As you can probably already tell, I really do love my job.

The fact that I get to spend my working hours supporting and encouraging other creative women to dream big, pursue their goals, and make things happen in their creative work and life on their own terms is something I'm so grateful for every single day.

Nothing brings me more joy in my business than seeing my clients be brave and bold with their creativity and their life, when they astonish themselves by realising they were capable of so much more than they thought they were, and when they change their own lives by showing up, choosing more, and giving their work and their life everything they've got along the way.

So for my first post of 2018 I want to share with you some of the crazy-awesome things some of my clients are doing in the world right now - and if you'd like to catch up with some previous posts highlighting the incredible work my clients are doing in the world you can here, here, and here.

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A brand new year is just around the corner and you may be starting to feel bombarded by all of the "new year, new you" talk that may be coming your way. 

But here's the thing: we don't have the enter next year as a new and improved version of ourselves if we don't want to.

We don't have to be constantly striving for bigger and better.

Who we are right here and now is already enough. 

I've found the most impactful thing I can do as I wrap up one year and prepare for a brand new one to come is to hold space for myself to get super clear on what I'm grateful for this year and what it is I'm really aching for in these next 12 months ahead.

Back at the beginning of 2016 I decided to embrace wholehearted as my word for the year and it completely changed how I show up for and experience my business and my life along the way. I shared a little more about what that meant for me in this blog post here. 

If you're starting to look ahead to 2018 and you'd like to enter the new year with a whole heart and a whole lot of intention, I have a question for you:

What do you want more of next year and what do you want less of?

More courage? More focus? More creativity? More connection? More joy?

Less stress? Less self-doubt? Less comparison? Less overwhelm? Less hustling for your self-worth?

Instead of putting pressure on yourself to set resolutions and goals for 2018 that may not truly serve you, my encouragement is to get to the heart of what you're really aching for and let that be your guidepost as you set goals, intentions, and areas of focus for the brand new year to come.

And to support you along the way I've put together a mini book, Your Wholehearted Year, to hopefully hold some space for you to reflect on this year and explore what it is you truly want to cultivate and make happen in your creative work and life in 2018. You can dive straight in and download it through the button below!

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One of the things I see my clients and creative friends battle with the most is confidence.

Sometime’s it doesn’t matter how crazy talented you are, if there’s something deep within you that struggles to believe that you’re good enough, that you’re worthy of taking up space in the world with your craft and your ideas, it can be crippling along the way.

And many times the advice we’re given around how to deal with our lack of confidence can be really unhelpful. We can be told to just get over it, to pull ourselves together, that we should be over this already.

But I think that it can be so much more complicated than that.

I don’t believe we can always just get over our biggest fears, the darkest stories that we tell ourselves, and the self-limiting beliefs that have been haunting us for years.

I believe that we can be bigger than them, that we can overcome them, and that we can find the strength not to let them define us, but it can take time, a whole lot of self-compassion, and patience and grace with ourselves too.

So if you’re battling with your confidence in your creative work and life right now, here’s my encouragement to you:

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Courage.

It’s a topic I explore over and over again with my clients. How to cultivate it, how to be brave even when we’re crippled with fear, how to move forward in our creative work and lives even when we’re so so afraid that we will fail, that we will be judged, and that we’re not good enough.

I’m almost certain you will be able to relate to some of these conversations.

The freelancer who is ready to truly claim her expertise and build the business she’s aching for, even though her imposter syndrome and self-doubt can feel overwhelming and lead to resistance and inaction when she starts to take those big leaps forward with her business. 

The coach who is ready to increase her prices, honour her boundaries, and take up more space in the world with her work but is so afraid that her dream clients won’t be able to afford her, that she doesn’t have permission to set those boundaries, and that her work isn’t as meaningful as she hopes it can be. 

The blogger who is ready to break out of the feast and famine cycle of waiting for brands to decide to work with her, and instead build her own income streams that she has complete control of - even though she feels wildly out of her comfort zone and afraid that she’s not capable of being the business owner she wants to be. 

The writer who is oh so ready to live her truth out loud and tell her story, but is overwhelmed by the fear that nobody will want to read her work, that she’ll never be able to make a living doing what she truly loves, and that she’ll be judged for the more vulnerable parts of her story that she wants to share.

I always tell me clients that I would be lying to them if I said that there’s a quick and easy way to overcome our fears and take brave and bold steps forward in our creative work and life. But what I do know is this - courage is a muscle. We have the ability to cultivate it ourselves, to nurture it every step of the way, and to strengthen it with each step we take. And with every brave and bold step we take, it becomes easier to dig deep and find the courage we need to keep going. Just like any muscle, the more we use it, the more it grows. 

