A lot has changed over the last seven months, both in my personal life and for the state of the business! And the biggest question I’ve been getting is: What’s next? In this episode I’m sharing the options I’ve considered moving forward, and filling you in on what the near future looks like. Chances are it’s not what you think!
In this episode, we cover…
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Why I’m letting go of decisions I made prior to my sabbatical
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Making decisions without financial pressure
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Why my previous business direction felt unaligned
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Options I’ve considered for my business moving forward
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My current decision for what’s next
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Showing up as a work in progress and an authority
Quotes
"I'm no longer willing to do whatever it takes. I'm no longer willing to sacrifice a lot of different things or to let the pressure be the determining factor to check off those milestones or influence me to race to the finish line."
"I'm excited to let you get to know the new/maybe more real, me as I get to know that version as well."
"We're always in progress."
Links & Resources Mentioned in this Episode
Episode 140 - I'm Taking a Sabbatical: Why I've Decided to Take an Extended Break & How I'm Making It Happen
Amanda Kolbye's Links:
Website Instagram Tik Tok YouTube Channel
So the big question everyone has been DMing me about is, "What's next? What are the new offers? What's the business direction? Are you still business coaching?" So uh, yeah, that's what this episode's about. Hello, hello, and welcome to the Made for More podcast. I'm your host, Amanda Colby, a seven figure entrepreneur and founder of my company, Laptop Lifestyle Co. This podcast is full of raw perspective challenging conversations about the whole picture of entrepreneurship. You didn't start a business just to learn Instagram hacks and tech tips. You started a business to build a life full of freedom and limitless potential because you knew in your gut you were made for more. I believe you can do anything you put your mind to. I believe your success is inevitable, and I want you to learn how to tap into your own power to achieve the unthinkable in your life in business. On the podcast every week we want to help you unlock and craft your made for more life through actionable business strategies, powerful mindset insights, and raw, honest conversations that really pull back the curtain on entrepreneurship, both from myself and amazing industry leading experts. You are a powerhouse and it's time we stop holding ourselves back, unlock our potential, and fearlessly chase after our desires. This friends is the Made for More podcast. Okay, welcome back to another episode of this kind of two week little mini series sprint about sabbatical stuff catching you guys up to date. If you haven't listened to the last episode that gives you like a recap of the story of where I've been and all of that definitely go check that out. And we've got some upcoming episodes just answering all the questions that have been submitted lessons learned like a bunch of stuff just over the next two weeks. So big question. Let's just get right into it. What's next for me and the business little background of last year because it is kind of what I did to start setting up what I thought was next for the business. So last year I actually spent the last six months of the year I invested in so much support all this stuff. And I was essentially like remodeling my business revamping my offers because I knew a while ago like I wanted things to change but again due to my personal life I hadn't had the capacity until kind of starting around summer of last year. So I was doing this and I actually like was really excited. I figured out how to revamp my signature program which was laptop lifestyle bootcamp which I'm no longer running but you can still purchase the course for a limited time little plug. But like I figured out how to revamp that kind of adapting to the changes in the market and just what I wanted and it was good. It was really good. I also mapped out a brand new offer which a part of it I may still be bringing back but I did tons of market research calls I spent weeks really getting into the nitty gritty of like this new offer. And as I have been kind of just staying in tune with things over the last six, seven months with like the industry it's been really interesting and very frustrating on my end because I've seen so many people come out with similar things that I was planning and there's room for all of us like at the end of the day a lot of our programs are quite similar right and that's not exactly what people buy. But it was one of those where you're sitting behind the scenes and you know just that ambitious part of you is like damn it I had that idea or that thing and if I just was not spectacle like it would have come out already. I watched some people without saying too much like take some of my concepts like the brand new concepts that only a select few people like knew about but I digress because it doesn't matter because I'm going to tell you it's actually coming next. Now with that as well in 2022 and 2023 as most of you know if you're around running a business at that time like just in general the kind of like online business and coaching space in particular was rough for like a lot of people right. So many people ended up shutting down their businesses burning out just like struggling partially due to kind of like the boom from COVID and then a lot of like mistrust happening in the industry as well as a lot of just like marketing behavior and social media changes I think was like this perfect storm right. And so for a while because of the like industry and my personal growth like during those years like all my personal stuff that was happening behind the scenes I felt out of alignment with my business for quite a while but I just couldn't like do anything about it I couldn't get it under control because my personal life was just like so volatile during these last couple of years and so I knew something needed to change. I would have changed a lot of things earlier had the situation's not been the same. So I say this just a preference kind of like where my head had been at for a long time and that