New Beliefs New Results with Megan Chambers Leave a comment
PGSDer Megan Chambers is such a great example of everything I talked about in my 5-Part Personal Development Series. So I wanted to have her on the podcast to share her experience with you!
In this episode, Megan shares how shifting her perfectionist beliefs allowed her to create an influx of new clients without having to change her marketing strategy or working longer hours.
We talk about how Megan knew that perfectionism was stopping her business from growing and what that looked like for her (hello procrasti-learning). And we chat about Megan’s experience inside Perfectionists Getting Shit Done (aka PGSD) and how the program supported her to get to the next level in her business while also working a full-time job.
If you’re a perfectionist and you’re building a business, you want to listen to this episode today.
JOIN PGSD TODAY: The doors to PGSD are now officially open. Join us today by signing up at samlaurabrown.com/pgsd. Enrollment is closing strictly at 11:59pm EST on Friday, 6 February.
Featured In The Episode:
Listen To The Episode
Listen to the episode on the player above, click here to download the episode and take it with you or listen anywhere you normally listen to podcasts – just find Episode 587 of The Perfectionism Project Podcast!
Subscribe To The Perfectionism Project Podcast
FULL EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Introduction
Hi and welcome to another episode of The Perfectionism Project. A podcast full of perfectionism advice for entrepreneurs. My name is Sam Laura Brown, I help entrepreneurs release their perfectionism handbrake, so they can get out of their own way and build a fulfilling and profitable business. I’m the founder of the Perfectionists Getting Shit Done group coaching program, which is otherwise known as PGSD. And for even more perfectionism advice to help you with your business, you can follow me on Instagram @perfectionismproject.
Sam Laura Brown (Custom Introduction)
I cannot wait for you to listen to this episode. Okay, so I just interviewed, and you will listen to it in a second. I just interviewed one of our PGSDers, Megan chambers. She is a career coach. She is a perfectionist entrepreneur, and she joined pgsd in May of 2025, and I just wanted to get her on the podcast. I’ve been mentioning it on a few of the episodes that there is a PGSDer, and there are many, but Megan was just top of mind. There is a PGSDer who kept the same social media strategy, the same strategy for signing clients, and was able to get a dramatic difference in the number of clients that she has signed because of the shifts in her perfectionist thinking, because of the ways that she has personally developed using the PGSD process and the tools that we teach, power Planning, Growth Goal, clean rest the coaching calls. I’ve coached Megan on a lot of the different coaching calls and in the pgsd forum, and she has been able to get different results from keeping the same strategy that she had before pgsd and not working harder, not adding in more posts.
She post on LinkedIn four times a week, and I just think it’s such a great example of the influence that the thinking you have while you’re taking action, how much that impacts the results that you get from that action, and how when you shift the way you’re thinking, when you create safe visibility for yourself, to show up online, when you have belief fuel so when you’re convicted about what you’re doing and who you help, what you offer. Megan’s a coach, but a lot of our PGSDer, aren’t a coach. So no matter what you offer, if you have those shifts, if you’re able to make momentum decisions, we talk about decision making within this episode, and you have the tools of the growth goal and power planning and clean rest to support you with flexible structure that works for your perfectionist brain and gives you clarity and also allows you to be connected to your goals and to your week and the reality of your week, like and also having clean rest Megan talks about that at the end, and the fuel that provides for her as well.
So I really just wanted to get her on the podcast and share about all the wins she’s had since signing up for PGSD. She started as a podcast listener and listened for a while, and was the classic procrasti-learner that I’ve talked about on this podcast before. I know about that because that was also me in the beginning, that I just was really in this belief of like, if I can just get all the right information and the right knowledge and make the right decisions, then I will be successful. And in this episode, we talk about how you have to approach business instead, so that you can actually get momentum and get traction. Megan was really in this mindset of, I just need to get everything right. And that was making her content stale. Who meant she wasn’t actually selling in her content, and when we cleaned up the thinking, she just started getting such different results without having to work harder. And I love it so much. So I hope you enjoy this episode with PGSDer, Megan chambers.
Oh, and before we get into it, actually, I do want to mention that pgsd is open for enrollment currently. So if you resonate with what Megan has shared in this episode, or you’re about to hear and if you want to be inside pgsd, which if you’re a perfectionist entrepreneur, you do want to be inside pgsd, to get out of your own way to personally develop so that your business can finally grow to have the support the structure lifetime access to it as well, which is insane. So you want to be inside pgsd, we only open for enrollment a few times a year. So go to samlaurabrown/pgsd. I will link it up in the show notes as well. So you can go there and sign up today and get yourself inside. You get instant access as soon as you join. And enrollment will be closing strictly at 11:59pm eastern time on Friday, February 6. So you want to get yourself inside before doors close. And I hope this interview with Megan really just helps you to see how how helpful pgsd is going to be for you, if you resonate with what I talk about on this podcast, as Megan did before she was a PGSDer and we really want to have you in our community and to be able to support you. Is to grow and to implement all of the things that you’ve learned already about business and social media and just all of it. You’re a smart person, you’re intelligent, but you’re not able to take action currently because of your perfectionist thinking. And we’ve got you. We have the solution. It’s inside pgsd, so I want to invite you in. I hope to see you inside before we close enrollment. And I hope you enjoyed this episode with Megan.
