Stop Worrying About The End

Welcome to Million Dollar Grit, the podcast that dives deep into the world of entrepreneurship, where tenacity meets strategy and dreams meet reality. My name is Julie, and I explore the raw, often overlooked truths of what it takes to succeed in business and in life. It's not just about the glossy success stories. It's about the grit it takes to get there. Hey, everyone, this is Julie. And, you know, I don't actually know the day that I officially started my business. And my theory is that more people than not accidentally fall into business similarly to the way I did. And so if you're listening to this podcast and you feel like you're flailing around in business or you're building a business that you not don't like, I think you're the majority, honestly. I think a lot of people just kind of fall into it accidentally based on need, based on some crisis, based on financial, like, you know, they can't handle their job anymore, so it's good news that you're not weird if that's how you feel. And as I was thinking about my business anniversary, I was like, I actually don't really know when I would say it became official, but you do wake up one day and go, oh, huh, Look, I'm. I'm actually a business now. So as a young mom of three in my 20s, back in, I don't know, the early 2000s, I. I was just trying to survive the day, you know, and so when I. I was just a writer thinking, I gotta get through the day, I. I'm so bored and so busy at the same time with these three kids. And I learned a really important lesson about business in that time period. And the lesson is stop worrying about the ending. And this kind of flies in the face of traditional business advice which says when you're about to start a business, you need a business plan, right? You need to start with the end in mind. You know, do you want to exit? Do you want a brand? Do you want a lifestyle business? This is good advice, by the way. So, you know, both things can be true. And a lot of people will say, you know, start with that end in mind. Project all of that financial. Those financial goals. And heck, I. That's what I do with clients a lot. So it's not that the traditional business advice is bad, but for some people, that very advice, which is good advice, actually, is what stops you from getting into business because you're so worried about the ending, you're so worried about the future, you're so worried about what you're going to sell two years from now that you never start. And so the lesson that I learned back when I began my business, and one of the reasons why I think I can't pinpoint my official business anniversary is because I wasn't thinking about a business. I was thinking about the problem that I had in the moment and how to solve that problem. And so much of my business journey has been focusing on those problems, looking for those solutions, and then in hindsight going, huh, this, this is cool. Like, this actually has a foundation for something bigger. I think differently now. You know, I think, I think more in financial projections. I think more in, you know, what's the end game. But I didn't at the beginning. And so if you are in the beginning and you're trying to create these big business plans and projections and you're planning out, you know, 15 offers into the future, this could actually be sabotaging your success. So if we go back in time, right, and I started writing, I had no plan, I had no aspirations. I didn't know. I didn't know there was a thing to win, you know, no awards to win. I had no idea people were making money on the Internet for writing. I was just responding to this super pressing problem for me, which was I had to make meaning of my super long, boring days as a stay at home mom. And I was super depressed. So the goal was immediate, present and attainable. And this was important for momentum because I could immediately solve the problem. It was a present problem and it was attainable. It wasn't like it was far off into the distance. And my goal was write about your crazy daily life and make meaning out of it. And so because that was my focus, I didn't worry about my audience size. I didn't fuss over the design, I didn't overthink the name. I didn't stress about what blogging platform to use. I really didn't think 18 steps ahead about turning it into a book. I just wrote. I wrote from the depths of my sadness, my anxiety, my. I crystallized these stories of my kids and I hoped that it would help lift the depression. And it did, of course, do that. But there were all kinds of other things that happened, right? An audience started to form, I started to find other writers, a community of writers. Then I started to get questions about how I was designing my blog and how I was editing. And I started to find, oh, well, I've solved this problem here. This depression is lifting. I'm finding meaning in my writing. And then I found other problems, right? But These problems weren't my problems anymore. Now these were other people's problems. You know. Hey, how do you get your blog header to do that? Oh, it's easy. Here. This is how you do it. You go. And at the time, it was like, Picmonkey. I think you go to Picmonkey and It's, you know, 900 by 200. And, you know, this is what you do for the design. This is how you make the header. Oh, cool, thanks. Right. Someone else, how did you make your header do that? Oh, and then I'm like, gosh, I'm repeating myself. I have a problem. I'm repeating myself because now I'm in this community of writers and people want to know how I'm doing it. So maybe I should