Navigating Transitions: Finding Clarity and Purpose in Your Entrepreneurial Journey

Alright, so welcome back to another episode of the Soly Kessner podcast, and in today’s episode I want to have a conversation about the shift that we’re talking taking in the next few episodes and exploring some of the conversations that come up when you’re either in a season of transition in your business or you’re in the earlier stages of your business and trying to figure out where you want to go, what direction you want to take Now. These are similar, yet different. They’re similar in the sense that if you are just getting started for the first time and building something that is truly your own, then you are leaving behind an entire world that you’ve always known, where you were working with a specific company in a specific role and didn’t have necessarily all of the other responsibilities of running that company other than the role that you were hired for, and you’re transitioning into a type of lifestyle for lack of better terms here where you are 110% responsible for all aspects of it and creating something that is truly yours, and that can feel really, really intimidating, especially when it comes to figuring out and discovering for yourself what you actually want to do, because I think one of the most common dilemmas that we experience here is when there’s so many options that it feels so overwhelming and we can’t decide, we can’t choose. Now, this is similar to what happens for seasoned entrepreneurs, who are in a place where they are looking to transition, to pivot, to make a shift in the way that they’re approaching their life and their business, and perhaps they’ve been doing something for a really, really long time and they’re feeling bored of it. Or perhaps they’ve been training in a different modality and they’re trying to figure out how to integrate it, or if they want to move completely into a different direction and stop doing something that they’ve been doing. But regardless of it, you’re at a choice point, and this choice point can feel really, really confronting and conflicting and confusing, and so I want to spend the next few episodes addressing some of the biggest talking points for this and just help to open up a conversation. If you find yourself here, or if you are curious about what is happening in this place And if this is not you, you’re all good, you’re great, then awesome, you can probably skip this episode. But if this is you, i’m really really glad you’re here, so let’s go ahead and dive on in.
So the first thing that we want to talk about is the practicality of what we’re creating and what we’re doing. Now, for most folks, depending on where you come from, the practical point is likely one of the more important pieces, because it’s the part that is taking care of the essentials for you to be alive and to exist, especially if you have more responsibilities whether you’re a caretaker, whether you’re a parent, whether you just have other things that you’re taking care of. You have a lot of debt that you’re paying off. You have a lot of obligations, responsibilities. It creates a greater sense of needing to be practical in your decision-making process. Now, if you’re fortunate enough to not have to have that responsibility or that additional obligation, then it might not necessarily be the practical lens that you approach first. It might be so much more of the emotional lens. So I’m going to approach practical first, because if we don’t address this, we just go emotional. These folks who are more practical will tend to feel a lot more lost in the process, right, and we want to make a decision from both places. So the first thing is practicality.
Now, when I say that this is a common conversation, i am really not over exaggerating. It’s something that happens a lot, and I’ve been in the online space since 2015. I’ve seen a lot of shifts and pivots and brands that were really big at one time basically disappear or shut down or transition or pivot. And one of the things that’s really interesting in my observation of the industry, and especially in the online space, is how brands and people and businesses evolve, and I think what’s really really interesting about it is how most brands will taper out after a certain amount of time right there. They’ll either pivot completely or just exit through the industry and do something completely different, or nothing at all, depending on what it is, and I think this is something that’s really interesting to take into consideration, because what we’re talking about is do the people who are starting these businesses, are they doing it for the long term? Is that something that’s going to be a long game or is it just a short game?
And this is an interesting conversation, because if we’re talking about the person who’s looking at stepping into business and if we’re talking about the person who’s looking to make a big pivot in their business, we want to address it from that lens. Is what we’re going to be shifting and pivoting into or stepping into for the very first time Actually something that we think and are really feel we could be doing for the long term. Is this a long play move Or is this just a temporary feeling that I’m experiencing for whatever other reasons might be applicable? Now, depending on what your answer is to, that is going to influence how we approach it. So when we’re looking at making that shift, we do we want to get curious of okay.
