A simple trick for when you’re feeling uninspired or lacking ideas

First of all, let’s dismantle some bullshit that is sold to creatives. Let’s un-do some rules that often go unchallenged:

1. Not everything you do needs to be the world’s best idea, completely original or never thought of before. It doesn’t work that way.

2. Getting inspired by someone else’s work or taking inspiration from it doesn’t make your creativity any less valid or make you a fraud

3. Feeling uninspired doesn’t make you a shit creative person; it makes you human.

 

4. Time spent thinking is as creative as time spent getting creative with your hands.

Phew, that took some pressure off, right?

Here’s the thing:

You’re going to have days you feel uninspired. You’re going to have times where you literally can’t think of any ideas, and you’re going to have days where that feeling makes you feel shitty.

But sometimes the cure for your lack of inspiration is doing it anyway.

And I’ve found something really helpful:

Instead of starting with a blank canvas every time, start with someone else’s work and adapt it yourself. Like Austin Kleon says, ‘steal like an artist’.

Obviously don’t plagiarise and of course attribute copyright where necessary, but don’t be afraid to take inspiration.

If you’re a writer, find a story you love and continue it or write it from another character’s perspective, or write it in a different universe.

If you’re an artist, collage the fuck out of a magazine.

If you sew, find a patterned cushion cover and make it more you — eg. my current project!

Take the intimidation away from the blank canvas and start somewhere.

Start anywhere.

The most important thing is that you start.

Use your brain, use your hands and use your heart.

Then see what follows.

Transparency & Privilege: A Call To Action For Online Business Owners And Creatives

There’s something that’s been on my mind for a while now, which I’ve struggled to put into words and felt pretty nervous to write about. And if online businesses and blogging have taught me anything, it’s that when you feel like that, that’s *exactly* when you should be hitting publish and starting the conversation.

So here’s what I’ve been wanting to talk about:

Putting all our cards on the table and being transparent about our circumstances (and our privileges) when working online.

I remember when I was starting out - blogging, building an online business, freelancing - how much I bought into the myths of passive income, earning six figures within your first year and life becoming a beautiful Instagram feed. Mainly because it was EVERYWHERE. And when you’re provided with enough proof, sometimes the sceptic in you bites the bullet and decides to take it on (even if only partially) as truth.

I also remember that when I was starting out, I was in a pretty dark place and was looking for an alternative. I hated my job and I started to wonder about different ways of doing things, and that’s how I stumbled upon the online business world. I fell in love with the idea of lifestyle design, building a business around your passions and using your skills and strengths to build a life you love. And I’m still in love with those things. But I also discovered the empire that is online business gurus and the art of making ‘easy’ money online.

It was really exciting, and I know I’m not alone in this. A lot of people come across this whole world of online business and content creating from a similar place: hating the job they have, feeling unfulfilled and in the midst of an existential crisis or looking for a way to combine their strengths, skills and talents in a way that not only brings in an income, but makes the world a brighter place.

But when you’re going through a shit time, you’re more vulnerable than normal. You’re more susceptible than normal to really buying into this projected idealised life, because you want SO bad to believe it’s true. And an awful lot of marketers will try to capitalise on that. (I’ve also learned that there are also wonderful people doing great things about ethical marketing, running a business and selling).

Now, I’m really not judging - it’s certainly been one of my stories.

But three years down the line, I don’t feel that way, and I’ve woken up to smell the bullshit. While there are some great resources out there to help you build an authentic and ethical business, they definitely seem to be in the minority.

The online business world in general is very different. It has become a lot more nuanced than just showing beautiful women with laptops on a beach in Australia and the idealised life is being perpetuated even more (I wrote more in more depth about the nuances here).

Now, instead of being framed as a possible alternative, the story has changed. Instead, a lot of people in the industry are selling this whole starting your online business thing with an unwritten pact of promises. You can have your website up within a matter of days, start selling from day one, and work your way to Passive Income Paradise within your first month, right?

Welllllll…

It’s not that you can’t earn a good income from your online business, have a really fulfilling career and love the work you do. You can. And people do.

But a lot of people starting out on this path, a lot of the experts?

People can be pretty creative about what they omit from their stories.

It’s now increasingly easy to believe that everyone who has an online business is traditionally successful, is able to provide a full-time income for themselves, and dedicate their working life to building it.

But the truth is that a lot of the people that we all assume have it all figured out are doing it on the side as a part-time gig or still have a full-time job.

And there is nothing wrong with that. I repeat, there is nothing wrong with that.

The problem for me comes in deliberately not mentioning their circumstances. They’re not lying  - it’s just that a certain amount of truths have been…missed out.

It’s just that it’s not as simple or easy as people would make you believe, and there are certain things you need: extra time, energy, money and space to develop. And those things are privileges.

And most of the people online work really fucking hard. We make sacrifices, we make hard decisions and it’s far from a walk in the park. But we don’t talk about those things because they’re not as glamorous and we fear we’ll turn people off or look like a fraud.

But the opposite is true.  

It’s exactly when we project this glamorous image that the problems start.

The comparison starts, the expectations get higher, and people start to believe that they don’t have what it takes to be successful and that it’s never going to happen.

But it’s  when we start talking about our real circumstances and sharing our stories, instead of turning people off, we do the opposite. We reassure them, help them to feel less alone and give them the courage to keep going.

I can’t really blame those who don’t share the whole story, especially in a world where you’re supposed to be an expert and reputation is everything.

