I’ve never seen “overnight success” or even just “successful success” the way we see online from other entrepreneurs, coaches, strategists.
ALL of my “success stories” as a content creator and entrepreneur involved
1) taking a decent amount of time and
2) meeting realistic goals that made sense with where I was at in my life and also where my business and ideas were at in their development process.
And my success stories sound less like what you see from fancy, flashy, glamorous Instagram coaches and more like…
I kept talking about my 1:1 mentorship offer I had, for months, and was able to always have at least 2-3 clients inside of it at one time.
I kept reflecting on my ideas and what I enjoy talking about in content and WHY which helped me figure out what stuff makes sense for my business and what stuff makes sense for my personal creative outlets and passion projects
I kept practicing making videos which helped me grow two different TikTok accounts to 27,000 followers each in unique niches, and I’m starting over again from scratch with my third platform now.
As I write this, the word that jumps out at me is “kept.” I kept, I kept, I kept.
“I kept” NEVER meant that I posted every single day. Or that I was ALWAYS promoting an offer. Or that I was ALWAYS seeing external growth and results from my work.
“I kept” means that I started this whole thing of being a content creator and entrepreneur 5 years ago and I’m still doing it. It looks WILDLY different from what it did when I got started, and also WILDLY different from where I thought I would go from there. But I’m still here!!!
***
So much of building a business is the long game. Is being able to keep going over time to learn more, practice more, experiment more, and adjust more.
But HOLY YIKES that “keep going” part is NOT easy, accessible, functional, or even realistic at all.
ESPECIALLY if you are disabled, neurodivergent, chronically ill, mentally ill, and/or just don’t have the privilege or access to a ton of means to supplement and help keep you sustained in the early building stages of business.
So where do you even go from here?
If you do want to keep trying to start or build your business, we DO have some ideas that could help. This is what we unpack in our 5 month program for low energy entrepreneurs, Creative Differences.
I’ll explain one of those ideas now…
We’re big fans of the SEASONS approach to business. Taking your business one season at a time.
This could mean literal seasons like winter, spring, summer, fall.
Or it could just mean the current chapter or theme or vibe of life you’re in.
Sometimes my “seasons” of what I’m doing, what routines feel good, what level of output is doable might last an actual “season.” And sometimes it might last a week. And then next week feels like a whole new “season” and I need to make adjustments.
Since I live with PTSD, depression, anxiety, and low energy - adjustments happen often. And it took a lot of time and practice to finally feel okay with that.
Some things we consider when looking at your next season of business include:
Your “must dos” versus your “nice to dos”
Energy level check in and what tasks feel like low / medium / high energy tasks right now
Your current goals and areas of focus
Support systems, coping mechanisms, nourishments to sustain your capacities
The key here is knowing, trusting, and accepting that your ANSWERS to these WILL change from season to season. That is NORMAL. That is EXPECTED. You are a HUMAN. And you’re also building and running a business which is really freaking hard.
So - gentle invitation to set down any overwhelming expectations you might be sitting with to figure out the recipe for overnight success, for scaling, for doing all the things right now all at once.
What does YOUR current season of life and business look like? Feel like?
And let’s explore supporting and nourishing THAT reality so that you can keep going to see SOME growth and to find out what the next season will bring you :)