First Drafts Hoover

This week, I was in an event with over 4,000 entrepreneurs and I had hundreds of conversations.

It was amazing, but one thing that I heard over and over again was people who are making the decision of what they're going to do next, but stuck in the analysis, not actually taking action. And if you're in a place where you're deciding what you're going to do, you have to understand, get your first draft out there as fast as possible because first drafts always hoover.

I'm Alex Charfen. Yeah, and this is the momentum podcast made for empire builders, game changers, trailblazers, shot takers, record breakers, world makers and creators of all kinds. Those among us who can't turn it off and don't know why anyone would want to. We challenge complacency, destroy apathy, and we are obsessed with creating momentum so we can roll over bureaucracy and make our greatest contribution.

Alex Charfen: Sure we pay attention to their rules, but only so that we can bend them, break them, then rewrite them around our own will. We don't accept our destiny. We define it. We don't understand defeat because you only lose if you stop. And we don't know how. While the rest of the world strives for average and clings desperately to the status quo, we are the minority, the few who are willing to hallucinate there could be a better future and instead of just daydreaming of what could be, we endure the vulnerability and exposure it takes to make it real. We are the evolutionary hunters, clearly the most important people in the world because entrepreneurs are the only source of consistent, positive human evolution and we always will be. Let me quickly explain the title of this podcast. Years ago I took a real estate class with a speaker named Dunkin Garden, and during the class he said it's okay to say you suck through a straw, but using that word in other ways, it's not really appropriate.

Alex Charfen: So his wife had encouraged him that instead of using that word in ways that could be used inappropriately to say, hoover and I have been blown away at how many entrepreneurs listen to my podcast with their kids. In fact, this week at ClickFunnels, I got to meet one of those kids. His name was Jace. He came to my meet and greet, I went over to take a picture with them. He whipped out a pair of Swanwick glasses, put them on, we took a photo. It's on my Facebook page. It was just such an incredible moment. And so I want to keep this podcast so clean that parents are absolutely proud and happy to share it with their kids. So the title of this one is First Drafts Always Hoover. And so hoover vacuum cleans or vacuum cleaners suck stuff off the floor.

Alex Charfen: So by process of elimination, if something hoovers, then it does that. So that's what I'm talking about today. And here's what I saw over and over again this week at the ClickFunnels event. And when I talk to entrepreneurs, I talk to so many that have been in this process of deciding what they're going to do. And I'm not saying you shouldn't take the time to make a decision to plan, to understand where you want to go. But I talked to people who've been thinking about what their first lead magnet is going to be for three to six months. Some for as long as it nine or 12 months or 16 months and they haven't put anything online. They haven't taken action, they haven't really done anything yet. And here's something I want you to understand about everything you will ever do as an entrepreneur.

Alex Charfen: Whether you know it or not, your first draft is going to Hoover. It's not going to be good. It's not going to be what you end up with unless you are the biggest anomaly in the history of entrepreneurship. Your first draft is going to need massive revisions and changes and improvements and suggestions from clients and so much more. So what is the key to actually being successful as an entrepreneur? It's getting your first draft out there as fast as you possibly can and then figuring out how to make it better. It's getting something out there that you can test, you can get data, you can get feedback on and actually move forward with and start actually producing some type of results, some type of feedback, some type of outcome, some type of something rather than just getting caught in the mental analysis of your head of what are you going to do next because let's be real. That is an analysis that is an internal argument. That's an internal conflict that can last forever.

Alex Charfen: We can just keep that process of deciding, that process of what we think is elimination, that process of analysis. But if we get stuck in that process, we don't actually move forward and the problem is there is only so much you can figure out without actually taking action. In fact, I would tell you that most of the figuring out, most of the understanding, most of the adjustment, most of what you will do to be successful actually comes after, not before but after you put your first draft out there. And the challenge that I see today for entrepreneurs, not just at the beginning levels but at all levels is that we obsess over the first draft. We don't want to put anything out there that isn't going to be perfect. It isn't going to be something that works that is going to fail. Well, I've got news for you, let me tell you how we do it.

