Teachers Make the Leap

How to Have More Fun in Your Business-Building Journey

• Kristin Macintyre

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Building a business doesn't have to feel like a constant grind. In this episode,  Kristin and Hillary explore practical ways to infuse more joy and fun into your entrepreneurship journey, even during the challenging parts.

Key Topics:

  • The importance of "holding things loosely" and letting go of rigid expectations
  • Practical strategies for tackling resistance-inducing tasks
  • How changing your environment can transform your work experience
  • Making tedious tasks collaborative and enjoyable
  • Bringing creativity and play into your business practices
  • The value of authenticity over maintaining a "professional persona"

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Welcome to Teachers Make the Leap, a show that empowers educators to build online businesses they love and revolutionize the way work shows up in their lives. I'm your host, Kristen. And I'm your host, Hillary. We're two former teachers who have successfully made the leap from classroom to entrepreneurship. If you dream of finally leaving teaching to be able to make your own schedule and increase your earning potential, join us each week as we explore real ways to get there through online business.

Hillary:

Welcome to this episode of Teachers Make the Leap. Today, Kristen and I want to talk about how to bring more fun and joy into the business building journey, because there are a lot of things that are really, really, really fun about building a business. And sometimes, you know, we, we talk about Emotional rollercoaster of building a business. And we talk about obstacles and some of the stress that might come with building a business, but there's also so much joy to be had in building a business from the ground up and being really creative. And so we want to talk about some really tangible ways today about how to bring as much joy and fun into the business building process as you want there to be, because it's, it's really up to you how much fun you have building your business.

Kristin:

And business owners, we, we tend to wear a lot of hats, We tend to be the only person, especially in the beginning who does the admin work and serves our clients and, you know, markets the business or gets clients. And, and we just tend to take on a lot. And I think it's so normal and natural for lots of business owners to be lit up by one or two or three of those activities. And then. We always have some something in the business that we're not super excited about, you know, for me, that might be a client acquisition or like getting to my inbox or things like that, but they still have to get done. So. 1 thing I find really valuable in the business building journey is that it can be fun. even if you're encountering something you don't want to do, you have some resistance towards, you can still bring in fun into the process so that you can enjoy. Building your business, even if you're wearing a lot of different hats, now, 1 of the 1st things I want to say here about bringing in fun into the business building journey is that it can really help if you hold things loosely. In your business building journey. what do I mean by that? I mean, when we're building businesses, it's so easy for us to have these very strict expectations on what the business will look like, what the building process will look like, and we can kind of set ourselves up to have, um, like, expectations, I think is the word I'm looking for, for how the journey should really play out. And for me, this happens all the time. All the time and I do it subconsciously. It's not even something I'm really aware of. I'm getting much better at kind of calling it out in myself, but I have this kind of inherent expectation for what my journey will look like and I can be disappointed or I can get, you know, upset when that journey doesn't play out the way I thought it would in my mind. But if you hold things loosely as you're building your business. You'll start to see that some of those expectations of how it quote unquote should look or should happen start to fall away and what you see there and what you kind of are left with is all of these things that you might not have thought about. expected in the first place, but are really lovely. So I heard this quote the other day that I really can't stop thinking about. I'm probably not going to repeat it verbatim. I don't remember really where, like what account I found it on. So I'd love to give credit where it's due, but I, I truly don't know who said this. Anyway, the quote is. Most people overestimate what they can do in 30 days and underestimate what they can do in five years. And that to me is so, uh, so true for my business building journey because I can hold so tightly and have such strict expectations for how the first 30 days or six months or Or year of my business will actually kind of pan out how that will look. But if I hold things more loosely, if I put in kind of the work without, while kind of letting go of the results, so to speak. In five years time, dare I say in 10 years time, my life can be totally different, So I just think holding things loosely in business is a really great approach. Not only does it help reset our approach and how we interact with our business, but it leaves the door open for unexpected, exciting things to happen.

Hillary:

