When was the last time you gave yourself permission to to reflect on your business? What about your life?
Over the last few months, I’ve been working on a philosophy of business in general and marketing in particular that focuses on sharing. That the best way to promote your business is to look at what is going on and ask, “what can I share with my audience?”
This commitment to sharing has always been the best for my business – it’s produced the best content for Designing an MBA and the most effective marketing for my jewelry line.
I stumbled upon this image on Pinterst from Austin Kleon’s book Steal Like an Artist
“Do good work and share it with people.”
And I still believe this to be true.
But over the last month I’ve learned a valuable lesson. That just as sharing is a good idea for our business, so is reflection. That sometimes it’s more important to think than to share. That sometimes it’s more important to be a sponge than a megaphone.
This past month, I haven’t felt much like sharing. So instead, I’ve been taking the opportunity to reflect.
To think about what it is I value in business and in life.
To read and absorb and hone my personal philosophy.
To hunker down and spend some time with me.
I’m still very much in this mode of reflection, and I’m not quite ready to share what I’ve been working on. But I wanted to let you know that when I am ready to share, its going to be worth the wait. I’m getting some clarity on a lot of levels that I know will benefit all of our businesses.
But in the meantime, I want to encourage you to spend some time reflecting on your own business. Don’t be afraid to take a step back from the hamster wheel. (For me, that means not worrying so much about making money this month. I know there’s time for that later.) Take a step back form the daily grind of your business and think about your purpose, your systems, and your opportunities. What you find might just change everything.
Thanks so much for this post, Megan! It’s very timely and personal. Even though you haven’t heard much from me in our coursework & phone calls, I’ve been working at reflecting. After taking the Biz Think course and then the Marketing for Makers right after, I felt I needed to absorb everything and take time to reflect on what I’m currently creating and make sure it’s really, truly representative of my personal aesthetic, philosophy and creative style. Can’t wait to see everything you’ve been working on and sharing my own new directions with you as well.
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Thank you for this lovely reminder. I’ve actually felt myself called to reflection quite a bit this last month. Maybe it’s the changing of the seasons? It’s nice to take a step back and reframe our marketing efforts as “sharing the good stuff” instead of just throwing our message into people’s faces. Sharing is so much more in line with my values.
I completely agree with this post! In March all of my jewelry went on display at a local Gallery on short notice so I had to decide if I should duplicate all my pieces to keep my shop open or just take a little vacation from the online store. After losing my mom a couple months ago I’ve struggled with so many emotions each day so I made the decision that it was actually the perfect time to give myself a much needed break. Without realizing it that gave me time to step back a little and look at my business with so much more clarity. I have been wanting to re-brand for months now and had been struggling with so many aspects of that and I was able to do this during my time of reflection in a way that I wouldn’t have been able to if I was worrying about the day to day tasks like promotion, creating and paperwork. Now I’m ready to re-open in a couple weeks with a new branding, business plan, and fresh products that I am so excited about! This time of reflection was the best thing that could have happened for my business!
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