Trusting Your Pivot: When Your Next Business Move Feels Too Simple

INTRO: [00:00:00] After generating over a million dollars in sales and selling one of her businesses with a single email, your host, Catherine Thompson takes an unconventional approach to marketing and sales. So if you're ready to tap into a more powerful way to be seen, heard, and a sought after entrepreneur in your industry without having to spend endless hours marketing your business and chasing clients, you're in the right place.

Be the sought after entrepreneur podcast is here to help you ditch the cookie cutter one size fits all approach to marketing and use your unique energy to effortlessly attract the most aligned clients. When you do this, you can spend less time marketing your business and more time doing your soul work and enjoying the richness of your life.

Welcome to be the sought after entrepreneur podcast, and here's your host, Kathryn Thompson. 

Kathryn Thompson: Hey, hey, SuperSnowTheater2 in this week's episode. I cannot wait to dive into today's topic [00:01:00] because I'm going to be building off of last week's episode. And if you haven't tuned into last week's episode, I highly suggest that you do that.

The reason I want to build on this is because I got a lot of feedback on that episode. Many of you reached out to me in private DMs, many of you emailed, many of you commented, all those sorts of things. And when I received that type of feedback, I always know that there is more to the conversation that we need to continue to have.

And so that's why I want to do that. Now just to give you some Coles notes summary of that and not to ruin the episode, if you haven't listened to it is I just really shared a story of a client of mine who had been really hustling hard in her business for many months and things just weren't clicking.

Like she was seeing results, but everything really kind of felt hard and it didn't really feel like it was naturally flowing to her. We knew the messaging was on point. We knew the offer was on point, but for whatever reason, things weren't clicking. And I'm not going to share too much of the episodes. I want you to actually go listen to it.

And I gave her a piece of advice that I don't know [00:02:00] of any other business coach that would have given her that advice, to be honest with you. But I gave her this really counter intuitive advice, which is what I'm. Known for many people will say to me. I love the way your brain thinks I never expected you to say that which is why I love the way you that your brain things I never expected you to advise me on this.

And so I Really really want you to listen to it. But what ended up happening was from that piece of advice Things drastically changed in her business and have drastically changed since. And I'm going to be doing a full interview with her, uh, so that you can hear more of her story, but it's really epic and, and a really cool story.

And so I want to bridge on that. conversation because many of you reach out to me and we're like, you know, I so resonate with this. I think, you know, this particular type of advice is really underrated. Uh, we need to be doing more of it, that sort of thing. But also lots of people that have reached out to me who I've, I've had conversations with and just given my [00:03:00] advice here and there, not necessarily clients, but have just shared my wisdom in the way that I have, who reached out and were like, you know from the last time we chatted.

Things have changed a lot in my business. I'm starting to see opportunities flow to me. I'm getting paid for things now. I'm, you know, I have clients coming into my world. I'm able to host a retreat. All of these really beautiful things are starting to happen for a lot of people that I've been having conversations with.

And I just think it's really, really beautiful. And it's this shift that ends up happening, that things just start to click into gear. And so. I want to build on this conversation because I'm also having many conversations with clients who are at that stage now where they've been hustling hard in business.

Maybe they've created the success that they've desired, but they're feeling maybe burnt out or unfulfilled, or they're like, this isn't quite it. And. Sometimes when we build success, I'll just be really honest with you. Sometimes we build these [00:04:00] layers of success within our life and our business and relationships.

And then we get to a point where our soul is saying, okay, I'm going to invite you now to continue to expand and to grow and to evolve and therefore our offers and the way our business looks and how it's run will evolve and expand and change. And that can be for a variety of reasons. Maybe like I said, your soul's asking you to evolve.

Maybe you've built something to date that really wasn't actually in alignment and you've, you've experienced success, but again, it feels hard and maybe you're burnt out by it. Maybe the season of your life is changing. Maybe you're at a stage of your life where you want simple, you want ease. You want.

You don't have the same ambition and motivation as you did in your twenties and thirties, and that's totally okay, right? These evolutions and expansion is all part of this human experience. And if you're an entrepreneur, I don't think that drive within you to stay complacent with maybe what you've built.

I don't think that really exists with a lot of entrepreneurs. I think for [00:05:00] many of us. We are on this continual cycle of growth and evolution and expansion and therefore what we bring to the world and what we create and what we share is the driving force behind what we do. And so we're motivated by that more than anything.