Sam Laura Brown
Hi, Megan, welcome to the podcast.
Megan Chambers
Thanks, Sam. So glad to be here. Very much looking forward to this.
Sam Laura Brown
So let’s just dive in and start with how you realized you are a perfectionist. When did that come up for you?
Megan Chambers
Oh my gosh. I mean, it’s a lifelong realization. I think, as for many of us in PGSD, I probably would have identified as a perfectionist in high school. I’m in my 30s now. I think finding your podcast, though, maybe about two ish years ago was when I maybe started to actually see and identify how those patterns were actually showing up in my life and as ways of thinking, I was always the straight A student. I loved sports, so I just like to be good at everything, and that was a big form of safety for me. I just Yeah, found a lot of joy and pride in doing my best getting the A and I’m still like that in a way, which is why I’m part of our community. But a big part of my perfectionism also came with a lot of stress, a lot of worry, a lot of anticipatory preparation and over preparation. And so I think in a lot of ways, my perfectionism served me well, right, and especially in the academic setting, right? That was rewarded. But in my personal life, and as I decided to grow a business and start a business, I realized that those patterns were not helping anymore. So that I think again, I can’t really pinpoint one specific moment when I was like, Oh my gosh, this is me, but I think in particular, yeah, listening to the podcast for PGSD, I was like, Oh my gosh. There’s a whole other group of people that think like me, have the same struggles, and there’s actually a way through this, so I think that’s how I think of it now, at least looking back.
Sam Laura Brown
Okay, and tell me about when did you start your business? What year was that? And then what did perfectionism look like when you started your business and were in the first period of time with it like, whether it was the first did you have it for a couple of years before you sign up for PGSD?
Megan Chambers
I did, yes. So I’m a career coach. So my background is in career counseling. I work at a university here in Colorado, which I love, and I just love my work so much. And I started my business also as a career coach on the side. Outside of my full time work in 2020 when the pandemic hit, I was just working full time. Didn’t really have any intention of starting a business, but I had done a little bit of freelancing for career coaching and like, resume support while I was in grad school, and it was really good side money. And when I was working at the university and covid hit, a lot of people I knew in my network had gotten laid off or were dealing with professional changes because of the pandemic, and so I had suddenly a lot of people reaching out to me that just knew me socially or through family, to say, hey, my roommate just got laid off, or, you know, my cousin needs help with a resume.
And I just had all these people coming to me, and I thought I should probably make this legal if I’m going to accept money. So let’s you know, I agonized about creating my LLC like it took me five minutes. Probably thought about it for three months, four months, and it was, but it just the seeds were there to, you know, I always wanted to be creative through my business, and it was, you know, as I’ve grown since 2020, it’s been a really wonderful place for my own personal development and professional development. But in those first two years from 2020 in 2021, I really just, it was word of mouth. I really didn’t do anything actively. I have a very light website as a career coach. I’m on LinkedIn a lot, so I was just sort of posting ideas about career development, or just things I wanted to share, but wasn’t actively recruiting clients at all. And then in 2022 I thought, Okay, I’ve had some momentum just from people knowing me and word of mouth.
So like, what would happen if I actually tried? Like, what would happen if I actually started trying to build this as a real business, and worked with a business coach in 2022 in a group coaching program, which was really wonderful. And that kind of got me started thinking about, Okay, what’s my marketing for my business? And that’s what really got me on LinkedIn. But before we get into the posts, your question about kind of how perfectionism was showing up, I think I was. Really in the mindset of, if I do the right thing, then I’ll get clients. And so that really showed up in when I would post on LinkedIn, like agonizing over, did I write the right thing? Did I a big thing for me is trying to consider all things and by writing, so it was making my posts really long and really dense, and they weren’t really, they didn’t really have a an opinion, or, like, a point of view.
Because when I was writing, I was thinking about, like, is this following the formula that I just watched on YouTube? Or, you know, I was thinking about, how do I get people to like me? Like, how do I not make anyone mad and find clients with this post? And so I would just sort of write something so general that no one would have any reaction to it at all. And so I was really again, I think, focused on in my head. I was like, I’m trying to find clients. But when I look back now, I think a lot of my perfectionism was around trying to figure out, like I felt like there was a secret formula of like, if I just say the right thing in the right way at the right time, the clients will all just come rushing to me and love it, and it’ll all just be perfect, which I now see and have been gratefully changing that thinking. But yeah, it was really, it was really an interesting time to look back at now.
