June 5, 2026 • 24 mins
We talk about how high standards and perfectionism can freeze momentum, especially when you are building something big like a new website. We share a practical way to choose a deadline, define a baseline, and ship a first version that helps people find you and pay you.
• why big ideas turn into start stop progress
• how Parkinson’s law makes long deadlines drag
• choosing a baseline so version one can go live
• simple website essentials for artists, makers and shop owners
• taking tiny daily steps to build momentum
• when paying for better tools or help saves time
Let me know if you need some help around this. You find all the information on paternshift.fm. Share this podcast with someone you know that you think could benefit from some insights.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hey and welcome to Patent Shift.
I'm Saskia, creative life andbusiness coach for fiber-loving
makers, teachers, designers,shop owners, and all-around
creatives.
I help you wayfind your nextstep, organize your business to
fit your life, and launch ideaswith joyful action.
Together we'll untangle thetricky bits like branding,
(00:22):
marketing and sales, and buildsomething sustainable, soulful,
and truly you.
Hi and welcome to the PatternShift Podcast, or welcome back,
even better.
My name is Saskia and I'm comingfrom Rotterdam in the
Netherlands talking to you todayabout momentum, basically, and
(00:45):
how your standards are keepingyou from moving forward.
So uh let's start with whatbrought up this idea.
I was just talking to a client,someone I coach, and she wants
to put herself out there more.
And so we're working on buildinga website for her.
(01:07):
And I'm not necessarily buildingit for her, I'm helping her to
go through the process ofbuilding a website.
And what comes up a lot is thatthe deadline, how much time you
have to do this and how big thisproject could become
potentially, and how utterlysometimes debilitating it is to
(01:31):
even get started, because youcan see all the possibilities
and all the things you couldmake or do, and then that
becomes a huge struggle.
So I'm not saying that thisparticular client was talking
about all these difficulties,but these are things that I talk
to people about, things thathappen and that slow us down.
(01:55):
So I thought it was a good timeto really hone in on this topic
of the time you have availableto do these things.
As small creative businesses, wewant to do all the things
ourselves.
And sometimes we need to do allthe things ourselves because we
(02:16):
don't have the budget.
And then it's about making adecision of where do you want to
put your energy towards?
The budget of time, not only thebudget of money, both of that.
So this particular client Iworked with before, and at the
end of our last sessions, shewas thinking to set the deadline
(02:38):
for a new website in the nextyear.
And then today, when we had ourfirst session, particularly
focused on doing some morepractical work rather than just
coaching around some strugglesand feelings.
We were focusing on thepractical more.
In this first session, sherealized that wait, that sounds
(02:59):
way too far away next year.
I want and need this websitesooner, and I actually think I
can do it.
And that has to do with a lot ofwork around what is good enough,
and not even what is goodenough.
That sounds like it's a versionthat is suboptable.
(03:25):
It's not that, it's not aboutgood enough, it's about
understanding that a certainversion of a website is great,
and it doesn't need to be more.
It actually could be better whenit's more simple and when it's
done faster.
Let's talk about it.
(03:46):
So sometimes we're stuck.
We want to start this bigproject, and I'm using the
example of a website, but itcould be anything.
We feel like we have ideas andthey're in our heads, and we see
other people's websites, andthis is what we strive to be or
to become or to come across asor look like, and it's this huge
(04:12):
big idea or ideal.
That's interesting that the wordidea and ideal are so close
together, but that's maybe foranother time, and that keeps us
stuck although we think we'removing.
So every time we think thatwe're ready to get started, the
(04:35):
ready gets bigger and it getslike it's not good enough.
It needs to be more perfect thanthis.
And of course, perfectionismsteps in here, it's something
that is just not getting usanywhere.
But we're not being lazy for notgetting started.
(04:58):
We are having the possibility,the possibilities of all that it
could be in our heads, and wejust see all the ways that it
can get better, and so it neverfeels like it's done enough.
The idea is never done enough toactually start building.
