The Thriving Creative

Do you ever get caught up in the trap of learning and mastering something new that you never actually get started? As an entrepreneur and a creative, it can be super easy to stall out in perfectionism because you feel like you’re not qualified. In this episode, I invited DIY guru, Cara Newhart to tell her story of failing forward into the business of her dreams. Cara shares that even with a degree in business and art, her biggest breakthroughs resulted when her first business flopped.  Cara also shares what tips she has for getting started in creating a space you love. Be sure to check out her wall-papered refrigerator (you heard me!) and the plans she has for you to make an entryway bench for $12. So grab your earbuds, and maybe a drill or paintbrush because you’re going to be inspired to DIY BIG to create a home you love!   Click here for the Show Notes

Raise your hand if you’re an Enneagram enthusiast like me! Any personality assessment can be a great tool for learning what makes you tick and why certain challenges are common to you. Yet simply being self-aware doesn’t help us become better versions of ourselves. Today on the show we’re going to explore what I like to call a growth mindset for self-love. Self-love may start with acceptance, but it’s never where it stops. There are parts of any personality that pose challenges and even consequences if we don’t address them and make necessary shifts. The good news is that we can make these changes through simple exercises in mindfulness. Click here for the Show Notes

Have you ever been guilty of trying to find the perfect planner? Whether it is digital or paper, fancy, or simple, it can be hard to find a planner that is tailored perfectly to how your brain works. If you’re like me, you fill out January and February, and then it all falls apart. But sometimes planners simply fail us because we want them to do something they can’t: control our time! When it comes to time management and productivity, understanding what you believe about time is the key to making breakthroughs in your productivity. In this episode, I am going to challenge you to shift your mindset about time so you can shift your life.  Click here for the Show Notes

It’s time to shake things up here in the Thriving Creative Podcast Community, and it starts with me, your host.    I have been doing a lot of learning, a lot of reflecting, and a lot of listening in the last few weeks. Perhaps more than ever before when it comes to the issue of racial inequality.  I’ve struggled to come to terms with a failure to amplify diverse voices in this community. I am sorry, and I am committed to doing much more.    And so I share this prayer with you in hopes that you could also make it your own.    Please God, Let it NEVER go back to normal.   I have to tell you that at the beginning of this pandemic, all I was really praying for was that things would just go back to normal. I missed so many simple things that I had taken for granted. My anxiety was sky-high because all I could see was all the things that I was missing. Here and there my heart would shift toward gratitude, but not often enough. Then I finally came to terms with the fact that life had slowed down long enough for us to pause and surrender in this season of prolonged uncertainty. This pause made me recognize I had the opportunity to step into this moment when the hurt of the black community can no longer be dismissed.     Dear God, Let it NEVER go back to normal.    Though we cannot make up for the hundreds of years of injustice, I realize that it is still not too late to use my privilege to fight to restore justice for black lives. My white friends, it’s time to stop and listen. It’s time to stop airing your opinion and minimizing the pain that black people endure on a daily basis. I am committing to using my voice to act on your behalf. I am committing to dismantling racism both in this current moment and in the future.    Dear God, Let it NEVER go back to normal.

For our guest today, gratitude is more than a part of her morning ritual. It’s a value that drives everything she creates in her business. Marilyn De la Hoz is the owner of With Love Studio, where she specializes in creating branded apparel and client gifts to ensure your client experience is unforgettable. Marilyn helps you break out of the virtual world and a bunch of sales automations to say “thank you” for working with you!  In our conversation, Marilyn shares how she finds ways to nurture her creative side and stay present with her busy kiddos without totally burning out. She’s okay with giving herself extra grace when she falls short as a mom or with her business goals. Her girls will only be little for a season, so she doesn’t mind being needed by them in big ways. Marilyn also shares how you can use her thank you and welcome boxes to surprise and delight your customers. She even shares tips on how you can stop getting lost in the shuffle of typical marketing tactics. If you can’t describe your customer experience, chances are you need Marilyn’s products in your life! Click here for the Show Notes

Whenever your stress levels are sky-high, (like they might be right now), the anxiety you feel can make your brain reactive and unable to be creative or cope. So I am going to offer you ten of the most helpful tips I’ve found when it comes to dealing with my own stress. They might be things that have helped in the past and you’ve just forgotten to use them. They might be new strategies for you to experiment with. Regardless, you now have a handy list available to you of ways to cope when you feel the pressure rising.  Do you have any other tips to share? I want to hear them! Share them with me on Instagram and tag me, @naphtalivroberts so that together, we can develop the ultimate list of ways to thrive even when we are totally overwhelmed! Click here for the Show Notes

