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The Good Kind of Discomfort

Welcome back, guys, to another episode of the Service-Based Business Society podcast. I'm your host, Tiffany-Ann Bottcher, and tonight we are going to be talking about an important topic that is so near and dear to my heart. And realistically, it affects every business owner's customer base and product base. Realistically, if you are going to go out as an entrepreneur, you are going to be faced with this challenge. And it really comes down to self-confidence. And before we even go boy, we're going all woo woo. And we are going a little bit. But I want to talk a little bit about embracing who you are and really deciding what you're not. And I know this sounds really, really counterintuitive, because as business owners, we're a lot of things.

 We are part firefighter or part janitor, parts, CEO, parts, HR, marketing director all of these different pieces. And as your business grows, it all comes back to initially. Because here's the thing: most people do not start a business with a whole bunch of money. You start your business with this vision and this idea, and you think, Okay, I'm going to dive in. And so either you're going to be working full time on your business or potentially you are working part time on your business and juggling life—maybe another job, maybe another business—you know, I often talk to entrepreneurs who have multiple businesses on the go. And so at one point in this process, you're doing all the things. And so you're putting a lot of trust in yourself.

 And so I was on a call day where the business owner, who has been working really hard for almost a year, got things really ready for the launch of her business. And so much is going on in the background. And now it's time to jump; it's time to take that leap of faith. And realistically, trust yourself, and enjoy the moment when all of the work comes together. And so, we were talking through some logistical pieces, and as we were going through them, we were, you know, solving some challenges. And you know how this new exciting opportunity was going to come to fruition and how this was going to be great. And all of these things, and toward the end of the conversation. You know, I heard her say, "We're going to have to decide if I'm going to take the opportunity. And I initially kind of thought, Well, why wouldn't you take the opportunity? And you know, I really appreciate honesty. And she said, "It's really just me; it's really just mean that would prevent me from taking this opportunity." You know, what challenge do we need to sort out? And she said it was just me. It's just me. There are two pieces, and my mind immediately goes to Okay, well, you're really not going to be any more confident a month later. So sure this opportunity had come up. And this is common when you're getting started on your business and you're not cool, white, and ready. You're almost ready, but you're not quite ready. And so I hear a lot of this online: "Done is better than perfect, imperfect action. And I, as the person who originally really sided with this comment, believe that done is better than perfect. But I do think there is some truth to it. We are never going to be completely ready. Never, because we cannot actually predict every single outcome. And we cannot solve all problems that we don't know. And a lot of times we can build something, whether it's a system or a process or, you know, launching something new or whatever.

 And it's not until we actually stress test, or, you know, put something under pressure, that we truly get the full picture. So, you know, we can practice, we can do trials, we can do all these things, but we still end up with things we can predict, something that doesn't go quite right, or something that worked 500 times previously that all of a sudden doesn't work. No, I was recently on a demo call for some software. And the person who was on the call was clicking this button; she's trying to demo this product for me. And I mean, I know this is a very well-known product that is widely used, and now she's on the call, and she's clicking on this button, and nothing is happening. And I can see that just getting straight; you know, she's like, Oh, my goodness, it works every other time. Like, you know, and she's you can tell initially, she's trying to like, just make it work. And then she's like, I'm not really sure why it's not working. And I said, "It's fine. Let's focus on, you know, what's supposed to happen; let's talk about this and go through it. Because there's, there's a piece of that, you know, that it's, there's, there's something going wrong. And in that moment, you could see the stress, you could see the competence, and she was completely thrown off what she was doing. And so we carried on. It took them a few minutes to kind of get things back on track, and we carried on, but you know, when things go wrong, it immediately shakes the confidence.

Decision Making

 So if I go back to the, you know, initial discussion I was having with my client, and we were talking about, you know, this opportunity coming up, and she was very open and honest about, you know, being nervous. And, the decision is, "Hey, like, let's jump, let's make this happen. And so, you know, I was thinking about it after, and so I wanted to chat about it here on the episode because, you know, I thought about why in some instances I say jump and why in other instances I say hold, because opportunities come up all the time. Some opportunities are better than others; you know, how? How can that be decided upon, and I really kept coming back to the piece of determining the root cause or, you know, the real reason for the apprehension? And if I really think about it, in this instance, what the apprehension really came down to was the insecurity but really just the unknown, being a little nervous to take that first step, and things not being finished. And then I think, okay, fast forward 30 days; would anything be different? And I would say no, because no matter what, you're still never going to have it perfect. And I would say, you know, to say this comment that I hate: done is better than perfect.

