I’ve thought about this conversation so many times over the years. And I have a feeling someone reading this needs to hear it too.

I was at a networking event with my team when a local entrepreneur I knew came over to say hey. We were talking for a bit when she said something that caught me off guard.

“Working with you is on my vision board.”

Of course, I loved hearing that. But then she followed it with:

“I’m just waiting until my business is a little bigger.”

Whew.

Over the years, I’ve heard some version of that sentence more times than I can count.

The details change, but the belief underneath it is almost always the same.

They’ve decided there’s some invisible milestone they have to reach before they’re ready to invest in their brand.

Many of them will point to the incredible women I work with and assume those businesses were already thriving before we ever met.

That couldn’t be further from the truth. Here’s why.

Most of the time, it isn’t really about the investment.

It’s about how they see themselves and where they believe they fall on the “timeline of success”.

Somewhere along the way, they’ve decided that visibility is something you earn after you’ve “made it.”

From my perspective, I’ve watched the opposite happen again and again.

The entrepreneurs people recognize today became recognizable by consistently putting themselves out there. They invested in their brand while they were still building it. And they kept showing up long before they felt like they had everything figured out.

Visibility creates momentum. Say it with me!

People can’t connect with a business they never see, and they can’t recommend someone they’ve never had the chance to get to know.

Waiting until you feel “ready” has a funny way of keeping you exactly where you are.

Years from now, I don’t want your biggest regret to be that you spent too much time convincing yourself you weren’t far enough along.

Your business doesn’t need to be perfect for people to believe in it. It simply needs a founder who’s willing to stop dimming your light and hiding behind the idea of “someday.”

If you’ve been waiting for permission, consider this it. Show up before you feel completely ready. You might be surprised by what starts happening once other people can finally see what you’ve been building.