Yeah. I love that quote. Kristen. I think it's so true. I mean, I'm looking back and my life is so drastically changed in four to five years since starting this business. So drastically changed. But those first 30 days, those first 60 days, those first 90 days of my business, they did not look like. I thought they might look like they didn't look like other people's business journeys first 90 days in. Right. So I think that's so important. And I'd actually like to lend kind of a tangible example just from this past year that I've really seen about, uh, about holding things loosely and recognizing that even if, you know, I haven't met the expectations that I intended to meet, or I haven't met the goals that I intended to meet. things that I've, I've done in my business have still resulted in really great things. And so. The thing that comes to mind for me is the podcast that I started for my copywriting business. It's called the finance marketing podcast. And on there, I interview financial advisors, financial coaches to talk about their marketing strategies that they use. And I also interview other marketing experts to, you know, help them. You know, kind of bring some ideas and inspiration to my listeners. And so I started this podcast with the intention of this is going to be, you know, the really great long form content that I create for my business. It's going to be my main source of marketing and it's, it's gonna, you know, Ramp up leads for my business. And I had this idea that I really want to grow the listenership for this podcast, right? I really want to have hundreds of listeners for this podcast, and I'm going to get leads from the listeners and it's going to be great. People are going to learn so much. And. I've been doing it since March. We're talking about this towards the end of the year. So, you know, it's almost a year that I've been doing this podcast and I don't have that many listens. You know, I, I average probably, you know, according to the data that I can look at, I average probably between 30 to 50 listens per episode, which is not nothing, but it's not the hundreds of listens that I would love to have on this podcast, but that's okay because there've been some really great things that have come out of this podcast that I wasn't expecting. Number one is that by having, you know, different financial advisors and financial coaches onto the podcast to talk about their own marketing, some of my guests have actually become clients, which is not something that I was expecting at all. But through these conversations that we're having, and that I'm publishing, they get to know me, I get to know them, they learn about what I do, and then they come to me to help with specific things they need in their, And with their copy and things like that. So that has been a really surprising outcome. The other really surprising outcome is a similar thing is happening with the marketing experts that I'm bringing on. I've joined Slack groups. I've made friends. I've had zoom coffee chats. I've actually even met two people who live within 15 to 30 minutes of me that I originally met on LinkedIn. Um, and so I've even made like some offline friends with some of the people that have come on my podcast and I've really just expanded my circle. And, Gained some referral sources both ways, you know, people that I can now refer to for things that I don't do like video marketing and vice versa. And it's just been this really, really, really great way to broaden my network. so to speak, and those are two things that, you know, they weren't on really on my goals list when I set out to do this podcast, but they have been so powerful for my business and my growth this year and things like that.

Kristin:

Yeah, and just to kind of tie it into our tip here, which is to hold things loosely, like, by your original kind of expectations in the beginning of having these hundreds of listeners, Per episode, you might have said that, oh, this is not a success, but because you were able to hold it loosely and keep at it, all of these kind of like, amazing tangential successes have become true for the podcast. I just love that hold it loosely do it anyway, see what happens. And you might be really surprised at the results of your efforts.

Hillary:

absolutely. the, the second thing that we want to talk about in terms of making the business building journey really, really fun, and you had mentioned this before, there, there are some things in business. There are some tasks that we put on our to do lists that we have some resistance towards, but they still have to get done for you. For me, for a lot of people, one of those tasks is client acquisition, which in the beginning can be a lot of cold emailing, which. Takes time it's somewhat repetitive. You know, it kind of sucks some energy out of a lot of people. and 1 thing that you and I have really learned from the business coach that we work with is how can I take these tasks that I'm having resistance towards and. But have to get done and how can I make those more fun? And that has just been a game changer for both. You and I over this past year is is really paying attention to the things that we don't want to do and then building in ways to make those more fun. And so I know a really. Easy one for me is to simply, and this is going to sound so simple, but it's to simply change up the space that I'm working in. You know, this summer, I actually ended up doing a lot of the tasks that I don't really enjoy from my porch swing when we were having nice weather and simply just like moving outside, pouring a glass of iced tea or something, moving outside and working for my laptop on my porch swing and enjoying the weather. Was a way to get through a lot of those tasks and just make them feel like less of grind. Um, and in the winter for me, that's a local coffee shop that has a fireplace that I can go and sit next to and sip on a latte that I wouldn't be able to make for myself at home. And and a lot of times, just a simple change of scenery is such a great way for me to. Actually make progress and still do those things that I'm having resistance towards, but not feel totally miserable while I'm doing it.

Kristin:

Yeah, this has been really kind of pivotal for me, this idea of reimagining how to accomplish the things that I don't want to do, or the things that I'm encountering resistance toward, because I can get very stuck in, uh, I have to write these emails, or, uh, I have to, you know, do this certain thing. And I'm picturing it in one way, right? And it's just hard to access because I don't want to do it in that way. I love the, the, what you threw out Hillary of changing up your environment. That for me is huge. I go through phases of really loving working at home or loving working at a local cafe or, you know, renting a coworking space that can feel really fun and different and kind of fancy. Another thing that I like to do is think about how I can make What I'm doing a collaborative process, rather than just something I have to do in isolation by myself. So, getting together with even like you, right? Or any other person in my community to either do a work session together, or if it's. Something that you can collaborate on all the better, Um, maybe I can talk my ideas while you type them. Um, maybe you can ask me questions so I can figure out how to start this email I don't want to write. How can I invite other voices in here so A, I don't feel so alone, B, it's a lot more fun, and C, I can make my way through the work in a way that isn't just me slogging through it by myself.

