Feeling Stuck? A 4D Pivot to Move from Confusion to Traction

Candace Langston and Amy Cunningham continue The Few Collective’s series on pivoting by sharing a repeatable “4D” framework—Diagnose, Design, De-risk, Decide—meant for transitions like layoffs, leadership shifts, burnout, reinvention, and identity shock. They argue people don’t need clarity first; they need traction, because action produces clarity, even through “messy movement.” 

They recap pivot archetypes to reduce shame, then explain the "4D's" 

Diagnose what changed and the root behind feelings like boredom, resentment, or exhaustion and recognize patterns and understand your situation without attaching drama to it. Design focuses on two to three plausible paths as experiments, not permanent vows. De-risk means testing hypotheses through conversations, small projects, and real-world signals. Decide is a time-bound 30–90 day commitment based on evidence, with guardrails like stabilizing before strategizing, keeping identity bigger than title, and controlling a calm narrative. They end with a seven-day pivot sprint and emphasize compassion, support, and purposeful adjustment.

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Recorded at The Newsstand Studios at Rockefeller Center.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:13

Welcome back to the Few Collective, the podcast where we celebrate the women who move differently, women who lead, build, reinvent, and rise. I'm Candace Langston with my host Amy Cunningham, and we're coming to you from New Stance Studios. Today we're continuing our powerful series on pivoting. And last episode, we named the pivot patterns and archetypes because confusion fades when you're able to name what's going on. And today we're giving you the method, a framework that you can run in any season, like layoffs, leadership shifts, burnout, reinvention, or even that quiet moment when success stops feeling like it's yours. Amy, a lot of times I often hear people say, I wish I had clarity.

SPEAKER_01 1:01

Yeah, I totally get that, right? This desire and this need for clarity when the world feels like it's swirling around us. All I need is a clear mind, right? And I understand that. I just need to clear this clutter out of my head and be able to see the vision forward. But the truth is, you actually don't need clarity. What you need is traction. You need to have some movement, even if it's messy movement, even if it's in the wrong direction, at least you realize that is clarity. When you realize you're going the wrong direction, that was clarity. And you can turn around and go a different direction. And so I think a lot of people feel like they need clarity, but the truth is that clarity rarely comes first. What people actually need is that traction, and then the clarity is going to show up. And I really think at the end of the day, you need movement, even if it's that messy movement.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

Agree. So grab a notebook, grab a pen. Today we're going to give you the playbook.

SPEAKER_01 2:03

Yeah. So we're going to talk about this 4D framework of how to get some traction, right? Get moving whenever there's been a huge transition or you're in the middle of a pivot. So ultimately, our 4D pivot framework is diagnose, design, de-risk, and then decide. Because pivoting isn't chaos, pivoting can be strategy paired with courage, right? So we're going to move forward boldly and courageously. And this is pivoting, but we want to be able to make it repeatable. Because I think we talked about this last time, and we'll dive into it a little bit more, is that we want this to be a pattern. It's something that you keep experimenting with and trying again and again. Right.

SPEAKER_00 2:48

So let's quickly recap. Why should we start with the archetypes?

SPEAKER_01 2:53

I think that's because pivoting feels super personal, right? Whenever something has happened, the archetypes, understanding that there are these standard archetypes, there are these different types of people out there, I think it removes shame. Because I don't know about you, but I always think everything is my fault. And when I realize that there are other people like me, you know, we talked about the laid-off high performer. We talked about the golden handcuffs, right? That executive who has all these amazing benefits and has achieved all of this success, but has really just found themselves kind of spiraling or maybe lacking purpose or needing a little bit of a refresh with the burnt out achiever, or this we'll see this more and more, the AI disrupted professional. And I think once you start to see that there are patterns and there are people who look like you, you realize it's not your fault. You are one of many. And this is the situation. And so I think it's really helpful because we don't need to blame shift, we don't need to shame spiral, we don't need guilt, we don't need all of those things that make us feel like junk about ourselves. Instead, we need to start asking, what's next? Not what went wrong, but what is next? Right.

SPEAKER_00 4:13

And now we can go from insight to action.

SPEAKER_01 4:16

That's it. Because it's so easy to just sit around and spiral. I don't know. Have you ever been in like a shame spiral before? Yes. Yeah. Or a guilt spiral where we just keep going and it's so unproductive.