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, and that line of thinking that I know from experience, what it feels like to be in that like, it’s what we’re told in the world of business, as well as, like, if you just get the right messaging, like your only problem is you don’t have the right messaging. If you could just solve that, then you’ll be able to be successful if you just got the right niche. And there’s all this pressure on all these things, we end up as perfectionist with this idea that there’s all these pieces of the puzzle and I have to get every piece. This is the all nothing thinking, I have to get every piece just right for it to work. And that feels like such a smart and responsible endeavor and thing to solve. Like, okay, I’m a good student, as you said. Like, I get the A, a lot of our PGSDers myself. It’s like, I have this identity of I’m smart and I do well. So I’ve been told I just need to nail my niche in the messaging and post in this format and do it this way.
So if I can just figure that out how to do that. And as you said, while also trying to look good, sound smart, not have anyone not like us, watered down opinion, but still have someone be like that’s for me. It’s so hard when there’s trying to get it right, which is from that perfectionist thinking, plus there’s also this fear of being disliked. And when we are creating content, and there’s a lot of things we help with in PGSD, because most businesses, when you’re marketing, there’s now, for most people, social media, marketing of some sort, and especially if you’re the face of your business like you are, for you and for me, I am that it just brings up so many feelings that we want to be instead of just showing up and sharing something that people might not like, we want to polish everything. Get the words just like we want to feel like we’re doing a good job. We’re being smart about it, and we don’t want to get haters. We don’t want to get trolls.
Megan Chambers
We really don’t. It’s still hard. I’ll be honest, like it’s still hard, but yeah, but I wasn’t. I was writing with that in mind, with these imaginary haters preemptively. And what I also didn’t mention, too is that because I had that formulaic perspective in mind of, if I just have the right thing, it’ll work. I kept changing my approach on my LinkedIn posts like, all the time. Like, I would constantly, like, I bought, like, a LinkedIn, you know, creator course, I bought, you know, I was always on YouTube looking for, you know, here’s another way of, you know, structuring your LinkedIn marketing like I just kind of kept bouncing from, like YouTube video to course, to online article, and I wasn’t really even giving anything enough time to develop or to settle in. And so I just kept changing and then saying, Well, that didn’t work. Let me move on to something else, when, in reality, any strategy can work. It just there’s all again, the importance of our thinking going into it. So, yeah, it just was a it was it just always felt like there was something missing, and living with that felt frustrating. I would say it was great to see some, you know, I was able to still find some clients, but it didn’t feel super consistent. And I think actually my probably my best and most attractive post from the beginning of my business, when I didn’t know, and I didn’t know, and I was just sort of Yeah, from the heart. And like, writing from the heart, and, you know, wasn’t trying to come at it from an angle, but. It. It was, yeah. I learned a lot in the last four years of posting consistently, for sure.
Sam Laura Brown
And when we get in our heads, we just lose so much of this spark and connection that is what resonates with people, which is why a lot of people will have like, if, and not everyone. So anyone listening if this isn’t you sort of problem, but in the beginning, when you don’t really know what you’re doing, that you will have things resonate with people more, and then when you try and suddenly be strategic about it, like I’ve had this experience where I was like showing up and sharing stuff and not really knowing what I was doing. I was still like learning a lot of things and trying to figure that out, but I was just also just sharing. Then I really was able to gain an audience from doing that. But then when I got to a certain point further on in my business, I was like, okay, but now I have to be really strategic, and now I can’t just like, do that anymore, and this idea of what got you here won’t get you there. I was like, okay, that means I have to now be strategic and polished and come across as an expert and make sure I’m saying the right thing and that I’m not teaching too much or not enough, or whatever it is, like the spark just goes from the content. And also it sucks to create content like that.
Megan Chambers
It’s agonizing, it’s dry, it feels Yeah, like you’re just like, Yeah, we just keep saying the word connection, and it just feels like you’re disconnected from yourself when you’re in that place, because then it feels like you’re writing from a should place. Here’s what I think I should do. And yeah, definitely kind of took the fun out of it. But I was like, well, I’m committed to this now, and especially once I got going into that first year, I was like, well, I have to, like, people are used to seeing me post on LinkedIn at this frequency, got to keep it going. And so it’d be a lot of like, sun, you know, the night before, being like, Oh crap, I forgot to, you know, forgot to do my post for the morning. Like, let’s write it like, or just last minute in the morning, sort of frantically getting something out, which, again, got the job done, quote, unquote, but wasn’t really from a more joyful, connected place on my end internally.
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, and when that happens, then it doesn’t tend to connect with the person on the other end. And I think with AI as well. I’m not anti AI at all, but when AI is being used, because we’re trying to hide and be like, I don’t want to create content. I don’t want to spend time doing this, so I’m going to have ai do it. And now so many people are using AI. You can spot when something is written by chatGPT, and it doesn’t connect, even if it’s compelling, it doesn’t create that same level of connection of just being a human and showing up and sharing and allowing yourself to be seen, which does take work like the safe visibility work to do that if you’re a perfectionist and you’re scared of what people will think. So, yeah, it’s so important to just for everyone listening, just really seeing how it’s not just we want to enjoy content, because that’s for us. It’s like, if you are having a shit time creating it, the person on the other end isn’t having a good time either. Like, then this is the best thing I’ve ever read. It’s like, Oh, this feels like they were just posting to post.
