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 📍  Whatever the thing is, whatever you wanna do, just start. There's never a good time. You're gonna feel unqualified. You're gonna feel like an imposter if you're even aware enough to know all the shit you don't know, that you're gonna feel like you have no idea what you're doing.

That's normal. Yeah. That doesn't mean don't start. That means press play. Press record. Do the thing.

  You've built the business, you're crushing it in your career, you've scaled your impact, but are you winning at home? Welcome to the 200% Marriage podcast. We're Meredith and Craig, and we're here to help you kill that domestic drag and turn your partner into your most elite teammate. From Russian taxi mishaps to hailstorms on the summit, we're sharing the raw and real stories and tactical drills you need to move out of roommate-ville and into your 200% life.

So grab your gear. It's time to build an unstoppable team. Let's dive in.

 Welcome back to another episode of the 200% Marriage podcast with Meredith and Craig. So this week, we've got Canadian Thanksgiving.

We just finished turkey dinner, actually.

We literally just finished. Yeah. We thought we'd get a podcast in before we, uh, went into a turkey coma.

So here we are, celebrating Thanksgiving and gratitude for a rambunctious family- ... gathering with lots of turkey.

You walked in in the height of it. It

was wild. Yeah. And lots of pie and lots of gratitude. And one of the things that I think we really need to highlight is this is a special episode. Yeah.

This is, this is year three.

We- We are celebrating the end of three years of this podcast.

That's a huge milestone- Right? ... when you think about it. 150, this is the 156th episode.

Consistently. Every episode- Every single week ... every week for 156 weeks.

Yeah.

That is three years of weekly podcasts without missing a beat.

Yeah. Not one week.

Right. So I'm, I'm, I'm grateful that we were able to keep that level of consistency and show up- Mm-hmm ... every week and hit record, even when we didn't feel like it, even when we didn't know what we were doing, which we're gonna get into.

Mm-hmm.

And- We w- ... I'm also really grateful for the people that have tuned in and listened.

Yeah. You. We're grateful for you.

We are grateful

for you. So thank you for listening and for commenting and for sharing and for all those good things. We appreciate you, and we're very grateful for you.

And so because we've been doing this for three years, and there is about three months left of the year, We thought over the next three months we would share the biggest lessons that we've learned from doing the podcast and from entrepreneurship and over the last three years.

Mm-hmm. The last three years of this adventure, we figured why not over the next three months share a couple lessons-

That's

how we're- ... till, till the end of the year ...

that's how we're gonna wrap the year. That's how we're- Sharing our lessons.

Yeah.

And we'll take all those good lessons into 2027.

Exactly.

And the first lesson you had ties very nicely into what we were talking about with, just hitting record even when you don't feel like it. Mm-hmm. When-

It's just start. Whatever the thing is, whatever you wanna do, just start. There's never a good time. You're gonna feel unqualified. You're gonna feel like an imposter if you're even aware enough to know all the shit you don't know, that you're gonna feel like you have no idea what you're doing.

That's normal. Yeah. That doesn't mean don't start. That means start. Press play. Press record. Do the thing. And it's funny, with this podcast, I think we've talked about it before, but we've got several unreleased episodes where we did hit record, and we recorded episodes, but we didn't actually hit publish on those episodes 'cause they weren't good enough or we weren't ready-

I, I believe-

or- ... one of those episodes we recorded on the top of a mountain in Arizona the day you fell and knocked your face into the-

Correct ...

uh, rock.

Our Arizona hiking vulnerability story, we did record an episode before that happened- On- ... on top of that mountain. Yeah, we

did ... I don't know where that is. I don't know what happened to it.

I don't know what the topic was. But I do know that we did it, and I know that we never released it.

Yeah.

So.

So we had a hard time initially pressing publish.

That was... Yeah, that was a few months before we actually did hit launch on the podcast. Mm-hmm. And it, it was the perfectionism, the what are people gonna think, the I don't know what I'm doing.

I still literally don't know what I'm doing. Like, still don't, but 156 episodes in, I know a l- I know 156 episodes more than I did-

Three

years ago ... three years

ago. Mm-hmm.

You just hit play, and you just... or hit record, and you just, you just go.

And I think that's a good point. It's like, I don't know what I'm doing is the first thing, but I mean, eh, we teach our seven-year-old nephew that, like, yeah, when you're doing, you're doing something new for the first time, you're gonna suck.

Yeah. In the beginning, you're a beginner.

Hmm.

This is something that I've talked about, uh, at, at events. It's like y-

On stages.

Yeah. It's when- Mm-hmm ... when you first start something, you are going to be not so great at it. In fact, you're probably gonna suck at it. The thing is, is the only way to get past the stage of sucking is to show up and do the thing.

Yeah.

And the- And

keep doing it over and over and over ...

consistently, the more you do, the less you suck Now, I'm not saying we're the world's best podcasters because we're not. However We're a lot better than we were three years ago, and in three years' time, we're gonna be so much better. So get on the train now.

Right. 'Cause we're going to the moon.

