How To Pivot Your Business Online

(00:08):

Hello Facebook!

Hi everybody. It's Jen, welcome to season two of the vlogcast!

It has been a minute since I have been on here on the video blog podcast.

It's live.

It is not super scripted.

You can interact with it.

That's why we call it a vlogcast. I am back.

Last year in 2020, I started a video series here on this page that was specifically designed to answer some questions that I was getting over and over again during COVID about potentially adding on an online component to an existing business.

That could have been for any number of reasons, either because you were stuck at home for the first time and suddenly had time to work on an online business project, or maybe this was finally the opportunity or push that you needed to add an online course or coaching or some component to your business in a permanent way, or maybe a temporary way last year.

(01:17):

There were a flurry of Facebook Live streams from me answering all kinds of questions.

For the most part that was meant to address a temporary need, or I said, an opportunity to finally work on some of those things.

Taking a big break in the last year and a half, and now coming back to this page and this vlog - it is still completely geared towards online business and questions that people have about online business, but I am now in season two going to be focusing on really people and questions that 1.) have more of a long term or permanent strategy towards going online completely either for the first time, or 2.) maybe you tried some courses or coaching and are starting to offer that in your business over the last year, and 3.) now want to make that your full-time business model and not be doing one on one services or have an in person type of business.

(02:19):

Today I'm going to be talking about the idea of pivoting and what that means, because it means a lot of different things to a lot of different people.

This was not super publicized in advance.

If you do come on live, please say, hello comment so that I know you're there.

But if you do watch this on the replay, this is going to be a live chat that I probably refer to over and over again in this new season of the vlogcast to help establish for you and help you assess where it is that you are with your business, where it is that you want to go, why you were thinking about pivoting, because...

(02:58):

I feel that word, we said, that can mean a lot of things.

We're going to really dig into that today.

We won't be able to answer every possible question or facet, but as is my custom, I to try to address a whole lot of things.

Whew.

In as much, in as little time as possible, but usually this goes 45 minutes to an hour.

Try not to burn my voice out, but I have missed being live and talking about these topics.

If you do have a question that comes up for you today, I would love to hear it even later days later, weeks later.

Yes, please comment. Hello! Cabri, I'm so excited to see you, so I'm going to jump right into it.

I have been - let me go ahead and give you the "too long, didn't listen for this whole entire live chat.

(03:46):

I don't usually do this, but I'm going to try to start getting better about it.

The too long didn't listen is: <laugh> entrepreneurs.

You guys are so good at so many things, but entrepreneurial ADHD is a real thing.

Whether you actually have ADHD, which I am not minimizing at all, or whether you just, as an entrepreneur sometimes feel that your attention has pulled in so many different directions that you have more ideas.

You have more business ideas than you can possibly do in a year or in a lifetime.

The biggest risk to this is not that you're NOT going to be successful at one of those things.

But what I said, my too long didn't listen today is: I would like to prevent even one person from walking away from something that is working perfectly well, just to start a new thing, because you got bored or impatient or distracted or, what have you.

(04:47):

Sometimes pivoting can be a good thing.

Sometimes it can be a fancy word for something that is a little bit more like self-sabotage.

If that resonates with you in the slightest, I want you to listen.

I want you to take notes.

This is going to be something that, I'm not going to be giving you the perfect strategy for your situation, but giving you some questions.

Things to reflect on that are pulled from all of the business coaching conversations that I have been having with people over the last five years.

Crystal said in the chat, she said, oh, yikes, you just described me: entrepreneurial ADHD and Crystal, you're not alone because the only reason I can talk about this is because I'm a fellow sufferer and I have found ways to manage it.

(05:33):

I have also helped people be able to recognize - am I just bored?

Do I need a vacation or do I actually think this is truly a new direction that I want to go?

Also, am I the person who can manage two or three or four or five businesses?

Some people are that.

Other people not so much.

If you're not yet, you can maybe learn to be one of those types of people.

If you're really selective about what you are adding to your plate and force yourself to slow down.

That it's all manageable and you don't just burnout entirely.

All right, with that being said, let me get some hydration.

Crystal said, I am actually known as a quote unquote "scanner", which is often very ADHD.

"I want to do all the things." Crystal.

(06:16):

I have not heard that word before, but yes, to me, that seems you're somebody who takes in a lot of information really quickly.

Your brain is probably going faster than you can actually execute and keep up.

Or maybe you're always scanning for new opportunities.

Maybe it means that too, but either way, I totally get what you're saying and I don't want any new idea to risk and really, destroy something you've already worked really hard on.

That's what we're going to get at today.

(06:46):

I have been meditating on and sleeping on a new metaphor for a while now.

I'm just going to - use this chat today to get it out of my brain and see where you guys fall in this, in this metaphor to help you understand.

You as an entrepreneur and I'm assuming anyone who is listening to this has started at least one business that has become its own thing.

Maybe it's not quite at the level you want it to be.

