15 Minute Freelancer

25. Ship before you're ready (and banish perfectionism)

July 02, 2021 Louise Shanahan Season 1 Episode 25
15 Minute Freelancer
25. Ship before you're ready (and banish perfectionism)
Show Notes Transcript

Today's solo episode is about shipping before you're ready, lessons learned from 25 episodes of this podcast, and banishing perfectionism.

"Step over any negativity that comes from people who haven't stepped into the arena themselves. There will always be a reason to procrastinate. But if we take the leap before we're ready, and we just start, then we have real data to work with. So don't wait for someone to give you permission. Choose yourself."

Wanna leave me a voice note? Go to memo.fm/15 and say hi!

Louise Shanahan is a freelance health copywriter and content marketer. She's on a mission to help others build a freelance business that feels easy and works for them – in weekly snack-sized bites.

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Welcome to 15 Minute Freelancer, your snack-sized guide to being your own boss and building a business and life you love. I'm your host Louise Shanahan. My LinkedIn bio says I'm a freelance health copywriter. But for the next 15 minutes I'll be tickling your ears with practical strategies behind the scenes stories and nuggets of wisdom so you can create freelance business that works for you. Whether you're just starting out or you've been self-employed for a while, I'll be right here with you to help me navigate the ups and downs of freelancing life. So grab a coffee relax and join me for 15 minutes of freelancing fun. Don't forget to hit subscribe. 

Hello, it's Louise here, just li’l ole me today. I'm back for another solo episode. I haven't done one of these for a while because I've been very lucky to talk to some brilliantly clever guests over the last month or so. Obviously, I had Sophie Cross join me back in March to talk about the joy of finding your freelance community and her experiences of creating Freelancer Magazine (to which I encourage you all to subscribe). 

And then over the last few weeks, I've been speaking to freelancer Mark Grainger, who shared his thoughts on whether you should use your own name or a brand name and how to come up with a business name that will attract the kind of clients that you really want. I spoke to accountant Martin Brooks, who gave us his top three tips on what to prioritise to get our account and taxes in order. Then I spoke to Caroline Marshall, superstar virtual assistant, who explained how a VA can support your freelance business so you can grow your business without getting lost in work that's perhaps not your particular area of expertise. Sarah Townsend, author of Survival Skills for Freelancers, joined me a couple of episodes ago to talk about some of her favourite mindset strategies such as setting boundaries, saying no and building a boost bank, which I love. And then last week, I was joined by one of my IRL besties, leadership coach Jen McKeown, who talked us through some strategies for self-coaching and journaling as a way to ride the emotional ups and downs of freelancing. 

So I just wanted to take a moment to thank them all for giving up their time and sharing their wisdom. And also to let you know that those episodes are there and may be of interest to you, in case you missed them. 

But today, it's just me at my desk with my trusty Snowball mic, having a wee chat about some things that have been on my mind this week, particularly around the idea of shipping before you're ready. Now, I don't want to alarm you. But this is Episode 25. And I started this weekly podcast in January. So that means we're 25 weeks through the year. 2020 seemed like the slowest year ever, didn’t it? But 2021 seems to be zooming by. So I'm pretty surprised to still be here to be honest. 

Often I have a lot of ideas for new projects. And I might get started, do it for a little while. And then it evolves into something else or it kind of just drops off my radar. Maybe you're like this too. Like with my knitting, which I made a big song and dance about on Instagram. I made like two jumpers and two pairs of slippers and was like, oh, okay, now I am ready to monetize this and launch a YouTube channel and design woolly pullies for celebs. But then it got warmer outside and I kind of got distracted. But honestly, I'm loving doing this podcast and the brilliant feedback and reviews has really made it worth it. And I'm so grateful for your support. So thank you. 

