The Pivot: Why I’m Done Selling "Systems" (And What I’m Building Instead)
💌 Grab the Hometown Business Health Check: https://www.calibratedconcepts.com/freebies
Welcome to 2026! After taking a month off to rest and reset, I’m back in the office with a major update. I just celebrated my 8th business anniversary, and looking back, my journey from VA to web designer to systems strategist has been anything but a straight line.
In this video, I’m getting honest about why I’m pivoting my business model for 2026. For years, I’ve been torn between my love for building websites and my passion for backend systems. The truth? Selling "systems" is hard, and most business owners just want results.
That’s why I’m officially combining them. I’m no longer just building websites; I’m building High-Performance Engines. Think of your website as a Digital Employee—it shouldn't just look pretty; it should be booking clients, sending contracts, and recovering lost sales while you sleep.
I also share why this shift is crucial for my life here in Pendleton, Oregon, and introduce my new Growth & Maps Membership designed to help local businesses dominate search results without lifting a finger.
Transcript below!
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00:00 Hey, welcome back, uh, welcome to 2026. That is, it feels wild to say still. Uhm, I took a full month off between kind of mid-December through March.
00:11 Mid-January, so I am pretty new back in the office. This is my second week back and my first video of the new year.
00:18 So, I want to talk to you all about everything that's changed. So much is changing. I honestly, uhm, have spent the last, today's Tuesday as I'm recording this.
00:30 And so, I've been in office, back in the office for like just over a week, I mean. And, I've already, like, overhauled my website, overhauled my newsletter, worked on segmentation, overhauled my freebie, uhm, like, just, it feels, uh, like we've done so, so much.
00:51 We have just so much in the works and I think the reason it feels really easy is because I'm really energized.
00:58 By it and because I have simplified so much and that's what I want to talk to you about. It's like the plan for 2026 and where it's coming from and why it's okay to pivot.
01:10 Uhm, I just celebrated my eighth business anniversary. It was two days ago on Sunday and looking back at the last eight years, it's been a hell of a zigzag.
01:23 Just being blatantly honest and I don't feel bad about it. At first I thought as like a really type A systems person, as a bit of a Monica Geller, uhm, I just always thought that business, I'd set it up, I'd find a business model that would work for me, I'd find offers and clients that work for me and
01:43 I would just be like, yep, that's it, I'm done. I've got of business. And it didn't occur to me originally that I would evolve, that the market would evolve, that, uhm, kind of my clients' needs and my, the clients who I actually have in my audience and everything would keep changing, the world would
02:02 keep changing, uhm, it's really messy and hard right now and I've got a bit in my newsletter about that, but just, phew, if you're an online business owner right now or a business owner, just take a deep breath and give yourself a little extra self-care as we, and a little bit of permission to advocate
02:22 , step back, uhm, work within your zone of genius to make a difference to what is happening in the world. So, back to my business journey, I, that, it's been a zigzag, I started out as a virtual assistant when I moved to Northern Ireland.
02:38 I knew that I wanted a job that was really, really flexible. And so, uhm, I started out as a VA, which quickly became a tech VA because I was pretty good at the techie side of running an online business, scheduler, social media, uhm, websites, all of those things.
02:56 And then I got bored out, uhm, right after I left my full-time job. So I'd only been on my own for a few months.
03:03 I was really lucky to be fully booked. And my client's emergencies were my emergencies. And every day I'd sit down at my desk and not know what that would look like.
03:15 And I found it very stressful. So in 2020, I pivoted to websites. I'd already done so many of them. as a VA, and I thought, oh, I can do this.
03:25 It's a higher-ticket offer. I can only have a few clients at a time. Uhm, I got better and better and better at it and was able to charge more and more and also offer more and more.
03:34 Uhm, and it was simple, and it felt really good. But then I really missed the systems. And, uhm, I missed that feeling of, like, I didn't just deliver a website, but I gave something back.
03:46 Somebody, their time back, their energy back, that relief and, like, knowing that there's automation happening in the back of the business that is just so essential, especially for small service-based businesses and e-commerce businesses.
04:00 Uhm, so, a few years ago, I started implementing systems work back into my work, but the websites and the systems worked so still so separate.
04:12 Uhm, and it just was making everything feel messy. I had too many offers, I had too many, my message was muddled, uhm, it, my website just didn't feel happy for me anymore, uhm, and I just kept thinking, okay, how do I do this?
04:29 And all of that was happening kind of in conjunction with, we moved backwards. Back to the US in 2024, at the end of 2024, and the lead up to that and the moving back and getting settled into early 2025 was just a lot.
04:46 We didn't move with very much stuff, we had to furnish a whole house, we had to build a whole life here, get all of our admin and medical and everything set up, and so I just didn't have bandwidth.
04:57 So it's, I, that month off, I really had some time to think about, okay, like, what does running this business mean going forward?
05:05 And, uhm, essentially, we are going to combine the two. We are going to create websites and they're going to have sneaky systems, and that's just going to make me so excited because systems light up my soul, but they're just harder to sell people.