start something for them. You know, I should put something out there for them so that they can get the answer, you know, they can get their problem solved. And this is how. This is how I did everything, really, for those first couple years. And so the immediate problems that I could solve meant that I was generating value in the marketplace right away. Away. My favorite thing is when a new client comes to me and they give me their whole customer journey and their entire value ladder of products that they're going to build in their business. And I laugh because I'm like, well, that's a great plan. And that plan might actually happen. But until you've launched one thing and seen how the market responds to that one thing, you can't really anticipate 3, 4, 5 things down the road. It's just imagine if, you know, Pixar launched a movie and. But the plan was to have it be like five movies, but then they didn't even know if the first movie was going to do. Well, I promise you, when. Well, okay, maybe I can't promise you this, but when Toy Story came out, I don't think they thought that there was going to be a Toy Story 4. And so something funny happens when you are planning for more ahead. There's. There's a reservation. There's. There's a way that you kind of hold yourself back a little bit because you're like, oh, maybe that should be for product number two. Or maybe that. Maybe, you know what? Maybe I should leave that storyline for, you know, movie number three. No, when you're trying to make an amazing movie, you're just putting everything you have into that one product. And you're just like, this is going to be amazing. This is going to solve a problem. This is going to help. This is gonna. You Know, enchant, children, whatever. Whatever the problem is that you're solving, right? In movie, it's different for business. And you just put everything in it to solve that problem. And you don't hold back, you don't anticipate, oh, I'm gonna save that for movie number three, or I'm gonna put that in product number two or product number four. And I see this all the time, especially in course creation businesses where someone has come to me, they are trying to think of the ending. They think they're doing the right thing with their business plan. They've got 17 courses on a piece of PA, get all twisted up as they're building their first course because they're like, well, but if I give all of that away, then I can't make course number 15. And I'm just like, you are worrying about the ending, and you are not going to generate value in the marketplace quickly if you do that. And so instead, this is sort of, you know, this podcast is called Million Dollar Grit, right? And it's all about the grit that it takes to get where you want to go, even if your journey is in a straight line. And so what I'm telling you is that solving immediate, pressing problems in the marketplace, where you can generate value, where you can give it all you've got, and you're not worrying about the ending or the second or the third or the fourth product is invariably going to create a better product that's going to solve the problem more deeply and is going to generate more value in the marketplace. And so that is my advice today. If you are sitting on the fence and you are spinning out or overthinking, I want you to not worry about the ending. And whatever problem you're gonna solve, I want you to remind yourself, how can I make it immediate and attainable? And so obviously, over at Funnel Gorgeous, if you don't know, I run a company with my partner Kathy, and it's called Funnel Gorgeous. If you go to funnelgorgeous.com we have free content, we have courses, help you get started. Offercure.com is one of our most popular courses. And the funny thing, I'll end with this. So when I built Offer Cure again, I wasn't thinking about the fact that Offer Cure was going to spin off into an entire certification. I was just determined to build a course that would solve a very immediate and pressing problem. When CenterCare launched, people were just floored by it. Kind of went mini viral. I think we have over 20,000 students. It's a $37 course. And people said, you know, I learned so much in that course. And workshop number one is all about creating a great offer. Workshop number two is all about writing copy for that offer. And workshop number three is about designing visuals for that offer. And I didn't anticipate that from that course I would launch with Kathy FG Society, which is our entire certification on offer, copy and design. It's basically taking those three workshops and expanding it out. And I promise you, if I was thinking about the end and I was thinking about FG Society, I would probably have held back a little bit in the building of CenterCure, because I wouldn't have wanted to give away information that I was going to sell for a more expensive price later. But that's not how I thought. And so this is how you generate value. So, yes, business plans are good. Yes, projections are good, but. And it's not. But actually it's. And stop worrying about the ending and just solve immediate, pressing problems today and you'll watch the money start to flow. Talk to you soon. There you have it, folks. Another dose of Million Dollar Grit. I hope today's episode has left you feeling inspired, equipped, and ready to face your own entrepreneurial journey with resolve. Remember, until next time. Next time, embrace the struggle. Harness your grit and keep pushing forward. You're stronger than any challenge you face. I'm Julie, and this has been Million Dollar Grit.