Megan Chambers
That’s like, right? Yeah, yeah. Just as a career coach, too, I just see so many parallels with when we write for our business and the career coaching clients, when we write our resumes for jobs, right? It’s like, am I feeling connected when I’m writing my resume, when I’m writing that cover letter? And for a lot of people, the answer is no, and the experience is the same, and it’s really, yeah, it’s really draining. But I understand why I wrote that way with my perfectionist mindset. So I think I have a lot of compassion for myself and looking back at that time, because, yeah, that’s what I was fed right from all the business advice, I was genuinely curious. I was like, Okay, this is how it works. So I feel grateful to have found a method that works for my brain instead of against it. But it’s helpful, you know? It’s been helpful to to realize that and to see why what worked worked and what didn’t work, too, so I can actually diagnose differently and move forward differently from there.
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah. And it’s just so frustrating as well, with being in that situation of if you are posting and ticking the box, and maybe sometimes inconsistent as well, but if you do get to the point where you’re posting consistently but still being a perfectionist about the post, then it’s this feeling of like, I’m trying my hardest and it’s not good enough. And then that’s when we’re like, I may as well not bother. I may as well discourse. Or I should do a different platform. Do I do this instead or that instead? And we just try and go to a different strategy instead of and that’s what I want to talk about specifically with you, is what happens when you keep the strategy the same and change the thinking that is behind the strategy, change the thinking that you’re. In when you do the post, and when you’re even just day to day thinking about your business. So I want to talk about that. But before we do, can you tell me why did you decide to sign up for PGSD? Did I say that funny? Why did you decide? I don’t know. I heard it back. It makes sense. Why did you decide to sign up?
Megan Chambers
Sure. So I guess at this time, I’ve been in for a little over six months, maybe eight months or so now, and I had found the podcast as many PGSDers do, and just sort of lurks and like, listen to you for a while, I felt like I fangirled when I finally actually got to meet you inside, I was like, wow, Sam’s a real person, and she’s wonderful. But I really decided to join because I’d grown my business in 20 up to 2023 to a point where I was finally starting to be able to consider going full time with my business. And I did that in 2023 for about six months. I got married around that time, I so I left my full time job, kind of went all in and my business, and went to Italy for three weeks for my honeymoon. Like I just wanted a lot of time freedom. I wanted to kind of see what would happen if I really went all in on my business, and within about six months, I needed to go back to full time work because I wasn’t bringing in enough financially.
That was really, really hard, because I had the identity of being someone that was smart and successful, and I just had this vision that I would just soar off into the sunset with my business and say, wow, that was so wonderful. I didn’t make any mistakes along the way. And look at how great I did this, if I’m just, like, really honest at looking back at my vision and so and actually, it was a really good thing for me to come back to full time work, so I’m actually really grateful for that transition back. But it took a little while for me to get my business confidence back, because it just, I just had a lot of self doubt around that time, and as I wanted to get back into building my business, I realized I know enough from all the things that I had learned and researched and the courses and the webinars and templates like I just I had all this information, but I really realized that the issue was with my thinking.
And I realized in part through list I’d listened to the podcast for probably a year, maybe even a year and a half. I don’t even know where I found you, if it was through Instagram or the podcast alone, but I really just resonated with what you the approach you took, and how you talked about perfectionism, and how it was actually the root of how to get the results you want, and thinking about it from a thinking perspective, not a knowledge perspective. And that really resonated with me. And so the dream to continue with my business and build it was still there in me. It wasn’t like when that happened, it like the bubble burst, and I was like, Oh, that was a fun ride, but I’m fine being back. Like I still had the desire to build the business. And so I realized, though, that I needed help, and I needed to change the way that I was approaching solving that problem of building my business.
So that’s really what pushed me over the edge. And I was even thinking about joining a later cohort, and my friend was like, why don’t you just join now? And I’m so I’m so grateful that she encouraged me to do that, because I was like, You know what? I was like worst case scenario, like, I’ll have a, you know, multiple month Head Start, plus I joined the later opening for PGSD enrollment. But that was really what pushed me over. And I had, I had been really supported in a group setting before, when I was in that previous business cohort, so I knew that having that accountability and having that structure would be really helpful, and also just being around a bunch of other perfectionist I was like, wow, I won’t have to explain that part of my thinking to them, because they’ll just get it. And so that was that all yeah just added up for me saying yes to joining.
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, why did you decide to join rather than just keep listening to the podcast?
