How to Start Your “Someday When” Project Now – In Just 7 Minutes with Kristin Swanson

Resources/Links:

• Check out Kristin’s Website: kristinswansonconsulting.com

Summary

Are you struggling to choose between whether you should do it or not? Do you end up constantly saying to yourself, “Someday when…” or “Soon…”?

Do you find yourself putting off your most important business growth and scaling initiatives until “someday”?

Face it, there is no right time. There is no ‘someday when’.

Kristin Swanson helps service-based entrepreneurs execute their ‘someday when’ procrastinate projects with ease. As a cancer survivor and Co-Active Coaches Institute trained Coach, Kristin has learned the importance of getting out of one’s own way and how to stop waiting until someday to make a unique impact. Realizing deeply that you only live once, she has gained perspective, tools, and strategies to overcome the illusions fear instils in us.

In this episode, Kristin explains how fear and that ‘someday when’ thinking can give us a life-long regret and missed opportunities. She also talks about the ways on how you can now start your ‘someday when’ projects and become open to change and progress.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 02:32 – Kristin’s ideal client: “My ideal client is thought leaders in the personal and professional development space that they know what they want to be doing to grow and scale their business and they’re just not doing it.”
• 03:07 – Problem Kristin helps solve: “What I help them with is to take consistent action regularly, and then that results in consistent revenue. So that’s kind of what drives them, right?”
• 03:52 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Kristin: “I think the biggest thing is, well, I mean, there is, like I said, that sort of roller coaster revenue, and then there is also like, you know, just knowing that you have the potential to be doing more and expanding your reach and touching more lives and that you’re not doing it.”
• 05:03 – Common mistakes that people make before they find Kristin’s solution: “I think the biggest one is like going full bore, like, “I’m going to do this thing” and just like taking, and it’s also kind of a bright, shiny object thing. So, like all or nothing or bright, shiny objects. So, going all the way like, okay, “So I want to increase my social media presence, so every day next week, I’m going to do you know, Facebook lives, and I’m going to do a post every day” and all of this, and then the next week, it’s like, silence.”
• 06:20 – Kristin’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): “I would encourage you to ask yourself, “What am I resisting in my business?” and take, like 15 minutes to take action on it every day. So, first thing in the morning, every morning, before you open your email, take calls, all of it, ask yourself, “What am I resisting?” Take action.”
• 07:42 – Kristin’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Check out Kristin’s Website: kristinswansonconsulting.com
• 08:26 – Q: How would I know that, like, maybe I should go to that website or follow her or learn more about what she has to offer? A: The answer is if you just have one little inkling in the back of your mind that there’s something that you want to be doing, that you’ve heard more than once than you actually might hear every day, this little voice that says, “I wish I was doing this.” then I would love to either speak with you or just check out my free resources.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Take action. Run towards the resistance because I believe that what you resist is like, that's like fear, basically, and it's stopping you.” -Kristin Swanson Share on X

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:09
Greetings everyone and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. As you know, I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you from Little Castaways Beach in Queensland, Australia, joined today by Kristin Swanson. Kristin, good day. A very warm welcome! Where are you hanging out right now?

Kristin Swanson 00:24
Hello, thanks for having me. I am in Seattle, Washington,

Tom Poland 00:28
Seattle, Washington, and you have actually- you drove past my place a few years ago. Tell folks where you travel to for your first date with your now-husband because this is a great story, first.

Kristin Swanson 00:40
I traveled all the way to Australia and went to Brisbane, where he was living, and then we went to the Whitsunday Islands and Sydney.

Tom Poland 00:49
For a first date!

Kristin Swanson 00:50
I know.

Tom Poland 00:51
I mean, how do you talk that? I don’t know. I think it’s a great story. What else you need to know about Kristin is that she helps service-based entrepreneurs like you because if you listen to this, it’s probably you. But she helps them execute their “someday when” procrastinated projects with ease, and we all know how those projects, that “someday when” I’m going to write a book, that “someday when” I’m going to launch this product, or “someday when” I’m going to- we all know how that can drift from week to week, to month to month, to year to year, to decade-decade, so she stops that. Now, what’s really interesting about the backstory with Kristin is that she’s a cancer survivor, and Co-Active Coaches Institute trained coach. So, she’s learned the importance of getting stuff done, getting out of your own way, and stopping the whole thing about waiting until someday to make this big impact or someday to get the big breakthrough or someday to get discovered or whatever. So, she’s realized, I believe at quite a deep level due to her experiences as a cancer survivor, that you only get to live once. She’s gained perspective. She’s created tools and strategies for all of us to help us overcome the illusion that fear often instils in us and these, in very small part, my words, but mostly hers, I think, electrifying stuff, Kristin. So, let’s get on with the show.

Kristin Swanson 02:18
Okay.

Tom Poland 02:19
Title for our little interview is, “How to Start Your ‘Someday When’ Project Now”, and Kristin is going to share with us how to do that in seven minutes. Kristin, our seven minutes starts now. Question number one is who is your ideal client?

Kristin Swanson 02:32
My ideal client is thought leaders in the personal and professional development space that they know what they want to be doing to grow and scale their business and they’re just not doing it. They have the ideas. It’s exactly what you said about that someday they’re going to start a podcast. They’re going to launch into a new line of business. They’re going to create an online course but they’re not doing it yet.

Tom Poland 02:54
Right and haven’t done for a while, but it’s been there in the back of their mind for quite a while. So that probably leads us quite nicely to question number two and six and a half minutes left. Define the problem you solve for these folks.

Kristin Swanson 03:07
Yeah, I mean, a lot of- in their words, a lot of times its procrastination. So, the putting it off, and so what I help them with is to take consistent action regularly, and then that results in consistent revenue. So that’s kind of what drives them, right?

