To Pivot or Not to Pivot - Is It Strategic (or an Excuse)

In this week’s episode, Emily Merrell and Lexie Smith discuss whether or not pivoting your coaching business is strategic or if it’s an excuse masking a different issue. They break down what a successful, smart pivot looks like versus an unsuccessful, counter-productive pivot, and share how listeners can decipher where they fall between the two. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• What it means to pivot in business
• How the coaching industry has changed post-pandemic
• Thoughts on how businesses have used pivoting to cover up something else that’s going wrong in their business
• Examples of successful pivots they have seen
• Examples of unsuccessful pivots they have seen clients make
• How pivots can be used to give business owners an easy out when they don’t want to stick to the “long game”
• Tips on being comfortable in and excited about what your selling 
• How to know if your inclination to pivot is strategic or not
• And more! 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Learn more about the Ready Set Coach Program at Readysetcoachprogram.com

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Emily Merrell  

Let's coach. Hey, Lex.

Lexie Smith  

Hello, Emily Merrill.

Emily Merrell  

Last time I talked to you on the podcast you were a coughing wreck.

Lexie Smith  

Oh, and if you're watching this on YouTube, you'll see that that's still my happen. The the hacking hacking of the lung is still still with me. Isn't it

Emily Merrell  

funny? It's like the the summer colds always have like the free summer cold I feel like is is in full bloom right now. And you were in Palm Springs? Do you feel like being in like the dry climate helped at all?

Lexie Smith  

No, not at all. It was 105 degrees. And my joke was I don't know what's hotter. My header pavement. I was super super sick. And it's like a cold. Stop being so obsessed with me. You can go away. Now the good news about this cold though is that somehow miraculously and knock on wood. My husband and daughter have not gotten it. Do you believe on knock on wood? I do. Oh, and

Emily Merrell  

I'm very superstitious. Like whenever I lived in New York City when I lived in New York City whenever when I lived in New York City. And I'd see a ladder like I would cross the street to avoid going underneath a ladder.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, okay. Yeah, I'm superstitious, too. I always do the knock on wood.

Emily Merrell  

I when I when I flew, I used to have more of a fear of flying. And luckily that fear has dissipated. And I'm very much like accepting of whatever happens on a plane, it's going to happen on the plane type of thing. But I used to have this like, this fear that I was responsible for keeping the plane afloat, which is very narcissistic, in a way, but I'd have to like stay up staring out out of my window to like, keep the plane afloat.

Lexie Smith  

Oh my gosh, there's so many potentially deep conversations that you just brought up. And but the one that I wanted to just highlight was I've never thought of superstition, as a form of narcissism. I know. Kind of can be or like egotistical kind of like weird. It is if you really think about it, like when, I mean, in some cases, it's not relevant. But if you go like I hate when my hate hate hate when my husband goes like, I've never been in a insert type of accident. Oh, yeah. Yeah, you're like, I'm never driving to here again. Like, maybe there's not a go in there. But they're what's a good example. I just, I feel like there's there's truth to that, like, why did you and your thought process impact the plan?

Emily Merrell  

I'll give an example. So I watch a movie on the plane. I watched ad for Brady, when it's about this group of 480 year old women who are obsessed with Tom Brady. And like, it's adorable. It's Jane Fonda and Lily Tomlin like it's the Grace and Frankie reunited, but with some other characters. And the they the very first time like they won the Super Bowl, they like one woman was reading a magazine, one person was changing a light, one person was eating chips. So every single Super Bowl, they'll like start the game doing the same exact thing because they were like, they won the Super Bowl. When we did this the last three times or the first time then the second time, then the third time. So they really feel like is their act of like doing that? That?

Lexie Smith  

That's a good example. You know, what's funny about sports? So when you talk about sports, you I played sports, I played basketball, and in basketball, you do a lot of pivots. Right? It's one of your defensive moves digit, which I'm sure that exists in football too. Right, pivot pivot pivot, so it's a movement and that's so relevant. Because today by the way, that was like five squirrels and this is such a quick transition guys. Here it is. Today we're talking about to pivot or not pivot is pivoting in your coaching practice or Business Smart. Or is it an excuse? Oh, don't

Emily Merrell  

don't me get sound effects in this podcast. I feel really

Lexie Smith  

crucial request

Emily Merrell  

to oh, we're kicking things off Lex. I feel First and foremost, we have to address the elephant in the room, which is the Friends episode about pivoting.

