I’m Reinventing My Business in 90 Days. Here’s What I Can Tell You.

Back in May, I stopped recording this podcast. After 500 episodes, I just stopped, and today I’m back to tell you what I’ve been doing behind the scenes. So let’s dive in.

Welcome to the School of Self-Image, where our motto is simple. Elevate your self-image, elevate your life. I’m Tonya Leigh, your hostess, and I’ll guide you to become the woman who doesn’t just dream bigger, she lives bigger. Let’s dive in.

Hello. Hello, friends. It is so good to be back. I have missed you all, and before I dive into what I want to talk about today, I just want to first of all say thank you so much. I stopped recording this podcast back in May, and I have received so many emails and messages of just love and support. Some of you wanted to know if I was okay, and let me just say I’m better than okay. Some of you congratulated me on the courage to take a step back from something I’ve been doing for so long, and almost all of you told me that you were going to be so sad not to have me in your ear every Wednesday. And so for today, I am back, and I’m just so incredibly grateful.

Choosing What Feels Aligned

Now, the other thing that you may notice or may not notice, depending on where you’re listening to this, is this is just an audio podcast. Last year, I decided to give video podcasting a try. So if you found me on YouTube via video, you may be used to that format. But all of the years prior to that, it had always been audio. And at first I enjoyed the video aspect of it, but then I started to not enjoy it, and I’m at an age in my life, or maybe it’s just a level of growth in my life of I don’t want to do things that my heart is not in. I want to do things that I genuinely enjoy because I am a big believer in that your energy is the most important thing. And so if I’m showing up and doing something and I’m not enjoying it, chances are you can feel that. I certainly can feel it, and I just realized for this season of my life, I’m not saying forever, but I don’t want to do video podcast.

I love the simplicity of just picking up my mic and sharing my ideas, and it feels way more intimate. It feels way more aligned with where I am in my life right now, and so yeah, this is just me and my microphone in my new office. Although I do look cute today, I’ll have to say. I’ve got on the cutest little outfit, but nevertheless, you don’t see it; you’re just going to hear me talk.

The Return: Why I Stepped Away

Now, with that said, I want to talk about what I have been up to since you heard from me last. I needed a break. I needed to take a step back so I could really hear myself because something was happening underneath. I was being called to change, change something. And listen, reinvention is not something that I am new to. I have reinvented myself so many times. If you look at the definition of reinvention, it means to invent again or anew, or to remake or make over as into a different form, or to bring back and revive. And so when I think about my own life, I’ve done this in so many areas. I have reinvented my style. I have reinvented my accent. I have reinvented my relationship with money. I have reinvented my relationship with my body and food, literally to the point that I feel unrecognizable to the version of me who used to deal and struggle and be challenged by those things.

Reinvention Isn’t Becoming Better

So I am no stranger to reinvention, but this is a different kind of reinvention. And I’m trying to think about how best to articulate this to you. So I’m just going to tell you, I’m just going to speak from my heart here. I am at a point in my life, and I don’t know if it’s because I’m midlife or if it’s because I’ve been doing this work for so long, but I am no longer interested in being a better version of myself. I know, it sounds crazy coming from a coach, but I was thinking about this the other day. I was talking to Fonz, and I’m like, “Every time you talk about being better, you’re sending this message to your subconscious that you aren’t enough now.” And I know that I am. I know that you are. And perhaps that is the reinvention. It’s not about necessarily becoming someone new, but it’s about getting back to the truth of who you are. That’s why I love that last definition I gave you: to reinvent is to bring back and to revive.

The Vivante Way of Living

It’s reviving the most expansive, most evolved version of you that’s underneath all of the BS and the layers of limitation that we have placed upon ourselves. So I will tell you that my goal in my life right now is to be the most alive version of myself. It’s not to be better; it’s just to feel alive, to feel creative and joyful and loving and abundant, and that just happens to be the better version of myself. But I’m not chasing that weight-loss goal or that business goal or this goal to be better. I just want to feel, feel my life. And so that is what I’ve been doing this year.

