How to pivot your business when you’re no longer passionate
TUNE IN: APPLE PODCAST|SPOTIFY|STITCHER
Today I wanted to talk to you about business pivots. This topic is near + dear to my heart as I begin to pivot again a bit in my own business– which I’ll talk about today– but I also know it’s near and dear to a lot of sellers I work with on a daily basis– because they’re either
a) no longer passionate about their product and audience, or
b) are ready to make a BIGGER impact on the world than they can with their current business model.
← so if that describes your current feelings to a T, then listen up, because I am going to walk you through what you can do RIGHT NOW to reignite your passion and pivot your business in a way that lights you up and makes you EXCITED about “going to work” again. Yes, it is possible, and yes, we’re going to tackle it head-on today.
Expectations
Sometimes I think we set up a lot of unrealistic expectations for ourselves when it comes to business– because we want to be successful, it becomes VERY easy to second guess every single choice there is to make– because what if it’s– heaven forbid– the WRONG choice and we end up sabotaging ourselves.
I’m here to tell you that I have made A LOT of “wrong” choices over the years and a lot of really stupid mistakes because a) I’m human, and b) well, I’m human. And truthfully? #mombrain is a VERY real thing and can sometimes cloud our judgments– I am DEFINITELY guilty of that.
#mombrain aside, like I said, I’ve made A LOT of poor business decisions. Decisions to jump into things without thinking them through. Decisions to offer products in my shop that weren’t well thought out.
But one thing I’ve learned through all these failures?
NOTHING IS PERMANENT.
And the same can be said for your business:
Just because you started your business following ONE business model or creating ONE type of product doesn’t mean you have to stay in that lane.
You are ALLOWED TO PIVOT.
In fact, I would strongly encourage it.
I want you to humor me for a minute and take a trip down memory lane. Think back to when it was that you started your shop or online business. Maybe it was 3 years ago…5 years ago… 10 years ago.
Now think about today. Business aside– are you AS A PERSON– the same being that started your shop all those years ago?
Having my children have always been the catalyst for my business decisions. When I think about who I was back in 2011 when I *first* started my Etsy journey, I was VERY different.
I was 23, a newlywed living in a teeny-tiny 2 bedroom condo in SLC Utah. I had just graduated college and was working an events manager position for a publishing company. I had NO children and a MILLION corporate ambitions.
And when I compare that to who I am today– a mom of 2 (I mean, how did that happen!?!?!), living in rural Utah on farm land, a gardening hobbiest, and I value prioritizing time with my family above ALL else….and running her OWN business on her OWN terms…I mean, how did that happen?!
But I compare and contrast those two because those are 2 VERY different Morgan’s. I’m still “me,” sure, but I have different interests, different priorities, and an overall VERY different perspective from my 23 year old self.
That doesn’t mean one is necessarily better than the other, although I’d *like* to think I’ve progressed as an individual, but the bottom line? I HAVE CHANGED AS A PERSON.
And it would be RIDICULOUS to assume that my business after ALL those years stayed EXACTLY THE SAME.
SO LET ME SAY IT AGAIN: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO PIVOT!
You are allowed to no longer feel passionate about your craft
You are allowed to feel burned out from shipping physical products Every. Single. Day.
You are allowed to wish for a holiday season that WASN’T jam-packed with last-minute holiday orders and impatient customers.
And once you give yourself permission and ALLOW yourself to feel those things, a whole new world (very Aladdin + Jasmine style) opens up to you.
YOU HAVE OPTIONS.
AND THAT IS A BIG DEAL.
You’re no longer “trapped” by the idea that you have to keep selling the same thing you’ve sold since 2014 or the world will end
You’re no longer stuck in the sense that you can only ever sell $5 printable products that never seem to add up to your long-term revenue goals.
You no longer have to commit yourself to a lifetime of stressful holiday shipping deadlines from the grouchiest of customers.
Pivoting is POWERFUL.
MY FIRST PIVOT
I made my first “major” pivot since being a full-time business owner back in 2018. And if you’ve been around for a while, you’ve heard this story, so I’ll just tell a quick synopsis of it: I got unexpectedly pregnant with my son, got RIDICULOUSLY ill with that Princess Kate sickness– hyperemesis gravidarum– you can look it up if you want to be horrified — and had to make a choice.
