 There's something that I see a lot of you doing Which is you're waiting until you are ready before you do that launch before you make that video before you publish that book or announce the course or Whatever it is that you want to get out into the world so that you can Create an authentic business Visibility for your business, etc. You are waiting too long before you are ready and One of my dear clients mentioned the the thin line between readiness and procrastination And how do you know if you are not yet ready or whether you are procrastinating? Let's talk about this First of all you probably grew up in a world where businesses were very expensive to launch You had to manufacture in your most businesses right before the digital world had to manufacture a product Which means a lot of cost raw materials, you know a manufacturing line, you know getting it on retail shelves There's limited retail shelf space, so it was expend. It used to be risky and expensive to launch anything That's why Businesses had to do a lot of preparation had to be super clear about what they were doing had to minimize all the risks before they launched Well, you're not manufacturing a product and If you do these days someone else like Amazon will manufacture it for you And you just have to give them the specs right now many well Amazon manufacturers books all the time, right? You just have to give them upload your draft and they do the print on demand and you don't put any money out If somebody buys then they print it and they give you the profit so so everything in the digital world The lot the risk of launching a business is way lower Okay, and also Even the risk of a first impression being bad is way lower Because with the digital marketing Even if they didn't like what they first saw from you They will see you again and again and again and they will first of all they probably Forget so these days a bad first impression is not like I am never going to watch George's video again I am never going to read his article again. It's more like that wasn't that interesting to me I'll just and then you'll see my another video for me Not that interesting a third video you see for me Oh, that was kind of interesting and then you watch it or you watch part of it And then you have a better impression me so in other words nowadays It's not like oh, I'm so scared that if I don't make the first good first impression That the person is going to leave forever that is not true anymore It's basically the bad first impression is like meh Okay, and then you know and then they're they're holding nothing against you Unless you're purposely trying to offend people Right, which you're you're not and if you accidentally offend somebody by the way, they're not the right ideal client for you Anyway, they're not the ideal reader your ideal reader is not going to be offended by what you do authentically That's the definition of an ideal reader or ideal viewer is they are Naturally more resonant they are naturally more likely to accept and enjoy How you are authentically than somebody else? okay, so Let's only make things for our ideal audience of whom there are probably millions out there with Facebook for example with Facebook ads you can reach 250 million people in the United States alone if You're in Europe Canada or if you want to reach Europeans or Canadians or Australians or Singaporeans or you know name name whatever country you want South Africans, right? You now expand your reach by tens of millions of people hundreds of millions of people actually sorry so Do not be afraid to make a bad First impression because nowadays a bad first impression is only meh. I'll just wait until I find something interesting That's all that's it. So what are you so afraid of so in other words? the readiness is Really, I'm almost certain that if you're seeing saying I'm not ready. It's because you're procrastinating I am almost certain of it. It's like 90% chance and if you disagree with me Please comment below and let me know why you're not ready. Okay, so let me let me tell you why I Feel so certain about this To I never feel ready Okay, I didn't feel ready before I pressed the record button because I said my god I could have I can really be brainstorming around this topic for another few hours before I get I feel ready to Turn on the camera and start talking. I don't feel ready I didn't feel ready my my first ever video and I still don't feel ready now I'm probably I think I'm getting close video 1,000. I still don't feel ready and I'm gonna write an article later about this. I don't feel ready to write it. I'm scared It's gonna be a blank screen. I have a few notes scribbled down and how do I make it sound amazing for you? Maybe you won't like it. Maybe you don't think it's elegant enough. I don't I don't know But here's the thing. I've noticed something Once I do it when I'm in the doing of it. I feel more ready like right now Obviously the camera is already going. I've already pressed record. It's already live I feel more ready than I did before that's the reality of it You don't feel ready when you start and you just have to force yourself to start now the forcing of yourself Doesn't have to be pain and suffering and like hustle and grinding teeth and pulling self up by bootstraps those kinds of metaphors Forcing yourself to start for me is like this It's kind of like I turned fear into excitement. That's what I want you to practice Turn your fear, which is what your lack of readiness is is your fear. That's it And that's really the core lesson of creative self-expression. That's the core lesson of creating an authentic business Turning fear into love