Have you ever wondered if it’s time to quit, pivot, or stick it out in your business?

In today’s episode, I’m tackling this question head-on, because it’s something so many of us face as entrepreneurs.

I’ll share how to evaluate whether you’re making decisions from fear or intuition and how to find clarity when you’re feeling unsure.

If you’ve been questioning your next move or battling shiny object syndrome, this episode is for you!

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READ THE EPISODE TRANSCRIPT

Emily Hirsh:

Hello everybody. Happy Thursday. Welcome back to the podcast. I am excited for today’s episode. Whenever I’m asked a question multiple times within a week or two weeks, I’m like, okay, this needs to be a podcast. And I was speaking at an event last week and I was asked this question on the panel. And then I have a friend of mine who we were voice noting back and forth the other day and He asked me this question and I’m like, okay, I think and think this needs to be talked about because it really is important and it’s not necessarily a black or white situation. So the question is, in so many words, how do I know if what I’m doing isn’t working and I need to quit or make a big pivot or I should hang on and focus and ride it out?

This is such a powerful question because so many entrepreneurs struggle with shiny object syndrome and going all in and and trying something and then they’re like, oh, this is too hard or I don’t think this will be successful or it’s boring now, or it doesn’t seem as exciting as it was. And so I’m going to jump over here and do this other thing.

And on that same note, there is also times where you’re trying and pushing and trying to force something that it does ask and require you to pause and kind of reevaluate or to be like, why do I feel so much dread and so much procrastination and heavy energy around this? And I also feel inspired to speak to this because my last about a year journey has very much been creating some more balance and harmony between the side of me that could push through anything. I have an insane ability to override my mind. And a lot of building my business from the beginning years to a year ago was through force, was through, okay, it’s a difficult season. I don’t care. We’re going to push. We’re going to grind. We’re going to make this happen anyways.

And that comes from how I operate, which is very easy for me to disassociate and numb to that and just push through, which honestly comes in handy in a lot of ways. And also it creates this situation where you’re missing.

such incredible opportunity if you just paused and you just realigned and you question, why is there so much force? But it’s this fine line because sometimes people ride on one side or the other. And I also think right now in business, a lot of people are experiencing the need to pivot, the need to shift, the need to adjust, the need to not necessarily quit their business, but they’re feeling like, okay, this isn’t working. What do I need to shift? And then there’s that voice in the back of your head that’s like, is this the right decision? Or should I just hang on and ride this out? So here’s how I answered that question, both at the event and then I’ll share the conversation I had with a friend. So at the event, the first thing I, I say to this is if you are sitting with a decision of,

Is this working? Should I stop this, whether it could be as big as big the business or as small as like a funnel or a launch or a product or an initiative or a project you’re working on, like this applies to all of those things. Should I quit this? Should I stop this?

Or should i write it out and the first thing i said to answer this question was number one you have to get clear on where is the question coming from of should i quit and move to something else.

And is that coming from a place of fear? Like I’m scared that this won’t work out and so I’m going to abandon it now because that will save me the disappointment of it not working out. Or I’m i’m scared and I don’t think I can actually do this. I don’t think I’m capable of this. But in the back of my mind, I know it’s actually the right thing. Or I’m bored. This isn’t fun anymore.

And I don’t want to do this because the work got hard or I’m uncomfortable or this is making me put myself out there more than I’m normally used to. So sitting with the question of where is this coming from? What are the thoughts and then therefore beliefs that this is coming from? When I ask myself the question of is it why is this not working? Should I quit? Should I pivot this project, this business, this offer?

And then once you’re clear on that, it’s pretty simple from there to determine the answer to your question. Because if you’re making a decision out of fear, or you are making a decision where you are, or you are making a decision out of discomfort or shame, or worrying that you’re not capable of something,

or making that decision out of a place of discomfort and a contraction. If you think about why am I considering maybe pivoting, shifting gears, even quitting, is it coming from a contracted place in my body? If the answer is yes, it probably is something that you shouldn’t quit or it’s not fully in alignment for you to pivot.

if when you think about quitting, shifting, pivoting, stopping a project, starting something different, and you really feel that this is coming from a place of I know that the alternative, that if I shift my time and energy and resources to something different than this, is a place of alignment with where I’m going, my dreams, who I want to be, and a place of expansion.