I had been running 2 businesses at this point– MorganNield.com– where this podcast comes from– AND my Etsy shop, LittleHighbury, selling baby headbands and accessories. They were both pulling in six-figures annually, which was SUCH a blessing, but there was also a lot of undue stress from running both. I don’t want you to ever think that I take these businesses success for granted– I thank my God –literally– every day for allowing me to experience these successes and allow me to empower my audience to achieve them as well. So please don’t read into this that I was ungrateful. Because I was not.
But the non-stop puking meant I had to make some BIG changes whether I wanted to or not.
It had been about a year at that point that my Etsy shop– which was VERY heavily targeted towards the baby niche– was no longer bringing me ANY joy. At the time, I wasn’t passionate about motherhood (heck, I was– VERY literally– sick to the stomach about motherhood), and sending emails with heart eyes about babies was the LAST thing I wanted to be focused on. I didn’t feel like I connected with my audience at all anymore who wanted to talk about pregnancy glows and baby showers.
But I had kept doing it because it was the thing that I had started that had set our family up for this financially stable ride. It was the very business model that had allowed me to stay home with my daughter. To provide for my family while my husband went through school. The business that bought us our first home.
And it seemed INSANE to pivot away from that kind of success and revenue and just leave it behind. And people flat-out told me I WAS insane, which was awesome. I STILL get emails about that.
But I’ve gotta be honest: The making orders. The packaging. The non-stop customer service The driving to the post office every single day. The having to act like a customer service rep for the united states postal service every single time a package went missing.
I physically and emotionally couldn’t do it anymore.
And so I made the decision to make a MASSIVE pivot in my business and close my Etsy shop doors.
Now, even though I didn’t have a choice in the matter, this decision to close up my Etsy shop– that had provided for my family for YEARS– was a scary one.
ANY PIVOT IS SCARY– NO MATTER HOW “RIGHT” IT IS FOR YOUR SITUATION.
But I put my trust in God, and moved forward with morgannield.com
And with that, I set my shop in indefinite vacation mode and– for those precious moments here and there that I felt like a somewhat normal human being during this challenging pregnancy– I poured what little energy I had into running morgannield.com and re-launching my signature Mastermind Your Marketing program.
AND JUST LIKE THAT, I TRANSITIONED AWAY FROM SELLING PHYSICAL PRODUCTS ETSY AND BECAME FOCUSED 100% ON CREATING + SELLING DIGITAL CONTENT AND PRODUCTS.
And to this day, that has been one of the BEST business decisions I have made for myself and our family.
Now, you don’t need to be transitioning from physical products to digital products like mine to experience a “pivot” in your business–
maybe you’re ready to go a COMPLETELY different direction and pivot from making soap → to explore your newfound talent and love of calligraphy.
Or maybe it’s just a slight shift– Maybe you’re tired of dealing with constant deadlines and bridezillas in the wedding industry and ready to pivot from wedding suite stationary to ready-to-ship greeting cards.
Or maybe, you ARE ready to pivot from all the stresses of selling physical products and dive headfirst into the realm of creating a business built around digital product creation– something known in the industry as “passive income”
Whatever it is, if you are listening to this episode and practically jumping up and down saying “Yes, yes, yes– it is TIME FOR ME TO PIVOT MY BUSINESS!” then listen up because I’m going to walk you through a quick exercise that can help you get some MAJOR clarity on pivoting in your business and how to do it in a way that works with YOUR current situation. Because as nice as it would be to just drop whatever you’re not loving and start something completely new right away, chances are that you’ve hung onto your current business for some type of financial reason– and we can’t just cut that off cold turkey or you might end up homeless, which *may* be a little dramatic, but you get the gist.
So how do you pivot in your business WITHOUT sacrificing what you’ve worked so hard to build up to this point?
It all begins with asking yourself some soul-searching questions that are going to all you to get REALLY intentionally CLEAR about what your pivot is going to look like.
So grab a piece of paper and get ready to pound out some clarity:
What is the #1 goal you’re hoping to achieve with a pivot?
Free up more time? Find a niche you’re actually passionate about? Build more passive income? What is inspiring you RIGHT NOW to consider this pivot in your business?
There is no right or wrong answer to this question– it is VERY personalized to YOU and what motivates YOU. We each have our own kind of personalized human “blueprint” to work off of– so whatever it is that motivates you, write it down!
