Latest / Ambitious Podcast / EP. 35: Finding Clarity: Navigating a Business You No Longer Love

Transcript

EP. 35: Finding Clarity: Navigating a Business You No Longer Love · Ambitious Podcast

• 0:08
  Hello you guys and welcome back to Ambitious.
• 0:10
  So you if you are watching this, are going to notice that I have
• 0:14
  a very different setting than my traditional set that I have set
• 0:18
  up at home. And that is because I am
• 0:21
  traveling right now. And so I want to also let you
• 0:23
  know that in the episodes moving forward, we are going to be
• 0:26
  starting off each of the episodes is a little bit of a
• 0:29
  personal update. I have gotten lots of feedback
• 0:31
  from you guys who tune into this every single week.
• 0:34
  And by the way, I love you to pieces and thank you so much for
• 0:37
  listening and for tuning in because it means the world to
• 0:39
  me. Like none of what we're doing
• 0:41
  here and what we create would have any purpose or any
• 0:43
  intention without you. And so it really does mean the
• 0:46
  world to me when you guys reach out, when we connect on socials,
• 0:50
  when I'm just able to really hear, you know, the things that
• 0:52
  are supporting you and the things that are helping you
• 0:53
  right now. So first of all, I want to say
• 0:55
  hi and thank you so much for always tuning in and 1st being
• 0:58
  an incredible support behind the scenes for me and for ambitious
• 1:01
  in general and for what it's doing for women who TuneIn and
• 1:04
  who listen. And so one of the things that I
• 1:07
  have gotten from having conversations with you guys is
• 1:09
  the fact that you're like Kate, like I feel like we know you
• 1:12
  business wise, but I feel like we don't really get to know you
• 1:14
  as much personally. And if I'm going to be really
• 1:18
  honest, I think that I've kind of hidden in my business a bit
• 1:23
  in a little bit of a way because I think, you know, to be totally
• 1:26
  transparent, it's like very scary for me to be vulnerable
• 1:30
  and for me to feel like, well, but if I say something and then
• 1:33
  I change my mind or, you know, what if there's something that I
• 1:36
  say, but I wish I had said it differently.
• 1:38
  And I realized that, you know, like many business owners, I
• 1:42
  struggle with this idea of like perfectionism and the way that
• 1:45
  it's supposed to look and the way that it's supposed to sound
• 1:47
  and, you know, the way that it's supposed to be.
• 1:50
  And so recently I had shared on, you know, social media that I
• 1:56
  was no longer engaged. And that was a difficult update
• 1:59
  for me to share because it was something that, yeah, it was
• 2:02
  extremely personal. And I had never really let my
• 2:05
  audience or anyone in my world in in that way before.
• 2:09
  And so for me, it was very scary.
• 2:11
  But I also felt when I did it like this aspect of like this
• 2:14
  relief, like this weight was off my shoulders and I could like
• 2:17
  really fully, you know, show up authentically in the way that I
• 2:20
  needed to and wanted to. And it was such a testament to
• 2:23
  me of the fact that I was like, OK, well, if I feel so in
• 2:27
  integrity and so in alignment and so clear by doing that,
• 2:32
  well, why am I not flexing that muscle more like, why am I only
• 2:35
  doing that in the most extreme of situations like the
• 2:38
  announcement that I made? And so all of that to say, I
• 2:41
  want to kind of give you a little bit of update.
• 2:43
  So as we record this, it has been an interesting season.
• 2:50
  To keep it short for you, I have been going through a lot of
• 2:52
  personal changes. I have been experiencing a lot
• 2:55
  of unknowns and a lot of things that I had at the phase of my
• 3:00
  life. And being 32, I had this vision
• 3:03
  of the plan of what my life was going to look like and how
• 3:05
  things were going to unfold and, you know, the timeline of how
• 3:07
  everything was going to happen. And I think I'm just kind of
• 3:11
  coming to terms and accepting with the fact that I have to be
• 3:14
  OK with those collapsing and maybe not necessarily happening
• 3:17
  in the way that I envisioned it. And that, you know, it's kind of
• 3:21
  been a blessing indirectly because it's really helped me to
• 3:24
  realize like there's the plans that we have for our life and
• 3:27
  there's the plans that are really happening for us.
• 3:29
  And that are things that we could have never foreseen or
• 3:31
  never planned in a journal necessarily, but that maybe will
• 3:35
  end up being some of the, you know, the things that really
• 3:38
  transform us as people. And so I will say that, you
• 3:41
  know, moving forward on episodes, I'm going to be taking
• 3:43
  about 5 to 10 minutes to the start of every episode just to
• 3:46
  kind of, you know, fill you guys in and, and let you in on a
• 3:48
  little bit of the reality of not just the business stuff, which
• 3:51
  is the strategy, obviously, which we definitely will be
• 3:53
  keeping in all of our episodes. Because you guys know, I'm a
• 3:55
  little strategy nerd. But there's also the aspect
• 3:58
  which I think is big. And I talk with a lot with women
• 4:00
  in coaching, which is like, there's the business and then
• 4:02
  there's the person behind the business.
• 4:03
  And both are equally as influential, right?
• 4:07
  Like you could have a great strategy, but if you yourself
• 4:09
  are not doing well or you're not navigating what it means to be
• 4:13
  the CEO or the person behind the business, it may not hit the
• 4:17
  growth that it needs to hit because you yourself are the
• 4:19
  thing that potentially is capping it.
• 4:21
  And for me, I realized like the way I was capping it was like, I
• 4:23
  actually have not been living in full integrity.
• 4:27
  I haven't been posting and sharing and showing up in the
• 4:31
  most authentic way that I possibly could have.
• 4:33
  And I think that, you know, the update that I shared on online
• 4:36
  was an invitation for me to do that, but it was really scary.
• 4:39
  And it's something that I'm still navigating, like I kind of
• 4:43
  feel like Bambi on ice with posting personal stuff.
• 4:45
  And so I just want to say thank you for everyone who has shared
• 4:47
  their feedback and who has shared kind words with me and
• 4:50
  all of you listening who have been such a massive support in
• 4:53
  my corner. And I just love you to pieces.
• 4:54
  And thank you for all that you do for me and for the community
• 4:58
  and for everything. And also I want to share it
• 5:01
  because I think that there's this perception sometimes with,
• 5:04
  you know, curated branding and big results and all these things
• 5:07
  that when someone has a 7 figure business or a multiple 7 figure
• 5:10
  business that they don't struggle.
• 5:11
  And I think the reality is, for me at least, I've realized that,
• 5:16
  like, I'm actually not serving you.
• 5:18
  And, you know, you tune in every week to be like, OK, how do I
• 5:22
  develop as a business owner? Like, where do I need to step
• 5:24
  into, Like, what is the next thing for me?
• 5:26
  And I'm like, how am I really leading without really embodying
• 5:30
  what I would ask of you, which is to be authentic and to own
• 5:33
  your truth and to speak your truth to other people and to
• 5:36
  feel like whatever you need to share, whoever you are, that all
• 5:40
  of that is welcome and OK. And yet I'm like, I haven't been
• 5:42
  embodying that. And so I was like, this is an
• 5:44
  invitation for me to really start to practice what I preach
• 5:48
  and to realize where I maybe have been, you know, falling off
• 5:52
  routine in comparison to what I would usually recommend.
• 5:54
  And so this is my personal accountability in a way of me
• 5:57
  really stepping and being the product of what I tell other
• 6:00
  people to do. And so I just appreciate all of
• 6:02
  you. I love you guys.
• 6:03
  Tibet. And without further ado, let's
• 6:05
  get into today's episode. So kind of, you know, the
• 6:09
  inspiration for today's episode actually came with a, a
• 6:12
  conversation I had with an entrepreneur because they had
• 6:14
  come to me and said, you know, Kate, like I have questions
• 6:16
  obviously about strategy and stuff.
• 6:17
  But I think the basis of really what I'm realizing is like, I
• 6:20
  hate my business. Like I really am not enjoying my
• 6:22
  business. And I don't really know what the
• 6:26
  next step is for me. Like I know that I don't like
• 6:28
  it. I know I'm not enjoying it, but
• 6:29
  I don't exactly know what it looks like to not feel this way
• 6:33
  anymore and also to feel like I have a blueprint or an action
• 6:36
  plan as to like how to navigate next steps.
• 6:38
  And so in the one-on-one of today's episode, we're going to
• 6:41
  be going over what to do if you are currently in a process right
• 6:45
  now where you're not obsessed with parts of your business or
• 6:48
  maybe with your business in it in its entirety, right?
• 6:50
  In like in a, a summary way that your overall business
• 6:53
  experience, you are not having a good time right now.
• 6:55
  And so we're going to kind of unpack, you know, questions we
• 6:58
  want to ask ourselves, awarenesses that you may not
• 7:01
  even realize you don't like your business, but some symptoms that
• 7:04
  I see and some awarenesses I see with entrepreneurs who often at
• 7:08
  times are having issues with their business or resistance to
• 7:10
  their business. I'm also going to be unpacking
• 7:12
  why this happens. So like when someone is building
• 7:15
  a business and a lot of us do it out of a place of passion and
• 7:17
  desire to really take our our life to the next level and to
• 7:21
  chase our dreams and do what we love.
