Cultivating a Mindset of Momentum for Creative Mothers

Building and maintaining momentum is crucial for the growth and success of any business. However, we all go through ebbs and flows and as creative mamas, balancing business and family life can be particularly challenging. It can often feel as though it doesn’t take much to knock you off course. Periods of sick days or of broken sleep are inevitable as parents and it’s only natural that there will be times when your business has to take a back seat.

Experiencing a slump is normal, but regaining momentum is key to getting back on track. Here are four strategies and encouragements to regain momentum and cultivate a mindset of momentum to move you forward… 

1. Take Small Daily Actions

A great way to jumpstart your momentum is to take daily action on something small. This could be a business related task, but it doesn’t have to be. Think about where in your life you already do something consistently – Your morning smoothie, a weekly yoga class, daily gratitude practice? These little rituals prove you are already capable of momentum!

2. Experiment with New Approaches

While it’s important not to chase every new trend, sometimes trying a new method can reignite your motivation. For me, for example, sharing on Substack has recently reignited my motivation to create longer-form content. Identify areas in your business that feel stagnant and consider experimenting with fresh approaches to revive your enthusiasm.

3. Use Affirmations and Visualisations

If you often struggle with negative self-talk, incorporating affirmations and visualisations into your routine can help shift your mindset. Visualise what it will feel like to maintain momentum and the positive outcomes it will bring. Try writing down affirmations that resonate with you and what you want to achieve – such as “I take meaningful action every day,” “I finish what I start,” or “I get things done!”. These practices can help you develop a mindset geared toward continuous progress.

4. Seek Accountability

Finding momentum on your own can be tough, so consider seeking accountability from others. This could be with a mentor like myself, a business partner, or a supportive community. Cultivating more accountability can significantly boost your momentum and sharing your goals and progress with someone else makes you much more likely to stick to them.

Remember, that ebbs and flows are inevitable for creative mamas and although it can feel tough when you’ve lost momentum a few simple steps can get you gently back on track.

If you’re craving more personalised support do get in touch and have a free chat about how mentoring could boost your momentum in your creative business.

Gentle intentions for tough times.

What strange and scary times these are. It feels like we were just reaching the end of a long damp and gloomy winter when these new dark clouds gathered.

How are you holding up?

I think like most I’ve been going through a rollercoaster of emotions these last few weeks. Swinging from being very anxious and sad to feeling calm and even quite joyful at points. Mostly I feel very lucky and grateful – for our home, for my husband’s job, that right now we’re healthy and for the sunshine…thank goodness for the sunshine!

It’s hard to believe we’re only a quarter of the way through the year. Doesn’t new year feel like such a long time ago? What with having a baby I chose not to set any goals at the beginning of 2020, wanting to ease myself into the year and allow time to adjust to becoming a mother of two. I figured I’d check in with myself in the springtime and see where I stood. But Spring looks rather different than I could have imagined this year.

So instead of making any goals at this stage, I’m setting some gentle intentions for the coming weeks or months. They are intentions set during a lockdown during a very uncertain time but also they are things I’d like to cultivate in my life global pandemic notwithstanding…

Lean into the things that keep me grounded.

There has been a lot of talk online about using this time to develop a new skill and pick up new hobbies. The notion that we should be using our time in lockdown to be productive is wholly unhelpful, I don’t know about you but I certainly don’t have any more time on my hands.

So instead I’m leaning hard into the things that I already know will make me feel grounded and content. For me, that’s been cooking and baking with my toddler, meditation, journalling, photography, and mostly just homemaking – making the space we’re spending so much time in feel comfy and calm.

Less mindless scrolling.

I’m sure like many I’ve spent to much time on news sites recently and the correlation between my time spent on those and my anxiety levels is clear. And it’s not just the news. Since the pandemic hit I’ve found myself spending a lot more time on Facebook, which is a channel I barely ever use these days. On one hand, it’s nice to feel connected to the local community, but the inevitably strong opinions and bickering in post comments – about things like whether or not people are using local green spaces appropriately – is just draining.

