Why Your Creative Business Plans Slip Through Your Fingers
🌺 3 reasons it happens & what you can do differently...
Why Your Creative Business Plans Slip Through Your Fingers
My next Creative Project : an 18th-century styled jacket
* NEW * The Creatrix Coterie : a simple community
This is the second of several Creatrix Sourcebooks which I’m writing this year. Each gives you a snapshot of a specific subject along with practical ways to braid it into your life & business. You can read the Sourcebooks here or scroll down to get your own printable version in the NEW Creatrix Experience Library.
* Why Your Creative Business Plans Slip Through Your Fingers
You’ve got a VISIONARY idea that simply won’t leave you alone.
It’s been hanging around longer than the nubbly sweater you made back in university which lives in the back of your closet! No matter how much you try to ignore it, your idea is still there when you wake up each morning. You probably even dreamt about the night before (like I do).
Again & again, you sit down to work on it.
Maybe you make a vision board or do an hour of “free writing” or talk it out with friends or lose a few (many) hours to YouTube. One day, you say, “That’s it, time to get down to brass tacks!” & you write out an immense, meticulous TO-DO list in yet another attempt to finally get your foot off the brake & inch towards making your visionary project real.
And then.
You suddenly find things falling in your path (health, relationship, financial stuff) that you feel you absolutely must figure out first before you can indulge yourself in “playing around” with your visionary idea.
So many of my clients & friends have experienced this that it got me wondering what EXACTLY happens in our brains & bodies that slows our progress to a crawl even when we’re completely in love with our vision.
Here are 3 reasons along with some real-world examples to give you an idea of how they can show up in your daily life. This is a long post but keep going because I’ve included a few exercises to take you from pie-in-the-sky overwhelm planning to the puzzle-pieces-are-coming-together excitement.
PLUS, I’m sharing my ENORMOUS visionary plan which may take me 2 years or 20 years to realize.
Either way, it’s going to be fun!
** HINT ** It has something to do with a castle like the one up there…🏰
1 - The main reason that it feels so difficult to get going on your “BIG world-changing” project is just that, it’s BIG!
While it’s fun to imagine your dream project (including all the delicious details), when you start to break it into smaller parts so you can organize & prioritize a step-by-step plan, it feels like you’re chasing clouds. What felt so possible in your head suddenly seems beyond you.
Actually, it IS beyond you… well MOST of you.
When you envision a project which is well outside of your current reality, your brain rushes to find ways to compare what you’re planning with what you already have in your memory & skill banks. If you’re contemplating something truly NEW, there’s not a lot for your brain to latch onto in those “banks” so it announces that your project doesn’t make sense and goes off to pay attention to something else (or get something to eat…)
At the same time, the intensity of your brain’s frantic search for similarity has triggered a cascade of fear hormones which flood through your nervous system. These signal to your body that you’re in danger and must avoid whatever it is that is trying to hurt you.
In this case, it’s your very own new Visionary Project!
In the past, you rolled up your sleeves, got right to work and brought some amazing ideas to fruition. You know your current project has many moving parts, that other people will be involved, and it’ll take a significant investment of time, money & energy. OK! You’ve done it all before AND you’re ready to do it again.
You’ve accomplished “big” projects in the past, so what’s different today?
Simple.
This time it’s most important to YOU.
Obviously, you’ll share it with others, but first & foremost you’re finally ready to stand at the head of the crowd & make something that lights you up!
You’ve entered Pioneer Territory & it can be a lonely place.
Luckily, I’ve travelled here before. I can show you easier ways to get from here to there & offer some encouragement when you hit a snag or your energy flags.
Real Life Example :: Le Château des Créatrices
This is my current Visionary Project – I’m designing a place of mastery in an ancient French castle. (It may look a bit like the one á which I rented for an amazing, week-long Creatrix Gathering a few years ago…).
It’ll become a potent energy place where creative women who are mastering their craft & building their Masterpiece Business come join me to play, imagine, rest, explore, make, dream, connect & have a fabulous time.