(05:19):
And when we do start building,separate parts of the bigger
project get that same treatmentwhere you think, okay, this is
the homepage, but wait, now Isee this other home page or this
other imagery that really speaksto me, and now I want this, and
then we get stuck again, and sonothing really launches, nothing
(05:44):
really grows, nothing reallygets momentum and keeps going
and keeps moving.
It's a start and stop situation,and the preparation and
overthinking becomes the samething, and that's blocking us.
We're overthinking what we couldpotentially build instead of
(06:09):
actually building something.
So now let me talk aboutParkinson's law.
Work expands to fill the timeavailable, and this was coined
by C.
Northcote Parkinson in 1955, ifyou want to know.
So work expands to fill the timeavailable.
(06:30):
That means that the amount oftime that you allow yourself to
do something is the amount oftime it will take to do
something.
So if you say, I have a fullyear of building a website,
it'll probably take you thatfull year.
And you won't be working at itthe full year.
You probably start working atthe last minute or just dragging
(06:51):
those thoughts along with youthrough the year.
And if you have the deadline atthe end of the year, you work
towards that deadline.
But if you give yourself, I needto have a website done in two
weeks, you're able to do it intwo weeks.
Heck, I even build a website ineight hours one day.
(07:11):
So I know what I'm talkingabout.
This is actually a reallyinteresting story.
We should I should add a littletune here.
Probably not.
I don't have time for a tune.
Anyway, side story.
So I was looking for what wasit?
A pedicure, I think, years ago.
(07:32):
And I was looking for someonewho could provide me with a
service that was not too faraway from where I live.
And also I used animal-friendlyproducts, environmentally
friendly products,people-friendly products, that
kind of thing.
And it was really hard to findthat person.
(07:54):
And when I did, I landed on awebsite that particularly stated
that she used those kinds ofproducts.
And I was really happy aboutthat because I found the person
I was looking for, but herwebsite was what should I say?
Not up to date.
And I felt like I could helpher.
(08:16):
And without asking, I basicallytook all the information from
her website, I copy-pasted thetext, and I build her a new
website.
And it was just not really meantfor her.
It was just uh a joyful thingfor me to do, believe it or not.
I really enjoyed doing that, andI gave myself a day to do it
(08:38):
because I understood I haveother things to do, but it this
was also gonna be something thatI could learn from.
And within the eight hours, uh Ibuilt her a new website.
And when I set a date, I showedher, but she was like freaked
out or something.
She was like, What?
I she didn't really sayanything.
I tried to explain her that thisis something I like to do.
(09:00):
It's like making a sketch orsomething, it's drawing someone
in public who didn't give theirpermission.
I know how that sounds, but soshe never did anything with it.
I offered her the design fornothing for free.
The only thing she had to do waslike switch platforms because
she was using another platform.
And that she gave me, she didgive me some feedback and saying
(09:21):
that she didn't want to pay morethan she was paying now, and
that was definitely the reasonwhy the website looked as it
looked, because you do have tospend something, like some type
of budget, whether that be moneyor loads of time, to get
something that you can standbehind.
(09:41):
Is that literally Dutch?
Something that you can that'sgood enough for you.
I don't want to use the wordgood enough.
That's the thing.
Anyway, let's move on.
The point is that if you wantto, you can make a website that
is good in eight hours.
Because the question is, what doyou want to communicate?
Who do you want to communicateit to?
(10:03):
And if you're not a fullystarting a new business, then
you already know who you are andwhat you do, who you want to
speak to, and that is part ofthe work, of course.
So I would have to say this isdoable if you already have a
business.
If you are starting a business,then there's work to do around
(10:23):
who is your what's your productor your service and who you are
talking to and all the thingswith branding and stuff.
I do have to give you thatinformation as well.
Still, if you give yourself sixmonths to build a website, it
takes six months and it would beas much done as you would give
(10:46):
yourself a weekend or similar.
I hope you get my point.
So she basically chose my clientis not getting a deadline from
anyone, she's giving herself adeadline.
She gave herself a deadline fora year at first, and while we
were talking, she realized thatshe didn't need a year, and so
(11:09):
she chose a new deadline, andthat's what you can do.
You can choose the deadline andwork towards that.
So to take action, you needclarity.
