How to Pivot When Everything Changes

Hi. This is Paul Zellizer, and welcome to the Awarepreneurs podcast. On this show, we dive into the wisdom from some of the world's leading social entrepreneurs. Our goal is to help increase your positive impact, your profitability, and your quality of life. Before we get into today's topic, you could hit that subscribe button and do a review on your favorite podcast app. Helps more people learn how to have positive impact through values based business. Thank you so much. It's a little bit crazy out there, folks, if you haven't noticed.

And so today, it's time for our solo episode. Our title is Beyond the Budget Cuts, Staying Profitable When Everything Changes. And that's with myself, Paul Zellizer, the founder of this podcast now, the longest running social entrepreneur podcast in the world. Thank you for your many years of support. I wanna start with acknowledging these current economic conditions. We are seeing historic government cuts. We're seeing financial uncertainty, a lot of questions about tariffs and renegotiating world trade agreements, and that's leading to some very significant shifts in market conditions. In this context, many social entrepreneurs are looking at needing to do or thinking about doing major pivots, whether that's in the customers they're serving, their offerings, or their business model.

So my goal in this episode is to give you three proven strategies so that if you decide to pivot or you need to pivot, that you can do so successfully. I'd like to start with a story for my own business. One of the things I've really enjoyed doing the past two years, that is in 2023 and 2024, I was the business coach for an SBA funded Small Business Administration, a US government economic development arm, funded accelerator called Thrive. It was a program that in 2024 was in 71 cities throughout The US, and I was the business coach for the Albuquerque cohort. We had 21 or 20 graduate in 2023, and we had 17 people in the cohort in 2024. Just such an opportunity after doing lots of work online to be engaged in our local community and really helping bricks and mortar businesses who had big vision for making Albuquerque a better place by growing the economy come together. It was fabulous. And in February, we found out just as we were starting to get ready to recruit for the 2025 cohort that the funding had been cut.

It was a significant, like, it was 13 or 15% of my revenue in 2024. So, you know, it wasn't a catastrophic change, but it certainly was a dent. And more than that, it's just something I had come to love doing. I'm still in touch with many of the entrepreneurs who went through those cohorts and just fabulous humans. And I was both on a revenue perspective, but also in a purpose and meaning perspective was feeling that hit. Within two weeks, somebody reached out via LinkedIn and somebody who had been familiar with my work through the podcast and recruited me, and I am now signed the paperwork to be an adviser and a mentor for another accelerator called the Four Corners Clean Tech Accelerator. The Four Corners refers to where Arizona, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico all come together in this, like, plus sign shaped configuration. And I'm incredibly excited to be part of this accelerator and to pour some of that energy and that excitement into something that feels also very values aligned.

For those of you who don't know, I'm the cofounder of a network here in New Mexico called NM Climate, and clean tech and climate tech is one of the fastest growing parts of my business. What happened here was that my network that opened new doors turned out in a way that I'm really excited about. So I tell that story to just give you a sense that there are opportunities even in the uncertainty, but many of us are needing to look at a pivot of one sort or another. In my case, fortunately, it was not the majority of my business, but it was both revenue and purpose, you know, a place that I needed to pour that attention. And it was a relatively smooth transition compared to what a lot of folks are experiencing, but just tell that, you know, to give you a sense of the kinds of changes that a lot of listeners are looking at needing to make. In this episode, I wanna give you three strategies so that if you do need to lean into a pivot, you can be successful. And you can do it with a process opposed to feeling, you know, just lost and kinda grasping at straws. So I'm gonna tell you what the strategies are.

We'll dive into each one, and then we'll look at how you can put them together so that any changes you need to make can be done in a thoughtful and planned out manner. The first strategy is to refocus on market needs and your core strengths. The second is adapt your business model and your revenue streams. And the third is cultivate and lean into your network. You already heard a story from my business about how that really helped in a time where I needed to pivot with a part of my business. So let's break those down. The first strategy, refocus on market needs and your core strengths. What many of my clients and colleagues are sharing in the social entrepreneur space is that things are changing, and that what was true two years ago or five years ago or ten years ago isn't necessarily true today.