Turning fear into passion Turning fear into service turning fear into curiosity turning fear into self-exploration turning fear into Abandoned sort of like a a reckless abandon of the child And it's really not just an authentic business lesson. It's also a lesson for a truly self-actualized life It's turning fear into love And when you say I'm not ready you are giving in to fear. That's it You're giving into fear. That's and you're you're you're Failing the core life lesson and again, I'm not saying you're failing But at least in this moment you're fit you're failing if you say I'm not yet ready You're failing in that moment, but you have the next Next and the next moment will then ask you will you turn fear into love now? Will you turn fear into love now will you turn fear into a child like you know? Jesus says you know You won't enter the kingdom of heaven unless you're like this little child now Of course people have interpreted that a million ways over the years, but let me do Some blasphemy now and interpret it in this way You won't enter the kingdom of heaven unless you have the reckless abandonment and curiosity and love of a child You know and the innocence and the humility Right That's also right when you say when you say you're not ready You're not being humble Right, you're saying ironically you think I'm being humble. I'm not ready. No, no, you're not being humble You are protecting your ego right when true humility is Offering something that may or may not be ready and asking the market. What do you think? Do you think this is ready? So here's the key You're not the one to tell you if you're ready or not the market tells you if you are ready so a famous quote by the founder of linked in who has of course not just linked in he has also Co-founded several other successful companies been a very successful investor. He said this If you are not embarrassed by the first version of your product you have launched too late If you're not embarrassed by the first version of your product you have launched too late I'm kind of embarrassed by this video, but that means I haven't launched too late because You know, I'm learning as I go, right? I'm embarrassed slightly by every article that I put out there I'm embarrassed slightly Sometimes moderately by every book that I put out there's honestly honestly. I'm embarrassed by every course I teach And and here's the here's the here's the reality of it Once you look back, you will always be embarrassed That's really what's and I want to challenge you to be slightly embarrassed when you start I'm not saying to be like mortified and like this is the worst thing I've ever done I'm not saying that and that's not what LinkedIn founders saying to he actually wrote a wonderful article to clarify what he meant And I will and I will link that article in the notes of this video too But he said listen the reality is that when you look back you will always be embarrassed by what you just did because you Because you you'll be learning in the doing of it and so you look back so I could have done that better And so that embarrassment is normal Did you think that that embarrassment meant that oh, I wasn't ready and I shouldn't do it sooner next time? No We learn by doing we truly learn By experimenting not by waiting until we're ready. So here's what's going to happen if you wait till you're ready You will always do things too late And you will always run out of time Okay, I I've known people who didn't start until they were in their 70s They wish they started in their 50s Or their 60s even they wish they started in their 60s But they didn't start until their 70s and they're like god I really shouldn't have waited until I was ready because you'll you'll never feel ready. You'll never feel ready Honestly, and when you wait until you're ready, it means that you've you're too late because you have you've run out of money Okay, the people who are like Oh, I've got a year now to start my business right because maybe I have a savings of a year now Just to run my business and they wait until Month 10 to finally launch their thing and now they only have two months left to learn or to try to Build an audience before they run out of money and have to go get a job again No If you have a year Say it to to start a business you should be launching in year in month minus one if you have if you're gonna say, okay January Out of a job to start a business You should be starting now in october of 2018 while you're still in a job You should be building an audience Not wait till january It takes longer than a year to start a business Because it takes longer than a year typically to build an audience Who care enough about your about you and about your energy and about your thoughts and about your Care enough about your you know your presence to even give your product maybe a Right and also it takes about a year now I'm not going to say it takes a year some of you might take only three months because you work Dilligently you are experimental in mindset, etc It might only take you three months to discover that product that takes off that service that takes off Okay, so it doesn't have to take a year But a year is a pretty reasonable bet honestly if I were betting if I were investing in your company and your business and your solo premier business I'd say I'm not going to bet that you're going to succeed in three months a year More more likely I won't probably won't see a return on and as an investor I probably won't see a return until you're two three or four or five But I could see you sustaining your your family in a year, you know, I could see you do that And essentially I feel like I'm investing