
In this episode, I’m sharing 12 thoughts that helped me create content in a really easy, enjoyable, sustainable way that has proven to be really effective for my perfectionist brain. I wanted to record this in response to a PGSDer who posted about starting a podcast inside my group coaching program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD). These thoughts will help you create content simply and easily, and they can also be applied to other areas of your business to empower you to show up fully.
Because yes, there might be some technical things that you need to set up when it comes to content creation. But trusting yourself – or what we call self-trust – is the most important ingredient so your perfectionist brain can create high-quality content easily.
I’ve made over $2 million in my business, most of which has come from this podcast, and the times I’ve made the most money and the most impact with people have been when I’m in a high level of self-trust.
Tune in and find out why this is the case for perfectionists, and discover the 12 thoughts that will make content creation easy and effective.
Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode464.
In This Episode You’ll Learn:
- What self-trust is, and why it’s the most important thing when it comes to high-value content creation
- The reason how perfectionists think can make content creation feel hard
- What happens when perfectionists create content with low self-trust
- The 12 thoughts that help perfectionists create content easily and sustainably
Featured In The Episode::
- Free training: How To Plan Properly As A Perfectionist with Power Planning
- Sign up for Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (PGSD) – samlaurabrown.com/pgsd
- Take The Perfectionism Quiz: samlaurabrown.com/quiz
- Sign up for daily Perfectionist Power-Ups – samlaurabrown.com/power
- Follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject
Work With Me:
My coaching program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) teaches you how to plan properly as a perfectionist so you can get out of your own way in your business. To find out more about the program and sign up today, visit: samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.
Listen To The Episode
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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 today’s episode, I’m going to be sharing with you 12 thoughts that make content creation really easy for me. And I recently saw yesterday actually a post in the PGSD forum. So PGSD is my program perfectionist getting shit done. And one of our PGSDers, is starting a podcast. And I just thought I would record an episode to share with her and with you the thoughts I recommend that will help you get into self trust. So yes, there might be some technical things that you need to set up. But the most important thing when it comes to any kind of content creation, whether that’s a podcast, a YouTube channel, it’s emails that you’re sending out to potential clients or customers, like whatever that looks like for you, trusting yourself is going to allow you to do it in the quickest, easiest, most effective, most enjoyable way.
And in a world where currently there are so many people, there’s never been as many people as there are today, who will tell you that you’re doing it wrong, you need to be more strategic, you need to be more formulaic about it. And yes, strategy, of course plays a role in business. But if the way that you’re approaching strategy, especially, for example, social media strategy, or marketing or sales, if the way you’re approaching that has you questioning yourself doubting yourself, holding yourself back, trying to get it right, overthinking, not publishing things, not putting it out there, reading an email and waiting a few days or weeks to reply, or maybe you go post all together, simply because you feel like you can’t say it good enough, so you better not say anything at all. If that’s the case, it doesn’t matter how good your strategy is. Because if you’re not trusting yourself, you can’t actually execute it.
Inside PGSD, one of the main things that we talk about, and you get coaching on and hear others getting coached on is self trust, and the growth goal, your set your power planning, all of that is a tool to help you create self trust, because without it, business is shit. So in this episode, I’m just going to be sharing with you some thoughts, it really helped me create content in a really easy, enjoyable, sustainable way that has proven to be really effective. I’ve made over $2 million in my business, most of that business has come from this podcast. And the times I’ve made the most money and had the most impact, and had the most number of people who have DM me and emailed me to say your podcast has been completely life changing for me. That has been when I have been in the highest levels of self trust.
And I’ve been thinking the thoughts that I’m going to be sharing with you in this episode. I want to mention too, that the thoughts that I’m sharing are for a perfectionist entrepreneur, ie someone who leans towards self criticism, inventing flaws, believing that the hard way is the best way, I either way you’d naturally do it isn’t going to be good enough. If you do it in an easy way, then you’re not going to be deserving, it’s not actually going to work because complicated is better. And I really want to say that because I know that you listening to this will say, but high quality content is really important to me. And I really want to make sure that when I’m sending an email or doing a YouTube video or a podcast episode, or whatever that is that I’m actually delivering value to that person.
So it is actually going to take me a really long time to put that together. And I am actually needing to really think it through like I really want to be respectful and diligent and thoughtful. And so of course, I need to spend a lot of time on things. And we really lean to when we’re not in self trust, we either lean towards really overbearing and overthinking. Or we just have our things and we don’t allow ourselves to give ourselves a full effort at it. We want to be getting into that growth mindset. We talk about this a lot inside the program as well. The growth mindset is where you are willing to give it a full effort. And when you do you don’t make it mean something about yourself. If you gave it a full effort and it didn’t work.
