My Business Pivot – How I Went From Pinterest Marketing to Business Coach
I don’t think it’s any secret that Pinterest started to become boring to me in 2020. However, I was unable to pivot my business until January 2021. Here’s my business pivot story and how I went from being a Pinterest marketing expert to a business coach.
Starting My Business
In March 2018, I officially launched my own Pinterest marketing business. It was so fun to do something creative and work for myself. I had about 6 clients when I started working for myself full-time.
I honestly did whatever I could to bring in money so I didn’t have to go back to working for someone else. I was doing ghostwriting, branding, social media management, and Pinterest. It was a lot.
Niching Down to Only Offer Pinterest Services – The First Business Pivot
In August 2018, I niched down to only offer Pinterest. At that point, it was the best way to make myself known in the online entrepreneur world. I became the go-to Pinterest person. What happened then was magic and I ended up with about 20 clients in February of 2019. That was when I decided I should move my business into an agency model.
Trying The Agency Model
What I didn’t realize was that there would be more team management and less 1:1 work with clients. I certainly missed the 1:1 interaction with the clients and I didn’t love the management of my team. I decided to scale back a bit. That allowed me to raise my prices, have less clients, and I did not need as many team members.
Getting Bored and the Start of a Real Business Pivot
Come Fall 2019, I was super bored. I’m a learner by nature and I always need something new to keep me excited. At that time I was really missing my higher ed career and the impact I had on students. I didn’t get to see that impact with Pinterest. I wanted to TRANSFORM lives. And see the transformation take place.
Well, in January 2020 I hired a business coach to help me pivot to hosting in-person events and coaching. I thought I was all in. Funny how things work out…
The Universe Said NO!
Something didn’t align. I’m not sure what it was, but looking back I’m pretty positive the Universe knew what was coming for me in 2020 and said, “wait a second.” My original business pivot didn’t happen.
Well, March 2020 my dad died. It was sudden and unexpected. It rocked my world.
Then Covid-19 happened and the world shut down.
So I was grieving and the world was in a full-blown pandemic. That was no time to make business pivots because I just needed to survive.
The Path of Least Resistance
I went with the path of least resistance and kept moving on with my Pinterest business. Even though I was unsatisfied and quite bored. It paid the bills and I was really good at it. I was honestly a little sad that my business pivot didn’t go as planned.
Summer 2020 was a blur. I launched a new YouTube channel with my husband. It helped me get outside and enjoy our dogs while spending time together as a family. Then I started taking pottery classes and fell in love.
I was super focused on pottery from July-December. It was the perfect creative outlet for me. I put a lot of my feelings into the clay. Probably some tears, too.
Months of Being Unmotivated
While I focused on myself and pottery as art therapy, I began to quit focusing on my work. I was super unmotivated and apathetic. I just did not care about finding clients. It was what it was. And every single month my CPA kindly emailed me and reminded me that my income went down.
Seriously imagine that: being unmotivated, not talking about my business, and, thus, not bringing in new clients. Ha!
The Renaissance Period of My Business
In November, I started focusing on my health. I knew grieving had sent me on an emotional eating binge for months. And I also knew that health is a key factor for living a longer life. My sister inspired me to sign up with her fitness and nutrition coach.
I started going to the gym 5 days a week. I gave up drinking diet Dr. Pepper. (GASP!) And I started moving my booty. I told my coach when I hired her that I was doing this because of heart health and I wanted to be better at hiking. I wasn’t here for weight loss.
Easing Back into Professional Development
She had me doing some cardio with a lot of weight lifting. Those first few days in the gym I knew I needed something to pass the time on the treadmill. I started listening to some business podcasts and it peaked a little bit of interest into my business again.
Then one of my online business friends reached out and invited me to an online Zoom networking event. I still can’t believe I actually signed up, but there I was. I hopped on the call dreading it, like the introvert I am. But that call was pivotal for me.
Getting Back into the Game!
