How We Knew It Was Time to Pivot Our Brand

For a while now, I’ve felt stupid and naive for even thinking this, let alone posting it on the Internet to live forever, but here goes —

Building a business from scratch has been way harder than I expected it to be.

We all know Instagram isn’t real, but it still gets in my head. With every swipe, there’s a new person telling you how they make $10K a month by only working 2.5 hrs a day, and honestly, good for them. I wish that was my reality, but it hasn’t been so far. It’s been quite the opposite, actually — confusing, unclear, and incredibly challenging.

And a huge reason for that has been my unwillingness to explore why it’s confusing, unclear, and challenging — after almost 3 years.

Here’s how the business has felt for the past few months:

• It’s been confusing, because we needed make choices about who our brand is for

• It’s been unclear because we (I) was scared to niche down.

• It’s been challenging because we needed to free up some energetic space from “the way things are.”

“The way things are” is the kiss of death for a creative dream. The way out is a pivot.

It’s so easy to double down on what you’re doing, because your brain will always feel better choosing what you know even if it sucks.

There’s a lot to be said for grit, for holding on and staying with things. In fact, I usually abandon things way too early— precisely when they get hard. Rather than mind over matter, I feel like my mind is usually trapped underneath all the matter. And ironically, the more I practice staying with things through the challenging parts, the more I value refining the vision and pivoting when necessary.

Pivots are simply a brave way adjust your sails. On the surface, they can feel like you’re abandoning something, but it’s actually about refining a vision to create longevity.

Pivots really boil down to one thing: making decisions, no matter how difficult or emotionally charged they are.

If it’s unclear to you, it’s unclear to everyone.

Today, we begin a big brand pivot — away from Spacetime, the company I began in 2021. I had a hard time with that, because it was my idea, my baby, my my my. But who cares if it’s not working??? Or if it feels like you’ve hit a plateau you’re not going to transcend??? I can now see that Spacetime was simply the vehicle to get us moving in the right direction, and Internet People is where we are going next.

Earlier this year, we rebranded the newsletter and coworking club to Internet People. It made sense for a couple of months… until it didn’t and Spacetime as a brand still felt confusing, hard to talk about, and more fragmented than ever. Who was it for? Where are we going? Why does it still feel so hard to describe my company when someone asks me about it? But I was scared make decisions and let go of the way things had been.

This brand had become messy, confusing and unclear to me. And if it’s unclear to you what you’re doing, do you honestly think you can be successful with it? Some things started shifting in my mind when I opened this can of worms and I started craving simplicity and clarity above all else.

Recently I was taking a phone-free walk (where I do all my best problem solving), and I thought — if holding on to the original brand is preventing you from the impact you want to make, are you willing to let it go? Hell yes. That was an easy yes, because all I ever wanted to do was help creative visionaries believe in themselves, have the tools to execute, and stay focused in a very distracting world. And that (to me anyway) was not Spacetime. That was Internet People.

So today, we go all in on Internet People — our platform where creatives, artists, and entrepreneurs can turn their little ideas into a big deal.

The core of what we offer — our podcast, newsletter, coworking club, and audio classes will stay the same, but the vision is more refined. A refined vision and a clear direction means we can actually find with the people who need what we offer.

Rebrands are incredibly challenging, existential, and hopefully in the end, life giving. Throughout this process, I’ve often thought about this TikTok where the creator says, “If there’s one hill I will die on, it’s the pivot.” They go on to say that a pivot is usually scary, and also what your heart wants. What my heart wants is to help millions of people realize their creative dreams, and that can’t happen if we’re unwilling to make clear decisions and pivot.

So welcome to Internet People. We’re happy you found us and hope you continue to see yourself here.