On Our Own Terms

Building your business shouldn't be a race, and Jo Want from Hello Sunshine talks about how her illustration business has developed organically and slowly over the years, whilst building a firm community on social media and developing her style.

Monica Stott, of The Travel Hack, has travelled all over the world and managed to turn her ‘journalism portfolio’ (aka her website) into a viable and thriving business with regular collaborators and opportunities to travel on solo trips and family holidays where she incorporates her work and managing family life.

In this solo episodeI talk about how plans can go slightly off course or

completely in the ‘wrong’ direction… but is this such a bad thing? I look

back on how my year had gone so far and how the plans I made at the start

of 2018 haven’t actually materialised in the way I’d hoped, but they’ve

developed in so many other ways that I’d not even imagined.

Rabya Lomas of She Flourished, has take back control of her Instagram account and turned it into a place where she feels comfortable and confident posting on a less regular basis but bringing in an element of playfulness that seems to have all but disappeared from the platform.

The algorithm changes, photography expectations and time dedicated to the site are factors that don’t deter Rabya from posting the imagery she wants when she wants to, and by moving away from the ‘should’s’ and ‘musts’ of having an Instagram profile, she has created a great community and built up her following in an organic way.

I talk to Nicky Keen, an interior Designer in the Midlands who made the decision to change career direction when on maternity leave with her first son and throw herself into her personal passion project which has taken off quicker and more successfully than she had anticipated and opened up so many more opportunities for her.

In today’s episode I chat to Stacey MacDonald, the person behind Darwin & Gray, a Paper & Textile Designer who hand makes all of her own banners and signs.

Darwin & Gray has developed considerably over the years and at the time of chatting to Stacey in September, she had just taken the leap to quit her full time job as a Retail Manager and taken Darwin and Gray full time just before the run up to the Christmas period.

Stacey was extremely open about all aspects of her business and how Darwin & Gray allowed her to indulge in her creative side whilst working both full time and part time jobs (equating to 50 hours per week!) to keep her financially afloat.

She discussed how anxiety has crept into her work mindset and how she manages these times, plus her excitement at how Darwin & Gray will develop over the next 12 months now that she can devote more time to creating products and working alongside other creative businesses.

In today’s episode I have a good chat with Julia Day, Financial Coach of Easy As VAT, about all things money matters.

Money is one of those things that we generally have a fear of speaking openly about, but it is such a crucial part of life in that we need it, want more of it and (if we’re lucky) squirrel away for those less than certain days. We seem to want more of it in our lives but are so very reluctant to want to discuss the importance of having it in our lives, as though it is a taboo subject. There’s also a general societal displeasure of even mentioning money unless this is part of your job/ career but when things start to go wrong in this area, it can really impact on all aspects of your life. So why don’t we want to talk about more openly?

Julia doesn’t have such issues with money matters, stemming from her experiences as an Accountant and wanting to blast away the fears that her coaching clients may have about wanting/ needing and pursuing it in their ventures and independent businesses.

In today’s episode I have a really open chat with Deb Kendall, Event & Workshop Organiser, Lifestyle Blogger and the person behind the increasingly popular Fabulous Places.

Deb was extremely open about how her business has grown over the past 10 years and how it has developed to include styling workshops, creative business events and the increasingly popular Spring, Summer and Christmas Markets within Derby City as well as the design and production of the Derbyshire Handpicked Guide.

In this episode we discuss

How Fabulous Places started over a Sunday discussion with her husband;

The direction that her business took when she was made redundant and her feelings about losing her stable income;

The things that she looks for when considering potential stall holders for her own events;

The rationale behind whether or not she takes on board new opportunities for Fabulous Places;

Her constant amazement and appreciation on how the general public and stall holders react to her events;

The amount of work that goes on behind the scenes;

The support that led her to taking those all important first steps and what propels her to continue growing;

The impact that social media has, and continues to have, on her business.

It was so interesting and refreshing to take a step back and hear how things have developed for her over the years, and hear the continual passion in her voice that fuels her to keep bringing something new to the Midlands via her Markets and events.

I thoroughly enjoyed recording this episode with Deb and I hope that you find it as interesting as I did to hear how being an Event Organiser comes not only with lots of high’s but some low’s, a lot of organisation, perseverance and dedication.

Disclaimer!

I must admit that the recording was done via Skype and there were a few issues with the audio. However, a lot of editing has gone into this episode and whilst there are parts where the audio isn’t the greatest quality, the discussions taking place at the time were too valuable to discard so I made the conscious decision to keep these parts in.

Advanced apologies if this affects your enjoyment of the episode but I hope the value it offers will make up for it.

In this solo episode I offer my own views on how to navigate the thin line between sharing personal information, or any information for that matter, about yourself with the desire to desist from over-sharing.

The online world is a busy place, all of people’s opinions and points of view that may not necessarily align with our own. And when you’re an introverted person, it can be doubly hard to want to put your head above the parapet, possible due to the fear that you may offend someone or start a bit of a back lash.

I get it, I’m a naturally introverted character too but I am terribly aware that as someone with an online presence, and the fact that people buy and relate to people, navigating this can really feel like you’re treading on eggshells a lot of the time.

But there are ways that you can happily share parts of your life and still keep the introverted side of you protected.

I’m always interested in hearing how other’s manage this in their own lives and so if anyone has any hints and tips that they can share on this subject, get in touch!

The blog post I refer to in the episode can be found here.

In today’s episode I had a great chat with Lucy Lucraft, a blogger, course creator and podcaster who threads a hefty dose of honesty throughout all of her work.