Maybe there are things about it that you wish could be improved or maybe could be a lot easier on you.

But - let's just say for all intents and purposes, that you as an entrepreneur have built a house.

It might be a tiny home.

It might be a mansion <laugh> - it can be anything, but pretty much every business starts out in a rough draft form.

(07:41):

Often we have architectural plans and the idea being to get something up and out there and then you can improve on it and build on it from there.

The metaphor that I'm going to be using today is going to be home ownership and home renovation, and, lots of HGTV, Joanna Gaines stuff.

If you're into that and you understand, if you understand HGTV, even if you've never owned a house before or done a fixer-upper before, if you understand those concepts, you're going to be able to follow along with me so that the idea of starting a new business, merging a business, having a business partnership, selling a business doesn't sound so - whoa, that's, really legal and crazy that's a legal process.

You know what I'm saying?

Sounds very legalistic, I could never do that.

(08:32):

I'm trying to relate it back to - hey, a home renovation, little fixer upper projects, you get it to the point where it sells, it sells better because it's had certain improvements.

That's what we're going to try to get at today.

You guys are very aware from, watching HGTV shows or even your own personal experience, that a lot of the same things that make a house more attractive to buyers, clients, the people who are, you know buying whatever you're selling, whether you have one-on-one clients or whether you have customers who just buy products - a lot of those things that make your business attractive and make a house attractive (again, follow my metaphor here - is going to really pay off) are also the things that make it a lot more nice for you to live in now.

(09:18):

One of the first things I want you to start to think about today is when you're talking about pivoting your business, and - let's say that in this, in this metaphor, you are the home builder and you have built this house, and now you are bored.

You are tired.

You really want a vacation.

You really want some help.

What you're doing is you're looking out the windows of your house going, oh my gosh, I'd rather be literally anywhere but here.

Right?

Everybody has those moments and that is completely normal.

But I think what entrepreneurs often do is they're - well, I saw this other thing that I think I might want to do more.

They either completely neglect the house they have already built, or they burn it down just because they can.

They're - all right, I'm not going to go start a brand new thing that is completely not necessary.

(10:07):

I am never saying that, you can't recover from that.

But I also feel there are many different intelligent ways that you can pivot your you and your business and your career without completely burning down the first thing that you built now.

The first thing I want you to start to think about is - let's say that you built this house - let's say that you you're making money in this business and that, essentially makes you the builder of the house.

PLUS right now you're like an Airbnb host.

You've got 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 rooms, or, little beds - you've got this bed & breakfast and it all works great.

You have customers that want to "stay" in your Airbnb and you are feeling - wow, this is incredible.

(10:57):

I should be grateful that I built a functioning house and that people want to come stay in it, meaning you have clients and you have customers.

But again, start to start to ask yourself, what is the itch that's saying to you, I've got this good thing, but I'm really dying to be somewhere else, in the next year.

Is it because you want to have more of a team to help you out to run this Airbnb?

Are you just - I enjoyed the house building process more than I enjoy the Airbnb host part...

I want to build something new.

I want to build a whole new neighborhood, or I want to move to an entirely new geographical location.

Because - let's say real estate is in a certain location.

Right?

So how this transfers over to the business pivoting analogy is sometimes...

(11:52):

I said, all of these feelings are okay.

1. Sometimes those feelings of wanting to do something completely different are actually coming from a place of one, wanting to have more help and not spending so much time in every single detail.

Because as an Airbnb host, you would imagine, you feel personally responsible to check in on everybody every single time, every single check-in, every single checkout, maybe you're the one who's doing all the cleaning after every single person.

Once you get something up and running to where, you're going to reliably have clients and customers coming in - that it doesn't always have to be you who is literally doing all of the things.

If that sounds you, I just want you to note that - because whether you end up staying with this business and improving certain aspects of it so that you don't have to be the one doing literally everything, whether you do choose to stay or whether you choose to leave, there's going to be something really valuable that you're going to find.

(12:51):

No matter what your business is, and this applies to all types of business owners, there's going to be something really valuable that you can reflect on in your experience to make sure that you do not rebuild and recreate the same problems in the new business that you go to.

Now raise your hand and I'll keep mine raised too - if you have ever felt like, "Some people live and learn. I just like to live."

That used to be one of my mottoes is yes, I see what went wrong last time.

Now next time I am just going to hope and pray that doesn't happen.

Then it does.

That's just part of life for some reason.

I really think it's worth when you are journaling and thinking and talking to yourself about where you want to take your business in the next year or whether you do want to start a new thing, really, reflecting on why, what it is about you and your personality and your skills and strengths that you are either using to the fullest that are making you feel fulfilled or that you're not really the best person to be cut out for.

(13:47):

Right?

You don't have to be the person in your business who does the technical parts or does the customer service parts, whatever it is for you that you're just - this is just too much for me.

I've taken on too much.

Suzanne says, hi. Hello and Xiomara. Hi! I'm so excited to see you guys.

