Tag Archive for: women in business

I did a thing and I’m doing another

A while back I was feeling down post-surgery about all things business related, pissed at myself for not doing more – even though the doc said to do nothing for 8 weeks.

We all have an inner bitch. Mine is absolutely sinister and unrelenting. So I thought about things I could actually do while resting. Things that did not involve a spike in cortisol, a live stream, or any heavy duty thinking. I really was exhausted and supposed to be resting.

I have a few things I’ve always wanted to learn how to do. (I think we all do.) I came to the conclusion that time “off” didn’t have to mean lying prostrate for two months. I could do things, just not things that required lots of thinking or physical effort.

At first I thought about crocheting. But a few YouTube videos later, I decided it was beyond the depths of my brain fog. So I settled on wrapping rocks.

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Babes, let me tell you, this is the MOST Zen thing I’ve ever done in my life. If I had ever tried yoga, I’d probably tell you it’s better than that.

It requires nothing but some leather cord and a rock, and your imagination. It calmed me immensely, and I was making some really beautiful things while not leaving my bed.

The best part was I had no deadline, no expectation, no benchmark to hit, no achievement for the books.

Let me tell you, the relief was profound.

Then I realized precious few things in my life offered a sense of creativity with play, rather than pressure to achieve. And that is bullshit.

I want more things in my life that allow me total and complete presence, where I get lost in what I am doing. The horses do this for me every time. But I couldn’t get out there after surgery in the snow. Hence, these stones.

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It’s been months and I find myself still wanting to create more. A couple of nights a week, I’m still going at it, crafting more intricate patterns, playing with different types of cord and even using caning (not easy, btw).

It’s absolutely fabulous. The best part is, though I started with no other idea than to relax, people are buying them and they LOVE them. They use them for meditation, decoration, nature offerings, and more.

It got me thinking: When my real “job” of coaching and creating content becomes play, I surpass every expectation. So why aren’t I making my work more fun?

In my classes (which I’ll talk about in a minute), I share repeatedly how important it is to have fun, break the rules, be impulsive and party. Yet I forgot that part for myself. It’s a lesson I needed to learn again.

Enter Summer School.

Now, before you say anything, I want you to think about people you know who went to summer school IRL or maybe your own experience there. The theme I always heard about was how EASY and fun it was to be in summer school and get a passing grade. Certainly easier than a full semester. And the teachers were more relaxed because… it’s SUMMER.

So here’s the premise: I give you two weeks in July with all my rule-breaking, business-building madness (ergo, we have a crap ton of fun), plus you get massive bonuses to work through on your own, at your own pace, after. And the first 5 people who join also get 1:1 time with me.

I’m doing it all for less than 500 bucks.

Play. Creativity. Cut loose. Fuck around and find out.

This is for anyone who feels stuck, disorganized, as though they are “doing it wrong” or unsure what to do next.

You leave with a boatload of fresh ideas that feel amazing to YOU, a plan to continue on that is fun and easy, as well as my signature business building course.

Wanna play?

I can’t wait.

Why you shouldn’t be an entrepreneur

For every person out there who goes after her dream, ten more sit on their hands and whine. Trust me. I hear from them every day.

I work 12-hour days. I’m exhausted.

I have kids and a husband and a full-time job.

I don’t know how.

Who would listen to me anyway?

But who am I to show up and say what helped me?

Good, then go take a nap and quit bitching about the dream you have of being your own boss and actually impacting human lives in a real, tangible way.

The rest of us stay up late and get up early if we need to. We function on four hours of sleep (sometimes less) and all but kill ourselves to get our message out. Because. We. Must.

Because the burn – the desire to support people and fulfill our mission – is so great, we can’t sleep anyway.

I’m officially declaring war on bullshit excuses

I work with women who get up at 3 a.m. and work on their own business until they have to get the kids off to school. Some stay up until dawn instead. A few do both. Some use their lunch breaks. Some record their ideas on their cell phones during the commute.

“My passions drive me to the typewriter every day of my life, and they have driven me there since I was twelve,” Ray Bradbury once said. “So I never have to worry about schedules. Some new thing is always exploding in me, and it schedules me, I don’t schedule it. It says: Get to the typewriter right now and finish this.”

But I’ll be too tired.

But no one understands what I’m trying to create. They look at me like I’m insane.

But my relationship with my spouse and children will suffer.

Really? Your family won’t understand if you need an hour or two to yourself every day to do what you love? You can’t muscle through a workday on too little sleep? Or is the truth simply you’re afraid you will fail?

Ernest Hemingway – Nobel Prize in Literature, Pulitzer Prize for Fiction, Bronze Star Medal – said the most terrifying thing he ever encountered was “a blank sheet of paper.”

Writing is hard. Creating is hard. Being your own boss is hard.

It’s not lucrative at the start. It’s isolating and often heartbreaking. So if you’re not getting it done, don’t beat yourself up.

Not everyone is meant to be her own boss

Not everyone has the fire, hears the thunder, feels the promise of the moonlight.

And that’s okay.

But the rest of us can’t help it.

Nelson Algren, who won the National Book award for his novel The Man With the Golden Arm, spent five months in jail for stealing a typewriter. That is dedication.

“In an unmoored life like mine, sleep and hunger and work arrange themselves to suit themselves, without consulting me,” Kurt Vonnegut said.

So decide. Are you finally ready to dedicate yourself to your business? To do what it takes until it takes?

No one one will blame you if you’re not.

But if you are, take every excuse and flush it. Then get to work.

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