It still comes back to: what are the possible opportunities or possible gains from saying yes? What are the possible downsides? To saying yes, and really evaluating them at their core. So in this instance, sure, we're not 100% ready already. You know, I said a product wasn't ready. And when I say product," that could be, you know, a digital product or digital service. You know, if something is not ready to accept payment, I would say to hold off in most situations, but if you are ready to accept payment, it's time to jump in. So realistically, it comes to one of the first pieces as you're building your business, launching a new service, or going into a new area—any kind of growth.

 

The focus realistically needs to be on turning the lights on, meaning the focus needs to be on what are the steps that are going to get me and my business ready? Am I ready?" may mean accepting payment. Because, you know, fiddling with the back, you know, background on a website or a little change of this or, you know, printing a business card or getting a t-shirt done or, you know, changing the ending of a video, all of these pieces are about fine tuning, and your business can exist, realistically, without almost everything. There is a very successful coach in the online space. And it wasn't until we really, you know, were working on something else And we were chatting about business. And, you know, she was talking about when she started. She just used bait, like she had a PayPal link to accept payment. She didn't have a website; she didn't have anything else; she just would connect with people. And she would send them this PayPal Request link; people would pay her, and she would use it like a virtual classroom or webinar type situation. And she would teach class. And now, you know, we were kind of talking about how far business has come and how, you know, there's so much progression, but at the same time there's also so much complexity.

 She had the ability to deliver the service, and she had the ability to collect payment. And so she was ready to turn the lights on; she was ready to say, I'm in business. And so when we're laying out these plans and dates and timelines and tasks, the question really needs to be, number one, what is the apprehension? Because if you have no way to collect payment or no way to actually deliver the service, right now you just have an idea, then perhaps jumping into the selling might be premature, not in all situations. And so I'll come back to that. But if you have the ability to deliver and accept payment, and what stands in your way is you—it's your nerves; it's your—you know, I want this to be more done; I want this to be better than all of these pieces. It's time to jump. And so, to come back to saying, you know, things don't always have to be completed entirely before you sell them.

 Ideal products for Ideal audience

What happens then? You know, let's walk through this example here. You come up with an idea, you figure out how you're going to create the idea, you go through weeks of development, you create the web page, you create all of these pieces, you create some, you know, launching social media, whatever Mark whatever your marketing looks like. And when you launch, you know, at this point, maybe you're 80 hours into this product and you have, you know, everything from front to back. And when I say products in a service-based business, that could be a service, but your product is what you're bringing to the market to sell. You launch, and nothing happens. This is a problem. Because now you've put many hours into building this out, and it falls flat. You do not have what they call product market fit. At this point, you have a couple of choices. Number one, of course, we can fine-tune. But number two, we can also scrap it. Number three, you could review and kind of take bits and pieces. The problem is that it's sometimes a lot easier to massage your offer if you're not so far down the path of One Direction. So if you have this idea and you're not sure that this is going to, you know, be your next top seller, It's really good too; you know, if you could take it to your current audience, you could, you know, speak to a few others. But at the same point, you want to bring it up. To gather enough that you can discuss it, but not so much that you have invested hours and hours and hours into developing something that you don't know if anybody wants, it really is important to know that your service product solves a challenge for your ideal audience. And so often we need to know enough to get that sample; maybe, you know, in a service, you could put together a beta program. This is very common in the tech space; people will launch a beta. And so sometimes that's slightly discounted because you're going to be a part of the launch. And often, you know, people might really like or enjoy one part of something that you didn't anticipate would be so popular. And maybe you end up going a little further on a specific feature or service.

 When you are not overly committed to one thing. When you still have that flexibility, you are not worried about, well, I know, we've all been in the spot where you think, at this point, I am 80 hours into a project. And I don't want to give up because I'm 80 hours into the project. You know, that side of us could be a waste of time. But on the other hand, you're like, I'm 80 hours into the project, and it's not going anywhere. When do you decide, "Hey, I need to pull the shoe; I need to get out of this?" It is so much easier to have that decision and discussion with yourself if you're only 10 or 15 hours into the project. So I want you to truly think, as you're launching these new services or offers or whatnot, that you want to know that somebody wants that product or service before you invest a significant amount of time into building it.

