Often we think big growth is going to come from big moves—a huge launch, a big hire, the brand-new offer that’s going to change everything. And yes, sometimes those moves feel big because they take courage, but the truth is that sustainable growth rarely comes from one massive leap. It usually comes from small, intentional experiments. These experiments may take courage because you're trying something new and stepping out of your comfort zone, so they feel big, but they’re actually just small steps. And when you learn how to use experiments the right way, growth stops feeling like a guessing game and starts feeling like a process you can trust.

The problem is that a lot of business owners don’t treat growth like an experiment—they treat it like a gamble. They get excited about an idea and instead of testing it, they make sweeping changes across the entire business. They bet everything on one new idea, and when it doesn’t go the way they hoped, the whole business feels the hit.

I see it all the time. Someone comes up with a new offer and scraps the old one. They come up with a new sales strategy and immediately stop what was already working. They decide to go all-in on a new marketing channel and shift all their focus. But that’s not how smart growth works. You want to keep doing what’s working and—and this part is important—test new ideas on a small scale so you can validate them before making a massive overhaul. That way you get the data and the learning without blowing up your momentum.

Let me show you what this looks like in real businesses. I work with clients who often run small experiments when they have big ideas. One of the questions I ask them constantly is, “How can we test this idea before we go all in?”

Here are a few examples.

One client was thinking about shifting her program into a self-study version. Instead of risking her main launch—her primary revenue source—I encouraged her to test it with a bonus behind-the-scenes launch. Something low stakes. And that experiment gave her the data she needed. It turned out the discounted self-study version wasn’t as appealing as she expected. So instead of replacing her main offer, she turned it into a downsell. She kept her core offer exactly as it was and added the downsell. That launch went on to become her biggest ever at $160K. But that would not have happened if she had replaced her main offer without testing.

Another client wanted to raise her prices. Instead of rolling out the increase to all clients at once, she tested it with the bottom 30% of her roster. She expected that some might choose not to continue, but her hypothesis was that enough would stay to maintain revenue while reducing workload. Testing it on a small group gave her clean data—and it worked. Once she saw the results, she confidently raised prices for the remaining clients.

A third client wanted to launch an upsell for existing customers and had a large waitlist. Instead of opening the doors to everyone at once, she capped the initial round at twenty people. That gave her the room to deliver at a high level, learn what worked, learn what needed refining, and then confidently expand.

None of these were gambles. They were controlled experiments. And each one led to confident expansion.

So what can you test? Honestly, almost anything. Pricing, offers, messaging, marketing channels, design, positioning, systems, delegation, capacity—the list goes on. Almost anything can become an experiment as long as you follow a simple structure. That’s where the Experiment to Expansion framework comes in: expectation, execution, and evaluation.

Expectation is where you set the stage. Before you test anything, you get clear on what you’re testing and why. You write an if-then statement: “If we do X, then we expect Y.” This is your hypothesis. You also decide ahead of time how you’ll measure success so you’re basing decisions on data rather than emotion.

Execution is where you run the test. One focused test at a time. You let it play out long enough to get a clean read. You don’t tweak mid-stream, because if you change the rules halfway through, you’ll never know what actually worked.

Evaluation is where you learn. Did the results match your expectation? If yes, great—keep going. If not, decide whether to adjust or scrap the experiment. And then feed what you learned into your next test.

This mindset shift is everything. The goal of an experiment isn’t to be right—it’s to learn. Even if the experiment “fails,” you still win because you gained clarity. You take the drama out of decision-making and move much faster. Expansion doesn’t come from getting everything right; it comes from making quick decisions, executing, and adjusting based on what you learn.

Experiments lower the stakes and raise your confidence. Every experiment gives you more leverage for the next one, and small smart tests compound into big growth.

So here’s my challenge to you: pick one area of your business and turn it into an experiment. Write down your expectation. Go execute the test. Then evaluate the result. That’s it. Don’t overthink it. Don’t overhaul your whole business. Keep doing what’s working while you test something new.

Remember—expansion doesn’t come from big gambles. It comes from small, smart experiments.