Feeling very inspired after reading this post. It sometimes feels hard to imagine it is possible to work part time doing something you love and also financially thrive. Thank you for adding some reality threads to my dreams! Have a lovely holiday x
Ahh thanks so much Emma! That means a lot. It’s interesting to consider part time and that work/ life balance isn’t it?
So working part time came out of necessity because of childcare but I also had periods of down time from contracts before I was a mum and thought oh wow days are so spacious.
I would say my work slots are 99% productive ie no faffing, gearing up or procrastinating.
It’s interesting to me to consider thoughts and space to have them for example I used to have SO many creative ideas whilst walking and listen to a lot of podcasts to learn while commuting.
As it is now I work Mondays and Thursdays and often work while Luna naps.
Our home is a place of work for my husband with visiting clients so I’ve learnt to be fierce about downtime but it’s a constant practise.
I guess the main thing is I have to prioritise and financially the fund I applied for last month was a risk but it felt worth it and it panned out. 🎉 lots of beautiful things to come! ✨🌺
I love it when you share transparently about money. I remember the first time you wrote about how much money you made it really expanded my idea of what is possible for creative businesses. Looking forward to it!
Here I am thinking “gosh I’ve never talked openly about money before” haha - I think that goes to show how hard I find it BUT if even 5/10 years ago someone had been talking about money as a creative in a way that felt possible...
I.e not someone with a TONNE of online followers / book deals I would have felt so inspired and expansive and so that’s why I do it because it’s possible no matter how you choose to use your creativity.
In my industry there is SO much conversation about rates and lack and doing it for the love (only) and I kinda had to prove all that wrong when Dave got sick because I didn’t know how else to cope or heal other than to create. ✨ Creativity AND taking up space with it is what changed... 🗝️✨🌺
Yes! It was before Substack times and before we did Content Club together. I really thought you had to have tons of followers to make an actual living so it really shattered some misconceptions for me.
Ooo this is so interesting! Thank you for reminding me about this.
Yes 20 years of making a life from the arts / culture/ engagement/ heritage now... even when I was working part time in bars in my 20s it was all coming together... there’s something of wisdom and experience brings through confidence and round the corner from courage I think... like your 100 submissions idea... making and pitching and experimentation and diversifying brings it all together... ✨💜🎣✨
I’d love to know more about your entrepreneurial journey. I guess I’m limited in what I can do from home, but I have so many skills and so much knowledge that I know I could do more and really get serious about my career. Hearing your perspective is very interesting to me 🥰
There was a definite shift in innovation for me whilst pregnant with Luna at the start of the pandemic.
I applied for and received a pot of funding to deliver something with a team of artists called ‘Creativity Island for Mums’.
It was a project mainly online that celebrated the pockets of time we find ourselves with for wellbeing inspired by creativity in the first 3 years of motherhood. In that time as a Project Manager I celebrated perfectly imperfect showing up, creativity and delivery because if I wanted the project to happen I had to show up sleep deprived and sometimes wobbly. 😳. I had just one window of time which happened to be while we were all experiencing the lockdowns etc... I used some naps, some phone time and a whole lot of pram walks and I think it’s a project I’m most proud of to date which set a very different trajectory for my business... I have had a look at your gorgeous prints and they are just BEAUTIFUL - so so special. Looking forward to reading more of your updates here. ✨✨🌱🥰
Creativity Island for Mums sounds incredible, and I can really hear your passion when you speak about it.
Ah thank you, my prints were the start of my self employed creativity journey, but there’s so much more that I want to do. I’m so excited to get started whilst on maternity leave with William 🥰
Eeek SUCH an exciting time! So you are “off” work from a different job or your graphic design is your job? I am so inspired by design after designing my second journal myself - a very steep learning curve but the creativity needed to communicate and come out through me with that one. I learnt so so much and I’m curious about whether I’d do it again in the same way...
Yeah, I’m off from my prints job for now. I’ve switched them over from physical prints to digital downloads whilst I’m on maternity leave. That way I don’t have to do much with it.
I love design. I’m definitely no artist, but I love the creativity and style of designing prints, as well as designing workbooks and printouts too. It’s just so much fun
I hope you have a wonderful holiday!! And congrats on such a lucrative month in your business, that's so exciting! I can definitely relate to moving into the entrepreneurial title more and am definitely in that transition stage, trying not to panic over the uncertainty of finances or taking big risks on myself, but instead move with it and just keep creating. I loved reading this!!
Ahh I hear you Hunter! I did some googling around entrepreneurial spirit and risk and it’s so interesting to me.
I feel I fit much more into the cautious/ protective space but with a BUCKET tonne of innovation and creativity!
That’s been the real 🗝️ key for me.
I wonder if the “other” parts of entrepreneurship will come or if I just repeat this model...
