August 5, 2025 • 22 mins
Planning paralysis keeps entrepreneurs stuck in endless preparation without implementation, causing expensive procrastination instead of real business growth. The addiction to planning feels productive but prevents facing the reality of putting ourselves out there where actual learning happens.
• Expensive procrastination happens when we create beautiful business plans without taking action
• Planning addiction feels safe but is often sophisticated avoidance of risking failure or judgment
• The planning myth makes us believe success requires perfect plans but real business growth happens through testing and adjusting
• "Fire, Ready, Aim" works better than "Ready, Aim, Fire" in the real world of business building
• Planning has deadlines and leads to action; plotting is open-ended and leads to more plotting
• Creating a one-page clarity document focusing on the problem, audience, and solution is more effective
• Take one action in the next 48 hours to break planning paralysis – offer a service, create a simple product, or publish content
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:16):
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
I'm your host, Jen Cody.
Welcome to episode 99.
And what we're talking abouttoday is expensive
procrastination.
Yep, I have a confession tomake.
When it comes to my business, Ihave written so many notes, so
(00:38):
many business plans, so manyaudits, all of the things right,
I can actually probablywallpaper the room I'm in right
now with all of it.
And they're beautiful, they'redetailed, they are impressive,
they're documents with chartsand projections and mission
statements, value words, all thethings that are really
important, and they make itsound like I am just running the
(01:02):
best Fortune 500 company, likeI am just running the best
Fortune 500 company.
But I want to be really honestwith this confession, because
what I did with all of thatinformation, with most of that
information, is actually nothing, absolutely nothing.
They are sitting in my GoogleDrive in my trash can hopefully
(01:22):
not judging me, but it's pagesand pages of pure intention and
zero implementation.
I know I'm not alone in this.
There are lots of you out theredoing the exact same thing.
And, honestly, it gets evenworse because I used to feel
really good about writing theseplans, like really, really good.
(01:43):
I would spend weeks craftingstrategy, researching my target
market, creating those elaboratefinancial projections that are
hopeful math, and when I wasdone I would sit back and think
I am just killing it.
Look at me, I am likeentrepreneur chef's kiss.
And then the next day or thenext week I would open up my
(02:06):
laptop.
And where do you even startwith all that?
You know like, when I look atsome of the earlier days in my
business planning and I look atphrases like increased brand
awareness, what does that mean?
What does that mean when it'syou know the next day and I have
three client calls, I'm tryingto finish a presentation and
(02:29):
there's no real direction inthose words and what's happening
?
There is addiction to planning.
I come up against this with alot of the people that I work
with.
So I think you're going to findthat you can see yourself in
what I'm about to tell you.
One of the people that I'mworking with currently came to
(02:51):
me and had spent a good amountof time let's say six to eight,
10 months and she was creating acomprehensive business strategy
.
She had her market research.
She had done a lot of things,like she did her competitor
analysis.
She had her avatars, herdetailed personas for her
(03:11):
customers, a brand identityguide, financial projections for
I want to say it was almost thenext five years, if not 10
years and she had a fullmarketing plan.
It referenced every singleplatform.
There was a plan for LinkedIn,a plan for Instagram, a plan for
Facebook, and it was thoroughinformation, it was complete, it
(03:35):
was beautiful, it was craftedin Canva, with all the things
and really, really nice to lookat.
But at the end of the day, itwas actually kind of useless,
because when I asked her whatshe had done with any of this,
she looked at me like I wascrazy because she was in the I'm
(03:55):
going to use my air quotesagain in the planning phase and
I need to make sure everythingis figured out before I move
forward is what she said to me.
So all of that planning and shehadn't actually spoken to a
single potential client.
She had not created a singlepiece of content, she had not
(04:17):
made one offer to anyoneanywhere.
She was planning to startplanning, or maybe think about
starting, or planning to startthinking, I don't know, but
there was a lot of wheelsturning with no actual traction.
But you know what's happeningduring that time, right, and I
know that right now there's lotsof you shaking your head.
(04:40):
Yes, you have done this.
You've been there.
You might be on your laptopwhile you're listening to this
creating a new LinkedIn strategyplan and you feel productive,
right.
So did my client.
She felt, during those, let'ssay, eight months, super
productive.
She felt like she was workingon her business.
She was busy, she was thinkingstrategically and she was being
(05:03):
really thorough.
