building a sustainable business that you love / episode 7

27 May

In this episode:

why I decided to switch from 10 minute to open-ended rambles
why you can’t just rely on the initial excitement
the key to running a sustainable business
why what you love can be your competitive advantage

What I’ve learnt…

When I first launched this podcast, I wanted it to be short, motivational pep talks to encourage you on your business journey. I normally share weekly 30 minute video updates with my Workshop patrons and 30 mins - 1 hour podcast episodes with all my patrons every 2 weeks. 10 minutes weekly episodes sounded so easy in comparison.

It turned out to be a lot harder than I expected. I quickly realised that I’m a rambler and limiting how long I spoke for was actually harder (it’s definitely a skill to be concise and to the point).

It’s not to say that I couldn’t continue doing 10 minute episodes, but it would definitely be easier and more enjoyable for me to just let myself ramble on more casually. And if it’s more enjoyable to do, I’m more likely to continue doing it.

It’s not all fun and games

The beginning stages of launching a business can be so exciting, but once that initial excitement inevitably dies down, and you’re a few months in, it can be hard to stay just as motivated or determined (especially if your sales have slowed again - which is, may I remind you, perfectly normal and to be expected).

I’m more than 3 years into my business and have been a freelancer for over 12 years. Do I love what I do? Absolutely. But are there still days when I don’t feel like doing anything and motivation is nowhere to be found? Yep.

But what keeps me going is the underlying love for it all. The good and bad and everything in between. When you remind yourself why you started and why you’re doing what you’re doing, it’s a lot easier to stay on track and to push through the slow periods.

What you love = competitive advantage

We all have our own unique interests, and chances are, you know more about a particular area or interest than the average person. When we love something - whether it’s fishing, postage stamps, nail art - we spend a disproportionate amount of time consuming content around that interest. This isn’t the only way you can launch a successful business, but it certainly makes it a lot easier when it’s all about the topic you love and one you know more about than most people.

Let’s say person A likes indoor plants. They don’t love indoor plants, but they have a few and enjoy them. They also know it’s super popular at the moment, there’s lots of money there and so they’re thinking about starting an indoor plant business. On the other hand, person B loves indoor plants. She watches YouTube videos only about indoor plants and listens to indoor plant podcasts. Every waking moment, she’s thinking of indoor plants, so she decides to finally launch her business.

Who do you think will find more success with their indoor plant business?

Okay, so it’s not that simple and there are so many factors at play. But the point is: you have a greater chance of sticking with your business, through the good and bad, and standing out from the crowd, when you love what you do. It naturally becomes your competitive advantage when you build a business around that knowledge or love. Sure, someone else might be an even bigger fan or have more expertise, but 1) they might not care for monetising it and 2) they aren’t doing business the way you are.

You don’t have to be the best in the industry, or be the ultimate expert. Just being a few steps ahead and knowing more than most people can make a big difference. Not only will it help you stand out from the (business) crowd and keep you going through the downtimes, but it’ll also attract like-minded people who have been looking for someone just like you, or a business just like yours.

