When Pivoting Becomes Your Default Mode

This episode is a bit of a call-in, not a call-out—because if you’ve ever found yourself in a constant pivot cycle, friend… same.

If you’ve been tweaking your offer again, redoing your website for the fourth time this quarter, or switching tools like it’s a sport, this one’s for you.

Here’s what I’m getting into:

• Why pivoting is normal—but why it can also become a trap
• How to know if you’re reacting out of fear or making a grounded decision
• Three core areas to check when you're feeling stuck
• Why discomfort isn’t always a sign you’re on the wrong path
• Some tough (but kind) love about giving your ideas room to breathe

I’m not here to tell you to “just stick with it”—but I am here to help you figure out what’s really going on underneath all the shifting. Let’s find that solid ground so you can move forward with more clarity and confidence.

Learn more about BizMagic or the BizMagic Podcast.

Transcript

Welcome back to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast, your place for all things tech in your online business with solid. Of General Biz Chat two. My name is Patty Meyer and I am the CEO and founder of Biz Magic, where my team and I support entrepreneurs who are overwhelmed by the backend tech of their business.

We create, implement, and teach the tweaks that help our clients make a bigger impact with less stress. Before we dive into today's episode, I wanna tell you about something new and exciting that I am offering here at Biz Magic. Sometimes you just need a friendly space, a little tech help, and someone to say.

Hey, did you do that thing yet? That is why I'm super excited to introduce Biz Magic BFF's online Biz and Tech Community. It is a Slack hosted, low pressure, high support online community for solopreneurs, creatives and online business owners who want connection, accountability, and access to tech and business support without the noise.

So whether you're. Mid-launch in a tech tangle or just craving a little company while you work. This is your back pocket biz support crew. Included in Biz Magic BFFs is access to me, Patty, and my entire biz and tech brain twice a month at Biz Magic's office hours. Live on Zoom, you can drop in and get quick hit tech support or your business questions answered in real time.

You get coworking sessions with this really amazing community. You have support inside the Slack community as well, so you can share. You can get feedback, you can ask for tech support there, and you can have a general accountability. The good thing is that this is not a space where we have forced engagement.

There's no sales, there's no drama, none of that. It is just a place for you to show up and create connection with other. Online business owners. Until now, biz Magic BFF has been an invite only community and I am opening it up to Biz Magic's larger community. So for right now, it is only $30 a month, but the price will go up.

So if you wanna learn more, hop on over to biz magic.co/bff. Now let's dive into the episode. Today we are talking about something. I know many of you have felt at some point, or you might even be feeling right now, that sense that you're constantly pivoting but not actually landing anywhere. You keep shifting directions, changing offers, adjusting your messaging, updating your systems, reworking your pricing, but.

It still doesn't feel like you've found your footing in your business, and that can be really exhausting. It can also be really confusing. For both you and your clients. So today I wanna talk through what's really happening when it feels like we're stuck in this never ending pivot. How to get clear on whether the problem is strategy, mindset, or messaging, and how to start moving forward with more confidence, even if things still feel uncertain.

So let's get into it. So first, what's really going on when it feels like we're pivoting? I wanna normalize something here. You are not doing anything wrong. By changing your mind, pivoting, adjusting, experimenting, evolving. That is a part of business, especially for small business owners and entrepreneurs.

We are constantly learning. We're constantly trying new things, responding to changes in our industry and our clients' needs and our own lives. So. The pivot itself isn't the problem. The problem is when pivoting becomes the default mode that you're in. When it's not intentional, but it's reactionary, we start making changes because we are uncomfortable, not because we've identified a clear misalignment or gap in our strategy or.

When we expect instant results from a new idea, and if it doesn't take off immediately, we assume it's wrong, and then we jump to the next thing. That kind of constant change doesn't come from confidence. It comes from fear. Fear of wasting time, fear of failing, fear of missing out on something better, something easier, more profitable, something along that path.

And when those fears are the things that are driving our decisions, it can get really noisy really quickly. So let's talk about some signs that you might be in a reactionary pivot cycle. Here are a few that I see often you keep changing your offers, but you're not sure what your audience really wants.

You redo your website or your Instagram bio every few weeks hoping that this version will finally click with your audience. You keep switching platforms or tools because the one you're using feels off, but you haven't really used it long enough to know you hesitate to promote what you're offering because it doesn't feel a hundred percent aligned because you're not sure what would.

You are waiting for something to feel right, but you don't trust your own signals enough to know what that is. If any of these sound familiar, remember that you are not doing anything wrong. This is super common and I have been there myself. Many, many times. And if you're in that space now, I wanna offer a way forward that doesn't require you to settle, but also doesn't keep you spinning in these circles.

