28:51Matthew Larsen · Listicle
How to overcome self-sabotage and get 10x more done
A marketing agency owner who says he's coached 550+ clients breaks down the seven daily systems he actually uses to stop getting in his own way.
December 31st 2025The argument in one line.
The block behind "I know what to do, I'm just not doing it" is rarely motivation. It's usually a task that's still too big and vague, and the fix is shrinking the ask, not finding more willpower.
Read if. Skip if.
READ IF YOU ARE…
- You're a solopreneur, coach, or course creator who keeps saying you'll write the book, build the funnel, or start the podcast and never does.
- You've tried reward-based motivation systems, internal deadlines, or productivity books like Eat That Frog and none of it stuck.
- You freeze up recording video, writing content, or publishing anything because a voice in your head says it's not good enough yet.
- You want a set of specific, low-effort mental tricks rather than another lecture on discipline.
SKIP IF…
- You genuinely don't know what your next concrete step is yet — this video assumes you already know the task and just can't start it.
- You're looking for tactical how-to on a specific skill (recording, editing, marketing) rather than a mindset/motivation framework.
The full version, fast.
When a solopreneur says "I know what to do, I'm just not doing it," the real problem is usually that the task is still too big and vague to start. Cindy Bidar first has clients get specific about the next concrete step, then walks through eight tricks she uses to get past the resistance: commit to just five minutes, tell herself she won't publish the result, promise to fix mistakes in post-production instead of restarting, remember that almost no one is actually watching closely (the spotlight effect), build in public to create real external deadlines, design a workspace and toolset she enjoys using, turn her metrics into a game, and keep one specific person in mind who needs what she's making. Reward-based motivation, internal deadlines, "eat the frog," and the five-second rule never worked for her because they're all still asking her brain to just push through with willpower. The eight tricks work because each one lowers the size of the ask or adds a real external consequence instead.
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00:00 – 01:15
01 · Intro
Cindy opens with the "I know what to do, I'm just not doing it" line her clients repeat, introduces herself as a former middle manager turned solopreneur coach, and asks for a subscribe.
01:15 – 03:10
02 · Get clear on what's next
Her first diagnostic question to stuck clients: do you actually know what to do, or is the goal still a vague big project ("write a book," "start a podcast") that needs to be chunked into an actual next task.
03:10 – 06:31
03 · Things that didn't work for me
Rewards, internal deadlines, Eat That Frog, and the 5 Second Rule all failed for her because they still rely on willpower with no real external cost for skipping them.
06:31 – 08:22
04 · The "5 Minutes" method
Promise yourself only five minutes on the task; the small ask gets you started, and momentum usually carries you well past the five-minute mark.
08:22 – 10:40
05 · The "I won't publish this" strategy
Telling herself she doesn't have to publish removes the inner critic long enough to finish a draft; she used it for every one of 150 podcast episodes and published all of them.
10:40 – 13:30
06 · The "I'll fix it in post" reframe
Instead of scrapping a recording after a mistake, she keeps going and cuts the flub out later, comparing it to not stopping your bike when you wobble.
13:30 – 15:07
07 · The "no one is watching" mindset shift
The spotlight effect: out of 2,600 viewers on a video with a visible typo, only one person noticed, and only after she pointed it out herself.
15:07 – 17:59
08 · The "build it in public" forcing function
Public commitments create real external deadlines that internal ones can't; she grew her business by publicly promising members a new course every month.
17:59 – 20:50
09 · The "love the process" design rule
Designing an environment and toolset she genuinely enjoys, from her office to her mechanical keyboard to DaVinci Resolve over CapCut, makes it easier to sit down and work.
20:50 – 23:16
10 · The "it's a game" motivator
Chasing YouTube's most-improved-video confetti, email list growth, and conversion-rate experiments turns tasks she resists into something she competes with herself over.
23:16 – 25:34
11 · The "Gloria needs this" angle
Keeping one specific real person in mind while creating content turns an abstract task into a concrete act of helping someone she knows needs it.
