Waiting Never Works (mostly)

I can taste yo, yo, yo, I can taste yo, yo, yo, yo I can taste yo, yo, yo, I can taste yo, yo, yo I can taste. I can taste. Hello, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. So happy to be going live with you tonight, this evening, Monday, May 9th. Never announced the whole date like that before. It just appeared right on my. On my screen. Anyway, welcome. This evening, I want to talk about why waiting never works with some very critical exceptions. Okay? Waiting. So whenever I hear someone saying they want to wait to do something that really matters to them, my heart just gets crushed. Not for me, not for anything else except for them. I get completely blindsided by the sadness of hearing someone say that they're gonna put off their heart's desire for whatever reason because they're not ready. Whatever. Now, before I get into why that never works, I want to go into some main exceptions, because I know they're going to be some of you out there who are like, but what about this? But what about that? And let's be realistic. Garen. Hello. I love the champagne glasses. All for it. Let's celebrate. Timothy, welcome. And Garen, I hope I was pronouncing your name correctly. Anyway, so let's. Okay. For you, Karen's out there. Not offend. I don't want to offend anyone who's actually named Karen, who's a nice person. Oh, no. Is it a heartbreak because I. I pronounce your name incorrectly? Tell me. Anyway, there are some exceptions for waiting is actually really good. Okay, so for instance, say you have surgery. You probably need to wait before you go run a marathon. If you just had knee surgery, you know, it's probably a good idea. Okay, so waiting is good then. Likewise, on the other side of it, you probably want to wait to perform surgery until you're a trained doctor. And not just a trained doctor, but a trained surgeon. Okay? We're not. We're not going around just doing surgery on people without pre qualifications and training, okay? Need to be. You need to wait to be ready for that. Okay? I come from Cape Cod. You do not want to try to eat a lobster without killing and cooking at first, okay? It's not going to end well. It's not going to end well for your fingers, for your face, the money maker. You gotta. You gotta protect that at all costs. You need to cook the lobster before you try to eat it. It not only has the big claws, but it also has the little claws along the side. Those suckers pinch real hard. Okay? Oh, okay. I'M getting no name is correct. My heart breaks for people who delay their goals and give themselves the excuse of not the right time to make them feel better about it. Oh, my God, Aaron, you and I are on the same page. Okay? I'm so happy you're here tonight. Okay, so now that I've dispelled the yes, there are some things you actually do want to wait for. Let's talk about the things that break my heart the most. I come from the fitness industry. Okay? So that was my. One of my very first sales jobs. I did membership sales at Equinox Fitness. And I was so sad all the time for these people who come in and they were unhappy with their bodies. Like, I had no judgment for their bodies. Their bodies were perfect the way they were, but these people were unhappy with their bodies. And so they. They were coming to this gym wanting to change their bodies, right? And they come in the door and they'd see it and they look around and they'd get intimidated. They'd get this, like, air of like, I'm not ready for this yet. You know, I'm not at this level yet. And. And so we get back to my office, we'd be talking about membership options. And, you know, the whole time they'd be saying, oh, I really want to work with a personal trainer. I really want to do group classes. I really want to do this. Oh, this, this will really motivate me to come in and stick to a workout routine that'll make me feel better about myself. And then we get to the my office and they say, you know what? I'm not ready yet. I'm not ready yet. I'm going to hold off until I get into better shape, and then I will come back. I'm going to go home and work at her home in the privacy of my home and get in better shape, and then I'll be ready to come into the gym. And I was sad a. Because I was a salesperson and, you know, I got paid on commission. But more than that, more than my paycheck, I was sad because here is a person who let a heightened space intimidate them. They couldn't picture themselves as the type of person who could commit and stick to something and belong in a place they really wanted to be a part of. Okay, Timothy VO I believe things that break my heart was when they asked me tough questions at job interview, although I'm comfortable with the qualification. Yes. So, you know, here's the thing. You know, the fastest path to any goal is to Work with someone who's an expert at getting people to that goal. Okay? We, we have this unreasonable expectation that because we all carry little mini computers in our hands and have access to the interwebs and all the information, that we're then qualified and fully capable and can be held to the expectation of doing it ourselves. Okay? Now, I don't know about you guys, but sometimes I get sick and I go onto the Internet and the Internet wants to tell me that it's anywhere from a cold to Covid to cancer. Okay? The three C's. And I have no idea. Well, I mean, I generally do because I'm a reasonable human being, but I can get really freaked out. There's a lot of information on the Internet, okay? There's a lot of voices that are trying to convince me that they're right. No, they're right. No, they're right. And if you're not up to date on it, if you're not trained in, can become overwhelming to try to go and do it yourself. Okay, so like in fitness, like in changing your health, like in taking care of your body. Yes. You've been living this body your whole life, and yet there's a whole science behind it, how you can make it better so you're more comfortable in it, so it's healthier. You are not born with that information baked in. Just like. I'm sorry, I'm kind of burping. I had a little soda water before. It's like the air bubbles are coming up right now. Embarrassing. Anyway, just like you are not born with the natural knowledge of how to start a business. Okay? You have, you have been a customer businesses before. You've been a client, you've stayed at hotels, you've gone