It’s hard to believe that I started my design business in 2016 — over 8 years ago — and that I’ve been teaching online courses for 7 of those years.

I’ve always been the kind of person that enjoys tinkering, experimenting, and figuring things out for myself. When I find something that saves me time and makes life easier, I’m always excited to share in the hopes that I can help light the way for others and save them the headache and hardship of needing to start from scratch or do it alone.

This is one of the core values my business is built on — sharing the knowledge, the wealth, the light, and the love — and so this naturally evolved into me sharing my experience, process, and sacred systems through my own online classes.

Teaching over the last several years has been an amazing journey to share with my students and creative community. So when I made the choice to move all my classes from Teachable to Squarespace — true to form — I knew I had to pull back the curtain on just why I decided to make the switch.

I’ve never been a “fast” designer. I like to take my time and think things out, and I don’t like rushing the process. Now the little voice in my head (hello, imposter syndrome) might tempt me to see this as a bad thing — that I’m wasting time and not being efficient enough.

To be perfectly honest, I used to be self conscious about needing more time. After all, if I design faster I can take on more clients and isn’t that how I make more money and become more successful? Not necessarily.

Like just about everyone else in the world, recently I've been tuning into Tidying Up with Marie Kondo on Netflix. And besides cringing at how much junk people collect, picking up some new folding tips and wondering how I can incorporate more long skirts into my wardrobe (jk, leggings forever), what really resonates with me is the value of less stuff and more intention.

These days you can integrate every appliance in your house, use your home security system to spy on the delivery man, and tell Alexa to turn down your thermostat from across the room. And yet we have less time than ever. In a world that champions more, bigger, faster, busier, blah.. it's refreshing to see people go the other way. It's the same reason I can't get enough of all those tiny house shows on HGTV.

Less but better. Simple but intentional.

Remember those glorious days of youth when your calendar was a simple thing? The only schedule you had to worry about was your own. Either you were free, or you weren’t.

In the last few years, so many wonderful things have unfolded in my life. My husband and I got married and bought our first home. In 2016 I started my business and we brought home our beloved pup, Hero. This year, we’re expecting our first little one.

So many blessings and things to be thankful for. But also, a lot more to contend with on the calendar.

I started my business because I wanted to control my own destiny. I was desperately craving more freedom and flexibility, and I dreamed of how working for myself could set me up for that special someday when we decided to expand our little family.

Owning my business is an amazing thing. I get to decide how and where and when I work. I get to be picky with my clients so we're the right fit for one another, and best of all I get to choose the direction my business takes. This also means forging new business ventures when it feels right.

ONLY SO MANY HOURS

Shortly after starting my business, I realized there was one resource I had taken for granted—my time. When you run a business by yourself, everything rests on your shoulders. My focus has always been on building a balanced business for myself with a “work to live” focus and not the other way around. However, there are only so many hours in a day.

Let's be honest. For designers, it's always been really hard to figure out what to charge for our work. When I first started out, I had no idea how to price my work and was basically willing to take whatever early clients were willing to pay me. Which wasn't much.

To make matters worse, pricing is a huge taboo in the creative industry. I'm not sure why, but somewhere along the way we got caught in this scarcity mindset that if our peers knows what we charge then it will mean our demise. And god forbid we ask each other. That's just unheard of.

Just as it's an unspoken industry standard that designers present multiple options, it's also pretty much a given that no one shares their pricing. Ever. Which also means we're all constantly creeping, trying to figure out what our work is actually worth.

With spec work and promises of “exposure” running rampant, it’s no wonder freelancers and creative entrepreneurs are wary of trading their services—and with good reason.

In my early days of working with clients, every single business was a potential client I was dying to land. Every inquiry sent me daydreaming of the best possible circumstances, blinding me to all the red flags ahead. I wanted to help everyone, and that was the problem.

Getting clients is easily one of the most stressful parts of running a business. So much so that most business owners are constantly terrified.

Terrified that the next client won't show up. Terrified of asking too much when they do. Terrified of scaring new business away.

I know. I've been there.

When I first started freelancing, I was afraid to ask too many questions up front in case that shiny new client decided that it was too much work to work with me.