We're motivated to create and to be creative and innovative and all those sorts of things. And so. A lot of people that I'm talking to are now at that stage in their business where they're wanting to pivot and they're wanting to refine and evolve. Maybe their messaging, maybe their offer, maybe the way in which they do business, maybe.

Well, how they do business, maybe and what they offer. Maybe they've taken additional training or courses or certification that have allowed them to add another layer to their coaching or mentorship or consulting or whatever it might be. And one of the biggest things that I. Have seen in these conversations and why many of us [00:06:00] don't move or take action towards this pivot towards this change is because we question whether or not what it is that we are offering will be of value, specifically because I think a lot of us get to a certain place in our business where we've tried a lot of things and we've done a lot of things, And maybe overcomplicated a lot of things.

I think in the early stages of business, we tend to overcomplicate and that can look like, you know, hiring out a team that isn't really necessary at that stage of business or building a really complicated funnel that has multiple steps, upsells, side sells, downsells, or starting with a low ticket to then enter a mid ticket to then enter a high ticket.

Like these are all additional steps in the offerings, in the sales and the marketing. All that jazz could be over complicated for some [00:07:00] people. Maybe some people that's the way they like it, or maybe it's the way the program or the course or the experience is delivered. I see this a lot, right? Where people are putting together an offer where they're promising a certain transformation and then they throw the kitchen sink into the offer.

Like into the course material and I'm guilty of this. I've done that. I'd rather over deliver, but sometimes in my past I've over delivered and tried to overcompensate by delivering so much value that then ends up overwhelming, but also isn't necessary for somebody to achieve the outcome. So the offer wasn't really streamlined in terms of the delivery of it.

That can be overcomplicated, right? It could be the way in which we communicate to people, all these different processes in place to, to communicate at different points in time and all the things. So I think in the early stages, and as we move on in business, we start to refine and we start to streamline and we start to [00:08:00] optimize and improve the way we do things.

And what I'm hearing right now is this deep, deep craving for simplicity and simplicity in how we deliver our offers, simplicity on how we market and sell our offers, simplicity on all of it. I'm also hearing a lot of people starting to be very intentional with where they're putting their time and therefore their money.

If you listen to a couple episodes back where I talked about our relationship with time and money, That episode will really hone in and highlight what I'm kind of talking about here, that a lot of people are really getting intentional going what really matters, and that is all I'm going to focus on right now, and everything else I'm going to purge, cut, get rid of, that sort of thing.

And so those are sort of the themes that I'm hearing and seeing, and therefore. A lot of the people that are coming to me are saying, Here's what I want to [00:09:00] offer, but it feels so simple. How do I put a price tag on that? Because is this really as valuable as the price I'm putting on it? And I find that such an interesting question, because I think in our day and age right now, in the information age, And the way in which courses and online knowledge and all that stuff has been sold has been sold with the idea of here's all of the things you're gonna get for X dollars.

It's a steal of a deal. What you see here seems like it should be a 10, 000 or 20, 000 offer, but you're gonna get it for 1, 000 or 2, 000 or 3, 000, which makes it an absolute no brainer psychologically, right? But in order to do that, we have to throw the kitchen sink at the offer. And those offers look like really comprehensive and detailed modules with a ton of information, a ton of knowledge, a ton of workbooks [00:10:00] and frameworks and step by steps and all of the things.

Plus all of the bonuses, right? And some offers I've seen have like 10 bonuses or they've partnered with other affiliates and then they're offering. There are 10 things on top of this. And before you know it, you've got this thing that you'll never get through. And majority of people probably don't get through.

And so then how is that really valuable? If we aren't actually taking in the content and taking in the information and taking in the, the knowledge, then to me, the value and the price that we've put on it really. Isn't indicative anyways because we're not actually able to digest or consume the amount of information there But also do we need to?

Do we need to? Does this actually matter? Is this information and all these bonuses and all the things, are those the things that are actually going to support us? To solve the solution [00:11:00] that's being promised in the first place from what I have seen as an outsider looking in never I think it's way too much information Way too much shit that we're expecting people to consume and I'm not saying that we don't want to hone in on mastery, but I think mastery comes over time and it comes When we're not distracted by all of the other things and I have yet to see an offer that has all these bonuses just gonna put this out there and I've reviewed a lot.

I've yet to see one. That I'm like, we need all of this right now, or these are all the things that I need in order to solve the solution. What I have witnessed about bonuses is that the bonuses are offered to help the buyer overcome a limiting belief around the offer in the first place. For example, if you're like.

