Explore Your Enthusiasm, with Tara Swiger | Craft | Art | Business

If you want to get more done, but you feel burnt out, you don't need better time management. Apply to join my new program here: https://forms.gle/d5mwsYw1aFqeFCzcA

A listener asked me for some book recommendations so here are my top favorites in memoir, non-ficition, brain science and encouragement. Find the entire list of books here:

It's my hope that by talking about what helped me, I can help you feel less overwhelmed, less disconnected from your life and more tapped into what brings you joy.Let's just get right into it: Following your enthusiasm, really nerding out is the way to feel like yourself again. If you, like most of us, have had to take on new caregiver roles during the pandemic or this stage of life - maybe it's kids, a sick spouse, your parents need care. A lot of us are in the stage of life where we just have more caregiver roles than ever. And while that can feel good and fulfilling…sometimes it doesn't. In some situations it just feels….hard.

It's back, baby!In todays episode I share why I had to stop podcasting, how my family TRIPLED and what's next for the podcast.Explore Your Enthusiasm was a weekly creative business show for 6 years. We talked marketing, time, goal-setting and profitability in your creative work. And then, pandemic one April, newborn in NICU in July and three more kiddos (under 4yo), in September.But I'm ready to come back. Listen in to what's changed and what you can expect next.

Remember when I said the podcast was coming back? That VERY week, I became the mom of three more kids!  Tune in to hear how my family expanded so quickly and what's next.  Don’t miss the next episode and all my news, sign up here: http://taraswiger.com/list Join the Facebook group for recipes and live convos:https://www.facebook.com/groups/essentialenthusiasm/ Follow me on Instagram: http://instagram.com/taraswiger  Find these shownotes (and 300+ more episodes!) here: http://taraswiger.com/4kids

I have a baby! I stopped selling my main product! Listen in to learn why!  After publishing an episode every single week for 6 years, the pandemic and life really threw me for a loop and it's been four months since a regular weekly podcast.  Well, I have good news - the podcast is back to it's normal weekly schedule! This week we're going to talk about the big changes in my life in my business, why I made the big changes that I did, and what lessons you can learn from my process. Find the full transcript here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast309

It's time to share my favorite books of March - June. I read 25 books and so many were so good! FInd the full shownotes at TaraSwiger.com/podcast308.  Today's episode is brought to you by Hank Green and his upcoming book A Brilliantly Foolish Endeavor. Find more at HankGreen.com  The books I loved: Home Before Dark by Riley Sager Support indies Buy from Amazon   The Southern Book Club’s Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix I talked more about this book in this reading vlog Buy it here. From Amazon:   The City We Became by NK Jemisin  Support indies Buy from Amazon We Ride Upon Sticks by Quan Barry Support indies Buy from Amazon Queenie by Cadace Carty-Williams Support indies Buy from Amazon   The HIlarious World of Depression by John Moe Support indies Buy from Amazon Courtroom Thrillers I loved:  Miracle Creek by Angie Kim A Good Marriage by Kimberley McCreight

As I was thinking about if I wanted to record and what, if anything, I wanted to share, I realized that what YOU come here for is help with your business and encouragement in building it. And the best way I can serve you right now is to tell you other awesome business podcasts to listen to, while I continue my podcast hiatus, specifically podcasts by black women.  Because here’s the thing - we all have implicit (meaning unconscious) biases. These biases affect what we listen to, who we pay attention to, who we trust.  One of the ways we defeat these biases is to notice them and then work at changing them. And one of the best ways is to pay attention and then purposefully change your feeds.  Changing your feeds isn’t the ONLY step, you also need to be educating yourself and interrogating your beliefs!   Book Recommendations for educating yourself on how to be anti-racist: So You Want to Talk About Race by Ijeoma Oluo Me and White Supremacy by Layla Saad (only $2.99 on Kindle!) How to be an AntiRacist by Ibram X Kendi But changing your feed is an important step because, now more than ever, your reality and your beliefs are SHAPED by your feeds. Google and Facebook show you search results and NEWS based on your feeds and activity.  Your world is being created by the voices you actively choose to listen to.  Your life is created by your actions, your actions are caused by your thoughts and your thoughts are being shaped by what you see online, especially in spaces YOU and the algorithms have curated. So let’s get your feeds full of brilliant black business women.  Side Hustle Pro by Nicaila Mathews Okome Nicaila interviews black women entrepreneurs who have scaled their side hustles into full-time entrepreneurship. Lately she’s been doing a “rewind” episodes where she shares the steps in her own business journey. I think y’all will like  episode 199 where she shares how to start a side hustle and her own journey and episode  195, where she talks to a jewelry designer who hustled for 10 years before turning it into a full-time business.    Pimp your brilliance with Monique Malcom Lessons on finances, business, creating a plan to turn your creative passion into a business. Monique is real about her struggles and the feel of the show is more casual, like this one. I think you’ll like episode 83: 5 ways to find focus while social distancing and episode 78: 6 systems for your creative business.   Support is sexy with Elayne Fluker Elayne does interviews with a variety of women entrepreneurs, including Etsy sellers, authors  and psychologists and doctors. There is a great episode from May 1 on dealing with stress during coronavirus, where Elayne speaks with a therapist. I think listeners of this podcast will really want to tune in to episode 725 on how to build a million dollar Etsy business.    Journey to Launch with Jamila Soufrant This is a financial focused podcast that has interviews with many entrepreneurs and regular folks who have paid off their debt. I think you’ll like episode 129 on quitting your dayjob to follow your creative passion.   Be School withTaylor Elyse Taylor is an embodiment coach and the focus of her show is on mindset and confidence and flow. Be School is a combination of interviews and mini-lessons, similar to the ones I teach here. Her episodes always encourage me. She posts new episodes TWICE a week, so if you’re desperate for new episodes, list in! I think you’ll love episode 304: Imposter Syndrome. Now, these are just the business shows I like, and I don’t even really listen to business podcasts! Lemme know your fave podcasts by black women  over on Instagram I’m @TaraSwiger  I’m extending my unplanned podcast break into a full summer sabbatical. I will go back to weekly episodes of Explore Your Enthusiasm the first week of August! Until then, you can find new bookish videos on YouTube. Find the shownotes and more episodes at http://taraswiger.com/podcast307 

What if you are just not getting things done? What if you just can NOT get things done? Before you start beating yourself up, ask yourself: is this just a season of my life? I recorded this episode over a year ago, when I was a brand-new mom, but it's so appropriate for what we're ALL going through right now - a completely new season in our life and business.    Find the shownotes with the full transcript here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast306

How do you find joy and enthusiasm for anything when everything is turned upside down? That’s what I’ve been thinking about this past week.  As you know if you’ve been listening for a while, my fundamental business belief, what shapes everything I do and how I work with makers and designers, is that your business will thrive and YOU will feel best about it when you follow your enthusiasm. What do I mean by enthusiasm? I like the definition:  intense or eager enjoyment or interest. You can follow your enthusiasm IN your business, by working on projects you love, letting go of expectations about what you “should” do, working with the kind of clients that you prefer. You can follow your enthusiasm outside of your business by allowing yourself to work on non-business projects and filling up your enthusiasm well with things that seem completely unrelated (for me lately it’s reading, and making bookish videos, which you can find on YouTube. Other times it’s been quilting or knitting).  But with everything uncertain and stressful and all the change...how do we find any enthusiasm?  I don’t know about your coronovirus situation, but mine is full of...obligation and responsibility. Basically, we’re all having to do a lot of things we don’t want to do, or that we’re not prepared to do, or that are just hard.  On top of that, you have your business - maybe it is doing just fine, maybe it has lost some of it’s sales channels, maybe you’ve lost all your working hours, when you would work on it.  So does the idea of enthusiasm and joy really have a place in our current situation? In my experience, yes.  Not because things aren’t hard or we’re going to pretend everything is great. But because now, more than ever, you need to take care of your best business resource, and your family’s most important resource - your wellbeing. A key ingredient to your mental and emotional wellbeing is doing things that are just fun. That you get excited about, that brings you joy, or just interests you.    But how do you tap into that enthusiasm? Fine all of the suggestions here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast305 We will bounce back.       

Welcome to April and the beginning of a new quarter! This is the time where we usually make plans for the coming three months and review the progress we’ve made so far this year but...everything is weird. How do we do that now? In the Starship this week, we’re Map Making - making a plan for the quarter. You can learn more about the Starship here and/or start making your own map with my book, Map Your Business.  I know, nothing is normal right now.  You are staying home, no one in your home is ever leaving it, you may not be able to get the supplies you usually do, you may not be selling where you usually do, people are buying less because some people are losing their jobs.  And yet.  Now is the perfect time to plan the new quarter.    I’ve actually talked about planning during uncertainty already - back in episode 254, I gave suggestions for how you can plan when YOUR life is uncertain. Add back in episode 291, I shared how I was planning the New Year while my life is so uncertain (as a foster parent).    Well, guess what? Now you’re joining me in everything being up in the air and nothing being normal! It’s really uncomfortable isn’t it?  One of the things I find myself wanting to do is just wait….wait for it to feel normal. Wait for things to be ok. Wait for everything to be how it was.  Well, that’s not going to happen.  We may very well need to limit social contact for quite a long while until this is completely past.  But beyond that, life WILL be different.  Some of the people who lost jobs, won’t get the same ones back.  Some businesses won’t open back up.    I don’t say any of this to scare you, but so that you can be honest with yourself - things have changed and we don’t when or if what we consider normal is coming back.    What we can do is move forward with what we do know  What we can do is embrace today for being today. We can accept our current reality and find ways to live within that.  And look, I know, it’s scary. Change is really really hard. And never before have we all been going through change at the SAME TIME. It’s so disorienting!    Waiting until everything is normal isn’t going to work.  Accepting where you are right now is the only way forward. Now it may take days or weeks or even a month to really feel ready to accept it. To even understand what the new reality is. It’s certainly taken me a week or two to get used to having two girls home from school every day and feeling out what our schedules are.    But once you’re accepting it and through the fog a bit, it’s time to plan.    So how can we plan when we don’t know what’s coming?    Look at your goals and dreams again. Get reoriented in where you want to go. Ask yourself which you still care about. Which still matters Forget the old way of getting there and look for new ways. Maybe you were going to do a craft show - what about finally starting that shopify shop? Maybe you were going to grow your email list at a craft show, what about creating a PDF download to drive subscribers?  Focus on systems, not outcomes. If you find yourself stressed that people aren’t shopping as much now (although I’m not sure this is true? Surely online shopping is surging) - stop focusing on the outcomes of your goals,and focus instead on setting up the systems of your goals. What technology do you need? How consistent will you be? What do you have to do in order to stay consistent?  Be Realistic Yes, work on your goals, make a plan, but also really practice accepting the time and energy you have. I know I have about an hour a day, as long as my girls aren’t in school. I wish I could do more in my business, but that’s the extent of the time and energy I have. So I’m making a plan for the quarter - I’m looking at the systems and products I want to create, knowing I'll be doing it in about 5 hours a week. I will consider it a success if I use those 5 hours well, to create and publish this podcast, hold the weekly Starship chat and go live in my Facebook group. That’s it. Be gentle on yourself. Along with being realistic, give yourself a break. I HAVE more hours than just naptime - I could get up early or work after bedtime...but I need that rest and recovery. I don’t know about you, but I find myself more on edge, more exhausted, more short-tempered than usual. So don’t make your business and your goals another thing to stress yourself out, another thing you should be doing.    We are going to get through this. Things may not look the same afterwards...but what if that was a good thing? What if you set a goal for the quarter and reached it despite all the chaos? How awesome and grateful would you feel?  One way or the other time will pass, the virus will pass and there will be shopping and craft shows and retail locations making orders again - will your business be ready for it?  Find the shownotes here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast304  

How  do you decide what to do next? How do you make a decision? My family has a simple question that we ask to make complex decisions and I’m sharing it with you today.   I want to talk about how you decide ANYthing in your business (or life) and a quick question I use to make better decisions. I’m not even going to make you wait, here is the question to ask yourself: Hard now or hard later?  Over the years of making decisions together, from do we want to get pizza delivered or make dinner, to should we buy a new or used car, to should we rent or buy...my husband and I have realized that making decisions is it’s own skill set. To make decisions together, we need to be on the same page about what matters, what our values are, and where we’re going as a family.  And there are a lot of ways to make bad decisions! If you just look at the short-term effect of the decision, if you look at what’s gratifying RIGHT NOW, if you make a decision based on a value that’s not really your own...you end up with a not-great result. Sometimes it doesn’t really matter (should we have ordered that pizza), but sometimes your whole future can turn on a few decisions.  But this is not a marriage advice podcast (maybe I’ll start that next?) this is a handmade business podcast! You make decisions every single day in your business, and I know it is so easy to get stuck wondering “what is the right decision? Does this even matter?” Here’s what you can do to cut through all the stuckness and get right to what matters: Hard now or hard later?  What this means is: Is there a way to make this decision that may be hard now, but will make life easier later? Or if I choose the easier path now, will it make more difficult later?   As an example, let’s look at a decision a lot of us made in our 20s - If I’ve got no money, but I want a pizza or to go out with my friends...should I just get it on a credit card or should I not go out and eat what I have at home? Most of us know that the easier decision is to order a pizza, but we could be paying interest charges on that one pizza for months - it will make the future harder. Or we could make the less fun decision now and have an easier future (with no debt!)   A lot of people are raised to (and parts of our culture encourages us to) make the easy decision now and let your future self deal with it. There’s even a  stand up comedian who jokes about making life harder for your Future Self. Screw that guy, let him deal with it!  So this question - do I want to do the hard thing now or suffer the worse consequences later?    Another way to ask the question is: fun now or fun later?  Do I want to have short-term fun now, and pay for it later? Or make a hard decision now to make it more fun later?  Now, this may not be the question you need. When I was talking about this on a Live in my Facebook group, my friend and life coach Joeli made the point that a lot of people in our community have this misunderstanding that life is “supposed” to be hard. That work is “supposed to be” hard. So they make things hard that don’t have to be hard. I totally know what she means because I see it all the time, this mistrust that things can be easy, work can be filled with ease.  So if that’s you, if you think everything has to be hard, let me flip this question around for you. Next time you make a decision ask yourself: What can I do now to set my Future Self up for success? And how can I make it full of ease and fun?    I used a financial decision as an example, but this can apply to so many thing in your business: Do I want to take the time to schedule my social media for the next two weeks or do I want to have to deal with it every day? Do I want to figure out my numbers and profitability now, or suffer the consequences of selling items at a price that doesn’t actually make sense? Do I want to take the time to identify my market and shape my marketing message or keep trying to do it on the fly and getting more frustrated and disappointed when marketing doesn’t work?  Do I want to confront this problem now (with a supplier, a customer, a friend) or do I want to leave it alone and have a bigger blow-up later?  And if you, like me, are still practicing social distancing or quarantine right now, we’re not out of the decision-making loop. Do I want to give my kids another hour of TV and deal with them bouncing off the walls later? Do I want to mindlessly scroll Twitter now and feel unproductive and stressed later?  Remember, sometimes you need to choose the easy thing. Sometimes you need the rest, sometimes you need to zone out. But the key to building a sustainable business is to give yourself what you need, while still honoring and taking care of your Future Self. 

Why do you feel stuck? Why isn’t your business growing? It could be one of these mistakes that are common in creative businesses. I want to help you avoid these mistakes, so let’s dive right in.  I’ve been working with product makers - yarn dyers, bag sewers, jewelry makers - and designers and shop owners for the last decade! I’ve been getting up close and personal with them, in my community, the Starship, since 2011. So I have seen a lot of what holds us back in our business, and what to do in order to move forward with confidence and profit.  Today I wanna talk about three of the mistakes I see makers and designers make, in their thinking, that holds them back. If you want to avoid the three mistakes most creatives make in running their business, check out my free workshop on the 4 Foundation Method to a Thriving Business, where I explain the mistakes AND teach you how to avoid them (or fix them if you’ve already made them!). You’ll find that at Taraswiger.com/foundaitons.  Real quick before we get into it. This is not about shaming you. If you recognize yourself in the mistakes I’m about to share, that’s ok. Realizing you’re making a mistake is the first step to fixing it! So there’s no shame about making mistakes, there’s only learning and changing going forward. Ok? Ok!    FInd all three mistakes in the shownotes: http://taraswiger.com/podcast301 This episode covered 3 mistakes you may be making in the way you’re THINKING of your business. The next step is to look at the mistakes you’re making in RUNNING your business. To learn how to avoid (or fix) those mistakes, head over to TaraSwiger.com/foundations and join my free workshop  

It's the 300th episode of the podcast! OMG! Celebrate with me in this episode as my husband  asks me YOUR questions. We discuss the very twisty journey that brought me here in my business, how I plan my weeks, and how I order my coffee.  You can SEE us answer these questions right here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast300   Help me celebrate by:  Leaving a review on your podcast app!  Joining the free Facebook group where I'll be going LIVE this week with a celebration! 

Are you using Instagram Stories? Is it connecting with your customers and helping you reach your goals? Or are you confused about what to do to make it effective? Today I’m going to answer your questions about WHY you should be using Instagram Stories and HOW to make them work for you! Today we’re diving into the tool Instagram Stories and how you can use them to connect with your right customers, build trust and make sales. Head over the to the VIDEO version of this episode to see a walk-through of everything I talk about: http://taraswiger.com/podcast299 What is Instagram Stories? Instagram Stories is an extra feature on Instagram, where you can post images or 15 second videos from your day. They expire after 24 hours. You can shoot them “live” from inside the app, or you can use the photos in your photo library on your phone. You can also share your regular Instagram posts (if viewers click on them they’ll be taken to your post where they can like and comment) and you can share other people’s Instagram posts, which means you can share your customers photos of your work! Why do Stories? What is the best way to build trust with potential customers? It’s in-person events. Customers get to talk to you, touch the product, then buy directly from you. The second-best option is live video, it is the most similar to being in-person. The potential customer gets to see how you really talk, see what you’re working on. This builds relationships and it builds trust. And more trust = more sales. Stories allow you to show way more than you can in your Instagram grid. Are you packing orders, getting supplies, making products everyday? In Stories, you can show that! What do you have in common with your customers? You can share that in Stories. For example: reading, relationships, personality type, preferences, etc. Remember: You get to decide what to share. How do you use Stories effectively? What kind of Stories build relationships? Personal Unedited Use Engagement tools Polls, Questions, Sliders Use DMs Use Stories to tell your Marketing Message, and then save it to “Highlights” You may be thinking – uh, what is my marketing message? What do I talk about? I outline what goes into your effective marketing message in my free workshop “4 Foundations” and we can work together on your Marketing Message inside the Starship Program. To watch the free workshop and learn more about how we can work together go to TaraSwiger.com/foundations I’d love to hear how you are using Instagram Stories in your business! Come tell me on Instagram. I’m @taraswiger. I’m going to give you homework right now to put this into practice: Take a screenshot of your podcast app as you’re listening, then open Instagram Stories, share this photo and tag me @taraswiger and add the hashtag #exploreyourenthusiasm. This is such a low-stress way to get started, you don’t have to talk to the camera or anything. While you’re on IG, send a DM and tell me what you learned from this episode! Don't forget to watch the video with tutorials for Instagram Stories here: http://taraswiger.com/podcast299

Is Instagram worth it? How do you make sales with Instagram? I know! This is one of the ongoing questions my students have about any tool, and Instagram in particular. Today I’m going to explain EXACTLY how you can increase your sales by using Instagram. Before we dive into Instagram, we are coming right up on episode 300, and I am including YOU in this episode! To participate, head over to my free FB group: fb.com/groups/taraswiger and the info on how to be involved is right there, pinned to the top! Today’s question comes directly from the FB group: Does Instagram actually make sales for anyone? It seems to be just a waste of time, a bunch of content going into the void. First of all: yeah, it can DEFINITELY feel like a waste of your time! The good news is: YOU are in charge of whether it's a waste of time or not. It’s true! You don’t have to wait for Instagram to send you people, or for your right buyer to just stumble upon you. Instead, make Instagram effective for your business by creating a plan and using it to find, connect with, and build trust with your ideal buyers. You will make sales with Instagram when you talk to, connect with and build trust with your Ideal Buyers. So how do you connect and build trust on Instagram?  Identify your Right People. Talk to your Right People on YOUR profile Find and connect with your Right People on their profile. Now let’s get into it deeper. Identify Your Right People Who buys your item? Who wants what you sell? These are your Right People. This is who ALL your marketing should be for. This will impact what photos you use, what captions you write, what hashtags you utilize, everything about all of your marketing. This is a deeper process than just answering a few questions and it is what I do with Captains inside the Starship. So if you want to know more about your people, check out the free workshop at TaraSwiger.com/Foundations and we can work together to identify your Right People. On Your Profile If you’re taking the time to post photos on your Instagram, then take the extra time to make it effective at making a connection with your Right Buyer. How? Captions. A photo might grab someone’s attention, but captions are how your customers get to know YOU, get to know your brand and what you stand for, and feel connected to you. Yes, you could just write three words and be done, but if you’re taking the time to post, shouldn’t you take the time to make it worthwhile? Writing a longer post (over 65 words, which is the average), it will take longer, but it will also be more valuable. The data shows that posts with longer captions generally have higher engagement than those with a shorter caption. Engagement is when your followers interact with your post (comment, like, save or share it). And more engagement leads to more people seeing your post. Ok, so what do you write? This is where you come back to your RIght Buyer - what is she interested in? What does she need to know about your product or your company? We answer all these questions in the Starship, so you create effective posts. On Her Profile How does your customer find you? Well, she may be searching, she may click on hashtags, but the most direct way for your customer to find you is… you find her. Stop waiting for your Right Buyer to find your photos, or to find your shop - find her! How?  This goes back to the work you did to identify your RIght Buyer - once you have a very clear idea of who she is, you can look at who she follows, what sites she reads, what she’s into. One of the easiest ways is to look at your Actual Customers. See what they’re posting, who they’re following, what hashtags they use. And… connect with her! Follow your customer on Instagram, comment on her posts, when she asks for a recommendation, give it! You’re not going to be SELLING to her, but you will be CONNECTING with her. Look at who else they follow and who follows them. If that person seems like your Right Buyer, follow them! And connect. Does this work? Doesn’t it take a lot of time? Oh, I know, I hear you moaning now - but Tara! Doesn’t this take a lot of time? Does this work?  And the answer is yes and yes. It does take time. But you are already scrolling on Instagram. Right? You are already spending time on social media that is not building your business. I’m not asking you to spend MORE time, I’m asking you to spend your time EFFECTIVELY. As in, doing stuff that will make a change. As for it working, listen. I don’t recommend you do only this. This is one strategy in what should be a full plan for marketing, that includes clear messaging, email marketing, in-person marketing, along with Instagram. This is not linear. You don’t get a 1:1 result. Or even a 10:1 result. Some posts will connect with people and get 5 new followers. Some will have a strong call to action and hit someone at just the right time and generate 2 or 10 sales. And some will just build a relationship and build trust, so that when you post your newest product, your followers are ready to click over and buy. How does this actually work? Well, here’s the thing: I’ve actually said all of this backwards to how your customer will experience it. How it’s going to work is that you are going to go out and connect with your Ideal Buyers on her profile. Leave comments, make recommendations, answer questions. Then, she will move from her profile to yours. You will be building a profile (full of photos and captions) that connect with her so she’ll stick around, maybe click through to your products, maybe follow you. Keep posting, with calls to action that lead her to click, and she’ll click through to your website and buy when she’s ready. As I was sharing this in the Facebook group, I had someone ask “What about commenting on a post that already has tons of comments? Won’t I just get lost?” Yes, yes you will. For marketing purposes, don’t bother with accounts that are super big, with dozens of comments. Your comment will mean so much more to someone who doesn’t get very many. What I’ve noticed is that people have so much resistance to this idea. They don't want to do it because they don’t see immediate results. They don’t want to comment on other people’s posts, but they want people to comment on theirs. Why? You show people how to interact with you. If you are never in comments, no one else will be. If you never follow anyone or interact, you can’t expect anyone to interact with you. Yes, you will do work - captions, comments, stories, that won’t get a response. So what? You’re learning, you’re creating a library of content. You are trial-and-error-ing it. You are getting better at your marketing messaging. And guess what? This podcast is built on the very principles you’ll apply to your Instagram. I create content that will delight you. It takes me a LOT of time and energy to create each episode I give it to you for free. I connect with you on social media, you may listen for a month or two years, all the while feeling more trust and connection with me, until you feel ready to join the Starship and work with me. Are all those episodes I create where you didn’t buy a waste of time and energy? No, they were building a relationship. But don’t forget - your posts aren’t building that relationship with ONE person, they are building it with many people who are seeing today, and people who will scroll back and read it a year from now. If you’ve been listening for a while, and you are curious about learning more to work together, check out how we can work together in my free masterclass - 4 Foundations to a Thriving Handmade Business. You can find it at taraswiger.com/foundations   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast298

