Podcast

Episode 398: Discover Which Hidden Perfectionism Sign Is Holding You Back

If you know you are capable of achieving the goals you want and you know you have the intelligence… Then I’m here to tell you it’s time to address the hidden obstacle that’s sabotaging your success: perfectionism.

No matter how much you address other aspects of your business, if you don’t tackle your perfectionism, it will continue to hinder your progress, make you get in your own way and prevent you from reaching your goals.

In this episode I talk about why solving your perfectionism has a ripple effect on all the other areas of your business (and your life)!

I introduce The Perfectionism Quiz, a powerful tool designed to identify the dominant signs of perfectionism hindering your progress.

I’ve put my knowledge from working with hundreds of perfectionist entrepreneurs into The Perfectionism Quiz. In just 3 minutes you’ll learn which of the 5 signs of perfectionism is holding you back the most.

Whether you’re in my Group Coaching Program, PGSD or not this Quiz is available to you for free.

One of the most productive things you can do this week is take the quiz because the insights you’re going to get from it will give you a look into your perfectionism.

You’ll receive personalised answers of which of the 5 signs is the most dominant for you and what that means. Do the quiz this week because next week’s podcast episode I will be diving into what to do with your results.

If you love personality tests, and learning more about yourself you’re going to love this! 

Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode398.

In This Episode You’ll Learn:

  • Why I created The Perfectionism Quiz and how it will help you right away
  • Why the popular saying “done is better than perfect” has never resonated with me and what I say to myself instead
  • How perfectionism acts as a roadblock to achieving your goals
  • What it looks like to have imposter syndrome as a perfectionist entrepreneur

Featured In The Episode:

Announcement: PGSD will open for enrollment on 12 June 2023 (for one week only)

If you feel behind on your $100k goal, it’s just because nobody’s taught you the different productivity rules that apply to perfectionists.

To make $100k you need to work smarter, not harder. And to do that you need to get your perfectionist mindset on your side. 

If your week is filled with lost time even though you’re always busy working, it’s time to take control of your productivity. The process is simple – set your Growth Goal, plan properly with Power Planning and then strategically tweak your way to $100k.

My group coaching program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) is designed to get perfectionist entrepreneurs to $100k. The doors to PGSD will open on 12 June 2023 for one week only. To find out more about the program and be the first to know when the doors open, join the waitlist today: samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.

Listen To The Episode

Listen to the episode on the player above, click here to download the episode and take it with you or listen anywhere you normally listen to podcasts – just find Episode 398 of The Perfectionism Project Podcast!

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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 Perfectionist 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

Okay, so in this episode, I really want to share with you something that I have created to help you be more productive, get more done in less time without burning out, release your perfectionism handbrake, get into growth mindset, execute your plans, it’s going to be so informative for you, regardless of whether you’re a PGSDer, or you’re not yet inside PGSD. PGSD, by the way, is my group coaching program for perfectionist entrepreneurs, who have the goal of going from around 30k a year to 100k.

So we are opening the doors for one week only on the 12th of June. So you can find out more. The link is in the I was gonna say the bio. The link is in the show notes for you to find out more about that. But with that, whether you’re PGSDer or not yet, you’re just a podcast listener for now, this quiz is available to you for free. And it’s going to tell you some very important things about your productivity, and about your business.

And this quiz, the perfectionism quiz really dives into the five surprising signs of perfectionism that every business owner needs to know about. And it’s going to give you a personalized result based on the questions that you answer. And if you love personality tests and things like that, you’re going to love this, you’re going to answer a few questions. And you’re going to get a personalized result that’s going to tell you which of the five signs is the most dominant for you, and what that means.

And in the next episode, I’m going to be diving into what to do with your results what to make of them. So I highly recommend doing the quiz this week. You can go to samlaurabrown.com/quiz to do it, that link will be in the show notes for you as well. But in this episode, I just want to tell you a bit more about why this quiz was created. And really just have you carve out the three to four minutes that is going to take to do this quiz.

It’s going to be one of the most productive things you do this week. Because the insights you’re going to get from this even if you’ve already listened to every podcast, and you’re like Sam’s in my head and I already knows so many things about perfectionism and how it’s impacting my productivity and therefore my success in my business, even if that’s you, this is really going to give you a look into your perfectionism handbrake the way in which it’s coming on for you, and what you can do about it.