When Your Business Outgrows You

I chose Vivante as my word of the year, and I have been using that word to guide my choices, my thoughts, where I’m placing my attention, the clothes that I choose, the people that I choose to hang out with, and I will tell you, it has changed me in the best of ways. And so, what ended up happening back in, I would say April, May, I realized that my business needed to catch up with who I’ve become. Because here’s what I know in life: It’s that things are always changing. The world is always changing, and you’re always changing, and the people that are most aware and most resilient and most adaptable, I really believe that those are going to be the people that win in life. Doing one thing or being one way for your entire life is a recipe for stagnation. There’s no growth in that. There’s no expansion in that.

And so yeah, I realized that I wanted to reinvent my business. I love the question: If I were starting from scratch, would I choose this again? And when it came to my business, I realized there were certain parts that I would choose again. And then there were certain parts that I felt like I had outgrown, and then there were certain parts that I wanted to revive, pieces of my past that I wanted to bring back. And so that’s what I’ve been doing in my business behind the scenes. I have literally been reinventing it. And remember, reinvention is not just something better. It’s not just a little step-up; it’s completely reimagining something. It’s completely redoing, renewing. It’s making something new.

Now, the big misconception around reinvention is that the people who do it do it because their life is so bad. And I will tell you that a majority of my own reinventions happened in areas of my life that were already good, but I just felt called to something else. So things don’t have to be bad. When I think about my business now, it’s good. It’s working. In fact, when I was going through this process, I was like, “Oh my God, I’m having to start over again in all this work, and I’m putting myself back out there into the unknown when so much of my life is known.” But I know that I am here to experience the fullness of life, to follow what lights me up, to follow my curiosities, to be courageous enough to step into that mystery. And I will tell you from my past, those are the moments that have changed my life the most.

So if you are sitting on the edge of your own reinvention and you’re thinking, “But my life is good,” great. What an amazing place to build from. And also, if you’re thinking, “Listen, there are parts of my life I just don’t like right now,” that’s amazing too. Reinvention doesn’t judge where you’re starting from; it’s just asking you to step into something completely brand new. And so I thought it would be fun to share some of the signs that I personally have when I can feel that reinvention energy entering into my life, and it typically happens around every five to seven years, I’ve noticed. That seems to be the cycle for me: a big reinvention and then I settle into it, and then five or seven years down the road there’s another one.

Seven Signs You’re Ready to Reinvent

But these are the signs. The first one is the things that used to light me up don’t anymore. And this one can feel really scary because you’re going through the motions and you’re going to the places that you used to love to go to, you’re hanging out with the people that used to stimulate you, you are doing the work that used to light you up, and you can’t get excited about it. That is a sign that you are ready for a reinvention.

The other thing that I’ve noticed is that I get this insane need to purge. I want to clean out closets and garages, my Google Drive. I subconsciously realize now I’m making space for what is wanting to come in. And I did this back in, I think it was April or May. I cleaned out my closet, and it was so easy. The old me would’ve struggled, but I was like, “Nope, I’m done with that. I’m not wearing that.” I got rid of probably 50% of my wardrobe, and it was lovely. I was like, “Oh my God. There’s so much space. I can see between my hangers; getting dressed is so much easier.” And that feeling just started to show up even in my business. I’m looking at: what am I ready to let go of? What am I ready to get rid of? What’s just clutter here? And so this insane need to purge is often a sign that you are sitting on the edge of your own reinvention.

Another sign, and it’s one that you all experienced: I go quiet. I need time with me. It’s not because anything’s wrong. I need to go within and listen. Not to the world, not be on social media all day scrolling, not to be having conversations with everybody asking their opinions, but I need time with me so I can hear what’s wanting to come through, so I can hear what I want, so I can sit with myself long enough to ask the necessary questions. The other sign is I start having this weird experience of, and I can’t tell if it’s dread or excitement, but I have this intense season of emotions.

