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Progress not perfection: your guide to a better Christmas

On November 9, my supportive Christmas ecourse starts for the second year.

Now, this course is dear to my heart. It’s some of my best work. It’s something I whole-heartedly believe in.

It’s the result of supporting small creative businesses through six years of busy Christmas periods.

The course is designed to provide you with regular dashes of inspiration, support, reminders, and the feeling that you’re not alone.

You don’t have to do anything or learn anything, you simply receive emails (and care packages, if you choose) packed full of ideas and resources to help you stay sane over Christmas.

The idea of Progress, not perfection is just that – a shift from the idea that to have a successful Christmas, you have to do everything perfectly. That if you do one thing wrong, you’ve failed.

No. Enough of beating yourself up and working yourself to the bone.

With Progress, not perfection, you’ll get support throughout the busiest weeks of the year that’s easy to pick up, doesn’t take up very much of your time, but might just make a difference to how you feel and what you do.

I believe the idea of perfection gets in the way A LOT, especially when we’re stressed, busy, and worrying about whether other people are doing it better than we are. It’s easy to get caught up in every little detail, without knowing how to prioritise the mountain of stuff you have to get through in the next 24 hours. (Or, let’s face it, the next 5 minutes.)

So what do I actually get?

Starting on Monday 9 November, for 6 weeks, you’ll get three emails directly to your inbox on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. There’s no Facebook group or community to be part of (although you can get involved in chat on social media if you choose) – this is about me and you. It’s Christmas, after all, so while you’re giving so much to your customers, I’ll be giving you a little something in return. I give, you receive.

Is it different from last year?

Some of the content will be repeated from last year, but I’ll also be adding in new audio and video recordings and a couple of live chats (like this one) during the course. Because the main aim of this course is to prompt and remind you to take care of yourself, you’ll find it just as helpful this year.

What do the emails include?

Mondays: introducing the theme for the week (ranging from productivity to priorities to gratitude), a printable checklist with practical stuff to do, and a couple of ideas and practices intended to help you through each week
Wednesdays: a gentle reminder of our theme, with a printable reminder to pop up in your immediate eye-line, plus some suggestions of how to make your day work even better for you
Fridays: a feel-good playlist to get you moving and dancing, a little pick-me-up message and chance to check in, plus links to festive treats online.

You can also opt in to get two happy post care packages (one at the beginning of the course, and one at the end), filled with surprise treats for you:

Printed copies of the weekly checklists
Reminders to put up in your workspace
Relaxing, energising and balancing essential oils
Surprise treats just for you

Holistic holidays

If you’ve been following me and my blog for a while, you’ll know that I offer a mixture of practical business stuff (like pricing spreadsheets and writing product descriptions), as well as a more holistic approach to supporting small businesses (like my mentoring).

This course matches that approach – it includes practical tips and reminders that are easy to adopt in busy weeks, plus reminders to eat well, take deep breaths, and make sure you have a healthy dose of perspective.

Let’s be honest. You already know most of this stuff. You know that you need to get sleep. You’re already preparing for Christmas as best you can. You’ll survive – you have to.

What I’m offering is a series of reminders to do it. To get sleep, to keep on top of orders, to keep things in perspective. And, maybe, to believe it’s not just about surviving – it’s about thriving.

Wouldn’t it be lovely?

To have someone who knows how truly, madly, deeply hectic it can be at Christmas pop into your inbox every other day.

To feel you’re not alone, but without having to ask for help. (We all know how hard that can be when you’re already running low.)

To be reminded to celebrate the brilliance of your business, your success, your life when it feels like you’re teetering on the edge of sanity.

To get a parcel of lovely things that remind you to take care of yourself, to keep your eye on the end goal, to focus on progress, not perfection.

You might even end up feeling like you know more about yourself and your business, rather than feeling depleted, on 25th December.

How to get the goodness

For 6 weeks of emails and online goodness, sign up below. You’ll get three emails a week packed full of support and reminders for £65.

