Stop Waiting to Be Ready: How to Start Marketing Imperfectly

If you've ever caught yourself saying "I'll start marketing when my website is perfect" or "I just need to finish X first before I can promote my business," this episode is going to give you the permission you didn't know you needed.

The uncomfortable truth? You will never feel completely ready. And the businesses succeeding around you? They didn't wait for perfect either. They started messy, learned as they went, and improved over time. That's the only way it actually works.

In this episode, I'm breaking down why waiting to be "ready" is costing you time, money, and momentum—and exactly how to start marketing imperfectly right now. Because while you're perfecting your branding, someone less qualified than you is booking the clients you should have.

The businesses you admire started messy. Every expert you follow was once a beginner who started before they felt ready. You don't need permission to start—but if you did, this episode gives it to you.

The "Good Enough to Start" Checklist

☐ I can clearly explain who I help in one sentence

☐ I can clearly explain what problem I solve in one sentence

☐ I have a way for interested people to contact me

☐ I have something to offer them

☐ I have at least one platform where I can reach my ideal customers

Your commitment statement:

Write this down somewhere you'll see it daily:

"I commit to starting my marketing this week, imperfectly. I will post at least twice. I will tell at least 10 people what I do. I will focus on being helpful, not perfect. I will not wait any longer."

Transcript

Welcome to the new School of Marketing podcast. I'm Bianca McKenzie and this is the place where we break down marketing strategies that actually work without the overwhelm.

Before we dive into this episode, I want to acknowledge the traditional owners of the land I live and work on, the Palawa people of Lutruwita. I pay my respects to elders past and present and I acknowledge the deep connection they have to this land, culture and community.

Now let's dive in and make marketing work for you.

If you've ever caught yourself saying things like, oh, I'll start marketing when?

Or I just need to finish X first before I can start promoting my business.

Or if you're waiting for your website to be perfect, your branding to be done, your offer to be completely refined before you start marketing,

then, then keep listening because this episode is going to give you the permission you didn't know you needed.

Today we're talking about why waiting to be ready air quotes ready is costing you time, money and momentum and how to start marketing imperfectly right now.

Because here's the uncomfortable truth.

You will never feel completely ready.

And the businesses succeeding around you,

they didn't wait.

They started messy, they learned as they went and they improved over time.

And that's the only way it actually works.

Let's start by acknowledging what waiting to be ready actually looks like.

Because I see this pattern constantly and it's costing business owners months or even years of progress.

So here's what I often hear people saying things like I'll start posting on social media once my website's finished,

or I'll launch my course when I have professional photos taken,

or I'll set my email list once I got my brand guidelines sorted.

Like all these things.

And here's what it really means.

It means that you're scared to put yourself out there.

So basically you're creating excuses that to you sound reasonable just so you can delay. And I get it.

Starting before you feel ready is uncomfortable.

You're probably worried about looking unprofessional or making mistakes in public or maybe not being taken seriously.

But here's the problem.

While you're waiting to be ready,

your potential customers are are hiring someone else Someone probably even less qualified than you. Someone less experienced than you.

Someone who actually started imperfectly instead of waiting for perfect.

The truth about readiness.

You're as ready as you're ever going to be without actually doing the thing.

The rest of your readiness comes from experience,

not from preparation.

So let's talk about what you actually need to start marketing. Not what you think you need. What you actually need to start marketing. You need,

number one,

clarity on who you serve and what problem you solve.

Number two,

a way for people to contact you.

That can be email,

dm,

phone,

literally anything.

Number three,

something to say that helps your ideal customer.

And number four, a willingness to show up even when it feels uncomfortable.

That's it.

That's the minimum viable marketing setup.

Clarity,

a way to contact you,

something to say that helps your ideal customer, and a willingness to show up. Thank you. That's it. Those four things you do not need A perfect website.

I do love websites and I do think they have a place and they are very important.

But you do not need it initially.

You don't need professional branding, a logo designed by an agency, professional photos,

a polished offer,

a fancy email platform.

You don't need thousands of dollars in tools.

You don't even need complete confidence. And you don't have to have it all figured out.

You can start marketing with just clarity,

a way to be contacted, helpful content,

and the willingness to be uncomfortable.

Everything else is nice to have. It's not essential.

Everything else can be improved as you go.

