I’ve asked myself this same question over the last few years, and every season dictates a new answer. In high school, I thought “enough” was what you felt when you finally “had it all.” At sixteen, that looked like being the editor-and-chief of a street-style fashion magazine in New York City.

I used to think success was wearing high heels to work (which, in NYC, seems like a death sentence for your feet), living and working in a high-rise skyscraper, and grabbing happy hour cocktails with friends after work. Oh, and living in an apartment with a walk-in closet, even if I had to turn my small bedroom into one.

Although this definition of success was specific, it only took one semester in college to set fire to the dream. My friends joked that I gave up on fashion journalism because I discovered yoga pants, but I knew there was something deeper at play.

With fashion journalism, I wasn’t just losing a career path.

I was losing my grip on “success”, or at least my first definition of it.

All the things I thought were important and impressive didn’t seem as satisfying anymore. How could a six-month timeframe have changed my mindset so quickly? It was the first time I felt my ideals shift as I started to question what I truly desired.

That was back in 2011. Now, seven years later, I’m facing the same question.

What do I desire?

And what do those desires say about me?

The last question is what I’ve become more interested in, especially after recently reading The Year of Less and More or Less, two books I devoured in one weekend. The former details the personal journey of a binge consumer turned mindful consumer who gives away 70% of her belongings and pays off $30,000 of debt (who also happens to be a dear friend). The latter discusses our social construct of “enough” and what it looks like to shed the excess in order to live generously.

Surely, I don’t have to tell you my definition of “enough” has changed since high school. Simply revealing the books I’m reading right now already shows that.

But how has it changed my definition of success?

I used to think success had to do with your work, your output.

Now I think success has a lot more to do with alignment.

And that alignment leads to enough, no matter what we see in our closets, our wallets, or our resumes. Enough is less about what we can measure and more about good works that stretch beyond what’s quantifiable.

This conversation is well and good, but what do we do with it? How can we practically put this into action in our daily life? This thought inspired me to think about how I can not only adopt an attitude of enough but a practice of enough.

What better way to build a habit than through a personal challenge?

To make sure this idea didn’t just live in my journal, I wanted to create a game plan for how I could shed the excess, embrace enough, and give back in a big way. Along the way, I decided to write a blog post to document the process and let others keep me accountable.

It has a few different phases, so stay with me.

Phases of enough over excess challenge:

• Phase 1: Purge of Physical and Digital Space
  • Physical: Purge my closet, toiletries, office supplies, books, all media, etc.
  • Digital: Simplify mobile apps, file folder organization, transfer files, back up old files, establish digital detox, etc.
  • Rule: All money generated from secondhand clothing sales on Poshmark and miscellaneous sales on Craigslist will be donated to a local food bank. All additional items not sold will be given to Goodwill and The Salvation Army.
• Phase 2: Long Term: Create Intentional Consumption List
  • Purpose: Combat future excess (both physically and digitally) by creating an intentional consumption list. Start with my core values (already defined – yay!) and create an approved and not-approved purchases list. Use it as a master guide for well into the future.
• Phase 3: Short Term: Quarter-Long Enough Experiment
  • Rule: Every time I would have made a purchase on the “not approved” list (example: $5 hot chocolate while networking at a local coffeeshop), I will write it down and plan to donate that amount to a local food bank. I will do this for everything cumulated in the quarter and share.
  • Not Approved Purchases: No take-out coffee (err, I mean hot chocolate), dinners out, grabbing drinks, new clothing, new home decor, etc.
  • Approved Purchases: Groceries (hey, a girl has to eat!), gas, usual living expenses (rent, heat, water, internet, etc.)
  • Invitations: Instead of dinners out or take-out coffee, invite friends to my apartment. Suggest other fun activities (yes, even in the winter!) and things to do than spending money on other experiences.

To those of you who may be reading the details of this challenge and thinking “Wow, that seems a little excessive, don’t you think?”, it’s still something I’m excited to test out this quarter. (Also, did you see what I did there? *wink*)

Cutting my spending won’t hurt since I’m naturally a saver, but I’m excited to see how this challenges me with giving.

Sure, I’ve made room for some giving, like with the Your Own Way Conference last year, but I know I can do much more. Not only that, but I want to do more.

I’ll be posting my progress and personal reflections along the way.

And if you’re still wondering why in the world I’m writing about this and not creating more business resources, it’s because I already have a blog archive full of them. In this season of my life and business, I’m focusing on personal writing.

So here goes nothing!

The post Finding Enough in a Culture of Excess (and Personal Challenge) appeared first on Sindie.

(Before I jump into my 2017 brand review, you can read up on my 2016 brand review if you’re interested. It will give you a more complete look at my first two years of full-time business.)

My biggest wins of 2017:

2017 was oh-so-sweet to me. Between reaching sustainability in my business and pouring my energy into client work, I kept myself busy while taking an intentional step back from working as many hours as I did in 2016 with my consulting business.

In December 2016, I ran way past burnout and found myself needing to scrap my whole business to have any chance of gaining my sanity back.

In December 2017, I was shocked when I met with my mastermind group (looking at you, Melanie and Allison – love you both!) and said I didn’t feel I needed to change anything radical in my business. I just needed to make a few simple tweaks to my process and I’d be satisfied.