So when it comes to your productivity, there are so many things that can impact productivity, for example, how much time you have for your business, for example, whether or not you have kids. So I have three kids under the age of two currently. And that is something that can impact my productivity. I’m breastfeeding on demand. So there’s that whole piece of things. It really there are things like that, that can really make a difference. Also neuro divergence, which includes things like ADHD, having a chronic health condition, personal events, getting married, being pregnant, like there are so many things that can impact how productive you are.

But if you don’t solve for the perfectionism side of things, you can only be so productive. So even if everything else is being worked on or is in alignment, it’s in the best place it can be. If you don’t solve for your perfectionism and your perfectionism handbrake, you can only be so productive because you will be getting in your own way. And if you’re getting in your own way, it doesn’t matter how big your audience is, or how perfect your niche is or how beautiful your website is, or your graphics on social media.

If you are getting in your own way, you will be doing things, thanks to perfectionism handbrake, like overthinking your social media posts. So not sure if you can relate to this. But right now, if creating high quality social media content takes up the majority of your week, and there’s not really much time left for anything else. That is your perfectionism handbrake that is making you get in your own way and stopping you from achieving your goals.

Because your time is going there all of your time, rather than just a few hours a week because it’s 90% of your time that is going to creating high quality content. It means that you’re not able to do those needle movers that have been sitting on your to do list for weeks, maybe months, maybe even years. Those things that you know you need to do in order to really move the business forward. But right now it takes so much work for you to be consistent with your social media that you can’t take your eye off the ball. And you’re scared that if you miss a week or even a few days that you’re going to lose momentum.

So pretty much right now you just have a content creation business. And there isn’t anything necessarily wrong with that, if you want to keep your business at the same level it’s currently at. But if you do have big goals, for example, if you want to make $100,000 in a year, then you are going to need to shift your focus into doing, yes, the content creation, but doing it in a timely manner, not overthinking it, not overworking it, not going to all these lengths to perfect things that don’t really matter to the person on the other end, you’re going to need to do that.

So you have the time and space to actually look at the big picture, do strategic planning, and be able to do those things that are going to actually move the business forward. For example, you might need to change your business model, maybe you’ve been doing one to one services, and you need to move to doing group or things like that. Or maybe you have a physical product, maybe you’re an E commerce business, and you’re needing to make some changes when it comes to how you manage your inventory or manufacturing or things like that, so that you can scale your business.

Maybe for example, you need to spend time learning how to delegate and getting your work done through someone else. Maybe it’s by hiring, for example, a VA, there are all these things that need to happen in your business beyond social media content. And there are so many people who are talking about the power of social media. And yes, it’s incredibly powerful. And yes, there is so much to be grateful for that people 50 years ago thet didn’t have ways to market for free like we do today.

But there is so much more to business, than just the marketing aspect of it, especially just a social media marketing aspect of it. There’s relationship marketing, networking, like all of that kind of thing. So when we just have all of our times when on one small part of the business because our perfectionism handBrake is making us overthink things because we’re doing something that’s public facing. And that’s really scary. It brings up our fear of judgment. And that all or nothing mindset that we only want to do things perfectly, or we’re not going to do them at all, like all of that makes us actually lose sight of building a business instead of just being a social media content creator who’s making a little bit of money, but not really very much money at all.

When it comes to the big goals that you have, and where you see yourself you know, you have so much more potential than what you’re currently doing. And you can just feel the possibility of that. And yet you’re feeling stuck like you’re trudging through mud. That is because you perfectionism handbrake is on and making you overthink certain aspects of your business and not giving you enough time to work on other aspects that are equally if not more important.

Also, maybe because of your perfectionism handbrake, you might be not launching a new offer or a product or maybe it’s a lead magnet, maybe it is something like a quiz, because it’s never perfect enough. So you have something just sitting on your to do list, as I mentioned forever. And it’s always in your mental load, like you have that mental drama about it. Every week, if not every day that you’re thinking, Ah, there’s this thing I need to get done. But I don’t have enough time to do it. Because I’m so busy with my social media content. But I need to get this done. But I don’t have time. But I need to get this done. But I don’t have time.

And just living in that mental drama. And it’s so exhausting. That’s the kind of mental drama that just burns us out. And so even if we do manage to get that thing out in the world, we just feel after it just completely like a zombie maybe it took so much effort to do it. And we haven’t been able to do it in a sustainable way because of our perfectionism handbrake again, on the minds that like all of that that goes into it, it means that even if we do put that thing out into the world, we’re not able then to sustainably back that up with doing the other important things.

