Creating your business on your own terms.

Judith Morgan, Magical Coach has recently written an excellent book entitled ‘Your Biz Your Way’ and in it she busts many (52 in fact) myths and legends about how businesses are ‘supposed to be’ when in fact, its your business and you can create it around what works for you. Judith gets right to the heart of the matter and really makes you consider your thoughts and ideas. Heck, Judith has even managed to get me to focus on ‘ONE’ thing at a time (well, mostly!) and many a time I’ll be dreaming up some crazy idea and I’ll hear Judith’s voice in my head. This, I’ve discovered has really helped me to develop my creative projects into a business. In fact, I hesitate to use the word business to talk about what I do as for me it’s more about Creative Adventures. So I've been considering how do I run my business my way?

I actually registered as self-employed in 2012, mainly as there had been a course offered at the local job centre, so it was sort of by accident. At that time I’d left a job that I wasn’t really suited to and had made me very ill both mentally and physically. I didn’t have a clue what to do next. I knew that it had to be something that would re-ignite my creativity. Something I’d suppressed and neglected for too many years. I joined a program called the '30 day challenge' and decided to put into action and idea I’d had a few years previously for a socially engaged creative project. I called it Bags of Love For Bristol and it was fun, dynamic and completed in 30 days. There was no agenda, no one telling me how it had to be done or what was expected, no fear of failure. It was playful and made me feel great and excited. I realised then that this was part of what I needed more of. This first project led me to being in pop-up shops selling the bags I’d made and getting to know local artists. I started other creative projects and over time discovered that for me, the combination of Creativity, Adventure and Nature was doing me the power of good both mentally and physically.

I was doing things that pushed be out of my comfort zone and making me more resilient. I wanted to explore this further and spent time learning about personal coaching, going on an arts volunteer placement in Thailand for 6 weeks, and developing courses that combined these three elements - Creativity, Adventure & Nature – CAN – with an idea to help others who have/are where I’d once been suffering with depression and anxiety. People who were looking for ‘another way to wellbeing’

At first I couldn’t really figure out how to make this a business and how it might work. Through continued play and Judith’s key questioning skills, all of these different elements were brought together under my ‘Creative Adventurers Hat’ as I run workshops, some in person, some online and I’ve recently started writing articles for magazines. At the heart of this is the fact that each year I’ll go on my own Creative Adventure, which I’ll document in various mixed-media ways. The current project being about UK Islands.

Alongside my projects, I work part-time for an arts charity based in Radstock, near Bath. At the moment running my business my way means being flexible and embracing the balance between having a part-time paid role which gives me some freedom and headspace to continue with my Creative Adventures and whatever form they may take.

I’m still working things out. Each project or course I create gives me an opportunity to reflect and ask myself ‘is making me happy?’ ‘Am I enjoying what I’m doing? Yes? I’ll carry on, No? I’ll stop and look deeper to see what needs to change or to be dropped altogether. Something I’ve had to learn to give myself permission to do.

Running my Biz my Way is also knowing that I actually have some degree of control over what I do and I find this hugely empowering, sometimes scary!  Knowing that really I can choose.

Are you self-employed? Are you like me a mix of having a part-time job and self-employed work /projects?

If you'd like to know more about Judith Morgan - visit her website here: Small Business Oracle

At the top of the Bardsey Island Mountain. August 2017