241: Thinking About a Pivot in 2026? Here’s Exactly What I’d Do
When your business feels off, it’s not time to panic, it’s time to pivot.
Lately, I’ve been getting the same question over and over: “Destini, I think I need to pivot… but I don’t even know where to start.” And I get it. 2025 has brought big shifts. What used to work just doesn’t anymore. Whether it’s AI, changing platforms, or just personal growth, things feel different.
In this episode, I’m walking you through the exact process I’d follow if I were pivoting in 2026. I’ll show you how I’d get clear on who I want to serve, how I’d audit my offers and data, and how I’d rebuild momentum without starting from scratch. If you’re feeling that quiet nudge to evolve, this one’s for you.
What You’ll Learn:
The very first question I ask myself before any pivot
How to tell if your niche is really the problem (hint: it usually isn’t)
The four types of pivots — and which one you might need
Why “burn it all down” is almost never the answer
How I test pivots with a minimum viable offer (real-life example inside!)
The one-year timeline I give every major shift in my business
What to do when clarity feels out of reach
If your business has felt off lately, I want you to know, you’re not failing. You’re evolving. A pivot isn’t panic, it’s feedback. Tune into this episode and let me walk you through your next step.
Mentioned in this episode:
If I Were Pivoting in 2026, Here’s Exactly What I’d Do
When your business feels off, it’s not time to panic, it’s time to pivot.
Lately, I’ve been getting the same question over and over: “Destini, I think I need to pivot… but I don’t even know where to start.” And I get it . 2025 has brought big shifts. What used to work just doesn’t anymore. Whether it’s AI, changing platforms, or just personal growth, things feel different.
In this post, I’m going to walk you through the exact process I’d follow if I were pivoting in 2026. I’ll show you how to clarify who you serve, audit your offers and data, and rebuild momentum without burning everything down. If you’re feeling that quiet nudge to evolve, this is for you.
Start With the Most Important Question
The very first question I ask myself in any pivot is this: Do I still want to help the people I'm serving today?
Everything flows from that answer. Your energy, your marketing, your offers—all of it. If you’ve outgrown your audience, no funnel fix will solve that. I always ask my clients to describe their favorite person to work with. Who gets results? Who do you look forward to helping?
When I first started, I was helping beginners launch digital products. But over time, I realized that my best-fit clients were already in business. They had courses and memberships and wanted systems, predictability, and scale. That shift in who I wanted to serve changed everything: my messaging, my positioning, and the results I could help people get.
Diagnose What’s Actually Broken
The next step is to figure out what’s actually not working. Most business owners assume their niche is broken. It usually isn’t.
The problem is often the connection between your offer and what the market wants right now. So before you change anything major, ask yourself:
Where is your revenue actually coming from?
What’s happening with your engagement—open rates, unsubscribes, click-throughs?
What are your customers saying in their own words?
Did your audience stop growing because you stopped showing up… or because the platform changed?
Sometimes what feels like a pivot is really just a need for a tune-up, a refresh, or even a break. It doesn’t always mean everything is broken.
Define the Type of Pivot You Need
Not all pivots are created equal. There are actually four types:
Messaging Pivot: Your audience and offer stay the same, but the language shifts.
Offer Pivot: You keep the same audience, but change the product or how you deliver it.
Audience Pivot: Your offer stays, but you shift who it’s for.
Model Pivot: Both your offer and audience change — the whole structure evolves.
When I transitioned from the Digital Product Growth Lab to the Creator’s MBA Lab, it was both a messaging and offer pivot. I reframed everything around rinse-and-repeat systems and added private coaching, but the core promise remained: helping creators grow revenue.
Test with a Minimum Viable Pivot
Here’s what most people miss: testing your pivot before you scale it.
When I started exploring the corporate wellness market with Hobby School, I didn’t build a giant funnel. I created a simple PDF, a booking link, and a short VA-led LinkedIn outreach sequence. That was it. Every step gave us data: Were they interested? Did they book? What were they asking?
This is your Minimum Viable Pivot. Send it to 10 people. Get feedback. Adjust. Then decide whether to go bigger. Don’t build a mansion until you’ve tested the floorplan.