There’ll be fully kitted-out studios for artists, designers & authors with paints, inks & dyes; papers, yarns & materials plus all the textile & visual art tools you could ever desire. I’m also going to build an extensive art/design library (real books hold such a different energy than digital versions), as well as glorious gardens to wander, filled with dye plants & fibre animals 🐑🐑, lovely places to eat & chat and ideally, there’ll even be a small lake (perhaps with a tiny island?) to invite inspiration & wildlife.
Yes, this is B-I-G !!
No, I don’t have the place or the money to do this on hand, yet…
But that’s never stopped me before!
(Did I ever tell you my incredible “renovating my Toronto house & moving my family to France in 6 months” story?)
My Chateau Project is well on its way.
You can download the PDF version of my complete “Visionary Project Portal Plan” in The Creatrix Experience Library, as well as get a blank to try this out for yourself. This simple tool has taken me from “wouldn’t it be nice?” to “things are easily coming together”!
2 - The second reason that your Passion Project keeps evading you is it’s impossible to reverse engineer it (the way you usually do).
You’ve evolved.
Your old 20th century techniques don’t work anymore.
Look back & think about your previous businesses, projects & positions.
Were you creating inside someone else’s “box”? Did someone else lay out the parameters of the projects & your work was to simply fulfill their requirements? Were the timing/scope/focus and tone set for you? Did you have a physical shop or service business which functioned like all of the others in your industry?
It doesn’t matter how “important” your position was or how grand your title, you were playing by someone else’s rules.
Even the highest paid CEO is working within a framework.
They may have final say on many things but ultimately, there are pre-set business goals to achieve & other people to answer to. They simply follow a well-worn path built by working backwards from the goal. Once everything has been laid out for them, they just move forward step-by-step. They know what they have to do & they get it done, on schedule.
If you have a single brain cell which remembers working like that, I bet you just entertained a fleeting fantasy of that “other” life.
Ah, the security, the certainty,…
and, the limitations, pressure & worry.
You can’t reverse engineer your Passion Project because there isn’t a single final outcome, it will grow & change over time as you both continue to evolve. Trying to organize everything on a pretty flowchart is a brain drain.
Instead, sketch out what feels most important now, and GET GOING. (more about how to do this without getting lost in the weeds, again, later…)
Real Life Example :: Opening My Shop, Alabaster
Back in 1993, I decided to open a lifestyle shop in my small Victorian-era town. All the retail background I had came from the various jobs I’d held in high school & university. I hadn’t studied any sales psychology or merchandising strategies. I didn’t even know where to buy wholesale products or how to negotiate good deals!
I simply found a storefront with a “FOR RENT” sign, talked to the owner & a few days later, had rented my first shop. My family & I cleaned, painted, dug up a few pieces of furniture & bought some antique display pieces. I ordered a couple dozen things to sell and opened the doors within two weeks of signing the lease!
Many people were shocked at how quickly I got it all done. In just a few days, I jumped with both feet into an entire business which I went on to run for the next 12 years.
You know how I did it?
I focused on only ONE thing ➡ get the doors open.
I knew the shop would evolve over time, that I’d get better at buying, selling & being a boss. I had clear ideas of what I wanted to sell and was willing to wait until I sourced them. In the early days, I had so few things for sale, people were asking me if it was an art gallery! (It wasn’t…)
There’s no way that I could have reverse engineered my success backwards from where I was on the day when I closed the doors for the last time because I was finally pregnant with my first child. If I had tried to foresee the twists & turns in my life & the business, I would never have gotten the ball rolling!
I had something going for me, that many of us don’t, now that we’re older.
I had no previous experience to compare my project to, no warning bells went off in my body about slow winter sales or challenging employees, no cautionary memories rose up--simply because I’d never done anything like that before. It was all NEW & my brain knew that, so it didn’t bother trying to stop me, in fact, it was racing ahead, impatient to see how this adventure would turn out.
All this is to say, find a place to start & try to approach your Passion Project with a beginner’s mind.
Let it unfold as it will & watch in amazement. It’s so much easier when we loosen our grip on the wheel (just a little bit…) & trust our higher self (Creatrix) and the energy of the vision to guide us.
3 - The third reason that your “Epic World-Changing Special” Project keeps slipping through your fingers is that you’re pinning WAY too much on it.
It’s easy to think that your Special Project will cover all your bases.