I had a lot of experience showing up every day knowing what it was like to still having to show up but being out of alignment and not having the capacity or quite fully knowing what I wanted to do next which I think a lot of people can relate to and I actually like mapped out an entire revamped business that I will not be using. So here's what I did during the sabbatical in terms of figuring out what was next right because if you listen to last episode when I left for the sabbatical I did a bunch of logistics planning you know for my business which I discussed that in episode 140 that'll be linked below you can listen to it but I didn't have any clients didn't have any programs running didn't do any marketing like it was like a full shutdown for me and because I was going simultaneously not just through kind of like a misalignment of the business anymore I was going if you listened to the last episode through a complete entire earth shattering awakening I had no idea how much I would change during this right but I gave myself space and then I think it was probably like late March actually no probably April when I started brainstorming things for the business again and I was just putting everything on paper putting everything that I was inspired by that I wanted to talk about that I could do and I'm going to go in here to kind of the options that I considered and how I got to that point however just from a high level like as I was assessing all these different options and because I was going through such massive personal change I really wanted to gut check myself I couldn't trust myself at the time to be able to tell was some of the stuff I was brainstorming about for business too heavily influenced by what I was focused on and going through at the moment and that's in things I was interested in that's in things I was like you know feeling resistant and straight away from so I ended up stopping completely which was a very good move on my part but I ended up stopping brainstorming completely and like trying to figure it out because I got to a point which I'm sure many people can relate to where I had strategized everything I had researched everything I had gotten everything on paper it was just about a decision it was just about wool okay from here what do you want to do and I couldn't figure it out right so it wasn't the right time so I took a break from brainstorming life moved on and I kind of came back to it a couple weeks ago if you listen to last episode when things started getting better when we like went Madrid reapplied and then like started coming to Bali one big thing that I knew going into this before I talk about kind of the options that I mapped out and considered for business is I knew I couldn't make any decisions out of force or like just to make money because yes I prepped myself financially for this really well which we'll have a whole episode about but at the same time like I'm not gonna lie like we use a lot of my savings just with all the health stuff we had to invest in like the new apartment I mean we owned nothing like we had to buy spoons you know so it's not like I wasn't feeling financial pressure and I'm not now right but it's coming now from a very new place of like I have been there where I've done things because of financial pressure and money influencing me and I can't do that now and even if that means I've got to figure out a way to pay bills or something which we're not at that point but yeah I'm just I'm unwilling to do things the way that I was doing them before I'm unwilling to chase after the money or the milestones but unlike some people when they kind of make a shift from like burning out or hustle I do still want to make millions I do still want to build an empire and if you don't that's totally okay I think a lot of people feel that pressure when it's not actually what they want which I'm not gonna go on that rabbit hole but I'm no longer willing to do whatever it takes I'm no longer willing to sacrifice a lot of different things or to let like the pressure be the determining factor to like check off those milestones or like influence me to race to the finish line right that's how I operated before the reason I mentioned this is I think this is a hard concept for a lot of people because it's so easy to get wrapped up in the growth right if you've been in business long enough you've experienced that to some degree it's so easy to get wrapped up in the growth in the bubble in the money right and very quickly lose sight of yourself lose sight of why you started this in the first place or what you want now right like maybe that did change and I also think this is a hard concept of like still wanting so much but no longer being willing to hustle and grind and give everything up to get there like I think this is a hard concept because in a way it's very contradictory to want to make millions to want to build an empire but also just simply want to enjoy life and we normally see people who for example like travel and love life but they're normally in business to make some good money but maybe not build an empire right like just to use that phrasing and then on the other side we see a lot of business owners coaches etc who they're all in right they want to be you know big names and that's not a bad thing at all but they want to be big names they are hustling to various extents they want to make millions or they are making millions they live kind of a lugs life and they're focused on growth they're always focused on growth right and so there's these like two polar opposites and I want both and I do think you can have both I'll talk about that later but I want it in my own way I want it in my own way I want to add my own pace and I do believe that's possible but it's not going to look the way I want it to it's not going to be as fast as I want it to and so you have to figure out kind of like what that right ingredient is and it will probably like ebb and flow I'm getting a little sidetracked here but I just wanted to touch on that because this was inside the brain this was like what was happening as I was reconsidering a lot of things because there were a lot of options of businesses I could run and I don't say that to brag I have a lot of skill sets and experiences I've been in this game for like a while I have a lot of interests and things that I would love to do right but yeah it's this new mentality of really really giving yourself the space and the alignment and the insight into