Thoughts at the moment No.2

This week in October, I've been looking forward to for a while now! I planned to take a step back in pour back into me.

I've been going so hard lately these past few months in creating content and pushing myself as an entrepreneur that I could feel myself starting to burn out. Which is something I try to avoid as much as possible now. The difference between me last year and this year is self-awareness! Self-awareness brought to my attention I need to slow down and refocus and lessen the overwhelm I was starting to feel creep up. It is something I did not have last year that I thought I did.

Last year I would push myself so hard and try and do everything under the sun that I was getting nowhere! Yes, I had clients to work with, but I was struggling with other areas I wanted to dive into and be better at. Like writing more blog posts, upskilling my current skills, offer educational content, podcasting, and so much more. I felt that I had to get all these things together and fast. Why? To seem important enough to other people that they would want to work with me and see me as this impressive person to work with and know. I was seeing everyone else I admire do it, so why shouldn't I have those things in place too? So I tried, failed, and felt sad and anxious last year. At least that's what I felt at the moment when I was pulling myself in every direction trying to do it all and by myself, which is even crazier. I thought that's what everyone what doing. Doing it by themself and being successful by getting things out quickly, but it all seemed that way when it wasn't actually. 

However, this year and with the pandemic, I was forced to slow down, reflect, and pivot a bit. As the pandemic was starting to grow, I just finished working with my first major client, SOBEWFF®. I was in the works of lining up my next client to work with and then was halted because they had to close their shop. Then I had nothing coming in, like many of you have experienced. I was in panic mode for a moment because I still felt new at running my business for a few years now was starting to get more interesting clients to work with that went away. Then I had to figure out the PPP and grants situations to try and keep my business afloat while I figured things out.

Thankfully I was able to get some help and could breathe for a moment. At that moment, I started to look at what I was doing, where I'm at professionally and could do right now to help myself and others. At first, I got sucked into the rabbit hole of conferences that offered help to get unstuck and pivot, but I wasn't doing anything more than just consuming information thinking I was doing something. Then finally, something Chris Do said clicked to me about consuming more than doing. I wrote about it here and finally started to figure out what goals do I have and how I can start working on them more smartly and bring them into reality! Along with stopping to find validation from others to feel important and enough. I know I am enough and do great work!   

Taking all this into account I started to invest in myself more than I had ever done before. First, with a coaching summer camp and picking a few courses that would strategically help me reach business goals quicker. Just picking a few things to work towards has helped me become more laser-focused. I've become better at producing more valuable content, my email list has grown over 100%, I'm getting more qualified leads, and producing more educational touchpoints to help small businesses while attracting more clients. All of this has happened within 4-5 months. 

So for 4-5 months I've been non-stop working, learning, and producing that I needed to slow down a bit, as my husband has pointed out kindly. I love working on my business, and sometimes it doesn't feel like work. However, I could start to feel like I was getting overwhelmed with putting out so much content and feeling like I was running out. So I took action to notice it and plan what I could do to pour back into myself, have fun, and relax a bit.  

Knowing Adobe Max Conference was this week, I set that time aside to be able to enjoy participating in it. I always wanted to go personally but so happy they offered it virtually and for FREE this year! So I'm taking full advantage of it. Along, with giving Instagram a break this week. Usually, I'm posting every day, scrolling, and commenting, but I needed to give it a break and feel ok with it. I've been trying to focus more on what makes sense for my business to build relationships with my audience and clients. Even though Instagram helps, I don't want to feel like I have a heavy dependence on it. I think a lot of business owners feel like their business success depends on how successful their social business page is. However, there's so much more than social media to make a business successful, and I'm focusing on a whole ecosystem I'm creating to scale my business to continue its success in a more impactful and sustainable way. It going to take time and I'm finally understanding that and ok with it. It's been a journey to get truly understanding thanks to the help of mentors and just communicating with other people in the same industry.

I want to help others who need my help, but may not be ready to work with me yet. Also, at the same time continue to work with brands that have a purpose-driven mission and readily take the necessary steps to align their goals to meet the needs of their ideal clients to impact their lives for the better. Helping others achieve their goals is a self-satisfaction I receive. Some of us want to use our businesses to help others but may not know how to do it. That's where I get to come in and help start that journey in directing a budding business in the right direction with my skills and experience. Taking the time to bring me into a better space has created an even more impactful experience for my clients. It's been interesting to see the growth in me and how that elevates my clients as well and seeing them grow, take action, and find success as well. 

So I'm going to end it here for now. I wanted to share this long rollercoaster of thoughts I'm having at the moment. Maybe you can take something away from this. Like it takes time to grow. We cannot do it all on our own. That your business is always growing and adjusting. That you have to push through the hard times to see the good or learn something about yourslef. Making mistakes is apart of the business journey. Or just learn something new about me. 

Whatever the case thanks for reading my thoughts at this moment!