What was your pivot? 
My pivot was to change the language and countries where I would develop my business.

I first started in France and then I moved to work with English speakers from Canada, America and Australia.

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What prompted you to make the pivot? 
I didn’t feel comfortable with my initial target audience where there were too many blocks about paying for an entrepreneurs’ services. France is not as developed as North America regarding entrepreneurship. I have realized I would have to educate my audience before having them as clients and it seemed like a too long road to go.

But also, while realigning myself to my own dreams and passions, I started to feel more and more disconnected from French culture. My intuition and inner guidance pushed me towards another culture both on a professional and personal level, which made me take a second decision that seemed pretty aligned and obvious: traveling to English speaking countries to live, spend time and meet new people.

What was the process you went through in making your pivot? If you could talk about the process you went through in deciding what your pivot would look like and then how you actually implemented the pivot.

Surprisingly, the root of the pivot came from a very deep inner work. It came from a completely irrational space where I would just set the intention to commit to doing what brings me more joy and happiness.From there, it felt like stringing one bead after another and with time, it started to reveal that I needed to move away from the culture and place where I initially was and so, both on personal and professional level.

So I started by the professional side by translating and switching all my content into English, then I started to network online with English speakers mainly from Canada.
And then, when I felt confident enough with this basis, even if it was still fragile, I felt like it was time to go all in so I found a way to start living for several months abroad. Then several months became a full year and I dared leaving my house back home to break free and be fully open to what my adventure and time abroad would bring.

The implantation comes from some very practical knowledge and from a lot of self care as well as with the capacity to jump in something new every now and then without knowing everything. But while still, keeping things well organized enough for not to scare yourself or feel like you’re putting yourself through too much danger.

Was the pivot a success? If it was a success, what did success mean to you? Did you use any specific measures of success or was it more a general sense that things were better? 
Yes my pivots were a great success because they were aligned to the direction I wanted to give to my life anyway. The success didn’t depend on external validations, it was based on me going where I wanted to go and finding new connections.

So yes the general feeling that things are better is definitely here because I enjoy where I live a lot more and I enjoy the connections I make a lot more too even if like in real life everywhere, not everything is going perfectly smoothly all the time.

But because I feel like my values are more aligned with where I am and the people around me, my experiences always feel nicer. And even when it doesn’t work, it’s not that bad, I don’t encounter the situations I used to encounter.

If the pivot wasn’t a success, what did you learn from it and what steps did you take next from what you learnt?

For me, pivoting has a lot more to do with experiencing and I think we should always move forward that way.

You make an assumption that things should be better if you would go that way based on your life experiences and intuition, then you’ve got to do it, if not, you will never know what was hidden behind this next step and experience.

And you can always do it carefully.

What would you do differently if you could do your pivot again?

Honestly I don’t know as I’m in the middle of the story I’m sharing here but I’m pretty satisfied about how things go and I feel like what I live now is quite balanced, with ups and downs but I finally think it’s fair and pretty normal…

I am only committed to do my best and I have a very simple way to live and evaluate my own efforts: I just try to do my best and everything else is not in my spectrum so why would I bother myself with it?

Any other lessons to share about pivoting?
I think pivoting has to come from deep inside. And then nothing feels difficult or like success or failure, these words are not even considered as I think they are very hurtful and can block a whole change process.

It’s like when footballers answer the journalists about failure and success and they get mad at being asked those questions because such a thing doesn’t really exist on a daily basis. Human beings are only made to take things day by day and move slowly towards what’s best for them. Everything else can feel petrifying.

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I’m Emi Create – A Digital Nomad, Coach & Consultant in Marketing Communications dedicated to support entrepreneurs who are on a mission to change the world!