What is the best book you’ve read lately? In today’s episode, I’m sharing my favorite books of this winter - from December - February. Every quarter I round-up my most-favorite books and share them here. If you are subscribed to my YouTube channel, you may recognize some of these books, as they were part of my Best Books of 2019. If you like learning about great books and you are NOT subscribed over on YouTube, you are missing out! I share reading vlogs, monthly round-ups, and all kinds of fun bookish stuff in my Monday videos at TaraSwiger.com/YouTube. You can scroll down and see my whole Reading playlist or click on Videos to see my most recent videos. StatsI have read 16 books so far, and I will likely finish another 3 before the end of the month. 4 mysteries, 2 giant YA space operas over 600 pages, 3 personal memoir essay-ish things. All three of the memoirs were great, so I’m going to just quickly tell you, you should read them: Enough, by Shauna Ahern, who you may know as Gluten-Free Girl. I read her blog years ago, and so I picked this up when I saw it on the New Book shelf at the library. It is totally different and so good. Shauna tells the story of how she began to feel as if she is enough, after a lifetime of living by the girl code (criticizing your body, trying to be smaller), a traumatic childhood and trying to make money on the internet. I think anyone who is a woman or works online should read it. How We Fight for our Lives by Saeed Jones, is the memoir of a young black gay man growing up in Texas. There is violence, there is sexual content, and there is a really beautiful story of finding himself and figuring out his relationship with his mother. Thick and Other Essays, by Tressie McMillan Cottom, is a series of essays about her experiences being a black woman academic living in the world. It’s about thickness, of body and of thought, and explores beauty and twitter and class mobility. Read it if you like Roxanne Gay or Lindy West’s Shrill. Now, the fiction books: Such a Fun Age by Kelly Reid might be my favorite book of the year, ALREADY. A young black woman is babysitting for a white family and has a very racially charged experience in a grocery store. The story unfolds from that tense beginning, but the book itself manages to be fun and compelling and build a momentum that had me up until 3am finishing it. It’s really about white privilege and how “good” white people try to do the right thing while completely ignoring the black person’s agency and selfhood. This book is complex and real and although it sounds like it could be heavy, it’s actually just great fun. Illuminae, by Amy Kaufman is so weird I can’t believe it’s so good. It’s a kind of YA space opera with horror. I only think it’s YA because the protagonist is a teenage girl, who is saving absolutely everyone. But it’s a little dark and splattery for like, 12 year old Tara. It is really about survival and sacrifice and telling your own story. I’ve read the second book in the trilogy, Gemina, and I liked it almost as much. I’ve got the last book, Obsidio, on my shelf. The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo has been on my shelf forever, but I had been avoiding it because it’s written in prose. It took me a minute to sink into it, but when I did, man! It beautifully tells the story from the perspective of a young Dominican girl living in Harlem who is figuring out adolescence and her conservative family, while starting to write slam poetry. It is just the most gorgeous and most true book I’ve read about what it means to be a girl when you start to get unwanted male attention… but it’s not even really about that. Ok, so a few more books I read and loved but am not going to go into detail about: Underground Railroad by Colson Whitehead A Blade So Black by LL McKinney The Woman in the Window by AJ Finn.  These were a few really good reading months! I think I got to some deeper books, like the memoirs, because we didn’t have kids for a few of the months (in case you don’t understand how we only sometimes have kids - we’re foster parents). When you purchase the book using my links, I earn a tiny percentage, which frankly, goes to buying diapers. I get most of my books at my local library, so check yours out because libraries are amazing. Lots  of my faves came from the Book of the Month Club (referral link). In a few weeks I have my 300th episode - to learn how you can participate in my celebration, be sure you’ve joined the Facebook group - facebook.com/groups/taraswiger Thanks for listening and have a book-filled enthusiastic week!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast297

Now that you’ve worked on your fear, what about your other beliefs that are holding you back? What do you need to believe in order to move towards your goals? Over the last few weeks we’ve been talking about what’s holding you back. We’ve talked about how a lot of you say what’s holding you back is… YOU. Fear is at the heart of a lot of it. Another aspect of what’s holding you back is what you believe - about yourself, your business, and how the world works. This is your mindset, the set of beliefs that form your frame that you look at the world through. Now, before you think, “yeah, yeah, I gotta have the right mindset. But what I really need is 5 steps to grow my Instagram!”...let’s take a minute, just like 10 minutes, to go deeper on this. If your mindset and your beliefs are holding you back, it won’t matter how many tactics and tricks you learn for Instagram or Etsy or craft shows. It won’t matter because YOU will keep holding YOU back. Mindset We’re going to talk about a few different ways your beliefs can hold you back. The first one is your mindset - what you believe you are capable of and how the world works. Over the years you’ve heard me talk about the research in the book Mindset, by Carol Dweck. As a researcher she looked across areas - school, business, sports - and found that people think of themselves and their challenges in one of two ways - with a growth mindset or a fixed mindset. Fixed mindset = believing that you are the way you are and you’re not going to change. Growth mindset = believing that you can grow and improve and learn to reach your challenges. You’ve probably heard this before. And you’ve probably decided, I wanna have a growth mindset. But this is actually WAY harder than a one time decision and it comes up again and again. Here’s what I’ve noticed in the last few years of thinking about this and talking with makers about it: You probably have different mindsets in different areas. You might have a very growth mindset when it comes to your relationship (We can figure it out!) but a very fixed mindset when it comes to your finances (we’ll never figure it out!) Time and experiences can change your mindset. I’ve found that the more you become experienced in an area, the easier it is to become fixed in the belief that you’ve learned everything and figured it out. This is when you start to say “That won’t work for me.” “I tried that, it never works.” Those are actually the two phrases that are red alarms when I’m talking to a business owner. I know that they’re coming at it from a fixed mindset and there’s not much I can help them with unless they shift their mindset from “I already know what I know” to “I can learn and keep trying” But I’m guilty of this too! I started out my business with a growth mindset - I knew there was so much I didn’t know and I knew I could learn it. Over time, I learned more, and my mindset became more fixed. I think I know what works, what doesn’t and what is worth my time. My challenge, all the time, is to try new things with the mindset of: I can learn how this works for me. I do this through trying new tools (TikTok!), trying new strategies (webinars) and even trying new business models. So when we’re talking about how you’re in your way - the question is: Do you believe you can grow or change? What areas feel really “fixed” or stuck? What areas do you feel really open to learning? To learn more:  Failure as fuel: https://taraswiger.com/podcast263/ Mindset: The key to success: https://taraswiger.com/podcast49/ Expectation Another aspect of your belief that affects your business is your expectations and flexibility - what do you expect will happen? In what timeline? Or else...what? I am so surprised when people tell me that they’re quitting their business because it didn’t reach a really outsize goal in a short time frame. It makes me wonder: did you really want a business (which is doing the work every day forever) or did you just want that goal (probably money)? I’m going to say this really clearly - having a business is doing the work day in and day out, whether you reach one particular goal or not. It is learning, changing, experimenting and being flexible. If you don’t want to do that, you don’t want a business. And hey - that’s ok! If you want a for-sure amount of money for your amount of work, you’re going to need to get a job where you are paid a specific amount of money for a specific amount of work. Owning a business is not like a job. AT ALL. So what are your expectations of your business? As you know if you’ve been listening for a while, I don’t believe in lowering your expectations - I believe in setting big goals and working hard towards them. But I believe in expecting your business to behave as a business - to need tending and changing and flexibility. And to adjust your expectations as you learn more about what your business is. Having the wrong expectations of your business can hold you back from appreciating it for what it is and for putting in the work you’ll need to, to reach your goals. Belief in yourself So this last point is a little bit about growth mindset, but it’s also about confidence. The most important belief you hold in your business is your belief about yourself. The number one indicator of what your business will do is what you think is possible. Yes, YOUR belief in what you think YOU can do is going to shape how far or fast your business goes. Why? Because if you don’t think you can do it, you won’t. If you don’t think it’s possible, you won’t do the work. Wait, what about realistic expectations? Yeah, you need to expect your business to act like a business. But how big you dream and what you think YOU are capable of is going to determine how hard you work at making it happen. So EXPECT that your business is going to have ups and downs, that it will take work and growth and challenge you. But BELIEVE that you can do it. You are capable. You can learn. Here’s what I can tell you for sure: if you believe that you aren’t capable enough to make this happen, it won’t. NOT because you aren’t capable, but because you won’t do the work. You won’t put in the time to learn and grow. This isn’t some “believe it and it will happen” stuff… this is the hard fact that if you don’t believe it, it won’t happen. And listen, maintaining that belief is NOT easy. I shifted how my business works about six months ago and I believe it is absolutely the right thing and that it is absolutely going to allow my business to grow more than it would have… but it’s taking some time to see that change, as dollar bills. It is taking me learning and growing in a bunch of ways. If that belief wavers, I’m going to stop moving forward. I’m going to stop midway and try something else, which will kill my momentum and confuse customers and cost me money and sales. But if I maintain the belief and keep moving forward (while being flexible), I’m going to see results because I believe in what I have to share is valuable, it transforms businesses and I want it to help as many people as possible. Maintaining belief in yourself and your business direction is not going to be easy. But giving up or stopping halfway isn’t a better option. It may be easier to stop or to try something else, but when you do that too often, you start to feel scattered and confused and unfocused. And hey, that’s where a LOT of makers are today. They have tried so many different directions, so many different marketing strategies, that they’re all turned around and confused. If that’s you, I’ve got a workshop that will help focus you. You can find it at TaraSwiger.com/foundations. I hope this series about what’s standing in your own way and how to move past these blocks have helped you reach your goals! Next week I’m sharing my quarterly round-up of favorite books and in 4 weeks we’ll have the 300th episode SPECTACULAR. It’s going to involve YOU and YOUR questions, so be sure you’ve joined our private FB group to get all the details and be involved, at FB.com/groups/taraswiger Have a confident, enthusiastic week.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast296

Are you getting in the way of your handmade business moving forward? Yeah, it’s time to get out of your own way. Lately we’ve been doing a series on how to make your 2020 goals come true. In episodes 292 and 293, I gave you lots of applicable, step-by-step advice on how to increase sales, so be sure to head over to TaraSwiger.com/launch if you missed that. But as I said in those episodes, only a small percentage of people will follow through with the action plan. Why? Well, for some listeners, what I shared just isn’t applicable. Maybe you don’t have a business. Maybe you are just starting and you don’t have any products yet. For some listeners, growth isn’t their primary goal in 2020. Maybe you have more demand than you can supply. Or perhaps your work day has gone wonky, and what you want to work on this year is working LESS or taking more time off or stopping work at a certain time. We’re not always in a place of growth. Or maybe you’re like I was in 2019, where your life has been upended and your main goal is to just HOLD ON and try to figure out a new way to move forward (or even stay in the same place) with totally new circumstances. Last year my own focus wasn’t the growth of my business, it was the growth of my family. Wherever you are is perfect. But what about those listeners who DO have products, who have a way to sell them, and who have the goal to increase their sales in 2020? Why don’t they follow through? We hit on some of the reasons last week (in episode 294) - you may feel unfocused, feel like you don’t have enough time, or feel overwhelmed and stuck in self-doubt. In other words, you’re not moving forward because YOU are holding yourself back. Last week I gave you some homework - to write down HOW you were holding yourself back and WHY you might have done that. (If you skipped the homework you can hit pause now and write it down, or even record it as a voice memo to yourself!) Why are you doing this? Well, without hearing your answers, I can make a guess, because this is what stops me: Fear. Fear of the unknown. Fear that I won’t be safe. Fear that everyone will realize I have no idea what I’m doing and they (you) will think it’s all a scam and everyone will hate me (and I’ll be broke and alone). Fear that I’ll get it wrong, that people will see me get it wrong and then will all leave and my business will fall apart (and I’ll be broke and alone). That’s kind of intense, right?  But that’s why this fear is so good at holding us back - we never look directly at it, so it just bubbles up underneath the surface and we feel a kind of uneasiness or nervousness or self-doubt. We don’t feel “quite right” so we don’t step forward. What do you do about it?  Good news: We’ve already done the first step! The first step is to bring it to conscious awareness so we can SEE the fear, so it stops running the show from the background. Then, we need to acknowledge it for what it is. It isn’t that WE suck. It isn’t that we need to do more or learn more or get more confident. Fear holding you back is a NATURAL part of growth and exploration. Your fear is your sweet little brain trying to keep you safe. That’s it’s whole job! It’s saying “Hey there, I don’t know about that, I need to keep you alive so BACK AWAY FROM THE UNKNOWN.” If you’ve experienced trauma (whether it was one-time acute trauma or ongoing trauma like an unsafe childhood), your brain is a SPECIALIST in spotting danger (maybe where there isn’t any!) and keeping you safe. This may be why you experience something that SEEMS simple  (like talking to strangers in your craft booth, or posting a personal post on Instagram) as terrifying and flight-fight-freeze inducing. Understanding and accepting this about yourself and your sweet little (confused) brain is vital to you moving forward. It shifts your focus from “pushing forward” to “gently finding a way forward.” Because when you push? Your fear pushes back. When you gently find a way to feel safe while doing the thing?” Your fear settles down. Your fear just wants to be noticed and heard. So we’ve identified it, we’ve recognized that it’s trying to keep us safe, but how do we hear it without letting it run the show? Let it have it’s say - let your fear tell you what’s the worst that can happen. Tim Ferris calls this “fear-setting”, it’s like the opposite of goal-setting, but is important if you’re going to move forward with a goal. Marie Forleo has a version of this exercise in her book Everything is Figureoutable. In other words, this works. So try it. Pull out a piece of paper and answer: What am I afraid of actually happening? What is the absolute worst case scenario if that fear comes true? And then what else horrible will happen? And now that you’ve listened to your Fear, you’ve let it really unspool its dark fantasy,  it’s time to apply some reality to your fear. If that happened, the absolute worst case scenario… what would you do? How could you come back from it? What skills, abilities and experiences do you have that you could use? When I’ve done this with Starship Captains, we always take a deep breath and feel a little shaken and a little relieved. It is SCARY to think of all that can go wrong! But I bet you noticed that your worst case scenario is actually kinda… figureoutable? There’s very little you’re going to do in your business that’s going to shake the core of what you value. Your Etsy shop isn’t going to kill your loved ones. Your email newsletter isn’t going to push your friends away. Unless you’re becoming a skydiving instructor, your business is unlikely to cause you bodily harm. So, how do you feel? Deep breath! Do you feel a little more able to move forward? (If not, did you do this in your head, or in writing? When you just think it, your brain often distracts you with other stuff and you don’t really go all the way. Write it down.) Now, listen. This is not a one-time thing. If it were, I would be fearless and unwavering since the first time I did this back in 2006! Instead, this allows us to take the NEXT STEP. Which is all we need for now. But it is very likely the fear is going to jump back up when we come to the next unknown thing. Elizabeth Gilbert says (in her book Big Magic, which is great) that we may not ever be able to get Fear out of the car, on our journey. But we CAN stop Fear from driving the car or grabbing the steering wheel or pumping the breaks. We can ride with Fear next us. We can acknowledge the work it’s trying to do (keep us safe), appreciate that, and still choose to not let it run the show. (This is a lot like driving with a screaming toddler in the backseat.) Sooo, bad news! You’re going to have to do this a lot. I need to acknowledge and listen to my Fear every time I set a new goal. Every time I start a new project. Sometimes I have to do it before a speaking gig, when my nerves get bad! I had to do it when I became a foster mom! Every time I level up or my business levels up, I have to do it again. But here’s what I hope you take from this podcast episode - YOU are holding yourself back, because your brain is trying to keep you ALIVE. YOU are a smart, capable, adorable human who is capable of so much more than you think, if you find  a way to gently move past your stuck places. You don’t need to feel (or be) fearless to take the next step. You will build confidence through ACTION. I am wishing you so much peace and courage this week.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast295

What’s holding you back? What is keeping you from achieving a profitable, sustainable business that you feel confident in? What is keeping you from working towards your goals every week? We’ve been working on reaching your sales goal, all month. To hear episodes about increasing and sustaining your sales, tune in to episodes 292 & 293. After those episodes, I debated over what to cover next and then I realized: what’s keeping you from your goal is different for everyone. You have your own roadblock, so let’s talk about and work through it! One of the questions I ask everyone when they join my free FB group (are you a member yet?) is, “When it comes to your business being profitable AND doable, what do you think is standing in your way?” So today that’s what we’re going to talk about: the things that are standing in your way. And next week, we’ll talk more about how to get out of your own way. It’s my hope that hearing what’s holding others back will help you recognize what’s holding you back, what is standing in your way. So what is holding MOST handmade business back? The answers I get most often: Focus - I just can’t seem to work on what matters, I keep getting distracted! Time - I don’t have enough time or I’m not using my time effectively (focus!) Self-doubt or confidence - I doubt myself and so don’t act. If I were more confident I would act Fear - most people who write this answer don’t give any more details… so I have to guess - are you afraid of failure? Afraid of poverty? Afraid of embarrassment? Many people answer: ME, I am holding myself back. This feels like the REAL answer to all of these other answers - YOU feel self-doubt or fear. YOU want more confidence. I think this answer is the most truthful answer. As you read those different answers, which one resonates the most? Which sounds like your internal dialogue? And here’s the more important question: what are you doing about it? Most people tell me they are working on marketing - social media, email list, or something systematic. But… that’s not what’s standing in your way. Not a single person has told me KNOWLEDGE or INFORMATION was standing in their way. If you know that something else is standing in your way, why aren’t you working on that? I think the reason it’s that it’s much easier to learn something than it is to change ourselves; it’s easier to listen to another episode than to inquire within. So what is holding YOU back? Hit pause, ask yourself this and write down your answer. Write as long as our takes for you to process it. Now, how are you feeling? You may be feeling AMAZING because you got some clarity and you’re ready to change. But you may be feeling pretty bad, because OMG, WHY CAN’T I JUST GET OVER IT.  I know! But I have really really good news. None of this is holding you back. Bear with me. I know it FEELS like you need less fear, more confidence, more time, more focus to move forward but what if I told you you’re only going to feel less fear and more confidence and you’re going to find the time only AFTER you do the thing? What if the way to move past what’s holding you back is to let go of it? To let go of the idea that you need to fix it or fix yourself? What if you were perfectly suited to build your business, as you were? What if you were ready to move forward on the next project or with the next client, exactly as you are? I know, I know, you want ACTION ITEMS. You want to DO something. So I’m going to give you episodes and resources for each of these issues, so you can get some actionable steps. But. I can tell you, after working with hundreds of makers, designers and artists, you are going to move beyond what’s holding you back only after you believe you will. Now, belief isn’t the ONLY thing that’s going to build your business. But without it, you won’t actually take any of the actions that will make a difference. So, if you’re ready to start believing you CAN move past the fear and time and focus, I’ve got some recommendations for episodes that address each of these in detail. Focus: The best way to get focused is to be CLEAR on what you need to focus on. This is why we set goals and then create plans. So you can wake up each day, knowing what you need to do to move forward. My best resource for this is Map Your Business, which you can find at TaraSwiger.com/map If distraction is your problem, I’ve got a whole kit of resources for you at TaraSwiger.com/distraction - it’ll help you crush marketing distractions and internet distractions! Time: Over the years I have written and shared a lot about how to manage your time, get more done and create a productive workday. My absolute best strategies are all in the class Get More Done. I created it at the CreativeLive studio, so it is 5+ hours of professional-quality video lessons, with dozens of worksheets, all at the most affordable price (last time I checked it was $29). Get it here.  Self-doubt or confidence: I have a LOT of episodes about this, as well. I also created a BizConfidence free course that I’ll be sharing again later this year. In the meantime, check out these episodes: Episode 93 - the difference between arrogance and confidence Episode 131 - taking action before you feel confident And Ep 233 on Imposter Syndrome Fear: What are you afraid of? Failure? How to handle Failure, episode 127 Failure as Fuel, episode 263 Fear of Success, episode 268 Fear of Disapproval, episode  271 Ok, now the last thing: YOU. If you were thinking, oh man, I am what is holding me back, I have a little homework for you. Next week we’re going to go more into how you can stop holding yourself back, and in the meantime, I want you to journal a bit. It doesn’t have to be a special notebook or anything official, just get any scrap of paper and set a timer for 10 minutes and answer the question: What am I doing to stand in my own way? Why?  Now, no matter what you wrote on the paper, I want you to practice holding it in kindness and gentleness. Look at it (and you) the way I would, with a lot of love and acceptance, and I’d say “Hey, it’s ok. You’re doing the best you can. It is soooo good that you’re acknowledging whatever this is. Let’s work on it a bit next week.” I’d love to hear what you think is holding YOU back! Come tell me in our free group - FB.com/groups/taraswiger I’m wishing you a week full of forward momentum and enthusiasm.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast294