What do I really enjoy / not enjoy about my business right now?
Again, this is where your human “blueprint” comes into play and it becomes absolutely crucial that you figure out what you actually enjoy (and don’t enjoy) about running your current business.
Maybe you hate shipping physical orders
Or maybe you hate all the back and forth communication that goes into each of your personalized art prints
And then on the flip side of that, what do you absolutely LOVE about your business right now?
Being creative? Interacting with the community you’ve built up? Posting on social media (which I don’t personally love, but I know a lot of people do!)? Basically, what is the FUN part of your business?
What do I WANT to be doing (that I’m not already)?
IDK if it’s just me, but there have been times in my life as a business owner where I’ve stared longingly at some other business owner’s website and been insanely jealous that THIS IS WHAT THEY GET TO DO while I’m stuck doing xyz.
And I’m calling myself out on it RIGHT NOW because it’s ultimately MY choice what I’m doing in my business. There is no one “forcing” me to do anything. I call 100% of the shots in my own business (which, to be honest, is one of the reasons I started it)
So what do you WANT to be doing as a business owner?
Now, this may look similar to what you’re currently doing with just a few tweaks– maybe changing up your flagship product line or removing order personalization from your products.
BUT! It may also look COMPLETELY DIFFERENT with NO overlap with what you’re currently doing and who your current audience is.
Maybe you’re ready to transition over from digital to physical products
Maybe you’re ready to explore affiliate marketing
Maybe you’re ready to offer services
Maybe you’re ready to just wipe out your entire current product line of earrings and start selling party supplies.
Know that it can be HARD to pivot in a completely different direction, but at the end of the day, it is MUCH easier to pivot now and deal with those “growing pains” then to sit through it all with your current business model or product and HATE what you are doing. Kind of like a relationship breakup– it’s easier and MUCH less painful (at least in my experience!) to cut it off early on when you know it’s not working than to drag it out for months on end.
What do I need to let go of in order to move forward?
Now that you’ve nailed that down, ask yourself what you need to be doing that you’re not already doing to make that happen?
Do you need to set aside some time to work on this new business pivot? Do you need to cut down on your current offerings so you’re not so overwhelmed by keeping track of inventory?
Do you need to hire a VA to help take a load off your customer service?
Do you need to raise your prices so you’re working less but still bringing home an income?
Alright, so ask yourself those questions, write ‘em down, and use them as your personal roadmap for beginning down the path of pivoting– I PROMISE writing them down is going to give you SO much more clarity than you have right now if you KNOW you want to change but aren’t sure in what direction.
NOW, A FEW GOLDEN TIPS I’VE LEARNED FROM PIVOTS:
You can absolutely begin pivoting your business while still working on your current business model that’s bringing you income. Absolutely. Don’t put undue financial stress on your situation because it will make everything 1 bajillion times harder
Give it time. Don’t try and pivot your business over the weekend and then balk and pack up shop, so to speak, if you don’t immediately see results. Pivoting your business will take time. You’ve got to commit to it for the long haul. Remember: it’s not over until it’s over.
If your initial pivot doesn’t seem to be working out, remember that you CAN tweak and adjust. You are not iron-clad bound to ANYTHING in YOUR business. You can choose to pivot your pivot. No business decision you make is set in stone. And at the end of the day, choosing to pivot to a business that you love is more important than sticking to the original plan.
And finally, don’t pivot and become obsessed with still offering what your current audience wants– a pivot may mean you need to attract an entirely NEW group of people– and that’s okay! Don’t sell yourself or your passions short just because someone is willing to pay you to do something else that doesn’t get you excited. Stay true to what YOU want your business to look like and creating content and products with that ideal, dream customer in mind. (and if you need help with the dream customer bit for a NEW product niche, refer back to Episode 3 of the SYS podcast where I’ll walk you through all of this!)
Now, the reason this topic of pivoting your business is something I’m so passionate about right now is because I’m in the middle of a business pivot RIGHT NOW.
MY current pivot
If you’re new around here, it’ll soon become pretty obvious that I’ve been focused on helping ALL Etsy shops grow their income. And even with my Etsy shop closed, I’ve continued to sell my Mastermind Your Marketing course– a paid program that walks students through creating a profitable marketing system for THEIR shops.
