E70: Is it time to Pivot?

Ever faced a crossroads where sticking to the familiar just didn't feel right anymore? This episode is a treasure trove of life lessons, illustrating how critical it is to listen to that small voice within when it whispers that it's time for a change. I'll walk you through the pivotal moments of my journey, shedding light on how to recognize the signs that it's time to realign your professional path with your deepest values and aspirations.

We explore not just the act of pivoting, but the art of it—how embracing the power of self-alignment can shape a fulfilling existence. I open up about the importance of feeling at home in your own skin, for it's only then that we can truly be ourselves around others. Dive into my narrative as I share the three unmistakable signs that you're veering off course and how to steer back to a life that resonates with your core beliefs. This isn't just my story; it's a call to those who sense a shift on their horizon, to those who dare to align their actions with their evolving life story. So, lend an ear and perhaps you'll find the courage to make the changes that will keep you on the path to your life's purpose and passions.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Harnessing the Power of the Pivot
• 14:03 Harnessing the Power of Self-Alignment

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:40

Have you ever found yourself questioning whether or not it was time to pivot? Have you ever wondered if you should quit? Have you ever wondered if maybe you shouldn't quit but you should try doing your business differently? Or maybe you've questioned if the sacrifices of entrepreneurship are going to be worth it in the end? If you answered yes to any of these questions, then this episode is for you. I'm Coach Chef Kim, an entrepreneurial lifestyle and wellness coach and your favorite hope dealer.

Speaker 1: 1:09

I want to welcome you to the Positive Voice podcast. On today's episode, we will focus our energy on harnessing the power of the pivot. The way that we're going to do that is that we are going to take a look at three things Number one, knowing when it's time to pivot. Number two, strategically aligning your thoughts and actions with your values. And number three, by being able to identify when you are in or out of alignment. By the end of this episode, you will be more clear on understanding your own tuition so that you can trust it to know when it's necessary to make a pivot. So first, let's start with knowing when it's time to pivot. According to a 2020 Harvard Business Review article, it states that Twitter launched as a podcast directory, yelp began as an automated email service and YouTube was once a dating site. Research shows that new ventures that reinvent their business even multiple times cut their chances of failure by conserving resources while continuing to learn more about customers, business partners and new technologies. So if pivoting worked for Twitter, yelp and YouTube, what makes you think it won't work for you?

Speaker 1: 2:26

I am someone who is not lost on pivoting. I know what pivoting is, I know what it feels like and I'm very, very good at rebranding, at pivoting, at taking my audience on the journey with me audience on the journey with me and so what I want to give to you today are a couple of ways that you will be able to navigate life as an entrepreneur, so that you know when it's time to pivot. So, number one knowing when it's time to pivot. I like to do this in two ways the know versus the knowing. So if you are receiving an infinite amount of no's, I mean whatever it is you're trying to do is blocked left, right up down. There is no way for you to make this happen. You've tried multiple different things, but nothing is working. When you feel absolutely horrible, when you think about whatever this business idea is More than likely, somebody else told you it was a good idea for you. You've always been good at this. This is something you should do. How would I know about this?

Speaker 1: 3:34

Let me give you a little bit of insight into my life. I am someone who is forever reinventing and forever growing, and I believe that there are seasons in your life and at one particular season in my life, I was a pastry chef. Now, based on the student loan debt, I'm a pastry chef for the rest of my life, but I no longer actively do it, and one of the things that I realized when I retired was that a lot of people could not understand why I retired. It didn't make sense. You were so good. There's no reason for you to retire. And the reality was is that it was out of alignment with my future trajectory. For one and two, my hands don't work the way they used to, so me trying to force my body to do things that it can no longer do doesn't actually make any sense, so it was just a hard. No, that this is not something I could do anymore in my life. Yes, I'm good at it. Yes, when I have time and patience and the energy to do it, I can still create beautiful desserts and wedding cakes and things of the sort, but I am no longer consistent in that because my body is no longer able to do those things, and so that's a hard no on me still running a business as though I can still create in the way that I used to. So if you are to a point where maybe the grace for that season has run out and you have spent a lot of time learning things, doing things, but it just doesn't work anymore, that's a no. Now, the second part to this is the knowing. So I can give you another example of this.

