What part of your dream could you test before you build it?
If you’ve ever wondered whether your dream will really work, I have a case study for you today. I’m pulling back the curtain on the creation of my Dreamers Unleashed course to show you how I used beta testing to clarify my offer, gather feedback, and build something that genuinely serves Christian women who are battling imposter syndrome.
IF YOU’VE EVER WANTED PROOF THAT THE WORLD NEEDS YOUR DREAM, THIS IS THE EPISODE FOR YOU!
This conversation is part honest reflection, part practical roadmap—especially if you’re sitting on an idea and waiting to feel “ready” before you start.
Here’s what you’ll learn:
💡 How to use beta testing to validate and refine your dream
📖 The story behind building my imposter syndrome course
🛠️ How you can start fighting self-doubt with a new devotional resource
Are you ready to quiet the lies and take your next step with clarity?
Download my new 7-day devotional: 7 Truths to Silence the Voice of Self-Doubt and get started today. It’s a short and powerful guide to help you get unstuck and remember what’s true.
Whether you’re launching a new idea or simply wondering if your dream could really make a difference, this episode will encourage you to take one small, intentional step forward.
The world needs your dream, so don’t wait until you feel 100% ready. A beta test could be the spark that changes everything.
On a personal note, I also share in this episode about the tremendous loss our family has just experienced and what that means for the podcast in the coming months. Tune in to hear why I’m taking a break in June.
CONNECT WITH MERRITT:
Website || Facebook || Instagram || Dreamers Unleashed Waitlist
PIN FOR LATER:
The unedited transcript for this episode of The Devoted Dreamers Podcast follows:
Hey, Devoted Dreamers, this is Merritt, and this is probably the strangest podcast recording I have ever done. I'm sitting in line in Northglenn, Colorado, waiting for my emissions test, and the line is much longer than I anticipated when I arrived. And so I decided while I sit here, I don't have a book. I could listen to a podcast. I just finished listening to Tim Keller, but instead of pulling up the next one, I am going to record next week's podcast episode.
So welcome to the Devoted Dreamers Podcast. Today I want to talk about how I started Dreamers Unleashed.
Dreamers Unleashed is part course and it's part group coaching, where me and a group of Christian women who have big dreams, but who feel sabotaged by the enemy, who feel like they are constantly battling for truth, for their identity in Christ, for reminders of who they are. And this evil voice, it is a voice from the enemy telling you that you don't have what it takes, that somebody else has already done this thing that you're dreaming of doing. They probably are more skilled or educated than you. They're further along. They know what they're doing. You don't. You can hear this, this is just this berating that keeps dreams from happening.
And I bet you if you sat here for five minutes, you could probably come up with half a dozen beautiful dreams that women have put out into the world. Nonprofits that have been formed, businesses that serve the community, counseling practices, legal entities, like there are so many dreams, nonprofits, neighborhood ministries that had those women, had those leaders listened to the voice of the enemy, listened to the voice of imposter syndrome, of self-doubt, of fear, of perfectionism, of procrastination, of comparison. Had those women listen to those voices, there would be books that had never been written, there would be organizations that never had a chance to serve their community. There would be ministries that didn't exist.
This is why I believe it is so important for us to tackle imposter syndrome head on. Not with the world's tactics of just pull up your bootstraps and try harder, or you should just believe that you are worth this or that you're good enough for it. Instead of those tactics where all you're doing is trying to convince yourself of something that you don't already believe, which, by the way, it doesn't work, there is a better strategy, and that's what Dreamers Unleashed is all about.
So what I wanted to talk about today and why I felt like it was appropriate to do this in my car while I'm waiting for my emissions test is that I want to share how it came about. I want to share where the idea came from and how it began, just so that you as a dreamer can get a glimpse of what it takes to step into a dream.
Dreamers Unleashed is just a small part of what my mission is in the world to help Christian women find the courage, find the confidence in Christ, not in themselves, to bring these God-wired, gifted dreams to life.
I believe that you have a dream. I believe that your dream can do powerful things in the world because you are empowered by the Holy Spirit. And yet there's this block in our minds that tells us we have no business doing this. And I want you to know that is a lie. If that is what is keeping your dream quiet, hidden, tucked away for someday, it's a lie.
And it's why I created Dreamers Unleashed so that we could bring to the forefront the lies that are being told to us and in community among other people who have God's Spirit living in them, that together we could look at one another and God, what are you believing? And remind each other that those things are not true.
Okay, so let me go back to the very beginning. I don't know if you've ever heard of Jeff Goins. He wrote a book years ago, maybe even a decade ago now, that's called You Are a Writer.
And at the time, I was writing things and wrestling with imposter syndrome, people were paying me. In 2012, I had my most lucrative year as a freelance writer. And yet I still struggled believing that I was creative enough or skilled enough or talented enough that anybody out there in the real world would question my skills as a writer.