0:09
I'm not gonna be in focus, am I? I don't know where it's focusing... okay so, you might have noticed that this setup has changed a little bit. I'm looking over here because I have my phone connected to the camera so I can see myself. The problem with the front-facing camera (I just spat everywhere).
The problem with the front-facing camera is: I'm human and I get distracted by myself... By the way I have hand cream on my hand, I don't know if you're wondering about that, if you're watching on YouTube you can see that this looks a little bit different. I thought I would switch things up because as you know, or maybe not know, maybe have not noticed, I have not published/posted/worked on an unplanned podcast episode in over a month.
That was way too much hand cream but I didn't want that blob just sitting there in my hand.
1:03
Okay, so I wanted, I just want to give you some backstory first - I know this is super casual compared to the previous episodes but there is a reason for it. So it kind of revolves around the topic that I wanted to talk about today and that is, as you know from the title: building a sustainable successful business. I actually haven't decided on the topic yet - I'm working on it on the fly - but the the reason why I hadn't posted anything in a while I realised, and i was talking about this with my patrons on my my podcast there, is that I think the format wasn't working for me and I just put so much pressure on it.
And not to say that I didn't like it and I didn't enjoy it, I definitely did, but I think it was too much pressure for me. So who knows I might go with this kind of format and then go back to it. I didn't really explain what format it is.
The idea for (un)planned podcast was to be these short snippets that you get every week that you can listen to 10 - 15 minutes of a podcast episode to just give you gems of knowledge that you can apply and start acting on immediately in your business.
2:13
That was the whole idea, it was supposed to be weekly voice memo pep talks but then I realised I'm not really a condensed concise person. I tend to ramble and my patrons know this because I do Monday Updates and I do those, uh, what's the american term, bi-weekly (we call it fortnightly here) where it's every two weeks but I do fortnightly podcasts on my Patreon. Those are about an hour long and I had no issue doing those but with these unplanned… I need to cough <clears throat>
With these unplanned podcast episodes, I don't know if I just put it up on a pedestal but I definitely was putting so much pressure on myself that I couldn't bring myself to record or to work on a 10-minute episode. And of course, the content is different, I need to be a little bit more organised for these because I actually want to share important information with you so that you can apply it in your business rather than just rambling about my personal life, that's obviously a little bit easier, but I was just thinking more about the the structure of the content, the style that I would enjoy more to help me get over that obstacle of feeling too much pressure to record.
3:29
So that is why I dropped off right after I kind of launched but I just wanted you guys to know that and I just wanted to trial out I'm easing the pressure off myself and just starting, you know. I've talked about this in the previous episodes because I need to hear that reminder as well. Sometimes when you're stuck doing something, try to think about ways you can just, this is not related to the topic but I just wanted to say anyway, think about ways you can switch it up a little bit so that you don't feel as scared or as pressured to do it.
Is there a different way that you could do this so that you can experiment or challenge yourself in a different way. So this is the format. I'm just checking if i'm in frame. So this is not a perfect setup, I kind of like this angle because you get to see the wall at the back but as you can tell it's a lot more casual.
Am I too far? Is this too far? Hello? [testing the mic in the middle of the podcast]
So as you can see we're still figuring this out. Testing… okay. I'm just testing. I turned it up a little bit. i hope that's better. So as you can see this format is a lot more relaxed. I'm not trying to fit into a 10 minute episode I'm just going to let myself ramble. I might do something completely different next week but it's more important for me to show up and actually do something than to not do anything at all because I'm scared. So I guess that's your little reminder at the beginning and this might turn into just a really long podcast episode but we… we don't know, i don't know so I'm just winging it.
5:06
So today's topic (I've got some notes next to me on my iPad*) just some dot points, but I just want to make sure that I haven't missed anything. So what I mean by (we're just gonna dive straight into it) what I mean by a sustainable business is not really anything to do with the environment but it is kind of relevant depending on what you enjoy in your business. But I just want to say, running a business is extremely hard. It can be really exciting and fun at the beginning and it should be because it's really exciting to start up your own business.
But it's not enough to, well I believe it's not enough to, rely on that excitement and that fun in the beginning because when it comes to really running a business full-time there's a lot of up and downs and it's not sustainable to only rely on having fun. So I wanted to cover in this episode a little bit more about what I think it takes to really make your business viable and sustainable in the long term.
We're not going to go into a lot of details it's not going to be like a workshop, my workshop patrons will know, but i just wanted to chat and ramble and just share my thoughts with you because it's… I come up with a few topics for these for this podcast but I can never decide which one I want to do, because again I put that pressure on myself like, am I really ready to talk about this right now, but we're just gonna do it.
6:31
So like I said, to continue running a business, I think you need to rely on a lot more than just that feeling of excitement and fun because I think there's a lot more things involved in running a business that aren't so exciting and fun. So we want to get into what is that underlying kind of core reason which will drive you to push through those hard moments.
