Katie McManus, a practical business coach, shares a personal anecdote about buying content plans but not posting due to fear and perfectionism. She argues that action — posting content — is what attracts clients and builds community, urging new business owners to stop overthinking and start posting even if early content is imperfect.
When I first started my business, I would legit buy pretty much any content plan that came across. My for you page that was advertised to me on Instagram or Facebook. And I didn't do anything with them, I just bought them. And it felt really good because I felt like I was doing something and I would, like, download the PDFs and I would go do all the exercises and I would, you know, do all the back end work that was getting ready to get ready to get ready to maybe post something about my business. Did it get me any clients? No, of course not, because I never actually posted anything because I was too chicken. I was a big old weenie about the whole thing because I didn't want people to judge me. I was terrified that, like, people in high school would make fun of me. You know what? They probably did once I finally started posting. But when I finally started posting, you know what else also happened? I started actually getting clients from online and people started regularly liking and commenting on my posts. And I started building this community of people who actually cared about me and were interested in the things that I was doing in my life, in my business. They were reaching out to me and saying, I can't work with you yet, but you are the person that I want to work with in the future when I hit this benchmark for this thing. And I share this with you because I know you're probably out there buying content plans. Say I'm going to get myself mentally ready to create a TikTok or an Instagram post or post to LinkedIn. But right now, you're ticketing out. You're getting so in your head about it needing to be perfect. You're getting so flipped out about sounding smart and intelligent, proving to people that you're the expert. And, you know, I just want to tell you, I learned this the hard way. It doesn't matter, okay? People will automatically assume you're smart. People will automatically assume you're credible, okay? You do not have to prove it. And when you first start creating content, no, it's not going to be perfect. It's going to be cringy af. Okay? And yeah, there are definitely going to be some souls around the world who will giggle over you. But you know what? A year from now, you're going to look back and you're going to giggle at you too. But you know what? You're going to be giggling at yourself while you're counting your money because you will have actually gotten some clients in your business, okay? And that's fun. Giggling, okay? So get over the fears you have about posting. Get over that need that you have for everything to be perfect, because it's never going to be perfect, okay? Even years from now, when you have done this for a really long time and you've consistently created content and attracted your ideal clients, even that content's not going to be perfect. But you know what? You can't get there. You can't get to the point where you have more money coming in than you know what to do with unless you start today, okay? So stop overthinking it. Stop being a weenie about it and just go and post about your business. Because people can't hire you unless they know that you exist, all right? So at least tell them that you exist. And hi, I'm Katie, your practical business coach. And new business owners work with me so that they can leave their corporate 9 to 5 and replace their 6 figure salary by doing work that they love that actually helps people and follow along. If you want more tips and tricks and motivational messages like this to keep you going.