Hillary:

Yeah, and there's so many ways that this can look. I mean, you and I, of course, we do teachers make the leap together. That's a joint effort, but we also schedule work sessions together when we're working on copy projects and we just, you know, are feeling some resistance towards doing projects That have nothing to do with each other and we meet up and we work on them together. And for some reason, that just feels better. And that can happen in person that can happen with copywriting friends that you make online. You can do virtual work sessions like that. Sometimes, you know, I'll even have if my spouse is working on something, or if he is. not really doing anything and I ask him, will you just sit down and talk through this with me? And like, you know, we'll do that thing of like, I'm just going to tell you what I'm thinking and he'll write down what I'm thinking or vice versa. and that is a really simple way to just kind of like bring someone else into it. So it's not just me,

Kristin:

I love that. One more thing I'll say here before we move on to another tip for how to make business building fun is when you're thinking about reimagining how you do things. Yes, you can change your environment. Yes, you can invite other people into the room. It also can be as simple as, Trying a different format, sometimes that truly does look like, uh, you know, writing takes a certain amount of energy out of me. Maybe I can voice note what I'm doing and end up with some, some copy or text that I can work with. maybe instead of emailing my client, I want to send them a voice note on, you know, Voxer or something if we've set that up together. So. Just finding another way to get in can also kind of shake the tree, so to speak, so that it doesn't feel like a really tedious task.

Hillary:

Yeah, this is, this has been a game changer for me. Instead of sending written notes to someone on my team or sending written notes to a client, you know, something like that. Sometimes simply just recording a loom video and talking through it instead is So much easier for me. That's actually something that I've been doing this week, uh, with someone that I've hired to, to do some marketing work for me while I'm out on maternity leave and it's honestly just made it go by so much faster and I've had a lot less resistance to it. So yeah, love all these tips and all these ways that we've kind of started to work into our processes to make unfun tasks feel more fun.

Kristin:

Yeah. I have another 1. that's really important. And I think kind of like, I don't know, it was sort of a revolutionary thought for me when I started my business and that is to play. In business, be a little bit creative, like lean into following your nudges in your business. I think that for a lot of us, business building can tend to take on, like, we've been saying, you know, this, like, I have to do this task kind of thing. Right? Sure. Lots of it is super fun where, you know, there's so many benefits to owning your own business, but. When we shoehorn ourselves into like, Oh, I just have to get this thing done. And I don't want to, we can stop experimenting. We can stop having fun. We can stop playing. We can stop being creative. and I, I think for me, and this is such a work in progress, but I'm really practicing in my life and want to practice even more doing things just for the fun of it, you know, like, uh, this is actually a small little example, not in my business, but, um. This is like maybe a few months ago. Earlier this summer, my partner, Matt and I wanted to kind of do something fun for like kind of an evening date night. And we saw this trend on Instagram where it's the paint your partner trend. If you haven't heard of it, it's, it's hilarious. But basically, each person gets a canvas and some paints and you paint a portrait of your partner, but they can't see it until you're done. So this whole time over an hour or so, Matt and I are kind of painting each other. and. We can't see what the other person's looks like. So at the end, you present it to the, you know, your partner and painting is something that I have never done before as an a true blue kind of like type a ish perfectionist love to get things right type of person that I am. Doing something creative that I don't really have experience with can typically just be stressful for me because I'm like, when I'm creating stinks, it's not good. Nobody's going to like it. I'm going to put this in the trash and it can just really have a lot of resistance to being creative unless I know it's going to be quote unquote good. anyway, to make a long story short, Matt and I had this. It was such a fun experience painting each other's portraits. It was, they were hilarious. Mine, I will say, came out pretty good. Matt's, it was truly hideous. But, he, he loves it. I love it, too. It's just funny. It's funny.

Hillary:

Oh, you guys kept these.

Kristin:

Oh, yeah. We kept them. Yeah, it was, it was so good. It was such a fun night. I learned that night that I actually really. Enjoyed that process because I was able to let my guard down and just be creative and have fun. I've actually painted a few times since then myself, just to try my hand at it. And that's super cool. Like, I, I tried watercolor. I, you know, have some paintings behind me of a couple of plants I painted for my living room. And it was just such a fun lesson to, to remind myself that you can just do it and have fun, right? The journey is the point. And sometimes we lose that in business. So if you're looking to have more fun in your business, try something new. Like, be a trailblazer a little bit. We don't always have to be copying other people or doing what other people are doing. One of the cool thing about being in business is that there is no path. Do it how you want to do it. I also, one last thing I'll say here is I uh, heard on Instagram, some actor saying, If you really want to challenge yourself and get a little creative, create something bad on purpose.

