Today is an important day.
3 years ago today I stepped out on my own after 11 years working a 9-5 job.
On Feb 1st, 2017 I woke up and rubbed my eyes with nowhere to be.
No commute. No office. No co-workers.
I didn’t know what to do…
So I took the kids to school…
Went to the gym…
Wrote a blog post…
Updated social profiles…
Then I got to work. (The entire journey is documented on my podcast – Cody Builds A Business)
And today – February 1st, 2020 – I woke up in Nashville at the ClickFunnels conference (more on that next week).
In the last 6 months I have created courses, challenges, summits, hosted 2 live events, started a private membership (The FAM) and an app-only coaching program (The Crew)…
And here’s the most important thing I learned in the last 3 years:
Publishing > Polishing
We know the sayings: “there are no million dollar ideas — just million dollar implementation”; “knowledge isn’t power; it’s the potential for power, you still have to execute.”
It’s true.
Publish ideas imperfectly.
I launched The FAM with a Google Document and a PayPal link. 39 people signed up. I said “we kick off on Monday!” while having precisely no idea what I meant by that.
I wrote a book with an editor from Upwork (the best $210 I’ve ever spent) and a cover I designed myself.
I launched a podcast with a crappy mic and no idea how to edit the episodes. But I published 260+ episodes and a funny thing happened:
At first I sucked. Then I sucked less. Then I actually got pretty darn good. Then 1 person reached out and said how he was moved to action by an episode. Someone else said my story gave them hope. #letsgo.
So many of us are waiting on our “thing” to be perfect before we publish it.
So we polish. And then polish it again. Then polish it again. Then, finally, when we can’t polish it anymore… we polish it again.
But let me ask you this – have you ever polished something for a 2nd time? Does the second coat of wax on your car make it look that much better? Does the 2nd swipe of Windex make your mirror that much clearer?
No.
My message for you today – the 3rd anniversary of my “jump-date”; sitting in the food court of the Nashville airport waiting to board my flight home to my family in Colorado – is to publish whatever you’re working on.
While it’s in your head it’s not helping anyone. If it’s buried on your hard drive it can’t make a difference. If it’s 9 layers deep in Google Drive it’s not of service.
No more stalling. No more procrastinating.
Get it out there.
~ Cody “Publish It” Burch
