358: What to Do When Your Business is in Flux

When your business hits a season of fluctuation, whether it's revenue dipping, a once-stable offer suddenly stalling, or team dynamics changing, it can feel like the ground disappears under you.

This episode explores how to stay steady when the numbers, the people, or the market start acting strange.

We talk about why “business is a spiritual practice” doesn’t mean it always feels good, and how to lead through uncertainty without sugarcoating, lying, or showing a confidence you don’t actually feel.

You’ll hear practical ways to orient yourself back to what matters, and why the smartest move in a time of flux is often getting a thinking partner instead of trying to solve everything alone in your own head.

In this episode, we cover:

• The difference between “think positive” advice and reality-based leadership that still creates momentum.
• How to galvanize your team around a path forward without pretending everything is fine.
• The “reality distortion effect” (in the best sense): holding a compelling vision even when the present moment is messy.
• Why your default problem-solving style can trap you, and how a thinking partner helps you see options you literally can’t see alone.

Connect with us

Superabound supports visionary entrepreneurs and founders who refuse to sacrifice their lives to build their business, blending grounded strategy with unconventional tools that help you think clearly and decide well.

Schedule a 90-minute Superabound Start Session here to see what coaching with us will unlock for your business and life.

Full transcript:

Welcome to the Superabound podcast where vision led entrepreneurs learn to build a generous business without sacrificing what matters most. You are listening to episode 358. What to do when your business is in flux. Is that what we're calling this? Oh yeah. No, it's about the changing times. I had one of those moments where I was like, "Wait, what are we talking about?" That was it. business is in flux. How not to freak out. [laughter] How not to freak out. Uh speaking of change, we are uh we have a new background for today. If you're watching the video, we have a lovely tree behind us that is actually uh it's one of our final days with the tree. We're going to be saying goodbye to it. So, this is just a little flux in our life here at home. And uh yeah, let's talk about flux in business, too. Yeah, I'm sad about the tree. It's a bummer. It's sick. We're not just cutting it down for fun, but um I'm excited about some of the changes we'll tell you about later. There are changes another time what's going to be happening. Uh with our two trees back there, but just a little moment with the tree. I'm trying to spend as much time outside as I can right now. Even though my allergies are very bad. So, if it sounds like I have a cold, that is why. It's just been bad because flux and seasons and that's how it is. Yeah. Okay. So, here's why we're talking about this. Um, our business has had a lot of fluctuations in the last year or two. Um, and I've noticed in the last couple of years, this is also true for many of my clients. I have clients in a wide variety of industries. And I think that the last couple of years have been maybe harder on some industries more than others. Um, and you know, we we're talk about business being a spiritual practice. We talk about, you know, really having a healthy mindset, having um a mindset that's tuned towards abundance and prosperity. But that is something that's easy to do when things feel spacious and feel wonderful. It's very hard to do when you look at your business revenue for the last quarter and say, "Oh [ __ ] this is something's wrong. Something's not working. Something's bad." It's hard to be like in a positive flowing manifesty mindset when the numbers are feeling scary for you. No. or the team or like all this stuff. Yeah. What whatever's going on for you. I want to touch on the idea of business as a spiritual practice. Spiritual practices are not always like good feeling things. Sometimes they're really hard. Sometimes they're about confronting things that you've wanted to avoid your whole life. Sometimes they're about breaking through your own resistance to your higher possibilities that you've held on to for whatever reason. Sometimes it's really tough. And so in those moments when you're like, "Why is my business feeling so heavy? Why is this so hard? I thought it was supposed to be a spiritual practice." As those spiritual practices are just, you know, lighting incense and taking bubble baths. you can, you know, hearken back to some of the more challenging practices that we have in our, you know, records as a species, as a culture. Um, sometimes it's tough. Yeah, sometimes it's tough. And I mean, I don't think anyone becomes an entrepreneur or maybe if you're not an entrepreneur, maybe you're in a leadership role. I don't think any of us really start doing that um because we believe it's going to be easy. Um, in some ways I think I mean sorry I shouldn't say that in some ways it is easier you know if you hate working for someone else if you don't like taking direction you don't like having a boss if you feel like the businesses that you have worked for um are not actually walking the talk in some ways it's easier to be out on your own or to be the leader in a business situation because you and your integrity can do the work that feels aligned for you. So, in some ways it is kind of spiritually easier. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. But it's harder because you're the one responsible, [laughter] you know, you're the one responsible for doing the work. If you work for an organization that does not um actually stand in their values, you know, at the end of the day, you can go home and say, "Well, they're out of integrity, and I'm just doing this for a paycheck, and you know, I'm going to find something that's better for me." But when you are the person signing the paychecks and maybe people on your team are not living up to the values of the company that you've all agreed on or they're not doing their work in a way that has integrity or you are partnering or collaborating with people who are saying one thing and doing another, you're the back stop. You're the person that has to say no, this is not okay. Um, when something you've poured your heart and soul and energy and revenue into as an experiment in your business does not work, it does not go according to plan, you are the one that has to troubleshoot that while you simultaneously deal with maybe the internal disappointment of something not going the way you wanted it to. So, in that way, it's much harder than just having a job where someone else makes the rules and calls the shots. Yeah, it's when you're the leader, when you're the boss, it's more vision aligned. Hopefully, that's why you're doing it. And that's what gives you the strength to deal with those deeper levels of challenge, right? There's a there's a higher high and a lower low, but that together is what makes it more real, makes it more engaging, makes it more worthwhile, worthy of your life energy. So that's the um that's kind of the uh comfort that you can take when things are really challenging, when things are in flux is as our eldest Rey likes to say, uh you chose this when you're in the middle of something really tough like you chose this. Okay. Yes, I did choose this. And coming back to that reason coaching. Yeah. Yeah. Coming back to that reason why you chose it. That's your visional aligned engine. That's the f the heat for your fire. So let's talk about what happens when you are in a period of fluctuation. And you know I'll give some examples. maybe a a product or program that had been very stable, that had been bringing in a consistent um revenue, consistent customers, um you know, just had some feeling of solidity to it starts to tank or when maybe team members that have been with you from the beginning start to falter. you know they are not able to live up to the new version of the business. They can't see the new vision. They are taking three times longer to do something than is really necessary. um your business at that point is in flux. When we start to either have external factors that are making things harder internally or when we have internal factors that are making things challenging externally because we think about whole life success but I think that business success is also very holistic. you know, if if there's trouble on the team, your customers are going to see that in some ripple effect. If there's that the market's not buying the way they used to, that's going to shake the confidence of the core team. So, we can't just say, even though we're coaches, we can't just say the cure for this is to think positively and think differently. Um, I actually, this really bugs me when coaches say you're not wanting it hard enough or you're not believing in yourself hard enough. Um, I did a podcast recently with uh Elena, my other podcast partner, um, for the coaching mixer, and we were really talking about how sometimes people will sacrifice their own well-being to like achieve a goal. And I think that that's not actually a good use of our mindset.

And at the same time, when things are tricky, you got to be dialed in to the right perspective on it. Even if you're the only one working on the business, which is probably not the case if you're, you know, leading a team, leading a company, you gota you got to point people towards that north star that's going to help everybody get through this challenging period. Because if you're feeling the shakiness of, you know, bad results, uh, a team member that's not pulling their weight, whatever it might be, you better believe everybody else is feeling it, too. And they don't have the same skin in the game that you do to kind of keep them on board. And so, if you aren't kind of showing them that there is a positive path forward, because there's there's only two options. either there is a positive path forward and you should go for it and take it with everything you've got or there's not a positive path forward and you either need to create one or it's time to wind things out, right? So, it's like if there is a positive path forward, that's what you need to focus on for yourself and for your team. And if there isn't, then that's where you start doing the the problem solving of how how do we turn this around? How do we turn this into something that we can be proud of and kind of look back on as as a real success? Okay. And what I want to know about that, and I'd love to hear your opinion on this, um, is how do you galvanize people around the positive path forward or get them on board with like creating the positive path forward without sugarcoating the seriousness of the situation you're in? because I've seen a lot of business owners really kind of shelter their team or even like I'm sorry to say like straight up lie in their industry and say everything is great and I'm doing wonderful and I'm super successful. Um when it's like actually not the case. So and I know that that's probably self-p protection and that's maybe mark I don't know that's marketing or something. Um, but how do you actually be honest enough with what is happening with the changes that are like B basically how do you be available for those changes and

