My nightmare

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Hello, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Welcome to my Live from the Garden. I'm on Cape Cod right now. This is pretty much like the first time I've been outside since I got here because I got here and immediately got Covid for, you know, five days. And now I'm. I'm still staying away from people. But anyway, welcome. Last night I had this nightmare that I wanted to go live about because I think this is. The storyline of the nightmare coincides perfectly and relates perfectly to what we go through when we're starting a business and all the fears that tie into it and the ways in which we make it way more complicated and really trip ourselves up more than anything else. So let me just tell you about this dream first and foremost. And I apologize. My hair is like tickling my nose, so. And it's. I forgot to get an elastic. Anyway, so this dream. So I've been having these recurring nightmares lately where I've been cast in a theater production and I'm so excited. I know my lines, I know the choreography, I know all my marks. And if you're not. If you're not familiar with theater lingo, like Marx is like, okay, well, if you're standing here on the stage at this point, you have to walk over to this point on the stage and there's usually like, you know, a map of what you're supposed to be doing anyway. And I'm so excited to be with my co stars and it's usually like a project that I'm really excited for. I love theater. I don't spend enough time in theater, but I hope to in the future, maybe I should look up a theater project to get involved with anyway. But in the stream, you know, usually we. I show up and it's opening night and we're getting ready and things start going wrong. Like the. The place starts earlier than it should. I get on stage and I'm saying my lines and the director's hissing and angry corrections to me because I said the wrong thing at the wrong time. And what I don't know is that he's changed the lines of my. My scene mate so they're saying different things and so I'm not able to see, like, well, when do I say my part? And then I go and I move. But he's also changed my mark. So where I'm Moving to is no longer where I'm supposed to be, and it just becomes this huge thing. Last night was even worse. Last night, I was in Hamilton. I know. Super exciting guys. They cast me in Hamilton. Too bad I can't sing to save anyone's lives. So. But I was in Hamilton where I arrived, and we're getting ready for our first production, and I'm so excited. And we are made aware that we actually have to put together our own costumes. And this is fine. Like, I got this. I can do DIY a costume. I know how to sew. So I'm putting together another costume. I'm helping other people. It's a lot of work. It's actually taking up more time. So we're getting closer and closer to showtime, and we're running out of time. And then they tell us, also, you're all responsible for assembling the props. And if you've seen Hamilton, Hamilton is a very prop, light production. They have, you know, a staircase, and they have some chairs and all that stuff. This production was like a Victorian manor with all, like, the doohickeys and everything, all the little, you know, statues that you have to do and all things. And we had to assemble everything from the furniture inside a dollhouse. And while we're assembling it, we were informed by the. By the staff at the theater that we'd have to disassemble everything after every performance and then reassemble it. I don't know why, but it became so complicated. And then before I know it, I'm being told that I missed my stage entrance because the production started and no one told me. And I've been creating a lot of content for my world while I've been sick with COVID I think I've probably internalized some stuff that happens when you do start a business, okay? Because a lot of these fears that come up in this nightmare are things that new business owners go through all the time when they're getting started. So the first analogy I want to draw here, metaphor I want to draw here, is that we over complicate things when we start a business, okay? We tend to over complicate things. We think, okay, cool. Well, I have to do this, and I have to do this, and I have to do this, and I have to do this to be able to run this business successfully, when, in truth, you do not. Okay? So this dream, me thinking, okay, well, I have to do the costumes, and I have to do the props, and I have to show up on stage, and I have to do this. You don't. You don't. You have to find the one thing that's going to be the most impactful. And so in this dream, if dream me had had a moment of clarity and been like, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Guys, not. Not my monkey, not my circus. If you don't want me to be in a costume, if you're not going to help me with the costumes, great, I'll go on stage just as I am, and I will still play the part, and I will knock it out of the park. And if you need me to assemble props, that's not what I was brought here for. So you can handle the props or not. And I'm still going to go out and I'm going to act, and I'm going to do the one thing that I know that I am a genius at, okay? So stop overcomplicating stuff. You know, the thing that you're good at, that one thing. And really, you can find a way to make that your service, to make that your business without overcomplicating it. Now, the other element of this is we get to outsource what we're bad at. Okay, I'm not good at it. Well, actually, I'm gonna. That's a lie. I'm very good at assembling things. I'm like, if you ever have to go and get a bunch of furniture from ikea, I'm your girl. Okay? I can read one of those instruction manuals. It shows you which. Which end to put the peg in. And, like, you know, is there an A on that board? Is there a D on that board? Cool. We gotta put those together. I'm all for it. Dream assembly is not my thing. Dream assembly. I should outsource. Now, when you're just starting out, it can feel super scary to spend money on outsourcing stuff. Okay? I just want to acknowledge that because you don't have any proof of concept yet, you don't know that you're going to make any money in this business. And so spending money on outsourcing something can feel like you're putting yourself in the red before you have any proof that you're gonna be able to make that money back. But here's what I want to remind you of. If you're so bad at that thing or you hate doing it so much that you're not gonna do it, or you're not gonna do it really well, and that's the thing that prevents you from even getting clients, then you absolutely need to outsource It. Okay? Because here's the thing. The end goal here is you having a business of you having clients, you bringing money in. And if this one thing that you're bad at or don't like doing is going to prevent you from that, then you need to outsource it. It is money well spent. Okay? And, Steven. Hi. I am. Well, thank you. I'm feeling so much better. I appreciate you. Welcome. So. And there's no shame at being bad at stuff, okay? I'm bad at a whole bunch of stuff, okay? Ask my online business manager, my CEO, Re. There's a reason why I outsource things, okay? There's no shame in it. You don't have to be good at absolutely everything. So. But full permission to outsource the things that you're bad at. And finally, like, this dream, this dream. I don't know who the theater manager in this dream was. I think they were on drugs. Because it is asinine to ask people to assemble props and disassemble props after every single performance. Like, who. Who in their right mind would do this? And I know. I'm fully aware that this is my brain that created this dynamic, okay? I know, and I have been on some cold medications, so maybe that has to do with it. But you don't want to have to do stuff over and over and over and over again. So say. Say you run a coaching business and each client you sign, you set up different billing and you set up a different contract and you set up a different offer. You do this, you are setting yourself up to do the equivalent of that theater production, okay? Where you are assembling each prop for each production, okay? That prop is not. Is not the end all, be all. It is not the thing that is going to be most valuable to that client, okay? You need to set it once and then automate it so it is the same for all your clients, okay? Same ish. Same ish for all your clients. You can have different programs, but do not set yourself up to have to do the work that you don't get paid for over and over and over again. Because remember, the more time you spend on activities like that, that don't generate income, that don't market your business, that don't get you out, there is time not well spent, okay? That's time that you could have spent watching a cool show on Netflix, which, by the way, if you haven't seen the new season of Stranger Things, highly recommend it. However, I don't recommend it if you are on cold medication and kind of out of it. It really messes with your brain. Anyway, that is my nightmare. You got a little insight as to my internal, internal world, and I hope this is useful. I. I love. I love finding the weirdest things to tie business lessons to. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Thank you for joining me from the garden. Happy summer, everyone. I'm so excited to be on Cape Cod. And you'll be seeing me in different environs in nature this summer, I'm sure.

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Anyway, Stephen, thanks for joining and I'll talk to you all soon. Bye.