How do you keep sales going? When you don’t have anything new? When you’re not launching? What can you do to stay consistent? Today we are diving in to making more consistent sales! Recently Starship Captain Brenda asked: “I just launched a pattern last week and had a good amount of sales, but now what?” I’m going to share with you what I told her. This is the second episode in a series about reaching your 2020 goal of increased sales. You can listen to the first, which was about launching and find the Massive Launch Resource Kit at taraswiger.com/launch Ok, let’s get into it: what do you do to keep sales going? The answer is simple: Send another email. Yes, if you send 3-5 emails during your launch and now it’s over, get right back into it! Send an email! Post on Instagram! Use the momentum to establish a consistency you might not have had before. I know you're worried your people won’t want to hear from you too much - YOU ARE WRONG. They want to hear from you even when you’re not launching. If they stuck with you through the launch, they are VERY interested. In fact, they are closer to buying now than they ever were before. (If not, they would have unsubscribed or stop opening… in which case they won’t see your messages anyhow!) Always always remember: you are talking to people who WANT to hear from you.  So what should you send? Well, if you’ve just held a launch that made more sales than usual, then your products are landing in the hands of your customers - which is what you should feature! If you’re a knitwear designer or yarn maker, you can see your customer projects on Ravelry. If not (or if no one is sharing them yet), you can ASK them to share, better yet, INCENTIVIZE them to. Yep, offer them something for sharing. Maybe it’s free shipping code for the next 5 people who post a photo with your hashtag or you host a giveaway and everyone who posts a photo and tags it gets entered to win. Now, it’s not ethical to give anything in exchange for a REVIEW. I’m not saying to incentivize reviews, rather incentivize word-of-mouth - people sharing their product on their own social media, while tagging you and using your hashtag. Then comment on every single one of those posts and ask the share-er if they give you permission to share it on your account! Then you’ll have customer images and stories to post! Be sure you also collecting customer feedback when it’s sent directly to you - via DM or email. Have a template that you send in response to nice emails. Mine says something like “Thank you so much, this made my day! Would you mind if I shared this on my social media or website? I will tag you or link to you when I quote you!” (Now, the testimonials for MY business might be private (eg, if someone shares their sales numbers, they may not want to do that publicly), so I also offer to post it anonymously, but most of you sell something people are happy to talk about publicly. Almost every time I’ve shared this strategy with a Starship Captain, the maker or designer has been SO nervous to start asking their customers if they can quote them. They are certain their customers will not agree or be upset, but you know what? In every single case their customers have been THRILLED and really flattered. People LOVE to talk about what they love! This has held true for product makers and service providers - tech editors, yarn shops, jewelry designers, glass artists, knitwear designers, home decor brands, life coaches, knitwear designers - your customers WANT to see you succeed and share their great experience with you! So that is going to provide a new category of content. Every time you share a customer photo or quote, be sure you link to how to get the thing. Another strategy that it’s easy to forget is to focus attention on your older, great products. If you followed the directions for a great launch, then you know that it takes some time and effort to really highlight what’s great and valuable about a product. Of course you should do this when you have a new product, but you should ALSO give this attention and love to your older products! Answer the questions about both benefits and value that I posed in the Launch Plan, and then focus on communicating that for a week or two for your older stuff. A few years ago I helped a knitwear designer increase her sales when she took a break from publishing new designs with this strategy. She was working on a book, so she couldn’t also be designing and selling individual patterns. She went through her back catalog, chose some customer projects to highlight, wrote up what customers loved about it and her inspiration and highlighted one older pattern in each email and scheduled them to go out once every two weeks for six months. She was surprised that very few of her email subscribers even knew that she had these older patterns (she kept getting comments like “I love the new design!”) and she was even more surprised that her overall sales increased, while she wasn’t actually working in her business at all. That increase in sales happened for a few reasons:  She was being more consistent, her readers started to look forward to her emails Every time she sent an email about a “new” pattern, it reminded people to go on and buy the pattern they were considering last month. The consistency and large back-catalog communicated trust and reliability, which built her brand’s perceived value (a.k.a. people are willing to spend more money when they trust you) Nowadays I would also add in schedule Instagram posts highlighting the same patterns she was featuring in her emails. Even though you may not be a designer, please think through how you can apply this to your own business! You could feature older products, or the craft shows that you’ve done, or the retail shops you’re in, or your bestsellers. Note what worked - do more of it. This may sound really obvious, but take a minute to think - do you really keep track of what’s working, really working (not just how you feel about it) and then purposefully re-use it? You can use the same strategies. The same photos. The same captions. The same sales emails. The same schedule. Will people notice?  Not really. I used to use the same exact emails to launch the Starship every 3 months, with only a few updates...and they worked as well the 2nd year as they did the first year. Why? Because new people were seeing them every time. New people are coming to you, they don’t know what they used to do. And if it’s the same people, they haven’t opened and read and looked at and MEMORIZED every single thing you’ve done. So try it! You can also do more of what worked by looking at WHY it worked. Do pictures of your face do better? Take more! Are captions that are long or short do better? Do that! You can see all of this on whatever platform you’re using - your email stats, your Instagram “insights” (you have to have a “Business” account to see them, and you should definitely upgrade in order to have access to that!). Use those stats to shape what you’ll do next. Keep Going Above all, the way to keep sales going is to keep TRYING new things (and old things!), to not give up when you have a dry month. To not get discouraged when you need to step back or take a break or something goes wrong. At the heart of this philosophy is to take responsibility - to realize YOU have a job to do to increase sales. Etsy isn’t going to do it, Instagram isn’t going to do it - YOU have to figure it out by learning and trying and iterating. It is very easy to say, well, sales are down because of… the election, or Brexit, or Ravelry made a change. But there are businesses who thrive in every condition, in every change. Giving up and blaming outside circumstances is not the way to grow. Taking responsibility for what you can control (and letting go of what you can’t) is the way to reach your goal. If you implement any of these strategies, let me know, I’m @TaraSwiger on IG. Be sure you come join our Facebook Group - facebook.com/groups/taraswiger so you can chat about it with other makers and artists committed to their business in 2020. Thank you for listening and have an enthusiastic week.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast293

In this episode of Explore Your Enthusiasm, I'm walking you through my Launch Plan Worksheet, so that you can great a clear and thorough plan for your next launch. Find your copy of the worksheet right here. Then track the results and tell me about it! DM me on Instagram!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast292

As a culture we talk a lot about planning the year for about 2 seconds on December 31st and January 1st, but the fact is, when you’re building a business or following a dream, you are planning and implementing a plan all the time! Today I’m going to share how I planned my New Year, warts and all. Welcome to the New Year! Over the years I have written (and recorded) a lot about New Year and seasonal planning, so this year I decided to share exactly what I’m doing, with a bit of my feelings and experience as I do it, so you know you’re not alone. You can get access to ALL of my episodes about planning your New Year AND a new worksheet, at TaraSwiger.com/2020Goals. Download it now! It started in early December... Inside the Starship, we read the book Everything is Figureoutable, by Marie Forleo, as a part of our Q4 Book Club. This book is packed with encouragement and tough love for moving forward on your big dream, no matter how unreachable it feels. I really committed to not just reading it, but also working through the exercises. It helped me get clear on what’s held me back from setting a bigger goal (like, really big) and work through that. The book is so uplifting and encouraging, I think this helped me shed a bit of self-doubt that has held me back in the last 2 years. Self-doubt Actually, let’s chat about self-doubt holding me back. I talked about this a bit in episode 252, if you’d like to hear more about how I worked through it then. The thing is - I had a major depressive episode in 2018 and it rattled me. Even after I came out of it, I had this lingering fear that I wasn’t going to be able to follow through on anything, that I shouldn’t commit to anything because I wouldn’t be able to complete it. Soon after that, we became licensed to foster parent, and since I had never been a parent before, and I had no idea what to expect, I also became convinced that I would no longer be able to follow through on things, because kids. The thing that’s so insidious about this self-doubt is that it presented as LOGIC. Like, it’s totally reasonable to expect that I’ll be able to do less as a parent, than before… but what level of “less”? I didn’t know, so I assumed the worst. I assumed that the kids would be some kind of hurricane that completely exhausted my ability to adult, let along to show up to students, captains and partners. Now, I can see how a lot of that was just catastrophizing - I didn’t know what to expect, either about recurring depression or parenting, so I just assumed the worst. I needed to tap back into Confident Tara in order to dream big and create a plan and follow through, because you must believe it’s possible before you’ll actually do the work. I’m sharing this because in the middle of it, it felt very real, very logical, and TRUE.  If you are feeling tons of self-doubt or battered by life, give yourself some grace. It is ok. You don’t have to dream BIG right now. You don’t have to be on top of everything. Get inspired a confident again, by listening to my podcast and/or by reading Marie Forleo’s book (she also has a great YouTube show!) Where I plan Ok, before I go any further, I wanna talk about WHERE I actually do this planning - both where I write it and where I sit physically to do it. The thing is, you need to find what works for you, but I know we all love to hear about these kind of details. I always plan my year (and do quarterly maps and monthly planning) in one notebook. That way I can keep a whole year in one place and go back to it, without having to search around. This year I’m using a Happy Notes so that I can add pages and different kinds of paper to it. In the past I've used a big Moleskine. I typically do the review at a coffee shop, next to a fireplace, with a fancy latte in a mug. Last year I had a brand-new toddler at this time of year, so I didn’t do any planning until late January, and then I did it during naptime under a blanket on my couch. Review the last year I start by reviewing the last year, because it is VERY inspiring to remember all of the good of the last year and to get grounded in where I am in my business right now. I use my own book Map Your Business to do this! It starts with several pages of worksheets to get really clear where you are right now. Now, it’s easy to use this as a chance to beat yourself up. Maybe you didn’t hit your goals last year. Maybe you didn’t do ANYTHING last year. Maybe you are looking at where you are right now, thinking there is NO WAY you can get to your goal. Hey, that’s ok. Deep breath. You are exactly where you need to be. You are capable of more than you’ve done before. You are further ahead than you’ve ever been before!  You have learned so much this year! (even if it’s not what you wanted to learn!) This is why Map Your Business really focuses on the lessons you’ve learned and what you want to take from last year into this year. There’s also a section on releasing all your regrets. We all have them. It’s ok, you can let go of them and move forward. Dreaming the next year Ok, so once I've let go of my regrets and I’ve looked at what lessons I want to bring forward into the next year, it’s time to think about the upcoming year. I like to start with FEELINGS. There are several worksheets in Map Your Business that you help narrow in on this - the things you value, the qualities you want in your life and in your business. How do I want to feel this year? What could help me feel that way?  For me, I want to feel strong, confident, loving. Strong - capable, calm, resilient Confident - capable, trust myself, move forward on scary stuff Loving - with my family, with everyone in foster care, with myself What could make me feel this way? (I’m still making my list!) I use Map Your Business to dive into the specifics of what I want to create, in every area of my business. So at this point, I already have in mind my sales goal, but there’s a lot more to my life than just sales. For example:Jay and I need to trade his 20 year old car in for a newer one that we can put kids into. We want to pay off debt. I want to have more than enough money saved up to pay my taxes quarterly. Map Your Business has you list out EVERYTHING you want to accomplish, then zoom in on 3-5. I also love the idea i got from Leonie to list 100 things I want to do in the year. There are so many things I want to do that aren’t really GOALS, but things I do want to do and remember to do. So I make a big list that I keep adding to, of allllll I could possibly do. After I have a goal, it’s time to make a plan. Here’s where allllll the uncertainty in my life comes into play. I have NO idea what my home will be like in a year. Will we have 2 kids? Will they be 6 months old or 5 years old? A new placement or an adoptive placement? Daily therapy or no appointments? There are so many variables that it’s easy to think there’s no way I can plan. But that’s NOT TRUE! What I can do is make a plan for what needs to be done and chunk it down into what I need to do next. In Map Your Business we do this in three month chunks. But if you’re life has a lot of uncertainty, you can still make this “quarterly” plan… and accept that something might interrupt and it’ll take longer than expected. Here’s what it looks like with my goal. My goal is a sales goal, that is twice what I’ve sold before (keep in mind sales is NOT profit, we go into this in my free Masterclass). My first step in breaking it down is to chunk it into halves or quarters of the year. If you’re increasing your sales, it’s not likely to happen in a smooth progression. For example, if you’re goal is to make 36,000 in sales this year (I picked a number it’d be easy to do the math for!), you’re not going to make 3,000 every month, you’ll likely start where you are now (maybe a little lower because January tends to be slower than December in most industries), and then increase as the year goes on. You’ll also want to look at you are already doing - craft shows? A big Black Friday deal? New wholesale customers in the spring? So maybe you’ll make 13,000 in the first half and 23,000 in the second half of the year. You can then break that into quarters: Q1: 5,000 Q2: 8,000 Q3: 10,000 Q4: 13,000 If you don’t break it up and take into account industry trends, marketing plans, and natural growth, you’re going to feel very frustrated and far from your goal. If you thought you needed to make $3,000/mo and you just make $1,5000 in January, you’re going to feel SO FAR away, when in reality you may be right on schedule to grow. (Just to be clear my goal is quite a bit bigger than this, but I wanted to use numbers that are more in line with the goal a lot of you have set).  After I split my goal up like this in quarters I then looked at months. I looked at what I have planned - travel, events, vacations. Map Your Business has a page where you can list out what’s happening in each month, so you can see when you’re likely to have time and energy for your business. Once you have the goal for your quarter, you do the most important step: forget all the other quarters. I just focus on the sales goal for this quarter. And I ask myself: What can I do to reach this goal? For my business and my audience (you!), this is a lot more about systems than one-time tasks - I put systems in place to share my work with more people as the year goes on. And because of foster parenting, I make sure the system doesn’t need ME to keep running. I want to spend my time and energy working with Starship Captains and writing/recording podcast episodes and videos. So my to-do list for a sales goal is related to implementing, testing and tweaking systems. I have a specific list of things to implement and variables to test. I have joined a program that includes a community where I can get these questions answered. Now, because there’s so many unknowns in my life - so many events and appointments that come with a new placement that I don’t even know about yet - I just do what’s in front of me. I make a plan that would probably fill 2-3 months as they are RIGHT NOW, but I know that I’ll need to be flexible. If it takes longer to get a placement, I’ll go faster. If I get a complicated case, it’ll probably go slower. So that’s it for planning! The next step is to make sure the list of current projects stay front of mind - so I typically use my map to make a list and add it to my planner and I create projects with tasks and deadlines inside Asana. I talk about both of these things in a lot more detail in episode 287 + episode 288, so if you want to more about tracking daily and weekly tasks, go listen to those!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast291

Are you setting New Year’s Resolutions? Have you in year’s past? How’s that worked for you? What if we stop with the resolutions and instead we actually transform our lives in 2020? You find ALL of my resources for creating a great year at taraswiger.com/2020goals So the problem with resolutions, I’m sure you already know, is that they don’t work. Think about it- have you ever met someone who said “I made a resolution and reached it!” No, because the way we set resolutions, the words we use aren’t reachable. In a 2018 survey, one-third (31%) of Americans who made New Year’s Resolutions last year say they didn't stick to any of their resolutions. A plurality (38%) say they stuck to "some" of their resolutions. Even the language used in the survey was “stuck to” resolutions. How do you know if you stuck to something or not? Let’s look at the most-popular resolution : “exercise more,” with 59%, “eat healthier” (54%), “save money” (51%),  “lose weight” (48%), “reduce stress”. These are impossible to succeed at because they’re vague and confusing. Without a starting place (how much are you exercising now?) and a measurable goal (what is “more”), you can't make it happen because you don’t know what to do. But the reason we set them each year? We WANT to make a change. The resolution starts to define that change. At their best, a resolution provides an aim. A way to orient yourself. A destination. So it’s not the resolutions that don’t work, it’s the way we do it. We may think about it on January 1 and write it down and then… nothing. Instead, if you really want something to change or transform, you need a few more steps to the process: Define what you want. Commit yourself to it Create a do-able plan Follow through. Define what you want Make it measurable. Even choosing a word or how you want to feel is better than your typical resolution -  they are specific. I want to read more vs I want to feel curious about the world. I could feel that way by going to museums, reading, watching documentaries, meeting new people. As you define what you want this year, check that it’s measurable. Be specific about how you want to feel. What else could make you feel that way? Ex. Exercising more.Maybe you want to feel strong. What makes you feel strong?For me, it’s lifting weights, it’s being emotionally steady mom, getting through hard times. One of my fave mugs says “strong as a foster mother”...that’s a way to feel strong. Commit yourself to it Here’s the thing: you can’t do anything unless you decide you are going to. That may sound obvious, but be honest - how many times have you set a goal, but then not really believed it was possible and kinda backpedaled away from it? I know, you don’t want to fail. But you won’t succeed until you go all in. I know, maybe you haven’t done it before but you can do it this year. You are farther along. You know more. You have tried and failed and survived more. Go all in. Create a do-able plan So just the phrase “grow my business” is meaningless, but if you got specific in Step 1, maybe you decided you want to hit a specific sales goal... and you committed yourself to it, the next step is to get super-specific. What do you need to do? By when? I’ve got a whole workbook for this, it’s called Map Your Business. In it I walk you through getting clear on your big vision, setting a specific goal and then building a plan for it AND following up on how it’s going. You know what you need to do, so break it down into specific projects and tasks and then add them to your calendar. (Go back and listen to episode 287 and episode 288 if you need more on that!) Follow Through Ahhh, I know! This is the hardest part. This involves having a time to work, having clear boundaries around it, then actually focusing on what you need to get done. For a lot of us, this also requires some outside accountability. Someone else saying “hey, you were going to do that.” Needing outside accountability is NOT a bad thing. It doesn’t mean you don’t have discipline or whatever. It just means that you operate best when someone else is relying on you. If you have a hard time following through, you are NOT alone! When we talked about this in my Facebook group, over 90% of your fellow makers and artists said they struggle with this! You can get help, and learn my methodology for helping you follow through, in the free Masterclass. Just head to taraswiger.com/2020goals and get the worksheets and resources for creating your New Year, and I’ll send you an invite to the Masterclass! So how about you? What’s your plan for the New Year? Come tell me in our free Facebook group, FB.com/groups/taraswiger Have an enthusiastic day and New Year!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast290

Are you stuck between two really great ideas? Wondering if you have to choose or if you should just do them both at the same time? How could you choose between them? Today I’m going to help you answer one of the BIGGEST questions I get about creating do-able plans for your next goals: Do I have to pick just one and how the heck do I do that?! In my book Map Your Business and in my Starship Program, you begin by getting clear on your big vision. Then you set a goal and break it down into steps and actionable to-dos. For the last two weeks we’ve talked about how to stay on top of those To Dos, so they actually get done. But this week we’re going to back up and answer the question: How do you even pick the next goal? Especially when you have several projects that all look like good options? This question came up in the monthly coaching call inside the Starship Program (learn more at taraswiger.com/starshipbiz) and it’s one I know we all deal with. So let’s break it down - do you need to pick just ONE goal? And if so, how can you decide? You can find a worksheet to help you apply what you learn in today’s episode here. Do you need to pick just ONE goal? I get this question ALL the time, because my Map Making process involves making a really detailed plan for ONE goal at a time. So the short answer is yes, in order to make a detailed plan and get it accomplished, you need just one goal. Can you work on more than one goal at a time? Well, it depends. What’s your time frame? Over the course of a year, you’re going to be reaching a lot of different goals. Over the course of a week, you will get distracted if you focus on too many at once. This is why I set the timeline in the Map Making process for three months. That’s a good amount of time to set a goal, work on it, adjust your path, and learn quite a bit about what the project requires. It’s a short enough time frame that you won’t forget what you’re working towards and you won’t get bogged down in doing the same thing, and still a long enough time frame that you can see some real progress. It also depends on the kind of goal you have. There are income or sales goals. There are habit goals. There are KPI goals. There are award goals. For example, most makers I talk to want to get more consistent with their social media. That is something you can do while you’re working on a sales goal. I’d encourage you to make the goal more measurable, like “I want to post on Instagram 5x/week”. You’re going to do that alongside a lot of other stuff. And still, I recommend you let that be your ONLY goal for at least the first month as you get used to it. Why focus? Why focus on just one at a time: You’ll be focused (this is one of the main benefits of setting ANY goal) You’ll know what to do next and how to prioritize You’ll see faster progress You’ll learn faster and can change it up The sense of accomplishment will keep you going. If you want to learn more about setting the right-sized goal, check out episodes 191 on stretch goals and episode 91 on why you’re afraid of big goals. So you want to narrow it down, but you’ve got two really great ideas. Perhaps you’re debating, as one of my Starship Captains did: Should I focus on increasing my online sales or my wholesale sales? Or: Should I focus on my email list or Instagram? Should I self-publish a book, or sell more patterns to magazines? First, some good news. Any goal is good.  Anything you commit yourself to, make progress on, and learn from, is going to improve your business and your life. You’re going to be in a better place in 3 months than if you didn’t pick anything. So take some of the pressure off, ok? Now, when it comes to choosing a goal, I like to ask Captains two questions: Questions to ask to choose the next right project: What is closer to money? Where is your enthusiasm? What is closer to money? This is one of my favorite questions, because it’s gonna get you fast results: What is the project you can work on that is closest to making money? For example, if you have products in your shop, selling one of them is the absolute fastest way to make money. If you have customers, having them buy again is closer to money than finding new buyers. Self-publishing your finished pattern is a lot closer to money than pitching it to publishers. You feel me? However, lemme warn you that you can not build your whole business doing just what’s closest to money, because it will wear you out and not necessarily take you the direction you want to go. You want to balance choosing quick-money options with long-term right-direction goals. But I’m really disappointed at how many people say they have a business but NEVER do the thing that will make money - instead they focus on metrics that look good - like more instagram followers or more prestigious partnerships. If it’s been a while since you focused on SELLING your thing directly to the people who want to buy it, then I’m going to suggest you pick whichever project is closer to money Where is your enthusiasm? Here’s the thing: most people who tell me they can’t decide between a few options, it’s because they are piling up the SHOULDS. Well, I SHOULD do this. A REAL business would do this.I don’t have as big an Instagram following as that person, so I should improve that.  No, no, NO.  Our aim isn’t to build A business, it’s to build YOUR dream business. Which goal is aligned with what you’re most enthusiastic about? Are you LOVING working with your newest retail shops? Are you throwing confetti every time you get a response to your newsletter? Yeah, you might not be enthusiastic about the WORK involved in your goal, but are you enthusiastic about the end goal? Or some part of the process? Then go with that.  You are going to have the MOST progress and grow the fastest by looking at what you’re genuinely enthusiastic about,and following it. It might not be strategic but all of my best moves have been following my enthusiasm. I did plan to start a podcast, but I started it in one week and it’s been one of the best things for my business. I did not plan to start a Facebook group right before Thanksgiving, but it’s been an amazing place to be - I LOVE meeting and approving new people who apply. I did not plan to create a worksheet for this podcast episode, but you know what? I’m feeling it! If you go with your enthusiasm, you’re going to be more likely to follow through. So that’s how I decide on a project - commit to following through on ONE aim in the next three months and then ask yourself - what is closest to money? What am I most enthusiastic about? Drop all the shoulds, and go full speed to what you want. I created a worksheet to help you answer these questions, you can grab it here. Wishing you an enthusiastic and peaceful end of year!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast289