So that's the first thing I want to touch on today is thinking about what your role is in your current business.

Number one, what makes you happy and unhappy about it?

2. Number two, whether you could even take on a new role in a new pivot direction without completely letting go of the first thing.

This is going to sound a abstract concept without using something really specific.

But - let's say that you are a dog walker service, right?

(14:36):

You love dogs, but you're sick of dogs.

<laugh> And to be completely fair when you started the business, you built personal relationships with the dog owners and you didn't mind walking dogs, but now that you've been doing it for five years, you're - did I really want to brand myself as a dog walker forever?

Maybe it's really, okay to hire other dog walkers to fulfill the actual service to the client while you're still the owner of a dog walker business.

Now that is one type of problem, right?

You don't have to be the Airbnb host anymore.

You can really step back and be the Airbnb owner and you can hire other hosts to do the services or the other parts of your business that just, you're not in love with anymore.

(15:28):

You still love dogs, but you don't want to be the dog person.

I'm totally using this because I'm not a dog person at all.

Do not hire me to walk your dog, but let's say you want to get into something that is related.

I want to add on cat sitting, okay, that's under the same umbrella of pet care.

That is something that what you would not call exactly...

It wouldn't be called a pivot.

It would be called a rebranding.

I think that too is something that when I talk to people and they're talking about pivoting, what they really mean is I just want to rebrand and maybe encompass a larger niche than I did originally.

And rebranding doesn't require this entirely new soul searching, I need career counseling in order to do this.

(16:17):

It's just, it's adding something onto a business that you're already really good at.

Maybe you do have to communicate to your customers and communicate to your local people.

Hey, we're not only a dog walking service - maybe you even need to have to rename your business.

But again, that's a mini-pivot, but you're still, you're basically expanding.

That's is something that can be done now.

In the context of your business, it's okay to step back and to say, I'm also going to include these other things.

Now another type of mini-rebranding can also be instead of doing pet care of all types, we are now ONLY going to reach down and focus on this one specific area.

Now that too doesn't have to require a total rebranding, such as; undo your business name and undo your whole website and start all over again.

(17:10):

It can just be on the outside, we're still saying we are a pet care service, but internally we're only taking dog walking clients.

If, that makes sense for your business, maybe that's something that is - if I were to make this decision and constrain myself so that I'm only working with the type of clients that I perfectly know how to help.

It's very easy for me.

It makes me happy.

That can be a way to pivot from what you have been doing without changing directions completely.

Let's see what Suzanne said. Suzanne said, I've been pivoting to having an online course, still have my in-home clients, but very few.

All right, Suzanne, thank you so much for saying that, because that is perfectly aligned with some of the other things I want to talk about today, which are using an online course or using an online component of your business to help you accomplish an actual pivot, which, I said, we're going through some things that are a pivot, but not exactly, but Suzanne that's perfect.

(18:13):

Let me try to think of a broader example.

So let's say that you have been running a dog walking service for 18 years, and now you want to be a jewelry maker.

That's NOT under the same umbrella, right?

But now you want to have an Etsy shop and you want to sell jewelry.

I'm using a lot of product based businesses just because I want this to be super tangible and clear for people.

This seems for some reason to be the thing that people do is they're just - well, we're closing our doors.

We're not a dog walking service at all anymore.

They're doing that whole, either neglect or just burned down a business - which we were talking about - it's the house you've spent all this time "building the house", meaning you've got a ton of clients, because with a dog walking service, you don't have to have a physical retail space.

(19:09):

You just have been, you've been running it yourself, or maybe you have a team.

Then you personally are just sick and tired and over it.

Here's a couple of different things that you can do is, if you decide that you don't want to be - if you step and even, further back from being the Airbnb host, you can just say, hey, I'm just the landlord.

I have nothing to do with the day to day of this dog walking or cat sitting or whatever they're doing with pet care.

You can hire a business manager to make all those decisions and hire the team - and then fire the team because you don't want to be the person who is managing other people.

I'm saying that really quickly in passing, but that right there is a huge decision that people I think get stuck on making - is do I really want to be a landlord of my business and think that I'm going to have "passive income" - that word is so loaded with so many meetings.

(20:07):

Do I really think that I want to do that? because you're still going to be essentially, let's think about a landlord.

You're still going to be the person who gets called in the middle of the night when there's an emergency, or if your property manager quits on you or your Airbnb host ghosts you and starts her own Airbnb.

It is all going to fall on you.

There is something very psychologically different, for a person who decides I'm going to keep the dog walking business.

I'm going to have someone who manages the whole thing for me so that I can have passive income from my dog walking business.

Then I'm going to go start my jewelry business on the side.

Now, some people may be able to do that.

I want to conjecture.

Is that the verb? No, it's not.

(20:56):

I would guess that a lot of people, when the rubber meets the road will wake up in the middle of the night and they'll be psychologically tied to the dog walking business, no matter how much you want to go and do the jewelry business, you can never quite get that separation from the dog walking business, because you're - well, I still have to think about so much.