And she's not wrong.
She was doing all those things.
But I want you to ask yourselfthe same question.
I asked her Are you buildinganything?
And the answer was no.
We have been really sold a myththat in order for a business to
be successful, the plan needs tobe perfect.
(05:26):
That somewhere whether it's ina boardroom, a coffee shop, you
know, on a treadmill, somewheresomeone is mapping out exactly
how their business will unfoldand then, poof, like magic,
that's exactly how it's going tounfold.
But that's never what reallyhappens.
What does happen is thatsomeone has an idea.
(05:47):
They try it.
It fails.
They adjust that idea, they tryagain.
Maybe they fail again and maybethey fail in a different way.
So they adjust again andeventually they stumble onto
what works, and that is whenthey write the business plan
that they thought they werewriting in the very beginning.
(06:09):
I know that's how it happenedfor me.
I think that if I go back to thelast seven years of my life,
how many times I createdsomething and put it out there,
and created something and put itout there and would spend
months like trying to puttogether an online course?
There are definitely peoplelistening right now who were on
(06:30):
one of my first retreats, andduring that retreat I had an
entire presentation I was goingto share with people on a
program that I thought peoplewere somehow going to want to
buy.
And looking back now, I can'teven believe that.
I thought that this was goingto be a thing, but at this point
and this stage in myentrepreneurial journey, it now
(06:53):
makes perfect sense because weneed to go through those motions
, we need to try things and failat them so that we can learn.
And I don't think it was untilthat moment, and that was one of
many moments where I realizedyou know, the business plan
actually comes after thebusiness and we've got it
(07:16):
backwards because we think thatwe're supposed to sit down and
plan our way to success, but wedo not plan for success, we
experiment our way to success.
I learned this the hard waybecause, I'm telling you, when I
put that presentation togetheron my retreat basically telling
(07:38):
everyone, I knew what I wantedto provide them.
I knew the transformation thatI could give them.
I spent months creating what Iwas convinced was the perfect
course outline.
It was every you know all theresearch that I did over what
people may object to, creatingcontent for different learning
(07:58):
styles, anticipating all thequestions someone might have.
And do you know how many peoplepurchased that course?
No one, zero.
And I had an audience.
It wasn't where I was like, oh,I'm going to make something and
just put it out into the worldwhere no one's listening.
No, no, no.
I was on a retreat that peoplepaid to come to because they
(08:21):
trusted me.
So in my mind, that meant I hada solid business plan, and that
was the plan I used to try andcreate this course, which, of
course, bombed.
But the reason why is because Icreated it in a vacuum.
But the reason why is because Icreated it in a vacuum.
I planned based on what Ithought people needed instead of
(08:45):
what they actually needed, andall of that planning just made
me more and more attached to anidea that didn't work.
What I really needed to do waslisten to the people that were
in my world and stopprocrastinating over doing the
actual work.
Planning has now this likesophisticated form of avoidance,
(09:05):
and I'm going to tell you why.
Planning feels safe.
Planning feels productive.
We can spend months planningand we won't ever have to face
the reality of actually puttingourselves out there.
We never have to risk failure.
We never have to risk beingembarrassed.
We never have to risk what ourfriends and family are going to
(09:25):
think of us, because we're stillin the preparation phase, so
there's nothing to actually risk.
Planning is what lets us feellike entrepreneurs without
actually being anything.
It's like cosplaying businessownership.
We get to research, westrategize, we create mood
boards and we feel superimportant, but we're not
(09:46):
actually dealing with any of themessy reality that comes with
serving the people that we aremeant to serve, and I totally
understand Putting yourself outthere.
It's terrifying, because what ifnobody wants what you're
offering?
What if you're not as good asyou think you are?
And worse, what if you failpublicly and everyone sees right
(10:08):
?
I go back to like the days ofearly Instagram, where people
would put but maybe people stilldo this, I don't know.
But you would put something outon Instagram and if it didn't
get the traction that you wanted, you would delete it because
you didn't want anybody to seethat your picture had no likes
or no comments.
But we have to put ourselvesout there if we want to build
(10:31):
something worth building.
And these businesses that allof you are out there thinking of
and all of you are out therethinking of and all of you are
out there like holding back onbecause you don't want to expose
yourself.
Expose yourself.
That's where the magic happens,because we need actual
achievements.
