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Last year I kicked off 2016 with a post idea that I stole from my friend Paul Jarvis titled āState of the Union, 2016.ā To continue with the tradition, today I want to kick off 2017 by sharing with you the highlights from this past year (2016), what lessons I learned, and where I think this new year could be headed. Letās get into it!
Itās hard to believe that my obsession with acrylic painting originated only a year ago because it has become such a huge part of my daily life. At the beginning of 2016, I knew I wanted it to be the year that I really started to embrace my identity as an artist. I knew creating art was central to my core being, but there was a part of me that was still lacking confidence since I wasnāt ātrainedā as a painter. I knew the only way to overcome that insecurity would be to create A LOT of work, which is why I challenged myself to a year-long painting project,Ā Abstract Affirmations Daily, creating and sharing one hand-lettered abstract painting a day.
Even though I wrapped up the project before the year was over, without a doubt I can say my āplanā to gain confidence and find my voice definitely worked. I donāt think you can go through that amount of paintings or spend that amount of time (around 400 hours!) without gaining confidence in a skill! I formed my own processes, experimented with all kinds of mixed media, changed up my style several times, and now I can look back on this huge body of work with immense pride and joy.
When I originally had the idea for the project, the business side of me wanted a way to justify the time I knew it would require (and the cost of my art supplies) so I wondered if I could sell prints of each of the pieces. That may have been the biggest surprise of the year with the Art Shop bringing in over $10,000 as a revenue stream.
Previously I had the notion that physical goods are hard to make any money on because of the low margins and high time/cost investment. I still believe that to be true but selling prints has shown me that if you have something people like and support and youāre willing to put in the effort and overcome the hurdles that pop up along the way, physical goods are definitely a viable (and fun!) business opportunity.
This was the other big win for me last year. Color Your Soul was something I had envisioned for over a year ā a kind of hybrid monthly mindfulness subscription that was part community, part online learning, and part content/art discovery all built around one monthly theme.
Now, four months in, I can honestly say itās my favorite thing I get to work on every month. I pour such love and care into every single aspect of the subscription, and I can see that come through in the responses I get back from subscribers. The biggest surprise has come in the form of the private Slack group that accompanies CYS. Iāve been blown away by the quality of conversations and connections forming there. Itās such a beautiful thing to see other soulful creatives sharing their insights and their challenges, getting feedback on ideas and helping each other. In a way it makes me feel grateful to be somehow offsetting some of the more surface-level interactions that social media so often facilitates.
Now that I have a few months under my belt, I definitely intend on trying to up my marketing game for this offering, mainly because Iām that confident in the experience it provides and Iām not sure Iām doing it justice by keeping it largely hidden from sight. Color Your Soul is definitely one of those things that for me blends art and commerce beautifully and I want to be able to show people you CAN actually earn a living off of some weird idea that is hard to explain. It may take longer and be harder to do, but itās worth it.
I went back an re-read my State Of The UnionĀ from last year, and one of my goals for 2016 was to throttle up the intersection of creativity and personal growth in my work. Looking back at Color Your Soul and my Abstract Affirmations project, I feel I definitely followed through on that intention and itās allowed me to carve out a little niche that feels 100% me. The fact that I am making a sustainable living doing that? Well I canāt ask for much more than that.
On a personal note, the best move I think we made last year was moving to a condo in Oceanside, CA. Finding this place is a perfect example of why I say āyou get what you settle forā because we turned down tons of potential properties before we found this place, which we actually discovered by accident. It popped up on Zillow outside the general areas we had been considering, but with its modern style and location just two blocks from the ocean, we decided to check it out. Iām so glad we did because it only took us a day to snatch it up before anyone else could. Despite a little plumbing snafu that forced us to move into an empty unit for two months, living here has been beyond a dream. The natural light and panoramic views of the California coast have me waking up to gratitude every single day. Iām someone who draws a lot of inspiration from my environment, and I definitely think this home has played a large role in making last year so incredibly rich and joyful for myself and Jason.
I honestly canāt believe Iām even saying this butā¦ 2016 was a good year for fitness.Ā For years Iāve struggled to stay consistently active. Iād find something I liked (barre workouts, for instance), go all in for about a month or two, and then something would knock me off the wagon and I couldnāt get back on.
Around June of last year though, Jason and I made the commitment to start working out again together, despite the fact that working out as a couple has not worked well for us in the past. (Picture me throwing a temper tantrum because Jason told me to use heavier weights. It wasnāt pretty.) We joined a local gym here in Oceanside and stayed consistent for about three weeks whenā¦ the gym went out of business. Now, in the past I would have taken that as a well-timed sign form the universe that I am simply not meant to be āa fit person.ā But, determined not to lose our momentum, we worked out a deal with our property manager to use the small āamenitiesā gym of a condo about a half mile walk from us, and we actually stuck with it!
With the exception of a few trips (many of which we actually worked out in hotels while on the road ā who are we?!) weāve been able to work out about 3 days a week. In no way is my health perfect but I feel really great about the slow, steady and most importantly SUSTAINABLE progress I made in 2016 to making it a real lifestyle shift. I still hate the gym, but at least now I have a love/hate relationship where I can see the benefits itās bringing to my life, benefits I definitely want to keep making a priority.
Nowā¦ letās talk about what didnāt go so wellā¦
The proof is in the pudding, folks. If you neglect a revenue stream, it will show up in the sales. Better Lettering Course was my first online course and it has brought my business over $100,000 since its creation (thatās nuts considering itās a $20 course!) But, in 2016, with my focus moving to painting and creating other courses, I no longer felt inspired to tend to that community and improve that low-priced course. Sales went from about $3,000/month at the beginning of the year to about $500/month in the last part of the year. I still am very passionate about hand-lettering, and I have a lot more to teach on the subject (including iPad Pro lettering and more digital topics that have become relevant since the course was created in 2014), so I have a plan to update and revive the course to give it new life. Stay tuned for that in the next month or so.
I spent way too much time on a screen in 2016. Even though I feel I was able to cultivate more balance in my work schedule by taking walks, spending time painting, reading, etc., the time I DID spend with my phone in my hand or in front of my laptop was not spent very intentionally. If Iām being honest with myself, I got way too sucked into the trap of trying to ākeep up withā technology, which probably just stems from a place of not wanting to be left behind in my business. Too often I felt stretched thin, in a comparison mindset, and, honestly, kind of addicted to the validation of this little screen in my hand.
As I took a step back over the holidays, I was reminded that itās not the amount of Instagram posts or oneās use of Snapchat that ultimately determines the growth of a business. Itās doing things differently and authentically enough that you create real connections with other humans who want to share your work. Iām going to do my best to remind myself of that in 2017. While social media can still be useful and fun, I want to make sure Iām keeping my usage in check.
Last year Jason and I were finally able to pay off our debt, putting us in a position to spend more money on something we both highly value in 2017: travel. As of right now, we have three big trips planned for the year: a family trip to Asheville, NC; a two-week vacation exploring Italy with two of our friends who moved to Sydney last year; and a week-long trip to Iceland for a friendās wedding!
To say that Iām excited would be an understatement. I think back to three years ago when we were over $100,000 in debt, living modestly and busting our butts to build the foundations of our businesses. These trips were just a dream at that point, but with smart saving, hard work and values-based living, weāve been able to design a life with enough financial room for the things we care about.
ps. Jason and I also have a fun side-project to share our travel adventures in the future, so you’ll be able to explore these new places with us!
While I love online courses as much as the next person, I really want to stretch myself to create more things that go beyond whatās typically seen in the online business world. I want to embrace experimentation, put aside my fear of failure, and try out some things that are a bit unconventional. I have no idea what this means specifically yet, but ideas have been brewing in my head for new art experiences, short films, interesting product pricing (like the Vibrant Stuff Bundle!) and fun software tools. I want to continue to challenge myself to create things that are beyond what you all are seeing out there in order to keep you (and ME!) inspired.
Man, this is what I struggle with the most as a creator/business owner. I come up with a plan, but then I lose interest in following through when a shiny new idea comes along. Iāve enlisted the help of the self-discipline master himself Jason to act as a sort of project manager for me and to implement a level of accountability to my focus. Like anything that you want to improve within yourself that doesnāt come naturally, I think it takes time and intention to slowly shift those habits over time. Rather than declaring some resolution to focus more this year, Iām viewing 2017 as my year to learn how to focus, acknowledging that it will take time and practice to cultivate this skill.
Itās funny, Iāve been writing consistently through my newsletter for three years now and yet thereās a part of me that still struggles to call myself a āwriter.ā I see similarities in this lack of confidence with my hesitance to call myself an artist in 2015. Thatās why I want to continue to make writing a priority this year, and i want to work to integrate this more fully into my identity as a creator. Could this mean thereās a book on the horizon? Who knows. You guys will just have to stick around to find out.
Finally, for the past few years Iāve chosen a guiding word for the year and I know many of you do the same. In 2015 my word was SAVOR; in 2016 it was CURATE; and now my word for this year is LIGHT.
Hereās how I see that potentially manifesting in my life, though Iām sure it will change and take on new meaning as the year unfolds:
I find it interesting that for the past two years my words have been verbs, while ālightā is more of a noun. That shift reflects a broader shift Iāve seen in my growth journey which is that the past two years Iāve been focused a lot on DOING, and now Iām sensing a move toward BEING.
I used to be largely focused on what I want to be creating and how I want to be creating it. But now I find myself more interested in how I show up in the world as a person, separate from the things Iām creating. Just an interested observation I thought Iād share!