SPEAKER_00 4:28

Very unproductive. So step one in this 4D pivot framework, get your pen out, is diagnose. What are we diagnosing?

SPEAKER_01 4:37

What's really important for us to diagnose is what actually happened and what changed, right? If there's anything that might be broken, a lot of times we feel like our world has shattered and we feel like we're just surrounded by all these broken pieces everywhere. So I think if we can sit down and just name them, right? And say this is what actually changed. Because I don't know about you. Sometimes I catastrophize, right? So like everything's falling apart. Yes. But probably not everything's falling apart. Some things have broken, some things have changed. Let's begin to name them, right? And I think the other thing is that not everything that feels uncomfortable is wrong. Right? Yeah. Sometimes things are really uncomfortable, but they're good for us. They really help us get stronger. And I think I've mentioned this before, but years ago I destroyed my knee and I had to learn to walk again. It took months and months. It took two surgeries. And at one point I looked at my physical therapist and I said, Hey, like, how many squats do you think I'm doing a day? And she said, like four to five hundred. Wow. And I said, that's what it felt like, just thinking sure, right? And so, you know, if you're listening, you're like, four to five hundred, that's a ridiculous amount of squats. That is what was needed to repair the damage in my knee so I could just learn to walk again. And I think sometimes in life, you know, that's uncomfortable to do 400 squats a day. Yeah, a little bit. Yeah, super uncomfortable. But it wasn't wrong. It was helpful. And I think in our lives there are little moments that we're doing squats. Yeah. Right? Whatever it is. They're not physical squats, but we're doing something that's making us stronger. So I think sometimes the discomfort could also mean growth, like with the squats. Sometimes it can mean maybe we're misaligned. This isn't the direction I need to be going. And sometimes it can mean I'm just exhausted. I'm tired. This is hard. So I think diagnosis of what is going on. Am I misaligned? Am I growing? Is this just an exhausted season? Is this just hard? That's really important to be able to learn that difference and be able to separate that temporary discomfort and recognize really the root of all of this. Right. And let's give some examples. Okay. So I think saying something like, I'm bored at work. This isn't my job is boring. I think there you could mean like you need a challenge, right? Or maybe something like, I'm feeling resentful lately could mean that your boundaries have been broken. And so really what we're doing is we're taking these feelings because our brain and our body, they're so dynamic. They give us these little like sound bites, right? Like I'm resentful, or I'm bored, or I'm tired, or I'm mad. And we can name it, but you can't really do much with that. But if you dig a little deeper and start to find the root, you can do something with that, right? Because like I'm exhausted could mean the environment around me is wrong. Like I'm getting drained every day. I've worked in an environment where I felt drained every day. And at the end of it, I realize, oh, it's these two individuals that that I didn't even know are really draining my energy. So how do I set some boundaries and realot this to do this differently? So I think it's really important that we diagnose and understand what's going on. And the diagnosis really tells us the truth without any drama in it. This is just data. It's a fact. And I think at the end of the day, you can't solve what you're not willing to name or recognize.

SPEAKER_00 8:25

Right. And that's so applicable to so many things that we combat internally. And once we understand the problem, what comes next?

SPEAKER_01 8:32

Yeah. So after you're able to diagnose it, understand the issue, which I just want to say one more time like that's huge. Most of the time we spiral or we have issues that we never notice go wrong. And I want to give one example before we go into the design phase. So I'm not naming people. So I mentioned I realized somebody was draining my energy, right? But I never really noticed until I was asked to complete a 360-degree review of that person, right? So I sat down and I thought we were A-OK. And I go through this 360 review and they asked some really great questions in there. And that's the moment I realized, oh, we're not okay. They're not okay. It was a leader. This is not a good leadership relationship. And so you have to diagnose it. So so many times we are just so in autopilot in our life. We just keep working through the mess and the muck and we don't recognize it. So again, diagnose. So then as you ask, then we're gonna go on to design, right? So step two, design. Design is building kind of these two or three, you can consider them like chapters or experiments, right? Chapters in your life story. We don't have to look for the one perfect calling, right? We've talked about this so much. Perfection is the enemy of done. So just get stuck. Yeah. We don't have to do that. We don't have to get the perfect idea. We can just kind of come up with these plausible paths, like probably this could work. Oh, we'll try it this way. So, really, at the end of the day, it's a hypothesis. Where in middle school, did you ever, you know, do science class where you had to come up with all these hypothesis? And it's okay when your hypothesis is wrong. Totally. And I think that's the same here. It's okay if your hypothesis ends up being wrong. So you're gonna design this is where people often get stuck because they think they have to be perfect, but you don't have to be, because careers, life, family, relationships don't work like that. Right. Right. And so instead, you'll design those two or three things and we'll keep moving from there. So your next move really should be an experiment, not a vow.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