I’m working on some notes on ‘taking up space’ I think it’s all connected and makes everything feel more possible.
I still have that “who does she think she is?” rhetoric so I have far to go out of my comfort zone in all of this... if I wasn’t away from my laptop I would have edited this email to take the ££ out like 10 times already 😆✨✨
Ahh yes I relate to this so much! And feel very similar. My biggest issue is that I tend to get excited about something and create it, but the delivery part falls flat either when I promote it on social or I just don't feel confident about sharing, and then I move onto the next "shiny" thing. I'm very invested in being consistent this year (hence the substack!). I'm glad you kept the ££ part in, it makes it exciting to see other amazing people living the "slow living" lifestyle being successful!
I make most of my money currently as a proofreader for an education company, but I also do photography which is very fulfilling but takes up a ton of time! I'm really hoping to move into more of my own creative business role this year. My dream would be to just create as much as I can. I'm working on a mini course to put in my substack and start building out some other course ideas, but it definitely feels overwhelming!
What a beautiful balance! I’m going to let you into my BIGGEST creative secret for engagement - co-creation! I used to specialise in creating programmes for children and young people and the amount of times something would be designed by adults and the kids would turn everything on its head. I’ve kept the model and now my audience, participants and clients help me co-create. It gives the project cohesion and confidence before I’ve even written the first line of what I think it is. If you need a sounding board write down your cheerleaders and ask them what they think or ask in Instagram stories in a poll? There is always so much depth in the answers and SO many surprises! My next Masterclass is driven purely by folks asking me to teach on the topic. Having this in the mix means I’m happy to do it and feel very focussed on communicating how it can help folks. Because that feels easy I can just day dream some posts and take pretty pictures in between times. Ok this has been an absolute essay here in reply! Ooops ✨🗝️👀🌺
I love that, Claire! Thank you so much for sharing. I definitely need to be better about sharing my ideas and seeing what sticks for people! I feel like I've gone through so many different types of audiences online because I've changed my niche so much, so I gotta get back into being clear about what I'm sharing and maybe this will help. I love how that's become such a successful model for you. Plus you're so right about the kids dictating how something actually needs to be made-- I definitely see that in what I'm doing too! Thank you again!
Oh have you?! That’s super interesting. I feel like I spent a fair few years confusing people with what I wanted to talk about because there were so many threads. 🧵
Yes you can simply keep returning to what you’re called to create - what speaks to you in the loudest most aligned voice... and dream that one into being first. There’s time, we have so much time. ✨🗝️✨🪄📖
Yes! I was really rooted in slow living when I was in England for a few years but then when I came back to sunny, hot Florida I couldn't figure out how to visually show that lifestyle, and I just kind of went off on a bunch of tangents. Haha
But you're so right-- there is time! What a good reminder. Thank you for the pep talk, it's made my day!
Oh do you Tamzin?! That’s so interesting! I remember the first time I used it I figured out a project needed to be WAY smaller with LESS moving parts and I was so taken aback! I love anything that lets me journal out what’s inside and I find this one easy to remember too. How is work / life going for you at the moment? ✨
Exactly, we like to overcomplicate and getting things down on paper can make it all so much clearer, thankfully! I'm well thank you, just back from a month of travelling and plenty of work to get on with now which is exciting and joyful, so I really can't complain ❤
thank you love! I forgot you were on holiday last week and wondered where you were - hope you have a really great time away and well done on the new title and recent successes!
Thanks so much Sarah! I’m so grateful for space to absorb everything and let more inspiration land. Can’t wait to show you some pics! It’s very beautiful! Happy Easter to you! ✨ 🐣✨
Thanks Luisa - I needed something expansive as I’m still in that place of healing around money stuff. In my daughters second year I’m so curious about where the time for work appears and how to keep moving out of the “time for money” model - it all feels so possible in the age of online... I think my time off line brings even more insight about how I want to BE online if that makes sense? ✨
Hoping the money and post covid healing isn’t life long but also embracing the ride and remembering and meditating on how diamonds are made🎢✨ 🥰 💎
I love the idea of being a slow lived entrepreneur! Great title :-)
Oh thanks Charlie. It means a lot to have settled on something expansive enough to remind me anythings possible in the age of the internet!
Love your new title and the GROW model x
Aw thanks Gabrielle! Had you heard of it before? It’s been so good for my work projects.
So many wonderful links to follow, and I love love love these journaling prompts. Thank you for sharing them.
Aww I’m so glad! The prompt around what we catch has been SO insightful to me! I think I’ve got a whole post on that one. 🎣✨💜🪄
Feeling very inspired after reading this post. It sometimes feels hard to imagine it is possible to work part time doing something you love and also financially thrive. Thank you for adding some reality threads to my dreams! Have a lovely holiday x
Ahh thanks so much Emma! That means a lot. It’s interesting to consider part time and that work/ life balance isn’t it?
