If you asked me what type of business I’m building, I’d hands down straight away say a lifestyle one. I admire and respect so many power brands and online empires who are taking their industries and communities by storm, but for me and the work I do it’s way more about the life I want to be living and the part I want my business to play in that.

A LIFESTYLE BUSINESS IS BUILT UPON THE VISION THAT THE BUSINESS SERVES AND ENABLES THE LIFE ITS OWNER WANTS TO LIVE.

The best part is, you get to define what that lifestyle looks like. Your lifestyle business may look like a 20 hour work week, with lots of travel and time for adventures. Or it may look like a 50 hour work week with lots of time for creative side projects too. Whatever it is, it’s yours to define. But when you’re building a lifestyle business, you’re not chasing the money; instead you’re chasing what that money can enable and bring.

Earlier this week I shared a post all about How Working With Dream Clients Can Change Everything, and today I want to dig a little deeper into some of the reasons why your online presence may not actually be helping you to attract those dreamy clients along the way.

Our online presence can be a game changing tool for our business and brand.

It can help us to build community, connect with the people we can serve best, and convert that audience into paying customers and clients too. For you and your business right now maybe those dreams clients are the ones who truly will understand and respect your creative expertise, or maybe you’re just getting started and dream clients for you right now are actually just going to be paying clients - whatever it is, your online presence can help you to attract and book them along the way.

If you’re feeling like you’re hustling crazy hard but you’re not seeing any client enquiries and bookings come in, today I have 10 reasons why that may be the case, and some jumping off points for how you can turn things around and start to unlock the potential your website, blog, and digital presence has to be the best and most effective marketing tool for you and your work.

One of my favourite things about launching Make It Happen so far has been the opportunity to touch base with awesome and inspiring creatives each week and cultivate some pretty awesome friendships along the way too. This weeks guest is no exception and I am super excited to share this episode with you today. I invited Megan Minns onto the show, a business strategist and virtual assistant, and I really think you're going to enjoy this episode and connect with the insights she shares throughout this show. 

Megan shares with us her story and journey so far, her best advice for side hustlers and anyone hoping to become a virtual assistant, and we even go a little off track and talk about her recent engagement too! We also dig into our thoughts on evolving in business, and some our favourite tools for staying organised and building systems that actually work. Megan is seriously awesome and this is a great episode for anyone who is working a 9-5 alongside their creative business, is interested in becoming a VA, or just wants to listen to two creatives talk shop and share some behind the scenes insights of what it's like to live the freelance life. 

Working with dream clients is the difference between feeling like just another creative service for hire and feeling like a creative expert who is doing work that is purposeful and effective. Working with dream clients has changed everything for me; it’s helped me to find direction, focus, and purpose with my work, and it feeds my soul and gives me the energy that I need to hustle hard and keep on moving forward with my business. 

Dream clients are a game changer for service based creative entrepreneurs and freelancers. They’re the whole reason we started out on this path in the first place, and it’s how we can truly be of service with our work, our creative expertise, and our ideas and methodology. 

For today's episode of Make It Happen I have the awesome Melyssa Griffin of The Nectar Collective on the show and we talk about her story and journey so far, our thoughts on making a living online, the biggest business lessons Melyssa has learned, and some behind the scenes of The Nectar Collective and what's next for Melyssa and her team. This is a really great episode for any bloggers, freelancers, and creative business owners who want to hear first hand from someone who has made awesome things happen online with her brand - I can't tell you how much I enjoyed recording this episode with Melyssa and I can't wait for you to dig into the insights and advice that she shared with us today. 

Melyssa's mindset and approach to business is one that I can really relate to, and we both share in this episode how we harness our intuition when making big and small business decisions along the way. I also pick Melyssa's brain about how she continues to uplevel with her business and brand, even when she's already achieved so much success, and she also shares with us the behind the scenes of her experience of bringing a team of contributors onto The Nectar Collective too.

Our first year in business is as exciting as it is nerve-wracking

There are so many lessons to learn, mistakes to be made, and so many decisions along the way that it can all feel a little overwhelming at times. There are many sleepless nights, leaps into the unknown, and doubts and fears along the way as we start out on this journey of creative entrepreneurship, and one of the biggest lessons I've learned so far is the power of experimenting and evolving as we go. 

I am super excited to be sharing this week's episode of Make It Happen with you today. I invited Jamie Starcevich of Spruce Rd to come onto to the show so we could just have a super honest and human chat about what we're learning during our first year of running our own creative businesses. Jamie and I both launched our businesses in January 2015 and in this episode we share the highs and lows and lessons learned along the way so far and we really dig into a bunch of awesome topics in this episode together. 

This is an awesome episode for anyone who is also in their first year of freelancing and just finding their feet, or for anyone who is thinking about taking the leap and would like an insight into two freelancers journeys so far. I really loved having Jamie on the show and I can't wait for you to dig into today's episode as we had tons of fun recording it. 

Do you remember last month when I shared this post - You Don't Have To Create For Other Business Owners To Build A Successful Online Business - and I promised that I would have some B2C specific content coming soon? Well today I have a 6-part guide for any service based B2C creatives who want to utilise their online presence as a tool for attracting (and booking!) dream clients so you can fill up your schedule with work that you're crazy excited to do. 

Here's the thing about being a service based creative entrepreneur - we do our best work when we work with the clients who we serve best. We also enjoy our work so much more when we're working with the specific type of clients that our creative expertise and inner genius is best suited for. That's exactly why I've put together this 6-part resource, as I've seen the power our online presence has to be a tool for attracting the right clients for us (and repelling the not so dreamy ones too) and a big part of the work that I'm passionate about doing right now is encouraging B2C creatives to share their game-changing expertise with the world so that they can then spend their days serving those who they can serve best. 

If you’re working crazy hard right now to make big and beautiful things happen online, I have something for you today that might be exactly what you need to help you bridge the gap between where you are now and where you want to be. But first up, I want to share with you five things that I truly believe are essential when it comes to building a game changing online presence that is purposeful and profitable along the way:

1. Clarity, Focus, & Direction

Because how can we make the right decisions if we don’t know where we’re going and why?

2. Purposeful Content Marketing Strategy

Sharing your expertise and value through your online content and building an authentic relationship with your audience is the difference between just offering services and products and actually selling those services and products.

3. Game-Changing Methodology

Because you have something to say and a message and ideas that can truly enrich and change the lives of those who you can serve best, but you need to hone in on that message and make sense of it if you want to really have some impact and reach with the right people for you. 

4. A Commitment To Creating Outside Of Your Comfort Zone

Because the magic happens when we step outside of our comfort zone and allow ourselves to get a little vulnerable along the way in this journey.

5. A Creative Pack Of Other Game Changers, Big Thinkers, & Thought Leaders To Be

Other people who see the world as big as we do are the thing that keeps us going on those days when we just want to give up and quit. Your creative pack can show you what you’re capable of even when you can’t see it yourself, and then can move you and push you forward in ways you didn’t even know possible.