How To Embrace Change And Move Forward

Starting the conversation:

Not noticing the signs of decision fatigue, work quality decline, and an increase in stress can lead to the perfect storm that can potentially destroy your business. Kiley Peters, CEO and Founder at RAYNE IX, shares her experience making big changes with considered and consistent action.

Keeping your head in the game and staying disciplined to see big change through is difficult. The lessons that come from such dedication to building a thriving business include: remembering your gut is an informant to be listened to as part of the decision-making process; rigidness creates missed opportunities; and that change is time-intensive as well as messy.

In this show, you will hear how much more insight you can gain by slowing down, how all the completed work makes this pivot possible, and the struggles that show up during a long period of change. Jess Dewell talks with Kiley Peters, CEO and Founder at RAYNE IX, about embracing change and transitioning to something new.

Host: Jess Dewell

Guest: Kiley Peters

What You Will Hear:

Four real struggles to breaking through to the next level.

Being torn between what is (really good) and what could be (amazing).

The lack of pausing created friction that turned into an implosion.

A desire to protect the team from BIG unknowns resulted in large opportunity cost.

When you fail yourself and realize it could have been avoided.

Reflection includes acceptance of what is and grief for what is lost and what is changing.

The power of the effort isn’t lost, it is used to create a new and stronger foundation.

Goodbye to the old and hello to the new.

Plean, execute, and adjust to move forward.

Three learnings from going through a business model pivot.

Additionally, for the Fast Track Your Business Today Uncut conversation:

When choices make you feel restricted because of your commitments.

Elements of change: deciding how work will be done.

Creation of the DNA of success.

Workflows and relationships to time (and time management).

Boundaries around time.

Disciple to search for what you can do better and the consequences of not doing it.

Set the expectations and say your goals out loud.

It is BOLD to embrace big change and do the work to transition to something new.

Get started and make a difference in your business with a Growth Framework Reset.

Transcript

Announcer 00:04
This is Uncharted, a series of candid conversations about facing uncertainty. When we are called upon to be courageous, the strength of our leadership is tested. Red Direction has developed the Fast Track Your Business program to help you stay aligned to your business’s TrueNorth. Jess Dewell is your guide. Jess brings you a 20-year track record of business excellence, where strategy and operations overlap. Your Path comes from consistently working from the special place. Your unique true north. Now, here’s Jess.

Jess Dewell 00:41
Hi. And welcome back to the Bold Business Podcast where we talk about the candid we talk about the real problems that we’re facing and how we’re navigating them. Because even though business has principles, processes, best practices, you name it, lots of acronyms and all that good stuff. What it’s missing is the fact that your unique journey, my unique journey, Kylie’s unique journey, who’s going to share a lot of information with us today. It’s all about how we’re showing up, we’re on our path. And we’re using all that other stuff to make the right decision at the right time. That not only gets us to the goals we want, but that is making the world a better place that’s creating that impact and that lasting ability for people to do what people do when they interact with us, whether that’s one on one, whether that’s with our brands and our businesses, whether that’s as a team. All right. And so in this episode of Uncharted, I have to tell you Fast Track Your Business folks, you are going to love the second half. So don’t forget, if you’re starting here and you’re part of the Fast Track Your Business today program, switch over to your TrueNorth get your custom links so that you can listen to this beginning to end without interruption. For the rest of you that want to find out more. Visit Fast Track Your Business today.com Okay, Bold Business, Podcast, Uncharted. We’re going places were facing things. We know what’s going on. And Kylie Kylie Peters will say I do know what’s going on until I don’t you know, in the grid. How’s that for the beginning of your introduction?

Kiley Peters 02:20
Oh, wow. Well, that about does it?

