E62: Redirection is not Failure

When life shut the doors on my bustling bakery, I was forced to look through a window I'd never noticed before. It's a tale not of defeat, but of triumph, I recount my pivot from pastry chef to innovative entrepreneur amidst injury and a global pandemic. With the birth of a subscription box service, a foray into online teaching, and the discovery of a passion for food photography, I learned that redirection can spell success, not failure. Join me as I unpack the lessons learned from these unexpected turns, and how they sculpted a new creative path that's left a lasting impression on my life.

Harnessing the power of social media can be daunting, but what if I told you that discipline is the key to unlocking its potential without losing your mind—or your productivity? In our latest episode, you'll hear how I strategically limit my online engagement to under two hours a day, focusing on meaningful interactions and effective business management. This decision isn't just about reclaiming time, but about embracing the opportunities that redirection brings, both personally and professionally. Let this conversation be your guide, as we explore how the redirections we face can lead to personal growth and a more profound impact on the world around us.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Redirection Is Not Failure
• 12:29 Redirection

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Hey friends, welcome back to another episode of the Positive Voice podcast. I am your host, coach Ev Kim. I am so honored, so blessed and so grateful that you have taken the time to spend this a little bit out of your day with me. So y'all ready for today. So in the last episode and thank you for rocking with me. If you listened to the last few episodes In the last one we did a visionary catalyst rewind.

Speaker 1: 1:03

So prior to having the Positive Voice podcast, I had a podcast called the Visionary Catalyst Podcast, and the visionary catalyst podcast was the CCKing people in the same way that I do now. But one of my former coaching students told me I was the positive voice in her head. That's when I knew I needed to change and kind of rebrand the podcast and make it the Positive Voice podcast. So that's how we got here and that's the last episode you guys listened to. But that particular episode was about the power of walking away for personal growth and I want to kind of pick that up a year later. So that podcast clearly was done over a year ago, but the information in it is still good. So let's talk about this from a CCK perspective a year later, right? So the title of this one is Redirection Is Not Failure, and it's titled this For A Reason. So back in 2020, we talked so much about the pivot and the power of the pivot. Now everybody needed to pivot their business and pivot this and pivot that, like that is a word that can go, with overwhelm and moist, to the pits of hell and the depths of dictionary hell, because I hate those words. Okay, that's okay. I don't know if you need to, but if you know, you know. Now, anyway, here's my thoughts on why redirection is not a failure. A lot of times, what I've noticed, like as a coach, the things that I'm noticing about clients is that people are afraid of not only failing but succeeding, and I'm not afraid of either. So I am not afraid of failure because failing means that I tried. Failing also means that I learned some very valuable lessons to move on to my next endeavor. So when my bakery closed in 2020, that was not a failure. My bakery closed because I was injured and I had to medically go on, leave indefinitely. Okay, but if I were to say that me not opening the cookie emporium the way I had planned on it and for those of you who don't know that story.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Let me give you a brief synopsis. On March 13th Friday, march 13th of 2020. I took my very well done business plan to a local small business administration place a nonprofit that helps small business owners get loans, grants and things of the sort and I've been going through this process for many months and meeting with several people and doing all the things I needed to do, and that Friday I went in, I handed the man my thing, I gave him my pitch and I could answer all of his questions and within 20 minutes, he looked at me and he said I think this is a rock solid plan and I think we can move forward. That was on Friday, march 13th. Do y'all know what happened the next day? Covid Friends, friends, I worked for months creating this business plan and really imagining this bakery and all the bells and whistles that were going to be in it and how many lives were going to be changed by me having this bakery. And we went into quarantine. So they told me wait it out, it could be two weeks, it could be a month, yada, yada, yada. Here we are, four years later. So I put all my time, my energy, my work, my effort into what I thought was going to be my future and I can tell you there's literally nothing in my life right now. That was in my life four years ago. I'm not in the same relationship. I don't live in the same place. My kids are much older. You know, everything in my life is different, everything about my life. I'm not even in the same business. Everything about my life is different, and it was indeed a redirection.

Speaker 1: 5:17

If I had not number one, if I had not gone through all those things, gotten approved for you know all the things, and then COVID happened, if I had not experienced it in that way, I'm not sure that I would have walked away from that situation with the amount of confidence that I did. Okay, I can't control a global pandemic. So I knew that, me not being able to open this destination bakery in Metro Atlanta. I knew that wasn't my fault. We blamed that on a global pandemic. I ain't gonna do with that. So the amount of confidence that I walked away from that situation was much higher than it would have been if the day before this man had told me no, and then we went into a pandemic. Right, I probably would have changed my focus to being focused so hard on how do I make this happen after the pandemic is over, and I can't imagine how much of my life I would have wasted Now because I came out of that situation with the okay, well, I know my ideas are good, I know I can get funding.

