🖐 Happy Mercredi!

Issue #60 is a 3.0-minute read.

The Hardest Choice I Almost Never Made

People that are close to me say I focus on details.

That’s code for saying I have perfectionist traits.

Example:

I use 17.8 minutes on Sunday mornings to make French press coffee.

Grind 40 grams of coffee beans to a coarse-salt size and then let it sit tight for four minutes with 680 grams of 198-degree water.

Slowly, press down the filter and pour into a hot mug.

Add 3 ½ tablespoons of warm almond milk.

Sensational.

My attention to detail brings joy when it works and challenge when a project doesn’t go to plan.

I don’t recall the exact moment I settled on the idea that best > good.

My guess is that it was a certain sub-10 degree night in late December and 3.47 minutes after the doctor took off his blue mask to tell my mom, “It’s a boy.”

😀 From those early breaths, I was ga-ga for one path.

Taking a process and product from poor to pretty good to perfect.

Examples:

Did I need to spend 23 hours crafting the winning title for a new magazine at The Washington Post so the marketing gurus would hire me?

No. But I did, and they did.

Did I need to write 14 drafts of an application essay so the admissions team would grant me entry to that business school in Philadelphia?

No. But I did, and they did.

Did I have to build investment pitch books for free so I could ask clients which words, colors, and charts made them excited to improve their portfolio?

No. But I did, and... you know the rest.

Even with A+ results, the perfection path made me wonky and brought sleepless nights.

I put too bright a spotlight on the end result and wanted to make the process more fun.

So, I read dusty psychology books in cold libraries.

And I took quiet walks with my neighbor’s golden retriever, Bingo.

Who, by the way, has perfect 10 form when he leaps into a fresh pile of leaves.

I found the cure for the nasty P at 2:45 am after binge-watching five, 28-minute videos on YouTube.

The message brought calm to my tightrope walk on the perfection wire.

And it helped me make a difficult, wise choice.

One that took me from manic to moderate.

And the best part?

I used the magic fix to find new joy in building bold solutions.

That choice helped me grow a business from 0 clients to one of the most respected 5-star investment boutiques in the Southwest.

You’ll never guess who gave me the cure.

The Bob Ross Model to Find Joy in the Process

Bob’s calm style with brushes and paint whispers a key message:

How you create brings you more joy than what you create.

The bonus is that Bob’s model guides your ego along a softer path to let you build even more diverse, sensational solutions for your clients.

Here’s how you can apply Bob’s methods and hop over the perfection roadblocks:

Show your steps

• When Bob paints, you hear his mind at work and you see his choices take shape
  

• Bring your audience behind your curtain and show them how you turn ideas into answers

Pick your canvas

• Bob tells you the type of canvas he uses and the prep work he does for each painting
  

• Before you build your product, pick the right format: a digital course, .pdf download, live masterclass, digital community, etc.

Draw the outline

• Bob starts with the sky and light as he forms the shapes for his painting
  

• Create for your clients a graphic that shows your 100-foot approach to the big problem you’ll solve

Deliver on emotion

• Bob adds color, accents and shadow to every part of his scenes so that you feel the emotion within his art
  

• Add the unique traits of your offer so your audience can embrace the positive change you give them

Embrace imperfection

• Bob tells us its fine to start slowly; this gives you room to improve
  

• Build your products with a focus on how to do it vs. what it looks like and your end result will be more effective

P.S. Last night I started to craft a new offer for professionals who are itching to advance their 1-2 person business.

You’re going to like the end result. Stay tuned…

📢 Yesterday, a subscriber asked for a shout-out to the folks in Florida and other states that saw hurricane damage. Let’s send kind thoughts to them during these tough days.

Thanks for sharing this newsletter.

Stay curious and keep opening doors.

-Erik

P.P.S. If you dream of getting to $150K of sales, let’s do it!

When you’re set, here’s your custom, 90-minute consulting session to bring you there. Faster.