Lexie Smith  

Oh, God, I haven't I heard no it. What?

Emily Merrell  

Oh, oh my god, this is literally going to be our text exchange the rest of today because you don't remember the scene and friends where they have the couch and they're putting the couch. They're bringing the couch up like five flights of stairs. And he keeps I think Ross keeps yelling bit.

Lexie Smith  

To be honest. I didn't I've seen some friends but maybe that's my next show. I need to bench I'm like super deep in Grey's Anatomy right now. I'm still still in that by the way.

Emily Merrell  

How many years is it been now? But

Lexie Smith  

okay, don't listen, if you're watching Grey's Anatomy, because I'm about to say spoiler alert. But Derek Shepherd just died last night and three episodes and I was bawling my eyes out like uncontrollably CJ and Ashton will actually didn't know was just like what in the actual world and work which I knew it was gonna happen. Anyways, I haven't seen friends but maybe I need to binge it. I totally hijacked that. So I wouldn't make

Emily Merrell  

it to the end. It's like an antidote to to Grey's Anatomy. And I remember hearing about that episode. I stopped watching ages ago with Grey's but like, I probably would be in a depression for about a year from just that one episode like One Tree Hill thinking back about One Tree Hill still, like wrecks me from all the people that died needlessly like can you imagine going to high school or working at a hospital where you have so many ridiculous tragic, surprising deaths? or

Lexie Smith  

poor Meredith right? But anyways, I

Emily Merrell  

Anyway, okay, well, nevermind, ignore everything I said about friends. It was just the, the image of pivoting where it can be sometimes uncomfortable. It can sometimes be. It can be a team effort. And sometimes no one knows what the eff you're

Lexie Smith  

doing. Yes. And actually, I think the word pivot became trendy, ending largely in the pandemic. And actually, that's super, super relevant to our industry. Because when we were all forced into this virtual world, a lot of people ran to the coaching industry. And something that Emily and I have seen is people pivoting strategically, and people using the word pivot or the concept of pivot to act as an excuse or cover something else that's going on. And yeah,

Emily Merrell  

and I want to say in a business context, according to my my Google search of the word pivot, it is completely changing the way in which one does something. So blacks I love that we let's start off with like the positive, the positive pivot the end the pandemic, pandemic, pivoting was a very

Lexie Smith  

popular pandemic. Loan is out. Okay. Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

that's what it stands for. But I think the the pandemic, you're right was such a great way where people, people who pivoted, and did it well, prospered, I want to just get sick with a piece. And those that didn't, and waited or waited the two weeks that they thought this was going to end, really, we're scrambling to figure out how to accommodate their clients. So I'll say with six degrees, I gave myself a pity party for 45 minutes, and then it was like the party, that I'm crushing this today. And then I was able to put my people positively, I'll stop on on screen, I was able to go to zoom and like cultivate community from this virtual space. So that's an example of pivoting to save my business and pivoting to also like fill a void that was in the marketplace, which was community and connection. What you were referencing was a lot of people did also pivot to starting a coaching business, maybe they like left their already existing business and decided making jewelry didn't make sense anymore. I want to coach people on how to start jewelry businesses, I don't want to be the physical labor who is making jewelry. So we saw like pivots of industry where where they took the knowledge in which they've learned from one business and then they were able to apply it to another. But what you're referencing also is the negative side of pivoting, where people will try things for a minute, and then feel it's uncomfortable, and then decide to try something else.

