Stop Apologizing for Your Ideas: When to Explore vs. When to Commit
”Mom, do I have to pick just one sport?”
My seven-year-old was looking up at me with those big, worried eyes. We were standing in the hallway after his third different practice that week—soccer on Monday, swimming on Wednesday, basketball on Friday.
”Not yet, buddy. You’re still figuring out what you love.”
Three years later, I found myself having the exact same conversation with a brilliant business owner who couldn’t stop apologizing for having "too many ideas."
The phone call that changed everything
She was beating herself up. Again.
"I know everyone says I need to niche down, but I just can’t seem to stick to one thing. I have all these different ideas, and I feel like I’m scattered. My coach keeps telling me to pick a lane, but what if I pick the wrong one?"
Sound familiar?
Here’s what I told her—the same thing I tell every talented entrepreneur who thinks having multiple interests is somehow a character flaw:
It’s not a bad thing that you’re trying all these things out.
But here’s the key part: You do need to niche at some point.
The sports lesson every entrepreneur needs
Think about how kids discover their talents.
When my kids were younger, I didn’t sign them up for soccer and call it done. That would have been ridiculous.
Instead, they tried everything: gymnastics, soccer, swimming, basketball, tennis, even rock climbing for a hot minute.
They needed to figure out:
What they were naturally good at
What they actually enjoyed doing
What felt sustainable long-term
Business exploration works the same way.
You have to answer those three questions before you can commit to a direction:
What are you naturally good at?
What do you actually love doing?
What’s sustainable for you long-term?
But—and this is crucial—once you have those answers, the cost of NOT focusing becomes enormous.
The hidden price of ”keeping your options open”
I see this pattern constantly with talented entrepreneurs:
They’re capable of doing many things well, so they try to do all of them.
And then they hit a wall.
Your lead generation becomes impossible because you can’t articulate who you serve.
Your messaging gets diluted because you’re trying to speak to everyone.
You can’t command premium pricing because you’re not positioned as the expert in anything specific.
You burn out from constantly context-switching between different types of work.
You waste time because you don’t know which connections to prioritize.
Most importantly: You can’t scale without focus.
When your energy is scattered across too many directions, you hit a revenue ceiling. Not because you lack talent, but because you lack the concentrated force that comes from alignment.
The moment everything clicks
Remember my client with "too many ideas"?
Six months after our conversation, she called me back.
"I finally picked my lane," she said. "And I’m dominating it."
She’d spent those six months testing, measuring, and paying attention to where she got the best results and felt most energized.
The winner? Executive communication coaching.
Not general business coaching. Not leadership development. Not public speaking training.
Executive. Communication. Coaching.
Specific. Clear. Focused.
Her revenue doubled in four months.
The questions that cut through the noise
If you’re sitting in exploration mode right now, here are the questions that will cut through the confusion:
What work makes you lose track of time?
Which clients thank you most enthusiastically?
What do people consistently ask for your help with?
Where do you get results that surprise even you?
What could you talk about for hours without getting bored?
If you could only do one thing for the rest of your career, what would it be?
The intersection of these answers? That’s your lane.
The hard truth about timing
Most entrepreneurs I work with know their answers to these questions.
They just don’t want to commit to them.
Because commitment means saying no to other opportunities. It means turning down work that doesn’t fit. It means accepting that you can’t be everything to everyone.
But here’s what I’ve learned: The fear of choosing wrong is keeping you from choosing at all.
And not choosing? That’s choosing stagnation.
Your assignment (if you’re ready)
Pick one thing you’ve been "exploring" for over a year.
You know what I’m talking about. That idea you keep circling back to. That service you keep offering even though it’s not your main thing. That audience you keep trying to serve even though they don’t convert as well as others.
Today, make a decision: Commit to it fully or let it go completely.
No more ”testing the waters.” No more ”keeping your options open.”
Choose your lane and dominate it.
The conversation we need to have
If you’re reading this and thinking, "I know I need to focus, but I have no idea how to choose," that tells me something important: You need an outside perspective.
Sometimes the clarity you’re looking for isn‘t found in more exploration—it’s found in a strategic conversation with someone who can help you see patterns you can’t see yourself.
Let’s have that conversation. Because the difference between scattered potential and focused power might be just one decision away.
What’s the one thing you know you should either commit to completely or let go of forever? Let’s figure out which one it should be.