September 23, 2025 • 25 mins
Every entrepreneur eventually faces the million-dollar question: Do I stick it out, or do I pivot? In this episode, Jenn breaks down the difference between persistence that leads to success and stubbornness that keeps you stuck. You’ll learn a simple, practical framework to help you decide whether it’s time to double down on your current strategy, or make a bold move in a new direction.
If you’ve ever wondered whether your business challenge is a speed bump or a dead end, this episode will give you the clarity you need.
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
- ✅ 4 indicators that it’s time to pivot (and why “failure” isn’t always the reason)
- ✅ 4 red flags that it’s NOT time to pivot (and what to do instead)
- ✅ How to set clear success criteria so you know if your strategy is actually working
- ✅ Why execution quality matters more than ideas (and how to self-assess honestly)
- ✅ The role of leading indicators vs. lagging results in decision-making
- ✅ How to test new approaches without burning down what you’ve already built
Key Takeaways
- Pivoting isn’t failure. It can mean you’ve outgrown your old strategy or discovered a more aligned opportunity.
- Persistence is powerful—but only with strategy. Sticking to a plan that isn’t working is just expensive stubbornness.
- Data over drama. Use patterns and metrics, not feelings or comparison, to decide whether to stay the course.
- Test, then commit. Small experiments can validate a new direction before you overhaul your business.
✨ Whether you’re questioning your current business model, debating a new offer, or just stuck in the messy middle, this episode will help you move forward with clarity and confidence.
Thanks for listening!
Connect With Me:
📩 Join my email list: https://www.jenncody.com
📱 DM me on Instagram: @solutonsbyjenncody
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:18):
Hey friends, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
I'm your host, jen Cody.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I hope you are enjoying yourSeptember, and I always think at
this time of year about thatmovie.
You've Got Mail, I think it is,and I don't remember if it was
Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan, but oneof them makes a reference to
buying a bouquet of sharpenedpencils.
(00:41):
Like it's such a great time ofyear Maybe not for some of us
that have little ones startingschool.
You know everybody there's twodifferent camps there who's
really happy the kids are goingback and getting back into a
routine, and who really preferswhen they can just, kind of like
, go where the wind takes themand have leisure time with their
family.
So, whichever camp you're in,I'm hoping that you are coming
(01:04):
to terms with the fact that weare headed towards the end of
the year and, as we head intowhat is almost the last 90 days
of 2025,.
I want to chat with you guysabout one of the really hard
decisions, one of many that weface in business, and that is
when to pivot or when to persist, like.
(01:27):
If you are faced with thatdilemma, which way do you choose
to go?
And how do you know which wayis the right way?
Because depending on thecircumstances, the answer is
different, right?
So let's just say, if you'vebeen working on something in
your business, maybe it's a newservice, maybe it's a new
strategy, maybe it's an entirelynew business model, but if it's
(01:49):
not working the way that youhoped it was going to, most of
the time we start to wonder likeis this a normal part of the
process?
Do I just need to have morepatience?
Do I need to be more persistent?
Do I just want to, like, buckledown, heads down and move
through this, or am I banging myhead against a wall and the
wall is actually never going tomove and it's a waste of time
(02:12):
for me to stay here.
So this is the decision thatreally does separate some of our
successes, because there are somany people who give up too
early and there are so manypeople who persist too long and
those strategies will never workand we don't know.
It's really hard when we're inthose moments to know which way
(02:32):
we're supposed to go.
So today, what I want to do isspeak to you about a framework
for making this decision,because we don't want to make
these decisions from anemotional place.
We really want to make themstrategically and intentionally,
and I want to start by sayingthat both of these options
pivoting and persisting they canbe right and they can be wrong,
(02:55):
totally dependent on thecircumstances.
That is so important tounderstand, because I have seen
people give up on things thatwere just about to work, because
I have seen people give up onthings that were just about to
work, and I've also seen peoplewaste months or years on things
that are just they're not theright alignment.
They're just not in alignmentwith what that person needs or
is working towards.
(03:16):
So the key for this frameworkis to actually have criteria to
make this decision that is basedon data, based on patterns and
not based on how we feel thatday when we wake up in the
morning.
So I want to start by talkingabout when to seriously consider
pivoting.
I think this is the harderchoice for most entrepreneurs
(03:38):
because we come from we're cutfrom this cloth that teaches
that entrepreneurship is aboutpushing through when other
people would have not pushedthrough.
That really does separate a lotof people who are successful
from the people who are notsuccessful in starting
businesses, running businessessuccessfully.
(04:00):
It is because we have that umwhat would it be called like
perseverance to buckle down anddo the work that other people
would just not take the time todo.
So when we're faced with thechoice to actually pivot and go
in a different direction, it canfeel a little alarming and
(04:20):
uncomfortable because it goesagainst what we think is what we
need to do to bring successinto our business.
So I want to give you some ofthis criteria so that, when you
are faced with this decision,you can sit down and actually
write down where you are in yourbusiness, answer these
(04:41):
questions and you'll be able tomake the decision much easier.
So let's start with an indicator.
What is something you can lookfor that tells you whether or
not you need to pivot or not?
