166. BAD WORK IS GOOD BUSINESS

Perfectionism is one of the sneakiest productivity killers in business. Mid work is actually a non-negotiable part of becoming exceptional — and why withholding your "imperfect" output will never make you exceptional. 

Key Topics Covered:

• Why bad work is a required step on the path to exceptional work
• How perfectionism screws over your future self
• The online publishing deadline that changed how Peta approaches content creation
• Why your "half-arsed" podcast episode or email could be the first draft of your best work
• The difference between a body of work and individual perfect pieces
• Why showing up consistently beats showing up perfectly
• How visibility — even imperfect visibility — creates compounding opportunities

TIMESTAMPS

0:00:00 - Intro: Part of doing good work is actually doing bad work
0:01:00 - Why growth makes us forget where we started
0:01:55 - Comparing yourself to AI — and why that's a trap
0:03:20 - Peta's perfectionism problem with the podcast
0:04:26 - The online publishing deadline that changed everything
0:06:00 - Bad work is the first draft of your best work
0:07:17 - How "imperfect" content becomes your most important content
0:08:00 - What perfectionism actually costs your future self

🔗 LINKS & RESOURCES:
Hot Business Audit: https://hot-business.scoreapp.com/
The $35 Offer: https://www.professionalbabe.com/the-35-offer/
Business Bang: https://www.professionalbabe.com/business-bang/
Give Good Email: https://www.professionalbabe.com/give-good-email/