And so I started to follow Jeff Goines because he was doing this thing where he was calling people out into their writing dreams. And somewhere along the way, maybe a couple years into following him, he launched this thing called the Don't Starve Challenge. And it pushed back against the belief that if you are an artist or a creative, that, you know, you didn't really deserve to be paid, that you should give your art or your creativity away for free because people wouldn't necessarily pay for it. And, you know, this whole, like, I'm a martyr, I'm a starving artist, that kind of thing. That's what he was rebelling against and helping his audience step away from that belief, too.
So he started this thing called the Don't Starve Challenge. And if you're not familiar with a challenge, it's like, you know, several days or several weeks where an online creator will give you, you know, daily steps that you can take to end up with a result.
And his result that he was encouraging us towards was that we would take something we've already created, that we've given away, or, you know, wrote or created in order to give away, and then turn it into a paid product.
And he coached us through several lessons where he helped us figure out what to choose, what, you know, what thing we would choose, how we would repurpose it, how we would do a beta test with our audience where we could figure out, was this something anybody even wanted, that kind of thing.
And, um, at the time, I can't even tell you the year it might have been. It might have been 2019 or 2020. But at that time, I had prepared a talk I was going to give to a group of creatives, and the talk was all about imposter syndrome. I don't remember what the talk specifically was titled, but I was invited to this event to speak to Christian women, to talk about their dreams and to battle imposter syndrome alongside them and just get into this conversation about what's keeping you held back. Well, the talk got canceled. I don't remember if that was because of COVID or, you know, these were a lot of moms with young kids. But it got canceled. And I never got to. I had to prepare the talk to be ready for it, but it got canceled like, the day before. And so I never actually gave the talk.
So when I was going through this challenge with Jeff Goins, I was like, hey, that's something I created. That's a topic I'm very passionate about. I see that my audience, you know, listeners of my podcast, struggle with this. We talk a lot about fear and comparison and the things that are keeping our dreams hidden and quiet in the world. And I decided this is what I would use. And I didn't know what it was going to be. I mean, it started really vague. It was very much, I think I must have shared something on the podcast or shared something in my Facebook group, asking for women who were willing to participate in a conversation with me about some sort of something—a curriculum, a podcast series, maybe a private podcast—something that we could walk through together to shut down, to quiet the voice of imposter syndrome.
And there were probably 10 to 12 women who said yes, that they wanted to be a part of this, that they would contribute, that they would give their honest feedback, that they would tell me more about, you know, how it hit them, you know, whatever it was I was creating.
And so we went on this journey together and they were so kind. They gave me their suggestions for the type of content that they wanted to consume, how they would consume it. They talked about, you know, oh, I prefer audio or written. But we worked through this beta testing process over a period of time and—I'm getting my dates totally confused now because I'm pretty sure that my very first group that went through the content that I was creating was probably in the fall of 2020. The timing was wonderful because, as we know, due to Covid, things were kind of turned on their head.
Life was unusual and people had a little bit of availability to help me work through something like this. And so we worked together each. I offered this opportunity for each person participating that if they wanted to go through the material, they could do pay what you want. So you could pay five dollars, you could pay a hundred dollars. And that was just to like prove that concept that somebody found this topic and this content valuable enough that they would give their own hard-earned money to participate in something that I was creating in order that not only they would get this wonderful content, this opportunity to battle imposter syndrome, but also they would be investing in something that would, down the line, encourage and bring others into the conversation for freedom from imposter syndrome.
So that was the beta test. And in case that idea of a beta test is foreign to you, it's basically that you would invite people—if there was something that you wanted to test related to your dream—that you would invite a small group of people, probably people that know you or know your content or are interested. They've already expressed some sort of interest in the thing that you do or create, and they agree to, you know, a little bit be guinea pigs to, you know, I'll take the, you know, the rough draft version, the, you know, version 1.0. I'll go through that with you and give you my honest feedback.
I actually did this recently with a friend who's written a Bible study and she, you know, asked us every week, like, okay, what typos did you see? Which questions were confusing, you know, do you like the title of the Bible study? Is it making sense as you're going through the study? And we gave her feedback, I think over like 8 to 12 weeks of going through this Bible study on the book of Nehemiah. And the end result, the product that she's going to publish and put out into the world will be far better because of the collaborative process that we went through to, you know, catch things that you know, a single person in their own brain might not have come up with on their own.
And so it's just this beautiful opportunity to collaborate, to get access to content early, to experience the process of somebody, you know, stepping out boldly and creating something that they don't know how it's going to be received.
And so the beta test idea is really fabulous. If you are far enough along in your dream that you have something that you could test, even if it was really small, even if it was, read this lesson in this curriculum or listen to this draft podcast episode and then invite people to give you feedback, I think it's a fabulous way to start working on a God shaped dream.
So anyway, that is how Dreamers Unleashed was born.
I did that in 2020, I think. I can't remember. There might have been five to seven women that said yes to go through it at that point. And then I think I've had three to four cohorts go through the material again, give their feedback. You know, not all of them beta testers now because the content had been proven and tested out. And so I've run Dreamers Unleashed basically every couple of years to help women work through the struggle of imposter syndrome.
And here's where I'm going to kind of shift a little bit and tell you why I'm telling you this. This is a little bit of behind the scenes from me.
