STP 111 | THe Spark Point - Why you don't need a perfect plan to begin
===
[00:00:00] Plans change, course building changes. You're gonna learn things. You're gonna think you have the best plan until you start putting it in action. But if you waited for the perfect plan, if you waited ~to, ~to make sure everything was perfect, you're just not gonna start, or you're gonna get started and one thing's gonna throw you off, and you're not gonna know how to continue because you're inflexible.
[00:00:32] Speaker 3: Hi friend. Welcome to the scaling therapy practice. I'm James Marland, your course creation coach.
[00:00:39] Speaker 3: I'm here to help
[00:00:41] Speaker: therapists who want to scale their reach with effective online courses.
[00:00:45] Speaker 3: I'll share with you all the tools, tips,
[00:00:48] Speaker 3: and technology I've learned along the way that will help you put your mission in motion.
[00:00:56] Hello. This is a reminder that the therapist chair to [00:01:00] course challenge starts today. That's April 14th. In the challenge, you'll learn what you're gonna make, who you're gonna make it for. Will they buy it? Plus some other things to help you complete the course in a timely manner, even if you're a busy therapist and you don't think you have the time.
[00:01:17] So join the challenge, get the handouts. Join the community, and I would love to help you get started creating a course that people will love to buy. Join the challenge course creation studio.com. Get the resources there.
[00:01:32] Hello, and welcome back to the Scaling Therapy Practice. I'm your host, James Marlin. This is the show where we empower mission-driven leaders. To launch life changing online courses. Today we're gonna be talking about the spark point, why you don't need a perfect plan to begin. I don't know if you know this about me, but I really like camping and one of my favorite parts of camping is the fire.
[00:01:58] I love [00:02:00] building the fires and getting the conversation started around a nice cozy fire. Every fire though, whether it's, you know, a cozy campfire or just something in your fireplace, ~it, ~it begins with the same way. It begins with something that ignites the fire ~a, ~a spark.
[00:02:18] Flames start when. The spark meets the fuel. And when you're making online courses, that's where you are right now. You don't need the perfect plan, you just need the spark. That thing that gets it started a moment, a mission, a calling, a truth that makes you say, oh I could do more.
[00:02:46] I think I'm meant for more, but. Most people just get stuck in the moment. They get stuck with the idea or the dream of someday in the future, I'm going to do something big with this [00:03:00] idea. And it's most likely because of one sneaky or soul crushing lie. And the lie is I gotta have it all figured out before I begin.
[00:03:10] If I don't have it all figured out, I shouldn't even begin. Now if you're like me, that belief sounds. Reasonable. In fact it might even sound responsible ~to, ~to have everything figured out, but it's actually fear. It's fear that holds you back and it crushes the dreams of people who want to do more of people who have a heartache to do more with their mission, but they feel like they should have it all figured out so they don't get started.
[00:03:47] In this episode~ we're gonna, ~we're gonna crush that idea. We're gonna crush that lie that you have to have it all figured out. I want you to find your spark so that you can start [00:04:00] putting your dream and your mission in motion. ~I. ~We're gonna learn three things today.
[00:04:05] We're gonna learn why the spark not the perfect plan is your true starting line we're gonna talk about why your story holds ~mount ~more power than you think, and we're gonna talk about ~finding your spark.
~
[00:04:18] ~When you're, where ~finding your spark, where your identity meets your impact. So remember, you don't need to feel like you're an expert or you're good enough. You don't need to have all the tech figured out. You don't need to start with a spreadsheet and have, ~your fifties. ~50 step plan all work together.
[00:04:40] You just need to start with something that lights you up and your spark. So let's find yours in this episode today. Today is the first day of the therapist chair to course five day Challenge. It's 30 minutes a day where I do a short video and then an action step for [00:05:00] you to start.
[00:05:01] Thinking about ~your. ~Your course, like if you were gonna make a course, what would you make? Who would you sell it to, and how would this light you up? So just look for the show notes, ~the, ~and also on the homepage, of course, creation studio.com, where you can join the Five Day Challenge for free. It's not too late.
[00:05:19] Started today. There's a community. There's a step-by-step guide. Also some prizes. So join today and I'd love to help you get started putting your mission in motion. All right, so the first idea here for finding your spark is the starting line. It's not the full blueprint. I remodeled the basement.
[00:05:47] We bought the house, what, 15 years ago, and it had an unfinished basement. The laundry was downstairs and the furnace and a sump pump, but it was a lot of big open space with a concrete floor [00:06:00] and we always thought of remodeling. Our house isn't super huge we wanted more space to have like entertainment and a TV and maybe some nice couches.