articulate that in a way that's still creative and motivating but not like [ __ ] Yeah. I mean what I've so the the the phrase that comes to mind is the reality distortion effect. It's, you know, attributed to Steve Jobs and his ability to like have people be present to a reality that was nowhere to be found. Like it just exists in potential. It was his ability to tell a story that brings that story so resonantly to the present moment that it gets lots of people on board for what's possible. And it's something that is a trait of successful leaders, you know, throughout is you can be in the middle of hell. You can be failing on all fronts, but if there is still a vision for what's possible that you can see so strongly that despite all the chaos and tumult around you, you can motivate yourself and your people to say this is where we're going and this is why it matters and this is why you should stay on this path with me, then you have a shot.

And that doesn't mean that's very interesting. I think also these fluctuation times I think as a spiritual opportunity are the opp it's like a chance to actually redefine or check in with what your big vision is. Um not the corporate mission statement but the actual thing you want to create with your lifetime. We were talking about this on a on a walk the other day. Like what do you want people to say about you 20 years after you're dead? Not like the nice things people say about you at your funeral. This is we're going down that road right now. Everybody I love to talk about that is the other side of life happening to all of us. Coming soon coming soon. But like that 20 years, 30 years, 100 years, you know, there's there are people who have such a legacy that their story, their um vision still touches people today. And I think in times of flux, of course, you're going to be worrying about the immediate lantern you must light to keep your business going or to keep your team on board. But I think it's also a chance to cast yourself into a future where you're not here and you're not able to have um such a present influence on the world around you. What do you what did you do with this lifetime? What did you do that made a difference to other people? And I I feel very I have to say I feel very lucky to work with the clients that I have because they are people who are doing work in the world that will be felt for hundreds of years. Like not exaggerating at all. They're having an impact now, but the work that they're doing will have a ripple result long after they are alive. So I think it's helpful to connect with that like kind of bigger stretch of time even beyond your own lifetime when you're in flux to remind you that this is what matters and this has helped us so many times. Yeah. Well, because it puts everything in perspective. It reminds you that this may be a challenge in this moment for whatever is going on, but it's part of a bigger story of your own life, which is part of a bigger story of the world around you and can help you really anchor in what matters and why you became an entrepreneur or a leader in the first place to make that difference. And you know, when you think about the people that have inspired you and those moments when they've been really galvanizing or motivating, it's because they're tapped into something deeper, something truer than this moment, this everyday, you know, hit the next mark, make the next dollar. It's actually here's why we're doing this. Here's why we're doing this together. Here's why I need you and why you may have resonated and said yes, I want to work with you. And so that relationship, that bond, right, coming back to what you know to be true between yourself and your team, the relationships that are there between you and your team and your customers. Um, all of that can transcend the momentary challenges and bring you back to those, you know, it's called first principles and you often hear like bring you back to those reasons why you're even doing it. Okay. And so that's kind of the the big picture which I think is really important. I think it's the first place to start with, but then maybe you could speak a little bit from your own uh experience about how you've dealt with flux in the last little while. Um what has been some what have been some of the mindset tools? What have been some of the practices that have been just supportive in times of uncertainty? Yeah. You know, for me, what's been most helpful is a balance of knowing what I want and not knowing exactly how we're going to get there. Um, and it's helpful to be surrounded by people who will help you like be loose around the how we're going to get there part. Because for me, my mind tends to go like, "All right, here's how we're going to do it." Like I I like to collapse the uncertainty into, "All right, here's the path forward." And that can be helpful. you know, you start taking action and start learning from those actions. But it can also be unhelpful because you can cut out good options that may still be on the table. Um, that's one thing I always find helpful about talking things over with my wife, bringing them up with you, Aaron, is uh, you know, I'm like, I know what I'm going to do. Why do I need to talk about it? Because maybe there