So we're prototyping, not marrying the idea. I really liked it when you say plausible paths because I think one thing that we tend to be fearful of is the unknown. Right. And so by saying X, Y, and Z could be all of these plausible possibilities, in a way it gives platform to ensure that there is a grounding when the rug has essentially been pulled out from under you.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 11:14

And like you said, even if it's not the perfect solution, it's something to stand on at the moment. Yeah. That's it. And we find comfort in that.

SPEAKER_01 11:24

Yeah, I think that's exactly it. You know, I think we kind of are okay. Like when you think about dating, right? You would never expect to immediately elope on the first date. Right. Right? I mean, your friends, your family, everyone around you would be like, Are you crazy? What is you can't do that. You don't even know them. But in our life, we feel like we're supposed to nail it the first time. Right? We're supposed to get it right the first time. Like, go elope with this idea, marry it and stay with it forever. But that's not it. So I think if you find yourself in the middle of a pivot and a transition, almost think like, I'm gonna take these different ideas on dates. Right. I want to see how they fit. It's time to get back in the game.

unknown 12:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 12:11

Yes, yes, get back in the game. And if the idea fits, we'll go out on another date with it. We'll try it again and we'll we'll keep seeing if it ends up fitting me. Right. And if not, we're moving on. Right.

SPEAKER_00 12:22

So step three, let's talk about de-risk. This is where people get power back.

SPEAKER_01 12:28

Yeah. So I think after you diagnose, you gotta name it, right? You gotta name it. I like to say sometimes like name it, claim it, aim it. So you gotta understand what's going on and claim it, recognize it's happening, right? And then start to aim it in a direction that's gonna be productive for you. That's good. Which is that design process, right? So now during this de-risking process, after we've designed, instead of thinking about I'm in this constant state of change, which could be physically, psychologically, and emotionally draining, you just test it, right? And you mentioned that. You said prototype. Right. We're just gonna prototype this. And de-risk means testing your hypothesis with some real world signals. Right. So I'm not just isolated by myself. And I think this is really important when we think about a pivot like this. When something changes, it's really easy to isolate and pull back. But the truth is you need people in your life to help you test some of these things.

SPEAKER_00 13:31

Absolutely. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 13:33

There are great people who can tell you whether this is working for you too, right? Especially people who love you and know you. So I think look for those real world signals. And one thing I like to do is identify like three conversations that I need to have with those people that trust, that believe in me and know me, or maybe like do a small little project, see if this fits. So, really, it's like you're in the dressing room. I'm just gonna try a few different things on. You could start like a skill sprint, right? I'm gonna learn something new, especially with AI. If you were the AI disrupted individual, I mean you might be mad at AI right now, like you broke up, but you could start to see maybe I'll learn a little bit more about AI, right? Maybe I'll do a case study or a pilot. So, really, here the goal is traction over just theory. So you're de-risking by making it less scary by trying it out.

SPEAKER_00 14:26

And then how do you know if what you're testing is good?

SPEAKER_01 14:31

So every test creates evidence. Good evidence, bad evidence, whatever it is, indifferent evidence, it's an experiment, right? So just like when you were in science class when you were young, not everything worked out correctly, but that was a hypothesis all by itself, right? That was a test all by itself. Actually, I hired somebody because of this once. I was interviewing all these interns, potential interns, right? And this one individual, the reason I liked her the most is she talked about her thesis and that it ended up being, I forget the details, but she did this whole project and the answer ended up being basically no, like it was not correlated. And that that is an answer, right? Then it's not correlated as an answer where most people would have given up. She was like, you know, I just decided to go at it from a different angle because I learned that that wasn't correlated, so I'll do something different. And then she got a different answer to a different question. And I think that is really cool. That's what we need. So we got to create that energy, interest, demand, momentum, and not just like read about things, but actually be in the middle of living them.

