Season 2 of my podcast, Make It Happen, has just come to an end and I am crazy proud of this body of work. So much of it has felt like a collaboration too with the awesome guests who have come on the show this season, and I also experimented with solo mini episodes each week which were an absolute joy to create.

The main reason I work on this show is to create the space to share ideas, stories, and insights into the realities of making things happen in our creative life - from the nitty gritty business side of things, to the messy and personal side too. An overarching theme this season was living, creating, and doing business with intention, and it was so interesting to see how that manifests differently for every guest on the show. 

Make It Happen will be back with Season 3 in the summer, but before then here are all the episodes from this season for you to catch up with: 

One of the things clients ask me about often is how I schedule my week as a creative business owner. 

Managing our time, getting things done, and finding a good “balance” is something I think so many of us struggle with. Some of us fall into the camp of being constantly go-go-go and never taking a break, and others into the camp of being too easily distracted and struggling to stay focused with the lack of structure working for ourselves can bring. Here’s what I’ve learned:

My business needs structure and boundaries.

My creativity needs freedom and space. 

My wellbeing needs margin and flexibility.  

For a long time, these all felt like too many contradictions - I struggled to see how I could make space for everything in my weekly routine. After hitting burnout and feeling unfulfilled in my creative life last year, this year I decided to focus on shifting my routine so that it could make space for everything my business, my creativity, and my wellbeing needs along the way. Here’s how that practically looks for me now:

At the very beginning of January 2016 I decided to make this a wholehearted year. 

I shared what this meant for me in-depth in this post here. To stay as wholehearted and intentional as possible in 2016, I’ve decided to take this year quarter-by-quarter and embrace my own approach to the 12-week year. Quarter 1 has now come to end and looking back it has probably been my favourite ever quarter in my creative life so far.

I’ve slowed down, I’ve focused on digging deep and doing only the most essential work, and I’ve committed to reconnecting to my creativity, my wellbeing, and my best ideas. Today I want to share with you some of my reflections on Q1 and the biggest takeaways and lessons from this season in my creative work and life. 

A question I’ve been asked a lot recently is how I got to where I am now with my blog and my business. This is a funny question for me as I never really think of myself as someone who has got anywhere, I’m just doing what I love, figuring things out as I go, and working really hard to make it happen along the way. 

Today I want to share with you my journey step-by-step so far, from my first ever blog post to the coaching business I have today. I want to share both the blogging and business journey alongside some insights from my personal journey too, as for me they both go hand in hand. My personal life affects my business and my business affects my personal life and the lines are so blurred now between them that it wouldn’t be the full story if I didn’t share them both side by side.

If I could go back and tell myself one thing when I first started my coaching business it would be this: take care of yourself more.

Because as a coach, you are ultimately your number one asset. Your mind, your time, your wellbeing, and your ability to show up and do your best work with your clients will make or break your ability to build an impactful, fulfilling, and sustainable coaching business along the way. 

When I first started out, I didn’t even think about the possibility of burn out - the thought of getting booked out in advance at all, let alone within the first six months just didn’t even come into my mind. So for the first year I was just not prepared for how intense and draining your work can become as a coach - especially if you’ve not intentionally built your routine to enable you to do your best work along the way. 

I found myself overbooked, overworked, and stressed out and by November last year I found myself completely burned out. I knew I loved my work, it feeds my soul in ways I can’t even put into words, but I also knew that I couldn’t continue to sacrifice my wellbeing for my business and that something had to change.

Today I want to share with you how I have been building a more intentional, mindful, and healthy routine as a coach, and the advice I wish I knew when I first started out so I could have avoided burn out along the way.  

A conversation I have with so many of my coaching clients is about what their content strategy can and cannot look like.

My answer? Your content strategy can look however the hell you want it to.

Don’t get me wrong, I haven’t lost all reason and sanity here - I am a content coach after all. But what I’ve found with so many of the purpose-driven creatives I’ve worked with is that so much of the “shoulds” and “how-to’s” when it comes to content marketing and strategy have actually ending up stifling their best, most creative, and impactful ideas.

There’s a reason why I don’t believe in or make space for one-size-fits-all formulas, strategies, and quick fixes in the work I do with my clients - because I deep-down-in-my-gut believe that there’s no place for them when we’re showing up and doing meaningful and impactful creative work.

Whether you’re aching to be a thought leader, a visionary, or just to build an impactful, fulfilling, and sustainable creative business on your own terms, your content marketing strategy can play a huge part in getting your brand out there and in front of the right people for you.

But as purpose-driven creatives, our content marketing strategy is way more than that. It’s a way to build meaningful relationships, brand awareness around the values your work is built upon, and trust that makes the selling process for you and the buying process for your clients and customers feel so damn good instead of sleazy along the way. 

My full list of “your content marketing strategy could look like this but doesn’t have to” would take me far too long to write about, but here are some of the key mediums and methods my clients bring up in our work together when they’re feeling like they have to market themselves in a way that doesn’t actually feel true to who they are and what they do.  

There are certain things I’ve read, watched, and listened to so far in my creative journey that I go back to time and time again. 

They’ve been the words of wisdom, encouragement, and insight that have been exactly what I needed during a certain stage or season in my journey. I send these links and recommendations to friends and clients when I see them in these stages and seasons too, and today I want to share them with you in the hope that they may be exactly what you need right now.

Almost every creative I’ve met in this journey so far is aching for exactly the same thing:

A life of freedom, fulfilment, and joy. And the best part? A life of freedom, fulfilment, and joy looks a little (or a lot) different for every single one of us. 

There’s a huge trend in the digital space right now of pursuing that life of freedom, fulfilment, and joy through passive income and one-to-many offerings and products. And it’s awesome; nothing makes me happier and more inspired than seeing other creatives bring to life game changing and meaningful work. 

But here’s the thing: I truly, deep-down-in-my-soul, believe that you can still live a life of freedom as a creative even if your main work is service-based. Actually, I don’t just believe it - I know it to be true. I’ve seen it in my own life, and in the life of my clients too.

One of my biggest struggles so far in my creative career has been managing my introverted nature alongside my desire to grow, thrive, and succeed in my business and my work.

I crave quiet time. I thrive when I’m alone and I have the space to really dig deep and get the work done. I also love working one-on-one with my clients as their creative coach and mentor, and one of the questions people in my life always ask me is how I manage to balance my extremely introverted nature alongside the realities of my work and my schedule.

The truth is this: I love being a coach. I’m so grateful to have found a vocation and a career that I love, and the challenge of finding a routine and a schedule that works for me has been an interesting and enlightening journey along the way this past year - and one that has ultimately led to some serious personal growth and space to truly understand myself and how I work and function best.

I know I’m not the only introverted creative out there - so many of us choose to do our work online because it suits our introverted nature so much more than a busy office or team environment ever could. I recently shared a mini podcast episode on Building An Effective & Fulfilling Routine As A Creative, where I shared in-depth how I map out my months, weeks, and days in an intentional and purposeful way. Today I want to dig into that topic even deeper and share with you some of the biggest lessons I’ve learned as an introvert about creating a routine that gives me the space to thrive in my work without working against the realities of who I am and how I work best.