Lines worth screenshotting.
- The first question to ask when you're stuck isn't "why can't I do this" — it's "do I actually know what 'this' is," because vague goals like "build a course" can't be executed, only chunked-down tasks can.
- Rewarding yourself for finishing a project doesn't work if you're an adult who can already buy yourself lunch whenever you want — the reward has no real leverage.
- Internal deadlines fail because your own brain knows you set them and knows you can move them, so there's no real cost to blowing past one.
- Committing to just five minutes on a task works because the ask is small enough to accept, and starting is usually what generates the momentum to keep going.
- Telling yourself "I won't publish this" removes the inner critic long enough to finish a draft — she used this trick for all 150 episodes of a podcast and published every single one.
- Treating mistakes like a wobble on a bike instead of a reason to start over saves enormous time: fix it in editing, don't scrap the whole recording.
- The spotlight effect means almost no one is scrutinizing your work as closely as you think — out of 2,600 viewers on a video with an on-screen typo, exactly one person mentioned it, and only after she pointed it out herself.
- Internal deadlines don't create urgency, but a public commitment does — announcing a launch date to an audience, especially if you pre-sell it, forces the work to actually happen.
- Designing an environment and toolset you enjoy (a favorite chair, a mechanical keyboard, preferred editing software) makes it easier to sit down and start, because the process itself becomes more pleasant.
- Turning metrics into a game — chasing a YouTube "most improved video" ranking, an email list milestone, or a better conversion rate — can substitute for motivation when discipline alone isn't enough.
- Keeping one specific real person in mind while creating content turns an abstract task into a concrete act of helping someone, which is often easier to act on than an abstract goal.
Shrink the ask or add a real consequence, don't rely on willpower.
WHAT TO LEARN
The gap between knowing what to do and doing it usually closes with a smaller, more specific ask or a real external stake, not more discipline or bigger rewards.
02Get clear on what's next
- Before blaming motivation, check whether the task is actually specific enough to start; "write a book" isn't a task, "brainstorm 25 titles" is.
03Things that didn't work for me
- Reward-based motivation tends to fail for people who can already grant themselves rewards on their own terms; it has no real leverage over behavior.
- Internal deadlines rarely hold because you know you set them and know you can move them without any real cost.
- "Eat the frog" and countdown tricks like the 5 Second Rule are still asking you to force through with sheer willpower, which doesn't work for everyone.
04The "5 Minutes" method
- Committing to a tiny fixed window, like five minutes, lowers the barrier enough to start, and starting is usually what produces the momentum to keep going.
05The "I won't publish this" strategy
- Giving yourself permission not to publish or ship a draft can remove the inner-critic paralysis that stops you from finishing it at all.
06The "I'll fix it in post" reframe
- Treating a mistake mid-task like a wobble to correct, not a reason to restart from scratch, saves enormous time across any creative or writing process.
07The "no one is watching" mindset shift
- Most people are too absorbed in their own lives to scrutinize your work as closely as you fear; a public mistake is usually far less noticed than you assume.
08The "build it in public" forcing function
- A public commitment, especially one that's pre-sold or announced to an audience, creates a real deadline that an internal one never will.
09The "love the process" design rule
- Enjoying your actual working environment and tools removes friction that otherwise makes it easier to avoid the task altogether.
10The "it's a game" motivator
- Turning a resisted task into a game against your own metrics can substitute for motivation on days when discipline alone isn't enough.
11The "Gloria needs this" angle
- Keeping one specific person in mind while doing the work turns an abstract task into a concrete act of helping someone, which is often easier to act on.
Terms worth knowing.
- Spotlight effect
- A psychological bias where people overestimate how much others notice and judge their mistakes, when in reality most people are too absorbed in their own lives to pay close attention.
- Eat That Frog
- A productivity method from Brian Tracy's book of the same name, built on a Mark Twain quote: do your least appealing task first thing in the morning, and if you have two, do the worst one first.