So working part time came out of necessity because of childcare but I also had periods of down time from contracts before I was a mum and thought oh wow days are so spacious.
I would say my work slots are 99% productive ie no faffing, gearing up or procrastinating.
It’s interesting to me to consider thoughts and space to have them for example I used to have SO many creative ideas whilst walking and listen to a lot of podcasts to learn while commuting.
As it is now I work Mondays and Thursdays and often work while Luna naps.
Our home is a place of work for my husband with visiting clients so I’ve learnt to be fierce about downtime but it’s a constant practise.
I guess the main thing is I have to prioritise and financially the fund I applied for last month was a risk but it felt worth it and it panned out. 🎉 lots of beautiful things to come! ✨🌺
I love it when you share transparently about money. I remember the first time you wrote about how much money you made it really expanded my idea of what is possible for creative businesses. Looking forward to it!
Ooo I’ve done it before?!
Here I am thinking “gosh I’ve never talked openly about money before” haha - I think that goes to show how hard I find it BUT if even 5/10 years ago someone had been talking about money as a creative in a way that felt possible...
I.e not someone with a TONNE of online followers / book deals I would have felt so inspired and expansive and so that’s why I do it because it’s possible no matter how you choose to use your creativity.
In my industry there is SO much conversation about rates and lack and doing it for the love (only) and I kinda had to prove all that wrong when Dave got sick because I didn’t know how else to cope or heal other than to create. ✨ Creativity AND taking up space with it is what changed... 🗝️✨🌺
Yes! It was before Substack times and before we did Content Club together. I really thought you had to have tons of followers to make an actual living so it really shattered some misconceptions for me.
Ooo this is so interesting! Thank you for reminding me about this.
Yes 20 years of making a life from the arts / culture/ engagement/ heritage now... even when I was working part time in bars in my 20s it was all coming together... there’s something of wisdom and experience brings through confidence and round the corner from courage I think... like your 100 submissions idea... making and pitching and experimentation and diversifying brings it all together... ✨💜🎣✨
Thank you Claire 🤍
I’d love to know more about your entrepreneurial journey. I guess I’m limited in what I can do from home, but I have so many skills and so much knowledge that I know I could do more and really get serious about my career. Hearing your perspective is very interesting to me 🥰
Aw I’m so glad Sophie.
There was a definite shift in innovation for me whilst pregnant with Luna at the start of the pandemic.
I applied for and received a pot of funding to deliver something with a team of artists called ‘Creativity Island for Mums’.
It was a project mainly online that celebrated the pockets of time we find ourselves with for wellbeing inspired by creativity in the first 3 years of motherhood. In that time as a Project Manager I celebrated perfectly imperfect showing up, creativity and delivery because if I wanted the project to happen I had to show up sleep deprived and sometimes wobbly. 😳. I had just one window of time which happened to be while we were all experiencing the lockdowns etc... I used some naps, some phone time and a whole lot of pram walks and I think it’s a project I’m most proud of to date which set a very different trajectory for my business... I have had a look at your gorgeous prints and they are just BEAUTIFUL - so so special. Looking forward to reading more of your updates here. ✨✨🌱🥰
Thank you so much for sharing!
Creativity Island for Mums sounds incredible, and I can really hear your passion when you speak about it.
Ah thank you, my prints were the start of my self employed creativity journey, but there’s so much more that I want to do. I’m so excited to get started whilst on maternity leave with William 🥰
Eeek SUCH an exciting time! So you are “off” work from a different job or your graphic design is your job? I am so inspired by design after designing my second journal myself - a very steep learning curve but the creativity needed to communicate and come out through me with that one. I learnt so so much and I’m curious about whether I’d do it again in the same way...
Yeah, I’m off from my prints job for now. I’ve switched them over from physical prints to digital downloads whilst I’m on maternity leave. That way I don’t have to do much with it.
I love design. I’m definitely no artist, but I love the creativity and style of designing prints, as well as designing workbooks and printouts too. It’s just so much fun
Oh I think you’re defo an artist! ✨🗝️✍️🪄
Thank you for the mention my dear. Hope you have a wonderful holiday 🥰
Thank you Claire! Hope you have a lovely Easter time and your garden is sharing allll the beauty back with you. ✨🌱✨
I hope you have a wonderful holiday!! And congrats on such a lucrative month in your business, that's so exciting! I can definitely relate to moving into the entrepreneurial title more and am definitely in that transition stage, trying not to panic over the uncertainty of finances or taking big risks on myself, but instead move with it and just keep creating. I loved reading this!!
Ahh I hear you Hunter! I did some googling around entrepreneurial spirit and risk and it’s so interesting to me.
I feel I fit much more into the cautious/ protective space but with a BUCKET tonne of innovation and creativity!
That’s been the real 🗝️ key for me.