Jess Dewell 02:22
Well, me too. I, we are two peas in a pod that way. That’s why I thought I could say that one right out loud. She in addition to navigating her own journey, and reaching a lot of different goals in making big decisions and going for what that ultimate dream for her, her business her life is. She’s a serial entrepreneur. She’s a national speaker. She’s a small business strategist. She’s also an executive coach and operations consultant. And that comes into all parts of lots of business life, including, and most importantly, marketing, and sales then, and like me, she’s a podcast host, I have to tell you, this mission that she brings to the table is one of the reasons we’re having this conversation today. It is a mission to have 1 million women achieve financial freedom and build fulfilling lives. She is also the head of the digital content strategy agency known as rain nine, an executive consultancy for women in small business owners. Okay, I could keep going. I could keep talking. But at this point, it sounds like I’m reading something and I don’t want to sound like that anymore. So Kylie, welcome to our show.

Kiley Peters 03:38
Thank you for having me, Jeff.

Jess Dewell 03:41
So why don’t we just start right where I, where I started, you know what you’re doing until you don’t have that?

Kiley Peters 03:48
Um, yeah. Yeah, I mean, I guess, I guess there’s a lot of places we could start there. Where would you really like to jump in?

Jess Dewell 03:57
Well, I’m thinking about this concept of Uncharted and facing changes and challenges. And I know from our conversations, right this year, you know, that I’ve been making some big changes to so let’s start with, let’s start with that. How did you know you had a big decision to make what were those little things in the, you know, the little things that we’re seeing to you were whispering in your ear? That said, I’ve got to take a closer look at my business.

Kiley Peters 04:23
Boy, oh, boy. Um, well, let me say that I think there are a lot of things that popped up for me, but I chose actively chose to ignore them for a long time, but didn’t realize that’s what I was doing. So, um, so my agency is brainchild studios, and as of September 2022, we turned six years old. And in 2021, as I was looking to grow my agency, you know, it was still COVID the great way designation and an order. Most of the time, I shouldn’t say always. But most of the time to grow a service-based company such as an agency, you’re typically looking to hire talent to take on more work. Well, at the time, it was near impossible to hire talent that I found, felt was the quality of talent that I wanted to represent my company. We went through hundreds of applications for designers and copywriters, and email strategist and you name it and struggled so hard to find anyone that we felt confident in bringing onto the team. So that was a challenge in and of itself, because I had mentally prepared at the beginning of 2021. This was the year we’re going to scale, I wanted to hit seven figures in revenue. I was like, Okay, we’re gonna build this team. This is so big and badass. This is, you know, this is success. Right? And what happened was starting in about April, well, maybe actually, you know, I had an opportunity presented to me at the end of January that year, to build a marketing masterclass for the Exit Planning Institute. And I was like, Okay, this would be cool. Like, that sounds exciting. So I was like, Okay, I’m gonna do it. Because you know, passive revenue is great, right? So I was like, this is the way. So I put a lot of energy into building this class from scratch, recorded it in April in Cleveland. And about that time, I was like, feeling kind of spread thin, totally did this to myself. But I was like, yes, and to all these exciting things. And then it was about June, shortly after that I got brought on to do some consulting for Exit Planning Institute, which I loved doing that work. I love doing, I was working with our marketing team, doing work, helping them. And to date, we have revolutionized the entire market, like they, it’s just insane. Like, that’s gonna be an incredible case study. But yeah, so it was very exciting, very rewarding work. But I still trying to grow my agency and still trying to hire and trying to onboard and trying to take train, and trying client retention and client growth and all the things. And I was feeling really torn. All year, I was feeling really torn between who I was as a person and as a professional. And the work that I really wanted to do, which was very much related to business strategy, I was going through coaching training at the time to become a certified coach. So I was really enjoying that process. And all of this work. And then the work that we were contracted to do through the agency was marketing-related work. And we were trying to launch new initiatives trying to launch new pricing programs, trying all these different things. And nothing was really sticking, and it’s totally my fault. I take full ownership of that, because I didn’t have my head in the game. I was. So I was so torn is the best way I can describe it. And you know, as we went through this journey of 2021, which was totally chaotic, and I am so guilty of whiplash to my team, like Sorry, ladies. I thought that, you know, even to the point where I was like, Oh, I know the solution here. Let’s rebrand the agency. So I get to do more of the things I want to do. And still with this brand, and, and we’ll reposition. We tried to rebrand the agency twice in like three months. Exactly. And that’s where my team was like, hey, hey, ah, so what’s going on? What’s going on? Kylie? That’s like, I don’t know. I’m sorry. I want to be the best leader I can be for you. And I feel like I’m failing everyone, including myself, and they don’t know what I’m doing.