It’s a product I STRONGLY believe in because I’ve seen the empowerment and flat-out RESULTS that come from students following the step-by-step curriculum inside.
And I’ve got to be honest– it brings me an INSANE amount of joy to create a product that empowers my students towards financial freedom. I didn’t grow up with a lot of money, and when my parents divorced when I was 11, I watched my mom struggle every minute of everyday to make ends meet. I know she did the best she could, but our financial situation growing up was NOT ideal.
And it’s what caused me to make the decision VERY early on to NEVER be found in that position if I could help it– and what has spurred me to be financially independent as much as possible– and to help others achieve the same.
Now, really quick, it’s important to note that I plan to continue selling the Mastermind Your Marketing program. I’ve poured my heart + soul into it and I KNOW it’s an incredible program that has the power to produce REAL change in my student’s lives.
But lately I’ve found myself wanting to make even MORE of an impact.
Because I’ve seen sellers inside my Mastermind Your Marketing program who have begun implementing the marketing system and been overwhelmed with orders to the point that they are struggling to find enough hours in a day to complete them.
And that’s the caveat with physical products– unless you hire out a lot of help, one person can’t keep up if the volume gets too high.
And then there are the challenges that come with simply selling a higher volume– more customer service and package tracking issues, more inventory to manage, more trips to the post office, more holiday hours lost.
And so you essentially “cap” your revenue because to keep up with things, you have to hire help, which cuts into your profit.
Now, obviously, you can raise your prices, yes, absolutely. And that’s something I recommend as a first move– PLEASE CHARGE WHAT YOU ARE WORTH!!! But there gets a point where you realize that there’s got to be something that’s a better fit for you that can help you reach your revenue goals.
And I’ve seen my students struggle with this in a big, BIG way.
And as I’ve grown my digital products business over here at morgannield.com, I’ve found myself INCREASINGLY passionate to teach more about digital products and how much of a financial impact adding a digital product/line to your Etsy shop can make.
Because while I know creating a marketing system like we teach in Mastermind Your Marketing can have a MAJOR impact on the sales you make in your shop….
…creating a passive DIGITAL product or product line can COMPLETELY change the game.
AND SO, ONCE AGAIN, I FIND MYSELF PIVOTING MY BUSINESS.
Not in a way that abandons everything I’ve built up so far, but in a way that allows me to help even MORE people reach their financial goals even easier– without the stressors of hoarding larger inventories and hiring teams of seamstresses, juggling weekly summer craft fairs, or and balancing wholesale accounts.
But with the addition of a digital product or product line in their Etsy shops.
A product that you can create ONCE and sell over and over again.
I tell you this for a couple of reasons:
First off, it can be REALLY helpful to hear personal experiences of other business owners that have pivoted their businesses or are currently pivoting. It gives one hope. I know I was majorly terrified when I closed my Etsy shop and started focusing more on serving my students, but now, on the other side, I can’t believe I tried to balance both– especially when I wasn’t passionate about the physical products I was selling. I CLUNG to business owners I know had started with one business model and morphed it into something else.
And second off, I want you to know what to expect from me in the upcoming months. I’m going to be talking A LOT more about digital products and how you can add them to your CURRENT ETSY SHOP to increase your bottom revenue line WITHOUT adding additional stressors or burdens in your business. And not just $5 printables– we’re talking real-deal income that adds up to an extra $1,000 or more every single month with minimal work on your end. Digital products you can create in the $47 – $97 product range– products that add up VERY quickly into real-deal income.
And if that’s something you’re interested in, then I invite you to stick around because as mickey mouse would say, boy oh boy do I have some INCREDIBLE things in store for you.
Take action:
So today’s episode’s “take action” is all about pivoting. If you are in kind of a cross roads where you’re pretty sure you’re not in your current business model for the long haul, but you’re not *quite* sure where you want to go, rewind this episode and go through the exercise answering those questions as honestly as you can. I guarantee getting it down on paper– whether typed or by hand– is going to bring you more clarity than letting those thoughts swirl around in your head every will. There’s just something intentional about writing things down– and doing this exercise is the first step to pivoting your current business into a business that you absolutely LOVE.
So stay tuned, dive deep into your pivot if that’s and I’ll see you next week!