Have you been following the Olympics? If so, your feed probably looked a lot like mine with tons of buzz around one athlete in particular — Stephen Nedoroscik.
Side note: If you know me, you know I love a good break-the-norm story, and this is it!
Photo Credit: Stephen Nedoroscik’s Instagram
Team USA’s male gymnast Stephen Nedoroscik made headlines at the 2024 Paris Olympics for his unusual competition style.
You see, Olympic gymnastics teams typically choose five all-around gymnasts to compete in every event for their country. This year, the team raised a few eyebrows when they chose to have one of their team members, Stephen Nedoroscik, only compete in one event — the notoriously difficult pommel horse.
Why not choose another all-around gymnast for the team and exclude event-specific athletes? And why wasn’t Nedoroscik allowed to compete in all of the events?
The reality is he wanted to compete in them all. He trained and tried all of the events. But the reality was, he just wasn’t as strong in every event. Instead, he was exceptionally skilled in the pommel horse. His scores were leaps and bounds above other athletes in this one event, so the USA team knew they could use his talents in that one area to get them to the podium.
As the other athletes competed around the room, Nedoroscik sat on the sidelines, Clark Kent glasses and warm-up suit on. He was waiting for his turn to shine. When it was his turn, he shed the glasses and warm-ups and made his way to the pommel horse for this 40-second routine.
The male USA gymnastics team won its first medal in 16 years because they gave permission to someone to focus on their strongest talents rather than expecting the team to be exceptionally good at every single apparatus on that gymnastics floor.
If you’ve ever wanted a permission slip to be less than perfect at everything in business and instead focus on the area that brings you the most joy, this is it.
Too often, we, as entrepreneurs, look around and play the comparison game (I know because I have done this more times than I care to admit).
Someone in your industry is really good at podcasting, so you have to learn how to podcast, too, and skyrocket your way up to their skill level overnight, right?
Someone in your industry just launched a new course, so you should teach something similar, too, right?
Someone in your industry offers their clients more services than you do, so you should add to your menu of options, too, right?
Nope. Nope. Nope. Why? Because Nedoroscik taught us so.
As entrepreneurs, we often think we need to take on the entire gambit of exercises to support our clients but:
What if you could be of better service to others by focusing solely on areas you love?
For years, I was guilty of trying to be the all-event gymnast in business. I went from copywriter to coach because people were asking me to help them grow their business. I started a group coaching program, which I loved, because I wanted to have a dedicated space to support those conversations.
Then, reality set in. I wasn’t the all-event kind of entrepreneur. I was a writer.
After taking almost a year off from any kind of coaching, I reached out to my friends Angela and Dan Greaser at All The Ops. We met several times, they did a lot of digging on my behalf, and they helped coach me back to center.
They gave me permission to fully embrace my pommel horse routine rather than trying to jump on the rings, dance around the floor, and swing on the bars. It wasn’t the traditional approach I’d imagined, but it felt right.
Better yet, this focus freed me up to work with people who are exceptional in their own area on the entrepreneurial gymnastics floor.
You get to outsource the jobs you don’t love doing and embrace the passion projects that inspired you to start your business.
What if we shifted the narrative instead of trying to carry everything on our shoulders?
We get to work with others in our business to fill the areas we don’t love.
We get to join programs that will simplify our lives as entrepreneurs and let us embrace the freedom we craved when we first started.
We get to hire the work that no longer feels fun or fulfilling.
Being a freedom-focused entrepreneur doesn’t just mean living the good life in the RV or some fancy Airbnb. It means having the freedom to stop shouldering the weight of everything on your to-do list.
Or, as Harry Ford famously said, “Coming together is a beginning. Keeping together is progress. Working together is success.”
Success is waiting for you on the other side of collaboration and connection. All you have to do is find where you need help and reach out your hand.
Now, here’s my offer to you.
If content creation is one of those things on your list that you’d rather outsource to someone else, I have a few ways we can work together.
I have free resources coming soon to help you find your voice and feel confident using it.
The Content Creation Lab is open and available to get the ongoing support you need to write your newsletter and share it on social media, as a podcast, and/or as a vlog. Better yet, you’ll save loads of time each month while getting your voice out there with your big ideas!
Hire me to do the heavy lifting for you. Whether you need a messaging upgrade on your website or you need launch copy to convert more of your audience into buyers, you’re invited to tap into my copywriting skillset to make you more moolah.
You don’t have to take on every event in the entrepreneurial Olympics.
You don’t have to boil the ocean to be all things to all people.
You have support around you so that you can have the permission to focus on what you do best and free yourself from the pressure of what you don’t love.
Stephen Nederoscik is the prime example.
Here’s to us all winning some gold!
~ Kimberly