Lexie Smith  

Yep, exactly. So one of the big mistakes that Emily and I have seen both individually and collectively is people using a pivot as An opportunity to get really excited about something, because they don't want to face the reality that they haven't given something enough time. If you, for example, it's a very specific example, let's say you launch as a business coach, and you put your dream offering out into the market, and you work your little booty off and promoting it, let's say even for two months, and just crickets, you might we see a lot of people start to panic, and figure, like go to the default that this isn't working. And there can be some parts of that that ended up making that valid. But other people say, Okay, I guess I need to pivot. Now all of a sudden, that business coach who was offering this one on one program, decides to become a systems coach and is offering, you know, a community. And then they try that for two weeks, not two weeks, two months, not working. So okay, in order to get excited, again, I'm going to pivot. Now I'm going to be a technical coach and offer blah, blah, blah, and the cycle continues where they're, they're reinventing their business, because it is fun, and it can be exciting to reinvent and the harder part is buckling down and marketing and selling

Emily Merrell  

offer. And we also want to just, we want to acknowledge that we've had people in six, six raise cash people and ReadySet coach, who have pivoted, pretty quickly within joining our program, we've had people go from one dating coach to life coach, or what was it called? Oh, my gosh, I forgot what the word was some sort of coach to like a communications coach, we've, we've seen it happen. And a lot of times, the thing that changes is the title and not the teachings. And so that is a, I've changed my title like a bajillion times. And I've evolved my title. And I like to look at it more as an evolution than a pivot, but it's not changing the teachings. It's like honing in or deepening one of the teachings. So yeah, Lex, I think what you're saying too, about the person who is like prey and sprain pretty much, and they're putting something out there, and they're hoping that this resonates. But then when it doesn't resonate, they're like, whoa, whoa, whoa, this will resonate. So can we can you tell me what you think? What if it's, what if what they're doing is uncomfortable to them? And there's something else that they want to pivot to that they're a lot more equipped to tackle and feeling more confident, and tackling? Do you think they should pivot? Or should they stay with the thing? That's uncomfy?

Lexie Smith  

I think it's really, really important to dissect and deep, deeply look at the Y. If they first and foremost, what is their y for coaching? What is their y for life? What is their y for business? So if we have that clear Lee identified, then we can start to answer these specific questions. But if you're coming up with an initial niche, an offering that you originally think isn't alignment with your why, but it is uncomfy because it's something new. Does that necessarily mean it's wrong? Would it be wiser to default back to something that feels safer? That's where I think that's a discussion comes into play and we see coaches on both sides of the coin, I can see them using it as an excuse because it is uncomfy and it's so much easier to go back to my comfort zone. And then I we've seen scenarios where no genuinely that first pivot into something new was the wrong pivot and they shouldn't have pivoted away to begin with.

Emily Merrell  

Max how can people find out how to work with

Lexie Smith  

us? Super simple go to ReadySet Coach program.com and you can show notes

Emily Merrell  

to in the pivot, I think that there is an element of like you don't want to be so uncomfortable in what you're selling that it doesn't feel aligned with you. And a lot of people do try to put like as what is it a square peg in a round hole type of situation for like oh, I've seen other people do it. I want to do it I can do it. But then what happens as they put it out there there is an energetics about this there's an energetics about selling there's an energetics about showing up there's an energetic energetics about like delivering yourself as a as a coach and holding space for a person. And for whatever reason we've all seen it before we've all seen someone who's launched and you're like I it the messaging makes sense to me but like I'm not interested. It just doesn't. Doesn't give me that FOMO or that feeling of like, I want to be a part of it. And then we have seen those pivots before were all of a sudden, something tweaks or like the way that they're talking to the person tweaks or the way that they're, they're clear on who the person they're serving is. And you're like, Oh, my God, I get it, I it snaps into place. So I think, for pivoting, and something that we should talk about a little bit deeper lacks is like, using pivot to iterate, or like allowing yourself to iterate, but also allow yourself

Lexie Smith  

to give yourself time on something. Time is key. So what would be helpful? First question, if you are someone who's sitting in a junction in your life, where the current offering the current way, you're putting yourself out into the world, the current coaching structure that you have hasn't quite financially resonated yet? What's a question you can ask yourself to better understand if maybe it's time strategically to pivot? Or if you're using that word or that concept, to mask something else going on? Yeah. And I think

Emily Merrell  

you're so right, with the resistance to like, I think there's a lot of masking that happens, where before people have to then do the direct outreach, or before people have to do an Instagram Live, or whatever the the, like, uncomfortable thing is, they'll just be like, well, the offers not working. So I'm gonna just do the same thing all over again, and try a whole different offer. So another question to ask yourself is, are you excited? Like, are you like, what is exciting you about your offer? And if you were a consumer, what would excite you about going through and experiencing

Lexie Smith  

a software? Well, I think that first part of that first question is where we should start? Do you want to do this? Do you want to deliver this? Does this excite you, when you think about delivering this service to a client? Are you lit up? Or are you kind of dreading it? Right? That's one question to look at. Right.