You cannot think your way to beready to start.
The first version is afoundation, is your baseline.
(11:31):
Your first vet version of yourwebsite or your big project is
just the first version.
And perhaps here we do get totalk about good enough.
Just clarifying that good enoughis not bad, it is literally good
enough.
And then you can hang thedecorations later.
(11:52):
So you have you have this spacethat has everything you need in
it.
There's heating, there's a placeto sleep, there's a fridge, but
there isn't any wallpaper yet.
Fine, the wallpaper can comelater, the basics are there, and
perhaps wallpaper is not thegreatest example because I feel
(12:14):
you thinking, but I need I needwallpaper, I need pictures, I
need a vibe.
So maybe there's some wallpaper.
So if you have a website thatexists and that can lead people
towards you, show them who youare, what you do, and give them
information to get connected toyou, that is already literally
(12:36):
worth money.
Because if people can find youand you can get their business,
that's more than if you don'thave the website.
So that is as simple as it gets.
If it's not live, it's nothelping you.
The first version is not acompromise, it's the only way
(12:57):
that the next version ever willhappen.
And if you leave the firstversion and not share it with
the world until you get to thesecond version, that could take
ages, and that's so much lostopportunity there.
So the real work is in decidingwhat are the basics, what is the
(13:20):
baseline for the things that areneeded, and write down what that
is.
What do people need to knowabout you to be able to work
with you?
That's it.
That's it.
Let's say you're an uh an artistand you have work you want to
(13:41):
sell.
The basic version of that isshowing who you are.
Never forget that I think that'sprobably one of the most
important things.
Showing who you are, what youhave to offer, and how they can
contact you.
And the simplest way to do thatis a picture of yourself, a
picture of your work, and youremail.
(14:05):
That's the simplest way.
And that is already almost likea done website in a way.
Remember that a picture towels athousand words.
So if you struggle finding thewords to explain the things that
you do, which is I I understandit's not easy to do.
Sometimes it's just showing thework.
(14:27):
And then you can expand on that.
That can become a portfolio.
You can even work backwards,show the last thing you did, and
then every day add something tothe portfolio.
If you feel like that is such anoverwhelming thing, and the same
goes for a web shop.
If you have uh a brick andmortar shop and you want to
(14:50):
start a web shop, why not startbrand by brand or subject by
subject?
So if you sell yarns and tools,start with the yarns, do the
tool next tools next.
But decide what's the baseline.
Perhaps what is your most solditem in your shop?
(15:10):
Make sure that the firstbaseline of your website has
that uh has that product on it.
The thing is that you need tostart taking small steps, the
smallest steps that you canthink about.
If you don't take action,nothing is going to happen.
(15:31):
If it all stays in your head,then it all stays in your head.
It sounds super simple and it isreally simple.
So the first thing that youcould do is, for example, look
at two or three, two or threedifferent web shop platforms or
website platforms, and don'tautomatically go with the
(15:53):
cheapest version.
The amount of people I talk tothat struggle with their website
is because it's unworkable, it'snot people-friendly, it has a
really bad user experience, andit's cheap.
So better pay for more so itmakes it easier for you to work
(16:14):
with.
Or perhaps you should invest insomeone to help you with it and
let someone do the work for you.
Sometimes you have to reallyrealize that the hours that you
spend on something are also paidhours.
You're not paying yourself, butyou're pulling yourself away
(16:37):
from your core business by doingstuff that someone else could
do, and you're not growing yourbusiness if you are doing
everything yourself.
And so sometimes it's reallygood to think about these things
and to while I'm talking, I'mjust realizing that this client
is probably listening.
(16:57):
If you're listening, you knowwho you are.
I'm using your your case as anexample, but I'm also adding
things to it, of course, becausefrom my experience.
And now I lost my train ofthought.
So yeah, these small steps areimportant, and I'm talking tiny
(17:18):
steps.
Momentum literally means oncesomething gets moving, it can
accelerate and it can keepmoving.
It's not a start-stop situationif you do a little small step
every day.
And I would say do it every dayfor some period of time and make
(17:41):
the action steps really small.