How do you keep track of all the moving parts in a recurring or upcoming projects? What if you’re waiting on other people to do their part before you can do your part? I do this with project management apps, so today we’re going to make it a bit less overwhelming and how to pick the software that will help you. This week I’m answering the question that occurs after you make a map - how the heck do I keep track of all the moving parts? You see, in my book Map Your Business and in my Starship Program, you begin by getting clear on your big vision. Then you set a goal and break it down into steps and actionable to-dos. But after you have that big list of what you need to do and the order you need to do them in, then what? How do you make sure you don’t forget the stuff that comes LATER? And that’s where a lot of us get stuck. So for the month of December on the podcast, we’re having a series on planning - the actual figuring out what to do each day and week. Last week we started by talking about how to keep track of the current week and how I use paper planners for that. Today we’ll talk about task management software to keep track of ongoing or recurring projects. Next week, we’ll talk about how to pick your next big project. And we’ll kick off the new year with an episode on January 1, about planning your best year yet. I started using digital planning tools when... I started tracking to-dos digitally in my business, (especially recurring projects like marketing and this podcast), when I hired my first virtual assistant (VA). The easiest way for me to communicate what I did for each project, and to make sure we didn’t miss a single step, was to put it all in a checklist. What I learned right away is that having it down on a checklist made every single task so much faster to do, not just for my VA, but for me too! There’s a whole book about this - The Checklist Manifesto. Basically, knowing exactly what to do next saves you time, it saves you energy thinking of what’s next, and it saves you mistakes. We started out using Evernote, but soon we moved to Asana. Evernote was great at having a checklist, but it didn’t make any reminders or prompt us to do the next step. If you’ve got ANYONE else in your business, even if they’re just super part-time (my VA started at 2 hours a week!), you definitely need some way to communicate tasks, deadlines and checklists. It’s going to give you peace of mind when you can SEE that they’ve done each part of the task, (and you will save time by not having to talk about every single thing, every single time). Now, if you don’t have anyone else in your team, you can still use project management software to keep YOU on top of things. Do YOU need digital planning tools? Here’s how to decide: First, know your projects. I have Starship Captains start by listing ALL of their projects - onetime things they’re working on, recurring projects, the steps to their social media posts, anything they do or plan to do in a month. Then you can split it down into “repeating” and “one-time”. How many things do you have to hand back and forth to someone else? Second, ask yourself - how do you keep track of the repeating tasks now? Maybe you have a paper system that works great (I put my first marketing plan on a post it and just kept the post it on my computer screen). Or maybe you’re forgetting half of every repeating task, or it’s taking you twice as long to remember - in which case, a checklist would be SUPER helpful. You could do the checklist manually or digitally - whichever you’re more likely to see. Third, how do you keep track of next steps for one-time projects? Is that working for you? Would you prefer to be reminded of deadlines or next steps? Captains use project management software to keep track of production, including wholesale orders and show prep. (If you’re in the Starship Community you can ask about how exactly they organize it all!) But WHAT tool do you need? If you’re current tools aren’t working for you, then let’s look at some digital options. Now, before we go any further, I really want to stress one point - NOTHING WORKS UNLESS YOU USE IT. Sometimes we get all wrapped up in finding the “perfect” tool or the one other successful biz owners use, but none of that matters. What matters is if YOU use it or not. The tool that will work best for you is the one you regularly use, put information into, and actually look at. There are so many options for To Do list apps, I’m not even going to get into all the specific options. What you need to know is that a checklist app like ToDoist is different from a note-keeping app that has checklists like Evernote or GoogleKeep, which is different from task management software. I’ve used Evernote and I currently use GoogleKeep to keep track of notes on the fly and checklists related to my personal life. I like that I can save documents, links, checklists, everything in one place. This was great when I was starting - my VA and I created a folder in Evernote for Standard Operating Procedures (we called it the Flight Manual) for everything - from checklists to launch plans, to project mapping. But project management software takes it to the next level by letting you create TASKS. You can give those tasks deadlines, you can create a checklist under the task, and you can set the task to repeat! This is really great if you: Have a project that needs to be done in the exact same way every week or month (like my podcast!) Have a project that is waiting for other people (knitwear designers who use editors, test knitters, etc.) Have a project that needs to be paced out (you need to do step 1 by this date, step 2 by this date, so step 3 can get done by a big deadline.) Using a system for these things: Keeps you on a schedule Takes it off your mind so you’re not trying to remember all the steps before you’d done the next step Prepares you to scale up and do more and bring people on who can do parts of it Helps you visually SEE all you do, which makes you feel accomplished and proud Where to start with digital planning? I recommend most people start with the steps I mentioned earlier - listing the projects you have. And then, making checklists first. Use something like GoogleKeep or Evernote and keep all your checklists together. Once you start to see that you want something to reoccur or repeat, you want to assign just part of the checklist to someone else, then put those checklists into tasks and projects inside a project management program. How I do it Now, I’ve filled this episode with tips for you to figure out what will best help you and with steps for you to follow, I know you will still ask what I use and what I do, so I’ll share my process with you, in hopes that it will inspire you to get going, and not worry about being perfect! I’ve been using Asana for years. It’s totally free and it has all the bells and whistles I need. The initial set-up took a bit of time, and I had to train myself and anyone who works with me to actually USE it regularly, but I’ve been building tasks in it one at a time, and it is a lifesaver. For my weekly projects like this podcast or my weekly emails or blog posts: I think through the task and add every single tiny step to the task (like a checklist) I run through DOING the task once using the checklist and I add anything I forgot I set the task to repeat I’ve learned through the years that if a task has more than one person who’s working on it, I CAN assign subtasks to different people, but it’s easiest to just create separate tasks for each person and then put them in the order they need to be done. For example, I write and record this podcast episode, that’s a task. Jay has a task to edit it. Holly has a task, once it’s been edited and uploaded to take all the pieces - the transcript, the recording, the video, any links and put it all in the blog post. That’s one tasks with quite a long checklist, because the blog post has a lot of moving parts, and she can’t do any of them until we’ve done our part. Now, even if I didn’t have Holly, I would still use this task, to remind MYSELF of what all the steps are. And what’s great about this is now I can hire anyone to do the task. I have to teach them the software involved, but the task even gives me a checklist of what software is involved in all the steps. It was much MUCH harder to start working with people when I had no checklists. Now, when I have a new project, like I started a Facebook group recently (join us! It’s free: fb.com/groups/taraswiger) - I put that in Asana too. Often I’ll talk out the project with Holly or Joeli inside Asana, then I’ll start to put the task list together. Then I keep adding ideas as I have them, then I assign it to people and pace out the due dates so the final project is done when I want it done. The Facebook group is actually a great example, because I’m the only one that worked on it, and yet I still created tasks to mark off as I went because I was learning from a few different sources and wanted to keep all my ideas in one place and then be sure I actually DID them. So that’s how I use project management software in my business to both plan and be sure I follow through on my plans. I’d love to know what apps and tools YOU use and how you plan... and guess what? You can come tell me in the group! Come over to facebook.com/groups/taraswiger  to join makers who are growing in confidence AND in profit, just like you! The group is limited to those who have a creative business, so if that is you, please come join us! And remember to tune in next week where I’ll be sharing how you can choose between all the projects you’re excited to create in 2020.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast288

How do you turn your to-do lists into a plan? How do you know what to do every day? How do you fit your work around non-work appointments and responsibilities? This is what we’ll talk about this episode. This week I’m answering the question that occurs after you make a map - how the heck do I follow through on this every day? You see, in my book Map Your Business and in my Starship Program, you begin by getting clear on your big vision. And then you set a goal and break it down into steps and actionable to-dos. But after you have that big list of what you need to do and the order you need to do them, then what? You can’t get it all done in a day or two, you have to continue to work on it over weeks. And that’s where a lot of us get stuck. So for the month of December, we’re going to have a series on planning - the actual figuring out what to do each day and week. Today we’re going to start by how I use paper planners, and next week we’ll talk about task management software. As we near the end of the year, we’ll talk about how to pick your next big project. And we’ll kick off the year with an episode on January 1, about planning your best year yet. If you’ve followed me on Instagram or YouTube, you know that I started using a real paper planner in 2019, in part because I’m having more meetings than ever thanks to foster care. I’ll talk about how I use it in a minute, but first let’s talk about what I used to do that worked really well. Before 2019, I just wrote stuff down in my journal. I kept one journal for everything - work, personal, notes from reading or meetings, to-do lists, etc. Each week I’d look at my goal and make a list of projects for the week - what do I need to do to move that project forward? what do I need to do in my weekly tasks? What else? I’d usually make one big list for the week. When I woke up in the morning I’d look at the list and pick 2-3 things to do that day as a priority. I write down what I will do that day so I have a list in front of me to focus. I typically spent the first few days of the week doing stuff that needed to be done weekly, and the next few days working on projects. If I didn’t get to something, I’d push it forward to the next week. This worked super well for a long time. When the video about how to bullet journal (the very basic bullet journaling) came out, I thought, “Oh, that’s what I do.” It’s not fancy or pretty but it kept me focused. And, I should note, during this time I would see photos on the tag #planneraddict and think - who has time for all that embellishment, do those people get anything done?!  But then my life blew up, aka, I had a toddler. And she had appointments, meetings, visitations, at very specific times. And I never knew if I was going to have the time, energy and focus to do one thing, or twenty things. So in early January I found myself really frustrated that my list system wasn’t working. I’d forget to open my journal for days. I’d have time to work but not be able to decide what to do because I hadn’t made a list for the week on Monday morning. I had months of not being productive OR feeling creatively inspired at all. No knitting or quilting or painting. Then I stumbled up The Happy Planner on Instagram, and I thought - hmm, maybe I need to try a different method and feel like I had even a little creative outlet. And the COLOR, I love color. And I’ll be honest, 2 year olds are addicted to stickers and it kinda got me excited about stickers. So I got a Happy Planner on sale and some stickers and it took me a few weeks, but I figured out a way to use the planner that really really works for me. If you want to see the actual pages or process, this is my planning playlist including a number of plan with me vlogs. The process is very similar to what I did in the journal, but now with stickers.  First, I make a list of this week’s projects. Then, I look at the appointments I have for the week. I generally add a sticker on each page with an appointment and write the appointment in. Then I make a space for the books I read that week (along the bottom). And I add another sticker or two to make it pretty. I should tell you that as I record this, the toddlers who have been with me since June just went home, so my week was FULL of appointments. While they’ve been here, some days are pretty much entirely filled with the kids and their appointments. So I can easily fill in Monday-Wednesday’s to do list right away, because those days have specific tasks that I know I need to do first - like write and record the weekly podcast episode, finish up a project I worked on last week, or schedule some social media posts. Then I fill in Thurs and Friday as I go through the week and have to push stuff forward, or I work on bigger projects on those days. I used to just wake up and choose to do whatever on each day, but with less time to work, I decide ahead of time what I’ll need to do each day, or else things will never get done.  Once it’s written down, you actually have to do it. Sometimes this is the hardest part, to make sure your day doesn’t get away from you, that when a pocket of work-time opens up, you LOOK at the list and actually do what it recommends. If this is a struggle for you, the first question is: Do you have time, with boundaries around it, dedicated to getting stuff done? Are you intentional with the time you have? What could you do to create the habit of looking at your list? Remember - there is no perfect planner or perfect system to make you perfectly productive. Your job is to find what works for you, change when your life or needs change, and keep giving yourself grace while you experiment. I’d love to know what YOU use and how you plan... and guess what? We have a new free community where you can share your planner and your system with us! Come over to facebook.com/groups/taraswiger  to join makers who are growing in confidence AND in profit, just like you! The group is limited to those who have a creative business, so if that is you, please come join us! And remember to tune in next week where I’ll be sharing how I use the task management software Asana to keep track of everything for this podcast and my Program.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast287

It is time for my seasonal round-up of the very best books I’ve read. We’re talking sequels that live up to your hopes, toddler parenting books and of course, mysteries and thrillers. Usually we talk about building a creative business, goal-setting, marketing, and confidence. But we also love to read and talk about books! For the past 6 years I've shared my monthly reading list on my blog, and since January 2018, I've shared that list on the podcast (Starting in episode 192). I've heard from a lot of you, that you love to talk books with me, so I'm making even more bookish videos and a book club, over at Patreon.com/taraswiger I also know you’re busy you may not read 100+ books/year, so here on the podcast, I sort through all I read and share my FAVORITE books of the season. Favorite books of Autumn: Let's talk about my favorite books that I read from September – November 2019. I'll share these by category, like my fave mystery/thriller, fave sci-fi, etc. But first, let’s look at the stats: I read 21 books, 9 of them thriller or suspense novels, 3 non-fiction books about families, 6 books in three different series. I read fewer books this season than I did over the summer, in part because I’ve been super inspired by my work and in part because I had a lot more disappointing books this season. They weren’t bad; they just weren’t amazingly gripping. But let’s focus on which books I did love. My fave fantasy series: Wayward Children series by Seanan McGuire.I read Down among the Sticks and Bones and Beneath the Sugar Sky, and they were both magical and delicious. Fave parenting book:Lo Oh Crap! I Have a Toddler by Jamie GalwackiThis is by FAR the closest to my own parenting style of any book I’ve read. And that’s because her philosophy is that every kid is different and that your theories fly out the window once you’re dealing with the kid in front of you. She also advocates for treating children with respect, humor, and natural consequences. Still loving... Inspector Gamache series by Louis Penny I mentioned in our last seasonal round-up (episode 275) that I liked Riley Sagar’s Lock Every Door and Peter Swanson’s Before She Knew HIm that I wanted to read their other books. I ended up reading all of the backlist of both authors and although I enjoyed them ok, they weren’t as great as their more recent books. I have also been reading the backlist of Megan Abbott, and I love all of her novels. Book I was completely surprised by: Fleishman is in Trouble, by Taffy Akner-Brodesser So many of my faves came from Book of the Month Club. Remember you can join them in getting extra videos and a Book Club, over on Patreon.com/TaraSwiger.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast286

It’s mid-November, the holidays are upon us, so I wanted to check in - how are you feeling? REALLY? Are you feeling scrambled or stressed or depressed or anxious? Let’s talk this week about how to stay emotionally and mentally healthy during this busy season in both your business and your life. I’m not a mental health professional or a doctor. I am your big sister or best friend who is here to remind you to take care of yourself. If you want to hear more about my own mental health adventure, check out episode 123, where I first opened up about my lifetime struggles and suicide in our community, and episode 153 about a year leater, where I share what was working for me in managing it. I’ve also got a Mental Health Checklist in episode 241. This isn’t self-care, this is self-maintenance. Like giving your car gas and changing the oil isn’t extra, it’s part of keeping it running. (I don’t know enough about cars to make this metaphor any bigger, but you get it right?) These tips are in order of importance for my mental health and based on what I’ve read, I bet it’s important for you too. Be realistic with your schedule and get it on paper. Get it all out of your head. Don’t try to keep track of it. And don’t agree to do too much. This includes in your personal life and your business. It is SO EASY to get excited about holiday promotions and commit to doing big crazy launches and new products and extra shows, but NOW is the time to step back and look at how it all fits in your calendar - do you have the time off you need? Do you have a production plan so you’re not staying up till 3 am every night? And hey, those handmade gifts you have planned - are they realistic? The more realistic you are, the saner you will feel navigating it. Wash your hands. Getting the flu on top of everything else going on is the worst. The most-effective way to avoid the flu is to wash your hands. I know you know this, but make it a habit that everyone washes their hands when they come into your house. I’m gonna link to my favorite handwash (affiliate link) from doTERRA that isn’t drying and is naturally antibacterial. If you’re feeling panicky, splash with your face with cold water. This does something to your nervous system and resets it. Wake up at the same time. I once read a mental health researcher say that we would understand more about mental health diagnoses if we thought of them as circadian rhythm disorders. The worst thing for your mental health is to get too little or too much sleep. You can’t always control this by going to sleep at the same time, but you can control getting into bed at the same time and waking up (and getting out of bed) at the same time. This is very important if you’re changing time zones. If you want to hit the ground feeling good, start to shift your bedtimes before your trip. Since I’m usually flying west, I just get up really early while I’m there, go for a run in the morning and then go to sleep early (my family never minds, but it’s harder to do at a conference). Have a hard time falling asleep? I have a few favorite tips:  Take a warm bath and get in bed with lots of blankets for 20 minutes. A study found this was effective at reducing depression! It’s my favorite! I never read business books in bed. The more boring the better. I use essential oils and supplements to help me sleep. My go-to is Copaiba, which works on your nervous system in the same way CBD oil does but more effectively (and without all the risk of weird additives). Take your vitamins and your meds. Everyone I’ve ever met who takes meds for mental health doesn’t want to take medication. They want to go off it. But friend, the holidays, or any time when you’re traveling, seeing more people than usual, or even just shipping way more products than ever, it is not the time to change your medication. Move your body. I know, I hate to go out in the cold, but just focus on getting your steps in and not sitting all day. I use my watch to tell me to stand up every hour, but you can also set a timer on your phone or computer. Say no when you need to. Seriously. One of the keys to staying mentally stable is to not overdo it, and this is the season of overdoing it. Everyone does and seems to be proud of themselves for doing too much and being “busy”, but let’s start a (quiet) revolution of NOT doing everything, of telling people no, of staying in and resting when we need it. Your assignment - Pull out your December calendar and look it over. Put everything in it that you’ve committed to. Look at your production calendar (if you haven’t made one, make one, we talked more about this in episode 282, getting your shop ready for the holidays). Ask yourself:  What do you need to say no to or cancel? What looks good and exciting? Where are you feeling enthusiasm? Where can you do more of that? Come tell me how you are staying well this season, on Instagram. I’m @TaraSwiger and I would LOVE to hear from you - DM me what you are doing or what you learned from this episode. Next week is Thanksgiving here in the States and I am sharing my FAVORITE books I’ve read this season. Be sure you’ve subscribed and tune in to get ideas for what you’ll read over the holidays. I wish you a peaceful and enthusiastic week and happy holidays. Links* to my favorite products: Naturally antibacterial handwash For sleep: Serenity in the diffuser (this works like a charm with kids) Serenity softgels (1-2 before bed) Copaiba softgels (1-2 before bed if you have back pain or headache) Learn more about using essential oils for healthy nighttime habits here.  During the day: The vitamins I take daily The natural supplement for energy at a cellular level (a MUST with kids!) *These links are affiliate links, which means I earn a percentage of the sale when you purchase through my link. I am NOT recommending ANY other brand of essential oil, because they are not food-grade safe, nor tested to the same level of purity, or with the same sustainable practices as doTERRA. Don’t buy cheap oils at Walmart and expect to have similar results.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast285

You have more than enough time. Yeah, I know, it feels like you don’t have any time. But today we’re going to talk about why you believe that and how you can change it. Today we’re going right into tough love territory I know it feels like there's never enough time. With kids and work and starting your business, it can all be super-overwhelming. Since becoming a parent, I have learned that it can be shockingly hard to even find time to take a shower. I get that. You believe you don’t have time because it FEELS like you don’t... You don’t have time to work on your business. You don’t have time to invest in learning how to make your business profitable. You don’t have time for marketing. You believe you don’t have time because: You haven't already made time for it. You have never done anything like building a business before - so how could you possibly have time for it? You may not know anyone who is doing it. In fact, everyone around you is probably saying they don't have time to do anything. But are you them? Do you spend your time in EXACTLY the same way? Surely you know people who tell you they don’t have time to cook, but maybe you always do find time. Or you have friends who don’t have time to read, but you do find time. You are not them and that is why you can find the time, even if they can’t. You’re right, you want to be realistic and honest with yourself. But let’s also be honest with yourself about the reality: You KNOW you don't have more time than anyone else. You KNOW don't have time to waste. Your belief that you don’t have enough time is distracting you from seeing the time you do have, and using it effectively. Is it true that no one, in your exact situation, has never found the time to build their business?  No, of course not. We both can think of dozens of examples of women who have. And hey, kids aren't the only thing that make you busy. When I started my business, I worked 40+ hours per week at two jobs, I managed a paint-your-own-pottery studio and worked at the local yarn shop. When I built my business, I worked as a barista 40 hours a week AND as an office temp 40 hours a week. And when my business grew to the point I quit my job, I was working 40 hours a week AND taking MBA classes during the evenings. But, I can hear you, Tara, you didn’t have children back then! Are you a mom with toddlers? So was Susan of Freshly Picked when she started her baby shoe empire. Are you a homeschooling mom? So is Katie of Yarn Love and she’s built a six figure yarn business while homeschooling her five kids. Yes, if you give time to this, to learning and growing, you will be balancing a lot. But balancing a growing business and your life (whether it's a dayjob or kids or whatever) isn't too hard. Having your entire money situation tied to one single employer is to hard. Wasting the time you spend on your business doing the WRONG things in your business is hard and painful. But here’s the thing: YOU are in the BEST position to find the time for this. Yes, YOU. Why? Because you are a creative. That means you’re a great problem solver, you can hold lots of stuff in your head at once. You are willing and open to learn (you’re listening to this podcast right now). YOU want more for your business and your life. That is the PERFECT person who will FIND the time to grow their business. That is the person who will find the time to learn and build healthy foundations. And hey, maybe you don’t feel like that person. Maybe you don’t feel like you’ve lived up to that potential, and that’s why you are SURE you don’t have enough time to work a program dedicated to growing your business. But there’s another way to look at it: You don't need more time, you need more focus. You need more follow-through. You didn’t do it before, not because you didn’t have the time, but because you didn’t have the follow-through. But what if you committed to following through? What if you found resources that helped you follow-through, that took into account your personality and provided the accountability and support you needed? Could you do it then? What if you knew that you could learn a few new tools and it would shift how time worked for you and how capable you are of following through? Here’s a way to shift time: List all the steps in any project on paper (don’t keep it in your head) Break it down. Then break it down even more than that. PICK ONE PRIORITY.  Each week, each day, each hour. JUST ONE. If you did this, how would impact your year? Your family over the next five years? What would you be teaching the people around you about what was possible for them? About how they could approach time? If you don’t change this belief that you don’t have enough time for learning and being effective, how will that impact those around you? How will you see that play out in the next year or five years or decades? What’s going to happen if you don’t change? Things are going to stay the same. You will hear your kids and your friends adopt this belief. They will think they don’t have time to invest in themselves, to follow their dreams, to put in the effort to improve and get better - whether it’s related to business, to practicing the violin, to putting in effort to learn a new art form or medicine or whatever they’re into. Do you want to keep operating like this, or are you ready to make the time for growing your business, for learning and improving? If you’re ready to let go of the belief then come tell me over on Instagram and then join me to learn more about the foundations of your business at TaraSwiger.com/foundations   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast284