Jess Dewell 08:55
So what you should have been doing was capturing all of your attention.

Kiley Peters 08:59
Yeah, I should have, I, what I needed to do was really rein it in and figure out like, what do I want? Yeah. And what am I doing? And where are the discrepancies there? What is the path forward? And it took me a while to get there. And I would say a lot of things happened. And then in December of 2021, it all just became so blatantly clear. It was like hitting a brick wall. Everything kind of just imploded. And too, I think it’s fair to say I don’t think the public knew it imploded. So that feels good.

Announcer 09:42
We will return to Uncharted in a few moments. How you work on your business often means the difference between failure and success. When you commit to developing skills, increasing capacity for the unknown, and prioritizing your mission, you’re taking action toward success. Find out more about how to Fast Track Your Business at FastTrackYourBusinessToday.com. Let’s get back to Jess.

Jess Dewell 10:08
I think that’s really important to be able to say. In our businesses, there are things behind the scenes that always look messy, sound messy, feel messy, yet, the way we deliver in the way that we show up in the way we integrate that so that we are doing what we say we’re building credibility, we have that. I don’t even want to call it about retention. But just the way we do our work internally, it can be messy. But we don’t, we don’t tell everybody when we’ve stubbed our toe. We don’t tell anybody if we had a flat tire on the way to work. We well, we might. But in general, that’s not the part of every conversation for two days while we’re catching up. Right. It might be in that moment, but then it’s still part of what’s going on, as we’re showing up to the next and as showing up to the next.

Kiley Peters 10:56
Yeah, yeah. And, and, you know, I, I didn’t realize that at the time, because I was like, Oh, my gosh, I’m so transparent. But even after talking to my team at the beginning of 2022, kind of like looping them in on some things that had happened. They were like, Oh, we didn’t know that. We didn’t know that’s what was going on. So I was like, oh, so. Okay, well, no, no, but, but in a good way. Like I one of the reasons I operated in the way I did was because I was trying to protect my team from me, in some ways. Okay. And so it was like, Okay, well, I think I did the best job I could have in terms of protecting in that way. But in other ways, I probably should have been more transparent and more vulnerable and asked for help. And I didn’t. So anyway, a lot of learning lessons there. But in December of 2021, I kind of had this realization that, you know, I launched brainchild, and the what I’ve always said was, I wanted women to have the opportunity to have fulfilling careers, strong families and pursue personal growth. And I felt really confident that I been able to create that opportunity for the women on our team. But I had this realization that I had failed to do that for myself.

Jess Dewell 12:13
Oh, how did that feel? When you, when you actually came to that realization? What was that? Like?

Kiley Peters 12:19
It was like, man, it was, it was like, da, like, Kylie, how did you miss that, like, so bad? Um, yeah, it was just a real wake-up call. And as we’re recording this, I’m 36 years old. I’m about to get married. At and we want to have a family. And there was a lot of just very real, real-life things that we had to talk about in terms of, okay, we need to reduce the amount of stress in our life if we want to bring children into this world. And we need a different schedule if we want to have a family and all those kinds of really fun adulting conversations.

Jess Dewell 13:06
And then, yeah, you’re actually having some of these conversations before I ever did. So kudos to you.

Kiley Peters 13:15
I mean, just, it just got so real. And I was like, I can’t keep doing this. I’m going to die of a heart attack. I was legit having heart palpitations.