And what I mean by really small,tiny tiny is, for example,
opening uh a website to researchthe price of something.
Perhaps it's looking up the bestpicture that you have of
yourself.
Perhaps it's taking a page inyour journal and writing about
(18:02):
whether or not you're gonna haveyour picture taken by a
photographer.
Depending on what you do, thatmight be important.
Sometimes just a selfie is goodenough.
Sometimes you want to have aphoto shoot with a professional
photographer.
Thinking about these things,things is important, yes, but it
(18:25):
doesn't need to take ages andages.
You can also just start with theselfie and open up the website,
get the website out there, andthen later on do a photo shoot
if you feel like that'simportant.
That's the thing with business.
If it doesn't exist, it's notgoing to help your business.
So not existing versus a goodenough version versus the
(18:49):
perfect version in a businesssituation, go with good enough.
You need to get going.
In your journal, you could thinkof small steps that you need to
take to get where you need tobe.
And then if you have the smallsteps, try to make them even
smaller.
Because for me, sometimes I justdon't have the energy or I have
(19:09):
a certain type of brain spacefor something.
And this was so clever.
This client told me that withoutsaying too much, of course,
about about them, but you havedifferent states of mind, right?
Sometimes you are in yourcreative state, and sometimes
you're in your you kind of wantto do something practical.
(19:29):
So if you have the option ofchoosing between doing something
creative or practical, andthey're both small, then you can
just feel into what feels rightfor you in that day and just to
keep that thing going, keep itgoing, keep it growing.
All right.
I want to end with this thingthat could be really helpful
(19:51):
without selling you something.
I'm not gonna earn anything fromthis.
But as an example, I've had aShopify website for forever.
Yeah, for a long time.
And I really love working withit.
I know that I can do more thatI'm doing, but I don't need to
(20:11):
be doing more that I'm doingwith it.
So I don't get overwhelmed byall the options.
You simply choose a template,you perhaps change some colors,
you add in some photos, and it'sa really playful way of
designing something.
It's easy to do, I think.
And if it doesn't feel easy,then at some point after trying,
(20:34):
perhaps you can get some help.
But the great thing that theyoffer is they have this three
months for three euros.
So it's one euro a month or onedollar, like something along
those lines.
And you have three months tobuild this website for almost no
(20:58):
money, like really almost nomoney.
And this trial period could beyour deadline.
If you need to have somebodygive you a deadline, there it
is.
Some people work better thatway.
They can get things done wherethey have to do it in a certain
time, and that's what we'retalking about.
So if you don't know how muchtime to give yourself, like
(21:20):
eight hours in a day or a year,maybe those three months is
perfect.
It's something that is reallytangible, and it actually
something ends after threemonths.
So you build what you canactually finish in that time and
you then launch it before thatperiod turns out.
(21:40):
Again, it's not sponsored, Ijust use it myself, and I don't
have any affiliate links oranything.
I probably should work on that.
But yeah, that's how I use thispodcast.
My podcast is I makeadvertisements for my coaching.
I don't work with other peopleor other products to earn money.
(22:04):
This is what I do.
So if you want to work with mearound these kinds of things,
around setting up your newwebsite or building a brand, I
do this.
I can do this in different ways.
We can do coaching that goesmore into what's stuck, we can
do the practical steps where Ijust go with you through the
(22:27):
whole process and make sure thatit gets done.
There's I'm there to hold yourhand, I can hold you
accountable, I can give you allmy insights and my experience
and everything in between.
Let me know if you need somehelp around this.
You find all the information onpatentshift.fm.
And I hope you really take toohard what I said.
(22:51):
Small steps, small, small steps.
Do something every day.
Give yourself a deadline that isnot too wide so that you cannot
start to overthink things.
The first version is not thelast version.
The first version is there forpeople to find you so that you
can start to make uh a living,actually.
(23:14):
And that's the point, isn't it?
It's not the point.
Your website is not your what'sthe word, magnum opus.
It's not your life's work.
It's just a way for people toget in touch with you and you
can build it as you grow.
Yeah, that's it for today.
I'm off to the hairdresserbecause I need some more color
(23:37):
on my hair.