Who's managing the dog walking and somebody else who's doing the marketing and still paying a team of whoever to manage our social media, say that you've just got all these different components and you're still the person who ultimately is holding all of that.

It still relies on you in some way.

Even if you can't afford to hire out all of those specific level jobs in order to have the business.

(21:41):

There are alternatives.

When Suzanne said, for example, pivoting towards having an online course instead of having individual in-home clients, or instead of hiring a team to manage her individual in-home clients, because again, that could be a whole separate topic and we will probably get to that topic at some point in this season.

Having someone else carry out your personal processes for, when we're not talking about dogs, we're talking about people, having somebody else do graphic design or do website design, or do interior design or whatever the service is, having someone else do it at the exact same way you would do it.

That can be done.

You'd essentially be growing an agency.

But it is a whole different type of entrepreneurial venture.

When you say, I want to pivot from what I'm doing, if you're - I really want to step back and do less, what you don't want to do is decide I'm going to now franchise my business and have other people run my same business model in multiple different locations.

(22:48):

Or I'm going to build a team of 20 people - an agency, essentially, to do my job instead of me, that is not going to help you work less.

You are going to be working more.

Again, none of this is bad or good.

It's just, these are questions that you really got to think about and ask yourself when you think that you're talking about stepping back from your business and pivoting or pivoting, what you really mean by that for yourself.

Something this person with the dog walking business could do is create some online component of their business.

You know a dog walking business, probably not the best possible example for this, since you can't teach dogs things on online courses, however, that's the first time I've ever said that out loud...

(23:37):

Can you train a dog online?

I don't, I don't know if you can.

But - let's assume that you can't teach, can't teach dogs anything directly.

But you now have, for example, you do have business to business resources where say there are other people who are trying to start a similar service business as you are.

They want an easy way to set it up themselves.

You're not trying to give them your brand and you're not trying to franchise and give them your business model.

You're just trying to get them - here are some templates, here's some marketing things that have worked for me over and over and over again, you're selling them essentially your processes.

That can be something that can be put into an online course for another business owner to help them make money.

(24:21):

Or maybe you are that perfect person to say, here's how you add cat sitting to a dog walking service without alienating all the dogs.

You know what I mean?

You have some very specific way of managing this business that I was saying a second ago.

Say you have 18 years of experience without just walking away from the thing entirely, but that is the perfect type of thing that can become a small online course online product.

It doesn't have to be a $5,000 program.

It can be a $50 product that after you have created that content for, and automated the whole sales and marketing of it online that can continue to bring you some income from your expertise without, I was saying, just walking away and saying, well, our doors are closed and we're not doing this anymore.

Maybe you are closing down your official services, but you're taking what you have learned all of the hard way.

This applies obviously to you and what you have been doing, you're taking that and creating that next "meta" level of whatever it is that you have been doing.

Does that make sense?

Let me take a sip of water while we process these notes.

(25:44):

Is it obvious?

I'm asking myself this as well as you guys, is it obvious that if you're going to create an online course or create an online content, that it pretty much only makes sense to do that when with experience that you actually have now - that doesn't have to mean that it has been something you've been doing for 18 years, but the people I think who have an online business of some form are using their own life experience.

Now let's go to a completely different direction.

Let's say you have a YouTube channel and that you're doing makeup tutorials, you're using your personal experience.

You don't have to have been a makeup artist for Hollywood celebrities.

Those are not the only people who have makeup channels. Right?

It is your take on what you're doing.

But it should be your actual experience, right?

(26:44):

It's your content.

With that question in mind, when you're thinking about pivoting, your experience or now you would call it expertise, maybe is just a matter of wording.

Because it's something that you've been doing. Let's say, I think that I know enough about makeup to have a makeup channel.

I don't, but if I did, I would just call it my experience, but I'd be sharing tips.

I'd be sharing tricks.

I'd be sharing the products that I like - and now to somebody else, that's expertise that they don't have.

Let's just say that if you take your experience and you market it in a package and say, this is your expertise that can become its own bridge towards becoming an expert on monetizing a YouTube channel.

(27:44):

Now let me repeat that.

Let's say that you have makeup experience and you're doing a makeup YouTube channel.

That can be its own first whole business, but then a pivot would be a pivot.

A true pivot would be I'm now going to serve a different audience. My audience of people who wants to watch my makeup tips would probably not be the same people who would buy a program from you on "Here's how you grow up YouTube channel to a hundred thousand followers and make that your full-time job."

Sometimes just the experience of putting your content online can then become something that then you can later teach to other people.

Does that make sense?

When, if you are not quite able at this moment now, if you've been thinking I'm really ready to do something else, or maybe I've done, say I'm the makeup person, I have done a thousand videos about makeup.

(28:50):

While I may never fall out of love with doing makeup for myself, I may not be dying to do videos anymore.

Let's just say that's true.

So the feeling that you're getting, let's go back to this house analogy.