As perfectionist, we are so scared of finding out that we are inadequate because we think we are we that we are incapable because that’s what we’re thinking about ourselves. And so what we do is we avoid putting in a full effort, so as to never have to find out that our best isn’t good enough. But once you get into that growth mindset, and I’ll teach you practically how to do that, but once you get into that growth mindset, you are really able to be operating your business and your life as well. From a place of really deeply believing in your capability and being willing to find out that there are inadequacies that there are places that you do have flaws, but because you’re not in a shame spiral about it, you’re actually able to solve for it when we shame ourselves about our inadequacies and flaws. We tend not to actually solve it them in a productive way, and only perpetuate the situation.
So this episode of what I’m sharing with you today and on the whole podcast is for someone who I know will be creating high quality content, who has great intentions, that you want to do good with your business and you want to do good for the world. And where you need help, is allowing yourself to put it out there and to show up and to ship it. You don’t need help of like, okay, you’re doing this thing that’s really actually bad and not helpful. And so let’s help you make it good. And what tends to happen, you might have found this actually, if you go and ask like, maybe your husband or your wife or a friend or like someone for feedback, that if you’re asking them for feedback on your content, they will hear, tell me what’s wrong with this.
And especially if you’re approaching it from that mindset. So they will tell you, well, you could be doing this better, like this wasn’t clear. And really the best thing for a perfectionist entrepreneur, because you’re already criticizing yourself enough, you’re also smart. And you can spot actual flaws and inadequacies, as well. So what you actually just need is encouragement from yourself mainly. But you also just need a place where you can be encouraged to put it out there and to be able to create the emotional capacity and resilience. So if someone doesn’t like it, if you do get bad feedback about it, you’re emotionally able to withstand that. And so in my program as well, we have the community aspect that really helps you to actually have a safe place to land. If you don’t personally know anyone else who has a business like you who’s doing courageous things like you’re trying to do, it’s so important to have that.
So I just wanted to mention that as well. If you are trying to get feedback from certain places, you will actually be diminishing your self-trust, particularly if that feedback is like, Okay, here’s what needs to be improved, here’s what’s wrong with it, what you need to do is actually just be getting out there and showing up. And then once you have created a certain amount of volume, and you have actually put yourself out there and been doing that for long enough, that’s when you can begin looking at what about the quality and improving that but until then, you need to ship it, you need to show up, you need to get yourself out there. And self trust is the best way to do that. And it’s the best way to create the highest quality content, or deliverables that you can’t, when you are in low self trust, you might have moments where you feel really good because you feel like you’re getting it right.
But ultimately, you’re not actually going to be creating the highest amount of value you can. When you are deeply trusting yourself. You’re trusting in your expertise. You’re trusting in your knowledge, you’re not in the all or nothing mindset about it ie impostor syndrome, which has us thinking, if I don’t know everything perfectly, then I know nothing at all. If I have any little area in my mind where I’m not 100% clear, then I’m not actually worthy of showing up and sharing this thing. When you are actually in self trust, you will really lean into the competitive advantages that you have the fact that you have expertise, and interest and passion around things that not everyone is interested in IE you can do a better job at it simply by just being you. But when we’re not trusting ourselves, we stop ourselves from being ourselves, we’re trying to be like everyone else, we’re not taking advantage of our unfair advantages, the things that we find the easiest and our most natural at.
And it just means we ultimately end up not making the money that we could be making, we end up feeling so deflated and lost, you can get in a real slump when you’re not trusting yourself. It’s so central to every aspect of business. And I think that these sorts as well can be applied across everything else. So I’m just going to go through and share a few thoughts that I personally think when I’m not trusting myself. And I just want to mention these so you can kind of see the contrast. So I’m going to be talking specifically about the podcast. But again, this is going to be applied to anything. But I’m being specific with my examples so that I can actually be specific and not just have to be general and vague and abroad. So here are the thoughts. I think what I’m not trusting myself, and also just as a side note, self coaching and really learning how to understand your thoughts, your feelings, your actions, your results, is a very important part of being able to build a business and change your mindset and understand your mindset.
Having knowledge isn’t enough, having self awareness isn’t enough. You need to be able to have the self awareness around what you’re thinking and then be able to shift your perspective. So when you’re listening to a podcast like this, for example, I am here shifting your perspective. That’s what I’m doing as a coach. But I want you to also learn how to develop that skill for yourself. And so in PGSD, there’s a lot of journaling prompts and things like that to help you begin to do that. And in the advanced work Do I really have a practice around shifting my own perspectives, and being able to coach myself in any moment on anything, which means like, I love the self reliance of that. A perfectionist, we love to be self reliant. It’s so incredible and empowering to do that.
