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This is my blog archive. My new writing lives on Substack.
Growing Through The Messy Middle
On June 7th, I realised I had hit the messy middle of my 6 month business leap. I had just entered the third month, I had settled into my new reality of working in my creative business full-time and then… things got messy.
I saw how a third of my 6 months had already passed, and I felt like I’d barely gotten started. I realised that after the summer, I would only have a month left, and I would have to decide if I could keep going full-time with my business. So I got stressed, and I got scared. Of running out of time, of not getting the results I was hoping for, of not doing and being enough.
One by one, my fears and mindset issues started rising to the surface. And I wrote in my notebook
Welcome to the messy middle. This is where blocks and fears live, and this is where I’ll get challenged for real in my chosen work.
Reimagining Habits To Balance Intention, Inspiration And Intuition
During the years of doing creative work on the side of a day job, I experimented a lot with my habits. I tried writing in weekday mornings (catastrophe). I tried doing short term work one week and long term work the next (liked it for a while). I tried planning super detailed and not planning at all (neither was good).
From these experiments, I found habits that worked for me. I found a blend between creative work and slow living that made my weekends feel both creative and restful. I learned how much to plan and how much space to leave. This the of exploring what your right habits look like, and it’s something I often support my coaching clients in, and I see again and again just how big a difference a good habit makes.
So I probably shouldn't have been surprised when I went full-time in my 6 month business leap and found that I had to create entirely new habits. Or, when I two months in, realised that my new habits weren't working.
The Scarcity Mindset I Didn’t Know I Had
Impatience is fear, I wrote in my notebook a couple of weeks ago. But it would take another month of being a full-time business owner before I realised that impatience isn’t just fear, it’s scarcity.
Building my business is opening my eyes to just how much of a scarcity mindset I’ve had around my business, and how it’s been limiting the options I see for myself. I’m starting to see that there’s a different way - one of abundance. This is quickly becoming my biggest mindset shift yet of my 6 month business leap. And it’s one that is long overdue.
How To Design A Website That Feels Like Home
My first attempt at designing my own website was not pretty. You might look at my website now and think it looks nice and not quite believe me, but I’m telling you, it was ugly. It had a border at the top that looked like wood, on it was a logo involving a turquoise feather, and some of my headings were hot pink. It was a mess, but it was a website, and I used it for a couple of months before I redesigned it into something slightly better.
As a creative human sharing your work online, your website is your digital home. And it should feel like one - your own, comfy, cosy and beautifully decorated home. It should reflect who you are, and invite others to hang out and get to know you better. Your website is where everything comes together.
What A Slow And Creative Life Looks Like
What does a slow and creative life look like? I remember one of the first times I asked myself that question. It was the summer of 2017, and I was sitting by the sea at my mum’s summer house on a tiny island in the Swedish archipelago.
I was coming out of a year and a half of intense creativity. After years of struggling, I had finally managed to open myself up to creativity and allowed myself to pursue my ideas. And the ideas were plenty, so plenty that I was feeling increasingly scattered and overworked.
A longing for a slower pace had started to grow inside of me. I looked out over the sea, the curved, warm rock behind my back, and listened to the wind rustling the reed. And I imagined what a slow and creative life might look like.
How To Start A Blog That Feels Like You
This is my 133rd blog post. Just writing that sentence makes me laugh a little. I can still vividly remember the fear I felt when I published my first blog post, how nervous I was of people reading what I had written. I felt exposed, which was scary but also pretty exhilarating. I was showing the real me, after all.
I have loved to write for as long as I’ve been able to. I always wanted to spend my life writing, somehow, and starting this blog was probably one of my best decisions. It has given me a way connect with other creatives, to explore ideas, to practice my writing, to reflect on my creative journey - and now to grow my creative business.
Blogging can be a wonderful medium for marketing, creative expression, connection and reflection. Over the last couple of weeks, I’ve talked with a lot of creatives who are thinking of starting a blog. So I thought it would be a good time to dig into this topic and share some of the things I’ve learned from 5+ years of blogging.