Emily Merrell  

But I also want to add to this from people from us who have delivered things before, there is an aspect of dread in actually selling your, your program. And I'll say that in, like, once you sell it even to one person, then you're like, Oh, my God, I actually have to follow through with this. And so that feeling of dread can sometimes be mixed with like the the feeling of delivery. And so just be mindful that sometimes, if you do sell it, or you have success, or whatnot, you then have to show up.

Lexie Smith  

Well, okay, that's let's pick it that for a second. Are you dreading selling it? Or are you dreading the delivery of it? Now, if you identify you're dreading selling? I mean, honestly, are you ever going to not let's be honest, and that's what I'm saying. In part two, if it is on the delivery side, is it because you are having impostor syndrome? You're not quite sure if it's going to work? Or do you really just not want to do this thing? Right? So like, if you decide that the market needs a business offering, talking about systems, and you're like, okay, like, objectively, that's smart, I know, people need it. Whether or not I like selling is irrelevant, because I probably hate selling no matter what. But when I think about the delivery, man, I just don't like tech, like, is that where you're gonna do it? But like, I don't want to if that's where you're sitting, then you have a clear misalignment, right?

Emily Merrell  

Like, I'm a creative this whole time. I want to be selling art classes, and getting in touch with their creative side. Yeah, that's a really good call out lax, and really digging deep have been like, do you feel like you have to because you've followed, like, there's a lot of halves in our lives, let's just say that, like, Oh, I'm married, I have to stay married, even though I'm miserable. Or I have to be a stay at home mom, because I that was the commitment I made at the beginning of having kids, but I really don't want to be any more. So it's like, there's a lot of haves and shoulds in life that are going to jump up at you and jump out at you. And so how can you? How can you do a little soul searching and just make sure that those it's not a have? It's like a want?

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, and I think the kind of core of what we're talking about here is you have to have a really clear and honest understanding of who you are and your why and if that feels unattainable to achieve within just you, you're you and can you enlist someone like a coach or a friend who can be that mirror to really sit down with you and figure out that answer. Emily recently had a coaching session with another client of ours. But she was able to act as a mirror for this wonderful human and help this wonderful human realize that at the end of the day, she wasn't aligned with what she was offering the world. And when there truly isn't an alignment, that's when Yeah, okay, maybe we consider a pivot. And

Emily Merrell  

I think it's really cool when you see someone who's like, dragging their feet up building their website or dragging their feet up making that launch or showing up in a full way. And then they get that alignment. There's that that moment where everything awakens in them and things are built tomorrow. You're like, oh, my gosh, look, that messaging resonates the your ideal client stands out, like everything falls into place, but it does take time. And it does take it takes, you know, to pivot, I think it can also take that permission slip, that permission slip from an outside person where they feel like they're so far down a particular lane that will RNI a failure if I am pivoting. So I think looking at pivoting, so if you are in the market to pivot, think about yourself, is this is this giving up on something? Or is this like we evaluating something, and I'm going to use an example of tech companies and Lexie probably have more examples in your in your back pocket. But slack when it was created was not created to be slack. It was not created to be a consumer product, it was created for an internal product of like, my understanding it was for video games for playing video games, and for gamers to to connect with one another in a bigger way. And then that what ended up being the outcome of slack was we're on Slack. We use it to communicate as a team, probably millions of teams use it as a communication tool. But their initial design of slack was not what we know to be slack today. Same thing with Instagram, like things can have iterations and evolve. So allow yourself that permission, but also be cognizant of, to Lexi's point, prevention of actually doing the damn thing.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, it's a super fine line. And it really does require a high level self awareness. So something you can do when we talk about some reflection questions for Han today is B. If you again, if you can't do this, you yourself and you that's totally fine enlisted enlisted coach, enlist a friend and with someone you trust. First, look at your patterns, your past patterns. I see a lot of entrepreneurs and a lot of creatives chasing what I call shiny, odd, shiny object syndrome. I totally get caught up in this by the way, sometimes I literally built probably 25 different websites for 25 different business ideas, it is really exciting. For a short amount of time when you get a new idea you can get lit up. Now sometimes that can grow legs and become a true business. Other times you have to sit back and realize is this a theme? Is this part of my personality? Have I really reinvented and re pivoted like three or four times now. If that's the case, then we might be going towards the to not pivot side because we're using the pivot as a mask to to allow us to show up and get uncomfy and do the real work.