And we kind of just have these bursts of productivity. And things are good for a week or two. And we feel really proud but then we kind of go back to pain in our own ways. And maybe that’s something that you’ve been experiencing, and you’ve got the heavy things, you have all the technical side complete, but you’re just not finishing off that last 20% to get it out into the world. So it’s not even like you haven’t started the thing yet. You’ve got most of it there. But because of your perfectionism handbrake and the way that’s making you prioritize things like social media content, and the way that’s making you think about time and think about your business and think about yourself, it feels so hard to just do that last little bit and get it out there.

And what can often happen as well for perfectionist is that we kind of get in this mindset of like, everything needs to be perfect. And like, Yes, I hear people saying these things like done is better than perfect and whatever. And honestly, that phrase is something that hasn’t ever really resonated with me because to me, I was like, but I don’t want to be successful, if it’s not perfect, like, I want everything to look beautiful and to be high quality. And it’s really like part of it is reconciling, like, do you want everything to look pretty imperfect? Or do you want a successful business?

Like, where do you want your priority to be? And it’s not to say that you when you’re going to be successful making 100k beyond that, that you won’t have a business that looks beautiful from the outside and has beautiful graphics, like knowing the kind of person that you are, that the things that look substandard to you, to everyone else, they look pretty amazing. But it’s just reconciled, like when you have that piece of you that’s like, but I don’t really know, like, it’s just a matter of doing things imperfect that I don’t want to do things imperfectly.

So I’d rather just do things perfectly. And then, you know, figure out how to find more time. So I can do everything perfectly, or whatever that looks like. And it’s just really coming to grips with what’s most important for me. A successful business, and achieving my goals and having the freedom that I want to have in my business and not burning out and like all of that kind of thing. Or do I want every single thing to be pretty imperfect, including the things that don’t even matter to the person on the other end. And that only I will notice.

And if I’m honest with myself, I don’t even notice them that much. The only reason I’m paying attention to them is because it distracts me from this other scary thing I shouldn’t be spending my time on. So just want to mention that is something that is going on for you like I don’t want done I want perfect. Just have a think about that. So also impostor syndrome, which is caused by the all or nothing mindset that perfectionist have, and it sounds something like this. If I’m not perfectly qualified, and I know everything, then I know nothing.

And this mindset has huge knock on effects when it comes to being productive and achieving your goals for your business. So first of all, you won’t be probably promoting your product or service, because it’s such a struggle to put yourself out there because you’re like, Well, you know, what if people say that I don’t know what I’m doing, or what if people realize that I haven’t really got this figured out. Or what if people realize that there are other people who bought this product and they didn’t love it.

Maybe they haven’t even been that many, like you haven’t been getting negative feedback, but you’re just imagining that there will be and so when this is going on, it’s such a struggle to find clients. And it really feels like they’re just coming out of the blue or coming out of the woodwork, whether you have a service based business, or whether it’s customers and you have a product business, that you just feel like you can’t reliably create sales.

And you just feel like as well, when you do make a sale, you’re just waiting for the refund requests or for angry email from someone to say like, that wasn’t good enough, I want my money back. I can’t believe you thought that it was okay to charge me for this, that it was okay to take my money. Like we just when we have our perfectionism handbrake on no matter what we’ve solved for productivity when say, for example, with kids, and you have childcare, and you figured that thing out, or you have a chronic health condition, and you’re managing that or neuro divergence, or whatever that looks like, if you don’t solve for the perfectionism piece, it’s going to impact your productivity, whether you like it or not.

And that’s going to stop you from getting to the goals that you have for your business, the goals that you know, you are perfectly capable of achieving, when it comes to intelligence, and all of that side of things. It’s just your perfectionism that is making you get in your own way and hold yourself back. And you do pretty well with things at the last minute. Like it’s, we have this track record of being able to procrastinate on things, and then have this big burst of energy at the last minute and get it done and do pretty well.

Whether that’s been in school and you get the A, or whether that has been in your business and you’ve managed to pull off whatever it was that you were trying to achieve. So it kind of reinforces this like, well, it has been working, but it’s really looking at like, yeah, it has been working. If what your business currently looks like is your goal, because it’s created the results that you currently have. But is it going to work to get you to 100k and beyond that? And even if it does work do you want that? Do you want it to work and exploring the possibility and a big piece of this podcast is about opening your eyes to the possible ability, the opportunity that you can actually be insanely productive and not burn out, and not sacrifice the quality of your work.