Before we talk about how to start imperfectly, I want you to understand what waiting is actually costing you.

Because I think if you saw the real price tag,

you would start today, right now.

The first one is lost revenue.

Every month you wait is a month that you're not generating revenue. If your service or your course could generate even $2,000 per month,

waiting six months to, you know, get ready,

it's going to cost you $12,000.

And that's just direct revenue that doesn't count. You know, the compound effect, the referrals those customers would have sent, the testimonials you could have collected, the momentum you would have built.

The second one.

The second cost is missed learning.

You learn more from one month of imperfect marketing than from six months of preparing to market.

Every post teaches you what resonates.

Every conversation reveals what your audience actually needs.

Every, you know, failed attempt gives you data that you can't get any other way.

So while you're waiting to start, you're not learning.

You're not improving. You're not Discovering what actually works for your specific audience.

The third cost is lost momentum.

Marketing compounds.

The sooner you start, the sooner you build momentum.

Someone who starts marketing today, even imperfectly, will be miles ahead of someone who waits six months to start, you know,

air quotes perfectly in 12 months they'll, you know, have an email list, they'll have content working for them, they'll have refined their messaging through real world feedback.

They'll have testimonials and case studies.

So really,

you're missing out on lost momentum.

Cost number four is decreased confidence.

Here's the paradox.

Waiting until you feel ready doesn't make you more confident,

it makes you less confident.

The longer you wait,

the bigger the gap between you and being ready feels,

the more intimidating it actually becomes and the higher the stakes feel in your mind because you're just waiting, you're delaying it.

Confidence comes from doing, not from preparing to do it.

Cost number five is someone else is capturing your audience.

Your ideal customers are looking for solutions right now.

While you're like, you know, getting ready to help them,

they're going to find someone else,

someone who might be less experienced, less knowledgeable, less suited to help them than you, but you're just, you know, waiting.

But that someone else, they showed up,

so that's who they hired.

So let me show you what starting imperfectly actually means in practice, because I think you're imagining that it's scarier than it actually is.

So I'm going to give you some examples.

So an imperfect marketing example,

a social media example.

So in your mind it might be, you know, the perfect kind of social media might be like professional photos, brand colors,

perfectly written captions,

content planned a month in ahead,

everything being scheduled.

But it can be done imperfectly.

And a lot of the time that even has a bigger impact.

So imperfect would be photos taken on your phone,

canva templates, or even just like text captions written in the moment and posting when you have something valuable to share.

And the reality of that is that the imperfect version often performs better because it's more authentic and relatable.

Another imperfect marketing example for email marketing,

in a perfect sense it would be like gorgeous branded templates and professionally written copy automated sequences with, you know, multiple branches and a B testing all of that.

The imperfect way would be plain text emails written like you're talking to a friend,

a simple welcome sequence and you can send it manually at first. And the reality of that is that plain text emails often get higher open rates because they feel personal or not salesy.

So you can imperfectly Start with your marketing. Another example. For example, if you have your offer,

you don't have to wait until it's perfect. You don't have to wait until you have like a comprehensive program with, you know, all the modules and polished workbooks and professional videos and done for you, templates, all of that kind of stuff.

You can start just with core content that solves a main problem. It could be a simple PDF workbook, it could be zoom recordings and you can create templates as you go.

Version 1 of your offer will never be perfect and your best customers are going to help you improve it.

So don't spend a whole production budget on trying to get it perfect because you're going to want to change it as soon as it's out there.

So what do you actually need to have in place before you start marketing? Well, I'm going to give you a little bit of a checklist.

Here's the first one.

Check this if you can clearly explain who you help in one sentence.

So an example of that is I help busy parents who want to get fit but don't have time for the gym.

If you can't actually tick the box of, you know, I can clearly explain who you help in one sentence.

Spend some time on that,

spend some time getting clear. Not like you don't have to spend like weeks on it, you can just take a day and focus on it.

Second check list thing,

I can clearly explain what problem I solve in one sentence.

So an example of that is I create 20 minute home workouts that deliver results without equipment.

Again,

spend one day clarifying,

you know, what problem you solve.

I'm going to put this checklist in the show notes so you can have a look at it and see which boxes you tick. The next one is I have a way for interested people to contact me.

So whether that is an email address, email, a DM phone number, contact form,

literally any way for people to reach you.

