Doing the Underground Work: Excavation, Retrenchment, and the Clean-Up
When two new clients came into my world recently, one running an excavation company and the other a cleaning service, I didn’t see it as coincidence. One digs deep to build foundations. The other clears space for fresh beginnings. Both reflect exactly where I am in my own business and life.
Sometimes the universe sends subtle reminders through the work we attract. These clients reminded me that before expansion comes preparation, and before visibility comes clarity.
Key takeaway: Before you build, you must dig. Before you expand, you must clear. The most meaningful growth always begins underground.
The Excavation: Doing the Underground Work
Excavation is messy, unseen, and necessary. It’s not the part that makes it to social media, but it’s the part that makes everything else possible.
In my own business, excavation looks like re-evaluating systems, simplifying offers, and getting grounded in what’s truly aligned. It’s asking honest questions and being willing to face what lies beneath the surface.
Journal prompts:
Where in your business or life are you being called to dig deeper?
What foundation needs your attention, even if no one else can see it yet?
What habits or beliefs have become packed earth, waiting to be loosened?
The underground work isn’t glamorous, but it’s sacred. It’s how we prepare for what we’re meant to build next.
Retrenchment: The Strategic Pullback
Retrenchment is a word often used in business when companies reduce expenses or scale back to strengthen sustainability. But energetically, it’s about pulling inward to protect your foundation.
It’s the season when you stop doing all the things and start focusing on the right things. When you tighten your energy not out of fear, but from wisdom, choosing to fortify your inner resources before expanding again.
Reflect on:
Where in your life or business are you being invited to pull back or simplify?
What boundaries or systems could serve as your “secondary fortifications”?
How might a pause actually prepare you for more sustainable growth?
Retrenchment does not mean failure. It means maturity, the ability to recalibrate so your next steps are grounded and strategic.
The Clean-Up: Clearing Space for What’s Next
Cleaning is more than tidying up. It’s releasing the old to welcome the new.
When I think about my client’s cleaning business, I’m reminded that clean spaces carry clearer energy. The same applies to our lives and businesses. The more we clear, the more space we create for aligned opportunities to flow in.
Ask yourself:
What needs a clean-up in your business, home, or energy?
What outdated projects or thought patterns are taking up valuable space?
Where are you still holding onto things “just in case”?
The peace that follows a clean-up is unmistakable. It’s that deep exhale that whispers, I’m ready now.
The SEO Parallel: What’s Beneath the Surface Matters
Both of these new clients came through my SEO work, and that felt poetic. SEO is invisible labor. It’s the behind-the-scenes structure that helps businesses become visible.
Like excavation and cleaning, it’s not the surface work that matters most. It’s what’s built underneath. The keywords, the organization, the optimization, the strategy.
Visibility is not about doing more. It’s about creating strong, aligned foundations beneath the surface so your message naturally rises to the top.
Consider:
Where in your business are you optimizing the unseen layers?
How are you setting yourself up for long-term discoverability, not just quick wins?
SEO, like personal growth, rewards those willing to do the deep work.
Integration: Grounded Growth
Excavation, retrenchment, and cleaning all serve the same purpose: to prepare for expansion that’s sustainable, aligned, and true.
You can’t plant in rocky soil. You can’t thrive in cluttered space. You can’t grow when you’re stretched too thin.
Before you move forward, pause to ask:
What needs to be strengthened before I expand?
What needs to be cleared to make room for what’s next?
The most aligned growth is always grounded growth.
If this resonates, take time this week to ask yourself where you’re being called to dig deeper, clean up, or pull back.
And if you’re ready to do the inner and outer work of becoming more visible and aligned in your business, join my free community, Money Mindset with Melissa, where we explore the intersection of mindset, visibility, and technology together.