The Savvy Seller with Kristen Doyle

174. Behind the Scenes: 5 Intentional Shifts I'm Making in 2026

• Kristen Doyle, TPT seller, SEO coach, and web designer

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Growth doesn’t always come from doing more. It often comes from making quieter, harder decisions behind the scenes. In this episode, I share how I’m applying recent lessons to make small, intentional shifts in my business, from refining my offers and processes to letting go of one-size-fits-all solutions. I talk about focusing on the work that creates the biggest impact, expanding into new niches, setting firmer boundaries, and learning to say no without guilt. If your business feels a little uncomfortable right now, this episode is a reminder that evolution is normal, and sometimes the most powerful growth comes from subtle, thoughtful changes!

01:50 - Getting clear on what lights me up and makes the biggest impact

03:40 - Shifting away from one-size-fits-all solutions

07:03 - Refining my processes for better client results

09:46 - Expanding my audience beyond online entrepreneurs and digital product sellers

12:00 - Two types of “no” every entrepreneur needs to master

Links & Resources:

Show Notes: https://kristendoyle.co/episode174  

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Kristen Doyle:

Last week, I shared five lessons I learned in 2025 from working with several different types of small businesses. Today, I'm pulling back the curtain a little bit to take you behind the scenes and show you exactly how I'm applying those lessons in my own business moving into 2026. The truth is, our businesses are supposed to evolve. They're supposed to change as we grow, as we learn what works, and as we get really clear on how we can best serve our audience. And that is something I've been spending a lot of time and a lot of effort on this year. Today I am sharing some specific shifts I'm making in my business going into 2026, and the really nice thing is, none of these are dramatic overhauls. They're really just some intentional little adjustments based on what I've learned is working well for my clients, for me, for the current market. And hopefully, by taking a little peek behind the scenes at what I'm doing, you'll get some ideas for some shifts you might make in your own business as well. Are you a digital product or course, creator, selling on platforms like Teachers Pay Teachers, Etsy, or your own website? Ready to grow your business, but not into the kind of constant hustle that leads straight to burnout? Then you're in the right place. Welcome to The Savvy Seller. I'm Kristin Doyle, and I'm here to give you no-fluff tools and strategies that move the needle for your business without burning you out in the process—things like SEO, no stress marketing, email list building, automations, and so much more. Let's get started, y'all. One of the shifts I'm making has to do with getting really clear on what work I do in my business really lights me up and also makes the biggest impact for my audience. See, I am having to get really clear on what I am doing that's most important. Old Kristen did a ton of different things. I sold digital products, I created and sold courses, I ran boot camps. I've been doing my web design work for clients, maintaining client websites, running a coaching program, so many things. And I have even had multiple people email me or just say in passing, you know, I see you everywhere. It seems like you're always doing so much. And I just don't know how you do it. You seem to have it all together. And the truth is, behind the scenes, I feel like I don't have it all together. I have been feeling pulled in a lot of different directions, and like I can't really do my best work on any of the things if I'm doing too many. So the shift I am making after reflecting on that quite a bit over the last year, is I am focusing more on web design projects and my maintenance clients and on a small group of people that I am coaching, and less on those giant launches like I did a few years ago, and creating new courses and things like that. So I'm getting really specific about who I work with, and probably working with fewer people, but making a much bigger impact. See, it's really about finding where you can find that intersection of the things you're passionate about and really enjoy doing, and how you can make the biggest impact on your audience. The second thing that I am doing is shifting away from one size fits all kinds of solutions. Specifically, if you had reached out to me a year ago for web design, I would have told you I only work in VIP days. Here's how they work, this is what I do. But I have learned that I need to shift away from only offering one type of web design projects. See, I learned that some clients needed a little more breathing room. They needed to live with their decisions and think about things before they have to commit. And I totally understand that. I'm a pretty quick decision maker most of the time, but I know a lot of people aren't like that, and so they needed a little more space and a little bit of a stretched out timeline so that they had time to make decisions in a way that works for them. I also learned that just some projects work better if you stretch them out over a week versus cramming them into one specific day. And as my kids have gotten older, they've gotten involved in more activities after school and things, and sometimes that makes the full day of availability for a VIP day a little hard to squeeze into our family schedule. So the lesson here, I guess, is that while VIP days were still working, they are still working, I would say 75% of the time, sometimes you do still need to take a step back and look at that other 25% of the time. So what I have done to kind of adjust and adapt is I've created some new service tiers. So instead of just offering one thing for web design, I now actually offer three different things. I still have my VIP days available when that's the right fit for a client. They're great for starter websites, for a punch list of updates someone needs to make, but for deeper projects, or people who just need more time to make decisions and to respond to things, I'm now offering custom web design in a week long container, instead of just