Giving Yourself Space to Explore with Monica Lee

Interviews, Show Notes

Giving Yourself Space to Explore with Monica Lee

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The Nitty Gritty:

  • Why a feeling of restlessness is the sign that it’s time to explore the possibilities for your business.
  • How to scale back or alter technologies and strategies to fit into your own goals and business. Just because everyone else is doing them, doesn’t make them right for you.  
  • Why you should embrace continuous exploration to be sure you and your business are headed in the direction you want to.
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As artist, illustrator, mentor and podcaster Monica Lee shared on this week’s Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast episode, even entrepreneurs can “quit their jobs.” Really! Well, at least push the pause button to give yourself time and space to explore new directions and possibilities for how to make money in a way that is meaningful to you.

I sort of ‘quit my job.’ I kind of just had to stop and regroup and really ask myself: What do I want to be doing? What does my life look like earning money?

– Monica Lee

When you get restless, it’s time to explore

You really have to believe in your hustle. And be authentic about it.

– Monica Lee

When Monica found herself extremely restless about what she was doing and hustling for, she knew it was time to rethink her art and her creative career. Although it was a really, really hard decision, there was really no other option, Monica explains. So, she put a full stop on things that were generating income for her allow her the “elbow room” to make decisions on what she really wanted to be doing.

Evolving into your own

When Monica found herself in a creative transition, she challenged herself in a new way and jumped in full force to learn online marketing. She immersed herself in the goal to expand her business expertise. Monica learned how people developed their e-newsletter list. She started a video interview series that ultimately evolved into her podcast Smart Creative Women. She began mentoring other artists; with experience in licensing, illustrating, freelancing and in the children’s industry, she had a lot to offer. And, like every good online marketing person, she developed an e-course.

As the pendulum swung to the business side, Monica had to ask some hard questions. Was she a teacher? Was she an artist? How is her creativity going to show up or if she’s all in as a business person, should she just go be an art director for another company?

When I started asking myself those harder questions, that’s when I had to put a full stop. It was hard to execute things as I was peeling back the onion layers on myself and where I want to go.

– Monica Lee

Continuous exploration

What if this growth isn’t good? It’s that risk of not having everything turn out ok, but it’s doing it anyway.

– Monica Lee

Although there are people who can determine the balance between their entrepreneurial side and their creative or core offering by doing them both simultaneously, Monica found that if she was going to give herself the time and emotional space to truly figure out her direction, she had to set the business things aside. To get back in touch with her creative self, she traveled a lot and rediscovered what inspired her. Once her creativity was nurtured and she got back to creating work that was exciting to her, she added back the business side, but with more intention. Monica set her financial goals, and then worked backward from that to determine how she was going to make the money she wanted to.

As you will learn in the full episode of the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast, Monica continues to challenge herself in new ways and asks hard questions of herself to ensure that she’s on the right path—for her business and for herself.

We go live every Tuesday with tangible takeaways for your small business from some of today’s most inspiring business owners. Be sure to tune in every week and subscribe on iTunes to Profit. Power. Pursuit.

The Evolution of a Person & a Business with Beryl Ayn Young

Interviews, Show Notes

The Evolution of a Person & a Business with Beryl Ayn Young

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The Nitty Gritty:

  • How personal exploration contributes to the evolution of your business.
  • How to use your personal values to guide the decisions you make in your business.
  • Why Beryl decided to create a membership community called The Village and isn’t afraid to “do it wrong.”
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My guest for this episode of the Profit. Power. Pursuit. podcast is Beryl Ayn Young, the founder of Recapture Self, a community for moms who want to expand beyond their roles as mommies and explore their inner creative geniuses. Her story reminds us to be open to possibilities and what happens when you follow your “yes”—even when that means you might be called a rebel.   

No one should ever be expected to be 100% on, 100% of the time.

– Beryl Ayn Young

Your Business Can {and Will} Evolve

Entry into entrepreneurship wasn’t Beryl’s intent when she picked up her camera as a creative outlet from her full-time gig as an elementary school teacher. Or when she and her husband lost their first child when Beryl was 20 weeks pregnant. To work through the healing of that loss, she leaned in and created a blog where her writing and photography helped her express her grief.

She ultimately started a photography business that allowed her to leave her full-time teaching position, against the advice of friends and family who valued the stability and consistent income of teaching. Beryl admits, it’s a scary process transitioning to working for yourself full time.

I knew that I would beat myself up if I didn’t try to go to the entrepreneurial route.

– Beryl Ayn Young

Beryl quickly realized she was not meant to be a photographer—she experienced stress and anxiety about how the photos would turn out—so she decided to offer a photography class to combine her loves of teaching and photography. That class went well, she became a photography instructor.

When I taught my first class, even though there was fear there, it felt like a more natural fit.

– Beryl Ayn Young

As you will hear in the podcast, as Meryl’s energy flowed to different areas, her business evolved. In addition to her online classes, her business offers extensions of creative exploration.  Today, she inspires moms to live a more intentional, present, and connected life by giving themselves permission to lean into their creativity through a community she calls The Village.

Figure Out Your Values and Follow Your “Yes”

Get honest with what your values are.

– Beryl Ayn Young

You must get in touch with your intuition, listen, and be honest about your values. When Beryl considers a modification to her business, it has to be in alignment with her values—flexibility in her life and day, connecting with other people, and her creativity. Even though inherently Beryl knew that these were her values, it took her awhile to get really clear about them and then trust and use them to drive decisions about her life and her business.

And when does she know when it’s time for a change?

The process starts with getting curious and trying different things. There were plenty of things I tried and knew, well, that’s a no.

– Beryl Ayn Young

When it feels like a “yes,” you know it is something you should be doing.

Building a Movement

One of the best pieces of advice I ever got when I was growing my business was to ‘do it wrong.’

– Beryl Ayn Young

One of Beryl’s core values is connection, but it’s small, intimate connections where vulnerability and deep conversations can happen. As she began to think about building a membership community, as with everything, she wanted to do it her way. She asked herself, “How could I do this part of my business and do it wrong, in a way that only I can do it?” Her membership community, The Village, is going to speak to that process. Beryl wants to show other members of The Village how they can do their life wrong as well.  

To learn more about Beryl’s movement of moms who make space and time for themselves through creativity, how she does “it wrong,” and The Village community she is building to extend beyond her personal brand, listen to the full episode at Profit. Power. Pursuit.

The Recapture Connection Project

You can join Beryl starting March 16th for the Recapture Connection Project as you follow sparks of creativity and see
where they lead. Because creativity is the guiding force that connects us to our truest, most authentic, meaningful ways of living.

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Every week we bring you tangible takeaways from some of today’s most inspiring business owners. Be sure to tune in every week and subscribe on iTunes to Profit. Power. Pursuit.