She's That Founder: Business Strategy and Time Management for Impactful Female Leaders

035 | How To Ditch Perfectionism And Overcome Content Creation Paralysis Using Time Management For Female Leaders

• Dawn Andrews • Episode 35

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Does this sound familiar? You've been told that to succeed as an entrepreneur, you must strive for perfection in everything you do. But here's the harsh reality: chasing perfection is causing you more pain than progress.

You're pouring countless hours into perfecting every detail, only to find that it's not yielding the desired results. It's time to break free from this cycle of frustration and embrace a new approach that prioritizes progress over perfection.

In this episode:

  • Learn how perfectionism as an entrepreneur is an unhelpful hangover from corporate culture
  • Discover that only 3-4% of followers see your social media posts initially due to algorithms
  • Understand how perfectionism can silently kill your progress and sharing of content
  • Realize you can repurpose and reuse content, even if it got engagement previously
  • Be inspired to prioritize consistent value for your audience over perfection, and start posting regularly


This episode at a glance:

[02:15] Perfectionism is a hangover from my corporate days. In the corporate world, we're conditioned to get it just right for that one boss, that one feedback loop.

[2:55] The only way that we know that our content, emails, social posts, and ads are actually making a difference is if they engage, comment, download, or buy. 

[04:27] Nobody's sitting on pins and needles waiting for your content. Perfectionism is the entrepreneur's silent progress killer. 

[05:13] Your content doesn't need to be perfect, but it does need to be out there to work on your behalf. 

[06:19] So start posting. Stop seeking that elusive perfection and start connecting with your audience. 


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My Good Woman
Ep. 35 |  Unleashed Perspectives: Mastering Content Creation

Dawn Andrews:

Have you ever felt that suffocating grip of entrepreneurial perfectionism holding you back from creating and posting or emailing that marketing content? That would make such a difference in building your business and also the consistency of your business. It's like a vice around your heart, making you second guess every word, every image, every idea. 

And the longer you wait, the harder it becomes to break free. Today, we're diving deep into this perfection trap and I'll share a personal revelation that might just set you free. If you're ready to ditch perfect and embrace progress and posting. Let's dive in.

Hello, friends, welcome to My Good Woman, the podcast for new and future female leaders. I'm your host, Dawn Andrews, a happily married hockey mom, and the founder and CEO of Free Range Thinking Business Strategy Consulting.

Grab a seat at the table with me each week for candid conversations with culture shifting, glass ceiling busting, trailblazing women leading impactful enterprises. We discuss what makes them tick, how they get it all done, and actionable strategies to help you lead with confidence and grow the visibility, reach, and revenue of your business.

We're classy ladies, but we don't bleep the swear words. Listener discretion is advised.

Hey there my good woman! How you been? I am in my minivan, fresh from a CVS run, on day 10 of my COVID protocol. And I've got a confession, I have been stalling. Stalling on creating content, on sharing, on being present. And no, it's not just cause I had the Rona. Why have I been stalling? It is that old nemesis perfectionism. But today I had an epiphany and I think it's going to resonate with you. 

I realized that this perfectionism is a hangover from my corporate days. In the corporate world, we're conditioned to get it just right for that one boss, that one feedback loop. So for instance, it's budget time and you need to put in your draft of a budget. And there are requirements that you need to fulfill, that your boss is laid out for you and you spend all your time trying to get it right and get it perfect. So that you don't have to go back and forth in a feedback loop. You want to please your boss, right? 

And in the corporate world, we're conditioned to get it just right. But as entrepreneurs, our boss is our ideal client. And guess what? They are not sending us memos on our content, they're just hoping to connect. And the only way that we know that our content, our emails, our social posts, our ads are actually making a difference is if they engage or comment or download or buy. 

So here's the reality of content engagement and this was a total reality check for me. And it's one of those things where, you know, this information. But it took driving in the minivan with a big pile of drugs to really assimilate at all. You may not know this, but only around three to 4% of your followers on any social platform, like Instagram or Facebook actually see your posts. And it's a little bit more on LinkedIn, but not a whole lot.

So that means if you have a hundred followers, only three to four of them are going to see your post at the time that you originally posted. Now if people engage with it, if they like it, if they comment on it, and you respond in kind within 20 to 30 minutes of the post going live. Then it might bump up your engagement and send it out to more people. But that's a huge gap between a hundred followers and only three to four people seeing it.

Algorithms are the gatekeepers of access to your ideal audience? So while we're over here, hunched over our laptops, slaving away, perfecting and agonizing over the perfect post. Most of our audience might not even catch it the first time around. Even a strong email list, standard best practice open rates are anywhere between 15 and 30%. So better than social, but still nobody's sitting there on pins and needles waiting for your content.

Perfectionism is the entrepreneur's silent progress killer.  And once you realize that you're just trying to serve your ideal audience and they don't see everything the first time around, it can be really liberating. And you also get to enjoy the freedom of repurposing. 

So here's the silver lining. This realization that we are in an entrepreneurial setting, not in a corporate setting is very liberating. It means that we can repurpose reuse and recycle our content. That insightful post from three months ago, even if it got a lot of engagement you can still repost. Give it a fresh take, a fresh spin and share it again, update it a little bit. Your content doesn't need to be perfect, but it does need to be out there to be working on your behalf. 

Here's my challenge to you. and a promise to myself. Let's prioritize progress over perfection. 

Let's understand our ideal clients pains, problems, challenges, needs, and let's show up for them consistently. I'm committing right now here on the mic with you to post regularly, to share those one liners or quotes or insights that I believe will resonate, and to do it with regularity, even if I'm repurposing. And I want to hear from you, I would love to hear what your struggles are, your wins, your insights around creating and releasing content for your ideal audience. 

 Let's take this journey together. To wrap up this little jewel of an episode. Remember this in business, it is not about being perfect. It is about being present to the needs of your audience. And nobody is standing by on pins and needles, waiting for your perfect content. Let's surprise and delight them with things that matter to them and hope that they see it.

 So start posting. Stop seeking that elusive perfection and start connecting with your audience. Let's do it together. Take care my good woman and until next time, stay healthy, keep sharing, keep shining and know that I got your back.

Thank you for joining me this week. To view the complete show notes and all the links mentioned in today's episode, visit mygoodwoman.com. And before you go, make sure you follow or subscribe to the podcast so you can receive fresh episodes when they drop. And if you're enjoying my Good Woman, leave us a review on Apple Podcast reviews are one of the major ways that Apple ranks their pod. So even though it takes only a few seconds, it really does make a difference and helps our show grow.

This episode was produced by me and Julissa Ramirez. Thank you again for joining me, Dawn Andrews, in this episode of My Good Woman.