As I start to build my new blog, brand and book, I am seeing the benefits of everything I have learned. Not only in the last eight years in business, but from my corporate career, from life experiences, and from perceived failures. I say perceived failures for good reason: This is the way I can view them or not.
With building my business Upcycled & Co. I went on a very steep learning curve. For the first year I battled away by myself, making some traction, but not a whole lot. It wasn't until I engaged a business coach that I really started to fully understand what was required to build both a brand and a business. This period of time from year two through to year five of owning and running my paint and furniture painting workshop company, saw me learn how to plan, market and execute my products and services to a large audience. Learning how to navigate social media in a way that really got my audience engaged, and that resulted in a continual flow of new followers. Becoming adept at creating graphics, writing blog posts, ads and other media content was all part of every day life as a business owner. One of the biggest lessons though was this: I learned that it was okay to take time out. In fact, I learned that it was not only okay, it was vital. Providing myself wth regular self-care is what got me through. Was I always consistent? No. But when I got off track, I saw the signs and I quickly got back on. The biggest lesson I learned around taking care of myself was that the world was not going to fall apart (or my business disappear or die) if I took time out. When my business coach first suggested I take the afternoon off with a walk at the beach at my most stressful times, I really thought she was nuts. But, I was quickly proven wrong. It was indeed the absolute best thing at those times and this is a practice I will always engage in at times of intense pressure and stress. Keeping a track of the various moving parts of the business was at times challenging, but once I was in there, of course, I had to keep going. Once I was in there, I had no option. With a good sized social media following people expect you to show up, and rightly so. This was a great lesson in consistency for me. I had to be consistent if I wanted this business to grow. I was. And, it did. Now, with this new brand I have so much knowledge to draw on. I know how to build a social media audience. I know how to write engaging copy for ads and posts. I know how to create a website. I know how and what to outsource to free up my time and energy for doing what I love. I know I will get results if I keep going. There's an old saying that, Knowledge is Power, and it's so true. When we know more, we can do better. When we know more, we can do things differently, And when we know more, we can create different outcomes. Question: What experiences have you had whereby your knowledge created a different outcome for you? Please let me know in the comments, I'd love to hear. With love,