- 5 Second Rule
- A technique popularized by Mel Robbins where you count backward from five to one and then physically move, using the countdown to interrupt hesitation before it turns into avoidance.
- Build in public
- Publicly announcing a project, deadline, or launch to an audience so that outside accountability replaces an internal deadline you could otherwise ignore.
Things they pointed at.
05:35bookEat That Frog (Brian Tracy)
06:10bookThe 5 Second Rule (Mel Robbins)
09:40productTiny Course Empire podcast
18:30toolDaVinci Resolve
18:50toolCapCut
Lines you could clip.
03:45
“Because I'm a grown adult with money and a car. And if I wanna take myself out to lunch, I'm gonna take myself out to lunch.”
14:10
“2,600 people have watched that video. And do you know how many people commented about that big glaring typo? One.”
09:40
“I tricked my brain this way for all the episodes, all 150 episodes of my Tiny Course Empire podcast... And you know how many times I didn't publish? Zero.”
25:24
“Hustle is out. Systems are in.”
Word for word.
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metaphoranalogystory
Something my clients often say to me is, I know what to do. I'm just not doing it.
And that used to be me too. And that thinking, that way of thinking kept me stuck for years in a day job that was going nowhere while I was trying to launch my own business.
And then once I was working for myself, it kept me stuck as a freelancer trading time for money when what I really wanted was the financial and lifestyle freedom that being a course creator and business coach and membership site owner could offer me. Then I figured out how to trick my brain into doing the things that I needed to do even when I didn't feel like it.
Things like learning a new skill or showing up on camera or making offers to my email list. By the way, if you're new here, my name is Cindy, and I'm a former middle manager turned solopreneur.
And today, I help smart, experienced solopreneurs just like you turn what they know into what they're known for.
So if that's something you're interested in, hit the subscribe button because I post new videos every single week, and I never gatekeep the good stuff, like how to trick your brain into doing the things that you don't feel like doing. One thing I always ask my clients when they say that to me, when they say, I know what to do.
I'm just not doing it. The first question I ask is, are you sure you know what to do? Because a lot of times, they don't.
And that was me too. I had this vague idea that I wanted to write a book or that I should be building my blog or that I should create a YouTube channel or make a course.
But those are big projects that take a lot of effort and a lot of different tasks and a lot of they have a lot of moving parts.
It's not something that you can sit down in your office and just do like making a grocery list.
There's a lot more involved than that. So when you find yourself saying, I know what to do. I'm just not doing it.
I want you to get really clear on what it is you need to do.
Because if the answer to that question is, well, I need to make a website or I need to make a course or I need to start a podcast, then you're gonna need to chunk that down quite a bit further until it is something you can actually do. You cannot launch a course, but you can brainstorm course ideas or come up with 25 potential titles or create a survey to send to your email list about what they need to learn.
Thinking this way creates a clear step forward instead of leaving that big ball of random tasks hanging over your head. So that's the very first step to take.
Once you know that, it's much easier to get started even if you don't feel like it. I'm gonna give you eight ways that I use to get started to do things that I don't necessarily wanna do, but I wanna spend a minute before we go there talking about the things that don't work for me.
There's a lot of advice out there about how you can get yourself motivated, how you can get yourself to take the action that you know you need to be taking.
And not all of it works for everybody. And for a long time, I thought that there was something wrong with me because the most common advice really didn't seem to work for me.
Advice like give yourself a reward when you accomplish that goal, when the book is finished, when the course is finished, when you've published the blog post.
Give yourself a reward, take yourself out for lunch, or go see a movie, or buy a new purse. None of that works for me. And you know why?
Because I'm a grown adult with money and a car. And if I wanna take myself out to lunch, I'm gonna take myself out to lunch. And I can easily justify the fact that I don't need to create that course or publish that blog post because I deserve to have lunch.