yourself that you need to figure out what you want not from the pressures of other people's version of success or like their dreams or whatever it is so these were to bring it back where I ended up brainstorming and figuring out what was next so I considered the very obvious option right I considered going back to business coaching business courses etc just maybe with a new spin right like I had changed and that's very normal that's normally what most people would do right like you kind of evolve and your business evolves with you and that's fabulous right so I was like you know I'd probably have a new personal brand I knew I wanted to get rid of laptop lifestyle co which is one of the questions I will talk about in the next Q&A episode but yeah go back to business coaching new business model new offers and it could be great it really could right and every time that I sit down and map out the strategy or get in the weeds of true business which actually had some opportunities with like some consulting elements and stuff over the break that allowed me to get into that like I fucking love it you know like I am in flow it lights me up so I love it I love business I've always said that the game of business right not just like this one business and that part's never going to go away I still plan on opening multiple businesses which has always been my goal I've just never had the capacity so I don't think I'll ever fully let go of that in some manner now the next big option I considered is I considered coming back with an agency either instead of or in addition to like business coach consult whatever and this is something I've been thinking about for years I started as a web designer if you don't know that marketing is my bread and butter that's how my brain just works naturally that is what I love most but I'm also really good at operations a lot of people know me from my past business before all of this as kind of the unofficial like very operations systems I'm very good at breaking things down often known as self-dubbed click up queen right so I love click up I've thought about this for several years now I'm starting a click up agency and I still might like kind of click up and then some systems and operations as well as a marketing agency that's been the other one that I have considered and after running a team like with my current past business I experienced what it was like to go from a solopreneur and the one kind of like doing the things to actually being a real CEO and like more managing a business which a lot of people grow and then find out they hate it right I actually really like it I love running managing directing a team and like being that visionary on top helping everyone like work towards something and I'm very good at it and getting people on board so I know that running agency would be good but I also know it has its cons too I also have like several other businesses I'd love to start that are not per se like in the coaching service provider space and like I said before I've always wanted to start multiple businesses that was always kind of the goal is like use this leverage this to make money maybe I keep this business maybe I don't but you know kind of keep expanding because I just I really like the game of business and so that's still there but like that one for me was like a very obvious of I'm gonna keep brainstorming things but it's not the right time right now and so I had these options and a lot of like variations of them like all on the table and I just kept feeling resistant like I kept brainstorming I'd done all the research brainstorming mapping out that I could do before making the decision and I would just kept feeling resistance kind of like I was highlighting before and because when I gave you the background at the beginning of the episode I highlighted how in my last current business I had felt out of alignment for probably two years to varying degrees but because of my personal life like I could only make so many changes at once and and had so much capacity but I say that because I know what it is like to show up every day and run a business like when you don't feel fully aligned with it anymore I actually haven't talked about this a ton but like I felt very inauthentic in some ways or maybe more like a fraud in some ways the past few years probably past like one and a half two-ish years that I ran that business as my life was slowly crumbling not because I was being disingenuous or I didn't know my shit everything that I delivered to clients was proven top notch above and beyond like you know all that but it was because my life my personal life was so chaotic and every day I had to wake up and sell a dream every day I had to wake up and sell this dream of starting your own business and making money and traveling the world and behind the scenes I was miserable right and it wasn't the business at all which is what makes this so messy right it was just my personal life but it didn't make a difference in how horrible it felt every day to show up because I didn't fully know why I was so unhappy and like what was wrong because I was doing all the right things in business and had my personal life not been a dumpster fire I think I would have been very happy at those times and in business and not felt like a fraud or whatever it was but it was like such a wake-up call the worse and worse my life got and the more and more I kept having to sell this dream where I was just like man I've achieved all of it like the millions of dollars they're traveling the world the whatever why am I so not happy and how am I supposed to tell other people that this is it this is the thing you finally quit your nine to five and you'll make all this money and whatever and I knew you could like I knew I wasn't missing marketing that it was all possible but in part of selling the dream you're telling people essentially that like it's gonna make this awesome life and make them happy and so yeah it just felt weird I felt like I'd outgrown my last business for like a long time but I was a breadwinner like I was in the thick of it right like there's always so much complexity nothing's ever like that simple right and plus at the same time I didn't see anyone who had been quite successful like talk about these types of struggles so I kind of felt crazy in many ways so all this was running through my head as I was like what do I do now right like fresh start what business do I start and the easy choice would have been