If You Want Something You’ve Never Had, You’ve Got to Do Something You’ve Never Done

When I was the Head of Digital Marketing at SodaStream my manager asked me to do something I have never done before: build an e-commerce website. From scratch.

You can imagine what happened next…

I freaked out.

I had no idea what to do or how to start.

This task was way out of my comfort zone.

But here is the thing:

If you want something you’ve never had, you’ve got to do something you’ve never done.

It is hard and scary to take that first step, but that’s all it takes; one step in the right direction.

This is what you can do to tackle big audacious tasks:

1. Get the lay of the land — do some high level research & talk to professional in your industry

2. Reverse engineer the big task — map out the different stages and identify the first thing you need to do [E-commerce website → UI/UX and design → payment system → website development provider → CMS platform]

3. Focus on that 1st task — do a Google search [“best CMS platform], read a book, listen to podcasts. Immerse yourself in this new territory to ace the first task

4. Execute & learn from your mistakes

5. Rinse & repeat

99% of what you need to do is figureoutable. The key is to focus on small digestible tasks so it is less intimidating to take the first step!

Originally published at https://www.mayagrossman.com on August 11, 2020.