5 Tips for Building a Business While Staying True to You
It was about 3 years into creating my business that I found myself spiralling away from why I began in the first place and doing what I thought I should do because that’s what all the workshops, conferences, workbooks, and success manuals taught me. The key word there is SHOULD - anything you think you SHOULD do, is maybe not in alignment with you (it might be, but you have to sit with and see if it is for you or not.) I don’t regret the path my business took because I believe everything happens for a reason - I mean, now I teach other creatives how to ask the right questions to get back to the heart of why they do what they do. It was interesting, though, as I started asking questions about myself and why I was doing the things I was doing - I felt fear rise up within me. If I changed the way things were going, would clients still book? If I changed the type of art that I was creating, would people still be interested? If I stopped or started talking about different things would people be mad at me? And this fear kept me on a path that wasn’t for me for another 2-3 years.
So, today I wanted to share 5 tips to creating a business while staying true to yourself that have eventually helped me come back around to doing what is right for me (even if it’s not the popular decision!)
1.DEFINE YOUR VALUES
Doing this exercise has immensely helped me in reworking a lot of the things I was doing - it also helped me understand why certain methodologies or sales tactics didn’t sit well with me - the people make them had different values than me! And that’s okay! My core values are: Education, Empathy, Curiosity, and Authenticity. If I want to share something or promote something, I will want to use the following values to help me do it. This is why, in the past I would maybe share something because I was angry or upset before truly thinking about how it would come across and then feel squidgy about how it landed - now, if I want to share something that I am passionate about, I will make sure that it falls into my values. So essentially, if it’s not something I am qualified to educate on - I am not the one to speak on it. If it can hurt someone else - I am not the one to post it. If I don’t get curious about why I am sharing it, talking about it, doing it, etc. then enough thought hasn’t gone in for me to do it. And most importantly, if I am sharing something in a way that I THINK I have to share it, it obviously isn’t authentic to me - so I just don’t do it.
If you want to figure out your values - head to this post HERE.
2. SET REALISTIC GOALS THAT WORK FOR YOU
This is REALLY important. Especially that last part “that work for you”. People used to have animosity towards me because I would be checking off goals left, right, and center - but they didn’t stop to consider that my lifestyle allowed for that: I have no kids, an independent husband, less overhead risk due to my partner, etc. Because of this I was able to work a ton more hours than most people and do a lot of things. As my life as changed, my goals have also had to change - particularly the pace at which I achieve them. I want to encourage you to set goals that work for you and your lifestyle. If you have to accommodate kids, partners, multiple jobs, parents, etc. - then you are going to have a different set of goal timelines than me AND THAT’S OKAY. Now that I am prioritizing a slower life, where I prioritize life over business, my own goals have slowed down.
3. KNOW YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE AND MAKE SURE YOU AREN’T CHANGING FOR THEM
Understanding your customers' needs, preferences, and pain points allows you to tailor your products or services accordingly. In this day and age, I’d like to think this goes beyond the usual demographics that used to work in marketing. Now, it’s more about the particular folks and their pain points. I mean, you are probably a creative entrepreneur that digs learning about psychology, self development, possibly photography/art, etc. and that’s why you are reading this post! I find it really hard to talk about anything that doesn’t interest me, so my hope is that by me becoming a light house for these types of things, the people that resonate will find me. I found this really cool blog post on Pinterest about brand archetypes and it was cool to see where I fit on the wheel - I recommend checking it out!
4. BUILD STRONG RELATIONSHIPS
Taylor Swift is wildly good at marketing and a huge reason for that is because she pours back into her fans. One of the things that I see new creative business owners do is leave things up to the algo - instead of getting into their communities. One of the things that helped me get my business off the ground, was supporting other businesses - buying locally, attending events (even though I despise networking) and connecting with people through different local classes. The other thing that helped me build these relationships was to be myself and be okay with whomever stuck around. I always think that if I am my most authentic self, then I can allow space for others to show up that way as well - and isn’t that a beautiful thing? For those that are fearful of networking, take my advice and ask to do a job - if you can find a purpose to being there it makes it a thousand times easier! Now, whether it is online of offline, it’s important to continue to foster those relationships, liking and sharing your clients and prospective clients’ posts/content, engaging with people in your comment section, etc.
5. PRIORITIZE SELF CARE
Lordy lordy, this one is probably the most important of all of them. It’s so easy to get wrapped up in your business that you forget about yourself as a person, so take it from me - someone who burnt out on their favorite thing in the world and pushed their body to the brink - you need to prioritize yourself. No one is going to do it for you. By prioritizing self care, you are going to be able to stay in a critical thinking frame of mind instead of a fear based thought process. The moment we are hungry, thirsty, tired, or any other version of stress our critical thinking shuts off and it is REALLY hard to make positive business decisions when we are in a state of stress. And in this climate? We are stressed a lot. Prioritize taking time away from social media. Prioritize moving your body. Prioritize early bed times and friend time. Essentially, put yourself first. Plus, practicing self care will help you realize that YOU are more important than your business which makes it harder to fall into imposter syndrome or comparison as you work towards creating the business of your dreams!
