Coffee + Convo sessions are casual morning meetups with entrepreneurs, experts, and peers; sometimes there’s a guiding discussion topic, other times, the mentor of the day (a local entrepreneur or expert in their field) will simply be present to listen to the needs and challenges of attendees and offer help and insight where they can.
We sat down in a Zoom call for a Coffee + Convo session with Emile Stewart, founder and owner of Wildflower Art Studio, where Amazon best-selling calligraphy and brush-lettering kits are packaged and shipped off to help fuel creativity in people across the world.
Wildflower Art Studio offers workshops and classes, but most of their sales come from their calligraphy, watercolor, hand-lettering, and brush-lettering kits. Emile talked about having to pivot her business from primarily Amazon sales to adding other offerings while remaining true to the purpose and passion of her work. She shared with Coffee + Convo guests her experience, ways that she framed (and continues to frame) pivoting her business, and solutions to unforeseen challenges that business owners could tailor to their specific needs.
Take Time To Re-evaluate
In entrepreneurship, we’re all solving problems. We’re always going to reach pivot points and the COVID-19 crisis is one of them (a huge one at that).
Having recognized and arrived at the pivot point, ask yourself what problem(s) you’re solving with your product or service, see how the problem has changed, and think about how to address it in new and innovative ways. It will take time, so you must take that time to re-evaluate and change direction. The time that you put it in initially will help you come back bigger and better than before. It’s not all dark and dreary: being forced to re-direct your business to meet a new need can help you focus.
Focus On Building The New
When things don’t go as planned, we go into crisis mode, and sometimes it can paralyze us. Don’t let that fear prevent you from moving forward. In realizing the catalyst to her pivot point was an issue that only Amazon could solve, not her or her business, Emile shifted from focusing on trying to repair what was broken, which was out of her hands, and built something new instead: a more diverse set of offerings to include online workshops and different e-commerce options, rather than keeping everything in one basket.
“The secret of change is to focus all of your energy not on fighting the old but on building the new” - Dan Millman
Sometimes you go in circles, thinking about potential outcomes, weighing options, and calculating risk. Emile advises choosing a track and proceeding in that direction, rather than keeping yourself in a circular loop of what-ifs. If you have to take a turn, you can and you will. She recommends Atomic Habits by James Clear for inspiration, noting that seemingly little steps of action end up moving you forward and help keep you from running around in circles all day.
Assess Each Day Individually
In response to a question about taking action in a time of uncertainty and facing the unknown, Emile advises taking it one day at a time, instead of trying to predict the future. Remember to celebrate every “little,” daily success during a time of transition.
Stay brave, trust yourself, and take steps that in the long run will work. Take time to breathe and do things that you enjoy and that are not directly related to the scary situation at hand. These things will actually help when you sit down to work on your business. You have to be laser-focused with your ideas, and if you can keep that focus, especially now, it will help a lot.
Setting Your Own Requirements & Consistently Meeting Them
Think about where the needs of the community are and what you’re able to provide. Have your goals and mission clearly, physically laid out for yourself to keep yourself on track. This will help you integrate what your business “vibe” is with everything you do and the experiences you offer. As an artist, Emile has visual reminders posted around her studio and home studio as a checklist of criteria for what she sends out to the world, making sure that what she produces and shares meets most of the criteria before releasing it.
You can view the entire conversation & discussion here: