The Realities of the Freelance Pivot ft. Sarah Duran (S1 E6)
Pivoting sounds simple—until you're in the middle of one. For the past year, almost every conversation Liam has had with freelancers in the FLX community has circled back to the same thing: I need to make a change, but I don't know if it's the right one, or I don't even know what change to make. It's a question that's plaguing a lot of freelancers right now, and it's exactly why Liam brought in Sarah Duran.
Sarah is a fractional COO and business coach for solo and micro business owners who has been running her own business for over a decade—and pivoting it, repeatedly, the whole way through.
In this conversation, she and Liam dig into what pivoting actually looks like from the inside: the fear, the sunk-cost thinking, the long wobbly period when you're straddling two directions and haven't committed to either.
Sarah introduces the concept of the "through line"—the thread connecting everything you do across different versions of your business—and why finding it requires looking backwards before you can move forward. They also talk about what it means to build a business that's genuinely about you, rather than one you built because a business guru on Instagram said it was the next big thing.
If you're in the middle of a pivot, thinking about one, or just trying to figure out what's next, this conversation has something for you.
Sarah’s resources:
🔗 Website ?? The Solopreneur Collaborative ?? Strategic Planning Playbook ?? Sarah on LinkedIn
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Episode Transcript
Liam: Imagine your freelance business is an enormous boat. I'm talking like a really big ship, like a cruise liner. And one day you decide that after going northwest for a really long time, you suddenly need to go east, and so you have to turn the ship. And one day you decide that after going northwest for a really long time, you suddenly need to go east, and so you have to turn the ship. But as a freelancer and a solopreneur, you're the only one on the ship.
So the idea of changing something that big in such a dramatic way is pretty scary. I do a lot of visualizations like these just for my own mental health. It helps me to picture some of the challenges I face as something physical. Maybe it's the writer in me that just wants to be creative all the time, but.
Sometimes when I'm thinking about making big changes in my freelance business, I picture this ship to remind myself that when you want to move something big in a dramatic way, it can only happen in a slow fashion. Sometimes it feels painstakingly slow to try to turn the ship, especially when things feel urgent.
But a lot of people right now are making changes in their freelance business. I know this because I routinely ask the freelancers in freelance success what's on their mind. And for the last year or so, almost every answer has come down to the same thing.
Which is "I need to make a change in my business because things are changing in the world around me, but I don't know whether the change I'm thinking of making is the right one, or I don't even know what kind of change I want to make. I think these questions are plaguing freelancers right now because of how volatile everything feels.
We have a lot of economic uncertainty going on. AI is really changing the game for so many different industries and it's really hard to know how to position yourself and it's hard to choose a new direction when it feels like AI might delete that or change that direction in the next few months.
So what's the point of changing? Every few months in the Freelance Success community, we have some sort of big group event. Uh, once we did one on improving our LinkedIn profiles to generate more sales, and the one that we did most recently was about pivoting your business. Now, I don't love the word pivot. \ I think it's been corrupted a lot by corporate speak. And also pivoting gives the idea that this is something that happens quickly and suddenly and on a whim when in reality I think most freelance pivots take quite a bit of time to do them correctly.
During the Freelance Pivot program that we hosted a few months ago, we used four weeks to really plan and investigate and experiment with our pivot so that we didn't have to do it alone
and though four weeks was not enough time for everyone to go all the way through their pivot, we developed some really good programming that allowed people to think more clearly about what they're going to target, how they're going to target it, and test it out before they make a big dramatic pivot.
And now it's a course. So anyone who joins the Freelance Success Community gets immediate access to the Pivot program so they can go through those same steps as they're planning their change. During this time, I was talking with some of my other. Freelance thought leader friends that I have out there, including today's guest, Sarah Duran.
And wouldn't you know it, but it turns out that Sarah was working on a pivot program of her own for her freelance community. Now, this doesn't shock me because as I said, I chose the topic of pivoting because it's on the mind of so many freelancers.
And Sarah had done the exact same thing. She'd been talking to her community, she was wondering what was on their mind, and she came across the concept of pivoting over and over again. Sarah and I have both pivoted our own freelance businesses multiple times. I'm actually in the middle of a pivot right now, and this conversation happened when we were both in the midst of planning our own pivot programs.