Move over, Diary of a CEO. We are gonna unseat you eventually.

There's room for all of us. Let's be fair. Steven Bartlett's not going anywhere. He's amazing. Check out Diary of a CEO podcast as well. It's awesome. However, with that said-

We're coming for you ...

we're coming up there too.

We're gonna be up there in the standings with you, up in the, the podcast rankings. But all I'm saying is that when you start something, in the beginning you're a beginner, and allow yourself to be a beginner because you have to have grace for yourself. You have to understand that it's... You're g- you're gonna mumble, you're gonna trip, you're gonna not know the best format for a podcast or what to say, and you're just gonna figure it out as you go.

You're gonna get your sea legs, your land legs, your legs. Podcast legs. You're gonna get your podcast legs under you. Uh, so a- and, and that goes for anything, not just a podcast. It goes for the business that you wanna start. That goes for the fitness that you wanna have in your life. It just-

The relationship you wanna engage in and you're afraid of what they might think

just ask the girl out, or boy. Make the first move. Do the thing, whatever it is that is, you know that is right there that you've been thinking about for so long, that you've been trying to think of a way to make happen.

You know how to make it happen.

Just do it. Just make it happen. Just do it. Just take the first step, and that's the key is just don't ha- you don't have to have the whole plan of how everything's gonna line up from start to finish.

You

think you do, but you do not.

You just need to know the first step. So if you just know the first step, then just take that step, and when you take that step, a couple other options will reveal themselves to you, and then it's like, "Oh, okay. I've done that, and then now this." The universe has a way when you take a step towards something of showing you the path towards the next thing.

Not the entire path, the next step. Maybe two, but usually just one.

Which brings me to the next piece I think that holds us back from starting, which we touched on a minute ago, which is what are other people gonna think? What are people gonna say? What if, what if I don't know how to do it? What if I fail?

The fear of judgment and the fear of failure are real f- to most people. We'll talk probably in another lesson about how fear is not real. But they feel real in the moment, and especially for me, when I think of all the fears I had, of all the reasons I didn't start things, they all boil down to a fear of rejection.

L- like, literally the first time I ever w- I told, I told this story this weekend at an event. The first time I ever went to post something real on social media, like something related to like starting a business, something related to like not just how all my friends would post on social media, but something like legit, I was so afraid of what people would think that I wrote and rewrote the post like literally, I don't know, 17 times.

And then when it came time to actually hit publish on the post- I waited till like late, as late as I could at night, hoping that maybe nobody would see it.

Mm-hmm.

Hit post. I turned off my phone. I went to bed. I just kind of hoped nobody would see it, which obviously is the whole point in posting on social media is so nobody sees anything.

And it was because I was a- afraid of what they would think. Yeah. And like, I don't even know if I could have put a name to a they necessarily. It was just fear of being different, fear of rejection by the collective. And interestingly enough, I woke up the next morning with a couple of really nice comments from people who I probably could have assigned they to their face.

And so I was like, "Huh, it wasn't... I, I didn't die. The earth didn't swallow me whole." Yeah. Like, I just eventually got out of my own way of, in enough time to just press submit. Yeah. Publish, launch, share, whatever. And then now we share shit all the time and it's not as scary as it was, but it's just that fear.

But just starting something, it, it, it, it, it's really way bigger than we make it out to be, and people really aren't thinking much about you anyway. Yeah. The theys of the world. Yeah. They're really not thinking that

much. They're thinking about them.

Yeah. And, and we attribute this like they, like there's this they out there.

There isn't. They're all consumed with... They're, they're all still thinking the same thing. You're a they're they. Right? Like, they're, they're thinking about you and what you might think about them. And just understand that nobody, nobody cares. Just do the thing. And I, I think it was a Har- Har- Hormozi post, uh, one time.

He... I think it was when the Queen died. He said, you know, "The Queen of England, the world," whatever, anyway. The Queen, royalty. She- Queen

Elizabeth ...

she passed away, and he's like, "You know- The Queen lived such a big life. She had such an impact on people. She did amazing things, and literally within weeks of her death, like hardly anyone was talking about her anymore.

Like it had passed.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm.

And that's the Queen. So imagine, you know, you. Like y- you're gonna do these things in your life, and I... It sucks to hear, but for the most part, within a few weeks, people aren't gonna be talking about you anymore.

And

so- And

within a few days. I mean, it was- Yeah ... the Queen, and she died.

Yeah. It was the hugest news around. Yeah. Imagine you posted something or

you did- Yeah. No- nobody cares ... who cares? Nobody cares. And, and I know we're the center of our own universe, but that fear is what's holding us back. And so if, if we can just tell ourselves the story of literally nobody cares, just do the thing.

And it also applies to your relationship in that if you are in a place where you know that your relationship isn't working for you, but the thought of, you know, doing the work to fix it sucks, or you're worried about what someone will think because you have to go and get that help or do that work on your relationship, nobody cares.

