How to navigate confusion and lack of clarity in your business

Feeling stuck in the fog? You're not alone and you're not failing. In this raw and honest episode, I’m taking you behind the scenes of my own slow pivot, where clarity feels slippery and every step feels uncertain.

What you will learn:

• Why taking messy action is the only path to clarity.
• How silence and stillness unlock your next best idea.
• The one question that cuts through overwhelm instantly.
• This one’s for the female entrepreneur in the messy middle.

Transcript

0:05

Welcome to the Empowered Edupreneur Podcast. My name is Michelle Smit, and I'm an ex-teacher turned online business coach for Edupreneurs the owner of Digiteach and a six-figure entrepreneur. I am in love with empowering educators just like you to create freedom filled online businesses and lives they love. If you are looking to uplevel your skills, your finances, your mindset, and change the trajectory of your life as an educator and business, then you are in the right place. Think of this podcast as your weekly dose of business and mindset development to help unlock the infinite potential within you. To play bigger with your life and go after your dreams. We are going to have so much fun together. So thank you so much for pushing play today. Now let's dive in. Hello. Hello. Welcome back. So good to have you here. And today I am talking about something that I'm navigating right now, and it's something that I know pretty much every business owner will navigate when building their online business. This is just one of those things you are going to have to navigate this problem that will keep coming up. Over and over and over again as you are growing this amazing business of yours and it's all about how to navigate confusion and lack of clarity in your business. Because that is going to happen. You're going to have periods of time where you are going to be in the fog of your business. You're going to be unsure of what to focus on. You're going to be doubting every move. You're going to be questioning if you're even on the right path. And if that's the case, then this is the episode for you. Because I'm going to be talking about that now because I'm in it. I'm literally navigating confusion and lack of clarity in my own business right now. So it's very, very relevant. Very relevant. So when I pivoted Digiteach. Maybe you don't know, but I started Digiteach in helping people become online, ESL teachers. And that was in 2018. In 2020, I felt incredibly misaligned and I was like, I cannot keep doing this thing. It's killing my soul. And I decided I wanted to mentor people in online business and I wanted to help them sell courses. And so I pivoted into helping educators build scalable online businesses through courses and group programs. And I've been doing that for five years now. And it's been incredible. I've absolutely loved it. It's been truly very, very aligned. But if you had listened to my podcast last week, I have been feeling misalignment for at least a year now. And I remember when I was in that stage with my first niche with ESL teachers and having to shift. I did have that misalignment feeling, but I didn't have the lack of clarity. I actually had complete clarity of what I wanted to do next. And so I just moved with it. But it was terrifying because I had a course that was making six figures at the time, and I was willing to throw it away because I was like, this is misaligned. And so that was scary and that was confusing. And I was like, what is wrong with me? And it almost felt like I was standing at the edge of a cliff. About to jump off and just praying that something was going to catch me. And that what I was doing that felt aligned to me would work. And thankfully it did. Within the first year of me pivoting and creating my new program, which was the Digiteachers Biz Academy, it made six figures. It immediately worked and it was amazing. That was one of those moments in life where you really just have to trust and surrender to the experience and be okay with uncertainty. Just as long as you're following what's alive to you and your soul and feels super aligned then things will work out for you. And that was exactly what happened. But now truthfully, I'm back in that space again right now and I'm in this confusing space. I spoke about it in my episode last week, it's a bit foggy right now. I don't really have the full vision of clarity. I'm one foot in the old and I'm one foot in the new, and I'm trying to figure out what parts of my business I want to keep, what parts of my business I want to completely let go of. And this is really looking at potentially offers that I've been selling for years that I've been working incredibly well. Programs that have brought in six figures. You know, it even boils down to the person that I'm serving and it's a lot. I'm asking a lot of really big questions about who I want to serve, how I want to feel, the kind of business I want to have, the people I want to work with. And really evaluating where I am misaligned right now and where I want to go. And it's confusing as hell and especially when you don't have the clarity coming through. And it's been a while for me where I haven't had really clear clarity come through that I know I can act on with a hundred percent conviction. I've had that in the past where I intuitively am being guided and it's very clear, the golden thread that I follow, I just keep following it because I can feel it intuitively. This is the right thing. I haven't necessarily felt such a potent feeling like that now. And so, I've been figuring it out and some days I open my laptop and I stare at my screen, and I'm just like, ugh, either just completely empty of ideas and I just don't know what to say and I just feel like there. And sometimes I'll write content, I'm like, Ugh, I don't like it. I'm over it. It's an element of boredom, I think that's kicking in. And just feeling constricted and confined and it's just been this uncomfortable feeling and confusing, right? And there's this feeling of just reverting back to what's safe, what you know, but when what was safe and what you know is no longer aligned, it's confusing. And this might be hitting home for you in some ways, but maybe you're just navigating your business in the