Hey<<First Name>>,
This newsletter is about reclaiming your time, ditching overwhelm, and creating the life you dream of, the life you suspect a few people who’ve “cracked the code” juuuussst might be living, but that you can hardly dare to dream could be a reality for you.
That’s why I’m showing up in your inbox.
Because I know that struggle is real real. Overwhelm was a HUGE hurdle for me in 2017, and I know if I’m not careful my entrepreneurial, creative, multi-passionate, yes-yes-yes spirit will get the best of me and lead me right down the same path again.
Six years into being a creative business owner, and I’ve learned some really freeing things the hard way (a.k.a. by driving myself crazy multiple times over!)
I believe the roadmap to our dream life is pretty simple:
Focus on very few, very important things; say no to ALL the other things; and be very intentional about rationing out your time, energy, money, and passion to those few things you’ve chosen to say a BIG YES to. I focus on saying no a lot. But today we’re going to focus on how to manage those BIG yeses.
What do you say a BIG YES to? I say it to:
- My marriage!
- My daughter!
- My health!
- My nest!
- My business goals!
What does this mean?
It means that these are a hell yes for me! And it means every time an opportunity to spend time, money, energy, or passion (my word for will-power!) arises I ask "does this move me closer to…" :
- A loving, intimate marriage?
- Being the best parent I can be + a close bond with my daughter?
- Being physically, spiritually, and mentally healthy?
- Keeping my home/studio/office (they are one and the same!) inviting and calm?
- Meeting our impact & revenue goals for the business?
If the answer is “none of the above”, it’s a hard pass on the opportunity.
A kind pass, but a hard pass. Period.
But what if the answer is yes?
What if an opportunity or task does lead me closer to those? Because if we really unpack my Big 5, then you’ll see that’s actually QUITE a full plate if I said yes to everything that could conceivably move me closer! Saying yes to even the essentials is, it would seem, a pretty all consuming enterprise.
Let’s take a more granular look at just ONE of my five big yeses and what it really could entail.
I encourage you to do the same for yourself! Make a list of the things that move you closer to what you say a big YES to.
Meeting Our Impact and Revenue Goals
- Hire and manage a great team that works together synergistically
- Launch a new podcast to teach free business, social media marketing, slow living, and visual storytelling to aspiring creatives & entrepreneurs
- Triple our revenue to fund opportunities for new team members and free resources for our community like the podcast, the blog, and a new site as well as e-course creation, book production, and philanthropic donations
- Launch a new website to house our education materials and podcast
- Launch and new e-course to bring all I’ve taught at retreats to students around the world that can’t make it to a far flung destination due to time, health, or money constraints
- Triple the businesses donations to the charities we’re passionate about
- Update Local Milk with a new free recipe, travel guide, or lifestyle piece at least once a week
- Create free, downloadable creative business & social media resources for this community to lift up other creatives in their journey
- Write an amazing cookbook
- Host a retreat for creatives in Japan
Whoa. Does that give you a panic attack? It sure gives me one! Spoiler alert: I cannot do all that noise on my own. Not even CLOSE. So how on EARTH can I or any of us ever hope to not just survive and stay afloat, but to thrive and grow and scale up?
- By being humble enough to acknowledge that we aren’t The Only Competent Person In the World, AND that in some ways, we are totally incompetent, and we should ask for help! None of us can do it all. Not a single great business was built that way. Know what you can outsource and what you can’t. (Hint: I doubt you'll want to outsource your marriage! Hahaha.)
- By managing The 4 Resources—Time, Energy, Passion, and Money—and knowing how they can work together!
Time
- This is our only non-renewable resource—we don’t get time back once it’s spent—and it is, in my opinion, our most precious. This is the resource I'm most guarded about trading.
- I determine which of the things that will move my goals forward will make everything else either easier or unnecessary, and then I determine of those things, which ones can ONLY be done by me? Those are the few things I spend time on. I either don’t do or outsource everything else.
- When time is tight I use the goal setting I share in my workbook to help me focus in on the one thing I can be doing that will make the biggest impact towards my dreams. The rest can wait. We do one thing at a time.
- Cherish your time. Don’t give it away like it’s cheap.
Energy
- This is a renewable physical resource (rest replenishes it!) that each of us have varying amounts of. Each of our energies flow differently. I know mine flows in stops and starts, bursts and sputters, because I’m bipolar.
- We need to know and own our individual energy patterns in order to manage and plan for them. And we need to be honest about it. We can’t plan to accomplish what someone with our energy levels simply can’t.
- Know thyself. Know how much rest you need, what time of day you’re most energetic, and in what way (maybe you’re really great at writing in the morning and better at relationships in the evening or vice versa etc.) Stop trying to shove a square peg into a round hole. That never works out. I need a bare minimum of 7 hours a sleep a night and sometimes it’s more like 10!