If you're a creative and your business requires face to face interaction with your clients, this has likely been a season plagued with anxiety and fear. It was for our guest and brand photographer, Nicole Anderson too. Though the anxiety paralyzed her for a moment, she realized she had to find a way to change her life. Over the last few months, Nicole used her expertise in brand photography to create mini-courses that include how to take better pictures of yourself, how to take pictures of food (foodtography), and how to take pictures of products for Etsy sellers. In this interview, Nicole shares with us all the gritty details of her creative process from breakdown to breakthrough. Her story will no doubt convince you that you can make changes in your life even when anxiety seems like your new (or old) BFF.    Nicole is a creative through and through- as a personal branding photographer and content strategist, she LIVES to create for others. She is the wife of an Englishman, her business partner, and the mom to 2 kiddos- Jack & Olivia. She enjoys cheese, cake and Netflix zoning out at the end of the day. Don’t forget to check out the Cell Series if your photos are lacking luster these days! Click here for the Show Notes

Have you ever been so stuck inside your thoughts that you can’t function? Or maybe you’ve been so overwhelmed by your emotions that you can’t make sense of them? On any given day, I could be paralyzed by either or both parts of me. But I’ve discovered one of the most powerful tools I have to snap out of a funk is to turn on some music and get down with my bad self!  In this episode, I want to share with you the powerful connection between dance and your mental health. There are so many benefits of taking time to dance. It can help you to reduce anxiety, re-engage your passions, and perhaps most importantly, love yourself. I’m going to challenge you to find a way to dance to today and show you how you can unlock your mind and heart through mindfulness if you’re feeling stuck today! Click here for the Show Notes

You may know that meditation is a healthy practice known for reducing anxiety and allowing you to focus more. But if you haven’t found a practice that works for you, it’s hard to invest in the habit and even harder to believe in the payoff. In this episode, I am going to share with you a little more about the why behind meditation and help you consider some types of meditation you might not have tried before. The goal? For you to find a meditation practice that aligns with YOU! It’s incredibly easy to get stuck reliving the past or imagining our fears coming true in the future. If you can learn to train your brain to stay present, you will experience so much freedom.  When you can learn to stay present and notice your thought patterns, you will be more capable of aligning your thoughts towards the action you want to be taking. Your goals and dreams are worth this investment!  Click here for the Show Notes

The signs of running on empty can be pretty obvious. You’re grumpy, reactive, and you struggle to be a good problem solver. Things that normally slide off your back are suddenly deal breakers. It’s not rocket science, but sometimes it's just really hard to prioritize making time to refuel your mind and heart. Everyone else’s needs seem to pile up and be more important. We end up taking care of everyone else and then blaming them for the fact that we are running on fumes. Here’s a truth bomb for ya: self-care isn’t selfish because everyone suffers when you don’t put your needs first.  So today, stop convincing yourself that you don’t need to pause and invest in the things that fill your cup. Make a list of the things that energize you and inspire you...and then go do them! Or at least one of them! I am sharing with you a few things off of my list and how I have to be strategic about making time and space to do them. Connecting and cultivating are not tasks on your to-do list. They are the activities that are necessary for you to be able to fulfill your creative calling.  Click here for the Show Notes

Happy first Monday of May! I want to kick off this month talking about happiness. How can we promote our own happiness without necessarily changing our current circumstances?   Happiness is a big concept with lots of different pieces. What I want to offer you is a simple strategy to increase your happiness today. By taking a look at the decisions you make each day, and the number of options for those decisions we can create a strategy to make our brain happier with each new desision we make. Let's dive in!

At one point in my life, I thought that loneliness was only determined by a life circumstance. The older I get, the more I realize that loneliness is really just an emotional state that can strike at any moment. What is loneliness and why does it happen? That’s exactly what I’m diving into today. This experience is becoming incredibly pervasive even as we now have more methods to connect more than ever before. If we fail to address this emotion, guilt and shame can easily overwhelm you.    In today’s episode, I am going to help you start to recognize loneliness in your own life and equip you with some tools for being able to combat it when it strikes. Being able to navigate these waters requires practicing mindfulness and making a plan. I will share with you some of the things in my life that can easily sabotage me and make me feel less valuable. Maybe these are some of the same things you struggle with. Or perhaps you could add some other things to the list. If you can, come share your input with the rest of us in the On Purpose Life and Biz Facebook group! It’s so easy to become overwhelmed by our feelings and choose to shut down. Let’s take this chance to call this out in one another and ask someone how they are really doing!  Click here for the Show Notes

Are you suffering from mental exhaustion at the moment? You are absolutely not alone. Our level of overwhelm in trying to navigate this pandemic season is pulling us in a million directions. We're losing huge chunks of time and experiencing the feeling of failure way more than we'd like. I was right there with you and then I implemented a new strategy. It's helping me execute what has to get done and releasing what can wait. Want to learn more? Join me on the podcast for another episode of Mental Health Monday!