Speaker 1: 6:31

Let me think of how I can quote, unquote, pivot and do something different. And so I came up with a subscription box. I started teaching classes online. I was essentially like Uber Eats, but with cookies, and actually kind of love that part just being able to drive up people's houses, drop cookie grams on their doors and leave and I have to talk to customers. That was kind of fun. But then I was injured and I couldn't do it anymore and so I moved into food photography and that was beautiful and is wonderful and has paid my bills for the last couple of years and I've had some really, really breakout months and dealing with that, I've met a lot of people. I've met a lot of bloggers who make a lot of money, who have taught me things along the way, and all of these things have just kind of compounded and turned me into the person that I am now.

Speaker 1: 7:25

Right, and when you think about the things you've been through the things that you could consider a failure, the things in which you could kind of sit with and be disappointed in yourself. I don't get disappointed in myself. I think I get disappointed when I don't meet a sales goal, but as far as me, thinking that my ideas are stupid or my ideas don't work, yeah, that's not a lot of thinking for me. I am always asking the universe for unlimited access to creativity, as well as the ability to take inspired action. I always say I am open to unexpected gifts from the universe. These are my affirmations, these are my mantras that I say on a daily basis, so that the universe knows and understands that I don't have to be in the driver's seat of this. We can co-create my life, my existence and what my business is going to do, and I can assure you that a lot of the things that I think about for my business, a lot of the things that are coming to fruition right now oh, I could not have thought of this by myself. Not at all.

Speaker 1: 8:36

There's literally no way the fact that when I say something, somebody in my life appears that can make this thing happen, like you know, when you are fully tapped in and as I tell my son and I have been saying this frequently like I'm tapped in. I have reached a point where me and the universe are one accord. I have tapped into something special, and it is not a place I've ever been in before. Yes, I've manifested before. Yes, I manifested a new apartment and I live in the utopia and all of those things, but this level of manifestation that's happening right now, this is a little different for me, and so the thing that I need you to understand is redirection is not failure.

Speaker 1: 9:26

Just because you need to reroute how you are going to make something come to pass doesn't mean you failed. If it takes you a little longer than you thought, that's okay. What are you learning about yourself in this moment? Like, seriously, what are you learning about yourself through this process, as you are going through the redirection, as you are preparing to get back into alignment and get back on the journey and move forward? You have to understand that regardless like okay, in order for you to move forward, whether you are in alignment or out of alignment, in order for you to move forward, it requires you to abandon the position you are currently in. You cannot take one step forward without leaving the place you are in right now, and for those of you who are afraid of failure or afraid of success, and so you are frozen in place, here's what I need to tell you beloved, you must abandon the position you are in in order to move forward. That doesn't mean it's bad. If you decide that you are comfortable where you are and you don't want to take another step forward, that's going to be a problem. That is, you limiting the things that you can produce in the earth. Even if it's one step forward, you still gotta move. You've still gotta abandon the place that you were in.

Speaker 1: 11:17

For some of you, you need to abandon the mindset. You need to abandon some relationships. You need to abandon some friendships. You need to abandon your addiction to your cell phone, right, you need to abandon your addiction to swiping your debit card. Abandon that addiction to buying things on Amazon. There are things that you are gonna have to leave behind in order to move forward.

Speaker 1: 11:42

You might have to leave behind a mindset that you don't have time to do something. Yes, you do. You have the time. You got the same 24 hours in your day that I do, and I can assure you I use my time wisely On the days that I don't, it's scheduled.

Speaker 1: 12:00

Hear me and hear me. Well, do I schedule in scrolling for no reason? Yes, yes, I do. There are certain times that I can or cannot binge watch a show, that I can or cannot be on TikTok for two hours. Like, I pop onto TikTok, I make a post, I might scroll for five minutes and then I'm back off doing other things. Like, I have put myself on a schedule.

Speaker 1: 12:30

If you look in your phone and look at how much social media usage you've had I just want you to look at it you might be shocked at what it says. Mine typically stays between nine and ten hours a week, unless it's a day I do not feel well and I'm not getting out of my bed, and then it might go up to 13 to 15 hours a week, but that's high. Other than that, it is not gonna do that, because I like to limit it per day to under two hours, and that includes the time that I'm spending on social media making my own posts or engaging in my Facebook groups or answering questions in my coaching group. So all of that is included.

Speaker 1: 13:07

This is not just me on the internet. For the sake of being on the internet. I have had to learn how to become disciplined in showing up for myself and showing up in business, and the thing that makes this easier for me is the idea that redirection is not Failure, is an opportunity for me to do something better, for me to do something bigger, for me to do something that is more impactful than whatever it was I thought I was going to do in the first place. So if you were someone who was on that journey and you need the encouragement to know that you are not feeling that things can happen, I want you to know Redirection is not failure. I'll talk to you guys soon. Have a beautiful day.