Alright friends! Thatās the state of things around here. Iād love to hear how your 2016 went ā what worked? What didnāt? Whatās your word for the year? Feel free to hit reply and Iāll do my best to get back to you. I love hearing from you all and getting to know you better.
Looking forward to another year of growing together and navigating this thing we call life!
This State of the Union was written my JasonDoesStuff was my main website. You can learn more about that site here.
Itās time to look into the rear view mirror, while also keeping one eye looking out the front windshield (and trying not to get dizzy while doing it). Weird way to kick off a āyear in review/previewā article? Sure. But Iām a weird guy!
Last year was the first year I wrote a State of the Union article and it was a really great exercise. I highly, highly recommend you write a year-in-review (and preview) article for your own business. You don’t even have to wait for January 1 to roll around to do it, either.
Yeah, this one is first on the list and gets ALL the exclamation points and caps lock action. In 2013 my wife Caroline and I felt like we were drowning in debt. It felt suffocating. But we hunkered down and built a plan to pull ourselves out of our $124,000 debt-hole. I wrote two articles about our getting out of debt plan and then becoming debt-free. This was one of the biggest highlights of 2016.
Halfway through 2016, I redesigned JasonDoesStuff (for the fifth time). Funny enough, I have a new design in the worksĀ (that’s now live!). Yes, I have a problem with redesigning my site. Anyhoo, the 2016 redesign was great for cleaning things up, removing clutter, and getting focused on what I really wanted my digital home to become. I love redesigning my site because I’m always evolving as a person and my virtual home should follow suit.
While weāre on the topic of my virtual home, letās look at some traffic numbersā¦
*It may seem weird to celebrate extremely low traffic from social media, but Iām on a tear against using social media for business these days. More on that in my next point.
Can I tell you how amazing this has felt?? I finally did it. I was scared, no doubt about it. I had over 9,000 followers/friends on Facebook. Some of my strongest connections with people have been through Facebook. But I finally decided to rip the band-aid off. I couldnāt take it anymore. I believe social media, especially Facebook, is the next great addiction we will face. Iām willing to be on the wrong side of history if Iām incorrect in that assumption. I greatly reduced all my social media usage and had one of my most profitable years yet (and I was happy!) If you didn’t read it, here’s my goodbye letter to FB.
I donāt remember how Matt and I originally got connected, but early on in 2016 we kept chatting and finally decided to work on something together (GetSponsorships.co). I think/hope Matt would agree, we work really well together. Weāre both rare breeds of humans that can just hunker down and get a ton of work done in a short period of time. It was definitely a highlight to chat with Matt on Skype for hours about coffee, social media douchecanoes, and Internet sleazeballs. Oh, and weāre working on a fun software project together (SpruceMetrics.com). You can check out what Matt’s up to at MoneyLab.co.
In 2015 we (my wifeĀ Caroline and our dog Plaxico) sold all our stuff and moved to California. We spent the first few months finishing out an awesome roommate-filled adventure in this crazy house. Once our time there came to an end, we ventured a little further up the coast finding our newest digs in Oceanside, CA. We love it here!
On a whim Caroline and I decided to do a Black Friday bundle of all our courses, guides, and digital goodies. Weād been looking for a way to use Bumpsale together, but nothing felt right. Then, the Vibrant Stuff Bundle was born (Carolineās site is Made Vibrant, and this site is JasonDoesStuff)! It was 16 total products, valued at $2,500, but the price started at just $1 and increased by $1 after each purchase. A few days of work, a few years of creating products, and what I thought would bring us a couple thousand dollars, brought in over $20k! Crazy awesome. It also felt good to give folks who couldnāt afford to buy all our products the deal of a lifetime.
Since I touched on it with the Vibrant Stuff Bundle, I may as well just come out and say it: We had a great year financially. Sure, we didnāt make $1,000,000, but we donāt need that type of money to be happy. Our projects brought us enough money to finish paying off our debt, build a small nest egg of savings, and start doing some light investing. After 10+ years of working at this online business stuff, I finally feel like Iām in a bit more control of my income and finances (insert huge sigh of relief).
Listen, you donāt need to run for the hills if youāre thinking about creating an online course. Go ahead and make one, Iād love for you to see if itās something you should do. I, however, have been dabbling in creating online courses for three years and I got tired of it. In fact, I got downright bored with it. Itās one of those things I know I can do well, but it doesnāt excite me. As soon as something stops exciting me itās time to move on. (Donāt worry if youāre a Teachery customer, read more on this in the Whatās Ahead section below.)
Hah! I still LOVE that name. My Internet BFF Paul Jarvis and I decided to embark on a 24-hour project experiment. We wanted to create and launch an idea in just one day. Emojibombs.com was born. A daily emoji origin story delivered to your email inbox. People seemed to really enjoy watching the process, but we only ended up making about $200 after expenses (woof!) The t-shirt I got out of it was a nice bonus though!
There were a handful of times in 2016 when I simply had way too much on my plate. I have no one to blame but myself for this one. Itās crazy to realize that working for yourself can bring more stress and overwhelm than working for someone else. It shouldnāt be this way. This is something Iām definitely looking to get better at in 2017.
Sometime around June I was getting really frustrated. I couldnāt seem to lose weight, and I felt like I was eating pretty well (90% of our meals are prepared by a meal prep company). Then I started to think I might be fighting a battle I couldnāt win on my own. With the help of Paul and Brian from HealthGeeks, I ran a few tests and started taking some natural supplements. I also changed up my prepared meal company and got into a simple exercise routine (3-4 days of weight lifting per week, 15-20 minute workouts). I feel really good on a day-to-day basis since working with Paul and Brian, plus Iāve lost over 20 pounds. Yay for fitting into my clothing comfortably again and doing it in a sustainable way!
I used to manage all my disparate email accounts (11 of them) using Mac Mail. In fact, Iād been using Mac Mail for as long as Iād been on a Mac (since 2004). I got tired of the poor user experience of Mac Mail and trying to keep up with so many email accounts. I ended up just turning on email forwarding for 9 of my accounts and one account gets managed completely through a customer support system (Intercom). That left my main Gmail account and I turned one dormant Gmail account into personal stuff only. Now, I only use Gmail, have embraced labels, and love the multiple login feature. I donāt think anyone actually cares where your email reply comes from as long as they get the reply theyāre looking for. It surprised me that this big move with my multiple email addresses went so smoothly.
Wait, what? Yeahā¦ So, I love cookies. I love baked goods in general. But I REALLY love cookies and enjoy baking my own. I donāt enjoy the guilt I feel from eating them and I’ve triedĀ to cut sugar out of my diet completely. I randomly Googled ācashew chocolate chip cookiesā not thinking I would find any worthwhile results. I. Was. Wrong. Cashew-based cookies have become a staple in our home. I use this recipe as my go-to starter and replace sugar with maple syrup. From there, Iāve concocted a few different recipes of my own. Look for my Cashew Cookies Changed MAH Life cookbook to hit shelves soon.
In February I shared one of my favorite articles Iāve written (Find Your Flavor of Minimalism). A few weeks after publishing that article I cleared out the majority of my already fairly minimal closet. I wanted to see if I could wear only 7 t-shirts and further downsize the rest of my clothing items. The first few weeks were kind of weird, but after that I found it liberating to not have to worry about choosing what to wear. As the months went on, Iāve continued to stick to a wardrobe that consists of:
*I challenge you to go into your closet after reading this and start counting your clothing items. You may end up having 61 items just in shorts and socks.
Iām really excited about the software products Iām working on right now (Teachery, Spruce Metrics, and Your Pack). I want to dig even deeper with these products and make them better. Make the experience better for people using them. Be more helpful to existing customers. Just create more value. Notice I didnāt mention growth or money. Thatās not my focus, thatās a byproduct for me at this point.
Oh man, I have a really fun twist for the third iteration of BuyMyFuture! Itās going to be crazyĀ and should be quite a unique surprise. The third round of BuyMyFuture will open at the end of March. I will probably do a smaller fourth round in September as well. BuyMyFuture has become my main source of income and Iām really happy about that. It checks all the boxes for me and the first two groups of purchasers have been extremely happy with the value.
I feel like 2016 was focused on How-To articles. Which is fine. I have no qualms about that. But, Iād like to spend more time sharing my entrepreneurial journey. More time looking at the behind of the scenes of projects Iām working on and less time on how other people can replicate the exact steps. I, absolutely, want to continue to share my knowledge, but Iād like to find a new way to do that and one that stands out a bit from other entrepreneurs who write about their experiences.
I keep having these nagging thoughts about creating tools, not content. Instead of writing an article that would help you do something, Iād love to create a simple tool that does that thing for you (or, at a minimum speeds up the process!) This is very vague at the moment, but keep an eye out for interesting tools in 2017.
My friend and Bumpsale biz partner, Conrad Decker, got left out of my 2015 review and itās stung me all year (donāt worry Conrad, the sting wasnāt that bad!) But, Conrad is super talented and Iām hoping that clearing my schedule a bit will free up time to build something unique and interesting with Bumpsale. I purchased a pretty cool domain last year and I think it could lend well to a software product that Bumpsale gets wrapped into. Weāll see!
Very recently I was introduced to YNAB (youneedabudget.com). I was searching for a way to track business and life expenses, and had yet to find an easy-to-use platform. So far, YNAB looks awesome (and I hate budgeting!) We have some financial milestones/goals we want to try to hit this year and YNAB looks like it willĀ be great for keeping a closer look at our spending.
