10 lessons from 10 years of business

Today I’m celebrating a special milestone: ten years of running my own business.

Back in 2014, I announced the launch of Storytelling with Heart by putting a picture up on Facebook with the David Bowie quote: “I don’t know where I’m going from here but I know it won’t be boring.”

That promise has proven true. These years have not been spent following a plan, or a method, or someone else’s system. It’s been more of an unfolding, a series of steps and discoveries, a process of helping myself to grow personally as well as professionally.

There was so much I didn’t know at first. I did know that I wanted to help people tell their stories, which is a very broad idea. I knew I wanted to do it my own way. And I knew, somehow, I could figure it out.

In today’s newsletter I thought I’d share a few reflections, and some take-away lessons from my experiences thus far.

First, some reflections and highlights: 

I’m proud of the impact I’ve helped people make. Over the years I’ve helped entrepreneurs with small, fledgling businesses grow into internationally recognized leaders and brands, productize their ideas and knowledge and reach their pie-in-the-sky profit goals, and in some cases sell their companies. That’s pretty cool.

I’ve been fortunate to work on some really rewarding projects. Working largely within health, fitness, and sport, I’ve helped build, craft, and refine certification and educational products; I’ve co-written & ghostwritten books; I’ve created thought leadership content that cements reputations and sells products; I’ve co-written meaningful speeches and communications of all kinds; I’ve helped people figure out how to talk about what they do. Most importantly for me, I’ve helped people do work they’re proud of.

While I myself am always learning, and have so much more to learn, I’ve made an effort to teach others and bring people together around a shared interest in storytelling. I’ve delivered workshops and speeches, led my own summit, mentored younger people, and I’ve tried to encourage others who are looking to forge their own path.

In the meantime, I’ve told my own stories too. I’ve written and self-published two of my own books, made products such as card decks and zines, sold my stuff at book fairs and online, started a podcast, and maintained my biweekly newsletter for over eight years.

If you’re reading this, you have played an important role in the above, whether it’s by hiring me, buying my books or products, listening to my podcast, attending one of my workshops, or simply reading this newsletter. It honestly means so much to me. 

Running my own business has been challenging at times, though not necessarily in the ways you’d expect. Among them: when you’re solo, you really have to back yourself. You have to champion yourself, stretch yourself, put your hand up again and again. It takes courage, energy, discipline, and self-trust, but that’s also why it’s so fulfilling. It’s also why your support (even just reading or responding to this newsletter) matters to me. It helps me keep going!

There can be a lot of pressure to achieve certain markers of status in our society, whether through making a certain amount of money, looking a certain way, or even just being busy or seeming popular. I’ve tried to be cognizant about how I measure success. For me, one of those measurements is whether I’m, on the whole, enjoying my life and work. I’ve tried to run my business with balance and joy in my life. I’ve traveled and had adventures, and prioritized the things — and the people — that really matter to me. As I’ve said before, I started this business on the back of burnout, depression, anxiety, and PTSD — so caring for myself and creating a life that I actually enjoy has always been more important to me than hitting external markers of “success”, hence my reflections about tiny contributions in my previous newsletter.

Now, ten years in, I am still evolving and so is my business. I’m grateful to everyone who has helped me get me here. Once again I can confidently say that whatever happens and wherever I go next, boring it will not be.

As for some of the lessons learned, I’m sure there are plenty more I could come up with, but here are 10 things that come to mind.

Ten Lessons From Ten Years of Storytelling with Heart 

1. Do it your way. You don’t need to follow anyone else’s rule book. The “rules” are made up anyway. It’s your business, your life, your story… .go ahead and make it yours.

2. Just start. Don’t have it all figured out? Great. Nobody does. Just start moving forward and you’ll figure it out as you go. 

3. Let it (and you) evolve. When I first started, my writing was more self-helpy, more personal storytellingy because that’s where I was at in my life. Gradually I moved more towards thought leadership as my interests and expertise refined. My niche (health, fitness, sport) happened naturally due to my personal interests and relationships. I didn’t deliberately pick it; it evolved. And it’s all still evolving! As long as we are alive we are going to develop, grow, and change — so ideally, our careers, businesses, lives, and stories will evolve too. (More on that in a second.)

4. Build the business around yourself and what you want in your life, not the other way around.  From the very beginning I knew that I wanted to prioritize stuff that I cared about, like health, fitness, relationships, adventure, down time, self care, flexibility, and so on. My business has never been my entire life — it’s been one facet of my life. That approach has worked well for me.

5. Be flexible. Lots of people will tell you to come up with rules for how you work, what you do, who you work with, and so on. And for sure, some guidelines around this is important! But I’ve found that flexibility can be really healthy, and allow me to adapt to changing circumstances. Things are always changing, so it can be more useful to get really good at adapting rather than trying to set up strict rules for everything.

6. Keep costs low — and invest only where it’s really important. This might not be the best advice for everyone, but for my purposes, it’s helped to keep my business costs low. This gives me more wiggle room to take on people and projects I actually want, and enjoy the profits, rather than trying to achieve slim profit margins. One exception to this: I have invested big in personal development. Think: therapy, fitness coaching, life coaching, and so on. The personal and professional are interconnected, so I firmly believe that growing as a person has helped me as a business person too.

7. Ignore vanity metrics, and focus on what matters. A question I’ve asked myself many times is: what will you be really proud of? I don’t always nail it, but I try to let my answers to this question guide me rather than falling into a trap of doing what everyone else is doing. For example: social media has never been my forte. At times, I’ve fully stepped away from it. But that’s fine. I’m more focused on doing the stuff that I actually care about than trying to tick all the boxes.

8. Trust yourself, even when you don’t. Looking back, I’m soooo grateful for all the times I chose to trust myself and get out of my comfort zone. If I was to speak to a younger person (or my younger self) I’d say: Do the things that scare you, and go for what you know deep down you’re capable of. And then, come through! Show yourself and others that you can do the thing, and the opportunities will grow.

9. Do the work and come through over and over. Building on that last point, keep showing up. Fulfill your commitments; do the thing you say you will do. And do it again and again, even when others don’t. Sometimes it’s boring! Often it’s hard. But it will pay dividends. This approach has served me really well, and it’s another piece of advice I’d give someone who is earlier in their career or business. Self-discipline is rewarding in more ways than one.

10. Be yourself. I’ve done this long enough to know: authenticity really is gold. This is true when it comes to storytelling, business, and life. Of course, “authenticity” is sort of a moving target as we as humans are always evolving. But it’s a million times better to feel like you can show up as yourself, and doing so is THE ultimate gateway to connecting with people. I’ve been learning this lesson in my life (yet again!) as I recently came out as non-binary. Not gonna lie, it’s been scary as hell. But it’s also been incredibly rewarding and it’s deepening relationships with many of the people in life. I remain committed to helping people express themselves authentically and effectively, and that includes...myself.

Please know that if you’re working on any of this stuff, if you find any of it challenging, or you want to do any of it more or better… I am right there in the arena with you! And that is a beautiful thing in itself. 

Thank you once again for reading, for sharing your own stories, for showing up, and for putting your heart into what you do. I will keep on championing you and your story.