Megan Chambers
I had tried on my own to, like, try to power plan. I, like, listen to episodes. Oh my gosh, this is so embarrassing, but yes, so you get this, Sam, but so I had, like, listened to episodes, and I had like, written out, like, all the steps that you had mentioned in the podcast of, like, how to power plan. I’d actually kind of tried it a bit on my own with mixed success. And I think for me, what tipped me over to actually joining was the community piece and wanting to receive coaching from our group coaching calls. That was a big part of it, of just receiving that personalized attention. And I think now being in the program, one thing that I didn’t realize that’s now one of my favorite parts, is the private podcast of listening to the archive of previous coaching conversations. And I learn a lot also just from hearing other people get coached, just in general. And so for me, being able to I knew being able to see other. People get coached in the program would be really, really helpful for me, and it has been. It’s something I’ve, you know, listened to a ton on my walk to work, or might when I’m on a run and things like that. I think I’m like, already into, like, early 2024, coaching calls. I’ve gone so far back because I’ve listened to so many, but I think it was really just that community piece and not wanting to do it alone. And I knew that just listening to the podcast and again, just like taking my own notes and practicing things was a great start, and it helped me to, like, confirm that it was a good the ideas were really resonant with me. But I needed that community and that support, which has been a huge benefit since I’ve joined,
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, and just something as well. I want to ask because you mentioned I read your I said this before we started recording your PGSD intake form. So when you sign up, we have you complete a form so that we can really just straight away, get to know you and fully support you. And one of the things you said in that was about procrasti-learning and that that was something you identified you were doing, and that you wanted to not do anymore. Something that I hear and people say is okay, but how do I know PGSD isn’t more procrastinati-learning? How do I know this isn’t me just like getting more information to then not do anything with so do you have anything that you’d say to the person who is in that procrasti-learning situation where they’re just like you said, they have so much knowledge and information as intelligent person, probably an A student, if they have the fear of like, okay, I want to stop procrasti-learning, so I shouldn’t sign up for PGSD. What would you say to them?
Megan Chambers
Sure, I think if I just think about what, what state I was in, early out, speaking to that person, I think I mean, one is that the structure around in, around it in PGSD is really about, what are your needle movers like? What are you actually like making decisions and working through the emotional stuff that comes up as we make decisions. And that’s what I realized, that all of my procrasti-learning was like a way to defer the uncomfortable feelings of making decisions in my business, which you’ve been coaching me on separately, but other things. So it just keeps leveling up and evolving. But I think for me, what makes it different is the way it’s structured, like the first thing you do when you join is set your growth goal, and we have to sort of actually say, Where am I going and how am I planning? What’s my best guess about how to get there? And then the power planning really supports like, how am I actually putting in the time during the week with the time that I have to get it done?
And then we’re sort of confronted with, wow, I actually have an execution problem. Wow. I actually over scheduled myself. Wow. You know we’re actually, I think the way PGSD is structured is again, with that goal of mine of actually getting shit done again, yes, there’s, there’s like aspects to like our library and ways that you can learn. And I’m actually want to revisit that, but I think the focus is always on, how do you need to make the decisions to move forward. What are you working on now? What’s preventing you from doing that? And so it’s really more focused on who we are and our thinking around our business in that particular moment, rather than, Oh, here’s just like a formula. Try it out. I’ll see you next week. So I think that structure has been really helpful and an antidote to a lot of the like, over saturation I see online, especially of just, like, just follow the strategy. But to me, it’s really about, how am I actually planning to execute on the things that I’ve learned? That, to me, is what makes it different.
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, like, we teach execution by having you execute, and we assume, like, most of our PGSDers either a student who’s got, like, you know what you need to do, but you’re not doing it, and you’re not doing it consistently or without burning out. And so yeah, I’m glad to have your answer to that as well, because it can be this, like, okay, but I don’t trust myself because I have an execution problem. I don’t trust myself to follow through with it. But, like, everything is designed for that specific person, whereas I think a lot of business programs are designed for the person who has no execution issue.
Megan Chambers
Exactly. They assume you can just, they assume you can just rock and roll with it, and it’s great. And my husband is totally like that. He is the person that’s like, looks at me and he’s like, why are you just, like, overthinking this? And I like, love that as a compliment to me, it’s like, yeah, we bring different strengths to the table. And I think, and I, you know, my career coach moment is like, I’m really into like, Clifton Strengths, and like, I also like, lead with, like, my top two strengths. Are strategic and ideation. So I have no issue coming up with new ideas. Like my brain is constantly like coming up with this fountain of ideas, and I didn’t have any sort of system or process or just way to throttle that and to actually control my thoughts more intentionally and intentionally with, okay, just because I have an idea doesn’t need I need to think on it, and I think that’s been with the growth goal in particular, helpful to say, actually, I could have lots of great ideas, but, like, I’m executing on what I plan to do, and that’s what I’m going to do and follow through on but yeah, the overflow of ideas is a lot to manage for me sometimes, but the structure has been the structure has been helpful.
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, okay, so tell me business and personal development and perfectionism. How for you with your business, have you needed to personally develop and in pgsd like, this is like, we teach you the practical tools to do that you mentioned the Growth Goal, power planning. There’s also clean rest. Give you coaching, support, lifetime access to the program, and then when it comes to like, actually being able to make the changes and see different results for you with your personal development, like you came in, and I can’t remember the exact order of things, but we had you keep the same strategy. Well, you decided to keep the same strategy and change you like, change the you that was executing the same strategy as before. So can you walk me through like, that decision to keep it the same and then how have like, how has it been possible that you get different results now than you did before, without actually changing the strategy of what you’re doing?
