Episode 23 Transcript: Every Business Has Chapters — Deciding What to Let Go of So You Can Grow

Lightly edited for clarity and readability. Obvious transcription errors and filler words have been cleaned up; wording and meaning are unchanged.

What are you still holding on to in your business today that belonged to an earlier chapter? I want you to hold on to that answer — we’re going to come back to it in our episode today.

This morning, I listened to Jay Shetty on The Pivot Podcast with Ryan Clark, Fred Taylor, and Channing Crowder, and I have not stopped thinking about it. I wanted to highlight a few things that resonated from their episode that are so incredibly important for you to reflect on as a small business owner — things that really moved me and that I think are going to change your world.

The first thing that resonated for me in that episode was that he’s lived through everything he’s experienced. That goes back to the decisions he’s made in his business, and the decisions he’s made in his personal and professional life. What moved me is that none of it felt theoretical. He’s gone from a corporate life to a monk and back again. He spent years speaking to people in rooms with almost nobody knowing him. And he kept going. When someone has actually lived it, you have to trust that wisdom.

Another thing he speaks to is solitude and the inner light of who you are as a person — and that’s something I deeply relate to, personally and professionally. It’s about making time for yourself, turning off all the other noise. We say “slow down to speed up,” but there’s so much more than that. What he talks about is how solitude has the answers. It’s not sitting in a room by yourself for days or weeks. It’s really about 15 minutes of giving yourself that time to see what resonates. When you give yourself an opportunity to embrace the quiet, it provides you the answers you need — because you can’t hear your own voice through all that noise. I really felt that.

I believe there’s an inner light in all of us — your guiding source — and it speaks quietly beneath the points he makes. You might think about that as your own intuition: your drive, what you’re motivated to do, the people you’re drawn toward, the products or services you develop. That’s going to resonate with you in different ways.

The other thing that moved me so much is that he calls leaving the monastery a failure at the time, and a pivot now. He has a lot of grace, and I think that reflects what we have to give ourselves as business owners — both personally and professionally. There’s change, and things you may think went badly are actually a positive pivot when you look back on them now. There’s so much grace in embracing something that may have felt like a failure in the past but, looking at it now, was a really positive change as you’ve matured. Business owners are the hardest on themselves. We are so hard. And I want to pass that grace on to you.

The other thing that stood out for me is what I see in my own work — it names something I see every day. The owners I sit with, across the table or across the computer, who feel stuck don’t actually lack the next move. They’re still holding on to a last chapter: an old client, an old service, or an old version of themselves. Our lives and our businesses are full of chapters, and that’s really what this entire episode is about.

So join me in diving into a little more detail here, because it’s important to honor some of the things Jay has shared, and to bring his learnings and perspective into how we give ourselves grace, energize our business, and move it forward in ways that mean the most to us.

By the end of this episode, you’ll have four simple moves for closing a chapter in your business with honesty and grace — plus one question that shows you something you’re ready to let go of. I’m not asking you to stop doing a product or service. But something is going to resonate for each of you today — something you need to let go of, or move on from. Maybe it’s a decision. Maybe it’s something you’ve been doing too long and it’s holding you back.

Here are the four moves we’re going to walk through together.

1. Acknowledge

I want you to be honest with yourself and your business. What is the thing that’s actually holding you back? It’s usually something we’re holding on to. An example: “I don’t want to let go of this business or this service because it’s still bringing me money, and I still like connecting with those customers.” But does that align with your future? Does it align with where else you could be putting that energy?

Make it concrete. Look at yourself as the owner, and be honest. What are you holding on to? Is it a client who fit year two of your business but not year six — they haven’t grown with you? Is it a service you keep because it’s familiar? Is it a version of you who had to do everything? A lot of small business owners do everything. Is there something you’re holding on to that you could let go of?

Before you release it, collect what it taught you. For example, I still run a business I’ve done for nine years, and I still do it because it brings me joy — but it’s something I could let go of. The point is: acknowledge what it is, and pull the value from everything it’s taught you. Lean into that, because it will help you make the right choices for your future self and your future business.

That’s the first step: acknowledging what it is.

2. Pause

Pause, and make room for solitude. I love solitude — it’s probably one of those things about me — and I love pausing to reflect, even daily, on what’s most important for me to do today. What are my must-haves versus my nice-to-haves? I do the same thing with my business. I create solitude. I pause. I put my phone down, maybe in another room. I block time on my calendar.

