The 4 C’s – Your Digital Toolbox

Historically I have been crippled with perfectionism.

It has prevented me from actually going where I want to go. I build something, code a plugin, build a website, record and edit a video, and never release it because it wouldn’t be good enough for the people I am following or trying to be like.

What’s more frustrating, though, is realizing that more than a decade has passed, and I have not shared much about what I have done. No one knows about the successes, failures, and more importantly, what I have learned. That pointed realization has started the journey I am now on.

In the last six months or so I have come across a concept that has helped me immensely. A new paradigm if you will.

This phrase:

This is what I'm working on __________ Let me show you what I figured out...

I know that it seems obvious, Hindsight always is. This phrase Is what I repeat to myself to overcome my perfectionism. Here’s why:

If I told you that I had oatmeal for breakfast today, would you argue with me?

Hopefully not, 😉 because that was my experience. I am not in any way shape or form telling you that you should have oatmeal for your breakfast. That’s simply what happened to me.

Similarly, this phrase removes the judgment I place on my work in my mind because where I am in life is a different space from where Alex Hermosi or Dan Martell are. I don’t ( yet ) have the same resources they do to make the same level of cool stuff.

This phrase DOES, however, allow others who self-identify as trying to do the same things I’m doing to learn from the mistakes I make. It even presupposes that I don’t know what I’m doing. (It turns out I don’t know what I’m doing a significant portion of the time. )

That long-winded although cathartic explanation brings me to what I’m working on right now. I’m developing this website as a community to share my process of building an online business that can support my family financially and allow me to pursue my dreams.

There are 4 levers

Can you think of any other leavers you would add to this list?x

we can use to take advantage of our life experience: Code, Content, Capital, and Collaboration. Dan Martell has spoken about this many times, and for more explanation from him, check out some of his reels.

This website & community is my playground for exploring all four of these concepts, as well as an opportunity for me to grow in each area.

Personal Evaluation:

Code 6/10

What it is:

Code allows you to tell a computer how to do a task, and then it will do that thing automatically until you tell it to stop. For example I recently finished my Plugin Tools (still in alpha) which allows me to track paid plugins I have purchased. Code can be a huge source of leverage in life, and we will be showcasing this a lot here on the site.

My Assessment

Graduating from university with a degree in CS, and my continual love of figuring out things makes this area the one I feel most confident in. I have developed several internal plugins, and have enjoyed learning on test projects. My focus is currently on wordpress development, but I have done some work building a next app with react. I came to the realization that I just need more money to develop the ideas I have into SaaS software. Until then, my focus is here on developing this community.

Areas of Improvement

For my day job, at the time of writing, I work for an engineering firm, and Historically I have not worked in an actual software development team. I am excellent at figuring things out, and want to either build a team or join a software development team. I feel like this is probably my biggest limitation to date. I don’t feel like I would have a problem working with a team, the opportunity has simply not come up ( yet ).

Content: 3/10

What it is:

Content allows you to multiply your time in a really special way. You can explain something once and have 1000+ people receive that learning, instruction, information, or entertainment.

Some of the biggest companies are built on content.

My Assessment

Writing has never been my strong suit, but here we are 🤓 I have tried my hand at making a few tutorial videos, but again struggled with my perfectionism. To combat this, I am now writing out would be video ideas as blog posts, and then if it makes sense, making a video about the blog post. My hope here is that by producing a part of the process, AND PUBLISHING IT, I can grow the momentum I need to make a larger number of videos. For example, I just posted a course on building an Intune library. For my job I was tasked with figuring out how to make that work in our company, and felt this was the best way of capturing the process. Now I can make small videos for each step and put in the reps for making a smaller pointed video.

To Be Determined if this is the best strategy for me to produce more content.

Areas of Improvement

Adding to my content library consistently is probably the biggest thing here. Content Calendar anyone?

Capital: 2/10

What it is:

Capital allows you to multiply your output in several ways. First, if you have a lot of money simply investing it can return you more money 💰 Neat eh? But almost more than that, Capital allows you to purchase tools, equipment, software, and more to aid in the process of building your company. Capital allows you to purchase time from other people so that you can expand your vision, and get more done.

My Assessment

At the moment I would say 1 or a 2 because at the time of writing, I still work a day job, which pays well for what I do, but I am actively working on growing my capital. At the moment my intention for this site is to run affiliate offers for things that I’m already using. Check out the Resources page and see if there is software there you might be interested in using. If you buy it from them, I get a small percentage of the sale, and can continue developing the site.

Areas of Improvement

There is a lot of improvement available here. Picking a specific item I would like to get to making 1K / month via affiliate offers. That probably means making more tutorials on how I am using the software I have already purchased.

Collaboration: 2/10

What it is:

Building large things takes time. Realistically more time than any one of us have. But together, there’s a chance we can get outsized gains by working together. Some might say the sum is greater than the parts. Building relationships is a huge part of creating leverage.

I remember going into a business. One of the owners was pretty good at computers, but no formal training. He was trying to build a community platform for the employees/clients of their business. He had taken several months and was about 5% of the way to a minimum viable product. ( He was trying to build it from scratch. ) I came in and was able to leverage my experience, tools, and plugins and had a working community platform that was rolled out to the company 2 weeks later.

There are other people out there that are really good at what they do, can do it in a fraction of the time it would take you, and love what they do.

My Assessment

As an elementary school kid, I was bullied significantly. Because of that and other experiences my thoughts tend to drift toward what I do not being good enough. As an adult I have had experience after experience where people are super grateful for the work that I have done for them, and honestly, my wife never passes an opportunity to lift me up and point out areas where I have done well communicating to people or pointing out when people were grateful for connecting with me. Naturally an Introvert, I am most happy when I can work on something I a passionate about. Headphones In. Laser Focused on the next thing I’m building. Connecting with others is difficult for me.

Areas of Improvement

There’s a lot that can be improved here, and thats a large reason why I decided to go the community route and not just a course site. I want to connect with other people in the same general vein as myself. Entrepreneurial minded people, who want to build a business online and want to connect with a community while doing it.

Conclusion

I am interested in doing this kind of self evaluation again in the future to see what progress has been made. Take a minute in your own life and assess how well you are implementing these four levers in your own life. Code Content, Capital, and Collaboration.

Tell me what your take on these 4 levers!x