I wonder if the “other” parts of entrepreneurship will come or if I just repeat this model...
I’m working on some notes on ‘taking up space’ I think it’s all connected and makes everything feel more possible.
I still have that “who does she think she is?” rhetoric so I have far to go out of my comfort zone in all of this... if I wasn’t away from my laptop I would have edited this email to take the ££ out like 10 times already 😆✨✨
What are you working on at the moment? 🪄💜
Ahh yes I relate to this so much! And feel very similar. My biggest issue is that I tend to get excited about something and create it, but the delivery part falls flat either when I promote it on social or I just don't feel confident about sharing, and then I move onto the next "shiny" thing. I'm very invested in being consistent this year (hence the substack!). I'm glad you kept the ££ part in, it makes it exciting to see other amazing people living the "slow living" lifestyle being successful!
I make most of my money currently as a proofreader for an education company, but I also do photography which is very fulfilling but takes up a ton of time! I'm really hoping to move into more of my own creative business role this year. My dream would be to just create as much as I can. I'm working on a mini course to put in my substack and start building out some other course ideas, but it definitely feels overwhelming!
What a beautiful balance! I’m going to let you into my BIGGEST creative secret for engagement - co-creation! I used to specialise in creating programmes for children and young people and the amount of times something would be designed by adults and the kids would turn everything on its head. I’ve kept the model and now my audience, participants and clients help me co-create. It gives the project cohesion and confidence before I’ve even written the first line of what I think it is. If you need a sounding board write down your cheerleaders and ask them what they think or ask in Instagram stories in a poll? There is always so much depth in the answers and SO many surprises! My next Masterclass is driven purely by folks asking me to teach on the topic. Having this in the mix means I’m happy to do it and feel very focussed on communicating how it can help folks. Because that feels easy I can just day dream some posts and take pretty pictures in between times. Ok this has been an absolute essay here in reply! Ooops ✨🗝️👀🌺
I love that, Claire! Thank you so much for sharing. I definitely need to be better about sharing my ideas and seeing what sticks for people! I feel like I've gone through so many different types of audiences online because I've changed my niche so much, so I gotta get back into being clear about what I'm sharing and maybe this will help. I love how that's become such a successful model for you. Plus you're so right about the kids dictating how something actually needs to be made-- I definitely see that in what I'm doing too! Thank you again!
Oh have you?! That’s super interesting. I feel like I spent a fair few years confusing people with what I wanted to talk about because there were so many threads. 🧵
Yes you can simply keep returning to what you’re called to create - what speaks to you in the loudest most aligned voice... and dream that one into being first. There’s time, we have so much time. ✨🗝️✨🪄📖
Yes! I was really rooted in slow living when I was in England for a few years but then when I came back to sunny, hot Florida I couldn't figure out how to visually show that lifestyle, and I just kind of went off on a bunch of tangents. Haha
But you're so right-- there is time! What a good reminder. Thank you for the pep talk, it's made my day!
"If I was fishing, how could I ensure I catch what is really for me?"
What a beautiful prompt. Thank you! I shall ponder on the fishes I wanna catch ;)
P.S. Enjoy your holiday!
Isn’t it cute! It was inspired by one of my clients who uses a tonne of seaside emojis when we chat 😆🪄 🎣✨💡
🐟🐠🐡🦈❤️
And my faves 🐡& 🐳😆🪄🗝️
Lovely post and I love the GROW idea. I do something similar when I feel stuck or when resistance shows up 😊
Oh do you Tamzin?! That’s so interesting! I remember the first time I used it I figured out a project needed to be WAY smaller with LESS moving parts and I was so taken aback! I love anything that lets me journal out what’s inside and I find this one easy to remember too. How is work / life going for you at the moment? ✨
Exactly, we like to overcomplicate and getting things down on paper can make it all so much clearer, thankfully! I'm well thank you, just back from a month of travelling and plenty of work to get on with now which is exciting and joyful, so I really can't complain ❤
YES! The visual reflection I totally get that. Aw how gorgeous! ✨ sounds a lovely space to be in. Enjoy!
thank you love! I forgot you were on holiday last week and wondered where you were - hope you have a really great time away and well done on the new title and recent successes!
Thanks so much Sarah! I’m so grateful for space to absorb everything and let more inspiration land. Can’t wait to show you some pics! It’s very beautiful! Happy Easter to you! ✨ 🐣✨
Thanks Luisa - I needed something expansive as I’m still in that place of healing around money stuff. In my daughters second year I’m so curious about where the time for work appears and how to keep moving out of the “time for money” model - it all feels so possible in the age of online... I think my time off line brings even more insight about how I want to BE online if that makes sense? ✨
Hoping the money and post covid healing isn’t life long but also embracing the ride and remembering and meditating on how diamonds are made🎢✨ 🥰 💎