And I want you to think aboutif you have consistently missed
your goal or your target for agood amount of time, for two or
(05:05):
more quarters, despite goodeffort.
That's the key phrase goodeffort, because if you've been
inconsistent, if you reallyhaven't been giving things your
full attention, if you've beenhalf-hearted in the way you're
implementing, then the problemhas nothing to do with your
strategy.
It's all in the execution,because you're not actually
executing the way that youshould.
But let's say you have beenconsistent and you've been
(05:30):
implementing a really wellthought out plan and you just
keep falling short.
You're setting targets andyou're falling short.
That's data, that's concrete.
It's facts.
So maybe your market is tellingyou something that you need to
pay attention to.
I have worked with someone whospent many, many months trying
to build a group coachingprogram and she was doing all
(05:51):
the right things, creatingreally good content, marketing
consistently.
Her messaging was great, butshe could never get anybody to
sign up.
I shouldn't say that she didget a few people to sign up, but
she had a hard time gettingmore than one person, one or two
people and you kind of needmore than one or two people when
you're trying to create a group.
(06:11):
So after two quarters of thepattern, we actually spent time
looking at the data instead ofjust being like, well, maybe
this isn't for you.
You know there's a lot of timesthat that's the way people look
at these things, but we lookedat the data.
Know there's a lot of timesthat that's the way people look
at these things, but we lookedat the data and she had an
audience that was responding,but it seems what they really
wanted was one-to-one.
(06:31):
They wanted more of her.
So what she did was pivot fromthat group coaching program and
she created a great high touchcoaching program and she
immediately started hitting thetargets that she was going for,
because it actually convertedpeople into clients when she was
able to pivot the strategy.
(06:53):
So that's the first thing youwant to pay attention to.
Are you missing the goals thatyou're setting for yourself?
Maybe the goals are the problemand it's not what you're doing
to get to the goals.
So that's an indicator that youmay want to consider a pivot.
There's another indicator youcan look at Look at the
opportunities that are going onin your market.
(07:14):
Are there new things that havecome out since you started that
might align more with the visionthat you have?
Because sometimes pivot it'snot about failing, which is how
we see it a lot of the time.
That's why I think this is sucha hard decision for so many
entrepreneurs, because, remember, I was saying, like we want to
be heads down, I can do this, Ican do this, I have the energy,
(07:38):
I have the stamina to see thisthrough.
That's what makes a goodentrepreneur.
So when we think about pivoting.
We're like well, that justmeans we're giving up and we're
failing at what we set out to do, but that's not always the case
.
What if it's about evolution?
What if you developed newcapabilities?
Maybe you really honed someskills that you didn't have
(07:58):
before.
Maybe your market has shiftedand the people that you serve
are looking for different things.
Maybe your clients have taughtyou something right.
Maybe you learned somethingabout your clients and there's a
different path that you can betaking to serving them.
The question that you want toask yourself is, if there's a
(08:18):
new opportunity, does that newopportunity get you to your
three-year goal faster and moresustainably than the path that
you're on?
Because everything we're doing,we're doing because of an end
result that we're trying to getto.
If you're not doing that, youneed to stop and back up quite a
few episodes, because if you'renot working towards an end goal
(08:41):
, what are you doing with yourtime?
How do you know how to baseyour decisions?
How do you know how to baseyour decisions?
How do you know how to spendyour time?
So, when you think about thatend goal, that three-year plan,
is what you're doing now goingto get you there sustainably?
Or is there a new opportunitythat will get you there faster?
Pivoting to the new opportunityis not failure.
(09:03):
It's evolving, and we alwayswant to be evolving in business.
Okay, something else you canlook at are the market
conditions around what you'redoing right now.
So sometimes there areconditions in the market that we
serve that make our currentoffer, our current service, just
(09:23):
not sustainable.
And I want you to be able tolook at this with a lot of
clarity, because we're nottalking about temporary
challenges.
We're not talking about, likenormal market fluctuations.
This is about shifts thatchange the entire viability of
what you're offering.
So, let's say, the platformthat you've been building your
(09:44):
business on, and for some of youthat's LinkedIn, for some of
you it's TikTok, for some it'sInstagram, facebook groups.
There's all different platformsthat we use.
But let's say, the platform thatyou've been building on changed
their algorithm and whateverthey did to it, because I can't
speak to an algorithm.
If I did, I would be much moresuccessful than I am.
But if they change theiralgorithm in a way that kills
(10:07):
your reach, your organic reachjust plummets.
Maybe it's something, maybethere's a regulatory change in
your industry.
You know, depending on what youdo, there are different laws,
different regulations that comeout Maybe there's something
you're offering that there was achange in that industry and
what you're doing isn't workinganymore.
Even economic conditions Rightnow B2B suffering terribly.
(10:31):
The economy is not great rightnow, so B2B is really suffering
for that.
So those economic conditionshave shifted the target market
in a B2B, which is a businessthat their priorities have
shifted.
So we want to be able to lookat those market conditions and
(10:52):
figure out like, okay, well, Icreated this, whatever it is
that you're working on, whateveryour service, your offer is,
you created that so that you canserve a certain group of people
.