So I just wanted to mention as well, that as you develop a self coaching practice, and I talk about this in the program, as well, and also in the advanced work that I will be offering soon, this is something that I will be teaching, but it’s just a really important piece of being able to work on your mindset is having the self awareness, and then the ability to prospective shift. So this is why the key when I’m not trusting myself, I need to say this, right, and make sure I cover all of the points like I really get into this mindset of there’s a right way and a wrong way to do it. And of course, the way I would do it is the wrong way. Like my brain just defaults to thinking like you’re doing it wrong, I have to do it, how everyone else is doing it, like follow a formula, do it in a certain way.
For example, with a podcast episode, you need to like start by talking about this certain thing and end with this certain thing and all of that there’s so many different best practices around not only podcasting, but so many different things. And when I’m trying to follow best practices, which I’ve just reverse engineered from people who made shit up, and then we’re like, okay, now that’s the best practice, I actually end up not adding my own wisdom and flair to things. And really moving the best practices forward into something else that we end up if as a community as a body of people that were just always doing best practices, the best practices never really get updated. Like, we have to have people who are willing to not do best practices to create better ones. So everyone already knows this, like when I’m in this thought of like, I want to do a podcast episode on this. But like everyone already knows that have already talked about that so many times.
Like, I’m really just dismissing the wisdom that I have. And like, really actually not acknowledging that so many of the things, I think a common sense now like 10 years into my personal development journey. And understanding myself when it comes to perfectionism, five plus years of coaching people on perfectionism, and coaching over 1000 people like the things that feels so second nature and obvious to me, when I think that’s obvious to everyone that I’m not actually sharing the things that are so helpful, like the things that are most common sense to me, are really going to probably be the most helpful thing. So I’m not going to be feeling like oh my god, this is amazing. But to you, you’ll be like holy shit. So everyone already knows this, I have to be more articulate, and I go on tangents not say anything wrong, you can see the underlying theme here is I am wrong, I can’t get it wrong, I’m gonna get it wrong if I just like, let myself go for it. But the being articulate is such a big one.
And I feel like I’m a pretty articulate person, like I can articulate a point. And the results that I have in my business are evidence of that. And also, before I had the results of that, that I’m able to articulate myself, and then I can just undermine myself and second guess myself. And then of course, when I’m thinking that thought I have to be more articulate, it’s so hard to get my words out. It’s so hard to figure out what to say, I’m always articulate when I trust myself. I don’t know what to share for free and what to share in my programs, like, what’s the formula? And this is something that I wanted to mention, because when it comes to content creation, specifically, it’s so easy as a perfectionist to get in our heads about, okay, like, how much do I give away for free, but I want to really, especially if you’re someone and I’m assuming and sure that you are, you’re someone who genuinely wants to help people.
So like, I really want to give away all my best stuff for free and share it. But then people say I should hold things back. And there should be a difference between that and the thing that people are paying for, especially if you’re selling like myself coaching or a service or things like that, that were kind of like, okay, but like, I want to share the things, but what do I share? And what do I not share? But that is me not trusting that I actually really know what that distinction is. And I’m very confident in that. I can just forget that by thinking this kind of thought maybe I should work with a speaking coach or some kind of person who can help me be better. So this is actually a thought that I was in last year. Not for too long, thankfully, and thankfully, I didn’t act on it. But last year, I think it was around October. I was really in this thought of like, okay, the podcast is the main thing, which I still believe in like, I’ll talk about this later. But like I love podcasting. I’m great at it, it works. And so of course I want it to be the main thing, but really in this belief of like, oh, I need to be doing it better.
And that thought I need to be doing it better. really took me out of doing it well. I either wasn’t doing new episodes because of the amount of pressure that thought had me feeling. And so I would put it off to the last minute and then we’d republish an old episode or things like that, because I just actually couldn’t bring myself to record it. Or I would take like seven hours to record an episode and usually, when I’m in self trust, it takes me about 15 minutes to record and then I just speak. And I want to just quickly mention here as well, that if you hear me saying that anything, okay, Sam was it that way. So that’s how I should do it. That’s you not being in self trust. So I’m just offering how I do it as an option. I’m not saying you should do it like me, I’m saying you should trust yourself like me and not assured, but it’s the most helpful thing to do. And it feels the best as well, when you can get to a place of self trust. So for you, the self trust might look like you writing a script or having a completely different process. It’s about the self trust is not about this is the way to do it. That’s the way that works for me, and my brain. And I’m sure there are many others that would as well.
