Episode 10: Is it time to pivot? The 5 reasons you might want to pivot to increase your profits and what you should consider first.
Bored? Wanting to make more money? Burned out? Thinking of pivoting but scared? Feeling called to do something else but wondering if you should take the leap? Learn when and why you should pivot in today’s episode of The Ashly Locklin Show.
Here’s a preview of what you’ll learn in this episode:
The pros and cons of pivoting in business.
The 5 reasons you might want to pivot.
What you should do before pivoting to ensure it’s the right choice.
My thoughts on pivoting.
Check out the Pivot to Profit High Level Mastermind here: https://www.ashlylocklin.com/high-level-mastermind
Show transcript:
Hello, hello, hello and welcome to the show! Today we’re talking about pivoting - which gets me so excited! But you have to be careful when pivoting because there are definitely pros and cons to doing it. And you have to make sure you’re making the best choice and not acting irrationally. So that’s what we’re going to dive into today, friend!
I’m going to start by giving you my story of pivoting then we’ll talk about the pros and cons and then the 5 reasons you may want to pivot and if you should do so.
First, I want to give you permission to pivot. Oftentimes people think they need to stick with the career path or the business they chose and that by pivoting and doing something different, they will have quit or failed. And that’s just not true. Where you start doesn’t have to be where you end.
For example, I left my normal 9-5 job to become an online health and fitness coach and everyone thought I was nuts.
But that pivot changed my life, brought me home to my daughter, and brought my husband home from his job, and made me more money than I would’ve earned in 20 years at that 9-5 job.
Then I decided I wanted to pivot and create a course for women who wanted to master social media and land paid brand deals, which is called Influencer Prep Academy. And that course did amazing. I never formally “launched” it, yet I made $20K in the first month and then $10K from it every month thereafter.
So in most people’s eyes, that’s amazing. But it wasn’t good enough for me. So I hired a coach and she asked me who was buying the course.
And this is what really surprised me. I created it for women who were wasting time on Instagram and liked the idea of monetizing it by learning how to build a personal brand and become a paid influencer.
But the majority of the women who bought it were actually business owners. They wanted the Instagram training and the influencer stuff was just a bonus.
So my coach said, “Ashly, you need to focus on women in business. That’s who you should be serving.”
And that pivot was huge. I realized that I was more excited and passionate when working with women who were already in business and the courses I created for women in business were extremely successful, doubling what I had been earning with the Influencer course.
So those pivots were excellent and very profitable decisions. Imagine if I had said no to any of those pivots, the money I would’ve lost, the joy and fire I never would’ve experienced.
But there were definitely some cons:
When I pivoted to focus on serving women in business, I no longer had the right audience. I spent 5 years building an audience of moms who wanted to lose weight while still eating cake. Now yes, there was a subsect of women in business within that audience - which is why I was able to have profitable months with my Influencer course from the start. But the majority of my audience was not and is still not interested in business strategy. I have 100,000 followers on my FB business page and when I post about my family or current pregnancy, the post will get thousands of likes and hundreds of comments. But when I post a business tip, the post will literally get 9 likes. Occasionally cross into the double digits and hit 12 if it’s a really good one. LOL! Because while I have a large audience, it’s no longer the right audience. I’m currently in the process of growing the right audience on FB and IG, but it’s basically like starting from scratch. So if you pivot, you have to take your audience into consideration and know that the people who have been following you for one thing might not continue following you or buy from you when you pivot. But my take on it is: there are plenty of new people to find and nurture, so it’s no biggie. And my story is proof that you don’t need a large following to have successful launches of your own offers (because as I said, I’m getting 9 likes on my Facebook page. So while my page shows a lot of followers, they aren’t the right followers)
I had to learn a lot. There were a lot of things I didn’t know about collecting my own payments and hunting down people whose cards were declined or the new software I had to use. However, I don’t consider those as cons necessarily because they grew me and opened my eyes to so many different aspects and nuances of business. But it did require a lot of time on my part.
You don’t want to keep pivoting to the point where nothing works and you are confusing your audience. If you don’t give one business time to grow and see success because you keep jumping from one thing to another, that is a problem. So don’t be erratic or irrational. Be intentional and only pivot when you believe it’s the absolute best option (which we’ll dive into later in this episode).
Now let’s dive into The 5 reasons you might want to pivot:
You’re bored
You’re not making money
You’re making money, but you want to make more
Your business just doesn’t feel right, you feel called to something else
You’re burned out
So let’s explore each of these individually.
