I’ve been doing lots of new things over the past few months: I started a podcast series for paid subscribers and designed my new group programme Marketing without social media.
In today’s post, I share my lessons from starting something new, whether it’s a business, a creative project or an idea within your business. I’ll share my tips on staying close to your own vision and ideas, how to deal with doubts and when to seek support (and when not).
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Identify how you want to feel. Check everything against that.
I have three guiding words in my business: slow, gentle and profitable. If something doesn’t fit in with that, if it’s hurried, rushed, requires me to be ‘on’ all the time, do things that feel gross to me or that cause me to undercharge, it’s off the table.
In addition to those guiding words, I also come back to other words and ways I want to feel in my business. Mostly, I want to feel expansive in my business. If I start feeling cramped, claustrophobic or fall into any form of scarcity-thinking, that’s a sign to me that something about the new idea or project is off.
How does your new idea or project make you feel? How do you want it to feel? This is your guiding word or phrase. Check everything you plan to do against it: does your way of working on this project feel like you want to feel? Does your way of marketing this new endeavour make you feel the way you want to feel? If not, change it up.
Stay really close to yourself when the doubts come knocking.
Because they will—they always do.
It’s a natural part of doing anything in life, especially something new, that we start feeling self-doubt. When you do, check in with yourself. Are you feeling doubt because you see other people doing something different? Because you feel like the way you are tackling this project, running your business, creating your art is different from what you ‘should’ be doing? Is someone’s well-meant advice steering your off course?
In designing Marketing without social media I felt very clearly from the beginning that I didn’t want to do a programme that was completely live.
I work with lots of small business owners, freelancers and creatives who have other commitments, who live in other time zones from me, who live with (chronic) illness or are otherwise unable or unwilling to commit to showing up for a live online event. I call the way I designed Marketing without social media “designed for humanness” because I provide my support and accountability (through office hours and a super-gentle community) while making sure that the workshops and the office hours themselves are prerecorded so that you can watch them whenever suits you.
Yet this is a format that I’ve not seen much. I doubted. I considered adding live workshops. And I immediately started to feel cramped and pressured. In the end, I checked in with myself and stuck to my original idea, which feels expansive and good.
Yes, whatever you’re doing might be different from what other people are doing. But is that way your way? Return to yourself. Check in with your inner compass.
Return to yourself. Check in with your inner compass.
Percolate, don’t rush
Resist the urge to hurry and pressure yourself. Recognise when you’re falling into feelings of time scarcity. Let your project unfold in its own pace, on your pace.
If my newsletters and free resources resonate with you, I might just be the right mentor for you. I don’t believe in 10-step-plans, or get rich quick schemes. I do believe that it is possible to create and run a business that fits you and your life: your values and rhythms, your strengths and passions. I strongly believe that you don’t need to do all the things, or be on all the channels to make your business work.
I’m here to help you feel more supported in your business. I’m here to give you the confidence to run your business from that place of deep inner knowing inside of you, offering my signature blend of mindset shifts and practical steps.
Work with yourself (not against)
So many people I speak to beat themselves up for not being “productive” enough. They berate themselves for not working evenings on their art when they spend the day at a 9-to-5. They feel like they never get enough done. In working 1:1 with these small business owners I gently nudge them to work with the life they have (and remind them that what we see from the outside of other people’s lives is generally not the reality)
Work with the life, the body, the mind, the focus that you have today.
Try not to beat yourself up about what you might see as your failings. Try not to fall into meta-thinking in which you kick yourself about procrastinating. Work with the life, the body, the mind, the focus that you have today.
Give yourself space + distance when you need it.
Give yourself space and distance when you need it—from the world, from others in your field, even from your project. I am a great believer in shutting out whatever makes us feel anxious, stressed or otherwise bad. For the past decades, I’ve been very (very) selective about the news I consume, because I know that staying plugged in to news websites and apps triggers anxiety in me.