If the market does not wantthat anymore or it's not
possible anymore, then you needto reevaluate and see which way
you're going to go with it.
(11:12):
Okay, another indicator.
Let's talk about fast success,because sometimes we need to
pivot because we've actuallyachieved our goals faster than
we expected and this might sounda little bit counterintuitive,
but sometimes we really do.
Maybe we've outgrown thestrategy that we started with
(11:33):
because the approach that gotyou to, I don't know.
Let's say, your goal was to getto six figures this year.
You wanted to break 100K.
Well, it's September, so maybeyou've already reached that and
you didn't think you would do ituntil December.
So you've got to 100K.
And now what?
Now, what are you going to do?
(11:58):
The strategy that got you there?
Your next goal isn't going toalso be to get to 100K, it's
going to be to get to 300 or 500.
So what got you to the 100isn't going to take you to 300.
Maybe the systems that workedwhen you had 20 clients.
They break down a little bitwhen you have 50 clients.
So the success that you'veachieved, that can require just
as much strategy and adjustmentto that strategy as failure can.
(12:22):
So don't only focus on where didyou go wrong when you feel like
you need to pivot.
Sometimes it is about where didI go right and I went so far
ahead of where I thought I wouldbe that I need to adjust my
strategy and figure out how tomove through this.
So those are some ways that youcan think through write down
those questions, figure out whatyou're going to, those
(12:45):
indicators.
I should say figure out whereyour business stands when it
comes to those indicators andfiguring out okay, do I need to
pivot or not?
Now we're going to talk aboutwhen not to pivot.
So the first thing here is thatyou've had one bad month,
because this is something I seeall the time.
Somebody puts something outthere they're like, nope, didn't
(13:06):
work.
Well, that's normal, especiallymonth to month, because monthly
fluctuations they're totallynormal in business, and so one
disappointing month doesn'tindicate a pattern and there
sometimes are even like seasonalpatterns or just temporary
things going on.
Those are very normal businesscycles.
(13:28):
So before you consider pivotingbased on those results, I want
you to think about quarterly.
What are the quarterly trendslook like?
What is year over yearcomparisons look like in your
business?
Do not look at the month andthink you have to make a
decision based on it.
Second thing, do not compareyourself to others.
(13:48):
How many of you out there aredoing this?
You are looking at other peopleon Instagram, looking at other
people on LinkedIn and they arekilling it and you're like, wait
a minute, that strategy isgreat, I'm going to put that in
my business.
But just because someone else'sstrategy works for them does
not mean your strategy is thewrong one.
Different approaches work fordifferent people.
(14:10):
They work for different markets, different business models,
different offers, all of it.
And when we pivot based oncomparison, that leads to
constant chasing of shinyobjects instead of building
systems that are sustainable andcreate a great foundation for
you to continue building on.
And we need that foundationbecause the next thing we're
(14:32):
going to talk about is a greatand I shouldn't say great, it's
not great.
The next thing we're going totalk about is a super popular
reason for people to pivot whenthey shouldn't, and that's
because you get bored and you'rebored and you're restless
because you don't have thatfoundation.
Boredom is not strategy.
Boredom is not a sign that youneed to change direction.
(14:53):
Building a successful businessinvolves doing repetitive things
consistently over time, and wewant to be creative.
We want to just spend our timein dream land right, that is
what fills our cup.
It feeds our soul.
As entrepreneurs, we just wantto be creating and creating and
(15:16):
creating.
But in order for that businessto then be successful, we do
have to do the bullshit inbetween that can be rote and
boring.
So if your strategy is workingbut it feels repetitive, that
doesn't mean it's failing orthat it's time to do something
else.
Because you're bored with it.
(15:36):
Maybe the solution is todelegate right.
Find someone else to do thosethings that are becoming too
boring quote unquote for you todo.
Okay.
Next is timing.
We spoke about this a littlebit when I was talking about
having one bad month, but thisis a little deeper than that,
(15:57):
because we need to give ourstrategy enough time to work,
and most business strategy needsat least six to 12 months to
show actual data that you canbase decisions off of.
So if you're constantlychanging direction every few
weeks, every few months, nothingis actually getting a fair test
.
And this is where at the top ofthis episode, when I was
(16:19):
talking about people who give upright before they're about to
be successful this is theproblem, because we start
something, we put it intopractice, we wait a little while
.
We're like like, oh, I guessthis isn't going to work.
Well, it's been like 10 weeks.
That's not enough time.
6 to 12 months to show data andto really see if something is
(16:41):
going to catch right.
Like we, as business owners,we're constantly kind of casting
the net right, putting thingsout there, seeing what's going
to come back to us, seeingwhat's going to catch, even if
you think about like a tire.
Like our business is constantlyrevolving like a tire and we're
just waiting for it to catchand get the traction it needs to
(17:04):
actually move forward on theroad.
That takes a long time inbusiness.
So how do we make this decisionsystematically?
How do we decide how to takethose indicators indicating when
to pivot, indicating when topersist?
How do we do that?
In a really easy, systematicway, and that's the framework
(17:26):
that I'm going to give you.
So I'm going to give you somesteps to take.
Write them down.
