So, this is a little strange for me to talk about. I never have public conversations about money. Spoiler, this post isn’t about dollars and cents, it’s about a mind set shift that has really changed me. I’m actually grateful for the time to have made a few changes. I’m a creative and work independently. I have for a long time. Before becoming a full time content creator I was essentially a full time content creator. HUH? Let me explain.
I spent a large majority of my career building brands and creating campaigns for companies. How do we attract attention? How do we move the dial? What can we do to be unique in a crowded market. All problems I solved for other companies. When I started creating content for myself, it was really hard. Doing for you what you’ve done for countless others isn’t exactly linear. I’ve always worked really hard and have been fairly diligent but, there’s aways room for improvement.
The thing about me is I know where my natural talents lie, I’ve fine tuned them. It’s what made me an exceptional publicist/marketer but I’m also flawed. I coast. Coasting was my biggest failure.
When I moved into my house and lockdown followed about a week later, I wasn’t sure what was going to happen. The uncertainty was sort of paralyzing. History has taught me that when a company struggles, one of the first budgets to go is Marketing – that’s generally the budgets from which influencer fees are allocated. Yikes. Are we all f*cked?
Most of my campaigns got put on hold immediately following quarantine. It was in that moment that I decided to analyze my business. I certainly had the time. I asked myself a few questions that – if you’re a creative, you might want to ask yourself.
Do I want to do this? Here’s the thing, If you are not pursuing your passion, how can you dedicate yourself fully to success? Because that’s what success requires. Dedication. I asked myself if money weren’t an issue, is this what I’d do? The answer is yes. It’s only a piece of what I want to do but, I definitely want to be doing this job. I feel very much in my purpose. Now that I know I want to be here…
What can I be doing better? Remember that coasting thing…yep. It’s a big piece. I’ll use a school analogy so that this makes sense (hopefully) – If my gifts and natural abilities allow me to get a B+ without studying, if I apply myself, wouldn’t I be an A student? See, coasting.
I had to admit to myself that there were several areas of my business that I needed to do much better. It’s still a work in progress and always will be. We need to be constantly analyzing and refreshing and checking in with our processes. Things move quickly and best practices last year might not be the best *now.
Some of my personal short comings were scheduling. Organizing my days so that everything wasn’t done by the seat of my pants. Dedicated creative days, admin days and REST has been a game changer. Once I read myself for filth, what else?
Your attitude sucks. Oh? Damn! Yes, I’m generally gracious person – at least I strive to be but that’s not what I mean. I have a shitty attitude about the pieces of my job that I don’t like. But guess what, no one gets to like EVERY SINGLE PIECE of any job. So if I hate turning in wildly in depth creative concepts for approval, get over it. It’s part of the job. I’m at a place where I only accept jobs that I feel properly compensated for and that includes the little bit of admin that I find annoying. This was big for me. No pouting, complaining or sucking my teeth. Now, I plan a little extra time to get the yucky bits done so that I don’t feel rushed or anxious. Wow. I’m still working on this but I’ve noticed a huge difference in my overall happiness by shifting my mind.
It all boils down to input equals output. We all know this intellectually but really think about it and do a deep dive on your desire, process and output. Balance is hard and we are all just trying to navigate this insane time. I think how we spend the time is up to us. Pouring into ourselves, betting on ourselves and working to create the life we want – whatever that might be is important.
