Why Simplifying Your Business Sometimes Means Retiring Products | 111

Trying to simplify your business isn't just about doing less. Sometimes it requires the hard choice of letting go of products you once loved. 

Today, I’m taking you behind the scenes of a quiet but powerful decision that changed how I work: retiring successful offers to create space for what’s next.

We’re moving past generic advice and looking at the strategic side of slow entrepreneurship, specifically, how to tell when an offer has expired, even if it’s still making sales.

Inside this episode, you’ll hear:

• Why the goal to simplify your business sometimes requires retiring offers that still work
• The 4 specific questions I asked to check for true business alignment
• How maintaining too many digital products creates hidden mental clutter and task overload
• What slow entrepreneurship actually looks like in a season of less output
• The crucial difference between a minimalist business strategy and an emotional reaction

If you are craving clarity but feel pulled in too many directions, this conversation will help you rethink what it really means to build a business that supports your life, rather than one that drains it.

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Connect with Lucy:

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Show Notes: https://cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast/ 

Transcript

0:00

Today I am taking you behind the scenes of a decision that's been quietly shaping my business. I am in the season of simplification. That has really led me to retire some things that I was once super deeply attached to, and they're no longer a fit for what I'm stepping into next.​Hey, I am Lucy Reyes. Welcome to the podcast where we make productivity feel doable and aligned with practical tips to help you manage your task, streamline your systems, and stay consistent in a way that honors your energy, your faith, and your real life capacity. If that sounds like something you need, then hit subscribe and let's jump in. Hey, hey, welcome back. I'm really excited to dive into that with you today. But before we dive into all of that and what exactly I'm retiring or why, or how I even got to that point and how this applies to your business. If you're looking at your to-do list and you're already feeling like, oh my gosh, there's so much on here to do, you're already going into that negative spiral, then I want you to go to the description and I really want to invite you into my free workshop, three steps to say goodbye to Task Overload, because yeah, the title says it all, so definitely go and check that out. All right, so. Let's just dive in. So it has been a few weeks since I last recorded, and I am honestly just letting the podcast follow my seasons. I'm not trying to overproduce, I'm not trying to force output, so I'm kind of just letting things flow. Whenever I get inspiration, I'm going to record, and if I don't, I'm not going to force anything because. You know what? Consistency is just about showing up. It's not about showing up at a very specific time all the time like this. I'm gonna trust that this is going to make it out to the people who are meant to see this. So if that's you, hey, welcome back to the podcast. And if you're new to me, whether you're listening to this on the podcast or you're watching me on YouTube, I'm so, so excited to invite you here. Just make sure to subscribe and follow so that way, you know, when I do. Happen to record a new video or podcast episode. Now, like I mentioned, I have been in this season where I've been a lot quieter. I've been a lot slower. I am moving very intentionally and this kind of started creeping in at the end of last year. But is even more evident this year that this is going to be the pace, like the pace moving forward for the foreseeable future. I don't know if or when this pace is going to come to an end, but today I'm going to take you a little bit behind the scenes of what that actually looks like. So this season, like I said, I am simplifying. I have built a lot over the past few years I've built. So many offers, and at one point, having all of these different offers, it made sense. It made a lot of sense. But right now I'm really leaning towards less lighter, feels more aligned for the season that I'm in. So as I've been in this simplifying era, I realized. That not everything that I have created, that I poured my heart and soul into can come with me into this next season that I'm going into, and that really sucks. That sucks. But that realization did lead me to also know and recognize and accept that it is officially time to retire some of these most loved offers that I have had if I shop for honestly years. And yeah, it's, it's one of those situations where I need to let go of the good to make room for the great, because I, I'm gonna talk about this in the next episode, but. I don't wanna get too carried away into that now, but I have had these visions of where I'm going and unfortunately, some of the things that I've created in the past that people love just cannot come with me in that season. So I decided to retire some of my products and I didn't make this decision lightly. It's actually something that has been on my mind for quite some time. I'm talking about months, but. I always felt like stuck because it, I know I have, so I have dozens of products. I have dozens of products, and the thought of taking them out, it felt overwhelming. It felt like a lot, and I wanted to make sure that it was a, it wasn't an emotional decision, that it was actually something that felt logical and not something based on just. How I'm feeling, or I feel overwhelmed right now, or like, uh, nothing's working. I'm gonna like, throw apart my business. Like, it wasn't any of that and I didn't wanna rush into it. So I kind of let that idea sit and simmer and just not thought, and I didn't think about it. But it's really surfaced up as I've been simplifying. And so I really want this retirement of these offers to be thoughtful and intentional. Um, so I went through literally every single product inside of my shop, into my shop, inside of my shop, and ask myself a few questions. So. What I did was I have all of these products instead of my cheerful productivity shop and every single one of'em, I went through a list on a spreadsheet and I had to make the decision whether I was going to keep it, whether I was going to retire it. Or whether I was going to archive it. So for all of these products, I went through and asked myself a few questions that I'm gonna share with you just in case you might be in a similar situation where you are going to potentially be retiring some of your own products. And so these can serve as a guideline for you, um, to see what you're going to do ultimately with those products. So. Is this course still valuable as is without any updates? This is very important because if it's not valuable, if it's too outdated, if you have to