🐣 The chicken vs. egg problem is lying to you

If you’ve been building "quietly" and wondering when it "counts," this one’s for you.

Community Made and Ingrid Zapata Read

Feb 16, 2026

I recently had a conversation that I can’t stop thinking about.

It highlighted a pattern I see all the time with people who have been building quietly for a while.

At one point they said:

“I feel stuck in a chicken-or-the-egg situation”

And I knew what they meant immediately, because I feel like we’ve all been there at one point or another. Especially in entrepreneurship.

Do I build the product or offering first, or do I build the audience first?
Do I wait until everything is ready, or start showing up now?

You’ve been working on your business or idea for years. I’m talking real customers, proof, and revenue. The kind so many people are trying to create and feel stuck chasing. And yet, it still feels like it doesn’t fully count.

Like you’re not “ready” to claim it. Sound familiar?

Well, that’s when it clicked for me.

Because when it comes time to show up publicly, something tightens. Suddenly it feels:

Premature
Exposed
Self-promotional

So you tell yourself you’ll wait until the brand is “perfect,” the website is done, or the content looks “better.”

The problem is, that moment rarely arrives.

The lie we keep believing

“I don’t want to show up yet! My brand isn’t ready!”

I hear this all the time when I’m working with founders. And I get it. This happens to the best of us, especially when we care so deeply about what we’re building.

But waiting for everything to be perfect doesn’t create confidence, it delays momentum.

OUCH, I know. 🥲

The goal is to build trust. And trust, especially in community-led businesses, is built through familiarity, repeat exposure, human stories, and referrals, not perfection.

The chicken vs egg answer nobody loves

If you’re stuck in the “do I build first or grow first?” loop, my advice to you is to ditch perfection. You don’t need everything finished to move forward, all you need is a foundation.

The foundation can be simple:

A website or a landing page
An About page that tells your story and tells people where to find you
An email list you grow intentionally
A post where you finally announce what you’ve been working on

The goal here is being found. Once that’s in place, your audience (aka your community) has somewhere to gather, referrals have somewhere to land, and podcasts, partnerships, and collabs start to show up.

The part that’s uncomfortable, but true

When ideas stay unfinished or unseen, it’s not because the lack of ability or effort, it’s because putting it out there still feels vulnerable. However, confidence is built through repetition.

Small, repeatable actions are what turn hesitation into familiarity, and familiarity into confidence.

This week’s challenge

If this resonates, here’s something to think about this week: What part of your work have you been minimizing? And where might you be waiting for permission that you don’t actually need?

One thing I hope you take away from this is that this pattern isn’t failure, it’s a phase. One I see even among the most thoughtful and capable founders.

It’s also the exact reason why I’m spending more time creating spaces and tools like MyOrbit that help founders stay connected to their people, their proof, and their momentum.

🌱 Ingrid