are some other options. maybe there are some other possibilities for getting this very same thing that you want that are actually even better than the path that you thought. So for me that's been really helpful. Um whether it's around personnel issues or product issues, revenue issues, you're like, "Hey, here's where we want to go. Let's talk about the possibilities and which ones are going to be best for all possible uh outcomes for best for all the people involved." Yeah. Um, I [clears throat] didn't know you were trying to talk to me as your partner on that because I'm usually like put on my thinking partner cap, which is what I do with my clients. Um, so many people I think waste so much time and effort just rolling things around in their own head. I think that one of the just from what I've seen over the years when I was coaching on relationships, when I've been coaching on on business challenges um with business owners, I you know I I try to stay flexible around this, but I really have um the tendency to believe that more communication is better because sometimes we will take a a problem like You said you know this about yourself. You're you happen to be a coach. You happen to have all these mindset tools. You know that your tendency is to collapse things down to remove uncertainty so you have a path forward so you can get going and just be like this is what we're doing. It's a very Taurus energy. [laughter] It's very Steve. Um which has its benefits and and drawbacks. But if before you kind of said, "Okay, I'm gonna take action towards this thing, you did open it up to a big brainstorm, you had some flexibility. You had someone come in and offer ideas um that maybe hadn't occurred to you, which is me usually sometimes. [laughter] Um you just have more you have another brain on the problem. You have another brain." And I think this is what is so important for business owners, for leaders, is you're very emotionally tied in when it's your business or your team or your problem to solve. The weight of that responsibility is not something that I think anyone can be free from. I don't think it's possible for you to know that you're responsible and not feel some pressure um or to be like really clean around your thinking. You need a thinking partner. You need a coach. You need someone to come in who is not emotionally invested, who is not going to be responsible for doing the heavy lifting of whatever that work entails to support you around the thinking. Someone who's on your team as that kind of support um offers you I think again a more holistic way of looking at potential solutions because if the solution is I know what I'm going to do. I'm gonna work 60 hours a week until this problem is solved. Someone who has your whole life success [laughter] on their mind is going to really open that up and say, "Really, is that the only option? Is that actually supportive to you in the long run? Is that something that is going to be sustainable?" Um, they're going to offer possibilities for you. they're going to offer maybe arguments for why that could not maybe that's not the path forward. Um I've had so many people who only got mentorship from other people in their industry and they're all coming at it with the same exact mindset blocks. You know, if you have a group of like tech founders in a room supporting each other, they are all going to believe that the fastest way to make $5 million is to work 80 hours a week because that's what everybody did. That must be the only way. That's what they the story they heard on the podcast. That's what Steve Jobs did or like whoever like the people did. um they need sometimes someone with a totally different mindset, a totally different um way of thinking to come in and say, "What if there's another way?" I've been doing this for a while um with people who have big jobs, big businesses. Um they can't all work four days a week. Some of them have to work more than that. But I will tell you, I have watched some of the very busiest clients that I've ever had take sabbaticals, revisit their schedules so that they're not, you know, doing high demand work every single day. I have watched people who once told me that they could never have the kind of spaciousness, they could never work without immense pressure. I have watched them completely shift that perspective through their own experimentation and probably just from as a side effect of having someone in their corner that said, "Let's find out if we can make some magical other option that has never existed for people in your position ever before." And it's fun. Yeah. So having space for impossible possibilities, for things that you hadn't considered is crucial for these moments of flux. And so if you're kind of thinking it through on your own, consider, you know, what are all the things that I want to think it through on your own. I'm saying don't do that. But no, that's [laughter] the whole point. Like start with your own thinking and then find a good coach to expand it from there. Yeah. Yeah. Um just assume that your own thinking is going to be limited because our thinking is limited. Yeah. You you can't you can't possibly have all the stakeholders in mind just from where you're sitting. Yeah. And so