[00:06:10] ~I, ~I had this idea I drew it out. I drew ~the, just the, ~just some boxes with okay, we'd put the TV here And, you know, it didn't look like a lot when I put it on paper.
[00:06:21] But ~there was some there, ~there was just a lot of steps ~when you, ~whenever you remodel something, there's like the floor and the walls and the insulation and the ceiling and all the decisions to make the ceiling and to get started, I had to. Make the big decisions, what were we gonna put on the floor?
[00:06:41] What was gonna be in the ceiling and what were gonna be on the walls, buy the materials, and then start working. But if I would've had to map out every single decision, not just the big decisions as I was doing it, but if I had to map out every decision for remodeling the basement.
[00:06:58] I would never have finished [00:07:00] because, and it wouldn't look very good because you have to, when you're remodeling something, when you're building something you adjust, you change, you think of new things that would help you do the project better, or you find out your original plan just didn't work.
[00:07:18] You make adjustments, you make changes. And if you have a. Detailed list that is 50, a hundred steps long. What happens when at step 20 you realize, oh, I made a mistake. ~I have to make adjustments. ~Then you have to adjust the other 80 steps. Beyond that, you don't necessarily need a fully fleshed out plan.
[00:07:41] You just need to know the destination. You need to know where you're heading, and you make adjustments as you go. So a lot of people who are thinking about doing online courses or. ~Doing a ~a hybrid course or a community group or some sort of way to sell their expertise beyond just one-on-one sessions.
[00:07:58] They're like, I gotta have [00:08:00] everything filled out from beginning to end. Otherwise, it's never going to work. ~That, that ~that's holding you back, that's holding you down. So thinking about the basement example here, you don't need to have every detail to begin. Trying to plan the whole journey before you start leads to analysis, paralysis.
[00:08:24] ~That's what I have. ~I have that ~all the time ~all the time for all these decisions. I love to research. I don't like to waste time, so I just research and think about things and plan things and put 'em on spreadsheets and to-do lists, and then, they don't get done. So you don't need to have every detail to begin.
[00:08:43] The other thing about that, just like remodeling your basement is course building or any sort of online product is messy and iterative. Things change. You get better ideas. When we were remodeling the basement [00:09:00] half the basement was going to be storage and half the basement was going to be a living area.
[00:09:05] But then I needed an office, like I needed a stay at home office. So we remodel. ~We just continued the plan and. The storage got turned into cabinets that were, that we re, ~we bought cabinets, like kitchen cabinets and put them downstairs and that became our storage instead of the whole room as storage.
[00:09:17] So, Plans change, course building changes. You're gonna learn things. You're gonna think you have the best plan until you start putting it in action. But if you waited for the perfect plan, if you waited ~to, ~to make sure everything was perfect, you're just not gonna start, or you're gonna get started and one thing's gonna throw you off, and you're not gonna know how to continue because you're inflexible.
[00:09:41] ~S ~and the third thing ~ about that, ~about remodeling my basement is I didn't do it alone. I didn't know how to remodel a basement. I didn't grow up building things. So I grabbed my father-in-law and he spoke into my ideas and he helped me build straight walls and~ finish, ~do the electrical and finish some of those things [00:10:00] that.
[00:10:00] Needed to be done. I got help from an electrician. I got help from my father-in-law who built buildings with his dad. I got help from somebody who knew plumbing. ~Like I, ~I was able to get help along the way. I didn't need to know everything. And that's one of those~ those things where you, ~those lies where you can ~get, just ~get stuck on needing to know all these things before you get started.
[00:10:22] The second big idea here. For getting your spark going is your power holds more than you realize that's one thing with being good at something, you don't realize how good you are at it because you think everybody's good at it, or you think it's easy for everyone. I Work at a 12 step program at our church. It's called. Regeneration ~and ~in regeneration for many years. I guess I've been doing it for three or four years now. My job was just greeting new guests. I did a new first time guest introduction where I shared my story and ~I, ~we watched a video and then I [00:11:00] gave people a chance to share their story and then I shared just the thing that I share every time. That if you come four weeks, you're gonna find out if this program is for you, and the people who do show up for four weeks end up finishing the program or the people who do commit to four weeks, I have a greater chance of finishing the program and getting the benefit ~From ~From what we offer. And so unbeknownst to me, he latched onto that. He latched onto, okay, I can do it for four weeks. I can't commit to a year or however long the program is, but ~I can commit to next week and ~I can commit to next week. And he made it to four weeks. And he came up to me six, eight months later and he is like, I wasn't sure I was gonna stick with it, but your message, your honesty and your hope, and just the challenge of sticking with it for a few weeks to see if it's right for me, made me stay with it. And I stuck with it. And he has ~a, ~a really life [00:12:00] transformation story right now because he stuck with it and he said, your story helped me a lot.