I'm an adult, and I get to make those decisions for myself. So the idea of giving myself a reward for accomplishing a goal or completing a project never worked for me.
Another thing that doesn't work for me, internal deadlines. I was told this for years. Just create a deadline.
Just give yourself a date on the calendar that this project needs to be done by. You know what? My brain knows I'm lying to myself.
It knows that that deadline doesn't really exist. It doesn't exist for anybody but me, and therefore, I don't have to abide by it.
Why would I? I can just let it slide right on by and set a new deadline. So internal deadlines don't work.
Another thing that doesn't work for me, eating frogs. You may have heard of this. It comes from a book called eat that frog by Brian Tracy, and the idea is that well, it's based on a quote by Mark Twain who said, if you have to , it's best to do it first thing in the morning.
And if you have to eat two, eat the biggest one first. The idea being that if you have a task to do that you don't necessarily want to do or that you're not excited about, not motivated about, that you should tackle it first thing in the morning.
But I gotta tell you, the last thing that I wanna do on a beautiful morning when I could be doing anything is that task that I've been putting it off for weeks or months even. No.
Eating a frog is not my idea of how to spend my beautiful beautiful mornings. And one more thing that has never worked for me is the five second rule. This is the Mel Robbins idea that you just count backwards from five, and when you get to one, you take action.
You move forward. This is just an internal deadline with a countdown timer as far as I'm concerned, and it has no more effect on me than the other internal deadlines. I can count down from five, get to one and convince myself, no, that wasn't that wasn't the real time.
That was just practice. Let's do it again. Five, four, three, two, one.
Okay. For real this time, let's start over again. And I can do that endlessly.
Five seconds means nothing to me. It never worked. But I do have some things that do work for me, and maybe some of them will work for you too.
Starting with the five minutes method. Now you may have heard about this one. This is where you promise yourself, I'm just gonna spend five minutes on this task.
I'm only going to open up the document. That's all I'm committing to. I don't have to do any more than that.
And the reason that this works is because it's a really small ask. It's not a lot to spend five minutes on something. Right?
Everybody's got five minutes. But, also, not only is there an end to it, but the idea is once you have spent that five minutes, if you spend it earnestly and honestly doing the task or moving forward on that task, you will build up the momentum, and you will keep going even after the five minutes is up.
I used to use this all the time when I was doing freelance writing because I would procrastinate terribly on those freelance projects.
I would have weeks or months to get started on a project, and I would inevitably wait until the final few days before I would even start. But by promising myself, I'm only going to spend five minutes on this.
That's all I have to do. It allowed me to get started on even a huge project, and I could then let that momentum carry me through.
And quite often, I would spend thirty or forty or even ninety minutes on that task once I got started.
So give yourself five minutes. It's an easy ask and promise yourself that you can stop once those five minutes are done.
My guess is you will keep going. Another trick I use all the time to get my brain to do something that I am putting off is the I won't publish this strategy.
This is exactly what it sounds like. I am producing something. I am writing a blog post or recording a podcast episode or recording a video and telling myself, I won't publish this.
I don't have to publish this. This helps me get over the hurdle of this is terrible.
It's that voice in the back of my head saying this is bad. Uh, no one's gonna listen to this. No one wants to read this.
This doesn't make sense. All of those things that my brain is telling me, it helps me get past that and just get the process done. Just create the thing that I am creating.
And I give myself permission to do that by saying, I'm not going to publish this. I don't have to publish this.
I tricked my brain this way for all the episodes, all 150 episodes of my Tiny Course Empire podcast.
Every single time I sat down to record that podcast, I told myself, I don't have to publish this. Because somewhere in the back of my mind, I was thinking, this outline is no good.
This doesn't make any sense. No one needs to hear this. No one's going to understand this.
Oh, I stumbled over my words again. This is terrible. It doesn't sound professional at all.
And throughout that entire process with that running dialogue in my head, I could continue to say, it's okay. I don't have to publish it.