The feeling that you're getting in this situation is, again, with that whole, I've been an Airbnb host in this house for a long, long time.

Now I have enough experience to teach other people how to be Airbnb host of their own houses.

Now that is always going to have some value - whether you consider yourself an expert house builder or an expert business builder or not is just, is doing something long enough that you have more experience than other people, and then taking that and teaching it with your spin on it.

(29:41):

If that makes sense.

That can be another way to pivot using an online component of your business.

Or in that case, you're doing something online.

Then you're doing another online thing.

You're teaching people online, how to grow YouTube channel.

That's a double whammy that too would be something that when you are starting to think about, you're - I'm so burned out on doing makeup videos in, from my point of view, I might say, but you have all of this expertise from what you did.

Don't feel you have to go and start all over.

Then you just wasted six years of your life making this makeup videos.

Now you don't want to do it anymore.

Now you've lost that income.

No, you never walk away without all of that experience.

Nobody can take that away from you.

(30:28):

Even if you decide that you're not going to create new videos anymore, you can keep your videos up there on YouTube.

People can come still watch your makeup channel.

They might not see something new from you every single week.

But it still is out there.

It shows your expertise.

You could go then in that case too, you could, you could work with other people, other makeup channels even, or it could also be any other channel where you're showing people just - hey, yes, you can take your expertise or your experience and turn it into an expert YouTube channel.

You're not just walking away and going, well, I don't know what to do now, or I'm dying to do something else.

But in that case, I think that's more an Airbnb owner who needs a little bit of a break <laugh> enjoys teaching or helping others, but you don't want to live in the same neighborhood anymore.

(31:20):

I see my analogy, I said, I've really been thinking about this, is very far reaching.

All right, Suzanne, and anybody else who's still watching live.

Let me know how that resonates with you, Crystal, going back to what you said earlier about having the ADHD thing in that particular scenario, an example you can, if you choose to, you can still make your makeup videos and also have, another component to your business where you're helping other people do their YouTube channels without abandoning either one.

That's the beauty, I said, if that really helps you feel you have just enough of a distraction, what Crystal's saying, if you have just enough of a distraction so that you don't get so bored with what you're doing, that you do that whole, I'm just going to burn it all down thing and just walk away, that's what I'm trying to prevent here.

(32:12):

So in that case, really, putting time and attention and building another aspect of your online presence in order to help other people and sell some type of product in that way.

Here's, just to get started, maybe just an idea - a hundred money making videos for makeup parties.

You can come up with something directly from your experience that other people cannot whip up in a day and certainly will not do hundreds and hundreds of hours of research of figuring out which YouTube topics are the best for that niche.

Suzanne said, that makes sense.

That is a huge relief, because I haven't done this in a while. I'm totally sweating.

I going to come back to the Airbnb versus landlord thing.

(33:12):

If you identify as this type of person who is not unhappy with what you do, you love what you do, or you love your audience of people, but you feel it's been - let's say with the makeup artist, I like that topic for some reason.

You feel your YouTube channel is - well, it's just me.

I'm just the Jen show.

If I, Jen, if I don't come up with videos and if I don't record videos, then I don't have new content.

My audience doesn't get anything new.

My channel loses views.

For whatever reason, you still feel it all falls on you, but you're tired of always being - okay, here's literally a new tutorial.

There is something too... I don't know, this definitely falls in the, it's an Airbnb host problem.

(34:06):

You're thinking, I love my house.

I love this party.

I love having all these guests, but I am dying for something new, a refresh, so that I'm not having the same...

I'm not doing the same stuff over and over again.

If you identify as this type who might just get bored...

I think that it is really important to you when you're thinking about your content.

When you think about content for the next year, that if you're thinking about pivoting your content just enough to where it's not always the Jen show anymore, right?

You are interviewing makeup artists or you are going, you have some other little featured Friday series that goes in a totally different direction where you're talking about - crazy costume makeup or just something.

(34:53):

Again, something that is still is in your same niche and makes sense for your audience, but is keeping you from feeling like this is all I'm ever going to do.

Oh my gosh, I'm dying to go start the jewelry business, but I'm stuck.

I'm stuck with my YouTube makeup niche that I settled on seven years ago.

No, it really doesn't always have to be that.

So again, that doesn't mean that you can't also still go do something else, but that could be another way to address that itch that you have to pivot without stopping the thing that is making you money.

But are you - have you already reached the point with a business?

Let's go back to the dog walking thing, because that was more about...

Maybe what I thought I wanted to do as a dog walking service was to not be the one walking the dogs anymore.

(35:50):

I've hired four dog walkers.

We have very full schedule.

I'm making plenty of money.

I've been, I've dialed into marketing.

We know our pricing, we know our customers.

We have great referrals.

We have - everything is really going well.

You're not thinking about pivoting because you're just I'm bored or I hate marketing or <laugh>, I don't know how to sell or things, happen to really picked up all the way.

It's things are going well.

You're still, I know I'm mixing so many analogies, but stay with me.