First thing I want you to dostep one define what working
looks like, because before youcan decide whether you're going
to pivot or you're going topersist, you have to pick your
criteria for success.
What metrics indicate that yourcurrent strategy is working?
(17:50):
What's the timeline that you'reusing to evaluate those results
?
And I want you to be specifichere.
Don't just say increase revenue, you know like.
How do you know if something'sworking?
You can't just write that it'sbringing in revenue.
That's not specific enough.
Generating 15K in monthlyrecurring revenue?
That's specific.
Generating month over monthgrowth for six revenue?
That's specific.
(18:10):
Generating month over monthgrowth for six months?
That's specific.
So define.
What does it mean to you thatsomething is working?
Write it down.
That's going to be adecision-making criteria for you
.
Step two I want you to assessthe quality of your
(18:31):
implementation, because have youever actually executed your
strategy completely andconsistently?
If you've been inconsistent,distracted, half-hearted, if
you're like just kind of goingthrough the motions, that's
working against you.
So be really honest.
I want you to.
This requires it's not what Iwant.
It actually requires honestself-assessment.
(18:53):
It's so easy to blame thestrategy when the real issue
it's you, it's the execution ofit.
So figure out the quality ofthe implementation that you're
doing and the execution thatyou're doing that you're doing.
Okay, step three we're going totalk about different indicators
now, and these are what we callleading indicators.
(19:13):
What a lot of business ownersdo?
They look at results, andresults are lagging indicators.
The results tell you whathappened already.
They're not going to be able topredict anything for you.
Leading indicators actuallypredict the future.
So if your goal is more clientsbut you're not generating leads
, the problem is probably yourmarketing, not your offer.
(19:35):
If you're getting the leads butnobody's converting, then it
could be your sales process, itcould be the price of your offer
.
The leading indicators need tobe looked at first before you
abandon the strategy.
So a lot of times people arelike, oh, my results are not
what I want them to be, so mystrategy doesn't work.
No, no, no.
Let's look at if you have afunnel running right now.
(19:57):
You can't just shut down thefunnel if it's not working for
you.
There are so many steps in afunnel.
We have to look and see whichone of those steps is where
things are falling through thecracks.
Okay, step four consider theopportunity cost.
What else could you be doingwith your time?
(20:18):
What else can you be doing withyour energy?
Is there a different approachthat you could be taking?
Is there a different approachthat you're not pursuing because
you're so committed to whatyou're doing right now?
What's the opportunity costthere?
And then consider the sunk cost, because how much time and
energy have you already investedin your current approach?
(20:39):
What would you lose by pivoting?
So you want to figure out thatopportunity cost.
If you're doing something andit's not working, what else
could you be doing?
Is there something that wouldbe better?
And if you are doing somethingand it's not working but you've
put so much time and energy in,would you lose too much by
pivoting?
That's something you reallyneed to consider and weigh the
(21:03):
pros and cons are.
Make a list if you have to.
None of these decisions shouldbe just made like willy-nilly
see which way the wind blowsthat day.
Not going to happen, okay.
The last step is to test, test,test, test.
Can you test whatever your newapproach is while maintaining
(21:23):
what you're doing already?
That is a great way to figureout if you need to pivot,
because if you're, say, runningFacebook ads and you're not
quite sure that a conversion isnot what you want it to be,
maybe you're generating leadsbut they're not converting,
maybe you're not getting theleads, so the lead magnet might
be the issue.
(21:43):
There's so many differentthings that go on there, but can
you run a little experiment tojust try something different
while you continue with what'shappening already?
Because if you just fullycommit to changing course, you
don't know where you're going tolose things and things are
going to fall through.
So sometimes the best approachis actually like a gradual
(22:06):
evolution instead of thisdramatic pivot.
So figure out if it's possibleto test while you still keep
your current system going.
I would do that, okay.
Lastly, what I'm going to say isthat I know there are people
out there who never pivot.
I know there are people outthere who pivot all the time.
(22:28):
Neither one of those groups aremore successful than the other
and neither one can ever becalled the most successful.
However, there are people outthere who make decisions
strategically and there arepeople out there who just make
decisions based on how they feelthat day.
Those two groups, there's aclear distinction in their
(22:51):
success.
The group that makes decisionsthrough strategic thinking will
always be more successful.
Somebody that makes theirdecisions based on feelings
might be lucky once in a while,but they'll never be able to
make that decision and thenevaluate the process if
(23:12):
something goes wrong.
So you always want to be makingyour decisions strategically,
especially when it comes withchanging direction.
How we want to be basing thaton clear criteria, on honest
assessment, on trueself-reflection of how we're
running our business, on trueself-reflection of how we're
running our business, becauseremember, persistence it's
(23:33):
really just stubbornness ifthere's no strategy there.
You'd never want to be abusiness owner who is just going
heads down because they're toostubborn to open their eyes and
see that there's a clear paththat they should be on that goes
in a different direction, clearpath that they should be on
that goes in a differentdirection.
(23:53):
So both of these things likepersisting without strategy,
stubborn pivoting without clearvision or just going with your
feelings.
That's inconsistent.
Both of those things can andwill kill your business if you
don't change that right now.
So the framework that we talkedabout today super simple.