If we look in the industry, the majority of folks, a large majority of folks, and not just in the online space, but in just entrepreneurship and business in general, across the board of all industries a very, very, very small percentage of businesses actually make it past this five to seven year mark, which is important to take into consideration, because most businesses will last two to three, maybe four years before they shift or they pivot or they I don’t like to use a word fail, but they close down or they change direction or they shift into a you know some other space that just wasn’t the right time or wasn’t the right thing or whatever it was. And so if we look at that and we say, okay, so the majority of folks who are working hard in this moment and the folks who are pushing and trying to make these things happen this year or for the next two years, the majority of those folks won’t be here down the line. Then we want to ask ourselves is what I’m doing and how I’m doing it, or what I’m thinking about doing and what I’m wanting to create actually something that’s going to be for the long game? Because if it’s not, if it’s just a temporary itch to scratch, then the chances of it being something that’s going to be a long-term thing are very, very small. And if anyone has ever built a business or started to try to create something, the one thing that you’ll know, without a doubt, is that building a business and building a successful business is no easy task.
Regardless of you know what the Instagram influencers try to tell you and sell you on social media, creating something of real sustenance is not easy by any means, and it’s not a bad thing that it’s not easy. It requires real effort, real energy that you put into it, real time And to a certain degree, there are some blood, sweat and tears. For some folks it might be more tears, for others it might be more sweat And every once in a while there might be a little bit of blood in that process. But what we’re talking about here is having a sense of commitment, devotion, really seeing yourself in it for the long term, and one of the common things that folks will talk about early on is the thing that you’re moving towards. Right. You need to have something that is your big vision for what you want to be, your potential for what you wanna step into. You create this sense of okay, this is where I’m going and this is what I’m creating and this is what I’m doing.
And there is validity to that, because if we don’t have an anchor point for where we’re trying to go, it can feel really disorienting and confusing and exhausting to continue moving in so many different directions that we don’t have any clarity on. So the first piece that we wanna look at is less of a matter of what am I actually doing in the day to day and what are the small decisions that I’m making, and instead to get really clear on what is the bigger picture for yourself. Now I like to take this a step different, or a step in a different direction, because instead of just thinking about like I want the house and the cars and the things, how I like to look at this is more in the emotional and practical realm of how do I actually wanna be spending my time and really getting into the day to day of it? because I think what we can do is we can romanticize things without really thinking practically about them and it can get us into really sticky, prickly places. Now, for me personally, when I think about this question and I think about the life that I wanna create and how I wanna feel and how I wanna experience myself, one of the biggest things that I look at is well, i’d love to have no more debt, zero debt, debt free. I’d like to have a steady, stocky savings account. I’d like to be able to spend my time with my son and then starting to paint the day to day. How do I wanna go through my days? How do I wanna feel? What do I wanna be able to do? How do I wanna work out? What kind of friends do I wanna have? What kind of trips do I wanna take, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. And then, as I’m working into that, well, how do I want to operate inside of a business that I’m creating? What role do I wanna play? What role do I not wanna play? Where do I wanna be inside of it? Where do I not wanna be inside of it, how do I wanna be spending my time, how do I not wanna be spending my time, who do I wanna surround myself with and who do I not wanna be around? And I think when we start to get in this conversation, we start to have a little bit more clarity around the specifics of what we’re stepping into or what we’re choosing.
Now, folks who are in a transitional place have a little bit of an advantage because they have a lot more experience when it comes to building a business. So they know the things that they do like and they don’t like, and what they enjoy and what they hate, and they can pick and choose what they wanna do. Now, folks who are brand new to this might not have a full understanding. They might have ideas of what goes into it, but they may not have a full understanding because they have yet to fully experience everything that comes with building an online business. And that’s okay, you’ll go through it and you’ll learn and you’ll go through trial and error.
Now the thing that I think is important here is to get clear on okay, well, when I sit down and I look at this, what are the things in the business that I really hate doing that. I don’t wanna be doing that. I really feel exhausted by Because this piece is important. If we’re talking about long-term sustainability, yes, of course we can do things we don’t enjoy for a short period of time, but if the thing that we’re building is gonna continue to exacerbate the things that we don’t enjoy doing, then of course we’re gonna have resistance to building the thing. So we wanna look at okay, well, how do I actually wanna spend my time building this business? What do I actually wanna be doing in this process?
