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Stop Overthinking

Brief Overview

In this episode I am going to share something embarrassing. It’s embarrassing because it took me over a year to get this one thing out that was already done. What was holding me back? Probably the same thing that is holding you back. If there’s a project, promotion or marketing campaign that you’re procrastinating on, how do you get over the “hump” and get it out into the world? I’ll tell you in this episode!

Big Ideas

Stop Making Things So Complex in Your Head [0:57]

When it comes to your marketing campaigns, promotions and just overall business growth efforts, chances are you are overthinking things. One of the mantras in our community is to keep moving forward because otherwise you can get stuck in your head. For example, last week I was hosting a mastermind here, and there was a gentleman called Ramses. Ramses is 78 years old and he is a mega-successful business person with a ton of wisdom and experience. At one point, he was a VP of a company that went from $300 million per year to over $30 billion! However, for the last 8 years he’s been travelling and advising big corporations and governments. Now he wants to share his business insights with a much wider audience, which is why he’s looking to start a membership site.

Ramses needed to start growing his audience, but he felt stuck because he was way overthinking it. When he was describing how he felt, he used the word “complex” a lot. Finally, I had to stop him. “If you keep telling yourself that it’s complex, it’s always going to be complex. What if you made a shift to making it easy?

Stop Overthinking It [4:10]

I completely get how he was feeling, because I remember how this podcast you’re listening to right now never came to fruition. I was speaking at Jeff Walker’s LaunchCon marketing seminar in October 2016. I was on stage, sharing that I’m about to launch the Marketing Your Business Podcast, and I even had some early core episodes finished. But when I announced it, I froze just like Ramses did. I froze because I was thinking about this big grand plan and way overthinking the launch of this podcast.

A full year goes by from the time I announced it. Finally, my brother-in-law and business partner, Andrew, asked me if I am going to launch that podcast. I started giving him this big elaborate plan and coming up with excuses. In response to that, he told me that because I’ve been sitting on it way too long, they have already submitted it to iTunes and it’s going to be launched next week. I was shocked and started freaking out, “Wait. I’m not ready for this!” There were so many things I thought I needed to do before it came out. But there was no turning back, I had to embrace it and plan accordingly. That’s how it all happened. I never would have gotten this podcast out otherwise. And here we are 87 episodes later, all because somebody helped me get through overthinking it and put it into action instead.

It Can Be Simple if You Make it Simple [7:38]

If you’re ever stuck, if you’re ever holding back, if you’ve been procrastinating on pulling the trigger, there are only two things I want to share with you. Number one, make it ridiculously easy to move forward.

I wanted to help Ramses and put him into action. He had to start getting his message out there, so I told him we’re going to do a Facebook live. He didn’t know anything about doing a Facebook live, so I quickly walked him through the five-part structure I am using to deliver any kind of lesson or content, and within 10 minutes, we were live. The most important part about this was that it got him moving! By the next morning, he had over 600 plus views. He was totally on fire and it was a huge breakthrough for him because he realized it can be simple if you make it simple.

Quit Procrastinating and Just Start [10:03]

You just have to start sharing. You can have this big elaborate plan but if you don’t do anything, nothing is going to happen. So number one, make it stupid simple. Number two, get help. Sometimes you need somebody to hold your feet to the fire and get you in motion.

The key thing here is when you make it simple, you are creating momentum because you’re doing something. What can you do right now to make it simple to move forward and who can you recruit to help hold you accountable? Stop overthinking, get help, and get that campaign, promotion, a project or anything you’ve been procrastinating on out of the door today. When you start moving, you start making progress and progress leads to success.

Memorable Quotes

When you start moving, you start making progress and progress leads to success.” – Stu McLaren

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