SML #001: Overcoming Analysis Paralysis

Read time: 3 minutes

You will never get the lost time back.

But you already knew that.

And yet analysis paralysis is a common disease among lawyers.

It's crazy how so often, the biggest obstacle to success is our own brain, not external factors.

Today, we’ll share how analysis paralysis delayed our Youtube channel growth for two years.

This is our Youtube channel from creation until we overcame analysis paralysis.

From July 2020 until September 2021 we were just too scared to put ourselves out there.

Then in December 2021, one of our videos went viral.

You’d think we had learned our lesson and continued posting. Instead, we fell again into analysis paralysis from January 2022 until May 2022.

It wasn’t until May 2022 that we were finally cured of this wasteful "disease."

And this wasn’t the first time we had fallen prey to this obnoxious mental block.

In 2019, we spent over $1,000 on professional gear for a podcast, microphones, and cables. We even bought a mixer. We choose the best ones on the market--based on our research, not expert advice--after spending countless hours selecting them.

We didn’t use the gear for the better part of three years. Ah, and we haven't launched a podcast yet...

With Youtube, we also thought we needed the best camera, the best editing... basically, the best everything to be successful.

The truth was that we just needed to sit down, record, and give value to our audience.

When we stopped overthinking it and started executing, we started seeing results. 

Our first successful Youtube video was recorded with Julio’s sister's old DSLR camera and a Blue Yeti microphone connected to the camera and the computer to power it up.

That video continues to get views and clients for us.

See, it was never about us. Or how good we were on camera. Or what gear we had.

The difference was never between making a video with professional or average gear.

The real difference was, and is, between making a video or not making it at all.

A valuable video made with average gear beats a video that was never made.

Today, after hundreds of recorded videos, 250,000+ followers and 25,000,000+ views on Youtube alone, we can confidently say that: Done is always better than perfect!

And let us take some pressure off you: your first video will not be great. Just like the first brief you wrote in law school wasn’t great and required lots of editing.

Here's a simple exercise for you. If you know where it is, go back and read the first brief you wrote. Or just ready something you wrote many years ago.

You'll quickly think: "Did I really write this crap?" (At least that's our reaction... haha).

That's a completely normal reaction. But the point is that it wasn't crap. That was the best you were able to do at that time. And that's all you can ask of yourself.

The same is with video recording. You will become better with time. Your confidence will grow, and the quality of your delivery as well.

So pursuing an ideal objective that doesn’t exist is a waste of time and money. Your time and money.

Instead of continuing to live with analysis paralysis, channel that energy into perfecting yourself, one video packed with value at a time.

ACTION STEPS:

1. Don’t overthink it.
2. Your smartphone camera and microphone are enough to share value with your audience.
3. Sit down, write a short script, and hit that record button.
4. Then hit the publish button!