I guess that's my version 2.0,growing as we go.
See you next time on YouTube,and you can hear me on the
podcast platforms anywhere.
Share this podcast with someoneyou know that you think could
benefit from some insights.
And also, if they need a coach,and if you need a coach as well,
(23:58):
let me know.
Bye.
Hey and welcome to Patent Shift.
I'm Saskia, creative life andbusiness coach for fiber-loving
makers, teachers, designers,shop owners, and all-around
creatives.
I help you wayfind your nextstep, organize your business to
fit your life, and launch ideaswith joyful action.
Together we'll untangle thetricky bits like branding,
(00:22):
marketing and sales, and buildsomething sustainable, soulful,
and truly you.
Hi and welcome to the PatternShift Podcast, or welcome back,
even better.
My name is Saskia and I'm comingfrom Rotterdam in the
Netherlands talking to you todayabout momentum, basically, and
(00:45):
how your standards are keepingyou from moving forward.
So uh let's start with whatbrought up this idea.
I was just talking to a client,someone I coach, and she wants
to put herself out there more.
And so we're working on buildinga website for her.
(01:07):
And I'm not necessarily buildingit for her, I'm helping her to
go through the process ofbuilding a website.
And what comes up a lot is thatthe deadline, how much time you
have to do this and how big thisproject could become
potentially, and how utterlysometimes debilitating it is to
(01:31):
even get started, because youcan see all the possibilities
and all the things you couldmake or do, and then that
becomes a huge struggle.
So I'm not saying that thisparticular client was talking
about all these difficulties,but these are things that I talk
to people about, things thathappen and that slow us down.
(01:55):
So I thought it was a good timeto really hone in on this topic
of the time you have availableto do these things.
As small creative businesses, wewant to do all the things
ourselves.
And sometimes we need to do allthe things ourselves because we
(02:16):
don't have the budget.
And then it's about making adecision of where do you want to
put your energy towards?
The budget of time, not only thebudget of money, both of that.
So this particular client Iworked with before, and at the
end of our last sessions, shewas thinking to set the deadline
(02:38):
for a new website in the nextyear.
And then today, when we had ourfirst session, particularly
focused on doing some morepractical work rather than just
coaching around some strugglesand feelings.
We were focusing on thepractical more.
In this first session, sherealized that wait, that sounds
(02:59):
way too far away next year.
I want and need this websitesooner, and I actually think I
can do it.
And that has to do with a lot ofwork around what is good enough,
and not even what is goodenough.
That sounds like it's a versionthat is suboptable.
(03:25):
It's not that, it's not aboutgood enough, it's about
understanding that a certainversion of a website is great,
and it doesn't need to be more.
It actually could be better whenit's more simple and when it's
done faster.
Let's talk about it.
(03:46):
So sometimes we're stuck.
We want to start this bigproject, and I'm using the
example of a website, but itcould be anything.
We feel like we have ideas andthey're in our heads, and we see
other people's websites, andthis is what we strive to be or
to become or to come across asor look like, and it's this huge
(04:12):
big idea or ideal.
That's interesting that the wordidea and ideal are so close
together, but that's maybe foranother time, and that keeps us
stuck although we think we'removing.
So every time we think thatwe're ready to get started, the
(04:35):
ready gets bigger and it getslike it's not good enough.
It needs to be more perfect thanthis.
And of course, perfectionismsteps in here, it's something
that is just not getting usanywhere.
But we're not being lazy for notgetting started.
(04:58):
We are having the possibility,the possibilities of all that it
could be in our heads, and wejust see all the ways that it
can get better, and so it neverfeels like it's done enough.
The idea is never done enough toactually start building.
(05:19):
And when we do start building,separate parts of the bigger
project get that same treatmentwhere you think, okay, this is
the homepage, but wait, now Isee this other home page or this
other imagery that really speaksto me, and now I want this, and
then we get stuck again, and sonothing really launches, nothing
(05:44):
really grows, nothing reallygets momentum and keeps going
and keeps moving.
It's a start and stop situation,and the preparation and
overthinking becomes the samething, and that's blocking us.