• 7:23
  How do we go from that to being in a business that we really are
• 7:26
  not doing what we love? And we're really stuck in this
• 7:28
  place of kind of feeling we have to just do what we've always
• 7:32
  done and feeling frankly, almost like in a prison in our own
• 7:35
  businesses. And so I want to talk to you a
• 7:37
  little bit about that. And also, most importantly, give
• 7:39
  you a tactical action plan on if this is you.
• 7:42
  And if you are somebody who feels like you are not in love
• 7:44
  with your business right now, that we can give you some action
• 7:47
  steps to start to maneuver with that will help you to get to see
• 7:51
  some movement right away. And that's a really important
• 7:53
  piece because there is a mistake that people make that is massive
• 7:56
  that I really want to unpack with you guys about where people
• 7:59
  really have massive error when it comes to not loving their
• 8:03
  business and trying to take action around it and how
• 8:05
  sometimes it actually makes the situation worse.
• 8:07
  So all about to say, why are we diving into this topic?
• 8:10
  Well, I have had conversations with many entrepreneurs about
• 8:13
  this. I've talked to my peers about
• 8:14
  this as well, other people that are in my circle that are not
• 8:17
  obsessed with their business. And I think that a lot of the
• 8:21
  time there is just this aspect of like, we're just doing things
• 8:24
  to do them right. Like I hear people all the time
• 8:26
  who are like, well, I got a market because I got a market
• 8:28
  and I got to serve these clients and sell this offer because I
• 8:30
  just got to sell this offer. And I think that there's times
• 8:34
  where you get so into the status quo of the things that we've
• 8:36
  always done that we don't really recognize how we actually feel
• 8:41
  about the business when we're asked to do those things.
• 8:44
  And so I, I think it's really important when we're looking at
• 8:48
  like loving our business that we kind of look at like, what does
• 8:50
  that mean, right. And so a question I want you to
• 8:53
  ask yourself and something to kind of reflect on in yourself
• 8:56
  right now is, is the business that you've built, does it still
• 9:01
  align with who you are today or are you sticking with it because
• 9:05
  it's what you've always done? OK.
• 9:08
  So I'm going to ask that again, just so you can reflect on this,
• 9:11
  The business you've built, is the business that you've built
• 9:14
  at this moment still aligned to who you are today?
• 9:18
  Or is this something that you're simply doing because it has been
• 9:21
  the thing that you've always done?
• 9:24
  And that's something that for some people can be a little bit
• 9:28
  jarring because it makes them realize like this is just a
• 9:30
  business I've had for a while. This is something that I've been
• 9:33
  selling forever. This is something that I've
• 9:35
  always talked about or always sold.
• 9:37
  And so when you think about going a different direction, you
• 9:41
  start to realize, OK, well, like do I do I love this.
• 9:44
  When I start to see this getting bigger and bigger, like do I
• 9:46
  want this to get bigger? And those awarenesses start to
• 9:48
  come to the surface. And so when we think about who
• 9:52
  you are today, the thing which is why I also want to normalize
• 9:55
  not loving your business. When we change, when we grow as
• 9:58
  entrepreneurs, our perspective changes, our awareness changes,
• 10:02
  our lived experience changes, our lives, our personal lives
• 10:05
  change. And when we had those changes
• 10:08
  happen, our values can also change and adjust along the way
• 10:12
  as well. And so it's really important
• 10:14
  that we ask ourselves as we're changing, is our business still
• 10:18
  reflective of the person that we are today.
• 10:20
  And this is important because you may not have the same
• 10:22
  Business Today as you envisioned yourself having when you first
• 10:26
  started, you know, many years ago, I was like the first post
• 10:30
  that you put up and the first, you know, offer that you launch
• 10:33
  like you're you might be a different person today.
• 10:35
  You frankly might be a different person than you were six months
• 10:37
  ago. I know I am.
• 10:39
  And so it's really giving yourself that permission to say
• 10:41
  it's not even just about the fact of like I changed my mind,
• 10:44
  right? Or the idea of like, I can't
• 10:47
  stick to a plan, right? We have to release this idea of
• 10:50
  like the labels and shame. And also recognize if you don't
• 10:53
  love your business, it's also very possible that you have
• 10:56
  become a different person in your business, which is why
• 10:59
  you're not enjoying it the way that you once did.
• 11:01
  And so I want to talk about some awarenesses that might resonate
• 11:05
  with you and maybe something that you're feeling right now
• 11:07
  that could be a sign that you do not like your business.
• 11:11
  Number one is the fact that you may be procrastinating and
• 11:14
  severely avoiding tasks, even though you know that those tasks
• 11:18
  could be something that correlate to the growth of your
• 11:21
  business. Like I see people all the time
• 11:23
  who who know what they know that, you know, posting, for
• 11:27
  example, on social media or they know that asking clients and
• 11:31
  booking clients and to have renewal calls could grow their
• 11:34
  business. They know that doing that e-mail
• 11:37
  launch or that series on e-mail could be something that helps to
• 11:41
  grow their business. And yet they don't do it even
• 11:44
  though they have the awareness that that could help them to
• 11:46
  make more money and to get the business to a different stage
• 11:48
  than it's at right now. And so it just really to me, one
• 11:51
  of the core signs is the fact that you're not doing things
• 11:55
  that you know, could actually grow the business.
• 11:58
  I also see quite a bit, which is a massive trend, is that you're
• 12:03
  blaming yourself and believing yourself to be lazy.
• 12:07
  The amount of people who say, well, oh, I'm putting it off, I
• 12:09
  must just be lazy or I'm unmotivated, right?
• 12:11
  And you start labeling yourself and you think that you're
• 12:14
  somebody who doesn't have work ethic or you think that you're
• 12:16
  somebody who you know doesn't have what it takes or isn't
• 12:20
  consistent. When really the reason that
• 12:22
  you're feeling that you don't want to do something or you're
• 12:24
  feeling that you're unmotivated is not because you're lazy.
• 12:27
  It has to do with the fact that you don't actually like what
• 12:29
  you're doing. You don't have a why behind it.
• 12:32
  And so because of that, it means that you really put off doing it
• 12:36
  because it's not something that you actually necessarily at a
• 12:38
  deep level truly value. Also seeing a lot of the fact
• 12:43
  that you maybe have had success in your business, like maybe
• 12:47
  you've had a moment or you've had a season or maybe you've had
• 12:50
  years even where you've been successful in your current
• 12:53
  business. And you actually feel this
• 12:55
  aspect of like, well, I've got this great success.
• 12:59
  I've generated the sales, I've built the community, I've done
• 13:02
  the marketing, I've done whatever the factor might be.
• 13:04
  And so for me to be like, I don't like my business.
• 13:07
  Like I that kind of seems crazy after all the success that I've
• 13:10
  had. And so you might even feel this
• 13:12
  aspect of like kind of feeling ashamed in a way that it's not
• 13:16
  OK to not like your business because it's brought you so many
• 13:18
  things. It's created the life that you
• 13:20
  have today or that you feel like it's had so much success.
• 13:24
  How could I possibly not love it or not be obsessed with my
• 13:27
  business? And the thing that I will also
• 13:30
  say is a big sign is the fact that the things you were once
• 13:33
  passionate about within the business, you're no longer
• 13:35
  passionate about. So you might used to, you know,
• 13:37
  maybe at the beginning feel like you were like really excited
• 13:40
  about marketing and about sales and about like going in and
• 13:43
  promoting your offers. And you're like, I just don't
• 13:44
  have the same energy and drive and like kind of like tenacity
• 13:48
  when it comes to those areas in the business anymore.
• 13:51
  And so another massive sign also connected to that can also be
• 13:56
  the fact that you used to love selling your offer.
• 13:58
  You used to love selling in your business and promoting it and
• 14:02
  inviting your audience to be part of your world.
• 14:05
  And now when it comes to selling, you don't like to sell.
• 14:10
  And I see this all the time with entrepreneurs is that people
• 14:12
  will be in this place where they're like, I don't know, Like
• 14:14
  I know I need to sell. I know I need to sell.
• 14:16
  And I'm like, but maybe you're not selling because you
• 14:19
  associate the selling with enrolling people.
• 14:21
  And when you think about enrolling people, you think
• 14:24
  about the idea that you have to serve those clients in either a
• 14:27
  process or a program or a service that you're not actually
• 14:31
  obsessed with. Like you might not like that
• 14:33
  program, service or offering as it stands right now today.
• 14:36
  And then to think about adding more people to it, you're like,
• 14:39
  that's the last thing that I want to do.
• 14:41
  And that's because I don't even like it in the first place.
• 14:43
  And so it may have nothing to do with the fact that you don't
• 14:46
  sell or that you're necessarily inconsistent or any of those
• 14:49
  things, but more a matter of the fact that you're not selling
• 14:52
  because you don't actually like your offering, you don't
• 14:55
  actually like your business. And so thinking about generating
• 14:57
  more traffic through it and more energy through it, frankly more
• 15:01
  people through it, is something that is something you're not
• 15:04
  ultimately excited about. Now, another idea that I also
• 15:08
  want to propose to you, which may be something that is
• 15:11
  connected to your business, but also maybe something that's
• 15:13
  connected to an aspect of, you know, vision, right?