Although I’ve loved the community and creativity on Instagram recently, even here I can feel myself being very mindless and unintentional with my time. So less scrolling it is!

I’m currently to experiment with setting myself limits on my screen time to see what works and feels good.

Feel out a rhythm.

For me, this seems like the ideal time to carve out a simple family rhythm. The lack of groups, play dates and other activities are giving me the chance to figure out what works best for our little family when keeping things as simple as possible.

Right now, of course, my focus is to keep things feeling good for us during this period of lockdown. Over the last few weeks, as we’ve adjusted to my husband now working from home new habits have emerged and slowly become touchstones in our day. On the whole, it’s working for us but I want to bring some extra intentionality around planning our rhythm to help our days flow nicely and be sure to include a good balance of activities.

Cultivate plenty of (self) compassion.

If there’s one thing I’m sure we all need in abundance to get us through this tough time it’s compassion – for our partners, kids, neighbours, communities and also importantly for ourselves.

Patience, kindness and compassion are traits many of us value and aspire to, but I’ll be honest putting these things into practice doesn’t always come easily for me. Especially in stressful times. There have been days over the last few weeks when it’s all got a bit much but I’m trying to come back to compassion when things get tough: Allowing space for things to be messy and confusing, lower my expectations, accepting that there’s no “perfect” way to navigate life during this pandemic and that there’s definitely no perfect way to parent through it.

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If you’re inspired to set some gentle intentions of your own, I’d recommend asking yourself a few questions, you can spend some time journaling or just sit with these: What do you need to keep yourself feeling centred during this time? What can you let go of? What’s feeling like your biggest struggle right now? Are there any changes you can make that will help with this? Remember to stay rooted in kindness, the idea is to cultivate a little more ease and flow rather than give yourself something else to worry about. I always find spending some time to set intentions like these really helps to remind me what is most important when tiredness and anxiety threaten to take over.

Making time for creativity this season

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There’s something about this time of year that sparks my creativity into overdrive – the autumnal colours, the misty mornings, being stuck indoors on a rainy day; it all just makes me want to get crafting, baking and making.

“The days that seem the most dreary,
Are perfect for being creative and cosy”

A few years ago I discovered this lovely song by Kimya Dawson (you’ll know her from the Juno soundtrack). The lyrics – all about setting intentions while the leaves are falling to see you strong through winter – speak so deeply to my Autumn loving soul. Especially the above quote, it just sums up how many of us feel so perfectly. Is there anything better than being cosy and creative on a dreary day?

I recently shared a poll on Instagram and 84% of those who answered also find themselves feeling more creative at this time of year. It has got me thinking, how can we make the most of this creative energy? Can we go beyond simply embracing a seasonal project or craft and perhaps establish new creative habits?

Autumnal enthusiasm aside, we often find ourselves feeling that we don’t have the time to be as creative as often as we’d like. However, I believe that a little consideration and preparation can go a long way towards helping moments of creativity flow more easily every day.

This is something that has particularly been on my mind recently. Coming to the end of two months of house renovations has given me the opportunity to really think about how I want to use our living space. I want a home that supports a simple and creative life. Supplies and playthings should be easily accessible; so whether we fancy painting, baking a cake or making music the things we need are on hand.

I appreciate I’m coming at this from the position of spending most of my days at home with a toddler but, even if you don’t have young kids in the mix, I believe the same concepts of making things simple and accessible can apply to all. Keep the supplies for your hobby or craft easy to get at, your musical instrument out and not hidden away in its case, a notebook and pen to hand at all times or your “big” camera somewhere you’ll reach for it (with the battery charged!).

It isn’t about expecting to feel creatively inspired all the time, but rather making it part of your rhythm. For me, it’s the small moments that add up to the feeling that I am living a more creative life.

