I wish I could write just 10 words which would guarantee your overnight success and so you'd need never worry again what you're creating, what you're marketing, what you're selling - and crucially - where the next $$$ are coming from.
But... of course there really is no easy answer - no definitive "this will definitely work". There are strategies you can apply, filter, tweak, pivot and re-work - but the biggest barrier I see over and over?
It's not getting started.
I know... sounds unfathomable, but it's true.
I'm a blogger (duh! 😁) and because I run a course about blogging I have to keep my ear to the ground in terms of what's happening out there and what people are REALLY doing - you know, none of this crap by some guy who wrote a book about blogging in 2007 and is STILL advising people use "black-hat tactics" (shady linking practices & stuff designed to game Google - but people? Google aren't stupid - they employ some of the brightest people on the planet - they're not going to fall for your keyword stuffing and dodgy links! 😂) - I need to know what real people - like me and you, are feeling about the way things are currently going and what they ACTUALLY DO on a day-to-day basis.
And this week? It blew my fucking mind.
It was a thread around the lines of wanting to save money on all their blog costs because they weren't monetised yet. OK, I do understand this to a degree although hosting can be super-super cheap - I mean literally, less than a cup of coffee a month - but OK, let's look deeper.
Turns out these women had OWNED blogs for up to SEVEN (7!) years... and never posted anything! 😲🤦♀️
And these weren't the women who were running online service-based businesses, course creators or coaches - they called themselves bloggers. Writers.
They wanted to write... but didn't.
They'd designed their websites, worried about font combinations, colour schemes, affiliate schemes (🤮) and niches, signed up to expensive software to "spread their message", designed their graphics in canva for IG and Pinterest... but never actually sat down, fired up the damned keyboard and hammered out some words.
THE BARRIER IS YOU
The first blog you write will probably suck because you'll be second-guessing yourself, questioning whether you're on the right path or whether what you're doing actually has any merit at all.
The first course you write will probably be stilted and "not quite right".
Your first website will be rough around the edges - I mean seriously, I'm a web designer and my site is STILL work-in-progress - and likely always will be!
Your first newsletter will be choppy, weak and quite likely disconnected.
But... practice makes perfect right? And when I say perfect, I don't mean that one day you'll be stood on stage collecting your literary woman on the year award - but that you will blog with ease and it won't seem like this unsurmountable task you need to work yourself up in to the "right state of mind" to be able to tackle.
Fuck "what if I fly?" - "Darling, you'll fucking plummet to the ground at terminal velocity"!
And... what happens when you hit the ground? You pick yourself up, dust yourself down and you try again.
THAT is the difference between those that make it and those who don't.
The ones who try. The ones who fail. The ones who tweak what they're doing and try again. The ones who know they'll NEVER be finished.
Does this LOOK like the website of one of the richest men in the world?
Yep, it is.
The first iteration of Amazon - Bezos didn't wait for "perfect".
You have to start because there are no prizes for waiting until the "perfect time" - because that time is never, ever, going to come!
Every step you take on this journey, every action brings you more clarity - and it's that clarity which helps you take the GIANT leaps and the BIG WINS.
You have to TAKE ACTION because what's the alternative? Sitting and waiting for another 7 years?
I like this – just get started. It’s hard to publish that first post or send that initial email, but that’s how you get going.
Congratulations on your start! Hit publish and be damned with it – if it still makes you cringe in 6 months you can delete it… but by then it’ll just be at the bottom of a VERY DEEP pile of your work and you won’t give 2 shiny shites! 😂
Nice post 🙂