There is a belief among many business owners that things have to be done “the right way.” In this podcast episode, I am joined by Stephanie Rainey, owner of The Swimologist, to discuss this topic and why it is a haunting belief and how it can hold you back.
Stephanie Rainey is the former founder and owner of the Aqua Life Swim Academy, which is a private swim school in Ottawa, Canada. It was the first of its kind, and she sold that in January 2019. She’s now dabbling in new things, one of which is teaching adults to learn to swim.
As soon as Stephanie learned that I was going to be talking about beliefs and things that hold business owners back, this belief immediately came to mind.
For Stephanie, the belief that something had to be done the right way started when she was a child who was very imaginative. She quickly learned that people don't want you to wander around through life and that instead, people want you to have an order to what you're doing and want you to do what you're supposed to do.
The right way to do things
Stephanie learned early on that there is a right way to do things. For example, this is the right way to clean up your room. This is the right way to do this homework.
It became super-uncomfortable for Stephanie to just wander around without any systems, rules or order to her life. And so, she became this person who used systems and tried to do things the right way to please people and to get ahead.
Stephanie believes she became a little obsessed with the “right way.”
Many people grew up believing there's a right way to do things. And so, that impacts us as adults and can add a lot of stress to how we do things.
If you're always looking for the right way, what does that mean for you?
When Stephanie was a school teacher, it wasn't so bad. There is a right way, there's a right answer. Everything is formulated. She would show up, she would teach, she would go home, she would evaluate, and she put a mark on a kid, and define them by what the right way is.
However, as an entrepreneur, she moved into a space where she knew some expertise in her business, but there was so much she didn’t know.
When you’re just starting out as an entrepreneur, you don't even know what you don't know. And then, you start to wake up to the fact that you need marketing, and you need process documents, and you need to bring on employees, and, as you grow and scale according to your dream, so much order has to take place.
There were many times Stephanie thought, "Gosh, I'm supposed to do something in marketing." But she was stuck thinking, "What's the right thing to do? What's the right way to market this?"
Luckily, a friend helped Stephanie to realize that just making things up as she went was a part of her entrepreneurial journey and she had to embrace that.
It always looks like everybody else is doing something that you're not, and that they may know something you don't. Often, this is not the case.
Somebody else’s right way is not your right way
You can read many great business books and they have great answers but there's also so much making it up that has to happen because not every business is the same. Those authors made it up for the business they became successful in. They followed a system, but they had to create that system, and that takes the creativity part of it.
The right way is really whatever you need to pull together to create the right way for you, as opposed to you having to follow somebody else's right way.
Stephanie realized that if you're always searching for the right way, it's debilitating, and it becomes paralyzing.
She spent so much time frozen in her first two years of business because it was overwhelming. She wanted to do it right. She didn't want to lose money. And so, she ended up defaulting to doing nothing. And, that was really the worst thing that she could have done.
If you want to keep moving forward, you have to keep putting one foot in front of the other. And, sometimes that means making a very imperfect step, and then, readjusting as it hurts.
Embrace the imperfect
Don't let not knowing how to do it stop you. As well, when something is really hard in your business, and you're really struggling, talk to people or find a book on someone who's done it really well. Learn from them, and then apply that and tailor it to your business.
Even if it's painful, business owners have to figure out how to make it less painful. It’s about stepping through and figuring out what things are working.
Stephanie believes the biggest misconception she has about business, besides just having the right thing, is thinking that you should be amazing right off the bat. Business owners don't look back and give themselves credit for how far they have come.
Celebrate the teeny, tiny steps. If you're taking a tiny step, know that you're headed in the right direction. Every step, regardless of its size, is a step in the right direction.
For more information on Stephanie, visit her website: http://theswimologist.com or like her Facebook Page: https://www.facebook.com/TheSwimologist/
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