Jess Dewell 13:25
It manifests. And so and that’s the result though. That’s the result of all the different things in that. I’m going to call it incoherence white background stuff that’s that constant, and you’re not quite sure what it is. And after a while you get used to holding it out. Which means yes, so much other stuff. Yeah.

Kiley Peters 13:45
And that’s exactly what happened. I mean, I was like, oh, you know, I felt like really off. But it wasn’t until December. I was like, Oh my God, these are heart. I’m having heart palpitations. And then it was like, the end of December, my body just completely revolted against me for months, and I was like, okay, okay, got it. Cosmic two by four. Yeah, I like now. Okay, God, I hear you. You can stop now. I got it. Thank you heard you loud and clear. The way Yeah,

Jess Dewell 14:15
I have a similar hit the, the universe hit me over the head with a cosmic two-by-four because of all of the things I wasn’t listening to that I should have. Yeah, took me out for a really long time. And it did make for great change. And I would be a very different person on a very different path without it. So yeah. Welcome to that club.

Kiley Peters 14:35
No, and I, you know, I release in there. Yeah, I believe everything happens for a reason. Yes. And the stuff that happens that you’re like, Wait, what is this and why is this going on? It’s like, okay, just sit with it. Let it play out. Yeah, this is happening for a reason.

Jess Dewell 14:54
And how hard is it and I’m gonna call it messy because that’s what it is that was carrying on certainty that, wow, I literally just accepted this new into my life. And I know I have to say goodbye to this old so there’s, there’s excitement yet there’s grief. Yes, we can’t forget about and especially, especially as women, we don’t handle our grief even in the small things in life and things when our health shows up, we don’t honor who we were and how strong we were to get to where we were gonna go and how we’re going to use that strength to shift we forget about the grief piece of oh, now we don’t get to do it like we’ve always done it. Yeah. And there’s a there’s some change in that.

Kiley Peters 15:39
And I mean, you’re totally right. And, and thank you for bringing it up, because grief has been a huge part of this. And so where I’ve landed now, as we’re at the end of 2022. At the end of 2021, I made the decision that it was time to shut down Brainchild. And so just recently, like I knew that I shared it with a few key team members at the beginning of 2022. And then we had a very, very strategic intentional path to communicating that rollout to appropriate parties at appropriate times throughout the end of the year. And as of this recording, everyone knows, so this is okay now. But to your point on grief, it, that played a huge role, because I am so grateful for the experience of running brainchild, and every single client, every single team member, every single partner. And so I was really struggling with grief because it’s my baby, it’s always felt like my baby. And I didn’t want to let my team down and I didn’t want to let the community down and I didn’t want to let anyone down. And for a long time, I felt like I was grieving and failing everyone until my coach actually helped me kind of reposition that. And she was like, well, Kylie, maybe brainchild is not the whole journey. Maybe it’s the first like maybe it’s the warm-up. Maybe you’re just getting to the starting line. And I was like, Oh, that feels so much better. Yeah, I was like, okay, yes, because now the work that I’m doing. And at the beginning of 2021 to launch that masterclass, I started re nine which is my executive consultancy. And we started that to launch the masterclass at the beginning of 2021. It was just a shell. And then I started doing some consulting work. And then it’s picked up and I was like, I love this work. And this is what I think I’m really here to do. And just you and I talked about vision and purpose and mission. And my purpose has always been to help as many women as I can, especially women, small business owners, and over the last couple of years, it’s become very specific that I want to help, as many women as possible, build more financially free and fulfilling lives. Because that’s defined differently for everybody. Yes, and I really want to hone in on women, small business owners, because I think they’re a really influential force, they also tend to work with and support other women. So I think there’s a huge network opportunity there. But, and I also believe that when women have, you know, stronger financial independence, they make better decisions for themselves, better decisions for their families, better decisions, I think, for the world at large. And so I was like, if my purpose here is to help impact as many women as possible, I don’t think I’m tapping that full potential Outbrain child, as much as I’m grateful. And we’ve done amazing work. And I’m super, super proud of it. I was like, I think I can do more with rain nine. And I think I can do more with the 100 Collective, which is the membership that we’re launching for women, small business owners who provide professional services. And I think I can do more in group workshops, I think I can do more for the audience that I really want to impact by taking a different route. But that doesn’t mean I have to completely stop the thing that I’m doing, put a transition plan into place, and then follow through in the transition plan. And so there’s been a lot of excitement, and grief and emotions and strategy and communication through this whole process. And it’s been and I’m getting a bit of planning a wedding the entire time. Right. So you know, just a couple of things going on. But it’s been a really it’s been an incredible learning process. Well, I’ll say that.