that single focus day. It's still a nice, tight timeline. It still fits the way that I like to design things quickly, instead of stretching it out over several weeks or a month, but it gives people a little bit more time and space to make decisions, and it gives us a little more flexibility to go deeper with those custom design projects. And then on the flip side of things, for people who need less than a VIP day, I'm now offering the Homepage Express. So that's a super quick, focused update of just that homepage on your website. It can make a really big difference for people who maybe don't need a full website overhaul, but they do need some work done on that one most important page. What I would encourage you to learn from that shift that I'm making in my business is that I was only able to make that shift by listening to why people were saying no, not just why they said yes, and by listening to the pain points people had, even as we were working together in a VIP day project. The things that were causing them more stress than it should have, or were keeping them from getting the prep work done, or something like that. Really listening into those things, to the struggles that your customers are having and the reasons they might be saying no can help you find those better solutions to add to your offer suite, so that you're offering something that works for more people. So another shift that I've been making is really refining my processes to help make sure my clients are getting better results and that they're feeling like it's easier to work with me. This goes back to really listening to what your clients are saying and the things they're struggling with as well. And what has kind of come out of that for my business is, previously, if you booked a VIP day with me, we would have one project kickoff call, and it would be about a week before the VIP day. But the client has a lot of work to do before then. So now what I'm doing is splitting that into two calls. So instead of waiting until the very end, we start the project right at the beginning, after you sign the contract, with a first call to define the scope of the project, to talk about strategy, to, you know, nail down anything I might need to do some research on, anything the client needs to start gathering for me, all of those things. And then we still have our final kind of kickoff call right before the project starts, whether it's a VIP day or maybe it's a Web Design Week instead. What that's done is it gives us better collaboration that starts earlier in the process, and it makes the entire project flow so much better for me as the designer, in terms of getting what I need from the client and being on the same page with them about the project, but it also helps the client feel so much more comfortable with what they need to do, because I can go ahead and start answering questions for them really early on. Another thing I've done is really simplify my onboarding and my client prep work. One thing I've done there is automate a lot of things so that the client is getting what they need automatically after they sign contracts, instead of having to wait for me to manually send things. And I've done that with some great little make automations. And then, in terms of what I'm asking the client to give me, I'm trying to ask for less and then me give the client more, so that it makes their job that much easier. For example, one thing I'm doing is, instead of asking the client to provide the copy for their website themselves, which was in the past a struggle point for a lot of clients, they didn't know what to say, they didn't have the money to hire a copywriter, the stuff they got out of chat GPT sounded, well, like chat GPT. So now what I'm doing is I'm asking clients just to talk to me about their business, and then I'm taking what they've said about their business, and I'm turning it into that website copy for them. That just makes it so much easier for the client, and it helps me get better results from their website. And that's kind of the overall pattern in terms of how I'm updating the client processes, is really just to see, how can I make things easier for the client and get better results at the same time? Now, another shift that I am making is I am intentionally expanding my audience and the clients that I work for beyond just online entrepreneurs and digital product sellers. I have spent. 10 years now, designing websites for TPT sellers, other digital product and course creators and online entrepreneurs, but I have started expanding over the last several months to working with more brick and mortar small businesses, local shops that are doing very different things from what I've been doing before. And it's been a lot of fun, because they bring a totally different energy to the project. They typically need a little more teaching from me, but I really enjoy that part of it anyway, and I have found that they trust my expertise a lot more readily, probably because they don't understand online entrepreneurship in the same way that a lot of my digital product seller clients do. So that's been something just a fun kind of new direction for me to go, because I feel like I'm putting together pieces of a whole new puzzle now, and it's making me such, I think, a better coach and a better designer by working with these people who are in a totally different niche from what I've been doing in the past. One thing that has really come out of that is just realizing that there are some universal truths about business owners and what their website needs. Every website, that is, every business website anyway, needs good messaging and a really clear flow to the website. And it doesn't matter what type of business you're running, those underlying pieces are so very similar, just with some little tweaks depending on your niche. So that's been a lot of fun to figure out. And don't worry. TPT sellers, digital product creators, everything that I do still applies to you. I'm still here for you as well. This is an expansion of my business, not a, what do I want to call it? Not a pivot, I guess, but an expansion in my business, and it has just been a lot of fun to do. And I guess the lesson for you there is, when things are feeling tight and closed in in one niche, be open to expanding