If you've ever put off launching your idea because it wasn’t “ready”, this episode is for you. Kerry shares powerful encouragement and real-life examples that prove imperfect action is the secret to building momentum—and a business.
✅ Why most people fail from never starting (not from taking action)
✅ How Pat Flynn made $7,000 his first month with an ugly, basic study guide
✅ The MVP mindset that gets you launched faster than 6 months of planning
✅ Sarah Blakely's $5,000 pantyhose hack that built a billion-dollar empire
✅ Why confidence grows from action, not preparation
✅ My challenge to help you take imperfect action this week (even if it feels cringe)
Free Resource:
FamilyEbiz Blueprint: Guide to Online Business
Show Notes:
Hey, everyone, Kerry Beck here with Family Ebiz, where we help families start and scale online businesses so they can find freedom in their life to do what they're called to do.
We have been talking about confidence mindset and the value of what we offer. Today we're going to sort of wrap all of this up about launching your product because a lot of people are afraid to launch or to market their ideas. We're going to talk about something that's really important - it's called imperfect action. We'll talk about what this is through this episode.
Because what happens is a lot of us get launch paralysis or action paralysis. You keep putting off that launch because it's not ready yet.
The truth is, most people don't fail from action, they fail from never starting. So if you have not pulled the trigger and gotten your stuff out there, this episode is definitely for you. The longer you wait, the harder it gets.
This episode is going to give you permission to launch before it is ready and before you feel ready. In fact, I have launched products that aren't even created because I was like, well, why am I going to create them if people don't end up buying them? I want to make sure I had a group of people ready for that particular course or product.
There's a guy named Pat Flynn. He started Smart Passive Income after losing his architecture job. He launched a very basic study guide when he started - nothing fancy or flashy, just useful.
I've done a lot of those. If you saw some of the things I launched especially 10 years ago, they're ugly, but they have content. Well, Pat Flynn made $7,000 the first month, and now he runs a multimillion dollar business.
What is a lesson we can learn from him? Messy first offers can turn into something huge. Messy is good because you can learn from whatever your mistakes are, and believe me, I have made plenty.
I was reading in my 5 year journal that a year ago I was running Homeschool Superheroes that week. I was like the tech was not working. It was taking 5 hours when I pushed the button to make something live, and it would be 5 hours later, and yet I pushed through it. I talked to those people. It was messy, it was falling apart, but I found some solutions. And after day 2, we got going and we were just fine.
So let's have an MVP mindset. What does MVP stand for? Minimum viable product - just the minimum of a product that is viable.
You don't need a full course or a website to start. Actually, most of your email service providers have landing pages that you can make. Maybe not even sell something - let's just launch a landing page, a freebie or a beta round of a product that you want to sell, because action creates clarity, action creates confidence.
The earlier you launch, the faster you'll get feedback and growth. As I mentioned this guy a couple weeks ago, I couldn't think of his last name - Dean Kennedy, one of his phrases is "good enough is good enough." I've talked about that. Fail fast.
If you're going to fail, fail fast, learn your lessons and move on. Think about baseball players - a good baseball batter, I think their average is in the 300s. That means 3 out of 10 times they hit the ball. 7 out of 10 times they don't get on base, they strike out, or whatever. So remember, you just want to get out there and get going.
Another example is Sarah Blakely. She is the founder of Spanx. She started with about $5,000 savings.
But let's back up a little bit. How did she even get this idea? You know what happened - she had to go to an event, and she did not have the proper undergarments for her white slacks that she was wearing. So she got out some control top pantyhose and cut off the feet and used them. That's what I call creative.
She didn't have any fashion background, no business training. Then she made prototype after prototype, she pitched to stores. She even wrote her own patent. She is the youngest self-made female billionaire so far - that speaks volumes. She is in most all major stores today.
So did she do it right? Did everything fall into place? No, but she took action.
So your first launch, or maybe your next launch mindset, is this: stop aiming for perfect launch, aim for your first launch, aim for imperfect action. It doesn't matter. Just get something out there.
People do not remember version 1.0. They remember the transformation that they had with whatever that course or product or ebook, whatever it is that you're giving. It is better to launch messy than stay stuck planning forever. That's action paralysis.
Confidence grows from action, not from preparation. You've got to pull the trigger, and that is what will grow your confidence. So you need a minimum viable product (MVP), and then you need to get the mindset - it's not going to be perfect. Fail fast and just get something out there and then grow from there.
Any type of imperfect action is going to move you further to success.
So here's what I'm going to challenge you to do: Launch something in public, even if it feels cringe. You got to get something out, maybe in the next week.
Use any feedback that you get to improve. Your audience will love helping you on this journey. Celebrate every sale, every sign up - it's proof you're in motion. Put it in that wins folder that we talked about a few weeks ago, and then refine forward. Learn from your lessons and move forward.
So this week, I'm going to say create a simple launch outline - no fancy funnel, no perfect graphics, just something real. Share it publicly. It can be a landing page, it can be a presale, it could be just a simple blog post wherever, and use your email service provider. If you don't have a website, just use it and get started.
Imperfect action builds your business faster than 6 months of planning. Imperfect action builds your business.
Thank you for spending time with me. If you're afraid of launching, I got you. It is sometimes a scary thing. Leave something in the comment, or share this with a friend, and y'all talk about how you can take imperfect action over the next week and begin to grow a real business.