You have just read a great business book, or attended a workshop or joined an online class… but how do you get your investment out of it? How do you APPLY what you’ve learned? How do you make sure that it makes a difference in your business and your life? Today I’m answering a question a Starship Captain recently asked after she read a great book - how do I APPLY this to my business? You see, I’ve thought a LOT about how to make business education and information applicable. I’ve built it into my courses and program, so that as you work through the Starship Program, you are prompted to work WITH it in real time. We do this through apply-it-to-YOUR-biz worksheets, weekly accountability, chunking the content into pieces, and pacing it so that you work on it in an order that makes sense. You can learn about how I structure it and WHAT you need to apply to your business in my free masterclass, the Four Foundation Method. Join me at TaraSwiger.com/foundations  Go Slow One of the mistakes we ALL make is that we get excited and we rush through collecting information and data. I am a big believer that you can absorb a lot more than you think, and you’ll have access to it when you need it again, so I’m never afraid of forgetting something I learned in a book (this may be a quirk of my own brain. If you need to do something else to cement in your brain, like taking notes, you should do that!). But remembering a fact is very different than using a fact to create real change. When you want to create a transformation in your business, you’ve got to pay deeper attention than just a quick read. You need to stop and think. You need to take notes or put action steps in your planner. This is going to seem obvious, but one of the easiest ways to make use of a book or a class is to actually DO the exercises. I know, right? But I know you skip the exercises at the end of the chapter, just like I do! That’s fine if you’re reading a book just for general knowledge or to get an overview of the topic… but if you picked the book up because you want something to change in your business, you need to actually think and work through it. Don’t just speed through. Dedicate the time it deserves. Set aside the time Ok, ok, so you’re going to go slow, you’re going to do the exercises or homework… but who has time for that? Well, if it’s important to you, if it’s a priority, you do. We’re going to talk about this more next week on the podcast, but if this is a priority, you need to set aside the time. You probably know this, but be honest - when you pick up a business book or buy a course do you first stop and ask yourself when you are going to apply it? Probably not, but then we get annoyed when it doesn’t get read and we don’t see a change in our business. This is a good time to tell you - nothing will make a difference in your business unless you commit to taking action and taking time for it. I was recently told that if the Starship comes with a guarantee that everyone will make a living from your craft, this person would absolutely join. Well, yeah. But honey, I can’t guarantee that you will make a living from your craft, because I can’t guarantee YOU will do the work, or that you will even open the lessons and read them, let alone do the homework, let alone make the changes you’ll need to make to have a profitable business. No one can guarantee your success except for YOU. Allow for failure (and experimentation) Here’s the thing: when you try new stuff, it’s not always going to get the results you want. You are going to try things and they’ll fail. This has to be built into how you think about business or you’ll never move forward. If you’re waiting for the perfect piece of advice… you’re going to wait for a long time. I used to call this the special-snowflake syndrome, but that phrase got politicized, so now I’m calling it the Unique Paradox. This is when every student tells me their business is unique and this doesn’t apply to them. But hon, if every business is unique, then there is no point in you learning any business advice. You know that there are foundations you can apply to your business, foundations that work whether you have a product-based business, a service-based business, whether you sell $4 PDFs or $100 earrings… right? But you won’t always know exactly how to apply it to work for you, so you’re going to need to open to experimentation, to try, to fail, to try something new. Often when you apply a new concept to your business, you need to build in time to reassess - is it the concept or the application that’s not working? Can I try it in a different way? And hey, this is why I build in monthly reassessment into the Starship. Because you have GOT to stop and check in, to see if you’re headed towards your goals or away from them. You’ve got to learn the lessons your business is trying to teach you. Ask yourself (over and over) : How can I make use of this? What part of this is applicable to MY business, today? Yes, there are going to be parts of every book or course that don’t pertain to you right now. Maybe it’s something that you will need in the future. Maybe it’s something you’ve already figured out. The key to making it applicable now, is to ignore that and look at what you really can use. I know this can be hard sometimes. When I first started my first business (making handspun yarn and selling it on Etsy) all the advice I could find about selling in an online shop was for coaches, yoga teachers, skeezy guys selling “internet marketing.” NONE of it applied to my business, but I started to look at the basics of what they were saying - know your goals, know your customers, know your product, know your numbers… and I started implementing that in my business and it worked! But what I learned as I quit my dayjob and talked to more and more makers about our businesses is that not everyone has an easy time seeing the foundational concepts and breaking it down into do-able action. That is a strength that seems obvious and easy to me, but it isn’t everyone else’s strength. So I started helping makers improve their marketing, finding the direction for their business (and life!) and get more profitable. But I want you to know - if it’s hard for you to translate concepts from another industry-language or from old-school business terms, that’s ok! There’s nothing wrong with you! You don’t need an MBA to have a successful business. You can work with someone that can help you translate! This is exactly what I do in my Foundations Masterclass (which is totally free) and what I try to do each week here on the podcast. So if you’re having a hard time applying general business knowledge to YOUR direct business, I have a homework assignment, go sign up for one of the spots in my upcoming Foundations Masterclass at TaraSwiger.com/foundations.     Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast283

Happy Holidays! Ok, so I just filled your heart with dread, didn’t I?! If you are a shopper, it’s annoying to see ANY holiday stuff months before the holiday begins, it’s like Live in the NOW, man!... but if you own and run a shop, it is VITAL to plan for your holiday season… starting right about now. This week I am going to help you make a PLAN for getting everything out of the holiday season that you want to! We’re going to set a goal, creating a vision for what you want out of the season, then we are going to talk about math (very briefly!) and marketing. This can be your most profitable time of year, but so that it can be your most peaceful time of year! Or at the very least, not absolutely miserable! Your holiday season may start now, or American Thanksgiving and go through the last night of Hanukkah, or New Year’s Day, or all the way through the Epiphany. Sidenote: I wrote this whole episode and then realized that these steps are exactly what I guide your WHOLE business through in my free masterclass. If you want to go a LOT deeper, check it out at taraswiger.com/foundations. Let’s dive in! Your Goal The first step to creating ANYTHING you want, and especially something with as many moving parts as your holiday season, is to set a goal or cast a vision, what do you want to get out of this season? What do you need to do, and by when? Let’s get more specific:  How much do you want to make in sales? What activities and events do you want to do this holiday season? (This may be everything from a big holiday show, to offering a Thanksgiving custom order, to buying a new menorah, to cutting down a Christmas tree. List it ALL out.) What deadlines do you have? Shipping deadlines: Shopping deadlines: Event deadlines: Other deadlines: What isn’t on this list but is important for you to do or experience this season? Now for the most important question: How do you want to FEEL? Math The next step is to look at the actual math - calendar math and profit math. The calendar math is pretty straight forward - put all of the dates on your calendar AND put all the deadlines. Now put a star on your list of all the things that are going to take more than 1-2 hours. (You need bigger chunks of time for these things). Now you have to switch to profit math before we come back to calendar math. Look at your sales goal - how much money do you want to make (monthly or over the two months, either answer is fine)? Now, with your current overhead and at the profit margin of each item, how many items will you need to sell to hit this number? (Don’t know your overhead or profit margin? You need the Foundations - learn more at TaraSwiger.com/foundations.) Once you know that number, you know how many things you need to sell! This is important because first, you need to HAVE this many items. I can’t believe how many shops want to make $1000/month but have less than $500 in stock. Now, if you’re a designer or you sell services, you can do the math - of the things I have for sale, how many of each will I need to sell, and you can skip right to marketing those things. As a product seller, if you don’t have that many things in your shop, before you worry about marketing, you need to focus on production - MAKE enough stuff. That’s where we come back to the calendar - how much stuff will you have for each show you have scheduled? How many items will you have by Black Friday or Cyber Monday? I recommend getting your shop STOCKED UP before American Thanksgiving, so you can focus on filling and shipping orders and enjoying your holiday. Marketing Tip: Focusing on production doesn’t mean you don’t do any marketing, this is prime time to be showing the PROCESS. Show what your studio looks like! Show your pile of products ready for the holidays. Show the day to day of creating. Back to the calendar - for you to have the amount of items you need by your deadlines, when will you make them? What days are production days? Set a realistic  production schedule, including the fun stuff you want to do this holiday season (in other words, if you want to spend a day baking cookies, don’t plan to spend that day on production) Stress Free Tip: If you’ve never had a production schedule before, you’re going to find that spending the time thinking about it NOW takes so much stress off the day to day. Communicate The key to meeting your holiday goals is communication - with your family, with your customers, and honesty with yourself! Before we jump into business communication, you need to communicate with your family! What are their expectations from you? What do they want to do together? What are you letting go of? Reminder: You have permission to let go of any holiday tradition that is not serving you.  And to adopt new ones that feel better. This will go smoother if you communicate with the other people involved! If you need to be heavily into production for the next month, let your partner and friends know! Ask them for the support you’ll need in this time! If you need to label items while you watch Elf with the kids, let them know! (If they don’t have sticky-cookie fingers, they can help!) Whatever you need from the people in your life, let them know! Of course this applies to your business too! It can be a real struggle to stay consistent with your marketing communication in busy seasons. But if you want increased sales, this is the time where you need to stay consistent. How to balance it? Make a plan! Decide what you’re going to say, when, and write it out ahead of time. Spend some time in early November writing some Instagram captions, sales emails, blog posts - however you communicate with your people, you can write it out ahead of time. This is why we have already worked on the calendar - it will now tell you when shipping deadlines are - this is one of the most important things for you to communicate, several times, so your people (who are also busy and distracted) don’t miss it! Right now schedule when you’re going to send shipping deadline reminders (if you’re not sure what to do, announce it 2 weeks out, 1 week out, 2 days and final day. YES that many times!). You may have a shipping deadline for Christmas, one for the last night of Hannukah, or any other date that is important to your people. If you make your items to order, then your order-by date is going to be even earlier! Once you’ve got your shipping and ordering deadline messages scheduled, look at any other event: Are you going to be at a holiday show? Schedule your messages about that. Are you doing a big Black Friday deal, go on and schedule your messages about that. What else do you want to share about this holiday season? Do you want to show your item in use during this season? Stage some photos and take them now. Do you want to share your own holiday traditions? Schedule those posts. Do you want to talk about your feelings around the holidays? Schedule that! Do you have weekly content? Be sure to schedule time to point people back to that. I know this sounds like a lot, but don’t get overwhelmed. The first step is to identify what you want to post when, the next step is to actually get it together (images and writing the words) and the final step is to schedule it (using a tool like Later for Instagram/Facebook). To be honest, I plan a month or two in advance, but I don’t get my content together until the week of, and for most of my business life, I haven’t scheduled things more than a week in advance. Now that I have toddlers and more chaos in my schedule, I’m needing to get a bit more ahead of it than that, so your particular scheduling cadence is going to be related to your particular life. To recap, you’re going to get your shop ready for the holidays by: setting your goal and casting a vision for what you want the holidays to be like, doing profit and calendar math so you know you CAN make it the way you want it, and then communicating that to both your loved ones and your customers. As a reminder, you can dive deeper into goals, profit and marketing plans in my free Masterclass, at TaraSwiger.com/foundations.     Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast282

I recently made a big decision about an investment in my business. And I spent the last week talking to makers about how to know WHEN something is the right investment in their business business. When I opened the Starship to new members last month, this is the question that most people have - how do I decide if this is the right investment for me, right now? Our conversations have me reflecting on how I make these decisions in my own business, and how anyone knows that anything is the “right” for them. I have a few questions I ask myself before buying, whether it's a $25 guide or a $999 Program. If you are ready to grow and expand your business, you are probably asking yourself - what do I invest in? Where do I spend my time and energy in order to make the biggest growth. Well I cover the ONLY 4 foundations that need your focus and attention my masterclass. You can join (for free!) at TaraSwiger.com/foundations. So before we dive into investing your business, I have to be super clear, when you’re looking at investing your TIME in your business, you need that investment to be in one of the four areas I cover in that masterclass. But when you’re looking at investing your MONEY in your business, how do you choose the class or book or program that’s going to be most effective for you, right now, exactly where you are? I ask the same 3 questions of every investment (yes, I invest in my business too, so I can become the best help to YOU as possible!) Do I know and like the person? Does this person show up regularly and with integrity? Especially in a class, the way I feel about the person is going to impact my ability to learn. If you don't like who the teacher is, as a person, you're not going to trust the information they have and will spend time second-guessing everything. You learn better from someone you deeply trust. Also, if this is going to take longer than an hour, you want to like the person's voice and style, and look forward to spending time with them. (This is why it's so easy to buy from Caitlin, my mentor, or from your favorite yarn shops!) Does it provide the structure that I need? For me, this means something more than a simple PDF download. I learn best if the information is chunked up and delivered in pieces, and has some kind of accountability built in. The entire reason I joined Up & Running is that I needed a training plan and accountability on the regular. But of course, not everyone learns in the same way, so this is something I've tested endlessly in the Starship. Sure, I've got AMAZING, life-changing education on profitability and marketing, but how can I share that information in a way that results in real changes for the captains? The last 8 years of working with makers every day, has taught me that the best results come from a combination of weekly accountability check-ins, structured classes (everything you need, step by step), and targeted, deep-dive, apply-it-to-your-own business material, delivered in video, text and worksheets. The best format I’ve found is a combination of question-asking and accountability-providing. This not only teaches information, it also keeps the regular movement of your business from where it is to where you want it to go. It makes big goals more reach-able and dreams more do-able. Does it fit with my immediate goals? Is this thing aimed at what I'm working on right now? Even if the class has fantastic information, if it's not information I can use right now, I resist it. Why? Because otherwise it will be a distraction from what I'm working on and I'll be frustrated that I can't put what I learned to work right away. (This is why we spend the first weeks in the Starship setting individual goals and mapping out a path – so that you spend your time in the Starship working on your goals and avoid distraction.) Where will I find the time for it? Here’s the truth - if you don’t see how this will fit with what matters to you, right now, you won’t find the time for it. The hard part of this is… we aren’t always honest with ourselves what really matters to us, what our priorities are. So we buy something we WISH were our priority, but honestly we’re putting our time and attention elsewhere. So if you’re telling yourself “I don’t have time for this,'' I want you to change it to “this isn’t a priority right now.” Can’t join a business-growth program? Maybe business growth isn’t your priority right now! And hey, that’s OK. For the first month of a new foster care placement business growth IS NOT my priority. Getting the kiddo(s) settled and figuring out the structure of my life again and napping, those are my priorities. I know if I don’t focus on that, I won’t ever be able to focus on business growth later. Maybe for you it’s a big move or a new baby or a major illness? Just be honest with yourself, honey. If you’re saying, “no no, Tara, I swear it IS a priority!” Then the question is - when will I find the time for it? Tough love time - if you can’t find the time for it, it’s not a priority. Does it fit in my long-term vision? Is this going to help me build the kind of business I want to own next year and the year after that? Or is this going to distract me by thinking about something short-term? And the really hard question: Is this going to help me become the kind of person I want to be? Or encourage me to focus on being someone else? This question is so hard to answer, but vital. There are super-compelling classes, books, and adventures that look fantastic. But if they don't promote my core values, or encourage me to be me, then I know they're not for me. Of course, the first step is to know what you value and define them, so that you can spot them (or their lack) in an offering. The values I look for in a class or book are personal responsibility (am the Captain of my ship), sustainability (valuing the long-term over the short-term, conserving resources), and self-knowledge (I can find success by embracing my quirkiness). This reflects my business ethics and ensures I spend my time in integrity. These are the questions I ask myself before I invest in my business, and it’s what I’d like to invite you to ask yourself before you invest in anything for your business. If you’ve been thinking about prioritizing business growth and profitability, you can learn more about the 4 foundations Method of growing your business over at TaraSwiger.com/foundations. What do you ask yourself before you buy a class or book? Lemme know over on Instagram, in a comment or DM! Show me what you’re doing while listening, just tag me, @taraswiger and #exploreyourenthusiasm. Have an enthusiastic week!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast281

So hey, I became a parent this year! I parented 5 kids in 12 months, not concurrently but consecutively. And in this year of parenthood, I have learned a LOT about myself, my worldview, my marriage AND my business. Today I want to share what parenting has taught me about business. This episode is ultra-vulnerable, because I usually talk about stuff that I know quite a bit about, that I’ve researched and experienced. Well, parenting is not really my expertise. And I’m gonna be honest - I wanted to be a parent for SO LONG that when it DID happen, but in a very nontraditional way, I still feel a little bit of imposter syndrome. I am NOT a parent the way most parents are. I did not give birth or get pregnant. I also didn’t lose pregnancies or go through massive infertility treatments. And I haven’t adopted a child. So right now, I don’t actually, legally, HAVE kids. I temporarily have kids, but as you can imagine, the day to day of parenting feels very very real. Heck, it IS real. I am having the experience of parenting even if I’m not legally a parent yet. So, as you can tell, I feel kinda nervous about talking about this, but I know that we ALL have things we’re inexperienced about, and learning THROUGH the inexperience is how we improve. Now before we go farther, let me just say to all my sisters who are feeling pain around not being a parent yet, and really really wanting to - you might wanna skip this episode. I know that in the past I found all KINDS of things triggered my grief, and I would HATE when a business teacher would talk about kids as if we all just had kids, no problem, no struggle. That said, I encourage EVERYONE to consider foster care as a way of pouring your time and energy and resources and privileges into someone’s life. Someone very cute. So if you don’t have kids yet, and you’re even considering foster care a little bit, stay tuned and check out my videos about the process of becoming a foster parent. And of course if you are a parent, through traditional or nontraditional methods, stay tuned because I think you’re going to enjoy noticing how business and parenting overlap in so many ways. Work on your STUFF The first BIG lesson of having a business or being a parent is this: If you don’t deal with your stuff now, you’re going to have to deal with it later. Both parenting and business serve as a magnifying glass for all the STUFF you need to work through to move forward. What do I mean by stuff? Whether it’s mental health stuff like anxiety, depression, eating disorders or it’s stuff from your own childhood or past relationships, both business and kids are going to bring it up again. I have long said that business is one of the best therapists, because it is ALL going to come up. As you set goals, level up, move forward, you are going to come up against your own feelings of inadequacy, worthiness, confidence, mindset. If you don’t work through it, release it, or in some way transform your stuff, it’s going to KEEP coming up. You’ll end up self-sabotaging or getting stuck or feeling horrible instead of happy. And oooh boy, if this is true of business, it is doubly true of becoming a parent. Every bit of unhealed trauma, grief, and fear from your childhood comes and smacks you in the face when you’re taking care of tiny children. (Or is that just me?) I got a head start on working through my stuff and develop a support system for it, while building my business. I had to work through stuff about being worthy, about mindset, about clear communication in order to grow through my  business. That has made me able to move through it quicker (than I used to) when it came to kids. But for my husband, he struggled. He’s had to develop ways to calm down, to recharge, to release stuff, to confront himself and forgive himself...while in the middle of parenting toddlers. So really this first lesson is: work on your stuff. Now or later, you’re going to need to. If you had kids first, hopefully you’ve learned to identify some of this stuff and you’ve already started the process. (And PS, business and kids aren’t the ONLY ways to work on your issues, they’ve just the two biggest triggers for what I’ve needed to work on! Relationships are another big trigger for people - whether friendships or romantic relationships.) The next lesson is about TIME Oh my gosh, I never felt like I had so little thinking time in my LIFE! It has forced me to get very clear on when and how I work best - what I need to be most productive. What I’ve learned is that I need dedicated focused time in order to do most of what I do. And Introvert Recovery cannot be skipped - the longer I spend surrounded by kids and NOT working, the more I need to recover before I can be productive. This is counter-intuitive and VERY annoying, but I’ve found it to be true, so now I just try to build it in when I can. My other “hack” around this is to squeeze all appointments into same day and have days that I never schedule anything kid-related (of course DCS does not really respect my boundaries, but when possible, I stand up for them.) It all comes down to the fact that time management is so much more crucial now that I have kids, so I’ve had to get better at it. Communication Dealing with toddlers requires clear communication. Dealing with DCS and birth parents and other adults in your kids life requires clear communication. And guess what? Your business, especially your marketing messaging requires clear communication! One of the keys to clearly communicating is to always ask yourself: What is the goal of this communication? What is the goal of this foster care meeting? What is the goal of this outburst? What is the goal of this Instagram post or email or item description? You’re always trying to communicate something to someone. By getting clear on what the goal is and who the intended audience is, then you can shape your message around that. And yes, I am encouraging you to take a minute and think through what you’re about to say, so that it’s clear to everyone what your goal is. If we’ve ever been in a conversation together, you know that I am not going to let you go until I know that we have met the goal. This has been so useful in working with birth parents and DCS. For example, in a meeting with a social worker and some family members, I could tell that the worker was focused on just saying what she wanted to say (in industry-speak) and that family members didn’t understand the seriousness or what’s at stake. So I stopped the worker, over and over to ask: “So you’re saying….” and kept rewording it until I could tell family got it. When we walked away, my husband said, “You were great. You probably really annoyed the social worker, but at least we know we got everyone on the same page.” I credit my decade-plus experience of writing marketing messaging (and a stubborn streak that wants to make everyone feel included) to this skill, but it’s developed over time. If you have been negotiating with toddlers, for a few years, I bet you have worked on your communication skills. (Simplicity! Clear requests!) If you have been in a relationship for longer than a minute, you have worked on your communication skills. The thing is, you can bring that INTO your business! Those skills translate! ALL these skill translate! Whether your life has inspired you to get good at working on your stuff, at time management, or at communication, you can now take those skills into your business! Often we feel like we don’t know enough or we’re not good enough to create thriving businesses, to be profitable, to charge what we’re worth. But you know what? You are! You have the skills you need!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast280

Are you DREADING logging on to IG? Has it been WEEKS since you posted to your Facebook page or group? Honey, you are not alone. It is totally normal to get burnout, and this week I'm going to help you avoid it and deal with it when it happens, and I'm going to give you a dose of tough love! Today's episode is brought to you by my darling patrons, you can join them in supporting the show, at Patron.com/Taraswiger, for as little as $1/mo. It is sooo easy to get burnt out with social media. You feel like you have to be on all the things - Instagram, Facebook, groups, maybe even Twitter or Tumblr or YouTube depending on your Right Customer. Not only do you need to CREATE for those platforms, you also have to INTERACT, comment, like, reply to comments and DMs.... ahhhh It can get super overwhelming very quickly. So let's first talk about how to AVOID overwhelm and then how we will deal with it when it happens. To start with you need to accept one very big Truth: you don't have to be on everything. In fact, you CANNOT be on everything. Because, hon, you aren't going to be GOOD at everything, in fact, you won't be good at most stuff. AT FIRST. How you get good, is practice and consistency, without expectation. Now I know that "expectation" bit is hard, because why else would we be on social media as business owners if we didn't have the expectation that it would help our business? The answer is counter-intuitive: Lower your expectations a little! (or a lot) If you hop on a social media platform, there will be a learning curve, if your expectations of yourself and your results are sky high, you WILL be disappointed. If you look at the whole experiment as a chance to learn and get better, you will be delighted at the results. Because here's the thing: even doing a social media platform "badly" is a chance to learn about your CUSTOMERS. Because let's back up here, you're going to choose platforms based on two things: What you like to do or want to do more of. Where your customers are. Now the thing about the big platforms (IG, FB, Twitter, YouTube) is that they are big enough now that no matter the demographic of your Right Person, if they're under 65, they're going to be there. (if your target market is over 65, why are you even stressing about this?) So if you're choosing a platform based on what you like or want to do more of, you're going to have more FUN while you learn it. And if your customers are there, because it's SOCIAL, you're going to have a chance to learn about them, even if you aren't particularly good at creating content for it yet. You can see what hashtags they use, who they follow, what they post about, what they like. You can have conversations in the comments of THEIR posts, or even the posts of a bigger creator. (I originally had podcasting here, but it's broadcasting media, not social media, right now there isn't a podcasting platform that lets everyone (maker and consumer) talk to everyone). If, instead of looking at it as a chance to talk to your customers, you look at is a way to boost sales quickly, well you're going to feel pressured and that leads to burnout. Social Media is not a sales tool, it's a marketing tool, 98% of the time. What's that mean? It's not IG where you'll make the sale. On IG you'll build the relationship and point your follower to where they can learn more or check out what's for sale. But for most of us, IG -> email -> sale. If you do in-person events, SM -> event -> sale. I know, I know, so-and-so posts pictures of what's for sale and she sells it right away. But you know what? She's ALREADY used IG to do marketing (spreading the message of her work - the value, the worth, the work that goes into it) AND she's built trust. She's done this with enough people so that when she posts something, at least one of them wants to buy it. So yes, you can make sales right from social media, EVENTUALLY. In the short term, it's a listening tool and a learning tool. You can use it to experiment with messaging (you get a new chance every day) and you can use it to have conversations. You might have noticed that earlier I said you're going to get better at it by doing it consistently. Yes, the more consistent you are with any tool in your business, the better results you're going to have...but that's another cause of burnout - trying to stick to a schedule that doesn't work for you. If you are feeling ragged trying to post daily, what if you did it 3x/week? It's better to be consistent 3x/week than to post a lot one week and not at all the next week. You'll feel better about your work, so you'll stick with it longer. So far we're avoiding burnout by doing what we like, by having conversations with our customers, by doing it less often and by lowering our expectations. The other way to avoid burnout is to give yourself a break. Whether you choose to do it weekly (I don't pick up my phone on Sundays) or you choose to do it for a longer stretch of time (I stay off social media when I'm traveling with my family, to give myself a real vacation), just take some time AWAY. What if you're already all burnt out? First, step away.  Just stop. Seriously. Nothing bad will happen. Second, find the fun.  Notice what feels good, what you have fun doing and do more of that. Maybe it's pictures of flowers, maybe it's funny memes, maybe it's videos about books, like it is for me.  Dip your toe back in with what's fun. Third, lower your expectations, yes, even more.  Social media cannot be your entire business (unless you're a social media consultant, and then why are you listening to this?). Social media is ONE way you can practice your messaging and build trust through consistency. Your business is your product, your pricing, your messaging, and your follow-through. I teach all about these foundations and how to make them stronger in my new masterclass. You can find out when the next encore presentation is at TaraSwiger.com/foundations     Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast279