for me to pick one of the things I just mentioned I could have been great at all of them I still can I still might but despite months of brainstorming challenging myself gut checking myself I right like trying to really figure out you know what's been supporting me like in this new era of life my heart kept pulling me in a different direction and rather than jump into that different direction or any of these I decided to make a completely different decision altogether so before I tell you what my decision was if you're enjoying all these episodes of me coming back sharing the raw sharing the real like all the sabbatical recaps and stuff like I would so appreciate if you screenshot and share this that is pretty much all I ever ask of you guys is it really helps the podcast grow and more importantly I share a lot of this stuff because I know that people need to hear it and that there aren't that many honest voices like this in the online space so it'd mean the world to me whether you share it privately on your stories and tag me I would love that but that is my ask for you and let's dive back in okay so what is next my decision is drumroll I don't have an answer for you and I have made that a decision in of itself in a very intentional way in making it an intentional decision to go ahead and come back simply being in progress and to share with you this journey as a very like rare example of showing up with brutal honesty not having it all figured out so I do have an idea of what I think I'm doing but I'm not ready to commit to it quite yet or announce it quite yet I'm still in the face I still am figuring it out right and so I'm gonna wait and not make sure I'm ready because you'll never be ready but I want to make sure that it's in alignment because I still have so much moving on in my life and and this is a big decision in terms of what is it that I am rebuilding and that might mean I decide in two weeks and tell you guys and that might mean I decide in five months I am committed to exactly what I'm telling you to coming back here not knowing what's next and figuring it out and trying to be an example of being in progress of shedding the old in what for me became a very big earth-shattering way and having to reinvent myself having to in many ways start my entire life over at 30 in many ways refigure out who I am what I want and the business side of things all of it right and yes this is absolutely terrifying whether you can see it on my face or not I'm definitely not fully showing you how terrifying this is because I obviously sat and did some processing of myself before sharing but as someone who has previously had all the answers who had a formula who had it figured out and also play so much emphasis and self-worth on being an authority figure on being a leader and in who was although I would say are you still am but was a leader in the industry in many ways it can be even scarier to be like actually honest with you guys and show up without a lot of the answers and I'm going to talk more about this decision through different lenses but I've never seen anyone show up like this before I'm sure there has I'm sure I'm not that special in the first right but from what I've been able to find on the internet and so I'm planning on being brutally honest not in the girl class oh my gosh I'm going to be so vulnerable and honest way but it's very curated I mean I'm speaking from the heart I have no agenda here I have nothing that I'm leading you to I don't know what the end goal is right this isn't a marketing tactic a sales tactic and there's nothing wrong with those you do have to market and sell and what not I'm just really highlighting here like you don't see this and I think a lot of us to varying degrees go through these transitions they're probably not often as big as what I am kind of coming out of and going through but a lot of the concepts are the same and I think it helps to be able to see someone who whether you look up to or just can relate to me or whatever it is like who's being a lot more honest about life and evolving and all of this stuff right so to put it more succinctly this is my intention behind all of this in being able to show up in progress here I've realized I've realized this for a long time but obviously didn't know fully what to do about it but like instead of continuing for me to fuel these like sexy narratives online right of like I quit my nine to five and then I started my business and six months later I made a bazillion dollars right I'm not even knocking anyone for sharing that because I've shared stories like that and sometimes you do just have to be concise and do a point and you are a business owner and have to sell that's what makes this really complicated right I'm not knocking that but while a lot of the stories and tips and advice and things we share online I do believe most people are well intentioned it doesn't change the fact that I feel that all of these narratives the more this online space and alternative ways of living and making money have grown all together have collectively created this illusion and these like sexy narratives that are a very inaccurate way of how things happen and of having it all figured out and having it balanced and what happens on the other side of the scroll is you always feel like you're not good enough you always feel like you're missing something and on the negative side of the spectrum we're made to feel like we're missing something because that's how you sell people on it but giving the benefit of the doubt thinking that most people do have good intentions uh I think most people just don't know how to show up as both an authority and be in progress I think most people have too much of their own stuff in their own way that they don't know who they are enough to stand strongly in the gray area in something that isn't in a box in black and white because it's hard I'm not even blaming anyone who doesn't know how to do that yet that shit's really hard it's much easier to fit into a label and fit into a box and follow a content plan right but I think what the world needs is more real often taboo conversations about navigating life about discovering yourself about building a life that feels as good as it looks because social media is not going anywhere right so that's a pointless conversation and so in order for us to truly feel like content and happy and I mean you not how you show online like in order for you to really feel successful and content