I encourage them to start by asking themselves each morning: 

How can I be the bravest version of myself today in my creative work and life?

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If you've been reading this blog for a while now, you'll know that I'm all about doing business on our own terms, by our own rules, and in our own way.

I don't believe in any of the one-size-fits-all formulas, quick-fix strategies, and step-by-step blueprints that are sold to us as the secret to success as a business owner.

I believe in getting to the heart of our business, taking focused, purposeful, and meaningful steps forward with our work, and doing everything from a place of courage, integrity, and intention. It's not the quick or sexy way to get to where you want to be, but after three years now of coaching big-hearted creatives and supporting them to bridge the gap between where they are and where they want to be I've seen time and time again that it's the only way to truly make big things happen along the way.

So today I want to share with you a six-part manifesto for any big-hearted creatives who want to build and run a business from a place of integrity, intention, and courage so you can truly build an impactful, fulfilling, and sustainable creative work and life for yourself along the way.

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"I know making things happen takes time, but I'm just feeling so impatient right now"

Hands up if you've ever felt frustrated, disheartened, and impatient in your pursuit of your creative goals along the way?

Don't worry, you are not alone - I have this conversation over and over again with my awesome clients.

They take brave, intentional, and purposeful steps forward in their business - maybe they're pivoting their business model to work better for them, maybe they're trying to take their business from a side hustle to full time, or maybe they're building a brand new big-hearted business for themselves from scratch - but now and again they may find themselves feeling wildly impatient and frustrated that their business and their life isn't where they want it to be yet.

And it's oh so understandable. Bridging the gap between where we are and where we want to be in our creative work and life can feel like we're taking a huge leap into the unknown - there are never any guarantees that we will succeed, we have no idea what opportunities and obstacles may come our way, and we almost always want to be ten steps ahead of where we actually are right now.

But here's what I tell my clients and what I want to share with you today too:

An awesome, fulfilling, and sustainable creative business and life is oh so possible for you, but it's not always going to happen on your schedule.

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Over the summer I had a burst of inspiration one weekday afternoon.

I wanted to write a collection of essays, to share as an e-book and audiobook, all about the lessons I've learned about making things happen in our creative work and lives along the way.

For the past three years I've had the privilege of working with so many crazy-awesome, brave, and inspiring creative women as their creative coach and I have learned so much from walking with them in their journey and supporting them in their pursuit of an impactful, fulfilling, and sustainable creative business and life.

And I've learned so much from my own journey of building a wholehearted creative business too, and there was just so much on my heart that I wanted to share with other big-hearted creatives like you who may need a little encouragement, inspiration, and insight to support you to keep going and keep bringing to life the creative work and life that your aching for along the way.

So that is how Nobody is Going To Do Your Business (Or Your Life) For You: & Other Stories came to be.

It's a 40+ page e-book filled with 12 essays all about bridging the gap between where you are now and where you want to be in your creative work and life. There's also an audiobook version if you'd rather listen along than read. 

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As a creative coach, I spend my days working with crazy-awesome creatives having both deep and meaningful conversations about their creative work and life and also the nitty gritty side of running a business and making things happen too.

It's a privilege to do this work, and I'm so inspired every single week by the courage, bravery, and sheer badassery of my clients.

But, just like I'm not, none of them are immune to feeling insecure, overwhelmed, and a little lost at times along the way.

It's my job to listen to them, to hold space for them to listen to themselves, and facilitate a-ha moments, strategic action planning, and a whole lot of big-picture thinking too. But from time to time I also share with them some straight-up pep-talks around what it takes to live a wholehearted, impactful, fulfilling, and sustainable creative life. From time to time, it's my job to remind them of their sheer badassery and encourage them to move forward in the bravest, most intentional, and meaningful way for them.

So for today's letter I want to share with you some of the pep-talks I've given to my clients this week, in the hopes they may remind you of your own sheer badassery too.

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I’m a big believer in getting to the heart of our business.

It’s so easy to get wrapped up in the day-to-day of trying to build, run, and maintain a profitable and thriving business that we can lose sight of the fact that our business also needs to have a whole lot of purpose, clarity, and focus behind it too.

Especially if you’re struggling to feel confident and focused in your business, and that’s manifesting as feeling resistance around your content, your offerings, your messaging, and how you want to show up in your marketing and digital presence, I have five exercises for you today to hopefully help you go back to basics and really get to the heart of your business and your brand. 

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