Last year I did something that looked a bit mad from the outside. I walked away from my event design business straight after its most profitable month ever. Here's why, and what I'd say to you if you're feeling stuck in your own creative business.

The "what am I doing?" funk

It started with weeks of opening my laptop and feeling completely overwhelmed. The event design business I'd built no longer fitted who I was. I didn’t have the energy for outreach or marketing and I didn’t feel creatively fulfilled.

At events, I’d do 25k steps without going outside, barely eat and then come home with pretty extreme bruises covering my legs because I went hard installing everything, wanting it to be perfect. It didn’t feel like I was treating myself very well, but I didn’t really know how to NOT do it like that.

I used to hit this WTF Am I Doing questioning-everything phase every three or four years. Now it was every six months. Something felt off, misaligned, missing - even though I’d just had my most profitable £10k profit month.

If you're a creative founder, you might know this feeling. The business works on paper, but it's not the business you'd choose if you were starting today. The love has somehow fizzled out and it’s hard to know whether to have relationship counselling with your business, or have an affair...

What I did instead of panicking

I designed myself a reset: an at-home retreat, treated as an investment in my next business. There was only one thing I knew to start with - that I wanted something to change.

The aims were simple:

• Take the pressure off knowing the perfect next step
• Define what a rich life looks like, not just financially
• Decide what success looks like, including creative fulfilment
• Spot where I'd been living in my comfort zone
• Work out what I'm curious about for the next chunk of time (not forever)
• Explore my zone of genius and if that still fitted my life and new commitments as a mother of 2
• Figure out how I want to genuinely be of service to others

There were a few books I dipped into in this Reset period - Tiny Experiments by Anne-Laure Le Cunff, which helped me sit with the in-between rather than rushing to label it good or bad.

AND

An Overthinkers Guide to Making Decisions.

Burn the house down, keep the suitcase

People in traditional jobs change direction and sidestep all the time. I think perhaps when you’re self-employed it can feel like you’re not allowed. You’ve made your bed, now you have to lie in it, furnish it and stay there til it pays it’s way!

I burnt the house down, but I took a suitcase of the important bits: nearly twenty years of experience, three businesses built, my creative problem-solving brain, and a real desire to help other women build businesses that work for them, because...

I was watching women around me give up their ambitions, their businesses and creative dreams under the weight of societal expectations - particularly when motherhood came into the mix. It didn’t seem right or fair to me, so I wanted to do something about it...Perhaps spurred on by having two daughters and wanting things to be fairer for them in the future.

That's what became my coaching and mentoring practice for creative female founders. I decided to re-train and be an ICF qualified coach in order to have the most impact possible.

If you're feeling stuck in your creative business

You don't need to crack on straight away. You need clarity first. Start with three questions: What's working? What's draining you? What would you build if you started today?

I’d love to help you get some clarity, straight off the bat. I offer free 30 minute Clarity Coaching Calls to get the ball rolling. Book one here.