There's a piece of advice that lives in every business TikTok algorithm: "Don't wait until you feel ready. Nobody knows what they're doing anyway." The first half? Solid. The second half? A problem. The moment encouragement shifts from you can do hard things to everyone's just winging it, we've stopped building confidence and started lowering the bar. And I don't want a lower bar. I want to actually get good at this.

Somehow, across every season of my career and life, the most consistent title I've held has been "Guinea Pig." I'm the oldest of six, so by default I was the first test case. That role has followed me into adulthood — relentlessly. Being first doesn't mean being helpless. It means moving forward without certainty and staying long enough to learn from what works and what absolutely does not.