Speaker 1: 5:16

When I made the pivot from pastry chef into coaching, I didn't really have to think about it Like things just kind of come to me really easily. Those of you who have listened to the podcast for a while, you are aware that I was driving home on a 12 hour trip from Miami a couple of years ago and was like I want to be a life coach, and a month later I was in school learning, and so I had had my coaching practice at this point for a couple of years. And in September of 2023, I woke up on a Thursday morning and I felt that coaching in the way that I was coaching was complete. I felt that it was done. I felt that I had nothing more to offer in that particular iteration of it and so I closed it. I knew that there was like no way for me to get around it. I knew that there was like no way for me to get around it. Like I woke up and I knew that it was time to let it go. No explanation didn't make any sense, but I followed the unction, I followed the nudge that was inside of me. I closed it.

Speaker 1: 6:22

A month later, my dad was diagnosed with stage four cancer and three weeks later he passed away. If I had not followed the knowing that morning when I woke up that I needed to close my coaching practice, I would not have been readily available a month later in the way that I needed to be for my family Now after my father passed away. I had this very strong, and so I launched a whole different coaching practice that focused on things really, really differently and it focused on living your life as an entrepreneur in a way that would provide balance, in a way that would allow you to heal, in a way that would allow you to attract abundance into your life, and it was all from the perspective of my new life circumstance, so hopefully you're still tracking with me. I've shown you how businesses have made pivots and it has worked for them. So we've talked about Twitter, yelp and YouTube making those pivots and how that worked for them in the end, and then understanding the difference between no, the universe is closing all the doors in your face or the grace has run out for that season and you should let it go and then the knowing, that unction from the inside that lets you know this is no longer aligned. So that is a perfect segue into number two strategically align your thoughts or your behaviors with your values.

Speaker 1: 7:49

Now, this one, I think, is a big one and I think, is often overlooked. Here's my question for you Do you know what your values are? So values are defined as the belief and principles that you believe are important in the way that you live and work. Values that I, as an entrepreneur and as a coach, hold near and dear to my heart are passion If I'm not passionate about the project, we're not doing it. Innovation I am constantly looking for ways to innovate. Life is changing so quickly, so vastly. You must always be ready to innovate what you are doing to meet the demands and the needs of your clientele.

Speaker 1: 8:27

Integrity Everything I do, I operate in integrity and that is just. It's a hard stop for me if someone enters my life or enters into my business realm and they are not operating in integrity. Influence I am very aware that, like there's a difference between I want to be popular and be an influencer and me wanting to influence every single person I come in contact with. I believe that my influence will change nations, it will change bloodlines, and so that, for me, is a value that I hold near and dear. I also believe in resilience. You just cannot let the world knock you down all the time. And then I am a customer focused change agent that believes in risk-taking and having the social responsibility to know that everything that I do, every time I open my mouth, every entrepreneur I encounter, whatever it is that I'm imparting it to them, it is bigger than me. I just gave you a list of all my values. Are you able to explain that to another person? What things hold you accountable for the way that you are operating in business?

Speaker 1: 9:35

Now, in this episode, we are identifying three ways to know when it is necessary to pivot. First, understanding the know and the knowing when it's time to pivot. Two, strategically aligning your thoughts and your actions with your values. And then, the last way for you to be able to know when it's time to pivot is when you're out of alignment. Now, this is something I talk about a lot inside of my emergence coaching program, and it's for you to know when you are in or out of alignment. So I'm going to give you three ways that it should make it a little bit easier for you to know when you are in or out of alignment.

Speaker 1: 10:10

The more you do this work, the more familiar you become with yourself. The more inner work and spiritual work that you do on yourself, the easier it is for you to be able to like oh, I'm out of alignment right now. Let me readjust what I'm doing. For me, it's really, really easy, but a couple of years ago, when I first started, it took me a minute to get there, and so we're going to account for that, all right.