And that is what got me through recording all 150 episodes of that podcast. And you know how many times I didn't publish?
Zero. I published every single episode. I never rerecorded a single one.
So if you're nervous about getting started, especially being on camera or recording your voice or maybe creating a course, something along those lines where you're really putting yourself out there.
If that makes you nervous, fire up your camera, your microphone, and just tell yourself, I don't have to publish this. I can just throw it away when I'm done.
Another way that I trick my brain into doing things that it does not want to do is by saying, I'll fix it in post production. When I first started recording video courses before I was on long before I was on YouTube, I was recording video courses for my membership.
And every time I would hit record, something would happen. Either I would stumble over my words, I would start rambling, go down a rabbit hole.
That happens quite a bit, honestly. I would lose my train of thought and end up staring off into space for a few seconds.
I would bump the microphone and ruin the recording, and I used to scrap the whole thing and start over. So picture this.
I'm ten minutes into a recording, twenty minutes into a recording, and I make a mistake, and I scrap the whole thing and start over again. I can't tell you how much time I wasted doing that.
And I was listening to a another YouTube creator just the other day talking about something similar, and he likened it to riding a bicycle. And he said, you're you're pedaling your bike down the street, and you lose your you know, you get distracted by something.
You lose your train of thought, and you kinda slow down pedaling and the bike starts to wobble a little bit. You don't then stop and get off your bike and go back to the beginning and start over again.
That would be stupid. No. You just start pedaling again and you keep going.
And I had to learn how to do that with not only recording my courses, but with writing content and recording my podcast episodes. I had to learn to just keep going and telling myself, I'm just gonna fix it in post production.
I can I can stop recording when I can stop speaking when the dog barks and edit that spot out?
I can cut out all the parts where I'm staring off into space thinking about what I'm gonna say next. And if you could see the raw recording of this video, you would know that this raw recording is at least twice as long as the version that you see.
Because I cut out all the parts where the dog barks and where my husband's making coffee and where the doorbell rings. All of that gets cut out, but it doesn't mean that I stop the recording.
It means I fix it in post production. The important thing is to get your ideas out of your head first, whether that's audio or video or even written words.
Get them out of your head. You can always make them better in post production in the editing process. The fourth strategy that I use to trick my brain into doing hard things is to remember that no one is watching.
This is an important mindset shift that it took me years to figure out, but there's this thing called the spotlight effect, which makes us believe that everyone is paying far more attention to what we do and what we say than they are actually paying to us. We are all wrapped up in our own lives.
We don't have time or mental capacity to pay any attention to what somebody else is doing, and I can prove it to you. A few weeks ago, I published a YouTube video that has a glaring typo on one of the title screens.
I didn't notice it, obviously, until after I had hit the publish button on YouTube. And if you are not aware, once you publish a video on YouTube, you can't replace the video. You can't change it to a different video.
You can do some very rudimentary editing. Like, I could cut that whole section out, but then the whole video wouldn't make sense. So I have to leave it there.
2,600 people have watched that video. And do you know how many people commented about that big glaring typo?
One. One person. And the only reason she commented is because I brought it up first.
I mentioned that there was a typo in that video, and she said, oh, yeah. I saw that. I noticed that.
But the spotlight effect would have me believing that all 2,600 people have seen that typo and now think that I am a complete moron. It turns out I'm not the center of the universe and neither are you.
No one is really watching at all. The fifth trick that I use to convince my brain to do something that it does not want to do is to build it in public.
So I said earlier that internal deadlines don't do anything for me. I know they're a lie, and I can just fly right past them. But by building in public, I'm creating an external deadline.
Other people are watching. Other people are counting on me to do what I said I was going to do. So that brings in a whole new level of consequences and deadlines that I will meet.
Seven years ago now, I was a brand new course creator. I was creating courses on a rather irregular basis.
Some months, I would create a course. Some months, I wouldn't. Most months, I wouldn't, to be honest.