We talk about our own experiences pivoting, and the main things that you need to think about if you are thinking of making a big change in your freelance business this year. So let's go ahead and dive into that conversation.
If you are a freelancer who wants to build your community and learn from experts who are already out there successfully freelancing, then you should come join the Freelance Success Community. Anyone can join for a month for free, and after that, it costs just about the same as a streaming service to maintain access to all of the tools, resources, and expert speakers we have coming in all the time
to help you grow your freelance operation. The best part about freelance success is that there are conversations happening inside the community all the time that are exclusive to the community, meaning that you can ask the questions you really want to ask without worrying whether the whole world on LinkedIn is going to see what kind of questions you have on your mind, and you can rest assured knowing that the people who respond to your questions are freelancers who have been there, done that, and seen their way through it successfully.
To join the Freelance Success Community Free for a month, just go to join freelance success.com. I hope to see you in the community, and now here's the show.
Liam: Sarah, I want you to introduce yourself in a way that highlights your life as a person who pivots. So tell me about who you are and what you do, but also tell me a little bit about, because that's why I have you here today, talk about pivoting. Mm-hmm. So that's the challenge. That's the prompt I have for you.
Sarah: Great. Love that. Okay, then I'm going to start not all the way from the beginning.
It's always, it's always tricky to find the right inciting incident in this. Mm-hmm. In that story. So from a, from a pivoting lens, I, you know, I am a, I like to use the word elder. I am an elder millennial. Mm-hmm. And so you know, of a generation where we. I think we're one of the first generations where you don't stay in a job really for more than like two to three years.
Right. As opposed to our parents who stayed in their jobs for. Long periods of time. And that has been true for me since I started working, like out of college. I got to a point in my career, a where I had sort of pivoted while working for other people. Mm-hmm. Sort of like climbing the ladder, finding the jobs, checking the boxes that I could check for myself when I worked for other people.
And I finally got to a job that I was like, this is it. I got the dream job, like I was making the money I wanted to make. I was working from home 100% of the time for the first time in my life. This was like pre COVID before that was normal.
Liam: Yeah. Wow. What a dream.
Sarah: What a dream, right? I was like, this is my dream job.
I had amazing benefits. It had I was like running my own projects. I had this level of autonomy I'd never had before, and I was like, this is it. I figured it out and about three months into that job I was like. I am not happy. Like what is going on here? I have checked all the boxes for myself and at that juncture I didn't re, I knew I had to do something different.
I was like, I need to make some sort of leap. I did not know what that leap was going to be. And despite being a. Child of entrepreneurs myself, working for myself was never part of the plan. Like it didn't, that wasn't even like an option that I was like considering when I decided to quit my job. But I did indeed quit my job and I picked up some contract work to sort of make ends meet while I was figuring out what I was going to do next, the next.
Pivot in that story. Is that through the course of that contract work? A I figured out, I was like, this is great. Like I was like, I'm making more money. I'm work. I'm working less time. I am, I have this like, incredibly flexible schedule. I basically do whatever I want all day long. I'm working with people that I want to work with.
I'm working on projects that I enjoy doing. I was like, who knew that this was even a possible thing? And through the course of that, I ended up being a COO. My contract work turned into being a COO for a small research company that a friend of mine ran. And we began to engage in partnership conversations.
For me to like become an actual partner in his business. And it was when those conversations dissolved and he said to me, well, you can still work for me. Mm-hmm. And I had this epiphany moment where I was like. I actually cannot do that. Mm-hmm. I cannot work for someone else ever again. Like now that I knew, now that I, oh yeah.
It's like a red pill, blue pill matrix situation
Liam: Absolutely
Sarah: Now that I knew what was possible, working for my, working for myself, working with people, I was like, oh, I cannot, I cannot do that. Yeah. And I, like, I told him, I was like, I'm like. This is news to me. Like I did not know that this was true until this moment either
But I was like, I cannot. And so we split ways. I incorporated my own company that exact same day and
Liam: Wow.
