| TL;DR How you start your business won’t be the only way you run it forever. Life, losses, market shifts, and especially AI forced me to let go of what used to work and pivot fast. The real flex comes down to staying flexible, following the data, and letting experience not ego lead the way. What got you here won’t get you there, so stay flexible, follow the data, and let experience lead you to what works. |
When Life and Business Force You to Pivot
Sometimes you don’t get a polite heads-up when life is about to change.
You get a gut punch.
For me, that moment came when my grandpa died.
Grief isn’t just a sad song on repeat, it’s the kind of event that rips up your to-do list and makes you wonder if you’ve been climbing the wrong mountain in work, in life, or both.
Suddenly, all the old routines felt like trying to squeeze into jeans from three sizes ago. Not cute. Not happening.
Change does not care about your carefully color-coded calendar. Your business and your personal life will both demand pivots… usually at the most inconvenient time, right when you thought you’d finally figured things out.
I learned, painfully, that clutching onto what used to work is a great way to stay stuck. Nostalgia is not a growth strategy.
For my business, it meant flipping it upside down and questioning every process, every offer, every “we’ve always done it this way.” In life, it meant tossing out all the stories about who I thought I should be, and getting real about who I actually want to become.
Whether you’re running a company or just trying not to lose your mind in the group chat, the fastest way forward is to loosen your grip, stay flexible, and let data through consistent executions tell you what’s actually working.
So if you want to build something that lasts, forget the fantasy of the perfect plan. Life loves a curveball.
Your job is to learn faster, pivot smarter, and take the hint because what got you here is not what’s going to get you there.
Growth Is Never Linear
There’s a myth that if you just get your strategy right, the rest is a straight shot to the top.
But that’s not how life or business works. Anyone who tells you otherwise probably hasn’t made it past their first pivot or their first year.
And what worked for your business a few years ago? It’s almost never your final business. I started thinking we’d land one “forever” client, build out the perfect service, and watch the revenue pour in.
However, you outgrow clients, markets shift, and sometimes you realize the thing you’re good at isn’t even what you want to be known for.
Here’s what nobody puts in their LinkedIn bio:
- You will change your mind. Often.
- You will outgrow clients you once bent over backward for.
- The market will zig when you’ve bet the house on a zag.
- Your biggest wins might come from your “throwaway” ideas, not the ones you clung to for dear life.
Business is less like climbing a ladder and more like running a funhouse obstacle course. One minute you’re on the monkey bars, next minute the floor spins, and you’re not sure if that door leads to a shortcut or a pie in the face.
If you’re waiting for things to finally “settle down,” you’ll be waiting forever.
Growth is messy, nonlinear, and sometimes a little humiliating. But that’s what makes it real. And honestly, it’s way more interesting this way.
Agency Realities: The AI Shift and a New Game Plan
Remember when it felt easy to land six-figure clients?
If you ran an agency before AI took over every business headline, you know exactly what I mean.
I used to chase the big enterprise whales, two-hundred-thousand-dollar deals, five-hundred-thousand-dollar deals, and enough corporate paperwork to make my eyes cross. It was a whole different game, and for a while, it worked.
Then AI showed up, and the ground started shifting under my feet and under every agency founder I know. If you’re feeling it too, you’re not crazy.
Clients got savvier, options multiplied, and suddenly, every “unique process” sounded like a recycled script. Landing those huge contracts started to feel like waiting for a unicorn to walk through my front door and hand me a check.
A lot of agencies are still clinging to the good old days, hoping it will all swing back around. But nostalgia is not a business model.
I realized if I wanted to survive, and maybe even thrive, I had to listen to what my clients were actually saying. What they were saying, sometimes loudly, sometimes with a barely disguised sigh, was that they wanted less manual work, more efficiency, and a real plan for leveraging AI that didn’t sound like a word salad from a tech conference.
So I made the conscious decision to build with AI.
I did not just slap it on my website and call it a day. I baked it into my solutions, my systems, and every sales conversation.
I stopped chasing only the whales and started focusing on high-impact, high-volume work that actually solved the headaches my clients were venting about.
And honestly, it did not just keep me relevant. It made me sharper, faster, and, dare I say, actually excited about the future again.
You can cling to yesterday, or you can start building for tomorrow. I chose the latter, and it has made all the difference.
AI as the Great Leveler: Solving Real Problems
Most people still toss around “AI” like it’s pixie dust, expecting it to magically solve everything from pipeline problems to their existential dread.
That’s not how this works. AI is only as useful as the problems you actually let it solve.