in my clients I'm not literally investing my money, but I'm investing my my heart and my time and sort of the risk of being their coach so Okay It takes So, okay, so let's let's talk about readiness because there is something about market readiness and something about audience readiness And by the way in this case you're wondering I'm in a different environment today because I'm visiting my mom for a few days and this is her bedroom This is like the only quiet place I could kind of set up a place to to do a video With adequate lighting So here I am in my mom's but so There is market readiness. There is audience readiness Okay, that is that's a real thing. Okay, so I think of business launches in stages. You don't just say George, I've got a service I want to launch and it's and it better be successful the first time I launch it If you tell me that I I realize oh you haven't don't have any business experience. I see that's why you think that Once you get some business experience or if you listen to somebody who does and who has coached By this point hundreds personally one-on-one hundreds of clients actually I think they're in close to a thousand now Um, maybe more I should actually count. It's it's uh, it's it's one you know a lot, but Business experience let me give you 10 years of business experience Almost no product or service is successful the first time almost nobody buys it You think you're going to launch a service if someone's going to hire you You'll be lucky if you do sometimes you get beginner's luck and you get a first few clients after you announce your first service That's amazing. Really that's amazing or you launch your course or you launch your book or you launch your product You pick you got somebody bought it. You know how hard it is to get people to buy anything That's amazing Business experience has shown me and has shown pretty much everybody which is why People like you know successful investors and business founders like read hopman says you got to be embarrassed by the first version of your product Because the real learning happens after you launch The real learning happens after you're promoting your book after you've Published your book after you've launched the course. That's the real learning happens After you've made the video after you've published published that blog post after you've started your facebook business page After you've started your youtube channel. That's when the real learning happens Business is built in stages and stages aren't done in your own bedroom or in your own head Or in your own journal the stages are done right in front of people Right in the market. That's where the stages are. So let me tell you this I talked about market readiness and audience readiness That is that is a better way of talking about readiness. Not do I feel ready? Am I feeling inspired right now? Am I oh god? Am I am I skilled enough? No, let me go take another course Then i'll be good enough That is I've noticed that that's particularly true for a lot of women No, and i'm not being Chauvinistic the studies research has shown that women are more likely to feel insecure By not having enough degrees and certifications and training programs and classes Women you need to know that that is statistically significant That you are more likely than men and so yes all the quotes about you know move fast and break things are from men Usually you know white men right so genetically speaking Maybe white men are more likely to be more entrepreneurial and more experimental mindset And women I don't know if it's particular race or whatever but women are more likely to feel like let me have to I have to get ready And the way I get ready is to read another book take another course Get another certification get another degree then I will be ready So that's what educators and schools They will market to you For with that They will market to your uncertainty and your doubt and your fear that you are not yet ready You got to get this degree first then you'll be ready. Okay. I was An admissions director. I was I marketed a graduate program for just a couple of years So I know what I'm talking about And now I market courses my own courses now. I hope I don't I'm not marketing to your insecurity. I hope I know Please call me out on it if you see many of my marketing copy That's marketing to your insecurity because I do want to change and I still And learning how to change myself towards more authenticity. I think I've come some way But I know I have more to go. So please call me out. I'm serious about that Okay, so There is market readiness. There is audience rated. It's not about your readiness It's about your market and your audience's readiness. So how do we know that we build business and stages We build it and that's why I have a 10-year plan Please go to george cow.com slash blog slash 10-year plan I've written a long blog post detailing my own 10-year plan Uh, I'm building a brand new business. I'm following my own 10-year plan there And this business that I built basically has followed that 10-year plan and I'm in year five basically right now of my 10-year plan I'm already Very good full-time income from this business has have been so for several years But there's more to come and so here's the here the stages Stage one build an audience Build an audience now. I'm assuming that you're wanting to build an authentic business Which I define as a business where your creative self-expression makes you money How would you like that? How would you like to be able to be yourself? In writing or on camera or on a podcast or being yourself in your creative self-expression and people pay you to