863: Not done! (Is done a thing?)

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian Lofermento.

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In today's episode, we are going to be talking about being done.

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This episode is one that I don't exactly know where it's going to take us, but I'm excited about this one.

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Let's dive in.

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So today's episode is really inspired by two completely separate things, but it just is such a recurring theme that when I came across this excerpt in the book, which is one of the inspirations for today's episode, it just really resonated.

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It fit in so well with the other inspiration behind today's episode, which is so many of the amazing conversations that I have with all of our incredible entrepreneurial guests here on the show.

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Usually, after we're done with recording, I get the chance to hang out with these incredible entrepreneurs for a few minutes, and it just lately.

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It feels like this is one of those themes and that is the notion of just being adaptable and being in motion and just following the flow of where things are going.

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And really, actually, the word that I really want to pinpoint today is how much of an iterative process all of life is, all of businesses, sales is, marketing, is all of these things.

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They're all iterative processes, and so when I was going through my notes of all the incredible books that I've read over the past few years I came across I was reviewing notes from, and highlights that I made from, this book called the Way of the Superior man, and it's a book by David Data, and in that book I want to read this excerpt actually for you here today.

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So here's what David Data writes in the book the Way of the Superior man Begin quote.

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Most men make the error of thinking that one day it will be done.

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They think if I can work enough, then one day I could rest.

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Or I'm only doing this now so that one day I can do what I really want to with my life.

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The masculine error is to think that eventually things will be different in some fundamental way.

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They won't.

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It never ends fundamental way.

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They won't.

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It never ends as long as life continues.

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The creative challenge is to tussle, play and make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift.

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I absolutely love end quote.

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By the way, I absolutely love this short excerpt and I feel like it.

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I feel like it reveals so much of the secrets of life, of business in it is because it really is that mindset?

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And to me, this mindset when I tease today's topic of being about things being done it's actually the exact opposite of that.

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It's directly to the contrary of that is that it's embracing the fact that things will never be done.

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There is no such thing as done, and if you're wondering to yourself why am I talking about this here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast, it's because I feel like we trick ourselves into believing there's any semblance of done in any single aspect of our business, whether that is a Facebook ad campaign.

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I'm gonna call that out because next month you are going to hear an incredible guest on the topic of Facebook ads.

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It's actually coming up to you in the beginning of August with Sheena West, who is an incredible entrepreneur.

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Sheena comes on.

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She really brings the heat when we talk about Facebook ads.

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And here's the thing when people think about Facebook ads.

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And here's the thing when people think about Facebook ads, a lot of times they think well, I'm going to find the winning formula.

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I'm going to create and launch an ad campaign and that's going to be the ad campaign that sets me off in a series of sales.

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That's going to be the ad campaign that makes my business, my product, my service successful campaign.

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That makes my business, my product, my service successful.

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And in talking to Sheena, it was really one of the one of my recent conversations.

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That's really one of the inspirations for today's Solo Sunday episode is because Sheena, in that episode you'll hear her.

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You've got to wait a little bit, unfortunately.

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I'm excited for you all to learn from Sheena in episode 905, which is still a ways away, but you'll hear directly.

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Sheena iterates, or she emphasizes so strongly.

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This is an iterative process.

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You're going to launch an ad and then you're going to tweak that ad and then you're going to learn.

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And then you're going to tweak that ad and then you're going to optimize that ad and then you're going to split test.

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You're going to test this, you're going to test that it's never done.

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And that's such a key part about what makes Sheena so successful in her advertising business and with and for her clients is because she embraces the fact that the work is never done.

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And I feel like this is more than just a statement for us.

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This is really an entrepreneurial mindset that we need to take with us because, even if it comes down to you launching your product or service and you think, oh, when I launch this incredible product, I'm going to be done Like this product is going to be my ticket to success, like this product is going to be my ticket to success, or this product is going to be the thing that sets me off in my sales, even if you and I had.

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You know, let's use the iPod, for example.

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The iPod was a revolutionary product when Apple launched it, but did they rest on their laurels, were they done?

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No, somehow Steve Jobs viewed the iPod as the beginning of a product line, as the beginning of a way of servicing clients, as the beginning of a way of combining other products, mp3 players, you know, devices that can play these little games on their screens.

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We've all remember playing Snake on our old flip phones or on our old iPods.

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And so all of these things were never done.

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And I'm guilty of this.

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You know, in so many of these Solo Sunday episodes, I love calling my younger, entrepreneurial self out.

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And it's not even younger in terms of age, it's really entrepreneurial immaturity.

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Is that?

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I convinced myself oh my gosh, I'm going to write this book, I'm going to create this online course, I'm going to have this thing, this product or service, and I'm going to bring it to market and all of a sudden, everything's going to transform.