Figuring Out Who Will Love What You Create
I was never one of the popular kids at school. But I had great friends and didn’t have to care very much about what everyone else thought of me. I hung out with my friends and as long as we got along, all was well.
Trying to build an audience, especially on social media, can feel like a popularity contest. You see the big ones with their thousands and thousands of followers, and you feel small and insignificant.
But in reality, building an audience for what you create is much more like finding those great friends. The ones who really get you, who are gladly paying attention and who will love what you create. To find those people, you first need to figure out who they are, and that’s what we are going to explore here.
Artist vs Expert: Finding Your Creative Identity And How You Want To Share Your Work With The World
A while ago, I had a conversation with a coaching client where we discussed the difference between blogging as an expert and as an artist. She had had a blog in the past that didn’t feel right and she now started to see that maybe it was because she had presented herself as an expert, when she neither felt like one, nor wanted to be one. I suggested she might at this point in her journey want to show up more as an artist.
This spectrum between being an artist and an expert is one that I see many creatives trying to find themselves on. The struggle shows up often because both roles are so common in the online creative world, among bloggers, Youtubers, Instagrammers and creative business owners. Which role we choose will then affect the work that we create and share with the world.
It can take some soul-searching to know exactly what kind of creative you want to be, both when you start out and as your outgrow an earlier role you’ve had. So let’s have a look at what the artist-expert dimension looks like, and where you might find your right spot.
Life Is Always Messier Than Our Dreams
In our dreams, life is so smooth. We dream of getting a call from a publisher saying they want to publish your book, and we imagine our silly celebration dance and holding the book in your hands for the first time.
We dream of marching into our boss’s office and handing in our notice, and imagine how empowering it would feel. We dream of renting a cabin in the woods to work on a collection of art, and we imagine how we spend our days quietly submerged in creativity and nature.
But when we turn those dreams into reality, it might not look like that.
How I'm Navigating Taking The Leap In My Own Slow & Joyful Way
It was at the end of last year that I decided to take a 6 months leave from my day job to work on growing my creative business. It was a decision that forced me to gather my courage. I’ve taken the safe route many times in my life, and forging my own, unknown path still feels pretty uncomfortable.
Since then, I’ve had plenty of time to contemplate how I want to navigate this time ahead. I’ve thought I’ll do anything to make it work. I’ve toyed with ideas for new offerings. I’ve been worried and excited and everything in between.
As April and the start of my 6 month leap draws near, I feel myself softly grounding in my own way of navigating this leap - one that is true to who I am. This is what I always want us to find, our own way of doing our creative work. Let me tell you what it looks like for me in this leap.
Shaping A Slow Creative Habit That You Love
In my work with my creative coaching clients, we often begin in the big questions. What they truly want from their creative life. What their work is really about. What their big dreams and goals are. What’s holding them back.
Step by step, we go through those big questions and draw smaller and smaller circles. With most of my clients we eventually find ourselves here - exploring the daily creative habits. Because when it comes down to it, that’s what both creative projects and life is. A long series of small moments.
I wholeheartedly believe that we should make our daily creative habits as joyful as we can. To figure out what that means for you, I’d like to ask you a couple of questions.
My Word Of 2021, Yearly Goal, And How They'll Help Me Move Forward In My Creative Journey
Entering a new year can feel emotional at the best of times, and this year more than ever - I think we’re all feeling that. On one hand, there’s the relief of finally leaving 2020 behind. The hope that we’re through the worst of it, and that 2021 will be a better year. Then there’s the quiet voice whispering that maybe it won’t be, that we have no idea just like we had no idea in the beginning of 2020. Ouff.
But for me, the new year feels emotional on a creative level too. I know that 2021 will be a year that will challenge me. I have known this for a while now, and entering it feels both exciting and nerve-wrecking. I’m going to do things I have never done before, things I have resisted and feared. So I’m walking into 2021 a little apprehensively, but holding hope close to my heart.
My 2020: A Year For Finding Direction In My Creative Business
I entered 2020 like all of us, unaware of what would soon come to dominate our year. I knew it was going to be my first year of running a creative business, not that it would almost instantly be affected by something as big as the pandemic.
