Perfectionism
Perfectionism...it pops up everywhere! Let’s talk about it…
So many of us, women especially, struggle with perfectionism. We struggle with needing things to look, feel, and be a certain way before we can put them out into the world and actually let our work impact.
I was recently on a call with a client in my Impactful Brand Academy program. We were working through the content of her course and she was wondering how to budget since she is early on in her business. She was sharing how she doesn't have the funds to have her course professionally recorded by a production team.
Now, as you may know, I record the content for my courses on my phone or with a nice camera in my office. It doesn’t always have to be this way. But the reason I do it this way is because I like to do things on my own timeline. I like to record when I’m inspired. I like the flexibility this gives me. And I can record quickly if a client needs support - I don’t have to rely on a production team to create content quickly!
The reality is that the teaching and the content are still the teaching and the content. Whether it’s created by a production team or created in my office with my iPhone - the content is the content.
After hearing my client talk about how she wasn’t going to be able to get her course out there...I said to her, “why do you think that it needs to be professionally recorded?”
and these are some of the things she shared with me -
I won’t be able to sell it, if it’s not done professionally
It won’t be taken seriously
It has to be done that way if I want to charge x amount of money
I let her know that this does not have to be the most perfect iteration of a course that she's putting out there for the first time. She said that she feels like it needs to be perfect.
We started to peel back the layers and began to see that this perfectionism runs deep. She’s a dancer, she’s been in the competitive dance industry for years and years, and she now coaches elite-level competitive dance. I totally get that. I come from a competitive gymnastics background and collegiate cheerleading. You would never put something out that is not top-notch in these worlds!
But here’s something that we have to understand...perfectionism always wants to keep us safe. The reality is, all of our success is almost always found outside of our comfort zone. It’s almost always found when we do it scared. When we jump in.
When you’re just getting started and creating your first course, you need to get data! We want to get the content out there! It’s not that we should just put anything out there...but so much quality content and curriculum can be created from a proper, non-expensive setup from wherever you are! I’m not saying to create selfie videos, but we don’t have to pay thousands of dollars to have a production team to create our content.
One of the main reasons why I don’t advocate for professional production is because I shift things in my courses all the time! For instance, I have shifted, changed, and re-recorded curriculum in my Impactful Brand Academy course 8 times since the first round.
That has looked like moving a module into becoming a bonus and replacing that old module with a new one. The only way that I figured that out and made the course better was through the data. I got people into the program, moved with them through the curriculum, figured out what was working and what wasn’t, what needed to be a bonus vs a module, and figured out what needed to stay and what needed to go. Then I got to work. I re-recorded or shifted material and launched the program again. I learned again what needed to shift and I shifted things and then launched the program again!
I want you to have a pulse on what’s going on with your students. I want you to know where they are at, what is lighting up the lightbulbs in their head, and when you are seeing the content and curriculum really click for them. When you see that it feels so good because you start to see what is and isn’t working! Then, you didn’t spend 1000’s of dollars on production and you can change things up on your own terms and just get it out there!
Now, I know this is easier said than done! Me telling you this does not just wipe away perfectionism! I know that’s not the case, but these little steps of pushing through the vulnerability of putting something out there that you know isn’t the best version that it is ever going to be but doing it anyway - is so important!
The thing that I really want you to remember, is that the teaching is the teaching. Period. The content is the content. Period. It doesn’t change or get better when you record it on a better camera. It’s still the same teaching. The teaching is your magic. The teaching is what we want to get in the hands of more people. The teaching is the work that you are doing in this world. So how can we get it out there faster, start to create impact, fill up our own courage and confidence cups, so that we can continue to make the program and curriculum better as we go.
This is just one way to move through perfectionism, to do it anyway, and to start to have an awareness of where perfectionism is showing up. That feels like one of the biggest pieces to me.
I encourage you to take a minute to journal and/or think through your answers to these questions:
Where can you see that perfectionism is holding you back?
Where can you see that you are not putting yourself out there because of perfectionism?
What would it feel like to do it anyway, even though perfectionism is still there?
Where is perfectionism showing up for you?
Where can you feel it coming into your world?
How is it hindering the way you show up in your business? In your life?
As you gain more awareness of your perfectionism, your desire to impact more people, your desire to get your work out there into the world will start to become louder than your perfectionism. It will start to become louder than your fear. When your desire to impact and get your work into the hands of your dream clients gets SO loud, all of the sudden perfectionism, anxiousness, and fear start to dissipate and they stop having such a big presence at your table - they’re not in charge anymore!
I’d love to know your thoughts on this - let me know what you think here or over on Instagram!
Time is your most valuable asset...
And so often, it gets spent doing things in your business that could (should?) be outsourced or automated and checking off boxes on an endless to-do list just so you can feel productive.
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