And I get it. It can be embarrassing -  shame-inducing even - to go on the record and be really honest about your behind the scenes, especially when it doesn’t match up to those widely perpetuated ideals.

But I think the power of telling your truths and sharing your real life stories are more important than pride or appearing like you have all your shit together (no one does).

It’s important in terms of genuine and authentic leadership and helping pave the path for the people who are just getting started. No one wants to have to wade through piles of bullshit before they even get to stage one.

Now, before you start worrying, this isn’t a call to arms for everyone to publish their income reports, every failure they’ve ever had and the colour of the knickers they happen to be wearing today. Sometimes it isn’t professional to share everything. It’s just not appropriate for some businesses.

Instead it’s a call to action to stop perpetuating the bullshit, and getting more conscious about what we put out there and what we omit.  

It’s a call to action to start having internal conversations about our privileges and how we let them play out in the way we show up online.

It’s a call to action to start thinking about what ideals and values we’re perpetuating, and whether we’re happy with what we’re showing. Both on social media and the conversations we have with our audiences, clients, customers and supporters.

It’s a call to action to stop giving such a wide platform and listening to those people who intentionally or not perpetuate those ideas.

It’s a call to actions to be proud and open about the way you’re building your business, and the circumstances you’re in. If you’re building your business (whatever that means to you) on the side, or you have a loving partner who’s helping you out financially while you get things stable, tell people about it. They’ll want to support you, and will eagerly be following along with your journey to see how things are going.

Together we HAVE to stop holding up this prescribed picture and start having the difficult conversations and get honest about our privileges.

I think if we can start to be transparent about our circumstances, then we can start to change the narrative.

And because I believe in walking the talk, I’ll go first. (Yes, this is scary). Here are my circumstances.

Along with That Hummingbird Life, I’m a graphic designer, working with wonderful doers, makers and world shakers to create colourful and quirky brands. Right now, graphic design,  is my main income, with THL starting to provide an income through coaching.

For the past two years I’ve been living with Mr. Meg’s family which has meant my overheads, both business wise and personal wise, have been much lower. This has allowed me to extend my options of how I work, and how I can focus on building and playing the long game. We’re moving next April, so a lot of plans need to come into fruition to provide the sustainable and predictable income I will need when going back to renting. Mr. Meg is traditionally employed with a regular pay-check, and I would be lying if I said this didn’t provide a safety net. It provides a lot of reassurance and I have little fear of being in a situation where I’m not able to meet my basic needs.

Couragemakers (and content creation for That Hummingbird Life) doesn’t bring in an income, and I’m passionate about remaining independent and advert free. Right now, I’m looking into Patreon as a way to both give Couragemaker listeners more value and build a community and to have the podcast bring in some money.

I’ve got a lot of plans to develop encouraging and rebel-rousing projects and products, and it’s my hope that I’m going to be starting to release them soon. Right now, I’m in the process of figuring out my project and product schedule through to the new year. I know that there’s no such thing as passive income and that marketing will be a huge part of making this work, so I’m also learning about ethical selling and what will feel good to both Couragemakers and myself.

I write a lot about dream-chasing and putting the things only you can do into the world.  I think transparency is the way forward when it comes to dream chasing, talking about how we’re working towards our dreams and the circumstances that let us invest energy and time into them. I always strive to be bullshit-free in everything I do, and it’s my hope that this post can start the conversation about being transparent online and standing behind our truths with pride.

So tell me, Couragemakers - what is your story? What are you afraid to be transparent about? What do you think could change if you got really honest about your stories? Let me know in the comments below!

Why It’s Important To Take a Creative Break From The Work You Love

The blog is back! After a creative break this summer, I’m so excited to go back to blogging at least once a week, and I have SO many posts planned to help you shine brighter, put yourself out in the world as you are and thrive wholeheartedly in a world that sometimes feels like it’s falling apart!

Today I want to talk about taking creative breaks, because as I’ve realised over the summer, they’re pretty fucking important.

And because of how important they are, this is going to be the first of a four-part series about creative breaks because I really want to take you behind the scenes, help you to plan your own break and add some much needed sustainability to the online world. So in this series, I’m also going to be sharing the Behind The Scenes of My Creative Break, The 10 Things I Learned About Creative Breaks That Are Helpful For Any Creative and How To Take Your Own Creative Break.

For today I want to share why a break is SO important for both our creative souls and the soul of our creative work. 

I don’t know about you, but as creatives and multi-passionates who do our work both online and offline, it can be pretty easy to buy into the myth that you need to be creative machine:

You need to be producing amazing work constantly, effortlessly and tirelessly. You then need to spend a good chunk of time getting that work seen and marketing yourself to the point of sometimes feeling sleazy. You can’t stop because the people you look up to and compare yourself to aren’t stopping. You need to create and repeat without the thought of a break, knowing the minute you step away people will forget about you, you’ll get creatively blocked and it will all be for nothing.

Well that’s just bullshit.

BREATHE, my friend, because it just isn’t true.

The people who are touting that? Chances are they also glorify burnout as a badge of honour, and think that making yourself physically ill is just part of the course. (Which it isn’t and doesn’t have to be).

And those people? Well, they’re not our people.

If you’ve been around here a while, you’ll know that around this part of town, it’s about being aligned with your values, shining brightly in the world while keeping your own light lit and putting yourself out into the world in a way that feels good.

It’s about not burning out, and doing the work that only we can do in a way that works for us.

It’s about working in a sustainable way and knowing that looking after yourself isn’t selfish but essential. 

It’s about doing things differently.

