Podcast

Episode 467: Do You Have A Knowledge Problem, A Resource Problem Or An Implementation Problem?

In this episode I’m sharing how to identify whether it’s a knowledge problem, a resource problem or an implementation problem that is stopping your business from growing. You’ll learn how to identify which one you have and what to do to actually solve for it. And in case you genuinely have all of those problems – say you literally don’t have enough knowledge, time, money, energy and courage to build your business the way you want – you’ll learn how to prioritise these problems so you can find a solution for all of them.

When it comes to business, we often invest a lot of time, money and energy into solving the wrong problem. We end up getting so frustrated and feeling so ashamed because we feel like there’s something wrong with us that we aren’t making more progress. If you can relate to that, listening to this episode is going to give you so much relief. Knowing what problem you have and how to actually solve it is going to help you make sure you invest your time, money and energy into what you need the most.

I also share the mistakes and failures I’ve had along the way so that you can learn from my experience rather than learning the hard way. This episode is an important one for all perfectionist entrepreneurs as well as those who want to become entrepreneurs in the future.

Find the full episode transcript and show notes at samlaurabrown.com/episode467.

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My coaching program Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) teaches you how to take consistent action on the most important things for your business without burning yourself out.
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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 this episode is going to be so helpful. I’m going to be sharing with you about knowledge problems, resource problems and implementation problems, how to know which one you have and what to do to solve for it. This is so important. I have seen over my years as a coach, and also, just like in my friendships and other personal relationships as well that so often, when it comes to business, we invest a lot of time, money and energy into solving the wrong problem, and only end up getting so frustrated and ultimately feeling so ashamed because we feel like there’s something wrong with us that we aren’t making more progress. So I really hope with this episode, just by understanding more about whether you have a knowledge problem, a resource problem or an implementation problem, there are three types of implementation problems that you can actually get a solution for the kind of problem you actually have.

So I’m going to go through, first the knowledge problem, how to tell if you have a knowledge problem, what the two types of knowledge problems are, and then what to do if you do have a knowledge problem, the next is a resource problem. So maybe you don’t have enough time, money or energy to build your business the way that you want to be building it. I’m going to help you walk through okay, if you don’t have a knowledge problem, do you have a money problem? Do you have a time problem? Do you have an energy problem? And what do you need to do to solve for those if you do have that? And then after that, I’m going to talk about what to do if you have an implementation problem. Like, how to know if that is your problem. What the three types are some of the signs that you have an implementation problem, what to do if you have an implementation problem. And also, like, why they happen?

Because it’s not just that you’re a lazy person or you’re unmotivated or you’re just scattered, like there are psychological reasons why we humans who are smart and ambitious and have a lot of potential, why we get in our own way and don’t implement what we know even though we have the time, money and energy, or access to the time, money and energy, or resourcefulness that could have us have the time, money and energy to be able to do the thing we want to do. So I have a lot to share with you in this episode, and I just hope you find it incredibly helpful. This is the kind of episode where it’s easy to think, oh, yeah, this person, I think they might have this and that person, I think they might have this problem, like, think about yourself with this episode. What kind of problem do you have when it comes to building your business? That’s what I really want to help you with. I really want to help you identify the problem so you can actually get the right solution and don’t waste your time, money and energy on something that isn’t appropriate for what problem you have right now.

And just a note on that too, that the problem you have right now, that problem contained, you can go between like, okay, at one point you do have an energy problem, and then a different point, you do have a knowledge problem, and then you do have an implementation problem. So want to look at, okay, what kind of problem do you have right now, and solving for that, and then knowing that if you have those other kinds of problems, you’re going to know how to solve for them, and it might not be the way that you think. So first of all, do you have a knowledge problem? So there are two ways this tends to show up. So you either don’t have enough knowledge about the next one to three steps that you need to take to build your business, you literally just don’t know what to do, or you have too much knowledge, and I’ll talk about that as well, and then what to do if you have a knowledge problem.

Because really, if we think about it, having the knowledge on the next one to three steps that you need to take to build your business is the first thing that you’re going to need if you don’t have that knowledge, if you literally have no idea what to do, and especially if you’re not the kind of person who is just happy to figure that out through trying then you need to get that knowledge either through learning it from someone else who has done that thing, or through your own experience and giving it a go. So first of all, not having enough knowledge. So how do you know if this is you? How do you know if you don’t have enough knowledge? I’m gonna guess as well that there is a good chance that if you relate to what I talk about on this podcast, you’re gonna think this is your problem, that you don’t have enough knowledge, and maybe that’s because you’re feeling confused and unclear. But that’s different to having a knowledge problem, and I’m gonna talk about that in this episode.

So how do you know if you have a knowledge problem? If you met someone, there’s a question to ask you, if you met someone and they wanted to build the same kind of business that you want to build, or that you are currently building, and they asked you what their next three steps might be, like, they’ve shared some of the specifics. Like, here’s what I’m here’s where I’m at, here’s what I’m going through. Like, what do you think the next one to three things for me to focus on would be. If you would not be able to tell them if it was someone else, someone who’s smart and capable, and you could say, like, Okay, I think maybe you need to figure out, like, how to market your business and do some marketing for your business. And maybe you could do that on social media or through word of mouth, or do you know anyone you could email, and then maybe you need to, like, have something to sell, and what’s your prices? And like, if you could kind of guide someone through. And it’s not to say that you know all the specifics in the ins and outs, but if you know the next one to three steps that they might need to take, then you don’t have a problem of not having enough knowledge.

And I want to mention on this too, because what our perfectionist brains to be, like, I need to know the A to Z, like, I don’t just need to know the next one to three steps. I need to know like, step 10, Step 27 step 57 because we’re so scared of starting something where we could find out through the process of doing that thing that we’re incapable. So we try to learn everything ahead of time so that we can get it right. We don’t want to do anything where we might look dumb or just feel embarrassed because we get stuck at a certain point and we can’t figure it out, or we find out that it doesn’t work for us. And so so many perfectionists get stuck just trying to figure out, for example, like, if you haven’t even made $1 yet, and you are trying to figure out, like, how to incorporate your business and how to do your taxes if you are making a million dollars, and what that will be like, like, you’re way ahead of yourself. That is not a problem of you don’t have enough knowledge. You are most likely in the too much knowledge category. But I just wanted to mention that here as well. So if you don’t have enough knowledge, then I’m going to talk about what to do, because it is actually the same solution as if you have too much knowledge.

So how do you know if you have too much knowledge, and if you are someone who constantly questions yourself and you feel confused and unclear about what to do about say things like your niche or your messaging, or how to market and all those different things, then you might not think you have too much knowledge. You might think like, No, I just actually need to figure out the right strategy and the right messaging and like, I don’t actually know that, but this is such a really I just want to underline this, the too much knowledge thing. There’s overconsumption, and this makes it hard to take action and creates a lot of confusion, feeling unclear, question yourself. And we love consuming knowledge, because we get to feel smart and like we’re being productive, but we don’t have to risk failure because we’re just safe either watching a video, listening to something, reading a book, and of course, there’s always one more book to read, one more podcast to listen to before we’re going to be ready.

So a lot of perfectionist and this is what definitely I used to do, like I didn’t really I mean, there were times I had not enough knowledge, for sure, but having too much knowledge was something, especially in the beginning, that I struggled with because I was always trying to piece together free information, podcast episodes, webinars, books, podcasts, quotes, all the things that I could find to try to figure out what to do and to try to get to clarity. And when I wasn’t feeling clear about something, I would try to solve that because I thought I had a knowledge problem, I would try to solve that by learning more knowledge instead of actually solving for the true problem that I had, which was an implementation problem. So over consumption. This is kind of like thinking about, say, for example, if you are a chef and you want to cook something and you need a recipe to follow.

So maybe you’re not even a chef, chef who could, like, make that recipe up. Maybe you’re someone like me who just, like, wants to be cooking something in your kitchen, and would ideally like to be told, have this amount of this and this amount of that. And here’s a recipe, if you imagine that I’m trying to cook something, and I have 10 different recipe books open, and they’re all recipe books with recipes that work. These are all things that like, the photo looks amazing. Maybe a friend gave me one cookbook, and then someone else gave me another one that’s like, okay, these recipes all work. And say, I want to cook like a blueberry muffin. I want to do some baking. And so if I’m trying to at the same time, follow 10 different recipes, Okay, this one says I need self raising flour. This one says I need plain flour. This one says baking soda. This one says no baking soda. Like, what do I actually do? Like, that is because you have too much knowledge, too many recipes to follow.

And so an approach that works so well, and I learned this through both Brooke Castillo and Tim Ferriss as well. Like taking an approach of constraint and really constraining down, it’s very uncomfortable, especially if you love procrasti-learning and procrastin researching, and maybe you have genuinely thought you’d have a knowledge problem when you don’t. But taking an approach of just in time, information versus just in case, that’s something that I learned from Tim Ferriss about learning things just in time, like just when you need them, versus just in case you need them, which is often what we’re doing, where we’re trying to know everything from A to Z, about whatever it is that we’re trying to do. And it’s very uncomfortable to take this approach, because then we have to actually take action. And that means risking failure and judgment and rejection and shame and all of the things.

So having that approach has been so helpful, and it doesn’t mean that I don’t listen to other things. And I say listen, because I mainly learn things through podcasts, that’s my favorite way to learn, or through programs that have an audio component. But it is to say that when I am learning things, I’m not actually looking for, like, how to advice about things that are really far ahead, I’m just listening, typically, to inspirational stories and interviews and that kind of format, versus like, here’s a how to of how to do this specific thing, because I don’t need to know that yet, and my brain can only hold so much information, and if I am consuming information that is for a place that’s way further ahead on the journey than where I currently am, as well as where I am right now, and then a little bit further ahead, and all the different things like, it’s just so hard to be clear and committed to what I’m doing.

And so taking that approach is so, so, so helpful. And then through Brooke Castillo, I really learned about constraint, and really just constraining down the number of people that you are learning from, even though that’s uncomfortable. But to take that recipe book example, instead of trying to cook from 10 recipe books at the same time, which we don’t do because it doesn’t make sense, but we do it in our business. You just pick I’m actually going to just follow this recipe from this book, and if I want to do a different recipe, then I will do that recipe at a different time and do that recipe fully. But today I’m doing this recipe, and so I have had so much success with taking that approach when it comes to business and when it comes to personal development as well, when I’m trying to piece together conflicting pieces of information, even if they are from all these different programs and courses that I’ve invested in, whenever I’m trying to do that, I have to spend so much time trying to reconcile like, okay, this person said this thing, and this person said this completely other thing.