Caroline and I went on some awesome trips in 2016 and weāre continuing that trend in 2017. In fact, we created an entire website where weāre sharing all our travel adventures. Here’s a sneak peek.
Iāve jumped on the train of picking a word to āframe your year.ā Hereās what previous yearās words were:
Howād I do with moderation in 2016? Eh, Iād say so-so. For business stuff? Better than 2015, but not fantastically great. For diet/nutrition and fitness, the moderation framing absolutely helped.
My second book will come out in 2017 and the working title is Do It Differently. I want to go somewhat-all-in on making sure I look at everything Iām doing a bit differently in 2017. Whether itās a new product, a relaunch of a product, a new direction in writing, my website redesign, etc. Just really make sure things feel different and unique.
This doesnāt have to happen in January. There are no rules about year in reviews, year in previews, and framing words. Iām so glad I do this exercise every year, if nothing else to spend time doing a bit of reflection.
Looking back on where Iāve been helps me see more clearly where I want to go.
As a random end to this review/preview article, I surveyed the BuyMyFuture buyers and asked them to pick words for 2017. Here are the words they picked in case you need some inspiration:
Fun fact: Out of the 111 survey responses, over 60% of the words had something to do with creating/building. I love that!
Letās make 2017 awesome andā¦ different! š
Like these year-end reviews and previews? Read my other ones:
As I was putting together the finishing touches ā formatting the magazine, finalizing graphics, creating the daily challenge booklet ā I found myself reflecting back on the evolution of this strange idea I had over a year ago.
My vision was to create a monthly mindfulness experience, a kind of peaceful, soulful and heartfelt alternative to a lot of the overwhelming content I was starting to see geared toward creative entrepreneurs:
I was seeing so many articles about how to DO more;Ā so few articles on how to BE more.
So many people teaching you their blueprints on how to make, sell, and promote;Ā so few offering you a means of self-awareness to write your OWN blueprint from scratch.
This weird hybrid subscription idea was hard to communicate, mostly because Iād never seen anyone create something like it.Ā Kind ofĀ a membership community;Ā kind ofan art experiment;Ā kind ofĀ a digital magazine;Ā kind ofĀ an online course subscription.
The form felt a bit nebulous, but the mission was always clear:Ā cut through the noise to deliver insightful and inspiring content that would help people feel closer to their core selves.
The only problem, I quickly learned, is that people are already convinced they NEED the āhow to do moreā stuff. They are willing to pay for something that feels like an easy step-by-step process to a guaranteed return on their investment. (By the way, I know this because I consider purchases in the exact same way.Ā What am I going to get out of this? Will my money be well spent?Ā Itās a natural part of purchasing psychology.)
As it turns out, that makes promoting something like Color Your Soul a bit of a challenge.
Our little community has reached more than 50 active subscribers now, all of whom Iām so grateful for. But letās be completely transparent here ā the revenue generated by those 50 subscribers to this unique product is far less than what Iād make if I created the 124th āHow To Succeed on Instagramā e-course. Thatās just the truth.
I want to share that fact honestly with you all because I KNOW so many of you creative entrepreneurs are faced with the same dilemma out there:
Ie. Do I go with the sure bet or do I gamble on a vision that feels uncertain?
Well, only YOU can truly answer that question for yourself and your business, but hereās the real heart of the message I want to hit home with you today:Ā the fact that it is more challenging to sell something with deeper, more intangible benefits does not mean that it is impossible, nor does it mean itās a bad business move.
If you gave me the option of standing on a street corner and selling Big Macs or selling a delicious and healthful kale salad, I know which of those options is going to be the āwinningā business venture. The Big Mac is scrumptiously artificial and instantly gratifying. The kale salad? It may also be delicious (letās assume it is) but its real benefit is in the nourishing impact it has on your health and your body. Thatās a selling feature with a payoff thatās hard to fully communicate.
But you know what? When given the option,Ā I will choose to sell the kale salad every time.
With so many Big Mac products already for sale out there ā delicious and gratifying, sure, but ultimately artificial ā I will happily challenge myself to continue to create healthful kale salads in my business because I want to continue to create things that are nourishing,Ā both to MY soul as the creator and to YOUR souls as the recipients.
āIf something is not wildly profitable, that does not mean it is not worth doing.ā
You have to remember that there are all kinds of different value metrics to measure when it comes to evaluating your ideas. Money is just one of them.
There are also things like impactĀ (does this project help a lot of people?);Ā growthĀ (does this project help me grow in a way I desire?); and, my all-time favorite,Ā whole-hearted expression(does this project allow me to express my core self in a way that feels good to my soul?)
Color Your Soul definitely fits squarely into that last category. What it lacks in highly scalable profits, it more than makes up for in the immense joy I get putting it together and in seeing the real, lasting change it creates for subscribers. I get to use SO many of my gifts and learned skills in one single project, and the final outcome is something that feels uniquely ME through and through. I would never want to trade that experience for something that is āeasierā to sell.
We as creative (and soulful) business owners must come to terms with this:Ā Some things are just simply harder to sell. And that’s okay.
Oftentimes the things that are more pure of heart or enriching to the soul, they arenāt the things that people are convinced they need. But that doesnāt automatically mean they arenāt worth doing or that they canāt contribute positively to the overall economics of your business. Thatās why itās so important to establish your values as a business so you can see those more intangible benefits more clearly.
For myself and for Made Vibrant as a business, my central driving ethos remains to choose what is TRUE to my core over what is easy, every. single. time.
As we wrap up 2016 and you take a look at the projects youāre considering for the new year, my challenge this week is for you to take another look at that idea you have that you LOVE but that youāre afraid no one will want or buy.
It may not be easy to sell, but does it feel TRUE to your core? If so, could it be time to give yourself permission to go for it anyway? Will you look back and be glad that you went for the kale salad instead of the Big Mac? (If you hate kale salad, feel free to replace with the healthful treat of your choice.)
Running a values-based creative business is complicated stuff. Itās always a delicate puzzle determining which ideas are worth pursuing, which ones will bring you money (because thereās nothing wrong with earning a sustainable living), and which ones you want to tackle because it lights up your heart.
The fact is, the only person who can navigate that delicate puzzle is YOU. But I hope in pulling back the curtain just a tad and showing you that profits arenāt the only measuring stick for the projects I take on within Made Vibrant, that you feel empowered to see your creative business ideas perhaps in a new light.
Wishing you all a wonderful week!
Do you ever feel like you TRY too many things? Like you have too many interests?
Do you ever feel judged for having a different vision for your life or business every few weeks?
Do you beat yourself up over not being able to ānail downā or get more streamlined with your creative business?
Do you have a million project and ideas youāre juggling at once that you LOVE but the world keeps telling you to focus and pare down and it leaves you feeling like an amateur?
If any of this hits home for you, you’re in the right place.
This is probably one of the biggest things Iāve struggled with in my own journey as a creative.
But fear not, if you are indeed a “multi-passionate” (as Marie Forleo says),Ā there IS a way to indulge in your curiosities without feeling lost or aimless.
Jason and I can attest to this because we are both lifelong dabblers. We love SO many different things, yet we have found a way to nurture each of these interests and learn from every side-road on our journey without finding ourselves tangled up and static in a never-ending circle. We are able to do this by employing our simple philosophy of “exploration plus intention.”
This notion of experimentation plus intention is actually the foundation upon which the Wandering Aimfully brand is built.
Wandering allows us to stay open and leave room to try things, to explore, to dabble, to taste and to experience a multitude of things.
But, there’s a caveat. “Aimfully” to us means with intention. So as we wander, we do so always with a goal, a purpose, and a compass in mindāthat compass being our core values.
These two opposing forces create for us a sense of balance. With too much exploration, we may find ourselves trying a million things that actually don’t align with our values or our goals, ultimately leaving us feeling burned out and as lost as ever. And with too much emphasis on intention and adhering strictly to our intended goals, we rob ourselves of the opportunity to be surprised, to learn new things, and to evolve our goals as we grow and change.
This is why they pair so nicely together!
We have seen this idea serve us well in just about every aspect of our lives. For example, take our health journey. As of writing this, we have transitioned over to a (mostly) plant-based, whole foods diet, giving up all meat back in the winter of 2016. This is the diet and food regimen that fuels our bodies and fits our values best, but we would never have arrived at that understanding without utilizing the Wandering Aimfully/exploration plus intention philosophy.
A few years ago, before I even really knew that working for yourself was an option, I thought I was REALLY good at predicting the future.
Throughout my childhood years and even well into college, I had learned how to excel within the system that was laid out for me, and I had a pretty good grip on how the whole cause-and-effect game worked:
You study hard for a test, you get an A.
You get all Aās, you land that highly coveted internship.
You land the internship, you get the fancy job.
You get the fancy job, you make the fancy money.
And so on and so forth.
The path to āsuccessā seemed like a well-laid out script, one that I just needed to recite line-by-line precisely and things would turn out just fine.
The problem with following this kind of script is this:
You can dream and scheme about the future, but you canāt possibly predict whether your heart and soul will struggle under the circumstances youāre climbing toward, or whether it will thrive.
“When you plan you’re future based on your mental assumptions, you leave no room for course-correction.”
Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t feel entirely comfortable with that arrangement. Risk working your butt off to achieve something that still might leave you unhappy? No thanks.
Which then begs the questionā¦Ā if moving forward down a well-worn path could still lead us to an unfulfilled future, what’s the alternative?
When I discovered this whole world of āentrepreneurshipā (can we just agree thatās the hardest word to say out loud, by the way?) I was working for Jasonās marketing company, IWearYourShirt.
To better understand the startup world and how companies grow, I was reading a book called The Lean Startup. In it, the author talked about this methodology called the Build-Measure-Learn Feedback Loop. The idea behind this framework is that you donāt really KNOW anything about your business, your customers, or your product until you try something, measure the results, and see what you can learn from it.
It seemed so obvious: The only way to know you were building the right kind of company (one that matched your vision) was to view each step of the process as an experiment. Build, measure, learn. Come up with a hypothesis; engage in an experiment; draw a conclusion from the results.
The more I thought about it, the less I cared about how this would help me build a successful startup, and the more I realized it was a great way to guarantee myself a fulfilled life.
The same benefits apply in both contexts. Don’t just assume how a decision will alter your life, test it out.
Since reading that book, Jason and I have used this simple mantra as our āteam mottoā of sorts when it comes to designing our lives together:
āLife is an experiment.ā
In other words, donāt assume anything.
As much as we humans love strategizing and planning and predicting, the future reality we assume we know isn’t actually real. Not until we actually get out there, test the waters, and report back on what we’ve learned.
When it comes to my life and my business, I usedĀ to approach everything from a very cerebral place. I wanted to think about the strategy, the logistics, the proās and conās, what the future might hold, what obstacles might be waiting for me.
But now?
As some of you know, at the beginning of July I gave myself the challenge to post to the Made Vibrant blog five days a week for a month. There was so much content rattling around in my head, and I wanted to hold myself accountable to make the time to get it all in writing. I also wanted to grow the Made Vibrant community, and I thought regular, quality content would be helpful in reaching that goal.
What I didnāt account for was how writing five posts a week it would make me feel.
Turns out, it made me feel like I was just trying to keep up with the ācontent marketersā of the world. I felt like I was trying to follow the herd rather than forge my own path. And while Iām proud of the posts I was able to produce, if Iām being honest, it also made me feel a bit inauthentic. Like I was trying to hit this arbitrary number instead of sharing from the heart whenĀ and howĀ I wanted to, something Iāve always prided myself on.Ā Not to mention it took a lot more time to produce quality content than I expected, which took time away from things in my business I never want to lose, like responding to email replies from these weekly newsletters.
The entire experiment helped me see that growing this community was probably something I thought I shouldĀ want, rather than something that truly matters to me. It helped me return to what I feel is unique about Made Vibrant — that the focus is on building a business that is aligned with my values and beliefs, not one that is focused on scaling for the sake or growing my revenue just because thatās what I āought to do.ā
My point here is this: I don’t think I would have realized all this without committing fully to the experiment. I could have spent months trying to predict and perfect the optimal content marketing model, and it all would have led me to that feeling of unease and inauthenticity.
When thinking fails, try ENGAGING instead.Ā
True learning and understanding can only come from experimentation. From actually engagingĀ in whatever your assumption is. Everything else is speculation.
What is one assumption that you’ve been holding onto that you can actually start testing this week?
Maybe you assume that setting up a blog will be hard and frustrating. Give it a try and see how it feels.
Maybe you assume you’re not a runner. Go for a jog each day this week. See how it feels.
Life is about discovery. It’s not about fitting into the box that the world has constructed for you; it’s about creating your own.
I did a podcast interview with a friend of mine from the early early days of blogging, Kelsey Cronkhite of Pinegate Road. Kelsey and I talked about a lot of things (and I totally recommend listening to the episode!) but one tiny part at the end had me thinking long after we hung up.
When Kelsey asked me what particular mantra was guiding me at the moment (1:19:10 mark of the ep if you want to listen), the first one that came to mind was one that has guided Jason and me in life and business for years:
āLife is an experiment.ā
This simple phrase has always reminded me to keep a mentality of exploration and adventure as I approach both life and business. It reminds me of the importance of testing assumptions and pushing boundaries. You canāt always think or plan your way through thingsā¦ you have to test and try and be willing to find out.
BUT, then Kelsey asked an interesting follow-up question:
āWhat would you say to someone who IS a planner. How can they go from that āwanting to have it all figured outā stage to actually taking that first step?ā
Without thinking about it too much, my answer was:
“You make experimentation a part of the plan.ā
What I was trying to say was that experimentation CAN be purposeful and intentional and you just have to remind yourself that trying things is actually a more efficient and effective way to figure things out, rather than just thinking about something and making assumptions.
The funny thing is though…
I desperately needed to remind MYSELF of this advice.
As much as I still try to use the ālife is an experimentāĀ mantra to guide me, if Iām really honest with myself, I still carry some kind of guilt around how much experimenting I doāespecially in business.
Just in 2016 alone, with my business Made Vibrant I tried: a daily art project, selling art prints and originals, filming two new art classes, live paid classes, free email courses, redesigning my website, launching a monthly subscription, the list goes on and on and on.
The truth is I love to learn BY DOING. I love experimentingāthinking something might yield a certain result but then testing it and trying it only to find it yields a completely different result.
So why then do I often find myself feeling GUILTY about this experimentation?
My word for 2016 was CURATE, and (as our best-laid plans often tend to) that didn’t quite pan out the way I intended it to.
I think subconsciously I wanted that year to be some sort of āgraduationā from trying so many things, not because I no longer wantedĀ to try new things but because I thought I SHOULD have reached that point in my business where things felt more stable, more concrete.Ā Like it was all supposed to lead to some big moment of clarity and then I would continue on in a clear and methodical way from that point forward.
I had to learn to appreciate the fact that, for me, I don’t think there is some final destination of clarity. It’s a mirage; a horizon line that keeps moving the closer you try to get to it.
And now that Iām thinking about it, if there WAS actually an end to all my experimenting, I would be so sad!
I love making exploration and discovery a part of our business. I love trying several different things and being surprised by the outcome. I never want to lose that.
So that’s how I make peace with the never-ending experimentation; I make it intentional. (Hello, experimentation with intention!)
Jason and I raise up experimentation as a CORE VALUE in our business, and in doing so, I can remove the guilt around needing to have some static trajectory or plan.
Another important part of the experimentation with intention balance is understanding what happens when you swing too far to the intention side of things and cling to a plan or a goal that might not serve you anymore.
At the beginning of each year, I make a plan. This plan feels authentic in the moment because it’s true to who we are and what we want at that point in time. But by halfway through the year, some life curveball has inevitable been thrown my way and I have to completely recalibrate the plan. I want you to know you have permission to do the same.
Don’t cling to a roadmap that no longer feels aligned with who you’re becoming.
āDon’t cling to a roadmap that no longer feels aligned with who you’re becoming.ā
Here are some lessons I’ve learned over the years about loosening the grip on my plan and allowing myself to evolve and explore as the year goes on.
Iām still a big believer in planning because, as I said, it gives you something to aim for. Somethingāeven the wrong thing ā in my opinion, is more valuable than standing still. Even the missteps and the dead ends teach us something. As the author Garrison Keillor says, āItās all material,ā and I believe that to be true about writing AND about life. Without my own experiment of trying a version of my plan and having that feeling as a point of comparison, you might not otherwise be able to recognize when it’s time to shift or evolve.
That doesnāt necessarily mean give up before seeing a plan to its completion; it just means be honest with yourself when itās time to shift gears and then actually take steps to make that shift. Pay attention to the signs your intuition is trying to share with you about charting a new course. Recognize your sunk cost bias, and ask yourself if itās worth continuing down a path that will only be harder to shift the longer youāre on it.
Listen, in my opinion, if weāre doing this whole human being thing correctly, then weāre going to be changing all the time. Every six months I feel like Iām a new version of myself with slightly (or not so slightly) different wants and needs and desires and dreams. We have to honor that if weāre really interested in living full-color, vibrant lives.
Is it frustrating to constantly feel like youāre in a state of flux? Well, yeah, but itās also what makes life fun and exciting. The sooner we embrace that, the more time weāll spend in alignment with what our souls truly want.
That last statement I made about āallowing yourself to embrace the evolutionā…Yeah, Iāve probably written an article about that exact topic in different terms every six months for the past three years. And yet, every time Iām in the midst of another shift, I try to fight it. And I have to learn the SAME set of lessons all over again.
The newest difference, though? Iām no longer interested in beating myself up over it. With every new evolution, Iām able to pivot a little faster, with a little less guilt, with a little more self-compassion, and I know Iāll probably continue to do that for the rest of my life. You too might have to relearn the same lessons, but as long as youāre becoming more resilient and still finding your way back to your truth each time, I think thatās all we can ask of ourselves.
These are all the reasons we love the experimentation plus intention philosophy. Through this balance, we’ve been able to try so many different things, continue to push ourselves and grow, while always keeping our values and a clear aim in mind.
Feel free to apply this approach to your own business and life!
In January of 2015, my Better Lettering Course (a $20 basic course on hand-lettering) made me $5,100/month of (virtually) passive income.
Basically, one blog post on my site was getting an unbelievable amount of traffic from Pinterest and it was converting to sales of the course. My gifts/talents/products were aligned with a need in the market, plus I had an effective marketing machine that was pumping life into my business. Times were good, and I actually thought to myself,Ā I think Iām getting the hang of this independent business thing.
Fast forward to yesterday when I pulled the financials from September (I do this every month separately from my bookkeeper to keep myself actively evaluating my business revenue and deciding which projects to focus on and which to let go of.)
Do you know how much income that same lettering course pulled in for September 2016?Ā $460.
Quite a difference from the basically full-time salary it was creating for me throughout last year.
Now, thankfully Iāve been smart enough to diversify my revenue over the past two years so my business health doesnāt hinge on the sustained success of one product.
But I wanted to share these numbers with you guys to illustrate a very important lesson in running a creative business, one that I donāt see enough people talking about online:Ā The market is ALWAYS changing.
As artists and creatives, we often want to operate in an ideal world where we can simply create what we want to create, build an audience of devoted patrons, and watch the money follow.
(Let me be clear, I still VERY much advocate for making this kind of idealism the primary approach. Weāll never even come close to creating an ideal life/career for ourselves if we donāt start by aiming high and believing in whatās possible.)
BUT, I also believe we have to temper that idealism with the pragmatism of what actuallyĀ works in business and what will actually bring us money.
Trying to find this balance between pragmatism and idealism is the cost of entry for the immense privilege of earning a living solely from your passion. The truth is that we canāt go on creating our heartās work if we donāt have money to sustain us. So while money will never be a primary driver for me, the financials have to be stable in order to give me the space and oxygen I need to create.
Which is exactly why it can be so terrifying when a once stable source of business revenue stops being stable.
Turns out, thereās actually a biological basis for this fear. See, humans CRAVE certainty. When faced with uncertainty, our brainās go into a state of defense. Hereās a particularly interesting passage on the subject from Psychology Today:
āA sense of uncertainty about the future generates a strong threat or ‘alert’ response in your limbic system. Your brain detects something is wrong, and your ability to focus on other issues diminishes. Your brain doesn’t like uncertainty – it’s like a type of pain, something to be avoided. Certainty on the other hand feels rewarding, and we tend to steer toward it, even when it might be better for us to remain uncertain.āĀ
– David Rock, Psychology Today
Did you catch that? To our brains,Ā uncertainty basically equals pain.
To make that uncertainty even more complicated, not only is the market a moving target, but WE are a moving target ourselves. What we want today may not be what we want tomorrow.
What I value right now in my life above all else — flexibility, freedom, experimentation — may not be what I value in five years when, letās say, Iām starting a family.
So thatās the core challenge of running a creative biz: the market is always changing, and YOU are always changing.Ā Either way, what worked yesterday won’t work today,Ā and that leaves us in a perpetual state of uncertainty.
āThe challenge of running a creative biz: the market is always changing & YOU are always changing. ā
To my creative business owners out there (or aspiring creative business owners), does this hit home with you? Can you relate to that sense of anxiety that comes when something that was once solid ground for you becomes dust beneath your feet?
Maybe itās a revenue stream that takes a downturn. Maybe itās social media growth that suddenly stalls. Maybe itās a launch plan that worked a year ago but is no longer connecting.
Orā¦ maybe the uncertainty is stemming more from the moving target within. Maybe you no longer feel connected to a creative project you started a year ago. Maybe your values have changed and now you donāt feel aligned with what youāre producing in your business.
In either case, the question remains:
Well, I certainly donāt have all the answers, but after contemplating this quite a bit, hereās the advice Iāve been giving myself.
The unfortunate truth is that the uncertainty of āthe puzzleā will never end. This mixed up rubikās cube where all the variables are constantly changing — you, the market, social media, technology — will never stopĀ changing. Though weāre hard-wired to seek out certainty, we have to come to terms with the fact that we live in an uncertain world.
Part of being an effective business owner is learning to love and appreciate that constant flux. To find joy in the variety of it all and to let the puzzle feed your curiosity. Can it be exhausting and frustrating sometimes? Sure. But, flip the script for a moment and it can also be fun and interesting and incredibly rewarding when you see yourself solving level after level of the complicated puzzle.
When weāre facing the unknown, itās natural to feel fear. But unfortunately, what so many of us creatives do in response to that fear is we make it say something about US.Ā When things go changing on us, itās our immediate reaction to suddenly question all that we are or all that weāve ever done, as if any wins weāve had to that point werenāt a reflection of our capability but instead a fluke.
I could have let the change in my lettering course revenue affect my confidence in my own work. āThe course must not be that good. People donāt want to learn from me anymore.ā Ummmā¦. Over 3,000 students seem to disagree. Instead of letting the uncertainty of the future turn into self-doubt, I was able to look at all the revenue that product has brought me over the years and let it FEED my confidence, not diminish it.
This is a HUGE one. Itās so much easier to define and measure our success with external metrics. Followers, dollars, subscribersā¦ these are all NUMBERS and numbers are well within the comfy, non-painful certainty camp. Thatās why we cling to them. They feel like a concrete, REAL reflection of the health of our business.
But what happens when youāre ONLY measuring your business health or success with metrics that reflect external factors? If youāre defining your success only based on how the market responds to you, youāre placing all the power into the hands of something you canāt control.
You canāt control how people respond to your art or your business offerings or your products. You can only create, experiment, observe, learn, and grow. If youāre onlyĀ measuring your success by the level of market validation, then you put yourself at risk to be disappointed every time you try something that doesnāt work. (Which, as Iāve pointed out, is almost 100% certain to happen in the life of your business given how ever-changing the market is.)
Instead, we have to soften those expectations and external metrics with inner ones. So, ask yourself: how can you measure whether your business is meeting your internalĀ desires and values? Can you count the number of mornings youāre able to take 15 minutes for a gratitude practice? Can you do it in the number of hours youāre working or the number of times you create something that feels scary?
The external metrics may feel real and satisfying to our need for certainty, but the internal metrics — the ones that tell you youāre fulfilling the deep, true desires of your most vibrant life — are the ones that bring important contextĀ to those numbers. Iām perfectly happy to see a drop in my revenue if it means Iām working fewer hours, taking more breaks, and stretching myself creatively.
Next time you find yourself in that spiral of uncertainty when something in your business stops working the way you thought it would, I want you to first come back to that metric system and remind yourself to also measure your internal alignment. Find peace in the fact that at a core level, youāre still making decisions aligned with your true self.
THEN, remind yourself that business is merely one complex puzzle after the next. Keep changing one variable at a time until you land on something that IS working again. (And prepare yourself for the moment when that too changes yet again.)
We live in a time when itās easier than ever to create a business around who you really are and the things you love. BUT, thatās doesnāt mean itās EASY. It will never be easy. And Iām starting to think that could be part of the fun of it. ?
I hope this weekās letter was helpful. I havenāt dedicated an entire letter to a business topic in a while! I love sharing this ever-evolving journey with you guys, so THANK YOU for reading week after week.
After launching Color Your Soulāa project that was basically four months in the makingāI had such a joyful feeling. It was so comforting and validating to know that this creative idea of mine was in loving, accepting hands with people who appreciated it. The warm email replies (especially from those of you that unhesitatingly jumped on board with this first issue and became subscribers!) were an incredible feeling.
Today, though, I want to get REALLY honest about the emotional aftermath of launching a creative project like Color Your Soul, one where so much of your heart is invested.
Truthfully I thought about not writing this letter at all, sticking to some safer topic that felt less raw. But, after thinking it over, I realized that you guys donāt read my writing for the sugar-coated stuff. Iāve always tried to share with you the REAL emotions and real insecurities behind running a creative, values-based business, and so today I wanted to honor that promise by keeping it real.
So hereās the truth:
Despite experiencing the highest high introducing Color Your SoulĀ to you guys on Thursday and welcoming many of you as subscribers, I woke up on Saturday and felt strangely OFF. It was a feeling I havenāt had in a while, not necessarily one of sadness or disappointment but just of confusion, like this beacon of light Iād been chasing all summer was no longer illuminated and I was now fumbling around in the dark.
This isnāt how this is supposedĀ to feel,Ā I thought.Ā I made the thing Iāve been dreaming of making! Itās alive and in the hands of people who appreciate it! So what is this strange feeling?!
Itās not that I was questioning my vision — I believe more than ever in the vision I have for this movement toward soulful, inspiring, thought-provoking content — and as I look at Color Your Soul and the canvas itās provided me to go on making this kind of content for you guys, thereās no doubt in my mind itās what I want to be working on.
So, if itās not the idea itself then, what is it? Where was this sudden slump coming from?
I spent all day yesterday trying to sort through these emotions. I took my token beach walk to ponder the meaning of life (thatās not a joke, I actually do that), and I got really honest with myself, peeling back the layers until I hit on something that felt real.
What I decided was this:
I was experiencing a creative hangover.
āA creative hangover is the emotional aftermath of bringing a dream into reality. ā
There are two primary causes of a creative hangover. (Duh, bourbon and tequila. Just kidding… Or am I?? ???)
For months I woke up and I had a clear purpose: to get ready for the launch of Color Your Soul.
I had a guiding vision that provided a structure for each of my days and gave me something distinct to measure my progress against. This made my creative spirit feel safe and purposeful.
My friend StephĀ often refers to this as āchasing the carrot.ā When the carrot goes away, thereās a feeling of aimlessness that settles in.
This weekend, even though my purpose was technically unchanged (work on Color Your Soul), the big guiding beacon of āLaunch Dayā — the carrot — was no longer there. That absence no doubt contributed to my weird and aimless feeling.
When you pour your whole heart and your true self into an idea or a project or some kind of brave leap, when you spend days or weeks or (in my case)Ā monthsĀ daydreaming about it, you inevitably create a version of it in your head that feels real.
You spend so much time and invest so much of your emotional resources imagining it, that a part of you just assumes the reality will match the fantasy.
But, we all know that the reality NEVER actually matches the fantasy (thatās literally the definition of a fantasy — it only exists in our imagination.)
When I experienced the high of launching last week — a mixture of joy and relief and excitement and anticipation — all of those amazing emotions fit the vision in my dream BUT they werenāt sustainable, not at those levels anyway.
After the high faded and my heightened state started to even back out this weekend, suddenly I became acutely aware of how my reality contrasted with my dream.
Think about it: we never fixate on visions of ourselves having a perfectly humble, mundane happy day; Instead, our dreams and fantasies tend to feel grand and elevated. Itās no wonder reality can often seem pale in comparison.
That dissonance — the disconnect between the grand vision Iād fixated on for months and the happy-yet-humble satisfaction of reality — caused a sort of emotional reverberation, my creative hangover.
This concept doesnāt just apply to some big project like Iām talking about, but I think it could be any big event in your life, any vision youāve been working toward.
Once you reach that milestone and the high of it wears off, often you can be left in a strange emotional limbo.
For me, it was a matter of first becoming of aware of it and not feeling guilty over it. For a moment I thought to myself, āSnap out of it, Caroline, you made the thing you wanted to make and you should be elated!ā
Criticizing yourself for your emotional response is never productive, at least not in my experience.
Once I recognized this creative hangover for what it was and realized it didnāt say anything about me OR about my love for Color Your Soul, then I just shifted my focus back to the long game. I let go of the fantasy of āLaunch Dayā and set my sights on a more sustainable, more reality-based vision — one where Iām not building up some grand to-do or chasing down another carrot, but instead, Iām reminding myself to aim for whatās sustainable. To recalibrate my emotional measuring stick to a range thatās much closer to the everyday kind of happiness that comes with doing work thatās deeply fulfilling.
It may not be the grand stuff that daydreams are made of, but itās REAL and itās rich. It can be that normal happy day where I get to continue to work on the thing close to my heart, serving peopleĀ close to my heart (hint hint: thatās you!)
Have you experienced this emotional, creative hangover? A project or event or big leap that left you feeling a little lost or dazed afterward?
If so, how were you able to navigate that experience and how can you emotionally recalibrate your own expectations so that you find satisfaction in reality, however that feels? Let me know in the comments!
The reason I wanted to share these feelings with you all is to show you that no matter how long you continue to make things, no matter how many years you get under your belt running a creative business, there is always more to learn and further to grow.
Even if you do find the courage to MAKE THE THING (which is half the battle!) there will always be unfamiliar, often uncomfortable feelings to navigate, and thatās just part of the gig. Creativity at its foundation is an emotional pursuit.
As creative business owners, I think one of the main struggles we encounter is:
The contrast between making things we feel compelled to make (things that serve our need to create what WE ourselves have in our hearts)Ā and making things that others needĀ (things that bring them value that theyāre willing to pay for, because heyĀ thatās the business owner part of the equation, right?)
This conflict brings up an interesting question around selfishness.
If we choose NOT to create things based on the needs of other people and instead choose to create things based solely on the needs of ourselves… does that make us inherently selfish?
And, this spurs some even bigger questions to ponder…
Is creating art inherently selfish?
Is being a human inherently selfish?
And is the idea being selfish inherently good or bad?
With these questions swirling around in my head, I ruminated on this word all week long. Even when I say the word āselfishā I immediately feel icky, which is an indication to me that this word has been commandeered by our culture and taught to us to be an inherently negative trait.
But then I think about what it actuallyĀ means.
To me, being āselfishā just means placing focus on your own needs, your own priorities, your own unique lens with which you see the world.
And whatās confusing about that is if Iāve learned anything these past few years, itās that shifting focus away from the expectations of others and back on my true self (my needs, my priorities, my unique lens) has brought me immense satisfaction and joy.
So I began to realize that this word selfish desperately needs to undergo a massive makeover. (Cue the āI wanna be a supermodelāĀ makeover montage from Clueless, which Iām not embarrassed to admit I watched and thoroughly enjoyed last weekend.)
For example, letās take the artistās conundrum I mentioned above.
I believe that YES, art in a way is inherently selfish because it comes from the lens of the artist that created it. And great art is usually born out of one personās deep need to unleash their perspective to the outside world. The response from or benefit to the outside world is usually the effect, not the cause.
The irony then lies in the fact that the MORE a person can focus on theirĀ perspective, hone theirĀ vision and theirĀ identity, the more profound (and impactful) their art can become.
Take the poet David WhyteĀ for example. David Whyteās poetry is so gorgeous and stirring that at times I wonder how art so beautiful could be created by a mere human just like me.
The answer is that I believe David Whyte is selfish in the very best way. The only way he is able to create art that brings so many people like me around the world joy and meaning and wisdom is because he serves his own selfĀ — his own soul. The deeper he dives into the contemplation of his own experiences and perspectives, the more he is able to emerge with universal truths that can serve others.
Get it? Selfishness is a delightfully contradictory concept because the more you focus on yourself — the more self-actualized you become — the more you are able to give to others.
And the circle goes on.
“The more you focus on yourself, the more self-actualized you become, and the more you are able to give to others.”
And it doesnāt just apply to art. Anyone who has ever taken a āmeā day can attest that this rings true in our lives as well. When we take a moment to focus on our own needs, to check in and make sure that our buckets are filled, that is when we can bring our best selves to our spouses, our families, our friends, and even strangers.
So hereās my conclusion.
The issue is that we, being the scarcity-minded culture we are, have chosen to believe that when a person leans more fully into their own wholeness that it somehow distracts and detracts from the needs of everyone else. That is the myth that I want to bust with this letter.
āThereās a difference between being selfish at the expense of others and being selfish so that we can benefit others.ā
The distinction is in the intent.
I think itās time that we re-define what it means to be selfish and reclaim that word for good in this context, because deep in my bones I believe that humanity benefits when we all focus on showing up as our brightest, best selves. Everybody wins.
Hereās my new definition of selfishness. See if this is something you might be able to get behind:
Selfishness is realizing that tuning into your own needs first allows you to be more fully present to the needs of others.
Selfishness is realizing that ultimately the only life we have full control over is our own, and that itās our gift and our charge to be good stewards of that precious life by taking care of ourselves.
Selfishness is focusing on creating things that stir your heart and your soul beforeĀ molding your vision to the expectations of other people.
Selfishness is being HONEST about what you need when you need it.
Selfishness is being your own advocate.
Selfishness is recognizing that when each of us takes full ownership of living as our brightest selves, humanityās light as a whole shines brighter too.
What do you think?
Armed with these new definitions, this week I challenge you to be a little more selfish.
Whether itās in your art and you need encouragement to follow your vision without diluting it with the expectations of others OR whether you need permission to tend to your own needs for a little while, I hope this letter gives you the boost you need.
Remember, there is nothing wrong with taking care of yourself. You only get your one life and it would be a shame to divvy it up piece by piece and sell it off to the highest bidder.
Take care of YOU and good things will follow!
In 2013, it was measured* that there were 152 million blogs on the Internet. Google tells me there are 248 million results for the search term āportrait photographer.ā A quick search on Amazon, and there are 50 million published books for sale.
What do any of those numbers mean to you? Your immediate reaction might be, Whoa, how would I ever have a blog, photography business, or book that gets noticed?
Every day, someone starts a blog and writes something interesting that gets spread around the internet like wildfire. Every day, another author shoots up the rankings on Amazon to become a bestseller, seemingly out of nowhere. Every day, someone shares a photo on Instagram that gets 100x the exposure of any other photo that photographer has ever posted.
And why do these things happen? Why are some people able to break through the noise and make an impact? Because they do it differently.
The way things have always been done is not the way things have to be done.
When I set out to write my first book, Creativity For Sale, I emailed and called multiple friends who were accomplished (most were best-selling) authors. I wanted to know how to do what theyād done, but to my surprise and disappointment, they all told me I wouldnāt directly make money from my first book. They told me that I should instead use it as a marketing vehicle for something I could make money from, like teaching people how to get sponsorships or promoting myself as a marketing consultant.
I wanted to buck the system and prove that a first-time author could make great money from their first book without a publisher, an agent, or even a platform like Kickstarter.
In October 2013, I embarked on a journey through uncharted first-time-author waters. With my previous experience in getting sponsors for IWearYourShirt, I knew what my angle would be: to have the first-ever fully sponsored book.
My first step was to create a new Google Spreadsheet, open my email inbox, and to scour my contacts for people I had an existing relationship with. I found 50 people I felt confident would support my new idea, pasted their info into my spreadsheet, and wrote a quick email explaining how I wanted to fill the pages of my book with sponsors in an unobtrusive way (footnotes at the bottom of each page). I told these folks they were the first to hear about this project and that they could adorn (read: sponsor) the first handful of pages in the book for $500 each.
Copy email. Customize email to each person. Hit send. I did this 50 times, making a note in my spreadsheet each time I hit send. A few minutes passed, and I received the first reply:
āI donāt get it.ā
Crap.
Then another reply:
āIāll pass on this. Thanks, though.ā
Double crap.
Immediately, my heart sunk, and I started to question the idea altogether. More time passed, and no replies came in.
This was the worst idea ever. Everyone was right. I was going to be one of the 94%.
Then, right before I went to sleep that night, my first win. My friend James from J William Culinary (a gourmet packaged meal company) wrote back and said: āIām in!ā Faster than you can say dinner, I whisked a Paypal invoice his way, and a few moments later, the money was in my account. Huzzah! I had sold the first sponsorship for a project that would change my career and life forever.