The next one is I have something to offer them and it doesn't need to be perfect, it just needs to exist and solve their problem.

The next one is I have at least one platform where I can reach my ideal customers.

You need to choose whether that is LinkedIn, Instagram, Facebook, an email list of friends and family,

somewhere to start.

You don't have to have all of it.

And that's it. Five checkboxes.

If you've got these five things,

you are ready enough.

Everything else, you know, branding, professional photos, fancy website, perfect offer,

complete confidence. All of that can come later.

Now let's get Practical.

Here's exactly how to start marketing imperfectly. This week,

this Monday,

or whatever day it is that you're listening to it. Plan this in.

So your first day, I want you to set up your basics.

If you don't have a way for people to contact you, set that up.

Create a professional email or even a Gmail. If that's all you have right now, that's fine. But if you have a domain URL and you can actually, you know,

have your name@your business.com or something like that, that'd be great.

If you don't have a landing page or a simple website, you can create one today.

You can use something like Card or Link tree or just a Google Doc that you make public.

Whatever. It doesn't really matter right now,

just that you have some information that you can actually send people to.

And I want you to include who you help,

what problem you solve, and how to contact you.

And this shouldn't take you more than like two to three hours to do. Don't spend days on it because you know then you just.

You'll never do it.

All right, Tuesday, the next day,

create your first three pieces of content.

So write three posts that would genuinely help your ideal customer. They don't need to be brilliant,

they just need to be helpful. We just need to make a start.

So here's some topics that you might want to consider.

A common mistake that you see in your industry,

or a simple framework that you use,

or an answer to a question that you get asked a lot.

Don't overthink it.

Just write like you explain it to a friend.

And this is really important. Don't overthink it. It does not need to be perfect. All right, Wednesday, your next day,

post your first piece of content.

So choose whichever platform that your ideal customers use and where you want to spend your time,

because that is important, too.

And post one of the three pieces that you wrote yesterday.

You might feel a little bit shaky about that. That's normal.

Post it anyway,

and then engage with other people's content for 20 minutes.

Be human, not just a broadcaster. Just engage with other people's content now, on Thursday or whichever next day it is for you,

tell people what you do.

I want you to send an email to your network so friends, family, past colleagues, people that you know,

that says something along the lines of, hey, I want you to know that I've started a business,

I help. And then you insert who you help with and then what problem you solve.

If you know anyone who might benefit, I'd Love an introduction.

And if you're curious about what I'm doing, here's where you can follow along. And then you put your link into your social media.

It feels uncomfortable,

but I want you to do it anyway.

Visibility is so uncomfortable at the first, you know, the first time as a business owner,

but it is necessary, so I want you to do it anyway. All right,

Friday, the next day, I want you to post your second piece of content.

So keep showing up. Post your second piece of helpful content.

And then I want you to respond to any comments or messages and actually have conversations,

have conversations online.

And then Saturday,

or whichever next day you're doing this on, I want you to reflect and plan.

So how did it feel?

What went better than expected? What was harder?

And then I want you to plan next week's content.

Just, you know, two to three posts to start with.

And then I want you to take a rest day.

Honestly, marketing doesn't require like a seven day a week hustle.

So by the end of the week,

you have started so you're no longer waiting and you're actually now a business owner who's marketing their business.

So let's talk about the mindset shift that makes imperfect marketing possible because I know how uncomfortable you must be feeling right now.

So I want you to change from saying, I'm not ready to say I'm learning.

I am learning.

You're not behind, you're not unprepared.

You're in the learning phase. Everyone starts in the learning phase. It's not a problem, it's a process.

I also want you to reframe saying, what if I fail to say, what will I learn in marketing? Every failure, and I'm using echoes here, every failure is data.

If a post flops,

you learn that that topic or that format doesn't resonate.

That is valuable information that you can only get by trying to.

I do need to put in a disclaimer here to say that you need to give it enough time because 24 hours later and, you know, barely any visibility doesn't mean that it's flopped.

It just means your audience is too small.

So I do need to put that in there.

I also want you to reframe saying,

I need to be perfect or it needs to be perfect to saying, I need to be helpful.

Your goal is not perfection. At least I hope it's not. It's not perfection, it's helping people.

If your imperfect content helps even one person,

I think it succeeded. In my opinion, that is success.

