00:00:25Welcome to the third pedal, podcast recorded at the Vandal Lounge. In beautiful Southeast Portland, Oregon, why the third title because even the most badass entrepreneurs gets stuck up and Business Management. Consultant, Jennifer McFarland is your third paddle, helping you get unstuck.

00:01:32Places, Jen. And I was like, I wasn't a troublemaker and then I reflected on that and I thought, okay, maybe I thought about it, one of the pieces of working with me means that I ask questions because and it could be why I enjoy podcasting is that I love asking questions and I will ask questions even to at times my own detriment because the answers to those questions sometimes are what lead to the biggest breakthroughs. And so curiosity is a huge component to my own business, and I believe also to serving my clients because if you don't ask the hard questions, then you don't get to the Hard Answers. And in the Hard Answers, is where we find new ground break, and we actually can create snow in the case of Technology. That's how you build that long-term sustainable solution that makes you different from, you know, your competitors and other people around you before you

00:03:26Why do you put up barriers? Whether it's asking yourself more questions or in the case of a large company? Why do you put up barriers to your employees asking more questions? Is it? Because the questions may lead to answers that you don't like, is it? Because the questions may lead to actions that you need to take that scare. Are you, is it? Because the status quo is really working out that well, or do you really just not want to deal with it?

00:04:59What can you do to find people who will ask questions and make you create for help you create a learning environment? Because Innovation comes from Curiosity. Innovation didn't come from sitting around doing the same thing over and over again, Alexander Graham Bell, didn't sit around and say, okay. Everything's great.

00:05:26And you might as well. I'm not an inventor Chen. I don't really need to be that curious. And the truth is no, you don't have to be that serious. But you have to be curious enough to serve your public. Give me curious enough to innovate so that you can stay, you know, Pace with all of your competitors. If not one step ahead. You have to be curious enough to know that when those hard problems come, you don't just step off to the side and avoid it entirely.

00:06:57Right, that's one aspect of it is a little bit of reflection. But to me, the more important aspect of curiosity is when it shows you something, sometimes the step isn't actually to reflect on it and sit on it and sit with it, encourage you to listen to the next segment, which is about imperfect action. Because curiosity is one thing, you can look at something and realize that something needs to change. But if you don't act on it, it's just an idea on a piece of paper. It's just something that you were curious about.

00:07:54And then listen to the next segment, which talks about in Perfect action, because if you get curious, and then wait for the right time at right, time is never going to come.

00:09:06Perfectionism is the doctrine that the perception of moral character, constitutes a person's highest good. It means that we have to be perfect in order to be our highest. Good. Think about that for a minute. It's a Doctrine.

00:09:32The theological doctrine that is state of freedom, from sin is attainable on Earth, but I've committed a few sins and I don't know anybody that hasn't. So that's the other definition of perfectionism. The third one listed here is a disposition to regard. Anything short of perfection as unacceptable. And I think this is the one that most of us lived in right affection, isn't means. I don't want to do anything unless I do it the right way. And by saying that, by saying that we will only do it if it's done, quote, the right way, what we're doing is actually saying there's only one, right way. I only want to do it that one, right way. If I can't do it, that one right way. I'm not going to do it at all.

00:10:38And yet over and over, and over again in business. And in life, we decide there's only one, right way to do things and then we only do it that one right away or worse. Yet. We take no action at all out of fear. And so there's an alternative to that and when I first started my career, when I first started this mission to check I mean even in the last handful of years, I was always striving for Perfection ISM for that. Perfectionist, point of view, if I couldn't do it, the way that I wanted it done. I just wouldn't do anything.

00:11:28Because of her sitting around, doing nothing for sitting around, talking, about all the things, all the hopes, all the dreams, all of that, but we're not doing anything about it. We're actually choosing to sit on the sidelines and not play the game, whatever that game, maybe and yet there's another way, and it's a way that I am. As a perfectionist occasionally, I still wrestle with it and yet more and more, and more and more. I'm comfortable with it. I'm more comfortable with taking imperfect action than I am with sitting on the sidelines, because if I don't just get out there and do something, then somebody else is going to do it and I'm going to miss my opening kind of miss my space.

00:13:12You may not even know how to get there. You just know that if you start doing something, you'll figure it out.

00:13:37Pursuing your dreams pursuing. Your business ideas isn't always about doing it the right way. It isn't always about doing it one way. It isn't always about doing it. The rich way, with the lavish budget and all the bells, and whistles. Sometimes it's actually just about getting started and see the biggest problem with perfectionism in business is that it prevents you sometimes often times from getting started at all.

00:14:11I want you to really consider how much you're helping somebody else.

00:14:28It's so much easier to say. I have to do a plan. I have to do this. I have to do that so much easier to put up obstacles than it is to get started.

00:14:44Imperfect action, is better than perfect inaction. So that's like all those ideas. He ever written down in your desk that you're not taking action on. You'd be better off just starting just doing something and it's scary, right? Because the minute you start taking those imperfect actions the minute you decide. I'm going to go ahead and start that business. I'm going to go ahead and start speaking. I'm going to go ahead and do that podcast or write a blog or actually just start writing that book that have thought about for years. The minute you do that. You're out of your comfort zone, right?

00:16:10I know that I'm counting on you to take that leap of faith, and I really hope that you will.