Not making enough money in business is one problem. But what if you are making money, the opportunities are flooding in, but you are exhausted and overwhelmed? Today’s guest, Amber Fife has been there but she also managed to find a way to come out on the other side. What did it take? A lot of mindset shifts and serious consideration of what she really wanted to be offering. Join us as we discuss how Amber was able to take back her schedule and quit getting caught up in the comparison trap. She also tells the story of how exploring her creativity became the healing agent for her anxiety. After a decade of being in the photography business and moving across the country, Amber felt something was missing, and she wanted to not feel crippled by anxiety. Her healing began in 2016 as she returned to her artistic roots and made time for creating on a regular basis. Finding so much success in her own life, Amber began Women Create Weekly in 2018, a blog and online membership to help women find themselves again through art. She enjoys running both businesses and finding life balance on a daily basis.

Do you have a song you love so much that you could listen to it on repeat forever? You may know what songs are on your ultimate playlist, but do you know what thoughts you have on repeat? Consider for a moment- do those thoughts actually empower and energize you? Or do they deplete you and make you doubt yourself? In today’s episode, I want to share with you four types of thoughts you can retrain your brain to focus on when you’re feeling down or overwhelmed. Your homework is to write one of these down for yourself from each category. After listening, practice becoming aware of where your thoughts are leading. And when your thoughts do leave you feeling disconnected, you will have these tools ready to combat those negative feelings. Friends, it’s okay to not be okay, but you are not alone and you don’t have to stay stuck!  

I think it’s safe to say that the emotions associated with the experience of failure are ones we desperately try to avoid. No one enjoys failing. And yet, it’s a very necessary part of discovering your creative confidence. Today on the podcast, I am sharing with you exactly how you can go about finding your confidence so you can be sure of what you offer people in your life, be it in business or personally. I think you will look at failure in a brand new way after listening. Your best breakthroughs are around the corner if you are willing to take a risk!   Steps for Discovering Your Creative Confidence:   Decide to try which means you are okay with failure. Have a support system in place that is listening and not just talking.  Give yourself a break when needed, but commit to trying again Allow yourself to make messy progress.  

In this episode of Mental Health Monday, I'm going to give you something super relevant and practical to try out today. Mindfulness is not just a good suggestion anymore-it's a means of survival. If you haven't found a practice that offers you more clarity and peace, one of these activities might just be the tool you need to navigate the uncertainty of this season. You are not alone and I want to empower you to continue showing up in your personal life and your business. If one of these activities resonates with you, come share your experience in the On Purpose Creatives Facebook group! 

If you’re needing a shot of courage when it comes to pursuing your creative passion, I have it for you today in the form of Gaby Abrams. Gaby is a lawyer turned creative mompreneur. She started her online stationery business, Casa Confetti Design Studio, in 2015 after having her son Levi. What started out as a fun way to pass her maternity leave quickly turned into a thriving 6-figure business. Gaby shares her journey with lots of helpful tips from what to do and plenty of things to avoid too! She lets us in on the mindset challenges she had to work through jumping from a practical to a passionate career in a matter of months.  Gaby and I discuss the magic and frustration of outsourcing work and how she chooses when to do it. Gaby is a big believer that you shouldn’t rely on external validation-you gotta rely on that intuition of yours. I couldn’t agree more! Perhaps most encouraging is her advice to anyone who is nervous to pursue their passion. She urges us to learn as we go and to always make time to play! Yes please! 

If you’re suddenly finding yourself trying to figure out how to run a business from home without the typical school or childcare supports, chances are you’ve had a lot of emotionally intense days. Fulfilling both of these roles at the same time is challenging, but certainly not impossible. Though I am still exploring how to do this well in my own home, I have identified some important tips to keep in mind. These three things help me feel more successful in both roles much more consistently.      Make sure your daily and weekly expectations are realistic.     Clearly communicate your expectations to all your family members (especially your kids!)      Be clear on your priorities.     

Did you know that the act of journaling can actually strengthen your immune cells? It’s true! Journaling is beneficial for your health in a ton of ways! This practice can also do things like increase your concentration and allow for all kinds of self-discovery! Who could use some more of that right now? Probably all of us! For those of you who find yourself with more time right now, this is a perfect time to take up this practice. And for those of you who find yourself with less time, I’ve got an idea to share with you that you might not have considered before. If you have no idea what to write to get started, I am also sharing with you two prompts you can respond to every day to get clarity about your emotions and how to navigate your day with purpose! 

