Five ways I made running my business easier
“I call Sarah my unlocksmith, because she is unlocking a lot for me and the unhelpful stories I have been telling myself…just being able to realise that not being creative effects my feelings of self worth has really turned me around”.
Lindsay Nicholson, Writer, Facilitator & Theatre Practitioner
Hello loves!
If you’ve come here looking for nifty ideas around trello boards, apps and productivity ‘hacks’, you’re probably going to be disappointed :)
If you are curious about mindset and behaviour changes to make your creative life easier, read on. (there might be a hack or two… let’s see…). Here are the five key ways I make running my business - and life - easier, learnt the hard way in most parts!
1. Working with my energy
We live in a very 9-5, Monday to Friday world - that often feels like an 8-6 world frankly. As the mum of a teen I’m baffled by the fact that so many high schools start the day at 8.30am or even earlier, when that is in direct conflict with the teenage energy rhythms that have them struggling to sleep until late and night and then wanting to sleep through the alarm.
All humans of all ages have different energy rhythms. It makes sense for me to run workshops and coach in the morning when my energy is high, and only allow 1-2 afternoon coaching sessions per week. In the afternoons I write, reflect, run co-working sessions, do admin. I also only work 4 days a week because life is also for living and by Thursday I definitely feel complete!
When is your energy high? When are you most creative? Don’t fight it, work with it.
2. Saying to to things I don’t want to do
Easy to say, hard to do sometimes, but do it we must. There are many things I have the skills to earn money at that I do not do. Writing marketing plans for example, running social media accounts, coaching non creatives.
I only have 4 days a week, 45 weeks a year to work in my business, I don’t want to spend that doing stuff I don’t like or want to do. I have done this and it felt rubbish.
What are you currently doing that you don’t want to do? Where’s the resentment and frustration? And what can you do about it? (Remember: there’s no such thing generally as no choice, there is always choice, it’s jyst that the choice might be hard).
3. Creating structure around my procrastination
This is my least helpful habit - procrastination! So I use the pomodoro system , I bribe myself into doing things I don’t want to (there are your hacks!) and I also work out what the emotion is behind the procrastination. THIS is an excellent TEDX Talk that breaks procrastination down for you if this is a struggle for you too. You don’t have to just succumb to unhelpful behaviours, you can tackle them.
What unhelpful behaviour could you create a structure, work around or hack for?
4. Avoiding my competitors
I don’t really pay that much attention to what other coaches are doing out there, how they structure their group programme, what their marketing tactics are, their sales messages, what kind of content they put out. I just don;t find it helpful to have other people’s ideas, products, brands and messages in my head. I also think for all the positives of staying abreast of competitors, for me, the noise and potential comparison-itis is just not worth it. There are 2-3 other coaches that I like, and also chat to and the rest, I leave them alone.
Who appears in on your radar more than you’d like? How would it feel to unfollow some of the stuff that’s making you feel less than?
5. Leaning into my strengths
What am I good at and what do I enjoy? Talking, presenting, connecting, writing. What do I do? Group coaching, workshops, write articles and newsletters, talk on audio and video. I have learned to just go with what I am good at and make that the core of my creative business offering and strategy instead of trying to add in things that just aren’t me.
There are other things I could do, but I don’t because they’re not my forte and/ or I wouldn’t be having fun - ‘how can we make this easy'?’ is one of my favourite coaching questions and I have to apply it to myself too.
What are you good at? Are you spending most of your time doing that? If not, why not?
“Sarah is the real deal, with years of experience in marketing and running her own business she knows her stuff on the practical level.
She really understands the often unseen challenges that female entrepreneurs and creative women face and her own work/ life balance is frankly an inspiration. You won’t get grind culture here, a steely determination to help you set good targets and meet them yes but in a way that works for you.”
Joanne Scrace, Co Founder of The Crochet Project
Let’s talk?
If the above is food for thought and you’d like to get clearer on how you can make things easier in your life and work then you can grab a discovery call with me - we can work on something together and you can see if coaching is a good option for you. No pressure.
Book your discovery call today!
With love,
Glad you focused on principles more than productivity hacks.
There are so many different systems and they probably all work as equally well for different people. I’ve tried a lot of them but in the end life changes and I threw a lot out the window. I prefer to focus on principles because their applications is more flexible and it’s easier to adapt their execution in a moving world!
Great article Sarah - relates well to the pivot I am doing in my own creative biz.