Not only do you expect it to constantly inspire & delight you,
you imagine that
it’ll also be your main topic of study & exploration,
as well as provide your unique path to mastery,
and it’ll expand your “Sphere of Influence”,
and it’ll be your money maker!!
That’s a lot to lay at the doorstep of a single idea!
This is the way our wild, untrained creative brains work. It’s all or nothing. If you can’t get all of this (& more!) from your Special Project, your brain says, “Nope, not today-- maybe later”.
Real Life Example :: The Still-Not-Written Book
I recently met a woman who is trying to write a book, actually she’s been trying for YEARS! She can “never find the time” & when she does sit down for a few minutes, she gets flustered and sets it aside for a day when she can “really concentrate on it”.
While we were speaking, I could sense that although this book WAS a Big Vision Project for her, it isn’t any longer. Her awareness has expanded & her new big vision project is to speak on stages, sharing her unique take on how her industry can become more vibrant and nourishing.
Yes, she will still write the book, but now, it’ll serve a different purpose.
Instead of pinning all her hopes on it, imagining it will skyrocket her to fame & fortune, she can take the pressure off, writing it bit by bit. One day, it’ll be finished but, in the meantime, she can use her writing as the main content for her new membership community. Along the way, she’ll receive helpful feedback which will enrich the book & the lives of her clients.
Using this model, she’ll earn money & reviews from her membership as she writes. This will give her the space she needs to craft her talks, the influence & visibility to book speaking engagements & the money to travel whenever she wishes for inspiration &/or relaxation.
Whoa, I’ve just given you a LOT to consider!
If you’re like me, you’re interested in having a business which contributes to your life without overshadowing your passion work—your Craft. You dream of a simple business which adds more than it takes in terms of energy, enjoyment & money.
One which you’d love to wake up to each morning.
One which weaves beautifully through your world.
Here are 3 things you can do to put what I’ve shared to practical use…today.
1 – On a fresh page in your journal/notebook, write out your Visionary Creative Business Idea.
It doesn’t have to make sense at all – it only has to feel fantastic!
Do this in point form. You’re not writing an epic novel OR a stuffy old business plan, so don’t overthink this. Think in terms of “both/and” instead of “either/or”. Remember, there is NO limit to what you can make real!
You know what you want—it’s what you daydream about in the shower…
2 – Re-read the 3 reasons your Visionary Creative Business Idea keeps slipping through your fingers.
Which one(s) feel familiar?
Write briefly about the experiences you’ve had that hold the same energy.
Bringing these into your conscious awareness will minimize the chance of them getting in your way again. If you find yourself straying into old territories again, your brain will say “wait a minute… I know what’s going on here!” & you’ll be able to choose a different, smoother way to move forward.
3 – Continue on to try my simple 5-step tool, the “Visionary Project Portal Plan”, see details of my own Portal Plan for my new chateau project & write up your own Plan.(This is available as a PDF in The Creatrix Experience Library.)
Doing these 3 things will begin drawing your “BIG” idea into reality.
Your dream project is all about energy (even though it may not seem so simple). The clearer you are about how it feels now, the easier it will be to maintain that sensation as you move through the 3-D steps as you weave it into being.
If you’d like to explore this process in more depth, book a LIGHT Session & we can innovate together!
This is the perfect way to take your first steps towards designing your Masterpiece Business, one which allows you to focus on your Visionary Project AND build a community of people ready to start supporting your work NOW as you’re creating it & stay with you long after it’s done.
Let’s go shopping in your “field of potential” & discover what you’ve really got in store for yourself!
* My Next Creative Project
When I celebrated my 8th anniversary of my shop, Alabaster, I realized that I’d been funnelling nearly all of my energy into it. Buying products, merchandizing, managing my staff, serving customers, doing my books—it was a never-ending cycle. One which I truly enjoyed (about 93% of the time 😉) but there were moments when I wanted to do something without trying to shape it to please everyone who came through the front door.
That’s when I returned to two of my long-time loves, historic costuming & demi-couture dressmaking. First, I whipped up some formal dresses for high-school girls, then I designed a handful of wedding gowns and finally, crafted some reproduction “robes en fourreau” for a performance of 18th-century court dancers.
