WHERE DO I GO FROM HERE?

Entrepreneurship is an evolution, because you are a perpetual evolution and your business should continue to grow and change with you. Many entrepreneurs, at some point in their business, get a desire to pivot or to make some kind of transition because they are being led into something else. This is totally normal, but it can be challenging. So how do you do it?

In today’s episode, we are breaking down the “how to” behind pivoting your business.

IN THIS EPISODE, WE COVER:

[4:01] You Don’t Have to Stay Where You Are

As you’re evolving, your business needs to come with you. Now, there are a lot of stressors around that. But when you’re being led to something, when you are being guided to something, to ignore it is such a disservice to your audience and to yourself. You are not going to be able to feel fulfilled and aligned if you’re constantly squashing the thing that you are being called to next. 

I know there is that fear that might sit with you right now of how to make that shift and that’s okay. Just know that you don’t have to stay where you are just because it’s working, just because it’s producing, just because you’re competent in it, if it doesn’t feel right.

[6:57]  Start with the End in Mind

Take a few days out of the grind, out of the crazy, to really dedicate yourself to looking forward in your business, looking into the future vision of where you’re going and what you want it to look like. And then you can work backwards into the granular of the day to day of how you’re going to bring that to life.

A visionary retreat experience would allow you to do something like this, to sit down and get away from the weeds of your business and the fires you constantly have to put out and to just focus on where you want to go and where you feel guided to go.

We take a deep dive into hosting your own visionary retreat experience for this exact purpose in Episode 32 of Luminary Leadership Podcast. 

[9:49]  Insecurities

When you are stepping into a new level for yourself, when you are going where you’re being guided, expect your insecurities to show up.

In my recent past, I had a totally different podcast –  Scaling Up Podcast, which was doing incredibly well. Our numbers were awesome, we had amazing guests and we were gaining a lot of traction. But…there was a nagging in my heart that was leading me to step more fully into the “leadership side” of helping people scale and grow. And my mind kept telling me “you can’t do that, people aren’t gonna pay you for that so just stay in your sweet spot and do what you do best.” I knew there was something more and different that I should be doing but I was afraid to make that pivot.

I can’t even begin to tell you how many “broken down fetal position” moments I’ve had in the last two years of this transition. But it was a gift. When those things bubble up and you actually address them, you focus on where they’re coming from and then you work your way through them and you heal from those insecurities and those emotions and those voices in your head that tell you you’re not good enough or you’re not ready for that next level. You develop into your next level of leadership. 

[15:13] Stop Waiting or Hoping for Approval

It’s natural for your current people: your clients, your team, whomever, not to understand. 

Everyone’s going to have an expectation on you as to how they think you should move forward or how you should stay put. But their plans for you are within their own understanding, not including your vision outside of what they can see. When you make that choice, it’s only natural that nobody else will get it because they can’t see what you see. You have to have faith and belief in your vision and have the courage to go after it, without the validation from anybody else. 

You have to cast that vision and you have to believe in that vision.

[18:21] Patience is a Leadership Virtue

This next piece is for people like me, “I want to do it yesterday” type people. 

Once my mind is on something new and I’ve committed to that mentally, I find it very challenging to honor the previous versions of me or those things that I was doing, because I want to go on to the new thing. I have built in the cushion and infrastructure to give myself the space to do that, and I do recommend over time you do the same thing – having the team, having the scalable offers so you have that space to create the new stuff.

It doesn’t have to be: cut it off today, start something new tomorrow. Map it out, plan for it, create your development process. Once you decide on that timeline and what it looks like, start dipping your toes into talking about it, speaking on the topics that start to shift you more to be known for this new thing that you’re doing or this new topic that you want to focus on. You market for where you’re going, not for where you’ve been. 

[25:01] Market Research

You might be led to something and called into something new, but don’t develop the new things just in your head alone. Get into the heads of your future ideal clients, or the current clients you already have.

Create your own focus group. Invite some of those people that you see as ideal clients for where you’re going and just ask them questions. And then start testing your content. This will allow you to get a sense of: 

• Does my current audience resonate with this or do I need to start to attract a new audience? 
• Is this falling flat and maybe I need to evolve my messaging a little?

[26:09] Serve Now, Sell Later

Build a runway where you’re really delivering this content and serving well for either your current audience or your new audience based on this new topic of conversation, new offering, or even a whole new business. 

Serve now, sell later. It doesn’t have to be a lot later because you don’t want to go so long, where they get used to you just doing things for free. But don’t just launch a new course, don’t just sell something new and throw it at the wall. It’s a waste of money and time. Instead nurture, grow and guide your people there so that they’re ready for whatever’s coming with you. This is going to have a bigger impact on your business and the direction you’re going in. 

I hope this episode brought you one step closer to breaking through to your next level of leadership! If it spoke to you, please leave us a review and be sure to hit the follow button so you don’t miss out on the next juicy episode. And when you take your visionary experience, please take a picture and tag me @elizhartke, I would love to see it!

If there’s a topic, a question or a guest you want to hear on the show, just reach out and share that. We do this for you so the more you tell us, the more we can serve.

RESOURCES FROM THIS EPISODE:

• Luminary Leadership Offers 
• Episode 32: Planning a Visionary Retreat to Plan the Long Term Roadmap for Your Business
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