05:22 People understand the intrinsic value of a website, and I think that we live in a society that, unfortunately, doesn't really value its time, uhm, and so, therefore, systems are innately harder to sell, uhm, at least to me.
05:41 Some people do it. and do it really well, don't get me wrong, they're not impossible, uhm, it just hasn't worked or gelled for me.
05:50 since I moved back, I have got a puppy, I have joined local government, I have, uhm, became more ingrained in my family and been more aware of what support my, my family needs, and what I might need to do to help support my parents as they age in place going forward.
06:10 And, I want to be able to do all those things with a business that feels supportive for me. So, that's another reason we're pivoting here is I want a business that just doesn't feel like it's taking up my whole head or that it's draining.
06:27 I want it to be energizing like it has been this last week as I put out all this new stuff that just feels right for this era of my business.
06:34 Websites are a system and I've talked about that off and on for a long time and I really wholeheartedly believe that.
06:40 But what I also believe is that your website is where your clients connect to your system. So, that being said, they're the front facing part of your systems It might be where they put their email in to be a part of your newsletter or where they sign up for that first call with you and get into your
06:57 client relationship manager. Management software or near scheduling software. It might be where they book their first package with you. And I love that.
07:05 I love that it's where they face your systems, but also where we can create that automation that instead of somebody sending you an email, they get all that stuff at first.
07:17 It happens automatically. It happens on a still very high touch on brand way. And you guys both get the things automatically.
07:24 So they're not having to wait around for you to get back through your backlogged email. And you're not having to go through your backlogged email to support your community and your people.
07:34 Oh, I'm just, I'm excited. This is where I'm at. So, a website plus a system equals that digital employee. These are high performance engines of websites.
07:48 So I'll be selling websites and not so secretly, I'm baking the systems in. And of course, if there's somebody who just needs a website, we've got those too.
08:00 So, the digital employee. If you're a service-based website, I'm not just listing your services. Your website will book your appointments, send the contracts, take the payments and the follow-ups.
08:13 That's a service. And if you're an e-commerce website or a brick-and-mortar commerce store, your website will recover lost carts, update your inventory, get people on your newsletter, sell in your sleep, remember their birthdays.
08:29 Oh, it's gonna be your 24-7 storefront. It allows me to work in my environment. A zone of genius and give you the simplest and best outcome possible.
08:39 A business that runs while you're in your sleep or on vacation. Whew. So that's the pivot. And now let me talk you through a couple of really cool things I have that will benefit you right now.
08:54 So, this shift is also allowing me to do something I'm deeply passionate about, which is serving my local community. I grew up here in Pendleton, Oregon, and it's been really wild being back for the last almost year and a half.
09:13 And the thing I've noticed is there's not a lot of people doing what I do around here. There's not a lot of people helping businesses get visible online.
09:24 Of showing up in a way that is going to be visible outside of our community, or even inside our community.
09:29 People are busy. This is a small community, but I've noticed small businesses closing because they're struggling with the marketing, with the visibility and So, I'm launching the Growth and Maps Membership.
09:46 Now, this is going to help locals a ton, but it's not just for locals. So, it's not just maintenance for your website.
09:53 It is me handling your Google My Business profile. It is updating your search engine optimization. It is keeping your website just tidy, accessible, and working to make sure that you are appearing in a local search.
10:11 Without lifting a finger, that you are showing up when people are looking for businesses like yours. And this type of work is really repeatable for me.
10:20 It's an easy checklist. Which is great for me and keeps my business simple, but it's so high-impact for small businesses.
10:28 Alright, so if you've been following me for a while, you might know I harp on simplicity, uhm, but my competing needs and visions kept this feeling so muddled for so long.
10:39 I kind of felt like the cobbler who had no shoes. Uhm, so I'm creating my own new version of simplicity.
10:45 For 2026 and beyond, and it's going back for what is easy for me to deliver what my clients actually freaking need and what I can make really good money for, uhm, or with, and what I can make really good money with to support my family and, uhm, my community.
11:05 So if you want a website that actually works for you, and isn't just sitting there looking like, looking pretty, check out my new packages at CalibratedConcepts.com.
11:14 And if you are a small business, especially if you're a brick and mortar business, make sure to go into the comments and grab my new freebie.
11:21 It's called the Hometown Business Health Check, and it will help score you on the things you're doing to maintain your visibility in your community.
11:30 Um, everything from your website to social media, to, you know, networking. And it doesn't, it only takes a couple moments to get a quick score, see where you stand and see where you need to improve.
11:42 It makes a world difference. I've had such good feedback since betaing it with my own business friends here locally, um, and past clients.
11:51 They are loving it. They say this is everything that they forget to think about in their business. So, thank go and check it out.
11:59 And if you found this at all helpful, this kind of brain dump of how my business has journeyed, but also how I can help your business, go ahead, like, subscribe, share.
12:09 Um, I'm all about helping Oregon, Eastern Oregon, Pendleton and beyond. I still have loads of clients from Europe. Um, and I really love getting to support everyone in making their business work for them, making your website work for you, making visibility work for you, making it so that you can breathe
12:31 easier, uh, knowing that your systems, your website, your, uhm, visibility engine is really working even when you're not.
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