Solitude has the answers, and you can’t hear your own voice — your inner ideas, your inner reflection — through the noise of everyday life. Most business owners never get quiet. Every hour is filled with clients, messages, and fires. But the answer to your next chapter won’t come through that noise.

Give this pause an end date and a question to answer, so it doesn’t turn into a stall. Find the time and space to create a window of solitude. In his podcast, Jay talked about taking someone off their phone in the middle of a live gathering, putting them in a quiet room for 15 minutes, and asking them a question to reflect on about their life. It was moving — they came out of it emotional and thoughtful, just from 15 minutes without their phone. People don’t realize how much they can learn from their own thoughts in that quiet space, without distractions.

3. Listen

Listen, and trust your inner light. Once it’s quiet, once you can hear it — the guiding source, the part of you that already knows — that voice isn’t fear. Fear is loud. It’s urgent. It can be really emotional. Your inner light is quiet, steady, and comfortable.

(This connects back to Episode 6, on trusting your gut — worth a listen if you haven’t heard it.) Acknowledge what you’re hearing in that listening period, and let it guide you. That’s your guiding source — your authentic reaction to what’s coming up, what’s showing up for you.

So far: acknowledge, pause and leverage solitude (which doesn’t mean three days alone — it means 15 minutes, maybe with headphones and no phone), and listen to your inner guide to notice what’s showing up.

4. Act

Give yourself grace, and take a step. Change is a good thing, even when it doesn’t feel like it. Grace is about giving yourself the opportunity to embrace it. Grace doesn’t mean waiting — it means letting go without beating yourself up about how long you held on. That’s not going backwards.

If you have a fear that making a change — personally or professionally — is a bad thing or a failure, acknowledge instead that it’s a positive change to learn from, not a negative one. Everyone has different associations with change. Now that I’m established and comfortable with who I am, I actually embrace change positively, because I know it isn’t scary — you get to know yourself better through it.

This doesn’t mean getting rid of something entirely. It’s about letting go of something to make room for the next thing that will move you forward, bring you happiness, and help you achieve a new goal. Give yourself the grace to embrace it, then come up with a plan and test it.

This is one sequence toward clarity: being honest, giving yourself solitude, embracing your inner light and intuition, and giving yourself grace. That pause is a genuinely important part of your deciding process.

Real Talk

Here’s what I’ve learned: it’s hard to be fully honest with yourself about your business when you’re the one living inside of it, with all the everyday noise — family, everything that comes up. That noise is loud, and that’s a big part of why I do what I do. I know what small business owners are going through, and I’m here to help you find clarity. Part of the value of this podcast is helping you find it on your own. But if you need extra support, I’m here for that too.

That’s why I built my Strategic Decision Sessions: 90 minutes of quiet, focused space to look at one decision honestly. You hear what you already know, and you leave with clarity about what you’re putting down — and what you’re picking up as your next step.

I’m so glad Jay Shetty inspired me today to share these words. He’s a genuinely impactful person, and I hope to carry some of that forward in the work I do.

Your Action This Week: The Chapter Audit

Remember the question from the top of this episode: What are you still holding on to in your business that belonged to an earlier chapter?

1. Find 15 quiet minutes. No phone, no email — just you.
2. Write down one thing you’re holding on to from an earlier chapter — a client, a service, a habit, a role, or a belief about yourself.
3. Collect the lesson. What did that thing teach you? Name it.
4. Listen, and decide. Does this thing belong in the chapter you’re moving into — or not? If not, give yourself grace, and give yourself a date this month to let it go. Put it on your calendar. That’s the accountability piece.

You may feel fear about letting go — acknowledge that the fear is just in your head. We all pivot. We all change to make our businesses, and ourselves, better. It’s about moving past the fear of what could happen, and getting excited about what’s next.

Thank you again, Jay Shetty, for inspiring this episode — I’ll link his podcast and YouTube channel below. There are many chapters ahead of you, in your life and your business. Stay honest about the one you’re in right now, give yourself the grace to close it, and trust the light inside you to show you the next one.

Clarity is on the other side of letting go.

Next time: the honest conversation that usually comes from closing a chapter — whether that’s with a client, a partner, or someone on your team — and why we put that decision off too.

Thanks again for listening. If you’re not yet following Amplify and Act, I’d love for you to join. Talk to you again soon.