• 15:17
  So it's kind of two pieces to this is you feel like you're
• 15:20
  trying to come up with new ideas for the business, so you're
• 15:22
  thinking about how to help it to grow and how to step into that
• 15:26
  next level of expansion. But every time you think about
• 15:29
  those, none of the ideas that come forward excite you.
• 15:31
  Like if someone proposes a new service or a new offering or a
• 15:34
  new program or a new course or whatever the deliverable might
• 15:37
  be, you're like, yeah, but it's just not something that really
• 15:40
  excites you. It's not something you're
• 15:41
  getting giddy about. And so every single time that
• 15:45
  you try to come up with a new ideas, new perspectives, new
• 15:49
  lenses of things you could do, you alternate back at Ground
• 15:53
  Zero, which is like none of this excites me.
• 15:54
  I don't want to do it. And so you're finding it
• 15:57
  difficult to plan for the business because everything that
• 15:59
  you see that you try to plan for, it still feels like a glove
• 16:03
  that doesn't fit you. And so if you are somebody who
• 16:08
  is planning the other way that we'll also see is with connected
• 16:11
  to the business is you will have ideas, you will do and execute
• 16:15
  things, but you will also get so quickly bored of the things that
• 16:19
  you execute and the things that you're doing that you actually
• 16:22
  don't sustain with those. Like you will have a new idea
• 16:26
  every freaking Thursday. And it's because ultimately what
• 16:29
  you're doing is you're looking to seek the dopamine spike.
• 16:32
  You've fallen out of love with your business and you're trying
• 16:35
  to find that passion again. You're trying to spice up your
• 16:38
  relationship, if you will, when it comes to your business.
• 16:42
  And so you're throwing everything in there.
• 16:44
  You're like, okay, great membership.
• 16:45
  Sure course, sure, like mastermind, why not, right?
• 16:50
  Like you're throwing in every idea or as a service, you're
• 16:52
  like, do I serve that client? Haven't done that before.
• 16:54
  Let's do that. Like you're constantly searching
• 16:57
  to try to do new things in the belief and in the perspective
• 17:00
  that if you add that stuff in, that that's going to be the
• 17:03
  thing that helps you to finally love and get excited about your
• 17:06
  business. And so you're chasing the
• 17:08
  dopamine and it often at times can even lead you potentially to
• 17:11
  trying a bunch of new things, which actually in turn creates
• 17:14
  more friction in the business because it's more scattered than
• 17:17
  ever. The other thing that we also
• 17:19
  will see is that your income often is plateaued or stuck.
• 17:22
  And this is because oftentimes when someone doesn't like their
• 17:26
  business, kind of like I noted earlier for sales, we are not
• 17:29
  necessarily excited about adding more sales to the business.
• 17:32
  And that's because the business is not something we want to
• 17:35
  grow. And so because we don't want to
• 17:37
  grow it because we're not selling and we're also probably
• 17:39
  not loving our offerings, which means we don't have a lot of
• 17:42
  renewals or referrals. It means that sales are taking a
• 17:45
  hit because every department of your business is connected to
• 17:49
  this thing that you don't ultimately love anymore.
• 17:52
  And so because of that, you're finding it really, really
• 17:54
  difficult to either maintain your current income or to
• 17:57
  increase it. And that is because everything
• 17:59
  that you do feels super heavy and overwhelming and really
• 18:02
  frankly, not exciting. And so when you're stuck in
• 18:05
  these plateaus, you often will be at this place where you're
• 18:08
  like, I just don't even know what to do.
• 18:10
  Like I feel like I'm just like burnt out.
• 18:12
  I don't even know if this is for me anymore.
• 18:14
  And you're, you're moments away from throwing in the towel,
• 18:16
  potentially sometimes, depending on where in the spectrum of love
• 18:20
  with your business you're at right now.
• 18:22
  Now, first of all, I want to say that as I said earlier, when you
• 18:26
  grow and you change as a person and you change as an
• 18:28
  entrepreneur and you develop your, your values change, your
• 18:33
  perspective changes. The things you love can shift
• 18:35
  and change just the way that you love something when you're 18,
• 18:38
  you might not love it. Now.
• 18:40
  All of that is same and true when it comes to years in
• 18:42
  business, but there's also a couple reasons.
• 18:45
  If even if it's not just about time in the sense of it's not a
• 18:48
  matter of, oh, I've been in the business for a while and I've
• 18:50
  changed my perspective. There's a couple other reasons
• 18:52
  why it's going to happen #1 being the fact and top one that
• 18:56
  I see nine times out of 10 is that you're building a business
• 19:00
  because some coach, some mentor, some consultant told you that
• 19:03
  this is the way you're going to build it.
• 19:05
  Like you're going to create this offer, you're going to market
• 19:09
  this specific way, you're going to sell this specific way.
• 19:12
  And you were told and you were really frankly had it instilled
• 19:15
  into you that there was a quote, UN quote, right way of doing
• 19:18
  things. And so because of that, many
• 19:21
  entrepreneurs who follow coaches, consultants or mentors
• 19:26
  who have a very frankly aggressive way in the way that
• 19:30
  they say that there's this one-size-fits-all, like this is
• 19:32
  the way to be successful. What ultimately ends up
• 19:35
  happening is they're taking your agency away of the ability for
• 19:38
  you to actually figure out what excites you and what lights you
• 19:41
  up about your business and the way in which you want to grow
• 19:43
  it. And So what I've really seen
• 19:47
  time and time again is that people will build their
• 19:49
  business, they will have success in that business, only to then
• 19:53
  find that when they go to scale it, when they continue to grow
• 19:56
  it, they're like, I don't even like this.
• 19:58
  And that's because ultimately, at the end of the day, the
• 20:00
  business that you're building may not even actually be your
• 20:03
  vision or your picture of what you saw success to be, or your
• 20:07
  picture of what you saw to be the thing that lights you up in
• 20:09
  the way in which you wanted to do it.
• 20:11
  But instead you were told and really frankly given this.
• 20:15
  Confirmation and idea like this is the way that you're going to
• 20:18
  grow. And so because of it, you've
• 20:20
  been following someone else's steps only to realize that those
• 20:22
  steps are not, you know, the path that you're ultimately
• 20:25
  wanting to take. It's LED you to not really trust
• 20:28
  yourself. It's LED you to not be able to
• 20:32
  really know what is a good fit for you and what makes most
• 20:35
  sense for you. And because of that it causes
• 20:39
  you to really lose trust with yourself and ultimately lose
• 20:41
  trust of why am I even do this in the 1st place.
• 20:43
  Nothing is going to feel in your business like it fits you if
• 20:47
  it's not something that's your idea.
• 20:50
  And that is your reminder that even if you have a coach or a
• 20:53
  consultant, their job is to coach and be there as an advisor
• 20:58
  to you, not the final decision maker of this is the only way.
• 21:01
  Because that is one of the fastest ways to fall in love
• 21:03
  with your business. And I see it time and time
• 21:05
  again. It's the belief that someone
• 21:07
  else has the answers of what we need to be doing instead of
• 21:10
  looking at mentors, coaches, consultants as a resource and an
• 21:14
  opportunity for additional inside information for then us
• 21:18
  to make the ultimate decision of what it is that we want to do
• 21:20
  for our business. You also potentially, which is
• 21:23
  another reason why this can happen, is that you took action
• 21:26
  in the business and you often maybe really ignored that inner
• 21:29
  voice that was coming up. And you may have had moments
• 21:33
  where you thought you need to let go of that team member or
• 21:35
  you needed to cut that offer or you need to stop marketing a
• 21:38
  certain way or you didn't want to sell like that anymore.
• 21:41
  But yet you kept doing it and yet you kept going.
• 21:44
  And sometimes when we ignore that voice, often times when we
• 21:49
  ignore that voice, that voice is only going to get louder and
• 21:52
  louder and louder and louder, frankly, until we listen.
• 21:56
  And So what I've seen is that people will ignore that voice.
• 22:02
  They will ignore that kind of like inner nagging of the thing
• 22:05
  that they know they need to do or the change they need to make
• 22:08
  in the belief that, no, I'm going to push it down, push it
• 22:10
  down and stick with the path and stick with the path.
• 22:13
  But then you look up and you're like, this is not a little
• 22:15
  whisper anymore. This is like a screaming voice
• 22:18
  inside of me that tells me I need to do this.
• 22:21
  And sometimes by the time you listen to that voice, you're so
• 22:24
  deep in the business and you're so deep within the strategy
• 22:26
  you've been executing or the steps that you've been taking
• 22:29
  that making that change is not a small little incremental thing
• 22:32
  anymore. It's actually something that has
• 22:33
  a massive compound effect into your other areas of your
• 22:37
  business. It has a financial impact, it
• 22:39
  has a marketing impact, a sales impact, right.
• 22:41
  And so sometimes I see business owners that tell me like, I knew
• 22:47
  the whole time, like I always had a feeling that this is what
• 22:50
  I needed to do, but I just never really listened.