Just do it. Y- you know more than anyone, you know, how that's eating you up inside. Just g- just start. Just do the thing. So whatever it is in your life that's got you thinking about something, you know there's something out there that you need to be doing or you want to be doing to better yourself, better your relationship, better your fitness, better your-

Life

whatever a- aspect of life it is, just start. Take the first step, and I promise you, when you do, the next step will reveal itself. And then when you take that step, the next step will reveal itself, and before you know it, all of these steps have revealed themselves, you've done them, and you're well on your way to the thing that you want, if you haven't already achieved it, and onto your next goal.

So just hit record. Just do the thing.

I think another thing that holds us back from doing the thing is- Thinking that we need to hit, like, an arbitrary milestone. We need to achieve a certain level of goal, or we need to achieve a certain level in life to be able to s- to embark on the next thing. Like, we talked about writing a book for years, but, you know, I think there was this, like, "Well, once we've gotten to the end," like, "Once we've achieved the goal.

Once w-

Once our story is written, then we can, then we can tell

it. Yeah, once our story's done, then we'll tell it.

And it's like, but, but- When- But, but when you're dead?

Right?

Like, it makes no sense.

No.

So, like, yeah, you're right. No arbitrary milestones. Just if you feel the pull to start, write a book, write, write the damn book now.

Start.

And,

and- And you can always do a volume two if you need to.

And, like, we didn't know all the steps to writing a book when we started writing the book.

No.

We started writing the book, and words flowed pretty easily, and it was the exact right time to start.

And then we didn't know what the next step would be, but we finished writing it, and then we figured out the next step.

If I think about all the things that I'm super proud of and that I love about my life now- I look back and I'm like, I had to start to, to get there. Like, like leaving, leaving corporate behind was really scary, and if we didn't...

Like, obviously the, the universe works in mysterious ways and pre- presented a situation where it really caused us to think about what our next step was and to, to, to consider that option. Mm-hmm. Which we probably otherwise wouldn't have.

Mm-hmm.

However, it was scary to actually execute on that. Once the idea came to us, to actually pull the trigger and make that move was extremely scary, and you only knew, like, "Oh, if I just leave, then what?

Don't know." Yeah. But once you do, then the universe opens opportunities, and then it's like, oh, we go to an event, and we learn about coaching, and we, you know, we become entrepreneurs, and we find our passion, and da, da, da, da, we build a business, all these things. If you don't make that first step, you don't find that.

Mm-hmm.

So led to the podcast, which also you get to the, to the, you know, the, the, the coaching side of the world, and you're doing these things, and someone says, "You should start a podcast." And you're like, "Okay." "I don't know what that means. I don't want to." "I don't know how to do that." "I don't want to do that.

I don't... It's, it's what do they think? Well, like, who, who am I to have a podcast?" "Who's gonna

listen to it?"

Exactly. "What do I have to say?" Yeah, yeah, all these things. But you start it, and then, you know, you start to build a reputation in the, in the world that, oh, this is someone who knows what they're talking about.

Oh, you can help me. Oh, okay. And then, you know, you, you... before you know it, you've left corporate. You have a business. You have a podcast. You've written a book. You have a relationship that, you know... Your and I relationship, it didn't start at the most opportune time for me.

For sure.

It was... It, it just didn't, and I, we talk about it in the book.

It's like I wasn't looking for this. I wasn't. I was... I had just gotten out of one. I was, I was, you know, looking to be-

Solo ...

yeah, just to figure myself out. And, you know, here you are, and it's like, "Pff."

Just start.

Just gotta- ... take, take the step. You'll figure it out. You can figure yourself out while figuring her out.

Turns out.

Turns out. Nailed it. Mm-hmm. Uh, all that to say is all the big things, all the really important things, all the things that I'm really proud of and that I love about my life came on the other side of hard, scary, and uncomfortable, and it required me to take the first step, and then the next step.

And I know that the next thing, the next big thing, the next big milestone or, or thing that I'm going to do and be proud of and love about my life is going to require the same thing, and I know that about basically everyone else.

Mm-hmm.

Is life is going to start that way, so. It

doesn't mean it's easy.

Certainly not. Like- It's hard. It's really hard ...

like, when you feel that, "Uh, ugh" fear, ugh, thing.

But you gotta do it. So just start. Just hit record. Just hit play. Just ask the girl out. Just make the move. Just tell your spouse that you wanna get some help. Just read the book. Just start.

Mic drop. Boom.

Anything else?

I think that's it.

Those are the lessons for this week. Stay tuned. Next week more lessons that we've learned over the last three years, uh, doing this podcast and having a lot of fun building these, these businesses that we've been building.

So stay tuned. We've got lots more interesting lessons that you can learn so that you don't have to learn them the hard way like we did.

That'd be great.

That would be fantastic.

Bye.

  And that's a wrap on this week's briefing. If this episode hit a nerve, don't let your momentum die

Head over to the 200percentmarriage.com/unstoppableteam to take the unstoppable team audit. Find out exactly where your domestic drag is hiding so you can start optimizing your team today.

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See you on the next adventure