Going from hustle mode to refining mode took a full year, but what a year it was. I’m excited to share some of my highlights of 2017 as well as my biggest lessons.

Raising around $5000 for sex trafficking survivors through my charitable business conference

Giving back in a BIG way was on my list of intentions going into 2017. I think it’s safe to say I crossed that off the list with Your Own Way Conference. I was an event planning novice (which is a nice word for n00b) so it taught me a lot about stepping way outside your comfort zone to create an experience worthy of the attendees who invested and the important cause it supported.

I self-funded the conference so 100% of the ticket proceeds would go straight to Mission 21, a Minnesota based non-profit and anti-trafficking service provider. Seeing the founder’s face light up when I said no funds would be taken from the top will be a moment I always remember.

While the experience of hosting, speaking, moderating, and planning a conference took a LOT of my energy this year, I can see now that it was one of the most rewarding seasons of my life.

Replacing my previous day job income (and then some)

After working 80-90 hours/week with virtually no time off with my 2016 consulting business, I knew I had to scale back when I refocused on copywriting in the beginning of 2017. I was afraid I would take an even further dip in income but what saved me was my pricing strategy and ability to stick to my boundaries.

Now I work about 30-40 hours/week (and a little extra if I need to) but ALL of those hours are hyper-focused on writing client work. There are no hours wasted on social media (I do that in my off time) or scrolling through RSS feeds.

I’ve found my rhythm, which I believe was the “sweet spot” that helped me double my 2015 cushy day job income as compared to earning almost half of what I did at the agency in 2016. I still can’t believe it!

Notable mentions:

• Winning a 2017 Minnesota Young Entrepreneur award from Minnesota Business Magazine and being featured in their August issue.
• Speaking on five panels and hosting two workshops (beyond all the speaking and moderating I did for Your Own Way Conference).
• Turning down what I would have considered “dream job” opportunities years ago because my business gives me more incentives than the jobs can offer me. (Can someone say surreal?!)
• Many more that I won’t bore you with. *wink*

My biggest Lessons of 2017:

From the outside looking in, it seemed as though my business was growing at a rapid pace. I started receiving “overnight success” questions from other entrepreneurs and more people began asking if I could be their business mentor.

I laugh a little to myself when it happens because I started blogging in 2013 (hardly an overnight success) and I still get tripped up over entrepreneur tasks, rules, and lingo. Remembering to pay quarterly taxes, updating your contracts over time, learning the rules behind tax deductions – it’s all a learning process (and a big one at that)!

As a creative turned entrepreneur, I think it’s important to not only celebrate the wins of last year but also talk openly about the biggest things I learned along the way.

Tackle the “boring” stuff first

One of the best decisions I made in 2017 was not jumping right away into the “sexy” stuff. When I relaunched my brand, I wanted to start with my new website design and planning my brand photoshoot. What I didn’t want to look at was pricing, operations, and processes. #yawn

But I knew I couldn’t go into my rebrand without a solid foundation, which meant digging into the not-so-fun parts of owning a business. I told myself in November 2016 that I couldn’t touch anything creative until everything boring was done.

And it worked! In a big way, might I add. By tackling all the things I didn’t want to do, I was able to build my confidence and see that things like bookkeeping and creating client management systems weren’t as hard to build as I thought. All of the creative stuff, then, became my reward for a job well done.

Treat your business like a #1 client

I started 2017 by saying I would commit 100% of my energy to my copywriting and content creation clients. I was in “do or die” mode in my business, meaning I had to give it everything I had to see if entrepreneurship could sustainably work as my long-term career path.

While spending all of my energy on client work did help me prove my business model and level up my income, I didn’t have energy left to draft blog posts or even make updates on Instagram. I’d just collapse after writing for 6-7 hours straight (which may not seem like a lot, but it tires you out).

So has my business grown in terms of client work and income? Yes, but I took a few steps back in terms of growing my personal brand. I also gave up blogging for most of the year, which is how I got started in online entrepreneurship in the first place. I’ll be making some changes this year to get back to my blogging roots.

It’s okay if you don’t want to scale right now

This is not only a lesson but a huge mentality shift I adopted late last year. Since I refer about 80-85% of the leads that come my way, friends in the industry have told me I’m straight up c-r-a-z-y for not building a team of writers.

In a way, they’re totally right. Scaling is the natural next step for most business owners when they hit a certain level of growth, but I’m building a lifestyle business. I want to be the one writing for clients rather than managing other writers and living in my inbox (well, at least more than I already do).

Following what I desire for my business was a hard decision when I had so many friends I admire tell me I was missing out on a great opportunity. But in the end, I have to do what feels right for me.

So where does that leave me in 2018? Surely I want to keep growing my business, but it’s going to look different than it does for most. I may or may not be exploring other ways to potentially scale (#tease), but I’m content with what I have right now. I think that’s what most of us are striving toward anyway.

The post 2017 Brand Review: Biggest Highlights and Lessons appeared first on Sindie.

I see you, watching webinars featuring strategies that were guaranteed to double your traffic and triple your social media following.