And I think part of it is fear because I think underneath, you know something’s about to change. You’re about to do it again. You’re about to step into the unknown, and that is always scary to our brains. Our brains love the familiar. But there’s also this excitement, this excitement of anticipation, of knowing you are about to experience something new. And so whether it’s dread or excitement, it’s intense. And that is often a sign that I am on the edge of my next reinvention.

Another sign that often shows up for me is that I’ll develop these strange new interests or an old one comes back. And I will tell you during the season of my life without giving too much away… Because I’m going to be sharing my entire business reinvention within the membership, and I’ll tell you about that in a moment, where I’ll tell you exactly what I’ve been doing and what I’m creating. But for me, this has been a resurgence of old interests coming back. I’ve been reading the books that I read 15 years ago that had me so excited. I’ve been doing things that I did 15 years ago that got me excited. I’m even having conversations with people in my life from 12, 15 years ago that I haven’t talked to in a while. It’s this revival energy. It’s this coming-back energy that is so exciting, mixed in with new things, too. I’ve made new friends. I am learning new things. I’m reading different types of books. So it’s a little bit of old and new that’s coming together to create this new reinvention of myself and my business.

Another sign is I stopped trying to keep the peace. How many of you all are peacekeepers? You’re like the peacemaker in the family, and that tends to be a role that I naturally take on. But there comes a point where you’re just done. You’re willing for people to be upset with you. You’re willing to disappoint people because you know that where you’re going, it’s going to be disruptive on some level. But you’ve also decided that the price of that, the price you have to pay, is worth it. And I also think there comes a point in your life where peace on the inside is worth way more than peace on the outside because you have sacrificed yourself so much. You have people-pleased so much. You’ve kept the peace so much that you’ve abandoned parts of yourself, and you’re just no longer willing to do that. If you’re experiencing that, tells me you’re on the edge of your own reinvention.

And then finally you start seeing signs everywhere. And this one has been showing up for me so much over the last six months. Where I’m going and how I’m reinventing my business, I have had so many signs from people emailing me, messaging me, from literal signs, like an advertisement, a song. It’s crazy the signs that are showing up everywhere telling me, “Yes, this is it. You’re heading in the right direction.” And if you pay attention, there are signs for you too.

Are You Ready?

So if you’ve been experiencing any of these seven signs, the chances are you are ready for your own reinvention. Now, I will tell you, with my business reinvention, it is requiring a new version of me. And it’s not necessarily a better version because I told you in the beginning that that’s not what I’m interested in. It’s just requiring a different version. And what it’s asking of me is to stay and expand even more into this vivante energy, this aliveness, this joie de vivre, this creative, loving, expansive version of me.

And that’s the thing with reinvention. It’s the intentional act of becoming someone new in the way you see yourself, the way you live, and what you choose, and the way you move through the world. And so most personal development programs, self-help, it’s like set a goal, you want a different result, but reinvention asks a very different question. It asks, who do I need or want to become for my life to look and feel different? So this is what makes reinvention so different than self-improvement because self-improvement’s often incremental. It often starts with what’s wrong with me that I need to fix, but reinvention can start from a much more expansive place. What am I ready to create now? What have I outgrown? What version of me is asking to emerge? And it usually involves three things.

Release, Reimagine, Embody

First of all, you need to release. You need to be willing to let go of old identities, old ways of thinking and habits and expectations and the roles that you’re so used to playing. And even the dreams that no longer fit, even the business that no longer fits. You have to be willing to let that go, and that can be super scary. But if you stay in that energy and you refuse to abandon yourself, you get to this place where you start to reimagine. You start to decide what you want your next chapter to look and feel like, and that’s the space that I’ve been in. I’ve been spending a lot of time reimagining my business, really sitting in the energy of how I want to feel in my business, really thinking about the kinds of women I want to work with and to support, and how I want to support them. Also thinking about where the world is going and how I want to be a part of that conversation. So I’ve been reimagining all of that.