Transcript

squadcaster-aded_1_03-01-2026_135205 0:00

Part of doing good work is actually doing bad work. Let me explain. Let's pretend you're writing an email and you are like, why can't I seem to get these words right? It's not that great. It's coming out. It kind of sounds a bit shit. What if I was to tell you that? That's just part of the process. What if I were to tell you that in order to do really exceptional work and become an amazing writer or content creator or coach, that on the path to being excellent, you are gonna be doing some stuff that is probably not up to your standard. Yeah. That's gonna happen. You are gonna be putting stuff out there that you are like, oh, this isn't that great. That's okay, your version of not that great once upon a time would be something that your past self would have had to perfect for a while. You know, they would've had to do a few drafts, a few edits to get to the point that you are looking at and you're like, it's a bit shit. It is so funny that when we are so committed to growth and we have our eye on where we're going, that we forget where we started. But we also forget how long it took and the process and how things looked. And I think especially if you are someone that on Instagram, if you are archiving your feed, if you are throwing things out, it is rare that you can look at that start point and be like, Hey, look how shit this was. Or maybe it was good, but maybe it took you 15 hours to do it. It's interesting, isn't it? Because I think that we assume that if we have been doing something for long enough that we should automatically become like this robot. And now that a lot of us are using like Chat and Claude to help us with content and our business or whatever the fuck, we look at how quickly. Claude can churn out perfect work, and I'm doing perfect in quotations for those listening to the podcast and not watching, but we expect ourselves to be like that. And we're like, gosh, this is, why is this taking me so long? It doesn't matter how good you get, you are still gonna have days when stuff is feeling rusty. You are still gonna have days when like your just words can't come up, and you are like, why am I really struggling with this? That is actually still part of the process of. Becoming exceptional. And this comes back to what I've spoken before about how when we develop our body of work, it is a body of work. It is not individual perfect pieces. And you can see this when, if you are someone that loves to go and look at art galleries, if you've ever looked at someone's exhibition, you can kind of see like the little bits and pieces and the half finished drawings. Like how many artists have half finished work? How many artists have like, you know, little squiggles on paper and they're like, oh, I don't wanna do any more of that. Let me just file that. There are so many, but for some reason we have this like level of perfection. And the problem is with that we convince ourselves that we can't do things unless we are continually perfect. You know, I have this with the podcast, like the amount of episodes that I have recorded and I'm like, that could have been so much better. Or this is pretty terrible, or, I don't know if that is so coherent and I feel myself getting stuck in this trap of wanting to like. Rehearse and almost script. And what's really interesting is this, this feeling of things need to be perfect because it needs to hit and I need to keep people engaged. And what if this anecdote isn't as strong as it could be? And I could have used like a better word with that, but I also know that for me to have the impact that I'm gonna have on this world. Am I better off spending an entire day on a 15 minute podcast, or would I be better off doing six to eight episodes and getting those out there instead of slowing myself down so much? Because I'm trying to make everything perfect because something that I witnessed when I worked in online publishing within myself, um, you know, I. I have my blog, right? And I got this job in online publishing. So I was writing my sex and dating articles. And how that works is sometimes your editor would be like, Hey, we need to piece do you on another article, and because you get paid per article, and I liked money. I was like, yes, I wanna write something. And sometimes you would have to get something done in like a day or even that afternoon. So I had gone from taking my sweet ass time. Writing my blog to now all of a sudden having deadlines. And in business we don't often have deadlines. Like, it's not like someone's like, Hey, if you don't put this post up on Instagram by eight o'clock tonight, you're not gonna have a job. But in online publishing, that's pretty much how it works. Like if you. Don't stick to your deadline and then there's no article, someone else will do it. You probably won't get more work. So what I had to really do was get out of my own way and I had to start working very fast. And what I worked out is that I didn't become a better writer or better at anything. Spending so much time finessing the same thing, but I became so much better after I started to get more runs on the board, AKA, I'd write more articles, I would get more experience under my belt. That made me so much better at business and because of that I welcome doing podcast episodes that aren't that great. Maybe for you, you gotta welcome doing content that isn't that great, or emails that aren't that great because you never know. The work that is not that great could become a starting point for something that is amazing. I could do a podcast episode and I'm like, oh, that could have been better. And because I'm thinking it could have been better. Guess what I'm thinking about? I wish I would've said this. I could have said that. Oh, what about this story? That would've been perfect. Awesome. This could be a chapter of my book and the podcast episode was the first draft that needed to happen for that exceptional chapter in the book to happen. That bit of content that you were like, this is a bit rough, could still be think, you could still be thinking about it in the back of your mind, or someone could be like, Hey, this kind of half answered some questions. I've got a question for you about this, and then all of a sudden that sparked an idea. So you never know when the work that you are not a hundred percent proud of becomes a really important stepping stone for your vital work to actually happen. You never know when that happens, and you can think about this right now. You can think about the stuff that you have kind of done that you haven't been that proud of, that's changed someone's life. You can think about something that you have rushed to get up has been your viral moment. You can think about the bit of content. That you're like, I don't really know if this lands, and you think about it so much and you're thinking about it in the shower, and then all of a sudden you have found like a more succinct way to actually say it, and it's only happened because you've just done something that wasn't that great So if you are stuck in the perfection trap and you feel like that you can't move unless everything is perfect. What I'm gonna say is you really fuck things up for future, you. You fuck things up because you're not doing the groundwork to finally do your exceptional work. You're not putting things out there and seeing how it lands, and then you have a chance to refine that or go back and talk about that and make that argument stronger. You are not giving people the little nibble that they need in that moment. Sometimes people don't need their life changed. They just wanna hear from the person that they like to hear from. Off. They don't need something that is going to bring them out of the depths of their depression or make them a million dollars this week. They just wanna be in a bit of a better mood and they wanna hear what you have to say. So take the pressure off, do some shit work, and just remember that the only way that you can get better. Is through continual repetition. No one becomes an expert by one day waking up and saying, Hey, I'm an expert. That being said, the online space will convince you otherwise, but they become an expert by getting so many fucking runs on the board. And the expert has made more mistakes. They have probably done more work. That's a bit mid. It's a bit mediocre, but they keep going and they keep perfecting and they keep showing up. You do not get where you wanna be. If you keep slamming the brakes on and slowing down, you get where you wanna be by continually perfecting and doing that thing, that's a bit shit. And then looking, being like, well, this was crap. I could have made it better. Okay, awesome. Why? Well, the anecdote wasn't strong enough. Okay, cool. What