You find yourself constantly consuming, pushing creative work to the side. Doesn’t your creativity know you have more to learn before diving in? Silly creativity. It doesn’t understand how business is supposed to work.

You tell yourself you’re only one investment, one strategy, one “silver bullet” away from massive success.

We often forget successful entrepreneurs have shown us otherwise.

Mark Zuckerberg started Facebook as a college dropout in his garage with some friends. JK Rowling wrote Harry Potter as an impoverished single mother. Oprah went from a local TV news anchor to owning a TV network.

What if each of these successful moguls came out and said, “This is EXACTLY what you need to do to reach ultimate success?” We’d laugh because their success looks so vastly different.

We intuitively know success comes in all different forms, but it doesn’t stop us from looking for a prescription to help us reach it faster or better.

Instead of looking for a silver bullet to help our business grow, let’s look at the grassroots efforts that will help you become your own brand of success.

Know that you have everything you need to succeed already within you

Actually, can you write this down on a post-it note or in your journal as a daily affirmation? It will serve you well.

Most marketers don’t want you to know that you already have all you need to get started. I say that as a business owner with a strong professional background in marketing.

That’s not to say you can’t learn something from the products and services other professionals offer. Our businesses can be enhanced by these new collaborations and content, but it’s not the sole factor of our success. Not in the slightest.

The bravest thing you can do is start where you are and with what you have.

Decide WHO you want to learn from

When I wrote this one down, I felt it in my belly. Instead of looking for the silver bullet information, look first at who it’s coming from.

Who are we taking business advice from? What if it’s coming from a business owner we don’t identify with or even respect? It’s so important to do research on each thought leader you gain inspiration from before following someone else’s recommendations.

Women like Maya Elious and Alisha Nicole, two powerhouse personal brands who aren’t shy about their faith and priorities, have inspired me from the start. I love reading their content and considering their advice because I love the people behind it.

Embrace the experiment

Nothing can prepare you for the wild ride of online entrepreneurship. It’s one big experiment after another. Heck, I deemed my first year of entrepreneurship my Year of Experimentation before taking the leap.

Everything must be tried and tested. Only then will you know what truly works for you and your business, and what doesn’t.

In order to be successful in your craft, you have to be an eternal student of it. This is true not only for your craft but also in other areas of business. Some of them might make you groan, like setting up your taxes or creating expense spreadsheets, but each task moves you forward.

When I first started my business, I was terrified of sending the wrong invoice or screwing up my contracts. The best thing I did was jumping head-first into the storm where I found that the waters were far calmer than I imagined them to be. Now I sent contracts and invoices with ease (thanks Dubsado!), a daily reminder to not fear what you haven’t tried before. It often becomes your new normal.

You learn, you grow, you learn, you grow… it’s a constant cycle that helps you build your way toward a successful business. Sprinkle in some grace and humility along the way.

The post There’s No Silver Bullet to Business Success (and What to Do Instead) appeared first on Sindie.

This is more of a personal reflection behind why I’ve chosen a different route that works for me.

I’m all about building a business your own way so I hope this post helps you use some of the same techniques and questions to help you determine the right fit for you.

Okay, enough of the boring disclaimers.

Let’s get into it.

Writing is a very personal thing for me.

Honestly, this is the biggest reason why. It’s not uncommon to find me writing blog posts, poetry, personal essays, and journal entries all throughout the day. It has been my longest and most beloved vocation.

When I write in someone else’s brand voice through my copywriting work, I have to really connect with the person before we begin. I’ve become highly selective with the projects I take on because of that reason, which has served me incredibly well.

If I was building an agency model, I’d either have employees or contractors writing things for clients delivered under my name (which does not feel good to me), or I’d have to create a whole new company entity to do my work.

Sending client referrals helps me work in abundance.

So you may be wondering what happens if I find a client project isn’t the right fit, which happens fairly often as a selective copywriter. When it does, I love sending those quality leads to other copywriters. Wait, you send them to your competition? Absolutely.

I almost feel like a creative matchmaker, helping to connect leads with the best copywriter for them based on style, niche, timeline, and budget. I’ve built some incredible referral relationships this way and the client lead is happy when I go the extra mile to help them. It’s a win-win!

I attribute much of my business growth this year to sending most of my leads elsewhere. That may seem backward, but working in abundance has given me a whole new perspective on client relationships and ensures I spend my time with people I naturally click with. I want the same for other copywriters in my field, too.

If I worked within an agency model, I’d spend nearly all of my time managing my writers and all the client communication rather than writing. No Bueno!

It’s a lot less messy and time-consuming to just send a personal email introduction detailing the copywriting project and let both business owners take it from there. And I get back to writing in record time – my favorite!

I’ve worked in an agency setting before, and it wasn’t for me.

Between the long hours (I’m talking 70-80 each week), short lunches, and the constant churn of work, agency life was not as glam as I once thought. The honeymoon period of the job wore off fairly quickly. There were many reasons why but I’ll cover a big one.

I’m a words-of-affirmations girl. It’s my primary love language so it’s something I need to be fulfilled in order to produce my best work. I know, I know. You shouldn’t put too much emphasis on what others think but it’s how I’m naturally wired.

