Grow With Soul: Ep. 106 - Planning A Pivot - Yours And Mine
Hello and welcome to episode 106 of Grow With Soul. Today I want to talk about pivoting, and specifically getting going with a pivot. A common theme of my conversations over these first few months of 2021 has been re-routing, pivoting, changing things up, shifting. It seems that the last year has, naturally, had many of us reassessing what we do, and not only wanting to make our businesses more stable but also wanting our lives to be different. I seem to be having less and less conversations about growth at all costs and more and more about how work slots into a more truthful and fulfilling life. And for many of us, these feelings naturally lead us to needing and wanting to pivot.
Here's what I talk about in this episode
The mindset that sets a pivot in motion, and what led to the beginning of mine
Recognising what constitutes 'enough' to want to shift your business
Managing resistance when you navigate a pivot
Structuring your pivot
The role of content within a successful pivot
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Read the episode transcript:
Hello and welcome to episode 106 of Grow With Soul. Today I want to talk about pivoting, and specifically getting going with a pivot. A common theme of my conversations over these first few months of 2021 has been re-routing, pivoting, changing things up, shifting. It seems that the last year has, naturally, had many of us reassessing what we do, and not only wanting to make our businesses more stable but also wanting our lives to be different. I seem to be having less and less conversations about growth at all costs and more and more about how work slots into a more truthful and fulfilling life. And for many of us, these feelings naturally lead us to needing and wanting to pivot.
Pivoting your business is a funny old thing that affects people very differently. It can be something you approach with fear and trepidation, worrying about endless catastrophic outcomes - what if people hate it, what if everyone leaves, what if it’s the wrong thing and I never make any money ever again?! Or, it may be that you put aside a week to crack it thinking that it can only be a new content plan and a little rejig of the website, and then it hits you that really it runs much deeper, and this is not just a pivot of your business but your whole identity.
As with everything in running a business, it’s all the emotional stuff that bulldozes you and leaves you stuck between the business that isn’t right any more and the one you’re not quite brave enough to step into.
I say this with the voice of experience, because at the time of recording that’s exactly where I am - right on the cusp of the pivot. I know the old version of Simple & Season is no longer right and I’ve really said goodbye to it in my head…and yet I’ve not said hello to the new version yet. Not quite been able to make the room to really work on it, not quite been able to step up and into what it might be. Because as much as I know I’ve outgrown the current shape of the business, the new one doesn’t fit yet and I’m just not sure whether I can pull it off, and so I’ve been distracting myself and staying in stasis, not quite getting anywhere.
So, in this episode, I wanted to focus on the start of the pivot; that period where you know you want to, know you’ve got to, but have no idea where to start. Once you do start, there’s a certain amount of momentum that can carry you, but getting that momentum is the tough bit.
When I knew I needed to start a pivot
There is never a single moment when you know, but there are catalysts or spotlights that shine the light on the knowledge that has been building without you noticing it for some time. I remember back in February, I’d had a day of calls that were very business-focused, about growth and strategy and channels, and after I finished my last call of the day, a voice appeared in my head saying, very, very clearly, “not this”. There had been nothing wrong with the calls, they had been valuable and productive and I’d enjoyed them, but what the “not this” voice was saying was “this isn’t it. This isn’t your highest work”.
What the “not this” voice did was bring into my consciousness why my business had felt like sitting on an uncomfortable chair for a few months. It was doing the job, but I wasn’t sitting comfortably in it. It wasn’t a home where I could spread out and luxuriate and enjoy myself; I had been, for a while, perched on the edge waiting for something better.
As I began to pull on these threads the whole ball of yarn began to unravel and saw all the uncomfortable seats I’d been sitting on over the last year. I realised I had a pattern - a rising dissatisfaction with the direction of my work, getting excited about creating something new, launching it convinced it was “the answer”, gliding along happily until the novelty wore off, and then the rising dissatisfaction again. I think we can sometimes stop ourselves from pivoting because we worry we’re just doing it on a whim and what if we regret it? But following the breadcrumbs backwards through time showed me that the “not this” voice wasn’t a whim but more my intuition getting so frustrated with me not picking up on all the signs that it told it to me straight. The pivot needed to happen because it was already a year overdue.
Which, to clarify, is not something I’m beating myself up over. I don’t regret anything that I’ve done or not done, because it all had to happen for me to truly understand what’s next; I had to be ready consciously as well as subconsciously. All those previous moments were building blocks to lift me to where I am now. But, it is something I’m holding non-judgmentally in my awareness: a pattern of putting a sticking plaster offering rather than really going there exists, and this time we’re not doing plasters.
You may not have a “not this” voice or anything that is giving you clear direction; you may just have that uncomfortable chair feeling. You may have nothing you can put into words about how or why you want to do this apart from a feeling that won’t go away, that as much as you try to ignore it you can’t not know what it’s really telling you to do. This is enough. There isn’t going to be the moment of certainty, the clouds parting with the message “yes do this thing” written in lights. You already know.