make a ton of updates in order for it to be valuable, which defeats the purpose of retiring it in the first place, then it's not worth retiring and selling. So. Let me back up. When I say retired, I'm also talking about retiring and putting up for a retirement sale to give people a last chance to get these amazing offers. But before, I want, before I went through with this, I needed to make sure and confirm that this product is still good. Like I still feel good about selling it right now. It's just, you know, I'm not gonna go into the rest of the questions. How I verified this was I literally went inside every single product. So at first I did it in the shop. Then I opened up my course platform and I looked through, through the course, I listened to some of the lessons. I looked at the notes, I looked at the resources. I looked to see if there was anything that potentially stood out as like, Hmm, no, this is not relevant anymore. This is too outdated. I wouldn't buy this anymore. I don't use this anymore. And so that was how I determined whether the course was still valuable as is. The second question I asked myself was, am I okay with no longer updating or maintaining this product in its current format? So I really needed to cross reference and make sure that like, yeah, this is it. Like this is the end of this product. One I've already confirmed and verified that it's good and valuable as is, and I don't want to make any updates, like it doesn't feel, which is the next question, does this product still feel aligned with the direction I'm going in my business? It doesn't, does it not feel aligned? Does it feel aligned? Does it feel like something like, Ooh, I may want to make some updates to that before I retire it, or I may want to make some updates to that because I'm going to use it in a different format. So I'm really trying to see like, this is it. I'm okay with it as it is, no updates. It's there, it's done, and it's great. It's just, again, not moving forward with me into this next season. So the last question is. Do I realistically see myself bringing this product back or expanding it in the future? So these were really the questions that drove me behind every single product. It was a couple hours, if I'm being honest, because I really wanted to be super intentional and super honest about the products that I was going through and taking time to. Get those things prepared, get those courses and workshops prepared for their potential retirement. So those were the questions that I asked myself to see if I was returning a course or if it was just going to be quietly archived because you know what? I don't even feel comfortable selling this anymore. Now with that being said, the products that I chose to retire and. Ultimately put up for a retirement slash clearance sale, which I'll get to. They are valuable as is, and they're ones that I really wanted to give people a chance to grab them before I completely take them off the shelves because just because I'm retiring them, it doesn't mean they're not good. I just cannot mentally hold. Space for them anymore. I need to be able to close that chapter without them being in the back of my head as something that I want or need to update or something that isn't relevant anymore or something that, you know, I, maybe I can run a flash sale for this because it's just there. Like I needed to get rid of them from my head. And so that's what I did. And so think of this like if you were going to the store and. You're in the clearance rack. Right. Most of the things on the clearance rack are not because something is wrong with it. Yes. Some of them are, but that's not the case here. We're looking at the other ones, like the really good steels at the store on the clearance rack where you're like, oh, nice. This one is a summer shirt that I can use next summer, because right now we're in winter. The stores are going through clearance sales because they need to make space in their store for what is in season. So if it's wintertime, they're selling winter clothes. If it's summertime, they're selling stuff for summer. And that's kind of how I'm seeing this. The products that I have created that I am putting up for retirement sale are. Out of season for me doesn't make'em bad. They're not ripped, they're broken. You know, the shirt I might have found on the clearance rack is still cute. I'm still going to wear it. It's still perfectly in great condition. It's just not what the storm needs to move forward in that season. So that's pretty much how these products are. They're great. They're just something that I need to kind of mentally get rid of my own head. So to kind of. Recap this whole thing. This is really a short episode because I just wanted to take you behind the thought process of simplifying and retiring some of the products and why I am doing that. Because simplifying is not just about. Starting over. It actually doesn't have to be about starting over. As you can see, I'm not scrapping completely everything, but I am intentionally choosing what deserves to move forward with me, and that's based on my criteria, based on my needs, based on my direction that I'm going in. If you're in a season where you want to have a lot of products and that's the season that you're in and that serves you, then great. Keep doing that. But if you are in a season where you feel like, ugh, you have so much and you don't know what to do, you feel overwhelmed, you feel stuck because you have so many products that need updating and so many products that are on your list of this and that, then maybe you could consider simplifying your products as well. So if that is you, then you're. Definitely gonna wanna tune back to the the next episode where I'm going to be sharing the full simplification process that I have followed from the time that I started thinking about like, man, something's off with my business. I need to figure it out to. All right, I've decided that I'm gonna retire some products. How the heck am I gonna follow through on that when I have like dozens of products that I'm gonna be retiring? So I'm gonna be sharing that in the next episode. So I hope to see you there. Be sure to follow or subscribe wherever you're listening. And if this episode resonated with you and you're craving that own similar clarity for your business, then again head to the description to sign up for my free workshop where I will show you and guide you to a clearing out and saying goodbye to the task overload that's already on your to-do list and your brain. All right, I'll see you in the next episode. Thank you so much for listening to the Cheerful Productive Chats Podcast with me, Lucy Reyes. To view the full transcript and all the links mentioned in today's episode, visit cheerstoproductivity.com/podcast. And before you go up, make sure you follow or subscribe wherever you're listening so that you know once the next productive chat is released. Talk soon and cheers to your productivity and success!