So which one’s right? It’s like they’re both right, like the recipes both work, but if you follow a little bit of this one and a little bit of that one, it’s not going to work unless you have a really high level of skill and you’re able to be like the chef who could take 10 recipe books and get inspiration from it and then make up their own. Unless you’re at that level of skill set, you need to actually just pick a recipe and follow it. And often what we do is we’re like, Okay, well, I don’t know if I’m gonna like, what comes out of me like cooking this recipe, so I need to actually just look at all the recipes again so that I know once I get cooking, I’m gonna cook something that I love. And we do this of like, okay, I don’t know 100% sure if this is the kind of business I want to have, or if this is the niche, or if this is the thing for me. So I need to just do some more research and do some more learning and make sure this is the thing, the one and only, like my forever business that I want to be in for always and forevermore.

And it’s just a way that we really self sabotage and hold ourselves back and keep ourselves small, instead of being like, okay, well, I’m just gonna cook the blueberry muffin, and then I’m gonna see, like, do I like it? And I know there are different with different kinds of businesses. There are different investments of capital and getting started and all of that. But there are, for most businesses, a way to actually start dipping your toe in, or at least deciding, like, this is the path I’m going down, and I’m going to figure this part out for an extended period of time, as in, like, I’m gonna give it more than two weeks to do this and more than three months, like, at least one to two years, I’m willing to go down this path, because what will happen, and if you reflect on, if this is you, if you reflect on where you’re at right now, probably that amount of time has passed. You haven’t taken any action towards it, or you’ve taken action through, like getting more knowledge and not actually implementation action.

And so what you have then done is you’re two years later, and you haven’t got the experience of, like, actually baking that recipe and seeing what it’s like and then learning from that and getting to try again and getting to do all the things instead, you just have more knowledge. But that’s not helpful, because you have too much and you don’t have experience or skills because you haven’t implemented and that time has passed, and you’re not able to get that time back. So like any effort that you think you might have saved by not spending it on the wrong thing. You actually can’t use that effort in the future like that effort is gone and it was spent on getting more knowledge when you didn’t actually need more knowledge. You needed to get going. You needed to get started.

And yes, it feels scary and it takes courage, but that is part of like, if you are finding it hard to have courage and to take action, or you take way too much action and you’re overwhelmed and you’re scattered, then you actually just need to solve for it as an implementation problem and not keep trying to solve it with knowledge. Or you will just stay in the same place that you are now. And this is what I hear so often, that you only get more and more frustrated because you think, Well, I have the knowledge, so I should just be able to do it, when that actually isn’t true, just because you have knowledge, like, that’s not the only piece of the puzzle, but just because you have that knowledge, I should be able to do it. So then you feel ashamed that you haven’t done it and that you’ve wasted time and money and energy on getting the knowledge that you haven’t used, and therefore, like, there must be something wrong with you because you haven’t been able to do the thing even though you have the knowledge, and then you might be looking at things that will help you with your implementation problem and thinking, well, I won’t be able to actually do that, because things haven’t worked in the past when you’ve actually just been getting a solution to your knowledge problem and not a solution to your implementation problem.

And the reason as well I’m so like passionate about this is because so many like marketing and sales programs, for example. And I use that example because that’s where we tend to go for knowledge when it comes to business, also things like operations, finances, like all of that. There’s product development, there’s so many different areas of business, and it is so helpful to have knowledge from someone who can give you specifics and knows about it, not to be reading 10 recipe books, but to have one recipe for each area of business can be so, so, so powerful. But I just see so many perfectionists who end up giving up on their business or deciding to just, you know, like, where I might now isn’t so bad, so I’ll just keep doing things away I’ve been doing them, and it’s simply because they haven’t recognized that they don’t have a knowledge problem and that the thing that they’re learning from. So say, for example, if it is a marketing program or a sales program, and there are going to be exceptions to what I’m about to say, but for the most part, they are not designed to teach implementation.

They will have elements to help you implement, but they are not designed to teach the skill set and the mindset required for you to be able to actually implement. They might, for example, have like, one lesson or module on mindset. But ultimately, those things are created to solve a knowledge problem and not an implementation problem, and so if you are struggling to implement it, then know that, like that’s not your fault. That program is either not trying to solve an implementation problem, and it’s likely designed for someone who doesn’t have an implementation problem and can just get the strategy and do the thing and do the thing without burning out. They can do it consistently. So for example, if someone’s wanting to post consistently on social media, and they want to have a social media marketing strategy, for example, or a sales strategy that they will take a program that will teach them that, and it can be a really amazing strategy that they learn, and but then they aren’t actually able to post and do the things they need to do.

And so they might think, okay, I actually just need a better strategy. Because if I had a better strategy, I’d be able to actually just do it. But that strategy, like you have learned it in the context of here is the knowledge that you need. Here is the strategy. Here are the next steps that you need to take. And that was designed for someone who doesn’t have a problem with Okay, I’ll just go and post consistently and do what you said I would do. There are people who don’t have an implementation problem. So when it comes to where you’re learning from, it’s just really important to know like you need to solve for your knowledge problem that’s such a valuable thing to solve for. And you also need to acknowledge that getting the answer to, like, the How to and the strategy about sales and marketing and operations and finance and product development and all of those different things that go into a business that that isn’t going to solve your implementation problem. You actually need to have a solution for your implementation problem.

And so I’ll talk about the three different types later on in this episode and help you identify if you do have an implementation problem. And my program, Perfectionist Getting Shit Done like that is what we help you with. And so most of the students in the program are either, well, they’ve either done a lot of procrasti-learning and do have a lot of knowledge that they can put into practice, or they are in programs, for example, like, if they want to create an online course, they might be in a program to create an online course and give them, like, the how to step by step of that. And I’ve had, like, PGSDers who come in and they’ve signed up for that, and then they’ve gotten stuck, because they’ve had an implementation problem. Once they had the knowledge, they’re like, Okay, okay, I need to actually do the thing, and I’m really scared to do it. So then once they solve for the implementation problem, by learning, power planning, how to follow through clean rest a growth goal, like the things we teach in pgsd to have you actually be productive in a way that works for your perfectionist brain.

Then they were able to implement the knowledge that they had from either a paid program they’re in or like a business strategy coach that they’re working with, just like that kind of strategy how to side once you have the implementation solution, if you do have an implementation problem, and you might have both kinds of problems. So just a lot of our PGSDers are getting their like knowledge problem solved by being in a program or working with someone I do not recommend. I mean, there might be exceptions, but just trying to piece everything together for free. It’s just like the most costly way to do it, because of how much time it takes, and especially if you are learning from webinars and from podcasts and like all the things and books like they are not designed to support you with the implementation. And often it’s not a format where they can go deep enough to actually teach you the how to and answer questions that come up along the way. And it’s just so helpful to actually have somewhere that you can go to have one recipe to follow to get your questions answered and all of that.

So I just recommend if you are someone who has been trying to piece it together yourself, which I used to do. I was that person for the first three years of my business. If I’m so smart, I should just be able to figure this out by myself once I started actually investing in the knowledge, and by virtue of that, I was then constraining myself down. But if you were someone who just constantly signs up for programs that teach you knowledge, then it’s really constraining down. Okay, this is the one that I’m going to implement. So in terms of what to do if you have a knowledge problem. So as I mentioned, perfectionists tend to try to solve an implementation problem with knowledge. If it doesn’t work, they get very frustrated. So this is what you need to do to make sure that you actually identify if you do have a knowledge problem, like you literally don’t know what to do the next one to three steps to take, generally speaking, like you do not know what to do, or you have too much knowledge you’re trying to learn all the things, whether you are doing that for free, or you’re investing in that, like you just have a lot that you are trying to piece together.

What you need to do is get the minimum amount of knowledge from one source. Think of it like a recipe. You need to get yourself a recipe and not be following 10 recipe books. So if you haven’t got enough knowledge, you need to find and doesn’t have to be the perfect person. And you can shop around a little bit, look at the recipes, but then pick a recipe. This is the person. This is the organization that I’m going to learn this skill set, this knowledge from, and then learn that. And then, if you have too much knowledge, and you aren’t constrained, and you’re constantly consuming, but you’re not spending much time creating, or you are spending time creating too, and you’re just spending time doing all the things you’re always working, then you need to constrain the amount of knowledge that you’re consuming and just get it from one source.

So obviously, there are different areas of your business, so I would consider this podcast would be on the implementation side of things, the mindset side of things. So you might have another podcast that you listen to when it comes to marketing and sales and that kind of thing. Like I’m not saying you have to never consume anything, but what I am saying is, if you are consuming too much and you are learning all the things, then your poor brain is going to have a really hard time figuring it out. And we love to try to learn from conflicting sources of information. Because especially if you have an identity being smart, it just feels so safe. Of like, Okay, what you know, I’m learning all this stuff. At some point I’m gonna figure out, like, what the right solution is. But if we’re so busy trying to piece it all together, we don’t have to take action and risk failure and risk looking dumb and all the things that we don’t want.

So it’s just a very comfortable place to hide out. And I just really want to encourage you to not keep thinking that you have a knowledge problem if you don’t and if you do either not enough or too much knowledge that you solve for it through constraint, picking a recipe and learning that knowledge and saying, okay, like, you know, there’s future time where I could say, Okay, right now, in the next three months, or six months, this is going to be my focus. I’m going to learn this skill set, and then six months from now, I’m going to learn this other skill set. If you are thinking that you need to learn marketing and sales and operations and finances and product development and all the things all at once, you are not going to get anywhere. There are so many skill sets that go into building a business that you have to just pick like this is the needle moving skill set for me at this point in time, and I’m going to focus on it for long enough that then another skill set becomes a needle mover for me that I get myself to a place of sufficiency with that skill set.