In an agency setting, I never quite got full credit for the work I was doing. I understand why since I was a part of the team, but I often missed that individual recognition to know I was growing in my position. I used to guilt myself into thinking I was lame for needing outside encouragement like somehow it made me an “entitled Millennial”, but those fears have since been put to rest.

Time tracking was a time suck in agency life.

Time tracking had to be done in 15-minute increments, too. Writing it down throughout the day and staying 15-30 minutes later in the day or week to input your time into the system was awful.

Time tracking worsened my creative process because I was always worried I got done with projects too fast. I’m a pretty quick worker and usually way overestimate the amount of time I need to get something done. This may sound like a good thing, but when your agency is being paid by the hour, you need to be wary of hitting your billable work hours.

Not every agency is like this, but it’s largely why I don’t work with hourly rates for my freelance copywriting and content creation projects. I’d rather get paid a flat project fee based on the value of my work rather than the time it takes to get it done, something I talked about on ConvertKit’s blog last month.

Don’t worry, I did enjoy some aspects of agency life.

While running an agency isn’t for me, at least not at this stage of my life, I think it can be an incredible fit for others. Heck, there were even parts about it I liked before I quit my agency job to pursue my business full-time.

Here are some of the winning qualities of #agencylife:

• You’re able to tap into more skills and specializations. Let’s be honest, there’s only so much you can do on your own. I’m a pretty good writer but I’m not the first person you’d come to for custom website coding or creating Pinterest ads. By starting an agency, you can hire people who are strong in the areas you’re weak, and vice versa. The same is true for choosing a business partner.
• The people you work with will be interested in what you like to do outside of work. When I published my poetry collection, my coworkers surprised me with a cake and asked me to recite one of my poems aloud (kind of scary but mostly awesome). My boss even got me a journal for National Poetry Day that year. Most days, I felt cherished and loved.
• If you start an agency, you get to provide employment opportunities. Hello! That’s the coolest thing ever. Knowing that your business is providing income to a well-deserving employee who shares a similar heart for your business is amazing.
• You can prioritize what projects you want to work on and outsource the rest. You are your own boss so you can say which projects go where. Just don’t let all the power go to your head. *wink*
• You’ll build a tight-knit team of talented creatives. Teamwork makes the dream work. Having the opportunity to team up with others helps you build community within your organization. As a solo entrepreneur, I have to work much harder at building a “work” community that takes the place of what I had at the agency.

Fun fact: The dream of someday running my own PR agency is what even inspired me to start this blog. WHAT? I know. Wild.

My business looks different than 2013 Kayla would have imagined, but I think she’d be pretty darn happy with how it’s ended up.

The post Why I’m Not Pursuing the Agency Business Model appeared first on Sindie.

Spending time in the morning worrying about what I’m going to wear is just not how I want to spend my mornings. I remember looking at my closet with a blank stare when I worked a full-time agency job before taking the leap, wanting to put more casual in the business casual dress code.

Just because I’m a work-at-home business owner doesn’t mean I can jump on client video calls with a frumpy hoodie on.

I mean, *technically* I could wear PJ pants since they’re out of the camera shot (which I’ll be honest, I’ve done in the past!), but I’m much more productive when I look and feel put-together.

Here are my 3 best, practical tips on cozy couture for bosses, aka what to wear when it’s freezing outside, you work from home, and you still want to look comfy chic.

01 // Dress like your brand

When choosing my outfit for my new brand photoshoot last month, I knew I wanted my outfit to match my brand’s design aesthetic.

Mixing that with my deep autumn coloring (deep reds, greens, and browns look best with my skin tone/hair/eyes), I knew olive green would be a perfect choice. I added the hat for some extra flair which fits my personality and casual style perfectly while still looking put-together.

02 // Pick one piece for comfort and another for style

No one expects a stay-at-home business owner to wear 4-inch heels and a cute LBD every day. It’s already hard to wake up and resist wearing yoga pants during the winter. #CozyAllDayEveryDay

Luckily, you can still be comfortable and make a great first impression. Here are a few comfortable and stylish combos that you can work into any wardrobe:

• a chunky knit sweater with a fitted pair of black jeans
• a tailored pair of slacks with a slouchy blouse
• a pencil skirt with a casual leather jacket

03 // Wear a statement piece of jewelry

It’s incredible what a simple accessory can do to dress up your outfit.

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve worn a simple black t-shirt but added turquoise chandelier earrings, a gold statement necklace, or a cool watch and still was complimented by clients. Yes, even on Skype calls!

This way, you can still wear a casual outfit to fit your workday at home or for running last minute errands. Who wants to change halfway throughout the day? Not this boss!

My favorite accessory as of late has been my JORD Wood Watch. It not only looks beautiful, but it’s also a unique timepiece that keeps me on schedule and looking great whether I’m behind my laptop at home, a coffeeshop, or a local client meeting.

I chose the Zebrawood & Champagne women’s watch since I love the mix of dark and light wood with a simple watch face. My friends at JORD are also hosting a watch giveaway with the chance to receive $100 off one of their unique, handcrafted watches so sign up here so you can save on your own boss watch. *heart-eye emoji*

(The giveaway has now closed – thank you!)