We're overthinking what we couldpotentially build instead of
(06:09):
actually building something.
So now let me talk aboutParkinson's law.
Work expands to fill the timeavailable, and this was coined
by C.
Northcote Parkinson in 1955, ifyou want to know.
So work expands to fill the timeavailable.
(06:30):
That means that the amount oftime that you allow yourself to
do something is the amount oftime it will take to do
something.
So if you say, I have a fullyear of building a website,
it'll probably take you thatfull year.
And you won't be working at itthe full year.
You probably start working atthe last minute or just dragging
(06:51):
those thoughts along with youthrough the year.
And if you have the deadline atthe end of the year, you work
towards that deadline.
But if you give yourself, I needto have a website done in two
weeks, you're able to do it intwo weeks.
Heck, I even build a website ineight hours one day.
(07:11):
So I know what I'm talkingabout.
This is actually a reallyinteresting story.
We should I should add a littletune here.
Probably not.
I don't have time for a tune.
Anyway, side story.
So I was looking for what wasit?
A pedicure, I think, years ago.
(07:32):
And I was looking for someonewho could provide me with a
service that was not too faraway from where I live.
And also I used animal-friendlyproducts, environmentally
friendly products,people-friendly products, that
kind of thing.
And it was really hard to findthat person.
(07:54):
And when I did, I landed on awebsite that particularly stated
that she used those kinds ofproducts.
And I was really happy aboutthat because I found the person
I was looking for, but herwebsite was what should I say?
Not up to date.
And I felt like I could helpher.
(08:16):
And without asking, I basicallytook all the information from
her website, I copy-pasted thetext, and I build her a new
website.
And it was just not really meantfor her.
It was just uh a joyful thingfor me to do, believe it or not.
I really enjoyed doing that, andI gave myself a day to do it
(08:38):
because I understood I haveother things to do, but it this
was also gonna be something thatI could learn from.
And within the eight hours, uh Ibuilt her a new website.
And when I set a date, I showedher, but she was like freaked
out or something.
She was like, What?
I she didn't really sayanything.
I tried to explain her that thisis something I like to do.
(09:00):
It's like making a sketch orsomething, it's drawing someone
in public who didn't give theirpermission.
I know how that sounds, but soshe never did anything with it.
I offered her the design fornothing for free.
The only thing she had to do waslike switch platforms because
she was using another platform.
And that she gave me, she didgive me some feedback and saying
(09:21):
that she didn't want to pay morethan she was paying now, and
that was definitely the reasonwhy the website looked as it
looked, because you do have tospend something, like some type
of budget, whether that be moneyor loads of time, to get
something that you can standbehind.
(09:41):
Is that literally Dutch?
Something that you can that'sgood enough for you.
I don't want to use the wordgood enough.
That's the thing.
Anyway, let's move on.
The point is that if you wantto, you can make a website that
is good in eight hours.
Because the question is, what doyou want to communicate?
Who do you want to communicateit to?
(10:03):
And if you're not a fullystarting a new business, then
you already know who you are andwhat you do, who you want to
speak to, and that is part ofthe work, of course.
So I would have to say this isdoable if you already have a
business.
If you are starting a business,then there's work to do around
(10:23):
who is your what's your productor your service and who you are
talking to and all the thingswith branding and stuff.
I do have to give you thatinformation as well.
Still, if you give yourself sixmonths to build a website, it
takes six months and it would beas much done as you would give
(10:46):
yourself a weekend or similar.
I hope you get my point.
So she basically chose my clientis not getting a deadline from
anyone, she's giving herself adeadline.
She gave herself a deadline fora year at first, and while we
were talking, she realized thatshe didn't need a year, and so
(11:09):
she chose a new deadline, andthat's what you can do.
You can choose the deadline andwork towards that.
So to take action, you needclarity.
You cannot think your way to beready to start.
The first version is afoundation, is your baseline.
(11:31):
Your first vet version of yourwebsite or your big project is
just the first version.
And perhaps here we do get totalk about good enough.
Just clarifying that good enoughis not bad, it is literally good
enough.
And then you can hang thedecorations later.