Hillary:

Mmm,

Kristin:

And I love that as a business practice, like create a bad cold email on purpose, just do it. Get it out of your system. write a blog post for yourself. And instead of asking yourself, how do I make this perfect? Create a bad one. You'll end up with a, with a shitty first draft, which is exactly what you're supposed to have. And then you can iterate on that later and make it better. play, be creative, follow your nudges. Don't, uh, you know, don't let perfectionism and like trying to follow somebody else hold you back.

Hillary:

yeah, absolutely. I mean, this is something that I talk about all the time, is the shitty first draft, and I just, I can't, I get so excited about this concept. I think it's, you know, something that's not very exciting to maybe a lot of other people, but I get so excited about it because every time that I have allowed myself to write a shitty first draft, which honestly I've gotten really good at allowing myself to do that. Um, I have come up with ideas. I'm like, how did I come up with that, you know, like, and it's just because I truly stripped away the judgment of trying to make it perfect as I was working on it. And so my mind was just free to come up with other things. And I think that is just so, so powerful. So love this notion of just kind of like being creative, setting out to create something bad just to see what comes of it. I love that so much. our last, thing to make more fun in your business that we're going to talk about today is really similar to this. And I think it's just allowing yourself to be yourself in your business, not feeling like you have to put on a specific persona, not feeling like you have to show up to calls with clients or, People that you're networking with or making friends with in business casual with perfect hair, Just showing up as yourself as you would normally show up as you might show up to a zoom call with your best friend or whatever it might be. Um, because I think people There's kind of a movement towards letting your personal brand be personal, right? There's a movement towards just people liking to work with. Businesses and brands and people that they can tell are being authentic, right? And that are not putting on some sort of business front. So to speak. Um, I just had a really great conversation with a financial advisor a few weeks ago. And his firm, 1 of their kind of taglines or, Philosophies, I suppose, is that they are financial advisors who give unfiltered opinions and straightforward advice. And so they are really, he terms it as there are really no bullshit kind of firm. And they have a podcast, they have a newsletter, they do all this great marketing stuff and they use four letter words in it, right? They use swear words and, and that's. Because that's who they are. And so they attract clients who are just a little bit more laid back, who are also kind of no bullshit, who don't mind stuff like that, and they repel clients who do mind stuff like that. There would not be a good fit for them anyways. And so I think that that is also just a really great way to make business more fun is to truly, just be yourself and don't feel like you have to hide the parts of yourself that don't feel like they should be a part of your business. Right.

Kristin:

I think, especially in the beginning when we're still, we're, we're trying to create business identities, right. Or brands. Um, and we were exploring what that looks like. So maybe we don't exactly know what we want the brand to be and all that stuff. The easiest way to create a brand that feels good is to Create it around yourself, especially if you're a service provider, Um, you are the heart of the brand. And I think a lot of resistance comes up when we start to try to ask ourselves, how can I curate who I am so that my business looks a certain way? And that can be fun for like 0. 5 seconds. And then it starts to become a chore. It's a chore to curate who you are. So be yourself, like full permission to, you know, yeah. Like you said, Hillary dropped the business casual. Um, of course I'm not saying sacrifice professionalism. you know, at the sake of a personal brand, but lean into who you are, really know that people are going to show up to your business to talk to you. They want to know you. Um, and that, that can be a much more fun way. to exist in your business.

Hillary:

I mean, I've seen us do this over the past year or so. I think when we first started this podcast, you know, we knew we were going to be using clips of it, like video clips of it in certain spaces. So I would always come with a full face of makeup, which I just do happen to have on during this recording because I wanted to put makeup on this morning. But yeah. But now I think we're a lot. We feel a lot more comfortable and free just showing up as we are a lot of times you and I will hop on camera and record something. Neither of us have makeup on. We have dirty hair that's up in a ponytail or whatever. You know, it might be. and that's just who we are. And that, you It allows us to create, I think, more freely, and it allows us to create more often because there are so many days where I'm like, I just either don't have time or I don't have the energy or I just plain don't want to put a full face of makeup on. And I'm not going to let that prevent me from still showing up and talking about the things that I want to talk about.

Kristin:

Yeah. I love this. It's such a fun way to be in business.

Hillary:

It really is just showing up as you are

Kristin:

Well, this has been such a great conversation. I hope that all of our listeners took away something new for how you can really build more fun into your business building journey. And thanks again to everybody who joined us for this episode. We'll catch you next time on the next episode of Teachers Make the Leap.

Thanks for joining us on this episode of Teachers Make the Leap. We can't wait to help you make the leap from teacher to thriving business owner. If you liked what you heard today, subscribe to the show on your favorite listening app and leave a review on Apple Podcasts. We'll see you back here next week.