And I think, inside of this, it’s important to have a practical lens to your approach And what I mean when I say that. We spent the first few episodes of the season really going into numbers, really understanding data, finances, a little bit of financial literacy and business and then personal finances. And I do personally believe that it’s important to approach your finances from a practical stance, because you don’t wanna be putting yourself in financial risky situations to where then you’re making risky decisions based off of financial risky spaces And they’re not necessarily the most well thought out are emotionally grounded decisions, right? no-transcript. Instead, when we have an understanding of okay, this is my baseline, this is it’s going to be a transitional process. I think one of the best things that we can do for ourselves is, instead of trying to go quick, go fast, go hard, go big is looking at okay, how can I make this something that is going to be sustainable? How can I make this something that is going to be for the long term? How can I make this something that’s really going to work for me? Now, this might not be the approach for everybody, but this is my personal approach And for me, for folks who are in a corporate career and wanting to transition out, i think that this best and safest thing that you can do is to keep some sort of stable income for yourself to make sure that you can pay your bills as you slowly start to transition into building something that has proven itself profitable, as you continue to grow it, and then you can slowly trickle out of it.
Now, some folks that might not be the thing. Some folks really want that risk, they want that intensity, they want the adrenaline that comes with making a really, really big risk and going all in. And if that’s you, that’s awesome. Honor what works for you. But for me personally, it doesn’t work for my system. It puts me into a place of paralysis, and so I have to honor that process. I have to honor what works there, and this could be the same thing for folks who are looking to transition.
If what you’ve been doing has been creating the majority of your income, but you’re no longer feeling satisfied in what you’re doing, then what you want to start to think about is okay, what is it about what I’m doing that feels so daunting, exhausting, frustrating, et cetera? Because you’ve built this thing And so, like we talked about in the previous episodes, there’s a lot of responsibility but also a lot of strength that you can take from that, because you have the power to change the way that you build it. You can shift it, you can adjust it, you can adapt it, and if you can get clear on what it is that you don’t like about what you’re doing, then you can change it and see if you can make it something that’s gonna feel more tolerable, more manageable, more enjoyable for you to actually maintain and to grow as you start to transition out. If transitioning is what you’re thinking about doing, or integrating something new in, if you’re thinking about bringing something that you’ve been developing and wanting to refine and tweak what you’ve currently been approaching. Now, obviously, there’s a level of transparency that needs to be had with the clients that you work with if it’s things that are gonna be affecting them and their experience, because if you are gonna be making a pretty big shift in your business from what you have been doing, it is important to make sure that you give clients the heads up and the opportunity to decide if it’s something they want to continue in, because if it’s something very different from what they originally signed up for, the best thing that you can do to remain in integrity with your clients is to give them an option to say, actually, that’s not the route that I wanna go, or, yes, i would love to continue to take this journey with you in this new direction you’re going into. So, that being said, as you start to sit with us and start to get clear for yourself okay, what am I creating? What do I actually wanna do? What are the things that I’m not enjoying? We can look at this through a really practical lens. We can say, okay, i really hate the social media marketing part, or I really hate this part of having to flaunt to myself in a certain way, or I really just don’t like feeling like I’m doing X, y, z or A, b, c, and so if we can pinpoint what are the things that are feeling exhausting, or feeling like they’re not for you, or feeling like you don’t wanna participate or you don’t wanna be portrayed or you don’t wanna be in that place, then what we look for is alternative options that would feel more supportive, more congruent for you. Now, a great example of this is definitely like the social media lifestyle thing.
For me, this is a huge turn off. I don’t like the idea of having a luxury brand and flaunting on social media with Gucci bags and all of the things, because that’s just not me, that’s not my personality, that’s not. It’s just never been in my ethos, it’s never been into my, in who I am, and for me it doesn’t work. I have such an aversion to even considering the possibility of showing up in that way that I will not do it. I know I will not do it. I won’t even touch it with a 10 put pole at this point for so many reasons.