What's really terrifying isspending years preparing and
(10:53):
never starting.
What's really terrifying isreaching the end with a bunch of
perfect plans and no actualachievement.
So how do we break this right?
Because we created this culturewhere more information feels
like better decisions and thatis not a sentence.
(11:15):
More information is not betterdecisions.
We want to research and analyzeand compare until we're
drowning in data, but we're notactually any closer to doing
something.
So I watch people and work withpeople, and I'm watching them
spend weeks and weeks and weeksresearching the perfect email
(11:36):
marketing platform.
I have a client who has spentcountless hours researching CRMs
because she's not sure whichone to focus on, and creating
all these spreadsheets,comparing features and reading
reviews and watching tutorials.
Yes, when you are going toinvest in something, you want to
(11:57):
know what you're investing in.
But doing all of this andconsistently asking for opinions
, by the time you finally choose, you're exhausted because
you're not really choosinganything.
You're just choosing tocontinue planning.
So let's talk about what asuccessful entrepreneur does.
They look at something thatmeets their basic needs, fits
(12:21):
their investment budget, andthey choose it.
They start building right away.
If we think about, like anemail list, they start building
the email list right awaybecause done is better than
perfect.
Six months later, maybe they'velearned that they want a
different platform.
They want to switch thingsaround Great, but they have now
(12:41):
a starting point.
They have an email list toactually move to the other
platform.
They're going to switch withreal data about what they need,
not just these theoreticalconcerns that we make up along
the way, because the goal is notto make perfect decisions.
The goal is to make decisionsand then make them work for us,
(13:04):
or pivot if they're not workingfor us.
I don't want you to think thatI'm against planning, because
I'm not.
Planning is very important, butthere's a difference between
planning and plotting.
So planning it's strategic,it's thinking through the goals,
understanding your resources,making conscious choices about
(13:27):
how to spend your time, how tospend your energy, and good
planning helps you work smarter,not harder.
Plotting is what happens whenplanning becomes an end in
itself, when you're spendingmore time thinking about your
business than actually doingyour business.
If all you're doing is thinkingabout it, what's actually being
(13:49):
done when research becomes asubstitute for action, instead
of the actual precursor toaction?
And here's how you're going totell the difference.
Planning has deadlines.
Planning leads to an actionstep that you see through.
Plotting is kind of open-endedand it just leads to more
(14:10):
plotting.
So if you've been planninganything whether it's your
business, whether it'sredecorating your home, planning
a party, whatever if you'vebeen planning something for more
than a month and you're nottaking steps towards completion,
you're not planning, you'replotting, and that is simply
procrastination.
That's all it is.
(14:32):
So I want you to think of this.
We talk about like ready, aim,fire, right.
Traditional business advicetells us ready, then aim, then
fire.
We want to do our research,want to create the plan and we
want to execute the plan.
(14:52):
It sounds really logical, butit doesn't work in the real
world.
Really logical, but it doesn'twork in the real world, and that
I can promise you.
In the real world.
We use fire ready aim, we startwith imperfect action, we learn
from the results and then weadjust our strategy based on
data instead of projections.
(15:12):
This just happened to me with aclient that we were working on,
and that's actually where Icame up with this analogy,
because we're trying to pivot inthis company, right, we're
trying to move in a differentdirection, get some things off
the ground so we can know what'sreally going to work, what
(15:33):
we're going to do with this newprogram that we're going to do.
One of the comments I got backwas it kind of feels like fire
ready aim instead of ready aimfire, and that's exactly right.
But when we do ready aim fire,how long does it actually take
(15:53):
us to get ready?
Think about it.
If we're taking forever to getready and fix our aim and never
firing, what are we getting?
Absolutely nothing.
When we fire, first we takeinformed action and then we
learn from it and we say, oh,wait a minute, this didn't work.
(16:14):
Great, let's go in anotherdirection.
This worked really well Great.
Let's go in another direction.
This worked really well Great.
Let's double down on that anddo more of it.
We can't do that unless we fire.
So all of the things that youthought you knew about business
and growing your business andscaling your business, they will
never come to be.
(16:35):
If you are waiting forperfection before you fire, if
you're always waiting and neverfiring first, it's not happening
.
I'm telling you, when you firefirst you put something out into
the world and then you learnfrom the response.
Guess what happens next?
(16:55):
The next time you do it, youraim is even better.
