Blog - Page 42 of 75

Recommended: supportive courses for Christmas

For the past two years, since I started mentoring small creative business owners, I’ve run Progress not Perfection – an email and care package programme to bring support and ease into the busiest weeks of the year.

This year, I’ve made the decision not to run it because I’m pretty tied up in Copper Boom Studio, as well as planning my January retreats.

But I wouldn’t want you to feel unsupported over Christmas! So here are a few recommendations for ways you can get some calm and love in your mailbox.

1. A Thankful Heart by Gabrielle Treanor

Gabrielle is a passionate and gentle soul, seeking to guide busy people towards a more grateful and joyous everyday life. This particular course starts on 7 November and is all about finding little bits of good in every day. I’ve personally read every email and listened to every recording, and this course is a lovely way to create more gratitude and happiness.

2. Savor by Rachel Cole

Every year for the past five years, I’ve taken Rachel’s festive season offering. The first one got me through a very hard winter, before I knew that I wanted to leave my job (and relationship) in search for something more on my own terms. I’ve worked with Rachel for three years (she’s my coach) and I love the way she brings her wisdom to the Christmas season. This year’s Savor course sees new guest teachers offering meditations and pauses for thought. Lovely!

3. Being Boss Podcasts

I love having something to listen to while I’m working, and I’ve found the Being Boss podcast so helpful and inspiring. This option isn’t as gentle as the other two – it’s more business advice and getting you thinking, which might not be quite right for this time of year. But it’s full of wisdom and “me too” moments. Tune into episodes you most need or simply catch up on the regular programme.

And, of course, the invitation is open to join me in January in the Cotswolds for a weekend of restoration, inspiration and creativity. Booking in on a retreat is one of the only ways to work with me in the coming months.

Sending love your way,

Jenny x

Here's the thing: strength

Yesterday, I launched a Crowdfunder for Copper Boom. I will tell you all about it, I promise, but right now I need to tell you about strength.

Isn’t it sometimes true that you have to go beyond your limits (or what you thought were your limits) in order to see how capable you are? In order to see how strong you are? Strength, it seems, is what I’m discovering new layers of, beyond the surface and the next rung down and the places I knew so well.

Last week, Copper Boom moved out of my house and into commercial premises, and I tell you, it is a relief. It feels better already. Bigger, more real, more professional, more capable. But boy is it hard work. Hard in ways I hadn’t quite imagined. We still have no phone line, no internet, because lord love them, BT cancelled my order without telling me three times. After I diligently planned ahead and had a date a whole week before we moved in when they would install! There is strength in calling them back – again! – to see what the hell is going on.

My team also trebled overnight. Two permanent team members started last week. Thank goodness. I held a team lunch on Friday and there were eight of us around the table. Eight! And at the end of that long week, it felt like strength to sit there and not let all of my fears and exhaustion show through, but instead introduce them to each other and give us all the opportunity to celebrate and get excited.

There’s strength in being so completely brain-dead at the end of the day that I burn the dinner, and then getting up in the morning to do it all over again.

There’s strength (or is it just an ache?) in my calves, thighs, shoulders, from standing and lifting and moving and working on photoshoots.

There’s strength in coming back to my vision, my integrity, my dream – even when I see other people doing other stuff, or when I’m asked if we can do something else.

I was thinking about strength, and I wondered what my strengths are. In the chaos of moving and building and adding people and launching a Crowdfunder, it doesn’t feel like organisation is my strength. But perhaps flexibility or riding the wave is a strength.

Writing and communication are strengths of mine, and yet I’ve called two people the wrong names every time I’ve seen them this week. And I’ve read over emails I’ve written and thought, Jenny, that really isn’t clear at all. I know that they’re still strengths underneath it all, but in this busy phase, who’s to know?

I do believe one of my strengths is hope. I am good at finding hope in dark places, whether for myself or for others. Recently, I worried that perhaps hope was my downfall – do I just hope too much, without really putting the effort in to make it happen? This is a genuine question I have put to several friends. They all laughed at me. Apparently running two businesses and pushing one of them quite hard is practically the definition of “putting enough effort in”.

And you know me. I see strength in the tears, in admitting that it’s hard and I still want to do it. There is strength in acknowledging that there’s still so far to go and, damn it, I’d just like a rest, please.

There’s strength in becoming more visible. (Oh, I have a whole book to write on this subject, but safe to say I’ve been thinking about this a lot recently.) Especially when you don’t feel polished and up to scrutiny.

I see strength in the client who emailed today saying she has two staff members out of action and is struggling to draw breath. I hear ya, sister. There’s strength in powering through.

There’s strength in the client who asked me to create a business plan with her, even though she’s going through IVF treatment, because whether she’s pregnant tomorrow or not, she needs her business to change.

This year, I chose bloom as my word. I think about it a lot. It’s been very apt, so far. Today, thinking about strength, I notice what a vital component it is to blooming. A flower needs strength to grow, to stand, to open its petals. Even the most delicate flora needs strength. It doesn’t question whether it will be strong enough, or whether being strong is even worth it. It just blooms.

