743. Pivoting Does Not Have to Be Dramatic

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16:05

Awareness without a next step is just a well informed stuck place. In this second part of the Quit vs Pivot series, Lesley Logan reframes the pivot as evidence gathered, and gives listeners a way to tell whether they should change course or close a chapter. She shares the running story that reshaped her own goals and the science that makes changing direction a strength.


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In this episode you will learn about:

  • Why a pivot means starting with data, not starting over.
  • The method versus mission filter for what you're truly done with.
  • Running a small, messy experiment before committing to any big change.
  • Signals that point toward pivoting versus signals it's time to quit.
  • How expired containers, not dead dreams, explain outgrowing a plan.


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Episode Transcript:

Lesley Logan 0:00  

A pivot is not a failure. It is using what you've learned. It's information and then adjusting course, right? And I think a lot of us treat pivot like a consolation prize. Well, Plan A didn't work, so I guess I'll do this instead.


Lesley Logan 0:16  

Welcome to the Be It Till You See It podcast where we talk about taking messy action, knowing that perfect is boring. I'm Lesley Logan, Pilates instructor and fitness business coach. I've trained thousands of people around the world and the number one thing I see stopping people from achieving anything is self-doubt. My friends, action brings clarity and it's the antidote to fear. Each week, my guest will bring bold, executable, intrinsic and targeted steps that you can use to put yourself first and Be It Till You See It. It's a practice, not a perfect. Let's get started.


Lesley Logan 0:59  

All right, if you listened to part one, you got some homework done, and you sat with what you're actually done with, and you've checked in with your body, and hopefully you got a little more honest with yourself than a couple days ago. And today we're gonna do something with that because awareness without a next step is really just, well, it's a very well-informed, stuck place, and I don't want that for you, or, as my breathwork coach said, information without integration is constipation, a.k.a. stuck. Right?


Lesley Logan 1:27  

So, welcome back to Be It Till You See It. This is part two of Quit Versus Pivot series, and if you didn't listen to part one, what are you actually trying to quit? You should go listen to that one because this is going to feel a little bit of the ordinary. So it's just going to be below this in your wherever you're listening to podcast, yeah, because, I mean, if you're like me and you want to listen to the end first, you totally can. Who am I to tell you what to do? But today's episode is about a word that changes everything once you understand it, and that is pivot. And again, some of us don't like that word; we get a little tired of it. But it's a really good word.


Lesley Logan 1:57  

So let's redefine pivot. Let's start here. A pivot is not a failure. It is using what you've learned. It's information and then adjusting course, right? And I think a lot of us treat pivot like a consolation prize. Well, Plan A didn't work, so I guess I'll do this instead, which is framing that actually keeps you small and a little bit resentful of your own journey, as opposed to the reframe, which you can take instead, which is you're not starting over; you're starting with data. So, for example, when I first started to run a marathon, I thought, okay, I just have to run a long time over and over again, and I'll be able to run a marathon. And I started doing that, and I started having shin splints and a little bit of hip pain and things like that, and I thought about quitting, but I was, well, I don't want to quit. I really want to achieve this goal, but I'm not, this isn't working. And so now I have information about what doesn't work. I hired a coach on how to do it, and then I ran a marathon. And then after I ran that marathon, I discovered that I actually prefer running half marathons because it's easier to stay in shape for a half marathon. And I became an elite half marathon runner and doing things like that. I would not say that becoming a half marathon runner was a consolation prize of being a marathon runner. No, I was able to make a more informed decision about the goals that I have. It was information with, it was having a new goal with data on how to do what I want to do, versus I think I want to do this thing right now, which is totally fine. But now we don't have to start over. We get to start from a new starting line with the data of what to do.


Lesley Logan 3:30  

So every attempt you've made, every version of the plan, the class, the offer, the show, everything you've done on your goal on a thing, you actually get to ask yourself what worked and what drained you. What did people actually respond to? Not on vibes, but like on data. What about your body felt like it was in resistance before, or what about it felt like it was easy and in flow? All that information is not a waste. It's the research phase. No one calls it that, right? Everyone tells us, oh, you just should be able to do the thing that you set out to do as some bullshit. So after every single thing Brad and I do in our business, we sit down and we go, what worked and what didn't work? What did we like? What didn't we like? We said 15 minutes. Was that enough time? Do we need 20 minutes? It's all information. When you do that for your business, you don't go, oh my god, you didn't know. No, you'll call it a postmortem or an autopsy. You call it reflection. Why don't we do that with our other goals in our life?


Lesley Logan 4:25  

So let's talk method versus mission. And this is a filter that I use now, and I want you to use it as much as you want. And you can call it whatever you want because it is simple. We talked about this in last. Am I done with the whole thing or this is just the way I'm doing it? So method versus mission. If I'm done with the whole thing, that's like mission. If I'm done with the way I'm doing it, that's just the method, right? There's other ways of doing that. Sometimes the mission is still completely right, and the method is what's wrong. You still believe in what your outcome is. You're just exhausted with the vehicle you chose to get there.