do it That's an authentic business. That's the 10-year plan Now you make money after as soon as year two you make money and maybe even full-time money in year two We'll see but um depends on how quickly you apply my plan so Step one build an audience. Okay Step two you make your audience an offer and see What their reactions are And if the reactions are nobody bought it, which is normal that nobody buys your first launch Maybe a few people if you're really lucky a few people buy it if you're super lucky You get a lot of people buying it, but it's rare. Like I said after you know Talk with thousands of people by this point entrepreneurs Step one build an audience step two make an offer step three Take the feedback or lack of feedback from your offer if it's lack of feedback You need to do some fan interviews You need to have one-on-one conversations with your audience to say hey, I'm wondering what are you looking for? I mean, obviously wasn't this so what what are you spending your money on etc? That's I call those fan interviews or audience research conversations. That's step three, right? Do audience research conversations after you've launched something that didn't work, which is normal you launched something Why it's a george? Why would you launch something that doesn't work because you don't know if it's gonna work or not? You don't know but you need to expect that it won't work Okay, you need to expect that the first launch is just getting their reactions Planting a seed you're planting seeds as the first maybe the second launch The third launch you've gotten enough reactions and learning from conversations that the third launch probably will work Okay, really because you've been tweaking for a couple times now Okay, and then step four is to scale the thing that works And then you go back to step one whatever the next product you want to launch Build an audience now by this point you already have an audience, but at least you are creating content that is Educating the audience giving context for the next launch for the next product, right? Not like you're pre-launching the whole time, but at least you're giving content That's related to the to the next product, right? Step one step two you launch it see if they like it They probably nobody will probably buy it, but they'll actually give you some comments maybe Or you can talk to them and find out what they're buying instead or what they didn't like about this one And then tweak it step three, you know launch it again It works maybe the second or third time step four you scale it with ads so that you can Eventually have a passive income if you're launching things like courses, okay? For example do it yourself courses and you can have a passive income But you see what I mean like and and so Let's talk about a market and audience readiness The the audience readiness happens as you build an audience and and create content and you notice the reactions to your content You notice. Oh my gosh every time I talk about this. They really like it Oh, so that might be what my first product it should be Should be my first course my first book my first service offering my first coaching package my first You know group program Oh every time I write about that people really like it Oh, maybe that should be my first my next first or next thing I launch So audience readiness is a real thing, but you notice it after you create content and share it in the market Hopefully you're you're using some advertising dollars to promote your content to new people who don't know you yet Because otherwise building an audience is really being slow just with friends and family um So do you see what I mean? I know I've been talking kind of fast, but I Hope that this video will help you get out of the illusion of being ready because Every time you see see yourself saying oh, I don't feel ready I'll remember george said there is no such thing as personal readiness There is only market and audience readiness which happens once I start putting content out there And then I observe their reactions to my content to notice what they're ready for What is my audience ready for and therefore that's what I'm going to promote next Knowing that the first promotion probably won't get any sales But at least it'll plant a seed for them for the next one. I'm going to promote or at least I'll get Oh, that's only what I know if they're going to buy is to put stuff out there Okay, so uh, I hope this is helpful and I hope you will Realize that the risk today And I'll just reiterate what I said in the very beginning You're not You're not flying a plane you're not You know, you don't want to pilot to your airline pilot you get on the flight and the pilot says Well, I'm hope I'm ready to fly this plane Okay, it's not flying a plane plus the pilot also went through stages of readiness The pilot didn't just jump on a plane. So I read I read a book about flying a plane I'm going to go and try to fly this plane now with 100 people on board. No The pilot, you know said am I ready to go to flight school? Oh, no, I'm I'm being dangerous I'm saying, you know, you should go get get another degree. That's what I not what I mean But the pilot went through multiple simulations It's okay. Now I'm ready for the next simulation now I'm ready for the next simulation now. I'm ready for the next simulation Well, now I've done fine with five 10 50 simulations now. I'm obviously ready to fly a plane But that's the same thing with your business each simulation is a launch Each simulation like a pilot is a launch in your business So you need to build your audience in building your audience is like going to flight school Don't