day, even if you are shy, even if you are scared of feeling salesy, what I do with my one on one clients is we create together a strategy that works for you specifically. It’s very personalized and tailored exactly to you and your business no matter what kind of business you have, that has you making sales. So if you feel like you have a hobby business at the moment, and you want to have a real business, then learning how to make consistent sales in your business so you can pay yourself consistently as well. That is the shift, and that’s the exact work that I do with my one on one client. So to find out more and apply today, go to samlaurabrown.com/coaching.

Author: Sam Brown