Shitty first drafts - the business version
No business is immune.
How much could we grow if we stopped spinning our wheels and the perpetual cycle of making sure we’re completely confident with a business idea, a piece of content or a new channel before taking any action on it?
What if we truly started celebrating the shitty first drafts of business we all have.
Yep, all of us - I’m willing to place a bet that if you’re building a business right now it’s not your first. And if this is your first business, I bet it’ll change and / or you’ll go on to build more.
My shitty first business looked like a beauty salon I bought for 5 grand.
I bought a business name, a client list, some supplies and not much else for that money and I did it before my 20th birthday.
Fun fact - one of the team members who worked for the previous owner decided that the client list I’d bought was actually hers and came in to physically take it out of the salon - this was back when we had client cards and not a fancy computer system.
Needless to say her aggression and standover techniques worked wonders on teenage me and she did in fact leave with the client cards and all their details.
Pretty shitty and not really a fun fact at all. Nor was the way I developed and ran said business and so that didn’t last very long before I was back to doing nails from a spare room at my parents house.
But there’s also the shitty first drafts within the business we go on to love and thrive in.
For example, there’s the first versions of the Unemployed & Afraid podcast (and the shitty artwork that went with it)….
You might go back and listen to the very first episodes and think they’re not too bad - what I hear is someone not yet fully confident in her ability to carry an interview.
There’s also the sneaky shitty firsts hidden within the podcast feed, like when I had to move from having someone help with editing this show to doing it myself because I couldn’t afford to continue outsourcing it - I think that happened around episode 7, I’m at around 189 now - good times learning to do that myself and and here I am, still doing it myself.
Just with better branding…
Therein lies the insight I want to share with you today.
You’re always going to feel weird and less than satisfied about the first thing you do - be that an entire business, the first few episodes of a podcast or the first few (hundred) Substack posts. You have to get out there and do it anyway - there’s no other choice in the matter and no one likes it.
I’ve been spinning my wheels on so many things. Some of that is because, speaking frankly, I’m stuck in a proverbial limbo at the moment that relates to the next step within my own career interests, which I’ve allowed to become an excuse for not doing current new business ideas that have nothing to do with that outcome.
I have two, maybe three, incredible resources that will help other podcasters that I haven’t shared yet because I’m not sure it’s going to be right or perfect.
And the book I want to write about the intersection of entrepreneurship and personal growth to help more of us start and stay in business? Yep. It’s not moving off my screen right now. (But if you’re a publisher reading this please slide immediately into my emails or DMs ‘cause I know this will be a banger).
I could blame it all on the limbo - but it’s actually just that I’m not yet feeling confident that I know exactly how to do it and how it’s going to go.
That there is why great ideas die a quiet death every single day.
Yes - it would be amazing to make sure we’ve learnt every single aspect of a topic or a product or skill before we put a business or an idea out there, but when is it enough? When have you learnt enough to start doing?
When are the circumstances ever perfect to do the thing?
Of course the extra awkward part about shitty first drafts is in most instances, you also have to tell people about them if you want them to succeed.
Whether it’s paid marketing or owned on your own social channels the worst part about going for it is the thought of other people thinking you could have done better. But when have you ever really thought that about another persons work?
And the last thing, my favourite hurdle, is when you’ve gotten started putting your shitty first drafts out there and you change.
Like that time I decided to pivot from broadcast media exec to ceramicist, and back around to podcast professional. The only people who really suffered through that are my instagram followers who came for the ceramics only to now hear me bang on about the intricacies of podcasting.
Was it the right move to continue trading and marketing from my business and brand name Good Side of the Bed? Maybe not. But I also know I’ll make more ceramics and so hopefully they’ll stick around on Instagram anyway.
Some people approach business with a linear mission. And that’s amazing.
Some people approach it through test and learn - which has been a lot of what I’ve done as you probably figured out from those random tidbits I just shared with you.
Most of us approach creating anything with so much personal pressure and need to have it all figured out that we never actually get started.
So whether it’s a minimum viable product, a shitty first draft, or a pivot that you can’t quite make sense of yet - just put it out there. Get something out there. And perhaps take the advice of the incredible business builder Kate Toon to unfollow anyone who makes you feel like you still have more to learn, and ignore your data while you find your feet. My chat with Kate is a must listen to get that confidence up.
(Catch the episode with Kate in full on Apple or Spotify)
So whatever idea you’re sitting on - get a first draft out there. You really do deserve to have your work seen, heard, bought and experienced.
If you enjoyed this or found it supportive, please tell me about it! Drop a comment below or send me an email - I’d love to hear from you.