The Nitty-Gritty:

* How What Works founder Tara McMullin realized that business had gone off track* Why she chose to pivot to a building community-oriented business support network instead of offering coaching or online courses* What mistakes she made along the way and how she changed course to correct them* Why “steadfast commitment” is her barometer right now

I turned 37 last month.

I certainly don’t get worked up about getting older nor am I one for big birthday celebrations or rituals.

But this year, it really hit me just how much growing up I’d done in the last 12 months. I’ve done a lot of work on myself. And that’s led to a lot of very practical work being done to the business, too.

I’ve examined old stories that were still controlling my thoughts and actions. I’ve looked at the shadow side of my strengths. I’ve questioned myself, my motivations, and my goals to make sure I’m blazing my own trail and not chasing someone else’s idea of success.

And, like I said, this wasn’t just personal work—if there’s any “just” about that.

All of the personal work I’ve done has led to some very real changes in how I run my business and how I operate as a leader.

Over the last year, I’ve worked to slow down and loop my team into ideas I have or changes I want to make. I’ve integrated my work into the systems that our team uses. I’ve gone deep into the way our core product is built and delivered to question why we do what we do and how our product could serve our customers better.

I’ve worked to make this podcast best in class.

Looking back on all the work I’ve done over the last year, I have to admit…

I am pretty damn proud of myself.

So I asked myself what exactly I learned through all that work—and how I could leverage it to keep the momentum going.

I looked at all the ways the work I did over the last year left me feeling more fulfilled, more fully realized—and I realized that it all had one thing in common.

When I committed—truly, fully committed—I not only got satisfying results, I felt freaking great about the process of getting those results.

When I did something just because I could—or I thought I should—I might succeed but it didn’t make me feel awesome. I ended up feeling more anxious, self-conscious, or just plain bored.

Okay, commitment. I can do that.

And yes, again—this applies to both my personal life and my business life. It applies to my mindset and to the practical, hands-on work I do on a daily basis.

So on my birthday, I decided that the question that would shape this next year in my life would be:

“What am I willing to make a steadfast commitment to?”

And to answer that question, I would ask myself what does steadfast commitment actually look like? What does steadfast commitment to a race look like? What does steadfast commitment to an offer look like? What does steadfast commitment to this podcast look like? What does steadfast commitment to my relationship look like?

Truthfully, these questions didn’t appear out of thin air. It’s actually something that’s been percolating for quite some time.

So much of my life and business to this point has been guided by impulse...

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