Give It a Year (Yes, Really)
Pivots take time. Most of mine have taken a full year to stabilize. The Creator’s MBA Lab took me 14 months to get right.
Here’s the timeline I follow:
Q1: Test and learn.
Q2: Refine and relaunch.
Q3: Systematize what’s working.
Q4: Scale it… or sunset it.
Give yourself grace. That "off" feeling doesn’t mean you’re failing. It means you’re evolving. A pivot isn’t panic; it’s your business telling you it’s ready for its next version.
If you’re feeling that tug right now, I want you to know this: You don’t have to start from scratch. Start small. Pull the data. Talk to your audience. Notice what lights you up.
Clarity doesn’t come first—action does. You move, then you understand.
And if you want help figuring out your next step, I invite you to join me inside the Creator’s MBA Lab. I’ll help you build your growth flywheel and create the next version of your business with clarity and confidence.
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Transcript:
[00:00:00] Welcome to the Creator's MBA Podcast, your go-to resource for mastering the art and science of digital product entrepreneurship. My name is Dr. Destini Copp, and I help business owners generate consistent revenue from their digital product business without the need to be glued to their desk.
I hope you enjoy our episode today.
[00:00:30] Hi there, Dr. Destini Copp here. Today's episode is going to be so good. I'm going to be talking about a question I’ve been getting over and over again in emails, DMs, and from clients too. It goes something like this: "Destini, I think I need to pivot, but I don't even know where to start."
[00:01:00] I get it, because 2025 feels different. The easy wins are gone. The strategies that worked a few years ago during COVID don't seem to work anymore. The entire business world is maturing, especially with AI. That means we're all being asked to make smarter decisions, evolve faster, and be brutally honest with ourselves about what’s actually working.
[00:01:45] So whether you're a course creator, a coach, or maybe you have a suite of digital products, there comes a moment when you feel that little pull. That uneasy feeling that something in your business just isn’t clicking the way it used to. Maybe your sales have gone flat. Maybe your audience isn’t engaging like they used to. Or maybe you’ve changed, but your brand hasn’t caught up yet.
[00:02:30] Whatever the reason, burning it all down is almost never the answer. Today, I want to walk you through the exact process I’d follow if I were pivoting my business in the upcoming year. I’ll walk you through the step-by-step way I approach things—from what questions to ask myself to what data I look at and how to rebuild momentum without starting from scratch.
[00:03:10] The first question I ask myself is simple, but most people skip it: Do I still want to help the people I'm serving today? Everything flows from that—your offers, your content, your energy. If you’ve fallen out of love with your audience, no marketing tactic or funnel tweak is going to fix that.
[00:03:50] When I’m coaching business owners through a pivot, I always ask them to describe their favorite client. Not in demographics—but how they feel working with them. Who do you look forward to helping? Who gets results from your work? Who’s easy to talk to?
[00:04:20] The truth is, you may have outgrown the people you started with. That’s happened to me. When I first started, I was helping people launch their first digital products. But over time, I realized my best clients already had courses, memberships, and digital product portfolios. They didn’t need help starting—they needed help building systems and rinse-and-repeat processes that gave them predictable revenue.
[00:05:00] So I changed. I refined the messaging, updated the positioning, and started focusing on seasoned business owners who’d already built something real and wanted to scale it. Everything shifted—the energy, the conversations, and the results I was able to help people get.
[00:05:30] Sometimes, a pivot isn’t about completely changing your business. It’s about getting honest about who you want to serve.
[00:05:45] The next step is to diagnose what’s actually not working. Most business owners assume their niche is broken—it’s usually not. What’s usually broken is the connection between what you're offering and what your market wants right now.
[00:06:10] Before you make any big moves, dig into your data. Here are four questions to ask:
Where is your revenue actually coming from?
What’s happening in your engagement metrics—your open rates, click rates, unsubscribes?
What are your customers telling you in their own words? You may need to do some voice-of-customer research.
Did your audience stop growing because you stopped showing up—or because the platform changed?