The post 3 Tips for Dressing Your Best, Even When You Work at Home appeared first on Sindie.

Now things are going to look a little different around here and I’m excited to tell you more about it, but before I dive into exactly what that transition is going to look like, I wanted to take a moment to take a step back and tell you more of the story behind this change.

What inspired the transition from coaching to copywriting and brand strategy?

For the abbreviated version of my career story, I launched my coaching business in December 2015, a year into hosting my #createlounge Twitter chat and two years into blogging.

Because of my community, I was able to book out my services for 3 months before I even officially launched my business to the public.

My business was still a baby (basically a newborn!), and I had no idea what it would take to become a true boss, but I was excited to get started as I put in my two-weeks notice.

Q1 and Q2 were incredible. I was working with clients I deeply cared about and some of them even started to gain notoriety and press for their successful communities.

Then Q3 hit and everything changed.

While I’ve always seen myself as more of a strategist than a coach, I found myself aching to help my clients in a more hands-on way.

I noticed how my photographer and designer friends were able to give clients a tangible product at the end of their project and I deeply wanted to do the same in my business. I didn’t know what that looked like yet, but I knew I had to do something because everything felt “off”.

Usually, I’d return to my vision journal and scribble mind maps and goals on a piece of paper until it all made sense, but this time felt different. I found myself called to a season of patience… so I waited.

I decided in this time I would take a step back from making any big decisions about the direction of my business and focus on personal development and inner work instead.

Little did I know that by focusing on other areas of my life, I’d also find the “golden ticket” for my business.

Months later over tacos and queso, which is how all good business ideas are formed, I admitted to a good friend out loud for the first time my deepest desire.

“All I want to do is write.” 

I didn’t know what that would look like then, but after months of reflecting, journaling, reading, and praying, I was already thinking about what I was really good at (writing, community, strategy/planning, serving) and how I could fuse everything together.

Now I’m happy to say I’m returning to my background in marketing with copywriting and brand strategy and it feels SO good.

I’ve collaborated with a few of my coaching clients on copywriting for their websites and every time, I say to myself, “Now THIS is what my business should feel like.”

I get cheerlead for my clients, help bring their vision to life, and hand them that coveted tangible product at the end. Dreamy!

In that waiting season, I thought I was taking a step back but what I was really doing was taking a few giant leaps forward. I just didn’t know it then.

What changes can we expect?

New website design and brand identity

With a new direction comes new brand visuals, of course! I’ve been looking like a heart-eyes emoji for weeks while putting together all of the creative projects. I’m waiting until early February (exact date to be announced soon) to fully launch the new brand and website but you can follow along on Instagram.

This is also the first time I haven’t DIYed everything myself, meaning I’m investing in branding design with AllieMarie Design and portrait photography with Carly Milbrath. Both collaborative partners are in Minneapolis so it’s been great to work with people around the neighborhood.

More copywriting and brand strategy inspired content on the blog

With this transition, it’s probably not a huge shocker that I’ll be focusing more on copywriting and brand strategy (including social media and content marketing) but I won’t be letting go of my creative process or community posts either. Some I’ll post here, others I will be posting on the new createlounge.com website, launching January 11th!

The post My Brand Relaunch: What, When + Why appeared first on Sindie.

I recently shared my full career story and as a natural follow up, I wanted to highlight and commemorate the biggest things I’ve learned in this past season.

Your business cannot be your identity

Can I get an amen? This has been my milestone moment because work has always been my top priority. I enjoy working on personal and professional projects, but I’m no stranger to letting my work define me which isn’t healthy. When work is your highest priority, it can become your only topic of conversation and make you feel one-dimensional.

Work is important but it can’t be king. Your work is enriched by leaning into your family and friends, no-pressure passion projects, self-care, and other experiences that bring you joy. This can help us release the expectations we put on ourselves and be more productive (no, really!)

It’s important to know when to say ‘no’

This is a lesson I’m still learning. The more your business develops, the more opportunities come your way. While every opportunity can feel like it could be your “next big thing”, it rarely happens this way. I have people-pleasing tendencies so saying no can be especially hard for me.

To ease myself into a no, I like to treat some as maybe’s. An example of this is when I mindfully set a boundary like only making myself available for business interviews on a certain day or in a certain block of time so if the proposed feature doesn’t fit in with my creative process, then it can’t become a priority over what I’ve already planned.

If you dedicate the time, you can learn just about any skill

While I run a business, I am not quick to say I’m “business-minded.” I’m great with the creative and marketing side of the business as well as the strategy and implementation, but anything financial or legal makes me either roll my eyes or want to run for the hills.

Over the past quarter, I’m happy to say I’ve gotten better with creating business systems for onboarding clients and keeping track of my profits and expenses. Although I doubt this sector of business will ever be my area of expertise, it’s nice to know that with time and dedication, I can learn to do it on my own with minimal hair-pulling. That’s what being a boss is all about.

Be careful about who you welcome into your support system

I’m very passionate about welcoming every creative I come across to become a part of my community. While I open my arms as wide as possible with community building, I’ve learned to treat my personal support system a bit differently.

Your support system should consist of, you guessed it, the most supportive people in your life. They should know your love languages and be quick to give you encouragement. If you don’t intentionally build your support system, toxic relationships could seep in.

