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I recently took a week off from client and partner consulting work to catch up on some administrative tasks that have been piling up.

One of my tasks was revamping my website, focusing on easier navigation (in some cases, redesigning web pages) and clarifying my overall messaging.

I had a aha moment while redesigning the Blog Archives page. I noticed where I’ve been spending most of my time blogging about, and I’ve decided moving forward to limit the amount of content I create around starting and running a consulting business.

I’m at a place now where I prefer sharing successes and lessons learned in my adventures with clients and partners both in real time and in reflection of past projects. Plus, it makes sense to showcase what I’ve done, from a marketing perspective. Unless something major happens that impacts how I run my business, I prefer to take this approach for now.

So consider this Ask Nicole post to be the last business related content I write publicly for a while. However, I will continue sharing more about my journey in my newsletter.

Another reason for limiting this type of content is the amount of inquiries I’ve gotten regarding helping people with set up their consulting businesses.

Many of these inquiries are from social workers and public health professionals. This is great, and I appreciate the well wishes I’ve gotten for being transparent about my professional journey. And raising your voice for women and girls of color* may look like leaving your day job and doing your own thing so that you can do that.

But coaching people through this process takes me out of my mission. Which brings me to the point of this post.

When a new idea emerges, evaluate whether it keeps you in alignment with your mission or takes you out of it.

The services I currently provide are in alignment with each other. Essentially, they work together to help organizations focus on sustainability, being data driven in their decision making, and ensuring that decision making is culturally and equitable responsive to important stakeholders.

This is how I raise my voice for women and girls of color*, and this is my preference. Fortunately, I have colleagues I’ve admired and followed for a while that I can refer these inquiries to such as Eva Forde, Kyshira Moffett, and Rosetta Thurman, as they focus specifically on building a business and brand and I’ve learned a lot from them.

Ask yourself:

Does this new idea make sense for my mission?

Even if it sounds like profitable, even if many are asking for it, even if it sounds like something you may enjoy doing, still ask yourself this question. Avoid mission creep.

The last thing I would want is having an abundance of opportunities for business coaching that overshadow the work I feel more aligned to do. Without this reflection, creating a new service because people ask you for it can make you feel resentful. Especially if that idea takes off.

Always evaluate a new idea against your mission. If it makes sense, go for it. If it doesn’t, refer out. Reject the notion of taking on people’s ideas of what you should be doing.

And isn’t that the point of moving on and doing your own thing?

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** PS: * “Women and girls of color” refers to gender-expansive adults and youth, including cisgender, transgender, non-binary, gender non-conforming, gender queer and any girl-identified person)

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Raise Your Voice: How do you avoid mission creep? Share below in the comments section.