my boring business era
At the end of last year, I made the decision to go all-in on a "boring" business model.
I had reached a moment of one part exhaustion and one part crystal clarity about how I wanted to spend this season in my life and in my work.
And a "boring" business model was the answer.
But there was one thing I didn't think about...
My system was wired for the thrill.
I was addicted to stretching beyond the bounds of my capacity (which was/is enormous, btw), the next challenge, the next bar to leap over. The excitement of the on-sale, the next big idea, the next build out felt safer.
I was so comfortable being the underdog winning the game in the last second - the idea of a "boring" business model was a strangely scary concept.
But it was slowly chipping away at me and presenting me with a very real values conflict because there were new metrics in my life that mattered more than reaching a new income bar and scaling my business.
4 + 12
77 + 81 + 78
44 + 42 =
The ages of our children, our parents and us.
My business needed to sync up with the season we were in - in the most concrete and aligned ways possible.
My husband also launched his own business a few months ago and that has fast become a new factor we've needed to calculate into the mix.
All of this was a flashing red sign pointing to my safety/security patterns...and the ways I was coded to keep running my business in this "do all of the things" way.
But here's the enduring truth: We don't get a reply or a do over on our kids' childhoods or our time with our loved ones.
The other enduring truth for me and the bedrock of my work these last 12 years - I have a very real passion for 1:1 coaching, walking with my clients in real time in their seasons in life and business.
I've tried every model imaginable and the most congruent/aligned offer for me to center in my work has looked like intimate mentorship.
It's also the thing that has changed my life over and over again.
So, over the last few months, I did it:
A full client roster, an evergreen group program where I know every woman in the room and a very simple content strategy that feels like a direct extension of my coaching work.
I also added in a paid Substack branch called The Signal - which I am currently growing and it has fast become my favorite platform to support my community.
I doubled all the way down on the work I love most and let everything else go. It sounds simple, and it actually is, but our systems and internal wiring often have a lot to say about these kinds of shifts.
Things like:
+ Who am I if I'm not outperforming myself year after year?
+ Who am I if I don't even want what I used to want?
+ Who am I if I'm not striving for something more?
The answer I found in these questions?
I'm free.
And it has felt like a deep, liberating portal I could not have understood until I was ready to enter it.
I'm right where I'm supposed to be loving on my people and my clients...taking space for what this system needs to relax into this beautiful chapter of my life I am living with full presence.
I hope reading these words encourages you to do the same - to go all-in on the model that gives you your life back. And a reframe:
What if "boring" actually means simple and free in ways you haven't gotten a chance to really feel just yet?
It turns out that my work is everything but boring...
I also started something new... it's called the homeward diaries and it's one of my most favorite things I've written, probably ever. There are 3 entries so far - and I will be writing them now through my birthday (September 6th) - a few a week as they come through.
They are some of the most personal essays I've ever shared and you can binge read them all right here:
Here's to radical candor and truth...
xo
Amber