I’m not perfect at it, but I get myself to a place of sufficiency, and then I can focus on something else and think about too like, if you have decades ahead of you in business, like there is time to take a slower approach, and the quickest way to get to where you want is to be willing to constrain yourself and to actually say, this is what I’m learning at this point in time. I know that there are so many areas of my business that need to be improved, and my own skill sets and my own mindset, but this is what I’m focusing on at this point in time. It’s the only way to make progress, and it does take a lot of courage to say that our brain wants to be confused. It wants to be overwhelmed, so that we don’t have to fail at shit so that we don’t have to risk trying and then failing and feeling bad about it, or succeeding and then being unrelatable and then feeling bad about it.

So nothing’s gone wrong if everything that I’ve said feels like you, but just know that you really do have to have the courage to get yourself out of thinking that you have a knowledge problem if you don’t actually have one. So what I want to talk about now is having a resource problem. You don’t have enough money, you don’t have enough time, and you don’t have enough energy. Those are typically, when it comes to like, you know, I want to build my business, I have the knowledge, like, I know the next one to three steps, but I don’t have the money to do it, or I don’t have the time to do it, or I just don’t have the energy to do it. And particularly when it comes to these three, it’s so easy. Like, all our friends and family be like, of course, you don’t have the money. It costs so much. Of course, you don’t have the time. You’re so busy. Of course you don’t have the energy. You’ve got so much on.

And so we really have to be willing to take a good look at ourselves. And just so with this section of it, I just wanna, I have a few questions to help. But I just wanna invite you to consider that, like our brain can create really compelling stories around lack of money, lack of time and lack of energy, because it’s an easy out. And there are circumstances you can point to that say, Yes, I don’t have enough money, yes, I don’t have enough time, yes, I don’t have enough energy. But if you do want to build a business, if that is something that you know that, like, even if you try not to have one, you’re going to have that desire there, that restlessness. Like, for me, I know that if I was like, Okay, I’m just not going to have a business anymore, and I’m going to go back to the corporate world, which I didn’t hate, I’m going to go back to the corporate world and, like, you know, just do my thing there. Like, I would start another business, because I really just had that desire to have a business.

So if that is you, if you know it’s something in the back of your mind all the time, or you do have a business, and you do really want to be fully committed to it and all in and like really showing up the way, you want to consistently, sustainably being able to take vacations, have time off, without having guilt about it, and actually be able to experience the freedom that we all associate with having your own business, instead of it being like a 24/7 so I want you to just, you know, with this section, really think about like, Okay, what if I might not have a money problem, a time problem or an energy problem? And maybe you do have a money problem, maybe you do have a time problem, maybe you do have an energy problem, and so I will share a few things to help with that as well. So we’ve gone through the knowledge problem, we’re going to go money, time, energy, and then implementation. And I think it’s just a great order to talk about it in, because you can solve for them in that order.

So do you have a money problem? I just want to talk about what I see so often, I’ve had so many conversations recently about this as well, is that, like, yes, there might genuinely be a cost associated with starting the business that you want to start, or continuing to run or grow the business that you already have. But what tends to happen is, if we’re scared of failure, whether it’s like failing at business or failing at a particular project. What we tend to do, we perfectionists, is this all or nothing mindset, we either overestimate the cost, and typically that’s because we’re very vague about it, or because we’re only thinking about one way to do it, and we typically subconsciously pick the most expensive way to do that thing. Because we’re scared, and so it’s just so much easy to be like, I just literally don’t have the money. Like, if you could see my expenses, I have this, and I have this and I have this and like, there’s just, there’s so much on my plate at the moment I just financially, I just don’t have the money to be able to do it. And hopefully at some point when I have the money, then I’ll actually be able to go all in on my business.

So I have a question to help you identify if you do actually have a money problem. But what I want to really have you consider as well when it comes to having a money problem, this isn’t to say that any fears or scarcity that you have around money and finances aren’t valid. That is so valid, like our brain, it just wants us to be safe, and it’s going to freak out for a lot of us about not having enough money, or if we do have enough money, about running out of money. And so it’s not like, well, you should never have any thoughts about money and like not having enough of it. But what I know as well from my own experience and coaching so many perfectionist entrepreneurs is that we think like, Okay, once I’m in a certain financial situation, I’m not going to be stressed about money ever again or at all. And then what happens is, because the stress and the scarcity around it comes from thoughts and not the circumstance of how much money we have. And you might have found this that maybe you’ve been earning more or making more money in your business, and yet you still have very similar thoughts and feelings about money and fears around it going away.

And so it’s just knowing that there’s, like the circumstance of how much money we have, and then our thoughts and feelings about it. And those thoughts and feelings are valid, but often they’re unhelpful or like our brain creates those sorts of feelings because it’s so scared that if we didn’t have resistance to investing money in the business, then we’d actually have to show up and do the thing and risk what’s worse, which is the shame, the embarrassment, the failure like that is more of a threat to our brain than not being able to have the money like our brain would rather be like, I actually just would rather say I don’t have enough money. And everyone’s like, well, of course not. Like, that’s totally valid. They’d be like, I’m just actually so scared. I am really, really scared of it not working, and maybe that I will invest money in it and it won’t work, and then I will have wasted that money. But again, typically, when that’s the case, we are overestimating how much money.

We are vague about the cost we will miss spend money on experts and consultants, and I see this so often as well, like getting really professional branding and a really professional website. It’s not to say there’s not value in those things, but there’s a time and a place, and when we are scarce around money, or wanting to blame lack of money, we tend to waste money, and it is a really frustrating problem to have. And maybe you’ve made that problem or had that problem before and experienced that frustration, that you have wasted money on things, that, in hindsight, I definitely have done that, that you feel like, Oh, that wasn’t the best use of my money, but we tend to overspend when we actually do like, Okay, I will get this thing started. Because we haven’t thought about it in a different way and identified what other ways there are to approach it.

And also, we haven’t trusted ourselves that we could actually be the one to do the thing and to take that thing on ourselves that we’re like, okay, I need to hire an expert or someone who can, like, do this for me or hold my hand. And again, it’s not to say like, you want to have some knowledge. You want to be able to have the knowledge you need, either through getting it from someone else or through your own experience. But what we tend to do is really, like, delegate out and abdicate responsibility, and we’re like, okay, and I definitely have done this where I’m like, I just don’t know enough, or like I’ve got on myself as far as I can, and like, I need someone else at this point. And I did this with with my marketing manager that I had on my team that I have since made redundant, because it, like, a lot of it really came from this mistake. And the marketing manager I had, Renae, was incredible, and, like, nothing to do with her. But really, like, a big part of me making that hiring, if you go back to listen to the episode where I was talking about it, an episode since then where I’ve talked about it, is that I made the decision to hire a marketing manager from the thought of I’ve gotten us as far as I can get us as a business with my own marketing knowledge, and so I need to have someone on the team who actually understands marketing.

And my expertise is in coaching and not in marketing. So I need to actually invest that money in someone who knows the marketing, who can come into the business, rather than, like, working with a consultant, or, like taking a program. Like, I didn’t trust myself to have enough knowledge about marketing. Even though I had made well over a million dollars from my own marketing skills, I didn’t trust myself to make that decision about marketing to, like, really believe that I could keep doing it, and so I ended up spending a lot of money on having a marketing manager, when actually I did have the skill set and the knowledge required to be able to continue building the business. But it was just really this fear of, like, what if I am not able to keep up the growth that the business is having. And like, I need to have someone else to, like, share this responsibility within it, not just be all on me. And like, all of that was underneath it, that, like, I had a very valid justification, and I learned so much from having a marketing manager.

And like, there are so many lessons from that, but that was like, really me spending money that I didn’t need to spend because I wasn’t trusting that I knew enough and that I could actually solve the problem myself. So I just wanted to mention about that, because we tend to when we are scared, delegate, abdicate, when actually that isn’t going to be helpful. And I’ve just been like rebuilding myself trust and rebuilding my own just belief in the marketing skills and the sales skills that I do have. And it’s just amazing what a difference in results there are when I believe that about myself, instead of thinking like, well, you know, I don’t really know anything and like, it’s just some kind of miracle that we got to where we are now, because I do not know anything at all, and I just miss the sufficiency that I do have in those skill sets. Yes, they can be improved, but there is a lot of sufficiency there.

And so I just want to talk about like, yes, it’s real that having a business, depending what kind of business you have, costs money, and also we just need to be on to ourselves and onto our brains when it comes to this. So if someone this is a question to help you figure out if you do have a money problem, if someone gave you twice the amount of money that you think you might need to implement your idea, would you know what to do with it and be able to get started right away, and we’ll talk about time and energy in a second, but let’s just say for now, you have the time and energy, and we’re just talking about money. Would you actually be able to do the thing? And if not, then you don’t have a money problem. And money is just a convenient excuse, because it’s really hard to argue with, even with ourselves, like I just really don’t have the money to be able to do this thing. And so if your answer is yes, I would be able to, like, if someone gave me twice the amount of money I think I need, like, maybe, I think I need $5,000 so if someone gave me 10,000 maybe I think I need 100,000 if someone gave me 200,000 if the answer is yes, then what can you do to either create the money you need, or figure out a more affordable way to do what you want to do in the budget that you have, or at least get started and start taking the steps, whether it’s with a business idea or whether it’s with a project, because you might not be able to do the full version of it, but you can probably do a lesser version.

And I say lesser in the sense of, like, less expensive, and it just might take more courage to do it that way, and maybe it won’t. But as I said, when we’re scared, our brain tends to overestimate or be vague about the costs, or really just only think about the most expensive way to do it. So this is a really good example of when some divergent thinking would be really helpful versus convergent thinking. So just to share what that is, divergent thinking is the idea that there are many right answers to a problem a question. And so when you were doing divergent thinking, for example, around like, Okay, I have $1,000 or I have $10,000 or I don’t have any money, but what are ways I could figure out to get money that you could create a list of 20 ideas. Create a list of 50 ideas, if someone in my position wanted to have a certain amount of money, what could they do that I might not want to do, but what could they do and get your brain going?

Perfectionists often find this really hard, because we like to do convergent thinking, which is, there is one right answer, and usually the like, the first way I’ve thought of is the right answer. And we don’t actually go, okay, like, what’s option A? What’s option B? Sometimes we think about, okay, I could do it this way or that way. Maybe even we get to an option C. Like, there are three ways I could do it, but I want to get you to, like, okay, there’s actually a, b, c, d, e, f, d, like, all the way to z, and then do it all again. Like, it’s just a matter of training your brain to start thinking in a different way. And our brain likes to think there’s one right answer, and I just need to get it right. That’s not how business works. There are so many right answers as well to making money and getting money, to look beyond the skill sets you have made money from in the past, to look at like, what are the possessions you own that you could sell, what are the uncomfortable conversations you could have with friends, family, the bank that you would be able to then have the money that you need or have access to that there’s just so many ways.