 Do it differently

So what are other ways that we could do something similar? What are other ways we can find product-market fit? Because realistically, your whole business needs to have product-market fit, you have to know that people want what you are offering. And so I'm doing some research in terms of: are there other businesses that are offering what you're offering? What kind of keywords are people searching for? Do people know that they need what you have? And so if we go back to, you know, accepting these opportunities and knowing when to jump and when to hold, it really becomes a part of a bigger strategy, right from the beginning, and establishing that you have the product or service that people want. And then deciding what are the steps that are going to get you from here to ready to deliver and ready to accept payment. Some things can come after that. Because, realistically, if you get to them, you're ready to deliver and accept payment, but nothing happens. Well, then you didn't need the next 15 steps that came after that. One of the pieces of developing the strategy truly comes down to what is the minimum requirement for you to move forward, and establishing that makes it so much easier for you to then decide, Hey, am I standing in my own way? Am I preventing this from moving ahead? We talked as entrepreneurs about how everybody does so many different things. We all, myself included, default to what we feel the strongest doing when you have so many different tasks, so many different pieces, and all of these different responsibilities. You're going to go all in; you're going to lean into the ones that you know and that you feel comfortable doing. So for myself, I could, you know, have tech operations process all of these pieces for four weeks to avoid selling. Selling is not my strongest suit. As you know, prior to my entrepreneurial journey, I didn't do any sales. And so, and I think I'd actually done a little bit of sales if I think back, but it wasn't in any formal sales role, and it was really,

 

Something that I avoided. Now when you work for yourself and you're an entrepreneur, as we talked about at the beginning, everything is realistically on you. And so well, now we have to learn how to sell. But to this day, I will avoid doing those things and lean into other things that I feel more comfortable doing. And I have to remind myself, "Hey, wait a minute, in order to get this new service, this new offer to market, I don't mean to do all of these other pieces, because realistically, how efficiently something is done from point A to point B is really the only relevant factor. If somebody buys it. If it doesn't get purchased, then there's nothing going from A to B, and then the efficiency ultimately doesn't really matter. And so having that clear understanding of the sequence of things that need to occur and which must happen before you press the go button really aids in understanding, you know, when are you almost avoiding, or you know, shying away from opportunity or whatnot, you know, when is that being driven by a lack of competence, or a desire to stay in your comfort zone, or any of these things, you know, just doing what you feel comfortable in.

 The fact of the matter is, being an entrepreneur is uncomfortable, but it should be uncomfortable, like when you're at the gym and you're working out. And that's like a good pain. This is like it should be the good uncomfortable in entrepreneurship. Because when it's the bad pain, or the bad uncomfortable, that's when, you know, at the gym, injuries occur when you're pushing too far over and you're not warming up properly. All of these pieces in entrepreneurship, that is, you know, the bad and the uncomfortable, come from being ill prepared, you know, pressing the Go button before we have the ability to accept payment, or, what's worse, pressing the Go button before we actually have the ability to deliver the service.

 The two sides of business

Those pieces must be established, because on the flip side, you know, it is everyone's worst nightmare, every business owner's worst nightmare: overpromising and underdelivering. And so we want to be sure that we can deliver and that we can accept payment. And anything that comes after that we need to truly decide. Should it prevent moving ahead and making money, your business will be so much stronger the sooner you can start accepting payment. So don't delay; don't put off opportunities. You don't want to be uncomfortable. Lean into that pain.

It's so much like going to the gym. And having that good pain. It's the same as being an entrepreneur who leans into being uncomfortable. And if I think back to, you know, a number of different episodes that we've had and some others that I've recorded that we'll launch very soon, there have been so many experts on a variety of different topics. All that really comes down to the fact that we must lean in and proceed even when we want to pull back, and that really is part of being an entrepreneur. I will laugh and joke and say I have not seen my comfort zone since the day I left my previous job and started on this path of entrepreneurship. And it is truly a rewarding, beautiful journey. But not without challenges, and definitely not without discomfort.

 

Know your Obstacles

So I encourage you to lean into being uncomfortable. Recognize when your discomfort is preventing forward momentum. Really look at if you're saying no to an opportunity or holding back if you're not pushing forward. What is the root cause of this? Why are you shying away? Because if it's a fear of not being able to deliver, is that fear founded? Or is that really just insecurity? Being able to decipher between some of these pieces will truly help you move forward. It will help you know what is good discomfort and what is just discomfort. And when you should be listening to your intuition, and when your intuition is possibly having a moment of imposter syndrome. When you can work through these challenges, you can continue to push forward, make progress, and continue to grow, both professionally as an entrepreneur and in your business but also personally. Because when you are a stronger person overall, you make decisions that come from the right place and not from insecurity rearing its ugly head. We, as people, can rise to the occasion and do amazing things in our business.

 So I want to thank you for listening to the episode today. And if you have any comments or questions, please be sure to join us in the Facebook community. And that's all for this; we are all on time for today. If you guys have not joined the service-based business society Facebook community, make sure you head on over to Facebook so we can continue the conversation. Be sure to also follow the show by going to any podcast app and searching surface-based business society. Click subscribe, click the fifth star, and leave us a written review. Have a great week, and we will see you soon.