The Thriving Creative

On today's bonus episode, I am so grateful to welcome parenting specialist, Rachel Bailey to the show. Besides being a mother of two, she also has a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology, a certification in Positive Discipline, and has provided services as an ADHD Coach, in-home mentor, and therapist. Currently, Rachel teaches parents hands-on tools for raising responsible, resilient, confident children. She is also committed to conquering the overwhelm and guilt that is associated with parenting today.

In our honest conversation, Rachel and I reflect on the most powerful lessons in parenting we have learned over the years. Rachel shares that she is able to support parents through empathy because she would not even call herself a naturally calm and regulated parent. She has had to implement all the tools she teaches. Rachel provides some practical tips for being able to recognize your overwhelm as a parent and then act upon it through doing things like brain dumping and implementing some time management strategies. She helps us understand that when our schedules don't own us, we are able to be more present with our kids and enjoy many more moments of connection.

Are you addicted to setting lofty goals in your business that rarely get accomplished? Yup, me, too. Or... I used to be. 2020 is around the corner, and the new year always hits sooner than we are ready. I hesitate to be just another reminder of the goals you need to set because I am honestly someone who avoided goal setting like none other for a long time! But today I want to share a goal-setting strategy that won't hinder the dreamer in you and will also protect you from setting goals motivated by fear. The secret? Learn to set good, better, and best goals. This strategy helps you stay focused and productive and ditch the perfectionism.

In order to begin setting these goals, you have to look at the entire year at a glance. Then you will need to consider what systems and processes you need to put in place. This way you are able to identify what is possible in the first quarter versus the fourth once these workflows are more established. As you begin to meet your "good" goals on a more regular basis, celebrating your success often can propel you towards your "better" and "best" goals.

As creatives in business we all have very different amounts of time to devote to our businesses, but it's easy to be busy with all the things that demand our attention and yet still not be generating any profit. So in a continuation of last week's episode (quick go listen to that one if you haven't yet!), I want you to take an honest look at the time you do have and consider how you're allocating it. The goal to strive toward is to be spending 60-80% of your time invested in activities that generate profit.

If you're lacking any clarity on what those tasks are, I am going to outline those for you today. These include marketing in your network, building your list, creating content, as well as connecting and making offers. Being consistent in these tasks is critical so that people always know who you are and how your business can positively impact their lives. If you're biggest objection in this episode is that there simply isn't time for all this, I have some creative ideas for you in how to make time where you thought there was none to be gained. Getting strategic and intentional about how you spend your time is going to result in more profit for the time spent doing what you love!

The beauty of being a creative is that we love the work we do, but we have to remember that the goal is always to find ways to monetize that work! Sometimes if we're not careful, what we think is being "productive" can turn into hustling. This is yet another way we can burn out and make some really unaligned, impulsive decisions. And to top it off, these seasons of hustle are not typically times we are seeing our income increase. Today I want to encourage you to take some time to think about when you are tempted to hustle and what fears can motivate that temptation to just be busy.

If you've heard it once, you've heard it a million times; the secret to your success is just good time management. So much easier said than done! As creatives, a linear perspective of time is not always natural to us and can feel inhibiting to our creative nature. I understand this and I want to encourage you that you don't have to stay stuck. Ditch the shame and frustration! You really don't need to be better at time management skills. You just need to shift your focus to time optimization.

If this is a concept that feels unfamiliar, I am going to walk you through some guiding questions to help you decide how you can best spend the time you have. You can do this by first getting real about how much time you have to work with. Then it's just a matter of connecting that chunk of time with your specific goals. Listen in and I'll share how!

As a creative and an entrepreneur, would you identify as someone who operates out of an abundance mindset or a scarcity mindset? Today I am taking time to help you define both, because it is all too easy to be enslaved by a scarcity mindset which can lead to burn out and making unaligned business decisions. But at the same time, it can be really difficult to make good decisions when your income is not consistent!

In this episode, I am sharing with you some of the mantras I have adopted to retrain my brain into recognizing the abundance that surrounds me. In addition to the mindset work I do, I am also sharing some strategies I use to budget that help me plan and allow for more flexibility when my income is ever changing. I challenge you to adopt 1-2 of these sayings, displaying them in the bathroom on a post-it, or on an alarm on your phone to begin moving out of fear and into freedom as your pursue your business goals.

Today I am so honored to welcome one of my very first podcast guests back to the show to talk about her passion for all things podcasting. Tara is the CEO of her own podcasting production agency-Profitable Podcast Productions. Tara explains how podcasting is an excellent way to continually nurture your audience with a minimal investment on your part. She believes that podcasting invites people to connect with you and in turn, inspires them to purchase your products.

Tara also assures anyone who is looking to start a podcast that it can truly take whatever form or length you want. The key to podcasting is in being consistent in the ways that you show up for your audience. Tara and I take some time to discuss some excellent examples of podcasts hosted by creatives and how they have provided a meaningful connection with their audience as a result! If you're ready to learn more about launching your own podcast, Tara has some fantastic opportunities available for you at the end of the show!

In working with influencers and entrepreneurs in the creative world, I have noticed that it is challenging for these individuals to face the fears that bubble up concerning financial goals. There is a ton of shame in asking for money or there is fear that there is simply not enough. But in this episode, I will help you see that by doing a cost-benefit analysis of where you time and money are going, it might be time to spend money. I'll show you how you can be strategic with your money, stop bootstrapping all the things, and fill your bucket of creative energy all at once!

Even though math is not my strength, I am pulling out the calculator to walk you through calculating the value of your time. I want to help you explore the idea of outsourcing the tasks in your work that are necessary to your business but ultimately, do not fuel you. You will even learn how you can align your work day with your purpose and mission. The result is simple; you become more creative and avoid that dreaded burn out. You and your creative work are worth this effort, so join me in exploring this process!

Surprise! I wanted to bring a special guest interview today for a bonus episode that is packed full of inspiration for building a life centered on perhaps the most important relationship in your life-your marriage. Michelle Purta is a marriage coach for moms and comes to share the lessons she's learned about the importance of giving herself permission to enjoy life with her husband on her terms as a business owner.

Michelle shares some practical ways she can quickly notice when her business is coming before her family. She has found ways to involve her husband in her business as a way to gain insight and meaningful feedback about how she is doing on a daily basis. Michelle encourages us to keep it simple but find ways to be fun, silly, and passionate about your marriage while still pursuing all your business goals.

It happens all the time to creatives. You get an incredible idea that fuels all your energy only to be quickly followed by a wave of fear that the outcome could never actually measure up to the standards you set for yourself in your mind. The issue is that our battle with perfectionism prevents us from consistently making the impact on the world that we were called to make. It leaves us feeling so frustrated and discouraged.

If you can identify with any part of this experience, I want to challenge you to become more mindful of this struggle by acknowledging the feeling of fear, whether that lies internally or in the thoughts and judgements of others. Once you do this, I also want you to budget a realistic amount of time to work on that project, including time to tweak that project, and stick to those allotted times. Then perfect or not, you're going to practice releasing that work and hold yourself accountable. The process may make you squirm, but I promise that over time, you will become more productive and capable of finishing a much higher percentage of the projects you start.