So I think the thing that is really necessary for you to build a sustainable business is to really really love what you do. I think that's, I mean there's probably other factors but I think, that's one of the easiest ways to build a successful and sustainable business. To be obsessed with what you do. Because if you love something more than the average person you're going to spend a disproportionate amount of time working on it, researching it, reading all about it, watching videos on it, getting obsessed with it.
And I don't want to glorify or normalise kind of unhealthy obsessions so I mean this in a healthy way but I mean you really need to love what you do and that is why, even though they technically work, I'm not really going to advocate for following trends or doing what's trendy to to get yourself out there because I believe in the long term game, for lack of a better word, and I believe in building a business that you're really proud of that you really love and that is unique to what you love.
8:08
Because if you love something more than most people - that will be your competitive advantage. And I don't think people see it in this way, like it could be a colour palette that you really identify with. I know a few people, a few artists that have built their brand based around a color palette. It could be a specific art style that you enjoy doing all the time, it could be a particular medium that you use, a particular brush, it could be an ideology, it could be values.
I wrote down some more, let me see if I forgot… it could be an emotion you could build your brand around an emotion that you're really passionate about. So, for example, just to include myself in this, to give you example, I am really, really passionate about self-care, personal growth and… I just remembered I didn't feed my fish I'm so sorry Jasper but I will feed you after recording this…
So the things that I'm really passionate about and I really love and probably spend more than average amount of time consuming content around this: is minimalism, self-care, personal growth, being mindful, slow living, all of those things and kind of indirectly as a result, I really like soft neutral but deep, earthy colours as well that is grounding and relaxing at the same time.
9:31
So I didn't just sit there and think of my brand… this is turning into a branding episode a little bit and this topic kind of covers a whole bunch of things related to business so we're not going very deep into it. But like I said I didn't just sit there and decide what I wanted my brand to be, what products I wanted to have. It's not something you can just, maybe you can, but it's not something I just sat there and thought about.
I really went with my gut feeling of what do I really love and what would I love to see in my store, what would I really love to work on, you know, what makes me excited to work on, what topic, what theme could I explore right now that like really identifies with my values. What's the message that I want to put out there into the world?
10:16
So self-care, personal growth and mindfulness and also promoting minimalism and being intentional, is really important to me and hopefully my stickers and my content reflect those values but because I love those so much, I'm willing to explore it on a deeper level than just surface level.
And I know those things aren't exactly unique and they're kind of trendy right now as well, but my point is because I love the combination of those things so much I consume a lot of content around those things and so I would think that I have a deeper knowledge and understanding of those topics so that I am able to convey that in my work and communicate that to my audience.
But the idea is even though there are particular things that are really trendy right now that I maybe could be doing for my business or maybe I should be doing because it's better for my business, I'm going to get so much more customers, I feel like I would burn out if I took that path. If I pursued something that I wasn't really passionate about, I feel like I wouldn't last as long creatively because that deep spark, that passion, that burn, is not there.
11:35
I don’t say all this to make you feel bad, if you don’t know what you love yet, but I just wanted to promote, to remind you guys that that’s what will set you apart. If you love something, a combination of things, more than the average person, I think you should really lean into that because I think that is part of your strength.
I don’t think people see what you’d like as part of your strength but if you think about it, if you really like something, you’re probably watching a ton of videos about it, you’re probably reading all about it, you’re probably following other content creators in that industry or that niche. So you’re totally consumed in that world and so you know about that interest or that hobby much more than other people.
12:20
And another reason why it’s really beneficial and a huge advantage to focus and narrow in on what you like double down on that, is because you don’t have to worry about what’s trendy, you don’t have to concern yourself about what other people are doing because you’re focusing on the thing that you enjoy doing most. And you get deeper and deeper into that knowledge, and that’s not to say that you shouldn’t branch out and try other things, but it’s just bringing the the focus and the intention back onto what you like and listening to yourself and not to get too caught up in what other people are doing basically.
So if you don’t know what you love to do yet, that is totally fine. I think that’s actually more common than not. I think a lot of people need to spend a lot of time experimenting and figuring out what they want before they, you know, really. I just don’t think we should wait for that a-ha moment. I don’t think it comes to you like that and I think we should be, well hopefully I can do this as well, we should be normalising the process of a slow growth over time.
I think in business and just creatives and artists as well we tend to admire artists, as we should, artists that grow really quickly and are really, really big but we tend to forget that a lot of them had, I’ve talked about this in a previous episode as well, a lot of them have had a long journey to get to that point.
13:57
