If your business is working objectively but feels tighter or heavier on the inside, you may be operating inside a model that’s past its natural life cycle. Anna unpacks why “optimising the old” won’t solve deeper friction, and shares a practical 4Rs framework to recognise the signals, review the scripts keeping you stuck, redesign the blueprint, and rebuild in a way that fits who you are now.
Key moments:
[00:00] When it works on paper but feels heavy – why this episode matters
[01:17] Business models have life cycles – outgrowing is a normal stage
[03:12] It’s structural, not personal – why misalignment isn’t a failing
[04:38] Success doesn’t immunise you – the paradox of “it’s working… but not for me”
[05:23] Stop optimising the old – why marginal tweaks can’t create a true shift
[07:03] The 4Rs framework – moving from awareness to aligned action
[07:09] Recognise symptoms – when the business only works if you overextend
[08:07] A container that’s too small – success built on effort rather than structure
[09:35] Outgrowing clients/offers – when the work stops stretching you
[11:03] The Frankenstein model – complexity created by endless fixes
[11:50] Review the scripts – “I should figure this out alone” and “it’s still working”
[13:31] No time to step back – the trap that keeps pressure in place
[16:50] Redesign the blueprint – new questions for the next chapter
[18:10] Rebuild without starting over – boundaries, offers, delivery, pricing, systems
[20:44] Looking ahead – designing your solopreneur operating system
[21:09] Next steps – join the waitlist at intentionalexpert.com
Resources mentioned:
Join the waitlist for the January workshop introducing the Solopreneur Operating System – intentionalexpert.com
- Email your questions and feedback – podcast@onestepoutside.com
The Solopreneur Operating System
A structural approach to redesigning your business so it works – financially, energetically, and seasonally. If you’re ready for a more intentional way of working, the next step begins here.
Outgrowing Your Business Model
As we close out this year, this episode is for you if your business is working objectively, but internally it feels tighter or heavier — maybe increasingly out of step with who you’ve become or who you’re becoming. If you’re sensing that friction that you just can’t seem to solve by working harder or by tweaking and experimenting on the edges, then you may well be operating inside a model that’s just past its natural life cycle. Today we’re going to be exploring what that really means in terms of the structure of the business, not any kind of personal failing. Enjoy.
Welcome to Reimagining Success, the podcast that helps you build a profitable business as an independent expert, one that works for you and your lifestyle. I’m your host, Anna Lundberg, former corporate insider turned business mentor, executive coach, and mum of two. Whether you’re a solopreneur, a coach, speaker, consultant, I’m here to guide you in creating a business that gives you freedom, flexibility and the fulfilment you’re looking for. Ready to redefine success and build a business that you love? Let’s get started.
Okay, so we’re talking about outgrowing your business model — or at least the way in which you’re operating. Last week we talked about seasons and cycles, and really outgrowing your business to some extent is a natural stage. We need to normalise the idea that a business model has a life cycle just like any other structure. Just like the nine-to-five for me had a life cycle — I left in 2013 — I’ve many times talked about the evolution of my business model over the years.
So from consulting over periods of contracts, fixed-term contracts that were always extended with travel in between, to doing the whole digital nomad thing totally online, virtual travelling, more coaching and writing and that kind of thing… to going more into serious business and earning money in person in London. And then over the years of having children and moving out and so on, arriving at the business model that I have now. But even so, it continues to evolve.
So we’re not talking about burning everything down and starting again. From the outside, it may well look like I’ve been doing the same thing for the last decade — you tell me if you’ve been following me for a while. But internally, I’ve had several existential crises. I’ve had shifts in how I want to position myself. I’ve had personal changes. On the one hand, this is everything — it’s huge, it’s dramatic — and it will feel incredible once you navigate this transition. On the other hand, on the surface it may not change a lot, because it already looks successful on the outside.
And people — let’s face it, as I always say to clients — aren’t really paying attention. This internal turmoil isn’t necessarily visible on the outside, and that’s good. On the other hand, it may also stop us from making a much-needed change. This is a perfectly natural stage. I’ve done it many a time and will continue to do so, I’m sure.
