Five Pieces Of Encouragement For Big-Hearted Creatives

My main role as a creative coach in my engagements with my clients is to hold space, ask the right questions, and support them to discover their own answers and move forward in their creative work and lives in a way that works best for them. But there’s also space within my coaching practice to offer personal insights, encouragements, and ideas that may be of service to my clients in their journey’s along the way too.

Today I want to share with you five pieces of encouragement that I share often with my clients when they’re in a situation where I hope it may help them to explore a different perspective and discover how best they can navigate their journey along the way. I never have all of the answers, but if I could encourage you to explore anything in your creative work and life right now it would be the following five things: 

Read More
Jen Carrington
10 Awesome Things My Clients Have Launched, Made, & Created This Year

To say I am inspired by and proud of every single client I work with would be an understatement.

To see creative women be bold and brave, put work that is meaningful to them out there into the world, and to build a creative life and business that feels truly meaningful for them - well, to say this is a dream job for me would be an understatement.

I have learned so much from each and every client I’ve worked with - I grow so much from these women and supporting them in their journey’s, and today I want to share with you some of the really cool things I’ve seen my clients make happen this year in their creative work and businesses. 

I had to narrow this down to just 10, because otherwise this would the longest post in the history of my blog, but if you’d like to find out about more of the awesome things my current and past clients are up to you can always head to my Client Stories page to read more. Below are 10 really awesome things some of my clients have been bringing to life this year, and my hope is that they will either be something that can be of service to you, or that they will just inspire you to also get out there and put your own awesome ideas out into the world. 

Read More
Jen Carrington
The Things That Get In The Way Of Building A Joyful, Impactful, & Productive Daily Grind

Today I want to share with you a little snippet from my new course, The Intuitive Workweek, from a section all about the things that I see getting in the way of creatives building a joyful, impactful, and productive daily grind in their business. 

Whenever I'm supporting my clients to build a more joyful routine in their business, the same things come up over and over again for them while they're starting to navigate a more intentional approach to their daily grind. Whether it's a mindset, fear, or limiting self-belief, we're all battling with similar blocks even if they manifest in different ways for us, and in this section of the course I wanted to share and explore some of the most common things I see getting in the way for my clients and share some encouragement and ideas for how to move forward instead of staying stuck in them along the way. 

Read More
Jen Carrington
Why I Encourage My Clients To Work Intuitively (+ Introducing The Intuitive Workweek)

I’m lucky enough to work with lots of different clients from lots of different creative fields in my coaching business. From photographers, to coaches, to designers, to writers, and everything else in-between. We focus on so many different areas in their creative work and lives, but a topic that always comes up during our work together is their routine and workflow in their business.

Client after client, when we first start working together I see so many of them struggling with feeling overwhelmed, overworked, underutilised, unfulfilled, and burned out in their business. Although we all know that a dream job is still a job, we still quietly ask ourselves:

Is this all there is?

Is it supposed to be this hard?

Isn’t a dream job supposed to be just at least a little bit dreamy?

I’ve been there. You may remember last year when I battled with some serious business burnout, and behind the scenes I was feeling so unfulfilled in my creative work and life. Everything on the surface was fine - I was making a good living, working with incredible clients, having the freedom to plan out my days in whatever way I wanted to - but deep down I just wasn't fulfilled by the daily grind in my business. 

I’ve shared on the blog this year How I Intentionally Schedule My Week As A Creative Business Owner, and an update to that post, but today I want to dive even deeper into this topic and share with you why intuitive working has been the catalyst for a more joyful, impactful, and productive daily grind for me along the way, and why I encourage my clients to embrace working intuitively too.

Read More
Jen Carrington
How I Intentionally Schedule My Week As A Creative Business Owner: An Update

Back in April I shared with you a post on How I Intentionally Schedule My Week As A Creative Business Owner. In it I shared with you how I block out my days and intentionally spend my energy and time in my business. Today I want to check back in with that original post and share with you an update with how things are looking now. If I’ve learned anything as a business owner so far, things will always be evolving and changing along the way. 

The general gist of my routine is the same; I still do client work Wednesday’s, Thursday’s, and every other Saturday, and the other days are still focused on content, bigger projects, self-development and rest and play, but in many ways my approach and my mindset when it comes to my routine have really shifted and evolved since then.

My core needs when it comes to my routine and lifestyle are the same:

My business needs structure and boundaries.

My creativity needs freedom and space.

My wellbeing needs margin and flexibility.

But here’s what has changed and what I’ve learned since April:

Read More
Jen Carrington
A Survival Guide To Your Season Of Intentional Hustle

I talk a whole lot about navigating different creative seasons, from seasons of rest, to seasons of hustle, and even seasons of struggle from time to time too.

We embrace a season of hustle for many reasons - we want to reach new goals, we want to challenge ourselves, and a lot of the time it’s because that’s just what our work and our life needs from us right now. 

So what exactly is an intentional season of hustle?

An intentional season of hustle means you're making things happen on your own terms - it’s choosing to “hustle it out” in a way that feels good, that is productive and proactive, and fulfilling and meaningful too. An intentional season of hustle means you decide how, why, and when you’ll hustle it out - and it embraces the fact that rest, reflection, and time to recharge and live a little is needed if you want to truly make things happen along the way. 

If you’re in a season of hustle right now, I have a survival guide just for you. After navigating my own seasons of hustle so I could get my business off the ground and up and running in a way that works best for me, and supporting my clients to make things happen in their creative lives and bridge the gap between where they are now and where they want to be, below are some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned along the way so far for how to hustle it out while still enjoying the hustle, your work, and your life too. 

Read More
Jen Carrington
How To Keep Falling In Love With Your Coaching Business Over & Over Again

Because even a dream job still feels like work somedays.

Once your coaching business is up and running and you’ve been doing it for a while now, it’s easy to find yourself in a rut or feeling a little stagnant and stuck in your daily grind. Maybe you feel a little exhausted, or overwhelmed, or like your business has lost that spark that first inspired you to get started. This is totally normal - the honeymoon period always fades and there’s no avoiding that sometimes work, even the dreamy kind, still feels like work. 

The secret is to keep on falling in love with your coaching business - to keep reminding yourself why you’re doing this in the first place, and keep on building a business that is joyful and fulfilling along the way. Below are some of the lessons I’ve learned along the way so far about keeping the dream job dreamy, and hopefully they can be a the jumping off point you need if you need a little more spark and inspiration in your business life right now. 

Read More
Jen Carrington
Hey, Coaches: Ready To Feel Inspired To Create Content Again?

I’m a big believer in meaningful, purposeful, and effective content being our secret weapon when it comes to building a fulfilling, impactful, and sustainable business.

Especially for coaches, it’s a great way to share our knowledge and expertise, connect with potential clients, and build awareness around our services and offerings. Personally I’ve found that, alongside referrals and word of mouth, my content has been one of the most important tools in my box when it comes to consistently attracting and booking clients along the way. 

Sometimes though it’s easy to feel in a rut, burnt out, and uninspired when it comes to our content creation process. We spend so much time each week with our clients doing the work we’re here to do that the thought of creating content around the same topics and ideas can feel a little exhausting.

Today I want to share with you 10 content exercises and ideas to hopefully inspire you to start creating and sharing content again. Hopefully these can be jumping off points to spark some ideas that you feel excited to explore and create. 

Read More
Jen Carrington