SPEAKER_00 15:44

Totally agree. And step four, decide. How do we decide?

SPEAKER_01 15:52

Yeah. So you listen to your signals, right? How did that work out? How are the timelines and the traction? Not fantasy, not one day. It's so easy if you're in the middle of a pivot. So this is really interesting, brain science. Okay, this is fresh from Quantopia. I haven't researched it in a while, but I'll give it to you the best I can. So when we verbalize things, right? Verbalize like a plan, sometimes our brain acts like we actually did it. It's interesting. It sometimes can be demotivating. This is why sometimes people are like dreamers where they just say they're gonna do things and then they end up not doing them. Nobody sits around and says, hey, I just want to be a dreamer and not actually have action. But there's actually something that happens in your brain. So while I think it's really important to verbalize, I think it's also really important for us to recognize the distinction between verbalizing and action so that we don't just stay in this constant pontification, right? But we really need to be producing momentum and we have to decide like what is fitting me right now, what is fitting my life constraints, what's fitting my budget, my relationships. And so also you can think about like what's the next 30 to 90 day move, right? Not not eloping. Right. We don't have to get married. What are we doing for the next 30, 60, 90 days?

SPEAKER_00 17:24

That's so good. So the decision isn't a lifetime sentence, it's just a time-bound commitment to the test. That's it. I was thinking back, I remember this major pivot that I was facing in, you know, the middle of my life. And and this is what I'm leading into. We're gonna talk about this as well. But essentially, you know, before I could decide, before I could test out anything, I found myself kind of getting stuck in survival mode. A lot of people call it survival mode, where you can't really bring yourself to think beyond that or beyond that day. But let's talk about and protect our listeners from the burn it all down pivot. Because if you get stuck in that survival mode, you could be prone to burning it all down, essentially. So let's let's talk about that. Let's protect the listeners from the burn it all down pivot.

SPEAKER_01 18:24

Yeah. I think that's really good. And I want to lean in just a little bit to the survival mode because survival mode is your brain's way of protecting you, right? Right. And so sometimes you can feel really guilty and ashamed if you feel like all I'm doing is surviving, but sometimes that's huge. Like you survived something hard. And the reason why it felt hard is because it was hard. The reason why it felt like your whole life shifted is because your whole life shifted, right? Right. And so I think it's really important when we're thinking about all these different pivots. I love that you bring that in because we're kind of talking about these executive leadership or you know, job pivots that tend to happen. But there's also these moments in our life that just like shake everything. Right. And what does that pivot look like? And I think while we can, I think we can take this 4D framework. So if you're finding yourself in like a super personal pivot, you can still take this 4D framework, right? You can still diagnose, you gotta name it. Then you're gonna do some design, you're gonna de-risk, which is actually gonna be really personal and probably look a little different. And then you're gonna decide, right? Where do I need to go from there? Right. So okay. So you mentioned also pivoting without like blowing up your entire life. Yes. Right? Yes. Which is so easy to do because you feel like your life is blown up. And I think most successful people are super strategic at transitions. So what I think is important is to understand where our guardrails are, like where the lanes we just kind of need to stay in between in order to keep moving forward, right? So at the end of the day, the goal is to stabilize. So if you feel like you're just in that survival mode, like go ahead and stabilize, right? Yeah. Stabilize before you strategize. That's key. Yeah. And I think that a lot of people feel guilt for maybe not being able to create a strategy, but because they're they're just surviving, and that is the most important thing in that moment.

SPEAKER_00 20:41

So what would be an example of you said setting guardrails? So what like what would that look like just to stay inside of the guardrails, stay in the lane?

SPEAKER_01 20:50

Yeah. Well, I think one thing is that like a dysregulated brain makes poor decisions. And so staying within those guardrails. So I think one is stabilized before you strategize, right? Like I mentioned. And then two, I think keeping your identity bigger than your title. That is so good. We struggle sometimes because we live by our titles. Right. So if you are a woman in the middle of a divorce, your title was wife, and it feels like that was your identity, but you're bigger than that. If you are a CEO who found yourself being asked to leave, you feel like the title CEO was your identity.