Because here’s the thing.

Your creativity can’t exist in that vacuum or that machine. First of all, the pressure will kill any creative ideas you have.  Secondly and more importantly, forcing yourself to work like a machine isn’t great for your mind or your body, and I’m pretty sure you know this already from experience (I know I do).

If you value your creativity - and if you’re reading this, I’m betting you do - then you need to take care of it. Ergo, you need to take care of yourself.

It’s about protecting the work you love so that it can continue to bring you joy, bring your gifts to the world and so it doesn’t become the work you hate.

But more than that, it’s about looking after you.

You need to give yourself space, time and energy to re-inspire yourself, feed your soul and be you.

You are so much more than the work you do, the gifts you give the world and the things you put out there.

I know what you’re thinking: that sounds great and all, but I haven’t got the time. It might be great for other people, but for not me.

Repeat after me: taking a break isn’t a luxury or a grand idea.

It’s pretty fucking essential, and it doesn’t have to cost you the world.

It doesn’t have to be some five-star experience that only the super wealthy and super privileged can do. It doesn’t have to be something you can only do when you’ve hit a certain level of success.

If you feel like in order to have to be rolling in it or have complete freedom to have a creative break, let’s break this apart  a bit and get thinking outside the box (which is what we do, right?)

Everyone has a different set of circumstances and different levels of availability, flexibility and time, and I believe that everyone can take a some sort of creative break. (I’m going into much more detail in future posts).

Let’s bust some myths about what a creative break looks like:

You don’t have to have three weeks or three months. Instead, you could try to have better boundaries around your time on a day-to-day basis. Maybe you stop working at a certain time and get stricter about what work (if any) you do on the weekend. You could plan a one day retreat for yourself every month.

You don’t have to do something tremendously exciting and impressive sounding.  You could curl up with your favourite film or your favourite film and be reminded why you do what you do in the first place.

In the name of putting everything out there and being really honest about my own circumstances, I can tell you that during my creative break, I was living with Mr. Meg’s family, without the pressure of having to pay a huge amount of rent or bills. During my creative break I took on some big graphic design projects. (I’m going to be posting a behind-the-scenes look at my creative break soon, so you can find out more about how I used the break!)

You might have more flexibility and time, you might have a whole lot less, but you can take a creative break.It’s time to do what you do best - get creative!

And really, here’s what it all comes down to:

Taking a creative break from the work you love is how you sustain doing the work you love

It’s all about taking care of the work you love.

And sustainability has to be a big part of the conversation if you want to keep going.

(If you're interested in sustainability and playing the long game, you'll love this Couragemakers episode I recorded with Mary Ann Clements.)

You can’t live from passion alone - at some point you need to take responsibility of your gifts and give them what they need to grow. Sometimes that’s time and space. Sometimes that’s adding different flavours of creativity to your life, and sometimes that’s carving out a set amount of time to feed your soul.

You have so much to give the world, and the world needs what only you can do.

But it’s not just about that. It’s not just about looking after yourself and your creativity so you can do more and you can be more.

It’s about realising that taking a break is good for your soul, so you can feel more you, you can evaluate/reflect and work to create a life you love, and so that you can be your wonderful, authentic self.

If you want to take a creative break this month, I'm a part the Jijaze Virtual Replenishment Away Day on 20th September where we're going to be talking about replenishment and self-care and why they are a key part of our work to make a difference in the world. Join the Away Day here! 

Unhidden Creativity & The Personal Cost Of Sharing Your Creativity Online

If you put yourself out there on a regular occasion, by showing your life and your work online or IRL, this is for you. And if you dream of one day doing that, this is definitely for you. When I started That Hummingbird Life - nearly 3 years ago now - shit really started to change. I didn’t anticipate just how much of myself I would put out there, I didn’t foresee how much it would spark my creativity and I didn’t realise how much joy I would find along the way.

And it’s been one heck of a journey:

For one, fear and I have learned how to have a less hostile relationship

With lots of practice, I’ve overcome the nerve of pressing publish on particularly vulnerable blog posts. I’ve got to really enjoy the art of putting all of your messy complicated bits online and hearing ‘me too’ echoed right back.

I’m more creative than I have ever been and I love the routine of creating, writing and putting things out there three times a week.

Oh and I love having the excuse to have epic-ly deep and honest conversations for The Couragemakers  Podcast every week.

Now, I know I’m not alone in this. So many of the creatives I admire put themselves out there on a daily basis; showing their work, their process and their stories.

And lately, I’ve started to wonder about the other side of things. If it can, in fact hinder our creativity and take something away from it.

While we remain intensely creative for the majority of the time, does it come with a less rosy flip side?

When everything creative we do is made with the intention of being seen, does it start to affect our work?

I think it does.

When you’re creating something knowing you will be sharing it, I think it is impossible not to have some kind of lens in which your work is made with, or some level of censorship, no matter how conscious of it you are or not.

We’ve all written things and pressed the backspace button repeatedly. Maybe it's because it steps into a realm of things we’ve decided we don’t want to talk about publicly (for me, that’s everything to do with my family, the ins and outs of me and Mr. Meg’s relationship and anything that could compromise someone I love), or perhaps it paints us in a bit of a shitty light

We’ve all had things we want desperately to talk about or put into our work but we can’t - perhaps because we don’t want to air our personal laundry in public, or because we know sometimes it’s only going to invite a shitstorm into our lives that we simply don’t have the energy for.

