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I am so excited to launch my new social media planner for Instagram. I’ve been working on it for quite some time. I wanted a straightforward tool that would . . .
help with staying on track with Instagram goals
take the guesswork out of posting
make connections that help build a profitable account
grow an audience without frustration
create a clear step-by-step routine with daily actions
save hours and hours each week
Enter the planner!
Read MoreIf I could only give you one tip for growing your business, it would be to show up consistently. Throughout the years of entrepreneurship, I have been convinced more and more that one of the top keys to growth is to simply show up for your audience each day.
Consistency gives you a steady stream of value to share, it demonstrates your expertise, and it shows that you truly care about your followers, thus building a trustworthy brand.
It sounds simple enough, but it isn’t always easy to show up every day. In fact, it’s quite difficult at times. And with all of the behind-the-scenes work that goes into running an online business, it can be easy to prioritize the front-end of your brand—especially for those of us who are on the introverted side of things. (Can anyone else relate?)
However, the audiences have voted, and it’s confirmed that you can’t grow a business without showing up consistently.
So today, I’ve narrowed down 3 easy ways to revolutionize your consistency. These simple things will help you get rid of the road blocks and keep you ahead of the game so you can show up each day and build a loyal and engaged audience.
Read MoreSetting and reaching a goal consists of 3 main stages:
the part that depends on your time, resources, and tools
the part that relies on your know-how and abilities
the part that counts on you doing the work
These areas each create their own hurdles around achieving goals. Over the years, I’ve struggled with all three of the hang-ups above, and today I’m sharing my best insights on how to overcome them.
With goals, we either tend to overaim with excitement or under-aim with overwhelm. Both often result in feeling stuck. But instead, we need to find the right balance to bust through roadblocks like these.
Good news is, goals are infinitely easier to set and achieve with you are equipped with the right tools in your pocket.
If you are struggling to start or grow your creative business, don’t extinguish your dreams before you have a good run! Give it your best shot with the tips in today’s blog post.
Read MoreAre you making headway on your goals? Are you staying on track? Or do you often find yourself missing the mark and rewriting the same goals at the top of next month’s planner pages . . . again?
In my last post, I talked about the simple missing link to reaching goals, and I explained why many goals always seem to get away from us or feel out of reach.
Today, I’m showing you how to apply that secret so you can finally break the cycle of pushing your goals into the future.
If you tend to rewrite the same to-do list week after week, these 4 simple steps will help you understand and overcome the common struggle that many creative entrepreneurs face: how to actually reach goals.
Read MoreGoals.
We set them. We plan them. We reach them, too.
Or at least, we hope we do.
Some goals propel our business forward and help us reach new grounds, while others are critical for simply keeping our business above the water.
There’s something thrilling about reaching a goal—especially after working hard for it day after day. The feeling you get when you finally check one off of your list creates a strong sense of accomplishment and a surge of motivation.
But it can be quite discouraging when you find yourself transferring the same unmet goal over to next month’s planner pages, time and time again, to no avail.
“Maybe next month will be different. Maybe I’ll finally check that one off,” we hope, once again.
But when we are stuck in a cycle and struggle to reach our goals, it’s time to try a different approach.
Last January, while thinking deeply on this subject, I had an epiphany. I figured out the secret to reaching goals—or at least the key I had been missing for years.
I realized there were actually two distinct types of goals, and I was completely missing the mindset behind one of them.
It completely transformed the way I think of goals, how I set them, and how I map them out as a creative entrepreneur.
This blog post sheds light on that secret, and I can’t wait to share it with you!
Read MoreYou’ve seen it before: an amazing brand design that is perfect in every way.
From the logo, to the color scheme, to how well the concept fits the business’s theme, a stunning brand like this can have you spending hours eyeing everything their shop has to offer.
This is much more powerful than a brand that lacks this alluring feel.
Why is this the case? A well-designed brand creates an entire experience around a business. So it’s no longer just a product or a service or a blog and is instead transformed into a captivating aura that draws people in.
Instantly, items in the shop become a little shinier and more special. Services become more desirable and engaging. Therefore, a well-designed brand increases the entire value of a business and makes its audience more eager to invest money into whatever the brand is offering.
This can be your business, too!
Many careful decisions go into developing successful branding; it’s the result of a design strategy and process that hits all the marks. Much brainstorming and planning is required to elevate your brand in this way, as well as techniques and know-how.
In short, with a brand like this, there’s more than meets the eye.
But I’m spilling some designer secrets today to help you make sure your brand creates an irresistible experience that draws in customers and clients.
