Eep! Welcome to my FIRST EVER PODCAST EPISODE!!!

It’s funny how those beginner nerves come on so strong, isn’t it? I’ve started businesses and blogs, made cross-country moves, sold my belongings to travel the world living out of Airbnbs… and yet, no matter how many beginnings I experience, I sometimes still have to work myself up before taking the leap.

Maybe you’re the same? Is there a dream in YOUR heart that you instantly think of when I talk about taking the leap… maybe to start your own business, a side hustle, a podcast? Maybe to go on a solo trip, leave your current gig, go back to school, or go on a date?

Regardless of which dream is brewing in your heart, in this episode I share three tips to bust through beginner’s block and launch your dream. (It’s basically a pep talk for both of us.) 🥰

How to Launch Your Dream Into the World

Here are a few ideas to launch your dream:

1. Break Things Into the Smamest Steps

When starting something new, often the steps involved can feel so overwhelming that you struggle to get started in the first place. Instead of feeling paralyzed by so many tasks, grab a piece of paper and write out a few beginning steps. Focus ONLY on the first few.

For example, if you’re thinking of starting a business, instead of worrying about choosing a niche, brand colors, a name, a logo, a business license, and a domain all in one day — even I’m already getting anxiety just thinking about it — choose ONE things to focus on. Maybe you decide to spend 30 minutes today brainstorming business names. Then tomorrow, you begin researching which names are actually available. Then the next day, you choose your favorite one out of that list.

Taking the smallest steps helps you get started, so you create enough forward momentum to keep going. Every dream is built upon one step after another. I’ve used this over and over again — even for this very podcast — and it works WONDERS if you experience analysis paralysis.

2. Remember That There Will Be a Gap

One of my all-time favorite videos is this 2-minute video by Ira Glass on beginning:

In the video, he essentially talks about how all creative people experience a gap between what they WANT to create, and what they actually create. Instead of getting frustrated and feeling like a failure because your vision doesn’t match your execution, take the gap as a sign that you actually have good taste and just need to keep going.

Glass says that the only way to eventually close the gap (and to produce something that looks, reads, or sounds how you want it to) is to do a large volume of work. The greatest writers, artists, and athletes all realize this simple principle: nothing beats putting in the hours.

Even with this podcast, I take heart in knowing that one day I will look back on this first episode and find some flaws in it. Maybe my voice will sound shaky, or maybe my edits will make me laugh. But instead of seeing that as a reason NOT to begin, I see it as a reason to begin TODAY, knowing that one year from now, I will be so much further than if I had waited another year.

The same is true for you.

3. Feel the Fear and Do It Anyway

Lastly, remember that fear doesn’t always mean you SHOULDN’T do something. I like to think of fear as merely our minds trying to keep us safe from discomfort. But if something sparks your heart… if you feel EXPANSIVE versus contracted when you imagine doing something… that’s usually a sign that your body is on board, and it’s ok to let your brain sit this one out. You will simply have to feel the fear and move forward anyway.

Improv comedy has a phrase — ”yes, and” — meaning whatever a comedian gives you to work with, you accept it and add to it. And I kind of love that for life, don’t you? You feel the nudges, you take a deep breath, you say yes, and you see where it leads you. You realize that you ARE capable of handling the unexpected. That you ARE more powerful than your fear. That you are a co-creator of your life, and all incredible adventures start from one word:

“Yes.”

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And so, my dear reader, I have a few final questions for you. Whether the dream in your heart is to write a book, to travel the world, to move to a new city, to get into a new relationship, or to take the leap in any other area of your life…

The truth is, the time will pass anyway.

What, one year from now, will you wish you had started today?

What is the smallest step that you can take to move forward as you launch your dream?

Can you feel the fear and do it anyway?

Can you know that there will be a gap between where you want to be and where you are now?

And that it’s OK? Can you find the joy in it? Can you dance with it?

If so, my friend, we are on the start of an incredible journey together. Thank you for being here for my first-ever episode!!! Below are a few things to support you in your journey!

Ready for Your Biggest, Brightest, Life?

Listen to the episode here! Would seriously fall out of my chair over a review!

Sign up for a free training: 5 steps to earn $100/hour writing for businesses online (the same steps I used to go from burned out in corporate to running my own multi 6-figure business as my own boss, working from anywhere). This is for you even if you don’t have writing experience or an online following!

P.S. More on this topic: How to Know if You’re Ready to Start a Side Business (or Make a Change), 3 Beliefs to Upgrade Before Starting a Business, and Qualify Yourself (You Are Worthy Already).