And then it involves the embodiment piece where you are beginning to actually be that person. You’re thinking like her, you’re dressing like her, speaking like her, working like her, spending your time like she would spend her time, and that is when the magic starts to happen. So if I’ve learned anything about reinvention, it isn’t pretending to be someone you’re not; it’s often more about removing everything that you’ve accumulated so that you can become more fully yourself. 

Your Past Doesn’t Get the Final Say

Reinvention is deciding that your past doesn’t get the final say in who you become next. I don’t care if you have been a certain way for three decades. I don’t care if you’ve been running your business a certain way for a whole decade. I don’t care what someone told you when you were five, 10, 15, 20 years ago, and you just kept believing them.

Reinvention is this beautiful blank slate where, yeah, you get to bring your experience, you get to bring the parts along with you that you want to keep and that you love, but it’s also an invitation to let go of all of the rest and really reimagine what your life could be like, who you get to become. 

The 90-Day Reinvention

And again, as someone who’s reinvented my body, my style, my money, my relationships, my business, I’ve done it many, many times, and I know the process well, and that’s why I am so excited to be bringing back our favorite class from last year. I taught The 90-Day Reinvention last year. I think it was in October, and I taught it as a one-month class, but it was a three-month process. So we taught the class, but then in November and December, I had two other classes that women could go through.

But this year, I’m doing it different. I want to take the entire 90 days and walk you through the process step by step, month by month. You are going to come in, and you are going to decide. You’re going to reimagine your life, and you’re going to pick a specific area that you want to reinvent. And then once you decide, you are going to design. We are going to start aligning your outer life, your choices, your calendar with that decision, that reinvention decision that you make during month one, and then in the final month, that is the embodiment month. We are going to practice embodying this energy because it’s easy to go back to who you’ve been when the fear sets in, when the excitement wears off, but it’s the women who stay committed to this process who see results. I mean, last year I saw so many incredible things happen in 90 days.

And I love 90 days because it’s just a season of your life, and what I know to be true is that you can be exactly where you are 90 days from now, or you can be completely unrecognizable. Truly. It really comes down to a decision. 90 days also is enough time to give you focus and get momentum, but it’s not so long that it feels daunting, and so you get that win under your belt and you’re like, “Oh my God, look at what I did in 90 days,” and you want to keep that energy going, and then it just starts to spill over into other areas of your life.

And so that is what we’re doing in the School of Self-Image in September. We’re going to start on September 1, and I’ll tell you why I’m also excited about this particular 90-Day Reinvention. I’m going to be bringing you behind the scenes of what I’ve been doing in my business reinvention. I’m going to be sharing the hard parts, the realizations that I had, more specifically. I’m going to be sharing where I’m taking my business next and who I’m having to become. I’m going to be sharing all of the fears and the limitations and the doubts that I’ve had that have kept me up at 3:00 AM and how I’ve dealt with them. And you are going to be the first to see what is next for me in terms of my business.

And so if you want to come along and reinvent alongside me, I would love, love, love to support you. You can go to schoolofselfimage.com/join and come join us inside the membership over the next 90 days. What I can tell you is that you will blow your mind with what you are able to create and who you are able to become in just 90 days when you have the right framework, you have the right support, and you have the right community, because environment is everything. When you place yourself in the right containers, your possibility expands to the extent of the possibility that that container holds. And what I can tell you after what I’ve just been through with my own business reinvention, not to mention all of the other reinventions that I’ve been through, I see more possibility than ever.

So come join me for The 90-Day Reinvention, schoolofselfimage.com/join. And I hope you enjoyed me being back in your ear. And if this is your first time listening, oh my gosh, this was a doozy for a first time, but I am so, so glad that you are here, and I’ll be back next week. So be sure to tune in, and until then, have a beautiful week, my friends. Cheers.