• 22:53
  Like I just never really like took action on that thing or
• 22:56
  trusted that voice or trusted that plan.
• 22:58
  I really wish I had now. And obviously, you know,
• 23:01
  hindsight is, is great, but when it comes to, you know, the
• 23:05
  opportunity for you, the insight here is like, is there something
• 23:09
  that you're having as a whisper right now that you might need to
• 23:12
  pay attention to? Is there a voice in you that has
• 23:15
  been telling you that there's a certain thing you need to do or
• 23:17
  a certain action to take and you haven't been doing it and you've
• 23:20
  been ignoring it? And maybe that is something you
• 23:23
  need to tune into because the answer you're looking for for
• 23:25
  your business is in there, You've just been ignoring it.
• 23:29
  Another reason that I can definitely say that I myself, in
• 23:32
  the earlier parts of my business definitely fell into.
• 23:34
  So I am guilty of this, but something that I see with many
• 23:38
  entrepreneurs today in all stages of business is that
• 23:41
  you're following the idea of what other people are doing
• 23:45
  online. Like you're seeing other people
• 23:47
  who are doing certain offers, you're seeing other people who
• 23:50
  are doing certain ways of marketing or certain ways
• 23:53
  they're scaling their business. And you believe because you see
• 23:56
  other people doing it, that that should be something you try or
• 23:59
  that should be something that you do.
• 24:00
  But it isn't really something that's coming from you.
• 24:03
  It's not something that's coming from your vision and from your
• 24:05
  perspective and from your, you know, lens of what feels good
• 24:10
  for you. Like you're really just seeing
• 24:12
  that someone else had success with it.
• 24:13
  So that's what I'm gonna do. And you're not taking the
• 24:17
  essential stage to really reflect and say, but does this
• 24:20
  fit me? Does this make sense for me and
• 24:22
  what I want for my business and for my life?
• 24:26
  And instead you just see other people doing it.
• 24:28
  You're like, OK, well, clearly I believe based off what I'm
• 24:31
  seeing on social media, which is not always true, I believe based
• 24:34
  off what I'm seeing on social that this works.
• 24:36
  So I'm going to take that as my insight and my awareness that I
• 24:40
  guess this is what I'm supposed to do.
• 24:41
  And you take that and you run with it.
• 24:43
  And so it's really key that we dive into, is this something
• 24:47
  that is ours or are we borrowing this from somebody else and the
• 24:50
  belief that that's what's going to make it work.
• 24:53
  Another thing that I would say is kind of the big telltale sign
• 24:57
  to me is that you really like the most common one I see is
• 25:03
  that people will have these moments in their business where
• 25:06
  old them with old values, as I said, is something that made a
• 25:10
  decision and the new them with new values doesn't value it
• 25:14
  anymore. So like, for example, if you
• 25:16
  built your entire business, for example, on hustle and strategy
• 25:21
  and all of these messages and you know, frankly marketing and
• 25:25
  values that you're like, I don't resonate with that anymore.
• 25:27
  Like that does not feel like me. That is not something that kind
• 25:30
  of like hits home for me any longer.
• 25:32
  Well, that's something. But of course, if you change and
• 25:35
  evolve as a person and you go deeper into your values and your
• 25:39
  perspective and what lights you up and what you're excited
• 25:41
  about. Of course, when you go to shift
• 25:43
  your business from say strategy to mindset or low ticket to high
• 25:47
  ticket and like you start to change what you care about,
• 25:50
  you're going to, in the process of the evolution of finding
• 25:53
  yourself, also realize that parts of your business are going
• 25:56
  to shift. And I want to give you a little
• 25:58
  insight as to how this really came up for me, because even for
• 26:02
  me, I've been finding recently like the part that if I'm going
• 26:05
  to be really transparent, I actually haven't loved as much
• 26:08
  about my business is actually connected to brand.
• 26:11
  And I'll tell you why. I, I love bougie stuff as much
• 26:17
  as the next person. OK, So like, I, I love a good
• 26:20
  like label like, and I love a good bag.
• 26:22
  I love a good outfit. I love makeup and getting my
• 26:25
  hair done. And I love dressing up and I
• 26:27
  love going out and all of those things.
• 26:29
  Like, I like that stuff I do. It's been something like I've
• 26:32
  been doing makeup since I was like, I don't even know, 10.
• 26:36
  Like I was like, I've always been having makeup on and, and
• 26:39
  doing all this stuff. However, the thing that I
• 26:43
  realized was I took this piece and it's part of of what I
• 26:46
  enjoyed or who I am and I really made it the, the core element of
• 26:52
  my brand. And what I've been realizing
• 26:54
  over time, the part that I've been kind of trying to navigate
• 26:56
  with my business is like, how do I integrate more of me in the
• 27:01
  day-to-day, IE as I sit here and record this, if you're watching
• 27:04
  me on video, I'm sitting here with my Aulani energy drink at
• 27:07
  my girlfriend, my best friend's house in her chair in her office
• 27:11
  with a red microphone that is not on brand and in my jeans,
• 27:15
  right. And so that's something that old
• 27:18
  Kate would not have done because it was wasn't on brand and it
• 27:22
  wasn't, you know, like perfectly to a tee.
• 27:24
  And I've been realizing that, like the parts of my business
• 27:27
  that I wasn't loving is because I wasn't showing up in the way
• 27:31
  that felt truly in alignment for me.
• 27:33
  And it was because old me was somebody who felt like they
• 27:37
  always wore the blazer, they always got dressed up, they
• 27:40
  always had the makeup done. Like old me was someone who had
• 27:43
  that as like their identity, I guess I would say.
• 27:47
  And so that's why a lot of my brand was based off that.
• 27:50
  But then I realized that as I evolved as a business owner and
• 27:53
  frankly found my confidence and found who I am.
• 27:55
  And, you know, realize that like I don't really necessarily want
• 28:00
  to care what people think about the way that I look or what I
• 28:03
  wear or any of those things that I want to be able to show up in
• 28:06
  sweatpants if I want. And I want to be able to, you
• 28:08
  know, wear leggings and it not be quote UN quote off brand.
• 28:11
  And so even for me, I've had moments and sections, as I said,
• 28:14
  of my business, where I've fallen out of love with the way
• 28:17
  that I once did things. And it's not because I deny the
• 28:21
  old way, but just simply because I as an individual, my values
• 28:25
  and my experience as a person and my identity is shifting.
• 28:29
  I, you know, started this business six years ago.
• 28:32
  And so I've changed a lot in six years, right?
• 28:35
  I started this business as a server who was wanting to start
• 28:38
  an online business and start a company.
• 28:40
  And yeah, here we are. Fast forward later.
• 28:42
  But like, I'm not, I don't have the same perspective as I once
• 28:44
  did. I don't have the same viewpoint
• 28:45
  that I once did. And so I've grown and I'm giving
• 28:48
  myself the permission to integrate that in my business.
• 28:51
  But the only way that I actually started to integrate that was
• 28:53
  having this realization that like, oh, whoa, whoa, whoa,
• 28:56
  let's wait a second here. There's actually a part of my
• 28:58
  business that I don't like. Like there's a part of my
• 29:00
  business that's feeling resistant, that's feeling like
• 29:03
  it's not truly 100% authentically me.
• 29:06
  And again, it's not to say that this is something I don't do.
• 29:08
  Like I love the photo shoots, I love the makeup, I love doing
• 29:10
  all that. But I just realized that like,
• 29:12
  I'm allowed to evolve and I'm allowed to change.
• 29:15
  And I have two options, which is I would either stick with the
• 29:18
  way that I've always done business and I would ignore this
• 29:20
  part of me again, ignore that voice in me, or I would say,
• 29:23
  hey, when I record a podcast, I'm going to record it in jeans
• 29:26
  and AT shirt. And it's not going to be on
• 29:28
  brand and it's going to be what it is.
• 29:29
  And it's going to change environment every time I do it.
• 29:31
  And that's just going to have to be OK for the person listening
• 29:34
  or the person watching. And that, you know, I have to
• 29:37
  kind of start to find my footing as to what that looks like for
• 29:41
  me to really always stay in the bucket of loving my business.
• 29:44
  So I want also normalize that this is something that happens
• 29:47
  with a lot of different businesses, like a lot of
• 29:50
  different stages of businesses, different types of
• 29:52
  entrepreneurs, different industries.
• 29:54
  Like there's going to be moments where you have sections of your
• 29:57
  business or you have your entire business, as I noted earlier,
• 30:00
  that you may not love. And that's OK.
• 30:03
  It really is a question of what you want to do about it.
• 30:06
  And I was talking to someone about this, and I have to give
• 30:08
  credit where credit is due. George Bryant actually was the
• 30:11
  one who gave me this framework. And so as you guys know from our
• 30:15
  earlier episodes, he's been coaching me for a while now.
• 30:18
  And one of the things that I heard from him, which I just had
• 30:21
  to share and I was like, George, can I show this?
• 30:22
  And he was like, absolutely, I wanted to share are some of the
• 30:25
  hidden triggers of like the awareness because he shared this
• 30:29
  analogy with me that I think is a really great analogy to kind
• 30:31
  of distilled down the essence of what we're talking about here.
