It’s not unusual at all for business owners like you to want to change direction, or to get guidance updating who they want to work with as clients.
It’s exciting! Passion comes in, inspiration, time to get moving!
The thing I *don’t* want you to do, is to chuck your whole business out and start over. You see, many who get inspired like this think that’s what they need to do, scrap it all, and begin again.
So, so painful. Whether you’re in earlier stages of business building and just starting to get momentum, or if you’ve been at it awhile and it feels like you want to take a 90 degree turn…
Just take a look at this. About two and half minutes. And then ask questions if you have them!
Questions? What comes up for you? Can you put another bottle on the shelf?
With love,
Mark Silver, M.Div.
Heart of Business, Inc.
Every act of business can be an act of love.
Let’s get your offers out there, and fill your schedule up!
Whether it’s crafting a new offer, pricing it, or launching it. Whether it’s the enrollment conversation, or the core messages, your website or creating content… whatever it is about getting your business out there, chances are we’ve got you.
Dozens of proven learning modules ($1000’s worth), coaching and feedback, spiritual nourishment, and a generous, engaged community (with *moderated* discussion, so it’s not crazy, promotional, or adversarial- it’s safe, warm, and courageous!).
So join us!
The Heart of Business Learning Community
Questions? Ask! We’re here!
11 Responses
Mark, this is great. Really, truly great. Fantastic idea with real heart behind it, thank you! Emily
So helpful Mark! The image of a ‘new bottle of wine on the shelf’ brought relief and clarity. I’ve often felt like I needed to ‘end my business’ when I sensed a desire to go in a new direction or to offer something new – this gives me a different way of approaching this juncture. Thank you!
This is great! Well said, Mark!
I’ve been sitting with this for a long time because I teach knitting—knitting!—and my movement has been towards teaching self development, and doing racial justice work. I thought for sure u had to start over. Then one of my teachers told me “You never leave your audience behind, you just inch them along with you. ‘Come here, you know you want to.’” To scrap the old and start a new business is like breaking up with your followers.
I’ve come to see that there is always a point of cross-over, and that that is where to start to bring things in. This January I designed a knitting pattern for MLK day, a sweater showing people of different skin tones holding hands in a unified circle. I got to say so much within the pattern, and—even better—to my whole base, in just the marketing of the pattern. It was really satisfying! Now I have a product and a starting point for a wider range of offerings related to it, including, potentially, a class on racial justice. To my knitting audience! So to anyone doubting this truth, know: it really can be done.
Put another bottle on the shelf. So true!
Hi Mark! Loved the simple analogy of your grandfather’s/parent’s wine store. Thank you! I’m definitely in the place of trying to decide where to go next with my biz. I have reached a point of extreme burnout with both coaching and yoga teaching. I feel things like: boredom, resentment, exhaustion, disillusionment with each industry. I’m currently giving myself a “sabbatical” of sorts but the nagging question of, “Where am I going with this?” keeps me unsettled and unable to truly get the rest and rejuvenation I need. Starting over completely does sound exhausting and overwhelming, which I don’t need more of. Making a new offer based on my experience and skill set seems the most logical thing to do, like putting the new wine on the shelf. I just can’t seem to muster any enthusiasm around it. Thoughts? Insights? Ya buts??? I Sooooo appreciate YOUR work of spiritual service to us small business owners.
This was very timely and helpful for me. I am making a shift in y business through creating new offerings. But I was worried that my website didn’t reflect the new focus. Your comments helped me to trust my plan to make new offerings and make any needed changes as I go along. One more time learning I do’t have to do it all at once!
You’re so damned brilliant. Amen.
Absolutely on point; and so much yes. It’s confirmed some thoughts/feelings I having the last handful of days. This was a “so glad I heard this today” message.
Thank you! I feel like you just described my entire business life. Lol
Health Coach to Death Doula to Spiritual Counselor. What’s the thread? Me. As the shifts and expansions and changing focus has happened, I see folks drop off my mailing list as I’ve veered out of their wheelhouse. But, not at the rate I would have expected.
Thank you and the whole crew at HoB for helping me find the confidence to make the shifts and trust that it’s all one business.
Mark – this makes so much sense! I have a central message, and I think most people contact me to hear or be reminded of that central message. It can – and does – apply to many things. The idea of just adding another bottle on the shelf simplifies this, so thank you!
… and, I think, the shelf just needs to be big enough for that next bottle. Like, if I’ve already niched myself into a tight space, the new offering could seem… off. Yes? Your thoughts on this, thanks!
Until 2 years ago, I had a business license for 10 years. I made (hardly any) money in practical service to my 348 nearest neighbors while writing a book about the importance of right relationship to neighbors as an antidote for all that ails the world. I insisted on in-person interaction (no longer an option for me since COVID-19), and I’d hoped neighbors would refer friends to be dispute resolution and lifestyle coaching clients, but due to prioritizing writing, I didn’t get around to building that part of my biz.
Then I broke my own heart thrice by 1) moving to a foster care ‘neighborhood’ that 2) didn’t work out D: …and 3) NOT being able to do the back-up plan of returning to lick my wounds, because the rent in my old neighborhood had doubled since move-in. Also: I let my website lapse, since it didn’t get me face-to-face clients anyways.
I’m healing by attending ‘The Heart of Your Business’ while studying Internal Family Systems therapy online.
Mark:
now that I’ve listened to you tell this parable for the 10th time (no joke!), AND have grieved enough, perhaps, it just occurred to me to dare to remember the old business: Neighbors On Purpose. Certain clients, whom I miss dearly, regularly bought ‘old bottles’ I can no longer sell to them (in-home help). Others collected corks and came in for conversation 🙂
But what if I still have a ‘homemaking for humanity’ business?
What if online counseling is just a ‘new bottle’?
I always *had* intended to host a community for community-builders…
So, still:
I help homesick homemakers build community in place,
interact face-to-face,
address class and race,
and redefine ‘safe.’
Shelter-in-place makes it more complicated now, or just different,
but my deep conviction is still that,
through neighborliness as a spiritual practice,
heart-rending ‘worldly’ problems render ‘home’ a healing space
— on a humane, humanizing scale where each person has a say,
and conflict activates, but transcends hate.
For people like me, no other scale would be equitable, anyway.