Inside: As I step into my 10th year of my ‘slow business on purpose’, I want to share a bit of my story or experience growing my business along with some of my favourite business tools. Some of the following tools or resources include a referral link.
I’m stepping into my 10th year of business. From the start I’ve been committed to a “slow business on purpose.” Or a soul-honouring business that honors my wiring and reflects my core values.
I was 16 the first time I dreamed of starting a small creative business of my own. Over time, my business dreams went through many iterations. Then 13 years ago, as I inched toward my 40th birthday, I had a *knowing* that it was time for me to return to school and get started making something of my own.
From the start, I had a strong and clear vision for my work at A Life in Progress, and it has never wavered. But even with a clear vision, actually bringing my dream to life felt impossible. It was here that I learned we find our way in action, not before. We must step into the little bit of light we have and trust that the path will unfold as we go.
I remember saying to my very first therapist, how could I ‘a struggler’ offer hope and encouragement to others? He reminded me that every therapist needs help too (these days I support some therapists too;)). We are not required to have all the answers ourselves before we offer our gifts or help others. We all need support of different kinds.
Growing a values-aligned and soul-honouring business is not for the faint of heart. It will stretch you, require that you face your pain and wounding. You will need to rewrite old stories that keep you stuck in fear and feeling not good enough. It will call you into freedom. Deeper and deeper.
finding joy amid the messiness of life
My first year of ‘official business’ I was still homeschooling my youngest child, tending home, and driving teenagers to piano lessons and basketball games. My work was low priority. Not long after I spent about 18 months fighting to keep my son alive and the past almost five years learning to live without him. My life vision and values served as an anchor in the storm. And through all the impossible heartache and pain, I’ve grown something really beautiful.
I had to move slowly and trust my own pace. I also had to learn how to quiet all the noise (including comparison and perfectionism) and befriend my vicious Inner Critic. And I was required to build the muscle of imperfect action and practice showing up through fear rather than waiting for the magical day when fear disappeared.
As a recovering perfectionist, I practice releasing my grip on needing my work to be ‘perfect’ or polished. I can always improve things as I go. I didn’t even have a dedicated office or work space (beyond a big desk in my bedroom) until part way through year 8. All of this to say, we can easily find reasons to not step into our dreams but waiting for perfect circ*mstances doesn’t need to be one of them.
Having said that, I’m a planner by nature. Organized. Minimalistic. My preference is for life to be streamlined, lean, and simple. Having a plan and a process makes me happy. Maintaining order in life where I have a measure of control frees up mental and emotional energy to meet new challenges and take risks. I do a lot of mind-mapping, rough journaling, capturing ideas and thoughts on paper. It’s part of my creative process and learning to trust the wisdom of my creative process has been important.
organization and planning: key to a slow business on purpose
Full Focus Planners: one of my favourite business tools. The format works well for my brain and system of planning, goal setting, etc. So far, I’ve used them for 5 years. Micro-managing my planner is one of my self-regulation tools when my nervous system is dysregulated. I’ve learned to embrace this because there is no harm in it – and it works.
Elastic Pen Holder: I use this to keep my favourite pens four pencil crayons handy (I color code certain activities). The elastic band circles the cover of the planner and stays put.
Calendly: In my early years I manually scheduled sessions with clients. Honestly, this worked OK for a time. But it got to the point where I really did need a system to take over scheduling. I integrate Calendly with my master Google Calendar. Before using Calendly I tried a more expensive program and there were too many unnecessary bells and whistles.
Seasonal Mindfulness Journals: I use these for mapping out my year, BB sessions, workshops, and so on. And of course, since I follow a seasonal living framework in my life and business, it makes sense that I use my seasonal journals. Seasonal living is one of the practices that radically changed my life. It gave me the ability to show up fully – with joy and on purpose – in every season. Even the hardest of them.
the pareto principle and rinse and repeat systems: Two of My Favourite Things
Learning to love and value myself as a highly sensitive soul, slow mover, and non-hustler, has meant doing business differently from most of what I see online. I need ample spaciousness in my life in order to feel mind-body-spirit whole. Giving myself this spaciousness for visioning, listening inward, and planning is one of my 20% of most productive habits (see the Pareto Principle). This is also an example of learning to work with not against my wiring. Or learning to honour my wiring which is something I teach in my Brave + Beautiful Community.