(24:13):
You're going to define yourcriteria, assess your execution,
analyze the data, consider whatalternatives are out there for
you and test, test, test.
Then you make your decisionwith strategy instead of emotion
.
Your business is always goingto require both pivots and
persistence, always, forever andever.
(24:35):
The best thing for you to do isjust get comfortable knowing
which one to do at what time,and this framework is going to
help you do that.
So I hope that this was helpfulfor you.
If you have any questions,please just feel free to reach
out any single time.
You can always email me, jen atjencodycom, that's J-E-N-N at
(24:57):
J-E-N-N-C-O-D-Ycom.
So until next time, go outthere, use this information to
create your day and the businessthat you deserve, take care of
yourself, take care of eachother, and I will see you next
week.
Thanks so much, everybody.
Hey friends, welcome back to the Create your Day
podcast.
I'm your host, jen Cody.
Thank you so much for beinghere.
I hope you are enjoying yourSeptember, and I always think at
this time of year about thatmovie.
You've Got Mail, I think it is,and I don't remember if it was
Tom Hanks or Meg Ryan, but oneof them makes a reference to
buying a bouquet of sharpenedpencils.
(00:41):
Like it's such a great time ofyear Maybe not for some of us
that have little ones startingschool.
You know everybody there's twodifferent camps there who's
really happy the kids are goingback and getting back into a
routine, and who really preferswhen they can just, kind of like
, go where the wind takes themand have leisure time with their
family.
So, whichever camp you're in,I'm hoping that you are coming
(01:04):
to terms with the fact that weare headed towards the end of
the year and, as we head intowhat is almost the last 90 days
of 2025,.
I want to chat with you guysabout one of the really hard
decisions, one of many that weface in business, and that is
when to pivot or when to persist, like.
(01:27):
If you are faced with thatdilemma, which way do you choose
to go?
And how do you know which wayis the right way?
Because depending on thecircumstances, the answer is
different, right?
So let's just say, if you'vebeen working on something in
your business, maybe it's a newservice, maybe it's a new
strategy, maybe it's an entirelynew business model, but if it's
(01:49):
not working the way that youhoped it was going to, most of
the time we start to wonder likeis this a normal part of the
process?
Do I just need to have morepatience?
Do I need to be more persistent?
Do I just want to, like, buckledown, heads down and move
through this, or am I banging myhead against a wall and the
wall is actually never going tomove and it's a waste of time
(02:12):
for me to stay here.
So this is the decision thatreally does separate some of our
successes, because there are somany people who give up too
early and there are so manypeople who persist too long and
those strategies will never workand we don't know.
It's really hard when we're inthose moments to know which way
(02:32):
we're supposed to go.
So today, what I want to do isspeak to you about a framework
for making this decision,because we don't want to make
these decisions from anemotional place.
We really want to make themstrategically and intentionally,
and I want to start by sayingthat both of these options
pivoting and persisting they canbe right and they can be wrong,
(02:55):
totally dependent on thecircumstances.
That is so important tounderstand, because I have seen
people give up on things thatwere just about to work, because
I have seen people give up onthings that were just about to
work, and I've also seen peoplewaste months or years on things
that are just they're not theright alignment.
They're just not in alignmentwith what that person needs or
is working towards.
(03:16):
So the key for this frameworkis to actually have criteria to
make this decision that is basedon data, based on patterns and
not based on how we feel thatday when we wake up in the
morning.
So I want to start by talkingabout when to seriously consider
pivoting.
I think this is the harderchoice for most entrepreneurs
(03:38):
because we come from we're cutfrom this cloth that teaches
that entrepreneurship is aboutpushing through when other
people would have not pushedthrough.
That really does separate a lotof people who are successful
from the people who are notsuccessful in starting
businesses, running businessessuccessfully.
(04:00):
It is because we have that umwhat would it be called like
perseverance to buckle down anddo the work that other people
would just not take the time todo.
So when we're faced with thechoice to actually pivot and go
in a different direction, it canfeel a little alarming and
(04:20):
uncomfortable because it goesagainst what we think is what we
need to do to bring successinto our business.
So I want to give you some ofthis criteria so that, when you
are faced with this decision,you can sit down and actually
write down where you are in yourbusiness, answer these
(04:41):
questions and you'll be able tomake the decision much easier.
So let's start with an indicator.
What is something you can lookfor that tells you whether or
not you need to pivot or not?
And I want you to think aboutif you have consistently missed
your goal or your target for agood amount of time, for two or
(05:05):
more quarters, despite goodeffort.
That's the key phrase goodeffort, because if you've been
inconsistent, if you reallyhaven't been giving things your
full attention, if you've beenhalf-hearted in the way you're
implementing, then the problemhas nothing to do with your
strategy.
It's all in the execution,because you're not actually
executing the way that youshould.
But let's say you have beenconsistent and you've been
(05:30):
implementing a really wellthought out plan and you just
keep falling short.
You're setting targets andyou're falling short.
That's data, that's concrete.
It's facts.
So maybe your market is tellingyou something that you need to
pay attention to.
I have worked with someone whospent many, many months trying
to build a group coachingprogram and she was doing all
(05:51):
the right things, creatingreally good content, marketing
consistently.
