Last week, I wrote about the endless cycle of problem-solving that business owners can get into: changing different parts of the business over and over without ever addressing the deeper issue underneath.
After I sent that email, a reader wrote to me about what that’s looked like in her own business.
As soon as I read her message, I could relate to so much of it—not only from my own experience, but from what I’ve seen in clients’ and colleagues’ businesses too.
She wrote:
Yes, I can relate to your words. My business stopped, I stopped, something changed, and I cannot move.
I’ve changed my messaging and packages so many times, but that was not the real problem. The problem is much deeper and painful enough that I don’t like admitting it even to myself.
I’ve outgrown my nutrition business for women. Weight loss coaching doesn’t inspire me anymore. Unfortunately, fat loss is still the most profitable business model. I am a Relationship & Stress Coach, too—which is more exciting, of course—but I don’t know how to combine weight loss issues and relationship frustrations.
The painful question / the theme of my sleepless nights is: Should I totally go for relationship coaching for women and use the weight loss / anti-diet wellness only as a supportive tool for women in relationship crisis? No answer, yet.
Now, after all those changes in my business, I am totally exhausted.
Before offering my thoughts, I asked if she wanted to hear them. I wasn’t sure whether she was looking for input or simply wanted to tell me how much the email resonated. She said yes, so here is my response:
You seem clear and certain that you’ve outgrown your nutrition business because weight loss coaching doesn’t inspire you anymore.
First, does your business need to inspire you?
I ask because not everyone needs inspiration to run their business. Some are perfectly happy having a really good job, where the job happens to be working for themselves doing something they’re good at. But inspiration is something the online coaching industry talks about constantly, so it’s important to separate what you’ve been told you should want from what is actually true for you.
If your business does need to inspire you, then I think the exploration of what comes next needs to be led by inspiration. Would you agree? (It’s okay if you don’t.)
If you do agree, then for now I would stop asking, “What will make money?” or thinking, “Fat loss is the most profitable thing.” Not because money doesn’t matter; it does.
But if every new idea gets immediately evaluated against profitability, you never really give the idea a chance to develop. You’re trying to work out whether it’s a profitable business idea before you’ve really explored what the idea actually is. (I’ve been very guilty of this myself.)
If you want to work for yourself and you want to feel inspired by your work, your task now may simply be to let that inspiration have some room. I don’t mean take immediate action on the inspiration. I mean let the inspiration and ideas grow and blossom and show you what they might be without deciding too quickly whether they’re practical, profitable, or marketable.
Once you have a clearer sense of what actually wants to emerge, then you can put your strategic hat back on and ask how to do it in a financially savvy way.
And while you’re doing that, notice the assumptions you’re making, like fat loss is the most profitable option. Even if it were, you don’t need the most profitable option; you need a profitable option. People can monetize so many things, including things not at all related to weight loss. And as a private coach, you don’t even need that many clients to make the numbers work.
What is it about relationship and stress coaching that intrigues you? What exactly are you inspired to do? What would light you up the way you want to be lit up by your work?
And where do these questions take you if you let them lead for a while, without pressuring the ideas to have all of the strategic questions answered right out the gate?
Okay, I always have more to say, but I also know that sometimes what I say challenges something pretty deep, and it can take a while to digest. So no rush to have an answer or even respond. I’m just hoping this helps you find some way forward, even if it’s teeny tiny.
I’d love to know if and how you relate to this. Or if anything I’ve written lately sparks questions within you.
Is there something in your business you may have outgrown, but you’ve been trying to fix instead of admitting you’re done with it?
When you think about what might come next, what ideas do you dismiss almost immediately because you aren’t sure they’ll be as profitable as you want?
If you let yourself explore without having to make a decision or prove it could work, where does your interest keep pulling you?
Fill me in, and I’ll personally respond.
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