Raise your hand if your kids have caught the entrepreneurial bug from you! Was it a lemonade stand? Dog-walking service? My kids have definitely tried out a few ventures, but their most recent one was selling...are your ready for it? Crystals-AKA the white sparkly rocks we find on our neighborhood walks. And as precious as these “rocks” were to my kids, they made a few blunders in the process of developing their strategy to market and sell their product. I share this story on the show today because I see many creatives struggling with the same sorts of challenges when it comes to deciding what you are going to sell!    Perhaps you are just in the beginning stages of building your business. Or maybe you were a brick and mortar business and now you have to shift to the online space. Or maybe you have a great product, but you just need to figure out how to make consistent income selling that thing. Wherever you are in your business journey, I have some practical steps for you to take to identify the unstoppable offer you need to create for your people! 

During this season of Covid 19 and beyond how can we thrive in our mental health? On today’s Mental Health Monday we talk about using block scheduling to prioritize different types of energy in our lives. Whether you’re navigating working from home for the first time or working from home with new challenges and distractions let’s look at the rituals that will support us.

If the words “bookkeeping” and “accounting” make you want to hide or change the subject, today’s episode is for you. I’m not going to beat around the bush. If you are a freelancer, you are an entrepreneur and it’s important that you understand your responsibility when it comes to your finances and paying taxes. But today’s guest, Diana Torres is with me to dispel some of that doom and gloom. Diana shares some super practical tips to make bookkeeping something you can stay on top of in just twenty minutes a month. Diana offers done-for-you services or can work with you one on one so you can learn to take care of your books all on your own.  So if you’re ready to stop DI-hacking your books and praying you have all your receipts somewhere at tax time, listen in! 

Though I always try to provide my listeners with timeless insight, tips, and tools, today’s episode comes to you at a very specific moment in time. We are in the middle of a pandemic. We are in the middle of figuring out a temporary, yet new normal with a discouraging economy since no part of our lives can really carry on as normal.  We are scrambling to become homeschooling parents, trying to adjust to less income, trying to stay healthy both mentally and physically, and all of this newness is hard. I am right there with you and asking all of the same questions. We want to know if we will be able to feed our families with a diminished income and we want to know what will even happen tomorrow. And in all of this, I want to invite you to stop running and tell me honestly-how are you?  Join me as I share with you some tips for navigating your complex emotions in these weeks ahead. Plus, you will learn about how you can join a very unique community of support to stay confident about the future of your creative business!  Join the new community HERE!  We can't wait to connect with you! 

Are you a little weary of the moment conversations shift to topics related to careers-especially YOUR career? If you’re an entrepreneur and a creative, it’s so easy to be misunderstood by people who work a typical 8-5 job. What I’m learning is that most of the time people’s curiosity stems from either a lack of understanding about being a freelancer or jealousy that you could actually be pursuing a passion and get paid for it. Seriously, what nerve you have!    In this episode, I want to help you consider what feelings those types of conversations bring up in you and how you can be intentional about responding to them before that wreak havoc on your mind and heart. I also want to share some helpful ways to respond to those comments or questions that come out a little bit sideways. That way the next time you find yourself in this delightful conversation, you won’t have to walk away feeling small. You’ll have the tools to practice listening, responding, and NOT internalizing their well-intentioned but utterly uninformed comments or concerns.    Do you have any stories of friends or family who have made comments or been concerned that what you do for a living isn’t a “real job”? Have you come up with a perfect response? Come share so we can all benefit.

It all starts with an innocent scroll on your phone. Someone you know as a friend, maybe someone you know in your industry, is winning some way, somehow in business...in just the kind of way you would love to be winning. How do they make it look so easy? What are you missing?  Now you’ve forgotten why you got on your phone in the first place and you suddenly feel like it’s time to finish off the tub of ice cream in the freezer.  Do you feel me? I know, because I’ve been there. I lived it for the first of eight months of starting my online business, and it was miserable. I was totally burnt out and not even turning a profit. Why? Because the only strategy I had was to implement everything everyone else was doing in their business.  The reality is that it happens to all of us. Pretending like you don’t play the comparison game isn’t honest or realistic. So today I’m going to help you identify what you can do to stop feeling paralyzed and start taking action in ways that propel you in the direction of your own business goals.  Simple Ways to Escape the Comparison Paralysis:  Acknowledge that you’re stuck in the comparison trap. Remind yourself that you’re human so you can begin releasing the power it has on you.  Consider how you can learn from someone else’s success.  Find ways to celebrate the success of others around you.  Practice believing in your own success and pair it with an action plan!

Depending on your musical tastes, you might have been a little surprised to see Taylor Swift’s name in the episode title. But before you judge, I want you to consider all the powerful mindset encouragement you can find in Taylor’s documentary recently released on Netflix. I didn’t know much about Taylor Swift as an individual before watching, but I was really impacted by her story and vulnerability. The lessons she’s learned as a creative are ones that could also save any other fellow creative a lot of wasted time and heartache. So listen here and then go watch it!    5 Mindset Lessons to Learn from Taylor Swift Be aware and confident of where you find your motivation. The more you know about your negative mindset habits, the more you can actively change them.  Know the difference between hard work and destructive work.  The more you know what your opinions are, the more you can have an impact. When we prioritize fun and play, the quality of our work is better.    If you struggle in any of these mindset areas, you would benefit from being part of a really intentional community to integrate a healthy mindset and business strategy! Reach out and let’s chat more! 