You’re bored. I feel this one in my core. I’m the type of person that once I master something, I need to move onto the next challenge. I can’t just be content with what I’ve done. I’m always like, “okay, what’s next?” Maybe you’re a fitness coach and you’re tired of talking about fitness. And you’re really passionate about spirituality and energy and you find yourself incorporating that into your fitness coaching because you just can’t talk about macros anymore, you want to talk about spirituality or energy. Or maybe you’ve been rocking your MLM biz and you are sick of selling your products and recruiting team members. You are looking for something different to step into... But there’s a reason to pivot because you’re bored and a reason not to.
If you have created something that sells like hotcakes or you’re in network marketing and you’re slaying it, but you’re over your biz and ready for a new challenge, it might be good to pivot. That is, if you have your current business operating like a well-oiled machine. You have assistants and have things delegated and outsourced.
Another thing to consider is refreshing your current business. Maybe you go through your current course and update it or go through your MLM trainings and refresh them. If you are bored but there are things you can do to uplevel your current biz, do those first before pivoting.
But if you have things running smoothly and everything is refreshed and up to date, then go pivot and follow your heart.
Another thing you might want to consider is finding excitement outside of your business. If your business is your everything, then that might cause you to be irrational. At some point in every business, things get boring. But boring is a sign of a stable business. If you are seeking more excitement and have a well-oiled machine that is bringing in great money, try to find hobbies and activities outside of your business that can help you with that boredom, without impacting your business.
And lastly, make sure you are operating in your zone of genius and not boring yourself with the mundane tasks that could be outsourced. For example, I love the creative aspects of business but I loathe the email checking, data entry, and tracking aspects. If I spent most of my time doing those things, I’d be so bored and over my business. So I outsource those tasks so I can stay in my zone of genius. Do an audit of your business activities and see where you are spending your time. Are you spending the majority of your time doing tasks that someone else could do just as well- which is leading you to be bored? Can you outsource those so that you can spend more time in your zone of genius, doing the things that light you up and make you excited to show up to your business each day?You’re not making money. Yeah, I can see how if you’re doing something and not seeing results, you’d get bored real fast. But the question is - are you doing the things that make you money every day (talking to ppl, pitching, creating course, sales calls or are you updating your highlights, obsessing over your hashtags, scrolling and comparing yourself to others and saying, “but I’m working and just not seeing results”). If you’re doing the income generating tasks each day for 6 months and never making a sale or seeing success, it’s probably time to pivot to a more profitable niche or opportunity.
But if you aren’t doing the things to move the needle in your business, then focus on doing those consistently before pivoting. Figure out what the income drivers are for your specific business and get to work. Create a weekly and daily list to stay on track, turn off notifications, eliminate distractions, avoid doing the fun things that feel comfortable, and start doing the hard things you’ve been avoiding. Then see if your income will grow.
Oftentimes people say they aren’t successful because they’re wasting time doing things that don’t really convert or translate into sales and money. So before you pivot, spend some time doing those things and if it still doesn’t pan out, then pivot.You’re making money, but you want to make more. So maybe you’re a pro at doing the income producing activities and you’ve generated an incredible income, but you know there’s more opportunity out there. This was my case, I was making incredible income in my first business, but I knew there was more potential and the ability for me to make more by working less by pivoting and creating my own digital offers. So it was a no brainer.
If you identify another profitable opportunity and the ability to make more money, why not go after it? Just make sure you can keep your current business going and bringing in the revenue you need as you pivot and build the second one. And before we move on, I want to share that this episode is brought to you by the Pivot to Profit High-Level Mastermind. This is my signature mastermind where I guide female entrepreneurs through the process of pivoting by helping them map out their program suite, do market research, ensure their first offer will sell, then guide them through the process of creating, marketing, selling, and then scaling their offer. If you want to pivot and create something of your own, then let me take your hand and have you skip to the front of the line so you can have insanely profitable launches and a plan to scale your income each month! If you’re tired of your MLM, if you’re tired of working 1:1 with clients, if your client roster is capped and you want to make more money through digital offers, this mastermind is definitely for you. There’s a link in the show notes where you can check out the details, apply, and once you apply you’ll be prompted to schedule a 1:1 discovery call with me to see if it’s the right fit for you. ***Your business just doesn’t feel right, you feel called to something else. This can take three forms- either you’re successful and making good money or you’ve had some success but have plateaued, or you haven’t had much success yet.
And maybe you’re telling yourself, this is the choice I made, I have to stick with it. I made my bed, now I have to lie in it.
And forcing yourself to stick with something that doesn’t feel right is no way to spend the rest of your years. If you are unhappy in your current business and feel a strong calling to pivot to something that is more aligned with your skills and passions, you have permission to go for it!
If you are super passionate about something and know that you could create offers and dominate that market, then pivot girl! Go chase your true passion and do what you feel in your gut is best!
