Are you paying attention to the right signals?
Before I was a writer, I was a retail buyer. It was the perfect job for 20-something me – a lot of travel, a lot of shopping, and a left-brain-right-brain mix of mood boards and margin calculations.
I learned a few lessons that still serve me well, especially in the last few months as I made the difficult decision to close my business.
All those years ago, I learned how to spot trends – and, as a buyer, to move fast with products to suit.
I also learned to trust my instincts, even when it meant a hard conversation or difficult decision.
And I saw the value strong supplier relationships when you need to move fast, ship products, and still make margin.
This year, I tapped into those skills spot and act on market signals – before it was too late. Guided by intuition, not inertia – and supported by those strong client relationships I’d built up over 18 years.
Signals vs noise
With so much information swirling around us, it’s hard to separate noise from signals. Especially when most of what we see is filtered through self-validating networks and media bubbles.
Charles Darwin urged us to “pay special attention to verified evidence that contradicts your own belief.” I’ve learned that the hard way: if I ever ignore an inconvenient truth, it will inevitably come back to bite me.
Over a year ago, I noticed a subtle shift in our project pipeline. The problems clients brought us needed far more strategic and critical thinking than writing skill – because, quite frankly, AI could now write fairly well.
That required a mindset shift, one not everyone was ready to make.
Overnight, we went from a capacity problem to a capability problem. For 17 years, there were never enough hours to get through our WIP. The answer had always been: hire more writers.
Now, some writers were twiddling their thumbs while others were stretched to the limit.
That was my first red-alert warning sign: we might still make revenue targets, but our current model wouldn’t be sustainable. Unless we made big changes.
When evidence confirms instinct
Another signal came during an online leadership course: research found individuals working with AI performed just as well as teams without AI.
In other words, AI could replicate the effort of a human teammate – something many solopreneurs working side-by-side with GPTs now know to be true.
Humans are messy, unpredictable, and difficult to change. That’s what makes managing people so complex (and, compared with a monthly ChatGPT subscription, costly).
Signal #2 told me loud and clear: the small agency model couldn’t last much longer.
Having researched creative business models for Beyond Solo, I already suspected collectives or solopreneur models were the way forward. Signal #3 backed that up, with predictions that AI could create the first one-person unicorn.
The final signal
Still, I believed our business succession plan could work. We were forging ahead with a strategy to reinvent the business.
Until the final signal confirmed the inevitable: our project pipeline fell off a cliff.
One of our most valuable clients told me they were now using internal AI – and I knew it was getting better briefs, because it had access to internal knowledge we external writers could never reach.
My business model had simply run its course. This wasn’t about my team’s talents, or our client relationships. The traditional copywriting agency – with lean margins and high payroll – just didn’t make sense in an AI-first world.
Four clear signals told me the story. But they were surrounded by a lot of noise: “AI writing is generic,” “Unemployment is low,” “AI won’t replace you, it’ll replace those who don’t use it.”
I chose to lean into the inconvenient truths – and close the business down. Having built a business beyond solo, my instincts told me it was time to return to the one-person model.
Reading the signs within
Your instincts are just reactions to the signals you absorb every day. People with “good instincts” are tuning in to the external market as well as their internal state – and they’re willing to act.
As well as those market signals, I was reading my own. I was close to burnout. Winning new projects takes energy, and that was getting harder to summon. I was distracted by new ideas. I wanted a way out.
Quitting your own business is hard, but the cost of inertia is higher than you think. If you cling to the status quo and old assumptions about ‘how things work in my industry,’ you risk misreading the signals – and could drown in the noise.
Are you paying attention?
Listen to what’s really being said beneath the words. Notice who’s thriving – and who’s quietly winding things up.
If you have a regular team meeting, ask everyone to come prepared with one signal you all need to pay attention to today:
What’s surprising?
What feels different?
Can we flip an assumption and explore what’s possible?
If we ask what if, how does that change our thinking?
Your business is the sum of everything you pay attention to.
So. What are you seeing today?