Another of my ‘top 20% habits’ is creating rinse and repeat systems or rhythms, for both life and business. If you live with pain or a chronic health condition (as I have most of my life), or other limitations on your capacity (including caring for someone with extra/special needs), focusing on your true priorities and rinse and repeat systems will take you far.
I wasted a lot of energy and time in my early years of business in large part because my learning curve was huge. But also because of everything else I was navigating in life at the same time and that split my focus. This isn’t bad, just human. But as I go, I shore up leaks, release distraction, and get better at focusing my attention on what I truly want to grow.
systems or MAINTENANCE
Siteground: For web hosting, I started out with Bluehost but I’ve been way happier since making the switch to Siteground years ago. I tend to renew for 2 years at time for the cost savings.
Milo tree: Super simple, easy to use, pop-ups for only $9 USD/month. I’ve been using this for years and the price has never changed. They also have a sales cart option. Jillian and her husband David are quick to reply and help if I ever have questions.
Flodesk: I was with Mailchimp for years but switched to Flodesk as my email list provider in the past year. It’s been good. The opt-in forms are more limited but the workflows are simple to set up and I’m happy about the low price. Also, the transfer from Mailchimp to Flodesk was easy. Get 50% off your first year.
Captivate: I have two podcasts, one private exclusively for my Brave + Beautiful Community. The other is public. Both are hosted by Captivate.fm and are included in my current plan. It’s easy to use/set up.
Smarterqueue: This is a social media scheduling tool and it’s one of my favourite business tools ever. I wish I’d started using it sooner. Upload your social images, add captions and variations on captions, organize all your content (ex. blog posts, marketing images, image quotes, etc // see image below.) into categories. And drop and drag your categories into the weekly post planner. It’s super easy to use and a great price. At the moment you can get a free 30 day trial (no credit card required).
Our Unique wiring brings challenges and gifts
I’m an Enneagram One, stubborn questioner with rebel leanings (see Gretchen Rubin’s Four Tendencies Model) and like to do things my own way. I’ve never fit neat and tidy into any box though there were times I tried pretty hard. I’m also Highly Sensitive, and for much of life experienced (sometimes severe) anxiety, and this explains some of why I had to work so hard at life and ‘humaning’ in ways most people in my circle did not. Being who and how I am led to some very real challenges in life. But it also came with gifts.
I don’t buy much in the way of business training or courses. I tend to dive in, get my hands dirty, and learn as I go. (On the other hand, I do pay for therapy, coaching, and education related to my own healing and growth as well as that which serves my clients and community.) In addition, there’s a whole lot of noise out there and not as many voices/people who are aligned with my lean and simple, soul-honouring way of doing business. Or my choice to build a ‘slow business on purpose.’
COURSES or training for a SOUL-HONOURING BUSINESS
Grow Your Heart Centered Business: Julie Bjelland is an HSP and autistic. I respect the way she shows up to life and business and her commitment to personal growth. She and I have connected many times in podcast conversations. This is online course designed to help highly sensitive people and the neurodivergent grow an online heart-centered business. I have not taken this course myself but from what I know of Julie, I feel safe recommending it.
Sticky SEO: Kelly Holms’s teaching style is clear, easy to follow, and valuable. She’s well organized and shares things step by step. I highly recommend her work. In 10 modules, this course gives you everything you need to grow your traffic from search engines like Google. I recommend paying the extra $20 for the workbook. get swipe file in fb group once approved I took her Sticky SEO course years ago and think it’s time for a refresh.
Sticky Blogging: Kelly teaches this once a year. I have not taken her Sticky Blogging course but have taken 2 other trainings from her so feel very comfortable recommending this. This would be a good choice for someone newer in business or needing a solid refresh.
Mini Workshop Magic: This is super low cost and high value. Seriously, some of the best dollars spent in my business. I love running workshops and Justin and Sarah gave me so much good information and practical advice in this training. I don’t follow their system to the letter (I never follow a recipe either;)). But I’ve applied much of it and I’ve rewatched the workshop multiple times.
a couple of honourable mentions
Racheal Cook: This is more like an honorable mention. I haven’t worked with Racheal, and she mostly focuses on women building multiple six and seven figure businesses and teams. But I’ve gleaned tons of practical advice and encouragement from her by watching what she’s up to and listening to her podcast. The way she speaks and organizes her business makes sense to my brain and she’s all about life-first (as in life before business). Racheal is a business mentor of mine thought she doesn’t know it;)
Rachel Rodgers: Another honorable mention of sorts. I appreciate Rachel’s strong voice and wisdom including in this book. Although I don’t aspire to make multiple seven figures I have learned from her and respect the work she does to help historically excluded folks build wealth through entrepreneurship.
my life is my message: just keep practicing
The past years of building A Life in Progress while parenting, dealing with the messiness of a full, beautiful life (including trauma and grief), and serving my clients and community, was so much harder and way more amazing in some ways than I could have envisioned from the start. I live my message of “make peace with messiness to make space for joy.” I only ever offer to others that which I have or I’m willing to practice myself.
As a curious, growth-minded human, I’ve gleaned so much from others who have shared their wisdom and skill with the world. I’ve studied formally and informally, listened to podcasts, read countless books. Each year, I make space at my birthday for my sacred visioning time. And I’ve committed to practicing. When I focus on practicing, I prioritize process over outcome or end goal. This helps me ‘find joy in the journey’ as the saying goes.
BOOKS to help you build your soul-honouring or slow business
In this post of current book recommendations I share four books related to writing or growing a values-aligned, creative business.
The Antiracist Business Book: An Equity Centered Approach to Work, Wealth, and Leadership by Trudi Lebron, PhD, diversity, equity and inclusion coach, is a helpful read at any stage of business. You can find Trudi here.
And below I share a few favorite and inspiring books from my early years, when I was getting started:
Being Boss by Emily Thompson and Kathleen Shannon: Back in the day, I loved Emily and Kathleen’s podcast, also called Being Boss. Though they ended the podcast in 2020, you can still enjoy all Being Boss episodes.
Brand Brilliance and How to Style Your Brand by Fiona Humberstone: Both of Fiona’s books helped me get clear on my branding and how I wanted people to feel when they landed on my site.
what are you watering?
Building my own values-aligned and soul-honouring business was my second dream in life (dream no 1 was growing a creative and connected family). I’m so proud of myself for all the hard work it took over the years to step into my vision and grow into my bravery, wisdom, and strength, slow and steady. There were days I didn’t think I’d survive the death of my child. But my business was a lifeline. Helping others can be a lifeline when heartache threatens to destroy you.
Before my son died in 2019, I’d been doing some business coaching. Women started seeking me out to ask for help. But after Jairus died, I had to cut about 80% of my work to survive. These days, I integrate business coaching into my longer-term work with a select few clients. I help women meet and befriend their True Selves, quiet all the conditioning and noise, make peace with messiness (including the imperfection of life and self) so that they live joyfully in every season. This is what I care about. Business can be a part of this, but it feels meaningless to me if we don’t love and value who and how we are. If we put down strong, hardy roots, we’ll be agile and able to flex and not break during the storms of life.
Having said that, if you’re a highly sensitive or neurodivergent human, a stubborn questioner, or non-hustler, handcrafting a small business of your own, I offer occasional ‘ask me anything’ sessions if that interests you.
I’d love to hear – where are you in your business journey? What’s holding you back or what has helped you practice imperfect action as you build the business and life you dream of? Reach out here.
Krista xo
Single coaching session $350
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