• 30:34
  And he talks about this aspect of the rock, the wreath and the
• 30:37
  Shoal. And so this is kind of like a
• 30:40
  three tier model that he had explained.
• 30:41
  So the rocks are the obvious stressors, the things that you
• 30:44
  can easily spot. So when you're somebody who's
• 30:47
  not enjoying your business, the day-to-day things that you can
• 30:50
  easily in your awareness show yourself that you're like, hey,
• 30:53
  I don't like this, this, this. And there's something that's
• 30:55
  very easy to spot for you. The second level when you go a
• 30:58
  little bit deeper is going to be again, when you think about this
• 31:02
  in the analogy of the rock, the reef and the Shoal, the rocks
• 31:05
  are things that you can easily spot.
• 31:06
  You can spot the rocks in the water.
• 31:08
  Then you've also got the reefs wreaths, which is a little bit
• 31:10
  lower. And you've got the aspects of
• 31:12
  the hidden beliefs that are under the surface that are
• 31:15
  ultimately impacting your actions.
• 31:16
  So again, even when it comes to not liking in your business,
• 31:19
  there may be things that you've been ignoring, you know, the
• 31:22
  perspectives, the insights, the beliefs that you're having about
• 31:25
  your business or that you have right now that you're
• 31:28
  navigating, that could be the reason you're not loving your
• 31:30
  business. So it may not even be
• 31:32
  necessarily something that you're super conscious of just
• 31:34
  yet. And then we go a level deeper,
• 31:37
  which is the Shoals, the deep rooted fears and limiting
• 31:39
  paradigms that only show up when they cause big disruptions to
• 31:44
  you. So things that you only become
• 31:45
  aware of as an entrepreneur or CEO when this is something that
• 31:49
  completely rattles things for you and you're forced to
• 31:52
  basically address it. And so the question becoming, if
• 31:56
  you feel stuck, ask yourself, is there a hidden fear or is there
• 32:02
  a fear somewhere in me or a belief somewhere in me that I am
• 32:06
  consciously or not consciously addressing?
• 32:10
  Like is there something that's been ruminating in you and that
• 32:12
  you haven't been addressing and you haven't been any time to
• 32:14
  that you feel could be something that you're not addressing
• 32:18
  that's causing you to stay stuck in the business?
• 32:21
  And so, you know, obviously we've gone through like, how do
• 32:23
  we know This Is Us? And why do we even get in these
• 32:26
  situations of not liking our business?
• 32:28
  But I also want to talk a little bit about how we navigate this
• 32:34
  because there's really like, I've helped clients through
• 32:36
  this. I have, you know, helped people
• 32:38
  who've gone from, I can't stand my business.
• 32:40
  I'm going to close it to then keeping it open, obviously, and
• 32:44
  having the path of expanding it further and making adjustments
• 32:47
  along the way. And I've also had people who are
• 32:49
  like, listen, like I am literally going to disconnect
• 32:51
  from my business because I just can't do this anymore.
• 32:53
  And I want to walk through some of the things that I would
• 32:55
  recommend if I was your coach. This is what I would say to you.
• 32:58
  If you're somebody that doesn't love your business right now,
• 33:01
  number one, acknowledge where you are.
• 33:03
  Like you need to 1st acknowledge and give yourself the pat on the
• 33:06
  back for acknowledging the elephant in the room, which is
• 33:09
  the fact that you're not obsessed with your business
• 33:11
  right now. And most importantly, please
• 33:14
  acknowledge to yourself that that is the first step in US
• 33:17
  figuring out any kind of plan of how we're going to navigate it
• 33:20
  for you moving forward. You need to acknowledge if
• 33:23
  there's something in your business that is bothering you
• 33:26
  that you're struggling with, that you're not enjoying.
• 33:29
  Like we want to acknowledge those things and it is OK at any
• 33:33
  moment for you to say this business does not feel like me
• 33:37
  anymore. This business in the way that
• 33:38
  I'm running it, this offer, this marketing, the sales process,
• 33:41
  whatever it might be for you, that it's OK to say that this
• 33:44
  business doesn't feel like it fits me anymore.
• 33:47
  And that's OK. So the first thing I want you to
• 33:48
  do is give yourself a pat on the back, give yourself the OK and
• 33:52
  the permission slip. But it is OK if your business
• 33:55
  feels like it doesn't fit you anymore because you've grown,
• 33:58
  evolved or adjusted. 2 I really want you to then look at setting
• 34:04
  clear expectations with yourself and also understanding what it
• 34:07
  is that you value. So in any event of execution, we
• 34:12
  want to look at two things. We want to look at what we're
• 34:16
  willing to do short term and also what it is that we want
• 34:20
  long term. And I've talked to business
• 34:22
  owners about, you know, those who desire to pivot, for
• 34:25
  example, they're like, you know what, I don't like my business.
• 34:27
  I want to do such and such instead.
• 34:29
  And I'm like, listen, I love that for you and like, this is a
• 34:31
  conversation we're going to have 100%.
• 34:33
  But I also asked them and I say, are you willing in the short
• 34:36
  term for your income or your reality to change in the pursuit
• 34:42
  of your long term goal? Well, the thing that you
• 34:44
  actually want, that you ultimately desire, because if
• 34:47
  you're not, that's a very different action plan that if
• 34:49
  someone is like, yes, I just really want to do what I value
• 34:52
  and what I love. And in the pursuit of that, I'm
• 34:56
  going to then be able to take a little bit of a less a loss in
• 35:00
  the short term. I tell people like, if you're
• 35:02
  going to change your business massively or you're going to
• 35:05
  completely shift in a different direction, we can't also
• 35:09
  necessarily do that and say we want that overnight while
• 35:11
  saying, oh, but by the way, I don't want any disruption to my
• 35:13
  income. I don't want any disruption to
• 35:15
  my marketing. I don't want any disruption to
• 35:17
  to the sales process. Like things are in the pursuit
• 35:20
  of change going to be changed, going to be adjusted.
• 35:24
  And sometimes there's a domino effect of that.
• 35:27
  And so I often ask people what is the aspect of like the risk
• 35:30
  level and also the aspect of change that they're comfortable
• 35:33
  with? Because we want to look at what
• 35:36
  we're willing to deal with in short term pain in the pursuit
• 35:40
  of long term gain. And the reason that we talk
• 35:43
  about this and that we always want to acknowledge this, IE
• 35:45
  what are you willing to do for the thing you ultimately want is
• 35:49
  because we also want to acknowledge that for some
• 35:53
  people, they will increase the pain in the short term to have
• 35:57
  the thing they ultimately want long term happen quicker, right?
• 36:00
  So like when I actually was talking to an entrepreneur a day
• 36:03
  or so ago and they were saying, you know, like, I want to make
• 36:05
  this pivot in my business, I want to shift into this other
• 36:08
  direction because I just really don't feel aligned to what I'm
• 36:09
  doing anymore. And again, totally
• 36:11
  understandable. But when we went into that, I
• 36:14
  said, listen, are you willing though to take a income hit or a
• 36:18
  financial hit in the pursuit of going and doing the thing that
• 36:21
  you actually love? Like what is your level of
• 36:23
  comfort with that in taking a short term pain for the long
• 36:27
  term gain of what you ultimately want?
• 36:29
  And they're like, well, I don't really want to have a lot of
• 36:31
  financial impact in order to do it.
• 36:33
  So if it means that the thing that I ultimately want would
• 36:36
  have to happen a little bit further out for me to have
• 36:38
  balance in the short term while also having what I want long
• 36:41
  term, I'm willing to do that. And so it's a conversation I
• 36:44
  have with people, which is a matter of like, how urgent is
• 36:47
  this for you? And depending on how urgent it
• 36:50
  is for you, that also may mean that you're going to have more
• 36:54
  pain in the process in the short term to have that thing that you
• 36:57
  want quicker. If you don't want to have as
• 36:59
  much pain in the short term and you're like, well, I want to
• 37:00
  almost feel like it's a very slow, gradual build.
• 37:03
  You can also have less pain, but it may mean that the thing you
• 37:07
  want doesn't happen as quick as you desire it.
• 37:10
  And so it's really coming to terms and setting expectations
• 37:12
  of what are you willing to do in the pursuit of the thing that
• 37:15
  you ultimately desire? What are you willing to put on
• 37:18
  the line? What are you willing to risk?
• 37:20
  What are you willing to execute to have the business that you've
• 37:23
  always wanted and the thing that you really truly love.
• 37:26
  The other thing, which is number 3 is we focus on the why and not
• 37:30
  the what. And this is something that in
• 37:32
  general, even if you like your business, is something that we
• 37:35
  always, you know, really dive into with people, which is like
• 37:39
  when you're wanting to change and adjust your business, you
• 37:43
  need to focus on why you're doing what you're doing.
• 37:47
  Because often times when someone doesn't like their business, the
• 37:49
  first question that I get asked is like, Kate, what should I do
• 37:53
  if I hate my business? Like what should I do in the
• 37:55
  strategy? What should I do in marketing?
