136: Making tough decisions in business and life
Have you ever held onto something—whether in life or business—longer than you should, simply because you’d already invested so much into it? In this deeply personal episode, I share the bittersweet decision my husband and I made to sell our beloved mountain condo. It was a dream we worked hard to achieve, but after a trifecta of financial challenges, we had to face the tough reality that it was no longer serving us. I open up about the emotional rollercoaster of letting go, the fear of feeling like a failure, and the powerful lesson in recognizing when it’s time to pivot.
Maybe you’ve poured money into a program that isn’t delivering results, launched an offer that’s flopped, or stuck with a business path that no longer excites you. Why do we stay in things that aren’t working? In this episode, I break down why we cling to past investments and how to shift your mindset so you can make better, clearer decisions. If you’ve been struggling with a tough call, this episode will give you the permission—and the push—you need to move forward.
Topics We Cover in This Episode:
The unexpected financial and emotional challenges that forced me to reconsider my dream
How the sunk cost fallacy might be keeping you stuck in the wrong business decisions
Why quitting something isn’t always failure—it can be a strategic move forward
The mindset shift that helped me find peace in letting go
A simple exercise to weigh your options objectively
How an outside perspective can give you the clarity you need
The one phrase I kept repeating to myself to move on without guilt
Find me on social media to share your stories of making big decisions or changing your dreams!
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Welcome to ill communication, copywriting tips and sales strategies for small business. I'm your host, Kim Keel. I'm a copy coach, sales strategist, and direct response copywriter. It's my mission to help women leaders and changemakers amplify their voices through copy. It's why I'm dishing out all the juicy tips, writing prompts, and sales formulas to help you generate more leads, book more calls, and get more high value clients on repeat. Sounds pretty good. It's time to ditch the overwhelm you might be feeling and find confidence in your copywriting so you can get your message out there and attract more soulmate clients. Let's get started. Hello my sweet friend. Welcome back to the Ill Communication Podcast. So today I got to admit I am feeling pretty bittersweet and a little sad. It's because we have received and accepted an offer to purchase our beloved mountain condo back in 2022. My husband and I bought a condo in one of our favorite mountain towns, about a six hour drive away from us. It has always been our dream to live or have a vacation property in the mountains, and we'd been looking for a mountain condo for about two years at that point. At the time, my business was doing amazing and our accounts were pretty flush with money and my revenue had grown year over year over year. We worked with a money coach to run some numbers, and it looked like buying a condo in the mountains was possible. I think it's also important to reflect and realize that we were coming out of the pandemic, which really put all of our lives into perspective.
[00:01:53]
I'd also had a very minor breast cancer wake up call. Chad's stepdad was dealing with some pretty serious dementia, and I think we maybe felt a little urgency to live life. My dad died in his 50s, and I think it really changes your perspective on living and longevity when you lose someone so young. Now, I share all of this because all of these factors created a bit of urgency for us to cross that dream off of our bucket list. And so after a bit of looking, we found a beautiful condo in a great mountain town overlooking a gorgeous lake in just 20 minutes drive to one of our favorite ski hills. We were so proud and excited to have a condo for our own use, and also to put on the short term rental market to generate some income to offset the mortgage, which was part of the money plan all along. And even though it was a super long drive, we loved going to the condo, getting to know the town, finding our new favorite shops, drinking in the gorgeous views, paddleboarding, hiking, skiing, bike riding. We were living the dream, but then we were hit by a trifecta of challenges. Interest rates went up and along with it, our variable mortgage vacation rentals went down because after the pandemic, people stopped traveling locally and started traveling abroad again. And like many copywriters and service providers, in 2023 and 2024, my business revenue dropped pretty drastically. We were hit on three sides and ended up struggling to manage all the costs.
