66. Choosing Progress Over Perfection

You've heard it said that "done is better than perfect." On this episode of The High Performancd Marketing podcast, I'll share how pursuing perfection is costing you and help you break through towards embracing progress.

Show References: Increase Your Impact Podcast - Justin Su'a

Angela Duckworth Grit Book

Transcript

Welcome To the High-Performance Marketing Podcast, a show committed to helping small business owners connect with their ideal customers using simple marketing and quality content. I'm your Host and Marketing Guide, Ali Garbero.

 I was on a call today with some great marketing minds talking about using more video in our sales process. As the discussion went on, the facilitator of the call shared a comment that stuck out to me. “The video that is made with the imperfect background is better than the one that’s never made.”

Many of you, including myself, have experienced moments when you hesitated to take action or pursue your goals because you felt the need to wait until everything was perfect. 

Striving for perfection can often hinder your progress and lead to taking no action at all and that’s when dissatisfaction continues to build up. 

So on today’s episode of the podcast, I’m going to run you through how choosing perfection over progress is is costing you.

First, let’s think about why we tend to chase perfection at all and why it's important to shift our focus if we’re ever going to push through it. 

The desire for perfection is deeply rooted in our fear of failure and judgment. We often believe that if we can achieve perfection, we will be immune to criticism or disappointment. However, the truth is that perfection doesn’t exist. Making it an elusive and unattainable goal. During a discussion last week with a client, I explained that I often have a second copywriter look over my work and that’s because I’m always a work in progress. I know that a second set of eyes from someone who’s been doing this much longer than I have, helps me keep improving.

So by shifting our focus to progress, we allow ourselves the freedom to learn, grow, and adapt. Justin Su’a the host of “The Increase Your Impact Podcast” and a mental performance coach to elite athlete always says that little by little, a little becomes a lot. And I’ve tried to keep that mindset with me whenever I’m working on a new goal.

See progress, even really slow progress, acknowledges that setbacks and mistakes are a natural part of the journey and that learning from them is important if we hope to keep getting better.

I also believe that no decision is a decision. Sometimes we have a big goal and we want to act on it, but allow fear to take over, or we allow not having the right equipment, the right education, enough time, enough money, insert the various roadblocks we set out for ourselves and now you don’t act - and decided to take no action, is a decision in itself.

Next, let’s talk about approaching challenges with a growth mindset. Angela Duckworth’s book speaks into this concept. She shares that any effort you make ultimately counts twice toward your goal. And that’s inspiring isn’t it.

I’ve been working on dropping a few lbs. Due to the weight that I gained during 2020 and 2021. It’s been a lot of working through small habits one day at a time that have led to experiencing wins. For example, I’d stopped running. And was doing a lot of walking. Having set a new goal for myself to run again, and participate in a 5K in July, I’ve had to start building my conditioning again. It’s been rather difficult but I’m grateful for my coach who has helped me work on making progress by adding one or two minutes here to my running plan over the course of many weeks.

Setting realistic expectations and celebrating small wins along the way matters because it adds to the momentum you’re building. My nutrition and fitness coach asks me to send her three daily wins each night - and it absolutely contributes to my confidence and my abilities. Celebrating these small victories is a powerful motivator. 

If you apply this to your own business, think about where you started and how far you’ve come. Now if you’re brand new in your business, think about the fact that you started. Consider how long this business sat as a dream and now here you are acting on it. I’ve shared a personal example with you before that when I first started this podcast and many episodes in, two things happened. One I spoke really slowly. My energy was calm and I feel like I sounded like that old Ferris Bueller teacher. Bueller … Bueller. Also the sound to my show was terrible! I had a podcast mic and I thought I was recording just great. It wasn’t until about 2 or 3 months ago that a friend who specializes in sound told me “Ali, your content is great but your sound is horrible.” I’m so grateful he brought this up to me.” He taught me what sound products to invest in and wow, the quality of the show has improved. You guys, I literally cringe listening to my earlier episodes. But again, I could have waited until I had everything perfect - and would have wasted over a year of creating meaningful content for real estate agents and business owners.

Let’s talk about timing next. Waiting for the perfect time. If you’re a real estate agent you know you’ve heard that from buyers forever - and have personally witnessed lost opportunities (like rates at 2 and three percent.)

Often, I’ll meet with clients who know they need marketing support. But they hold back and say “well, when I close the next deal, or when I am making enough in sales, then I’ll hire you to build my website and write my emails.” And in the meantime my heart hurts because I wonder, how many new clients are they missing out on as they “wait for the perfect timing.” Years ago I’d work with real estate agents who were stuck on teams they hated. One specific agent would complain over and over again about their team, stating they would leave when the time was right. The time was NEVER right. And so they made the decision to stay…and continued to live unfulfilled on a team that took way too much of their money and emotional energy.

One more example - so years ago an acquaintance of mine sold makeup products. Friends, this woman was not very attractive - and I mean AT ALL. And I truly say that as kindly as I possibly can. She has a golden heart, yet by the world’s standards her appearance wasn’t suited for selling make up. She would hop onto facebook and hold LIVES of herself putting on her makeup. 

Guess what? I watched, over and over again as she showed up consistently. I watched her LIVes and I bought her products. 

So open yourself up to overcoming the fear of judgment by practicing a combination of self-compassion and reframing your perception of what others think. See, most people are too busy worrying about their own imperfections to focus on ours. 

Practicing self-compassion involves treating yourself with kindness and acknowledging your flawed humanity. 

Let's be real: life is messy, mistakes happen, and sometimes, "good enough" is just fine. Choosing progress means focusing on the small wins and celebrating the steps forward, even when they don't lead to the end destination. Taking imperfect action, allows you to make mistakes and learn from them. After all, progress is the real key to success. Take it one step at a time, because as I shared earlier by way of Justin Su’a….little by little, a little becomes a lot.

Thanks for joining me today, I’m Ali Garbero, copywriting is what I do, content marketing is what I create, more customers is what you get.