Today is kind of a part 2 to last week’s episode, where we talked about if you even need a traditional business plan. Last week I walked you through what to do for an effective plan, if you don’t need a traditional one. You can find that at taraswiger.com/podcast277 That episode is going to help 98% of you, my readers, get super-clear on where your business is and where it’s going and how the heck to plan that out. But if you DO need a traditional plan, today I’m not only going to tell you what to include, I’m going to share snippets of our own business plan. The one Jay and I took to banks and business advisors, when we were planning on buying a comic shop. Now, even if you don’t think you need a traditional business plan, I don't want you to skip this episode, because I want you to dream BIGGER. Expand your idea of what's possible. So many makers are afraid that getting "big" would be too scary, so I want you to hear what it actually takes, because I know you ARE capable of it. So if you've ever had a dream of having a shop, or renting a workspace or opening up a cute Shop Around the Corner, please listen even though you may not need it now. It really could be you - in the last decade of working with makers and artists, most of whom only had an etsy shop when we started working together, dozens have quit their jobs (and needed to show their partners how they would make it work), a few have opened brick and mortar shops, and one, Katie of Yarn Love, has bought land and built an entire dye studio for her business. So yeah, you may not need it TODAY, but you may need it sooner than you think. As a reminder, you need a traditional business plan, when you bring anyone into your business - a bank loan, an investor (even a family member investment!), or a business partner. When you go talk to a bank or an investor, they are looking for some very specific documents. The best resource is SBA.gov - it has tons of tools to help you make this, so I'm going to suggest you go to their website and use all their tools, even if you're not in the US, because they have samples and way more information that I'm going to cover here. If you are in the US, you're going to need to adhere to their guidelines - it's what banks want and expect. Let’s get right to it, here are the parts of a traditional plan, along with what we included in our business plan: Executive summary: This is where you put the overview of your business and what it stands for. You'll include your missions statement, your business model (what do you sell and how?) and everyone high-level in your business. If you're asking for funding, you'll include some numbers up here (what you're asking for and when you'll be profitable). (We skipped this part) Business description: This is super-specific description of the business - what's it's address? What does it sell? How many customers does it have? What are your advantages? You'll put your strengths in this section. Real Life Example: "X was founded in DATE by person, (short founding story). For over X years, the shop has sold {products} and has {competitive advantage}. It won X awards. It is located at {LOCATION.} The print comic book industry is a $940 million industry in North America with 98 million individual copies sold from the major distributor, Diamond Comics. How the industry works: Individual issues of comics are released monthly or bi-monthly with new titles coming in every week. The shop places orders for the titles three months in advance. There are three types of customers {explained in detail the kinds of customers}We described the business model and the primary partners and distributors. The current business: We shared specific numbers from the current business and the problems we saw that we would change. We then had a detailed paragraph about every problem we saw and how we would change it (including software we would buy, systems we would implement, incentivisation we would offer and more.) Market analysis: Now we're getting to the part where you'll need to do some research - in this section you'll list the businesses who are competing with yours (other local shops?) and what your target market is. How big is the market? How much money do your people spend on your product each year? You'll also talk about trends and themes here - what do successful competitors do? Why does it work? Can you do it better? Real life example: In this section we included local competition (other shops, including the chain bookstores) and what advantage and disadvantages they had, and online competition. We then wrote a detailed analysis of how we would compete with online comic sales. After the Competition section we had a Market Analysis section where we specified the shop’s demographics by percentage compared to the industry demographics. We wrote in detail about how the market was shifting and what we would do shift the shop’s demographics to where trends were going. We also wrote about the plethora of comic book-based media, the demo and stats of those shows and how we would capitalize on that media attention. Organization and management: This may be super simple - who does what? Who is in charge? Who will run the day to day of the business? If you have several people already working in your business, use an organizational chart and include information about their unique experience and what they bring to your business. This is also where you state the legal structure of your business. Real life example: We included a paragraph on both Jay and Tara (the owners) that included our education, experience and roles in the company. We also specified that until the shop was profitable we wouldn’t be taking a salary. We put this section at the very end, because we were advised to rearrange this based on what the lender would care most about, which is how we would make money (financial and marketing). Service or product line: What do you sell? What is the lifecycle? What are the features AND the benefits? Real life example: We included this in the company description, because we knew most lenders wouldn’t know anything about the industry and we needed them to learn about it up front. Marketing and sales SBA.gov says "Your goal in this section is to describe how you'll attract and retain customers. You'll also describe how a sale will actually happen. You'll refer to this section later when you make financial projections, so make sure to thoroughly describe your complete marketing and sales strategies." Real life example: “Our initial marketing plan is focused on fostering a sense of community and helping new customers feel welcome. We’ll achieve this by reaching the current audience more effectively (and more often) with consistent social media and email marketing, moving all customers through the sales funnel (from walk-in, to regular, to subscriber) through store displays and customer service and increasing the number of women and children who shop with us. Our initial promotional program, on all platforms, both in person and online, is to increase our subscriber base”  I then described exactly how we’d do this, including a bounce-back program. Then we had sub-sections, including InStore Marketing, which had 2 examples of upcoming events and promotions around them. Each event had a description and up to a dozen bullet points of what we’d do it for it. We then attached a list of the next YEAR of dates of events and what we would do for them. We also included a subsection of customer service, how we would improve it and systematize it and a subsection of social media which included the shop’s current assets, along with my plan for Instagram and YouTube. I started with stats, because I figured dudes in suits would know we should do social media, but wouldn’t really get it. “Engagement with brands on Instagram is 10 times higher than Facebook, and 84 times higher than Twitter (Forrester Research, 2016). According to Pew Research, 55 percent of all online 18- to 29-year olds in the U.S. are using Instagram. We will use Instagram to connect with our customers, incentivize sharing to reach their friends, and to promote our in-store events and displays. We’ll make use of the location tagging and a custom hashtag, which empowers our customers to share the shop and stay top of mind.” We had a subsection for Email Marketing, where I included my own email open rates and sell-through stats, and some industry stats like “According to studies from McKinsey & Company, email is 40x more successful at acquiring new clients than either Facebook or Twitter and a business is 6x more likely to get a click-through from an email campaign than from a tweet. When it comes to purchases made as a result of receiving a marketing message, email has the highest conversion rate (66%), when compared to social, direct mail and more.” I specified when we’d send emails and what they would include and how we’d get new subscribers to our emails. The last two subsections were website improvements and traditional marketing (ie, flyers on campus, press releases to the local papers, sponsoring a little league team, etc). As you can see, this was a HUGE section, and that’s because we wanted to show how were justifying our financial projections which were quite aggressive. That’s the next section! Financial projections: This is the part that took us the most work and is also the most important section if you want funding or support. As the SBA says, "Your goal is to convince the reader that your business is stable and will be a financial success." If your business already exists, this is a bit easier because you have real data - include income statements, balance sheets, and cash flow statements for the last three to five years. (This is actually where buying the shop fell apart, the owner could not provide these in a timely manner, because of his own bookkeeping issues). If you have other collateral you could put against a loan, make sure to list it now. But if you have an established business or not, you also need include projections - what will your business make? We did this is a spreadsheet with monthly projections, both of expenses and income, for the first year, then quarterly for the next 3 years after that, then yearly for another 2-3 years. We worked with an advisor at the local SBA office, who took current sales and used a formula of expected increased sales to give us specific numbers. But we had to come up with the expense categories and specific numbers. For example, what would our rent be each month? (You need to have specific spaces in mind with their actual information). What will your supply cost be? (And then you have to do that math - how many products will that yield? That will impact your income!) What will insurance cost? (Get a real estimate!) What will internet cost? Utilities? If you plan to advertise on billboards, what does that cost at the specific billboard? If you plan to advertise on Facebook to a specific audience, what will it cost to run that ad to that audience? So we took all of our marketing strategies and tactics and researched what they'd actually cost us, then decided which month we'd really do them in, and put that in the spreadsheet for those specific months. Then we could look at and apply that to projected sales. If we're doing a big marketing promo in June, will sales increase in June? Or July? Or 6 months later? What months are sales high? Low? (You'll use the income info you already have, or you'll need to do industry research.) Speaking of research, each industry has a trade association or a partner who can help you with these numbers. If you're a knitwear designer or yarn shop, you can get these numbers from TNNA. If you're a comic shop you can get them from the industry's only distributor, Diamond Comics. The SBA advisor then took these industry stats and translated into projections for what we could have in income. This section might feel scary, but it also SO helpful - if you know April is a low sales month, you will adjust your projected expenses in those months. You can use this spreadsheet as you actually work in the business and compare projected numbers to actual number and then adjust your next projections accordingly. And that’s it!     Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast278

Do you need a formal business plan? If not, how can you plan your business so it’s profitable and successful? How will you measure if it IS successful? Today's deep dive into business plans comes to you because my Boss-Level Patrons voted that I make this episode this month. Several years ago I created a video where I shared the process of making the business plan to buy the comic shop that my husband worked at. When I made the video we were in the middle of planning to buy the shop, which didn't end up working out for reasons totally outside our control. But that video is still one of the most popular videos on my channel. So I recently went back and rewatched it and I realized I talked a lot about what we had done, but nothing that was very instructional if you want to make a business plan for your own business. And you know I want to be super-useful to you, so over the next two episodes, I am going to go MUCH deeper into the practical aspects of a business plan. Today we’re going to talk about when you DO need a business plan and when you don’t, and if you don’t, how to make a plan that will help you reach your business goals.  Next week we are going to be super-nerdy and go into how to make a traditional business plan, with questions to answer for all the sections and what we actually included in ours. I’m sharing as many of our real-life details as I can, without being in breach of the NDA we signed. Business Plan v Map Making We need to start with this: A business plan is related to your goals, and to the map you make to reach your goals, but it is not the same thing.  My book Map Your Business helps you do the process you have to do before you ever sit down to a business plan  - getting clear on where you are, where you want to be and what goals you want to hit on your way there. But it is aimed at helping you make a personal plan for the actions and to-dos you need to do to hit the goals. A business plan is a document that shows a lot of information and details about your business, the competition and the overarching plan. It may include financial projections. But it actually doesn't have that many actionable steps in it, it's more of a big picture planning document. So you need both a map to get super actionable, and you can use a business plan to make sure your business will WORK and to keep you in line with the bigger mission. When do you NEED a business plan? The short answer:  Whenever you're getting anyone else involved in your business - a partner, an investor, a bank, even a landlord (they may want to see your business plan), you need a traditional business plan. So if it's just you and your hands, you probably don't HAVE to create an official business plan, but having a simplified business overview can help you focus and will prompt you do the research you need to do. In a minute we’ll talk more about what I recommend every new or growing business include in a plan. If you’re going to ask for funding, from anyone, including family or friends, you absolutely need to follow a tradition business plan. If you are starting a partnership, or bringing a partner into your business (even if it’s your best friend or spouse), you need to have a traditional business plan, to be sure your ideas, expectations and goals are completely aligned (the process is really clarifying of where exactly money will go!). You also need a partnership agreement, and you need to have a lawyer look over both documents. If you are investing a large amount of money into your business, even if it’s your OWN money,  I’d recommend a business plan, so you know exactly when you are likely to see a profit, what you’re going to put the money towards, and how you’re going to earn it back. Treat yourself like an investor, and do the math and research to be sure. What’s a large amount of money? Whatever is a lot of money for you! When I invested into my doTERRA business just a few hundred dollars and committed to start a business (instead of just buying oils as a customer, like most people do), I made a mini business plan, to be clear about how much time I would put it into, what exactly I would do, and when I could expect to hit goals. I attribute that plan and commitment (which I shared with my friend and mentor and she held me too), with the success I’ve experienced in that business. What if I don’t need a business plan? I’ll be honest: I started my yarn company by listing some skeins on Etsy, and then a local art shop, and then I did some craft shows. For months I didn’t keep track of expenses or even sales. But it wasn’t really a business. When I got serious about getting profitable (so I could quit my dayjob), I made a post-it note marketing plan and did the math to figure out how much yarn I needed to make in order to make a sales goal. (I teach you how to do this inside the Starship Program, btw.) That’s not really a business plan, but they were documents that I could work from, and refer back to. When I wanted to talk to my husband about quitting my dayjob to make yarn full time, I wrote up some notes, which is the most formal business I ever made for that business - it included sales data, profit math, projected sales for upcoming shows, and how much I could make if I had more time (ie, after I quit my dayjob). I also included some marketing goals (getting featured in a magazine, getting accepted into more shows) and some personal financial goals, that we would want to achieve before I gave up my steady salary. This document guided me for the next year or so. Whenever I had a new challenge or a new goal, I have always done something kind of similar. So for me, this simplified business plan has been vital in helping me see the overall health and direction of my business. How can you make a simplified (and effective) business plan? I’m going to share suggestions from the Small Business Administration (SBA), and also suggestions based on working with hundreds of creative businesses. Remember: Your business plan is a living document. You will use it as you operate your business. You want to have enough detail to help you make decisions, but not so much that you get overwhelmed by it. The SBA suggests identifying: Key partnershipsNote the other businesses or services you’ll work with to run your business. Who will you buy your supplies from? What shows or shops will you work with? Who will help you with what? Key activitiesWhat do you actually DO in your business? What are the methods you use to sell? (Online shop? Craft show booth?) What are the activities involved in having your product there? Key resourcesWhat do you already have that will serve you? Don’t forget experience, education, skills, even those that you acquired in unrelated fields, like household management, making a website for your hobby, etc. Also include any audience you already have, from personal FB page, your Instagram, your email list, anything. Value proposition“Make a clear and compelling statement about the unique value your company brings to the market.” - SBA.gov What does your item offer your customer? How is that special? How does it make them feel? (We develop this more inside the marketing part of the Starship.) Customer relationshipsHow do you think customers will interact with your business? Is it automated or personal? In person or online? Think through the customer experience from start to finish. Customer segmentsBe specific when you name your target market. Your business won’t be for everybody, so it’s important to have a clear sense of who your business will serve. ChannelsHow do you communicate with prospective customers? What tools will you use? Cost structureWhat are your biggest costs? In this section, include your COGs for every product you sell. (Don’t know your COGs? The Starship Program guides you through this math) Revenue streamsExplain how your company will actually make money. Some examples are direct sales, membership fees, and selling advertising space. If your company has multiple revenue streams, list them all. That’s what the SBA recommends and if you are starting a new business, I recommend having every single one of those sections filled out if you are starting something new, or investing in your business. Many of you already have businesses, so I’m going to make an even more simplified version for you. At the minimum you need to have: Value Proposition What exactly do you sell? What does it do for the customer? How does she feel? Target Customer ProfilesWho loves and buys your work? What EXACTLY is she like? What is your next goal?(Map Your Business helps with this) Financial RealityBefore you can make any big decision in your business you need to know where you are financially - What is the COGs for each product? What is your overhead? What is your business break even point? Have your spreadsheet of at least the last year in monthly sales and expenses. (It is much more effective to compare month over month) Financial projectionConsidering what you have planned in the marketing section and the current growth track your on, what will your sales be like in the next six months (per month)? What will your expenses be? Day to day you may only need to think about the next month or two in projections, but if you’re taking on a big new expense, you may want to project out further, to the break even point. Marketing AssetsWhat assets do you already have? (Subscribers, followers, etc) What is the conversion rate for the various channels? What is your current calendar? Marketing PlanWhat will you promote? When? How? What’s your social media calendar? How will you move a customer down the customer path?  (I have a course on building that path here or you can build it inside the Starship Program, after you work on your profitability) Overwhelmed? Ok, that’s it. Whew!  Are you looking at this and thinking, “oh man, that is a LOT of work!”? You’re not alone! I feel a little overwhelmed just talking about it. But here’s the thing - if you’re tired of feeling scrambly, if you’re tired of feeling overwhelmed and without focus, you need to do SOMETHING different. You need a plan, not just for what you’ll do today, or for the very next goal, but you need to understand the entire health of your business and how it works together. A business plan will help with that. Digging into where you are where you want to go. Being clear about your real numbers. Being strategic in your marketing time. This will ALL help you feel LESS overwhelmed. Yes, it’s a big project if you tackle it all at once, but you don’t have to! You can do it step by step (this is actually what I DO, I help people walk through it step by step, not so they have some business plan, but so they have the information, the knowledge they need to grow and make decisions). Not knowing how your business will actually WORK is one of the biggest mistakes I see people make. I am going to be teaching you to avoid this mistake and three more in a free masterclass this week, and we are going to talk more about how you can figure out the data that goes into your business plan. To join me, go to taraswiger.com/foundations. I will walk you through this step by step, you DO NOT have to do it by yourself.     Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast277

What is the BEST tool to promote your business? How do you say NO without losing customers? How do you balance multiple businesses? Today I am answering YOUR questions in this Q+A episode! Thank you to my Patrons:  Brenda Erin Marianne Weber of MWsDesigns Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes Kim Werker Rowena Roberts Most weeks I teach a lesson to help your creative business, but today I am answering YOUR questions! I gathered questions from my community of supporters on Patreon, and my Instagram comment section. I am going to answer your questions about the BEST tool to use right now to promote your business, how to balance multiple businesses and how to say NO. And if you want to learn how to avoid the three mistakes I see most creatives making, come to my workshop THIS week: TaraSwiger.com/foundations. Before we get into answering these questions, I want to thank Sarah Schira of Imagined Landscapes for her support of the show! Sarah makes best Gnome puns around! If you need more gnomes in your knitting, check her out! Thank you to Kim Werker, longtime friend, colleague and fellow Enthusiast. She’s starting a free community, that you should definitely take a look at. The Questions: A patron asks: I would be interested in hearing ideas about how to balance multiple small businesses.  I have a vintage clothing business in a brick and mortar antique store, an etsy shop selling vintage sewing patterns (both of these are very established, but small volume), and a much newer fine art business making art toys.  I also freelance as a filmmaker and event photographer (my main source of income). I feel like if I picked only one of these, doubled down and really ran with it, I would get further, but I like the variety and I like having multiple sources of income.  So all of them kind of poke along slowly. Thoughts? This is a lot of businesses! I think your intuition is right – the way to build fast would be to focus on one… but if that leads to a life you don’t want, why do it? Why do you need them to get any further? Growth is not the highest good – your own wellbeing, enjoyment and the business doing what it needs to do is the goal. So DO they need to grow faster? What gives you the most joy? What do you need your businesses to do financially? What would that look like? How could they work together to do what they need to do? Then divide up your time accordingly. Kristina asks:  How to say no to a potential or current client without being mean or burning bridges. Do I always need to give a reason or excuse?  I have a whole series of articles and podcast episodes, on how to say NO, with scripts! The first thing is that you need to reframe this! Saying no, especially when you simply can’t take on a job at all, is not mean, it’s a part of business. In fact, someone reaching out to see if you can take a job is probably expecting that you may say no. That doesn’t mean they won’t come to you with their next project. They may even appreciate that you are so in-demand, and book ahead next time. Now it’s slightly different if you’re not just turning down a job, but you are saying no to a current client on a current job. Like no, I can’t ALSO do X, the scope of this project is Y. But you have to remember: that’s why they’re asking. You have the choice to say no. In most cases I would NOT give a detailed reason or excuse, the other person doesn’t want to hear it! Also, the more you say, the more they have to argue with. They can delegitimize your reasons. For example, I have had conferences ask me to do more than we had contracted for, “oh, could also be available during this time? Could you also sit on this panel?” Quite often I say yes, because I like getting chances to talk to more people. But if it doesn’t sound fun or it will exhaust me, I say “Oh, our agreement was X, so that’s all I’m going to be able to do.” It’s hard, but don’t give any more explanation. You can have a standard reply, like “Thank you so much for reaching out, I would love to work with you. However, I’m booked up with projects and my timeline is X weeks out, so unless that works for you, I’m going to have to say no.” And if they’re asking for more once you’ve started working together, quote a policy. “My policy is to not….” or even, “Our initial agreement is…” Before I answer the last question, which is quite a doozy, I want to thank Brenda, who makes gorgeous knitting patterns. I’ve linked up to a blog post she wrote on her site about the experience getting her website made, because it’s really great! Thank you to Erin, who designs beautiful shawls. On Instagram someone asked: What is the best tool to promote your creative business these days? When you are just starting and don’t have time to be on every platform and do email, blogging, in-person promotion, etc?  My answer is the same as it was 5 years ago when I wrote my first book, Market Yourself, and I’ve seen newer data that shows it is still the right answer: Email is the most effective place to make a sale. So if you want to increase sales, and you want to REACH the people who want to hear from you, email is the answer. Email reaches those who have said they want to hear from you, and people take action from emails. It doesn’t take much time at all to set it all up, so the hardest part is getting people ON the list (who are you sending these emails TO?!) and then actually SENDING the emails. The good news is – once you have decided what you’re going to regularly send, it doesn’t actually take that long to put it together each month or each week. If it is taking a really long time (because you’ve made your emails complex), then simplify it. Simplify it down to whatever you can consistently do. That can be as simple as hooking up Mailchimp to Etsy and having it populate your 5 most recent products. So hook it up in an afternoon and decide what you’re going to send. Every email software generates a form that you can either link to or embed, so the “where do these people come from” question is simple – anywhere you already are. Put the form on your site. Link it in your etsy profile and your Etsy thank you messages. Link to it on Facebook and in your Instagram profile. Every time you send an email, do a post WHEREVER YOU ALREADY HAVE ANY CONNECTIONS about what will be in the email and share the link to sign up. It could be that you have a personal facebook page, and you think your family and high school friends aren’t going to want your emails? Link it up anyhow, you may be surprised! They may be super into whatever you’re selling or they may have a sister or cousin who is. My husband’s uncle shares links to my work sometimes, and I’m surprised by how many people who he knows who sign up to hear from me. So, you may be thinking, but Tara, it sounds like you’re saying we have to be everywhere to get people on our lists! And the truth is – you do need to be somewhere other than just in your shop and in your emails. You have to GO somewhere and meet new people. For you it may be having a booth at the local farmer’s market (one of my Starship Captains has absolutely CRUSHED her local markets and doubled her sales), or it may be a FB group with local moms, or it may be talking to your local yarn shop about carrying your work. But your work (and you) have to show up somewhere where people can encounter you. And when they do, invite them to sign up for your emails because that’s going to be the most effective way to make sales. I hope that answers your questions! If you want to learn more about how emails fit in with everything else you have to do in your business and how to focus ONLY on what matters, join me in a LIVE workshop TOMORROW! Sign up at TaraSwiger.com/foundations. Before I go I want to thank Marianne Weber of MWsDesigns , who makes notecards and greeting cards! And the artist Rowena Roberts, who does beautiful paper-cutting! Thank YOU so much for listening, for leaving a review, liking this on YouTube and subscribing! I wish you an enthusiastic week!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast276

