mentor Archives - Page 5 of 15

The Big New Idea: the pendulum swing

Sooooo… It’s taken me a good two weeks to get to writing this update on my Big New Idea. Partly, there was a bank holiday and sunshine that distracted me for a bit. And partly I got totally overwhelmed by the response to my last post!

I wrote the post on a Friday afternoon, after meeting with a photographer who’s on board and excited to work on the project. It suddenly felt like there was momentum! So I woke up on Monday, read through the post and sent it out, merrily getting on with the next thing on my to do list.

I kind of forgot that I was revealing a massive piece of news, directly to the audience I hope will be my customers.

So there I am, trying to focus on getting some more stuff, you know, done, and I start getting emails, comments and direct messages from people who are excited to have a service that offers the full package of product content. Someone even asked if I could do all the “boring” bits of her business, so that she could just spend her time drawing and creating!

Let me be clear: this is totally awesome. Thank you to everyone who got in touch and felt excited! It means a lot to me and I really appreciate the support. It gave me a whole new level of momentum.

For about a day. Because this is what happened next: I did a 180 on the pendulum swing of “Is this going to work?” One day, I was worrying that starting the new content studio would take up too much of my time for not much reward. That I’d really have to drive business hard and spend a lot of time trying to fill a day a month of actual paying work. The next day, I had the opposite fear: the “oh $£!&” feeling that I might not even be able to keep up with demand – that this could take over. And do I want it to take over? What if it’s too successful?

Well. First of all, it’s kind of confusing and tiring to feel so many emotions in the space of 24 hours.

It’s also that thing that I often forget: being afraid of success. I’m going to step onto my soap box briefly here, because I want to share this with you.

In our culture, we’re primed to believe that success is always just around the corner, but never quite achievable. We’re programmed to stay small, because keeping us small means that millions of million-pound businesses can market to us based on fear. (“Buy this and it’ll make you lovable.” “If you were really successful, you’d buy this big TV.” “Don’t forget, you need to lose weight in order to be truly acceptable and successful.”)

Especially as women, we have generations of predecessors whose primary role was to support others, regardless of talent, ability and potential to lead fulfilling lives and careers. We’re still carrying those stories around, untangling them bit by bit.

And here’s what I’m trying to untangle: We’re allowed success on our own terms. Truly. But sometimes those old stories – the fear of success, of letting ourselves be seen and loved and really good at what we do – hold us back more than we realise.

Marianne Williamson puts it best:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are more powerful beyond measure. It is light, not our darkness that frightens us. We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented, fabulous? Actually, who are you not to be?”

Oh boy. Let’s sit with that one for a bit, shall we?

So, yes. I’ve been trying to go with the pendulum swing, trying to accept the positive response and really take in that this big new idea, this content studio is a good idea. This is something worth pursuing, and has the potential to change my life and my business. I don’t know how or in what direction. But part of starting something new is surrendering to the journey.

As ever, I hope that sharing my thoughts and experiences as I set up something new is helpful, whether you’re starting something from scratch or looking at a new project or phase of your business.

If you have thoughts, feedback or questions, I’d love to hear from you. If the past two weeks have taught me anything, it’s that hearing from people is helpful!

The Big New Idea: plans, models and lists (plus some fear)

Hello again, dear friends!

I have news about this Big New Idea I started telling you about a couple of weeks ago. I seriously cannot believe that it’s actually two weeks since I wrote the first post, but here we are.

The good news is, I have made progress.

Here’s a little update on the things I listed in the last post:

Defining the help I need. This is in progress, but I’ve made headway, and I have a clearer idea about who I want to work with, both long-term and short-term, and part-time and full-time. It may shift and change, but some of the foundations (like skills, interests and personalities) are set.
Have conversations with key people. Done! Oh, and they were so good. I’m really grateful for the support of two people in particular, and I’m looking forward to working with both of them as we move forward. I also spoke to my accountant, who was really supportive and helpful, too.
Buy the domain. After much faffing around (see below), I finally did it this afternoon. THANK GOODNESS.

So, for those who may be interested, I wanted to share some of the business set-up background, especially having spoken to my accountant earlier this week. While this is a new business, it’s still very much linked to my current business, so while it may have been efficient to set up a new business, for now they’re going to be part of one big joyful entity but under two different names.

They’ll have separate websites, social media accounts, newsletter mailing lists etc, but ultimately they will be the same business.

This is partly because, when I think about the long-term and having a team in place, I want the team to be able to support my current ventures (like events) as part of their normal work. Essentially, I will be using resources from both ventures to support each other.

Before I spoke to my accountant, I had anticipated needing to become a limited company, but having talked through the options, I’ve decided to stay as a sole trader for the time being. Partly to save tax and partly to preserve my financial records for mortgage applications. (As some of you know, I had a mortgage until recently, when we decided to sell up in London and rent in Cambridge until we have more of an idea where we want to be long term. So while I have some mortgage points, I don’t currently have a mortgage, so need to do some clever balancing.)

