Episode 4: The One Where We Start Messy
You don’t need the whole plan. You need the courage to take the first step.
There are brilliant ideas sitting quietly inside women everywhere.
The business she keeps thinking about. The book she wants to write. The property she could do something interesting with. The website she wants to build. The creative project she keeps returning to. The change she knows she wants to make.
And then comes the list.
I don’t have enough money yet. I don’t know how to do it. I need a better website. I need to learn more. I need a business plan. What if nobody wants it? What if I fail? What will people think?
We become so focused on gathering all our reasons why not that we forget to ask a much more interesting question:
What are all the reasons why I can?
Starting messy means being willing to find out.
It means taking the first step before you can see the entire staircase. It means letting action teach you things that planning never could. And sometimes, that imperfect first move leads somewhere far bigger than anything you could have mapped out in advance.
Watch the full episode here:
You Were Never Supposed to Know Everything Before You Began
Think about a toddler learning to walk.
She doesn’t stand there calculating the likelihood of falling. She isn’t wondering whether everyone in the room thinks her technique needs work. She doesn’t decide to take a six-week walking course before attempting her first step.
She gets up.
She wobbles. She falls. She gets back up.
Somewhere along the way, we learn to become afraid of being seen trying.
We collect evidence, opinions, criticism and expectations. We become aware of judgment. We start believing we should already know how to do something before we have ever done it.
But doing is how we learn.
And more importantly, doing is how we begin to trust ourselves.
Confidence isn’t always what allows you to take the first step. Sometimes confidence is what you build because you took it.
What If You Just Tried It?
During the pandemic, Jen found herself desperately craving access to nature.
So she Googled inexpensive land in California.
No elaborate investment strategy. No five-year development plan. No perfectly calculated business model.
Eventually, she found 2.5 acres in California’s Carrizo Plain and bought it for $6,000.
At first, the property was simply hers. A piece of nature she could go to when the world felt closed in.
Then another idea appeared.
What if other people wanted to camp there?
The land had no water. No electricity. No toilet. No fire pit. No amenities at all. It was, as we lovingly called it, naked land.
There were plenty of reasons the idea might not work.
She listed it on Hipcamp anyway.
In the first month, that naked piece of land generated more than $800.
And suddenly there was new information available that no amount of thinking could have provided:
People wanted this.
That first experiment led to another.
Instead of waiting until the property was perfectly developed, she used money it was already generating to begin improving it. Tools came next. Then a shed. Then weekends of trial, error, problem solving and building eventually transformed that shed into an off-grid glamping cabin known as the Little Brave House.
There were questions about toilets. Questions about hosting. Questions about what people would pay. Questions nobody even knew to ask until they were standing in the middle of the experience.
They figured them out as they went.
Today, the original land purchase and the additional investment in the Little Brave House have long since paid for themselves. The property continues to create income without a mortgage attached to it.
None of that was part of the original plan.
It happened because somebody started.
Let the First Version Fund the Next Version
There is another powerful lesson hidden inside this story.
Starting messy can actually reduce the pressure surrounding a new idea.
We often convince ourselves that before we can begin, we need to spend thousands of dollars creating the finished version.
What if you didn’t?
What if you created the version that is possible today, charged accordingly, listened carefully and allowed the first version to help finance the next one?
Rent the RV space before upgrading the electrical panel.
List the campsite before building the glamping cabin.
Offer the service before creating the elaborate website.
Sell the first product before designing the entire collection.
Start where you are. Learn what people actually want. Reinvest when it makes sense.
You don’t always have to fund the entire dream before it begins. Sometimes the beginning can help fund the dream.
That isn’t sloppy business.
It can be extraordinarily smart business.
Action Creates Information
One of the traps of perfectionism is believing that enough planning will eventually remove uncertainty.
It won’t.
Life will change.
You will change.
Your customer may teach you something. The market may teach you something. A completely unexpected opportunity may appear. You may discover that the part you thought you would love bores you to tears, while some tiny side piece of the project lights you on fire.
That is not failure.
That is information.
Every move gives you another piece of the map.
This is why pivots don’t have to mean something went wrong. Sometimes a pivot simply means you know something today that you couldn’t possibly have known six months ago.
You are allowed to respond to what you learn.
You are allowed to evolve the idea.
You are even allowed to decide you don’t want to do it anymore.
Don’t Be Afraid of Being Seen Trying
Sometimes the thing stopping us has very little to do with money, logistics or preparedness.
Sometimes we are simply afraid somebody will see us try and fail.
That fear can become incredibly powerful when criticism has come from people we love.
But another person’s reaction does not get to determine the trajectory of your life.
Consider the source.
People with enormous dreams of their own generally understand what it looks like to experiment, fail, change direction, look ridiculous, begin again and keep moving.
The people standing on the sidelines laughing are still standing on the sidelines.
You don’t have to join them.
You are allowed to be a beginner in public.
Your first website can have a broken link.
Your first video can be awkward.
Your first offer can change.
Your first investment doesn’t have to turn you into a real estate mogul.
Your first attempt simply needs to give you enough information to take your next step.
Your Ideas Come to You for a Reason
There is something magical about an idea that keeps returning.
Wouldn’t it be amazing if I…
Pay attention to what comes after that sentence.
Maybe you want to open a shop. Write a cookbook. Buy a tiny piece of land. Create something with your hands. Start a podcast. Build another income stream. Make art. Launch a community. Leave the job. Begin the business.
You don’t have to know where the idea will eventually lead.
You can play with possibility before demanding that possibility become a plan.
That willingness to play matters.
So does surrounding yourself with people who don’t immediately shrink your biggest ideas down to something more “reasonable.”
Find the people who hear your wild idea and say:
Okay. What would the first step look like?
The Next Right Step
A big dream viewed in its entirety can feel enormous.
So stop trying to walk the whole thing today.
What is the next right step?
Then what is the one after that?
You build a business this way.
You build wealth this way.
You build confidence this way.
And, little by little, you build a life this way.
Not by waiting until you become the woman who knows exactly what she’s doing.
By becoming her through doing it.
You do not need certainty to begin. You need enough curiosity to take the next step and see what happens.
Journal Prompt
What idea have you been postponing because you believe you need more money, knowledge, confidence, permission or preparation before you begin?
Now strip away the finished version.
What is the smallest, messiest, completely doable version of that idea you could put into motion right now?
Write down your first step.
Then take it.
Keep the conversation going…
You don’t have to build your next chapter alone.
Join our Femmenomics community on Facebook, where women are talking about real estate, money, mindset, business, possibility and what it looks like to actually move on the ideas that keep calling us forward.
Bring the dream.
Bring the questions.
Bring the messy first version.
We’ll meet you there.
Femmenomics: Real Estate. Mindset. Magic.