Sarah: Then that was about 10 years ago. So for the last 10 years I've been. Working for myself in terms of the pivots. Over the course of that time, I've called myself a variety of things. Mm-hmm.
I've called myself a project manager, a program manager, grants manager, an operations manager.
Liam: So where we would have the titles like scrolling over exactly
Sarah: over
Liam: your face, the video.
Sarah: And now I call myself a fractional COO. Okay. So I work with, solo businesses solo to micro businesses, businesses that don't need a full-time COO, but need a top tier operational partner to help them think about their systems and their strategy.
And I also leverage that same skillset to coach other freelancers. So even smaller micro businesses in my group coaching program called The Solopreneur Collaborative. And then there are a million. Pivots within both of those things that I'm sure we can get into. Mm-hmm. But that is sort of, I think, the pivot journey that has gotten me to this moment.
Liam: Hmm, okay. I love hearing people's origin stories and all of the random things that happened, and also that realization moment is so real. I think every freelancer. Can trace their, like some instance or moment where you were like, oh, this is it. Like I can't do anything but this. And it's kind of, yeah, there's no looking back.
Once you're, once you're, what is it? I guess Blue pilled, pink pilled, who knows?
Sarah: I think blue pilled. Yeah.
Liam: Yeah. In any event like what you hit on there at the end, actually something that's been on my mind a lot, and I definitely wanted to ask you your thoughts on this. So I've been thinking, obviously we both are thinking a lot about the word pivot.
It's like actually starting to lose meaning to me because I'm thinking about it so much and I'm just thinking about how many different meanings there are tucked into that weird little word. Like you described some of this too, and I've had this experience in some terms. You know, when I pivoted in my time, I was pivoting from.
One industry to a different industry or a completely different job to a completely different job. And other times it was like the pivot was like microscopic because it was like I was pivoting into a new service that was very similar to another service that I offered, but not quite the same, but it still required the steps of pivoting.
Sarah: Yeah.
Liam: So do you feel that way too? Like when you, when you're thinking of pivot, what kind of actions are you talking about?
Sarah: Yeah, that's a perfect question. I think that you're exactly right. I think there are many pivots. I think it's sort of an as like a radius of degrees, right? I think there are like 180 pivots where you're like, I am, I like, when I quit my job, I was like, I am going not doing that anymore.
And I was like. Not burning a bridge, but I was like, I am cutting this off. I'm taking a leap. I'm doing something completely different. And then I think there are internal pivots where you're like, I still think of those. I think I sort of think of like all of the pivots that I've done, whether big or small, always as epiphany moments.
Hmm. Like it was always something, whether it was like. Just like an aha moment for myself or something someone else said, or like a meet a, like me meeting someone that I would end up partnering and collaborating with. Like there's always some sort of epiphany moment. And for those internal ones, sometimes it's like, this isn't working anymore.
I can't put up with this thing. And there's like an an internal thing that shifts that maybe doesn't manifest outwardly as prominently as some of the bigger. Quote unquote, bigger pivots. And, and I would say that then there's like pivots within within pivots. So like I have pivoted, which we can get into more if it makes sense in, within my coaching and content business, I have pivoted, like I cannot even tell you how many times in terms of.
The strategy of what I do. Like do I sell courses? Do I have a podcast? Do I sell off the shelf products? Do I sell coaching? Do I sell masterminds? Mm-hmm. Like what is the like thing, the through line is always there of like what those things do, but like what is the vehicle that does that thing has changed.
Like, I don't even know how many times I can count, how many times I've done that. So yeah, I think there, there, the word pivot sounds very abrupt. And I think when we hear that term in relationship, to quote to a quote unquote, like big business, we think of something like a 180 or a 90 degree pivot where it's like you're, you're making an abrupt shift.
You're, you're shutting something down and starting something new. But it doesn't always look that way.
Liam: Hmm. You know, you just made me think of this. This image I've had, because I've been doing a pretty big pivot recently myself, similar to yours, pivoting over into the freelance coaching community from my mainstay of SEO and content marketing for so long, still doing that.