And essentially tick all the boxes that you want to take to feel aligned with your business and fulfilled and not be resenting it. And to also feel like you just have control over sales that you can really just decide when you want to make money in a way that’s in alignment with your values and the goals that you have and everything else that you can just decide what you want to achieve. And achieve it like having that kind of control over the money that you’re making is only possible when you release your perfectionism handbrake and get into a growth mindset.

And you can execute when that happens, you can execute on the strategic plans that you have. And you can do that in a consistent and sustainable way, and achieve the goals that you know you’re capable of achieving. So if you are feeling like right now, you are hoping and wishing and I love manifestation, you’re manifesting and doing all that. But ultimately, you’re not really sure how much money you’ll make. Because when you make money, it’s just from people coming out of the blue. And it just feels like a fluke. And like yes, you’re doing your content creation. And you’re sure that some part of that is contributing to the sales.

But you can’t, you don’t really know like, if I pull this lever, then I have this number of sales. And if I pull this lever, then I have that number of sales like you don’t feel like you have that level of control. And that’s because your perfectionism handBrake is making you get in your own way, it’s stopping you from being productive. It’s stopping you from doing the things that you know you need to do. And even though you’re busy, and you’re spending all day, every day working like there’s never really a time where you’re not working. You don’t take holidays. And if you do you take your laptop with you like you never really switch off.

And yet you still aren’t where you want to be with your business, you need to take the perfectionism quiz, you also need to join us inside PGSD. But for now just do this quiz. It only takes a few minutes. And it is going to give you a personalized insight into which of the five signs of perfectionism is the biggest problem for you, which is the one that you really need to focus on working on. This is what that quiz is going to tell you.

As I mentioned, no matter when it comes to productivity, how you solve everything else, if this perfectionism piece isn’t solved, then you’re not going to be able to hit the goals that you have. And it’s knowing that this isn’t a personal development thing that this really is about productivity and achieving your goals and becoming successful, whatever success means to you. But knowing that it is possible to have a business that you love that’s making a lot of money, and you have the lifestyle you want as well that you can do all of those things.

And it isn’t just a nice to have, or this is a nice little personal development project. I work on my perfectionism, it’s great to be in a good mindset about things. And so I’ll work on that, you know, once I’ve grown my audience, and once I’ve done this, and once I’ve done that, it’s like this is the piece that you’ve been missing this perfectionism piece and solving for it, and doing the work on it. So that you can execute your plans so that you can achieve your goals.

It’s not a nice to have, it’s a must. And if you have felt like you are trudging through mud, and that you know a lot, but what you know isn’t reflected in the amount of money that your business is making. And you see other people who are building their businesses and they are hitting their goals and making more money and you just feel like you’re being left behind. And that you’re so behind you always feel behind. You always feel behind.

This quiz is really going to help you to identify why that is. And how perfectionism is making you get in your own way so that you’re able to get out of your own way. This is the path to solving for this to becoming more productive to getting more done in less time without burning out to reclaiming that lost time that is all throughout your week. I know you know it’s there when you’re feeling scattered and you feel like you’re not very intentional with your time this part of the reason you need to work so long because there’s so much time within that. That is just being lost to overthinking to procrastinating to procrasti-working.

There’s just a lot of lost time and this quiz is going to be the first step in helping you to reclaim that lost time so that you can really go be working at peak productivity, and doing that in a way that doesn’t burn you out. So with all of that said, you can go to samlaurabrown.com/quiz to take the quiz, so you’re gonna enter your email address, you will answer the questions is only going to take you a few minutes. And then you are going to get a personalize result that’s going to tell you which of the five signs of perfectionism is most impacting you.

And in the next episode, I’m going to dive into exactly what to do about that. And depending on which of those five is most dominant for you, what you need to be focusing on and working on and looking out for. So with all that said, I hope you enjoy taking the quiz if you as I mentioned, as someone who loves personality, like assessments and quizzes and finding out more about yourself, like understanding yourself better. This is going to be something you love doing. So samlaurabrown.com/quiz is where you can take that quiz, and I will talk to you in the next episode.

Author: Sam Brown