Now, other people might really love that and that might be their jam. I’m not gonna judge and I’m not gonna say not to do it. I’m just saying that’s not for me. So when I think about that and I know that, then I know, okay, i cannot try a business model or try to build a business in a way that’s going to require me to do this thing that I absolutely have so much aversion to and will not do. So I have to start to explore and get curious and question, okay, well, what are other alternatives, no-transcript, other possibilities and how I can approach it. And so I can sit with them and say, okay, well, i really love educational content. I really enjoy comedic, relevant content that is more heartwarming or more funny or more relatable, stuff that feels like it’s really empowering in a lot of ways, stuff that feels like it’s from people who are incredibly educated and incredibly nuanced and can hold different paradigms and parallels and aren’t so dogmatic. And I say, okay, yeah, that feels so much better. Okay, great, what are the other things about it that feel really exhausting, really daunting, really like cringing, contracting, pulling back from or stepping away from or pushing up to push it away from me. And I sit with that and I figure out, okay, well, it’s this and then it’s this. And so we continue to repeat that process of looking for alternative ways to do things Now a lot of the times.
What’s interesting about this is when we start to unpack what the aversions are, what the resistance is, what are the things that we don’t wanna be doing. Then we can start to look for what we do wanna do, what we do wanna create, what we do wanna build, and we can start to see what is actually the core of the issue. Now I talked to briefly about this in the previous episode, where sometimes it might actually be the client delivery, other times it might just be the marketing, other times it might be the sales, sometimes it’s just everything and you don’t wanna do any of it, in which case you should probably just own a business, not run and operate and manage the business. And I think it’s important to really get clear for yourself Where is the part of the business that you are feeling the most frustration, the most tension, the most resistance, the most? like I just wanna burn it all down with, so we can start to figure out okay, what about that? Is it that’s not feeling good, and is there an opportunity for repair, is there an opportunity for renegotiation inside of that experience to make it something that is going to feel better for you?
Now I’m gonna repeat this again, because this is not an overnight process. And this is probably the hardest thing, because when we’re feeling these really intense emotions, where we don’t like it, we’re resisting or we’re procrastinating, we feel so much heaviness and tension. Of course we want that to go away as quickly as possible, but the reality is we don’t want to just make sporadic decisions based on temporary emotional feelings. We want to start to unpack and get clear on what we’re feeling and explore what we’re feeling and sit with and continue to look at, okay, what are the things? and seeing if that’s continuously resonating. So you look at this over the course of a week, over the course of a few months, and you start to look at, okay, what are the subtle shifts that I can start to make, the incremental, small actions that I can start to take to see if that’s starting to make a shift in it. That’s to see if it’s starting to make a difference.
Now, i personally really enjoy a more scientific approach to these things, and that’s not to say it’s what you have to do. I’m just sharing my perspective on this. But for me, when I look at this, my background is in psychology and inside of that there’s a lot of testing, a lot of data, a lot of experimentation and when I look at this it’s like, okay, there’s way too many variables for me right now to know what variable, if I change this variable, how it’s gonna make me feel. Because if I try to change all of the variables all at once, i won’t know what actually makes the biggest difference. And if I’m not really clear about why it is that I’m feeling ick in my business or stuck in my business or unmotivated or not like it’s working, then I don’t wanna change everything all at once.
I want to slowly and incrementally change one little thing and see okay, did this shift it? Maybe it didn’t work quite the way I wanted to, but do I feel better about it? And if I can feel better about it, great. If I continue to tweak the other things to get it to a place to where I can feel fully aligned, i can feel really excited, i can feel congruent, i can get behind it, i can feel proud of it, then I will know that I’m moving in the right direction. Now we won’t know that if we try to do it all at once, and I think that’s an important caveat to take into consideration for folks who are in this season and their lives and their business, because, of course, the biggest thing that you wanna do is burn it all down and overhaul it and completely shift gears and go in an opposite direction. But this can become a potentially problematic practice And not necessarily to anyone else, but really for yourself of not giving yourself the proper amount of time to integrate, to transition, to let that renegotiation happen and to explore and unpack what is it for you. So, that being said, i encourage you to really like, if this is the season you’re in right now, to really take the time here to explore what is happening.
What is real, what is true, what am I feeling? what is it about where I’m at that I’m not enjoying? Is it just the community that I’m in? is it culture I’m in? is it the business or is it actually something in my personal life? Because the reality is, sometimes it might actually be things that have nothing to do with the business that change how you feel about the business, and sometimes it might be the business itself. That’s the thing that’s just exhausting and daunting, and I’ll give you a few examples here.