For all the emails, online goodness, plus two care packages, sign up below. You’ll get a package at the beginning of the course, and one at the end, and both will be full of helpful, encouraging, and relaxing luxuries – all for a total of £130. That includes emails AND care packages.

Care package participants: This is available for UK only.

About me:

I’m Jenny Hyde – your guide to a better Christmas.

I’m a mentor and advocate for small creative businesses. I believe that looking after your business means looking after yourself, and that business success comes in many different forms.

While working for notonthehighstreet.com, I supported their small business sellers through five Christmases, so I know the rollercoaster of challenges, successes, panics, relief and joy of the season very well.

My speciality is combining practical help with understanding and clarity.

I believe in the power of tea (and cake), and, of course, I believe in progress, not perfection.

Here's the thing: who are your naysayers?

The more I work with small creative business owners (especially women), the more important it seems to have a positive support group around you.

We creatives need support. We need nurturing and thoughtful conversation. We need to trust ourselves, and we often look to others to see if they trust us to do the right thing, to build the business, to be as good as we hope.

Now, I know, in my heart and soul, that it’s important that we give ourselves as much of that trust as we can. I don’t want to dismiss the importance of doing the work ourselves. It’s vital.

However, it’s also important to gather, talk to, and develop relationships with people who support your creative and business endeavours. People who get it. People who can see at least part of your vision. People who can empathise, even if they have no experience of what you’re doing themselves.

Sometimes, the people closest to us (husbands, friends, mums) don’t get it.

They can’t see it. Not in a malicious way. They just don’t have the vision or the experience. Sometimes they haven’t even heard of Etsy or craft markets, so they don’t even realise there’s a market for your unique designs. They simply can’t see the commercial potential or the creative aims.

And sometimes friends and family get caught up in their own fears about their own careers and worth. Their fear of doing what they really want to do is transferred to you – they tell you they’re not sure you can do it, because they can’t do it, or worry about their own success rates.

Aren’t we funny, us humans?

A story I love is Gina of rosiebull designs, whose husband, supportive as he was, told her she’d never make any money at sewing personalised glasses cases. Several successful years later, she’s proven him wrong! And she now has this reminder (by Kyleigh’s Papercuts) up in her studio to remind everyone how successful she was, despite the doubt:

(I want to mention here that Gina’s husband wasn’t mean – he just didn’t know that Gina’s designs, plus notonthehighstreet.com, plus a consumer desire for tactile, personalised, gorgeous gifts, would result in a financially successful business. This isn’t uncommon when people look at craft-based businesses.)

Here’s the thing:

Find your community.

I speak to clients who feel isolated as they start to nurture the first tender stems of their dream. The people closest to them can’t support them.

The most important thing is to notice that they’re not you’re people. They’re not your target audience, and potentially they don’t have the knowledge of the industry that you do.

It’s okay to love people who aren’t your customers! It’s okay to be friends with people who don’t get your business, or understand that it could support you financially.

But I recommend that you don’t talk to them about your business. Or, if you do, have some pretty serious boundaries about asking them for advice or taking on their feedback.

Also, you don’t have to prove them wrong immediately. You don’t have to make it an overnight profitable endeavour. You get to take your time to build up your business, your scalability, your customer base. And while you do that, you need people who will hold the potential with you, not naysayers who’ll damage your confidence and enthusiasm.

And then you might think about finding a supportive group of like-minded creatives. Join an Etsy group, or reach out to a local business for a coffee, or connect with people on Facebook or Instagram (though I thoroughly recommend in-person meetings!).

It can make the biggest difference to talk to people who truly get it.

PS Gather with me and like-minded business owners at the Small Creative Business Retreat in March. Guaranteed to make new friends!

Here's the thing: in favour of the truth

Recently, I popped a new logo up on my website. I really love it! And it got me thinking about the three words I’ve chosen to appear below my name: mentor, writer, and advocate.