[00:03:37]
We limped along for about a year, trying to ignore the reality we were facing, that we'd have to admit defeat and give up on our dream. Chad and I had a lot of sleepless nights. I had a lot of tears, and I just couldn't bring myself to make a decision. So we made an appointment with our accountant, who could look at the numbers and take the emotion out of it. And he very kindly but matter of factly He shared that this wasn't an expense we could carry, especially if we wanted to do other things with our money like set up more investments, buy a new car, travel to other places in the world. That outside perspective helped me come to peace with moving on from one dream to make room for the next. And so, to make a long story short, this week we accepted an offer to purchase our beloved condo. And I'm sad. I'm sad and I'm relieved, but mostly sad. It's very bittersweet. But why am I telling you this and crying in my podcast? It's because this happens so often in business too, right? You make plans, invest money, time, and effort into creating something that you hope is going to be beautiful. And sometimes it doesn't go according to plan. Maybe you launched an offer that doesn't generate the revenue you'd hoped or that you don't even like delivering. Maybe you joined an expensive coaching program that you're just not really into anymore. Maybe you started a business and now you realize entrepreneurship is not for you.
[00:05:18]
Or maybe you started podcasting thinking it will bring clients and revenue, but it just stays as a massive expense line on your financial statement. Hahahahaha. I digress. Why do we stay in something that no longer serves us? It's because of something called the sunk cost fallacy. We're reluctant to quit something because we've sunk a lot of costs into it. We're heavily invested, and so we stay in that situation, even though quitting or pivoting would be more logical, more beneficial, more fiscally responsible. But staying in a situation that isn't serving you is not only stealing your money, joy, and sanity today. It's stealing from the future opportunities and benefits that could open up if you were to free yourself from that situation. So try to ignore and look past the investments you've already made, because that money, time and energy are already long gone and weigh the costs and benefits of moving forward with your new options. And compare that to the costs and benefits of staying put. Get outside advice from a trusted friend or a pro who can provide a neutral perspective and free you from the emotions that are usually tied to those big decisions. I think it's also important to share that it's been really tough making this decision, because I feel like a failure, like we made a foolish decision in the beginning that's gotten us into this place. Makes me second guess my intelligence, my intuition. But then I remember that our financial situation was very different three years ago, and we were hit by circumstances outside of our control, and it was our dream to have a condo in the mountains, and we made that dream come true.
[00:07:04]
Now. Our dreams have changed. We want different things, and I'm constantly reminding myself that it's okay to change your mind. And I'm going to say that once more for myself as well as for your benefit. Whether it's in your life, your relationships, your business, it's always okay to change your mind, especially if the new direction brings you more opportunity, more money, more health, or more peace of mind. Oh my God, adulting is so hard sometimes. Hey, please come and find me on social media and tell me I'm not alone in feeling like this, my friend. Thanks for hanging with me today. I'll catch you next week. Hey, thanks for tuning in to today's episode. But before you go, tell me if this sounds familiar. You've just written or had someone else write your website or a course, or a mastermind sales page. Or maybe you've had the copy up and running for a while, but it's just not performing as well as you'd hoped. Wouldn't you love to have an expert sales and brand voice copywriter review your copy to flag any concerns that might be creating friction for your ideal client. Wouldn't you love to get a custom list of changes and recommended copy upgrades to immediately increase your signups and sales, without having to pay thousands of dollars or wait weeks to get your copy optimized? If that sounds like you, you might be interested in my no BS copy audit. When you book a no BS copy audit, you'll get a deep dive review of your copy, a video review, a detailed checklist report, and some copy punch ups you can use immediately, all delivered within ten business days.
[00:08:46]
Jennifer and Mindy recently booked an OBS audit for their conference sales page. They'd hired different people to write and design the page, but it never matched what they envisioned, and the conference sales were practically non existent. Within a few days of booking their no BS audit, they had a detailed report of what was working and what needed to be optimized and suggested coffee. They went from barely selling any tickets to selling out 300 seats at their event. They said we are so grateful for how you went above and beyond in your work for us. You somehow crawled into our brains and were able to put into words exactly what we were thinking and imagining. We've been looking for you for a long time, you overdelivered and we can't thank you enough. No BS audits are delivered within ten business days and are a fraction of what it normally costs to work with a professional copywriter. If you want to book this quick and very effective service, visit Kim Dotcom slash audit to download a PDF info sheet that gives you all the deets and a link to book your audit. Within ten days, you can have some refreshed conversion focused copy and a roadmap to make other improvements and changes to get more leads, more clicks, and more sales with your copy. To book yours, visit Kim Dotcom slash audit.
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