The second thing to think about is that it’s a structural problem, as it were. It’s not personal. It’s not a personal failing. Let’s say me having a baby and not being able to keep delivering in person every day — travelling to clients and replying to emails at all hours, etc. That’s not a personal failing on my side. That just means that that particular business model isn’t set up to work around a young mother with a baby. In-person delivery versus flexible hours, let’s say — that’s a structural difficulty. That’s not that you’re now no longer good enough to deliver. You’re making different choices, and your business model needs to support that.
It might be that you’ve gone through a phase of having higher bills to pay — you’ve done up your house, your partner isn’t working — and so you have more pressure on the income. You then lean into the finances and make sure you’re hitting targets. Revenue is always important, but sometimes we push harder, we compromise on other areas, and there’s a bit of sacrifice going on. Well, that worked for then, because you needed to fund whatever it was. Now perhaps that’s not the case anymore. Again, that’s not a personal failing. You did what you had to do, and now you’re allowed to change and focus on what you want to do.
Ironically, success doesn’t immunise us from misalignment. There’s this paradox of: it’s working, it’s kind of working on paper, but it’s not working for me. It does mirror the narrative I see on LinkedIn — I saw a surgeon today talking about how everyone told her, “Wow, you’ve got such an amazing career, you’re so successful.” Ali Abdaal did a similar thing, talked about being a doctor and how that was what his parents wanted and so on — and yet there’s this moment of realisation that that’s not what you want.
So it’s an internal sense of feeling and alignment or misalignment that’s not visible on the outside. The fact that we have hit what we previously thought was success doesn’t mean that we can’t or don’t need to adjust again.
There’s also a shift that needs to happen from trying to optimise the old. I’ve really seen this over the last few years — making incremental changes. We obsess about the LinkedIn post or the headline on our website or the messaging and the exact price of this, that and the other, adding £50, taking off £100… and that’s just little incremental changes that won’t give us the bigger shift that we want. We need to be imagining something different.
I have to admit here that I’ve been a bit complacent in thinking, “Oh, I don’t need to do that work on my vision and values and so on. I’ve done that so many times.” Yes — but you lose sight of it. You evolve, the world evolves. And so this cycle of checking in with what your vision of success is, where the disconnect is, and whether you’re aligned to that now and to who you are and who you are becoming — that does need to happen regularly. It’s not a one-and-done exercise.
As we head into January, we don’t need to force this. It’s not like we have to have all the answers in the next couple of days. But it is important to recognise the signals. That’s where I want to start today. I want to take you through a framework that I’ve run with leaders — audiences — and I think it really works for what we’re talking about now with businesses as well. It’s four stages: having awareness of what’s going on, understanding why it’s happening and what the disconnect is, and then moving forward to make tweaks and perhaps bigger shifts. It’s four Rs.
The first one is to recognise. First we want to recognise the structural symptoms of outgrowing your model, if that’s what’s going on. Some examples — and let me know if these resonate. You absolutely can message me on social or reply to podcast@onestepoutside.com. In the meantime, you can nod and scribble when you agree.
For example: the business only works when you overextend. That means your hours, your emotional labour, your standards are doing all the holding in the business. If you step away for a second, everything collapses. This is not to say we have to build systems and have teams and so on, but it is something around the resilience of the business model. It can’t be so fragile that even a couple of days of having a cold and not feeling up to scratch makes everything collapse.
Another sign: you’re doing amazing work inside a container that feels too small. You can sense your own evolution pressing against those old walls. When we first start, we may start a little bit small because we’re nervous — imposter syndrome, “Am I good enough?” Later, what feels small was once huge. Even the idea of quitting a job and starting a business is huge. But a few years later you’ve done that, got the T-shirt, and now that old container that used to feel intimidating and massive is actually too small.
When your success is built on effort rather than structure — we talk about this a lot too. A lot of us are creative people, we want freedom and flexibility. It’s easy to go too far into “I’m just going to go where my energy is,” flying free — and we won’t get results that way. If a good month on paper feels tiring, that’s the real issue. And if a bad month feels kind of exposing — suddenly nothing’s coming in — that’s because the structure isn’t supporting you. The systems aren’t there to make sure you’re taking consistent actions to keep the pipeline coming in, and to support you when the pipeline does come in so you’re not overextended and drained.
