Fourteen years ago, I left a career in architecture after nearly nine years, with very little idea what I wanted to do next. I just knew I wanted to be creative, have more freedom and do things differently.
Since then, I've been a blogger, food photographer, recipe developer, health coach, business owner, graphic and website designer, and quite a few other things in between. I've launched products, run workshops, hosted retreats and taken my work in directions I couldn't have predicted when I first went self-employed.
Looking back, there are a few things I've learned along the way that I think are worth sharing.
Particularly if you're building a business that doesn't fit neatly into a conventional mould.
Here, I wanted to bring some of those thoughts together, from the lessons that have stayed with me to something I've been thinking about more recently: how we can make the experience of running an online business feel a little more alive.
If you’d like to read further, I shared two longer, more personal essays over on Substack that reflect on this more : 14 lessons I've learned in 14 years as a self-employed multi-passionate creative, and What Gets Lost When Everything Goes Digital?.
14 lessons from 14 years of self-employment
So, this one is for all the creatives who don't fit neatly into a box. Here are 14 things I've learned along the way (and often still find myself learning over and over).
Business (and life) are never linear. The steps we take and decisions we make rarely follow a straight line. Sometimes it takes hindsight to join the dots.
Not every creative side quest needs to be monetised. When a hobby shifts from a fun outlet to work, your whole relationship with it can change.
You are the niche. Own it. In a person-centred business, people buy into the person just as much, if not more, than the product or service being sold.
You don't need to focus on one thing. Being pretty good at lots of things isn't less than being an expert in one. The sweet spot can be where your different skills and interests overlap.
Follow the shiny ideas. Give your curiosity some room to play. You never quite know where a side quest might lead.
Your passions and creativity don't have to be the thing that pays the bills. Your creativity doesn't need to be the centrepiece of your working life to have a place in it.
Social media is a blessing and a curse. You don't need to be everywhere or create content in ways that feel heavy for you. Be honest about what works.
You can complete a project by dropping it. It's not a failure to stop doing something that no longer serves you. Sometimes letting go frees up the energy you need elsewhere.
Being naive is often a good thing. Not knowing what something ‘should’ look like can give you the confidence to try it your own way.
Things can come full circle in ways you can't anticipate. Skills and experiences from earlier chapters of your life may show up again in completely different ways.
Put it out imperfectly. It needs to exist first, THEN you can start making it better. Testing an idea with real people can teach you far more than endless refining.
Your community and the connections you cultivate are the biggest win. A supportive network and genuine relationships with your audience, customers and peers make a huge difference over the long term.
Understand what freedom and success look like for you. The conventional measures of success might not be the ones you want to value your life by.
You're never going to have it all figured out. And maybe we should stop wanting to. There's something to be said for embracing the joy of experimenting.
The things I'm still learning…
Of course, knowing these things doesn't mean I've mastered them. Some of the lessons are ones I still have to remind myself of, and others have taken on a different meaning as my life and business have evolved.
There is one in particular that has been on my mind recently.
Your community and the connections you cultivate are the biggest win.
I have a quote by Daniel Priestly pasted at the top of my Notion dashboard hub that says: “If you don’t have a lot of money, you typically don’t have a lot of relationships.”
Oof this one hurts to acknowledge because it’s true (for me at least).
A loyal community and supportive network are the biggest factor for success in the long term. Staying connected and engaged with your audience, customers and peer group creates sustainable growth. It also fosters momentum and feedback instead of building in isolation.
In looking back at these words as I write them, this lesson is maybe one of the most obvious and for many reading this it might be second nature, but this is one of the things I find hardest day to day in business. Even though I want to connect, it doesn’t come naturally for me.
This also links back into freedom - having the flexibility to work from anywhere is something I genuinely love. But over the last few years, I've also noticed that some of the things that make me feel creative and connected have fallen by the wayside.
And this has led me to a slightly different question about the way I work.
What gets lost when everything goes digital?
When my life became nomadic over five years ago, I traded structure and rooted community for freedom. I traded having ‘all my things’ for a much more minimalist life.
I love the freedom, but I've lost many of the anchors that made me feel alive, creative and externally connected.
We have more ways than ever to deliver things digitally, but that doesn't automatically mean the experience feels more connected, meaningful or memorable.
My design business is fundamentally digital, so how do I design my business so it feels like an immersive creative practice?
This isn't about pivoting or changing the services I offer. It's about changing the experience of delivering those services.
Before lockdown and before I took to the road, I used to host various retreats and group workshops in wellness spaces. But now that my location is constantly changing, organising these and committing to locations months in advance feels suffocating.
There must be an in-between?
“1-1 Brand Immersion Days” - available in locations I’m currently based
“Mini retreats” – bringing vanlife and time in nature into the mix.
“Pop-up Creative Intensives” – only announced a few weeks ahead
“Wellness Collabs” – with other businesses complimentary to the design space.
I'm interested in how I could bring more of that shared creative energy into my existing work and I'm still exploring what that might look like.
I also think this is less about adding more to my business and more about bringing more of what makes work feel alive into the services I've already built.
The question likely extends well beyond my own design business. I'd love to know where you could bring a little more thought, presence or participation into the experience of your own digital work. Is there somewhere it feels a bit flat at the moment? And what small change might make it more engaging for you and the people you work with?
P.s I shared this ‘look-back’ post on Instagram about this topic too… this was the teaser! Yes, there was a cake and a volcano :-)
A little more about my work
At Create Wellbeing, I work with businesses built around wellbeing, creativity, adventure and doing things a little differently, helping bring their ideas together and find their home online.
Explore my design and creative services.
Over on Substack, I share more personal essays and reflections on creativity, identity, life and doing things a little differently. The two naturally overlap, because how I see the world shapes how I work, but each offers a different way in to how we can work together. Join me over there if you'd like to explore more of the thoughts and stories behind the work.