• 37:57
  What should I do in sales? And I'm like, listen, I can help
• 38:00
  you to plan all of that out. However, the number one thing I
• 38:04
  need to know is like, what is your why?
• 38:06
  Like what is the goal? Are you doing this because it's
• 38:10
  the money? Are you doing this because you
• 38:12
  know travel or time with your family is the most important
• 38:15
  thing? Like what is the why behind
• 38:18
  this? Because the why behind your
• 38:20
  business and the vision you have for it and where you know it can
• 38:23
  go and where you know it can't. The things you know it can
• 38:26
  achieve are the guiding light. They are the north star of the
• 38:30
  things that we create in our plan and in our strategy.
• 38:34
  And so when you ask yourself like, what are the tactics I
• 38:36
  need to do? I don't really tell anybody any
• 38:39
  of that until I know where it is that they're going.
• 38:42
  Because if I don't know what you're looking to achieve, you
• 38:44
  and I both know that if you hate your business right now and
• 38:47
  you're not enjoying at this moment and you just say tactic,
• 38:50
  tactic, tactic, this is what's got you here in the first place
• 38:54
  was the idea of the process and the strategy and the steps.
• 38:58
  And so there are tactical strategies and steps, of course,
• 39:01
  to pivoting your business and a way to do it well and in a smart
• 39:04
  way versus others. But the thing that that's all
• 39:07
  going to start with is understanding your why and
• 39:09
  ensuring that when you're building your business and
• 39:12
  you're making decisions and you're outlining what it is that
• 39:16
  you're going to do in your business, that it's always
• 39:18
  centered around a core vision and a value and a principle.
• 39:22
  And that's the underbelly of it because that underbelly of the
• 39:26
  value oftentimes stays consistent, whereas the tactics
• 39:31
  and the specific approach may change consistently over time.
• 39:35
  So #4 is the number one thing that everyone wants to know,
• 39:39
  which is now we know what RY is, tell me how I'm going to make
• 39:42
  the change. And there's really only two
• 39:43
  pathways to change how you're feeling about your business and
• 39:47
  the way that you're experiencing it right now.
• 39:49
  So pathway #1 this is the, I want to be very clear, the ideal
• 39:54
  suggested route for any client that comes into my world who
• 39:59
  wants to change out of what they're doing right now to fall
• 40:01
  more in love with their business, IE to make a pivot.
• 40:04
  So Pathway 1 is the pivot path. This is the ideal form.
• 40:08
  And this is really for those who are not wanting to see a massive
• 40:11
  change in their revenue in the pursuit of really going and
• 40:14
  loving their business again. This is really where you're
• 40:18
  going to make small shifts, small adjustments, small literal
• 40:23
  tailoring in of pieces in order to see over time a compound
• 40:27
  effect of change within your business.
• 40:29
  It really is the focus of tiny incremental changes.
• 40:32
  So instead of being like, I don't like my marketing right
• 40:35
  now, and instead of the way I used to do it, I'm going to do
• 40:37
  it this way now. It's about taking a post per
• 40:40
  week and trying out the new messaging.
• 40:42
  It's about taking, if you have a podcast, not switching all the
• 40:45
  topics, but instead taking one of the episodes a month and
• 40:48
  switching that over. It might be, you know, instead
• 40:51
  of changing your offering and saying, I hate this offer, I'm
• 40:53
  going to kill it and make a new offer saying, OK, well how can
• 40:56
  we transition the existing people that are in your world
• 40:59
  and maybe get them bought in on the new process before you shift
• 41:02
  it over? IE like have like a beta round
• 41:05
  and then launch it publicly to test the concept, right without
• 41:08
  completely rocking the boat. There's a ton of different ways
• 41:11
  that this looks in systems, for example, or you know, for
• 41:14
  example, in process, we're doing this in our business.
• 41:17
  We had a process when it came to our podcast actually that was
• 41:21
  taking way too long. Like the actual pipeline of kind
• 41:23
  of like me recording to when it got out to the, to you to listen
• 41:27
  was taking way too long. And I was like, I want it to be
• 41:29
  more time sensitive. Like I want it to be more
• 41:31
  relevant to what's going on in a given moment so I can have time
• 41:35
  specific stuff in it. And what basically ended up
• 41:39
  happening is before we jumped from like this is how we do it
• 41:42
  in click up and now we're going to do it like this.
• 41:44
  We actually still have in click up as it stands right now, the
• 41:46
  way that we've always done it. And then in a separate Google
• 41:49
  Doc, before we even change the system, we're looking and we're
• 41:53
  basically dialing in the the tweaks of the new process that
• 41:56
  we're going to be hopefully implementing.
• 41:58
  But we're testing it and we're literally using this in an
• 42:01
  informal way. We're not rocking the whole boat
• 42:03
  with all of our systems and click up and we're just taking
• 42:05
  as a bite sized piece to eventually make a pivot in a
• 42:09
  section that we weren't loving in the business.
• 42:11
  We took a pivot and said, great, we're going to do it in a Google
• 42:13
  Doc phase one. And then if that goes well, then
• 42:16
  we'll integrate it into click UPS.
• 42:17
  So again, not to like adjust the entire system.
• 42:19
  So again, the depth of how much the pivot applies can be in a
• 42:23
  situation like a system and it can also be in a situation like,
• 42:26
  you know, the entire business obviously, and pivoting your
• 42:28
  entire business. But this is really a way for you
• 42:31
  to make incremental changes that don't rock the boat of the
• 42:34
  business. It keeps the business typically
• 42:36
  9 times out of 10 intact. And it allows you to have sales
• 42:40
  coming in. It allows you to still see
• 42:41
  attraction happening, but it's not something that is going to
• 42:45
  massively blow it up in the sense of overnight.
• 42:48
  But it also means that the timeline of the thing that you
• 42:51
  ultimately want is going to be a little bit slower because we are
• 42:54
  doing it incrementally. But that is something that we
• 42:57
  typically look at because someone is willing to be more
• 42:59
  patient in the process of developing the thing that they
• 43:02
  say they want. So like if you want a different
• 43:04
  business, you want a different offer, you want to market
• 43:07
  differently, like you know that and we're clear on that now, but
• 43:10
  we're also fully again, coming, it's that agreement.
• 43:12
  We're setting our expectation that it's going to be a little
• 43:15
  bit longer in the way in which we do it, but it means that long
• 43:18
  term, you're going to have a thing that you want with the
• 43:19
  least amount of pain in the short term.
• 43:22
  So it's just really going in with the expectation it's going
• 43:25
  to be a longer time to get the thing you want, but you're going
• 43:27
  to do so with a lot less resistance and pain and massive
• 43:31
  changes that could be taking the business back before it goes up.
• 43:35
  Now, the second pathway, so the first pathway we said is the
• 43:38
  pivot. So the ideal one that helps you
• 43:40
  to not lose revenue, incremental changes over time.
• 43:43
  It's a patience process and it really can take anywhere
• 43:46
  between, I would say three months to a year, obviously,
• 43:48
  depending on what it is that you're pivoting.
• 43:51
  The second pathway is the pause. And this is really where you
• 43:54
  will see someone take an entire break from their business.
• 43:56
  They will go off the Internet. They will, you know, put the
• 43:59
  Last Post up on their Instagram and they will go on sabbatical.
• 44:03
  They will take three months away.
• 44:05
  And this is something that really is how long you take a
• 44:10
  break from your business is really completely dependent on
• 44:13
  the person and the clarity that you feel you need and that
• 44:15
  you're seeking. I've seen people who've taken,
• 44:19
  you know, up to a couple years off their business.
• 44:21
  I've seen people who've gone literally off the Internet for
• 44:23
  like 3 to five years at a time. I've also seen people who have
• 44:27
  taken, you know, a month off or six months off or a year off,
• 44:31
  right? But I also want to really,
• 44:33
  really hammer home the idea here that getting clarity of your
• 44:38
  business, we also want to be very careful that we're not
• 44:41
  catastrophizing how long it takes.
• 44:45
  Because I can tell you like I've had people even for example, who
• 44:48
  came to our retreat and by being in a different situation and a
• 44:51
  different setting and a different type of environment,
• 44:55
  they really got the clarity that they needed to go home and to
• 44:57
  execute. And previous to that, some of
• 44:59
  them were not loving their business before attending.
• 45:01
  And now they're like, OK, like I got it.
• 45:02
  I see the vision. I know I'm going to go do I
• 45:04
  might take this home and I'm going to run with it.
• 45:06
  And the idea of somebody going home and kind of like having
• 45:12
  that clarity and going and running with it was a matter of
• 45:16
  three days, right? So I also don't want there to be
• 45:20
  this belief that in order to get the clarity you need from your
• 45:22
  business that you need to take a massive, massive long pause.
• 45:26
  For some people, it does feel like the right choice.
• 45:29
  And This is why it really is something that is a very
• 45:32
  personal preference as to what that step looks like for you.
• 45:35
  But I also really just wanted to use this as a reminder that I do
• 45:37
  think, I think there there is a massive opportunity for the
• 45:42
  clarity that you're looking for to come from you really just
• 45:48
  taking space from your business. And that could be even to be
• 45:50
  honest, taking an entire day off your business or a weekend off
• 45:54
  of your business. And you would be shocked how
• 45:56
  much clarity can happen in that amount of time.