Her messaging was great, butshe could never get anybody to
sign up.
I shouldn't say that she didget a few people to sign up, but
she had a hard time gettingmore than one person, one or two
people and you kind of needmore than one or two people when
you're trying to create a group.
(06:11):
So after two quarters of thepattern, we actually spent time
looking at the data instead ofjust being like, well, maybe
this isn't for you.
You know there's a lot of timesthat that's the way people look
at these things, but we lookedat the data.
Know there's a lot of timesthat that's the way people look
at these things, but we lookedat the data and she had an
audience that was responding,but it seems what they really
wanted was one-to-one.
(06:31):
They wanted more of her.
So what she did was pivot fromthat group coaching program and
she created a great high touchcoaching program and she
immediately started hitting thetargets that she was going for,
because it actually convertedpeople into clients when she was
able to pivot the strategy.
(06:53):
So that's the first thing youwant to pay attention to.
Are you missing the goals thatyou're setting for yourself?
Maybe the goals are the problemand it's not what you're doing
to get to the goals.
So that's an indicator that youmay want to consider a pivot.
There's another indicator youcan look at Look at the
opportunities that are going onin your market.
(07:14):
Are there new things that havecome out since you started that
might align more with the visionthat you have?
Because sometimes pivot it'snot about failing, which is how
we see it a lot of the time.
That's why I think this is sucha hard decision for so many
entrepreneurs, because, remember, I was saying, like we want to
be heads down, I can do this, Ican do this, I have the energy,
(07:38):
I have the stamina to see thisthrough.
That's what makes a goodentrepreneur.
So when we think about pivoting.
We're like well, that justmeans we're giving up and we're
failing at what we set out to do, but that's not always the case
.
What if it's about evolution?
What if you developed newcapabilities?
Maybe you really honed someskills that you didn't have
(07:58):
before.
Maybe your market has shiftedand the people that you serve
are looking for different things.
Maybe your clients have taughtyou something right.
Maybe you learned somethingabout your clients and there's a
different path that you can betaking to serving them.
The question that you want toask yourself is, if there's a
(08:18):
new opportunity, does that newopportunity get you to your
three-year goal faster and moresustainably than the path that
you're on?
Because everything we're doing,we're doing because of an end
result that we're trying to getto.
If you're not doing that, youneed to stop and back up quite a
few episodes, because if you'renot working towards an end goal
(08:41):
, what are you doing with yourtime?
How do you know how to baseyour decisions?
How do you know how to baseyour decisions?
How do you know how to spendyour time?
So, when you think about thatend goal, that three-year plan,
is what you're doing now goingto get you there sustainably?
Or is there a new opportunitythat will get you there faster?
Pivoting to the new opportunityis not failure.
(09:03):
It's evolving, and we alwayswant to be evolving in business.
Okay, something else you canlook at are the market
conditions around what you'redoing right now.
So sometimes there areconditions in the market that we
serve that make our currentoffer, our current service, just
(09:23):
not sustainable.
And I want you to be able tolook at this with a lot of
clarity, because we're nottalking about temporary
challenges.
We're not talking about, likenormal market fluctuations.
This is about shifts thatchange the entire viability of
what you're offering.
So, let's say, the platformthat you've been building your
(09:44):
business on, and for some of youthat's LinkedIn, for some of
you it's TikTok, for some it'sInstagram, facebook groups.
There's all different platformsthat we use.
But let's say, the platform thatyou've been building on changed
their algorithm and whateverthey did to it, because I can't
speak to an algorithm.
If I did, I would be much moresuccessful than I am.
But if they change theiralgorithm in a way that kills
(10:07):
your reach, your organic reachjust plummets.
Maybe it's something, maybethere's a regulatory change in
your industry.
You know, depending on what youdo, there are different laws,
different regulations that comeout Maybe there's something
you're offering that there was achange in that industry and
what you're doing isn't workinganymore.
Even economic conditions Rightnow B2B suffering terribly.
(10:31):
The economy is not great rightnow, so B2B is really suffering
for that.
So those economic conditionshave shifted the target market
in a B2B, which is a businessthat their priorities have
shifted.
So we want to be able to lookat those market conditions and
(10:52):
figure out like, okay, well, Icreated this, whatever it is
that you're working on, whateveryour service, your offer is,
you created that so that you canserve a certain group of people
.
If the market does not wantthat anymore or it's not
possible anymore, then you needto reevaluate and see which way
you're going to go with it.
(11:12):
Okay, another indicator.
Let's talk about fast success,because sometimes we need to
pivot because we've actuallyachieved our goals faster than
we expected and this might sounda little bit counterintuitive,
but sometimes we really do.
Maybe we've outgrown thestrategy that we started with
(11:33):
because the approach that gotyou to, I don't know.
Let's say, your goal was to getto six figures this year.
You wanted to break 100K.
Well, it's September, so maybeyou've already reached that and
you didn't think you would do ituntil December.
So you've got to 100K.
And now what?
Now, what are you going to do?
(11:58):
The strategy that got you there?
Your next goal isn't going toalso be to get to 100K, it's
going to be to get to 300 or 500.