As the hours of daylight decrease and the cold weather encourages you indoors to keep cosy, it really is the perfect time to consider how to honour your creativity this season. Don’t wait until the new year, why not set intentions now to make this winter a creative one? ✨

Here are some ideas for a few lovely ways to embrace creativity this season. I’ll certainly be doing most of these myself…

// Declutter and rearrange your space with prioritising creativity in mind.
// Have a go at writing morning pages.
// Forage for seasonal treasures to decorate your home.
// Bake things!
// Book onto a workshop.
// Get crafting for Christmas.
// Join in a creative hashtag project on Instagram (or start your own).
// Keep your hobby or craft supply underneath the sofa – ‘Netflix and create’ if you will!
// Take a creative e-course. Or, if you’re anything like me, dust off one you bought earlier.
//Meditate on creativity.
// Make a seasonal playlist.

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Playlist: Toddler Tunes Late Summer ’19

One morning recently I put on the radio to rouse my sleepy toddler from his rare lie-in.  Moments later, he sat up proclaimed “hear music!” and promptly started dancing on the bed. This kid of mine literally wakes up dancing!

Music is such an important part of our rhythm. Soundtracking our days together at home, it helps set the mood and nothing will chase away the grumps quicker than a little boogie.

Here’s a playlist of the tunes we’ve been singing along and dancing around our dining room to over the last few months. I like curating a playlist of songs that although aren’t especially for kids have elements that Casper can really engage with. There are lots of animals hidden amongst the lyrics of this collection – he loves roaring during the First Aid Kit track, clapping along with Shirley Ellis and replying “What!” to Lizzo!

I will admit I’ve refrained from including his most requested track. No matter how much he enjoys my indie leanings he shouts “More MOVE IT!” at the speaker multiple times a day. Thank you, Madagascar!

I know it’s all feeling rather autumnal but I think these sunny tunes will help perk up grey days. Enjoy with a toddler or without!

Track Listing

Barry Louis Polisar – All I Want is You
This Is The Kit – Magic Spell
First Aid Kit – The Lions Roar
Graham Coxon – Perfect Love
Shirley Ellis- The Clapping Song
Lizzo – Juice
Metronomy – Salted Caramel Ice Cream
The Beatles – Baby It’s You
The Whites – Kepp on the Sunny Side
Kimya Dawson – Sleep

Going plastic free in the kitchen for July

Plastic free july Kilner jars I have been aware of Plastic Free July for a few years now, perhaps first coming across the initiative via The Slow Home Podcast in 2016. This year I finally felt that I have the headspace, inclination and enthusiasm to give it a bit of a go myself. 

We’ve already made a number of swaps around the home that have definitely helped to cut down on plastic packaging over the last couple of years. Mainly: bulk buying dried goods, refilling toiletries and detergents, scaling way back on the cleaning and beauty products we use and getting a veg box delivered. But despite this, I only have to take a glance into my bins to tell we are still a long way off anything close to zero waste.

Not that zero waste is the goal, to be honest – I think it’s a wholly unobtainable and unhelpful troupe to see a year’s worth of household waste fitting into a Kilner jar! And let’s just take a moment to acknowledge that there is a lot of privilege involved in following a lower-waste lifestyle. 

Generally, I feel that taking a slow and steady approach and gradually taking steps toward a more sustainable home is much more manageable and realistic for most. But I do love the way that taking part in a challenge gives me a good kick up the bum to examine the habits that happen on autopilot and make some shifts accordingly. Even the Plastic Free July official site encourages different levels of participation. From going completely plastic-free to avoiding single-use plastics or avoiding the ‘big four’ of bags, bottles, straws and coffee cups.

Plastic free july fruit and veg

Personally, I’ve decided to focus on going plastic-free in the kitchen for the month of July. Although I would like to tackle all areas of our household waste, food packaging definitely seems to be the biggest problem area contributing to the bulk of our weekly refuse. (Well, apart from disposable nappies that is – but please allow me to put a pin in that for a moment.)

Although the waste associated with food is our biggest challenge, food and cooking are also my biggest passion, and I always enjoy a culinary challenge. Rather than finding restrictions frustrating, I like the way having boundaries gets me thinking more creatively with my cooking. So I’m viewing going plastic-free and low waste in a similar way.