I loved the research, the designing, the hunt for the perfect fabric & trims, the pinning & cutting & sewing & pressing & fitting & finishing. Even though I did most of this late at night, long after I’d closed the shop doors & put the kids to bed, I kept taking commissions & even made a few gorgeous pieces for myself. This work fed my creativity in a different way & it felt amazing…
Fast forward 24 years & I’m feeling the desire to hold scissors & a measuring tape again! To dream & sketch, to discover the “perfect” fabric and to make my ideas REAL.
My current business activities include mentoring clients on Zoom, tons of writing for this blog, my shop, marketing & program materials; designing IG posts & these Sourcebooks, heaps of reading & research about creative consciousness and, of course, hours of deep visioning work. These days, my creative materials are mainly words & images.
Although I kept telling myself that I would sketch or sew or knit over the last year or so, it rarely happened because my logical brain insisted that I wasn’t done “working”. Unlike when I had my shop, this business is never closed, there’s always a new thought or an interesting fact to gather up.
Yes, I know all about work/life balance. What I’m talking about here is consciously re-establishing my balance between intangible & tangible work.
No, I’m not about to start sewing for clients, BUT I will be working on a few personal items for my upcoming “Masterpiece Business” photoshoot. I’ve already decided on an 18th-century inspired jacket that I can wear in the spring & summer and shared my first inspiration pictures on IG.
You can check out that post (& FOLLOW me there if you want to watch my progress - which may be slow since I think I have to get my sewing machine serviced but I don’t where to take it!)
* NEW * The Creatrix Coterie
Recently, I added something new to “The Creatrix Experience” experience, The Creatrix Coterie. Think of this as an open community where you can dip in & out whenever you wish.
I started by introducing my Exploration Oracle Set which I created and have been using for a couple of years. There are 122 questions, so there’s plenty of variety. If you’re interested in trying a new way to access deeper intuitive thoughts & opening up a flow of easy (& useful) writing, check it out HERE.
I’ll also be offering a monthly 90-minute Creatrix Coterie Call!
The first will be on April 23 - 5 pm Paris time. (Save the date now…)
We’ll spend half the time exploring/refining your expanded senses ( your Clairs) with some fun, creative exercises (key tools for a well-run Inspired Business)
then we’ll focus our attention on your business questions.
Bring them all – how to get started, time & focus, visioning, program design, marketing, sales, pricing, working with clients…
& I’ll share everything I’ve learned over the last 36 years of my entrepreneurial life.
The calls will be FREE with limited space so everyone has a chance to chat.
If you want to be sure to know about it first, send me a DM or email & I’ll put you on the advanced notice list.
AND, lastly, a reminder about The Creatrix Experience Sourcebook Library
If you’ve been reading my emails/posts for a while, you know that I tend to write “long”. Often, I’ve spent weeks (months…) diving deep into a topic & then I end up with a lot to share with you. I want to give you a rich reading experience, so I choose not to trim out all the details & background information just to make it a “quick read”.
But I’m also keenly aware that not everyone wants to read online or on their phone. From now on, I’ll be including a PDF version of each post which you can download with one click & read where you wish. (I’m loving reading PDFs on my Remarkable lately!)
You can find these in my NEW The Creatrix Experience Sourcebook Library.
If you enjoyed today’s Sourcebook, you can download your own copy from the library or share it with a friend.
Stay tuned for a look at my new Masterpiece Business framework & how you can use this simple model to focus on increasing your CREATIVE flow &/or your CASH flow.
Things are blooming, are you?
As usual, Elizabeth, exactly on target. I haven't gone beyond my passion project book, but I am seeing some other possibilities that are coming through more strongly. Love your Light Sessions; this article has reminded me to visit you again.
Absolutely looking for a clarifying Light Session soon; I'm in the process of narrowing my focus on business/marketing networks I'm participating in to get the best value for my investment of both time and money.
Ah, the passion project: I'll be turning my Substack articles on how the universe works from my perspective into more than one book. I am here to give the scientists some ideas to use their method to explore with, and bring the human family to a more hopeful and peaceful place about how energy moves and transforms, including our own.