#goingsolo: hard parts + highlights
#goingsolo has been going strong for almost 12 months now.
The truth: it’s been the most difficult + most fun 12 months of my 32 years of life.
The hard parts:
The Snooze.
I’ve spent a few days of #goingsolo life in sweatpants. I’ve pushed the snooze for a full 1.5 hours some mornings. I’ve admittedly felt only 10% motivated on occasion. Some days of this solopreneur life I feel downright lazy. Combating the snooze isn’t always easy, but I remind myself, daily, that good things come to those who hustle (and bust their booty outta bed and into a pencil skirt.)
The Fear.
Confidence is contagious, but sometimes as a solopreneur, things get a little dicey. The doubt monster is a legit threat to success and particularly on a snooze day: sometimes that fear can creep in and cloud your success metrics. I’ve worked on building my own flock of strong, thoughtful, pick-me-up kinda gals that help me push through the fear days and get back on track. Confidence is contagious, yes, and sales is really just an exchange of that confidence. There’s no time for the fear, you guys.
The highlights:
The Clients.
Most days I share my morning coffee with Matt & Savannah, but sometimes that’s the only meeting I have all day. My favorite part about self-employment is handing over illustrated work that delights my clients. It’s not without it’s challenges of course, but client feedback, the “I love the lines, but can that be green” & “this is exactly what I pictured, now can we add text?”, it’s my favorite. My job feels like one giant collaboration, daily.
The Mobility.
Since marrying my sweetheart in March, we’ve been able to see 22 states in our sweet country. That’s 22 new places, 22 spotty wifi stops, 22 trips together, experiencing new foods and fishing streams thanks to self-employed mobility. Being able to pick up my laptop, my markers, 2 moleskines and a few stamps and know that my office is coming with me to Moab, it’s amazing. There’s nothing more fun than the freedom to spontaneously relocating for a week.
The Creativity.
Everyday I am drawing. Now I likely was doing this before, but I can’t recall a time in my professional career where I was drawing this much (it's a lot). I used to look at drawing as my “outlet” but with self-employment, my hobby turned into my money maker. I thought that might drain my sharpie, but instead, I’ve been more prolific than ever. All the moleskines: full.
The Freedom.
Remember when you were 14 and all you wanted to do was enjoy life’s simple pleasures: binge watch the 90210 marathon, eat ice cream in bed, play your music too loud and have other people say your drawings are “so cool.” Many days of #goingsolo include all of the above.
One asset to my flock: The gals at One Woman Shop.
Cristina + Sara are solopreneurs helping other solopreneurs, offering a community of ladies resources, like the Solopreneur Success Bundle to help fight the doubt monsters and embrace the freedom of a #goingsolo life.
This post is part of the blog tour for One Woman Shop’s Solopreneur Success Bundle, a roundup of e-courses, e-books, and subscriptions designed to help you succeed in all aspects of your solopreneur biz. Your chance to grab over $1,500 in products at just $99 is only here from September 14-18th -- learn more and get yours now!
PS: Purchasing the Solopreneur Success Bundle through the link here will result in XO-LP receiving compensation. Please know that I only share products, links and bits from the interwebs that I wholeheartedly support and endorse.
I appreciate you trusting my word and letting me share it with you.