So instead of focusing on a creative’s success or another business’s success where they are now, I think we should normalise looking at their journey and their growth and applying that to ourself, because very rarely someone starts out on business and knows exactly what they want straight away and has not changed that once they’ve grown. So my point is, you don’t always know straight away.
You can’t, like I said, think about it. You can’t just decide: this is what I want my business to be, this is how it’s going to grow and this is the the art style I’m going to have. You need to allow for room to to play and experiment and to figure that out because sometimes you need to go through that process of self-exploration before you really tap into how you feel and what you enjoy because if you haven’t given yourself time to really think about that there’s no way that you’re just going to sit there and decide what it is that you’re passionate about.
You really have to go and explore and figure that out for yourself. Sometimes, I’m not going to go into this into too much detail because I feel like it’s a whole other topic as well, but sometimes you might start on one path and that leads you down another path that you might not have thought of, or even considered, without starting on that first path - this is going to get confusing - but then that second path leads you down another path and it just keeps going down and it becomes a series of steps that you could never have anticipated but you never could have predicted either if you didn’t take that first step.
It’s, to me the way I imagine it is, like a process of unraveling like a piece of string that is attached to… this makes those sense.
15:51
But the whole idea is: you need to just take a step forward in discovering something, even just discovering what you don’t like can be really…. did that make sense? Even just discovering what you don’t like can be really powerful as well because then you know you don’t want to go down that direction. You’re like, I really, really don’t like doing this, this is not an area I want to deal with, I don’t think I could come up with more product ideas in this area, this is not something I would personally buy.
Then it could veer you into the other direction. So I just want you to tap into how you feel and what is your reaction to things so it could just be picking up a random hobby, just literally start somewhere if you have no idea start with something that you find interesting but maybe you’re not sure how you feel about it. Or you could just think about what is something that you could spend hours doing. What is something currently that you spend hours doing? Because that’s probably a very good indication of what you enjoy spending a disproportionate amount of time on.
You could go on Pinterest… browse through a bunch of photos. The Pinterest algorithm is skewed to be more what you like but try to click around, see different topics, see different aesthetics and art styles and try to gather some pictures that really resonate with you. What are pictures that you react to more than others? Do you have a certain visceral gut reaction to some over than others, you know? Are there some that really make you feel some type of way?
17:27
So, pay attention to how you feel when you consume content and think about: is this something that I would enjoy and want to explore more? And remember you need to be open to just being playful and experimenting and trying new things. Don’t box yourself in straight away. You might find something that you’d like and then over time, you’re like, oh I don’t quite like this but I think if I modify this, I could take maybe this path instead and it all builds up upon each other.
So don’t see it as wasted time, just see it as playful exploration because what you like and what you enjoy doing will change over time as you build up knowledge and like I said it’s really rare and difficult to know instantly from the beginning what it is you want to do and want to spend your days doing. That’s not a common thing so don’t feel bad if you don’t really know where you want to take your business yet.
The main thing is just to focus on moving forward and finding that direction forward so that you are pushing yourself in a direction that allows you to explore what it is that you want to do. And maybe it’s not something that you love with a passion. I’m a bit cautious to use the word passion, ugh i’m really sweaty, I’m a bit cautious to use that word because I feel like that word can put people on the wrong path and they feel like they need to have that burning desire to feel a certain way about something in order for that to be considered your passion.
19:02
If you just genuinely, I said that weird, if you just really love doing something but maybe you don’t have that intense, maybe you’re just a chill person and you don’t have those intense feelings, burning desire, you know. So it could just be something that you’re really good at as well. So try to find different things, different angles, that you could maybe put your own twist on. So I think, just as long as you start somewhere and start experimenting and just keep pushing through you’ll slowly get more clarity that way and…
19:42
Oh, it’s my candle. I could hear noises and I wasn’t sure what it was. It was scaring me.
So just to bring it back, I want to say that, people ask me sometimes: how do I come up with new product ideas, how do I find inspiration, how do I deal with burnout and those questions are a little bit hard for me to answer because I am lucky in the sense that I did know from the beginning, this is not encouraging at all, but I was always very sure of what I wanted to do. I was very sure of my brand and how I wanted my brand to feel and what I wanted to stand for, what I wanted it to stand for.
And that’s not because just instantly I woke up and that’s what I wanted to do. I had years before that where I was working on other projects that led me to this very moment. So even though I launched my shop I don’t even remember like two years ago, around two years ago, there were years before that, before my shop even existed, that I was already putting in the work to discover myself and discover what I like.
20:46