I know preparation and organisation will be the key to these stumbling blocks. Planning meals in advance, stocking the cupboards and freezer with homemade snacks, being armed with Tupperware at all times when out and about. I’ve already spent a good month mentally preparing, I’ve done a reccy of what items I can pick up plastic-free where and made lists of meals I can adapt with plastic-free ingredients.

That said, although I love to cook from scratch and I’m partial to a bit of baby-friendly baking,  my toddler and I partake in a hefty amount of between-meal snacking. Rice cakes, cereal bars, smoothie pouches, crisps, cheese, crackers – these tasty lil’ things all come in unrecyclable plastic packaging. And what about spreads and condiments? Does anyone know of a plastic-free alternative to Marmite and Sriracha???

Going plastic-free in our kitchen for a month is definitely not going to be easy, but I’m up for the challenge!

Plastic free july Kilner jars open shelving

Here are a few parameters I’m setting around the challenge…

// I will focus on not bringing any new single-use plastic packaging into the kitchen, but I am going to use up ingredients that we have in our cupboards before replacing with plastic-free. It seems very wasteful to do otherwise.

// Although plastic is the focus I’m also going to try and reduce our waste in general – reusing paper bags at the bakery, using my own containers for takeaway where possible, doing more with our food scraps and watching those leftovers.

// I’m probably gonna cheat when it comes to oat milk! I am going to experiment with making oat milk myself but plan to have Oatly on hand because mornings without decent cuppa are a big no in this house!

// I’m hoping my husband will be up for giving it a good go as well. He works in the office Monday to Friday so will be encountering a few different challenges than I will as a stay-at-home / work-from-home mum.

// Away from the kitchen I do want to explore plastic-free options. I’m going to finally try reusable nappies and wipes and I plan to start ordering loo roll fro Who Gives A Crap.

And a few resources and posts to check out…

Plastic Free July
A great Instagram post from Lucy Lucraft on the problematic nature of the zero-waste movement
The Slow Home Podcast on Plastic Free July

Are you joining in with Plastic Free July this year? We’re almost two weeks in at the time of publishing so I’ll be back to share an update soon.

Mini Mindful Moments for Mammas (or anyone craving a little more calm in their days)

It can feel like your time is not your own when you’re a mama. Mum-days are spent constantly trying to working through chores, feeding-cleaning-changing on repeat, jumping from one activity to another trying to keep your little entertained. On work days there are the bags to be packed, drop-offs and collections to do on time, things to remember – snacks, nappies, sunhat, raincoat. CHECK! CHECK! CHECK!

No wonder we end up feeling stressed and overwhelmed. It’s a lot. But I find practising mindfulness goes some way to helping me both reclaim a feeling of control over my days and surrender to the lack thereof. For me, this means learning to slow down and creating pockets of calm in my days.

Meditation has been an important part of how I’ve cultivated a more mindful way of being and I do still try to keep up a regular practice when I can. But, unlike meditation, mindfulness is readily available at any given time and can be practised anywhere.

“Mindfulness is the basic human ability to be fully present, aware of where we are and what we’re doing, and not overly reactive or overwhelmed by what’s going on around us.”

mindfulness.org

Practising mindfulness isn’t particularly about doing anything outside of your normal routine, but rather reframing the tasks and actions you already do. Even brushing your teeth could become a mindful activity if you fully devote your concentration to it.  For me, mindfulness is the pausing, the noticing. Being fully present in the moment and not letting your mind wander to plans, daydreams or worries. It could be observing the way the light falls in the morning, immersing yourself in an activity or chore or giving your full attention to your toddler (without one eye on your phone 🙋🏻‍♀️). And actually, it turns out toddlers are pretty mindful little souls – being fully present is pretty much their default setting.

I’m at pains to make it clear I’m not walking around in some zen bubble, the image of calm motherhood. I get worn down, grouchy and impatient. When I’ve been up since 6 am I’m still frazzled come naptime. I go on about mindfulness and intentional living because of *needing* these practices so much. Not because this stuff comes easy to me!