You will not always be a starving artist stuck in a cycle of distraction-at least not if you don’t want to. Can you sit with that possibility for a moment? The thing about distractions is that they are inevitable-they are not the enemy. Distractions can actually be a tool that allows us to identify what is going on under the surface. They can show us when we are avoiding pain, fear, overwhelm, burnout, or even overstimulation. Distractions have power. They can release pressure and when we are mindful, distractions can even lead us to our next step.    So my question to you is: are you going to use the fact that you are a creative and perhaps easily distractable as an excuse for not being able to follow through? For not being able to make money in your business? You have a choice. But if you choose to acknowledge the power the distraction has in your life and why it could be surfacing, you won’t stay stuck. Join me and my creative community as we practice doing this together!   

I have a treat for you on the podcast in the form of a very special thriving creative, Chelsey Rogers. In a past life, she was a banker and even had her MBA, but she painted on the side. With no formal training and after simply posting some of her work on social media, some friends reached out, asking if Chelsey would teach them how to paint like her. What started as a gathering of friends with a smattering of art supplies quickly gained traction as a business! She realized people loved gathering with friends to be creative and she could be the one to guide them! Chelsey travels to unique and hip venues to provide a creative experience that can include acrylic pouring, exploring with ink, or painting your pet!  In this episode, Chelsey assures us that though she was simply following a passion, her business was no overnight success. She shares how she learned the most about teaching from her very first class and how she has tweaked a lot of elements of her business as she’s grown. We talk about how she’s been able to find ways to establish perfect price points, draw repeat clientele, market successfully, and what priorities she has in place to help her make important business decisions. Chelsey loves what she does because she is getting paid to help people see things differently through experiencing art! 

Buy this software. Attend this retreat and this networking event. Show up on social media ____many times a week, and make sure you’re going live at least ____ times. Update your website. Offer a freebie. Network online for at least ___ hours a week. Nurture your email list...   I bet you could add a million other tasks to the list. And then we wonder why we are so busy and so burnt out. It all boils down to one money mindset myth: working harder makes you more money. I will tell you that nothing brings me more joy than helping clients break free of feeling pressured to do everything well all the time!    The only way we make more money is when we sell our product or service, right? But selling often hits on our pain points because it causes us to question the value of our time, energy, and talent. I want to drill down and talk about methods by which you make money. Then I want to challenge you to think about all the tasks you do in your business so you can determine which ones are actually generating profit and which ones are only making you busier and more stressed. If you commit to this evaluation process regularly, you will be able to continually eliminate those tasks that only lead to hustle and burnout.

You know the feeling. You know what you need to do but you keep putting it off. You’ve set aside the time to create, to work, but you stare at a blank screen, a blank canvas, and nothing flows. At least not like it normally does. You’re just not yourself. But is it just a lack of creative spark? Or is it something deeper?    Though I normally keep things lighter on the show, I can’t neglect the very important topic of mental health since it’s so relevant to our community. There are seasons when we are just in a creative slump but there are also times where we might need more resources to make a breakthrough. The truth is that the life of a creative lends itself to a lot of hustle and burnout which can lead to anxiety and depression. It can even be difficult to prioritize things like sleep and eating healthy, but it’s so important! Your heart and mind are the fuel for your business. You can’t neglect yourself!    If you feel like you might be struggling with something like depression or anxiety, first you must know that you are not alone. I want to help you explore your symptoms by writing down what you’re struggling with. Some signs of depression or anxiety include trouble sleeping, irritability, lack of motivation, difficulty remembering things, or a loss of focus. Depression or anxiety may not be something you cure, but you can find resources to walk through it instead of around it. There is hope for you friends! 

Wouldn’t it be lovely if making a budget was a simple task on your to-do list? For a creative, just the idea of budgeting can deplete your energy in an instant! If you’re like me, it can be tricky to project your income for the month, let alone the year!  So how can you be smart with your money when your income is variable? It’s a great question and the answer is not cut and dry, but I’ve gained so much insight over the past 8 years in my own business and I want to share what I’ve learned with you on this topic!    To begin, consider where you fall on the spectrum of money mindset. Are you living in a place of scarcity, feeling like you’re on the brink of disaster and afraid to invest in anything? Or maybe you know your numbers, but you are hesitating to create a strategy to scale and reach your goals? In this episode, I will share with you a super practical process for helping you come up with a budget you can live with even when your income is hard to predict. Then we will talk about identifying limiting beliefs when it comes to money mindset and finding ways to actively replace those negative messages with empowering truth. It’s possible to thrive financially doing what you love. Making a budget is a critical first step! If you could use even more help, let’s do it together! Book a call with me or join us in the On Purpose Creatives Facebook group!