What are the other skill sets that I have that I could potentially make money from. Like, there are so many ways. What are the expenses that I could reduce so that I have this amount of money? When we’re scared, our brain’s like, I don’t want to actually figure out how to make the money and get the money, because then I’d have to do the thing and it might not work. So that’s an implementation problem. And just by that question about, okay, if you did have the money, would your problem be solved? If you had the money and your problem wouldn’t be solved, then you don’t have a money problem. It’s also say the money wouldn’t be helpful. But for a lot of the people that I have talked to who think they have a money problem, the answer they would have to that question is like, okay, but I actually still either wouldn’t know what to do typically, because I’ve consumed too much information, and I’m unclear because I’m scared, and I have an implementation problem, but they just, it’s just so easy to fantasize.

And I’ve definitely done this. Like, well, if I had this amount of money, then I could do this, but it’s like, okay, brain, if you really think that, and you’re really committed and you really want to actually do it, and that’s the only problem, let’s figure out a way to get the money. So if the answer to this is no that you don’t have a money problem, maybe you have a time problem. So let’s talk about that. So if we’re not complaining in our own brains about lack of money, and if we just had more than we could do the thing we want to do, we complain about lack of time. And that is one as well that is really hard for people to argue with, including ourselves, especially when we’re scared, like I really just was like, oh my god, like my brain keeps wanting to be like, you need more time. And what it’s really saying is like, I want less discomfort, like I just want to I just want more time.

But because it’s so easy to be like, well, if I have more time, then I could do this project. I could do that thing, and I could do this thing consistently, and I could do that thing when really, like, if I am willing to be resourceful, which I’m much more willing to do that when I’m not getting in my own way and I’m not scared about it, then I can figure out a solution in the time that I have, or I’m willing to have any uncomfortable conversations or invest money in getting more time. But again, if I’m scared or not wanting to be uncomfortable, I’m like, I just don’t have enough time, and there’s literally nothing that I can do about it. So typically, how this looks, there’s other ways too, but the main ones I see is that when someone thinks I have a time problem, it’s either like, I need more time in my week to week, like my day to day life.

And so when I was working in my full time accounting job, and also before that, as a full time university student, and I was also working in a job at the same time, but I had started my business on the side, I was like, Well, I just need to be like, once I’m full time in my business, like this will be so much easier. Like, once I have more time, like, look at these people who have all the time in the world all day. Like, of course, I’m not more successful because I just don’t have the same amount of time that they have. And once I’m full time in my business, or at least have some more time for it, then I will be more successful. So anyway, I left my accounting job. I went back to being at the like one of the hospitals here in Brisbane, working as a receptionist in admin. And so I was working from 4pm till 8pm each afternoon, Monday to Friday. And also I’m like, I work best in the mornings. So I could have essentially a full work day.

It was practically like I was full time. It was such an ideal situation, because my part time job was still supporting me financially, but I was able to work from like 830 till 330 or like 3pm and have a full work day and then go to my part time job. What did I do? I spent like five months editing Pinterest graphics and trying to get them right, and learning things. And I was just so scared, because now I couldn’t blame lack of time for my implementation problem, and that I was just so scared to promote what I was doing consistently, like To market, to actually sell the online course that I created, like I did a launch when I first announced it, and sold people into that course, and then I was just so scared to keep selling it. And so it was easy to be like, well, if I had more time, I’d do that. I’d be able to, like, set up a sales funnel and whatever.

And the reality was I did not have a time problem. Like, I really wanted to have a time problem, and like, I was so convinced that if I just was able to have more time, and my brain still loves to do this, like, we just need more time, and I have to be so onto myself. And unless I have, like, power planned out, like, Okay, do I actually need more time? Or my brain is just wanting more time and like, Okay, well, maybe if I could just have this extra workday. Or my brain’s favorite, like, if I just worked five days a week, then I would be able to achieve this goal or do this project with like, okay, but actually, I know that if I got more time, like, I think I would use that time well. But typically, like, at last year, such a great example, that there was a quarter where I worked four days a week instead of three days, because I just needed more time, and I did not use that time well at all, like I didn’t actually need that time, but because I was feeling so scared that what I was doing might not work, that I then started overworking.

Because when I’m busy, I don’t have I don’t feel as scared in my body, because I’m so busy doing things and thinking about things, and it just was like a waste of that time. Like, it would take me a day to record a podcast episode that would normally just take me, like, the time of recording, plus 15 minutes to outload and spend seven hours and like, record and re, record and re, record. And it was just, like, it was because I didn’t have a time problem, and I really wanted to have a time problem, and I tried to solve the time problem, and then it wasn’t a time problem. And so, like, even right now I’m working at the time I normally wouldn’t work. And I was saying to Steve yesterday, like, I really feel like I need more time. He’s like, Hey, you say that when you’re feeling stressed. So like, Okay, have you done your power planning? What do you actually need to do in that time? I was like, Okay, let me do my power planning and figure out, like, what I actually need to do in that time.

And so I did that, and I Power Plan out not just like the day, but Power Plan out multiple weeks. I was like, Okay, I actually do need to, ideally want to, like, Yes, I could figure out a way not to work, like a workaround, but I would really like to work, and I know exactly what I’m going to work on in that time and what the outcome of that will be. And so right now in my power planning, I’m in the block of time called episode 467, outlined and recorded show notes, written and sent to Eloisa. That’s what I’m doing in this time. And then I’m writing the emails that are going out next week. And then I’m doing the pgse Advanced waitlist like I know exactly what I’m doing in this time and I’ve already. Like, planned out to see that. And so even when I did that, I was like, I still want even more time. And then I was like, I actually don’t need it when I get specific about what I need to do with that time.

But my brain, like this, is the favorite for me, my brain. And, like, as a mom, I have three little ones, I just my brain’s like, I just don’t have time. I just don’t have time when I do so, with all that said, it’s not that I need to, like, Okay, I do need to like, I have enough time or like, I do need some level of resourcefulness to figure out how to achieve the goals I have in the time frame that I want to have and in the number of days I want to work. But when I’m actually willing to be like, I don’t have a time problem. I have an implementation problem that allows me to find a more direct path to my goals. That does take more courage, but I’m able to access that courage much more easily as well, because I’m working less hours, so I have more time for clean rest and to like, rebuild my courage stores, if you will.

So now I’m going to ask you a question to help you identify if you have a time problem. So if you had three months with nothing going on in your life whatsoever, like you literally had nothing to do with your time, how does that make you feel? Do you feel excited? Do you feel a bit scared? And would you actually be able to do all the things you need to do? Or would you waste that time on things that aren’t important, or just spend that time trying to learn more stuff, or just burn yourself out because you’re working 24/7. I also just realized, as I said that, that I didn’t share the other way this comes up, but I think this is a great segue into it anyway. So there’s we think we need more time, and we think we need to wait for the perfect time. Is the second one that I wanted to mention. So thinking we need to wait for the perfect time, typically, is once the kids go back to school, once I’m full time in the business, like, once I’m more clear, and I have clarity is a good one, because it’s like, well, I don’t even know what clarity I exactly need. I’ll just know it when I have it, and I don’t know how to get like, and then we try to get more knowledge, and just doesn’t work.

So we’re like, kind of waiting for this, like, point in the future, or maybe like, oh, you know, 10 years from now, five years from now, two years from now, there’s some kind of time frame, typically quite vague, though it can be specific, like when the kids go back to school, or they’re in a certain grade, or whatever, once that happens, then I’ll be ready. And so that question about like, if you just imagine right now that you had that circumstance, that it was five years from now, or that the kids were back in school, or that they weren’t on holidays, would you be able to do the things you want to do, and do them in a sustainable, consistent, productive way without burning yourself out. Would you make the most of that time, or would you waste a lot of it either on prioritizing the unimportant things, like putting out fires, researching and learning more things? Like, would you actually if you were given more time, the same way I asked you, like, if you were given the money, if you were given the time? And like, I’ve had to learn this through thinking I need more time, giving myself the more time, and being like, Oh, I didn’t need more time. I’ve had to do that multiple times over, so maybe you have to do that too.

And like, I’ve done that by, like, hiring babysitters having uncomfortable conversations about, like, I need more time. How can I get more time? And leaving my full time job? Like, I’ve tried so many different ways to get more I wish this was the problem. I keep wanting it to be the problem. I keep trying to solve for this being the problem. And so I just want to invite you to consider and like, not have to go through those painful experiences, or, like, hire the babysitters and all the things. If that isn’t actually the problem, maybe you do just need to learn that from actually solving for it as if it is a time problem and then getting that experience yourself. But if the answer is yes, and you do have a time problem, so if you were given the time, you’d be able to actually make the most of it, then what are you doing to support yourself to have the time that you need without your circumstances changing, for example?

So there’s like you can solve for the circumstances. So things like, I’m going to have an extra work day, or work in the evenings or in the mornings. I’m gonna hire a babysitter, whatever it is. Like, there are things you can do. I’m gonna hire a cleaner. I’m gonna have like, you know, meal prep done. Like, I’m gonna do my own meal prep and, like, streamline my day to day life. And we love, like, often, this is where things like waking up early and morning routine come in because we were trying to solve for this time problem. So there are ways like you can streamline your day and life and get yourself more time. But also, what does your planning look like, your follow through, your time off. So you might have had me in other episodes talk about power planning and planning in a way that works for your perfectionist brain, and then that makes following through so much easier. There’s also a skill set to learn around follow through as well, and a mindset, for sure, a mindset that really helps with that taking time off, taking that clean rest, like you need to make sure that if you actually really believe you have a time problem, that you are doing what you can circumstantially to solve for it, and that can be helpful, or you might find that it’s not helpful, like I found I’ve had a bit of both. I’ve had like, oh, it was actually helpful to do this thing in a more streamlined way and give myself more time.