And, you know, I was talking to everybody about pivoting this like career change and my therapist and I came up with this image of, I don't know, I'm a water person. I love going to the lakes and stuff. Have you ever like stepped off of a dock and onto a canoe or a kayak and there's this like horrible moment where like the kayak is like going and your foot's still on the dock and you're like, I either have to like jump into the canoe or jump back on land or do like a split and fall in the water.
Liam: And that time period in my opinion, can be. Quite a long time before you actually have to, before you actually jump into the canoe. Or maybe you never do, maybe like, I'm still doing these two things. Right. So you're totally right that it's not, it's very rarely shut it all down and start something new, you know, unless you like have a FY festival experience, you know that.
Yeah. Where you like really have to, I love the way you put that.
Sarah: Yes, absolutely. I think that that in between. You know, there's various like metaphors that I like around that. Where, you know, it's like you have to let go of one trapeze handle before you can reach the next one. Yes. You're only, you can only stand on that rock and you, there is no path through the river.
It's like you're putting one rock down in front of you as you go. Mm.
Sarah: Yes, but I think that. In between. I think the word pivot sort of like signals this like hard, fast, abrupt change. And I think you're absolutely right that it's not sometimes I think there are a few moments in my life where I was like very certain and I was like, it is not this, it is this.
There were a couple of those, but the vast majority of all the other ones had like a pretty significant wobbly in between period.
Liam: Yes, yes, me too. But I want to talk, I want to hone in on that wobbliness because like, you know, I think both of, probably between the two of us, we probably have a couple dozen pivots under our belts, right?
Mm-hmm. And I imagine we're not done.
Liam: One thing I work on is like overcoming. The shame that's sometimes attached to pivoting because it requires experimentation, which then requires failure.
Liam: Right. So there's like this horrible anxiety that comes, even now after pivoting so many times, I still feel anxious about pivoting because it's anxiety inducing.
Do you still feel, what are, I mean, I don't know. Are you done pivoting? And if not, you know, how do you get, what's your mental state like when you're approaching a pivot?
Sarah: Definitely not done pivoting. And I think you're right. I think usually my mental state approaching a pivot is fear.
Sarah: And loss aversion and sunk cost mentality where it's like, but I've put so much like time, money, energy, blood, sweat, tears into this thing and sometimes those things don't work and you have to just.
You do have to just like let it go. You have to be like, that thing didn't work. And I, no matter how much I put into it, I still, it doesn't change the fact that it didn't work. It doesn't change the fact that I have to let it go and move forward.
Sarah: I will say on the, like the wobbly in between period.
Is interesting. I think it is a necessity. And I also think that there are a lot of instances where that is like a signal to, in some instances, not all, like this is not black and white. Like there are no rule. I don't think there are rules about pivoting, although I'm sure there's some business book out there that gives you the rules.
Sarah: But I think a lot of that signals that maybe you're hold, perhaps you, maybe you're holding onto something that you need to let go of. In my own experience where looking back on it, I'm like that wobbly in between period maybe wouldn't have been so wobbly if I had just accepted that that thing was dead if I had just accepted that I needed to move.
But you can't. But in the moment, like you can't see that, right? Mm-hmm. Like it's really easy to say that in hindsight. Mm-hmm. It is not easy to see that in the moment. But I, but that is I think, my experience a lot of times of whole like. Exactly your analogy where your feet are on these two different wobbly surfaces.
Mm-hmm. And you're like, I can, I can just linger here, or I can like, make a decision and step one way or the other.
Sarah: And I think to your point, like you and I, both, I've, I think been wearing like as one does when they run a solo business, been wearing multiple hats for a long time now. And I think I've come to a place for myself where.
I feel very good about wearing both the hat of Freelancer and coach for freelancers. Mm-hmm. Or content creator for freelancers. Like I don't think I a, I am a big believer that you can't. Maybe, well, I, maybe I am going to use the word can't, but shouldn't be coaching people about things that you don't do yourself.
Sarah: Because even if you've done it before, the more distance you get from it, the harder it is to actually coach people on how to do that thing. And so I think in order for me to be a good coach, I have to always be a freelancer. Mm-hmm. Like, I can't ever let go of that.
Sarah: But it is like, you know, it is a.
It is a two. It. I've also, I think over the last couple of years, found a tighter through line between those two sides of my business that makes it feel different for me. But it is definitely like holding two roles at the same time.