My mini mindful moments

The key is to fully focus on the task or activity, not to multitask or to have your attention pulled in various directions but to be completely present in the moment.

// Connecting with my senses upon waking. I run through what I can hear, feel, see etc. and check in with how I’m feeling in my body and in my mind. I often do this whilst giving Casper his morning breastfeed.

// Dropping essential oil in my (usually very quick) morning shower.

// Putting on a favourite song and dancing together for the duration.

// Naptime meditation. Before I open my laptop or get on with chores I head to my bedroom for at least 10 minutes of meditation.

// Hanging out the washing.  This is one of my favourite chores to single-task, especially if it’s a nice enough day to dry the washing outside.

// Weeding, gardening or tending to house plants.

// Going for a mindful walk. Leave the phone at home and just go for a wander. Notice the tiny details, the sights and sounds. Toddlers are the perfect mindful walking companion.

// Finding a moment to sit, pause and enjoy a cup of tea.

// Reading instead of scrolling as I feed the babe to sleep.

// My evening skincare routine. Cleanse, use my face brush, apply an oil. Breath, feel grateful for the day.

These are just some things that can become mindful activities for me. Yours might be different. Of course, sometimes I do these things on autopilot, with my phone in my hand or a podcast on in the background. But I know the more I carve out mini moments of mindfulness in my days the calmer and more resilient I feel. As with my philosophy on living a simple creative life, I believe that the small things we do each day add up – “drop by drop we fill our cup”.

🌙 🌙 🌙

Some more mindful resources…

Getting started with mindfulness (via mindfulness.org)

Modern Mindfulness for Mothers a guided meditation course on Insight

The Mindful Kind podcast hosted by Rachael Kable

The Zen of Single-Tasking blog post by Brooke McAlary

The Power Of Now a book by Eckhart Tolle

Baking with baby (…and some thoughts about blogging for the joy of it)

Baking with baby Baking with babyBaking with baby

A funny thing about blogging, Instagramming and sharing your life online is that it’s hard not to end up viewing things in terms of content and strategy. I find this, in turn, leads to a whole lot of rules and ‘SHOULDS’ to follow. Things such as; I should mix up my content to keep it interesting, not post too much of the same thing. I should be following a content plan that fits into my business strategy to attract new creative mentoring clients. And I should always, but always, be mindful of the value of my content for YOU dear reader! And of course, these things are worth considering as guidance when thinking about what you are creating and sharing with the world. But, do you ever find that over-worrying about all the rules you should be following can totally zap the joy out of posting? That sometimes the SHOULDS get in the way of you actually creating and sharing at all?

I definitely do. Take this post. I’ve delayed posting it for ages because I found myself massively overthinking what I’m sharing on my blog – “I should break up two baby photo heavy posts in a row. There’s no value. It’s not shareable. No one cares!” When all I really wanted to do was share in my little corner of the internet a morning I spent making flapjacks with my son. It sounds pretty silly when written down like that doesn’t it? I wouldn’t blame you for having a little giggle at the ridiculousness of it all. But I maybe a few of you might be nodding along.

There’s so much (usually) brilliant advice out there when it comes to how to make the most of sharing content online, but, I think we can have a tendency to get hung up on particular points and use them as a stick to beat ourselves with.  For me, it seems to be worrying about whether what I’m sharing seems ‘valuable’. Thinking that posts need to be more useful or at least inspirational in some way. But what seems particularly silly, is that the blogs I love the most, are exactly those that share simple snippets of everyday family life. Ones such as Homesong or Deer Circus. Reading about the little moments in people’s lives is joyful, and actually often very inspiring, to me.

More and more I’m feeling like what I want this space to be for is simply sharing little stories of my life, as and when I feel the urge. Sure, sometimes they may well be stories about business or creativity but sometimes they might just be tales of motherhood that go a little something like this…

Baking with babyBaking with babyBaking with babyThere’s something about baking in the morning that just sets you up for a good day. It’s hard not to feel smug happy when by 11 am you’ve made a batch of homemade baby-friendly snacks to last the next few days. Well, a few days in theory. In practice, as they are also rather mama-friendly, they don’t last all that long at all!