And this is why we need to jump before we're ready. I almost didn't. I had been wanting to start a podcast for ages. And I actually bought the mic and I had it sitting on my bookcase for probably about a year before I actually recorded anything. I think I let the tech get in the way, like I wasn't sure how to edit in GarageBand. I didn't know how hosting worked, I didn't know how to make those little audiograms. And I actually still don't know how to do that. So I just kind of kept putting it off. 

And I also had a major case of wondering if I had anything useful to see like, who am I to share my thoughts on freelancing? There are loads of brilliant freelancing podcasts already. And there are loads of freelancers who have way more experience than me. Who wants to hear my thoughts on this? But then I figured that it's kind of the same with the services that we offer in our businesses, isn't it? There may be other people doing the same thing, but we don't let that put us off. We all have something different to offer, we have different experiences, different styles. So in January, I thought I do have things I want to say about freelancing, and how you can design your business in whatever way you want, and maybe sharing my approach and my experiences will be helpful for other people. Let's see. And let's be honest, I needed a little creative distraction from the relentless sameness of those long, long lockdown days back in January. 

So I thought, let's just commit to doing five or six episodes and see what happens. See if I like it, see if anyone else likes it. And here we are six months later. So I guess my little reflection on all of that is that if there's something we want to exist in the world, we can't wait until it's perfect before putting it out there. It might never be perfect. If I waited until I felt this podcast was perfect or worried too much about what other people think or worried about learning the exactly correct way to edit, I’d never start. And then I wouldn't be sitting here 25 episodes later. I'd have missed the chance to connect with all sorts of interesting people. and read your amazing DMs saying that you've tried something that I suggested, and it helped you get a new client or raise your rates, or you just enjoy the way I say ‘wee’ all the time. It's just the best feeling ever. And it's led to some really interesting client leads too. 

So it's not perfect, I can work on the editing, I can work on my interviewing style, I can come up with a better marketing plan. But I started it, and I'm enjoying it. And I hope you are too. That's the main thing. 

And a quick side note here, I'm actually really excited to be testing a brand new service called Memo today. I'm not sponsored, I just want to let you know about it. This means that you can leave me a voice note with your comments or your feedback or questions or whatever else you want to share about this podcast. So the link is memo.fm/15. I'll put it in the show notes. So please do say hi, you just click the link, record your message, and somehow I will be able to reply. Podcasting is by nature a bit one sided. So this new tool sounds like a really fun way for us to have a bit more of a conversation, if you would like. 

Incidentally, Ramy, who built the tool, posted a thread on Twitter about how he had this idea and he wanted to build it and just get it out there. And he has. It's still in the early stages so it might evolve a little bit. But had he waited until it was perfectly finished product, then I wouldn't be mentioning it here. 

But back to business. So my question or challenge for you is, what do you want to create that you're holding back on? What would be the first tiny step towards getting that thing into existence, out of your head and into the world? I saw a tweet the other day that said something like LinkedIn is worth $26 billion. And it still sucks. So you shouldn't hold back on shipping your project because it doesn't feel ready. That made me laugh. It's kind of true, right? There's something to be said for just hitting send or pressing publish or launching something before you feel ready just to get it out there and see what happens. You can iterate and improve as you go. Once you've started, you'll probably realise that the bits that you thought would be tricky are actually not that hard. 

I mean, there are probably things that you do now, without a second thought, that felt really hard a few years ago, and the things that you find hard to do now will feel easy when you look back in another few years. It's just kind of how the process works. You learn, you get better, hard things become easy. Something else becomes the obstacle. And eventually that becomes easy. There will always be challenges. So if you wait until you're an expert, you'll never do it. You only improve by doing like you won't learn to play tennis by watching Wimbledon. You have to give it a shot, iterate and improve as you go. 

There are also examples of how not to do this. Fyre festival and Theranos spring to mind. Two excellent documentary recommendations for you there. But assuming that the thing that you're launching doesn't involve abandoning wealthy hipsters on a desert island with only a handful of cheese sandwiches to keep them going, and doesn't involve selling magical healthcare devices and hoping that the laws of physics adapt before anyone realises they don't work. I think it'd be fine. For freelancers like us, it pays to be bold and take the leap. Once you have, you'll have something else to think about. But you'll be on your way. And if it turns out you hate it or it doesn't work, you can just stop do something else. But you'll have learned something and you won't be stuck in the weeds of indecision anymore.