Here’s what I started hearing on repeat from clients and prospects:
- They don’t want more dashboards.
- They don’t care about the latest SaaS acronym.
- They want to reclaim time, shrink the manual grind, and actually build a pipeline without feeling like they need three extra assistants or an advanced degree in calendar Tetris.
So, I stopped treating AI like a marketing bullet point and started using it to fix the real messes.
- Instead of another “innovation” workshop, I built automations that actually cut down on repetitive tasks.
- Instead of telling clients to “optimize their funnel,” I showed them how to use AI to keep leads warm and move deals forward, even on days when everyone is running on caffeine and hope.
- Instead of using AI as a buzzword, I used it as a lever. If a process was eating up hours or making my team groan, it was time to automate it or kill it.
Clients noticed.
Suddenly, conversations shifted from “should we invest in this?” to “how soon can we start?” No one cared about my tech stack or my certifications. They cared about results; more time, more focus, and fewer headaches.
AI did not just level the playing field. It burned down all the excuses. Now, the edge goes to anyone willing to listen, adapt, and use the tools to solve the problems that actually matter.
If you are still using AI as a selling point instead of a solution, you are missing the point.
The market is moving, and the ones who move with it are not the ones shouting the loudest. They are the ones quietly making things work better, faster, and with a lot less drama.
Personal Growth, Professional Growth: The Feedback Loop
Whatever is happening in your personal life is absolutely going to spill into your business, like it or not.
You can try to compartmentalize, put on your “boss face,” and tell yourself you’ll deal with that emotional mess later, but eventually, the universe calls your bluff.
When my grandpa died, it was more than just a loss. It was the giant, flashing sign that said, “Wake up. Life isn’t waiting for you to figure it out.”
Grief made me question what I was doing, how I was doing it, and why I was running my life like a series of tasks on a Trello board.
It forced me to stop living on autopilot and start asking better questions of myself and my business.
What actually makes me proud? Where am I stuck on “what used to work,” and what am I too stubborn to change? How much energy am I wasting protecting an old identity, when I could be learning something new and finally moving forward?
Here’s what I know for sure:
- The more honest I am with myself, the clearer my business decisions become.
- Every time I grow personally, my business levels up too (and not just in the “I went to a weekend workshop” kind of way).
- Detaching from sunk costs, whether they’re old offers or old beliefs, is usually the fastest route to a real breakthrough.
If you think you can keep your personal growth separate from your business, good luck. Sooner or later, those two worlds merge.
When you own your mess, learn from it, and stay flexible, everything else gets lighter.
And honestly, it is a lot more fun to grow a business as a better version of yourself rather than a slightly more polished version of who you used to be.
Staying Centered While You Pivot
Reading the data and “listening to the market” sounds impressive in a strategy session, but in reality, it’s a lot more like detective work and a lot less like meditation. Sometimes the clues come as gentle nudges.
Sometimes they come as full-on fire alarms.
The trick isn’t just collecting feedback and hoarding analytics. The real power is in actually doing something with it.
Adaptation is a verb, not a branding exercise. That means making hard calls, moving quickly, and, when needed, letting go of pet projects that only you love.
I learned to marry the mission, not the method.
My reason for building never changed, but how I get there is always up for renegotiation. The method can be rewritten as many times as it takes to make the mission possible.
Here’s how I try to keep my feet on the ground while my business takes another hairpin turn:
- When the numbers + the qualitative feedback says pivot, I pivot. I don’t wait for a committee.
- I gut-check everything against my values. If a new strategy feels like I’m selling out, I drop it. If it feels like I’m selling myself short, I fix it.
- I let go of the fantasy that “someday” it will all slow down and feel predictable. There is always a new curveball waiting just outside the camera frame.
- I focus on building systems and relationships that can weather a storm. Tech stacks change. Integrity and grit travel well.
Adapting isn’t about staying calm in a storm.
It’s about learning to dance in the rain, then towel off and do it again tomorrow.
The businesses that thrive aren’t the ones that have it all figured out. They are the ones who get really good at changing without losing themselves in the process.
Final Thoughts
If there’s one thing I’ve learned, it’s that waiting for the “perfect plan” is the fastest way to fall behind.
Business, life, and growth are all improv. The secret is to pay attention, move faster than your fear, and never get too cozy with yesterday’s wins.
If you’re tired of playing catch-up or pretending that you’ve got it all figured out, you’re my kind of person. 👇
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Don’t settle for what got you here. Build what gets you to where you want to be.