And so here’s the thing:

Let’s be strong together. Let’s recognise our strengths. When was the last time you considered what your personal and professional strengths are? Perhaps now is the time to make a note of them.

And: what do you need to be strong? I need sleep and good food and space to completely collapse at the end of the day, with no expectations that I will have anything further to give. Right now, that’s what this building-a-business strength requires.

I am strong. And I’m glad of it.

Here’s to us.

The Big New Idea: the need for courage and clarity

Hi, my name is Jenny, and I’m mostly tired and not entirely sure what I’m doing.

Not necessarily what you’d expect to hear from a business mentor and coach, right? Being mostly tired and uncertain may not sound like what you want from a person whose job it is to help you run your business better.

I have turned these truths – that I’m tired, and that that might not be my best ever marketing message – over in my mind many times in the last few weeks. I thought maybe I’d just have an unintentional break from blogging while I’m in the difficult, murky work of setting up Copper Boom Studio (LIMITED!!), and then re-emerge when it’s all shiny and functional and awesome.

But then I realised that it didn’t feel right.

So many of my favourite writers and people do it differently. They share while they’re going through The Hard Stuff, rather than just looking back at it when they feel sane again. Elizabeth Gilbert continues to do it so elegantly and evocatively. Glennon Melton Doyle warriors on through difficult times. Brene Brown talks about this as an important step in Rising Strong.

So I knew I had to write about my progress, even though I don’t feel clear or enthusiastic. I had to share this messiness, in order to be as authentic as I believe myself to be.

Since I last wrote (over a month ago), here’s what’s happened:

Copper Boom became a limited company (yay!)
I got a loan to grow the business by moving into premises and adding people to the business (yay!)
The process of commercial lease and lawyer and long waits began (yay, and also bleurgh)

I’ve been, in turn, wildly excited and amazed at what I’m building, and then completely overwhelmed by what I need to achieve.

There have been tears, and moments when I’ve said, “I just can’t,” and, “I don’t know what to do” over and over again. I’ve shouted at my partner, as he tries to help me figure out what to do next, “Everything is important. There’s nothing that I can de-prioritise.” Yep. Glamorous moments.

These moments are when I ask (myself? some mysterious higher power?) for courage and clarity. For glimmers of hope, and for the way ahead. Because sometimes that’s all I can do. The weird thing is, once I sit and ask for clarity on something, it usually comes. Not because I sit there puzzling over it like a Sudoku, but because I stop thinking about it and follow my instincts instead.

After the “everything is important” conversation, I stomped out, walked around, had tea, and then realised that Ryan was right. In fact, he had given me the key to my mountain of work, my paralysis. He had used the phrase “Mission Critical”.

So I wrote up another version of my epic list. I labelled things Mission Critical, Very Important, Important and Less Important. (Because everything’s still important, y’know?)

It helped. It helped me see that having everything on the first day we move into our new premises (and I don’t yet know exactly when that will be) isn’t actually essential. We can survive without all the furniture for a week or so. We can borrow a vacuum cleaner from home if we need to, at the beginning. This clarity helps. Let’s keep it to absolute essentials: sign the lease, have a limited bank account, make a box of kitchen / bathroom essentials. Do the rest later. Keep the short term truly short term.

And, as we’re not even sure when the lease will be signed just yet, there’s no point buying furniture and booking it to be delivered. I can move quickly on that tomorrow or next week, when I have more information.

Which reminds me of something my mum says: “Where you have clarity, make decisions.”

Even today, this Tuesday, I have said I’m struggling. I have hoped, out loud, for some good news, because there are so many requests and questions. I have questioned whether this studio, this business is something I really want to do. Please understand. I am doing this. It is happening. But I want to show you that I, too, like all of us, question things even when I know that they’re good and will be worthwhile. It is always messy. There is always doubt. Even the best business plans require change and adapting to fit the reality. Because no one in the history of the world has followed an exact business plan. Predicting the future is still elusive.

This is courage. To continue, even when I’m not sure of every step on my path. To pivot in a direction I didn’t expect to take, knowing that it’s essential to do so, not a problem.

Do I feel like I’m failing? Yes. Am I actually failing? No.

I actually feel like I’m developing experience, resilience, and empathy that’s going to help me mentor clients and support others in the future. It’s already helping. My existing clients (who have had more patience and understanding for me than I could ever have expected) have already said that they know I get it, because I’m going through it. (“It” being the challenge of business, of decision making, of juggling conflicting priorities all the live long day, of desperately wanting a conversation that isn’t about money.)

So I have hope that this is the essential middle. That this is part of the purpose of Copper Boom – to teach me how to get through this building phase.

Two phrases spring to mind:

This too shall pass

and

The only way out is through

I will keep going. I don’t yet know what I’m going to do once I post this, but I know that one small step after another will get me through.

Before I sign off, it feels important to say, if I’ve let you down recently, I’m truly sorry. If you’re waiting for me to get back to you about something, please accept my sincere apologies, and nudge me if I can still help. I will, at the very least, let you know when I’ll be able to respond properly.

Courage and clarity, my friends, courage and clarity.

Until soon

Jenny x

And so here’s the thing:

This too shall pass

The only way out is through

Enter The Forge