The Action Snowball
If you’re reading this I bet you’re someone who has an idea they’d like to bring into the world. A business, a project, a piece of art, a book, or even a conversation.
The idea phase is powerful. It’s also really easy to get stuck there. It’s safe and cozy, free from scrutiny and the challenging but rewarding work of turning a dream into reality.
We held our organization in idea purgatory for many years. Late night talks, planning sessions, rants and raves. All fun, good memories. But I’m betting if we never actually took action on our ideas, those memories wouldn’t carry the weight that they do.
I often get asked about starting a business. My brain immediately wants to go into all the tiny details of the journey, but getting to the core of what happened when we actually put rubber to the road and made shit happen, I came up with this two step plan:
Have a vision and act on it.
Committing to action, however imperfect, is the difference between an idea and a reality.
Here’s what our action snowball looked like — the action snowball that brought Cat & Cloud out of our heads and into existence. I hope it inspires you to take the first small step towards whatever has been gathering dust on your idea shelf.
Podcast. We had no money or resources but we had years of industry knowledge that we knew could help people. I bought a cheap recorder and we recorded our first podcast in Jared’s car while driving aimlessly around Santa Barbara. Through the help of a friend we found our way into a basement studio and then onto the iTunes new and noteworthy page. Although it started as a way to share knowledge and provided a platform for us to flex some creative muscle, it unintentionally became a huge sales tool for our organization.
Web Store. Our friends at Dune let us take-over their roasting space after hours. We bought one 150 lb bag of green (unroasted) coffee at a time, roasted it, and sold it on our web store. Every day was an event. We brought in our own printer, bags, and mailers. We hand wrote all the labels, delivered the packages by hand to the post office for shipping, then cleaned up to make it look like we were never there. Bonus points for the three of us living in different cities. Every roast day was an 8 hour round trip drive for Charles and a 4 hour round trip drive for me. It sucked. It was amazing.
Pop Up. I was working part-time and a local bakeshop to make ends meet and they were closed on Mondays for prep. We pitched the idea of us taking over the bakeshop on Monday with our coffee and a limited pastry menu. They agreed. Much like the roasting situation, every day was a huge setup and break down event with the magic of actually being able to serve people sandwiched in-between. A lot of people fell in love with us through that pop-up.
Each time we committed to taking the next step the action snowball got bigger and bigger. Taking action felt empowering. We didn’t really know what we were doing, but we knew we were doing it.
Everything that doesn’t exist is perfect. So you have a choice to make. What’s more important to you: A perfect idea that lives only inside your head, or a series of imperfect actions that have the potential to help you grow and bring joy to others around you?