I’m loving that we can do more hands-on activities together as Casper gets older. He’s absolutely not a baby anymore! It’s a learning curve, figuring out how we can do things like baking and crafts together in a way that is enjoyable for us both. It’s not always smooth sailing. But on this morning, flapjacks were a success – albeit a very messy, oats everywhere kind of success. And let’s not even talk about food hygiene practice.

Despite being eaten in little fistfuls and strewn across the dining room, enough mixture seemed to find it’s way into the oven and soon filled the house with that deliciously comforting baking smell.

And briefly to get back to my point about blogging for the joy of it… As I write the first draft of this post, on the notes app on my phone, Casper is snoozing on my chest. We had a rough night and I woke up feeling tired and touched out. But as I quietly tap away on my phone, as his cheek rest against my breast, I’m gently carving out some time for me and my creativity. I’m writing just for the joy of it and in the process, managing to reconnect with myself and my baby. And you know what? I think making another batch of flapjacks is just what we need this afternoon.baby friendly Flapjacks

By the way, we followed this recipe as a great base for sugar-free baby-friendly flapjacks, making some additions and adjustments along the way based on what we had in our cupboard – it just might be this post is kind of useful to you after all  😉

Living a Simple Creative Life

creative plant photography living pilea peperomioides cutting in hand

What does living a creative life mean to you? Is it turning your passion into a living and running your own creative business? Or pursuing a career in a creative industry perhaps?  Or maybe for you, it’s more about finding time for creative activities and hobbies outside of what you do for work. Creativity is such a personal thing and I’m sure creative fulfilment looks and feels different for everyone. However, I think we can find common ground in our shared craving for creative expression, and the fact that a large majority of us wish we had more time to dedicate to our creativity.

In a recent episode of my podcast Friends With Business Benefits, my cohost Franky and I discussed creativity – specifically ‘How do you make time for creativity when you’re so busy being creative for clients?’. Getting paid to be creative (for clients or customers), is, of course, a dream for many but I don’t think it’s uncommon to still feel the need to pursue your creativity outside of your day job.

And obviously, it isn’t just work commitments that lead to us feeling creatively bereft. Something else we delve into in the episode is how becoming a parent has changed the way I can indulge my creative inclinations.

On a number of occasions over the last year, I’ve received the question of *how* I’ve managed to still find time for creative activities alongside being a new mum. I’ve found myself initially baulking at this comment because as with so many things in parenthood I feel that there are two contrasting sides to how motherhood has impacted my creativity…

On one hand, being a mother (and I guess specifically being a stay at home mum) feels inherently creative to me. Our days are filled with play and curiosity, music and dancing, books and silly voices. I’m constantly thinking on my feet, making games out of household chores in order to get anything done, coming up with ways to delight and distract my little shadow. Along with the practical side, parenthood has also sparked a more emotionally expressive creative side of me – basically, becoming a mamma has turned me into a wannabe poet. I scribble love notes to my son and fill journal pages trying to find the words to capture how immensely wonderful/inspiring/exhausting/frustrating (delete as required given the time of day) motherhood feels.

On the flipside, there’s just so little time to really get stuck into a project or creative activity the way I would have done pre-baby. Which of course can be very frustrating. Especially as I’m the sort of person that needs time to get into my groove creatively – I’m just not able to bash out blog posts quickly or shoot photos I’m happy with straight away. But instead of feeling constantly frustrated feelings over the last year I’ve found it helpful to reframe what creativity looks like and means at this stage of life.