And I know this feels backwards.
I know it feels uncomfortable,especially if you're a
perfectionist, which manyentrepreneurs are.
But it's how real businessesget built.
You learn by doing, not bythinking about doing.
So let's get really practicalabout this.
(17:15):
I want you to look at anyplanning you've been doing and
ask yourself these questions howlong have I been planning this
without taking action?
Be honest with yourself.
I'm sure for some of you it'sgoing to be a couple of days,
but for some of you it's goingto be a couple of months, a
couple of years.
What am I afraid will happen ifI start before the plan is
(17:36):
perfect?
What am I afraid will happen ifI start before the plan is
perfect?
What are you afraid is going tohappen if you start before it's
perfect?
What's the smallest step youcould take to test this right
now, and what real-worldinformation do you need that you
(17:57):
can only get by tryingsomething?
I want you to be really honestwith these answers, because if
you've been planning for morethan a few weeks, you're just
procrastinating.
Okay.
So now let's talk about businessclarity, because instead of a
47-page business plan, I wantyou to create something that is
one page.
This is going to be yourclarity document, and here's
(18:17):
what goes on it.
What's the problem?
You're solving?
Just one page.
This is going to be yourclarity document, and here's
what goes on it.
What's the problem?
You're solving Just onesentence.
What's the problem?
Then I want you to write whohas this problem.
Then how will you solve it?
How are you going to reach thepeople who have this problem so
that you can solve it?
How can you make money solvingit, and what's the first thing
(18:40):
you'll do to test if this works?
That's the most importantquestion, because all of the
first questions anybody that istrying to grow a business.
You've done this exercise before.
What's the problem you'resolving?
Who are you serving?
How are you solving theirproblem?
What's the problem you'resolving?
Who are you serving?
How are you solving theirproblem?
You know these answers.
(19:03):
It's the last question thatmakes the difference.
What are you going to do totest to see if this works?
That's it.
It all needs to fit on one page.
If it doesn't fit on one page,it's too complicated.
So keep simplifying it.
Go to ChatGPT, go to Claudeai,put it in there, ask it.
Simplify, simplify, simplify,because the goal is not to have
(19:26):
all the answers.
The goal is to get clear on thebasics so that you can start
testing and learning.
Right, this is what makes thedifference.
So let's do a challenge for thenext 48 hours.
It's a little uncomfortable,but that's how you know it's
important, right?
I want you to take a businessidea and I want you to do
something, just something, withit in the next 48 hours.
Don't plan to do something,actually do something.
(19:49):
So let's say it's a servicebusiness, offer that service to
one person for free, in exchangefor their testimony, in
exchange for their feedback.
So it's very simple.
Look in your phone, pick upyour iPhone.
Right now, the first personthat comes to mind that it might
be helpful to call them up,send them a text.
I'd like to offer you this forfree.
(20:11):
I would love for you to help meand give me your feedback.
Let me know what you thinkabout it.
If it's a product business,create the simplest version of
the product.
You can Create the simplestversion of the product.
You can Show it to five people.
Maybe you have a content-basedbusiness.
Create one piece of content andpublish it.
(20:33):
That's it.
Send it to Medium, publish iton LinkedIn and publish it.
That's it.
Send it to Medium, publish iton LinkedIn, publish it on
Facebook, anything.
Just take that one piece ofcontent and actually publish it.
If it's an online course thatyou're building, can you teach
one of the concepts to oneperson in 30 minutes?
(20:53):
Again, look through your phonebook.
Who's in my phone that I cancall and say can I offer you
something for free in exchangefor 30 minutes of your time to
teach you something?
The specific action doesn'tmatter.
It's really breaking theplanning paralysis that we're
after.
I want you to move fromthinking about your business to
(21:14):
doing in your business, sothat's your goal for the next 48
hours is to just do this onestep.
We're going to come back nextweek and talk about all the
other actions that need tohappen, but for now, can we just
focus on 48 hours, one actionin your business.
I would love to hear what it is.
(21:36):
So you could find me onInstagram at Solutions by Jen
Cody.
You can email me at Jen J-E-N-Nat JenCodycom.
But whatever you do, don't letit go.
Don't let this just slip by, sothat it's not something that
you're focused on.
48 hours, one action Okay,thank you so much for spending
(21:57):
time with me this week.
I hope it was helpful for you.