But also, are you supporting yourself with your time management? Are you actually managing your time in a way that works for your perfectionist brain, or do you just feel scattered and overwhelmed and have a hard time following through and no time off? So if the answer to this is no, then maybe you have an energy problem. If you don’t have a time problem, you’re like, okay, my brain keeps telling me, I have a time problem. Maybe I don’t have a time problem. Do I have an energy problem. So with this, and I think as well, like this is a really hard one for ourselves and others to argue with when we have circumstances like a health condition, young children or older children. Like, maybe they’re little ones, maybe they’re in high school, maybe they’re in their 30s, maybe they’re in their 50s, like whatever age that you have children in your life, you’re caring for a parent or someone else in your life.

You have a full time job or a part time job, like you just have a lot on your plate, so to speak, like your time and energy is going into lots of different places. So I’m not saying here that those things aren’t valid and aren’t things to take into consideration. So for example, with power planning like you will definitely be taking that into consideration. My power planning is me planning, as a mom of three who has other things going on in my life as well, besides my business, I’m not trying to create a plan for myself that pretends I don’t have other things in my life that impact the amount of energy that I have. So it’s really powerful to actually plan your time in a way that supports the circumstances of your life. This isn’t about like, No, you do have the energy. Stop whinging about it, like you actually, really do need to support yourself. If you have a health condition, you need to support yourself with that. If you have children or anyone, you need to take care of a parent, whatever that looks like. You need to support yourself with that.

If you have a full time or a part time job, you need to take that into consideration. Like you’re probably going to be too tired when you get home from work to do anything. Take that into account. Figure out. And you might think, Well, I have a time problem. Then, like, for me, I was like, Okay, I have to actually just wake up and do it before I go to my job, because I’m too exhausted the end of the day, it keeps on happening. So I need to actually, and I was doing that because I was so scared. I need to get more courage, figure out my implementation problem. And that gave me the resourcefulness to figure out the time. But again, all this is not to say that you don’t have an energy problem, so to speak. But I want to talk to you about it in a way that I hope is really supportive and I know for me and just my own personal experience.

So I have three kids, as I mentioned, Lydia, and then my twin sons, Jack and James, who are currently 15 months old, about to turn 16 months old. People are telling me all the time, like, I cannot leave the house without strangers saying to me, Oh, you really got your hands full, to which I just smile. I’m like, I literally don’t know what you want me to say to that, and I’m sick of hearing it, and I don’t care, so I just literally don’t say anything back. But also, there are so many supportive people in life, like, you know you’ve really got a lot on like, you’ve got these three small children. But when people are like, pointing to that as like, well, of course, you’re not working out consistently. You have three little kids. Or, of course, you’re not eating healthy, you have three little kids. It’s like, that’s not the problem that is making it’s like, those things aren’t connected. But when it’s like, if that is a thing that everyone else, especially maybe you have a health condition, for example, well, of course, not, or mental health, or whatever, or diagnosis, it’s like, well, of course you struggle with this thing, because there’s this circumstance in your life.

I have just found it so powerful when someone can say, yes, you have that circumstance that is real. Support yourself with that. And maybe that’s not the cause of the problem, and maybe we can talk about the cause. And so I want to, as well, share some coaching that I recently got in my mastermind that was so powerful because it didn’t buy in to my thoughts about my circumstances draining my energy, and actually really just was, like, that’s real. And also, I don’t think that’s the cause of your problem here. And let’s actually look at the cause of your problem. Like, it’s just so helpful when someone doesn’t bite into my own thoughts about, like, well, of course, I don’t have enough energy because of this to be like, Well, yeah, that’s real. But what about this? Like, what if that isn’t actually the cause of it, and that’s a real thing you need to support yourself with, but there’s something else going on here.

So that is the context for me talking about, do you have an energy problem? So I want to ask you the same question as before, the same vibe, if you have perfect health, no one to care for, nothing else to do for three months. So imagine, essentially, as well, like, let’s say you even have things to support you with your energy too. You have a private chef who’s cooking for you, or maybe you love cooking. You get to spend lots of time cooking. You have a personal trainer. You have spa days. I personally don’t love massages and like a spa day, but a lot of people do. So like, you have whatever for you would have you been like, if I had those circumstances, I would have so much energy, I would have enough energy to be able to do the thing I want to do, if you had that circumstance where you would have enough energy, do you believe would you be able to actually do the things you need to do to build your business? Would you be able to take those one to three next steps of building your business?

And it’s so interesting to just look at, like, for myself when I so recently, the coaching that I got, and I think it’s a great time to talk about it, is that I was like, Oh, I’m just like, so tired, like, I just feel like things aren’t working, and I just need to, like, do I just stop trying to have the same goal that I’ve had of, like, going to a million per year in revenue. Like, I just, like, I have my family. I want to spend lots of time with them. Like, I’m in really a family season of my life. Like I just feel like I’m tired of all the pushing and, like, all this kind of stuff, and the coaching I got, which was so supportive from Stacey Boehman, who’s my coach, she was like, so like, I hear you, and also it’s your thoughts that are making you tired, and you need to find the thought that’s making you tired and solve for that thought. And also, the other coaching I got in the group as well, was like, if you actually, like, lower your goal and do all the things you’re thinking about, will that solve the problem that you’re trying to solve for? I was like, Oh no, it will not.

And really, what I was trying to solve for was my emotions and the feeling of it’s not working, and I was trying to change the circumstances so I could get back to feeling successful again, instead of actually just creating that success with my brain, because I could see if I actually did what I wanted to do and was thinking about doing, which was lowering my goal, or just, like, trying to coast and take it easy that I wasn’t going to feel successful. Because that’s not how I like to operate as a person. I like to be growing and doing hard things and being courageous. And it sucks, and I hate it, but I also love it. And like, I want to be doing that. And so if I was like, I’m just gonna coast and, like, spend so much time with my family and just, like, not think about the business except when I’m working. Like, I have my clean rest but I also like thinking about the business during my clean rest time. My brain does that. I like, let it do its thing.

So I was like, I actually won’t feel successful when I take that approach, because that’s like, in contrast with an identity that I have for myself. And I like that identity, I want to keep the identity of being a person who likes to grow and put themselves out there and do things that scares the out of them, and so it won’t actually solve my problem. And when I got to okay, like, what is the thought that is making me tired? And then I went to my, like, self coaching that I’d done, and the first two, like two sentences of that was, I’m tired. I’m tired of my business not working. So then I was able, and I talked about this in the most recent episode, then I was able to go, Okay, well, is that actually true that my business isn’t working? Am I just seeing all the things that aren’t working? Because that’s how my perfectionist brain works. And actually there’s a lot that is working and I am successful.

And so I’ve been in the process of and if it’s just made such a difference, I’ve seen like all the sufficiency there is how I am successful. And once I was able to solve for that thought and question that thought, I’ve had so much more energy, my commitment levels, and not this kind of like excited energy that I know perfectionists can be really scared of, because you get excited and maybe you commit to something, but you don’t actually follow through with it. You let yourself down, you disappoint yourself, you feel ashamed about it, and embarrassed and guilty, and all the things that it’s just such a grounded, calm, like commitment, and it’s just really from actually not buying into that thought anymore, that I’m tired because I’m a mom. It’s I’m tired because of my thoughts. That I’m tired of my business not working, even though it is working.

And so I say all of this because I know that there will be a lot of people if you do have circumstances where outsiders would say, even maybe in my situation where, like, literally, people comment on it to your face every time you leave the house, that it’s so easy for us to, like, buy into like, Well, yeah, of course, I don’t do XYZ because of this other thing, and to just see, like, maybe that isn’t the reason, and that’s a valid thing to support myself with. But maybe it’s my thoughts. Maybe there’s something else going on. Maybe there is a way to find more capacity through changing the way I’m thinking. And really, like, the experience for me, just through, like, changing that thought pattern, and we teach, like, I’ll teach you how to do that inside PGSD, like, how to do that work. But with changing that thought pattern, solving for the mindset and implementation side. Like the issue, like my thoughts were causing me to have low levels of capacity, when I actually did have a lot of capacity. I feel like, and I love into a plant. So this is why it’s the analogy.

I feel like I’m a plant. Bear with me. I’m a plant. And you know, when you like repot a plant into the size pot, it actually fits in. It’s easier for the plant to grow. And I feel like my thoughts were making me feel like I was in this tiny pot, and I was trying everything felt like such a struggle, because I was like thinking I had so little capacity, and then I’ve been like through changing my thoughts about it, I have repotted myself into a different part. I know it’s a weird analogy, and I feel like it’s just so much easier to have more capacity and be in this thought pattern than the thoughts of I’m tired of it not working. I just want to have a break, like I can just actually take so much better care of myself and really see when I genuinely am tired and I need to rest. And it not just be this, like telling myself I’m tired and that it’s because I’m a mom, because what I’m actually thinking is I’m failing, and I’m trying to escape that thought, and I’m wanting to blame something else when I’m actually not failing, and my brain just likes to think that.

And if you’re a perfectionist, you might find that your brain likes to think that too and just see, always the areas for improvement and never seen the areas of success. And so all of that to say that I just hope someone being like that is valid, and maybe it’s not that that’s causing you to not be able to do your business stuff that you want to do. To me has just been so liberating. So I just wanted to share that so if you do have an energy problem, so if you had perfect health, no one to care for, nothing else to do for three months, and you could do all the things you want to do like you genuinely believe, like I would be able to take the action I want to take. Then what are you doing to support yourself, to have the energy? And it’s not just changing your circumstances so that can definitely help, that can definitely help, but also changing your thoughts and, like coaching that I was just talking about of being like, okay, it’s actually my thoughts that are making me tired, and not my circumstances. And making that shift has given me so much more energy and resourcefulness.

So if the answer is no, you don’t have an energy problem or like yes, you can do things to increase your emotional capacity and willingness to do the things which typically involves being courageous, being the one who’s willing to do the work and figure things out, then you have an implementation problem that’s kind of like the last problem we’re going to talk about. So there are three main types of implementation problem that I see. This is what we help with inside my program. Perfectionist, getting done, not taking action, consistently taking action on the wrong things, or exhausting yourself with action. So not taking action consistently is to say, for example, in a business context, a lot of times this comes up with marketing, but you’ll be working in spurts of motivation that all or nothing mindset like, say, with social media, you’re posting consistently, or you’re not posting at all, and you’re like posting ghosts, like that kind of behavior that you are starting a project, and then you don’t finish that project, that that is an implementation problem in the sense of not taking action consistently and not seeing things through taking action on the wrong things.