Liam: You know, you've used that word throughline twice now and I really like it and I think I'd like to zoom in on that a little bit because what, you know, if we keep going with these visual analogies, right?
A throughline can be a piece of thread that holds things together, right? Mm-hmm. Even when they feel wobbly or they feel uncertain, what are you talking about when you talk about your through line?
Sarah: That's such a good question. It like it, it's something that feels like it doesn't have words, so I need to think about how to like articulate it a little bit.
I guess the best way for me to articulate it is more, it was like perhaps with like a story.
Liam: Okay.
Sarah: So at the end of like, you know, I said my origin story at the beginning, so it's like in 2020 is when I sort of had an epiphany moment, like literally was like, I think I should start like move towards coaching.
Add a coaching arm to my business or at that jun, at that juncture, it was more about the content creation. I was like, I'm going to build a course. And I think that for a lot, for, from like 2020 to 2024, I really felt like I was running two different businesses where I was like, I'm running this coaching business.
And then I'm running my like, client facing business, which at that juncture was much, I was framing it much more around like project management.
Sarah: And it felt like I was like holding these two things where I was like, I don't, there is like, they don't feel connected. I went through a rebranding process at the, like the middle to the end of 2024.
And. My brand strategist Joel Sousa, who is amazing, if anyone needs a brand strategist really walk me through a process of like uncovering that through line for myself where it was like talking about my, my strengths and talents and like, what makes me me, what makes me different for clients than anyone else?
What is that thing that helps me stand out? And he was like, that's the same. Like even on our first call, I like described him what I did. I was like, well, I sort of run these two different businesses. He was like, no, no, it's the same thing.
Sarah: And so it was like the through line. Now as in I'm doing the same work, but in rebranding myself to a fractional COO, I see the through line between I do fractional COO work for my.
One-on-one clients, which is strategy and structure and systems. And I do that exact same work with my coaching clients. Hmm. But it's more of a done for you versus a like do it yourself with some coaching support. Type of model, but it is the same thing. And now I'm using, I'm using the same language to connect the two things.
I am using the, a lot of the same tools that I build for my coaching clients I use with my one-on-one clients. And vice versa, I'm, it's like I'm starting to sort of unpeel the layers of like I am the through line. My superpower is the through line between those two things. And I needed an outwards perspective in order to be able to see that.
Liam: Hmm. You're blowing my mind. I love this idea. And you know, I think we talk a lot about the, well you used the term micro businesses when you refer to freelancers too, which is really true. Like a lot of, a lot of people get hung up on the words we use of
Sarah: Yeah.
Liam: Solopreneur versus freelancer versus business owner, you know, whatever you want to call yourself.
But at the end of the day, we are running a business and it's just, you are the business. And we talk a lot about personal brand and having a personal brand and in a way that is kind of what we're talking about here, right, of the through line. But I think when people hear the word personal brand, a lot of the times they think of like my logo and my colors of the brand colors that I choose and the font that I've chosen and the words that I use on my website.
And those are reflections of your personal brand, but the brand itself is you. Who you are. And that's like my favorite part of freelancing is that you get to design a business based on your core personality traits. Mm-hmm. That are like the genuine personality traits that you have which feels a lot more genuine than trying to force yourself into, as we both learned a different companies.
Brand and trying to make yourself part of a different voice that isn't your own. It sounds to me like if you want to be the kind of person who can pivot and be agile in that way, having that through line developed is pretty key. Do you agree with that? Yeah, yeah.
Sarah: Yeah. I 100% agree, and I think this is like a classic example of like what you do.
Well, for other people is really hard to do for yourself. Because that is sort of the core of how I coach people. Mm-hmm. The thing that I always start, you know, people come to a business coach with like, I need more clients. I want you know, to turn my services into better offers or things like that.
Mm-hmm. I need to increase my prices, all those things. And I always start with a core framework that I use for my coaching, which is a triad and it's who you are. Why you do your work and what you want to get out of it. Mm-hmm. Great. And that's always the place that we start, and that's always the place I bring my coaching clients back to and my one-on-one clients, all of my clients back to, because it's like we, there's so much noise out there about how to build a business, about what's the right way to build a business, what's the thing you should be selling, what do people want from you?
