When confidence, not strategy, led to my most powerful business decision

Sometimes the best decisions aren’t logical—they’re the ones that come from self-trust

“You don’t have to burn it all down!”

Those words rang in my ears from a couple of coaches I follow.

Their words were designed to help their audience pivot and grow their business and keep it aligned, but not leave them with no income for months while they figured it out.

Even my step-mum chimed in (always from a place of love and protection):

“Can’t you just sell the things you’ve always sold, just for now, just to get you through?”

But the answer was no.

Across a period of 18 months from mid 2023 to the end of 2024 I slowly dismantled everything I had ever built in my business.

I removed access anytime courses, I stopped running programmes, I shuttered my mastermind and I gave my membership 6 months notice that the group would cease at the end of February 2025.

In some senses when I reflect on this, I am an all or nothing person.

But the thing is, even with those words of “don’t burn it all down” in my ears, I just couldn’t see a way to metamorpihize my business whilst I was doing the metamorphosing myself.

I want to help people in a completely different way now. I’ve never been a very good liar, my face apparently tells a thousand stories that might not be coming out of my mouth, but are there unsaid. So I don’t think I can in all good faith continue “just selling what I always have.”

In fact, the little that I have tried to just keep doing the same-old across the last year has resulted in disappointment. Low or no sales, poor engagement and little take-up or enquiries.

I’ve always said your audience can sense your hesitation. And it’s certainly been true for me in the last 18 months.

Instead going forward I want to let go of all the ways I’ve earned money before, that were built on a toxic sales model that was unsustainable (and outdated now in 2025) and didn’t feel fun or aligned with what I really believed about doing business any more.

I am building Vicky Shilling Ltd 2.0. To help solopreneurs in a totally different way. And for myself to build a business model from a foundation of self-trust, self-love and self-worth that is an example to my clients and that I haven’t achieved before, while I always chased for the next ‘right’ thing to do and looking externally for the answers.

This is the completely un-strategic thing to do.

Particularly at a point where I have more pressure than ever on me financially, with two children in childcare and a large mortgage to pay.

Yet I don’t care about the strategy.

Don’t get me wrong - I’m getting help for certain areas as part of this rebuild. I’m not completely deluded and going on confidence alone. I know I need help with positioning and marketing myself in this new and rapidly changing era of the internet.

But ultimately I am leaning into the confidence I have that it will all work out.

That this move is the best for me and my family. That everything is figure-out-able. And that I have untold skills and abilities and a network now after over half a decade of business building to help me step into this next iteration of my work.

My confidence and not the strategy is how I made this powerful decision.

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