And it feels very true that you know, if you shift that, if you quit, you, you pivot, that will bring more overflow, more alignment. And that’s coming from a place of alignment and connection with yourself, if that makes sense. So that’s the first answer that I had is understanding what is the belief? What is the deeper root of why I’m asking myself this question? That should help you get to the root of am I,

asking myself this question because it’s the easier decision and I’m avoiding discomfort and pain or potential rejection or I’m asking this question because there is so much force in what I’m doing and I don’t think there should be that much force and that’s kind of the thing I have learned is Sometimes there are things, there are projects, there are shifts and changes that you get two steps into it and you’re like, why does this feel like I am pushing a boulder up a hill and walking through mud? it It shouldn’t feel like that. Something is out of alignment when it feels like that. And so that is an invitation to pause and

ask the right questions and ask the questions of, okay, if I shifted my energy to something else, what would that thing be? And do I believe that would get me better results? Do I believe that would be more in alignment with where I’m going, my future, my dream? And only you can really answer this question.

And so often when we’re trying to solve these problems as CEOs, it’s all about the questions we ask ourselves. It’s all about sitting with the decisions and the questions that we have and asking ourselves the deeper rooted questions within the questions to get to the answer. The second piece to this that I said is.

When you truly look at what you are doing and what you are considering quitting, pivoting, adjusting, and you ask yourself, have I actually given it an opportunity? Have I actually gone all in? If I believe that this thing is going to work, have I actually gone all the way in and and given it a fair shot?

Or have I danced around it, dip my toe in it, and now I’m scared? And again, only you know the answer to that, but I oftentimes see entrepreneurs pivot to something else before they’ve given themselves the opportunity to go all in and actually see if that thing is going to work.

and This is the thing you guys, you have nothing to lose going all in. I think this is what we don’t realize as entrepreneurs when we’re so in the thick of it. You make the goddamn rules. If you’re two months into something and you have the clarity finally of, okay, this is not the right thing, you can pivot. You can adjust. You make the rules. Now, I understand there’s consequences of, oh, I invested this money, I invested this time, I invested this resources, and we want to make the best aligned educational decisions that we can that this is the quote, right thing. But the reality also is sometimes you have to go down a path to realize that’s not the right path and then adjust and go down a different path, but you never could go down that different path without going down the first one. So there are no mistakes in business. There are only

situations that we could call mistakes, but they were necessary for us to get to the next thing. So second piece to this question, have I gone all in on whatever this thing is, the business, the offer, the project, the funnel? Do I still believe that this is in alignment with who I want to be, my future, my dream, where my business is going, my vision. And if I do, how about I go all in for a committed period of time and I commit to myself, okay, I’m going to go all in. Here’s what going all in looks like. Here’s the actions I’ll take. Here’s how much time and energy I’ll put into it. Here’s an investment I’ll put into it. Here’s what I’m willing to put on the table.

to go all the way in and I’m going to do that for 90 days and then I’m going to reevaluate and I’m going to decide if I need to shift, I need to pivot, I need to change gears and all decisions are right. There is no wrong decision in that. There’s no mess up so big that you can’t come back from it. So that’s the second piece I said at this event to her was, have you gone all in on the things that you believe in? Because you have to be able to identify if your questioning to pivot or quit is coming from a place of wanting to do something that you think is going to be easier. And I have been there so many times where what I am working through in my business is challenging. It’s uncomfortable. It’s not fun. It’s frustrating. It feels too slow, but I know deep down that it’s the right thing. It’s the right foundation I need to lay. It’s the

It’s the right path that I feel with all of me is going to get me where I want. And so, yeah, do I have the thoughts of like, screw it, I’m going to start something new. That sounds way better, you know, especially in the hard moments. But when I sit with it and I really ask myself, do you actually think that’s going to be easier or is this just a distraction? I usually can get to the answer.

The answer, you all already have it. I got this tattooed on my back in Costa Rica and it’s definitely becoming a part of me and my brand, which is the truth is within. You guys have the answers. You know the right decisions for your business. Yes, you can get feedback, you can have mentors, you can get coaching, you can get inspiration, but at the end of the day, you need to sit down with yourself and ask these questions and then make the decisions from that place, not from a contracted place of fear. So my friend who I was talking to yesterday asked me this question of,

He knows that I’ve gone through this journey of stepping more into ease and the feminine energy and less force, less grind it out, less push. But obviously with business, there is times where you need to push through something uncomfortable. there That is such a big misconception of masculine and feminine energy. And so his question was, how do you know If the decision that you’re making is coming from the place of force and the masculine and overly masculine energy, or it’s an opportunity for you to really listen to that force and and bring more ease. And I said the same answer of what I said of what’s the what’s the root of your questioning.