Back in 2018, i was in a relationship with my partner at the time And one of the things and I believe I probably shared this in one of my old episodes from my old podcast but one of the things that came up is I remember one night I was just so stressed out. I was so stressed out and I was feeling so overwhelmed and just so, just like really lost in the business And, granted, it was successful, it was making money, it was doing all of the things. And I remember like looking at my partner at the time and just breaking down and tears and just saying like I’m so tired and I’m so overwhelmed and I don’t know what I want and I don’t know, like I don’t know what to do. And then they asked me and they were like, well, what makes you happy? And I was like, well, these things. And when I was started to name the things that made me happy, i was realizing like, wow, i have not spent any time in the last few months doing anything that makes me happy because I’ve been so consumed with all of the things for the business. And then like, well, what’s the point of doing all of this if you’re not even gonna be able to do the things that make you happy, that bring you joy. And that was probably one of the first times that really struck me up like holy shit, what am I doing to myself? Why am I putting myself into this position where I’m so busy building something that I don’t even have the time and space to enjoy what I’ve created? And that was the first time that I was recognizing like, okay, you know, like what I’m missing and what I’m needing is a shift to where I can actually build something that’s gonna be more nourishing and supportive and allow me the time and space and freedom to do the things that I do enjoy, that I do want, that I do wanna create and that I do wanna experience. And at that time it was different In a relationship with somebody. I didn’t have any kids, we just had a dog, and that was that. And the next big time from that shift, that shift was really like cutting back on hours, shifting what I was creating in the business, shifting the way I was delivering the product so that I had more time. That was the first time, and then the second time, i would say.
Another solid example of this is a client who created something that was just really stressful to do, really stressful to build. I talked about this a little bit in the previous episode. They didn’t really enjoy delivering it. They didn’t really enjoy doing the work, even though they were good at it, but they didn’t like that. They didn’t like the client delivery, but they loved the marketing. Loved the marketing. But as the client delivery got more intense meaning doing the work with the clients and the way that they were doing the work with the clients they started to resist other areas of their business. They stopped marketing, they stopped doing sales. They stopped because they just couldn’t get themselves to do it, because the more that they did it, the more client delivery work they had to do that they didn’t actually wanna be doing. So in this scenario is completely changing the way the offer was structured, the delivery of the offer making it something that made more sense for them, because they just wanna be able to create content and get paid to create content all the time, and content for social media. Now that’s a very different business approach than somebody who doesn’t wanna do any content marketing and just wants to deliver to clients.
Two completely different scenarios and problems. But if you don’t know what your problem is and somebody just throws a solution out there, it might not be the solution that’s right for you. So in this client’s case it was. It was shifting up the offer and making it something that was gonna feel really nourishing, because the idea of having to be on coaching calls all the time it was exhausting, it was disgusting to this person. Now, for somebody else that might light them up, they might say, oh my gosh, all I wanna do is coach people 24 hours a day. But that wasn’t the case for this person. They just wanted to be able to have the time and space to create content and deliver information in a way that was highly accessible and affordable for folks because of who their audience was And that works for them And that might not be the answer for all other people.
Now, another scenario is when you’re feeling resistance with what you’re creating or what you’re building and you start to realize, okay, what is it about this thing that I’m not enjoying? Cause maybe you do really enjoy the client delivery and maybe you enjoy the client delivery with certain clients, but not with all clients. So then what that tells you is okay. Actually, maybe it’s the type of work that I’m doing with this specific type of client that isn’t actually fun for me, or maybe I’m finding myself doing things that I didn’t actually plan on doing. A great example of this is another peer, who has a really amazing zone of genius, but they have the ability to also step into different places and spaces, and we were talking about this recently where they were like anytime I take on a project that’s outside of my scope, outside of, like, my perfect little template that I’ve mastered and created over the years, it’s exhausting, it’s overwhelming, i’m stressed out. I’m spending all of this time and energy trying to learn something that I really don’t wanna be doing and it takes so much more time And it creates this sense of overwhelm for me.
So we started to unpack this a little bit more, and what they found was okay. The reality is they don’t actually want to be doing all of these other little mini projects that, though they could do them and bring in profit from it, it’s actually not worth it because the profitability on it is so much lower, because of the impact that doing that kind of work has on them emotionally and energetically and just financially overall, and so for them, it was honing in and saying, okay, these are the things that I actually just need to say no to. These aren’t worth my time and energy, these types of projects, these types of clients, these types of things. And it’s not to say that that’s a bad person or bad thing or whatever it is, it’s just not for you.