Toxic relationships are a breeding ground for doubt, comparison, competition, shame, and fear. These kinds of relationships have no business being at the center of your life, much less in your intimate support system. Be conscious of the opinions you take the heart and those you should cast aside.

It’s okay to do business your own way

I talked about this extensively in this blog post but in short, you must protect yourself from what others do and expect of you and instead remind yourself of what motivates you to perform and succeed. The pulse of your work is different than your neighbor’s work. There are no “shoulds” in business. Business owners have come too far and taken too many leaps of faith to follow someone else’s formula. If you’re struggling with understanding what your unique motivations are, I have a journal prompt to help.

The post 5 Things I Learned in My First Quarter as a Full-Time Entrepreneur appeared first on Sindie.

I’ll start by saying I’ve never been one for realistic career paths.

The first thing I ever wanted to be when I grew up was a mermaid. I had a difficult time accepting that when I became an adult, I couldn’t live underwater on a coral reef. I continued to swim in my Little Mermaid one-piece and put my legs together to flip them back and forth in my pool.

As you can see, I’ve always had a wild imagination and I’ll admit, a flair for the dramatic. While some kids had big dreams of being a doctor, lawyer, or architect, I switched dreams as fast as you could say hot potato, passing them to the side with full abandon.

To save us both some time (and your own sanity), let’s fast forward to high school.

2007-2009 Kayla

As a self-proclaimed choir kid, I spent all of my free time either on stage or rehearsing by a piano. Singing was my most beloved creative outlet and it quite literally saved me from intense bullying and cyberbullying I was experiencing at the time. It was the light in my everyday life. I contemplated pursuing a career in music whether it was as a music teacher, worship team leader, or a performer myself.

2010 Kayla

While I spent several hours singing every day as a first soprano (no, I wasn’t Mariah Carey but I wasn’t half bad!), I started to notice my vocal chords were slowly failing me. I suffered from allergies so I thought maybe it would get better after the fall but it didn’t. A few months in, my range was nearly non-existent so I went to two doctors and they both told me I had mild vocal damage from singing outside of my natural range which put an incredible amount of strain on my voice over the years.

To say I was devastated is the biggest understatement of the year. The doctors mentioned surgeries but my family and I agreed that I’d deal with it naturally. Still, to this day, I can only sing for about 5-10 minutes without pain. It was difficult to let go of my creative outlet but the silver lining was that it pushed me to experiment with new creative talents I hadn’t had the time to truly cultivate.

2011 Kayla

With my dreams of a music career behind me, I found myself immersed in writing, more specifically poetry. The first time I saw my poems in a booklet was in fourth grade, and the first time I called myself a writer was in 7th grade. Poetry had always been there for me and it was waiting for me to return to it. Even though I had a heavy class load during my senior year, I always made the time for free verse writing.

Around this time, I had also made big strides in refueling my self-worth despite the damage caused by bullying and cyberbullying over the years. I was starting to be more comfortable in my skin and even started to take small modeling gigs! I walked around school in pretty sundresses with high heels on my feet. #byehaters

I quickly found myself entranced by the fashion industry and dreamed of becoming the next editor-in-chief of Vogue, largely due to my obsession with The Devil Wears Prada. I wasn’t quite sure of any career path at this point but this seemed to be my best bet. I decided to attend the University of Wisconsin-Stout in order to pursue a double major in Retail Merchandising and Journalism to make it a reality.

2012 Kayla

After just one semester, my passion for the retail merchandising side of my education had faded and it only took another semester for my passion for fashion to fade almost completely. It absolutely took me by surprise, making me realize that I had no clue what I wanted to do. My friends joke that I lost my passion for fashion because I was introduced to yoga pants this year but of course, I knew there was something deeper.

All I knew was I wanted a career where I was able to shift along with my passions. Journalism still seemed like a relatively good fit but one night over dinner, my mom asked, “Why don’t you look into PR?” to which I said, “PR? What’s that?” This led me to be very understanding of friends who would later ask the same exact question at every. single. dinner. party.

After a month or so of research, a liberal arts degree seemed to be right up my alley so I planned to transfer to Minnesota State University, Mankato in the spring. Mind you, this was in a span of about 2 months. I’ve always had a habit of embracing change, ready or not.

2013 Kayla

My PR degree was underway and I quickly realized it was a much better fit. I got a great communications specialist job with the university’s academic program within my first month which really kickstarted my career. The job alone was a good enough reason to make the transfer worth it.

During this time, I also launched my first professional blog (besides my poetry and personal Tumblr blog which doesn’t totally count) called uPRise PR in December 2013 with a sweet gal who graduated from the same high school a year after me. She had the savviness in the event planning and networking realm while I was all about the writing, strategy, and social media campaigns.

2014 Kayla

My PR classes were going well and the blog had taken off but a few months in, I realized my co-founder and I had different visions for where the blog was headed. She started to wonder if PR was the best fit for her and I completely understood, seeing as I had changed my career path more times than I’d like to count. *shakes head*

We decided to dissolve the blog and work on our own projects but thankfully still kept our friendship. This experience taught me a lot about collaboration and gave me the confidence to launch my own PR brand, exPRession PR, a week later. I repeat, a week later. My co-founder and I had spent over 6 months planning our first blog but my passion for blogging was so big, I knew I had to get something out ASAP.

