I want to remember this chapter exactly as it is. Not how it looks in hindsight, but how it feels right now.
So I’m writing it down.
I didn’t decide to write this because it’s a new year and I want to set shiny 2026 goals, because that’s super duper cliché. I’m writing because I want to document a five year vision, LOL.
I’ve had this idea in the back of my mind for a while now, that one day, I want to be on a TED Talk stage, bahaha. I even made myself a little vision board and set it as my iPhone screensaver. And if that ever happens, I don’t want to forget what the journey actually looked like. Not the highlight reel. The messy middle. The in between moments you never remember once things start to make sense.
So I’m going to try doing this once a quarter. No pressure. No big announcements. Just sharing the process.
Quick 2025 Re-cap
To kick it off, wow. 2025 was a sh*t show rollercoaster lol. The kind where you are not sure if you are screaming from fear or just holding on out of spite.
I’m really happy to have turned the page into this year. That said, 2025 also brought some of my biggest blessings, even if I could not see that clearly at the time.
When I wrote my last LinkedIn article, I had just fired myself with 2 days notice from a job where I genuinely LOVED my day to day and the team I had built. Losing that role unexpectedly left me with a loose sense of what I might do next, but absolutely no clue how the story would unfold or whether it would gain any traction at all.
If I’m being honest, I was standing in a lot of uncertainty.
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So here is the quick recap.
I came back from Europe with two business ideas. Nothing polished. Nothing proven. Just two ideas I could not shake. I decided I was going to test both of them in the market and see what happened. This was the coffee shop below my Airbnb in Corfu, Greece where I brainstormed every morning on my two business ideas before going out to explore.
The ambitious Q4 Experiment
The plan was simple. Meet with around 30 companies, listen carefully, and then decide whether to pursue one idea, both, or neither. If neither resonated, I was fully prepared to scrap everything and go back to the drawing board.
I’m a designer by trade, and if there is one thing university drilled into me, it is not to get attached to a single idea, concept, or material. Design school really said get attached to nothing, especially your own ideas, which is brutal, but effective. That lesson stuck with me in business too. Leaders have to stay open to pivoting.
So I’m sharing my process, not because I have everything figured out, I really, really don’t, I call people almost daily with dumb questions, but because if I can do this, you can too. It takes taking the leap and pouring your heart into something without knowing exactly how it is going to end.
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My goal with those 30 meetings was to uncover pain points, look for patterns, and then figure out how I could actually help. I knew who I wanted to serve, but I didn’t yet know how I wanted to serve them. That was the whole point of the experiment, to figure out the HOW.
Back in mid October, I had two loose ideas based on the things I genuinely love doing, the work that gives me energy. What I wasn’t sure about was whether anyone would actually pay for them. And honestly, it all comes down to positioning. A good idea positioned wrong goes absolutely nowhere. I’ve read enough marketing books to know that.
I ended up one upping myself and met with 36 companies in Q4 instead of my original goal of 30.
I intentionally spoke with companies of all sizes, one person shops all the way up to 10,000 person organizations. Why? Because I didn’t yet know who my ideal customer was. Some companies are beyond what you offer. Some are too early. Some simply cannot afford it yet. Finding the right stage, the least resistance, matters more than convincing everyone.
For the first 10 to 15 meetings, I didn’t pitch anything. I didn’t even have a slide deck. I just took people out for coffee, asked questions, and listened. No website. No deck. Just conversations.
Basically business therapy sessions, except I was the one taking notes.
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After about 15 meetings, patterns started showing up. That is when I put together a simple five page slide deck, not to sell, but to test language and ideas.
Before taking it any further, I called a few close friends in my network and asked them to be my sharks, I love Shark Tank lol. Which is just a polite way of saying I asked them to tell me everything that sucked before a stranger did.
Ten meetings later, those five slides became ten. I tweaked, refined, and adjusted based on what I kept hearing.
The biggest thing: I wasn’t attached to any of it.
Because when you are attached to an idea, you stop listening and start forcing it. I wanted the truth, not validation. I stayed completely open to pivoting.