So the first suggestion is to really listen and to maybe proactively doing some market research so that you're informed by what is the market actually looking for, what does the market actually need right now in 2025. Second, as you're getting clear on what your highest value offers are, you can adjust those accordingly based on real world data. So market research is the process of getting a sense of what does your ideal client need. First of all, who are they, and what are they wanting or needing in any given moment? As you're clear on what the market needs, then you can lean more into your core strengths. So as I mentioned earlier, working with clean tech and climate tech companies is something that I'm really excited about and something I've really built my muscles to do effectively to the point that it's, like I said, one of the fastest growing parts of my business. I put time, I put energy into getting to know that particular space, launched NM Climate and been a cofounder of that, really brought some world class leaders in the clean tech space onto the podcast, posting about it on LinkedIn. Right? So I built that strength. And now in this time of uncertainty, I'm leaning into that strength and have a clear offer to the marketplace of what people see as valuable.

My name and my brand has become much more recognized in that niche. And I'm really excited about that, but it took me a lot of time and energy to build towards that. So this was a market need that I was paying attention to before some of these changes, and I've really leaned into these strengths and this network as these changes have happened. So again, refocus on what the market needs and what your core strengths are. Number two, adopt your business model and your revenue stream. And let me give you another example from my own business. As 2024 moved on, it got clear to me that one of the things I was doing was not having the impact that it was intended to have. It was called the Impact Podcast Accelerator, and it was for podcast hosts who were looking at growing their business and their impact via podcasting.

Now I still love podcasting, but the accelerator was stagnating. It wasn't growing, and it was taking a lot of time and energy. It wasn't producing it too much revenue. I liked doing it, but another aspect of my business working with leaders and executives in particular, it was growing, and I make a lot more money. A matter of fact, I was making as much money with one executive coaching client as I was in the whole Impact Podcast Accelerator, and the accelerator was taking much more work. So as things were starting to get a little bit you know, I was feeling some of that disruption going into 2025. Early on in the year, it was time to let the Impact Podcast accelerator go, which I have done, and that's freed up more time and energy both to do executive coaching and to market those services. So that's an example where I adopted my business model and my revenue stream.

I cut a revenue stream so I could lean to one that was stagnating and wasn't working so well, so I can lean more into something that was growing and per hour invested there had higher returns. Now I didn't hate doing the accelerator, but it was a pure like, it just wasn't working. And I didn't see an easy way to make that business model more effective. So it was time to let it go. I think there's similar hard choices that a lot of social entrepreneurs, if they're being honest, it's time to take a look at. That might be moving away from alliance on government contracts. I've certainly worked with clients on this theme and quite a number of clients who previously were either directly contracting with the government or they were contracting with entities that got their funding from government grants or were like the SBA Thrive program. That funding came from the SBI to a national organization, a consulting organization, which hired the 71 business coaches like myself.

Right? When that organization lost its funding, that also meant the contracts in all 71 cities with the individual business coaches, all that went away. Right? The funding was it originated in an SBA contract, and those kinds of contracts are some of the biggest types of contracts that are getting cut in this latest round. So moving away from reliance on government contracts and exploring new customers, partnerships, and funding sources. For me, one of the things that's meant is the leadership and the executive teams of companies that have much larger revenue than who I've worked with in the past. So I have, you know, quite a few clients that are over 10,000,000 a year revenue these days, and several of my clients have in between 50 and a hundred million of revenue. And, historically, that hasn't been as true for me. So that's been one of the things I've been working on is pruning some things I was putting attention into, like the accelerator, and moving into things that are more steady and people can afford my services, and the hourly compensation that I'm getting is better, like the executive and leadership coaching for values based organizations. So to take a look at your business model and where is the revenue coming in or where has it been coming in, and how these changes likely to affect what's going on in your revenue, and are there changes you can make of either turning down the volume or even pruning some programs, some things you're doing that are not having great return in terms of the time and energy invested? And where are some of the things that are most emergent where if you were to lean in, you could see better returns, and you could adjust your business model and put more energy into those new revenue streams? Again, this is a conversation I'm having with a lot of clients.