That networking session combined with those first business podcasts got me excited again. I had not felt that excited about working on or in my business in MONTHS! I began creating content on the internet that was actually related to my business and not about death, plants, pottery, or hiking. And guess what, I actually booked a few new clients!
The Impact of Clubhouse on my Business Pivot
Late December 2020/early January 2021, I started getting active on Clubhouse. I realized what a goldmine that platform was and went all in. I hosted rooms upon rooms and met SO many new people I never even knew existed. One week I talked about Pinterest for 3-4 hours a day for about 5 days in a row.
Watch my What’s Clubhouse? video on YouTube now.
Yall. I was BORED. I said, it’s time. And I reinvented myself. I thought now is the time because everyone is new on Clubhouse and it’s like being a freshman in college. No one knew me or my background, so it was up to me to change that and give them the information I wanted them to have.
The Business Pivot Happened!
So I blew up my business. I announced I was no longer accepting Pinterest clients and that I was officially a business coach.
It honestly was just recognizing that I had had enough of doing something that wasn’t fulfilling to me. I had built a business from the ground up before, so why couldn’t I do it again?
When I decide something, I go ALL FREAKING IN.
How I Went All In on my Business Pivot
I changed my information everywhere on the internet. I started making YouTube videos about business stuff (like this one about self-sabotage), I started seeking out podcast guesting opportunities, and I told everyone who would listen about my spin on business coaching. I even offered some free coaching to some female-identifying entrepreneurs in exchange for a video testimonial.
I Positioned Myself during the Business Pivot
This helped me position myself as a business coach instead of as a Pinterest marketer. And honestly, the Nicole of January 2020 would have NEVER offered free coaching. She was “beyond” that. But something had changed in me. I knew I needed social proof to be considered an expert in this industry.
Business Pivot with Researching Your Target Market
The next step for my pivot was to do some market research. This allowed me to figure out what these women wanted, needed, and how they perceived what I meant when I talked about personalities and strengths. I wanted to make sure people understood what I was talking about and use my marketing to really cater to their needs.
If you don’t know the pain points of your audience, this is a vital piece. It also allowed me to gain information and verbiage straight from my ideal clients’ mouths that I could repurpose into content.
Now I’m Fully Aligned in my Business
And here we are just a few months later. I’m rocking and rolling as a personality and strengths-based business coach female-identifying entrepreneurs in service-based industries.
I am FIRED UP because I get to use my master’s degree again. I get to see women taking massive action. I get to see my impact on their lives and businesses.
YALL. This is what I was meant to do.
If you’re a female-identifying entrepreneur with a service-based business, let’s chat! Learn more about working with me.
The Nitty-Gritty Steps for Pivoting Your Business
If you didn’t read through my full story of my business and how I pivoted, I’m giving you the quick steps for pivoting your business.
• Decide – I decided that it was time to pivot. I was ready for this change.
• Commit – When you commit to pivoting, you can’t do it half-assed. You really have to go all in on it. So I committed to this new business and I stuck to it. There was no waffling back and forth between businesses–that causes confusion and we don’t want our audience to be confused.
• Market Research – Researching will help understand your ideal client’s pain points. It also helped me understand if they knew what I meant when I used specific words from the personality and strengths industry. If someone doesn’t know what “introvert” means, then I need to use another way to describe that. You can definitely use this research to create content.
• Position – Marketing and positioning yourself as the expert is key. Taking the research you did, you can start making content around your ICA’s (ideal client avatar) pain points. This helps them connect with you. Another piece of positioning is using audiences of others. I started booking podcast interviews as a visibility strategy and it has helped me position myself as the personality and strengths-based business coach.
• Do – After deciding, committing, researching, and positioning you really have one thing left to do: DO IT. Don’t do all of that work and then not take action. Your job is to sell yourself and your services. That’s what’s going to continue to get you booked and bring in new clients. When you do the thing you’ve pivoted to, you’re building your business and it creates validity to your business.
Pivoting doesn’t have to be scary or hard. Use the outline above to get started and go do the thing you were meant to do!
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