So when I say the wrong things, I say it like that, because that’s like, as perfection as we think about, like there’s the right thing and the wrong thing. But what I really mean here is taking action on the unimportant tasks. So there are your needle mover or essential tasks in power planning, you’ll be planning out your needle moving tasks, and there are your essentially, like, busy work, like the things that don’t really need to get done, but you could argue with yourself that they do. And so, for example, like what I shared before about the Pinterest graphics, because I did a lot of Pinterest marketing for my blog that I like, Yes, I need to have a Pinterest graphic to promote my blog on Pinterest. It doesn’t need to take five hours, and I don’t need to do that before doing other things that would have more of an impact, like actually having something for sale. So it’s more so.

And a lot of perfectionist will fight, if they work from a to do list that they will be like, have a long to do list, maybe highlighter, like Asterix or put a star next to the important things, and then they will do the things that don’t have that Asterix or star next to it. They will check email or social media or just kind of be like tinkering around, polishing, perfecting, researching, learning and doing that kind of thing. So maybe you are taking consistent action, but it’s consistently the unimportant things, and maybe, for example, if you want to create systems so your business can run without you, you don’t ever prioritize that that is a needle mover, but you’re always too busy with the day to day and never actually also looking at like long term. What are my needle movers and prioritizing those. Or you’re exhausting yourself with action, and it could be you’re doing all three. We have a lot of perfectionists in PGSD who relate to all three some relate to only one or two of these, but exhausting yourself with action.

So this tends to be the perfectionist who’s like, I don’t actually have any trouble like getting shit done, but I have not had a vacation in years. I do not take time off. I cannot switch myself off. I am just so so so tired, and typically, that person will also be doing a lot of overthinking and procrastination and getting in their own way, and also often not completing a task, like they might complete it, but it will take longer, or they’ll kind of like, kick the can down the road and not finish it until they have a deadline, and maybe there’s no deadline so they don’t finish it. But if you are constantly exhausted and burned out, and you’re taking a lot of action, like you are showing up, maybe you’re putting yourself out there, you’re marketing, you’re selling, but you were so exhausted that is an implementation problem.

So a good sign that you have an implementation problem as well is if you have the knowledge and the access to the money, time and energy, and you’re still not able to work on your business in a sustainable, consistent, productive way. And again, this isn’t to say that there aren’t going to be money problems to solve time problems, to solve energy problems, to solve knowledge problems, to solve but actually acknowledging I have an implementation problem for me was one of the most powerful things I could ever have recognized, is like, Oh, I actually just need to learn how to get done without burning out. Like that is the needle moving skill set for me, I’m smart. Yes, there’s things I can learn, but I need to actually implement the knowledge that I have and when I’m willing to solve for an implementation problem, then I’m actually able to find solutions for the money, time and energy that I need, or have the like resourcefulness and mental ability to solve for, okay, this is the amount of money I have, this is the amount of time, this is the amount of energy.

So what could I do to still achieve the goal I have with that amount of money, time and energy, let’s say it doesn’t change. So here are some of the signs you have an implementation problem. You’re overthinking and second guessing marketing, selling your strategy. You are just really having a hard time getting anything done in what feels like a reasonable time frame, like everything takes longer, or maybe you just overthink in certain areas of your business, other things you find simple and easy, but certain areas, typically for perfectionists. A lot of times, I see this with marketing and sales, that there’s just a lot of busy work, questioning, second guessing, and this also relates to my next point, which is constant confusion and seeking clarity. This is such a big one, and I see this at every level of business, perfectionist entrepreneurs who are making small amounts of money, haven’t made money yet, who are making six figures, who are making multiple six figures, who are making millions of dollars. It’s like I need clarity, like this idea that we need to be crystal clear and know the right thing to do, and unless we know that it doesn’t make sense to take action, because we’re going to waste that effort that is such a thought error that we perfectionists have and we put ourselves into confusion and being unclear because that feels safe.

I want to say that again, we put ourselves into confusion and being unclear, because that feels safe when we feel confused and unclear, then we can blame money, time and energy, and also we can go back into trying to solve for it as a knowledge problem. We can learn more. We can consume more, or we can say, Well, I would do that. I just don’t actually know where to get started. Our brain just loves being confused. We’re off the hook. There’s no responsibility, there’s no chance of failure. Except we are failing by default because we’re not trying. But to our brain, it’s like when we’re in that perfectionist mindset, we would rather not try than fail. And when you’re confused and unclear, and it will be like, Well, yeah, you probably should figure out your niche. Yeah, you probably should figure out your messaging. And it’s like, well, actually, maybe you do know enough to actually figure that out and get started and have a go at it.

And when you have that willingness to be able to put yourself out there and like, you’re able to get into that growth mindset that we teach you how to do in PGSD, and will happen when you have your growth goal and your power planning, your clean rest, like when you are willing to not be confused, and my brain wants to be confused too and unclear, and the amount of time that I have spent in recent years being like, I don’t even know, like, Who do I help? What do I help them with? Like, I have a program called Perfectionist Getting Shit Done. It’s pretty obvious what I do the amount of time my brain has been being like, but what do I actually help people with? Like, it’s insane, so I totally get it, if this is you and especially. In the beginning as well. Like, when it’s like, Well, I haven’t helped anyone yet, or I haven’t, like, there’s a new thing I want to do that’s different to my current business, or a new project within my business. Like, I actually don’t know yet, it is so real. But, like, go back to what I said about the knowledge problem.

Because if you try to solve, if you don’t have a knowledge problem, and you try to solve for it, for with more knowledge, you will only feel more confused. I was coaching a PGSDer on this the other day that she’s like, I’m feeling so confused, and I just like, so I bought this book on you know, how to figure out your messaging, and I’ve read that book. It’s a great book. I was like, it’s not going to help. You can actually feel more confused by the end of it, because that isn’t your problem. You’re actually just scared to show up and put yourself out there. It is very clear what you do and who you help, and you definitely are clear enough on that to be able to consistently market but your brain wants to be confused because you were scared of being judged and laughed at because you were judging and laughing at yourself. So of course, it wants to be like, Let’s go read this book. That will delay me having to talk by at least a month or at least a week, and then we put off reading the book because we’ve got so many other books to read.

And this is what happens when we think we have a knowledge problem and we don’t. If you are constantly confused and constantly seeking clarity or having existential crises, which is how it comes up for me. I’m like, oh my god, what am I even doing? That is just our brain having an implementation problem. We are scared. We’re scared to show up and put ourselves out there, procrastinating putting off what’s most important. I talked about that, like prioritizing the things that don’t really matter as much or move the needle. Yes, you can justify doing them. But ultimately this is how, if you get to the end of the week you’re like, I’m exhausted, I literally don’t know what progress I made or what I got done, then you’re probably doing that, either taking action perfectly or not taking action at all, really being that all or nothing mindset, or only taking action when you feel like you’re good at something, like you want to feel like you’re already good at marketing before you start marketing consistently.

Hence why you’re trying to learn all the things. You want to feel like you’re good at sales before you’ve already had practice selling like we love as perfectionist, like we love feeling good at things. And so it’s such a shame, because when and I love thinking about this way, like when we say like, I want to be good at it. What we actually mean is skilled. And the only way to get skills is to practice, which means you have to be bad in the beginning, so to speak. You have to be unskilled to then become skilled, unless you happen to already have that skill set, which if you do, then you probably don’t have as much resistance around it, or you might, because you feel like, well, what if I do something and then I find out I don’t actually have the skills that I think I have. Like this happen for me with coaching. I was like, I feel like I am naturally skilled in coaching.

My whole life I have been like coaching, so to speak. And I was so scared, like I procrastinated on launching coaching services, like I had for ages. I didn’t even have any idea I wanted to be a coach, because my brain didn’t even want to offer that to me as a suggestion, because it was so scary. And then I was like, Okay, I do actually want to be a coach. And in 2016 I was working with the coaches like I would, I said to her, like, I would like to be a coach, but first I have to launch this online course. Then I have to sell that consistently. Then I have to, like, I had this whole To Do List of like everything between me and being a coach.

And in 2018 I launched my coaching services, and I was so scared to find out that I wasn’t actually good at coaching that I put it off. I was just so scared to find out that the skills I thought I did have weren’t actually going to be there. And I’m so glad I solved for my implementation problem, and actually learned how to take action, even though I felt scared that I might be exposed as an imposter and a forward and it’s not even that. It was like being exposed to myself was the scariest thing that I would actually be like. I have this whole identity built around having this certain skill set or like approach to things, and I don’t actually have that like that just felt so like our brain. We want certainty, and when it comes to like the identities we have, if we find out one of them isn’t true, it is a threat to our brain. It is actually like, if we feel like we don’t even know who we are, it is so scary for our brains, and so we really cling to the identities that we have, and we’re so scared for them to be disproven.

And so I had an identity around like, I think I could be really good at coaching, and I feel like I’ve done that with a lot of people. I just haven’t been paid. But to actually get paid for it, it’s like, oh my God, that just opens me up so much to like, what if they’re like, What do you think you’re even doing? Like, that was horrible, like, getting refund requests, which is part of business, like, also, I just had to recognize, like, negative feedback, bad reviews, refund requests. Like, no matter how good you are at anything that, like, you have to be able to normalize that. That’s literally just part of having a business and helping more than like, three. People, or even help three people, and all of them have been unhappy. That doesn’t mean you can’t be successful and that you’re not actually skilled or able to develop the skill set, but we can either just be in this mode of like, I want to protect my identity and self image and potential. Maybe it’s even just generally you have a self image and identity that you are someone with potential, and you were so scared to find out that you don’t have potential.

That you can’t actually figure it out, and you’d rather hope about that project or that business that you want to have, or the way that you could show up and like what would happen if you were posting consistently, or what would happen, what would be possible if you weren’t burnt out all the time. It’s so scary to actually take those steps and find out what happens, and you have to have that willingness emotionally to find out, rather than just like, being in that hopeful energy which we’re so scared, to let go of, like the hope and optimism and actually face the reality that we could start, and most likely, we will start, and we’re going to be unskilled in the beginning, either in the actual skill set, or there’s like the skill set of business, and there’s the skill set of whatever it is you’re doing. For most people like you have your business.