Lesley Logan 4:56  

So, I used to write tons and tons of blogs. That is how our businesses got started, and now I don't write blogs. I do videos, and then the transcripts become the blog. So I still do long form content. I just don't type it all out, right? So method versus mission. Maybe it's the schedule you're using. Maybe you're maybe you said you'll take calls in the evenings, and you want to take calls in the afternoons. Maybe it is the format, like mine was. Maybe it's who you are doing the thing for. Maybe it is the offer itself, right? Like as you heard for the last episode, we changed Agency. We changed the actual offer. We didn't change who it's for. We didn't change our mission of how we want to help more bodies doing Pilates, and that by doing that, we help the studio owners. We just changed the offer of how we're going to do that, and we change the environment of which we did it in. And it's not because we didn't love what we're doing before; we just needed to make a change so that we can sustainably do what we're doing. And that's key, right? It's really important for you to keep that in mind. That like we talked about in the first episode, it's not a failure. It's actually information about where you're at right now. Maybe it's the pace you set, right?


Lesley Logan 6:02  

I was listening to something today where this woman really set this 10-week program up, and she's okay, here's the program, and no one bought it, and she's why didn't you buy it? I don't, 10 weeks is too long to commit, so she did four weeks, and then they did, right? So maybe it's the pace that you set. Maybe it's your support system, right? Maybe you have had the same people on your team, the same coach for a long time, and you love them, but they got you as far as they can, and so it's time to go with someone else. That's also fine. That happens to me, too. I'm going to get people as far as they can go. I'm going to get them to their goal, and they're going to need a different support system. There's nothing wrong with that. And so, if that's true for you, then it's okay. That's the method, right?


Lesley Logan 6:40  

That's the vehicle, or maybe it's the lack of having a support system, and so you have to go get someone to help support you and hold you up. Changing any of those, and you might have a completely different relationship with the thing that you're feeling like you should walk away from. So instead of quitting, it's a pivot. Now, if it's a pivot, how do we make sure that we don't think it has to be a dramatic pivot? Because I do think sometimes we think I need to make this big announcement about this pivot I'm making. I want to take the pressure off because I think that also keeps us stuck longer. Right? Pivoting does not have to be dramatic. You do not need to announce that you're making a total rebrand or blow up the whole plan to prove you're serious about changing something. It can be a small experiment. You can dabble in it. You can give it try.


Lesley Logan 7:21  

You know how I love messy action, meaning you can try the new version imperfectly. You can just give it a little test run before you're sure, before it's polished. It helps you at least test the next iteration before you commit to it. And I really do believe in testing because if you make this big grand party about it, and then you don't like the new thing now, you're going to feel like you have to pivot again. You might still have to, but wouldn't it be nice to just do it quietly? It's also easier. So I want you to find ways to test your pivot out so you can really ensure that you are making the adjustments that you need so that you can go. Yep, this is the correct pivot. And actually, now that I've done this pivot, now I really want to make these three adjustments. That's great too. There's a reason why stores will open and then they'll have a grand opening six months or even a year later. It's not because they are. Oh, we want to have a sale. It's because they had to get systems in place to make sure that what they were doing and who they were doing it for made sense and it supported what their mission was, right?


Lesley Logan 8:21  

There are signals, by the way. So let's talk a little bit about how to actually tell the difference, because I think people ask me the most about this. Signs that it might be time to pivot is that the desire is still alive, but the current version feels heavy or exhausting. So you still want the outcome, but pursuing it is what's crushing you. I'll never forget when we first did Profitable Pilates in 2016. The way we did it, I remember six months in, it wasn't working. I was crying, and Brad's, "Well, let's just quit it. No one will even know if you just quit doing it. And when he asked me that, I didn't feel free. I felt sad, and so I knew that it wasn't that I needed to stop doing Profitable Pilates; that I needed to change the vehicle, right? So, just how does it feel in your body when you're given permission to not do the thing? If it doesn't feel better, then it's you know there's a it's not a sign it's not time to quit. It's time to pivot, right?


Lesley Logan 9:15  

Signs it might be time to quit, actually quit, is that the desire is gone. Like you don't, you no longer are going after that thing anymore. The cost of staying is just too high. Whether it's your time or your healthy relationships or your money, continual pressure requires you to abandon yourself to keep doing it. Like if you, if it means who you are as a human being is not going to be supported, it's time to quit, right? Like I have a friend who's just not being seen for her talents and skills where she's at. She's not done, but she's done there because she isn't able to show up fully as herself, and how they want her to show up is killing her, right? It's taking the wonderful sparkle off her eye, so that last part matters more than people give it credit for.


Lesley Logan 10:04  

If staying is something and shrinking or silencing your needs or overriding what your body has been telling you, that's not a commitment. That's self-abandonment. Wearing commitment clothes, and so you gotta quit. Right? It's not a pivot. It's a definite we got to move in that so we can keep you who you are and move you somewhere else, right? So I want to hand you some science because I do think science also helps give us permission. We like evidence, we like data. There's cognitive flexibility. The actual ability to adapt and change direction is a strength. It's not inconsistency. It's not flakiness. So I just want you to know that in making changes, it is hard to stick with the change because it requires strength to do that. And so you're not being consistent, you're not being flaky. It just does take time to get that cognitive flexibility, the actual ability to adapt and change direction. So if you start on a new course and your pivot and it starts to go back to where it was, you didn't fail. You're not flaky. We just got to get back there.