So I had this thought of like, I need to be more articulate, I need to be doing it better. And so I was like, hey, I need to understand, like what I’m doing wrong. And so I sent out a survey, and maybe you’re one of the people who complete it. But I sent out a survey of like, okay, what do you like? What are your favorite episodes? Which episodes? Or what kind of episodes don’t you listen to? What length do you like? Like, basically, a whole list of questions. And we had quite a large number of people complete that. And it was so helpful for me, because I saw, like everyone said completely different things. And one thing, like one person can be very adamant about the style they like, and the next person was very adamant that the exact style I do it is their favorite style. And then the next person is like, hey, you need to improve on this. And like you said, you go on tangents. And yes, you do. And maybe you should hire a speaking coach. And like, of course, if I’m in low self trust, and in self doubt, then someone’s going to mirror that back to me.
And I just found myself being like, maybe I should, and maybe that’s the approach. And I can trust myself to genuinely know when I need to do that. But really, that isn’t what I need to be doing. That’s not the needle mover that issue people have, with my podcasts, if any, isn’t that I don’t understand what you’re saying. And also, I’ll come to this later on about like finding the people who resonate with you, versus like trying to convince people who don’t resonate with you that they should. And then like, really, the reason why I was having trouble articulating and feeling like I needed a speaking coach was because I wasn’t trusting myself to just speak. So having that kind of thought. And I’ve seen this come up in other ways, too. I’m like, maybe I should hire an expert to help with whatever it is.
There’s a time and a place for that. But it looks very different when we’re in self trust versus when we’re not. I need to be doing this in a more professional way. Like a better setup, I need to be filming it all the time, like everyone else is filming themselves doing podcast episodes, I should be filming myself doing that. It’s easy enough. Like, if I was better, I should just be doing it. I have to give them what they want to hear I have to do the way others are doing. I think I’ve already said that. But like that thought is just so strong for my brain, it doesn’t matter if I enjoy it, I have to do it right. If I have a lot of criticism about it. So we’ll be this is a big one as well that we project our own criticisms on to everyone else. And we think like, well, I’m the best judge of quality. And if I don’t think it’s good enough quality, they won’t either, when that is so actually not accurate. And ultimately, it’s not good enough. And so now I want to share with you the way that I think when I’m in self trust.
And again, this has me actually enjoying it doing a great job at it. I naturally as well, when I’m in this and also through the different mindset work I’ve done around my money mindset and learning selling skills and different things like when I’m in self trust, I don’t need to be thinking about like, when do I mention my program PGSD. And when don’t I just naturally mention it because I believe that if you resonate with this, signing up is the best idea for you. And so I’m going to tell you about it, I’m going to sell you on it. And I can trust that you can determine for yourself whether that’s a good fit for you or not that I’m and how he’s like, Well, I won’t mention it, because maybe it’s not for them. Like if you resonate with what I’m saying, and you like the way that I teach things, then you are going to love and get the best results from PGSD. So I don’t have to be my head about like mentioned inherent damage, like I can just trust myself to speak and to share what I believe in, including the things that I have that you can sign up for.
If you want to actually do this work, and not just hear about it, you want to practically do the work and learn how to trust yourself. I’m not able to do that work with you that kind of work with you through a podcast episode, I am able to do that with you through a coaching program, which is why I want to invite you in to sign up and I’m gonna keep telling you about it because you might need to hear about it for a month or six months or two years, like some of our PGSDers before you sign up so I’m going to make sure you know about it. Anyway, side note. So these are the thoughts that I am thinking when I’m really trusting myself. I’m gonna say it exactly how they need to hear it. This is one that I have used pretty much since the beginning of my podcasting journey which began at the end of 2017. This thought around that I can just speak freely because that’s exactly how they need to hear it.
And just like a thought under this thought, or like a little baby of that thought, in a way, is when you know if like a random person is telling you something on their mind might be random, it might be someone you know, or whatever. But someone’s just like saying something. And then you have this thought that comes from whatever they said, and they’re like, oh my god, I just thought of this amazing idea. And like, what, because I wasn’t saying anything that would spark an amazing idea. Like, they don’t actually say that, like, what like, What are you talking about, and in the number of TV shows, where they’re like trying to solve a crime, or a mystery, or whatever, or like Grey’s Anatomy, and they’re trying to figure out like, what the diagnosis is, and someone will say something random, and then like Dr. Shepherd, or whoever is like, Oh, I just had an idea that, then you are like, when we are not actually sharing fully, we are forgetting that other people like we are meeting with their mind, and that they will be having their own thoughts and feelings, regardless of whether it is a podcast episode like this one, whether it is a written pose, whether it’s a little 15 second video, that we are interacting, like our creation is interacting with their brain.