And because. let’s face it, sometimes there are aspects of our lives that we want to stay hidden, or things we want to struggle in the dark about, and we have a right to do just that.

But lately I’ve been starting to think about how only doing creative work that is seen might be doing us, our audiences and our mental health a disservice.

If we’re creating and putting everything we create online and cutting our the, let’s call them No Go Areas, how do we work through our own shit and get through our own hard times if we don’t feel we can't talk about them out loud?

While I’m a huge advocate for using your art to heal yourself and move outwards, if I’m being totally honest, I know somewhere along the line, I can see that I stopped doing creative things just for me.

I’ve been feeling more depressed, more anxious and I’ve started noticing that my mind is full of so much noise than it has been a while. I haven’t been processing some very real things and some cobwebs have started to fester in my brain. And I know that when I use my creativity to explore shit I’m going through, it makes all the difference in the world.

Putting my festering brain aside for a second, I think the missing link in all of this is that we simply stop creating for ourselves. We fail to realise that we can have the cake and eat it too. We can create things that will be seen and make the world a brighter place, and we can create things just for ourselves that remain hidden and un-seen as well.

I call it hidden creativity.

The art of doing things for your eyes only, and being able to go back to the magic of having your creativity heal yourself and make things brighter.

Let me ask you a couple of questions I’ve been asking myself lately:

When was the last time you created something for your eyes only?

When was the last time you gave yourself permission to create something and really fuck it up?

My friend, not everything needs to be shown. Our lives are complicated, messy, wonderful things, and sometimes we need to grab our creativity, hold onto it and use it for ourselves.

We need it to address parts of our lives that we might not be ready to talk about, we need to use it to unwind at the end of the day instead of seeing it as a part of our never ending to do list, and we need to start going back to how we started.

And that’s this passionate love affair with being able to express yourself, being able to use your creativity to heal yourself and use your creativity to take some time to really self-reflect and see what’s going on with you.

At some point you need to stop giving and keep some for yourself.

I’m reminded of the quote by the wonderful Maya Angelou: "You can't use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.”

So friends, let’s reclaim our creativity and bring it back into our every day lives instead of just existing on our to-do and to-show lists.

Let’s stop censoring and let’s start creating for our eyes only.

The world will be so much more of a brighter place with all of you in it.

3 Questions To Ask Yourself Before You Start Any Creative Project

  I don’t know about you, but there seems to be so much similarity in so much of the stuff we see online. Blog posts look the same, Instagram feeds look the same, e-courses look identical but with perhaps a shift in colour scheme. And it can get so fucking boring.

And I think it does something to us creatives who think a bit differently too. Sometimes it works to keep us small because we don’t know whether we should add to the noise, it makes us overthink the things we create and sometimes we feel like we have to be some kind of creative genius who has come out of no where and is doing things completely differently.

So, today let’s take off that pressure for a second and focus on three questions to ask yourself about any creative project, which are going to help you start creating from YOU instead.

These are three questions I come back to time and time again when I'm starting a creative project, and thinking about them for a while ALWAYS makes my ideas more fun, more me and a whole lot more exciting.

Question 1: How can you make it more fun?

Seriously, I think so much of the time we forget that creativity is meant to be FUN! We forget that we can do things for joy’s sake, and we can create from a place that makes us really happy. A lot of the focus tends to be on the outcome, and I think we can really forget to focus on the process.

My friend - how can you make that project you’re thinking of more fun? What can you do that lights YOU up and will make you look forward to working on it? Forget what everyone else is doing for a minute and just focus on you

Question 2: How can you make it more YOU?

When we’re looking around us, we tend to forget our own unique skills and strengths and how we can combine them in a way that works for us. Perhaps that e-course you were working on does need its own playlist, perhaps a video of you chair dancing at the start of your book is essential.

Creative projects always mean more and make more of a difference to people when they come completely from your heart. I speak for a LOT of people when I say, we’re sick of stock photos, we’re sick of the same formats. Put the format and the layout at the bottom of the list, and let’s focus on YOU.

Question 3: How can you make it more different?

Because let’s face it - it is important. If you want to challenge the status quo and offer an alternative, at some point it needs to be different. But in what way does it need to be different? What story is missing?

I’m not talking about sitting down for weeks on end and trying to think of some original concept that no one ever has or ever will think of (I know it’s tempting, and if you get stuck in this, I really recommend you read Austin Kleon’s Steal Like an Artist). Instead I’m talking about going back to basics. What is everyone else doing? What could you do that would make it different?

And I don’t mean being different for different’s sake. I mean making it purposefully different.

It all comes down to this - the world needs more of YOU and less of the same boring contrived shit that we’re all sick of seeing.

There’s only one of you and you are a marvellous human being with stories that only you can tell, and your own unique way of looking at the world.

How can you bring more of that into the world and really start to get going on your creative projects that the world so desperately needs?

I'd love to know what you're working on and what comes out of these questions for you. Let me know in the comments below! 

Dear the Online Business/Blogging World. It's time we addressed the bullshit.

If you are a creative, a blogger, a business owner or a one person band and you're feeling overwhelmed, you're going to want to read this!  I am pissed off.

Blogging and generally being online started as a way of expressing ourselves. Limited customisation options, and it was all about the writing and actually connecting to other people and forming communities. Then it became that + having a pretty blog. Then social media got involved. And then multi-purposing our content for things like Periscope. Then webinars. Then…

Am I the only person who thinks this is a bit ridiculous?

Don't get me wrong, I'm a multipassionate person, and I like the variety, but seriously??

