I’ve always wanted to be mysterious, but I am just not built that way. If we met at a party, you’d get my entire life story within ten minutes, and I’d get yours too.
So when I put a survey out on Instagram asking what you wanted to hear more about, and so many of you said “the pivot, the move, all of it,” I knew I had to sit down and actually talk about it. Not the highlight reel version. The real one.
Two months ago we moved. In that same window, I completely pivoted my business. I went from identifying as a brand and website designer, a design studio owner, to being a brand and business strategist. I moved almost fully into coaching and consulting. I still take on design work, but just one client at a time instead of five to ten.
Here’s what those 60 days actually looked like.
Prefer to listen? Tune in to Behind the Design Podcast on Spotify, Apple Podcasts or watch the YouTube video below!
Nothing Was Broken. I Just Wasn’t On The Right Path.
I’ve been an entrepreneur for nine years. Business was good. Home life was good. Nothing was wrong. There was just this quiet knowing that I wasn’t exactly where I was supposed to be.
Walking away from something that works takes a lot more courage than fixing something that’s broken. I had to sit with that for close to a year and a half before I finally made the move.
If you’ve built something that works but you’re still feeling the pull toward something else, that doesn’t mean you failed. What got you here can be the leverage that gets you to the next place. That was true for my business. It was true for our old house too. We loved it while we were there, and we’re grateful for it, but it wasn’t the house for us long term. Investing in that time and that place is exactly what gave us the leverage for what’s next.
Readiness Is Not A Feeling. It’s An Action.
I’m a recovering perfectionist. Seventeen years of gymnastics will do that to you. I wanted everything perfect before I let myself move, and that was holding me back more than anything else.
You will never feel ready. Not for the business pivot, not for the next level client, not for putting yourself out there. The only thing that builds readiness is taking the action first. Confidence comes after, not before.
That’s a practice I have to repeat almost daily. If I have an idea for a post or I know I need to reach out to a potential client, the move is to do it now, not “later.” Later rarely comes.
The Identity Grief Nobody Warns You About
Here’s something I didn’t expect: releasing an old identity comes with its own quiet grief, even when the new direction is right.
I was a gymnast, then I graduated and had to figure out who I was without that. Years later I became a designer, and that became my whole identity for almost a decade. Letting go of “brand and website designer” for “brand and business strategist” felt bigger in my head than it turned out to be in real life.
I remember the first time I used my new title out loud, talking to another mom at a play cafe. I fumbled through my new elevator pitch, she said “oh that’s cool,” and we moved on. That was it. I realized in that moment that almost nobody is thinking about my identity shift the way I am. It was oddly freeing.
What Actually Changed Day To Day
We had a lot shift at once. Two kids, 18 months apart, adjusting to a new house and a new routine. A fully furnished rental that isn’t ours, so the kids are down to one bin of toys.
Alex left ten years of corporate sales to be home with the kids full time. That’s an identity shift for him too, and for our whole family. Meanwhile I have more working hours now than I’ve had since becoming a mom. We had full childcare from August until April, and now we’re figuring out a completely different rhythm.
My schedule now: calls on Tuesdays and Thursdays, three to five a day. Mondays and Wednesdays are fully free. Fridays I mostly don’t work at all. It’s not a ton of free time once you factor in house hunting and settling a family of four into a new state, but it’s the season we’re in, and I’m trying to hold that loosely instead of rushing to the next thing.
There’s mom guilt in there too. I don’t love leaving to work when my son is holding onto my ankle on the way out the door. But I want my kids to see that I love what I do, not that I resent leaving them for it. So I try to be as present as possible in the hours I do have, and as intentional as possible with the work when I’m in it.
The Numbers
This is the part that felt too vulnerable to share, and also the part I knew would help someone.
Going from a design studio with five to ten clients at a time, plus a small coaching arm that made up 10 to 20 percent of revenue, to almost fully coaching with one design client, meant walking away from what felt like guaranteed monthly revenue. That was the scariest part of the whole pivot.
April, May, and June have been my highest revenue months of the year, and June wasn’t even finished when I recorded the episode this update is based on. Not my highest months ever in business, but proof that when what you’re doing lines up with what you’re actually meant to be doing, the results tend to follow.
Within the first week of putting out that I was doing brand and business strategy, coaching clients started coming in. I’m not saying every month will look like this going forward. This is very much an experiment year, and I’ll keep sharing updates as it unfolds, probably a check in after Q3.
The Real Question
If you’re sitting on a pivot of your own, a new offer, a client relationship you’ve outgrown, a business model that no longer fits, here’s the question I had to ask myself over and over:
Am I staying in this because it’s familiar, or because it’s right?
Comfort will not expand your limits. The uncomfortable route is usually the one you actually need to take.
If it helps even one person to hear that you can wake up one day and choose to change your mind, completely, at any point, then sharing all of this was worth it.
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