SPEAKER_00 21:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:39

And so I think the first step we need is to understand that your identity, keep it bigger than your title. That's good. And if you're in identity shock, if you've had that layoff or the merger or burnout, at the end of the day, we want to keep the most important things. We're going to go back to Maslow. We're going to keep the most important things important. Sleep, support, routine, clarity. Make sure you got the money to do what you need to do. Like these are the basic things, right? Your nervous system, your brain needs safety. Yeah. And so if you feel like that's where you are, it's okay to just be in survival. Yes, it's okay.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

It's not permanent. And I can say that from personal experience. Yeah. If you feel stuck in survival mode, you're so right. Your nervous system needs some kind of safety and stability. And to be there temporarily is okay. Absolutely.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

It's okay. I heard on this social media person once she talked about her divorce. And she said she told her therapist, like, I'm a terrible mom because all I had the strength to do was make the mac and cheese. And he said, You're an amazing mom. Because when you had no strength, you made mac and cheese. Right. And I think sometimes we're so cruel, so cruel to ourselves. We're so mean, right? And we keep expecting so much that when you're in the middle of a pivot, a transition that was maybe your decision or not your decision, don't add mean girl energy to that. Right? Sometimes we're just so mean to ourselves. We have to be able to give ourselves grace and give ourselves compassion. And that's not a D word. So it's not in the 4D framework, but it's important. You have to be so kind.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

Yeah. Yeah. A support person is, I can't reiterate how critical that is to have in a moment, a pivotal moment in your life. You know, when you were telling that story, I immediately kind of zoomed back to that same moment. I can so relate. And, you know, thinking like, I'm pretty sure my kids just ate Cheetos and Goldfish today. But they ate. But they ate. Yeah. And they didn't see their mom fall apart. Now, in retrospect, I can say all these things and pat myself on the back, but in that moment, I was like the worst human being on earth because I couldn't do more than that. Yeah. And that is okay. But I had a support person as well.

SPEAKER_01 24:19

That's it. Yeah. That's it. And you need that, right? So one, we're going to stabilize. Two, we're going to keep our identity bigger than our title. And then I think three, we really want to be able to control the narrative, right? Control the story. And sometimes the story gets so out of control and so big, but you want to be able to control it. You don't owe everyone the raw version, though. Yeah. Right. So sometimes we confuse transparency with like vomiting. That's a good way to put it.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Like there is a time and a place, but not all the time.

SPEAKER_01 25:01

Yeah. You know, some things are private. Yeah. And, you know, it's kind of like I'm sitting here in New Stan Studios and I can see out to the Rockefeller Plaza. And I'm thinking, you're not gonna walk around the plaza in your bathing suit. There's a time and place for vulnerability, and there's a time and place not well. Yeah. I haven't seen anyone do it yet. That's true. You know, but there's a time and place for the raw version of things, and you don't owe that to anyone. I will say it'll help you, right? If you could choose one or two people that get to see the good, the bad, the ugly, that they get the raw version, that's actually gonna be really helpful. Yeah. But ultimately, you do need a narrative that you can give to other people. It needs to be calm, it needs to be confident. It's something like I'm exploring a shift toward this, right? Or I'm running tests, I'm running experiments, I'm trying out new things, I'm looking for fit and for impact. So I think at the end of the day, transitions become really powerful the moment that you get to own that narrative.

SPEAKER_00 26:11

I completely agree. And what would be a great question that cuts through all the noise?

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Yeah, I think there's a few, but uh one is what's the reason for your pivot, right? So are you pivoting away from pain or toward alignment? So I don't want to just run from things that are uncomfortable and that hurt. I want to run toward things that are going to get me where I need to go. And so I think that is the question. Why am I pivoting?

SPEAKER_00 26:41

And sometimes you need someone to push you a little bit. Yeah. Okay, if you collective. The last thing to take notes is we're giving you the seven-day pivot sprint. So sometimes when we feel off, we try to solve the entire issue overnight. And we're not gonna do that. We are gonna take one tiny step a day, and it'll get you where you need to go. So let's start with day one.