While growing my blog, I had two internships, a part-time job, and full-time school while also starting to write what would soon become Brave Little Bones, my first poetry collection. I had a lot of balls in the air but I loved it that way.

I also started working for a small marketing firm in Minneapolis during the summer and they hired me to work remotely from Mankato in my last semester. I got a taste for working from home and completely loved it.

Thoughts of someday taking my PR blog full-time filled me with joy while I worked through the last of my degree. Being that the marketing firm was a small business, I also got an inside look into what it could be like to own a business someday, an experience for which I’m incredibly grateful. I graduated in December 2014 and was hired full-time at the marketing firm.

2015 Kayla

2015 was a huge year for me. In January, I launched a Twitter chat called #createlounge after participating in PR and social media-themed chats for a year and a half. There weren’t any at the time for creative bloggers and side hustlers like myself so I decided to launch the community I needed.

Two months after graduating, I got a phone call from a PR agency in town who had seen my blog and Twitter and liked my work. After two interviews and many HR phone calls, I was hired and left my marketing firm job. The agency was located in the heart of Minneapolis and I quickly fell in love with the city. I’ll always be grateful to the agency for giving me the extra push to explore the town, despite my best efforts to move down south after college.

As my personal brand started to ramp up, I saw an overwhelming amount of possibility with my blog and #createlounge. I knew I couldn’t keep working 70-80 hours at the agency and all nights and weekends on my brand at a sustainable, healthy pace so I started to lean more into the idea of owning a business.

I’ve always been a self-starter but if you ask anyone close to me, they wouldn’t exactly call me “business-minded.” While I’m great at marketing and creative directing, I was afraid of the business side of things: invoices, scheduling, contracts, oh my! My family and friends were skeptical and at times I was too, but I kept pushing through and pouring into my online community.

In the summer when I asked my community what they knew me for, to my surprise their answer wasn’t “social media” or even “blogging”. It was community building. I knew I wanted to focus on one-on-one work so I set out to make a community and brand coaching business plan in the fall to then launch in the winter.

I told myself that if I could book at least three months worth of coaching clients, I could quit my agency job. I was able to book that far in advance before even officially launching my sales page. I was in a pretty good financial place with a comfortable nest egg after paying off all of my student debt months before (yay!) so I thought “Why not?” I put in my two weeks notice in December the week after officially launching my services.

2016 Kayla (so far)

My agency asked if I could stay full-time with them until the end of January to get through a big event season for a client and if I wanted to work part-time thereafter. I hadn’t known that was an option but the more I thought about it, the better it sounded. The same week I started working part-time was the week we heard the client I was working 100% on had decided to take all of their social media work in-house because of company transitions. I had just warmed up to the idea of working part-time and making the transition only to make another transition. Such is life!

The absolutely incredible thing this experience taught me is that nothing is permanent. You have to be willing to roll with the punches because many things don’t go to plan, even when you choose the “safe route”. I officially began working for myself in April and it took me about a month and a half to really settle into the right mindset.

Since then, it’s been a lot of high ups, like launching createlounge.com and seeing the community grow to insane heights (even locally!) while helping my coaching clients do the same, and really low lows, like questioning why the heck I chose this path and how in the world am I going to make this sustainable long-term.

Throughout it all, I wouldn’t go back and change my decision. Self-employment has taught me more about myself in the first three months than most of my life so far.

I hope by sharing my career story, it can help you feel more confident in the twists and turns in your own. My story isn’t over yet and neither is yours.

If you’re currently thinking about taking the leap or want to create a side hustle, feel free to reach out through email. I’d love to help encourage and support you along the way. I know it can be difficult but it can also be incredibly worth it. I can’t wait to get to know you and your story.

The post Sindie: My Career Story So Far appeared first on Sindie.

I had a conversation with my dad a few nights back about modern-day, online entrepreneurship, a topic he was especially intrigued by after listening to the Rich Dad, Poor Dad audiobook during his recent vacation with my mom.

The book set the stage for the traditional view of entrepreneurship. You know the one. Create a product, get investors, mass produce it, build a massive team of people who are strong where you weak, invest most of your money, and retire ridiculously early so you can spend every day with sand between your toes and a fruity cocktail in hand.

This vision, while grand, is not what I desire.

“Well, if you aren’t after the financial gain, what are you after?”

I suddenly got quiet, only letting a few words escape.

“Something deeper.”

I explained that while money is crucial to making a living, it’s not going to make or break my life. It’s not what fuels me to hustle. It never has been. There’s a bigger purpose, a bigger mission involved here.

When launching a passion project or business out into the world, we’re taught from the very beginning that success looks a certain way. This often means 6-figure launch success stories, the elusive 4-hour workweek, and let’s not forget those sponsored luxury hotel stays and getaways.

While all of this sounds dreamy, is it right for all of us to be chasing after this? Is this the only way we can be successful in growing our business?

I don’t think so.