Megan Chambers
Sure. So when I joined PGSD in the summer and I was working on my growth goal and thinking about what my needle movers were to achieve that goal, I made the decision to stick with LinkedIn posts as my main marketing vehicle, because one I had really only built up LinkedIn as my marketing channel. Like, I don’t have professional Instagram or other social media platforms. Like, I don’t even have Tiktok personally. Like, I just, like, don’t even, I’m just not even on Tiktok. I’d had a very small email list, which I still do, but really LinkedIn still just made sense, because it’s where I had the most audience built up and volume and momentum. So it didn’t make sense to just like, completely switch over to a different platform or a different chart, or try to build up something totally different. So that, I think was probably the main reason why I stuck with LinkedIn, but I think around that time, we were talking a lot in pgsd, and you’re talking on the podcast, a lot about the creative cocoon, and a lot about creating safety and the idea of really being connected.
And so that, I think really started absorbing into me, it was sort of a conscious decision. It sort of happened slowly, but I think what I realized was how I realized how disconnected I had started to be when I was writing my posts. And I have, you know, anyone that’s talked to me like my business is called career dork for a reason, like, I just like, love career development. I’m super passionate about it, and love helping people reconnect with their careers and like. So that idea of like me being lit up around my writing and posts like, was very natural for me, because I just try to professionalize it so much. That’s what really kind of shut that down. And so as we were talking around the creative cocoon, I was like, what if I just, like, kind of just went back to that, you know, like those early days of just when I really just sort of spoke from the heart and whatever was kind of on my mind, and, like, went back to that strategy. And one, it helped, just because I could write faster, I wasn’t agonizing in the same way around. Well, is this word right, or is this phrasing right? Or have I considered everything?
So I feel like the post just came out of me in a more natural, easy way. It’s also just more enjoyable. It just was like, not as agonizing to write. And the only I would say, the maybe only slightly different thing I did was I was like, I know I do want to make sure I’m selling. And we have had a lot of conversations around like, am I actually selling my offer? So all I did was really made the commitment that one post a week, I would at least have some sort of call to action, like, schedule a call with me. Come to, you know, schedule a free Meet and Greet call. Or, like, send me an email, follow me. Like, I just made that commitment that, like, one of the posts during the week would have some sort of call to action, or, like, talk about my offer at least a little bit. And, yeah, it was really incredible just thinking about how, thinking about the person that wanted to work with me, that wanted to hear those ideas I was bringing to the table, like when I was writing with them in mind, it started filling up my calendar.
I was like, Oh, there’s more meet and greets. There’s been like that had been that had really run dry for a long time, even though I had still been posting it with at about the same frequency, about three to four posts a week. And so just like changing how I was approaching thinking about my posts and seeing that actually really tangibly translate, was super cool. And I know it was, yeah, fun for us to kind of talk about in coaching and in my persistence log posts. But yeah, it was really mind blowing because I also just, I was like, wow, it was that easy. Like, I think I just as, I’m sure, the perfectionist listening get it, but I think a big part of perfectionism for me is like, if it’s effective, it has to be hard. If it’s if it’s gonna work and get big results, it has to take big effort. Like, there’s this like, mental correlation of like, big to big, like small to small. And it’s, it was sort of weirdly blowing my mind that it wasn’t taking me that much time to do something that was so effective, right?
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, it’s that, like, all or nothing the and we could just use it against ourselves. So much of like, oh, this is way too easy to work. So let me make it complicated. Let me do something I’ve never done before, and just try and, like, go all out, and then that’s when we have this fear of burning out, come up, and this like, fear of being committed, because we think, okay, if I’m committed, that means I have to, like, expend so much energy, whereas so many of our PGSDers come in and you keep doing a lot of what you were doing, but you do it with different thinking and a different level of belief. And for you on coaching calls and in the forum, and ask a coach, it’s like, the coaching on looking at, like, what are the thoughts you’re thinking as you’re writing the post? There’s like, who you’re thinking about, but like, wanting to be liked by people and not just like, Okay, we’ll stop caring what people think.
That’s not the advice the quote Jesus given. It’s like, just stop caring. It’s like, okay, you care. And how do you need to think so that you can still be the person who cares what people think, and you can actually show up and share a connected post and where you can we looked at like you’re thinking about what you sell, the price you sell it at, who it’s for. Should you sell the full thing? Should you have a reduced offer? Like, all of these different decisions that pop up as you’re taking action and getting objections, and people on these calls who are like, okay, but like, I don’t know if I can afford that. And like, talking about all the mindset stuff and all the perfectionism that comes up with that to just like, we identified what you do that works, and then we just have had you, your brain wants to be like, what about this? Or like, how about I do that?
