Build, Fail Fast, and Grow: Lessons from Outward Expressions Art Ministry
Apr 24, 2026There’s this moment every creator hits.
You’ve got the idea. You’ve thought about it a lot. Maybe you have even started.
But then… you pause.
Not quit. You’d never say you quit.
But you pause long enough that it starts to feel the same.
That’s where this conversation with Garrett Bosse really hits. Because he doesn’t talk like someone who magically built something that worked right away. He talks like someone who had to figure it out the hard way one messy version at a time.
And the honestly is what makes that way more helpful.
“Some of this is just not going to work”
We don’t like to say that out loud.
We want the version where the idea works, people love it, and everything clicks. But Garrett says it straight:
“Some of them are gonna land and some will not.”
That’s not pessimism. That’s just reality.
He’s building Outward Expressions, which is this hands-on art experience that helps people slow down, process what’s going on inside, and actually connect with God, with themselves, and with other people.
But some people won’t connect through art, and that’s okay. But for those who do, something like this could help them. But the problem was, it just was not a simple product. It’s not something that could just be thrown together.
Which means… it did not come out clean the first time.
This didn’t start as a business
This is one of those parts that’s easy to skip past, but it matters.
Outward Expressions started because Garrett and his wife went through a miscarriage.
They were talking about it, but not really connecting.
So he tried something different. He created a simple art experience for them to walk through together. Prompts, scripture, painting.
And what came out of that wasn’t just emotion, it was a way to see through the other person’s eyes.
“We were talking… but we weren't connecting really.”
They both went through the same loss.
But when they put it on canvas? Completely different.
That’s the kind of insight you don’t get from just talking more.
And that’s when the idea shifted from “this helped us” to “this might help other people too.”
The part nobody sees: the messy middle
It’s easy to look at a finished product and assume it came together smoothly.
Spoiler warning: It didn’t.
Early versions were rough. Think spreadsheets. Clunky formats. Not something you’d want to sell.
But that’s the point. It was a rough draft. Not meant to be put out there the moment it was thought into existence.
From there, a tried and true pattern was developed:
try it → watch what happens → fix it → try again
Garrett describes it like this:
“We wanna fail fast so you can succeed quicker.”
That’s not just a nice phrase. That’s how they survived the process.
Because if you wait until something is perfect, you don’t actually get feedback. And without feedback, you’re guessing.
The user experience thing most people skip
One thing Garrett did was map the whole experience out.
Start to finish.
Not just “what’s the content,” but:
Where does someone begin?
What do they click next?
Where do they get confused?
He literally built a flowchart.
It sounds simple, but most people don’t do this.
Instead, we keep adding things.
“Oh, this would be helpful.”
“Oh, I should include this too.”
And before long, the thing is bloated. Hard to follow. Easy to quit.
He avoided that by actually thinking through the path, by going through the entire thing and experiencing it the way a customer would instead of someone who knows the ins and outs already.
After all, you’re not building this for you, you’re making it for others.
“Your baby is ugly” (and why that’s useful)
This might be the most uncomfortable part of the whole process.
Getting feedback.
Real feedback. Not the polite kind.
Garrett shared this phrase:
“Don’t be offended when someone says your baby's ugly.”
It’s blunt. But it works.
Because if someone is confused, stuck, or frustrated—that’s not them being wrong. That’s information.
They had a moment where users couldn’t find a button.
Now, you could respond with: “Well, it’s obvious.”
Or you could own up to the fact it’s a problem and fix it.
So they fixed it.
That’s the difference between staying stuck and actually improving something. Sometimes, listening to the outside feedback is really what helps.
Perfectionism is just a slower way to pause
A lot of people don’t think they’re procrastinating. Or they know they are and ignore it.
They think they’re “working on it.”
Tweaking. Adjusting. Making it better.
But Garrett hit on something extremely important. If you push for 100%, you either:
- never launch
- or you launch way too late
And either way, you miss the chance to learn.
There’s a line he uses from engineering: “Get it to about 80% and go.”
Because once it’s out there, you are in motion.
And motion creates clarity.
The part that probably hits closest
James said something in this conversation that ties all of this together.
People don’t usually quit.
They pause.
They hit a bottleneck… and just never come back.
That’s the real risk.
Not failure. Not bad ideas.
Just staying paused too long.
So what do you actually do with this?
Not a big leap. Not a perfect plan.
Just the next step.
That’s it.
Because the people who finish things aren’t the ones who got it right the first time.
They’re the ones who kept going after it didn’t work.
Resources
- Outward Expressions Art Ministry: https://oeministries.org
- Follow on Instagram & Facebook: Outward Expressions Ministries
- Unpause Playbook: https://coursecreationstudio.com/unpause
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