TPS #058: 4 Thoughts Before You Pivot

Question #1: “What is the #1 goal?”

This question begins your journey to clairty.

What do you want to achieve with your pivot? Want to produce? Want to build out a part of the business you are passionate about? Want to work with artists one-on-one? What is inspiring you right now to consider this pivot?

I asked myself questions like these in my own career after several pivots. My pivots were based on the changes in the music industry at large and the changing needs of artists and music professionals.

I was always passionate about helping artists create sustainability in their careers and I knew that my latest pivot into publishing was the way to do that.

With defining your goal, there is no right or wrong answer to these questions. They are personal to you and what motivates you.

Each of us have our own kind of blueprint to work, so whatever it is that motivates you, write it down.

Question #2: “What do I enjoy / not enjoy about my business?”

Your blueprint comes into play and it is important for you to figure out what you actually enjoy – and don’t enjoy – about your current business.

Maybe you love being creative. Or maybe you like helping artists and their teams build out strategies.

And then on the flip side of that, maybe you don’t feel like you can be creative. Or maybe you don’t like the back and forth with vendors and other businesses.

For me, I enjoy helping artists and their teams build sustainability. However, I had got to a point where I wanted to help more artists and artist managers than working a few would allow. I found myself frustrated with feeling limited.

Understanding what makes what you do enjoyable and what you don’t enjoy helps to steer your pivot away from falling back into things you don’t enjoy.

After all, your business is about doing what you love.

Question #3: “What do I WANT to be doing?”

Answering this question requires you to be brutually honest with yourself.

It’s ultimately your choice what you’re doing in your business. No one is forcing you to do anything.

Whether you’re a producer, songwriter, manager, or any other music professional, you call all the shots in your own business – which is the reason why you started it.

What you want may look similar to what you you’re currently doing with just a few tweaks – maybe offering changing from management to management services or creating a production subscription service.

My pivot looks similar to what I was doing – I pivoted from just helping artists and artist managers to helping music founders, CEOs, and entrepreneurs.

It is much easier to pivot now and deal with those growing pains then to sit though it all with your current business model and hate what you are doing.

Question #4: “What do I need to let go of to move forward?”

So now that you nailed that down, ask yourself what are you not doing to make it happen?

You may need to set aside some time to work on your new business pivot. This could be taking more time to learn a program, research the market, or increase your network.

If you have a team, this could also mean revamping and revising positions and offerings.

What I needed to do to move forward with my pivot was accept that my audience was becoming different. I was getting more questions and engagement from founders, CEOs, and music entrepreneurs on framing and executing ideas.

Letting go is never easy, but it is a necessary step to bring you closer to what achieving clarity for your pivot.

You can use the above questions as your personal roadmap for beginning down the path of pivoting.

Writing them down will give you more clarity than you have right now if you know you want to change but aren’t sure in what direction.

Hope that helps.

Related: Pivoting doesn’t mean failure. As musician, podcaster, and author Bree Noble points out in her podcast, The Profitable Musician, pivoting is often a necessary step in aligning work, passions, and goals.