After all, an idea is just an idea. Execution is everything.
The surprising Q4 Outcome
Out of the 36 companies I met with, somehow 17 asked me for pricing. Which still feels kind of insane to say out loud.
December turned into nonstop proposal writing right up until Christmas Eve. And I’m going to be very honest here, my pricing does not feel scalable yet.
I originally thought I could offer a few curated packages and call it a day. But everyone is at such a different stage that an off the shelf package just does not work. I have been customizing pricing every single time, which is great for the customer, but not sustainable long term.
At one point, I compiled everything into one document and realized I had accidentally created a 16 page pricing list LOL. (not ideal)
That is a Q1 problem I am actively working on. I know I need to simplify and stack value more intentionally, I just have not quite cracked it yet. If you have been here before, I am genuinely all ears.
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Here is the part that surprised me most.
When you focus on a business you are genuinely passionate about, it actually gives you energy instead of draining it.
I still do not fully understand how I got so much done in one quarter. I have always been a bit of a machine, but this was next level even for me. And no, I did not run myself into the ground. I slept at least eight hours a night, I literally do not function without it, and I worked out almost every day, otherwise my brain just does not shut off. It is all a domino effect for me.
When I list this out, it honestly looks a little unhinged. But I am proud of myself! I hustled.
Between October 13, my first day of unemployment, and January 1, I:
- Met with 36 companies, 90 percent in person
- Met with 10 business professionals for targeted advice
- Set up a sole proprietorship, then realized I needed a corporation and did that too lol
- Built a financial model and invoicing system
- Attended 12 networking events after 15 months abroad
- Set up Microsoft 365 to align with client tech stacks
- Opened business banking, debit, and credit cards
- Pulled GST numbers and business license
- Got set up on QuickBooks and immediately scrapped my Excel invoices lol
- Interviewed and hired four contractors through my network\
- Created contractor agreements and NDA templates
- Got a logo designed and co created the Spaces Uncovered brand guidelines
- Completed my full website wireframe, now in development
- Built proposal templates and multiple slide decks
- Ran AI media mocks for meetings
- Issued 17 custom proposals
- Set up internal systems like Notion, OneDrive, canva, file system, ideogram, GPTs for my line of work, calendly, tl;dv, content tools, GAMMA, etc.
- Getting business cards produced just in time for ICSC (P.S… you going?!)
I actually asked ChatGPT to build me the ultimate business launch checklist and I’ve been trying to tackle 3-5 line items per week at least. See below in case anyone is at this same stage.
Yes, I worked through most of the holidays, but as I write this, I am skiing fresh powder for a couple of days to reset and remind myself I am still a human that needs balance and her cup filled with adventure sports.
A lesson from my mom
Somewhere between setting up bank accounts and questioning my life choices at 2am, things got heavier than just business.
Before taking this leap, my life had turned upside down personally and professionally at the same time. It felt like such a heavy weight, like the light at the end of the tunnel was very far away.
My mom said something that stuck with me. She said:
“Life does not throw anything at you that you cannot handle. If it all shows up at once, it is because you were built to handle it.”
She was right.
That quarter gave me confidence, not because everything is perfect now, but because I trust myself to figure things out as they come.
I think we all underestimate what we are capable of because fear slows us down. Diving head first into something overwhelming is hard, especially when there are no guarantees. But when your heart is in it, you move anyway.
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Right now, I feel incredibly aligned. Even if this does not unfold exactly how I imagine, that is okay. I am not attached to a specific outcome. I am genuinely enjoying the process, the people I am surrounding myself with, and the trust others have given me so early on- I am so grateful for it.
If one quarter can hold this much growth, I am excited to see what a year can do.
So yes, I am pretty friggen pumped for 2026. And even if it throws curveballs, well, 2025 was one of my hardest years, and look what came out of it…..a BABY!! Spaces Uncovered was reborn. LOL.
There is always a light. Sometimes you just have to trust yourself, actually bet on yourself for once, and believe that with a lot of hard work, something brighter is on the other side.
Until Q2 <3
-Alexa Bustamante