to restaurants. Just because you have gone to a restaurant maybe 100 times does not mean that you have any idea how you're going to run it. Okay? And I say this because I was in the restaurant industry for about 10 years. I know I, I moisturize. I am older than I look. Anyway, I was in the restaurant industry for about 10 years. And I hear people who've never been in the restaurant industry talk about wanting to open a restaurant and I just say, no, you don't. Please just run the other direction. So if you're thinking about starting a restaurant, please let me deter you right now. So there are a couple things that go on when someone is putting the brakes on doing the thing. Okay. They're putting the brakes on seeking the guidance on investing in themselves. A. There's a Crap, ton of fear, okay? There's a lot of fear. And let's just break down the different areas of the fear. The fear can be in. Okay, so there can be fear of spending the money, okay? Money is a really charged topic for a lot of people, okay? Spending money on yourself and your dreams is a ballsy ass move, okay? It's telling the world and everyone in your vicinity that you believe that you are worth that money you're investing in yourself. And so many of us are taught to stay humble, to be modest, to not brag about ourselves, not put ourselves forward, to, you know, just let people see us for what we've accomplished and have that be that. So standing up and saying, no, you know what? I'm worth this much. I'm going to invest in myself can feel like bragging. It can feel like you're doing something uncomfortable. That's not natural, not something that you've been taught. We've been taught to just kind of accept mentorship, to take advice and all this stuff. No, you get to invest in yourself. You are so worth it, okay? You are so worth it. So the fear of the money. There's also oftentimes a fear because usually when someone gets to the point where they want to invest a big chunk of money in making their life better in whatever way, building a business, changing their health, like giving up their life and moving somewhere else, usually when they get to that drastic point, it's because they have tried smaller, more incremental steps up until now. Okay? So maybe they've done some online courses or they've bought them and not actually done them. I asked me. So there's a lot of trust broken when you pay for smaller things. Maybe buy a bunch of books about something and don't follow through on any of them, you start creating this story in your head about you being the kind of person who starts stuff and doesn't finish it. And the idea of ponying up this much money to invest in yourself and the fear that you're gonna prove yourself right about yourself, that you're not the finisher, that you're not going to see it through, can be paralyzing for people. Okay? Now I want to remind you, the reason why a lot of these transformational services cost so much is so that you have some skin in the game, okay? So that you can't let yourself off the hook, so that you own. This is a decision that I made and I'm going to see it through. Another, you know, another fear is just, you know, is this going to work. I want to guarantee. I want to guarantee that's going to work. And, baby, there are no guarantees in anything, okay? I wish there were. That would make my life so much easier. But there just aren't. There aren't. Now, I can guarantee you something. And it goes to. The topic of this is that the longer you wait to do this thing you want to do, start a business, change your body, change your life. The longer you wait, the longer you're going to be waiting for it to actually happen. You. You don't take action right now. It's not going to happen overnight. You have to start taking action right now. It'll happen sooner. If you wait a year, you're pushing it back a year, maybe longer. And that's heartbreaking to me because I see people every day who are so smart, who are capable, who have huge, meaningful dreams where they want to change their lives for the better and the lives of the people around them for the better. It's not a selfish thing. Even if it is a selfish thing, you. You go, do you boo? But they're. They say, you know, I'm going to hold off on this. I'm not ready to invest right now. And I want to own something because this is something I've been hearing a lot lately, is that it's. It's a very scary world right now. Okay? There's a war going on. We're still kind of in a pandemic. The market is insane. Housing is really expensive. There's inflation. There's a lot of scary unknowns. And let me tell you, they're not going away anytime soon. They're not going away. They're going to be here. Sherry, welcome. Oh, my gosh. I'm so sorry about Baba. Oh, my God. I was heartbroken to hear that he didn't make it. And for everyone, it's not a. It's not a person. It's. It was a lizard. I don't want everyone to be like, oh, my God, like, going to death. Hi. I'm going to get distracted and forget the point I was making. No, but these scary factors that are happening in our world, they are not going anywhere anytime soon. But your progress towards your goals are. They're getting pushed way down the line. The longer you wait to actually take the plunge, they're just getting kicked on down the line. And guess what? Down the line, you don't have as much energy. You're older, you might be further in debt. You might not be as flexible. I don't know if that matters. You might like, develop like a gluten intolerance. That doesn't sound like any fun. That's completely besides the point. But I just want you to know you have full permission, full permission to invest in yourself and your dreams right now. Even when the world is scary, even when there are absolutely no guarantees, even when it feels like we have no idea what's going to happen next. Okay? This roller coaster of a world is going to continue being a roller coaster until everyone on the ride does enough. I'm going to take control of myself and take control of my own destiny, okay? You going after your dreams is the only way for you to actually get off that crazy roller coaster ride and take control of something. Okay? I'm speaking specifically to you, those of you who are thinking about starting a business and are just like, whoa, lots of unknowns right now. I'm not really comfortable with that. There's, there's a myth of security when