Some months, I would write blog posts. Some weeks, I wouldn't. Uh, you know, I was it was all very irregular.
No consistency whatsoever. And I knew that if I wanted my business to grow and if I wanted my income to grow, that I needed to bring more consistency to my course creation, to my marketing efforts.
But those internal deadlines just weren't doing it for me. So I made the decision to build in public, and I launched a membership where I promised members new training every single month.
Obviously, I wasn't gonna let them down, so I started creating a new course every single month. That's how I built in public and created those external deadlines that then helped me grow my business.
So if you sometimes struggle with producing content on a consistent basis or creating courses or making coaching offers, then maybe you can think about how you can build in public. Make a public announcement to your social media followers, to your YouTube followers, to your email list, make that public announcement and say, I am going to do this thing every week or every month and ask them to follow along and hold you accountable.
And even better, if you can sell the thing ahead of time. So if you want to create a course, for example, then set that deadline, let your email list know, let your followers know that you're gonna release a course on a specific date and ask them to pay you for it now.
Not only will this tell you if there's enough interest in the course that you should be creating it, but it will also force you to get it done because the last thing that you're gonna wanna do is take people's money and then not deliver on the course that you promised. That is a surefire way to get you out of that I know what to do.
I'm just not doing it slump. The sixth thing that I do to trick my brain into doing things it thinks it doesn't wanna do is I design my environment so that I enjoy the process more.
I've talked about the idea of loving the process when it comes to your business instead of just loving what it is you do or what it is you teach. It's more effective to love the business building process.
That's what keeps us motivated to keep putting ourselves out there, to keep doing the marketing, to keep sending the emails, whatever it is that grows your business. The more you love the process, the more you will be willing to do it.
But what I'm talking about here is designing an environment that you love to spend time in. And this goes for everything from your office setup.
I absolutely love my cozy little office. I spend most of my time in here.
If I'm not at my desk working on my business, I'm sitting in this chair back here reading a book or surfing the Internet or whatever I'm doing.
I love to spend time in here. It's my favorite room in the house, but I also love the tools that I use. I have a, uh, clicky mechanical keyboard that I love to type on.
I love the way it feels when I'm typing, and that makes it much more pleasurable to write. I love the software that I use. I've talked before about the editing software that I use DaVinci Resolve.
I use DaVinci. My husband prefers CapCut. I don't like CapCut.
I don't like the interface. I have nothing against the software itself. I think it's very capable and and very user friendly.
I just don't like the interface. I don't enjoy using it as much as I enjoy using DaVinci Resolve. So by designing my environment from the chair that I'm sitting in to my you know, the colors of my office to the equipment that I'm using, That design process helps me to sit down and actually do the things that I need to do to grow my business because I enjoy using them.
The next time you find yourself resisting doing something, whether it's writing a blog post or recording a video or reaching out to a potential client, ask yourself, do I enjoy that process?
Do I actually enjoy going into my office and going to work? Or is my office environment just meh?
Not really not really something that I love. Because I'm telling you, if you don't love your environment where you do your work, it's much easier to just hang out on the couch. The seventh little trick that I use to trick my brain into doing things it doesn't necessarily want to do is to turn it into a game.
I am a very competitive person. My guess is you are too. Most entrepreneurs are.
And this used to show up in my business as being competitive about money. I wanted to see how much money could I earn. Could I make $10,000 a month?
Could I make $50,000 a month? And that chasing after the money was what kept me motivated, which was what kept me going.
I also chased leaderboards when I was doing affiliate marketing very heavily. It was really exciting to get on a leaderboard to potentially win a prize, win extra cash, or even just get my name at the top of the leaderboard was very exciting for me.
It fed my competitive nature and oftentimes got me to send one more email that I wasn't probably going to send or to show up one more time live on Facebook to promote something.
Now what motivates me looks a little bit different. Uh, right now, it is the YouTube ranking. If you have a YouTube channel, then you know that on the back end in the studio, YouTube ranks your last 10 videos by how well they're doing.
