How to Start Before You're Ready (and why it's a secret to your success)

How many times have you had a great idea, got things in motion, and then ran out of steam?

A new project feels so exciting in the beginning right?! (I see you nodding your head.)

But once the initial excitement wears off, we multi-passionate creatives often become so bogged down in the details of everything being “perfect,” that we end up losing momentum and not starting at all.

Yep, you’re nodding your head on that one too.

Here’s a secret for following through on your projects as a multi-passionate creative: Start before you’re ready.

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Yep, that’s it. Start BEFORE you’re ready (and grab this free checklist to keep you accountable).

I’ll give you a real-life example of when starting before I was ready was a key to my success:

When I set out to launch my digital shop, I was not ready.

I didn’t have a fancy email funnel to promote my shop.
I didn’t have an army of affiliates ready to promote on my behalf.
There were items that were still in “coming soon” mode.
I hadn’t even written a blog post about my shop before I launched.

Here’s the thing, I knew that if I waited to have everything “ready,” before launching my shop, it was likely that I’d become bored and move on.

Such is the life of a multi-passionate creative!

What I discovered was that the key to not letting the energy fizzle out is putting that new product, shop, service, or business idea out into the world before it’s completely ready.

This way you won’t get lost in all the excuses for why you need to “wait a little bit longer.”

Here are 4 tips for starting before you’re ready that work like a charm each and every time you approach a new project.

How to Start Before You’re Ready:

1. Remember that done is better than perfect.

Tell perfectionism to shove it! Nobody is judging you the way you think they are. Chances are, you’re your own worst critic (I know I am).

Let go of the need to be perfect, and instead aim for getting the thing done and out into the world. Mistakes and all. You can always go back and edit, revise, and update later.

2. Embrace the public learning curve.

There’s nothing wrong with admitting that you’re still figuring things out! Scroll up and you’ll see how I admitted that my online shop wasn’t as polished as I hoped it would be, but I launched it anyways!

Did you judge me when you read that? No? Exactly.

Embrace the fact that you’re figuring things out as you go along, and be okay with making mistakes publicly. Guess what? You’re human, and that makes people able to relate to you more.

3. Launch fast then celebrate.

As I geared up for the launch of The Joi Knows How Shop, I found myself feeling guilty for not having a super fancy launch strategy in place.

So, I whipped up a few graphics in Canva to share in my email newsletter and called it a day. Then, I spent time thinking about how I could celebrate my launch! (There was champagne involved, sometimes non-alcoholic champagne too. Use code: joiknowshow for 15% off your next order at Surely Wines!)

Launch fast, then celebrate! | How to Start Before You're Ready from the Joi Knows How Blog

This is such an important step.

I don’t know about you, but I’m terrible at celebrating my accomplishments. I move on to the next thing before really sitting with how proud I am of what I’ve already achieved. (I’m working on a blog post about this, btw!)

That celebratory energy is what keeps the momentum going! So launch fast, then celebrate your accomplishments. This way you will skip the part where you get bored and jump to something else, the way we multi-passionates tend to do.

4. Remember that you can always edit and update.

Now, you might be thinking:

Joi, why are you telling me to throw my idea out in the world before it’s ready? What about checking for errors and making sure things run smoothly?

I get it. I’m not saying not to proofread your emails, or to publish your next blog post without making sure your images have alt-text, or launch a course without going over your modules for clarity. I know that you’re going to take time to look your work over because you take your creative business seriously!

However, when it comes to starting before you’re ready, remember that even after you put your new project into the world, you can always edit and update it later on. Feeling like what we release initially has to be the final version can cause paralyzing stress and do more harm than good to your multi-passionate creativity.

In short, just start. Launch the thing you’ve been creating, and do it before you’re ready so that you don’t lose interest.

Did I convince you? Do you see the benefits of starting before you’re ready, especially as a multi-passionate creative, so that you don’t lose interest in what you’re working on?

Thanks for reading! Now, go get started!

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multi-passionate creative, start before you're ready, Joi Knows How Blog, Creative Entrepreneur Tips