it to a new one. It might help you to grow and become better at what you do, and it will definitely help you to reach more people and grow your business overall. And then the last one of our five shifts is I am working really hard on learning to say no and sticking to it. I know I shared a little bit earlier, I've had people reach out to me so much over the years, saying, You just seem like you're doing everything and you have it all together. And a lot of times when someone says something like that to me, I feel like such a fraud, because I know that on the back end, I am struggling to keep all the plates in the air. I am struggling to do well at everything when I've committed to too many things. So there are two types of no that I have been working really hard to master, and I've made a lot of progress, but I have some room to go in 2026 as well, and I want you to work on mastering these same two types of no. The first one is saying no when you know that you don't have the capacity to really do something well. See, there are so many things that yes, we could do, but if I add this thing to my plate, am I then going to not do that thing well? Or am I going to also not do some other thing well? Maybe it's going to mean I can't show up well for my family. And so I am trying really hard to say no to things I could do if I know I can't do them well, or do them well alongside all the other things that I'm also trying to do really well. And then the second type of no that I want you to work on mastering is sticking to your policies even when you're tempted to bend them. I know for me, I set policies because I tend to be a little bit of a people pleaser, and I struggle with knowing when to say no to a request that someone has. So I create policies around those things, and I create those policies to protect myself and my business, but then when someone asks for an exception, I am always so tempted to bend and to give in. And the hard truth is I have learned over the years that both of these, saying yes to things I don't have capacity for, or saying yes when someone asks for an exception to a policy, they both almost always lead to something that is not a desirable outcome for me and for my business. They lead to exhaustion and burnout sometimes, or to mediocre work because I'm trying to do so many things, I can't do any of it as well as I know I should. Sometimes they lead to bad client experiences or just stress for me and my team. So when you say no to those two types of things, to things that you don't have the capacity to do really well, and also to bending and breaking on policies, it really does help you to prevent that burnout and exhaustion and stress, to do your best work in the things that you are saying yes to, and to create those great customer and client experiences. So here's what I want you to do this week, and as we head into the end of this year, rolling into 2026. Look at where you are saying yes to things, but feeling resistance about that yes, and see if you can identify if this is a capacity problem, or maybe it was the wrong fit. When you figure out what your pattern of saying yes when you should say no is, put some guidelines in place, put some ground rules, write some policies for yourself, so that you'll know when to say yes and when to say no in the future. The next thing I want you to do is really start listening to your no's. Pay attention to why people say no to your offers. Is it time constraints or price or feeling like it doesn't include everything they need, or it includes extra things they don't need? Listen to those no's and also listen to the struggles people are having with using your products or with getting ready for your services, those types of things. Because those things will really help you to be able to create the right offers and to adjust your offers so that you're serving your clients even better. And if you are feeling like your business model isn't quite working the way it used to anymore, maybe things were going great and now you're feeling some pain points that you weren't feeling before. I want you to just remember that that is normal. Your business is supposed to change. It is supposed to evolve and grow as you learn more about what works and what your target audience actually needs. So when you start making shifts, it doesn't mean everything is broken. For me, these shifts aren't because things are broken in my business. It's because I am getting more clear on how I can serve my people the best. And that really is what real business growth actually looks like. It's not always dramatic changes. In fact, a lot of times it isn't dramatic changes. Sometimes it's just small, intentional adjustments. Now, for my TPT seller friends, if you are a TPT seller, specifically thinking that you need to make some changes in your business right now and you're nervous, worried about pivoting or expanding into other things, I want to encourage you with some thoughts that I have kind of had for myself, some things I've been telling myself over the years as I've pivoted from just a TPT seller myself into other businesses as well. You have already built a whole entire business from the ground up. You have done it once, which means you can do it again. Now I'm not saying that you have to start completely over and build a whole brand new business. I kind of did that a little bit because I built a web design business, which is something totally separate from my TPT store. You don't have to go quite that far, but you absolutely can redefine what your business looks like and shift. The skills that got you where you are right now can take you somewhere brand new in your business as it grows. You've done it once, you can do it again now. So whether you run a TPT store or a service based business or something else entirely, remember that those fundamentals are universal. We all need good messaging, clear websites, confidence to make the right business decisions, and we all need to adapt and shift and evolve in our businesses. So take some time this week to really examine what is working well in your business right now and what might need some small shifts. I promise you've got this because, like I said, you've already done it once, and if you've done it once, you can do it again. I'll talk to you soon.