I know it's hard not to let perfectionist tendencies get in the way, especially if we're doing something in public. So maybe you can look at it as an adventure as. You can just enjoy the ride. Who knows where it will take you? What's the worst that could happen? Or maybe you want to look at it as an experiment and get clinical, get some feedback and follow the data so you can improve. 

I was watching an episode of HAMYAW over lunch today. This is a YouTube show by Hilary Weiss and Margo Aaron. It stands for Hillary and Margo yell at websites. And I highly recommend it. Anyway, this episode was on perfectionism and how it leads us to get stuck in a state of perpetual preparation. You know, we have our spreadsheets, we do the courses, we want to learn the things because we want to make sure all the boxes are checked before we go. But it keeps us frozen in this constant state of ‘just about to launch’. 

Perfectionism is often seen as this kind of acceptable personality flaw, if you want to call it that. Like in a job interview, you might be asked some daft question like what's your biggest weakness? And it's kind of a standing joke to say oh, I'm a perfectionist. I just work too hard to make everything just so. And I've been reading lately about how in the extreme this is actually a deep-rooted dysfunction and it's social conditioning that makes us feel like we need to show up perfectly all the time. It's not really a joke. Especially for women and marginalised groups, we often feel like we need to perform to a certain standard in order to feel safe and accepted. So press publish now, don't you think? 

Another point that someone has suggested to me recently that is kind of a different angle, but I've really been thinking about a lot is the idea that perfectionism sometimes comes from a place of privilege and entitlement, in the sense that you are afraid of things not being perfect. Because you expect them to be perfect, and you assume it to be possible. And of course not everybody can make that assumption, not everybody grows up with that message that things can and should be perfect. So yeah, that's something I've been reflecting on to which to be honest, is a little bit uncomfortable. So I'd love to hear your thoughts on these different perspectives on perfectionism. Maybe that's something you want to share on Memo. 

Beyond perfectionism, sometimes we're just worried about criticism, and what will people think? What will my long lost second cousin on Facebook say? What will my peers on Twitter say? I'm afraid we just have to get over this. The fact is, if you create anything interesting, there are going to be some people who don't like it. Fine. It's not for them. Whose critique do you care about? It’s hard, I know, but I encourage you to step over any negativity that comes from people who just don't know what they're talking about, who maybe aren't the audience for what you're creating, and who haven't stepped into the arena themselves. There will always be a reason to procrastinate to wait until it's right and do it later. But if we take the leap before we're ready, and we just start, then we have real data to work with. So don't wait for someone to give you permission. Choose yourself. 

As freelancers, I think we all have a little bit of that entrepreneurial spirit inside of us, even if we don't necessarily all define ourselves that way. And being an entrepreneur is about taking a chance, getting feedback, and improving and repeat. So this is my message for you today. What are you holding back on putting out into the world? Is it an article you've been working on? A new service? A podcast? A community? A novel? A ful- length documentary about medical espionage? Whatever you're working on, be bold, and take the leap. It doesn't matter if it's not perfect. Chances are we'll love it anyway. And you can improve it later. We want to see it now. So, you know the saying – the best time to plant a tree was 10 years ago. The second best time is today. So get planting my friends. And if you have any questions, thoughts, comments, please check out the Memo link and leave me a review. I'm really curious to see how this works. Alright, see you next week. 

You've been listening to 15 Minute Freelancer with me, Louise Shanahan, freelance health copywriter and content marketer at thecopyprescription.com. If you enjoyed this, please hit subscribe, leave a review or share it with a freelance friend. And if you've got a freelancing question you want answered on the podcast find me and say hi on Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram. Thanks, and until next time, happy freelancing!