First off: Thank you Patrons!  Racheal Herron, author of Stolen Things  CC of Geeky Girls Knit Ana of RagTyme Design Jana Ford I read a LOT this summer, today I'll share my very favorite memoirs, mental health books and a lot of brand-new thrillers. For the past 6 years I've shared my monthly reading list on my blog, and since January 2018, I've shared that list on the podcast (Starting in episode 192). I've heard from a lot of you, that you love to talk books with me, so I'm making even more bookish videos and a book club, you can find all the details below. Here's the other thing I hear from you- you're busy, you may not read 100+ books/year, so here on the podcast, I'm going to sort through all I read and share them here with you, my FAVORITE books of the season. I'll still be doing the monthly round-up videos here at the end of each month. If you want even more bookish videos, there's even more on Patreon.com/taraswiger Favorite books of Summer Let's talk about my favorite books that I read from June - August 2019. I'll share these by category, like my fave mystery/thriller, fave sci-fi, etc. Now, I don't usually read that many new books, so I was going to do a category on new books, published this year...but this summer I read 15 books that were published in 2019! In part because I was reading along with the Modern Mrs. Darcy Summer Reading Guide, in part because I was reading a lot of my Book of the Month Club books. My fave mystery/thriller books published this year (so far): All of them are about more than you think they are, they are all commenting on a social issue. Before She Knew Him, by Peter Swanson  Stolen Things by R. H. Herron (full review here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tq6ZSEodsuk) The Better Sister, by Alafair Burke  Lock Every Door, Riley Sager  (review and vlog here: https://youtu.be/NXcVi9kPmQ0) The Farm, Joanne Ramos Fave new graphic novel: Unstoppable Wasp, by Jeremy Whitley Fave memoirs: Valedictorian of Being Dead by Heather Armstrong Save me the Plums, Ruth Reichl Fave new Mental Health Book: Maybe You Should Talk to Someone, by Lori Gottlieb Fave new Sci-Fi: Recursion, by Blake Crouch Favorite mystery series (new to me) Inspector Gamache series by Louis Penny Fave (new to me) Fantasy series: Every Heart a Doorway, by Seanan McGuire (reading vlog here: https://youtu.be/185ncEJQlgo ) Book I was completely surprised by: Station Eleven by Emily St. John So many of my faves came from Book of the Month Club. Before I go I wanna thank, Ana of ragtymedesign.com for supporting the show. Anna makes beautiful one-of-a-kind art toys, that are just stunning. Thank you to Janna Ford, for supporting the show and listening! Remember you can join them in getting extra videos and a Book Club, over on Patreon.com/TaraSwiger. If you enjoyed this episode, leave a review on iTunes, a thumbs up on YouTube, and be sure to subscribe. Thank you so much for listening and have an enthusiastic week!     Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast275

Hello! I am back! After a summer of pre-recorded episodes and rebroadcasts, I am back with you in nearly-real-time! Today we are going to talk about how to recover from your summer - whether you took time off, or you got tons of work done, or you did a bunch of craft shows or you went on vacation - how do you get back into it and move forward and reach your goals for the year? Today I'm going to give you an update on my summer, we're going to talk about how to learn from the summer and move forward, and I'll share some changes I'm making in my business! First, I have to thank YOU for sticking with me over the summer - for staying subscribed, for sharing the show with friends, for leaving a review on iTunes or comments on YouTube and for those of you who supported the podcast on Patreon - I'm going to be thanking my patrons AND linking them up over the next several episodes. If you want to support the show and get some bonuses every single month, head to Patreon.com/Taraswiger. Thank you to long-time patron, Jacie of BandofWeirdos. Jacie makes the most awesome geek-inspired pins, patches and I proudly wear my Band of Weirdos pins, Cat Spock and "Slayers Gonna Slay" on my jean jacket. A giant thank you to long-time supporter, friend, and Starship graduate, Lisa Check of Flying Goat Farm. Lisa is a farmer with angora goats and sheep, whose fiber she dyes and spins into beautiful yarn! If you want to get yarn that is well-loved from animal to needle, head to FlyingGoatFarm.com I had a summer that NEEDS to be recovered from - on May 30th, two toddlers came to live us, ages 2.5 and 3.5. The sisters are sweet and so loving and they have just flourished. The young one went from quiet and shy to a little chatterbox in the last few months and they are both just so totally fun and silly. ADJUSTING to living with two toddlers has been its own challenge. I spent the first month napping every time they napped or left the house. We're blessed that they were already enrolled in a preschool, and to make the transition as easy as possible for them, we've kept them there, even though it means driving an hour round trip, twice a day. It looks like they'll be with us until the end of September, they have a court date September 26th, and we'll hopefully know a bit more after that. If you want more updates or to see the very adorable back of their heads, be sure you're subscribed on YouTube, where I share a weekly vlog or your watching my Stories on Instagram, for daily updates. So now that we're three months in, I'm at the spot where I feel pretty capable of thought, on most days, which is significantly better than how foggy I was all summer. So I've been thinking a lot about how to get back to work, how to move forward. I know many of you are in the same place. Maybe your kids were home for the summer and so you didn't get as much work done. or maybe you traveled a lot for shows, or for fun. Maybe you don't have any particular reason, you're just ready to move on from the summer and get back to your business. Plus we're about 4 months from the end of the year, so you may be feeling a bit freaked out about the goals you set and how you're going to reach them. To start with, we're going to expand on the good. Yes, I am sure that there are a million things you didn't do and a million projects you're behind on. But if you try to operate from a feeling of "behind", you're going to feel scrambly. (Spellcheck tells me that's not a word, but I've decided it is.) And you can't be productive when you're scrambly. Let's start by answering the following questions: What went well this summer? (list anything, even things that aren't work related!) What in your work was easy? What were excited about? What new ideas did you have? (You might need to flip through your planner or journal for this) What projects are you excited to work on in the next season? What did you try this summer? What worked well? What didn't? Why do you think that is? (THIS is the lessons you learned this summer! It is so easy to NOT learn them and make the same mistakes again and again!) Next, let's zoom out: What were the goals you had for 2019? (If you've got Map Your Business, pull that out and look at it. It guides you through doing this every quarter but maybe you need the reminder to  open it again?) Which of the goals have you already met? (You may be surprised! Almost every quarter I hear from a Starship Captain who already reached their yearly sales goal and they DID NOT EVEN KNOW IT.) Which of these goals do you want to let go of? (Maybe you just don't care about them, or they aren't the direction you want to move in.) Which of the goals really excite you? This is your OFFICIAL PERMISSION to let go of all the goals that don't excite you. You may come back to them later, or never. But let them go for now. Don’t skip this! You may be listening right now and thinking, yeah, yeah, review my goal, I'll do that later. I need to get back to work NOW. But please, don't skip this. This is a very important step in being productive AND in staying on the right track. It is SO easy to just get stuck in the day to day of what you think you should do, without it ever lining up with and moving you towards, what you really want. It is also very easy to get burned out and disappointed because you're not hitting your goals and you don't feel like you're making progress. Do you know what solves both of these problems? Regularly looking at your goals and CHANGING them based on what you really want, what's actually WORKING in your business, and focusing in on how you're going to get them. Then create a plan: So the next step is to look at the answers to your questions and start to combine it into a plan: how can you work more on what has you excited? How can you reach the goal based on what you learned this summer? What other ideas are you having? At this point you may be noticing that this doesn't look anything like following someone else's blueprint for your business. Your plans and ideas might look totally weird. And you know what? THAT is how you build a business that stands out, that doesn't blend in. Learning lessons from YOUR business, from YOUR customers, then applying them to YOUR enthusiasms. It may lead you down a weird path, but you'll be moving close to what will make you feel fulfilled and to a business and product that YOUR people will like. I did this process myself, and lemme tell you what I came up with! But first, a giant thank you to long-time Patron, Marrietta of Inner Yarn Zen. She dyes beautiful yarn and when I popped over to InnerYarnZen.com, I noticed that she has yarn advent packages available, inspired by both Game of Thrones AND Outlander! Now, when I did this process myself, here's what I came up with: Even in the busiest time with toddlers, it was always fun for me to do a few things - chat live with my Starship Captains each week, read books, watch booktube videos and make videos about what I was reading, or my planner, or whatever struck me. I participated in several reading challenges and vlogged my way through them (vlog = daily or weekly video journal) and it was SO MUCH FUN. Now, that's only tangentially related to what I do for work (which is guiding and inspiring women to create sustainable businesses and lives around their enthusiasm). But it was following MY enthusiasm and it was giving me energy (I could do more than just nap!), so I gave myself permission to focus on it this summer. And it's always easy for me to host the weekly accountability check-in in the Starship, which is great, because I love what the Starship provides to creative women, and I want to open it to even more makers and artists this fall. I've got a list of new bonuses I'm creating and tools I'm making for Starship Captains, and I'll be announcing those soon. You can head to Taraswiger.com/StarshipBiz to be the first to find out about it. So that's one area of my business and focus settled - I find it easy, it aligns with my goals and with my bigger mission. Check! But what about this area that was so fun and easy, making more videos and talking about books? Is there a way to integrate that more into my life? One of the things I tried this summer was participating in the reading challenges, and hosting a book club for my Starship Captains and essential oil customers. That went SO well and had such a great participation and feedback I knew I wanted to do it again. So looking for connections and putting it together with some other new videos I want to make, I realized the answer was to host a new book club for ANYONE who wants to join, and give those same people all the weird videos I want to make every month. For $2/mo you can support the podcast, get at least one extra video each month, and join my book club - where you'll vote on the book and we'll read it together. If you want to support the show for $7, you can TELL me what to add to my own reading list each month, get a shout out on social media, and pick the specific topics I cover on the podcast. Head over to Patreon.com/TaraSwiger to join the book club and get extra videos. Nothing about this podcast will change - you'll still get new episodes every Wednesday, FOR FREE, and the full transcript here at TaraSwiger.com/blog. And if you subscribe on YouTube, you get a video every Monday, usually a bit of behind the scenes of running my own business. If you support the show, you get extra videos, the book club, and more, but most importantly you make THIS free show more sustainable, so I can keep helping more women craft the business they want, so I can keep encouraging you through hard times, and so I can keep taking time to parent my foster kiddos. Thank you so much for being here, wishing you an enthusiastic week!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast274

In this week's rebroadcast we're tackling the pressure to be perfect. Do you know that feeling? Are you feeling pressured by Instagram to pretend like your life is perfect? Today we’re going to talk about this pressure for perfection and at the end of the episode I’m going to share where I’ll be next. I've been hearing a lot that there is this pressure, from Instagram and Pinterest (and the internet in general) to be perfect, to edit your life perfectly, to have a perfect house and perfect craft and perfect hair. And when I heard I thought, yeah, that makes sense, I've felt that. There IS that pressure. Then I was reading an article in New York magazine about Instagram influencers in the fashion industry – how fashion companies are now paying them to wear their goods – which is something going on in every industry and it makes perfect sense – people are paying attention to their phones more than to commercials, so move your commercials to where people pay attention. But what struck me is that the women who follow these fashion influencers, they feel pressure. Pressure to have the newest Gucci shoe, the newest Prada purse. And I reflected that I never feel that pressure. It may be that I live in East TN, but it's also that I don't follow a lot of fashion accounts and I don't demonstrate my own self-identity through high fashion. So it literally never occurs to me to feel any “pressure” to have anything Louis Vuitton. And I'm betting the same is true for you. From my conversations with you, you're not very likely to feel pressured by these fashion influencers, and like me, you may be aghast and confused that anyone DOES feel that pressure. Like: why does it even matter? Who cares? But you DO feel pressured by home bloggers or DIY queens or #planneraddicts to have a beautiful clean home or DIY everything or make your planner really pretty. Why? This is going to sound harsh, but bear with me, because I'm saying it with love: We feel pressured by these standards because we choose to. This is a red pill moment – There is no pressure. There is no real pressure. you are creating the pressure by the things you're choosing to pay attention to AND then the comparison program that runs automatically, comparing what you see to your own life. I'm not saying you don't FEEL legitimate pressure, I'm saying there is no *external* pressure. We are making the pressure inside our own feeds and in our own selves. If you don't believe me, think of it like this – you are the only person who follows exactly who you follow. NO ONE ELSE follows who you follow. They may follow 4-6 of the same people, and then a bunch of food bloggers. Or internet business dudes who post about taking a private jet to the beach. Or teenagers making duck faces. Or fitness bloggers who post daily workouts. So they are getting a whole bunch of DIFFERENT messages about what Instagram (or a home or a life or a business) “should” be. And if you still don't believe me – look at people who are successful who you don't follow – do they seem to be following the same rules as the people you've been comparing yourself to? Are they beating themselves up for not looking like Elsie or Emma of @abeautifulmess? Or Stephan West of @westknits? Or @negharfonooni? Or Kristabel of @Iamkristabel? Or Sarah Tasker of @meandorla? or @garyvee? or @galadarling? Or @yespleaseplanning? And if you are comparing yourself to one of the ones I just mentioned, go look at the other ones – all big accounts, all successful businesses (as far as i know,) and all reallllly different – in content, lifestyle, point of view. And I can hear you right now: But Tara, if I'm going to operate in this handmade world, or in this knit design world, or build the biz I want to build, this is the world I'm living in, I have to know what's out there, my customers will be comparing, I have to live up to what the other people are doing. No. 99% of your customers are NOT following all the other accounts you follow. In fact, they are likely following more people they compare themselves to, like Christian moms with 5 kids who find time to write daily devotionals and have sit-down breakfast, or people who color beautiful coloring book pages, or women who compete in fitness competitions, or lesbians who take beautiful nature photography while hiking with their perfect partner. So no, they're not comparing you to the other people like you, they're comparing themselves to the other people like themselves. And if you wholesale, then yes, your retailers do know what's happening in your industry, but they care far more that you deliver what you promise, on time and that you're easy to work with, than if your house looks perfect and you posted a beautiful shot of dinner. Now, let's be honest – some pressure isn't coming from your own internal comparison software, some comparison is coming from people in your lives. Maybe your friends talk about their fat thighs, or your mom comments on your kid's clothes or your neighbor jokes that your lawn could use mowing. There is PLENTY of pressure to conform to outside expectations, in our every day life. So let's not make more for ourselves, ok? Let's not use social media, which can be a place to connect and learn, as a stick to beat ourselves with, ok? I know, there is an automatic internal computer program that kicks off this comparison trap – you can't even seem to stop it before it's swept you away. So let's look at how to keep it from even running. Who you follow If who you follow makes you feel bad about yourself, your life, your home, or your business, stop following them. STOP FOLLOWING THEM. Really, even if it's your best friend or your biggest competitor. You can keep the computer program from running if you don't feed it images Think of magazines – we all know that reading magazines that only show one kind of beauty, one kind of Ideal Woman, warp our ideas of what's pretty. If all you ever see is skinny 14 year old blonde girls shown in magazines, then that starts to become the “norm” of what beautiful is. And your own internal sense of what's beautiful becomes warped and anyone who doesn't look like that is no longer beautiful. This points to the STRENGTH of the internet – we can control these images. We can't control what magazines and commercials tell us about beauty or home life or business should look like, but we CAN control what the internet tells us is the “norm”. WE get to decide what's on our internets, by who we follow and what we pay attention to. So fill up your feed with diversity – diversity of people, of ways of running a handmade business, of content, of ideas. If you're following 50 #planneraddict accounts and you feel bad your planner isn't prettier, STOP. Follow someone like me who writes a scribbled to-do list every day (and gets a lot of stuff done). If you think your house isn't nice enough because you can't afford to buy anything except Target, follow someone who has 10 dogs, follow a food blogger who never shows her house. When it kicks in, stop it. So part of this pressure we create in our heads? It's there because we keep feeding it. Not just with who we follow, but with what we KEEP THINKING about it. If you notice your Comparison Software start to run. STOP IT. You get to choose your next thought. Do you go deeper down the path of flogging your imperfections? Do you fret and spiral? Or do you choose another thought? It’s HARD to change your thoughts, so change your environment. Stand up. Get off internet, go journal, make a cup of tea. Do something to change something. But don't keep telling yourself: OMG, I have to have blah blah. I have to do blah blah. This isn't as good as so-and-so's. It's totally normal to have those thoughts but what do you do NEXT? So this is your prescription: Stop following those you have the hardest time comparing yourself to. Follow a variety of people doing Instagram in a different way. Choose another thought! I wanna hear how you handle this, so come to Instagram and tell me!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast273

This week's rebroadcast is all about stretch goals, and reaching for them. Did you set a stretch goal this year? How do you know what the right amount of stretch IS? How much is too much? What is ridiculous and what is a good kind of challenging? Today I'm going to answer a question I got in the Starship, my online community, about Stretch goals. How much is too much? What if you're just being delusional? Is there a way to know what's realistic? I struggled with this question for a while because, like so many questions about motivating yourself and pushing past your perceived limits, it really comes down to YOU. Are you going to stretch yourself? And is a stretch goal motivating to you? And is this goal in particular motivating to you? First of all, even if your goal is really really unrealistic, and there's not a chance you're going to hit it, that doesn't make it a bad goal. Really! What matters, and I REALLY want you guys to get this: What matters is what your goal does for YOU. I've said this a few times over the years, and it bears repeating – your goal itself doesn't matter. Setting a goal is a tool to help you make a plan. What matters is that you HAVE a plan, and that the plan will move you closer to where you really want to be. How do you know where you really want to be? Set a goal that inspires you and delights you! Yes, you can do some math to see if your goal is aligned with the pace you've been building your business at so far. For example, if you can see that over the last 2 years your biz has grown 20% per year, then your next income goal for 2018, could be 20% bigger…but what if you're tired of doing things the way you've been doing things? What if you wanna make a quantum leap forward and you're committed to doing the work, doing launches, trying new ways of selling? It's totally possible your business could grow 40% or 50% or 100%! How would you know if any of those is “too big”? If what you want is a doable goal, you need to be really honest with yourself: Are you willing to do what it takes, learn what you need to learn and grow in the ways you need to grow, in order to reach that goal? Are you willing to be different? Are you willing to become the kind of person who could reach that goal? If me asking you this got you all panicky, take a deep breath, it's going to be ok! You CAN do it. But you have to believe you can do it! The second way to figure out if a goal is too big for you is to know yourself: In the past have you been inspired by really ridiculous goals? Or have you felt frozen by them? Look back at something you accomplished: was your aim something huge and scary? Or did you set small doable goals and work towards them? Some people do best with crazy big goals, others do best with small doable goals – it's entirely up to you and what works best for you. And although it may be more sexy to say you have a huge goal and that you get inspired by something massive – I promise that it's far far sexier to actually get where you wanna go and feel good on your way there. At this point, hopefully you have some clarity – that there is no bad goal if it helps you make a plan and take action, that you have to decide you are willing to do the work, and you've identified if you do best with a big or small goal. The final thing to think about when it comes to your stretch goal is your own belief. Do you really believe it's possible? Whether your goal is big or little, if you don't think it's reachable, and it's reachable by YOU, none of it matters. I have worked with so many women over the years who have set perfectly reasonable goals, totally in alignment with what they'd already done and what they were capable of and… they never got there. They started spinning their tires or they just stopped taking action or they distracted themselves with a million other things. Why? Because they didn't actually believe they could reach that goal, so they couldn't take the action to work towards it. You can't make yourself take action if you don't think it's leading anywhere, if you think it's a waste of time. You absolutely have to believe in your goal and believe in yourself – so keep that in mind when you set a big goal…do you believe or are you willing to develop the belief that it's possible. And by the way, it's really normal to doubt yourself 1000x on your way to your goal! Just this weekend I was totally overtaken by a huge wave of doubt about my own big goals and my upcoming world tour this year. But then I remembered: Every time I've stretched myself I felt like this! Back in the saddle and back to just doing what I know I need to do! I’m wishing you belief in your goal, and yourself, and an enthusiastic day.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast272

Are you unsure of your next step, because you’re afraid of the reaction you’re going to get? Are you avoiding rejection, because you want to have the approval and acceptance of your customers and audience? Yeah, me too. In this rebroadcast, covering how to get over your fear of disapproval. It's a great follow up to last week's podcast on how to stop seeking approval in the first place. You can find the original episode here. Today we’re going to talk even MORE about Rejection – so much fun! Back in episode 171, I suggested you need to get a LOT more rejection in your biz, in order to have more success. And dudes, you really liked that episode! I’ve gotten sooo much feedback about how you needed to hear that, and how you’ve been re-listening, which I totally love! Let’s dive a little deeper into rejection! It’s one thing to know you need to get straight-up rejection from a specific gatekeeper – like to get into a show, or get a wholesale account with a shop. But what about all those times that a fear of rejection from your PEOPLE is holding you back? Maybe you’re afraid to… Offer a new product Raise your prices Go in a new direction Stop carrying a favorite product Or just do anything at all that someone somewhere might not like? When we’re afraid of those things, it’s very rarely the actual ACTION we’re afraid of, it’s people’s reactions. And we’re not afraid of their happy or encouraging reactions, we’re totally paralyzed by…rejection. Rejection from our tribe. And this totally makes sense. We are social beings that need to be in community in order to survive and thrive. We need to get love and acceptance in order to lead a happy life so it makes total sense to be afraid of losing that. The problem is, we don’t need the love, approval, and acceptance of EVERYONE in order to survive. And the more we seek that acceptance and approval from others, the more restricted we become in our movements, in our risks. What’s holding you (and me) back isn't a fear of rejection or failure – it’s a fear that we’ll lose the acceptance we seek. So when you feel frozen, worrying about other people’s responses, you need to stop and ask: Whose approval (or rejection) am I really afraid of here? And is that helpful or appropriate? I’m just gonna tell you – getting the approval and acceptance of everyone in your audience? Not possible. Trying to get the approval and acceptance of everyone who comes in contact with your work? Or even everyone who really might buy your work? Not possible. Not only is it impossible to make everyone happy (which we all already know), it’s really damaging, to both you AND your business. You: it makes you doubt yourself (and your self-trust is your best asset). It kills your confidence. It holds you back from taking steps you should take. Your business: it holds your biz back from awesome things that others might not approve of! It makes your biz bland and boring and kills the sparkle that’s going to make HUGE fans out of some people. Look, I get it. I don’t want anyone ever to disapprove of me. I don’t want to get unsubscribes from my email list or podcast. I don’t want to get judge-y emails telling me I’m wrong or misguided. I haaaate when people misunderstand me and misinterpret my intentions. But friends, we’re not going to get anywhere near our dream lives and our dream businesses if we try to avoid that disapproval, if we try to avoid rejection, if we seek to get 100% approval from the whole internet at all times. Every new step you take in your business is a risk. You’ve got to take those risks to succeed. And above all, you have to trust your own gut and good sense about your next direction. Instead of turning outward for your audience's approval, or your mentor’s approval or annnnnyone else’s approval, tune in to what you know the next right step is, to the action that will lead you where you wanna go. And then go do it.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast271

