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:

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. 

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. 

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. 

Being a coach is wonderful, challenging, fulfilling, hard, scary, and so damn meaningful all at exactly the same time.

I’m over 18 months into running my coaching business now and there have been so many lessons that I’ve learned along the way so far. If I could go back and tell myself then what I know now I would have saved myself a whole lot of overwhelm, fear, and sleepless nights along the way

Today I want to to share with you 10 of the things I would have loved to have known back then when I was first getting started in my coaching business, in the hopes it can be of some encouragement and insight to you in your own coaching journey too. 

A big lesson I’ve learned in my coaching journey so far is this: self-awareness and knowing who we are as a coach is the secret to doing meaningful, fulfilling, and sustainable work along the way.

No two coaches are made the same.

Our own stories and experiences have shaped who we are and how we show up in our coaching work. Doing the deep and sometimes challenging work of truly taking ownership of who we are as a coach is how we can become the best coach we can be - the magic never happens on autopilot, we have to be fully present in our work and our practice along the way. 

Especially if you’re just getting started, discovering who you are a coach can sound like an overwhelming task. So many of us battle with imposter syndrome and fear that we’re not good enough and sometimes it's easier to shy away from the deep and big-picture tasks that can bring up these fears, but my encouragement to you today is to work through these next five steps and start to really find clarity on who you are as a big-hearted coach. 

Even if you’ve been coaching for a few years now, I find these tasks can be a great tool to help us recenter in our business and rediscover what makes the work we do unique and important too.

There are certain things I look and hope for when consuming ideas, stories, content, and information to fuel, inspire, and direct my coaching practice:

• Ideas that move me, push me, and speak to my core values as a coach and human
• Ideas that give me space to grow, to evolve, to develop, and be the coach I want to be
• Stories, conversations, and ideas that help me better understand and serve my clients
• Stories, conversations, and ideas that encourage me to live a fulfilling, meaningful, and impactful life

Today I want to share with you ten of my favourite things that I’ve read, watched, and listened to as a big-hearted coach - my hope is that these can encourage, inspire, and guide you too in your own journey of building and running a meaningful coaching business on your own terms. 

Thinking about starting your own big-hearted coaching business?

That’s awesome. And here’s why:

1. Coaching and mentoring others can be some of the most fulfilling work you’ll ever do

Supporting, encouraging, and guiding others in their own journey of personal growth and making things happen - whether you’re a health coach, life coach, creative coach, business coach, or something in-between - is incredible. Seeing clients push past fears, limiting self beliefs, negative mindsets, and habits that have held them back for years is an absolute privilege - a coaching business is way more than just a business, it’s a vocation too. 

2. Building your own business means you can live your life completely on your own terms

You can set your own schedule. You can work wherever and however you want. You get to scale and grow your business on your own terms. The only ceiling on your income potential is the one you set for yourself. You can take time off without asking permission for anyone else. You can build a career and a lifestyle that completely works for you. 

3. Running a big-hearted coaching business means you can stay true to yourself and do crazy impactful work every step of the way

By putting a whole lot of heart into your business and prioritising your own core values, vision, and intentions above all else, you can build a truly impactful coaching practice that you can be proud and excited to run. 

But no one said it was easy.

These are some of the things you may be worried about right now: 

Money, money, money. They say it makes the world go round, right?

The topic of money always comes up when I’m working with my awesome clients. Celebrating them reaching their income goals. Helping them create a system and plan for tracking their income and managing their expenses and taxes. Exploring their fears, limiting self-beliefs, and anxieties around money. Navigating the feast and famine cycle that can come with this journey along the way.

I believe more than anything that when it comes to money, honest conversations are what helps us make smarter, more empowered, and intentional decisions along the way. It’s a topic that affects every single one of us, no matter our income and background. Today I want to share with you some of my favourite money conversations from around the web in the hopes they can be of comfort, inspiration, and encouragement to you along the way.