I’ve realised that to me living a creative life is as much about cultivating a particular mindset than any actions. It’s about noticing the little moments that add up to me feeling that I am honouring and making time for creativity. All this reframing and readjusting has led me to uncover somewhat of a personal philosophy – one of simple creative living.  What that means is that I’m prioritising creativity alongside striving for a simpler slower way of life. And what that looks like is some simple habits and ways I bring creativity into my everyday.

simple creative living pilea peperomioides cutting in hand

Here are some of the shifts which have been so helpful to me. Maybe they’ll help you also think about how to cultivate your own simple creative life…

// Notice and appreciate the smaller moments of creativity in your everyday. From creating a meal from scratch to foraging something to decorate your home, creativity probably already shows up in your days more often than you realise.

// Shift the focus from the output to the process. I think we can get hung up on our creativity having to have a (sharable) end product rather than creating for the joy of it.

// Tune into your cycle. You may well find that your creative energy ebbs and flows depending on what your hormones are up to. Likewise, it’s thought that the lunar cycle can have an impact.

// Follow your joy. There may be a time and a place to dig deep and do the hard work to see your creative projects realised, but when your time is limited I feel like creating for enjoyment should be paramount.

// Meditate on creativity.  A search on Insight or YouTube will bring up a number of guided meditations and visualisations that focus on creativity. Depending on what you’re needing you could choose a meditation for inspiration or motivation.

// Use the tools you have to hand. And I mean literally *in* your hand – take photos with your phone, use the notes app to write. Or whatever it is you are creating don’t let waiting until you have fancy equipment stop you!

// Be mindful of what you consume. Often listening to a podcast or reading blogs can be great for motivation and inspiration, but sometimes I find they can have the opposite effect. If you’re really feeling overwhelmed by the noise try taking a break from consuming altogether.

I feel I should state that my life doesn’t always feel simple or creative by any means – sometimes far from it. But I do find making these intentional choices and shifting my mindset help to move me out of frustration towards creative fulfilment. I hope you may also find this helpful or inspiring. Creativity is a topic I never tire of chatting about so if you have a question or something to share come and let me know!

Introducing ‘Friends With Business Benefits’: A podcast for creatives

Friends With Business Benefits Logo

I’ve launched a podcast!!! If you follow me on Instagram you *may* have heard me talking about it. 😉 Friends With Business Benefits is live and available to download on your podcast app now.

I’m co-hosting the show alongside my business bestie Franky (also known as Love Audrey). Franky and I have been having regular co-mentoring sessions for almost two years. Working for yourself can be lonely at times but through our monthly co-mentoring meetups we’ve found the support and accountability we were craving in our working lives. You can hear all about what co-mentoring is and how we do it in our very first episode. Also, Franky’s blog post on five things she’s gained from co-mentoring is a great read if you want to know more.

Our podcast will be an extension of our co-mentoring sessions, as we share our conversations and delve into the type of topics that have come up for us again and again as we navigate self-employed life. We’ll be chatting about money and pricing, habits and productivity, social media and marketing and everything in between. We’re hoping our fellow freelancers and creative business owners will find the show enjoyable, useful and relatable and we absolutely want to hear your opinion on these topics too. Share with us using the hashtag #friendswithbizbenefits and tag us in your posts @_charlieswift and @loveaudrey83.

Subscribe here

I’m ridiculously happy to be ending 2018 finally being able to call myself a podcaster and I’m so excited to share these conversations with you.

Four struggles I faced in my first year of business

Woman working in cafeWith my maternity benefit pay recently coming to an end, thoughts of returning to work have been occupying my mind. Before having our baby in December, I had spent just over a year working for myself. I’ve been reflecting on my first year of business and especially how I can try my best not to repeat some of the struggles I faced.

I’ve had this post sitting in my drafts folder, nearly completed, for a few weeks now but, for some reason, I’ve not quite been able to finish up and hit publish. It would be understandable to perhaps be feeling vulnerable in sharing about difficulties I’ve faced since becoming self-employed -but I could tell it wasn’t that which was getting to me. My problem was actually with what I had originally titled this post – ‘Five mistakes I made in my first year of business’.

Of course, it’s not as though I haven’t made mistakes whilst running my business.

When I set out as a fledgeling freelancer, having been made redundant autumn 2016, I dived headfirst into self-employed life without a whole lot of forethought and with no business plan to speak of…I think it was pretty inevitable that I’d make mistakes along the way!

