Today’s episode is about a little piece of business advice that I keep seeing out in the universe. I thought it would serve you if I shared it, because this is something that has been recurring in my life literally since I opened my business. I’ll talk about that in a bit.
There’s this phrase that keeps coming back to me: get ready, stay ready. Obviously, I did not come up with it. In fact, I think the first time I heard it was in a TikTok video. Someone was talking about the actor Connor Storrie and how he had something like two weeks to prepare for his role in Heated Rivalry—which meant he was in incredible shape. I think he was a waiter in Los Angeles at the time. Typical actor story, I’m pretty sure.
But he was ready—not because he quickly got himself ready in two weeks. He got ready for the parts he wanted, and he stayed ready.
How many of us are guilty of this? I know that I am. This isn’t something I’m sharing like, “Oh, I used to do this and now I’ve figured it all out.” I think most of us believe these opportunities will present themselves to us. We can manifest them, and they’ll come with preparation time.
But most of the time, most of the time, opportunities are presented, and you have five seconds to get ready. And if you haven’t been getting ready, that’s where the trouble starts.
So anyway, this episode is going to be all about that. Let’s get into it.
Table of Contents
A Lesson From a Children’s Movie
Okay, so I have to tell you—I took my four-year-old to see The Goat (or GOAT?), the animated movie that just came out about a tiny goat—or maybe medium-sized goat—with dreams of playing rough ball, I think it was. It’s basically their version of basketball, but crazier and with giant animals.
So this goat had no logical reason to believe he would ever be able to play rough ball professionally, because no medium-sized animal had ever been cast. There was just no reason. No reason. When I tell you there was zero evidence that this moment would ever come.
Yet he absolutely practiced relentlessly every spare second he got. And when an unexpected opportunity showed up—in this case, it was a viral video, which again, we’re going to suspend our disbelief because it’s a kids’ movie—the point was, he was ready.
And yeah, that’s obviously a movie. But that is how it works—and why it works.
Would Your Business Survive an Oprah Moment?
When opportunities come up, people aren’t looking for someone they’ll have to give a ton of time to prepare. People are looking for someone who is ready. And while this movie might be an exaggerated take on that, it’s something that is so true in real life.
I feel like so many of us think that when the big client comes, or when the moment comes, or when we first hire a team or something—then we will rise to the occasion. But I think a really good question that was posed to me early on in my entrepreneurship journey—like I said, I’ve been believing this since the beginning—was actually on the Power and Purpose podcast with Candace Coppola. It’s got to be one of her very first episodes, where a guest named Terrica Skags was talking about an “Oprah moment.”
If you had an Oprah moment, would your business survive it?
And if not, your job right now is to prepare your business as though that moment will come—not if the moment will come, but when the moment will come. Will you be able to handle it?
I think we see this play out all the time in real life, where businesses go viral and then sort of shut down because they overwhelm themselves. They take on too much. They don’t fulfill. The delivery suffers. We see this played out time and time again.
Are You Preparing For The Things You’re Hoping For?
And honestly, I’m seeing this play out a couple of times in my personal life.
Don’t get me wrong—I am not sitting, resting on my laurels or whatever they call it. However, there’s one thing that came up in my personal life that I always knew would come up one day. But now that it’s here, I’m like, wow—I haven’t been preparing for it at all.
And then also in my business, there are a lot of signs—which I feel kind of icky saying—that my business is on the cusp of really seeing momentum. I mean, I love my business now. I consider it a very successful business now. But that was something I talked about in my goals episode, where I said I feel like if I don’t change this business, it’s almost going to become this boulder rolling down a hill that I won’t be able to stop. Then I’ll scale to a million team members and be running a full agency—and I’m not sure that’s what I want. So I had to take a step back.
But honestly, one of the biggest things I’m seeing that makes me feel like my business is on the cusp of—I don’t want to say blowing up—but the traffic my website is getting is starting to become exponential. Again, I’ve been blogging for five years, so it did not come quickly. But I’m like, you know what? I don’t feel ready.
How am I not ready? It’s not like I didn’t know this is what I was working toward or what I wanted to happen.
Getting Prepared For Your Goals To Happen
I think so often we have these moments in our lives where we wanted this. Whether your thing is that you tried to manifest it, journaled about it, prayed for it—whatever your thing is—we set these goals. And then when they come, or when an opportunity to make them happen comes, we feel very unready.