• 45:58
  So I just really want to kind of use that as an opportunity to
• 46:00
  give you that reminder that there's something you're looking
• 46:02
  for clarity on. Don't feel the need to really
• 46:05
  stretch it out to be like, I want three months off.
• 46:07
  I'm going to take the next six months to get clarity.
• 46:10
  There's also in my times, a lot of, in my opinion, many times
• 46:13
  for myself, there's been times where I have taken, you know, a
• 46:17
  weekend or a day and I've gotten such insane clarity that I go
• 46:20
  home like I'm ready to execute. And so when you take those big
• 46:24
  long breaks in your business, the other thing that I can also
• 46:27
  say is it can get really difficult when you take big long
• 46:30
  breaks to get back into the flow of things.
• 46:32
  I can't tell you how many peers I have talked to who took big
• 46:35
  long breaks in their business. So they took, you know, for
• 46:37
  example, a year or three years or, you know, six months or a
• 46:41
  year and a half, whatever it might be.
• 46:44
  And they come back to their business and it kind of feels
• 46:45
  like Bambi on ice. You're like, I don't even know
• 46:47
  how to post the stories anymore. I don't know how to, you know,
• 46:49
  do the podcast and do what I used to do so easily anymore.
• 46:53
  Like I just feel like I, I'm out of reps I'm out of sync with the
• 46:57
  way I used to do things. And it's something that is
• 47:00
  difficult because when you're out of the game for so long and
• 47:03
  then you go to get quote UN quote back on the field, it can
• 47:06
  feel a little bit difficult to get your footing back again.
• 47:08
  And so it's also something you want to be aware of if you're
• 47:11
  thinking about taking a super long extended break to say like,
• 47:14
  is this something that I think is necessary and warranted for
• 47:17
  me? And am I ready to allocate the
• 47:19
  time it might take for me to get back into the flow of the way
• 47:22
  that I used to operate and the way I did things.
• 47:25
  Now obviously this is the most aggressive form of clarity and
• 47:30
  it's also the most aggressive form of reset basically within
• 47:33
  your business if you're not loving your business.
• 47:35
  And so the typical time that I would only ever recommend taking
• 47:38
  a longer pause. So more than like a day or a
• 47:41
  weekend or a month off your business.
• 47:43
  If it exceeds that, that's really when I talk to people to
• 47:46
  say like do you have the financial reserves to be able to
• 47:50
  take a quarter off your business?
• 47:52
  Like is this something that you're doing with eyes wide
• 47:54
  open? And if you do like amazing, like
• 47:57
  if you have the financial resources and you feel like
• 47:59
  that's something that would be supportive for you, then by all
• 48:01
  means, like if you want to take three months, go ahead.
• 48:04
  And if you're going to, let's just say, take the three months
• 48:06
  off your business to get clarity.
• 48:07
  And you're like, that's what feels right for me, just knowing
• 48:10
  and, and doing so eyes wide open.
• 48:12
  And what I mean by that is making the conscious decision
• 48:15
  that you're OK to live off savings.
• 48:18
  And again, there's nothing wrong with that.
• 48:19
  It's just person to person and having an awareness of it
• 48:22
  because otherwise what can happen is you can take a pause
• 48:25
  from your business and then you can live off savings or maybe
• 48:29
  money that you had in the bank accounts or whatever it may be.
• 48:31
  And then you come back and because you didn't plan for
• 48:35
  living off savings intentionally, you're like, Oh
• 48:37
  my God, I need to make sales as soon as you get back.
• 48:40
  And then there's feels like there's this added pressure on
• 48:42
  top of the business that you were already not loving.
• 48:45
  You're trying to come back in and love what you do, But coming
• 48:48
  back in and loving what you do in a business that you also are
• 48:51
  trying to restructure is exceptionally difficult.
• 48:53
  And so it's also really asking yourself, you know, are you
• 48:55
  going in eyes wide open to what it will take to get back into
• 48:59
  the flow of things and also what it's taking for you to take that
• 49:03
  time away? The last thing that I will say,
• 49:05
  and I, I've talked to many peers about this when it comes to the
• 49:07
  pause path and really pausing your business to get the clarity
• 49:10
  you want and to recenter is the aspect of relevance.
• 49:14
  Because the one thing I will say that is a benefit for anybody
• 49:17
  who has built a brand and who's basically been, you know,
• 49:21
  developing their brands, their community, the people who know
• 49:24
  them and have that like no trust with them.
• 49:26
  The thing that I will say is that when you have a brand, it
• 49:29
  obviously is easier to come back from a pause.
• 49:32
  So if you are somebody that has built a really loyal fan base
• 49:36
  and people who almost in a way to be honest, like if you
• 49:39
  disappeared, kind of want to know where you are.
• 49:41
  If you're having some of those and you have that kind of level
• 49:44
  of loyalty with your audience taking a pause, this part of the
• 49:48
  pause may not be as relevant to you.
• 49:51
  But the thing that I will see for people who don't have as
• 49:53
  much of established brand is when they take time away and
• 49:56
  when they leave the business and then believe, OK, I'm going to
• 49:59
  come back in three months or six months or a year or two years or
• 50:02
  whatever it is. When you come back, what ends up
• 50:05
  happening is your audience should be super candid for some
• 50:10
  people has forgotten about you. You're not top of mind any more
• 50:15
  for the people who used to consume you.
• 50:17
  They've gone to somebody else, they've started consuming
• 50:19
  someone else's podcast or somebody else's Instagram or
• 50:21
  somebody else's content. And as a result, you're not
• 50:25
  quite as relevant as you once were.
• 50:26
  And so again, the idea of coming back from a pause and just
• 50:30
  picking up where you left off. There is an aspect of momentum
• 50:33
  when it comes to business and relevance and who's top of mind.
• 50:37
  And so like, think of, for example, like your your go to
• 50:40
  brand that you love. If they disappeared today and
• 50:43
  went away for 2 1/2, three years and came back, you're not going
• 50:47
  to be as loyal, obsessed and as consuming of the brand as you
• 50:50
  once were because your attention has gone somewhere else in a
• 50:54
  similar type of product or service.
• 50:56
  And so it's really something you want to consider when it comes
• 50:59
  to resetting with your business. So again, to kind of go back to
• 51:02
  the high level when we want to change how we feel about our
• 51:05
  business in the way that we're operating within it.
• 51:07
  Number one, acknowledge where you are.
• 51:08
  Recognize that it is OK to be at a place where you feel like
• 51:12
  you're not in love with your business and that you don't feel
• 51:14
  the way that you once did about it.
• 51:16
  Second, to set really clear expectations and understand what
• 51:19
  it is that you value and what are you willing to give up in
• 51:21
  the pursuit of what you ultimately desire.
• 51:23
  Are you willing to have short term pain for a long term gain,
• 51:27
  or would you rather have less pain in the short term and have
• 51:30
  the thing that you want long term not happen quite as quick?
• 51:33
  But again, remove the resistance you have in the meantime.
• 51:35
  Third is really focusing on why you want what you want in the
• 51:39
  business and why what you care about is something that's
• 51:42
  important to you and not just the what.
• 51:45
  Not asking yourself just what should I do, What's the tactic,
• 51:47
  what's the strategy, but also the question of like, why do I
• 51:50
  want this? Why is it something that's
• 51:51
  important to me? And then most importantly, which
• 51:54
  is number 4, you're going to pick your pathway and remember
• 51:56
  that there's two pathways to changing in your business and
• 51:59
  the way that you feel today. Number one is the pivot.
• 52:02
  The little incremental changes over time that are going to mean
• 52:04
  that it will take a little bit longer to get the thing you
• 52:06
  want, but it's a little bit less impact in the immediate
• 52:09
  situation in your business, both financially, marketing, sales,
• 52:12
  and all the things. Then you've also got pathway #2
• 52:15
  which is the pause, The ability for you to step away from the
• 52:18
  business entirely and to completely pause the businesses,
• 52:21
  operations, marketing, sales, all the things to really give
• 52:24
  yourself space to get clarity on the business.
• 52:26
  And so, you know, I really want to end today with some questions
• 52:29
  for you to ask yourself because I, as I said, I've talked to
• 52:32
  many entrepreneurs who don't love their business at certain
• 52:35
  moments. And so these are things that you
• 52:36
  can really ask yourself to start to reflective like how do I feel
• 52:39
  about my business? And is this like a place where I
• 52:42
  am or maybe you love your business?
• 52:44
  If so, that's amazing. I'm like that.
• 52:45
  That's awesome. We don't want you to not like
• 52:47
  your business. This is just more a matter of
• 52:49
  things for you to consider. So number one, am I avoiding my
• 52:52
  business because I don't enjoy it or is it because it really
• 52:56
  truly is not aligned with who I am?
• 52:59
  So is this just because you're like, I don't really like, you
• 53:02
  know, going on stories or I don't really like taking sales
• 53:04
  calls? Is it just the fact that you
• 53:05
  don't like a certain thing that you're doing?