And you can spend so much time, and I know because I've done it and I continue to do it over and over again. Like I have to learn my same lesson over and over again. You can spend so much time building the business that everyone else wants you to build. You can spend so much time building the business that the business guru, guru on Instagram tells you is the next best thing in coming up in the new year.
Or this is the thing that people want to buy. And so you spend all of your time building that thing and then you wake up one day and you're like, oh, I hate this thing. Mm. Like I hate this thing that I built. And so I always nightmare have people start with themselves because. That again, the for solo businesses
In particular, if you are an employee, that is not true, right? Mm-hmm. Like you do what the business needs you to do, it's not really about you. Mm-hmm. And if you're a leader, a business owner of a business with a bunch of employees, it is also not just about you, right? Like you. Now are beholden to the needs of all of the people underneath you or around you.
And so the solo business owner has this incredible opportunity to make a business that is about them, like the overlapping Venn diagram of the solopreneur and the business are like, there's almost no space. Mm-hmm. Right. Like you are your business. That makes it incredibly personal. Back to your, like what you said about failures.
That means that every time you succeed or fail, it is 100% about you. You cannot pass it off on the person in the cubicle next door, right? Talk about a double story. You cannot say it's your employee's fault, like it's 100% about you. But that's where all of it has to start. And I think to where I started off about, it's really hard to do that for yourself is I think that's what I've gotten, not just from Joel and my rebrand, but from like.
My peers, my mentors, like all of the people that surround me, help me reflect and stay true to that through line of myself. Because that through line also changes, right? Like we evolve as humans, right? Which means our businesses evolve.
Liam: Hmm. Right, right. And that is good and natural and must be. And I think that's something I'm trying to hammer home to people is like, it's.
Yeah, I, I, I haven't really been thinking about it, but I, what I have been thinking about is this idea that there are certain things you can do to make a pivot easier. And I'm now thinking about it in terms of this through line and, you know, and I'm thinking of exercises that I want to recommend to people during our upcoming event.
And one thing I think might be really valuable for people to do, based on what you just told me, was. Sit down and look at what you do now and look at what you are thinking of adding, right? Mm-hmm. And like draw the through line, literally. What is the through line? Yeah. Like, look for it, because it probably is there if you know, right?
I, I've never done that when I started to pivot. I've never sat down and thought, how does you know the SEO o and content marketing work I do today? How does that connect to the freelance audience that it's always been in my mind, like a, how am I ever going to connect to this brand new audience? You know, I'm going to have to change everything and all the way I talk.
But take a deep breath and find those through lines first. Probably sounds like a better strategy than just like th you know, closing your eyes and hoping for the best.
Sarah: Yeah. And the other thing I'd add to that is I would also. Always have folks look backward because I think that we especially this time of year when you're like trying to look forward, trying to plan forward, end up making those plans.
And if we're not looking backward and thinking about the things that we have learned, those previous versions of ourselves and the. The previous who's the previous, like things that we wanted, the previous versions of our business. Like that's where the through line comes from. So you really also have to like, look backwards and sort of like excavate those past versions to be like, okay, what was coming up here?
Like what did I, like, what did I not like? What felt authentic to me? What felt like I was just putting on a mask to, you know, do what everyone else wanted me to do? And that I think is the information that you use to sort of like bring that fi figure out that. Through line and carry it forward. Mm-hmm. And then I think that to your point about like, thinking about that connection between like the work you do as a freelancer and then the work you do as a, like a person who supports freelancers, whatever label we want to put on that content creator, community leader, whatever it is.
Mm-hmm. That was another thing that I think was a ha aha moment for me is like I watch a lot of other people in this space, people like us, who like wear these two hats and I realized that the thing that differentiated me, and there's like a different version of this for everyone, is like, I am operational.
I am an operations person, I'm not a marketing person, I'm not a content person. I'm not an SEO person. Like, you know, you are a different person than what I am. Mm-hmm. And so bringing that sort of like operational strategic lens to the content that I create as opposed to trying to be the, like what everyone else is doing was a big aha moment for me too.