And his response was, well, I don’t really know what the root is, but here’s what I’m afraid of. I’m afraid that if I go down this path and I hire a team and I expand my business that something might go wrong and then I might get criticized. That was his answer. And he’s like, but I don’t know if that’s coming from a place of misalignment because I don’t want that to happen or coming from a place of I just am scared. And I said, a hundred percent that’s coming from a place of fear. I sent him back a voice message and I said, you are Thinking about making a decision to not move forward with scaling your business because you are afraid of a what-if scenario that if you hire a team and you bring people onto your team, they’re going to mess up and then they’re going to mess up your reputation and you’re going to get criticized. First of all, that’s a completely made up story. like that That hasn’t happened. and Second of all,

If you operate in integrity, which I know he will because he’s a friend of mine and very integrous. If you are always operating in integrity, that won’t happen to you that a team member messes up so bad it ruins your brand because you will respond to it in within integrity and fix it. Third of all, if you want to go the route of hiring a team, they’re going to mess up.

and you’re going to figure out how to respond to that and you’re going to be fine because you’re capable of doing that. So I said, thinking to yourself that going down this path, because it was shifting his offer, bringing on team, getting him out of the business, basically hiring practitioners, questioning doing that and telling yourself it’s because it’s out of alignment with what you want is bullshit.

Because it’s completely in alignment with what you want. You’re just scared. You’re coming from a place of fear. You’ve made up what-if scenarios that have created a state of paralysis. So no, that’s not a place of like, I just want more ease and so maybe I shouldn’t do this. So my advice to him was take radical action and prove to yourself that when something does happen that is a mess up or is not what you wanted, that you know how to handle it. And the only way to do that is to actually do it and prove to yourself you’re capable of it and build that confidence.

and just take the action and do it messy. So that was the advice I gave my friend and I very quickly, this is why it helps so much to have friends and mentors so you can speak what you’re thinking and they can reflect it back to you because sometimes you just can’t see it. like This is an incredibly smart entrepreneur friend of mine and he just literally could not see it in that moment.

And as soon as I reflected it back, he’s like, oh my gosh, you’re so right. Like, obviously, I’m going to do this. So coming from that place, what I was able to get to is fear of of the unknown, fear of this what if scenario that’s not even true. And so I bet you that a lot of you could sit with, okay,

here’s my big dreams that I have. Here are the big dreams, the directions I want to go. And here are the ways that I kind of stall that or sabotage that by creating what if scenarios of the unknown that when I really think about it, I know that if any of those scenarios happened, I’d be okay. That’s an exercise I sometimes have the girls who I coach in my mastermind do is They’ll come to me with fear. What if I don’t hit this launch goal? What if this happens? What if this happens and instead of telling them? Oh that probably won’t happen. I say what if it does? Okay, let’s play this out. What if it does? Okay, what are you gonna do if you don’t hit the launch goal? Oh, well, I would do this and I would do this. Okay, so would you be okay? Yeah, so should that hold back?

Your actions? No. So I do that all the time. If you’ve got a worst case scenario, you go, okay, let me play that scenario out. What if that actually happens? Hypothetically, that happens. Would I still be okay? Yeah, I would.

That’s a little sidetracked from today’s episode, but ultimately to summarize this, this is a question you’re going to end up sitting with a lot in business because the CEO and the visionary is the one who makes the decision of the direction. So whether it’s pivoting.

So whether it’s pivoting an entire business direction, a project, a funnel, a marketing initiative, an offer, the direction of a business like my friend who is hiring team and bringing in practitioners, you’re going to be making those decisions.

And so you have to build the tools to dig deep within yourself and understand the root of where you’re making those decisions. And it really does come down to what decision is coming from a place of contraction, which is fear, shame, discomfort. And then what decision is coming from a place of expansion, which is inspiration, alignment, connection,

And then usually the decision is very clear. And I can’t emphasize this enough like you guys have these answers. You do. You have to believe in yourself and you have to continually prove to yourself that no matter what decision you make, you are going to be okay. And it is a part of that process.

All right, you guys, I hope this episode was helpful. I felt like somebody needed to hear this just with how many times I’ve had this conversation. And I think again, we can’t always see our blind spots. We can’t always see what’s right in front of us. So I hope this helped you do that a little bit. Thank you so much for tuning in. I will talk to you guys next week.