• 53:07
  Or is this really a matter of the fact that like your business
• 53:10
  genuinely is not aligned to you anymore and there's no way for
• 53:13
  us to move forward unless we get it aligned to who you are now
• 53:15
  and how you operate now? The other question I want you to
• 53:18
  ask yourself is what would it look like if I did do things my
• 53:21
  way? So if I was to have and wave a
• 53:24
  magic wand for you, what would be the thing that you would
• 53:26
  ultimately want to see in your business, business that you'd
• 53:28
  want to see happen? What's the experience you'd like
• 53:30
  to have changed if you were able to do so for your business?
• 53:35
  Then we also have, do I know what I want in my business or am
• 53:41
  I still exploring? So is this something that I feel
• 53:44
  like I have crystal clear clarity on or am I kind of like,
• 53:48
  I'm sort of this place where I'm not really sure what I don't
• 53:51
  like about it. I just feel a little off with
• 53:53
  the business I'm trying to really navigate and sort things
• 53:55
  to figure out what it's connected to.
• 53:57
  What's the root of this? Another question is, what parts
• 54:00
  of your business do you feel that are no longer aligned with
• 54:03
  who you are today? And where do you feel called to
• 54:06
  go next? If you weren't to judge it, you
• 54:09
  weren't to plan it. Just ask yourself, where do I
• 54:12
  feel like I, if I could wave a magic wand, what would I do
• 54:14
  instead? Where would I go next?
• 54:16
  The other question I want you to ask yourself is, am I actually
• 54:20
  still connected to the thing that I am selling?
• 54:24
  So the thing that I'm promoting, the thing that I'm serving
• 54:26
  inside of right now, the thing that I am pushing online, is
• 54:30
  that something that I would say that I'm still connected to to
• 54:33
  this day? Are you still as excited about
• 54:35
  thing you offer and that you sell today as you once were?
• 54:38
  And as your last question, what would be the first step toward a
• 54:42
  different reality for you and for your business?
• 54:46
  So I really wanted to cover this topic today because I think
• 54:49
  that, as I said, it's just something that many, many
• 54:51
  business owners have experienced and many of us go through.
• 54:54
  And as I noted today in some examples, right, there's,
• 54:56
  there's things that even my, myself in my business that I've
• 54:59
  had situations of that I haven't loved my business at a certain
• 55:02
  moment or a certain time. But the exciting part is, I see
• 55:06
  it with business, is that the innovation, the, the essence of
• 55:11
  entrepreneurship is innovation. And it is the fact that as a
• 55:15
  business owner, you get to be creative and you get to create
• 55:20
  different pathways. You get to reinvent yourself and
• 55:23
  you get to evolve and you get to develop as an entrepreneur.
• 55:26
  And sometimes falling out of love with your business is the
• 55:32
  sign and the signal that you need to go down a different path
• 55:36
  and to make you realize that this is time for you to get
• 55:38
  innovative again. It's time for you to get
• 55:39
  creative. It's time for you to break out
• 55:41
  of the shell of the things you've always done, Maybe
• 55:44
  because they worked for you or it's because of who you used to
• 55:46
  be or whatever the factor may be.
• 55:48
  And seeing this instead of it being this massive opposition of
• 55:52
  Oh my God, I hate my business now what the heck am I going to
• 55:54
  do? And us getting really frankly in
• 55:57
  this aspect of it's all going down.
• 56:00
  And instead, can we look at this and see this as an invitation
• 56:04
  for us just to say, OK, well, if I don't love my business, what's
• 56:08
  an opportunity here? Like what's a way for me to
• 56:10
  change this and to pivot this? Or should I pause?
• 56:13
  And is there a way I want to reinvent myself?
• 56:16
  And to be honest with you, there's also a way is when you
• 56:18
  do this and when you pivot or pause, that you can also
• 56:21
  reinvent yourself in a way that supports the business, that
• 56:24
  helps the business. You can use it as a rebrand if
• 56:27
  you needed to when you come back, right?
• 56:29
  Like there's many ways of positioning it.
• 56:31
  The thing that I think is, is important is first for you to
• 56:34
  get the clarity because the question that always comes to me
• 56:37
  every single time is the fact of life.
• 56:39
  What do I do? What do I do, what do I do?
• 56:41
  And I really want to encourage you to not ask the question of
• 56:46
  what it is not about what you need to do.
• 56:48
  It is not about the action step you need to take or the strategy
• 56:51
  of to execute. That will happen in time.
• 56:54
  That is something, yes, eventually you're going to have
• 56:56
  to do, but it all starts with your clarity because if you're
• 56:59
  not clear on what you're doing and why you're doing it right
• 57:03
  now, so like, why are you even out of love with your business?
• 57:06
  What do you want to love with your business moving forward?
• 57:08
  Why are you making the change? What is the why and why you're
• 57:11
  doing this business and why it's important to you?
• 57:14
  If you can't ask yourself those hard questions, we're not at a
• 57:18
  place where we should be building out a blueprint of the
• 57:20
  marketing strategy and how it's going to shift or your offers or
• 57:23
  your products or any of those things.
• 57:25
  And so in the note and the theme of today's episode, I also want
• 57:29
  to acknowledge that sometimes when we don't love our business,
• 57:32
  it can feel a little overwhelming because this is for
• 57:34
  many of us, our lifeline. This is our income.
• 57:37
  This is the way that we support ourselves, our family, our team.
• 57:40
  And so it can feel very overwhelming to think about
• 57:44
  making a change. And so I also just in the
• 57:49
  essence of the topic today, want to let you guys know and just
• 57:51
  give you always that reminder. Like my DMS are always open.
• 57:55
  So if you feel like in listening to this, you're like Kate, I
• 57:59
  realized I actually don't like my business and I'm not in love
• 58:03
  with my business. And I want to make a change and
• 58:05
  I want to be smart about it. And you want to have it be
• 58:08
  something that doesn't cause a massive compound effect, you
• 58:11
  know, in your life or the way you support yourself or in your
• 58:13
  finances. But you also acknowledge that
• 58:15
  you don't want to just keep going the way it's always been.
• 58:18
  First of all, again, I want to acknowledge you for even having
• 58:21
  that awareness. And I also want to say that my
• 58:24
  DMS are always open if I can support you in any way.
• 58:26
  I tell you guys this every episode and it, you know, I
• 58:28
  started off with it today. It means the world to me when
• 58:32
  you guys reach out and you say, hey, I listened to this episode
• 58:35
  and I just wanted to share a take away that I had from it.
• 58:38
  Or I've realized this about my business or I have this question
• 58:41
  about how to execute that strategy that you mentioned.
• 58:44
  Like I was chatting with Maddie who was in my DMS this week.
• 58:48
  So shout out, Maddie, thank you so much for being such a go to
• 58:51
  listener for ambitious. And thank you for reaching out
• 58:54
  because she had shared to me. She said, you know, I listened
• 58:56
  to on your episodes and I realized that like this, this,
• 58:58
  and this is something I was doing wrong.
• 59:00
  And I realize that like I've been ignoring it and that that's
• 59:04
  been the thing that's really been the bottleneck of my
• 59:05
  business. And we chatted through some
• 59:07
  different strategies that she could execute.
• 59:09
  And she literally came back and told me she made three sales
• 59:13
  from an adjustment of something we did on one of the episodes.
• 59:15
  And so like, I'm in it with you guys.
• 59:17
  Like if you feel like I can support you in any way, my DM's
• 59:20
  are always open. I always love to hear your
• 59:22
  feedback. It means the world to me to know
• 59:24
  that you're listening to connect with you guys individually, to
• 59:26
  put a face to the name of all of you who are so immensely
• 59:29
  supportive. And so I just want to say I love
• 59:31
  you to pieces and it means the world to me that you guys TuneIn
• 59:33
  every single week. So to give you a little last
• 59:37
  reminder, we do also have, as you guys have probably seen on
• 59:40
  the other episodes, we do also have Q&A episodes.
• 59:43
  So these are episodes entirely directed toward you and the
• 59:46
  questions that you guys have for your business.
• 59:48
  So as a little reminder, if you're listening to an episode
• 59:51
  each week and you feel like you have a question that you would
• 59:53
  love to ask for your business, a strategy that you're executing,
• 59:57
  maybe an opinion around something mindset wise, business
• 1:00:00
  wise, marketing wise, whatever it.
• 1:00:01
  May be in connection to your business.
• 1:00:03
  It is really honestly almost like the coach's corner, if you
• 1:00:06
  will. And so how this works is if you
• 1:00:08
  go to our website www.kateperkovic.com, you will
• 1:00:12
  see a podcast heading on our website.
• 1:00:14
  It has a form where you can submit any questions that you
• 1:00:18
  have for the show. And so basically what it means
• 1:00:21
  is you can actually ask me anything and everything you want
• 1:00:23
  about your business. And I will come on here and give
• 1:00:25
  in depth explanations as to what I would do for you and for your
• 1:00:28
  strategy. So as always, you guys, I will
• 1:00:30
  see you next week if you're viewing or listening.
• 1:00:33
  Thank you so much. And, as always, stay ambitious.