You built the house.

You either you were the Airbnb host or you hired your Airbnb host.

You're the landlord, things are going great.

You can be involved as much as you want or as little as you want - and you still want to go start the jewelry business.

(36:35):

Absolutely know that it is okay to want to pivot away when you know that you are, you have taken this particular business as far as you specifically want to take it.

Sometimes when we come back to this overall topic of the career coaching thing and entrepreneurs, I feel as soon as you leave your corporate world job, then you're not thinking about your career path as much anymore.

You're just hustling and just trying to make it.

Once you get to a point where you have something that's going well, I feel we forget, it's important too, that the person who built the whole thing and is essentially running and is responsible for the whole thing.

Also sometimes we said, the geographic area of where you built your Airbnb, sometimes you're - I don't care if this becomes the best Airbnb in the state of California, I still want to move to Florida.

(37:35):

That pivoting, I think still can absolutely happen and should happen when necessary.

Don't burn down the house that has the dog walking business.

That sounds really morbid when you put all that together.

But you can still put that in competent hands.

You can, that can even be somebody else's dream job.

That's - all I want is just to take over a dog walking business, right?

They can be the person who then continues that.

What that is known as in the world of people who start up businesses is - it's a startup for a reason because they're the ones who started up, and then they sell it or they franchise it and then they franchise it and sell it.

That happens all the time.

The person who starts it up and does all this stuff, doesn't have to be the same person who grows it into a national franchise - and you might have really created something that was that great.

(38:28):

But now you want to move to Florida and start a jewelry business.

My only thing my thing to ask you, and when people say they really, want to pivot and really go a whole different direction, is that coming from a place of, I would rather be anywhere but doing dog walking, I want to sell an online course in any other thing other than dog walking...

...because I believe that it will give me what I want, even though I don't really know what I want?

I just think that the most important thing is to be super, clear on where you are going and that you are going towards something that you know is working for you that.

In this example, the jewelry business, you can get that going in some beta sense before you have completely sold everything and moved away.

(39:21):

I do think that metaphorical thing does happen with entrepreneurs when they let themselves get burned out.

I have said this before many, times in the course of my online career, but preventing burnout as an entrepreneur is part of your job, no matter what stage you are in - whether you are still at the beginning stages of building the house in the first place, or whether you're - okay, this is going great, but I want to change it up so that I feel I still get the chance to grow and develop.

Your business can keep growing and developing, and YOU can keep growing and developing, and they don't have to be in the same direction.

It doesn't always have to be you doing all of the things.

(40:03):

I just really want that to be a takeaway today is to before you pivot and before you make all these plans to, hopefully what I'm saying is reflect on your experience of why you are, where you are before you make that big move.

Crystal says, and I'm glad she's given me a specific example here.

Crystal says I do home organizing, but I also have a therapeutic technique, aroma freedom that I can use on my organizing clients with mental blocks and over attachments.

But I also can use it for pretty much anyone in any circumstance - it's similar to EMDR that's eye movement.

(40:45):

Desensitization response.

My gosh, that was total guess.

Tell me if I'm right or wrong eye movement, something she said, and I can benefit from oil sales if they want to delve into that world.

Yes, it makes me feel I have this same, but different thing.

Crystal, the good thing about that is that is one thing that is a compliment to your existing business that helps you differentiate.

I think that's super positive.

I think that that's probably really good for your personality.

It sounds - she says I also do photo organizing and I love all things hygge.

Those are things I work into the business too, but I have also wanted to get into furniture refinishing, which I could easily work into my organizing services.

Oh my gosh.

You're - the way that you're typing.

(41:28):

This is so perfect.

Because I can hear your thoughts.

Wow, I can totally feel this, that you're - I could do this.

I could do THIS.

I could do THAT.

Because I think when you're an entrepreneur, you see all these possibilities and you can envision any one of these things being very successful.

If you could just commit to it.

Let me ask you this question.

Do you feel as a person, you just know that you have a hard time deciding and committing or how would you, because I have a technique for you.

I do have a technique for you.

But I want to hear what your answer is.

I don't put words in your mouth.

Do you often have a hard time making a decision between this or that because you can easily visualize this AND you can easily visualize that?

(42:15):

Let me know about that.

She said, she said yes.

"Sometimes it gets hard to know how to blend all of this into something a like blog post."

That really killed me because that was so good.

Crystal, I'm going to answer that specific question and then I'll move on to the one I that I just asked you.

I think that in your case, it makes sense to have one thing that is your umbrella service that gets people in the door, but then you can flavor in maybe one of those other things with each aspect of - a blog post is a perfect example, or your social media post.

You're not trying to put all five things: furniture finishing and the therapeutic technique and the oil sales.

You don't try to put all those things into each post, but it becomes some of the core aspects of your brand.

(43:12):

You'll have to let me know too, have you ever questioned yourself?

Hey, if I could just decide on one of these things, I could grow an online business and have coaching clients and have a organizing course that was all about hygge or you know what I'm saying?