What started off as a need to tell stories, find common ground and express yourself has ended up as this completely saturated marketing ploy where if you struggle you're told to just outsource, or if you don't do ALL THE THINGS, you're told you'll never get anywhere.

And it's pretty fucking impossible to keep up with.

I'm actually sad about all the people who have valuable experiences and stories to share who end up giving up pretty quickly because of the ridiculous amount of things they feel they're expected to do.

Shit, I know I’ve felt like giving up before.

And it's really fucking hard to not cave into the pressure.

Especially when you have noise from EVERYWHERE telling you what to do to grow your audience, how to increase your traffic, how to get more exposure, how to grow your email list.

And when you raise your hand and admit you're overwhelmed (which I don't think enough of us do), we're met with the same answer. Outsource. Or we’re told we haven’t implemented one of ‘the strategies’ properly. Or some other bullshit.

Not everybody can afford to outsource. And not everyone wants to. While it's great that tools exist for Bootstrappers to DIY everything themselves, I wonder how helpful it actually is, or if it's actually just piling more things for us to do that takes us a way from the work that really matters.

And not all of us want to use the exact same marketing ploy or create identical products with slightly different wording.

Blogging and being a creative has gone from sharing your experiences, your stories and your life to this three person full time job.

If you follow the advice of popular bloggers, people who have a business which is all about making money online, and people who blog about blogging, then there's this enormous expectation to do ALL. THE. FUCKING. THINGS.

And I worry about the online community of bloggers and writers as a whole. If we're spending minimal time writing, a massive amount of time promoting, scheduling, creating social media images and the rest of it, we don't have much time to look up and notice what other people are doing. And that doesn't make for a healthy community. That makes for a pretty fucking narcissistic one.

We spend so much time trying to keep up with the gazillion tasks we've already got to do, that most of the things we end up consuming are sales emails in our inbox.

And how on earth can we be inspired in this environment?

While we’re running around like a blue assed fly feeling like the Worst Creative Business/Blog Owner Ever, we’re forgetting that most of the businesses trying to have the same impact that we want have TEAMS. Remember that forgotten word? In very few other industries do you have one person who is responsible for ALL of the strategy, writing, marketing, graphic design, social media management, administration, book keeping, and goodness knows how many other things. Many other industries find the idea of one person being able to do all of this laughable.

(And no, this is not a call for outsourcing, I’m just laying on the table just how much we’re expecting ourselves to do)

Yet without even properly realising it, we take all of this on as if it's completely normal and THEN feel bad when we don't get it all done.

We try to be everywhere all the time and in some industries, some of the ways we’re convinced to try and get clients, get an audience etc would be seen as outright predatory. We’re almost taught to forget that our audience and our clients are real life people with real life passions and problems, and not just a number problem to solve on Twitter or email lists. And as creatives, when everything becomes ALL about the numbers and the analytics, then shit starts to become very boring, very quickly.

And we’re convinced that we have to be on Instagram, Twitter, Periscope, Facebook, Facebook groups, Snapchat, Pinterest, and - countless others I've not heard - of all the time. You really don’t. What you do have to do is live your life as well. And living your life doesn't have to look like being on your laptop until your eyes feel funny, moving onto Netflix for a quick break, maybe a nap and back to your laptop. And yes, I've been there more times than I'd like to admit.

The people you're probably reading who are telling you all about what you NEED to be doing? Chances are, a lot of them have staff. A lot of them outsource. A lot of them aren't staying up until their eyes physically feel like they can't take it anymore watching yet another webinar or signing up for another free checklist. No, they actually get sleep (remember what that is?). And make actual money. And yes they might have been in your position once, but I don't think the expectations were so high when they started out. In fact I think they've been instrumental in helping raise these impossible expectations. It’s kind of convenient, isn’t it?

Most of this bullshit is about making money. Not about helping people, or being really honest or sharing your story to make people feel less alone. Fuck, it felt like that went a LONG time ago. The people who believe that (like me) are called endearing or naive and told to have a better business brain. Values seem to have gone out of the window a long time ago. I mean, for fuck's sake, don't write about your experiences or your life, please, flat lay all the stationary on your desk instead.

And let’s face it, a lot of this feels like Mean Girls 2.0.

What I'm really trying to say is that the blogging/online business world needs to chill the fuck out.

If you are a one person business/blogger/creative entrepreneur, whatever you like to call yourself, you have to stop somewhere.

You are one person - a pretty amazing person at that - and you have to have a life as well.

No one is going to be inspired or moved to action with whatever you put out there if you're too fucking tired to think, or if your heart isn't in it. And no one’s going to care what you do if you treat them as another number or a problem to solve instead of someone who you genuinely want to help.

And frankly, your audience wouldn't want you pushing yourself to exhaustion creating content for them. And if they wouldn't care either way, perhaps you're doing it for the wrong people.

Why did you start the work you were doing? What was your reason?

Go back to the beginning and examine how you can achieve your mission while thriving at the same time.

Because I'm guessing it didn't involve sitting through hours of trainings and webinars and fuck knows what other things we've been told we MUST have or do. (Let me ask you this - when was the last time you actually implemented any of that stuff instead of going straight onto the next training?)

If you're starting out and you're feeling overwhelmed, I don't blame you. Because it's a space full of people trying to get you to pay your fee for the London marathon before you can walk. And a space full of so many huge and ridiculous expectations that you’ve got people panicking because they published their first blog post twelve days ago and haven’t made five figures yet. (I mean, please). That does not make you a failure, people.