I look forward to hearing whatyou guys are doing in your
businesses.
Please respond.
Get those answers back to me,because when you respond and
give me that feedback, I'm ableto create more valuable stuff
for you guys.
So take this with you.
Go out there, create the dayand the business that you
deserve and that you want andthat you will live your best
(22:20):
life with, and I will see youhere this time next week.
Have a great one, everyone.
Until next time.
Take care of yourselves, takecare of each other.
Bye-bye.
Hey everyone, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
I'm your host, Jen Cody.
Welcome to episode 99.
And what we're talking abouttoday is expensive
procrastination.
Yep, I have a confession tomake.
When it comes to my business, Ihave written so many notes, so
(00:38):
many business plans, so manyaudits, all of the things right,
I can actually probablywallpaper the room I'm in right
now with all of it.
And they're beautiful, they'redetailed, they are impressive,
they're documents with chartsand projections and mission
statements, value words, all thethings that are really
important, and they make itsound like I am just running the
(01:02):
best Fortune 500 company, likeI am just running the best
Fortune 500 company.
But I want to be really honestwith this confession, because
what I did with all of thatinformation, with most of that
information, is actually nothing, absolutely nothing.
They are sitting in my GoogleDrive in my trash can hopefully
(01:22):
not judging me, but it's pagesand pages of pure intention and
zero implementation.
I know I'm not alone in this.
There are lots of you out theredoing the exact same thing.
And, honestly, it gets evenworse because I used to feel
really good about writing theseplans, like really, really good.
(01:43):
I would spend weeks craftingstrategy, researching my target
market, creating those elaboratefinancial projections that are
hopeful math, and when I wasdone I would sit back and think
I am just killing it.
Look at me, I am likeentrepreneur chef's kiss.
And then the next day or thenext week I would open up my
(02:06):
laptop.
And where do you even startwith all that?
You know like, when I look atsome of the earlier days in my
business planning and I look atphrases like increased brand
awareness, what does that mean?
What does that mean when it'syou know the next day and I have
three client calls, I'm tryingto finish a presentation and
(02:29):
there's no real direction inthose words and what's happening
?
There is addiction to planning.
I come up against this with alot of the people that I work
with.
So I think you're going to findthat you can see yourself in
what I'm about to tell you.
One of the people that I'mworking with currently came to
(02:51):
me and had spent a good amountof time let's say six to eight,
10 months and she was creating acomprehensive business strategy
.
She had her market research.
She had done a lot of things,like she did her competitor
analysis.
She had her avatars, herdetailed personas for her
(03:11):
customers, a brand identityguide, financial projections for
I want to say it was almost thenext five years, if not 10
years and she had a fullmarketing plan.
It referenced every singleplatform.
There was a plan for LinkedIn,a plan for Instagram, a plan for
Facebook, and it was thoroughinformation, it was complete, it
(03:35):
was beautiful, it was craftedin Canva, with all the things
and really, really nice to lookat.
But at the end of the day, itwas actually kind of useless,
because when I asked her whatshe had done with any of this,
she looked at me like I wascrazy because she was in the I'm
(03:55):
going to use my air quotesagain in the planning phase and
I need to make sure everythingis figured out before I move
forward is what she said to me.
So all of that planning and shehadn't actually spoken to a
single potential client.
She had not created a singlepiece of content, she had not
(04:17):
made one offer to anyoneanywhere.
She was planning to startplanning, or maybe think about
starting, or planning to startthinking, I don't know, but
there was a lot of wheelsturning with no actual traction.
But you know what's happeningduring that time, right, and I
know that right now there's lotsof you shaking your head.
(04:40):
Yes, you have done this.
You've been there.
You might be on your laptopwhile you're listening to this
creating a new LinkedIn strategyplan and you feel productive,
right.
So did my client.
She felt, during those, let'ssay, eight months, super
productive.
She felt like she was workingon her business.
She was busy, she was thinkingstrategically and she was being
(05:03):
really thorough.
And she's not wrong.
She was doing all those things.
But I want you to ask yourselfthe same question.
I asked her Are you buildinganything?
And the answer was no.
We have been really sold a myththat in order for a business to
be successful, the plan needs tobe perfect.
(05:26):
That somewhere whether it's ina boardroom, a coffee shop, you
know, on a treadmill, somewheresomeone is mapping out exactly
how their business will unfoldand then, poof, like magic,
that's exactly how it's going tounfold.