I also want you to stop saying people will judge me.

Start saying,

most people are too busy to care.

The spotlight effect is real. We think everyone's watching and judging us. And you know what the reality is that most people are too focused on on their own stuff to actually look and scrutinize yours.

So most people are too busy to care.

I also want you to reframe saying, I'll start when I'm confident. And I want you to start saying, confidence comes from doing.

If you're waiting to feel confident before you start,

you're never going to do it.

Confidence comes from starting and succeeding. Even if it's imperfectly,

it doesn't come from waiting.

And I also want you to reframe saying, this needs to be polished and perfect.

I want you to start saying, done is better than perfect. This is literally my motto.

Done is better than perfect.

Published imperfectly is going to beat unpublished perfectly every single time. You can always improve after it's out there.

You can't improve what never gets published.

I know it makes sense, right?

I know you get this. So done's better than perfect.

Let me share some real examples of businesses that started imperfectly and succeeded.

The first one is a course created.

So she started with a Google Doc as a sales page, Literally just a document that said what the course covered and how to pay her.

The first cohort of eight students paid 297 each.

That was $2,376 in revenue. And she helped eight students.

Then what she did was she used that revenue to build a proper sales page and improve the course.

And then the next COHORT she had 20 students.

And then the third cohort she had 45 students.

If she had waited for the perfect setup,

she'd never have gotten the feedback that made each version better.

She just started because she knew her stuff. She knew how she had something to offer.

The plate that she offered it on,

you know, it was just an ordinary kitchen plate, but it was fine. And then the next time she got a more fancy plate to offer it on.

So really,

if you have something to say, if you have someone that you can help start.

Another example is this person is a service provider.

So they started with marketing just on a LinkedIn profile, no website.

They started posting three times a week and they got really like into LinkedIn and started engaging with potential client's content daily.

And then within two weeks they book their first client.

And then they use that money to get some professional photos done because it really does help with the trust factor.

And then they use the second payment to build a simple website.

Now they have a waiting list and they charge three times what they started with.

Another one is membership owner.

So this person launched her membership with a promise of what would be inside. Not everything was already there. Like they hadn't actually created it.

And the first 30 members,

they paid upfront for a membership that she built as she went.

And their feedback was actually what shaped the creation of the content.

And their students,

they felt invested because they were part of building it. And the retention of this membership was really high.

So two years later, this person has 400 members,

but none of that would exist if she'd waited to have everything created first.

So really, here's a lesson. Start imperfectly,

get some customers,

learn from them,

and then improve based on that feedback.

That's how it works. You cannot start perfectly.

You will have this vision in your head of this is how it's all going to go, and it's not going to go like that. So honestly, just start.

I know what you're thinking.

You might kind of go, oh, but what if I look unprofessional? What if people think I don't know what I'm doing?

What if I damage my reputation before I even start?

And I want you to address those fears.

Let's address them right now, because you're not the only one who feels like that. I am 11 years in, and I still every so often have these feelings come up.

So let's look at it.

If your fear is that you will look unprofessional,

I want you to really think about this,

because the reality is that helpful and authentic is going to beat polished and generic.

People connect with humans, not with brands.

Most people are not going to notice your imperfect setup.

They will notice whether you helped them or not.

So it doesn't matter.

If your fear is that you're going to make mistakes publicly,

then I'm going to say, yes, you will,

and so does everyone.

Owning your mistakes is going to humanize you and build trust.

Everybody makes mistakes.

People respect someone who admits that, you know, I got it wrong,

here's the correction.

And they're going to respect that more than someone who pretends to be perfect.

Hey, I make mistakes. I love it when people call me out on it because then I can fix it.

It's also great for engagement, by the way.

So making mistakes is fine.

If you worry that you started before you were ready,

here's the thing you're going to regret waiting another year while other people build the business that you dream about.

You're going to regret your lost revenue,

your lost learning, your lost momentum. You absolutely are not going to regret starting.

If your fear is that people will judge you,

then here's a reality check.

The people who matter won't judge you, they will cheer for you.

The people who will judge you,

they weren't going to support you anyway,

so their opinion is irrelevant to your success.

If you're worried that you only get one chance at a first impression,

yeah,

this might have been true like 20 years ago, but it's not true right now.

People understand that businesses evolve.