I dream of creative retreats with people from my thriving community. I dream of morning journaling, midday grocery shopping, afternoon hikes, and evening content creation. I dream of quality time with family, celebrating friends on their accomplishments, and real, deep relationships.

I dream of a simplified life that feels so good.

I’ve realized that what I’m striving for is a fulfilling lifestyle in which my business effortlessly fits into. Financial freedom is a tool that will help me along the way, sure, but it isn’t my end game and it doesn’t have to be your end game either.

To help you find what motivates your hustle and what you’re working toward, here are a few things to keep in mind.

Trust your own process

In my niche, making a multi-figure pre-sale launch is the ultimate accomplishment, the mountaintop moment, yet I’m launching my first course next week and not pre-selling it. To me, there was no need to pre-sell it if I already knew I wanted to create all of the content and I wanted my students to dive right into all of the material to set their own pace.

You have to embrace your own natural process and trust your intuitions. If I would’ve told myself pre-selling is the only way I can market my course, it would have created a lot of tension throughout the creative process.

Remember, you can admire the way someone else builds their business without having to build yours the same way. Go your own way!

Understand your core values

What do you value in business, in passion projects, in life? The more you’re in tune with your values, the more focused you’ll be in working for them. This leads to a more fulfilling life because you’re chasing after what you desire.

If you need help in understanding what your values are, try Danielle LaPorte’s Core Desired Feelings (or CDFs for short) worksheet activity. It will unearth your deepest desires for how you want to feel in your everyday life, which will lead you to your values. My CDFs are encouraged, rhythm, ease, and light. Share yours with me in the comments!

Know your motivations for working

Have you ever taken a second to really think about what motivates you to create? We may think we know what our biggest motivations are but sometimes it takes getting them down on paper to really see what our vision truly is.

I journal every day, and it’s essential to my creative process. I recently created a journal prompt to help me focus on where my motivation comes from the previous conversation with my dad. It really helped me in seeing on paper what really fuels me in my business and life.

I’m sharing this journal prompt and others I’ve created all throughout the summer, starting on the week on June 13th! Sign up below for access to all of my vision journal prompts.

The post Why You Can Build Your Own Business: For Burned-Out, Comparison-Stressed Business Owners appeared first on Sindie.

Let’s get transparent, friends.

As many of you might have noticed, I took about two weeks off from my blog to focus on moving to my bachelorette pad and making it feel like home.

This mini-hiatus from blogging prompted me to dive deep into my vision for not only my blog but also my brand. What I found was pretty incredible, so I thought I would share with all of you.

A few months ago, I announced I was working toward monetizing my blog. After a little over a year and a half blogging, I know it is right time for me to take the leap and test some of my ideas to see which are valuable and profitable.

You may also remember that I announced I was working on my first digital product: an ebook on Hosting Your Own Twitter Chat. With my experience of starting #createlounge and marveling at all that it has become, I set out to help other creatives start a Twitter chat community of their own.

While putting together the outline, I was thrilled. Everything was coming together and I had multiple *happy dance* moments. Heck, I even put up a Shop page when I redesigned my website to create some extra excitement around the next stage of my blog. I was ready.

But the more I wrote the contents of my ebook, the more I realized how much bigger of a purpose I was trying to tap into.

I do want to build dynamic digital products (because like my favorite #GIRLBOSS friends say, passive income is crucial to your scalability), I also know that services are what give my mission a heartbeat.

I think I’ve known this for a while, but have been nervous about taking the plunge because:

• I work a full-time agency job that extends well beyond 9-5
• I felt guilty about taking on clients when I can only give them my evenings and weekends
• I didn’t want to isolate my loved ones by taking on even more online work

I was tired of having these fears hold me back, so I decided to put them in bed. It felt great, but then I was faced with how to tell my audience. By sharing that I was shifting, I was afraid of becoming the token “build hype but never launch” girl in the blogging world. I was afraid of my audience being turned off that I didn’t follow through with my initial idea. I was afraid people would see me as someone who gives up.

I knew I didn’t want to take down my Shop page without an explanation. That’s not my style.

I needed to say something but didn’t quite know how.

After chatting last week with Callie Gisler, one of my favorite creative business owners, about how nervous I was to break the news to my readers, I could feel her smile through the phone as she said, “Kayla, people honor your transparency. Just tell them. They will love you for it.”

I knew she was right. The best way to tell your audience you’re shifting is to be open and honest and, most importantly, own it.

I can’t ignore what I feel pulled to do, and I don’t want to.

So now as I change my monetization plans, I ask you to understand why I’m shifting and that I am in a period of growth too. Things never turn out quite as we plan, but sometimes they turn out even better. I hope this is one of those times.

I know I have something really valuable to offer which leads me to this: I want to work one-on-one with creative bloggers and entrepreneurs to build sustainable, organic communities with a pulse, a living and breathing extension of their mission.

So what’s in store for me? I don’t want to reveal too much, but I will say I am working behind-the-scenes to build community strategy and consultation packages. While my ebook is put on hold for now, I do plan on picking it up again in the future.

Now as I write this blog post in between making some concrete goals for the last season of 2015, I feel much lighter and excited about what’s to come.

Thank you for your continued love and support.

The post What I Learned From My Mini Hiatus appeared first on Sindie.