Today is a huge treat on the podcast, we have the pleasure of talking to the Boss Mom herself, Dana Malstaff! If you’re not familiar with Dana, she is the CEO and Founder of Boss Mom. She’s a mother, author, speaker, business strategist, podcaster, blind spot reducer, and movement maker. Dana launched the Boss Mom brand with her first book Boss Mom: The Ultimate Guide to Raising a Business & Nurturing Your Family Like a Pro in 2015 and quickly grew to a six-figure business within a year.   She now has over 20,000 students in various courses, a Facebook group 40k strong with 75% monthly engagement and helps women all over the world raise their businesses and babies at the same time. She believes that we need to show our children that doing what we love can be financially viable.   You can connect with Dana and learn more about what she does in her Facebook Group Boss Moms, on Facebook, see what she’s up to on Instagram, or at her website, www.boss-mom.com.

Today we’re talking about one of my favorite things - pricing! As a creative business owner, where do you get hung up with pricing? Are you pricing too low, pricing too high, or inconsistently pricing your goods and services?  You might be surprised to uncover that whatever your pattern is, there are beliefs that are underlying your current strategy. And in order to truly shift a belief, we have to understand what is underneath that belief. If you enjoyed this episode I invite you to take a screenshot and tag me on your Instagram stories @naphtalivroberts and tell me what you thought about it! Do you want an extra business brain, heart and set of eyes on your business to reach your BIG goals in 2020? Work with me! 

Welcome to the first episode of the Thriving Creative Podcast! I’m so thrilled to start this new season of the show with a new name and a new episode all about how to get you, the creative entrepreneur, off of the hamster wheel of “success”. So many creatives that I work with are sick of being stuck in the feast or famine, starving artist syndrome.    Traditionally, success talk in business focuses on external ideas of success: Money, Power and Fame. For most people, this leaves so much out! Focusing on other people’s definition of success can lead us to forget our Why and the bigger impact we wanted to make when we started our business in the first place.   So what’s at the core of a thriving creative business?   If you enjoyed this episode I invite you to take a screenshot and tag me on your Instagram stories @naphtalivroberts and tell me what you thought about it!   Do you want an extra business brain, heart and set of eyes on your business to reach your BIG goals in 2020? Work with me! 

As we are winding down in 2019, it’s the perfect time to do some serious reflection about your business, but it does take time and intention to make it count for the coming year. I want you to take this time because when you do, you will never regret it!  This kind of reflection can reveal to you things like what defines your relationship with money or how healthy your work-life balance has been over the year. I’m also excited to share with you a handful of my personal reflections and some exciting new changes in my business!    I am especially eager to share a practical and creative way to gather these types of reflections throughout the year. The best part is, it can become a daily practice, not just something you do in late December. All you need to do is get a blank journal and for a quick daily writing prompt, you respond to the following:    Today in my business... What went well?  What didn’t go well?  What am I believing about myself today?  You will be blown away when you start to make connections between these daily insights and the numbers in your business! 

Today I am thrilled to welcome my dear friend, CEO, and marketing strategist, Mallory Majcher. Mallory has nearly a decade of experience in marketing strategy and leadership. Throughout her career as a communications director, Mallory partnered with the most creative minds in marketing, serving clients in Austin, Boston, Denver, San Francisco and Chicago. In 2017, Mallory brought her competitive fire to Kansas City and opened her own agency. At MALLORY may-CHUR Creative, they showcase the heart and soul behind small businesses through compelling visual storytelling. They specialize in utilizing multi-faced, integrated marketing strategies, including graphic design, brand development, social media marketing, copywriting, public relations and media relations services to help your brand come to life.   Mallory understands that marketing is no longer business to business but human to human. In this episode, she helps even the least marketing-savvy entrepreneur understand some key principles to having a powerful brand story. We discuss the significance of a brand story being more than your personal story but still relevant to the snippets of your personal life when they relate to the needs and wants of your audience. She explains that when you tell a really epic brand story, pricing becomes less relevant, and the wants of your ideal client will be the biggest priority. Also, listen to find out why this guru doesn’t even believe in “niching down” in the traditional sense! 

It can happen at any time of year and it can be really unexpected. All of a sudden you realize you are dreading the “work” you love-the creative process. Nothing’s quite good enough and you’re just irritable. Does any of this sound familiar? I’m talking about creative burnout. Today I want to offer you some tools to help you gain awareness for what may have led you to this slump so that you don’t have to stay there long.    In these moments, it seems natural to want to push ourselves harder. But I’d like to challenge that mentality with the truth that sometimes doing less, but with greater intention can be just what we need to regain that creative spark. Sometimes you just need a small win to gather the motivation and confidence that’s lacking. Burnout can also be a sign that you need to invite some fun and play back into your life. Burnout is to be expected for the creative, but you don’t have to go it alone and you don’t have to stay stuck.   