get another degree. Please. Please. Please. You don't need I mean if you're building an authentic business about your self-expression creative self-expression You don't need another certification if it's about your creative self-expression Now it's about some skill set that is recognized in the marketplace that people your prospective clients want you to have Well, yes, of course to get a certification in that But you're not doing brain surgery And you're not flying a plane Okay, you are a coach. You are a mentor. You are a healer. You are a speaker. You are an author You are somebody who wants to just talk for a living or write for a living Or help people for a living doing something you love to do And it's not, you know In the marketplace for you to have a degree. Please stop Don't get another degree. Don't get a notification. Don't take another class on that thing unless you enjoy it Of course, if you enjoy it, you know, do it do it for fun. Do it for fun Do it for yourself enrichment, but not for oh, so then I'm ready to launch my thing Okay, so back to what I said in the beginning Launching a digital business Business now nowadays authentic business. There is no risk. There is no risk of a bad first impression Watch the beginning of this video There is no risk anymore. It's just like meh. I didn't like this video. Ah, I didn't like her product Oh, I didn't like her blog post It's not like oh, I'm never going to read her thing again. I'm never going to watch her again No, no, no They'll just wait for your next thing to see if they like it And then it's sort of like there's you can't go below zero They just will be like meh meh meh. They don't like your thing. They don't like 10 of your posts They don't like 20 videos meh meh meh you're at zero and then you make something they like Oh, now you're at a one now you're at a two Okay, and then now you're at a two as baseline. Ah, they didn't know the next thing you do They don't like they don't like they don't like it. You're at a two Maybe if you make 30 things, they don't like your back at a one, but you're never at a negative one They'll never not like you. They'll never dislike you. They'll just think meh And then the thing you make that they like you just you bump up to a one and the next thing they like She makes like Probably out of 10 posts that you write. They'll probably like two of them So you'll just go from one to two in their lyco meter and then to a three and to a five and to a 10 And by the time they're at 10, they're like, oh my god, I have to buy something that that Cheryl makes She's amazing, right? So anyway, I hope this is helpful Thanks for those who were able to join me here for this and thanks Linda T. Okai, Sandy, Prem, Rob, Lori, Joseph, Lisa, Cheryl And captain and Pamela, Tina, Annie and Robin, so thank you all. I'm just going to mention a couple comments here. Um So, uh, let's see here Yeah, Lori says things are sharing that even with all that experience you feel scared I feel scared before every video that I make and probably In about the first 25% of the video, I still feel scared By this point, I'm not scared anymore. Now I'm kind of scared of what your reactions are but But still he's even though I feel scared. It's the muscle I've built of ignoring the fear rather than having to somehow You know, figure a solution for the fear. I just kind of ignore it. I try to turn the energy into love and passion and experimentation Yeah, Lori says Yes, fear and excitement are two sides of the same coin often when we think we're scared. We're also excited. It's the same physiological energy that we actually have so we can mentally turn the physiology of Into oh, I'm excited then that means mean I'm excited that must mean there's some passion there Because there is you won't be scared of anything if you didn't care about it right, so Yeah Lori says bottom line if you haven't started yet start now on whatever it is your you feel you're not ready for Yeah, and you know what I remember the stages Whatever You're doing take it to the next stage. Okay, so what I don't mean is oh George says I better launch a business now Even though I'm not ready. I'm gonna I'm gonna borrow a loan of $10,000 from the bank to run facebook ads That's called foolishness. Okay, but what George is saying is take the next stage the next step of something you're not ready for Oh, I'm not ready for video What's the risk? Oh, the risk is that people might hate me. No, no, they're not going to hate you They're you'll you'll stay at a zero for them meaning neutral. Okay The ones who are your ideal audience are not going to hate you They're only going to be neutral And the ones who hate you or don't dislike you are not your ideal audience anyway never will be okay, so The next thing you're you're scared about video Writing a blog post building an audience That's probably the next thing and after that launching the first thing and a very simple and lightweight not spending thousands of dollars on That's something a lightweight onward Yeah Prem says it's comforting to know that the perceived need for more training is Statistically significant for women. This is why More and more even in higher education There's more and more women of you know females in higher ed more more and more so than than men That's part of this but also just in adult training adult education. It's it's mostly women More and more so anyway Janko. Thanks for being here as well. I'm gonna let you go. Thanks for Being part of this video and any questions. Let me know below any comments Anything you want me to create a video on that you you would find helpful. Let me know Be well. Have a great day