Photo by Nicolas Cool on UnsplashIt’s Never Too Late to Learn Important Live Lessons
The piece of advice I wish I knew sooner, and am old enough to appreciate it
I’ve long dreamed of working for myself, setting my own hours, even working anywhere I can open my laptop. So when I found myself jobless at the beginning of 2021, you would think I’d be ready to go, eager to jump head-first into my new life as an entrepreneur.
You couldn’t be more wrong.
Instead I found myself paralyzed with indecision and imposter syndrome. Every idea needed to be workshopped to death. I wrote countless blog posts, business proposals and networking emails pushing my ideas into the world — only to hit delete everytime.
Nothing felt good enough, or innovative enough. My idea wasn’t perfect enough to be successful, I thought.
Then I received the one piece of advice that changed everything. And it came to me by accident.
I kept seeing the same headlines over and over again: “Grow your consulting business with an online course”, “Make six figures consulting with an online course”. The first job I secured as a consultant was as a guest contributor for, you guessed it, an online course. So, I started looking into this and became overwhelmed.
Online courses are a multi-billion dollar industry. There are countless courses to take and even more platforms to build and host your lessons on. I was overwhelmed and reached out to a friend of mine who works in tech.
My initial outreach was to get his input on which platform I should start out with. It turned into a therapy session on how to start your own business. Once I started talking about being overwhelmed with the online course, I got into posting on LinkedIn, and who is my audience? And will people actually care about what I have to share?
He listened patiently then told me, “Tara, you need to slow down. You’re in the experimentation phase. It’s all about progress, not perfection”
Progress, not perfection
Those words have become my mantra as I build my business. I was letting perfection get in the way of workshopping and marketing my idea. It was keeping me on the sidelines.
I started slow. I published the first draft of various blogs to Medium. The early stories weren’t great, but still, some people read them. And I started to pick up followers.
Then, I started sharing ideas on my personal Instagram and Facebook. Then I worked up the courage to post on LinkedIn (a platform I always avoided because I was afraid my boss would think I was looking for work).
The more I shared, the more interest I generated. Sure, I was still in my personal network, but it’s still a microcosm of the audience I want to reach.
As I continued to talk about my business idea, helping people improve their remote studio setups for TV appearances, I started discovering new avenues and audiences for this type of advice.
It took a while, but in these conversations, and in receiving feedback for my business and brand, I’ve finally narrowed it down to one promise:
I help people look, sound and feel good on camera using what they already have
It’s the mantra I take to my clients. It’s how I’ve branded myself on LinkedIn & Instagram, and eventually my website, Twitter, Youtube page.
But I never would have come up with it if I didn’t test out my business idea on my network.
Progress over perfection is also helping me prioritize my time. There is a long list of things to do to launch and build my business. I can’t spend countless hours perfecting the “About Me” section of my website. It just needs to be “good enough” for now. I can always go back and tweak or make other improvements.
I spent about a week putting together my first client proposal. I have never done this before, so I needed the time to figure out a professional-looking template. Luckily, my dad spent decades on his own consulting career and he shared some of his templates for proposals and contracts. I was able to build on that, use him as a second set of eyes, and now I have a template I can use and get proposals out in a more timely manner next time.
There’s Always Going to be a First Pancake
Nothing is perfect the first time. If you’ve ever made pancakes, you know the first one never works out. It’s actually not supposed to. A griddle is always going to be too hot or too cold when the batter first hits. The first pancake, with all of its flaws and unevenness, balances the temperature of the griddle so it’s the right temperature for the rest of the pancakes. It’s why I always eat the first pancake. I appreciate how it set the stage for the rest.
The same can be said for creative projects. An idea can only take shape when you send it out and see how it’s received. You need to talk it over with others and take in their perspective to see how it will be received by your audience.
I now have a better understanding for who my audience is and why they need my expertise. If I wait for the content to be perfect, it will never get published. It just needs to be good enough to help them reach their goals.
Then we move on to the next pancake.
