When Success Turns to Funk The Art of Going Down to Go Up

At the end of 2024, Chris Lalomia found himself at a familiar point on the entrepreneurial mountain: not the summit, but a valley. Despite building The Trusted Toolbox into one of the country's largest handyman services, he hit what he calls a “funk,” that paralyzing moment when success feels distant and every step forward seems to slide backwards.

"Sometimes," Chris told me during our conversation on The Price and Value Journey podcast, "you have to go down to go up." This counterintuitive truth challenges our carefully cultivated goals, spreadsheets, and forecasts of business growth.

Even if you’ve been in business a while and you know these valleys are just part of the journey, it doesn’t make the experience any easier.

Funk can sneak up on you unknowingly, too. For Chris, it manifested as a crushing disconnect between effort and results. It was doing everything "right" but still missing goals.

Sometimes funk arrives like a fog: you have a vague sense that you’re not headed in the right direction but you’re not sure exactly why or how. You might even have this feeling when you’re hitting your numbers. Maybe the passion that once drove you feels distant, replaced by a mechanical going-through-the-motions.

Rediscovering Your Artistry

Chris shares a profound truth with his team, inspired by St. Francis of Assisi: "If you work with your hands, you are a laborer. If you work with your head and your hands, you're a carpenter. But if you work with your head, your heart, and your hands, you're an artist."

Chris uses this philosophy to transform how his team sees their work and the value clients perceive in that work. They're not just fixing leaky faucets or patching drywall. They're creating moments of relief for frustrated homeowners, turning chaos back into comfort, and practicing their craft with the precision of artists.

It’s not true just for handymen. It’s true for Chris, for you and me, and for any professional service provider serious about their craft.

When we're in a funk, we tend to overlook the artistic aspect of our work. We focus on tasks, metrics, and problems rather than the deeper meaning and craft of what we do. We forget about the value we bring to others.

The path back to flow starts with reconnecting to that artistry, remembering that our professional excellence isn't just about competence. It’s about the enormous value that we provide.

Finding Your Way Through the Valley

Chris shared how he is climbing out of his own funk, and I've weathered similar valleys in my own business journey. While everyone's path through these challenges is uniquely their own, there's wisdom in learning from each other's experiences. Drawing from both Chris's story and my own journey, here are some possibilities to consider:

Reconnect with Purpose. Sometimes breaking out of a funk means remembering why you started. It might mean embracing the truth that Chris instills into his team: seeing your work not just as fixing things like a handyman, but as creating value through craftsmanship and care. When you view your work as artistry rather than just tasks, you tap into a deeper understanding of value and give yourself a source of energy and meaning.

Give Yourself Grace. Chris spoke about how the idea of grace, something he draws from his faith, helped shift his perspective. But grace isn’t just a religious concept. It’s the act of allowing yourself space to be human, to make mistakes, and to recover without self-judgment. Most entrepreneurs I know are often their own toughest critics. I recognize the characteristic because it’s true for me, too. Grace, though, can often be the difference between stagnation and renewal.

Small Wins Can Restore Momentum. Instead of waiting for some grand breakthrough, Chris started looking for any win—closing a sale, hitting a small milestone, securing a positive review. One of those moments came when The Trusted Toolbox surpassed 1,000 Google reviews. That wasn’t just a number—it was proof of years of excellent service and happy clients. It was a tangible reminder that the work mattered. Sometimes, all it takes is pausing long enough to see how far you’ve come.

Self-Care is Non-Negotiable. During his funk, Chris stopped doing the things that normally energized him: recording his podcast, connecting with peers, and staying active. Making himself return to these activities, even when it felt uncomfortable, helped shift his mindset. Sometimes the very things we abandon during tough times are exactly what we need most.

Seek the Right Conversations. It wasn’t his mastermind group that helped Chris reset. It was a couple of key mentors who gave him needed perspective and challenge. If you don’t have such mentors, you need to find them so they're on hand when you need them most.

Recognize That Business Cycles (and Poop in General) Happen Often. A down year doesn’t mean failure. Every entrepreneur faces slow periods. Your identity as a service provider is not tied up in short-term results. Lean into the transformation you’ve delivered to your clients over the years. Sometimes picking up the phone and checking in with that client who’s experiencing success because of your work is the best therapy you can give yourself.

The Art of Sustainable Service

You must first serve yourself if you wish to serve others with the full force of your artistry, head, heart, and hands working in harmony. That means pricing in a way that sustains you. It means recognizing when you need to step back and recharge. And yes, it means allowing yourself the same grace you'd readily offer to a client, colleague, or friend.

Chris's journey reminds us that even the most successful business owners encounter these valleys. The key isn't to avoid them entirely. That's impossible.

The challenge is to recognize them as opportunities to reconnect with your deeper purpose, get a renewed sense of the value clients see in your craft, and accept that sometimes you must go down before you can go up again.

Want to hear more about navigating these entrepreneurial summits and valleys? Listen to my full conversation with Chris on The Price and Value Journey podcast.

If you're in the metro Atlanta area and require exceptional handyman services or are contemplating a remodel, contact The Trusted Toolbox. Chris and his team are fabulous to work with. I'm one of those 1,000 Google reviews!

#entrepreneurship #mindset #selfcare #pricing #pricevaluejourney

Image Credit: Jan Canty on Unsplash

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Are you frustrated by your pricing? Need help articulating your value? Do you need a better way to identify and close your best-fit clients? Do you want to restore the joy you used to have for your business? I may be able to help you.

I’m a business consultant, coach, author, and podcaster. I advise solopreneurs and small professional services firms on their two most frustrating problems: pricing and business development. I’m passionate about how changes in mindset, positioning, and pricing change the trajectory of a business and the lifestyle choices of a business owner. My clients are professionals who are selling their expertise, such as consultants, coaches, attorneys, CPAs, accountants and bookkeepers, marketing professionals, and other professional services practitioners. Click here to learn more, or contact me directly.

I’m the author of the five-star-rated bestselling book, The Generosity Mindset: A Journey to Business Success by Raising Your Confidence, Value, and Prices. The book covers topics like value and adopting a mindset of value, pricing your services more effectively, proposals, and essential elements of growing your business. The book is available at all major physical and online book retailers.

(Big thanks to my friend Paul A. Zanardo for this photo.