But that’s just it – mistake making is such an intrinsic, and even integral, part of running your own business that I’m not sure it’s helpful to use that word at all. It just feels too judgey and I want this to be a judgement free zone. Whilst it’s good to be able to reflect on how things are going in your business it’s important not to beat yourself up for past decisions. Running your own business is a constant learning curve.

Anyhow, now that’s cleared up, on to these struggles (not mistakes) that I encountered in my first year of business. There are some that I have an inkling of how to overcome and others that I am very much still working through. I think they are all pretty common struggles for those who are self-employed or running their own business – maybe you can relate?

Cafe interior with wooden furniture and big cactus plant

Five struggles I faced in my first year of business

One // Not having a set offering

I think it’s a common tendency when you’re starting out freelancing to want to be all things to all clients. I know I worried that someone might not want to work with me if I didn’t offer a particular service they were looking to outsource. I took the attitude of doing any and all work clients wanted to pay me for. Never really stopping to think about what I specifically wanted to be doing and, more importantly, if there was any type of work I did not. This meant I ended up doing work that didn’t always play to my strengths and some that I downright didn’t enjoy.

I found that another issue with not having a clear offering is that, of course, everyone wants something slightly different. And whilst tailoring your service to a client’s specific needs may be important, having a different package for every individual is pretty unsustainable. I realise now that through trying to people please I was actually diluting my output.

Moving forward… I know there’s always going to be trial and error in business when it comes to offering. I think the key is to keep it as simple as possible, constantly honing in on what works best and not being afraid to change things up if I recognise that something isn’t working.

Two // Undercharging and over-committing

I think you’d be hard pressed to find any self-employed folk who haven’t struggled at some point with how to price their products or services. In that first year, I had some clients on an hourly rate and others on a set monthly price; honestly,  my pricing structure was all over the shop! As with my offering, I pretty much let my first few clients dictate how much I charged based on what they were looking to pay. This inevitably led to undercharging. And along with that comes overcommitting, because reducing a service and rate to meet a client’s budget often doesn’t actually reduce the work-load.

Moving forward… I think it’s important to start by getting really clear on your numbers. How much do you need to charge to cover your costs and time? How much do you want to make? Then there’s the mindset work needed to feel able (and confident) to charge your worth. This is all very much a work in progress for me!

Cafe interior with wicker furniture and house plants

Three // Not having faith in my experience

One of the (many) ways my self-doubt likes to show up is to give me bouts of amnesia when it came to trusting my previous experience. Sure, I might have been working as part of a team in the past, but that shouldn’t negate the years spent working on some pretty awesome creative campaigns and managing clients accounts day in day out should it? Nevertheless, working for just ‘little ole me’ really rocked my confidence in my ability at times. Why was I suddenly so anxious about even replying to email enquiries?!? Going it alone can be downright scary, that’s why.

Moving forward… Things to do to help to build confidence – gather client testimonials and customer feedback, talking things through with a coach or co-mentor, doing guided meditations to cultivate a positive mindset. Also, remember that even the most badass lady bosses you admire have days when they feel like they don’t know what the f⚡️ck they’re doing.

Four // Lack of self-promotion

Ironically, even if you work in marketing it still feels really hard to market yourself. I wasn’t totally awful at putting myself out there but the fact that the majority of my clients came through already established relationships or word-of-mouth connections tell me there was a lot more I could’ve been doing in terms of outreach.

Moving forward... Ultimately I want to create content that will resonate with my dream clients and establish relationships that will lead to people wanting to work with me. I will be doing this by showing up consistently on Instagram and sharing my story and learnings here on the blog. The consistent part is definitely something I need to work on. I also have podcast and newsletter launches in the works too!

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Do these struggles resonate with you and your business? Or perhaps there’s something else that you struggle with even more? Goodness knows I’m about to encounter a whole new set of struggles as I navigate being a working mum. Come, share your struggles with me on Instagram and let’s figure this shit out together!



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