When you decide to scale your life and uplevel your business, you’ll often land squarely in what feels like total chaos. Host April Shprintz breaks down the reality of navigating the messy middle, that uncomfortable transition stage where old structures fall away before new wins can take root. If you’re losing old clients, changing social circles, or missing out on immediate opportunities, it doesn’t mean your momentum has stopped. Nature clears fields with fire before fresh growth appears, and your professional growth works the exact same way. You’ll learn practical mental frameworks to identify universe winks and reframe tough transitional friction as evidence of upcoming breakthroughs. Stop turning back when things get uncomfortable because staying the course is how you reach your biggest goals.
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Stuck In The Messy Middle? I’ve Got You!
Recognizing The Growth Transition Phase
I am so glad you’re here. I’m talking to you right now, asking you if you are in the messy middle. You may be saying, “April, what the hell is the messy middle?” Believe me, if you were there, you know. The messy middle is when you have decided to grow. You have decided to uplevel. Even though I tell you all the time that things are always working out for you, it looks like everything is falling the fuck apart. I promise you, it isn’t.
Understanding Why Old Clients And Systems Fall Away
It can look like you’re losing most of your one-on-one clients because you’re meant to start working with groups. Some of that has to fall away before the other thing can be built. Maybe you got turned down for this job that you really want. There is a promotion that will be available in the spring that you have no idea about. This actually happened to me. I talked about it many times again, early in my career. I thought I really wanted this job I went for within the company, and I did not get it.
When everything looks like it's falling apart, you're actually just navigating the messy middle of growth. Share on XNavigating Evolving Professional Peer Groups
I found out later that some of my leaders had said, “Do not hire her,” because they had me in mind for a much better promotion. At the time, I did not know that. I just knew the CEO’s child got hired, and I did not. I could take that as nothing is working out for me. Everything is always working out for you. It could also look like losing touch and not feeling close with all of your friend group, right? It’s because they’re not growing in a way that you are.
Embracing Natural Cycles Of Disruption And Expansion
As those folks fall away or become a smaller part of your life, you also then meet an entirely new group of people who are going to be your tribe, who are going to be at the same place that you are in life. Now look, it never happens that succinctly. It never happens that seamlessly. Things fall away first before new things can grow. Think about nature. There is a huge fire that clears everything out. All of a sudden, there’s all this great growth.
A missed opportunity isn't a dead end. It's often protection and redirection toward a much bigger win. Share on XTracking Evidence Of Positive Momentum
You sometimes see farmers do it on their fields, too. You cannot have one without the other. We tend to freak out when stuff starts falling apart. It’s messy. It’s uncomfortable. Trusting it is the best thing that you can do. I want you to look back at all the times that things looked really rough or bad, but ultimately worked out for you really well. I want you to think about those times in your life and use those as universe winks telling you, “Focus on how this is working out for me.”
Nature clears the ground before new growth starts. Your career and business follow the exact same cycle. Share on XI want to look at this in this way so that as soon as things start to show themselves to me, I see those universe winks. I see the things that are happening for me, not to me, because that’s what I’m looking for. If that doesn’t work, because it’s tough, sometimes these days are just awful, and you’re like, “Everything’s falling apart.”
Adopting The Hero Archetype During Tough Season
I’m going to give you a trick that I do. You may say it’s cheesy, and that’s fine. It works really well for me. I want you to imagine yourself as the hero of a really great movie. Think of a movie you love, and you watch over and over again, and you watch that person that you love just go absolutely down in the dumps and bring themself up and just do amazing things. For me, I loved Legally Blonde. I loved Working Girl. I have a lot of friends who love Rocky. I just love the music. There are all sorts of movies. Marvel does a bunch of them, right?
You're just in the middle of your story where things get tested before the massive breakthrough hits. Share on XIt’s because every superhero has that moment before things turn. Imagine that this movie is about you. It’s about your life. You’re in that part of the movie where people are really rooting for you, man. They’re like, cringe. “That looks so hard. That’s tough. I hope they make it through that.” Feel yourself in that part of the movie. Know this is where people are learning to trust, right along with you. As you learn to trust, things are going to turn around. They’re going to be better than you ever imagined.
You’re never going to get there. If you do not get through that messy middle, you can turn around and go back. It’s a lot worse where you came from. You might just not remember it right at this moment. I promise you, if you stay here in the messy middle and you go through it, you’re going to come out the other side, and you’re going to be so glad you did. You’ve got this. I believe in you. Here’s to your success.
