Getting a business started, creating a blog, offering a service, or doing something that’ll put you “out there” in front of people often brings up a sense of, “why me?” or “who am I to do this, it’s already being done by ________.” The truth is, there’s almost nothing anyone can or will do that’s completely new. The truth is, that what’s new about what each of us will do is our own take on that thing, that work, that topic. Our unique experiences and perspective make us who we are, and, in turn, make the work we do unique, and worth sharing. So, why not you?

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Build a Badass Business: Episode # 24: Why not you?

Coming to you straight from her basement home office in suburban New Jersey, this is Build a Badass Business with Diane Sanfilippo. Diane is a New York Times bestselling author and serial entrepreneur. She’s here to teach you how to grow and develop a successful business you love, and how to create raving fans along the way. Here she is, your host: Diane Sanfilippo.

Diane Sanfilippo: Hey guys, welcome back to the show. It is 9:41 here in Grand Junction, Colorado, and we’re on the road, moving, driving from New Jersey to San Francisco, and it’s no excuse for me to not create some podcasts for you guys, because creating consistent content, or consistently creating content is a huge thing that I want all of you to take away from what I’m doing with this show. For me, committing to consistently creating content, there’s 4 C’s for you, that’s been something that, for me, is definitely a motivator and I think creating that accountability outside of yourself, even if it’s just to one person who is reading your blog, or a couple of people who are interested in your product or service, it makes a difference.

I’ve talked a few times before; I’m not sure if I’ve talked about it a bunch on this show. I know I’ve talked about it over on the Balanced Bites podcast, about Gretchen Rubin’s podcast, Happier, which I love and I love her work and her research talking about different tendencies that people have. And some people really do better when they create rules and requirements and things that they have to do, and they decide upon it themselves. Some people really do well when the responsibility is to someone else. Someone else is expecting something of you; you’ve told someone you’ll meet them, etc.

So for me, I do find that the balance of my own commitment to this show is there, but also because I‘ve told people. I told you guys, Mondays and Wednesdays. So that is my commitment.

So today’s show is actually not even about consistently creating content? What was the 4th C? I forget what the first fourth C is already {laughs}. But actually today’s episode, I want to talk about this concept of why not you? Why not me, why not you? Why not anyone?

What I mean by that is, you guys know me, I think a lot of you know me from the health and nutrition realm, and you’ve seen my work, and you’ve seen what I’ve done in the last, maybe 5 years, but you really don’t know the back story and where it all comes from. And I did talk to Scott about this recently; my fiancé, for those of you who don’t know, how I think it would be really cool for us to both kind of sit down and write out what have our stories been, between just life experiences and careers and different things that have gone on that had contributed to where we are today, and what kind of work we’re doing.

But I think that there’s this element that everyone feels; well, there’s already this many people doing this type of work, or this person is doing it better, or I don’t want to make it seem like I am copying this person. You know, somebody recently wrote a comment on my Facebook wall, just saying, well I want to do what you do, but I don’t want to copy you. And I said, well, my reply was, you’re not me, so what you do can’t copy me. You can’t be me, because you’re not me; so why not you? Why not you create this thing that’s similar but different. Every element of who you are leading up until the point where you start this new thing; maybe it’s a blog or a business or a product, whatever it is, you have a different life experience, you have a different perspective, and that alone creates something totally different.

So let me give you some perspective on this; if I had moved forward in my life, and if I had this concept of, well it can’t be me. I’ve always had this feeling of, I could do that. If I want to, I could do that. And of course, there are plenty of things that I don’t want to do. I don’t want to be an Olympic athlete. It was a conversation I had with a personal trainer years and years ago, and he’s like, you know, we could train you and you could become this or that. And I was like, hmm, I don’t think I want to do that. {laughs}

But what if I had said that about what I was doing with health and nutrition and the way that I approached writing a book? I don’t think most of you would even be here listening to this show. I think probably a lot of you would have found the show anyway if I came to this point where I wanted to talk about business and marketing, and you found the show through iTunes, etc., but I think a lot of you listening probably know my work with Practical Paleo, which is the number one selling paleo book that there is. So what if I had seen Loren Cordain’s book, and Mark Sisson’s book, and Robb Wolf’s book, and Sarah Fragoso’s book, and any other book that came before mine. Now granted, there weren’t that many, all things considered, compared to how many there are now, there weren’t that many.

I liken it to the way vegetarianism maybe was 30 years ago, or so, or 20 years ago, when it was kind of a new concept, and the people who were writing the books then, they were pretty lucky. That was a new thing, and people were just learning about it. Now, there are hundreds and hundreds, if not probably thousands of vegetarian oriented books and cookbooks. People were coming into the paleo scene in terms of writing books now are feeling; oh, it’s overwhelmed, there are too many books.

And maybe there are. Maybe there are a lot of books out now. That being said, there are still books coming out on the vegetarian diet, or vegan diet, or plant based. So who’s to say that in another 10 or 20 years, it won’t still be valid to put out your perspective on something else.

