Every time I watch this scene from Friends, my brain darts to those of us who want to pivot into the next level of business…

It’s worth the 18 seconds to watch the video clip below 👀

Sure, pivots can go smoothly. But because we’re human, we tend to make them more awkward, messy and stressful than they need to be.

Thanks to Ross for reminding us how not to level up.

I’ve been cerebrum deep in hundreds of pivots over the past 17 years. And I’ve noticed stuff. Lots of stuff.

Boiled down…

• We all want to get to the next level at certain points in our business
• And we usually want to keep the “sofa”
• But the pivots make it awkward getting it upstairs

Pivots sound easy enough in theory, but because we’re human it can feel like a beast when it’s time to take it up to the next level.

Which explains why so many conversations around my table revolve around the difficulties (raising prices, restlessness and letting go, for example) associated with what to do with the proven, comfy and lucrative parts of our business model.

And we’ve all got Chandler (aka naysayers and our own self-sabotage) yelling, “Shut up! Shut up! Shut UPPPPP!”

We want the sofa upstairs. But we don’t always like moving it there.