Quick aside: Often, when youāre doing something differently, youāll be met with resistance. Resistance can derail momentum faster than you can say dinner (again). In these moments of resistance, you have to remember that you want the outcome more than you will let rejection affect you. It will affect you. It affects me all the time. But I donāt let it stop me and you shouldnāt let it stop you.
Now, it wasnāt all sunshine and rainbows from there for my sponsored book project. If youāre keeping track at home, out of the 50 emails I sent, only 6 people ended up buying. While that ~10% conversion percentage is decent by āindustry standards,ā I still had quite an uphill battle on my hands (204 total sponsors to fill in my book). That first sale was the momentum boost I needed. It was the win that filled my entrepreneurial gas tank with fuel. That one āyesā catapulted me forward into creating the SponsorMyBook website, sending over 2,000 emails (back and forth with people), and after five and half months, ending up with $75,000 in total revenue before a single word of my book had been written.
You read that correctly: I made over $75,000 selling sponsorships for a book that didn’t exist yet and hadn’t sold a single copy. No publisher. No agent. Just hard work and not being afraid to try something new.
Why do I tell you this story? If you remember earlier, I mentioned that there are about 50 million books on Amazon.com. Well, 94% of first-time authors donāt make a single dollar on their first book. Many of them actually lose money. I was able to make really good money with my first book because I did it differently. I flipped the process on its head and wasnāt afraid to put in some hard work to prove the statistics wrong.
The statistics, pundits, and people whoāve been in your industry will all tell you itās too crowded or that thereās a way things have to be done.
There are too many blogs on the Internetāyou could never start a popular one now.
There are too many portrait photographersāyou couldnāt possibly make a good living doing photography full-time.
There are authors with much bigger platforms and more marketing savvy than youāyou shouldnāt even try.
Yet, here were are. Popular blogs are popping up every day. Instagram has created a stage for photographers to shine. And self-publishing has made it possible to do anything you can think of to make your book successfulāincluding having every single page sponsored.
All of the data and āexperiencedā people will tell you that a space is too crowded or that youāre too late (the dreaded bubbles).
Sometimes an industry, and the people in it, wonāt even have to tell you how things are supposed to be doneāyou will just see it everywhere. A few years ago when my wife, Caroline, wanted to start her own creative branding and design business (Made Vibrant), she kept seeing websites in her space that were minimal, white, and full of very styled photography (read: obsessively organized). But thatās not who Caroline is. Sheās a creative person who needs some disarray. She finds creativity in the chaos of a messy desk, messy art studio, and piles of bright journals and markers.
I remember Caroline not wanting to neatly arrange her desk to share a perfectly styled photo on social media. She wanted to show what it actually looked like for her to be creative, and she believed that there were other people out there like her. Low and behold, she was correct.
Caroline has built a thriving business that went from scraping by in the first year to generating a very comfortable 6-figure income. And more than the financial success, she has a community of thousands of people who subscribe to her ālife made vibrantā philosophy where not everything has to be perfectly organized. I love that Caroline continues to operate her business differently by using bright colors and designs that stand out from the crowd, and that she embraces her chaotic creativity (even if the chaos is the opposite of my neat-and-tidy tendencies and can cause my organization brain to be driven wild from time to time).
No-bad-ideas brainstorming: This simple exercise has been crucial for me over the years. I use it on a weekly basis, and it always brings me some idea, thought, or new perspective.
Just start executing: I love this short article from Derek Sivers. And itās totally true. The more you just start doing something, anything, the more will happen. If you can stop sitting by waiting for an idea to hit you and start executing on anything, ideas will come to you.
Get outside: Never once have I had a big idea while scrolling through my email inbox or social media feeds. Even reading articles online can feel like youāre searching for motivation/inspiration, but it rarely works (has never worked for me). Go on a hike. Go sit by the ocean. Just be in nature and let your brain wander. Youāll be shocked by what you come up with if you do this often.
Go outside your bubble: So often, people want to get inspiration from their competition/industry. Iāve never thought this way. Instead, Iāll go way outside my comfort zone and look for inspiration in unfamiliar places. I watch documentaries on Netflix Iād never normally watch (I recently watched Birth of Sake, which was super interesting). Iāll read a fiction book thatās way outside my normal reading list. Iāll hop in the car and just drive in different directions than I normally would (sounds weird, but it really helps clear your head).
Take a break: It sounds so counterintuitive, but Iāve come up with some of my best (and most obscure) ideas while taking a break from technology. The most recent example is BuyMyFuture, which has generated over $173,000 in revenue so far.
People always want to know how to stand out. How to get noticed. How to get more sales, more press, more everything. And the one way Iāve learned to do that over the years is by doing things differently.
Being different is uncomfortable. Itās ingrained in us that we should fit in with the herd or weāll be cast out. That way of thinking mattered when we were fighting off saber tooth tigers and living in caves. In modern society, the people who stand out (the outcasts) are the same people that experience success.
Think about this for your next idea or project: challenge yourself to avoid being one of the 94%. How can you do it differently?
This is a preview of my upcoming book titled, you guessed it, Do It Differently. If you want to be the first to know when the book is available, join the Wandering Aimfully newsletter.
The decision to take this time off started back in the beginning of May when I began really exploring the idea of why we continue to thirst for MORE everythingĀ as humans and entrepreneurs. These questions ignited in me a desire to focus less on how to grow bigger as a business and more on how to grow TRUER as a business.
Pondering all of this led to the realization that since the inception of my business in 2014, Iād never actually taken a real break.
I have worked most weekends and on most vacations, and even the occasional few days away never felt like a true separation. Part of this, yes, was because I truly LOVE my work. But once I got honest with myself, I realized it was also because I was afraid of losing momentum.
Every time I had an idea for a product or project, I usually slapped on some unfathomable self-imposed deadline, worried that any kind of delay might result in missed opportunities.
Once I realized this, it became clear that I not only needed a break to confront this fear, but I also needed to challenge myself to take a much SLOWER approach to building and releasin projects long-term.
My solution was the five-week break from my newsletter, but it also included intentionally pushing back a website re-launch by a whopping two months (more on that later.)
What Iāve discovered is that in taking a slower (almost painfully slower) approach, it has given me the breathing room to let my authentic creativity rise to the surface. I feel more in control of my decisions and true feelings than ever before.
Now that I’m re-emerging from my hiatus and kicking the newsletterĀ back up again, I wanted to share with you guys eight lessons Iāve learned these past five weeks away, and why I think there is a tremendous benefit to baking WAY more down-time into your business (and life).
Have you ever tried to write something under deadline and found yourself staring at a blank page feeling literally incapable of forming sentences much less communicating something of worth?
On the other hand, with the pressure off and singing Taylor Swift in the shower, have you ever been surprised to find thoughts flying through your head at warp speed and thought to yourself,āWait! I need to write this down!ā
So why the heck is that?!
Well, when we feel under pressure to make something happen in a specific timeframe, many times we can end up smothering our inner muse.
Our hearts need space to wander freely and our minds need time to form meaningful connections that spark creativity.
āTime and space are like oxygen to inspiration.ā
Speaking of more time and space, once I finally gave myself more of both, I realized I also had the ability to take on things that werenāt on my to-do list.
I had time to experiment in my art journal, mess around with new design treatments in Photoshop and make up stupid songs in my head (don’t worry, not dropping an album any time soon slash EVER).
In other words, I let myself PLAY.
When youāre under a strict pace, it can feel like thereās never any time for nonsense or experimentation or frivolous creativity.Ā And yet nonsense is what can actually lead to a freer spirit and surprising new discoveries.
I learned for myself what Greg McKeown says in his book Essentialism:
āWhen we play, we are engaged in the purest expression of our humanity, the truest expression of our individuality.ā — Greg McKeown
During this break I discovered that play is, in fact,Ā essential.
Play brought my life more laughter (and less anxiety), more surprising ideas, new branding and website design treatments, and new art processes — all because I allowed myself to create for the joy of creating.
Iāll admit that part of my fatigue at the beginning of May was the feeling that I was always just trying to keep up with the Jonesās in the entrepreneurial sense. Here’s how my thoughts would go:
Ew, right?!
Despite being aware that itās never a good sign when āshouldsā pop up in my head, I still found myself sinking into the slippery quicksand of comparison. And it left me feeling constantly exhausted.
This break has taught me, though, that defining my own pace also helps me solidify my own voice.
Removed from the constant stream of consumption and trying to keep up with everyone around me, instead I can focus on moving forward based on what I feel most connected to, what feels most authentic TO ME. And the result is that instead of feeling exhausted, I feel completely energized like Iām finally hitting a stride that is 100% dictated by ME.
In Connecting With Your Core, I talk about the fact that when you are truly aligned with your core self, you discover a form of renewable energy — like a turbine that is always refueling — rather than a tank that can often feel empty and depleted. Slowing down reminded me of this fact as I was able to feel it first-hand.
āWhen you step away from the noise, you feel energized by your own authentic voice.ā
Originally, when I had my mini-epiphany in early May, I had planned a website redesign for early June to reflect an idea for where I thought I wanted to steer Made Vibrant moving into later this year and next.
But, at the wise suggestion of my partner Jason (who is currently taking his own break this summer away from social media), I pushed the launch back, first to August and now to September (?), which seemed like a CRAZY amount of time to wait. So much time that I might have had a panic attack before this summer.
But now? Now Iām SO glad I gave myself the extra time because what the site and vision has evolved into over the course of MANY weeks feels much closer to what I reallyĀ want.
If I had rushed things, I might not have arrived at the clarity I needed to make it truly aligned with my goals and values moving forward long-term.