um partnering up partnering up and and if there's um yeah to the point of like if you're all sitting in the same room and you've always already been in the same room, the thinking is probably going to be along the same lines of what's always been there. So the the thinking that got you here is is not going to be the thinking that gets you out. So definitely that um expansive almost magical but like in a kind of grounded possibility towards creating your own future sense um is is the best possible thing you can do. I agree. And you know it's funny because I mean I do this with you. So Steve is not the only one who asks the other person for thinking partnership. I do this with Steve um or and my own coaches. But when when you are left to your own devices, you are just going to go to your default. And the quickest way to get out of that default into possibility is actually and I I didn't say this for a long time because I wanted to be taken seriously like a serious business coach with my shoulder pads. Um it actually is to dive into more magical thinking. It actually is to get more playful and creative with the way that you are doing something. I'm going to even offer just like a small example because some of you know that I've been working uh for the last little while on this Superabound Oracle deck. It's really cool. It's cool. Beautiful. It's super cool. I've posted lots of um time-lapse videos on Instagram @besuperabound if you want to see me like sitting there frowning at the paper and [laughter] figuring it out. It's super fun or smiling at the paper. I actually smile more um than brown these days. But my, you know, it sounds very whimsical, really different. And of course, because I have been in the realm of divination for a long time, my biggest kind of worry the last little while has been like, how am I going to make one of those little guide books? You know, those little teeny books you can barely read the font. Um, they tell you what the cards are for. I've been really grappling with like, how am I going to design that? How am I going to create that? What goes in that? Because the way that I've been teaching, especially oracle cards to my clients, is to let their intuition be the guide, to use it as a catalyst for tapping into your own inner knowing, to connecting with your future, to getting your own answers. And the last thing I want to do is say, "Here's the definitive meaning of this card." Black and white, baby. This is what this one means, definitely. And if you see something else, that's just wrong. I don't want to do that. And those little guide books sometimes are just so easy for people to flip open and say, "I'm going to go find out exactly what this means." So, in my own limited thinking about it, I don't say that with self- judgment. I just mean I've seen hundreds of tarot decks, hundreds of oracle decks. They all have this little card book lit thing. I was like, I don't want to do that, Steve. And Steve said, well, you don't have to do that. You know, maybe there's another way that you could offer some ideas to people. You can offer them coaching. You can offer them, you know, your impressions of the card as you were creating it. you can like give meanings but not make it something that feels rigid or they are not tapping in to their own inner knowing. And so we have a really neat idea for how we're going to do this for when I release the deck. And it's something I don't think I've ever seen another deck creator do. They probably have, but I just haven't seen it. Um, and I'm really excited about it. And it's going to be able it's going to be something that helps you tap into your intuition to use the cards, but then we'll support you with you know some of the meanings I saw as I was creating the card. So if there's any takeaway from this, I would say it's connect with your big vision. Anchor in why you're doing what you're doing. Get that thinking partnership to expand the possible paths forward and use those two to galvanize yourself and the people around you to pursue the journey in this moment of flux. I hope that this is helpful. Um, and we're always going to have flux. So, it's it's something that this is a skill you're going to need. [laughter] you're going to need a uh a way of being in these uncertain seasons of your business, of your life. And the more you can sort of do the dance between the big visionary thinking and the hey, I need some support today. I need another brain that's not as emotionally tied up in this situation as me to help me reflect, to get coaching from, to get ideas from. Um, it's a really really beautiful gift to give yourself because I mean we all think we're the lone wolf. We have to figure it out alone, but like that's not better, that's not faster. That's actually often a big waste of time in my my personal experience for myself when I do that. It often wastes months of time that I just wish I had sat down with my coach [laughter] and talked it through. Well, thank you for listening. We'll be in touch next time. If you want to see what it would look like in your business to uh have that kind of thinking partnership, you can head to besuperabound.com/consultation and book a start session. Start session there. Take care. Take care.