If you are constantly plagued by the “what ifs” when it comes to setting and pursuing goals in your business, I want you to take some time to listen to today’s episode. The things I’m sharing come from my personal experience, but I have learned a lot in the past few years and want to use it to encourage you too. In seasons of uncertainty, I’ve found it incredibly powerful to take time to center down and consider what your body is communicating to you. We will explore how to notice those messages and take action. Friend, it’s time to take the reins back because you, your passions, and your business are worth it!     

On this episode, I have an incredible resource coming to you in the form of online legal consultant, Emily D. Baker. Emily empowers her clients to actually understand the advice she gives them instead of leaving them more confused than when they started. She helps entrepreneurs to have common sense documents that will both protect their business and make total sense to everyone involved. Unlike perhaps every other lawyer ever, Emily charges on a project-based model (not by the hour or by the email) so that her clients can count on getting exactly what they need without developing a weirdly co-dependent relationship with their legal consultant.    As creatives, making sure that our businesses are legit and legal can easily feel overwhelming and hard to navigate. But I wanted to bring Emily on the show because I want you to be able to protect the work you do and make sure you always get paid for what you deliver. Emily helps us check off all the boxes from making sure we separate our business and personal finances to making sure we have appropriate proposals and contracts in place. She also shares everything you need to have in order to protect yourself on your website. Friends, I know this stuff feels scary, but I never want you to learn about the legal stuff the hard way, so listen in and then connect with come connect with Emily with all your extra questions. 

On today’s bonus episode, I am so grateful to welcome parenting specialist, Rachel Bailey to the show. Besides being a mother of two, she also has a Master's Degree in Clinical Psychology, a certification in Positive Discipline, and has provided services as an ADHD Coach, in-home mentor, and therapist. Currently, Rachel teaches parents hands-on tools for raising responsible, resilient, confident children. She is also committed to conquering the overwhelm and guilt that is associated with parenting today.    In our honest conversation, Rachel and I reflect on the most powerful lessons in parenting we have learned over the years. Rachel shares that she is able to support parents through empathy because she would not even call herself a naturally calm and regulated parent. She has had to implement all the tools she teaches. Rachel provides some practical tips for being able to recognize your overwhelm as a parent and then act upon it through doing things like brain dumping and implementing some time management strategies. She helps us understand that when our schedules don’t own us, we are able to be more present with our kids and enjoy many more moments of connection. 

  Are you addicted to setting lofty goals in your business that rarely get accomplished? Yup, me, too. Or... I used to be. 2020 is around the corner, and the new year always hits sooner than we are ready. I hesitate to be just another reminder of the goals you need to set because I am honestly someone who avoided goal setting like none other for a long time! But today I want to share a goal-setting strategy that won’t hinder the dreamer in you and will also protect you from setting goals motivated by fear. The secret? Learn to set good, better, and best goals. This strategy helps you stay focused and productive and ditch the perfectionism.     In order to begin setting these goals, you have to look at the entire year at a glance. Then you will need to consider what systems and processes you need to put in place. This way you are able to identify what is possible in the first quarter versus the fourth once these workflows are more established. As you begin to meet your “good” goals on a more regular basis, celebrating your success often can propel you towards your “better” and “best” goals. 

As creatives in business we all have very different amounts of time to devote to our businesses, but it’s easy to be busy with all the things that demand our attention and yet still not be generating any profit. So in a continuation of last week’s episode (quick go listen to that one if you haven’t yet!), I want you to take an honest look at the time you do have and consider how you’re allocating it. The goal to strive toward is to be spending 60-80% of your time invested in activities that generate profit.    If you’re lacking any clarity on what those tasks are, I am going to outline those for you today. These include marketing in your network, building your list, creating content, as well as connecting and making offers. Being consistent in these tasks is critical so that people always know who you are and how your business can positively  impact their lives. If you’re biggest objection in this episode is that there simply isn’t time for all this, I have some creative ideas for you in how to make time where you thought there was none to be gained. Getting strategic and intentional about how you spend your time is going to result in more profit for the time spent doing what you love!     

The beauty of being a creative is that we love the work we do, but we have to remember that the goal is always to find ways to monetize that work! Sometimes if we’re not careful, what we think is being “productive” can turn into hustling. This is yet another way we can burn out and make some really unaligned, impulsive decisions. And to top it off, these seasons of hustle are not typically times we are seeing our income increase. Today I want to encourage you to take some time to think about when you are tempted to hustle and what fears can motivate that temptation to just be busy. 