- Be kind to yourself and respect that energy is not infinite and requires rest.
Passion (Will Power)
- This is a renewable mental resource that is intimately linked with physical and mental energy. I call this my levels of “give a shit”. If I’ve made a ton of decisions, focused hard, and been self-disciplined (gym, salad for lunch, etc.), there is going to come a moment where I run out of give a shit. That’s when all you can do is Netflix and wine (or mocktails!)
- We start off with the most will power in the beginning of the day, and it's depleted by resisting temptations, making decisions, focusing, and doing things we’d rather not do. If we make a ton of decisions, resist a temptation, focus really hard on a project, and then have to do a task we really don’t like come mid-afternoon, yeah chances are, we might not do it! Not because we’re lazy or weak, but because we used up our passion and will power already.
- A big lie a lot of us tell ourselves is that we should have infinite passion and will power. You don’t. I don’t. It’s time we stop believing the lie, and start working with our limitations instead of against them.
- Will power levels are going to vary from person to person, just like energy levels, and you need to know yours, accept it. I, for one, pretty much can only watch Netflix, hang with my family, and zone out after 7 PM.
- Know how much you have to give, what drains you the most, and be strategic by scheduling things that take a lot of focus, decision making, or self control earlier in the day to avoid burn out.
Money
- Also a renewable resource! And I’ve got a lot to say about this one—more than will fit in this email! But for starters: when I cherish my time for the projects & people that matter most, but spend money generously to invest in myself, my business, and the causes I care about I've found financial abundance to be the result.
- I recommend NOT doing this until you have paid down any debt, are taking care of your family & any employees you might have, and are financially stable with an emergency fund.
- When I spend, I expect a return on that investment either financially or emotionally. I’m not saying spending magically creates abundance—I’m saying SMART investments in outsourcing, automation, education, and tools create abundance.
- Keep costs down like any good business, but don't be so obsessed with low overhead that you don't outsource at all. That's a good way to hit a bottleneck and keep revenue down too.
- And, when you cherish your time, you will price it accordingly. When you truly start to see the value of your time (and as you walk down your career path, this value will go up as the quality of your work and earning potential goes up!), you will no longer have fear of charging what your products and services are worth.
- I sold my first photograph for $20. It was worth $20. Now, I shoot and style photoshoots for $650 per photo and up for corporate clients. Should I have been charging $6500 for 10 photographs when I started? Nope! Should I sometimes now charge even more than that? Yep! So meet yourself where you are.
- And remember: there are lots of business models that don’t involve trading time for money exclusively. And I’m going to talk about that more this year both here and in the podcast because as a largely service based professional, this was a huge revelation to me.
- What we lack the passion, energy, or time to do, we can often trade money to have someone else do. And sometimes the monetary value of putting our passion, energy, and time elsewhere is actually HIGHER than what we spend to have someone else help in the areas where we’re either ineffective, inefficient, or unnecessary.
- For example, full disclosure, I pay someone $160 to help clean house for 6 hours a week (which makes a HUGE impact), and if I use those 6 hours to work, I can easily make more than that. The simple math shows that as a great investment. It also makes me a happier more relaxed mom & wife and a more productive business owner—intangible ROI even greater than the revenue I can generate in those 6 hours of work.
- The same principle applies to spending on my small team, education for myself, and business tools.
- When it comes to personal spending, I believe that less is more, strive to live below my means no matter how big or small those means, and buy quality over quantity and experiences over objects. Except for hats. I own an inordinate amount of kinda cheap berets. No one said I was perfect!
- Takeaway: invest wisely, live below your means, and remember that your time can be more valuable than your money—literally!
As per usual…this was a LOT of information. There’s a reason I only drop these on you guys once a month. I want them to be PACKED with food for thought that will get you thinking about the possibilities for your life, inspired, and ready to take action.
Topic up next month? Social Media! I want to talk all about how I use it as a TOOL to build my business, free up my time, and build community. Because on this creative business journey of mine, social media has been the secret weapon that has allowed me to work anywhere in the world, build a tribe of beautiful souls I resonate with, and create recipes, photographs, and teach for a living. So…it’s kind of a big deal!
Lastly, I want to remind you: there is no “finish line” in life.
It’s all a journey, and you’re on it right now. Some of the happiest, most fun days of my professional life were when I was just starting, no one was watching, my photos sucked, and I had NO clue what I was doing.
Because I was LOVING it. I was excited. I was relaxed. I had room to fail, learn, and get back up again. I lived off of sweet potatoes and tilapia because I didn’t have a lot of money.
And I was as happy then as I am now. Enjoy every step of the journey, because hind-sight is 20/20 and you may find yourself looking back on the days you’re trying to rush through fondly.
Keep an eye out for a simple RAINBOW recipe in your inbox tomorrow morning…I’ve been living off of the leftovers while writing this monster email!
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