The Introverted Influencer

Creative Business Owners: Don't Make this Mistake!

September 02, 2022 Erica Van Slyke Season 1 Episode 29
The Introverted Influencer
Creative Business Owners: Don't Make this Mistake!
Show Notes Transcript

One might assume that getting paid to do what you love will automatically equate to a life of happiness and freedom. 

The truth of that matter? You can start the business of your dreams and still be miserable as f**k if you don't get super intentional on your soul's core needs and non-negotiables.

In this episode, I am sharing a cautionary tale for all creative business owners. Don't make this mistake!

 **All my fellow mamas out there: I am a potty-mouth,  so you may want to listen with headphones on!**

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Speaker 1:

Welcome to the introverted influencer podcast. I'm your host, Erica. Vanke my soul's mission on this planet is to help fellow introverts grow their online influence and estate, a feminine flow and ease while battling the woes of depression, anxiety, and even mom guilt. I've somehow managed to build a six-figure blog without the use of social media and without sacrificing my mental health, if I can do it, you can too. Hello, beautiful soul. Welcome to episode 29 of the introverted influencer podcast. I am so incredibly thankful you have decided to join me this week. I have some exciting news for those of you who have been with me since the beginning, after seven months of recording this podcast on my old iPhone.<laugh> I have finally made the commitment to build upon this little passion project of mine. And I just invested in all of the necessary equipment to start having guests on this show. And as the words come outta my mouth, I'm like 70% super freaking stoked for the future of this podcast, but I'm also about 30% freaked out because that means this anti-social introvert is going to have to get a little uncomfortable and actually reach out and collaborate with other human beings.<laugh> but in all seriousness, this is how truly passionate I am about continuing on in my mission to help other creatives and introverts. So it's kind of sad that this may officially be the very last episode I ever record on my phone because I'm moving on up baby<laugh>. So in the last week's episode, I was pretty vulnerable in sharing how a relatively recent Pinterest algorithm update put a hurt and on my business y'all. And as a result, I temporarily went down a freak out spiral and did some things that weren't aligned with a lot of what I preach on this podcast instead of, of working from my usual place of flow and faith in the universe, I kind of got constricted into a place of fear and force, and then in an effort to turn my algorithm was around. I got really antsy and I started reaching out to other peers, asking for advice and ultimately looking outside of myself for the answers. And that didn't feel good at all. I gotta admit, I'm glad I'm out of it, but it's kind of what I want to talk about today. So instead of me just staying in my lane, like I have done for we're going on eight years now,<laugh> just showing up on a weekly basis following what inspires me, following my curiosity and knowing that that was enough. I found myself just getting really frozen in trying to manipulate like perfect outcomes and really just getting stuck in internet marketing dogma. The thing is, I know that this is not just me because in my reaching out to my other blogging peers, a lot of them actually admitted that they've, they've lost the spark too, with their creative business and their creativity. I think it's just a common phenomenon, really, for many creatives to fall prey to this once the honeymoon stage of their business is over. Because when you think about it, when you first decide to go for your passion, the bar is really low because you have nothing to compare it to. And you don't even know if it'll work out at all and you don't. I mean, there's really no way to tell how it's gonna go. So in that space, there's really no pressure. You have a lot more creative freedom to make mistakes, and there's a healthy sense of detachment from your results. But then as you begin to get the ball rolling, maybe you got some beginners let going on. You keep going a few years later, you'll look back and all of a sudden, there's this track record of success and continual growth that you've established for your business. And that's great. That's awesome actually, but here's where it can go a little awry. So as you've kind of set the bar higher and higher, I'm sure this stakes get higher as well. And you might start to grip onto the outcome more and more. Unfortunately, the energy of gripping and manipulating the outcome. It can take a toll and really drain a lot of the joy from the creative process. It can force you into a vibration of desperation and dog paddling. And this is where a lot of creatives will burn out. I can personally say that the desperation vibes led me to temporarily abandon the core values that I actually founded my business on. So from the moment I started my blog almost a decade ago, I vowed to myself that even if it meant growing at a much slower rate, even more important than page views and revenues, I wanted the blogging process to always feel grounded in a sense of joy and ease. And at the time I, I can look back now and say that I'm grateful for the dark place. I was when I started the blog, my mental health was suffering greatly. So that was a non-negotiable that I founded the business on as well is basically, if it with my mental health, it's gone, it's not worth it. So because of this, because I was willing to play a slower game, if it meant that it felt better to me in the long run, I realized, and I made peace with the fact that my journey wasn't gonna look like others That maybe went at it more aggressively from a masculine hustling approach. And so I, I didn't wanna discourage myself or get what they call it compar comparisonitis<laugh>. So basically I vowed to myself from the beginning that I was gonna keep my head down and not compare my metrics or my growth rate to my peers, because I didn't want to ever burn myself out. And I had to be really mindful of my mental health at the time. And I'm so grateful that I have gone about it this way, because looking