Maybe you’re sensing your clients or your offers are not the right fit anymore. You’ve quietly evolved beyond them. They’re more beginner than you want to be working with. You’ve already done the cookie-cutter come-in-and-do-the-same-thing work. When I first did my digital marketing consulting a decade ago, it was so exciting at the start. Then after the third or fourth company, I was like, “Oh, I’m just coming in to do the same thing every time.” Each time we were starting from the beginning and I had to explain it all. For a lot of us who are generalists or multi-passionate people, that can be exhausting.
Likewise, as my business has evolved — when I started it was very much beginner. I still get drawn into that work sometimes, like “How do you set up the business?”, but really I’m not interested in the beginner “how do you start a business, how do you get a domain?” I don’t know — I’ve never been into that tech stuff. It’s much more interesting now to grow with me and with my clients: “Okay, you’ve been doing this for five years, ten years — now what’s next?” So maybe you’ve outgrown your clients or your offer. I’ve sunsetted — withdrawn, retired — a couple of offers over the years. That’s the natural evolution. As much as we can fall in love with them, if it doesn’t serve you and your clients anymore, that’s no problem.
Another signal is creative or intellectual stagnation — not because the work isn’t meaningful, but it doesn’t stretch you anymore. It’s too easy for you. We want a challenge.
Or you’ve created the “Frankenstein model”, right? Every tweak fixes today’s challenge, but it compounds tomorrow’s. So you create complexity. Instead of it being coherent and intentional, you’re just adding bits on. It becomes this hobbled-together model.
And above all, there’s this quiet resentment. There’s friction. Emotional fatigue.
The most important message: this is not a personal failing. It’s a signal. It’s a message that the structure is not there anymore — architectural signals, if you will, in terms of the scaffolding that holds you up. So that’s the first one: recognising those symptoms.
If you’re recognising those structural symptoms, then let’s go on. What’s the next thing? Review. Review the scripts that have held you and kept you in that old architecture.
There are a few like: “I should be able to figure this out on my own.” Classic, right? I’m a business coach and mentor, so I should be able to guide myself through this. I know the right answers or the frameworks and the questions. I shared a framework with a colleague some months ago and she said, “Oh yeah, yeah, yeah — those are the kinds of questions I would ask someone too.” Yes. But do you ask yourself those? No. We as coaches need coaches. We as business mentors need business mentors. Unfortunately, that quiet perfectionism — “I should be able to do this” — puts more pressure on ourselves and keeps us looping through that optimisation. We don’t have a sounding board. We don’t have someone to hold us to account and give us structure and a pathway.
Another one — and this is key — is: “It’s still working.” It’s working enough. I can’t risk breaking it. That’s really dangerous because misalignment can hide behind “good enough”. Good is the enemy of great, right?
This idea — a whole other podcast episode — of competence getting in the way of brilliance. Many of us are generalists, multi-passionate, good at lots of things. That’s dangerous because it means we may do lots of things we should be outsourcing. It means we get distracted by shiny objects. It means we can make a lot of things work. But the fact that we can make them work doesn’t mean that we should.
Another script: “I just don’t have time to step back because I’m too busy delivering.” Now that’s great that we’re busy delivering — on paper the business is working. But that is the exact trap that misaligned models create: lack of space to rethink the very thing that’s causing the pressure. “I can’t do that right now — I’ve got to prepare the workshop, I’ve got the talk, I’ve got this big coaching thing, I’m updating that, recording this…” And worse than that: “I’ve got to do the LinkedIn, I’ve got to do next week’s podcast.” That holds me back from creating the space to go, “Hang on — should I even be doing a podcast episode? Is that the right topic? What’s the thing I’m selling? What’s the overall structure?”
And then another script: “If I redesign now, will people think I’m changing direction again?” This is identity-level anxiety that keeps us in outdated containers. A gentle reminder: nobody’s paying that much attention. If someone said, “Oh Anna, I thought you were doing this — how come you’re doing that?” I’d be thrilled someone had been paying attention. And I’d love to explain it. They’d either say, “Okay — do you still do the old thing?” (and I could say yes), or “Amazing — the new thing is exactly what I want.” So what’s the worst that can happen?
The experts I speak to are high-functioning, successful on LinkedIn — they look like they’ve got it all together. And inside, when you talk to them, the turmoil is there: “Is this the right messaging? Is that the right model? The client, the offer? What do I want next?” It’s all happening.