I have so much to say about each one, but the one I’ve been pondering on in relation to this post is advocate.

I advocate for small businesses. I believe in them. I believe small is beautiful, and that small business has a unique opportunity to make a difference in the world. Don’t believe me? Note the unrest at Etsy about the pending Handmade at Amazon. Big corporates are now fighting over small business. Because they know they can’t replicate it.

So advocating for small businesses is cool, but I realised recently that I advocate for something more specific than that. I’m really an advocate for the emotional, mental and physical health of small businesses. I want to bust open myths of needing to be super productive, super organised, good at everything and otherwise perfect.

I want to encourage and allow you to be all that you are – and know that that is enough.

I want to be a beacon of light, letting you know that you’re not alone.

As a mentor, working one-on-one with talented entrepreneurs and designers and makers and plenty of people who don’t know how to describe themselves, I hear the truth. I don’t always hear all of the truth, because we all struggle with it. But I hear more of the truth then others do.

I hear the stories of struggle. I hear the cash flow challenges, the staff issues, the crises of confidence. I hear about the family health issues and personality clashes that take over working days. I hear the stories of day jobs that are soul-sucking.

I’ve heard so many of these stories that I can tell you everyone has them. No one is walking a smooth road, at least not in every aspect of their lives. That’s not what we’re here to do! We’re here to struggle and learn and get better.

And what I’m interested in at the moment is talking about the struggles.

We don’t openly talk about every struggle we go through, certainly not publicly, and that’s right. But while we’re worrying about coming across as negative, we’re bottling up a whole load of feelings and experiences that are affecting us. The longer we bottle them up, the more likely they are to come out in a big long stream of negativity.

I don’t want to encourage wallowing in negativity – far from it. I know there are plenty of negativity-breeding forums and places on the internet that aren’t productive.

But here’s the thing:

Acknowledging your feelings is productive.

Acknowledging that you’re struggling or worrying or feeling alone is vital. And it usually includes telling someone in order to fully acknowledge it.

It doesn’t have to be your business Facebook page. It doesn’t have to be a lot of people. I recommend that it’s not anyone you don’t trust.

Share your feelings with a person or small group who will:

see your struggles for what they are
acknowledge your feelings and sit with you in them
avoid trying to “fix” the problem immediately
keep it confidential
maintain trust with you, now and in the future

I know people, personally and professionally, who have a lot of struggle, but who shy away from sharing it because they don’t want to come across as negative or needy or failures.

And the thing is, they’re robbing themselves of getting the help and support they need. They’re shying away from admitting there’s a problem that needs attention. They’re keeping themselves small.

Women too often get labelled as “dramatic” or “needy” or “whiny” – which isn’t the case at all! And god forbid a man shows feelings that might be construed as weak or not having it all together.

Having feelings is not dramatic or weak. Bottling them up for too long so they come out as a huge long stream of unsolvable problems is unproductive and, in my opinion, unprofessional. When we dismiss feelings, shrug them off, try to pretend there isn’t a problem, we’re letting them take over. Which isn’t a great way to run a business or live a life.

Rather than trying to squash them, share them with people you trust. Rather than try to fix it with wine or chocolate or a bath, write down how you’re feeling. Get curious about what you’re feeling. Get down to the crux of it. Don’t censor yourself while you’re letting it out. Just let it be.

This is the step so many of us skip, for fear of being crazy or dramatic or weak. This is the step that allows us to actually process feelings, so that we can move past them. This is the part that makes us feel alone.

Please allow your feelings.

Please share them.

You know where I am if you don’t have another trusting place to share them.

PS My Small Creative Business Retreat 2016 is now open for booking! Now there’s a place you can be yourself…

No. Enough of beating yourself up and working yourself to the bone.

So what do I actually get?

Is it different from last year?

What do the emails include?

Holistic holidays

Wouldn’t it be lovely?

How to get the goodness

About me:

Here’s the thing:

But here’s the thing:

Notes of Encouragement