Have you ever put that pressure on yourself where you feel you do have to choose just ONE because you feel it would open more doors for you?

Let me ask you that.

Crystal said to respond to the one I asked a second ago, she said I have a hard time sticking with one decision when I get impatient.

If I don't get results, fast enough, I start looking for another thing.

Oh, I am so glad you said that.

(43:53):

Because that was something that was in my train of thought also is the impatient entrepreneur.

<laugh> In that scenario you would be - you've built a house, it's great.

You've done all the right things.

You're ready to have guests, but there's just not quite enough.

Your schedule's not full enough for you to even know maybe that this is your one thing that you're a hundred percent sure you want to keep doing.

Then when you say you start looking for another thing you think, oh, maybe I should be pivoting because, my "guest calendar" is not full enough yet in that case.

This is what I would say to anybody who is listening to this, who still is at - if you just recently launched a business and you are already listening to me talking about pivoting or navigating, what if you change your mind in the future and that's making you question what you've just done.

(44:53):

I would say don't even question what you've done for at least six months and make sure that it's six months of you, really, being honest with yourself, marketing, that one thing to the extent that it should be in order to see the results that you want.

Right?

Because there's the person who does things the hard way...

Then they think that they need to pivot.

If you have an Airbnb, you built a house, you have an Airbnb and you are walking around your local mall, talking to people and saying, hey, if you have family that comes to visit, you let them know that we have this Airbnb.

It's - well, and I use the word Airbnb, it's just, it's a brand you know it's online.

People would know that it's online.

But if you haven't put great pictures of your Airbnb on the Airbnb website, THAT should probably be more of a focus to make sure that the people who are already actually looking for your stuff are attracted to what you have to offer and who are like, this is the best place for me to stay.

(45:49):

Making sure that you're actually focusing on the traffic source that is going to make the most sense for your thing first.

Rather than saying, well, I'm out there and I'm marketing, but it doesn't seem to be happening fast enough.

Let's make sure that you're not shooting yourself in the foot.

Crystal - she answered my question and maybe I'm giving you guys more things to think about than you can possibly process all on this one, but let's see, she gave me one more response.

She said, I thought of all the ways I could do more courses, but this time around, I'm making a huge effort to stick to one thing out of necessity.

She said, I know there's potential.

I know I just need to be more patient.

Yes. I also identify as one of the most impatient people in the world.

(46:39):

However, learning to be patient and stick with one thing has paid off for me in a huge way and figuring out ways to manage the "shiny object syndrome" so that I'm not always chasing something new has actually opened more doors and given me more time and freedom than it would've been.

If I had spread my eggs in a hundred baskets, which, there are times when man, there are times when things are just tough and the self-sabotage thing starts to feel - oh, I have all these other interests.

I have a million other interests.

Yes.

But not all of them have to be a business and we don't always have to monetize everything that we enjoy doing into a business either.

I think that's another trap of people who like to make money and to be independent and have their own thing is that they will only let themselves do something fun if it's also somehow another side hustle on top of the side hustle on top of the side hustle ...and trust me, I have been there.

(47:44):

Going back to just a minute ago, when I first said to Crystal, if you ever have trouble, if you feel you're that person who is straight up, "I'm a visionary."

I like to envision new ideas.

I can totally see them working.

It's just a matter of deciding on a path when I feel that there's three or four or five viable options.

I actually want to share something that not a business coach, but my actual therapist shared with me.

(48:24):

But I think it is rooted in something that may be something Tony Robbins used to teach, but she, and this sounds woo-woo.

But it totally works.

By the way, I am totally into things that are woo.

That fits me.

She said, when I'm making decisions, she said, you literally close your eyes and put your hands out this <laugh>.

Um, because I, what I told her was, and I'm going to maybe sit here just like this while I tell you all this.

What I told her was, I'm often feeling I never am a hundred percent one way or the other, because I can always see how things could have gone if I had made the other choice.

So one thing I made peace with about myself a couple years ago, or at least try to, is I'm never going to feel a hundred percent that I made the right choice.

(49:19):

I'm only going to feel MOSTLY that I am on the right path and that I can be at peace with that.

Because I just - I don't know. I see so much gray area in things.

I really envy people who are just - boom, black and white, they know what they want every time.

So, maybe you're just more of a, visual or imaginary sense person where, when you're looking at a menu of choices, you can see so many choices or maybe you're thinking about actually renovating your house.

You're thinking, how can people choose tile?

How can people choose a paint color?

I can visualize so many things and they all seem good.

She actually was, I think we're using this, even when we're talking about choosing something a piece of furniture in your house is visualizing two choices and really feeling each one of them, the energy of these two choices in your hands.

(50:15):

On the one hand you have this, on the other hand, you have this, and then once you can feel, and - maybe we're talking about paint colors in a house, or maybe we're talking about your brands, your business name, you've boiled down to two good things that once you have the energy of each one of those things in your hands, and you just - slowly bring your hands together, that by the time they are here, which one feels stronger, not that the other one has disappeared completely, but which one dominates in the feeling.