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And guess what Sometimes it does.

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If you launch an online course, sometimes it will change.

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You will get a flood of sales.

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If you have an email list and you do a really good launch and you understand email marketing and you understand how to generate revenue or pre-sell a course or any of these things, it's really easy to get excited about all of your initial results and it's easy to think that that's something that's going to radically transform your life and your business overnight.

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But guess what inevitably happens with any of these things it runs out.

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And what are you gonna do when it runs out?

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And that's the important question what are you going to do when the money stops flowing?

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What are you going to do when the sales stop flowing?

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What are you going to do when you can't just keep launching new products and services?

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Well, the reality of what you're gonna do is you can't just keep launching new products and services.

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Well, the reality of what you're going to do is you're going to keep working.

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You're never going to be done, and that's why I have fallen so in love here, in my thirties especially.

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I've fallen so in love with the word iterative.

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I love iterative processes because I think that this mindset of things never being done and done not even being a state that we should or can aspire to, I think that what that does is it also lets us off the hook.

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I think it gives us freedom, flexibility, it gives us a cushion, it makes it okay to fail, because all of our results, both those failures and those successes, it's all temporary, and so much of this topic and so much of other topics really fits in with that very simple notion that I love to remind myself of in both the good times and the bad.

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This too shall pass.

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Nothing is permanent in life.

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So few things.

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I can't think of many or any, quite frankly, to be fair and that's why faith is such a powerful force for so many people is because that is something that fortunately, can follow us through life, and for me, manchester United I'm going to throw that into the equation there are some things that will forever be permanent, but the reality is everything else is temporary.

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Our friends, unfortunately, life is temporary.

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Where we live is temporary, our jobs are temporary, the things we work on are temporary, all of these things are temporary.

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So what makes us think that in our businesses, in our marketing, in our sales, in our product lineup, that something will ever be done.

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It's all temporary, it's all in a state of flux, and I think by us openly one talking about that state of flux and then two, acknowledging and embracing that state of flux I feel like it's that mindset, it's that approach to all of these different facets of business.

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This umbrella that I keep alluding to of marketing, sales, product lineup offers all of this.

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When we embrace all of that as constantly in flux, it gives us that freedom to explore, it gives us that freedom to experiment, it gives us that freedom to fail, which ultimately, when we put ourselves in a position where we are willing to fail, it also opens us up to a giant possibility of success.

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And so I really love this concept.

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I remember I would map out marketing funnels on my whiteboard and I would create all these Facebook ad campaigns and I would see results from them, and I thought that was my ticket.

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I convinced myself time and time again this is my ticket, this is gonna be the thing that takes me from here to there, and the truth is it took me one step further along the way, maybe two steps sometimes, maybe if it was something really good, maybe it took me 10 steps closer to where I wanted to be, but I will never be done.

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Done is not the destination.

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So much of this.

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We talk about it very frequently and it's a cliche, it's something we throw that word out there so frequently in life the destination versus the journey and of course all of this stuff is about that journey.

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Journey, and of course all of this stuff is about that journey.

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So, whether you have a nine-to-five job and you've convinced yourself that I'm going to do this and then I'll be done, maybe, maybe you'll be able to move on to the next chapter, but embrace that constant state of flux.

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It's just like that excerpt today from David Data in the way of the Superior man.

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It ends, quote as long as life continues, the creative challenge is to tussle, to play and to make love with the present moment while giving your unique gift.

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And I think end quote, and I think that is such a powerful component of today's topic is for us to embrace the fact that this is the way we just show up in the world Keep showing up, keep giving those gifts, but ultimately always embrace and play in and experiment in and fail in and succeed in that constant state of flux.

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So I hope this hits you where you are.

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If you've convinced yourself in some way that there's this sort of fictitious finish line, whether it's you pushing a project over the finish line or launching this dream of yours into the world, so frequently that finish line is just the starting line for something else.

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Embrace that, be ready for it, dive into it, flourish in it, fail in it.

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That's what's behind today's topic and it's the mindset I'll tell you this from behind the scenes of someone who gets to interact with all of our amazing guests.

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That's what makes them succeed.

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I get to talk to them even after our recordings.

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We love all of our guests, both present, past, future guests that you all are going to hear from.

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We have such an incredible lineup of guests and all of them.

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When I get to interact with them, I see this attitude layered underneath every single thing that they do.

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They're always willing to iterate.

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They will iterate more times than most people.

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It's just like that ancient proverb fall seven times, get up eight, and that's what it's all about.

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So, on that topic, this week especially, we have got three incredible guests for you, so make sure you hit that subscribe button.

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You already know the drill.

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We'll be coming at you, as always, every Monday, wednesday, friday, saturday and Sunday here on the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

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Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom.

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And I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

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It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always, every Monday.