But that's never what reallyhappens.
What does happen is thatsomeone has an idea.
(05:47):
They try it.
It fails.
They adjust that idea, they tryagain.
Maybe they fail again and maybethey fail in a different way.
So they adjust again andeventually they stumble onto
what works, and that is whenthey write the business plan
that they thought they werewriting in the very beginning.
(06:09):
I know that's how it happenedfor me.
I think that if I go back to thelast seven years of my life,
how many times I createdsomething and put it out there,
and created something and put itout there and would spend
months like trying to puttogether an online course?
There are definitely peoplelistening right now who were on
(06:30):
one of my first retreats, andduring that retreat I had an
entire presentation I was goingto share with people on a
program that I thought peoplewere somehow going to want to
buy.
And looking back now, I can'teven believe that.
I thought that this was goingto be a thing, but at this point
and this stage in myentrepreneurial journey, it now
(06:53):
makes perfect sense because weneed to go through those motions
, we need to try things and failat them so that we can learn.
And I don't think it was untilthat moment, and that was one of
many moments where I realizedyou know, the business plan
actually comes after thebusiness and we've got it
(07:16):
backwards because we think thatwe're supposed to sit down and
plan our way to success, but wedo not plan for success, we
experiment our way to success.
I learned this the hard waybecause, I'm telling you, when I
put that presentation togetheron my retreat basically telling
(07:38):
everyone, I knew what I wantedto provide them.
I knew the transformation thatI could give them.
I spent months creating what Iwas convinced was the perfect
course outline.
It was every you know all theresearch that I did over what
people may object to, creatingcontent for different learning
(07:58):
styles, anticipating all thequestions someone might have.
And do you know how many peoplepurchased that course?
No one, zero.
And I had an audience.
It wasn't where I was like, oh,I'm going to make something and
just put it out into the worldwhere no one's listening.
No, no, no.
I was on a retreat that peoplepaid to come to because they
(08:21):
trusted me.
So in my mind, that meant I hada solid business plan, and that
was the plan I used to try andcreate this course, which, of
course, bombed.
But the reason why is because Icreated it in a vacuum.
But the reason why is because Icreated it in a vacuum.
I planned based on what Ithought people needed instead of
(08:45):
what they actually needed, andall of that planning just made
me more and more attached to anidea that didn't work.
What I really needed to do waslisten to the people that were
in my world and stopprocrastinating over doing the
actual work.
Planning has now this likesophisticated form of avoidance,
(09:05):
and I'm going to tell you why.
Planning feels safe.
Planning feels productive.
We can spend months planningand we won't ever have to face
the reality of actually puttingourselves out there.
We never have to risk failure.
We never have to risk beingembarrassed.
We never have to risk what ourfriends and family are going to
(09:25):
think of us, because we're stillin the preparation phase, so
there's nothing to actually risk.
Planning is what lets us feellike entrepreneurs without
actually being anything.
It's like cosplaying businessownership.
We get to research, westrategize, we create mood
boards and we feel superimportant, but we're not
(09:46):
actually dealing with any of themessy reality that comes with
serving the people that we aremeant to serve, and I totally
understand Putting yourself outthere.
It's terrifying, because what ifnobody wants what you're
offering?
What if you're not as good asyou think you are?
And worse, what if you failpublicly and everyone sees right
(10:08):
?
I go back to like the days ofearly Instagram, where people
would put but maybe people stilldo this, I don't know.
But you would put something outon Instagram and if it didn't
get the traction that you wanted, you would delete it because
you didn't want anybody to seethat your picture had no likes
or no comments.
But we have to put ourselvesout there if we want to build
(10:31):
something worth building.
And these businesses that allof you are out there thinking of
and all of you are out therethinking of and all of you are
out there like holding back onbecause you don't want to expose
yourself.
Expose yourself.
That's where the magic happens,because we need actual
achievements.
What's really terrifying isspending years preparing and
(10:53):
never starting.
What's really terrifying isreaching the end with a bunch of
perfect plans and no actualachievement.
So how do we break this right?
Because we created this culturewhere more information feels
like better decisions and thatis not a sentence.
(11:15):
More information is not betterdecisions.
We want to research and analyzeand compare until we're
drowning in data, but we're notactually any closer to doing
something.