We just bring it back to you. Like, here’s how to do the very simple thing and feel safe with simplicity, is something we do in PGSD, like how to feel safe, to do things simply, because our perfectionist brain feels safer in complexity and working long hours and being busy all the time and doing the right strategy and ticking all the boxes, and then when that feels overwhelming, we’re like, well, I may as well do nothing at all, but having just a very simple plan. And I love that you don’t even post every day of the week. And like, I started posting every day, like you kept literally the same number of posts. And then from the thinking changing, you’re like, oh, actually, I need to really invite them to work with me, because I’m currently just assuming that if they want to work with me, they’ll go to my like profile on LinkedIn, and then they’ll find it, but oh, I actually, I’m going to tell them not, because we said, Okay, put in a CTA, and then you go into a mindset of, I’m putting in a call to action because that’s the right thing to do, because we all read calls to Action that you’re like, that’s so not compelling whatsoever. But you can absolutely in the box of like, put a CTA, of like, hey, DM me, or hey, like, book a call. If you’re not feeling connected and you’re not able to connect with it, then even though you’ve got the CTA, no one books the call.
Megan Chambers
It’s that conviction, yeah, it’s that conviction. And that’s what I didn’t realize was running in the background of my thinking behind when I was writing the post. Because if I was thinking like, no one’s gonna sign up for this, like people aren’t, you know, the economy is weird, like people aren’t gonna want to spend money on coaching. People aren’t gonna find me because of other like, all that stuff, there’s just all that thought, all those thoughts running in the background, like, that’s infusing itself into my writing. And so I realized that it wasn’t when I was able to reconnect with, like, the value of my offer, why it was important, why I wanted to offer it, why I was excited to offer it, like, all of that made it like, when I’m in that mode of thinking, it’s really easy for me to say, like, Hey, I’d love to, I’d love to invite you to work with me, right? It’s such a much more natural place.
And that’s even bled over into, like, you know, my calls too. Like, when I do talk to potential clients, like, I used to have a very kind of, like, rigid way of running the calls, and now I’m like, I just show up and I’m like, let me just connect with them and just like, ask them questions. Ask them questions about their career and see how if I can help. And more times than not, that makes them want to work with me, right? Even sometimes I’ve, like, gone in being like, Oh, maybe I don’t know if this client will work out or not, and they’re like, actually, how can I work with you? Right? So it’s bled into other aspects of my business in a positive way, too. But the other thing. With that safety that I wanted to mention about the posts too is just like the volume that we talked about in the creative cocoon, and just creating a volume of work that, you know, and I have more of a I’m still building up, kind of my reserves, but not putting so much pressure on a single post and just focusing on being connected in the moment that I write it.
And it’s been really interesting that I’ve had more posts go sort of semi viral on LinkedIn since I’ve started pgsd not but it’s completely because I’m connected and not because I planned it to be viral. Like I had a post about maybe two weeks ago that I think, hit like 50,000 impressions. It just like, totally popped off with comments and all sorts of stuff. And it was like, I almost just didn’t care, because I’m like, that’s not even my needle mover. I’m like, That’s cool. That’s great that that post about resumes resonated, but it was, it was not a post when I posted it, but I was like, this is the one that’s gonna go viral. Like, this is the one that’s really going to get people thinking. So it’s just it was so interesting how that one got picked up. But it was truly, I could tell, not by my own design or intention, but what I had, what I did know about why that worked is I was connected to myself. I was like, oh, people should probably know what not to put on their resume. Like, let’s write from that perspective. And it totally worked. So it’s just been interesting to see how that does actually resonate in a deeper, bigger way. But again, it feels easy, which is counterintuitive.
Sam Laura Brown
But the thinking had to shift to be able, like it’s even and we teach us in pgsc, but to create a volume of content, if someone listening to that is like, Oh my God, that’s hard work. Is because they’re thinking about doing that with the same perfectionist thinking that they have right now, which is like, I write a sentence and then I nitpick that, and then I write the second sentence, and then I read both of those sentences together and I nitpick that, and then I write a third sentence, like, it’s like, of course, that would make it seem like I can’t actually create a volume of content, and I’m also trying to tick this box of like, I need a hook, and then I need this, and then I need that, and then that content doesn’t land. It doesn’t resonate, because you don’t just say the thing like, Oh, I think people should just know what not to put on a resume. I’ll just, like, put that out and put that out into the world and do that. That’s the kind of idea we have that we can execute on quickly when we shift the thinking.
And also wanted to mention too with that like the and I think we coached on this across a couple of different calls about like, we identified your thinking about what you offer was causing issues with what you were doing on LinkedIn, and that was why it wasn’t resonating like because you weren’t actually wanting to invite people because you had a thought, but I can’t guarantee them a job. And so what we did was, instead of going, Okay, let’s change your offer so you can believe in it more. And we probably, I can’t remember, there are a few little changes, but our perfectionist brain must be like, I just need to find the perfect messaging niche, the perfect offer, the perfect price that I’ll just believe in. And what we did was looking at what you had that people were already interested in, and that you had your past self thought this is a good idea to offer.