Read Morevideo + blog post
In my last Ponderstream Episode, I shared my step-by-step process for how I reach my goals. My process includes creating goals, breaking them down into daily actions, and monitoring your progress along the way.
Over the past year, I’ve focused on creating an effective and streamlined goal-planning system that saves time. Setting goals can be an easy place to get hung up on, so I wanted to outline a specific method that I could follow over and over again.
My goal was to be able to incorporate a step-by-step planning system into my routine to eliminate the pitfall of wondering where to start each day or what to work on next.
After over a year of experimenting and refining, I’ve ended up with a simple goal-planning process and created a workbook to go along with it. It’s made such a difference with reaching my goals, so I was excited to share it with you all last week in my livestream.
Essentially, my method for reaching goals is breaking them down all the way into simple to-do tasks that are assigned to each day. This creates a step-by-step plan for staying on track so you can monitor your progress and actually complete the tasks necessary to accomplish your goals.
There are 4 main sections: prepwork and laying the foundation, setting goals, planning them out, and following through. Join me as I walk you through the entire process in detail.
Missed joining this one live? Register for next week’s Ponderstream webinar here.
Read Morevideo + blog post
There’s so much noise online about what you need to do before you launch a business, but today I’m taking the stand and saying there’s a Top 2.
In fact, if I had known and followed them before I ventured out and launched my first business (a handmade knitwear company), these two strategies alone would have saved me from running around in time-wasting circles, and my business would have taken off much faster.
One of them is a fundamental, yet often unnoted step to ensuring your business doesn't dwindle away from you and fail due to a simple overlook.
The other is a new, growing need I’ve noticed in recent months and is a byproduct of the modern online business era. But I’m not sure how a business can survive in 2019 and onward without implementing this strategy.
While extremely effective, the are both simple methods to follow and only require a bit of creative brainstorming time with you, paper, and a pen.
So here’s what I would say if I could tell every creative entrepreneur only 2 things I wish I did when starting and growing a business . . .
Missed joining this one live? Register for next week’s Ponderstream webinar here.
Read MoreBy now, you’ve probably heard it: a brand is more than just a logo.
As a brand identity designer, I know this first-hand and talk about it often on the blog. A business’s branding is created from building color palettes, pairing fonts, and through compiling an entire style guide—just to mention a few of the visual elements.
However, branding goes even deeper than what the outside of a business looks like. And many of these other critical areas are often neglected and in much disarray.
Branding is more of an abstract concept—like developing a writing style; it’s something that takes quite a bit of unpacking to understand fully because there are so many components and the possibilities are endless.
So I’ve broken the essentials of creating a brand into 4 simple parts to make it easy to digest and implement in any creative business.
Learn the ins and outs of these 4 key elements of branding in today’s crash course.
Read MoreA new quarter is the ideal time to check in with your business to maximize success. I always find quarterly segments to be perfect for finding clarity, setting goals, and staying on track throughout the year.
Their 90-day time span allow for progress to be made and give you ample time to effectively analyze the ins and outs of your business.
It’s all-too easy to drift from your course and lose sight of your brand’s focus, so in today’s blog post, I’m offering some help.
Ensure game-changing progress over the next three months with just four simple things to do at the start of each quarter.
Read MorePlanning Instagram content 30 days in advance has many benefits.
It allows you to create and prepare everything so you only need to spend a few minutes on Instagram each day.
It helps you to “show up” consistently without Instagram becoming your full-time job.
It saves so much time and lets you create an Instagram routine that works with your busy life.
And, you never again have to stress out about throwing a post together last-minute.
If you’re wishing for a better posting strategy, or if you’re just curious about this whole “planning” thing, you’ve come to the right place. Because today, I’m sharing my simple step-by-step process for intentionally planning 30 days of Instagram content.
Read MoreIt’s that time of year again—when everything feels fresh and new. Goals swirl around our minds with ever-growing excitement about what we hope to accomplish in the new year.
We dream big about our businesses and can’t wait to get started on our latest and greatest ideas.
But without a methodical way to set and reach goals, there isn’t much hope for success.
So today, I’m giving you my step-by-step process to effectively plan for a successful and productive year. This is an in-depth blog post you won’t want to miss.
Read MoreI wanted to try something new going into January this year: get a head-start.
The first few weeks of January usually get away from me, and before I know it, I’m halfway through February.
So I brainstormed ways to set myself up for success this year, and I’m happy to announce it’s made a huge difference so far. They are strategies I plan to continue implementing for the rest of the year, and I recommend you try them out, too.
This is what I did:
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