So those might be some of the scripts operating under the surface: “I should be able to figure it out by myself.” “It’s still working, so I can’t break it.” “I don’t have time to step back.” “What will people think?” Question each of those gently and notice whether they’re serving you.
What if you could work with someone who helped you do this? What if you do have to break it? The caterpillar has to turn into mush — protein soup — before it rebuilds to become a butterfly. We can’t just go from one thing functioning to another. Just like when we quit our jobs, there was a wilderness period until we figured out working for ourselves. Now there might be a wilderness period between this model working and leaping to the next.
We can transition gradually. It might not even be major changes. But it’s recognising that sometimes you have to break what’s working to get something better. And “I don’t have enough time to step back” — do you have time not to? If you’re feeling that pressure, if the model isn’t serving you, it’s far better to make changes now, with more runway, and still get results. And again: people aren’t really paying that much attention.
So we’ve recognised the structural symptoms, we’ve reviewed some of the underlying scripts that are keeping us there. Next stage is redesign.
This is where incremental optimisation doesn’t quite work. We’re not going to tweak — we’re going to look at the whole blueprint of the business and think more architecturally. We’re not talking about doing more, working harder, adding another offer, tweaking your pricing for the umpteenth time, more processes and optimising for marginal gains. That’s not what we’re talking about.
This is a moment and a process that asks different questions entirely. Who am I now? Not who was I when I built this model, but who am I now? Who do I want to be? Who am I becoming? What is the work I actually want to be doing — not what the market told me to do, not what I felt I should do to have money coming in and have success? What do I want to be doing?
What structure holds and works well? What’s the container that fits this next stage? What model matches my current capacity, expertise, ambition, season, lifestyle rhythm? At a certain stage, the work is not to optimise the old model — it’s to design the one that fits who you’ve become.
We’re going to be talking about building your solopreneur operating system, and there’s a workshop coming up in just a few weeks. That’s really the work of redesigning — re-architecturing, is that a word? — the model.
And finally, rebuilding. That sounds dramatic, but think of it not as just another thing you have to do, more action steps, but rather as possibilities. Clearer, more grown-up positioning. Tighter boundaries that protect your capacity, the quality of your work, and your lifestyle. Offers that reflect the depth of your current work. Delivery that supports your life rather than draining it. Pricing that reflects the value of your work — not just volume and packing it full of stuff to justify the higher price. Simple, still human systems that serve you and how you operate.
And importantly — thinking back to all of that chasing LinkedIn — a visibility rhythm that feels good to you, doesn’t clash with your integrity, and doesn’t compromise your wellbeing.
I want to reassure you: rebuilding is not starting over. It is evolving your business into a structure that actually works for you now, going into that next season. For many founders, January becomes that natural moment — not in a “new year’s resolutions, I’ve got to start again” way, but in a considered, intentional way.
With that, that’s the end of 2025 — the end of an era. It’s not the end of an era. I’ll be back next week, don’t you worry.
But a recap: recognising the structural symptoms, reviewing those underlying scripts, and then moving to redesigning that blueprint and rebuilding. It might feel dramatic on the inside — it is big, it’s scary and exciting. Those two things always come together, as I always say. And yet on the outside, and even on paper, it won’t look like you’re ripping everything up and starting again — and you won’t be starting again.
And even if that were the case, if that’s the right decision, then that might be worth considering. But we’re not necessarily talking about that. We’re talking about rebuilding in a way that changes everything in terms of your capacity and how you’re showing up and the results you’re getting — without having to tear down the building and start again with the foundations, rewind the clock ten years and start again.
So I hope that gets you thinking as we wrap up the year and head into 2026. I want to thank you for listening, for staying with me, and I hope you continue into the new year. There’ll be more on designing and building your solopreneur operating system, more about this idea of the architecture of your business, and hopefully more alignment, more enjoyment, resonance, joy, and building differently.
I will see you on the other side. Happy 2026.
If you’re beginning to sense that your current model no longer reflects who you are now and you want a more intentional structure for the next chapter, you can join the waitlist at intentionalexpert.com. It’s the place to go if you’re ready to explore what a business that reflects who you are now – and the work you actually want to be delivering – could look like.