And if you started out a while ago and still feel overwhelmed - hi.

If you’re feeling way too overwhelmed and like packing it in, create some space for yourself. Turn down the noise and filter your social media feeds so you’re not seeing all of these things you feel like you should be doing all the time. Unsubscribe to the millions of sales emails and concentrate on the people that provide you genuine value because they want to, instead of click baiting and guilting you into buying their product. Find the people in your niche that align with your values and stick with them. Make connections, struggle together. Promote your stuff in a way that feels good to you and doesn’t make you feel like a shitty person. Find a way to make it totally you and defend that with everything you have.

It’s a huge online world out there, and a whole lot of it feels like it’s designed to make you feel stupid, designed to make you feel like you have to be doing SO much more than you already are, and if you’re looking for confirmation that you should be doing more, then you’re always going to find it. So much of this shit is designed to make you do anything and everything for you to part with your hard earned cash.

So instead of giving time to the people who don’t really care about anything other than what’s in your wallet or filling their own purpose, give to yourself instead.

Please, for the love of all things, start creating.

Get off  Facebook, stop adding keywords to your blog posts for a second and please start creating. Start building the things that only you can build. Get stuck in the flow and let the hours pass like seconds because you’re so absorbed. Go to bed with a full heart, excied to get going again, instead of feeling inflated and like you didn’t achieve much that mattered.

Try not to get bogged down in the little things. Because a lot of this shit we beat ourselves up is exactly that.

I can guarantee that when you look back on your life, you would have preferred to have had a full life instead of a full buffer feed.

You my friend, have so much to give the world. You don’t need all this brain clutter. At some point we started trusting google and anyone who called themselves an expert more than ourselves, and that is some scary shit right there. You have all the answers you need inside you to make the work that matters in the world. And in the areas you feel like you could use more input and knowledge, pay attention to the people whose values align with yours and genuinely want to help you.

Make friends online instead of frenemies, stop comparing yourself to everyone else you come across and instead when you find something you really value - let that person know. That person’s website you keep clicking back to and it makes you feel bad? Stop.

And instead of focusing on follower numbers and engagement stats, focus on each individual person who gives a shit about what you do. When someone takes time to read what you write, to give feedback, to look at your work and gets inspired from something you did? That’s where the magic lies, and how fucking amazing is that you did that? That's a huge honour. You have the power to inspire, to empower and make someone’s day, hell - even change their life. Shouldn’t that really be the focus?

You have epic shit to put into the world and it’s time to start creating it, in the way only you can.

Have fun, get creative, and be intentionally and unapologetically you.

The world needs YOU. And it’s waiting.

I know I'm not alone in how I feel - I'd love to hear your experiences and your thoughts and how you're navigating the online world. Let's start a conversation in the comments!

You Are Not Alone: On Self Care & Being An Entrepreneur

I used to think self care was hard. Impossible even. That was until I started working for myself, started my career as a freelancers/entrepreneur/small business owner/whatever the name of the day is. Then I started to think that it was another ball game completely. Before we go any further, I want to just make sure we're on the right page here. In this post, I'm not going to be guilt tripping you about how you should be investing in yourself, and how clients can't trust you if you're not investing in yourself first. I'm not going to be telling you that you're The Worst Entrepreneur Ever if you're struggling with self care (and haven't showered in three days). And I'm certainly not going to be telling you to take a fucking bubble bath.

So breathe your sigh of relief and know you're not alone in this.

Not by a very very long shot. We're in this together, you and me. What I hope happens by the time you've finished reading this two part series , is that you feel less alone, that you have a few practical tools you can use to start to slow down those spinning plates and that you can start to quit giving yourself such a hard time.

Back when I had a steady 9-5 job, I struggled to look after myself and prioritise myself. I found it hard to switch off, I was taking so much emotional shit home from work and nothing filled my cup. There was no joy, there was no relaxing. Instead there were to-do lists, giving out my time like it was going out of fashion, and putting everyone's needs before my own.

So I started working some of that shit out, and started blogging about self care, burnout and saying no. And I started to enjoy life. I started to notice the little things again. I started to explore what makes me ridiculously happy (a good book, notebook shopping, laughing until my belly aches, long walks in the park) and I started to feel like myself.

And it felt really good.

And then things changed. I left my job, I found myself working as a self employed freelance graphic designer, started doing more work to build That Hummingbird Life into a business (in progress) and started a The Couragemakers Podcast

And life is very different.

While sometimes I catch myself feeling so grateful that Dolly Parton's 9-5 doesn't ring true, I've noticed that I'm getting caught up in so much shitty negativity. I've noticed that I'm not been very good boss to myself, that I work myself too hard, that I've gone back to putting everyone else's needs in front of my own, and that I still don't have the most realistic expectations of myself.

And I know I'm not alone in this.

You are not alone - on self care and being an entrepreneur

So many of us start working for ourselves because we want the freedom, the ability to make our own decisions and we feel that working for ourselves will allow us to contribute to the world so much more than we were before.

But for recovering Type As like me, it can be a complete and utter shit show for a while. Because while we like our lists (especially in fun notebooks), and our plans, and our schedules and our ambition, we also have huge expectations of ourselves (that we would never dream of putting onto someone else), perfectionist tendencies and we struggle to have any kind of resemblance of work-life balance.

We work until we're ill, we get ill and we don't tell our clients (if we have them) because we don't want to let them down and we get worse, more cranky and more stressed, and life becomes hell.