earlier stages and you're just confused about the exact business you want to create, the audience you want to serve, the people you want to work with. Choosing that niche. All of those decisions we need to make as business owners, there is confusion and lack of clarity that's going to be a part of it. And sometimes you're going to have like golden downloads that come through that you can just immediately act on with conviction. And other times you are going to be in the messy confusion of what on earth. Like one day you're waking up with a bit of clarity and the next day it's gone and this is it. Right? So today I want to share with you three big pieces that I'm actively leaning into right now that I want you to anchor into when you're also in this kind of foggy state, because it's going to come and it's going to keep coming back every stage of your business. There will be elements or times where you're just confused and questioning and it's just not going to feel clear to you. So the first thing I want to say is clarity comes from action, not the other way around. And this is a really golden rule. I so often see my clients stopping basically and not doing anything. And they're waiting for the clarity to come before they go and do something and take action, but it doesn't come. And the reason it doesn't come is because clarity doesn't come by you not taking any action. The more you move, the more feedback you get. And that feedback is what brings the clarity. So just this week I was in a bit of a frozen state, but I decided, let me just move, let me just take some action. And I started working on new lead magnets that are very aligned to the person that I'm trying to attract. And also the next offer that I'm going to be selling, which is the Growth Accelerator. And it just flowed through me. At the beginning, I didn't feel like I had clarity, but I just started, I just sat at my computer and I just started. And suddenly step by step by step, I created something and there was this momentum that I built, and then I built two new completely new lead magnets and one entire funnel. And this happened within one and a half days. And just that process alone of sitting there and moving and taking action on one step, it helped me get a little bit more clarity. I learned something along the way. I figured something new out. If I had just sat there and tried to think my way to clarity, I wouldn't have figured that out. It wouldn't have come. And so I have built a six figure business basically through navigating the fog, through not really knowing a hundred percent, but just taking small actions every day. And that's how it works. So if you're stuck. Pick the most obvious thing to do and then go and do it. And if you say you're moving through a program and you're a DBA student of mine, for example, you're moving through my program and you get stuck on say the niche part, don't freeze and stop. Keep moving through, keep taking little actions and know that the clarity is going to come through the doing. That's a huge one. Don't freeze. Just keep taking action in some small way and that feedback is going to bring the clarity. The second thing is you want to get quiet and you want to listen. Now, this is hard for business owners and high achievers because we love to busy ourselves. We think that resting and slowing down and doing nothing is unproductive and a waste of time. But when we are bombarded with information all the time, think about our lives, think about the information we are getting hit with 24 7. Especially with social media, you've got a million people sharing their perspective at the same time, and it's going to completely muddle your brain. Your voice, your intuition, what's alive for you. When the outside noise is so loud, you will not be able to hear your own inner wisdom. Your inner mentor that beautiful thing I like to call intuition. And ultimately that is what you need to tap into during this time of confusion and lack of clarity because the outside world doesn't know what's right for you. You know what's right for you. So when I say get quiet and listen, I also mean give yourself a bit of a break from social media, other coaches or certain opinions, maybe the people that are fogging your energy. They're sharing too much and it's taking away from your voice. You can't clearly hear yourself. Look at that. Maybe you're watching the news and that's zapping your energy and all of that stuff. Give it a break. Get quiet, switch off. Go hang out in nature. Lie on the beach. Go walk in a beautiful forest. Go sit with the birds chirping and just listen. And just listen to the silence, and listen to what's coming through you, in you and what you're feeling in that. Because that is where the clarity will come. I believe in coaching. I believe in mentorship. And I know that I've had many times where a coach and a mentors help me take my next step. That for sure happens all the time. They just help me see, okay, out of all of the things I can be doing, what is my next immediate step? Sometimes it's hard to know, and then it's really about tapping into yourself in your own inner wisdom to take that step and to pay attention to what feels good to you as well. Because someone might tell you to do something and intuitively it feels like a hard no. And then you shouldn't be doing it, right? So create space for silence. If you need to delete Instagram, delete Instagram for week or whatever. Meditate journal. Do whatever you need to do that helps you quiet your mind. And then let your intuition pull through. Let what's alive to you, what excites you, what feels important to you, what feels like very activating to you. Let it come through and feel it into your body. And then you'll figure out, okay, this is where I need to go next. And you could be toying between two niches, for example, and you can literally just pay attention to how do you feel working with this person for the next five years. How do you feel when you work with this person for the next five years? What does that do to my body? How do I feel in that experience? And it'll come through. If you're quiet enough and you pay attention it should come through. And then the third thing is focus on only the next step, because this is how you build businesses. When you are building an online