Editor’s letter

I’m celebrating F-I-V-E years in business this month. Holy shit how did that happen? Where did the time go? And, here’s to the next five years being even more fun than the first. 

But. 

But as we all know, it isn’t always sunshine and roses. 

Being a business owner is the ultimate rollercoaster. Yes, and I wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

To commemorate the big occasion, this month I’ll be sharing my five biggest lessons from five years in business – I’m officially dubbing this series ‘5 in 5’. 

Up first, think about everything in business as an experiment, rather than a do-or-die.

It’s a little cliche, huh? 

But, cliches often exist because they’re, well, true. Or true-ish. And today’s lesson is no exception. 

The first two, two and a half years of business, I approached everything I did with the perspective, “THIS is the thing that will be the ticket to reaching six figures, $10k months, 10k followers, going viral, [insert whatever vanity metric you want here]!” 

I would put so much pressure on this thing to perform well, to exceed expectations that I would end up leaving out the fun. And when it didn’t work out the way I wanted or had hoped, it was a catalyst for jumping both feet into an emotional dumpster fire. 

It wasn’t until I heard someone (probably on a podcast…) say that they approached everything in their business as an experiment – it took the pressure off and made things a little more fun – that I really started to think about my own process and expectations. 

On one hand, it helps take the pressure off of the actual ‘thing’. But also, it helps for evaluating what did happen from a more balanced perspective. 

So now, when I try something new (i.e., I tested a personality consultation offer in July) I can look at the results (they weren’t great) from an even playing field, rather than an emotionally charged one. This allows me to think more logically about next right steps (let’s try it again in the fall, and do it separately from the email, rather than bury it in the newsletter content). 

In the past, if I put out an offer and it didn’t go well, I’d take it personally and go into the spiral of, “I do nothing well, we suck, let’s close up shop, the end.” 

But by shifting the perspective to experimenter-mode, it allows me to view the results separate from my self worth. Because, duh – our business’s success has absolutely no relevance on our worth as a human being. 

Which brings me to the newest experiment – an audio version of the newsletter. I’m dubbing this, The Branded Chat Newsletter, On The Go! 

As a podcast lover, I’ve been noodling on the idea of starting one for awhile. But, the timing still doesn’t feel right. However, I saw this idea from Tarzan Kay (great newsletter, BTW) and decided, why the hell not? Let’s give it a go and see what happens. 

So, you can click here to subscribe. Episodes will air on Friday mornings, right along with the written version.