Speaker 1: 10:32

So here are three ways for you to know when you are in or out of alignment. Number one inner turmoil. I need you to pay attention to the feelings of anxiety, dissatisfaction with your life, with your business. Unrest, baby, are you not sleeping? If you are not sleeping at night, anxiety is keeping you up. Dissatisfaction that is persistent. Those are things you need to be paying attention to, okay, particularly when they are dealing with your internal and external circumstances. While everything that happens to you is not your fault, it is all your responsibility to heal from it. So when you are out of alignment, you may feel disconnected from yourself. You may feel disconnected from the mission and the vision of your business. You may feel disconnected from your higher purpose, and that's when you need to stop, take a moment to yourself and then figure out what do I need to do next?

Speaker 1: 11:33

Number two, another way for you to know when you are out of alignment is do you lack joy and fulfillment? Chasing joy is something that I teach people and require inside of my 90 day emergence coaching program. Like it's not an option. We are chasing joy. What does that mean? It means you might just go sit outside by the pool and color. It means you might read romance novels. It means you go take a dance class. It means that you go take a pottery class. It means you go take a cooking class. It means that you go sit and do a silent book club. Did y'all know that was a thing? Because it is. I just had this random idea one day and I was like man, you know, I really love. I would love to be able to go sit and read books in a community of other people, but nobody talked to me and when I said it it was kind of a joke until my kids when they found it on TikTok. Silent book clubs are a thing. So if you're a person like me who wants to read, you don't want nobody to talk to you, but you want to have that community. It exists. Look it up, all right. So you are going to be chasing joy. So if you are lacking joy and fulfillment in your life, that lets me know you're out of alignment. So I need you to pay attention to that.

Speaker 1: 12:41

And then, lastly, do you have strained relationships and a whole lot of conflict with the people you interact with all the time? We can blame things on other people, but at some point this is the question I want you to ask yourself what if it isn't them? What if it isn't them? It can be everybody right, like everybody can't leave you. Everybody can't hate you. It can't be everybody else's fault as to why all of your relationships are strained Like that doesn't make any sense. If you are the common denominator in all of these strained relationships, well, baby, come real close and listen. You're the drama. You're the drama. It's your fault, it is, it is. And this is where we are now gonna stop and we're gonna realize.

Speaker 1: 13:31

Number one we're out of alignment because we have strained relationships and conflict with every single person who comes into our life, whether it's personal or professional. So that means we need to do some inner work. The whole world can't be wrong. It just it doesn't work like that. So let's take some personal accountability and let's go through some steps of identifying where we are out of alignment, what is making us unhappy, and let's start taking steps to do things that put us into alignment, like chasing joy, like spending time with yourself in order to ease your inner turmoil.

Speaker 1: 14:04

Here's another thing If you Don't spend time with you alone, why would somebody else want to spend time with you? I just want you to sit with that one for two seconds. If you don't want to be alone with you, neither does anyone else. So those are three ways for you to be able to identify when you are out of alignment. There are more ways, but those are just three really, really easy ones that seem to be the most common for a lot of people when you're trying to figure out if you are in and out of alignment.

Speaker 1: 14:36

So, just to recap everything that we have discussed today, I gave you three steps on knowing when it's time to harness the power of the pivot. Number one understanding the know and the knowing when it's time to pivot. Number two strategically aligning your thoughts and your actions with your values. If you are not doing things that align with the person you want to be known as in your legacy, I need you to do something else. And then, lastly, you need to be able to identify when you are out of alignment. If you can take heed to these three things, you will be clearer on understanding your own intuition, you will be able to trust yourself more and you will know when you are in and out of alignment. If you found this episode helpful, please give us a follow, a like and a review, and if you know someone who needs to hear this information, please, please, pass this on to them. Thank you so much for joining me on the Positive Voice podcast, and don't forget to chase the joy friends.