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So, in this second year of running a business, things are changing.
I’m asking for help. I’m getting advice. I’m patting myself on the back for flying by the seat of my pants and showing up for myself in this first year of business and getting myself this far. But now its time to learn more about how to run a business. So I’ve been going in search of business advice.
Here’s what is coming up though. I thought I could use advice about how to make better newsletters, to get more students or how to spread out and get more people to hear about my classes. That indeed would be good, but what I want more than that is to have it all more infused with who I am.
You see, I’m an introvert and am pretty private in a lot of ways. It may not seem like it, but that is indeed the case. When I shared that list from the last post a friend said “If you’re inside a box, where must I be?!”. We all have these boxes we find ourselves in. Some of them we can deal with, others…not so much.
My ‘professional’ me is still totally me, but muted. I’ve guilted myself about it but really, in person I’m like that too…I don’t spill it all out as soon as we meet but once we get to know each other the gregarious, emotional, silly and sometimes even wise me comes out.
We all live in boxes of some sort, don’t we. Have these spaces we try to fit ourselves into.
I’ve been trying to fit myself into a box of what it means to run a business. What I think I should be doing. I mean, I am doing my best of course! I’m proud of the way I’m showing up in this creative life.
The thing that happens for me is that when I put myself in a box, I resist it at the same time. Holding it in until every so often I just need to burst out of it in a really dramatic way. That rocks, but what I want more than that is to poke holes all through the box from the inside so the light pours in. Keep poking those holes until the darkness within the box has turned to light and there is no need for it anymore.
I made a list of ways I want my business (and life) to fit more with that ‘be yourself’ business/life plan and its funny what came up. Its not the dramatic big things that I want to pull out to let you know me more. Its the little things.
Like how I have a really big laugh and am totally silly…which most people don’t get to see until they know me really well.
The quirky me. I feel like that comes out in my photos, but oh…there is still much more quirkiness to appear.
I also started thinking about how there are so many ways that we can ‘be ourselves’. That it can speak through words, graphics, photos, videos and that for each way of ‘being myself’ I want to let out, there is a way that it can best speak….one of those things. So I’m going to see what comes up and how it can best be given a voice.
So be prepared for more silly viv. More quirky viv. More playfulness. More feistiness. More truth telling.
More poking of holes in some box that I needed to be in in order to rise into this part of my life, but that it is time to step out of.
I know we all have boxes we’re in and we don’t necessarily need to break it down in one fell swoop. Is there a way you could poke one hole in a box you’re in in your life and let some light in? Maybe that is smiling at a stranger or wearing that outfit you love even if it is a bit outside of the box. Or take a silly picture too and share it here? Lets let the light into these spaces where we let ourselves be boxed in!