How to Pivot Your Career Without Starting Over
Maybe You Don't Need to Start Over. Maybe You Need to Use What You Already Know.
There’s something about realizing you want something different that makes you want to burn the whole damn thing down. New career, new business, new brand, new website, new Instagram, new everything. I get it. Starting fresh feels clean, especially when what you’ve been doing no longer feels like you.
But when you’re trying to figure out how to pivot your career, your business, or even your life, starting over isn’t always the answer. I’ve done it enough times to know that most of us aren’t actually starting from scratch. We’re standing in a new place with a whole lot of experience, relationships, lessons, mistakes, skills, and perspective that we haven’t figured out how to use yet.
There’s a difference.
My first business started when I was 12. I hand-painted T-shirts, took custom orders at my mother’s salon, and sold candy at school because apparently one revenue stream wasn’t enough for seventh-grade Si’mone. Since then, I’ve planned events, taught people how to roll sushi, taught yoga, made malas, managed talent, worked in HR, built websites, developed brands, created educational programs, consulted with founders and organizations, and eventually taught myself how to DJ.
On paper, that résumé can look like somebody couldn’t make up her damn mind. For a long time, I thought I needed to explain that. Now I realize all those seemingly unrelated chapters were teaching me things I would eventually use together.
The things that didn't “match” were teaching me different things.
Teaching sushi classes taught me about creating an experience around something people could have technically learned on YouTube.
Yoga taught me about holding space for people with completely different needs in the same room.
Making and selling products taught me about pricing, margins, presentation, and the difference between something people like and something people will actually buy.
HR taught me about people.
Events taught me that what looks effortless to the guest usually requires a ridiculous amount of thought behind the scenes.
Branding taught me how perception gets built.
DJing taught me how to read a room in real time and adjust without making the audience feel the adjustment.
None of those chapters were wasted.
I just couldn't see the connection while I was living them.
That's the part we don't talk about enough when we talk about pivoting.
People love a clean before-and-after story.
“I left corporate America and became an entrepreneur.”
“I closed my business and discovered my purpose.”
“I reinvented myself at 40.”
Cute. But, real life usually isn't that neat.
Sometimes you don't know you're in the middle of a pivot until you're already halfway through it.
Sometimes the thing you've been doing still makes money, but you don't want to do it anymore.
Sometimes you're good at something you've completely outgrown.
Sometimes the new thing doesn't look remotely related to the old thing.
And sometimes you're sitting there thinking, I have spent twenty years building all of this. Am I really supposed to throw it away and become a beginner again?
No.
Before you start over, take inventory.
Not of your job titles. But, of what you actually know how to do.
What problems do people consistently come to you to solve?
What have you learned about customers?
What relationships have you built?
What do you understand about your industry that somebody entering it today doesn't?
What have you learned the hard way?
What could you teach?
What could you package?
What could you do differently?
And maybe the biggest question:
What do you want to take with you?
Because a pivot doesn't require you to drag every piece of your old life into the new one.
But it doesn't require you to abandon everything either.
You get to choose.
I don't believe we're supposed to keep becoming completely new people.
I think we're supposed to keep becoming more complete versions of ourselves.
DJ Monie didn't erase the entrepreneur who came before her.
She benefited from her.
And the version of me I'm building now doesn't erase DJ Monie either.
She gets to bring her with her.
That's how I'm starting to think about pivots.
Not:
Who do I need to become now?
But:
What have all these versions of me prepared me to do next?
That's a much more interesting question.
And if you're sitting somewhere between this doesn't fit anymore and I have no idea what's next, maybe you don't need to have the answer today.
Start with the inventory.
You might already be carrying more of the answer than you think.
Patio Question
What have you learned in a completely unrelated chapter of your life that you're using now?
Really think about it.
You might be surprised by the answer.
Writer: Si'mone "DJ Monie" Lewis
📧 Bookings: bookme@djmonie.com
🌐 Learn More: www.djmonie.com
💫 Follow the Journey: @thedjmonie
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