When you start a business or nonprofit, everything is personal. Your story. Your passion. Your reasons for building it in the first place.

At first, that’s how it should be.

But as you grow, your message has to grow too. You can’t keep talking about your work from your point of view alone. You have to start telling your story in a way your customers understand and care about.

Whenever I hear the word “pivot,” I picture that Friends episode where Ross is yelling at Chandler to turn the couch up the stairwell. He keeps shouting, “Pivot!” while the couch stays stuck.

That’s what it’s like when you know you need to change but don’t know how.

Over time, I’ve learned that being able to pivot well isn’t a personality trait. It’s a skill set. And it’s one every business owner needs and likely one that any business leader can develop. These three things have made the biggest difference for me.

At the rate that AI use is proliferating the market, a business owner should assume that their competitors are already leveraging it to help their business. Learning to use AI to fill strategic gaps can be a real game changer. I use it almost every day.