By the time you read this, I’ll be sitting by a lake with a marshmallow on a stick and my phone somewhere at the bottom of a bag. I wrote this before I left. (A quick note to my students who are always creating content: consider this your permission slip to work ahead. You are allowed to get it done before you go.)

Camping is my favorite thing in the world. It is also, a little strangely, where my best business thinking happens.

There is something about setting up camp that clears my head.
No notifications.
No inbox.
Just me, a tent that never goes up quite right, and a lot of quiet.
That white space is where the real thinking finally has room to show up.

Last year, it showed up on a paddle board off the Sunshine Coast in BC. I had been stuck for weeks on a decision. Should that offer be an ongoing group coaching program, or a limited-time cohort for my digital course? At my desk, I could not see it. On the water, it got clear within the hour.

It came down to one thing. Community. My eight-week cohort created a real community, but only a limited-time one. And that was the part they loved most about the program. They did not want it to end. They wanted more. They needed more. The ongoing group coaching program was the answer, and I could not see it until I stepped away from my desk.

I did not solve it by working harder. I solved it by stepping back.

That is the part we forget when we run our own businesses. Your message, your offer, your direction, none of it is ever finished. It needs checking in on, regularly. And that check-in rarely happens in the busyness. It happens in the white space you actually protect.

So if you want your message to keep fitting the people you serve, build in regular check-ins. I have learned to do mine in two halves.

The first half is quiet. A few times a year I go get properly offline. The fire, the s’mores, the no-service campsite. I let my brain wander until the thing I could not see at my desk finally surfaces.

The second half happens out loud, the week I get back.
I talk to my students and to people who fit my client profile, and I ask them real questions.
What are you struggling with right now?
What is actually working?
I am checking that what I am building still answers the problem they have today, not the one I assumed they had a year ago.

Quiet reflection shows me what I think. Real conversations tell me if I am right. I need both, on a regular basis, or my message slowly drifts away from the people it is for.

So this week, I am doing the first half by a lake. Next week, I will do the second half at my desk, one conversation at a time. Both are the work. Neither is optional.

When did you last get quiet enough to hear what your business needs, and honest enough to go ask the people you serve whether your message still fits?

P.S. One thing I check on a regular basis is whether my expertise still lands as something people will pay for. If you have never asked yourself that question, my Payable Expertise Assessment is a quick way to see where yours stands.

P.P.S. If you are a senior professional with 20-plus years of expertise and you are thinking about building your next chapter business, I would genuinely love to talk. I am opening up a few conversations in August. Grab a time here.

Cheers,
Leanne