business. It will feel like you are staring up at Mount Everest in flip flops, and you look at this mountain and you literally freeze. It feels like this huge thing that you need to do, and there's like a million things you need to do. As business owners, you have to wear all the hats, especially in the beginning. You have to do the sales, the marketing, the content creation. You have to create the offers. You have to create the funnels, you have to create the ads, you have to create the traffic. It's so many things. So there is a mountain that's ahead of you and you're looking at this mountain and you are just freezing. This is when you try to think about everything that you need to be doing at once, and then your brain freezes. So what is the most impactful thing that I can share with you is don't think about the entire mountain. Say you're a triathlete or whatever, and you go start some crazy long Iron Man and it's like a beast, right? You don't think of the entire thing and psych yourself out about it. You just think about what is my next step? Say my next step is swimming. Okay, let me just get through this one thing. Let me just focus where I'm at. Stay present. Let me just swim. And you just think about every step you take one by one. Just stay present. That's the same when building your business. You don't need to know everything ahead of you. You don't need to think about everything ahead of you. All your job is, is to take the most aligned next step for you. And I say aligned because taking a step is good. You could be taking the wrong step for you. I want you to take the right step for you. The one that is going to bring you to your North Star vision, the thing that's going to pull you to the dream that you want to create that's going to be climbing the correct ladder versus the wrong ladder. So that's important. So it's the most aligned step you can take. Just get clear on what is that next step. I don't need to think about the whole path, but what is the most aligned next step for me? And then your entire job is to go and do that step. It's not to think about the next thing. It's not to jump ahead to whatever, whatever. It's just to complete that one next step. And what you do is you keep doing that one step at a time, one aligned step at a time. And when you look back, you realize your business is built from taking one aligned step at a time. It was never about doing the whole thing in one go and knowing the entire path and having it all figured out, that is not how it's built. It's just about taking one next step. So when you're in that free state or that foggy place where there's overwhelm. You're obviously thinking about all of the things and you're confused. There's a million steps for you to take. Get quiet, switch off from the outside world and ask yourself, what is the best, most aligned step I can take today? And then just go do that. And keep stacking those aligned steps. Eventually you're going to look back and you're going to be like, wow, I have just accomplished so much. I've launched my program, I've done this thing. I've sold this thing like I'm making money. That is where it's at. So don't think about the whole road because that's going to overwhelm you. Just think about the next best step. So if you are navigating confusion. It's okay. Confusion doesn't mean that you're lost. It doesn't mean that there's something wrong with you. It doesn't mean anything really. It just means you're a human being building a business. It means you are in emotion. It means that you care. It means that you're trying to be intentional about the business you want to create. It's fine and it's a completely normal thing. Like how are you supposed to always feel completely clear? That doesn't happen, right? But just keep taking action. Don't freeze, get quiet. Switch off from the outside world. Switch off from everyone's opinions. Switch off from social media if you have to go out into nature and ask yourself, what is my next most aligned step that I can take? And then go do that thing. It's literally what I'm doing now. I'm trying to do all of these things right now. I'm trying to practice what I preach as always. So that is what I wanted to share with you. I hope this landed. And I wanted to also share something that I'm working on, which is coming through quite strongly at the moment, which is my intuition speaking. Is I want to bring my program, the Growth Accelerator, which I've only really ever sold internally to my past students and people who've come through my world in DBA and stuff. I'm going to be opening it to the public very soon, and it's really such an amazing offer. It's really such an amazing container, and it's a six-month group coaching container where I help female business owners, course creators, specifically those who are wanting to sell a course and have a course and are wanting to sell more of it. I'm helping them ditch launch burnout and build systems that sell their offers while they sleep so that they don't build businesses that rely on them having to be selling all the time. So this is something I'm really excited about because it's something I've been navigating for a long time now in my businesses, ditching Launch Burnout, which is such a real thing. And finding more sustainable ways to sell your offers in a way that feels good to you. So I'm super excited about it. I'm going to be releasing content on, I'm going to be talking about it, I'm going to be bringing it to the forefront. Because this is where I'm feeling the energy. And I'm just going with where the energy is taking me at the moment. And that's how I'm navigating this messy, messy thing called building a business. But I'm super excited to be sharing it with you. And I will let you know more about it as it unfolds. I hope you're having an amazing day, and I will chat to you again next week. Bye. Thank you so much for listening to today's episode. If you had some big aha moments from this episode or anything that really, really spoke to you, then please share it with me via email michalle@digiteach.biz, or on Instagram @_digiteach_. It makes my day when I hear back from you regarding these podcast episodes. I appreciate you so much, and I can't wait to connect with you in the next episode. In the meantime, go create a business and life you love.