The Experiment Mindset: How to Think Like a Scientist in Your Business

Episode 55 transcript: The Experiment Mindset: How to Think Like a Scientist in Your Business

Hey there, and welcome to episode 55 of your fun and profitable online business. This is a podcast that helps you grow your business in a way that feels as good as it looks, with new ideas and all. I’m Wendy Muzzy, a certified money coach and online business strategist, and I help women entrepreneurs create fun and profitable online businesses grounded in systems and designed for joy. Today, we’re talking about how to think like a scientist instead of a critic inside your own business. This is where we focus on experimenting, and collecting data. And in this episode, we’re going to talk about why we resist experimenting, what can be gained even when something doesn’t work as intended, and a few simple ways to test ideas this week without blowing everything up. I know I talk about this often, but it’s because I truly believe the experiment mindset is one of the best and biggest differences between a business that feels heavy and one that feels fun and profitable. All right, let’s dig in. First, I want to paint a picture for you real quick. Imagine running your business like a scientist. A scientist doesn’t run an experiment and then spiral because the results weren’t what she hoped. She doesn’t say, well, that failed. I guess I’m not cut out for science anymore. No, she looks at the data and moves forward from there. There’s curiosity and there’s also detachment, but through it all, there’s movement. Now imagine bringing that same energy into your business. Instead of, I didn’t hit my goal with this thing, I’m done. It becomes, what variable can I adjust? Maybe it’s the timing, or the messaging, or your target audience. Whatever it is, this shift alone of moving to experimenting and curiosity changes everything. When we remove judgment, we create space. A space where creativity comes to the table. And a space where you can calm down enough to think strategically instead of reactively. And I want that for you. I really, really, really do. Okay, let’s take a minute to normalize a few things. because if you hesitate to try new things in your business, there’s nothing wrong with you. It just means you’re human. Here are five things that could be happening. First, sometimes we attach identity to our outcomes. It’s not that your email didn’t convert. The story becomes, I’m really bad at email marketing. I’m not made out for this. We make it personal instead of informational. And once it becomes about identity, we don’t want to try anything. It feels risky on a deep survival level. But the truth is, data is neutral. Our brains are just adding meaning to it. Second, we want to be certain before we move. I often see business owners fall into that cycle of more planning and more researching and more tweaking. Now, why do we do this? It’s because we want to avoid disappointment. But certainty is rarely available before we take action. This is where overthinking in business loves to live. It feels productive. It feels safe. But it’s actually just delaying the only thing that gives us answers which is putting it out there, Third, we overestimate the cost of being wrong. Our brains imagine that it’ll be public embarrassment or we’ll lose all of our credibility. But most experiments are invisible but everyone but you. Most people are not tracking your every move. They’re busy thinking about them and their own stuff. And when something is visible, you know what it looks like to the outside world? You’re trying something new. And that’s pretty awesome if you ask me. Fourth, we confuse experiments with commitments. Trying something once does not mean you’re doing an overhaul of your business. Nope, not even kind of. You ran a test and you gathered information. That’s it. Finally, we define success too narrowly. If success means we make money as quickly as possible, we’ll avoid trying things. But what if success meant you gathered useful information? Now, I’ll say this. My background is in scientific research. I’ve spent many, many, many years designing programs, analyzing data, and looking at what works and what doesn’t. So yes, this mindset may come more naturally to me. But here’s what I’ve learned. Businesses that grow sustainably are not built on guessing. They’re built on testing. And the women who enjoy their businesses the most, they treat it like a discovery, not judgment. Okay, so how do we shift to the experiment mindset? It first starts with a high-quality question. It could be, what message actually makes my audience lean in? Now, once we have our question, we can develop a hypothesis. In this example, maybe you believe your audience is overwhelmed and would respond better to simplicity than strategy-heavy content. Now, once we have those in hand, we can take them and run experiments. So you may be asking, how exactly do you do that? Here are three options to try. Very low lift. Number one, the micro experiment. These are low risk with fast feedback. For example, instead of building a full course, maybe you teach a 30-minute live session. Or instead of rewriting your entire website, you test a new headline. Or instead of planning a whole six months of content, you pick just one theme and try it out for the next two weeks. Notice the pattern here? We make it smaller because when we shrink the scope, we shrink the fear. Number two is the good enough rule. Perfectionism blocks us from trying new things all the time. But version one gives us information. For example, you could run the workshop with simple slides, or you could set up a new lead magnet with an imperfect page, or you can send the email without rereading it 14 times. Remember, you’re collecting information. Refinement comes later. Number three is the assumption check. For this one, you write down the stories you believe to be true. Here, I ask my clients to fill in the blanks to these statements. I think my audience wants blank. I think people won’t pay blank. I think I have to say blank. Then you test one of them, just one. The reason this is so important is assumptions feel like facts until we test them. And here’s the deeper layer. When we consistently test instead of assume, we move forward with momentum. We’ve talked about the why and the how. Now let’s talk about the wins that happen when we’re in an experimental state of mind because there are quite a few. Win number one, you get answers. Here, you stop guessing. You replace I wonder if with now I know, and this reduces fuzziness. Win number two, you gain confidence with evidence. Confidence does not come from affirmations. It comes from proof, and finding out something didn’t work is evidence too. Win number three, you make decisions faster. Instead of six months of thinking and planning, you could do two weeks of testing and get answers quickly. That alone can change the trajectory of your entire business. Win number four, you discover what works. I don’t know many business owners who plan their way into their best ideas. In fact, most profitable businesses were not predicted. They were discovered and tested to find their way. Win number five, your business has a lightness to it. When everything is a test, you stop catastrophizing and stop making it mean something about you. Again, it’s all just data. And that emotional lightness, this is where fun lives. This is where creativity thrives and where profit grows. Okay, so let’s get to your action step for this week. We’re going to do a choose your own adventure today. I want you to choose one experiment method that we talked about earlier and implement it. Here they are. Option one, try a micro experiment. Test something small for the next seven days. Option two, use the good enough rule. Launch version one of something you’ve been over polishing way too long. Option three, do an assumption check. Write down one belief you’ve been treating like fact and design a tiny test around it. That’s it, nothing major, just one test. All right, today we talked about why we resist experimenting, how to test ideas without getting overwhelmed and why data is just information. You are not your results, you are the person running the experiment, that’s it. Now, if this episode gave you some ideas but you still feel a little unsteady, go book a 25-minute pick my brain call at wendymuzzy.com/call. We’ll talk through experiments designed specifically for your business. All right, that’s it for today. Until next time, happy experimenting.