“What’s the shortest distance to done?”
Since I incorporated this question into my workflows, and it’s been a huge unlock.
When you have an awesome idea (and as entrepreneurs, we have tons on a daily basis), it’s critical to have a system to turn those ideas into reality.
But the issue is ideas are both incredibly fragile and full of potential.
So we simultaneously self-sabotage (to protect our fragile ideas) and overcomplicate (our well-intentioned attempt to help our ideas reach their full potential).
But this prevents us from taking meaningful action to bring them into the world.
We endlessly theorycraft about what this single idea could turn into—like we’re trying to create the next Disney. “Oh, we could do merch, we could do these multiple media platforms, here are some awesome collaboration and licensing deals we could do, here’s how we could upsell for a mastermind, this piece could become a book, here are places we could pitch to do trainings to…” on and on until you’ve built out a phenomenal (and complicated) business plan.
Because everyone wants the v10 of their business. But few are willing to launch a shitty v1 and iterate.
But you can’t get to v10, or even v2 without first launching v1.
So finding the shortest distance to done is critical to actually launching your v1.
In business terms, think of this as your MVP GTM strategy—what is the minimal viable go-to-market strategy?
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Here’s a Recent Example From My Business:
I’ve created courses on how to build a values-aligned life and business (based on coaching frameworks I use with private clients) and how to build a coaching business (my own lessons learned the hard way and what I wish more people talked about).
But I haven’t talked much about how I’ve attracted legitimately life-changing opportunities like working with world-renowned clients like Ali Abdaal, gotten on major podcasts like Modern Wisdom with Chris Williamson and Smart Passive Income with Pat Flynn, become an invited contributor to major publications like Psychology Today, and much more.
I developed an approach to do this, I’ve helped people implement this privately, and I’ve watched several friends adopt this approach with incredible results.
So recently, I decided to do a workshop teaching people the art of what I call Permissionless Writing.
It’s based on a concept from Jack Butcher that’s changed many people’s lives, called the “permissionless apprenticeship.”
Basically, stop waiting for permission to do something.
Butcher’s original concept of the permissionless apprentice was about taking control of your own education.
How?
By apprenticing under people who were at the top of their industries.
But instead of asking for permission to formally apprentice under them, you study what’s already available:
- their lessons learned
- their journey
- their habits
For example, you don’t have to hope Warren Buffet agrees to take you under his wing and teach you what he’s learned—you can just study what he’s shared, read books on him, and dive into his life history right now, without needing to ask permission.
I realized, “You mean I don’t have to wait for someone to give me permission to do something? I can just…do it???”
After experiencing the power of the permissionless approach, I took this concept and applied it to not just LEARNING from others, but TEACHING others what I already knew.
I became a Permissionless Writer.
So after four years of building my own business as a writer, coach, and course creator—I decided to run a workshop to pull back the curtain on the exact process I’ve used to attract life-changing opportunities.
It’s especially powerful for entrepreneurs who offer a service (coaching, consultation, marketing, copywriting, etc.) who want to leverage content to:
- generate leads
- showcase their expertise
- and attract opportunities most people only ever daydream about
Sounds cool, right? And this has tons of potential to become a fully robust course (whether it’s self-paced, a live course, a community with feedback and live trainings, etc.).
So I spun up a landing page on Luma for the event.
But I quickly ran into an issue…
Because it has so much potential, I started to overcomplicate it.
“Oh, I should redo this on Kajabi so I can make a more robust landing page with tons of fancy copywriting, images, case studies, and other goodies.”
Then I realized doing this would complicate everything without much of an ROI.
I would’ve had to build everything from scratch. I’d have to use Kajabi for landing page and checkout, then use ConvertKit for all the email marketing stuff, which would involve finagling a bunch of automations, tagging, and segmentations in ConvertKit, then figure out a way to make Kajabi and ConvertKit to play nicely together.
Instead, I asked myself:
What am I actually trying to do here? What is the shortest distance to done?
Answer:
I’m trying to spin up a workshop. The shortest distance to done is to use whatever gets the offer up today. That means using Luma for this first workshop.
If people want a more robust training like a course or live cohort, then I’ll build it out based on demand.
But that’s v2.
I can’t get to v2 until I launch v1.
And the most effective way to launch v1 is to find the shortest distance to done.
So I kept it on Luma, even though it’s not as “fancy” as I’d prefer.
Side Note: You can check out the Luma registration page for the Permissionless Writing Workshop here.
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Identify Your Shortest Distance to Done
Think of the thing you’re currently trying to build, or the next thing you’d love to build.
What’s the shortest distance to done?
Don’t get trapped theorycrafting about all the things you could do or all the potential it could might maybe have one day.
Don’t get so caught up planning and ideating that you never actually take action.
Ask yourself:
What am I actually trying to do? What’s the shortest distance to done?
Because you’re not rewarded for what you know—You’re rewarded for what you do.
So get to doing by finding the shortest distance to done.
Read Next: How to Stop Procrastination (and The Psychology Behind Why You Do It)