Alex Charfen: In my company we try and get a first draft out there as quickly as we can so that we can get the failure out of the way because we know it's not going to be perfect. We do everything we can to just get something up so that we can start testing and understanding and if people will actually react to it and we try and put it out there fast. Now, am I always successful at this? Absolutely not. In fact, this is something I have to remind myself of all the time because as you start growing a business and you hit a decent financial run rate and you have actual business, you have clients, it starts feeling like moving forward and making decisions might even be more risky. It might be more difficult. It might be harder. Well, I can tell you, I have to remind myself of this often that everything I do, everything is just a draft because for entrepreneurs, when you're just starting out, it feels really hard to put something out there because it's the first thing.

Alex Charfen: It's so important. It's loaded. You want it to be done right. If you've been around for a while, it's so hard to put something out there. It's because I have a reputation. I've been around for a while. I want it to be good. I want it to be successful, in all cases, here's what I want you to know. Just put it out there. Take it to 80% or 85% of what you're confident in and put your content out. Take the draft and put it out there. Whether you're communicating with your team, whether you're communicating with the market at large, whether you have new marketing, whether it's a modification to your product. Understand that the change you make today is not going to be the last one. The change you make today is only a change in a series. When you release something, you actually start testing it in the real world, in the real market where you can get feedback that's going to help you make it better, more attractive to your target market, more effective, and actually help you move forward.

Alex Charfen: So if you've been analyzing and thinking and trying to figure out what the perfect next move is, I want you to know something. You are not alone. I have been there. I've been in that place where you don't pull the trigger because you don't really have ultimate confidence that what you're going to do is going to succeed. You don't pull the trigger because you're not 100% sure that it's going to work out the way you want it to. You don't pull the trigger because you don't want anyone out there to see you with something that isn't successful. You hear all the stories you hear about everybody else who's getting the 2 Comma Club award. We getting the 2 Comma Club X award and getting a ton of results. Or you watch people online that are getting results and so it makes you feel like you have to hold back, make it work before you release it and be perfect when everything gets out there.

Alex Charfen: Well, I want you to understand something. Perfection is the biggest enemy progress ever had and if you want to make any type of forward progress and get into momentum as an entrepreneur, release perfection, the pursuit of perfection will only cause you pain and if you want to release something that it's perfect, that gets results right away, that makes everything happen like you want it to. You have an unrealistic expectation of how entrepreneurship works. This is what I remind myself. It's always going to be messy in the beginning. Any draft we put out there is going to need work. I can't hold it to a standard of being even decent at the beginning because it's brand new. It's a first draft. We haven't tested it, we don't have data on it, so let's just get it out there and see what happens and then continue adjusting.

Alex Charfen: So if you have felt stuck, if you're not making progress, if you don't feel like your business is going where you want to, you might be analyzing far too much and here's my advice. Get your first draft out there, get the reactions to it, get feedback on it, put it out there. You'll feel good that you actually made progress. You'll start getting feedback which allows you to improve new. You'll start understanding where you missed, where you can make things better, where you can make it less friction for the person who's consuming the content or the product or whatever it is that you put out there. But get your first draft out there. If you've been analyzing, if you've been waiting, if you've been in that place where you're trying to make it right before it gets out, I want you to know it's just not going to happen.

Alex Charfen: Put it out there and that is the progress you need to make so that you can start getting the right feedback. Put the right changes in place, make it even better for your market and get into momentum right now. First draft's hoover, put yours out there as fast as you possibly can so you can start improving it and get into momentum and make some progress now. If you're ready to get into momentum in all areas of your life, check out Momentum Masterclass. It is the course that we use with our highest level clients in our coaching memberships to help them get completely and totally focused in three areas. Their alignment with themselves, their alignment with their relationships, primarily their marriage and their alignment with what they want from their business. So if you want hyper focus so that you know exactly what you want right now and what steps you should take next to get there. So you can match the accelerator to the floor and get into as much momentum as possible. Go to momentummasterclass.com you'll be glad you did.