I was looking at some old pictures, and I noticed in the background of one, written on my whiteboard, were the words: “live the question.” It struck me because so many of us, especially founders and leaders who are scaling brands, guiding teams, and stepping into more visible spaces, mistake expertise for simply having all the answers. The truth is, real expertise is about asking sharper, more honest questions about the things that actually shape the future. This is exactly why I guide my clients—seasoned women founders, visionaries, and ambitious builders—into what I call their “Unfolding Inquiry.” Because when you’re growing something meaningful, staying in curiosity isn’t a liability; it’s one of your greatest strategic advantages.
Unfolding Inquiry – the lived and practiced question that reveals who you’re becoming, guides how you build, and keeps your brand and leadership aligned with authentic growth.
It’s unfolding because there is life behind you that you thought was the full reality of who you were. You thought you knew what was real and what wasn’t, but one of the most beautiful things about life is that we don’t actually know. Many things outside of us shape our lives, but there is also so much within us that still needs to be unfolded. I often tell my husband that when I learn something new about myself, particularly something foundational to who I am called to be and what I am meant to care about, that I am unfolding. We all get to do this as we all have something inside us that drives the questions and the direction of our lives, and it makes us and everyone around us better.
The danger in inquiry is not that you will see people as the enemy when they don’t understand, or when they feel that your search is inconvenient or confusing. That’s actually very normal. Whatever your genius is, there will always be someone who doesn’t understand it or doesn’t like that you’re on this search, because your questioning doesn’t align with the life they see as normal or ideal. Many systems, traditions, families, and dogmas operate this way. It’s common for people to prefer “good enough,” because if they’ve stopped questioning, it probably serves them best to stay right where they are.
When you live your question, you’re not just serving yourself or putting yourself in a position of default power. You’re stepping into a power based on reciprocity. You’re solving for others, which earns respect from people willing to see it that way. For many others, it will earn disdain. I go back and forth on saying whether you’ll get the good or the bad, because I don’t want to lie about what happens when you start asking deeper questions. You’re not too much, you don’t have too many questions, and you’re not too deep. You have a God-given, problem-solving, world-changing curiosity that can disrupt a world many people are comfortable in. Often, that world allows them to avoid personal accountability, excavation, examination, and growth. Many people don’t like to grow because it’s painful and requires pruning to actually become healthy.
Your unfolding inquiry is important. I use this approach in brand strategy because brands aren’t meant to be stagnant. They are the emotional and architectural output of a business or person that allows for positioning and deeper connection. A brand is meant to grow, change, and invite others into that change over time. It’s not about sitting on the mountain of your current expertise. It’s about recognizing that serving others requires testing new hypotheses on your current ideas, experimenting, and determining what the new set of workable theories is.
Living your unfolding inquiry isn’t just a personal exercise; it’s a vital practice that shapes how you lead, build, and serve. It normalizes staying in process instead of posturing as if you’ve arrived. It reframes expertise as a commitment to curiosity, keeping your work fresh and deeply relevant. It protects you from building a stagnant brand or business and invites the kind of growth that pulls others forward with you. Most of all, it prepares you to navigate being misunderstood, so you can keep showing up for the legacy you’re called to build. In this way, your unfolding inquiry becomes a gift, not just to you, but to every life your work is meant to impact.
You are meant to unfold and to ask questions. I hope you take every single day to live your questions through your Unfolding Inquiries.
Join me on July 16th for a Free Brand Workshop For Women Founders On The Rise – No More Flustered Hustling: Brand Strategy for Profit & Peace