I was talking with someone recently who felt deeply called to pivot and create courses on a topic in which she is an expert. But she was blocking herself and telling herself no because she had joined an MLM and was operating under the belief of “this is what I chose, I need to work this business instead of doing what I really want to do.” I was talking to someone else recently and she said she had also started in an MLM and felt like she needed to be successful in that business before she did something on her own, which she was very passionate about. And I said, NO! Life is too short for you to spend years seeing if this MLM will pan out for you when you have an idea for a digital offer that would definitely sell, you have the audience, you have the credibility. Go for it!
And when you actually face it and verbalize your fears of pivoting because you feel like you need to stick with the one choice you made, it sounds so silly.
So maybe you are having a lot of success but you just know that you could slay it by pivoting. Maybe you’ve outgrown your business and have become super passionate and knowledgeable about another topic and know that you could create more profitable options. Or maybe you’re sick and tired of aspects of your current business (for me, this was also part of every pivot I made, there were aspects that I just didn’t want to deal with anymore because they were draining and frustrating and I knew pivoting would help me eliminate them).
If you have plateaued and you are doing all the business activities to bring in money and still not seeing success and have a deep calling to move onto something else that will be more profitable and natural for you, then pivot.
If you are not having success yet and you know that you chose the wrong business, then pivot and go after the one that is the right fit for you.You’re burned out. I feel this one in my core too! But just because you’re burned out, doesn’t necessarily mean you should pivot. Let’s talk this through.
First, are you doing everything in your business. As mentioned earlier, are you outsourcing the tasks that someone else could do just as well? Or are you a one-woman show? Doing everything all the time? Shackled to your business? If so, you will experience burn out. So if you are burnt out and wanting to pivot, first ask yourself if you can outsource and delegate the tasks you hate or don’t need to be doing yourself. That will take some things off your plate and allow you to operate in your zone of genius, doing the things you love and are good at. This will absolutely help alleviate those feelings of burn out.
However, if you are already outsourcing and delegating, already operating in your zone of genius, but the structure of your business is one that has you trapped, then you might want to consider pivoting. For example, if you are in an MLM where you constantly have to hit monthly quotas, constantly have to bring on new team members and mentor them, constantly have to serve your downline, and if you take a step back things will crumble, because “speed of the leader, speed of the pack”, then you might want to pivot. If you serve 1:1 clients as a therapist or a VA and you can only get paid for the hours you are working and you want more freedom, you want the ability to reach more people without worrying about hourly rates or appointments, you might want to pivot. So if you are feeling trapped in your business and your burn out can’t be remedied because of the structure of the business, pivoting would be a great way for you to increase your income and create more freedom in your schedule (that is if you create digital offers).
You also want to ask yourself when the last time you took a vacation was, or when you took a weekend or a week off your business. Does the thought of that terrify you and sound completely undoable because things would fall apart? Would that just cause more stress and work for you? Taking time to rest is necessary in order to avoid the burn out and continue to show up to your business with passion and excitement. But if you are in a business where that’s not possible, then pivoting might be a great solution for you- just make sure that what you create when you pivot is structured to give you free time and flexibility. Bottom line, don’t irrationally give up on what you’re doing and pivot just because you got this idea on a whim. Instead, take the time to evaluate your current business, your current actions, and your ultimate desires before deciding whether or not to pivot.
Sure creating multiple streams of income is incredible, but pivoting does require more work upfront, you might not have the right audience, and you don’t want to lose credibility by constantly jumping from one thing to another every few months.;lkx
So to recap
I’m giving you permission to pivot if you feel like it’s time. But do so wisely.
The five reasons you might want to pivot are:
You’re bored (in this case, ask yourself if you can find enjoyment outside your business, if you can outsource and delegate, if you can spend more time in your zone of genius, if you can refresh your offerings. But if you are doing all those things and are still bored and being called to something else, go pivot!)
You’re not making money (In this case, are you doing all the income producing activities? If not, do those and see if the needle moves. If still nothing, pivot to a more profitable option)
You’re making money, but you want to make more (if you know that something else would bring you more money and more freedom, go ahead and pivot. Since you created one successful business, creating a second will be a breeze for you)
Your business just doesn’t feel right, you feel called to something else (you don’t have to stay where you are if you hate it and feel called to do something else! Follow your gut, your heart, and your passion and do what will bring you more money and more joy!)
You’re burned out (outsource, delegate, take time off. But if those aren’t working or aren’t possible, pivot to create something that will give you freedom and joy).
And that’s all, folks! If you decide to pivot, know that I am here cheering you on and wishing you unlimited success!
Thanks so much for tuning in, please subscribe so you get notified when new episodes drops, take a screenshot and tag me in your stories at @ashly_locklin and tell me what you thought of the episode!
Now get out there and make some money moves!
Show Notes:
This episode is brought to you by the Pivot to Profit High Level Mastermind: https://www.ashlylocklin.com/high-level-mastermind
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