The trash on the sidewalk taught me something about my business.

Can I tell you something I absolutely LOVE about New York City? NYC literally says- I am so amazing and cool that you all will come here and love it AND we will just throw our trash on the sidewalks. Hot garbage smell in one the most amazing cities ever (IMO). On my recent trip I mad sure to get a brand images of this because for me THIS is what I see in my business journey- it is amazing and the highs are HIGH AND it requires taking out the trash and sometimes that “mess” is seen. The price of entry for building a business and life you love is public failure sometimes.  

I’m a big believer in messy action. You don’t wait until everything is polished and figured out before you post, pitch, launch, or show up. You take the next right step even when it’s a little chaotic, even when you don’t have it all together yet. Some of my favorite seasons in business have come from decisions that looked nothing like a clean five-year plan. They looked like trying something, getting it a little wrong, and moving forward anyway needing what I learned along the way.

But here’s the part I think gets skipped over a lot: sometimes messy action isn’t enough on its own. Sometimes you take the action, you get data, and that data tells you something needs to change. Not because you massively failed, but because you learned and you are different. That’s when it’s time to edit your life. To look at what’s not aligned anymore and have the courage to revise it, even publicly, even when people are watching.

For me, that’s looked like changing offers, adjusting my brand voice, stepping away from things that used to fit and don’t anymore. It’s uncomfortable. It can feel like admitting something didn’t work. But I’d rather edit out loud than stay stuck somewhere that isn’t serving the bigger vision. I just recently did that last week. Camellia and I decided to put a pause on the Confident Content Cohort for now as it just is not the right season for us.  And while I was worried at first about what it would look like to back off something we were so excited about I knew what is more important and vital to be definition of success is that I will edit my business and life to keep my first things first and so we made a tough call- and now I feel more peace and relief (and stay tuned because we still have ideas of how to build community and our businesses with like minded women). 

So here’s what I want you to hear today: take the messy action. Start before you’re ready. And when something stops being aligned, give yourself permission to edit it without shame. The trash on the sidewalk doesn’t make the city any less incredible. It just means real life is happening there. The same is true for your business.

Keep building. Keep editing. Keep going.