Joyful Selling for Creatives

What type of relationship do you currently have with the numbers in your business?

The two main groups of numbers are your sales and revenue figures and your social media and selling platform numbers.

What thoughts are you having right now when you think about these sets of numbers in your business and how do this thoughts make you feel?

What I’ve noticed is that so many of us humans have a dysfunctional relationship with the numbers because of how we relate to them.

In this episode I walk through the 3 phases of dysfunction:

1, Head in the sand phase.

2, Disappointed and discouraged phase.

3, Frustrated and confused phase.

Then you will learn how to ask different questions about the data in your business so you can move through these phases and into a more empowered role.

If you sometimes think you don’t know what you’re doing or you think that nothing is working in your marketing and selling then I have a simple business tool for you today.

Now, when I say ‘simple’ it’s because it’s straight-forward with 3 steps to follow yet I’ve found creative professionals don’t do it because it may feel tedious.

Yet it’s this 60 minutes of tedious work once a month that can show you that you DO know what you’re doing and what IS working so you can do more of it.

The business tool is: evaluation.

Doesn’t sound all that fun does it!

So in today’s new episode of the #JoyfulSelling podcast I offer it to you in a jazzier way which is thinking about it like a pizza party.

A monthly pizza party in your creative business where you get to divide up the big pie of 2023 into separate monthly slices to make it more digestible.

Rather than letting each month roll on without really being sure where the money is coming from and letting stories about not having enough time and people not buying right now be the reason you’re not creating the cash you want - you get to take responsibility for it instead.

Taking responsibility for creating the sales is where you want to be, trust me.

It means that changing your current result is within your power which means the actions you take matter.

And all that action can easily be forgotten or misremembered over time so writing it down helps you know what you’re doing so you can make necessary tweaks.

Are you acknowledging the actions you’re taking and celebrating all the wins in your business?

Probably not, because we’re not taught how to effectively do this and why it’s so important.

In today’s episode I share why withholding acknowledgement from yourself or waiting to/forgetting to celebrate is fuelling the reasons you think you’re not a proper business owner.

What you will discover:

• Why setting a revenue goal gives you the opportunity to celebrate.

I've been thinking a lot recently about how we break free from our default binary thinking when marketing and selling. 

Binary thinking helps us feel a sense of certainty because there are only two options: on/off. 

Yet it restricts our thinking and doesn’t allow space for our true creative selves.

What you will discover:

• How to give yourself more freedom in your marketing and selling

This is my first episode about time so I’m taking us on a whistle-stop tour from one of my regular thoughts in 2014 whilst running my subscription box ‘I don’t have enough time’ to a thought that came to me last week when doing my VAT ‘I’ve created time.’

It’s been a bumpy ride of resistance and judgement to get to where I am now AND it’s all been so worth it so I can teach and coach on this topic to help you transform your relationship with time for good.

The bulk of today’s episode is sharing my journey with time blocking my calendar.

In this episode, you’ll learn:

1, Easing judgement is a useful first step.

2, Capture the magic of ideas in the moment and then develop them in allotted time slots.

3, Find your way through flexibility and experimentation.

4, How to be discerning with your tasks to create time.

5, Redefine what freedom means to you.

During open enrolment each quarter I record one of our most popular episodes which is the Joyful Selling Success Panel.

On the panel today are 3 members of our lifetime program:

Helen from Badger & Bobbins who teaches in-person sewing workshops in Sheffield. Helen shares how she has tripled her revenue in 6 months, sold out her February dressmaking course in December and self-coached when she made a mistake in her business that back in the day she would have spiralled from.

Kim from the Grunge Monkey, a fun and playful fashion label that is 10 years old this year. Kim shares how she allows space for her emotions and self-coaches to tend to her vulnerability around external validation and rejection. She leans on her Business Belief Plan to show herself she doesn't need permission from the outside world to be an artist.

Claire from Shine, a shop in Sale, Greater Manchester that is full of treats. Claire shares how she is proud to be herself in her marketing and selling and how that helped her sell 75 tickets to her Christmas event when the goal was 50. She's embracing different parts of her personality and has realised that different energies are required for different aspects of the job from feeling focused to sit down at the computer to feeling excited when recording reels.

A huge thank you to all three of our brilliant members who are actively working one sign overwhelm, enjoying selling and increasing their sales.

In today’s episode I talk about opening myself up to an evolving creative business journey that the perfectionist part of my brain tells me is messier than it should be at times.

I look at how my forever business Indie Roller emerged from my previous brand Lucky Dip Club. To make that happen, I put my blinkers on to what was happening on the Internet around me and trusted myself to follow my calling.

Regardless of what product is being sold, I still am and always will be focused on connecting and serving value to my community.

I know that money is the result of value.

Looking to the future, my work is finding the daily courage to speak up with compassion and a fire in my belly. 

What if it was OK to be an artist and make a shit load of cash?

Why does society have such a problem with this?

Fundamentally, I believe in creatives earning an incredible living from their artistry and I’m committed to teaching and coaching on this subject.

This month I am celebrating a spectacular milestone which is 20 years of creative self-employment.

In this episode I share the moment I committed to working for myself and building a jewellery brand in my mid-20s.

I reflect on a few of the sentences I repeated in my own thought process that propelled me forward as my most authentic self which created hundreds of thousands of pounds in revenue.

I share my desk meltdown and the day I walked away from my first business and what I learnt from that experience.

This is part one of a two-parter looking at the highs and lows of an independent creative career that I wouldn't change in any way.

Enjoy!

Are you currently keeping yourself small in business because you don’t think you can handle disappointment as it might prove you’re not up to the task if you fail?

Unmet expectations are a regular part of running a business especially when learning how to communicate in marketing and selling.

Building your resilience muscle so you can take the action you want to and learn how to treat yourself if it doesn’t go to plan is a super useful business skill.

To dream big and follow through, learn how to:

1, Grow awareness of when you’re taking a swipe at your self-worth.

2, How to have your own back.

3, Tweak and try again with creativity at the forefront and compassion in your heart.

This episode’s motto: I win or I learn.

I've been helping Joyful Selling members simplify the actions they take in their online marketing and selling by deciding ahead of time what type of content they are going to share regularly and why.

To start with I have offered two very simple definitions for the terms that traditionally a Creative Professional doesn't exactly feel enthralled by: 'marketing' and 'selling'.

Marketing is connecting to build trust.

Selling is serving to create comfort to buy.

Within both categories we focus on 3 essentials to action and I share examples that have come up as I've been running 1-2-1 bonus sessions with members who joined us in December.

Notebook and pen at the ready! This is a very actionable episode.

Enjoy!

Open enrolment is coming...

The Joyful Selling for Creative Professionals Lifetime Program is opening up for new members from 7th March to 13th March 2023.

Ensure you are on our mailing list HERE so you receive all the deets you need to know to join us with ease and increase your sales in 2023.