When Setting Priorities in Your Business, Commit to Easy

What were you doing 12 months ago at this time? While I can’t remember specifics, I can remember this — standing in my kitchen, emphatically declaring that 2024 will be our year!

My husband and I had recently set out to develop a land investment business.

I had recently formed several new promising partnerships.

And, I had just said yes to co-authoring the book Discovering Something Greater. 

(Side note: Our book was released last week — have you grabbed your copy yet?).

Things were happening! Big things! Exciting things! We would hustle, grind, grow, and thrive as the entrepreneurial family we were becoming (and I already was)!

The week before the New Year, I went into my office, stood in front of my giant wall calendar, and started sticking colored sticky notes all over it. This year, I chose pink for my personal and family days away. June was littered with pink sticky notes because I was taking the summer off. 

I chose green for my course launches. January for my course. February for my membership. April for my course. May for my membership. And on it went.

I chose blue for scheduled writing days to work on the book.

I chose purple for Cruisin’ + Campfires despite having much of a plan.

After filling in the squares with commitments, I left feeling good about the year. But things shifted as the year started, and I put the pedal to the metal. What had looked great on paper and felt good required more energy than I had afforded myself when filling up those tiny squares with ideas. 

As I was working through this emotionally and debating what the next iteration of my professional life would look like, we took a drive as a family down to a little ice cream shop in Sonoita. On our way down, we spotted an area of brush that had burned recently. Scattered around the black soil were spots of green growth. When explaining this phenomenon to my two kids in the backseat, I caught myself saying, “Out of the ashes comes growth.”

And it reminded me of Celeste Ng’s quote from Little Fires Everywhere:

“Sometimes, you need to scorch everything to the ground and start over. After the burning, the soil is richer, and new things can grow. People are like that, too.”

While I didn’t want to burn things down because I loved every little bit of them, I knew it was time. Time to close doors. Time to shift. Time to reprioritize. 

About this same time, I stumbled upon a Tim Ferriss quote from his early writings — What if we let this be easy instead? 

What if? 

What if I didn’t need to sell a big huge signature course to make a difference in people’s lives? What if, instead, I could scale back the sales process to doing what I LOVE (writing) and use that to offer people smaller wins without pushing big-ticket purchases?

What if I didn’t need to do what everyone else in the industry was doing by offering both a signature course and membership? What if I could shift that course into smaller offerings that were always available when my people (that’s you) needed them and shift my membership into a physical product instead?

What if I could set aside more time to enjoy the writing process and really dig into creating something beautiful that would have longevity in the form of ink on fiber by allowing myself to write more often?

What if I could lean into the product-based business that has been on the side burner for so long and start to really get it out into the world by creating again, selling more organically and authentically, and putting these ideas into action?

What would all those ideas in our kitchen in late 2022 look like if it were easy?

With that powerful reflection, I returned to the wall calendar to analyze those sticky notes. In June, I stood in front of that same wall and felt into every sticky note.

The live launches that I had coming up felt daunting. Heavy. Weighted. I took them down and committed myself to easy. 

And because I didn’t want to do those live launches anymore, I knew I needed to shift how I showed up for Roadpreneur. It was time to shutter the doors on the course I’d created over a year ago and reprioritize my energy to help RVers start a business that lets them travel. Screw the norms in the online coaching space. I was doing it my way.

I realized that I wished I had seen more colors on that wall calendar, too. I wanted more of the purple to give myself permission to create more. I wanted more blue to give myself permission to write more. 

The first vulnerability hangovers of 2023 came when I publicly shared that I was closing the doors to Roadpreneur School and the Roadpreneur Experience. What would people think? Would I be letting others down? Would I look like a failure? Would anyone even care?

The second vulnerability hangover came last week when we hit publish on our book. I wrote it through the midst of these big changes and talked about how I used my voice to claim what I wanted. I used my voice to claim those same big ideas I had in the kitchen last year. And I used my voice to go for them — even when that meant shuffling priorities around.

Vulnerability is par for the course when it comes to being an entrepreneur. 

So is prioritizing and reshuffling when things aren’t working as planned. 

Through trial and error, I’ve found that the best path has always been and will continue to be the easiest path for us. While nothing about building a business is easy, it can feel easy when we let it be. 

As you’re starting to wind down 2023 and think ahead to your goals for 2024, think through what it could look like if you let it be easy. Choose and then commit to repeating it at least 100 times (I’ll talk about this concept more next week).

This is where I landed. Perhaps it can spark an idea or two for you too:

The live launches and big promises felt harder and less impactful than micro wins and consistent storytelling to help others see what’s possible. 

What does this look like if I let it be easy? 

Wow, that’s refreshing to say out loud.

Cruisin’ + Campfires has sparked a creative fire in me that feels fun and easy to show up for. That’s because it’s mine. Sure, there’s work to get those ideas out into the world, but when you share your art, that work feels easier than sharing other people’s creations.

What does this look like if I let it be easy?

I’ve caught the book bug! We created our book. Now, we’re coming together as coauthors to share about it with the world. That collaboration? It’s been FUN! And it’s sparked lots of new ideas. 

Enough about me (though I wanted to share to kickstart your own ideas). 

I’ll leave you with this — what does it look like if it’s easy for you? What can you burn to ash so that you can regrow something richer and something more aligned for you? Where can you banish the “supposed tos” in favor of the “want tos”?

Each week, I’ll end by pointing you to someone new to follow, too. There are so many outstanding content creators out there, and I don’t want you to miss out on following them when I see them.

This week, I’d love to introduce you to Kristin Hanes of The Wayward Home. She has pulled together a free resource on the 10 most profitable blogging niche ideas.

If you want to lean into writing more, this guide is a MUST to grab. Plus, her emails are some of the few I open regularly because they’re always intriguing and inspiring.