So I watch people and work withpeople, and I'm watching them
spend weeks and weeks and weeksresearching the perfect email
(11:36):
marketing platform.
I have a client who has spentcountless hours researching CRMs
because she's not sure whichone to focus on, and creating
all these spreadsheets,comparing features and reading
reviews and watching tutorials.
Yes, when you are going toinvest in something, you want to
(11:57):
know what you're investing in.
But doing all of this andconsistently asking for opinions
, by the time you finally choose, you're exhausted because
you're not really choosinganything.
You're just choosing tocontinue planning.
So let's talk about what asuccessful entrepreneur does.
They look at something thatmeets their basic needs, fits
(12:21):
their investment budget, andthey choose it.
They start building right away.
If we think about, like anemail list, they start building
the email list right awaybecause done is better than
perfect.
Six months later, maybe they'velearned that they want a
different platform.
They want to switch thingsaround Great, but they have now
(12:41):
a starting point.
They have an email list toactually move to the other
platform.
They're going to switch withreal data about what they need,
not just these theoreticalconcerns that we make up along
the way, because the goal is notto make perfect decisions.
The goal is to make decisionsand then make them work for us,
(13:04):
or pivot if they're not workingfor us.
I don't want you to think thatI'm against planning, because
I'm not.
Planning is very important, butthere's a difference between
planning and plotting.
So planning it's strategic,it's thinking through the goals,
understanding your resources,making conscious choices about
(13:27):
how to spend your time, how tospend your energy, and good
planning helps you work smarter,not harder.
Plotting is what happens whenplanning becomes an end in
itself, when you're spendingmore time thinking about your
business than actually doingyour business.
If all you're doing is thinkingabout it, what's actually being
(13:49):
done when research becomes asubstitute for action, instead
of the actual precursor toaction?
And here's how you're going totell the difference.
Planning has deadlines.
Planning leads to an actionstep that you see through.
Plotting is kind of open-endedand it just leads to more
(14:10):
plotting.
So if you've been planninganything whether it's your
business, whether it'sredecorating your home, planning
a party, whatever if you'vebeen planning something for more
than a month and you're nottaking steps towards completion,
you're not planning, you'replotting, and that is simply
procrastination.
That's all it is.
(14:32):
So I want you to think of this.
We talk about like ready, aim,fire, right.
Traditional business advicetells us ready, then aim, then
fire.
We want to do our research,want to create the plan and we
want to execute the plan.
(14:52):
It sounds really logical, butit doesn't work in the real
world.
Really logical, but it doesn'twork in the real world, and that
I can promise you.
In the real world.
We use fire ready aim, we startwith imperfect action, we learn
from the results and then weadjust our strategy based on
data instead of projections.
(15:12):
This just happened to me with aclient that we were working on,
and that's actually where Icame up with this analogy,
because we're trying to pivot inthis company, right, we're
trying to move in a differentdirection, get some things off
the ground so we can know what'sreally going to work, what
(15:33):
we're going to do with this newprogram that we're going to do.
One of the comments I got backwas it kind of feels like fire
ready aim instead of ready aimfire, and that's exactly right.
But when we do ready aim fire,how long does it actually take
(15:53):
us to get ready?
Think about it.
If we're taking forever to getready and fix our aim and never
firing, what are we getting?
Absolutely nothing.
When we fire, first we takeinformed action and then we
learn from it and we say, oh,wait a minute, this didn't work.
(16:14):
Great, let's go in anotherdirection.
This worked really well Great.
Let's go in another direction.
This worked really well Great.
Let's double down on that anddo more of it.
We can't do that unless we fire.
So all of the things that youthought you knew about business
and growing your business andscaling your business, they will
never come to be.
(16:35):
If you are waiting forperfection before you fire, if
you're always waiting and neverfiring first, it's not happening
.
I'm telling you, when you firefirst you put something out into
the world and then you learnfrom the response.
Guess what happens next?
(16:55):
The next time you do it, youraim is even better.
And I know this feels backwards.
I know it feels uncomfortable,especially if you're a
perfectionist, which manyentrepreneurs are.
But it's how real businessesget built.
You learn by doing, not bythinking about doing.
So let's get really practicalabout this.
(17:15):
I want you to look at anyplanning you've been doing and
ask yourself these questions howlong have I been planning this
without taking action?
Be honest with yourself.