I feel like lots of us who tend to procrastinate will especially feel me here, because yeah—I’m never more productive than when I’m procrastinating something that could actually get me to my next level.
In fact, I wasn’t even thinking about this when I sat down to record, but there’s literally something that feels a bit scary for me to do. I know I’m procrastinating it because all these other things have started coming up that I’ve been prioritizing first. And I’m like, “Oh yeah, I just need to do this, and then I’ll get to the scarier thing that I don’t want to do.”
It has become so clear, especially because I’m really trying to be vigilant and pay attention to where my energy is shifting, where I’m dodging something, where things are coming up in my environment that don’t necessarily make sense. Why do I suddenly have this long to-do list over here the second I try to take five steps in that direction? Do you know what I mean?
Are You Ready For Your Next 100 Clients?
I don’t know if that makes sense. If it does—basically, I feel like this idea has been floating around in the online space forever: if someone gave you 100 clients tomorrow, could you handle it?
And I do think there’s validity to this idea of doing it messy or building the plane while you’re flying it. That’s something we’re commonly encouraged to do as entrepreneurs. In fact, I posted a thread the other day that was like, “Oh yeah, I’m totally fine with doing things messy—as long as nobody sees it and it all works out perfectly for me.”
Who’s like me? I know I’m not the only one.
But one thing I really want to do—especially in 2026, especially as I’m feeling… I don’t know if I feel like my business is going to gain momentum or if that’s what I want and I’m actively moving toward it—but I want to decide that I’m the kind of person who gets ready and stays ready.
What Getting Ready & Staying Ready Looks Like
So I have a few tangible ideas of what I think that looks like.
1. Build systems before you need them
Systems are a huge focus for me this year. “Leverage” is one of my key themes, and systems are a big part of that.
For me, this looks like:
- Getting my Dubsado in tip-top shape
- Productizing my signature service
- Continuously fine-tuning my sales process
- Continuously improving my delivery process
The goal? A business that runs like a well-oiled machine — not one I’m scrambling to fix when momentum hits.
2. Practice when no one is watching
Preparation isn’t always glamorous. Sometimes it’s experimenting behind the scenes.
I don’t think we give ourselves enough white space to test, tweak, and improve.
For example:
- I’ve built a blogging framework that works.
- But could it work better?
- Should I shake it up?
- Am I actually giving myself room to improve it?
Saying you value growth and actually creating space for experimentation are two different things.
3. Have hard conversations before they’re urgent
I recently listened to a podcast episode on Aspire with Emma Grede with guest Gwyneth Paltrow where one of the themes was this: have the hard conversations before they become urgent.
That means:
- Addressing tension early
- Clarifying expectations before resentment builds
- Fixing small misalignments before they turn into real problems
It’s not dramatic. It’s not exciting. But it keeps everything stable when momentum comes.
4. Take care of your health before it becomes urgent
This one feels obvious — and honestly, kind of boring.
But it matters.
Taking care of your health before there’s a crisis. Paying attention to symptoms instead of ignoring them. Strengthening relationships before they feel do-or-die.
None of this feels urgent… until it is.
5. Stop assuming you’ll “figure it out later”
This is the quiet one.
It’s easy to avoid something and tell yourself:
- It’s not affecting me that much.
- I can live with it.
- I’ll deal with it when I have to.
And maybe that’s true.
But sometimes the thing you’re avoiding isn’t ruining your business — it’s just preventing you from getting to the next level.
And that’s what makes it so easy to ignore.
Get Ready, Stay Ready With Me
And I want to say—these kinds of things feel like, okay, yeah, check, check, check. They sound so boring to me. They sound like they don’t really have that big of an impact. If you’re avoiding a hard conversation right now, is it really affecting your business that much? Probably not. It depends on the conversation, obviously. But sometimes it’s something you can live with. It’s just not helping you get to your next level.
And it’s so easy to put these things off and off and off forever.
So personally, I’m trying to ask myself: where am I assuming I’ll figure it out later? And what opportunities do I want to come that I have not been preparing for? I’m trying to factor that into what I’m doing now.
So that’s all I have to say this week.
Okay. Get ready. Stay ready.
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