Is a maker business forever? Even with the best of intentions and the most dedicated ambitions, sometimes it’s not.

In big business and in the startup world, there’s often talk about exit strategies or succession planning. What happens when you’re done building what you build and are ready to move on? How do you transition leadership to someone else? How do you keep your business’ vision alive when you’re no longer at the helm to lead it?

Sierra Bailey started Manic Trout 15 years ago by selling paintings and jewelry she made as a side hustle to her full-time day job. As her business grew, she ditched the paintings to focus solely on jewelry, quit her day job, and built a thriving, profitable enterprise that developed a devout fan following that called themselves “Trouties”. Along the way she earned accolades, was featured on TV and major editorial outlets, and just kept making, because those orders just kept coming in. And it kept going—or could have—because then one day it just didn’t. Earlier this year she acknowledge a number of burn-out symptoms and decided it was time to throw in the towel and close down her thriving handmade business in favor of a career shift into the unknown of business coaching. And in my interview with Sierra, we get deep into the process of how she realized that she needed to stop, what she did about it and what she told her Trouties, and how she’s faring without a product-based business in her life.

Listen to the episode below!

Episode Guests

After 15 years of owning and running the jewelry brand, Manic Trout, Sierra Bailey has pivoted to a new passion. In her second act in life, she is a business coach who works with solopreneurs, professionals and small business owners who have reached the level where they have lost sight of their goals, are trying to do all the things, and are completely overwhelmed. With her marketing expertise and business acumen, Sierra works with clients to scale their businesses, diversify their revenue streams, and create systems to improve their productivity.

You can learn more about Sierra and her work by visiting her website and following her on Instagram.