The same thing goes for anything that might make you feel bad, anxious, uncomfortable about or distracted from your new project. I have months in which I devour every business podcasts I can find, and months where I deliberately take a step back because I want to focus on my own business, my own life, my own inner narrative.
You might also need some distance from your new project or idea. Starting something new can be exhilarating and all-encompassing in an amazing way. But sometimes that tips over into fatigue, overwhelm, even burn-out. Give yourself some distance. Read a book wholly unrelated to business (here’s what I’m reading in 2024). Leave the business podcasts off when you go on your walk. Take a creative workshop or do an activity completely unrelated to your new project or idea. Create space—your project will be there when you return.
Remind yourself of your parameters
What are you willing to do and what are you not willing to do? Much of my journey of marketing my business has centred on these two questions. Marketing finally began to feel good when I realised that I no longer wanted to do the things that didn’t make me feel good (goodbye social media). The next step was giving myself permission to experiment with actually not doing those things.
Let me tell you a secret. The rulebook doesn’t exist.
Sometimes it seems like there are set rules for doing business, art or life.
Let me tell you a secret. The rulebook doesn’t exist. There’s only one thing that matters: what feels right to you, what feels aligned to your values and your life. Check in with how you want to feel, with your inner compass and you’ll know what you do and don’t want to do. It’s your business, you get to set the rules.
Be bold (if only in your dreams)
Especially when you’ve been dealing with self-doubt, dreaming of what could be possible feels scary. Your dream of how the business idea you have could lead to financial independence and a slower, gentler life. Or how you dream of the newsletter you’re starting one day turning into a book. Or how the series of artworks that you’ve started will someday be exhibited in your favourite museum.
Hold on to those dreams. I’m not one for manifesting, but I do believe (and practice, again and again) what my partner calls “fantasizing in the right direction”. Especially if you’re beset by self-doubt or fears, imagine your dreams coming true. The beautiful, amazing things that could happen. There’s no need to share them with anyone, but I’d encourage you to record them somewhere, like in a journal, just to practice thinking like this.
Chip away
Tackling a new project can be daunting. Rather than approaching it as this monolith of things to do, imagine that you are chipping away at your project step by step. It doesn’t matter whether what you do today is big or small: you’re chipping away, taking it, as Anne Lamott writes, “bird by bird”. That’s how things get done.
Seek support + be selective
If you work by yourself, things can feel really lonely. In your business or art practice, you are the one taking all the decisions. You are the one responsible for everything.
When you’re ready, seek support. Ask a trusted friend, a business buddy, join our gentle community in the Female Owned paid subscriber section, or work with a mentor (like me!).
I’ve greatly benefited from all kinds of support as I’ve been building and running my business. Yet I’ve also learnt to be selective. When you seek support, ask yourself what you’re looking for. Are you asking for feedback or business advice, or for reassurance?
Be explicit in your needs. Tell the person you’re asking for support what you’re looking for. Would you love some feedback about your sales page, or are you simply looking for some reassurance that yes, this whole business thing can be hard, but that you’ve got it?
Allow yourself to change your mind
Originally, I had planned an elaborate early-bird bonus for Marketing without social media. But it didn’t sit quite right.
I discussed the bonus with my mastermind group and they were unequivocal. Scrap that bonus and go for something else. Add a bonus that feels natural and organic to you. Do what you do best.
Instead, I settled on offering a 30-minute 1:1 bonus call, which felt so much better.
You know best
That is it really. Even though as a mentor I’m in the business of giving advice, I see my main job as helping you get in touch with your inner compass, your inner knowing and giving you the practical and emotional support to make it happen, whatever you desire.
An experiment
Take a moment to think or journal about these questions:
- Which new projects or ideas are you currently working on? Is there something in the back of your mind waiting to be brought to life?
- Which of these tips resonates most with you? What are you going to try?
- When do you need to check in with yourself more and with your inner compass, rather than with other people’s advice?
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