#044. Creative Pivot
Answering my question of where my writing fits into my current stage of business building
I’m finding myself at a crossroads again with my writing. On the one hand I want to keep philosophizing and sharing about my life and past, but a feeling crept up that feels the same as when I decided to pivot away from seeing therapists to get coached instead.
The reason was pretty simple, I was tired of focusing on my past, my faults, my uncontrollables and ready to DO something about it. My coach says therapy is like finally realizing there’s an elephant in your kitchen while you’re trying to cook, and coaching asks what you want to do about it.
Introspection is fun and necessary. Four months into my sabbatical, and I’m exactly where I want to be because of it - with a clear head and a true heart.
And that means I’m ready to put all my focus and creative energy into the NEXT THING - it’s business time! That also means in taking inventory of how I spend my time.
“So what’s stopping you?”
I didn’t want to admit it, but the way I was writing my newsletter has been a distraction. A fun one no doubt. I LOVE self-inquiry and contemplating why things are the way they are. I LOVE putting meaning to my experiences. I’m terribly good at self-inquiry, to a fault. It makes me feel smart, and man my ego likes to feel smart.
Tricky tricky. To see that I’m playing intellectual games with myself in order to avoid doing the work of showing up. What if I just aim to be okay that I’m not the smartest or most thoughtful one on the internet and instead aim to just show up? What would that look like for all areas of my life? And especially this newsletter! I’ve attached so much pressure to change minds and change lives through writing and sharing my own mind-blowing revelations that I have no time or energy left to do the thing that matters - serving others in my unique way.
Time spent inward is time not spent outward. Basically, I need to spend my time making stuff - writing youtube scripts, instagram posts and building a program.
“So, what’s the business?”
I struggle with this question too because well… there IS no business.
The business will emerge from the system that I’m building.
And the system will evolve from the process of creating and refining a high ticket online group coaching program. I’d mistakenly confused my business offer (helping people with chronic pain to find and heal the root causes and take back control of their lives through functional medicine and chiropractic) with my system. Whereas, the business will only exist after the offer has been proven viable and a system to replicate and scale emerges.
Therefore, no system? No business.
“So, where are you now?”
I’ve signed on my first 1-1 client and I’m building out a three month program for her. I’m committed to doing whatever it takes to get results for her, building and modifying as we go along.
I plan to announce my beta program on March 31, 2024. Ride or die.
I’ve attached meaningless pressure to publishing a super insightful mind-blowing contemplative weekly. I still want to keep showing up on this platform, but I need it to serve the next phase of my life rather than distracting from it. My inconsistency tells me something is missing or misdirected. (Y’all know I struggle with publishing weekly.)
Will this self-honesty free up time and creative energy? Building a business is as much a creative pursuit as writing, after all.
“So, what needs to happen?”
Well, I’m great at self-inquiry, not so great showing up and showing up imperfectly in public spaces. Showing up imperfectly and allowing uncertainty, that’s what I need to develop as an entrepreneur. I mean like, how does an entrepreneur develop from scratch? That’s the real question here.
Applying good ol’ James Clear here - I’m casting a vote for my future entrepreneur self with showing up for this newsletter imperfectly.
Some guidelines to make it happen.
Write it as it is - Show up as you show up - train of thought whatever. No over-engineering words, no trying to sound smarter than who’s already talking in my head when I’m writing.
Write about building the business in public rather than over-introspecting on life’s past. What am I up to? What are the struggles?
Write for myself first. Just like I’m asked to put the oxygen mask on myself first in case of emergency on a flight.
Spend only 45 mins from start to finish. First draft is final draft. 30 minutes to write, 15 to edit for grammer and formatting.
Have fun. Celebrate the joys of cat-ownership → instead of distressing over what photo to put up every week, I’m just going to feature Hamilton and Maeve. They’re the real stars here anyway.
In writing it this way, I should be able to publish every week while contributing to my development as an entrepreneur. Let me have my cake and eat it too. Nom nom nom.
Happy holidays everyone!
Hell yeah, go Maymie!!
I liked this: “Time spent inward is time not spent outward.”
The inward to outward thing is something I’ve specifically been navigating since I quit over two years ago. It’s all tricky. Appreciate you sharing what this is all looking like for you!
“Spend only 45 mins from start to finish.”
Or less!! And it can be something small. I love how you said “Write it as it is” because I think it’s incredibly helpful to have a more expansive view of what writing is and can be. So much of what I’ve shared online has come straight from things I’ve written/jotted down in my apple notes and journal on the go, or generally away from my computer.
Excited to follow along! Reach out if you need a writing friend in your corner for anything.
Love this call-to-action for yourself post and being real. Looking forward to following your entrepreneurial journey in 2024!