And if you hit the number one spot where your video for your latest video is outperforming all the other ones, then they throw a little confetti party for you. And chasing that little confetti party, the dopamine that you get from that is quite something.
It's quite motivating for me. I am always chasing the confetti party. I also gamify my business by trying to improve my conversion rates, improve my sales page conversion rate.
What if I use this headline instead of that headline? What if I change the buy button color from orange to red?
Will that improve my conversion rates? So chasing after those conversion rates is another way that I gamify my activities. I also gamify my email list.
How many people can I add to my email list? How high can I boost my open rates or my click through rates? Those are all things that encourage me to do the things that I don't necessarily feel like doing simply by turning them into a game in my brain.
And the last way that I trick my brain into doing things that I don't necessarily feel like doing is to remind myself that Gloria needs to hear this.
Gloria is a real life friend of mine. She is an amazing person. She's one of the strongest, most caring, compassionate people I have ever met, And she has been in business for longer than I have, and she still sometimes struggles with the I know what to do.
I'm just not doing it mindset. So every time I create one of these videos or record a course or write a blog post or an email, I am thinking of Gloria and how can I help Gloria build the business that I know she deserves and that she's capable of?
So she's always in the back of my mind, and you have a Gloria too. There is someone in your life who you know who needs what you have to offer.
And if you keep that person in mind when you are creating your content, when you are sending your emails, when you are developing your courses or your coaching programs, then it makes it that much easier to sit down and do the thing that your brain is resisting because you are helping your friend, Gloria, achieve a result that you know she wants to achieve.
So those are my eight ways of tricking my brain into doing something that it doesn't necessarily want to do. Because I gotta be honest, I am not always motivated to sit down at my desk first thing in the morning and get to work.
I'm lazy like everybody else. I would rather sit and watch TV or go for a walk or hang out at the pool or go for a drive.
There's a lot of other things I could be doing besides working. But these eight things help keep me moving, help keep me doing the things that I don't necessarily feel like doing when discipline alone just doesn't cut it.
But I'd like to hear from you. How do you trick your brain into doing hard things? How do you stay motivated to work on your business?
Let me know in the comments below. And remember, hustle is out.
Systems are in. I'll see you next time.
The Hook
The bait, then the rug-pull.
Cindy Bidar opens with the line her coaching clients say most: "I know what to do, I'm just not doing it." Her first move isn't a pep talk, it's a diagnostic question, and from there she works through eight specific tricks she uses on her own brain to get unstuck.
Named ideas worth stealing.
06:31list
8 ways to trick your brain into doing hard things
- Commit to five minutes
- Tell yourself you won't publish it
- Fix it in post production
- Remember no one is watching
- Build it in public
- Design an environment you love
- Turn it into a game
- Keep one specific person in mind
Cindy's working list of tricks for getting past the gap between knowing what to do and starting, each one either shrinking the ask or adding a real external consequence.
Steal forany creator/coach onboarding sequence or content-consistency framework
03:10list
What didn't work for me
- Reward yourself when the project is done
- Set an internal deadline
- Eat the frog (do the worst task first)
- The 5 Second Rule
Four popular pieces of motivation advice that Cindy says never worked for her, because none of them create a real cost for skipping the task.
Steal forframing a contrarian intro before presenting your own method
How they asked for the click.
VERBAL ASK
01:15subscribe
“hit the subscribe button because I post new videos every single week”
Soft subscribe ask folded into her self-intro, right after the diagnostic hook. No product pitch mid-video; the coaching links (sixfiguresystems.com, cindyhelp.me/get-unstuck) only appear in the description, not spoken. The video closes with a comment-engagement CTA ("how do you trick your brain") rather than a sales ask.
FROM THE DESCRIPTION
PRIMARY CTAWhere the creator wants you to go next.
OTHER LINKSAlso linked in the description.
Visual structure at a glance.
