Episode 28 | Why You Should Start Now...

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Welcome to the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I took an Etsy startup, and launched it in big box retailers within 12 months. As a creative with an entrepreneurial drive, I left my full time career in healthcare to find better harmony between career, family and self care. We believe you can have it all. Yes, you can launch and run a successful scalable business while maintaining harmony in all aspects of your life. We believe we can learn from each other and draw on many experiences to create the best life possible. During each episode, we will share proven life hacks that will keep you on top and striving every day. There should be no hesitation. Make a plan. Take action. We are here for you. Before we get started, I wanted to share a review from Amber Tinted Life. And she wrote a beautiful review, a five star review, and she left it on iTunes and this is what she had to say: Excellent. Noreen is a true pioneer in her business. I am excited for this podcast and ready for all the information that she'll be sharing with us." Thank you so much, Amber Tinted Life. I really do appreciate this review and I really hope the information provided in this podcast is helpful to your personal life and also your professional life including your entrepreneurial journey. And remember, if you have any questions at all, feel free to reach out to us at [email protected]. We would love for your input on future episodes and what exactly is resonating with you when it comes to the subject matter. And that goes for everyone else, if you feel there's a topic you'd like for us to cover, please do not hesitate to email us and you can also send us a DM, a direct message, on Instagram. Our handle is bossitclub, and we'll place a hyperlink in our show notes. 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This episode of the Boss It Podcast is brought to you by Commerce Chefs, a brand new e-commerce podcast that's perfect for seasoned commerce leaders or even an up-and-coming maverick. Hosted by the commerce experts, Tom and Kyle, this series takes a quirky and informative approach to commerce education. In each episode, you'll hear from the top commerce experts find thought provoking questions, surprise segments, hilarious banter, but most importantly, I promise you'll learn something new. If you want to learn the secret ingredients to become a better commerce leader and brand, tune into Commerce Chefs with Tom and Kyle. Check out the series on your favorite listening platform, or just go and click that link in our show notes. It's time to get cooking. Welcome to another amazing episode of the Boss It Podcast. My name is Sophia Noreen and I'm going to be your host for today. And today I want to talk a little bit more about starting a project, or start again initiative before you are ready. The reason I'm bringing up this topic is because many individuals hesitate. They are very cautious or fearful of starting a new project, or initiative. And this can be something in your personal life, this project or initiative could be something in your professional life, or it could be a new startup or a new entrepreneurial venture. And obviously we are very much influenced by the people around us. We're also influenced by our past, and we're also influenced by the stories we hear from others, from our external environments. So for example, family members influenced your decisions. Your past experience, of course, will influence your decisions and then your friends and family. Your friends will influence your decisions. So we have many inputs from multiple sources that will help influence if you're going to start a new venture, if we're going to take on an initiative and how fast we execute on that initiative. If you've heard in the past, I've generally stated that it's about 85% psychology when you are trying to execute a plan. Your success for executing that plan successfully is usually 85% of psychology. What that means is if you're not feeling you can actually accomplish this goal you're less likely to be able to succeed with accomplishing that goal. Why do I bring this up? Because it is extremely important to condition yourself, to ensure that you are ready when you take on your new initiative. Most individuals who listen to podcasts are very self-driven and motivated to learn, and if you're listening to this podcast or if you're listening to this on the radio, or if you're even listening to this on our YouTube channel that means that you have actually stumbled upon this material either by searching for this material or you're an active listener. And so you are motivated to learn, which means you are probably also motivated to do something a little bit more in your personal life or your career, or even when it comes to a new startup. So I'm going to introduce a term called perfectly imperfect, and this term you will see it being used for all sorts of things, such as produce at the grocery store which can be referred to as perfectly imperfect. We use the term perfectly imperfect when it comes to products for our product based business that we're a little bit scratched up. We own a product-based business called Also Sophia, and we had a few home decor items that had small scratches. So we turned that perfectly imperfect and there are customers that love perfectly imperfect because they get a nice discount when they purchase these products or purchase the product at the grocery store. You would be surprised. Sometimes people actually look for perfectly imperfect items because they want to do a new project, like a DIY or our projects. So for our product- based business, Also Sophia, what ends up happening is people will buy the perfectly imperfect items and then they'll change the color because they may not want to have a gold sign. So they're like, oh, I'm going to paint it white. So they'll buy it and they get a little bit of a discount. So it's amazing. So why do we bring up the fruit? Why do we bring up the products? Why are we bringing up perfectly imperfect? And why is it related to anything to do with you and you starting any type of venture in your personal and professional life? Because a lot of people feel like they need to be perfect and ready, perfectly ready to jump into this venture. People will hesitate. They will say, oh, I'm not ready because X, Y, and Z, and you could say: Yeah, that's fine. You're not ready. And of course there's no pressure, but sometimes you have to ask yourself, will you ever be ready? Or are you just using it as an excuse to say, I'm not ready and I don't plan to be ready anytime in the future, so therefore I'm not going to even try because of some limiting fear or limiting belief about your potential. So the term perfectly imperfect