I am recording this on May 23rd. It's a Friday, seven days ago, my mom, who lived in our home, who my husband, my dad, and I have been caring for for years on hospice, she passed away on Friday, May 16th. And it felt sudden, but it had been happening, you know, for months. I'm not going to go into a lot of the details. I didn't, haven't shared a lot about this online. It has felt so intimate, so private.
You know, when I thought about, do I share this with my podcast listeners? Do I share this with people who know me online but don't really know my family or, you know, aren't our inner circle? I have felt like, you know, my mom not a super private person, but walking through disease and debilitation and death is a very intimate experience. And I had the privilege as her daughter to walk through that with her. And anyway, it's impacted our family. It's shifted everything. We obviously didn't know this was going to happen when it happened. And when it happened, I was days away from opening the doors to my next cohort for Dreamers Unleashed and thankfully, you know, I don't know if you've gone through grief or if you've lost someone important to you, but everything shifts. For me the world has slowed down.
My days have slowed down. My need to just be attentive to my own inner thoughts, my own prayers, my own connection with the Lord. It's been important to have space in my life, to be able to process what we've been through the last four years of caring for her, processing with my kids, processing with my husband and with my dad, and figuring out, like, what. What does our life look like now that, you know, we’d devoted significant time, energy, resources to being able to care for my mom. And now she's gone and she doesn't need us anymore. And I'm grateful she's not suffering anymore. And yet we still have lives to live. We have to figure those things out.
And so I was days away from opening the doors to Dreamers Unleashed. And God was merciful to show me in multiple ways, including some of my students, saying it is okay to take a break. It is okay to step away, to not show up, to not be selling and promoting something.
Yes, you know, the income is important, but it doesn't have to happen right now. And so I felt permission to let it go and to not try to push it to happen. My family's had a vacation planned for months to take our kids to Disneyland, mainly for a break and a rest from caregiving. And now it turns out that trip is going to be kind of a regrouping for the four of us that we are going to figure out how to walk through this life without my mom and my kids’ Mimi, and if we include my dad, his wife of 61 years.
And so we're experiencing a lot of change, and we're experiencing grief and this slower pace that we're living through right now.
And so all of a sudden, the things that I thought I would be doing here at the end of May, at the beginning of June are different. And I think what I'm probably going to end up doing is relaunching Dreamers Unleashed, probably for a July and August cohort instead of June through August. We'll condense it instead of every other week. We'll do it every week.
But I want to tell you what happens inside Dreamers Unleashed. And then I'm going to wrap this up. And amazingly, the line at the emissions testing has not moved since I started this recording. This is wild, but thank you, Lord, for giving me something to do with this time that feels purposeful and connected to where I am in this moment.
So Dreamers Unleashed, basically what we do every session. There are seven sessions. The seventh is a wrap up call, but we invest 90 minutes a week together face to face on a Zoom call. And then there's some very intentional homework that has to do with being in God's Word, looking at specific topics and issues, clarifying what imposter syndrome sounds like for us, and identifying what the lies are and how the Lord is powerful to combat those lies with us and for us.
It's understanding who our battle is with, that it's not a battle with ourselves and it's not a battle with God, it's a battle with the enemy and the significance and importance of taking on this battle and not just allowing that voice to have space in your mind, over and over and over again we talk about why it's so crucial to take the take on this battle to fight those lies now instead of waiting.
And so every week we spend time together. It's real honest, it's real vulnerable. People come to the call with things that have burdened them for much of their life. It's not counseling, but if you're ready to come and let go—ah, we are moving—if you're ready to come and let go of maybe a voice or a lie that's held you back for years and years and years, Dreamers Unleashed is for you.
So through the month of June, I'm taking a break from the podcast. I'm giving my heart and my mind a chance to rest and be quiet, to ask God what he would reveal in this time of stepping away and not having the regular pressure of producing the podcast every week.
I am going to be spending some time on Instagram sharing some pages from a brand-new devotional that I've written called 7 Truths to Silence Self Doubt. You can find that at merrittonsa.com/devo that'll give you a little bit of a nugget, a little bit of a pre-work opportunity. If you're ready to jump into Dreamers Unleashed with us this time around, that devotional will help you get started between now and when I open the doors again, which is probably gonna be sometime in late June.
Thanks so much for listening today. I feel like this was a little bit of an insider's chat, just kind of based on what's going on in my life. So I'm grateful if you're here, if you're still listening, if you have a God-shaped dream, I really would love to connect with you this summer.
This is my dream. That we, as God's women, as daughters of Christ, would know who we are. That we would know whose we are. And that we would be able to take meaningful action toward the dreams on our hearts. Not for us, not for our success, but for the glory of God and for the transformation that he will work within our lives when we submit and surrender our desires for his desires. I want to see that for you. And I pray that you will join us for Dreamers Unleashed, if it's right for you, if it's right for you right now, if the schedule works for you, you will never regret the time that you spend battling the lies of the enemy for freedom in your mind of believing who Christ is and who he says you are.
All right, I'll see you back here in July.
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