I don't actually have the time to do X, Y, and Z, or this is great. I'm going to [00:12:00] learn this skill or this piece of information, but then I'm going to have to implement and take the time to do that. And then they're like, well, here's a bonus with templates and frameworks and scripts so that you don't actually have to take any time.

It'll save you time in the. In the long run, right? So the bonuses are actually designed to help overcome buying constraints, not actually compliment and support the offer in the first place, if that makes sense. Right. And so why I'm sharing this with you is because I think the idea of selling something simple, like.

I don't know, an eight week experience where we're going to sit and contemplate one thing or one theme or whatnot and it's like, but is that enough? Right? Is that enough for somebody to pay for? And I would love to flip the script because I think there's a lot of practitioners out there, consultants, coaches, that I'm working with right [00:13:00] now who quite literally could change industry, landscape.

human behavior and really create an impact. But where they're hung up is the fact that what they feel like is the simple solution, the taking away, right? Like if, and take not taking away from a limiting belief perspective, but like, for example, in the last episode, the counterintuitive approach that I offered my client was like, can we just pause for 30 days?

Like if. You have the capacity. Can we just stop what we're doing and just breathe for a hot second? That is really counterintuitive given the current model we currently live in and culture we live in, right? Which is hyper productivity. Go, go, go. Don't stop. Don't rest. Hustle hard, work hard. That's the only way to create success.

If you listen to her story, you're [00:14:00] going to see that that's actually not true, that her stopping and pausing unlocked a level of alignment that has now allowed opportunities and clients to flow to her in a way that has never flowed to her before. And so taking away, quote unquote, not from a limiting belief perspective or lack perspective, but removing things out of our life.

removing the unnecessary, removing the distractions so that we can come back to our own core stability and anchor in that core stability. That might seem like a simple perspective. Well, will people pay for that? I mean, to me, it's priceless because I would rather not be grinding. And pushing a boulder up a mountain, hitting my head against a wall, and trying to make something work.

I would rather somebody offer me a counterintuitive perspective that helps me not only step off of the hamster wheel, [00:15:00] move myself onto a track that is in alignment with flow and my dharma and my destiny, I would rather that in a very sort of simple way. Somebody that comes to mind, and if you don't know who he is, is Richard Rudd, who is the founder of the Gene Keys.

And his whole premise is around this in a lot of ways. I remember the first time I signed up for one of his, um, programs online and what in his intro video, he quite literally said the gene keys and these sort of activation sequences and whatnot are about deep transformation, about contemplation. It's not something that is like a quick fix or surface level or anything like that.

And he said, If you don't want to take the time to really dive into this, and I'm paraphrasing here, but it was along these lines, great, that's fine. But what I'm wanting to [00:16:00] recommend to you is that you focus on this, right? There are a lot of other modalities out there, gene keys, human design, astrology, Akashic records, you name it, right?

There's many, many, many different modalities out there, but he's like, the reason why many of us Don't actually see the transformation that we desire is because we don't stick to a process or a level of contemplation in one particular area long enough that we're so distracted by all of the other things going on that we don't actually sink our teeth into the thing, right?

That we've just invested in, for example, right? And gene keys and human design are something that I've been self studying for four years now, on and off. I always come back to the teachings, I'm always learning more about them, and they're, they're not something that I just like tapped into because it was trendy four years ago.

It's something I'm continually revisiting but also applying to my life. And then therefore also [00:17:00] using it to some degree to support clients when I notice patterns or trends within what they're saying and how they're saying it. Um, and then their own design and whatnot to be able to support them in that way.

But he had written a book called The Art of Contemplation. And I think I've shared about this before. But he said this is the most powerful and potent book. And most people won't Read it or see the value of it because it's so simple. It's the art of contemplation. And as humans, we want to overcomplicate things.

And our brain wants to continually fix things and find flaws in things to fix and to refine and to improve and all the things. And therefore we get distracted on the outer world, right? We get distracted by the things on the outside world. That then we're buying into these complex systems and we're buying into these complex solutions.

The health industry is a prime example for me, right? If any of you even think about buying a multivitamins or buying [00:18:00] supplements for your health. I don't know about you, but I get so overwhelmed with the choices, with the benefits. It always feels like every year there's this new miracle thing that comes out, whether it's elderberry or whether it's a kaya berry or whatever they are, right?

There's these new, and I get it that in science and in research and health, there's new findings. But I also think that we overcomplicate All of it. We overcomplicate health. We overcomplicate relationships. We overcomplicate business. And therefore, a lot of the really amazing humans, and if you're one of these amazing humans that's listening, that is like, there's a better way that we can be doing things.