Emily Merrell  

Totally. And then something a little bit more playful lacks. I'm curious if you were told you can't do the PR bar or you can't do Ready Set coach anymore, and you had to pivot and do a new business.

Lexie Smith  

What would your business be? Or just go all in and ready set coach? No, I

Emily Merrell  

said not ready, set coach either you couldn't be ready. And you couldn't do the PR?

Lexie Smith  

Well, one day I want to open a winery with puppy dog rescues too. So

Emily Merrell  

okay, and at the winery, I want to have a bead store where we can make jewelry. And we can sit and drink wine and make jewelry collectively.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, so you now know Emily and I's life version 2.3 point oh. But yeah, so to kind of recap today, guys, this was really a conversation. This wasn't us giving you direct steps to understand if your pivot is strategic or an excuse, but we wanted to just get these thoughts percolating in your mind. So your homework is to do a bit of self reflection. If you're currently in a season of pivot or next time you are first question, reconnect with your Why. Why are you doing this? Why do you want to do this too? Do you see any patterns and this can also show up in other other things other than work? Are you a hobby switcher? My husband is for example he He's very dedicated to work. He's only worked with one company, but he's a hobby switcher. So he'll get really amped up about a hobby for like three months, and then he'll switch hobbies. And I, he wants to invest in that hobby, but I know he has a pattern of changing hobbies. So like, you're going to invest in this hobby right before you change your hobby. That's his hobby now. I'm work right now is we're just in a season of well, he just took over. He's in a, like a double down work. hobbyist right now. So part one, remember your why part two? Do a little bit of self awareness and loving call out? Do you see any patterns? And then part three, um, I think you're great to speak to this, what are some body indications that we are feeling aligned or misaligned?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah. And if you feel the resistance, usually in usually manifests manifests in your heart, or in your belly or in your shoulders. Like if you feel resistance to doing something, versus excitement to doing something, but not in the way that Lexi's husband does for a temporary period of time where you feel like I can, I can commit to this and I know I'm gonna commit to this. Maybe that is also enlisting the coach or the friend or the partner in saying like, hey, if I try to deviate from this path, like remind me to stay on the path, and to give it at least x number of time, because as we know, you'll Rome wasn't built in a day. There's no such thing as overnight success. And there's a lot of evolution that happens within one business.

Lexie Smith  

Mike, here's my mic. I'm driving

Emily Merrell  

your shopping. Well, last night, but now you've got me reflecting. I'm like, am I a hobby switcher?

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, I'm not by the way. So all the disclaimers if you identify as someone who is the constant pivoter, or the constant, hobbyists, I'm married to one legally to two legally. I'm married to Emily legally with a business and my husband legally with a marital contract. So clearly, I like you people.

Emily Merrell  

Like it's my hobby. What's my hobby of choice? You have to say it now you're

Lexie Smith  

in a deep reading phase? Yes, yes. Yes. And

Emily Merrell  

what's the other one? Well, you

Lexie Smith  

like friendship bracelets?

Emily Merrell  

Well, yeah, that was a

Lexie Smith  

core power yoga ticket.

Emily Merrell  

That I want to go back to rock climbing. So yeah,

Lexie Smith  

I mean, so okay, that's the thoughts we have for you today. We'll see you on Instagram. If you have any questions. We'll see you next time on the ReadySet. Coach podcast.

Emily Merrell  

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