SPEAKER_01 27:08

So I think it's really important that like what you just said, like one tiny step is enough. We don't have to lay out our 10-year trajectory. And I don't know if it's because when we were in school, they made us make like five and 10-year success plans for our life. I know even with my kids, like they mean my second grader, he's a senior this year. That's a whole different episode. I'm so sad. But when he was in like third grade, they made him choose his major and his college and his career. And he just liked Hot Wheels, you know? Um and so like you really shouldn't be making these huge decisions. Yeah. So I think a lot of times we feel like we have to make this whole plan for our life, but you don't. One little step. And you can tell I have kids because in the second frozen movie, they say, I'm just gonna make the next right move. And I think you can tell yourself that when you're in the pivot, right? What is the next right move? So day one, identify what change, right? We're gonna do that diagnosis. And I would recommend that you write it down, but make it one paragraph, like no essays, no chapters, no memoirs, just something really short. And it could even look like I think one example is you could say something like, Over the past year, my role shifted from building strategy to mostly maintaining operations, which reduce the impact I enjoy having. And at the same time, organizations are increasingly struggling to turn AI pilots into real operational value. My experience connecting strategy, data, and leadership conversations seem to be more relevant now than ever, right? That's it.

SPEAKER_00 28:56

Like you just to the point.

SPEAKER_01 28:58

Come up with two or three things, two or three sentences, and write it down. Okay. Day two. Let's go over day two. So day two, do not merge these together. Like I literally just heard in my head the high performers, they're like, that's too short. I'll do them all in one day. The marinating process is essential. Right. We've talked about this before. This is why people don't like sleeping because they feel like it's unproductive time. But when you're sleeping, your brain and your body are doing all these amazing things to prepare you for the next day. Right. The truth is if you write your one paragraph down, let it marinate, you're gonna come away with more clarity the next day. So day two, not day one, list 10 strengths and 10 energizers. That's it. You're just gonna realize what gives me energy and what are the results, right? So at the end of the day, we could say, like, my strengths are synthesizing complex ideas quickly, explaining technical ideas to executives, and strategic framing. There we go. My energizers, things that make me really excited and glad that I came to work today. I love whiteboard strategy sessions. I love the sticky notes, putting those on flip charts. I love building frameworks, and I really like launching new initiatives, right? So those are three for me, but you could write your list of 10, and that's gonna provide some clarity. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:26