Your first website, your first post, your first offer,

they're just version 1.0.

Everyone knows there'll be a 2.0.

I think deep down you're waiting for someone to give you permission to start before you're perfect.

So here it is.

You have permission to start before you feel ready to post content that isn't your best work yet.

You have permission to have a simple website or no website at all for now.

You have permission to use your phone photos instead of hiring a photographer.

You have permission to figure things out as you go to make mistakes and learn from them,

to look like a beginner because you are one.

You have permission to improve every single thing along the way instead of trying to be perfect on day one.

You have permission to change your mind about your offers, about your pricing, about your approach.

You have permission to be imperfect while you learn to be excellent.

You have permission to be a real human building a real business,

not a polished brand pretending you've got it all figured out.

So we've talked about why to start and how to reframe perfection.

Now I want you to commit to actually starting and I would love to see you in my DMs to make your commitment that you're actually starting.

So this week you will firstly complete the Good Enough to Start checklist and if anything's missing, set it up today. Simple version only.

I also want you to write five pieces of helpful content.

Simple posts, emails, whatever format makes sense for your platform and get them done in two hours. Set a timer, get it done.

I also want you to post your first piece, I want you to share it again, you can pop it in my DMs and I want you to tell at least five people that you have started a business.

I also want you a few days later to post your second piece,

engage with other content,

have conversations,

and I want you to reach out to 10 people who might need your help or they might know someone who does not like sales. You just hey, I'm helping people with X now know anyone and by the end of the week,

you'll have started.

You'll be past the hardest part, which is the beginning.

So I want you to post this in my DMs. It's a commitment statement.

Firstly, I want you to write this down somewhere where you see it daily. And secondly, I really would like you to post this in my DMs.

Biancamackenzie on Instagram.

Because if you commit to it,

as in publicly or to me,

not necessarily publicly, but to me,

you're more likely to get it done.

So I want you to write this down.

I commit to starting my marketing this week.

Imperfectly.

I will post at least twice.

I will tell at least 10 people what I do.

I will focus on being helpful,

not perfect.

I will not wait any longer.

I want you to sign it.

I want you to date it and do it.

This is why I want you to send it to me in my DMs. I'll pop all of this in the show notes so you can actually see what you need to write down.

But I want you to do it.

Okay,

so there you have it.

Why you need to stop waiting to be ready and start marketing imperfectly right now. The truth is you are as ready as you're ever going to be without actually doing it.

And every week that you wait is costing you revenue. It's costing you learning, momentum and confidence.

So commit to starting this week. Not next month, this week.

Not when your website's done, not when you feel ready. I want you to commit this week.

I want you to use the action plan that I gave you. Do the five day Sprint just start.

And if you want support and accountability as you start your marketing imperfectly, my Marketing Momentum membership is designed exactly for this.

Inside you'll get frameworks for building your foundation quickly,

not perfectly a community of other business owners starting and improving together.

Monthly coaching to work through your specific fears blocks tech hustles and accountability to actually follow through instead of waiting another year.

It's perfect for business owners who know they need to start but don't want to do it alone.

I will pop the link to the Marketing Momentum membership in the show notes so you can have a look.

Also,

if this episode gave you the push you needed to finally start, I want to ask you two favors.

First, make sure you're subscribed to the new School of Marketing podcast.

I'm here every week with practical strategies to help you build your marketing confidence.

Second,

if this episode helped you,

can you please leave me a review and tell me about it.

Tell me that you're committing to start this week or share whatever's been holding you back.

I read all of the reviews and I want to say thank you. So if you leave a review and send me a screenshot via email or DM on Instagram,

I will send you my Marketing Momentum Playbook for free.

Just take a screenshot of your review, send it to me at helloiancamckenzie.com or DM me on Instagram and at Bianca McKenzie and I'll get the Playbook over to you straight away.

Remember,

done imperfectly beats perfect. Never done.

Every business that you admire, they started messy. Every expert that you follow was once a beginner who started before they felt ready. You don't need permission to start, but if you did, you just got it.

Now go post something.

Thanks so much for tuning into the new School of Marketing podcast. Remember, the difference between businesses that succeed and those that stay stuck is simple.

The ones that succeed started before they felt ready.

I'm Bianca McKenzie and I'll catch you next week. Until then, keep making marketing work for you imperfectly.