Month 1: Plant
Plant by creating a foundation from your values, strengths, and interests, and your vision for the future. The most successful pivots start from a strong base of who you already are, what is already working, and how you will define success for this next phase of your life.
Week 1
Calibrate Your Compass. In a pivot, your values create boundaries and benchmarks for big decisions. They distill the possibilities of what to pursue, help determine next steps, and reveal how to structure day-to-day activities for maximum happiness and productivity.
Discussion prompts:
What are your guiding principles?
What is your happiness formula?
Suggested templates for post-call homework:
Ideal Day Mad Lib to jumpstart creativity and vision-setting.
- Time Tracker and Schedule Blocker Template (3 Tabs): Especially great for those with flexible schedules, the time tracker and schedule blocker template will help you analyze where your time is currently going and help you put your ideal average day plan into tangible weekly terms.
Week 2
Put a Pin In It. If your values are your compass, your vision is your desired destination. Once you know where you are going, the Pivot process can take you there—but first, you need to pinpoint where you want to end up. Your vision attaches a specific future-based form to your values. Both will help you course-correct as you experiment throughout your pivot, while you steer toward a motivating future.
Discussion prompts:
- What excites you most?
- What does success look like one year from now?
Suggested template for post-call homework:
Knowns vs. Unknowns Template: Before moving on to the Scan stage, summarize your known variables for your one-year vision, as well as remaining questions.
Week 3
Fuel Your Engine. Your career portfolio is the aggregate of your strengths, prior work experience, and existing connections. Just as investment portfolios can be diversified by asset class, such as stocks and bonds, your career portfolio includes a blend of assets that are already working in your favor. This week will help you understand what your biggest inner resources are, and how you can apply them to accelerate the next stages of the Pivot process.
Discussion prompts:
- What is working?
- Where do you excel?
Suggested template for post-call homework:
Hotter/Colder Template
Fund Your Runway. With rare exception, pivots require financial resources, or at least sound planning for a number of scenarios that may play out. The more you can clarify your resource needs and bolster your financial reserves, the more options you have for making your next move.
Discussion prompts:
- What is your timeline?
- How can you earn extra income?
Suggested template for post-call homework:
Four-Step Budget Template: Most budgets are too cumbersome to be useful. Check-out this handy 4-step budget: After filling in income, must-have expenses & nice-to-have expenses, you’ll get a “monthly allowance” for you to spend on discretionary items as you’d like.
Financial Modeling Template: Get a bird’s-eye view of your business model, and track your business income and expenses with this template. This more robust template helps you assess baseline expenses for living and for running your own business. It also includes simple financial modeling tables to map out potential income sources, such as the number of clients needed at specific rates.