Good.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

Okay, day three. All right. So here on day three, you're gonna choose your hypothesis. So we get into the experiments a little bit, and you're going to choose two, not 12, not 10, not 20, not the next 60 days worth of hypothesis. Again, I'm speaking to all the overachievers. We're gonna just slow the roll and we're gonna let the process be the process, right? Yeah. So you're gonna choose two hypothesis. Maybe according to like my previous examples, it could be something like I could build a niche advising practice helping companies move forward in AI experimentation and bring that to operational AI strategy. Maybe my second hypothesis would be like I could focus on leadership advisory for executives, navigating technological disruption and organizational change. Right? So just two simple sentences based off of your strengths and your energizers that you did on the day before, not the minute before the day before. Excellent. And let's go ahead and go to day four. Yeah. So here I really want you to book three conversations. You can decide whether it's someone who knows you really well, whether it's a former colleague, or someone that you really respect that you saw like get through a pivot and you think, wow, they did that really masterfully. So you're gonna book these conversations. We're not gonna call it research, we're gonna call it conversations. We're just because remember, we're gathering data, right? Yeah, we're just on an experiment. That's the next thing. Gather those conversations. A simple example of a letter, you just tell them, I'm exploring how companies are moving forward in AI, or I'm exploring paths that I would be good at. I'm exploring whatever it is. Uh, would you be willing to have a 20-minute conversation with me? Or would you be willing to grab coffee real quick? It's great. And it's not revealing or anything. Super simple. I did this in the middle of my pivot. I noticed that I was spiraling a little bit, at least mentally. And I thought, I need to gain clarity. But what I really needed was traction. So I called someone that was a brilliant executive, and I said, Do you have time for coffee? And she did, and we sat down and I felt like I had gained traction afterwards, and the clarity came too, right? That's great. People are usually very willing to spend time with you. Yeah. I mean, probably not today if you ask today, but if you schedule it out, they're willing. Yeah. Okay, day five. Day five, which if you started on Monday, that's Friday. We just want you to build one small artifact proof of concept, basically, here, right? So whether it's like a memo, a mini project, or a case study, if it was like a memo and it was around the AI stuff I was mentioning, it could be like why most AI pilots stall and the three leadership decisions that fix it, right? Or if you were doing a case study, you could do like a short write-up showing how companies really moved forward with experimentation to production in AI, right? So, or you could do that little mini project. Our guest that we had, Jessica Billier, she talked about some of her projects that she's worked on, right? So in the middle of her transition and her pivot, she created a curriculum and taught a class. She created this curriculum on passing your project management certification, right? So she took these mini projects and made them work for her. Which was something that she had been wanting to do for a while. Yes. I'm gonna digress for just a second. So many of us say, like, I'll just do this when I have time. Like if this changes, here's who I'll be, what I'll do, the success that I'll have. But I'm a teenager of the 90s. So I don't know if you ever watched like Maury Pulvik. Oh, yeah. He'd say that was a lie. Or was it so those daytime talk shows where uh they'd be like, that was a lie. We tend to lie to ourselves. And I think this was really evident during COVID when everybody was like, if I had more time, I'd work out more. That was a lie. Because suddenly everybody found themselves with all this time, but you're not working out. Um, so, anyways, I don't know why I came up with that, but where were we there? Just a great analogy. Mini project. Yeah, do a mini project. Figure out whether you've been lying to yourself or it's true, right? And day six. So here, this is where we're gonna tighten things up a little bit, right? We've we've done days one through five. We've kind of gone through this diagnose and and design. So we're going through all that. So here you're gonna tighten your narrative to two sentences based on the data you've been collecting. So two sentences that really kind of align with leadership, right? So for me, it could be I help organizations turn emerging technology into real operational advantage. My work focuses on helping leaders move from experimentation to strategic implementation, right? So you sum it up. And day seven. All right, day seven. Last day. We're gonna celebrate after this. Set a 30-day experiment with one measurable traction goal. So determine over the next 30 days, you've already done your mini projects, you did your memos, you did your case studies, right? You already kind of tried things out a little bit. And you'll notice, by the way, that day's a little heavier, right? Doing a memo, a mini project case. That one's heavier, but you had to get through the hard emotional stuff first. That's why you only did it one day at a time. So here you're gonna set a 30-day experiment that aligns with all the data you've been collecting and have one goal. Not three, not five, not ten. One, right? So it could be maybe like you're gonna publish something, or you're gonna have 10 executive conversations, or you're going to do a few LinkedIn posts or Instagram posts, or you're gonna write an article and publish it. Something that's an experiment that can get out there for other people to see.

SPEAKER_00 36:38

That last part is key because traction is your compass. So here's what we want to leave with you today. Pivoting isn't proof that something went wrong. It's proof that you're paying attention.

SPEAKER_01 36:51

Yeah, that's right. The world moves super, super fast. And the people who thrive aren't the ones who cling to the past, but they're the ones who adjust with intention.

SPEAKER_00 37:00

Right. And it's not a step down, it's not a weakness, it isn't quitting, it's a recalibration towards the kind of work, impact, life that matches who you're becoming.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Yeah. And if the next move feels really unclear, your job isn't to have the whole plan in place or to have all the clarity in the world, but it's to take the small little step, the next right step that gives you traction. Clarity lives really on the other side of action.

SPEAKER_00 37:31

And remember, the people who become part of the few aren't always the one who never fall.

SPEAKER_01 37:35

Right.

SPEAKER_00 37:36

They're always the one who never stays still. So they listen, they learn, they adapt, and they pivot with purpose.

SPEAKER_01 37:43

I love what you just said. I think it's about not staying still, right? Having some movement. Again, messy movement is okay. One thing I want to say to anyone who's listening is wherever you're at in your transition, in your reinvention, if you're rebuilding, we're here with you. We're gonna continue on this series because we think it's a really great topic. And we want you to keep going, keep moving, keep becoming, because your next chapter really might just be the one that makes everything else that happened before make a ton of sense. Right. So we want to thank you for joining us today. If you want to learn more about the Few Collective, you can go to republiccg.com or check us out on our LinkedIn or on our Instagram page. And on our next episode, we will continue our conversation on pivoting, reinventing, and navigating inflection points. So until then, keep leading, keep rising, and remember you're not alone. You're one of the few.