And so we don’t know what that’s going to spark. And I just love the idea of that, that most likely, if you’ve had a big epiphany from this episode, it is not from like, if I went through and picked out like, what would be the thing that had you have that epiphany, it probably isn’t going to be the actual thing. That was probably something really random that I said, that I maybe didn’t even mean to say that you were like, Oh my God, that’s it. And so I just love that. And I love being with that idea. Because then it allows me to just talk freely, and trust you to be able to draw conclusions and have epiphanies, like I don’t have to spoon feed you, I don’t have to hold your hand about it. I can just show up. And I can trust your brain to interact with that and take value from it. So I’m gonna say it exactly how they need to hear it. The way that’s easiest for me is the most valuable for them. This is a thought that I really adopted as well as a coach, because when I saw I used to work as an accountant, I have a law degree in a finance degree that I went into insolvency accounting. I worked as a accountant for a couple of years. And really like I was in this mindset like most people are that we get paid as compensation for doing things we don’t like.
And for doing things that are time consuming, so if something quick, you shouldn’t get paid much, which is why people complain about how much consultants charge because only a 10 minute appointment. But also like I got paid as an accountant because I wouldn’t have been an accountant for free. So when it came to coaching, which I would happily do for free, then it’s so easy. And it was so easy to be in this mindset of like, well, if I would do it for free, I should do it for free. And also, I find it very easy to be on a call with someone and to reflect back to them what they’re thinking to ask them really great questions that helped them create clarity for themselves, and create those perspective shifts themselves. And to really be able to do that like something I’ve always done naturally. And because I found it easy to do. And because I had previously been only paid for things that I found hard and boring to do, that I really had to undo this mindset of it’s only worth getting paid for something or something is only valuable if it’s hard.
And when it came to coaching particularly and I really thought about it like the thought that helped me break free of that belief is that if I’m having a really hard time recording a podcast episode or coaching someone, most likely, that’s not going to be helpful or enjoyable for that person. Like if someone is really struggling to help you. It’s not more valuable, it is less valuable if someone is having an easy time doing it. Like if you go to a doctor, for example. And they’re having a really hard time trying to figure out what your diagnosis is. That’s not as valuable as someone who’s like, Oh, I see this all day, every day. It’s this, this and this ask you three great spot on questions like just that is so much more valuable. And they can do it quickly and easily because they have that expertise.
And they’re trusting themselves versus the person who’s overthinking who’s second guessing who else to ask for a second opinion, even though they actually already know the answer that isn’t valuable or not as valuable as when it is the easiest for the skilled person to do it. So that thought of the way this easiest to me is the most valuable for them really just helps me lean into what’s easy for me, I’m too close to the value of what I’m creating to see it, these thoughts are all a different flavor of like, don’t listen to your brain. When my brain tells me it’s not good enough, here are great reasons not to listen to that. I’m too close to the value of what I’m creating to see it. As I said before, if I feel like everything that I’m sharing has to be this amazing like, Oh my God, I’ve never thought of it that way. And whatever, that I’m actually not going to be sharing a lot of the things that I have figured out now and learned about and mastered many years ago, I’m not going to be telling you that stuff because it feels too boring and common sense to me.
And that stuff is so helpful for you to hear about. So if I actually just trust myself, then when my brain is saying like this isn’t good enough, this doesn’t feel valuable, I can just tell myself, I’m actually too close to the value of what I’m creating to see it. My best clients love the way I naturally say it. Like anyone who is really genuinely good to be helped by me loves the way that I naturally say they don’t want me to have to be more articulate. And sure I could be unsure, I could go on less side tangents or whatever. Personally, I love listening to people that do that. And obviously there’s a time and a place and whatever. But ultimately, I just love learning from other humans, not robots, I can trust myself to know when I genuinely need to upskill. So coming back to what we’ve talked about a few times in this episode, that I can actually trust myself to know okay, I do need to work on my speaking skills or whatever.
Or I do need to work on my coaching skills or whatever skill sets, I have my marketing skill set my sales skill set, like there’s so many skill sets within a business. And I can trust myself to know when I genuinely need to do that me being in self doubt, doesn’t mean I need to upskill it really means I need to change my thoughts. And then once I’m in a place of sufficiency and adequacy, that’s when I can actually see what upskilling needs to occur. A lot of perfectionist we love learning, because we love being in the place where we don’t actually have to implement anything yet that we get to be with my learning when we’re doing a degree or whatever the essay might be exams and marks and things like that, that can be stressful. But ultimately, when you are learning something, you’re not having to do it and you’re not having to actually test to see whether you really have potential there.