So backtrack to; I had seen these other books that came out, but I knew that I had something different to say. I knew I had a different perspective, I knew that I had my own unique experience and education, and just my desire to share information in a different way. Not only verbally in the words that I was putting on the pages, but visually. And that’s something that I just knew that I had something different to say. I think what probably stops more people is not that you don’t have something unique to say, not that you don’t have that perspective, but it’s just that fear.

So going back to a couple of the earlier episodes we did on this show, talking about fear, there’s something that’s stopping you even though you know you have something inside you that’s unique and different to offer. So figuring out how to get around that hurdle and just get started, and just dig into the thing that you feel you have to share.

Ok, so why not you? Why not you to write another paleo cookbook? Why not you to start a business where you’re making food for people, that’s a certain nutritional outline? Why not you to, heck, move across the country? Why not you to start coaching people and help them through something that maybe you’ve already been through?

There are a million things; it doesn’t matter what business, what idea, what concept, what service, what product you have on your mind, there is no reason why you can’t be a person who can do that and get it started and help other people with it. The background here is really that if you have a motivation for it, and a passion for it, and experience doing something that will contribute to you being able to serve others with whatever that thing is, then why not you? And why the heck are you not doing it? Because if you’re holding back and you’re not putting out there what this thing is that you have inside you that can help other people, what are you doing here? We have limited time.

For those of you who follow me on social media; Instagram, Facebook, etc., I shared a post earlier today, which as you’re getting this episode it will have been yesterday if you’re listening to it on Monday. My grandmother passed away today. She was very old, and lived a very long life filled with a lot of love, and there’s just so much that a death kind of brings up and bubbles up, and I think if there’s nothing else that comes from realizing how fragile life is, and it’s funny because I always think, life is short, do this, do that. My mom always says, life is long, Diane, you have time, etc. And I love the optimism in that, but I also know that there are tragedies that happen, and we never know how much time we have here. I do think that there’s no reason to waste time.

So whatever that thing is that you’re thinking, well not me, I can’t do that, or I shouldn’t do that, nobody wants to hear that from me, or that’s not what I’ve done before and people will laugh or they’ll say I can’t do it, or whatever it is. There’s really no time to waste. It’s pointless to sit and think, I can’t, or I shouldn’t, or I won’t, or they won’t like it, or they won’t like me, or they won’t support this, whatever it is that’s getting in your way. If there’s something you want to do, do it. Or make a plan, and do it.

I talk about this stuff a lot where, of course if you’re single, and you don’t have a family, you don’t have children, there are things that are a lot easier to do than if you do have all of those commitments. But I absolutely still cannot stand for people who say that the family, the job, the current job, whatever it is as a reason for them to not do something. I think that for those of you who are parents; I’m not a parent, and I’m absolutely not passing any judgment, or saying that I know what it’s like to be in your shoes. I am going to say this as an experience from being a child who has seen what my parents did in their lives, and how that affected me, and what I’ve seen in other people, grown adults, who had different experiences with their parents.

But my parents, they loved what they did. They never complained about it. My mom was a school teacher, she had summers off. I never once heard her complain about her job, and she loved it. She just loved it. She loved working with kids, she loved doing what she did, and she’s retired now. My dad, he worked in sales pretty much his whole life. He was selling transmission parts for a company, and he traveled a ton, which is funny because I kind of see myself in both of them. I got to this point where I’m teaching, and I also travel a ton and meet a lot of people and know people all over the place. They both did the thing that they wanted to do.

I don’t know if there are other kind of bubbling passions or interests that they had, but I do know that they were content and did not complain about whatever it is that they were doing. And from my perspective, they loved what they did. So whether it’s move on and do something new or make a plan to do something new, which that might include taking classes, getting a certification, doing something on the side at night, starting a blog a little bit here and there whenever you can, any of that stuff. All of it makes sense, all of it needs to start happening as soon as possible.

And if you’re already starting your business, then this should just serve as motivation to keep doing it, and not let somebody who is doing something similar or ahead of you on some imaginary path of success or track of whatever we all need to be doing. None of that matters, because it’s just totally irrelevant. Somebody will always be ahead of you. Somebody will always be behind you. Somebody will always have done it first. There’s nothing that’s totally brand new, except you and your perspective, and your experiences, and what you bring to that thing, and the live that you bring to it, and the way that you approach it, and the passion and energy that you put behind it.

You have something unique to offer; why not you? Why not you?

Hey guys, I’m so glad you’re loving the show. Let me ask you to do me a favor; come follow me on Periscope. You can find me; I believe you can search Diane Sanfilippo, or you can search @BalancedBites, which is my Twitter handle, which is the account link over on Periscope. I am going to start doing live sessions really quick thoughts for the day. I’m not sure if it I will be every day, but it will be pretty often, and some Q&A on business topics and motivation, inspiration, etc. So make sure you’re following me over on Periscope. Download the app in the app store, and I will see you there.

That’s all I’ve got for you guys today. Don’t forget to subscribe in iTunes so you don’t miss an episode. And drop me a review to let me know what’s speaking to you from the show. If you want to get in on the conversation and you haven’t yet joined the group already on Facebook, head on over there and join the Build a Badass Business group. I share insights and tips regularly, as well as answer your questions right there on the page. Do work that you love, and hustle to make your business grow like your life depends on it, because it does. Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you on the next episode.

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