The blogs I tend to read the most these days are run by awesome creatives who are sharing their lives, their work, their process, and lessons learned along the way. For fellow working creatives it's a great way to connect with others and find answers to the many questions you may have about working for yourself and running your own creative business. I've shared a few of these before but I wanted to round up some really awesome creatives today who are running blogs that are forever inspiring me to dream bigger and create work and content I can be really proud of. 

This year has flown by crazy fast, I really can't believe we're creeping up to the final two months already. Looking back so far, it's been a super exciting year for me in terms of personal growth and making little steps towards my long term goals. I'm now self employed, building a career I love, and even though there's a long way to go I'm feeling positive and excited about what the future has to bring. In general though, I'm finding that to lead a happy and fulfilling life we have to be proactive and seek out the things that make us happy, as life can get so busy sometimes that we have to make time for the things that really matter to us.

So with the end of the year in sight now, I've been thinking of ways that I can make the most out of these last few months and I thought I'd share a few of them with you today.

Social media is one of the aspects of blogging that it's taken me a while to get to grips with - there are so many platforms to consider and how to make them a valuable asset to your online brand that it's enough to give anyone a headache. Of course my favourite online reads have come to my aid again thanks to them sharing awesome and insightful advice, and today I'm rounding up some of my favourites in the hopes they can be helpful for you as well.

I spoke a few weeks about about my plan to Feel The Fear And Don't Look Back, and since then I watched this awesome Circles talk by Kathleen Shannon from Braid Creative talking about what creative entrepreneurs are scared of and it started me thinking about what my biggest fears are as a creative. What I'm learning is that fears are totally normal and a-okay when you're a working creative, the important thing is to find a way to manage those fears and not let them stop you and your workflow. Today I'm sharing some of my biggest fears, and how I try and not let them interfere with my work and my happiness. 

When I first started Jennypurr it was just a small side hobby to help fill my time and as a place where I hoped to connect with like minded people. Since then it's grown into one of my favourite places to be and is now a big extension of who I am as a creative and my personal brand. Somewhere along the way I started to take things a little more seriously when it comes to how I run this space, and today I thought I'd share ten steps I've taken that helped me along the way. 

Staying on top of our workload and the many hats we have to wear in our jobs is tough - sometimes there just never seems to be enough hours in the day to get things done. This is where maximising your productivity comes in, and I'm no expert but managing my freelance work, ALO, and this blog has meant I've had to find ways to be super productive whilst managing my many daily tasks. Productivity looks different for everyone, but today I'm sharing four steps I've found to make all the difference to my workflow...

I've said it many times that when you blog you shouldn't get too caught up on the numbers - but obviously this is easier said than done. For a long time I was somewhat obsessive about my blogs traffic - I defined every posts success by how many PV and Unique Visitors it reached that day, and if my traffic hadn't increased from the previous month I'd beat myself up over what I was doing wrong.

Obviously this is no way to create, and a big, big, lesson I've learned is that a blog really is more than just it's traffic. Let me tell you why...

When you work for yourself you wear many hats, and there are many challenges and adventures that you face every day and sometimes you can feel a little lost in the middle of it all. I've shared posts you should read if you work from home, a beginners guide to freelancing, and 6 realities of being a creative entrepreneur, but today I thought I'd bring you some must reads for anyone else working for themselves...

I've been thinking a lot lately about the things that can hold us back when it comes to following our dreams and doing what we really want to do with our lives. The biggest person in my own way is me - I'm the one who talks myself out of taking steps forward, who tells myself I'm not good enough, and who worries too much about the fear of failure.

Freelancing and working for yourself is scary business, but whatever the career path it is that you want to follow, or the life choices you want to take the leap and make, I thought today I'd share some of the things that hold me back and that I want to work through in my own life, in the hopes of encouraging you to get out of your own way too...