Lesley Logan 10:59  

Clarity rarely comes from sitting still and overthinking every angle. My overthinkers, this is for you. It comes from behavioral data, meaning you try something, you test it, you adjust based on what actually happens instead of what you predicted would happen from the couch. So clarity does not come from I'm here with a crystal ball. No, you take some action, you get some clarity. It's in the beginning of the show. It's literally in the intro, and here is the other piece. Just because something feels hard right now does not automatically mean it's wrong. That's emotional reasoning, and it's sneaky because hard and wrong almost feel like they're identical in the moment. Some of the most right things I've ever done in any of my businesses felt brutally hard for the first few months. I'm doing something right now that is brutally hard.


Lesley Logan 11:38  

So, lastly, I want to say, the container might have expired, not the dream. So remember, there's quitting and there's pivoting. Sometimes the container we are in is expired, and I want to give you a picture to carry this with you because I think it explains the whole series a little bit better than my bullet points ever could. Sometimes the dream is still alive, but the container is expired. The vision didn't fall. The version of you who built it two years ago or two months ago, simply isn't the version that fits who you are right now or what your life actually looks like. That's not a loss. That's a growth of asking a new shape. That is my example of how we changed Agency. I am not a flaky person. I didn't stop with the dream, but I did expire the container. My capacity to respond to every single Slack message every single day had changed. My capacity to focus had changed. Perimenopause fucked my ADHD and all the things that I did. So I didn't fail. I just needed to change the container because the original container I built it on had expired. The dream was still there. The desire is still there, and I'm still doing it. Resistance that you're feeling towards the current plan can also be information. It's not automatic stop sign, and not every detour you've ever taken was a distraction. Some detours were guidance, pointing you somewhere you could couldn't have found by going straight there. Sometimes we need detours because we need to rest. Sometimes we need detours when we have to get gas. Sometimes we need detours because there's one we're supposed to meet. So sometimes getting straight to the destination is not the actual best path. You're allowed to honor what something taught you without carrying the whole structure of it forever.


Lesley Logan 13:05  

So here's what I want you to do this week because we're closing off this series. And if you have questions about this and we want to do a second part, please let me know where you want me to go with it. We can obviously re-pick this back up. But I want you to take the thing that you named in part one, the thing that you are not sure whether you want to quit or pivot, and I want you to run it through a filter. Am I done with the mission, or am I just done with this method? Am I done with the dream, or am I done with the vehicle? If it's the method, I need you to pick the lever, right? I need you to pick: is it the pace, the format, the offer, the audience, the support, the environment. Pick one and design a small, messy experiment you can run the next two weeks. Not a full build, not a full launch. Just a test. If it's genuinely the whole mission, that's okay. Give yourself a mission to call it complete instead of failed, and let that be enough for now. How can you disentangle yourself from it? Can you just hit pause, right?


Lesley Logan 13:54  

So I hope you like this series, Be It babe. I hope this gives you some understanding that we can quit, we can pivot. It is not actually, do we stop doing anything? It's what have I learned? What is this truth? What is this information telling me about who I am, where I'm going, what do I desire, what is my dream, and what do I need to have around me? What pace I need to go out, what support do I need to go at, so that I can adjust to what is going on and continue to grow as a human being? How do I continue to Be It Till I See It with this information? Information is not judgment. It is simply feedback on where you have gone, where you're going, what you want more of, what you want less of. And I hope this series helped you get clear on something that's going on in your life. And I would love to hear. So tell me, send me a message. You can tag me on Instagram. Send this to a friend who needs to hear it, and again, if you want more topics like this, just send them into the beitpod.com/questions. Thank you so much, and until next time, Be It Till You See It.


Lesley Logan 14:49  

That's all I got for this episode of the Be It Till You See It Podcast. One thing that would help both myself and future listeners is for you to rate the show and leave a review and follow or subscribe for free wherever you listen to your podcast. Also, make sure to introduce yourself over at the Be It Pod on Instagram. I would love to know more about you. Share this episode with whoever you think needs to hear it. Help us and others Be It Till You See It. Have an awesome day. Be It Till You See It is a production of The Bloom Podcast Network. If you want to leave us a message or a question that we might read on another episode, you can text us at +1-310-905-5534 or send a DM on Instagram @BeItPod.


Brad Crowell 15:32  

It's written, filmed, and recorded by your host, Lesley Logan, and me, Brad Crowell.


Lesley Logan 15:37  

It is transcribed, produced and edited by the epic team at Disenyo.co.


Brad Crowell 15:41  

Our theme music is by Ali at Apex Production Music and our branding by designer and artist, Gianfranco Cioffi.


Lesley Logan 15:48  

Special thanks to Melissa Solomon for creating our visuals.


Brad Crowell 15:52  

Also to Angelina Herico for adding all of our content to our website. And finally to Meridith Root for keeping us all on point and on time.



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