[00:12:06] To me, I've been struggling with oh, am I making a difference? Is it, does it really matter what I do what I'm taking from this is, my, my superpowers, being honest about my story, being hopeful, be encouraging find it, looking for people who aren't fitting in and helping them transform their lives.
[00:12:26] it, it's easy for me to notice the person who is struggling and just give them a little bit of attention, a little bit of encouragement, and to help them with that, and that made a big difference in his life. What I want you to take from this story is I was struggling with, am I doing a good job? Does it matter? He was able to take encouragement, hope, support, and that he can do it. Those, that's easy for me. It's easy for me to see somebody who's struggling and say, this isn't the [00:13:00] end of your story. You got a new story to rewrite.
[00:13:03] You can have a new life. You can have growth in your life here. Take my hope, take my encouragement, and hopefully that will grow a seed inside you. That's easy for me. I do it effortlessly, like seeing the person who is, who's like on the hiding from people and on the fringes and lonely, that's easy for me to see.
[00:13:30] 'cause that's some of the story that I've lived. So I hunt out those people and try to encourage them. And that's my superpower. So you might not know that you're actually good at what you're doing. It just could be something that you're good at, but you don't realize it. But your story, your power, ~your ~what you do holds more power than you realize what you do naturally, what feels natural [00:14:00] to you.
[00:14:00] Might feel miraculous to somebody else. So finding your spark is sometimes looking for that thing that you do that seems hard for other people but is effortless for you.
[00:14:16] Therefore, we gotta ask. What is our spark point? Like it's time to ask what part of my story could be somebody else's shortcut.
[00:14:27] So your spark point is where who you are as a person meets the place where you can make a big impact. Just going back to the story about serving at the 12 Step program, who I am as a person is somebody who has hope, has encouragement, has seen life change, and believes that other people can make life change as well.
[00:14:52] The where I could make an impact is. Where people need hope, they need encouragement. They need the belief that [00:15:00] things can get better, and then that maybe they see the person who has made some changes in their life and they're like, you know what I want to be like them, and I want what they have. So that's really where your SparkPoint is, who you are as a person, ~what you, ~what your mission, vision, and values are.
[00:15:18] ~ where it meets the problems that people solve, that ~where it meets the problems that you can solve easily. That's your SparkPoint. That's where it gives you the most joy. That's what gives you that energy to do some of the difficult things your SparkPoint lives, where your natural gifts meet a real need.
[00:15:39] So just to ask yourself, what do you love to do? What lights you up? What's easy for you? What challenges have you overcome that have become part of your story? That when you see that in somebody else, you're like, oh, I can solve that. I can do that ~you're not guessing ~like, you're not guessing what you're good at.
[00:15:58] You're just leaning into [00:16:00] it. You're recognizing what you're good at and you're leaning into it. ~To find their spark, but ~many people just dismiss ~their, ~what they're good at and don't recognize it as their starting point for what they can do to help other people. So don't dismiss what comes naturally for you.
[00:16:18] Just don't think, oh, ~I have to, ~I'm good at this area, but I really need to be good at these other things. So I'm gonna focus on my weaknesses to build them up. So that I can be a well-rounded person. That's not where your SparkPoint is. That's not what lights you up. I don't think we should be well-rounded people.
[00:16:39] We should, especially in business~ we should ~be putting our energy into the things that give us the most benefit, the most money, and create the most impact. ~It's your, ~it's. What lights you up? What will energize you, what will keep you going through the hard times, but also you'll do the most good. You don't need to have [00:17:00] everything figured out. You don't have to have your plan down to the minute detail. You gotta have a destination. But things are going to change. You don't have to have that perfect plan. You need to show up where your strengths lie.
[00:17:16] Show up where your spark is. If this episode stirred something inside you, if you're starting to recognize your spark, if you felt a flicker of, that's me, this is what I've been feeling, then I want you to know it's not too late to join the five day challenge. It starts today, April 14th. It runs for five days. It's a few minute video and a action step to take.
[00:17:44] There's step-by-step guidance. There's a workbook, there's other people doing it. There's challenges, there's prizes. ~I'm trying to get you to get going, doing what comes naturally to you. ~You don't have to have it all figured out. You don't need to have a perfect plan. You just need to show up and take a couple steps and see what lights up [00:18:00] inside you, where your spark is.
[00:18:03] This is James Marland. I want to help you put your mission in motion. It's time to get started.
