Paralysis by Analysis

Monica Pitts 0:00 There is a syndrome that doesn't really exist in our office. But we joke around about it a lot. Because while we are pretty effective decision makers that may create, we can make a decision pretty fast and move forward with it. We're a lot of us actually married to people who are much slower in their decision making process. And we have siblings that are slower in their decision making process. And we have clients that also are very slow in their decision making process. Sometimes they get so tied up in all the options in making a decision that they can't make a decision at all. Okay. And we call this problem paralysis by analysis. And for those of you who have this, well, I'm here for you today. All right, I'm going to try to give you some ideas that you can work with, maybe just spin around in your head a little bit and see if you could maybe move on from the paralysis and, and make a decision. All right. And for those of you guys who are married to a person who suffers from paralysis by analysis, you can use some of these tricks too, because maybe you can help them make that decision and move forward. All right, let's dig in, and let's get to business. Monica Pitts 1:28 You're on mission, and you just need more people to know about it. And whether you're brand new to marketing or a seasoned pro, we are all looking for answers to make marketing decisions with purpose. I'm Monica Pitts, a techie crafty business owner, mom and aerial dancer who solves communication challenges through technology. This podcast is all about digging in and going digital, I'll share my marketing know how in business experience from almost 20 years of misadventures, I'll be your backup dancer. So you can stop doubting, and get moving towards marketing with purpose. Monica Pitts 2:05 Now, I haven't always been a good decision maker, I haven't, when I first started my business, I was so incredibly concerned with how everybody else felt and keeping everyone else happy. I was very concerned that my clients, were not going to be happy if they weren't making the decisions themselves. And so I just let them keep batting things around forever. I wouldn't ever push for a decision. And it was the same thing with my staff, I wanted them to be part of this democracy that I was building where everybody got to be part of every single decision. And in time, what I realized is that, in order to be a good leader, in order to be a good leader, for my clients, in order to be a good leader, for my staff, I had to have the ability to make a decision. It's the same thing with my kids, I have to be able to make a decision for them. It's the same thing with my friends, I have to be able to make a decision. One of my biggest pet peeves of girlfriends is when you're like hey, do you want to go out on Friday night? And, you know, go for a walk or get a drink? And they're like, oh, yeah, that sounds great. And then you text them over and over again. And they never tell you that they're not going to make it. And it's because they didn't want to hurt your feelings. It's because they weren't willing to make a decision. Okay? And good friends don't do that. Good friends, make a decision. And they let you know what it is. Good parents can make decisions for their kids, good business owners make decisions for their businesses, and good leaders make decisions for their employees. Right? We make decisions. I'm not saying that we don't consider what their needs are. We absolutely do. But we still have to be willing to set aside all the analysis at some point and make a decision. Okay, so what can you do to plow through the paralysis by analysis? And okay, so I come from a long line of people with this syndrome. My brother is actually one of the worst. He he actually never fenced in the yard at his last house, because there were so many options for how he could fence it in that he literally never picked one. He went through it for years thinking about how he was going to fence in his house. And then he was like, I just I can't I can't even make a decision. I can't do it. And so he didn't have offense. So the first thing that I want you to ask yourself is, what's the worst thing that could happen? If I did it this way? So let's say that you're considering making a decision. Ask yourself, what's the worst thing that could happen if I made this decision? Write it down. Make a list, right? What's the worst thing that could have happened? If Travis spent his fence with chainlink? Well, maybe the neighbors would have complained or maybe the dogs would have barked because they could see The other dogs on the other side of the fence, maybe it wouldn't have been to code. Maybe the the bylaws in his neighborhood might change eventually. And he would have to take it down and, and put up a wooden fence, right? So what's the worst thing that could happen? And then ask yourself, What's the best thing that could happen? Right? So you put that fence up, what's the best thing that could happen, you don't have to chase your dog anymore, because it's running away in the middle of the night or out in the snow. So it's going to the bathroom, you don't have to take it out on a leash, you don't have to freeze your butt off in the middle of the winter. You don't have to worry about it getting hit by a car. There's a lot of positive things that come from a fenced yard, right? So the there's the good outweighs the bad in that situation. If you decide, I'm not going to make a decision, because I'm telling you, that's actually an option. You can end paralysis by analysis by just saying, I'm not going to do this right now. I'm done. I'm done thinking about it. I'm not going to talk about it anymore. The answer is, I'm not doing anything. That is a decision that you can make. You can say, I'm not going to do anything until this date. And then on that date, you can make a decision. And that works really well. So if you choose no as an option, and it is a perfectly acceptable option, you just need to ask yourself, what happens if you don't make the decision? What happens then? Right, in Travis's case, it was that he didn't have a fence, like ever. He never made the decision. Right. And clearly, he was okay about that. He was okay with it. I have two dogs, I'm not okay with it. I hate getting up in the middle of the night to let them out. So I'm not okay with it. Right? Monica Pitts 6:38 So once you've thought through, like, What's the best thing that could happen? And what's the worst thing that could happen? I want you to ask yourself, like what's holding you back? What's What's making you not make that