back, I see where this, this has herd me more than I ever could have thought possible. This is also why I would advise creatives that are moonlighting or maybe their passion is still just a hobby. I would not advise quitting your day job too soon, because if your business hasn't proven to, to be stable enough to support you financially, and you just quit, quit your day job and go for it. I could see where this sets you up to be a little more desperate and a little more urgent, and some may thrive off of that energy, but that's, I know that's not a good energy for me. So I think it depends on the person, but I think that if you do quit your day job too fast, it might make you a little desperate and a little too focused on money versus staying in a beautiful creative easeful type of flow. But I've been calling myself out a lot. I also need to pat myself on the back because other than this temporary freak out, I went through a few months ago over the Pinterest thing. I have been really good about staying true to the way I wanna approach my business. And I think it really has contributed to the longevity of my creative career, but when Pinterest threw me a curve ball at a time in my career, when the stakes felt really high for a minute, I lost myself like the Radiohead song, karma police<laugh>. I lost myself. I fell into a trap and I started to question my entire approach. And I started to regard all the shoulds and the supposed tos, a little too heavily<laugh> and I kind of put, uh, dark cloud on, on what should be a joyful way of making money. And I turned it into a boring strategical, kind of, I don't know, boring existence for a minute.<laugh> where I kind of abandoned my zone of genius as a creative and tried to make myself into a robot to basically just hack search engines and social media algorithms all for the sake of page views and revenue. But I didn't stay there. I did come to my senses pretty soon<laugh> but for those of you who haven't ever had to navigate this phase of growth yet from an outsider looking in, I know it could be easy to just assume that getting paid to do what you love will just automatically equate to happiness and freedom. But as Abraham Hicks says, we, humans are so free. We can choose. You can start the business of your dreams and still be miserable as. If you don't get super intentional about your soul's core needs and your non-negotiables. So during my brief fall from grace and all that I've preached, I could see myself very quickly losing my passion and my drive and my creativity. And it got to where I was kind of just dreading having to show up for my blog. And this is when I knew I had to put my foot down because a whole reason, any of us long for a certain outcome or a certain amount of success, a certain title, a certain career, a certain income is because of the filling. We think the thing will give us, right? It's not for the actual thing. It's for the filling. We assume we'll feel better in having of the manifestation. I wanted my own business because I wanted to feel free. I wanted freedom. I wanted ease and I didn't wanna have to answer to anyone or feel like a slave. But when I betrayed my souls, Nongo non-negotiables for this stake of page views and results. What's so ironic about all of it is that inadvertently I enslaved myself to multiple bosses, not just the one I used to have when I was a marketing consultant. I now created a page view boss, a Pinterest boss, an email marketing boss, a Google boss. You get the picture. And this is not to say, I don't want to give you the wrong idea here. Keeping up with industry best practices is a very reasonable expectation to hold yourself accountable to the problem is when this becomes the entire focus in driving force of your creative business. Because if that's what happens, then you've already lost the game. When I had my come to Jesus moment with myself, after trying to pull myself out of my freak out, it's like one morning I just woke up. And I, I said, you know, Hell if I'm just gonna sit around and pump out content solely for Google search results and not actual human beings, then I might as well go back to my old, safe marketing nine to five job. But I took on all the risks of being a creative business owner. So that one, I can be my own boss and live on my own terms and two, so that I can make money doing what lights me the F up. And if you get up, get off on going about business in a really masculine way and hacking algorithms. And you know, you're all into strategy. Awesome. Keep doing you boo. But that's not me. That is not my thing. Actually, if that, if that's what I had to do, I wouldn't wanna get out of bed in the morning. So we all have to just do what works for us. And if this doesn't resonate with you, that's fun. But I just don't see the point in risking at all for a business that is not aligned with what you truly wanna do and how you wanna live your life. And maybe I haven't grown my reach or my page views as fast as the hustling type of blogger, but I can assure you I'm enjoying the process way more. And I have a feeling I will be around way longer. So if you are newer to the game or maybe you haven't even started yet, I want you to take some time to reflect right now. How do you want your day to day life? How do you want it to feel? What does it look like your ideal day to day? What does your soul mean more of and what are your non-negotiables? Because what you're doing day in and day out to build your business is going to determine how enjoyable your day to day life is. And this is a long game, honey, who gives a about success. If what you have to do to attain, it makes you miserable in the process, and then you can't even sustain it to enjoy it. Anyhow, what's the point? The journey is a destination. So make sure you go about your daily life in a way that feels good to you. And that honors your core needs. Don't fall into the trap. SIS, you are more magical than that. Thank you so much for stopping by this week. I make no money from these podcasts. So the best way you can support this show is by leaving me a five star review on whatever podcast platform you use, or by sharing it with a friend or by screenshotting this episode on your phone, uploading it to your Insta story and tagging me in it at designing loves, sending you my love.