In today's rebroadcast I'm sharing why (and some tips on how) to stop seeking approval so that you can build a great business. You can find the original episode here. Here’s a dichotomy: You want to listen to your customers and your audience, to give them what they want, to create an awesome business. But yet, needing their approval has you frozen or afraid or feeling kinda needy. How do you balance this? In the last week of 2017, I did a live video (you can watch it at the show notes for podcast189) about the lessons I learned in 2017. It was very honest, very vulnerable and one of the lessons I shared REALLY resonated with a lot of viewers, so I wanted to explore it deeper with you. The lesson I learned in 2017: I am not here for your approval. Whoa! How do you feel when I say that? Do you feel defensive? Upset? I’ve found that some people just nod along, “Yeah, duh Tara.” And others go: “WAIT A MINUTE! BUT I’M A CUSTOMER (or listener).” Your reaction is super useful! Not for me (because this is all about me trying to unhook from your reactions to my work) - but for YOU. How you react to other people needing approval can help you explore how you feel about needing other people’s approval. So before we go further, stop and think: Do I think I need my audience (or client’s) approval? Do I think I owe them something more than just the product? Either answer is ok! Write down your answer and just set it aside for now - this may be a lesson you need to learn, or it may not. One of the things that keeps coming up when I chat about this with y’all is: Yeah, ok, I know I need to not seek outside approval (for my own mental health!)...but: aren’t I supposed to care about making my customers delighted? Isn’t that what you teach, when you talk about Right People and listening to them? Yes! Exactly! This is exactly what I’ve struggled with over the years. The dichotomy is this: I am here to serve you. And yet to do that sustainably (ie, not get burnt out + to create new, useful stuff that only I can create) I need to not be hooked into your approving (or not approving). So let’s break this down: I am here to serve you: When you think about your audience, it’s important that you’re focused on your RIGHT people - the people who truly want and need the thing you offer. So you are NOT here to serve your family members who “don’t get it”. You’re not here to serve the other people who do what you do. And you’re not even here to serve ALL the people who like what you do. For example, ever since I started doing this 8 years ago, I’ve been working with makers who have already STARTED their biz. So if you are a maker who doesn’t know what you wanna do yet - My products and my biz isn’t really built to support you. Can you get a lot out of my podcast? According to you: absolutely! But am I going to offer products for you? Not really! Recently, I started talking more about mental health and wellness and self-care. If you’re a person who just wants the super-measurable profitability stuff....I’m probably not the person who is going to most serve you. Are you going to enjoy some of my stuff: absolutely! Are you going to be happy with everything I do? Probably not! When I talk about listening to your audience, it helps to PRIORITIZE people’s feedback. Your Customers, re: the product they bought. I listen 100% to my customers about the product they purchased. If you’re in the Starship and you want me to create a directory of SS captains (a real request I just got) - I will do it. Your paying customers re: the next things you make FOR THEM. (Not everything you do!) The people who follow you and encourage you - this is where it gets tricky. If they aren’t paying for your product, you can ask them what you could change to make it appeal, but you can’t make biz decisions based on them because guess what? They might NEVER buy! So! It’s possible to listen to your people and YET, not hook your self-worth or your decision making into seeking their approval. HOW? You make decisions on two levels: Macro: big picture, like the overall direction you’re going, your mission, the TYPE of biz you wanna have. Micro: the daily decisions you make, the way you word your marketing, the topics I cover on the podcast. So for the Macro: do you For the Micro: listen in. Write your marketing copy using the words your customers use. Take pictures from the angles they respond to. Post more content on IG that they enjoy! Answer their actual questions on your sales page. The other way of saying it is in the process of creating and doing something: START WITH YOU. Decide what you want, no matter outside opinion. THAT is your filter, that is your standards. When you listen to your audience, filter it through your own decisions for what you wanna do. For example, if you want me to change the macro of my business (for example), not work with doTERRA to share essential oils anymore. Well, that’s a macro decision, so I need to make it. But if you want me to hold a webinar about how to use oils for goal-setting, there you go! That’s a micro - it passes through my filter and is easy for me to do. And finally, if you’ve made a decision and your audience doesn’t like it: Stop listening. Especially to negative feedback. Often, it doesn’t even need a response. Just delete the email, especially if it’s in any way un-constructive. If it is genuine and they’re trying to be helpful, you can simply say “thank you”. And if they seem to want more from you - like they want you to admit that they’re right and you should do what they say, I have literally replied “I’m not looking for your approval.” I very much wanted to explain my hierarchy of who I listen to...but what’s the point? But I want to talk about this because I know a lot of you WORRY about it - far more of you worry about it than have actually experienced it. And I want you to know: I have worried about it FAR MORE than I’ve ever experienced it. To prepare for this, I listed out every negative “I wish you wouldn’t do that” email I’ve gotten this year (because you know every one is burned in my memory) and you know how many it was? 4. I added a whole new income stream, one in a biz model that has a negative reputation (because other companies in the industry are predatory)...and I speak to 4-5k people every week and I got 4 negative emails. That’s 1/1000. That’s .1%. Isn’t that crazy? So many of make decisions to avoid conflict with 0.1% The fact of the matter is - you’re worried about the disapproval you’re never going to receive. It’s holding you back (it’s holding us all back). So this year, in 2018, I want you to shine that light. I want you to make those big decisions, I want you to go in the direction of your dreams. I want you to create a business that delights it’s customers but is not reliant on outside approval, because you trust YOURSELF.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast270  

In today’s rebroadcast I share the biggest lesson of my biggest gig to date – I taught a three day class at CreativeLive, about creating your best marketing plan. I completely forgot to mention how to GET that class, so here’s the link! Oh, and the lesson I learned: How to be myself. In today's episode, I'll share how the heck I figured out how to Be Myself, and how it totally changed the way I think about things. How to Be Yourself (even when you're a nervous wreck.) Get clear on what you love. Show up and be present. Decide connection matters. How are you being yourself in your business (and life?) How are you hiding yourself? Links mentioned in today's podcast My CreativeLIVE class I Thought It Was Just Me, by Brene Brown My Biggest Lesson of 2012: Connection Phillz Coffee Be sure to share that you’re listening by using the hashtag #exploreyourenthusiasm on Instagram and follow my Stories and vlog for the most up-to-date info during my hiatus!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast269

In today’s rebroadcast we are revisiting a topic that I still get asked about every single week: Fear of Success. So let’s dig deeper: What is it? Once you've identified what you're really afraid of (hint: it's probably not “success”), how do you overcome it? That's what we'll cover today. In my experience working with creatives, what looks like “fear of success” is usually a fear of something else: Fear that you need to have the kind of “success” other people want … which doesn't appeal to you at all. Fear that you'll change into something you don't like Fear of being seen, noticed, paid attention to Fear of being overwhelmed Fear of disappointing others (when you're so overwhelmed you can't fulfill expectations) Fear you can't handle it Fear of being “found out” for being not good enough (ie, Imposter syndrome) What are you really afraid of? We'll discuss these fears and how to create the kind of business success you want, even while feeling the fear.   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast268

In this week's podcast we're revisiting a topic I get asked about a TON: launching! This episode was originally inspired when a Starship captain asked for ideas and resources for launching a new product line and I wrote a long and thorough answer, and wanted to share that with you. This can apply to how you launch a new business (if you already have an audience), how you launch a new product or how you launch a book. We'll cover: How to come up with launch content How to fit it in your calendar How to continuously improve Links mentioned: Market Yourself My email list (sign up at the bottom of this post!) Brunch instead of Launch $100 Start-up   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast267

In today’s episode we are throwing it ALL the way back to the very first episode of this podcast! I share a little about my goals and dreams for the podcast and my own business journey (up until that point!). As I said at the time: “I want you to know you're not alone, in whatever it is, that feels like a struggle in your creative business: making money, finding motivation, being consistent. More than anything, I hope you like it. I hope this helps us connect in a new way and help you feel supported, encouraged and part of this great community of amazing makers.” Be sure to share that you’re listening by using the hashtag #exploreyourenthusiasm on Instagram and follow my Stories and vlog for the most up-to-date info during my podcast hiatus!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast266

You guys, I have been self-employed for TEN YEARS, this week! That is really unbelievable to me, because I had no idea what to expect when I quit my dayjob to make yarn full-time. I have learned so much, struggled so much, and had weird unexpected successes (like improving my credit score, and earning a lifetime achievement award at Midwest Craftcon?). Today I want to look back on it with you, and share some reflections that may help you in your own business journey. I have been running a business full-time, since July 1, 2009. I quit a dayjob in an office, in part because I worked for a state university (an administrative assistant in HR) and the state cut funding, so there was a hiring freeze and a buyout. I applied for buyout and took it (it paid for us to pay off the car, and rent a UHaul to move), because I had grown the business to replace my day job salary most months. I actually talk more about my business journey in the very first episode of the podcast, and you’re going to hear it again next week! As a celebration of 10 years of self-employment, and to spend more time with my foster kids this summer, I am re-broadcasting older important episodes from the last 5 years of the show. In July you’ll hear some of the oldest episodes that are the most important topics that basically no one has listened to, about launching and fear of success. In August you’ll hear the most-popular episodes ever, most are from about a year ago, and they cover topics like “how to stop seeking approval”, and “the pressure to be perfect”. You don’t have to do anything extra to get these episodes - just tune in each week  and you’ll get a new intro from Current Tara, along with a listen at the old musical intro (it was bad!) and Past Tara. Then I’ll be back in September with brand-new episodes! As I was talking in the Starship about being self-employed for 10 years, Jennie asked me: if you could have a do over, would you change the rate of growth of your business? Would you grow faster/slower/the same?  My answer is always: I wouldn’t change anything because then I wouldn’t be where I am.  Which is kind of an annoying answer, so I really thought about this some more. The thing about my rate of growth is - sure, if I could have scaled to more profit, quicker, especially in the earlier days, that would have been fabulous, I would prefer to skip the years of being really broke and my business just covering the bills. But I would have had other growth-related problems and the fact is, I wasn’t ready to handle those problems until I grew. One of the truths about business is that your business grows as fast as you do. If you’re expanding your belief in yourself, if you’re setting up systems, if you are confident and assured, you’re going to grow. But if you get stuck, or you leave something undealt with, your business will grow as much as you can until you hit that stuck point. You are always the bottleneck. Whether it’s that you don’t know how to let go and delegate, or you don’t believe in yourself, your business or the mission, or you’re not taking care of yourself, or your running yourself too hard, or you don’t value yourself, whatever it is, it’s the bottleneck. So, the answer to the question is: Sure, I’d prefer that my business grew faster if that meant that I was growing and developing faster. But I couldn’t skip over learning what I needed to learn. So let’s talk about what I have learned: Rule #1: Figure out how you make money. I know this seems obvious - you make a sale, you make money. But do you? What’s the amount of profit on that sale? (I teach this math in the class Pay Yourself, which is only available in the Starship program, you can learn more about it at taraswiger.com/starship) The next question is - how do you make a sale? What do you do that generates a sale almost every time? Or maybe you do a thing 5x and you make one sale? This is really the first thing to figure out, before you’ve got your whole marketing plan, before you commit to whatever every day for the next year, test it out: What do I do that results in a sale? How often do I have to do X thing to get one sale? Start to look at what you want to buy (for yourself or the business) in terms of what you’ll need to do to make enough sales for the profit to afford that thing. This is where all my early growth came from. I would want to do a thing (like a big craft show across the country). How could I afford the trip? I’d have to sell X skeins, so I’d have to Y listings on Etsy, followed by Z emails (emails were the thing that generated sales). And then I would do it. Now, over time you need to be consistent in doing the things to generate the sales, so you have an idea of what you can regularly make. But to scale up or push yourself out a plateau, challenge yourself to make a certain amount of money is a certain time and hit it. Again, I want to stress, this is not a long term path to consistent income, but you HAVE to have this knowledge to scale or become consistent with the RIGHT stuff. Everything is figureoutable. There is no question I can’t answer. There is no problem I can’t overcome. As long as I think of something as a mystery (or something someone else is just “naturally good at”), it’s always going to be a mystery. The good news: I always figure it out. Always. Taxes are serious, but not excuses Don’t be scared, have a plan. I get soooooo annoyed when people are afraid to make money because they’ll owe taxes. You should HOPE your business owes taxes - that means you were profitable! If you want your business to be sustainable, it’ll be profitable and you will owe taxes. So I’ve always been HAPPY to owe taxes, but I haven’t always had a good plan for PAYING for those taxes. I didn’t plan well, and I owed taxes. But you know what? It’s actually not a huge deal (as long as you file on time and always talk to the IRS). Everyone I’ve ever talked to at the IRS is super friendly and helpful, so it’s nothing to be afraid of, but it is something to take seriously. I can trust myself - I am my best business resource. We make it big and scary. But nothing is as risky as we think. There are always other options if it doesn’t go well. And just like everything is figureoutable, what I know for sure is that I always figure it out. I can trust myself in any situation, I will be ok. I will make a good decision. Often there is no “right” decision, so I just need to trust myself and then COMMIT to whatever I decided. I am my best resource and that means my #1 job is to keep my business resource (aka, me) in the best condition possible. This isn’t about a size or “clean eating” or anything full of shoulds and shame. This is about feeling what I feel, giving myself permission to feel how I do and need what I need. It’s sleeping enough, drinking enough water, journaling, and asking for help when I need it. It is prioritizing Peak Tara over everything else in my life. Yes, even kids and Jay, because THEY deserve Peak Tara too, they would rather I asked for a night completely alone instead of NOT asking and biting their heads off all night. (I just double-checked with Jay and he confirmed this is fact). Which every new challenge in my life, I have to learn this anew! I certainly don’t have everything figured out, or even most of it. But I am proud of myself for keeping my business thriving and above all, for growing myself and creating something I love. I wish each of you the joy of looking back at what you’ve created, for however long you’ve been working on it, and knowing you still have so much ahead of you. That it is ok that you aren’t where you thought you should be. Thank you so much for being here and being part of what I’m doing for however long you’ve been here! Whether it’s been for the 13 years of my biz or for the 5 years of my podcast or you just tuned in for the first time! Thanks for listening and have an enthusiastic week!   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast265

It’s summer! And that means it is time for summer reading. This may be the time where you’re spending more time than ever with your family and you just need a break with a book! I get so many questions about how I read so much, what books I recommend, that I wanted to put together a whole resource episode with absolutely everything - my best tips, the tools I use, the sites I read, the books I recommend for your business and for your summer. Usually I talk about running a business and mindset and once a month I share what I’m reading, but here’s the truth: I’m recording this ahead of time before it’s even June, so I can’t tell you what I read in June. And I’m taking a break from the podcast to spend my summer with my foster kids and with lots of books and the pool. But no fear! You’ll still get episodes every single week, because I planned WAY ahead! What better way to go into the summer than to talk about what I love best about summer, which is ALSO the number one key to building my business: books! Everything I know about my business I learned through trial and error and experimenting and I figured out what to try and how to experiment from books. But I know a lot of us struggle with reading more, so today I’m going to help with that! We’ll talk about how to read more, how to find a book you’ll like, and resources of my favorite book lists, (including the best books for your business, mindset and mental health). Summer and books have been linked in my mind ever since I was a kid and participated in the library reading challenges - did you have these? The library would publish cards like a game board and you’d fill it in with the books you read, and then you’d win prizes. And do you remember “The Pizza Hut Book It!” program? I had to look it up because it was such a huge part of my childhood - winning PIZZA for reading (and getting the fabulous holographic pin) was really the highlight of my year, and also just about the only sport I ever competed in! While I was writing this episode, I went to look it up and Book It! is still around! Their website has tons of good resources - reading trackers, activities -  for you and your kids! You can sign up for the Summer Reading Program and get weekly emails with reading suggestions and projects. I record this it’s late May and I’ve already read more than 75 books in 2019. I often get asked: How do I read so much? A few years ago I put together a guide: How to read 100 books a year. How to read more The key to reading more is to read what you like, always have plenty of books on your list and on your shelf and to stop when you want. The thing so many adults struggle with is to read what you like - give yourself permission to read what feels good, even if it’s not what you think you “should” be reading. Maybe you love YA fantasy, maybe you love romances, maybe you love comics. It really doesn’t matter, reading anything gets yourself into the habit, and you can use that habit to read more of the books that will educate you on what you want to learn (ie. business or psychology). You also have to have ENOUGH books, so that you can immediately pick up the next one. That means enough on your To Read list and enough in your actual home (or on your Kindle). If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know I bring home anywhere from 5-15 books at a time from the library. In the rest of the episode we’ll cover how to find more books for your list, how to keep track of it, and how to find more of what you like. And finally, you really need to let yourself stop when you want to. Maybe you put the book down for just a few days, or you wait until your more awake, or you just don’t like it and you stop altogether - life is too short to read books you don’t enjoy! How to find books you’ll like Did you know your library has a Reader Advisory? They can suggest books, if you know what you like. They also published lists of books that are like other books, or that are on a topic you wanna learn more about! There’s also a great online resource, through your library, called Books and Authors. (I think your library has to have hooked it up for you to access it. Check your library’s website. You can look up any book and it will tell you other books like it. Even if it’s been years since you really liked a book, if you can identify even one, you can find another! Another way to find the books that YOU are likely to like is to find reviewers you like and read what they suggest.  on Goodreads (look at reviews of your favorite books, click on the profile of a review you particularly like and then read a few other reviews by them. If you agree and/or you like they’re writing, check out their most recent reviews and you will find some new books you’ll like!). I like Emily May. in papers (NY review of books, LA Times, etc) Check out lists! I highly recommend Anne Bogel’s Summer Reading Guide at Modern Mrs. Darcy Read along with a challenge, like the Read Harder Challenge. Check out the massive list of resources for Diverse Books at DiverseBooks.org. I share my favorite books of the month every month - you can search my site for “reading” or find a direct link to ALL of my reading posts, going back 6 years here. I have put together lists and lists of books on different topics - you can find all the lists at https://www.amazon.com/shop/taraswiger I have my favorite Business Books, my favorite trauma and mental health books, my favorite parenting books, and a lot more. How to find books for kids? Help your kid(s) identify what they like in a story. Start with 3-5 stories they’ve loved (movies, video games) and help them dig into the aspects they liked best. This is a great way to help them find the words to talk about books and stories, too! Check out nonfiction! If your kid nerds out about ANYTHING (even movies and video games!) there are books about it! Comics count!  Comics are a great way to get a reticent reader to read! You can find “graphic novels” which are the collected issues of a storyline of a comic, at your library! Once you know you like a comic, you can start buying it (or the graphic novels) at your local comic shop. And if you don’t have a comic shop, you can get it on your Kindle comics with a Comixology subscription. A few of my faves that are appropriate for anyone 10+: Unbeatable Squirrel Girl LumberJanes (written by Noelle Stevenson new creator of She-Ra) Friendly Neighborhood Spiderman Mile Morales: Spiderman - there is a novel, and a comic (esp if you loved Into The Spiderverse) Ask me on Instagram! I LOVE helping you find books, I not-so-secretly really want to be a librarian (if only I can do it from home?) - tag me on your post, I’m @taraswiger or send me a DM! (Maybe I need a book recommendation podcast? Hmmm.) How to keep track of it all? Tools I use: Goodreads - I use it mostly to track books I want to read. It’s great to track books I have read, but the way I use it nearly daily is to add ANY book I’ve heard of that sounds good to my list. I’m not worried this is every going to be too big. I want it to be as big as possible, so I never run out of books that I’m excited about. Library holds & requests - A few times a week (usually when I’m waiting somewhere or need a break from work), I open up my GoodReads To Read list, open up my library catalog and place a hold on a few books (Holds top out at 15 books and a lot of times this spring I topped it out. I read more than ever, but it stresses me a bit, so I’m keeping it under 10 at a time now). What about books your library doesn’t have? I just discovered the “request book” page on my library site and now I request that the library buy the books I want! This is great for new books that haven’t been released yet - by requesting it you get at the front of the line on the holds (great if a book is going to be on hold to like 20 people). I’ve also requested some quilt books and instead of buying them, my library borrowed them from another library (not one that’s connected in our catalog) Libby - get ebooks and audiobooks from your library, all from your phone. Book of the Month Club - if you want new books before they’re released AND you want to own your books, you can’t do better than Book of The Month - you get access to brand-new books, each month. You can skip any month you want. (If you sign up from this link, I get a free book!) Other reading bits and bobs Favorite book podcasts: What should I read next Reading Glasses My own summer To Read List This summer I’m focusing on the newest books - from Anne Bogels list - and those that I already own. This list is only those I currently have, or have on reserve at the library: Nimona, by Noelle Stevenson Station Eleven, by Emily St John Mandel Still Life, by Louise Penny Bird King by G. Willow Wilson Life after Life by Kate Atkinson (and maybe her fourth Jackson Brodie novel, Started Early Took my Dog, because she has a new book coming out this summer) Before She Knew Him, by Peter Swanson Waiting for Tom Hanks, by Kerry Winfrey The River, by Peter Heller The Mother-in-Law by Sally Hepworth,  Maybe You Should Talk To Someone, by Lori Gottlieb The Better Sister, by Alafair Burke Anything by Megan Abbott   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast264

Do you let failure convince you to stop? Is it a sign that you are not going to ever get what you want? Or do you use failure as fuel to push you farther? When I was reading Abby Wambach’s new book Wolfpack, one of the lessons in it really struck me. She said: Use failure as fuel. She talked about how women so often use any failure as a reason they can’t do something. They feel like everything has to be perfect before they have permission to try something or be something. The problem is, success is built on failure. You’ve got to experience failure to get to success. If you let the first failure stop you from going forward, you won’t have any success. As I read, I realized: Oh man, I’ve been using recent failures or just small things like not hitting a small goal, NOT as fuel, but as a kind of proof that I can’t do it. And I know I’m not alone, because so many of you tell me that “Well, I tried that and it didn’t work out, so I’m just not good at it.” or “I guess I can’t have that.” This is something women struggle with a lot, I know I have. We’ve got that internal fire, we have a mission, the motivation to do amazing things, but so often we are looking for reasons to distrust it, reason to not trust ourselves, proof that we’re not good enough. And failure provides the perfect excuse. The perfect proof. And I get it, when we go into a project (or anything really) with self-doubt, anything that doesn’t go perfectly seems like proof of what we already believe: “I’m not good enough. I really can’t do this. It’s for other people.” But that’s just wrong. Failure is not a sign that there is something wrong with you. Failure is just data. Data on how to get what you want. Maybe you need to grow, maybe you need to work more, maybe you need to try harder. Maybe it’s just gonna take more time. Failure is information about what your goal or your dream will actually require. So the question is: are you using failure as an excuse to stop doing what you’re doing? Are you using it as proof that you shouldn’t be doing it? That you’re not good enough? Or are you using failure as fuel for the next step? One of the stories in Abby Wambach’s book was about using failure as fuel. In it, she told the story of how the women’s USA soccer team used a four-man loss as a reminder the need to work harder to win. As fuel for their fire to keep going. I want you to think about this for a minute. What if failure actually inspired you? What if it could be the fuel that pushes you forward, what if it could be the inspiration that keeps you going? I know, I know, that’s a major mindset shift from failure as a sign that we’re doing the wrong thing, to failure as a sign that we need to go harder. But so often, in so many of your own businesses, that’s exactly what failure is. It’s the sign that you needed to work harder, it’s a sign that you need to commit more, it’s a sign that you are capable of so much more than you think. I want you to think about it like a sports game. I know, I am not the best at sports metaphors. But I do know this: losing one game, does not mean that you lost this season, it does not mean that you lost the championship. In baseball, players are expected to “fail” most at-bats. A GREAT hitter only hits a SMALL amount of the balls that come at him. Because...FAILURE IS NECESSARY FOR SUCCESS. I talk about this more in episode 171 - because in order for your business to grow, you need MORE failure, or as I phrase it in that episode get MORE rejection. You need to be told “No” more often, so you can get to yes. You need to not hit your goal, so you get closer to hitting it. Let’s do this together, let’s reframe how we think about failure, about falling down, about not getting it right. Let’s remember that this is not the last chance you’ll ever have, that there are more at-bats, there are more games, there are more months. In fact, you have endless at-bats, you have endless opportunities to work hard or learn more reach that goal in the future. You’re closer now than you’ve ever been!! Don’t quit when you’re minutes away, weeks away, months away from hitting your goal. I wanna hear how you’ve used failure as fuel or how you’re ready to reframe this. Come tell me on Instagram, I’m @TaraSwiger and you can use the hashtag #exploreyourenthusiasm. Don’t forget to join the Take Care Challenge at TaraSwiger.com/takecare   Listen in at TaraSwiger.com/podcast263