For 2017, I want to try something a little different over here on the blog...

During the second half of 2016 I dabbled with sharing some snippets of my day-to-day life over on Instagram Stories, but ultimately I realised that I'm just way happier and more present in my life when I have no social media apps connected to my phone. As much as I know that social media just isn't for me, I also know that I do want to share a little bit more of my life online as I don't want things to be all business, business, business without actually sharing the more personal and life-related stuff too. So my plan is to end each month this year with a more stripped back blog post than usual with some photos and highlights from the month that's just come and gone and also some intentions for the new month ahead too!

A big part of January was just about getting back into the swing of things in work and life after taking a couple of weeks off at the end of December. Alongside days spent working on my business and on calls with my awesome clients, we also filled our month with some mini UK city breaks and day adventures too to help ward off the January blues and start the year off as we mean to go on - with as much living as there is working!

So to kickstart today's post, here's a little snapshot of some of my highlights from January...

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Sometime’s, our health is going to kick our business’s ass.

Building and running a business is enough of a challenge at times, but when you add health struggles into the mix it can be even more of a battle to keep your head above water along the way.

Whether it’s through a chronic illness, or an unexpected health crisis, or anything and everything else in-between, sometimes the struggles and battles our minds and body’s face can affect our ability to get stuff done and make things happen in our work.

And it can be heartbreaking. I’ve had many days where I’ve wondered: if I wasn’t living alongside illness, how much more would I be able to get done each day? Would I feel happier in my work and my life? 

But there’s also joy to be found too. Living with illness has, without a doubt, been my catalyst for more intentional and wholehearted living - living alongside the limitations my health struggles can bring has taught me to prioritise what truly matters most to me in life, and to not waste time on the things that don’t matter along the way. And the fact that I’m able to work for myself and manage my health on my own terms is something I’m so damn grateful for every single day.

So if your health is kicking your business’s ass right now, I want to share with you 5 things from around the web that I’ve found encouraging, insightful, and comforting in my own journey along the way so far. My hope is that they may be able to be the same for you too. 

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Hello 2017, it’s very good to see you. 

I can’t wait to see what you have in store.

To kick start the new year, I have a journal prompt for you:

Dear 2017, this is what I promise to you...

How would you finish this sentence? It’s a question I asked myself at the end of last year and it really helped me to get laser-focused on how I wanted to show up for my work and my life in 2016. For 2016 I outlined:

• To play bigger
• To only ask of my life what I’m willing to make happen myself
• To explore and live more

These were the perfect anchors for me as I entered the brand new year, as they empowered me to truly take responsibility for my own growth, joy, and happiness throughout the year along the way. At the end of 2016 I sat down to ask myself the same question: what do I want to promise this brand new year ahead? What's come to the surface for me for 2017 is:

• To show up wholeheartedly to my work and my life
• To fill this year with travel and adventures
• To prioritise taking care of myself
• To live my truth out loud
• To continue to run a big-hearted business
• To run in the direction of a life that feels most meaningful and true to me

To help you dive deeper into what’s coming to the surface for you as you explore this, I have six questions for you: 

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Here’s the thing about living and working wholeheartedly: it’s going to look different for each and everyone one of us.

That’s why today I just want to share with you 10 of the ways I’ve been able to live and work wholeheartedly this year, in the hopes that they can be a jumping off point for you to explore some ways you can in the year, and years, ahead to come. 

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At the beginning of this year I outlined some intentions for what I hoped 2016 would be.

Looking back over that post, I feel so grateful that wholehearted was the word and mindset to guide me this year. 2016 has been a wonderful year for me - it’s had it’s highs and lows like all years have, but it’s one I know I’ll always look back on fondly and feel a whole lot of gratitude for. 

Today I want to share with some you some of things I’ve discovered and learned in my creative work and life this year; these are the things I’ll be taking with me into the next year and that I’m so thankful I’ve had the space and opportunity to dive deep into in 2016. 

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The end of the year is in sight now and a question that I’ve been asking myself and my clients recently is this:

How do you want to feel in work and life next year?