So what got you to the 100isn't going to take you to 300.
Maybe the systems that workedwhen you had 20 clients.
They break down a little bitwhen you have 50 clients.
So the success that you'veachieved, that can require just
as much strategy and adjustmentto that strategy as failure can.
(12:22):
So don't only focus on where didyou go wrong when you feel like
you need to pivot.
Sometimes it is about where didI go right and I went so far
ahead of where I thought I wouldbe that I need to adjust my
strategy and figure out how tomove through this.
So those are some ways that youcan think through write down
those questions, figure out whatyou're going to, those
(12:45):
indicators.
I should say figure out whereyour business stands when it
comes to those indicators andfiguring out okay, do I need to
pivot or not?
Now we're going to talk aboutwhen not to pivot.
So the first thing here is thatyou've had one bad month,
because this is something I seeall the time.
Somebody puts something outthere they're like, nope, didn't
(13:06):
work.
Well, that's normal, especiallymonth to month, because monthly
fluctuations they're totallynormal in business, and so one
disappointing month doesn'tindicate a pattern and there
sometimes are even like seasonalpatterns or just temporary
things going on.
Those are very normal businesscycles.
(13:28):
So before you consider pivotingbased on those results, I want
you to think about quarterly.
What are the quarterly trendslook like?
What is year over yearcomparisons look like in your
business?
Do not look at the month andthink you have to make a
decision based on it.
Second thing, do not compareyourself to others.
(13:48):
How many of you out there aredoing this?
You are looking at other peopleon Instagram, looking at other
people on LinkedIn and they arekilling it and you're like, wait
a minute, that strategy isgreat, I'm going to put that in
my business.
But just because someone else'sstrategy works for them does
not mean your strategy is thewrong one.
Different approaches work fordifferent people.
(14:10):
They work for different markets, different business models,
different offers, all of it.
And when we pivot based oncomparison, that leads to
constant chasing of shinyobjects instead of building
systems that are sustainable andcreate a great foundation for
you to continue building on.
And we need that foundationbecause the next thing we're
(14:32):
going to talk about is a greatand I shouldn't say great, it's
not great.
The next thing we're going totalk about is a super popular
reason for people to pivot whenthey shouldn't, and that's
because you get bored and you'rebored and you're restless
because you don't have thatfoundation.
Boredom is not strategy.
Boredom is not a sign that youneed to change direction.
(14:53):
Building a successful businessinvolves doing repetitive things
consistently over time, and wewant to be creative.
We want to just spend our timein dream land right, that is
what fills our cup.
It feeds our soul.
As entrepreneurs, we just wantto be creating and creating and
(15:16):
creating.
But in order for that businessto then be successful, we do
have to do the bullshit inbetween that can be rote and
boring.
So if your strategy is workingbut it feels repetitive, that
doesn't mean it's failing orthat it's time to do something
else.
Because you're bored with it.
(15:36):
Maybe the solution is todelegate right.
Find someone else to do thosethings that are becoming too
boring quote unquote for you todo.
Okay.
Next is timing.
We spoke about this a littlebit when I was talking about
having one bad month, but thisis a little deeper than that,
(15:57):
because we need to give ourstrategy enough time to work,
and most business strategy needsat least six to 12 months to
show actual data that you canbase decisions off of.
So if you're constantlychanging direction every few
weeks, every few months, nothingis actually getting a fair test
.
And this is where at the top ofthis episode, when I was
(16:19):
talking about people who give upright before they're about to
be successful this is theproblem, because we start
something, we put it intopractice, we wait a little while
.
We're like like, oh, I guessthis isn't going to work.
Well, it's been like 10 weeks.
That's not enough time.
6 to 12 months to show data andto really see if something is
(16:41):
going to catch right.
Like we, as business owners,we're constantly kind of casting
the net right, putting thingsout there, seeing what's going
to come back to us, seeingwhat's going to catch, even if
you think about like a tire.
Like our business is constantlyrevolving like a tire and we're
just waiting for it to catchand get the traction it needs to
(17:04):
actually move forward on theroad.
That takes a long time inbusiness.
So how do we make this decisionsystematically?
How do we decide how to takethose indicators indicating when
to pivot, indicating when topersist?
How do we do that?
In a really easy, systematicway, and that's the framework
(17:26):
that I'm going to give you.
So I'm going to give you somesteps to take.
Write them down.
First thing I want you to dostep one define what working
looks like, because before youcan decide whether you're going
to pivot or you're going topersist, you have to pick your
criteria for success.
What metrics indicate that yourcurrent strategy is working?
(17:50):
What's the timeline that you'reusing to evaluate those results
?
And I want you to be specifichere.
Don't just say increase revenue, you know like.
How do you know if something'sworking?
You can't just write that it'sbringing in revenue.
That's not specific enough.
Generating 15K in monthlyrecurring revenue?
That's specific.
Generating month over monthgrowth for six revenue?
That's specific.
(18:10):
Generating month over monthgrowth for six months?
That's specific.
So define.
What does it mean to you thatsomething is working?
Write it down.
That's going to be adecision-making criteria for you
.
Step two I want you to assessthe quality of your
(18:31):
implementation, because have youever actually executed your
strategy completely andconsistently?