So for me, my business skill set and my coaching skill set, and they’re very complimentary in so many ways, but just because I am skilled at coaching doesn’t mean I know marketing, sales, operations, finances. HR. So for you, most likely, if you’re listening to this, you will have whatever skill set for the actual thing you do and your business skill set, and most likely, you’re going to be unskilled in one of them to some degree. And there’s definitely going to be room for improvement in both. And so we really need to be able to get into this growth mindset, where you were actually willing to see that your skills, your intelligence, your abilities, can be improved upon with effort and with practice. So it’s not actually scary to be unskilled when you’re in a growth mindset, because you believe you can change that. When we’re in the perfectionist mindset, we do not believe that we can change that, and so we’re so scared to find out we’re unskilled, because we think that’s it, like, if I’m not a good runner, I’m just not a good runner. If I’m not good at math, I’m just not good at math. Like they are perfectionist, fixed minded statements to say women, the growth mindset, you’re never going to say I’m not a good runner. It’s either like I’m not skilled at running yet, I haven’t practiced running yet.

The fixed mindset. It’s really about like, I’m just not good at it. And we really approach it this black or white, like I’m good at it, or I’m not good at it, I just don’t like it. Is often how I say, like, if you feel like you’re not good at marketing, I just don’t like it when it’s like, actually, I can. I’m wanting to develop my skill set around marketing, and right now I feel unskilled, probably because I haven’t had much practice. It’s just such a more helpful way to look at it, because it creates such a willingness to be able to solve for that. So why do implementation problems happen? Fear of failure, fear of success, and therefore being unrelatable. So failing in our relationships, fear of wasting time and effort on the wrong thing, which I think really for perfectionist is a fear of feeling out of control, like we don’t even know who we are, we don’t feel capable. And for perfectionists, if you take action and it doesn’t work, then it will feel like because of that conversion thinking and because of what I was just talking about, like you can’t do anything else, so, like you’re just gonna find out you’re just gonna find out you’re not good enough.

And because we already think we’re not good enough, it’s really scary to think, like, I might find out here that I’m actually not good enough, I’d rather like be scared of finding out than actually find out. And so we then don’t take action, or in such a frenzy with our action, like we don’t just take calm, consistent, sustainable action because we’re so scared that if we did, it wouldn’t work, and then we’d find out that we’re actually not good enough. So we don’t want to feel the shame that would come with that. And I think, and this is something I’ve really been noticing and realizing a lot with myself and also with everyone in PGSD that I’ve been coaching is that shame sucks. It’s really painful as an emotion, but really what we’re trying to avoid, I think, is the way we treat ourselves when we feel ashamed, the way we relate to ourselves when we feel ashamed, the like beat down on ourselves, when we’re already feeling beat down the judgment from our future self, especially if we’ve been judging our past self and our present day self so harshly, then like, oh my God, I’m gonna disappoint myself here.

Like we’re just so scared of our future self, while also being really optimistic about them and everything they can do and how productive they’ll be, and all of that, but it’s just that we are wanting to avoid the poor treatment from ourselves when we’re already feeling poorly, and so when you can see it like that, and this is like that perfectionist mindset is. It’s not about trying to do everything perfectly, though it can manifest that way. And there are a lot of perfectionists who will be over preparers, they over action and are always busy. And it’s really just like knowing that perfectionism isn’t like, Okay, well, there’s people who do things perfectly and they’re perfectionist, and they’re neat and organized and, you know, love attention to detail and all of that. And then there’s everyone else. It’s like perfectionism can manifest in lots of different ways. I talk about. The five signs this is overthinking, procrastination, burnout, fear of judgment or nothing thinking.

But there’s so many different ways within each of those that can be a lot more nuanced. It typically tends to be either the kind of person who’s over preparing to a fault or procrastinating until the last minute. And maybe in different areas of your life, you take a different approach. But when we are in that perfectionist mindset, it’s really about we’re not wanting to feel shame, and we’re not wanting to be experiencing the poor treatment from ourselves when we are feeling ashamed. And so when it comes to what to do, if you have an implementation problem, if you were scared, if you were frozen, if you were paralyzed, and maybe because of that, you’re not solving for the time, money and energy problems you legitimately have, or your manufacturing problems in those areas. Or you are trying to solve this problem with getting more knowledge. What do you do? Like, what do you actually do if this is your problem.

So what you need to do is you need to get the right tools, the right mindset and the right support. And so I’ll talk about what that means. So the right tools if we talk about an implementation problem. So we want to have you go from where you are now to taking consistent, sustainable action, to focusing on the things that actually matter, not spending your time on busy work, which as well means to be able to take so much more time off, you’ll be able to not feel guilty, because you’ll know everything essential has been done, but you need to actually plan your time in a way that works for your perfectionist brain. I have talked about this so much on this podcast. Is what you’ll learn. One of the things you’ll learn inside PGSD is how to plan properly as a perfectionist, because of the way that time blocking and paper planners and to do lists and like all those things have a time and a place, things like notion, but if you are planning in a way that triggers your all or nothing mindset that puts you into overwhelm and overthinking that burns you out.

And it’s not because there’s something wrong with those tools. It just like, contextually doesn’t work for your perfectionist brain. It just actually, like, brings out the things you don’t want. And so the reason I teach power planning, I’m so passionate about it and teaching that to anyone that I can who’s a perfectionist, especially an entrepreneur, because my mission is like to get more businesses out into the world and have them be successful because of the impact that has on the world that having a planning productivity tool that actually works for your brain makes courage so much easier to find and the willingness and the emotional capacity, it makes time so much easier to find as well. It means you can actually plan in and follow through with if you need to sit down and figure out, okay, how could I actually get the money here? Because I don’t have it. I do have a money problem, but how could I actually solve that?

And you can actually trust yourself to follow through with that. Because when you are planning properly that process, along with your growth goal and your clean rest, it develops your self trust, and that is a big thing that you’re missing if you relate to what I’m talking about in this episode, that you aren’t trusting yourself to know what to do. You aren’t trusting yourself to do the things you need to do. You make plans. You don’t follow them, or you sometimes follow them. If you feel motivated and you want to be motivated, you want to be disciplined, like you’re trying to wake up early or have a morning routine, or less, you know, scrolling and all of that. But when you’re planning properly, in a way that works for your brain, it’s so much easier to follow through. And also when you learn how to actually follow through, when you learn and through the power planning process, like you have your weekly review, learn self coaching.

So when you are getting in your own way and you’re not following through, you can really understand why and plan differently. Because it might just be that you’re not planning in a way that’s working for you, and you can actually see that and make the adjustments, or you can do the self coaching to be able to really understand the actual problem that’s going on. So you need to have the right mindset. And when I say right mindset, I don’t mean perfect mindset. What I’m talking about here is getting more into the growth mindset. And so when you have your growth goal, your power planning, your clean rest, you will, without even having to think about it, become more growth minded. It is designed to have you become growth minded and also inside perfection is getting to done the way that we support you and cheer for you, and all the things we do like even if you don’t see it, everything we have taken into account. How can we help them be growth minded?

I’ve done so much study on the growth mindset, the fixed mindset, all the different processes and practices like process praise that help with that, and baked it into pgsd and also the tools, because I needed that as well. Like, I instead of thinking about like, hey, you know, it’s better to try and fail than to have never tried it all, and write that on a post-it note, like, Done is better than perfect, so I’ll write that on a post it note, like that doesn’t actually work, and it definitely didn’t for me. I need something practical that gets me into the growth mindset, and I need to learn the skills of self coaching. I need to learn the skills of planning properly and following through, and I can learn them, and that’s why it’s something that I’m so passionate about, because we think I just need to be more motivated and more disciplined and, like, be stricter with ourselves, offered that we perfectionist like, either need to be way stricter or I just need to wing it in coast, which is what I was talking about before. I was like, I just need to wing it in coast. It’s like, actually, let’s just bring it back to the growth mindset and doing what I can to actually see I do have resilience. I do have and I can create the emotional capacity. I can learn these skills. It’s not that nothing’s working.

That’s just my perfectionist brain thinking that it’s not actually true. It’s not about being in the growth mindset 100% of the time. If you’ve listened to this podcast for any length of time, I’m not here being like, I’m in the growth mindset all day, every day, and you should be too like, No, I’m not, but But I’m so much more growth minded than in 2013 when I started like it’s day and night and the times that I’m more in that perfectionist mindset, I can recognize it because of my power planning. I can support myself because of myself coaching, and also, I have my own community and place that I can get coaching as well, like I have outsiders who can see what’s going on for me and support me with that as well. So getting the right support is the other thing, and this is such a big one. I’ve had so many conversations with people about this recently, like perfectionist, we tend to love self sufficiency, and it might be that for all perfectionist I know there are, for sure, a lot who also love having someone take care of them and not having to have that self accountability and self sufficiency.

But for me and for many others, asking for and getting support is really hard that we want to figure it out on our own, because we don’t want others to see our messiness and our failures and our mistakes and our not knowing what to do and looking down and asking dumb questions and doing embarrassing things. So we like trying, and this is why like procrasti-learning, especially if you’re someone who is just trying to figure out things for free by yourself, but even if you are in programs and things like that, and you tend to be a lurker, and like in PGSD, because so many perfectionists are lurkers, like, we have got you covered. We have thought about like, Okay, for the person who shows up for the calls, and the call times work for them, and the calls are a bonus, so you don’t have to be there live, but the person who wants to be there, who wants to post in the forum and do all of that, how can we best support them? The person who either doesn’t want to be at the calls or the time doesn’t work for them, the person who is not wanting to pose, they’re never going to pose. We’re literally never going to hear from them. How do we best support them?

So we just really have, if you’re a lurker, we’ve really got you covered, because that is how I have approached things many times, and I really have to, it takes so much courage for me not to lurk and to, like, put my hand up for coaching and to share. Hey everyone, this is what I’m struggling with. And so it is so important to have somewhere to go. This is the conversation I’ve been having with people recently, especially those who are really stuck. I’ve been like, have you talked to anyone about this, and like, No, they haven’t, or they haven’t had someone that actually understands or who can actually not buy into their story that they’re telling themselves. And be like, like I was talking about with my coach, who was like, Yeah, I get you’re tired, but like here it’s not actually this, that circumstance. I think that’s making you tired. I think it’s this.

