What’s Your Step One?

I’m wowed. Bent double with giggles. Gleefully emboldened.

Yesterday, I asked readers to take a 5 minute survey giving me some input around three information product ideas I’m thinking of creating this Summer {some peeps call them knowledge products}, and telling me what’s been most valuable for you here on Abby Kerr Ink. As of the time I’m publishing this post, 42 awesome readers have taken the survey and 26 people have written thoughtful responses to the fill-in question at the end of the survey. Thanks! {If you haven’t taken the survey yet, I need your input, too! The survey’s live ’til midnight EST on Saturday, July 3rd. You can only take it one time, but if you think of additional thoughts afterward, please feel free to get in touch with me one-on-one!}

I’ve learned through this experience the beauty and power of surveying your right people to see where they’re at, what’s working for them, and what they need more of. After the survey closes, I’ll put up a post sharing some of the results and sharing what I learned with you so that you can try it out with your right people, too. What I’ve seen so far is that my readers ask such good questions and express such clear needs and interests around advancing their entrepreneurial dream. Makes me wish I’d chosen to collect names and email addresses in the survey. {Yeah, I could go back and edit it, but I’m just filing that away for next time.} Some of you signed your fill-in question, which I appreciate. You may be hearing from me personally! And I’m planning on creating new content for Abby Kerr Ink around some of your questions, including those free and paid info products that inspired the survey to begin with. So thanks for the feedback, the clarity, and the inspiration! And stay tuned over the next several weeks as I start to roll out new stuff!

Today I want to talk a little bit about figuring out where to start. I get emails from creative entrepreneurs who are ripe with ideas. Their emails to me go something like this: “I have a background in such-and-such and a passion for X, and I’m thinking I’d really like to do this and this and this, and ultimately, THAT, but I’m not sure where to start.”

So let’s talk about that first step. {It’s the hardest one, you know.}

Photo by Lachlan_Hardy courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons.

Creative entrepreneurs are idea people. Our problem isn’t figuring out what to do — because we’ve got ideas in spades — it’s more about figuring out how to do everything we want to do and do it as excellently as we can {oh, and still manage to squeeze some non-entrepreneurial pursuits in there, too, like staying in shape, playing with the family, and sleeping}. If this is you, I sooooo get you. There’s rarely a moment in the day when I’m not multitasking or looking for a way to add another layer of multitasking on top or underneath of what I’m already doing. I listen to professional development podcasts while I’m working out, occasionally taking a 30 second break to text myself an idea for a blog post or a product. I read eBooks while brushing my teeth and applying my nightly face gel. When I’m brainstorming phraseologie for a client project, I’ve got my favorite Pandora station pumping through my earbuds and I’m clicking between Facebook, Twitter, and my email Inbox in between idea spurts. I am almost always working, thinking about working, or planning for working. {Fortunately, I love the “work” I get to do.}

In other words, I have no need for uppers.

And admittedly, very often, I’ve oversaturated my intake filter to the point where I can’t see straight. {The coming down is tough, too. I’m someone who has to “force” herself to relax. Oxymoronic, I know.}

If you’re like me, your brain is daily toggling between lists of things you Want To Do {look into an autoresponder service for your e-newsletter}, Have To Do {file taxes}, and Need To Do {lose 20 pounds by September}. All of them are important. All of them would help you feel better about yourself and your enterprise. All of them — at least in some abstract way — would be good for your right people.

But where to begin?

First, acknowledge that you only need to see your Step One.

Your Step One is your step one. It may not be the same Step One buddy down the street took.

Step Ones are very personal. They’re triggered by the simplest realizations of what we really need to tap into the Place of Change.

For instance:

My office and my business-related reading has migrated into my bedroom, which is supposed to be my sacred, relaxing space for sleeping. Stacks of printed-out eBooks and magazines with dogeared pages have swallowed up the surface of my little writing desk, which is supposed to be a lovely, organized surface for two lamps and a candle. I’ve been ignoring this mess for weeks {months?}, letting it get a little worse by the day.

And then, yesterday, I picked a Step One. I laid down a new paper on the top of the pile for processing “later” and started to walk away. Then I stopped, turned around, picked up the paper and read it, realized it was nothing I needed to save, ripped it up, and threw it away. Step One completed. I simply stopped adding to the pile.

Step Two might be to sort every piece of paper on that desk into categories: save and file, read and take action, toss immediately.

Step Three might be to dust and wipe off the desk surface.

Step Four might be to put out a new candle and light it for the first time, signaling the completion of this little project.

But yesterday, and today, I’m content with Step One. That’s all for now. And tomorrow, maybe I’ll do Step Two.

This is a tiny little example but the concept is something you can apply to much bigger goals and desires.

You want to open your own shop? Maybe your Step One is calling up the owner of your favorite local boutique and asking if you can take her to coffee and pick her brain.

You want to create your first information product? Maybe your Step One is to make a list of everything you can think of that you’re an expert on, from running a freelance business from home while raising two toddlers, to growing herbs on your kitchen counter, to training for a bicycle race while you’re trying to lose baby weight. {Remember, lots of people don’t know jack about the stuff you know a lot about, and they’d love to know what you take for granted that you know.}

You want to figure out how to build a business online so you can quit your day job and work from anywhere on the globe? Maybe your Step One is to Google “location independent lifestyle” and bookmark the SERPs page so you can explore the sites while you’re drinking your coffee next Sunday morning.

All you have to figure out is your Step One. Step Two is for later. No need to get bogged down in that now.

In the comments, I invite you to share with me your Step One for the next great {even if small} thing you want to do. If the goal or dream feels too personal to divulge publicly, just sharing the step alone with no context is enough.

And if you haven’t yet taken my 5 minute survey, you know I’d love to hear what you’re thinking. Thanks in advance.