It has been quite the year, and as always around this time I look back and think about what really happened. How the year unfolded and what I’ve learned. So, here’s what has emerged.
Making Winter A Season To Reflect On Your Creative Journey
When I think of winter, I think of the hush that happens when new snow has fallen and wrapped itself over the world. It’s a magical moment, a space of wonder and stillness.
In this quiet season, we can find space to go a little gentler. When I surveyed creatives on how the seasons affected them, winter didn’t surface as a productive season, but one that was strong on something else: reflection.
So let’s take a look at how winter affects us and how we can embrace that in our creative work.
What It’s Been Like To Plan And Create In Tune With The Seasons This Year
Two years ago, I had an idea.
I have always loved the turn of the seasons. While people close to me have their clear favourites, I’ve always struggled to choose mine because I love them all. I love the anticipation, the gentle and familiar cycle of change, the constant movement in nature from bloom to hibernation. The seasons deeply affect my mood, energy levels, inspiration and lifestyle.
So why not my creativity?
Using The Experimentation-Introspection Cycle To Find Direction In The Beginning Of A Project
When you’re in the beginning of any creative project, a big part of the process is to figure out what you want that project to be. It might sound simple, but it’s a journey in itself, one where you might find yourself struggling to move forward at times.
Perhaps you’re thinking about what you want to create in this project, but you never reach any good conclusions and don’t get to the creating. Or you’re creating a lot, but you feel like you’re not really finding “your thing”.
If you’re in that space, I’d like to introduce you to the simple magic of the Experimentation-Introspection Cycle.
Three Areas To Dig Deeper In If You’re Aching To Move Forward In Your Creative Work
At many points in my creative journey, I’ve felt a little lost or stuck. You know the feeling, I’m sure. You want something in your creative life, to create something, to make something happen, to reach a certain point. Yet it may feel hard, confusing and, well, kinda scary.
I’ve gone in circles. I’ve wavered back and forth between different options. I’ve walked in one direction, then got self-conscious and gone back again. I’ve thought I was creating one thing, when in reality I was creating something different.
To some degree, this is simply part of the creative process. But over the years, I’ve learned that there are certain things that help us get through these challenging parts of our creative journeys and move forward again. In this blog post, I share what I believe to be the three key areas we may need to dig deeper into when we’re struggling to move forward.
How I'm Discovering What My Creative Work Is Truly About
Everyone who has worked on a creative project knows that there isn’t one way to describe it. You can look at it from many perspectives, describe it long or short, detailed or in broad terms. You may have one way you describe it to creative friends, another to potential customers, and a third to your family.
Yet so often, we search for that description that feels just right. That makes things flow and connect and that blows your mind a little. Recently, I found a description like that for what I do in my coaching and in my creative work. Today I want to share that story and give you a tip if you’re searching for that right description too.
Making Autumn A Season To Go Deeper In Your Creative Work
If I were a season, I would be autumn. It’s a season of earthy, brilliant colours, of knits and socks, cosy nights at home with a cup tea and a book, listening to the rain beating at the windows.
As the days get shorter and nature starts its last, beautiful transition before hibernation, we go deeper into our creative work. When I surveyed creatives in 2019 about how they experience their creative work throughout the different seasons, autumn surfaced as a season less about new ideas and more about things coming together.
Let’s look at what tends to happen in our creative lives in autumn and what we can learn from it.
Creating A Content Plan That Is Rooted In What You Want To Contribute To The World
If you regularly share your creativity with the world in a blog, podcast, newsletter, Youtube channel or another medium, I bet you’ve sometimes felt at a loss for ideas of what to create next. Perhaps you’ve also struggled to define exactly where to draw the line between the topics you touch upon, and those you don’t.
I’ve encountered these struggles many times myself, and over the years I’ve developed a method for filling my content plan with ideas I’m excited about and that feels true to what I want to share with the world. It’s also a way to regularly check in with the focus of my content, to see that I’m on the right track.
In this blog post, I’m sharing that method.