Jess Dewell 19:36
Let’s talk about the learnings. What are what are a few three to four something that would couples that you like that?

Kiley Peters 19:45
One to twelve.

Jess Dewell 19:49
Let me just highlight these. Can you tell I’m looking for a bullet point in the show notes? Yeah, getting totally getting I’m just like, when I say that people might go on forever. And yeah, let’s make them succinct. And if there’s a short amount that we can dig into them in our, in our conversation, so I would be curious. I’m gonna How about this? I’ll ask you a couple of specific questions then. Okay. What was the biggest learning that you have taken away about? Knowing some about, about knowing something else was ready to be here and ignoring it?

Kiley Peters 20:31
Yeah, I would say follow your gut. Because for a long time, I knew something wasn’t aligned. And to be fair, I tried really hard to try to figure it out. But I think I was forcing things too much like, I probably would have been better served if I had just let go a little bit, sat back reflected a bit and asked him hard, uncomfortable questions. But I knew like my gut was telling me and to be fair, I had other people around me saying the same thing of like, Baby, you want to do something else? And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, that’s ridiculous. And it was like, Oh, maybe I do. So I would say trust your gut.

Jess Dewell 21:18
So let’s can also be was that for me? Was that, was that a limiting belief in that place? Or was that a self-imposed expectation? Or was that a, I haven’t done what I said, I’m going to do, or something else?

Kiley Peters 21:31
I think, kind of a combination of a few of those things. Yeah. So I mean, what, again, I so firmly believe in the work that brainchild does and has done because it’s so so fundamentally rooted in empowering women and creating a safe working space and, and, you know, all these things. And so I was like, No, I can’t take this away. Because it’s too important. It needs to exist. And I put all that on myself. Yep. Like nobody else to beat. Nobody else was doing that to me, I but I did it to myself. And in doing that I was not honoring what I wanted. And, and not even what I wanted. But what I, my personal evolution. You know, it’s just I think as humans, it’s weird if we don’t change. It’s also kind of tricky sometimes to name the change, and to acknowledge it’s happening, and then to choose to do something about it or not.

Jess Dewell 22:38
Yeah, exactly. So that was your choice. Okay. All right. We’re gonna pause right there because I have a whole bunch of other questions, but this is the right time. You heard it here. This is the Bold Business Podcast and you’re listening to this program, which is a special Uncharted with Kylie Peters, the CEO and founder of REI nine, and she has been sharing with us her journey, her path, the fear that she has faced the challenge with which she is currently on the road, pursuing AI and the excitement and the impact that she knows she can make with this kind of a change. So I have to tell you, those of you in Fast Track Your Business, you know where to go, head over to your TrueNorth and you will get all the rest of the information there. Everybody else will see you next time. And if you want more information, Fast Track Your Business today.com.

Announcer 23:31
You’ve been listening to Uncharted. Fast Track Your Business subscribers receive access to a vast set of resources, including extended conversations to this and other Uncharted episodes. Visit Fast TrackYourBusinessToday.com. Your preparedness and the right perspective is absolutely necessary when you find yourself somewhere Uncharted. Special thanks to The SCOTT Treatment for production assistance.