Something Has To Change
Last week was a bumpy ride for me. Getting back into routines for school days; finding our feet with bedtimes; trying to remember what I need to do to get the wheels of commerce turning again.
It was a lot.
I had a few high-quality rants to friends about the state of the world and its expectations of us as business people; self-employed or otherwise.
I almost binned everything I’m working on at the moment because the least-favourable parts of my tiny lizard brain went into flight mode (effectively turning off my internal wifi) and decided that this ‘business thing’ is far too stressful.
We have to be ‘on’ all the time whether we like it or not.
It’s long been a bugbear of mine that amazing self-employed folks have to be perennial content makers; marketers of the highest order; linguists who would put Wordsworth to shame; sales people who have NO shame.
Effectively, we have to work for free until the point that someone is convinced enough by our ‘showing up’ that they’ll cross our palms with silver.
My tattooist said as much to me: that she spends countless hours working on flash sheets in the hope that someone likes her work enough to send a message AND hang around in the DM inbox long enough to book an appointment.
We have to be ‘present’ all the time lest we are forgotten about.
We have to cut through NOISE all the damn time.
Is it all worth it?
I am deeply grateful for my communities; the ones I actively put effort into being a part of. The Creative Collective especially has saved my mental bacon a few times this year and is constantly a source of lightness and support.
However - and please forgive me if I sound like a curmudgeon - I am starting to believe that no strength of personal brand or niche expertise will ever cement us as so memorable that people will immediately think to call us when something happens that might be a good fit for what we do.
I’d said as much to a friend this week that the return on our energetic investment is far outweighed by the volume of effort we have to put in.
We have to be ‘on’ all the time whether we like it or not.
And it’s not that other people are lazy or inattentive. They’re busy. And they’re probably in much the same boat that you are; hoping that the process works.
But I am still here. And so are you.
Plus I am in the headspace where I am angsty enough to say ‘Fuck it, I’m doing it my way’.
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My frustrations are wrapping up feelings of futility about the whole shebang but I have enough nous to know that my purpose can be fuelled in multitudinous ways. I just need to stand firm enough to ensure I don’t sabotage myself before I find the next beneficial avenue.
Life is too short to wait for something to pay off; to hope that you’re seen; to hope that your energy and outpouring of love for other peoples’ success is grabbing the attention of your next great client.
It’s too short.
So I am making changes.
The Changes I Am Making
From the beginning of October you’ll notice a slight rebrand to my content since it will form part of a much larger online offering. I will still be offering a for-free weekly newsletter, direct to subscriber inboxes to help motivate them as they begin their week.
But the weekly update will be supporting a paid-for subscription on Substack.
The Substack - working title: This Designed Life - will be a place for me to share deeper dives into the concepts I cover each week: a place to discuss parenthood, carer life and self-employment at length; a place to offer laser-focussed coaching activities, workshops, and impactful practical content that I would normally ‘save’ for my 1:1 clients.
The material is too impactful to ‘save’ for infrequent coaching sessions and is too valuable to give away for free; for my clients and for me as a business owner.
In part I feel I should apologise for my earlier diatribe but I’m not going to. This is where I am; warts and all. And I am grateful for you reading this and being here, right now, on this journey with me.
To some end I believe that if we can all acknowledge quite how bloody rubbish some of the aspects of working for yourself can be and that the ‘process’ isn’t set up to help a lot of the time we might all bring ourselves up to a new baseline.
A new level where things are easier and there’s less grind to make even 1% action happen. We can be the change we want to see if only we all decided to see it at roughly the same time…
See?
This was positive after all.
This article first appeared in This Designed Life Weekly, a straight-to-your-inbox newsletter written to motivate and inspire as you begin your week. Want to get more content just like this? Hit the link in my featured section - Tom J. - and subscribe today.
I hope you enjoyed reading it.
Looking forward to the Substack...
Attract only your best-fit people, no convincing required | sales page & conversion copywriter & strategist ✍️ data-informed, you-infused copy | Sustainability advocate & always birdwatching 🔍 🦅
4moyesss to this. You damn well get to do it your way 😎