Vision Board Lightening bolt

off the back of 5 funding rejections... ✨

Claire Venus lives under dark skies in Northumberland with her husband, two children and 6 pet chickens.

She runs her own company called Creatively Conscious and writes a publication of the same name here on Substack and also teaches creatives how to use Substack over at Sparkle on Substack

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Hi all,

Happy Thursday, how are you? It’s a bit of a different post from me today.

I am so so excited to launch my first ever holistic business growth programme! Holding the vision as everyone gathers that I’ve called in a BEAUTIFUL collective of passionate creatives who want to grow their business in a soulful and sustainable way.

Your Self Seeded Business

This programme is for you... if... you are READY to grow your creative business. That’s it - that’s the criteria!

You can be at any stage of your journey…I’m here to hold space for you.

• Maybe you’re in the big or quiet dream stage?

• Maybe you’re a few years in and feeling burnt out…?

• Maybe you’re thinking about giving up…?

• Maybe you want to mix things up and bring in new people to collaborate/ work with?

• Maybe you need both accountability and some one to one and group mentoring?

• Maybe you want to better understand growth?

I’m enrolling now and there are 9 spots left!!

This is the creative growth programme I wish I had when I started, in fact I would have loved it at any point in growing my business. I love working with coaches and mentors; there are some BRILLIANT people who I am ever grateful to. Have you worked with a coach or a mentor in your business before?

Your Self Seeded Business is a group development programme for Creative Businesses. We’ll be a small group (under 10 I think) and we’ll work together for four months.

We start 6 November and run until the end of February. If you’re looking for a cheerleader, a mentor, someone who has risen from the ashes in self employed life multiple times over 15 years it’s me, I’m here!

newhappyco

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Are you ready for some story-time… Let me take you back…

I once said in a job interview;

“I know there’s no one else that could do this job as well as me.” (*I felt a tiny bit sick saying this)

The interviewer said;

“I think there might be others.”

I shrunk a little. We carried on.

I got the job.

It was as a Festival Director. It was a job I’d worked my whole career to get. I got fancy business cards, updated my CV, celebrated with my friends. It was a little more money for 3 times the amount of work I was doing before. That hit me like a tonne of bricks when I realised what it really meant to ‘climb the career ladder’.

I was at my desk by 7.30am, quit social plans, my brain worked overtime; I had to bring the vision to life. I met with a famous children’s author. He signed a copy of one of my books. It read;

“Claire, you are doing brilliant work.”

I read it and then again and then one more time. I showed it to people. I traced over his beautiful writing with my fingers.

As I read his words I realised they’d arrived to heal some of the depths the father wound in me. I remember a card from my birth father arriving when young. Old enough to read but young enough to be confused.

It read;

“Claire; Happy Birthday, my door and life is always open.”

I thought it was a ridiculous thing to write. I never replied.

When I fell pregnant with my first child in 2013 aged 33, I quickly realised the career path I was on wasn’t going to suit the life I wanted to live.

So I changed it. I quit my “dream job” after just 6 months and instead I started building a business that worked for me.

I never planned this. I didn’t plan to meet my husband and fall pregnant 3 months later either but the universe wants what it wants! 💕

Running my own business

I didn’t go viral on instagram or launch sell out programmes that made me millions, I am an elder millennial and felt awkward even speaking to camera at the start! I used my skillset and stayed plugged into commissions that excited me, that allowed me to grow as a creative consultant.

I grew projects within my business, tried new income streams; had a lovely time.

I took myself on a learning journey; a wild ride of learning who I am as a creative outside of rules and timelines, outside of having a boss, outside of needing to prove anything to anyone, outside of climbing a ladder…

Now (with nearly 10 years experience as a creative in business and 15 self employed), I want to teach you the strategy I use and hold your hand to write your own blue print to nurture your own.

98% of businesses fail in the first 5 years but no one really talks about slow growth… At least nowhere I’ve found yet? No one talks about behind the scenes of the slowly nurtured business - it’s not sexy enough is it? But that’s what I do. I’m so passionate about it.

I was scared of boom or bust, I wasn’t into risk taking, I was a new mum and my husband had given up a 100k a year job abroad to be a family man and work part time.

I started to grow my skillsets, absorb who I was and walk the path that was truly mine.

In building a business that works for me, in swapping out hugely training time for money projects, I nurtured the parts of myself that were hiding, I brought together new worlds that I could create and learn in and I don’t intend stopping!

Your Self Seeded Business is the (gentle) programme you need if;

• You want to grow your business joyfully and sustainably around the other commitments of your life.

• You are a creative or wellness enthusiast or perhaps both!

• You are interested in how to plant seeds that serve both you and your business financially and soulfully for the long term.

• You want to create a business strategy that is EMBODIED and serves you for years to come.

• You are curious about outsourcing some elements of your business and stepping into your power and your zone of genius.

• You’re available to commit time to the programme Nov-Feb. (it’s magically spacious)

(*) Transcript at end of post.

Five Funding Rejections in 3 months and the Spark of an Idea…

Before the summer, I thought ‘Your Self Seeded Business’ was an ebook, a set of journal prompts, a new way to hold people.

I thought the journal I was creating in 2023¹ was for

Company of Two

. Neither of those things happened and on the day of the 5th funding rejection I sat in a deflated heap and then I meditated.

Your Self Seeded Business was born as a group mentoring programme - I could see us all sitting on zoom around the world, all making ripples in our creative lives, reclaiming our power, getting the work done - I was so excited.

And yes it’s also the name of my BRAND NEW journal; it will be available exclusively for sign ups and I might order a few extra copies to gift and sell to my beautiful community.

So the funding rejections brought me space, space to put this out into the world and to see if you’re ready to receive it.

So what else do you want to know; claire@creativelyconscious.co.uk

Are you ready to grow and self seed your business? Perhaps you already are? I’d love to know about the seeds you’ve already planted or are planting soon that you expect to reap beautiful flowers of reward in the future…

Claire

✨

PS - I am not offering one to one mentoring at this time so my group programme ‘Your Self Seeded Business’ is currently the only way to book one to one slots with me.

PPS - New here? Hi!! You might also like this post;

(*)Self Seeded Business Intro - Video Transcript…

Read it here.

1. I’m creating a journal a year for 10 years. I’ve brought the first two to life.