[00:07:00] That fourth one surprises people. But once you've looked at the numbers, it’s time to look inward. Ask yourself: Why do you really feel the need to pivot? Are you reacting? Are you looking at data—or is it just discomfort? Are you truly stuck, or are you just bored?
[00:07:40] Sometimes we call it a pivot when what we actually need is a refresh, or some tweaks, or maybe even a break—and that’s okay.
[00:07:55] Sometimes we see others chasing trends—AI, short-form video, TikTok—and we assume we need to change too. That’s how people end up with businesses that look nothing like the ones they actually want to run.
[00:08:20] When I started incorporating AI into my work, it wasn’t because I was chasing a trend. It was because my audience started asking about it. I was curious myself, but the feedback drove the change. They wanted to know: How can I use AI to grow my newsletter? How can I automate without losing the personal touch?
[00:09:00] That’s the difference between pivoting with purpose and throwing spaghetti at the wall.
[00:09:15] Now let’s talk about the type of pivot you might be facing. There are four:
Messaging pivot — Your audience and offer stay the same, but your language changes.
Offer pivot — The audience stays, but the product or delivery evolves.
Audience pivot — The offer stays, but you shift who you're talking to.
Model pivot — A full shift in audience and offers; the structure changes.
[00:10:00] When I turned the Digital Product Growth Lab into the Creator’s MBA Lab this year, it was both a messaging and offer pivot. The core promise stayed the same—I was helping creators grow revenue—but I reframed everything around rinse-and-repeat systems. I added private coaching, tweaked the delivery model. It wasn’t a reinvention. It was strategic refinement.
[00:11:00] Most people think pivoting means starting over. It doesn’t. It means tweaking or optimizing what’s already working.
[00:11:20] Here’s the part most people skip: testing. I call this your MVP—Minimum Viable Pivot.
[00:11:35] When I started pitching HobbyScool’s corporate wellness program, I didn’t build a fancy funnel. I created a simple PDF kit outlining the workshops, wrote a LinkedIn connection and DM sequence for a VA, made a basic info page, and included a discovery call booking link.
[00:12:15] That’s it. And then the VA started reaching out. Every touchpoint became a data point. Are they interested? What questions do they have? Are they forwarding it to someone else? Are they booking calls?
[00:12:45] After a few weeks, we were getting data. Then we refined the messaging. You can do this in any business. Start small. Send it to 10 people. Get real feedback. Refine before you scale.
[00:13:20] The key is to launch the hypothesis. My hypothesis was that B2B markets would want access to our creative wellness summits. The only way to know was to test it.
[00:13:45] Pivots take time. Most of mine have taken a full year to stabilize. When I say the Creator’s MBA Lab took me 14 months to feel right—I mean it. A year gives you time to test, refine, and rebuild.
[00:14:20] Give yourself grace. I’ve given myself until December 2026 to decide if this corporate wellness pivot is working. Q1 is for testing. Q2 is for refining. Q3 is for systematizing. Q4 is for scaling—or shutting it down.
[00:15:00] If you're a few weeks into your pivot and questioning yourself, that’s normal. You're just in process. Nobody gets it right on the first try. The ones who make it are the ones who keep showing up.
[00:15:30] If you feel that tug—that quiet voice saying your business needs to change—take a deep breath. You’re not failing. You’re evolving.
[00:15:45] A pivot isn’t panic—it’s feedback. It’s your business telling you it’s ready for the next version of you.
[00:16:00] Start small. Have real conversations. Look at the data. Notice what lights you up and what drains you. Remember: clarity doesn’t come first—action does. You move, then you understand.
[00:16:30] I hope this episode gives you permission to slow down, listen to yourself, and build the next phase of your business with more clarity and confidence than ever before.
[00:16:50] And if you’re listening to this and thinking, “Destini, I think I may need to pivot—but I need help,” I want to invite you inside the Creator’s MBA Lab. You’ll get my personalized help in creating your growth flywheel for your next business step.
[00:17:20] Thanks so much for tuning in to the Creator’s MBA Podcast. Bye for now.