We continuously beat ourselves up for not being able to achieve everything we set out to do in one day, completely ignoring the fact that the list probably wasn't achievable in the first place.

We start to look around us and start to believe that we're the only ones struggling because everyone has these beautiful photos of their office, everyone seems to be making more money than us and everyone seems to have their shit together. (Spoiler alert, they definitely do not).

We start thinking that we have to work every minute of every day, we start to get cranky with our loved ones because they just don't understand and we have a never ending to do list running circles in our brains like a Rick Astley song.

And this ends up in a horrible, horrible cycle.

A cycle of pushing ourselves too hard, reaching exhaustion, feeling guilty and continuing to push ourselves even though we don't feel like we physically can.

And it's nothing like that idea we had in our head. The idea of being in a mode of endless creativity, joy and freedom. Taking breaks and being liberated from our desks.

And that makes us feel even worse. And like we've failed.

No, I'm not reading your brain, I'm just in the trenches with you. This is some really hard shit to deal with. And you are not alone.

In becoming your own boss, you no longer have a job. Whether you're a creative, a freelancer, or small business owner, you have to run the whole show. Even if you do outsource, you have to oversee everything and make sure everything's happening. And if you don't outsource and it's not a possibility for you right now (raising my hand high in the air), you have to become an expert at administrative tasks, marketing, social media, product development, client management, project management and about a million other things.

That's huge fucking responsibility. Especially when for the most part you have no one checking to make sure you've done everything and it's completely up to you. You're essentially juggling so many plates that it might be worth trying out for Cirque du Soleil.

Yet not many people get how hard you have to work.

They don't realise how much pressure you're under and how much you have to do.

So before I share some practical things in the next post, I want to talk real, person to person. Because I have a feeling you need to hear this today.

You are not on your own. Even though you might feel like you're drowning, you're not. You are working as hard as you can. Everything you want to achieve is possible, but the journey might be slightly different than you imagined. You have so many skills and you're doing a killer job at combining them. You are really really appreciated, even if you don't feel it right now. Your work matters. But more importantly, you matter. And because you matter, something has to give. You have everything inside you that you need to put your vision into the world. And you need to extend your compassion that you have for the world and for your clients to yourself. Because there's only one of you. And that makes you a pretty fucking precious human being. A human worth loving and taking care of.

So for part one, I want you to read that reminder as many times as you need to. And really take it in. Because you're doing great. And you deserve some compassion.

Even though it might feel like it, none of us have our shit together. So let's let our shit hang out together.

I look forward to seeing you in Part Two next week, where I'm going to be sharing LOTS of practical tips, things for you to try out and things that have helped me.

I'd love to know if this post resonated with you. Let me know in the comments and let's start getting some of this out in the open!

You Don't Have To Be a Starving Artist (and here's why!)

I want to share with you something I've been struggling with for a long time. And that's this idea that you can only do the work you love if you're willing to be a starving artist. I come from the non profit world and I also have an activist background. So it'll come as no surprise that I have issues when it comes to making money.

What do I mean by issues?

I grew up believing, and still believe, that money, too much of it and lack of it causes problems and creates great inequality. I've done a lot of anti-poverty campaigning and I know enough about world politics to know that things are pretty fucked up for a lot of people often because of the few.

And I really struggled with the idea of being paid in a non profit for the work I was doing. I felt a tremendous amount of guilt, and felt that every penny that was going towards my wages had to be used in the best possible way, even if that led to be me being completely burned out and unable to do the work. Which it did. I've also seen far more beauacracy and wastage in that world than I care to admit.

So when I left that world and started working for myself, I was bringing a LOT of baggage with me. I still don't agree with charging your worth (because who goes around with a dollar charge above their head? We're not in The Sims) and I've really struggled with the idea that I can be paid for the things I love and that I'm good at.

But I'm starting to turn a corner.

But before I share that journey with you, I want to really explore how as mission driven creatives, we glorify this idea of being a starving artist until it becomes this kind of badge of honour.

It doesn't make sense.

I've been the starving artist. And believe me, as romantic as the notion sounds (we've all seen Moulin Rouge, right? Lying in bed naked with your lover, entwined reading poetry all day), I can tell you first hand that the reality of being a starving artist is not romantic. Unless you find late night walks to supermarket reduced aisles, arguing over reduced minced meat romantic. I personally don't.

I found that as my concern for how I was going to pay the bills grew every month, my creativity dwindled completely. As I struggled to make ends see each other, let alone meet, my dreams felt ridiculous. I mean my dreams would never make me money, so why bother, right? And as my brain started being over-run by the frantic possibilities of what could happen if we didn't make the money we needed to live on, there was no room left to be inspired, use my skills and strengths and see anything clearly.

But I'm starting to turn a corner.

People shouting shit about making six figures, or sell any old shit is never going to work for me. My values are completely different. And I think it's the same for you.

But that doesn't mean that there isn't a way for it to work for me or for you.

starving artist

Because we all need some sense of financial security and stability in order to show up in the world as we're meant to and bring our own creativity into the world.

I think we hold ourselves back so much, partly because the art of money-making doesn't always align with our values. Especially if a lot of our values centre around creativity, community and making the world a better place.

But I think there might be a way to do work that does pay while keeping to our values.

I've come across a term recently used by Tad Hargrave of Marketing for Hippies, and that's Radical Business.

It's this idea that actually, having a profitable business can help change the world. If you are mission driven and you value making the world a brighter place, then having a business which provides an income works on two levels:

1. You make enough money to be able to focus and create the things you love that need to be in the world. And in having that income, you can make the purchasing decisions you would like to. Like choosing to give money to causes you believe in, buying fair trade or buying from independent businesses.