If you could use some help, please consider reaching out. Lastly, the third strategy is to cultivate and lean into your network. Your network is your biggest safety net, and it's one of your most important assets. As I mentioned, when the one accelerator was cut, it was two weeks later that I got invited into leading and being an adviser on another accelerator, and I'm really excited about it. I'm grieving the loss of Thryv and what it means for New Mexico, and I liked the role there. And personally, in terms of my business and my professional goals, being involved in this clean tech accelerator is very exciting. So for me, it kind of the scales balance out, not for New Mexico. I was recently interviewed in a paper about what I think the loss of the SBA Thrive program means for New Mexico.

I don't like it. I'm concerned about not having something that's as well thought out or as extensive to replace it. But for me personally, it kinda balanced out, and it wouldn't have happened without my network. So this is a time to really lean into your professional communities, whether that's in person. I go to a lot of startup events here. Again, I mentioned the NM Climate Network, which we've started here. I'm part of the leadership team for a conference here that's gonna happen called Atomic sixty six. And there's a whole day of climate and advanced energy programming, and I'm the co lead for that.

So I'm in conversation and networking and talking to people who are on the leading edge of the spaces, sectors that are most important to my business, which means my name comes up frequently if somebody needs some help. And that's the way I'm doing it. I'm not saying you should do it the way I do it and to really lean into your network. It's never been more important than in this time of great change and great disruption around the world. You wanna have a strong professional community and to be tending to those relationships as if it is one of your biggest assets because I think it's one of your biggest assets. If it's in person, that's great. If you're looking to do that online, I would, you know, encourage you to think about depending who your ideal client is. For me, that place is LinkedIn as the most important place.

But to be thoughtful and know where your network is and where your cultivating energy is going right now. Don't be imprecise. This is not a time to be uncertain about those things. This is a time to be very clear. And, again, if you need some help, this is the work I'm doing with a lot of clients. I think it's possible to have a thriving impact focused business in 2025. I'm surrounded by people who are doing it, and I feel really grateful that my own business is navigating these changes. Even though I'm also having to change, cutting things and moving in different directions, I'm relatively smoothly navigating these changes thus far, and I'm super grateful for that.

I think these strategies, which I'll repeat again, can help you do that. Again, those three key strategies for a successful pivot are refocus on market needs and your core strengths, adopt your business model and your revenue streams, and cultivate and lean into your network. The landscape for doing business, both in The US and around the world, is changing, and we all need to be adaptable. These three strategies can help you do that. If you need some help to make sense of your choices and where your revenue might be able to grow and some things that it might make sense to let go of, I'm happy to be a thought partner. Again, I'm doing a lot of this work. I'll put a link to my coaching in the links below. And please reach out.

Let me know how you're doing with the changes. What kind of thoughts or adjustments are you making? Please reach out on LinkedIn. When this goes live, I'll put a post up there. So what kinds of questions didn't I answer on this? What kinds of strategies that you're putting into place that maybe we didn't touch on here? Or any nuances on the strategy that I have covered? I just wanna invite you. Please share your thoughts, and let's connect in this very poignant time. I wanna remind you, we love listener suggested topics and guests. So if you have an idea for somebody who it'd be great to interview for this podcast, please go to the Awarepreneur's website. And on our contact page, we have three simple guidelines.

If you feel like it's a fit, please send your ideas in. And lastly, I wanna say thank you so much for listening. Please take really good care in these intense times, and thank you for all the positive impact that you're working for in our world.