you're in a job, okay? And maybe some of you have like amazing pensions, like if you get fired, you're really not going to make a difference. Go you. I fully support that. And also, I don't want, I don't want to like, get people in. The comments are like, oh my God, another person hating on people who have jobs. I love people who have jobs. I think jobs are great. I just can't survive in them because I'm too adhd. So. But I also believe that everyone should have multiple streams of income. I believe that everyone should have a side hustle because it's a lot scarier to walk away from a job that you hate when you have some money coming in from something that you love doing on the side than to walk away with absolutely no, no safety net. I know this because I, I left a job to go full time in my business before I was actually ready. And I, maybe I should have waited just a little longer. But, you know, it all worked out. My business happened. My business became full time that much faster because I threw myself full in. So some fears that I want to just acknowledge and just release for you are. I'm afraid I'm going to get it wrong. Okay. This fear. I get it. You are going to get it wrong, though. You're going to get it wrong so bad so many times. You're going to up on so many fronts and that's okay. Okay. We're all humans humaning with other humans. It is a messy process. It is a process of just screwing shit up and making it right. And really, so long as you don't murder anyone. I'm pretty sure you can make anything right. Okay? You need to prepare more. Okay? So unless you are planning on. On doing surgeries on people and you need to go to become a surgeon, you do not need to prepare anymore. If you're a copywriter, you're a copywriter. If you're a coach, you're a coach, okay? If you have an expertise that you want to go and sell, you have the expertise already. Just go and do it. You don't have to prepare anymore, okay? You want to prepare alongside doing it, that's great too. Continued education is always a benefit. This is my favorite for those of you who have been in my world and talk to me maybe about doing one of my programs. I need to get clients before I invest in a program that'll show me how to run a business. Now, I get this because I would never pressure someone in. Into spending money that they don't have if they're not comfortable taking on debt. Okay? I would never advocate for someone taking on debt for this. However, it's kind of a cart before the horse egg and chicken thing. If you don't know how to get clients, don't have any idea. And you're like, I want to start a business, but I'm going to wait to figure out how to run that business and get clients until I get some clients. Do you see where the. The timeline is just messed up there? You know, I get it. And I'm speaking to you. I would love it if, if you're watching this and you're like, okay, cool, like, she's right. I need to sign up for her program. But I don't give a sign up for my program or anyone else's program. Just go and learn how to start your business. Go. Go to whoever feels the best for you. Go to whoever you feel like you can hear some hard truth from who's going to make you laugh because, like, it's a painful process. Way more fun if you're laughing. And just get some guidance, okay? And you don't have to break the bank. There so many different resources out there. Happy to share some advice and some resources and recommendations if you want to shoot me a dm. And lastly, I mean, I just love this metaphor of, of the gym and like, getting in shape before you work with a personal trainer who's meant to get you in shape faster. No, like, stop. Let. Let this fear go. Let this expectation meditation on you go. If you knew how to do it naturally. Just you were born with it in your brain, you would have already done it by now. Okay? Let yourself off the hook for knowing how to do stuff that you've never been trained on. Okay? It would be amazing if we just, like, walked out of the uterus, like, fully knowing how to ride a bike, like, able to cook for ourselves, knowing how to speak, like, at least three or four different languages. That would be incredible. But no, we have to learn those things. We have to be taught those things. We have to be shown how to do those things. Okay? There's a reason why my sister was my sister math tutor. Am I making that up? My sister's really good at math and she's not a math tutor. She should be. There's a reason why math. Computers exist, okay? If. If math was just built in to our brains, we wouldn't need to learn them. Learn math from other people, Okay? I would have had a much easier time in school and business. Just because we've been around business our whole lives, we've interacted with them, we've been customers, doesn't mean that we know how to run them, okay? Release yourself from that expectation. It does not serve. It slows you down and it kicks your dreams down the road. And I want your dreams coming true right now. I want your business up and running. I want you making money. I want you living the life you want, okay? And I hope you do, too. And so stop, for fuck's sake, stop breaking my heart and telling me and other business coaches and your personal trainers and everyone around you that you're just going to wait until X thing happens before you actually take action on this thing you want, okay? That sucks. Don't do that to us because we want so much for you. Anyway, that's my rant this evening. I hope this is useful. I hope I called bullshit on at least 17 different people who are watching this potentially now or in the future. Sherry, oh, my gosh. I need to hang out with you when I'm back in Massachusetts. Timothy and Garen, thank you for joining. It has been a pleasure. I'm planning on going live pretty much every day this week, and we're trying to do a long stretch here because I miss this. This is one of the joys of my life. I just get this. This energetic high from. From coming live with you all. So look for me in. In the next couple days. Excuse me. I drink so much sparkling water, I need to really start drinking flat water before I go. Anyway, I'm Katie McManus, business strategist and leadership coach. Thank you for joining me. If you do want to pick my brain on any resources, please do DM me or comment here and I will follow up later. Anyway, have a great night and I will see you all tomorrow.