implies that you're perfectly ready because it's imperfect. So what that means is you're not going to get it right the first time, whatever you decide to take on, it could be something in your health journey, you want to get up and walk every day, for example. You may say to yourself, I can't get it done because I am too busy. Okay, that's fine. So it's not going to be perfect the first time. You may not be able to successfully get out for a 20 minute walk every single day but it can be perfectly imperfect, and even the five minute walk will suffice. I want everyone to think about something that they are thinking about getting done. Something that they are struggling with and internally they feel that they need to do it, but they haven't stepped forward because they are not ready. It's not the perfect timing to do whatever the initiative is. Another great example, a lot of individuals think about is I want to start my own business. I want to start a creative venture but there's a number of reasons why I'm not doing that right now, and it's not going to be a perfect start. Again, it's perfectly imperfect. You are going to start, but potentially there'll be some imperfections which we will be aware of when we first get started. It's a very interesting dilemma when you get started because now you're going to know what's not perfect. You are going to know that you could have done a little bit better here and there, but you will continue to move forward because you have a plan to be imperfect. You have shifted your mindset to say, even though it's not going to go as I would have hoped for it to go, at least I'm moving forward anyways. That momentum and that thought process will move you in the right directions towards your goal. So next time you will iterate, you'll say: Okay, it's not perfect. I wasn't able to get to the 20 minute walk today but at least it was perfectly imperfect, and I'm going for it anyways. Another great example, which has come up more recently is the whole social media phenomenon for Clubhouse. If you haven't heard of Clubhouse, it is a social media platform that is great for audio. So think of it as you go into a room, a virtual room, you go into a virtual room and in that virtual room you have the ability to listen to other people speak. It's like a conference. So they'll have rooms with different topics. Some of the topics could be around podcasting. And so as a podcaster, I would go into that room, and then I hear five or six people that are speaking about podcasting and then the rest of the individuals are just listening. Usually rooms can range from five people all the way up to 5,000, and it's a really great way for networking and it's a great way to share knowledge and get that knowledge exchange. It's like going to a conference so think of it that way. People are so afraid to speak on Clubhouse because they are now opening up, they're asking questions and if you haven't done it before, you may be afraid to get started. I was on a panel, I was asked to speak in one of the rooms and I gave this example of shifting my mindset every day saying: I'm going to be perfectly imperfect today. Even though it's not perfect, I'm still going to do it anyways because it needs to get done and this is something I want to do. And let me tell you, it resonated with so many people in that room. I heard them use the same words again and again, when they were explaining their own fears about being perfectly imperfect and proceeding anyways. I really would like you guys to take away that saying from this episode: Perfectly imperfect but proceeding anyways, because let's face it. We all got high standards. We all got goals and dreams, but we cannot just sit at the sidelines and say, we're not ready today because we're not perfect. It's not perfect, or today's not perfect or the timing's not perfect because perfection is just a fallacy. There's no such thing as perfection, the faster you learn that and the faster you take action in whatever you want to do, the better it is. This can apply to so many facets in your life. It can apply to your health, it can apply to your marriage. It can apply to your relationships with friends. It could apply to your job, your career, anything, pick something. Pick a goal that you want to do. For me, I want to spend a little bit more time with my kids after dinner, so I don't necessarily have planned activity. I'll potentially just take out a few arts and crafts here or there and be like, let's paint together. It's pretty imperfect to be honest, but it's perfect for the situation because the goal at the end was to spend more time with them. It didn't really matter what the activity was. Choose any activity and try to take the words "perfectly imperfect and proceeding anyways" as your mantra just to get started. I promise you it'll make a huge difference and I really hope that by pushing yourself forward, it will become easier and easier. And you will eventually hit your level of perfection, even though production is a fallacy. You'll hit your standards and it will no longer be a challenge to achieve that goal. Okay guys, this was a little bit of a shorter episode but I think it's a big concept about accepting imperfection, accepting the fact that perfection is a fallacy. You can be perfectly imperfect and proceed anyways, towards your goals. I hope that you can relate it to your own life circumstances and really change your mantra or your mindset so you're not setting limitations on yourself, especially when you have momentum and you want to move forward. At the end of the day, you know that we're our worst critics, so we do have those limiting beliefs and we do have imposter syndrome. Those are real phenomenons that do occur for many of us, and I would say the "perfectly imperfect and proceeding anyways" will help you conquer both. All right guys, if you have any questions about the material, or you need any help understanding this concept a little bit deeper, you can always email us at [email protected] and remember, make a plan and take action, and yes, you can have it all. I'll talk to you later. Bye. So my fellow bosses, did you enjoy that episode? Now is time for you to make a solid plan and take action. But first, remember to subscribe and follow the Boss It Podcast so you receive a notification whenever we drop an episode. Remember to leave us a review on iTunes. Take a screenshot of your review and share it on Instagram as a post or a story and tag us @BossItclub. If Instagram is not your thing, no worries. Email your screenshot to [email protected]. As a massive thank you, we will be sending you our Top 50 Tips for Starting and Scaling a Business. This list is exclusively for podcast reviewers. So don't miss out. Now remember bosses: make a plan and take action in all aspects of your life. Yes you can have it all.