So having a place where, because our friends, like, if my friends come to me, like, I’m not their coach, I’m their friends, I’m gonna be like, Yeah, of course, you’re tired, and it’s only in that like, coaching relationship, or where you’re in a group with other people who get it and are also there to, like, peer coach and support you as well, that it is actually the right environment to say, like, Hey, I think this thing you’re thinking might not actually be true. And like, do you want to explore that a little bit? Like, would you like some coaching on that? Or like to hear what I’m thinking? And you can say yes or no, but it’s like just knowing that, of course, even if you have the most supportive friends and the most supportive partner, even if they don’t get personal development and understand what that is, that there’s like, a certain context, that they can really be the best person to like, hear you vent and hear you out and like all of that, but a lot of times they don’t understand what you’re going through and what you’re struggling with, and it just even isn’t the right person to be sharing it with, or maybe they’re not available If they’re like a friend and you only see them, only see them once every few months.

But like having support that is available 24/7 and like in pgse, we have the PGSD private podcast, so at any time of day, you can listen to someone who has a very similar brain to you and a very similar circumstance getting coach. And we have all different kinds of business owners and entrepreneurs in PGSD living in all different countries. Kids, no kids, health issues, diagnoses, not having any of that, having perfect health, like all the different things, but having someone who has this same implementation problem, who is also trying to build a business and is coming up against so many of the same things that you’re coming up against, even if their circumstances are different, the thought patterns are typically the same. So you can actually, like, put something in your ears right in that moment when you need it. You can get on a coaching call. You can post in the forum, even if you’re a lurker, it’s just like knowing I have somewhere to go if I need it, or I can hear other people discussing this problem that I have.

And recently, I’ve just talked to so many people as well who are like because they don’t have support and community, and people who get it and who can also call them out lovingly on when they’re having unhelpful thought patterns and limiting beliefs and all of that, that they’ve literally either decided not to start their business, not to keep growing their business, not to do a certain project they want to do because something’s happened, like, say they’ve got, like, you know, negative feedback. I was talking to someone recently who had negative feedback on a makeup course that she had created. She’s like, I had eight people, three gave me negative feedback, and so I don’t know if I should, like, shut it down. I was like, that’s normal, like, and it’s not like they’re haters and you’re amazing, or like that, you need to do everything they said you should do differently. It’s like there might be a couple things you need to change genuinely that would be helpful. And also probably there’s feedback in there that you don’t need to do anything with.

But also just getting negative feedback, especially if it’s your first time doing it, is so normal, and our perfectionist brain is gonna, like hyper focus on that, because there were five people, most people didn’t have negative feedback, but our brains like but these people did, and so I need to shut this down before someone finds out that I have no idea what I’m doing, and I embarrass myself, and I feel so dumb, and then I completely fail, and no one loves me anymore. And then I beat myself up, because no one loves me anymore. Like, we just make crazy decisions when we don’t have a place to get support. And a lot of us, like, we don’t have that place. And so you need to get yourself support, and bonus, if you can let yourself be supported with that support, like post and like, if you’re in PGSD, you’re going to be in PGSD soon like post and share, even though it takes courage attend a coaching call, even if it’s in the middle of the night for you, we do most of our calls like suitable for Australian time and UStime. And we have people in Europe, in the UK, who wake up in the middle of the night and get on a call and get support.

And so it’s like just inconveniencing yourself and having the courage to get the support that you need, so that you’re not doing this on your own, and you can have someone who’s actually like, hey, so you were thinking about this thing. Like, you know, you’ve been talking about this for a few months now, and you haven’t done anything. Like, what’s going on? First of all, like, Oh, yeah, you know, of course, you’re doing some more research and like, yeah, it is good to make sure you make the right decision, like you need someone to be like, Hey, I think you know enough. Let’s get started. How can I support you with that? So hope this episode has been really helpful to just go through. I know it’s been a long episode, and I’ve covered a lot, but do you have a knowledge problem, a resource problem, money, time or energy or an implementation problem.

You might have all of those problems. I’m not saying there’s not circumstances in each of those areas, but if you can relate to what I’ve shared, you probably have an implementation problem as the biggest needle mover for you to solve, and that as you solve your implementation problem, and you can take consistent action on the most important things without burning yourself out that you will be able to access so much more money time and energy, either by figuring out solutions that cost less money, or figuring out how to make more money, either by getting yourself more time or figuring out how to do what you want to do in the time you have or less, and figuring out the energy piece too, and then identifying, like, what knowledge do I actually need here? Like, where am I at with my knowledge and something I love asking myself, and then I’ll wrap this up. But where, like looking at, say, for example, I was like, I need to learn stuff about marketing.

Like, okay, what do I know about marketing? And so if it was like, Instagram marketing, like, what do I know about marketing? I know this. I know this. I know this. I know this. I know this. Okay, what? After I go through all of that and I found my own sufficiency, what don’t I know about marketing? Okay, then it’s probably like, one or two things like, Okay, I don’t know, for example, like, I don’t know how the algorithm currently works, and the latest updates, okay? So I can, just like, find a YouTube video on that and learn that in about five minutes. Instead of, like, I know nothing about it. I have to learn this whole new thing. If I can, first of all see, like, Okay, what is the knowledge I do have? Particularly, because most people listening. It, there’s a good chance you have sufficient knowledge or access to the knowledge that you need, and we just love to procrasti-learn and all of that. So it’s looking at, okay, what do I know? And then from that place of feeling sufficiently knowledgeable, what don’t I know? It’ll probably be one to three things, and they’re very specific, and you can actually solve for them.

And if you’re solving for the courage you need, the willingness to risk failing and being laughed at. And most often, what we find is if we have that courage and that willingness, either we aren’t actually failing or getting laughed at because we’re showing up and we’re doing the things and we’re developing the skills, or when we do, it’s nowhere near as bad as we thought, or it’s nowhere near as bad as it was to be stuck, like how, like how we imagine we’ll feel when we fail, or we’re laughed at, or we are ridiculed or embarrassed, like the building up of that in our head is so much worse than the actual experience of it, and so that’s what I want to invite you in, like, that’s what I am all about. And it sucks, as I said, to like, be courageous and show up and be like, I actually just need to get shit done and do that without burning myself out and learn that skill set and, like, the mindset, get the support, the tools, like all of that.

And it’s the scariest thing to do. We want to hide out in those other problems. So I’m not saying not to solve for them, but to look at like, do I have an implementation problem? And how could actually getting support with my implementation problem help me access the knowledge I have, get only the knowledge that I actually need to have so I’m not overwhelmed and frozen and then solve for my money time and energy problems in the best way I can and support myself with that. I’m not trying to ever, ever, ever, ever teach anyone like, here’s how to pretend you don’t have other things going on in your life like that is part of the problem is that we get taught like you should be acting like this is the only thing you’re doing. You have endless amounts of energy, time, motivation, discipline. It’s why so many programs that are for just teaching knowledge don’t teach implementation. It’s kind of just assumed, like, of course, you know how to do things. Once you have the knowledge, you would do it. It’s like, well, actually, no, I have an implementation problem, and this is what I want to solve in my business.

And so once I started solving for that and figuring it out and really being willing to do that, that is when my business started growing. And then I was able to start working less as well and have it keep growing, and actually have time off to have kids and all the other things as well, and have the business keep growing. So that’s what I want to invite you into is like, when you actually solve for the implementation problem, you will have the freedom that you want to have. You’ll be able to take vacations without having to have your laptop or your phone on with you, or constantly be like, checking in and working. I know you probably love working, but also, when you’re working all the time, you can’t have your best ideas because your brain needs a break to be able to come up with the best ideas, and so you can focus. And if you have a hard time having courage and finding that courage, and you prioritize the things that are least important is because you’re working too much and too many hours that your brain can’t actually find that courage.

It’s just too hard, because your brain is exhausted and it thinks then, like, if I’m courageous now, we’re gonna have to be courageous all the time, and I literally can’t do that, because I will die. Because when you’re being courageous, you’re doing something you’re scared to do. So if you have found this episode helpful, and you do want to solve for your implementation problem that you have, I want to make sure you know about the podcast series that I will be releasing starting on the 20th of June, I’m going to be releasing a five part podcast series, one episode each day for five days in a row on follow through the follow through series to help you consistently follow through with your plans without burning out. So yeah, if you found this helpful and relatable, you are going to love that. So if you are not already subscribed to this podcast, then make sure you hit the subscribe button.

If you are not yet on my email list, then I highly recommend signing up for that as well, because that will make sure you get all the episodes. And I’ll also be sharing other helpful information to help you make plans and follow through with them via email as well. So you can find the link in my show notes to sign up. And I recommend signing up for either my perfectionist power ups or so that’ll be linked down below as well. In the show notes, you’ll be able to find that. Or if you haven’t yet watched my free training on power planning, then I highly recommend watching that you will find that highly relatable and helpful as well. So both of the links will be there, and either one of those will get you onto my email list so you can find out more about how to follow through with your plans. And I also want to make sure you know that series is to celebrate that starting on the first of July, which I love this timing and, like, it’s a Monday and it’s also halfway through the year, it’s such a great mid-year reset. If you have been in a slump, and just like having a hard time getting yourself going, following through with your plans, implementing, like, all the stuff we’ve talked about, doing, what you need to do, then we are going to be, and I want to invite you into it, into PGSD, we are going to be doing a 12 week power planning challenge starting on the first of July.

So to really support you with your first 12 weeks of power planning, we are, as a community, going to be doing a 12 week power planning challenge. If you have an implementation problem and you’re a perfectionist, we’ve got you covered inside PGSD. So that challenge is starting on the first of July, and PGSD is currently open for enrollment. So if you want to get in early and go sign up now, samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, and you can get started, like, get on coaching calls and all of that, and then we’ll start the challenge on the first of July, but I really, if you’ve been thinking about it and you want to actually solve for your implementation, instead of solving it with more knowledge or trying to have more time and all the things like, let me help you actually learn how to implement, you know, the right tools and support and mindset to be able to do that, so you can get out of your own way in your business. That is so important to me. I really want to support want to support you with that and invite you into that. So samlaurabrown.com/pgsd, is where you can go to find out more about the program. As I said, the main thing I want you to know about is a follow through series that is coming to the podcast, starting on the 20th of June. Subscribe to the podcast. Mark your calendar, because it’s going to be so, so so, so helpful. That’s all I have for this episode. It’s been a big one. I hope you are having a beautiful day, and I’ll talk to you in the next episode.






Author: Sam Brown