Paul Colaianni is the host and founder of The Overwhelmed Brain Podcast, and today he shares the top 3 lessons learned launching an online business.
What were the top 3 mistakes you made starting out with your business, and if you could start over what would you do differently?
Transcript:
Hi, I am Paul Coliani host of the Overwhelmed Brain personal growth podcast. And you’re listening to the Billion Success top 3 business mistakes:
Here are the top 3 mistakes I made starting out with my business:
Not having a product ready
And I don’t mean something to sell. Thought that would be a good idea too, but anything. I had no eBook, no free resource, guide or kit, nothing. It’s vital that you create a magnet for people to want to sign up on your email list. For the last 6 months or so my subscribers have been trickling in, but if I had something more to offer than just the weekly personal growth tip, the numbers would have soared. So now I have some catching up to do.
Not starting sooner
I spent so long as a 9 to 5er, well I got comfortable being uncomfortable. At 43 years old, I finally made the move to start creating my business from the ground up. I feel like I should have done this 10 or 20 years ago. In fact, I had opportunities I didn’t pursue in the past because; I just kept going back to all the daily grind of working for someone else. I am not against working for anyone else, but now that I’ve had a taste of entrepreneurialism, I wish I had started much sooner.
I’ve learned to take action now and no longer procrastinate.
Not staying focus on what worked
One of the biggest mistakes I made had to do with narrowing my focus. I wanted to be on Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus, LinkedIn, my mastermind, and guest posting on blogs, let alone taking care of my own website and posting there, on top of creating content for my podcast.
There is something to be said about Pat Flynn’s be everywhere strategy. Where you offer something for the listeners, watchers and readers, trying to do all of that at once at least by myself, I mastered nothing and I became staggered with my focus
The hiring a virtual assistant is my next step for sure. And in the meantime after months of trying to do it myself, I went back to what is most important, creating content for my show. As long as I have content, I have leverage and as long as the content is evergreen, it will be timeless and I can use it and promote it at any time. So I had to cure myself of the shiny object syndrome and start focusing on what drives everything in the first place, content. Everything else is still important, but without good content, my business will not last.
Starting Over
Now if I could start all this over and do things differently, I would probably spend less time socializing online and more time creating. I really enjoy being part of a mastermind and giving value to others, but I found that took up a lot of my time. I would give so much to others; I didn’t have time to create what I needed to create to become profitable. I mean, I believe in creating valuable connections and I highly recommend a mastermind I couldn’t be where I am today without them, but I really should’ve been more discipline in my time. I think socializing was sort a procrastination tactic because I didn’t believe in myself enough.
The feedback from others really made me feel good about myself, but that didn’t get my business anywhere. I love hearing about others successes and being a part of what made them successful but I was not applying my own advice to my business.
Now what I am focused and working on a product, excess socializing takes a backseat. It’s not a huge failure but it certainly delayed my success. It took a while to realize, I wasn’t really delayed, I was procrastinating. After I figure that out, I took action and prioritize what really needed to be done to start succeeding.
Paul Colaianni Founder of The Overwhelmed Brain