And so we love learning, we can get stuck in that procrastinate learning. And we can also really be like well, I want to upskill and this and that and like I really want to make sure I’m helping people and I really want to make sure that I have a great skill set and all of this and so I’m gonna go and do that certification, or I’m gonna go and do this degree or whatever. And when I’m in a place of self trust I actually really think about those kinds of upskilling decisions in such a different way, because I’m coming at it from a place of sufficiency and like, okay, maybe I could be better, but I am sufficiently articulate. But maybe there are other areas where I’m actually not at a level of sufficiency in terms of my skill set. And so I’m going to do that. Instead, the area that I’m doubting myself the most isn’t necessarily the area that I need to be working on in terms of my skill set. I know what to share my free content versus what to share my paid programs. I’ve mentioned this before, so I won’t go into it too much.
But when I actually think that thought, I invite you to try it on. If you’ve been having drama about that, like I just, I know what to share in my free content versus my paid programs. I’m doing the same thing I’ve always done just in front of more people. I heard this from Graham or Graham, Stefan, who’s a YouTuber, he was doing an interview. And he’s just like, I’ve just doing what I’ve always done, but there are more people watching now. And that to me, I’m sure when he said that he thought nothing of it such a good example of what I was saying before, about how you can just speak things, and it really resonates with everyone in different ways. But him saying that it just really took me out of this need to professionalize and like, okay, when there’s more people, you should be doing it better.
And just being like, okay, I can actually just do it the same way that I have always done it and have more people watching, it really makes me think of friends, the TV show, and how their salaries or their income or whatever you call, it increased so much by the losses, I hit on making like a million dollars an episode. But they were acting in a very similar way to what they did in the first season. Sure, they got more skilled, but really, there was just so much more demand for it. And their skill set that probably hadn’t changed that much had just gotten a lot more valuable. And so you can just like I find when I really think about like I can just do it the same way. I’ve always done it and it’s just in front of more people, it helps me really get out of that urge to professionalize everything.
And I’ve really seen so many creators go through it, and then come out the other side of like, I need to have the best camera and I need to have the best microphone. And I need to have this proper, like recording studio and all of this stuff. So that we can feel like we’re actually deserving of the attention. And when I’ve just been like I’m still recording on the same microphone, I’ve actually had to buy a few of them over the years, but the same microphone that Tim Ferriss recommended. And so I was like, Okay, I’ll buy that the same microphone, I’m literally just sitting here at my desk, I’m not recording it, because I don’t want to sitting here at my desk, I’m holding it in my hand, because I find that easiest one, I just like hold it in my hand and tuck into it. And I have like a really old pair of headphones. And I often don’t even have any headphones in I’m recording in quick time. Like I’m literally doing it the same way I’ve always done it.
And I haven’t I’m so glad that I haven’t allowed myself to indulge in like I need to have the sharpest audio quality and like all of this, but like actually, if it’s at a sufficient level of audio quality, the best thing I can do is give myself circumstances where it’s easiest for me to record and where I find it the most enjoyable, because that’s going to be the most sustainable. And if something isn’t sustainable, there’s no point really doing that. I mean, there’s exceptions to that. But ultimately, in this context, if you’re trying to create content in a way that isn’t going to be sustainable, and yet, you’re hoping that it will be because once you get external validation, then you’ll be more motivated, it’s not going to work, particularly because to get to the place where you have that external validation will take a lot longer than you want, it’s not going to be a week isn’t going to be three weeks.
And often people have, like when they do have instant success, then that’s a really scary place to be for a lot of perfectionist because then we feel like we have to like maintain and hold it and defend it. And we just get old funny about things. And so it really is, I think such a gift for perfectionist to have it take longer than you want it to take. So you can learn that resilience, but having a sustainable approach. It’s something that I’m such a big believer in and power planning. And your growth goal is really set up to have you doing your business in a sustainable way. But we want to make sure that we are really not going into this mindset of professionalizing everything and making sure we do it right and professional. And instead just actually doing it in the way that we would trust ourselves the most and doing what is conducive to self trust.
Okay, the next one is I’m finding the people who resonate with me not trying to resonate with the people who don’t, this is a subtle shift, but it is very easy to try and convince the people who aren’t haters, but they aren’t quite believers and to just try and say it better for them, and to help them see the light or whatever. And really when I’m just in self trust, I’m like my podcast isn’t for everyone. Not everyone loves his style podcast, there is no style of podcast that everyone loves. And so instead of trying to be a particular style of podcast because someone said, that’s what they want to hear, they want really concise episodes like that is not the podcast, this is not the podcast for that. And there are obviously formats that I could do that that would be for that person that they would probably enjoy. But I really want it and this is one of the thoughts I have, like I’m creating the podcast that I would love to listen to. That’s chatty and imperfect and real and raw and honest.