would I have said next time? Why would've said this? Okay, cool. Why don't we revisit this? And we'll do this as a sexy little reel, or we can talk about this as chapter of the book, whatever, whatever. But take the pressure off and I want you to be consistent. Keep showing up. The world needs you. The world needs what you have to say. So bitch, keep fucking talking. And don't expect everything that comes out of your mouth to be an art form. It will be for some, but we can't continually expect. That we are gonna do perfect work. It's just not possible hot stuff. I love this. I love you. I am batch recording today and it's funny, I, I, I feel like that the first episode that I was gonna record today, it just was not coming out properly and I was talking and I'm like, oh, this isn't good. And I gave it like a red hot go. And then I was like, okay, awesome. You've got something down. That's okay. Let's go and record the next one. And I recorded another episode and I have no idea, but I just had this little, this little thought pop up around like the expectation of perfect work. And I'm like, let's record an episode on that. And normally like, I don't script 'em, but I just come up with some like little talking points that I want to mention. And I had nothing, but I'm like, I think this needs to be said because. It's interesting that I have had people say to me before. Do you ever record podcast episodes that you feel are terrible? And I'm like, more than you would think. But it's interesting because there are gonna be some where you are like, oh, I bet it was this one. And there would be it. It'd be the one where I'm like, oh, I was really proud of that. So you never really know how work is gonna land with people, because I think it is always gonna meet them where they're at. They're gonna hear what they need. And you can be really articulate, but if, if someone is wanting something else and like, it's just not gonna hit, it's just not gonna land for them. You know what I mean? So take the pressure off, be consistent, show up, be sexy, be hot. So love that. I love you more than the fact that I am getting like some really good referrals at the moment. I had someone message me the other day and she was like, I'm in this business membership and everyone is talking about how exceptional you are and so many of these people are working with you, and I just wanted to pass that on, it's so nice when your name has been spoken about in a really positive, uplifting way. I think like I grew up with like a lot of like bitching and like women against women, and if someone said, someone was talking about you, my default mode would always be, oh, what were they saying? And I knew that it would be something negative. Where it's so nice now and fuck, I'm sure that still happens, but like, it's so nice now when someone's like, someone's talking about you in a business setting and it's so complimentary. Even back to the theme of this podcast episode, that only happens because I always show up. This is something where if you want opportunities and if you want that, then you have to be visible. And the side effect of being visible is sometimes you're gonna be visible doing stuff that you're not that happy with. So if you want that, everything's a trade off, but I love that, that person share that with me. How nice is that? I, so I love you more than that. I also love you more than compliments. I love you more than compliments. If you're a man, you'll be like, what do you mean? I thought you weren't a words of affirmation person. Well, I'm not for men. I'm cash. If you're a man, you should just, you should just give every woman money and presents like you. If you wanna praise them. You know what you do? You write it in a card, and in the card you put cash. That's how it works. I always try to compliment people, not in a fake way, but I think sometimes we can think something and it doesn't ever leave our mouth. I don't know why we're like that. So I've made more of an effort. Of when I see something awesome, I just compliment them. Oh my God, your hair looks so beautiful. I love your shoes. I love your outfit, your makeup looks beautiful. Especially if someone has put effort in. I will always, always, always try where I can to compliment them. So I love you more than that. I also love you more than the structure this podcast has kind of taken. I like kind of starting business first and then ending like personal. It kind of feels like you've gone to a business seminar and we've done the talk and like the end of the podcast is like the knock. Drinks. It's kind of like when you go out to a dinner party and then some people leave and there's this really core group of unhinged people that are left, and that's when the exceptional chat happens. And I feel like that that's happened with this podcast because I've listened to a few business podcasts and they start like personal first. And I'm kind of in two minds because sometimes I love it, i'm happy to hear a life update, but sometimes I'm like, when is this gonna start? I get so impatient. So I feel like that we are in good flow in the podcast, so love you more than that. I love you more than how like. Nice. The year is starting out. I'm gonna be honest with you. I had like a few clients finish up and it's really funny because I think at the end of last year, or maybe it was the start of this year, I recorded some podcast episodes about like clients not wanting to work with you anymore. And I had three long-term clients finish up and they're like, thank you, this has been awesome. I'm gonna go up my own. And it's funny because I'm like, okay, awesome. I've given you the skills, but then. It still in a way feels like a little bit of a breakup. There is obviously an element when this is my livelihood, it sustains everything. I'm like, okay, shit. We've had some clients finish up and it's scary. You know, money gets taken off the table that you thought could be there. I had to kind of go through this period of like uncertainty of, okay, cool. We've had some clients finish up. And we need to get some new ones in to replace that revenue. And for a while it just felt quiet, right? I'm like, I'm doing the work, I'm doing the sales stuff, I'm doing all the things, doing the follow ups is feeling really quiet. And it's funny because, my clients are fucking killing it. They are doing so well. And I had this moment of being like, fire out. How come I can, how come? Like I can advise them and this is just doing so well, but for me it's just slow. And I had to really coach myself in that moment and be like, well, sometimes things are just gonna take a little time to pay off. You never know who is like in the works. I had. A few clients sign up and one of them had said, I had checked the Business Bang Sales page for you do not know how long, and I announced that I was gonna put the price up a business bang. And she was like, I was like, I don't wanna pay more. Now is the time. And I will say she's doing phenomenally well. In such a short space of time, so I fucking love that. But I wanna say that too because I feel like sometimes we think that we can, we're like out of that, that hard patch in business. And I don't ever think that we get a smooth run ever. I think that we become better at business, we become better at dealing with uncertainty. You think about it, I'm 17 years into business like this business is six years old and there are still little road bumps and you still have to deal with things. I don't know where I was going with this. I love you more than, but I guess I love you more than things just really coming together in a nice way. I love you more than. My past self and her ability to self-coach and to do the work for current me, that is so fine with uncertainty. Like I could have $0 in the bank, I could have no clients and look, it wouldn't be fun to deal with, but I know that I would be okay and I've only gotten from that point because my past self, that bad bitch, she did the work to get me here. Oh, I love that. How fun is that? Just take a minute to think about your past self. Take a minute to think about her, thank her and be like, thank you so fucking much for doing the work to get me where I am today. And how cool is it that there is a future version of you that is thinking about current you right now? And they are saying that, they're like, thank you past self for doing that. Thank you so much. They're looking at you right now with so much gratitude for all the work that you've done. So what I'm gonna say with that is, bitch, stop listening to the podcast. Go and do something. Go sell some shit or make your future self proud. I love this. I love you and hot stuff. I'll see you on the next episode.

18:11

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