Welcome to the blog
This is my blog archive. My new writing lives on Substack.
Establishing A New Balance As A Part-Time Business Owner And Full-Time Creative
What does a balanced creative life look like? How do you know you’re out of balance, and how do you know when the time has come for a change? It’s a question I’ve pondered this summer, after a spring ending in worry, stress and the realisation that I had hit my messy middle.
The truth, I suppose, is that there is no one signal to tell your creative life is out of balance. Instead, it’s the many small signs you need to look for. When the little frustrations and worries that on their own are acceptable pile up to something larger, a consistent trend, that’s when you need to look out.
My Evolved Why: Creative Lives That Are Good On The Inside
Why do you do what you? It’s a complex question, with an answer that is rarely straightforward. And sometimes, that answer changes.
This past year, I’ve felt a slight but persistent shift in my work. The signs have been everywhere - from my inspiration pointing in new directions, to resistance to parts of my old work, to a content rut stretching out over months.
I wrote about this evolution of my work in a blog post about navigating the messy middle of building my business. And in that post I wrote that I would spend much of my summer trying to figure out. Well, here I am, it’s the end of summer and what do you know, I figured it out.
How My Creative Life Vision Has Changed And Why ‘Slow Living’ Isn’t Part Of It
It’s almost a year since I went full-time with my creative business. It’s been a big year, beautiful, challenging, life-changing. With the decision to pursue self-employed life, so much changed and at some point during the first year, my vision started to feel a little outdated.
I could sense my inner creative direction developing, shifting, morphing. The vision for my creative work, my business, and how I wanted to live my life… it was something I had developed before I went full-time. When winter arrived and the pace of the world slowed down, I decided it was time for some introspection. I needed to check in with my creative compass.
Your Creative Path Exists Inside Of You
We all grew up following worn paths. From one school year to the next, we were following in the footsteps of thousands, no, millions of kids before us. We were told what to learn when, we were taught the right answers, showed the way forward. Sure, our interests shaped the path a tad, but we were still kept well within the boundaries of the predictable.
So it’s not surprising that in our creative lives as well, we look outside ourselves for a path to follow. That’s what we were taught to do, after all. The opposite, to find your own path, is something we have much less practice in.
But when it comes to creativity, the path isn’t out there. It’s inside of you. And this is what I truly want to help creatives with. To find, trust and follow that path inside.
Stretching Your Creative Identity
How do you view yourself as a creative? How do you see your creative work? These are not easy questions to answer. But regardless of whether you can put it into words or not, how you view yourself have wide-ranging effects on your creative work.
From our creative habits, to the kind of work we create, to how we present ourselves online, your creative identity plays a big role in shaping your creative life. It will put up boundaries for what feels possible for you, and it will affect what you feel comfortable doing.
So at times, you might find that your identity, in fact, are working against you. That it has started to feel limiting, like an old skin, and that it might be time to stretch it. This is what happened to me during the summer, and this is what I want to talk about in this post.
Artist vs Expert: Finding Your Creative Identity And How You Want To Share Your Work With The World
A while ago, I had a conversation with a coaching client where we discussed the difference between blogging as an expert and as an artist. She had had a blog in the past that didn’t feel right and she now started to see that maybe it was because she had presented herself as an expert, when she neither felt like one, nor wanted to be one. I suggested she might at this point in her journey want to show up more as an artist.
This spectrum between being an artist and an expert is one that I see many creatives trying to find themselves on. The struggle shows up often because both roles are so common in the online creative world, among bloggers, Youtubers, Instagrammers and creative business owners. Which role we choose will then affect the work that we create and share with the world.
It can take some soul-searching to know exactly what kind of creative you want to be, both when you start out and as your outgrow an earlier role you’ve had. So let’s have a look at what the artist-expert dimension looks like, and where you might find your right spot.
How I'm Discovering What My Creative Work Is Truly About
Everyone who has worked on a creative project knows that there isn’t one way to describe it. You can look at it from many perspectives, describe it long or short, detailed or in broad terms. You may have one way you describe it to creative friends, another to potential customers, and a third to your family.
Yet so often, we search for that description that feels just right. That makes things flow and connect and that blows your mind a little. Recently, I found a description like that for what I do in my coaching and in my creative work. Today I want to share that story and give you a tip if you’re searching for that right description too.
The Story Of How I’m Redefining My Creative Identity
Ever since I started blogging in 2016, I’ve shared my creative journey through writing. It’s what I fell in love with, and it’s what I’ve built my online presence around. I’ve shared my struggles and what I’ve learned along the way in hope of helping and inspiring other creatives in their journeys.
I’ve always identified myself primarily as a writer in my creative life. That is, until I started coaching and things shifted in a way I hadn’t quite anticipated.
Finding The Deeper Message Within Your Creative Work
Every creative idea has at its core a message. Something that makes it bigger than just the individual creation, a contribution to a conversation going on in the world.
Your message is what you want to say with your work, it’s your view of the world and what you want to inspire in others. Finding your message is part of what I call doing the groundwork of making an idea happen, and it’s closely related to many other concepts. Theme. Brand story. Your why, purpose, intention or north star.
Growing the roots of your creative life
I used to do a slight rebrand of my blog every few months. Fuelled by some new inspiration, or a lingering sense of doubt, I’d adjust my course and propel myself in a somewhat different direction.
At one point, I wondered if I’d ever land on something that felt like home for more than a little while. But I trusted that I would eventually find my own voice, style and purpose.
And I did.
Why it’s so important to find your own version of doing the work
As creatives, there has always been someone who came before us. Someone who can tell us the right way of doing things, people to glance at as you set out to do your own creative work.
That is all and well, we need guidance when we’re learning. But if we follow others’ methods too closely, it can lead us astray, to something you might not like doing at all.