and happy with our own selves and our lives instead of somewhat empty and like we're constantly not doing enough for something's wrong with us right like we need to have more conversations about the messy complexness of life that often gets just like oversimplified or overlooked or ignored for the purpose of like pumping out you know social media or just again honestly anyone being able to share advice on the internet no matter how uninformed or unexperienced or inauthentic they may be and I shared this in the last episode but I had a quote or I do have a quote on my phone background that I've had for probably like the last almost a year now this is plot twist you're not lost you just have the opportunity to explore yourself without being tied to a specific outcome and I've looked at that every day genuinely as I've been going through the deep darkness and sitting in the void to give me yes hope but like this new perspective of how powerful and rare and transformative this period of my life can and has already been to truly rediscover who I am without the goals without the titles without the outcomes without the labels of who I've been and to recreate a life truly from a blank slate and I really I really have like it's taken a while but like I've let go of all the identities that have so deeply been ingrained in me since I was very young and am at a point where I am in the midst of still rediscovering like who I am who I want to be like the complexity of my just like multi-dimensional layered self and that's really hard to do in the first place right to figure out who you are it's also really hard to do when you are in a public eye in any element because it's very vulnerable and we're used to showing up with answers and things and also because all of you got to know a version of me that no longer exists and I'm excited to let you get to know the new slash maybe more real me as I get to know that version as well but that's my intention so just in summary my goal is to be an example to burst the bubble that is the illusion of doing it all having it all having all the answers and having this like picture perfect life online because it's not helping anyone it makes us all constantly feel like we're missing something and doing something wrong when in reality behind the scenes we're all feeling the same way and I don't know that you ever figure it out I think that's a lie yes there are more times in life where we're sure of what we're doing than others but I think that we're all chasing something that doesn't really exist we want there to be finish lines so bad and partially because we've been conditioned that way but even when we know it's not true I think we still want it to be we still maybe in our subconscious believe that there is a way to figure it out that there is this point that you get to where you have it figured out to an extent or in a certain area of life and I don't know that I believe that anymore and I don't know that I believe that that is the point of any of it I think you learn and evolve and grow and I think you become wiser and you do figure more out in life right but I think the more realistic version is that we're always in progress and I think that the more you try especially when you are presenting yourself publicly as a business owner and marketer in some manner I think the more that you try to be this version and this facade who has the answers and has it figured out I think that very quickly it contributes to you losing the sense of who you were and it makes you feel lost because it's not who you are in that day you might have some of it figured out but you're always questioning growing evolving who you are changes everything around you changes what you want changes and when we deny acknowledging that we stay stuck we stay stagnant and we feel off we feel out of alignment we don't feel fulfilled we don't feel happy I clearly have so much to say here but my goal is to show you that it's okay and in fact normal to be healing or growing and be human to be an authority and still figuring it out it's not only okay but normal to almost always be in progress and I want to be an honest voice and example of what that looks like so here is what's next I've so much more to share so much where to say I'm leaving the episode here but I will be sharing more when drumroll we launch my new podcast in two-ish weeks you guys heard it here first I haven't announced that anywhere else and that is also because you're always gonna get like first updates and maybe even like exclusive updates here on the podcast like I want this to be my main thing I love podcasting I love being able to connect and talk to you guys and have these big conversations through this medium in this manner and you may also notice that this episode is labeled part one and that is intentional because there will be a part two of what's next for me in the business when I do decide and we will both have to wait and see when that part two is going to be revealed but what you can expect is for the next two weeks I will be continuing to post episodes here like on this current podcast with you know just our previous slash current podcast brand name all that stuff and that will be for the next two weeks just answering a lot of sabbatical questions life updates different things before we shift directions so what I will say is make sure you are subscribed or follow whatever the terminology is what depending on the platform you're on to the podcast just so it shows up in your library so you see when we post new because we are posting more than one episode per week and this is gonna be where all the juicy stuff the inside scoops the updates etc is happening so thank you thank you for listening to the episode I would love to have conversations with you guys about all these topics that I'm sharing now and that are coming up in the future if you have any questions let me know I am a little slow to get back on my DM still as I am still just kind of coming back but I do see it I do see your messages and I will be getting back to you so yeah stay tuned for what's next and if you don't already follow me on instagram as right now that is the other place I am putting energy and effort into we will be kind of expanding and reconfiguring the places and ways that we're marketing which I'll continue to let you guys in on but that's where shit's happening for now so anyways I hope you'll have a fabulous day and I will see you in the next episode [Music] [BLANK_AUDIO]