(11:52):
So you have you have this spacethat has everything you need in
it.
There's heating, there's a placeto sleep, there's a fridge, but
there isn't any wallpaper yet.
Fine, the wallpaper can comelater, the basics are there, and
perhaps wallpaper is not thegreatest example because I feel
(12:14):
you thinking, but I need I needwallpaper, I need pictures, I
need a vibe.
So maybe there's some wallpaper.
So if you have a website thatexists and that can lead people
towards you, show them who youare, what you do, and give them
information to get connected toyou, that is already literally
(12:36):
worth money.
Because if people can find youand you can get their business,
that's more than if you don'thave the website.
So that is as simple as it gets.
If it's not live, it's nothelping you.
The first version is not acompromise, it's the only way
(12:57):
that the next version ever willhappen.
And if you leave the firstversion and not share it with
the world until you get to thesecond version, that could take
ages, and that's so much lostopportunity there.
So the real work is in decidingwhat are the basics, what is the
(13:20):
baseline for the things that areneeded, and write down what that
is.
What do people need to knowabout you to be able to work
with you?
That's it.
That's it.
Let's say you're an uh an artistand you have work you want to
(13:41):
sell.
The basic version of that isshowing who you are.
Never forget that I think that'sprobably one of the most
important things.
Showing who you are, what youhave to offer, and how they can
contact you.
And the simplest way to do thatis a picture of yourself, a
picture of your work, and youremail.
(14:05):
That's the simplest way.
And that is already almost likea done website in a way.
Remember that a picture towels athousand words.
So if you struggle finding thewords to explain the things that
you do, which is I I understandit's not easy to do.
Sometimes it's just showing thework.
(14:27):
And then you can expand on that.
That can become a portfolio.
You can even work backwards,show the last thing you did, and
then every day add something tothe portfolio.
If you feel like that is such anoverwhelming thing, and the same
goes for a web shop.
If you have uh a brick andmortar shop and you want to
(14:50):
start a web shop, why not startbrand by brand or subject by
subject?
So if you sell yarns and tools,start with the yarns, do the
tool next tools next.
But decide what's the baseline.
Perhaps what is your most solditem in your shop?
(15:10):
Make sure that the firstbaseline of your website has
that uh has that product on it.
The thing is that you need tostart taking small steps, the
smallest steps that you canthink about.
If you don't take action,nothing is going to happen.
(15:31):
If it all stays in your head,then it all stays in your head.
It sounds super simple and it isreally simple.
So the first thing that youcould do is, for example, look
at two or three, two or threedifferent web shop platforms or
website platforms, and don'tautomatically go with the
(15:53):
cheapest version.
The amount of people I talk tothat struggle with their website
is because it's unworkable, it'snot people-friendly, it has a
really bad user experience, andit's cheap.
So better pay for more so itmakes it easier for you to work
(16:14):
with.
Or perhaps you should invest insomeone to help you with it and
let someone do the work for you.
Sometimes you have to reallyrealize that the hours that you
spend on something are also paidhours.
You're not paying yourself, butyou're pulling yourself away
(16:37):
from your core business by doingstuff that someone else could
do, and you're not growing yourbusiness if you are doing
everything yourself.
And so sometimes it's reallygood to think about these things
and to while I'm talking, I'mjust realizing that this client
is probably listening.
(16:57):
If you're listening, you knowwho you are.
I'm using your your case as anexample, but I'm also adding
things to it, of course, becausefrom my experience.
And now I lost my train ofthought.
So yeah, these small steps areimportant, and I'm talking tiny
(17:18):
steps.
Momentum literally means oncesomething gets moving, it can
accelerate and it can keepmoving.
It's not a start-stop situationif you do a little small step
every day.
And I would say do it every dayfor some period of time and make
(17:41):
the action steps really small.
And what I mean by really small,tiny tiny is, for example,
opening uh a website to researchthe price of something.
Perhaps it's looking up the bestpicture that you have of
yourself.
Perhaps it's taking a page inyour journal and writing about
(18:02):
whether or not you're gonna haveyour picture taken by a
photographer.
Depending on what you do, thatmight be important.
