What happens when you’ve built a successful business, but over time you start to feel deep down like you know something has to change

Have you ever felt resistant to changing your marketing tactics because you’re afraid of what other people might think?

Or maybe you’re unsure if you’re going to come across as inconsistent with your messaging as you’re pivoting, so instead you stay silent.

Friend, I’ve been there too. Whether you’re pivoting to a completely new business or you’re launching a new offer that’s quite different from what most people know to expect from you, showing up and knowing what to say can be hard. 

When I first started out as a virtual assistant, things were going pretty smoothly. I booked clients and reached my sales goals. My Instagram following grew and I started to learn more new things to help me build a business I loved. Back then, I had the opportunity to serve different business owners as their VA and try different tasks, and quickly realized how much I love content writing, specifically conversion-copywriting. 

While I really wanted to make the jump to focusing on that niche, my natural instinct and insecurity told me to wait, because things were good and I didn’t want to make any reckless decisions that would screw things up.

So I pressed on and said yes to the type of work that just didn’t fill my cup in order to maintain my dream of running a business. 

I felt stuck. Stuck in the business I had built for myself.

I didn’t think I had another option, so I just kept doing what I was doing. But every time I went to write another VA-related post, I’d procrastinate and then eventually change it to focus on something else.

I felt more excited to be talking about content marketing, blogging, branding, and all things messaging! I loved talking to other people about the specifics of their backstory and I loved sharing the story of my business, what I was doing behind the scenes, and my thought processes and ideas related to entrepreneurship.

After a few months of going through this alone, I hired a business coach to help me take my business full time.  Of course, without me even mentioning it, she quickly saw that I needed to pivot my business, especially since my “goal” was to quit my day job. So that’s what I did–and today I’m going to share with you my experience and how I help my copywriting clients navigate business pivots with their messaging.

3 tips for navigating business pivots with clear messaging:

1. Be certain about the truth 

I was listening to the Guide Culture podcast the other day and Katherine said something about how being confident in your business decisions will transfer energy to others and help you build trust with your audience faster than anything else. She also said that being confident doesn’t mean covering up your flaws and only showing the good stuff. Rather, it’s about being certain about the truth. 

So before you even start to think about how to “show up”, let’s build that confidence. Here are a few ways to do that:

1. Map out your customer journey so that you know where to send your people to.
   
   As with any of your marketing, you must understand your customer and know what NEEDS to happen the moment they discover your brand so that you can strategically guide them through the journey to take your most desired(e.g., watching your IG stories, filling out your contact form, etc.).

Related: How to update your website copy the right way

2. Increase your product knowledge by digging deep into the facts of what you offer. Scientists are confident about their work because it can be proven logically. Approach your products/services the same way.
   
   People don’t buy the best products, they buy what they can understand the fastest. Ask yourself: Is what you do easy to understand? As Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t understand it well enough.” 
   
   In order to be qualified as an expert and sell your offer, it’s important to know and understand your products and services from top to bottom. Increasing your product knowledge involves looking at facts, frameworks and features. 

Facts
What are the important facts people need to know about your offer? For example, do you use a storytelling approach? Is your product a digital download? Do you offer a 4 week one-on-one program? Stating the key facts sets a clear expectation of how things work.

Framework
While facts are crucial, they don’t really sell. This is where your framework–a proven path for getting your clientele from point A to point B–comes in. How do you actually help people get results? What steps do you need to take with them in order to see a transformation? 

Write down everything unique about your approach and framework. This is to showcase how you’re going to take someone from point A to point B.

Remember, it’s not about crafting perfect words and saying all the “right” things. It’s about KNOWING your brand and offers well enough so that you can truly build a magnetic brand. 

Features

You may be familiar with the idea of “benefits over features”, but this doesn’t mean that features aren’t important. In fact, they play a major role in the process of making a purchasing decision. As Megan Martin said, “People first decide to buy because of the benefits and then they justify their purchase with the features.”

Want to learn more about how you can simplify your message? Check out my blog post on How to get started with clear messaging.

2. Build a personal brand

Have you ever wondered how some people seem to be able to connect various topics/categories under the same “roof” without constant confusion? Take Emily Ley for example; she can talk about her products (the Simplified Planners) and how she uses them one day, and the next day she can talk about where she got her beautiful dresses. 

It’s normal for our passions to change, and that’s a fairly easy thing to explain and for people to understand. If your business revolves around you, then you can change the topics you talk about.

If your business revolves around a topic, such as wedding planning, changing the topic would be harder to explain.

Action step: Make sure you and your personality are the face of your business. If you want your business to pivot, you need to have the confidence to put your face front and center. Trust me, I know it’s hard (introvert right here!), but it pays off big time! Pivoting a faceless business for no valid reason is going to make bringing your audience and customers with you a hard sell.

So become visible and slowly begin making your business not just about the topic your products and services cover, but also about YOU.

3. You have permission to do what’s best for your business and your life

One of the biggest fears in pivoting a business is what other people might think. Now, what I’m about to say I’m saying with love: people don’t really always pay attention to or care about what you are up to. We are all busy people and are all constantly being bombarded by information. Instead of worrying about what other people think, focus on what you want for your life and your business.

I hope this blog was helpful to you as you consider or make shifts in your business! Are you going through any kind of change right now? Let me know! How can I help?