When Something Feels Off (And That's Okay)

By Tricia Scott.

A few of you messaged me after last week’s Biz Love Letter to say it really landed. And I’ve been thinking about that a lot, not just the replies, but the why.

When I sit down to write these letters every week I'm usually drawing on my own experience and what I see around me, both in The Female CEO community and also the wider business space and the whole idea of noticing what feels off has been showing up for me in a very ordinary, very business-y way lately in the form of Social Media. It just felt a bit… out of alignment.

Not wrong. Not broken. Just no longer fitting in the way it once did.

We’ve been there. We’ve shown up. We’ve engaged, like always,  and still, something in my body was just feeling uneasy.

You might recognise that feeling; it’s one of the things I talked about last week.
That thing you’re still doing because you always have.
The channel, the offer, the habit that looks fine on the outside, but feels a bit heavy on the inside.

And I want to say this really clearly:
When something feels off, it doesn’t mean you’ve messed up, and it doesn’t mean you made a bad decision or took a wrong turn.

In actual fact, it usually just means you’ve grown.

So instead of pushing through (because remember, ‘humans can endure almost any pain as long as its familiar’), I did the next thing. I checked the numbers.

The feeling was backed up by the facts.

Over the last 90 days, more than 10x as much traffic to The Female CEO has come from organic search as from social media.

And over 15x more has come from people visiting the site directly.

No drama (for a change). No blame. Just information.

It made me wonder how often this happens for all of us — when our spidey-senses know something before our spreadsheets catch up.

Alignment isn’t a reset or a retreat. It’s not waving the white flag of defeat or going backwards.

It’s listening.
It’s adjusting.
It’s responding to who you are now, not who you were when you first set things up (seriously, i’m not even the same person I was when I started writing this Love Letter, never mind almost 10 years ago).

We’re still learning. I’m still learning. And right now, that looks like rethinking how we show up on social so it feels lighter, more enjoyable, and more us again (because social media can be a bit of a cesspit for the unhinged if we’re not careful).

But the most important part isn’t changing anything.

It’s trusting the nudge.

So if something in your business has been tapping you on the shoulder lately - nothing urgent, just persistent - it’s time to listen.

And that’s how we grow.

I believe in you (always).

👉🏼If you want to receive a Biz Love Letter directly to your inbox every week in 2026, I email our Hello CEO mailing list every Monday. To join, head to The Homepage and sign up! 

 Tricia Scott is the Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Female CEO — a global platform, magazine, and community dedicated to helping women build confident, aligned, powerful businesses.

A startup mentor and multi-company director, she’s spent the past decade helping women move from overwhelmed and isolated to empowered and intentional.

Most days, she’s juggling her MacBook, her next big idea, and a very necessary caffeine supply. Connect with her at thefemaleceo.com.