In the midst of all the hustle, sweat, and tears it can take sometimes to build your own sustainable creative livelihood, sometimes it’s good to just take a minute to sit back and embrace the joy that this journey brings with it along the way.
You may be wondering why I think of my work as a soul-centered, heart-driven, lifestyle-led creative business. Here’s why:
Read MoreI love answering them as openly and honestly as possible and I realised recently that it may just be easier to answer some of the most frequently asked questions all in one place for everyone who is curious about the answers to read. So here are answers to ten of the questions you may have wanted to pick my brain about:
Read MoreOne of things many of my clients are always itching to come up with is their ideal client or reader profile. I’ve seen that, alongside identifying your niche, honing in on your ideal client is a major stress point for creatives in the digital space.
One popular technique is to create an ideal reader or client profile. That means knowing your ideal client inside and out, from their demographics, to their interests, and even sometimes as far as knowing their hair colour, favourite film, and go-to ice cream flavour.
Some people create a profile, others write a diary entry in the voice of their ideal client, others give them a name and keep them in their mind at all times when showing up online with their work.
And this can work, for some people and some types of businesses. Especially if you’re running a very niche business, having a clear and focused ideal client in mind can work wonders when crafting copy, content, and your services. I've seen many of my clients build Pinterest boards to represent their ideal clients, and thorough profiles to help them fully dig into the mindset and needs of the people they're here to serve with their work. But what I’ve seen some of my other clients struggle with is how stifling this model can feel sometimes when you’re a curious, big-hearted, purpose-driven creative.
As an alternative, what I share with them is my own approach to honing in on my ideal client - and why I don’t have a specific ideal reader client profile guiding me when showing up online with my creative work and business.
Read MoreSeason 2 of my podcast, Make It Happen, has just come to an end and I am crazy proud of this body of work. So much of it has felt like a collaboration too with the awesome guests who have come on the show this season, and I also experimented with solo mini episodes each week which were an absolute joy to create.
The main reason I work on this show is to create the space to share ideas, stories, and insights into the realities of making things happen in our creative life - from the nitty gritty business side of things, to the messy and personal side too. An overarching theme this season was living, creating, and doing business with intention, and it was so interesting to see how that manifests differently for every guest on the show.
Make It Happen will be back with Season 3 in the summer, but before then here are all the episodes from this season for you to catch up with:
Read MoreManaging our time, getting things done, and finding a good “balance” is something I think so many of us struggle with. Some of us fall into the camp of being constantly go-go-go and never taking a break, and others into the camp of being too easily distracted and struggling to stay focused with the lack of structure working for ourselves can bring. Here’s what I’ve learned:
My business needs structure and boundaries.
My creativity needs freedom and space.
My wellbeing needs margin and flexibility.
For a long time, these all felt like too many contradictions - I struggled to see how I could make space for everything in my weekly routine. After hitting burnout and feeling unfulfilled in my creative life last year, this year I decided to focus on shifting my routine so that it could make space for everything my business, my creativity, and my wellbeing needs along the way. Here’s how that practically looks for me now:
Read MoreI shared what this meant for me in-depth in this post here. To stay as wholehearted and intentional as possible in 2016, I’ve decided to take this year quarter-by-quarter and embrace my own approach to the 12-week year. Quarter 1 has now come to end and looking back it has probably been my favourite ever quarter in my creative life so far.
I’ve slowed down, I’ve focused on digging deep and doing only the most essential work, and I’ve committed to reconnecting to my creativity, my wellbeing, and my best ideas. Today I want to share with you some of my reflections on Q1 and the biggest takeaways and lessons from this season in my creative work and life.
Read MoreA question I’ve been asked a lot recently is how I got to where I am now with my blog and my business. This is a funny question for me as I never really think of myself as someone who has got anywhere, I’m just doing what I love, figuring things out as I go, and working really hard to make it happen along the way.
Today I want to share with you my journey step-by-step so far, from my first ever blog post to the coaching business I have today. I want to share both the blogging and business journey alongside some insights from my personal journey too, as for me they both go hand in hand. My personal life affects my business and my business affects my personal life and the lines are so blurred now between them that it wouldn’t be the full story if I didn’t share them both side by side.
Read MoreBecause as a coach, you are ultimately your number one asset. Your mind, your time, your wellbeing, and your ability to show up and do your best work with your clients will make or break your ability to build an impactful, fulfilling, and sustainable coaching business along the way.
When I first started out, I didn’t even think about the possibility of burn out - the thought of getting booked out in advance at all, let alone within the first six months just didn’t even come into my mind. So for the first year I was just not prepared for how intense and draining your work can become as a coach - especially if you’ve not intentionally built your routine to enable you to do your best work along the way.
I found myself overbooked, overworked, and stressed out and by November last year I found myself completely burned out. I knew I loved my work, it feeds my soul in ways I can’t even put into words, but I also knew that I couldn’t continue to sacrifice my wellbeing for my business and that something had to change.
Today I want to share with you how I have been building a more intentional, mindful, and healthy routine as a coach, and the advice I wish I knew when I first started out so I could have avoided burn out along the way.
Read MoreA conversation I have with so many of my coaching clients is about what their content strategy can and cannot look like.
Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t lost all reason and sanity here - I am a content coach after all. But what I’ve found with so many of the purpose-driven creatives I’ve worked with is that so much of the “shoulds” and “how-to’s” when it comes to content marketing and strategy have actually ending up stifling their best, most creative, and impactful ideas.
There’s a reason why I don’t believe in or make space for one-size-fits-all formulas, strategies, and quick fixes in the work I do with my clients - because I deep-down-in-my-gut believe that there’s no place for them when we’re showing up and doing meaningful and impactful creative work.
Whether you’re aching to be a thought leader, a visionary, or just to build an impactful, fulfilling, and sustainable creative business on your own terms, your content marketing strategy can play a huge part in getting your brand out there and in front of the right people for you.
But as purpose-driven creatives, our content marketing strategy is way more than that. It’s a way to build meaningful relationships, brand awareness around the values your work is built upon, and trust that makes the selling process for you and the buying process for your clients and customers feel so damn good instead of sleazy along the way.
My full list of “your content marketing strategy could look like this but doesn’t have to” would take me far too long to write about, but here are some of the key mediums and methods my clients bring up in our work together when they’re feeling like they have to market themselves in a way that doesn’t actually feel true to who they are and what they do.
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