If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times; the secret to your success is just good time management. So much easier said than done! As creatives, a linear perspective of time is not always natural to us and can feel inhibiting to our creative nature. I understand this and I want to encourage you that you don’t have to stay stuck. Ditch the shame and frustration! You really don’t need to be better at time management skills. You just need to shift your focus to time optimization.    If this is a concept that feels unfamiliar, I am going to walk you through some guiding questions to help you decide how you can best spend the time you have. You can do this by first getting real about how much time you have to work with. Then it’s just a matter of connecting that chunk of time with your specific goals. Listen in and I’ll share how! 

As a creative and an entrepreneur, would you identify as someone who operates out of an abundance mindset or a scarcity mindset? Today I am taking time to help you define both, because it is all too easy to be enslaved by a scarcity mindset which can lead to burn out and making unaligned business decisions. But at the same time, it can be really difficult to make good decisions when your income is not consistent!    In this episode, I am sharing with you some of the mantras I have adopted to retrain my brain into recognizing the abundance that surrounds me. In addition to the mindset work I do, I am also sharing some strategies I use to budget that help me plan and allow for more flexibility when my income is ever changing. I challenge you to adopt 1-2 of these sayings, displaying them in the bathroom on a post-it,  or on an alarm on your phone to begin moving out of fear and into freedom as your pursue your business goals. 

Today I am so honored to welcome one of my very first podcast guests back to the show to talk about her passion for all things podcasting. Tara is the CEO of her own podcasting production agency-Profitable Podcast Productions. Tara explains how podcasting is an excellent way to continually nurture your audience with a minimal investment on your part. She believes that podcasting invites people to connect with you and in turn, inspires them to purchase your products.  Tara also assures anyone who is looking to start a podcast that it can truly take whatever form or length you want. The key to podcasting is in being consistent in the ways that you show up for your audience. Tara and I take some time to discuss some excellent examples of podcasts hosted by creatives and how they have provided a meaningful connection with their audience as a result! If you’re ready to learn more about launching your own podcast, Tara has some fantastic opportunities available for you at the end of the show! 

In working with influencers and entrepreneurs in the creative world, I have noticed that it is challenging for these individuals to face the fears that bubble up concerning financial goals. There is a ton of shame in asking for money or there is fear that there is simply not enough. But in this episode, I will help you see that by doing a cost-benefit analysis of where you time and money are going, it might be time to spend money. I’ll show you how you can be strategic with your money, stop bootstrapping all the things, and fill your bucket of creative energy all at once! Even though math is not my strength, I am pulling out the calculator to walk you through calculating the value of your time. I want to help you explore the idea of outsourcing the tasks in your work that are necessary to your business  but ultimately, do not fuel you. You will even learn how you can align your work day with your purpose and mission. The result is simple; you become more creative and avoid that dreaded burn out. You and your creative work are worth this effort, so join me in exploring this process!

Surprise! I wanted to bring a special guest interview today for a bonus episode that is packed full of inspiration for building a life centered on perhaps the most important relationship in your life-your marriage. Michelle Purta is a marriage coach for moms and comes to share the lessons she’s learned about the importance of giving herself permission to enjoy life with her husband on her terms as a business owner.  Michelle shares some practical ways she can quickly notice when her business is coming before her family. She has found ways to involve her husband in her business as a way to gain insight and meaningful feedback about how she is doing on a daily basis. Michelle encourages us to keep it simple but find ways to be fun, silly, and passionate about your marriage while still pursuing all your business goals.  

It happens all the time to creatives. You get an incredible idea that fuels all your energy only to be quickly followed by a wave of fear that the outcome could never actually measure up to the standards you set for yourself in your mind. The issue is that our battle with perfectionism prevents us from consistently making the impact on the world that we were called to make. It leaves us feeling so frustrated and discouraged.  If you can identify with any part of this experience, I want to challenge you to become more mindful of this struggle by acknowledging the feeling of fear, whether that lies internally or in the thoughts and judgements of others. Once you do this, I also want you to budget a realistic amount of time to work on that project, including time to tweak that project, and stick to those allotted times. Then perfect or not, you’re going to practice releasing that work and hold yourself accountable. The process may make you squirm, but I promise that over time, you will become more productive and capable of finishing a much higher percentage of the projects you start. 

I am so grateful to be able to welcome Pinterest strategist, Jacquelene Hayes on the show today to demystify the world of Pinterest and help us all understand how we can start using this platform today to generate more traffic to our websites, stores, and even Facebook groups which can translate into more revenue! If you’ve been avoiding Pinterest up until now, Jacquelene lays out some simple first steps to take in order to utilize this fantastic free business and marketing tool. She also shares some super helpful examples of how creatives specifically can understand how you can create boards, pins, and keyword searches to help your ideal client find your content easier.