So I think it’s important to mention that I think, it’s like the tip of an iceberg, you’d never really know fully what goes into someone’s story unless you dive a little bit deeper into it and, what was I saying… oh yeah, so with me burnout it doesn’t happen that much. I think it’s happened once in my lifetime doing studio vlogs but that happened for a number of different reasons but generally I don’t because I, this is not really related so I could go into this in a different episode, but I tap into how I feel and I never push myself too far to the point that I burn out. That’s all I’m going to say about that because it’s not really related, but if you’re interested I could share my thoughts about that in a different episode.
With product ideas, again, I just lean into what excites me the most, what I would personally use in my planner, what else I think would round out my product line that fits in with the whole minimal self-care, business, intentional, slow living… I have a bunch of keywords [I can] throw at you but I think if you can double down on what it is that you’re good at, what it is that you absolutely love, whatever is your strength… those things will become easier.
Not saying that it’s easy, but it will become a little bit clearer and a little bit easier because you start to trust your own intuition, you start to trust your own preferences and your styles and you’re not really worrying about what’s trendy or what other people are doing or worrying about what you should be doing.
22:29
You’re focusing more on, you’re just honing in on yourself and you’re starting to trust your own voice a little bit more. And that is so important for everyone to do because that is your competitive advantage. You need to be able to stand out and you need to be able to do things in your own unique creative way. Being different is not a bad thing. If you like really really different things and you’re like oh I feel like I don’t —
[camera cuts out]
I was so rudely interrupted by my camera. I totally forgot that it turns off after every 30 minutes of recording. I’m not gonna go into that. So before I was cut off, I had to review the footage and look at it, but I was basically talking about how if you feel like you have, if you just feel different in your community or there’s something about you that you’re like “oh I don’t really fit in because there’s this about me or I like this” and that’s not really maybe seen in this community or there’s something about you that you like that you feel isolates you a little bit.
I want you to reframe that because that’s actually what makes you unique and different and I think that’s what will give you that competitive edge if you are trying to start a business or just trying to stand out from the crowd. So I think don’t think of it as a bad thing to be different or to like different things because that unique combination of traits and interests is what will set you apart.
23:56
I just wanted to mention also, that the reason why loving what you do, enjoying what you do, is important is you’re just going to want to work on your business a lot more and it’s going to make it a lot easier to stick with doing tedious boring admin tasks (which I kind of enjoy) in those times when it’s not so fun. Those behind-the-scenes periods where it’s maybe not so glamorous to record it and if you really believe in what you do, if you really enjoy what you do, that will help you get through those moments better because you’re working towards something else. You’re working towards something more that you enjoy.
I hope that makes sense but I think it’s really nice for customers as well to look at a business and to really feel like so much love has gone into the making of the products or the service and just how the business shows up. I think that energy we’re getting a little bit more spiritual now but that energy when you really love what you do I think that just manifests in different ways and I think it really is obvious when you love what you do and you’re passionate about what you do.
So you want to be able to communicate that to customers as well so I guess final message is: if you are at the beginning of your business, don’t worry too much about trends and what everyone else is doing and thinking like that’s what you should be doing. I think it’s so invaluable to stick with, to listen to, what it is that you really personally like and how how you will stand out from the crowd.
What are you going to bring to this world that is so uniquely you? There is so much you can explore and I know each and every one of you are so different and have so much to offer so I don’t want you to shy away from your differences and I want you to see that as a source of competitive strength. You will then find people that - I’m rambling now but - you’ll find people that are on your same wavelength that vibe with you that are really interested in those things too.
So that’s, that’s it I guess. Don’t box yourself in, let yourself play, let yourself experiment. Don’t be so hard on yourself, let yourself discover things about yourself and listen more to yourself as well. Give it some time. It can be a slow burn and I know you see other creatives with, which is amazing for them we should be celebrating them, again another topic, don’t let that feel… don’t let that make you feel bad about yourself because, I’m going into so many topics, someone else’s success does not affect yours.
26:49
If someone else is succeeding…. no, I’m not going to go into this because I’m really passionate about that as well so I will talk about that in the next podcast episode. I’ve already decided as of this moment it’s going to be community over competition so I wish you, this is gonna be every two weeks or once a month I haven’t decided yet, let’s start with once a month because that’s a lot less pressure for me and if I decide to do it every two weeks then even better. Bonus… bonus for you, bonus for me I hope but I hope you enjoyed this episode. I wish you have a - that’s a weird thing to say I don’t think i’ve ever said that - I wish you have a lovely week. I wish you have a lovely month and whatever form you’re listening to this in, I think videos? I think you guys watch videos more?
Thank you. Thank you for being here. Thank you for letting me ramble, even if you’re watching this as a video… No, I was gonna say if you’re watching this… no, if you’re listening to this as a podcast and you’re feeling a little bit FOMO (fear of missing out) because you’re not watching the video… I promise you’re not missing much, except for my really exaggerated expressions and hand gestures so I’m glad some of you prefer one of the — I don’t know what I’m talking about — okay goodbye thanks for listening and I’ll see you in the next episode, bye!