decision? Right. And so what's interesting is that some of you guys that are listening right now, you think I don't have paralysis by analysis? I don't I don't have that. But let me ask you this. Have you narrowed your target market down to a very specific group of people that you're going to sell to? Do you know exactly who your client is? Or is it just anybody who owns a home in Columbia, Missouri, that's not a target market prints. That's a lot of people. It's a lot of people. It can't be anyone who owns a business. Now, there's lots of different businesses out there, you're going to have to get more specific, if you are not allowing yourself to narrow it down to something that is also a form of paralysis by analysis, you are experiencing FOMO, it's really what it is. You're like the little kid who won't go to bed because they're afraid they're gonna miss out on something, but you are missing out on something, you're missing out on the ability to authentically have a communication with your audience, through your marketing. And in your service, you're missing out on the ability to hone in on what you do and do it really, really well, because you do it for a very specific client. That's a powerful thing. That's a thing that can make you a lot of money and make you very happy. Because your life isn't overly complicated. Unless you want it to be overly complicated. Some people just like complicated things in that school. If that's you, then that's great. I find a lot of people to though they they like complicated things. And so they just keep doing different things all the time. That is another form of paralysis by analysis, because you're always doing something different. It's very difficult to be effective. When you're constantly doing something new. It can be fun, but it's difficult to be efficient. While you're learning something, you're not honing the skill, right? So that's just another form of FOMO. Right? And it's okay to get specific. So if you're doing a whole bunch of things, ask yourself why. When I used to do a whole bunch of things in my business, it was because I was not marketing the right way. I wasn't talking about my business the right way. I wasn't projecting myself the right way. I didn't say this is what I do. That's not what I did. I said, Oh, yeah, I do all these things. And somebody so I was letting people come to me and suggest what my business should do. And after running it that way, for like seven years, I said, they shouldn't get to decide what I do. Your clients should not get to decide what you do. You should get to decide what you do. And by allowing them to decide what you do, you are entering into a form of paralysis by analysis because you're afraid of missing out you're afraid of that you're not going to have this work in the future. If you don't do what's given to you now. They don't get to decide what you do. You do my friends. You totally do. Okay. So, if you're in the middle of these things, ask yourself what's holding you back? Why do you care? keep doing everything, challenge yourself to be present. And to make a decision about what you want to project in your business, what services you want to do. So sometimes you learn what services you want to do, through like straight up pain, right? You do a project, and you're like, that was the worst thing ever. I never want to do that again. So then the next time that somebody asks you to do it, you need to not do it again. Monica Pitts 10:26 So be true to yourself. Don't let them decide what you do you get to decide what you do. Ask yourself, what's the worst thing that could happen? If you let that client go? If you didn't work on that project anymore? If you didn't do that work? What's the worst thing that could happen? Would it mean that maybe you had more time to do other work that you really like? See, that's the decision that we have to make. we're analyzing all these things. Oh, my goodness, oh, my goodness, I don't really know. There's so many options, I could do all these things. Instead, I challenge you to look at the stuff that you like, make a list of it and focus on those things. This is what I do. I had someone call me just today. And they were like, Hey, will you help me with this thing with my website? And I said, No, not if it's like this, if it's like, a guy cuz I don't I don't do that type of thing with a website, I do another type of thing with a website and explain to him what I would do and what I wouldn't do. And I felt bad about it. Because I know that they just want somebody that can they can trust to help them with their website. But that's not how we build websites. We don't do them that way. We do it another way. And I'm going to hold true to that, right? I'm not going to analyze all the different ways that I could build websites for people and let people pick the way that I build a website for them. No, I build websites on WordPress. And that's the type of website I'm going to build for you. Right? That's it, this is all I do. And there's a power in that, right? Because then when people want that thing, they know that you're the person that they can go to, by not picking it, you're holding yourself back, because you can't become an expert in this thing. You can't really sharpen your skills and become efficient at it. Right? And instead, you're analyzing all these different ways in you're doubting, you're doubting yourself, and you're doubting your ability to make a decision. So stop analyzing and take action. Make a list? Dang, I love lists my mom, we're trying to make a couple of decisions in our family right now. And she's like, well, Monica, you know how you make decisions, honey, you need to make a list. Okay? So here's the list I want you to make. If you are not satisfied with the type of work that you're doing, I want you to write down the things that you do every day. And I want you to circle the ones that you like, and cross or the ones that you don't like, Yep, those are the ones that you don't want to do any more. That's okay, you don't have to do them, you don't have to do them. Because when you stop doing them, you're actually creating opportunity for you to do something else, and more of what you like. And that's great. If you don't like some of your clients right now, if some of them are just sucking the life after you, then you can use the list strategy to work through that to on one side of your piece of paper, write down the folks that you like work like working with. And then on the other side of the paper, write down the folks that you don't like working with. And what you're going to look for here are similarities between those