2. You give people an alternative. And that alternative is embedded in their values, your values and provides a viable way to start shifting the profits from big companies who don't necessarily always put good shit in the world, and instead have those profits invested in making the world a brighter place.

I don't know about you, but that makes a whole lot of sense to me.

I would love to be able to buy from more independent businesses, support causes I believe in and have more options. But when you're scared and broke, there are very little other alternatives than to line the pockets of the companies whose values don't sit right with you.

If I ever employ anyone, I want to make sure I'm paying a living wage, something that makes someone feel valued as an employee instead of the lowest salary I can get away with.

And I want to be in a position where I feel I can make more choices. More choices that align with who I am and the world I want to live in.

So, over the next year, I'm going to be working to find a way to make That Hummingbird Life into a sustainable business model. A business that I feed and it feeds me, while upholding my values and working to make the world a much brighter place.

I don't know what that's going to look like. But I do know that it's going to be completely in alignment with my own value. Prices for any products or services are going to be accessible and I want to still putting content like this the podcast out there.

I have lots of exciting ideas and things I want to try out, but I don't have a clear plan right now.

But what I do know is this work is needed, and doing the work 'full-time' is going to give me the space to bring my crazy ideas to life and ultimately help to achieve my biggest goal which is spreading more courage and helping more unconventional women just like me and you believe that they matter.

I think we can hold ourselves back so much because we find the idea of making profits and making money as a bit of an icky subject.

But it can stop us from taking our plans seriously, and instead encourage both a martyr complex and also demean the value of how we view what we're doing. And both of those options suck.

And sometimes, it can stop our dreams in their tracks full stop.

And that's just plain shitty.

So join me in imagining a new way of looking at our work. One that validates our dreams but also validates our very human need to be able to pay the bills, feed ourselves and MORE at the same time.

Have you struggled in a similar way? Does this all sound familiar to you? Do you have a completely different perspective? Let me know in the comments!

The 'secret' to getting creative work done and chasing your dreams

When I first started writing, at a very young age, I was obsessed by how other writers achieved success. What writing habits did they adopt? Where did they write? Did they type or hand write? How did they map their novels? What kind of pen were they using? I thought this knowledge was the secret to my own writing success. If only I could find something that sounded like it could work like me. If I kept researching their habits, reading interviews and trying to uncover their secrets, then I could achieve the same success. Or I could get out of my writer’s block (oh, the irony). Either way, I thought it was a bit of a magic hack to the success that I wanted to happen.

It took me years to work out that was bollocks.

(Hopefully you get that the title was ironic!)

But it didn’t feel like it at the time. It felt like the way to go about things. I thought I was doing the sensible thing. I thought it would make me feel more inspired and keen to get on with my own work.

It didn’t. It blocked me like a toilet at Glastonbury.

I was copying all these things famous authors were doing, but they weren’t working.

New pen. Check

New notebook. Check

Wake up early and write. Check

Wake up late and write. Check.

Attempt to plot novels on napkins. Nearly.

I was SO obsessed with having a routine and word count that I was writing a grand total of jack shit.

And when I did have an idea, I would obsess over whether it could work to the point that in my head the idea turned into this ridiculous thing that was never going to work out.

I didn’t write for a long time.

I bought new notebooks, like I could purchase hope and inspiration in cold hard cash. After the first page, they lay completely empty. A beautiful reminder of my inability to believe in myself.

That was until I started this blog. I didn’t even think about the fact that I was writing. I just let words tumble out onto the laptop, in a way that made sense to me.

I started to think more about life, and write about what I saw. I had so much to say that I knew someone needed to hear other than me.

And I left that world of authorship, obsessing and watching other writers become successful. Instead, I started to focus on what needed to come out of me. Because SHIT was there a lot of stuff.

And along the line I realised something.

There is no hack. There is no special habit or routine. There is no one way of going about it. JK Rowling started out just like me and you. An urge to put her shit into the world.

So there is no hack. But there is a difference.

And that lies in actually getting on with it and doing the work. 

Maybe that's the big secret.

The problem with looking to other highly successful creatives is that we don’t see the unpublished works. We don’t see the really bad first drafts. We don’t see the amount of paper or documents that got sent to the trash can.

And we don’t realise that they’re just doing something that they found works for them. They got to a point where they too were able to block off the noise and just do the work.

And they worked fucking hard.

To borrow the words of Macklemore:

The greats weren’t great because at birth they could paint,

The greats were great cause they paint a lot

And when we look to other people, we get so sucked into what works for them that we completely forget what works for us.

And whether we realise it or not yet, we know a lot about what works for us.

Have a look at the following questions and you’ll be surprised that you know more than you think about what works for you

What time of the day do you feel more inspired?

What do you feel the urge to do? It doesn’t have to make sense

What motivates you?

Why do you want to do the work/create what you want?

Do you like typing or handwriting ideas?

Do you work better with music?

Does the environment make a difference to you? If so, what helps?

You have all the answers inside you. But first of all, it starts with doing the work and turning down the noise; the noise of what everyone else is doing, what they’re achieving, what their process looks like. Everything.

Focus on you.

Part of being a trailblazer is doing things because they make sense to you.

Start with that.

Whether you own an online business, design stationary, write books or want to do you own thing, whatever that looks like, what can you do RIGHT NOW to reduce the noise and listen to yourself?