āWe arrive at clarity when we have time to fully explore our values & decision-making.ā
As I talked about in this post, I had this deep belief that if I took a break with my business things would start to fall apart.
I’m such a big believer in consistency, and a part of me was convinced that if I wasn’t putting out consistent newsletters, people would forget about me and forget about Made Vibrant. (Okay, typing it now it sounds really silly.)
I knew it was important for me to actually challenge this belief and prove to myself that it was just a story I was making up.
What I discovered is that if you’re putting out work that you believe in — work that truly resonates with people — that kind of emotional connection canāt be broken overnight. In fact, if you’ve attracted the rightĀ people in your business (people whose values align with yours), theyāll often respect you more for taking time away.
Did I lose some email subscribers while I was away? Sure. Did some jump ship to discover a new favorite blog? Probably.
But, YOU are here and thatās who I care about. And everything clearly did not fall apart. In fact, I think the slow-down was crucial from a business perspective so I could see that even when I was taking a more laid-back approach, the business was still making a consistent base revenue each month.
This ACTUAL real-life experience (vs. the old story I made up in my head)Ā will definitely help alleviate any lingering financial anxiety that I have to keep things at a faster pace.
āItās one thing to wonder if youāve built a business that can last; itās another thing to see it for yourself.ā
When youāre moving at the speed of light, not only can everything start to look a bit blurry, but everything feels like itās being held up right to your face. When youāre entrenched in trying to burn through your to-do list as fast as possible, itās hard to find the time to ponder what all youāre trying to accomplish.
The more days and weeks went by, the more elevated I began to feel — like I was staring at my business from 20,000 feet. That distance allowed me to see the big picture in a whole new way, and now I feel much more aware of how every single tactic and to-do fits into my higher purpose.
āItās hard to see the big picture when itās right under your nose.ā
This is probably one of the most profound benefits Iāll walk away with from this break. I think most entrepreneurs to some degree feel that they are a direct reflection of their business. Business success = personal success.
But, this is a very dangerous belief because if that is the case, the second that a product flops or a sales dip occurs, we can start to feel negative emotional effects from those āfailures.ā
Honestly I think thatās what the whole work/life pendulum is really about — reminding ourselves that while work can fill our lives with meaning and purpose, the worthĀ of our lives is an unconditional precept.
Meditating on this new view and actually LIVING it these past few weeks has helped me evolve to a place where I no longer hyperventilate at the idea of not opening my email on the weekend.Ā I want to arrive at a place where soaking up the sunshine feels just as urgent as my inbox because the truth is: LIFE is what’s urgent. Work? Less so.
āYour worth is not dependent on the performance of your work.ā
Ah yes, āflow.ā That beautiful state of being when the world melts away and we lose all sense of obligation or worry or doing and instead lean into a joyful and immersive experience of being. Can you remember the last time you felt this way?
For me, it was yesterday. And a few days before that. And all summer long. Why? Because I allowed myself to slow down long enough to settle into it. When we stop trying to run so fast toward a moving target, thatās when weāre actually able to feel and use the energy within us and around us.
āTo receive the slow flow of BEING, we have to let go of the rapid pace of DOING.ā
Now, I’m not saying that any of this was easy at first. The first week when I didn’t hit send on a Monday morning email, I was anxious all day. Seeing no new blog posts pop up in my blog feed this summer made me feel strange, like something was missing. But I had to wade through the discomfort in order to remind myself that a sustainable pace and a LASTING work/life integration is what I’m after.
I know at different times and for different people, there are always going to be seasons of rest and seasons of productivity. Honestly, I donāt know if I would have been in a place to accept all the benefits of a slower pace when my business was still new because those were the days when resources were scarce and hustle-mode felt appropriate.
Still, now I know that hustle-mode is a state of being that Iām ready to let go of. I want to fold this slower, more deliberate pace into my life and my business, and redefine what āworkā could feel like for me.
I canāt promise that I wonāt get all fired up in the future and enter a more turbo-charged season of making, but for now I feel Iāve discovered the incredible power in taking a break and finding a more sustainable pace.
Thanks to all of you that stuck around while I was away and I can’t WAIT to share with you what’s coming in the months ahead.
As much as it pains me, I really feel that itās important to practice what I preach when it comes to building a sustainable, well-balanced business and creative practice, and part of that means taking time to reconnect to my own voice and to refill my creativity tank.
Iāll admit though, that doesnāt mean this type of break doesnāt come without its own set of fears.
No matter what stage youāre in with your business (or heck, your life), every few months or years it’s like you get issued this shiny NEW set of fears.
You start your business and you have this little arsenal of terrified voices saying:
What if no one buys, what if no one cares, what if I fail, what if I have to pack it up and go back to a 9-to-5 job, what if Iām not good enough, etc.
THEN, once youāve been at it a while (youāve experimented and explored, youāve gotten more comfortable with putting your work out there), it’s like you finally graduate from your white belt to getting your yellow belt. You celebrate the quieting of those first fear gremlins to an almost undetectable level and then…Ā SURPRISE! New fears, ahoy!
For me, my Yellow Belt Fears came once Made Vibrant was making enough money every month for me to live on. I was so thrilled that this was actually working, and I celebrated for about half a second before the NEW fear gremlins starting to rear their ugly heads:
What if you make a wrong turn and this all goes away, what if the creative well runs dry, what if they get tired of what you have to say, what if you take a break and they forget about you, etc.
That last one’s a doozy for me:Ā What if they forget about you.
For whatever reason, I have this irrational fear that if I take time for myself, if I cut the cord even just a little, that itāll all come crashing down. I have so much I still want to say, and I guess I’m afraid that one day I’ll wake up and have no one to say it TO.
Iām ready to unpack them and understand them and DARE them to materialize so that I can prove to myself theyāre really just constructions of my insecure psyche.
Despite knowing this is something Iām ready to confront, I still spent last week wondering if I was doing the right thing.
Is it too late to call it off? I have plenty of things to write about! Maybe Iāll just send out an email saying JUST KIDDING and I wonāt have to see how it feels to walk away for a few weeks.
Then, last weekās #theimperfectbossĀ campaign happened.
Did you all see this on Instagram? Ashley from Fire & Wind Co.Ā decided to create a 3-day awareness campaign encouraging entrepreneurs to share their vulnerabilities, their confessions and their missteps in an effort to promote REALNESS among a community that is often all glossy, glamorous girlboss stock photos. She wanted to offer up an opportunity for people to share how it ACTUALLY feels to run a business, especially imperfectly (as we all do.)
If you have ever felt alone on your creative journey, I highly recommend scrolling through the hashtag feed because I know it will provide you with an amazing and overwhelming sense of comfort seeing so many fellow solopreneurs post their truths. I found the whole thing very moving. (I shared my own confession hereĀ about my tendency to hide behind my confidence in my work rather than my appearance.)
The timing of this movement could not have been better, because as I read through these different fears, post after post after post, it shined a spotlight on this simple truth:Ā Weāre ALL scared of something.
We create these stories in our heads and when we hear them enough times in our minds, they feel true.
But that’s exactly why we have to bring those fears, those stories out of our HEADS and into reality so that we can upend their power.
āWe have to bring our fears out of our heads and into reality so we can upend their power.ā
Now I know many of you on this list are still at Square One, working up the courage to even create in the first place. And I hope youāve found discovered some of these weekly letters that have brought you one step closer to making that happen and unseating your own White Belt Fears.
But I also know that there is a large group of you that have worked so hard to get to Square Two and youāre desperately afraid, like me, that if you take a week off for vacation, or go silent on social media, or pause for a moment just to BREATHE… that it all might come crashing down.
To show you that these stories are just that —Ā stories.
We as creatives HAVE to find a way to deal with this false belief or weāll run ourselves ragged.
So…hereās my plan.
Iāve decided to think of myself as a musician (mainly to further indulge my own fantasy of becoming Taylor Swift, OBVIOUSLY…)
Think for a moment about how musicians and recording artists view their work.
They disappear, often for months if not years, to craft and create an entire album. They immerse themselves in their process. They remove themselves from the burden of promotion and performance so they can simply MAKE. They evaporate from radio play and interviews and in many ways they disconnect from the general public.
BUT, when they emerge, they present the public with something theyāve painstakingly created, something theyāre proud of as if to say āI went away to make this for you and now here I am again. I hope you like it.ā
When Justin Timberlake goes virtually silent musically for 7 years between albums , do we forget how awesome he is? When Adele peaces out for four years to hang with her new baby and write gut-wrenchingly beautiful songs, and then comes back with a new album are we all like…Ā YAWN, Adele, youāre old news.
HECK NO.
Because hereās the truth:
A message that resonates is always a message that resonates, whether itās delivered for 120 weeks straight or not.
Yes, consistency is key in building an audience from scratch, I still believe that. But if youāve been delivering good work consistently, if you have a mission and a message that connects,Ā taking a break wonāt erase that.
The truth is, Iām not taking these five weeks off because Iām tapped out. Quite the opposite actually, I feel more inspired to write than ever.
But,Ā the fact that I donāt feel I NEED this break is all the more reason to take it because I know that the next challenge I need to master in running an authentic business is the challenge of walking away.
I need to learn to be present in my own life even when it feels uncomfortable.
āI need to learn to be present in my own life even when it feels uncomfortable.ā
Because when we challenge ourselves to do the thing that feels uncomfortable, that usually means weāre growing.
So, that’s my small challenge to you this week.
It might sound clichƩ, but I seriously am going to miss you guys over the next five weeks!
