Ready isn't coming. It was never coming. And the sooner we make peace with that the sooner everything changes.
Hello and welcome to Simple Business Dream Life. I'm Emma Hine.
We have this idea in our heads that ready is a destination. That one day we'll wake up and the fear will be gone and the confidence will be there and everything will be in place and we'll just know….Now I'm ready. Now I can do the thing.
But that day doesn't come. Not for the things that actually matter. Not for the things that stretch us and scare us and require us to become a slightly bigger version of ourselves to pull them off. Those things will always feel a little bit terrifying. And waiting for the terror to go away before you start is just another way of never starting.
Today we're going to look at what actually happens when you wait. What happens when you jump. And most importantly how you actually make yourself move when every part of you is saying not yet.
I waited for years to walk away from my 7 figure ecommerce business. Years. I knew something wasn't right. I could feel it. The exhaustion. The unsustainability of it. The sense that something needed to fundamentally change. And I waited. And waited. And waited for the moment when I'd feel ready to face it.
And do you know when I finally walked away? When I was absolutely not ready. When I was so burned out I had no choice. When the decision was made for me by circumstances rather than by me.
And I genuinely wonder sometimes. What if I hadn't waited
What if I'd faced it years earlier when I still had the energy and the clarity to look at it properly. Maybe I could have turned it around. Maybe I could have fixed it. Maybe I'd still be running it now in a way that actually worked.
I'll never know. Because I waited to be ready. And ready never came. And the waiting cost me the chance to find out.
And that's the real cost of waiting. Not the thing you don't do. The thing you never find out could have happened if you had.
So why do we do it. Why do we keep waiting when deep down we know the waiting isn't really working.
Because we tell ourselves very convincing stories about why now isn't quite the right time.
I need a bigger audience first. I need more income coming in before I take that risk. I just need to sort a few things out first. I need more time. I need more experience. I need the branding to be right. I need the tech to be sorted. I need the sales page to be finished before I can sell it.
And none of those things are lies exactly. They're just not the real reason.
The real reason is fear. Fear that it won't work. Fear of what people will think. Fear of putting something out into the world and having it land to silence. Fear of backing yourself and being wrong.
And what I want you to notice about every single one of those reasons is they’re all things you're waiting to get from the outside before you'll allow yourself to start. A bigger audience. More money. More time. More experience. More of something external that will finally give you permission to begin.
But permission was never coming from the outside. It was always yours to give yourself.
Now let me tell you about the other times. The times I didn't wait.
This podcast. It had been on my list for 2 years. Two years of meaning to do it. Thinking about it. Planning it in my head. Not quite being ready to actually start it. And then one day I put a post on Facebook. I'm launching my podcast on this date. Come and listen.
And then I had to do it. Ready or not. Because I'd said it out loud. I'd made it real before I felt ready for it to be real. And the podcast launched. And it's now over 100 episodes in. And it has changed my business.
My new book. I'd been putting off setting a launch date because I didn't quite feel ready. So I went out and secured book sponsorship spots. Which meant I had to have the book done by a specific date. The launch date is now set. It's happening, I’m book sponsor at 2 events in October. And it’s not because I suddenly felt ready. It’s because I made it impossible not to happen.
The deal a day in August 2024. My 50th birthday. A bit mad. Not sure if it would work. Nearly £10k in revenue I hadn't planned for.
My AI mentor. Building something I'd never built before. No guarantee it would work. Doing it anyway.
Every single one of those things was done before I felt ready. And every single one of them worked. Not because the fear went away. Because I moved anyway.
I have something I want you to try right now.
Think about the thing you're waiting to feel ready for. The thing that's been on your list. The offer you haven't launched. The podcast you haven't started. The programme you haven't built. The message you haven't sent.
And instead of asking yourself why it might not work. I want you to ask yourself something different.
Why would it not work.
Not why might it fail. Why would it not work. What is the actual evidence that it won't. Because most of the time when you really look at it honestly the evidence that it won't work is just fear dressed up as logic. And the evidence that it will work is sitting right there if you're willing to look at it.
You have the experience. You have the knowledge. You have the audience even if it's smaller than you'd like. You have the offer even if it's not perfectly packaged yet. You have everything you actually need to take the next step.
And then flip it one more time.
What if it works.
Not what if it fails. What if it actually works. What if the podcast takes off. What if the offer sells. What if the programme changes someone's life. What if backing yourself turns out to be the best decision you ever made.
Because we spend so much time catastrophising the failure we forget to imagine the success. And imagining the success is actually its own kind of terrifying. Because then you'd have to show up for it. And that's a whole different kind of scary.
But it's a much better problem to have.
So practically. How do you actually move when every part of you is saying not yet.
You make it real before you feel ready for it to be real.
Not the whole thing. Not the perfectly finished polished version. One small concrete thing that takes it from idea to actual.
Sell the thing before the sales page is finished. Send an email to your list tonight. Message the 10 people you already know who need what you offer.
Want to launch a programme but waiting until your audience is bigger. What if you just reached out to the people already in your world and offered them the chance to be first in.
Want to start a podcast but waiting until the setup is perfect. What if you just hit record on your phone today. Talk. Send it live.
Want to launch an offer but waiting until everything is ready. What if you just opened the cart tonight and figured out the rest as it filled.
My personal trick. The thing that works for me every single time.
I tell people I'm going to do it before I feel ready to do it.
I put it out there. I make it public. I create accountability that means backing out isn't really an option anymore. Because once I've said it out loud it has to happen. Ready or not.
That's how the podcast launched. That's how the book is launching. Make the commitment first. Then figure out how to honour it.
Because momentum is what ready actually feels like. Not the absence of fear. The presence of movement. And you don't get momentum by waiting. You get it by starting. Even when starting feels too soon. Even when you're not quite there yet. Even when a little voice in your head is saying wait a little longer.
Start anyway. The little voice doesn't go away. You just get better at moving in spite of it.
So here's what I want to leave you with today.
You are going to do it before you're ready. That's guaranteed. Because ready never comes. The only question is whether you do it before you're ready by choice. Or before you're ready by circumstance. And one of those gives you so much more control than the other.
I waited years to walk away from my business. And I still did it before I was ready. The waiting just cost me time I can't get back.
So think about the thing you've been waiting to feel ready for. How long have you been waiting. What has the waiting actually cost you. And what might become possible if you just decided that today was enough. That what you have right now is enough. That you are enough. Right now. Before the audience is bigger or the branding is perfect or the tech is sorted.
You already have everything you need to take the next step. You just have to take it.
Make it public. Tell someone. Create the commitment before you feel ready to commit. And then show up for it.
Because the version of your business you're waiting to feel ready enough to build. It's not going to build itself while you're waiting.
And you're going to do it before you're ready anyway.
You might as well choose when.
Thank you for listening, I’ll see you next time!