As big-hearted creatives, we don’t want to wander through life just letting it happen to us. We accept that there are many things out of our control, and that life is sometimes just about doing the best we can with the cards we’ve been dealt, but we also know that the ultimate responsibility for our happiness lies with ourselves and ourselves alone.

So instead of entering a new year with just lofty goals and big dreams to guide us, we also enter it intentionally deciding how we want to navigate the brand new 12 months ahead. 

And that’s exactly why I’ve created A Wholehearted 2017 - to support you to truly thrive in your work and life on your own terms next year - and I’d love to tell you a little more about it before I dive into the nitty gritty of today’s post. 

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For the first 18 months or so in my coaching business, I never built “sales” calls into my on-boarding process.

Whether you call them sales calls, or discovery sessions, or consult calls, they can usually be a big part of a service-based creatives process when it comes to attracting, booking, and on-boarding clients.

For a long time, I was very nervous and uncomfortable to host them. I’ve been lucky enough to be able to attract and book clients and be consistently booked out without them - my content has played the part of letting potential clients get to know me and feel comfortable enough to hire me as their coach - but during 2016 I’ve started to offer them a few times throughout the year and it’s thankfully been a way less scary experience than I expected.

It may sound strange that I was so nervous about hosting sales call, when jumping on calls with my clients is what I spend every single week doing anyway. But I had this big mindset block around the “selling” side of my business - I felt really uncomfortable jumping on a call with someone with the intent of selling to them, and also that fear that I would start to feel like I needed to hustle for my self worth as a coach.

I love the work I do as a coach - and I truly believe in the work I do too - but selling has always been the area I’ve battled with. I’m sure many of you can relate to this - I just never, ever, want to feel like a sleazy used car salesman. 

So even though I never felt like I needed to introduce sales or consult calls into my on-boarding process, I couldn’t deny their value either, especially after seeing how beneficial they are for my clients who are coaches who host them on a regular basis. 

Sales calls can give you space to really connect with a potential client, to truly understand their needs, to answer their questions about your services, and give them space to see if you’re a good fit together too. Especially if you have more premium pricing too, it’s a great way to give potential clients an opportunity to make an informed and comfortable purchasing decision, which for me as a coach is one of the most important things. I only want to work with clients who feel comfortable and excited about their investment in our work together. 

When you first start to picture sales calls, you may visualise a scenario where you have to pitch, sell, and aggressively market your services in a way that feels icky, salesy, and uncomfortable. That’s what I feared too, and why for a long time I never did them. But I’ve found that there can be another way, and I want to share my own approach with you today in the hopes of encouraging you to develop you own non-icky and soul centered approach if sales calls can serve your business model right now: 

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My main role as a creative coach in my engagements with my clients is to hold space, ask the right questions, and support them to discover their own answers and move forward in their creative work and lives in a way that works best for them. But there’s also space within my coaching practice to offer personal insights, encouragements, and ideas that may be of service to my clients in their journey’s along the way too.

Today I want to share with you five pieces of encouragement that I share often with my clients when they’re in a situation where I hope it may help them to explore a different perspective and discover how best they can navigate their journey along the way. I never have all of the answers, but if I could encourage you to explore anything in your creative work and life right now it would be the following five things: 

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To say I am inspired by and proud of every single client I work with would be an understatement.

To see creative women be bold and brave, put work that is meaningful to them out there into the world, and to build a creative life and business that feels truly meaningful for them - well, to say this is a dream job for me would be an understatement.

I have learned so much from each and every client I’ve worked with - I grow so much from these women and supporting them in their journey’s, and today I want to share with you some of the really cool things I’ve seen my clients make happen this year in their creative work and businesses. 

I had to narrow this down to just 10, because otherwise this would the longest post in the history of my blog, but if you’d like to find out about more of the awesome things my current and past clients are up to you can always head to my Client Stories page to read more. Below are 10 really awesome things some of my clients have been bringing to life this year, and my hope is that they will either be something that can be of service to you, or that they will just inspire you to also get out there and put your own awesome ideas out into the world. 

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