There's a more simplified way that we can be doing things. And there's a way that we can improve this complicated information. noisy world that we're in, this I'm going to grasp on the outside for something to fix me, some pills, some medication, some [00:19:00] magic solution that's so and so selling me. If you're one of those people that like, hey, if you actually stopped and contemplated for a moment, you tuned in, you trust that inner instinct and intuition, and you followed that.

Like that seems like a very simple solution, but that honestly is what creates results in many people's businesses and relationships and whatnot is that we surrender, we stop trying to force, we stop trying to make shit happen, and we surrender into the natural divine flow and timing. And this isn't This isn't made up.

This is, Carl Jung has been talking about collective consciousness and the field for a very long time. This is not something that's like this artificial thing, right? It's like, how do we tap into the natural rhythm of the collective while also honing and honoring our own genius? And [00:20:00] so. So the themes, like I said, that are coming up is, but that seems way too simple.

That seems way too streamlined or stripped down or, you know, will someone pay me to tell them really or guide them on what needs to be removed out of their life? You know, the things that are actually distracting them from pursuing the thing that they want to pursue or creating the success that they want or the relationship they want or the health that they desire or whatever it is.

And to me, the crux of it is. Complication like we're complicating it way too much and I understand why we do that, right? I have witnessed a lot of business owners and I think again, it comes back to sort of the ego and it comes back to the core wound of not enoughness. And so when we don't feel enough, when we're driven by the not enoughness.

Then we create, we try to create value by overcompensating, whether that's working [00:21:00] 15 hour days in your corporate career because, quote unquote, that will make your boss see you as valuable or hardworking or whatever it is, right? Or maybe when you're a coach or a consultant and you have a program and you are adding, you know, 18 modules in there with all these resources and workbooks Everything.

I'm going to help solve the whole gamut here, right? It's a one stop shop and we're overcompensating because we want that to be valuable. We don't want people to walk away from the experience feeling like they didn't get what they paid for, quote unquote. And the reality of that is, again, we come back to the whole premise of this, is that value is a hundred percent subjective.

What I value is going to be very different than what you value. And I've talked about this before. Therefore, if we are trying to create value from the perspective of meeting the needs and desires and demands of [00:22:00] everybody else in the world, we're going to become a complete chameleon to what everybody wants and desires.

And I think that's the problem. To be honest, I think a lot of us Are feeling unfulfilled or frustrated or whatnot in our current reality, because we spent a lot of our life trying to conform to what everybody else wanted. We're trying to meet everybody else's needs. We're trying to meet everybody's definition of value.

And we get rock to the core. And we get one ounce of feedback that is constructive or negative or whatever that questions our validity in the world, right? And therefore, We're not really truly living up to that destiny of that Dharma because we've lost center within ourselves because we're trying to meet all of the needs.

And a lot of traditional niching and marketing will tell us we've got to create an offer that people want. Absolutely. We do. I get that. [00:23:00] But we start usually with the customer first rather than tapping into our own values. And so I come back to this whole piece that I'm, I'm going to put my, you know, bet on this, my premonition that more and more and more people are going to desire simplicity, minimalism, tuning back into really who they are and what they're here to do.

And there's going to be this less is more. Desire amongst it. And I'm sensing it. I'm having conversations about it. And so if you're at a point where you're like, I've created this success or maybe I'm not seeing the success, but I have this really deep desire to do X, Y, Z. And it just feels too easy, too simple.

Will people actually pay for it? My advice to you is just to take that next step. Similar to how I mentioned on the last episode, like what's the next step that would excite you? Because. [00:24:00] I would hate for you to not pursue the thing that your intuition, your gut, your instinct is moving you towards because there's this contemplation of is it valuable enough or is it valuable enough or will people actually pay for this or this feels too simple, right?

A lot of people that have come to me recently have said, I don't even want to do a curriculum. Like, I don't want to play into the knowledge industry. Meaning, I don't want a curriculum. I don't want a course. I don't want anything. I just want to do one to one mentorship. Or I want to do group mentorship that's like live in the moment.

Whoever's sitting in front of me, that's how I coach and mentor. I'm not trying to create frameworks or step by steps or anything like that. Like I want deep transformation. I want stuff that goes below the surface. And if you're in that space of going below the surface, being really deep in the transformations that you offer, then I would question whether or not a curriculum [00:25:00] is actually the best way to deliver that.

And that is maybe an unpopular opinion really challenges the rhetoric and the way in which we've always done things. Right. Cause most. Transformational programs have a curriculum of some degree. And I'm not saying that we don't want maybe resources, but again, the transformational programs that I've been a part of are experiences.