clients, what do they have in common is that the type of service that you're offering, maybe you just don't like the service. They might be in similar industries, they could have similar communication styles, there's all kinds of different things that might make you like working with a company or not with a company. Like for example, we really like working with companies for our for full service products that have a marketer on staff. If you have a marketer on staff, you're actually a great person for us. Because that means you have somebody whose full time job is focusing on this website and getting it done. And we're gonna work back and forth very efficiently with them. And we're going to get this project done. Now, when we work with a solopreneur, that's a lot harder because you are doing your whole job. And you have to be responsible to all the different components that go into your website and all the meetings for your website with us. That can be difficult it it can often lead to delays because your full time job is usually more important to you than the website that we're building for you. And for those folks, we offer another service. We have our better than DIY website program where we teach them to build their own website that they can do at their own pace on their own time, or go through it live with us for our five week program. So just going through that that activity is a powerful thing. We did it. Eight years ago, it may create and it was crazy. Like we really did notice that we liked working with that medium sized company that we liked working with people in education. We liked working with nonprofits and we liked working with construction companies for our done for you services. They are great for us. They were the best class Hands that we had. And it's because they were willing to be guided through the process step by step. And they weren't constantly fighting us. We had a lot of challenges when we worked with super creative people. And I know that sounds crazy, but super creative people that don't like going through a process, they want to invent the process as they go through it. So when we had clients who were interior designers, or salon owners, we were like, okay, friends, this is not our first rodeo, we've built hundreds of websites, this is the process that we're going to go through. And they were like, no, we want to do it this way. And we were like, This is so hard, we've got a team of people, we can't just switch it up all the time, we can be flexible, but doing it completely differently. Doesn't make sense, right. Monica Pitts 15:46 So if you find yourself stuck, and unable to move forward, or unhappy, it may be because you suffer from paralysis by analysis. It might be it might be an n if you do suffer from that. Just remember that not making a decision is an option. You don't have to stew in it. But if you decide not to make a decision, then you need to ask yourself, what will happen if I don't make a decision. You also need to ask yourself, What is the worst thing that could happen if you made the decision and what's the best thing that could happen if you made a decision. So that way, you can weigh out those two options, and make sure that you're making one that's really right for you. And remember that if you're doing too many things at once, because you're afraid you're gonna miss out on an opportunity, you're actually suffering from this as well. And you can narrow it down and simplify what you do. And it will be easier for you to move forward and become even better at what you're doing. You know that you can make lists, you know that I make lists, and my mother tells me to make lists. And so now my mother is telling you to make lists. And you can list out the things you like to do what you don't like to do the clients you like the clients you don't want to work with anymore. And then you just need to be brave enough to be able to take that next step. Because here's the deal, my friends, remember that good leaders can make decisions, they can. It's what makes you strong. It's your confidence in yourself to be able to take that baby step forwards, even though you don't have every single thing that you need to be able to make your decisions. Because you will never have all the information that you need to make a decision. Never. Because you haven't had that experience, yet. You have it. And it doesn't matter how many podcasts you listen to, or how many blog posts you read or how many courses you go to, you're never going to have all the experience because you're you and you only have the experiences that you have. And when you make a decision, you know you do you create an opportunity for yourself to have another experience so that way you have even more information to make your next decision with okay. Monica Pitts 18:00 There isn't really a wrong decision. There isn't. There's only paralysis by analysis, which is keeping you stuck. Okay. Not all your decisions need to be made based on things that have happened in the past. And your clients don't need to make those decisions for you. You get to make them right, you do. Okay, so hopefully, with this piece of advice, however simple it may be, and my mother's intelligent words about making lists. You guys can take one baby step, or help someone else take one baby step towards conquering paralysis by analysis. You deserve the fence. Okay, my brother deserved that fans. He just never could put it up. Never could. But you can. You can. And then you don't have to freeze your butt out when you're letting your dog out in the middle of the night. And that would be amazing, wouldn't it? Yeah, you're one decision away from that. Okay. All right. Monica Pitts 18:59 So, thank you so much for hanging out with me today. If you enjoyed this episode, or if you learned a thing or two, we have more for you. You can binge listen to all of them, it would be so exciting. Or you could also leave me a review. Because when you do that you like signal to the podcast gods that I'm cool. And then they will tell more people about me when they search for stuff that I talk about. And it would mean that I get to meet more people just like you and I can help them make decisions and go forth and mark it with purpose, which is a pretty powerful thing. And that's what I'm after right now. Now, if you're interested in our web design services, or if you want to check out more solutions and resources, we have a website. Oh yeah, we do because we're web designers. And you can check it out at mayecreate.com. Maybe I'll see you over there. And until next time, go forth and mark it with purpose. Transcribed by https://otter.ai