Tom Poland 03:23
Right. Absolutely. And so, question three, and six minutes left. Someone listening to this, they’re thinking, “Yep, that’s me. I’m a service-based entrepreneur. There is definitely some big stuff I’ve been putting off, and I’m aware of that.” What are some of the other symptoms that they are going to be experiencing which kind of is going to give them a heads up, and they’re going to go, “Yeah, Wow. That’s happening in my business. This is happening in my life,” that will give them the clue that they need to listen up and reach out, maybe, get some help?

Kristin Swanson 03:52
Yeah, I think the biggest thing is, well, I mean, there is, like I said, that sort of roller coaster revenue, and then there is also like, you know, just knowing that you have the potential to be doing more and expanding your reach and touching more lives and that you’re not doing it. So, it’s almost like a- it’s like erosion of self-trust in a way, so you’re kind of frustrated with yourself each day that you didn’t get to that big thing that you know you want to be doing.

Tom Poland 04:19
Right. So, there’s a sense that they’ve got this gift that the world, their world will benefit from, but they haven’t got it out there yet.

Kristin Swanson 04:26
Yeah.

Tom Poland 04:26
So, frustration, lack of fulfilment, some of the symptoms, this- hmm, and this real burning desire, I’m sure, to make their part of the world a better place with their gift. So, that said, people are generally reasonably smart and their wanting to make their part of the world a better place, and they know they’ve got the problem. They’ve experienced in their systems of frustration or lack of fulfilment, and so on. They’re going to try stuff, right? So, question number four and four and a half minutes left appropriately, what are some of the common things that people try to overcome this procrastination to get stuff done that actually are mistakes, and they are the things that people should avoid?

Kristin Swanson 05:03
Yeah, I think the biggest one is like going full bore, like, “I’m going to do this thing” and just like taking, and it’s also kind of a bright, shiny object thing. So, like all or nothing or bright, shiny objects. So, going all the way like, okay, “So I want to increase my social media presence, so every day next week, I’m going to do you know, Facebook lives, and I’m going to do a post every day” and all of this, and then the next week, it’s like, silence. So, it’s this like, ‘start and stop’ thing. So, going full bore, instead of just like small chunks. Chunking away at it, like getting consistent to make it a habit, and then keep going and you know, maybe just 15 minutes a day, or whatever it is to just keep going steadily instead of this, like, all or nothing thing.

Tom Poland 05:49
So, you see what I love about this, is you’ve broken this down into from something that’s kind of mysterious, that we’re aware that is happening in our lives, but you’ve broken this down into a series of steps that could- that you can manage the whole thing. So that leads us, I think, to question number five, quite nicely, three and a half minutes left. Give folks one valuable free action they could take that’s- it’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it might take them a step in the right direction. What’s one thing they could do in the next 10 minutes or so that’s going to take them in that step in the right direction?

Kristin Swanson 06:20
Yeah, so I would encourage you to ask yourself, “What am I resisting in my business?” and take, like 15 minutes to take action on it every day. So, first thing in the morning, every morning, before you open your email, take calls, all of it, ask yourself, “What am I resisting?” Take action. Run towards the resistance because I believe that what you resist is like, that’s like fear, basically, and it’s stopping you, but if you break it down and have it just be like a 15-minute chunk, take action, even in the face of resistance, because it’s going to be hard, and keep doing that every day, and notice the results. And do that, like I said before you open your email like before everyone else gets a hold of your time, take charge of this project that you want to be implementing.

Tom Poland 07:08
I love the 15 minutes idea because it’s- in my mind, it’s automatically going, “I could do that. It’s for 15 minutes. I could set a timer or I could just 15 minutes.” And it has that whole good thing about the, you know, the genius the power, and the magic isn’t the styling of the thing, it’s the beginning of it. Okay, so that’s pretty cool.

Kristin Swanson 07:25
And that’s why people put it off is because they say like, “Oh, you know, I don’t have time”, “I don’t have the perfect podcast name”, “I don’t have the URL”, “I don’t have all the things, so I don’t even start.” But the truth is you can start small and you just take it and do a little bit of research, make one phone call, call a mentor, whatever you need to do.

Tom Poland 07:42
And there’s something in there about this magic of beginning the thing and starting and getting over the idea that we have to have closure necessarily. We don’t have to start and finish the whole frickin project in one head. So, question number six, there are two questions to go in 99 seconds. So, question number six is the valuable free resource we can direct people to. I’m going to give folk the answer to that one just for the second time. It’s Kristin, K-R-I-S-T-I-N, Swanson, as you would expect to spell Swanson, consulting.com. If you go there, folks, you’re going to be able to download the Make It Happen Planner. So, go grab that and make it happen. Leads us to question number seven, a whopping 63 seconds left, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Kristin Swanson 08:26
So, the question is, how would I know that, like, maybe I should go to that website or follow her or learn more about what she has to offer? And that is just- the answer is if you just have one little inkling in the back of your mind that there’s something that you want to be doing, that you’ve heard more than once than you actually might hear every day, this little voice that says, “I wish I was doing this.” then I would love to either speak with you or just check out my free resources.

Tom Poland 08:52
And the very fact that you’re even wondering whether you should go to the website is the answer. You should go to the website. And I so often find that’s the case, Kristin, and I wonder if I should? Yeah, I should. If I wonder I shouldn’t? No, I shouldn’t. So, the very fact that you have the question is indicative that you should get there, kristinswansonconsulting.com. And, Kristin, thank you so much for your time.

Kristin Swanson 09:14
Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Tom Poland 09:17
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.