Quite literally, a huge part of those experiences have been around integration and contemplation more than anything. Like, there wasn't a lot of videos to like, learn how to You know, hack my limiting beliefs or blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, right? Because it was more around internal introspection and, and contemplation.

So I'm just wanting to put this out there that if you're in the midst of a pivot or you're feeling called to do something different, or you're [00:26:00] feeling called to refine or evolve or expand your messaging. However, the gremlins in your brain are going, well, is this even going to be valuable? Will people even pay for this?

Is this solution too simple? Then I invite you to step into that because your instinct, your intuition is not wrong. It's the soul speaking in a lot of ways. And it's our mind, our mental mind that often overrides it. And we'll especially override it because it's so used to overcomplicating what I see as simple solutions to a lot of quote unquote complex problems.

I feel like There's a lot of really simple solutions that will help alleviate and heal and change the way we do things, and they're often really simple, and I'm gonna really double down on that because I've also spent many years watching [00:27:00] things like the Dragon's Den or Shark Tank, and I'm always, always, always Not surprised, but like, I'm not surprised actually when I see the brands that do exceptionally well and their simple solutions.

Literally simple solutions. For example, there was a woman on there years ago that had a flower drain plug that she Made with it was basically a like a flower shaped. I don't know plastic nylon. I don't know what type of material it was with a tiny little chain that dropped down your drain and what it was designed to do was to prevent the hair from going down the drain and the reason she came up with the idea was because she had daughters and the drain was always clogged with hair.

Simple solution. It's not a complex solution. Product, the design elements of it wasn't complex. The material sourcing wasn't complex. Very simple. I think [00:28:00] Scrub Daddy might be the other brand, really yellow sponge that just cleans stuff. Very simple solution. It has a smiley face or something like that. I think they're a billion dollar company.

Super simple solution. To a very simple problem in a lot of ways, right? But we make things way more complicated. We add all these different layers. We add all these different steps and my zone of genius one is to really be able to spot the flaws are the things that need refinement and come up with creative solutions for it.

But as a manifesting generator, I'm here to do that in the least amount of steps. And so I'm always in all of these companies that Come up with these really simple solutions for what feels like a big problem. And those are the ones that do the best. And so if we can take that from a product business and really overlay that into the service and the knowledge industry game changer, because I don't know.

And I say this studying and observing, there's [00:29:00] nobody doing this. Everybody's selling really complicated, overwhelming, you know, products and services out there. With so many different layers and videos and all the things and if you look at where people get stuck and most people will say, well, if you want something bad enough, you'll do it.

You'll watch 70 bazillion hours of YouTube and all the things. And I'm like, but really, will you like, is that as I haven't spent that much time? Sure. I've been doing marketing for many years, but that's the thing. Over 20 years, I've been doing it, but when I was 21 years old, when I graduated marketing, it wasn't like, well, why am I not an expert?

Right? I had to get out into the field and I had to like, quote unquote, engage the field, as Richard Rudd will say, engage the field. You've got to get out there and engage the field. You've got to be in response to the field, right? And so if your intuition is guiding you, [00:30:00] take that step. I guarantee you, if you're being called to offer something that feels too simple, there's other people out there that are craving it.

I can almost guarantee it. Again, this comes back to Carl Jung and the collective consciousness and being tapped into that, right? Your intuition is connected to that collective consciousness, which is why you're getting that idea in the first place. So. If you're in a pivot, if you're in a change, if you're in a season of evolution, and the thing that you're being called to do feels way too simple and not quote unquote enough value, I want you to reconsider that and I invite you, even in the fear, in the doubt, in the gremlin, to just take the next step of excitement.

What is that next step I need to take in order to pursue this really wild, simple, crazy idea that's coming through that doesn't make sense based on. How things are currently structured in the world, where again, we're in information [00:31:00] overload. We're in consumption rather than creation, right? And for people to really transform and change and be the creators of their own life and do it in a way that is 100 percent authentically theirs.

They have to stop consuming. We consume way too much. They have to stop consuming because that's just distraction. And they have to start creating. So with that, I hope this episode has been amazing and helpful, and I'd love to carry on this conversation. If you want to send me a DM or comment when I posted on Insta, you can absolutely do that.

I would love to hear from you at Creatively Owned. Cheers. 

INTRO: Thanks for listening. We'll see you right back here next time. You can also find us on social media at Creatively Owned and online at creativelyowned. com. Until next time, keep showing up as your authentic [00:32:00] self.