Okay, you. You have a thing, right?

A product you want to sell. Or a book. Or an online course. Or a webinar or coaching or package or something. Even a freebie you want to get out there to help build your list.

…But it’s not ready just yet.

I get it. Creating courses or products or whatevs is a crap-pile of work. I know because I’ve done it a ton – not only for myself but for my clients, too.

You’re in the planning phase. So you can’t get out there yet.

You’re in the content-building phase. So you can’t get out there yet.

You decided to change the cover image or the font or something. So you can’t get out there yet.

(I think you see where I’m going with this. 😉 )

I totally get the feeling of “I can’t get out there until it’s good enough” thing. I just went through the same thing with the membership program I recently launched. I initially wanted ALL the content to be done before I launched.

But why? There is a lot of awesome content in there but why did it all have to be in there rightthisverydarnsecond? (Spoiler alert: It didn’t.)

See if you resonate with any of the thoughts I had going through my head:

• I don’t want people to think I’m not giving enough value.
• I don’t want people to not see my best work.
• I want it to be its very best to maximize the chances of it actually selling.
• To be honest, even *I* am not 100% clear on what’s going into this thing yet, so obviously I can’t put it out there until I’m sure what I’m doing.
• I just need to get most of the pieces together, and then I’ll launch it.

Uh-huh. Sure you will.

This is what we call “getting ready to get ready.”

You might disagree with me. You might be thinking, “Uh, no, Kathryn. I’m just getting ready. Nothing wrong with that.”

Wellllllllllll…

I’m going to beg to differ. I actually think a lot of the time there IS something wrong with all this getting ready we seem to do so much.

Here’s the crux of the problem as I see it:

You’re feeling super busy. Or confused. Or busy and confused at the same darn time.

Meanwhile, no money is coming in. So you’re working super-hard and not seeing results, which can be really discouraging. And then the fears start to seep in…

• What if nobody buys it?
• What is people think it sucks?
• I’ve been spending all this time and money and nothing’s coming in.

And then the worst thing of all happens: You start to feel like a failure, even before you’ve really even started.

You are not a failure!

The reason you feel scared and overwhelmed is… Well, first of all, entrepreneurship (and that’s what you are: an entrepreneur) is scary and overwhelming, at least sometimes.

And the other thing is that there is actually a better way to go about all of this. An easier way. A much less time consuming way. A way that enables you to get out there with your stuff uber-quickly.

Dare I say it? Today? Could you get out there today? I think you can!

Download your 3 steps to your first paying pilot clients<–Woohoo! Fun right?

“But I’m not ready, Kathryn, remember?”

Right. I didn’t forget.

I invite you to press the “pause” button on all that content creation and start putting yourself out there.

Many of my clients hate this invitation. They fight me super hard on it.

I get it. Making stuff is kinda fun. And it makes you feel super productive and business-y.

But here’s what I like to ask my clients:

Is all that content creation and tweaking and re-doing actually productive? Or, is it procrastination masked as productivity?

The thing is, it feels a lot safer to not put our not-yet-perfect stuff out there. It’s compelling. It’s alluring. Because the alternative – getting out there with what we’ve got – can be effing terrifying.

Right? The potential judgment. The potential rejection. The potential failure.

Here’s the ugly, unvarnished truth, though: If you never put yourself out there and then give up because you just feel so overwhelmed from all this work without any reward… well, that’s failure, too. Except the judgment and rejection is coming from inside of you, instead of from other people.

We avoid this bummer of a situation by taking a deep breath and finally just being willing to get out there with our stuff, just as it is.

And it’s not just about the money. Yes, this is a much much muchmuchmuch quicker way to monetize your business, but there are other benefits to culling the content creation, too:

• It’s less work for you because you don’t have to try to get every last thing ready before you start promoting it.
• It’s less daunting for your client, who doesn’t actually really want to buy a thing and then immediately see the horrifically large amount of work required to get the desired outcome.
• It allows you to create better products (seriously).

The third point there is super-important. If you DELAY building everything out, you will almost always wind up with a BETTER product/service/program/package in the long-run.

Here’s an example of what I mean:

So let’s say I decided to build a program teaching people how to get clients from the Internet without tearing their hair out with the techie stuff. (I did do this.)

And then let’s say I decided what I wanted to go into that program. (I did this too – the first iteration was 7 modules plus some bonuses.)

And then let’s say I built everything out: the Powerpoints, the videos, the handouts, all the stuff. (And remind me to tell you sometime about the book I spent a year putting together and then sold like 15 copies of at $14 a pop. Sigh.)

And then I go to teach this program to the 2 people who signed up, both friends of mine. You know what happened? (Uh, hypothetically speaking, of course.)

It was too much. They never did the work. They didn’t get the outcome I’d promised. They thought the program looked okay but it was so much content delivered so quickly they got overwhelmed and gave up.
I’d built all this stuff and barely made any money and then nobody actually even really wanted it.

This is super-common. Does it resonate with some of the choices you’ve made thus far? I don’t want you to feel bad about it (pointless!). I do want you to recognize it though if you think this might be a pattern in your biz.

For the love, there is a better way!

If you just hold off on creating all that content, not only is it easier for all concerned but then you can actually tailor the content you DO need to create based on the feedback you’re getting from people who are paying you for the outcome you promised.

So you’re getting paid while you build out the perfect stuff, instead of hoping to get paid for something after it’s all built out.

Doesn’t that sound way better?

And the super-beautiful thing about this is you will finally know FOR SURE what types of stuff you should be building out because your clients will be asking you for specific things. Or you’ll be working with them and see that they need specific things. Or DON’T need specific things! So you can save those ideas for a future program and avoid overwhelming people at the same time. Cool right?

And don’t forget that when you do things this way, you’re getting paid the whole time. And then once you’re done, guess what? You’ve got your program built. But instead of doing it by yourself in a vacuum, trying to guess at what people might want from you, you’ve done it with zero guesswork and zero wondering what to put in your stuff. You’ll know exactly what people actually want and what will actually sell because they’ve already told you.

I hope this feels exciting for you – because it truly was a game-changer for me.

Of course, as you know, the success of this still hinges on getting those first people as clients.

So let me share with you – if you’re open to this whole idea of pressing pause on the content building – my 3 steps to find those first clients and start monetizing your business even if your stuff (handouts, videos, courses, etc. etc. etc.) isn’t ready yet:

Download your 3 steps to your first paying pilot clients<–My gift to you.

I really hope you’ve found this post helpful. If you have, please do 2 things for me: (1) leave a comment below and (2) share this post with 1 or 2 people you think would really benefit. Thank you!

I appreciate you,

Kathryn