So how do we find city ground when everything feels sort of like a moving target? Here's where I wanna get a little practical and a little honest. There are three core areas I recommend looking at. If you're feeling like you can't get traction, your strategy, your self, self-trust, and your systems. Let's dive into each one of these and break them down.

So first with strategy, do you actually know what you're building? Sometimes constant pivoting is a sign that. You haven't made a clear decision about what you want your business to be. You might be chasing revenue without a long-term decision or trying to mold yourself into what you think your audience wants or trying to offer everything to everyone just in case.

I have done that many, many times. If that's where you are, that is okay, but I think it's time to zoom out and I want you to start asking yourself a few questions. What kind of business am I really trying to build? Who am I here to help? What result do I want to deliver and how do I want to deliver them?

What matters most to you? Money. Flexibility, impact, sustainability or something else. And I would say, most importantly, what am I not available for anymore? Making those decisions, even if they don't feel perfect in that moment, gives you an anchor, something to measure against when you're attempted to shift.

Again, you don't have to carve it in stone, but you do have to name it so you have something to hold onto and you gotta stick with it for a little while. Number two, self-trust. Are you giving things enough time and grace to work? This is a big one. It is very easy to assume that if something doesn't feel good right away, it must be wrong.

But discomfort is not the same as misalignment Sometimes discomfort is just. It's the awkward in-between the part where you're still learning how to do a new thing or how to talk about it clearly, or how to sell it effectively. If you pivot every time you hit that friction point, you don't give yourself or your audience the time to adapt.

So I would gently ask. Are you allowing yourself to get better at something over time? Or are you just jumping ship right away? Are you willing to be in maybe a little bit of discomfort or the not quite there yet phase of this business, of this offering without abandoning the whole idea? This is where self-trust really matters.

You have to trust that your instincts are valid even if the results aren't immediate. You have to trust that your offers have value, even if you're still refining the way you present them. Trust that your people will find you, but only if you give them something steady to find, right? You have to build that up.

You have to build that presence. It takes time for things to land. It takes time for people to hear things. People need to see things. It used to be seven times. It's now like 21 times before they engage or purchase. So you have to have that patience along with that self-trust. And then number three, your systems.

Are you creating support for your ideas to succeed? Sometimes a pivot itself isn't the problem, but the follow through is the problem. And I see this a lot. Somebody has a great idea, but they don't have the workflows, tech, or structure to support that idea. So it kind of ends up feeling like a mess and they just abandon it because they don't know what to do with it.

Not because it wasn't a good fit, but because it never got a chance to breathe. So this could look like launching a new offer, but having no onboarding system. So it ends up feeling really overwhelming, starting a content plan, but not setting up a repeatable workflow so it becomes more of a chore then.

Something that you might enjoy switching platforms, but not learning how to use them. So you feel like you're starting from scratch every time, and because you don't get used to them, you think that it doesn't do what you needed to do or it can't support you in the way that you need support. And you jump ship and go to a different platform, which costs a lot more money, and then there's a new learning curve.

And before you learn that you go to the next platform. Right? I know some of this sounds. Relatable to you. So if you've made a pivot and you're not seeing traction, you can ask yourself, did I give this idea the support it needed to succeed? Did I set up the backend workflows to make it manageable? Did I give myself enough time to promote it consistently?

Did I build systems to help me keep going When motivation dips, sometimes what we need isn't another pivot. It's a process. So. If you're feeling like you're constantly pivoting and still not finding your footing, just take a breath. You're not broken. Your business isn't doomed, and you're not behind anything or anybody.

You might just be in a phase where you're searching for alignment without enough clarity or self-trust or support to find it yet. So revisit your strategy. Make decisions, even small ones to. Give yourself an anchor. Rebuild yourself trust. Let things be imperfect while you refine them. Reinforce your systems.

Give your ideas the structure that they need to thrive. And remember, a pivot is just a shift. It's not your identity. You don't have to become the pivot. You are allowed to pause to choose. To commit even knowing it might change again later because it probably will. That's not failure. That's leadership.

That's business. That is understanding and embracing the nature of this thing that we're in. And that's it. That's what I have for you today. As always, if you know something in this episode. Spoke to you when you felt in alignment with it. Feel free to share it. I always appreciate that. And if you need some support, you know where to find me.

I'm patty@bizmagic.co. Or you can go to our website@bizmagic.co. And if you're pivoting a lot, come and chat with me. Have a strategy session with me or your coach, or, you know, there are, there are ways, but stop and really think about it. For yourself. That's it. That's all I got for you today. And, um, until next time,

thank you for listening to another episode of the Biz Magic Podcast. Like most small businesses and podcasts, we rely heavily on word of mouth. So if you like what you heard today or in any episode, please share with your. Friends and colleagues and rate, subscribe and comment on your favorite podcast platform.

Till next time, cheers to your magical biz success.