If you've been inconsistent,distracted, half-hearted, if
you're like just kind of goingthrough the motions, that's
working against you.
So be really honest.
I want you to.
This requires it's not what Iwant.
It actually requires honestself-assessment.
(18:53):
It's so easy to blame thestrategy when the real issue
it's you, it's the execution ofit.
So figure out the quality ofthe implementation that you're
doing and the execution thatyou're doing that you're doing.
Okay, step three we're going totalk about different indicators
now, and these are what we callleading indicators.
(19:13):
What a lot of business ownersdo?
They look at results, andresults are lagging indicators.
The results tell you whathappened already.
They're not going to be able topredict anything for you.
Leading indicators actuallypredict the future.
So if your goal is more clientsbut you're not generating leads
, the problem is probably yourmarketing, not your offer.
(19:35):
If you're getting the leads butnobody's converting, then it
could be your sales process, itcould be the price of your offer
.
The leading indicators need tobe looked at first before you
abandon the strategy.
So a lot of times people arelike, oh, my results are not
what I want them to be, so mystrategy doesn't work.
No, no, no.
Let's look at if you have afunnel running right now.
(19:57):
You can't just shut down thefunnel if it's not working for
you.
There are so many steps in afunnel.
We have to look and see whichone of those steps is where
things are falling through thecracks.
Okay, step four consider theopportunity cost.
What else could you be doingwith your time?
(20:18):
What else can you be doing withyour energy?
Is there a different approachthat you could be taking?
Is there a different approachthat you're not pursuing because
you're so committed to whatyou're doing right now?
What's the opportunity costthere?
And then consider the sunk cost, because how much time and
energy have you already investedin your current approach?
(20:39):
What would you lose by pivoting?
So you want to figure out thatopportunity cost.
If you're doing something andit's not working, what else
could you be doing?
Is there something that wouldbe better?
And if you are doing somethingand it's not working but you've
put so much time and energy in,would you lose too much by
pivoting?
That's something you reallyneed to consider and weigh the
(21:03):
pros and cons are.
Make a list if you have to.
None of these decisions shouldbe just made like willy-nilly
see which way the wind blowsthat day.
Not going to happen, okay.
The last step is to test, test,test, test.
Can you test whatever your newapproach is while maintaining
(21:23):
what you're doing already?
That is a great way to figureout if you need to pivot,
because if you're, say, runningFacebook ads and you're not
quite sure that a conversion isnot what you want it to be,
maybe you're generating leadsbut they're not converting,
maybe you're not getting theleads, so the lead magnet might
be the issue.
(21:43):
There's so many differentthings that go on there, but can
you run a little experiment tojust try something different
while you continue with what'shappening already?
Because if you just fullycommit to changing course, you
don't know where you're going tolose things and things are
going to fall through.
So sometimes the best approachis actually like a gradual
(22:06):
evolution instead of thisdramatic pivot.
So figure out if it's possibleto test while you still keep
your current system going.
I would do that, okay.
Lastly, what I'm going to say isthat I know there are people
out there who never pivot.
I know there are people outthere who pivot all the time.
(22:28):
Neither one of those groups aremore successful than the other
and neither one can ever becalled the most successful.
However, there are people outthere who make decisions
strategically and there arepeople out there who just make
decisions based on how they feelthat day.
Those two groups, there's aclear distinction in their
(22:51):
success.
The group that makes decisionsthrough strategic thinking will
always be more successful.
Somebody that makes theirdecisions based on feelings
might be lucky once in a while,but they'll never be able to
make that decision and thenevaluate the process if
(23:12):
something goes wrong.
So you always want to be makingyour decisions strategically,
especially when it comes withchanging direction.
How we want to be basing thaton clear criteria, on honest
assessment, on trueself-reflection of how we're
running our business, on trueself-reflection of how we're
running our business, becauseremember, persistence it's
(23:33):
really just stubbornness ifthere's no strategy there.
You'd never want to be abusiness owner who is just going
heads down because they're toostubborn to open their eyes and
see that there's a clear paththat they should be on that goes
in a different direction, clearpath that they should be on
that goes in a differentdirection.
(23:53):
So both of these things likepersisting without strategy,
stubborn pivoting without clearvision or just going with your
feelings.
That's inconsistent.
Both of those things can andwill kill your business if you
don't change that right now.
So the framework that we talkedabout today super simple.
(24:13):
You're going to define yourcriteria, assess your execution,
analyze the data, consider whatalternatives are out there for
you and test, test, test.
Then you make your decisionwith strategy instead of emotion
.
Your business is always goingto require both pivots and
persistence, always, forever andever.
(24:35):
The best thing for you to do isjust get comfortable knowing
which one to do at what time,and this framework is going to
help you do that.
So I hope that this was helpfulfor you.
If you have any questions,please just feel free to reach
out any single time.
You can always email me, jen atjencodycom, that's J-E-N-N at
(24:57):
J-E-N-N-C-O-D-Ycom.
So until next time, go outthere, use this information to
create your day and the businessthat you deserve, take care of
yourself, take care of eachother, and I will see you next
week.
Thanks so much, everybody.
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