She suggested that as just one way, for someone me, who can really vividly visualize things and that may not be you at all.

You may not resonate with that at all, but if you are that type of person that might be one way to just get a feel for a direction to go.

(51:13):

I do think too, that it's really helpful when we're talking about pivoting is for somebody who doesn't make decisions very quickly.

Or maybe you have PTSD from decisions that you made years ago.

You're just - oh my God, how will I ever, I don't ever want to get myself into a situation that again, where I had to make a choice.

I got stuck with it for a long time, or I did hire team members and they all hated me, or I didn't like managing people.

"Now I don't think that I'm cut out for business at all."

I think a lot of times we relive past decisions that we weren't prepared to make.

Whether you are the type of person who's scared to make a decision in the first place, or you've made decisions before that have not turned out ideally, I think knowing that you CAN pivot a business and even, when we're talking about the drastic type of move from California to Florida choice, not just a small, I'm expanding from just dog sitting to cat sitting too, right?

(52:11):

We're talking about even a big decision like that.

It is always possible in small baby steps to work towards a new thing and that, and that you're not boxing yourself in forever, just because you're choosing a niche and you're putting yourself out there as this is your expertise.

You don't have to be that person forever.

You don't have to be that expert forever.

There's always a way to reframe it and rebrand it and then gradually get there.

Even if it doesn't happen literally all in one week that you have something totally new that people now know you for this.

I'm going to try, I'm going to try to sum this up, even though this is obviously not a one-and-done conversation.

Of course now I lost my train of thought.

Yes, no, I got it.

Pivoting, Florida, Georgia.

<laugh> California.

Oh man.

Yeah, I totally did lose my train of thought,

Woo woo...

(53:15):

I guess that was where my brain wanted to end today.

So what we're going to do in season two, we are still going to, I'm going to still probably refer back to some of my season one content back that I put out in 2020, these were online business basics.

Putting out content, how do you choose content?

Say you're that person who's ready to start a YouTube channel.

Or I really want to leave my job and retire and have a consulting business online.

I'm if you're that person who's just getting started in that there's a lot of good, basic resources that are classics that are never going to not be true.

That's the stuff I tried to put out there in 2020.

Those videos are still on this Facebook page.

(54:08):

In season two, we're really going to be talking more about a permanent shift towards having an online business, or maybe you already have an online business and you want to shift into something else, but now you've been YouTube makeup girl for so long that you don't know how, do how do I start this?

Or how do I do that without stopping and completely slowing down the momentum of this thing that I've already built?

Because everybody deserves the opportunity to keep growing, no matter what path you have been on, whether you have already built an essential oil selling business and that's your big thing.

I keep making up new examples, but you guys get what I mean?

(55:00):

Sometimes people really want to go into more of a coaching and consulting role that does not require them managing teams of people, but just being a one-on-one person.

Maybe you're great at managing teams and you want to help other people manage their teams, but you don't want to be the one to build a new business.

You can be an outsourced part of another businesses team.

That can be really fun too, because you're still in a small business.

You're still doing what you do best, but you're not having to completely start up your own new thing in order to do that.

That is a huge opportunity as well.

When we're talking about pivoting, you don't have to start a new business.

There are other people who probably need you and your expertise, and you can hone in on maybe one thing that you absolutely love and say, this is going to be my thing.

(55:47):

Now I'm going to be the person who helps with video production for another beauty blog, because you've had a makeup YouTube for so long, but now you just want to be that video expert and content planner.

Does that make sense?

I think there's an art to this, because online business and online courses and online content, there are so many choices and options and then new things that are happening like TikTok.

You have so many opportunities to take your experience and say, okay, now this experience is going to be my new portfolio for this new opportunity, whether it's a job or a new business, or just something that you want to slowly start dipping your toe in the water without completely stopping what you're doing now.

(56:37):

Hope this was helpful.

I would love to know what your big takeaway was from this was for you.

What kinds of questions that you still have about online business in general, about putting yourself out there, that whole jump from - this is my experience to, this is my expertise.

That is a big one, I think.

We'll have to talk about that in a future live, video blog podcast.

But all of the other ideas I'm open to as well, because whatever you guys <laugh> have on your mind, that is, that is related to this topic, I am here for it and I'm really excited about being back.

I will not be doing a video every single day for season two.

That was a season one promise.

I did that up until I could literally not talk anymore.

(57:31):

You can expect something maybe once a week, maybe not every single week, but definitely, several times a month.

We'll try to get on a somewhat normal schedule maybe after the holidays, but you will always see me post about it that day if not beforehand.

It would be really helpful if you would just - or not just "LIke" the page, but also you can click a button that says subscribe for notifications, "hit that bell" as the kids say on YouTube.

Thank you guys so much for being here.

And I look forward to your comments.

I hope you guys have a great week!