The thing about content creation and business advice is that they don’t always work for me.

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Advice: research hooks and have a spreadsheet of what works and what doesn’t

Reality: it was boring admin work I put off for months, then when I finally did it…I never looked at the spreadsheet again. Didn’t make meaningful progress with my content here

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Advice: keep a content calendar

Reality: I could not plan further than today or tomorrow, and tried to over-optimize too much (thinking “I need to plan all ideas, film all ideas, and schedule everything in 1 day” which was a lot of boring admin so it never happened)

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Advice: do presales and focus on 1 product only

Reality: identity crisis (fear of rejection and getting 0 sales), so I want to change to another product bc shiny object syndrome, then get scared to sell it, then change to another product/niche

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So yesterday, I got kinda sick of my own BS and booked a call with this coach that specializes in helping other ADHD coaches.

Here’s what happened next…

First: why I booked the call

After a year of thinking:

• “I don’t have time”

• “My audience can’t afford high ticket”

• “My audience is productivity but I want to focus more on business/marketing”

• “I want to help as many people as possible which is more likely to happen with productivity rather than business…I keep yo-yoing between the two niches”

• “I’m not good enough, I have to fix my current products before doing anything else”

I realized these were all symptoms of something:

A fundamental mindset issue.

I didn’t feel comfortable with growth.

It’s not that I didn’t have time or wasn’t knowledgeable enough.

I only told myself that because I was scared of what would happen if I tried my hardest…

And it still didn’t work.

My fears and why I was stuck:

• I’d get no sales and it’d be humiliating

• I’d alienate a lot of people if I launched new things - people who are only interested in productivity rather than the business side of things. I wanted to help everyone and am interested in many different things

• Creating new products only led to more admin stuff I’d have to deal with later down the line…the more changes I made, the more complicated it’d be

I rejected myself before other people had the chance to, so it’d hurt less.

In the call with this ADHD coach, I realized that I felt like a sham -

Why was I able to help other scattered ADHD brains organize their lives and businesses, but barely felt able to stay afloat in mine?

The most lifechanging thing from the call

It wasn’t even a specific “do this” or “do that.”

It was a checklist.

If you’re anything like me, you live in a constant state of chaos 😅 

So things like a structured checklist, deadlines, and peer accountability are super helpful.

Instead of feeling rigid and constraining, they feel clear and direct.

Here’s what they gave me:

It was similar to a big spreadsheet my other $12k coach gave me - it pointed out a LOT of things from my business I could improve.

But the thing with ADHD is that I get too excited and try everything at once - then get overwhelmed and give up.

So that’s why I say it’s more of a mindset / regulation issue:

When I’m feeling great (regulated, excited), I get lots done.

Then I start thinking “what if I get no sales? What if it’s not good enough?”

So I start feeling uncomfortable or scared (unregulated), and I stop everything.

“If I didn’t try that hard, then any failure I have can’t be attributed to my flaws.”

This is what I’d subconsciously tell myself to justify the self-sabotage - and to protect my ego.

What actually worked for me

I’m still figuring things out, but here’s what’s worked well for me in the past.

Focus on excitement, not pain

It’s how I stay consistent with my decades-long habits.

I think about how my future self will enjoy reading my old journal entries, so I continue journaling every day even if it’s not that fun to do in the moment.

Business-wise, I think about how much I enjoy making a video rather than my fears around how it will perform and whether I will lose followers.

Remembering it’s not that serious

I once saw an influencer promote his book like 14 times (in every post and in IG stories) before I finally purchased it. I wasn’t annoyed with his book promo either, no matter how many times I saw it.

Now I try to keep things simple - remembering that whatever I sell and however I sell isn’t that serious and that I’m strong enough to deal with what happens.

For example, this month I hosted a crochet rose workshop - only 1 person came. But it actually turned out well because I think if more people came, it would’ve been too difficult for me to teach everyone.

Setting up the minimum systems (to make it easy and fun)

Any time I notice resistance to something I want to do - I try my best to reduce it.

For example, I almost broke my 10-year journaling streak a few years ago…I was 1 month behind typing up all my entries 💀 

After that moment, I realized that typing was too slow for me. Since then, I swapped to voice journaling - so I just copy paste the transcript after yapping my journal entries. It helped me reduce filler words and communicate better too.

The reason I say minimum systems is because it’s easy to over-optimize. If you had to write emails every week, you might be tempted to sit down and write like 50 emails in 1 sitting, so the next year’s worth of emails are done and you don’t need to worry about them.

But for me, I find it easier to write 1 email per week - a few hours before it’s supposed to send out.

Other ways to face your fears

I cover more details in the 3 day reset challenge - especially around regulation and feeling more comfortable with doing things that scare you.

There are tons of frameworks like:

• Framing your thoughts in terms of observations and needs

• CARR framework to set up systems that work for you

• Setting clear boundaries around your priorities

Hope to see you in the course 🫶 I keep launching low ticket courses haha but I’m gonna launch more high ticket stuff soon to face my fears 🥺 

As always, I’ll update you on the process and how things go - even if I get 0 sales!

Til next week,

Jennifer