And so I am going to stick to that and trust that I can find those people and trust that I don’t have to be for everyone. And I’m willing to be disliked. I’m willing for people to not like the way I do it. I’m willing for people to have comments and feedback on how I can do it better. And to just be interesting myself that I know from over a decade of listening to podcasts. I know for me what makes a good podcast episode listening experience, and what doesn’t. And I’m creating for the person like me, I’m not trying to please the crowd and just create a video a podcast that the masses will enjoy. I am really an especially as someone who coaches perfectionist entrepreneurs where the work is self trust, that I think the best most helpful thing I can do is to do all that I do in the highest state of self trust possible, not only because just listening to me in a state of self trust gets you into that. But that really is the work and what I want to demonstrate and embody.
And so me trying to do it the right way and talk to people who don’t actually and probably will never, like what I’m doing or like me as a person. It’s just it’s not productive. It’s not enjoyable. And it’s so hard to get the words out when I’m thinking about the people who don’t want to hear it. This is a business and in business, there’s no right way. So really having this thought about business is really important in general, too. But I think that and I’ve been reflecting on this a lot recently that when it comes to business now because entrepreneurship has become so much more popular through people like Gary Vaynerchuk. And like there’s just been this real like romanticizing around entrepreneurship, but also like with the internet and all that it’s so much easier to have your own business or to freelance or whatever. And that I really feel like when I look at how most people are approaching business, is that we are looking at like, basically a permanent like school. Like, there’s this formula for how to do it, right. And I’m just gonna, like tick those boxes. And it’s really almost like we’re doing a job.
And having that approach versus really being in the creativity and freedom that is available as an entrepreneur, that we get to choose how we do it. And there are so many ways. And if you look at like Richard Branson, who’s one of the most celebrated entrepreneurs, he’s such a great example, I think of what the entrepreneurial spirit is, which is like trying shit, having big ideas, like he wasn’t like, Okay, here’s the formula that I need to follow, like he was really paving the way. And I don’t think everyone necessarily has to be someone who paves the way. But I want to be someone who paved the way, in my own ways. And I want to be someone who isn’t just like, basically in a job, but it’s entrepreneurship. And I’m thinking I’m just really thinking of it that way, like, well, here’s how to have a coaching business. And I need to do this this way, and not that way. And here’s how to have a successful podcast. And then like, really, what is the point of being an entrepreneur, if it’s treated with that same mindset.
So I love having that thought of this as a business. And in business, there’s no right way. And I really want to, like when I’m trusting myself, I’m able to leave and lean into that entrepreneurial spirit, and do things my way and do things in a way that I don’t see others doing them. But I think like I would love that. And so I created and I’m willing to stick with it, even if it doesn’t work after the first week, which it never does, or like the first few months or even years, that I’m willing to have a long term approach because it’s so much more sustainable, to be trusting ourselves. And we’re willing to stick it bigs when we are versus when we’re not trusting ourselves. That’s when we chop and change. And we do something for a very short amount of time and say that didn’t work and then we try something else. This sustainable way is the only way I have to find a way I enjoy and can do for years.
So that’s another thought. I’m creating the podcasts I’d love to listen to I’ve mentioned that how I feel while creating is not an indicator of how they will feel while consuming, ie don’t listen to my own self criticism. And just to share a couple of little hacks. Before I share my final thought, which I hope you can take with you. But when it has come particularly to the podcast because I’m just here chatting like I have a few dot points and I’m just talking and sometimes not today. Actually I don’t really have much self criticism about this. I’m in a state of high self trials currently, but sometimes I’m not and So when I’m not, it is very easy to think like, I didn’t really explain that right. And like, I should have said this, but I didn’t like have all of those thoughts that I mentioned earlier. And so what I do, and this has been something that in the beginning, I created a higher volume of podcast episodes, I was doing two episodes a week, because that allowed me to have the thought of okay, well, if this one’s shit is okay, because another one’s coming in a few days.
But what I do, typically, if I’m like, Ah, that really wasn’t a great episode, I don’t ask for feedback from others, because they’re going to tell me, here’s all the things you could have done better. And especially unless there’s someone who is my exact person that I’m talking to, who is also wanting to do the work when it comes to like learning how to coach themselves and power plan and all that, like, there’s not really much point getting that person’s feedback. But again, also when we just ask for feedback, typically, people will reply with here’s what’s wrong, because they think that’s what we’re asking, especially when we’re coming from an energy of I think this is wrong, do you think this is wrong, too. So I will provide my own feedback to myself. And the way I do it with a podcast is that usually I will go for a walk or like do something, I’ll give myself a bit of distance between myself and what I created.