I'm sure for some of you it'sgoing to be a couple of days,
but for some of you it's goingto be a couple of months, a
couple of years.
What am I afraid will happen ifI start before the plan is
(17:36):
perfect?
What am I afraid will happen ifI start before the plan is
perfect?
What are you afraid is going tohappen if you start before it's
perfect?
What's the smallest step youcould take to test this right
now, and what real-worldinformation do you need that you
(17:57):
can only get by tryingsomething?
I want you to be really honestwith these answers, because if
you've been planning for morethan a few weeks, you're just
procrastinating.
Okay.
So now let's talk about businessclarity, because instead of a
47-page business plan, I wantyou to create something that is
one page.
This is going to be yourclarity document, and here's
(18:17):
what goes on it.
What's the problem?
You're solving?
Just one page.
This is going to be yourclarity document, and here's
what goes on it.
What's the problem?
You're solving Just onesentence.
What's the problem?
Then I want you to write whohas this problem.
Then how will you solve it?
How are you going to reach thepeople who have this problem so
that you can solve it?
How can you make money solvingit, and what's the first thing
(18:40):
you'll do to test if this works?
That's the most importantquestion, because all of the
first questions anybody that istrying to grow a business.
You've done this exercise before.
What's the problem you'resolving?
Who are you serving?
How are you solving theirproblem?
What's the problem you'resolving?
Who are you serving?
How are you solving theirproblem?
You know these answers.
(19:03):
It's the last question thatmakes the difference.
What are you going to do totest to see if this works?
That's it.
It all needs to fit on one page.
If it doesn't fit on one page,it's too complicated.
So keep simplifying it.
Go to ChatGPT, go to Claudeai,put it in there, ask it.
Simplify, simplify, simplify,because the goal is not to have
(19:26):
all the answers.
The goal is to get clear on thebasics so that you can start
testing and learning.
Right, this is what makes thedifference.
So let's do a challenge for thenext 48 hours.
It's a little uncomfortable,but that's how you know it's
important, right?
I want you to take a businessidea and I want you to do
something, just something, withit in the next 48 hours.
Don't plan to do something,actually do something.
(19:49):
So let's say it's a servicebusiness, offer that service to
one person for free, in exchangefor their testimony, in
exchange for their feedback.
So it's very simple.
Look in your phone, pick upyour iPhone.
Right now, the first personthat comes to mind that it might
be helpful to call them up,send them a text.
I'd like to offer you this forfree.
(20:11):
I would love for you to help meand give me your feedback.
Let me know what you thinkabout it.
If it's a product business,create the simplest version of
the product.
You can Create the simplestversion of the product.
You can Show it to five people.
Maybe you have a content-basedbusiness.
Create one piece of content andpublish it.
(20:33):
That's it.
Send it to Medium, publish iton LinkedIn and publish it.
That's it.
Send it to Medium, publish iton LinkedIn, publish it on
Facebook, anything.
Just take that one piece ofcontent and actually publish it.
If it's an online course thatyou're building, can you teach
one of the concepts to oneperson in 30 minutes?
(20:53):
Again, look through your phonebook.
Who's in my phone that I cancall and say can I offer you
something for free in exchangefor 30 minutes of your time to
teach you something?
The specific action doesn'tmatter.
It's really breaking theplanning paralysis that we're
after.
I want you to move fromthinking about your business to
(21:14):
doing in your business, sothat's your goal for the next 48
hours is to just do this onestep.
We're going to come back nextweek and talk about all the
other actions that need tohappen, but for now, can we just
focus on 48 hours, one actionin your business.
I would love to hear what it is.
(21:36):
So you could find me onInstagram at Solutions by Jen
Cody.
You can email me at Jen J-E-N-Nat JenCodycom.
But whatever you do, don't letit go.
Don't let this just slip by, sothat it's not something that
you're focused on.
48 hours, one action Okay,thank you so much for spending
(21:57):
time with me this week.
I hope it was helpful for you.
I look forward to hearing whatyou guys are doing in your
businesses.
Please respond.
Get those answers back to me,because when you respond and
give me that feedback, I'm ableto create more valuable stuff
for you guys.
So take this with you.
Go out there, create the dayand the business that you
deserve and that you want andthat you will live your best
(22:20):
life with, and I will see youhere this time next week.
Have a great one, everyone.
Until next time.
Take care of yourselves, takecare of each other.
Bye-bye.
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