Step one
Now that you can no longer pretend to yourself and you are tentatively committed to making a change there’s a new question: “what the hell do I do now?!”. For me, I know the easiest thing I could have done was to start making a new offering, but that would just have been repeating the old pattern and I would have been back here again in four months time. We want to take action, and we reach for the action that’s closest, the one that we know how to do. But when you’re pivoting, the actions that are within reach are not the ones that are going to take you where you want to go. Instead, the first step of the pivot is to do nothing.
It’s to start getting comfortable with the idea of making a shift, so that you can be open to ideas and options that you would have never considered possible. It’s paying attention to the resistance that is coming up; resistance is inevitable and not something to be avoided - it’s part of the process and will show you exactly what you need to understand if you’re going to make this happen. It’s allowing ideas to percolate in a no-pressure environment - as soon as you sit down to have The Big Idea That’s Going To Solve All Your Problems, your creativity will shrivel up. It’s reconnecting to, or adjusting, the two why’s of your business (the impact you want to make and the life you want to have) so that they’re at the surface and able to serve as a north star.
We want so badly to rush into action because it’s uncomfortable to not know. As long as we can say we’re doing something we get to feel like we’re good productive little bees who have it all sorted. But we need to co-exist with the discomfort so that we don’t rush, and so that we can go deeper into what might truly be right. Discomfort can feel like a lake that we’re convinced will drown us, and we cling desperately to the rocks and branches at the edge; but really if you lean back, spreading your arms wide and letting go into it, you’ll find that if you let it, the lake will hold and support you.
Step two
You know it’s time to get out of the lake when you know the only reason you’re still in it is because you’re afraid to start taking the actions you now know you need to take. This has been my experience. I have been floating around on the lake, the sun on my face, and my thoughts have been wandering into areas I never thought possible for me. I’ve been redefining what a coach’s business model can be, while thinking about how I want my work to fit into my life - and then going further and thinking how I really want it to. For example, I can think about wanting to have more space, work fewer hours - but really I want to work four days a month. Which is obviously ludicrous…but is it? My time in the lake has been spent getting comfortable with what’s ludicrous and imagining it as something that’s possible.
All these wandering thoughts float like wisps of cloud in front of my eyes, starting to knit themselves together and I know they can’t become a fully formed business model on their own. I know the wisps are all the open exploration can give me, and I know it’s time to get out of the lake and get to work. But getting out of the lake means admitting to yourself you’re going to this, it means believing that you deserve to, it means making the time, it means stepping into something you don’t have proof you can do. And the lake is so nice. But when you know your reasons for staying are excuses, and when you drill into each of them fear is at the bottom, it’s time to get out of the lake.
Once you’re out of the lake though, you’re not straight into the detail. You don’t start painting the window frames of your house before you’ve even done the groundwork. So that’s the next step. Pulling the wisps into a temporary structure you can start working with before you know more clearly how you want to firm it up. Setting some timelines, planning out some tasks that need to happen to ground this in reality, and give you some accountability. Confronting the worries that are coming up and gently helping ourselves through them. Re-positioning your brand - your why, your messages, your key stories, what your value is - so that you feel sure in yourself and confident to start work on the detail.
Step Three
The only way to know is to do. You can sit behind a curtain for months on end planning the perfect thing, only to put it out into the world and realise that actually that’s not it at all. And the best thing to start to do is your content. Rather than immediately launch a new website or offering, start to test the water with your content - because with content, the expectation and the risk is lower. Mix up what you post on Instagram, start experimenting with those new messages in your blog posts, try out that different tone of voice. This isn’t really testing how the content is received, because anything that’s a change is going to take a little longer to get traction; it’s about testing how you feel. Does this shift still feel like the uncomfortable chair? Have you gone far enough? Is there something else you still want to say? Or, are you missing some of the old stuff you used to talk about? This is experimental, non-judgmental self-awareness that helps you to know more clearly.
Then, once you feel settled in your content, once you have started to work out through creating what is really exciting you and where you really want to focus your work, you can start building it into What You Do. Start redefining your job description, if you need to. Settle back into being a person who can do this thing - who can work 4 days a month. You can start making offerings which build on the content you’ve been creating, and it all makes sense because your people have been following the journey.
And then - that’s it. You’ve pivoted. And it wasn’t exactly painless, but the point isn’t to not experience pain - it’s to not let the discomfort stop you, but let it be a partner in your process. Discomfort means it’s worth doing, and you just need to trust yourself enough to know that it will work out. And you can know it will work out because when we listen to ourselves, when we step into what we are being called to do - it can’t not work. You start doing work that is unique and inspiring and pushes boundaries and you become magnetic to the right people.
You just need to trust, and do what you know is right.