Jen & Company

This is Part 2 of a 3 Part Series on the blog this week showing you how Jen & Company came to be and where we are going. (Find Part 1 here)

 

Where was I?  Oh yes, so I took Busy to Happy and learned that I could go from Busy (running around doing whatever appeared to be urgent without a plan) to Happy (living according to my values and priorities and saying yes to only those things that really mattered).  Wow, this was kind of a revelation.  I really feel that April and Mayi delivered the “happy” as promised.  And, besides creating better habits, I was meeting my classmates and finding a like-minded posse of beautiful and inspiring creatives.  Talk about amazing!

At one point during the course, I told April I was struggling with the logistics of moving from a good life to really going for it and creating the life (and career) of my dreams.  April suggested I  talk to her friend and colleague, Michelle Ward, lovingly known as the “When I Grow Up Coach”.  I went to Michelle’s website and felt right at home.  She was so motivational, her personality really came through in her writing and I liked the guidance she offered.  She was all about baby steps, manageable goals and careful consideration.  Her approach to career transition seemed doable.

In August, Michelle announced that she would be teaching a class at CreativeLive about Creating your Dream Career.  OMG, I thought, I. MUST. GO.  I was nervous-cited, terrified really, but I applied to be in the live audience anyway*.  *Please note: I was scared, I wasn’t “ready”, I wanted to lose 10 lbs, I didn’t want to be filmed live on camera, but I put on my big girl pants and applied anyway.  AND…I got in!!

Um, now what??  I needed something to show for myself by the time class started.  I was determined to take a baby step in the right direction.  I was GOING TO START writing my blog and I had 10 days to do it.  10 days!  I had no clue what to call it, how to use WordPress, where to host it…the list of things I didn’t know was ENORMOUS.  I talked to my fabulously practical and focused Busy to Happy classmate, Matti Van and she gave me a timeline.  You have a week to get a name, hosting, WordPress account and an about page up and running.  Um great, now I am accountable to someone besides myself.  If I don’t get it done, it won’t just be my own little secret.  Dang…the pressure!

I took my new ‘can do’ attitude, found a web-hosting platform, wrote an about page, chose a name for the blog and registered my domain.  10 days later, I went to the CreativeLive class (like thousands of people watching you live class) and met Michelle Ward in real life.  Her class was great.  I gained so much clarity around how I want to experience this big old life of mine and what my dream career could really look like.

While Michelle took us through the exercises in class, I kept coming back to the idea of doing some type of life coaching.  It was a hard idea to swallow because the “old me” would have believed that you have to have your act together before you have any business trying to help others with their act.  It is scary  to think of helping others…the what-ifs show up…what if I don’t have the answers, what if I lose myself in someone else’s struggle?  How do I balance my own boat while reaching out a hand to help pull someone else out of the water?  What if we both fall in?  And more importantly, why are we even in the water all of the sudden anyway?

Having a voice at Jen & Company has helped me see that there is no one right way to “do” life.  I don’t have to have all the answers.  There are no “right answers”, only the right answer for me and the right answer for you.  There are many definitions of success, there are many definitions of support and there are many definitions of coaching.  I want to help you create a life more awesome in a way that is meaningful to both of us.  I wouldn’t be helping you or myself if I was all martyr-ish about it, right?

So here is what I can do…I can live a happy life filled with love and laughter.  I can create beautiful things and spend time with people I adore.  I can write to you and challenge you think in new ways that serve you better and lead you to a healthier and more joyful vision of your life.  I can show you what is working for me and what doesn’t and you can do the same for me.  You can come here and teach me your valuable, hard learned lessons about overcoming stress and resistance and birthing your really big dreams.  Sound good?

With the awareness that I am a better bff to you when I fill myself with lots of my own happy, I can move forward with confidence.   I can be your life design partner, a buddy who cares and knows that living life on purpose isn’t easy, but it is worth the effort.

Short story long, come back for Part 3 where I declare next steps and hold myself accountable by declaring my awesomely amazing plans to you.  Basically, there is nowhere to hide, so here goes nothing.

xoxo,

Jen

Are you ready to make your creative work more lucrative, stable, and sustainable in the long-term? Join April Bowles-Olinfor an introduction to digital products and how they can enhance your creative business. This course will show you how to produce and position viable products for generating multiple revenue streams and passive income. RSVP right here to watch it live and get access to the workbook for FREE. This post is part of the Create Digital Products blog tour.

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