Sometimes just a selfie is goodenough.
Sometimes you want to have aphoto shoot with a professional
photographer.
Thinking about these things,things is important, yes, but it
(18:25):
doesn't need to take ages andages.
You can also just start with theselfie and open up the website,
get the website out there, andthen later on do a photo shoot
if you feel like that'simportant.
That's the thing with business.
If it doesn't exist, it's notgoing to help your business.
So not existing versus a goodenough version versus the
(18:49):
perfect version in a businesssituation, go with good enough.
You need to get going.
In your journal, you could thinkof small steps that you need to
take to get where you need tobe.
And then if you have the smallsteps, try to make them even
smaller.
Because for me, sometimes I justdon't have the energy or I have
(19:09):
a certain type of brain spacefor something.
And this was so clever.
This client told me that withoutsaying too much, of course,
about about them, but you havedifferent states of mind, right?
Sometimes you are in yourcreative state, and sometimes
you're in your you kind of wantto do something practical.
(19:29):
So if you have the option ofchoosing between doing something
creative or practical, andthey're both small, then you can
just feel into what feels rightfor you in that day and just to
keep that thing going, keep itgoing, keep it growing.
All right.
I want to end with this thingthat could be really helpful
(19:51):
without selling you something.
I'm not gonna earn anything fromthis.
But as an example, I've had aShopify website for forever.
Yeah, for a long time.
And I really love working withit.
I know that I can do more thatI'm doing, but I don't need to
(20:11):
be doing more that I'm doingwith it.
So I don't get overwhelmed byall the options.
You simply choose a template,you perhaps change some colors,
you add in some photos, and it'sa really playful way of
designing something.
It's easy to do, I think.
And if it doesn't feel easy,then at some point after trying,
(20:34):
perhaps you can get some help.
But the great thing that theyoffer is they have this three
months for three euros.
So it's one euro a month or onedollar, like something along
those lines.
And you have three months tobuild this website for almost no
(20:58):
money, like really almost nomoney.
And this trial period could beyour deadline.
If you need to have somebodygive you a deadline, there it
is.
Some people work better thatway.
They can get things done wherethey have to do it in a certain
time, and that's what we'retalking about.
So if you don't know how muchtime to give yourself, like
(21:20):
eight hours in a day or a year,maybe those three months is
perfect.
It's something that is reallytangible, and it actually
something ends after threemonths.
So you build what you canactually finish in that time and
you then launch it before thatperiod turns out.
(21:40):
Again, it's not sponsored, Ijust use it myself, and I don't
have any affiliate links oranything.
I probably should work on that.
But yeah, that's how I use thispodcast.
My podcast is I makeadvertisements for my coaching.
I don't work with other peopleor other products to earn money.
(22:04):
This is what I do.
So if you want to work with mearound these kinds of things,
around setting up your newwebsite or building a brand, I
do this.
I can do this in different ways.
We can do coaching that goesmore into what's stuck, we can
do the practical steps where Ijust go with you through the
(22:27):
whole process and make sure thatit gets done.
There's I'm there to hold yourhand, I can hold you
accountable, I can give you allmy insights and my experience
and everything in between.
Let me know if you need somehelp around this.
You find all the information onpatentshift.fm.
And I hope you really take toohard what I said.
(22:51):
Small steps, small, small steps.
Do something every day.
Give yourself a deadline that isnot too wide so that you cannot
start to overthink things.
The first version is not thelast version.
The first version is there forpeople to find you so that you
can start to make uh a living,actually.
(23:14):
And that's the point, isn't it?
It's not the point.
Your website is not your what'sthe word, magnum opus.
It's not your life's work.
It's just a way for people toget in touch with you and you
can build it as you grow.
Yeah, that's it for today.
I'm off to the hairdresserbecause I need some more color
(23:37):
on my hair.
I guess that's my version 2.0,growing as we go.
See you next time on YouTube,and you can hear me on the
podcast platforms anywhere.
Share this podcast with someoneyou know that you think could
benefit from some insights.
And also, if they need a coach,and if you need a coach as well,
(23:58):
let me know.
Bye.
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