So I think one of the big pieces and the biggest lessons in this process of reflection and assessment and reorganization is figuring out what your boundaries are with yourself and with your business, figuring out what your nose are for yourself and your business, figuring out what actually feels good and feels right for you. And this can be really hard to do if we don’t have a sense of stability, if we don’t have a sense of connection to who we are, to how we feel on the day to day. And so this is where that conversation of practicality comes in, because if you’re somebody who is just trying to pay your bills and barely scraping by, of course you’re willing to do whatever it takes and you don’t care how you feel because you need to bring in the money. But if you find yourself in this perpetual loop of spending all the money just to try to survive and continuing doing all the things that you don’t like, it’s a time for a really serious look at what can we change, to do things differently, and how can we start to move in a direction that’s going to be more supportive and nourishing for you? because if you’re in a place where you’re just doing something that’s exhausting to do and it’s keeping you from actually having a life and it’s keeping you from actually doing the things that truly make you happy and feeling a sense of real joy and love and connection, or you don’t really feel like you’re behind the thing, you feel like you’re just doing it because you’re on autopilot and you have to. You get to decide. Do you want to continue to do this? And for some of you, the answer might be yes and for others of you the answer might be hell, no, get me out of this as quickly as possible. But only you have the answer to that, and I think it’s important to sit with it and to unpack that and to get clear on it for yourself of okay, what would actually feel true for me, what would actually feel good for me, what is it that I’m building? and having that North Star for yourself so that you can measure against what you’re creating and what you’re experiencing.
And there might be seasons, right. This isn’t to say that everything is always going to be rainbows and butterflies and perfect and awesome and amazing. But it is to say that you have clarity about where you’re going and you can look at a specific season and say, okay, for the next six months or a year, i know I’m going to be buckling down and living more frugally. Will I get this thing off the ground in transition because I don’t want to continue to do the work that is so draining and exhausting for me. So for the next few months, this is what I’m going to be doing, and then you get to the end of that and you can start to transition into a different season in your business. But it’s important to recognize what is a season that’s worth going through to get to a different place, versus what is a season you’re staying stuck in because you don’t want to transition out of it, because you don’t know how or it’s too scary to do that.
So, all of that being said, thank you so much for listening to this fun little episode of a ramble of a conversation of business. I hope that you’re starting to get some golden nuggets inside of this. For me. I think the biggest things that I’ll reflect back for you as the listener is one getting clear on okay, what the heck do I actually want? How do I want to feel? How do I want to experience myself? How do I want to experience my life in the day to day and get beyond the superficial components of this, because the superficial components aren’t going to get you anywhere other than lost.
So, what do you want to feel? How do you want to feel in your relationships, your relationship to yourself, your relationship to friends If you want to have more friends, a community, what things do you want to be able to do? What do you want to do with debt, housing savings, these types of things? And then, how are you making room for that in the way in which you’re building your business? How is your business supporting that, or how is it currently contradicting your ability to do those things because of the way that it’s being navigated? And then from there, once you know what the vision is, that compelling future that you’re creating for yourself, then we can start to dive into exploring.
What are the things right now that don’t actually feel good, what are the things that feel exhausting, what are the things that feel like, ah, this isn’t for me. What are the things that don’t feel good? Write them all down. What are the alternatives? What are the alternatives? What are other options? What are other possibilities? What are the ways that you potentially approach those things to make it something that’s going to feel better for you Are? is it just that we need to cross it off all together and shift gears And then slowly, incrementally, taking those small actions to test and validate, test and validate, test and validate until you get to a place that it feels so good and so nourishing And filling yourself up in that process. So enjoy y’all.
If you enjoyed this, please leave a review. Please give this podcast episode, and are this podcast overall, a rating on your favorite podcast players. It means the absolute world to me And if you enjoyed it, send me a message. I love to hear that I am not ashamed to admit that, that that stuff keeps me going. I love hearing that this podcast that you’re listening first off, but, more importantly, that that it’s landing for you, that it’s hitting home in certain places. So feel free to DM me or email me or just say, hey, i love that and you’ll see me get all blushing and giddy about it. Anyways, all right, y’all have an amazing day and I will see you on the next episode.