Because we can really just like be so critical right in their creation process, I think just separating it out is great. And then so I’ll go for a walk or something. And I’ll come back, and I’ll listen to it in double speed, sometimes even faster, but usually just double speed. And I listened back to it. And I kind of like zone out as if I’m listening to someone else’s episode, like I’m not trying to pay close attention, like, here’s a transcript and this word was wrong in that way. Like, I’m not nitpicking myself, what I do, it’s just like a high level, is this sufficient. And listening to it a double speed really helps me not only because so many people listen to podcasts in like 1.25 – 1.5, 2 speed. And so that is someone else’s experience anyway, but particularly because I listened to so many podcasts, usually a little bit faster than like the normal speed, that when I listen back to myself in normal speed, I sound so slow, it’s so easy to just really nitpick it. And like, if I listen quickly, I can just get a high level overview of like, do I think this would be helpful for someone who doesn’t know the things that I know. Like, I’m asking myself that kind of question and not looking for what is wrong with it.
But basically, like, is there anything egregious about this episode? Like, is there anything that is actually completely misleading, or is going to be so confusing, like, I’m kind of really just looking for extreme flaws, extreme errors, because if we looked for just a little wonder, I could have said that better. It just gets really, really hard. So the final thought I want to share with you is, if in doubt, send it out. That is the thought that will help you to publish it, you might have your own version of that. But I know that because my brain likes to err on the side of hiding and holding back and not showing up and not being seen that for me, it’s like if in doubt, send it out and have it be published publicly. Because if you have a lot of private work that you’ve accumulated, it’s not going to help you build self trust. If you’re constantly saying, well, this isn’t good enough, this isn’t good enough, this isn’t good enough, you really need to be able to ship and perfection is getting shit done.
We obviously help you with that. And so just coming back to this whole concept of what the episode is about, all of this is really to help you to trust yourself to let go of the formulas and strategies that you think are evidenced that you aren’t good enough, and you just need to be better at it, you need a bit more practice, and you need to practice in private. Or maybe when you’re posting on social media, or whatever it is you’re quite sporadic, or you’re just maybe like going through the motions and not really fully engaged with it. But most likely what I see the most for people inside perfectionist getting shit done is that before they start power planning and doing the work on their perfectionist mindset, they’re doing a lot of posting and ghosting, where you will be posting perfectly for a week, maybe two or three weeks if you’re lucky. And then you won’t post anything for weeks or maybe months.
And then you’ll feel like re inspired or motivated. And you’ll kind of just go through that cycle again and again, trusting yourself less and less each time. And so you can actually learn how to do things consistently and it comes from learning how to manage your mind and do things in a way that works for you perfectionist mindset and plan in a way that works for you perfectionist mindset as well. So if you’ve resonate with this episode, if you want to do this work, and actually trust yourself and just hear about what it could sound like to trust yourself, then you can go to Sandler brown.com/ptsd to sign up. We are open for enrollment you will get instant access to everything inside. You’ll be guided through how to set your growth goal and you also have the option to get a bonus call if you sign up right now.
Now you have the option to get a bonus call where you’ll be supported to set your growth goal with a PGSD Coach, you will be learning how to plan properly as a perfectionist with power planning. Like you will learn how to actually trust yourself. And therefore your content creation won’t be all of the overthinking. And like having a document of Instagram captions that are 80% written but not good enough to publish yet you need to do a bit more polishing, or you need to do a better graphic for or you need to find the perfect point or whatever, like, you will actually be able to take all of that content you have created and create the emotional safety and self trust yourself to publish it out into the world. And if that is you, if you resonate with that, I really invite you inside because being able to make that shift from creating a lot of things in private and then creating it publicly.
And doing that in a really safe way for your perfectionist brain, your nervous system is what is going to be able to create a foundation for you to build your business, if you don’t have the ability to show up and share. You aren’t going to be able to get anywhere. And my mission is to get perfectionist entrepreneurs out of their own way because I believe the world is such a better place with businesses in it that a helping people and the people, I attract people who genuinely want to help people with their business. But because of their perfectionist mindset, and the kind of stuff we’ve talked about in this episode, they aren’t actually doing the things that they need to do or if they are doing them. They’re burning themselves out and doing it in a completely unsustainable way.
And so the way that I can best help the world is getting all of the amazing people with great business ideas and skill sets to actually be able to show up and get shit done and not go into the shame spiral when things don’t work and be able to bounce back from failure and be emotionally regulated throughout failure to have self confidence and to also genuinely know when to upskill like all of that that is my mission. That is my purpose. And I’m very passionate about it if you can’t tell so I hope this episode has been incredibly helpful. I hope to see you inside PGSD if you do decide to join me and everyone else in there, I hope you’re having a beautiful day and I will talk to you in the next episode.