And then we cleaned up your thinking so that you became convicted about it, and then when you were convicted and compelled and connected with what you offer, then it’s so much easier to be like, Oh, hey, did you know I have this? Let me tell you more about it, or hey on a call, like, do you want to work with me? Instead of being like, Oh, they probably can’t afford it. They’re probably not going to get a job, like, when you have all those thoughts, even if you’re posting with the perfect formula and the perfect CTA, if your main thoughts are they can’t afford it, they don’t want it, and it’s not going to work. Like, but you had all the evidence that they can afford it, they want it, and it is working already, but you just had a few thoughts to clean up so that you could be connected again. It was, like, only a few little thoughts that were creating the disconnection. We didn’t have to, like, go deep back into your childhood about anything. It’s just like, Oh, I just this thought, that’s a thought error. And we just shifted that thinking,
Megan Chambers
Yeah, that was wild to really, it was really fun to see how it was that thought for me, driving of like, my clients will only want to work with me if they’re guaranteed a job. Like it was thoughts like, kind of around that. And yeah, when I thought about what I do best and what, you know, clients actually come to me for, you know, it is that support, I was like, Well, I can offer that really easily. And so just again, reconnecting to that thought and thinking about, you know, that emotional piece of that’s what I love to do. And so again, just, yeah, reconnecting to my own desire and like, where I feel like I work best. And, you know, as I was writing from that place too. When I would meet with prospective clients, like I had a few people in there, I would ask about, where did you find me, or why do you think I’m like, the right coach for you? And a few people just said, like, your post just really resonated with me. And to me, that was like the right and they were really aligned clients. And so to me, that really was a confirmation of, you know, almost just to keep writing, just like stream of consciousness, right, to really just stay connected to that bigger, deeper reason why I do this work.
And you know, especially it does, you know, it’s, it’s a thought I have to consistently manage. It wasn’t like one time I’m like, great, I cleaned it up and, like, it still keeps coming back in different forms, and especially when I see, you know, we’re constantly bombarded, especially on social media, and for me on LinkedIn, like, with other folks that are like, hey, just follow this formula. Then I’m like, Wow, maybe I should do something to be, quote, unquote, more effective, or get like, I can’t. I’m like, oh, then I have to kind of check myself and recalibrate and make sure I’m like, nope. I am like, it’s been so hard to, like, not change things. Like, I know we’ve coached like, I’ve wanted to, like, update my Meet and Greet questions and my website. I want, like, there’s been so many things over the last six months that I’ve wanted to, like, optimize, and I’m really appreciative that a big focus of our our work together in pgsd is, like, about sufficiency, and it’s been really, yeah, it’s been really hard but helpful to actually just, like, force myself to leave it, and I didn’t realize, like, that was the work for me, was actually to leave it, and actually that I feel like, is the good news for perfectionists is like, you can set things down, Like you can set a lot of those tasks, a lot of that down.
And I know we’re not really focusing on clean rest at all, but that, I feel like, has been my new frontier of like that actually is the fuel, in a lot of ways, for the work I really want to do in this next season of my business. And actually realizing that rest, when I’m resting sufficiently, it actually makes me want to show up more connected, and do, like, really follow through on what I said I would in my business. And just like, realizing that connection has been huge. So yeah, there’s just been so many ways in which realizing, how am I thinking at the origin of these different points, whether it was, yeah, like my posts, or, like, meeting with clients, or my offer, like all of it has been getting cleaned up. Has been really, really fun to see that develop.
Sam Laura Brown
Yeah, amazing. Well, I know you have a client call in a few minutes. So is there anything just to wrap up that you want to share with everyone listening? Okay, if you don’t have anything but Annie, you said you prepared with a few little dot points in
Megan Chambers
Yeah, I think I got most of those things. Um, yeah. I just would say, if anyone’s on the fence, yeah, I just my only regret now is that I wish I joined pgsd Sooner or like, when I wasn’t independent in my business for the first time for the support. But yeah, no, it’s been a wonderful community. And yeah, I’m just really excited to see how all these ideas keep developing and what I keep learning. So yeah, so thank you, Sam for creating this. And yeah, I’m excited to be a part of it. And yeah, for anyone listening, connect with me on LinkedIn at Megan Chambers or careerdork.com would love to connect, or if you resonated, would love to talk with you, but yeah, just appreciate the time and opportunity to talk.
Sam Laura Brown
Amazing. Thank you so much. Megan, I really appreciate you.
Megan Chambers
Yeah, thanks, Sam. Thanks. Bye.
Outro
If you enjoyed this episode and you want me to be your coach and you want to be doing this work on a deep level with like-minded perfectionist entrepreneurs then I want to invite you to join us inside perfectionist getting shit done aka pgsd it’s my coaching program for perfectionist entrepreneurs and we do this personal development work that I have been talking about in this series. You get the tools the structure the support that gets your perfectionist brain working for you instead of against you; it is a lifetime access program it is absolutely incredible. So supportive—just everything you could want as a perfectionist entrepreneur so I want to invite you to join us inside the doors are opening on the 30th of January at 6 am Eastern time and close at 11:59 pm Eastern Time on Friday the 6th of February so to find out more today and join us inside the program go to samlaurabrown.com/pgsd.