I hope that’s interesting and helpful to folk who are in the early stages or thinking about expanding!

What’s next?

Well, it’s all go from here!

I’m still thinking about packages, and my financial model and aims. I probably won’t aim to make a profit in the first year, but I will aim to break even, and I certainly want to be fairly close to my ideal pricing structure with what I’m charging. (Because this is going to be part of my existing business, my current income will carry me through anyway, but I’ll be tracking the income and expense of this particular project so that I know what it achieves standalone.)

There are a couple of things that are getting in the way of my final decisions on packages, which are basically the costs: will I need to rent space in the short-term, and how much will it be in the long-term?

The other biggie is finding a certain person to work with, and I haven’t found them yet. (More on this soon, when I reveal the what exactly I’m working on!)

I’m also thinking about how much I want to invest up front, especially on branding design. On one hand, I have confidence in the business and know it’ll do well. But on the other, there’s fear (see below) and wanting to break even. I’ve been in touch with a couple of people, and hope to set up chats with them, but I’m still mulling over what I need for launch. I may not need an all-singing, all-dancing visual branding package in the first, say, six months, and could spend more on this later.

So, a little note on fear

Also interesting and (I hope) also helpful is that I’ve watched myself get stuck in fear a few times over starting this project. It’s really big, and on a few occasions I find myself wondering whether I want to take on this much work, responsibility and commitment.

As someone who’s fairly comfortable with taking risks, I’ve found myself holding back on registering the domain name – something fairly cheap and easy and straightforward – because I’m “not ready”. Because there are several thousand things I can find I “have” to do before I do that.

Like choosing a host. I currently have two great companies’ websites open, and just need to pick one. They’re very similar, both recommended, and neither is expensive. I just need to choose! And yet, I find myself wanting a second opinion, rather than trusting myself to make a (not complex) decision.

So yeah, I can hold myself back. And I guess this is the point at which to hold myself back. This is the first time since I dreamt up this project 18 months ago that I’m actually taking action to make it happen. This is the point of diving in. Except I’m not really diving in. I’m just stepping onto the first step.

I can always change my mind, especially as I learn about the business and the work. If it’s not right, I can change it.

So, there’s an update for you! I’d love to hear your stories of setting up your business, or if you have any questions about this new project from me.

More soon,

Jenny x

Here's the thing: slowing down

So, it’s nearly a month (already!) since my 2016 retreat. As with last year, I found that the retreat weekend is an eye-opener for me as well as for the attendees, and this year, having moved house and had some time off, I’ve been left with some revelations.

One of which is: it’s time to change gear and slow down.

I know for so many of my clients, this is counter-intuitive. For so many of us, especially creatives and visionaries, we want to be changing UP a gear, moving forward faster and moving up as high as we can. Don’t get me wrong, I have a whole heap of ambition. And a whole list of projects (including my Big New Idea).

And so much of my ambition and inspiration comes from within me and within my work. I get inspired by the clients I work with. I listen to them and their challenges, and I can think of lots of ways I want to help. Or I simply have a growing need within me to do something new.

But there’s also part of that ambition and inspiration that is driven by fear or comparison, and that doesn’t feel so good to me. First of all, I don’t need it. I’ve got enough ideas and scope without needing any more fire behind me to get me moving. Second, I don’t want to be driven by fear, or by what other people are doing.

There are people and businesses way ahead of me – people who’ve been building their businesses for years and years.

There are people who started out (or have since received) way more financial backing or other support than me.

There are people who have a team, even of just two, to carry the load of running a business.

I cannot expect myself to live up to what other people are doing. I don’t know the truth of what’s going on in their business, anyway, no matter how shiny and amazing it looks from the outside.

For me, it’s really the people further down the road than me that get me. I want to be there already! I’m impatient, and like many creatives, I am visionary, so I can see myself further down the line, even when I’m many years (probably) away.

So here’s the thing: I’m slowing down

My ambition and vision aren’t going anywhere and, rather than push myself to the limits, I’ve decided to trust that they’re sticking around. This is what’s going to keep me going in the long run.

That means cutting back on the number of projects I’m trying to plan, launch, and think about. It means I’m going to let business run as usual (rather than pushing it to grow, fast) while I work on the Big New Idea. And it means that I’ll be planning way more time around each activity, so that I can do things slowly.

This is not easy for me. At all.

I like working fast. I like doing things. I like calming the fear that says, “If you don’t do this now, someone else will.” Sound familiar?

But more than anything, I want to be sat in two, five, 10, 20 years’ time able to say: “I built this my way, and it has stayed the distance. I’m so glad I built it right. I’m so glad I didn’t burn out along the way. It’s such a pleasure to live this life, to do this work, and to bloom in my own right timing.”

So. Who’s with me?

I kind of forgot that I was revealing a massive piece of news, directly to the audience I hope will be my customers.

What’s next?

So, a little note on fear

One of which is: it’s time to change gear and slow down.

So here’s the thing: I’m slowing down

Enter The Forge