Liam: Hmm. Okay. Wow, you've given me so much to think about. And I think you normally, at this point in the conversation, I ask someone, like, if they were going to take their first step you know, you imagine we had someone on the call who was about to start a pivot and they were feeling anxious about it.
Liam: What would you recommend they do? But I also think something that they should probably do, I don't know when this will come out, but they should probably go to your event on the 13th in just about a month. This may come out after that, but do you want to tell us a little bit about like, what that's going to be like for people who come to that event?
Sarah: Yes. I would love to, and even if they miss it, a, I always write up a summary afterwards. So that's always on my website. And then it's an event series, so there will always be another one. This one in January is about pivots. I do not know what the next one is going to be about because that's too far away I need for me to think about.
But yeah, so that event well the event series itself I think is really unique. It is not a panel, it is not a place where we sit and get answers from experts. It is a place where we co-create answers for ourselves and each other because I think all of us have. All of us are experts. It is not for me to say like, I know how to do pivots.
And so come listen to me talk about pivots and I will give you the playbook about how to do pivots. So the way I organize those events is I bring in three people who have expertise on the thing that we're talking about. And so for this one on pivots, I'm actually my friend Joel that I keep talking about will be there.
Oh, okay. Great. He made a huge pivot in his business sev I think around 2020 actually. And then two other freelancers Liz Heflin, who runs the inkwell writing community. Mm-hmm. And Jess Walrack will also be there. And so I'm bringing in three people in addition to myself who have pivoted and pivoted and pivoted.
Mm-hmm. And the way we structure those conversations is basically I ask people a lot of questions and we spend a lot of time in breakout groups. So our experts, quote unquote experts. Or having the conversations alongside everyone else, and then we're sort of crowdsourcing the answers together. And then after the event, I.
Write up a summary of like, okay, what did we figure out together about pivoting? What is the, when, why, and how of pivoting, so that is the event.
Liam: Okay. That sounds brilliant. Will there be a replay if people miss it?
Sarah: There's not a replay. No. Only because it is mostly in breakouts, and so you don't really. You don't really get out of it.
Liam: There's much to, to
Sarah: replay. Yeah. It's, there's really no point to like watch it. But that's why I do the writeup afterwards. So I will write a blog afterwards that kind of summarizes like the key points of what we figured out together.
Liam: Okay. Well you make sure you send us that.
Sarah: Yes.
Liam: And then we'll promote that for you.
Put that out there for people can find it. And we'll put links to all your events in this. But where can people go if they want to learn more about you or join these events? Where, where's the best place to find all that stuff?
Sarah: So my website is Fruition Initiatives.com and you can find all, everything I do on my website.
I'm very active on LinkedIn. You can find me Sarah Duran on LinkedIn on Instagram. I am Hustler's Manifesto which is the name of my newsletter. If you folks want to sign up for that, that's like the best place to sort of keep an eye on what I'm up to and get the summaries from these events that I put out.
Liam: Awesome. Okay. And then we're going to air this probably right before or during the longer pivot event that we're having at FLX. Good chance. I'm going to try and wrangle you for some of that too and see if I can get you back in. But this podcast alone will be an awesome installment because this was such a refreshing and exciting conversation.
You're really fun to talk to. So thanks. I'm so glad I had you on. Is there anything else you want to add? Any last thoughts before we wrap up this conversation?
Sarah: I mean, I guess I would just say take the leap, which is easy to say and hard to do, but if you feel yourself in that wobbly middle, force yourself to make some hard decisions because I promise it is better on the other side, even if it is just better because you are not wobbling anymore.
You have like made a concrete decision and the only way we can figure out what works is by doing it.
Liam: Okay, people, you heard it get to the edge of the diving board. All right, Sarah, thank you so much for joining me.
Sarah: All right, thank you.
Liam: Thank you.
Speaker 3: Thanks for listening to another episode of the Freelance Success Podcast. Somehow we're already halfway through season one. If you enjoyed this episode, it would mean a lot to me if you could give us a rating or leave a comment. And of course, most of all, I want to see you in the Freelance Success Community.
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Until the next episode i'm your host, Liam Carnahan. Have a great day freelancing.
